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Leader (1850-1860), 24th April 1852, Edition Town of 2, Page 395

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      default , expulsion was enforced insig ht weeks On the side of the Council , says Mr . Theobald , very truly , " every feature of the matter is that of a dead , cold , impersonal officialism" ; it is orthodoxy in St . John ' s Wood , the " Church as by law established" of Dissent , forbidding conviction . . , , . V i i » ¦ ¦ ' ¦¦ Contrast with this mechanical , frozen , crystalized aspect of " Religious Liberty" incorporate ,

      the spirit of the expelled student : — " I am myself jquite ( Jisinclined to endorse , as a finally matured conviction , either all that X may have before said , or may now write , on subjects which expand into larger dimensions , and present new aspects at every renewed investigation into weni . Only the exigency of circumstances could have induced ine to speak at this time on these mighty themes , and I cannot be expected at present to pr 6 fes 3 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 , f' has become , in many quarters , almost identical lyith the question as to the identity of the locality in which uiey are advocated ' " l ? es , as Lambeth hath its own Tinith , and Majrnooth its own , so hath the

      New College , and each backs itself against the truth of the Universe . It is not under tlie starry dome of open nature that man must seek Truth : it is made up for him , j n packets , assorted , in the " orthodox" dispensaries ; and " religic > us freedom , " in the orthodox interpretation , means free trade at those shdps . 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 Grog ' s creation , its brotherhood in au bound on that sublime quest .

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      ENGLAIO ) 'S RESPONSIBILiTY TOWARDS EUROPE . The deeds of despotism were not over "with the paroxysm that burst forth on the 2 nd of December , 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 Government is exercising the most wanton tyranny , or that the people are still restless under the oppression ; and therefore indicates 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 bo to the Italian parent to see his son draughted off , a conscript , to Bet out " coll ' acquila on fronte , "—with the twobeaked eagle on his brow , —to serve the tyrant of his own country in keeping down the Hungarian and the Pole ; yet that is a curse 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 even ivith personal indignity , and defended against resentment . Imagine a French officer , hardly able to speak your language , not caring to bo understood , seizing your son , and carrying a ° ^ * ° 8 erve ko \ iN apoleon as a soldier in Algiers . The case is imaginary only in so fur as it includes England : it is the real case of Italy , of Bohemia , of all the countries subject to Austria .

      And France is rapidly emulating Austria . The scene at Yendres , where the exiles were carried oil to tho penal settlements , amid the Bhrieks of tlie women who stood on the quay , is but an outburst of the feeling that is working ; everywhere in the heart of France . Tho true Frenchnian , even when he is not transported , is an exile ln his own country , an alien , an outcast , persecuted , not protected by the law of tho day . It is so m France , because it is so in Austria , in Qor-* nany , in Hussia . If absolutism had not boon re-enthroned in those countries , it would not have boon , authorized in France—next door to England . / . 5 a v ° ry proud people , and a successful , tnusfar ; but thero is no logical necessity why wo should continue so . A few reverses , and the

      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 ^ he 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 wo 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 humanity , 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 —r 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 P Peace still preaches non-intervention : the people are gathering a deep hatred under their oppression j 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 givethe contest a higher and humaner enterprise—that of establishing rather than destroying . The tyrant boasts his mission "to save society , " and he has destroyed it , substituting Prsetorian 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 . Switzerland is its outpost j England is not ; quite degenerate ; America has nurtured a new _ band of the freeborn family ; and the chivalry still lives throughout Europe , scattered , but only demanding leaders and a common banner . Forget it not .

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      BOOKSELLING 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 . of

      A reduction of profit involves the necessity an extended business . That a field exists for extended business most of us know , since the spread of education , the working of free inquiry , the growth of taste , and many other changes m our social condition , have multiplied all classes of readers . The great obstacle to an extension of business is the conventionally high price of books ; and the next step , thereforo , must be a reduction in the prico of books . That process has already commenced ; but it

      is impeded by the want of some other procosses . In the first place , tho very material on which the book is printed is burthoned with a tax of the very worst sort—an excise tax ; and that not only enhances the price , but compels both the maker and the purchaser to submit to restrictions on their methods of doing business . It enforces a , preference for thin paper , interposes delays , and locks up capital in duty-paid stock in a manner almost incompatible with investment in a book to slow

      at onco cheap in price , and yet suited a but continuous sale . Yet a slow but continuous solo is exactly the kind of sale best fitted to tho best books in tho language—those which become classics , and therefore continue to sell as the population grows . One of tho first changes to follow a roduction of profits , therefore , in order to render the bookselling trade possible , is the removal of tho paper-tax . Even then you have not got rid of all tho impediment to the cheapening of books . In order to rendor books available for the public at large ,

      a certain , simplicity of price is desirable , m & * £ " shmingvolume' ^ is a tribute to that want . Tlio public gladly falls in with aliquot ideas , and greatly affects penny papers or shilling volumes Were the practice generally adopted , the met © size of a book would in itself afford a yertaat index of the price—one volume , one shilling ; so many volumes , so many shillings . And a conV siderable gain to our literature would be effected by breaking away from the present planof 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 Ibooks are stretched into three-volume novels , or into an octavo size befitting # rave 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 much a line , but the taxing depar tment charges so much for every tiling advertised , and thus offers a kind of compulsory bonus on the process of spreading the advertisement 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 payable 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 advertizing , 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 the revenue , but it is confessedly retained as a measure of police , to restrict the number of iournals , lest , the 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 democratic in the sense implied by those who use the word with fear ; but in me meanwhile , the tax prevents the existence of a huge advertizing medium . The advertisementtax , also , has an operation besides that which we have already noticed , in restricting specific commendatory mention in the body of a paper under penalty of enforcing tho tax ; and thus a large means of lavinir literary wares before the public

      is checked . We do not mean " P Jh ng but that kind of commendation which would fall specifically within tho province of every journal having a special vocation . Special journals , however , aro also kept under , by the operation of the Stamp-Tax and of tho cumbersome machinery attending it ; otherwise every parish , every profession , every coterio , might have its own special journal . Tho newspaper Stamp-Tax , therefore , is a very oflbetivo impediment to universal advertizing , and thus its abolition becomes an accompaniment almost necessary to the process of enlarging tho sale of books by cheapening them .

      Publishers in England next raise the question of author ' s payment . > Americans , who have , B . uoa cheap books , such vast sales , and such immense advertizing facilities , have still no copyright -to pay . Wo believe this copyright charge to be " a . bugbear ; but tho difficulty is solved by the French plan , of paying to the author so much a , volume for every copy sold . Even this plan has been begun amongst us . Having abolished the

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      jy ? Bit 24 i 1852 , ] THE I / EADEB . 3 % '¦¦ '¦ ¦ ¦ ' '¦ ¦ ' '' ' _' "'* ' " ' ¦" ¦ ¦ ¦¦ - ¦ - ¦ - ¦¦! " ' ' " ' ¦ »¦'¦!¦¦ ¦¦! ..-- ¦ .. i .. —— . 1 . - ¦ i . - ; , '¦¦ ¦ ' ¦ . " . " i . I .., . i ¦¦ ¦ - < _ 2 _^ _ ^^ ^ mm ^^ M^—i ^—^ " ^^ M *^^^^^

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), April 24, 1852, page 395, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1932/page/15/