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the first object of editors, and, of course, "containing the freshest advices," &c., is too often out of the question.

For many years after the establishment of newspapers on this continent, very few advertisements appeared in them. This was the case with those that were early printed in Europe. In the first newspapers, advertisements were not separated by lines from the news, &c., and were not even begun with a two line letter; when two line letters were introduced, it was some time before one advertisement was separated from another by a line, or rule as it is termed by printers. After it became usual to separate advertisements, some printers used lines of metal rules; others lines of flowers irregularly placed. I have seen in some New York papers, great primer flowers between advertisements. At length, it became customary to "set off advertisements," and from using types not larger than those with which the news were printed, types of the size of French canon have often been used for names, especially of those who advertised English goods.

In the troublesome times, occasioned by the stamp act in 1765, some of the more opulent and cautious printers, when the act as to take place, put their papers in mourning, and, for a few weeks, omitted to publish them; others not so timid, but doubtful of the consequence of publishing newspapers without stamps, omitted the titles, or altered them, as an evasion; for instance the Pennsylvania Gazette, and some other papers, were headed "Remarkable Occurrences, &c."-other printers, particularly those in Boston, continued their papers without any alteration in title or imprint.

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EXPLANATION

OF THE

INDIAN GAZETTE,

GIVING AN ACCOUNT OF ONE OF THEIR EXPEDITIONS.

The following divisions explain those on the plate referred to by the numbers.

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MASSACHUSETTS.

BOSTON.

There was not a newspaper published in the English colonies, throughout the extensive continent of North America, until the 24th of April, 1704.

1

John Campbell, a Scotchman, who was a bookseller and postmaster in Boston, was the first who began and established a publication of this kind. It was entitled,

N. E.

The Boston News-Letter.

Published by Authority.o

Numb. 1.

From Monday April 17, to Monday April 24, 1704.

It is printed on half a sheet of pot paper, with a small pica type, folio. The first page is filled with an extract

"The first attempt to set up a newspaper in North America, so far as can be ascertained, was made at Boston in 1690. Only one copy of this sheet is known to be in existence, that being in the state paper office in London." See an entire copy of this, by Samuel A. Green, M.D., in the Historical Magazine for August, 1857. The authorities objected to it. They called it a pamphlet. Felt's Annals of Salem (1849), vol. II, p. 14. If this can be claimed as a newspaper, may also the sheet printed by Samuel Green in 1689, the placard mentioned in the New Hamp. Hist. Soc. Coll., 1, 252? This was issued at the time Dr. Increase Mather was in England, endeavoring to procure a new charter for the colony of Massachusetts. It was entitled The Present State of the New English Affairs, and was published to prevent false reports. Among the notes to a reprint of the first number of the Boston News Letter, we are informed that Campbell was accustomed to write news letters. Nine of these dated 1703, have been published by the Massachusetts Historical Society, in their Proceedings, 1867, p. 485.— M.

2 At the time this paper was first published, and for many years afterwards, there were licensers of the press. "Published by Authority," I presume means nothing more than this; what appeared in the publication was not disapproved by the licensers.

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