Mercurius Politicus. .... [Number. 221]… From Thursday, August 31. to Thursday September 7. 1654.

[Captain Mark HARRISON, of the ‘Church’, at BOSTON] – [Marchamont NEDHAM, editor]

Mercurius Politicus. Comprising the sum of all Intelligence, with the Affairs and Designs now on fott in the three Nations of England, Ireland, and Scotland. In defence of the Commonwealth, and for Information of the People. [Number. 221]… From Thursday, August 31. to Thursday September 7. 1654. London: Printed by Tho. Newcomb, [1654 ].Small quarto (7 ½ x 5 7/8in; 191 x 149mm). Drop-head title, large initial letter surround. 16 pages (numbered 3733-3748). Stitched, uncut. Condition: see images, excellent.

Very rare ‘magazine’, with news from ‘near Boston’. This example published just after the end of the first Anglo-Dutch War of 1652-1654.

This issue includes a report ‘From aboard the Church-Prize, riding at Nut-Asket [sic. i.e. Nantasket], near Boston in New-England, July 1’ unattributed but from Mark Harrison, the Captain of the ‘Church’ a prize vessel captured from the Dutch and originally named the ‘Kerck’. This report is an edited version of the report that Harrison sent to the Navy Commissioners. Harrison’s primary mission was rendered obsolete whilst he was en route for the Americas when the English and Dutch signed the Treaty of Westminster, and the hostilities ceased. Harrison notes here that “We arrived at Boston, May 12, 1654 where we expected to have found persons alive for the managing [of] the design we were put upon, namely to take the Dutch Plantation; but the contrary we found in the Colony of Masachusts [sic.], who supposed they had not a clear call to such work, but the South Colonies were very forward [One and All] to carry on the design.” He records success in raising a force to attack the Dutch, but after receiving the news from England, the ‘Design was let fall’. Later records show that he subsequently turned his attention to the French settlements.

Also included is a 2pp. ‘true List  of the Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses, who have hitherto been approved of by the Councill, to sit in Parliament.’ – a partial list of what became the First Protectorate Parliament, sitting from the 3rd September 1654 until it was dissolved by Cromwell on 22nd January 1655. The list is followed by a 4 ½ page summary of  Cromwell’s speech at the opening of Parliament : “The Particulars of hus Highnesse’s Speech to the Parliament, in the Painted Chamber, at Westminster”

Other reports came from: ‘Edenburgh’; ‘Hamburgh’; ‘Brussels’; ‘Stockholm’; ‘Vienna’; ‘DantZick’ [sic.]; ‘Edenburgh’; ‘Paris’; ‘Amsterdam’ [etc.]

‘Mercurius Politicus was a magazine that was published weekly from June 1650 until the English Restoration in May 1660. Under the editorship of Marchamont Nedham, it supported the republican governments. From 1655 until 1659 it had a monopoly on news publication. Mercurius Politicus was Marchmont Nedham's most significant enterprise, which he used as a platform for the Commonwealth regime. (Nedham received a government payment of £50 in May 1650, probably to start this venture.) This third Nedham weekly began in June 1650, on a light note: "Why should not the Commonwealth have a Fool as well as the King had?" — but soon settled into a more serious vein as a voice of the republican movement of the day. He rested the case for the Commonwealth on arguments similar to those of Hobbes: that "the Sword is, and ever hath been, the Foundation of all Titles to Government", and that it was hardly likely that the Commonwealth's adversaries would ever succeed in their designs. Politicus continued for the next decade, the term of the Commonwealth era, under alternative titles like the Public Intelligence or Public Intelligencer. In 1655 the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell rewarded Nedham with an official post, so that Nedham was then perceived as a spokesman for the regime.’ (Wikipedia)