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

S 9 APRIL 23, 1852.

. • .
SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
PROM THE IstOR?TING PAPERS O,TDIS DAY. ' ..
TIMES.—The neancial policya 'ae:' rather neeess'tYs
ing the news c)f the cley, eighteen pende for publiabing
his *ante air his ivires, and three
halfpence le-p.imed for •
taan VIY a POliny tO , the State .for learn-
which metres. a
the material of all intelligence and instruction. IS a self-
evident Cell. As We happen to.be atiaselves the largest
channel-of these payments, and as 'eve have reason to
believe that they are to a large extent 'at our own ex-1
as burdens on one peculiar ifidustrea'?:So far,
pense, we can only regard neat in '3beir natural light,
we cannot
but` be grateful to Mr. Milner'GiEdon for his vigorouS
deounciation 'of . 'waxes on tatee;wiedge," which, like
a cats§ en.foed,": " taXaa'On inchiltry," "taxes on pate.
Slenc'e,"*"'t axes' on right,”
'and 'other like penalties, very
significantly . mark , eats
ee. ettattotet4 ss.f . this vulgar
.existence. But, strange. as it rdAr it lin, ~goodo sealed.
is never so likely to go wrong' as NO* he is handling. a
self-evidenttruths : When a spreacht* opens his sermon,
with a truism, watnay be inireS le ftirder to redeem it
from poverty; he` is about to'gilel• itasvith paradox and
exaggeration. • Mr. Milner Gibilod, ''having
4 *rather
backnied truth to deal with, rode hih hobby last night a
good deal too hard; andewheti he.disn
Mr. ieuated, the insa-
tiable Ewart rods it
still, harder.To those taxis
were ascribed all the-,lnisfoatuni
' aes‘ of literature—ill-paid—ill-paid
anthers, ruined publishers, anill-suPplied public trades-
men without •.custom, .- housemaids out of place, se-
rials ' without readers, and newspapers in a state
which we most unaffectedly declare 'it is rio pleasure
to us to describe: These misfortune's are owing to 'a
great variety of causes; and Rt. as
-s "'liner Gibson refers
them only to one-that is, sto' ‘i taps' .94. knoirledg?."
rhil narrow view of the. subject A. not merely an.iti-
juitice to the successful,v'ehich,.taatti veil little, but,
what is far more itnneitatt; ittlinarttsasikassisetessee--,
medies within 'everybody's" reach. it; as Mr. Milner
Gibson says, the Times is eating up" the other papers,
it is as unfair to ascribe that devouring process to the
operation of the advertisement duty as it would be to
lay the secret of Mr. Macaulay'a success to the duty on
caper. The circulation of our contemporaries rises and
falls under the same conditions as to taxation; new
journals have beaten old ones even since " taxes on
knowledge" were annually discussed; serials have made,
end are still making, the fortunes of their authors ana
character can -get niece notwith
, -
A good t
a good
' I • lluences which were last
standing the irresistib e i e
ood servant with
publishers; and, to crown all, every good
imagined against „ it. The greater part of „Mr.
shiner Giason's ispaech;* and nearly all that ' was neiv in
it,
nately, is so productive that its repeal is almost a hope-
less
waffair.
o t eod t
On
the
t thetestimony
n poi aspoeule, which
well-know,lishera, this duty was described as particularly injurious
and indeed fatal to the hicpub-
lishers, unfortu
n
a, ap and instructive class of
serials. 'lt is said that they only pay by gaining sub-
scribers as they proceed, through the increasing appre-
ciation of their merits, and by the consequent sale of
their back numbers; but, as the 'back numbers will not
be disposed of till many months or years after the date
of their publication, it follows that a good deal of capital
ehfail to be oarspeculetion,
paper duty.
