The Express.
London, England, 1850-01-10 00:00:00

Torten, sod her husband's name was Tkeephffus Burton
On thoJNlNevesabsr, by the dietetics et Hrs. Buries, he
went to the White Hart, East Redford, sad he there reJ
aired a box 'seined in a wrapper, sad addressed to his
sister. He and his brother took the wrapper off at North
Loudon, and they found the box locked, and they forced it
open, and then di.covered the dead body of a child. The
day before he fetched the box he saw a letter, which par
ported to eons hots the primmer. That letter bad since
been burnt.

By Mr. Parry—Witness bad always resided at Barth
Leverten. - - • -- .

[The reemisation of this mitosis was proosellisg Whom oar
report lei t.l

THE AD'

DUTY.

Mao the Deily New of Wsdassday.)
We have already exposed the iniquities of two
Excise duties—the duty upon Paper and the duty
upon Soap. There are two other duties on which we
desire to say something, both of which very closely
affect ourselves, but which affect us not a whit more
than they affect the public. There are no duties more
injurious than the Newspaper Stamp duty and the
Advertisement duty none which it would be the
interest of all classes of the public to got rid of
sooner.

The duty on Advertisements is one of the most
paltry in the whole scheme of the revtnue. It
amounts in the whole to no more than 160,0001.

a year ; about a tithe of the amount that goes for the
"salaries and expenses" in oar public deputies",
and very much less than is expended either in
i"superannuations" or in " honwhold allowances" in
the palace. The "sweets of ollice"—i. e. the salaries
annually divided amongst the GREYS and ELLIOTS,
amount to more than five times the sum collected in

the shape of Advertisement duty, whisk nevertheless,
as we propose to show, is one of the most dispropor-
tionate taxes, one of the hardest on the poi., and, at
the same time, one of the greatest impediments to
enterprise that can be conceived.
The Stowe estate is in the hands of the auctioneer.
Ho comes down to a newspaper-office with an adver-
tisement announcing the particulars. It de scribes lands
sad tenemeets, mansions and homesteads, quarries
and timber, fountains and hanging gardens, furniture
and pictures, antiques aid works of art—property, in
fact, of the value of millions, which it may occupy a
month to sell. The auctioneer requires the insertion of
this long advertisement. He is charged a moderate sum
for insertion, and eighteen-pence fur the government
duty. Now, mark—the very next person that enters
is a poor servant girl in want of employment. She
proposes to advertise for it ; and produces her adver-
tisement, compiled in the fewest possible words.
What do the governmen, oblige us to charge her ?
Why, precisely the same amount that it has com-
pelled
us to charge for the announcement of the
sale of the whole estate of Stowe !
The Advertisement duty is one which it is impos-
sible equitably to assess or to collect. It falls upon
all who make known their requirements through
newspapers, magaz;nel, or periodicals; but it is not
borne by others who can far better afford to pay it.
The inaustrions man, who advertises for e. eituetion
through a newspaper, is forced to pay the duty; but
the man who can afford to advertise upon a
large scale has a Taney of ways open
to him of escaping hu,li an imposition.
The advertising van meets the eyes of hundreds of
toousands of people a day: the large posters on the
wall attract the roe of throngs, and are read by
hundre de of the class whose notice the advertiser
specially desires to attract. But the advertisers by
means of vans and placards, end bills pasted in the
omnibuses, pay no duty whatever to the govern-
ment; whilst the ueseen advertisement in the
supplement of the Times has paid its eighteen-pence,
toetther with the additional price levied by the pro-
prietors in right of the existing r.ewitpaper mononoly.
Again, there is the "Agency" system, under which
the public are mulctedCoormously,whi.et the newspa-
per.
suffer, and the government lose revenue. What
is the "House Agents' itegteter" but • s. ries of ad-
vertisements which pay no duty ? In New York,
if you want a house, you look down the columns of
a newspaper, and find a dozen in a twinkling, each
of which you can inspect at your convenience.
In London, if you want a house, pod must go the
round of fifty or sixty house agents, each of whom'
has a book or register, which he cilep!ays to you,
with more er lees difficulty, die ecting your attention I
specially to such, not as suit you, but as suit him.
No charge is made for th'e at the moment,
but it is evident that some one pays for it.
Who and hew ? Why, if you take the house,
you pay for it ; and for the " how," you pay
for it in a hundred ways of which you may be con-
scious or not. You pay for it in the rent, in the
amount of which your landlord has calculated
the commission' to the agent for letting his
house. You pay for it in the price of fixtures or
other matters which this agent has made a little job
of valuing ; perhaps, you also pay for it in repairs,
or in premium, or in other shapes of which you are
unconscious. And all this is bemuse our system of
taxation precludes a free communication between
those who want and those who can supply, and drives
us to the agent, who keeps his advertising register
without paying government a farthing in the shape
of duty for the announcements it contains.
These, and such as these, are the inequalities of the
advertisement duty. But the duty has a far more
injurious effect than this. It operates as a prohibi-
tory
tax upon the publication of classes of advertise-
ments which find their way into newspapers which'
are free of the bane of our system. We all know
that the taxes levied under our existing customs and
excise laws are taxes on the virtues which sanctify,
and the good qualities which adorn humanity. In
the duty upon Tea we have a tax upon sobriety;
in the duty upon Soap a tax upon cleanliness ; in the
duty on Insurances a tax upon providence ; in ths
Newspaper Stamp duty a Lax upon information. This
Advertisement duty operates as a prohibition on dm
endeavours of the people to procure the means of
honest and honourable livelihood. Nothing ehows
more forcibly the effect of the duty than the character
of the advertisements which are published in our
advertising papers. We all know that the "wants'
of the world are very much greater and in proportion
infinitely more burdensome than the peeeessioos
of life. Yet the advertisements in English
newspapers are nearly all from people who have
commodities to selL We have advertisements of
auction sales, of boot and shoe shops, of newly im-
ported teas, of silver and electro plated goods, of fur-
niture and household articles, and patent medicines,
and pianofortes—but how few, comparatively, troths
advertisements of those who have "wants", of pererms
who want employment, and of others who want suit-
able labourer.. At the very least, the advert-
tisementa of things to sell are in the propor-
tion of 20 to 1 of the advertisements from persons
whose requirements might be usefully made known.
Why is this? We believe the circumstance arises en-
tirely from our system of taxation, which first of all
imposes, by the advertisement duty, a disproportion-
ately high price upon short advertisements, and
which, secondly, by the newspaper stamp duty, cir-
cumscribes the field of newspaper circulation, and
effectually prohibits the publication of a press which
might be accessible to all the people of the cour try.
There cannot bea greater contrast, or one more illus-
trative of our position, than the advertising columns
of an English and an American newspaper. You
see at once the difference between taxed and untaxed
advertising. In America, where advertisements of
six lines can be inserted for a shilling, in newspapers
with a circulation of more than 50,000, everybody
advertises. Advertising is not limited nit is here to
the class who want to selL In addition to such an-
nouncements there are advertiiements of ell sorts
and kinds from people who have " Want)"
who evidently find advertising the easiest and
cheapest way of making their wants known
no matter how trifling, comparatively, are
their requirements. We take a copy of tee New
York Sun, a paper of 24 columns. The number
before us contains 18 columns of advertisements. Of
these, more than one-third are " Wants." A tailor
wants a journeyman—he advertise' for him. A
young man wants lodging's--imitend of spending four