The Express.
London, England, 1849-05-23 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, WEDNESDAY EVENING, MAY 23, 1849.

in dots( Si, *apnoea ate happiness at seek.' such a meeting I
hrought together per sad n a Odic, in that metropolis—an
object he had sdooseeed letfbrfhrtye year , and which he hoped
would beim long be
The min was earde=nanik cheerio,, and was ae-
knowhisoll Is suitable tame by Sir J. Wahneley, who
called ea an prams present to unite is the movement, and
to sorppert the Freehold Lead Association as the sIOSES of
plating ate easelles in the hands of the popular party.
The waft then separated.

DUTY ON ADVERTISEMENTS AND PAPER

Last evening a general meeting of muster printers, '
etwaposltors, pressmen, and machinists, was held at the
Mockenies' Institulion, Southampton-buildings, Chancery-
lane, in pursuance of a requisition issued by the committee
of the Colapolitore' Society, for the purpose of considering
the propriety a petitionhig parliament to repeal the duties
on advertisements and paper, Si also the penny stomp on
news ; L. 3. Hassaan, Esq., in the char.
The opened the proceedings with an address
• emedgemitie lesgth, in which he contended that
the amount of revenue derived by government from
the tan a newspapers and advertisements, by no means
compensated for the deprivation of the mean of intellectual
culture which it entailed on the wailing clause, by en-
hancing the price of books, periodicals, the., and conse-
quently contracting their eels, while it afforded no advantage
in respect of elevating the intellectual standard or the morel
tone of the pas. He alio showed that the impost wee espe-
cially in jar to compagtess sad pressmen, by the ten-
dency which it exerted to prevent any increase in the num-
ber of newspapers and periodicals published.
Mr. EDWARD. moved the first resoltrios, which embodied
the opinion of the meeting that the thus on paper and ad-
vertisements, u alro the stamp duty on neespopers printed
for local circulation, forcibly impeded the industrial opera-
tions of the printing trade, and were otherwise pernicious to
the well-being of the community ' inasmuch BS they °D-
eputed the mental advancement of the people, and by Impro-
perly raising the priers of books, publications, and se orepapen,
prevented the majority from obtaining the practical know-
ledge and information so immediately essential to the happi-
ness and conducive to the general prosperity of society. He
said that the printing business had suffered for many yews
fray the sap= field of lebour and the =Gerd= suatese.of
labourers, and the consequence was that during that period
large numbers of men both able and willing to work were
continually out of employment and hanging a dead weight
on those who succeeded in obtaining a field for the cur
ass of their trade. He showed that much of the
evil was traceable to the inflate= of the tax on newspapers,
and on paper, and referred to the enormous diffusion of peri-
odical literature and newspapers in the United States, as In-
dicative of the state of affairs which would be produced in
this country by. a r‘peal of these taxes. In Paris,
with a population not amounting to more than half
that of London, 35 dolly papers were published,
and it was perfectly demonstrable that the compara-
tively greater number of newspapers and publications
' in them coentries was called in'o ensconce in consequence
of the absence of the dunes which they had assembled to pee.
, tition against. If thew duties were taken off, the size of
newspapers would be enlarged, or types of a smaller sire
be used, Ond in either case persoas connected with
• the printing Pade es compositors would be benefited.
The resolution was sthonded by Mr. Basra, supported by
Mr. J. DUNCAN and carried unanimously.
A petition to Parliament in which the principal objections
r to these imposts were briefly and clearly stated having been
adopted, the proceedings terminated.