Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 33.djvu/127

Rh and People under the Masque of Religion,’ dedicated to the House of Commons, 1661 (two editions, 4th edit. 1682); this was a reply to the ‘Interest of England in the Matter of Religion,’ by John Corbet (1620–1680) [q. v.] Another presbyterian minister, Edward Bagshaw the younger [q. v.], in his ‘Animadversions upon [Dr. Morley] the Bishop of Worcester's Letter,’ 1661, turned aside to castigate L'Estrange, and retailed rumours of his treacherous conduct under the Commonwealth. L'Estrange appealed to Clarendon to summon Bagshaw before the council to prove the allegations, and published many tracts, full of autobiographic reminiscences, to confute them. ‘To the Right Honourable Edward, Earl of Clarendon, the Humble Apology of Roger L'Estrange,’ dated 3 Dec. 1661, appeared early in the following year. ‘A Memento directed to all those that truly reverence the Memory of King Charles the Martyr, and as passionately wish the Honour, Safety, and Happiness of his Royal Successor,’ was dedicated to Clarendon on 11 April 1662; a new edition appeared, with the last three chapters omitted, in 1682 as ‘A Memento treating of the Rise, Progress, and Remedies of Seditions, with some Historical Reflections upon our late Troubles.’ On 7 June 1662 appeared his ‘Truth and Loyalty Vindicated from the Reproaches and Clamours of Mr. Edward Bagshaw,’ dedicated to the privy council. ‘A Whip for the Schismaticall Animadverter’ (i.e. Bagshaw), London, 1662, 4to, brought this skirmish to a close.

In 1663 L'Estrange's fortunes improved. In his ‘Modest Plea’ and elsewhere he had ascribed the prevalence of dangerous opinions to the license of the press, and on 24 Feb. 1662 he had obtained, if the document be correctly dated, a warrant to seize all seditious books and libels, and to apprehend the authors, and to bring them before the council (ib. 1661–2, p. 282). On 3 June 1663 he discussed exhaustively the position of the press in his ‘Considerations and Proposals in order to the Regulation of the Press, together with diverse instances of Treasonous and Seditious Pamphlets proving the necessity thereof.’ This extravagant denunciation of the liberty of the press was dedicated to Charles II, and recommended a stringent enforcement and extension of the licensing act of May 1662. Master-printers, L'Estrange argued, should be reduced in number from sixty to twenty, and all workshops should be subjected to the strictest supervision. Severe penalties should be uniformly exacted, and working printers guilty of taking part in the publication of offensive works should on conviction wear some ignominious badge. L'Estrange warmly condemned the weakness of the licensers of the press in permitting the issue of the farewell sermons by the ejected ministers of 1662. On 15 Aug. 1663 he was rewarded for his vehemence by his appointment to the office of ‘surveyor of the imprimery,’ or printing presses, in succession to Sir John Birkenhead (ib. 1663–4, p. 240). All printing offices in England, and vendors of books and papers, were under his control, and he was authorised to enter and search their houses. He was also one of the licensers of the press, and had the sole privilege of writing, printing, and publishing anything of the character of a newspaper or public advertisement. His predecessor had issued since 1660 a weekly sheet called ‘The Kingdom's Intelligencer,’ but L'Estrange discontinued the periodical and started on Monday, 31 Aug. 1663, ‘The Intelligencer, published for the satisfaction and information of the people.’ A copy of the first number is in the Public Record Office (ib. p. 260). It is a single quarto sheet, and its price appears to have been a halfpenny (cf., Lit. Anecdotes, iv. 54–5). The first issue was chiefly occupied by a prospectus, in which L'Estrange wrote: ‘Supposing the press in order, the people in their right wits, and news or no news to be the question, a public mercury should never have my vote, because I think it makes the multitude too familiar with the actions and counsels of their superiors, too pragmatical and censorious, and gives them not only a wish but a kind of colourable right and license to the meddling with the government.’ He only justified his own experiment by the reflection that the people at the time were disturbed in their opinions, and required prudent guidance. Pepys bought a copy on the day of issue, and thought that L'Estrange made ‘but a simple beginning’ (Diary, ii. 36). On the Thursday following L'Estrange published a similar sheet entitled ‘The News,’ and he continued to publish the ‘Intelligencer’ on Mondays and the ‘News’ on Thursdays till the beginning of 1666. Pepys relates how L'Estrange sought his acquaintance on the exchange on 17 Nov. 1664 in order (Pepys wrote) ‘to get now and then some news of me which I shall, as I see cause, give him’ (ib. ii. 192). In the course of the following year the authorities complained of some ‘miscarriage’ of L'Estrange's ‘public intelligence.’ He wrote to Arlington, the lord chamberlain (17 Oct. 1665), that he was receiving only 400l. a year from his newspaper, and was spending 500l. in ‘entertaining spies for information,’ and would be ruined if forced to relinquish the undertaking (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1665–6, pp. 17, 20, 22).