The Sun.
London, England, 1853-04-15 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF COMMONS—(YESTERDAY.)
TAXES ON KNOWLEDGE.
Mr. GIBSON rose to move the following resolutions :
" 1. That the advertisement duty ought to be repealed.
2. That the policy of restraining the cheap periodical
press from narrating current events, by rendering it liable
to stamp duties and other restrictions, `if any public
news, intelligence, or occurrences, or any remarks or ob-
servations thereon,' be contained therein, is inexpedient,
and at variance with the desire now generally expressed in
favour of the diffusion of knowledge among all classes ; and
it. appears also to this house that the law relative to taxes
on newspapers, and other regulations affecting public
prints, is in an unsatisfactory state, and demands the at-
tention of Parliament. 3. That the Excise duty on paper,
while impeding the development of an important manu-
facture, also materially obstructs the production of good
cheap literature ; and the maintenance of this tax, as a
permanent source of revenue, would be impolitic and in-
consistent with the efforts which Parliament is now mak-
ing to promote education among the great body of the
people.'
Mr. Gibson said that he submitted his motion to the
house in the form of three separate resolutions, in conse-
quence of having observed, though the three duties or
taxes to which his resolutions referred might appear in the
minds of many to be unconnected taxes, that neverthelef s
for the last 130 years they had been dealt with by tl e
Legislature at the same time, or nearly at the same time,
and he viewed them as parts of a system, and of a policy
which had been enforced in this country for, to a great
extent, the purpose of restraining the press. (Hear, hear.)
These duties had been imposed at the same time, and had
been reduced at the same time ; but he did not now call
upon the house, by embracing the three taxes in any one
resolution, to commit itself by a'single vote to the full ex-
tent of his proposition. The resolutions would be sub-
mitted separately, and a vote for one would not commit
any gentleman to a vote in favour of the others. He en-
tertained his own views on the expediency of dealing with
them all, but he had not presumed to ask the house to go
so far with him as to record its vote in favour of one broad
and comprehensive resolution, embracing the three taxes.
It might be stated, as a preliminary objection, that before
bringing forward this question he ought to have waited
until the house was in possession of the financial views of
the Government, and had heard the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer's statement of the position of the public revenue
and expenditure of the country. He had had some expe-
rience in bringing forward this motion—though not in the
present Parliament, yet in others, He had brought for-
ward the motion before the budget and after the budget,
and his experience did not tell him that he was in the
least benefitted by having deferred the proposition until
after the budget. (Hear.) It appeared to him that the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he was about to introduce
any part of this scheme into his financial proposals, would
not be in a worse position by having had a vote of the house
in his favour. On the contrary, he conceived that the right
hon. gentleman's hands would thereby be strengthened.
If, however, the Chancellor of the Exchequer were not
about to introduce any part of this scheme into the budget,
who could say that a vote of that house might not suggest
to the right hon. gentleman's mind,. that it might be desir-
able to consider, even between the present time and the
period of his financial statement, the propriety of acquies-
cing in the views of the house ? He did not imagine that
he was in the slightest degree going beyond the legitimate
functions of a member of that house in inviting discussion
either before or after the budget upon any part of the taxa-
tion of the country ; for, besides the question of the
amount of money to be raised, there was another question
—whether the money was raised in that manner which
best consulted the interests and the welfare of the nation.
(Hear, hear.) There were many ways of raising a given
sum, and the suggestion of better ways than those which
existed of doing so was, of all duties, the one which most
devolved on independent members, and constituted a mat-
ter fit for discussion independent of the amount of money
required. Indeed he had observed that Chancellors of the
Exchequer were always content with "the goods the gods
provided them," and were seldom themselves willing to
look into the mode in which money was raised, if the
country were only willing to have it raised in the manner
hitherto adopted. His first resolution for the repeal of the
advertisement duty related to the small amount of revenue
and he would show shortly that there were reasons for be-
lieving that the revenue would be replaced. His second
resolution raised a question of policy, and could hardly be
said to relate to revenue at all. At all events, he could
show that it might be dealt with by parliament, and no
considerable portion of the revenue sacrificed. He admitted
that his third and last resolution did affect a considerable
amount of the public revenue, something like 900,0001. ;
but if hon. members would consider the working of that
resolution, they would see that it did not pledge the house
to any immediate repeal of the duty on paper. He only
asked the house to record its opinion that to maintain that
duty as a permanent source of taxation, as a good tax, was
a policy that ought not to be sanctioned, and that as early
an opportunity as the circumstances of the country and
safety of the public revenue permitted ought to be taken
for the total abolition of this duty. It might be said that
this was an abstract resolution of no practical utility, and
that it was wrong for the house to commit itself for the
future in matters of this description. There was a force
in that objection, but nevertheless they were not to sup-
pose that upon no occasion was an abstract resolution to be
submitted to the house. He had known great and benefi-
cial results arise from abstract resolutions, and he would
remind the house that one of the very first acts of the pre-
sent parliament was to come to an abstract resolution, with
the consent of both sides of the house, to the effect that
they would maintain and prudently extend the free-
trade policy which did commit them undoubtedly to
deal with the public revenue before the period when
that precise proposition might be submitted to Parliament.
