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

themselves tempters to evil, ineiliteg ingenuity to come
mit fraud. The extent of this disgraceful fraud
was great in Ireland, in Scotland. iittle, and in Eng-
lend sofflethieg more. He (Mr. Borthwick) had heard
menufacturers say, and urge it an the Government,
that they doeired to get rid of the paper tax, if for no
other reason, because they wished, when they should
retire from the trade, to leave it to their children end
heirs unstained, as a trade, by that vicious character,
which made it alinost a disgrace to he thought a paper
maker. The inequality of the tax was another consi-
deration. Paper made from the finest materials, from
linen and cambric, and that made from the rags which
poverty itself had discarded, and from the produce
of the farm-yard, had to pay the same rate of duty.
This was a monstrous injustice—(Beer, hear)—but
the broad characteristic of the tax of which they had
ell to complain, was the great fact that labour, in the
action of transferring the rags of poverty into the
most elegant materiels wed by the rich—which coin-
municeted the burning thoughts of Byron, of Scott,
of Dickens, to the world at large—wee taxed In the
manufacture to an extent that denied to labour 300
per cent. of its natural value. In no single instance
could they appeal to the Government to repeal a tax
whose repeal would solargely benefit the whole public
as this tax on paper. The repeal of the window tax,
of the soap duties, would benefit many ; the removal
of the malt tax would be of advantage to light lands ;
the taking off other taxes would be advocated on many
plausible grounds; but there was not any other tax
against which so many arguments and so powerful
reasons could be brought as against this tax upon
paper.—(Cheers.) He (Mr. Borthwick) moat hear-
tily seconded the resolution.
The resolution was carried unanimously.
Mr. SMITH, of Bingley, in moving the fifth resolu-
tion, said he thought one of the speakers had stated
that this tax had been laid on to maintain inviolate
the shores of our country.
Mr. Boueuwrce.—Yes., in the reign of Queen Anne.
Mr. SMITH—Then they were coming to the Chan-
cellor of the Exch:quer to demand the settlement of
an outstanding debt, instead of a boon.—(Rear.)
The Chancellor of the Exchequer would, doubtless,
talk of the sum produced by this tax as 800,0001.
That certainly was the gross sum brought into the
Exchequer; but when that went into the right hand
pocket, whet went out of the left ?—(Hear.) First,
there was the expense of collection, which he believed
must be 5 pr cent, but he would say 3 per cent.
The CHAIRMAN—The Government acknowledged
it to be 71.
Mr. SMITH remarked that all his experienoe made
him believe that that was the teal amount. Then
there was the drawback in exported goods, on the
paper used in printing Bibles and Testaments. Then
there was the Government stationery, and, indeed,
many other payments out of the left-hand pocket,
which very materially reduced the 800,0001. received
by the right hand.—(Cheers.) Paper making was a
trade, too, which afforded a respectable and regular
support to its workmen, and was less liable than other
manufactures to fluctuations, which threw workmen
and their families on the public purse for their main-
tenance.—(Cheers.) It was therefore a trade which
ought to beeileouraged on public grounds.

Mr. E. WcoLmEn:seconded the -motion, and, as re-
prGisenting in some degree the newspaper press of the
West of England, w--sured the meeting that in bbat
part of the realm they were determined to use every
legitimate and honourable means to get rid of so ob•
noxious a tax.—(Cheers.)
The resolution was carried unanimously.
The sixth and last resolution was moved by Mr. J.
DUNCAN, and seconded by Mr. P. G. BARNBS. It
provided that copies of the resolutions and memorials
be respectfully presented to the Chancellor of the
Exchequer. It was carried unanimously.
On the motion of Mr. 13ouniwicit it was resolved
that the resolutions be advertised in all the daily and
weekly papers.
Mr. I.3ALnwiN, in seconding the above resolution,
announced that although no memorial bad that day
been presented from Birmingham, the town council
and the merchants of that town were preparing peti-
tions to Parliament.

A vote of thanks, proposed in most complimentary
terms by Mr. Charles Knight, and seconded by Air.
Fetter, was given enthusiastically to the chairman,.
The CHAIRMAN acknowledged the compliment. lie
bad for twenty years been devoted to the object for
which the present agitation had been organized. His
strongest incentive for taking that course had been a
principle of hostility to fraudulent traders, and the
consummation of one of his most ardent wishes would
be achieved when it was entirely out of the power of
any man to take an unfair advantage of another in
the way of trade.—(Cheers.) lie had pursued his
object steadily and with energy, and before he had
asked the public for a single shilling he had expended
1,0001. He would pay deference to no man in point
of energy, and now that he was supported by so
general a feeling, and so much of the talent and enter-
prise of the country were enlisted in the cause, be
would, if it cost him a thousand a year, agitate until
their efforts were crowned with success.

Subscriptions to the amount of nearly 1,0001. were
announced, and thanks having been voted to the Chair-
man, the proceedings terminated.

