Origin of Newspapers

Feilding Star, Volume VIII, Issue 63, 27 November 1886, Page 5 (Supplement)

Origin of Newspapers

i We are indebted to thu Italians for , the idea of newspapers. Th« first one j ! was publish*! at Venice. It was called the Gazetta, the uuuie of a small coin about the sanio value as au English farthing. The Gazetta was a monthly journal, and was merely the newspaper of the Government. Newspapers were inti-odueed into England by the wisdom of Elizabeth and tho prudence of liord Burleigh. The epoch of the Spanish Armada was also the epoch of a genuine newspaper. Here is an extract from a notice published on July 28, 1588 : "Yesterday the Scotch Ambassador being introduced to Sir Francis Walsiugham, had a private audience with Her Majesty, to whom he delivered a letter from his master, containing the most co dial assurances of his resolu- . tion to adhee to Her Majesty's interests, and to those of the Protestant religion. And it may not be here . improper to notice a wise and spiritual saying of this young prince to the Queen's minister at his court, viz: "That all the favor he did expect from the Spaniards was the courtesy of of Polypheiue to Ulysses, to be the last devoured." The papers of the present day could hardly give a more decorous account of the introduction of a Foreign Minister. In the reign of Queen Anne, there was but one daily paper published in England ; the others were weeklies.

j Dickens has been much criticised for hU apparent, acceptance of the fact of human spontaneous combustion, but Sir W. Gull lately testified to a surprising case before the Committee of the House of Lords on intemperance. A large, bloated man, vrho was suffering from difficulty of breathing and great disten* sion of the venous system, dted at Guy's Hospital. At the post mortem of the fallowing day, thera was no sign of de composition, and Ihe body was believed to be distended with gas. •' When punc tures were made into the skin," said Sii William, " and a lighted match applied the gas which escaped burned with the ordinary flame of carburetted hydrogen. As many as a dozen of tnese small flames were burning at the same time.