The Sun.
London, England, 1855-04-06 00:00:00

EXCHEQUER.

The Memorial of the Proprietors of Yorkshire News-
papers, assembled at Leeds on the 2d April, 1855.

Your memorialists beg respectfully to lay before you
the following resolution, passed unanimously at the
above meeting :
" The House of Commons having recognised the princi-
ple of unstamped newspapers being legalised, and that the
use of the news stamp shall be cowpulsory only for the
purpose of free transmission, this meeting is of opinion—
That in the opinion of this meeting it would be a great ad-
vantage to the public, and a convenience to newspaper pro-
prietors, as well as au actual and considerable gain to the
revenue, if the proposed stamp on newspapers, to entitle
them to transmission and re-transmission through the Pest-
office, were a halfpenny instead of a penny; and if there
were also issued halfpenny stamped covers, to entitle un-
stamped copies of registered newspapers to a single trans-
mission through the post."

Your mernoriahsts are aware that, in deciding between
the penny and the halfpenny stamp, you will feel it right
;o look, in the first place, at the interests of the revenue
—but in the second place, not to overlook the advantage
and convenience to the public. In their judgment both
of these objects would be advanced by the adoption of
the halfpenny stamp.

I. The revenue.
It admits of no doubt that, when newspapers may be
legally published without stamps, the number of papers
stamped for the purpose of freeing the post, supposing
the price of the stamp to be a penny, will be greatly be-
low the number which now pass through the post-office.
Unstamped papers will then be sent in numbers by rail-
ways and other conveyances, and will be distributed by
special messengers, or sold by letter-carriers. Whatever
may be said of the reasonableness of the charge of a
penny for conveying newspapers by the post, it is cer-
tain that no one will pay the penny if he can obtain his
paper delivered for a halfpenny, still less if he can have
it delivered free of charge for conveyance. Ia nearly all
towns, we apprehend, the services of the Post-office will
be dispensed with for the distribution of newspapers ;
and also in most villages and country districts news-
agents will arise, and will make their profit by doing
that which is at present done by the pust, and disposing
of newspapers and other publications. The letter-car-
riers will themselves become dealers in unstamped pa-
ers.

Tnat this will be the case is evident, on considering
the large percentage which a penny bears to the price
of the newspaper : on a fourpenny newspaper it is 25
per cent., on a threepenny paper 33 per cent., on a two-
penny paper 50 per cent., and on a penny paper 100 per
cent. This large percentage falling upon a paper re-
ceived weekly, or even daily, will induce all to avoid it
who can. And there are comparatively few who will
not he able to have an unstamped paper delivered for
a halfpenny, or even less, in one or other methods al-
ready indicated.
It may b 3 assumed that the tendency of the news-
paper trade will be towards the publication of smaller
and cheaper papers ; and as the charge of one penny on
such papers will be higher in proportion than on the
existing papers, extremely few of those new publications
will be likely to be printed on penny stamps.
Your memorialists can answer for themselves, that if
the stamp should be a penny, they would at once be
compelled to devise, with the aid of their agents and cus-
tomers, every means of sending their papers by railway
parcels and in other modes ; and they believe that they
would be able to send by far the' greater proportion of
their papers which now pass through the post by other
and cheaper methods, so as to avoid using stamped
paper for them.
It may be expected that the railway companies will
afford every facility for the regular and cheap conveyance
of newspapers, so as to compete with and undersell the
Post-office ; in which object they would certainly to a
great extent succeed.
The future proportions of stamped and unstamped
newspapers may in some degree be judged of by the
class of publications, which have part of their issue
stamped and the rest unstamped: It is believed that by
very far the larger proportion of the impressions issued
are unstamped. Of Punch, as stated by yourself in the
House of Commons, only 8,000 copies are stamped, and
32,000 unstamped—being only one-fifth of the whole im-
pression stamped. If this is the case with a publication
sold at threepence, it may be assumed that a far less
proportion of any publication sold at twopence receives
a stamp, if any at all. And in future it cannot be ex-
pected that any papers of which the price is below three-
pence would receive a penny stamp.
Considering all the circumstances which have been re-
ferred to, it seems not improbable that the number of

