a bi-partisan organization for the control of an elective government exists. Where, as in European countries, parties are replaced by groups, each has its newspaper. In both cases some papers are known as independent. In all, newspapers exert a double influence. Those who read are directly affected by what is printed as with any printed utterance, but the periodic issue and the consequent array of subscribers or regular readers give newspapers in politics and in other fields a representative character, their influence depending on the fact that what is said expresses the opinion of a great multitude of readers. The skillful editor succeeds in combining leadership in new exigencies and problems with the capacity of expressing the opinion or sentiment that great masses of his readers will feel as new events call for the application of old principles.
Two empires, the Roman and the Chinese, had from an early period issues similar to the newspaper. The Acta Diurna (Daily Occurrences) of ancient Rome contained reports of great military achievements and of interesting events at Rome, as reports of elections, trials, games, fires, sacrifices, and miracles. They were written out by officers called actuarii, and deposited among other public archives. Copies were sometimes posted in public places, and sent at irregular intervals to the generals in the provinces, that the army might be informed of what was taking place in other parts of the Empire. They continued to be issued until the downfall of the Western Empire.
The Peking Gazette, Tching-pao, “News of the Capital,” has appeared since 713 to 741 in the T'ang dynasty at the Chinese capital, and has for many centuries been issued daily. It is printed in a Government edition sent to officials, and in a popular edition with regular subscribers, reprints also appearing in the provinces, both having been furnished from an early period. It consists exclusively of Imperial rescripts, council decrees, and official news. It is undoubtedly the earliest daily in existence.
Neither of these official issues has any relation with the modern newspaper by example, still less by direct descent. The newspaper, as known to-day, is of composite origin. In the sixteenth century it was represented by news sheets, single folio pages sold by peddlers and criers giving news of a single occurrence. The first dated examples of these appeared in 1498, and some 800 examples are preserved which appeared before 1510.
These small news sheets appeared in Augsburg, Vienna, Ratisbon, Nuremberg, Antwerp, and many other places, generally in the form of letters. The extant numbers contain, among other matters, accounts of the discovery of America, of the conquests of the Turks, of the French and Austrian War in Italy, with such local occurrences as executions, inundations, earthquakes, burnings of witches, and child-murders, supposed to be committed by the Jews. Of equal interest are the official Notizie Scritte, established by the Venetian Government in 1566, containing accounts of the wars carried on by the Republic, and of other events of general interest. At first they were not printed, but might be read in various public places on payment of a small coin, called a gazzetta, whence the name Gazette (q.v.).
These represented the issue of floating rumor or a private letter by the presses of the day. As the press ceased to be a personal, and became a business venture, and regular communication was established by various posts over European countries, these broad sheets of news and opinion developed into the journal regularly issued—of which the Frankfurter Journal, published by Egenolph Emmel in 1615, suspended in 1902, was the first—the ‘news-letter,’ furnished to the correspondent by men usually in official life at the different capitals, the prototype of the later despatch and correspondent, and the pamphlet, discussing opinion, which began treating public affairs all over Europe from the standpoint of the editorial in the seventeenth century. By the opening of the eighteenth century these became united in daily journals which combined the report of the broad sheet, the correspondence of the news-letter, and the polemics of the pamphlet, adding the advertisement in 1648, and the regular market report at the close of the eighteenth century.
England. The founder of the English press was a London printer named Nathaniel Butter (died 1664). As early as 1605 he was issuing news pamphlets; and in 1622 he began The News of the Present Week, which under varying titles was continued till 1639. His slips were mostly compiled from similar foreign sheets, and contained very little home news. But they bore the distinguishing mark of the newspaper: they were published regularly. During the Civil Wars there circulated a large number of sheets, with such names as England's Memorable Accidents; The Kingdom's Intelligence; Mercurius Aulicus; Mercurius Politicus; The Scots Intelligencer; The Parliament's Scout; The Scots Dove; The Parliament Kite; The Secret Owl; Mercurius Mastix; Mercurius Democritus; and Mercurius Acheronticus, or News from Hell. The arrangement of the news was poor in the extreme, and the comment most virulent. The first English newspaper which aimed at general information was the Public Intelligencer, established by Sir Roger L'Estrange in 1633; it was dropped soon after the appearance of the London Gazette, the first number of which was published at Oxford, November 7, 1665. A second paper, called the Observer was started by L'Estrange in 1681. In the reign of Charles II. the development of the newspaper was checked by the rigid enforcement of the licensing act of 1662. Under that régime nothing but an official organ could long survive. The repeal of the licensing act in 1695 opened a new era in English journalism. Newspapers at once sprang up in London and in other cities. Besides news-letters, flying posts, and mercuries, appeared the Edinburgh Gazette, a semi-weekly (1699); the Daily Courant, the first English daily (1702); the Review, established by Defoe for the discussion of political questions (1703); and the Orange Postman, the first penny paper (1709).
Though the licensing act was of the past, the newspaper writer was held to strict account for what he printed. During the reign of George III. prosecutions were especially common. The usual result was to give increased currency to the doctrines assailed, and to confer a fictitious importance on traders in politics, by whom many of the journals were conducted. The first attempt at Parliamentary reporting was also resented by the House of Commons as a breach of privilege, but the imprisonments of 1771 ended in the tacit concession of publicity of discussion, which has
