The Sun.
London, England, 1854-05-17 00:00:00

with it when only first published. The music being that the repeal of the present laver would, more than anything
for wh; leh the money is paid in all instances, you wilt per- else, tend to put an end to.
ceive hat, supposing 16 or more pages of advertitements to . The ATTORNEY-GENE RAL did not rise with the in-
be gi' ren with the music, the Musical Times would still con- tention of quarrelling much with the resolution of the hon.
sist 4 principally' of the music, which is what people pay for. member for Manchester, for •he was disposed to think that
I a-sa obliged by _your offer to submit my representations to the law on the subject of tl se periodical press required re-
tb.e board, and I feel all the inconvenience of their position, vising and amending. (H. tar, hear.) He was also dis-
til having to administer a law which the judges are unable to posed to admit that up to the present time the law had
define, and. which no Government has yet had either the grace been unequally enforced, to it to this he could give some
sto repeal or the courage equally to enforce. I am not with- explanation and qualification, for he did not wish the house
out hope that the present Government will adopt the graceful to run away with the uctiorr that the law had been arbi-
course and repeal these bad laws; but if in the meantime trarily enforced,. for had. got been so. The portion of
they are determined to make the existing laws respected, they the a !dress of the b.on. meeetber with which he was most
would be more likely to succeed by prosecuting any of the disposed to quarrel was the unnecessary bitternes4 with
other 50 or 60 papers placed in precisely the same position as which he had con:tenet:des' on the conduct of the Stamp-
the Musical Times, because ill-natured people will be apt to office officials T:ue -principle on which the law had been
think the selection more due to its being the property of the administered w'lth -regard to these publications was, that
treasurer of the Active Association for the Repeal of all the wherever a 'periodical publication had confined itself to
Taxes on Knowledge, rather than to any peculiarity in the any single °lees oe subjects, there the law had not interfered.
contents of the Musical Times requiring the enforcement of lit thought this principle was first introduced in the case
the law to begin with that paper. of the At,keruzum, for it was considered that in the case of
" I am, Sir, your obedient servant, publicateone not being at all devoted to political sub-
" ALFRED NOVELL°. jects, yet which conveyed an amount of amusement
and instruction
y whichwloitiwheohoebut
milatchl
rbeett.
hebeinfseal
excitingafiv tcouivarrle,p-
political
bttiehearl ) —t
public,ettpbieesee
" To J. Timm, Esq., Solicitor of Inland Revenue."
e
(Hear.) He (Mr. Gibson) believed, however, that. the pr:bli[o.tieo
Te's swNcletl wanting
would Musical Times was no newspaper at all, and, judgi'sg by
some o This began with palications o
and were those to
dl
eiettzie
;reefnloi
the past practice and written opinions of the Board of
r favour.h ical character, and was gradnall mightextfena
Inland Revenue, it certainly could not come within that
category. In answer to se letter which had been addressed
when the principle of exemption was introduced, it was
o•
felt to be no more than fairness and justice that the prin-
to the board by Messrs. Robinson and Crofton,. of Wake-
field, dated the 25th of February, 1851, the solicitor wrote
tip/.e should he applied to all those publications which fell
to this effect : witein it. The consequence of this has been that so many
of these dem publi rations are now issued that many and
serious complaints have been made against these exemp-
tions by those who pay the duty, so that he could promise
the hon. member he would now obtain that which he con-
tended for, and the law should be equally enforced against
the whole of those publications infringing the law. (A
laugh.) It was rather odd that one who had so long and
eloquently contended for the repeal of the duties should
now clamour for the inflexible and uniform enforcement
of the law. He thought the principle on which the hon.
gentleman did this might be surmised. He (Mr. Gibson)
conceived that the greater the number of the periodicals
subjected to this tax, the greater would be the outcry
against them and the greater the chances of their repeal.
