The Sun. — London, England, 1852-04-23 00:00:00

1 , I<^ • • )1 1 ' tea pla 0' culation—but he would not put that 1001. into his own pocket; competition would force him to by it out in the improvement of these publication:,, and he would expend it in a higher order of authership and better li terary talent than he was able to employ at pregMt, It was a monstrous thing that, to issue penny peblications In this country—such a publication as the Popular Edu cator, or the Working Man's Friend—a man ceeeild be called upon to baud over week by week to the G ,vere ment 401. or 501., the fund ow of which authorship Would be paid. A man who did not care what he pub lished, and who only looked to cheapness and issumg translations from French novel., red 3 variety of mat ters that epees:43cl to the passions, for the pureetie of a large eircutaeore might copy whet he we teem other works, and the paper duty whicii he peid did not stand stand o in the way ei. f his penny publicltions, because he ift want any fund out of which to pay auitari.hip, but they wished to meet that q testion in t he mac k t as to circulating these publications, which were as bad as ._ w they were cheap, they must (wove a fun.] out c t 11 h authorship shoull be a nd a higher orde r of lite rary talent should be emple eed. lie had received a let terthe House would from a gentleman woo hesure admit was a high authority this subject—Mr. C. Knight. It was awed from Fleet-street, the 19th of April, 1852. He bad published one or two excellent pam phlets ou the question of he piper duty. known by the name of •"rhe Struggles of a Bo ok against T emotion, and also the case of authors in reference to the paper duty, and ho said:— "It is difficult to a dd ae l ythine new to the argument s which have been urged in the House of Comtnone and by other modes for the abolition of the pspe.r duty. A few points have struc k me in addition to what I have written on the subject. Amid much which is injurions or frivolous in cheap publications, I think there is a manifest tendency towards the moral and intellectual improve ment of the general character of our populist- lieloure: The conductors of periodicil winks almost exclusively a edressed to tho working classes, as th ey are terme d, appear to me to have commenced c.essing to thick that it is necessary to write down to their readers. As a neeu• ral cons , quer.ce of this tendency, writers of information and ability are more needed, perhaps more employed. But this tendency is counteracted by the paper-duty. I will explain myself as briefly as I can, It 2501. be given for the authorship of a lame octave volume, it operates, as a charge of 5:4. per copy if 1,000 copies be printed, and the book must be high priced; but if 10,000 be printed, the authorship only enters into price at the rate of 6d. per copy, and the book may be law-priced. But the paper-duty upon such a volume amounts to 6d. per copy, whether 1,000 or 10,000 be primed; and it 10,000 be printed, amounts to as much as the author ship. Reduce the payment or authorship, and the value of the book is injured; take away the paper duty, and you neither lower the quality nor limit the sale of the book. There is, Lure, a fund fur the better remuneration of that labour which is to raise the quality and extend the sale, and thus ad Vance the great end of all popular literature—the diffu sion of knowledge and the elevation of the menet and religious character of a people. But it is said that the repeal of the paper-tax would only operate as a b inus to puolishers, without lowering the price of books to the public. I believe that the ordinary effects of competition would determine this doubt very satisfactorily. It is possible that there might be no direct lowering of price in many cases of low-priced books, but I am sure that there would be an improvement of quality. The number of printed pages sold for Is. might be the same as new, but there would be better paper, better type, and, what_ is more important, improved authorship. Publishers of Very cheap books would look for somethiug to publish having a copyright value, instead of bad translations sad hackneyed reprints. Beyond this, large undertakings, of which we have very few now, would have a greater encouragement were the paper-duty repeeled, for the price of voluminous works could be directly lowered and their sale consequently increased. I will give an ex ample. tI have oetermite d to bring out a ewe Cs cop die --the Imperial—tonAed uoon the Penny Cyclopedia. L will torm 20 volumes. I' I print 5 Ouu cepiea, he texed Paper would cost 12 0001,, of wn'ch the actual dutt would amount to 2 2501, and the direct tied indi rect additious to cost, cones queue teem the duty, would, as I believe, double the tax. Leaking at :he operate'' , of the c ost o f p a p er a l one , I cou ld re d u ce the price of the book 5 per cent. to the sub,cribtra if the tax were removed; out, taking into cousisferaden the fact that I could then print 1,000 cepies at the price at which I Could stereotype th, 20 volumes (which process ts chiefly employed to save the outlay of cspitnl in tested Pa s PerVl could reduce the price 10 per cent. Toe .ffects o "tell a tax upon prices are not to be measured by its direct amount. For example, it may be said that the drawback of duty upen exported boils allows the fo- Xeigners to be charged as low a price as if the paper Were untaxed. This is really not the case. The draw „fte/i °lely represents the positive tax, and not the in piublis,her 'eased price consequent upon the tax. Assume that I e ms sell 500 copies of my Cyclopedia to an American at Si. per copy, the taxed paper costing me 1 ,1, t 2C1°1 1 I obtain a drawback of 2251., which reduces the e ne c o e ie n e r d tbe rh soo copies to 2,2751 . ,_ at which rate they were 227/. 104. American tat in of s 0 per cent. adds The 2,50 21.10 to the importer's ouday, sleeking a total eider thtit 3 i But if I could buy my paper ofuntexed,l h co t i illi g h t red sho u ld save, in various ways, 4501., teiifflo old the price to 41, 2s. per copy, to w s la t ic t h a t - he 2.47/ .10. 141 d add 2051. The iteporterwoule therefore save Would • That: advantage to the importer of 10 per cent. o ne Probably double my sale in the United biates. eaao Pe'reion_ of th e a d van tage would be the &mines:tied tint of t ax w hi ch b e woul d p a y t o hi s own Govern • teh_ t• The di rect tax sa d i ts collateral effects, in one country produce similar effects in another country, rais ing the price to the consumer, and thus narrowing the market of th e producer. The chief argument which .1 have ; con stantly urged for the repeal of the paper - duty 4 / 9 that the tax bears most unequelly upon the lower- Itriced publications, as compared with the higher - priced , and therefore interferes injuriously with the education of the Prople. Upon the wholesale price of n modern 11 ,tvel it i s le per cent. Upon M r. Di c k ens ' s Household „words i t its 12 per cent.; it is 2:1- per cent. boon the Quarterly Review; it is 17 per cent. upon Chambers's Papers for the People. Look at the inequality as re gards the two latter .examples of periodical works, addressed to different classes of the community. 1,000 copies of number of the Review, sold for 65., pay a duty of 4/ la 7, - .1-1 1,000 copies of one unb ound velum? of the °Pea sold for 8d , pay a duty of 31 6s. there were an ad valorem duty of 5 per cent. upon all printed bunks, 1,000 copies of the Review would pay 151., and 1,000 en Piee of the Papers would leg 1/. 13e. 41. It is estimated that the annual sales of all books and Periodical works, nut newspapers, amount, at o the retail price, to 2,000,0001. An ad valorem 'tali') of 5 per cent. would raise as much as tee Paper duty upon printed books, and would operate less injuriously. Capital would not be locked up in lex, fur the stamp would be demanded as the demand for copies west on; and the manufacturer's and stationer's profit upon the tax would be got rid of. The public would then really understand that a tax upon paper is a tax upon knowledge, and would not be deceived into e belief that because it enters into the price of a 12s. volume to the extent only of 6d. its removal would not benefit the great and increasing body of book purchasers. Such a mode of levying a tax up en literature would be more ob• noxious than the paper duty though less harmful; but there would be justice in the principle instead of gross inequality o f t h e exist i ng law. " lie thought that mace it clear that if they were sincere in their deire to spread education, thsy ought to evince • • t it h:,t sincerity by taking off this paper duty. It was not . • im p netto 'f3r trade question, it was a morel and itei v,ple to onrael question. It was monstrous to teach the all they could hin if theY did not at the Same time do Peruse, and the quality of the books they Were likely to greatt s a and the cli-tuand for penny publi cations was 90 other ud the appetite for knowiede,e of some kind or so strongly evinced by the extensive tranrao:o" that branch of business, tnes of rall engag ed in there would not beeu that they must not euppose :e . tive circulation of some kind of cheap literature wellwisher of the a matter of doubt—it w ee a l ia r. of certainty, and, That was no longer therefore, every country must desire that the qta,. yeal interest of the which was circulated should be 9 : ate good that litereture rendered.—(elear.) He bed dealts w g i oo as it could be at the same time with the advertisem•nt with the paper duty stamp they hadoriginatedand newspa er duties, because at 6, tlether a n d the saran time, had been put on she should be glad t° take them off together. ede admitt e d t h at the duty amounting to - 800000? paper, am about - a Year, t e, the moral 'ugh a small sum to to set against provement of re , ' a sum fur !rat to ask the people, was too la the geese Mut:oils regeld to the to repeal. The rPS advertise'. us on arm to ripply f or an rnent and stamp do flea called resolution t imas e ee e t e te p ee l; hut the Tebtc: th„ir 1 0 ,tu t o ti tt e t p e p ee duty only mated upon there to s ermiesent tae. He r Ta i d t W3B not fit to be continued as a p e . great, suspicion that the p a p er emus disguiso of raising valency for duty, under the spe carrying on the war, :really was part of a system for toe purpose of restrain ing literature and keeping dow n the Press • Those _ e duties being ena cted in the sam e s ear, h could no t h e lp thinking that perhaps the same motive that had actuated Parliament as to the paper duty had actuated them in enacting the advertisement end stamp duties. Now, tee advertisement duty amounted to 150,0001, or, if they pleased, 160 000/., a Y e ar. Was that is large sum to be trighteecd eS when they talked of repealing duties, considering how large a surplus revenue they had, and considering Oast this tax °Pon advertisements struck, as he believed, more than anything that existed, et the very revenue they proposed to increase by it ?