The Sun.
London, England, 1857-02-05 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, FEBRUAIIY 5, 1857.

REPEAL OF THE DUTY IN PAPER.

IMPORTANT DEPUTATION TO THE CHAN-
CELLOR OF THE' EXCHEQUER.
Yesterday afternoon a deputation waited, by appoint-
ment, on the Right Hon. Sir G. C. Lewis, the Chancellor
al the Exchequer, at his officirl residence in Downing-
street, for the purpose of representing the advisability of
repealing of the duty on paper.
The deputation consisted of the Right Hon. T. M.
Gibson, M.P., Alderman Baldwin, Birmingham; Mr. G.
Dawson, Birmingham ; Mr. Rawlins, Wrexham ; Mr.
E. Bucknall, Stroud ; and Messrs. G. Stiff, H. Moore,
J. Hoppy, W. Wickham, T. Bainbridge, C. Walihouse,
J. Hyde, C. Hill, W. Smith, C. D. Collett, T. Wilson,
C. Ett, Plummer (for Mr. H. Ingram, M.P.), Dr. Watts,
awl the Rev. R. Everess.
The deputation was introduced by
The Right Hon. T. M. GussoN, M.P., who said the
gentlemen pre-ent were the representatives of the Society
for Promoting the Total Repeal of all Taxes on Know-
ledge, and others interested in, the manufacture of paper,
and the trade in general, who were very anxious for the
removal of this particular tax on the manufacture of
paper, and that it should be dealt with by the Legisla-
ture immediately. They did not ask for individud relief
but took their position on the broad principles of com-
mercial policy. The subject had locen taken into consi-
ration by a committee of the house, and successive Minis-
tries had at different periods held out expectations that
the question of the repeal of the duty should be dealt
with, and the deputation felt that the time had now ar-
rived when no further delay should be permitted in forc-
ing the matter on the attention of the Government and
the Legislature. With regard to the effect the duty had
on the diffusion of knowledge and the spread of educa-
tion, he might say that many of the warmest friends of
education thotght that education might be greatly pro-
moted by its repeal, and that, he contended, at once en-
titled the question to the earliest consideration of the
Government, especially as it was the general belief that
the tax on paper might be removed without any injurious
effect upon the revenues of the country. He trusted the
right hon. baronet would be induced to give the subject
his most favourable consideration with a view to the re-
peal of the duty.
Mr. C. D. COLLETT, the secretary to the Association
for the Repeal of ad Taxes on Knowledge, then read an
elaborate and argumentative memorial addressed to the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, from which the following
passages are extracted :
" In 1835 the duty on first-class paper was 3d, per
pound, and the total amount of paper made in the
United Kingdom was
First class 54.067.5621b.
Second class

70,654, 587
The gross revenue being £833,822
The net do.
In 1855 the revenue was 1,031,808
„ the gross do.
which, at lad. and 3.loths of a farthing per pound, gives
171,200,2951 b. as the amount of paper manufactured in
the year 1853 ; being an increase of 140 per cent. on the
amount made in 1835-18 years before. An additional
argument is to be found in the fact that for the last few
years the duty has remained stationary—if we should
not rather say that it is retrograding ; and this in the
face of the great increase in newspapers and periodical
publications. The following table of the net revenue for
the last five years proves this—

1851 £928,876
1852 941,827
1853 1,049,661
1854 1,050,629
1855 1,047,430
When the duty was universally admitted to be a serious
lindrance to the manufacturer, and was consequently
reduced, the amount of paper produced was on the rise,
as will be seen from the following table of the net re-
venue for five years :

