The Sun.
London, England, 1844-11-14 00:00:00

REPEAL OF THE MALT-TAX.

The farmers never knew the full extent of their
strength till they last year measured it with the
League ; but having made the discovery—having
ascertained the amount of pressure which they can
exercise upon statesmen—having, in fact, squeezed
the celebrated declaration on the corn-laws out of
Sir Robert Peel, they conclude that by the same pro-
, cess they can squeeze the repeal of the malt-
tax out of him. Accordingly, a Committee has
been appointed in London, and subscriptions
entered into ; and it is probable that between
this and the meeting of Parliament, the question will
be agitated and discussed in Essex and in all parts of
the kingdom. Of the injustice and impolicy of this
tax, and the advantages that would flow from its
repeal, we need say nothing : they are so clearly '
pointed out in the speeches of Mr. Ellis, Mr.
Robert Baker, Mr. Fisher Hobbs, and others, that
we could add little to the arguments they ad-
vance, or the force of the illustrations they employ.
We may assume, for it is not denied, that there
would be a much wider growth of barley, which
in itself would furnish a large increase of labour for•
the poor, now so much required, and carry comfrjrt,
and we believe, by weaning them from the tiaunts
of vice, a greater degree of morality to their cottages,
while at the same time it gave greater ',cope to the
farmer, and furnished him with a re.ddy and better
market for the inferior descriptions of this grain, which
cannot he now malted on account of the high duty. A
substitute for the tax, which cannot be yet spared, is the
only question. Double the property tax, if neces-
sary, say the leaders of the new movement. This is
a bold, though not very popular way of putting
the question, because it is calculated to provoke a
powerful antagonism to the repeal ; but we do not
r see why a well-regulated property-tax for a
limited period—certainly not the tax in its pre-
sent shape—should not be adopted. We say, for
a limited period, because sire are told that the
altered tariff and the new- Corn Bill are bringing
large sums into the ;:offers of the State, and if the
revenue goes on Increasing' from this source, the
farmers, who were the principal sufferers from the
changes,. have a right to demand that the increase
shall be applied for their benefit ; and in what better
way 'oan this be done than in the repeal of the malt-
tax ?—Essex Herald.

A Hamburgh newspaper, Der Freischutz, contains
a statement of the receipts and expenditure of the Times
as follows :—" The British newspaper, the Times, is
known to be the largest in size, and has the greatest
number of copies circulating in the world. The budget
of the expenditure of that journal at the present time is
as follows, namely :—Editorial expenses, weekly, 65/. ;
salaries of correspondents, 401. ; Parliamentary reporters
(twenty in number, 51. each per week), 100/. ; scientific,
tine arts, and literary reporters, 211. ; penny-a-liners (re-
porters of the occurrences of the day in London, viz.,
tires, murders, curiosities, &c.), 21/ ; for extraordinary
information from authors of celebrity, per week, 30/. ;
law and police-courts' reporters (several in number)
per week, 20/. The whole of their expenses for
literary matter (as above stated) amounts per
week to 3001. The expenses of printing and
composition weekly amounts to 250/. ; the expenses
for the managing clerks, bookkeeping, &c., 2562 ;
adding to it the interest upon capital sunk by the es-
tablishment for building, machinery, and type, &c.,
amounts to the sum (weekly) of 1,0001, therefore, per
annum, of 52,000/, or 364,000 thalers. The payments
to Government for stamps and advertisement duty,
:35,000/. (Qy., the paper ?) The budget of receipts of
the same journal is as follows :—ln the year 1842-3,
6,300,000 copies were sold per annum, amounting to
about 125,000 L, or 1,000,000 thalers. The entire ex-
penditure, with the exception of the payment to the
Government for stamps, &c., amounts to 600,000 thalers.
It appears the annual profits derived from it amount to
400,000 thalers, without the profit derived from the
advertisements, of which we are unable to give an
account, but the average number of each copy
of the Times contains from about 700 to 1,000 an-
nouncements, 4,000 to 7,000 per week, and annually
208,000 to 364,000 announcements ; as stated
before, we regret not being familiar with the rate of
charging those advertisements, and we are unable to
give a statement of the profits derived from it by
480,000 the
proprietors.
It has also been calculated, that
typographical letters are used to each copy on an aver-
age, and each such copy, divided into octavo pages, will
form a volume of 300 pages ; so that the 6,000,000 im-
pressions of the Times annually in circulation would
form a library of 6,000,000 volumes in octavo." [Our
Contemporary, who has mixed a good many errors with
a considerable portion of truth in this statement, has
made one omission, which we will take upon ourselves
to supply. He has said nothing about the number of
letters we receive, and the time consumed in reading and
answering them. We leave the latter point to the cal-
culation of our readers ; but with respect to the first, we
take this opportunity of stating that we receive 130
letters every day upon an average, or, in the whole year,
the immense number of 40,000.] Times.
LONDON, CAMBRIDGE, AND ELY RAILWAY.—The
line of road in the vicinity of Cambridge continues to
progress with the greatest rapidity. In a few months
the road will be completed throughout, opening a rapid
communication with the metropolis and the country be-
tween this town and the city of Norwich.—Cambridge
Chronicle.