The Sun.
London, England, 1836-03-08 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, MARCH 8, 1836.

No. 13,565.

TAXES ON KN OWLEDGE.

COMMON COUNCIL.-YESTERDAY.

(Concluded from our First Edition of yesterday, and given
_ in our Second Edition of last nicrht.)
0

Mr. O'CONNELL, continued.—The pride and boast of Eng-
lishmen is that while every country in the world was enslaved,
the flag of liberty floated triumphant in this country. It is to
preserve and extend that liberty that we are assembled here
to-day—that liberty which the Tories would annihilate.
—( Loud cheering.) Do you know the meaning of the
word Tory?—(A voice in the crowd cried " Robber.") Yes,
that is the term used in Ireland for robber ; but, robbers as
they are, I would not wish to see them die the death of
thieves.—( Hear, hear.) It will afford me sufficient satisfaction
if they are deprived of the power of plundering the people.--
( Cheers.) What has been the principle instrument of Tory
misrule?—what enabled them to carry on for so long- a period
their system of plunder and domination 2—By limiting the
circulation of knowledge amongst the people, by enslaving the
human mind, and degrading man to the level of the brute crea-
tion.—( Hear, hear.) By this means they acquired the
power which they so long wielded against the liberties of
the people; how do we seek to put it down? By circulating
knowledge amongst the people—( Cheers)—by explaining to
them their rights, by showing to them their rights, by remind-
ing- them of their duties, by ;bowing the poor man the folly of
crime, the power which it gives to his enemies, and the in-
jury which it inflicts upon himself, his family, and his country.
This would be the effect of circulating knowledge amongst the
people, and the expansion of human thought will then have
a fair field of public and individual utility.—( Hear, hear.)
There is one expression in the resolution which I hold in
my hand which I cannot support, and I trust it will be expunged
from it. What, I ask, do they mean by the term lower classes?
When I sec one man born booted and spurred, and the rest of
us coming into the world stark naked, I shall admit the grada-
tions of upper and lower classes.-Cheers and laughter.) I
am only a radical, but a thorough radical.--( Cheers.) I am
also a disciple of the illustrious Bentham, and my reverend
master never suffered the term lower classes to be used—he
always used to term them the less opulent. It is no disgrace to be
poor, if it does not arise from vice, but the other term should
be abolished ; and if you want to distinguish them, say the
richer and the poorer, but talk not to me of the upper and lower
classes.—( Much applause.) The Tories, as I was
saying to you, felt that in England—as she had exceeded all
the states in Europe, for when the rest of Europe was in a
state of depotism—when the Kings and nobles were everything
and the people nothing—at that period, when the feudal system
was broken down, when the power was taken from the great
body of nobles, and centered in one, but gave none to the peo-
ple—in England, as I have observed, put down the great lords,
they then, by an unfortunate mistake, cut off the head of one
King—it was a great crime, for they ought only to have de-
throned him—and put up a despot Cromwell in his place. After
the restoration the same system of misrule was continued,
under Charles the Second, and afterwards when James the
Second attempted to play the same game as his father, they
did not behead him—there was nothing in that head which
would make them take it off—( Cheers and laughter)—but
they wisely kicked him out; they kicked out the scoundrel
who had attempted to interfere with their rights, with their
civil, and above all, with their religious liberties.—( Cheers.)
The Tories, finding the people were progressing in political
and moral knowledge, had recourse to an invention
which must have been suggested to them by some black gen-
tleman from a hot place--( Laughter)—they resorted to
the diabolical instrument of taxing knowledge in the shape of
a stamp duty to impede its circulation. Already had a number
of newspapers and other periodicals sent forth articles of in-
struction, and Englishmen were ripe for further salutary
changes. The Tories here took their stand—they laid on the
stamp duty, they placed bird-lime on the wings wherewith it
would have flitted through the land, the dove of peace, and
comfort, and utility—and having placed lead upon its wings
by the imposition of this stamp, they secured one hundred
years of Tory dominion in this country. This is a literal fact.—
( Cheers.) Are we to bear it any longer ?—( Cries of " No.")
In spite of this leaden wing—in spite of all these fetters, we
have got an instalment of justice. What was the Tory prin-
ciple—that acre were 4 Members indeed for the city of Lon-
don, but that there should be two for Gatton, a mound in a
park, and two for Sarum, where there was an old tree—
and that these four men are to have just as much influence as
the four Members for the City of London. Was there ever
such absurdity as this ?—( Cheers.) Englishmen are remark-
able for their common sense, and I remember making an au-
dience in this very place smile by giving them an
illustration of this characteristic. A Frenchman was boasting
that his country was celebrated for its inventions, and gave as
an example that they had invented the fine frill and ruffles of
the shirt. 0 yes, said the Englishman, but the English in-
vented the shirt, in addition to the frill and ruffles. —( Laughter. )
I think the Englishmen had the best of it.—( Hear.) English-
men, I repeat, are renowned for their common sense, and
they would certainly never have known for centuries that such
places as Gatton and Sarum should have Represen-
