In the reign of Queen Anne, there were, in 1709, eighteen newspapers published; of which, however, only one was a daily paper, The London Courant.

In the reign of George I. in 1724, there were published three daily, six weekly, and ten evening papers three times a week.

In the late reign there were published of newspapers in London, and in all England, in 1753

1760

And in the present reign, in 1790

1791

1792

7,411,757

9,464,790

14,035,659

14,794,153

*15,005,760

Though Venice produced the first Gazette in 1536, it was circulated in manuscript long after the invention of printing, to the close of the 16th century, as appears from a collection of these Gazettes in the Magliabechian library at Florence, according to Mr. Chalmers, in his curious and entertaining Life of Ruddiman, p. 114.

Mr. Chalmers observes, that it may gratify our national pride to be told that we owe to the wisdom of Elizabeth, and the prudence of Burleigh, the circulation of the first genuine newspaper, "The English Mercurie," printed during the time of the Spanish armada. The first number preserved still in the British Museum, is marked 50; it is dated the 23d of July, 1588, and contains the following curious article:

"Yesterday the Scotch Ambassador had a private audience of her Majesty, and delivered a letter from the King

[* In the year 1808 there were published:

In London Daily Morning papers

Daily Evening papers

Three times a week

On Sundays

17

19

-

61

99

35

19

213

Editer]

his master, containing the most cordial assurances of adhering to her Majesty's interests, and to those of the Protestant Religion: and the young King said to her Majesty's Minister at his court, that all the favour he expected from the Spaniards was, the courtesy of Polyphemus to Ulysses, that he should be devoured the last."

These Publications were however then, and long after, published in the shape of small pamphlets; and so they were called in a tract of one Burton, in 1614: "If any one read now-a-days, it is a play-book or a phamphlet of newes," for so the word was originally spelled.

From 1588 to 1622, and during the pacific reign of Janies. the First, few of these publications appeared; but the thirty years' war, and the victories of the great King Gustavus Adolphus, having excited the curiosity of our countrymen, a weekly paper called "The Newes of the present Week, was printed by Nathaniel Butter, in 1622, which was continued afterwards in 1626, under another title, by Mercurius Britannicus; and they were succeeded by the German Intelligencer in 1630, and the Swedish Intelligencer in 1631, which last was compiled by William Watts, of Caius college, who was a learned man, and who thus gratified the public curiosity with the exploits of the Swedish hero, in a quarto pamphlet.

The great rebellion in 1641, was productive of abundance of those periodical tracts above-mentioned, as well as of all those that have been published since the first newspaper that appeared in the present form, the public Intelligencer, published by Sir Roger L' Estrange, Aug. 31, 1661.

Mr. Chalmers subjoins to these curious researches, the account of the first paper printed in Scotland, in February, 1699, the Edinburgh Gazette, which was accompanied afterwards, in 1705, by the Edinburgh Courant; and, at the period of the Union, Scotland had only three newspapers.

The publication of the Caledonian Mercury, by Ruddiman, April 28, 1720, led this curious and entertaining biographer to this minute and laborious investigation; from which it appears, that England had in 1792, thirty-three town, and seventy country papers; Scotland, fourteen newspapers, published at Edinburgh and in the country. 1794, Jan.

XCIII. Curious Chirurgical Operation.

MR. URBAN,

A FRIEND has transmitted to me from the East Indies, the following very curious, and, in Europe, I believe, unknown chirurgical operation, which has long been practised in India with success; namely, affixing a new nose on a man's face.

