The Sun.
London, England, 1855-03-27 00:00:00

ommunity had hitherto shown so little inclination for
libellous publications as this class. There was once a class of
newspapers which was accustomed to profane the Sunday
by hebdomadal ribaldry and slander. Who supported those
papers? He feared it was the clubs and drawing-rooms—
not the working Glasses. Those publications eventually
perished, because they could get no support from the gene-
ral body of the people, and because the public would yield
no sympathy to those against whom actions for slander or
libel were brought. He would respectfully beg to makeone
observation to the hon. gentleman, that it was a remark-
able
fact, and one which showed how little danger was to
be apprehended from cheap publications, that all the revo-
lutionary, profligate, and licentious literature invariably
corrupted the higher class before it reached the lower. He
knew of no exception, ancient or modern to that
_ rule. He
was persuaded if the works of Rosseau or Vdltaire were
circulated through the metropolis freely, or in our large
towns, they would not have six months popularity after
the repeal of the stamp duty, for the moral corruption and
infidelity iticulcated in those works would be thoroughly
exposed by sound and good writing. It appeared from the
committee of 1851 that after the reduction which took
place in 1830 two journals were established in the metro-
polis ; and that though they were not first rate, they extin-
guished a swarm of licentious publications. Let the house
do as country gentlemen did with their fields. If they
wanted the corn to grow, let them cut down the hedge
rows, and let in the air and light. The Chancellor of the
Exchequer had already told them without exaggeration
that the stamp duty had broken down in all directions.
There were for 100 publications stamped, 250 unstamped,
eight only partly stamped, and all these were liable to
prosecution. (Hear, hear.) It was impossible to do
justice on one portion without prosecuting all. Very
well ; the Chancellor of the Exchequer told the House
of Commons if they did not pass this bill they must
arm the executive with now powers to prosecute
these offenders. He said the House of Commons would do
no such thing. (Hear.) It was impossible for Govern-
ment to ask for new powers in 1855 to arrest the march of
information—if Government were rash enough to do this,
it would do more to expedite the march of democracy than
the incomplete Reform Bill of the noble lord the member
for the City of London—and the proposal would also have
the cold shadow of aristocracy in opposition to it (we un-
derstood). If it was foolish to pass such a law ;he should
be glad to see how the Attorney-General would act if ho
had new powers. He should like to see Government at-
tempt to prosecute under such a law. He would tell Go-
vernment that the law was virtually dead ; they might
retain the sword in their nerveless head, bat he would
defy them to animate its muscles to strike the blow.
(Hear, hear.) He would now coma to his hon. friend's
amendment, which his hen. friend had based on the ground
of revenue. The right hon. gentleman the Chancellor of
the Exchequer told the house that if the duty was abo-
lished it might be necessary to call for additional taxes in
order to prosecute the war. But what was it we were
waging war against ? Not against Russia, as she was our
natural ally; but against barbarism and usurpation. But
if we were willing to incur a large expenditure for that
purpose, would it not be better to incur the small expen-
diture of 250,0001. in the promotion of civilisation and
freedom? He would ask honourable gentlemen who re-
fused to concur in Russian usurpation, whether they
would consent to that usurpation which deprived our
fellow-subjects of the liberty of publishing their opinions
on the affairs of the day ? Could there bo a more hate-
ful thing than for an Attorney-General to say to a
young journalist, " Your publication contains informa-
tion of value, but as you are not rich enough to pay for
publishing your opinions, the law must be called in to
ruin you ?" (Hear.) He denied that the Chancellor of
the Exchequer would lose a single farthing by the mea-
sure it it were carried, or if he adopted the principle of the
