The Sun.
London, England, 1854-04-17 00:00:00

[pßicE SD.

THE NEWSPAPER STAMP RETURNS.,

(From the Empire. )
For the gratification of public curiosity, the
guidance of advertisers, the glorification of large
journals, and the further humiliation of small ones,
the Newspaper Stamp Returns have again been
published by the authority of Parliament. They
comprise a period of three years, and show the
number of stamps issued to each newspaper or
stamped periodical in the United Kingdom in the
years 1851, 1852, and 1853 respectively. In an-
other part of our impression we give that portion
of the returns which relates to the Metropolitan
papers—no less than 125 in number, with circula-
tions varying from the 14 millions- per annum of
the Times to the 602 copies of the Lambeth (Janette,
and the 280 copies of the Jewish Herald. The
mere list of the titles alone is curious, beginning
with Allen's Indian Mail, ending with the Wes-
leyan Times, and exhibiting in its course a varied
and imposing specimen of newspapar nomenclature
only to be surpassed by the titular fancies and pre-
tensions of the Yankee press, over which no stamp
office dares to take cognisance. In the personal
and professional category we have Builders, Critics,
English Churchmen, Economists, Examiners,
e
Friends, Inquirers, Leaders, Merchants,‘
etatnrsNoncon-
formists, Observers, Patriots, Reporters,
Dispatches.
and Watchmen, mixed up among Globes, lobes,
ards, Posts, Records, Chronicles, and
The purely symbolical titles are not numerous,
nor yet are the classical—Atlas and Diogenes being
the only representatives of antiquity .
in the list.
The !Times appears to be a favourite for,
besides the leviathan, we have the Christian Times
(by way of distinction, we presume, from the great
heathen of Printing-house-square), the Gas and
Water Times, the Ifailway Times, the Law Times,
the Wesleyan Times, the Sunday Times, the
Weekly Times, dtc. Then there are wonderfully
large families of Journals, Chronicles, and Ga-
zettes, with Public Ledgers, Circulars, and we
know not what besides.

