The Express.
London, England, 1851-01-08 00:00:00

MEETING AT lIIHMINGIIAXL

BlitellNGHAbi, Teethes.
At a meeting of the town council, held this morn-
ing, Mr. Alai, roma BALDWIN Moved the &thine:on of a
petition to parliament for the repeal of the paper, Silver-
tiotment sad stump duties on newspapers. Afar some
prefatory obserratioes, Mr. B i'dwin said—Tee mne
ceneideratien I have given to this ',Oleo the more jive fled
I feel in hinging it forward to-day, bovines: I sin coaviceed
that the canons taxes which this petition prays may he
abolished, ars imposts' that ought to be done away with,
seeing that they are in every shape injurious. I shall make
no spol'gy on the ground of being myself • paper m her,
insomuch as I consider that I have as moth right to carry cu
my trade without any restraint or inteetrences on the part
of the excise or any ~her efficor, as ptrsons in any other
itisiness; end whilst I Min in jU5il/30 state that I have never
had the slightest ground for cnoaplault against any °die. r o:
the Board of Ea.:it , I have an undoubted right to cosup:iin
..1 toe aystan—to point out i o hindrance are d ate drawbot k
upon my teed*, as well as the fully of raising re.
venue by ouch • means as • paper tax, especielly
when there are other easier, cheaper, and much
I less iniquitous methods of acoomplehing the same teed.
I need scarcely point out to you that whirl many of you
nave so much cause to know, namely, the unfair us inner in
whieb the paper duty presses upon na• rehanu, osenulactur, rs
and other tradesmen : also, to bow great an extent it op..
rates in preventing the employment of I may say thousands
' of persona; for, it this duty was repealed, I ant convene •r:
:hat I could myself be the means of finding employment for
at least 600 persons within 12 months after sorb repeal had
taken place. Now, most or you are aware that the pope
duty amounts to nearly 151. per ton, and by far the great
hulk of the paper that is manufactured does no: sell whole
sale fir more than 3il. per ton ; so that you will see the duty
amounts t r neatly one-half of the pries paid for the article
And, as I sou anxious to confine myself to feet*, I thin cite
my own cue. Last year I paid 9,6101. In the shape of duty,
whilst the paper I manufactured did 001 111.11 for more than
24,0001. And whilst I am pretty well convinced that
I did not make them one third of the paper
that was consumed in Birmingham, I think that
I manufactured is weight as much as was used in maxice,
wrapping, and re-wrapping the goods that were exported
from this town by our merchants, so that this would be
equal to a tan of 10,0001. per annum on the Birmingham
m. faints be.idel that when three goods Mite in America
there is a Una' to be encountered of Rhein 30 per cent.,
which would raise the tax to something like 13,0001. sitar
on the manufacturers and merchants of this town alone;
but, going a step beyond this, and keeping in view my esti-
mate, whth I believe to be accurate, it will be sun that
there is a gross tax on the people of Bamingbam on all the
paper consumed in it amounting to something like 30.0001
per annum; inasmuch as there is no town in the United
Kingdom wherein, in proportion to its population, so large
an amount of paper is consumed ; for, according to
our populati-n, our fair share of the tax, with the rest
of the country would be, instead of 'AOKI., which we do
pay, not more than seven or eight thousand. I know mere
cheats rayselt who use 20 tons of paper annuelly in iv-
wrappine their goods ; and keeping in view that the duty
is 15/. per ton, the tax paid by each of them an the article sal
paper alone is 3001. per year; and in putting this, I have not
put an extreme we, because I know that there are
men consuming a much larger quantity than that which I
have named. I wish the council nearly to uadenrand that
this is not a mere random statement ; I have taken pains
to be accurate, and to obtain something like • fair averse. of
the quantity of paper used by cur merchants and minutee
wren connected with the foreign trade; also of the quantity
of pasteboard, button board, and card board, that is need,
and a very little inquiry will matisfy you that my estimate is
• correct one. Take the steel-pen trade, for ire'ance, and
see the vast amount of pun boards and paper that is used
is carding, and in making the paper boxes; so with the
honk eye and the pin trade, I could not myself have believed
that Co eoneumptien of piper was so large as it is, if I had
not had undoubted information and facts befur• me. In fact
there are few branches of our menufactures wherein paper
is not required. Now, one word on the suhject of
the taxes which affect the newspapers: of course the book
trade "Mien imnicestly in eons, queue* of the paper ditty.
Well, I say abolish the penny camp and abolish the rider,
(teeniest duty; the last is s tax on the poor, whilst the rich
are comparatively untouched by its operation. The *dyer.
/0: meat a column in length pays no more duty than that of
the poor girl who wants • place as housemaid or cook. its-
peal the stamp duty and you free the newspaper from •
great burthen : the reduction of the stamp from tourpence to
one penny has more than doubled the circule ion of all news.
papers; wholly repeal it, and you will get • first-rate news-
paper for two pence, and • very good one for a penny, thereby
Piecing the newspaper within toe mica of every wivking
man—bringing it to hie own fireside, and thereby
do you contribute to his mental culture end
improvement, and do more than anything to eli Tate him in
the social stale; without taking into consideration the other
great cone weal/ 01 repealing these duties, that you will be
providing for your population a vast amount of employment
which is now debit dto them. La the United Stens of Ame-
rica there is scarcely a town of ten thousand inhabiunts
without its daily newspaper; in England there is not one
that I know of out of the metropolis Well, whet do I
deduce from all I have s..id to you? Wny, that if the
labourers and the working people could effort to buy books
end newsmen, as they weuld it these MESA were abolished,
that education and enlightenment would be extended to
their children; and what more pleasant than to witness the
mechanic or the labourer, when his day's work is over,
hither' by his own fireside, in a vastly its, roved dwelling, in
c inequities of the rep al of the glass and brisk duthr, with
a glass of sparkling, home-brewed, untaxed ale before him,
lhtening to one of his children reading the cheap sad un-
taxed book or newspaper, and findirg in the untaxed laver-
! Live:lents that there are plenty of situations for those who
want them? (Applause.) The worthy alderman concluded
by moving the adoption of the following peitioto :
" To the honourable the Commons of the United Kiordom
' of Great Britain, in Pritharnent assembled, the humble
Petition of the Meyer, Aldermen, and Burgesses of the
Borough of Birmingham.
"That your petitioners are deftly imprered with a tense
of the injurious effect of the cocci w duty on paper.
"That the imposition of such duty has crippled the
energies of the manufacturers; interfer.d with the conduct
of the trod.; fettered the enterprise of men of capital im-
barked therein ; deprived thousands of softens of their
means of rapport, and injuriously affected the export trade
of this country: whilst at the same time the mode of levying
such duty is unnecessarily harassing and vexations.
"The: your petitioners are also convinced that the stamp
duties on newspapers, and the ides rtiscment duties are highly
objectionable in principle, and operate as a tax upon know-
ledge and unequally preys upon many classes of the com-
munity.
"Your petitioners, therefore, humbly prey your house to
take the premises into your consideration, with a • ew to
the total repeal of the above mentioned duties. And your
petitioners will ever pray. Re,"

