Stamp Duty Challenged
Political Letters And Pamphlets, Published For The Avowed Purpose Of Trying With The Government The Question Of Law - Whether All Publications Containing News Or Intelligence, However Limited In Quantity Or Irregularly Issued, Are Liable To The Imposition.
London: Printed and Published by William Carpenter, 1830-31.
Price: $850.00
About the item
First editions. Decorated head pieces. 1 vols. 4to. Stamp Duty Challenged. Disbound. NCBEL 3:1818.
Item #304041
RARE. From 1830 to 1831 Carpenter published an unstamped series called “The Political Letters” challenging the stamp duty law as to whether any publication containing news was subject to duty. Carpenter did not feel that these should be subject to the duty. He was prosecuted and imprisoned from where he edited the “Political Magazine.”
The pamphlets contained are:
1. “ A Report on the Trail of William Carpeter 12 pp.
2.An Expostulatory Letter to the Commissioners of Stamps.” 16 pp, 21 October 1830;
3. A Monitory Letter to ther People of England. 16pp. with an ad for Queen Mab.(October 29, 1830)
4. “A Letter to the Aristocracy of England. ” 24 pp, 6 Nov. 1830;
5 A Second Letter to the Duke of Wellington.16pp
6. Facts and Observations connected to the Present Times. 16pp. (November 18, 1830)
7. A Letter to Earl Gray.(November 25, 1830)
8.“A Letter to Lord Althorpe” 16 pp., 4 Dec. 1830
9. “A Second Letter to Lord Althorpe” 16 pp., 7 Dec. 1830
10. “A Political Miscellany [on National Debt]” 16 pp., 9 Dec. 1830
11, “A Political Compendium [on Reform]” 16 pp., 18 Dec. 1830
12 “A Political Digest,” 16 pp., 23 Dec. 1830
13. A Supplement to Carpenter's Political Compendium. 8 pp.
14. “A Letter to the Right Hon. Wilmot Horton,” 16 pp. 31 Dec. 1830
15. “A Political Mirror,” 16 pp., 7 Jan. 1831
16.; “A Political Chronicle,” 16 pp., 13 Jan, 1831
17. ; “A Political Herald,” 21 Jan, 1831
18. A Political Register January 28, 1831. 16 pp.
19. A Political Letter. Feburary 4, 1831. 16 pp.
20. Another Political Letter Feburary 12, 1831. 16 pp.
21. A Letter to the Rightr Hon. The Chancellotr of the Exchequer. 16 pp.
22. A Political Monitor Friday May 6, 1831. 16 pp.
23. A Political Censor. Saturday May 14, 1831. 16 pp.
At an early age he began working for a bookseller in Finsbury, first as an errand boy, and then as an apprentice.
In 1830 he issued a series of Political Letters with which he attempted to defy the stamp duty on newspapers, but in May 1831 he was tried and convicted of evading the law and was imprisoned. While in prison, he edited a political magazine which was republished as Carpenter's Monthly Political Magazine in 1832.
