many Whether our forefathers regarded an almanack as a pecu- ing to the Rules of the Ptolomean Astrology, with liarly dangerous and heretical publication does not other things relating to the Truth of Astrology, calcuappear; but it can hardly be believed that such a tax lated for the Meridian of London. By John Partridge. could have been devised save for the express purpose of London: Printed for the Company of Stationers." The preventing the use of almanacks throughout the kingdom. body of the publication was covered with "ObservaIn France the almanack has always been made a vehicle tions," such as are now only to be met with in almanacks of popular instruction and amusement. It is scarcely published for the most credulous and ignorant. For exan exaggeration to say that the sale of publications of ample: "Various intelligence arrives this month from this kind, in every variety of form, reckons in that most parts of Europe, and many nations are now concountry by millions; and readers must be familiar with sulting their future happiness; but there is cause to the names of comic almanacks, merchants' almanacks, doubt there will not be that candour and humanity and trade and class almanacks, of all kinds, which have amongst them as might be." Moore's the only other sprung up in England since the remission of the duty. almanack, indeed, worth mentioning which existed But the primary use of the almanack is, of course, its up to a very short period before the repeal—was filled diary, an occasional reference to which can scarcely be with similar absurdities; yet even business men were dispensed with by any person, however humble his posi- compelled to buy such trash, or go without the necestion in life. This, however, the Legislature thought fit sary information which it contained. Of course, the to deny the people. A few almanacks, indeed, existed, proprietors of these old-established almanacks strongly which had regularly appeared for nearly two centuries; resisted any change. Notwithstanding, the duty was for the effect of all these unnatural restrictions is to abolished; and the publication of almanacks sprang destroy all enterprise, and to throw the whole produc- at once into an activity which astonished even the tion into one or two hands, constituting a virtual advocates of the abolition. The old-established almamonopoly. Among the most important of these were nacks doubled their circulation in the first year of their those known as Moore's and Partridge's. The latter freedom from taxation; and more than 200 new ones had borne on the title the words " By John Partridge," started immediately on the repeal, of which no less than ever since the days of Swift, who published a well- a quarter of a million of copies were sold. In the known satirical account of the pretended death of Part-present day their circulation probably amounts to ten ridge, who claimed to be an astrologer. The Stationers' times that number. There is scarcely a country Company, who were the chief publishers of these almanacks, had originally claimed the sole right to issue publications of the kind, under a patent of monopoly granted by King James I.; and they appear to have enjoyed their privilege till the year 1775, when a bookseller having disputed its legality, the cause was decided against the company. Shortly afterwards, Lord North brought in a bill to legalise the privilege, but the House rejected the absurd proposal of the Ministers by a majority of 45. All these almanacks, except the "British Almanack," started, a few years before the repeal of the duty, by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, were wretched pamphlets, printed upon coarse paper, without a wrapper, and were filled with the jargon of astrology, and other puerile and useless matter, exactly as they had been in the days of Queen Anne. Although the matter they were composed of was far less than is now given in a single number of a penny journal, they were issued at the price of 1s. 10d. each copy. A copy of Partridge's almanack for the year 1815 bears the title Merlinus Liberatus: an Almanack for the Year of our Redemption 1815, being the third after Bissextile, or Leap Year, and from the Creation of the World, according to the best History, 5762, and the 127th of Our Deliverance by King William from Popery and Arbitrary Government, but the 137th from the Horrid Popish Jacobite plot; wherein are contained all things fitting and useful for such a work; as an Ephemeris of the Daily Motions of the Planets, with their various Configurations, Aspects, &c.; Remarks on the Divisions of the Heavens, with Judgments of the Eclipses and Seasons, handled accord newspaper, or a cheap periodical, which does not publish its annual almanack; and throughout the country, tradesmen of every class adopt the plan of giving away almanacks to their customers, as a vehicle for advertising their wares. Scarcely a cottage or a servant's kitchen is now without its almanack hanging on the wall. Among the most curious results of the repeal is the multiplication of diaries, or almanacks ruled for daily memoranda, which, though little used thirty years ago, are now in great request among all persons who have engagements of any kind whatever. The duty on pamphlets was no less objectionable for its vexatious and unproductive character; indeed, it is impossible to doubt