It was not until the reign of Anne that the Londoners enjoyed the luxury of a newspaper every day. The first was issued in 1709, and called The Daily Courant,' being published 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 General Post script,' the London Gazette,' the Postman,' the Evening Post,' and the City lntelligencer.' It was about this time that a new species of publication came out, which, although it would scarcely be regarded as belonging to the family of newspapers now, was held to be so then ; and, in fact, for a consider able time after it was commenced, it included articles of news along with its other matter. We allude to those admirable publications, the Tatler," Spectator," Guardian,' &c., which formed the models of so many subsequent publications of the same kind. The first number of the Tatler ' was published on the 23rd of April, new style, 1709; the last on the 2nd of January, 1711. Much space was occupied in each by advertisements, and the price of each number was a penny. The publication of the Spectator' began March 1, 1711, at the same price ; but upon the imposition of the half-penny stamp-duty, which began August 1, 1712, the price was raised to two-pence. The halfpenny tax is conjectured to have been the cause of the Spectator' being stopped in the beginning of 1713. It was however immediately followed by the ' Guardian,' the first number of which appeared on March 2nd, 1713. This paper soon dropped, and was succeeded by the Englishman' in October the same year (professedly political). The Englishman 'lasted for two years, and was in its turn supplanted by the Freeholder,' on December 23rd, 1715, the latter work being almost the sole production of Addison.
It may be sufficient to notice in few words two or three of the more remarkable journals only which have since succeeded. The Public Advertiser' was first printed under the title of the 'London Daily Post and General Advertiser,' so far back as 1726, and assumed its later name only in 1752. This paper was the vehicle through which Junius's Letters' were given to the world. The St. James's Chronicle' is another of our oldest papers ; at its first publication it was an amalgamation of two papers (the St. James's Post' and the St. James's Evening Post '), both of which began in 1715. The ' North Britdn,' edited by Wilkes, first appeared in 1762; and in the same year the Englishman ' was established. The Englishman ' attracted much notice about 1766, on account of the insertion of several satirical articles in it by Burke. The ' Times ' was established January 1, 1783.
The following account of the origin of the newspaper stamp is given by Cooke. in his' Life of Bolingbroke : '—" Queen Anne, in one of her tannage. to parliament, declared that, by seditious papers and factious rumours, deaigning men had been able to sink credit, and that the Innocent heel suffered; and she recommended the House to find a remedy equal to the mischief. In obedience to the queen's desire, and at the instance of her secretary, the parliament passed a bill, in 1712, imposing a stamp-duty upon pamphlets and publications. At its origin the amount of this stamp was a halfpenny; and it is curious to observe what an effect this trifling impost had upon the circulation of the most favourite papers. Many were entirely discontinued, and
several of those which survived were generally united into one publi aation." The Act which imposed this duty is 10 Anne, e. six. It is to this Act that Swift alludes in his Journal to Stella, under August 7, 1712 :—" Do you know that all Grub Street is dead and gone last week 1" By the 6th and 7th Wm. IV. e. 76, the stamp-duty on newspapers, which had been gradually raised to fourpence (with a discount of 20 per cent.), was reduced to one penny (without any discount), a discount of 25per cent being allowed for Ireland. The quantity of letter-press on a sheet of paper bearing a stamp of one penny was limited to 1530 square inches on ono side. Above 1530 square inches, the stamp was three-halfpence ; above 2295 inches it was two-pence.
In 1S36, when the stamp-duty was fourpence, the total number of stamps lamed for the United Kingdom was 35,576,000.
In 1851 the total number of penny stamps issued was follows The penny stamp shows the number of newspapers, as the halfpenny was additional ou supplements.
From the 5th July, 1533, the duty on advertisements was reduced from as. rid. to ls. (id. in Great Britain, and to ls. in Ireland. The following statement of the total number of advertisements, and total amount received therefrom, will show the results of this reduction :— In Scotland the newspaper-press was first introduced during the civil wars in the 17th century. \'hen a party of Cromwell's troops arrived at Leith in 1652, for the purpose of garrisoning the citadel, they brought a printer, named Christopher Higgins, to reprint a London diurnal, called ' 31ercurins Politicus,' for their amusement and information. The first number was issued on the 26th October, 1653; and in November the following year, the establishment was transferred to Edinburgh, where this reprinting system was continued till the llth April 1660. On the 31st December, 1660, appeared at Edinburgh the ' Mercurius Caledonian; purporting to comprise " 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." The Caledonian Mercury,' which still exists, was first published on April 23, 1720. After Edin burgh, the next place at which the publication of a newspaper was attempted in Scotland was Glasgow, where the first number of the Courant' appeared November II, 1715. The Glasgow Journal; begun in 1729, still exist& An ' Aberdeen Journal, or North British Magazine,' began in 1746 ; the first number gave an account of the battle of Culloden ; this paper still continues. The ' Dumfries Journal' was commenced in 1750; and others quickly followed. Scotland has several other country newspapers, the Elgin Courier,' the ' Banffshire Journal,' the ' Paisley Advertiser,' the ' Ilenfrewshire Independent,' &c. There are now twenty newspapers published in Edinburgh, of which four are Issued daily ; and twenty-two in Glasgow, of which four are daily papers.