The daily newspapers of the country are threatened with a
new and serious danger. An Act was passed last Session, when Parliament was in a state of imbecility on account of foreign affairs, making it a penal offence for any journal to quote any dealings in any weights or measures other than the Imperial. We are not exaggerating at all. From January 1st, the proprietors of any paper in which a market-list appears, and customary weights are quoted, will be liable to a fine of ten shillings for every copy sold, and half the money will go to the informer. The Act, if carried out, will endanger every pro- vincial newspaper in the kingdom, and the clause about informers ensures that it shall be carried out. It is difficult to see what remedy can be devised, but the Board of Trade will have to devise one, and so apologise for its own outrageous carelessness, or its President may rely on his own final disappearance from politics. Englishmen have lost a good deal of their freedom, but the direct oppression of all local dealers, all newspaper proprietors, and all market reporters at one and the same time will pass the limit of their patience. At least a year's notice should have been given of such a change, and even then the right of prosecution should have been confined to responsible officials.
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