The Sun.
London, England, 1855-03-02 00:00:00

THE NEIVSPAPER STAMP ACT.

(From the Times of this day.)
This evening was fixed for the consideration of the
new measure devised for the re-arrangement of the news

paper postage and stamp duties, and we are sure we
may readily bespeak the attention of our readers, even
at a conjuncture like the present, to a subject so in-
timately concerning both ourselves and them. It has
been proposed to revise entirely the enactments regu-
lating the obligatiens and claims of newspapers, and
what we assert is, that the legislation recently projected
is fraught with the most glaring absurdities in principle,
with great detriment to tke interests of the public, and
with the grossest injustice to this particular journal.
Heretofore it has been compulsory on all newspapers
to carry an impressed stamp, and in return they were
carried to and fro by the Post-office free of charge, with
out reference to their weight. Of this system we will
only say that it had produced, or at any rate had net
impeded, the production of what, by universal consent,
was the best, the freest, and the most influential press
in the world—a press conducted with greater enterprise,

greater talent, greater respectability, greater success,
and greater independence than had been ever witnessed
in any other country at any time. This system, how-
ever, the late Chancellor of the Exchequer had been in-
duced, in deference to the importunities of a small, but
clamorous knot of agitators, to discard in favour of
an another, by which the stamp duty was to be entirely
removed. As far a 3 ooncerns the operation of an un-
stamped press, we are perfectly content to leave the.
question to experiment, nor can we, indeed, profess the
smallest apprehension of any honest competition, or any
desire of legislative protection. What we complain of
is, that in the readjustment of the postal duties, conse-
quent on this change of system, the obvious dictates of
equity and common sense have been disregarded together,
stud the just claims of the Times and its subscribers set
at nought. That we zre not remonstrating without good
reason the reader may very easily be convinced.

When it was proposed to remove the stamp duty
from newspapers the equivalent in the shape of free
postage ceased also, and a question was then immediately
created de novo as to the terms on which periodical publi-
cations should pass through the post. Naturally, a special
tariff was required in this respect. The distinction be•
t weea printed matter and private correspondence was
already recognised in practice by provisions favourable
to the former ; and it was, of course, self-evident that
the chief demands on the Post-office would be made by

the subscribers to the daily press. All this was so ob-
vious that measures were devised accordingly, and a
new unit of weight was selected to be covered in these
cases by the penny stamp. But what was this unit ?
Why, nothing more nor less than one which would ex-
clude from the Post-office two-thirds of those very com-
modities for the carriage of which provision was pro-
fessed to be made. The penny stamp was to carry four
•unces, whereas of the 90,000 newspapers which are put

into circulation every day from the metropolitan press
60,000, or thereabouts, are above that weight, so that
two-thirds of all newspaper readers would be robbed of
the accommodation hitherto provided by the Post-office.
It happens that the 60,000 copies in question all belong
to a particular journal—viz., the limes, but that,
though it concentrates the injustice of the enactment
upon ourselves, does not in the least degree affect the
question as one of principle. We are entitled to ask, and
we do ask, on what assumption this particular unit of
four ounces was selected rather than three ounces or
two ounces, or any other weight ? It is obvious that
the issues of the daily press must have been kept in
view during the concoction of this precious measure ;
but why was a standard taken which, out of every three
newspapers brought to the letterbox, would exclude two,
and admit but one? What would have been thought of
the original penny postage scheme if the weight to be
covered by the penny stamp had been so determined as
inevitably to shut out from the post two letters out of
every three ? To put the outrageous injustice of the
proposed measure in a still more forcible light, let us
suppose that the daily circulation of the metropolitan
press—viz., some 90,000 copies, was distributed among
nine different journals, each cireu!ating 10,000 each.
Now, what would the public or the House of Commons
say to a proposal which, while professing to be a
measure of relief for the encouragement of this class of
publications, should debar flout the use of postal
accommodation six journals out of the nine ? Yet
the ca-e is precisely the same as it now stands ; the
same proportion of newspapers would be excluded
from the post, and the same number of readers ex-
posed to injury, the difference being merely this—that
wherute, on the former hypothesis, the injustice would
be shared by six journals alike, it is now concentrated
upon the head of the Times. In fact, the unfairness *1
tee measure stands confessed in a clause which proposes
to exempt us from damage by special provision for the
space of ten years.
that It elryeg
uo
luagthi
otntfoo
rb be
eccluerairn
gt o every
new.spa
newspapers
rasrt, adntdhineigr
subscribers the advantages of the national Post-office the
standard of admissible weight should be determined by
the largest of these publications, even if this example
did not, as in the case before us, represent two-thirds of
the entire circulation afloat. Such a plan would insure
all alike against harm, as every smaller journal could
follow in the wake of the greater with perfect facility
until it grew to the same size. A great philosopher has
been exposed to everlasting ridicule, because, as the
story goes, he cut a small hole in his study door to
admit a kitten, by the side of a large one which had
served as a passage for his cat. But our legislators Were
far more foolish in their designs, for they cut a hole fir
the kittens only, and left the cat shut out altogether.
glimmering of reason or justice in Mr.
repose], for the four ounce standard GTliiaedres
to wasnes n o p
re-
presented neither the largest nor the smallest of the
daily papers. While the Times weighs more than four
ounces the Standard an others weigh less, and to
measure out our allowance of weight by that of the
Morning Herald is just as unjust as it would have been
to prescribe to the Morning Herald the dimensions of
that iinfcaonviteasxtaimblitentahrgfuwmeeignhtst
the Globtteeyinooknr
dTtlahi
leeisScieuunpe.sltaiionn and
prove
We
is to be fixed it should be determined by that of the
largest existing newspaper which is to come under the
operation of the act—in other words, that the standard
should be six ounces, instead of four ounces. We are
prepared, however, to go further, and to maintain, in
the interests of the public, that the mere element of
weight should not enter into consideration at all.
If there is any difficulty in precisely defining what
ie " news," there can be none in ascertaining
whether or not any publication is periodically
issued at such short dates—say at intervals of not
less than seven days, as would give it the essentialt
character of a newspaper, and such publications irosh
have the run of the post-office for a peens,with obvious
benefit to the public, and without entailing either loss or
inconvenience on the establishment. For that matter,
indeed, the Post-office is made for the public, and not the
if itv ai
us simplyta ge n
should pr ov icdoed
.
public for fpourhltiliceatiPonostto-oeffin
jcoey; but,this
ad