tatives, but that the rich had all the power in their
hands—( Cries of " Hear, hear")—that they could be
bribed and bought in a thousand ways--that there was the
beak of the vulture as well as the feathers of the eagle, which
was always the emblem of feudal authority ; while on the other
hand the immense mass of the population of a country never have
any interest adverse to good government. These interests are al-
ways identified not only with it, but with intelligent and cheap go-
vernment. The Tories knew this, and they prevented their
obtaining that knowledge—they prevented its coming to the
door of every man. They introduced the demon of discord and the
demon of bigotry, and they said to all your fellow Christian
because he differs from you, and 'even in London here, the
earliest thing I recollect having heard of, were the riots of
Lord George Gordon's mob.—( Hear.) See what the spread
of knowledge has been productive of—here am I an Irish
Papist, addressed and cheered by a London audience.—( Much
applause.) What has occasioned this change ? The increase
of knowledge. What has been its effect? The increase of
charity and brotherly love. What is the beat, the quietest,
and the purest portion of religion, but benevolence and cha-
rity; and the greatest of all is charity, says the Divine writer-
-(Tremendous cheering.) That knowledge is fast increa.
sing, and everything will soon be accomplished; and, as the
sun rises, the moral darkness will be dispelled.—( Applause.)
The object hitherto was to keep the people in darkness and ig-
ranee. I am for no compromise, and I shall accept of none.
—( Loud cheering.) They say that they will reduce
the tax to a penny—but that will be leaving a portion of the
evil—the portion from whence the whole originally came. I
am a Radical, and shall have it out by the roots.—( Vehement
cheering.) Oh 1 they say, we must continue the penny, be-
cause you require to send these papers by the post-office.
Mark that people of London—that is to say you must pay a penny
in London, because a man in Devonshire requires a paper.—
( Hear.) Why should you pay a penny because another man
gets a letter?—(Cheers.) If a man from Devonshire came to
you and said, pay a penny for I received a letter in Devonshire,
would you not laugh at him, and say, I shall only pay pen-
nies for my own letters.—( Applause.) Is not this system
making the people of London pay a tax of a penny a portion
of the original injustice, which knowledge and intelligence
forbid to be continued, and must not last any longer?—
(Loud cheers.) That system would not only be unjust,
but I contend that it is unnecessary. If you want to send
letters or papers through the Post-office, let them put a
stamp on the cover, and then every man who wants to
have a letter sent pays the penny, receives value in re-
turn, and no man is compelled to pay for another. But have
we arrived at that state of utilitarian perfection in legis-
lation, that we do not require further improvements? Did any
any one ever hear of anything so absurd as the state of our law
of that system, of law which no one can undcrsand, the
meaning of which few can even guess at. I have been
myself for thirty-five years endeavouring to understand
it, and I confess to you that I am now as wise
as when I began. No one is certain of anything, v ben he goes
to law, but of litigation, and of attornies' bills of costs.
People of England, there is nothing, I repeat, certain but liti-
gation ; and I ask, why there should not be improvement in
this system as well as in others ? Every thing progresses ;
the march of mind goes forward—machinery is brought to a
perfection which does the work of the human mind, and
actually seems to think travelling is so quick, that we seem to
annihilate space and time. We travel GO miles an hour
on railroads—there is a progress in your arts, sciences,
and manufactures (Cheers,) every thing has been
brought to what we now think perfection, but what the further-
ance of knowledge shall show us is but the beginning of
wisdom. I want your support in making the law cheap.
What use is it that the police shall protect you from robbers
by night, if the attornies are allowed to rob you by day.—
(Laughter.) I do not blame the attornies. I know many
of them—excellent and worthy as any men in the country.
I have now given up practice, and I can therefore afford to
praise them without suspicion of interested motives ; but I
attack the system, and I ask you to assist me in the spread of
knowledge, which will make our efforts successful. I put it
to you, Englishmen, whether it is right that a man shall have
a right to a vote for a Member of Parliament, not because
he is good, virtuous, honest, or wise, but merely because
he happens to live in a house of the value of 101. The man
who lives in a house worth 51. has no vote, but he is often a
better man than his neighbour, who lives in one worth 101.
Is that consistent with common sense ? The law affects every
branch of industry—we aro taxed in every shape.—Hear,
hear, hear.) I would be glad that every man who
pays the taxes should have a vote in the election
of representatives, and who is there among you who is not
taxed directly or indirectly to the state. It there be such a
man he must have air for his food and water for his drink, and
even in this case be is taxed for the vessel in which he draws
ithe is sorc to be so. If knowledge were abroad, this
would not be so.—( Hear, hear.) I am, I confess it, for
universal suffrage.—(Cheers.) It is said to be dangerous.
I ask where is the danger, particularly if the vote is protected
by Ballot?—( Continued cheering.) I am for the vote by
Ballot—others arc not. Let us argue the question with the
people through a cheap press, and if we be wrong the people
.
will not support us—if we be right they am in favour

