NEWS-PAPER S. 
24 
and bufy-body, meddling with other people’s affairs. 
Arbuthnot. 
Many tales devis’d, 
Which oft the ear of greatnefs needs muft hear, 
By finding pick-thanks and bafe news-mongers. Shahefp. 
NEW'S-PAPER, f. A publication which gives an ac¬ 
count of the t ran factions of the prefent times.—Advertife 
both in every news-paper; and let it not be your fault or 
mine, if our countrymen will not take warning. Swift. 
News-papers have tended much to the diflemination 
of learning, and have ferved many other valuable pur- 
pofes; and, while they are carried on with candour, im¬ 
partiality, and ability, they are unqueftionably a great 
national benefit. When this, however, is not the cafe, 
and it often happens, they difgrace their authors, and are 
highly injurious to the public. 
It is gratifying to our national pride to difcover, that 
thefe ufeful and entertaining companions of our leifure- 
hours, which may be regarded as the nobleft indications 
of Britifh independence, and which have been very juftly 
and emphatically termed “the fafeguards of our privileges,” 
were firft produced in England. Mankind are indebted 
to the wifdom of Elizabeth, and the prudent policy of 
lord Burleigh, for the earlieft fpecimen of a newspaper. 
During the year 1588, when the Spanifh fleet was in the 
Englifh channel, to prevent, at a moment of general anx¬ 
iety, the danger of falfe reports, by publifhing real in¬ 
formation, appeared The Englifh Mercuric, w'hich was 
“ Imprinted at London, by Chriitopher Barker, her Higli- 
nefs’s Printer, by authority;” and which, from internal 
and conclufive evidence, was defigned, and in all proba¬ 
bility partly written, by lord Burleigh himfelf. This 
fubtle politician well knew how by thefe means to point 
the refentment of the people againft Spain, and to inflame 
their love for Elizabeth ; and we may accordingly con¬ 
jecture, that many of the paragraphs in this early Gazette 
Extraordinary Were inferted under the direction of that 
minifter. Lord Orford has erroneoufly given credit to 
Theophraft Renaudot, a phyfician of Paris, for the in¬ 
vention of the Gazette, which he ftates to have been firft 
publifhed in 1631. The dates, however, demonftrate, 
that the pleafures and the benefits of a newfpaper were 
enjoyed in England more than forty years before the efta- 
blifhment of Renaudot’s Parifian Gazette, and the “ Eng¬ 
lifh Mercurie” will remain an inconteflible proof of the 
exiftence of a printed news-paper in England, at an epoch 
when no other nation can boaft a vehicle of news of a 
iimilar kind ; we fay printed, becaufe written news had 
been common years before, and few men of rank or in 
commerce but had “letters of news” forwarded to them 
by perfons who made it a regular fpecies of trade. 
Befides the news-paper we have juft noticed, accounts of 
any particular tranfaCtion in the political world, or of any 
domeftic occurrence of Angularity or intereft, were given 
to the public in fmall pamphlets of a Angle fheet, under 
various titles. Thus we have “ Newes from Spain,” 1611; 
“ Newes out of Germany,” 1612; “ Strange Newes of a 
prodigious Monfter borne in theTownefliip of Adlington,” 
1613 ; with many others. 
The number of news-papers, from the firft period of 
their appearance, increafed greatly; the people were 
gratified at fo eafy a mode of procuring intelligence, and 
the printers found ample recompence for their pains in 
affording this gratification. Burton, who firft publifhed 
his Anatomy of Melancholy in 1620 or 21, complains 
that, “ if any read now-a-day, it is a play-book, or a pam¬ 
phlet of newes;" and Ben Jonfon pointedly ridicules the 
eager curiofity of the public, and the facility with which 
it was fupplied by the printers, in his “ Staple of News,” 
written in 1625. 
