ENGLAND. The founder of the English press was a London printer named Nathaniel Butter (died 3664). As early as 1605 lie was issuing news pamphlets; and in 1622 lie began The News of the Present Week, which under varying titles was continued till 11339. Ilk slips were firstly compiled from similar foreign sheets• and con tained very little hone news. But they bore the distinguishing mark of the newspaper: they were published regularly. During the Civil Wars there Mandated a large number of sheets. with such names as England's .11crno•able .leeidents; The Kingdom's Intelligence; Mercurius Aulieus; Mercurr•ius Politicos: The Scots Intelligencer: The Parliament's Scout ; The Scots Dore; The Parliament Kite; The Secret Oiel; Mercurius .1/astir; Mercurius Democrit us; and .1/rrc£u•ius .1elicrontirus. or CIrR from Hell. The arrange of the was poor in the extreme, and the eminent most virulent. The first English newspaper which aimed at general information was the Public Intelligeneer, established by Sir Boger L'Estrange in 1663: it was dropped scum after the appear:au•e of the London Gazette, the first number of which was published at Oxford. November 7. 1665. A second paper. called the (Ibsen-er was started by L'Estrange in 161. lu the reign of Charles 11. the development of the newspaper was checked by the rigid enforeement of the licensing net of 1662. I'mler that r6gime nothing. but an official organ could long survive. The repeal of the licensing act in 1695 opened a new era in English jnurnalism. Newspapers nt once sprang up in London and in other cities. Besides news-letters. flying posts, and mereuries, appeared the Edinburgh Gazette, n semi-weekly (1699) : the daily roarant, the first English daily ( t702): the llerietc, established by Defoe for the discussion of political questions (1703): and the Orange Postman, the first penny paper (1709).
Though the licensing net was of the past. the newspaper writer was held to strict aecount for what he printed. During the reign of George proseeutions were especially common. The usual result was to give increased currency to the doctrines assailed. and to confer a fictitious im portanee on trailers in polities, by whom many of the journals were eondueted. The first attempt at Parliamentary reporting was also resented by the Rouse of Commons as a breach of privilege, but the imprisonments of 1771 ended in the tacit concession of publicity of discussion, which has ever since prevailed. The Speaker in 1S93 ex cluded the representative of the London ('lu•onielc front the Commons gallery, and it was generally accepted as within his power. A greater obstacle encountered by the press was the stamp tax. In 1712 a duty of a halfpenny per sheet was placed on every paper of a sheet and a half. It put an end to Defoe's Rcriew, Addison's Spectator, and `all the little penny papers.' The tax was raised
in 1757 to a penny a copy; in 1776 to a penny and a half; in 1789, to twopence; in 1794, to twopence-halfpenny; in 1797, to threepence-half penny; and in 1815 to fourpence. At this time the usual price per copy was sevenpenee. In 1830 the tax was reduced to a penny, and in 1855 abolished altogether. And in 1861 the duty on paper was repealed. As a result, newspapers increased enormously in number, and the price per copy was reduced to the present level, from threepence to a halfpenny.
Notwithstanding these exorbitant imposts, which were at first intended to be as deadly as the old licensing act, many newspapers were es tablished, and as their scope widened they be came more and more important. The Saint James's Post and the Saint James's Evening Post, cacti started in 1715, were fused in the Saint James's Chronicle (1724), the liveliest paper of the period. The London Daily Post and General Advertiser, founded in 1726, changed its name in 1752 to the Public Advertiser, and was after wards famous for the contributions of `Junius.' In 1762 John Wilkes issued the first number of the North Briton. The Morning Chronicle, es tablished in 1769, was the first newspaper to give adequate reports of Parliamentary debates; it invented the leading article; and in its columns first appeared Ilazlitt's dramatic criticisms. It was soon rivaled by the Morning Post (1772) and the Morning Herald (1781). The London. Daily Universal Register, begun in 1785, was turned into the Times in 1788. From the first, the Times, under the direction of John Walter (q.v.), devoted itself mainly to a diseuion of public affairs, governmental, educational, and commercial. Its Parliamentary reports and 'leaders' soon became the best, and in course of time it was recognized as 'the leading journal of Europe.' It was the first to discard the hand press and to substitute steam (1814). In 1S46 appeared the Daily News with Dickens as editor; and in 1855 the Daily Telegraph, the first penny paper of the nineteenth century, which gained an immense audience under the regime of G. A. Sala. The Standard, now the chief Conservative news paper, was started in 1827, as an evening edi tion of the Morning Herald. It made a stout fight against Catholic emancipation. Its cause lost, it lived a lingering life until revived in 1876 by its able editor, \V. H. Sludford. Other Popular London dailies are the G/obc (1803) ; the ECII0 (1865), the first London halfpenny newspaper; the Pall Mall Gazette (1865), which John :Morley turned from its conservative ways into a powerful Radical organ; Saint .James's Gazette ( 1580) ; the Evening News (1881) ; the Star (1888) ; Westminster Gazette (1592) ; the Run (1893) : and the Daily Mail (1896), founded by A. C. llarmsworth. who is a striking figure in recent journalism.