Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/309

Rh for which, however, the government allowed Mr. L’Eſtrange a conſideration. Mr. Wood informs us, that our author publiſhed his paper twice every week in 4to. under the tide of The Public Intelligence and News; the firſt of which came out Auguſt the 31ſt, 1663, and the other September the 3d, the ſame year. ‘Theſe continued till the 9th of January 1665, at which time Mr. L’Eſtrange deſiſted, becauſe in the November before, there were other News-Papers publiſhed twice every week, in half a ſheet in folio. Theſe were called The Oxford Gazettes, and commenced the 7th of November, 1665, the king and queen, with their courts being then at Oxford. Theſe for a little while were written by one Henry Muddeman; but when the court removed to London, they were called the London Gazette. Soon after Mr. Joſeph Williamſon, under ſecretary of State, procured the writing of them for himſelf; and thereupon employed Charles Perrot, M. A. and fellow of Oriel College in Oxford, who had a good command of his pen, to do that office under him, and ſo he did, though not conſtantly, till about 1671; after which time they were conſtantly written by under ſecretaries, belonging to thoſe that are principal, and do continue ſo to this day.’

Soon after the popiſh plot, when the Tones began to gain the aſcendant over the Whigs, Mr. L’Eſtrange became a zealous promoter of the Tory intereſt. He ſet up a paper called the Obſervator, in which he defended the court, and endeavoured to invalidate thoſe evidences which were given by Oates’s party againſt the Jeſuits. He likewiſe wrote a pamphlet, in which he attempts to prove, that Sir Edmundbury Godfrey’s murther, for which ſo many ſuffered, and ſo great a flame was raiſed in the nation, was really perpetrated by himself. He attempts to ſhew that Sir Edmundbury was a melancholy