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practice—taken only enough testimony to commit upon ; bail was allowed ; and now the consequence : impunity for an attempt to murder , when followed by a promise of marriage . Such are the results of the law ' s delays . But if juries take gentle views of outrages in some counties , the average of their verdicts turns the balance in favour of severity . Repression of ruffianism in Monmouthshire may be impossible , so they acquit ; at Taunton they are determined , even though an occasional innocent man should be the sacrifice , to show their disapproval of Rape .
A man of sixty—an age which lessened the probability , if it increased the atrocity , of his crimewas charged with this outrage on a servant girl of sixteen . Of course he threatened to kill her if she cried out , and of course she only escaped the otherwise inevitable killing by the required cessation of her cries- This is so" in every case ; the distinctions are in the sequel . Por ten days , then , our heroine had the eyes of lier murderous admirer so closely upon her , that she could not disclose the wrong which had been done . However , she was discharged from his service ,
and then , as she was smarting under this grievance , her modesty and her fears forsook her ; the ravished innocence over which for ten days she had mourned in silence mounted up in value , and with her public spirit , long latent , thus fired into enthusiasm , she openly proclaimed her loss , fearless of going down in the matrimonial market , if she could bring the hoary sinner—who no longer requires her services—to justice and to prison . She succeeded ; he is transported for twenty years , and the more moral and more aged householders about Taunton are delighted ; but those of sixty and under feel that henceforth it will require courage to discharge a servant . As to the rest , moderately " shocking" murders
are being tried in various localities . Infanticides are of common occurrence—the shame of having a child being in a pharisaic country so much more painful than the sin of killing it ; and heartless seductions — which never ought to have " come out "—are curiously investigated by passionless judges for the amusement of an apparently prurient , but professedly virtuous , British public . I ) etails of this kind the daily papers can sufficiently supply ; in society they are never mentioned , but only read . Fact , admittedly , is stranger than fiction ; we cannot afford space for either . Fortunately : for if we could , how should we decide between the inspirations of Holywell-street and the reports of the Assizes ?
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REVOLT OF THE HAIR APPARENT . Beaeds and mustachios have been forbidden in Vienna , as " wide-awakes" have in Naples . Indeed , throughout legitimist Europe , the mustachio is reserved for military men , and in civilians it is understood to indicate rebellious tendencies . The mustachio is what the prohibitory rules of the correctional police in Lombardy would reckon among " subversive objects . " A circumstance which has occurred in tho United . Kingdom induces us to connect this prohibitory law with the suppression of tho Hygienic Society in
Berlin . Somo ten thousand persons , it appears , were enrolled under that name , for purposes of health , which lias a very revolutionary aspect . Perhaps they had been attempting somo such subversive action as our own feanitary Association in London , which tries to remove dead bodies from under the noses of tho citizens , in the teeth of the Established Church ; ho greatly has reupcct for established institutions decayed in our own country ! Or tho Berlin . Sanitary Association may have been guilty of recommending mustachioB , which wo poo insidiouply advocated , even by one of the Faculty , in the moderate town of Edinburgh !
Arid his advice has boon followed . Tho stone lnasonB of CJlaHgow have commenced the movement of free- trade in beards , defying the protective laws , social or statutory , in favour of tho barbers . The pretext is , that the mustaohio in n preservative against injury by fine particles of Hand -while the men are- engaged m dressing Htono . Evidently , however , the movement is
not to stop with stone muHoiiH : in Mio . columns of tho Times , " C . G . - H . " recommends tho same practice for millers , ImlrrrM , ami othern Hiuiilurly exposed ; imd it in well known tluit . tho muBtachio in a , natural respirator , protecting Mio lungs against consumption ; ho that a pretext might oasily bo found tor boarding tho authorities universally .
Suppose it is a protection against consumption , what then P What right has a civilian to protect himself against consumption in defiance of constituted authority ? Consumption is better than the stick , or the new mode of execution at Mantua by slow strangulation on the top of a gallows . And if freedom of opinion is to-be put down , why not freedom of respiration also ? If the civilianfeels the inconvenience in a pulmonary sense , how is that worse than feeling constriction of the brain , or constriction of the purse , or of any other vital organ ? The next thing will be , that on this pretext the whole of our working classes will put on the beard , and walk about , boasting
themselves more manly than their betters . The working man and a cavalry officer will be on a level . The working man will be indistinguishable from the Nadaud with whom he fraternizes , or from an Italian nobleman ; and as the hair sprouts from his upper lip , ideas above his conditiou may spring up in his head . Dr . Allison must be a " democ . soc . ; " and as a faithful organ of the party of order , we feel ourselves bound to protest against this conspiracy . Society will not be safe . What we decidedly recommend to Sir Richard Mayne , as a becoming sequel to his cab-law , is , either that he should obtain a compulsory statute authorizing the barbers to enforce their rights , or that he should arm the police with razors .
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THE GOVERNMENT AND THE WORKING MAN'S PRESS . LETTEE II . To the Right Hon , Thomas Milkek Gibson , M . P . Sir , —The maintenance of the existing Taxes on Knowledge is not a question of law , for ihe Inland Revenue office prosecute a Vendor for wilfully and knowingly selling a certain broadsheet —as a newspaper , when the said Revenue Office cannot themselves define a newspaper in accordance with their own practice—when three out of four Exchequer Barons have lost their way in the attempt—when the Crown lawyers fail to explain what it is—when an acute Stipendiary Magistrate , assisted by an able Barrister , the learned member for , Bath , and the entire Board of Inland Revenue , takes seven days to arrive at adecision . Ko , thiscannot be a question of law , for the Stamp Office has for years ignored the law , and now prosecute blindly an accidental vendor for violating the letter of an Act of which they openly and confessedly violate both letter and spirit . The sole question to be made clear is one of Revenue . Will a penny broadsheet , of real or imaginary news , affect the sale and endanger the pecuniary interest of the stamped high priced press P Is the penny paper the Aaron rod of Journalism , capable of swallowing up its sixpenny compeers P That is tho question . I answer no , and proceed to justify my negative on official and patent grounds .
