The Sun.
London, England, 1826-09-15 00:00:00

DUTY ON ADVERTISEMENTS.

The following is an extract frorn the foarteenth report
of the Commissioners of biquirYitito the Revenue, gre.;,--
" In the course of our inquiries respecting the collection
of the advertisement duty, (London Stamp Oflice),-our at-
tention has been called to some suggestions, of ate altera-
tion both in the amount and in the manner of charging it,
which appear to its to be deserving, of your Lordship's con-
sideration.: The duty present ia ehsrged
nately upon all advertisements, without any distinction es
to their length or subject.; and as a :large proportion of
them are inserted by persons in huMble Situations .in
(we allude more especially to servants out, of 'plaCe), the.
duty of three shillings 'and six-pence; in additiOn to the
charge for insertion, (which it generally exceeds in amount),
becomes very heavy upon those, whowho.tn ill probability eau
aforti it, whilst upon the, larger descriptions of adier-
titernents, relating to valuable property; and inserted by
persons in the inure opulent
,cleases, the :saint:duty bearing
scarcely any proportion: to the price of insertion, is hardly
felt in the general chunge.".
This, in our mitid;is just aS it slundd be, end tee (Free-
man's Jalfrnal) would forcibly reconunend thin the same
obseiVetionbe made to apply to the poorer- class of salver-
risers also, partieularly those 'in search of brktd, by a very
considerable reduction' of the duty, or pi,naly rather, at-
tending.the publication of their. necessities; and this, we
think, could be accomplished NN ithout tutting advertisers of
another description, nearly to the atuOttnt of a 'prohibition,
u. 4 is reeduunended underneath . , .
" Under the circumstanceu,,' eOutinue the commis-
iiimers; which have been brought before us on this bub-
jeer,. we have been led to think, that Considerable . relief
and encourt4ernent would be afforded to the lower class of
advertisers, and that at the same time an iniporiant addi-
liOn would probably he made to• the general receipt under
this head of Revenue, by adopting a progressive, instead,
of en uniform rate of charge, for this. branch of., duty«
With this view, we Iyottld propose, that the charge
'should he made according to the •length of the adver-
tiennut, by counting the words or lint- in cad+. We
annex. the ibllowing table of a progre:,;si‘e rate of duty,
which appears to us to be well calculated to meet the ob-
jeet proposed

d,
For all advertisements. not exceeding five lines
Do. above five, and not exceedincten 3 $
Do. teu, Orem
Lln, fifteen twenty:
Do, twenty 0'
" We feel little (doubt, that under such en :arrangement,
the diminution of the charge on the lower classes at adver-
tisements: would be amply. compensated, ,by the increase in
their numher, and that the addition, to the higher classes
Would materially augment .the aggregate receipts,:witbaut
being burthensOme to the contributors." " •
1.-.4)w the Comtnisioners of Inquiry arrived at the. latter
part of this enticluNion, we confess we cannot comprehend.
Six.-pence each line, up to twenty lines, (considerably more.
than a half-penny cr wordJ, would be certainly addressing
the public at some cost. We doubt that even the wealthy
people of England would avail themselves of an accommo-
dation so extravagantly taxed, and we are quite aura that
an attempt to .exterat a similar scale of itripewt to, irtilaufl,
would speedily annihilate the advtalising deportment' of
newspapers in this country iiltogether.— Freeman' s Journal.

