NEWSPAPER 



473 



Xothie Scritte were established at Venice by order of 

 the Venetian government, that a news-sheet at all 

 answering to present ideas was produced. At first 

 thev were not printed but written out, and exhib- 

 it> j 'l in various public places, any one being per- 

 mitted to read them on payment of the small coin 

 called a yazetta. From this these journals acquired 

 the title of Gazette (q.v. ), and the demand for them 

 was so great that it became necessary to print 

 them. Gazettes were soon afterwards issued in 



of the leading cities pf Europe. 

 Setting aside the apocryphal history of the 

 F.H'i '/.</< Mfi-'-iii'ie, said to have lieen published in 

 1588 under the sanction of Queen Elizabeth, the 

 ir.v/.V.y News of 1622, edited by Nathaniel Butter, 

 is. >o far as positive evidence goes, the first English 

 n>:w)iaper, as we understand the term. The 

 I.nin/iiH ir.<7.,'y Conrant made its appearance in 

 tin- >ame year. Twenty years later what hits been 

 called ' the era of the Mercuries' was entered upon, 

 and Mercuries of many kinds claimed public pat- 

 ronage amongst others the Mercurius Clencus, 

 started in 1641 in the interests of the clergy ; the 

 M' i-' >ii-iiis Brittuuucut ( 1642 ) ; the Mercuriiis Cioi- 

 c?w(1643), whose first number contained portraits 

 engraved on wood of Charles I. and Sir Thomas 

 Fairfax ; the Mercurius Politicals, published in 

 London, and reprinted in Scotland for the enter- 

 tainment of Cromwell's army ; and the weekly 

 M't'iirius Caldloniits, the first strictly Scottish 

 new-paper, which, however, did not live beyond 

 it- t>>nt!i number. During, the protectorate the 

 new-paper press enjoyed the luxury of freedom, 

 ami there was a great increase in the number of 

 political journals. In 1683 the Public Intelligencer 



-tarnished by Sir Roger L'Estrange, but was 

 su-pi-nded on the issuing of the Lnnifon Gazette, 

 the first number of which was published at Oxford 

 on the 7th Novemlier 1665. A new|>aper censor- 

 ship, begun in 1662, was continued with more or 

 !>-- -tiingeni'y during the reign of Charles II. and 

 down to 1695, when the press licensing law was 

 abolished. Daring that period there was no news- 

 paper that could lie properly so called except the 

 l.'ni'l'iH Gazette,, which, as Macau lay puts it, 'con- 

 tained nothing but what the secretary of state 

 wfahtd the nation to know." Comments on polit- 

 ical events rather than news formed the staple 

 of such periodicals a were published during 

 the existence of the censorship. There was the 

 Observator, started by L'Kst range in 1681, which 

 attracted some notice, but it was in no sense a 

 newspaper. One of the earliest attempts at break- 

 ing down the barrier of exclusion was made in 

 Worcester on the publication of Jin-rum's Worcester 



"I in 1690, a paper which is still in existence. 

 After the abolition of the censorship many new 

 journals blossomed forth, including the Postboy, 

 the London Nen-sletter, the Flying Post, the Eng- 

 lish Courant, and the Lincoln, Rutland, anil Slam- 

 ford Mercury. The Eiliiiburgh Gazette was estab- 

 lished in 1699, and published twice a week. It was 

 not until 1702 that a daily paper was put forth in 

 England. This was the baity Courant, a small 

 sheet printed on one side only. 



Advertisements, which now form so important a 

 factor in the prosperity of newspapers, did not 

 appear in any journal, so far as can lie ascertained, 

 until towards the middle of the 17th century. 

