NEWSPAPERS, publications in num bers, consisting commonly of single sheets, and published at short and stated inter vals, conveying intelligence of passing events. In Rome, under the government of the emperors, periodical notices of pass ing events (diurna, acta dinrna) were compiled and distributed for general reading ; but our accounts of these an cient newspapers, derived from classical sources, are somewhat obscure and un certain. In modern Europe, the earliest occasional sheets of daily intelligence seem to have appeared at Venice, during the war of 1563 against the Turks ; and the earliest regular paper to have been a monthly one, published in the same city by the state : but these were distributed in manuscript, and, owing to the jealousy of the government, continued to be so down to very late times. Extraordinary gazettes are said to have been published in England by authority, during the time when the arrival of the Spanish Armada was apprehended ; but the specimens pre served in the British Museum, and so long regarded as authentic, seem now to be demonstrated forgeries. The Mcrcu
ries, !ntelligencers, &c. of the civil wars, seem to have been the first English pa pers which appeared regularly. The Ga zette de France appeared regularly from 1631 to 1792, forming a collection of 163 volumes ; it was continued, also, but with some interruptions, through the period of the revolution ; and the name still exists, the journal so called being at present. however, but a second-rate paper. From their first imperfect beginning, news papers have gradually increased in num ber, matter, :trl consequence, until they form., in many countries, one of the most important features in the social economy of the people ; exercising a marked in fluence on domestic manners, literature, and usages, but mere especially powerful as a great political instrument.