The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1820-01-20 00:00:00

"fil sit Pitl._,SS.

LONDON,

THURSDAY, J•NUARY 40, 14,q0.

The ii.flivence which the new laws relating to the
public press arc calculated to exercise upon what
has been in Parliament, and is in cominou par-
lance called the " respectable part of the public
Ness," has become a topic of serious consideration,
but the °illy journal that to our knowledge has
hitherto brought the subject belore the public, is
the Bury and Norwich Post. It must be thought
singular that doubts should now, for the first time,
be entertained upon this point by those who are most
interested in whatever concerns the daily papers,
and that they did not endeavour, while the measures
were pending in Parliament, to have the inten-
tions of the framers of these laws clearly ascertain-
ed ; but to say the truth, the expressions of Lords
LIVERPOOL, SIDMOUTH, t.nd CASTLEREAGH, seem-
ed so unequivocally to exclude from the operation
of these laws all the daily papers, that all suspi-
cion was laid at rest, and it was confidently be.
hewed out of Parliament that the only objects of
Alinisterial displeasure were the twopenny and other
cheap publicutions. Relying upon the faith of
these representations, there are many who still uf.
firm that the Act " to subject certain publications to
the duties of stamps upon newspapers," &c. doer in
no respect affect the regular public press of the
country ; but we know too well that no suppositions
of what may have been the intention of the legisla-
tors cuu contravene the express words of a statute,
for if the provisions of an Act, by the artifice of the
framers, contain more than the proposers of it ori-
ginally promised, or if an Act be so inartificially or
clumsily composed, that the terms of it are more
comprehensive than the writers of it contemplated—
in either case the people must submit to the evil,
until it shall please the Legislature to emend the
Act, and render the expressions of it Intim con-
formable to their own original purpose.
The Act to which we have already referred, com-
monly called " the Blasphemous ■nd Seditious
Libels Act," provides that all pamphlets and
papers containing any public news, or any remarks
thereon, published periodically at intervals not
exceeding twenty-six days, where any of the said
pamphlets or papers Shull not exceed twa'sheets, or
shall be published for sale at a lower price than six-
' pence, ixcluiive of the 'duty by. this'Actlinposed.

shall be deetied newspapers, and be subject to the
ditty which newspepers now pay. go far the ob-
ject of the Lriciilatiilv ircleariy to plirce all polities.'
writings, published within certain intervals, %soder
certain dimensions. and below a certain price, nn a
perfect equality with regard to fiscal regulations,
or ro the amount of duty to be paid for every
paper published. But unfortunately this prin-
ciple cf " perfect equality" is carried farther
than was originally promiscil, or in now gene-
rally imagism'', fur the eighth section of the statute
provides' that security shall be given to • large
amount by the printers or publishns, not only of
all poldical pamphlets, or other papers, but also
of all nrwspopers commonly so called, that they
pay any fine or pi-wally which may be iln-
inied no them iii the event of a conviction for a
libel. The proprietors of the daily paurra were
certainly not taught, Into the spreches of 11iiits.
tern in Parliament, to expect that they would be
comprised within this clause of the statute; but
the terms of the Act are, we fear, too genera! to
give them any chance of escaping. The words of
the t•ltilitte area

" And be it further enacted, that no person from and
after thirty days aft r the passing of this Act, sisall print ur
publish for cola any newspaper, or achy pamphlet or other
paper containing any public near, intelligence, or occur.
Mire, or any remarks or observations 'Lemon, which shall
sof exceed Iwo slicers, or which slisll be published fur sale at
a less mire than sixpence, until he or she shall bare entered
into a recognizance," &e.
It is to be remarked that in this section the
word sr newspaper" is used as a stilijsct upon which
the statute is to operate, but nut so in tier first sec-
tion, which speaks only of se pamphlets und other
papers," raising them to the saute rank with
" orwspapers" for the purpose of subjecting Berm
to sit equal stamp duty. The use of the word
" new spai•er," !hemline, in the eighth section, is
so far remarkable, us it 'hews that the terms of the
section were not, according to frequent practice,
repeated from a preceding section, for the purpose
of preserving uniformity in the several clauses of
the Art. It will be objected that although all
orthimay newspapers " du not exceed two sheets,"
and thereby seem to come within the !provisions of
the .4cr, they are yet exempted from its operation
by the second branch of the sentence, because they
are not " published fur sale at a less price than
sixpence." But the clause is expressed negatively,
and the effect of the disjunctive conjunction is con-
sequently to render the fulfilment of both branches
of the provision necessary to enable any newspaper,
pamphlet, &c. to escape from the operation of the
section. " No person shall publish any newspaper
which shall not exceed two sheets, or which shall
be sold at a less price than sixpence, without pre-
viously giving security," are the operative words of
the Act, stripped of the verbiage with which Acts
of Parliament too commonly abound ; so that, be
the newspaper twit sheets or less in dimensions, or
be it sold fur less than sixpence—in either case it
seems to us that it must crone within the provi-
sions of the Act, so fir us the finding of security
is necessary.

It is pretty clear that if, as some suppose, the
disjunctive " or" in the qualifying sentence ex-
chided newspapers NOT exceeding two sheets from
the operation of the Act, provided they were sold
at or abore sixpence, the disjunctive should have
the same effect in excluding from the operation of
the Act all political vipers exceeding two sheets,
even though they were sold at ivy price how-
ever low tinder sixpence. Yet it is equally cer-
tain that such could not have been the intention
of the Legislature, because as the preamble of the
Act informs us, the evil to be corrected was ►he
publication of " pamphlets and printed papers at
a very low !nice," and the framers of this Act
could never have conceived that they had applied
n remedy to the evil if they merely regulated the
size of the papers, and left the prices to the dis-
cretion of the seller,.

New Brtinswick Papers to the lit December
have been received. They contain no intelligence
of any interest. The Royal Gazelle of the 9th
November contains his Excellency the Lieutenant-
Governor's Proclamation for proroguing the meet-
ing of the General Assembly until Tuesday, Janu-
ary 18, then to meet at Frederington, for the dis-
patch of business.
Letters front Gibraltar of the 48th of last month
state, that the communication between that place
and Spain was opened on the 234 by a Proclama-
tion front his Excellency the Governor, it hiving
been closed for several mouths, to prevent infection
from the yellow fever, which hid been raging at
Cadiz, the Isla de Leon, &c. Trsile at the British
fortress, which had, lin a long time, been in the
most deplorable condition, owing to those result:-
Lions, scented to be improving.

The Salford Sessions commenced on Monday
last before a full bench of Magistrates. over whom
the Rev. Mr. HAT presided as Chairmen. In
Mr. HAY'S address to the Jury lie briefly stated the
nature of the legislative measures enacted during
the present Session for the'prevention of riots, libels,
sud sedition. The Reverend Gentleman also ap-
prised them that the calendar was extremely heavy,
containing not fewer than 5215 felonies, and 88 mis-
demeanor*, besides 65 traverser, from the last
Sessions. This is an appalling catalogue of crime,
novel in point of magnitude even its Lancashire,
which has of late years been more distinguished by
heavy calendars than any other part of the empire,
with pt./haps the single except►on of the metropolis.
None of the trials had comu►euccd when the fittest
accounts left Manchester. The political import-
ance attached to those trials I,as ceased, and They
110 w possess comparatively little interest.