NEWSPAPERS. On the origin of newspapers much has been written, but the question is still unsettled. 'The Eng lish Mercury,' of 1588, which has till lately passed for the earliest printed newspaper, is shown to be a forgery by Mr. Thomas Watts, of the British Mu seum.
Mr. Watts observes that he has dis of the claims of France and Eng land to the invention of newspapers ; and that apparently the question now lies be tween Italy and Germany, Venice and Nurnberg. In the reign of James L packets of news were published in Eng land in the shape of small quarto pamphlets occasionally. The earliest we have met with, preserved in the second volume of the series of newspapers purchased with Dr. Burney's library (also in the British Museum), is entitled News out of Hol land,' published in 1619 for N. Newbery, followed by other papers of news from different countries in 1620, 1621, and 162•. There can be no doubt of the genuineness of these. In 1622, during the Thirty Years' War, these occasional pam phlets were converted into a regular weekly publication, entitled 'The News of the Present Week,' edited by Nathaniel Butler. This seems to have been the first weekly newspaper in England.
About this period newspapers began also to be established on the Continent. Their originator at Paris is aid to have been. one Renaudot, a physician, who ob tained a privilege for publishing news in 1632. It would appear that not long after this time there were more newspapers than one in England.
Upon the breaking out of the civil war in Charles the First's time, great numbers of newspapers, which had hitherto been chiefly confined to foreign intelligence, were published and spread abroad by the different parties into which the state was then divided, under the titles of Diurnals: Special Intelligencers," Mer curies,' &c., mostly in the size of small quarto, and treating of domestic matters. Nearly a score are said to have come out in 1643, when the war was at its height. Some papers were entitled 6 News from Hull,' News from the North," The Last printed News from Chichester, Windsor, Winchester, Chester,' &c., and others too numerous to mention. We also find The Scots Dove' opposed to the ' Parliament Kite,' or The Secret Owl.' In 1662 the 'Kingdom's Intelligencer' was commenced in London, which con tained a greater variety of useful infor mation than any other of its predecessors. It had a sort of obituary, notices of pro ceedings in parliament and in the law courts, &c. Some curious advertisements also appear in it. In 1663 another pa per, called The Intelligencer, published for the satisfaction and information of the people,' was started by Roger (afterwards Sir Roger) L'Estrange, who warmly es poused the cause of the crown on all )c casions, and infused into his newspa pers more information, more entertain ment, and more advertisements of im portance than were contained in any succeeding paper whatever previous to the reign of Anne. L'Estrange continued
his journal for two years, but dropped it upon the appearance of the London Ga zette,' first called the Oxford Gazette,' owing to the earlier numbers being issued at Oxford, where the court was then holding and the parliament sitting, on ac count of the plague being then in London. The first number of what has still con tinued to the present time as the Lon don Gazette,' was published at Oxford, February 4th, 1665. So numerous did these little books of news become, that be tween the years 1661 and 1668 no less than seventy of them were published under various titles.
On the 12th of May, 1680, L'Estrange, who had then started a second paper, called the Observator,' first exercised his authority as licenser of the press, by procuring to be issued a " proclama tion for suppressing the printing and pub lishing unlicensed news-books and pam phlets of news, &c." The charge for inserting advertisements (then un taxed) we learn from the Jockey's Intelligeneer; 1683, to be "a shilling for a horse or coach, for notification, and sixpence for renewing ;" also in the Observator Reformed' it is an nounced that advertisements of eight lines are inserted for one shilling ; and Morphew's Country Gentleman's Cou rant,' two years afterwards, says, that promotion of trade is a matter that ought to be encouraged, the price of advertisements is advanced to two pence per line." The publishers at this time however were sometimes puzzled for news to fill their sheets, small as they were ; but a few of them got over the dif ficulty in a sufficiently ingenious manner. The Flying Post,' in 1695, announces, that " if any gentleman has a mind to oblige his country friend or correspondent with this account of public affairs, he may have it for two-pence of J. Salisbury, at the Rising San in Cornhill, on a sheet of fine paper, half of which being blank, he may thereon write his own private business, or the material news of the day." Again Dawker's News-Letter "This letter will be done upon good writing paper, and blank space left, that any gen tleman may write his own private busi ness. It will be useful to improve the younger sort in writing a curious hand." Another publisher, when there was a dearth of news, filled up the blank part with a piece from the Bible.