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ApRit24,1852.] -:; : ' r :y&m:LWA;&#b-:,...
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ENGLAND'S RESPONSIBILITY TOWARDS EUROPE....
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.UUQKSELLING AND THE TAXES ON KNOWLEDGE....
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Church Anarchy And Orthodox Dissent. " I...
defatilfc , expulsion was' enforced in eight weeks . On the side of the OounciL says Mr . Theobald , very truly , " every feature of the matter is that of a dead , cold ,, impersonal Officialism" ; it is ort hodoxy in St . John ' s Wood , the " Church as by law established" of Dissent , forbidding cony Contrast with this mechanical , frozen ,
crystalized aspect of " Religious Liberty incorporate , the spirit ° f the expelled student : — .... ... "I am myself quite disinclined to eruiorse , as a finally matured conviction , either all that I may have before said , or may now write , on subjects which expand into larger dimensions , and present new aspects at every renewed investigation into them . Only the exigency of circumstances could have induced me to speak at this time on these miffhty themes , and I cannot be expected at present to profess full and complete ideas , but only to indicate the direction of my views so far as they are at present
Nor can any man . With the " orthodox" of all creeds , faith is . " a geographical expression , " insomuch that " the truth or falsity of any opinion , " as Mr . Theobald says , " has become , in many , quarters , almost identical ¦ . with the question as to , the identity of the locality in which they \ are advocated . Yes , as Lambeth hath its own Truth , and Maynopth its own ^ so hath the
New College , and ; each backs itself against the truth of the Universe . It is not under the starry dome of open nature that jnan must seek Truth ifc is made up for him , in packets , assorted , in the " orthodox" dispensaries ; and " religious freedom , " in the orthodox interpretation , means free trade at those shops . But there is a young spirit abroad which will not be bound down by these degrading conventions— -a spirit . ¦ truly Catholic , ¦ which' issues forth seeking "its own ' hereditary ' skies" in GrOd ' s creation , its brotherhood in all bound on that sublinie quest .
Aprit24,1852.] -:; : ' R :Y&M:Lwa;&#B-:,...
ApRit 24 , 1852 . ] -: ; : ' r : y & m : LWA ;& # b-:, ¦ . .,, ? 95
England's Responsibility Towards Europe....
ENGLAND'S RESPONSIBILITY TOWARDS EUROPE . The deeds of despotism were not over with the paroxysm that burst forth on the 2 nd ofl > ecember , even in France ; nor , although the papers leave off saying much about the victims of Italy or the sufferings of Hungary , have those countries been really tranquillized . Occasionally a word or two from Italy reminds us that the prisons are still gorged . Even through Austrian darkness penetrates some sight of the impatience with which Hungary endures her degradation ; for the occasional arrest and imprisonment , both of men and women , here and there ; indicates either that the Grovernment is exercising the most wanton tyranny , or that the people are still restless under the oppression ; and therefore indi-. cates that they still feel the misery . Yes , Hungary is tortured with tyranny and the sense of degradation . Italy is bent under the yoke—we repeat those things ; but we do not keep them , present to our . minds in their full reality . Imagine what it must be to the Italian parent to see ilia son draughted off , a conscript , to Hefc out - ' coll ' acquila on fronto , "—with . the twobeaked eagle on his brow , — -to servo the tyrant of his own country in keeping down the Hungarian and the Pole ; yet that is a curso still
visiting the hearth of the Italian . Imagine it our own case . Suppose French gendarmes swaggering about the Strand and Piccadilly , or the parks , insulting our daughters ; insulting our sons oven with personal indignity , and defended against resentment . Imagine a French officer , hardly al )] 0 to speak your language , not caring jo be understood , seizing your son , and carrying ^ \ o fi to serv o Louis Napoleon a soldier in Algiers . Tho enso is imaginary only in so far as V » utlos . Engl & nd = it is tho real case of Italy , ot Bohemia , of all the countries subject to Austria . '
¦ And Franco is rapidly emulating Austria . Tho R « ono'fit Vendres , where tho oxilos were carried oil to tho penal settlements , amid tho shrieks of Mo women who stood on the quay , is but an outburst of the fooling that is working everywhere , m . tho hoarfc of Franco . Tho true Frcncliroo n , oven when ho is not transported , is an oxilp in Jus own country , an alien , an outcast , persowwcl , not-protected by tho law of tho day . U is "o in franco , because it is so in Austria , in Germany , in Itussia . If absolutism had not been ro-outhrone d in those countries , it would not have j > oon authorized in Francq—noxt door to Eng-Wo arc a very proud people , and a successful , mis lav ; but thoro is no logical necessity why wo should , continue so . A fow reverses , and tho
