The Sun.
London, England, 1855-02-22 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 22, 1855.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURYALS.

agreed'on a committee of a somewhat different cast from
that of which notice was given for to-night.
We really cannot see what else was to be done. Par-
liaments may be very troublesome, and public inquiries
very inconvenient; Czars and Emperors may be able to
manage very much better, and it is possible that the
proposed committee is a stretch of the censtitution ; but
we must take things as they are. We cannot do without
the House of Commons. Lord Palmerston, in the course
of an unusually long and varied political career, has had
occasion to feel the power, not to say the caprice, of the
House of Commons, as much as any man living, and be
is well aware that it would be simply an act of suicide
to persist in saying "Nay," when the house has so em-
phatically said " Yea." The house has said what it
wants, and he is there to do what it want=, and, if he
refuses, it will undoubtedly find others to do its work.
We may all rest assured there will be a Committee of
Inquiry, and the only question about the matter is its
constitution, and, consequently, the temper with which
it will proceed to ite business. The members to be pro-
posed this evening, with the concurrence of Government
and Mr. Roebuck, are, we believe, airea ly settled ; and
we trust it will be found that due security is taken, on
the one hand, for a free, full, and sea thing inquiry ; on
the other, that it shall be conducted as much as possible
without inconvenience to the public service, or betrayal
of secrets, if any there are, to the enemy. If the in-
quiry be directed, in the first instance, to the physical
condition of our forces in the East, we cannot see who
is to be taken from his, duty, what department is to be
hindered, or what hint of importance need be given to
the fee, by an inquiry into the operations and mutual
relations of the Commissariat, the Naval and Land
Transport Services, the Medical Department, and their
connexion with the higher departments of the Exchequer,
the Ministry of War, and the Admiralty. What a tale,
for example, 'has already come out insthehistory' of the
green coffee berries, and how little has the public ser-
vice been interrupted or an enemy served by the dis-
closure Why should not the rest of the investigation
be conducted in the same manner ? No doubt, it ean,
if people will only go the right way to work.
The fact is that there is nothing about which people
are so ignorant as the manlier of doing business in our
public departments—whose duty it is to do certain
things ; who gives the order ; who executes it ; whose
consent or ce-operation is necessary ; who is answerable
for the delay, if any ; what limitations there are to such
an officer's authority or resources. For example, when
complaints came from the Crimea that the poor soldiers
could do nothing with their green coffee berries, the
Lords Commissioners of the Treasury appear to have
been " moved" by somebody or other to stir in the
matter, and they made a minute ordering that their
Secretary write to the Secretary of the Admiralty re-
questiag him to " move" the Lords Commissioners of
the Admiralty to direct that early steps might be taken
for providing and shipping 225,0001 b. of roasted coffee.
It took, however, six weeks of moving, countermoving,
requesting, writing, directing, expediting, hastening,
sealing, signing; providing, and 'shipping, before one
single pound of roasted coffee was actually put on board
a ship. When' that ship sailed, whether it called any-
where, where it stopped, what became of its cargo at
last, are further questions that may very likely
lead to the same results. But all the people con-
cerned in this affair are not only anxious to do
their duty, not only men with bowels of compassion
for their fellow-subjects, but they are the very people
who in.private society will complain the most of the in-
terminable hindrances and inextricable perplexities of
the public service. No doubt Mr. Gladstone would
take care not to lose five minutes, if he could help it, in
succouring our brave soldiers in the Crimea. No doubt
often as he has had to talk by the hour about coffee and
sugar, he never felt so much their importance as when it
became his duty to get off a supply to the Crimea as soon
as could be. No doubt, Sir James Graham, even from a
bed of sickness, would rise to despatch the needful
stimulant to our perishing defenders. No doubt, Sir
Charles Trevelyan has the same humane sympathies as
his chief. No doubt, every official concerned in this
matter is only too ready to complain of the delay, some-
where above or below him, or in some other department
he knows not where. Surely this is a case for inquiry,
with a view to a thorough departmental reform. The
only thing it can be compared to is that distressing,
though strangely grotesque malady, called St. Vitus's
Dance. The poor sufferer cannot convey a piece of
bread to his mouth without flourishing it in all imagi-
nable directions, up and down, sideways, zigzag, cir-
cuitous, till it describes a journey of many yards, and
takes half a minute and no smell expenditure of
muscular energy to do what is usually an unconscious
and almost instantaneous act. The poor creature
tries to go out of a room, but cannot do so without
performing all sorts of eccentric and highly un-
necessary evolutions .before the door, visiting both
doorposts again and again, and finally leaving
the door open, and his errand ixcomplete, or perhaps
tumbling down on the threshold. Nobok who had a
child in this melancholy case -would hesitae to Bend for
the (lector and inquire into the natoie and proper treat-
ment of the malady. That is what the House of Com-
mons is doing with respect to this political St. Vitus's
Dance, which infests every department of the public ser-
vice, and makes us all look more like madmen or idiots
than sane, and—as we flatter ourselves—partioularly
sensible people.

TAXES OL4I KNOWLEDGF.

RESIGNATION OF MR. GLADSTONE, SIR J.
GRAHAM, AND MR. SIDNEY HERBERT.

