The intelligence of the secretaries of State & their monopoly of licensed news 1660 - 1688 / by Peter Fraser.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 165-172) and index.

First published in 1956. First pb. edition in 2011..

Preface; List of illustrations; Introduction; Part I. The Secretaries as the Eyes of the Government: 1. The use of spies; 2. The control of the Post Office; 3. Money spent on intelligence; 4. The newsletter system; Part II. The Secretaries as the Voice of the Government: 5. The official printed news, 1660-88; 6. The earliest Continental gazettes and English newsbooks; 7. Prevailing attitude to printed news at the Restoration; 8. Henry Muddiman introduces the official newsletter; 9. Its raison d'etre; 10. Continental newsletters; 11. Their connexion with the gazettes, illustrated by the example of Abraham Casteleyn; 12. Muddiman's relations with Williamson, the Under-Secretary -- The latter brings out the London Gazette; 13. Both Secretaries share responsibility for the London Gazette; 14. The kind of news in the Gazette and the official newsletters; Part III. Foreign Correspondents: 15. The business of the Secretary's office; 16. Foreign posts used by the Secretaries; 17. Arlington's.

In Restoration England the Secretaries of State performed the duties not only of a Home and Foreign Secretary combined, but also of a modern news-agency. This is a 1956 study in a vital function of seventeenth-century government, in communications, the dissemination of news, and the growth of articulate public opinion. Mr Fraser first shows the scope and nature of the Secretaries' responsibility for providing the Council with intelligence, their control of the Post Office, and their use of spies among the Dissenters and inches...