now reduced to one-third the above sum from the operation of an Act of
1764 by which members of both Houses were empowered to have Newspapers,
Votes, and all other printed Parliamentary Papers, sent by post in their
Names, free from Postage, upon a written Notice of the Direction of such
Papers being sent to the Postmaster-General by the respective Members,
whose names were to be used instead of the former Mode of franking
Newspapers the same as Letters. The Printers, News Sellers, and others,
availing themselves of this Privilege, have obtained numerous Orders,
readily granted, under the Persuasion of increasing the Stamp Revenue.
The present Number of Orders in the Office is 6,751, and the Number of
Newspapers sent weekly by the Post in Consequence thereof is 47,017;
these Dealers are enabled to supply their Customers in the Country at a
cheaper Rate than the Clerks in the Office can, who are loaded with Out
Payments from their Profits, and are obliged to purchase their Papers at
an advanced Price from an Officer appointed by the Postmaster-General to
supply them."--_Tenth Report of the Commissioners on Fees and
Emoluments_, 1788, p. 29.
[267] A. Andrews, _The History of British Journalism_, London, 1859,
vol. i. pp. 210-11.
[268] "The Postmaster-General, sensible of this Diminution, lately
directed the Payments thereout to the other Officers and Clerks in the
Office to be discontinued, and reimbursed some of them out of the
Revenue; but this is not the only Expence to which the Public is
subjected by the Increase of these Orders. The Number of Newspapers to
be forwarded every Night is now so great, that ... a separate Office is
allotted ... and 18 Extra Persons are employed, at an Annual Expence of
[L]400, to perform the Duty of sorting and packing up the Newspapers;
besides it is in Proof that Letters and written Papers are frequently
enclosed in them, by which the Revenue is defrauded, without a
Possibility of Prevention, while the present Mode continues; as the
number is by far too great to admit of a general Search for
Enclosures."--_Tenth Report of the Commissioners on Fees and
Emoluments_, 1788, p. 29.
[269] 6 Geo. IV, cap. 68, [S] 10.
[270] "Was there no way by which, without the necessity of constant
contention, private men might be prevented from using the Press to make
their opinions public? The pamphleteers were not rich, but they were
often persons of education, and not penniless. When only a few copies of
their writings were wanted they could pay for them, but now that reading
was become more common, and that great numbers of copies were printed,
the cost had, to a great extent, to be paid by the readers. If these
sheets could be taxed their distribution might become difficult, and
when any one attempted to evade the tax he could be punished, not as a
libeller, but as a smuggler."--Collet Dobson Collet, _History of the
Taxes on Knowledge_, London, 1899, vol. i. p. 7.
[271] _Chambers's Encyclopaedia_, London, 1908, vol. vii. p. 473.
[272] "There was no doubt but that, in the first instance, the stamp
duty upon newspapers had been imposed for political
purposes."--Attorney-General, 26th March 1855, _Parl. Debates_
(_Commons_), vol. cxxxvii. col. 1129.
[273] "Whereas many papers containing observations upon Public Acts
tending to excite the hatred of the public to the constitution of this
realm, and also vilifying our holy religion, have lately been published
in great numbers, and at a very small price, and it is expedient that
the same should be restrained."--Preamble of the "Six Acts," 1819.
[274] "Sir Francis Freeling states that he succeeds to the enjoyment of
the privilege of franking which had previously appertained to the
situation of the Comptroller of the Inland Office, when he held the
situation of Principal and Resident Surveyor, and that it was deemed a
measure of economy to provide for the remuneration of this officer by
these means in lieu of salary."--_Eighteenth Report of the Commissioners
of Revenue Inquiry, Post Office_, 1829, p. 26.
[275] About 12 millions a year. Ibid., p. 464.
[276] H. Joyce, _History of the Post Office_, p. 419.
[277] "These laws (the Six Acts) were specially directed--not against
the morning Newspapers, which had been cajoled or frightened into
comparative silence, or shared in the then general feeling in favour of
a 'strong Government'--but against the Radical writers and speakers,
'Cobbett, Wooler, Watson, Hunt,' as Byron reminds us, all of whom had
contributed, by cheap political publications and strong political
harangues, to raise a demand for reform, loud enough and daring enough
to be most troublesome to the authorities."--F. K. Hunt, _The Fourth
Estate_, London, 1850, vol. ii. p. 49.
