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 earliest Newspapers; and, following him, the writers in the various Cyclopædias 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 publications 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 provinces, 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."

of fire from Heaven burning the body of John Hatchell at Christ-Church; another describes fires, wind, lightning, 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 Newsbooks 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 included 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 numbers 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.

66

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 followed, 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 recently it was always stated that the first Newspaper appeared in England in 1598. Those who had occasion to 1588 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 oftenreiterated mistake was Mr. Chalmers, who, having undertaken 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 printed paper entitled THE ENGLISH MERCURIE, and dated 1588, he received it without question of its authenticity, 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 establishing, 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

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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 unwilling antiquary that what he wished to find a real antique 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 Cyclopædias, 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 preserved. 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.,+ 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 antiquary 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 Chalmers 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."

+ Sloane MS. No. 4106.

THE NEWSPAPER FORGERY.

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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 -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 of a modern journal-records of public ceremonies and decrees, of trials, accidents, storms, quarrels, 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 proclamations 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 it, and the active Roman people must have been anxious to know how their armies and colonists were progressing in the distant parts of the world to which they penetrated. 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.