The Sun.
London, England, 1836-03-04 00:00:00

GREENWICH-PIER BILL.

The CHAIRMAN of the Navigation and Port of London
Committee brought up the Report of the Committee, re-
commending that the pier of Greenwich should not be per-
mitted to project more than one hundred and sixty feet into
the bed of the river.

The Report was agreed to, and then referred back W the
Committee to be carried into effect.
NEWSPAPER DUTY.

Mr. WIRE rose to move for the adoption of a petition to
Parliament for the abolition of the stamp duty on newspa-
pers. It was, he said, known that the Chancellor of the
Exchequer intended to reduce the duty from fourpence to
a penny, without discount, a reduction which would be as
far from curing the evils arising from the present taxes upon
knowledge as the continuance of the existing duties. He
contended that it was a gross tyranny towards the people
to prevent them from the means of acquiring a knowledge
of what was passing in Parliament and in the Courts of Jus-
tice, as the want of such knowledge might subject them
to the penalties attached to the violation of laws of which
it was impossible, except from the usual sources, they could
know anything. He instanced the Dorchester labourers
as victims to the ignorance which an unstamped and • well-
regulated Press might have effectually removed. The
people were determined upon being informed, and if they
tailed in obtaining information in consequence of the high
price of the commodity, they would seek it from the less
pure but much more cheap sources, and would then encou-
rage those who defied the laws, daily inflicted serious in-
jury upon the owners of the stamped Press, and had for
their object the total destruction of society. He consi-
dered this not as a question of politics, but as a question
affecting the mpral and religious rights of the community.
—(Hear, hear.) He concluded by moving that a petition
be presented to Parlinment for the abolition of the stamp
duty on newspapers.
Mr. RIcnARD TAYLOR seconded the motion. The pre-
sent tax, he said, established a monopoly in the hands of a
very few persons, who kept the community under complete
control. He would instance the conduct of the Morning
Chronicle, which was so much in the habit of boasting of its
liberality. Formerly, that Journal, when in the hands of
Mr. Clement, published long accounts of the various meet-
ings which took place to petition for the removal of these
obnoxious duties ; but now the slightest notice imaginable
was taken of occasions of this kind in its columns, and the
excuse was that the necessary notification was not made to
the Editor. He supposed that the same excuse vould be
made for the absence of the Guildhall meeting of Monday
next from its columns—(A laugh)—but whatever migNt be
the excuse the motive was palpable enough. The mon-
strous monopoly existing at present, and arising from this'
taxation, enabled those who enjoyed it to calumniate public
and private character, and the only way of meeting the
evil effectually was by abolishing the duty altogetker.—
(Hear, hear.)
Mr. STEBBING did not see any occasion whatever for the
petition. He apprehended that the removal of the tax
•would not be of the least service to the humbler ranks of
life, who were well able to take care of themselves, as far
as reading Newspapers went, but whom the Government
would essentially serve by taking off the malt tax.—(A
laugh.) Much had been said about the anxiety for the
removal of the stamp duties *ut he gave no credit to the
arguments, and believed that they would be much better
pleased with the removal of what were real grievances.
Sir PETER LAURIE said that the Court were pushing the
business of petitioning to such an extreme that its petitions
would not have the least effect. As for the present peti-
tion, it was a mere clap-trap. If a man wanted knowledge
he would go to look for it in other places than the columns
of a newspaper, and to call the stamp-duty a tax on know-
ledge was sheer nonsense.—(A laugh.) He held this opi-
nion, although he knew that Mr. Wire was to have Mr.,

O'Connell and Mr. Hume down on Monday to give effect
to the exhibition of his taxes on knowledge. He really
considered it all neither more nor less than beautiful hum-
bug.—(A laugh.) Sir Peter then described the expenses
which the stamped Press paid in its various departments,

cnd declared that if the duty were taken off, the newspapers
would be more.despicable even than those of America,
which were not fit to be looked into by a decent man. Here
Sir Peter Laurie spoke of the remarkable carelessness which
prevailed in the Corporation with respect to this question,
in proof of which he stated that there were no more than
50 or 60 Common Councilmen present out of 240.
Mr. ALDERMAN—And there is no more than one Al-
derman present.
The Loan MAYOR—Then there is no Court. I ant
sorry that the business must stop.
Several members said that the House of Commons fic-
quently transacted business when there was not a House.
The LORD MAYOR—It has been noticed, and lam com-
pelled to say that we are adjourned.

