year the Gazette was transferred to John Reid, by whose family it
long continued to be printed. In February 1705 Watson started the
Edinburgh Courant, of which he only published fifty-five numbers.
He states it to be his plan to give “most of the remarkable foreign
news from their prints, and also the home news from the ports of this
kingdom . . . now altogether neglected.” The Courant appeared
thrice a week. Upon complaint being made to the privy council
concerning an advertisement inserted after the transfer of the paper
to Adam Boig, the new printer presented a supplication to the
council in which he expressed his willingness “that in all time
coming no inland news or advertisements shall be put into the
Courant, but at the sight and allowance of the clerks of council.”
In 1710 the town council authorized Mr Daniel Defoe to print the
Edinburgh Courant in the place of the deceased Adam Boig. Four
years earlier (1706) the indefatigable pioneer of the Scottish press,
James Watson, had begun the Scots Courant, which he continued to
print until after the year 1718. To these papers were added in
October 1708 the Edinburgh Flying Post and in August 1709 the
Scots Postman. Five years later this paper appears to have been
incorporated with the Edinburgh Gazette. The Caledonian Mercury
began April 28, 1720. At one period it was published thrice and
afterwards twice a week. Its first proprietor was William Rolland,
an advocate, and its first editor Thomas Ruddiman. The property
passed to Ruddiman on Rolland’s death in 1729, and remained in his
family until 1772. It is curious to notice that in his initiatory
number of April 1720, Rolland claimed a right to identify his
Mercury with that of 1660. This journal, he said in his preface to the
public, “is the oldest [existing] in Great Britain.” And his successor
of the year 1860 followed suit by celebrating the “second centenary”
of the Caledonian Mercury. He brought out a facsimile of No. 1 of
Mercurius Caledonius (January 1660), in its eight pages of small
quarto, curiously contrasting with the great double sheet of the day.
But sixty years is a long period of suspended animation, and the
connexion of the two newspapers cannot be proved to be more than
nominal. The Caledonian Mercury was the first of Scottish journals
to give conspicuous place to literature—foreign as well as Scottish.
In “the ’45” one of its editors, Thomas Ruddiman, junior, virtually
sacrificed his life,[1] and the other, James Grant, went into exile, for
the expression of conscientious political opinion. Its publication
ceased after an existence of more than one hundred and forty
years.
Notwithstanding the positive assertion[2] that the Edinburgh Courant and the Edinburgh Evening Courant “were entirely different journals, and never had any connexion whatever with each other,” a substantial identity may be asserted upon better grounds than those for which identity used to be claimed for the Caledonian Mercury with Mercurius Caledonius. The grant by the town council of Edinburgh in December 1718 of a licence to James M‘Ewan to print an Evening Courant three times a week appears to have been really a revival, in altered form, of the original Courant, repeatedly referred to in earlier, but not much earlier, records of the same corporation. So revived, the Evening Courant was the first Scottish paper to give foreign intelligence from original sources, instead of repeating the advices sent to London. In 1780 David Ramsay became its proprietor. Under his management it is said to have attained the largest Scottish circulation of its day. It was then of neutral politics. Subsequently, returning to its original title, and appearing as a daily morning paper, it ranked for long as the senior organ of the Conservative party in Scotland, but at last the competition of the Scotsman caused its disappearance, and after amalgamating with the Glasgow News or the Scottish News in 1886, it expired in 1888.
The Edinburgh Weekly Journal began in 1744, but it only attained celebrity when, almost seventy years afterwards, it became the joint property of Sir Walter Scott and of James Ballantyne. Scott wrote in its columns many characteristic articles. Ballantyne edited it until his death in 1833, and was succeeded in the editorship by Thomas Moir. The paper was discontinued about 1840. The Edinburgh Evening News started in 1873.
The Scotsman, the leading Scottish newspaper, was established as a twice-a-week paper in January 1817 and became a daily in June 1855. It ranked as the chief organ of the Liberal party in Scotland, until the Home Rule split in 1886, when it became Unionist. It was founded by William Ritchie, in conjunction with Charles Maclaren. For a short period it was edited by J. R. M‘Culloch, the eminent political economist. He was succeeded by Maclaren, who edited the paper until 1845, and he in turn in 1848 by Alexander Russel (1814–1876), who (with Mr Law as manager) continued to conduct it with great ability until 1876. In 1859 the first of Hoe’s rotary brought into Scotland was erected for the Scotsman. The Scotsman soon developed into a great newspaper, strong both on its literary side and also in gathering news; and it was circulated all over Scotland, its publishing offices being opened in Glasgow, which was a better centre for distributing in the west, and in Perth for the north. At last under Charles A. Cooper it succeeded in killing all its rivals in Edinburgh. In 1885 the Scotsman issued an evening paper.
