GOVERNMENT versus THE UNSTAMPED."
THE conduct of the British Government in regard to the Un- stamped Newspapers is similar to that pursued in China towards the sellers and buyers of opium. The use of opium is absolutely prohibited in China, and every ounce which finds its way into the Celestial Empire is smuggled : yet enormous quantities are openly sold and consumed. Edict after edict is fulminated from Pekin; but all to no effect. Occasionally a small quantity of the contraband article is seized, in order to keep up the farce of the imperial authority; but every Chinese obtains the favourite stimulus just as usual. We laugh at the Chinese, and despise But might we not as well look at home? Cheap newspapers are in extensive demand among the majority of English readers. Political information and disquisitions are stimulants which they cannot dispense with, any more than the Chinese can abandon the use of opium. But the British Government interferes, and passes laws which, if executed, would deprive the mass of the people of their newspapers. Are these laws enforced ? No; they are not—they cannot be executed. Occasionally a few miserable wretches are sent to gaol for selling the proscribed opium of Eng- land; and we perceive that during the last few days several " seizures" of the illicit article have been made. Orders have been issued front the Stamp-office to act with vigour. In one instance thirteen, in another six, and in a third ninety-eight papers, were captured. The weekly sale of unstamped journals is estimated at about 200,000; and for all that appears not 200 have been seized. This is the vigorous effort of the British Go- vernment to enforce the law for the protection of the licensed trader and the extinction of the contrabandist ! Really it is too like the seizure of opium in China.
The fact is, that no power of the Government can enforce the law against the sale of Mistamped newspapers. People are deter- mined to have them ; and an extensive and constant demand for aii.y article is always suppli6d in England, without or with the consent of the constituted authorities. Ministers may as well give up a contest in which they cut a very ridiculous figure, and which only serves to give petty atmoyanee, occasion trilling loss to the law-breakers, and to show how easily the law may be set at defiance. The example is very pernicious. By and by, per- haps, it will be found impossible to colleet the duty on gin.
There is but one course for the Government, ::* it means to do justice to all parties,—namely, to abolish the Newspaper-tax : and then every sort of newspaper will find its proper readers and its natural level.
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