_Directions from the Lords and Commons directed to the Commanders for the ordering of the Army._ One _quaint_ title presents a very odd association: _Newes from Hell and Rome and the Innes of Court_. The contending parties appear to have suited their titles to the substance of the _Newes_ they chronicled accordingly as it affected their interests. Thus, while many pamphlets bore the titles of _Glorious_, _Joyful_, _Victorious_, etc., others were dubbed _Horrible Newes_, _Terrible News_, and so forth. By far the greater number of these were issued by the partisans of the Parliament; but the Royalists were by no means idle, and the king carried about a travelling printing press, as is evidenced by several proclamations, manifestoes, etc., issued at Oxford, Worcester, York, and other places, sometimes in ordinary type, sometimes in black letter, by 'Robert Barker, his Majestie's Printer.' All the emanations of the press were not, however, mere isolated pamphlets, but there was a large crop of periodicals, such as _The Kingdom's Weekly Intelligencer_--_The Royal Diurnall_, etc. About this time the name _Mercurius_ began to be very freely adopted for these periodicals. It had been already, for a long time, assumed as a _nom de plume_ by writers and printers, but the title was now assigned to the publications themselves. One of the earliest of these was _Mercurius Aulicus_, a scurrilous print in the interest of the court party--as its name imports--which first appeared in 1642. Others were entitled respectively _Mercurius Britannicus_--_Mercurius Anti-Britannicus_--_Mercurius Fumigosus, a Smoaking Nocturnal_--_Mercurius Pragmaticus_--_Mercurius Anti-Pragmaticus_--_Mercurius Mercuriorum Stultissimus_--_Mercurius Insanus Insanissimus_--_Mercurius Diabolicus_--_Mercurius Mastix, faithfully lashing all Scouts, Mercuries, Posts, Spyes, and others_--_Mercurius Radamanthus, the Chief Judge of Hell, his Circuits through all the Courts of Law in England_, etc., etc. Other newspapers bore such quaint titles as the following: _The Dutch Spye_--_The Scots Dove_--_The Parliament Kite_--_The Secret Owle_--_The Parliament Screech Owle_, and other ornithological monstrosities. Party spirit ran high, and the contending scribes carried on a most foul and savage warfare, and demolished their adversaries, both political and literary, without the slightest compunction or mercy. Some of these brochures were solely directed against the utterances of one particular rival scribe, as is shown by one or two of the titles above quoted. Doctor Johnson says: 'When any title grew popular, it was stolen by the antagonist, who by this stratagem conveyed his notions to those who would not have received him had he not worn the appearance of a friend.'