The Sun.
London, England, 1853-06-16 00:00:00

STAMP DUTIES.

THE MONTH OF MIDSUMMER.-
This month every one thinks of enjoyment and relaxation,
and numerous inducements are presented to excursionists. On the
one hand, by the cheap and convenient modes of travelling. and, on
the other, by extraordinary attractions which may gratify every
taste, for a journey to France or the Continent, orfor a trip to
•hobham to sec the Encampment, or for an excursion to witness the
operations of Nature and Art at a greater distance, the first and
most essential preparation is a supply of SUMMER ATTIRE from
the ESTABLISHMENT of E. MOSEA and SON. Amplification
may be dispensed with, since it is universally known that the
DRESS made 1,J3, E. MOSES and SON is far more suitable for the
SUMMER SEASON, or for any Season, than the Goods obtained
elsewhere. The materials are proof against Sunbeams, Dust, and
Showers. The styles are the most celebrated which have been pro-
duced, and are not only the first links in the chain of fashion, but the
most comfortable designs ever introduced, either for juveniles or
adults, for sportsmen or for every business, profession, and occupa-
tion. Elegance, Novelty, Durability, Fashion, and Comfort is com-
bined with every novel description of ATTIRE, to Measure or Ready
made, at the Establishment of E. MOSES and SON.
The greatest distinction in Quality and Style, and the same rates
of Prices are observed in the HAT and CAP department, in the
GENERAL HOSIERY section, and In the Dress Department for
Ladies and Children.
The most extensive Stock of BOOTS and SHOES, of peerless
quality, and every article charged considerably lower prices than at
any other Establishment in the world.
EMIGRATION TO THE COLONIES.

Emigrants will not leave England before they have selected their
Outfits, and purchased the Clothing necessary for their voyage and
their pursuits in a different climate. The facilities possessed by E.
MOSES and SON in Outfitting are, like those of their other branches
of business, perfectly unrivalled, both in the quality, suitability, and
price of the Goods.
It is now well known throughout this country and the Colonies
that B. MOSES and SON'S Clothing and Outfits for Emigrants are
the cheapest and best investments The gigantic Wholesale De-
partment offers the greatest advantages 'to Merchants, Shippers, and
Emigrants to all parts of the world. Si sip sailing information and
full Lists of Outfits for Ladies and Gentremen, may be had on appli-
cation, or post free to any part of the kit igdom.
CAUTION.—E. MOSES and SON regret having to guard the
public against imposition, having learned that the untradesman-like
falsehood of " Being connected with t Reir Establishment," or " It's
the same concern," has been resorted to in many instances, and for
84L
%st
,ih3sener:
nea
and
Hart-street,
duCtBt-B6i
sTt.tryrlA:einleodctßranch,
obvious reasons, they beg to state the t they have
No CONNEXION WITU ANT OTIIER IF )UBE IN OR OUT OF LONDON,
,aanneod
communicating.
London 83,
except their own Establishn lents, as follows
Establishment,:—
.aate3lcl:le,
oppositeomm communicating.
n Ile
atsh4te,i
ncl
gbh.
London West-end Branch, 506, 507, 508, New Oxford-street, 1,2,
st;rclhs6,
Bradford (Yorkshire) Branch, 19 and 20, Bridge-street.
Clothiers, Hatters, Hosiers, Furriers, Boot and
she! Makers. and General Outfitters for Ladies and Gentlemen.

IMPORTANT.—ShouId any article nc .t give satisfaction, It will be
exchanged if desired, or, if preferred, t he money will be returned
without hesitation. All goods are mark( din plain figures, the lowest
price, from which no abatement can be. made.
when business is resumed t 12.1 12 o'clock.
The Establishments are closed from sunset Friday to sunset on
Book, " The Herald of the I leasons," containing full lists
our system of selftneasureco hut, facts relative to Australia,
emigrants, &c., may be had on application, or post-free to
A handsome Almanac for the year e mung 1853 can be had gratis,
application.
oansdfAvadvice
Saturdays,
ienpcoaeewto,
on of the kingdom.
lei Pon parle Francals.
i flier spricht man Deutsch.

Qui si parla Italian°.
Aqua se habla Espanol

WANTED, YOUNG MEN a ABM TA.NTS. Apply any Morn-
ing betwou 8 and 12 Alva,

(From the Times.).
The effect, of false principle in commercial legis-
lation has been seldom. better illustrated than on
the subject of Newspaper Stamps. .W 0 have al-
ready explained in detail what must _before have
been understood generally—that we ourselves have
been heavy sufferers by the operation of the existing
law. On this point, however, the Times is nothing
to the public. Whether any particular journal
loses or gains under any particular scheme of taxes
is no matter of public concern. The question turns
exclusively on the principles by which the system
is regulated, and on the influence which those
principles can be shown to exert upon the fair pro-
gress of trade and the interests of the whole
community. If the reader will divest himself of
the idea that the subject is unpopular or intricate,
we undertake that in five minutes he shall be in a
position to form as good an opinion upon it as. any
financial economist.