newspapers sent through the Post-office would in future
be reduced at least one-half, and possibly two-thirds ;
and as the expenses of the Post-office could not be re-
duced in anything like a corresponding proportion, the
revenue may suffer more seriously than you yourself have
contemplated.
If, however, instead of a penny stamp for newspapers
to entitle them to transmission and re-transmission
through the Post-office, only a halfpenny stamp were
required, your memorialists believe that an immensely
larger proportion of newspapers issued would be printed
on stamped paper. The difference of the halfpenny woul
in many, if not in most, cases remove the inducement
to prefer unstamped to stamped copies. It would prac-
tically equalise the cost of the stamped and unstaruped
copies, except in the places of publication. The Pest-
office, generally speakin7, would then deliver newspapers
as cheaply as they could be delivered in any other way.
There might in some cases be a fractional difference (not,
however, equal to the smallest coin in circulation) in
favour of distribution by news-agent., or special mes-
sengers, but the difference would be so slight as to induce
newspaper proprietors to prefer the less troublesome
mode of the Post-office ; and their customers would pro-
bably wish to receive their newspapers, along with their
letters, by the post delivery, as at present. A halfpenny
stamp would be universally approved, and scarcely any
would think it worth their while to inquire if a cheaper
mode of delivery could be found. Not only fourpenny and
threepenny papers, but probably even twopenny papers,
would print a considerable part of their impression on
stamped sheets. Of course, when newspapers were sold
(stamp included) at least a halfpenny cheaper than at
present, the circulation would be stimulated, and a
larger proportion would pass through the Post-office ;
still more would this be the case, if the existing papers
were issued at a greater reduction of price than a half.
penny, or if new publications should appear of a smaller
size and lower price than the present. It may be con-
fidently assumed that the tendency of a halfpenny stamp
would be continually towards an increased consumption,
whilst the tendency of a penny stamp 'would be con-
tmnally towards a diminished consumption.
. What would be the amount of the increase in the num-
ber of newspapers issued and sent through the Post-office
can only be matter of coLjecture. But there are reasons
for believing that the increase would be very great. Ac
cording to a paper just printed by the House of Lords
(No. 59), the number of stamps issued to newspapers in
1835, before the former reduction of the newspaper
stamp, was 32,973,400, and the number issued in 1854

was 111,977,403, showing an increase in twenty years
of 79,004,008, or 239 per cent.
The reduction in the price of the existing papers likely
to take place now will not be quite so great in proportion
as it was twenty years ago ; but, considering the proba-
bility of new and smaler papers being published, at a
lower price, and that every reduction of price brings
newspapers within the means of a much larger class of
the population, whilst the progress of education is also
augmenting the number of readers, it seems not impro-
bable that ere long the number of copies of newspapers
issued in this country will be threefold the present
number.

It will not, therefore, be an over-estimate to compute
,hat the number of newspapers printed on half-penny
stamps to clear the post, would be at least double the
number which now pass through the Post-office.
If, then, the effect of a penny stamp would be to re-
duce the number of stamped papers at least one-half,
and the effect of a halfpenny stamp would be to double
them, the difference between the two rates would be
fourfold in favour of the cheaper. Of course it is not
meant that four times as many papers would be printed
in the one case as in the other, but that four times as
many would be 'tinted on stamps, to pass through the
Post office.
Your memorialists regret their inability, from the ab-
sence of any published returns of the expense thrown
utopos
hn
otwh et
hPeo satz
afEnctea
ghey
v,thhei
etransmissionv
eo f
would newspapers,accrue
to the revenue from the halfpenny stamp in comparison
with the penny stamp. It would be superfluous to expose
the fallacy of that mode of calculating which throws on
newspapers a proportion of the total expenditure of the
Post-office, equal to the propertion which the weight of
the newspapers bear to the weight of the letters. It
may be assumed that the Post-office was established,
and will continue to exist, mainly as a national institu-
tion for the conveyance of letters. The practical ques-
tion, therefore, is, what is the expense of carrying
newspapers, over and above the expenses which are in-
curred and must be incurred for the conveyance of letters?
Such was the view taken of the question by Mr. Row-
land Hill, the present Secretary of the Post-office, in his
evidence before the Commons committee on newspaper
stamps in 1851. He said—" If you consider, a 3 we
probobly should, that the expenses of the establishment
are incurred in respect of the letters, and only calculate
the additional expense which would be thrown upon us
f.,r the transmission of newspapers, then I think we
should find them profitable." (Question 1,852.) When
asked, " Suppose the newspapers were removed alto-.
gether from,
you,ho much couldltle d
yionuereeddy,ce
(Questionyex-
pensesour
.?, he replied, .od "Very little
1,872.)
stamp
yield The practical questiemnpforatnly Ga ohvearifnprennennyt ins deciding
between a penny stamp,
of
course is, what would the
upon the Pcoste-
over the expenditure speciallye
wsy
office for that particular service. It is obvious that, if
eanpt sari sl yd e in each as
the number of newspapers was
reduced to one-half, the
n
expenditure specially entailed upon newspapers would
not be reduced one-half ; and, o
number was doubled, the expense entailed by them on
the Post-office would not be doubled.
The opinion
formed by your memorialists as to then the other hand, if the
d to bear a penny
stamp, entirely agrees with that expresse—
through the Post-office, if require
by
Mr. Row-
land
1
reduction in the number of newspapers likely to be sent
Hill to the Commons' committee. He state( that
the number of newspaper stamps issued in 1849 was
79 millions, and the number of stamps computed to