No More Learning

THF NEWS-WRITER. 15
Pennyboy. ' Fore me, thou speak'st of a brave business, Tom . The tailor puts in a word here, anxious to help the
description by saying something about Butter : — Fashioner. Nay, if you knew the brave that hatch'd it.
But the heir stops him with a jest at the expense of tailors in general, and bids the barber proceed : —
Thomas. He tells you true, sir ; master Cymbal Is master of the office ; he projected
He lies here, in the house and the great rooms
He has taken for the office, and set up
His desks and classes, tables and his shelves.
But Fashioner, the tailor, will have his word, and glories in the fact that he makes clothes for wit and an inventor, who has reporters in his pay —
Fashioner. He my customer, and wit, sir, too But he has brave wits under him.
Thomas. Yes, four emissaries.
Pennyboy. Emissaries? Stay, there's fine new word, Tom.
Pray God signify anything What are emissaries Thomas. Men employed outward, that are sent abroad
To fetch in the commodity. Fashioner. From all regions,
Where the best news are made.
The tailor will not be restrained when his customer
—
being described
Thomas. Fashioner. Pennyboy. Fashioner. Pennyboy.
Or vented forth.
By way of exchange, or trade.
Nay, thou wilt speak—
My share, sir, there's enough for both. Go on then,
Speak all thou canst methinks the ordinaries Should help them much.
Fashioner. Sir, they have ordinaries,
And extraordinaries, as many changes,
And variations, as there are points in the compass.
is
it
: : is
!
?
a ;
a
a
:
;
it,
THE FOURTH ESTATE.
But the four cardinal quarters. Ay, those, Tom —
Here we have the four points named where News was current in London before Newspapers collected it from all parts of the globe. The Court, which at this time, and for long afterwards, was a great centre for gossip, ranks first ; whilst old St. Paul's — the gothic predecessor of the present building —was the second spot where people of different conditions met to talk over affairs. The citizens paced the aisle of the church to give and receive intelligence; to chat over events; to speculate on the future ; and to make bargains in their trade. The Exchange stood third, and doubtless afforded the City News of how the Lord Mayor felt affected towards the Court; for Lord Mayors were then not such mere empty formalities as now. * Lastly we have, Westminster Hall, another sheltered spot where men might congregate to learn not only the law's decisions, but the progress of events. To these locali ties we find our News-writer, Mr. Butter, is supposed to despatch his emissaries. But the heir, having learned all these particulars about the new office,
wishes to know who is the head and front of the novel undertaking :—
Pennyboy. Who is the chief? Which hath precedency ?
* One of these civic sovereigns had a dispute with James the First because the merchants declined to increase their loans to the King. " If I were to move the court to York your city would be ruined," hinted the monarch. "Your Majesty, it is true, might deprive us of your august presence," replied the Mayor, "but we shall still have the Thames. "
16
ster Hall.
Thomas.
Pennyboy-
Thomas. The Court, sir, Paul's, Exchange, and Westmin
news-writer's office. 17
Thomas. The governor of the Staple, Master Cymbal, He is the chief ; and after him the emissaries :
First emissary Court, one Master Fitton,
He is a jeerer too.
What's that ? A wit.
Or half a wit, some of them are half wits, Two to a wit, three are a set of them.
Pennyboy. Fashioner. Thomas.
Then Master Ambler, emissary Paul's.
A fine-paced gentleman as you shall see walk The middle aisle : and then my froy Hans Buz, A Dutchman, he is emissary Exchange.
Fashioner. I had thought master Burst, the merchant, had had it.
Thomas. No,
He has a rupture, he has sprung a leak. Emissary Westminster's indisposed of yet.
This Thomas the barber is ambitious, and would
fain be attached to the News office, and the post of
emissary Westminster stands temptingly open. He goes on to describe the room where the intelligence is
put into shape: —
Then the examiner, register, aud two clerks, They manage all at home, and sort and file, And seal the news, and issue them.
Pennyboy. Tom, dear Tom,
What may my means do for thee ? Ask, and have it.
I'd fain be doing some good : it is my birthday.
And I would do it betimes, I feel a grudging
Of bounty, and I would not long lie fallow.
I pray thee think and speak, or wish for something.
