DIGITISED MANUSCRIPTS

( 30 ) England ranks next. In May, 1622, the first English periodical was issued in London under the name of the Courant; or, Weekly News for Foreign Parts. This was followed up in the next year by Certain News of this Present Week. The improvements in machinery and_ printing, the growing appetite for information, and the interest which the public were beginning to take in the proceedings of Parliament, led to a rapid increase in the number of newspaper publications. During the next forty years 150 periodical publications sprang into life. But to call these newspapers would be to anticipate the press achievements of the present century. Although many of them were edited and written by men of great literary ability, they were subjected to strict censorship, and were liable almost at every step to prosecution for libel. They were partly political and literary essays, squibs, or pamphlets and they recorded the movements and gossip of the court and aristocracy, with a sprinkling of foreign intelligence. It may be known to you—at any rate you should bear it in mind—that up to the end of the last century reporters were excluded from Parlia- ment, and debates were recorded only on hearsay, and in a necessarily unsatisfactory and mangled form. We owe the growth of the Press and its excel-