The Sun.
London, England, 1850-02-14 00:00:00

TAXES ON KNOWLEDGE.
(From th Thnes )

Mr. Milner Gibson had a notice on the list for last
nig►:t, which, as the matter is weighty, and the
terms comprehensive, we will transcribe in this
place. It was to submit a motion to the House "as
to the policy of abolishing all taxes which directly
impede the aitfusion a knowledge amongst the great
body of the peopi, with a view to the repeal of the
stamp on newspapers, the excisc-tax uposi paper, the
tax upon advertisement,, and the duty on foreign
books." By postponing this motion for the present,
he has disappoineed us of a debate which promised to
be more tha❑ usually interesting, whatever its imme-
diate practical result. Without waiting till Mr.
Milner Gibson has found a more convenient oppor-

tunity for his motion, we will at once state our views
on a subject in which we happsn to be peculiarly con-
. cerned. As public men, anxious for the solvency
and credit of the country, we are under the painful
necessity of moving the previous question, "C sn
"we remit any part of our taxation et, ell ?" On
this point we expressed ourselves very strongly before
the opening of the session, and we do not see any
reason to recede from what we then said. The nation
must gird itself up to the task of paying its debt. A
school of repudiation is rising up amongst us, and
day by day gaining new converts, warning us that
if now—only one generation removed from the close
of the war—we make no effort to liquidate our debt,
and are coolly scrutinizing the obligation, it will pro-
bably be much worse in the time of our children and
our children's children. All taxes are evils. Every-
body knows that. But in our case they are
the inevitable consequence of our deliberate
acts. We chose to chastise the pride of
the Grande Nation, to conquer foreign co-
lonies and domineer over our own, to be
masters of the sea, to restrain the excesses of the
French Revolution, and the ambition of the succeed-
ing Consulship and Empire, to rescue the Peninsula
and subsidise Europe, to ransom our slaves, and do
other great acts. But these things were not to be
done without paying for them. It is a law of nature.
Labour is not without weariness, nor achievement
without cost. So now, in consequence of our redun-
dant heroism, we are suffering infinite maims, muti-
lations, and disabilities. Every tax is a scar that tells
a tale of glory. The nation lost an eye in such a
war, an arm in another; a limp in its gait recals one
stormy passage, a gash on the cranium another, and
a frightful scar on its features a third. It is obliged
to think, and see, and hear, and breathe, and move,
and live under perpetual disadvantage. But no soldier
complains of his wounds. He took his chance of
them when he chose his profession.
Unless, then, it can be shown that " taxes on know-
ledge" to the extent now suffered by the British
people are much more objectionable than taxes in
general, or that their place can be advantageously
supplied by other taxes to an equal amount, we can-
not subscribe to Mr. Milner Gibson's motion. Do
the taxes on knowledge burden and hamper " the
great body of the people" more than the taxes on
soap, on candles, on bricks, on windows, on convey-
ances, on malt, on sugar, or on tea ? This is a ques-
tion of details, for we must not be misled by the im-
posing title—" taxes on knowledge." As " the great
body of the people" have very little to do with foreign
books, their only tax on knowledge of that staple
and permanent character which is arranged on a
shelf, or stored in the brain, is the duty on paper.
The net receipt on paper duty from the United
Kingdom for the year 1847 was 762,172/. ; a sum
which, considering what we must pay, is not to be
trifled with. It is now lid. per lb. on all kinds of
paper, and, of course, falls more heavily on good
paper than on inferior qualities. The paper duty on
200 octavo pages of good substantial paper is just
about one penny. The duty on such a work as
Hume, or Gibson, or the " British Poets," or a gene-
ral biography in one thick volume of 1,200 pages, is
6d. Excluding Bibles and Prayer-books, which pay
no duty, there are few cottage libraries that weigh
ten pounds, and that have therefore paid ls. 3d. to the
Exchequer at the present rate of duty. The duty is
about 20 per cent. on the price the printer has to pay
for good paper. Its proportion, therefore, to the
price of a printed volume, or any other publication,
can never be more than that, and will generally be
very much less. It must fall most heavily on popular
editions of standard works, or any popular works for
the success of which a large sale is necessary, such
as Mr. Charles Knight's " Penny Cyclopredia," or
Chambers's Journal. In his curious and interesting
pamphlet, the " Struggles of a Book against Exces-
sive Taxation," Mr. Knight fully explains how this
is the case. An immense impression of many thou-
sand copies must be struck off at once. It will take
many years to sell them, if indeed they ever are sold ;
and meanwhile the duty paid on many tons of paper
is so much sunk capital. On such works as the
above an adventurous publisher may lose several
thousand pounds by the duty on paper, which he
pays as fast as he prints, but which he is either
slowly or never repaid. The extraordinary pressure
in such cases, however, arises from the cheapness of
the publication, and the fact of the paper being the
chief part of the cost. Even in such extreme cases
the duty can never amount to one-fifth of the whole
cost, and must, therefore, be a much less proportion
of the publishing price ; bat, for the reasons men-
tioned by Mr. Knight, it operates against cheap •
editions for the poor very seriously.
The other " taxes on knowledge" are those with
which newspapers and other periodicals have only to
do. The gross receipts from the stamp on newspapers
throughout the United Kingdom in 1847, were
343,2781. Under existing circumstances, we think
that sum can hardly be dispensed with, and, for our
own part, we submit to it cheerfully, as being, in
fact, a very reasonable rate of postage fig the convey-
ance of our papers. Almost every copy of our jour-
nal performs at least one journey by post; and if it
performs half-a-dozen it pays only a penny. The
stamp gives it the free range of the post throughout
the best half of the world with infinitely less trouble
than any other form of postage that could be con-
trived ; and the most zealous liberator of knowledge
would hardly require that newspapers should be
franked altogether. On this point, then, we have
nothing to say, except that we see no reason for a
change which would cost the nation a third of a
million. The other tax which particularly concerns
us is the tax on advertisements, which in the United
Kingdom produced in 1847 162,734/. This is a
tax on publicity, and may be compared to the nume-
rcus much more expensive expedients by which some
people make themselves, their manufactures, their
undertakings, their mercantile or their professional
arrangements known to the world. The tax cer-
tainly presses with some inequality. If a scheme
could be suggested for relieving domestic servants
from the duty, we, for our part, could have no objec-
ticn ; but, after all, we apprehend that few domestic
servants advertise more than a dozen times in their
lives, and that, from a comparatively untaxed class,
is only 18s. a piece towards the expenses of the nation,
perhaps in the course of twenty years' servibe. If a
ship is advertised twenty times to sail to Calcutta, the
amount of duty it pays is only 305., perhaps for a
cargo worth 30,000/. We see no way of removing
the inequalities complained of, for an ad valorem duty
is manifestly impossible. To recapitutate, the gross
receipts of the above three " taxes on knowledge" for
1847 were as follows :—Paper, 617,245/. ; stamps,
343,2781. ; advertisements, 162,7381. ; total,
1,123,2611.; from which must be deducted the ex-
penses of collection, which, except in the first item,
are absolutely nil. _ _

