The Sun.
London, England, 1852-04-01 00:00:00

TAXES ON NEWSPAPERS, AND THEIR

INJUSTICE.
(From the Expositor.)
Newspapers—the pioneers of knowledge, the public
instructors in political matters, the medium through
1 which useful, scientific, and literary information is con-
veyed to the public, the heralds of the news of the day;
equally needful to all classes, from the noble to the
mechanic—have been by every Government, whether
Fury, Conservative, or Whig (Protectionist not yet
tried), treated not only unfairly, but unjustly. Railroad
proprietors are now in possession of a privilege not
enjoyed by the press, with all its allowed superior
advantage to mankind. We think we hear our readers
say, can this bu possiele? We ray it is possible, and we
will state the grievance in as smell a compass as the im-
portance of the subject 'merits.
It is pretty well known to those conversant with the
subject (and to those who learn it for the first time from
this statement, we appeal to join the band already
formed to get rid of these unjust taxes on knowledge)
that the newspaper Proprietor pays on the article he
produces no less thus three direct and distinct taxes: the
paper pays a direct tax per pound before it receives the
impression of the type; a tax of Id. par sheet is paid to
the- Commissioners of Inland Revenue for the privilege
of haying a blot of red on the corner of their paper in the
shape of a distinctive die stamp; and they are again
called on to pay ls, 6,1. is the shape of duty for every
advertisement that appears in their paper. The first
tax on paper is injurious, es not allowing papers and
periodicals to 10..2 published at a cheaper rate, or at all
, qly g
events preventing the
proprietors of the cheaper
class of publications front paying men of Went as
they should be paid conse uent not producin tie
healthy end wholesome a perinyworth of knowledge es
the public would obtain, supposing this obnoxious im-
post to be abolished. The only argument, it it eau he
so called, in favour of the stomp duty of ld. on each
newspaper is, that for this odious tax ;he Government
cony y newspapers to all parts of England gratis. This
is true, to a certain extent; but why tax the inhabitants
of large towns for the sake of those who wish the ad-
vantage of the post? It is well known that the large
towns throughout &glued, bye, and small ones as wall,
the pest with the morning
papers.* Th by Flies are sent
railway, and paid as parcels
to the railway companies by either the London or
country newspaper ewr% rn
are not supplied through
ahis is not confined to the
monang papers; the weekly papers are conveyed to
country towns in the same parcel on Saturday morning
in most cases. If not, they seed them by ruid-day
the least, this is as unequal, cense-
(i trains,u(
?iy
aSno,utuol a
Of the tuira tax, to_ which we particularly wish to
eddrees onrelves, we can only hope car observeti.)n&
sira,yttat.
may hare the Els= effect on the minds of our readers
that we have long felt, and with us consider this as one
of the most unfair, unjust, and unequal taxes that ever
entered into the mind of man to impose iu a civilized
country. Unfair to tax any man who simply announces
iu a newspaper he either wants to purchase a house, or
to tell au acre of land; yet the announcement may ap-
pear on bills posted on the Walls, or exhibited on
boards by the roadside. Unjust to the poor ser-
vant who makes public in three lines that she
wants a situation, and charges no more to the peer
who rethousandu i
a rcerse s f"
gnrsoiuoltipleasure grounds, and ten
—acquit' in the case of a
poor decayed widow, who, in a very few lines, relates
her tale of woe ; lon which the Government amerce
ofid% IT
her in the shape of Is. 61, end charge the wealthy
public companies, who occupy a column in seeking
act.
venturers in the Californian or Australian gold rpecu
lation, no more. Let this pass, bad as it is. But whet
do we find the Government allow? Highly as we have
shown the newspaper proprietor is taxed, we have Site
extraordinary anomaly of the Government allowing
these railway carriages to be converted into newspapers,
and the walls of the stations into the mediums of pub-
licity, as far as advertising isseencerned, without paying
one farthing in the shape of advertisement duty to the
revenue. Quito apart frota the monstrous injustice of
this system, that allows railway proprietors to possess
the advantage of making known the wants and wishes or
advertisers free, while the newspaper proprietor is tsxeo
to the tune of Is. 61 for every such advertisement,
look at the shortsightedness and stupidity of allowing
this system to continue, in a financial and revenue point
of view. Every advertisement exhibited at a railway
station, or in a railway carriage, is really taken frets,
some newspaper, consequently as an injury to the news-
paper proprietor, who pays paper anti stamp duty, and
is also a loss of Is. 6d, to the revenue which would be
saved to the Government it inserted in a newspaper, in-
stead of being allowed to appear in a railway carriage.
or exhibited at a station. To those who have had ex-
perience in advertising—whether as booksellers, ge-
neral advertisers, secretaries to public companies, or ad-
vertising agents—this fact will be patent, that a giverr,
sum of money is settled us the amount to be spent on
advertising—of course modified by circumstances.
as the sale of the book, progress of the company,
&a. It is useless to say the money spent on railway
advertising is extra. We appeal to the classes of ad-
vertisers we have named in support of our assertion.
Why then, we ask the Government, is this, that the
newspaper proprietor is to pay Is. 6d. for every ad.
vertisement that appears in his columns, while the
railway proprietors pay not a single farthing in
the shape of duty for advertising at their stations
and in their carriages? We especially commend
these last remarks on the injury to the revenue
to the consideration of every Chancellor of the
Exchequer, while this obnoxious impost con-
tinues. But we believe and hope the present
Chancellor of the Exchequer will take a more enlarged
view of the subject, and abolish the duty on advertise-
ments, paper, and stamps, at once. But, if he cannot
spare the trifling sum produced by the advertisement
duty, we urge on him the justice of dealing fairly by all
parties, and not allow the highly-taxed proprietor of s
newspaper to be longer subject to the advertisement duty,
while the railway directors are allowed to continue
charging the publiefee advertisements that pay no duty
This request is so fair and just, ag we believe, that we
are anxious to hear what the advocates of railway mo-
nopoly have to say in reply.