(From the Times of this day.)
We purposely abstained yesterday morning from ad-
verting to the dissension which was already known to
exist in the Cabinet, because we were unwilling to anti-
cipate and to expose the humiliating spectaele of a Go-
vernment divided almost as soon as it had assumed the
responsibilities of office, and some faint hope was still
entertained that more prudent and patriotic counsels
would yet prevail. That hope has not been felfilled, A
Cabinet Council was held yesterday before the early sit-
ting of Parliament ; and the result of this meeting was
that Mr. Gladstone, Sir James Graham, and Mr. Sidney
Herbert announced their intention to relinquish their
respective posts in the Administration. The motive as-
signed for this resolution, unjustified and unexplained by
any circumstances which did not equally exist when Lord
Palmerston formed the present Ministry, is stated to be
the strong objection entertained by these gentlemen,
both in principle and in practice. to the inquiry by a
select committee of the House of Commons into the pre-
sent state of the army, and into the causes of the disas-
ters i❑ the Crimea. But, if this be the only ground of
their secession, it appears to us, and we think it will
appear to the country, quite insufficient to explain their
conduct. The vote of the House of Commons on Mr.
Roebuck's motion destroyed Lord Aberdeen's Govern-
ment, and established, by an irresistible majority, that a
Parliamentary inquiry should be made into the causes of
these misfortunes. Opinions may be divided on the
expediency of such an inquiry, and we know_ that..
among those who voted for the motion of Mr. Roebuck
many foresaw the difficulties which would attend such
an investigation. But this much is certain—that the
will of Parliament and of the people of England
was never more clearly expressed than in favour of
this inquiry ; the nation feels that it has a right
to ascertain the causes of a calamity which has sacrificed
an army and tarnished our military reputation ; and,
though it may be difficult to conduct such an inquiry
with prudence and success, it would be incalculably
more dangerous and impracticable to attempt to refuse
it. This proposition was self-evident when Lord Pal-
merston took the Government, and Mr. Sidney Her-
bert, in his address to the electors of South Wilts on his
re-election last week, distinctly admitted the necessity
of inquiry. Indeed, we question whether any man
could skow his face on the hustings at this moment in
any part of England who should be so bold as to deny
it. This toeing the known state of affairs, the vote
which stood recorded on Mr. Roebuck's motion, and the
impending nomination of his committee, were the first
topics which must have engaged the attention of the
new Government and of all its members. On the first
wind of this inquiry Lord John Russell decamped, and
the Duke of Newcastle soon afterwards retired ; but
Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Sidney Herbert, and Sir James
Graham took, or retained, office under Lord Palmerston,
without having made up their minds to stand by him
during the very first difficulty which awaited him. Of
all imaginable courses, this appears to as to be the least
defensible and the most absurd.
Although no one contests the brilliant oratorical
powers of Mr. Gladstone, or the administrative abilities
of Sir James Graham, we do not hesitate to express
our conviction that the present Ministry may be
strengthened rather than weakened by their with-
drawal from office. Whatever the talents of this coterie
may have been, such was the ambiguity of their lan-
guage, the obscurity of their motives, and the incon-
sistency of their actions, that they detracted from
the Parliamentary strength and popularity of the
Government more than they contributed to it by
their services. They, perhaps unfortunately for them-
selves; filled all the offices more immediately connected
with the business of the war, and they have consequently
borne the larger portion of responsibilty and resent-
ment. Such a coalition was possible under the cautious
direction of Lord Aberdeen, but it could not survive his
fall. Lord Palmerston's Cabinet may gain considerably
in force and union, and in the confidence of the Liberal
party, by the separation of these members, provided the
head of the Government is resolved to supply their
places with the ablest practical men he can find in the
House of Commons. We cannot, however, take leave
of this episode in the history of parties without observ-
ing that it appears likely to terminate the separate poli-
tical career of that section of politicians who are com-
monly described as the followers of Sir Robert Peel. In-
dividually, they cannot fail to play hereafter a consider.
able part in public affairs, for they are men of indisputable
eloquence and ability; but they must themselves be sa-
tisfied by the experience of the last few weeks that their
influence as a separate party is at an end, and that it
cannot be renewed without injury to the public service
acid to themselves. They will gradually be absorbed in
one or the other of the two great political parties which
permanently divide this country, and their utility will be
increased by a nearer connexion with the lower benches of
of the House of Commons and the masses of 'their fellow-
countrymen. We may here add, however, that Mr. Card-
well and Lord Canning have not yet followed Mr. Glad-
stone's example; we hope they will avoid so grave an error;
and, as neither of these Ministers was a member of Lord
Aberdeen's Cabinet, or connected in any way with the
war administration, they are entirely free to act in the
present emergency upon their own sense of duty to the
country ; nor have they any pretence, beyond a sense of
personal friendship, for quitting the Government at a
moment of great difficulty.
Whatever Lord Palmerston and his remaining col-
leagues may have thought of this strange desertion, we
apprehend that it has in no degree weakened their de-
termination to carry on the government with all the
vigour of which they are capable. They doubtless feel
that it would be an indelible disgrace upon themselves
to shrink from the task, ardeous as it is, which the So-
vereign confided to them after the failure of Lord Derby
and Lord John Russell ; and they will avoid as long as
possible the renewal of those scenes of abortive effort
which have so long held 'in suspense all the powers of
the empire. By this singular but not unpropitious turn
of fortune, Lord Palmerston has at his disposal three of
the principal offices in the Government, and is enabled
to repair some of the emissions which were so conspicu-
ous upon his accession to once. It can no longer be al-
leged with any appearance of plausibility that he is not
the master of his own Cabinet, and not free to select his
colleagues and his instruments. The times we live
in demand a leading Minister and a more direct
authority both in Council and in Parliament, and much
of the sullen excitement which broods over the country
would be removed if we could discover a clearer course
of action for the Government, and a more definite ob-
ject for the hopes and efforts of the nation. The im-
portance assumed by Parliamentary committees of in-
quiry, and the invasion of the functions of executive
government by the House of Commons, are mere indi-
cations of the popular determination to supply at all
hazards that energy to the Government which the Mi-
nisters have not adequately displayed, and that assembly,
which is so turbulent and hostile under a Minister who
is always craving its forbearance, would become the
♦igorous and faithful support of a leader who boldly and
is plain sincerity appealed to its and to the country's
patriotism. We know not by what subtleties of reasoning
Mr. Gladstone may have satisfied himself and convinced
his friends that it was consistent with public daty to aban-
don the post he had accepted only ten days before, and,
possibly, in the memorable epitaph he pronounced over
the late Administration some expressions might now be
applied with peculiar force to his own fate. But we are
confident that such conduct will be condemned by the
instinctive honesty and good sense of the English na-
tion, and that Parliament will be the more disposed to
rally round the Government when it has shaken off its
wavering adherents and its dubions allies.

