An association, as we learn, has sprung up in London with the view of
procuring the abolition of all taxes on knowledge--meaning by that
phrase the Excise duty on paper, the tax on foreign books, the duty on
advertisements, and the penny stamp on newspapers; the whole of which
yield a return to the Exchequer of L.1,266,733; but deducting certain
expenses to which the government is put, the aggregate clear revenue is
calculated to be about L.1,056,000.
We have been requested to give such aid as may be in our power to
facilitate the objects of the Anti-tax-on-Knowledge Association,
having, as is pretty correctly inferred, no small interest in seeing at
least one department of the exaction--the duty on paper--swept away.
So frequently, however, have we petitioned parliament on this subject,
and with so little practical avail, that we have made up our minds to
petition no more. If the public desire to get cheap newspapers, cheap
literary journals, and cheap advertisements, they must say so, and
take on themselves the trouble of agitating accordingly. This they
have never yet done. They seem to have imagined that the question is
one exclusively between publishers and papermakers and the government;
whereas, in point of fact, it is as much a public question as that of
the late taxes on food, and should be dealt with on the same broad
considerations. We are, indeed, not quite sure that publishers,
papermakers, and other tradesmen intimately concerned in the question
are, _as a body_, favourable to the removal of the stamp, the Excise,
and other taxes on their wares. Generally speaking, only a few of the
more enterprising, and the least disposed to maintain a monopoly, have
ever petitioned for the abolition of these taxes. This will seem
curious, yet it can be accounted for. A papermaker, to pay the duty
on the goods he manufactures, must have a large command of capital;
comparatively few can muster this capital; hence few can enter the
trade. London wholesale stationers, who, by advancing capital to the
papermakers, acquire a species of thraldom over them, are, according
to all accounts, by no means desirous to see the duties abolished; for
if they were abolished, their money-lending and thirlage powers would
be gone. So is it with the great monopolists of the newspaper press.
As things stand, few can compete with them. But remove the existing
imposts, and let anybody print a newspaper who likes, and hundreds of
competitors in town and country would enter the field. There can be no
doubt whatever that the stamp and advertisement-duty, particularly the
latter, would long since have been removed but for the want of zeal
shown by the London newspaper press. If these, however, be mistaken
opinions, let us now see the metropolitan stationers and newspaper
proprietors petition vigorously for the removal of the taxes that have
been named.
But on the public the great burthen of the agitation must necessarily
fall. Never would the legislature have abolished the taxes on
bread from the mere complaints of the corn importers; nor will the
taxes on knowledge be removed till the tax-payers show something
like earnestness in pressing their demands. The modern practice of
statesmanship is, to have no mind of its own: it has substituted
agitation for intelligence, and only responds to clamour. The public
surely can have no difficulty in making a noise! Let it do battle in
this cause--cry out lustily--and we shall cheerfully help it. If it
wont, why, then, we rather believe the matter must be let alone.
Who will dare to avow that the prize is not worthy of the contest? We
do not apprehend that, by any process of cheapening, the newspaper
press of Great Britain would ever sink to that pitch of foulness that
seems to prevail in America. The tastes and habits of the people
are against it; the law, strongly administered, is against it. The
only change we would expect by the removal of the stamp-duty, and
the substitution of, say, a penny postage, would be the rise of
news-sheets in every town in the kingdom. And why not? Why, in these
days of electric telegraph, should not every place have its own paper,
unburthened with a stamp? Or why should the people of London, who do
not post their newspapers, be obliged to pay for stamps which they
never use? As to the advertisement-duty--an exaction of 1s. 6d. on
every business announcement--its continuance is a scandal to common
sense; and the removal of that alone would give an immense impetus to
all branches of trade. The taxes which press on our own peculiar sheet
we say nothing about, having already in many ways pointed out their
effect in lessening the power of the printing-machine, and limiting the
sphere of its public usefulness.