The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1848-04-19


iization and education all over the world, cannot
but be extremely gratifed at the railroad speed
with which the freedom ofthe press lsprogresslng
in Europe. For centuriespast it has been muffled
and tied up; but it has at length burst its bonds
and now stands forth free and unshackled, in
almost every country in the old world; and it is
remarkable that England is now almost the only
civilized country where the press is not actually
free.
There Is, to be sure, no direct censorship over
1t there-no officers appointed by government to
inspect the editors writings before they are
printed, and strike out such parts as are OBJ
jectionable; but freedom of the ,press-perfect
freedom, such as now exists in the United States
and France, does not exist In England. So
far from it being free, it is SO heavily
burdened with taxes and impositions that
the great wonder Is, its circulation is SO great
as il is; and were these taxes and burdens re-
moved, its circulation would be probably ten
times greater. In the United States, it Is, COM
pared with England, an easy task to publish
paper; for there is nothing beyond the cost of
the material and the printing to be taken into
consideration. But the case Is far different in
England. In that country, government tax of
one penny sterling-equal to two cents of our
currency-is charged on each sheet by the 60
vernment, and this sum must be paid before the
paper is printed. This sum covers the whole
price Of the best ewspapers in the United States,
and leaves, in many cases, "a handsome profit to the
publishers, after expanding vast sums in availing
themselves OF the Improvements that have re-
Gently been made in machinery and in the cleo
trio telegraph, by which news from all parts of
our widely extended country is presented to the
public, up to the latest hour
AS an example of the direct and indirect tax
alton which is levied by the British government
on the press of that country, we may show an
estimate of what the government levies on the
London Times alone.
That journal consumes two million two hun.
dred and sixty-two thousand pounds of paper
annually, the tax on which is sixty-eight thou.
sand five hundred dollars-the regular stamp tax
of one penny per sheet amounts to two hundred
and torty-6ve thousand dollars, and the tax on
the advertisements amounts to one hundred and
fifty-six thousand dollars-the whole reaching
to nearly half million of dollars, which the
government of that country receives from that
paper alone Thus, the material itself, the paper,
is first taxed the privilege OF printing it is then
taxed at the rate of penny per sheet, and then
the advertisements are taxed at the rate of three
shillings sterling each, equal to seventy
FIVE cents of our currency. How can it
be said, in the face of these heavy items
of taxation. thst the press of Great Bril-
tain is free 1t may be free from censorship,
but it is not free in circulation; for with all these
burdens resting upon it, none but the compare
lively wealthy portion ofthe people can afford to
read the newspapers, and the remainder must,
consequently, be in ignorance of what is trans
piring in the world around them 1t is, there
fore, direct tax on the dissemination of know
ledge and intelligence among the people; and
yet, in spite of this, the people of England will
decry the liberty which we enjoy in the United
States, and throw up their caps in exultation
whenever British freedom, and what not, are al.
luded to.
The time, however, is not far distant
when the people of England will not be
an exception-vhen the press will be as
free there as it is now in France, and as free as
it has always been in the United States; and
when that period shall have srrived-when the
people shall have become competent to to appre-
ciate the rights and privileges which, as por.
ton of the great family OF man they are entitled
to-they will be prepared to seek relief from
other burdens that now hang heavily upon them,
and which are now imposed and continued
without their knowing the reason, and the dis.
continuance of which will be the overthrow OF
tle false principles on which the whole fabric
of the society and government Of that country
has been based.
L.