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Untitled Article
Reform Bill , a miserable compromise , * by which the accomplishment of the object of that struggle will only be indefinitel y delayed ! Very different is the advice which " we would give the people on an occasion like the present . We denounce the proposition of the Chancellor of the Exchequer as the gravest insult that ever has been offered to a body of intelligent and
deserving men . For two years a reduction of the Stamp Duty on Newspapers has been in contemplation . It was foreseen that , however disinclined to such a measure , however dilatory in effecting it , the Government would be driven to it at last , by the impunity with which the law was defied , and the growing influence of public opinion . It was foreseen also that a mere
reduction would not be sufficient . The object sought was , not to save the money of the rich , but to make newspapers accessible to the working classes ; and it was known that with a duty of a penny , the end would not be gained . Deputation , after deputation , ( composed of men of the highest reputation for liberal and enlightened opinions , ) waited
upon Government . Successive Chancellors of the Exchequer , have each , in turn , been addressed , and invariably to the same effect . " We come in the name of the poor man who claims the right of instruction , and who would be as effectually debarred from the means of information b y a duty of a penny , as he is now by a duty of three pence halfpenny . " The different deputations have been dismissed with bland smiles and smooth
words ; but all was false and hollow . The day arrived when the intentions of Government were to bo officially announced . Mr . Spring Rice rose in his place in the House of Commons , and the mask was dropped . The working men of Great Britain and Ireland were now distinctly told the Government of Lord Melbourne did not exist for them . " Toil on / ' says the Chancellor of the Exchequer , " it is not for you to interest yourselves in the busy scones by which you are surrounded . Read if you will read , under the besotting influence of the public house , and I object not to vour perusing in a tap-room , or beer
shop , the advertisements of a high-priced journal ; but my care it shall be to prevent newspapers becoming , so cheap , that you might purchase them to read with your wives and families at home . " The foulest and deepest blot by which the character of the present administration has been stained , was the speech of Mr . Spring Rice on the consolidation of the stamp duties , as far as they related to this subject . But let us not be unjust to every member of the Cabinet of Lord Melbourne , by confounding the
innocent with the guilty . Mr . PouletThomson and other members of the government are known to be advocates of the total abolition of the stamp duty . The premier himself and Lord John Hussell are understood to be favourable to the entire abolition
Untitled Article
Moral Interesls of the Productive Classes . 259
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1836, page 259, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2656/page/67/
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