The Sun.
London, England, 1853-10-03 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1553,

The new Stamp Act relating to receipts and to
drafts or bills on bankers, payable to order on
demand, will come into operation on Monday
next. It is a great fiscal experiment, from which
much has been expected, and which we believe
will fulfil the most sanguine expectations that
have been formed with respect thereto. There
are few persons whose transactions will not he
in some degree affected by its provisions. Every
merchant or trader—every shopkeeper or trades-
man, paying or receiving two pounds or upwards
on any occasion, and exerylperson having a bank-
ing account, will require to make himself tho-
roughly acquainted with its details, so as to be
enabled to avoid any breach of the law, which it
has been intimated will be very strictly enforced.
This notice must, therefore, be attended to, or
heavy penalties may be incurred by a perseverance
in the established course of business ; and for
which, indeed, there will be but little excuse,
when we consider the simplicity of the enactment
and the moderation of the demand on each
transaction.

The old law relating to stamps on receipts de-
feated itself. The charge was too high, and the
result was that the act was generally, we might
say almost universally, evaded. A systematic vio-
lation of its provisions was not regarded as any-
thing disgraceful, or even improper, and men of
acknowledged probity and integrity became habi-
tual law breakers, subjecting themselves almost
every day to money penalties of 101. or 201. each.
These, however, were seldom if ever enforced, and
were, therefore, practically obsolete, so that save
in the cases of rent and taxes, or payments con-
nected with legal proceedings which might subse-
quently require to be established in courts of jus-
tice, simple memoranda, or unstamped paper, were
almost universally substituted for more formal re-
ceipts. The revenue was thus defrauded by gene-
ral assent, and no serious attempts were made to
enforce it by the Board of Inland Revenue, or
any other parties on behalf of the Government.
The law was, in fact, condemned by the voice of
public opinion, and, like all others similarly cir-
cumstanced, it became practically inoperative.
In place, however, of stamps varying from 3d.
to 10s. on all sums amounting to 51. and upwards,
it is now provided that there shall be a uniform
stamp of one penny on all sums amounting to 40s.
or upwards. This trifling charge will cover any
amount, however large, or even suffice for " a re-
ceipt in full for all demands," a very important
and useful document, but which was seldom given
in consequence of the high price of the stamp
(10.$) which was required on a general acquittance.
Much eximisive and ruinous litigation might have
been averted but for the virtual prohibition on
such conclusive vouchers, tedious accounts being
required to be gone through for what otherwise
would be disposed of in a moment. This stamp
may, as at present, be impressed on the paper, or
affixed in like manner as postage stamps now are,
it being however essential in the latter case that
the party giving the receipt should write his sig-
nature or initials over the stamp to prevent its
being again used and the revenue thereby de-
frauded.

From the very simplicity of these arrangements
no mistake can be made , Every man who has to
pay 40s. or upwards, must know that he cannot
do so with safety to himself without obtaining a
stamped receipt. He will, therefore, take care to
have in his possession a stamp, with which he may,
if necessary, supply the receiver—deducting the
price from the payment--while the receiver of
money will be still more cautious, inasmuch as he
subjects himself to a heavy penalty (101.) which there
is every reason to suppose will be rigidly en-
forced, and there will be no pity for, or sympa-
thy with, the offender who endeavours to avoid
se trifling a contribution to the National revenue,
and to defeat a reasonable fiscal experiment, which,
if fully and fairly carried out, may lead to very
important results. There will, in fact, be but
one exception of any kind from the general rule
—viz., on money deposited by a party himself
with his own bankers, and to be accounted for
to himself. A payment by any other person into
the bankers' will, however, be liable to the stamp,
'and thus all payments of deposits on letters of
allotment of shares or on calls in any company
will be subject to the charge. The single exemp-
tion is on the ground that a man paying in money
to his bankers is only transferring cash from one
pocket to another. It would, however, have been
better if there had been no exception of any kind.
It is exemptions that impede and affect the bene-
ficial working of any fiscal law. Let it he tho-
roughly understood that the act must be com-
plied with by every person, high or low, rich or
poor, and that any violation will be moderately
and leniently, but certainly, punished, and there
will be no attempt at evasion. The certainty is
far more effectual than the severity of punishment
for the prevention of offences against the law.
We believe no person would have complained of
being obliged to pay one penny on every lodgment
of money, or payment into his bankers. It is

