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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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TAXES ON KNOWLEDGE . The following is the Memorial of the Newspaper Stamp Abolition Committee to the Chancellor of the Exchequer , to which we have elsewhere adverted : — That your memorialists are anxious for the abolitioa of all taxes on knowledge , and in particular of the stamp duty on newspapers , for reasons which they have detailed in a petition to the House of Commons , and which were fully admitted in the debate of the 16 th of April last by yourself and by the First Lord of the Treasury , who agreed with you in stating that the condition of the revenue was not such as to justify further remission of taxation .
That though the revenue argument is applicable to the paper duty , its applicability breaks down in the case of the stamp , inasmuch as the receipts amounted in 1849 to £ 350 , 289 , while the expense of transmitting the newspapers by post was estimated by Mr . Rowland Hill n 1847 at £ 370 , 000 ; and though a part of the expense is incurred for the sake of the letters , so that it would be prejudicial to the revenue to lose the transmission of any part of the newspapers , yet that this loss would be insignificant , and that it might be easily made up by the transmission of printed papers at a low rate . That in the course of their enquiries your memorialists have ascertained that great irregularities are connived at by the Board of Inland Revenue in a manner unfair and illegal , and with the effect of trampling on the poor and letting the rich break the law with impunity .
That according to a return made to the House of Commons on the 19 th of February , 1850 , fifty-one registered newspapers are in the habit of issuing a portion of their impression unstamped . That your memorialists consider this practice to be illegal as the law requires every copy of a newspaper to be stamped ; a doctrine which is supported by the following letter from the board to Mr . Scholefield , M . P . for Birmingham , in the matter of the Freeholder : — " Inland Revenue , Somerset-house , May 30 , 1850 .
" Sir , — I have laid before the Board of Inland Revenue your letter of the 21 st instant , relative to a communication made by this department to the publisher of a paper called the Freeholder . In xeply I am directed to inform you that the Board hold that a paper containing public news , intelligence , or occurrences , is a newspaper , without reference to the intervals of its publication , and they are so advised by the law officers of the crown . The Freeholder is registered at this office as a newspaper , an appropriate stamp is provided for it , and stamps are issued to the publisher as for a newspaper , which he would
not be entitled to receive if it were not registered . A portion of each publication is printed on stamps , and another portion without stamps , to which latter proceeding the Board object , considering that both in respect of its registration and its contents , it is subject to the newspaper duty . With regard to this paper having been singled out for a peculiar application of the law , I am to observe that such a notion is entirely without foundation , and that the same rule will be observed with regard to any similar publication which shall come under the Board ' s notice . I have the honour to be , Sir , your obedient servant , " Thomas Keooh . "
That many of the aforesaid publications are to all intents newspapers , not only in virtue of their registration , but also in virtue of their contents , particularly Charles Dickens ' s Household Narrative , the Athenaeum , the Builder , the Freeholder , and Punch , but that the Board connives at their illegal practices , and that the Board , when it has given notice to any London paper of the illegality of its conduct , has not enforced any penalty . That on the contrary , the board occasionally act with great severity towards newspapers in the country . That
in the case of the Wakefield Examiner , which not long ago published 2000 slips of an account of a trial that had previously appeared in its columns , the Board of Inland Revenue , threatened the proprietor with a fine of £ 40 , 000 , a fine which they afterwards commuted to £ 10 . That the practice of publishing slips for newspapers is quite common in London , and has never been interfered with , and that though your memorialists admit it to be not strictly legal , the same may be said of parliamentary speeches and other publications which , coming under the head of news , require a stamp .
That your memorialists consider it unjust that while ordinary publishers are permitted in these cases to violate the law , yet newspaper proprietors , who pay stamp duty on every copy , are sometimes severely treated for bo trivial an offence . That the practice already alluded to , of allowing class publications to stamp for postal circulation alone , is not only illegal , but grossly unfair to the regular newspapers , for which alone the postal privilege was intended as a compensation for the obligation to stamp every copy .
That your memorialists , therefore , entreat that you will either enforce the law strictly by obliging all registered newspapers to stamp every copy according to law , or else permit to the whole newspaper press the privilege of stamping for postal circulation only . Signed by order of the Newspaper Stamp Abolition Committee , and on their behalf : — Fhancih Pijujh , Treasurer , Brompton-squarc . Jamkh Watson , Queen ' s llend-passagc , 1 ' uternoBtcrrow . J . C . Dohson Coj . lhx , 15 , EHBcx-btrect , Strand .