The barber now has the opportunity he hoped for, and he speaks his wishes at once.
Thomas. I would I had but one of the clerk's places In this News office.
VOL. I. C
18 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
Pennyboy. Thou shalt have Tom,
If silver or gold will fetch what's the rate —
At what Thomas.
An 'twere a hundred, Tom, Thou shalt not want it.
This Figaro's calculation of the good-natured liberality of the heir proves correct, and they proceed to negociate the affair at the News office itself, to which we are now introduced.
Enter Register and Nathaniel.
Reg. What, are those desks fit now Set forth the table,
The carpet* and the chair where are the News That were examined last Have you filled them up
Nath. Not yet, had no time.
Reg. Are those News registered That emissary Buz sent in last night,
Of Spinola and his eggs
Yes, sir and filed.
What are you now upon
That our new emissary Westminster gave us, of the golden heir.
Reg Dispatch that's news indeed, and of importance. — Enter Country-woman.
What would you have good woman Woman. would have, sir,
A groat's-worth of any News, care not what, To carry down this Saturday to our vicar.
Pennyboy.
Nath. Reg. Nath.
set in the market Fifty pound, sir.
Reg. you are butter- woman ask Nathaniel, The clerk there.
* —- Set forth the table, The carpet, &c.
" In the very
The embroidered rug with which tables were then covered.
fray one of their spurs engaged into carpet, upon which stood
fair looking-glass, and two noble pieces of porcelain, drew all to the ground, broke the glass," &c. Character England, Harleian Misccl, Vol. X,,p. 189.
of
;
a
it,
a
-
O is ! I it
a
?
?
;
I
a? ? ; I
it ;
-
?
?
?
?
NATHANIEL BUTTER.
Nath. Sir, I tell her she must stay Till emissary Exchange, or Paul's send in, And then I'll fit her.
Reg. Do good woman, have patience
It is not now, as when the Captain lived, You'll blast the reputation of the office,
Now in the bud, if you dispatch these groats So soon : let them attend in name of policy.
19
To have served them too quickly, would have seemed as though the News were made instead of being collected ; so thought the Register. On the passage —
O ! you are a butter-woman, &c.
Gifford in his edition of Ben Jonson has a note, which throws some additional light on the character of
the first English Newspaper projector, and upon the career of some other early News-gatherers. Gifford had himself been connected with the Newspaper press, and doubtless felt an interest in the subject.
Fletcher's Fair Maid of the Inn, which appeared a few months after The Staple of News, has a refer ence both to Butter and to his fellow-newsmonger, the Captain;
For. It shall be the ghost of some lying stationer.
A spirit shall look as if butter would not melt in his mouth ; a new Mecurius-Gallo-Belgicus.
Cox. O, there was a Captain was rare at it.
For. Never think of him : though that Captain writ a full hand-gallop, and wasted more harmless paper, than ever did
laxative physic, yet will I make you to out-scribble him. Act IV. , Sc. 2.
" Both Jonson and Fletcher," says Gifford, " had
in view Nathaniel Butter, who, if we may trust the c2
20 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
present account of him, was bred a stationer, failed in his profession, and betook himself to the compila tion of News from all quarters. It appears, from Mr. Chalmers's inquiries, that he began his labours as early (at least) as 1611; and, if he was not the most success ful, he was undoubtedly the most indefatigable of all the News- writers of his age. I have seen," continues the editor of the Quarterly Review, " pamphlets, for such were most of his publications, whether occasionally or weekly, by him, of the date of 1634, when he had swelled the firm to Butter & Co. , and he probably con tinued to publish much longer. His foreign News, which is extremely jejune, is merely a bald translation from some of the Continental Mercuries; when he ventures to add a remark of his own, it is somewhat in the style of old Tiresias, or Jeffrey Neve — ' What I will either fall out or not,'—so that he was not likely to conciliate much of Jonson's respect. The verse which mentions the Captain, is a parody of one in poor old Jeronimo :—
It is not now as when Andrea lived.
