in this way the whole of the army became acquainted with any brilliant victory which had been achieved, or any other important occurrence which had taken place. It is right, however, to mention, that these journals or communications from Rome to the provinces were not transmitted on specific days; they were transmitted only when important events took place, with which it was desirable that the army should be made acquainted.

A great deal has been written in relation to the Acta Diurna of the old Romans, but much of it, it is to be feared, cannot be received without misgivings as to its accuracy. The best disquisition I have met with on the subject was written by Dr. Johnson, for the Gentleman's Magazine for 1740, and was transferred to "The Selection of Curious Articles from the Gentleman's Magazine," made by Mr. John Walker, Fellow of New College, and published by Longman and Co. in four volumes in 1814. But though there may be much in what is written about the Acta Diurna of the old Romans that has more in it of the quality of fiction than the element of fact, there are, on the other hand, some interesting statements which may be relied on. As mentioned by the Gentleman's Magazine, the Acta Diurna, in addition to military matters, recorded the common occurrences of Rome,as the trials, punishments, deaths, sacrifices, prodigies, &c., composed under the direction of the magistrates, committed to their care, and laid up with the rest of the records in an edifice called the "Hall of Liberty."

They were, it is added by the same writer, "like all other public papers, easily gained access to." These statements are substantiated by some of the earliest Roman writers. One statement is somewhat remarkable. Tully, in a playful letter to Cœlius, employs the following among other expressions :-"Do you think that I left it in charge with you to send an account of the matches of gladiators, the adjudgments of courts, and such like articles, which, even when I am at Rome, nobody ventures to tell me? From you I expect a political sketch of the Commonwealth, and not Chrestus' newspaper." It will strike the reader as remarkable that the very word "newspaper" should thus have been employed in speaking of the Acta Diurna of Rome long before the birth of Christ. Suetonius, too, the friend of Pliny, and author of

The Twelve Cæsars," makes mention of a fact which is confirmatory of the historical statements, that these Acta Diurna were journals resembling in their leading features our newspapers; though, of course, bearing no comparison to them in relation to their material dimensions. That writer says, that Julius Cæsar, in his Consulship, ordered the diurnal acts of the Senate and the people to be published. It may be well to give two specimens of the kind of intelligence to be met with in the Acta Diurna of Ancient Rome. The following is dated the 4th of the Kalends of April, in the year 585 after the Building of Rome:-" It thundered, and an oak was struck with lightning in that part of Mount

Palatine called Summa Velia, early in the afternoon. A fray happened in a tavern at the lower end of the Banker Street, in which the keeper of the Hog-inArmour tavern was dangerously wounded. Tertinius, the Ædile, fined the butchers for selling meat which had not been inspected by the overseers of the markets. The fine is to be employed in building a chapel to the temple of the goddess Tellus."

Does not this look very like the information, and the mode of giving it, which appears in our newspapers in the year 1871, making, of course, allowance for the difference between the religion of Great Britain in the present day, and that of Rome at the period referred to? Another specimen of the contents of the Acta Diurna is the following: "On the 3rd of the Kalends of April, it rained stones on Mount Veientine. Posthumius the Tribune sent his beadle to the Consul because he was unwilling to convene the Senate on that day; but the Tribune Decimus putting in his veto, the affair went no further."

But in order that every further facility might be given to the public to become acquainted at as early a period as possible, with the news of the day, Julius Cæsar desired the written journals to be hung up in the galleries which, in imitation of those in Athens, he had caused to be constructed at his villa in Tucentum. But this state of things was not of long duration; it ended with the reign of Cæsar. Emperor Augustus, on coming into power, adopted the very opposite course. He was a great despot,

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and, like all tyrants, whether of ancient or modern times, he detested and dreaded anything which had the semblance of liberty in writing or speaking. In accordance with the tyranny of his character as a ruler, he promulgated sanguinary laws against libels in any and every form. Still further, in his determination to crush whatever might have the semblance of freedom in speaking or writing, he issued an edict to the effect that the authors of satirical writings should be punished with death. I have met with no evidence to prove that this sanguinary enactment was ever carried out by Augustus; but there is abundant evidence to show that succeeding tyrants availed themselves of its provisions, and put to death numerous persons charged with being guilty of satirical or libellous writings.

The reporters for the "pen," not for the " press," at this early period in newspaper history, were called "actuarii." They must before the Christian era have possessed a knowledge of, and been able to practise short-hand, for the Roman historians tell us that they were employed by Cicero to take down. verbatim the speech of Cato in the great debate in the Senate on the trial of those who had been concerned in the Catiline conspiracy.

That the antiquity of newspapers in Rome, so far as the idea is concerned, goes as far back as more than several centuries before the Christian era, is a fact fully established. But a still greater age for newspaper journalism is claimed by the Chinese. They them

selves affirm, that in their empire an official gazette was published many centuries before the building of Rome. Much credit would not be given to their claims to newspaper antiquity did they stand alone, but they are supported by the Roman historians, who on various occasions quote the Acta Diurna, or, as they were called The Daily Advertisers of China. The Chinese also affirm that they discovered and employed printing in the first century; but knowing with what fables and fictions their chronology abounds, we are not bound to believe this in the absence of any corroborative evidence.

From before the Christian era till the time when the Venetian Republic was in its greatest glory, we hear of no medium of intelligence at all resembling our present newspapers existing in any part of Europe, until 1566, when publications somewhat resembling our earlier newspapers made their appearance. The Notizie Scritte, published monthly in Venice, is said to have been the first of the Italian newspapers, and was published, not in print, but in manuscript. Gazettes, or newspapers, soon after became more common; and any person was at liberty to read them who chose to pay a small coin, called a gazetta, for that permission. Italy, therefore, and Venice, the capital of Lombardy in Italy, have the right to claim the honour of having been the first to introduce to the European public the newspaper press, each journal being called Gazetta, after the name of the coin. The government, becoming afraid that if these gazettas