•
The AS7affeld Iris contains the following remarks: on
the Atiggestiohs given by the Commissioners of Revenue
Inquiry respeeting the duty on adVertisements If the
commissioners he sincere in their profession of merely
Wishing to regulate the duty on advertisements, the plea
they have. suggested is most unfartnnute; end- proves them
to have no practical acquaintenve whatever.with the subject
Which they have ventured to meddle with. If they had reeoni-
mended u division of advertisements into two classes, se-
parating them after the tenth line, with a duty of Is. on
each advertisement not exceeding ten lines, end ifit, on
those above 'that number, we, believe the revenue would
sustain no loss, and eommerce would lie grec.tiy benefited
by the favility. with which. short notices could be given to
the public at, little.expenee. We have been at the trouble
of examining
,u great number of advertisements to ascertain
tie near as possible, the propertion of them under and above
ten lines, and we find that in the average from two-thirds
to.three horths consist of more than ten lineS. Those of
10 lines and under are about us 30 to 100. At 3s. 6d,
each advertisement 'duty, one hundred: would amount to
171. 10s. ; seventy at 4ta. would be lilt; and thirty at
Is. would be N., which ,would be only 10s. under the full
Ammon at the present rate of duty ; and if the reduction
of duty occasioned an increase of 5 per cent. in the nuM7
ber.of advertisements, the revenue would. be equal to whet
it is at present. 'there can lie no doubt but en increase
would take place in more than that proportion, which
would be in favour:of the revenue. We iere convinced,
that, upon the whole, edvertisententir are overtaxed al-
ready, and that a relief afforded to shorter ones especially,
would so far increase their number us would More than
Compensate for the difference in the individual duty; and
this being the cop, we maintain, thet it' the same sum
now bruit ht. to (..roverriment ,could be paid by les•#tning
the impost, and increasing rim number of advertisements,
'llw subject
gaisus
cat:
aitiout'ers, and :tistolci:vlteeffil:wliislortgailodeernlti,eraigazoiii7e;!,:::.l(4l
unite. their
Strength against such a meesure as that ptoposed by the
committee being carried into effect."

G P. %'l' .MEN AND THEIR. VANITIF.s.—Lord
nyroti was vainer of his proficiency in swimming, than of his
fection in poetry ; and poor Mohair' of his quadrille dancing, than
of his talents as a novelist. 111 r. tamphell is grander of his crude
plan for n London liniversity, than of his " twin immortal
lyrics;" Wilson of his angling capabilities, aud .of ilia kopwlOge
of the hest trouting streams in the north of England, than of his
literary. powers; 111 r. Hope Cif his connoisseurship, than of A OWal-
nuts ; 1)r. Kitchener of his humbug hook on spectacles:, than of his
of lily
sliwtlthipuir‘cevitlitumittotttg•ytat t
of e•
iud tuiiiliesitt.l4lliitallintilliieitt:i.;olll,aivn:putrroloifiepecUieluklei
‘o,iif,l4.l:ltrrholopliatin.n_gotouliiret
Iliercury.
: csa well )(omen in the
To these we lally ;lad more .1-w:in--,
me
literar). circles. William flawlitt, the, ta!
fithY critic,v
most unmeasured
will agree coniphwently to the ts" I
'aim,* of his intellect, but woe be-
at the . game. of fives. L.,eighlitlittiiil. living prefers his
btf.""' than
" St°". of
3"rt";111:wrill Ili% ptigilisni" to Ells
whiSkers to his ilicioity; .11',T;Ya'
0041 jamd „t ,„„kinilovei, ,but Poe STY; Godwin thinks hh0::11
Alrg. Lockhart is prouder of his
a sorry one at makitts f
trjr ,t Achim Bl,jr ;" 4r. Jerdian pre-
paltry I.3iPicalliriLki";t" %Ey (so do we); the talenlva author Or
tert nis puns day in highly of hie chip caw hat, lad
the my of his"p+tvcle,tof huts 10
Rlr K.P.t,:id,;47htit; irese few% Il5 Itte):1 17t'ol hniqsh ippat:
his " sir pritoeis Burdett thinks higher ofhla fox-
rh.llll4)..'-gni.:lll4°ls;27lltt:srl:' "Poor
att bcif I: c7'teiAlr, ~curie ‘
)tt" idoe.t not hlut It
4t
i than
inpollieris llisfati),•titltr
h. 'ell.
jiogaeibr.s.
titse:tiriutinel:te‘.rvitht hanalupiodeetsEl►r first time ;
'l'heol S hook dune rtiltie"-Pirilensli:rsl7lllll: tu.aniiiivte; au" flgt's:texi "I;:t.i—uu