sent free of Postage, or liable to Postage according to the
Regulations and Rates herein-after set forth; (that is to say,)
PRINTED BRITISH NEWSPAPERS,
By the Post, from one Town or Place to another, within the
United Kingdom (except by private Ships), free:
By the Post of a Post Town, within the United Kingdom,
addressed to a Person within the Limits of that Place or its
Suburbs, One Penny each:
Between Places within the United Kingdom by private Ships, One
Penny each:
Between the United Kingdom and Her Majesty’s Colonies, as
follows:
By Packet Boats to any of Her Majesty’s Colonies and
Possessions beyond the Seas, (including the _East Indies_,
by Packet Boats from the United Kingdom, _viâ_ _Syria_ or
_Egypt_,) free:
By private Ships, One Penny each.
PRINTED COLONIAL NEWSPAPERS,
Brought from the Colonies to the United Kingdom by Packet
Boats, (including Newspapers from the _East Indies_, by Her
Majesty’s _Mediterranean_ Packet Boats,) whether directed to
a Place within the United Kingdom or to any of Her Majesty’s
Colonies beyond the Seas, to be forwarded from the United
Kingdom by Packet Boats, free:
Brought from the Colonies to the United Kingdom by private
Ships, addressed to Places within the United Kingdom, and
delivered by the Master at the Post Office, One Penny each:
Sent by Packet Boat through the United Kingdom to a Foreign
State, (subject to the Consent of the Lords of the Treasury,)
free:
Newspapers between Foreign Countries and the United Kingdom, as
follows:
PRINTED BRITISH NEWSPAPERS,
Sent from the United Kingdom to any Foreign Port, either by
Packet Boats or private Ships, Two-pence each:
When _British_ Newspapers are allowed to pass by Post in a
Foreign Country free, then _British_ Newspapers addressed to
such Foreign Country may be transmitted to any Foreign Port by
Packet Boats, free:
If transmitted by private Ships, One Penny each.
PRINTED FOREIGN NEWSPAPERS,
Brought into the United Kingdom by Packet Boats or Private
Ships, Two-pence each:
If _British_ Newspapers are allowed to pass by Post free in a
Foreign Country, Newspapers printed in that Country brought by
Packet Boat to the United Kingdom, free:
If brought by private Vessels, One Penny each:
Foreign Newspapers sent by Packet Boat through the United
Kingdom to the Colonies (subject to the Consent of the
Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury), free.
s. 43. “And be it enacted, That although Newspapers may be sent
by the Post, and thereupon subject to the Rate of Postage set
forth in the above Table, it shall not be compulsory to send them
by Post.
s. 44. “And be it enacted, That no printed Paper, whether
Newspaper or Votes and Proceedings in Parliament, or of the
Colonial Legislature, shall be sent by the Post, either free
or at the aforesaid Rates of Postage, unless the following
Conditions shall be observed:
First, It shall be sent without a Cover, or in a Cover open at
the Sides.
Second, There shall be no Word or Communication printed on the
Paper after its Publication, or upon the Cover thereof, nor any
Writing or Marks upon it or upon the Cover of it, except the
Name and Address of the Person to whom sent.
Third, There shall be no Paper or Thing enclosed in or with any
such Paper.
Fourth, The said printed Papers shall be put into the
Post Office at such Hours in the Day, and under all such
Regulations, as the Postmaster General may appoint, including
therein the Payment of Postage on such as are going out of the
United Kingdom when put into the Post Office, if the Postmaster
General shall so require.
Fifth, All Foreign Newspapers brought into the United Kingdom
under this Act are to be printed in the Language of the
Country from which they shall have been forwarded, unless the
Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury shall in any Case
direct that any Foreign Newspapers shall be exempted from the
Restriction hereby imposed.