" The Captain, of whom I have nothing certain to say, appears to have rivalled Butter in the dissemina tion of News. In that age the middle aisle of St. Paul's swarmed with disbanded or broken ancients, lieutenants, &c. , who on the strength of having served a few months in the Low Countries, assumed, like Cavaliero Shift, an acquaintance with all the great officers in the field, and amused the idle citizens with pretended intelligence from the armies. One of these (the Captain of Jonson and Fletcher) seems to have turned his inventive faculties to account, and printed
THE FIRST EDITORS ROOM. 21
his imaginary correspondence, instead of detailing it viva voce. *"
To return again to Ben Jonson's comedy, which we left just as he had introduced us to the office of the Staple. Cymbal the proprietor, and Fitton the reporter enter, introducing Pennyboy : —
Pennyboy. In truth they are dainty rooms ; what place is this?
Cymbal. This is the outer room, where my clerks sit, And keep their sides, the register in the midst;
The examiner, he sits private there, within ;
And here I have my several rolls and files
Of News by the alphabet, and all are put up Under their heads.
Pennyboy. But those two subdivided ?
Into authentical and apocryphal —
Or News of doubtful credit, as barber's News —
Cymbal. I have the News of the sea, sir— Fitton. As Vacation News,
Term News, and Christmas News. Cymbal. And News of the faction.
Fitton. As the Reformed News ; Protestant News ;— Cymbal. And Pontificial News ; of all which several,
*In The Great Assizes —a curious poem, mention is made of a Cap tain Rashingham, a great compiler of News, whose occupation was invaded by a swarm of "paper wasters," &c,
Who weekly uttered such a mass of lies,
Under the specious name of novelties,
that the Captain found his trade over-run, and was obliged to betake himself to "plucking tame pigeons," (tricking) for a livelihood. This was written nearly twenty years after The Staple of News ; bully Rashingham, therefore, may be too late for the Captain of the text ; the quotation, however, will serve to show that men of this de scription were engaged in these pursuits. See also the first scene of
Shirley's Love Tricks. — Notes to B. Jonson, edited by Gifford.
Cymbal. Fitton.
And tailors' News, porters' and watermens' News. Fitton. Where to, lee side the Coranti, and Gazetti —
Cymbal.
22 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
The daybooks, characters, precedents are kept, Together with the names of special friends —
Fitton. Cymbal.
Fitton. Cymbal.
And men of correspondence in the Country — Yes, of all ranks, and all religions —
Factors and agents — Siegers, that lie out
Through all the shires of the Kingdom. Pennyboy. This is fine,
And bears a brave relation !
But enough of The Staple of News, now that we have gleaned from it an idea of the forerunner of the modern Newspaper office. In Collins's Memorials of State we have on record, a News-writer and his patron, the latter being Sir Robert Sydney, the former a Mr Whyte, a postmaster, " a notable busy man, who constantly wrote over to Flushing to his patron. "* When the civil wars were raging, News-agents, and News-letter writers and
* " Sir Robert Sydney, the younger brother, copied after the shining character (of Sir Philip Sydney), and by his virtues and services ob tained the title and honours of Earl of Leicester. As he was curious in laying out for intelligence of the remarkable events of the time, he kept a correspondence with Rowland White the postmaster, a notable busy man, who constantly writ over to him at Flushing (when he was resident there as governor) the News and intrigues of the court ; and, being employed by him in commissions to his noble relations the ministers, was entrusted by them with several secret passages for the information of his patron. To give one instance out of many, I shall only add, that in Mr. White's letters are contained several particulars, hitherto passed over in silence by the historians, of the Earl of Essex's favour, troubles, and fall. " —Preface to Collins' Memorials of State.
" This gentleman (Rowland Whyte) was employed by Sir Robert Sydney to solicit his affairs at Court, and to relate to him what passed there, for which he allowed him a salary, and his integrity and indus try fully appears in the course of his letters, some of which are in the first volume, but these that follow discover several particulars in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, unobserved by our historians. " —Collins's Memorials of State, Note Vol. II. p. 4.
CROMWELL AND THE NEWS-BEARER. 23
pamphleteers, were all in full occupation. They were employed by Cromwell and against him, and these written pages were circulated in various secret ways. From hand to hand they were dispatched under the wings of birds, and sewn into the saddle-flaps of unconscious riders. We find on record a notable instance of this last mode of sending information, in the case of Charles the First, who adopted it unsuccess fully, when he tried to send secret news to France of his intentions respecting Cromwell and the puritans.
