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39
The Colonies were then represented by little more than the
New England settlement, or His Majesty's plantations, as it
was officially known. The East India Company, which
was incorporated in the reign of Elizabeth, had recently
received its third charter, but our Indian Empire was still in
the future. Even its foundations had not yet been laid,
except in so far as an increasing trade with the East Indies
was preparing the way for future occupation. Communication
with the East was hazardous and infrequent. A sailing
vessel round the Cape of Good Hope frequently occupied
nearly six months in the voyage to India, and privateering in
time of war or piracy in time of peace had to be taken into
account by the merchant.
What would the ordinary man of business, even in provincial
towns, think now if his daily newspaper were not
forthcoming at breakfast time? But in the time of the Stuarts
the only news medium was the organ of the Government,
which is still published and is now known as the London
Gazette. Occasional tracts and news letters were published
for the diffusion of political views, but the newspaper in anything
like its modern form was then almost unknown. The
great news medium in London then appears to have been the
coffee house, where men gathered to diffuse and discuss the
intelligence of the day. Some weekly journals lived a kind
of spasmodic existence, but they were dependent on the
despatches and other information published in the London
Gazette for such foreign news as they gave. Their columns
were mainly devoted to details of criminal trials, paragraphs
relating to highway robbery, statements of the dowries of
recently married brides, society and commercial gossip, and
other information of similar interest. It is said that in the
earliest of these newspapers no charge was made for advertisements
for lost property. It may be remarked that the
common belief in the publication of an English