It was not until the reign of Anne that the Londoners had a newspaper every day. The first was issued in 1709, and called The Daily Courant,' being pub lished every day but Sunday. There were at this time seventeen others published thrice a week, and one twice. Among them was the ' British Apollo,' the Ge neral Postscript,' the London Gazette,' 'the Postman,' the Evening Post,' and the City Intelligencer.' It may be sufficient to notice in few words two or three of the more remark able journals only which have since suc ceeded. The Public Advertiser' was first printed under the title of the Lon don Daily Post, and General Advertiser,' so far back as 1726, and assumed its later name only in 1752. `Junius's Letters were published in this paper. The St James's Chronicle' is another of our oldest papers ; at its first publication it was an amalgamation of two papers (the 6 St. James's Past and the St. James's Evening Post'), both of which began in 1715. The 'North Briton,' edited by Wilkes, first appeared in 1762 ; and in the same year the Englishman' was es tablished. The 'Englishman' attracted much notice about 1766, on account of the insertion of several satirical articles in it by Burke.
The earliest local provincial newspaper in England is said to have been the Nor wich Postman,' published in 1706, at the charge of a penny, but "a halfpenny not refused followed by the Norwich Cou rant, or Weekly Packet,' in 1714, price three half-pence. Previous to 1720 the York Mercury' appeared, followed in that year by the York Courant,' which still exists. In this year also a Leeds Mercury' was established ; and about the same tithe a Gloucester Journal.' In 1730 a ' Manchester Gazette' was published. The Derby Mercury' was begun iu 1731; the 'Oxford Journal' in 1740; a Preston Journal' in 1745, and Billinge's Liverpool Advertiser' in 1765.
In Scotland the newspaper-press was first introduced during the civil wars in the seventeenth century. When a party of Cromwell's troops arrived at Leith is 1652, for the purpose of garrisoning the citadel, they brought a printer, named Christopher Higgins, to reprint a Lon don diurnal, called Mercurius Politicus,' for their amusement and information. The first number was issued on the 2nth October, 1653 ; and in November the following year, the establishment was transferred to Edinburgh, where this re. printing system was continued till the 11 th April, 1660. On the 31st December, 1660, appeared at Edinburgh, The Mer curius Caledonius,' purporting to com prise "the affairs in agitation in Scotland, with a survey of foreign intelligence.' It was a small quarto of eight pages. The last number was dated March 22 to March 28, 1661. It was succeeded by The Kingdom's Intelligencer: In 1669 an Edinburgh Gazette' was published by authority, followed in 1705 by the ' Edinburgh Courant,' which still exists. The Caledonian Mercury,' also still in existence, was first published on April 28, 1720. After Edinburgh, the next
place at which the publication of a news paper was attempted in Scotland was Glasgow, where the first number of the Glasgow Courant' appeared November 11, 1715.
In Ireland, as in England and Scot land, newspaper intelligence originated during civil commotion. As far back as 1641, at the breaking out of the Re bellion of that year, there was printed a news sheet, called Warranted Tidings from Ireland ;' but from that time to the beginning of the eighteenth century, we have no notice of any other print of the kind, although it is not improbable that there may have been some. About the year 1700, a newspaper called Pue's Occurrences,' named after the proprietor, was established in Dublin, and maintained itself for more than half a century. This was the first newspaper published in the Irish capital. The next Dublin print was • Falkener's Journal: established in 1728—both were daily papers. Water ford appears to have followed Dublin in publishing news, by the establishment of a paper in 1729, entitled • The Water ford Flying Post.' The oldest existing newspaper in Ireland is the Belfast News Letter,' started in 1737.
The newspapers of Great Britain have much improved within the last thirty years. In 1801 • The Leeds Mer cury' contained 21,000 words ; 80,000 words in 1835; 120,000 in 1845; and 179,000 words in 1846. Not only has a great increase been made in the size of the provincial papers, but their literary character has undergone a marked improvement, particularly since the close of the last war. Before that time few of them contained any original articles or essays beyond occasional or local para graphs. Though nearly all the British newspapers may be considered as repre senting the opinions of some politi cal party, or of some religious denomi nation, there are now several in which all the important questions on which opinions are divided are discussed with great ability, and particularly questions that relate to agriculture, manufactures, and commerce. By means of this con flict of opposing views, truth is often elicited in the end, and a public opinion is gradually formed upon the secure basis of complete investigation, and the com parison of contending arguments. The importance' of newspapers in the actual state of our society can hardly be over rated. Much that is bad is widely dif fused, but this is an evil inseparable from the Liberty of the Press, and no man doubts that society on the whole gains largely by the unrestrained pub lication of everything that affects the general interest and by the free expression of opinion. Political Liberty and the Freedom of Industry owe nearly every thing to the press, and on the honesty and ability with which it shall continue to be conducted, our social progress will materially depend.