s. 45. “And be it enacted, That the Postmaster General may
examine any printed Paper or any Packet which shall be sent
by the Post, without a Cover or in a Cover open at the Sides,
in order to discover whether it is contrary in any respect
to the Conditions hereby required to be observed, or to any
Regulations which the Postmaster General, with the Consent of the
Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury, may from Time to Time
make in respect of any Paper or Packet of such a Description, and
also, in the Case of Newspapers, to ascertain in what Language
the Newspapers brought into the United Kingdom from any Foreign
Country shall be printed and published; and also in order to
discover whether the Newspapers printed and published in the
United Kingdom (excepting those printed in _Guernsey_, _Jersey_,
_Alderney_, _Sark_, or _Man_, which, for the Purposes of this
Act, are to be considered as Part of the United Kingdom) are duly
stamped; and in case any one of the required Conditions has not
been fulfilled, the whole of every such Paper or Packet shall
be charged with Treble the Duty of Postage to which it would
have been liable as a Letter, except as to Foreign Newspapers
not printed in the Language of the Country from which they shall
have been forwarded, which shall be charged with full Postage
as Letters; and as to every such printed Paper going out of the
United Kingdom, the Postmaster General may either detain the
Paper or forward the same by the Post, charged with Treble the
Duty of Postage to which it would have been liable as a Letter;
and in case a Newspaper printed in the United Kingdom (except as
aforesaid), and transmitted by the Post under this Act, shall
appear not to have been duly stamped, the same shall be stopped
and sent to the Commissioners of Stamps and Taxes.
s. 46. “And be it enacted, That in all Cases in which a Question
shall arise whether a printed Paper is entitled to the Privilege
of a Newspaper or other printed Paper hereby privileged, so far
as respects the Transmission thereof by the Post under the Post
Office Acts, the Question shall be referred to the Determination
of the Postmaster General, whose Decision, with the Concurrence
of the Lords of the Treasury, shall be final.
s. 47. “And for providing for the Transmission of Newspapers
between the United Kingdom and Foreign Countries free of Postage,
when satisfactory Proof shall be laid before the Postmaster
General that _British_ Newspapers addressed either to a Person
or to a Place within a Foreign Country, and also that Newspapers
addressed to a Person or a Place in the United Kingdom from such
Foreign Country, are respectively allowed to pass by the Post
within that Country free of Postage; be it enacted, That the
Postmaster General may, with the Consent of the Commissioners of
Her Majesty’s Treasury, transmit by the Post _British_ Newspapers
addressed to a Person or to a Place in such Foreign Country from
the United Kingdom, to any Port out of the United Kingdom, other
than Her Majesty’s Colonies and Possessions, free from Postage;
and he may, with the like Consent, receive from such Foreign
Country Foreign Newspapers free from Postage, or he may, with
the like Consent, charge for every Newspaper transmitted to or
received from a Foreign Country a Rate of Postage which he may
consider equivalent to the Rates of Postage payable in that
Country on Newspapers either transmitted from or received in that
Country, but in all Cases, whether the Newspaper be transmitted
free or otherwise, subject to a Sea Postage of One Penny, payable
on the Newspaper being put into the Post Office, for every
Newspaper delivered at the Post Office to be conveyed by Vessels
not being Post Office Packets, and also to a like Postage for
every Newspaper received by Vessels not Post Office Packets
addressed to a Person or to a Place within the United Kingdom.
s. 48. “And whereas by reason of the Postage which may be charged
on Newspapers in Foreign Countries, or from other Circumstances,
it may be expedient again to impose the Rates of Two-pence on
Newspapers; be it enacted, That the Postmaster General, with the
Consent of the Lords of the Treasury, may again charge and demand
the said respective Rates of Two-pence on Newspapers received
from and sent to any Foreign Country.
s. 49. “And be it enacted, That the Postmaster General, with the
Consent of the Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury, may allow
Colonial Newspapers to pass by the Post between Places within
any of Her Majesty’s Colonies, or by Packet Boat or private Ship,
from one Colony to another Colony, whether through the United
Kingdom or not; and also allow Foreign Newspapers to pass through
the United Kingdom either to Her Majesty’s Colonies or from one
Foreign Country to another Foreign Country, by Packet Boat or
private Ship; and also allow _British_ Newspapers to be sent to
the Colonies through a Foreign Country, and Colonial Newspapers
to be sent through a Foreign Country to the United Kingdom,
or through the United Kingdom to a Foreign Country, free of
Postage, or subject to such Rates of Postage and under all such
Regulations and Restrictions as the Postmaster General, with such
Consent as aforesaid, may think fit.
s. 50. “And be it enacted, That every _British_ Newspaper sent
by the Post to Places out of the United Kingdom shall in all
Cases be put into a Post Office or Receiving Office in the United
Kingdom within Seven Days next after the Day on which the same
shall be published, the Day of Publication to be ascertained
by the Date of such Paper; and in case a Paper shall be put
into a Post Office after the Expiration of such Seven Days, the
Postmaster General may either detain the Paper, or forward it by
Post charged with full Postage as a Letter.
