(2) The Case of the Members of the Sun-Fire-Office, London, relating to the Duties on News-Papers, humbly represented to the Honourable House of Commons.

(3) The Printers' Case: humbly submitted to the Consideration of the Honourable the House of Commons.

(4) A Proposal for Restraining the Great Licentiousness of the Press, ... Humbly submitted to the Commons of Great Britain, by W. Mascall, Gent.

(5) A Certain and Necessary Method of Regulating the Press, which will hinder and deter the Daily Insolence of False, Malitious, and Seditious Libels. Designed for the Service of Her Majesty's late Gratious Message to the Honourable House of Commons, etc.

(6) The Case of the poor Paper-Makers and Printers, farther stated.

(7) The Case of the Manufacturers of Paper, the Stationers, Printers, etc., of this Kingdom, relating to several Duties on Paper and Printing, now Voted in the House. Humbly represented to the Honourable House of Commons.

(8) Reasons humbly offer'd to the Parliament, in behalf of several Persons concern'd in Paper making, Printing and Publishing the Half-penny News Papers, against the Bill now depending, for laying a Penny Stamp, etc.

Several of these piteous Cases, as we have said, seem to have succeeded in their object.

Thus the Bills of Mortality' were exempted, the Government doubtless being moved by the appeal of the Company of Parish-Clerks, whose case (No. 1) deposes that The said Company, by their Charter, are obliged to keep a Press in their Hall, for printing the Weekly and Yearly Bills of Mortality, . the Profits whereof is the Support of the Charges and Expences of the said Company, they having little or no Lands or Estate to defray the same. The Bills, they point out, are not only of great importance, for the Security of all Orphans, but also a

general Satisfaction to all Persons, by showing the Nature of the Diseases, and of the Increase and Decrease of the Burials each Week,' and they are in great fear lest, if the Bills are taxed, the Company will be utterly Dissolved and Overthrown.'

The 'Members of the Sun-Fire-Office' also profess themselves in great straits, for their policies were already taxed, and they had 'oblig'd themselves. . . to furnish Weekly every Person Insur'd with three printed NewsPapers, call'd The British Mercury' (No. 2), the tax on which would eat a hole in their profits. It does not appear that their plaint was heard. The 'Printers' Case' (No. 3) seems to have secured another concession. It states that, 'of ' of many Hundred Master-Printers and Journeymen in this City, two thirds do entirely depend upon the Printing of Small Papers and Pamphlets, especially the latter; by which all Britain is supplied with Sermons, and other Tracts of Devotion, at a cheap Rate,' which works, says another body of Memorialists (No. 7), ' are often by Charitable People disposed Gratis among the Poor,' so that their cessation will in a great measure prevent the Propagation of the Christian Religion.' Books of devotion were excepted from the operation of the Act.

A picture even more alarming is drawn in another broadside, which takes up the democratic side (No. 8). The halfpenny paper had been sold to the poorer Sort of People, who are Purchasers of it by Reason of its Cheapness, to divert themselves, and also to allure therewith their young Children, and entice them to Reading, and should a Duty of Three Half-pence be laid upon these mean News-Papers (which by reason of the Courseness [sic] of the Paper, the generality of Gentlemen are above Čonversing with) it would utterly extinguish and suppress the same: And thereby his Majesty's Revenue will not only be lessened, by entirely sinking and loosing the Duty paid by the Paper-makers and Printers .. but Hundreds of Persons and Families who chiefly get their Bread by selling

the same, will inevitably be reduc'd to extream Poverty, and become Chargeable and Burthensome to their respective Parishes, if not necessitated to turn Thieves; more especially the indigent Poor and miserable Blind Hawkers;

for divers of them, who are Industrious, and have but a Penny or Three Half Pence, for a Stock to begin with in a Morning, will before Night advance it to Eighteen Pence or Two Shillings, which greatly tends to the comfortable Support of such miserable Poor and Blind Creatures,' etc. These Memorialists certainly protest too

much.