—(Hear, hear.) A tax uoon (Myer iis4inentsl—that no men might say what he wished and What be wanted to be known in th e wa y of busieess transactions in print and in a newspaper, but he must be need Is. 6.1. each time he did so. It was, he said, impos 41e to conceive a more stupid tax. If he wanted a ? b ode for leSeei i ing th e publi c revenue h e wou ld sugges t a ode,whi c h lessened transactions between men and the meansof making their mutual wants kn own to e a c h _ o ther,: which l esse ned, in fact, t ra d e , consumpt i on, ein lqielent, and revenue; and he would und e rtak e t o s ay tha t if they repealed this advertisement duty, they W ould never know it in their next year' s revenue.- 1 (Rear se But, if that were true, could there be conceived anything more unjust than to say to a poor servant girl iarlte ho wane d a place, " You want a place—if y ou it known to the world by the only means that , Cases' you must be fitted Is. 61. each time?" Take the t of eve "hied, merchants' tratisautiene connected wi t h of thenoe that Could anything be more obvious Prev eieing the knowledge of what was going " Was the • of a l l surest mode of preventing the icaprovernetit epeerecommercial transactions and of the bl revenue? rthancowaaids nothing one mau wanted to sell but another • °e feline wee ee to buy it; and, if t y were icious, they ws gof t tt ial w eats u d not stand in the way teee elite mads known; the diffisuldes that were avoidAhle • St ate were great eoough. L set at the United B 01 Ae mr ca •. 4 44 • • They b e d 10,000 000 of advutise tt lit their newspapes a i n a y ear . In England there were were only 2,000,000; 8,000.000 were knocked off by the alvertisetnent duty; au I who the arive..tiscra who who took up a column of had to Fly each time Is. 6 Lie poorest of the 6d. Tee poort.st servant girl, who only took a line of the paper, paid just as t r h e e eP l i les l 2 h t e aa r ly k'h pai a d d'l;';':' much. There was no justice in tae, tax itself when cansidered in priuciple; but the inequality was most glariug—it was not founded on equ.licy in the distri butioa of its burden or upon sound principle, because, whet her a person advertised in a paper of large or . small publicatioti, he was fined la. 61. every time he made known his wishes U could no . . believe that the raising of 150 00a/. could he a . reason why rational should persist in maiataining a tax so 0 1 3 1 3 "'d to comm , real purposes a nd soiled priacieles of legisla tion. la®y might advertise on a wall, 11.1 amrabus, or by the advertising vans, and no duty was imposed; hut let them go to a howspap , a, and they were fined Is. 61. Now, the.ada - atiserneut fund was a legitimate fund for supportioa newspapers, and, if they drove men_ fr o m newspapers by saying they should pay Is. 6d. fie-, they took the most direct and 'effectual - 'mode for injuring the newspaper press. It W , •.S impossible to have an independent press unl.as they allowed the legi timate food to fl,.v for its naarishment. Bat, after all, what was an advertisement? 'rho House did not know, nor did the Board of Inland Revenue. It was the most strange tax he had ever had to consider. There was the Daily News newspaper. They undertook to give a list of sales that took place—cot in the form of advertise, meats—receiving noltting for it, bat giving it with a view to make the piper attractive a nd ' to supply the public with useful information. The Board of Inland Revenue came down aped them cal said, "'You must not put in that list, although you charge nothing f it, unless you pay Is. 6d. for each announce ment." That put an end to the plan of making the newspaper atti active and useful. Then as to ships. They might put into a newspaper an account of ships that had arrived, but that , could not give a he, of s hip s intelligence was quite as im apboortuattitto, wsaitiLaultthpoauygich Lb gl i' s.al.for each announcement. tie would call their atienaon to this fact. There was Bell's Life in London; in that papn. there was every week a quantity of announcements which appeared to him just as much matters for the advertisement duty as those to which he bad alluded. For example, there were lists of the matches, fighting, pedestrian, "canine faney"—(A laugh)—and what not, that were to come off, next week or next month--annouecements by which numbers of people were brought together at public houses and places . of that kind, tor the purpose of betting and spending m aley in various ways, to the infinite ad stivantage of publicans and other persons concerned as caterers of the entertainments provided; yet no attempt was made to apply the dory to these canine and other fancy lists, though certainly quite as much advertise ments as any other annauueemeats,—(Hear, . hear.) The public iaturmatiot. that the fight between So-and-So for 151. aside is to cone off at such a place on such a day paid no duty; hit the public inforns.aton, as it appeared to lam quite as useful, that sue a ship was to sail for such a place on such a day, or such a sale to take plata., was tined is. 6d. A paragraph in the number of Bell's Life before him announced, fur example, that at Mr. So-and So's, in a such a street, 100 rats would be killed by such a dog in so many arnutes; thin announcement would in all probability attract a great number of people to the house on the ocassiou, and the landlord and other people concerned would reap large profits from the en tertainment so announced; yet the announcement paid no advertisement duty; but inform the public that on such a day a sermon ,:,ould lee preached for the relief of the sufferers by the de,truotion of the Am ..Z 3t), or other such calamity, or even that is certain places subscriptions would be received for such a purpose, that was an adver tiiemez,t, and the Board of Inland Revenue came down upon you for I'. 61--(llear, hear.) He trusted that he might appeal to the H use to repeal such an advertise ment duty as thi a wawa crippled the press, which pre vented the difftaion of a vast deal of useful information, which stood between the employer and the employed, and which, he co scieutieusly believed, woud, if per sisted in ; have a most pernicious effect ie impeding the Nuaatas t i a compaaaion at this coun ry in trade and com merce will the United Stt.tes of America. He hoped he might have on this occasion the support of' the Noble Member for London. The Noble Lord could have Ito objeotion on lid and s 1 ground,; he had always professed buns. If friendly to a free press —to an independent press, and as such , he must support the present propo sition. He also looked, as a matter of course, for the support of Hun. Gentlemen opposite, who had promoted a vote of censure upon a Noble Member of the late Go. vernment tor some transactions with a paper in Ireland, since the reason why such transactions could exist at all, why the press was venal, and took money from this person or that for writing up or down this or that prin ciple, was that by these taxes it was prevented from realising those legitimate profits which would enable it to pursue au honour able and independent career —(Elear, hear.) Though tnere might be among the newspapers of this country some misgivings as to the newspaper stamp question, he had not met with any newspaper that was not favourable to a repeal of the advertisement duty. It was obvious to them all, were the tax re pealed, a multitude of new advertisements would come to them. Tbe Times, indeed, could not have more advertisements than it really had without be coming a huge book of advertisements; but there would be ample room for all its ovetllowing,s in other newspapers, and the labourers and poor servant girls, ant other humble persons having their services or other commodities to dispose of, would be able at length to make their, proposals public. He would now pass to the question of the newspaper stamp duty. He had said he would show that this news paper stamp duty was not a revenue question at all, and never had been imposed by the Legislature, or con tinued, nor was it so spoken of in the preamble of any of the various Acts passed, for the purpose of revenue. How then did it originate? The Parliamentary History informed us that on the 17th January, 1711, a message from the Crown was brought to that House, and at the e le n n a ce or o th f e se m d e i s ti s o a t g is e' a c tid om n p l la .s in ph t p w ro a o s u m a found in the journals of the H tpluebloicfatthinensp.revHae ouse the following state ment:— " Mr. Samuel St. Ji.hu iufurmed the LIP we be bad a meagage— a i Her Majesty finis it necessary to observe how great licence is take a in eutetelang false and scandalous Wale, such as are a reproach to any Gov e r n m e nt. This evil seems to be grown too s t rone f or t h e laws now i n f o rce ; it is therefore recommended to you to find a remedy equal to the mischief.'" " Commons' Armor, Jan. 18, 1711. " ' We are very sensible how much the liberty of the press is abused by turning it into such licentiousness as is a reproach to the eatieu, since not only false and scan dalous libels are priutt d and published against your Ma jesty's Government, but the most horrid blasphemies against Grad and religion; and we beg leave humbly to assure your Majesty that we will do our utmost to find out a remedy equal to the mischief, and that may effec tually cure it.' " Some Members were so exasperated at the Dutch memorial being puhliefed in a newspaper, that on the 12th, the House being resolved into a grand Committee to consider of that part of the Clieen 8 message to the House, the 17th of January last, which relates to the great licence taker. in publishing; fates and scendalons libels, Sir Gilbert Dolben being the chairman, they came to these two resolutions:—' 1, That the liberty taken in printing and publishing scandalous nod impious libele creates divisions among her Majesty's subjects, tends to the disturbance of the public peace, is highly pre judicial to her Majesty's Government, and is occe stoned for want of due regulating the press. `2. That all printing presses be registered with the names of the owners, nod . places of abode; and that: the author, printer, and publisher of every book sot his name and place of abode thereto.' These resolutions wore ordered to be reported the Tuesday following; but the said re p net was then put off till that day