816 
LITERATURE. 
jnent of all countries, the fource of all their improve¬ 
ments, the molt powerful handmaid of their civilization, 
the provider of ourpureft. pleafures, has been fubjetted to 
a grievance, to a peculiar taxation, which, though llatutary 
law, is certainly hoftile both to reafon and to equity. 
The hiltory of the deliver}' of the conies may be thus 
fuccinftly dated. It hegan in the year ;66i ; and in the 
free fpirit of our prefent enviable confritution we may 
truly fay, that nothing'could have a worfe beginning; for 
its injunction is a portion of an ait palled in that year, 
than which a more difgraceful ftatute was never enafted in 
any country pretending to have emerged out of barbarifm, 
to pofiefs any love of literature, or to enjoy any public 
liberty; a ftatute which, for the committed or anticipated 
offences of a few obfcure perfons, vifited the whole body 
'of Englifh literature with bonds and fcourges, calumny, 
fufpicion, and difcouragement. By this ait, (13 & 14. 
Car. II. c. 33.) after prohibiting heretical or feditious 
publications, it was ordered that no perfon fhonld print 
any book unlels it was fir ft licenfed and authorifed ; law- 
hooks, by the chancellor, or chief juftices, or chief baron 5 
books on hiftory or ftate-affairs by the fecretary of ftate; 
books on heraldry by the earl marfhal; books on divi¬ 
nity, phyfic, philcSlophy, fcience, or art, by the archbithop 
of Canterbury or the bifjiop of London. 
It proceeds afterwards, as declared in its preamble, to 
reduce and limit the number of printing-prefles; and for 
this purpc-fe it declares, that in future no man fliould be 
■a mafter-printer until the then mafter-printers were re¬ 
duced to twenty; and the mafter letter-founders were to 
be four. The mafter-printers and letter-founders were 
£0 be nominated and allowed by the archbifhop of Canter¬ 
bury and bifliop of London ; and no man, unlefs he had 
Jbeen mafter of the ftatiouers’ company, was to keep more 
than two prefles. The rood inquifitorial powers were 
then given to meftengers authorized by warrants from the 
king, fecretary of ftate, or mafter and wardens of the fta- 
tioners’ company, to enter at what time they Jhonld think ju , 
s>nd to fearcli, all hovjes where they fliould know, or upon 
Horne probable caufe fufpeft, any books to be printed, 
bound, or ftitched ; and tc examine whether the lame be 
licenfed or not. 
Thefe violent enaftments having been made, and ade¬ 
quate penalties impoled, the fame ftatute then proceeds to 
cnatt, that every, printer fnould fend three copies of every 
bock new printed, or reprinted with additions, to the fta- 
tioners’ company, to be fent to the king’s library, and the 
vice-chancellors of the two univerfities of Oxford and 
Cambridge, for the ufe of their public libraries. Until 
this ftatute there is not a trace of any law enjoining thefe 
deliveries. On this ftatute they began ; and it is clear, by 
its whole.complexion, that they were enafted in an arbi¬ 
trary and ill-tempered fpirit a|ainft literature and printing 
in general; for it makes no dilcrimifiation. It is not con¬ 
fined to heretical or feditious books. It includes in its 
Sweeping wrath publications which furely mult have been 
Utarmlefs; as books on heraldry, phyfic, fcience, and art; 
and makes the prelates of our church the judges of works 
on medicine and art. It was however ordered to remain 
in force but for two yeas. In 1664. it was continued for 
another feffion of parliament. In the fame year, for ano¬ 
ther. In the next year, 1665, it was continued until a 
following feffion, with the addition of penalties on non¬ 
deliveries ; and it was then fullered to expire, within a 
few years after it had appeared. 
