EARLY JOURNALISM.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 18762, 29 December 1930, Page 16

EARLY JOURNALISM.

ROMANCE AND DANGERS. JULIUS CAESAR’S ACTA DIURNA. “NEWES BOOKES” OF RENAISSANCE. To the daily news bulletins posted by order of Julius Caesar about the streets and market places of ancient Rome many years before the birth of Christ, the modern newspapers owe their origin. These “Acta Diurna.” or daily chronicles of Caesar, contained brief announcements of a much more familar nature than one usually associates with Roman dignity—reports of a brawl at the Hog-in-Armour Tavern, situated in Bankers’ Street; or a fire on Mount Coelius; of an assault case before the magistrates; of a fine imposed on one Titus Lanius for giving short weight; of a sudden thunderstorm; of Marcia’s funeral; even reported speeches and proceedings in the Senate, for the “actuarii,” or journalists, who contributed seem to have known some early system of shorthand. Samples of the “Acta,” quoted by Dr Johnson in the “Gentleman’s Magazine” for 1740, serve to remind us that the day’s news is still after the pattern of that issued in ancient Rome, where, twenty centuries ago, the following bulletin was posted before the Capitol “on the 4th of the Calends of April”:—“Tertinius the Aedile fined the butchers for selling meat which had not been inspected by the overseers of the markets.” Journalism as a commercial speculation began in Venice in the year 1556, when the Senate conceived the brilliant idea of charging one "gazetta” (hence the name “gazette”) for the privilege of reading the manuscript news-sheet it issued. In spite of this profiteering the demand for news grew and in Venice, and almost immediately in Elizabethan London, it was found necessary to print the sheets. So the newspaper Press was established. “Out of Heaven and Helle.” Elizabethan “news bookes” appeared in great numbers, but never periodically or even twice under the same title. Instead we have “Newes Out of Kent,” “Newes Out of Heaven and Helle” .both printed in 1561'; “Wonderful and Strange Newes Out of Suffolke and Essex, where it rayned wheate the space of sixe or seven miles” (1853'; “Newes from Scotland, declaring the damnable lyfe of Dr. Fian, a notable sorcerer, who was burned at Edenboroughe in January last” (1591). These, and even longer, titles suggest that the “mercuries,” for that was the name given to old women who hawked the “newes bookes” about the streets of London, must have been astonishingly lusty of voice, and, moreover, stout of heart, for their trade was a dangerous one. A personal sketch of one of these mercurie women” is given in “The Man in the Moone” (published by the King’s party after the outbreak of the Civil War) for July 4, 1649: “A hotte combat lately happened at the Salutation Taverne, in Holbume. where some of the commonwealth vermin, called souldiers, seized upon an Amozonian virago, named Mrs Strosse, upon suspicion of selling a loyalist pamphlete; but she, by applying beaten pepper to theyre eyes, disarmed them, and with they’re own swords forced them to aske for forgyvenese, and down on theyre marybones, and pledge a health to the king and confusion to they’re masters.” Days of Travail. This comparative freedom of the Press, however, was only gained after years of bitter struggle. Checked by the difficulty of getting news, or by the caprice of a party; hampered by the lack of postal facilities; suppressed by a king; persecuted by -a Parliament; harassed by the extraordinary severity of a licenser, burnt by a hang man; its “district correspondents” executed at Tyburn for “the circulating of intelligence”; for “mercurie women” whipped through the streets of London, the newspaper rose slowly to its present height. But the early “newes bookes” were less fortunate, and the first editor, Mr Nathaniel Butter, of the “Weekely Newes,” must have led a trying life. London’s first regular newspaper appeared under his name on September 28, 1622, with the sub-title “Newes from the moste parts of Christendome, etc.,” and struggled on for 18 years, with long intervals of silence, due, no doubt, to the interference of the licenser. But in 1640 a more amiable functionary took office, and Butter remarks hopefully in his leading article (in which the editorial “we” is already to be observed): “Courteous reader! We thought to have given over printing our forraine avisoes, for that the licenser would not oftentimes let pass apparent truth . . . but that office being fallen upon another more understanding, we shall keepe a constant day everie weeke, whereby everie man may constantly expect these newes (if the poste fail us not), and so we take leave. Jann. the 9th, 1640.” Hand-to-Mouth “Copy” Gathering. But alas! The understanding licenser or the fact that “the poste” did fail Butter, or the ridicule of Ben Jonson and other contemporary dramatists, or, worst of all, the indifference of the public, were too much for the poor Nathaniel, for the very number containing his optimistic announcement was the last “Weekely Newes” that appeared. In the next year, however, the Star Chamber was abolished, and greater freedom was allowed. The large type of the present day never appeared, for a single headline from one of the current daily papers would have filled almost a whole issue of “Mercurius Britannicus,” one of the smallest of the news books. Yet the value of illustrations was realised early, for Butter, now the acknowledged “father of the Press,” often adorned his text with a good woodcut. A later paper, “The Perfect Diurnall of the Passages in Parliament,” regularly bore a “front page block,” representing a group of shovel-hatted, solemn-faced Puritans seated at the council table, or a tiny vessel under sail on a boundless sea, bearing to England “newes from moste parts of Christendome, etc.” The “copy” itself was gathered in a somewhat hand-to-mouth fashion. Disbanded captains, who, having served abroad, were expected to know the movements of the armies, because the decidedly shabby gentleman haunted the Exchange, Westminster Hall, and the porch of St. Paul’s picking up the scraps of news that were later published under eccentric and comprehensive headings, such as “Newes from Helle and Rome and the Innes of Court.” Round the Corner. But as civil unrest increased, the position of the pressman grew more secure. Momentous news was at his disposal, and the public was eager to be informed of it. The pleadings of the ill-fated Charles, his trial in “The Painted Chamber,” and the expressive touching account of his execution as they appeared in turn the “newes bookes,” are worthy of the comment made by Lord Macaulay two centuries later. “The only true history of a country is to be found in its newspapIn Charles day greater men than Macaulay, and Milton among the greatest, were at hand to plead eloquently for the freedom of the Press, and even the Restoration could not suppress the rapid growth of journalism. The people took a hand in its upbringing, for in it they not found only news but

also a means of making known their wants and giving publicity to their wares. Quaint advertisements appeared, matrimonial notices; a pathetic paragraph about a lost dog, supposed to be written by the “kinges majestie” himself; even a few well-chosen words about “an excellence and approved dentifrice.” The position was assured. Editors had learned to gather the news and present it to the people; the people had learned to expect news and to resent interference with its publication; great men, and a king, had acknowledged the influence of the Press—the history of Journalism had begun.