that the object of this tax was not to increase the revenue, but simply to check this kind of publication. The duty on pamphlets was imposed in 1815, immediately after the passing of the infamous Corn Law of that year. The bill enacted that every book containing one whole sheet, and not exceeding eight sheets in octavo, or any lesser size, or not exceeding twelve sheets in quarto, or twenty sheets in folio, should be deemed a pamphlet; and imposed a duty of 38. upon each sheet of one copy of all pamphlets published. Of course, such a trifling duty could only seriously affect the poorest class of publishers, and the cheapest kind of broadsheet, or similar popular publication. The whole amount produced by the duty was less than £1,000 per annum ; but it gave the authorities the right to interfere with a species of publication which was frequently annoying to the Government, and on this ground the duty was maintained till 1833, when it was repealed. A.D. 1841.] THE STAMP ON NEWSPAPERS. The stamp on newspapers was a far more effectual bar to the spread of sound knowledge on political questions. If the people of England at the period under review were prejudiced and ignorant on the subject of those monopolies which lay at the root of their troubles, it was certainly less their fault than that of their rulers. Those who are now accustomed to buy an enormous sheet filled with news and original articles on public affairs for a penny, find it difficult to realise the fact that in 1836 every copy of a newspaper published throughout the kingdom paid a duty to Government of fourpence, signified by a little red stamp in one corner of the sheet. It was impossible 517 spondence, raise merchants in remote places toward an equality with those in the great marts, and wonderfully quicken all the movements of commerce." But newspapers, even under these heavy burdens, had become themselves a considerable commercial article in Great Britain. In the printing and distribution of them, and in the demand they created for paper, machinery, and other things, they already occasioned a large amount of industry. Of course, none but the comparatively wealthy purchased these high-priced papers. In 1833, when the population of the United States was very far less than at present, the total number of newspapers at that period, without a violation of the stamp laws, to sell any newspaper for less than 7d. or 74d. per copy -some were much higher priced. The Spectator-a journal which advocated with remarkable ability the principles of free trade-was published at 1s. It was not only political information which was thus restrained; "the numerous advertisements in newspapers, the variety of facts and information they contain," says Mr. M'Culloch, "as to the supply and demand of commodities in all quarters of the world, their prices, and the regulations by which they are affected, render newspapers indispensable to commercial men, supersede a great mass of epistolary correVOL. VII.-No. 356. circulating in the Union was estimated at from 55,000,000 to 60,000,000; while the total number issued in Great Britain and Ireland, to a population of 74,000,000, was only 34,515,000. It is surprising, indeed, that so large a number should have been issued under restrictions so powerful. The fact can only be accounted for by the practice which largely prevailed of hiring papers, both weekly and daily, for a trifling payment per hour, and, in some cases, of combining for purchasing some particular journal. It is not to be wondered at that every kind of evasion of the stamp duty was attempted. "Owing to the great craving of the people for information on political sub jects," says Mr. Porter, during the agitation which six months. The frequent prosecution of the vendors of accompanied the introduction and passing of the Reform Bill, a great temptation was offered for the illegal publication of newspapers upon unstamped paper, many of which were sold in large numbers, in defiance of all the preventive efforts made by the officers of Government." The stamp duty placed the legally published journals beyond the reach of the working classes, who eagerly availed themselves of the low-priced papers offered; which, however inferior in quality they might be, gave, or professed to give, the information which was so eagerly sought. As it was felt to be impossible to put down the illegal publications, without having recourse to a system of harshness which might produce even more violent and more widely-spread feelings of dissatisfaction, the Government wisely gave way, and effectually and at once put an end to the illegal publications by reducing the duty from fourpence to a penny per sheet. the Poor Man's Guardian compelled them to conduct Hetherington conducted his own defence, and the prosecution failed, the jury returning a verdict for the defendant, on the ground that they did not think that the Poor Man's Guardian came within the act. of This change appears to have been effected less with a view to the benefits which subsequently resulted from it, than for the sake of putting down a contraband trade which had baffled all the devices of the law. A sort of unstamped newspaper war had long been main-mation being filed by Her Majesty's Attorney-General. tained between the Government and the illegal publishers. The large powers given by the Acts of