(From the Morning Post of this day.)
We arelenabled to state that Mr. Gladstone, Sir James
Graham, and Mr. Sidney /ierbert are no longer members
of the Palmerston Administration. It is no doubt
deeply to be regretted that men of so much ability, and
of such power to serve the public, should feel it necessary
to withdraw their services at such a moment. It is for-
tunate that we have a Minister with zeal and strength
enough to supply their places at once—that their re-
tirement involves no crisis—and that their spirit and
principle will still move in support of the Government.
The fact is, that these members of the old Adminis-
tration could not separate themselves from its mis-
past
deeds. They considered themselves to have been
too much identified with the past conduct of the
war to sit in office while that conduct was discussed
or inquired into. They resign, therefore, on
Lord Palmerston 's wise accession to the desire of
the House,
expressed to have
a committee
physical condition
of our army before Sebastopol. That committee, as
proposed originally by Mr. Roebuck, was absurd and
ineffective. t has been amended, and the following
names now constitute the body :—Mr. Roebuck, Mr.
of almost
inquiryost nto the
i unanimously
Drummond, Sir John Pakington, Mr. Layard, Mr. E.
Ellice, yen., Sir G. C. Lewis, Mr. John Ball, Mr. Brain-
ston, General Peel, Colonel Lindsay, and Lord Sey-
mour.
These are the names of men who will make the Blue
Book as good a thing as a Blue Book can be made. The
house will feel that it has hi them v. strong and able
court of inquiry—that it wilt have from them a verdict
on which reliance can' be placed. The concession was
ono which it was really impossible to refuse, and which
it would have been absurd, under the existing limitation,
to dispute or discuss. The country is satisfied with the
new life—the new vigour—the new measures of the ex-
isting Government. It feels the practical strength of
the plans proposed by Lord Palmerston and Lord Pan-
mure. It distrusts and doubts the splendid hallucina-
tione and warlike visions of Lord Ellenborough, who
seems to view no country but as a battle-field—to
look upon no inch of ground but with reference to
its capabilities for light infantry—to think of no coun-
try except with regard to the possibility of forcing it
into a gigantic campaign against Russia—to regard
India, not as a hardly-won possession, held in peace
solely by our military superiority, but as a tributary of this
country, ready to supply at any time, and at any junc-
ture, the means of war by which it is maintained and
kept. Lord Panmure's Bill for the Amendment of the
Army Service is a better, and abler, and a quicker mea-
sure for the recruiting of our troops and the augmenta-
tion of our army than would be the bringing into reality
the most brilliant dreams into which Lord Ellenborough
wandered on this question.
The present is a time at which, above all things, is
wanted a strong head to a Cabinet—a strong hand in
the Ministry of War. These are the points which most
require force, attention, and sageeity. The pests
va-
cated by the retiring members of the Cabinet are not of
a nature to need the highest administrative power, nor
are they of a kind which it is difficult to supply from
those members among whom Lord Palmerston can apply
without fear of failure. He will have no difficulty in
filling these places with perfectly good and able men.
None of them, fortunately, are in the condition of the
army. Neither our finances, nor our navy, nor our
Colonial Department, have been idly filled. Tke last
nominally vacated, and Mr, Sidney
Herbert is only
"
Herbert postpones his trial in a higher place than that
which he had formerly filled. On the past conduct
of Mr. Gladstone, as the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer, we have more than once had occasion to ex-
press the strongest disapproval, He was not, in our
opinion, the Chancellor for the day. He had not the
plain, simple view of the truth, which is mainly needed
by that officer in time of war. He was fond of experi-
ment, and his mind bad a turn for dangerous indulgence
in theories and crotchets. With all his ability, he was,
in our opinion, not happily placed in the Government,
and. his absence will prove no great less. For Sir James
Graham the same cannot be said. He undoubtedly
filled, as well as it cot.ld be filled, the important office
which he held, and we most deeply regret that, in addi-
tion to his adminiitrative ability he should not bare
possessed enough of generosity, of patriotism, to have
faced the appointment of a committee which it was idle
to resist—that he should not have felt strong and secure
enough in the excellent workieg of his department to
say, " Here are my deeds, judge them who will."
This is not a view which these gentlemen have had
the confidence in themselves or the courage to take.
They feel a sting in the committee of inquiry, and on
that they withdraw themselves from the work that the
country has for them. They have not the manliness to
face the jury, and they fly from it, leaving to their col-
leagues and to their successors the more honourable task
of freeing the country from the gloom and uneasiness
into which it has fallen. One point is at least gained
by this retirement, ill-judged as we deem it. The last
look of the old Ministry—the condemned Ministry—
disapp ars with Messrs. Gladstone and Sidney Herbert.
With the appointment of their successors we shall wel-
come a new, and, we believe, a strong Administrrtion.