The Stamp Office must know that under the existing law and custom it is impossible for the Penny to absorb the Sixpenny Press . Tho red stamp on tho newspaper gives it postal privilege , and without this no broadsheet can practically become a newspaper . The fact is , no machinery exists for the transmission of unstamped papers . Anything save a local circulation is impossible . [ Every paper intended for general distribution must be printed three or four days , and in some instances seven days prior to its date — it , therefore , can contain no news of any value to the professional reader of any station , anil thin was an element in tho calculation of thone who
framed the Act of IH . 'K ) . No four of the ( Stamp Office deters me from publishing news in the Jieasoner—with subscribers sufficient to convert it into a newspaper , and a desire to do it—the non-existenco of the machinery for circulating it under a loan of two and three days renders hucU conversion impracticable . The abolition of postal transmission would involve now circulating ; machinery for all papers . So that in the face of tho
existence of tho newspaper postal stump , the plea of the Inland . Revenue office that the penny unstamped paper in the metropolis can defraud the Revenue , is an official error . But may not a local penny paper compete with a Htainpeii paper—both being Hold exclusively in . one town ? I have answered this query Ity a comparison of the relative value of each | oumal limited by its pr ice . . Besides the overriding ; intrinsic advantage of a perfect journal—who does not know that tho high pricod newspaper is an
English Institution , supported by commercial necessity and conventional pride ? If the Sixpenny paper were as inane as Dulness and Vacuity could make it , it would still sell , and pay in most connexions , because it costs Sixpence . Go ask the advertisers . Why , the journal at Sixpence , which does not sell 1000 , and which is known not to sell 1000 , can get advertisements refused to the Threepenny paper , which sells
90 , 000 . Numerous tradesmen will not advertise in a Threepenny paper , and would be inclined to bring an action against any one who should put their advertisemen t in a , penny paper . The fact would be held to challenge the respectability of their position , and endanger their connexions . Thus , English Society and habits ai * e so well defined , and so inflexible , that the working man having a press of his own , AA'ill in . no hurtful way affect existing newspaper interests .
More , indeed , might be said on this head . The Government do not , and need not , subsidize the English press . The advertisers do that unconsciously . They govern the tone of our journals , and will continue to do so by the very constitution of English commerce and society . But how advertising is an administrative influence , and under "what laws it operates , it would be irrelevant to discuss here . I limit myself to showing , that our stamped press is quite safe from any competition ( and high-priced papers will always be safe from injury ) by the existence of the poor man ' s paper . The Inland Revenue Office's
practical definition of a newspaper is , " a weekly or fortnightly journal competing with the stamped press , and thus defrauding the revenue . '" No penny papers can do this . Tbey would rather create new readers of the Stamped press , and by augmenting the demand for the best papers , strengthen their own interest , and increase the revenue . As proprietor ( by proxy ) , it has fallen to . me to witness the expenditure of large sums upon the establishmentof high-priced newspapers . Not sixpence of such capital would have been
held in solution had there existed a Penny Unstamped press to have created readers . Not as a theorist , or a special pleader , but as a practical journalist , I aver unhesitatingly , that the stamped newspaper press and tho revenue , too , would benefit greatly by the existence of an unstamped penny press . The present policy of the Inland Revenue Office is
defrauding the revenue more than all the unstamped newsvendors of the country put together can do ; for while the stamp lasts , they are the seed-plots of the revenue , as they would be the benefactors of high-priced first-class journals , if tho stamp were abolished . Eor myself , I would ten times rather set up a Sixpenny newspaper in a district abounding in unstamped papers , than in a place where none existed .
And here lies close at our hands a clear answer to all who fear that an untaxed press would , in this country , descend to the lcvelof the " rowdy " portion of the American press . Never ! unless English nature and English culture should ako be changed by the same Act of Parliament which unstainps the Press . Can tho skilful mechanic endure bad machinery P Will the cultivated architect endure an incongruous buildingP or a painter endure a daub P or an orator , spouting P or a practical politician loud-mouthed rantP or the scholar illiterateiiesaP or the artist bud luste P
And as of art . and mnii \ u ' . r « , so of uewspivpevB . The cultivated , thoughtful operative will not , tolerate a paper inflated , antagonistic , and superficial . So of other anil more educated classes . National culture will govern tlie taste of tho English proas , and " rowdy" journals will never sell in CJreat Britain , until we possess a " rowdy " population and Ynrikee backwoods . . In the United Slates tho same law holds good . The first-class journals of that country are supported by the cream of tho inhabitants , niul ( be rising tone of the American press generally indicates what it will be on the social consolidation of the great transatlantic Republic .
The Inland Revenue Hoard confess ( bat they do not follow the Act of Parliament , except when they . seek to put down ( -ho poor man ' s paper . The Inland Revenue Comnii . HHioners neglect to comply with the provisions of the very Act for violating which they prosecute Mr . Truelovr ; and they permit class newHpnperH , although no word is found in the Act of Parliament mentioning or exempting class papers . But upon their own ground it may be maintained , that tho " PotteriesFree Press is a
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April 9 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 351
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 9, 1853, page 351, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1981/page/15/
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