It has become the fashion to sneer at the Long Parliament: but for all this it cannot be denied that that assemblage rendered services of incalculable importance to the state. Extreme old age forms at all times an object of pity, and, with the thoughtless and inconsiderate, it is but too often an object of ridicule and contempt. Many a great man has, ere now, survived to reach this sad stage in his career; but it does not therefore follow that the glorious deeds of his prime are to be ignored or forgotten. As it has been with the distinguished warrior or statesman or author, so it is with the Long Parliament. England owes it a great debt of gratitude on many accounts, but the one with which we have more especially to do on the present occasion is, that with it originated the custom of making public proceedings in Parliament. By this act was the supremacy of the people over the Parliament acknowledged, for the very publication of its transactions was an appeal to the people for approval and support. This printed record of parliamentary affairs came out in 1641, and was entitled _The Diurnal Occurrences, or Daily Proceedings of both Houses in this great and happy Parliament, from the 3d of November, 1640, to the 3d of November, 1641._ The speeches delivered from the first date down to the following June were also published in two volumes, and in 1642 weekly instalments appeared under various titles, such as _The Heads of all the Proceedings of both Houses of Parliament--Account of Proceedings of both Houses of Parliament--A perfect Diurnal of the Passages in Parliament_, etc., etc. There was no reporter's gallery in those days, and the Parliament only printed _what they pleased_; still this was a step in the right direction. After Parliaments occasionally evinced bitter hostility toward the press, but that which boasted Sawyer Lenthal for its speaker was its friend (at all events, at first, though afterward, as we shall notice by and by, it displayed some animosity against its early _protegé_), and from this meagre beginning took its rise that which is beyond doubt one of the most important domestic functions of the press at the present day.
The abolition of the great bugbear and tyrant of printers--that infamous mockery of a legal tribunal, the Star Chamber--was another gigantic obstacle cleared away from the path of journalism. The _Newes Bookes_, which, in spite of all difficulties, had already become abundant, now issued forth in swarms. They treated _de rebus omnibus et quibusdam aliis_. Most of them were political or polemical pamphlets, and boasted extraordinary titles. There is a splendid collection of these in the British Museum, collected by the Rev. W. Thomason, and presented to the nation by King George III. We will mention a few of them. A controversial religious tract rejoices in the title of _A fresh bit of Mutton for those fleshy-minded Cannibals that cannot endure Pottage._ A political skit upon Prince Rupert is styled _An exact Description of Prince Rupert's malignant She-Monkey, a great Delinquent_, and has a comical woodcut upon the title page of the animal, in a cap and petticoat and with a sword by its side. This pamphlet is printed partly in ordinary modern type and partly in black letter. Another pamphlet in the form of dialogue is directed against the abuses of the laws, especially at one of the infamous 'comptoirs' of the time. It is called _Wonderfull Strange Newes from Wood Street Countor--yet not so Strange as True, being proved by lamentable Experience, the relation of which_