The Sun.
London, England, 1836-04-28 00:00:00

TAXES ON KNOWLEDGE.

aote r
gentlemen,o f the
waitedebmy
Yesterday, at 3 o'clock, Dr. Birkbeck, and a deputation
composedn
t
baeprpsooifatmheenpon Lord Mel-
t louuse of Commons
bourne and the Chancellor of iht.. Exchequer,subject
upon tof the Penny Stamp, and the rigorous' the
clausesT respecting.t
press in the new Stamp Duties' Bill.
Messrs. Grote, Warburton, Hurac, Bowringh(O're'COreirelilitMleunl-
lins, Ewart, Duncombe, T. Attwood, W. Williams,nV Tulk, D. Gaskell, W. Marshall, Leader, Tancred, Hindi Wallace,
Hector, Brotherton, Wakley, Fielden, Scholefield, Agl• bee R. Black, Place, J. Crawford, W. E. Hickson,• I°n
with Colonel
Thompson rind Sir W. Molesworth.
Dr. BIRKBECK apologised for again, after a brief interval,
trespassing upon the time of his Lordship, but the subject was
of that importance that the members of the deputation felt
they should not be doing their duty without making one more
appeal to his Majesty's Government in favour of a line of policy
worthy the character of a liberal and enlightened Administra-
tion. On a former occasion they had been led to expect that
the question of the Stamp Duty would not be considered in a
merely financial light; yet they found a proposition had ema-
nated from Government for retaining a stamp of a penny,
which would have the effect of extinguishing or preventing the
existence of a multitude of useful publications, and of nearly
all those which would be accessible to the working classes, al-
most as effectually as the stamp of 3-d. He understood that
the Morning Chronicle with a penny stamp could not be sold
under 4d. or 41d., and that the proprietors of the Times were
at the present moment inclined not to reduce their price be-
low .5(1. Whether the price were 4d., 3d., or 7d., newspapers
of that class would still remain as inaccessible to a large por-
tion of the community as they are at the present moment. He
could not understand why this description of literature should
be practically prohibited to any class of industrious and deserv-
ing men. If the object of retaining the penny was merely to
defray the cost of postage, he would say leave the public on
that head to take care of themselves. Newspapers could be
carried much more cheaply by private agencies all over the
country than by the post-office, and it was unjust to tax local
newspapers for a benefit which they did not require, and of
which even all those who did require could not, under existing
post-office arrangements always avail themselves. The de-
putation were anxious to propose as a substitute for the
proposed stamp duty of one penny on, all Newspapers
an optional stamp conferring freedom of postage ; so
that newspapers not requiring to be circulated by post
might be published without a stamp, as was now the case with
the Literary Gazette, and similar publications. This plan,
he thought, would obviate all the difficulties which had been
started with respect to the inconveniences of collecting pence
and halfpence at the receiving houses. He could not consi-
der that the penny could be retained for mere financial objects.
It would produce, exclusively of the expense of postage, net
more than one hundred thousand pounds, and one of the Mi-
nisters had stated but lately that a sum of one hundred and
sixty thousand pounds was even one which ought not to stand
in the way of any measure of public utility.
Mr. D. O'CONNELL said he had been requested to draw
the attention of the Government to the legal part of tile ques-
tion. A promise had been held out that the 60th of George
111. should be entirely repealed, and he understood a specific
Bill was to be introduced to that effect ; but the New Stamp
Duties' Bill proposed to re-enact the most objectionable fea-
tures of all the old laws, and even to enact others still more
severe, new in their application to the Press, and some new
altogether to this country, although not stew, unhappily,
to Ireland. He was willing to admit that if Government
compelled one person to pay a duty, that person ought
to be protected against the free trader ; but it was wise
or sound policy to introduce this immense mass of com-
plicated and stringent legislation for the sake of an object, in
a financial light, so paltry as a ld. stamp duty ? Still more, was
it just or even prudent to bring forward a measure for such
an object so entirely destructive to the liberties of the coun-
try as the Bill which he held in his hand ? Clause 166 gave
a wider extension to the meaning of the word newspaper than
the old laws, so that many political pamphlets and others,
discussing matters affecting Church or State, would now be il-
legal without a stamp. Clause 168 introduced again all the
old and bad machinery of affidavits, requiring them also for the
first time from all persons in any manner concerned in pub-
lishing a newspaper. Clause 171 dispenses with personal ser-
vice in an action at law. This law was not new to Ireland,
for Mr. Lavelle, while absent in Italy on account of ill health,
had an action brought against him, and a verdict obtained, al-
though he could not of course defend himself, knowing nothing
even of the charge. The Commissioners were 'also to have
power to withhold stamps, and require fresh affidavits a
power which he had known very much abused in Ireland. In
the other clauses he found the worst and most despotic pert of
our fiscal regulations were here re-enacted, and applied for the
first time to the press. Clause 239 gives to any constable,
police officer, or any other officer of stamp duties, after having
mad a very loosely worded affidavit, to search any private
dwelling-house for unstamped newspapers, and by clause 241
officers are to be permitted to break open doors in pursuance
of the same object.
Mr. Hosts; observed that Mr. O'Connell bad omitted to
mention that no discretion was allowed to a magistrate in grant-
ing a search warrant upon the oath of a police constable. The
magistrate was compelled to grant the warrant. A power was
also taken by the Bill (clause 239) to seize all printing_
presses found in the same house where an unstamped news-
paper had been at any time printed. This might be ruinous
