444 
do humbly conceive to be very much 
concern d in some provision, that men 
may not suffer in their reputations for 
doing their duties; and that those per- 
suns who have chearfully and honourably 
passed through the utmost extremities 
of a long and barbarous warr, out of a 
sence of loyalty to your royal father, 
may not now at last be stung to deatia 
by the tongues of tale-bearers, and slan- 
derers for being faithful to your Majesty. 
Which is the case of many, more con- 
siderable than myself, and among the 
rest in particular of 
Your Majesties 
Most loyal and obedient subject 
Rocer L’EstRanGe. 
To the Right Honourable the Lords and 
to the Honourable the Commons as- 
sembled in Parliament. 
Having been lately employ’d to draw 
up some proposals, touching the regu- 
Jation of the press, and to search for 
certain seditious books, and papers: J 
think it agreeable both to my reason and 
duty that 1 dedicate to your honours 
some accompt of my proceeding; espe- 
cially in this juncture, when both the 
danger and the remedy are the subject 
of your present care. The drift and ar- 
gument of this little treatise is express’d 
in the title, One particular only was 
forgotten in the body of the discourse, 
which I must now crave leave to insert 
in my dedication; (i. e.) an additional 
expedient for the relief of necessitous 
and supernumerary printers; many of 
which would be well enough content to 
quit the trade, and betake themselves to 
other employments, upon condition to 
be 1e-imburst for their presses, letter, 
and printing-materiais; and it is com- 
puted that 4000]. or thereabouts, would 
boy off their stock; for the raising of 
which sum, and so to be employ’d, there 
occurs this expedient. . 
It.is credibly reported, that there have 
been printed at least ten or twelve im- 
pressions of a collection entituled, The 
First, Second, and Third, Volume of Fare. 
wel-Sermons: (with the figures of the 
ejected ministers) which 1s no other, 
than an arraignment of the law, and a 
charge of persecution against the King, 
and his Parliament. 
Upon a supposition of twelve impres- 
sions, (at.a thousand a piece, which is 
the lowest) the clear profit, beside the 
charge of paper and printing, comes to 
$3001, which sum, being impos’d as a 
Scarce Tracts, Kc. 
{June 1, 
fine upon their heads for whom the 
books were printed, will defray a cons 
siderable part of the aforesaid charge, 
and what is wanting may be abundantly 
made up by the like course upon the 
publishers of other seditious pamphlets, 
keeping the same proportion betwixt the 
profit and the punishment. 
Of the Farewel-Sermons, I seiz’d the 
other day in quires, to the quantity of 
betwixt twenty and thirty ream of papers 
and I discovered Jikewise the supposed 
author of another pamphlet, entituled 
[A Short Survey of the Grand Case of 
the Ministry, &c.] Wherein is main-+ 
tain’d, in opposition to the declarations 
required by the Act of Uniformity, that 
in some cases it may be lawful to take 
arms against the King.—To take arms 
by the King’s authority against his per~ 
son, or those commissioned by him. 
And that the obligation of the covenant 
is a knot cut by the sword of authority, 
whilst it cannot be loosed by religious 
reason. Concerning which, and many 
other desperate libels, if your honours - 
shall think fit to descend into any pars 
ticular enquiry, it may be made appear, 
that whereas not one of twenty is now 
taken, scarce one of a hundred could 
Seape, if there were not connivence (at 
least, if not corruption) juyn’d to the 
craft and wariness of the faction. 
How the world will understand this 
freedome and confidence in a private 
person, I do not much concern my self; 
(provided that I offend not authority) 
but the question to me seems short and 
easy, Whether it be lawfal, or not, for 
any man that sees his countrey in dan- 
ger, to cry out Treason? . And nothing 
else hath extorted this singularity of 
practice and address from 
Your honours’ 
Most dutiful servant, 
Rocer L’Esrraner. 
Considerations and Proposals in Order ta 
the Regulation of the Press, 
I think no man denyes the necessity 
of suppressing licentious and unlawful 
pamphlets, and of regulating the press; 
but in what manner and by what means 
this may be effected, that’s the question. 
The two main-points are printing and 
publishing. 
The instruments of setting the work 
afoot are these. .The adviser, author, 
compiler, writer, correcter, and the per- 
sons for whom, and by whom; that is, say, 
the stationer (commonly), and the printers 
: Q 
