HISTORY OF NEWSPAPERS 183 



with, as are the sculptured rocks in the north of Europe. The Greeks 

 and Romans used thin pieces of wood covered with wax. In Aristo- 

 phanes, a debtor proposes to destroy his creditor's tablet, by means of a 

 burning glass while he is summing up the account. The leaves and bark 

 of trees were used by the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans; the latter also 

 used linen painted or gummed over. Several of the Egyptian mummies 

 have been found with linen manuscripts in them, and the Chinese wrote 

 on silk and cotton cloths. The instrument used as a pen was a reed 

 or bulrush, and these are even now used in the east to write Arabic 

 characters (which are written from right to left), as being better than the 

 pens made from quills : the Chinese make use of a camel's hair penci. 

 in their writing. The " grey goose quill" was first used about the sixth 

 century. The ink upon the manuscripts dug up at Herculaneum 

 appears to have been of the most durable description, as the characters 

 written with it are still legible and very black. Writing upon the skins of 

 animals is very ancient, and the very early copies of the Bible, preserved 

 by the Jews of Cochin in India, are said to be upon leather. 



HISTORY OF NEWSPAPERS. 



THE reign of Elizabeth was the period when periodical literature first 

 appeared in England. The " English Mercuric" was published in the 

 shape of a pamphlet in 1588; the first number is still preserved and to 

 be seen in the British Museum; this can hardly be called a newspaper: 

 the first one of a single sheet was published by Sir Roger L'Estrange, on 

 the 31st of August, 1661; it was called " the Public Intelligencer." The 

 first Gazette in England was published at Oxford (the court being there 

 in consequence of the plague), November 7th, 1665; the court returning 

 to London, the title was altered to " the London Gazette." The 

 Orange Intelligencer was the third newspaper published; this was soon 

 after the revolution of 1688, and was the only daily newspaper for some 

 years ; in 1690 there were only nine London newspapers published 

 weekly. In 1709 these were increased in number to eighteen, but still 

 there was only one daily paper, which was called " the London Courant." 

 In the reign of George I. the number was three daily, six weekly, and 

 ten published three times a week. 



In 1753, the number of copies of newspapers annually published in 

 the whole of England, was 7,411,757; in 1760 the circulation had in- 

 creased to 9,404,790; in 1830 it amounted to 30,439,941 ! and since the 

 reduction of the stamp duty in August, 1836, it has greatly increased. 



