Note 288 — II THE RATE FOR NEWSPAPERS

"We are living under a disguised censorship of the Press. I use the word advisedly; and I find that generally where there is an avowed censorship of the Press there are no taxes on knowledge; no stamp duty and generally no paper duty. From the time when the stamp duty was first imposed in the reign of Queen Anne, the number of newspapers has been very much diminished by the stamp. For instance, Steele's Spectator was nearly if not quite ruined by it; and from that time to this the amount of revenue has never been so large as to be a serious subject of consideration."—Evidence of Collet Dobson Collet, Report from the Select Committee on Newspaper Stamps, 18th July 1851, p. 113.