se'nnight, and after wards further adjourned from time to time. Some Members having, in the grand Committee of ways and means, suggested a more effectual way for suppressing libels, viz., the laying a groat duty on all newspapers and pamphlets." " Among the matters of importance during this ses sion, we may justly number the proceedings of the House of Commons with relation to the press; since her Majesty's message to the House of January 17 concludes with a paragraph representing the great licenses taken in publishing false and scandalous libels, such as are a reproach to any Government, and recommending them to fed a remedy equal to tee mischief.. The meaning of these words in the message seems to be confined to those weekly and daily papsrs and pamphlets le-fleeting taiu that .s upon the persons' and the management of the Ministry. But the Howse of Commons, in their address which to this p ure thou "ne "re answers this blasphem;e • message, meat, en addition cif the again,t God and religion, and it is cer vised the t h e a u 7 nothingLtli.statureth wuuld be more for the honour of the then in his 44,1,,ea mischief; but, as the person who ad vised law for putting a stop that part of her message had only factious libels, Igittienkthe redressing of the political and his great credit in th ho ought to have taken care, by ways by which that evil might House, to have proposed some taxing single papers having be removed. The law for effsct, as was then true a quits contrary sino -- , bi:en found true by y man y persons, and has draw their pens on eide e xperience , ofh those who would are discouraged by thiseax, whicheir princes and country value both of the materials and eheexcegds the i n t r i ns i c work; a tax, if I b e n ot mistakere -without exunpi..„ . tt Whereas pamphlets and printed Pap ers o bservations upon public e vents and o ccurreace e s c iattaidnting to excite h atre e l ed contempt. of the Governo;u:t. atn6i. Constitution of these realms as by law established, and alai villifyieg our holy religion, hare l a t e ly been published in groat numbers, nd at very s ma ll prices, and it i 3 exped ient that the same should be re strained, may it therefore please fore your Majesty th at i t enacted, and. be it enacted by the King's most may be with the advice and cons . mt excellent Majesty, by and ~ and Comm of the Lords spiri:u.ll and temy l or i al tal l by the in this present Petri:amen', assetnueL tt nda after the Pity of the same, the , . from and after' ! 1, any passing of this Act, all pamphlets acid pep - eurtence, or tiny any public news, intelligence, or oe, . , n re marks or observations teerecn, or upon any matters . i r or the United Church or Stute, prine.d in any par, - Kingdom for sale, ane published periodically, fir in parts or numbers, a' intervals net exceeding 26 days between the publicati. - n of any two such pamphlets, or papers, parts, or numbers," &a. Atter these proceedings a Bill passed imposing, he , the same enactment, a paper duty, e. newspaper stamp duty, and an adverri4etn,.nt duty; it was found, in short, that th,, most effectual way of doing th,3 work of the censor was by taxation. R loetive to the subject, DOan Swift hcti some curious remarks which deserved ettel,ntioa.— (Hear, hear.) kit contended that it hat ben proved by experience that up to the present time that the imposi tion of taxes on publications and papers WdS not the way THE SUN, LONDON," to t present either individual libels or libels on the Bli tistry, because those who were disposed to libel framed their pe w e e i n such a way that you could not touch them, whiltt man of cheracter end respectability, by whom such libellers would otherwise be met and over were driven from the field by )caosnattCpiind f: it acn°dmPth'tuitsiwa p'revented from making known the truth. The same principle had actuated the legisla ture in its proceedings up to a very recent period; when they extended the stamp duty in the reign of George 111., how did they begin to, ate ? Was it by any decla- Lion about granting a supply to his Mwjeaty? Nothing of the kind, but complaint was made of the prevalence of pamphlets and printed papers tending to excite hatred of hie Mejesty, end co ntempt of the Gitvemment and and also blaspheming the truths of our holy religion, which had been lately published at a very sinall price; and it was declared tube expedient to re swain the circulation of these. There was an idea that, although this tax evasica peed for the purpose of eeetrain leg the press, y e t the.possession of certain postal advane tages now enjeyed by it constituted a fair equivalent. But the truth was that this question of the free trans mission of newspapers really had nothing to do with the stamp duty. 'lbey might make whatever regulations they pleesed for the transmission of printed matter by pest; but the question with which he was now dealing was whether a man might be allowed to print a certain description of matter called news without a stamp. It did not follow that, if you repealed the stamp duty, the postal regulations might not be as favourable to the press and to all printed matter, aye much more favour able, than they now were. At present some fifty three or fifty-four papers were allowed the privilege of free transmission by past merely 'by paying a penny stamp on the particular portion of their im pression sent by pest, and thou, were obliged to pay the penny duty who did not want a paper sent by post, in order that some other man might have the ad vantage of having his newspaper transmitted by post. Half the papers thus sent, or the great mei wity of them, were transmitted twice; there were 80,000,000 en which stamp duty was paid, and 66,000,000 transmitted by post, which, allowing for double tranernissions, reduced the number posted to 33 ; 000,000. Could there be any thing more easy then to provide that all printed matter should stand on the same footing, and that there should be a stamped wrapper for the purpose of franking it through the post? Mike the charge a penny, if you pleased; he was not there to suggest postal regulations, but he was quite sure, from the evidence of Mr. Rowland Hill, before the committee of last year, that in the Post office they were very anxious to retain the carriage of printed matter, and, rather than lose it, they would be willing to carry it for the smallest possible charge, for less than a penny indeed, because, if they did not, they must compete wittw private weencies, and, thus com peting, they would not retain the carriage. They still stated that even if no printed matters were scent, they would not be able to reduce to any great extent the charges of the establishmeut, so that all they earned under this heed was into pocket and direct gain. It was clear, the refoie, that there ceuld be no diffieulty in making the arrangements consequent on a cherge bf fiscal regulations. A man who new paid a penny for' his paper being carried by a post, would buy his paper when the stamp duty was removed for a penny less, and thus stand in the same pecuniary position. Then; as regarded the man who bought a paper at secondhand transmitted a second time free by post, if the tax were repealed, that man, instead of having to wait for stale news, and buy his paper several days old, would be able to go into the market, aed buy a fresh paper. He was not one of those who thought that if newspapers were to be carried by post the country ought to defray the charge. Ano ther set of postal regulations might be made to suit the altered circumstances; but, in feet, the phstal question was beside the motion ho had submitted to the House, and would be easily dealt with without in the slightest way altering or injuring the position of any parties. Did the newspaper stamp secure you against those im proper liberties spoken of by Swift, and attacks on the coestitution and laws of the realm ? It did not, and even if you could enforce the law, which you were totally unable to do, the act atlas so framed that it di.l not Much the very fish for which the net was set. The wording of the Stamp Act included publications cone taieing public intelligenet or occurrences, or any matters in Church or State, essays and articles giving political ineories or speculations, being held not to come within its scope, The floe. Member then proceeded to read pas nte s Iron several penny publications,such astbeEnglish Republican, Notes to the .People, Sz., in proof of the objecttonable cnaracter of the matter printed and dis seminated under the present state of the law. He wished to show the extreme icily of legislative provisions which confined the people to publications of this class, instead of allowing them to pave cheap newspapers giving a record of the current events of the day, the proceedings in the courts of justice. and Parliament, and the occur rences of daily life, in which every man took a lively and domestic interest. It was a monstrous injustice to deprive the working man of the privilege of having a compendious record of occurrences in his penny publi cation, so long as his welfare was affected by the facility of knowing what was going on is the trade of the country, with respect to emigration and the state of em ployment in various branches of dndustry. He con tended that there was no other mode of combating the dangerous theories circulated by a certain class of exist ing papers than by allowing them to be competed with by that most intereetwg of publications, the newspaper. Look also at the established newspaper press. What a pernicious effect had the stamp had upon the established newspapers. There were but two newspapers in London that were increasing in circulation; all the rest were declining—year by year they got small by degrees and beautifully less, till it appeared as if in a short time, un less they allowed a reduction to take place in the price of newspapers, so that a new and more extended field might be open to them, ve were likely to have but two newspapers, the Times and Morning Advertiser, The Times had risen from a comparatively small circu lation to one of 12,000,600 yearly, and it would be found from the tables laid before the House at the close of the inquiry of last snider), where a return was given of all the newspaper stamps, that the Morning Chronicle, for in stance, had a circulation under 1,000,000, th e M orn ing Herald bad a circulation of something more than 1 000.000, whilst the Daily News had a circulation of hornet env, less than 2 000,000. It, was remarkable that etiou after the first .esteelisement of the Daily News its price was reductel to 20., and its circulativa rose to between 3,000,000 and 4,000 000 per annum, hut on the price being raised