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

. _
ought to repeal it—(Hear, hsar)—becanse by maintain-
ing it they would be guilty of the grlssest injustice.
Now, in order to show the absurdity of saying
that a
daty was levied upon news and observations upon news,
he would refer to some 'unstamped publications, and then
leave the House to say whether they did not contain
matter of this description. The Racing Times and the
Racing Telegraph both contained accounts of the betting
and of the races in different parts of the country, with
other turf news; the Legal Observer gave the proceed-
ings in the courts of law; and the Builder also con-
tained news of another description. Now, he believed
all these publications were in strictness liable to be
brought under the stamp duties; but the Board of In-
land Revenue had drawn a fine distinction between class
news and general news—that is if you divide a news-
paper, which must be stamped, into half a dozen, each
may be published without a stamp. He believed this
distinction was a pure invention of the Board of Inked
Revenue, and was not to be found in the Act of Parlia-
ment, which spoke of "news intelligence, and occur-
rences;" and certainly the:papers to• which he had re-
curred did detail " occurrences." But the Legislature
by this duty= did not alone affect the publication of facts,
but also of -observations upon those facts,- attacks
on the Ministry, and so -forth. He would, however,
ask the House - whether the extracts from unstamped
papers, to which he
would now refer, did not contain
ceinents On public events? r
The` Right Honohrable
Gentlemen then read. fromthe Rothe, conducted: by
Richard Oastler, some conaments upon a late speech _of
1-4;,
Mr. Rright's in the'
rn
of Commons; from the Legal-.
Observer part of an article :in support of the repeal of
the attorneys' certificate duty, and from the Lamp (a
penny publication), portions of articles up
elections." 3
on the late
change of Ministry and upon "the coming
These were certainly observations on public occurrences,
and were liable to the stamp duty; but the Government
durst riot enforce the law against those publications,for
if they did they would have to deal with a legion of
them, and would be involved in the same trouble that
they were in 1836. This was, he thought, one of the
strongest possible reasons that could be adduced why the
House should give its assent to his resolutions, and why
such a law should be repealed. The newspaper pro-
prietory were not entitled to be considered ,s a -body
having a vested interest in the maintenance of this tax,
uor did he believe that many of that body would urge
such a plea against the repeal of this duty. If, however,
they did, he contended that Parliament were. neverthe-
less justified in dealing with these taxes upon broad
public grounds. The Right Etdn. Gentleman concluded
by moving the first resolution of which he had gilt=
notice. _ _

___M__
r. EWART, in seconding the motion, said that he
did so because this was a quest:"
ion connected with the
practical education of the people.
taxes, in the first piece, hensuse he deemed the stamp-
dutyrie objected to these
to be a tax upon the raw material of thought;
while the advertisemout-duty was
a
inter-
course of mankind. He believed ax upon the
that the great advan-
tage of modern times was, that
deliberating
termed their
judgments upon public affairs by
materials furnished them by the
and not by the
was the House asked
yanwcpieent institutions of
d
the security of property, they should
every'alite a;
it
means°onsecuresof P'forrealer the
i h iPs
assemblies;
41
el
; w andand g ' )dlc)lendliv
,oarreh ' a: e9tr ' give ehoofuf formation rnhmet society
uponartpeople ant'stio and
tehree modern their judgment. On what
dgartoeudnfdriemo
to continue those taxes? Some
con-
sider that they were a part of the seemed to
Kaight had declaredthatthiatt
the country; but the tact was the
inno-
vations. The peper duty wars of Marl-
borough; the stamp duty was one of re origin; and
theadvoe
fr ttihs eemceonutn-
country. Mr.
wmars. firstc Chambers
a micmb
eeprelossedmhee.diltstated before
The paper-duty had proved most by Mr. Pitt.
adverse to the in-
terestsa
Committee of the Reuse of
Commons
one of his
publication, and Mr.
rendered necessary the Oiscontinuance had
long as it continued it would be impossible Pen ever again
to publish such a work as the
It had also the effect of preventing
the ny Cyclopcedia.
of the highest class of talent upon employment
The advertisement duty, as he had alreadynewspapers.
said, be
considered to he a tax upon the highway of
human in-
tercourse—it was this tax which prevented
newspapers arising. The circulation of daily any new
newspapers
more in New York (which did not contain
Core than one-
fourth the population of London) 130,000 o
in London it was only 60,000. He believed thates'while
the
h
stamp duty was most adverse to the circulation of sound
knowledge.
In America every poor man a daily
newspaper upon his breakfast table, and he should like
But we to see the same the case is England. were told
that if the stamp duty was taken off we should
cease to
have respectable newspapers. The reduction of the duty
from 4d. to ld., in 1834, had, however, been
followed
brnewspapers;
great increase in the respectability of
and why, therefore, should the repeal of the duty have
pan injurious effect? It was then said that if theu stamp
duty were taken off the newspapers would become local.
ii e believed that would be an advantage.