Parliament to the revenue officers were rigorously applied: printers' types, presses, and other stock in trade, were seized by armed forces of police and military, and destroyed, and the printers thrown into prison. The prisons in London and the provincial towns, particularly Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Hull, Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, and Glasgow, were seldom untenanted by some of the persons popularly called the "victims of the unstamped." Large numbers of women| and very young persons were put in prison for selling by retail papers without a stamp. But all law, legal devices, severity, even the stretching of law to a point almost illegal, failed to repress the adventurers in unstamped papers. At this period 3s. 6d. had to be paid on every advertisement by which people were in the habit of communicating their wants to each other; in addition to this the compulsory stamp on each copy was 4d., and the duty on the pound of paper 3d. The Examiner newspaper-a journal which advocated the principles of free trade with remarkable ability-was the first journal which systematically called attention to press taxation, inscribing its price on the first page thus:—“Taxes on knowledge, 4d.; print and paper, 3d." One case, illustrating the crusade against this useful exercise of industry and capital, is worth mentioning. On the 9th of July, 1831, a newspaper was started by a writer named Hetherington, bearing on its front page the title "The Poor Man's Guardian: a Weekly Newspaper for the People. Published contrary to law,' to try the power of 'Might' against Right.' Notwithstanding the vigilance of the Government, this unlawful paper was continued till the 26th of December, 1835; and within this period 500 persons suffered imprisonment for selling it. Hetherington was four times convicted of publishing it-twice imprisoned for The paper duty operated as a far more effectual clog upon literary industry. It was not until 1861 that this tax was entirely abolished, but the evils to which Mr. Gladstone put an end were only a trifling portion of those which existed still unreformed in 1835. The duty, which was calculated to vary from 30 to 200 per cent, ad valorem, had an injurious effect on many other trades besides that of the paper-maker. But the greatest evil of all was the high price of books which it occasioned. This placed a great obstacle in the way of the progress knowledge, of useful and necessary arts, and of sober and industrious habits. It has been remarked that books carry the productions of the human mind over the whole world, and may be truly called the raw material of every kind of science and art, and of all social improvement. But the legislature appears to have determined to give every possible discouragement to the issue of books and periodicals-particularly those of a popular or educational character, upon which these impositions fell with far greater force than upon the costly publications circulating among the wealthy. For instance, it is stated by Mr. Petter, in a pamphlet entitled "Some Objections to the Repeal of the Paper Duty Considered," that "Cassell's Elements of Euclid," chiefly used as a school-book, contributed to the tax 12 per cent. of the price of each copy. The duty upon a raw material, it must be remembered, by no means represents the amount of charge which it entails on the manufacturer. Mr. Charles Knight says: "From 1833 to 1837, the price of a ream of Penny Cyclopædia paper was 33s.; from 1838 to 1846, it was 24s. The difference in price was 95. * From an Address delivered by Mr. John Francis, Treasurer of the Press Association for obtaining the Repeal of the Paper Duty. per ream; the amount of reduced duty was 4s. 43d. The paper-maker and the stationers doubled the tax." The same writer adds, "Upon a tolerably accurate calculation, I have, from my own unaided resources, expended, during the last twenty years, £80,000 upon copyright and editorial labour. During the same period I have paid £50,000 paper duty, which sum has become a double charge to me by the inevitable operation of a tax upon the raw material." The explanation of the doubled duty was that the manufacturer must not only be reimbursed the amount he has paid, but both he and the stationer must have a profit on the increased price of the article, to which had to be added a compensation for the hindrance to business, and the trouble and annoyance of excise regulations. Every step of the manufacture and sale of paper was conducted under the surveillance of the revenue officer. Any attempt to improve processes, or to apply paper to any new purpose, was naturally regarded with suspicion, and generally nipped in the bud by the annoyance to which any inventive genius who was unfortunate enough to turn his attention to paper was sure to be subjected. Indeed, it might have been supposed by any one who was ignorant of the origin of the tax, that the making of paper was a criminal act, which the Government, unable to repress entirely, had determined to check and regulate to the utmost of their power. The numerous provisions of the law as to entering, folding, weighing, sorting, labelling, and removing were more than any man could retain in his memory, while compliance was enforced under numerous penalties. The paper-mill owner was bound to give twenty-four or