88 



CHAPTER XXII. 



POLITICAL JOURNALS. 



X HE method of announcing political events, and 

 the various articles of foreign and domestic intel- 

 ligence which usually engage the attention of the 

 pul^lic, by means of Gazettes or Ncivspapers, seems 

 to have been first employed in Italy, as early as 

 the year 1536 *. It was in that country that these 

 vehicles of information received tjie name Ga- 

 %etta-\y which they have ever since retained J. 



The earliest newspaper printed in Great Britain 

 was " The English Mercurie, by Clp'istopher Bar- 



* The first Gazette is sairl to have been printed at Venice, and 

 to have been published monthly. It was under the direction of 

 the government. 



t The word Gazetta is said, by some, to be derived from Ga- 

 zerra, a Magpie; or Chatterer ; by others, from the name of a little 

 coin called Gazetta, peculiar to the city of Venice, where news- 

 papers were first printed, and which was the common price of i 

 these periodical pnblications ; while a third class of critics sup- 

 pose it to be derived from the Latin word Gaza, colloquially 

 lengthened into the diminutive Gazetta, and, as applied to a news- 

 paper, signifying a little treasury of jieivs. — Curiosities of Litera- 

 ture, vol. i, p. 27 1 . 



X Those who first wrote newspapers were called by the Italians 

 Menanti; because, says Vossius, they intended commonly by 

 these loose papers to spread about defamatory reflexions, and 

 were therefore prohibited by Gregory XIII, by a particular bull, 

 under the name of Menantes, fi'om the Latin minanfes. — (^uriosU 

 ties of Literature, vol. i, p, 273. 



