tbe Meattersi of tbe a+ptrtattir.
The Act of Parliament permitting Newspapers to be published without Stamps received the Royal Assent on the 15th instant; and it takes effect in fourteen days from that date.
Therefore,
On and after Saturday the 30th June there will be an unstamped edition of Tina SrEctsron, price ad., as well as the stamped edition, price 9d.
The stamped edition will possess the privilege of transmission repeatedly through the post, for fifteen days from the date of publication, (but no longer,) by folding the paper so that the stamp can be seen outside.
The unstamped edition may be seat through the post without limitation of time by affixing a penny postage stamp at each transmission.
It seems likely that the stamped edition will be the more convenient for those who regularly send the paper through the post within a fortnight after its publication. But the option lies with the purchaser ; who will be pleased to convey his orders to the newsman who supplies him.
Since the Newspaper Stamp question took a practical shape, we have received some friendly and flattering suggestions, to consider, on this occasion, whether a reduction of the price of the Spectator would not be for our interest, as tending to enlarge the circulation and influence (one of the suggesters was pleased to say, " the salutary influence " of the paper. The subject had not escaped our attention ; but there are obstacles which our wellwishers had overlooked. As regards " in- fluence," that is in a great degree independent of the number of copies circulated ; arising chiefly from the classes of readers among whom the paper circulates. A small reduction of price would hardly increase our circulation by a score of copies ; it would be an unimportant gain to each subscriber of the class that purchase the Spectator ; and even the smallest practical reduction—say ahalfpenny on each copy—would cause a serious loss of income to the proprietor. After deliberate consideration of the suggestions made to us, we have come to the conclusion that any increase of circu- lation attainable by reduced price would be en unmixed injury.
A very large numerical circulation of the Spectator is highly improbable. This journal is not, and never has been, the organ of a political party ; on the contrary, it has had occasion to oppose all parties in turn, and that at times when men least brook opposition. Nor is it the cue of the Spectator to lend itself to private "in- terests," personal or corporate. One of the surest cards in this country for those who are willing to play it is cant—that is, exaggerated sentiments expressed in stereotyped phrases; and of these, the cant of Liberalism, the cants of religious sectarianism, and the cant of philanthropy, are profitable to the professors, but they lie out of our line.
Readers who will bear to have their opinions sometimes opposed, their eagerness held in habitual check, their exaggeration of the importance of some temporary aim reduced to just dimensions, and their objects according to their own ideas possibly thwarted, are far less numerous than those of the contrary temper; they will be drawn from the Stile of mutually opposite parties; and the journalist who addresses them—regarding truth before all things, and striving to exhibit the truth with dia. passionate fairness—incurs the constant risk of offending numbers. Yet the Spec- tator, in its career of seven-and-twenty years, has found or created a public suffi- cient to afford the undertaking an encouraging if not a very gainful support. That support will probably be continued in spite of the rage for novelty and " cheapness."
And though we decline to rush into the arena of cheap competition, we do not intend to shut our eyes to the progress of the untried experiment, or to neglect opportunities of future improvement which the changes of the times may seem to require.
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