From this time to the end of the reign of Charles II. 
no fiinilar enaftment took place; but the prefs became 
free., and the delivery of the three copies cealed to be 
law. But it was one of the. firft afts of the violent and 
arbitrary reign of James II. to revive this obnoxious fta¬ 
tute., Hn the firft year of his reign, 1685, it was revived 
for feven years, and thus the delivery of the three copies 
became again enjoined for that period. The revolution 
under William III. then occurred. In his reign fuch a 
itiinte was not long kept alive,} it was allowed to expire. 
in 1694.. See the article Liberty of the Press, p, 602 of 
this volume. 
From the final expiration of thefe ftatutes in 1694-, to 
1709, literature was again freed from this burthen. But 
in 1709 the ftatute of Anne was made, which lias led to 
the grievance complained of. On confulting the records 
of the houfe, it appears that the bill for this aft as brought 
in required the delivery of three copies only as before. In 
paffing through the houfe, however, two copies were ad¬ 
ded, one for Sion College, and one for the Faculty of 
Advocates at Edinburgh. It was in the houfe of lords 
that the other four copies were added for the Scotch uni- 
verfities, making in all the nine copies. 
Now, until this aft palled, it is undeniable that fix of 
thefe libraries, Sion College and the five in Scotland, 
never had any copies before. They cannot therefore urge 
any antecedent right. The royal library and the two Eng¬ 
lish univerfities had the tranfient boon to urge which the 
obnoxious ftatute of Charles had given them, which had 
twice expired. But, although thele nine libraries became 
intitled to copies under this aft of Anne, it has been oli- 
ferved before, that the practical conftruftion and opera¬ 
tion of this ftatute was, that copies of thofe books only 
were delivered which the proprietors chofe to enter in 
the ftationers’ regifter. If this optional delivery had been 
continued, authors and their affigns would not have com¬ 
plained. It is from this fudden change of the conftruc- 
tion and application of the aft, to the compulfory deli¬ 
very of all books, whether regiltered or not, that they now 
feek relief. 
The firft compulfory delivery of copies which the par¬ 
liament enafted, feems to have had chiefly in view the 
prevention of libellous and unlicenfed writings, by com¬ 
pelling printed copies to be given to thofe public libraries 
from which the knowledge of them would come with, 
fipeed and certainty to goverrqnent. This objeft will cer¬ 
tainly now not influence the legiflature, becaufe it has 
taken a meafure of its own on this very fubjeft, which 
adds another copy to the eleven now demanded. By the 
39th of George III. c. 79. § 27, 29. it is directed, not 
only that the printer’s name (hall be printed to every 
work, but alfo that he (hall referve a copy of the work he 
prints. Thus, in faft, twelve copies are fubtrafted from 
every publication. 
In taking eleven copies of every work compulforiJy 
from its author or proprietor, his right of property is di- 
reftly invaded ; it is invaded as completely as if it were 
to be enafted, that a filverfmith ihould give to thefe pub¬ 
lic bodies eleven filv.er candlefticks of every new pattern 
he produces. So long as the aft of Anne was conftrued 
to enforce a delivery of thofe copies only which the owner 
chofe to regifter, the objection would not fo fully attach. 
The proprietor had then an option: of that he is now 
deprived ; and therefore the compulfory delivery of eleven 
copies becomes a direft infringement on that right of pro¬ 
perty, which ought never to be violated, unlels the wel¬ 
fare of the nation requires the facrifice. Does the falus 
publica make this violation necefiary ? does it exaft this 
Sacrifice 1 
Let the extent of this facrifice be firft confidered. The 
aft of Anne direfts the belt-paper copies to be delivered. 
Now the actual amount of eleven belt-paper copies of the 
following works would, at their felling price, amount to 
the following formidable fums : 
Gell’s Topography of Troy - 
Daniel’s Voyage to India ... 
Wilkins’s Antiquities of Greece 
Hewlett’s Bible, 31 Parts - 
Pallas’s Travels, 2 vols. (only 50 printed) 
Pinkerton’s Voyages, 16 vols. 
Morier’s Travels (only 75 printed) 
Nichols's Hogarth, 2 vols. (only 250 printed) 
Dibdin’s.Bibliomania (only 18 printed on belt 
pap6r) - - e e 
2 
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78 
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