_French Translation of the "London Gazette"_ (Vol. vi., p. 223.).--A
correspondent describes a French edition of the _London Gazette_, which he
had met with of the date of May 6, 1703; and considering it as a curiosity,
he wishes some reader would give an account of it. It has occurred to me to
meet with a similar publication, which {87} appeared twenty years
antecedent to the time above specified. It is entitled _La Gazette de
Londres, publiée avec Privilège, depuis le Jeudi 11, jusqu'au Lundi 15,
Mai, 1682 (vieux style)_, No. 1621. It gives a very circumstantial detail
of the loss of the "Gloucester" frigate, near the mouth of the Humber, in
the night of Friday, May 5, 1682, when she was conveying the Duke of York
(postquam James II.) to Scotland. Sir John Berry, who commanded the vessel,
managed to remove the duke to another ship; but the Earl of Roxburgh, Lord
O'Brien, the Laird of Hopetoun, Sir Joseph Douglas, Mr. Hyde (Lord
Clarendon's brother), several of the duke's servants, and about 130 seamen,
were lost in the "Gloucester." The pilot was either deficient in skill, or
obstinate, and was to be brought to trial.[1]
With regard to the reason of publishing a French version of the _Gazette_,
might it not be judged expedient (as the French was then spoken in every
Court in Europe, and the English language almost unknown out of the British
dominions) to publish this translation in French for foreign circulation?
It is to be remarked that the copy I have met with is styled _privileged_?