reading
was become more common, and that great numbers of copies were printed,
the cost had, to a great extent, to be paid by the readers. If these
sheets could be taxed their distribution might become difficult, and
when any one attempted to evade the tax he could be punished, not as a
libeller, but as a smuggler."--Collet Dobson Collet, _History of the
Taxes on Knowledge_, London, 1899, vol. i. p. 7.

[271] _Chambers's Encyclopaedia_, London, 1908, vol. vii. p. 473.

[272] "There was no doubt but that, in the first instance, the stamp
duty upon newspapers had been imposed for political
purposes."--Attorney-General, 26th March 1855, _Parl. Debates_
(_Commons_), vol. cxxxvii. col. 1129.

[273] "Whereas many papers containing observations upon Public Acts
tending to excite the hatred of the public to the constitution of this
realm, and also vilifying our holy religion, have lately been published
in great numbers, and at a very small price, and it is expedient that
the same should be restrained."--Preamble of the "Six Acts," 1819.

[274] "Sir Francis Freeling states that he succeeds to the enjoyment of
the privilege of franking which had previously appertained to the
situation of the Comptroller of the Inland Office, when he held the
situation of Principal and Resident Surveyor, and that it was deemed a
measure of economy to provide for the remuneration of this officer by
these means in lieu of salary."--_Eighteenth Report of the Commissioners
of Revenue Inquiry, Post Office_, 1829, p. 26.

[275] About 12 millions a year. Ibid., p. 464.

[276] H. Joyce, _History of the Post Office_, p. 419.

[277] "These laws (the Six Acts) were specially directed--not against
the morning Newspapers, which had been cajoled or frightened into
comparative silence, or shared in the then general feeling in favour of
a 'strong Government'--but against the Radical writers and speakers,
'Cobbett, Wooler, Watson, Hunt,' as Byron reminds us, all of whom had
contributed, by cheap political publications and strong political
harangues, to raise a demand for reform, loud enough and daring enough
to be most troublesome to the authorities."--F. K. Hunt, _The Fourth
Estate_, London, 1850, vol. ii. p. 49.

[278] "Newspapers are so cheap in the United States, that the generality
even of the lowest order can afford to purchase them. They therefore
depend for support on the most ignorant class of the people. Everything
they contain must be accommod