624 



oitsiiiP OF BOOKS BOOM:. 



stitution, as they were carried on with the greatest 

 violence on both sides. The decree of tin- German 

 diet, in l ./.' I, prohibited them. I'.v the diet of 1530, 

 a more severe superintendence of the press was 

 established ; and this was confirmed by Inter laws of 

 the empire, in 1541, 1548, 15(37, and 1577, &c. It 

 was also provided, at the peace of Westphalia, 1648, 

 fOsnabr. Instr., chapter v. 50), tliat the states 

 should not suffer attacks on religions parties. From 

 that time, the emperors have promised, in their elec- 

 tive capitulations, to watch strictly over the fulfil- 

 ment of this article. In the capitulations of the em- 

 peror Leopold II., 1790, and of the emperor Francis 

 II., it was further added (art. vi. 8), " that no work 

 sliouKl IK- printed, which could not be reconciled with 

 the symbolical books of both Catholics and Protes- 

 tant-, and with good morals, or which might produce 

 the ruin of the existing constitution, or the disturbance 

 of public peace. It was, however, not difficult, in 

 most Protestant countries, for individual authors or 

 literary journals to obtain an exemption from the 

 censorship ; and many institutions, academies, uni- 

 versities, &c., were privileged in this way, as far as 

 concerned their regular professors. The governments 

 sometimes protected their subjects with great, energy; 

 as, for instance, that of Hanover, in the case of Putter 

 and Schloezer. 



In France, the censorship belonged to the depart- 

 ment of the chancellor, and was administered by royal 

 censors. It was first abolished in England. It was 

 formerly exercised by the well-Jcnown star-chamber, 

 and, after the abolition of this court, in 1641. by the 

 parliament. In 1662, it was regulated by a particular 

 statute, but only for a certain number of years. This 

 statute was renewed in 1679, and again, in 1692, for 

 two years more. In 1694, the right of the crown to 

 render the printing of writings, journals, &c. depen- 

 dent on its permission, that is, the censorship, ceased 

 entirely. In Holland, and even in the Austrian 

 Netherlands, a great liberty, if not an entire freedom 

 of the press, prevailed. All that was not permitted 

 to be printed in France appeared in the Netherlands 

 or in Switzerland, at Lausanne and Geneva, to the 

 great advantage of the Dutch and Swiss book-trade. 



In Sweden, by an edict of 1766, and accordingly 

 under the aristocratical constitution, the abolition of 

 the censorship was ordered; yet Gustavus III., per- 

 sonally a friend to the liberty of the press, was ob- 

 liged to retain the censorship, and even to execute it 

 with severity, during the aristocratical machinations 

 which disturbed his reign, and which were but imper- 

 fectly counteracted in the revolution of 1771. Gus- 

 tavus IV. issued an edict soon after he ascended the 

 throne, by which the censorship was retained only in 

 matters of religion, and was administered by the con- 

 sistories. This, however, was not permanent: at 

 first, penalties were enacted, and, in 1802, the cen- 

 sorship was entirely re-established, committed to the 

 chancellor of the court, and executed with severity. 

 French and German books were prohibited. King- 

 Charles XIII., immediately after his ascension to the 

 throne, abolished it entirely by a provisional order 

 of April 12, 1809, which was confirmed as an article 

 of the constitution ( 86), June 6, 1809. In Den- 

 mark, by a royal rescript of Sept. 14, 1770, (under 

 the minister Struensee), the censorship was wholly 

 abolished ; neither has it been restored, though the 

 laws by which the liberty of the press has been re- 

 gulated have been changing, and have sometimes 

 been very oppressive. 



In France, the censorship, like so many other in- 

 stitutions, was annihilated by the revolution. All the 

 constitutions, from 1791 to the Charte Constitutionelle 

 of 1814, declare the liberty of the press one of the 

 fundamental laws. During the republic, there was 



no censorship, but the revolutionary tribunals took its 

 place. Napoleon restored it, in another form, by the 

 decree of Feb. 5, 1810, (Direction <le I' ]n,}>ru,<> ,;<}. 

