Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	act_n	king_n	time_n	3,467	5	3.5652	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A92233	Reasons for reviving and continuing the act for the regulation of printing		1693 (1693)	Wing R511; ESTC R229650	3,770	1

REASONS FOR Reviving and Continuing the ACT FOR THE Regulation of PRINTING IT must be agreed that the Press deserves and needs both Encouragement and Restraint and Experience hath proved the Usefulness of this Law for both those Purposes The Design of the Act is First To prevent Seditious Blasphemous and Treasonable Books the necessity of which Care in the present Age is as apparent as 't was in the former The Preamble of this Act remains still too true to admit of a denyal And the same or the like Method for Licensing and punishing of unlicens'd Books hath been practised for near 100 Years past before and after the Reign of K. James I. But until this legal Provision was made in contempt of the repeated Orders of the King and Council and other Courts unlawful Pamphlets were daily Published and the number of them would probably still have increased if this Law had not taken care not only to impose and exact Penalties but to restrain the number of Presses and to forbid all private Ones and to facilitate Searches during the Work which afterwards for the most part are fruitless and vain because in all probability the Libel hath then had its Vent and the Author his end The Second Design and Intent of this Act is To encourage and preserve Property in Books to their Authors and their Assigns and this by enjoyning Entries in a Publick Register which is regularly and fairly kept by Prohibiting the Importation of any Books from beyond the Seas which were Printed here before and lastly by ascertaining the rights of Copies to the Proprietors thereof which Provision almost in the very same words was Established not only by Decrees in Charles I. time and long before but also by an Act of Parliament Sept. 29. 1649. This Law is not only convenient for Authors of the present and future Ages but just even in respect of antient Copies in which a legal Interest hath been acquired and that at great Charges and these Interests are become the Livelyhood and sole Estate of several Widows Fatherless Children and other whole Families The Mystery of Printing was first introduced into England at the Charge of the Crown and upon increase of the number of Artists was Governed by direction of the King or King and Council and then by Decrees of the Star-Chamber and then by Acts or Ordinances made in the late Times and since the Restoration by Act of Parliament But Property in Publick or Private Copies was always preserv'd entire and free The Right and Interest of the Company of Stationers in Books of Common and Publick Use was lawfully Vested in them before the Reign of King James I. some of which Copies were purchased at great Expence from the Crown some from private Persons and others bequeathed to them by the then Proprietors and great Stocks were expended and still are laid out to that purpose They are now under Obligations of giving 200 l. per Annum to the Poor of the Trade and this they have never failed in and tho their Stocks have not yielded some years above 4 or 5 per Cent. yet they have maintained several Families thereby every Year who must necessarily Perish upon the loss of such Copies and the failure of the Stock therein Object Printing is a Manufacture and ought to be as free as any other Trade Answ This was never a Free-Trade since its first Introduction but always under Regulation and infinite Inconveniences must ensue upon a licentious Use of it and the Policy of all Ages from its first Practice in England hath been to Govern it by Rules and under Limits As to Execution of the Act in respect of Restraint none were ever disabled to use the Art unless in scandalous or unlawful Work and if an universal Liberty were once permitted such practice would quickly increase and would be even beyond the Power of any Government to controle Object Penalties have been exacted and many Persons have been rigorously Prosecuted for Importation of Books from abroad Answ It 's true that Prohibited Books have been seized and the small Penalties sometimes taken but lawfully regularly mildly and that only from incorrigible Pirats and the Charge generally hath been greater than the Profit of such Prosecutions through the smalness of the demanded Forfeitures And the Case which was most complained of was that of Mr. Jekyl who Imported Foreign Prints to the damage of English-men's Property and that was adjudged by the Reverend the L. C. J. Hales and this his Judgment did command a great submission to the Law almost ever since Object That Books may be had cheaper from Holland and therefore not to be Prohibited for the Subject may be supplied from thence with more ease and the Customs advanced Answ As to the Subject the Stat. 25. Hen. VIII remains still in force by which the price of Books may be settled and reformed as occasion doth or may require And that the Dutch do in the trade of Printing Pirate upon us is no more than they do by most other Nations and they will always be able to do so because their Hirelings fare worse and work for less But surely the Workmen-Printers in London have no reason to thank the Author of such an Objection for an English Printer would be loth to change Conditions with any Printer in Holland Then as to the Kings Customs being raised by such Importation of Foreign Prints it must be agreed that 't wou'd encrease them some small trivial matter but the gain would be so little and the Balance so burthensome on the other side that it is easily demonstrable to be no more than one Penny profit to the Crown for 5 l. loss to the English Subject And it is to be hoped That such an Increase of the Revenue will never be acceptable to their Majesties or the Parliament And if it should be admitted That if the right of those Copies which is vested in the Crown and those that claim under it by Charter or Patent were made Publick the Price of such Books might possible be abated Yet in those Prints which are of publick Consequence the Exactness of the Impression ought chiefly to be regarded and it is the Prudence of the Government to lodge this Trust in such Hands as may take care not only of a moderate Price of those Books but of a good and correct Edition of them which as it is performed with great Charge so must it necessarily in some measure enhance the Value of the Books Of this we have a clear Instance lately in Two Mercenary Fellows that were Printers to the Vniversity of Oxford For when that Venerable Body thought it a work proper for them to wave their own Interest for the Publick good and upon just expectation of correct Editions had given way to the Printing many thousand Bibles with design to abate the general Price of them in this Nation at the loss of their own Private Advantage they found that Bibles were not