(Hear, and a laugh.) He (the Attorney-General) did not
quarrel with this, but it should be borne in mind, when
complaints arose of the unequal enforcement of the law,
and of the conduct of the officers of the Board of Inland
Revenue, that prosecutions had arisen out of the grievous
complaints made 'by parties paying the duties against
those who wore exempted. (Hear, hear.) He considered
that the law on this subject required additions and
amendments, but he could not agree with the hon. mem-
ber as to its imperfect state with regard to the case
he had mentioned of the Dublin paper. In this case
the law decided nothing—the judge merely told the jury
that the law was defined by the definition in the act of
Parliament, and asked the jury to find and determine as a
question of fact whether that portion of the news-
paper relied upon by the counsel for the Crown did
contain public news, intelligence, or occurrences. In this
case the question had to be decided by a jury, and the jury
said it was not a periodical containing news, inteligence,
or occurrences, and they gave it as their opinion that the
paper did not come within the meaning of the act. In
such cases as these, when the question came to be whether
the law was or was not inf. inged there was no alternative
but to bring them before a jury, by whose :.recision alone the
point at issue could be settled. Now, he asked the right
hon. gentleman whether ho was able to give a better defini-
tion of a newspaper than that which was laid down in the
act of Parliament ? (Hear, hear.) So long as they admitted
the principle that a newspaper was to be taxed, some defini-
tion such as that must be'aduered to. With reference to
the tax, all he would say was, that the Chancellor of the
Exchequer was not prudent, and they could not fairly be
asked to consider the repeal of so considerable an amount
of the public revenue. In present circumstances such a
proposition was out of the question. (Hear, hear.) All
they were now considering, therefore, was, whether the
definition given by the law was a right definition or not ;
and again he asked whether t ey could give a better defini-
tion of a newspaper than that it was a publication con-
taining " public news, intelligence, and occurrences ?" Ho
could not agree with the right hon. gentleman in the views
he had expressed on that point. At the same time he
trusted the right hoe. gentleman would feel that he did not
say this from any backwardness or obstinacy in accepting
from him any advice that might be serviceable on this
question. If his right hon. friend could point out any
mode by which the law might be amended, he would he
most happy to avail himself of his suggestions. (Hear.)
He admitted that there were parts of the law which might
be amended; those relating to bonds and securities called
for consideration, and he would be ready to give his best
assistance towards making such alterations as might be
deemed necessary. (Hear, hear.) He could not agree with
his right hon. friend that the law had been arbitrarily or
capriciously enforced. lie was quite sure that such
was
not the case, and he must repudiate as one of the law offi-
cers of the Crown the charge that had been brow ht for.
ward with reference to the Potteries Tree Press. They had
been compelled to proceed in that case in consequence of
the urgent complaints that were made by other papers,
and the prosecution was gone into solely for the purpose of
enforcing the law, and not to inflict hardship. fu conclu-
sion, he again admitted that the law required amendment,
and that it should be uniformly enforced on one general
principle, and he trusted that the Government would be
prepared in due time to follow out the views he had ex-
pressed. He could not, however, accept the resolution
proposed by his right hon. friend. At the same time he
would not propose co negative the resolution, but would
content himself with moving the previous question. (Hear.)
Mr. E WART was glad to hear his hon. and learned
friend state that he was willing to consider the question of
securities, and he trusted he would also consider that part
of the law which subjected to the stamp those papers that
consisted only of advertisements, because it was absurd to
repeal the advertisement duty, and yet prevent the circu-
lation of advertisements in unstamped papers. (Hear.)
He looked upon the whole question as one that concerned
the education of the people, and regretted that the war in
which we were engaged should have intervened to perpe-
tuate the present system. They had refused to entertain
the question of national education—so intense was the
odium. theologicura throughout the country—and he was
therefore the mere anxious that the people should have the
means of educating themselves by means of libraries, and
museums, and the extensive circulation of a free press.