 Since the restoration, it lias also undergone various 

 changes, books of more than twenty sheets have 

 always remained free, but the censorship has been 

 exercised over pamphlets and journals at different 

 periods. For the establishment of new political jour- 

 nals, the permission of the government miiM lie ob- 

 tained, and bonds must be given by the editors. 



In the kingdom of the Netherlands, the censorship 

 is abolished oy a fundamental statute of An-. r.'-l, 

 1815, art. 226. Even in the kingdom of Poland, this 

 was formerly the case (constitution of Nov. 27, 1815, 

 art. 16), but it has been restored by a decree of June 

 16, 1819. In the German states, the liberty of the 

 press was much restrained till 1806, the state-attorney 

 having till then had control over it. After 181 1. M - 

 veral states abolished the censorship Nassau (decree 

 of May 4., 1814), Weimar (in the constitution, May 5, 

 1816), Wurtemberg (decree of Jan. 30, 1817), Bavaria 

 (Maj 26, 1818), grand-duchy of Hesse (constitution 

 of Dec. 17, 1820, 35), though with very different 

 provisions as to the responsibility of authors, printers, 

 and booksellers. (See Press, Laws of the.) In ac- 

 cordance with the unhappy decrees of Carlsbad, 

 1819, and the resolutions of the German diet of Sept. 

 20, 1819, the censorship in all the states of the Ger- 

 man confederation has become one of the conditions 

 of union, but only with regard to books of less than 

 twenty sheets, and journals. These measures were, 

 at first, adopted only for five years, but are, at present, 

 continued indefinitely. In Russia and Austria, then- 

 is naturally a despotic censorship. In the United 

 States of America a censorship has never existed. 



Besides the different degrees of severity with which 

 the censorship is exercised in different countries, it 

 may be divided into different kinds, according to the 

 field which it embraces. 1. A general censorship of 

 the book-trade and of the press, under which even 

 foreign books cannot be sold without the consent ot 

 the censors, exists in Russia, Austria, Spain, &c. 

 (Austria^has, in the censorship of foreign books, four 

 formulas : A. admittitur, entirely free ; B. transeat, 

 free, but without public advertisements for sale ; c. 

 ergo, schedam, to be sold only to public officers and 

 literary men, on the delivery of a receipt ; D. dumna- 

 tur, entirely forbidden.) 2. A general censorship ot 

 the press, extending only to books printed in the, 

 country, exists in Prussia (edict of Sept. 19, 1788; 

 order of the cabinet of Dec. 28, 1824), where, how- 

 ever, a case once took place, in which the publica- 

 tions of a foreign bookseller, Brockhaus of Leipsic, 

 were prohibited. 3. A limited censorship, only over 

 works of less than twenty sheets, and journals, is at 

 present the law in the states of the German confedera- 

 tion. See Press, Liberty of the, and Copyright. 



BOONE, Daniel, one of the first adventurers who 

 penetrated into the wilds of Kentucky, was born in 

 Virginia. He was, almost from his infancy, addicted 

 to hunting in the woods. He emigrated early to North 

 Carolina, then recently settled. Having determined 

 to cross the wilderness bordering on the Cumberland 

 mountains, in quest of the region of Kentucky, then 

 little known, he set out on his expedition, with five 

 companions, May 1, 1769. June 7, they arrived at 

 Red river, north of the Kentucky. A short time after- 

 wards, B. and one of his companions, John Stewart, 

 were captured by a party of savages. They soon 

 escaped, but could discover no traces of their friends, 

 who had returned home. B. and Stewart would have 

 been coristrained to follow them, had not Squire B., 

 the brother of Daniel, pursued their track from North 

 Carolina, and relieved them with a few necessaries. 

 Shortly afterwards, Stewart was killed by the Indians, 