[278] "Newspapers are so cheap in the United States, that the generality
even of the lowest order can afford to purchase them. They therefore
depend for support on the most ignorant class of the people. Everything
they contain must be accommodated to the taste and apprehension of men
who labour daily for their bread, and are of course indifferent to
refinement either of language or reasoning."--Quoted by Lord Sandon,
20th June 1836; _Parl. Debates_ (_Commons_), vol. xxxiv. col. 649.
[279] The duties on newspapers at that time were (1) the duty on paper,
3d. per pound weight (1/4d. a sheet), (2) a duty of 4d. a copy, (3) a
duty of 3s. 6d. on every advertisement.
[280] "The change which had taken place in the political condition of
the country made it essential to communicate to the people sound
political knowledge and information. He would say that the security of
that House, living, as it did, in the affections of the people--of the
Government, possessing, as it did, the confidence of the people--and of
the Monarchy, reigning, as it did, and as he trusted it ever would, in
the hearts of the people, depended upon the diffusion of sound political
knowledge."--Chancellor of Exchequer, 20th June 1836; _Parl. Debates_
(_Commons_), vol. xxxiv. col. 634.
[281] "Many of these publications circulated to the amount of several
thousand copies weekly; their sale, in several instances, was larger
than the sale of some among the most popular legitimate papers; their
influence over large bodies of the working classes was much
greater."--E. Lytton Bulwer, 14th June 1832; Ibid., vol. xiii. col. 623.
"You have laws imposing severe penalties upon those who are guilty of
breaches of these laws; but it has been found impossible to stop the
sale of those cheap and obnoxious publications by fiscal laws; and the
success with which they are broken, the sympathy excited in favour of
the offenders, and the assistance which they receive, only give
encouragement to pursue the same course. I have been informed that,
within the last fortnight or three weeks, between forty and fifty
persons have been taken before the police magistrates, and convicted for
selling these publications."--Mr. O'Connell, 14th June 1832; Ibid., vol.
xiii. col. 637.
"As long as the Tories were in power Lord Liverpool, or even Canning,
could consistently advocate the restriction of political discussion. But
the fact that the Whigs had now held office since 1830, and that the tax
remained undiminished, was only to be explained by their rooted
disbelief in every principle which they professed to hold.
"Year after year Place had brought the question forward. Every year the
Chancellor of the Exchequer declared himself in favour of repeal in
principle, and every year the Government, for reasons which they dared
not avow, continued the tax. Meanwhile the Commissioners of Stamps so
used their power of prosecution as to set up a peculiarly odious form of
censorship. The _Penny Magazine_, for instance, was allowed to circulate
unstamped, while the _Poor Man's Guardian_ was prosecuted."--Graham
Wallas, _The Life of Francis Place_, London, 1898, p. 336.
[282] "The market for a Newspaper at twopence appeared to be insatiable,
and this ready demand produced an ample supply. In vain the police
apprehended hawker after hawker; in vain the Stamp Office gave the
informers and detectives additional premiums for vigilance, the trade
went on with an exciting degree of activity. As the London gaols became
crowded with 'victims,' the public sympathies were touched, and a fund
was raised by subscription to support the families of the men and women
(for women were seized and imprisoned) whilst under sentence."--F. K.
Hunt, _The Fourth Estate_, London, 1850, vol. ii. p. 75.
[283] "This tax was a charter to the existing newspapers--it was not
they who suffered from it--it was the public--it was the Government--it
was order--it was society that suffered."--E. Lytton Bulwer, 22nd May
1834; _Parl. Debates_ (_Commons_), vol. xxiii. col. 1195. See also
_G.J._ Holyoake, _Sixty Years of an Agitator's Life_, London, 1893, vol.
i. p. 288.
[284] _Parl. Debates_ (_Commons_), vol. xxxiv. col. 625.
[285] "2755. _Chairman_: That penny which was left when the stamp was
reduced, was called by some noble Lord the worst penny of all; and was
not it always foreseen by those who looked deeply into the subject, that
the retention of that penny just made the difference between not being
able to circulate a cheap paper and being able to circulate it?--It
makes all the difference, I think."--Evidence of Mr. H. Cole, _Report
from Select Committee on Newspaper Stamps_, 18th July 1851.
