The Express.
London, England, 1850-02-12 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

&ranks of a Back against &emir* Taxation. By
CUMULI litt!ONT. Leffidoo, 90 Fleet-street.
The struggles here recorded are those of the Penny
Cyclopedia, certainly the moat thoroughly national
publication that his come from the prey during the
present century. The work was conducted with
great care and unsparing—although well applied—
east; the public supported it not illiberally, yet so
little remunerative has it been to its proprietor, that
it was only by the exercise, of great patience and
energy, and a heroic determination to keep faith with
the public that Mr. Knight was able to
bring it to a claw with undiminished excel-
lence, and consequently with no decrease of expendi-
ture. Why;then, has he had nothing but his labour for
his pairs ? The answer le, that the sum, or a part of
it, which should have been his reward, has been
dribbled it. to :he Treasury in the shape of excise duty
on 'the enormous q4antity of paper on which the
" Penny Cyclopedia" has been printed. Hers is the
plain tale:—
The " Penny Ccelopie lie" ant its Supplement were com-
pleted hi 1846. The two works contain 15,764 pages; gad
the nuantity of paper required to produce • single copy is
two reams, seek welphieg 35 lbs. At the period of its come
pieties, the satire quantity of paper consumed in the work
wee fifty ittowaad reams, the total weight of which amounted
to ore minim seen hundred and fily thousand °wade.
Of this weight 20.000 reams, or 700,000 lbs., paid the excise
duty of 34. per lb., amounting to 8,7501.; and the remaining
30,000 reams paid the reduced duty of lid. per lb. (come
mewing in 1837) thou 1,050,0001 M., amounting to 6,5621.
The total duty paid up to the completion of the Cyclopedia
In 1846 was 16.3124 Sines that period 2,000 reams of paper
have beim used in reprinting, to correct the inequalities of
the stock, mashies an addition of 70,000165, excised at 4371.
Bat farther, the wrappers for the monthly parts have used
1,600 mania of paper, taxed at 5001., sad the gained boards
mbinding the volumes have beta also taxed about
;a4:".Tta total payment to the excise by the Penny Cyclo-
pedia has been 16 5001.
But this is tar from representing the whole loss:
It is well known that the amount of a duty upon raw ma-
terial by no means represents the amount of the charge
which it entails upon the manufacturer. Mr. M'Culloch
and Mr. Porter rightly state that the pries for a ream of the
particular sort of printing paper was in 1831, twenty-four
shillings; in 1843, 8 teeth shillings and sixpence. From
1833 to 1837, the price of a ream of Penny Cyclopedia
paper was thirty-three shil logs ; from 1838 to 1846, it was
twenty-four slalom. The difference in price was nine
shillings per ream ; the amount of reduced duty was four
shillings and lourpcnce halspeney. The pepermakers and
the stationers Jutsb!ed the tax. But even at the reduced
rate it has been tatisfactoily shown by my fellow labourers,
the Messrs. Chambers, that the duty enters enethird into
prim. Unquestionably, if the duty were now removed, I
could buy a Mall of similar ;Nor for seventeen shillings.
The tax, preventing competition, and giving undue advant-
ages to capitalir's, had the effect of making me pay for say
=from 1833 to 1837, sixteen shillings a ream more
the price of untaxed paper would be, or sixteen thou-
sand pounds upon 20,000 reams; and from 1838 to 1846,
seven shillings per ream more than I should otherwise
have paid, which upon 50,000 reams amounts to ten
thousand five hundred pounds. The tax therefore °per.
ated as a barthen upon my publication to the extent
of 26,5001., during its long and difficult progress to com-
pletion. The paper sine* used for reprints. and the paper
for wrappen, has been raised in price 2,6001. by the same
primer.
The struggles of one book against executive taxation are,
up to this plant, to be measure by a barters of 29,0001.
Bat I have ant yet dose. The tax has been working
against the "fenny Cyelapelist" for 17 years, in the
chronic form of interest and comp,und interest.
It was tery long before the periodical sale settled into a
regular qoantity. The work became too extensive for the
great bulk of purchasers. lot the first few months of the
publication the sale war double what it was at the end of the
MU year. The sale of the first year doubled that of tbe fourth
year. The sale of the fourth year doubled thatof the eighth
year; and thee it found its level, and became steady to the
end, reduce.' !fun] 55,000 at the commencement, to 20,000
at the conclusion. Every publisher of a periodical work
knows the accistaulation of stock that must inevitably ti.ke
place with a falling demand. There
idler Ste third year at which I had lees than 6,000 reams
of the " Penny Cyclops tie" in my warehouse; si2on which
day had beta paid, km some porno' at the high duty, sad
ffig same at the low, averaging 1,6001. la 1841 there wen
In sic warehouse 1,200 reams upon which the high May.
impinun in 1437, Lad boos pail-sijc„„ii, tM luting interest in this larrestment, in signally pall day
tip" dead stook, to have amounted in the othenteen gelan
during which I Mee beet labourion to sell that sto to
1,6001, and in the interest upon the mitre prim charged kg
the paper-manufacturer upon the duty to 3,0001.
And here, then, will the usual concluitioa arise, that ths
publisher hat not borne this load of thirty-two thousand
pounds imposed by tae state urns the "Penny eyelopugiii,”
but the purchasers el the " Peony Clopedia." My an.▪ Is very direct. Had that seal of 32.0001. been actually
saved to ale, I should not have Wee a nand richer by the
publication of the " Penny Cyclopedia.' The outlay wee
so great, that it could never pay its espouse under a sole of
36,1/00 copies with the high duty. In** first Bre yeah that
avenge number was printed; but the accumulation of stock
locked up 10,0001. Under the lbw duty it pail its expenses
at 30,400 copies. The actual average aisle during the nine
mire of that daty woe 20,000. It would have required that
there should haw both no paper duty at all to hare paid its
npenees au a fah of 10,080. Bad the dusty net been re-
dosed by oico.hou as the end of 1636, 1 mold set by any
lb thaw mirried ea the work. As it was, I straggled s.
Not sly has the piper daty destroyed I& Knight's

pest profits, but it cramps his prospective opelations.
According to his computation fie can only supply the
continued demand for the work (which averages 260
copies per annum) at a profit of 10 per cent. on the
actual cost of reprinting= and, after the first cost for
literary. contributions, woodcuts, and steriotyping has
been paid for. without allowing interest on the immense
capital sank on those items, and which, for literature
and engravings, has amounted to 42,0001.
The miss exactions on paper tend toedwiv the
great Rum of the people of what they stand wet in
need of—sound and whetter:one knowledge, and to
supey them with which Mr. Knight hsalesa
sueri-
fioed instead of rewarded. Neither is there any coun-
terbalancing good. What return does government
make to the public for the small amount swain
from the paper duties to the exchequer P
Boras porboas of Mr. Knight's pamphlet are con-
vincing, and will we trust do sometbior towards
• -
impraglig on government that sound policy, not to
mention justice, lies in immediately repealing the tax.
At the same time we are bound to add, that some of
Nir. Knight's estimates of the cost of printing and
paper are high, and thews that he must have gone to
very dear markets.

FINE ARTS.