PER ME REGES REGNANT IUSTITIA STABILITUR SOLIUM SCRIPTURA ET LEGES SUNT FUNDAMENTA CORONAE CEDANT ARMA TOGAE THE Original and Growth OF PRINTING COLLECTED Out of HISTORY and the Records of this KINGDOME Wherein is also Demonstrated That PRINTING appertaineth to the Prerogative Royal and is a Flower of the Crown of England By RICHARD ATKYNS Esq White-Hall April the 25 th 1664. By Order and Appointment of the Right HONOURABLE Mr. Secretary MORICE Let this be Printed THO RYCHAUT LONDON Printed by JOHN STREATER for the AUTHOR MDCLXIV TO THE KINGS MOST Excellent Maiesty Most Gracious and Dread Soveraign THough I had the Honour to be very well known to His Majesty of ever Blessed Memory Your most Royall Father and to be a Sufferer in the loss of a considerable Estate for His most Just Cause yet I may not be so well known to Your Sacred Person however the same Duty that moved Me to fight for Him remains in Me to write for You not out of any Confidence in my Pen for I am the first shall judge that my Self but out of Conscience and Loyalty to my Soveraign for whose sake I resolve to hazard Censure rather than to be wanting in any Discovery that may tend to Your Majesties Interest and indubitate Right The least loss of Power in a Magistrate is a great Detriment to his Government and an Advantage to his Enemies the least Creep-Window robs the whole House the least Errour in War not to be redeem'd And as that ever Blessed late Martyr said when He gave his Watch of Government to be cleansed by the too-long Parliament the least Pin of it being left out would cause a Discord in the whole Therefore might Solomon well say Where the Word of a King is there is Power The King and Power being Relatives That Printing belongs to Your Majesty in Your publique and private Capacity as Supream Magistrate and as Proprietor I do with all boldness affirm and that it is a considerable Branch of the Regal Power will no Loyal Person deny for it ties and unties the very Hearts of the People as please the Author If the Tongue that is but a little Member can set the Course of Nature on Fire how much more the Quill which is of a flying Nature in it self and so Spiritual that it is in all Places at the same time and so Powerful when it is cunningly handled that it is the Peoples Deity That this Power which is intire and inherent in Your Majesties Person and inseparable from Your Crown should be divided and divolve upon Your Officers though never so great and good may be of dangerous Consequence You are the Head of the Church and Supream of the Law shall the Body govern the Head Men use to trust when they cannot avoid it but that there may be a Derivative and Ministerial Power in them with Appeal to Your Majesty I do with all Humility admit and propose Printing is like a good Dish of Meat which moderately eaten of turns to the Nourishment and health of the Body but immoderately to Surfeits and Sicknesses As the Vso is very necessary the Abuse is very dangerous Cannot this Abuse be remedied any other way then by depriving Your Majesty of Your Antient and Just Power How were the Abuses taken away in Queen Elizabeth King James and the beginning of King Charles his time when few or no Scandals or Libels were stirring Was it not by Fining Imprisoning Seizing the Books and breaking the Presses of the Transgressors by Order of Councel-Board Was it not otherwise when the Jurisdiction of that Court was taken away by Act of Parliament 17 Car. If Princes cannot redress Abuses can less Men redress them I dare positively say the Liberty of the Press was the principal furthering Cause of the Confinement of Your most Royal Fathers Person for after this Act every Male-content vented his Passion in Print Some against his Person some against his Government some against his Religion and some against his Parts the Common People that before this Liberty believed even a Ballad because it was in Print greedily suckt in these Scandals especially being Authorized by a God of their own making the Parliament finding the Faith of the Deceived People to be implicitely in them Printed the Remonstrance the Engagement to live and dye with the Earl of Essex the Covenant c. and so totally possest the Press that the King could not be heard By this means the Common People became not onely Statists but Parties in the Parliaments Cause hearing but one side and then Words begat Blows for though Words of themselves are too weak Instruments to Kill a Man yet they can direct how and when and what Men shall be killed In the Statute of 21 Jac. Printing keeps very able Company as Salt-Peter Gun-Powder Ordnance c. all which are Exempted from being Monopolies Not to be longer tedious I too much fear this late Act for two years compleats all the former Concessions of the late King