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4 the attention of the Government of the day, and two years after the restoration of Charles II., namely in 1662, a Licensing Act was passed which for many years silenced the Press of England as effectually as the Russian Press, is silenced in the present day when it falls under the displeasure of the censorship. Not only was the Press ruthlessly crushed, but the Government and the censor between them took full advantage of their power to become practically the only newspaper proprietors in the kingdom. The censor was Sir Roger l'Estrange, who had been himself previously connected with the Press, and what could be more natural than that, having put down the newspapers, he should start, some two or three years after the Act was enforced, his own Public Intelligencer. But the censor met with competition from an unexpected quarter. In 1665 the Court was temporarily removed to Oxford on account of the Plague of London, and here the Government started its own gazette, which was afterwards reprinted in London. This newspaper has enjoyed an uninterrupted existence since the year named, as the London Gazette. Macaulay, describing the Government organ, tells us that, "whatever was communicated to it was in the most meagre and formal style," but we may suppose that the high sanction of its contents gave it an importance to which even Sir Roger's publication, that