The Sun.
London, England, 1828-10-07 00:00:00

The charge per line in the two countries, for, the
shortest class of advertisements, i. e. those, of eight
or ten lines, iS aa follows:

IN LONDON. NEW YORE,
per line. per I rte.
For the first insertion, ls. nearly 3d.
For the second do.

For each subsequent insertion
at the rate of thrice a-week Is.
Fur each subsequent insertion
daily, after the second
:or advertisements of-t% lines
For the lira in5erti0n......•....• 9d. 2d.
For the second do.

I iii.

For each subsequent insertion at
the rate of thrice a-week
For each' subsequent insertion
daily after the' second ...... 9d.
For the general run of long advertisements; which
appear more than once, but not' verpoften; the charge
antnadyfrboe.mesotiiimeahtaed iipaet sixpence
iiytooi per
ie pei.
nlyi Ili en L
New o
yn do o r
For an equal mass of tniwellaneous advertisements in
each country, the comparative expence may be as one
to eight or ten ! • -- •
In divulging these mysteries of the trade,. I shall
perhaps incur: the ban of some of my brethren ; but,
in justice to you, Sir, and for the sake of the mer-
cantile classes, I think it right that the whole truth
should be told. Besides, lam not conscious, in this
instance, of betraying the interests
,of the press. Is 4,
one who knows the expence of conducting a daily
paper in London, can say that the price of advertis-
ing there is too high. In this country, which has as
much business as all the rest-of Europe, there' are
not quite a million of advertisements in a whole year
for the journals to scramble for ;• and when we-look
arthe pitiful share of 'these which some of the a*st
daily papers have obtained, _after the unwearied
efforts of 20 or'3o years, the conviction is forced on
us that there are few departments of industry less
inviting to the 'capitalist. AdVertising in Britain
is like travelling in .a Highland stage coach, where
the fare must be high, because the' passengers
are few.
The effect of the present law evidently is, to keep
the profits derived from Advertising small on the
whole, and to. divide them very unequally—to enrich
a very few Journals, and starve the rest. I believe
• that ,there is much more money made by pubLshing
advertiSements in America than in Britain.

You will now admit, I flatter myself, Sir, aid a
more enormous instance of suicidal taxation never
disgraced the fiscal code of any country than that
which I have just exposed. If you suspect my
statements of exaggeration, strike off one-half, and
you have still a monstrous case of abuse, which
surely calls at least for inquiry. If that inquiry is
fairly conducted, I feel morally certain, that it will
confirm all I have stated. It is right to admit, that
the blame of leaving such an absurd and pernicious
tax unmodified, attaches only in a secondary degree
to your predecessors in office, whose multifarious
ditties, perhaps, deprive them of the leisure neces-
sary to investigate every minute branch of our tinaii
cial system. It was the business of the Board of
Stamps, in my opinion, to examine the operation
of the taxes under their management, and to suggest
such alterations to the government as would benefit
either the country or the revenue ; and the negli-
gence of that Board till the recent change was made,
is now universally known.

If any one asserts that it is merely the custom of
into intelligible language,
die Americans to advertise a great deal, but a cus-
tom which our traders would not imitate though the
price were reduced, I should rather be disposed to
laugh at him than argue with him. his remark, put
means, that the Ameri-
cans, the most calculating people on earth, have a
custom of giving away their money without getting
an equivalent—for even in America advertising must
be paid for.
I think the facts I have adduced completely esta-
blish the following conclusions :-
1. That the present advertisement duty, in con-
nection with the stamp duty, suppresses at least
nine advertisements out of ten, and
nine-
teen out of the twenty, which would otherwise go to
the newspapers.
ernici -
2. That the act which imposes • p
Ithe. country for a paltry of
ifie itself suffeis by this suicidal
ttor
ue,p.xtrtoaibi;gdbuldiyscliitci7,
duty
busi
3. That the Government inflicts this CIIOVITIOUR
tux fotinjuryl
ocall ooirsisopsseinil:.orbttefrpir':aaL,eeihindtlreytet%!raraelieaoeide r,,snfosinindoifittitirgt::lal(yleen:%ul%'':lltiloiact°ltitobiS'eogilirseixittsti ii.rt
of
160,
the present, if equally levied, would yield a larger
sum.
5. That by the operation of the two
taxes, ale
article whose natural price is three half-peace is raised
to sevenpence
- -

„relditnicigelitt:lienoin‘iv‘„er,`_;iisre,
tne
words to say abouttthhee
for the interest of content myself with saying,
nt duty, and proceed boldly,for reduction can scarcely be carried too far, eve”
The fundamental error of the present tax. is that it
revenue!" but I have a few
m
falls equally on the shortest advertisement and the
longest. A poor servant, NVIIH tells in three lines
that he wants a place, pays 3s. 6d. to the King, and
the nobleman who fills a column with the descripy
tion of an estate to sell, pays no more. Hence the
duty operates in some measure like a prohibition
upon small advertisements, which, in the American
papers, compose nine-tenths of the whole. This
etriryor splaliiiootifl cl be r
grad
tujetnilled the tax
~,r kbr.i‘pweo,m
itihowever,that
aug the line,,
would require scores of additional clerks, and be vet v
embarrassing. My first purpose was therefore to
propose, that it should be kept its its present form,
out reduced to is. ; but in reflecting biltter On the
subject, a new idea has occurred, which I shall
throw put for your consideration. It is to graduate
the duty by the length of space which the aavemis: -
meat occupies in the column, IncJSUred
NVOUId make the duty sixpence per inch, or
shillings per font; and I would restrict the eolutrit