[496 ] [MAY, 



TAXES ON KNOWLEDGE. 



THE Ministers have acted somewhat shabbily with regard to the TAXES 

 ON KNOWLEDGE. After all their implied pledges, the Six Acts still dis- 

 grace the Statute Book. The tax on paper is still in being, and, a neces- 

 sary consequence, the manufacturer is still subjected to the vexatious 

 constraints of the excise regulations, to the domiciliary visits of the 

 excise officer, and pleasanter still, to the trouble and expense, and dis~ 

 credit * of excise informations, to say nothing of the effect of the tax 

 upon the price of books, upon the remuneration of the author, and the 

 profits of the publisher. A duty of one hundred per cent, is yet levied 

 upon newspapers ; and the book trade in common with every man who 

 is desirous of selling or buying, is still subjected to a tax of from one to 

 two hundred per cent, upon advertisements. As regards the gentlemen of 

 the Weekly Press, the Whigs have acted with less fairness than the Tories. 

 Those worthies protected those whom they taxed. The present Ministry 

 not only narrow the market of the fair trader, but they allow smugglers of 

 every grade to vend their contraband articles under his very eyes. 



The state of the revenue is the excuse made by Lord Althorpe. Let 

 us examine its validity. The sum produced by all the taxes levied, either 

 directly or indirectly upon literature, amounts to about one million and a 

 quarter, f Lord Althorpe has remitted two millions. Had the heaviest and 



* We do not allude to the intentional smuggling, but to formal or accidental 

 violations of the complicated and contradictory laws ivhich direct how paper shall 

 be made. 



The following is a statement of the amounts respectively produced in 1830, in 

 Great Britain and Ireland. The documents for last year are not yet printed. 



TAXES ON KNOWLEDGE. 

 EXCISE 



Paper '687, 808 



STAMPS 



Newspapers and Supplements, and Papers for Advertisements, 440, 027 



Advertisements 173,819 



Almanacks 27,256 



Pamphlets 1,034 



CUSTOMS 



Rags, &c. for Paper 2, 312 



Books (foreign, or which originally published in this country, 



have not been reprinted for twenty years 11,810 



Paper 1,325 



Quills i 4,252 



1,349,643 



The duties on the three last are imposed with a view to protection rather than 

 revenue. Of course as long as we tax our own manufacturer he is entitled to 

 protection. Though Quills scarcely come under this head. They are part and 

 parcel of the Corn Laws. 



TAXES REMITTED BY THE PRESENT MINISTERS. 



Coals and Culm 958, 299 



Slates 35,573 



Printed Calicoes and Oil Cloths 500, 000 



Candles 482,413 



1,976,285 