of the Ballot because I think it the surest method of putting
down corruption and intimidation. No man will then be able to go
into a shop and coerce the vote of the proprietor by threaten-
ing to withdraw his custom, because he will have no opportu-
nity of knowing how he voted. Taxes on knowledge inter-
fere with the one and the other only because the people do
not understand it, aad lords and wealthy men are overpower-
ing because the people have not the means of ascer-
taining what would be useful for their condition. The
withdrawal of the taxes would conduce to the peace, prosperity,
and independence of the country, and the permanent establish-
ment of the liberties of the British subject.—( Cheers.) We
are told that there is a great capital embarked in the newspa-
pers which at present exist. We don't want to take away the ca-
pital from them—it will give them great advantages in corn.
peting with the cheap publications, and if they are honest, the
people will buy them. Do you think that the Times would be
bought by the Tories, if by its monopoly it had not secured a place
in the market for its literary outscourings and its abuse of every
man who is honest—of every friend to the people—and
of every one who has the courage to brave it as I have done.
Let but the people express but their opinion firmly, and when
this case comes before the Government, as I am sure it shortly
will, it must receive a favourable consideration. The Times
and such papers will no longer have a monopoly, and in the
cheap publications the working classes of the people will have
an opportunity of seeing its absurdities exposed and its calum-
nies refuted.—(Cheers.) The taxes meet us in every part of
the country. In machinery we have to contend with them—in
soap we arc taxed, in paper, in beer, in fact in every neces-
cary of life the taxes rest solely on the people, and I ask for
your opinion of their impolicy and injustice. I came to you
thus freely to give expression to my sentiments, and not, I
confess it, without some little expectation of getting, at your
hands, such a shout as would be re-echoed through the walls
of Westminster when I am assailed by the enemies of the
people. —( Loud and continued cheering.) Generous English-
men, I was not mistaken.—( Continued and vehement cheer-
ing.) They told you that I wish for a separation of Ireland
from England. They told you what was false—what no man
should believe.—( Hear, hear.) I wished for separate legis- .
latures for the two countries. I wished for what I believed to be
conducive to the happiness, security, and welfare of the coun-
try—my voice roused Ireland because I saw that justice was
not done us—that voice would with the same causes rouse Ire-
land again.—(Great cheering.) Why did Idoso ? Because
I found the British Legislature apathetic, ignorant, and I will
add vicious, in mans instances. I found the Tories ready to
withhold from us an equality of rights and of privileges, but I
see that a better era is approaching, and all the Tories and
Aristocrats will not be able to disunite the honest men of the
two countries in their endeavour to promote the cause of
justice and of truth. —( Hear, hear, and loud cheers.)
I ask but for justice for my country. I ask but
for the same measure of rights which Englishmen enjoy—l
never ask: for more, and I will not be content with less.—
( Cheers.) This was the principle for which I contended in
looking for emancipation. I contended that in religion there
should be no interference between man and his Creator, that
it was of too awful and important a nature to allow any dicta-
tion between conscience and God. I would equally assert this
principle for the Protestant as well as for the Catholic, for the
Methodist, as for the Presbyterian.—( Cheers.) This I
am still labouring for. In emancipation I sought but for
equality ; now, I want no superiority for Ireland. Eng-
lishmen will assist me in this, and I know no way better
calculated to promote the true union of the two coun-
tries than by making the people of this acquainted,
through the medium of cheap publications, with the condi-
tion of Ireland. Pardon me, my friends, for thus intro-
ducing our affairs upon you, but I ask you to remember
that the Irish Members in Parliament have always voted
for lessening the burdens of Englishmen—for increasing
their franchises, and for everything that can tend to pro-
mote the happiness, comfort, peace, and prosperity of Great
Britain.—(Loud and continued cheering.) ' And thus we
shall ever vote.—(lmmense applause.) Those who would
curtail your liberties endeavour to raise a sectarian and a reli-
gious cry, but those prejudices which they excite will vanish
before the sun of knowledge, as the birds of night fly at the
approach of the morning star.—( Great cheering.) lam
therefore for the abolition of all taxes on knowledge—( Cheers)
—and oh, let the people of England, when they hear of the
oppression to which Poland has been subjected—(Cheers)—
when they listen to the tales of distress and of affliction by
which the breasts of the Polish mothers are torn—let them
reflect that the monster of despotism is enabled to continue his
bloody career by withholding political information from the peo-
ple, and that the moment knowledge is diffused, misery and
wretchedness will be banished from the now blood-stained
plains of Poland.—(Cheers.) There is no spot on the face
of the globe where tyranny now reigns triumphant ttat shall
not, when knowledge is sent forth, be freed from the fell mon-
ster. I plead not alone on behalf of Ireland—l plead not
alone as the advocate, but as the interested counsel for every
nation where wrongs remain to be redressed, or rights be con-
ferred.—( Cheers.) I plead for every country where tyranny
should be abolished or justice administered.—(Loud cheer-
ing.) I love the democratic principle. lam attached to
an hereditary succession to the Throne. I think it wise to take
away so great an object of ambition from the lottery of public
life, I love to see the principles of freedom every where esta-
blished, and I am pleased when. I' look to America, and see
them there carried out, but I grieve when I behold one dark
spot in the horizon of that fine country—l am sad when I see
her annals blotted with the stain of the negro's blood. I re-
gret to see the lash laid on the backs of our fellow creatures,
and I equally abhor the system, whether inflicted upon the
black or the white man.—( Loud and continued cheering.)
How long will it last I know not. They have not taxed the
press because the white men should pay it, but they oppress in
every shape ; the black, who has been made by the same
Creator, and destined for the same eternity as the white ratan,
The Tories did not dare to lay the lash upon Englishmen as
they did to Irishmen in 1798—( ali,)—they did not dare to
do that, but they determined to reach you in some way,
and they taxed your press.—( Cries of " Hear, hear.")
We are here now for the purpose one and all
of us are here for the purpose of saying that there must be an
end to the swindling which was begun by the Tories, and car-
ried on till this day. Truth, knowledge, justice, and religion,
all claim from Englishmen the unconditional, the immediate
abolition of this tax.— ( Cheers.) There is a drag upon the
wheel of improvement which keeps it from running into re-
volution, and we must keep it in motion. All we want is
equality between the three countries. We want the three
countries combined' in a holy brotherhood, then shall
we see secured the peace and the prosperity of the great Bri-
tish nation. The Hon and Learned Gentleman then retired,
amidst loud and reiterated cheers.
The fourth resolution was then put and carried.
Mr. Alderman WHITE felt gratified beyond mea-
sure at the great attendance which had been there
that day, and was more gratified at ,the manner—the en-
thusiastic manner, in which they had received the ac-
complished advocate for Ireland. It would prove to Urn
that, though he had enemies, yet in that city there were many
friends to a conscientious and consistent friend to liberty. He
had to propose a resolution, but he did not feel called upon to
say a word in its favour, because the meeting had been ad-
dressed so ably upon the subject by gentlemen who could
bring better' arguments in favour_ of the measure, than he
could do.—( Loud and continued-cheers.) The resolution
which he bad to propose, was to call upon the members for
the city to impress upon the Government and the House the
necessity of repealing the whole of the tax. Those mem-
bers were then present ; they had the classical scholar, who,
by his learning, won the ear of the House ; they had the tried
and honest friend of liberty in Mr. Alderman Wood ; they had
their two new representatives who had conducted themselves
so well, that he trusted they would long continue to enjoy the
unbought suffrages of their fellow-citizens.—( Cheers.) He
would not detain them longer, but at once move his resolution.
Mr. W. G. PRESCOTT—I have much pleasure in seconding
the resolution you have just heard read. The question before
you is, whether you will petition Parliament for the object for
which we have met? After what has been said by those
speakers who have preceded me, I have little doubt of the re-
sult of the question, when put to you.—( Loud cheers.) It
gives me a great deal of pleasure to come forward as the
.is se-
conderone oo
ff questionatbe
most upon
important which
pointsvc thata e
as
be
e mbid
presentedt I
to us at this moment.. My only surprise is, that considering
that the Reform Bill has passed, we should be assembled to
petition the Legislature to take off the tax upon newspapers,
that being the most ready means by which all sorts of knowledge
are disseminated, for, with the exception of newspapers,
cthe people have no means of knowing ivhat laws are
passed. You have heard of the difficulties of under-
standing those laws—take off the taxes upon newspapers,
and some of them, the difficulties of knowing what laws
arc passed will be removed. I need occupy but little of your
time, as I am sure you have already heard sufficient to induce
you unanimously to concur in the following resolution—
,•

