The Sun.
London, England, 1851-01-31 00:00:00

THE TAX ON PAPER

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CALLS TO THE BAR, LINCOLN'S IN=N..The Hilary
Term calls to the bar of the Honourable Society of Lincoln's
Inn, were made yesterday (January 30th and
----, they com-
prise the after-mentioned gentlemen :—Danby P. Fry, Esq.;
St. George Miyart, Esq. ; Hilton T. Jenkins, Esq. ; Thomas
A. Corlett, jun., Esq. ; AlexaneerD. Jenkins, M.A. ; James
T. H0pw0,,,1, Esq.; Robert W. Gilbert, MA.; and William
Freeman, Esq.
ANOTHER FIRE IN BERMONDSEY.—Last night,
shortly before twelve o'clock, a fire, which did considerable
mischief; broke out in the extensive buildings belonging to
Mr. Hacker, tanner, Spa-road, Ber,nondsey. The fire com-
menced from come cause not dearly ascertt,ined, in what is
termed the drying-room. This building was upwards of one
hundred feet king, by thirty or forty feet wide, and at the
t me of the misfortune contained some hundred pounds' worth
of property. The moment the existence of the flames be-
came known, numerous engines started for the scene, and
there being an abundant supply of water, the flames were
quickly extinguished, but not until the building in which
the fire originated, together with its valuable contents, had
been destroyed.
The most difficult thing in the world is to talk
good nonsense. No person con do it but one of first-rate
ability. —Eliza Cook's Journal.
Tae election for South Nottinghamshire takes
place on the 10th and 11th February.

