newspapers which circulate in a locality without going through the
post-office; but, as matters stand, we are inclined to think that much
the larger proportion of newspapers, metropolitan and provincial,
actually are posted, either by the publishers, or by parties sending
their copies to be read at second-hand. It is not quite clear that the
remission of the stamp-duty would be an entire gain; for a postage of
a penny in sending to second, third, and fourth readers--each fresh
hand requiring to adhibit a fresh postage label--might come to a very
much more severe tax than the existing stamp. Much, however, can be
said on both sides; and we desire to let each party state its own
case.

The _British Quarterly Review_, in an able article on the Newspaper
Stamp and its proposed abolition, argues for that measure on one
particular ground--namely, its certain result in allowing of the
existence of small local papers. The writer says: 'Take the _Leeds
Mercury_, the _Manchester Guardian_, or the _Manchester Examiner_, for
example--all first-class papers, of the largest size allowed by law,
and all giving four-page supplements once a week. In spite of their
immense size, there is not one of these journals which can give a
faithful weekly record of all that is worthy of note in the forty or
fifty towns and villages by which they are surrounded, and through
which these papers circulate. An attempt, indeed, is made to give as
many "Town-Council Meetings," "Board of Guardian Proceedings,"
"Temperance Demonstrations," and "Meetings of Rate-payers"--with a due
mixture of change-ringings, friendly anniversaries, elections of
church-wardens, elections of town-councillors, elections of guardians,
offences, accidents, and crimes--as can be crammed, by rapid
abridgment, into a certain number of columns. But after all has been
done in this way that the most skilful and industrious editor, aided
by the most indefatigable sub-editor, can accomplish, or that any
reasonable newspaper reader in any of the smaller towns could possibly
require, there still remains a great number of equally important
events, which are necessarily left unnoticed altogether by the mammoth
journal, for sheer want of space, or given in a form so much abridged
as to render them of little or no value. The people of Oldham are
perhaps waiting with intense anxiety for a long and amusing account of
the "Extraordinary Scene" at the last meeting of the board of poor-law
gua