Fiscal laws affecting Henceforth the freedom of the press was assured; and the press. nothing was now wanting to its full expansion, but a revision of the fiscal laws, by which its utmost development was restrained. These were the stamp, advertisement, and paper duties. It was not until after a struggle of thirty years, that all these duties were repealed: but in order to complete our survey of the press, their history may, at once, be briefly told. Newspaper stamps. The newspaper stamp of Queen Anne had risen, by successive additions, to fourpence. Originating in jealousy of the press, its extension was due, partly to the same policy, and partly to the exigencies of finance. So high a tax, while it discouraged cheap newspapers, was naturally liable to evasion. Tracts, and other unstamped papers, containing news and comments upon public affairs, were widely circulated among the poor; and it was to restrain this practice, that the stamp laws had been extended to that class of papers by one of the Six Acts. They were denounced as seditious and blasphemous, and were to be extinguished. But the passion for news and political discussion was not to be repressed; and unstamped publications were more rife than ever. Such papers occupied the same place in the periodical press, as tracts printed, at a former period, in evasion of the licenser. All concerned in such papers were violating the law, and braving its terrors: the gaol was ever before their eyes. This was no honourable calling; and none but the meanest would engage in it. Hence the poor, who most needed wholesome instruction, received the very worst, from a contraband press. During the Reform agitation, a new class of publishers, of higher character and purpose, set up unstamped newspapers for the working classes, and defied the government in the spirit 1 60 Geo. III. c. 9; supra, p. 199. of Prynne and Lilburne. Their sentiments, already democratic, were further embittered by their hard wrestling with the law. They suffered imprisonment, but their papers continued in large circulation: they were fined, but their fines were paid by subscription. Prosecutions against publishers and vendors of such papers were becoming a serious aggravation of the criminal law. Prisons were filled with offenders1; and the state was again at war with the press, in a new form. If the law could not overcome the unstamped press, Unstamped it was clear that the law itself must give way. Mr. Lytton Bulwer2 and Mr. Hume exposed the growing evils of the newspaper stamp: ministers were too painfully sensible of its embarrassments; and in 1836, it was reduced to one penny, and the unstamped press was put down. At the same time, a portion of the paper duty was remitted. Already, in 1833, the advertisement duty had been reduced; and newspapers now laboured under a lighter weight. news papers. Meanwhile, efforts had been made to provide an Taxes on knowledge. antidote for the poison circulated in the lowest of the unstamped papers, by a cheap and popular literature without news3: but the progress of this beneficent work disclosed the pressure of the paper duty upon all cheap publications, the cost of which was to be repaid by extensive circulation. Cheapness and expansion were evidently becoming the characteristics of the periodical press; to which every tax, however light, was an impediment. Hence a new movement for the repeal of all "taxes on knowledge," led by Mr. Milner Gibson, with admirable ability, address, and persistence. In 1 From 1831 to 1835 there were no less than 728 prosecutions, and about 500 cases of imprisonment.Mr. Hume's Return, Sept. 1836, No. 21; Hunt's Fourth Estate, 69--87. " 2 so early as January, 18301, it became the type of most other unions throughout the country. Its original design was "to form a general political union between the lower and middle classes of the people ; and it "called, with confidence, upon the ancient aristocracy of the land to come forward, and take their proper station at the head of the people, in this great crisis of the national affairs." 3 In this spirit, when the Reform agitation commenced, the council thought it prudent not to "claim universal suffrage, vote by ballot, or annual parliaments, because all the upper classes of the community, and the great majority of the middle classes, deem them dangerous, and the council cannot find that they have the sanction of experience to prove them safe."4 And throughout the resolutions and speeches of the society, the same desire was shown to propitiate the aristocracy, and to unite the middle and working classes.5 Before the fate of the first Reform Bill was ascerActivity of the unions. tained, the political unions confined their exertions to debates and resolutions in favour of Reform, and the preparation of numerous petitions to Parliament. Already, indeed, they boasted of their numbers and physical force. The chairman of the Birmingham Union vaunted that they could find two armies,-each as numerous and brave as that which conquered at Waterloo, if the king and his ministers required them 1 But however strong the language sometimes used, discussion and popular association were, as yet, the sole objects of these unions. No sooner, however, was the bill lost, and Parliament dissolved, than they were aroused to a more formidable activity. Their first object was to influence the elections, and to secure the return of a majority of reformers. Electors and nonelectors, co-operating in these unions, were equally eager in the cause of reform: but with the restricted franchises of that time, the former would have been unequal to contend against the great territorial interests opposed to them. The unions, however, threw themselves hotly into the contest; and their demonstrations, exceeding the license of electioneering, and too often amounting to intimidation, overpowered the dispirited anti-reformers. There were election riots at Wigan, at Lanark, at Ayr, and at Edinburgh.2 The interposition of the unions, and the popular excitement which they encouraged, brought some discredit upon the cause of Reform: but contributed to the ministerial majority in the new Parliament. As the parliamentary struggle proceeded, upon the Meetings and petisecond Reform Bill, the demonstrations of the poli- tions. tical unions became more threatening. Meetings were held, and petitions presented, which, in expressing the excited feelings of vast bodies of men, were, at the same time, alarming demonstrations of physical force. When the measure was about to be discussed in the House of Lords, a meeting of 150,000 Oct. 3rd, men, assembled at Birmingham, declared by acclamation that if all other constitutional means of ensuring the success of the Reform Bill should fail, they would 1 Ann. Reg., 1831, p. 80. 2 Ann. Reg., 1831, p. 152. 1831. T Conflict between and the people. Riots on refuse the payment of taxes, as John Hampden had refused to pay ship-money, except by a levy upon their goods.1 It was the first time, in our history, that the aristhe nobles tocracy had singly confronted the people. Hitherto the people had contended with the crown,-supported by the aristocracy and large classes of the community : now the aristocracy stood alone, in presence of a popular force, almost revolutionary. If they continued the contest too long for the safety of the state, they at least met its dangers with the high courage which befits a noble race. Unawed by numbers, clamour, and threats, the Lords rejected the second Reform Bill. The excitement of the time now led to disorders disgraceful to the popular cause. Mobs paraded the streets of London, hooting, pelting, and even assaulting distinguished peers, and breaking their windows.2 There were riots at Derby: when, some rioters being seized, the mob stormed the gaol and set the prisoners free. At Nottingham, the Castle was burned by the populace, as an act of vengeance against the Duke of Newcastle. In both these places, the riots were not repressed without the aid of a military force.3 Oct. 29th, For two nights and days, Bristol was the prey of a turbulent and drunken rabble. They broke into the prisons, and having let loose the prisoners, deliberately set on fire the buildings. They rifled and burned down the Mansion House, the Bishop's Palace, the Custom House, the Excise Office, and many private houses. The irresolution and incapacity of magistrates 1831. See 1 Ann. Reg., 1831, p. 282. Ministry, ii. 218. 2 Ann. Reg., 1831, p. 280; Life of Lord Eldon, iii. 153; Courts and Cabinets of Will. IV. and Queen Vict., i. 364. 3 Ann. Reg., 1831, p. 280. |