1` 44'e may state, in illustration of our assertion, that one
agent, who supplies the morning papers per railway trains,
informs us that of over 2,300 copies of the Times he dis-
patches daily over 2,000 by early railway trains. He
further complains that on the late editions of The Sun,
though every copy has already paid the id. stamp, he yet
has to pay fi fee of id. on each copy at the Post-office. Such
monstrous injustice is hardly credible. He states that by far
the larger proportion of The Sun consists of the late edi-
tion, that paper having acquired celebrity all over the king-
dom for bringing down the Parliamentary news of the same
evening to the latest moment. Thus the reading-rooms and
commercial chambers in the distant towns are furnished
with The Sun, containing the greater part of the debate
many hours before the morning papers of the next day.

[AnvEnTisEmENT.]—The Royal Exhibition Small
Glass for the waistcoat pocket, at S. and B. So!omons, Opti-
cians, 39, Albemarle-street, Piccadilly, opposite the York
Hotel. A valuable, newly invented very small powerful
waistcoat-pocket glass, the size of a walnut, by which
a person can be seen and known 1 miles distant. They
answer every purpose on the race-course, at the Opera-houses ;
country scenery and ships are clearly seen at twelve to four-
teen miles, They are invaluable for shooting, deer stalking,
y chting, to spe.rtsmen, gentlemen, game keepers, and tourists.
Telescopes, possessing such extraordinary powers that some,
3i inches, with an extra eye piece, will show distinct!)
Jupiter's moons, Saturn's Ring, and the double stars; with the
same telescope can be seen a person's countenance, 3 ti 2 miles
distant, and an object from 16 to 20 miles ;_ they supersede
every other kind for the waistcoat-pocket, and are of larger,
and all sizes, with increasing powers accordingly. Opera and
race-course glasses with wonderful powers; newly invented in-
valuableis
placed before imperfect vision every object appears clear and
aged defective sight is brought to its youth-
ful, ti
nnatural,
mostpreserving
and Spectacle Lenses, immediately they are
original state. The invisible Organic
Vibrator, and all kinds of acoustic instruments, for relief of
extreme deafness. 39) Albermarle-street, Piccadilly, opposite
the York Hotel.

FASHION.—Those of our readers who possessed the.
entrée last season to the gorgeous and tasteful display of the
results of European and Indian manufacture at Messrs.
Howell and James, will be pleased to learn that extensive
preparations have been for some while in progress for a yet
greater evidence of the ample resources of this house to cull
and bring together all that is new and recherche from each
quarter of the globe. Although the notion is borrowed from
the Maison d'Lisle during the late reign, where royalty was
wont to mix in unostentatious familiarity with the elite of
Paris, it is generally admitted that for elaborate elegance
and refined judgment the ensemble in Regent-street is, from
the advance since made in manufacturing art, far superior.
The Exposition is to last for two days, those of to-morrow
and Saturday.—Morning Paper.