The document in this case was rather a private dispatch than a News-letter, but the story of its discovery is illustrative of the contrivances resorted to at that time for communicating intelligence from one place to another. Guizot has put the incident into graphic shape, and we may quote it from the translation by Mr. Hazlitt, — himself by the way a journalist: —
From day to day the King's intentions became more and
I shall play my game as well as I can," said Charles to Ireton, who pressed him to join them openly ; * and lords Lauderdale and Lanark, still assiduous in their attendance,
promised him the support of a Scottish army if he would accept of their alliance. Already, it was said, the preliminaries of a treaty were agreed upon ; it was even added that in Scotland, where Hamilton's credit prevailed over that of Argyle, troops were marching towards the borders. \ On their side, the Eng lish cavaliers, Capel, Langdale, and Musgrave were secretly getting up an insurrection. "Be assured," the King had said to Capel, "the two nations will soon be at war; the Scotch promise themselves the co-operation of all the presbyterians in England ; let our friends, then, hold themselves ready and in arms ; for otherwise, whichever party is victorious, we shall get
* Hutchinson, 277. t Rushworth, ii. 4, 786—810.
more suspected : "
THE FOURTH ESTATE.
very little by it. *" Meantime, the situation of the army quartered near London became critical ; the city paid no attention to the demands made for money to pay the men, and the officers knew not how to govern troops whom they could not pay. t In all directions the most daring pamphlets were circulated; some setting forth the designs of the soldiers against the King, others the king's negociations with the generals. In vain had Fairfax demanded and obtained, readily enough so far, the establishment of a rigorous censorship ; J in vain had Cromwell himself repre sented to the city the necessities of the army ; in vain had he displayed all the resources of reason and craft, to persuade the fanatics that they must restrain their fanaticism if they thought to be paid by the moderate, the moderate that, to keep the fan atics in check, they must pay them ; || in vain had he succeeded
in getting some of his confidants elected among the new agents of the soldiers. His efforts were without result ; even his very prudence turned against him ; he had kept up a correspondence, had secured, as he imagined, means of action with all parties ; and now everywhere a wild, indomitable excitement threatened to countervail his schemes, to ruin his influence. The end of so much ability, so much exertion, had only been to burden his situation with greater difficulty and danger.
Amid this perplexity, one of the spies he had at Hampton Court, in the very chamber of the king, sent him word that on that day, a letter addressed to the queen would be dispatched from the castle, containing Charles's real designs towards the army and its leaders. The letter, sewn up in a saddle, carried
on his head by a man, not in the secret, would reach, about ten o'clock that night, the Blue Boar in Holborn ; a horse was rea dy waiting there to take the bearer to Dover, whence the packet would sail for France. Cromwell and Ireton at once formed their resolution. Disguised as private soldiers, and followed by a single trooper, they left Windsor to go to the appointed place. On their arrival, they placed their attendant on the watch at
* Clarendon, iii. 106. t Rushworth, ii. 4, 804, &c.
X By an ordinance of September 30, 1647 ; Pari. Hist. iii. 779—781 ;
Rushworth, ii. 4, 799. || Rushworth, ii. 4, 883, 884.
THE NEWS-LETTERS. 25
the door, and entering the tavern, sat down at a table and had some beer. Towards ten, the messenger appeared, the saddle on his head : receiving immediate notice of this, they went out, sword in hand, seized the saddle under the pretext that they had orders to search everything, carried it into the inn, ripped it open, found the letter, carefully closed up the saddle again, and then returned it to the terrified messenger, saying, with an air of good humour, that he was an honest fellow, and might con tinue his journey.
Their informant had not deceived them: Charles, indeed, wrote to the queen that he was courted alike by both factions, that he should join the one whose conditions should be most for his advantage, and that he thought he should rather treat with the Scottish presbyterians than with the army : "For the rest," he added, "I alone understand my position ; be quite easy as to the concessions which I may grant; when the time comes, I shall very well know how to treat these rogues, and instead of a silken garter, I will fit them with a hempen halter. " The two generals looked at each other, and all their suspicions thus confirmed, returned to Windsor, hence forward as free from un certainty respecting their designs upon the king as respecting his towards them. *
It is said the cavaliers when taken prisoners, had been known to eat the News-letters, which must other wise have been discovered by their captors. Some of Prince Eupert's letters, still in existence, were, it is said,
from hand to hand, and were endorsed by each suc cessive reader, who when he had perused the contents
" intercepted,
and bear dark red stains, that show how faithfully they were defended. " Many of them passed
sent them on, in obedience to the " haste, haste, post haste. "t
superscription,
* This occurred in the course of October ; Clarendon, State Papers, ii. Appendix, xxxviii.
