DIGITISED MANUSCRIPTS

(- 36°) of the people among whom he lives, and whom he employs ? Inrormation.—I have already stated that parlia- mentary debates were unreported until the end of the eighteenth century, when, owing to the agitation headed by Wilkes, the then Member for Aylesbury, reporters were in 1776 admitted for the first time to the debates in Parliament. Members then became, to some extent, responsible to their constituents for their acts and speeches, and were, to a limited degree, controlled by their opinion. The publication of the debates in Parliament soon conjured the newspaper press into existence. For many years before political pamphlets were extensively written and hawked about, but they were entirely of a partisan, and, more or less, of a scurrilous nature; and were written only for the amusement of the upper classes. The newspapers of the present day not only deal with political subjects, but also discuss moral and social topics, diffuse information upon them, and arouse public opinion to a sense of their importance. In the year 1700 there were but five newspapers in the three kingdoms, and these were of an official character, in the nature of gazettes, being confined to the publication of state and official intelligence. In 1800 there were 75 newspapers in the United King-