The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-10-18 00:00:00

THE LITERARY 4. PHILOSOPHIC_IL

SOCIETY.

THE first meeting of this society for the present session
was held last night, at the Royal Institution ; Dr. Dicken-
son president.
The Treasurer's Report, which was first read, showed a
balance to the credit of the Society of £37 4s. 10d.
The report, the forty-second of the Society, was then
read. This detailed the proceedings of the Council during
the past session, enumerated the papers read, and recom-
mended that the annual subscription to the Society should
be raised from 10s. 6d. to a guinea. It appears that the
Society now numbers 198 members, 132 of these being
ordinary, and 66 corresponding members.
The Rev. Dr. HUME opposed the proposed increase, on
the ground that when it was proposed in May last it had
been negatived, and he considered that the subject had
then been disposed of.
After some discussion, on the motion of Dr. DUNCAN,
seconded by J. B. YATES, Esq., the subject was referred
for consideration to a future meeting.
The next business consisted of the election, by ballot,
of the various officers, and of members of the Council, to
supply those retiring by rotation.
Mr. J. B. Yates, Mr. Robert M'Andrew, and Dr. Inman
were re-elected vice-presidents; Mr. Edward Heath, the
treasurer : and Mr. Sansom, the secretary. The following
five gentlemen were elected on the Council to supply the
places of five others, who, according to the rules, were not
re-eligible : Mr. Win. Lassen, F.R.S., Mr. Francis Archer,
the Rev. J. S. Howson, M.A., Mr. D. P. Thomson, and
Mr. Isaac Byerley.
Three ordinary members having been elected, thanks
were voted to the retiring members of the council and to
the officers. .

The PRESIDENT then announced donations of pam-
phlets and books, &c., from individuals and from kindred
societies.

It appeared, front a communication read, that a meeting
of gentlemen, being members of more than one of the local
learned societies, had been held in Mr. Mayers's Egyptian
museum, for the purpose of considering the desirability of a
union of the Literary and Philosophical, the Polytechnic, the
Architectural and Archeological, and the Historic, so-
cieties, at which a resolution had been passed, requesting
that each society should appoint five delegates to talk the
matter over together and report.
After some conversation the matter was left for the
present in the hands of the Council.
Mr. Br LEY exhibited a torpedo fish, caught on
Saturday last, in Carnarvon Bay ; and after an interesting
conversation as to its extraordinary electric property, the
Society adjmirned.

THE ART OF ADVERTISING.

(FROM THE ERA.).

EVERYTHING-, it 'is said, has a handle, if we only knew
where to place our hands upon it ; or, in other words,
there is always a mode of dissipating apparent impossibi-
lities. Twenty years ago it was an "impossibility" to
despatch a message from London to Paris in a few mi-
nutes, but the " handle" was at length discovered, and
the impossibility was vanquished. The road to prosperity
is one along which everybody wishes to travel, but the
sign-posts which direct to it are so differently read, that
the number who find themselves in the right path are,
after all, much fewer than they might be, or than they
will be shortly, now that the turnpike tolls have been
abolished, and the costs generally reduced. Regardless
of being charged with interested motives, we unhesitat-
ingly assert that publicity is A royal road to prosperity ;
and that the best, the cheapest, and the most comprehen-
sive mode of obtaining publicity is through the meium
of a newspaper. We shall endeavour to make this r.