t Memoirs of Prince Eupert and the Cavaliers, including their corres-
26 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
Several collections of News-letters have found their way into type, and the British Museum contains a store of the original MS. S. ,* as well as copies of such as have been printed. Sir Walter Scott is said to have
pondences by Eliot Warburton. This writer, when speaking of the ori ginal MS. used in the preparation of his work says " I do not presume to canvass my reader's sympathies for either Puritan or Cavalier, I leave them to plead their own cause in their own letters :— him
I invite
listen to their own long silent voices, speaking once more—eagerly, earnestly —as when armed men with desperate speed bore these, their
blotted, and often blood-stained pages, from leagured city or roving camp —from faltering diplomatist, or resolute warrior, at whose beck men died. Every letter will possess some interest for the thoughtful reader, and shed some light for him on the heart of the bygone times. He will find them still animated by the passions that were then throb bing in every breast. At first the earnest, rather than angry, spirit of our memorable English war is apparent in them; but they gradually become more intense in their expression, as if they were the work of a single man ; the same note of triumph or tone of despair is perceptible in all. Human nature, and the nature of each writer, is transparent in them all: the reader is the confidant of Kings, Princes, States men, Generals, patriots, traitors; he is the confessor of the noblest minds and the most villainous natures, he sees the very conscience of the war. "
* Harleian MS. , 7015, consists of a volume of public papers and letters, containing among others MS. Gazettes in French, dated from the Hague, in the years 1620 —1623, relating to public transactions in all parts of Europe during these times. Some of them are directed to Sir Thomas Pickering, and some are in English ; two are directed to him at Warwick.
Sloane Collection, 3328, has various letters of News— 1685, 1687.
No 3925. , of the additional MS. S. in the collection of the British Museum is a thick folio volume thus described, " copies and translations of letters from various parts of the world, 1690. 1691. 1692. The book belonged to Andrew Ellis Esq. , of the Post Office London, and is supposed to have served for articles in a newspaper. "
Some News-letters still exist says Macaulay in our public libraries, and he speaks also of some in Sir J. Macintosh's collection.
to
PARTIZAN NEWS-LETTERS. 27
been very fond of poring over these memorials of early history, as written by those who mixed in the scenes they describe, and used the materials he found to make more perfect his descriptions of manners, customs, and costume.
The custom of written News was continued long after the press had begun to give intelligence in a printed shape, and with something like punctuality. Men dare in these times write what they hesitated to give in print; and hence the continued influence of the manuscript News-letters.
In the Life of Dr. John North, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, we are told:—
Whilst he was at Jesus College, Coffee was not of such com mon use as afterwards, and Coffee-houses but young. At that time, and long after, there was but one, kept by one Kirk. The trade of News also was scarce set up ; for they had only the pub lic Gazette, till Kirk got a written News-letter circulated by one Muddiman. But now the case is much altered ; for it is become a custom, after chapel, to repair to one or other of the Coffee houses, (for there are divers,) where hours are spent in talking, and less profitable reading of Newspapers, of which swarms are continually supplied from London. And the scholars are so greedy after News, (which is none of their business,) that they neglect all for it ; and it is become very rare for any of them to go directly to his chamber after prayers, without doing his suit at the Coffee-house ; which is a vast loss of time.
In Roger North's Life of Lord Keeper Guilford, that writer tells us, it was when
On circuit that, as his Lordship passed along, divers gentle men showed him circular News-letters that came to them ; and he perceived that the scope of these was to misrepresent and misconstrue all the public transactions of state, and might have been properly styled fanatic News-letters, contrived and dis
28 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
patched to divers places to stir up sedition. And upon his Lordship's inquiry, he was told that they came from Mr. Cole man, the Duke of York's secretary. His Lordship on his return made a representation to the king of this News-letter from such a person, and the ill-consequences of it. Whereupon Mr. Cole man was turned out of the Duke's service, but never blamed, for he was afterwards made the Duchess of York's secretary.
