OLD ENGLISH NEWSPAPERS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 176, 25 June 1935, Page 9

OLD ENGLISH NEWSPAPERS.

A RARE COLLECTION. NEWS THREE~CENTURIES AGO. A collection of copies of rare English newspapers is in the possession of Mr li. H. Andrews, of Christchurch. The papers date from 1606 to modern times and provide an interesting commentary on happenings which made history through three centuries. The Weekely Newes of 1606 was issued principally to give a discourse on tlie arraignment and execution of the perpetrators of the Gunpowder plot and the “story” told with grim reality the way in which the condemned men met their fate. They were hanged, drawn and quartered, the newspaper says, and that “ended the business for the day.” The Intelligencer of 1648 boasted to be “a perfect diurnal of some passages in Parliament and a daily proceedings of the army under His Excellency the Lord Fairfax.” This number gave these details over a period from January 9 to February 5, ld4B, and also contained an official announcement about the appointment of a place “for the execution of the King, over against the Banqueting Hall, Whitehall.” There were other details of the royal execution. DEATH OF CROMWELL. Tlie death of “his most serene and renowned Highness Oliver, Lord Protector,” was notified in an issue of the Gazette of September 9, 1658. This paper gave considerable details about foreign happenings, and also included an advertisement for a book entitled “A Few Signs from Hell, or the Groans of a Damned Soule,” with a discourse “by that poor servant of Jesus Christ, John Bunyan.” The date of the publication of another paper, the Newes, is easily fixed by its contents, for they give details of orders issued for the prevention of the spread of the plague. The Newes was published “for the satisfaction and information of the people,” and was published “with privilege.” The London Gazette, published by authority, contained details of the ravages and ultimate extinction of the great fire of London. In the collection is also a copy of the warrent issued for the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, and several old copies of the Times, starting from the issue of Saturday, January 26, 1793. This issue gave London the first details, apparently, of the execution of the King of France during the revolution.