Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 33.djvu/130

Rh four numbers were announced if the venture met with public approval, but only three appeared.

In February 1681 L'Estrange returned to London to face the storm of abuse. ‘Portraicture of Roger L'Estrange, drawn to the Life as it was taken in the Queen's Chapel,’ London, 1681, fol., and ‘L'Estrange a Papist,’ London, 1681, fol., collected the depositions of Miles Prance, Lawrence Mowbray, and their allies. L'Estrange answered them in ‘L'Estrange no Papist,’ where he complained that the ‘whole kennel of libellers was now let loose upon him as if he were to be beaten to death by Pole-Cats.’ A more elaborate defence he entitled ‘L'Estrange his Appeal humbly submitted to the King's most Excellent Majesty, and the three Estates assembled in Parliament.’ About the same time Tonge confessed the falsity of his accusation, and L'Estrange issued ‘The Shammer Shamm'd, or A plain Discovery under young Tonge's own Hand, of a Design to trepan L'Estrange into a pretended Subornation against the Popish Plot,’ 1681. It was reported in June 1681 that the graduates of Cambridge University collected 200l. to present to L'Estrange as an acknowledgment of his services to the church of England (, i. 93). On Easter Sunday, 16 April 1682, L'Estrange and Prance both took, according to Luttrell (i. 178), the sacrament at the church of St. Giles-in-the-Fields, when Prance solemnly reaffirmed his charge that L'Estrange had attended mass, and L'Estrange with equal solemnity declared the accusation false. A similar story, told by Echard, on the authority of Sharpe, the rector of St. Giles's, represents L'Estrange, Prance, and Richard Baxter as approaching the communion table together. In July 1683 L'Estrange was again placed on the commission of the peace (, i. 265).

Meanwhile L'Estrange continued with unabated bitterness his attacks on the dissenters. ‘The Casuist Uncas'd, in a Dialogue betwixt Richard and Baxter, with a Moderator between them for quietness' sake’ (London, 1680, 4to, two editions) is a smart assault on Baxter's position. There followed ‘A Seasonable Memorial in some Historical Notes upon the Liberties of the Presse and Pulpit,’ 1680; ‘The Reformation Reformed; or a short History of New-fashioned Christians, occasioned by Franck Smith's Yesterday's Paper of Votes’ (2 Sept. 1681); ‘The Dissenters' Sayings in Requital for “L'Estrange's Sayings” [the title of a tract against L'Estrange], published in their own Words for the Information of the People’ (1681, three editions). In the last tract L'Estrange collected passages which he deemed seditious from the writings of well-known nonconformists; it was answered in ‘The Assenters Sayings by an Indifferent Hand’ (1681), and was translated into French as ‘Le Non Conformiste Anglois dans ses ecris, dans ses sentimens et dans sa pratique,’ London, 1683, 4to. In ‘A Word concerning Libels and Libellers, presented to Sir John Moore, Lord Mayor, and the Court of Aldermen’ (1681), he complained of the small number of prosecutions begun against his whig enemies in the press, and he repeated this complaint when sarcastically dedicating a second part of his ‘Dissenters' Sayings’ to the grand jury of London, 29 Aug. 1681. He also issued later in the year ‘An Apology for the Protestants, being a full Justification of their departure from the Church of Rome, with fair and Practicable Proposals for a Reunion, done out of the French.’ At the same time he defended James, duke of York, once more in ‘The Character of a Papist in Masquerade, supported by authority and experience in answer to the Character of a Popish successor.’ An answer elicited from L'Estrange ‘A Reply to the Second Part of the Character of a Popish successor,’ 1681. He likewise supported the government in ‘Notes upon Stephen College, grounded principally upon his own Declarations and Confessions’ (1681, two editions); and in ‘The Accompt Clear'd: an answer to a libel intituled A True Account from Chichester concerning the Death of Habin the Informer,’ London, 1682.

But L'Estrange sought a more effective vehicle for the expression of his views. He seems to have been concerned in a weekly sheet published from February 1681 to August 1682, entitled ‘Heraclitus Ridens, or a Discourse between Jest and Earnest, where many a true word is pleasantly spoken in opposition to Libellers against the Government.’ But he soon began the publication of a periodical all of his own workmanship. It was a folio double-columned sheet, and was called at first ‘The Observator, in Question and Answer.’ The first number appeared on Wednesday, 13 April 1681, and it was originally designed to appear twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. But after No. 30 (6 July 1681), when the title was changed to ‘The Observator in Dialogue,’ and the interlocutors were named Whig and Tory, three or four numbers usually appeared each week. No. 113, on 18 March 1681–2, bore as its sole heading ‘The Observator,’ together with a list in small type of the subjects treated in the sheet. The first series ended on Wednesday, 9 Jan. 1683–4, with No. 470. In the second series, begun on Thursday,