was gained at the expense of much unpopularity. Tories, sympathising with writers of their own party, united with the opposition in condemning this assault upon the liberty of the press. Nor was the temper of the people such as to bear, any longer, with complacency, a harsh execution of the libel laws. The unsuccessful prosecution of Cobbett, in the following year, by a Whig prosecution attorney-general, nearly brought to a close 1831. the long series of contests between the government and the press.1

Failure of

Complete freedom of the press established.

Since that time, the utmost latitude of criticism and invective has been permitted to the press, in discussing public men and measures. The law has rarely been appealed to, even for the exposure of malignity and falsehood." Prosecutions for libel, like the censorship, have fallen out of our constitutional system. When the press errs, it is by the press itself that its errors are left to be corrected. Repression has ceased to be the policy of rulers; and statesmen have at length fully realised the wise maxim of Lord Bacon, that the punishing of wits enhances their authority; and a forbidden writing is thought to be a certain spark of truth, that flies up in the faces of them that seek to tread it out.'

years; and the proprietors to lesser punishments.-Ann. Reg., 1830, p. 3, 119; Hans. Deb., 2nd Ser., xxii. 1167.

He was charged with no libel on ministers, but with inciting labourers to burn ricks; Ann. Reg. 1831, Chron., p. 95. In the same year Carlile and Haley were indicted; and in 1833, Reeve, Ager, Grant, Bell, Hetherington, Russell, and Stevens. -Hunt's Fourth Est., ii. 67; Roebuck's Hist. of the Whig Ministry, ii. 219, n.

2 The law was also greatly improved by Lord Campbell's Libel Act, 6 and 7 Vict. c. 96.

affecting

the press.

Henceforth the freedom of the press was assured; Fiscal laws and nothing was now wanting to its full expansion, but a revision of the fiscal laws, by which its utmost development was restrained. These were the stamp, advertisement, and paper duties. It was not until after a struggle of thirty years, that all these duties were repealed: but in order to complete our survey of the press, their history may, at once, be briefly told.

Newspaper stamps.

The newspaper stamp of Queen Anne had risen, by successive additions, to fourpence. Originating in jealousy of the press, its extension was due, partly to the same policy, and partly to the exigencies of finance. So high a tax, while it discouraged cheap newspapers, was naturally liable to evasion. Tracts, and other unstamped papers, containing news and comments upon public affairs, were widely circulated among the poor; and it was to restrain this practice, that the stamp laws had been extended to that class of papers by one of the Six Acts. They were denounced as seditious and blasphemous, and were to be extinguished. But the passion for news and political discussion was not to be repressed; and unstamped publications were more rife than ever. Such papers occupied the same place in the periodical press, as tracts printed, at a former period, in evasion of the licenser. All concerned in such papers were violating the law, and braving its terrors: the gaol was ever before their eyes. This was no honourable calling; and none but the meanest would engage in it. Hence

160 Geo. III. c. 9; supra, p. 243.

the poor, who most needed wholesome instruction, received the very worst, from a contraband press. During the Reform agitation, a new class of publishers, of higher character and purpose, set up unstamped newspapers for the working classes, and defied the government in the spirit of Prynne and Lilburne. Their sentiments, already democratic, were further embittered by their hard wrestling with the law. They suffered imprisonment, but their papers continued in large circulation; they were fined, but their fines were paid by subscription. Prosecutions against publishers and vendors of such papers were becoming a serious aggravation of the criminal law. Prisons were filled with offenders; and the state was again at war with the press, in a new form.

If the law could not overcome the unstamped press, it was clear that the law itself must Unstamped give way. Mr. Lytton Bulwer 2 and Mr. newspapers, Hume exposed the growing evils of the newspaper stamp; ministers were too painfully sensible of its embarrassments; and in 1836, it was reduced to one penny, and the unstamped press was put down. At the same time, a portion of the paper duty was remitted. Already, in 1833, the advertisement duty had been reduced; and newspapers now laboured under a lighter weight.

Meanwhile, efforts had been made to provide an antidote for the poison circulated in the

lowest of the unstamped papers, by a cheap

Taxes on knowledge.

1 From 1831 to 1835 there were no less than 728 prosecutions and about 500 cases of imprisonment.-Mr. Hume's Return Sept., 1836, No. 21; Hunt's Fourth Estate, 69-87.

2 June 14th, 1832; Hans. Deb., 3rd Ser., xiii. 619.

1

and popular literature without news: but the progress of this beneficent work disclosed the pressure of the paper duty upon all cheap publications, the cost of which was to be repaid by extensive circulation. Cheapness and expansion were evidently becoming the characteristics of the periodical press ; to which every tax, however light, was an impediment. Hence a new movement for the repeal of all 'taxes on knowledge,' led by Mr. Milner Gibson, with admirable ability, address, and persistence. In 1853, the advertisement duty was swept away; and in 1855, the last penny of the newspaper stamp was relinquished. Nothing was now left but the duty on paper; and this was assailed with no less vigour. Denounced by penny newspapers, which the repeal of the stamp duty had called into existence: complained of by publishers of cheap books; and deplored by the friends of popular education, it fell, six years later, after a parliamentary contest, memorable in history. And now the press was free alike from legal oppression, and fiscal impediments. It stands responsible to society for the wise use of its unlimited franchises; and learning from the history of our liberties, that public virtue owes more to freedom, than to jealousy and restraint,-may we not have faith in the moderation of the press, and the temperate judgment of the people?

2

The influence of the press has extended with its Public jeal- liberty; but it has not been suffered to dominate over the independent opinion of

ousies of the

press.

1 Supra, p. 376.

2 Hans. Deb., 3rd Series, cxxv. 118; cxxviii. 1128; cxxxvii. 1110, &c. Supra, p. 108.

the country. The people love freedom too well to bow the knee to any dictator, whether in the council, And no sooner has the

the senate, or the press. dictation of any journal, conscious of its power, become too pronounced, than its influence has sensibly declined. Free itself, the press has been taught to respect, with decency and moderation, the freedom of others.

dom of

Opinion,-free in the press,-free in every form of public discussion,-has become not less General freefree in society. It is never coerced into opinion. silence or conformity, as in America, by the tyrannous force of a majority.' However small a minority: however unpopular, irrational, eccentric, perverse, or unpatriotic its sentiments: however despised or pitied; it may speak out fearlessly, in full confidence of toleration. The majority, conscious of right, and assured of its proper influence in the state, neither fears nor resents opposition.2

The freedom of the press was fully assured before the passing of the Reform Act; and politi- Political cal organisation,-more potent than the unions, 1831. press, was now about to advance suddenly to its extreme development. The agitation for Parliamentary Reform in 1831-32 exceeded that of any previous time, in its wide-spread organisation, in

Tant que la majorité est douteuse, on parle; mais dès qu'elle s'est irrévocablement prononcée, chacun se tait, et amis comme ennemis semblent alors s'attacher de concert à son char.'-De Tocqueville, Democr. en Amer., i. 307.

2 In politics this is true nearly to the extent of Mr. Mill's axiom : 'If all mankind, minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.'-On Liberty, 33.