House of Commons, which passed a vote
in August, 1659, 'that Marchmont Nedham, gentleman, be and hereby is
restored to be writer of the _Publick Intelligence_ as formerly.' At the
Restoration he was discharged from his office, but contrived to make his
peace with the party in power, and, true to his instincts, changed his
political creed once more for that of the winning side, but without
succeeding in being reinstated in his old post. The other most
noteworthy writers of _Mercuries_ were John Birkenhead, author of the
_Mercurius Aulicus_, Peter Heylin, Bruno Ryves--all parsons--and John
Taylor, the Water Poet, author of the _Mercurius Aquaticus_.

Nothing was too great or too small for the writers of these _Mercuries_,
nothing too exalted or too mean. Nothing was sacred in their eyes; the
most private affairs were dragged into the political arena, and family
and domestic matters, that had nothing whatever to do with public life,
were paraded before the world. Bitter personalities and invective seem
to be inseparable concomitants of the early stage of journalism in all
countries. This was the case in France and Germany; it is the case in
Russia at the present day. That it was the case in America, let the
following extract from Franklin's private correspondence testify:

'The inconsistency that strikes me the most is that between the
name of your city, Philadelphia, and the spirit of rancor, malice,
and hatred that breathes in the newspapers. For I learn from those
papers that State is divided into parties, that each party ascribes
all the public operations of the other to vicious motives, that
they do not even suspect one another of the smallest degree of
honesty, that the anti-Federalists are such merely from the fear of
losing power, places, or emoluments, which they have in possession
or expectation; that the Federalists are a set of conspirators, who
aim at establishing a tyranny over the persons and property of
their countrymen and who live in splendor on the plunder of the
people. I learn, too, that your justices of the peace, though
chosen by their neighbors, make a villanous trade of their offices,
and promote discord to augment fees, and fleece their electors; and
that this would not be mended were the choice in the Executive
Council, who, with interested or party aims, are continually making
as improper appointments, witness a