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ABOLITION OF THE PAPER DUTY . A large meeting was held at the London Tavern , on Thursday evening , for the purpose of adopting measures to obtain the abolition of the duty on paper . Mr . Cowan , M . P ., who was in the chair , said one of the worst fouturcH of the paper duty was that it wuh a tax on labour . In Paris 110 , 000 females found employment in the making of paper boxes , which could be imported into Englund oi » puyment of un ad valorem
ten per cent , duty , while the raw material of similar articles in England was burdened with u tux of from 100 to 200 per cent . The letter-press printers also Buffered greatly from the pressure of the paper duty , an it very much lessened the market for their labour . Mr . John Casucll moved the lirHt resolution , declaring the tax on paper uh u tax on skill and industry . The resolution won Heconded by Mr . P . Borthwick , who said that the repeal of the tax would give employment to 600 , 000 persons , not confined to the
exc lusive manufacture of paper , but in . many useful and ornamental articles , in papier mache and other ways , for it was incalculable to w hat new uses paper might be employed . The second resolution , which characterized the duty as a tax on knowledge , was moved by Mr . Pedder , and seconded by Mr . Ingram , proprietor of the Illustrated News . On the motion being put , Mr . Hoiyoake deprecated their confining the movement to the repeal of the paper duty alone . They ought to include the stamp and advertisement duties in their vote of condemnation : —
" He believed that the stamp on newspapers not only kept knowledge from the people , but it caused their political terms to be imported from France . There was no room for the free growth of their genuine national language . Some gentlemen said that this measure would give the people employment , but the fact was that the people had too much " work to do . { Cheers . ) If they looked well at the question , it would be found that , by proper combination , less work might be done for the same payment , and then the surplus might fairly fall to the share of the unemployed . There were certainly good cheap publications—as the Household Words—hut what the people wanted was the political knowledge which would save them from degradation . { Cheers . ) They were not had not read the
refused their rights because they Penny Cyclopcedia , or Chambers ' s Journal , but because they had not the necessary political information for legislation . They ought , therefore , to be given information , in connection with the events of the day and hour . { Hear . ) The gentlemen on the platform well knew that the poor man could not now obtain a newspaper . Only the rich man could have a newspaper ; and was the working man , when he was condemned to feed upon the garbage of politics , to be blamed for the depravity of his taste ? { Cheers . ) Mr . Milner Gibson would putthe whole question before the Government and the House of Commons , and it would be shown presently there was a chance of all three of these propositions being carried . "
By taking the course he proposed they were much more likely to obtain the sympathy of the people . He proposed the following addition to the resolution : — •' That this meeting is further of opinion that the stamp duty on newspapers and the advertisement duty , by adding to the cost , and consequently encreasing the price and deteriorating the quality of books , newspapers , and periodicals , impedes the progress of knowledge and education of the people . " Mr . Collet seconded the amendment . The working classes of the country would meddle with politics . Rightly or wrongly , they would interfere with matters of law and government , and it depended upon the political education they had whether that interference would be good or evil .
Mr . Milner Gibson , M . P ., supported the amended resolution : — " He brought forward the question as a whole because he saw something like a principle in it . { Hear , hear . ) He knew from experience , also , that it was a good plan to ask for all you want , but to take what you can get , without giving a release in full . { Laughter . ) He would not refuse an instalment , but he would not in consequence forego the right at all times to demand payment of the whole debt . { Cheers . ) Those three questions—the paper duty , the newspaper stamp duty , and the advertisement duty—had usually been more or less linked together . { Hear , hear . ) All those taxes were bad but if he were to express an opinion as to
which was the worst , he would say the stamp on newspapers was . { Cheers ) Powerful as the arguments were against the paper duty , he thought those against the stamp not less cogent . He was for cheap newspapers . { Cheers . ) If competition was good for the fanner , if it was good for the trader , why should it . not be good also for the newspaper proprietor ? { Loud cheers . ) Let them have the power to enter into the hitherto unexplored field of those to whom a record of facts has as yet been denied—with cheap newspapers , and communicate through them not only political , but social information .
{ Cheers . ) Statesmen might put off the question on financial grounds ; but the fact was not to be disguised , that there was amongst many of them a latent fear of the spread of the knowledge of facts amongst the working classes . { Loud cheers ) . Why should there be this fear ? What was to be apprehended ? ' The stamp was intended to prevent cheap periodicals from containing tin ; current events of the day . That could be the only reason , for the cheapest , publications were allowed to exist , to be circulated , and to give theories , fictions , and some sort of information . "
The chairman said he believed that all concurred with him in the opinion that , the proposition of Mr . Hoiyoake was an addition rather than an amendment . There could , therefore , be no objection to itu being incorporated . The amended resolution wim then curried without opposition .
