CHAPTER XIII. ON THE STATE OF THE CONSTITUTION UNDER CHARLES II. Effect of the Press-Restrictions upon it before and after the Restoration-Licensing XIII. Constitution Ir may seem rather an extraordinary position, after the last CHAP. chapters, yet is strictly true, that the fundamental privileges of the subject were less invaded, the prerogative swerved into fewer Charles II. excesses during the reign of Charles II. than perhaps in any former period of equal length. Thanks to the patriot energies of Selden and Elliott, of Pym and Hampden, the constitutional boundaries of royal power had been so well established, that no minister was daring enough to attempt any flagrant and general violation of them. The frequent session of parliament, and its high estimation of its own privileges, furnished a security against illegal taxation. Nothing of this sort has been imputed to the government of Charles, the first king of England, perhaps, whose reign was wholly free from such a charge. And as the nation happily escaped the attempts that were made after the restoration, to revive the star-chamber and high-commission courts, there was no means of chastising political delinquencies, except through XIII. Constitution CHAP. the regular tribunals of justice, and through the verdict of a jury. Ill as the one were often constituted, and submissive as the other Charles II. might often be found, they afforded something more of a guarantee, were it only by the publicity of their proceedings, than the dark and silent divan of courtiers and prelates who sat in judgment under the two former kings. Though the bench was frequently subservient, the bar contained high-spirited advocates, whose firm defence of their clients the judges often reproved, but no longer affected to punish. The press, above all, was in continual service. An eagerness to peruse cheap and ephemeral tracts on all subjects of passing interest had prevailed ever since the reformation. These had been extraordinarily multiplied from the meeting of the long parliament. Some thousand pamphlets of different descriptions, written between that time and the restoration, may be found in the British Museum; and no collection can be supposed to be perfect. It would have required the summary process and stern severity of the court of star-chamber to repress this torrent, or reduce it to those bounds which a government is apt to consider as secure. But the measures taken with this view under Charles II. require to be distinctly noticed. In the reign of Henry VIII., when the political importance of the art of printing, especially in the great question of the reformation, began to be apprehended, it was thought necessary to assume an absolute control over it, partly by the king's general prerogative, and still more by virtue of his ecclesiastical supremacy *. Thus it became usual to grant by letters patent the * It was said in 18 Car. II. (1666) that "the king by the common law hath a general prerogative over the printing press; so that none ought to print a book for public use without his license." This seems, however, to have been in the argument of counsel; but the court held that a patent to print law-books exclusively was no monopoly. Carter's Reports, 89. "Matters of state and things that concern the govern 66 were ment," it is said in another case, XIII. Constitution exclusive right of printing the Bible or religious books, and after- CHAP. wards all others. The privilege of keeping presses was limited to the members of the stationers' company, who were bound by Charles II. regulations established in the reign of Mary by the star-chamber, for the contravention of which they incurred the speedy chastisement of that vigilant tribunal. These regulations not only limited the number of presses, and of men who should be employed on them, but subjected new publications to the previous inspection of a licenser. The long parliament did not hesitate to copy this precedent of a tyranny they had overthrown, and by repeated ordinances against unlicensed printing, hindered, as far as in them lay, this great instrument of political power from serving the purposes of their adversaries. Every government, however popular in name or origin, must have some uneasiness from the great mass of the multitude, some vicissitudes of public opinion to apprehend; and experience shows that republics, especially in a revolutionary season, shrink as instinctively, and sometimes as reasonably, from an open license of the tongue and pen, as the most jealous court. We read the noble apology of Milton for the freedom of the press with admiration; but it had little influence on the parliament to whom it was addressed. It might easily be anticipated, from the general spirit of lord Clarendon's administration, that he would not suffer the press to emancipate itself from these established shackles. A bill for the regulation of printing failed in 1661, from the commons' jealousy of the peers, who had inserted a clause exempting their own houses from search. But next year a statute was enacted, which, reciting the well-government and regulating of printers rity. One was accordingly brought in by bishop Pearson, but the matter dropped. Life of Charles II., 274. * We find an order of council, June 7, 1660, that the stationers' company do seize and deliver to the secretary of state all copies of Buchanan's History of Scotland, and De Jure Regni apud Scotos, "which +Commons' Journals, July 29, 1661. XIII. Constitution CHAP. and printing-presses to be matter of public care and concernment, and that by the general licentiousness of the late times many Charles II. evil-disposed persons had been encouraged to print and sell heretical and seditious books, prohibits every private person from printing any book or pamphlet, unless entered with the stationers' company, and duly licensed in the following manner; to wit, books of law by the chancellor or one of the chief justices, of history and politics by the secretary of state, of heraldry by the kings at arms, of divinity, physic, or philosophy, by the bishops of Canterbury or London, or, if printed in either university, by its chancellor. The number of master-printers was limited to twenty; they were to give security, to affix their names, and to declare the author, if required by the licenser. The king's messengers, by warrant from a secretary of state, or the master and wardens of the stationers' company, were empowered to seize unlicensed copies wherever they should think fit to search for them, and in case they should find any unlicensed book suspected to contain matters contrary to the church or state, they were to bring them to the two bishops before mentioned, or one of the secretaries. No books were allowed to be printed out of London, except in York, and in the universities. The penalties for printing without license were of course heavy*. This act was only to last three years, and after being twice renewed, the last time until the conclusion of the first session of the next parliament, expired consequently in 1679; an era when the house of commons were happily in so different a temper, that any attempt to revive it must have proved abortive. During its continuance, the business of licensing books was intrusted to sir Roger L'Estrange, a well-known pamphleteer of that age, and himself a most scurrilous libeller in behalf of the party he espoused, that of popery and despotic power. It is hardly necessary to remind the reader of the objections that were raised to one or two lines in Paradise Lost. * 14 Car. II. c. 33. |