The Sun.
London, England, 1830-10-16 00:00:00

while, at the same time, they are not subject to any
stamp•duty, nor any fiscal impost whatever.
" 4. The carrying by post should be gratuitous.
On the one hand the,Tressury would thereby lose
the tax for postage and distribution ; but do you
not :see that these encouragements of the Press
would give an impulse to public spirit, extend the
relations of commerce, multiply correspondence,
letters, missions, and the products of commerce ?
The Treasury would not, therefore, be altogether
a loser. Let it, besides, raise the hatchet against
excessive salaries; let it cut off the devouring le-
prosy of sinecures and pluralities, and the deficiency
of the Treasury will be covered, and we should
thereby have less abuses and more liberties.
'' I will now restate my proposition in figures, in
order that any one may at a glance comprehend it :
" The price of the annual subscription to a
journal at present is
" The Stamp and Post duties are included
in this expence—mmely,
" Stamp duty for 360 sheets, at
seven centimes the sheet...s2sf. 20e.
" Post duty at five centimes
per sheet ISf. Oc.

43f. 20e.

" Remainder, 36E. 80e.

" Now take from this surplus the allowance made
to booksellers and the directors of post, the expenses
of salaries, of office, of paper, of printing, of folding,
and of distributing, the interest of the capital laid
out, the insurance on security, the advance of stamp
and post duties, the expence of correspondence, of
editing and conducting, the bad debts, and see vi hat
remains to the undertakers of journals, and judge
whether competition is physically possible !
" But who suffers the most of that 2 The public.
" If on the other hand you remove the impost,
you reduce nearly one half the price of the journals,
and these are what will be the effect :

" Ile who used not to take in a journal will have
one. He who had only one will take two. Ile who
had only a journal of a single sheet will take one of
a double sheet. He who had only news of politics,
will have news of the administration, of literature,
of the sciences, of the arts, of agriculture, of com-
merce, and trade. New reading rooms will be
opened. The manufacture of paper, of ink, of
types, and of presses will be increased. The com-
positors, and pressmen, the founders, the engravers,
and the mechanics will be multiplied. The
enthusiasm of system-Makers, the ebullitions of Uto-
pians, will be exhaled by so many open pores, and
will fall down consuming elle another. The de-
partmental press, which stepped at the burghs, will
penetrate to the villages. The journals will descend
from the hands of the high and middling to the
hands of the small proprietor; and the people,
whose benefit should be the end of every measure,
would receive instruction conformable with their
wants, and Will perceive that each condition has its
rights and duties; and the poor, as well as the rich,
will not be ameliorated without being enlightened.
" But it is. objected, the time has not arrived.
We must wait. Why, let me ask, should we wait?
Did those Parisians wait who marched forward to
subvert despotism, subject to a devastating discharge
of grape-shot ? Did those intrepid Belgians wait,
who in another
‘Place renew the prodigies of the
French people, and for whom all generous hearts
beat with :sympathy:and admiration'? Institutions,
like fruit, should be gathered when ripe:
" France has made one step, and all the world is
about to follow her. Neither coalitions, armies, nor
fortresses—neither glaciers, mountains, nor seas, can
stop the revolution of ideas;" and before a quarter Of
a century, the victories of the Press will have made
the tour of Europe.
" I have the honour to be, &e.,
" CPIENIN."
, .