Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 10.djvu/349

 ,' s.x. APRIL is, 1922.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 283 Secretary Thurlo's chamber, tho' then very late ; : where, with the greatest concern of mind, he told j him what a wrong step he had made, in his discourse with Richmond, and how much he feared the person he employed as his spy about the King (naming him at the same time) might run j the hazard of being discovered through so un- lucky a piece of inadvertence. When Cromwell first came in, he had both enquired and was told by Thurlo, there was nobody but them two in the room. But while Cromwell was walking up and down in the chamber, in the restlessness of mind this affair had put him in, he espies one of Thurlo's clerks sitting in a sleeping posture at a writing desk in a little closet off the end of the room ; who, indeed, Thurlo had forgot was there. Cromwell, fearing this young man might have heard what had passed betwixt him and Thurlo and thereby have come to know the name of his spy in Brussels, instantly pulls out a dagger (which he wore, for the most part, under his doublet) with a design to kill him dead on the spot, had not Thurlo, with great importunity, dissuaded him from it, by assuring him it was next to an impossibility that the young man could hear what he had spoke, by reason of the lowness of his voice and, withall, that having sat up late some four days before, all of them together, without rest, it was to be supposed he was then fast a3leep all the time of their discourse. Thus did that person escape and lives in England to this day, who confesses he heard all that passed betwixt Cromwell and Thurlo at that time, but used that artifice to deceive so jealous a master and save his own life. Sir Samuel Morland died in London in j 1695, so that it is fairly evident that Wei- 1 wood was very much better informed than | Eachard, who was a country clergyman I and did not publish the volume in question j of his history until 1718. J. G. M. 'GLOUCESTER JOURNAL,' 1722-1922. (See 12 S. x. 261.) SHORTLY before the death of Robert Raikes the elder, his son had assumed the manage- ment, as his name is appended to a notice (July 4, 1757) intimating a change in price from 2d. to 2%d., in consequence of an in- crease in the duties on papers and advertise- ments. The first exact knowledge we have of the earlier days of Robert Raikes the younger is the entry in the school register of the King's School (the Cathedral School), Gloucester, where he is described under the year 1750, old style (i.e., 1751) as Bobertus Raikes Annorum 14 J Feb : 16. Dom : Roberti Raikes de Civitate Glouc : ffilius. Dr. Glasse (Gentleman's Magazine, 1788, Iviii., Pt. 1., p. 12) says that The education which this excellent man re- ceived was liberal, and well adapted to his future designation. At a proper time of life he was initiated into the employment of his father, which was not limited to the business of a journalist, but extended itself to other branches of typo- graphy : and, though I will not compliment my hero by comparing his literary attainments with those of a Bowyer or a Franklin, yet I can venture to pronounce, that he entered on his line of busi- ness with acquirements superior to the nature of his employment ; which, however, has always been considered, when conducted by men of science and education, as very respectable ; and in which he is not less remarkable for his accuracy, than he is for his fidelity and integrity in every part of his conduct. In August, 1758, the offices had been re- moved to Southgate Street, where the paper was published until 1802. In 1762 (April 12) the publishing day was changed from Tuesday to Monday, which was continued for over sixty years. .By 1763 the type- measure had been increased to 15 by 10, and on April 4 the page was divided into four columns instead of three, a change announced by the editor in verse, which begins : It is agreed the question's o'er, From columns three, I'm changed to four. At this time the revenue derived from the advertisements and sale of " quack " medicines must have been considerable, and supplements were issued entitled CATALOGUE of MEDICINES SOLD, Wholesale and Retail, At the Printing-Office in Glocester, with authentic Certificates of the great Cures by them performed. This contains cures for many ills, among which are " The so-much-famed Hypo- Drops, For Lowness of Spirits." Other supplements were frequently printed giving dispatches from the London Gazette, and in 1773 there was a series entitled * The Miscellany' "given gratis occasionally" in which Raikes's enterprise is shown by reports of performances at Co vent Garden and Drury Lane theatres. Important debates in Parliament on such matters as the Thirty - nine Articles (two issues were devoted to this), extracts from political pamphlets, articles on " The means of procuring Plenty of Provisions " in which it is interesting to see that small holdings were advocated and other subjects of public moment were discussed. The editorship of Robert Raikos is dis- tinguished by his efforts to introduce better conditions in the life of those less fortunately placed. In 1761 he supported an appeal made for marriage portions for girls of good character, in 1768 he took up the cause of the prisoners in Gloucester