s, and
that, by the common law of England, no man, not authorised by the crown,
had a right to publish political news. [162] While the Whig party was
still formidable, the government thought it expedient occasionally to
connive at the violation of this rule. During the great battle of the
Exclusion Bill, many newspapers were suffered to appear, the Protestant
Intelligence, the Current Intelligence, the Domestic Intelligence, the
True News, the London Mercury. [163] None of these was published oftener
than twice a week. None exceeded in size a single small leaf. The
quantity of matter which one of them contained in a year was not more
than is often found in two numbers of the Times. After the defeat of the
Whigs it was no longer necessary for the King to be sparing in the
use of that which all his Judges had pronounced to be his undoubted
prerogative. At the close of his reign no newspaper was suffered to
appear without his allowance: and his allowance was given exclusively
to the London Gazette. The London Gazette came out only on Mondays and
Thursdays. The contents generally were a royal proclamation, two or
three Tory addresses, notices of two or three promotions, an account
of a skirmish between the imperial troops and the Janissaries on the
Danube, a description of a highwayman, an announcement of a grand
cockfight between two persons of honour, and an advertisement offering a
reward for a strayed dog. The whole made up two pages of moderate size.
Whatever was communicated respecting matters of the highest moment was
communicated in the most meagre and formal style. Sometimes, indeed,
when the government was disposed to gratify the public curiosity
respecting an important transaction, a broadside was put forth giving
fuller details than could be found in the Gazette: but neither the
Gazette nor any supplementary broadside printed by authority ever
contained any intelligence which it did not suit the purposes of the
Court to publish. The most important parliamentary debates, the most
important state trials recorded in our history, were passed over in
profound silence. [164] In the capital the coffee houses supplied in
some measure the place of a journal. Thither the Londoners flocked, as
the Athenians of old flocked to the market place, to hear whether
there was any news. There men might learn how brutally a Whig, had been
treated the day before in Westminster Hall, what horrible accounts the
letters from Edinburgh ga