As to the political papers Gay's observations are moderate in tone. _Defoe's Review_ (1704-13) and _The Observator_ (1702-12), begun by John Tutchin, are noticed in rather supercilious fashion. _The Examiner_ (1710-14) is damned with faint praise: though "all men, who speak without prejudice, allow it to be well written" and "under the eye of some great persons who sit at the helm of affairs," Gay's admiration is reserved for its two chief opponents, Addison's short-lived _Whig Examiner_ (1710) and _The Medley_ (1710-12). The real hero of the pamphlet, however, is Richard Steele, with his coadjutor Mr. Addison, "whose works in Latin and English poetry long since convinced the world, that he was the greatest master in Europe of those two languages." The high praise which Gay lavishes upon this pair--comparable in their own field, he says, to Lord Somers and the Earl of Halifax--is eloquent testimony to the immense interest aroused by their two papers in the London of 1709-12. There is no need to review here the particulars of Gay's eulogy, but one or two points may be noted. In the first place, Gay's remarks are not extravagant when compared with other contemporary testimony. Many of these tributes were brought together by Aitken in his monumental biography of Steele, and since 1889 other contemporary sources have been published which give corroborating support. Hearne first mentions the _Spectator_ on April 22, 1711, in a comment on No. 43, and even this crusty Tory and Jacobite notes in his diary: "But Men that are indifferent commend it highly, as it deserves" (_Remarks and Collections_, ed. Doble, III, Oxford, 1895, p. 154). The published reports of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, too, contain many contemporary references (see, e.g., _Manuscripts of the Hon. Frederick Lindley Wood_ (1913), p. 247; _Manuscripts of the Marquess of Downshire_, I (1924, 889)). It is interesting to observe, further, that Gay makes no reference to the political prejudices of the _Spectator_ though it was not without criticism at the time for its meddling in politics. _The Plain Dealer_ of May 24, 1712, for example, objected to the publication of No. 384 (the reprinting of the Bishop of St. Asaph's Introduction to his _Sermons_) and hinted at a "Mercenary Consideration" behind this sorry attempt to "propagate ill Principles." Gay's attitude on this point would, be another reason for Swift's dislike of the pamphlet.