The Sun.
London, England, 1836-01-12 00:00:00

UNSTAMPED PUBLICATIONS.

Last night a public meeting, convened by the Radical As-
sociation, took place at the Bazaar, Charlotte-street, Fitzroy-
square, to pass resolutions to promote the circulation of cheap
knowledge, and to adopt a petition to the House of Commons,
for a repeal of the stamp duties on newspapers.
Mr. F. O'CONNOR having been called to the Chair, on the
motion of Mr. Waldon, opened the business of the meeting;
observing that the press was of the highest importance to the
people. It was also, important that it should be free ; but at
present their rights were seriously impeded by the efforts of a
monopolizing press. Freedom did not experience such attacks
from any
,other quarter. The stamp was the shackle, and he
denied the right of the rich to indulge in newspapers, at so
serious a cost as that of deprivation on the part of the poor.
If the stamp was off; the country would be regulated by one
political time-piece ; there would not be the disunion that now
existed, disunion promoted by the monopoly continued in
stamped newspapers, Was it any wonder, then, that the tat

on knowledge was odious to the people? Lord Spencer heck
held the sound principle, that the unpopularity of a tax was
a sufficient ground for its repeal."--( Hear, Atm) And was
there not that ground for repealieg this.tax—(Cheers)—incle-
pendently of its manifest injustice and partiality ?—( Continued
cheers.) Without proposing anything like physical force, he
was prepared to conteed that so unjust a law ought to be re-
sisted and he would remind some per Sons that the efforts to.
•,vithhold the means of promulgating public opinionS had cost
a neighbouring country two or three revolutions. But cer-
tainly, he repeated, if the unpopularity' of a tax were sufficient
for repeal, here there was ample ground enough-4116110
For ;:!tat repeal he had struggled, and for it he would continue
to
st
tr
-411 the newspaper stamp was wholly and entirely
repealed,
(Loud cheers.) He would resist the tax by every
pe
and .in so doing he should consider that he
was peiforming a .
vit
:uous act.-7( Cheers )As the Parliament
was about to assemble,
raiab practicable e L
r' ne 2.. 5
h. ti as all ought to exert themselves,
he hoped that every Radical /I:
sociation in the kingdom would,
adopt resolutions and petitions fur
the total repeal of the news-
.
paper stamp. There must be a long 011, a strong pull, and a
pull altogether.—( Loud cheers.)
Mr. dessenn, the Secretary, then read letters from gentle -
men 0 whom applications had been made to attend this meet-
ing, but eTho could not' attend.
Mr. SAVAGE stated that some resolutions had been prepared,
and he read and moved them ; they were to the effect, that
the continuation of the duty on newspapers, and the means
adopted to enforce that duty, were cruel, unjust, and oppres-;
sive ; and that, in the opinion of the meeting, more moral guilt
was incurred by those who enforced the duty than by those
who violated the law, &c. These resolutions had his decided
approbation.
Mr. CLEAVE also supported the resolutions, and said, that
if the people would support the publishers of unstemped news-
papers, he could declare that they would perievere in their
efforts to promo the repeal. He would devote himself, be
the consequences witet they might, to the destruction of this
edieui tax—(Loud cheer's)—and he knew that if they whii
were embarked in this undo taking were supported by. the
people, success would be the rese.ll.—(Cheers.) flaying no:-
ticed some strong and affecting instaoces of the consequences
of enforcing this duty, in different parts of the country, he
adverted to the proceedings at Bow-street Police Office, on
Saturday. As to the proceeding now adoptied by the Go-
vernment, he could only say that, if any one stopped him when
he had bundles of papers, and attempted to take them away
from him, he should resist to his utmost.
_ _

