Having revolved, after an interval of many years, the imagery which as it were crowded on the mind at a first glance, he treads the ground again with caution; he confines himself to the more immediate object of his pursuit; and employs the pen or the pencil on subjects which had before entirely escaped his attention.

“The scenery to which the Reader is now recalled is of a more confined and humble nature; yet there are gleanings in our biographical harvest, which, it is hoped will be thought not undeserving notice. Of the very early period indeed the recollections are few, but they are interesting; and, as we advance, the discoveries produced by diligent enquiry and friendly communications, and even by the loss of friends whom it would have been indelicate to mention whilst living, have removed the veil under which many curious particulars, highly honourable to the persons of whom they are related, were unavoidably concealed."

"To whatever cause it may be owing, the lives of literary men are seldom recorded, while any remembrance of them remains. Except in a few cases, where interest, vanity, or gratitude are concerned, men of letters, who in general deserve better of the world than the more brilliant characters of the hour, the courtier or the pseudo-patriot, pass unnoticeed to the grave; and curiosity is seldom awakened about them until the opportunity of gratifying it is irrecoverable."

"The information, therefore, which, I flatter myself, was conveyed to the world in the former edition of the Memoirs of my late excellent Friend, encourages me, after an interval of more than six-and-twenty years, when so much fresh matter has occurred, to pursue a similar method."

The first Literary character which Mr. Nichols very appropriately introduces is " WILLIAM BOWYER, confessedly the most learned Printer of the 18th Century, he was born in Dogwell Court, in the extraparochial precinct of White Friars, London, Dec. 19, 1699; and may be said to have been initiated from his infancy in the rudiments of the art in which he so eminently excelled."

Mr. N-then gives his Genealogy, a portrait and other minute particulars, which I shall not enter into, but proceed to take a retrospective view of his, and the public press from the above period, at which it appears the following Newspapers were published. in London.

The Daily Courant (as its title shews) 6 times a week
The Supplement,

The General Remark,

The Female Tatler,

The General Postscript,

6

Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 12

The British Apollo, Monday, and Friday,
The London Gazette,

The Postman,

The Postboy,

The Flying Post,

The Review

Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday, 12

Tuesday; Thursilay & Saturday, 21

The Observer, Wednesday, and Saturday,

29:

OF PUBLICK NEWS AND WEEKLY PAPERS; WHEN THEY FIRST BEGAN; THEIR PROGRESS,

INCREASE, AND USES AND ABUSES

TO THE PEOPLE.

(From the Harl. MSS. 5910)

"IN the days of King Henry VIII, we had none that ever I could see, that is to say, in single sheets, except some invectives against the Pope and the Church of Rome. It is true there were several tracts wrote against Cardinal Wolsey; but they were in books in octavo; and several others relating to several matters, as about the Sacrament, against Gardiner, Bishop Bonner, &c. but these might rather be called libels than pamphlets. These were most printed beyond the Seas. Only one I remember, which. was "The supplication of Beggars," wrote against the Friars Begging, by one Fish.

But in the days of Queen Mary they began to fly about in the City of London; as several Ballads and other Songs and Poems, as a Ballad of the Queen's being with child.

And these, I say, were the forerunners of the Newspapers. In the days of Queen Elizabeth we had several Papers printed relating to the affairs in France, Spain, and Holland, about the time of the Civil Wars in France. And these were, for the most part, translations from the Dutch and French. And were Books, or Pamphlets rather, which, I take, if I mistake not, the word signifieth to be held in the hands and quickly read.

We must come down to the reign of King James the I. and that towards the latter end, when News began to be in fashion and then if I mistake not, began the use of Mercury women; and they it was that dispersed them to the Hawker which word hath another signification. Look more in the Bellman of London.

These Mercuries and Hawkers their business at first was to disperse Proclamations, Orders of Council, and Acts of Parliament, &c. And we may see the humours of the times out of Ben Johnson's Plays. At that time, News was become a great fashion, as may be discerned in that play, by him wrote, entitled, "The Staple of News," and the scene settled at the West end of St. Paul's; and wrote 1625."