 Occasional books and pamphlets were advertised 

 in 1647-48, and in 1649 a reward was offered in the 

 Moderate for the n-eovery of 'a piebald nag;' hut 

 it was not until 1673 that anything like a regular 



i of advertising was established, when the 

 Index Intelligencer opened its columns to paid 

 announcements, at the rate of ' a shilling for a 

 horse or coach for notification, and sixpence for 

 renewing.' A little later the Observator Itc/ormed 



was prepared to insert eight lines for a shilling ; 

 but, as the public began to awaken to the value 

 of this new medium of publicity, the govern- 

 ment became equally alive to its value to the 

 revenue, and in 1701 imposed a duty of one 

 shilling for each advertisement. In the same 

 year a bill as brought into parliament for the pur- 

 pose of enforcing a tax of one penny on every 

 publication periodically issuing from the press. 

 Owing to the representations of the newspaper pro- 

 prietors, who pointed out ( hat they had been in the 

 habit of selling their sheets in many cases at a 

 halfpenny a copy, the proposed measure was aban- 

 doned ; but in 1712 a tax of one halfpenny per 

 sheet was imposed on every newspaper of a sheet 

 and a half. As a consequence, many newspapers 

 at once ceased to exist, the Observator amongst the 

 number. During the reign of George III. the press 

 was subjected to several additional imposts. At 

 the beginning of the reign the tax on newspapers 

 was a penny a copy ; in 1776 it was raised to three- 

 halfpence ; in 1789 to twopence; in 1794 to two- 

 pence-halfpenny; in 1797 to threepence-halfpenny ; 

 and in 1815 to fourpence. With these heavy taxes 

 on papers there was of necessity a corresponding 

 increase in their cost to the public, until the general 

 price reached sevenpence, a condition of things 

 which lasted until 1836, when the duty was reduced 

 from fourpence to a penny, the impost being 

 entirely abolished in 1855. Another tax that 

 affected the cost of newspapers was the paper-duty, 

 which was repealed in 1861, leaving British journals 

 free from imposts of any kind. 



In spite, however, of the heavy burdens against 

 which they had to struggle, through nearly the whole 

 of the 18th and a great part of the 19th centuries, 

 newspapers gradually increased in number and 

 influence, and exercised much power in the direct- 

 ing of public opinion. In all the chief centres of 

 population in the provinces, as well as in London, 

 papers of importance were established. The first 

 naif of the 18th century saw a striking extension 

 of journalistic enterprise. In the metropolis there 

 was, in addition to the Conrant, the London Daily 

 Pout and General Atfrei-ti.vr, established in 1726. 

 This changed its title in 1752 to the Public Adver- 

 tiser, and attained celebrity as the medium through 

 which the Letters of ' Junius ' were first given to 

 the world. Defoe's Review of t/ie Affairs of State, 

 begun while the editor was in prison, existed from 

 1704 to 1713. The St Jantcss Post and the St 

 James's Evening Post, started as distinct journals 

 in 1715, were by amalgamation as the St James's 

 Chronicle assured of a long existence. The London 

 Post, started in 1715, had the honour of publishing 

 a reprint of Defoe's Robinson Crusoe as a serial 

 story, commencing in No. 125 (7th October 1719) 

 and concluding in No. 289 (19th October 1720). 

 In 1731 there existed 22 journals in London 

 and 23 in the provinces, amongst the latter 

 being the Edinburgh Corn-ant, the Edinburgh 

 Gazette, the Nottingham Journal, the Newcastle 

 Courant, the Hereford Journal, the Liverpool 

 Courier, the York Mercury, the Glasgow Courant, 

 the Leeds Mercury, the Northampton Mercury, the 

 Gloucester Journal, the Norwich Mercury, and .the 

 Ipswich, Journal. Still greater activity was dis- 

 played in the later half of the 18th century. It 

 was in 1762 that the North Briton was first issued 

 by John Wilkes, No. 45 of that notorious journal 

 being the one which was burned by the hangman, 

 and for which Wilkes was put in the Tower and 

 cast in heavy damages. The Morning Chronicle 

 was started in 1770, the Morning Post in 1772, and 

 the Morning Herald in 1781. The Times (Q.V.) 

 the chief and central figure of modern journalism 

 was started in 1788, as a development of the Daily 

 Universal Register, which had existed from 1785. 



