Page:Notes by the Way.djvu/265

 NOTES BY THE WAY.

��195

��younger men engaged in the making of newspapers." Like all successful men, he is an optimist, and no one can doubt that he is right when he says : " The future of the daily press grows brighter every year. As a record of the world's history it is well on the road towards perfection ; while its educative influence is greater to-day than it has ever been in the past." Of the London daily papers the oldest is The Morning Post, established 1772 ; The Times comes next, 1785, followed by The Morning Advertiser, 1794. The first daily established in the nineteenth century was The Daily News, 1846. Of the weekly papers, only six have exceeded the three score and ten limit : The Weekly Dispatch, 1801 ; The Lancet, 1823 ; The Athenceum, January, 1828 ; The Record, January, 1828 (formerly issued three times a week) ; The Spectator, July, 1828 ; and The Broad Arrow, 1833.

Not the least interesting portion of this ' Directory ' is that devoted to our Colonial Press, in which a sketch is given of its early struggles. While the friends of the press were fighting for freedom here, a hard struggle preceded the emancipation of the press in almost every colony. The censorship was a privilege which Colonial Governors parted with reluctantly, and freedom had to be almost torn from their grasp. The first newspaper started in British North America was The Halifax Gazette, on the 23rd of March, 1752. Its projector was Bartholomew Green, son of the publisher of the celebrated Boston News Letter, the first newspaper published in America. The opening number of the Gazette had only three advertisements, one of these referring to some negro slaves who were for sale in Halifax. The second Canadian paper was The Quebec Gazette, started June 21st, 1764. Its first number contained the news " that the House of Commons intended to tax the Ame- rican Colonies." The oldest paper existing in Canada is The Montreal Gazette, founded June 3rd, 1778. It owed its origin " to a belief on the part of the American Revolutionary party that the French Canadians could be won over to support the rebel States." Under this impression Benjamin Franklin was supplied with a printing-press, in order to appeal to the inhabitants of Lower Canada by its means.

Australia has close upon a thousand newspapers, and in no part of the world is the press more powerful. When Governor Phillip took possession in 1788, and established Sydney, he brought with him from England a printing-press ; but as no one had any knowledge of the black art, it was ten years before his proclamations could appear in type, and replace the manuscript notices previously affixed to gum trees, so that it was not until the 5th of March, 1803, that the first newspaper, The Sydney Gazette, was published. Copies of this first issue are still extant, but in too dilapidated a condition for effective reproduction. The honour of starting the second paper, The Australian, on the 24th of October, 1824, is due to William

N 2

��Ages of newspapers.

��The Colonial press.

��First

Canadian

papers.

First

American

paper.

��First

Australian paper.

�� �