194 THE PERIODICAL PRESS. 



persons, nominally in the same situations, are engrossed by cares 

 very different now, from those which attached to those situations 

 formerly. 



Of all the changes of this sort, produced by the march of time, we 

 are inclined to think none can be more curious, none more extraor- 

 dinary, than those which affect newspapers. In a volume entitled 

 Tales of To-day, this has been shown by a reference to ancient jour- 

 nals, which will at once startle and amuse. The volume is hand- 

 somely printed and embellished with some spirited and curious 

 engravings. 



The article to which we refer gives the following history of the 

 rise and progress of newspapers : 



" In England, newspapers are said to have originated in the 

 policy of Lord Burleigh, who, when this country, in the reign of 

 Queen Elizabeth, was threatened^svith an invasion by Spain, availed 

 himself of them to inform the people of the designs of their enemy, 

 and of the ' measures necessary to be adopted in order to frustrate 

 those designs. 



" But it was during the wars between King Charles I. and his 

 Parliament, that the importance of these daily or weekly sheets was 

 first thoroughly understood. Then it was that the partisans of 

 the Monarch, and their adversaries, looked to the newspapers to 

 promote their designs, by telling their story in their own way, and 

 refuting what they treated as misrepresentations ; and then began 

 that competition among news-writers which has since been carried to 

 a most astonishing length. 



" The sudden and extensive publicity given to whatever was 

 printed in those sheets, soon suggested to individuals, who wished to 

 make their wants or talents known, or to offer their merchandize for 

 sale, the expediency of getting their wishes fashioned into advertise- 

 ments. The duties of an editor became very different from what 

 they had been, and not less different from what they are now. In 

 peaceable times, the conductor of a newspaper, at the close of the 

 seventeenth century, bore no resemblance to the military partisan of 

 Oliver Cromwell's time, or to the literary chief of a modern estab- 

 lishmen. The editor of a journal, who was also generally its printer 

 and publisher, must have been more like a broker or auctioneer of 

 the present day, than any character now known in connection with 

 the diurnal or weekly press." 



This assertion is made out by the production of a string of adver- 

 tisements, from a newspaper published in 1697. They prove that 

 the editor, who was also generally its printer and publisher, was then 

 a sort of general voucher for the accuracy of his advertising customers. 



"If any Hamburgh or other merchant, who shall deserve 200 

 with an apprentice, wants one, I can help." 



" One has a pert boy, about ten years old, can write, read, and be 

 very well recommended ; she is willing' he should serve some lady 

 or gentleman." 



"I want a cook-maid for a merchant." 



" I sell chocolate made of the best nuts, without spice or perfume, 

 and with vinellbes and spice, from four to ten shillings the pound, 