(From the Times of this day.)
This day ought to be one of no small anxiety to this
country. It was appointed for a collision between the
House of Commons and a new Government, the former
baying pronounced with unprecedented force in favour
of an inquiry before a tribunal of its own members, and
the latter, from the day of its birth, having endeavoured
to dispense with that inquiry, or to take it into its own
gentler hands., As one Government had fallen rather
than acquiesce in a scrutiny which it alleged to be not
only offensive te its own dignity and inconvenient to the
public service, but even contrary to the spirit of the con-
stitution, so there was every prospect that another
Government would follow the, example. This seemed
all the more inevitable, inasmuch as the new Govern-
ment was, as Mr. Disraeli has described it, the " identi-
cal successor" of the last, consisting of nearly the same
members,—that is, of the very men who conceived them-
selves censured and damaged by the proposed inquiry,
and who bad therefore once already gone out upon it. It
was about as singular a knot of affairs as even the infi-
nite phases of British politics could produce, and, if we
may be excused a metaphor at such a crisis, one felt,
only as late, as Tuesday morning, in the situation of
travellers in a mountain pass, who see the rocks closing
around them, and cannot for the life of them understand
where is the opening through which they are to proceed.
We don't pretend to say that the mode of extrication
that has occurred is one to give unmixed satisfaction.
Under the circumstances, however, we are convinced
that any is better than none, and we, for our part, are
prepared tolcoegratulate t,he country on the result. The
three principal " Peelite' members of the Cabinet, Sir
James Graham, Mr. Gladstone, and Mr. Sidney Herbert
held out against the committee of inquiry, on the ground,
as we are informed, that it was not only a censure on
themselves, but also that it would impede the public ser-
vice at a time when freedom of action and confidence
were especially required. On Tuesday, as we wore then
made aware, they had placed their resignation in the
hands of Lord Palmerston ; but at a Cabinet Council
held yesterday to give them an opportunity of withdraw-
ing it they declined to do so, and are no longer members
of the Administration. Rumour has filled the vacancies.
Sir Charles Wood is, it is said, to succeed Sir James
Graham at the Admiralty, where he was once Secretary ;
BainesMr. CCardwell i
take
Ss
irto
George
ee dGMrer. y,sGpllaadesetoant et,h
eanHd
oMm
er.
.
office, while Sir George Grey replaces his cousin at the
India Board. Minor changes will of course follow
Meanwhile Lord Palmerston, we believe, has already
been in communication with dr. Roebuck, and they hays

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FPRICE SD.

meat, 'lowest -er, could not but excite one's wonder and
sr uprise. IA r_e were, it was true, engaged in a war, but
ree war a,ppeared to be nowhere carried on with such
edge eur as is our own Cabinet ; and if our statesmen were
to go on slayJng themselves and destroying each other in
that < Tay, wr .'rust rOon resort to a Foreign Enlistment
Act tee secure a MinStry. (Laugheer.) The chair-
man haul told them that, *ere were certain elapses
bearit g character of comproineee. But be had always
said, " Let us do away with eieee compulsory stamp
—let us, abolish the security system---tbe system as-
sumed tiat when a man began the busineeya which admi-
nistered meet to moral and social progress:. and to the
advancers tee it of civilisation—which assumed Islet such a
man was going to be a scoundrel—that he was going to
libel somebody, and that, therefore, he must givee secu-
rity that hs must not carry on the trade of a literary,
assassin. ( Cheers.) Let us see an end to that legisla-
tion which esorung from that dark political age of our
co entry when Castlereagh ruled the land, and when the
ga-ing acts and the Six Acts were passed. Let them
the laws that for a century and a half had
sweep a:eve"Y.
accumula tea to stifle the press. Let them do this, and
he would z; of quarrel with the measure, though it might
contain a fe edauses bearing the character of a com-
peomise and adapted to conciliate existing interests.
He believed, hove ver, that the existing newspaper pre7ei
set a higher value• upon the privilege of repeated
transmission by post than it was justly entitled to.
He career not whether the carriage of half an ounce more
or less for a period of ten years was allowed to an exist-
in; newspaper so long as the main object of that asso-
ciation was yeained ; and,. indeed, he would be glad to
buy off the opposition of a powerful journal upon these
terms. It evac a delusion to suppose that the bill
would serious: el,.
tninish the privilege of repeated free
v
transmission of lie,
vspapere through the post now en-
'
joytri„tecaustrtb rpt n_who paid.sd. for a paper bought
it not for himself only, foot for the tise:of several other
persons, residing at a dia.fance from him, and who hadeat
present to wait three or foe days for the news ; whereas
the cheaper newspapers that would be started under the
i•Jginv, would be immediately accessible to everybody,
and every man could afford to hay -0 his penny newspaper
for himeelf. Nobody in America, where the press was
thoroughly popularised, would buy a newspaper a day
old at any price, and with a free press in this country
no intelligent American would be startled by seeing any
such notices in the shop windows as " yesterday's,Tintes
at half price." In New York the carpenter, the brick-
layer, and the shipbuilder had his daily newspaper
brought as regularly to his door as had our great
merchants and bankers in Lombard-street; and after
the penny stamp was remitted he believed the Times
would enjoy as great a circulation ae it did now, because
there would always' be a demand among the wealthier
and more limited classes for the high-priced papers ;
and it would be no injury to those papers if a
cheaper article was provided for a larger class
of readers who were not in the habit of reading a
. .

