The Birth of Journalism.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12454, 2 February 1909, Page 2

The Birth of Journalism.

We are so well accustomed to re ceive our morning and evening newspaper .that it requires some magma tion to "realise a time when newspapers did not exist at all, and when even the word "newspaper" had not been coined. ' Like much else in the modern world they were Italian in origin, "gazetti," or written newspapers, having been, circulated in Venice from about the middle of tho sixteenth century. It was not, however, till 1662 that the first printed periodical began to appear in England in the shape of "A Currant of Generall Newes," which was translated from the Dutch, and. published in London. From that date "currants" or "corantos" became numerous, and persisted tin the name disappeared about '1641, to be replaced by "newsbook," ''diurnal," or a catch word such as Mercurius Aulicus, or the; Scottish Dove, adopted by particular periodicals. Mr Williams, in a work.< of great indns-' try and decided value for students of the seventeenth century, goes at length into the history of the more i-important of these prints, and has "collected a great deal of information J 'about them, their printers and their • authors', (says the ' 'Morning Post) . The lot of early journalists was a chequered one. Apart from the restrictive regulations imposed in 1556 by the Star Chamber (and abolished together with that Court, in 1641), oh the publication of ; news, the Crown had at common law, as was affirmed by the unanimous ' opinion of the judges in 1680, the right to prohibit any such enterprise not licensed by its "authority ; and, in fact, the first license was not granted till nearly the end of James I.'s reign, and then only- in the case of foreign news, while until 1641 no periodicalfor disseminating domestic news * appeared at all. This, however, did not prevent statutory restrictions on what we now call the freedom /of v the Press, and of these the most oppressive were undoubtedly those imposed the Commonwealth Parliament in 1649, and by an ordinance of the ProtectoT in 1655, which for the time being practically killed newspaper enterprise. London journalism, it. may be said, began on a solid basis with the appearance in 1666 of the "London Gazettej" which had been started by Henry Muddiman, a protege of General Monk, the year before the "Oxford Gazette," and has continued down to the present da/ But the ."Gazette" was not. at its outset a prominent paper/and the .first great English journalist was Sir Roger l'Estrange, a, staunch High Church Tory, whose "Intelligence,. News, and Qbservator" bring lis down to comparatively modern .times, and into touch ; with the generation of Defoe, Steele, and Addison.