The
in Americe was decidely local, and yet oneof pre"
thewit-
nesses before the Committee of the House of Commons
said that they were there found to be worth all the
schools put together. He believed, indeed, that we
should
never improve the education of the people until
we attacked them on their practical interests, and ap-
pealed to them through the newspaper press. So far
was he from thinking that an unstaue ed press would
promote the spread of republican doctrines,P that he be-
lieved that if we gave people under a monarchy every
possible advantage which they could obtain under a re-
public, they would be more
and more attached to our
constitutiocal monarchy. He thought it was especially
the duty of a wise Chancellor
of the Exchequer to re-
moire the advertisement duty, for, while it only yielded
150,0001. to the revenue, it pressed upon every interest
It
was
in the country. a tax of the same nature as that
on almanseks, the repeal of which by Lord Altborp
was followed by so great an improvement in the quality
and so great a reduction in
the price of those publica-
tions. For all these reasons he cordially supported tho
motion of his Right Friend; believing that if,
-undertow' limited mon en.
those to which he
had referred,
we removed abuses such as
referred, we should not give rise
to discontent, but
.should increase the contentment as
.well as the security of the people. In the words of
Milton, " That it not the liberty which we should
hope—that no grievancee
n should ever arise in the com-
monwealth; that let man in this world expect; but
when complaints are foely
r heard, deeply considered,
t
and speedily reformed, eh en is the utmost point of civil
liberty attained which
Tne CHANCELLOR of
man eau look for."
of the EXCHEQUER said—
In the few oheerva'.' ions that I have to make upon this
motion, I can assure the Itight Hon. Gentleman that
neither I nor my colleagueshe
are at all influenced by those
has ascribed to some of the
men who have been the originate's or controllers of
these duties. I can s
leagues that we have Liotly f frankly for myself and my col-
ear or apprehension respecting
the influence of the pre
a country long sst and in a country like
establishedthis—
in in the eujoymant of prac-
tical liberty, in a country eminently religious—l cannot
admit for a moment that experience drawn from the
instances of other land
but the s, where I will not say the enjoy-
ment,experience of
resulted in circumstances an unrestricted press, has
which
be brought forward as ch we all deplore—should
own. But I must any warning to a country like our
much less interesting, consider
this case, I fear, in a view
adapted to charm the much less philosophical, much less
pursued by the Right Houseße than that which has been
'
n. Gentleman the Member for
Manchester. It is only n a financial point of view that
at present.
present. Now we have before
us three propositieus
I each of which, if carried,
affects the finances of this
car-
ried all together materially affect our finances. The
not immediately, to top, first calls upon this House, if
paper should be eBB an opinion that the duty on
such an opinion as must - abolished or repealed, yet to express
responsible fur theiofluenee the course of the Mi-
nisterdo not wish to contest the finances of the country. I
the Right Hon. Gentlemanaccuracy of the view which
the effect of the excise duty has taken. with respect to
manu-
facture of that article.; a hon paper upon the
ready to vindicate the ave- never been particularly
; but when the Rigot
beneficial_ influence of excise du-
tiesat-
tention to the injurious ,ff,rlieen• Gentleman calls our
manufacture of this particularts of an Excise duty on the
say that I am not aware that the article, I am bound to
excise duties is limited to injurious effect of the
even that if we compare the effect particular, article, or
upon paper- with their eft ect of these regulations
it would not be possible for ct
upon other articles,
which their influence is me to adduce instances in
more injurious. I do
not now wish to enter in
cusi'ion upon this question, but if I had risen,
to
any line of dis-
and dilated f upon tho in.
Excise upon any other article elrious effect of the
example—l dare say I should have made out a case that
raahnfacture—soap for
would have carried away the House
although the plea might not have been
with equal success,
that which has been put forth by the Bight
as ably urged as
Gen-
tleman with regard to the manufacture ight Hon.
then we must consider whether inof paper. But
this country these
taxes are not necessary evils, and v,
ability which we have to relieve we must consider the
industry of the
country, which is the wisest directionewhich we can
move, so as to redress any wrong or t in
I am not wishing to giie an opiate, .: effect any good.
re-
lief of soap from the excise. I only a favour of the
stance in preference to that on Pa___l:uetttion it as an in-
stancy I think the
Right Hon. Gentleman will admit trhatA
excise duty are not less injurious upon
thisthe effects of an
manufacture
than upon that which is mm
iediately before the atten-
tion of the Housea Well, Sir, I sin th erefore obliged
to consider the question as regards the
purely in a financial point of view., I
shall
duty on paper
be extremely
glad, in this instance or in any other instance, to relieve
industry or to advance the progress of the
human race
and the education of the people, but its my first duty
to consider whether with regard to
the main-
tenance of the revenue of this country
consent to any propositions of thisl can
cannot say that I shout I feel justified ea assentingkind. to the
proposition of the Right Hon. Gentleman. It is scarcely
fair upon me to press me at this moment uponoa this point.
I hope that to morrow week I shall beforee the
th
House what I believe to be the real state of Gentleman finances
of the country; and when the Right Hon
'
and his friends are in full possession of the
nave facts
which
I shall place before them—when they a
ilthen be
listened to
the views of her Majesty's Ministers—it w
perfectly open to them, if they think themselves
justi-
fied in disputing the policy which we recommend,:to
advance their own views as counter propositions, and
fairly to challenge the attention of the House to them.
At present I can only say that I do not ieel justified iu
assenting to a vote which would be equivalento
t to a de-
claration on the part of this House teet th t ax on paper
should be totally repenled. With gard
o the other
two points which the Right Honourable
the Gentlemanduties
has
placed before the House, namely,
havees on adver-
tisements and on newspaper stamps, Ino hesita-
tion in saying that I think they are subjects
that de-
serve the very grave consideration' of a Chancellor of
34 Exchequer. But, again, I mast
,Consider them pri-