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Leader (1850-1860), 31st January 1852, Edition Town of 2, Page 100, Untitled Article

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      Ill » . «» tL height , was magnificent , and it lighted up

      The heavens for miles round . The people , jt ^ town rushed to the spot in thousands—for it was near trie centrVof the bo rough-and at Cheethan-liill , Gorton Levenshulme . Didsbury , Eccles , and other elevated places some miles from Manchester , vast crowds were gathered to look on , and could not only see the firemen moving about and directing the streams of water upon the flames , but everything about and aro und the mill , so vivid was The destruction of the mill was accomplished very rapidly under these circumstances . Floor after floor gave way in quick succession , each falling through with its heavy masses of machinery ; and the roof and large portions of the walls were also destroyed at the same time . In less than an hour all that was left of property , worth more than £ 20 , 000 , was a few shattered ^ walls enclosing ahueehean ofbroken , disjointed , and blackened

      ironwork , ming led with masses of bricks , charred wood , and smouldering cotton , the mere debris of an establishment which had been amongst the wonders of the age for the collec tion of mechanism , and the result Of ingenuity and skill brought together within its walls . The machines were not of the latest invention , but included the self-actors , so wonderful in their productive power , and when at work apparently almost instinct with life and motion , and requiring but little superintendence from human agency compared with the great quantity of work they turn off . Mr . Frost , the managing partner of the millowners , was present at an early period of the fire , and directed steps to be taken for saving some xiotton in an outhouse . The crowds of people who gathered round the premises gave willing aid at the engines , but the police were compelled to act with some vigour to keep back the masses so as to enable the firemen to operate

      with freedom . - FIRST ANNUAL BEPORT " of the COMMITTEE of the ASSOCIATION fob . PROMOTING THE REPEAL OF the TAXES ON KNOWLEDGE . ~ In giving our first annual report , we feel it necessary to make a brief statement of bur origin and objects . The Newspaper Stamp Abolition Committee was formed on the 7 th of March ,-1849 , and issued its second annual report on the 8 th of January , 1851 . On the 13 th of Pebruary last , a meeting was held at Fendall ' s Hotelj in the chairPresentJohn

      T Milner Gibson , M . P ., . , Bright , M . P ., RichardCobden , M . P ., Wm . Ewart , M . P ., Joseph Hume , M . P ., Wm . Scholefield , M . P ., and other gentlemen , who then and there formed themselves into an Association for promoting the Repeal of the Taxes on Knowledge . The Committee then elected included the members of the Newspaper Stamp Abolition Committee , and , on their first meeting , resolved to adopt their policy and their liabilities . On the ratification of this understanding , the Newspaper Stamp Abolition Committee dissolved itself . ... of the

      Our object is to obtain the exemption press from all taxation , and its emancipation from all control , except that of a court of law . Our endeavours are directed to effect the repeal of all taxes on knowledge , and particularly that of the" penny stamp , by collecting and distributing information on the subject , by influencing all organized bodies of reformers to petition the House of Commons in favour of the freedom of the press , and by endeavouring to oblige the Stamp-office impartially to enforce the existing law , so aB to bring its absurdity prominently before the public . , The taxes on knowledge consist of—The duty on foreign books , which , in the year 1850 produced £ 7 . 670 0 4 The duty on paper 852 , 91 ) 6 13 1 (> The duty on advertisements .. ri- ' nlt * ii 01 The penny stamp on newspapers ..., iiM . Jiil 17 < s $ £ 1 , 380 , 669 12 4 ft In addition to these burdens , the proprietor of a newspaper is bound to give security to pay any damages that may be awarded against him in case of libel—a system which seems to infer that to publish a newspaper is of itself evidence of an intention to break the law . Our financial report hus been made up to Michaelmas , and published in a separate form . The receipts amounted to £ 208 . 16 s ., including the munificent donation of £ 100 from Mr . Edward Lombe , of Norfolk ; the expenditure was £ 109 . 4 s . 8 d ., including the debts of the Newspaper Stamp Abolition Committee , amounting to £ 46 . 16 s . lOd .: leaving a balance in hand of £ 9 . lls . 4 d . On Wednesday , the 5 th of March , wo held a public meeting in St . Murtin ' s-hall , which was crowded to excess by persons of all classes , while hundreds were unable to ' gain admission . Eight hundred of those present signed a petition for the total repeal of the taxes on knowledge . A few days afterwards Mr . Hume , acoompanied by a number of membors of the House of CommonB who support his measure of Parliamentary Reform , waited on Lord John Ruswell , and urgod him to abolish the penny stamp on newspapers ; at this interview Lord John Russell emphatically denied that ho wished to retain the Btamp for any other purpose than that of revenue . A few days afterwards he granted to Mr . Milnor Gibson a committee to inquire into the- operation of the Newspaper Stamp . That Committee reported to tho House of Commons that , apart from fiscal considerations , it considered news as an undesirable object of taxation ; and it recommended that a postage wrapper , not to exceed one penny

