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be reckoned as a chapter of such a memoir not, I hope, altogether 
without interest, for it will put on record some facts not generally 
known, and will correct two or three current errors. 
The modern newspaper had its classical prototype in the 
‘¢ Acta Diurna,” or “ Acta Publica,” an official gazette which during 
the late republic and the empire appeared daily under sanction 
of the Government, and had very much the character of our 
“London Gazette.” After the invention of printing news sheets 
first made their appearance in Germany and Venice. The 
“ Notizie Scritte,” first issued by the Venetian Government in the 
sixteenth century, with accounts of the wars of the Republic 
and other events of general interest, were at first not printed, 
but allowed to be seen in certain places on payment of a small 
coin, called a gazeta ; hence the name “ Gazette.” 
The earliest English newspapers or newsletters belong to the 
reign of James I. and were printed in small quarto. The 
“English Mercury,” purporting to be published by the authority 
of Queen Elizabeth in 1588, is a forgery, and the first weekly 
publication was “ The Certaine News of the Present Week,” edited 
by Nathaniel Butter, and issued in 1622 to record the progress 
of the Thirty Years War. Similar publications multiplied 
during the Civil War, but they were brought out rather to 
gratify the fierce passions of the time than to disseminate news. 
Sir Roger L’Estrange may be considered the father of the existing 
_ newspaper press, for he started in 1663 “‘ The Public Intelligencer,” 
which was dropped upon the appearance of the “ London Gazette,” 
which has been published continuously since November 7th, 
1665, and is the oldest English newspaper. 
Of course, much earlier in the history of printing, the art was 
made to gratify the public curiosity with regard to contemporary 
events, and we may see the first gropings towards the idea of a 
newspaper in the chap books; small, rough pamphlets, record- 
ing, with comical simplicity and terseness, prodigies and wonders, 
to gratify the same taste as that for which the “ Daily Telegraph” 
