Efforts were made to check the abuse of the privilege of franking of newspapers held by members of Parliament under the Act of 1764. An Act of 1802 (42 Geo. III, cap. 63) required not only that the member should sign the newspaper packets, but that the whole superscription, together with the date of posting and the name of the post-town in which the paper was intended to be posted, should be in his handwriting. The member must, moreover, himself be in the post-town where the paper was posted on the date shown on the paper. These regulations were not long maintained. They were probably too stringent to be enforced, and in the course of a few years the appearance on the newspaper or wrapper of any member's name, whether written by himself or by any other person, or even printed, was sufficient to secure free transmission through the post. In 1825 the conditions were definitely repealed, and newspapers became legally entitled to free transmission by post.[269] There were reasons why the Government and the Post Office did not suppress the extension of the privilege accorded to newspapers. At this time heavy general taxes were imposed on newspapers--the paper duty, the advertisement duty, and the stamp duty. These charges had been first imposed in the early years of the eighteenth century, when newspapers were changing character, and they were in the nature of restrictions on the liberty of the Press, a continuation of the restrictions which had previously been maintained by means of Licensing Acts.[270] Newspapers were at that time ceasing to be mere chronicles of events, and were beginning to publish comments and to criticize persons and parties. A Bill to impose a tax of 1d. a copy on all periodical publications was brought into Parliament in 1701, but was abandoned owing to the opposition of the newspaper proprietors, who represented that they were in the habit of selling their papers at a 1/2d. a copy.[271] In 1712 a message from the Crown, adverting to the undesirable character of the new development of newspaper enterprise, recommended that a remedy be found without delay. The result was the imposition of a stamp duty of 1/2d. the sheet on all newspapers of a sheet and a half.[272] The privileges with regard to their transmission by post were, however, in no way interfered with. In 1776 the tax was raised to 1-1/2d. a copy, in 1789 to 2d., in 1794 to 2-1/2d., and in 1815 to 4d., at which amount it stood until 1836. In 1819 onerous restrictions with regard to registration, bonds, and sureties were imposed, mainly with the view of preventing the issue of publications of undesirable character.[273]