LETCHADE plied himself to the protector Oliver Cromwell, and having once played before him on the bass viol, he was by some nicknamed Oliver's fiddler. Being a man of parts, matter of an easy humorous style, but withal in narrow circumstances, he set up a newspaper, under the title of The Public Intelligencer, in 1663; but which he laid down, upon the publication of the first London gazette in 1665, having been allowed, however, a consideration by government. Some time after the Popish plot, when the Tories began to gain the ascendancy over the Whigs, he, in a paper called the Observer, became a zealous champion for the former. He was afterwards knighted, and served in the parliament called by King James II. in 1685. But things taking a different turn in that prince's reign, in point of liberty of conscience, from what most people expected, our author's Observers were disused as not at all suiting the times. However, he continued licensor of the press till King William's accession, in whose reign he met with some trouble as a disaffected person. However, he went to his grave in peace, after he had in a manner survived his intellects. He published a great many political tracts, and translated several works from the Greek, Latin, and Spanish; viz. Josephus's works, Cicero's Offices, Seneca's Morals, Erasmus's Colloquies, Aesop's Fables, and Bonas's Guide to Eternity. The character of his style has been variously represented; his language being observed by some to be easy and humorous, while Mr. Gordon says, "that his productions are not fit to be read by any who have taste or good-breeding. They are full of phrases picked up in the streets, and nothing can be more low or nauseous."