-
The annual meeting of the Society for Promoting the I
Repeal of the Taxes on :Knowledge was held in the large
room, Exeter-hall, yesterday evening. It having been
announced that Messrs. Cobden, Bright, and Milner
Gibson, the leaders of the movement, would be present
and take part in the proceedings, a numerous attendance
of ladies and gentlemen assembled. The chair was oc-
cupied by
The Right Hon. MILNER GIBSON, who explained that
that society had met, according to its ueeal custom. in
order to give the public an account of its etewardship.
The opponents of all taxes on knowledge begat; by setting
four different objects before themselves, viz.—tit repeal
of the duty on foreign books, the repeal of the e:cci"
duty on paper, the abolition of the newspaper stamp
together with the security system, nod all restrictions
upok the press, 'excepting those imposed by the law of
libel, and the abolition of the impost on advertisements.
They had already . succeeded in achieving the last of
these objects, and thereby conferred considerable advan-
tage upon the public, but the full benefit of that remis-
sion could not be secured until the whole of the complex
and obnoxious system with which the tax on advertise-
ments had, once been interwoven had been thoroughly
swept away. Whatever encouragement that agitation
had received from other quarters, it had certainly ob-
tained none from the established newspaper press of the
country. In fact, the press had offered it the cold
stioulder, 'although its aim was exclusively the public
good, and not any desire •to assail existing interests.
The association, however, he was happy to say, was ra-
pidly approaching its hour of triumph. A bill had been
brought in by Mr. Gladstone—whom he must describe,
if report spoke truly, as the " late" Chancellor of the
Exchequer—to abolish the compulsory stamp on news-
papers, aril entitle all printed—roatter up to the weightOf
4 ounces to be transmitted by post at the charge of
The measure would also abrogate the security system,
and all those odious gagging statutes passed in the dark
days of a Castlereagh Administration, and known by the
name of the "Six Acts." These propositions might be
considered to be the leading features of the measure, but
there were also clauses in the bill which were evidently
introduced out of regard to what might be called the
vested interests of the established press. (Hear, hear.)
It had been contended that the right of retransmission
without an additional charge was a privilege highly
valued by the established press. The bill offered, ie
consequence of that claim, to the established press, test
if they chose to print a portion of their impression upon
stamped paper, that portion of the impression shall be
transmitted and retransmitted without any additional
charge for a period of seven days. (Hear, hear.) As
it was considered that there were some large papers—he
believed there was one in that metropolis well known
to them all— (hear, hear)—which exceeded four ounces
in weight, there was a clause that papers of a certain
size of superficial square inches, even though they ex-
ceed the weight of four ounces, should have the privi-
lege of retransmission during seven days—(oh, oh)—with-
out any additional charge. (Oh.) That latter provision
was to be in operation for a period of ten years. (Hear,
hear.) He was extremely surprised that there should
be any opposition from any quarter to the plan as pro-
posed on the ground of interest, but he should not be
surprised at there being opposition to it on the dound
of principle. For one, he should have preferred a simple
measure, repealing the /stamp and the security laws, and
establishing a postage charge for printed matter, to be
paid at each transmission ; but the plan proposed was
moat favourable to the established papers, because they
were left all they now enjoy practically, namely, trans-
mission and retransmission for a period of seven days,
at the cost of their stamping only a portion of their im-
pression, whereas they now enjoy that privilege of re-
transmission at the cost of stamping their whole im-
pression. (Hear, hear.) The plan was undoubtedly a
great boon to the public, in the way of removing ob-
stacles to the diffusion of knowledge, and, instead of
being an injury, it conferred an obvious and great ad-
vantage upon the established papers. (Hear.) They
could only explain any opposition to the measure on the
ground that there was a fear of the competition of the
cheap penny newspapers. (Hear.) That association
wished to see daily newspapers brought within the reach
of the humblest classes of the community, and not con-
fined to the affluent ; and they believed that the repeal
of the stamp duty would have the effect of insuring the
cheap and expeditious diffusion of intelligence of all
passing events, as well as of extending the influence of
the best intellect engaged in journalism among the great
mass of the people, and thereby mitigating the evils
arising from the want of a comprehensive system of
national education, which the dissensions unhappily ex-
isting among different sects of religionists rendered im-
possible in this country. There was no knowledge so
useful and so necessary as a knowledge of the events of
the day, and of the reasons alleged for the legislation of
the day, and it was impossible that this knowledge could
reach the masses except through the medium of a cheap
press. If there was a compromise in the Government
bill, it contained a great deal of good, and Mr. Gladstone
deserved great credit for having grappled with the ques-
tion, and he was sure that he had yielded on this ques-
tion from conviction, and not in deference to what was
called clamour. (Hear.) It was his duty to submit
terms of peace to their old friends at the Board of Inland
Revenue. (Laughter.) They would let bygones be by-
gones ; their warfare was at an end ; and he could not
help saying that any odium that might have attached to
the officers of that board was entirely owing to the bad
system they had to oarry out. He believed those officers
had simply endeavoured to do their duty, He knew, too,
that the Attorney-General would not have liked to figure
before his fellow•couetrymen in the character of the pro-
• secuter of the press, and as endeavouring to prevent cir-