The law selected by Mr. Gladstone for amend-
ment provides that a newspaper shall be taxed in
proportion to its excellence, •not according to its
market price, in the sense in which ad vatorem
duties are imposed, but according to its intrinsic
goodness, the price remaining the same. The value
of a newspaper consists in the accuracy and extent
of information on all current topics,n the fulness
and.faithfuhisss of its reports,,,a94onally, in the
variety of its communications respecting the mutual
wants of its readers. But all these conditions of
value are inevitably conditions of bulk or space,
whereas superficial space is exactly the thing selected
for taxation. The Times costs sd.—neither more
nor less ; the tax upon it may be ld., did., or
2d. It is, of course, our interest to pay- as little
duty as possible, but we could only do this by
efforts directly opposed to the interests' of the Go-
vernment, the Exchequer, and the public. The
public wants the largest possible amount of in-
structive matter, but the larger we make this
amount the more heavily we are taxed. Yester-
day we reported the debate on the Ballot at a
length of 13 columns, besides 5 columns of debate
on other subjects. These reports absorbed no less
than three-eighths of the entire space allowed us by
Law under a single duty, and obliged us to purchase
fresh space by paying the duty over again. Had
we mutilated or garbled or condensed the debates,
or had we omitted intelligence of interest from
other quarters, we might have kept the tax down
to 1-id. and saved our money ; but we preferred
to tell the public all it desired to know, and were
fined 2d. for our choice. For giving the country a
good newspaper instead of a bad one, we were
taxed a halfpenny on every copy of that day's im-
pression ; had we published a bad newspaper in-
stead of a good one, we should have saved exactly
that sum.
Again, inasmuch as Government—that is to
say, the national Exchequer—derives a contri-
bution from every copy of the Times struck off,
from every advertisement it contains, and from
every ream of paper consumed in the day's im-
pression, it is manifestly the interest of Government
that the impressip should be as large and the
advertisements as numerous as possible. Adver-
tisers, or in other words the public generally, have
precisely the same interest, for the greater number
of copies we put in circulation the greater is .the
notoriety given to their announcements. But the
law operates directly to the discouragement of our
enterprise in this respect, and compels us either to
contract our publication or to expand it at a loss.
The sum received for the advertisements of any
day's paper is at a fixed sum, and is not affected by
the number of copies published 2 • but according to
the number of copies published the tax upon the
day's impression rises or falls, and, as no addition
is made to the price of each paper for any addi-
tional duty incurred, it follows that the more we
go on printing the more we have to pay, till at last
we publish at an actual loss. Nothing can be
clearer than that throughout all such arrangements
our own interests, as newspaper publishers, are
needlessly thrown into collision with those of the
public as newspaper purchasers, and that whereas,
if uninterfered with, we should be giving our cus-
tomers the greatest possible consideration for their
money, we are now impeded by false legislation in
this province of trade. --
Mr. Gladstone, in his general revision -
iOnof fiscal
errors, could of course not overlook such palpable
abuses as these, and he accordingly proposed at
first to remove all duties from newspaper supple-
ments " containing advertisements wholly." This
was an imperfect conception, for it retained the
false principle of a tax graduated by excellence,
and merely introduced an exceptional modification
in favour of the practice of advertising. But a
newspaper, as we have before said, has no "adver-
tisement sheet," distinguishable from any other
sheets. Advertisements are simply part and par-
cel of newspaper contents, and, whether they enter
largely or slightly into the composition of the paper,
cannot affect its taxable qualities at all. To exempt
the 9th page of a newspaper when it contained ad-
vertisements, and tax it when it contained other
