[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 (¼d. 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.