constrained to particularise, since its
infallibility was mainly dependent on the needlewoman's skill. It was
a waistcoat which rendered its owner invulnerable: we believe that if
duly prepared it would be found proof not only against "silver
bullets," but also against even the "charmed bullet" of German
notoriety. Thus runs the charm:--

"On Christmas daie at night, a thread must be sponne of flax, by a
little virgine girle, in the name of the divell; and it must be by hir
woven, and also _wrought with the needle_. In the brest or forepart
thereof must be made _with needleworke_ two heads; on the head at the
right side must be a hat and a long beard, and the left head must have
on a crowne, and it must be so horrible that it maie resemble
Belzebub; and on each side of the wastcote must be _wrought_ a
crosse."

The newspaper, that now mighty political engine, that "thewe and
sinew" of the fourth estate of the realm, took its rise in Elizabeth's
day. How would her legislators have been overwhelmed with amazement
could they have beheld, in dim perspective, this child of the press,
scarcely less now the offspring of the imagination than those chimeras
of their own time to which we have been alluding; and would not the
wrinkled brow of the modern politician be unconsciously smoothened,
would not the careworn and profound diplomatist "gather up his face
into a smile before he was aware," if the FIRST NEWSPAPER were
suddenly placed before him? It is not indeed in existence, but was
published under the title of "_The English Mercurie_," in April, 1588,
on the first appearance near the shores of England of the Spanish
Armada, a crisis which caused this innovation on the usual public
news-letter circulated in manuscript. No. 50, dated July 23, 1588, is
the first now in existence; and as the publication only began in
April, it shows they must have been issued frequently. We have seen
this No. 50, which is preserved in the British Museum.[122]

In it are no advertisements--no fashions--no law reports--no court
circular--no fashionable arrivals--no fashionable intelligence--no
murders--no robberies--no reviews--no crim. cons.--no elopements--no
price of stocks--no mercantile intelligence--no police reports--no
"leaders,"--no literary memoranda--no poets' corner--no spring
meetings--no radical demonstrations--no conservative dinners--but

"The

"English Mercurie,

"Published by AUTHORITIE,

"For the Prevent