The Express.
London, England, 1855-02-19 00:00:00

THE NEWSPAPER STAMP.

ne CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER is to king
bare the House of Commons this evening his reso-
lutions with reference to the Newspaper Stamp. The
plan proposed is not an abolition of the tax : it is
simply an alteration—the removal of an impost
counterbalanced by the withdrawal of a privilege.
Unless the details be considerably modified, the
scheme is one which is likely to be injurious to the
public as well as to the press; and it is brought
forward unsupported by the recommendation of any
committee, and in direct opposition to the testimony
already given by Government officials.
Hitherto the question has been considered fiscally,
as one of 350,0001. per annum. It has been argued that
if newspapers were allowed to be published without
stamps, this would be the total sum involved; and
that any loss would be reduced in proportion to the
postal charge to which they might be subjected.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER contemplates
a more extensive range. He disdains to deal
with the postal transmission of newspapers alone,
but includes that of all printed matter, called
the Book Post; and, instead of printed papers
passing through the Post at a charge of ed.
per pound, he proposes that they shall be charged at
the rate of Id. for four ounces, thus converting the
Post-office into a Parcel Post, and inviting an exten-
sive trade at a rate which will, according to the evi-
dence of Mr. HILL, be unremunerative. Nay, more;
either in irony, or with that happy departmental in-
dependence for which the country has during the
last few months been paying so heavily in blood
and treasure, a notice has just been issued by the
Post-office, announcing that the Colonial Book Post-
age will, after the Ist of March, be reduced to the
Inland rate, so as to double the effect of
this new financial arrangement. In justice to the
Newspaper Stamp Committee, it must be stated
that such a tampering with the revenue wee
not recommended by them; and it might have
been thought that the present was not the moment
at which to venture upon experiments which cannot
be productive, and may be seriously injurious.
While the scheme of the CHANCELLOR of the Ex-
CHEQUER is open to these objections on fiscal
grounds, it is one which, by the inevitable id. on
each transmission, will relieve local residents at the
expense of those who reside at a distance. We do not
stay to argue as to the manner in which partial views
ad lend prejudices are moderated and removed by
semi d the sixty-six millions of newspapers passing
annually through the Post-office. We simply point
• • tion to the fact that the change proposed cannot
bat will in many instances increase, the cost
el those newspapers which now pass through the
Fast-office to a daily average of more than 200,000
persons. This portion of the population is a class
which is specially entitled to consideration, and they
have a right to protest spinet a plan which has the
peculiar objection of lessening the revenue and at the
same time increasing their expenses.
Are there then no means by which the government
can avoid the difficulty from which they shrink
—namely, the definition of a newspaper ? It
seems to us that the remedy is easy. Abolish the
newspaper stamp, and let any one publish without
stamp or inquisition any news, intelligence, or
comment, that he desires; but at the same time
give special postal privileges to the proprietors of
such defined serial publications as shall choose to
register their publication at the Stamp-office, and to
stamp their whole impression. This mode would
effectually solve the present difficulties. and might be
se arranged as to benefit the public, and at the same
doe increase the revenue. Litigation would be avoided,
for the stamp would be sought as • privilege, and
not evaded as a burden ; and as special postal privi-
leges would be confined to those papers whose whole
impression was stamped, the inconvenience, expense,
and evasion which are sow occasioned to the Post office
by pagtially stamped issues, and which will be con-
tinued by the plan at present suggested by the
CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, would be altoge-
ther got rid of. The only question of importance in
such a scheme would be the cost of the stamp. Here
the Government should adopt the Postal principle,
and by a graduating scale remove the present
I unfairness, which charges as much for the postage of
the Globe as for that of the Times. By • scale of id.
for two ounces, and Id. for each additional ounce or
fractional part of an ounce, all the evening papers
wouid pass for id.; the ordinary morning mere
for f,d.
Thcse publications which contain only Leal
information would not need a stamp, oil
thus would be free. On the other hand, the
leading journals both in town and country, which,
seek and obtain a wider range, would desire to secure
to themselves on terms so advantageous a postal
privilege, and would stamp their whole imprea-
sion. By this means another important public
advantage, now about to be sacrificed, would
be preserved—namely, that the whole extent of
the circulation of any stamped newspaper would