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HISTORY OF PRINTING.

can see yet) once a week may do the business, for I intend to utter my news by weight, and not by measure. Yet if I shall nnd, when my hand is in, and after the planting and securing • of my correspondents, and the matter will fairly furnish more, without either uncertainty, repe- tition, or impertinence, I shall keep myself free to double at pleasure. One book a week may be expected however ; to be published every Thurs- day, and finished upon the Tuesday night, leav- ing Wednesday entire for the printing it off. The way as to the vent, that has been found most beneficial to the master of the book, has been to cry and expose it about the streets, by mercuries and hawkers; but whether that way be so ad- visable in some other respects, may be a ques- tion : for, under countenance of that employment, is carried on the private trade of treasonous and seditious libels ; nor, effectually, has any thing considerable been dispersed, agamst either church or state, without the aid and privity of this sort of people. Wherefore, without ample assurance ana security against this inconvenience, T shall adventure to steer another course. In the mean time, to prevent mischief (as far as in me lies), and for their encouragement that shall discover it, take these advertisements of encouragement to the discovery of unlawful printing: — 1. If any person can give notice, and make proof, of ' any printing press erected and being in any pri- vate place, hole, or comer, contrary to the tenor of the late act of parliament for the regulating of printing and printing presses ; let him repair with such notice, and make proof thereof, to the surveyor of the press, at his office at the Gun in Ivy-lane, and he shall have forty shillings for his pains, with what assurance ot secrecy him- self shall desire. — 2. If any such person as afore- said shall discover to the said surveyor any sedi- tious or unlawful book to be upon siich a private press imprinting, and withal give his aid to the seizing of the copies and the offenders ; bis re- ward shall be five pouEds. — 3. For the discovery and proof of any thing printing without authority or licence, although in any public house, ten shillings.— 4. For the discovery and proof of any seditious or unlawful book to be sold or dispersed by any of the mercuries or hawkeis, the informer snail have five shillings."

It is but justice to add, that the papers of sir Roger L'Estrange contained more information, more entertainment, and more advertisements of importance, than any succeeding paper whatever, previous to the golden age of letters, which may DC said to have commenced in the reign of queen Anne.

1663, Feb. 20. At the sessions in the Old Bailey, John Twynn, printer, was indicted for high treason; and Thomas Brewster, bookseller; Simon Dover, printer; and Na- than Brooks, bookbinder, for misdemeanors. The act laid in the indictment was the printing of a seditious, poisonous, and scandalous book, entitled, A Treatise of the execution of Justice it at well the peoples as the magistrates^ duty ; and if the magistrates prevent judgment, then the

people are bound by the law of G«d to judgment without them, and upm tkam. TV sentence upon Twynn was, "That be be led back to the place from whence he came, and from thence to be drawn upon an hurdle to th» place of execution ; and there to be han jced br the neck, and being alive, to be cut down, and his privy members to be cut off, his entrails to be taken out of his body, and he living, tbe same to be burnt before his eyes ; his head to be cm off, his body to be divided into four quartasL, and his head and quarters to be disposed of at the pleasure of the king's majesty." — Simoa Dover, Thomas Brewster, and Nathan Brooks. were further indicted for printing and publishine one book, called, Tlie Speechei and Prayers »/ Harrison, Cook, Hugh Peters, and others am- demned for the murder of the late Kirsg; and another book, called The Phamx ; or, Solewa League and Covenant. They were again found guilty, and lord chief justice Hyde, in passii^ sentence, made the following remark : — " Yoa three, Thomas Brewster, Simon Dover, asd Nathan Brooks; you have been severally indicted for a heinous and great offence : Brewster, too have been indicted for two several books, as foil of villany, and slander, and reproach to the king and government, as p<»sibly can be : And I will tell rou all three, it is the king's great mercy you nave not been indicted capitally ; teg every one of those are books filled with treason, and you for publishing of them, by strictness of law, have forfeited your lives and all to tbe king: It is his clemency towards you. Yoa may see the king's purposes; he desires to reform, not to ruin his subjects. The press is grown so common, and men take the boldness to print whatever is brought to them, let it concern whom it will, it is hi^ time examples be made. I must let you and all men know, by the course of the common law, before this new act was made, for a printer, or any other, under the pretence of printing, to publish that which is a reproach to the king, to the state, to his gaveni- ment, to the church, nay to a particular penon, it is punishable as a misdemeanour. He mnsi not say He knew not what was in it; that is no answer in law. I speak this, because I would have men avoid this for time to come, and not think to shelter themselves under such a pre- tence. I will not spend time in discourang of the nature of the offence, it hath been declared already ; it is so high, that truly the highest punishment that by law may be justly inflicted, is due to you. But, Thomas Brewster, your offence is double : Therefore the judgment of the court is,

" That you shall pay to the king, for these offences committed, an hundred marks: And for you (the other two), Simon Dover and Nathan Brooks, you shall pay either of yoa t fine of forty marks to the king.

" You shall each of you severally stand upon the pillory from eleven to one of the clock in one place at the Exchange, and another day (the same space of time) in Smithficld; and yon

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