The Sun.
London, England, 1853-03-14 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sra,—Owing to the pressing engagements of the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer on Saturday last, some gentle-
men were prevented submitting to his notice a few of the
peculiar hardships of this tax upon the newspaper pro-
prietor—more especially in regard to the singular com-
petition to which he is exposed. Some time ago, one of
the French illustrated journals amused its readers by
giving them a spirited pictorial representation of adver-
tising in London. It presented, as may be conceived, a
most laughable appearance.
Time was when one advertising van was sufficient for
Valf-a-dozen advertisements. This, however, bids fair to
be reversed, it being no uncommon occurrence for two,
and even three, vans following each other with one
advertisement. But other specimens of street ad-
vertising may --be - given, as, for . instance, some
advertisers are in the habit, during the summer months,

of sending out men at daybreak, with metal frame,
paint, and brush, for the purpose of painting their adver-

.
tisements on the street pavement. Such advertisements,
it is well known, remain legible for a considerable
periol ; and in some parts of London portions of last
year's advertisements may still be seen. The newspaper
proprietor has also to contend with more systematic
modes of advertising. Prospectuses are being issued
lady by various otunibui advertising as,iocociation,i, one
,f which boasts of its having no !ess than six hundre.)d

minibuses, in the inside and outside of winch advertise-
!fleas may be inserted. But perhaps the mod lOrmi-
table competition with which he has to contend is that
littered by the railway advertising a,ssociations, as will

be seen by the annexed extract from a prospeetw; :
" The importance of this novel system of advertising
cannot be too highly estimated, when it is remembered
that railway travellers include within their numbers every
individual of rank, property, or influence in the three
kingdoms, while the frequency of their journeyiags may
be calculated from the fact that the number of passengers
booked on the principal railways in Great Britain alone,
in the year 1850, exceeded Sixty Mil
" It must be borne in mind, that these immense numbers
—the possessors of the aggregate wealth of the country-
-are concentrated, day by day, at the railway stations ;
and the circumstances of each journey are such, that either
on the departure or arrival, or in the course of transit,
every passenger must of necessity become acquainted with
the announcements which present themselves to his notice.
`.` It may be safely asserted, that no other mode of ad-
vertising presents so favourable a means of reaching that
class which the advertiser desires most to attract."
Other specimens of this competition may be mentioned.
It is well known that the various editions of the official
catalogue of the Great Exhibition in 1851, presented a de-
sirable channel for advertisements, and, as such, was ex-
tensively patronised. The first edition of the shilling
catlogue contained no less than 54 pages of advertise-
ments. It was, however, wholly exempt from the duty.
_ _

In the eye of the law it was neither fish, flesh, fowl, or
good red herring—and one of the Stamp-office officials'
have remarked concerning it that, " nothing ' was to be
got out of it." Of course, so soon as the New Crystal
Palace is opened, the same means of advertising will be
presented to the public. The peculiar hardship of this
tax upon literature has been often pointed out by the
press. Let us look at its operation upon a periodical
devoted exclusively to literary advertisements and an-
nouncements. Bent's List may be considered as a Price
Current of literature. Is published monthly; and, besides
its advertisementsi, it contains a list of all books pub-
lished within the month by way of index. , Some few
years after it was established it was considered as highly
desirable that these twelve lists should be condensed into
one, for more easy annual reference, so that it might be
issued as a supplement. It was found, however, that to
escape the duty in every case, though the title of the
book and the price might be given, the publisher's name
must be omitted, thus rendering it almost valueless to
the public. From an estimate I have made in regard to
one such supplement alone, I find that had the pub-
lishers name been given it would have been subject to no
less than 1,570 duties for books, amounting to the sum of
1171. 15s. It Iva,s found, however, that the omission the
publisher's natlig was so detrimecsntrnallapt..bomce authorities
to its
obtained fromits usefulness,
that
‘an apptoeailt.wasxmo adasesitantsotheee
stamp-office
tinxtegard
that quarter, and the proprietors began to consider whether
p"aarlicoach
means could not be adopted by which, to use the late
'sthreemactarokf,
and six might be
drivenM r. 0 'tChor no
ungelhl
done, and the list is how issued with That has been
lisher's name being inserted with regularity, the pub-
been accomplished by the yeith each book. This has
ment" on the title-page omission_the of the word " supple-
simply as ac t 1 6 —the law now regarding it
. a a 9gue. practical
presents itself, viz One difficulty now
scribers in its new • i how is it to reach the sub
partly by the form ? This has to be overcome
business tact of the publisher,
and partly e
office, but at a throughcost
the agency of ttbeerwaProdseti
through this last eachtffourpenßceuftor "'?
while ttreydifficulties
channel. .
presented by the instance been
tax has in this
practically overcome, it is not so with the Pub-
lishers' Circular. This is a bi-monthly publi-
cation, and in its list of books the publishers ameis
always omitted. Of course, to a large extent, like
i the various
impedi-
ments to completeness present themselvesi.
.t,,t,
,—...
price-currents, trade lists,
"mlne7oved if the advert.ise-
an would doubtless be greatly imp
meat tax was repealed.lttwe as
im
no part of the business
position of a tax upon
of the deputation to seek h
adop
while pointing theseted for its evasion ; but
the numerous measureust,
to show that the exceptional
re ofere nee to the newspaper, periodical,
course existing in
and the magazii sim
tild be at' once discontinued. It
is to be hope, r ,
that the representations Made to the
Exchequer will induce him to regard
Chancellor of the
1 that l-, -.11 in • t. the
the light, antit. ui , pre,cn ing e
the tax in sn
d t announce his intention of relieving
the press
forthcoming 13n ge. , . .
front its infliction.—l am, sir, your obedient
servant,

JOAN FRANCIS,

most shocking accident, attended with loss
FATAL ACCIDENT IN THAMES•STREET.—On Saturday
afftleifriewo
occurredna in Lower Thames-street. It seems that
so
going on in the upper part of Wor-
um,
s Depia.fingan were
d Coffee-house, No. 87, opposite the
Custom-house, -house, and, in order not to interrupt the business,
a ladder was raised to the second floor window, the case-
ment of which was taken out to permit the ingress and
egress of the workmen. About two o'clock one of
them, named John Brien, was in the act of stepping on
the sill to enter, when he slipped, and fell on the kerb,
fracturing his skull frightfully. He was taken to Guy's
Hospital, where he died shortly after his admission, "