it fell back to the old.amount. With the two exceptions he had mentioned none of the papers were improving. Was this a satisfactory state of things? For the last sixty years no new daily paper, except the Advertiser and the. Daily News, had been established; showing that the tendency of the stamp duty was to create a kind of monopoly in newspapers, and to limit the diffusion bf news to very few hands. He did not charge any existing newspaper with advo vowing the maintenance of the stamp on account of their own vested interests. It was stated on behalf of be h o e w T a i s m c e h s a , evidenceiirnman last session,before the thatremovalCommittee owflii thech stamp duty would be attended with!g reat commercial ad t of vantage to the Times. They stated also that the main tenatice of the present stamp law had the effect of ma terially limiting the circulation of the Times, from its operation on the supplement; and the manager of that paper, Mr. Mowbray Maurice, when examined be f o re the Committee, stated that ;if they bad no thin g to do but to supply the ptiblic_with as many of the news p aper us they would buy, i hey could double their circulation in two years.. Toe effect, then, of the present law was to limit the mass of circulation to two newspapers, to cause every other to decline, and to prevent the working classes from having any newspaper at all. He, there fore, asked them to repeal the newspaper stamp duty on principle. But could they enforce this law after all? Could their law officers define its requirements! They had engaged in a law-suit on the question with one of the most popular writers of the day, 11r. Dickens. The Board of Inland Revenue found out that a certain publi cation, celled the Household Narrative of Current Events, published once a month, but giving a summary of news up to the most recent date, was obnoxious to its de mende. After very considerable expense bad been in curred, and the parties put to great inconvenience in getting up their case and appearing in court to defend their rights, the judges decided that the Household Nar rative was not a newspaper, and that the publisher had a right to print it upon paper free of the stamp if it did - not appear oftener than once a mouth. The proprietors of the Household Narrative obtained a verdict, but the Attorney-General said, that not being satisfied with the decision of the judges, he should take steps to disturb it, and to ascertain whether or not the paper was liable to a stamp duty. Now, he contended this was a great grievance, for although in this case they had fallen upon a man Of sufficient propery end spirit to coteteet the question is a court of law, how many peo ple were there in the country who had either the means or the moral eourege to encounter the Board of Inland Revenue in a court of law? It they insisted on inn posing a tax upon such vague and undefinable things as news, and observations upon news, the law would con tinue to the end of time to be a mass of uncertainty and injustice. They were now exactly in the same position in which the Government were placed before the reduc tion of the stamp duties in 1836, when, after 500 persons had been imprisoned for selling the Poor Man's Guardian, a court of law decided that the publication was not liable to the stamp dtity, and that, therefore, the whole of the proceedings against these ..parties had been founded upon illegality and injustice. The same results would follow if they attempted to enforce the law as they had done in the case of .Mr. Dickens. And, after all, it was necessary to maintain the respectability of the press, and to support our institutions and religion, that a tax , should be imposed upon newspapers, was it fhting that the discretion of prosecuting or not cn t o devolve be proceeded p them, a ehenld be left to the Board of Inland Revenue? Were the parties to whom the guardianship of re ligions s . hou uo n iclearly proved oui before the m did, Comittee that it to decide what publi cations gaasinist w t and as what sltd be allowed to violate specioi of censors the law, they were thus set up as a with parties, not according of the press, and were left to deal it might be in bad aecording to the letter of the law, but of the Ministry Of times;,the day, in accordance with the wishes w ttt who Might de . aire th ?. a y, or of any party in the ooun l:e suppreeeed. It was a t particular publications should Government not to euforeeul ost dangerous thing for the case, b u t to hold it in terro t h e r letter of the law in every there Coat they might break'it'n. over the press, telling car- Lain limits, but that if they exc,, i ( ! ck t d hey kept within w hich the B 'aril of lii them in a manner dangerous to religion and the inatitnuutieonceen o e f eived to be the clan - they w ould be proceeded against, y,But caulit any one believe that the Governmentiu 1852, ven ture to commence the same crusade agee nst unii , impad euaneatioae which w carried on in 1832 ? Ho nelteval that they would shrink from, but it was their duty to under take it. If, then, they were afraid to enforce a law .in ate cases, he contended that they PR'IDAY EVENING, APRIL 23, 1852. ought to repeal it—(Hear, hoer)—because by maintain ing it they would bo guilty of the grossest injustice. Now, in order to shove the absurdity of saying that a daty was levied uponnews and observations upon ne w s , he would refer to some unstamped publications, and then leave the House to say whether they did nut contain matter of this description. The Racing Times and the Racing Telegraph both contained accounts of the begin:; and of the rect s is d i ff erent parts o f t h e c ountry, with other turf news; the Legal Observer gave the proceed ings is the courts of law; and the Builder also con tained news of smother description. Now, he believed a ll theca publicatio ns were i n str i ctness li a ble to be roug!:t under the sta m p duties; but _the Board c f In land Revenue had drewn a firm di e ti nc tion betcveen clzss nowe and e'' Leeal new; --that is., if you divile a news paper, which must be stamped, into half a ii, - z ee, each may be published without stamp. He believed this diviention was a pure invention of the Board of Inland Revenue, and was not to be found in the Act of Parlia ment, which spoke of "news, rences;" and certainly the papers to which he had re curred did -detail "occurrences." But the Legislature b y this duty did not alone affect the publication of facts, intelligence, but also of observations upon those facts, attacks on the M inistry,M aod so forth. He would, however, and occur ask the m whether. the extracts from unstamped papers, to ,which bo would now refer, did not contain comments on public events? [The Right Flonourable Gentleman - then read from the Home, conducted by Richard Oastler, some comments upon a late speech of gr. Bright's in the Hone of Commons; from the Leg al Observer, part of an article in support of the repeal of the attorneys' eertiieate d u ty, an d f rom the Lamp (a penny publication), portions of articles aeon the late change of Ministry an d upon " the coming elections.") These were certainly ulkservatiOns on public occurrences, an d were liable to the stamp duty; but the Government durst not enforce the law aga i nst those pu blications, for if they did they would have to deal with a legion of them, and would bo involved in the same trouble that they were in 183 e. This was, he thene'ht, one of the etrongest pwsible reasons that could be adduced why the House shuald give he ascent to his resolutions, and why such a law should be repealed. The newspaper pro prietary ware not entitled to be considered as a body having a vested interest in the maintenance of this sex, nor did he believe that many of that body would urge such a plea against the repeal of this duty. If, however, they did, be contended that Parliament were, neverthe less justified in dealing with these taxes upon broad public grounds. The Right nee. Gentleman concluded by moving the first resolution of w hi c h h e had given notice. _ . Mr. EWART, in seconding the did se because this was a pracical education of the people, connected with the He objected to these taxes, in the first place, bee s ! ) e. ru s e he m deemed s said t s h t a a t m h p e . duty to be a tax upon the assemblies ; a while the advertisement-duty : 4 7 court , of wat ki n d. He helieved s a tax upon the inter material of thought; that the great advan tage of modern tunes was, that ju ignionts upon public affahirys the lo deliberatingp, „pie tor formedupon t their good order he thought that, in press, andr not by the aTitteartiioal:(f,furpnuipshaeladr athsse ld give the people order to secure the pesce end was the House asked prder of society and the security of property, they should ple seemed to con every means for this slow and institutions of deliberate formation of their judgment. On what ground to continue these taxes? Some eider that they were a part of ancientthepeo of recent origin; and the country; but the fact was th e most t osed by Mr. Pitt. Chambers had stated before from ywere modern inne .vations. The piper duty dated the wars of Marl borough; the stamp duty was one Commons d oo v nf e s r s et that to tt it te had adhad d e eclared that so the advertisement duty was first The paper-duty had proved in terests of the country. Mr. impossible a ever again one of his p a a C h e l i i m a amtiiotnte,e end d the ir. Ho ic u r s i i e gh o t f rendered necessary the discontinuanmc h to a x id w n h o i t c a h ontain long as it conti n ued it would be to publish such a work as the Cyclopadia. It had also the effect of preventing the ny re of human in employment of the highest class of talent pure The advertisement duty, as he had already newspapers. twearcsoiunrese—Ouvit Yorkwa ( t w h h is in already said, he considered to be a tax upon the high way - e o more - than -- r- --newspapers arising. The circulation of dai n ly ted ect e l y t „ n e e r w t one fourth the population of London) 1 30,000 m in London it was only 60,000. Re believed e opies, while that the stamp duty was most adverse to the circulation vd of sound knowledge. In_ America -every poor manhad a daily newspaper upon his breakfast table, a n d he should like to see the same the case in England. But we were told w that if the stamp duty a s taken off we should cease to have respectable newspapers. The reductionof the duty from 4d. to ld., i n 1834, had, however, been followed by a great inc rease in the respectability of ews and why, th ere f ore , should the repeal of the duty duty have an injurious e ff ect ? It was then said thatif the stamp duty were tak en off the newspapers would become local. He