North in his Examen, gives us his recollections : —
I may remember somewhat of this Mr. Coleman. He was a Gentleman of a very good Family, that of Brent-Ely in Suffolk. Some years before these Times, he had been employed as a Sec retary to the Duke of York, but upon Information given by the Judges of the Northern Circuit against him, in the year , he was put out of that Post. It seems some Gentlemen of the North showed the Judges their circular News-letters that came weekly amongst them, saying they were wrote by this Mr. Coleman, and they had them constantly. It appeared plainly that the whole intent of them was to promote Faction and Dis content in the Country ; for all the Actions of the Government were traduced to an ill sense, just as the Fanatics, in Coffee houses in and about London used to talk, for creating differen ces between the King and his People; and (saving the word Popery) just as we are served in this History. Which epistolary stuff one would have expected from Colonel Mildmay out of Essex, rather than from the Cabinet of one in the Family and service of the King's own brother. His being (as he was thereupon) turned out, answered the End of that Complaint for the present ; but the Duke would not wholly part with him, for that cause, because it was likely what he wrote was pursuant to the Coun sel of the whole party.
Burnett describes Coleman as a clergyman's son, who had been educated by the Jesuits ; in character bold, and resolved to raise himself; a proficient in several languages ; a writer of many long letters ; and the chief correspondent the party had in England. * He
* History of His Own Times, Vol. I. p. 393.
EXECUTION OF COLEMAN. 29
lived expensively, and spoke like a man who knew he was well supported. He was a confidant of Louis the Fourteenth's, confessor, and his zeal appears to have been excessive for, says Burnett "he went about every where, even to the gaols among the criminals, to make proselytes. "
Coleman met a tragic end. When the infamous Titus Oates brought forward the Popish Plot, Coleman was one of the first victims. The News-writer was charged with high treason, and was placed at the bar of the King's Bench to take his trial. He was denied counsel ; the Chief Justice, Scroggs, found fault with his religion, and abused his mode of defence as he stood at the bar ; Jeffreys was engaged for the prosecution ; Titus Oates was circumstantial in his perjury, and Coleman was condemned to death. Oates in his evi dence spoke of " a Letter of News which was called Mr. Coleman's letter. "
Five days after his trial Coleman was drawn on a hurdle from Newgate to Tyburn, amid the noisy insults of the mob who hooted him as a Papist. The inti mate of the Duke of York, who had urged his master's religious views with all his learning, and assisted his political plans with great industry; whose pen had never tired in the preparation of the News-letters that were to create a public opinion to serve his party, now stood in the shadow of the gallows disgraced and de graded, and in the presence of death : but his cup was not yet full. For his last moment was reserved the the bitterest pang—the consiousness of disappointed hopes, and of his patron's treachery. " He had been made to believe," says the chronicler who reports the
30
THE FOURTH ESTATE.
trial, " that he should have a pardon, which he de pended on with so much assurance, that a little before he was turned off, finding himself deceived, he was heard to say, ' There is no faith in man. ' Then, after some private prayers and ejaculations to himself, the sentence was executed. "*
What a News- writer did in England in 1622 on his own responsibility, was effected ten years afterwards in France under the patronage of Louis the Fourteenth by a medical man Theophrastus Renaudot, who issued the first number of the first French Newspaper, the Gazette de France, in 1632. It is said that other nations had anticipated both England and France in the establish ment of Newspapers, and this point must be discussed when we come to the subject of Journalism abroad ; but here we may state that any country claiming to have preceded us in the production of Newspapers, must show in proof of priority, a publication appear ing at stated intervals and numbered regularly. Unless such proof be given, and unless that definition and test of what a Newspaper is be adopted, we may go back to the Greeks and to the Romans, and to the early Venetians, and finding small sheets of paper de scribing some event, call them Newspapers. Without the definition, we must go floundering about in the mists of an obscure antiquity to decide that which is sufficiently clear and certain, when we understand
* " The Trial of Edward Coleman, gent. , for conspiring the death of the King &e. London printed for R. Pawlet, at the Bible in Chancery Lane, near Fleet Street, 1678. " quoted in Howell's State Trials, Vol. I. p. 7.
