It must not be supposed that the capital had possessed a monopoly of newspapers during all this period. Scotland appeared in the field with a _Mercurius Politicus_, published at Leith in 1653. This, however, was nothing but a reprint of a London news sheet, and probably owed its existence to the presence of Cromwell's soldiers. In 1654 it removed to Edinburgh, and in 1660 changed its denomination to _Mercurius Publicus_. On the last day of this year, too, a journal of native growth budded forth, with the title of _Mercurius Caledonius_. But the canny Scots either could not or would not spare their bawbees for the encouragement of such ephemeral literature, for Chalmers tells us that only ten numbers of this publication appeared, and they were 'very loyal, very illiterate, and very affected.' Dublin appears to have produced a _Dublin News Letter_ in 1685, but little is known about it, and its very existence has been disputed. There were other sheets with Scotch and Irish titles, but they were all printed in London. With 1688 a new era dawned upon the press--the most promising it had yet seen--and newspapers gradually sprang up all over the kingdom.
The first that came out in the interests of the new Government were the _Orange Intelligencer_ and the _Orange Gazette_. The opponents of the ministry also started organs of their own, and the paper warfare went gayly on, but with more decency and courtesy than heretofore. William did not show himself disposed to hamper the press in any way, but Parliament, in 1694, proved its hostility by an ordinance 'that no news-letter writers do, in their letters or other papers that they disperse, presume to intermeddle with the debates or other proceedings of this House.' This was only a momentary ebullition of spleen. The licensing act, which expired in 1692, had been renewed for one year, but at the end of that period disappeared forever from English legislation. The House of Lords--obstructive as usual to all real progress--endeavored to revive it, but the Commons refused their consent, and a second attempt in 1697 met with a like defeat. This obstacle being happily got rid of, new journals of all kinds arose every day. One was called _The Ladies' Mercury_; a second, _The London Mercury_, _or_ _Mercure de Londres_, and was printed in parallel English and French columns. A third was entitled _Mercurios Reformatus_, and was, during a portion of its existence, edited by the famous Bishop Burnet. Some were half written and half printed. One of these, the _Flying Post_, in 1695, says in its prospectus: