The Rhode Island Republican

Origin of Newspapers in France.—Theophilus Renaudot, a physician of Paris, picked up news from all quarters, to amuse his patients; he presently became more in request than any of his brethren; but as a whole city is not ill, or at least don't imagine itself to be so, he began to reflect at the end of some years, that he might gain a more considerable income by giving a paper every week containing the news of different countries. A permission was necessary; he obtained it, with an exclusive privilege in the year 1632. Such papers had been in use for a considerable time at Venice, and were called Gazettes, because a small coin called Gazetta, was paid for reading them. This is the origin of Gazettes, and its name. About ten years afterwards, they were common in England, by the name of Mercuries.