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A TALK OK MYbTKKY . The Welsh papcrH relate a strange story of a lady wlio left a child at an inn under niytUerioiiH cii euin . 'i t . ances . The scene of the ad ' air was at Swansea . On Tuesday week the omnibus arrived at the Pcliean Inn , Swansea , with itn usual heavy load of passengers , amongst , whom wan a genteelly-dressed female , who carried an inia " . apparently a fortnight old , ia her arms . During tike time occupied in chunking homes , thin female proceeded to the Castle Inn , and nat . for some minuteH before , the fire ., assiduously wanning the infant . She entered into conversation with Mrti . Thomas , and finally naked her to
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e &ftt 3 LrHirer . [ Batpmut ,
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COMMITMENT OF MR . SLOANE . Mr . Sloane was brought up at the Guildhall on Monday , for final examination , before Mr . Alderman Humphery , relative to the charge of ill-using and starving Jane Wilbred , his servant . In consequence of the great crowd that has hitherto attended every examination of Mr . Sloane , precautionary measures were taken to prevent a recurrence of the outrage committed on that gentleman while on his way to the
Compter on Friday afternoon . Alderman Humphery , taking a lesson from what had happened last week , issued orders privately for every one whose presence would be required in the case to be in attendance at the court at ten o ' clock precisely—two hours earlier than the ordinary time fixed for the sitting of this court . So secretly were these orders carried out thai shortly before ten o'clock , Mr . Sloane left the Compter in company with Springate , the gaoler , and walked arm-in-arm with him to the corner of
Newgate-street , where a cab was waiting to convey them to their destination . They got in , fortunately for Mr . Sloane , without being perceived or identified by any of the passers by , and proceeded along Newgate-street , round by the Post Office , St . Martin's-le-Grand , into Gresham-street , and stopped at the end of Church-passage , where Mr . Sloane alighted , and , still accompanied by the gaoler , quickly entered the court by one of the private entrances . In order that Mr . Sloane ' s presence at Guildhall should not get bruited about the City , the examination took place in the magistrate ' s private sittingroom . The final statement of Jane Wilbred having been read over to her , she confirmed it in every particular , and then affixed her name to the depositions in a clear and steady handwriting . The depositions
having been completed as far as possible , Mr . Alderman Humphery asked Mr . Sloane if he had anything to say ? Mr . Sloane , who had exhibited a great amount of nervous excitement from the commencement of the proceedings , answered , in a tone that was scarcely articulate , "I have nothing to say . " He was then fully committed for trial at the next sessions of the Central Criminal Court , but was admitted to bail , himself in £ 500 , and two sureties in £ 250 each . Mr . Alderman Humphery having asked Roe , the officer , if he had done anything further to execute the warrant on Mrs . Sloane , Roe said he had been unable to obtain the slightest clue as to where she was , but he was assured that she would surrender on the day of trial .
Mr . Sloane then retired into an inner room , where he remained some short time , debating with his friends upon the safest mode of leaving the court . The defendant himself proposed that a barber should be sent for to shave him before leaving , and , the more effectually to defeat detection , he said he would have all his beard and whiskers shaved clean off ; but he suddenly changed his determination , and said he would leave without shaving . At this time he was excessively nervous , and appeared as if he were afraid to trust himself into the hands of a stranger
while the public mind was in such a state of excitement . Shortly after he left the court by a private entrance in Church-passage , and , accompanied by Mr . Philips , his solicitor , made his way rapidly into Gresham-street , where a cab had been previously stationed to receive him , and he was conveyed eastwards through the City , unobserved by many who were on their way to Guildhall to make enquiries respecting him . In fact , during the morning , the court was regularly besieged by applicants wishing to know when Mr . Sloane would be coining up again .
At a special general meeting of the board of guardians of the West London Union , on Tuesday , the following resolutions were adopted unanimously : " 1 . That this board do offer a reward of £ 20 for the apprehension of Mrs . Slqane , and that application be made to the Right Honourable Sir George Grey , the Secretary of State for the Home Department , requesting the Government to encrease the sum to £ 50 . " 2 . That the clerk be requested to consult with Mr . Huddlestone , the counsel for the prosecution , as to whether the board of guardians had better apply to the magistrate for a warrant for the apprehension of Mitsa Louisa Devaux . "
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 4, 1851, page 6, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1864/page/6/
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