338 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
appeared in the time of Cromwell. It is as follows: “Monodia 
Gratiolari—a heroic poem, being a congratulatory panegyric for my 
Lord General’s late return, summing up his successes in an ex- 
quisite manner. To be sold by John Holden, in the New Exchange, 
London. Printed by Thomas Newcourt. 1652.” The return spoken 
of was, no doubt, from the Irish expedition. 
Newspapers did not at first contain any reference to proceedings 
in Parliament or public meetings, so it is not probable that they 
affected in any degree the great constitutional struggles of those 
days. Cromwell was very lenient in his treatment of the Press ; 
but Charles II. adopted repressive measures, establishing a censor- 
ship of the press, and placing it in the hands of Roger L’Estrange, 
who advocated the most extreme severity towards unlicensed publi- 
cations. Charles II. had been in a bad school in his exile. Louis 
XIV. was a sworn enemy of the journalistic Press. He never 
forgave the part taken by the newspapers in the civil war of the 
‘ Fronde,” when the Parliamentary party of Paris, aided by certain 
great magnates, and backed by the popular Press, succeeded for the 
time in driving the Court from the capital. When he assumed the 
reins of Government he imposed the most rigorous restraints on all 
but the licensed papers. But whilst the French Press was gagged, 
the Dutch continued to pour into France their numberless little 
journals by all manner of means—in Rhenish wine bottles, in 
boots, in coat linings, and even in the muzzle of cannons returning 
from the wars. Louis, although bitterly hostile to political 
journals, was indulgent to those which dealt exclusively with 
literary matters; and for a period the Journal des Savants 
flourished, until a sharp criticism on the action of the Inquisitors 
with reference to the works of two Frenchmen of liberal views 
brought down on the head of M. Sallo, the editor, the wrath of 
the Papal Nuncio, who, however, with great difficulty, induced 
Louis to dismiss Sallo from the editorship of the paper. The 
accession of William of Orange to the throne of England was the 
signal for greater liberality to the Press, which accordingly had the 
effect of largely increasing the number of the newspapers. 
Anne’s reign is noticeable, on the one hand, for the talent 
which began to be attracted to the service of the journals, as 
illustrated by the names of Swift, Bolingbroke, and De Foe; and, 
on the other hand, for the inauguration of those oppressive fiscal 
measures which were aimed by the authorities at the existence of 

