The Sun.
London, England, 1852-12-02 00:00:00

REPEAL OF THE TAXES ON KNOWLEDGE.

The annual general meeting of the Association for Pro-
moting the Repeal of the Taxes on Knowledge, was held last
night in the large room, Exeter-hall. Amongst the gentlemen
on the platform, we observed Mr. Cobden, M.P., Mr. D.
Seymour, M.P., Mr. Charles Knight, Mr. Cruikshank, Mr.
Cassell, the Rev. Dr. Watts (of Manchester), &c. The
room was extremely well filled.
The chair was taken at seven o'clock by Mr. DOUGLAS
JERROLD, who opened the proceedings by observing that
the meeting was called for the purpose of petitioning the
House of Commons for the total repeal of the taxes on know-
ledge—those most odious laws, because they were hostile to
what is "wise, just, and beneficial" for the moral character
of the masses of the people. (Cheers.) Mr. Charles Knight,
inhis "Progress of a Book," had shown how it had to wrestle
with the Government, and that the best and noblest of
books might get tripped up by the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer ; and the Messrs. Chambers had proved that a
work popularly addressed to the people, which broke out
30,000 strong, was nevertheless not strong enough to
combat the taxes on paper. (Hear.) With respect to the
stamp on newspapers, the railroads had sufficiently shown
the injustice and absurdity of such a tax, and he would
recommend the substitution of a penny postage stamp.
(Hear.) The advertisement tax was a double tax—it was
a tax on industry and a tax on want. (Hear.) Why should
the widely-circulated advertising columns of a newspaper
be taxed when omnibuses were allowed to circulate the
same kind of intelligence duty free ? (Hear, hear.) Almost
everything was an advertisement. The tradesman's brass
doorplate was an advertisement; and it would be as just
for the Chancellor of the Exchequer—bending his mind to
the consideration of brass—(loud laughter and cheers)—to
tax the brass doorplate of a tradesman as the type of the
printer. (Cheers.) There would appear to be some justice
in such a kind of impost. For instance, the quack, having
paid his eighteenpence duty for advertising his cosmetic,
would not feel aggrieved, because he would know that the
apothecary paid for his engraved plate and his night bell
eighteenpence each. (Laughter.) So long as paper was
the peculiar vehicle of conveying intelligence and informa-
tion to a people, so long would it be a reproach to the
State that burdened it with a feather's weight of taxation.
_(Cheers.) He admitted that there was an inherent dispo-
sition in every Englisman to obey the laws ; but, neverthe-
less, one goosequill wisely and honestly exercised, would
achieve more power than slumbered in the staves of a
thousand policemen. (Cheers.) Paternoster-row and the
newspaper press were stronger than the Horse Guards and
Scotland-yard—(cheers)—and Lord Derby had been re-
cently surprised into a burst of admiration for that un-
bridled democracy which a few months ago it was hip
Heaven-appointed mission to control and crush. (Cheers.)
It had recently been the fashion for certain members of the
aristocracy to preside in lecture rooms and at mechanics'
institutes ; and dukes and earls were very wise in this
their generation to do so. (Cheers.) Not many years ago
the people, as a people were called the " swinish multi-
tude ;" and to cast pearls before swine was an acknowledg-
ment of the proverb of the prodigality of folly. But now
there was no " swinish multitude," and schoolmasters in
coronets were now gracefully presenting their pearls to the
people. (Loud cheers.) The people had a right to demand
their advocacy at such meetings as the present, for as they
descanted on such occasions on the political and social bles-
sings of knowledge, tlaerpust, logically speaking, be op-
ponents of the taxes on lmowledge. (Cheers.) He consi-
dered the Government that continued the taxes on know-

ledge to be an unjust government, a tyrannical government,
and most essentially a hypocritical government. (Cheers.)
The Chairman concluded by stating that a letter had been
received from Lord Goderich, apologising for his unavoid-
able absence.

