An amendment to the Bill of 1855, proposing the reduction of the stamp duty to 1/2d., which was in effect providing for the transmission of newspapers by post at the uniform rate of 1/2d., was opposed by the Government. There was no desire to make the postage of newspapers a source of revenue. On this point there was general agreement. At the same time there was no disposition to carry newspapers at less than cost. Sir Rowland Hill, in the course of his evidence before the Committee of 1851, had said that the Post Office could profitably carry newspapers at a penny,[297] and that it was unlikely that they could be carried profitably for a halfpenny. Members of the Government and other members of the House were convinced that a halfpenny rate would involve a loss, and they opposed the amendment on that ground.[298] The Act 16 & 17 Vict. cap. 63 (1853) had reduced the stamp duties on newspapers,[299] and repealed the duties on advertisements. A further Act (the Newspaper Stamp Duties Act of 1855, 18 & 19 Vict. cap. 27), repealed the stamp duty, as such, in respect of newspapers, and provided that periodical publications conforming to certain conditions should be entitled to free transmission by post, if "printed within the United Kingdom on paper stamped for denoting the rate of duty now imposed by law on newspapers." The chief conditions were that the publication should be issued at intervals not exceeding thirty-one days, should bear the title and date of publication at the top of every page, and should not be printed on or bound in pasteboard or cardboard. The maximum limit of weight for publications not strictly newspapers, which in 1854 had been raised to 3 ounces, was now abolished, and newspapers and all other stamped periodical publications were made subject to the same restrictions as to number of sheets and extent of letterpress, etc. Concurrently with the passing of this Act, the book post rates were reduced with the view of permitting the transmission of unstamped newspapers at low rates of postage.[300]