1831 £701,149
682,707
1833 715,743
1834 748,478
1835
In 1839 an expedient was adopted for making up a small
but annual deficiency in the revenue, which has had dis-
astrous effects upon the poorer manufacturers of paper.
An addition of 5 per cent. was made to the duty, that is
to say, the duty of 141. a ton, or lAd. a pound, was raised
to 141. 144. per ton, or 10. and 3 10ths of a farthing per
pound. This 3-10ths of a farthing has ruined a number
of paper-makers ; how many, is a secret in possession of
the Excise ; what we know is, that the numbers of the
miles in England and Wales only ascend as high as 694;
while, in a printed list, furnished to us, by a correspond-
ent, and dated 1852, we count only 443 mills ; and
since the publication of the list, 89 of the manufac-
turers named in it have been returned as non-
existent by the Post-office. This suggests a decrease
of 340, ut nearly ';',o per cent. iu the number of
the paper-mills in England and Wales, owing to the in-
genuity of Sir F. Baring. If, as it is to be hoped, the
estimate is exaggerated, it will be easy for the officers of
excise to correct it. It is easy to see that the extra
3-10tlis of a farthing w“uld ruin the small capitalist. A
mill turning out eight tons per week, and realising a profit
of 3001. a-year on 416 tons, would en the increase of
duty have to pay an extra sum of 2811. 4s. to the tax-
gatherer ; and would thus work without any profit,
while it would be impossible for the owner to increase
the price of his paper. This is ex idly what has happened.
Mr. Baldwin, a paper-maker at Birmingham, wrote and
published a letter to Lora. Russell, in which he specified
particular mills that .voulit be closed by this means,—and
his predictions were actually accomplished. So great is
the number of paper-makers verging towards bankruptcy,
and compelled to sell their paper under its value in
order to meet the payment of duty, that respectable
paper-makers aver that they can buy paper in the mar-
ket as good as their own at a lower price than they can
make it. The paper duty has been recognised from the
beginning as a tax on knowledge by the fact that Bibles,
Prayer-books, and works published by the universities
in the Latin, Greek, Northern, and Oriental languages
are allowed the privilege of a drawback by the Act of
Anne. We know not why the horn book of the artisan's
child should be taxed, while the rare books of the rich
codegian are exempted, nor why a drawback should be
given to works which are always sure of a ready sale,
while the tax is exacted from works that do not pay
their expenses. There are other points which will
require similar 'consideration if the duty is to con-
tinue. The tax on the paper used in packing is
sometimes a considerable item, and we cannot see
why paper exported as wrappers for goods should
not receive a drawback as well as paper that is '
exported separately. The private maker of envelopes
has to pay a duty on the waste, from which an envelope
maker who is a millowner is exeaipt. This waste is
worth 19/. per ton, and the tax 141. 14s. These are, how-
ever, inequalities inherent in the nature of the tax. Tln re
are others which are not so easily accounted for. We
know, sir, that the main question which we come here to
ask is one on which, to use the words of your prede-
cessor on the very same subject, the lips of the Mi-
nister who holds your unfortunate situation are sealed,'
but we do venture to hope that you will answer the
very simple questions on which official reserve cer-
tainly does not compel silence-1. What is paper ? 2.
What is pasteboard ? We are prepared to show that
on Florentine buttons made at the mill, of what is
commonly considered brown paper, no duty is paid ;
while the very same substance, if it leave the mill in
sheets, or if, though made into buttons, it be covered
with white paper, is charged with ditty, and must there-
fore he supposed to be paper. We should like to be
informed on the best authority whether that which is
taxable paper or millboard when it is a foot square
ceases to be so by being cut into discs ; and if so, how
the covering of these discs whith white reinvests them
with the character of paper I A similar mystery exists
in regard to pasteboard. The act requires that the
pasteboard-maker, not being a millowner, shall weigh his
paper in the presence of an exciseman, and shall, when
his pasteboard is made, pay a duty on the increased
weight. We are informedithat by some process, not
generally understood, the addition of the paste actually
diminishes the weight of the paper ; and that in Birming-
ham there is only one pasteboard-maker with whom
this is not the case, and that all the others consequently
escape payment of the duty. We earnestly recommend
to your attention these arguments as a small portion of
the objections which may be made to the retention of
the only excise now remaining upon our manufactures
except those on intoxicating
,liquors, or the raw ma-
terials of intoxicating liquors.'
Alderman BALDWIN said he had been connected with
the paper trade for 40 years in Birmingham, and had had
a paper mill in that town for 21 years. Two years ago
he filled tae office of Mayor of Birmingham, and he had
therefore had opportunities of knowing the evil effects of
the paper duty on the various kinds of manufacture con-
nected with the Birmingham trade. Within the last year
he had paid as much as 12,8001. to the Exchequer in
the shape of paper duty. He had sold the paper on
which the duty was paid for 35,0001., so that he had to
relinquish as nearly as possible 2-sths of that sum for
Excise duty alone ; in other words, he positively worked
20 weeks of the 52 in realising the amount he had to pay
to the Government for duty, consuming every week 100
tons of coal in his business, besides wages for labour
and other incidental outgoings. He had therefore a
good right to complain, and the more so as his was the
only manufacturing trade in the whole country that
dt
dk t
hoff o
dileather,ioo diminution
glass, bricks,
the ri crke
revenue,
na
un de many
seeingo,
that
ae other
been
saddled with the Excise, the duty having
wi
o
4arttteinenie4' to the great benefit of the community, and
were thereby enabled to spendan moreo money
the remission had
scoesmsaeroi efswabnidcbtowseornaeLtiecxleteen
et
e u(1.1) additional means of em-
ployment to the labouringnpen
eisstanwipthopouoloattrioibno,twiohn:
haanrt
on the ne-
the luxuries of life,
how the parnodduaclstoioonf offupeal,paerd,d
iionga
thataonwna t least fiven r
tons es-
pecially,
of
eirnmofsoome detail
to the revenue. He proceeded trog
than any other commodity, was the result rleeavbeevery
marked
ton
of coal were consumed in the manufacture
of paper.

