CHEAP NEWSPAPERS. {From the British Quarterly Review.)

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XVI, Issue 1243, 12 August 1859, Page 4

CHEAP NEWSPAPERS. {From the British Quarterly Review.)

■Any person who has observed the extraprdi" nary consumption of the Telegraph, Standard/ Star, and Morning News, at railway stations* on board the Thames steamboats, and in al* the leading thoroughfares and public places* must be aware that the circulations of newspapers has undergone "not a change, but a revolution. It has not only spread beyond its former limits, but it has created, or absorbed, a wholly new class of readers.' The penny journal, containing an ample supply of the usual current news, excellent and reliable foreign correspondence, liteeary criticisms, often distinguished by greater independence than those of journals of higher pretensions, and leading articles of more than average ability, and, to its honor, we may add, conducted generally with moderation and good taste, has penetrated to thousands of obsoure and populous recesses in which the luxury, of a daily paper was unknown before. It is impossible to estimate, with any approach to accuracy, the amount of the present circulation of newspapers above that of thirty years ago. All that can be safely asserted is, that is very considerable. Nor is at the least remarkable feature of this great movement, that the establishment of cheap daily papers has not only not brought down the sale of the dear papers, but seems to have given it au extraordinary impetus. The old relative proportions have been disturbed, some papers have risen and others fallen ; but, upon the whole, the circulation is increased at least tenfold. We have intimated the strides made by the Times; and may further illustrate it by a comparison of the receipts of that journal from all sources of income. Thirty years ago the nett profits of the Times were stated at £24,000 per annum j we believe we are not far wide of the fact in saying that its present nett profits are nearly seven times that amount. Extending the comparison, with reference to circulation, over the entire of the daily Press, we arrive at a similar result. The circulation of the whole of the morning papers, in 1829, could hardly have exceeded 27,000 daily ; the circulation of the whole of the morning papers now in existence may be roughly set down at 300,000 ; and if the announcements of some of them may be credited, it is undoudfedly much larger. The progress of the weekly Press is even more striking. The circulation of the whole of the Saturday and Sunday papers was estimated, in 1829, at 110,000 considerably less than the 'guaranteed' circulation of the least successful of the present cheap papers, "of which there are several competitors, whose tales are stated by themselves, we know not with what degree of truth, to range from 130,000 to 200,000 each. The increase of the population does not afford us the slightest' clue to the cause of this enormous increase in the circulation of newspapers. The population of 1820 may be taken in round numbers at upwards of 16,000,000, and the present population at about 23,000,000. Thus, while the papulation has increased by less than one-half, the circle of newspaper readers has been expanded to more than ten times its former dimensions. The disproportion is so great las to justify as in referring to other sources for the chief circumstances that have influenced the extension of newspaper reading. Population has done something ; but the spread of education, the diffusion of knowledge, the abolition of the stamp duty, the introduction of railroads, the Reform Bill of 1832, and the help journalism has derived from enlarged postal facliitiea, have done more.

Advantage of Prompt.— A jolly old doctor said that people who were prompt in their payments always recovered in their sickness, as they were good customers, and physicians could not afford to lose them.