believed that would be an advantage. The press in America was decidoly local, and yet one of the wit nesses before the Committee of the House Commons said that th e y we re there found to be of rth schools put t oge th e r. He believed, indeed,wo all the that we should never improve the education of the people until we attack e d th em on their practical interests, an ap pealed to th em th roug h the newspaper press. fr w was he from thi n king that an unstamped press So fur promote the spr ea d of republican doctrines, that he be lieved that if we gave people under a monarchy every possible advantage which they couldobtain d under a re puelic, they would be more an it attached to our constnutioeial monarchy. He thoughtt e the duty of a wise Chancellor of the g was especially Exchequer to re neeve the advertisement duty, y, for, while it only yielded 150,0001. to the revenue, it pressed upon every interest in the country. It was a tax , of the same nature as that on almanacke, the repeal of which by Lord Althorp was followed by so groat an . improvement in the quality . In and so great a reduction the price of those publica tions. For all these reasons he cordially supported the H motion of his Right Friend; believing that if, under:our limited ramrel ie e l n. Y ' we removed abuses such as those to which he had referred, we should not give rise to-discontent, but sh ou ld increase the contentment as we ll as t h e eecurie Milton, "That it i s Y of the people. In the words of hope—that no gamin not the liberty which we should no ce should ever arise in the com monwealth; that let man in this world expect; but when complaints are freely heard, deeply consider() 3, and speedily reformed, then is the utmost point of civil liberty attained whi c h a wise man can look for." The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said — In the few observationsethat I have to make upon this th motion, I can assure Right Hon. Gentleman that neither I nor my coll sinister feelings which he eagues are at all influenced by those he has ascribed to some of the men who have been the originators or controllers of these duties. I can say frankly for myself and my col leagues that wo have no - fear or apprehension r spectieg the influence of the established in the enjoyment of r ; and in a country like this— in a country long prac tical liberty, in a co un t admit for a moment Y eminently religious—l cannot that experience drawn from the instances of other lands, where I will not say the enjoy ment, but the experience of an unrestricted press, has resulted in circumstances which we all deplore—should be brought forward a s 'own. But I must considerany warning to a country like our much less interesting, this case, I fear, in a view adapted to charm ot much less philosophical, much less House than that which has been pursued by the Right Manchester. It is 'n. Gentleman the Member for lean afford to view it only at in a financial point of view that us three propositions present, Now we have before affects the finances of this t each of which, if carried, s country. and which it car ried all together materially affect our finances. The Right Hon. Gentleman first calls upon this House, if not immediately, to ex paper should be abolishedpress an opinion that the duty on or r e p e aled, yet to express such an opinion as m ust iLfluenee the course of the Mi nister responsible for the finances of the country. I do not wish to contest the accuracy of the view which the Right lion. Gentleman has taken with respect to the effect of the excis e f ac ture of that articl e ; I dutyhave on paper upon the manu facture to vindicate the beneficial never been particularly on. Gentleman calls our influence of excise du ties ; bat when the Right at tention to the injurious effec man ufacture of this particular ts of an Excise duty on the sa y that lam not aware that article, lem bound to the injurious effect of the exc i s e duties is limited to eve n that if we compare the that particular; article, or u p o n paper with their e rect of these regulations it would not be pe me to ssible for 'et upon other articles, w hich their influence is adduce instances in more injurious. I do not now wish to enter in to any line of dis cussion upon this question, and dilated :upon the injurious but if I had risen, Excise upon any other article example-4 dare say I should have made out a case that manufacture—soap for w ould have carried away the Rouse with equal success, a lth ou gh the plea might not hare boo that which has bean put forth by nas ably urged as tleman with regard to the manufacturethe Right Hon. Gen. then we must co nsider whether in of paper. But taxes are not necessa r y ev ils , and 'this country these a bility which we have to relievewe must consider the the country, which is the wisest direct' industry of the move, so as to redres s an y wrong (1,,r in which we can I am not wishing t o g ive an O p in ion in °rent any good. in favour of the re lief of soap from the excise. r - only in stance in preference to that on paper, mention it as an , rAnd I think the Right Hon. Gentlem an will ad mit that the effects of an excise duty are not less in j urious upon this manufacture than upon that which is immediate'Y before the atten tion of the Ham Well, sir, I am therefore obliged to consider the quest ion as re g ar ds the purely in a finencial point of view. I _, c duty on paper be extremely glad, in this ineeance or in an y etherrn' il industry or to advan ce the p ro g re ss of stance, to relievo the human race and the education of the peel*, n ut it to consider who her with regard is my first duty e to the main tenance of the revenue of this consent to any propositions of thiscountry I can kind. I cannot say that I shoult feel justified in assenting to the proposition of the Right Hon. Gentleman. is scarcely fair upon me to press one at this moment ' i upon this point. I hope that to morrow week I s h a ll before the House whet I believe to be the real st j i o tt o c ; the finances of the country; and when the Right Ron. Gentleman and his frieuds are in full posevesion o f ha facts which I shall place bethre them—ethen they it ve . listened to the views of her Majestg inis ters— then be perfectly open to them, if they think themselveswill in disputing the policy whiell were 2 justi ohnmend,hto advance their own views as counter the House propositions, to them. At present I can only s a y that I do not feel assenting to a vote vvhico would be equivalent ' to claration on the part of t his House that the tax on a paper do" should be totally repealed. With regard to the other two points which the Righ t Honourable Gentleman has placed before the House, namely, the duties on adver tisements and on newspaper stamps, ' , h ave . anh. no hesita tion in saying that I think they are ts that de serve the very grave c ensideriation of a Chancellor of ;he Exchequer. But, again, 1 mast Consider them pri. madly with reference to the effect of the policy which ho recommends _upon the revenue of the country. That is the only consideration which cm influence Lao at the present moment, and it is oulv with re ference to the effect of his resolutions, if carrier?, upon the revenue that I shall venture to make any ohst:Tva lions. The united amount of the tt,va items to which I have last referred is net contemptible; taking the three together the aggregate is important. I think that the question of, the effect of the duty upon advertisements is one which should be gravely considered. Ido not want at this moment to say more than that it is a question which her Majesty's Government have taken into their - consideration. lam not convinced by the i ngen i ous o b. servztions of the Ri g ht Hon. Gentlertal that Practicallyspaking, were w e to deal with the staelo w .; on nes papers, wo s h ou ld b r i ng a b ou t a goo d an d' sat i sfactory state of thin gs . B u t aga i n thi s su bje c t, I freely admit, should enter into the consideration of any person re sponsible, not only for the finances, but also for the good government of the country. I distinguish both these motions•—the second and third—very much from the first motion an which we aro now called to give a (loci- • sion—the duty on paper. Tho duty on p — tper is so large in amount that every one must hesitate before voting for the surrender of that sourca of revenue; and I mast warn Honourable Gentlemen not to be csrried away by tho lively deecriptiou given by the Right Honourable Gentleman as to the injurious effect of the excise law upon that particular article, and they are not to consider that it is the sole instance in . . which its injurious effects are discovered.—(Hear, hear.) If we are to relieve the industry of the country by the repeal of the excise duty, it becomes a sub ject requiring the most impartial and deepest investiga tion before we decide which duty is the one reo“ re quiring to be repealed.—(Hear, hear.) The possibility of obtaining relief in this as well as in other instances depends entirely upon the state of the public finances; end when in the course of a week I shall feel it my duty to place before the House the ex-..ct state of the finances, Tam sure the llouAe will agree—however in- ;erestink . diieussion or debate may boLthat there would he great inconvenience in coming now to a premature decision on any subject of this kind.—(dear, hear.) I would remind the House of the conduct of the House of late years with regard to the public finances. Erery los note one knows that for a considerable period there has been a determination tax. upon tt e t r h a e rv:u part hnoae r ) 0 of f theit!. t hHe: country ouseh by im posingoa om been - po w t o add e s to t e revenue any opinion more freely expressed, or more energetically maintained than another, it certainly has been that ex pressed by the majority of this House, who oppose, directly or indirectly, any increase of revenue by in creased taxation.—(Hear, hear.) They have male war upon the Customs duties, which materially assisted our finances; and now there is a very great objtetion to ;he Excise.—(Hear, hear.) Very well; you are taking away every source of your indirect taxatiou, and I chink any gentleman who considers the question should ag ree with me that when you were so precipitately cutting off the sources of your indirect taxation, you ought to have considered whether more relief to the in dustry of the country would not be given if you had either modified or repealed the Excise duties—the source of your internal taxation—than to have reduced the Customs duties, the source of your external taxa tion.