daily paper at all, but who, if their taste were first culti-
vated might by and by aspim to peruse the dearer and
better journals. The hon. gentleman went on to observe
that since lie had entered the arena of that movement
(they had been assailed by individual organs of the press
in a manner f;lr which he was totally unprepared.
Newspaper conductors who had co-operated with him in
the agitation against the corn laws, the moment that
free trade in newspapers was proposed, instantly forgot
their principles and turned Protectionists—(laughter)—
but he believed that in a few years' time these persons
would feel preciSely as the landowners and farmers had
done, that they had taken a very shortsighted view of
their own interests in this matter. (Hear, hear.) The
press, which was incessantly criticising the conduct of
public men, was itself remarkably sensitive when any
one touched upon the fallibility of its writers and con-
ductors. He himself once ventured, at a mechanics' in-
stitute in Yorkshire, in attempting to persuade some
high Conservatives to allow newspapers to be admitted
to the reading-room, to remark that the leading
articles were not the whole or the moot important
part of a paper, but that it was the facts they nar-
rated that he highly valued ;-when he was instantly
pounced upon as having attacked leading articles
generally, and told by his critics that it was all very
well for him to want to gag the press—that no doubt he
would like to put an end to the leader', because it was
by them that he was trimmed up from time to time
when he needed it. (A laugh.) Now, he was not par-
ticularly thin-skinned, and, next to the late Mr. O'Con-
ne:l, he was, perhaps, the best abused man in the coun-
try ; and yet, he could say that in proportion to the
efforts he had made to liberate the press from the fiscal
burdens which weighed it down was his desire to see that
free and fearless criticism of the conduct of public men
and of public measures to which he was absurdly charged
with being inimical. (Hear.) If the law now in ope-
ration in France, by which newspaper writers were re-
quired to append their names to their articles, were
attempted to be introduced into England he should
stoutly oppose it ; but he was not quite sure that politi-
cal writing would not be as salutary in its influence
when it was known who it was that conducted the
journal in which it appeared as it could be when anorly-
MOUP. In conclusion, he had sufficient confidence in
the intelligence and morality of his countrymen to be-
lieve that in the long run the best conducted and most
useful newspapers would be those which would thrive
best under that system of free trade which in less than
a month hence he hoped to see established among us.
(Cheers.) The hon. gentleman sat down by moving the
second resolution, viz. :
" That this -meeting has heard with satisfaction that a
bill was introduced last night by the Government to abo-
lish the compulsory newspaper stamp and the security
system, and to admit all printed matter to a cheap rate of
postage."
Mr. J. BRIGHT, M.P., in seconding the resolution,
said that he had been asking himself why they had met
that night, because they had heard that the battle had
been won, and that the enemy, if not conquered, had
been converted, and had come over to their side. Still
there were some persons (though, happily, they could
not do much harm) who thought the measure of the Go-
vernment would not advance the public weal, but he be-
lieved they entertained this opinion because they did not
properly consider the subject. The hon. gentleman then
proceeded to treat the question of taxation upon news-
papers in a commercial point of view. He reminded the
meeting that, on the newspaper sheet, which cost three
farthings, there was imposed a tax of one farthing, which
was equal to 33 per cent. Then there was another stamp
of one penny, or 133 per cent., so that by the time the
paper was damped for the machine the sheet of paper
bore a tax upon the original cost of the manufacture of
no less than 166 per cent. This was a pressure of taxa:
ation upon an article of commerce which was hard y
paralleled by the imposts levied on other manufactures.
And until the measure of last session, if a respectable
woman offered herself t- be engaged as a cook, or if a
poor widow's boy wished to obtain an engagement to run
errands for his daily bread, and published an advertise-
ment to that effect in a newspaper, he was laid bold of
by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and charged 18d.
for the paragraph. (Hear, hear.) Running down
column after column of a newspaper. they could net
calculate the actual percentage imposed by the Govern.
ment upon the original cost of the paper, regarding
the matter entirely as a branch of industry. (Hear,
hear.) Articles had appeared against the proposed
measure in the Dispatch and .Examiner, and papers
that had got a little shame with them, and that did
not like to write anything against them, transferred
those absurd articles into their columns, as if they
could do any damage to the great cause in which they
were engaged. They, did not pretend to benefit the
existing newspapers, though if they got a benefit
they would be glad of it ; but there were many
suppressed newspaper editors ; there were many in that
meeting—there was no trade on which so many disasters
had fallen as on the newspaper trade—and they would
call those men from their obscurity, and, may be, from
their ruin. (Cheers.) Their were many now studying
in college who had got minds and hearts to instruct their
fellowmen, and they would call them from some task of
badly-paid labour, and place them on a high and broad
platform, where men could see and follow them, and no
Chancellor of the Exchequer, no Board of Inland Re-
venue, should repress their efforts to serve their country-
men. (Cheers.) They had an increasing population, won-
derful industry, vast wealth, churches and chapels on
every hand, and books, too, the finest and the best in the
world ; they had parliamentary discussions for six months
of the year on every kind of subjects, and yet it must be
admitted that a very large portion of their population
were in a condition of gross and pitiable ignorance.
(Hear.) They had schools, too, and the children even of
the humblest classes found their way at some period or
other to some kind of schools. It had always occurred
to him as a curious thing, that the number of men and
women who could read did not bear a fair proportion to
the number of horsed girls that were at school; but when
they considered that those children on leaving school re-
turned to a home where books were scarcely to be seen,
they could not wonder that a great proportion of them,
by the time they had grown up, had entirely forgotten
what they bad learned with so much difficulty at school.
He wanted, therefore, this great and universal instru-
ment of education to be turned on for every house, like
the water and gas, conveying light for the mind and
aliment for the soul. He desired that something should
be done that would make their population different from
what it was, Land confer infinitely greater glory on the
people of the nation than some of the things present
and historical about which they sometimes heard. It
was said tie tax was only one penny ; but if it were pro-
posed that every man should pay a penny tax for liberty to
send his child to school, would net every man and woman
in the country revolt against such a proposition? and
this penny tax was as great a barrier to education as if it
were imposed fur liberty to send a child to school.
( a ne
appeared
n d ar,
he,
and
w ii:hear.)hi prejudicialwished
dh etheyL Theo tax
n dhtoao was
had the
Ehthze
eap n
t\uvaibrnlo
public
cer
ra most
interests.
nofitun
article
t there.
egarUgeaTa. l and i
hneii un-
just,
Hrtetehhaearnd.
)1
He wrote it in some dingy room or other, for he had
never found an editor's room that was comfortable. (A
laugh.) Nobody knew who the writer was. He (Mr.
Bright) might have met him that day in Pall-mall, and
yet knew nothing of him. When they, on the contrary,
had anything to say to the public or the press, they
came before the country and were ready to answer for
every thing they did. He wished the writer of that ar-
ticle was there on that particular night, because he said
that Mr. Gladstone had "yielded to a limited, but ac-