We shall not be expected to quit the subject with-
out adding something about ourselves. The taxes on
the Times amount to rather more than 16,0001. a
year for the paper, 00,0001. a year for the stamps. and
19,0001. a year for the advertisements; total 95,0001.
a year. When to this sum are added those taxes
which we pay in common with all other manufac-
turers and capitalists, it will be easily understood that
the question of taxes on knowledge has a peculiar
value in our eyes. In the event of a remission, or re-
duction of duty, it is rash to conjecture the proportion
of the advantage that would fall to our share. Others,
indeed, have not scrupled to predict that our alleged
" unonopely" would be destroyed ; but, as this predic-
tion has been made once already, and been signally
disappointed by the result, we entertain very little
alarm for the future. The superior popularity of a
journal cannot be effected by those conditions of price
which are common to the whole periodical press. We
speak, then, without prejudice when we say, that
though we should expect to gain very, largely by
the remission of "taxes on knowledge," we cannot
think the present a time for it.
(From the Daily News.)
The Times was exceedingly indignant some time
back when it was accused of being hostile to a
repeal of the advertisement duty, or of the taxes upon
knowledge. It declared itself quite above being af-
fected either by competition or consideratiota arising
out of such trifles. Be this as it may, the Times yes-
terday came forth with an article strenuously opposing
any reduction of any taxes, either on newspapers
or
knowledge !
After coqueting with these, and indeed with all
other measures of liberal progress, as the session ap-
proached, the Times has already turned to pooh-pooh
or anathematise them all, finding, no doubt, that there
reigns a dead calm in public opinion, and that the
popular feeling, strained by protectionist or anti-
protectionist efforts, runs not very strongly for the
moment in any direction. Having vapoured for the
last two months in the rants of semi-liberal
opposition, the Times already takes its place at
the tail of the ministerial phalanx, and declares with
Lord John Russell that there shall be no ex-
tension of the franchise, no throwing open of the
press, no reform in colonial administratian beyond a
mere make-believe, no foreign policy permitted ex-
cept in the direction of a rapid return to a Castle-
reagh policy and the Holy Alliance. Instead of our
Prime Minister meriting the appellation of " Finality

Jack," at this rate he will soon be dubbed " Retro-
grade John."
The 'limes and Lord John are wise in their ge-
neration, however. The latter will not extend the
franchise " this year." And the Times declares the
repeal even of the advertisement duty not seasonable.
" The present is not the time for it." Why the pre-
sent is so very unfavourable to such relief, perhaps
the Ministerial subs who represent the Times on the
Treasury bench will tell us. There is a surplus, and
Ministers on the strength of it are lavishing their
thousands. There is the First Lord of the Admi-
miralty, who wants 100,0001. for head money, to
reward the slaughter of the liyaks. The Times party
will vote that 100,0001. with glee; but they could
not spare it from weighing upon books, journals, and
knowledge. _ _ .

