ADVERTISEMENT (Fr. arertissement), the public notification of a fact. This is now commonly effected either by means of the ordinary newspapers, or of newspapers, printers' lists and other publications specially devoted to the purpose. Advertisements, both printed and written, are still posted on church-doors, and other places of public resort, in which case they are commonly called bills or placards. The most formal kind of A., and that which is employed in the case of royal proclamations and the like, is publication in the Gazette (q.v.); but so little is the Gazette read by private persons, that, as regards the customers, publication in it alone is not a sufficient notice of a disso lution of partnership to free the partners from debts afterwards contracted in name of the company. Public notifications are frequently enjoined by statute; as, for example, under road and bridge acts, the bankrupt statutes, etc. In many other ways their legal effects are important. Advertisements by public carriers, railway companies, and the like, arc equivalent to offers whereby the advertiser will be bound to those who send goods ou the faith and in accordance with the terms of the A. By advertising a general ship, for a particular voyage, the master places himself on the footing of a public carrier, and is bound to receive goods for the port to which the vessel is advertised to sail. A
merchant in such circumstances can insist on his goods being received, unless the ship be full, or the entire freight engaged. The contract of affreightment is completed by the A., and the shipping of the goods in conformity and with reference thereto. See CHAR TER-PARTY, CARRIER.—In 1833, the duty on advertisements, which was 3s. Gd. in Great Britain and 2s. Gd. in Ireland fur cacli A., was reduced to 1s. 6d. in the former country, and 1s. in the latter (3 and 4 Will. IV. c. 23). In 1853 it was wholly repealed (16 and 17 Viet. c. 62). In 1832, the year previous to the reduction, the duty amounted to £170,650; in 1841 it was £131,608; and in 1853, the year of the repeal, it bad increased to £180,000, thus exceeding the amount before the period of reduction. Advertisements arc found in England as early as the middle of the 17th c.; but advertising was not general till the beginning of the 18th. In America, advertising has long been practiced to an enormous extent; and since the repeal of the duty, it has increased in this country at a very rapid rate. Most newspapers are rendered remunerative to their proprietors only by means of the advertisements which they contain. See Sampson's History of Advertising (1874).
See NEWSPAPER.