NEWS-BOOKS. 31
precisely what it is we seek to know the date of. For want of definition of what a Newspaper is, Mr. Chalmers talks of the Acta Diurna, and the Venetian MS. Gazettes, as though they were the earliestNewspapers; and, following him, the writers in the various Cyclo paedias do the same. Murphy in his edition of Tacitus* seizes a passage, and asserts that the Romans were the inventors of this mode of spreading intelligence, whilst
others have regarded and described various pamphlets as the first Newspapers, because they had the word News as a heading, or were called Mercuries. All these pub lications were the forerunners of Newspapers, and not Newspapers themselves.
When these flying sheets began to obtain purchasers in England the word News seems to have been a popular one for the title page, whether the paper contained a recital of real or of imaginary events. As
early as 1561, the Register of the Stationer's Company has an entry of three Ballads, one of them entitled " Newes out of Kent," which may have told in doggrel rhyme some recent occurrence ; and another " Newes out of Heaven and Hell," in which the author must have relied upon his imagination for his materials. With later dates we find, in the British Museum, a great assortment of News books, of four and eight small pages, with most startling titles. One gives an account
* Speech of Corsutianus Capito against Thracea: —"Diurna populi Romani, per provincias, per exercitus, curatius leguntur ; quam ut non noscatur quid Thracea fecerit," &c.
" The journals of the Roman people were never read by the prov inces, and the armies, with so much avidity as in the present juncture, and the reason is the history of the times is the history of Thracea's conspiracy. "
32 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
of fire from Heaven burning the body of John Hatchell at Christ-Church ; another describes fires, wind, light ning, and apparitions seen abroad and related by a merchant ; a third describes and illustrates a " battle of Starelings fought at the city of Corke, on the 12th and 14th of Oct. last, 1621. " Others of these News- books are described as being translated out of the Dutch version, printed at Nymwegen. *
In the British Museum Catalogue of Newspapers the first date is 1603, and then follow the titles of various pamphlets which ought not to have been in cluded in such a list. There are, for instance, His Majesty's Conference with the Bishops, His Majesty's Speech in the Star Chamber, and Proclamations and Declarations from the same royal source. None of
* We find the word Newes employed to help the sale of pamphlets of travels, sermons, satires, and other such wares. Thus in 1622, we find ' ' Strange Newes out of divers countries never discovered till of late, by a strange Pilgrim in those parts. " A strange, coarse, but effective woodcut decorates the title-page. The size of the pamphlet is a small quarto; the imprint — "London; Printed by W. Sones for George Fayerbeard, and are to be sold at his shop at the Royal Exchange, 1622. "
Again we have "Lamentable Newes out of Monmouthshire in Wales, contayning the wonderful and fearful accidents of the great overflowing of the waters in the saide Countye, drowning infinite num bers of Cattel of all kinds, as sheep, oxen, kine, and horses, with others ; together with the losse of many men, women, and children, and the subversion of xxvi parishes in January last, 1607. London; Printed for W. W. , and are to be sold in Paul's Church yarde, at the " sign of the Greyhound. " This News-book describes the flood, and then preaches a sermon upon it. It is printed in old English, and is thickly interspersed with pious exhortations and scripture references. It has a woodcut on the title, giving a rough but forcible idea of the calamity. These pamphlets are only named as specimens. There are many others to be seen in the British Museum Library.
THE ENGLISH MERCURIE. 33
these are Newspapers, nor will any one be found of earlier date than the Weekly News, 1622.
We shall see how the example of Butter was fol lowed, years later, by the re appearance of a regular weekly journal ; but, having claimed for his publication
the merit of being the first Newspaper, it is requisite to refer to the very different date heretofore given as that of the commencement of public journalism. Until re cently it was always stated that the first Newspaper ap peared in England in 1558. Thosewho had occasion to describe the origin of such publications all went to one source for their information, and, finding an error there, the mis-statement was repeated again and again with curious pertinacity. The original author of this often- reiterated mistake was Mr. Chalmers, who, having un dertaken to write the Life of Mr. Ruddiman, one of the first proprietors of a Scottish journal, enlarged his work by giving the result of some researches he made into the origin of Newspapers. His investigations seem to have been chiefly carried on at the Library of the British Museum, and finding in that collection a print ed paper entitled The English Mercurie, and dated 1588, he received it without question of its authenti city, and at once declared that England owed "to the sagacity of Elizabeth and the wisdom of Burleigh the invention of Newspapers," and that such prints were first issued when the Armada was threatening our
shores.
