WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 47, 19 November 1926, Page 10

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

NOTES AT RANDOM

(By.

T.D.H.)

Britain is paying off the 933 »>•’ lions she owes America, but whistling for the 1099 millions Europe owes her.—And Europe’s first duty, as Uncle Sam so frequently points out, i not to worry about this, but to set and pay off what it owes America. The Australian Labour Parties and the Australian newspapers do not love each other over-much, but. Mr. 1/3 ng has broken new ground in proposing to impose a tax on newspapers. •• n earlier expedient to make the I res. Jess of an irritant to the politicians was the strange law passed some ten or. fifteen years ago,, requiring that at election times the names and addjesses of tlie actual writers' must be put at the foot of all ■ leading, articles, etc., about the elections. It was considerI ed that, whereas the populace be impressed bv. what the “Telegraph or the “Herald” said, it would not take notice of an article ■ signed by, sav “Henry Podgkins, 22 Dubbs Lane, Dogville.” ' Also it made it so much easier, instead • of answering the article, to serve out to the audience interesting particulars of any skeletons discoverable ju the Podgkins- family cupboard. It was in good Queen Anne’s days that the British Government slapped on its stamp tax on the newspapers. Prior to that the papers were suppressed whenever the statesmen of the dav happened to be feeling unduly galled bv what was said about-them. Swift in’his “Journal to Stella”- wrote thus on August 7, 1712, of the effect of the stamp tax: “Do you know that Grub Street is dead «<nd gone last week? No more ghosts er murders now for love or money. I plied it close the last fortnight, tmd published at least seven papers of my own, besides some of other people's; but now every half-sheet pays a halfpenny to the queen. The ,‘Observator is fallen; the ‘Medleys’ are jumbled together with the ‘Flying Post’; the Examiner’ is deadly sick; the ‘Spectator keeps up and doubles its price- I- know not how long it will hold. Have iou seen the red stamp the papers ate marked with?' Methinks the stamping is worth a half-penny.”. w• . « The stamp tax, although it killed a lot of the best newspapers of the day, had come to stav for a long, long time, and the Government. soon stiffened up the penalties for evading it. In George lll.’s day the statesmen of the period found the newspapers particularly trying to have to'put up with, and locked' numbers of their editors in gaol from time to time. there was reallv no satisfaction in serving ■ one’s country, if every time one shoved one’s relation' into a decent billet all tlie rags of Meet Street made a song about it. In. 1756 the tax on the newspapers was increased to a pennj’ halfpenny a copv. In 1789 it went up to twopence; in 1804 to threepence halfpenny, and in 1815 to fou-pence, but with'a discount obtainable-. The newspapers were verv restive under the treatment thev were getting, and about five hundred of their editors and publishers had to cool their heels in His Majesty’s prisons for' their contumacious attitude towards the taxes. Lord Lvtton, the‘novelist and politician, led the movement for abolition of these “taxes on knowledge,” and the first reduction was secured m M, when the tax was brought down to a pennv. In 1854 a proposal for abolishing the tax was outlined by Mr Gladstone, Chancellor of the Exchequer and his successor brought it into effect the following year. The ghost of Queen Elizabeth is said to have been seen stalking once more, through the ancient Saxon tower of Windsor Castle, promenading the ancient battlements. This is her dramatic wav of indicating that disastrous events are' in the wind; at least so the English lecend goes. And the “calm and stolid mid. unemotional nation of England <avs the enterprising Mr. Rob s rt rill, who writes of the adventure for the Philadelphia “Public haa trulv amazing amount of faith m tins apparition and in its ,’nterpretation Some authorities on such ..j. seems, suspect that Queen Elmbeth has been roused, this time By the report that the • Prince of IX ales may marrv a Spanish Princess It there was one thing that Elizabeth hated more than another, it was a Spaniard, and she spent most of her life m opposing the power of Spain, then mistress of the seas. . . - Queen Bess can go to rest, however, for there is no present indication of the Prince of Vales marrying anybody. Although perhaps the most-illustrious, Elizabeth is by no means the most frequent visitor among the royal -Jio-ts of England, continues the writer. Hampton Court Palace is even richer in Xsth’ visitors than the Castle a Windsor. For instance, Catherine of Aragon, despite unpleasant memones of Hcnrv VTH. is reported still to walk in black attire, bearing a taper, down one of the staircases there and to disappear through the “Queens Gate Henrv’s second Catherine is also a reputed visitor. The. ill-fated Anne Bolevn is another visitor there She. it is'said, niav be seen dnvinsr down tlie avenue of Berkeley Park behind fdur headless horses driven by coachmen also lacking, heads. '‘Here’s the Vicar; shall I ask him to ioin us?” . “Oh! Mr. Broiyn*-cr—Howard, this is so sudden.’* Fill wrote the following rote to his dear one:— . “Sweetness, apple of mv eye, I would do anything for vott; swim the Atlantic. go through fire and hell for von, and would face the most terrible storm or hurricane for your sake. “And. bv the wav, I will come over to-night if it doesn’t ’ain too hard.” FIDDLER’S GREEN. Never again shall we beat cr.t to. sea In rain and mist and sleet I ke litter tears. And watch the harbo ar . beacons fade, a-lee. And people all the sea-room with our fears. Our toil is done. No more, ro more do we Square the stow yards and rtagger on the sea. No more for us the white rnd windless day, Uudimmed, unshadowed, where the weed drifts by, And leaden fish pass, rolling, at their play, And chmip-eless suns slide up a changeless sky. Our watch is done; and never more shall we Whistle the wind across an empty sea. Here are the hearts we love, the lipa we know. The hands of seafarers who -tame before. . . The eyes that wept for me a night ago ’ Are laughing now that we shall part no more. All grief is d£ue; o*id never more shall we . Make sail at dawning for the hiring sea. .-Sheodoes Bsteda,