The Sun.
London, England, 1851-01-30 00:00:00

paper, and had sold last year paper of that description
to the amount of 24,0001. Of that sum upwards of
9,000/. went to the Government for duty.—(Hear,
hear.) The speaker here produced some spe-
cimens of the pasteboard used in making
Florentine buttons, and showed how the waste
after the buttons were cut out of the sheet paid the
most of the duty. He also produced specioasns of
papier miteke, and showed the hardship the duty in-
flicted on the manufacturer of that elegant article.
In steel pens, also, be showed that. the ornamental
card cost more than the pens, and that half of that
cost was duty. Steel pens were made in Birmingham
and exported to France, where they were fastened ou
duty-free cards, and afterwards undersold the work
of their own maker in America.—(hear, hear.) Mr.
Baldwin also mentioned the fact that the steel pens
which -originally cost 71. a gross were now manufac-
tured at 7d., and that their ute might he enormously
increased were it not for the expense of the card,
which in reality cost more than the pens. He had,
under all these circumstances, great pleasure in se-
conding the resolution.
Mr. BouTtrwrcre seconded the resolution. He said
that the hour at which he rose, as well as the fulness
with which the question had already been discussed,
admonished him that his observations should be brief ;
and, therefore, brief they should be. But he could
not refrain from observing that it became him to con-
gratulate the chairman and the meeting on the fact,
that while opposing the most gigantic and discredit-
able evil that rested on the statute-bock in connexion
with finance, they abstained from any of those charac-
teristics which had disgraced other agitations.—
(Hear, hear.) No threats had been held out. A case
bad been clearly stated, emphatically enforced, fully
made out, and that case was to be carried before the
Chancellor of the Exchequer on the morrow (this
I day). They would tell him, that they appealed to
him as the Minister of a just Sovereige—as the re-
presentative of a great people, and that, like English-
men, they were willing to rely on the justice of an
English Government.--(Cheers.) He (Mr. Borth-
wick) was glad that, referring to what Mr. Cassel
had stated as to the means of obtaining the abolition
of the tax, not only a positive course had been
sketched, but an abstinence from injudicious agita-
tion had been recommended, as most important in
seeking the great object they had in view ; and a
great object it was.—(Loud cheers.) They had
heard from the leaders of modern instruction the
mischievous etre.otg of the tax on the progress of
general knowledge, and they had heard from
their chairman that a customer of his who had
paid 1,0001. per annum for coarse paper, did not
know that more than 5 per cent. on it was paid to the
Government—the Government, in fact, receiving from
40 to 50 per cent. He probably reflected no more on
the subject than the chairman's customer. Now he
would ask them to consider the case of a man who
was anxious for instruction in that which was the
most sacred of all knowledge, religion. That man
would go to a bookseller's shop and would buy u New
Testament for a shilling or sixpence. But in the his-
tory of our religion it had occurred that a copy of the
Testament could not be purchased for as much as
would build that magnificent Cathedral of Westmin-
ster which could be seen from a window where they
were then assembled. The King of Arrisgen bad
paid half his kingdom for a Testament.—(Cheers.)
To what and to whom did the poor man owe the
blessing that he could obtain a copy of that sacred
book for ls. or Gil.? lie owed it to the skill, the
industry, and the enterprise which had been applied
to the manufacture of paper. Yet the Government
would say, though the national industry bad pro-
duced these beneficial effects on human education,
" we will interpose between your industry and enter-,
prise, and their great effects, this abominable paper-
tax, varying from 300 per cent. to 20 or 30 per cent.
at least. '—(Hear.) The resolution just proposed
called attention to what had been done by paper, and
to what might yet be done by paper. They were
told that the uses to which it was applied were so
many and various, as to render its cheapness of first
value in commerce and civilization. They had already
heard how important the paper-tax was with respect
to commerce and civilization; hut little had been said
about its effect on decorative art,—how easily, for
example, the tradesmen's residence could be made to
rival in gorgeous splendour the baronial palace—what
was formerly wrought by tho chisel of the cunning
artist in the obdurate heart of oak, could now be
done with more exquisite effect on the plastic
material of papier maclie.—(Cheers.) Yet the Go-
vernment
could say to taste and genius, we prohibit
you by the penalty of a duty of 300 per cent.
from advancing towards these achievements. A
witty allusion had been made to the first paper-
maker, the wasp. But as he could only pay in time,
if this tax of 300 per cent. had been put upon him,
the consequence would have been that winter would
have overtaken him before his nest had been built,
and thus his prudence and his industry would have
been useless.—(A laugh.) For what purpose had this
tax been laid on originally ? Because the bayonets of
foreign forces were drawn against the people of Eng-
' land, its Crown, and its greatness; and the Crown,
in that strait, said to the people—" I appeal to your
loyalty ! for the dignity of the Crown and country,
and for your own protection ; pay me taxes on every-
thing, aye, even on paper, the medium of your ad-
vancement to knowledge and the arts." And the
people, with their wonted loyalty, answered—" Take
it—take it for a temporary purpose ; until you succeed
in repelling this invasion, you are welcome to it."