DEPUTATION TO THE CHANCELLOR OF TliE

• EXCHEQUER.
Yesterday, the deputation, appointed at the con-
ference of dfdPgates from all parts of the country, hid
their interview with the Right Hon. the Chanceli.r•
of the Exchequer, at the office of the Treasury, in
Downing-street, for the purpose of representing the
grounds of their demand for the repeal of the tax on
paper. The deputation comprised Mr. T.B. Cromp-
ton, Mr. Chambers (of Edinburgh). Mr. Charles
Knight, Mr. Charles Dickens, Mr. P. Borthviick, Mr.
John Cassell, Mr. Baldwin (of Birmingham), Mr.
Towle (cf Oxford), &c.
The deputation WWI introduced by Mr. CROMPTON,
who opened the interview by stating that he catnc
there to give a plain and simple manufacturer's
statement as to the oppressive operation of the tax
on paper. The position in which the paper. manu-
facturers of this country were placed had now become
so desperate that he thought even, politically speak-
ing, the Chancellor of the Exchequer must allow
that some alteration must be made. As a paper
manufacturer, he had no hesitation in saying that
it was impossible to check frauds upon the re-
venue ; and he did not think it creditable for a
country like this to exact a duty—he would not
say at the point of the bayonet—but the Govern-
ment was driven, and particularly in Ireland, to en-
force its payment by the aid of the police; and he
believed that by-and-by the same course would have
to be resorted to in England. The temptation to
fraud was almost irresistible, and the fraudulent trader
was fast driving every fair trader out of the field.
The gross revenue from the paper tax was represented
to be 800,0001, but deducting the drawback on the
exports and consumption of the Government offices,
he estimated that the net revenue from this impost
could not exceed 700,0001. That sum was not much
to forego out of the three millions or three millions
and a half surplus which the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer was believed to have to spare. He had been
forty years in the paper trade, and for thirty-eight
years of that period he had been a large importer of
the raw material ; but now the American, whose ma-
nufacture paid no duty, came and took away the very
refuse from our mills in this country and manufac-
tured it into paper, which competed with the paper of
this country, which was subjected to an Excise duty of
no less than 300 per cent. It was true the American
had to pay the freight of h;e raw material ; but that cost
only one farthing per pound, whilst the Excise duty
paid by the British manufacturer amounted to seven
farthings per pound. From this simple cause the
paper mills of this country were becoming closed one
by one. He had applied to the chairman of the Board
of Excise, on behalf of the trade, for a return of the
number f mills at work, and the number closed; but
Mr. Wood declined to comply with that request.
Now be (Mr. Crompton) was satisfied that if the tax
was taken off, within ten years it would cause at least
double the present number of persons to be employed,
than were now dependent on the paper manufacture.
The injustice of the tax might also be seen from the
fact that it amounted to 50 per cent. on wrapping
paper; and he could say, that in certain cases he had
had orders for such papers from foreigners, and in
those cases the foreigner had the drawback; so that
the English purchaser of wrapping paper had to pay
50 per cant. more than the foreign consumer for the
same article.—(Hear, hear.) The large consumers
in this country had no idea of the amount they
paid to the Government. Some thought the duty
might be about 5 per cent. of the price; but the fact
was, it was 50 per cent., or 500/. out of every 1,0001.
they spent upon the article, that was seized by the
Government. For his part, he believed that the re-
peal of the paper duty ought to take precedence of
the repeal of the window• tax—obnoxious as the latter
was—because, for every additional man the repeal of
the window-tax would provide employment for, the
repeal of the paper duty would employ fifty. He
(Mr. Crompton) had lost several of his best workmen,
who were going to America ; and if the tax was con-
tinued, he was sure the manufacturers' fast-wasting
capital would soon be all gone from so unequal a com-
petition with the American, and he would not be able
any longer to employ his men.
Mr. CHAMBERS next read to the Chancellor of the
Exchequer the series of resolutions agreed to at
the meeting held at the King's Arms, Palace-yard, on
the preceding day, and then proceeded to repeat the
same arguments which be had adduced when second-
ing one of the resolutions in question. He said that
he and his brother, having for the last twenty years
been engaged in the publication of cheap and improving
literature, accessible to the intelligent and aspiring me-
chanics of our large towns, had had ample proofs of the
injurious operation of the tax on paper in crippling all
important efforts in that field of enterprise. A pub-
lication of theirs, with a circulation of 80,000 a week,
was obliged to be abandoned because they found that
the Government had swallowed up all the profit.
They attempted another publication one halfpenny
dearer, and it circulated from 30,000 to 40,000
weekly. On the paper used for it they paid 8001. a
year duty, which was exactly the same they had paid
for authorship. This periodical also they had had
to give notice of their intention to stop, to the great
regret, he was warranted in saying, of an intelligent
and respectable circle of readers. The operation of
this duty was to leave the publisher no fund for re-
munerating suitably literary talent. Again, a rise in
the price of paper was taking place ; and this was be-
cause the American importers were sweeping all rags
out of the markets of this country, and were
carrying them from the Clyde almost every
week in ship loads. The English papermakers, there•
fore, could not purchase the raw material, and
if this continued it would be impossible to go on with
cheap publications, that would perforate and reach
down into the recesses of poverty and ignorance. He
thought the Government should do everything in its
power to encourage that growing class of healthful
and useful popular literature that had sprung up
during the last 20 years, and that had done so much
good in elevating the people.
Mr. C. KNIGHT said, that to obtain an improving
and highly useful species of literature to be as cheap,
and therefore to go into the same quarters, as the
immoral and debasing literature issued from the press,
there was only one course to pursue, and that was to
obtain the assistance of the very best authors. He
had paid about 100,000/. for authorship in the course
of 20 years ; and with the tax upon paper it was im-
possible for excellence in literature to compete with
low publications paying little or nothing for author-
ship, being made up very much of translations of vile
and demoralising French novels, and yet written with
great ability. He would give an illustration. Take
the case of a work like " Macaulay's History of Eng-
land." Supposing he paid 1,0001. to the author, and
calculated on a sale of only 1,000 copies, the author-
ship would cost him 1/. per copy ; but if be sold
40,000 copies, the authorship would only cost him 61.
per copy. But then came the paper duty, which, on the
issue of 1,000 would indeed be only 6d. a copy, or 281.
in all; but on the 40,000 it would still be 6d. per
copy, and would thus absorb 1,0001, which was ex--
actly the amount that was paid for the authorship.
Then the duty paid on the paper used curtailed the
fund which ought to go to pay authors of first-rate
excellence for works which ought to be accessible
to all.
Mr. ToweE, paper maker, of Oxford, then detailed
various cases of ruin to the tenantry of paper-mills in
that county, where, he said, he was the only paper-
manufacturer left. All this calamity he ascribed to
the operation of the paper-duty, and he said he would
also have been; eogailphed in the same ruin, bat that
he pessesied Some. property independent of his bti4i.;
rejoiced' at the glorioui' jarieileie, he 'en-
joyed of Whispering.ihese facts into the Chancellor of
the tichequer s ear. In fact he (Mr. ToWle) was;
as far as Oxfordshire was concerned, "the last rose of
summer left blooming elone."—(Laughter.) All the
rags having been bought up in his county, he had
introduced straw for the manufacture of paper boxes,
such as those imported from France. This straw be
could buy from the farmer for 303. per ton, and thus
benefit agriculture at the same time that he benefited
himself, but then the Government stepped in and ex-
acted fourteen guineas from a ton of worked up raw
material, which was almost worthless originally, and
for which he paid the farmer only 30s. Consequently
he was obliged to abandon the manufacture of these
boxes, because the enormous duty made it unprofit •
able, and yet they could be made at Boulogne free of
duty, and imported into England at a duty of only 10
per cent.
Mr. BALDWIN, paper-maker, of Birmingham, then
explained that the duty on paper used as button
boards and for wrapping heavy articles of Birming-
ham manufacture was very oppressive, and subjected
the British manufacture to an unequal competition in
the markets of Europe and America. Buttons, made
at Birmingham, were sold at 54d. the gross, and no
less than a halfpenny each gross was charged for duty
on the button hoards. This amounted to 10 per
cent., and when it was considered that the Govern-
ment of the United States placed 20 per cent. duty
on our manufactures, it was clear that Birmingham
would not be able long to compete under such ad-
vantages.
Mr. CHARLES DICKENS said, in the exercise of
"the glorious privilege" to which a previous speaker
had alluded, he also wished to make an observation
or two to the Chancellor of the Exchequer. He
only expressed the conviction he gathered *op.?
what he saw and heard every day, when he
floc;
that by reducing the amount which it was possible
publishers to pay to authors, the paper dutyirature
conferredite.
a positive boon on the worst species, of t
The publisher of pernicious works ieadnigd,
notm o morally
speaking, the most abject and degraded,
than they
to pay for authorship a single
farthing
able p more
publisher of
could help ; whereas the respec
wholesome and useful literature who wished to pay
the author adequate remuneration,. could make no
profit for himself in consequence of this duty. 'rho
deputation had come before t e Chancellor of the
Exchequer on question unauce._ Well, he (Mr.