457.) Gilbert Mabbott was accordingly appointed licenser of such weekly
papers as should be printed, but resigned the situation 22nd May, 1649.
(_Commons' Journals_, vi. 214.) It seems he had conscientious objections to
the service, for elsewhere it is recorded, under the same date, "Upon Mr.
Mabbott's desire and reasons against licensing of books to be printed, he
was discharged of that imployment." (Whitelock's _Memorials_, 389.) On the
20th September, 1649, was passed a parliamentary ordinance prohibiting
printing elsewhere than in London, the two Universities, York, and
Finsbury, without the licence of the Council of State (Scobell's
_Ordinances_, Part ii. 90.); and on the 7th January, 1652-3, the Parliament
passed another ordinance for the suppression of unlicensed and scandalous
books. (Scobell's _Ordinances_, Part ii. 231.) In 1661 a bill for the
regulation of printing passed the Lords, but was rejected by the Commons on
account of the peers having inserted a clause exempting their own houses
from search; but in 1662 was passed the statute 13 & 14 Car. II. c. 33.,
which required all books to be licensed as follows:--Law books by the Lord
Chancellor, or one of the Chief Justices, or Chief Baron; books of history
and state, by one of the Secretaries of State; of heraldry, by the Earl
Marshal, or the King-at-Arms; of divinity, physic, philosophy, or
whatsoever other science or art, by the Archbishop of Canterbury or the
Bishop of London: or if printed at either University, by the chancellor
thereof.
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