A ^.,T I O U 



arcording to ^Ir. Clialmers, in his 

 curious and enterlaining Lite of 

 Ruddiman, p. 114. 



Mr. Chalmers observes, that it 

 maygratity our national pride to be 

 Xo\h, that we owe to the wisdom of 

 Elizabeth, and the prudence of 

 Burleigh, the circulation of the lirst 

 genuir.;: newspaper, "The English 

 Mercuric," printed during the time 

 of the Spanish armada. The first 

 number, preserved still in the British 

 museum, is marked 50; it is dated 

 the 23d of July, 1588, and con- 

 tains the following curious artiele: 

 " Yesterday the Scotch ambassa- 

 dor had a private audience of her 

 majesty, and delivered a letter from 

 the king his master, containing his 

 most cordial assurances of adhering 

 to her majesty's interests, and to 

 those of the Protestant religion ; 

 and the young king said to her ma- 

 jesty's minister at his court, that all 

 the favour he expected from the 

 Spaniards, was, the courtes*)- of Po- 

 lyphemus to Ulysses, that he should, 

 be devoured the last." 



These publications were however 

 then, and long after, published in 

 the shape of small pamphlets ; and 

 so they were called in a tract of one 

 Burten, in 16' 4 : " if any one 

 reads now-a days, it is a play-book 

 or pamphlet of newes," for so the 

 word was originally spelled. 



From 15S8 to l022, and during 

 the pacific reign of James 1. few of 

 these publications appeared ; but 

 the 30 years war, and the victories 

 of the great king Gustavus Adol- 

 phus, having excited the curiosity 

 of our countrymen, a weekly pa- 

 per, called " The Newes ot the 

 present Week,'* was printed by 

 Nathaniel Butler, in 1022, which 

 was continued afterwards in 1 j20, 

 under another title, by Mercmius 



I T I E S. 



377 



Brlltannicus ; and they, were tuo 

 ceeded by " The German Intelli- 

 gencer," in l630, and " The Swe- 

 dish Intelligencer," in ]()3I, which 

 last wascompiledb)' William Watts, 

 of Cains colle;^e, who was a learned 

 man, and v/ho thus gratified the pub- 

 lic curiosity with theexploits of tiie 

 Swedish hero, in a quarto pam- 

 phlet. 



The great rebellion in 161'1 was 

 productive of abundance of tiiose 

 periodical tracts above-mentioned, 

 .^s well as of all those that have 

 been published since the first news- 

 paper that appeared in the present 

 form, " T!ie Public Intelligencer," 

 published by sir Roger L'Estrange, 

 Aiig.31, 1661. 



Mr. Chalmers subjoins to these 

 curious researches the account of 

 the first paper printed in Scotland, 

 in February 1622, "The Edinburgh 

 Gazette," which was accompanied 

 afterwards, in 1705, by " The 

 Edinburgh Courant ;" and, at the 

 period of the Union, Scotland ha4 

 onlv three newspapers. 



The publication of " The Cale- 

 donian Mercnry," by Ruddiman, 

 April 28tb, 1720, led this curious, 

 and entertaining biographer to thi^ 

 minute and laborious in vestigation; 

 from which it appears, that England 

 had, in 1792, 35 town and 7Qi 

 countiy papers, published at Edin- 

 burgh and in the country. 



yfn essaif on the invention of print- 

 ing. from the Gintlemaaa i\ia~ 

 ga%ine. 



ABDALLA's Chinesfe History, 

 1317, mentions v. oodeji tab-', 

 lets engravt'u to print cntir : pagts., 

 1'rigault asserts that the Cliiucse 



£)racti<«d 