Mr. CHARLES STUMM seconded the adoption of the
petitioo, with a declarstion that he thought the penny
etemp more ohnentions than the paper duty.
Mr. Alderman MLRTINE&U (brother of Harriet Mar.
tineau) deprecated the introduction of such questions at
town council meetings ; It was like converting them into a
minor H 'use of Commons. He should oppose the petition
on that ground aloes.
In this view Mr Councillor Meuse concurred.
Mr. Alderman SKIT II was opposed to the paper duty,
but declined to support this petition on the ground that it
was meagre as regarded facto, and because the eabje t was
OHM fitting for the eonsideration of the merchants and
manufacture's of the town than the corpor►te body.
Aldermen Room, PALMER, and ILAwiie, and Council-
lore KNOWLES and ALLOAT, supported the petition.
Mr. Alderman MUNTZ said the paper tax was an
abomin►ble tax ; its operation on this town was strongly
(At ; it often added 20 per cent. to the coat of manufac-
tured articles. He did not concur with Alderman Martineau
in thinking that the council should ►loogether give up the
1 discussion Vouch questions as this, although he was opp,sed
to the too frequent ia•roduction of matters of • politickl
tendency into their diacuesions.
Mr. Alderman MARTINEAU then endeavoured to get
rid of the petition by • side-wind; in this spirit he
moved the adjournment of the council, bat his motion was
negatived.
Mr. Alderman BALD WIN, In his reply, intimated that,
is addition to what was done by the town council in this
matter, he should take care that the merchants and manu-
facturers of the town were called together to take the sub-
ject into their consideration.

Tits petition and motion that it be signed by the mayor
and presented to the House of Commous by Mr. Schole.
ti.ld, waa then put, and carried almost unanimously ; Alder-
men Martineau and Councillor Co: only holding up their
hands against it.