[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"Impolicy of Imposing a Postage on Newspapers.—The duties now substantially repealed produced, in 1853, £412,220 nett, no inconsiderable sum in a period of war.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.