History of Early Printing in Ireland 21 



advertisement of a law book entitled, " The Rules of the High 

 Court of Chancery, Ireland," to be sold by William Winter, 

 Bookseller, College Green. Then succeeding numbers of this 

 journal have occasional advertisements. The journal continued 

 for January and February of the following year, 1686, and from 

 No. 81 we get our first evidence of how music was reproduced in 

 Dublin. A bookseller and printer, R. Thornton, advertises new 

 Songs " with musical notes engraved on copper plates." The 

 printer of Nos. 88 and 89 was Joseph Ray. Thornton was the 

 publisher. 



On 30th September, 1690, appears another journal, called 

 " The Dublin Intelligence," the printer of which was Joseph Ray, 

 of College Green. It was a folio sheet of two columns, printed 

 only on one side. There are some numbers in Trinity College, 

 Dublin, and others in the National Library, Dublin. It con- 

 tinued down to September, 1693, that is, it lived at least three 

 years. In the numbers in the National Library the chief items 

 are of war news in reference to the armed conflict between King 

 William and King James, and occasionally Government Procla- 

 mations appear in it, with brief reports from various provincial 

 towns. 



Whilst not strictly speaking a newspaper, I might mention 

 here that in the same year, 1690, there was printed a Dublin 

 edition of a monthly journal entitled, "The Present State of 

 Europe, or an Historical and Political Monthly Mercury," giving 

 an account of all the public occurrences. The printer was 

 Andrew Crook. It was simply a reproduction of an English 

 journal. The news is almost entirely Continental. There must 

 have been at that time some agency answering to the modern 

 Reuter. This monthly periodical was produced for at least four 

 years, if not, as I fancy, for a longer period. 



It is said, I may mention in passing, that King James 11. 

 had when in Ireland an official paper printed called "The Dublin 

 Gazette," but I have never met any copy of it nor seen any such 

 reported. 



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