The Sun.
London, England, 1836-03-10 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 1836

lenny coffee-houses. Master TURNER has told us how
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a poor man may read the papers at a trifling expense in
London ; but will he tell us how they are to be read at
an equally cheap rate out of it? Will he be so good as to
let us know—(through the columns of the Times, for we
desire not his correspondence)—how a labouring man
in any provincial town in England, Scotland, or Ire-
land—with the exception, perhaps, of Glasgow and
Paisley—can read the whole of the London papers for
'double the sum he mentions ? There is not in all Ire-
land a' single coffee-house in which a. labouring man
would find admittance. Where, then, does he pro-
pose to send him with his two-pence to look for Lon-
don papers ? But such blockheads as TURNER—and
we have heard men of more pretension advance the
same argument, even in Parliament—are unworthy of
serious notice. No respectable father of a family

would spend his evenings in coffee-houses or tap-rooms
for the mere gratification of acquiring two-penny worth
of news ; and still less would he bring his family, to
whom
.he might feel equally desirous of com-
municating the details of any particular measure.
TURNER argues much after the fashion of
MARIE ANTOINETTE, against the prevalence of
a famine in France. The QUEEN in her calcu-
lation only forgot the trifling affair of money ; and
TURNER, whose travels may have extended to " a
Voyage to Putney by Vater," assumes, as a matter of
course, that every man, woman, and child, in every
part of his -MAJESTY'S dominions, " may procure two
daily papers from the opposite house," for the small

charge of two pence
But, notwithstanding the boasted indifference of the
Times and the Herald with respect to the abolition of
the Stamp Duty, it is easy to see that a dread of
losing an iniquitous monopoly, has much more to do
with their evil augury, than a regard for the morality
of his MAJEsTY's lieges. They affect indifference ;
but the truth is, that they are as sick at heart as a
bride forsaken at the altar. They feign to care
nothing about the question as it may operate upon
themselves ; and yet, in every paragraph about it, we
detect the writhings of a tortured spirit.
But it is too late to impose on the people of
England by the humbug of public morality.
Whether Newspapers be good or bad, the poor
have an equal right to them with the rich,
The Legislature is no more bound to protect. the mo-
rals of the labourer than of the lord ; and if it be a
crime to read public journals, a tax which circum-
scribes their circulation is no more defensible than a
license for opening gambling-houses and stews. It is
a gross and malicious libel upon the labouring classes
in England to suppose that they are peaceable because
they arc ignorant, or that there would be danger
in explaining to them the various relations by
which society is bound together. The humblest
artisans of the present day know more about the first
principles of Government—are more strongly impressed
with the necessity of laws, and a strict adherence to
them—feel more forcibly the advantages to all classes
from a conservation of the public peace—and are better
acquainted with the constitutional forms of checking
the course of a corrupt Administration, than were the
whole aristocracy and the Parliament of England
at the accession of Charles I. This has been
effected by Newspapers—not in consequence of taxation,
but in spite of it.
But let us meet the moral humbugs on their own
ground. Has the Stamp-duty, or the laws by which
it is enforced, prevented the circulation of the un-
stamped Press ? Has it prevented knowledge—the
worse for being illicit—from finding its way to the poor
peasant's cottage, or the artizan's workshop ? On the
contrary, have not the violators of the Newspaper Stamp
Laws bade defiance to the Government—a fact which
proves that Stamp Laws afford no protection, as with-
out an extensive circulation of the cheap Papers, the
illicit traffic could not be carried on for a single week ?
The Magistrates might continue to cram the prisons
with the venders of unstamped Papers ; but will the
Times have the effrontery to maintain that by such
courses, the morality of England is protected ? The
unstamped Press is clearly too strong for any coercive
law. This at once settles the question ; for the co-
existence of a stamped and an unstamped Press is im-
possible. If the Times be really anxious to continue
to pay the tax, we have no objection--we only seek to
do away with the legal responsibility.
In conclusion, we do not grudge our Tory Contempo-
raries any part of the wealth, abilities,.moral influence,
or large circulation, of which they boast. We care
not to admit that they merit the full share of public
favour which they so modestly claim for themselves.
But under a different system the balance will prepon-
derate in a different direction. The exclusives of the
Press will find their present influence required to
break their fall, when forced clown to their
Proper level through the influence of public opi-
nion—a power of which we yet know little more than
than the name. For our own part we are just as in-
dependent as the Times. 'Were the taxes on know-
ledge to continue, our chance is fully equal to that of
our Contemporaries, whether Whig, Tory, or Radical;
and were they abolished to-morrow, we are not quite
sure but that we might be the first to suffer.
But that is of no consequence, provided the country
gain the many advantages which we anticipate
from the abolition of this impost. We fear
nothing, and hope every thing, from the good
sense of the people of England. To make them vir-
tuous citizens, and peaceable orderly subjects, we are
for making them as intelligent as possible. We are
aware that knowledge and virtue are not inseparable ;
but we know that vice and ignorance are ever in con-

junction.
The morality of the Press itself cannot be lowered.
Of this truth—so important when taken in con-
junction with the question of Stamp-duties—we
could give the most convincing proofs, from the
columns of our Tory Contemporaries, during the last
three years. Scurrility, personal invective, calumny,
gross indecency, abandonment of principle, and incen-
tives to conspiracy and rebellion, have been the wea-
pons in most constant use since the first accession of
Lord GREY'S Government to office. Let us hear no
more then about the morality of a stamped Press.
The ribaldry of the Tories sets all attempts at more
gross immorality at defiance.

We have advices from Constantinople to the 11th
ult. A few days before Lord PONSONBY had a secret
interview with the REIS EFFENDI ; after which he
sent off' a courier with despatches to the British Go-
vernment. It was presumed that the interview had
reference to some question of great importance.

New York Papers to the 16th ult. have been re-
ceived. Congress has come to the resolution of re-
ferring all petitions on the subject of Slavery to a
Select Committee, without permitting any speeches to
be made on their presentation. This means is adopted
with a view to put an end to those disgraceful exhibi-
tions which were always sure to follow the mention of
Slavery in Congress. The war in Florida still con-
tinues with unabated cruelty on the part of the Indians.

The whole of the Paris Papers of Tuesday have
been received. It appears from them that the tele-
graphic communication, which we copied from the
Times in the Sun of Tuesday, was a gross fabrication
of the Journal de Paris to suit the purposes of some
stock jobbers. It will be remembered that we stated