transmissible free of
postage. But the restrictions have all been borne away by the public
convenience and the public will. The amount received for newspaper stamps,
in the year ending January 5, 1844, was L271,180. This goes to the
treasury, and not to the post-office, although the 1_d_. stamp duty was
retained solely with a view to the postage. This sum ought, therefore, in
strictness, to be added to the gross annual receipts of the post-office;
and indeed, to the net income of the post-office, for the whole expense of
mailing, transporting and delivering is included in the yearly
expenditures of the post-office, so that the amount of stamp duty is all
gain to the treasury, saving the trifling cost of stamping.

The cost of stamping paper for the newspapers was stated before the
Parliamentary Committee, by John Wood, Esq., Chairman of the Board of
Stamps and Taxes. He says, "A great deal of time is employed in attaching
the stamp to each sheet of paper, because each has to be separated from
the quire or bundle, and the stamp separately applied to it. I calculate
that sheets of paper might be stamped and delivered in London, at an
expense not exceeding 1_s_. per thousand. In that I include what is called
the telling out and telling in, the counting the paper before it is
stamped, the stamping it, the counting it after it is stamped, and the
packing and delivery of it in London." As to the question of the liability
to forgery, he said that "the newspaper proprietors are all registered at
Somerset House, they are all under bond, and the use of the stamps is
confined to comparatively a small number of persons, so that they are very
much under our eye." This stamp duty is paid by the publisher, who of
course charges a price accordingly to his subscribers. There is no law
against sending newspapers through any other channel, and no rule
requiring them to be sent only by mail.

It is thought that a practice something like this might be introduced in
this country. The plan proposed, is to allow any publisher of a newspaper
to have the paper stamped before printing, for his whole issue, by paying
therefor at the rate of half a cent per sheet. This would be but half the
rate paid by subscribers, at the office of delivery. But as an offset to
this, many sheets would be stamped which would never be carried by mail.
In Boston there are above thirty millions of newspapers printed yearly.
The stamps on all these, if paid in advance