5. That this meeting is assured that nothing short of the entire
abolition of this tax will guarrantee to the GLvernment proper sub-
mission to its laws, or ought to satisfy the expectations of the peo-
ple, inasmuch as men of all parties are alike interested in the
diffusion of those sound principles of morals and legislation,:on which
the stability of our institutions depends. This meeting, therefore,
determines to petition Parliament for the total abolition of the
Stamp Duty on Newspapers, hereby respectfully entreatini, both
its representative, as well as all other members of the'llouse
of Commons now present, to support the prayer of such p •tition.
The resolution was then put and carried.
Mr. PATTISON, M. P.--T shall not think of detaining you
long, as you have had your patience nearly exhausted already.
I shall confine myself to assuring you that I shall be found as
zealous and' anxious an advocate for taking off this ob-
noxious tax as any of those who have preceded me.—
( Loud cheers.) I shall advocate this great cause to the
best of my power. Having said this much, I shall beg leave
to perform the duty which devolves neon me, namely, of pro-
posing a resolution of thanks to our Chief Magistrate:—)Loud
cheers.) I heartily congratulate you that you have a gentle-
man filling the high station of Lord Mayor at all times appa-
rently willing to convene meetingi for the good of the people.
This is a heartfelt matter for congratulation, which we were
not but very lately accustomed to.—(Loud cheers.) Under