I know it was done in hast and with a good Intent but by Your Majesties Gracious Leave and Pardon even then very considerable Persons in Your House of Commons were of Opinion they had nothing to do with it the Power of the Press being so wholly in Your Majesty Indeed Necessity that hath no Law was the cause of this Law viz. to hinder the Growth of Scandalous Books and Pamphlets but it hath fallen very short of the End for few or none of many Printed have bin brought in by the Stationers I have now discharged my Duty to Your Majesty and if I find I have so far prevailed upon Your Royall Goodness as to ask unconcern'd Councel what is best to be done I have my End I hope Your Majesty will have the Advantage So prayeth Your Sacred Majesties most Humble Servant and most obedient Subject RICHARD ATKINS TO The Right Honourable THE LORDS AND TO The Honourable THE COMMONS ASSEMBLED IN PARLIAMENT May it please your Honours I Have ever better understood mine own Disabilities then to desire to appear in Print where the Author stands as a Butt to be shot at by the sharp Arrows of every busie Critick and runs a most certain hazard and most uncertain Benefit But having been above twenty three years in Chancery and other Courts of Justice and spent more then One Thousand Pounds in vindicating the Kings Grant of Printing the Common Laws of England and His Lawful Power to grant the same and kept His Title alive even in the worst of Times when 't was reputed unlawful because the Kings I cannot refrain from defending it now the King is or ought to be restored to His Rights again especially since all Persons are invited by Order to speak their Minds freely concerning this Subject So that there is a Necessity upon me to speak now or for ever hereafter to hold my Peace this being probably the last time of Asking 'T is not unknown
That if any person bought Forreign Books bound he should pay 6 s. 8 d. per Book And it was further Provided and Enacted That in case the said Printers and Sellers of Books were unreasonable in their prices they should be moderated by the Lord Chancellor Lord Treasurer the two Lord Chief Justices or any two of them who also had power to Fine them 3 s. 4 d. for every Book whose price shall be enhanced Thus was the ART of Printing in its Infancy Nursed up by the Nursing Father of us all and in its riper Age brought up in Monasteries of greatest Accompt and yet were the Instruments thereof restrained from the Evil of enhancing the prices of Books to the Detriment of their Fellow-Subjects by the Authority aforesaid While they had this Check upon them they were not only Servants to the King but Friends to the Kingdom But when they were by Charter Concorporated with Book-Binders Book-Sellers and Founders of Letters 3 and 4 Phil. and Mary and called the Company of Stationers the Body forgot the Head and by degrees breaking the Reines of Government they kickt against the Power that gave them Life And whereas before they Printed nothing but by the Kings especiall Leave and Command they now being free set up for themselves to print what they could get most Money by and taking the Advantage of those Virtiginous Times of the latter end of Henry the 8. Edward the 6. and Queen Mary they fill'd the Kingdom with so many Books and the Brains of the People with so many contrary Opinions that these Paper-pellets became as dangerous as Bullets to verifie that Saying of Tertullian That Lawyers Gowns hurt the Common-wealth as much as Souldiers Helmets Thus was this excellent and desireable ART within less than one hundred years so totally vitiated that whereas they were before the King's Printers and Servants they now grew so poor so numerous and contemptible by being Concorporated that they turn'd this famous ART into a Mechanick Trade for a Livelyhood But here I must break off though abruptly and answer an Objection for methinks I hear the Critick say How can that be a Mechanick Trade now that the Author allowes to be a famous Art heretofore being alwayes one and the same thing The Matter of which before I answer I must crave leave to give you the signification of the Word Mechanick the rather because the several sorts of Trades of which the Company of Stationers are Composed and more particularly the Book-Sellers who say they are of no Manufacture do peremptorily deny themselves to be Mechanicks The Word Mechanicus which signifies a Handicrafts-man doth in the strict Sense comprehend Printers Founders of Letters and Book-Binders And I believe in the large Sense all Trades-men whatsoever But if that be deficient let us go to the Original Greek Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a Cunning Contrivance of the Head as well as Hand and this will certainly take in all Trades for as much as there is