scene of Vendres might be paralleled at Blackwall or Portsmouth . Indeed , so far have Our internal dissentions— -the fruit of bad government , — -betrayed us , thus we have had scenes all too similar , in Dublin . And now We have already in power a Ministry of whom , one is decrying the freedom of the press !; ' But let us cast aside selfish considerations ; they have already done but too much mischief in the world , and in this country ; for they have afflicted us with feeble councils and national paralysis of will . The scenes which we witness on the continent—the violated hearth of Italy , the broken laws of Hungary , the subjugation of
Germany , the degradation of France—exist in great part by the sufferance of England . When we read of the heart-broken shrieks at Vendres , we may reflect that England has her share of responsibility for those social visitations . The fanatical dogma which falsely monopolizes the title of " Peace" teaches us , in the name of hu ^ manity , to tolerate them ; the doctrine of selfinterest teaches us to stand by and permit them ; although it is plain to all the world , that if England had vindicated liberty — liberty of nation and of man— -a strength would have been given to the peoples which would have added victory to endeavours . Perhaps the lessons of 1848-9 may not have been lost ? ¦
' ¦' Peace still preaches non-intervention : the people are gathering a deep hatred under their oppression ; and if they rise alone , without constitutional allies , or leaders having some sympathy with the traditions and institutions of the past , the next revolution will be sanguinary and destructive enough to make the strongest men shudder . We know where the demon of Anarchy lies chained , but not killed , under the feet of his elder brother Tyranny . Blood and destruction are the threatened doom of Europe , unless
leaders be found to give the contest a higher and humaner enterprise—that of" establishing rather than destroying . Tho tyrant boasts his mission "to save society , " and he has destroyed it , substituting Praetorian controul and the feasting of minions at the palace : Anarchy bursting in will complete the destruction , unless true statesmen of Liberty rise up really "to save society . " The true men of Liberty are not extinct , S vritzerland is its outpost ; England is not quite degenerate ; America has nurtured a new 1 band of the
freeborn family ; and tho chivalry still lives throughout Europe , scattered , but only demanding leaders and a common banner . Forget it not .
.Uuqkselling And The Taxes On Knowledge....
. UUQKSELLING AND THE TAXES ON KNOWLEDGE . ! A reduction in the per centage of the retailer's profit is the immediate result which most practical men foresee from the' present agitation in the bookselling trade ; but it is manifest that that change must inevitably be followed by others . To some extent the succession of ulterior changes is clear enough . A reduction of profit involves the necessity of an extended business . That a field oxists for extonded business most of us know , since the spread of education , the working of free inquiry , the growth of taste , and many other changes m pur social condition , have multiplied all classes of readers . Tho great obstacle to an extension of business is tho conventionally high price of books ; and tho noxt step , therefore , must do a reduction in tho price of books . That process has already eommencod ; hut it is impocled by the want of some othor processes . In tho first place , tho very material on which the book is printod is burlhoncd with a tax of tho very worst sort—an excise tax ; and that not only enhances tho price , but compels both tho maker and tho purchaser to submit to restrictions on their methods of doing business . It enforces a
} preference for thin paper , intorposos dolays , and ocks up capital in duty-paid stock in a manner almost incompatible with investment in a book at onco choap in price , and yot suited to a slow but continuous sale : Yot a slow but continuous sale is exactly tho kind of sale . best filled to tho best books in tho language—those which become classics , and therefore continue to sell as tho J ) opulation grows . Ono of the first changes to bllow a rodiiotion ; of profits , therefore , in order to rondor tho bookselling trade possible , is tho removal of tho paper-tax . Even then you have . not got rid of all tho impodimont to tho cheapening of books . In order to render books avtiilablo lor . the public at large ,
