The Sun.
London, England, 1835-05-19 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The speech of Lord Brougham in the House of
Lords on Friday last, upon the presentation of a peti-
tion from the Corporation of the City of London,
praying for the abolition of the taxes on knowledge,
leaves nothing to be desired by any unprejudiced inves-
tigator of the subject, and must bring conviction to the
minds even of those, if any there were, who were not
previously blinded by fears for their own interests.
These taxes consist of the stamp duty on every news-
paper that is published—of the duty upon advertise-
ments—and of the duty on paper. The first of these
is fourpence upon every copy—being more than half of
the cost of the article upon which it is imposed—
the second, upon an average of three at least out
of every ten cases, bears with the same pressure,
and in these cases, which form the exceptions,
the tax is so unjustly arranged as to furnish a bonus
to the rich advertiser at the expense of the needy--
while with regard to the Excise tax upon paper, it is
so enormous, as not only to defeat its object—that of
swelling the amount of the Treasury receipts—but,
along with the greatest of all the evils inflicted by it
upon the community—we mean the prevention of the
dissemination of useful knowledge—to encourage the
production and importation of foreign works at the
expense of the British author, the British printer, the
British binder, and the British paper-manufacturer.
Thus these taxes are characterized by every feature by
which a bad tax, intended for bad purposes, could be
marked. They injure the revenue—they press with
a leaden influence upon the industry of the country,
and, in the language of Lord Brougham, who
stated his case in the most admirable manner, and
with an energy and devotion to the cause which
could leave no, doubt how much his feelings, as well

as his thoughts, were concerned in the matter, not
only operate as a " tax upon knowledge of all descrip-
tions, civil, political, and religious," but as a premium
upon the dissemination of works of an immoral and de-
moralizing tendency. "My Lords," said he, " hav-
ing so lately had an opportunity of stating my opinions
upon this subject, and the reasons why I concur in the
prayer of this petition, it would ill become me, upon
the present occasion, to enter at any length upon it ;
but I may remind your Lordships, that the tax upon
the raw material imposed by the stamp duty is two
hundred per cent.—there is a tax of two hundred per
cent. upon the prime cost of the newspaper, and this,
it is evident, must have the effect of preventing the dis-
semination of knowledge, and of keeping instruction of
various kinds from those classes of the people to
whom it is of the greatest importance. It is a
bar to the good government of the country, to
the moral improvement of the community, and
to the proper administration of justice ; while,
on the other hand, its dissemination would tend to
elevate the character and improve the conduct of the
people, and promote the stability of the Government.
This knowledge is, therefore, kept from the great mass
of the people, to the great loss of the community,
and to the detriment of the Government, and the in-
stitutions of the country. I would particularly call
the attention of your Lordships to the fact, that the
effect of the stamp duty is not only to prevent the
circulation of useful information, but to encourage

that of a dangerous kind—of sedition, libel,
illega-
lity, blasphemy, and obscenity of all descriptions.—
While the legitimate and useful newspapers are sold
—(in consequence of the stamp duty)—at seven-
pence each, bad men publish their bad wares at a
penny. The same tax operates against the man in
trade, who wishes to publish advertisements ; and
it affects—more or less—all matters in which pub-
licity is required. In addition to this, these
newspapers are the only vehicles for conveying political
intelligence, the proceedings of Courts of Justice, and
the execution of the punishments awarded for offences,
which should be known to all classes of his Majesty's
subjects. The amount of the revenue obtained from
this tax is as nothing compared with the importance of
having the Parliamentary proceedings, the debates in
the House of Commons and of your Lordships'
House, and the alterations that may be made in the
laws, generally known. And yet these papers are
burdened with a stamp tax of 200 per cent., while
the unstamped publications, which disseminate sedi-
tion and incendiarism, and in one instance, to my
knowledge, recommended assassination, escape—the
bad wares are free, while the dealer in the whole-
some and sound article labours under a tax of 200
per cent. The injury which results from this state
of things to the country, and to the proper ad-
ministration of the laws, is, to my mind, incal-
culable." Nothing can be more logical—nothing
more just than this reasoning. We defy the most in-
veterate adversary—the most deadly opponent of the
spread of knowledge—the most timid of Churchmen,
and the most inveterate of aristocrats, to furnish an
answer to it. Upon another point, however, we
happen to disagree entirely with his Lordship—we
allude to that in which, as an additional argument
against the continuance of the present system, he
mentions the supposed monopoly with which it in-
vests the daily metropolitan press. There is as
great a mistake in this matter as there was, some
years ago, respecting the alleged monopoly of the
brewers and publicans. Neither of these classes en -
joyed any direct or patented monopoly sanctioned
by the Legislature and Government of the country—
their monopoly, if monopoly there was, or is, was in
their superior capital, their superior intelligence, and
their greater experience, as has since been amply proved ;
and so, we take it, would be the case with the reduction
of the duties upon newspapers. That reduction might
bring a host of competitors into the field, some of
whom might prove successful, but the majority the re-
verse ;—and for this reason, that the arena is already
occupied by superior capital, by greater experience,
and by a more thorough knowledge of the business of
newspapers than could be brought to bear against
them. Indeed we spurn the idea as an insult to the
daily press of the metropolis, and hold steadfastly to the
opinion, formed after long and mature consideration,
that the advantages which are certain to result from
a proper reduction of some, and total abolition of the
duties to which we have been referring, would form
a more than adequate compensation for any risks
to which the supposed competition would subject
either this Journal or any of its morning contempora-
ries. But what is the reduction prayed for by us ?
We answer, the reduction of one half of the duty on
paper—an
_equalization, so far as it may be found
practicable, of the duty upon advertisements—and
either the reduction of the stamp upon newspapers to
one penny, or, which would be infinttely better, its
total abolition. Let the Government do this, or let it
disgrace itself, as that of Lord Grey did, by main-
taining the present obnoxious system. There is no
middle course, the adoption of which would prove of
any benefit to the community, or afford any satisfac-
tion to the promoters of education among the people ;
while the carrying out of that which we have pro
posed would insure confidence in the Government,
add to its stability, and stamp it with a moral power,
naturally resulting from such a manifest act of justice
to the people, greater than that ever enjoyed by any
preceding Government, and which could not fail to
smooth the way for the passing of those great mea-
sures of ecclesiastical and corporate reform, to the
introduction of which all classes are now looking for-
ward, with such eager expectation and intense anxiety.
—Morning Advertiser.
Inverness-shire, as public opinion had for some time
anticipated, has returned a Conservative candidate.
Mr. Chisholm, of Chisholm, has a majority of 28 over
his antagonist, Mr. Grant, of Glenmorriston. A
statement which we have received from the spot repre
sents the state and progress of opinion in that county
under very striking colours. At the election of 183:2'
Mr. Grant, the late Member, carried the county by a
majority df 47, the numbers being 257 and 210. In
January, 1835, under Sir R. Peel's Administration ,
Mr. Giant's majority dwindled down to seven, his own
voters remaining nearly stationary, but the Conserva-
tives having increased by 58 electors ; while, in May,
1835, the recent occasion, the Grant interest declined
still further, numbering no more than 240 votes, and
that of Mr. Chisholm retained the exact power whir',:
it exhibited at the January election—viz., 268. Now,
if ever there was a record satisfactory and convincing
upon any specific fact, it is that which we hay
just referred to, in proof of the steady re-action which