Cunning in all Trades But if it should miss any yet it cannot fail of the Company of Stationers because they are denominated a Mystery and there the strict signification of the Word comes in again Now for the matter of the Objection That a Famous ART cannot be a Mechannick Trade I Answer This is so far from being true that there is nothing in Nature but is good or bad according as 't is us'd for the great Creator of all things made nothing to no purpose even Meat and Drink without which we cannot live if abus'd destroyes life Twenty dye of Surfets for one that is starved for want of Meat But to give you an instance ad idem Musick is not onely an Art but one of the Liberall Arts practised by Princes themselves and made instrumentall to the Glory of God yet what Trade is there more despicable in the World both in Name and Nature than a Common Fidler though he may draw as good a sound out of an Instrument and have as much Art in Playing and Composing as any Gentleman yet if he get his Living by it and makes it his Trade he is still but a Fidler and herein I pity him more than any of other Professions because he perverts the Creation and turns Day into Night for most commonly when sober Persons are in Bed he must play to please the humours of the lighter sort And though his Heart be ready to break through Melancholy he must sing a merry Song to delight the Company if commanded or have his Fiddle sing about his Ears Is not this Mechanick think you But to Return where I digrest Printing became now so dangerous to the Common-wealth That there were more Books Burnt in Ten years than could be Printed in Twenty And now it concern'd the Prince altogether as much to Suppress the Abuse as it was before to Obtain the Use of Printing And had there not been a Reserve of Licensing such Books as should be Printed still remaining in the Crown they might have published the wickedness of their own Imaginations with Authority But Queen Elizabeth at her very first Entrance to the Crown finding so great Disorders in Church and State by reason of the abuse in Printing Secures in the first place the Law and the Gospel of both which the Kings and Queens of England have inherent Right as Heads of the Church and Supream of the Law and not onely in their publique but private Capacity as Proprietors the Power and Signiory of this under Favour cannot be severed from the Crown The Kings being the Trustees of the People who have formerly taken an Oath at their Coronation That they shall keep all the Lands Honours and Dignities Rights and Freedoms of the Crown of England in all manner whole without any manner of minishment and the Right of the Crown hurt decay'd or lost to their Power shall call again into the Antient Estate Which Oath the said Queen kept inviolably and liv'd the more quietly for it all the time of her Reign and died in Peace True it is they may and do gratifie their Friends and Servants in giving them the Emoluments and Profits that arise from Printing but the Power they cannot alienate from the Crown without losing the most pretious Stone out of their Diadem To shew you one Example for all the said Queen the first Year of her Reign grants by Patent the Priviledge of sole Printing all Books that touch or concern the Common-Laws of England to Tottel a Servant to her Majesty who kept it intire to his Death After him to one Yestweirt another Servant to Her Majesty After him to Weight and Norton and after them King James grants the same Priviledge to More one of His Majesties Clerks of the Signet which Grant continues to this Day and so for the Bible the Statute-Laws the Book of Common-Prayer Proclamations as much as the Grammer the Primer c. art all
be Declared and Confirmed as an Antient and Hereditary Right of the CROWN And that all Laws contrary thereunto be Repealed II. That an ACT for Regulating Printing may Establish Propriety therein according to the Kings Grants thereof and may direct Rules for the Licensing and Management of Printing and inflict Penalties for Abuses therein with Legall Means for the Executing such Penalties and for settling and securing every Man's Propriety saving the Right of the Crown to regulate or restrain any Interest or Right in Printing or other matter concerning the same which by the King and Councill shall be conceiv'd a Nusance of State III. That the Charter of the Company of Stationers who Claym thereby an unlimited Power in Printing be examined together with the Unreasonablenesse thereof and the Abuses committed thereby by Testimony of Witnesses to be Summoned to that purpose And that the said Charter and the Powers thereby granted be limited according to Reason and the true Intent of the Grant IV. That the Penalty for Printing without Licence be forfeiture of the Book or thing