The Sun.
London, England, 1852-04-23 00:00:00

culation—but he would not put that 1001. into his own
pocket; competition would force him to lay it out in
the improverneet of those publications, and he would
expend it in a higher order of authorship and better li-
terary talent than he was able to employ at present. It
Was a monstrous thing that, to issue penny publications
in this country—such a publication as the Popular Edu-
cator, or the Working Man's Friend—a man should be
called upon to hand over week by week to the Gisvere-
bent 401. or 501., the fund out of which authorship
would be paid. A man who did not care what he pub-
lished, and who only looked to cheapness and issuing
translations from French novels, and a variety of toit-
tFrs that appealed to the passions, for the purposege:
• large circulation, might copy what he wanted from
Works, and the paper duty which he paid did
h" notd is other
stand
in the way of his penny publications, because
Want any fund out of which to pay authorship; but if
they wished to meet that qeestion in themark-thaats,
asto
circulating those publtea""' whichaiw.,r find out of which
~ they were cheap. they must crease
higher order of lite-
e
a
_authorship should be p'i't, and
rary talent should be empleyed. H. had received a let-
ter from a gentleman-who he was surf' the House would
admit-was a high authority on this subject—Mr. C.
Knight. It wee da ed Fleet-street, the 19th of
April, 1852 He had published '
n
one or two excellent pam-
,
phlets on the question of the piper duty, known by the
- name of " The Struggles of a Bonk against Taxation,"
and also the case of authors iu reference to the paper
duty, and he said:—
"It is diffieult to add anything new to the arguments
which have been urged in the House of Cemmous and
by other modes for the abolition of the paper duty. A
few points have struck me in addition to what I have
written on the subject. Amid much which is injurious or
frivolous in cheap publications, I think there is a manifest
tendency towards the moral and intellectual improve-
ment of the general character of our popular lit- rature.
The conductors of periodical works almost exclusively
addressed to the working classes, as they are termed,
appear to me to have conatnenced ceasing to think that it
is necessary to write down to their readers. As a neut-
ral consequence of this tendency, writers of information
and ability are more needed, perhaps more employed.
But this tendency is counteracted by the paper-duty. I
will explain myself as briefly as I can. It 2501. be given
for the authorship of a large octavo volume, it operates
as a charge of 51. per copy if 1,000 copies be printed,
and the book must be high priced; but if 10,000 be
printed, the authorship only enters into price at the
rate of 6d. per copy, and the book may be low-priced.
But the psper-duty upon such a volume amounts to 6d.
per copy, whether 1,000 or 10,000 be printed; and it
10,000 be printed, amounts to as much as the author-
ship. Reduce the payment of authorship, and the
value of the book is injured; take away the paper.
duty, and you neither lower the quality nor limit
the sate of the book. There is, tnen, a fund for
the better remuneration of that labour which is
to raise the quality and extend the sale, and thus ad
Vance the great end of all popular literature—the diffu-
- aion of knowledge and the elevation of the moral and
religious character of a people. But it is said that the
repeal of the paper-tex would only operate as a b ems to
Publishers, without lowering the price or books to the
Public. I believe that the ordinary effects of competition
would determine this doubt very satisitietorily. It is
possible that there might be no direct lowering of price
is many assets of low-priced books, but I am sure that
there would be an improvement of quality. The number
Of printed pages sold tor Is. might be the same as now.
but there would be better paper, better type, and, what
IS more important, improved authorship. Publishers of
Very cheap books would look for something to publish
having a copyright value, instead of bad translations and
hackneyed reprints. Beyond this, large undertakings,
of which we have very few now, world have a greater
encouragement were the paper-duty repealed, for the
price of voluminous works could be directly lowered and
their sale consequently increased. I will give an ex-
ample. g have determined to bring out a new Cyclopedia
'the Imperial—founded upon the Penny Cyclopedia. It
Will form 20 volumes. If I print 5 000 copies, the taxed
Paper would cost 12 0001., of which the actual duty
Would amount to 2.2501., and the direct and indi-
rect additions to cost, (meat quent upon the duty, would,
its I believe. double the tax. Los king at ihe operation
Of the coat of paper alone, I could reduce the price of
the book 5 per cent. to the subscritn-rs it the tax were
removed; but, taking into consideraiion the feet that I
Could then print 1,000 copies at the price at which I
couldt. stereotype the 20 volumes (which process is
c,.11'09 employed to save the outlay of cspital in taxed
rPer), I could reduce the price 10 per cent. The effects
„it,
ellen a tax upon prices are not to be measured by its
lireot amount. Fur extimple it may be said that the
ura
whack of duty upon exported bodes allows the fo-
. reit,
uers to be charged as low a price as if the paper
„..e
untaxed. This ie re ally not the case. The draw-
back
amt,llPY. represents the positive tax, and not the in
tax. Assume that I
ere
--,Vice- consequent upon the
publisherell °4 copies es of my Cyclopeedia to an American
per copy, the taxed paper costing me
pl,iool, I obtain drawback of 2251., which le duces the
price of the 500 copies to 2175/, at which rate they were
2271
.ied, adds
The American tariff of 10 per cent.