mbpueutrs,
ht
as
spe
is
tsunk
paerfaoerrshtahtroad sl
yup esf
,ar ii ori dtj
ui
dno
ga tnehseno
esf hvseaurpe
ha-
zardous under the most favourable circumstance. The
most casual glance at the Wok-stalls reveals the
fact that serials don't keep, and it can only be
a limited class of very enthusiastic, probably
youthful subscribers, who are BO pleased with
No. 50 that they order the whole series from the be-
ginning. There is a 'general complaint in the trade
last cheapness is carrise tutu far in these publications,
abet is, at the risk and inconvenience of. others ; nay,
it was stated the other day at a meeting of publishers
;hat several of the class have lately determined to have
nothing to do with cheap serials. We wish, too, that
would naturally
and
we could persuade ourselves that the saving to arise
trim ihe remission of the paper duty
This seems_ to us a gratuitous supposition, as there would
still remain the same inducement as now to cut down
fill the costs to the lowest possible scale, not only in the
spirit of rivalry, but for thesake of profit. One of the
most singular and lamentable features of.Arnerican. so-
ciety is the very low scale of remuneration, even for the
highest literary services, compared with the profits,
of all other ' occupations ;_ and, whether with rea-,
-souor not, that- is abstribed to the extreme cheapness
of allkinds of literature. It is, in fact, so cheap and abun-
dant as to swamp real merit and vulgarize the taste Of
the public. We have made these rem
i arks upon serials
because they occupy the chief place n Mr. M. Gibson's
catalogue of grievances. As to the inconvenience of the
Excise in the process of manufacture, and the neces-
sity, under existing circumstances, of first drying paper
for the Exciseman's scales, and then wetting it for the
press, that is an undeniable nuisance; though, we are
sorry to say, only one Excise nuisance out of a legion.
We find ourselves- once more-sthe object of allusion,
with a running inuendo that wo have an in-
terest in maintaining the taxes on knowledge. On se-
veral former occasions it has been shown in these co-
lumns that, as the remission of the paper duty would
constitute only a small fraction of a penny in the price
of each paper, it could not be deducted from the price,
and must fall to the proprietors. Of course, we could
not object to that. As for the duty on the advertise-
ments, there can only be one opinion on its gross ine-
quality.. We feel it so strongly that for servants wan-
ting places we charge on a very
unprofitable scale. But,
after all, they contribute only a small portion of our ad-
vertisements. In round numbers, there were yesterday
about twelve hundred advertisements in our paper, and
of these about two hundred were for servants wanting
places. The advertisement duty for the day amounted
to 90/., of which 151, or not more thin 17 per cent. of
the whole, was paid for the class of advertisements
which is very naturally felt to deserve consideration.
It is not our. interest that this class should-increase to
the exclusion of a more' profitable kind; and; if the
duty shold be taken off, and our office should be more
thronged than ever with servants wanting places, it is
not improbable that we should find it necessary to
keep up the charge to nearly its present scale. As
to the other classes of advertisements, the duty in ge-
neral forms but a small portion "of the cost. We have
no interest in the mainteuence of this duty, and, con-
sidering the infinite variety of: other ways in which
people can advertise their commodities, their professions,
their books, and themselves, at no other cost than the
clogging of our thoroughfares,
the defacement of our
walls, and the general annoyance of the public, we can-
not but think the newspapers are rather hardly used.
There remains the stamp duty. Here, too, we can have
no possible interest, except to be emancipated from
much cost and trouble. We happen, indeed, to be special
sufferers, being the only paper-
ffpublishesuorr.
eaars supplement.
Gainbstohne, expressilb y°rtehwed9 li
I;fieor:t7drtooatareghxeseattnw 'oeeatanlg intmadvttoaeoisthteoeu with
invariablyui
enterprise.rttheaptdheeurr
their
operatesh
1. i
fact accuracy the evidence given before the Committee
as to the effect of this duty. 04 Oqr eirculation. It is not
the stamp on the first sheet, charged ail., but the stamp
on the second sheet, given grand, which destroys the
profit of oar paper after a certain circulation, and thus
operates to the injury of the advertiser and purchaser—
in fact, of the public at large. As to the general question
of the stamp duty, en behalf of the whole metropoli-
tan press, we only ask to be fairly dealt witb. Mr.
Ewart sufficiently indicates the effect of substituting a
postage for a stamp duty, when he recommends the
localization of the press. At present the London papers
and their more ambitious provincial competitors start
far, being equally weighted 'with the penny stamp.