THE PAPER DUTY.
(From theillornizig Post.)

The expression of public opinion in favour of the
repeal of the oppressive tax upon paper becomes tinily
louder and more explicit. Dublin, and Edinburgh, and
Manchester, and Leeds have already spoken emphati-
cally upon the subject. While we write, meetings are,
we perceive, being held in various other parts of the
United Kingdom, and the proceedings of a conference,
which took place yesterday at the King's Arms Efotel,
in Palace-yard, are reported in our paper of this day.
To this significant and most important demonstration
we invite the special attention of our readers.
The meeting was attended by gentlemen who, it ap-
pears, are to present to the Chancellor of the Exchequer
this day memorials from almost all parts of the country.
To these documents are appended nearly nine thousand
mimes of grew; weight and respectability. To such an
appeal as this no Government can lend an inattentive ear.
But were the agitation less energetic, and its results
less palpable, the arguments advanced by Mr. Cromp-
ton, Mr. Charles Knight, Mr. Chambers, Mr. Cassel,
Mr. Towle. and other speakers, are so cov,eut and irre-
sistible, that it seems impossible for financial or poll-
ticel ingenuity to meet them with even a plausible an-
swer. The tax, it was shown, was imposed in the reign
of Queen Ann, when foreign war and domestic turbu-
lence united to present an emergency, under which
alone so monstrous a demand on the part of the Crown
could have ban even listened to. Alternations of peace
and war had since that time succeeded each other; and
now, after the duration, of forty years' peace, and with a
surplus revenue of nearly three millions, this grievous
burden continued to press upon industry and enterprise,
and the advancemtnt ut sound education, of science, and
of sit.
The malignant operation of the, tax u:on the manu-
facturer was eloquently glom-Riad by Mr. Crompton.
lie showed that from the time when the paper-maker
I begins to construct his mill, until he has delivered his
goods to the merchant or consumer, a series of inquisi-
torial and vexatious interferences, scarcely less injurious
than the enormous pecuniary sacrifice of 300 per cent.
upon the value of the material, encounter him at every
step. We might here quote the graphic description
of Mr. Crompton, but we prefer referring our readers
to the epeech itself, which will amply repay perusal.
Mr. William Chambers and Mr. Charles Knigkt, in
moving and seconding a resolution, referring to the in-
jurious effects of the paper-duty upon literature of
every class, proved by incontestible facts, and most for-
cible reasoning, that genius eves of the highest order
is either unemployed or stinted in its fair rewards by this
dreary incubus upon general know.ledge and wholesome
popular instruction.
Public opinion, it has been truly asid, is
stronger than
inernoesomnsaildledra-
armies. But the effect of the irnpos: is, "
lion upon this most powerful arnpe evert its operation
guidance of licenti *
gree, to poison its character,
The many are either left to t.
the publishers ofclis
and those which such
n
and immoral publicatiopol—eiosur,
works as Chambers'
Per press of Mr. Ku:. d -mr"
teed from the profl e
udnentertaianireng_ Family'llerald, m—usrt.
Biggs inBtructiveans which barely suzmounted by
extensive.
encounter diffieulti! t
sales almost incrediboty
Still, a, we haveoften had occasion to re mark, the
most odious feature o this moat odious tax, is its cruel
operation upon labour. On this point, the epeech of
mi. Towle, the only papermaker in Oxfordshire who
bus been able to keep his mills open, and that, as he tells
us, not by profits, but by the aid of independent pro-
perty, is most striking and instructive.
W hat was said also upon the benefits which must ac-
crue to agriculture by the abolition of this duty issiesPn•
cially at this moment, deserving of the most careful
attention. The surplus labour of the rural districts may
find employment. Straw, the produce of the farm, may
' be mixed with the refuse of cotton, and grow, under the
application of industry—at present languishing in un-
willing idleness, or exchanging useful occupation for the
workhouse—into a fabric in universal demand, and of
almost infinite utility.
We cannot to-day enter more fully into the considera-
tion of this great question. We cordially recommend to
our readers the attentive perusal of our report of the
proceedings at the king's Arms hintt

f'l.ii D.—The merchant
THE SHIPPING or iiO.LhLeAII
commencement of the
shipping of Holland wes, at3_t_
vessels,
of 224,666 tons,
year of 136 Teroels and
present year, composed of 2, 9.)
being an increase during thebeing Past
made of 51 vessels lost, of
ehedeypeaarrtucoroausi7s,toedrzovf
12,598 tons, deduction
4v ,els6s3e l
st,o
onfs . arrivalsl,oT9h9e,7si
tons;
et9esls9,
dau_nridngtht
Of the former 3,730 were Dutch vessels,
of 1,136,864 tons.
d of '' ''' l, the latter, 4,743 Dutch,Bi6
of 509,69.5 tons; an of I I -
tons.
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