New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-07-09
NETWORK DAILY TRIBUNE MONDAY, JULY 8, 1858

of The Tafier Spectator, Guardian and Freeho!der.
Carlyle has wittily remarked, that the revola-
| tion of 1893 substituted for the divine right OF
kings (which it knocked finally upon the head)
the divine right of sqHirss. Was press so far
free consistent with the undiminished sway OF
an ignorant and besotted Squirearchy As long
az the Wings were in power, this question re-
ceived no answer; but when Harley and the
Tories came into Office they decided il was not.
But how to stop III The old methods ofrepression
had become obsolete. "Iff)rce csnao.b be usei
"we can at least employ fraud" and the meas
ure ultimately hit upon was eminently charac-
teristic of the fraudulent age from which it
sprang. The development Of the Press was 10
be checked by fiscal means. Accordingly, in
I'LL, an Act was passed for raising an Excise
tax upon new commodities, and at the tail of
clauses relating to soap, calicoes, and multi
tude of other miscellaneous articles Of use, there
was quietly smuggled in a clause taxing every
newspaper with a stamp duty of Id. the whole,
and 3D. the hslf-sheet. In addition to this, q
duty Of I'D. was levied on every advertisement,
and gross tax of %. TO the sheet on every
pamphlet for the whole impression. This Act OF
Queen Anne was the origin of the Newspaper
Advertisement and Pamphlet duty. 1t proved
eifectual in stopping AddisOn's Spectator, which
was then in course Of publication; aud Swift,
writing to Stella, said: "Do you not know that
"the Stamp Act has ruined all Grub-street -
The poor publishers of that time managed to
mitigate the operation Of this tax by paying
for their whole daily impression, as pamphts'',
the gross tax Of %. or s., according as the
size of the edition was one or one-and-a-half
sheets but the next Act upon the subject dated
in 1925. put stop to this evasion by providing
that newspapers should rot be passed as PAM
pblets. The next Act belongs to the year l757.
An additional duty of ID. was laid on new'pa-
pers to help pay the expenses of the French
war, making the duty on the whole amount to
I'D, and an additional shilling was laid on adj
yertisements, making the duty on each adver-
tisement amount to 2s. With the same end ia
view Mr.. Grenvlle shortly after this endeayored
to impose Stamp Act upon the American Colo
MES, from which inhiction we were happily de-
Tended by the vigorous resistance OF the colo
nists.
Quicquid derant reyes pectuntur Achiy.
Whenever the Government went wrong the
newspaper publishers were sure to be leeced;
so in I776. in the second year Of our War of In
dependence, jolly Lord North levied another
Id. upon newspapers, observing by the way
'that it was doubtful question whether news
"papers were not curse, but there was no
"doubt at all that if tolerated they should be
"made as expensive as possible" The Ameri-
can War was long and the expenses were heavy,
so in 1880 Lord North demanded and obtained
another Cd. upon each advertisement. We now
come to the times of the second Pitt adOred as
"the heaven born Minister" by country squires
and clergymen, but in his disposition toward
newspaper proprietors Gas we shall see) giving
token Of quite different descent. On August
], 1880, in the first golden days of the French
Revolution just after the fall of the Bastile and
when Gallican sympathy beat strong in England,
the heaven-born came down to Parliament and
got an additional I'D. levied Oh newspapers and
SMOTHER Cd. on advertisements There being
great thirst for news at that time and taxed
newspapers being dear, q habit had grown up
among the people OF lending them out at 90
much an hour Therefore to lend out news
paper for hire was declared Illegal and visited
with fine of f5 for each offense. The heaven
born and his master had got into a war with
France, and in 1877 the savage tax of an ad-
ditional I'D. was laid upon the journals, raising
the amount of the Government tax on each copy
to 4d Newspapers then sold for I'd. copy.
In 1904 the duty on small pamphlets was i'm
mensely increased. The peace brought no re-
lief to publishers. On the contrary, Castleresgb
increased the advertisement duty to 81. Cd.
and augmented the duty on large pamphlets.
Even this did not suffice for Castlereagh. In
1919 he passed an Act recting that pamphlets
were published in great numbers "tending to
"excite hatred and conte npt of the Government
"snd Constitution of these realms as by law es-
Established, and also ylifying our Holy Religion,
"and il is expedent that the same should be
"restrained," therefore small pamphlets were
declared to be newspapers, and subject to news
psper duty
Here we pause to take breath. The taxes
on knowledge have now reached their cul-
minstng point; 4d. copy on newspapers and
small pamphlets and 3s. cd. on each ADVERTISE
mert, aided by fierce Government prosecutions
ALI over the British Isles 1t must be admitted
that the British Press has had a hard road to
travel, yet it slowly progressed under all these
restrictions. The vigorous plant of free discus
sion never once dwindled down, bur found
pourishment even in the worst of times in the
bosom of the British people. Better and softer
wears are now at hand; henceforth we shall