      I for four ounces , should be placed ^ on newspapers and other printed matter actually sent through the post . To this recommendation a strong objection has been raised by parties who post their newspapers four or five times ; but it is easy to see that the more this practice prevails the more unfair is the present system . There are annually . . about .............. 66 millions of postal transmissions . Ditto ditto 86 millions of newspapers stamped . Suppose that on an average every news-. paper posted is posted - twice , there will be .. 33 millions of twice posted newspapers . Leaving 53 millions of newspapers paying stamp duty and enjoying no postal privilege . But the injustice done to the purchasers of the 53 millions of unposted newspapers is not that which touches us most deeply ; what we complain of , is the in justice done to those , who , because they cannot afford to pay the postage , are deprived of the newspaper which they might have for a penny , and which the people of the United States , with far smaller facilities than ours , actually enjoy . We hold this deprivation to be a great wrong inflicted upon the working people of this country , who need , above all , things at the present day , correct information , not only on political subjects , and on the laws and institutions under which they live , but more especially on those events in the commercial world by which their labour is affected ; and also on the progress of colonization in other parts of the globe , and on the prospects offered to enterprising Englishmen by emigration , to acquire the independence which in many professions they are unable to realize at home . If the free passage of newspapers is to be considered as a private advantage , it should be paid for by those who enjoy it ; if it is to be looked upon as a great public good , no charge should be made for it on any particular class . The evidence of Mr . Rowland Hill proves that the extra expense of transmitting newspapers is trifling . He calculates that , were the newspapers charged at the rate of two ounces a penny , the revenue derived from that source would be £ 137 , 500 , giving a loss of £ 220 , 500 oh the amount of the present stamp duty . He considers that the newsvenders would be able to transmit the greater proportion of them , and successfully to compete with the Post-office . That there would be no difficulty in circulating the most influential London newspapers without the help of the post , is proved by the fact that , at the ^ preserit time ,, some of the cheapest of the unstamped publications are thus circulated , while the daily papers are forwarded by rail to the principal towns many hours before the arrival of the post . The tables published in the appendix to the report made some startling revelations . The whole daily press appears to be sinking rapidly , with the exception of the Morning Advertiser , which maintains its ground , and the Times , which not only has obtained all the increased circulation which is caused by the increase of population and education , but is gradually absorbing that which formerly belonged to the other members of the daily press . It is doubtful whether any daily paper , except the Times , is supported entirely by its readers , independently of extraneous assistance ; and there is no doubt that the circulation of the Times would be , as its own manager states , largely increased by the abolition of the taxes on the press . The following table shows the state of the principal daily papers in 1837 , the year after the stamp was reduced to a penny , and in 1850 : —

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      1837 1845 . 1846 . 1850 . Morning Chron ... 1 , 910 , 000 1 , 554 , 000 ~ US 56 , O 0 O 912 , 547 Morning Herald .. 1 , 928 , 000 2 , 018 , 025 l , 752 , 0 u 0 1 , 139 , 000 Standard 1 , 330 , 000 846 , 000 780 , 000 492 , 000 Morning Post ..., 735 , 000 1 , 200 , 500 1 , 450 , 500 828 , 000 Daily News .. .. 3 , 520 , 500 1 , 152 , 000 Morn . Advertiser . 1 , 380 , 000 1 , 440 , 000 1 , 480 , 000 ) , 549 , 843 Globe 864 , 000 85 J . 000 764 , 000 585 , 000 Sun 794 , 000 1 , 098 , 500 1 , 101 , 000 843 , 500 True Sun 308 , 000 — — — T " tiie Time 8 l . ° ! 9 . ' 9 . 009 , 025 12 , 207 , 000 7 , 501 , 890 Times 3 , 065 , 000 8 , 100 , 000 8 , 950 , 000 11 , 900 , 000

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      100 Gftt % tZ % * t * [ Saturday

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      In this dark shadow there is one gleam of light . The Daily News while it sold at threepence had a circulation of three millions and a half , of which three millions were purchased by persons who never took—as is shown by the increase for that year amounting to 3 , 300 , 000—a daily paper before . Nor is the gap filled up which was caused by its rise in price . It is clear , therefore , that there is no fair field for any increase in the number of fivepenny papers ; but that for papers at a lower price there is a field open in England as well as in Belgium and America . We are glad to find that the Parliamentary Committee arc not afraid of the increase of cheap local papers , but consider that their establishment would be conducive to the bost interests of tho people . It is worthy of remark that the increased personal responsibility which falls Qn the editors of such papers , will be a guarantee for their respectability . . > ¦ On tho 1 st of December , 1851 , the Court of Exchequer gave judgment against the Crown in the case of Charles Diolcens ' N Household Narrative . This decision closes in their favour the question whether monthly publications

      are liable to stamp ; but it not only leaves open several other questions , but by introducing public opinion as a teat of what in a newspaper , to the exclusion of tho text of an act of Parliament , ir . opens a wide field for speculation und . uncertainty . Tho Chief Baron ' s declaration that certain papers are not newspapers , because nobody thinks of prosecuting thoin , is hif < hly suggestive ; and Mr . Rloh ' a hint to Mr . Timm , while giving his evidence before the Committee , that the only way to ascertain the law is by breaking it and taking tho chance of a prosecution , is not Iobb so . Unfortunately , this state of things

