The Sun.
London, England, 1855-05-01 00:00:00

his arguments., The immediate object of tho clause
which he held in his hand was to take as the measure which
might be transmitted through the post for Id. a standard
rather above that of the paper which had the largest circu-
lation. Ho might be asked why he had chosen dimension
rather than weight. To that he would reply that in such
cases weight was uncertain, and if the act became one of a
permanent character, under the competition which it might
give rise to there might arise circumstances connected with
the manufacture of paper itself which would render weight
no criterion as to the amount of matter contained, and he
had, therefore, felt it to be his duty to shape his clause in
accordance with the 11th cf Victoria, cap. 3. He found
that hie right hon. friend the member for the University
of Oxford, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he
brought in a bill to alter the Stamp Act, had thought that
it was only justice to take as the measure for transmission
by post the dimensions of the largest paper then in circu-
lation, and he (Mr. Milnes) now asked the committee, in
altering the present law, to take as the measure of dimen-
sion the largest paper at present in Circulation. It had
been said that it would be much better not to enter on the
question of weight or dimension, but to allow any daily
paper to be transmitted by pest for Id., without regard to
its weight or size ; and it 'nal been argued that by confining
that concession to the daily papers it would be without the
range of possibility that any very extraordinary weight
would be imposed upsn the Post-office. In reply to that
opinion, the argumentum ad absurdum had been used, and
it had been asked whether, if the editor of a newspaper
chose to wrap himself up in a copy of his own journal, he
would bo conveyed through the Post-office for Id. ; but the
argument which weighed with him was, that he did not
see how such a concession could be made to the daily pa-
pers alone without acting most injuriously and unjustly
upon and against the provincial and weekly papers, and
: upon that consideration he had felt that he could not
fairly argue the question upon the ground of conveying
the daily papers thrpugh the post for ld. without any
limitation whatever as to their size. He hoped that the
Government would not have any objection to lay it
down as a principle that the daily papers of the metropolis
which had by their diligence, exertion, and ability raised
themselves to the position of distributing over the whole
length and breadth of the kingdom an amount of intellec-
tual matter never produced in the same way in any other
nation, should enjoy a full share of justice, and that their
chances of circulation should not be diminished at a mo-
ment when power was beimg given to very large papers to
circulate an enormous number of copies within a certain
radius without going to the expense of a stamp. It was, he
thought, a matter of simple justice to papers which mem-
bers of that house had become accustomed to look upon
almost as political rivals, and of which it was impossible,
however one might disagree from the principles contained
in them, to think without respect. All that those papers
asked for was that they should not be placed in an unfair
position, but that they should be allowed a reasonable
chance of keeping up the high intellectual position which
they now enjoyed. The late Chancellor of the Exchequer
(Mr. Gladstone) stated the other day that the question of.
weight was at present so nicely balanced that the railways
were unable to carry into the country by the early train a
complete supply of the Times; that portion of the paper
containing news being sent by the early trains, and the
supplement by later trains. He (Mr. Milnes) had made
inquiries on the subject, and he found that, though the
fact was true, the inference was entirely false. The question
was one depending altogether upon the manipulation of
newspapers; and now, when the circulation of newspapers
was so considerably increased in consequence of the war,
the difficulty of manipulating the large number of the Tunes
required to be transmitted by the early trains was too great
to be overcome, and it was solely on this account, and not
in consequence of the excessive weight, that one portion
of the paper was conveyed by one train and the remaining
portion by another. He did not think that, if the pre-
sent bill should be passed, it would have the effect of
destroying the great metropolitan , journals, for he be-
lieved they had sufficient energy and power to overcome
any difficulties to 'which they might be subjected by
the measure. Hon. gentlemen were aware that when,
during the last century a penny stamp was imposed upon
periodicals it was predicted that such publications would
be destroyed, but the Spectator, though shaken temporarily,
not only survived the blow, but rose with redoubled vigour,
and in the very last article, in the 7th volume of the Spec-
tator, :sir Richard Steele congratulated himself that that
piper, by the buoyancy of its own merit, had attained an
enormous circrtiation in defiance of the stamp. Although,
however, the Spectator of that day, and the best periodical,:
of tthe present day, might possibly survive such an injury
it was impossible to avoid the reflection that the Spectator
might have had a tenfold- circulation if it had not been sub-
ject to a stamp. had no doubt the newspapers of the
present day would derive great advantage from the aboli-
tion of the stamp which now limited their circulation, but
he asked the committee, as a matter of public policy and
justice, .to assent to his in °pose'. He did not ask a privilege
for one newspaper or ancther, but he asked them to enable
every newspaper, metropolitan or provincial, to rise to the
same height of intellectu: il merit, to deserve the same pub-
iic attention, and to exercise the same influence over the '
country as had been attained and were exercised by the
leading journals of the .metropolis. -He asked them to
assent to his proposal in recognition of the merits of those
great newspapers which formed their daily delight. If they
neglected this opportunity they might have cause for per-
manent regret hereafter, when they discovered that they
had destroyed or damaged an important means of promot-
ing the intellectual advance rent of this country.
