The abolition of the Star Chamber, in 1641, was an important event for the press of this country. The so-called newspapers then began to print English news and discuss home affairs, no longer dreading the fines, imprisonments, and mutilations, that had been so liberally dispensed by that obnoxious tribunal. There was not, however, any considerable increase in the number of newspapers till the Civil War reached its height. During that remarkable contest many hundreds of tracts and newspapers were published, some of them numbered consecutively and published at regular intervals; but the great majority bore no continuous title, and treated of one subject only. During the reigns of Charles II. and James II. the press was more or less under a censorship, from which it was not emancipated till the seventh year of William III. Lord Macaulay dates the commencement of English newspapers from this period, when a great many new journals made their appearance. They included political news amongst their contents; and they more nearly resembled in character, but not in appearance, what we now understand by a newspaper than anything that had preceded them. This press revival was not accompanied by any corresponding activity in the direction of pictorial illustration. Art of every kind was in a low condition in England at this time. Even if the art of popular illustration had been better understood, the means of production were exceedingly limited. Newspapers multiplied greatly, but illustrated journalism had to struggle with difficulties, and its existence was only made known by the occasional appearance of a rough woodcut or an indifferent copper-plate.
Illustrated Broadsides--Sir Francis Drake's Operations against the Spaniards--Papers of News in the Reign of James I.--The first Periodical Newspaper published in England--Illustrated Tracts relating to Storms and Floods--Remarkable Murders favourite subjects with the early Newswriters--Murder of the Rev. Mr. Storre--Murder in Cornwall--Apparition of Three Skeletons--Visions in the Air--Attempt on the Life of the Duke of Buckingham--Fall of Meteors at Bawlkin Green, Berkshire--The _Swedish Intelligencer_--Passage of the River Leck by Gustavus Adolphus--The Sallee Rovers--The _Weekly News_ of 1638, an Illustrated Paper--The Irish Rebellion of 1641--The Plague in London--Murder on board an English Ship--The Earl of Strafford--His Execution on Tower Hill--Archbishop Laud--A Burlesque Play about him--Attack by the Mob on Lambeth Palace--Caricature of the Devil offering Laud a Cardinal's Hat.