former bill, to admit all printed publications at a propor-
tional charge. Twenty years ago that was a portion of his
scheme ; for he then convinced himself that printed matter
of any kind, whether commercial, scientific, or religious,
should have the same liberty of publication. And would
that right 'non. gentleman restrain the diffusion and pub-
lication of such works merely for the sake of saving
250,0001. a year ? He considered that the objects aimed
at were beyond all price. (Hear.) He should not have
had the pain to differ from his hon. friend's if some inte-
rested party had not sought to alarm them by acts and as-
sertions so extravagant, and so opposed to the sense of all
acquainted with th practical condition of our literature,
that he was sure that those who made the assertions would
themselves be the first to 1 iugh at them. The hon. baro-
net had referred to a circular which had been sent abroad
against the Stamp Bill. This bugbear, as it was termed
by the hon. baronet, stated that the most active agents for
obtaining the remission of the stamp duty were persons
whose object was the diffusion of principles adverse to re-
ligion and the rights of property. Now, ho did not know
who was alluded to—who were the chief supporters of the
repeal. The hon. member for the West Riding held ex-
treme opinions, but he manfully avowed them, and it had
never been imputed to him that he held opinions adverse
to religion. Then there was Lord Brougham, Lord Camp-
bell, and Lord Lyndhurst--three judges of the land; and
then there was that natural foe to the rights of property,
the heir of the house of Derby. (Laughter.) Next, there
were those notorious enemies to religion, the two represen-
tativesof the University of Oxford. And amongst the most
active agents for the change were her Majesty's Ministers,
who latterly, at least, appeared to be well satisfied
with what ho would call the established order of things.
(Laughter.) He found that all the charges against the
supporters of the repeal of the duty were comprised in two
lines of the circular. One was a libel against the character
of those who wished to make newspapers cheap, and the
other a libel on those who would read them. Horace
Walpole once said of a lady that she had as fine a set of
teeth as a lady could have who had only two, and both of
them black. (Laughter.) He hoped his hon. friends
around him would not be induced to oppose a measure
that would tend to diffuse Conservative opinions among
the working classes. That appeared to lie the only chance
of getting Conservative opinions fairly before the working
people—fairly before those tens of thousands of voters
among whom it was the duty of Conservative members to
appeal for their seats in Parliament. He had yet to learn
that there was a single Conservative journal that had pene-
trated to the working classes. The right hon. gentleman
the member for Droitwitch, in his luminous speech rela-
tive to the education of the people, referred to the letters
from private soldiers in the Crimea which had excited so
much admiration. How were the minds of those soldiers
trained ?—was it not in a great measure by cheap publica-
tions which they read when children ? This shore l how
little fear need be entertained at the diffusion of cheap
knowledge. Do not let the house suppose that a penny
tax was a slight imposition. Once there existed a daily
paper called the Spectator—Addison and Steele were the 1
contributors ; that peony paper did more to reform the 1
manners of the people than half the books that were written.
Suddenly a penny tax was laid on the paper, and so one
morning that pleasing instructor which brought philoso-
phy to our firesides vanished from our homes ; the penny
tax extinguished it, and that alliance which genius esta-
blished between mirth and wisdom was rudely repealed.
He was convinced—and he said it from his heart—if a
Conservative journal was established, embracing moderate
opinions, and edited by sore man who knew the tastes
and feelings of the working classes (there were many
squires and clergymen who did), and being thoroughly in
earnest, it would do more to popularise Conservative opi-.
nions than half the speeches that where made in that house.