So his resolution with regard to paper merely asked the
house prudently and when the occasion befitted to deal
with this tax as a tax adverse to the moral and educational
interests of this country, and contrary to the policy which
parliament was pursuing for the purpose of promoting
education among the great masses of the people. He
might point out various mischiefs that arose from this tax
in a commercial point of view, but probably his argu-
ment would be common to other duties of Excise, and
perhaps of no greater weight than might be applied to soap
and other existing Excise duties. But there was a certain
peculiarity about paper, in being connected with the diffu-
sion of knowledge among the people, which did not apply
to other Excise duties. In a commercial point of view
there were also peculiarities about it. Paper was an ar-
ticle manufactured from worthless raw materials, the whole
of its value consisting of the labour upon it, and the money
expended in its manufacture was distributed among la-
bourers ; it employed men, women, and children; it was a
rural manufacture ; papermills were spread over the
country districts, and there was no class in this country so
interested in widening and developing the manufacture of
paper as the residents in the various counties. There was
an uneasiness in reference to the greatly increasing de-
parture of labourers from this land. If they wished to
stay the tide of emigration, then let them open the field of
employment at home, and, by removing this oppressive
Excise duty on paper, which prevented the development
of an important manufacture, keep the labouring families
in the agricultural districts by profitable employment there,
and have their labour on the land; but if they allowed the
field of employment to be narrowed by this duty, they
must of necessity lose that labour, which would flee, to
other lands where such a manufacture was unrestricted.
(Hear.) And what was going on now ? The refuse from
which paper was manufactured was purchased by foreigners
in this country to send it to lands where no paper duty
existed, where it might be manufactured into paper and
then sent into the British colonies to supply our own
people. (Hear.) Could that be a wise and judicious
policy ? This was no class question—no manufacturer's
or country gentleman's question exclusively; the advantage
would be shared, no doubt, by all classes; but ii reference
to the development of the manufacture it appeared to him
that, inasmuch as paper-mills must exist where there were
pure streams and a country population, the representatives
of counties, of all persons, had the greatest interest in
getting rid of this Excise duty on paper. When the com-
missioners reported on the different branches of the Excise
system, they recommended paper to be dealt with. They
did not then recommend the paper duty to be abolished,
because the circumstances of the country did not admit of
it; but they took especial care in their report to guard
themselves from being supposed to contemplate this duty
as a permanent source of revenue; for they said :
" We trust that in submitting as the result of our inquiries
into this branch of Excise taxation a recommendation for the
diminution of the present rate of duty, rather than for its
total repeal, we shall not be considered as conveying any ap-
proval of this head of duty."
And they went on to say
" In the meantime, however, and until circumstances shall
admit of realizing the still more beneficial effects which would
result from a total abolition of the duty, we are satisfied that
the reduction to one-half the present rate of duty would be
very advantageous."
But the ground upon which he had connected the duty
with his motion was its connexion with the diffusion of
knowledge by cheap literature through the country.
(Hear.) The Legislature had admitted that the duty on
paper had an effect in preventing the diffusion of know-
kdge, for in the very first statute of Anne, when the duty
on paper was imposed, there was a clause to this effect :
" That, as an encouragement to learning, so much money
as shall from time to time be paid for duty on paper, and in
printing any books in the Latin, Greek, or Oriental languages,
in the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, shall be repaid."
And at the present moment the paper duty was remitted
on Bibles and Testaments printed in the Universities of
Oxford and Cambridge. But, if they thorehtaitt ,
Greek,
necessary
Latin, to legislate specially for works printed
or Oriental languages, why were they in the
prepared to re-
commend the policy of removing obstructions to the diffu-
sion of knowledge in the English language among onnogatnhsewgerretant
masses of the people ? (Hear.) It would
him to tell him that a three-volumed novel, or a large book
like M'Culloch's dictionary, would
cheaper if the duty on paper were not be perseptibly
diffusion repealed. The question
was, whether the
throughout the country of
knowledge by cheap publications should be obstructed by
a duty which raised the cost of that paper far more than
the amount of the duty.
He had received a communica-
tion from Mr. C. Knight, a gentleman whose name he had .
often quoted before that house, expressing the pleasure
he felt at this question being again._
_bro. brought before the
House, and he put f
the case soforcibly his letter, that
he (Mr. Gibson) would,read it in Mr. Knight's own
words :
c, During the last 20 years especially I have been labour.
ing to produce books which should unite literary excellence
wn.. ah
exceeding cheapness. I paid 40,000/. for the copyright
of the Penny Cyclopcedict. When the book was finished I
had paid the Excise 16,5001. upon the paper used in that
work. But the actual duty paid was almost doubled by the
necessary increase of the manufacturer's price produced by
the duty, and by the accumulation of stock. That groat
national work would only have paid its expenses had there
been no paper duty at all.
But the copyright of that cydoppedia remains my pro-
perty, and I am about to produce an improved cyclopaidia.
If I produce an expensive edition ' which would remunerate
we by a sal" of 2,000 at a coat of 201. per copy, the Taper

number of replies to them was 89, though he had known a
case in which there were no fewer than 200 replies to one
advertisement. But suppose an average of 8 letters for
each advertisement, and suppose, as they might fairly sup-
pose, that, the tax repealed, there would be 5,000,000 of
advertisements, the present revenue would speedily be
replaced by the postage on the letters. (Hear, bear.)
Lot him give some- particular illustrations :—A political
association in Holborn inserted one advertisement in the
Times, paying ls. 6d. duty, and received 500 answers,
paying to the Post-office 21. ls. Bd.; W. Byles, of Bradford,.
inserted one in the Leeds Mercury, paying is. 6d., and
received 50 answers, paying in postage 4s. 2d. ; H. Wat-
kinson, of Spalding, inserted three in the Spalding Free
Press, Stamford Mercury, and Lincolnshire Chronicle, pay,
ing,46. 6d., and received 100 answers, paying a postage