A set of this publication is in the Library of the British Museum, but the volume containing the year 1623 is unfortunately missing. One of the numbers published in October, 1623, seems to have contained objectionable matter concerning the King, for on the 18th of that month the Lord Keeper addressed the following letter to Mr. Secretary Conway:
"Mr. Secretarie,
"Reading since supper this Mercurius Gallo Bellgicus which heere with all I send unto you, I finde a passage about the 35th page thereof soe full of falsehoodes and indignities towardes his Majestie, that (although I knowe what a despicable esteeme this author hath borne for manie yeares together), yet doe I hold yt, in my poore discretion, verie unfitt that this discourse should be borne in the handes and tost in the mouthes of his Majestie's subjectes.
"I have therefore this night staied the further publishinge of this booke by my expresse warrant untill I shall receive your doome from thence, whether yt be to be contemned and past over or finallie to be suppressed; I shall desire you to write unto me two wordes heerein. And soe I bidd you hartelie farewell, and rest
"Westminster Colledge,
"18 October, 1623.
"Your verie assured "Lovinge frend and servant, "Jo. Lincoln C(ustos) S(igilli)."[33]
On the 25th October, Secretary Conway wrote in answer to the Lord Keeper to instruct him to restrain this publication. (See Domestic State Papers of the period.)
50.
A demonstration of the unlawful succession of the new Emperor, Ferdinand. 1623.
This was a tract sheet printed by William Stansby for Nathaniel Butter, bookseller, for which the Stationers' Company, by warrant from the Council, nailed up Stansby's printing house, and broke down his presses. He petitioned Secretary Calvert for pardon and restoration to his business, but the result does not appear.[34]