Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Advertisement

ADVERTISEMENT, generally, signifies any information given to those who are interested in a common concern. It more particularly alludes to a short account of an affair inserted in a public newspaper. We should scarcely have noticed this article, had it not been with a view to caution the unwary, and animadvert upon the fraudulent practices to which the advertisements of the present day are frequently subservient; for instance, those of money-lenders, servants'-office keepers, agents for place-men, adventurers, marriage-brokers, and other unprincipled individuals, who prey upon the credulity of the public. Hence we venture to suggest an opinion, that it would be more conducive to the interests of society, if the public prints were subjected to some regulations in this respect; and that no advertisement could be inserted, without being authenticated before a magistrate. By this precaution, the editor and printer of a newspaper, who sometimes become the innocent accomplices of fraud or swindling, would be secured against the attempts of those who frequently avail themselves of this mode of publication, to make it a vehicle for falsehood and depredation.