red himself in favour of repeal in
principle, and every year the Government, for reasons which they dared
not avow, continued the tax. Meanwhile the Commissioners of Stamps so
used their power of prosecution as to set up a peculiarly odious form of
censorship. The _Penny Magazine_, for instance, was allowed to circulate
unstamped, while the _Poor Man's Guardian_ was prosecuted."--Graham
Wallas, _The Life of Francis Place_, London, 1898, p. 336.

[282] "The market for a Newspaper at twopence appeared to be insatiable,
and this ready demand produced an ample supply. In vain the police
apprehended hawker after hawker; in vain the Stamp Office gave the
informers and detectives additional premiums for vigilance, the trade
went on with an exciting degree of activity. As the London gaols became
crowded with 'victims,' the public sympathies were touched, and a fund
was raised by subscription to support the families of the men and women
(for women were seized and imprisoned) whilst under sentence."--F. K.
Hunt, _The Fourth Estate_, London, 1850, vol. ii. p. 75.

[283] "This tax was a charter to the existing newspapers--it was not
they who suffered from it--it was the public--it was the Government--it
was order--it was society that suffered."--E. Lytton Bulwer, 22nd May
1834; _Parl. Debates_ (_Commons_), vol. xxiii. col. 1195. See also
_G.J._ Holyoake, _Sixty Years of an Agitator's Life_, London, 1893, vol.
i. p. 288.

[284] _Parl. Debates_ (_Commons_), vol. xxxiv. col. 625.

[285] "2755. _Chairman_: That penny which was left when the stamp was
reduced, was called by some noble Lord the worst penny of all; and was
not it always foreseen by those who looked deeply into the subject, that
the retention of that penny just made the difference between not being
able to circulate a cheap paper and being able to circulate it?--It
makes all the difference, I think."--Evidence of Mr. H. Cole, _Report
from Select Committee on Newspaper Stamps_, 18th July 1851.

[286] "The penny was avowedly retained in 1836 not for the purposes of
revenue but as a compensation to the State for services performed in the
transmission of newspapers by post."--Viscount Canning, 24th May 1855;
_Parl. Debates_ (_Lords_), vol. cxxxviii. col. 954.

[287] McCulloch has some remarks which indicate the line on which was
justified the practice of charging the stamp duty on every copy of a
newspaper, in order that a portion of them might be transmitted by post
wit