culation of news, particularly at a time when our army was
perishing in the Crimea, and thousands of the poorer
classes were filled with anxiety for the fate of their rela-
tives who were with the army. That was not the posi-
tion which a Liberal would like to fill. (Hear, hear.)
He hoped they would not be called insatiable people,
but he could not help saying that he, and those who
acted with him, would not be satisfied until the paper
duty was repealed. That was the natural result of the
repeal of the newspaper stamp duty, and he had great
hopes they would succeed before long in removing the
paper duty. It night be laid that a time of war was
not the time to remove taxes ; but he contended that a
time of great expenditure was exactly the time when
they should endeavour to raise the revenue in the least
oppressive manner. Now, they insisted teat the
same amount of revenue might be raised in a much
less objectionable mode than by the paper duty, and
they were, therefore, justified in calling on the
Government to repeal it. (Hear, hear.) He was
bound at the same time to say that, however insatiable
they might appear, that society ought not to be contest
to rest upon its oars until the Government were induced
to surrender the remaining instalments of their demand,
and yield what were but the natural and necessary corol-
laries of the just concessions they had already made.
(Cheers.)
The financial report of the society having been read
by the Secretary,
Dr. JOHN WATTS moved the first resolution, which
was as follows :
" That the paper duty is a tax on knowledge ; that, by
hindering the use of new raw materials, it limits the sup-
ply and enhances the price of paper, and thus restricts the
field for the employment of capital and labour ; and that
the increased expenditure of the country imperatively de-
mands that a less injurious mode of praising money be re-
sorted to than an excise duty on so important a manu-
facture."

It was denied that the duty on paper was a tax on
knowledge. But it clearly was, inasmuch as it was a tax
upon the materials used in the dissemination of know-
ledge. It might just as well be said that the tax on pig-
iron was not a tax on the iron manufacture, or a tax on
calico not a tax on calico-printing. (Hear.) True the
Government did not tax a schoolmaster or an author as
such, but if it taxed the tools with which one worked, or
hampered the other in his attempt to put his works
before the public, they clearly imposed a burthen upon
them as much as they did upon any other classes of pro-
ducers whose industry they checked by fiscal regulations.
It was said again that the paper duty was not really any
tax on knowledge because of its small amount, but let
them recollect how large fortunes were made up of very
small items. It might be very true that the amount of
the tax which fall on a primer, for instance, might be
very small ; but when the publisher came to sell thou-
sands of primers, the tax being taken off would leave
such a sum in his pocket as would enable him to employ
a better man to write his primers, and he would thus
be able to produce a better article, and one more suit-
able to the instruction and the education of the people.
(Hear, hear.) But he denied altogether that when they
Game to add the several profits which had to be paid on
the duty to the several parties through whose hands it
passed before it reached the consumer, it would be found
that the tax was anything but a trivial matter. Besides
that, they must take into consideration the hindrances
which this tax placed in the way of industry. It pre-
vented the most advantageous methods of employing
capital, and the introduction of impraved processes by
which the cost of production might be lessened.
Mr. A. PELIATT, M.P., seconded the resolution, and
expressed his conviction, after 25 years' experience of
the practical working of the excise laws, that it was the
greatest curse that could possibly befall the manufac-
turer to be subjected to the galling and vexatious bond-
age of the Inland Revenue Board. He also adduced
statistics of the expansion which had been produced in
the glass manufacture of this country since its exemp-
tion from fiscal burdens, and predicted that a similar
impetus would be given to the consumption of paper of
all kinds by its emancipation from excise restrictions.
The resolution was then carried unanimously.
Mr. COBDEN, M.P., next addressed the meeting. He
said he little thought, when he saw Mr. Gladstone only
48 hours before, proposing the measure which they had
all so much at heart, that the right hon. gentleman
would so soon have ceased to hold office in the Govern-
ment. Ho regretted Mr. Gladstone's retirement, be-
cause he had the highest respect for his general as well
as for his financial abilities ; but he did not believe that
what had occurred would endanger the safety of the bill,
because the right hon. gentleman was a statesman whose
• convictions they could reach, and, whether in office or
out of it, they would doubtless have the support of his
• commanding eloquence and ability to insure its passing.
These sudden and kaleidoscopic changes in the GoYern•

