It does not say much for the energy with which the journals of that day were conducted, that the purchasers are invited to write therein "the material news of the day;" that, we should have thought, was the editor's business to have supplied; but it was perhaps a contrivance by which the Jacobites might circulate information, by means of the post, without compromising the printer. We have seen many such papers, half print, half manuscript, in the British Museum, which had passed through the post, the manuscript portion of which, the Home Secretaries of our time would have thought sufficiently treasonable to justify them in having broken their seals. As advertisements, from their earliest introduction, were used to make known the amusements of the day and the means of killing time at the disposal of persons of quality, it seems strange that it was not employed sooner than it was to draw a company to the theatres. We have looked in vain for the announcement of any theatrical entertainment before the year 1701, when the advertisement of the Lincoln's Inn Theatre makes its appearance in the columns of the _English Post_. The lead of this little house was, however, speedily followed by the larger ones, and only a few years later we have regular lists of the performances at all the theatres in the daily papers. The first journal of this description was the _Daily Courant_, published in 1709. In this year also appeared the celebrated "Tatler," to be speedily followed by the "Spectator" and "Guardian," the social and literary journals of that Augustine age. The first edition of the "Tatler," in the British Museum, contains advertisements like an ordinary paper, and they evidently reflect, more than those of its contemporaries, the flying fashions of the day and the follies of the "quality." In them we notice the rage that existed for lotteries, or "sales," as they were called. Every conceivable thing was put up to raffle. We see advertisements headed "A Sixpenny Sale of Lace," "A Hundred Pounds for Half-a-crown," "A Penny Adventure for a Great Pie," "A Quarter's Rent," "A Freehold Estate," "Threepenny Sales of Houses," "A fashionable Coach." Gloves, looking-glasses, chocolate, Hungary water, Indian goods, lacquered ware, fans, &c., were notified to be disposed of in this manner, and the fair mob was called together to draw their tickets by the same means. This fever, which produced ten years later the celebrated South Sea Bubble, was of slow growth. It had its root in the Restoration, its flower in the reign of Anne, and its fruit and _dénouement_ in the reign of George I. Before passing on from the pages of the "Tatler," we must stop for a moment to notice one or two of those playful advertisements which Sir Richard Steele delighted in, and which, under the disguise of fun, perhaps really afforded him excellent matter for his journal. Here is an irresistible invitation to his fair readers:--