Cowasjee, a Mahratta of the cast of husbandmen, was a bullock-driver with the English army, in the war of 1792, and was made a prisoner by Tippoo, who cut off his nose, and one of his hands. In this state he joined the Bombay army near Seringapatam, and is now a pensioner of the Honourable East India Company. For above twelve months he remained without a nose, when he had a new one put on by a man of the brickmaker cast, near Poonah. This operation is not uncommon in India, and has been practised from time immemorial. Two of the medical gentlemen, Mr. Thomas Cruso, and Mr. James Trindlay, of the Bombay Presidency, have seen it performed, as follows: A thin plate of wax is fitted to the stump of the nose, so as to make a nose of a good appearance. It is then flattened, and laid on the forehead. A line is drawn round the wax, and the operator then dissects off as much skin as it covered, leaving undivided a small slip between the eyes. This slip preserves the circulation till an union has taken place between the new and old parts. The cicatrix of the stump of the nose is next pared off, and immediately behind this raw part an incision is made through the skin, which passes around both ale, and goes along the upper lip. The skin, is now brought down from the forehead, and, being twisted half round, its edge is inserted into this incision, so that a nose is formed with a double hold above, and with its ala and septum below fixed in the incision. A little Terra Japonica is softened with water, and being spread on slips of cloth, five or six of these are placed over each other, to secure the joining. No other dressing but this cement is used for four days. It is then removed, and cloths dipped in ghee (a kind of butter) are applied. The connecting slips of skin are divided about the 25th day, when a little more dissection is necessary to improve the appearance of the new nose. For five or six days after the operation, the patient is made to lie on his back; and, on the tenth day,

bits of soft cloth are put into the nostrils, to keep them sufficiently open. This operation is very generally successful. The artificial nose is secure, and looks nearly as well as the natural one; nor is the scar on the forehead very observable after a length of time.

Yours, &c.

1794, Oct.

B. L..

XCIV. The word PREMISES improperly applied.

MR. URBAN,

I HAVE noted in different publications, and frequently in your Magazine, that the word premises is used to signify house and land with their appendages. Dr. Harwood, amongst others, speaking of Hackney college, in your Magazine for May 1793, says, "a gentleman offered 8000l. for the premises," meaning the building with the ground, &c. Bailey, Sheridan, Entick, and others, in their dic tionaries, give it this signification; and in every day's news-papers are advertisements of premises to be sold, and of sales upon the premises. This perversion of the word, I am apt to think, originated with the lawyers, and in this way-every grant or conveyance of lands necessarily consists of two parts, the premises and the habendum. In the premises the parties are described, the instruments necessary to shew the granter's title are recited, the consideration upon which the deed is made is set forth; and, lastly, the property granted is specified, all by way of preface or Introduction to the second part, or habendum, which shews the estate or interest the granter is to have in the things granted; here then clearly appears the true legal import of the word, and, in this use of it, it retains its original and proper meaning; but in the covenants which follow the habendum, where it becomes necessary again to make mention of the property granted, if it happens to consist of various particulars, the lawyers, for brevity (to which by the by they are not much attached,) have accustomed themselves to write "the aforesaid premises," or "the premises before mentioned," and, from the frequency of these phrases, the word premises is universally taken as a collective noun signifying manors, messuages, lands, tenements, woods, and so on, the absurdity of which I think may be clearly pointed. out by putting it for horses, cows, sheep, swine, household goods,

bank stock, exchequer bills, or any thing, in short, which may be the object of the deed, and which it has just as good a right to stand for as manors, messuages, &c. We may indeed with some degree of propriety, to avoid a repetition in the latter part of a deed of the several kinds of property passing by it, write," the before granted premises," or "the before assigned premises," according to the nature of the instru ment; because, by reference to the first part of it, it will appear, that what was thereby granted or assigned was property there specified, and which was intended to be then again spoken of, as all descriptions of persons, even up to the sages on the bench, use this word improperly.

1795, Jan.

Yours, &c.

W. W.

XCV. Observations of a Youth who had just recovered his Sight.

MR. URBAN,

Threekingham, Aug. 6.

THE following is a copy of a paper I lately found amongst many others on a file in my possession; it is signed John Romley, Master of the free-school of Haxey, in the isle of Axholme, Lincolnshire.

An account of some Observations made by a young Gentleman who was born blind, or lost his sight so early that he had no remembrance of ever having seen, and was couched between thirteen and fourteen years of age.

Though we say of this gentleman that he was blind, as we do of all people who have ripe cataracts, yet they are never so blind from that cause but that they can discern day from night, and, for the most part, in a strong light, distinguish black, white, and scarlet; but they cannot perceive the shape of any thing; for, the light by which these perceptions are made being let in obliquely through the aqueous humour, or the anterior surface of the crystaline (by which the rays cannot be brought into a focus upon the retina,) they can discern in no other manner than a sound eye can through a glass of broken jelly, where a great variety of surfaces so differently refract the light, that the several distinct pencils of rays cannot be collected by the eye into their proper foci; wherefore, the shape of an object in such a case cannot at all be discerned, though the