[221] Printers were ordered to enter into a bond of £300 to the Crown not to misconduct themselves, but no bond appears to have been exacted by this Act from letter-founders.
[222] The Act of 1662 was a probationary Act for two years. In 1664 it was continued till the end of the next session, and again until the end of the session following; and in 1666 again until the end of the first session of the next Parliament. In 1685 it was revived for seven years, at the end of which, in 1692, it was continued for one year more, after which it dropped. According to this account, it must have been dormant at any rate between 1679 and 1685.
[223] In 1724, according to the list presented by Samuel Negus to Lord Townsend, the number of printers in London had increased to seventy-five, and in the provinces to twenty-eight. There were also at that time eighteen newspapers.
[224] A Proposal for Restraining the great Licentiousness of the Press throughout Great Britain, etc. No date.
[225] An Act for the more effectual Suppression of Societies established for Seditious and Treasonable Purposes; and for better preventing Treasonable and Seditious Practices. [12 July, 1799.]
[226] “VI. FORM of Notice to the Clerk of the Peace that any person carries on the Business of a Letter Founder, or Maker or Seller of Types for Printing, or of Printing Presses.—To the Clerk of the Peace for (as the case may be) or his Deputy.—I, A. B., of ———— do hereby declare, That I intend to carry on the Business of a Letter Founder, or Maker or Seller of Types for Printing, or of Printing Presses (as the case may be), at ———— and I hereby require this Notice to be entered in pursuance of an Act passed in the 39th Year of the Reign of His Majesty, King George the Third.”
[227] “VII. FORM of Certificate that the above Notice has been given.—I, G. H., Clerk (or Deputy Clerk) of the Peace for ———— do hereby certify that A. B. of ———— hath delivered to me a Notice in Writing, appearing to be signed by him, and attested by E. F. as a Witness to his signing the same, that he intends to carry on the Business of a Letter Founder, or Maker or Seller of Types for Printing or of Printing Presses, at ———— and which Notice he has required to be entered in pursuance of an Act of the 39th Year of His Majesty, King George the Third.”
[228] The clauses relating to printers and typefounders were repealed by the 32 and 33 Vict., cap. 24: An Act to Repeal certain enactments relating to Newspapers, Pamphlets, and other Publications, and to Printers, Type-founders, and Reading Rooms. [12 July, 1869.]
- “Now register’d—now ticketed we move,
- Our slightest works the double label prove.”
(McCreery, The Press, p. 25.)