time of day it may sound like a very uncommon request, yet it proceeds from the very hearts of your humble servants.

By this time the reader perceives that more than one are engaged in the present undertaking. Yet there is one person, an inhabitant of this town of Boston, whom we honor as a doctor in the chair, or a perpetual dictator.

The society had designed to present the public with his effigies, but that the Limner, to whom he was presented for a draught of his countenance, descried (and this he is ready to offer upon oath) nineteen features in his face, more than he ever beheld in any human visage before; which so raised the price of his picture, that our master himself forbid the extravagance of coming up to it. And then, besides, the Limner objected a schism in his face, which split it from his forehead in a straight line down to his chin, in such sort, that Mr. Painter protests it is a double face, and he'll have four pounds for the portraiture. However, though his double face has spoilt us of a pretty picture, yet we all rejoiced to see Old James in our company. There is no man in Boston better qualified than Old Janus for a Couranteer, or, if you please, an Observator, being a man of such remarkable optics as to look two ways at once.

As for his morals, he is a cheerly Christian, as the country phrase expresses it. A man of good temper, courteous deportment, sound judgement, a mortal hater of nonsense, foppery, formality, and endless ceremony. As for his Club, they aim at no greater happiness or honor, than the public be made to know, that it is the utmost of their ambition to attend upon and do all imaginable good offices to good Old Janus the Couranteer, who is and always will be the reader's humble ser

vant.

P. S. Gentle Reader, we design never to let a paper pass without a Latin motto if we can possibly pick one up, which carries a charm in it to the vulgar, and the learned admire the pleasure of construing. We should have obliged the world with a Greek scrap or two, but the printer has no types, and therefore we entreat the candid reader not to impute the defect to our ignorance, for our doctor can say all the Greek letters by heart.

There was no change in the tone or the policy of the paper as marked out by James Franklin. Other troubles came upon the Courant and its proprietor, but they ultimately became the seed of a Free Press.

In June, 1722, a pirate appeared off Block Island. In a letter from Newport, speaking of the energetic action there in sending out vessels to catch the marauder, the Courant charged the Massachusetts authorities with tardiness. On the 12th, the Council took the matter up and ordered James Franklin before them. He "owned that he had published said paper." The Council then "resolved that the said paragraph is a high affront to this government," and that Franklin be imprisoned in the jail in Boston. After a week's confinement the state of his health constrained him to seek some mitigation, and the records of the General Court contain the following entry:

In Council, 20th June, 1722, a petition of James Franklyn, printer, humbly shewing, that he is truly sensible and heartily sorry for the offence he has given to this court in the late Courant, relating to the fitting out of a ship by the gov ernment, and truly acknowledges his inadvertency and folly therein in affronting the government, as also his indiscretion and indecency when before the court, for all which he intreats the court's forgiveness, and praying a discharge from the stone prison where he is confined by order of the court, and that he may have the liberty of the yard, he being much indisposed and suffering in his health by the said confinement; a certificate of Dr. Zabdiel Boylston being offered with the said petition.

Imprisonment of James Franklin.

In the House of Representatives, read, and

71

Voted, that James Franklyn, now a prisoner in the stone gaol, may have the liberty of the prison house and yard, upon his giving security for his faithful abiding there.

In Council, read and concurred; consented to.

SAMUEL SHUTE.

The warfare with the clergy was also taken notice of in Council, and efforts made to crush the paper and editor in the interest of religion, but it appears by the following that this failed:

In Council July 5th, 1722.

Whereas in the Paper called the New-England Courant printed Weekly by James Franklin, many passages have been published boldly reflecting on His Majesty's Government and on the Administration of it in this Province, the Ministry, Churches and College; and it very often contains Paragraphs that tend to fill the Readers' minds with vanity to the Dishonor of God, and disservice of Good Men.

Resolved, that no such Weekly Paper be hereafter Printed or Published without the same be first perused and allowed by the Secretary, as has been usual. And that the said Franklin give Security before the Justices of the Superior Court in the Sum of 100l. to be of the good Behaviour to the End of the next Fall Sessions of this Court. Sent down for Concurrence.

Read and Non-concurred.

