be derived from the
abolition of the penny stamp, and the substitution of the penny label.
The advocates of the stamp-duty allege that, while the foregoing line
of argument may be perfectly valid, something, on the contrary, is due
to the advantage of having well-supported metropolitan newspapers as
centres of intelligence. These newspapers, say some of their
publishers, are put to vast expense for early news, foreign and
domestic; such news they at present permit every one freely to copy;
but, if a host of small country papers are to spring up, piracy of
this kind will no longer be tolerated. As newspapers go pretty much on
the principle of giving and taking in the way of intelligence, any
tendency to prosecute on the ground of piracy would, in all
probability, soon cure itself; and, therefore, we would not greatly
rely on this as a reason for maintaining an exclusiveness in the
business of newspaper publication. A more serious argument against the
creation of a host of cheap local papers, is the probable
dissemination of much petty scandal, and matter of a partially
libellous or offensive character; at the least, much bad writing.
Supposing, however, that there is a chance of literature being thus to
a certain extent deteriorated, it will not do to oppose an
improvement, if it be such, from fears of this nature. Should the
matter treated of in small local papers be sometimes of an
objectionable character, the public taste will surely go far towards
its correction; and why should not each provincial town have an
opportunity of educating writers up to the proper degree of literary
accomplishment? It is undeniable, that small towns stand in pressing
need of local channels for advertisements, and here, we think, is
their strongest ground. How much more important, in a town of 5000
inhabitants, that the principal mercer should have his fresh arrival
of goods advertised in a paper which circulates 500 copies in that
town, than in some county-town journal which sends to it only some
thirty or forty copies! A sale of growing crops must, in like manner,
be much more effectually advertised in a paper which circulates
largely in a small district, than in one which is diffused sparsely
over a large one. All this, indeed, is amply proved by the tendency
which has been shewn of late years, in Scotland at least, to set up
unstamped monthly local papers containing advertisements, and by the
comparative success which these journals ha