"Peni-boy, Cymbal, Fitton Tho. Barber, Canter.
In troth they are dainty rooms; what place is this?
Cymbal. This is the outer room, where my clerks sit,
And keep their sides, the Register i' the midst;
The Examiner, he sits private there, within;
And here I have my several rowls and fyles

Of News by the alphabet, and all put up

Under their heads P. jun. But those too subdivided?
Cymb. Into Authenticall, and Apocryphall

Fitton. Or News of doubtful credit; as Barbers' News.
Cymb. And Taylors' News, Porters', and Watermens'

News.

Ben Jonson a cotemporary of Shakespear, here refers to Barbers,' Taylors,' and Smiths' NEws, for which they appear to have been celebrated at that period, and some of the CRAFT are great Newsmongers in the present day

Jonson continues his happy description, throughout the above Drama, but not so happily as Shakespear in his King John, where he has with such effect blended the three artificers.

"I saw a smith stand with his hammer, thus,
The whilst his iron did on the anvil cool,
With open mouth swallowing a tailor's news;
Who, with his shears and measure in his hand,
Standing on slippers (which his nimble haste
Had falsely thrust upon contrary feet,)
Told of a many thousand warlike French,
That were embatteled and rank'd in Kent:
Another lean unwash'd artificer

Cuts off his tale, and talks of Arthur's death."

Next follows a very curious List of Newspapers, Magazines, and Reviews for nearly two Centuries (from 1611 to 1804, to which Mr. Nichols adds at least 200 more in the 8th Volume of his Anecdotes. I find some omissions in the HARLEIAN MS., and also in Mr. Nichols's account, but they are altogether so extensive in number as to occupy too much room for my present undertaking. I shall therefore, select and confine myself to the most interesting details, and notes respecting them, stating at what period the first News, and other Papers, were issued from each Country :—

Thus have I given a Selection of the first Paper from each

Country, from their origin, to the middle of the 17th Century.

The latter will serve to show the progress of the Periodical Press to the middle of the 17th Century, as to the commencement of promulgating News in different parts of the Globe. But there were no less than Two-hundred and thirty different Papers, &c., published up to that time, and upwards of One thousand more up to the close of the Eighteenth Century. Many notes and observations, upon those of the olden time, claim attention, and will be found interesting.

In a note to the Reader, Ben Jonson speaks of the Times News as a weekly cheat to draw money, which" could not be fitter reprehended, than in raising this ridiculous office of the Staple, wherein the Age may see her own folly, or hunger and thirst after published Pamphlets of News, set out every Saturday, but made all at home, and no syllable of truth in them; than which there cannot be a greater disease in Nature, or a fouler scorn put upon the time."

Gallo-Belgicus (a copy of which is now amongst the King's collection in the British Museum) is not a newspaper; but may with greater propriety be called The Annual Register of the Times. or The State of Europe. It was originally compiled by M. Jansen, a Frisian, and was not printed until the year 1598, ten years after the " Mercurie," although it dates the commencement of its accounts from the same period. It is written in Latin, and was printed in octavo at Cologne, and ornamented with a wooden cut of Mercury standing on a Globe with his usual attributes. Thus, even if Gallo-Belgicus could be correctly termed a newspaper, which it cannot, The English Mercurie" would claim precedence by the space of ter years; and Holland must consequently yield the credit of originality to Great Britain.

Of the Mercurius Britannicus, published in 1643, Chalmers says that,

Marchmont Needham, the versatile author of this paper, was born in 1620, and educated at Oxford. He assumed all colours of the chameleon during those contentious times; and, being discharged from writing public intelligence by the Council of State in March 1660, was allowed to live at the Restoration; till at length, says Anthony Wood, "this most seditious, mutable, and reviling Author died suddenly, in Devereux Court, in Noember 1678."

་་་

Of the Impartial Intelligencer, published in 1648.

In No. 7 of this paper is the first regular Advertisement which I have met with. It is from a gentleman of Candish in Suffolk, from whom two Horses had been stolen.