[292] "If a tradesman at the present time carries his circular to the Board of Inland Revenue, he obtains the postal privilege on the condition of his declaring his circular to be a newspaper, although, if the Board of Inland Revenue were afterwards to prosecute him for not stamping his entire impression, he would be entitled to go into a Court of Justice and there to contend that that was not a newspaper which he himself had declared to be a newspaper in order to obtain the postal privilege for part of his impression."—Mr. Gladstone, 19th March 1855; ibid., vol. cxxxvii. col. 791.
[293] 'The Solicitor of the Board of Inland Revenue, being examined before a Committee upon the subject of class publications, was asked why class publications were not subjected to the compulsory stamp. Inadvertently, instead of saying that they were exempted because they were addressed to a particular class of the community, he said that it was because they related only to one subject. In giving that reason, he made a slight error of statement. That error has now been taken up in different parts of the country, and a number of periodicals have appeared, such as the War Telegraph and the War Times, containing intelligence relating exclusively to the war, which they say is 'one subject,' and so saying, set the Board of Inland Revenue at defiance."—Chancellor of the Exchequer, 19th March 1855; ibid., vol. cxxxvii. col. 804.
[294] "I am quite satisfied, from years of attention to this subject, that there never was so large a measure involved in a small measure, so to speak, as is the case with regard to this proposition for making the Press free. I am willing to rest on the verdict of the future, and I am quite confident that five or six years will show that all the votes of Parliament for educational purposes have been as mere trifles compared with the vast results which will flow from this measure, because, while the existing papers will retain all their powers of usefulness, it will call to their aid numbers of others not less useful, and while we continue to enjoy the advantage of having laid before us each morning a map of the events of the world, the same advantage will be extended to classes of society at present shut out from it."—John Bright, 19th March 1855; ibid., vol. cxxxvii. cols. 810-11.
[295] "Another objection, and that of a more serious character, has been brought under my notice by various persons, who have described the proposition to repeal the compulsory newspaper stamp as one which would be most dangerous to society. It has been described as a measure which will open the floodgates of sedition and blasphemy, and which will inundate the country with licentious and immoral productions, which will undermine the very foundations of society, and scatter the seeds of revolution broadcast over the land. These expressions are not exaggerated representations of the opinions which have been communicated to me from many quarters since this measure has been under my consideration."—Chancellor of the Exchequer in House of Commons, 19th March 1855; ibid., vol. cxxxvii. col. 782.
"The Right Hon. Gentleman who has just resumed his seat (Mr. Disraeli) has spoken of the 'liberty of the Press.' That has been long spoken of. It has been said that it must be 'free as the air we breathe; take it away, we die.' But, Sir, what is the 'liberty of the Press'? It is the liberty of a certain number of persons to slander anonymously whomever they please, against whom you have no redress. It is freedom to the anonymous libeller."—Mr. Drummond in the House of Commons, 23rd April 1855; ibid., vol. cxxxvii. col. 1680.
[296] "This is not merely a fiscal matter, because, as I have already stated to the Committee, the existing law respecting the stamp duty upon newspapers has been brought into a most inconsistent state by a succession of indulgences which were made for the benefit of a certain class of newspaper publications. The consequence of these indulgences is, that the greatest difficulty exists in the administration of the present law."—Chancellor of the Exchequer in House of Commons, 19th March 1855; ibid., vol. cxxxvii. col. 802.
[297] "Q. 1852. Mr. Cobden: Would the carrying of newspapers be profitable to the Post Office at the present rates, provided you were left to adopt your own regulations as to the transmission of newspapers without the intervention of the Board of Inland Revenue?—In one sense it would be profitable and in another it would not. If we were to charge against the newspapers a share of the fixed expenses of the establishment, then it is very questionable whether it would be profitable; but if you consider, as we probably should, that the expenses of the establishment are incurred in respect of the letters, and only calculate the additional expense which would be thrown upon us for the transmission of newspapers, then I think we should find them profitable.
"Q. 1853: Having an immense organization at the Post Office with a certain amount of fixed charges, with a large amount of postmen necessarily travelling over the whole of the kingdom, you would find it profitable to carry newspapers for a penny, in addition to the letter carrying, would you?—Yes.
"Q. 1854: Therefore, if the newspaper stamp were abolished, and you were left to regulate the postage at the Post Office, you would deem it profitable to carry newspapers at a penny each?—Yes, certainly we should: what I mean is, that the carrying of newspapers would not increase our expenses to the extent of a penny each.
"Ans. 1912: I was in hopes that we might distribute them at a halfpenny, if we could have completed a plan in the simple form in which it presented itself to my mind at first.