(Hear.) They had thrown out the bill for promoting a
national system of education in Scotland ; and if they
thus refused national education on the one hand, and, on
the other, prevented the people from enjoying the ad-
vantages of unstamped newspapers, he did not know what.
was to be the result. (Hear.) In America every man
had his newspaper, and they had the best authority for
saying that the state of political education gave the people
there an immense superiority over the people of this coun-
try. (Hear, hear.) It was possible even in India to
establish a system of education, so that in this respect
England was not only behind America, but positively be-
hind her own colonies. (Hear.) He hoped that, though
his right hon. friend might not succeed in the present in-
stance, he would, nevertheless, continue to agitate this
question. (Hear.) He rejoiced that the Attorney-General
had promised to alter the law with respect to bonds, and
his great hope was, that hereafter the efforts of the right
hon. member for Manchester would be completely success-
ful. (Hear.)
Mr. HUME asked if it was the intention of the Attorney-
General to put an end to the present system of prosecu-
tions ? The object of his right hon. friend the member for
Manchester was to show that the law was so uncertain
that no judge or jury could avoid giving offence, but the
hon. and learned gentleman had not told them that this
state of things was to cease. He wished to see the re-
maining portion of " the six acts" blotted out of the
statute-book. Instead of progressing with the rest of the
world, and especially with America, with which we came
most into competition, we seemed to be going back. We
were keeping up laws that maintained the people in igno-
rance, intolerance, and vice, instead of allowing such a
free circulation of intelligence as would check those evils.
What would be thought of the man who woule try to
make an animal live on one kind of food only, and expect
it to work with vigour and efficiency? The food, of an
Englishman was news, intelligence, and information ; yet
they stinted him of these. -Why, there were no such laws
in Turkey as we had upon this subject. He would advise
the Government, at a time when they were at a loss to know
what to do with crime, and when their prisons were over-
flowing, to remove all restriction on the free circulation
of intelligence. There could be no doubt that the present
state of the law prevented the employment of capital in
the production of cheap publications. He would call
upon the Government, therefore, to repeal the present
laws altogether, and leave the press open, resting assured
that so long as a government acted rightly they had no
reason to be afraid of any class of newspapers whatever.
The SOLICITOR-GENERAL said his hon. friend who
had last spoken seemed to have misapprehended the mean-
ing of what fell from his hon. and learned friend the At-
torney-General. He certainly understood his hon. and
learned friend to speak entirely in the spirit in which the
right hon. gentleman the member for Manchester had
moved his resolution. He understood that a distinct
pledge was given that this subject would receive the most
anxious attention of the Government, and that his hon.
and learned friend was desirous only of showing to the
house the difficulties of attempting to defies. the law
better than it was defined at present. This was a
subject of that nature that it almost baffled the pos-
sibility of definition in terms that would insure abso-
lute certainty. The definition now used was not one
of modern legislation, for it was the language of the 10th
of Queen Anne, the precise words of that statute having
been introduced into the last act passed on the subject.
The words were " public news, intelligence, or occur-
rences, which shall be dispensed or made public and it
was impossible to use language more precise. The hon.
member who spoke last but one spoke of the anomaly of
papers containing only advertisements being treated as
newspapers. His hon. friend did not seem to be aware
that this was done at the instance of the proprietors of one
of those advertising papers, called the North BritiBh,
Advertiser, who wished their publication to be admitted
to the privilege of the stamp, in order that it might have
the advantage of being transmitted by post. The resolu-
tion proposed by the right hon. gentleman was one that
would not lead to any difference of opinion. At the same
time he could not agree in the language of the resolution
being adopted, because it implied a great reproach—viz.,
that the law had been unequally enforced. The law had
been unequally enforced only from the desire that existed
to enforc it according to its spirit, and not according to its
letter. (Hear, hear.) He would repeat what had already
been stated to the house, that the whole subject would re-
ceive the careful attention of the Government. The ques-
tion of securities which had been referred to was not the
only one deserving the attention of the Government.
