The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-05-19 00:00:00

NEWSPAPER STAMP RETURN•

The return to the number of stamps issued to the several
newspapers in Great Britain and Ireland, from the Ist day of
January to the 31st day of March, 1840, has just been
.printed by order of the House of Commons.
With respect to the nuinber issued, according to the re-
turn,for The Albion, we deem it necessary to remark, that
it does not represent the number actually CONSUMED in the
publication of our journal, during the quarter ending on the
31st of March. NN hilst the return from the Stamp-office
gives The Albion credit for 35,000 only issued during the
quarter, Messrs. Wrigley and Sons, our paper-makers, state,
that they took out for us, during that period, 12,500 in Janu-
ary, 13,000 in February, and 16,000 in March ; making a
total of 41,500 in the quarter. Whether our agents or the
Stamp-office are correct we have not, at present, the means
of ascertaining. The official return of stamps issued for
the six months ending on the 31st of December last gave
The Albion credit for 94,500; but, as, on the subject of our
circulation, we have always told the truth, we stated then,
that we had consumed 87.600 only of that number ; giving
us an average weekly circulation of 3,244. Whether, in-
stead of having taken out 12,500 stamps for us in the month
of January, Messrs. Wrigley and Sons took out only the
6,500 credited to The Albion in the official return, sending
forward, during the first part of the month, the 7,000 in
hand as stock at the close of 1839, we know not. All that
we can state, at present, is, that we received, from those
gentlemen, in the quarter ending on the 31st of March, the
period embraced in the Stamp-office return, 42,500 stamps;
and that we actually CONSUMED, in the publications of The
Albion, during the same period, 41,019; giving us a weekly
average, for the thirteen weeks, of 3,155 papers.
We subjoin, for the satisfaction of our advertising friends
the amount of our weekly circulation during the quarter en-
braced in the Stamp-office returns :
January 6 .......... 3092 March 2..
13.......... 3799 ~ 9..
" 20.......... 3111 „ 16..
," 27 .......... 3172 „ 23..
FebLary 3 .......... 3225 „
10.......... 3122
17.......... 3054 Total . 41,019
24 3Oll
.........Or, weekly, 3155
It will be remembered we stated, that the uniform penny
postage, which commenced in the second week of the quarter,
would deprive The Albion, Mercury, Times, and other local
papers of the circulationtused by the publication of corn-
circulars in the respect papers. That measure deprived
The Albion of upwards of 150 copies per week. So that, in
comparing the circulation of our journal, as well as that of
other journals similarly situated, with the last and previous
quarters, the reduction in number caused by the introduction
of the penny postage must be borne in mind. Had it not
been for that measure, the average circulation of The Albion,
during the last quarter, would have exceeded 3,300 copies
weekly. As it is, we have the satisfaction of knowing, that
we continue to hold the same relative position among our
contemporaries which we have for mil helcloprillbion,

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