The Times pleads that it is better to pay off the
National Debt. We remember the time when there
were five millions znnually raised to be devoted to
paying off the National Debt. Of these five millions
sterling, so voted and raised annually, how many
were spent in the actual reduction of the debt ?
Not one. Fearing that this humbug will be exposed,
the Times has other arguments in store, to stave off
what it dreads above all things, the diminution of the
taxes on newspapers. If you must reduce taxes, it
says, diminish the duty on soap and' candles, malt, or
tea. Right w ell does the Times know, when indulging
in such recommendation, that the Chancellor of the
Exchequer will not touch a tax that brings in four or
five millions. Whereas the tax on advertisements,
which scarcely exceeds the late Queen Dowager's
pension, would make no sensible subtraction from the
credit side of the Exchequer, whilst it would be a
great relief to the industrious and the struggling.
The advertisement duty, says the Times, " cer-
tainly presses with some inequality." We should
think so. " But, after all," continues our cotempo-
rary, " few domestic servants advertises more than a
dozen times in their lives." And it might have added
" thousands upon thousands never advertise at all."
How much oftener they would advertise if they had
an untaxed opportunity, does not enter into our co-
temporary's calculation. He is too intent upon con-
sidering how he may make these poor servants con-
tribute most to the paying off that national debt
which their masters have contracted.

The advertisement duty stands in a quite different
category from the other taxes on knowledge. For a
great portion of knowledge, in the eyes of such
philosophers as the Times, is a luxury that the poor
can do without. An advertisement for the needy man
is, on the contrary, at times, a necessity great as
his loaf, being often his loaf provider ; therefore this
is not to be compared with a tax on soap, or on books,
or on malt. The advertisement duty is a tax on the
first necessity of life, on the finding of employment.
After the bread-tax, we know of none that so impe-
ratively calls on the Legislature to rescind it as the
advertisement duty. The task, too, is easy, for the
sum is insignificant. And there is really but one
serious obstacle in the way of its repeal, and that is,
the interest of the Times newspaper, which Lord John
Russell durst not offend.

We limit our remarks at present chiefly to this
duty, because we perceive that Mr. Ewart is about
to bring it forward singly, and that it stands on the
order-book for to-night. In considering the paper
duties, the arguments of the deputation which yester-
day waited on the Minister afford ample materials.
We allude to them for the 'present merely in order to
give another amusing instance of Times ratiocination.
" Excluding Bibles and Prayer-books, which pay no
paper duty, there are few cottage libraries," it says,
" which weigh 10 lbs. and that have consequently
paid Is. 3d. to the Exchequer." We concede the
fact, and we ask the cause of it? The reply
is obvious—because books for general sale among
cottagers cannot be produced at cottagers'
prices, in consequence of these very taxes upon
knowledge. " Bibles and Prayer. books," the Times
admits, " are to be found in great numbers in these
cottage libraries." -Why ? The Times itself tells
us, because " they pay no paper duty." Bibles and
Prayer-books, being relieved from such duty, can be
produced at amazingly low prices : it is consequently
within the means of most cottagers to procure them :
and the Times tells us that they do procure them. If
they had the opportunity of procuring works of utility
and information at an equally low rate, why should
they not procure such works also ?
But the Times is right in one line of argument,
which is, that taxes on knowledge do not weigh on
the pockets of the poor so much as the tax on malt,
tea, or spirits—because, in fact, the people can do
without intellectual food, whilst they will not dispense
with the excitement that is obtained through the
stomach. Gin will be drank, whether it be dear or
cheap Whilst books will not be read if dear, and
will only be attainable if cheap. But whoever looks
at the question in a moral or a Christian point of
view, will not commit the blasphemy of likening the
tax on spirits to the tax on hooks, and coolly telling
the Legislature and the public that they are all one,
and that they weigh equally upon the poor. So cold-
blooded—indeed, so Satanic a comparison, merely
betrays a total absence of moral sense.

DUTY ON FOREIGN BOOKS.
TO THE EDITOR OF 71-iF. SUN.
Sin,—The duty levied on foreign books is said to
produce about 8,0001. a year. To raise this trifling
amount every one of our volumes of Greek and Latin
Classics is made to contribute from three to four
shillings, being a tax of no less than 50, arid, in some
instances, more than 70 per cent. on the net value of
the books, and acting very nearly like a prohibition.
We beg leave to give you this single instance in
favour of free trade in books.
Tour obedient servants,
DIDOT and CO.
21, King 'William-street, Strand, Feb. 13, 1860.