17-L-)---7..7
4 - , —c., , 7-7 ‘‘, agitation, in which nre: consider able number of the
I working men or of the edtelated of al iy classliad joined."
101.1, 0h.).) Why, there were several thousands listening
to him (Alr. Bright) that evening. 4(Cheers.)'' The writ r
had also said that Mr. Glails4,o ne head made up his mind,
in coesequenee of the importoe iitieei of Mr. Mii,,,,,,,53ib.
son, Mr. Cobden, and Mr. B: righ t,' to put au end t
unrestricted free transmission qinieugh the post; but be
did not mention the fact that the Government was at
' the same time about to take the. hand of death off a
number of papers that were nov: nearly destroyed in con-
sequence of this tax. He would now call attention to
what this gentleman said, where 20 years ago he was ad-
' vocatiwg the repeal of the tax, which at that time was
fourpence. Lord Mentea,gle, when Chancellor of the
Exchequer, reduced the tax froia fourpence to one penny
—and if some of the gentlemen who advocated the quEE•
tion in Parliament at that time had been as earnest as
as his colleague (Mi. M. Gibson), the whole fourpence
would have then been given up. But what did the
Examiner say when the fourpence was brought down to
one penny ? He said, " This is a considerable abatement
of the most impolitic impost that ever was devised."
He believed the paper still belonged to the same pro-
prietor, and was now under tie same influence as it was
then. (Hear.) The writer proceeded to say :—"Every
restriction upon information is, a sin against principle,
and to to the extent of its cr,neration is unjust and
injurious." He then said :—" A. tax evert so low as a
penny will keep the price of newspapers above the means
of many of the poor, and the question is why they should
remain excluded from the knowlodge of the business of
ithe world, which has been brought within the reach of
those above them in condition." He then said that the
apprehension that the reduction would rivet the remain-
ing. tax west groundless, for, as the benefits of a free
circulation of intelligence wore felt, it was hardly to be
, expected that the demand for the removal of all impedi-
meats woald die a way. (Hear.) They were acting exactly in
accordance with that which the editor of the Examiner,
in 1836, wrote and advised ; and they were assembled
there that night to support the policy he had recom-
mender. (Cheers.) Swore person said the Examiner was
growing older, and certainly they had bad a great deal
to do with old people lai'aly. (Laughter.) He believed
that this was the most ilia portant agitation in which he
or any of those around hint had been engaged. For it
would elevate the working classes more than any other,
and would give far greater power, and a far wider di•
rection, to public opinion tt.,aii it heat ever had before.
For the triumphant position their cause had now
attained they were deeply indeilted t 3 the adroit tact
and keen logical power of his - right hon.-friend Mr.
Gibson, which could not fail to o onvince the House of
Commons that it was impossible -.to make a decent de-
fence for the newspaper laws as they at present stood.
Their gratitude was also due to another right hon. gen-
tleman. He beard that the Chancellor of the Exchequer
was no longer in office • and he regretted this, not be-
cause he agreed with that right hon. gentleraan in all his
principlea or in the whole of his policy, but because he
hal. always found him accessible to reason, to, argument.,
and !;o facts, and especially so upon the very subject
they were then discussing. To Mr. Gladstone would
belong the credit that was due to Lord lletca,lfe for
striking off the shackles of the press in India, for, at
that: particular juncture, wizen public difficalties were
thickening around, and when the public voice was heard
in no very harmonious tones, the right hon. gentleman
had dared to come forward to make the press of this
country as free as the platform, and to permit the
public ietelligencep the public reason, and the public
voice to dictate with increased power to Cabinets and
to Parliaments. (Cheers.) .
Mr. G. DAWSON, ALA., supported the resolution in
a humorous speech, in which he denied that the
press was either " ribald" or vienal. He considered it as
unjust to charge the newspapers with supporting the
war because it brought them more fivepences, as it would
be to accuse the grocer of advoea ting an inglorious peace
because it enabled him to selr more tea and sugar.
Neither was he very fond of the .American newspapers,
the type of which was very bad, and its matter just now
very disgusting, because it laughed at England, the old
bald-headed dad, from which the child derived all the
good it possessed, and all its Saxon bone and muscle and
sinew. He advocated the freedom of the press, because
it would tend to make every man a politician, and put
an end to the rule of routine and red-tapery which bad
just now brought the country so low in the eyes of the
world. (Cheers.)
The second resolution having been put and carried
unanimously, a vote of thanks was then passed to the,
chairman, and the meeting separated.

NAVAL AND MILITARY INTELLIGENO2 t.

The Neptune, 120, sailing-ship, Captain Hutton, is
taking in stores at Spithead, to fit her for sea. Thei:e is
still a report that she conveys the Wiltshire Militia, Re-
giment, and drafts of regiments of the line, to the lie-
diterranean.
The Edinburgh, 61, screw, Captain Hewlett. 1i is
believed that Rear-Admiral Baynes, third in command
of the Baltic fleet, will hoist his flag on board this ship.
The Dee, paddle steam store-sh.4p, Master Commander
Pullen, having landed the boilers belonging to the Re-
tribution, as well as some machinery,. hauled out of doc k„
and sailed this afternoon for Woolwich.
The Oberon, 3, iron paddle, Lieut.-Commander Free-
land, swung ship to-day and ascertained the deviation of
her compass.
The lEolus, 42, was brought down the harbour to-dny
and placed in the fitting-basin. She is ordered to lie
completed with all despatch, to take shot, shell, al id
ammunition for the Baltic.

PORTSMOUTH, WEDNESDATI I

The wind has been all round the compass to-day, and
much milder. We had a slight fall of snow from the
south-east, where the wind is now, with a disposition to
westwardly.

DEVONPORT, WSDN.ZSDA.Y..;

The Nankin, 50, Captain the Hon. Keith Stewat t,
which arrived here on Thursday last from the eastward,
was paid wages in advance on Monday, and sailed yes-
terday for the East Indies.

The Exmouth, 90, Captain the Hon. F. Pelham, w as
paid wages on Friday, and on Monday put to sea on a
cruize, to shake down her riigging and try her machi-
nery. She is destined for tine flag ship of Rear-Admiral
Seymour.
'*The Conflict, 8, screw, Captain A. Camming, and
Cruiser, 10, screw, Commander Hon. E. H. Douglas,
arrived here on Monday to make good defects. The
Conflict will be taken into dock at Keyham this day
(Wednesday.).
Dragon, 6, Captain Stewurt, at this port, was taken
out of dock yesterday (Tuesday), as was also the Nau-
tilus apprentice brig.
Archer, 14, screw, Capt; Heathcote, which arrived
here on Saturday last, will be taken into dock this day
(Wednesday) to make gooti t defects.
Bulldog, 6, paddle, Ca, ptain W. K. Hall, arrived
here on Friday last. She has no defects, and remains
in the Sound, ready for any service for which she may
be required.
Rosamond, 6, paddle, Commander S. S. L. Crofton,,i
was taken into dock at Keyhatn yesterday.
In the Sound.7-Buildog..

In Harbour,—lmpregnable, Royal William, Duke o
Wellington, Nile, ,Dragon, Ma,gicienno, Vulture
Eur3-alis, Cornwallis,. Rosamond, Hazier, Arches
Cruiser, Conflict, Belieisle, Sylph, Avon, Nautilu ti
Resistance, Confiance, and the Tortoise and Devoi
lighters.

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