Rensselaer Union, Volume 1, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 December 1868 — The First Daily Newspaper [ARTICLE]

The First Daily Newspaper

A gentleraau write* to the editor of the London fFrmha for the purpose of putting in print three statement* which shall oorsays that the very earliest of daily nevyspapers in the wort* wan m* the Slty CotT-' rant of Wednesday/the 11th of March, 1702, three Hays after Ufo accession of Qoeeh Anne. In point of fact, there had keen an . fiqglish daily jogntal 49 yonra bcfcffOEajf turn# j In l«Uj onflho Bth, “Jfli Slid 10th, of March, appeared in' tnrtie lriimbbrs of A Perfect Diurnal. Then, in tho second place the second number of the Impartial Intelligencer, a papek Aarted in 1640, and generally thought, by those who think of such things, to have contained the first ol all British advertisements. But on the first page -of all English periodicals-a-weekly;. ‘ not a dally, paper—the Nowos of Nathanael Butler, our Times oorrespondenir Las discovered this advertisement, bearing the date of February, 1625: Hero is tills present day published an execlkuit Discourse concerning tho Matohkotwcon our most Gracious and Migbtie Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, and tlie Ladv Hcnrettc Maria, dauglitor to Henry the Fourth, late King of Franco, Ac., Sister to Lewis the Thirteenth, now King of thoso Dominions; Manifesting tho Royall Ancestors of both these famous Princes, and trully explaining tlio several! interchanges of Marriages which hath bcene botwoeno Franco and England: with tho lively Picture of tlio Prince and theLftsx’.cut inlkasac :- —— Ip the third place, it is the popular error that the Mercnrius Civipus of 1543 was the first F.ng'isli illustrated paper; for in tbe Woekl / Newes oljtlfe 20th of December, 1838 is an account of “a prodigious eruption of fire whieli inhaled in the middest of the Ocean Sea over against tho Isle of St. Michael, one of tho Tereeras, and of the new island which it hath made.” It would

have been too much to have expected Mr. Butler to describe this valufthlc convulsion without depicting it in the liveliest manner, and accordingly we have a full page engraving, showing “the island, its length and breadth, and tho place wwherc the fire hurst out,” though we dare say tho enterprising journalist would have been as much puzzled to tell how h) Lapp* ned opportunely to have an artist on the very spot as would be some of tho editors of our degenerate days. So far “G. H. C.” Then.in a day or two,another letter, comes “T.W.,”aud says that A Perfect Diurnal is merely “A Perfect Diurnal of the daily Proceedings )» Poriinmvnti--pubUsllUll iWShording to order:" that its contents were merely the orders and resolutions of the days above specifipci: that its publication would be contingent on tlie meetings of tbe House; would be daily only while the meetings were; would bo interrupted by adjournments, and cease at the Close of a session. He adds that the “votes” of the House are still so published, and concludes by asking *f “G. H. C.’s” Perfect Diurnal can be enlfed a daily paper? The answer seems to be that It can be so called when Parliament can be considered a newspaper editor, but hardly befoie. “T. W. ’ also remarks that almanacs are surely periodicals, and that almanacs long preceded newspapers. He remarks, tob, with justice we should say, that thechanco publication of one cut docs not give the Weekly Newes nny good claim to tbe title of an “il lfstrated paper.” We suggest thatas tor illustrated periodicals the almanacs were, in a sense, illustrated. Iu conclusion. “T. W.” who seems to have a systematic or scientific knowledge of a subject of which “G. fi. C.” lias only a scattering knowledge, says that it is remarkable with what slowness daily journals made their way abroad. The earliest French periodical published daily was, he says, on the authority of Barbier. the Journal de Paris, which was born in 1777, long lefore which time, as we all know, we Amorican-English had set tbe daily preso in motion in New England and Pennsylvania.