s. 51. “And be it enacted, That in case any Person to whom a
printed Newspaper brought into the United Kingdom shall be
directed shall have removed from the Place to which it shall
be directed, before the Delivery thereof at that Place, it may
(provided it shall not have been opened) be re-directed and
forwarded by Post to such Person at any other Place within the
United Kingdom free of Charge for such extra Conveyance; but
if the Newspaper shall have been opened, it shall be charged
with the same Rate as if it were a Letter from the Place of
Re-direction to the Place at which it shall be ultimately
delivered.
s. 52. “And be it enacted, That the Postmaster General may
allow the Masters of Vessels, other than Packet Boats, a Sum
not exceeding One Penny on every printed Newspaper, Foreign or
Colonial, brought into the United Kingdom from a Port or Place
out of the United Kingdom, and delivered by them at the Post
Office of the Post Town at which they shall touch or arrive, and
a Sum not exceeding One Penny on every printed Newspaper conveyed
by them for or on behalf of the Post Office from the United
Kingdom to any Port or Place out of the same, in respect of which
no Gratuity is herein-before authorized to be allowed.”
s. 57. “And be it enacted, That the Postmaster General may at
any Time hereafter charge, for the Use of Her Majesty, on all
Letters, Newspapers, and other printed Papers sent by the Post,
on which the Postage shall not be pre-paid, and which shall not
be duly and properly stamped, and also on all Letters sent by
the Post without being duly and properly stamped, although the
Postage thereon shall be wholly or in part pre-paid, such higher
Rates of Postage than would otherwise by Law be payable on such
Letters, Newspapers, or other printed Papers as the Commissioners
of Her Majesty’s Treasury by Warrant under their Hands shall from
Time to Time deem expedient, and may also remit any of the Rates
of _British_ Postage or Inland Postage for the Time being payable
by Law on the Transmission of Post Letters, Newspapers, or other
printed Papers, to such Extent as the Lords of the Treasury shall
from Time to Time direct.
s. 58. “And whereas Communications may from Time to Time be
opened with Foreign Post Offices, which may render an Alteration
in the Rates of Postage expedient; be it enacted, That it shall
be lawful for the Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury from
Time to Time, and at any Time after the passing of this Act, by
Warrant under their Hands, to alter and fix any of the Rates
of _British_ Postage or Inland Postage payable by Law on the
Transmission by the Post of Foreign or Colonial Letters or
Newspapers, or of any other printed Papers, and to subject the
same to Rates of Postage according to the Weight thereof, and a
Scale of Weight to be contained in such Warrant, and from Time
to Time, by Warrant as aforesaid, to alter or repeal any such
altered Rates, and make and establish any new or other Rates in
lieu thereof, and from Time to Time, by Warrant as aforesaid,
to appoint at what Time the Rates which may be payable are to
be paid, and the Power hereby given to alter and fix Rates of
Postage shall extend to any Increase or Reduction, or Remission
of Postage.
s. 59. “And be it enacted, That the Rates of Postage from Time to
Time to become payable under or by virtue of any Warrant of the
Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury, under this Act, shall
be charged by and be paid to Her Majesty’s Postmaster General,
for the Use of Her Majesty, on all Post Letters, Newspapers, or
other printed Papers to which such Warrant shall extend; and that
in all Cases in which any Rates of Postage shall be made payable
under any such Warrant, every such Warrant shall be published
in the _London Gazette_, and shall, within Fourteen Days after
making the same, be laid before both Houses of Parliament (if
then sitting), or otherwise within Fourteen Days after Parliament
shall re-assemble; provided that any Rates made payable by any
such Warrant may be demanded and taken immediately after they
shall have been so published in the _London Gazette_, although
the same shall not then have been laid before Parliament.
s. 60. “And be it enacted, That in all Cases in which the Postage
of any unstamped Letter shall not have been paid by the Sender,
it shall be paid by the Person to whom the Letter is addressed on
the Delivery thereof to him; but if the Letter be refused, or the
Party to whom it is addressed shall be dead, or cannot be found,
the Writer or Sender shall pay the Postage; and this Enactment
shall apply to every Packet, Newspaper and Thing whatsoever
chargeable with Postage which shall be transmitted by the Post.
