It is said that the first newspaper ever issued was at Venice in 1583,[7]
called "The Gazette,"--and this was in manuscript,--unless (as has been
reported) there was an older paper of some kind issued at Hong-Kong. The
oldest printed newspaper, "The English Mercury," was issued in England in
1588,[8] but, it is believed, was not regularly published. In the next
century, from 1624 onward, newspapers multiplied; and among them were "The
Parliament Kite," and "The Secret Owl," and some other curious names.
Towards the close of this century, the first American newspaper appeared;
and possibly this had been preceded by what represented a newspaper, in
manuscript, as was the case afterwards in Boston in 1704, when "The
News-Letter" first appeared. The first American newspaper was issued in
Boston in 1690,--only fifty or sixty years after newspapers became common
in England,--if the statements which we have quoted are reliable. But at
this time, as might be reasonably supposed, the people who came to this
country in order to improve their liberties, were not prepared for a free
press, or, one might almost say, for any thing that did not tally with
their religious notions and vague superstitions; so that, after the first
issue, Sept. 25, 1690, the paper was suppressed, as said, by the
"legislative authorities." Still it was a newspaper, intended to be such,
and intended to be regularly issued once a month, or oftener, if occasion
required.