Court

of Germany and Poland, to this present 20 of October 1621. No copy of either of these papers is now known to exist. But in May 1622 we arrive at a regular weekly newspaper which may still be seen in the British Museum, the Weekly Newes of Archer and Bourne referred to above.

Freeing the Press.

The first periodical with a title was a Mercurius Britannicus published by Archer (1625; the earliest copy in existence being No. 16, April 7), which probably lasted till the end of 1627. But the activity of the newspapermen was checked by the Star Chamber edict in 1632 against the printing of news from foreign parts. The next step in the evolution of the newspaper was due to the abolition of the Star Chamber in 1641, and the consequent freeing of the press ; and at last we come to the English periodical with domestic news. In November 1641 begins The Head of severall proceedings in the present parliament (outside title) or Diurnal Occurrences (inside title), the latter being the title under which it was soon known as a weekly; and on Jan. 31, 1642 appeared A Perfect Diurnal of the Passages in Parliament. These were printed for William Cooke, and were written apparently by Samuel Pecke, "the first of the patriarchs of English domestic journalism" (J. B. Williams). The weekly Diurnals were on the side of the parliament until in Jan. appeared at Oxford the first Royalist diurnal, named Mercurius Aulicus, a Diurnal communicating the intelligence and affaires of the Court to the rest of the Kingdome (continued till Sept. 1645, and soon succeeded by Mercurius Academicus), which struck a higher literary note. It was conducted by Sir John Berkenhead, a Fellow of All Souls, whose style is said to reflect that of the Parliamentary oratory of his day. He afterwards be came master of requests. Mercurius Civicus, the first regularly illustrated periodical in London, was started by the parliamen tarian Richard Collings on May 11, 1643 (continued to Dec. 1646) ; Collings had also started earlier in the year the King dome's Weekly Intelligencer, which lasted till Oct. 1649. In Sep tember 1643 appeared another Puritan opponent of M. Aulicus in the later Mercurius Britannicus of Captain Thomas Audley, which in September 1644 was taken over and continued for nearly two years by Marchamont (or Marchmont) Nedham. Nedham was a master of invective and one of the earliest to change sides when it suited him. From Oct. 1649 to June

165o, by a new act of parliament, the licensed press itself was entirely suppressed, and in 1649 two official journals were issued, A Brief Relation (up to Oct. 165o) and Severall Proceedings in Parliament (till Sept. 1655), a third licensed periodical, A Per fect Diurnall (till Sept. 1655), being added later in the year, and a fourth, Mercurius Politicus (of which Milton was the editor for a year or so and Nedham one of the principal writers), start ing on June 13, 165o (continuing till April 12, 166o). After the middle of 165o there was a revival of some of the older licensed news-books; but the Weekly Intelligence of the Commonwealth (July 165o to Sept. 1655), by R. Collings, was the only impor tant newcomer up to September 1655, when Cromwell suppressed all such publications with the exception of Mercurius Politicus and the Publick Intelligencer (Oct. 1655 to April 166o), both being official and conducted by Nedham.

Till Cromwell's death (Sept. 3rd, 1658) Nedham reigned alone in the press, but in 1659 a rival appeared in Henry Muddiman (a great writer also of "news-letters"), whose Parliamentary Intelli gencer, renamed the Kingdom's Intelligencer (till Aug. 1663), was supported by General Monk. Nedham's journalistic career came finally to an end (he died in 1678) at the hand of Monk's council of state in April 166o. His successor, Muddiman, was supplanted in 1663 by Sir Roger L'Estrange, formerly a Royalist cavalry officer who narrowly escaped execution during the com monwealth; he was appointed "surveyor of the press." On him was conferred by royal grant—as it proved, for only a short period—"all the sole privilege of writing, printing and publish ing all narratives, advertisements, mercuries, intelligencers, di urnals and other books of public intelligence; . . . with power to search for and seize the unlicensed and treasonable schismatical and scandalous books and papers." L'Estrange discontinued klercurius Politicus and Kingdom's Intelligencer and substituted two papers, the Intelligencer (Aug. 1) and the Newes (Sept. 3) at a halfpenny, the former on Mondays and the latter on Thurs days; they were continued till Jan. 29, 1666, but from the begin ning of 1664 the Intelligencer was made consecutive with the Newes, numbered and paged as one.