wobfblatibeck he waterbwas
BLowiNG•ur OF A WRECK IN THE THAMES.—
y
The blowing-up of the wreck of the Resolution at North..
fleet, on Friday, was conducted very satisfactorily. The
whole body of the hull was shattered, and masses of wood
and beams were thrown into the air, mixed with quantities
of t
waterhe
ius
bp
se
irds
ei odn,
ao fa:ghee
quuu.
y of
coals.
When
destroyed by the explosion,
floated on the water. There were great numbers of spec-
tators. The Gravesend watermen picked up the fragments
t the m
white agitation iet
bait,a
tio quiten
of wood, and many boats Went away completely loaded.
The shock of the explosion was felt distinctly on the hill
of Northfleet. The charge was something more than 5001'o.
The galvanic battery used was Smee's. Captain Rowland,
the principal harbour-master and superintendent of the
river, had the whole of the arrangements under his super-
vision.

E.—This event, appointed
is looked forward to with much
anxiety by the lovers of aquatic sports, who may fairly anti-
cipate a very gallant race. Both crews are at Putney in
for UNIVERSITYSaturday
afternoon B 0A
active training, and first-rateinTnetA'e condition. They are nearly
equal about 14 stone, and it
wouldfiner set of men. Both
crews
,and should they come to
the
r in
trim
as at present, it will be
aaena ceuh difficultai
n mande
o admirable
averagingsbuselecticecess
a no easy matter to predict the probable result of the race.
iindeedn
ewve
eitgrhyhebt sanguine
Betting is even, and on each succeeding pull over the course
both crews so improve in pace, and are rowing so remarkably
strong and in so near the same thne, making allowance for
wind and tide, that the best judges are not disposed to start
a point in favour of either party.
The distance to be con-
tested is from Putney-bridge to the church at Mortlake, and
the Messrs. Searle have chartered two of the fastest steam-
boats for the convenience of gentlemen desirous of accom-
panying the race. Others have been also put in requisition
for the occasion.

FORTIFICATIONS IN THE BRISTOL CHANNEL.—The
Board of Ordnance have determined upon erecting a battery
of guns in the neighbourhood of Penarth-head, near Cardiff,
and a party of the Royal Engineers have
been engaged in
examining and inspecting the head and the aonent coast,
with the view of ascertaining and reporting upon the best
site for the construction of defences for th 6 better protection
of the Bristol Channel at that part.
The battery at Pater
Fort, Milford Haven, is likewise to be altered, at an expence
of nearly 2 0001., and it is :.aid that additional defences in the
"layoff are to be erected at a cost of ssooo/.
THE PORTSMOUTH CONVICTS:-..The- convicts from
the Stirling Castle, and about 70 from the York, prison-
ships, were removed to the new establishment adjoining
Portsmouth Dockyard on Tuesday. The Stirling Castle is to
be fitted for an hospital-ship, and the old York, when cleaned
out, 17111 be placed as a target ter the Ezcolleut.

EVENING, A PR IL 1, 1852

INDIA.

THE BURMESE WAR.

We have received dispatches in anticipation of the
Overland Mail, which left Bombay on the 4rh of March.
The following is the letter of a correspondent:—
"Since the dispatch of my last letter preparations have
been made for prosecuting with the utmost promptitude
and vigour the war which now seems inevitable with
Burnish. It has been wisely determined to force the
Burmese to terms before the setting in of the monsoon,
and by the time this reaches England a flotilla of more
than a dozen war-steamers, with 6,000 troops on board,
will be in the Burmese waters for the purpose.
It will be remembered that Lord Dalhousie had not
reached Calcutta when the dispatches regarding Com-
modore Lambert's first affair with the stockades arrived;
they were consequently forwarded to him by express, '
and the steamer Fire Queen was kept in readiness to
convey his further instructions concerning 1311112PS° af-
fairs to the Commodore in the Irrawocidy—the Bengal
Government in the meantime taking only such steps as
were necessary for putting the frontier provinces in a
posture of defence.

" The Fire gaeon loft tilts Sandhends with the
Governor- Generai's diepatches on the 28th of January,
and mashed the commodore off the Rangoon River on
the 30th. The c:mnaodore immediately intimated ti
the Rangoon authorities that he should goccnd the river
in his frigate nrart morning as the bearer of a fresh
communication from the Governor-General. Notwith-
stnnding this intimation, the first stockade ho passed the
following day opened a he4vy fire on the Fox, which
killed one of her crew. The frigate returned the fire,
but without stopping her course, silencing the enemy's
guns, and setting the stockade on fire. The next
stockade took warning by the fete of its neighbour ; it
opened a fire also, for the honour of the thing, but took
care to fire wide of the frigate; and the c‘nanaooore
therefore passed by it without notice. Two other of the
steekades ovred a fire on the steamer Teua,sorim,
which followed the Fox a few hours after, and of which
they did not appear to be in equal dread. She returned
the fire of the first stockade with a few rounds of shot
and shell, and with eight or ten rockets ; the latter
sot the work on fire, and it continued burning fur about
six hours.