1

The Pamphlet tax was, however, not entirely designed to afford a revenue, but to check false and scandalous Libels.' Some of the abuses which it was intended to remedy may be gathered from Mascall's Proposal for restraining the Great Licentiousness of the Press.' He suggests that every book and pamphlet should be entered either by the Author, Publisher, Proprietor, or Printer at a Government office to be created ad hoc, on the day before publication, and an affidavit made as to the number printed off. Further, with a view to checking scurrilous publications, that no Impressions shall be made with short Words, or Initial Letters, with Dashes, or without, to stand for any Word or Words, but all to be Printed at length, or to be taken, ipso facto, for a Libel. That no false sham Names shall be Printed.' These suggestions would have saved the modern librarian an infinity of trouble. The next broadside in our list (No. 5) puts forward similar proposals, stipulating that the Registrar of pamphlets should not be obliged to read them, not in the least out of consideration for him, but to preserve the liberty of the Press.

The Printers' Case' (No. 3) suggests a difficulty which was probably real, that if the tax were imposed many printers would be thrown out of employ, and would be

1 Queen's Speech, January 17th, 1712.

tempted to print anything that was offered to them, to keep the wolf from the door. Another plaintive wail in this same 'Case' concerns a difficulty which was removed by the clause allowing a drawback of duty on unsold pamphlets. Paper, after it is Printed, is of no intrinsick Value at all, but depends merely upon the Humour and Opinion of People; and there are few Printers in this Town, who have not many Thousand Copies by them, which they daily sell for waste Paper.'

Thus the Printer. The views of the Author may be gauged from Addison's remarks in The Spectator' (No. 445). This is the Day on which many eminent Authors will probably Publish their Last Words. I am afraid that few of our Weekly Historians, who are Men that above all others delight in War, will be able to subsist under the Weight of a Stamp, and an approaching Peace. A Sheet of Blank Paper that must have this new Imprimatur clapt upon it, before it is qualified to Communicate anything to the Publick, will make its way in the World but very heavily. In short, the Necessity of carrying a Stamp, and the Improbability of notifying a Bloody Battel, will, I am afraid, both concur to the sinking of those thin Folios, which have every other Day retailed to us the History of Europe for several years last past. A Facetious Friend of mine, who loves a Punn, calls this present Mortality among Authors, The Fall of the Leaf.'

This Mortality did not, however, touch 'The Spectator,' which doubled its price, and kept up its circulation. JOHN MACFARLANE.

305

ENGLISH ROYAL COLLECTORS.

LTHOUGH various books are incidentally mentioned in the Wardrobe Accounts of the first, second and third Edwards, there is no record of an English king, save perhaps Henry VI., and of no royal prince, with the notable exception of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, and possibly of John, Duke of Bedford, possessing a collection large enough to be styled a library until the reign of Edward IV. In the Wardrobe Accounts of that Sovereign, preserved among the Harleian MSS. in the library of the British Museum, mention is made of the conveyance, in the year 1480, of the king's books from London to Eltham Palace. It is stated that some were put into the kings carr,' and others into divers cofyns of fyrre.' Several entries also refer to thecoverying and garnysshing of the books of oure saide Souverain Lorde the Kynge' by Piers Bauduyn, stationer. Among the books mentioned are the works of Josephus, Livy and Froissart, a booke of the holy Trinite,' 'a booke called le Gouvernement of Kings and Princes,' 'a booke called la Forteresse de Foy,' and 'a booke called the bible historial.' The price paid for binding, gilding and dressing' the copy of the Bible Historiale and the works of Livy was twenty shillings each, and for several others sixteen shillings each. Other entries show that the bindings were of 'Cremysy velvet figured,' with 'Laces and Tassels of Silk,' with Blue Silk and Gold Botons,' and with Claspes with Roses and the Kings Armes uppon them. LXX Bolions coper and gilt,' and 'CCC nayles gilt' were also used.

The first English king who formed a library of any size was Henry VII., and many entries are found in his Privy Purse Expenses relating to the purchase and binding