Generally.—In addition to the penal provisions referred to at the commence ment of this article, it is incumbent upon a newspaper proprietor or printer to have some regard to the law relating to lotteries, betting, advertisements for stolen property, and to public morality generally'. His criminal liability in respect of the lottery and betting laws has now been illustrated most clearly in such cases as those arising out of the Missing Word Competitions, Sun-Spots Searches, and the advertisements of both home and foreign bookmakers. And the problem of his responsibility in respect of cheating or fraudulent advertise ments will no doubt call for an authoritative solution in the near future. If he inserts a fraudulent advertisement, knowing its true nature, or under such cir cumstances as thrust upon him the necessity for strict inquiry into its bona .fides, it is impossible to doubt his co-responsibility therefor with the actual advertiser. Some other points in connection with newspapers may usefully be noticed. A newspaper proprietor is relieved by statute to a considerable extent from the rule, that a member of a local governing authority shall have no benefit or interest in contracts entered into by that authority ; a newspaper proprietor who is a Town Councillor may therefore accept from the council, under certain condi tions, advertisements for insertion in his own paper. Again, upon certain condi tions being fulfilled, newspapers may be registered at the General Post Office to pass within the United Kingdom at the newspaper rate of postage, viz., id. for each copy. There is an annual fee of .5s. for this registration. The conditions
are as follows :—Ist, The publication must consist wholly or in great part of political or other news, or of articles relating thereto, or to other current topics, with or without advertisements : 2nd, It must be printed and published in the United Kingdom ; and in numbers at intervals of not more than seven days : 3rd, The title and date of publication must be printed at the top of every page : 4th, A supplement must consist wholly or in great part of matter like that of a news paper, or of advertisements printed on paper ; or wholly or in part of engravings, &c., illustrative of articles in the newspaper ; it must be published viith the news paper, and must have its title printed at the top of every page. A newspaper, or a packet of newspapers posted either unpaid or insufficiently paid, is chargeable with double the deficient postage. A newspaper must be prepaid, either by an ad hesive stamp or by the nse of a stamped wrapper. It must be posted either without a cover, or in a cover entirely open at both ends, and so that it can be easily removed for the purpose of examination ; and it nmst be so folded as to admit of the title being readily seen. Nor may any enclosure (except supplements) be contained therein. No newspaper and no cover of a newspaper inay bear anything (not being part of the newspaper) except the names and addresses of the sender and the addressee, a request for return in case of non-delivery, the title of the news paper, and a reference to any page of, or place' in, the newspaper to which the attention of the addressee is directed.