to some of the large printing establishments, and to one over
the water in particular, where so many hundred thousand
sheets were printed, that it was quite impossible for the pro-
prietor to take cognizance of all their contents. A single
sheet of an unstamped newspaper might be printed in the
establishment by the malicious contrivance of some persons,
and all the presses seized the next day for the offence. He
(Mr. Hume) was anxious that for the sake of the character
the Government had hitherto maintained, they should pause
before they carried through the Legislature such laws as these.
When they became known throughout the countrv, there
would be one universal expression of indignation. While, on
the contrary, nothing would tend to make the Government of
Lord Melbourne so popular, especially among the working
classes, as the entire abandonment of the stamp duty, and of
the laws necessary to the collection of the tax. Mr. Hume
concluded by placing before Lord Melbourne four specimens
of different daily newspapers published in the United States,
at the price of one halfpenny, by means of which copies of
all the laws passed by Congress were circulated through that
country.
Mr. GROTE made a few observations to a similar offect, and
Mr. Aglionby bore witness to the intense interest felt upon this
question by the working classes in the north of England.
The Crreeceeeort of the EXCHEQUER said that as the object
of the deputation related to business which belonged chiefly to
his own department, he might be excused making a few re-
marks upon what had been said. The gentlemen composing
the deputation had stated their case with perfect candour and
fairness, and with an absence of that misrepresentation of which
he thought he had reason to complain in regard to publications
which had appeared out of doors. He would not enter into
any further discussion of the principle of the proposed mea-
sure, but would remind the deputation of a question which he
addressed to Mr. Hume on a former occasion. That question
was, whether it was Mr. Hume's opinion if he (Mr. Rice) were
to propose the total abolition of the stamp duty he could carry
such a measure through the present House of Commons. Mr.
Hume had answered in the negative.
Mr. HUME explained. He had said the total abolition of
the stamp duty could not be carried without the substitution of
stamped wrappers, or of an optional stamp, to meet the
post-office difficulty.
The CHANCELLOR Of the EXCHEQUER was aware that he
was of course open to contradiction, that he might himself
have laboured under a misconception ; but it was his belief,
and that of many other persons, that the total abolition could
not be carried through the House of Commons. Under these
circumstances, it was not his duty to propose a measure
which must be defeated. He was willing to do the best he
could, and had already proposed more than ought to have
been expected. He gave now all that had been asked upon
Mr. Bulwer's motion last year; and in addition he gave a re-
duction of the paper duty, which he thought would be more
generally useful than the abandonment of the penny stamp.
With respect to the Stamp Duties' Bill, there was not the
most distant intention to add new restrictions to the press, or
to impede the publication of any pamphlets or other works
which were now considered to be legal, further than might be
absolutely necessary to enforce payment of the penny stamp.
The directions given to the persons employed to draw up the
Bill were, that no other enactments should form part of the
Bill than those which might have been passed from time to
time for the collection of other branches of the revenue.
Mr. O'CONNELL thought there was fair ground of complaint
that the worst portion of our fiscal laws should now be applied
to the press, and that while comparatively mild laws had been
passed in order to collect a fourpenny stamp, the severity of
those laws should be increased when the premium upon smug-
gling was reduced tl-ree-fourths. This was reversing the
principles of legislation.
The CHANCELLOR Of the EXCHEQUER said that Mr. O'Con-
nell had admitted that the fair trader must be protected against
those who violated the law, and he (Mr. Rice) wished for no
laws more stringent than were necessary to affect that object.
Other complaints had reached him, but these came from the
monopolists, with regard to the limit he proposed to put upon
the size of newspapers. With respect to the legal part of the
question, if the penal clauses could be so mitigated in Com-
mittee as to give satisfaction to Hon. Gentlemen without los-
ing sight of the object, he should be happy to give way upon
such points. On the subject of the effect of the reduction to
one penny, he was satisfied the effect would be very favour-
able on all grounds. It would be part of his care, when he
came to make his financial statement, that the newspaper
cikulation would be doubled and tripled, and greatly mul-
tiplied by the measure, through which the revenue would
not lose considerably, notwithstanding the extent of the reduc-
tion. He should be enabled to produce the most positive evi-
dence of this fact.

Mr. HIME remarked that the reduction of the stamp duty
might be considered by some persona as a boon, but that if it
were to be purchased by the enactment of such laws as formed
part of the new Bill, he for one should say, let the present
stamp and the present laws remain. This remark appeared to
meet with the general assent of the members of the deputation.
Colonel TnomPsos, who spoke apparently under strong
feelings, said that if such disgraceful enactments were to form
part of the laws of England, he for ore was prepared to say
that he would be the first to violate: them. Unstamped news-
papers should.daily find a place on his table, and if informa-
tions were laid, and his house were broken open, rather than
submit to pay the penalty, he would go to prison. He knew
it was net agreeable to %year the prison dress, in which he
had seen Cleave (and sympathy for the man and his cause
would induce him (Colonel Thompson) to call that man his
friend,) but every privation and suffering ought to be endured