Massachusetts spy and Worcester advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1823-1825, 1825-01-12

'hey must depend for their news. This will
untto SO much that they will lie Obliged f..
raise the price of their papers, and thus will an
indirect tax be levied by government on all
newspaper readers, as odious as the Stamn fax
on them in England.
We were about TO enlarge further, but. law
ing our hand on the Hartford Mirror, we find.
the following remarks, which are so much BET.
ter than any thing we could prepare, that we
give them to our readers:
g Please to exchange IA proposition.
is before Congress, to alter the present
law regarding the free postage of ex-.
change papers,so that the number should
be limited to fifty. Never was there a
more unlucky proposition. In every
point of view, it is absurd and preposter-.
Gus. We hope that all the presses in,
the country, from the .AurorG Borealas<
lntelligencer, in the northeast corner
OF Maine, to the Pacific Advertiser and
Columbian Observer, at the mouth of
Oregon River, will open their batteries.
upon the Vandal that would interfere
'" 18th the diffusion of the knowledge
political and true-cheap aud scientific,
sublime and ridiculous, that is TO he
found in newspaper. What would be.
come OF the speeches of our members
OF Congress if they were not printed in
newspaper? Instead of being correct
ed In their spelling-rectihed in their
grammar, and embelIished with tho va
rletles of the type setter, they would 90
not 10 the world, but 10 their constiiu-
enis, IN the fist writing of the speaker
himself; and if he should ever again in
qulre OF them the road to Washington
he would get the sailing orders of the
flying Dutchman, that could not find his
port, Or the misleading directions of Pc
Ter Rugg, on his long lost way to Boston.
In short, a member of Congress who
should make speech without the as
slstance Of newspaper, would never
he sent to Washington again. As TO the
objection which these gentlemen have
10 burthenlng the public mail, let them
commence the reformation in the proper-
spot-let them send fewer of their ey-
erlasting documents home--write fewer
letters, upon poorer paper, and with
less sealing wax, and cheaper uuills.
The worthy gentlemen at Washington
can make greater savings in such wise.
than by making reports and amendments
OF bills at the rate of, we know not how
many, dollars day. One western
member, 1t is said, took advantage of his
frank, and sent home his blue breaches
to be mended, with a card of ginger
bread for his second child; but TO have
newspaper go free, would, in the es-
tlmatlon of such man, be cheating the
revenue. What in the name of inteIE-
gence will the poor country papers do
tor news! A daily paper in New-York.
or Boston, or Philadelphia, or Baltimore,
or Charleston, or Savannah, cannot ex--
change with but fifty papers. So thew
must exchange with eachother. and the
inland traffic in news will be peddled
out with all the simplicity of two centu-
ries ago. Mercantile news will 90 bv
letters, and unfair speculations will be
the consequence. Politics must 60 post
paid, and none but Post-masters can af
ford TO understand them. The danger
OF stopping the free circulation of pfin-
ters' ink, in the veins Of the BODY poll
tic, is such, that all the friction of steam
boats and canals would not restore the
paralysis; and we hope the last gasp of
each newspaper that Ianguishes and dies
for want of its customary sustenance,
may be thought of by those who vote
upon this most unfair and ill-adyised bill.
The cheapness in the price of newspa-
pers ough:, in charity, to save the pub
fishers from additional expenses and if
Congress would pass a law, ensuring
payment, even TO the paper makers,
they would come nearer the objects for
which they are congregated-namely,
TO do the best they can for their constil-
uents.