forty-eight hours' notice (according to the distance at which the exciseman lived) before he could change any paper, and to keep it in the mill for twenty-four hours afterwards before he could send it to market, unless it had been re-weighed by the supervisor. He was compelled to have the different rooms in his manufactory, and every engine, vat, press, and chest numbered. Labels had to be pasted on every ream, and if one label happened to be lost, the paper-maker was liable to a penalty of £200. One paper-maker informed Mr. Poulett Thompson that he generally wrote a request for 500 labels to the excise at one time; and that "if any person had got into the mill to steal or destroy them, the penalty would be £100,000." In addition to this he was until very lately compelled to admit the exciseman at all hours of the day or night, or pay £200; he had to keep sufficient scales and weights, and allow the officers to use them, or forfeit £100; and if he employed for his own purposes the more accurate weighing-machine used in other Government departments, the excise, ever jealous of innovation, compelled him to retain the old beam scale for the use of the exciseman. He had to help the exciseman to do his work, or on refusal forfeit £50; he had to enter daily in a book an account of the paper sent out of his mill, the penalty for any forgetfulness on this point being £50; he had to abstain from sending out any paper not tied up in wrappers properly labelled, or forfeit £20. If he had two mills, he could not 519 move a ream of paper from one to the other without notice, under a penalty of £50; and he was compelled to abstain from opening a stationer's shop within a mile of his manufactory under a penalty of £200. The paper duty was originally imposed in the reign of Queen Anne, for the avowed purpose of putting down newspapers and pamphlets. Dean Swift, in commenting upon the new taxes on knowledge, said, "As the person who advised the Queen had only in his thoughts the redressing of the political and factious libels, I think he ought to have taken care, by his great credit in the House, to have prepared some way by which that evil might be removed; the law for taxing single papers having produced quite a contrary effect, as was then foreseen by many persons, and has since been found true by experience;" and he complained that “ those who would draw their pens by the side of their princes and country, are discouraged by this tax, which exceeds the intrinsic value both of the materials and the work; and this, if I be not mistaken, without example." That the paper duty was not imposed for the sake of revenue is evidenced by the fact that in the first year it produced less than £14,000; but so effectual was it found in putting a stop to the objectionable manufacture, that in the following year the amount collected fell to less than half that sum. The duty was in 1717 made perpetual, and from time to time was increased, until it settled at 3d. per pound on all but common brown paper. In 1835 a Royal Commission, of which Sir Henry Parnell was the chairman, recommended that the duty be reduced to 14d. on all paper-a change which was carried out in the following year. Some idea of the repressive effect of the old duty may be obtained from comparing the rate of progress of the manufacture for twenty-one years before and twenty-one years after the reduction of duty, as shown by the following figures :— The stimulus given to cheap publications by this step towards the complete freedom of the paper trade was enormous, although the tax still pressed with crushing effect upon all classes of publications except those luxurious and ornamental or valuable copyright works in which paper bears but a small proportion to the entire cost. From a statement drawn up by one of the largest publishing houses in London, it appeared that, as a rule, where an edition of a book was an average one of 750 copies, the duties amounted to about a seventh of the cost of the edition; and that if the edition consisted of 500 or 750 copies, the duties amounted to more than the entire remuneration of the author. This, however, was on the supposition that the entire number of copies printed were sold off at full publication price-a thing which rarely happened; for, of course, the sale of books under these heavy burdens was greatly restricted. As a rule, half the original impression of a work was rarely sold off except at a ruinous sacrifice. But if, in the previous example of an edition of 750 copies, it happened that only 625, £100. Any person forging or counterfeiting such stamp instead of 750, were sold, the result would be that only or seal was guilty of felony, but with the benefit of £57 19s. would remain as profit to the author and pub-clergy. Any person knowingly selling any starch with lisher, and as a compensation for interest, the risk of a forged or counterfeit stamp, &c., forfeited £500. No bad debts, &c. Were only 500 copies sold, the cost quantity of starch exceeding 28 lbs. could be removed would not be more than balanced; and there would be from one place to another, unless the word "starch nothing whatever to remunerate the author for his were marked on the package, in legible letters three labour, or the bookseller for the use of his capital. Were inches long, under forfeiture of the package, and of the only 400 copies