At this time, so unpropitious to literature, an attempt was made
to establish a periodical work of a kind which we only expect to
see arising when the affairs of the learned republic are at a
comparatively advanced stage. Mr John Cockburn, minister at Ormiston,
in Haddingtonshire, printed the first number of a work containing ‘the
monthly transactions and an account of books out of the Universal
Bibliotheque and others.’ The Chancellor, finding in it some passages
reflecting on the Roman Catholic Church, at once suppressed the
publication.--_Foun. Dec._
[Sidenote: 1688.