. .
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER—But does not
the duty fall on the consumer ?

Alderman BALDWIN said to some extent it fell on the
consumer, but what he wanted to show was that tho

Imanufacturer got no profit on the duty. He (Alderman
Baldwin) prod used a piece of button board, out of which
discs, like gun wads, had been cut for the making of
Florentine buttons, such as every man wore on his cost,
and in the manufacture of which thousands of people
were employed. Two years ago those discs, as well as
the waste board from which they bed been cut, paid a
duty, which enhanced the price of that kind of button
by 71 per cent., the result being that the French and
German manufacturers of Florentine buttons, who paid
na duty, were enabled to beat the English button manu-
facturers in foreign markets.
The CIIANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUEN—You know 11r.
Milner Gibson would not allow you to have a protective
duty. (A. laugh.)
Alderman BALDWIN said he did not want one, and to
prove that he might add that five or six years ago, a de-
putation of papermakers, of which he was one, went to
Lord J. Russel, thinking it possible his lordship might
ask them in the event of the paper duty being taken off
if they would be prepared to allow foreign paper to come
into this country duty free; all, with one txception,
agreed to answer in the affirmative, and that one person
was individually of the same mind, but he held back from
publicly expressing his opinion, on the ground that be
had not been authorised to do so by the papermaker in
his locality whom he represented.
The CHANCELLOIt of the Exernteuna.—You are en-
titled, in accordance with the strictest rule of free trade,
to have a customs duty equivalent to an excise duty ;
otherwise you woul I not be on fair terms.
Alderman BALDWLN said he woull show how un-
fairly the paper duty acted on the export trade. A
little time ago he received an order for ten tons
of common brown packing paper for exportation,
but, as the person who gave it him turned out to
be a swindler, be (Alderman Baldwin) got his paper
back again, although it bad been entered for ex-
p, rt, The result of the transaction, however, proved
thatk taking into a,:ccuot the expense he was at in pack-
ing the paper in a peculiar way to comply with the Excise
requisitions and other incidental considerations, there
was a positive loss of 20 per cent., attributable to the
Excise laws, on every 1 owt. of common paper exported
from this country. On the other hand, that common
paper, when intended for exportation, might, but for the
absurd Excise regulations as to packing, be conveyed in
the shape of ballast, for which it was admirably adapted,
weighing, as it did, about 40Ib, a ream, and being very,
convenient for stowing. He next pointed the Chancel-
lor's attention to two samples of paper used in the menu-
fsctaire of papier mache articles. One of those samples
was formed of the common pulp material, without paste,
and therefore paid no duty at all ; but if a paper manu-
facturer attempted in this country to make a superior
article of that nature, which was done by pasting sheets
together, he bad then to pay, considering that he was
liable to duty, not only on the manufactured article,
but on the waste resulting from it, a duty varying from
201. to 221. a ton. The consequence was that the ma-
nufacturers in Germany and France, who were liable to
no such drawback, were mostly engaged in making the
best articles of that description, while those in England
made only the commoner kinds on which no duty was
payable, and were losing their reputation for ability to
make anything better. He had been at the pains to
calculate the ordinary expenditure of 50 persons who
worked at this sort of trade, and the result proved that
out of every sovereign they spent 3s. 4d. went to the
Chancellor of the Exchequer in the shape of duty on the
tea, coffee, sugar, tobacco, ale, and spirits they con-
lamed. So that, by taking off the duty on paper, if they
could give a vastly greater amount of employment in its
manufacture, which he contended would be the necessary
result of the remission, the consequent lose to the re-
venue would be compeusated by the gain resulting to it
from the greater consumption of exciseable articles,
This was one of the most useful and necessary trades in
the country, and there was a great amount of capital
and ingenuity employed in it. People in the town from
which he came said when they heard the fuss made about
national education that it was all humbug, so long as the
duty was retained on an article which entered so exten-
sively into the matter of education.
The CHANCELLOR—Do you believe, if the duty on
paper were remitted, there would be a perceptible change
in the price of books
Alderman BALDWIN was sure there would be a reduc-
tion.
The CHANCELLOR—TO what extent