[286] "The penny was avowedly retained in 1836 not for the purposes of
revenue but as a compensation to the State for services performed in the
transmission of newspapers by post."--Viscount Canning, 24th May 1855;
_Parl. Debates_ (_Lords_), vol. cxxxviii. col. 954.
[287] McCulloch has some remarks which indicate the line on which was
justified the practice of charging the stamp duty on every copy of a
newspaper, in order that a portion of them might be transmitted by post
without further charge:--
"_Impolicy of Imposing a Postage on Newspapers._--The duties now
substantially repealed produced, in 1853, [L]412,220 nett, no
inconsiderable sum in a period of war. In point of fact, however, they
could hardly be called duties, and ought rather to have been regarded as
a payment for the trouble and expense attending the conveyance and
distribution of newspapers by post. But supposing such to be the case,
it was argued that the duty should be so limited, that is, that it
should only be imposed on papers carried by the post. Matters of this
sort are not, however, to be decided by mere logical considerations. The
effect of the new plan is to confine, in a greater or less degree,
according to circumstances, the circulation of newspapers to the
districts within which they are published; and this certainly is not a
desirable object.... Under the new plan the charge for conveyance, or it
may be postage, being added to the price of the metropolitan journals,
they will be dearer than the local papers, and people in many, or rather
perhaps in the majority of instances, will be disposed to prefer the
low-priced though inferior journal published at their door, to the
superior but higher priced journal of the capital.... On the whole,
therefore, we anticipate little or no advantage from the new plan. But
we are, at the same time, ready to admit that no system of this sort can
be safely judged _a priori_; and that the results of experience may
differ very widely from those of theory."--J. R. McCulloch, _Commercial
Dictionary_, London, 1856, p. 893.
[288] "We are living under a disguised censorship of the Press. I use
the word advisedly; and I find that generally where there is an avowed
censorship of the Press there are no taxes on knowledge; no stamp duty
and generally no paper duty. From the time when the stamp duty was first
imposed in the reign of Queen Anne, the number of newspapers has been
very much diminished by the stamp. For instance, Steele's _Spectator_
was nearly if not quite ruined by it; and from that time to this the
amount of revenue has never been so large as to be a serious subject of
consideration."--Evidence of Collet Dobson Collet, _Report from the
Select Committee on Newspaper Stamps_, 18th July 1851, p. 113.
[289] Mr. Roebuck, 20th June 1836; _Parl. Debates_ (_Commons_), vol.
xxxiv. col. 653.
[290] Treasury Minute, No. 21,355, 28th November 1838: "It appears that
these papers, though stamped as newspapers, are not according to Law
Newspapers, and consequently need not have been stamped, but that the
proprietors have caused them to be stamped for the purpose probably of
obtaining the facility of passing them free of postage.
"My Lords consider that all publications which are in the construction
of the law newspapers and are compelled to be stamped are in equity
entitled to the privilege of passing free of postage, but with respect
to publications, which like these now under consideration are not
properly newspapers, or necessarily stamped, they are of opinion that
they are not in equity entitled to the privilege, and that my Lords must
take into consideration the convenience of the public service and the
other circumstances of the case. My Lords are desirous of affording
every fair facility which may not be inconsistent with the proper
despatch of the mails, and in this view they consider that a limit of
weight may be properly applied, and adverting to the average weight of a
large newspaper, they are of opinion that the limit may be properly
fixed at 2 ounces.
"They are pleased therefore to direct that for the future in all cases
where applications are made for the transmission of any stamped
publication through the post free of postage, if it shall appear that
such publication is legally a newspaper and compelled to be stamped such
paper shall pass postage free whatever may be its weight, and that when
such publication may not appear to be strictly a newspaper, still it
should be permitted the indulgence in case the weight shall not exceed 2
ounces."
[291] _Parl. Debates_ (_Commons_), vol. cxxxvii. col. 1130.
[292] "If a tradesman at the present time carries his circular to the
Board of Inland Revenue, he obtains the postal privilege on the
condition of his declaring his circular to be a newspaper, although, if
the Board of Inland Revenue were afterwards to prosecute him for not
stamping his entire impression, he would be entitled to go into a Court
of Justice and there to contend that that was not a newspaper which he
himself had declared to be a newspaper in order to obtain the postal
privilege for part of his impression."--Mr. Gladstone, 19th March 1855;
ibid., vol. cxxxvii. col. 791.
