The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1856-07-01
HILLsDALE MICH, TUESDAY, JULY j. 1856
The History of Newspapc

4 Tho first newspaper was issued monthly il
M. s. form, in the republic of Venice, and wa
called the Gazette, probably from farthin,
coin peculiar 10 Venice, and which was tl
common peculiar TO Venice, and which wa
the common price at which it was sold. Thir
ty volumes Of it are still preserved in a libra
ry at Florence.
1t was long supposed that the fist news
paper published in England was at the epocl
Of the Spanish Armada, but it has been dis
covered that the copies of that bearing tn.
imprint Of 1888, in the British Museum were
forgeries. There was no doubt that the puny
ancestor of the myriads of broad sheets wa,
not published in London ill 1922, $50 year.
after the art of printing had been discovered
and it was nearly 100 years more, before q
daily paper was vcntured upon. Periodical
papers seem first TO have been used by the
English during the time Of the Common
wealth, and were then called weekly news
books Some of them had most whimsical
titles. Itwas common with the carly porers
20 hove +" Li~~i. ras., Which was sometimes
filed up, in the paueity of news, by selections
from the Scriptures.
The first newspaper printed in North Amer
lea was printed in Boston, in 1000. Only
one copy of that paper is known to be in cx-
istence. 1t was deposited in the State Pa
per Office in London, and was about the size
of an ordinary sheet of letter paper 1t was
stopped by the government. The Boston
News Letter was the first regular paper. 1t
was first issued in 1904, and was printed by
John Allen, in Pudding Lane. The contents
ofsome of the early numbers were very pccu-
liar. 1t had speech Of Queen Anne to Par
Lament, delivered 100 days previously, and
this was the latest news from England. In
one of the early numbers there was an an-
Douncement that by order of the Postmaster
General of North America, the post between
Boston and New York set out once fort
night. Negro men, women and children
were advertised to be sold; and'a call was
made upon woman who had stolen a piece
of fine lace worth worth l4s yard, and up
on another who had conveyed piece Of calico
under her riding, to return the same or be
exposed in the newspapers.
This pioneer paper was published for "a
years; it was the leading tory paper prior to
the Revolution. The Boston Gazette was the
organ Of the patriots, and was published at
Watertown. At the commencement Of the
Revolutionary war, there were but 81 news
papers in the United States. OF this num-
Der, only eight we're committed to the British
Government, but five others were bought
over. The oldest existing paper in Massachu
setts is the Worcester Spy, first published in
this city during l770, bat removed to the
Western part of the State on the occupation
of Boston by the British troops. Our coun-
try, the Youngest in the world, outstrips all
e,i~-a 80 .ho .,...--h~- &c r--lE"-..:S.'1 "sri
sold. The number of news
papers printed here is four times greater than
in Great Britain, though England has twice
as many Magazines. The number of rclig-
ious newspapers here, and the extent of their
circulation forms striking social character
istic.