In 1668 Mr (afterwards Sir) Roger L’Estrange commenced the _Mercury, or Advertisements concerning Trade_, which does not seem to have answered, for it soon became extinct. Some years after, the now well-known scheme of issuing sheets of advertisements gratuitously, trusting for profit to the number of advertisers, was for the first time attempted. The paper started on this principle was called the _City Mercury_, and appears to have had a hard struggle for existence, since the publishers thought it necessary to insert in No. 52 (March 30, 1673) a notice of this tenor:-- Notwithstanding this paper has been published so long, there are many persons ignorant of the design and advantage of it. And it every week comes to the hand of some, both in City and Country, that never see it before: For which reason the Publisher thinks himself obliged (that all may have benefit by it), to inform them that:-- 1. He gives away every _Monday_ above a thousand of them to all the _Booksellers_, _shops_ and _inns_, and most of the principal _coffee-houses_ in _London_ and _Westminster_. Besides they are now sent to most of the cities and principal towns in England. 2. Any person that has anything to insert in it, as the _titles_ of _books_, _houses_ or _land_ to be _lett_ or _sold_, _persons removing from one place to another_, things _lost_ or _stole_, _physitians’ advertisements_, or _inquiries_ for _houses_ or _lands_ to be _lett_ or _sold_, for _places_ or for _servants_, &c., may bring or send them to the Publisher, _Tho. Howkins_, in _George Yard_, in Lombard Street, London, who will carefully insert them at reasonable rates. 3. That this way of publishing is much more advantageous than giving away _Bills_ in the street, is certain, for where there is one of them read, there’s twenty is not; and a thousand of these cannot be supposed to be read by less than twenty times the number of persons; and done for at least the twentieth part of the charge, and with much less trouble and greater success; as has been experienced by many persons that have things inserted in it. This paper lived but a short time; though the fact that the proprietor undertook to furnish above a thousand copies per week to booksellers, shops, inns, and coffee-houses in London, and that it was sent to “most of the cities and principal towns in England,” clearly indicates that the trade began to be aware of the advantages to be derived from publicity. Soon afterwards a paper of the same denomination, but published by another speculator, was commenced. Its appearance and purposes were told to the public in the autumn of 1675 by circulars or handbills, one of which has fortunately been stored up in the British Museum. As this curious document gives a comprehensive outline of the system of newspaper advertising, as it appeared to the most advanced thinkers in the reign of Charles II., we reprint it here _in extenso_:-- ADVERTISEMENT.