While,•therefore, the country papers appropriate our
Parliamentary., legal, commercial, and, foreign intelli-
gence, and such other costly matter, with the utmost
dispatch, and without so much as thanks, there still ex-
ists a large, class of country readers who prefer the
Times at sd. to any provincial paper at that pries. But,
if they have to pay sd. Or sii foi the Times by post,
and only 0. for some provincial reproduction of its con-
tonal delivered at their. door by a running messenger,
they may possibly prefer the' cheap and piratical sub-
stitute: We trust that this is not to be recommended
on the 'principle of free trade; for, in fact, it will be no-
thing but a protected robbery, P
-°F our own part, we
never asked for anything
but fair play; we have never
received more than fair play; and we never wish for

night
Mr. Milner
Athtattorney-General
honour which binds
tlihtiiiinnetrereGstiboaf°tnh'se
111()Drei IL
proved,
sorts
0 f duringho n
Y NEWS.,-,-,Last
dveobgaatee:onthe
there are two
motion respecting taxes on literature
gentlemen to fulfil their promises
. and to respect their
pledges, and the , honour peculiar to revenue boards and
law, officers, which leads them, " for
ourthien
solemn
public," to forswear their most einn en_
gagemente.
This is the sort of honour which has been vonchsaf ti
by the Board of Inland Reveille toP4r.,Charles Dickense
in reference to his finusehstd "Marraise Of Current
Events. Our readers are aware that this publication is
a compact little monthly newspaper, put forth on the
faith of a common sense construction of statutes, which
exolado from starap.cluty periodicals issued at intervals
greater than 26 days between each number, The Board
-of Inland Revenue, having rashly annihilated an obscure
provincial -.monthly journal ofd A similar
cha.
motel', were obliged, in sei Nustification, to
follow np one wrong by
_perpetrating another.
Although picked officers of the board, when
afterwards examined before the Select committee on
"-newspaper stamps, owned that they could not tell—from
the-confusiori and contradiction of_ the law—what a
sta.
tutable newspaper is or is not,
the b oaril took upon itself
to decide ttiat the liousehold Narrdtive of Current
Events is liable to b 3 stem :'d; but its proprietor, being
stronger in purse than t'r unfortunate provincial, re
sisted this decision, and n ollacisl "Se was agreed upon
and.referred, to the Court of gachequer. After an elabo-
rate argument before four of the Barone, three of them
decided in favour of Mr. Charles Dickens; the fourth
supporting ; upon purcely technical grounds, the affirma-
Ttion of the. Stamptoffice. It my.be necessary to explain
to non-legal readers that a special case is simply a state_
meat'of faCts agreed upon by the parties on both sides,
which is to .form the basis of an arbitration—not to a
single referee, as in ordinary cases—but to a bench
' of judges; these facts being argued upon by counsel on
• both sides. Eich party stipulates in all faith and
bononr to be bound by the decision; against which,
consequently, ao„ apri4,oanlyfie9l Alen.ilie• tic..
of .
• ' nour in private lire, who have entered into ma' i com-
pact abide by it, or they cease to be men of 'amour; but

" their honours" of the Stamp-office acknowledge, it ap-
t pears, no such laws. Not being, says their mouth-piece,
the Attorney-General, " satisfied" with the decision,
they intend to prosecute Mr. Dickens further, by com-
mencing the suit against that. gentleman de novo, and
eventually huntingehim into a Court of Error.' That is
to say, the Board of Inland Revenue really—but nomi-
nally its creature and catspaw the Gove.mment—having
solemnly agreed to be bound by the judgment of a ma-
jority of arbitrators of their own choosing, break their
engagement, upon the childish plea that they see "not
satisfied." In the long and dismaLannals of litigation, it
has, we believe, never occurred that a worsted
party ever was or ever could be satisfied with being
pronounced in the wrong. Indeed, from a decision
so given there is no appeal; but, in order to create
an appeal, Mr. Dickens must be stretched once more
uptin, tee reck--smuit endure 'tetine fate lure or the
taw. The Attorney-General professes that such a gross
breach of faith is necessary to set the stamp question at
rest; but what warrant is there that the question will
be indulged with any rest until it is settled -in favour of
the plaintiffs? If there be any meaning in words, or
force in agreements, the question is settled; and settled
in favour of Mr. Dickens so thoroughly, that the law al-
lows of no appeal from a decision given upon such pro-
ceedings as those ineffectually taken against the House-
hold Narrative. Before Mr. Dickens can be dragged
into a Court of Error a new set of proceedings, and a
second decision against the Crown must be taken; and
what is to prevent the case, should the Court of Error not
give " satisfaotion" to the Board of Inland Revenue,
from being referred to the House of Lords, and dragged
through an endless trail of litigation, of which many
younger men than Mr. Charles Dickens will not live to
see the end ‘? Through such a frightful vista of legal
tarter° etlgedefendant is supported by the comfortable
experience that tie Crown pays no costs. His grpte t
misfortune has been success in the first instance. "To
haie been proved in the right is to be ruined. Blunders
like lies beget one another in geometrical progression.