      acts most unfairly . In London , publi&hers try experi ments on the nature of the law without molestation but in the country such experiments meet with the . dig * approbation of the Stamp-office ; as the Crown never gives costs , even when it fails , the poor country publisher is seldom rich enough to afford to gain his cause , much less to lose it . "So long as the Officers of the Crown qan go into court without risk of personal loss , while the defendant is exposed to heavy losses even if he gain his cause , the Excise is only another name' for the Inquisition . The following questions are still unanswered by the decision of the Court of Exchequer : — 1 . Is a registered newspaper a newspaper in Virtue of its registration ?

      The Household Narrative is a registered newspaper , and nothing could have been easier than to try this question with the other , had not the Stamp-office desired to keep up the anomalous system which obliges a newspaper to stamp every copy , and allows what is not a newspaper to enjoy the privilege without paying the penalty . . 2 . What is public news ? The Stamp-office have invented the term Class-news ; under this head they class the news which occurs in certain papers , which are not newspapers , because nobody thinks of prosecuting them . For instance , the Legal Observer publishes every week without a stamp , reports of recent legal decisions , and news of every kind , particularly interesting to lawyers ; and ,

      though it is admitted by Mr . Jteogh that tins is perhaps news , yet it is not prosecuted . On being shown an account in the Legal Observer of a meeting of lawyers on the subject of Papal aggression , he said that it would certainly have been illegal had it been an account of a meeting of clergymen . According to this system , that which is public news in one journal is private news in another , and every profession is entitled to a privilege of reporting those matters in which it has an interest different from , or even opposed to , that of the public at large , while a journal established for the public is forbidden to report those very same articles of news . The

      Racing Times also publishes every week , without a stamp , full reports of races , of matters connected with the turf , and of every transaction of interest to the racing world . 3 . What is a commentary on publid news ? It is illegal to . publish such commentaries oftener than once in twenty-six days , and several country-papers have been warned that in this particular they were liable to prosecution . This question would be set at rest if the House hold Words , which is published weekly , were prosecuted . . The policy of putting down monthly publications is thus defended before the Committee by Mr . Rich and Mr . Timm : —

      Mr . Rich : " If Mr . Dickens were now to establish his right to publish his newspaper monthly , would it not be competent for him to combine with some other persons who might also bring out what they called a monthly newspaper , and then publish them in succession on the first week , the second week , the third week , and the fourth week of every month , whereby they would , in fact , have a weekly newspaper , ^ . nd av oid , paying the stamp duty ? Mr . Timm : " Certainly , that plan might be adopted ; and , unless we could prove that these publications were one and the same , the newspaper stamp duty would be evaded altogether . "

      From this it appears that , though it is illegal for four persons to conspire to bring out a weekly publication , it is not illegal for them to combine to bring out four monthly ones . All that is necessary is that the four papers should be actually and bon& . fide separate properties , with different publishers , in which case it would be impossible for them to be " one and the same . " In London such papers might be published each for and in a separate borough ; in the country , in and for separate towns at a moderate distance from each other .

      The carrying out of this plan would not only be a step in the agitation , but it would be a positive advantage , as in the country it would confer the advantage of a weekly paper in those places where the Stamp-office have hitherto prohibited unstamped monthly papers . While in London an unstamped newspaper at twopence would not only be a publio boon , but would bo rival the threepenny papers which have a large circulation , as to oblige the Government to alter the law . Perhaps the simplest plan of carrying out Mr . Rich's suggestion * would be for the proprietors of any existing newspaper to divide their property into four , and let each proprietor publish his own share every month , which could be done unburdened by the stamp , if they did bo in four distinct offices . Tho iniquity of the advertisement duty is most forcibly shown by the tables already alluded to .

      One insertion of an advertisement in a newspaper circulating 60 , 000 copies pays Is . 6 d . to the Government ; in order to obtain tt similar publicity in country journals with ordinary circulation , it will be necessary to advertise in about forty , at a cost of £ 3 for duty only ; the advertisements in those journals will now fall oil more than ever . Wo have already stated that Lord John Russell has declared the question of the penny stamp to be a revenue queution ; wo solemnly protest aaainst weiurhincr so small

      a sum as a quarter of a million ugainst bo sacred a rig ht as that of the freedom of the press , At a time like the present , when liberty of thought and speech are banished not only from Germany , but even from Franoe , it behoves the English Government to make every peaceful demonstration of its attachment to thoBe principles of freedom , which aro trodden under foot on tho Continent . Lord John Russell has told us from his place in Parliament that there is a conspiracy in Europe against constitutional liberty ; all the members of this conspiracy , from the Emperor Nioholas down to M . Bonaparte , are opposed to the freedom of tho press ; if tho English Government are really opposed to the conspirators , let them put down the flag under which the friends of despotism are fighting ,

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 31, 1852, page 100, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1920/page/8/