The Sun.
London, England, 1839-10-19 00:00:00

ROYAL SURREY THEATRE.
Last Night of 31r. T. P. Cooke's Engagement.
THIS EVENING, Ocr. 17,
Will be presented Shakspeare's Tragedy of
HAMLET.
Hamlet, Mr. Butler; Ophelia, Miss Grant.
To conclude with, theiNautical Drama of
BLACK-EYED SUSAN! OR, ALL IN THE DOWNS.
William, Mr. T. P. Cooke; Gnatbrain, Mr. Smith; Su,an,
Mrs. Vining ; Dolly Mayflower, Miss Martin.

HIRH WATER Al/LONDON BRIDGE TO.MORROW
Morning ...... A minutes after :11:1 Evening ...:1 minutes alter [O.

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LONDON :
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1839.

We adverted yesterday, though very briefly, to
Tin elaborate article, of upwards of sixty pages, in
the Quarterly Review, just published, against the
proposed plan for a uniform penny postage. We
like the article for the distinct proof it affords of
the unyielding hatred of the Tories to every kind
of social improvement. Like any other passion
their hatred suggests nothing but the arguments
favourable to itself, and suggests them in a multi-
plicity, and with a keenness which make us sen-
_ sible how extremely ingenious is hatred as well as
lore in adding to its own blindness. Multiplied
and keen, however, as are the objections brought
together in sixty-one pages, the hatred is as lively
at the end as at the commencement, for the author
is then sensible that he has omitted a vast number
of minor considerations. Indeed the pas-
sion seems to have grown and strengthened
by the thoughts it suggested ; and if the writer
begins doubtful, lukewarm, and hesitating, he ends
bY a bold avowal of hostility. Where there is a
will there is a way, says the proverb, and the Tory
will, being always strongly bent on resisting all
social improvements, never fails to find ways, at
least to justify its selfish • and disgusting inisan.•
thropy.
fis We have no inclination to follow the Reviewer
1 '''"ugh all his windings and doublings. We pass
ever his ,
t cause the best judges have decided that written
cornmunication is a most unfit object of taxation-
lii% attempt to ccnvict Mr. HILL of error, be-
, Ouse two tables composed of different elements,
and brought together for different purposes, do not
I agree in their results, only shows that he is a very
slovenly student, or writes with an intention to de-
ceive. His proof that the Post-office revenue, from
1801 to 1815, doubled, and then became sta-
tionary, and so continued to the present time,
instead of telling against Mr. HILL, is one of the
strongest corroborative circumstances yet brought
under ' public notice of the correctness of
I Mr. HILL'S views. The Revi keeps the
' fact out of sight that an increaseewer of ld. on all
1 postages above sd. was made in 1813, and
the Post-office Revenue, therefore, in the subse-
quent twenty years, instead of remaining stationary,
ought, were the rate of the tax not too high, to have
increased considerably. Neither is it worth while
to notice the poor ridicule with which the writer
treats a phrase of Mr. DILLON, or a piece of phi-
losophy of Mr. SIMPSON. We can only pity the
man, the badness of whose Tory heart so perverts a
somewhat sharp and vigorous intellect, that he fixes
on the stray words of a (perhaps indiscreet) partizan
to turn into ridiculea grand scheme of social improve-
zne'lt, which tends at once to cultivate the best
erections, to promote science and art, and to ex-
tend and enrich commerce. The word-quibbler,
pwho seeks in such materials for objections to a uni-
form penny postage, may, when surrounded, with
Similar quibblers, set the table in a roar, but on a
question involving the best interests of society he is
" more worthy of attention than any other jester
4l'd buffoon. We pass by all these, the sneers
against reform, and the thousand objections on
matters of detail to which the 61 pages are devoted,
t° say a few words on " the justice of a uniform
tt, ,
'b— of postage, and the sufficiency of that rate
~':
,
Log only a penny.'
! If a uniform rate were in any degree substantially
unjust---if, as the Reviewer attempts to make it ap-
Nt'l an injury will be done to those who send
~,-•ers short distances, in order to give an advantage
10 those who send letters great distances, we
should give up the plan. We have no more
Wish to make one man pay the postage of an-
°ther man's letters, than to make him pay for
the rearing of another mated children, or the
maintenance of another man's splendour. Such
laiguities we leave to the Tories. If, however,
the objection of injustice to the uniform penny
13, °Btage were good, it does not become them to
toggle at the fraction of a penny, • while they daily
In
-let on the poorer classes the monstrous robbery
of the Corn-laws. But how any individual, who
as'
114 to pay only one penny for a letter carried even
:n a mile, should
ever suppose he is treated with
o
' •
'justice, 0: complain of it as a grievance, surpasses
ur
imagination. Only one penny by the plan will
LtnY mar, have to pay for an ordinary letter; the
aprage he now has to pay is sixpence, and the
°rY Reviewer is such a moral martinet, because a
letter
0 i sent to Barnet will be taxed only a penny
equal) with a letter sent to Inverness, that he ex-
alms against this as an injustice. Straining at
ghat against
the
and swallowing camels is but a short and
a e description of the extraordinary deglutition of
„,,, ...
tortes, which repels as unjust a uniform penny
1),,h ,'tsge, and
Ch bolts with ease the Legacy duties,
ur ch-ratest Corn laws, and a whole regiment,
double battalion strong, of similar enormities.
1 e) But the Reviewer has left one very important
- ment out of his calculation. Common Sense—
Scl hi
ii,l :,.•§ Sense is Yery common, .not to say vulgar—l
' 7be astonished at •the assertion that the distance '