Some of the acts of 1819 still remained unrepealed that
ought in his opinion to be removed from the statute-book,
!ttondaaanopatttaempt ought to be made to bring the whole law
into one uniform system. It would not be easy, however,
inserted in every statute
More clear and distinct than that
whichdownwards.ha
dbeen copied from the act of Queen Anne, and
trusted
thatpon thisthe subjectright
hon.fro m
gentleman
timeetn eh
who had brought forward. this motion would be satisfied
.wgnefantril of
with the assurance that this subject would have the earliest
tahttaetntthieonriogfhtthheolha
auxiliary to such ofticerseru
would
Crown, and he hoped
consent to act as an
acts and the definition of thne lawndering the words of the
as they possibly could be made. upon the subject as clear
Sir J. SHELLEY considered that the assuranceshear of the
Government, so far as they went u
satisfactory. He could not, however,n this matter, were
agree with the on.
and
learned Attorney-General that the law relating
h
it
was either well understood or well defined ; and as a :.
f
that it was not so, he would refer to the very voluminous
correspondence which he held in his hand, and which the
house was in possession of on this subject, and which cer-
tainly went to prove the very opposite of what the hon.
tint! learned gentleman had asserted. He had moved a
short time since for certain returns connected with the
I..evsp ipi.eee a.: ivi th the ate Lep duties, ii,hien had e eco
refused to him on the ground that there were no means of
giving him the information that he required ; but he

" Inland Revenue, March 1,1851.
" Gentlemen,—ln answer to your letter of the 25th
I beg to say that any account of the marketsomayce is taken
be law.-
fully published in au unstamped paper.
of accounts of dramatic performances and such
ti n
like,
_but *any
ether matter published in unstamped papers will " not bo over-
looked. " I am, &c., J. TIMM.
44 Messrs. Robinson and Crofton, Silver-street, Walaefield."
He (Mr. Gibson) held that the words " dramatic perform.
ances and such like" included balls and concerts and
things of that description, and, if Mr. Timm said that no
notice would be taken of balls and concerts in Wakefield,
on what principle would he say that the difitslcal Times was
to be affected by the Stamp Act ? (Herar, hear.) If people
Could not obtain accurate irAformation upon such a point
-'-as this from the officers of the Crown, where were they to
go for it ? This difficulty and uncertainty arose, not from
any fault on the part of the Board of Inland Revenue, but
from the maintaining of a bad and ineffective system,
which which was incapable of being administered with justice,
and which must bring the executive officers into bad re-
pute and cast undeserved odium upon them, (Hear, hear.)
He believed that Mr. Wood, the chairman of the Board
of Excise, was prepared on all occasions to administer the
laws intrusted to his care with justice and impartiality,
and, in matters of penalties, with leniency to the subject ;
but no man could administer such an unintelligible sys-
tem of law as that connected with newspapers, and it was
not only to relieve the public, therefore, but to relieve
their (Am officers from the odium which' must necessarily
attach to them that he asked the Government to legislate
upon this subject. He thought that the instances which
he had adduced fully made out a case for legislation, and
that a bill wi'llout loss of time ought to be brought in for
the purpose c f defining the law. He now came to the
other head of his resolution—that the law was unequally
enforced—and he could bring abundant evidence to prove
that position. The practice had been, he was sclrry to say,
not to enforce it against the strong, against the powerful
London publishers—but to press it with undue severity
against '..he humble proprietor of a small newspaper in some
provincial town. They had had in this matter one law for
London, antlYe.nother for the country. Illustrations of this
might at once bo given. On the 13th of September, 1851,
the Board of Inland Beve,nue sent a communication to the
.Racinia,Tines, asking for an e.4lanation of its being pub-
lished Without a stamp, and concluding with, "as the case
admits of no delay whatever, your immediate attention
must be given to this communication." To that letter Mr.
Thompson, the publisher, replied, that the It acing Times
was essentially a class paper, such as their own officers had
declared to be exempt from duty. Mr. Timm rejoined,
that no person could entertain a doubt that the paper was
a newspaper, and threatened prosecutions against the pub-
lisher and per,ons selling the same without a stamp.