The news-papers, which had before appeared only occa- 
Aonally, now became regular publications. In 1621, Na¬ 
thaniel Butter printed “The Courant, dr Weekly Newes 
from Foreign Parts,” which was followed up by “The 
certain Newes of this Prefent Week,” 1622. During the 
eventful period of the civil war, a variety of works of this 
defeription appeared, in favour of the two parties ; many 
of which were written with extraordinary talent, and 
circulated with uncommon courage. Of thefe the chief 
author was Marchmont Needham, who had received his 
education in Oxford, and who, after alternately fiding with 
the court and the parliament, was difeharged from writing 
public intelligence by the council of ftate in 1660, and 
finally ended his career in Devereux-courf, November; 
1678. Wood tells us he was a “moft feditious, mutable, 
and railing, writer;” and fo enraged were the royal 
party, that, even years after his death, “ many could not 
yet endure to hear him fpoken of;” which is no fmall 
proof of the importance attached to his labours, and of 
his popularity. See Needham, vol. xvi. p. 673, 4. 
From 1622 to 1665. upwards of three hundred and fifty 
various publicationsofthis nature appeared, a lift of which, 
with their titles, may be feen in Mr. Nichols’s Literary 
Anecdotes. In the latter year, The Oxford Gazette, prin¬ 
ted in that city, and fo called becaufe the king, queen, 
and court, were then there, was projected; and, on the 
removal of the royal train to London, was continued un¬ 
der the name of The London Gazette, a publication which 
has lafted to the prefent day. 
The Evening Poll began in London about Midfummer 
1709, and was publifhed three times a-week, Tuefday, 
Thurfday and Saturday. The Tatler, of which the firft 
N° appeared April 12, 1709, may be confidered as a kind 
of news-paper, fince, befides eftays upon moral fubjeCts, 
it contained articles of news and advertilements. The 
Spectator alfo, whichfucceeded theTatler, March 1,1711, 
contained advertifements, and was therefore liable to the 
ftamp-duty on news-papers, which commenced on the ift 
of Auguft, 1712, and reduced thefale of it to about one 
half. 
But the ftamp-duty, which was at firft but a halfpenny, 
did not prevent the gradual increafe of news-papers; and 
they werefo numerous in the year 1731, that the Gentle¬ 
man’s Magazine was ftarted upon the exprefs principle of 
giving abftrafits of the weekly eftays in the news-papers of 
each preceding month ; for the title of the firft volume 
declares, that it is “ Collected chiefly from the public 
papers,” and bears the apt motto Epluribusunum, illuftra- 
ted by a hand holding a bunch of various flowers tied 
together. In the fecond volume, the words Prodeffe et 
deleBare are prefixed; and from that time the motto has 
continued uniform to the prefent day. In the advertife- 
ment to the firft N° of that Magazine, Jan. 1731, it is ob- 
ferved, that “ News-papers are of late multiply’d, as to 
render it impoffible, unlefs a man makes it a bufinefs, to 
confult them all. Upon calculating the number of news¬ 
papers, ’tis found that (befides divers written accounts ) 
no lefs than 200 half-iheets per month are thrown from 
the prefs only in London, and about as many printed 
elfewhere in the three kingdoms; fo that they are become 
the chief channels of amufement and intelligence.” Aclv. 
to Gent. Mag. Jan. 1731. 
We ftiall mention a few of the news-papers that were 
in circulation about this time, and fome years afterwards. 
London Journal, a weekly paper, eftabliflied probably 
about July 1718. 
Read’s Weekly Journal, fuppofed to have begun about 
1725. However, it fpeaks of having been eftablithad 
“many years before the Craftfman appeared.” Gent. 
Mag. Aug. 1731. 
Craftfman, weekly; about Midfummer 1726. Concerning 
thetitleofthis paper, fee Gent. Mag.Dec. 1731, p. 520,1. 
Fog’s Journal; Michaelmas 1728. This and the preceding 
were oppofition-papers. In the Weekly Regifter for 
Nov. 27, 1731, they are thus characterized : “Fog and 
the Craftfman are as much fpies as the nature of their 
warfare will give them leave; they never pretend a zeal 
for the commonwealth, but with a delign to betray it. 
The Craftfman prays very heartily for the king and 
royal family, when he defigns moft to deprive them of 
