929 



NEWSPAPERS. 



NEWSPAPERS. 



Week,' edited by Nathaniel Butler. This seems to have been tlie first 

 weekly newspaper in England.* 



About this period newspapers began also to be established on the 

 Continent. Their originator at Paris is said to have been one Renaudot, 

 a physician, who had found that it was conducive to success in his prb- 

 fession to be able to tell his patients the news. Seasons were not 

 always sickly, but his taste for collecting news was always the same, 

 and he began to think that there might be some advantage in printing 

 his intelligence periodically. His scheme succeeded, and he obtained 

 a privilege for publishing news in 1632. It would appear that 

 not long after this time there were more newspapers than one in 

 England. 



Upon the breaking out of the civil war in Charles I.'s time, great 

 numbers of newspapers, which had hitherto been chiefly confined to 

 foreign intelligence, were spread abroad by the different parties into 

 which the state was then divided, under the titles of ' Diurnals/ 

 ' Special Passages,' ' Intelligencers,' ' Mercuries,' &c., mostly in the size 

 of small quarto, and treating of domestic matters. Nearly a score are 

 said to have come out in 1643, when the war was at its height. 

 Heylin, in the address prefixed to his ' Cosmographie,' enjoins the 

 reader not to think himself unsatisfied in his expectation, if he find 

 not in it " the situation and affairs of each town of war or the 

 quartering-place of every company or troop of soldiers, which are pre- 

 sented to him in the weekly news-books." Hence we find some papers 

 entitled ' News from Hull,' ' News from the North,' ' The last-printed 

 News from Chichester, Windsor, Winchester, Chester,' &c., and others 

 too numerous to mention. We also find ' The Scots Dove ' opposed to 

 ' The Parliament Kite,' or ' The Secret Owl.' Keener animosities, as 

 Disraeli remarks, produced keener titles : ' Heraclitus Ridens ' was met 

 by ' Democritus Ridens,' and ' The Weekly Discoverer ' was shortly 

 met by ' The Discoverer Stript Naked.' ' Mercurius Britannicus ' was 

 grappled by ' Mercurius Mastix faithfully lashing all Scouts, Mercuries, 

 Posts, Spies, and others.' Mercurius was the favourite name, with 

 another word to indicate the character of the party from whom it 

 emanated. Whenever any title however grew popular, it was stolen 

 by the antagonist, who thus conveyed his opinions to those who 

 would not have received them had he not worn the appearance of a 

 friend. 



Disraeli, in his ' Curiosities of Literature,' gives an account of the 

 two principal persons who were at this time concerned in the newspaper 

 press, Marchant Needham and Sir John Birkenhout. " Marcliant 

 Needham," he says, " the great patriarch of newspaper writers, was a 

 man of versatile talents and more versatile politics, a bold adventurer, 

 and most successful because the most profligate of his tribe. From 

 college he came to London ; was an usher in Merchant Taylors' School ; 

 then an under-clerk in Gray's Inn ; at length studied physic and prac- 

 tised chemistry ; and finally he was a captain, and, in the words of 

 honest Antony a Wood, ' siding with the rout and scum of the people, 

 he made them weekly sport by railing at all that was noble in his 

 intelligence, called Mercurius Britaunicus, wherein his endeavours 

 were to sacrifice the fame of some lord, or any person of quality, and 

 of the king himself, to the beast with many heads." He soon became 

 popular, and was known under the name of Captain Needham of Gray's 

 Inn ; and whatever he now wrote was deemed oracular. But whether 

 from a slight imprisonment for aspersing Charles I., or some pique 

 with his own party, lie requested an audience on his knees with the 

 king, reconciled himself to his majesty, and showed himself a violent 

 royalist in his ' Mercurius Pragmaticus,' and galled the Presbyterians 

 with his wit and quips. Some time after, when the popular party 

 prevailed, he was still further enlightened, and was got over by 

 President Bradshaw as easily as by Charles I. Our Mercurial writer 

 became once more a virulent Presbyterian, and lashed the Royalists 

 outrageously in his ' Mercurius Politicus.' At length, on the return of 

 Charles II., being now conscious, says our friend Antony, that he 

 might be in danger of the halter, once more he is said to have fled 

 into Holland, waiting for an act of oblivion. For money given to a 

 hungry courtier, Needham obtained his pardon under the great seal. 

 He latterly practised as a physician among his party, but lived uni- 

 versally hated by the Royalists, and now only committed harmless 

 treasons with the College of Physicians, on whom he poured all that 

 gall and vinegar which the government had suppressed from flowing 

 through its natural channel." In buffoonery, keenness, and boldness, 

 Sir Jt>hn Birkenhout, the other principal news-writer of the day, was 

 nut inferior, nor was he at times less an adventurer, than Needham. 

 His ' Mercurius Aulicus ' was devoted to the court, then at Oxford. 

 Beside newspapers, he was the author of numerous small political 

 pamphlets abounding in wit and satire. 



In 16B2 the ' Kingdom's Intelligencer ' was commenced in London, 

 which contained a greater variety of useful information than any of its 

 predecessors. It had a sort of obituary, notices of proceedings in 

 parliament and in the law courts, &c. Some curious advertisements 

 also appear in its columns. In 1663 another paper, called ' The 



Before the introduction of printed newspapers, it appears that great families 

 had a sort of gazettcrs in London, who transmitted to them the news of the day 

 in written letters. 1hi custom accounts for the following memorandum pre- 

 wired in the Clifford family : " To Captain llobinson, by my lord's commands, 

 for writing letters of i;ew to his lordship for half a year, five pounds." 