" On arriving off the newly-erected fortifications which
now occupy the site of the late town of Rangoon, the
commodore s&,rit an officer and interpreter to the Go-
vernor with Lord Dalhomie's letter. The terms offered
in this communication havo occasioned general surprise
rid some censure, on the ground that their extreme
tu,lderation would prevent Beitish subjects whose goods
have been confiscated and destroyed from obtaining any
unnpensatien; aud would also, by being attributed by
the Burmese to weakness, reader an ultimate settlement
more difficult.

" Their substance was, that if the Burmese Governor
would apelegiee for his insult to cur flag, and pay the
9001. previously demnded as compensation for lostee
inflicted on two of the many British subjects who
have been pillaged at Rangoon, the Burmese ehips
should be restored, and the blockade raised, cilia
en agent feom the Indian Government sent
down. The reply was returned in the most insult-
ing manner imaginable, by a dirty labourer in an
equally dirty fishing canoe. The Burmese Governor
took no notice whatever of Lord Delhousie'e first two
demands. He refused to negotiate at all with the com-
modore, but said that he would talk over the subject
with any other agent the Indian Government sent down;
and he is said to have remarked that the bl. eked.) did
not inconvenience them at all. In answer to a letter tee
commodore had sent him at the same time from himself',
in which he expressed his surprise at having le, en fired
at by the stockade while on his passage up the river (of
.-which the Viceroy had been previously advertised) in
a diplomatic capacity, as the bearer of an answer from
she Governor-Uencral to a letter trom the King of Ava,
.he Burmese Governor replied that he had given orders
to the stockades to fire into any vessel daring to pass
them without permission. The commodore rejoined,
that he would utterly destroy by fire any stockade that
tired at his frigate on her passage down the river. This
treat had its effect, and the commodore returned to his
anchorage off the mouth of the river without molestation.
" The appearance of the banks of the river at Ran-
goon is described as entirely changed. Not a vestige
remains of the late town. Of the materials of its brick
and stone houses three largo masonry torts have been
erected with ' most singular rapidity ;' they appear, it
is said, very strong, and evidently mount some heavy
Bunt?.' The jungle and village near the great Dragon
eligoda have been entirely cleared away, and the build
teg enclosed with a strong stockade. Other stockades
ere everywhere being erected along the anks of the
river. The main whiff of the old town has been turn, d
nto a battery of formidable appearance, but is said to
admit of being enfiladed. The new works altoge her
mount 100 guns, and art officer of the Fox writes to one
of the Calcutta papers that Rangoon would now cost a
-ow the number of their mess before it was taken.'
" On receiving the Rangoon Viceroy's answer to their
last overtures, the Supreme Government are said to have
lecided that all further negotiation was out of the
question. The Governor-General immediately ordered
force consisting of her Majesty's 18th, the 40th Native
fatantry, with another native corps and a company of
European Artillery, to prepare for instant embarkation,
and some steamers and transports were hired for con-
veying these troops to Burmah.
" .ladras was ordered to send her Majesty's 51st,
;eve Native Regiments, and three companies of Euro-
pean Artillery; the whole force, about 6,000 strong,
eill be under the command of General Godwin, who was
actively engaged in the former Burmese war. Major
flugh Frazer goes as chief engineer. Orders were at
the same time sent by the Governor-General to the
Bombay Government to equip and dispatch without de-
lay all the war steamers they could spare, manned with
their full war complement, and ready for immediate ac-
tion. The squadron was on its way to touch at Fort
it. George, and convey the Madras force thence to
Burmah. Tho Bombay Government immediately do-
tided on sending six steam-frigates—the Feroze, the
Nloozuffer. the Sesostris, the Berenice, the Medusa,
and the Zenobia—the Semaramie, now in China, to
join, if required, in the river. The first four (three
of them as large as the Atlantic steamships) were
fully equipped and started from Bombay in four days
atter the order had been received; the Zenobia, which
was hourly expected with the English mail of the 20th
of January, not having yet arrived, the Queen has
teen sent off instead, and the Zenobia is only wait-
ing for the arrival of a detachment of artillery from
Nuggur to follow the other five. The squadron is to
embark the Madras force about the 12th of March,
and Rangoon will probably be in our hands about 10