—(Hear, hear.) Remember this, that Honourable Gentlemen opposite, and particularly the Right Hon. Gentleman who has brought for eard this motion, never sanctioned this principle, but, on the contrary; sup. ported the policy that reduced the Customs duties.— (Hear, hear.) We have now a great war made against the Excise; you have attacked successfully one great source of our indirect taxation, and you are now attack ing an other source of our indirec t taxation.—(Hear, hear.)' But what is our position in regard to direct taxation?—(Hear, hear.) We have a Committee sitting upstairs which is actually making war upon the princi pal source of your direct taxation.—(Hear, hear.) Whatever may be the opinions of the gentlemen who form that Committee, it is notorious, both from the ex pressed opinions of the Honourable Gentleman who moved and carried the appointment of thst Committee, and of the most important members upon it, that what ever may be their views respecting direct taxation, they disapprove of the principles on which direct taxation at present is levied in this country.—(Gear.) They may tall you that they are favourable to direct taxation, but it must be direst taxation with exemptions, and free from every objection which they allege against it. This it our present state—we have reduced one great source of in direct taxation by the repeal of many of the Customs duties—you are now attacking another source of indi rect taxation by motions like the present, affecting our Excise duties, while the principles upon which direct taxation can be atisfactorily established are still sub jects of controversy, and are even at this moment under the discussion and investigation ci a Parliamentary Committee.—(gear, hear.) Now, I usk the House calmly to consider, is that a satisfactory state of the finances of the country?—(Hear, hear.) Is it not wise to pause before you diminish the revenue which you derive from your indirect taxation, until the House and the country have arrived at a knowledge of the proper principles upon which our direct taxation is to be estab lished?—(Hear, hear.) Can anything be more injurious, can anything be more unwise, can anything be more rash, than to diminish the sources of your indirect tax ation, when at the same time you are challenging the princi ale upon which many sources of your direct tax ation is now established?—(Hear.) I put that view with great confidence for the consideration of the House. —(Hear.) The Right Hon. Gentleman has referred to my having two years ago supported a motion like the present.—(Hear, hear.) If the House will do me the honour to refer to the few observations which I made on that occasion, I am sure it will do me the justice to say that those bservations vindicated the vote I gave on that occasion. —(Hear, hear.) Ido not like to refer to personal considerations, or to introduce them into this, debate, but as my vote on that occasion has been re ferred to, I beg the House will do me the favour to re- fer to the circumstances under which I gave that vote.— (Hear, hear.) The House was informed from the Throne that a great productive interest in the c)untry was Buf fering —an, interest which I and others represented in this House.—(Hear, hear.) We thought there should be such a remission of taxation as would relieve thr., suffering of that particular interest; but the Minister of that day, in the possession of a surplus, said he would neither apply any portion of that surplus to the relief of that interest—or, on the other hand, to the diminution of the public debt, which, by a consequent diminution of general taxation, would be a source of general relief.— (Hear, hear.) But, on the contrary, would apply the surplus to purposes I did not approve of, and in a manner which I thought was unjust and impolitic— (Hear, hear)—and all I meant in the vote which I gave on the motion of the Right Honourable Gentleman and in the discussion that took place was this—that if there was to be a remission of taxation which would neither relieve the particular interest announced from the Throne to be suffering norlrelieve the general interest by diminishing the general taxation of the country by re ducing the debt, then I preferred the motion of the Right Honourable Gentleman to the policy of the Go vernment.—(Hear, hear.) I have infinitely preferred to promote the general interests of the country by the re mission of the duty on paper, or by the repeal of the duty on advertisements, or by the abolition of the news paper stamps, than to endeavour to do so by the means which were then recommended by her Majesty's Go vernment.—(Hear, hear.) Ido not seo that a position more fair could be taken by any Member of this House —(Hear, hear)—and from the recollection of which I confess I experience no regret.—(Haar, hear.) I can not enter into the interesting details with which the Right Honourable Gentleman has again favoured us as he did two years ago. I am not here to dispute his facts, or to challenge his conclusions; but I cannot permit myself, in the present state of affeirs, to view the matter, in connexion with the social condition of the country, which the Right Honourable Gentleman has dwelt upon, or the political consequences that he foresees; -I take a more • interested vier: of the subject, and a more limited and narrow-minded one—one confined merely to the effect of the motion of the Right Hon. Gentleman upon the present state of our revenue. —(Hear, hear.) The Right Hon. Gentleman has brought forward a motion which would reduce the revenue by a sum now approaching to nearly 1,500,000/.—(Hear, hear) : —because all the items to which be has referred are on the increase. —(Hear, hear.) Ido not of course pretend to give the accurate figures, but I wish to ob serve that the Minister of Finance may look to an in crease of the revenue received under the three heads to which the Right Hon. Gentleman's motion has reference. h-(llear, hear.) The Right Hon. Gentleman has asked the House to assent to a motion of very great import ance; in a week it will be my duty to place before the House the exact state of the finances of the country; and I think lam not asking too much when I call upon the House to permit me to place before them the first finan cial statement which I shall have the honour to submit for their consideration, and which I shall submit to them i.e a fear days, without the burden and incumbrancohof the House assenting to a vote such Es that whioh t 3 Right Hen. Gentleman has brought forward.—(Hear. I do not think that it is an unreasonable propos.iltliosan;-; (dear, hoar.) I cannot think that the 11003 ~,,,,, Rightog H t i 0 0 0 n,. circumstances, resent limiting my consideration of this rootion.inl e The p . upon instance merely .and strictly to its financiahieti 6 occasion the revenue of the country—offering on ?. under the no opinion on those wider questions to winch, doubt he was circumstances in which he spoke, no se —hut desir ingtifiedin calling the attention of the H on next Fri- to place before the House of Commons, which I must embarrassment • • and day, without any of the isrnwitir thoiftsht,fe.eeli e I position, I fe-1 i t disguised statement of our financial o f the Right llon. my duty, Sir, to oppose the 1030 Gentleman.—(hear, hear.) the subject would be taken Mr. WAKLILY hoped that Hon Gentleman into consideration by the Right and scared afterhe experience from a vote like the present, a clear un had made his financial statement,to debate could . thought that under the circumstances h ae. . _ ir be pro longed with advantage to any o 1 ( . iI , , !seer.)He livable Gentleman tee Mee - fcer for hoped the Right llou' the proposal . the Right and assent to the e, ' Honourable Gentlemen, an( _. „, tournment e a - fortnieht or k of the debate until that o s _n o amo other had heard the tint:a:lntl stateasent, period after they , , e d to move P o.‘ , )n of the Hon. Manchester would agree to Ot II ar hear.) lie 1321;6 that the debate (- s • should be adtoorned. and must say ts - - tu, a e Member La . Finsbury, teith great attention and with much satisf :ction to the nd that aleaczt insuperable tliffi Hon. Uentlems i - sptee h of the Bight , . , 3.—Jl2:Lr, hear.) to This was not merely ."e considered as a dear-cid but as an educational questica.7(Hear, hear.) He had sat en a Committee to inquire into the state of education in Mr. COBDEN rose to second the 1 c and ho 1 ? culties were presented to the educaAon of the people 'clear, hear.) by theinselves--( Is was his his wish to to t e e removal of contribute those difficulties by the al of the texas with repeal which they proposed to deal, because they were taxes that affened the education of the country, t the people.—(Hear, hear.) He was struck with a fact which had been mentioned on the subject by a gentleman who took great pains on this itthject—fir. John Cassell I --who had published a great number of valuali:e works I for the labouring cle.ssee. He had placed in Lis hand a statement. of tho. , e publications with the arecunt of taxa tion imposed upon them by the legLiation of that House, and he told them that i; weighed upon bis efforts to educate the working classea to the extent of 4,0001. a year.—(Hear.) When the House pretended that it wished to educate the people, and alleged that it had appointed a• Select Cemtaittee to consider hove they could best administer the public funds for the education of the people, if they retained a law that would impose restric tions nom t h,l ; se;aeaaevion t . hey woehl piece theee elves in the peih het oi lupocriee; before the werhl.— (Hear, hear.) Ho could not convince himself that to re move the newspaper atemp would impair the reveuue. The newspaper stamp yielded 350,000/., and if they took off the stamp, and dealt with newspapers Like everything else going through post, they might receive, if not the entire, et least a large portion of that sum as postage.— ' (Hear, hear.) Every stamp put upon a newspaper was a stamp ulna modern history, in which they were all interested. —(bear, hear.) The stamp on the newspaper was the greatest obstacle to the progress of intelligence in this country, because it kept the newspaper almost entirely from the great mass of the people.—(Hear, hear.) It would be of the greatest advantage to their rural population to be enabled to inform themselves on questions of labour, of wages, and of employment; also with resp ec t to the subject of emigration, the price of land in the colonies, and in foreign countries, and the cost of passage to Australia and to Canada.—(Hear, hear.) Every person must admit that, if newspapers containing such information should find their way to villages and small hamlets, it would be of the greatest advantage by awakening curiosity on the part of the population, and stimulating them to go w h ere t h ey would get a bett er reward for their labour.