The North British Advertiser was founded in 1826. The Witness began in 1840 as the avowed organ of what speedily became the Free Church party in Scotland. In its first prospectus it calls itself the Old Whig. The paper appeared twice a week, and its editor, Hugh Miller, very soon made it famous. In the course of less than sixteen years he wrote about a thousand articles and papers, conspicuous for literary ability, still more so for a wide range of acquirement and of original thought, most of all for deep conscientiousness. It survived its first editor’s death (1855) only a few years.
In Glasgow the Glasgow Herald was founded in 1782. When the Scotsman extended its activities to Glasgow, the Herald opened an office in Edinburgh; and it took an active part in breaking down the old localism of Scottish papers. In later years it became a powerful organ. The North British Daily Mail was established in April 1847. George Troup, its first editor, made it specially famous for the organizing skill with which he brought his intelligence at an unprecedented rate of speed from Carlisle, the nearest point then connected with London by railway.[3] The Glasgow Evening News was started in 1870.
The Aberdeen Journal was founded as a weekly paper in 1748 and became a daily in 1876. In 1879 it issued an evening edition. The Aberdeen Daily Free Press, originally a weekly, dates from 1853. In 1881 it issued an evening paper in connexion with itself. The Dundee Advertiser, established in 1801, towards the latter part of the century extended its sphere of influence much on the lines of the Scotsman and Glasgow Herald. It issued the Evening Telegraph in 1877. In 1859 the Dundee Courier, a halfpenny paper, had begun.
It may be added that a very large number of the men who have distinguished themselves by their labours on the great newspapers of London, and several who rank as founders of these, began their career and have left their mark on the newspapers of Scotland.
Ireland.—In 1641 appeared a sheet called Warranted Tidings from Ireland, but this, with Ireland’s True Diurnal (1642), Mercurius Hibernicus (1644), the Irish Courant (1690), were all of them London newspapers containing Irish news. The real newspaper press of Ireland began with the Dublin News-Letter of 1685. Five years later appeared the Dublin Intelligencer (No. 1, September 30, 1690). Both of these were shortlived. Pue’s Occurrences followed in 1700 and lasted for more than fifty years, as the pioneer of the daily press of Ireland. In 1710 or in 1711 (there is some doubt as to the date of the earliest number) the Dublin Gazette began to appear, the official organ of the vice-regal government. Falkener’s Journal was established in 1728. Esdaile’s News-Letter began in 1744, took the title of Saunders’s News-Letter in 1754 (when it appeared three times a week), and became a daily newspaper in 1777.
In the Nationalist press the famous Freeman’s Journal has long been prominent amongst the Dublin papers. It was established as a daily paper by a committee of the first society of “United Irishmen” in 1763, and its first editor was Dr Lucas. Flood and Grattan were at one time numbered amongst its contributors, although the latter, at a subsequent period, is reported to have exclaimed in his place in the Irish parliament, “The Freeman’s Journal is a liar . . . a public, pitiful liar.” In 1870 it brought out the Evening Telegraph. In 1891 the dissensions among the Irish Nationalists led to the establishment of the Parnellite Dublin Daily Independent and Evening Herald. In 1897 the Nation, formerly a weekly, was brought out as a daily. On the Unionist side the principal Irish paper is the Dublin Irish Times (1859).
Waterford possessed a newspaper as early as 1729, entitled the Waterford Flying Post. It professed to contain “the most material news both foreign and domestic,” was printed on common writing paper and published twice a week at the price of a halfpenny. The Waterford Chronicle was started in 1766.
The Belfast News-Letter was started in 1737; the Belfast Evening Telegraph in 1870; the Belfast Northern Whig in 1824.
British Dominions beyond the Sea.
It is unnecessary here to give all the statistics for the British Colonial press, which has enormously developed in modern times. So far as its early history is concerned, it may be noted that Keimer’s Gazette was started in Barbadoes in 1731 and Granada followed with a newspaper of its own in 1742. In Canada the Halifax Gazette was established in 1751 and the Montreal Gazette in 1765. The first Australasian paper was the Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (1803–1843), the Derwent Star, in Van Dieman’s Land (Tasmania), starting in 1810. In modern days all the British dominions beyond the sea have produced important and well-conducted papers. The Canadian press has naturally had certain
marked affinities with the American; but the Globe in Toronto, as