a certain simplicity of price is desirable , and the " shilling volume" is a tribute to that want . The public gladly falls ! in with aliquot ideas , and greatly affects penny papers or shilling volumes . Were ' the practice generally adopted , the mere size of a book would in itself afford a , certain index of the price—one volume , one shilling ; so many volumes , so many shillings . And a considerable gain to our literature would be effected by . breaking away from the present plan of forcing books to conform to certain standards of size , like recruits for the army . As promising youths are stunted into the proper jockey
dimensions , so , e converso , small books are stretched into three-volume novels , or into an octavo size befitting grave subjects . A beginning has been made in the emancipation of literature from this absurd-bed of Procrustes ; but there is a serious impediment in the advertisement duty . The public at large is hardly aware how that duty operates to raise the cost of advertizing . First of all , by fastening upon every announcement as a separate advertisement , it seriously impedes combined , or collective advertisements . The
newspaper proprietor would be content to sell his space at so niuch a line , but the taxing department charges so much for every tiling advertised , and thus offers a kind of compulsory bonus on the process of spreading the adv ertisement over a larger space . Responsible for the Is . 6 d . on each , advertisement , payable by the newspaper proprietor , whether he be paid or not , and ] pay * able by him at short date , whatever credit he may give , of course he is obliged to charge upon the paying body of advertisers his bad debts , and upon all the interest for his locked up capital . Dear prices make a dull trade , and the whole machinery is rendered more costly . The cost of
advertising , thus artificially enhanced , probably to the extent of four hundred per cent , at least , has to be incurred as well on unsuccessful as on successful books ; but , of course , the publisher must make the successful books pay for the failures . For the price of every book that it buys , therefore , the public pays something towards the cost of books that it does not buy ; and a large item in that cost is the advertisement duty . A book is hardly worth advertizing unless its price be high ; and to justify a high price , it must be
of a certain size , hence the chief reason for retaining the three volume form of the novel . The next move , therefore , will be the abolition of the newspaper advertisement duty . But a very extensive sale is not to be had without appealing to a very large portion of the public—to the whole body of the people ; and in approaching that widest of all markets , the bookseller encounters another fiscal impediment . The Stamp-Tax on newspapers returns a very paltry amount to tho revenue , but it is confessedly
retained as a measure of police , to restrict the number of journals , lest , tho bulk of the people desiring papers of a " democratic" tendency , the press should at once extend beyond its present manageable compass and grow more " democratic . " We have no belief that it would be so excessively domocratic in the sense implied by those who use tho w ord with fear ; but in the meanwhile , tho tax prevents tho existence of a huge advertizing medium . Tho advertisementtax , also , lias an operation besides that which we '
havo already noticed , in restricting specific commendatory mention in tho body or a paper under penalty of onforcing tho tax ; and thus u large means of laying literary wares boforo the public is checked . , Wo do not mean " puffing , " but that kind of commendation , which would " ' ! all specifically within tho proyinco of every journal having a special vocation . Special journals , however , arc also kept under , by the operation of the Stamp-Tax and of tho cumbersome machinery attending it ; otherwise every parish , eve ' ry profession , every cotorio , might liave its own special journal . Tho newspaper Stamp-Tax , therefore , is
a vory ofioctivo impediment to universal advertizing , and thus its abolition becomes an accompaniment almost necessary to the process of enlarging tho salo of books by cheapening them . Publishers in England noxt raiso tho question of author's payment . . Americans , who have such cheap books , fluch vast sales , and such imjnonse advertizing facilities , have still no copyright to pay . Wo beliovo this copyright charge to bo a bugbear ; but tho difficulty is solved by tho French plan , of paying to tho author so much a volume for every copy sold . Even this plan lias been begun amongst us . Having abolished the '
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 24, 1852, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24041852/page/15/
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