The Sun.
London, England, 1831-02-14 00:00:00

in regard to this subject:—Formerly no discount
Whatever was allowed ; nor did it take place in
consideration of proMpt payment, as seems to be ge-
nerally understood—prompt payment having always
been made on the delivery of the stamps. But, at
the time of the non-existence of this discount, the
printers of newspapers were permitted to return to
the Stamp-office all spoiled, torn, or unsold copies,
for the whole of which the full price of the stamps
was allowed. The facility which was thus afforded
to reimbursement of loss to a considerable degree,
made some printers perhaps rather careless in re-
gard to the numbers printed off, so as to cause much
inconvenience and additional trouble at the Stamp-
office. In consequence of the increasing abuse
some preventive measure was deemed absolutely ne-
cessary ; and it was accordingly proposed that for
the future no more spoiled copies should on any ac-
count be received, and of course no allowance what-
ever made for such copies ; but as a necessary com-
pensation for the losses thus sustained, it was agreed
that 20 per cent. discount should be allowed upon
all sums paid in the purchase of stamps. This arrange-
ment was perfectly equitable—it satisfied the proprie-
tors of all properly conducted papers—was immedi-
ately enforced—and has continued to be acted upon
for nearly 30 years, to the acknowledged advantage
of the revenue. In consequence of the discontinu-
ance of this discount the public will not derive that
advantage which prima facie might be expected
from the new arrangement. The reduction of the
stamp duty is nominally twopence; but the with-
drawal of the 20 per cent. with all its attendant dis-
advantages will by no means place the proprietors of
papers in a better situation than that in which they
stand at present, if they reduce the price to six-
pence. It is scarcely necessary to say another word
upon this subject. In brief, therefore, we observe,
that had the discount been 'continued, the public
would have derived some benefit worthy of notice.
The stamp duty being reduced from fourpence to
twopence would have enabled the proprietors to
reduce the price from sevenpence to fivepence ;
hut the discontinuance of the discount rendering the
reduction, within a fraction of a farthing, a penny
only, instead of twopence, (the nominal estimate of
Lord Althorp,) the proprietors, in lowering the
price, will be rather losers than gainers in fixing it
at sixpence, when the material fact is taken into
consideration, that the machinery by which the prin-
cipal papers are now worked, necessarily causes in
its operation a far greater waste of stamps than was
usually attendant upon the old mode of press work.
—Morning Post.

Never was a Budget looked for with greater
anxiety than that which was opened on Friday last
by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and never was
there a more senseless cry raised than that which
has been got up on the subject. The reduction of
no fewer than 210 places, averaging from 601. to
6001. a-year, in the short space of less than three
months, along with the promise of still further re-
ductions in the Chancery and Colonial departments
—the total abolition of the duties on coals, tallow
candles, glass, and printed cottons, not to speak of
the reduction in the stamp duties on advertise-
ments and newspapers—ought not only to have
satisfied the most sceptical of the patriotic inten-
tions of the Government, but to have shielded it
from those rancorous and malevolent attacks which
have been levelled, in such abundance, at its
plans both in and out of Parliament. The evident
duty of the Government in the arrangement
of the Budget was to afford as much direct relief
as possible to the poorer classes, of society, by
reducing the taxes which pressed upon them, and
as much indirect as lay within its power, by endea-
vouring to stimulate industry through a reduction of
the taxes which bore hardest upon it; and in the
accomplishment of these objects it appears to us to
have succeeded :—not, perhaps, to the utmost ex-
tent that we could have wished, but to an extent
which ought to satisfy the public that more will be
done as soon as a fitting occasion may present itself.
The reduction and diminution of the above taxes
could not, consistently with a due maintenance of
the credit and establishments of the country, be
accomplished without the imposition of fresh taxes;
but even in this part of the Budget it will be seen
that, with one exception—we mean the new duty
on cotton wool—due regard has been had to the
observance of the same principle. The new taxes
are those which press on the wealthier and
middle classes of society who can afford to
pay them, and not on the poor, who are already
sufficiently burthened, and cannot afford to pay
more. These taxes are a tax of one-half per
cent, on all transfers on sale of funded property, and
an equal ad valorem duty on the sale of land ; and a
tax of I. and 2s. 6d. (according to the distance of
the voyage) on steam-boat passengers—and why, let
us ask, should there not he a tax on the transfer of
landed property and stock, as well as on the pay-
, ►rent of money ? Are not those who buy and sell
• land and stock, more capable of bearing a portion of
the state burthens, than those who have neither the
one or the other to dispose of? But, observed Sir
R. Peel, it is a breach of national faith to impose a
tax on the funds; and the cry was re-echoed by
Goulburn and others, who alleged that it was not
' only, to a much greater extent, a question of morals
than of finance, to tax funded property, but that

there were Acts of Parliament ' which rendered
such an attempt illegal ! If the subject were not
too serious for jesting, nothing could be more
amusing than such declarations from such men—Ar-
cades ambo et canerepares—from the one, whose Bill
of 1819, and subsequent Small Note Repeal Bill,
imposed a heavier burden on the country than a tax
of even five per cent. on funded property would
have effected—and from the other, whose Beer Bill
not only reduced the value of the property of a nu-
merous and industrious class of men a full third, but
seduced many to embark in a trade for which they
had not capital, and whose engaging in it has only
been productive of ruin and mischief to themselves
and others. Such men ought at least to have beets
silent on questions of morals and breaches of public
faith; for they could say nothing on the subject which
would not recoil upon themselves with tenfold greater
justice than those against whom it was levelled.
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there an Act framed
which had in it a principle of perpetuity ? Are not
all Acts passed for the time being, and not for the
purpose of tying up the hands of future Parliaments ?
Nay, is it net the express business of Parliament to
amend deficient Acts—to expunge those which are
injurious, and to frame new laws which may be more
beneficial to the community ? Nay, of what use
would Parliament be if it did not thus deal with
the affairs of the country ? But, however the Peels
and Goulburns may endeavour to oppose the tax on
of the funds, the Government may rely that it is one
which every one will approve, save and excepting
those whom it affects, and the insignificant political
junta which would fain thrust them out of office;
and when was it, we may ask, that a new tax was re-
lished by those on whom it was laid ? The tax on
steamboat passengers cannot well be complained
of; for although passengers by coaches are not
taxed, the coaches themselves are, which comes
to the same thing. It appears to us, however,
that the Chancellor of the Exchequer would
have accomplished the object in view much more
readily by laying the tax on the steam-boats instead
of on the passengers, to whom the collection of it
would be a great inconvenience. "With regard also
to the reduction of the stamp duty on newspapers,
it appears to us to be more advisable to continue,
than to do away with the twenty per cent. dis-
count ; for newspapers might then be sold for five-
pence instead of sevenpence, and while there would
on the one hand be a greater consumption of
them, there would on the other also be-a greater
amount of -revenue for the Exchequer, from the in-
creased produce of the duties on the articles of which
they are composed. The reduction of the duty on
advertisements, whatever would-be 'monopolists may
say, is a sensible boon to the public, and, a great re-.
tinetionlawn
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