[293] 'The Solicitor of the Board of Inland Revenue, being examined
before a Committee upon the subject of class publications, was asked why
class publications were not subjected to the compulsory stamp.
Inadvertently, instead of saying that they were exempted because they
were addressed to a particular class of the community, he said that it
was because they related only to one subject. In giving that reason, he
made a slight error of statement. That error has now been taken up in
different parts of the country, and a number of periodicals have
appeared, such as the _War Telegraph_ and the _War Times_, containing
intelligence relating exclusively to the war, which they say is 'one
subject,' and so saying, set the Board of Inland Revenue at
defiance."--Chancellor of the Exchequer, 19th March 1855; ibid., vol.
cxxxvii. col. 804.
[294] "I am quite satisfied, from years of attention to this subject,
that there never was so large a measure involved in a small measure, so
to speak, as is the case with regard to this proposition for making the
Press free. I am willing to rest on the verdict of the future, and I am
quite confident that five or six years will show that all the votes of
Parliament for educational purposes have been as mere trifles compared
with the vast results which will flow from this measure, because, while
the existing papers will retain all their powers of usefulness, it will
call to their aid numbers of others not less useful, and while we
continue to enjoy the advantage of having laid before us each morning a
map of the events of the world, the same advantage will be extended to
classes of society at present shut out from it."--John Bright, 19th
March 1855; ibid., vol. cxxxvii. cols. 810-11.
[295] "Another objection, and that of a more serious character, has been
brought under my notice by various persons, who have described the
proposition to repeal the compulsory newspaper stamp as one which would
be most dangerous to society. It has been described as a measure which
will open the floodgates of sedition and blasphemy, and which will
inundate the country with licentious and immoral productions, which will
undermine the very foundations of society, and scatter the seeds of
revolution broadcast over the land. These expressions are not
exaggerated representations of the opinions which have been communicated
to me from many quarters since this measure has been under my
consideration."--Chancellor of the Exchequer in House of Commons, 19th
March 1855; ibid., vol. cxxxvii. col. 782.
"The Right Hon. Gentleman who has just resumed his seat (Mr. Disraeli)
has spoken of the 'liberty of the Press.' That has been long spoken of.
It has been said that it must be 'free as the air we breathe; take it
away, we die.' But, Sir, what is the 'liberty of the Press'? It is the
liberty of a certain number of persons to slander anonymously whomever
they please, against whom you have no redress. It is freedom to the
anonymous libeller."--Mr. Drummond in the House of Commons, 23rd April
1855; ibid., vol. cxxxvii. col. 1680.
[296] "This is not merely a fiscal matter, because, as I have already
stated to the Committee, the existing law respecting the stamp duty upon
newspapers has been brought into a most inconsistent state by a
succession of indulgences which were made for the benefit of a certain
class of newspaper publications. The consequence of these indulgences
is, that the greatest difficulty exists in the administration of the
present law."--Chancellor of the Exchequer in House of Commons, 19th
March 1855; ibid., vol. cxxxvii. col. 802.
[297] "Q. 1852. _Mr. Cobden_: Would the carrying of newspapers be
profitable to the Post Office at the present rates, provided you were
left to adopt your own regulations as to the transmission of newspapers
without the intervention of the Board of Inland Revenue?--In one sense
it would be profitable and in another it would not. If we were to charge
against the newspapers a share of the fixed expenses of the
establishment, then it is very questionable whether it would be
profitable; but if you consider, as we probably should, that the
expenses of the establishment are incurred in respect of the letters,
and only calculate the additional expense which would be thrown upon us
for the transmission of newspapers, then I think we should find them
profitable.
"Q. 1853: Having an immense organization at the Post Office with a
certain amount of fixed charges, with a large amount of postmen
necessarily travelling over the whole of the kingdom, you would find it
profitable to carry newspapers for a penny, in addition to the letter
carrying, would you?--Yes.
"Q. 1854: Therefore, if the newspaper stamp were abolished, and you were
left to regulate the postage at the Post Office, you would deem it
profitable to carry newspapers at a penny each?--Yes, certainly we
should: what I mean is, that the carrying of newspapers would not
increase our expenses to the extent of a penny each.
