The Sun.
London, England, 1830-05-22 00:00:00

That the wealth of nations depends still more upon the
degree in which knowledge is diffused among their inha-
bitants, than upon soil, situation, or climate; countries,
naturally almost uninhabitable, having been made wealthy
and populous by civilization, while others which are
blessed with the greatest natural advent ages, have re-
mained poor and miserable, because their inhabitants were
ignorant, and did not desire knowledge.
That, moreover, in the opinion of s the wisest men, in
which your petitioners fully concur, the fiscal regulations
of a civilized government should be determined by moral
as weli as by merely financial considerations : and that
the habit of useful reading is the great instrument by
which some portions of mankind have been advanced to a
high state of moral improvement, and by which the re-
mainder may hereafter be raised to an equal elevation !
That in the opinion of your petiticoers, the circulation
of newspapers is the grand vehicle by which the ideas and
modes of thinking of the more instructed classes are pro-
pagated among the more ignorant, and are by far the most
commodious and efficient organ of information to which
the poor man has access.
Your petitioners do not here dwell on the beneficial in-
fluence excited over the public mind by political discus-
sions and argument, and by the manner in which great
public questions are canvassed in the debates in Parlia-
ment, and in the leading articles of newspapers. Neither
will they expatiate on the peculiar propriety, under a re-
presentative constitution, of enabling the people to obtain
ready access to a knowledge of the public acts and pro-
fessed sentiments.of their representatives. Your petitioners
wish to rest their argument chiefly on the comparative en-
largement 'of mind, arising from the great variety of new
ideas which. newspapers present to persons yet unac-
customed to their perwal, and tending to dispel a variety
of vulgar prejudices, long since exploded among the
educated classes, but which your petitioners have reason
to think still linger among that portion of the community
by whom newspapers are rarely perused. Your peti-
tioners would ask, by way of example, how it would be
possible that the prejudices which long prevailed univer-
sally against millers and corn-dealers, where cupidity was
supposed to be the -cause of every scarcity by which the
ceuntry was afflicted, should stand their ground among
persons accustomed to see in every newspaper speculations
and conjectures respecting the amount of the crops, and
the probable price as depending upon the probable supply?
And how a belief in witchcraft and astrology, which it is
to be proved, continues to prevail to a great extent among
the ignorant, can subsist among persons who see these pre-
judices universally treated with contempt in every news-
paper which appears? -
Your petitioners believe that the only persons in this
country who now retain their antiquated prejudices, are
those to whom newspapers rarely if ever penetrate. They
believe that the ignorance even of the most ordinary sub-
jects which pervades the minds of .this class, is such as
would astonish those who have no direct experience of it;
and they feel convinced that the various diStricts of the
United Kingdom' would be found to be civilized and en-
lightened nearly in the proportion in which newspapers
circulate in those districts.
Your petitioners further represent, that since to almost.
every man the affairs of his own country are the subject on
which, next to his own private concerns, and those of his
family, he most desires to inform himself, newspapers are
the kind of reading for which the greatest number of per-
ioni feel an inclination, and by which the taste for reading
generally commences. And the desire of procuring access
to a variety of newspapers is frequently the primary motive
for the formation of reading societies, which ultimately
afford oppottunities, and inspire a taste for reading, of a
more solid and serious kind.
That the reports of judicial proceedings which are
given in the newspapers, are nearly the only source from
which the public derive such knowledge as they possess
of the laws which they are bound to obey.
That in the opinion of your petitioners there is no
ground whatever for the notion entertained by some per-
sons, that the multiplication of newspapers would tend.to
tender the people seditious. An ignorant and uninformed
people are in danger of being misled by any enthuaiaStic,
or self interested demagogue, who addresses himself to their
passions and prejudices. But that the diffusion of political
information renders the people far less susceptible to such
delusions, is evidenced by the fact, that those outrages
against property which formerly were the invariable con-
sequences of distress in any large portion of the labouring
community have, during the late severe distresses, been
almost entirely unknown.
That your petitioners, while they view with pleasure
and thankfulness the exertions which have been made of
late years to educate and instruct the body of the people,
lament that these virtuous endeavours have hitherto effected
little more than by teaching them to read, to render them
more capable of receiving instruction, rather than to place
it actually within their reach. Your petitioners do not
complain of this, as they are aware that no instruction can
be of much efficacy or advantage except that which the
parties who stand in need of instruction voluntarily seek.
What your petitioners regret is, that by taxes which raise
the price of newspapers and of books, needless obstructions
are opposed to the voluntary endeavours of the less opulent
classes, towards obtaining for themselves that instruction,
the capability of receiving which has with so much zeal
and philanthropy been extended to the bulk of the popu-
lation.

It is a common and just complaint against the educa-
tion whiCh consists solely of reading. and writing, that it
teaches words rather than things, and communicates few
ideas. Your petitioners conceive that this reproach would
be wiped out by rendering the knowledge of things more
accessible than at present, and by bringing the ideas of
the instructed more readily within the reach of the un-
enlightened.
Your petitioners are persuaded that the abolition of the
taxes on newspapers would greatly improve the character
of newspapers themselves, as it would enable them to com-
mand the services of the ablest writers, and by rendering
it possible for a newspaper to support itself with a mo-
derate sale, would relieve them from the necessity under
which in some degree they now lie, of being the mere trans-
cript, image, and reflexion of popular opinion.
Your petitiOners also believe that were it net for these
taxes, English newspapers would enjoy a considerable cir-
culation in foreign countries, where they are now almost
unknown; whereby. .English ideas and modes of thinking
would have their fair influence in forming the opinions
and feelings of the civilized world ; national jealousies and
antipathies would be softened down, and a feeling of ho-
nourable emulation between country and country would
take their place.
Your petitioners consider that scarcely any taxes can be
in principle equally objectionable 'With those which operate
liberal curi-
al taxes on eiyilizAtionrdiscouravment, to a