Mr COWAN thought he owed an apology, or at least an
explanation, to the committee for not having pressed the
amendments of which he hail given notice. Having found,
however, that those amendments were unpalatable to the
Government, that they Were objeoted to by the late Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer, and also by the noble member for
Lynn (Lord Stanley), whose • manly and independent con-
duct on this question did hint great credit, he felt it would
have been very unwise on his part if he had pressed them
upon the attention of the comet nittee. He thought, consider-'
jug the various parties whose interests were affected, and
taking into account also the transition state of the Post-
office in connecticn with the duties it was called upon to
discharge, that that house was a very unfit tribunal to de-
termine what amount of we,.g'ht or charge should be fixed
and that the subject was one which should be left to the
decision of the executive Gortirninent. He imagined that
the Government would not Ise disposed to assent to the
motion before the committee, which seemed to be based
upon the assumption that the State must convey by post
any amount of weight. Them -.3 wore newspapers in exist-
ence, such as the Illustrated London, News, which weighed
as much as 10 ounces, and it the committee agreed that
newspapers of the tlitneusiond; of ,500 inches shoul.l be
carried at a rate of sone penny, he 3 did not see why they
should not no a step further, a nd convey such papers as the
Illustrated London News at th e same rate. He would call
the attention of the committe a to the enormous weight of
newspipers the Post-office noir carried, as contrasted with
what was the ease 40 or 50 ye:us ago. He found, from an
article in the European lliagaoine of 1801, that the number
of newspapers in England, in 1782, was -2 ; in 1790, 60 ;
and in 1801, 135. The num boa- of newspapers in Scotland
in these respective years was .8, 7, and 31; and in Ireland,
3,9, and 56. The circulation of the London- morning
papers in 1808 was 16,000; ref evening papers, 14,000; of
Sunday papers, ; of weekly papers, 20,000 ; and of
others, 10,000 ; making, as the writer of the article ob-
sesved, the " enormous number" of 85,000 newspapers,
using live tons of paper in the course of a week. There
was another article on the subject in the European. Maga-
zine of 1.822, when the circulation of the Times was stated
to be 5,100. The average daily circulation of that journal
at the present time was stated_ to be 60,000. The circula-
tion of the Observer in 182 plus stated to be 6,860, of the
Morning Chronicle 3,180, f the St. James's Chronicle
3,7(,0 ; and, the writer of the article, after
the that referring
ltp to there
circulation of other journals,
observed -
sented an cixtraordinary proof of the activity of the periodi-
cal press. How would the writer have been astonished if
he had seen the progress that had been since made in ex-
papers ? Instead of the
n it pr
now between 130
eowdson ess being five tons
tea: nwn (Ise iuenmkg,
consumption
eewn circulationf
paperthe aahaoyaf theia e
1803,
was
lawi and 150
nta onnedst
ie;elee3ehukbeleyl believedit.a,bwaHdeeeilad etwo eothe:et2astTimesthtee consumption alone,on
epauebor
would be annu. ly 48,000 tons. Now wh
e of mails b
had considered . the subject of the conveyc
wardsby
statedenormous
omt intset ewes, pwa ph
ler '
clear that if the weight
consisted of newsp "ipers. It was
thatrailway,, t th :t
London',
t dailyye ar the
was
2a7v9ereasvgte.,weerigwhthioefht2hle9mcavvitls.