sold, Government would have received cattle and carts conveying the same. Any dealer in £28 19s. 11d. of duty from a speculation by which the starch receiving any quantity exceeding 28 lbs. not author had lost all his labour, and the bookseller marked as above, forfeited £200. Starch-makers were £36 15s. of his capital. The mere possibility of such a to make weekly entries of the starch made by them, supposition being realised, would have been a sufficient under a penalty of £50, and to make payment of the ground for a revision of the duties; but, in point of fact, duties within a week of such entry. Permits granted such cases, instead of being merely possible or rare, were for shipping starch to be carried coastwise were to exof every-day occurrence. press the quality, quantity, weight, the mark of the package, by whom made and sold, and to whom consigned; and if shipped without such docket, it might be seized. No starch was to be imported unless in packages containing at least 224 lbs. stowed openly in the hold, on pain of forfeiture and a penalty of £50. No starch was to be exported unless the package as originally sealed or stamped by the officer was entire, and unless the officer marked the word "exportation" upon it. On an investigation into the affairs of an extensive publishing concern, it was found that, of 130 works published by it in a given time, 50 had not paid their expenses. Of the 80 that did pay, 13 only had arrived at a second edition; but, in most instances, these second editions had not been profitable. In general it was estimated, that of the books published, a fourth did not pay their expenses; and that only 1 in 8 or 10 could be reprinted with advantage. As respects pamphlets, it was stated that not 1 in 50 paid the expenses of publication.* "Such," says the same authority (writing in 1834), "is the encouragement given to literature, such the facilities afforded to the diffusion of useful information, by the popular Government of England. All other businesses meet with very different treatment. Dealers in gin or brandy, for example, may lodge their goods in bonded warehouses, and are not obliged to pay any duty upon them until they are sold for home consumption; but such privilege is denied to the bookseller, though the article in which he deals be a thousand times more capricious. He must pay the duty on the whole impression of every book, before bringing a single copy of it to market; so that he not unfrequently pays duty upon 1,000 volumes, though unable to sell above 150 or 200, except as waste paper! Even this is not the whole injury done him; for upon an advertisement announcing the salo of a 6d. pamphlet, as heavy a duty is charged as if it announced the sale of an estate worth £100,000!" All this absurd interference with industry was swept away in 1834, and in the same year a considerable reduction was made in the duty on that necessary article, soap. In the same year of reform, a ridiculous duty on stone bottles was swept away-a duty which, for the sake of about £4,000 per annum, subjected the manufacturers of earthenware to annoyances no less harassing than those which we have sketched above. Among the odd effects of the repeal of this silly duty, we may notice the rapid extension of the consumption of that popular beverage, ginger-beer, which is invariably kept in stone bottles, and which, before the removal of the duty, was scarcely known. Sweets and mead were also emancipated in 1835; but from that period until Sir Robert Peel's great changes, in 1845-6, the beneficial course of remission of excise duties was unhappily suspended. The results of these changes have been in the highest degree satisfactory. They have shown that the multiplication of vexatious restraints upon industrial liberty was not only an evil, but a folly. The removal of each duty has been followed in every case by an enormous progress in the manufacture. New uses have been discovered for every article, improvements made in the article itself and in the processes of manufacture, and fresh employment has been found for the people. The consumption of every kind of commodity, taxed and untaxed, has thus been increased, and, as a consequence, it has been found that all this relief to industry and to the consumer of the articles has abso Even such a trifling article as starch was subjected, up to 1835, to a duty which produced upwards of £100,000 per annum. The starch was charged with a duty of 31d. per lb., and its manufacture was consequently placed under the control of the excise. Every maker of starch for sale had to take out an annual licence, which cost £5. Notice was to be given to the excise of the erection, and of all changes in the construction, of work-lutely cost the revenue nothing. This will be best shops, implements, &c., used in the manufacture of starch, under a penalty of £200. All starch, before it was put into any stove or place to dry, was to be papered and sealed or stamped by the officer, under a penalty of * M'Culloch's "Dictionary of Commerce," Edit. 1834, Art. "Books." shown by looking forward a little beyond the period which we are now describing. In 1830 we had 27 different excise duties, which produced £20,076,862; in 1831, 24, which produced £17,795,512; in 1833, 23, which produced £17,510,073; in 1834, 21, which produced £17,573,209; in 1835, 18, which producel |