Upon the breaking out of the civil war in Charles L's time, great numbers of newspapers, which had hitherto been chiefly confined to foreign intelligence, were spread abroad by the different parties into which the state was then divided, under the titles of Diurnals; ' Special Passages," Intelligeneers," Mercuries,' &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. Heylin, in the address prefixed to his ` Cosmographie,' enjoins the reader not to think himself unsatisfied in his expectation, if he find not in it "the situation and affairs of each town of war or the quartering-place of every company or troop of soldiers, which are pre sented to him in the weekly news-books." Hence we find some papers entitled '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.' Keener animosities, as Disraeli remarks, produced keener titles : Hemclitus Ridens' was met by Democritus Ridens,' and The Weekly Discoverer' was shortly met by' The Discoverer Stript Naked.' 3lercurius Britannicus' was grappled by Mercurius Mastix faithfully lashing all Scouts, Mercuries, Posts, Spies, and others.' Mercurius was the favourite name, with another word to indicate the character of the party from whom it emanated. Whenever any title however grew popular, it was stolen by the antagonist, who thus conveyed his opinions to those who would not have received them had he not worn the appearance of a friend.
Disraeli, in his Curiosities of Literature,' gives an account of the two principal persons who were at this time concerned in the newspaper press, Merchant Needham and Sir John Birkenhout. " 31archant Needham," he says, " the great patriarch of newspaper writers, was a man of versatile talents and more versatile politics, a bold adventurer, and most successful because the most profligate of his tribe. From college he came to London; was an usher in Merchant Taylors' School; then an under-clerk in Gray's Inn ; at length studied physic and prac tised chemistry ; and finally he was a captain, and, in the words of honest Antony h Wood, siding with the rout and scum of the people, he made them weekly sport by railing at all that was noble in his intelligence, called Mercurius Britannicus, wherein his endeavours were to sacrifice the fame of some lord, or any person of quality, and of the king himself, to the beast with many heads.' He soon became popular, and was known under the name of Captain Needham of Gray's Inn ; and whatever he now wrote was deemed oracular. But whether from a alight imprisonment for aspersing Charles I., or some pique with his own party, lie requested an audience on his knees with the king, reconciled himself to his majesty, and showed himself a violent royalist in his Mercurius Prag,maticus; and galled the Presbyterians with his wit and quips. Some time after, when the popular party prevailed, he was still further enlightened, and was got over by President Bradshaw as easily as by Charles I. Our Mercurial writer became once more a virulent Presbyterian, and lashed the Royalists outrageously in his Mercurius Politicus.' At length, on the return of Charles H., being now conscious, says our friend Antony, that he might be in danger of the halter, once more he is said to have fled into Holland, waiting for an act of oblivion. For money given to a hungry courtier, Needham obtained his pardon under the great seal. He latterly practised as a physician among his party, but lived uni versally hated by the Royalists, and now only committed harmless treasons with the College of Physicians. on whom he poured all that gall and vinegar which the government had suppressed from flowing through its natural channel." In buffoonery, keenness, and boldness,
Sir Jbhn Birkenhout, the other principal news-writer of the day, was not inferior, nor was he at times less an adventurer, than Needham. His Mercurius Aulicus ' was devoted to the court, then at Oxford. Beside newspapers, he was the author of numerous small political pamphlets abounding in wit and satire.
In 1662 the Kingdom's Intelligenecr ' was commenced in London, which contained a greater variety of mend information than any of its predecessors. It had a sort of obituary, notices of proceedings in parliament and in the law courts, &c. Some curious advertisements also appear in its columns. In 1663 another paper, called The Intelligeneer, published for the satisfaction and information of the people,' was started by Roger (afterwards Sir Roger) L'Estrange, who warmly espoused the cause of the crown on all occasions, and infused into his newspapers more information, more entertainment, and more advertisements of importance 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 Gazette,' 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 account of the plague being in London. The first number of what has still continued to the present time as the 'London Gazette' was published at Oxford, February 4th, 1665. So numerous did these little books of news, as they were called, become at this time, that between 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 "proclamation for suppressing the printing and publishing unlicensed news-books and pamphlets of news, because it has become a common practice for evil disposed persons to vend to his majesty's people all the idle and malicious reports that they could collect or invent, contrary to law ; the continuance whereof would in a short time endanger the peace of the kingdom ; the same manifestly tending thereto, as has been declared by all his majesty's subjects unanimously." The charge for inserting advertisements (then untaxed) at this period, we learn from the ' Jockey's Intelligencer; 1683, to be " a shilling for a horse or coach, for notification, and sixpence for renewing ; " also in the Observator Reformed,' it is announced that advertisements of eight lines are inserted for one shilling ; and Morphew's Country Gentle man's Courant,' two years afterwards, says, that "seeing promotion of trade is a matter that ought to be encouraged, the price of advertise ments 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 difficulty 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 Sun 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 gentleman may write his own private business, It will be useful to improve the younger sort in writing a curious hand." Another publisher had recourse to an expedient for filling his sheet, curious enough : wherever there was a dearth of news, he filled up the blank part with a sufficient proportion from the Bible.