s. 61. “And be it enacted, That it shall be lawful for the
Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury to make any Reduction
or Increase or Alteration they may consider expedient in the
Gratuities allowed by this Act to Masters of Vessels for Letters
and Newspapers conveyed by them for or on behalf of the Post
Office, or delivered by them to the Post Office, and to allow
and authorize such Gratuities for the Conveyance of Letters
and Newspapers to Masters of Vessels passing to or from or
between any of Her Majesty’s Colonies or Possessions beyond the
Seas, as they shall think fit, and also to allow and authorize
any Gratuities to be paid to Pilots, Seamen, or others on the
Letters and Newspapers they may bring to any Post Office from any
Vessels.”
s. 71. “And be it enacted, That the following Terms and
Expressions, whenever used in this or any other Post Office Act,
shall have the several Interpretations herein-after respectively
set forth, unless such Interpretations are repugnant to the
Subject or inconsistent with the Context of the Provisions in
which they may be found; (that is to say,) the Term “_British_
Newspapers” shall mean Newspapers printed and published in the
United Kingdom liable to the Stamp Duties and duly stamped,
and also Newspapers printed in the Islands of _Guernsey_,
_Jersey_, _Alderney_, _Sark_, or _Man_, although not liable
to Stamp Duties; and the Term “inward-bound” shall be held to
include Vessels bound as well to any Port in the United Kingdom
as to any Port in any of her Majesty’s Colonies; and the Term
“outward-bound” shall be held to include Vessels bound as well
from any Port in the United Kingdom as from any Port in Her
Majesty’s Colonies; and that the Term “United Kingdom” shall mean
the United Kingdom of _Great Britain_ and _Ireland_, and the
Islands of _Man_, _Jersey_, _Guernsey_, _Sark_, and _Alderney_;
and that the Term “Her Majesty’s Colonies” shall include every
Port and Place within the Territorial Acquisitions now vested in
the _East India Company_ in Trust for Her Majesty, the _Cape of
Good Hope_, the Island of _Saint Helena_, the _Ionian Islands_,
and _Honduras_, as well as Her Majesty’s other Colonies and
Possessions beyond the Seas (the Islands of _Man_, _Guernsey_,
_Jersey_, _Alderney_ and _Sark_ only excepted); and that the
Term “by the Post” shall extend to and include the Transmission
of Post Letters as well by any General or Twopenny or Penny or
Convention Post as by Packet Boat; and the Term “Post Town”
shall include every City, Town, and Place where a Post Office
is or shall be established; and that the several other Terms
and Expressions used in this Act shall be construed according
to the respective Interpretations of the Terms and Expressions
contained in the said Act passed in the First Year of the Reign
of Her present Majesty, intituled _An Act for consolidating
the Laws relative to Offences against the Post Office of the
United Kingdom, and for regulating the Judicial Administration
of the Post Office Laws_, and for explaining certain Terms
and Expressions employed in those Laws, so far as those
Interpretations are not repugnant to the Subject or inconsistent
with the Context of such Terms and Expressions.”
_Newspapers, Ireland._--4 & 5 Will. 4. c. 71. “Whereas by an Act
passed in the Parliament of _Ireland_ in the Thirty-eighth Year
of the Reign of King _George_ the Third, intituled _An Act to
amend an Act passed in the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Years
of the Reign of His present Majesty, intituled ‘An Act to secure
the Liberty of the Press by preventing the Abuses arising from
the Publication of traitorous, seditious, false, and slanderous
Libels by Persons unknown_,’ it is amongst other things enacted,
that if any Printer, Publisher, or Proprietor, or Printers,
Publishers, or Proprietors of any Newspaper, Intelligencer, or
Occurrences, or any Paper serving the Purposes of a Newspaper,
Intelligencer, or Occurrences, shall have become and be found
a Lunatic or _non compos mentis_, or shall become and be found
bankrupt, or shall be outlawed for any Crime, or shall be found
guilty and receive Judgment for printing or publishing any
traitorous, scandalous, false, or seditious Libel, or shall be
charged by Indictment or Information with having published a
traitorous, scandalous, false, or seditious Libel, and shall not
within Six Days after a Copy of such Indictment or Information
shall be served upon such Printer, Publisher, or Proprietor, or
at the House or Place of printing or publishing the Paper in
which the Newspaper containing such Libel shall be printed,
surrender himself, herself, or themselves to take his, her, or
their Trial at the then next Commission of Oyer and Terminer,
Quarter Sessions of the Peace, or Assizes for the City or County
where he, she, or they shall be indicted as aforesaid, or where
such Information as aforesaid is to be tried, every Printer and
Publisher so neglecting, shall from thenceforth be disabled
to be the Printer, Publisher, or Proprietor of any Newspaper,
Intelligencer, or Occurrences, and the Commissioners of Stamp
Duties are thereby required to refuse to deliver to such Person
or Persons stamped Paper for the Purpose of printing a Newspaper;
and by an Act passed in the Parliament of the United Kingdom
of _Great Britain_ and _Ireland_ in the Fifty-fifth Year of
the Reign of His said Majesty King _George_ the Third [55 Geo.
