The Sun.
London, England, 1835-08-06 00:00:00

but which we are confident every liberal Member of
that House will be happy to have an opportunity of
amending. As the law now stands, a Newspaper
printed in London costs two-pence if sent by post a
distance of two streets ; if directed to any village out-
side the Bills of Mortality, but within a given distance,
the charge for postage is one penny; but if trans-
mitted by the same conveyance to the remotest village
or hamlet in the United Kingdom, it is received
postage free ! Here is a precious sample of the wis-
dom of our ancestors. Nothing less than a premium
offered for any trouble and expense to which the peo-
ple may put the Government. The effect of this on
the circulation of Newspapers,within and around Lon-
don, is incalculable. At a distance of three miles
from town, newspaper venders cannot be found to sup-
ply
the people with morning and evening journals,
especially such as do not think proper to take
papers every day. Such " chance custom " would
not remunerate the vender for the additional in-
convenience he would be put to by walking perhaps
a mile to serve a single purchaser. Hence it follows
that persons so situated must do without Newspapers
altogether, or have them ordered by post, at a charge
of ninepence for each paper—the Government mo-
destly contenting itself with only two-thirds of that
sum in the shape of taxes ! But the absurdity as
well the evil effects of the system only begin here.
Suppose the person purchasing the Newspapers
to live more than three miles from London, and
that he orders it by post—the trouble of conveying
it to him must be far greater, and yet he receives it on
the payment of a penny. But suppose that after read-
ing it he wishes to have it returned by post to some
friend in the City—the postage back is threepence !
Now this an instance of that surpassing wisdom in
our ancestors which we, for the life of us, cannot con-
ceive the meaning of. To carry a Newspaper from
London for any given distance would appear to us as
difficult as to carry it back again. The distance—
the road—the mode of conveyance are all the
same backwards and forwards. This absurd anomaly
ramifies itself in every direction within a given dis-
tance of the metropolis, to the great injury of News-
paper proprietors, and the still greater injury of the
public. If a person at Norwood wishes to send a
Newspaper to any member of his family residing at
Richmond, the postage is threepence ; but if the
paper be sent from London to John 0' Groat's House,
or the Giant's Causeway, it goes free !
The bad effect of these absurd Post-office enactments
is not wholly confined to the inhabitants of London and
its vicinity. By doing away altogether with the postage
onNewspapers, or by lowering it to a farthing, charge-
able in every instance, thousands of persons would
purchase papers, who now hardly ever see them.
Many would purchase them, if they had an oppor-
tunity of transmitting them to their friends by a
cheap and expeditious mode of conveyance ; and
hotel and tavern keepers would find half-price cus-
tomers, within the bills of mortality, for five times the
number of daily and weekly journals they receive,
provided they could send them free of any additional
expense. Every family having two or three relations
living a mile or two off, would purchase its own
paper ; and friends taking opposition journals could
effect an agreeable interchange of opinions by the
regular exchange of their respective prints. The
Coffee-house keepers in the Strand or Fleet-street
would supply the middling tradesman at Englefield-
green or Richmond with a paper at half-price. This
the tradesman could afford to pay, when it might be
totally out of his power to pay an additional two-
pence for postage.
Besides the positive evil a tax must occasion which
thus prevents the diffusion of political knowledge in
London, the Post Office regulations with respect to
Newspapers is liable to still weightier objections. In
the first place, it creates a jealous and vindictive feel-
ing in the public mind. The people, in judging of
this anainoly, must come to one or other of these
three conclusions—namely, that the Government was
ignorant of the nature of its own act, when it pro-
pounded such a scheme ; or that its real object was to
keep the people in ignorance, by making knowledge
most expensive to those most desirous of it ; or
that it was willing to perpetrate any injustice, for
the sake of the Revenue. Now, it matters not in
which of these three ways the public regard the two-
penny and three-penny tax on newspapers—the feel-
ing generated will be either contempt or detestation.
If the evil cannot be remedied at this stage of
the Bill by a conference between the two Houses,
we expect that the CHANCELLOR of the Ex-
CHEQUER will bear it in mind, in introducing his
Budget, for which we begin to look forward with
some anxiety. The tax may then be abolished or
modified by a vote of the House, and so clear the way
for the legitimate consequences of a reduced stamp-
duty.

The Country, as we anticipated, is beginning ac-
tively to bestir itself. Manchester announces a public
meeting for next week ; Nottingham is on the move ;
Bristol is all disquietude ; and Plymouth " refuseth to
be comforted." As for Leeds, Hull, and Portsmouth,
they have already spoken out in language worthy of
the emergency. Nor is the Metropolis behind-hand.
Finsbury met last night ; and the Tower Hamlets,
Lambeth, and Marylebone meet, we understand, in
the course of the week. These are a few only of the
thousand-and-one signs of the times. Other and more
significant ones still remain to be developed. We pre-
dict that August will be as memorable a month to us,
as ever was July to our neighbours. It will rid Eng-
land of an oligarchical despotism, as it rid France of a
monarchical one. It is, indeed, morally impossible
that things can continue in their present anomalous
state. With a House of Lords pulling one way, and
a House of Commons another ; with this crying
"halt," and that " forward ;" one party or the other
must instantly give way ; and sure we are, it will
not be the Commons. They have too many interests
in common with us, to refuse to place themselves, where
they should be, in the van of the battle. They will
demand in our name, and on our behalf, that the Mu-
nicipal Reform, and the Irish Tithe Bills, be passed
in all their integrity ; otherwise they will ring such an
alarum in their Lordships' ears, as shall wake even the
Duke of WELLINGTON himself, when next he is
composed to profoundest slumber by the eloquence of
Sir CHARLES WETHERELL. Meantime, we entreat
—we implore the people, to meet, petition, and re-
monstrate in all quarters. If they expect their Repre-
sentatives to do good, they must themselves arm them
with the means. Even the Unions must be revived,
if necessary ; for it is but too apparent that their Lord-
ships are inaccessible to conviction, unless it comes to
them in the shape of some such display as was made
by the men of Birmingham during the memorable
period of the Reform Bill.

It will be recollected that a mighty fuss was made
by the partisans of the late Government at the India
House and elsewhere, about the revocation of Lord
HEYTESBURY'S appointment to the Governorship of
India. This Noble Lord, whose very title smacks of
corruption, has run a course which, it cannot be de-
nied, gives him the strongest claims upon the patronage
of his party. He was the proprietor of several
seats in Parliament—he owned sundry collections of
brick and mortar i4wested with the privilege of furnish-