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On the 28th September, 1647, the Lords and Commons passed a still more
severe ordinance, which imposed pains and penalties on all persons
printing, publishing, selling, or uttering any book, pamphlet, treatise,
ballad, libel, or sheet of news, without the licence of both, or either
House of Parliament, or such persons as should be thereunto authorised by
one or both Houses. Offending hawkers, pedlars, and ballad-chappers were to
be whipped as common rogues. (_Parliamentary History_, xvi. 309.) We get
some insight into the probable cause of this ordinance from a letter of Sir
Thomas Fairfax to the Earl of Manchester, dated "Putney, 20th Sept., 1647."
He complains of some printed pamphlets, very scandalous and abusive, to the
army in particular, and the whole kingdom in general; and expresses his
desire that these, and all of the like nature, might be suppressed for the
future. In order, however, to satisfy the kingdom's expectation for
intelligence, he advises that, till a firm peace be settled, two or three
sheets might be permitted to come out weekly, which might be licensed; and
as Mr. Mabbott had approved himself faithful in that service of licensing,
and likewise in the service of the House and the army, he requested that he
might be continued in the said place of licenser. (_Lords' Journals_, ix.
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