A letter to the same effect from the Rev. T. Spencer was
read by the secretary.
Dr. WATTS moved the first resolution in a speech of con-
siderable length, in which he detailed with great minute-
ness the obstructions thrown in the way of the paper-maker
by the Government regulations, and the unnecessary ex-
penses thereby incurred in the manufacture of that article.
The present duty, amounting to about 300 per cent., de-
served the name of a tax on knowledge. (Hear, hear.) It was
a protective duty to ignorance—a protective duty to trash—
(cheers)—and now that unrestricted competition was to be
the rule of our commercial policy, surely we ought no
longer to restrict knowledge or protect ignorance and trash.
(Cheers.) He concluded by moving—
" That the duties on paper and advertisements, and the
penny stamp on newspapers, tend to injure literature, to
obstruct education, and to hinder the progress of the
people in intelligence and morality."
Mr. CHARLES KNIGHT, who rose amidst loud cheers,
seconded the resolution, contending that the repeal of the
paper duties would tend to advance the interests of litera-
ture, education, and morality.
Mr. CoBDEN (who was received with several rounds of
applause), in supporting the resolution, said that several
complaints had been made against the Government for
having imposed and maintained the taxes on knowledge, and
the Government had been censured for not having repealed
them. He was glad to find, from the crowded state of the
room, that there existed in the public mind a feeling kin-
dred to what was passing in his own—namely, that it did not
become Englishmen to talk of the Government doing them
harm or good. They were their own Government, or at
least had the power of making themelves so ; and he was,
therefore, glad to judge, from the present demonstration,
that they were determined to take the matter into their own
hands, and then he would venture to say that the Govern-
ment would be found to be their obedient servants, as
it had been in other matters. (Cheers.) When he found
himself engaged in a controversy of this kind, he always
turned his attention to that phase of it which presented
the greatest difficulty. In the present case there were three
propositions to consider, the paper duty, the advertisement
duty, and the stamp duty, all of which were most intole-
rable burdens on the diffusion of knowledge. Now, with
respect to the paper duty, which produced the largest
amount of revenue, and the advertisement duty, which did
not reach 200,0001. he did not anticipate so much resistance
to them as to the stamp duty. No party or political feel-
ing was enlisted in defence of the two first-mentioned
taxes, and it would not be surprising if the Chancellor of
the Exchequer should be found dealing with them in the
course of the next forty-eight hours. (Hear, hear.) But
the stamp duty on newspapers was a totally different
thing. Its reduction would affect the revenue to the
amount of some 400,0001. ; but the resistance to the
repeal would not be in proportion to the amount of
revenue raised, but would rather rest on the advantages
accruing to certain parties in another direction. (Cheers.)
That tax was never imposed for the sake of revenue,
and it was not now maintained for the revenue
which it yielded. It was originally imposed to prevent
the mass of the people from reading newspapers, and
he was so uncharitable as to maintain that it was re-
tained for the self-same purpose. (Cheers and laughter.)
He considered the newspaper reading of the age to be more
important to the mass of grown-up people than any other
kind of reading. He did not mean to say that it was more
desirable than any other reading, but he was sure that all
present would confess that they read more of newspaper:
than of any other printed matter. If that was the case
with respect to the middle classes, how much n.i.oreof
must
so
whose
it apply to the working classes, the great bum
niquitous
reading consisted of newspapers ; and how i
be any law which was calculated to be an
obstacle to the
ount of leisure to
instruction of those who had the least
read, and the smallest amount of moneyan at their disposid
tberarticle a man could
to purchase newspapers. In overydlng to his circumstances
suit himself by purchasing newt.
per sd. was the stereo-
and tastes, but for a daily ue ised3pwas a newspaper press
typed price. That, he contenc
the upper and middle classes,
exclusively adapted for
h stamp duty there never would
and until the removal
ofc_ctesesible to the mass of the people.
be a newspaper press_
oyfilYoaric the artizan, the mechanic, the
(Cheers.) In N
vright, the joiner, the mason, received
shipbuilder, the mi
r. e ularly at breakfast as a banker or
their daily pape a:
).re-
chant did in the. city of London. (Cheers With
nigaerrd to the population of the rural districts, he believed
n d be reached by those works which
they never would .
towns—he
so much admire and enjoyed by the people in were
ant such works as those published by Messrs. Chambers.
(Hear, hear.) They must first of all stimulate the appe-
tite by giving the people cheap news ; and on this point he
was glad to have the opportunity of quoting the opinion
of Lord Brougham, who, after alluding to the paper duty,
and speaking in high terms of Mr. Knight, and his advo-
cacy of the removal of that duty, said :—" Now, the
stamp is by far the most hurtful of these bad taxes in one
essential particular. The instruction of the working
classes in the country districts, where it is most wanted,
has been almost entirely prevented by it. When the
Useful Knowledge Society made for years, efforts of every
kind to diffuse sound information amongst the peasantry