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

totpresent either individual libels or libels on the Bli-
tistry, because those who were disposed to libel framed
their pewee in such a way that you could not touch
them, whiltt man of cheracter end respectability, by
whom such libellers would otherwise be met and over-
were driven from the field by
)caosnattCpiind f: it
acn°dmPth'tuitsiwa p'revented from making known
the truth. The same principle had actuated the legisla-
ture in its proceedings up to a very recent period; when
they extended the stamp duty in the reign of George
111., how did they begin to, ate ? Was it by any decla-
Lion about granting a supply to his Mwjeaty? Nothing
of the kind, but complaint was made of the prevalence
of pamphlets and printed papers tending to excite hatred
of hie Mejesty, end contempt of the Gitvemment and
and also blaspheming the truths of our
holy religion, which had been lately published at a very
sinall price; and it was declared tube expedient to re-
swain the circulation of these. There was an idea that,
although this tax evasica peed for the purpose of eeetrain-
leg the press, yet the.possession of certain postal advane
tages now enjeyed by it constituted a fair equivalent.
But the truth was that this question of the free trans-
mission of newspapers really had nothing to do with the
stamp duty. 'lbey might make whatever regulations
they pleesed for the transmission of printed matter by
pest; but the question with which he was now dealing
was whether a man might be allowed to print a certain
description of matter called news without a stamp. It
did not follow that, if you repealed the stamp duty, the
postal regulations might not be as favourable to the
press and to all printed matter, aye much more favour-
able, than they now were. At present some fifty-
three or fifty-four papers were allowed the privilege
of free transmission by past merely 'by paying a
penny stamp on the particular portion of their im-
pression sent by pest, and thou, were obliged to
pay the penny duty who did not want a paper sent by
post, in order that some other man might have the ad-
vantage of having his newspaper transmitted by post.
Half the papers thus sent, or the great mei wity of them,
were transmitted twice; there were 80,000,000 en which
stamp duty was paid, and 66,000,000 transmitted by
post, which, allowing for double tranernissions, reduced
the number posted to 33;000,000. Could there be any-
thing more easy then to provide that all printed matter
should stand on the same footing, and that there should
be a stamped wrapper for the purpose of franking it
through the post? Mike the charge a penny, if you
pleased; he was not there to suggest postal regulations,
but he was quite sure, from the evidence of Mr. Rowland
Hill, before the committee of last year, that in the Post-
office they were very anxious to retain the carriage of
printed matter, and, rather than lose it, they would be
willing to carry it for the smallest possible charge, for
less than a penny indeed, because, if they did not, they
must compete wittw private weencies, and, thus com-
peting, they would not retain the carriage. They still
stated that even if no printed matters were scent, they
would not be able to reduce to any great extent the
charges of the establishmeut, so that all they earned
under this heed was into pocket and direct gain. It
was clear, the refoie, that there ceuld be no diffieulty in
making the arrangements consequent on a cherge
bf fiscal regulations. A man who new paid a
penny for' his paper being carried by a post, would
buy his paper when the stamp duty was removed
for a penny less, and thus stand in the same
pecuniary position. Then; as regarded the man who
bought a paper at secondhand transmitted a second
time free by post, if the tax were repealed, that man,
instead of having to wait for stale news, and buy his
paper several days old, would be able to go into the
market, aed buy a fresh paper. He was not one of
those who thought that if newspapers were to be carried
by post the country ought to defray the charge. Ano-
ther set of postal regulations might be made to suit the
altered circumstances; but, in feet, the phstal question
was beside the motion ho had submitted to the House,
and would be easily dealt with without in the slightest
way altering or injuring the position of any parties.
Did the newspaper stamp secure you against those im-
proper liberties spoken of by Swift, and attacks on the
coestitution and laws of the realm ? It did not, and
even if you could enforce the law, which you were
totally unable to do, the act atlas so framed that it
di.l not Much the very fish for which the net was set.
The wording of the Stamp Act included publications cone
taieing public intelligenet or occurrences, or any matters
in Church or State, essays and articles giving political
ineories or speculations, being held not to come within its
scope, The floe. Member then proceeded to read pas-
nte s Iron several penny publications,such astbeEnglish
Republican, Notes to the .People, Sz., in proof of the
objecttonable cnaracter of the matter printed and dis-
seminated under the present state of the law. He wished
to show the extreme icily of legislative provisions which
confined the people to publications of this class, instead
of allowing them to pave cheap newspapers giving a
record of the current events of the day, the proceedings
in the courts of justice. and Parliament, and the occur-
rences of daily life, in which every man took a lively
and domestic interest. It was a monstrous injustice to
deprive the working man of the privilege of having a
compendious record of occurrences in his penny publi-
cation, so long as his welfare was affected by the facility
of knowing what was going on is the trade of the
country, with respect to emigration and the state of em-
ployment in various branches of dndustry. He con-
tended that there was no other mode of combating the
dangerous theories circulated by a certain class of exist-
ing papers than by allowing them to be competed with
by that most intereetwg of publications, the newspaper.
