A NEWCASTLE PAPER IN 1765-6.
There is scarcely anything more entertaining and instructive than a
leisurely look over an old newspaper file. A newspaper of any age is
an attraction, and the current newspaper something more, for it is now
a necessity. But the next place to it in point of interest is perhaps
due to the journal half a century, or two-thirds of a century old. It
introduces us, if we be youthful, to the habits of our grandsires; and
if we be in 'the sere, the yellow leaf,' to the habits of our fathers,
more fully than the pleasantest novel or most elaborate essay, and far
more intimately than the most correct and complete historical records.
It enables us to observe freely the position and avocations of the
denizens of the past, and catch hasty, but most suggestive glances at
bygone days; it 'shews the very age and body of the time, its form and
pressure.' It is a milestone from which we may reckon our progress,
and must delight as well as surprise us by the advancement it shews us
to have made in social and political life, particularly with regard to
those 'triumphs of mind over matter,' for which recent times have been
pre-eminently distinguished.
The writer of this article had lately an opportunity of inspecting a
file of the _Newcastle Chronicle_ for 1765-6, and the contrast between
journals and things in general which that examination forced on the
attention, was in some respects sufficiently striking or curious to
be, in his opinion, deserving of some permanent record.
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