le form in which it
presented itself to my mind at first.

"Q. 1913: The plan is so far under consideration, and, perhaps, these
difficulties may be got over?--I cannot hold out any expectation of
that; I think I have considered it sufficiently to see that those
difficulties are all but insuperable."--Evidence of Sir Rowland Hill,
_Report from Select Committee on Newspaper Stamps_, 18th July 1851.

[298] "He believed it would be admitted that there was no wish to make
revenue out of this carriage of newspapers; but, on the other hand, the
newspaper interest had no right to ask that their productions should be
carried at less than cost price. It should be as near as possible an
equal bargain between the parties, by which neither the revenue on the
one hand, nor the newspapers on the other, should gain.... He believed
it was the opinion of the Post Office that a halfpenny would not be
sufficient to cover the expenses of transmission."--Lord Stanley, 23rd
April 1855; _Parl. Debates_ (_Commons_), vol. cxxxvii. col. 1664.

[299] The duty was reduced to 1d. upon a sheet containing a superficies
not exceeding 2,295 inches.

[300] See _infra_, p. 221.

[301] "Another objection might be urged that, by once touching the
permanency of the 1d. rate they were endangering its stability, and that
if the edge of the wedge were once inserted it might lead to the uniform
rate of 1/2d. He shared no such apprehension, and believed that the
wisest way to maintain the permanency of the 1d. rate was to remove the
cause of the agitation."--Mr. Graves, 6th April 1869; _Parl. Debates_
(_Commons_), vol. cxcv. col. 241.

[302] "A newspaper with an impressed stamp circulates free for fifteen
days. It is the last relic of the old taxes on knowledge. The law is
complicated and leads to fraud by the abuse of free transmission. An
unstamped newspaper now goes at the rate of 1d. for every 4 ounces, and
every fraction of 4 ounces. About 35,000,000 newspapers pass through the
Post Office annually with an impressed stamp, and about the same number
without. What we propose to do is to abolish the impressed stamp
altogether, at a loss to the Revenue of [L]120,000.... Then we propose
to carry all newspapers which weigh less than 6 ounces for a 1/2d. That
will be limited to bona fide newspapers; but we propose, instead of 1d.
for every 4 ounces and fraction on of 4 ounces, to charge 1/2d. for
every 2 ounces of other printed matter. There will in this way