Dr. Johnson also quotes a second series of _Acta Diurna_, with
the date of 691 A. U. C., from the 'Camdenian Lectures' of
Dodwell in 1688 to 1691. Dodwell says that he obtained them from his
friend Hadrian Beoerland, who got them from Isaac Vossius, by whom they
were copied from certain MSS. in the possession of Petavius. Among other
things contained in this second set, we find noted certain trials, with
the number of the votes for and against the defendant, a bargain for the
repairs of a certain temple, an announcement by one of the praetors that
he shall intermit his sittings for five days, in consequence of the
marriage of his daughter, and an account of the pleading of Cicero in
favor of Cornelius Sulla, and of his gaining his cause by a majority of
five judges.
Such are the earliest traces of newspapers to be found, and long
centuries elapse before we again catch a glimpse of anything of the
kind. Although it is the great Anglo-Saxon race alone which can boast of
having developed the usefulness and liberty of the press to its fullest
capabilities, both in England and America, yet it is not to us that the
credit belongs of having been the first to reintroduce newspapers in
Europe. Whether or no the Romans introduced their _Acta Diurna_ into
Britain, and whether or no any imitations of them sprang up then or in
after times, it is impossible to say. Some writers have asserted that
news sheets were in circulation in England at all events so early as the
middle of the fifteenth century, but as their assertions rest upon no
very trustworthy basis, they must be at once thrown aside.
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