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE.

VESSELS ENTERED INWARDS AT THE CUS-

TOM-HOUSE, MARCH 3.
The Earl'of Liverpool, and the Britannia, from Ostand:
Carl, Frederick, Hamburgh ; Mathilde, Antwerp; Resolu-
tion, Charente; Planter, Amsterdam; Corsair, Berbice;
Magdalen, St. Mary's, Gambia: Strafford, South Seas ;
Jonge Jan, Worcum; Belfast, Calais.
ENTERED OUTWARDS FOR LOADING, MARCH 3.

The Britannia, for Rotterdam; John Bull, and Perseve-
rance, Hamburgh ; William, Rio Janeiro ; Rossia, Elsinore
and St. Pctersburgh ; Ambassador, Mauritius ; Prince of
Waterloo, Ostend, Bruges, and Ghent ; Fanny, Vease, Oporto.
CLEARED OUTWARDS WITH CARGO, MARCH
3.

The Lively, for Bordeaux ; Hathamy, Bombay and Canton ;
Ann, Antwerp ; Dart, Guernsey and Jersey ; Rosalind, Malta ;
Saracen, Lisbon • Gesina, Amsterdam.
.CLEARED OUTWARDS IN BALLAST, MARCH 3.
The Dorp Gustmeer, for Worcum ; Samuel, Hamburgh ;
Neptune, Leer ; Joseph and Ann, Quebec and Portsmouth ;
Reliance, South Seas.

VESSELS, SPOKEN WITH.
The Antoinette, from London to New York, on the 21st
ult., in lat. 47., long. 20 , by the Aurora, arrived at Torbay.
The William, of London, on the 12th ult., in lat. 40. N.,
long. 10., W., by the Otter, arrived in the Creek.
The New Jane, in lat. 43., long. 49., by the Astrea, arrived
at Lisbon.
The Skylark, for Naples, with loss of bulwarks, and decks
apparently swept, on the 3d ult., in lat. 37., long. 10., by the
Busy, arrived at Torbay.
The James, from Liverpool to Halifax, on the 12th ult., in
lat. 44., long. 12., by the George IV., arrived in the River.
The Martha, from Alexandria to Sierra Leone, on the 9th
ult.; out 52 days, 30 miles east of Gibraltar, by the Earl Grey,
arrived off Falmouth.

The appointmen A ssistan t-Ad'utant-General of
t oi zi.
tbliye
tnhoerth
removalern
district, Manchester,
Col. A IsanheahwesKteern,
nisedaybot
outthto e
obffie become vacant,
vacant
Inspec-
tor-
General of the constabulary force in Ireland, under the
provisions of the Bill now in progress through Parliament.
The Gallant Officer has arrived at Fenton's Hotel, from Man-
chester, on official business connected with his appointment.
The Journal des Debats speaks in the following
terms of the illness of the King of Prussia:—" It is reported
at Frankfort, and in 'all the little German States, that the
health of his Majesty the King of Prussia seems to have been
seriously attacked for some tiine past. Independently of the
pain which this news naturally excites in all Germans, who aro
full of respect and esteem for that august Sovereign' uneasi-
ness is remarked especially among the manufacturing classes,tgheen generous character,in which we butlipvee,rhaanpds
who see in the Noble successor of that Monarch a great and
" thteoocirmeuumchstiannecleinseidntwo:icahr for,‘,,e
are placed.