Mr. Thompson then wrote the following letter :
" Racing Times-office, 291, Strand, Sept. 20.
Sir,—l have not acted without high legal advice in the
matter of the publication of the Racing Times, and therefore
I have only to inf ,rm you that I am perfectly prepared to
support my right in a court of avv ; and when you require it,
I will furnish you with the name of my solicitor, who on my
behalf will accept notice of auy proceedings you may think
proper to institute, and take the necessary steps in defence
thereof. I am, &c., _ _

" J. Timm, Esq. " Jews THOMPSON."
Here the correspondence ceased. The moment that Mr.
Thompson spoke of his solicitor, Mr. Timm disappeared
from the field, and no more was heard of the matter; but
Mr. Thompson was a powerful Lontlrn publisher, living in
the Strand. His case was that of the Atheneum, the Lite-
rary Gazette, the Law Times, the Medical Gazette, and
others, all of which would have joined with him in resist-
ing Mr. Timm. When he had to deal, however, with a
penny paper like the Potteries Free Press, published at
Stoke-upon-Trent, Mr. Thorn proceeded to the police-
office, took up the delinquent proprietor, and fined him
201. It was only just to add that the Government being'
uneasy in their conscience, he supposed, had remitted that
fine. If such were the inequality in the mode of insti-
tuting prosecutions, what should be said of the way in
which the security system was administered in this coun-
try? The 60th George 111., chap. 9, the act which related
to securities, was aimed against the small po itical publica-
tions which in those days were supposed. to be dangerous
to the constitution and religion of the country. It bore
no reference whatever to periodical papers. Let the law
be carried out, and no one could publish a paper
under 6d. in price, and less than 714 square inches in size,
without entering into securities that he would not be
guilty of publishing blasphemy and sedition. That law was
not carried out against the per sons for whom it was in-
tendel—the writers of small political pamphlets—while it
was pot in force against people who published newspapers.
He held in lais hand the Political Examiner, price ld., a
weekly democratic journal, having a motto from the
writings of Mr. Macaulay, " If men are to wait for liberty
till they become wise and good in slavery, they may indeed
wait for ever. This was exactly one of the publications
which the law intended should give security, but nothing
of the kind was ever asked for it. The English Republic
was another periodical cf a similar description which found
no securities. Here, however, was a publication which
actually did find securities for 4001. that it would publish
nothing seditious or blasphemous, and what did the house
suppose was its heading? Outline of a Lesson for Girls on
the Ingredients of a Plumpudding. (Great Laughter.) He
should scarcely have thought that there was anything
very seditious in the ingredients of a plumpudding. But
he asked, were they prepared to allow all the publications
which were contemplated by the law toescape the law, and
to include all those which never had been intended ? He
remembered an admirab:e speech of his right hon. friend
the Chief Commissioner of Woods upon the colonies,
which had been published as a pamphlet, and which he had
read and gained much instruction from. If that speech
sold for less than 6d., and were less than 714 square in.:hes
in size, his right hon. friend might have been prosecuted
by the Attorney-General for having issued such a speech
without having given his securities against blasphemy and
sedition. (A. laugh.) 'lf owing to its price, that case were
not quite in point, there was another which certainly was.
The noble lord the member for the city of London had
written a celebrated letter to the Bishop of Durham. That
letter had been published by Mr. Westertou, and sold at
Knightsbridge for ss. a thousand, so that the price was un-
doubtedly less than 6d., and its size was undoubtedly less
than 714 square inches. There could be no doubt then that
Mr. Westerton was liable at this time, if the Attorney-Ge-
neral did his duty, forhaving published a paper comment-
ing on Church and State without having given securities.
