On the seventeenth day of January, 1721, James Franklin began to issue a newspaper, called "THE NEW ENGLAND COURANT." It was the third one at the time in the whole country. The first paper--"THE BOSTON NEWSLETTER"--was established in 1704, two years before the birth of Benjamin. It was only a half-sheet of paper, about the size of an eight by twelve inch pane of glass, "in two pages folio, with two columns on each page." Consequently, it could not have contained more printed matter than is now compressed into half a page of one of the Boston dailies. Yet it was considered a very important undertaking for the times. When James Franklin proposed to start the third paper in America, some of his friends thought it was a wild project, and endeavoured to dissuade him from it. They saw nothing but ruin before him, and used every persuasion to lead him to abandon the enterprise. They thought that two newspapers, such as would now excite a smile by their inferior size, were quite enough for the country. Take this fact, in connection with the present abundance of papers, and the contrast presents a striking view of the progress of America since that day. At that time there was not a daily paper in the land. Now there are eight in the city of Boston alone, having an aggregate daily circulation of about _one hundred and twenty-five thousand_, which would amount to nearly FORTY MILLION sheets in a year,--more than enough to furnish every man, woman, and child in the country with one sheet each. All this from the daily press of Boston, where, one hundred and forty years ago, it was thought that a third weekly newspaper, scarcely large enough to wrap a baker's loaf in, could not be supported! Bind them into volumes, containing one hundred sheets each, and we have an enormous library of daily newspapers, numbering _four hundred thousand volumes_, the annual production of the Boston daily press in 1860! And this only the aggregate of eight different papers, while Boston alone now has _one hundred and forty_ papers and periodicals of all sorts, and the State of Massachusetts nearly _three hundred_! How marvellous the change since Franklin was a poor printer-boy! But look at these eight daily papers of Boston again. Suppose they measure a yard each in width, upon an average, when opened;--here we have one hundred and twenty-five thousand yards of newspapers emanating daily from only eight presses of Franklin's native city; which is equal to _seventy-one miles_ per day, and _four hundred and twenty-six_ miles per week, and _twenty-two thousand one hundred and fifty-two_ miles in a year! This is truly surprising. Almost paper enough from the eight daily presses of Boston alone, every year, to reach around the earth!