Alderm'mn BALDWIN replied that the duty enhanced
the price of the common copybook and the first books
used at school by the children of poor people 30 per cent.
The CHANCELLOR.— And yet you think the tax does
not fall on the oonounaer, but on the manufacturer I
Alderman PALDWIN did not say that. The tax fell
on the manufacturer iu the-first instance, and all be
(Alderman Baldwin) said was that the manufacturer did
net get pr fit on the duty paid.
The CHANCELLOR.—DO you think he ought to make a
profit on the duty he pays ?
Alderman BALDWIN thought there ought to be no
duty at all. (A. laugh.) He hoped the Chancellor
would be of the same opinion. Every book that was
published was as nearly as possible wholly the result of
labour and if the right hon. gentleman kept that in
view he (Alderman Baldwin) was sure he would abolish
the paper duty. Since the abolition of the stamp duty
on newspapers from 40,000 to 50,000 copies of news-
papers were published weekly in Birmingham, instead of
15,000, which was the number before the stamp was
remitted, and he ventured to say if the duty on paper
was taken off, the revenue in three years would be bene-
fited, instead of injured, by the change. lie had a great
desire to see the duty repealed, not only for his own
sake, but for that of the community generally. In a vil-
lage, for instance, four miles from Birmingham, where
many poor people were unemployed and living on the
poor-rates, he was spending 10,0001. in the erection of a
paper-mill, which, if the duty was taken off paper,
would keep 50 families off the parish.
The CHANCELLOR—Let me ask you sae question. You
believe that 30 per cent. of the present pri,:e of books is
owing to the duty on paper ? [Mr. BALDWIN—On cheap
copy and school books it is; but the price of costly books
is not much enhanced by it.] Do you think the remis.
sion of the duty would lead to any perceptible reduction
in the price of newspapers ?
Mr. BALDWIN—That had been the effect of taking off
the stamp.
The CHANCELLOR—But I am speaking of the paper
du y. I will ask you if any newspaper would lower its
price in consequence of the remission of the paper duty ?
Alderman BALDWIN said they would either lower their
price or give a better article for the present price. Some
of the penny papers were doing well, but they would not
be carried on unless the duty on paper was repealed.
Mr. J. HYDE reminded the Chancellor that at the
time the Messrs. Chambers were selling 60,000 of their
penny tracts a-week they were obliged to relinquish the
undertaking in consequence of the enormous sum they
paid in paper duty, which of itself would have been a
handsome profit to them.
Mr. J. H. RewLuis, a papermaker at Wrexham, said
this was the only country in the world that imposed a
tax on the diffusion of knowledge. The truth was that,
like the shoe of a Chinese lady, the act of Parliament
imposing this tax on the paper trade had been gradually
pinching more and more as that trade developed itself,
until it had become almost intolerable. He produced
five samples of brown paper obtained during a resent
visit to the United States, made from flax straw, old
leather, Indian corn stalks, palm leaves, and damaged
marsh hay, and sold at prices below the sums charged
for duty in England, and stated in Borne detail how
marvellously the paper trade flourished in the Ame-
rican Union, where it was wholly unrestricted
by Excise or any other imposts. He contended that
three-fourths of the papermakers in this country were
either living en their capital or losing money. The duty
was so heavy and relentless in its character that, like the
sword of Damocles, it was perpetually hanging over the
heads of the manufacturers, and would never be other-
wise until the tax was completely swept away.
Alderman BALDWIN said one-half of all the paper now
made in this country was manufactured by 30 persons ;
the trade would be soon in fewer betide, and it would be
in the power of those few persons to stop the press any
day they might choose to do so.
The CHANCELLOR asked what proportion of all the
paper made was used for the purpose of printing 1
Alderman BALDWIN said considerably more than a
third, and perhaps one-eighth or one-tenth was used as
writing paper.
Mr. John Watts, Mr. Elt, Mr. Bucknall, of Stroud,
and Mr. B. Langley, bore testimony to the way in which
the
duty
o f operatedgo od tos
crepress
books,cheap
The latter gentleman newspapers and the
production
complained that the cheap newspaper proprietors were
obliged to use thin paper, which impeded the rapidity
with which they might otherwise be printed.
The CHANCELLOR said it struck him that the English
newspapers in general were printed on thicker and betier
paper than those of any other country, and yet the de-
putation said there was no duty on the article in any
other country. He added that he would not fail to bear
in mind all that they had said on the general subject.
They had brought under his consideration many facts
bearing closely on the question ; but all he could
sayatpr
one
essn
fo
present
was,
r that this meneent was not a very
favourable entertaining the question of a reduc-
tion of duty, so far as that was likely to entail a diminu-
tion of revenue.

