The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1841-04-03

From the London New Monthly Magazine for the
present month
THE FRENCH PRESS.

From the London New Monthly Magazine for the
present month.
THE FRENCH PRESS.
Here, IN warm, quiet country dining room,
on very large, and not less brightly polished ma
hogony table, are spread before me the English
=" Times" newspaper and the French Ndfion-
a." What difference! l do not mean in
their political style, objects, usefulness, or end,
but what difference in their dimensions! The
number OF the "Times" now before me is that
Of February IL, 1S41; one side of il measures
five feet eleven inches in width and twenty Sc
ven inches in length, but being printed on both
sides, contains Of course eleven feet ten inches
of printing in width, and fifty-fou inches in
length. The paper consists Of forty eight CO.
lumns, OF which twenty -four are devoted to add
verisements, and the remaining twenty -four to
politics, news, parliamentary debates, law intel
ligence, controversies, correspondence, trade,
finance, the public funds, markets, births, deaths,
marriages, and miscellaneous matters. Each of
the advertising columns is made up, on an ave
rage Of PAL lines, or total of 1874 lines devo-
ted in one days paper to advertisements. plea
SAINT hearing and not less pleasant picking this,
TO the proprietors.) Then each of the non ad-
vertislng columns contain on an average 15l
lines, or 1924 devoted each day TO general pur-
poses (not less pleasant hearing this, nor less
pleasant picking too, for the lovers of newspa-
pers who begin by reading the title of journal,
and who only conclude when they have arrived
at the name Of the printer.) But what is more
awful than all this, is the quantity of letters in
this newspaper Of only one day; total Of 1885,
552 letters, which multiplied by 313 (the num-
Der ofd days in the year on which the Times APP
pears,) will present no less than l56, 046 TIC let
tiers, which every reader of that journal NAV pc
ruse in the brief space twelve calendar months
Who would dare after this TO say that such read
ers are not men Of letters?
But must now turn to my dwarfish friend the
National. BY the side Of the Times Ct hope
the Paris republicans will pardon the compare
SOM il looks very much like its pocket -handker-
chief, or its finger napkin. The redoubtable Ma
een in length or * 4 IS ns s N wd5 and
sides of the paper, total of fifty inches in width
and thirty in length of fetter-press Itcontains
twelve columns and on average, 140n.as n
each column, or 1850 lines in each days jour
nal. Each line is made up, on an average, of
fifty letters, and therefore each number possesses
$4,000 letters; lie. in the course of the year
Gas the National is published 1863 days, and not
3l3, as is the Times, in twelve-months, total
of 30,552 800 letters mot quite one-fifth of the
letters in the Times Alas alas! if gudntum
is to be the standard of the literary character of
the readers OF paper inasmuch as have pro-
nounced the readers of the Times TO be men Of
letters, cannot but fear that those of the Ma
fi0ndl are unfeffered men.
The advertisements of the Times, if estima-
ted at one shilling per line on an average, must
yield in the course of the year no less sum than
90,500i; while those of the National, taken at
the rate of two shilings per hne on an average,
most certainly do not yield 2000i. nor any thing
like it, This is one TO forty-6ve. The Debdts
can boast of a much larger advertising in
come, perhaps of 9000L, or as one to ten when
compared with the Times The Debdts, Presse,
90 a. IL
ments, but so little is advertising understood in
France, that the Times could eat up all the
French Lilliputian advertising papers with the
least imaginable difficulty, even before break
fast.
The Times journal, with its hundred and
fifty-six millions of letters in year costs its
subscribers the paltry sum of 81. los. 3D.; whilst
the National, with its thirty millions of letters
in the same period, is sold 10 subscribers at the
sum of 81. As. If the principles of common
multiplication, or the rule of three direct, were
applied to this subject, either the readers of the
| Times, for their 156 millions Of letters ought to
pay 1871 perannum, instead of g. los. sd, which
that paper now only costs them; or else the
readers of the National for their thirty millions
OF letters should pay H. 6s. H. per annum in
stead OF the present subscription of 81. Is
| Who will set the example of a change2
| The circulation of the Times is, according to
the best evidence ! possess, about $1,000 per
diem, or 5, 164 500 per annum. The circulation
of the National is cooper diem Ga few more
or less, } or l,44S,000 in the course of year.
| But il is time to terminate this comparison of
dimensions, quantity, profits, and circulation of
these two opposite prints, and examine some of
the other French journals, with reference like
wise TO their statistics. The Moniteur is long,
narrow, and ugly. Sometimes, when the Cham
bers are sitting, and the long -winded orators for
ward their written speeches to its short hand
writers, that they may be reported with accura-
cy. this government organ makes in thickness
small volume. AT other times, when there
no Chambers, and official documents, the
first page of the Times contains more letters
than do the four pages of this official print. The
Journal DIES Debdfs extended the size of its CO
lumns in Difference, il is said, TO the ouADRuPLE
ALLIANCE, and 10 the interest which would there
after be taken in the debates Of the British, Spa
nish, and Portuguese parliaments or cortes; but
suspect that whilst il has doubled its expenses,
it has by no means quadruped its subscribers.-
| The Ucbdts contains about as many letters as
two pages of the Times instead Of eight. Its
advertisements are more numerous than those of
any other French Journal, OF course always ex-
cepiiua those devoted exclusively TO advertising.
! Of these there are more than one hundred in
the departments, and there are three advertising
prints in Paris; but the most ancient and i'm
portant is the Pefites Afiches. There was a
L