so Printed and treble the value thereof one Moyety thereof to the Patenteé or Party interessed in the Right of Printing such unlicensed Book if any person be therein interessed or otherwise to the KING and the other Moyety to the Informer But that Books once Licensed may be reprinted without Licence or so much of them as shall be without addition or alteration V. That the KING 's Patenteé for Printing Law-Books be Priviledg'd with a like Priviledge as the Patenteés for the Bible are or shall be Priviledged and with Power to search with an Officerfor unlicensed Law-Books and to Seize and carry away the same to some publique place VI. That no Disloyall or Notorious Criminal Person for Printing Treasonable or Seditious Books in the late Times of Trouble be admitted to keep a Printing-Presse And that such as be Intrusted with a Printing-Presse be Sworn not to offend the ACT of Parliament c. and give Security for the same VII That the Entry of other Mens Copies in Stationers-Hall be declared to be of no Validity especially as to give them any Title to such Books as are Granted by Patent to others And now it may be most truly said That the Author is very tedious and yet hath made few or no Propositions but such as concern the King and his Patentees To which I Answer That all other Interests have not been wanting to make the best of their Case and their Desires to be fully understood And as for the Company of Stationers they were by this late ACT so amply provided for as that at the Committeé of the House of Commons they had nothing more of Substance to desire The Printers have also published a late Book wherein they desire to be Incorporated and made a Company of themselves apart from the Company of Stationers of which they now are and therein also have stated the best of their Case Mr. L'Estrange hath also published a Book wherein he Treateth of the whole matter in generall and shews the severall Abuses of Printing and Printers but hath not applyed himself to any particular Interest And therefore I have taken the Boldness to say somewhat though weakly for the KING and his Patenteés hoping an ill Pen shall not destroy a good Cause But that the Wisedome and Loyalty of this Parliament which is Exemplary for both will Supply all Defects and take the Will for the Deed The rather because Extream Necessity enforceth me to say somewhat now before the ACT be past Which makes me rather adventure to be ridiculous than wanting to my Duty I shall add onely one word more That in a Business of so great Intricacy and Concernment as this of Printing your Honours would not without very great Consideration make an ACT for Perpetuity In which all Interests may be equally Considered the rather because the late ACT now in being which was past in hast is judg'd even by Your Selves to have many Imperfections in it And if the Brewers who at most can but steal away a Flegmatick part of the King's Revenue deserve the serious Consideration of the Supreme Council of England how much more these that do not onely bereave the King of his Good-Name but of the very Hearts of His People between whom there is as much oddes as between a Pyrate that robs a Ship or two and Alexander that robs the whole World FINIS Revelation not Confined only to the People of God The great Benefit of Printing Printing supposed to be brought into England in the Year 1471. Page 404. Page 284. Page 353. Printing first set up at Oxford Printing depraved by being Incorporated with others None but the Kings sworn Servants permitted to be Printers The Price of Books not to be enhauced Object 1. How and why the ART is called a Mechanick Trade Answ 1. Answ 2. A Simile taken from Musick Patents for Printing granted to several persons Object 2. Answer 3. Object 1. Answ 2. Answ The King more skilfull than Mechanicks in their own Trade Patentees fittest to redress the Evils of the Press A brief Discourse concerning Printing Page 8. Printers and Founders onely necessary to the Art of Printing A Brief Discourse concerning Printing Pag. 5. Pag. 7 Pag. 12. Pag. 14. The dangerous Consequence of power in the Stationers The Stationers Conscience 'T is against the Stationers Interest to redress the Evills of the Press The unconscionable dealing of Booksellers Crown-Lands and Printing equally the Kings Right The sad Effects of the Executive Power of Printing in the Company of Stationers Object 4. Answ Too great Penalties cannot be inflicted for Offences in Printing More Treason and Sedition discovered by a Gentleman in two years than hath ever been by the Stationers Humane Laws subject not only to Imperfection but Death it self Observations and Proposals recommended to the Parliament Principals and particular Members of the Company high Delinquents The Proposals Object 5 Answer