HISTORIC PAPERS

Taranaki Daily News, 29 January 1931, Page 6

HISTORIC PAPERS

RECORDS OF THE PAST. • ! EARLY ENGLISH NEWS SHEETS Few records are so fitted to make the past live again in all its detail as are the copies of contemporary newspapers. It is for this reason that numbers relating to historic events are so often treasured. On account of their perishable nature, however, it happens that very few indeed survive for so long as a century. Those that do generally find an honoured place in museum collections. A particularly interesting collection of old papers is in the possession of Mr. J. Cockburn, of Epsom, says the New Zealand Herald. They include eight copies of the Times, from 1793 to 1821. Some of the earlier papers lose much of their value, if not their instructiveness, through being reprints, one at least is a forgery, and of others it is not at all easy to decide whether they are originals or reproductions. Nearly all are in an excellent state of preservation.

Among the reproductions are a facsimile of the Magna Charts of King John, of the manuscript warrant of Queen Elizabeth for the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, of the warrant for the execution of King Charles, and of the Declaration of Independence of the Congress of the United States.

The earliest of the newspapers is a small sheet called The English Mercurie, “Published by authorise. For the prevention of false reportes,” and dated, Whitehall, July 23, 1588. It purports to give contemporary account of the defeat of the Spanish Armada by Sir Francis Drake and his associates, but, in fact, the earli-est-known English periodical, Mercurius Britannicus, did not make its appearance until 1625. ■ Copies of The English Mercurie are in the British Museum, but the researches of Mr. T. Watts, of the Museum staff, proved these to be forgeries executed about 1766.

Next in order of antiquity in Mr. Cockburn’s collection comes The Weekly Newes, Numb. 19,' dated “Monday, 31st January, 1606.” It gives an account in quaint oldfashioned terms of the arraignment and trial of Guy Fawkes and his fellow-con-spirators in the Gunpowder Plot. The authorities state, however, that The Weekly Newes did not make its appearance until 1622, and there is, therefore, ground for doubting the authenticity of this document. The Intelligencer, of eight pages, is dated February 3, 1648, and contains an account, among other things, of the execution of King Charles, but confirmation is lacking of the existence of such a paper at that time, and the first real newspaper published in England is believed to have been one established by Sir Roger L’Estrange in 1663. A Gazette of November, 1658, is mainly concerned with the death of Oliver Cromwell and the proclamation of his son Richard to be his successor, but it contains also news from abroad and “Advertizements.” Some of these are so curiously worded that it would seem a shame to doubt them, and yet this Gazette does not appear among the recorded early experiments in news sheets. The Newes, of July 6, 1665, is largely devoted to an account of . the great plague, with particulars of the orders issued at that time to the townspeople by the Mayor and sheriffs of London. /

The London Gazette, of September, 1666, vividly describing the desruction wrought by the great fire is, if genuine, one of the very .earliest copies of the oldest regular publication still in existence. The first number of the Oxford Gazette appeared in November, 1665, and in February of the following year it ' became the London Gazette, which has appeared twice a week ever since as the official organ of- government. It may be remarked that if some of these papers are forgeries they appear to embody a large amount of accurate and detailed historic research that, would give them an interest and a value of their own, even apart from their antiquity. The copies of the Times are, of course, more recent than the papers already described, but by no means of less historic interest. Among the memorable events they record as they appeared to the eyes of their contemporaries are the execution of Louis XVI, the execution of Richard Parker for mutiny in the Navy, Nelson’s victories in the Battle of the Nile, at Copenhagen and at Trafalgar, and his funeral, the Battle of Waterloo and the funeral of Queen Caroline. Even the mention of such landmarks in history is sufficient to indicate the wealth of fascinating material that these records contain. Every word of them, and not least the numerous advertisements, serves to make close and real the very atmosphere of the time, and to contribute to the proper understanding of these imperishable events. Such documents are worthy of being guarded with the strictest care.