These Orders in Council sufficiently indicate the relative attitude of the press and the government a little over a century ago. There was not a very large opportunity for expansion. These movements and prosecutions were of considerable importance to journalism, especially in connection with the New England Courant, and, a few years later, with the New York Weekly Journal, which was of the same stamp and character as the Courant. Neither of the Franklins sacrificed their independence on the altar of power. They could not go very far publicly, but they accomplished a good deal for the time. Benjamin Franklin was only sixteen years of age at this period of his career, and even then he seemed to combine, in petto, all the elements of a modern newspaper establishment—brains, steam, courage, and electricity.

CHAPTER III.

THE FIRST PAPER IN NEW YORK.

THE NEW YORK GAZETTE.-ITS COMMENCEMENT BY WILLIAM BRADFORD.— PREMIUMS FOR SUBSCRIBERS. — ANOTHER NEWSPAPER IN BOSTON. THE NEW ENGLAND WEEKLY JOURNAL. THE DIFFICULTIES IN CIRCULATING

NEWSPAPERS.-THE WANT OF MAIL FACILITIES.

ALTHOUGH Governor Fletcher, in having a copy of the London Gazette reprinted in New York in 1696, must have infused a little journalistic spirit in that city, the first newspaper there did not make its appearance till 1725.

William Bradford, a printer in Philadelphia, in consequence of litigations with the authorities there, growing out of his polemical publications, or a difference or two perhaps with the Society of Friends, was induced by Governor Fletcher to leave that city in 1690, and open a printing-office in New York. He there became the official printer, and after publishing Almanacs, the laws, the English Prayer-book, and official proclamations, and erecting the first paper-mill, he issued in October, 1725, the New York Gazette, which was, like the other papers then in existence, published weekly. The contents of the first number embraced the news from October 16 to October 23. Bradford believed that a man was never too old to work, for he was seventy years of age when he started the Gazette. The paper, for some time, was under the influence and control of William Cosby, the governor of that province.

William Bradford was the fourth printer in America, having been preceded by Stephen Daye, our Caxton, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1638, Samuel Green in the same town in 1640, and by John Foster in Boston in 1675. Bradford established a printing-press in Philadelphia in 1687, and published a sheet Almanac in that year, and made preparations to print the first Bible in the English language in America somewhere about 1688. The inducements held forth in his proposals for printing the Holy Scriptures, one would imagine, have been the basis for most of the modern appeals to the public for the support of newspapers, magazines, and books. Our Pennsylvania Caxton thus announced:

Proposals for the Printing of a large BIBLE, by William Bradford. Hefe are to give Notice, that it is propofed for a large house-Bible to be Printed by way of Subfcriptions [a method usual in England for the print

TH

William Bradford's New York Gazette.

73

ing of large Volumns, because Printing is very chargeable] therefore to all that are willing to forward fo good (and great) a Work, as the Printing of the holy Bible, are offered thefe Proposals, viz.

1. That it fhall be printed in a fair Character, on good Paper, and well bound. 2. That it fhall contain the Old and New Teftament, with the Apocraphy, and all to have useful Marginal Notes.

3. That it fhall be allowed (to them that fubfcribe) for Twenty Shillings per Bible: [A Price which one of the fame volumn in England would coft.]

4. That the pay shall be half Silver Money, and half Country Produce at Money price. One half down now, and the other half on the delivery of the Bibles.

5. That those who do fubfcribe for fix, fhall have the Seventh gratis, and have them delivered one month before any above that number shall be fold to others. 6. To thofe which do not fubfcribe, the faid Bibles will not be allowed under 26 s. a piece.

7. Those who are minded to have the Common-Prayer, fhall have the whole bound up for 22 s. and those that do not subscribe 28 s. and 6 d. per Book.

8. That as encouragement is given by Peoples fubscribing and paying down one half, the faid Work will be put forward with what Expedition may be.

9. That the Subfcribers may enter their Subfcriptions and time of Payment, at Pheneas Pemberton's and Robert Halls in the County of Bucks. At Malen Stacy's Mill at the Falls. At Thomas Budds House in Burlington. At John Hafting's in the County of Chefter. At Edward Blake's in New-Cafle. At Thomas VVoodrooffs in Salem. And at William Bradford's in Philadelphia, Printer & Undertaker of the faid Work. At which places the Subscribers shall have a Receipt for fo much of their Subscriptions as paid, and an obligation for the delivery of the number of Bibles (fo Printed and Bound as aforefaid) as the respective Subfcribers fhall depofit one half for.

