Page:History of American Journalism.djvu/106

 cement:

As the Stamp-Duty takes Place on Wednesday next, the 30th Cur- rent, the Publisher of this Paper desires such of his good Customers in Town or Country, who intend to take in on the Terms lately adver- tised, and have not yet given notice thereof, to do it on or before the said Day, that he may know what Number to print off.

The Boston Evening Post, shortly before the bird flew away when the tax ceased to be levied, May 1, 1757, printed this note for the benefit of its customers who were to benefit by the re- duction in price:

As the Stamp-Act will expire the second Day of May next, (after which there will be some Abatement of the present Price, notwith- standing the very high Price of Paper, &c. since the War) the Publisher thinks it proper to inform you that he will send out no Papers to any one who does not clear off all Accounts to that Time.

SECOND IN NEW YORK

The colony of New York passed on December 1, 1756, an act which went into effect on January 1, 1757, and which placed a halfpenny weekly tax on newspapers. The act originally was for one year, but it was renewed in December, 1757, and again in December, 1758, for one year. The purpose of this tax was practically the same as that of the one just mentioned in Massa- chusetts: it was to raise funds to help defray the cost of running the local government.

The subscribers in New York, as in Massachusetts, had to pay this tax. The situation was thus explained by The New-York Weekly Mercury for December 20, 1756:

Consider that the Sum to be raised by the Stamp Office is to be laid out in the Defence of their Country; and that the Advanced Price of the Paper is not extorted from them by the Printer, but is owing to the Act, legally passed by the three different Branches of the Legislature of this Province.

When the New York provincial tax on newspapers ceased to be collected at the end of the year 1759 the papers, including The Mercury, went back to subscription rates asked before they were adorned with the red halfpenny stamps.