But the Government had forgotten the reciprocal
duty that devolved on them from this contract.
Thirty years of peace now had run on—with many
intervals before the last great war bad broken out—
and etill the Government bad forgotten to return to
the people that which the people had lent them.—
(Cheers.) At length the Committee appointed to in-
quire what were the duties that ought that to be re-
pealed—the Committee over which Sir Henry Par-
nell presided—recommended that leather, paper, and
glass were the first things from which the duties
should be removed. The report of that Committee
was just. since that time, other taxes had been
named for removal by other Committees. But the
Government pledged itself by the first Committee ;
and they should be now required to fulfil their pledge
—the first promise—the first in order. Leather was
free, glass was free, and that meeting called on the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, on his honour as a Mi-
nister, and on his solemn duty to the Crown, to fulfil
I the whole promise, and to wipe away the leper duties,
as a foul blot on the Legislature of England.—
(Cheers.) Mr. Towle had called the ailentien of the
meeting to an important subject. Up to that time
they had spoken as more or less directly in-
tereated in the repeat of these duties, and they
wsre quite right in so doing. Tilers. would
Ilie hypocrisy in the very pretence of denying
that they were interested in the repeal. But there
were other classes of the community, the agricultural
population of this country, who, all admitted, were,
at this moment, undergoing great suffering, likewise
interested.—(Hear, hear.) The labouring- classes
had undoubtedly benefited by free trade. He (Mr.
Borthwick), as an old-fashioned Tory and Protec-
tionist, admitted it; indeed it would be madness for
any Protectionist to pretend to deny it. But while
the labouring classes were well off, it could not be de-
nied that the farmers were suffering for that which
had benefited the rest of the country. What bad
Mr. Towle said to the meeting ? He had reminded
them that paper-making did not seek a habitation in
the smoky and dense atmosphere of cities ; but that
its haunts were in the rural valleys, that it courted
'Livid streams and pure air ; that it would go to the
barnyard to purchaee straw from the farmer; that it
would go iv the hedge-rows and make use of the
bramble, that Vow idly wastes its foliage in the
sun , that it would pick up the waste refuse of
farms, and employ the surplus labour of the agri-
cultural districts—labour that every English-
man's heart cannot but oche to see crossing the
wide ocean, and seeking in foreign lands that
reward denied it in England.—(Cheers.) He trusted,
it ahould not be said with truth, that the cause of
this emigration was, that the honest heart of English
labour was driven from its English home by an act
of the English Legislature.—(Cheers.) They were
told that by the repeal of the paper-tax they would
increase the labour given in this country to the extent
of 500,000 additional hands. Should these #ooo,oco
hands be employed by paper makers—shoutdere2.
now closed be re-opened—should new mill: _ „
cvapT
—should an impetus be given to enterpritso he the poor
tai—should employment ha afforhdeed
manufacturers,
labourers, it would not only' be tr who would find
te but the hancellor of the Excheqee
ristic of this tax
out that the most odious eiht
into the Exchequer a
was that it prevents fro.ra
fonsbinto it The
greater revenue than that would be caused by the
increase of employmenitt
taxable
would so increase the
abolition of t
of goods,
that a larger
consumption
be paid to the revenue than
sum would
which they now asked the
the 800„ 'Wel"
Chancellor o. thew Exchequer to remit out of the
three millions of surplus at present in his hands.
nothing could be more ludicrous than what had been
pointed out by the chairman relative to the sheathing
of ships and the coarse paper used for the binding of
books. The Excise-office was not able to say what
was paper and what was not. Two materials were
placed before the Board of Excise, and when asked
which was paper and which was not, they could not
tell, but they thought both were paper.—(A laugh.)
What was the difference? Ingenuity had discovered
a mode of producing paper without making the ma-
teriel wet. The paper was made from the same
material, only it was not wet. He (Mr. Borthwick)
had read in the chairman's speech at Manchester that
be had shown an officer high in the Excise some of
this material, and had told him where it was lying
e
in great quantities in London. But the otliceri
erre
not go and seize it, because the maker could say b
was not a drop of water used iu its manufacture.
This was nothing less than the Liovcrausent makiwg