bt 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_

'Will make you laugh, 'twill make you cry;
'Twill make you mad, 'twill make you try.'

Another is _Newes, true Newes, laudable Newes, Citie Newes, Countrie
Newes, the World is Mad or it is a Mad World, my Masters, especially in
the Antipodes, these Things are come to passe_. This is a satirical
description of manners and customs on 'the other side of the world,' the
writer asserting that in those regions everything is the exact opposite
of what takes place among us, so that there beggars ride in carriages
and are highly esteemed, men of title are of no account, lawyers take no
fees, and bailiffs decline to arrest debtors, etc., etc. There is also a
very quaint woodcut of the world and the heavens, the four winds, etc.,
with an astrologer and other persons looking at them. Very many of these
pamphlets are actual relations of occurrences in different parts of the
kingdom and in foreign countries. Thus we find, _Victorious Newes from
Waterford_; _The joyfullest Newes fr