intelligence, was either a very arbitrary or a very
inconsistent proceeding. Mr. Gladstone has now
remodelled his resolutions, has omitted altogether
the distinction drawn from the contents of a page,
and proposes, instead of taxing a single supple-
ment at a halfpenny, and a double one at a penny,
to tax the double one at a halfpenny, and lot the
single one go free. This is nothing more nor less
than a simple reduction of the old duties in pecu-
niary amount—the principle being still retained—
and is an error exactly analogous to that committed
in the Ministerial India Bill, by curtailing the
remedy when the evil stands convicted. At pre-
sent the law permits us to give our customers, when
they ask for the Times, a newspaper 1,530 inches
in extent, but no larger. Mr. Gladstone proposes
to expand this limit to 2,295 inches, so that a news-
paper may be half as big again as it formerly was ;
but at this point lie commences a graduated. tax,
as before. We used to be fined if we sold 12 pages
instead of 8 for sd. ; we shall now be fined if we
sell 16 instead of 12, and this is the whole scope of
the amendment.
Now, we take leave to say—and we appeal con-
fidently to the sense of the public in confirmation
of the assertion—that this species of differential
taxation is false in itself, and opposed to the inte-
rests of all parties alike. No restriction whatever
should be placed on the size, or, in other words, the
excellence, to which newspapers can attain. A
wide limit' is, of course, better than a narrow ono,
and to this extent Mr. Gladstone's proposal is good ;
but there ought to be no limit at all. In fact, there
is but one consideration which could supply even a
pretext for such interference with the transactions
of commerce, and that is, that, as newspapers tra-
vel post-free, an unlimited size might encumber the
mails. But to this there is the plain answer, that
the price must always be a sufficient regulator.
Really, we scarcely know how to receive the repre-
sentations on this score. We have been honoured
with a good many compliments, but never with
such as are applied in this assumption. It is posi-
tively argued that there is no limit whatever to the
excellence of the commodity we could supply for
5d., if we were not tied down by Act of Parlia-
single page of our copies, and
ment. With every
every single copy of our impressions, our expenses
for materials and machinery must of course in-
crease, while our charge for the Times is stand-
ing still. But all these obstacles, which would
be insurmountable in any other case, are nothing
at all, it seems, in our own. Unless we are con-
fined by statute, we should contrive, it is said, to
give the public such an infinite amount and variety
of intelligence, still for the price of 5d., that at
last the very mails would be unable to contain
mid the carriers to deliver us. To all this we can
only say, that, if such a highly American climax of
enterprise should ever be attained, it will be no
very bad thing for the public ; but, in the mean-
time, we may wait without much danger till the
contingency has occurred. The truth is, • that rail-
ways have relieved the post to a far greater ex-
tent than supplements can burden it.
The plain course of policy is to let the size of
newspapers be regulated, like the goodness of
other bargain, by the simple rules of trade. The
more a purchaser can get for his 5d., the better,
while it is out of the question that the revenne
should lose. A newspaper can never evade
a newspaper tax. Its publication must be
regular, and its liability will return with every
publication. All that can be said in favour
of taxing us at all is usually repeated every
session ; but, if we are to be taxed, at any
rate let us be taxed by the rules of wisdom and
justice. To say that the Times of any particular
day, though sold and bought as a single newspaper,
can be equivalent, for the purposes of taxation, to
two newspapers, or one and a half, is preposterous ;
to restrict a circulation of which each copy pays a
duty is suicidal, and to define the amount of intel-
ligence which any newspaper may convey is pal-
pably absurd. As long as we are taxed we must
all pay our taxes, and if anything indu, :.,es us to
issue a double number at a double prict) we can

