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 jail was ever before their eyes. This was no honorable calling; and none but the meanest would engage in it. Hence the poor, who most needed whole-ome 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 Liburne. 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 venders of such papers were now becoming a serious aggravation of the criminal law. Prisons were filled with offenders;1 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 give way. Mr. newspapers. Lytton Bulwer 2 and Mr. 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 labored under a lighter weight. Unstamped Taxes on Meanwhile, efforts had been made to provide an antidote for the poison circulated in the lowest of the unknowledge. stamped papers, by a cheap and popular literature without news; but the progress of this beneficent work dis 8 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., 3d Ser., xiii. 619. 8 Supra, p. 211. closed 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 vigor. 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? Public of the press. The influence of the press has extended with its liberty; but it has not been suffered to dominate over the independent opinion of the country. The people jealousies love freedom too well to bow the knee to any dictator, whether in the council, the senate, or the press. And no sooner has the 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. Opinion free in the press, free in every form of public discussion has become not less free in society. - General It is never coerced into silence or conformity, as freedom of in America, by the tyrannous force of a opinion. ma 1 Hans. Deb., 3d Ser., cxxv. 118; cxxviii. 1128; cxxxvii. 1110, &c Supra, Vol. I. 447 jority. 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 was now The freedom of the press was fully assured before the Political passing of the Reform Act; and political organiunions, 1831. zation more potent than the press 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 organization, in the numbers associated, in earnestness, and faith in the cause. In this agitation there were also notable circumstances, wholly unprecedented. The middle and the working classes were, for the first time, cordially united in a common cause: they were led by a great constitutional party; and, - more remarkable still, - instead of opposing the gov ernment, they were the ardent supporters of the king's ministers. To these circumstances is mainly due the safe passage of the country through a most perilous crisis. The violence of the masses was moderated by their more instructed associates, who, again, were admitted to the friendly counsels of many eminent members of the ministerial party. Popular combination assumed the form of " Political Unions," The Bir- lead. which were established in the metropolis and in all the large towns throughout the country. Of the provincial unions, that of Birmingham took the Founded for another purpose so early as January, 1 "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. 1830, it became the type of most other unions throughout the country. Its original design was "to form a general political union between the lower and middle classes of the people;" and it "called, with confidence, upon the ancient aristocracy of the land to come forward, and take their proper station at the head of the people, in this great crisis of the national affairs." 3 In this spirit, when the Reform agitation commenced, the council thought it prudent not to “claim unversal suffrage, vote by ballot, or annual parliaments, because all the upper classes of the community, and the great majori ty of the middle classes, deem them dangerous, and the council cannot find that they have the sanction of experience to prove them safe." 4 And throughout the resolutions and speeches of the society, the same desire was shown to propitiate the aristocracy, and unite the middle and working classes.5 Before the fate of the first Reform Bill was ascertained, the political unions confined their exertions to Activity of debates and resolutions in favor of Reform, and the unions. the preparation of numerous petitions to Parliament. Already, indeed, they boasted of their numbers and physical force. The chairman of the Birmingham Union vaunted that they could find two armies, each as numerous and brave as that which conquered at Waterloo, if the king and his ministers required them. But however strong the language sometimes used, discussion and popular association were, as yet, the sole objects of these unions. No sooner, 1 Curiously enough, it was founded by Mr. Thomas Attwood, a Tory, to advance his currency doctrines, and to denounce the resumption of cash payments in 1819.- Report of Proceedings, Jan. 25th, 1830 (Hodgett's Birmingham). 2 Requisition to High Bailiff of Birmingham, Jan., 1830. 3 Report of Proceedings, Jan. 25th, 1830, p. 12. 4 Report of Council, May 17th, 1830. • Proceedings of Union, passim. "You have the flower of the nobility with you; you have the sons of the heroes of Runnymede with you: the best and the noblest blood of England is on your side.” — Birmingham Journal, May 14th, 1832. 6 Ann. Reg., 1831, p. 80. however, was the bill lost, and Parliament dissolved, than they were aroused to a more formidable activity. Their first object was to influence the elections, and to secure the return of a majority of reformers. Electors and non-electors, cooperating in these unions, were equally eager in the cause of reform; but with the restricted franchises of that time, the former would have been unequal to contend against the great territorial interests opposed to them. The unions, however, threw themselves hotly into the contest; and their demonstrations, exceeding the license of electioneering, and too often amounting to intimidation, overpowered the dispirited antireformers. There were election riots at Wigan, at Lanark, at Ayr, and at Edinburgh. The interposition of the unions, and the popular excitement which they encouraged, brought some discredit upon the cause of Reform; but contributed to the ministerial majority in the new Parliament. 1 As the parliamentary struggle proceeded upon the secMeetings and ond Reform Bill, the demonstrations of the polit petitions. ical unions became more threatening. Meetings were held, and petitions presented, which, in expressing the excited feelings of vast bodies of men, were, at the same time, alarming demonstrations of physical force. When the measure was about to be discussed in the House of Lords, a meeting of 150,000 men, assembled at Birmingham, declared by acclamation that if all other constitutional means of insuring the success of the Reform Bill should fail, they would refuse the payment of taxes, as John Hampden had refused to pay ship-money, except by a levy upon their goods.2 Oct. 3d, 1831. It was the first time, in our history, that the aristocracy Conflict had singly confronted the people. Hitherto the people had contended with the crown,- supported by the aristocracy and large classes of the com between the nobles and the people. 1 Ann. Reg., 1831, p. 152. 2 Ann. Reg., 1831, p. 282. See Hans. Deb., 3d Ser., vii. 1323; Report of Proceedings of Meeting at Newhall Hill, Oct. 3d, 1831; Speech of Mr Edmonds, &c.; Roebuck's Hist. of the Whig Ministry, ii. 218. |