maeie for his own convenience, and few, indeed,
wriuld cavil at so moderate a charge.
The change in the law relating to cheques or
bills on demand, is very important. According
to the law at present in operation, (9 GEo. 4, cap.
49, s. 151.) These drafts to be exempted from
Stamp-duty, must be payable to bearer, and on
demand, and be drawn within ten miles of the
place where the bank carries on its business. The
place where it is issued must, therefore, be specified
on the face of the draft or cheque, which must be
dated on or before the day on which it is issued,
and must not direct the payment to be made
on bills of exchange or promisory notes. These
salutary provisions, except that relating to pay-
ment on demand, are, however, also habitually
violated. The act of crossing a cheque is intended
to prevent it from being paid to any person by
whom it may be presented ; and it has recently
been contended that the usage or custom in such
cases could override the statute law, and that the
banker would not be justified in
_paying such a
draft except through the single banker to whom
it had been crossed. Messrs. COUTTS and Co. have
recently had a large sum at stake on the result.
It is 'also notorious that cheques are drawn in any
part of the country different from the place ex-
pressed thereon, and that in many instances they
are even post-dated to suit the convenience of
the party giving them.
The new law will not interfere with those
bona fide drawn, according to the requirements of
that already in operation. Cheques may still be
drawn on unstamped paper, if payable on demand
to bearer, and drawn at a place not exceeding the
specified distance from that where it is made
payable. But a very important modification will,
after Monday next, be sanctioned in these instru-
ments, which so materially affect our commercial
matters. The greatest difficulties would be ex-
perienced, and much larger amounts of cash would
be required for carrying on the every-day opera-
tions of trade but for the perfection to which the
cheque system has been brought. Some concep-
tion may be formed of the magnitude of these
transactions, from the simple fact, that those of a
single London Bank (Messrs. Glynn and Co.) ave-
rage no less than half a million sterling per diem,
and frequently exceed that amount. Any addi-
tional facilities on this point, any greater security,.
afforded, must therefore be highly beneficial to
the community.

After the 10th instant these cheques, if stamped,
-with the uniform penny stamp, may be issued at
any distance from the banks where they are made
payable, and may be made either to bearer or to
order, in which latter case, however, the banker
will only be responsible for the accuracy of the
signature of the drawer, and for the cheque pur-
porting to bear the indorsement of the party
to whom it is made payable. The great advan-
tage 3 of these modifications will be apparent to
every person conversant with the law of cheques.
It is only to be regretted that any exemption has
been allowed. We are convinced that any person
having a banking account would willingly pay the
penny stamp on each cheque in consideration of
the additional security afforded, and also for the
benefit of having the cancelled cheque operating
as a bona fide receipt for a specific payment.
There can be no doubt that these improvements
have been suggested by the beneficial operation of
the uniform penny postage system ; and, like that,
we shall find that a large revenue will be collected,
not only without the creation of a heavy burden
on the tax-paying community, but even with more
than corresponding advantages to the contributors.
The great fiscal problem will in one respect be
solved by the discovery of an impost that will be
freely and willingly paid by all parties liable
thereto. Mr. GLADSTONE certainly deserves credit
for that portion of his Budget, if for no other.