Look also at the established newspaper press. What a
pernicious effect had the stamp had upon the established
newspapers. There were but two newspapers in London
that were increasing in circulation; all the rest were
declining—year by year they got small by degrees and
beautifully less, till it appeared as if in a short time, un-
less they allowed a reduction to take place in the price of
newspapers, so that a new and more extended field might
be open to them, ve were likely to have but two
newspapers, the Times and Morning Advertiser,
The Times had risen from a comparatively small circu-
lation to one of 12,000,600 yearly, and it would be found
from the tables laid before the House at the close of the
inquiry of last snider), where a return was given of all the
newspaper stamps, that the Morning Chronicle, for in-
stance, had a circulation under 1,000,000, the Morning
Herald bad a circulation of something more than
1 000.000, whilst the Daily News had a circulation of
hornet env, less than 2 000,000. It, was remarkable that
etiou after the first .esteelisement of the Daily News its
price was reductel to 20., and its circulativa rose to
between 3,000,000 and 4,000 000 per annum, hut on the
price being raised it fell back to the old.amount. With
the two exceptions he had mentioned none of the papers
were improving. Was this a satisfactory state of
things? For the last sixty years no new daily paper,
except the Advertiser and the. Daily News, had been
established; showing that the tendency of the stamp
duty was to create a kind of monopoly in newspapers,
and to limit the diffusion bf news to very few hands.
He did not charge any existing newspaper with advo-
vowing the maintenance of the stamp on account of
their own vested interests. It was stated on behalf of
be
hoe
wTaismcehs
a, evidenceiirnman
last
session,before the
thatremovalCommittee owflii thech
stamp duty would be attended with!great commercial ad-
t of
vantage to the Times. They stated also that the main-
tenatice of the present stamp law had the effect of ma-
terially limiting the circulation of the Times, from its
operation on the supplement; and the manager of that
paper, Mr. Mowbray Maurice,
when examined before
the Committee, stated that ;if they bad nothing to do
but to supply the ptiblic_with as many of the newspaper
us they would buy, i hey could double their circulation
in two years.. Toe effect, then, of the present law was
to limit the mass of circulation to two newspapers, to
cause every other to decline, and to prevent the working
classes from having any newspaper at all. He, there-
fore, asked them to repeal the newspaper stamp duty on
principle. But could they enforce this law after all?
Could their law officers define its requirements! They
had engaged in a law-suit on the question with one of
the most popular writers of the day, 11r. Dickens. The
Board of Inland Revenue found out that a certain publi-
cation, celled the Household Narrative of Current Events,
published once a month, but giving a summary of news
up to the most recent date, was obnoxious to its de-
mende. After very considerable expense bad been in-
curred, and the parties put to great inconvenience in
getting up their case and appearing in court to defend
their rights, the judges decided that the Household Nar-
rative was not a newspaper, and that the publisher had
a right to print it upon paper free of the stamp
if it did -not appear oftener than once a mouth. The
proprietors of the Household Narrative obtained a
verdict, but the Attorney-General said, that not being
satisfied with the decision of the judges, he should take
steps to disturb it, and to ascertain whether or not the
paper was liable to a stamp duty. Now, he contended
this was a great grievance, for although in this case they
had fallen upon a man Of sufficient propery end spirit
to coteteet the question is a court of law, how many peo-
ple were there in the country who had either the means
or the moral eourege to encounter the Board of Inland
Revenue in a court of law? It they insisted on inn-
posing a tax upon such vague and undefinable things as
news, and observations upon news, the law would con-
tinue to the end of time to be a mass of uncertainty and
injustice. They were now exactly in the same position
in which the Government were placed before the reduc-
tion of the stamp duties in 1836, when, after 500 persons
had been imprisoned for selling the Poor Man's Guardian,
a court of law decided that the publication was not liable
to the stamp dtity, and that, therefore, the whole of the
proceedings against these ..parties had been founded
upon illegality and injustice. The same results
would follow if they attempted to enforce the law as
they had done in the case of .Mr. Dickens. And, after
all, it was necessary to maintain the respectability of the
press, and to support our institutions and religion, that
a tax , should be imposed upon newspapers, was it
fhting that the discretion of prosecuting or not
cn t o devolve
be
proceeded p
them,
a
ehenld be left to the Board of Inland Revenue? Were
the parties to whom the guardianship of re-
ligions
s .hou uo n
iclearly provedoui
before the m
did, Comittee that it to decide what publi-
cations
gaasinist w
t andas what sltd be
allowed to violate
specioi
of
censors
the law, they were thus set up as a
with parties, not according of
the press, and were left to deal
it might be in bad aecording to the letter of the law, but
of the Ministry Of times;,the day, in accordance with the wishes
wttt who Might de.aire th?.ay, or
of any party in the ooun-
l:e suppreeeed.
It
was
at particular publications should
Government not to euforeeul ost dangerous thing for the
case, but to hold it in terro the
r
letter of the law in every
there Coat they might break'it'n. over the press, telling
car-
Lain limits, but that if they exc,,i(!cktdhey kept within
which the B 'aril of lii them in a manner
dangerous to religion and the inatitnuutieonceenoefeived to be
the clan-
- they would be proceeded against,
y,But caulit any
one believe that the Governmentiu 1852, ven-
ture to commence the same crusade ageenst unii,impad
euaneatioae which w carried on in 1832 ? Ho
nelteval that they would shrink from, but it was
their duty to under take it. If, then,
they were afraid
to enforce a law .in ate cases, he contended that they