Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1855-03-30
CORRESPONDENCE OF Tng FREE rRKss.
Letters from England.
NO. XXII.
English Tores on Knorledge.


LONDON. Feb. &c, 1865.
10 the Editor ofthe Free Press:
Perhaps you may have heard of a Society
in England for promoting the repeal Of
- Tdtcs on Knowiedge." and though you
had read sydney Smiths enumeration of tax
able articles from the boys top to the old
mans grave clothes, you were startled at the
mention Of taxes on knowledge. Perhaps
You wondered if in England mans know
lodgc was kept under the inspection of the
Revenue Officers, and if So, whether the duty
wac imposed according tn tho amount tho
value Of neutrality-suspicious. redants in
gowns and wigs who do nothing Or poor
wise men who save the city, were rated
was to increase the revenue, or discourage the
production Of the taxed commodity.
And if You had ever read in history of the
famous or infamous :" Six Acts" Of Geo. HI
reign, wherein you found " that it is e1pe-
dent to restrain the small publications
which issue from the press in great numbers
and at Il low price, or if you had heard that
" noble lord" had said in Parliament that
" he could see no possible good to be derived
to the country from having statesmen at the
loom and politicians at the spinning jenny
you might perhaps have considered it as set
tied that taxes were imposed on knowledge as
useless and pernicious luxury
But this is not quite the meaning Of taxes
loI. -, -
den, Bright, and Gibson, the founders Of the
society By taxes on knowledge are meant
the excise duty on paper, the import duty on
foreign books, the " security system" and
the newspaper stamp and advertisement
taxes.
The History Of an English newspape com
mencing with the manufacture OF the paper
and ending with the last perusal of the
stamped and printed broad-sheet, would pre-
sent as unlavorablc an aspect Of English
laws as could be selected by England's worst
enemy. Such history would revive at every
successive stage an unnecessary, vexatious,
and discouraging interference on the part of
government with branch of trade on which
ference which may or may not have been at
one time cxpedient, but which is now OPP
prcsslyc. First the paper maker is so ham,
pered and hurdened by the Inland Revenue
demands and the enormous excise duty of 20
per cent, that British rags can be exported,
made into paper in a foreign country, and
sent home loaded with the import duty, and
yet undcrtid the home manufactured paper.
Next the printer is subjected TO a minute
surveillance. he too is under the eye OF In
land Revenue officials lie must 20 through
numerous petty but expensive for.ualities be-
fore he is allowed to open his business and
as if the printer of a newspaper we're primd
fac'e a scoundrel, he must take oath that he
is worth E40O over and above all his debts,
aud find two securities to the amount Of f400
each in anticipation Of libel suits. This is
what is called the " Security System"
as for the Stamp Act, that was never po-
pular in America, and has long been odous
at home. In the latter part Of Queen Anne's
reign the Tory leaders were so annoyed by
criticisms and exposures in the mum berless
small issues of the time, that a stamp duty
of penny was affixed to them in order to
diminish their circulation. This law went
into force on the LIST of Aug l7l2, In the
spectator of the previous day Addison
wrote This is the day on which many
eminent authors will probably publish their
last words A sheet of blank paper that
must have this new Imprilnatur clapt upon
it before it lie qualified to communicate any
thing to the public, will make its way in tho
world very heavily" In l776, again in
1889, and again in 1897 an additional half
penny was added to the existing stamp duty,
aud from 1915 to 1886 the stamp duty wa.
up to Id, In 1896, it was reduced to Id.
where it has remained over since.
Accor ling TO the newspaper stamp Act
every periodical containing news, if published
oftener than once in % days, must have
government stamp affixed to it, Until within
very few months, the wettcd sheets of each
edition Of a paper had to he sent to the In
Land Revenue Office in Somerset House for this