The first blunder of the Commissioners of Inland
Revenue was the parent of all the others.
If they had not pat down the Norwich Re-
former upon what we, in common with three of
;our judges of the Court of Exchequer, believe to
be an erroneous construction of the law, they would
have had no occasion to attack the Rousehold Narrative.
Nor, having been foiled in that attack, would they
attempt to renew it by a disgraceful breach of faith,
prompted by a blind obstinacy in wrong. The point at
issue is, cOmprehensively, of no manner of Consequence.
There are not, and perhaps never will be, twenty publi-
cations similar to that of Mr. Dickens in the three king-
doms. Whether they be statutable newspapers or not,
makes nothing for or against the stamp abolition gees_
don, The whole affair, therefore, assumes the bad as-
pect of a petty official rancour. If the law he obscure and
confused, if it be doubtful whether that which_ is twenty-
six days old is news (although printed with what hap-
pened yesterday), and if such a doubt still exists
in spite, of the clear reading of the law by three Ex-
chequer judges, the honest course to adopt is to have
the law made clear and indisputable, either by en en-
tirely new Act or by an explanatory Act; not to break
a solemn bond upon the puerile and dishonourable
plea that the decision made in respect of it is not
" satisfactory" to the vanquished party. If the deci-
sion of three out of four judges be not final (as it
was agreed between the parties it should be), no legal
power on earth can settle the dispute. Tate case is
not to be narrowed to the bounds of the Household
Narrative.. If a single newspaper proprietor is to be
served as Mr. Charges Dickens is dealt with, I.:hese
turn will come next? We must 1)0k to our-
selves. The French and Austrian press is used
not less harshly, but much inure openly; it
has its brains blown out in the good old highway-
man fashion. Our press is, it seems, to be gradually
suppressed by the slow poison of protracted law. Let
us hope that something will come of Mr. Milner Gib-
son's onslaught on the whole system of taxation on
literature, of which the Board of Inland l-t,venue arc
the administrators. The Chancellor of the Exchequer
almost seemed to intimate that relief is contemplated
from the advertisement duty, which yields so :mall an
amount to the revenue and is so inconsistent end absurd
in its operation: After such an avowal, Mr. Gibson
could not very gracefully haie pressed his motion to a
division' last night; and ho acted prudently in nut wit-
ting to an adjournment until Wednesday, the 12th of
May, when the whole question must come before the
House, which, by that time, will be in possession of the
financial plans of our literary Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer.
CHRONICLE.—The debate of last night on Mr.
Milner Gibson's motion led, from the nature of the case,
to no practical result. It is evidently impossible to an-
ticipate the Budget "by taking the initiative of fiscal
propositions out of the hands of the Government. Im-
prudent politicians who favoured the accession of their
opponents to office may take warning from the conse-
quences of Lord Derby's appointment. The official
right of bringing forward the Budget is in itself a power
worth contending for. Mr. Disraeli can, to a certain
extent, determine the financial policy of the country,
and ho has at least a monopoly of all possible improve-
ments during the present year. It is not very probable
that he will abolish the excise on paper, and it may be
still more unlikely that he will remove the stamp from
newspapers; but perhaps he will not reject the oppor-
tunity of purchasing support by some popular or plausi-
ble remission of burdens. It was easy for the Chancellor
of the Exchequer to show the inutility of Mr. Gibson's
motion, but we can by no means admit that the principles
of taxation are so unsettled as he wishes to represent
them. It is true that a Committee is sitting, not, indeed,
on the general question of direct taxation, but on the ex-
pediency of an income-tax; and it cannot be denied that
almost every indirect burden is put forward in turn, as
requiring reduction or abolition. Nevertheless, all com-
petent reasoners are satisfied that the existing taxes on
consumption bear a sufficiently large proportion to the
general revenue of the country, and that at present they
exceed, with few exceptions, the revenue standard, that
is, the most profitable rate of assessment. The injustice
and inexpediency which are common to nearly all these im-
posts sufficiently explain the zealous demands of the
respective advocates of various fiscal reductions.