—;(Hear.) That would tend to diminish the rates which now prme upon the rural districts, by stimulating the agriculturel population to go to other quarters where they would better their circumstance; but at proscat the egricul tural mind, so far as the peasantry was concerned, was as much a blank on those questions as in the times of their Saxon forefathers.—(Hear.) . A great number of the persons who were lost in the Amazon had relatives living in Englaod; and he had been informed that ono of the great difficulties of the philanthropists who had formed themselves into an association for the relief of the relatives of those who were lost, was to find out the friends of tho parties, and in some cases they went to parties who had not previously heard of the calamity by which their friends had suffered.—(Hear, hear.) The reason of that was, because the greaterpart of the people were shut out from hearing the current events of the day.—(Hear, hear.) He thought this was a question that affected the education of the people, and ho hoped from what the Right Honourable Gentleman had said, that the Government with which he is connected would . _ deal with it in a satisfactory manner.—(Hear, hear.) If they carried out the suggestion of his Right Honourable Friend they could do nothing that would be more calcu lated to give them popularity; it would make them more popular than anything else they could do in their situa:- tion.—(Hear, hear.) He was inclined to hope for some thing on this question from the Government.—(Hear.) He must bear his testimony to the fact, that in the Com mittee last year he was pleased with the conduct of the Member for the University of Dublin, who is now a member of the Government.—(Hear, hear.) For his conduct on this question they felt they were deeply in debted to him, and if his spirit animated the Cabinet with which he is connected, they might hope to see the question fairly dealt with by the present Government. — (Hear, hear.) If they did what was necessary, they would receive it from their hands with as cordial a re cognition of it s va l ue as from any other Government. The ATTORNEY-GENERAL w ished to make a ro mark in reply t o an Ob servation that had si been made in reference to him, as he conceived it was ca elated to lead to a misunderstanding of his conduct respecting House hold Words. Mt. M. GIBSON—The Household Narrati ve . The ATTORNEY-GENERAL --Ho thanked the Right Hon. Gentleman for setting him right, and he begged to inform him that the information against the Household Narrative had been filed by his predecessor in office. It was insisted that it was a newspaper and liable to stamp duty, and the matter was discussed in the Court of Exchequer. The judges differed upon the question, there being bares to one in favour of the exemption of the publication in question.—(Hear, hear.) The late Attorney-General and Solicitor- General had the subject submitted to them for 'consi deration,, and it was also submitted to the leading counsel of the department of the Stamps and Taxes, and they were all of opinion that the judgment of Baron Parke was a more correct judgment than the judgment of the majority of the Court.—(Hear.) When he (the Attorney-General) came into office the case was laid before him and the Solicitor-General, with the opinions of their predecessors, and they considered the course that was to be pursued. Without entertaining a very strong opinion one way or the other, they felt it was essential that the law should not be left in the uncertain or unsatisfactory state in which it was, and that it was desirable to obtain the judgment of a superior tribunal.—(Hear, hear.) Under those circumstances they recommended that a writ of error should be issued, and the opinion of the Court of Error taken on the question.—(Hear, hear.) Ott reflection, he could not feel that he had acted other wise than with a due regard to the interests of the public, and with an earnest desire that this important question should be settled.—(Hear, hear.) In answer to the re mark of the Right Hon. Gentleman, that no prosecutions had been instituted with respect to certain other publi cations, he begged to say that he never before had heard of most of them, and that he had never teen any of them.—( Hear, hear.) Mr. COWAN hoped that they should not be placed in a worse position on that day fortnight than they were nt that moment, and thought it would be satisfactory if they received some further assurance from the Right Hon. Gentleman. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER—If the Hon. Gentleman wishes me to tell him what I intend to say on Friday week, it is really not in my power todo so. Mr. M. GIBSON.—I was not in the House, but I un derstand that the Right Hon. Gentleman said the ad vertisement and stamp questions are under the considera tion of tho Government, and under the circumstances, and with that understanding, I cordially agree to the adj ournment.—(Hear.) The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER—I am sorry there should be any misunderstanding on the part of the Right Hon. Gentleman with respect to anything I said. So long as I have the conduct of the House I should be very much annoyed if any deception had taken place.--(Hear, hear.) I should not wish the Right Hon. Gentleman, or any of his friends, to think that the question is under the consideration of the Government at all with reference to hi.s motion, or more specifically than it is the duty of the Government to consider the taxation of the country on all its branches; in that way the consideration of those taxes is not omitted.—(Hear.) No statement has been made by me to lead him to sup pose that it is under more particular consideration— (Hear)—th© proposition for adjournment did not come from this side.—(Hear.) I proposed no terms. I merely stated that on to-morrow week I shall wake the financial statement.—( Hear.) Mr. HUME hoped the Government would we ll con sider the question, and begged to inform the Right lion. Gntleman of it fact which, perhaps, he was not aware of. A deputation, consisting of about fifty or sixtya.in dividuals connected with the paper trade, having waited on Lord John Russell, when he was at the 'leaden: !e a u . Government, his Lordship distinctly stated to entirely he rested his objections to their propositionnidvie financial grounds, and as such only (Hear, hear.) He (Mr. Hume) d let newspapers be wouldhewsuoggest that the newspaper stamp be removed, put in the same category as letteardsn.dannadt want t el t s o passing; through through the Post-office, for they the Government of a penny o f postage.—(Hear, hear.) It appeared that while 91 , 000,000 copies of newspapers were altogether circulated in this country in the year, th e number circulated in t he United States amounted to 422,700,000. —(Hear). He begged to call attention t o a paper that had b een established in Norwich for the instruction of the neighbouring population. Ile (M r . Hume) thought Nor folk was as much benighted as any county in the kingdom. A weaver . published th e paper to which he had adv erted with a fair desire to benetit his fellow men; but in stepped the tax-office and said ho s hould not publish it. He (Mr. Hume) considered that in an educational, moral, and fiscal point of view, this tax was injurious to the public, and he was extremely happy that his Hon. Friend had moved the adjournment of the debate, because by that course time would be given to t h e Government to consider the subject. For his part. he scarcely knew any means that could be taken bV w hi c h the agricultural community would be more bene fitted than by taking off the paper -tax.—(Hear, hear.) Mr. MOW ATT regretted that the Hen. Member for Manchester had ad opte d the ensgettit n for adjourning the debate. He th oug h t i t would have been better jo; h a ve gone to a division, as the result would probably have had the eff ect of strengthening the hands of the Government in any wish they might have to put an e nd to this inj ur i ous tax. But as it vas he hoped the mo tion was for a bond fide adjournment' of the debate to a specified day. Mt. EREWEN (amid cries of " Question") sad, in deference to a resolution passed at a 'nesting of a com mittee in Sussex, embodied with t h e v i ew of procur i ng the abolition of the hop duty, to the effect, that as the new Government had just then come into office it would ensly be fair towards them that he should postpone his motion in reference to that que , tion, he heti accordingly' postponed that motion, not wishing unnecessarily to em barrass the Government at the very moment they came into power. The debate was then adjourned to Wednesday the 12th May. The Exchequer-bills (17,742,8001) Bill, as amended, was considered. The Linen, &c., Manufactures (Ireland) Bill was read a third time. The Loan Soci , ties Bill and the Stock-in-Trade Bili severally passed through Committee. The House adj,oirnecl at a Quarter past Eight o'clock [A DVEETLSEMENT.]—A Life Guardsman, ozle of the Heroes of Waterloo, cured of Rheumatism by Holloway's Ointment and Pills.—Mr. Thomas Branton, landlord of the Waterloo Tavern, Coatham, Yorkshire, was afflicted for many months with rheumatism and rheumatic gout. His legs were dreadfully painful, and disfigured with colours of every hue, frightf u l to behold. For ten weeks he was wholly unable to walk, the treatm en t h e rece ived from several medica l l men oo . in only failing to do him any good, but leaving .I.l.if,!'svaly% pi ll s considerably worse condition. At this juncture ti y all Druggists and Ointment were resorted to, and by their so b le means he has been restored to health and strength.— Strand, and at Professor Holloway's EstabliahmSent, 244, London. We find - it stated in the ELECTION EXPENSES. life of Lord Jeffrey that his—election expenses in two years of ten thousand pounds. amounted to the round Run NAVAL INTELLIGENCE. PORTSMOUTH, APRIL 22 . —Admiral Sir T. Briggs, G.C. &LG., Commander-in-Chiif, with Captain Chads, of the Excellent, Captain Miirtin, of the Victory, and Fisg- Lieutenant Pasie,y, proceeded to Spithead this morning in the Sprightiy steam-tecder, to• muster and inspect the :I.hip's company of the Orestes, and returned again at one, P.m.; after inspection, the Orestes removed her powder and shell, and came into.harbour to be paid off. The Encounter, 14, steam-ifigate, Captain Gordon, will come into harbour to-morrow. The Neptune, 120, Captain Scott, ilieg of Rear-Ad .miral Prescott, is getting dOwn.herjuiy,yards and top wase which tiro to be replaced by.her seagoing ones. The '':':illia:l-.