ofs
w elci newspapershe thrownsent
1:5
e
properly dischargtel, and very considerable
delay must
)0 the post
Pnonsutt-office which iienhc rceeausled,
notdut ihe
; es that ha l been
the i‘regenious contrivances
adopted for dep ,si tine. the mails at the various a It
probably
withstandingtake r place :tn the transmission of the mails, not
materially '
appeared to him, then, very important that the hous
checking the speed of the trait s-
It
should impose such a rate of charge for conveying news-
should impose
as would du remunerate the Post-office for 1,
service it was called' upon to perform. He believed that
cheap newspapers, -f a small size—about the size of those
pt
tu,
81)01
iins e
eet
e2eoseoero3fot
hye act: %al ou—n
iwt
yo,ul b
et
hoe newsy
published, however ~lily conducted, were inconveniently
large. If we were 1 o have cheap papers, why should we
rfreataad pvears n
now
g
impose so high a po etsge as ld- for what perhaps might
not weigh more tha ,n an ounce ? He was much disap-
pointed at the Gov, rrnenent not taking the plan which he
had pointed out to tl ion into their favourable considera-
tion, as he believed i!t would have proved beneficial to the
press, to which this eowntry owed so large a debt of grati-
tude. The adoption, of the universal penny receipt stamp
was likely to prove IT ighly advantageous to the revenue ;
and this fact ought to . encourage the Government to make
at least an experimet It in the way of cheap postage for
newspapers.
Lord STANLEY understood that the principle which
his hon. friend (Mr. Hines) wished to affirm was this—
that every newspaper should' be transmitted through the
post. at the same cheese, a of LI., altogether irrespective of
its bulk or weight. Ti eat he understood to be the prin-
ciple of .his proposal, because, though he took a limit, he
took one that would cover the size of the largest newspa-
per now known, and he was prepared to increase the limit
indefinitely so as to t. :over the largest size that could be
published. (Hear, be. le.) He agreed with his hon. friend
when be said this was. a. question of simple justice; but
he did not think that jastice lay on the side which his
hon. friend contended for. (Hear, hear.) The committee
could not deal with tl as question as if it were personal to
any particular journ.l,l'.. If they did so, they would be
Opting on no sound b Deis of aseertait ed principle, and the
result would only be, inextricable confusion. • (Hear. hear.)
He understood the principle of the bill before them to be
generally this—than, whereas formerly we had a tax on
newspapers, imposod on certain conditions, we were now
asked to abolish that i'etx and substitute for it a simple
postal charge. A tax, pie poly so called, might be in it'.
self urequel ; it migh t fall mere severely on one class
than on another, and yr It that inequality, the result of the
incidence of the 'tax, mi ght be balanced by countervailing
advantages, won ld mako an unfair tax fair i,n
reality ; and th at was b is answer to the hon. gentleman
opposite. A ieostal chi a•ge was the result of a contrac
tact
between between the, Csovernmere,', and the public, by which
Government undertook f Now,ertain cempensation to per-
form a Cart service. what we were bound to ob-
serve in sue:n a case was, feat
-toe chae imposed should
always itn,l in every case ,be proportionedgo to the service
rendered. k !Hear, hear.) That was the fair principle of
a contract, s, sad wo were espeeial;y bound to observe- it in
regard to sr erh contracts at: those of the Post-oifiee. Now
what his h, in. friend proposed was to carry any
weight to
which ane wspaper might extend through the Post-office at
the same p rice—an unlimited weight to be carried for an
unlimited number of miles, Would be apply that prin-
ciple to all printed matter? (Hear.) It was laid down
clearly the eether night that we desired neither to give the
newspapers: any advantage on the one hand, nor to. put
them under any disadvantage on the other. If we carried
them on in, we unfavoureble terms than we ought we were
taxing the m,, which the house bad declared, it intention
not to do. If we carried them on more favourable terms
'we wwe 's nbsidieing them, and preferring them to other
publication era. (Hear.) Or was it proposed to carry this
principle t o all printed matter and to all private docu-
ments ? " No," from Mr, Milues.) Then, it would be