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

to prevent either individual libels or libels on the Mi-
nistry, because those who were disposed to libel framed
their libels in such a way that you could not touch
them, wniist men of character end respectats,eisy, by
whom such libellers would otherwise be met and over-
come in fair competition, were driven from the field by
a stupid tax and thus prevented from making known
the truth. The same principle had an uated 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 act? Was it by any decla-
Lion about granting a supply to his Msjesty? Nothing
of the kind, but complaint was made of the prevalence
of pamphlets and printed papers tending to excite hatred
of his Majesty, and contempt of the Government and
Constitution, and also blaspheming the truths of our
holy religion, which had been lately published at a very
small price; and it was declared to be expedient to re-
strain the circulac ion of these. There was an idea that,
although this tax was imposed for the purpose of restrain-
ing- the press, yet the possession of certain postal advan-
tages now enjoyed 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. They might make whatever regulations
they pleased for the transmission of printed matter by
post; 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did not follow that, if you repealed the stamp duty, the-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 post merely by paying a
penny stamp on the particular portion of their im-
pression sent by post, and those 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 majority of them,
were transmitted twice; there were 80.000,000 on which
stamp duty was paid, and 66,000,000 transmitted by
post, which, allowing for double transmissions, reduced
the number posted to 33,000,000. Could there be any-
thing more easy than 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? Make 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 with private agencies, and, thus com-
peting. they would not retain the carriage. They still
stated that even if no printed matters were sent, they'
would not be able to reduce to any great extent the
charges of the establishment, so that all they earned
under this bead was into pocket and direct gain. It
was clear, therefore, that there could be no difficulty in
making the arrangements consequent on ea change
fiscel regulations. A man who now 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 second hand transmitted a second
time free by post, if the tax were repealed, that man,
instead ot having to wait for stale news, and buy his
paper several days old, would be able to go into the
market, and 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 fact, the postal question
was beeide the motion he had submitted to the House,
and would be easily dealt with without in the slightest
way altering or iejuring the position of any parties.
Did the newspaper stemp secure you against those im-
proper liberties spoken of by Swift, and attacks on the
constitution 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 was so framed that it
did not touch -the very fish for which the net was set.
The wording of the Stamp Act included publications con•
taining public intelligence or occurrences, or any matters
in Church or State, essays and articles giving political
theories or speculations, being held not to come within its
scope,. The Hon. Member then proceeded to read pas-
see„ s from several penny publiestions,such astheEnglish
Republican, Notes to the People, &c., in proof ot the
objectionable cuaracter of the matter printed and die-.
seminated under the present state of the law. He wished

to show the ex retne tally of legislative provisions which
confined the people to publications of this class, instead
ofree ord o spewingfth et..h ceurnr r et on
etvaevnet se cot; etatre 9tPlitlPt
e egiving a
proceedings
in the courts of jusiice and Parliament, and the occur-
rences of daily life, •in which every man took a lively
and domestic in.erests It was a monstrous injustice to
li-
eco
tu aikepuneo,nwedeii
not
gue
wgrheaacsto
his
was
sowf
goinge ofacrc
on in the trade of theeu rwr ea neetre y pufacilityb
deprive the working man of the privilege of having a
f
caeffs eicnt ed hisb
country, with respect to emigration and the state of em-
ployment in various branches of industry. 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 thetrmost interesang 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 ellowed a reduction to take place in the price of
newspapers, so that a new and more extended field might
be open to them, we were likely to have but two
newspapers, the Times and Morning Advertiser,
The Times had risen teem a comparatively small circu-
lation to one of 12,000.000 yearly, and it would be found
from the tables laid before the House at the close of the
inquiry of last session, 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 had a circulation of something. more than
1,000,000, whilst the Daily News had a circulation of
someteing less than 2,000,000. It was remarkable that
soon after the first establishment of the Daily News its
price was reduced to 2id., and its circulation rose to
between 3,000,000 atql 4,000,000 per annum, but on the
price being ratted it tell back to the old amount. With
the two exovptioris be bad mentioned none of the papers
were improving. ' Wis 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 crew() a kind of monopoly in newspap. rs,
and to limit the diffusi, n of news to very few hands.
Ho did not charge any existing newspaper with advo-
vocating the maintensince of the stamp on Recount of
their own vested interests. It was stated on behalf of
the Times, in evidence before the Committee of which
he was chairman last session, that the removal of the
stamp duty would be attended with!great commercial ad-
vantage to the limes. They stated also that the main-
tenance 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 had nothing to do
but to supply the public with as many
of the newspaper
as they would buy, they could double their circulation
in two years. The effect, then, of the present law was
to limit the mass of circulation to two newspapers, to
causo 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 .lawesuit on the question with one of
the most popular writers of the day. el.r. Dickens.. The
Board of Inland Revenue found out that a certain publi-
cation, called 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-
mands. After very considerable expense had been io-
purred, 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 upoa paper free of the stamp
if it did not appear oftener than once a month. 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 property and spirit
to contest the question in a court of law, how many peo-
ple were there in the country who had either the means
or the moral courage to encounter the Board of Inland
Revenue in a court of law? If they insisted on im-
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 duty, and that, therefore, the whole of the
proceedings against these parties had been founded
upon illegality and injustice. The same results
would follow it 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
)aft rt et
taxis
g, andts
should
toui
(its:
epb
ep support institutionscoprueereleodn upon
pon
newspapers,
a prosecutingn d religion,
owrthatn oi
tt
it was ttohet,lecironnalyweiu
„mhzo,uisiedrobz,le.ft to the Board' of Inland Revenue? Were
cations should be
-proceeded
parties to whom the guardianship of re-
ligion and of our ii.istitutions should be encrusted ? If
allowed to violate pan them, as it was clearly proved
.tt.e that it did, to decide what publi-
before
pitrhoceeded against and what should be
•
with parties, not accordingpress, and were
of Gtheinw' they
it might b© in had times, species of censors were thus sot up as a
to the letter of the law, but
in accordance with the wishes
left to deal
of the Ministry of the da'y,
try who might desire that'poarrtiocf particular
party in the coun-
tlettaerr thing for the
te suppressed. It was a most dangerouslpublications should
Government not to enforce the
but that if they exceeded themeptinwiathin ceer-
otfhtehe law in every
press, telling
case, bat to hold it in terrorum over
them that they might break it if they k
conceivemdatnonber
cer-
tain
limits,ch t Board of Inlan d
proceeded Revenueagainst.
dangerous to religion and the institutions of the coun-
try,Bat could any
-one believe that Government would, in 1852, ven-
ture to owam9neo the same crusade against unstamoed
pubicitions which w earned on i
they would
thebe
in 1832 ? He
believed that they would shrink from, but it was
he contended thata they.
thir duty to ke it. If, then, the wore fraid
toe enforce t 4 lay! inunderta all case', y