of the Post Office, Gentlemen, Merchants and others, both in Town and Country; and preventing a great many false Reports. And the Author being still desired and encouraged to carry on the same by the Gentlemen, Merchants and others, his usual Customers, he intends (Life Permitted) to answer their expectation, and to forward still as regular Account of Affairs as our part of the World will admit of; If he does not Print a Sheet every other Week this Winter Time, he designs to make it up in the Spring, when Ships do arrive from Great Britain. Such Others as have a mind to promote and encourage the said Intelligence may agree with John Campbell in Cornhill, Boston, and have it on reasonable Terms left at any House in the Town, Seal'd or Unsealed; and for the advantage of the Post Office an Intire Sheet of Paper, one half with the News, and the other half good writing Paper to write their Letter on, may also be had there for any one that pleases to have it every Monday."

By the latter part of this advertisement we are to understand, that some copies of the News Letter would every Monday be printed on a whole sheet of writing paper, one half of which would be blank, on which letters might be written and sent abroad through the medium of the post office; the accommodation was the saving of postage, as a letter and a newspaper might be forwarded in the same sheet; and newspapers thus printed, were sold by Campbell at his house in Cornhill.

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In No. 876, December 26, 1720, Campbell, in an address to the public, mentioned, that he had published the NewsLetter near upon Seventeen Years," and that it was "the first and only intelligence on the Continent of America, till about a Year past, one was set up at Philadelphia and another here, and how well either the one or the other has answered the said Design, and People's great Expectation, is left with every one to Determine." He informs his

readers that, "he designs (God willing) to carry it on another year," with the usual proviso, that "he is Encouraged by a competant Numbers taking it by the Year, to enable him to defray the necessary charges of Press, Paper, the Publick Prints, and Writing of the same."

On the 7th of August, 1721, a third newspaper in Boston was published, entitled The New England Courant. The publisher of that paper, in an address to the public, hinted that the News Letter was "a dull vehicle of intelligence," &c. This appears to have nettled Campbell, who in his next News-Letter of Monday, August 14, made the following defence.

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N. B. On Monday last, the 7th Currant, came forth a Third Newspaper in this Town, Entituled, The New England Courant, by Homo non unius Negotii, Or, Jack of all Trades, and it would seem, Good at none, giving some very, very frothy fulsome Account of himself; but lest the continuance of that stile should offend his readers, wherein with submission, (I speak for the Publisher of this Intelligence, whose endeavours has always been to give no offence, not meddling with things out of his Province) the said Jack promises in pretence of Friendship to the other News-Publishers to amend, like soure Ale in Summer, Reflecting too too much, that my performances are now and then very, very Dull, Misrepresenting my candid endeavours (according to the Talent of my Capacity and Education, not soaring above my Sphere) in giving a true and genuine account of all Matters of Fact, both Foreign and Domestick, as comes any way well Attested, for these Seventeen Years & an half past. It is often observed, a bright Morning is succeeded by a dark Rainy Day, and so much Mercury in the beginning may end in Album Græcum. And seeing our New Gentleman seems to be a Scholer of

1 Printed by James Franklin.

"The motto of Franklin's address to the public.

卡

Accademical Learning, (which I pretend not to, the more my unhappiness, and too late to say, O mihi præteritos referat si Jupiter Annos) and better qualified to perform a work of this Nature, for want whereof out of a design for publick good made me at first at the Sollicitation of several Gentlemen, Merchants and Others, come into it, according to the Proverb, thinking that half a Loafe was better than no Bread; often wishing and desiring in Print that such a one would undertake it, and then no one should sooner come into it and pay more Yearly to carry it on than this Publisher, and none appearing then, nor since, (others being judges) to excell him in their performances, made him to continue. And our New Publisher being a Scholler and Master, he should (me thinks) have given us (whom he terms low, flat and dull) Admonition and told one and the other wherein our Dulness lay, (that we might be better Proficients for the future, Whither in reading, hearing, or pains taking, to write, gather, collect and insert the Publick Occurrences) before publick Censure, and a good example to copy and write after, and not tell us and the World at his first setting out, that he'l be like us in doing as we have done, Turpe est Doctori cum culpa redarguit ipsum. And now all my Latin being spent excepting what I design always to remember, Nemo sine crimine vivit, I promise for my part so soon as he or any Scholler will Undertake my hitherto Task, and Endeavours, giving proof that he will not be very, very Dull, I shall not only desist for his advantage, but also so far as capable Assist such a good Scribe."