Mr. WARBURTON also spoke strongly in support of the re-
solutions.
Mr. M'CoNNELL said, that the City officer who had imposed
ort him the duty of making these seizures, had declared to a
person then present at the meeting, that he was ashamed of the
duty in which lie was engaged.
Mi% BELL spoLe strongly in support of the resolutions. Ho
ridiculed the idea tii,?t the proceedings were to vindicate the
law, as there were now many most important laws which,
though unrepealed, were unenforced--that, for instance, de-
claring that no placema.n or pensioner should have a seat in the
House of Commons. If the Whigs wished to vindicate the
laws, why did they not enforce all the lams ? As to not break-
ing the law, be should like to know how the poor of any coun-
try had ever got rid of any bad law without resisting it. If
the persons in power were really desirous of promoting the
benefits of the people, be would ask, would they give them the
elective franchise ? No, not they. Would they, then, allow
the people to be represented through an unstamped, and, con-
sequently, a free press ? No, not they. Now, universal suf-
frage and an unstamped press, he deemed to be convertible
terms. The people had yet to struggle for their rights; they
must take thole ground, and he thought that ground ought ,to
be the demand for an unstamped press.—( Hear.) He con-
fessed that he lived but for the purpose of destroying the news-
paper stamp.—( Cheers. )
Mr. MURPHY said that the resolutions had his most decided
concurrence. As to the contest now carrying on, if the public
would only do their duty, the unstamped must prosper. The
only way to get rid of a bad law was to resist it..-,-( Cheers.)
After some further speaking the resolutions were put and
carried, and the meeting separated, thanks having been voted
to Mr. O'Connor.

CONSISTENCY Or THE « TIMES."

(From the Morning Chronicle.)

The impudence of the Times so far exceeds any-
thing in the history of journalism, in thi; or any other
country, that we question whether, if an organ were
established for the express purpose of disseoinating
lies, it could at all equal our worthy contemporary.
On Tuesday last that journal had the audacity to
declare—

" We have never varied from a single principle which we
ever avowed. The Whigs have become revolutionary De-
structives, and we abjure them."
The most stupid reader of the Times must have;
stared as he read this bouncer. What single principle
did that paper ever avow from wh.sch it has not varied ?
In the very article which contained this precious
declaration, the Times observes

Lord John Russell states, or rather threatens, that
business of great importance' will be at once hrought for-
ward. This is altogether inevitable. When the existence
of a Ministry is identified with the ruin of the Church, the
prostration of the Crown, and the dissolution of- the Duo,
pire, it needs no assurance from the Leader of the Housed
Commons, to persuade us, that if the ensuing King's Speech
be any index whatever of the acts which are meditated by
his Ministers, it must be not only the most important, but
the most awful and appalling, that ever was delivered in the
name of a British Sovereign."

Wlio could believe that the • journal which thus
boasts of its undeviating adherence to principle, and of
its apprehension for the Church, should have itself
have held the following language
" If, however, the specific plan to be recommended by
Ministers shall contemplate nothing beyond the maintenance
of the Established Church, we fear that they lay the ground-
work of inculculable discontent and trouble. The abolition
of tithe will go brit lithe way towards the satisfaction of the
people of Ireland; f a substitute for tithe, applicable ex-
clusively to the same invidious end, viz. the subsistence of an
alien priesthood, should be the immediate consequence."--
Times, Saturday, March 10, 1832, le •
" According to Mr. Stanley himself, the evil is actual and
present----viz., the beggared state of thee Established Clergy ;
and for this evil he tenders a mockery by way of relief--the
enlargement of a law which no legal power can execute.
Mr. Stanley himself admits that with the amount of revenue
hitherto enjoyed by the Church, ho does not design to
meddle through the operation of the measures now deve-
loped. We tell him, then, that on such admission his whole
project stands self-condemned, inasmuch as any new scheme
for confirming to the Church the inignense and unjustifiable
income which she has hereto fore appropriated, must, if effec-
tual as an instrument of legal torture, tend still more to
spread that disorganization of society,' of which the Right
Honourable Gentleman complains : while, if inefficacious, it
will but add contempt for
legislative authority to hatred of
its objects."—.Times, July 7,
1832.