Two MEN SUFFOCATED By tiOTCE'S PATENT FUEL.—
CHATHAM, Feb. 2.—This afternoon Mr. T. hills, the
coroner, held an inquest at Brompton, on Thomas Bar-
ton and Alfred Rose, two farm labourers employed by
Mr. E. Dodd, of Gillingham, who were suffocated by
inhaling the fumes of a material called "Joyce's Patent
Fuel." The deceased men sletipigthotribtehiti:gprveemryiseesaiodf
tthhee
bbaaiillialff?tWookooollretl,oafnJdoyScuen'dsapyatent stoves into the room,
some hours before the men went to bed, to warm
the room for them. The fuel used was the patent
fuel always burnt with that kind of stove, which has no
pipe to it. The deceased retired to rest together about
ten o'clock on Sunday night, in their usual health, and
when the bailiff went to call them at five o'clock in the
morning he found them dead. One of the men, Rose,
had only entered Mr. Dodd's service the same day. In
reply to the coroner, the bailiff stated he bad frequently
carbonicenaan ta gas,
u B e
used the stove before without any ill effect. The jury
returned a verdict that the deceased met with their
Luel closo Apart/ mate?
Ldheeaitrhvebrydii:thaaluaingutiand appended to
of Joyce's patent

RAILWAY INT gLLIGENCE.

1 OXFORD, WORCESTER, AND WOLVER-
HAMPTON.
The capital account for the half-year ending the 31st
Dec. shows that 4,150,344/, had been received, and
3,877,4691. expended, leaving a balance of 273,3751.
The revenue account for the half-year ending the 31st
Dec. showed that 111,773/. had been received, and
56,9311. or 50.93 per cent., expended, leaving a net profit
on the working of 54,342/.
The return of working stock showed that there were
6 tank engines, 23 passenger engines, and 22 goods en-
gines ; 22 first class carriages, 15 composites, 38 second
class, and 59 third class carriages ; 20 break vans, 10
horse boxes, D carriage trucks ; 1,078 goods and coal
waggons, 22 timber trucks, 17 cattle trucks, 40 ballast
trucks, 24 break vans, 905 sheets, and 17 horses.
The length of the line authorised is 112} miles, of
which 28 miles are open for traffic, 73i miles being
double line and 24i miles single line.
The receipts of this company, including the Stour-
bridge Extension Canal, from the Ist to the 18th Jan.,
have been 9,4139/. 75.; and the expenditure, also includ•
ing that of the Stourbridge Extension Canal, 4,820/, 6s.
31., being at the rate of 50'79 per cent.