What was Conservatism? It was not that which three-
fourths of the Conservative journals represented. It was
not a system of restraint or terror ; it was a warm, gene-
rous love of law and the glorieus constitution of the laud
we live in. And what was the constitution ? It was not
a fragile form that shrank from every breath of air, or that
could not stand the rude shock of the tempest. No, it was
of robust organisation, of sound principles, which received
life and soul, not more from the wisdom of statesmen than
from the courage of patriots. And if it was such, were
they not bound, as true Conservatives, to show that they
adhered to the constitution ; that it needed no additional
reform bill; that it wanted only change in order to give
the people now avenues to knowledge and to make them
wise and better. He believed it was their duty as true
Conservatives to show that they did not fear the common
sense of the country—that they did not fear any class in
the country in fair discussion, because they were convinced
that in proportion as they widened the field of intelligence
and literature by raising up new and cheap publications
which a worthless law foebade them, they should be doing
their cause and their country a service. Ile should give
his cordial support to the principle of the measure.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL rose to explain the present
state of the law, as it had been already several times alluded
to. For many years past a certain class of journals devoted
to one single object, such as the Athenceune, the Lite-
rary Gazette, the Builder, the Musical Ti»tes, tho Jurist,
and certain other papers devoted to purely legal sub-
jects, had enjoyed an immunity, by the indulgence of those
who administered the revenue, from the tax on newspapers
—a tax which was originally imposed, not on fiscal, but on
political considerations. The thread thus given to the
papers of the class described called into existence, in the
course of time, another class of papers, not devoted to the
higher and more intellectual subjects, but which the In-
land Revenue tolerated, inasmuch as they did not convoy
all that was usually expected in a newspaper, and did not
interfere with politics. Such were the Racing limes and
the Police Gazette. But then, after a while, some of those
papers began to publish what was really news, and it be-
came a question whether one paragraph of this nature
made the paper liable in penalties, or if half a column was
necessary to bring it into the category of newspapers pro-
perly so called. If, on the one hand, the officers of inland
revenue did not interfere with those publications to compel
them to be stamped, there was an outcry raised by the
stamped papers; and if they did interfere with any one
paper, it immediately raised an outcry against the injustice
of singling it out for persecution. Then, as if all this was
not perplexing and tiresome enough, the House of Com-
mons, 'at the instance of the right hoe member for Man-
chester, deliberately and formally came to the resolution
that the law aught to be altered, and that the principle of
makirieaaanduitnition between one paper and another ought
not to
e.
that the law The hon, baronet was wrong in stating
the amore
far :dat present stood, was a dead letter, for
bo the nt :f,.was powerful enough ; but what would
discontentbecal and outcry, if the law officer
of the Crown should
mebell.npo.n to enforce the law im-
partially against all the awed by successive Govenunmeantitons which had been in-
which to invest capital in
journals of a description
havone.rebaarlolnowted to be
exempt from duty ? So far thee
cor-
rect, and in one sense the law was a
he were to institute th_ste
.ip,er.co.:asyemcue:ts iniilleasatesesamad:; latter,eaattherefore
those
sefsflorr
tei
o,fvainly in ,he should have
to appeal to juriem, and
which he had referred. 1
for the house to decide speedily area
mire more than •
whole question. No person could d • oneeuncahxedtehindet
the tone and temper with which. the hon. member far
had brought forward his proposition, but he hadnothear d
a single argument made use of in
to nthuescoftyirtshee seiii
oefohuirsswcet
which appeared to him sufficient i ti
he proposed to the house to take. Assuming for a moment
that the alteration of the law would involve a certain
amount of loss to the revenue, still they knew to extenthesubmit
end
of that loss, and if the house were not prepared
to that sacrifice they ought at once to put anto t.lO
it
measure, and not to postpone a decision uponfur an in-
definite period. Two Chancellors of the Exchequer hid
come forward, and had stated that they considered the
finances of the country, notwithstanding the heavy de-
mands of the war, to be in a condition to bear the loss.
Why, therefore, postpone the consideration and (loci-dun
of the question ? There were some persons who objected to
the principle of the measure because they considered that
the retention of the tax was requisite in order to keep up
the character and position of the press. In that opinion
he did not concur, but, on the contrary, he believed they
would do a great service to the press by getting rid of the
tax, and it certainly behoved those who were in favour of
the continuance of the stamp to show that its-repeal would
be injurious, and no argument which he had yet heard had
succeeded in convincing him that such would be the effect.
If he believed the effect of the proposed alteration would
be to lower the character of the public Dress, he should
start at once from such a proposition. He did not believe
that, with the continuance of the facilities of the Post-