I have a file of the New England Courant for the first two years of its publication, with the exception of the first sixteen numbers, which are wanting. I cannot, therefore, give Franklin's reply to Campbell; but the spirit of it is to be discovered from Campbell's rejoinder, published in the News Letter, August 28, 1721, viz.:

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J. C. to Jack Dullman' sendeth, Greeting.

"Sir, What you call a Satyrical Advertisement was a just Vindication of my News Letter, from some unfair Reflections, in your introduction to your first Courant. Your reply in hobling Verse, had they more Reason and less Railing might possibly have inclined me to think you was some Man of great Learning, or as you please to Word it, a Meikle Man; but Railery is the talent of a mean Spirit, and not to be returned by me. In honour to the Muses I dare not acknowledge your Poem to be from Parnassus; but as a little before the Composure you had been Rakeing in the Dunghill, its more probable the corrupt Steams got into your Brains, and your Dullcold Skul precipitate them into Ribaldry. I observe you are not always the same, your History of Inoculation intends the Publick Good, but Letter to Mr. Compton and Rhyme to me smell more of the Ale Tub than the Lamp. I do not envy your skill in Anatomy, and your accurate discovery of the Gall Bladder, nor your Geography of the Dunghill (natale solum.) You say your Ale grows better, but have a care you do not Bottle it too New, lest the Bottles fly and wet your Toyes. You say you are the Wiseman, and his Advice is, Prov. xxvi. Ver. 4. Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou be like unto him. And not very disagreeable to what I learned when a School Boy.

2

"Contra verbosos, noli contendere verbis.

Against a man of wind spend not thy Breath. Therefore I conclude with Verbum Sapienti,

“Tutius est, igitur fictis contendere verbis,

"Since like the Indian Natives, you Delight,

to murder in the dark, eshun and fly the light,

Farewel."

1 This nickname appears to have been given to Franklin by Campbell,

as a retort for calling the News-Letter "dull, very dull.”

2 The Courant strongly opposed inoculating for the small pox, which at that time began to be introduced.

This rivalship produced a whole sheet weekly from Campbell for about two months, after which the NewsLetter, like the Gazette and Courant, was reduced to a half sheet weekly.

In January, 1722, Campbell announced in his usual manner his intention to continue the News-Letter another year; but before the close of it, he resigned his right to his printer, Bartholomew Green. Campbell had published this paper eighteen years; and, during that period, had met with many difficulties, and received but little encouragement. The undertaking could not have been attended with profit; for the expense of paper, printing, and European publications from which he selected information, must have swallowed up the proceeds from his small number of subscribers.

'Published by Authority," had been omitted in the title of the News-Letter for two years before Campbell resigned it, but was resumed when Green began to print it on his own account; and the day of its publication was changed from Monday to Thursday.

When Green became the proprietor of the News-Letter, great difference of opinion existed in the colony respecting the concerns of church and state, as well as concerning matters of a more local nature, and the spirit of party ran high. A writer of that day observes, "The press has long groaned in bringing forth an hateful but numerous brood of party pamphlets, malicious scribbles, and Billingsgate ribaldry, which have produced rancor and bitterness, and unhappily soured and leavened the tempers of persons formerly esteemed some of the most sweet and amiable.1

Green appeared to possess a disposition to publish an impartial and chaste paper, and in conformity to this inclination, he inserted in the News-Letter March 7, 1723, the following address to the public.

1 Courant. No. 30, February 11, 1723.