#.lt.rditio co;ivict-ship sailed from Spit heFed tllii rfe.,rno,:,n. SHEERNESS, THURSDAY L‘IORNING.—..Iier Majesty s paddle-wheel steam-sloop- Basilisk.. 6, Com Mender G. 11. Gardner, and &crew steam-vesscl , Dc. , ..iperate, 8, Lieute nant Stevens, left port on- Tuc day, a t , five, n.M., and anchored at the Nore, wai"..ng the arrival of the vesseld forming the Arctic Expdition. Her Majesty's paddle-wheel steath•vessel Lizard, W. Brockrntu, Second Master, commanding, left port at 11 AM. on Tuesday, for Chatham, httviag on board Vice- Admiral the Hon. Joseeline Percy, Commander-in• Chief at the Nore; Captain the Hon. Montague Stopford, Flag Captain of her Majesty's ship Waterloo, 120; and Capt. G. H. Mundy, of her Majesty's Chip London, 90. The Lizard returned to her moorings in the harbour in the evening. 111011 ag of Vice-Adrniral the Hon. Josceline Percy was struck on hoard the Waterloo at sunset on Tuesday, the Gallant Officer haring gone on kayo to attend her Majesty's levee. Csptain C . Hope, Superintendent ofthe dockyard, hoisted his broad pendant on board the Mo nr,rch, 84, as Acting Commander-in- Chief during the Port Admiral's r.s2enc,?. Her Majr , sty's ships Assistance, 2, Captain Sir E. EAcher, 0.13.; solute, :2, Captain H. Kellett, C. 8.; :North Star, '2, Commander William J. S. Pullen; In tendzr to tho R eso l ute; an d tre.pici, 2, screw steam-ship, Pioneer, 2,Ectew steam-vessel, tender to the Assistance, arrived at the Great Nora, from Greenhithe, at 7.30 A.. 11. yesterday, the first three in tow of the Light ning, the Monkey, and the African steamers respat. tively. At 9 Am. her Mejesty's steam-vessel Myrtle, Mr. W. S. Bourclaier Master' commanding, conveyed C 3 Ptain. C. Hope, Superintendent of the Dockyard, and senior port naval officer (pro. tem.), on a visit to Sir E. Belcher, returning at noon witn the captains of the s . :yeral ships, who were cntartained at luncheon by Cap tain C. Hope. A dockyard cutter was kindly placed at the disposal of the officers belonging to the ships in port, for the purp ose of affording them an opportunity of visiting the Arcti c ex pl or i ng squadron of which many availed themselves. At 1 P.M. the Myrtle, with the broad pendant flying of Captain C. Hope returned to the Nora with the officers, wh o came into ;art. Between 1 and 2 P.M. signal was made to the Basilisk, Desperate, and , the other s t eamers to get up their steam, and at 3 o clock the squad rons we i ghed anchor and started on their voyage, the sailing-vessels being each in tow of tug-vessel, and carrying with them the hearty wishes of every one for success in the enterprise in which they are engaged. The Basilisk and De s p erate w i ll accompany them to the edge of the ice, in order to render any seals tanca they may require. It is rumoured that her Majesty's ship Royal George, 120, sent to Chathdm on Monday, for the purpose of being docked and got ready for commission, will, when fitted, supply the place of the Waterloo, 120, es flagship at this port, in which case the latter ship will be em ployed on foreign service. Her Majesty's ship London, 90, Captain G. R. Mundy, was removed yesterday from her moorings abreast the town-pier. to others laid down for her in the centre of the harbour. Majetit:y'a ship Herat J, 8, Captain H. M. Den ham (1846), will be towed here from Chatham to-day, on her way to the South Seas. Her Majesty's screw steam frigate Horatio, 22, Cap tain the Hon. S. J. Carnegie, will proceed on her trial cruise on Saturday, according to present arrangements. APPOINTMEIITS. WOOLWICH, APRIL 22.--Maters—Jahn G. Mugford (1841), to the Amphioa, 34, screw-frigate, of 300-horse power, advanced war steamer, at Sheerness ; Stephen Spa:n(lB46), to the C:,:elops, piddle-wheel steam-frigate of 320-horse_power, advanced war steamer, at Sheerness. Second l'ilastcr Henry W. Inglis (1849), recently erring in the Vulcan, crew steam troop-ship, to the Victory, flag-ship at Portsmouth. Masters's Assistants—W. L. Dodds arid W. E. APGrath t, tho Eisgiird flagship at Woolwich. Commander George L. G. C;owyear (1851), having completed a course of study of steam at the factory at Woolwich Dockyard, was examined on Monday and Tuesday last by Mr. Charles Atherton, chief engineer, and having been found to have acquired a knowledge of the properties and the uses of the various parts of marine steam-engines, received his certificate ac cordingly. The Vivid, Dover mail steam-packet, Captain Smithett, will be ready to return to Dover on the 24th inst., to re sume her .duties on that statiun. She has been fitted with new boilers. The Herald surveying -vessel, Captain Henry Mangles Denham, is expected to arrive at Woolwich this evening from Chatham, to receive her boat; and other articles previous to her dr:partur3 kith her tender, the Torch, Lieutenant Commander Chimmo, for the purpose of sur veying the South be s, where she will be employed in that ardueu: duty among the numerous islands inhabited tyy singes for aperiodof from five to seven Years. The Agimemrron, 90, buil,ling at Woolwich Dock yard, will be ready fur launching after Saturday next; hut, according to present arrange — meets, the launch will not take place until the 21st of May, between two and three o'clock in the afternoon. The ways have been completed and carried out to the river, and seats are in pregrers of being put up to accommodate a number of spec:ators on the occasion of the launch taking place. It is expected this fine vessel will be commissioned shortly after she is launched, as it is desirable to have her tried at the earliest possible period. Captain the Hon. Henry Keppel (1837), formerly of the Meander, 44, is named as likely to have the command of her. COURT CiIt.CULARe The Queen held an Investiture of the most Honour able Order of the Bath, at three o'clock yesterday afternoon, at Buckingham Palace. Her Majesty the Queen, overeign of the Order, and Field-Marshal his Royal Highness the Prince Albert. Great Master of the Order, were conducted to the Throne-room by the Lord Chamberlain and the Lord Steward. There were present—Field-Marshal the Duke of Wellington, Lord Viscount Straugford, General Lord Viscount Combermere, Field-Marshal the Marquis of Anglesey, Lord Heytesbury, General Earl of Strafford, the Earl of Clarendon, Lieutenant-General Lord Seaton, Lieutenant-General Sir Willoug hb y Cot ton , General Sir Howard Douglas , Bart., Lieutenant Gen eral Sir George Pollock , Lieuten ant- General Sir Ch arles James Napier, the Earl of Elienhorou g h, the Marquis of Normanby, Lieutenant -General Lord Fitzroy Jam e s Henry Somerset, eed Lieutenant-General Sir J ames Lillyman Caldwell. Lord Broughton having been introduced and con d ucted b etw een Lord Fitzroy Somerset and Sir Jame s Cald well, the two Junior Knights Grand Cross present, Lord Broughton knelt before the Qnc : en, an d h er Ma jesty, with the Sword of State, was t o confer the honour of kni g hth oo dgraciously pleased ?Ilihis on who had the honour to hies her Majesty's - Lordship, Queen then, with the assistant,, hand. The invested Lord Broughton with the of the Grand Master, l a Knight Grand Cross (civ il , the riband and badge of having delivered t o him division) o f t h e B at h, an d I the star, his Lordship again kissed his Sov ere i gn ' s h „ The follovving Knie_ ni , and reti re d. introduced, an d Wereetsta Grand Cross were severally assisted b rez P" Aivul Y invested b y her Ma jesty,with the imsignia ofy his r oyal Hi g h ness th e G reat M as ter, division) o f the Ord a Knight Grand Cross (military Peregrine I‘..aitind . Order of the B a th, viz.:—General Sir , Admiral the Hon. Sir Thomas Blador. Captl, Lieutenant-General Sir Alexander Wood ford, Lieuten ant-General Sir Henry Frederick Bourerie, L ieutenant-General ee S i r John Fox Burgoyne. Ate officers were not knighted, that honour having been already conferred upon them. Lieuen , , ar,- General Sir Thomas Downman, Vice- Ad . _ . tuiral the H onoura bl e Si r A nt h on y Maitland, and Leut-Gen era l Si r Archibald Maclaine were invested b t by the Sovere i gn as Knights-Commande rs (military division). Major-General John Owen, Lieut-General George Charles D' Aguilar, Lieutenant-General Henry Gold finch, Lieutenant-General Johußell,Lieutenant-General. George Brown, Rear-Admiral Phipps Homey, and Rear- Admiral William Fairbrother Carroll, were intro duced, and had the honour of Knighthood conferred upon them by the Queen, and were invested by her Ma jesty with the insignia of Knights Commanders (mili tary division). Cho Queen had a dinner-party last eveening at Bucktngnam Palace. The company included the Duchess of Athol', the Marquis of Salisbury, Earl Delawarr, the Earl and Countess of Wilton, Earl Jermyn, Lord El-. phinstone, Lord and Lady Creroorne, and ColonelWyld. His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge visited Prince Leopold of Saxe Cobourg, on Wednesday, at Buckingham Palace. Prince Leopold of Saxe Coburg went to Claremont yesterday morning, and visited the Countess do Neuilly and the French Royal Family. His Serene Highaes s took leave of her Majesty and his Royal Right's"' Prince Albert last evening, and quitted Backingtolut Palace at a quarter before eight o'clock, for the terminus to Dover, On of the Seath-Eastern Railway, travelling route to Ostend and Brussels. m mission. for The Finance Cornmit.ee o f the Royal C o the Exhibition of [B5l had a meeting yesterday, at the Palace of Westmins:er. t Dues Association of A dqutsti,Aa f ro m the Lig ht with with the Right London had an interview y esterd ay Hon. J. W. Henley and Lord Colchester at the Board of TradN h a d an interview • ' wan Mr. Lord Gray, of Gray, Secretary .. .-, W a lpole yester da y , e t h e n°llle 'dlice- The Earl of Chichester had also an interview with the Right Hon. Grothman. . D eputati^ Mr. aiacqueen cif' (l a ;_ . en had an interview yesterday with the s. Right , Inn. J. W. Henley and Lord Colchester, et the 130 a. u of Tiede. Mr. W. Perish Robertson, Como- General of the E q usdor, h:id AU interview With the erl of Lialmesbury yesterday, at the Foreign Off ice . Toe (word I.l.livei-Oy Commiss ion yat-rday at the clizi a l rc-ia the Treasury i n Dom , ,z _ - ~. ..enee of the First Lord of The camtt.rid,,e u . n. eqe- . treet, trersity Commission had a meeting on Wetlnestle.y ''at 1 the o ffi cial residence of the First Lord of the Treasury LI Downing -street. E . MIG RATION.--LINCOLN.—A banking agent Jim Lincolnshire, writing to his principal says:—" Cash seems to be drawn out of this neighbourhood rapidly. I suppnme it must be by the emigrants, who are going in large nunrs from some parishes. As many as 40 or 50 neighbours sail i$ a ship." ~ `ls:i ~'.