It would seem that the delight of Chalmers in es
tablishing, as he thought, the claim of priority in this
invention for England and the Virgin Queen had
blinded him to the imperfection of the evidence on VOL. I. D
34 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
which this claim rested. A calm examination of the paper, of the type, of the corrections of this so-called English Mercurie, must have satisfied the most unwil ling antiquary that what he wished to find a real an tique was nothing but a clumsy and impudent forgery. This counterfeit was however accepted as genuine, and so described in the Life of Ruddiman, from whence the tale was copied by the writers in the various Cyclo
and from them into numerous other books. Amongst those who thus took for granted the truth of the story was Mr. D 'Israeli, who, in the earlier editions of the Curiosities of Literature, tells the false tale of Chalmers and his followers. * This historical error was exposed and corrected by Mr. Watt, an officer of the Museum where this sham " English Mercurie" is pre served. He drew attention to the subject, and those who, at his suggestion, examined for themselves, saw as he did, and at once, that the so-called Elizabethan Newspaper was a cheat. Those who are curious about such literary frauds may test the English Mercurie for themselves, at the Library of the British Museum ; for it is amongst the Sloane MS. S. ,t and forms part of
* In excusing his error D' Israeli says, in his edition dated 1839 :— ' ' I witnessed fifty years ago that laborious researcher (the literary anti quary George Chalmers) busied among the long dusty shelves of our periodical papers which then reposed in the ante-chamber to the former reading-room of the British Museum. To the industry which I had witnessed I confided, and such positive and precise evidence could not fail to be accepted by all. In the British Museum, indeed, George Chal mers found the printed English Mercurie ; but there also, it now appears, he might have seen the original, with all its corrections before it was
sent to the press, written on paper of modern fabric. " t Sloane MS. No. 4106.
paedias,
THE NEWSPAPER FORGERY. 35
the Birch Collection. Mr. Watt's letter, in which
he exposes its falsity, will be found at the end of the
present volume.
Just after Johnson, in his days of poverty, had
obtained employment on the Gentleman's Magazine, as a writer of Parliamentary Debates, there appeared in that publication an article on the Acta Diurna. It stands as a kind of introduction to the volume for 1740,* and the writer, like the translator of Tacitus, would fain make out a case in favour of the assertion, that to Rome may be traced the origin of Newspapers
of a modern journal—records of public cere monies and decrees, of trials, accidents, storms, quar rels, public executions, births and deaths ; but similar extracts might be made from any ancient records of any ancient people whose history remains to us, and the Acta Diurna were rather public recognitions or procla mations of important facts than issues of News. If the Romans had had moveable types and printing presses, they would probably have had Newspapers, but without the means they could scarcely have the end. The events of any age are always interesting to those who live in
and the active Roman people must have been anxious to know how their armies and colonists were progress ing in the distant parts of the world to which they
—though Rome had neither types nor presses !
In the extracts from the Acta Diurna, given in support of this position, we have notices such as enter into the
pages
The small means at their command were made the most of, but those means were the dispatches
* In the appendix to this volume will be found the specimens of the Acta Diurna, collected for the Gentleman's Magazine.
1)
penetrated.
%
it,
3G THE FOURTH ESTATE.
of public officers or private correspondents, and how anxiously these communications were sometimes read we learn by the passage in Tacitus already spoken of. Somewhat similar public notices of public events were written during the period when the Turks were waging war with the Venetians; and it is stated that, in 1563, these descriptions of important occurrences were publicly read in Venice to audiences who each paid a coin called
gazetta for the privilege of listening. Hence the ori gin of the word Gazette as applied to papers contain
ing News. Some volumes of the manuscripts prepared by the governments of the period for these public read ings are preserved in the library at Florence. These also have been pointed to as the first Newspapers, but cannot fairly claim to be such. They were not pub lished for circulation. Like the Acta Diurna they were public documents, more in the nature of proclamations
by authority, than public journals.