(Hear.) These cases showed the absurd position in which
the law stood ; and he respectfully appealed to the Atter-
ney.General to signalise his administration of the affairs of
his office by advising the Government not to allow a day to
pass without taking into consideration this foolish state of
things. The war in which we were engaged vas not a rea.-

son for neglecting everything. We could not live upon war
alone. It was becoming somewhat tedious already, and he
hoped that the Government did not mean them to under-
stand that they were to subsist entirely upon it, for they
must gain laurels in the fiel,lsof peace us well as in the field
of war if they intended to retain the confidence of the con-
stituencies of the country. (Hear ) He trusted that the
Government would enable their supporters before a general
election to have something to say in their behalf, that they
had endeavoured to repair the evils and anomalies which
he had mentioned, that they had, had some regard for the
repeated appeals which had been made to them in the cause
of education, and that they had aided in the production of
a cheap and unrestricted and a good press by freeing it from
all fiscal regulations and from all control except that of a
court of law for libel. (Hear, hear.) These were the
grounds on which he had taken the liberty of asking the
house to agree with his proposition that the law was ill-
defined and unequally enforced. He would tell hon. gen-
tleman opposite, whatever might be their opinions on these
matters, that Lord Derby. when they were pressed upon
him, had no doubt on them, and ',id not seem in the
slightest degree to question the possibility of making the
law equal, and was also strongly impressed with the injus-
tice of allowing it to remain in its present state. (Hear.)
In the correspondence which had only been laid on the
table yesterday, it appeared that petty persecution was
being carried to a great extent; letter after letter was being
issued by the Board of Inland Revenue to publishers of
penny periodicals, telling them that they had infringed
euele hhw. They did not state what law, but cautioned
-them that they were on the point of incurring penalties.
What aeraekaystem this was, and, as a consequence re-
g it, cheap publications fell into the hands of
men withottiattcisnipi
*are for violating the
or respectability, men who did not
had a greater tendency
laws. Such a system of petty perse-
cutiondeter men of capital tendency even than prosecutions to
andcl respectability from undertaking
And euPPorting the
wanted to see not onl sap literature of the country. He
not wish to give-te only cheap, but a good press. He did
violate the laws and whonhiP to those who were willing to
of the country. He sought ct 1.42 no respect the institutions
induce men of good morals
and character to undertake th publications, which would
not then be without their effect
his sincere and conscientious belZ:hreieV for it was
beet
sue lications
were calculated to promote the
effect
interests. of the
country, and would have more
educating the
great masses of the people than would anyyaledeaueation bill
which could pass through the house.
was another strange point which had been r-) There
started by the
Board of Inland Revenue as to monthly publications,
which were not allowed to be published excepting at th,
eragaal
beginning of the month. The clause respecting this a
contained in the 60th of George 111., chap. 9. High l
authority, however, believed that subsequent acts had re-
pealed this clause. The Board of Inland Revenue had,
however, started it afresh, and if it were not repealed, he
(Mr. Gibson) thought the Attorney-General ought to take
into his consideration the repeal of so absurd a law. He
begged hon. members not to direct their attention to
theories which he (Mr. Gibson) or other hon. members
might have started with regard to thissiibjteoctv,obteutfotro
look at the resolution which they were about
which was merely to have the law clearly defined and en-
forced with justice. He did not ask hon. members to
agree with his theories or the theories of
others
about
cheap newspapers, but he asked them to give him their
support on a proposition which he conscientiously believed
was divested of all party bias, and to which every sensible
man, having the interests of his country at heart, might,
without reference to party, give in his adhesion.
Mr. RINNAIRD, in supporting the resolution, said,
that after the able and lucid statement just made, it was
unnecessary for him to detain the house by entering into
the legal view of the question. He merely wished to bear
his testimony to the facts that hail been brought forward,
and to state froin his own knowledge, that the large mann-
faJtaring town, were inundated with a class of low itn'
=oral publloations, which the people would read. By the
proAcjilt, state of the law tit y were pr ::clinks,! from r,3%
that which was interesting and useful, and were compelled
to read a deal of trash and unwholesome matter, which 1