The predominance, however, of the advanced politicians was most noticeable in the press. The French Revolution is the age which marks the accession of the Press to power, as a principal force in the government of States. Up to within a few years of the Revolution, French readers had been satisfied with such information as they could gather from the ancient _Gazette de France_, which dated from the days of Richelieu, or from the highly-respected _Mercure_, the chief journal of the days of Louis XIV. The first daily paper published in France, the _Journal de Paris_, dated from 1777, and was only an unpretending sheet filled with odds and ends of literature and news. But from 1780 onwards a new period of activity began. Enterprising publishers like Panckoucke and Prudhomme found their opportunities suddenly increase. Brilliant writers like Linguet, Brissot, and Mallet du Pan, publishing their opinions, under many difficulties, in London, Brussels, Geneva and Paris, began to make their mark in ephemeral literature. As the Revolution approached, a flood of pamphlets and broadsheets appeared. Volney in Brittany roused the democratic enthusiasm of his province with the bold doctrines of the _Sentinelle du Peuple_. Panckoucke, already the owner of both the _Mercure_ and the _Gazette de France_, planned the publication of the _Moniteur_. Prudhomme, with a stronger belief in democratic principles, brought out, two days before the capture of the Bastille, the first number of the _Révolutions de Paris_.