tnese circumstances, I will finish what little I have to say by
moving the following resolution :-
6. That the sincere thanks of this meeting are eminently due,
anti are hereby given to the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, for
the promptituele with which be has called, and the ability and urba-
nity he has displayed in presiding over this meeting.
The Secretary here read the petition, which was an echo of
the resolutions.

Mr. CRAWFORD, M. P.—l shall preface what I have to say
with one single observation, viz., by assuring you that the
prayer of the petition just read shall have the support of my
vote and influence when the subject shall come before the
House of Commons. —( Loud cheers.) After what has already
passed in this Hall, I will not presume to say more than
that I will most cordially perform the duty assigned
to me of seconding the resolution proposed, feeling as I do
how much the inhabitants of London are int.l.ebted to
his Lordship, who fills the Chair, for the urbanity with
which he received the Committee that waited upon him, for
the alacrity with which he gave enct to our wishes, and for
the mariner in which he had that day presided over their
meeting.,—( Loud cheers.)
The resolution of thanks was then put, and carried unani-
mously.
The LORD MAYOR came forward,. and was enthusiastically
received. He said—l cannot but feel very much gratified and
flattered by the verb kind manner in which you have been
pleased to pass the resolution that has been just submitted to
you. I can assure you, that in presiding over this meeting I only
do that which I have felt to be my duty to do, namely, whenever
any portion of my fellow citizens require a meeting for the ex-
pression of their opinions on any public measure it is my duty
to call them together to allow them to give expression to their
feelings.—( Loud cheers.) In so doing lam not bound to
adopt any of the principles that may be avocated. I assume
to myself the right of judging for myself upon any
matter under discussion. (Loud cheers.) You have
called upon me to present your petition, and I can say
that I will do so most cheerfully.—( Cheers.) I feel that, in
placing in my hand this petition, you have imposed a task
ution me which I shall endeavors to discharge to the utmost of
ability.—( Hear.) If the course of convect which I
have pursued since I have had the honour of being your
Chief Magistrate has given you satisfaction, I am content.
I thank you much for the confidence which you, my fellow-
citizens, have reposed in me by calling me to the station I
fill ; and I hope and trust that I shall be able to give a good
account of the manner in which I have discharged my duty.
—( Loud cheers.)
The meeting then dissol.ved.