The decided and regularly progressing decrease
of pauperism, and especially of able-bodied pauper-
ism, is one of the most gratifying facts which the
Parliamentary returns enable us to understand
with something like precision. The indications
are of course numerous and plain enough that
labour, especially skilled labour, is in full demand,
and the reports of empty workhouses meet us
pretty frequently. Still it is pleasant to be able
to take stock accurately in this painfully interesting
department. The last Parliamentary return enables
us to feel assured that the decrease in pauperism,
which commenced in 1849, has been going on ever
since then, and in an increasing ratio.
The number of paupers of all classes in receipt
of relief on the Ist of January, 1849, was 940,851.
The number receiving relief at the same date in
1852 was 792,026, showing a decrease of 148,825,
or nearly 16 per cent. on the three years. But
by a Parliamentary return, which compares the
numbers in receipt of parish relief in the years
ending on the Ist of July, 1852 and 1853, it
appears that they were in the former years
800,172, and in the latter 743,639, showing on
a single year a decrease of 57,756 paupers, and a
ratio of decrease amounting to more than 7 per
cent. on the one year only.
The return is equally gratifying on the com-
parison of the able-bodied pauperism of each pe-
riod. The number in receipt of relief on the Ist
of January, 1849, was 201,644 ; which, on the
Ist of January, 1852, had diminished to 130,163,
a decrease of 71,481, or 351 per cent. nearly on
the three years. But the numbers receiving re-
lief on the Ist of July, 1852, were 124,882, and
on the Ist of July, 1853, they were 107,880, a
decrease of 17,189, or nearly 14 per cent. on that
year alone. It is to be borne in mind that the
rate per cent. exhibited the progress of the dimi-
nution most accurately ; since the returns for the
three years were from 590 unions ; while those of
the present year were from 616 unions, of Eng-
land and Wales. It appears, therefore, that
general pauperism has decreased, during the last
year of which returns have been received, in the
full proportion of nearly 211 to 16 compared with
the three years just mentioned ; and able-bodied
pauperism, at the rate of 41 to nearly 351 com-
pared with the same years.
This change has, of course, been altogether for
good to the subjects of it. They have been all of
the labouring class necessarily, and whether they
emigrated to Austialia, to the States, or to Ca-
nada, no able-bodied labourer has failed, if steady,
to be a great gainer ; or whether they remained
at home to fill the places of those who had left,
the change was equally one to independence, and
to industrious and, therefore, morally improving
habits. The decrease of the class of paupers not
reckoned as able-bodied, though not so large propor-
tionally, indicates that children chiefly, and some
infirm persons and widows also have either become
competent to support themselves, or that relatives
have been able to take charge of them. So far,
however, as the really infirm from age or other
causes are concerned, this class must in all popu-
lous countries be recipients of legal or voluntary
charity. Were poor-rates really limited to such,
we should look upon them with almost as much
pleasure or pain. If we saw in them as in an Hos-
pital, a witness to " the ills which flesh is heir
to," we should in like manner see in them a re-
cognition of the duty of being our " brother's
keeper."
It is especially gratifying to observe that many
of the agricultural districts are beginning to share
in the decrease of general and able-bodied pau-
perism. From the January return, it appeared
that in sixteen counties there had been an in-
crease of able-bodied paupers in not less than
20 counties. But from the July return, it ap-
pears that only the small county of Merionethshire
now enjoys that unenviable distinction. If in
Devon and Wilts the decrease of able-bodied
paupers is but four and four and a half per cent. ;
and in Durham, Northampton, Warwick, and
York North Riding, under seven per cent. ; yet,
on the other hand, the agricultural counties of
Oxford and Westmoreland show a reduction in
able-bodied paupers of more than 22 per cent. ;
Gloucester, 11 ; Hertford, 121 ; Huntingdon and
Norfolk, fully 10 ; but Hereford, the largest ,
decrease of any, more than 26 per cent. The
decrease of Lancaster itself is about 251 per cent. ; '
and that of the West Riding of Yorkshire about
the same. It is pleasant to see the agricultural
coun ties begin to vie with the manufacturing ones
in reducing their pauperism, though no doubt it
is effected much more by their labourers leaving

them than by the great increase of employment,
which is not the case with the manufacturing dis- I
tricts in at all like proportion. The agriculturists
must beware, however, of supposing that in the
best cases they equal the manufacturers. Here-
ford, for instance, which figures so prominently in
its reduction of pauperism, has a pauper popula-
tion of 1 in 14k, and ita able-bodied pau-
pers amount to 1 in 128. While the figures
for the West Riding are general paupers,
1 in 33 ; able-bodied, 1 in 213 ; and for
Lancaster—general paupers, 1 in 34; able-bodied,
lin 228. There is, we trust, every reason to
hope that as landlords lose one by one the objects
for which they sought political power ; as they
come to feel the necessity of capital, long leases,
and improved estates ; and especially as steam
power supersedes horse power, agricultural la-
bourers will be needed in greater numbers, will
come more and more under the class of skilled
operatives, and obtain better remuneration for
their toil.

As we have already mentioned, the returns
from 590 unions in 1849 showed 940,851 pau-
pers in the receipt of relief. Those from 616
unions in July, 1853, showed 743,639 general
paupers. A diminution of 197,212 in the four
years and a half ; and allowing for the twenty-six
unions more in the last return, the diminution is
not much less than 200,000. The able-bodied
paupers, also, in 1849, amounted to 201,644, but
in 1853 to 107,880, a diminution of 93,764.
The propOrtion of paupers to population was, in
1849, 1 in 16 ; in 1853, it is nearly 1 in 22.
These are results certainly of a highly encouraging
kind. They point, we trust, to a steady reduc-
tion of our pauperism to the lowest possible stan-
dard consistent with the duty of a Christian coun-
try towards its poor. We only hope that our
workmen may not, by the direct and indirect con-
sequences of injudicious strikes (how rarely, in-
deed, are strikes judicious!), stay for a while the
the ebbing tide of pauperism.