9 • 'O4 to the importer's ouilay, making a total of
etso2/
side. ',IN. But if I ceuld buy my paper untaxed, I con-
' test I should save, in various ways, 4501., so that I
truiy_ht reduce the price to 41. 2s. per copy, to which the
a
i'u Would add 2051. The importer woule therefore save
2471,105. That advantage to the importer of 10 per cent.
wouldsAl probably double my sale in The United States.
e portion of the advantage would be the deninishs d
amount of tax which he would pay to his own Govern•
!neat- The direct tax and its collateral effects, in one
elintry produce similar effects in another country, rais-
ing the price to the consumer, and thus narrowing the
market of the producer. The chief argument which I
have Constantly urged for the repeal of the paper-duty
la, that the tax bears most unequally upon the lower-
, - Priced publications, as compared with the higher-priced,
and therefore interferes injuriously with the education
of the people. Upon the wholesale price of a modern
revel it is 14 per cent. Upon Mr. Dickens's Ronsehold
Words it is 12 per cent.; it is 2t per cent. noon th:,,
Quarterly Review; it is 17 per cent. upon Chambers 's
Papers for the People. Look at the inequality as re gaids
" two latter examples of periodical works, addressed
to different classes of the community. 1 000 copies of
One number of the Review, sold for 65., pay a duty of
4/ 149.; 1,000 copies of one unbound volume of the
fryers, sold for Bd., pay a duty of 31 6s. It there were
• an ad valorem duty of 5 par cent, upon all printed bucks,
1,000 copies of the Review would pay 151, and 1.000
copies of the Papers would pray 11. 13.1. 41. It is
estimated that the annual sales '0 eli books and
Periodical works, not newspapers, amount, at '
• the retail price, to 2,000,0001. An ad valorem
'tamp of 5 per cent. would raise as much as the
• I)pser duty upon printed books, and would operate less
.injuriously. Capital would not be locked up in tax, for
the stamp would be demanded as the demand for copies
went on; and the manufacturer's and stationer's profit
upon the tax would be got rid of. The public would then
really understand that a tax upon paper is a tax upon
, knowledge, and would not be deceived into a belief that
because it enters into the price of a 12s. volume to the
extent only of 6d, its removal would not benefit the
great and increasing body of book purchasers. Such a
T
"ole of levying a tax upon literature would be more ob-
ua than the paper duty though less harmful; but
there would be justice in the principle instead of gross
- inneeslthealatutgallotfre existing law."
in their de tarestt amade it clear that if they were sincere
that sincerity by Spread education, they ought to evince
or traeeng
a consumer. off this paper duty. It was not
portant national questctlaueetion, it was a moral and im-
the people to read tf teem d.lt was monstrous to teach
all
they could to improve
.10:1 not at the 'mole time do
d the
• were likely to peruse, eitdtte,e,,stuality of the books they
81:10p•pmeatinted
fur
knowledge
publi-
cations was so great, ee
same. kind or other sea, et
the extensive transactions strongly evinced by
the
that branch of business, that ~_te men engaged in
there would not be an ezteeeivay
&toast not suppose
kind of cheap literature or other. Irculation of some
cieartainty, and,
quality of that
a matter of doubt—it was a matter of
That was no longer
therefore. every wellwisher of the real e-est of the
•
country must desire that the
literature
which was circulated should be ee good a
He had dealt w* B it could be
rendered.—(islear•) •
glad to
rt the ntt,,,
s- eer duty
at the same time with the adverttsemsnt and hewapanur
stamp duties, because they had originated at- • --
should thearne
he
ed
that be
time,had been put on together,adamndit
take them off together. lie the duty on
paper, amounting to about
800,090 t. a year, though a
against the moral improvement of
small sum to he set
for
him to ask the House
the people, was too large a sum
re
g rd to the advertise-
.. to repeal. The resolutions ind
1 eot: him to apply for an
• hint and stamp duties (retie ur
immediate repeel; oiniou that it but the resolution as to the paper
duty only called upon them to give their p
-sent tax. Ile had
Was not fit to be continued as a petneeh
a.great suspicion that the paper duty, under. the ape-
m ous disguiao of raising money for carrying ,
on the
really was part of a system for the purpose of restrain-
ing literature and keeping down the press. Those
duties being enacted in the same year, he
could not help thinking that perhaps the same
Motive• that had actuated Parliament as to the paper
•• duty had actuated them is enacting the advertisement
and stamp duties. Now. the advertisement duty
amounted to 150,0001, or, if they pleased, 160 000/., a
year. Was that a large sum to be trightened at when
they talked of repealing duties, considering how large a
surplus revenue they had, and censidering that this tax
°pen advertisements struck, as he believed, more than
anything that existed, at the very revenue they proposed
to increase by it ?—(Hear, hear.) A tax noon adver-
. "sernentsl—that no man might way what he wished and
what he wanted to be known in the way of busii ess
transactions in print and in a newspaper, but he must be
Utd is. 6d. each time he did so. It he said,•
sibl was,
eto conceive a more stupid tax. If he wanted a
mode for lessening the public revenue he would augge,t
mode which lessened traussctione between mess and the
means of making their mutual wants known to each
Other, Which lessened in fact, trade, consumption, em-
l3ieement, and revenue; and he would undertake to say
that if they repealed this advertisement duty, they
(Hear.)
never know it in their next year's revenue,—
‘ear.) But, if that were true, could there be conceived
"anything more unjust than to say to a poor servant
_girl who wanted a place, You want a place—if you
stakeex_ it known to the world by the only means that
case you must be fined Is. 63. each time?" Take the
of ilhip2 merchants' time connected with
• sales of
every
kind. transac
• Could ay n anything be more obvious
than that
Preventing the knowledge of what was going
on was the
of commercial
surest mode of preventing the improvement
There transactions and of the public revenue?
luau was nothing one man wanted to sell but another
, could be found
Jild wanting to buy it; and, it they were
lelhne, they se, t
.old not stand in the way of' those mu-
tual wants beingunavoidabl Made known; the difficulties that were
States of wete great enough. Look at the United
rtt_America. - They had 10 000,000 of advertise-
Vats ist their newbpapoes in a year. In England there