3. c. 80.], intituled _An Act to provide for the Collection
and Management of Stamp Duties on Pamphlets, Almanacks, and
Newspapers in Ireland_, it is also amongst other things enacted,
that if any Printer, Publisher, or Proprietor of any Newspaper
in _Ireland_, shall be by due Course of Law outlawed for any
Criminal Offence, or receive Judgment for printing or publishing
a traitorous or seditious Libel, the said Commissioners of
Stamps in _Ireland_ and their Officers respectively are thereby
prohibited to sell or deliver to or for the Use of any such
Printer, Publisher, or Proprietor so outlawed, or who shall
have so received Judgment for such Libel, any stamped Paper for
printing any Newspaper; and it is also further enacted, that if
any Printer, Publisher, or Proprietor of any Newspaper which
shall be at any Time published in _Ireland_ shall have become a
Bankrupt or _non compos mentis_, or shall be outlawed for any
Crime, or shall receive Judgment for printing or publishing any
traitorous or seditious Libel, then and in every such Case such
Printer or Printers, Publisher or Publishers, Proprietor or
Proprietors respectively, shall no longer be entitled to print
or publish such Newspaper, but shall as to any such Right be
considered from thenceforth as if he, she, or they never had made
such Affidavit as in the said last-recited Act is mentioned: And
whereas it is expedient to repeal the said recited Enactments;
be it therefore enacted by the King’s most Excellent Majesty,
by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and
Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and
by the Authority of the same, That from and after the passing of
this Act so much of the said respective Acts as is herein-before
recited shall be and the same is hereby repealed.”
NICHOLS, JOHN. _See_ DONATIONS.
NICK.
A nick is a hollow cast crossways in the shanks of types, to make a
distinction readily between different sorts and sizes; and to enable
the compositor to perceive quickly the bottom of the letter as it
lies in the case, when composing; as nicks are always cast on that
side of the shank on which the bottom of the face of the letter is
placed.
A great deal of inconvenience frequently arises, owing to the
founders casting different founts of types with a similar nick in
each. Although this may, at the first sight, appear of little moment,
yet it is attended with much trouble: and works are frequently
disfigured by it, notwithstanding all the care of the compositor and
the reader, as will appear from the following statement.
A printer has cast a fount, we will suppose of Pica, in addition to
another he had in the house, and this new Pica is of a different face
from his old one; but not having given any particular directions,
the founder casts it with a nick precisely the same as the other.
The consequence is, when a compositor is distributing head lines,
lines of italic, small capitals, or small jobs--in the hurry of
business--through inadvertency--or carelessness--he frequently
distributes them into the wrong cases, when it is almost impossible
for another compositor who has occasion to use these cases next, to
detect the error till he sees the proof; unless he is in the habit
of reading his lines in the stick, which many are not. He has then
a great deal of trouble to change the letters; and, with all the
attention that the reader can bestow, a letter of the wrong fount
will frequently escape his eye, and disfigure the page.
Even in founts that are next in size to each other; for
instance,--Bourgeois and Long Primer, Long Primer and Small Pica,
Small Pica and Pica, and Pica and English, head lines, &c., are not
unfrequently distributed into wrong cases, where the nick is the
same; and always occasion loss of time in correcting the mistakes,
and sometimes pass undiscovered.
I would recommend, in furnishing a new office with types, that
every fount, commencing with the smallest, should have a different
nick from that of the next size: thus Brevier, supposing it to be
the smallest, might have three wide nicks, Bourgeois two closer
ones, and Long Primer one; Small Pica the same as Brevier, Pica
as Bourgeois, English as Long Primer; and here it might stop, for
there is difference enough in the sizes above English for the eye to
distinguish them readily, without varying the nick.