CTAXES ON KNOWLEDGE. The President, Vice-Presidents, and Committee of the
Worcester Literary and Scientific Institution, have unanimously agreed to petition for a repeal of these taxes, and to for- ward the petition to Mr. Bulwer. No men are better entitled to give an opinion on the subject than the petitioners ; and they state their con- viction of the importance of diffusing knowledge, observing the great superiority, in all the moral and social relations of life, of those who read to those who do not. The petition also points out how much the productive industry of the country is cramped by these taxes, how the community suffers from uncontrolled local exactions and abuses, which an extended press would be the means of checking. It also states the sober conviction of the petitioners, that, in as far as the Midland Counties are concerned, the revenue would not suffer if the taxes were reduced one half. The petition thus concludes—" Your petitioners therefore humbly I implore your honourable House, as it values the pros-
perity, the happiness, and the morality. of the people, to abolish or greatly reduce all taxes on knowledge, especially those on periodicals mid advertisements. ,"
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