Alfo this may further give notice, that Samuell Richardfon and Samuell Carpenter of Philadelphia, are appointed to take care and be affiftant in the laying out of the Subfcription Money, and to fee that it be imploy'd to the use intended, and confequently that the whole Work be expedited. Which is promised by William Bradford.

Philadelphia, the 14th of

the ift Month, 1688.

There has been some improvement, in the shape of premiums, on this prospectus of 1688, but William Bradford is entitled to the credit of introducing this system of newspaper and book subscriptions. Some of our modern periodicals, religious as well as secular, run far ahead of Bradford in inducements to subscribe for their publications, but there were no sewing-machines, melodeons, or life-insurance companies in the amiable Bradford's time. The New York Express of December 12, 1868, for instance, contained the following immensely comprehensive advertisement :

TH

THE CHURCH UNION.

HIS PAPER HAS BEEN RECENTLY ENLARGED TO MAMmoth proportions. IT IS THE LARGEST RELIGIOUS PAPER IN THE WORLD. Is the leading organ of the Union Movement, and opposes ritualism, close communion, exclusiveness and church caste. It is the only paper that publishes HENRY WARD BEECHER'S Sermons, which it does every week, just as delivered,— without qualification or correction by him. It advocates universal suffrage; a union of Christians at the polls; and the rights of labor. It has the best Agricultural Department of any paper in the world; publishes stories for the family, and for the destruction of social evils. Its editorial management is impersonal; its writers and editors are from every branch of the Church and from every grade of society. It has been aptly termed the freest organ of thought in the world. Such a paper, offering premiums of Sewing Machines, Dictionaries, Appleton's

Cyclopedia, Pianos, Organs for Churches, etc., makes one of the best papers for canvassers in the world.

Every Congregation may obtain a Communion Service, an Organ, a Melodeon, a Bible, or a Life Insurance Policy for its Pastor, or almost any other needful thing, by a club of subscribers.

This system of drumming for patrons has become so wide-spread that scarcely a paper is started that does not offer some premium more attractive than the preceding one. Some one published a parody on all these advertisements which covers the whole ground. It is given as a

MODEL FOR "PREMIUMS TO SUBSCRIBERS." Subscribers for one copy of the

will be presented with a box of Patent Petroleum Paste Blacking. This is a superior article. It blacks boots or stoves, and may be used as a hair dye.

Subscribers for two copies will receive a box of sardines.

Subscribers for five copies will be presented with a pair of iron-clad spectacles, with glass eyes, warranted to suit one age as well as another.

Subscribers for ten copies will be entitled to a patent adjustable bootjack, which can also be used as a corkscrew, a coffee-mill, or inkstand.

Subscribers for twenty-five copies will receive a marble bureau with a mahogany top.

Subscribers for fifty copies will receive a seven-octave sewing-machine with the Agraff attachment.

Subscribers for seventy-five copies will receive a basswood parlor suit of furni

ture.

Subscribers for one hundred copies will receive a burial plot, with an order for tombstones delivered when required.

Subscribers for five hundred copies will receive a nomination for Congress. Subscribers for a thousand copies will be presented with a farm in New Jersey, fenced and mortgaged.

The French are as peculiar and as characteristic in their premiums. The Gaulois offered two bottles of Champagne for every new subscriber for six months. Four bottles of the Widow Cliquot for sending the Gaulois for one year! Sparkling inducement! The Figaro, not to be outdone, offered a small pocket revolver at half price for every new subscriber. Thus every reader of that paper would have a six-shooter at half cock for reading its brilliant articles for twelve months.

But this is anticipating. William Bradford emigrated from England to Pennsylvania before Philadelphia was laid out. For half at century he was printer to the colonial government. Notwithstanding his controversy with the Weekly Journal, Bradford was a champion of the freedom of the press. Members of his family, for four generations, distinguished themselves in various ways. The senior Bradford died in New York in 1752, at the age of 92, and was buried in Trinity Church-yard under the following epitaph:

Here lies the Body of Mr. William Bradford-Printer who departed this Life May 23 1752 aged 92 Years He was born in Leicester Shire in Old England in 1660 and came over to America in 1680 before Philadelphia was laid out. He was Printer to the Government for upward of 50 years and being quite worn out