 ,ker' 'Hist, of Craven,') 



ARTS ASD SCI. DIV. VOr. V. 



Intelligencer, published for the satisfaction and information of the 

 people,' was started by Roger (afterwards Sir Roger) L'Estrange, who 

 warmly espoused the cause of the crown on all occasions, and infused 

 into his newspapers more information, more entertainment, and more 

 advertisements of importance than were contained in any succeeding 

 paper whatever previous to the reign of Anne. L'Estrange continued 

 his journal for two years, but dropped it upon the appearance of the 

 'London Gazette,' first called the 'Oxford Gazette,' owing to the 

 earlie.r numbers being issued at Oxford, where the court was then 

 holding and the parliament sitting, on account of the plague being in 

 London. The first number of what has still continued to the present 

 time as the ' London Gazette ' was published at Oxford, February 4th, 

 1665. So numerous did these little looks of news, as they were called, 

 become at this time, that between the years 1661 and 1668 no less than 

 seventy of them were published under various titles. 



On the 12th of May, 1680, L'Estrange, who had then started a 

 second paper, called the ' Observator,' first exercised his authority as 

 licenser of the press, by procuring to be issued a " proclamation for 

 suppressing the printing and publishing unlicensed news-books and 

 pamphlets of news, because it has become a common practice for evil- 

 disposed persons to vend to his majesty's people all the idle and 

 malicious reports that they could collect or invent, contrary to law ; 

 the continuance whereof would in a short time endanger the peace of 

 the kingdom ; the same manifestly tending thereto, as has beeu 

 declared by all his majesty's subjects unanimously." The charge for 

 inserting advertisements (then untaxed) at this period, we learn from 

 the 'Jockey's Intelligencer,' 1683, to be "a shilling for a horse or 

 coach, for notification, and sixpence for renewing ; " also in the 



trade is a matter that ought to be encouraged, the price of advertise- 

 ments is advanced to two pence per line." The publishers at this time, 

 however, were sometimes puzzled for news to fill their sheets, small as 

 they were ; but a few of them got over the difficulty in a sufficiently 

 ingenious manner. The ' Flying Post,' in 1695, announces, that " if 

 any gentleman has a mind to oblige his country friend or correspondent 

 with this account of public aflairs, he may have it for two-pence of 

 J. Salisbury, at the Rising Sun in Cornhill, on a sheet of fine paper, 

 half of which Iciny blank, he may thereon write his own private 

 business, or the material news of the day." Again, ' Dawker's News- 

 Letter : ' " This Letter will be done upon good writing-paper, and 

 blank space left, that any gentleman may write his own private 

 business/- It will be useful to improve the younger sort in writing 

 a curious hand." Another publisher had recourse to au expedient 

 for filling his sheet, curious enough : wherever there was a dearth of 

 news, he filled up the blank part with a sufficient proportion from the 

 Bible. 



It was not until the reign of Anne that the Londoners enjoyed the 

 luxury of a newspaper every day. The first was issued in 1709, and 

 called ' The Daily Courant," being published every day but Sunday, 

 There were at this time seventeen others published thrice a week, and 

 one twice. Among them was the ' British Apollo,' the ' General Post- 

 script," the ' London Gazette,' the ' Postman,' the ' Evening Post,' and 

 the ' City Intelligencer.' 



It was about this time that a new species of publication came out, 

 which, although it would scarcely be regarded as belonging to the family 

 of newspapers now, was held to be so then ; and, in fact, for a consider- 

 able time after it was commenced, it included articles of news along with 

 its other matter. We allude to those admirable publications, the 

 ' Tatler,' ' Spectator,' ' Guardian,' &c., which formed the models of so 

 many subsequent publications of the same kind. The first number of 

 the ' Tatler' was published on the 23rd of April, new style, 1709 ; the 

 last on the 2nd of January, 1711. Much space was occupied in each by 

 advertisements, and the price of each number was a penny. The 

 publication of the ' Spectator' began March 1, 1711, at the same price ; 

 but upon the imposition of the half-penny stamp-duty, which began 

 August 1, 1712, the price was raised to two-pence. The halfpenny tax 

 is conjectured to have been the cause of the ' Spectator ' being stopped 

 in the beginning of 1713. It was however immediately followed by the 

 ' Guardian,' the first number of which appeared on March 2nd, 1713. 

 This paper soon dropped, and was succeeded by the ' Englishman ' iu 

 October the same year (professedly political). The ' Englishman ' lasted 

 for two years, and was in its turn supplanted by the ' Freeholder,' on 

 December 23rd, 1715, the latter work being almost the sole production 

 of Addison. 



It may be sufficient to notice in few words two or three of the more 

 remarkable journals only which have since succeeded. The ' Public 

 Advertiser ' was first printed under the title of the ' London Daily Post 

 and General Advertiser,' so far back as 1726, and assumed its later 

 name only in 1752. This paper was the vehicle through which 

 ' Junius's Letters ' were given to the world. The ' St. James's 

 Chronicle ' is another of our oldest papers ; at its first publication it 

 was an amalgamation of two papers (the ' St. James's Post ' and the 

 'St. James's Evening Post'), both of which began in 1715. The 

 ' North Briton," edited by Wilkes, first appeared in 1762 ; and in the 

 same year the ' Englishman ' was established. TLe ' Englishman ' 

 attracted much notice about 1766, on account of the insertion of 



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