Now, the first thing that will strike every one,
in looking over this schedule, is, that one thing, and
only one thing, is distinguished by the remarkable
favour of being wholly "free." And what is that ?
It is " One supplement to such newspaper, contain-
ing on one side a superfices not exceeding 765
inches."
Now this is precisely what the Times newspaper
(and no other paper in all London) publishes every
day, or nearly every day. For thisppen it
has been in the habit of paying to Exchequer
something more than 20,0001. per annum. It did
this, solely because ii answered its purpose to do so.
The public brought to it advertisements enough,
day by day, to fill this supplement, and the public
paid the price asked for the publication of those
advertisements. No charge was made to the buyer
of the newspaper for this half-sheet of advertise-
ments, simply because the purchasers, not wanting
it, would have objected to pay for it.
Well, the whole of this 20,000/. per annum is
remitted, by the Exchequer, to the proprietors of
the Times. It goes directly into their pockets, for
their own private use. No one supposes that this
halfpenny, remitted to them, will be given to the
public, or that the Times, hitherto sold. at 5d., will
be sold at 41d. The loss to the Exchequer, there-
fore, is a mere gift to the Times.
So plain is all this, that the Times felt compelled
to devote, yesterday, a leading article to the vain
endeavour to show the existing law to be unfair
and unjust ; and the new scheme to be nothing else
than a concession to justice, though only an im-
perfect one !
It began by describing, very accurately, the pre-
sent law—in the following terms :
"At the reduction, however, of the stamp to its pre-
sent amount of a penny, it was resolved to fix an arbi-
trary limit on the amount of intelligence which should
go to the composition of a newspaper. The act accord-
ingly provides that a newspaper may contain 1,530
square inches of printing, but no more ; if it exceeds
this measure, but does not exceed 2,295, it is to pay
duty as a newspaper and a-half ;if it should exceed
2,295, it is to pay as two newspapers—all other evidence
of unity to the contrary notwithstanding. This is the
law now regulating our terms of publication."
This law, under which, however, the Times has. Ii
lived and flourished for the last ten years, is now
stigmatised as " unreasonable," " impolitic, and
" unjust." And—no doubt in order to secure the
enormous boon which Mr. Gladstone offers—pre-
tences are now put forward to much more ! It is
coolly asserted that the Legislature has no right to
take cognisance of the size of a newspaper ; that a
stamp is a stamp, and a newspaper a newspaper ;
and that if any journal chose to publish half an
acre of paper for each number, the Stamp Office
ought to take it for a penny stamp ; and the Post
Office ought to carry it to Galway or the Orkneys
post free, whether it weighed ono ounce or five
pounds.
The gross absurdity of all this must refute itself.
Still, it is our duty, as journalists, not to take
things for granted, but, with brevity, to state the
case on the other side.
The principle observed in all parts of our fiscal
system, with this one exception, is that of a taxation
proportioned to the business done. One member,
in the former debate asked the Chancellor of the
Exchequer whether, if a tradesman found his shop
too small, and added the next house to it, he
would allow him to pay house tax for one house
only ? But this is only one illustration of the case.
In this present budget, Mr. Gladstone proposes to
lay a new licence tax upon all dealers in tea or
coffee, or tobacco, and on all brewers and soap-
manufacturers. But does he propose one uniform
tax for each class—one charge of a guinea, or five
guineas, be the house and the business large or
small ? Nothing of the kind. He says that the
grocer or tobacconist shall pay a large tax upon a
large house, and a small tax upon a small house.'
So that if a man begins in a house of 1001. per an-
num, he is to pay for his licence 2A per cent. on
that rental. But if his business increases, and he
adds the next house, or otherwise increases his ac-
commodation, his licence duty is to rise, and to be
doubled or quadrupled with the groWth of his trade
and of his premises.
And so it is with all other kinds of taxation.
The fairness of this is obvious. If the principle
advocated by the Times is the right one, that a
certain fixed tax (say one penny) should be im-
posed, and should apply equally to the smallest
and the largest newspaper, then is all the rest of
our present system one of gross injustice—injustice
so great that it is marvellous how the public can
have so long submitted to it.
In fact, Mr. Gladstone's own scheme admits this
doubt. It "halts between two opinions." It
neither fully adopts the proportional principle, nor
yet does it fall in with the uniform system. It
first lays a tax of one penny upon one large sheet.
It then proceeds to order that if the proprietors
choose to add a half-sheet supplement, such sup-
plement shall be free of duty. But at the next
step the principle changes, and if two large sheets
are given, then the stamp duty is to be three half-
pence.
Now all this is very absurd. Perhaps we should
rather say that it partakes of that hesitating policy
which has so frequently been perceived in the same I
quarter. Every plain man of business can see at ai
glance that either the Times is right or it is wrong ;
but that, whether it is right or wrong, the Chan-
cellor's proposal cannot be right. For if the Times
is right in asserting that there ought to be one
stamp of a penny, for which every newspaper ought
to be at liberty to publish as many square yards of
paper as it chooses, then Mr. Gladstone is wrong,
inasmuch as he says that you may publish a sheet
and a half for a penny stamp ; but that if you give
two sheets you must pay three halfpence.
And, on the other hand, if Mr. Gladstone be
right in making a gradation of duty of the paper
exceeds a certain limit, then he has wretchedly
failed in applying bis own pri "nciple. He has in-
vented a scale which gives an enormous boon" to
one paper, and which does injustice to all the rest.
If there should be a graduated scale at all (and
...... One halfpenny.
common sense tells us that is the only justice), then
that scale should have regard to the papers which
now exist, in something of the following manner
One penny.
76.
inches (the usual morning news-.
21 ForFo
r Fora
inchesa
paper ))
(Globe,a per not.sno..tta.
77,de.
exceeding
a e.re dd:n.exceedingg.
c.)l.
530
one sheet and a bait)
............... Three halfpence.
4. For a paper of 3,060 inches
•(two
double sheets) ........................ Twopence.
This, we feel satisfied, is the common-sense view
intelligibly•
fid eut of th submittedgodu ess to it.
3. FpoarPae.rps'al,Peer of 2,295 inches e.,
mlnodnesedo,
of the case, and it is one which the House of Com-
mons
that we should hardly doubt of its success if
we but once fairly argued in that assembly.
uwghetartoe
shoaveeen

it VV.P:

(Front the Morning Advertiser.)
We publish to-day, under the head of " Stamp
Duties," the amended resolutions
Chancellor
Exchequer. These amended resolutions, if sanc-
tioned by the house, of which there can be no
doubt, will come into operation on the sth day of
July next, that being the commencement of the
financial quarter.
As regards the newspaper stamps, in which we
are most deeply interested, the only amendment
which we can perceive in the scheme of the right
as
sat °prigresiennallt,Yannounced, is that
the supplement of a
11, hon.ivilic hgpeenrtrailemtsa,TB