or 15 days after.
" The general improvement that has taken place since
the last Burmese war in our military and naval re-
tources and appliances, and especially our improved poei-
iott as regards Burmah in particular, has been rendered
very apparent in the late preparations. la 1825 the
!mops that were dispatched from Calcutta to Arracan
were no less than three months in reaching their destine-
,.ton; on the present occasion one steamship (the Pre-
sursor) took in a single trip an equal number of troops
`row Calcutta to Arracan in about seventy hours. Steam
gas in this instance reduced mouths to days; but this is
not all; close to Arracan is the Aeng Pass, now hold by
a strong detachment of our troops, and from this pass it
is not forty miles to a point on the Irawaddy twice as
near to Ava as to Rangoon, and which it took in the last
war more than a year's campaign to reach from the lat-
ter basis of operations. The rising importance of Bom-
nay as the head-quarters of the Indian navy, and princi-
pal steam-port in the eastern seas, is not less remarkable.
In the last Burmese war it took nearly a month to pre-
pare a small sloop-of-war (the Hastings) for commission.
Now an order reaches us one day for all the steam-fri-
gates we can spare; three hours afterwards everything
,a arranged; next morning they are reported in such a
state of progress that they are in squadron-orders to be
off in three days; and in three days they are off.
" A month hence there will be, in all likelihood, a
fleet of at least eight large and five smaller class war-
steamers assembled in the Burmese waters, probably'
says the Bombay Times, ' the largest collection of that
formidable class of ships ever brought together for the
purpose of actual warfare.' If required, we could also
bend hence the Ajadha, of 1,500 tons and 500-horse
power, and the Aebar, another powerful steam-frigate
(though in that case we should probably have to depend
on the Peninsular Company for the conveyance of our
mid-monthly mails), and two other first class steam-
frigates of 800-horse power each are now on the stocks
at Bombay. On the Ganges and Indus we have also
flotillas of river steamers and flats sufficient (if it were
considered worth while to use them) to convey the whole
Barmah field force from Rangoon to Ava in five or six
days (the distance is about 500 miles). The force
amounting to 6,000 men) that is about to start is consi-
derably larger than any that Sir A. Campbell had at
his disposal at any time of the last war; and, if neces-
sary, it might be trebled from Bombay and Madras.
" I learn from private letters that the Governor-
General is still in hopes of avoiding anything more than
a demonstration,' and that he expects the presence
is
their waters of a force so large and so rapidly collected
will frighten the Burmese into an immediate acqhtie.
cence in his terms, and thereby save the expense loaaa,"
lay of a campaign. With any other nationosat
cer-
result would, under the circumstances, be aleln,,ar and
tain ; but tho history of the last war—the 1)e u"
years of
irrational obstinacy with which, after twoiaaaa to re-
signal and incessant defeats, they still continued
Campbell
express-
fuse the terms offered them until pettway'
stockades
'was within forty miles of their eapitai
doing so with any
ing a desire to negotiate, yet neveror
erecting
circumstance of
other object than to gain tidme I
with the
and collecting troops, couplh
a_ the present case, ren-
their having courted a collis
that they should be
ders it extremely improbable
mouth. of.
tins ration
in-
duced to submit to our termsatbyatathmeeßreaedeeetain t
destroyed
" I omitted mentioning
brig Serpent had
the Irrawaddy her MajestYt'sh
some stockades which had opened a fire on her, and
in thatse t
that the Commodore bad started for a aru •
direction.
ampbell's force has returned to its canton-
leaving the Morntund frontier in a
" Sir C. C
more disturbed and excited state than ho found it.
"From the China papers it will be seen that the pro-
gress of the rebels is at length decided and uts question-
able. Tien-teh's proclamations are now openly shown
in Canton, and bulletins of imaginary victories gained
by the Imperial troops are no longer put forth by the
Canton authorities. The G-overnor-Generta (Seu) of
the Canton province is besieged by the rebels m ono of
his own towns, and the remnant of the Imperial forces
have lately been signally defeated. The only hope of
the Mantetwo dynasty lies in the chance of dissension
arising among the rebel leaders, an event by no means
improbable.
Sir S. Gray, the aged Commander-in-Chief of the
has had a stroke of Bombay army, paralysis, and returns
to England by to-day's mail;
his illness was not unex-
, pouted. /10 bad came out to a tropical climate in his