The Sun.
London, England, 1850-04-16 00:00:00

01' britning

LONDON, TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 1850.

time, when " Knowledge will descend like the first
and second rain, uninterrupted, unabated, and un-
bounded"— " Let futurity look to what concerns
them ; we are men of this age, and to this age we
will confine our care : sufficient fur the day is
the evil thereof ! " Little dreaming, these blind
leaders of the nation's that Behold ! the

time is come I the day is already at
hand ! Happy for those among the national repre-
sentatives who recognize the proximity of the glorious
epoch when no impediment whatever shall stand be-
tween the people and those waters of life (wisdom)
flowing to them along the conduits of the Press from
the wellspring of science and literature. Happy fur
them, because they and they only will be regarded
as the real well-wishers of the people and as
the real benefactors of their country. Among
them the name of MILNE& GinsoN is now
indelibly enrolled ; and, whether successful or not in
his present endeavours, his generous efforts to effect
the intellectual emancipation of the community will
not be very readily forgotten.

Already in our comments upon the masterly
pamphlet recently published by CHARLES KruouT
(a pamphlet again referred to in an admirable leading
article, copied into our columns of this evening from
those of our contemporary the Morning Chronicle),
wherein that distinguished teacher of the multitude
has recounted the " Struggles of a Book
against Excessive Taxation," we have expatiated
upon the pernicious consequences of this taxa-

tion as witnessed in the impure and fwtid
effusions squandered amongst the crowd in the at-
tractive guise of cheap literature. To terminate this
destructive evil must be an object of solicitude with
every oue interested in the diminution of crime, for
we are satisfied that it is to these penny periodicals,
replete with filth and obscenities, that the large, and
in some cases increasing, number of our criminals is
attributable. Enable such men as the CIIAIIISERS'S—
enabIe such a man as CHARLES KNIGHT to supply the
public with sound and wholesome knowledge in the
form of penny periodicals, and all these prurient
effusions of the press, engendering an appetite for
vice, and demoralising the masses by fostering their
darker passions, would vanish like birds of night be-
fore
the dawn of morning. To effect this. beneficent
improvement, the Legislature has only to remit those
taxes upon knowledge which are as disgraceful to the
age, the nation, and the Parliament, as they are inju-
rious to the cause of enlightenment, of Christianity,
And of civilization.

The independent Members of Parliament appear
to have gained new vigour by the temporary relaxa-
tion afforded during the Easter recess. Honourable
Gentlemen had then sufficient opportunities of ascer-
taining the opinions and feelings of their respective
constituencies, and.of discovering how those by whom
they were selected to fill the honourable position of
" popular representatives" were affected towards the
Whig Government. A general expression of dis-
content and dissatisfaction at the backslidings and re-
trogressions of the once popular Liberals (!) had
been heard from all quarters. It was known that if
they had not entirely forfeited the good opinion
of the people, they had at least lost ground
considerably, and that a change of Ministry, which
would, a few
years since, have been regarded as a
calamity of no ordinary magnitude, would now be
regarded with careless apathy, if not with positive
pleasure.

Previous, however, to the recess matters went on
tolerably smooth. The severe illness by which Sir
CHARLES WooD was afflicted prevented the attendance
of the Right Hon. Baronet in his place until the
15th of March last. No question of fiscal or finan-
cial policy could properly be brought forward in his
absence, and discussions on matters in which the
Whigs were proverbially defiCient in strength were
thus avoided. Sanguine
anticipations were also in-
dulged in as to the relief that would be afforded
by the reductions rendered possible by a sur-
plus of revenue above expenditure to the ex-
tent of 2,000,0001. sterling. Each person fondly
hoped that the class to which he himself belonged
would receive some substantial benefit. No opinion
could be formed as to the mode in which the present
Chancellor of the Exchequer would deal with the
sum placed at his disposal. An excess of revenue
above expenditure had been utterly unknown since
his accession to office ; and, although his manner of
providing for a deficiency was but too painfully per-
ceptible, his probable proceedings, under opposite and

This evening a resolution, long promised, long
postponed, and long expected, will be moved in the
House of Commons by the Right Hon. MILNER
GIBSON, strongly condemnatory's:if the Taxes imposed
upon Knowledge. Under four leading particulars
these injurious imposts will be assailed—the advocate
of cheap and wholesome literature inveighing, first,
against the excise duties on paper ; secondly, against
the stamp duties on newspapers ; thirdly, against the
arbitrary duties on advertisements ; and, fourthly,
against the Customs' duties on foreign publi-
cations. Each and all. of these deplorable
grievances to the community will be de-
fended with that perverse pertinacity which, as
a specimen of the acme of obtuseness, appeals to be
the exclusive characteristic of a Chancellor of the
Exchequer. In reference to the line of reasoning
which may be adopted by the Right Hon. the Repre-
sentative of Manchester, we may observe that, no
matter which may be selected, it cannot fail to prove
most fruitful in argument. Whether he turn his at-
tention and the attention of Parliament to the in-
jurious indluence exercised' by the taxes on know-
ledge over the morals of the population, over the
amount of the national revenues, over the intellect of
the age, and consequently over the general diffusion
of religious truth and the general advancement of
civilization—he may demonstrate with facility -the
urgent and importunate necessity existing for the re-
moval of evils so glaringly detrimental to the highest
and noblest interests of the multitude.
It was with the genius of a philosopher as well
as with the consummate dexterity of a novelist skilled
in the art of historical delineation, that
Sir WALTER SCOTT, in one of the most felicitous of
those golden romancer, whose prolonged and gor-
geous panorama opened with a tale in Scotland, and
closed with a story in Palestine, depicted that me•
morable interview between the Eleventh Louis of
France land the Astrologer GALLIOTTI—the inter-
view in which the results of the newly-discovered art
of printing were prophetically recognized. Having
submitted to the fanatical Sovereign the first specimen
of this novel contrivance for "multiplying manuscripts
by the intervention of machinery," the seer exclaims,
in a tone of brooding admiration—" Can I look for-
ward without wonder and astonishment to the lot of
a succeeding generation, on whom knowledge will
descend like the first and second rain, uninterrupted,
unabated, and unbounded; fertilising some grounds,
and overflowing others ; changing the whole
form of social life ; establishing and over-
throwing religions ; erecting and destroying
kingdoms " " Hold, GALLIOTTI, " cries the
King, " shall these changes come in our times ?"
" No, my royal brother," responds the voice of the
astrologer, " this invention may be likened to a
young tree, which is newly planted, but shall, in
succeeding generations, bear fruit as fatal as that
of the garden of Eden ; the knowledge, namely, of
good and evil." And Louis answers, "Let futu-
rity look to what concerns them—we are men of
this age, and to this age we will confine
our care. Sufficient for the day is the evil
thereof." The spirit of Louis XI. has survived even
to this generation. It is diffused throughout the
present Government. It says to the prophets of the