An advertisement of severarices, for instance, can be
inserted in a newspaper for five shillings, and it may
fairly be calculated that each copy of the paper is seen by
twelve persons. The copies circulated at hotels and other
places of public resort, or those which are successively
sent from friend to friend, are seen by a still greater
number ; and every one knows what a large proportion of
the circulation of every newspaper is thus multiplied in its
powers of publicity by this passing and repassing from
hand to hand. But taking the average number of persons
by whom each copy is seen at only twelve, and the total
circulation of the newspaper at 6,000, the entire number
of readers will be 72,000 ; and for sixty-pence, the cost of
an advertisement, an announcement is brought under the
notice of this large number of people. We will say nothing
of the extended publicity which it receives through its
being current in conversation. The advertisement does
duty itself, and by deputy also, and those who do not see
it are not the less informed of its purport. The extensive
relations which an advertiser is enabled instantaneously
to establish with thousands of persons is almost as strik-
ing, if rightly viewed, as the electric telegraph. Every
one of his readers may become a customer, or help, by
their recommendation, to increase his trade, or may
assist, in some way or other, in aiding him m the object
he has in view. It is one of the strangest things that these
advantages are not universally recognised. They have
been seized upon by a comparatively small number of
acute persons, who have monopolised this invaluable
method of making their own fortunes, while others, to
whom the same advantages were open, have neglected this
admirable resource, or have adopted other modes of pub-
licity, far less efficacious than that of advertising in a
newspaper. Those who still pursue the old-fashioned plan
of issuing circulars, or placarding large bills, or delivering
handbills, strangely invert the accustomed habits of shrewd
men of business, for they pay enormously for the least
advantageous system of attaining publicity, as we shall
presently show.
A printed circular, gratuitously thrust in at the door, or
sent through the post, is treated with sufficiently little
ceremony, like most things which are obtruded when they
are not wanted. It is within every man's experience to
estimate the different treatment of a newspaper for which
sixpence has been paid. At all events, the circular is not
handed from one person to another, and to attempt to
render it equivalent, as a medium of publicity, as many
circulars should be issued as the newspaper possesses
readers. The cost, then, of 72,000 circulars would be
something like £3O, perhaps more, and the same number
of envelopes would come to £lB. But the publie are not
awaiting the issue with that eager interest which seizes
upon a newspaper as fast as steam and the most perfect
machinery can print it. An expense of some £5O has
been incurred, but until the work of distribution has
been effected nothing has really been done. To ensure a
circulation in proper quarters, a selection must be made
of 72,000 approved names, and it would take one person
above a month to write the addresses on the envelopes.
The post is the only safe means of distribution, and where
so much money had been previously expended it would
not be prudent to depend on any other. This would add
the small trifle of £3OO to the expense already incurred,
and after an expenditure of at least £350 the result
would not be quite so valuable as a single advertisement
which had cost only five shillings. That large class of
substantial persons who live in the country would not be
reached ; the circular may arrive at an inopportune
moment in some thousands of instances, and, unlike the
newspaper, it is not laid aside for a more convenient
season, but is thrust into the fire and forgotten. Sup-
posing the circulars are not sent through the post,
but are delivered by men and boys, the cost of delivery
would be reduced, but at what an immense diminution
of efficiency. The waste-paper shops, the river, and the
fire offer fatal facilities for the disappearance of the printed
circular, while idleness would suggest that an honest dis-
tribution entailed labour and trouble, which could be so
easily avoided without much fear of discovery. The same
number of handbills (72,000) would cost for printing and
delivering about £4O, but this plan has been, as the French
would say, demoralised, and if the cost were nominal, few
persons would think of adopting it in any vain hope of re-
establishing the respectability of the practice of street
delivery. There remains, then, the resource of placarding
large bills. It is cheaper, but quite as destitute of useful
results as circulars or handbills. If even placards get pro-
perly posted they are quickly obliterated, and if they were
to remain longer few persons would stop to read them.
Compare either of these modes, thoughtlessly adopted by
some persons, to the efficiency of the newspaper. The cir-
cular misses fire—the handbill is contemptuously rejected
—the placard is unread. No one thinks of destroying the
newspaper till it is too old for transmission and perusal,
and before this happens a fresh copy supplies its place ;
and so on from week to week it is looked forward to and
read with undiminished interest. Every week also it is
seen by a large number of fresh readers, so that an adver-
tisement inserted four times, at a cost of 20s, is seen in
the course of four weeks, not only by the average number
of 72,000 readers, but by a mass of persons who each week
see it for the first time. By frequent insertions the adver-
tiser's name becomes a " household word." As we have
shown, a single circular sent once to 72,000 persons,
through the post, would cost about £350. For this sum
an advertisement in the newspapers could be placed under
the notice of as many persons every week for 27 years !
and this advantage might be gained every week during an
entire year at 1-27th of the cost of issuing a circular which
merely attempts to secure a similar result for one week.

As will be perceived by advertisement, Mr. WILLIAMS,
of Ranelagh-street, has opened another office, No. 3,
Hackin's-hey, second door from the George Hotel. We
believe Mr. Williams is termed the " Father of the Estate-
agents, from the length of time he has been in the busi-
ness ; and we have no doubt that the gentlemen on
'Change will find his new office very convenient for the
sale or purchase of property.
SEAMEN'S WAGES.—The following notice to Ship Mas-
ters and Consignees has been pencilled on the slate of Mr.
Duddell's Shipping-office, Hong Kong :—" We, the seamen
of Hong Kong, have held a meeting, and come to the fol-
lowing conclusion : That, for Australia seamen's wages
shall be $2O per month, and one month's advance ; for Ca-
lifornia, $3O per month, and one month's advance ; for
Europe or America, $4O per month, and one month's ad-
vance."

THE DEATH OP M. GERMANOE, the Greek Patriarch, at
Constantinople, has given rise to all kinds of reports. It
will be recollected that this high dignitary was particularly
disliked by Prince Menschikoff.
EMIGRATION PROM GERMANY.—In the month of
September, 2,048 emigrants left the port of Hamburg for
America and Australia direct, and 1,402 proceeded from
that port by way of Hull and Liverpool. This makes a
total of 3,450 German emigrants from Hamburg alone.
Of this number, 3,158 were bound for North American
ports, 4 for Rio de Janeiro, and 290 for Melbourne, Sydney,
and Port Adelaide.—Hamburg Hansa.