"Ans. 1912: I was in hopes that we might distribute them at a halfpenny,
if we could have completed a plan in the simple form in which it
presented itself to my mind at first.
"Q. 1913: The plan is so far under consideration, and, perhaps, these
difficulties may be got over?--I cannot hold out any expectation of
that; I think I have considered it sufficiently to see that those
difficulties are all but insuperable."--Evidence of Sir Rowland Hill,
_Report from Select Committee on Newspaper Stamps_, 18th July 1851.
[298] "He believed it would be admitted that there was no wish to make
revenue out of this carriage of newspapers; but, on the other hand, the
newspaper interest had no right to ask that their productions should be
carried at less than cost price. It should be as near as possible an
equal bargain between the parties, by which neither the revenue on the
one hand, nor the newspapers on the other, should gain.... He believed
it was the opinion of the Post Office that a halfpenny would not be
sufficient to cover the expenses of transmission."--Lord Stanley, 23rd
April 1855; _Parl. Debates_ (_Commons_), vol. cxxxvii. col. 1664.
[299] The duty was reduced to 1d. upon a sheet containing a superficies
not exceeding 2,295 inches.
[300] See _infra_, p. 221.
[301] "Another objection might be urged that, by once touching the
permanency of the 1d. rate they were endangering its stability, and that
if the edge of the wedge were once inserted it might lead to the uniform
rate of 1/2d. He shared no such apprehension, and believed that the
wisest way to maintain the permanency of the 1d. rate was to remove the
cause of the agitation."--Mr. Graves, 6th April 1869; _Parl. Debates_
(_Commons_), vol. cxcv. col. 241.
[302] "A newspaper with an impressed stamp circulates free for fifteen
days. It is the last relic of the old taxes on knowledge. The law is
complicated and leads to fraud by the abuse of free transmission. An
unstamped newspaper now goes at the rate of 1d. for every 4 ounces, and
every fraction of 4 ounces. About 35,000,000 newspapers pass through the
Post Office annually with an impressed stamp, and about the same number
without. What we propose to do is to abolish the impressed stamp
altogether, at a loss to the Revenue of [L]120,000.... Then we propose
to carry all newspapers which weigh less than 6 ounces for a 1/2d. That
will be limited to bona fide newspapers; but we propose, instead of 1d.
for every 4 ounces and fraction on of 4 ounces, to charge 1/2d. for
every 2 ounces of other printed matter. There will in this way be a loss
to the Post Office, over and above that incurred by the abolition of the
impressed stamp, of [L]250,000 a year. There may be besides some
additional expense in connection with building and the increase in the
number of persons to be employed; but this has not been estimated for,
and the amount cannot be very large."--Chancellor of the Exchequer, 11th
April 1870; _Parl. Debates_ (_Commons_), vol. ce. col. 1636. The
limitation to 6 ounces was withdrawn. Ibid., vol. cciii, col. 1383.
[303] _Parl. Debates_ (_Commons_), 7th May 1855, vol. cxxxviii. col.
197.
[304] In 1899 the number of registered newspapers which normally
exceeded 8 ounces in weight was 29.
[305] See _infra_, p. 293. The size and weight of many of the largo
trade papers has decreased in consequence of the war.
[306] "Newspapers and books are carried at a low rate for the sake of
the education and general information of the people."--Mr. W. Monsell
(Postmaster-General), 14th March 1871; _Parl. Debates_ (_Commons_), vol.
cciv. col. 2014.
[307] In 1854 the average weight of the mails which left London daily
was 279 cwt. of which 219 cwt. consisted of newspapers.
[308] Only some 150 copies of the _Daily Mail_ are delivered in London
by the post each day.
[309] "There is no reason whatever why the Post Office should charge a
man threepence or fourpence for a book and a halfpenny for these vast
trade circulars, and it would be the simplest, as well as the wisest and
most beneficial of reforms, to bring the book post down to the newspaper
level."--H. G. Wells, _Mankind in the Making_. London, 1914, chap. ix.
The following further suggestions by Mr. Wells are reprinted here for
the consideration of postal reformers. Their adoption involves merely an
extension of the principle of State benefit.