be within the prohibition relating to calicoes; but in order to mark the distinction between these cotton stuffs and calicoes, in each piece there was to be wove in the warp, in both selvages, through the whole length, three blue stripes, each stripe of one thread only, and every piece of stuff, when printed, was to be stamped, at each end, with an excise stamp, and instead of the word calico, which stands for foreign calicoes, each piece was to be marked with the words British manufactory.' 1 Pitt, in his first year of office, imposed an additional duty on printed linens, and a new tax upon mixed stuffs (cotton and linen) and cotton stuffs, bleached or dyed, with a license duty for bleachers and dyers, charging the articles with 1d. a yard, if under 3s. in price, and 2d. a yard, if of or over that price; but this new tax proved impracticable and was almost immediately repealed. The revenue was recouped by additional duties on printed goods, linen, cotton and mixed stuffs. These also were imposed in relation to price; but the attempt to tax these articles ad valorem was not successful, and eventually the duties on printed goods were imposed, in the consolidation Act of 1787, as follows:-for printed foreign calicoes and muslins, 7d. the yard square; printed linens and stuffs made of cotton or linen mixed with other materials, fustians, velvets, velverets, dimities and other figured stuffs of cotton and other materials or wholly made of cotton-wool wove in Great Britain, 31d. the yard square; printed stuffs 1 14 Geo. III. c. 72. 2 Nor was it popular, see Lounger, No. 10, with the ladies. I cannot bear him. He does not like us, and the only mark of attention he has ever paid us was imposing an odious burden upon our ruffs and aprons.' wholly of cotton wool, commonly called the British manufactory, and British muslins, 3d. the yard square; printed silks, 18. 13d. the yard, and silk handkerchiefs, 4 d.1 The yield, about 142,000l. in 1787, rose to 191,4897. in 1791. Although, in the Act of 1787, mention is made of British muslins, in imitation of those of India, that industry remained undeveloped, in consequence of the very limited supply of cotton fine enough for the purpose, until the last decade of the century, when we obtained, in the sea island' cotton of America, a supply of the finest cotton. Now also Eli Whitney's invention of a machine for separating cotton from the seed, rendered available the upland' cotton. Enormous quantities of this cotton were soon imported; and the manufactures of English cottons, now termed calicoes, and English muslins were in the full swing of a vigorous youth, in 1797, when Burke notes their development, in his third letter on a Regicide Peace: For some time past,' he writes, the principal articles of female dress have been muslins and calicoes. Those elegant fabrics of our own looms in the East have lately been imitated at home, with improving success, by the ingenious and enterprising manufacturers of Manchester, Paisley, and Glasgow. At the same time the importation from Bengal has kept pace with the extension of our own dexterity and industry; while the sale of our printed goods, of both kinds, has been with equal steadiness advanced, by the taste and execution of our designers 124 Geo. III. c. 40; 25, cc. 24, 72; 27, c. 13. 1793. and artists.' And he goes on to say, with regard to our woollens and cottons, that we export them in great and growing quantities.1 The duties were re-enacted, at the previous rates, in the consolidation Act of 1803,2 and in that year, the net yield was 456,333l., viz. for England, 361,5681., and for Scotland, 94,7657.; but the gross amount of duty charged was 801,4887., the difference being due to duty repaid for exported goods. In 1815, when the net receipt was, in England, 280,4821., and in Scotland 107,3177., in all, 387,7997., or according to another account, 388,0767. after deducting for exports, the amount deducted for exports was no less than 910,8157. It is a matter of surprise to me,' said Poulett Thompson, in his speech in the house of commons on the revision of taxes, in March, 1830, that this most impolitic impost-the tax on printed calicoes-should have been allowed to continue, especially when it was declared by the Committee of 1818 to be partial and oppressive, and that its repeal was most desirable. Who, indeed, can examine it and not feel the truth of this observation? Is it credible that, in order to raise a nett revenue of 599,6691., a gross tax should be imposed of 2,019,7377. and yet this was the return according to the paper on your table for 1828! And these figures are far from showing us the real cost of this tax. That must be taken upon the gross produce; and, supposing the rate of collection for the excise to be 5 per cent., which is less than it really is, you have a cost of 20 per cent. on the nett produce of this tax, 1 See Vol. ii. Appendix, p. 423. 2 43 Geo. III. c. 69. for charges. In addition to this, from all the inquiry I have been able to make, the increased cost to the manufacturer is fully 5 per cent. upon the whole quantity made, so that you have thus two sums, of each 100,000l., levied on the public for the sake of creating a revenue of 600,000l. But the revenue is again in this case far from being the measure of the injury you inflict. The inequality of the tax constitutes its chief objection. The duty is levied upon the square yard, at 3d. per yard. Thus the piece of calico which sells for 6d., duty paid, contributes equally with that which is worth 5s. per yard. You levy an onerous and oppressive tax of 100 or 150 per cent. upon the poor, who are the purchasers of inferior cottons; while the rich, who buy only the finest kinds, pay but 10 or 15 per cent.'1 For these reasons the tax was selected for repeal, by Althorp, in his Budget of 1831, when he stated that only 500,000l. of the 2,000,000l. actually levied went into the exchequer. In short, about three-fourths of the 8,500,000 pieces manufactured were exported." By this time, to such an extent had the cotton manufacture developed in England, that whereas Child, writing in 1694, said: that wool is commonly the foundation of English riches I have not heard denied by any,' Sydney Smith, writing in 1843, in his Letters on American debts, said, as truly: the great object for which the Anglo-Saxon race appears to have been created, is the making of calico.' 3 1 Life of lord Sydenham, p. 413. 6 "The tax was repealed from March 1, 1831. 1 Will. IV. c. 17. SECTION IX. THE TAX ON NEWSPAPERS. 1712-1855. Origin of newspapers. The news letter. The Weekely Newes' printed in 1622. Newspapers in the civil war. A licenser of the press appointed after the Restoration, and abolished in 1693. Commencement of journalism in 1703. The essayists. The first tax on newspapers imposed in 1712. Its effect. The yield in 1749. The tax increased in the Seven Years' War. List of newspapers in the 'Vicar of Wakefield.' Parliamentary news after 1771. The tax increased in the war of American Independence. The Times' published in 1788. The tax increased by Pitt in 1789 and in 1797. The yield in 1815. Newspapers of any size allowed in 1825. The newspaper given to the middle classes in 1836. The yield in 1837 and 1852. The tax repealed in 1855. The yield. In the well-known history of newspapers in England, their origin is traced to the news-letters of the times of queen Elizabeth, written in order to meet the anxious demand for news at the time of the Spanish Armada. The news-letter continued in use down to the time of the Thirty Years' War, when the more extended demand for news induced Nathaniel Butter, the chief news-letter writer, to call in aid the printing press, and, in lieu of issuing written news-letters, to print and publish the certaine news of the present week in a weekly newspaper, or Avisoe;' and this 'Weekely Newes,' first published in 1622, was inscribed with the arms of the king of Bohemia. 6 The civil war brought into existence a number |