498 Taxes on Knowledge. [MAY 



Id., or an ad valorem tax of five-and-twenty per cent, on newspapers, and 

 a charge of 6d. or 1 s. on advertisements, so far from causing a loss to 

 to the public income, may reasonably be proposed as a source of revenue. 

 Why government should, under any circumstances, persist in maintain- 

 ing the duty on rags, pamphlets, and almanacks, (30,000/.) it is impos- 

 sible to conceive. 



The apathy of the public generally upon this subject, may arise from 

 their supposing it a question which merely concerns newspapers. A 

 great, and it may perhaps turn out to be a mischievous, mistake. The 

 interest of several journals rather lies the other way. A reduction of the 

 duty would increase the demand, but it would also increase the competi- 

 tion, and perhaps in a greater ratio. Higher, at least more various 

 talents must be employed, greater exertions must be made in the different 

 departments, and more knowledge must be poured into daily, and 

 especially into weekly, journals. More regard to truth must be paid to 

 the narration, more taste and discrimination exercised in the selection of 

 "news," and a considerable improvement take place in the* system of 

 reporting. Those who only see what is done, are astonished, and not 

 without reason, at the mechanical perfection to which it is carried. 

 Those who know what is left undone, continually regret its deficiencies. 

 On matters of general interest the reports are well, though partially and 

 capriciously, done. But questions where knowledge is required, both to 

 comprehend the subject, and appreciate its importance, are slubbered over 

 or omitted. When the reporters cannot understand a man, they profess 

 not to hear him ; when they do not appreciate a subject, they cursorily 

 dismiss it. Something, too, is wanted on the score of selection and 

 fidelity. Spirit, and the graphic effect which results from a description of 

 the by-play, is very rarely attempted. The latter part of these remarks 

 more especially apply to legal reports. 



But, in reality, the question is not so much between journalists and 

 their readers, as it is the concern of every man who has any thing to lose. 

 To stop the circulation of the cheap papers would be very difficult, and is, 

 perhaps, impossible. The risk of considerable loss and inconvenience, 

 .the certainty of very little profit, and the disrepute attached to an evasion 

 of the law, throws these journals into the hands of men both poor and 

 ignorant, and, as a necessary consequence of the latter, rash and violent in 

 their views. We do not here allude to merely political notions, but to 

 opinions which strike at the institution of property, and at the foundation 

 of all social order. With the majority of the untaxed papers the most 

 pernicious doctrines are constantly advocated ; not only is the Debt a 

 doomed thing " the boroughmongers borrowed, let the boroughmongers 

 pay j" not only are rent and tithes condemned, upon the principle that 

 the community has an inherent right of property in the soil ; but the in- 

 stitution of property itself is treated as the source of all our social evils, 

 and an equal division of wealth recommended as their only remedy. The 

 mischievous tendency of such doctrines upon the minds of the lower 

 classes the irresistible majority, if they be stimulated to action it is 

 needless to dilate upon ; but totally to put down the papers in which they 

 are disseminated would be very difficult, whilst popular opinion is opposed 

 to the law, and to check the oral dissemination of the doctrines would be 

 impossible. But there is an easy way to render them innoxious. Permit 

 the circulation of a remedy at as cheap a rate as we do the poison, and 



