The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1862-01-28 00:00:00

Sitrntro anb Nabu.

MILITARY PREPARATIONEL—Orders have been

—.—..—. .
received at the Royal Laboratory at Woolwieh for the
manufacture of 2,000,000 Minie bullets per week, to be
continued outfit further orders. An additional number
of boys and girls have been instructed, under the
superintendence of Mr. Taxer, in the careful method
of filling cartridges, so as to bold that number of ball
cartridges in readiness for transport per week, The
testing of 100-pounder Armstrong guns, at the Royal
Arsenal proof butt, continues during the entire day,
until some time after son-set, in order to luppl7 the
whole of our colonial possessions and the shipping
with that formidable weapon as early its may be.—Times

CAMP ABM&NS. ,

purveyors of stale timei,mott inadwirid politicians who
are an age behind the times may_apatinus to quote the
Stamp returns as a document*. authority, but since
1855, when the stamp on newspapers was virtually
abolished, none but those whose ideas are exceedingly
hazy, or old fogies hard pushed for an argument, have
thought the late stamp returns worth the paper they
are printed on. We certainly should not weate the time
of our readers by referring to doeumenta so utterly
worthless, but that we observe our contemporary the
Dorpester Chronicle, as folks cell it, is in a state of fran-
tic excitement because it last year toed oid--(it by no
means follows that it circa4ate:di-2,500 stamps more
than the year preceding. "Our increase of 48 a week I
Root-a-too-too I let all the world note ' the rapid ad-
vance made' I" We presume there is no man band-
flees unaware of the feet, that as goon as the Govern-
ment ceased to render the stamp on newspapers aim.
pulsoiy, all the best newspapers »dam/ their stamps
to the tweest poseible nmabrr,..aust-..sent largely into
ucutamped sheets. So show 3besioeuracy of our
assertion, we quote • few mak= • instanced I
Leeds Times with • . ointalatims :ear neon
20,000 • week-,11,000 starepabrtlmpr, Or abostlloo
• week I Bristol Missouri, ,111,00111;a4?::4,000
stamps in the year. Roots Aalitreirr, .8,00
a week-56,000 in the year. Iteaallimg eetryti
paper of as large or larger oircialatiaa.mbout sopa
stamps, or not oweeistli. We might,* on multiplying
oases ad inffititum. All then papers possess large
machineries of ctreulation, by whbali they sow gra-
skimped copies broad-cast over the °wintry. On the
other hand there are many that .horn motives of
economy or from a peenliurity in the hour of their
publication, continue to peas almost. entirely through
the post, of course staanped. The. Dorset Chronicle
threw up its newsmen; we.asethatais Oars. The groat
unfairness of an attempt to compare by the stamp
returns a circulation effected chiefly by newsmen,
with • circulation effected chiefly by poet, is too con-
'Osmium for comment. No man of sense requires to
be put on his guard against each mendacious stets-
moots as purport to be "Information to Advertisers."
In the country the low amain' s is . easily detected,
because the inhabitants of Dorset and Somerset
see our newsmen every week, and know that they
carry unstamped papers. If it answers at all at a dis-
tance, the trick will wen be exposed. When the Dorset
Chronicle, to bolster up these worthless returns, asserts
that "its unstamped circulation is fully equal, both, in
character and amount, to that el any Journal in he
district," it utters affieliberate falsehood, which wears
quite ready to expose, by challenging it to support
.ite
statement by showing its unstampird ambition against
ours for L'2o, to be given to the Dorset County Hospital.
We doubt even its stamped circulation, and for this
sufficient remain, which shows the utter worthlessness of
the late stamp returns —The Daa Gaulle, quoting
from "the vary latest returns," (of coarse under the
head "Important to Advertisers,") asserted that ik had
the largest stamped circulation of the newspaper, of its
city. Another paper complained to-th•
whose Secretary thereupon replied, "The &aW,, mat,
much regret the mistake' but tht. /6,400 stamps for
which credit should have beep Liven you, water,mndv
vertently placed to the credit of ge Balk Gessetis,Baik
/Express, and Bolton Chroniciel" Whether any portion
of our stamps or any one else's have been credlted to
the Dorset Chronicle, we know not, and we care sot.
The fact just quoted is sufficient to show that—worth-
loss as they are even if accurate—the stamp tramps
now are not even reliable.—SKer6orvie Joanna
[Our axcellent contemporary has omitted the Ale.
ram, which proves beyond all doubt that the stamp
returns are no proof of a large circulation, • slleniped
copy never having been printed, although its cirsulatn
is the largest in Dorset]