Whether we look to tea, to beer, to wine, or to paper,
we fad an excessive and impolitic tax; and all that can
be alleged in defence of the best of these ditties ie, that
others stand more urgently in need of revision. 6Vith-
out pledging ourselves to the opinion that Idr. Milner
Gibson's clients are entitled to preference, we admit that
their case is a strong one. Although the description of
certain stamp and excise duties as "taxes on knowledge"
is unobjectionable as a rhetorical figure, the mere
political economist will find it more convenient to re-
gard them as burdens on certain kinds of production
and consumption. Knowledge is a good thing; but, so
long as indirect taxes are imposed, they must be levied
on good things—or, in other words, on articles which
conduce to the enjoyment or benefit of the community.
Cheap reading is not a more sacred object than cbca,p
eating or drinking. It is desirable that fiscal regulations
should impose as slight a cheek as possible on any of
these blameless occupations; but if the Excise and Customs
are to be maintained, financiers can only select the less
productive and more oppressive duties for removal. It ,
must be admitted that much may be said in favour of
choosing the Excise on paper for early abolition. In
that case, however, the protective Customs duty on
foreign paper ought certainly to be removed at the same
time; for it would be every way unreasonable to give
the papermakers of this country a monopoly at the
very motneht when the demand for their prothicts
would be greatly increased. There are many purposes
of utility and luxury to which paper might be applied it
it wore sufficiently cheap; and there can be no doubt
that, as in the case of glass, the removal of the duty
would maltiply the uses to which the commodity is put.
There are, however, peculiar considerations exclusively
concerning those kinds of paper which are spoken of as
the instruments of knowledge. Ia one sense, paper is a
finished manufacture; but as regards books, it is a raw
materiel. The duty on paper must be paid before it
reaches the printer, who is 'himself rather a producer
than a consumer. The consequence is, that books
which are never required by the general purchaser
aro taxed, in their material, through the manufacturer
of paper. The publisher who sells only 100 copies
of a work out of 1,000 must, in the first instance, have
paid the duty on the whole number printed—of course
r
at the expense of the purchaser, who is thus t
those copies which he has not bought, as well alxfOr
thehhe
from "
one which he possesses. This hardship arises
speculative nature of the book trade, and from theto con-
sequent impossibility of adjusting production _ a
sells
con-
sumption. A brewer pays the malt tax before
his beer; but he knows exactly the quantity
e will en-'
be required. No amount of sagacity,
able Messrs. Longman or Mr. Marrayohntthwoefvoepruesmeehawseho
e-
ther the tax which they have paid i
their paper will ever be replace.d
therefore, to raise the price of books,
ginner the duty
; and as
sail
insurance
:Ices
usrsaaer
eye,
against this contingent loss. In this mann
upon
becomes a compound, and therefore aantt,ugnsjsutsetdttahxsut
knowledge. It has sometimes been on paper used for
evil might be remedied if the duty
• printing. were levied- on book swiserdehootehseer pistbilsicahtioowns.
before they left the publisher'sith
the hope at no ,dittent
ever, scarcely probable that,
wrielecotmhies parsei-t
time of abolishing the duty, The trade would consent to
an innovation which would inholveremthiseeus.n
to consider how far
sence of the excisemanen_othweiesuP
grievances is borne
may, Mr. Disraeli would d
to financial
in amount,
his general scepticism. as
es
~.at,t_e,onti.ntni, the tax on
out by-the peculiar cirOurast;inc
paper. The advertisement.ht:f..tY
olpserlaritii%.
0 The Chan-
and peculiarly oppressirmi Its
by consenting to relinquish it
cellos of the Excheqaeri ight purchase e certain gum;
turned into an ad valorem. duty;
tity of popularity cheap y
at once. It cannot
bbese rprnaltiacme and a park to sell will
e which is charged to the
and the Peer who
still have to pay the same 0-f s place
maid-of-all-work in want . „ ' happens, mere-
ever, is. ea fact, an especial tax upon
over, that this luiPaet
more than
knowledge.
B6nks' advertising; anyitem
other com-
modities, and the - cense-
heavy item in the de-
requirfeormas
conse-
quent expense
ors. It has been
'mends on
that
and auth
few thousands a year which accrue
suggested that the
Y advertisements might
to the Exchequer from_ lidterar
relioquia" ; - but we adhere to the
.be _separately u .
would be wiser and juster to abolish the
opinion that it we
tax altogether. Ae aaPPenS such a measure would