A SUPPOSED CLUE TO THE FATE OF
THE F.RAIVKLIN EXPEDITION.

It is currently reported at St. Petersburg that
several bottles, hermetically sealed and air-tight,
but not containing any memoranda to indicate
eir origin, have been picked up on the highest
,plititudes of the Siberian coast, and forwarded to
,:ithe Russian Government, which has not only corn-
,,..nunicated the circumstance to her Majesty's envoy
`but delivered to him several of these bottles. An
impression has consequently arisen that these bot-
tles belonged to Franklin's expedition ; and it is
hoped, feeble as these indices may be, that they
may tend to throw some light upon the fate of our
countrymen, by producing a search in a new direc-
tion corresponding with the set of currents that
have thrown these bottles on the Siberian coast.
A letter from St. Petersburg, received last night,
states that the Queen's messenger, who embarked
on Saturday at Cronstadt, was charged to convey
one of the bottles to the Admiralty, with divers
memoranda relating to the subject, drawn up by,
or communicated to, the British legation at St.
Petersburg.—Berlin Correspondent of the Morning
Chronicle.

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 3, 1853

LATEST FOREIGN NEWS.

FRANCE.

Prince Napoleon, who is completely recovered
from his late indisposition, visited the Emperor at
St. Cloud on Saturday.
The Moniteur publishes two imperial decrees,
one extending from the 31st December, 1853, to
the 31st July, 1854, for the temporary suppression
of the additional navigation duty (surtaxe) usually
imposed on corn, flour, and other articles of food
imported in foreign bottoms ; and the other inter-
dicting until the 31st July, 1854, the exportation
of potatoes and dried pulse.
Another decree nominates Captain Bonfils, of the
French navy, Governor of Guadaloupe, vice Cap-
tain Aubrey Bailleul, recalled to France on his own
application.
The Illoniteur publishes the convention con-
cluded on the 30th June last between the French
Minister at Mexico and the Minister of Foreign
Affairs of Mexico, for the payment of the sums due
to French subjects ; and the Moniteur requests all
persons residing in France who have demands to
make on Mexico to send them in to the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs, or to the French Legation in
Mexico.

The Courrier du Pas-de-Calais states that, at the
request of the Mayor of St. Omer, the Emperor
has given 30,000 fr. for the fountains of that place.
His Majesty has also given 5,000 fr. to the poor of
the town.

It may be remembered that the municipal coun-
cil of Dieppe, having offered the Hotel-de-Ville of
that town as a gift to the Emperor, his Majesty
refused to accept it on the ground that the ex-
penses of the civil list were already too great to
permit him to charge it with any additional burden.
Queen Christina, the Duke de Rianzares, and
her two children on Saturday visited the Hotel des
Invalides. Her Majesty was received by the Go-
vernor of the Hotel, General Count d'Ornano, and
by all the staff. She visited and minutely ex-
amined the tomb of the Emperor and the chapel
in which his remains are deposited. Her Majesty
appeared much moved in contemplating the latter.
The Queen also visited the infirmary, the library,
and other parts of the establishment. In the
course of the visit a female named Brulon, who
holds the rank of a sub-lieutenant, and is a mem-
ber of the Legion of Honour, was presented to the
Queen ; her husband was killed in battle, and she
has served seven years in his stead. She was se-
verely wounded, and was admitted to the Inva-
lides. This was fifty-three years ago, and she is
now aged eighty-two.
At the Bourse on Saturday the settlement
proved in favour of the sellers. At first the nu-
merous operations for the fall entered into for the
next account depressed the rentes, -Which went down.
to 74.90 and 74.85. Afterwards there was a re-
action for some minutes, during which the Threes
rose to 75.15. Sellers then came forward rapidly,
and quotations soon fell to 74.80. Later in the
day they dropped to 74.60, which was the closing
price, being a fall of 50c. from Saturday. The
price of Consols of the day was not posted at the
Bourse.