Of the accuracy of these returns there can be no
question ; but in some instances a little accompany-
ing explanation to the figures would have been
serviceable to the public, and only fair towards
the proprietors of certain papers. Thus, in our
own case, the number of stamps issued to the
Empire in the year 1853 is given as 48,700, but
it does not appear on the face of the return that
the Empire was only established in November,
1853, and that therefore the 48,700 stamps were
in reality for eight weeks, and not, as the reader
would otherwise suppose for the entire year. Then,
again, there are a number of periodicals, nut
strictly newspapers, which require stamps for a
portion only of their impression. Among these we
may name the Athenceum, the Critic, the Builder,
Punch, Diogenes, Household Words, &c., to the ag-
gregate circulation of none of which do the stamp re-
turns form any clue whatever. Thus our very popular
friend Diogenes has credit for 14,500 stamps during
1853, which would give an average of 278 only per
week. This, however, merely represents the num-
ber of copies sent through the post and requiring a
stamp for that purpose • so that the lantern-bear-
ing philosopher has an absolute injustice and injury
done him in the eyes of the uninitiated by these
returns. The same remark will apply to a number
of other periodicals which are permitted to circu-
late everywhere but through the post without a
stamp—a privilege which, by the way, is marked
by great and indefensible partiality. Why, for
instance, should the Athenceum the Builder,
the Gritic, or the Racing Telegraph be permitted
an unstamped gendral sale, while the Leader, the
' Examiner, and the Empire are taxed a penny on
every sheet they sell, whether it passes through the
post or nor. ? The answer is, that the former are
not newspapers in a Somerset-house point of view,
while the latter are. This of itself will be news to
many people, but so it is. A man may cram a
paper like the Builder or the Racing Times with
news of one kind, or he may get up a literary inno-
cent of a paper like the _-f thenteitin, the Critic, or
the Notes and Queries, all replete with information,
without fearing the exactions of the Stamp-office,
except upon such copies as have to pass through the
post ; but the moment he enters the arena of the
world and collates the general news of the day, his
every sheet must bear a tax of 100 per cent upon the
cost of the material. This is the freedom of press in
England, as arbitrarily adjudged by our Stamp-
office authorities. The literary recluse may have
his paper laden with interesting treasure, untaxed
—the man of the turf may learn the latest state of
the odds and be kept au courant with the myste-
rious movements of the sporting world, without
any special contribution to the revenue—but the
people may not learn what is going on around them
to influence their political destinies, they may not
be apprised of the proceedings of parliaments, the
movements of armies, the fate of empires, and all
that our legislators tell us it is their interest and
their duty to know, withoUt the interposition of
the tax-collector. The newspaper stamp, then, is
a tax upon the people, an obstruction to popular
intelligence, a lowering of the foot-lights on the
great stage of the world. It is not, as has been
pleaded, a mere charge madeto reimburse Govern-
ment for the expense of transmitting newspapers
through the post, for a great portion o newspapers
don't pass through the post at all. If Government
would be content to make the newspaper tax con-
tingent solely upon the privilege of postal trans-
mission, the public would be satisfied, and amongst
newspaper proprietors no one would more heartily
acquiesce in the arrangement than ourselves. But,
as the saying is, " between you and me and the
post," our legislators have a deeper object than the
indemnification of the post-office in retaining this
tax upon newspapers.
A few words more upon the present Stamp Re-
turns. Like their predecessors they show that
throughout the country the Liberal are the popular
and most successful papers ; but like their prede-
cessors they also show that, whether Liberal or
Conservative, the press of England has a most de-
pressing incubus to bear in the newspaper stamp
duty. The number of papers in the metropolitan
list is 125, but the greatest proportion of these are
either literary periodicals, or class publications of
limited circulation. Take away the mining and
railway journals, trade circulars, the ecclesiastical
and sectarian organs, &c., and the number of papers
of general information is really miserable, and still
more miserable is the sale which they have in the
midst of a population of some millions. Of the
eleven daily papers, exclusive of the Times, the
average circulation each is only about 2,600 ; and
in eight cases out of eleven the returns for 1853
show a decrease of circulation upon the returns of
1852. As regards the weekly papers, where there
is one which shows an increase there are at least
two which show a decrease of sale ; and when the
present enormous price of our excise-taxed paper
is taken into account, it is not too much to say
that the majority are now carried on with
little or no profit to the proprietors. This
cannot be a healthy or satisfactory state of
things in a country of professedly pre-emi-
nent civilisation, and in an age when the
diffusion of intelligence is constantly apostrophised
as the highest mission of statesmanship and philan-
thropy. If any fact can be deduced from the re- •
turns before us it is, that the British press, to be •
equal to its calling and deserts, must be untaxed—
that the badge of oppression implied by the news-
paper stamp must be removed knowledge, mustld that the duty
on paper, the common vehicle of
be abolished.

ALARMING EXPLOSION OF WAR-ROCKETS AT
THE ROYAL AREAL, WOOLWICH.

The above casualty, which at this moment is so calcu-
lated to excite apprehension in the public mind, took
place at the Royal Arsenal on Good Friday, between
ten and eleven o clock.
It appeared from information collected from authentic
sources, that two unfinished 241 b. rockets had exploded.
The accident first occurred in a compartment worked by
a man named Parrot, and spread itself into the adjoining
one, where a dockyard man named Newstead was at
work. The men employed in the rocket-house rushed
out in a state of terror, and Mr. Pickering, the master
congreve-rocket maker, arrived and found a portion of
the building in flames. Considerable apprehension
existed that the large barrows of rockets, arranged by
the men when finished, would ignite, and gangs were
immediately set to work to remove them. The engines
of the Arsenal were speedily and most efficiently worked
by the military and men, aided by Mr. Inspector Grave-
stock and the dockyard police. A company of Sappers
and Miners, under the direction of Colonel Walpole,
also did good service. Colonel Wilson and the foremen
of the dock men were present, encouraging and stitnii-
biting the men in their duty, and in the space of 15
minutes the devastating element was conquered.
Considerable fears were at first entertained for the
men, numbering about 50, who were at work in the
rocket-house, but after the tumult had. subsided it was
happily found that neither life nor limb had been sacri-
ficed. The cause of the accident is conjectured to be
the overloading of a Parrott's case ; and the force of the
'explosion may imagined when it is stated that the
west side of the house was completely blown down.
Several windows in the neighbourhood were also demo-
lished, and the report could be heard for miles distant.
A similar accident, it is stated, occurred
about two
years since.