pipe, which was performed with all agility and chearfulness imaginable.

And from this heath the troops marched off before him, viz. Major-general Brown's, the Merchant-adventurers, Alderman Robinson's, the Lord Maynard's, the Earls of Norwich, Peterborough, Cleveland, Derby, Duke of Richmond's, and his majesty's own life-guard.

In this order proceeding towards London, there were placed in Deptford, on his right hand (as he passed through the town) above an hundred proper maids, clad all alike, in white garments, with scarfs about them; who, having prepared many flaskets covered with fine linnen, and adorned with rich scarfs and ribbands, which flaskets were full of flowers and sweet herbs, strowed the way be fore him as he rode.

"

From thence, passing on, he came into St. George's Fields in Southwark, where the lord mayor and aldermen of London, in their scarlet, with the recorder, and other city council, waited for him in a large tent, hung with tapestry; in which they had placed a chair of state, with a rich canopy over it. When he came thi ther, the lord mayor presented him with the city sword, and the recorder made a speech to him; which being done, he alighted, and went into the tent, where a noble banquet was prepared for him.

From this tent the proceeding was thus ordered, viz. First, the city-marshal to follow in the rear of his majesty's life-guard: next the sheriffs trumpets; then the sheriffs men in scarlet clokes, laced with silver on the capes, carrying javelins in their hands; then divers eminent citizens well mounted, all in black velvet coats, and chains of gold about their necks, and every one his footman, with suit, cassock, and ribbands of the colour of his company; all which were made choice of out of the several companies in this famous city, and so distinguished; and, at the head of each distinction, the ensign* of that company.

Then

After these followed the city council†, by two and two, near the aldermen, then certain noblemen and noblemen's sons. the king's trumpets, then the heralds at arms.

After them, the Duke of Buckingham; then the Earl of Lindsey, lord high chamberlain of England, and the Lord General Monk; next to them Garter, principal King of Arms; the Lord Mayor on his right hand, bearing the city sword, and a Gentleman Usher on his left, and, on each side of them, the Serjeants at Arms with their maces.

Then the King's Majesty, with his equeries and footmen on each side of him, and, at a little distance on each hand, his royal brothers, the Dukes of York and Gloucester; and, after them, divers of the king's servants, who came with him from beyond sea; and, in the rear of all, those gallant troops, viz. the Duke of Buckingham, Earls of Oxford, Northampton, Winchelsea, Litch

In a word, let no man be ashamed to return to his honest vocation; if God have hitherto used them as his rod, let them not be high-minded but fear, that the angry Father may, by the tears, and prayers, and humiliations, and returnings of children to duty in expression of his reciprocal love to his children, return also in affection, and, in sign of the same, cast his rod into the fire, "where shall be weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth," because you had not compassion on your brethren, truly penitent for their and your sins.

Repent, dear countrymen, and take a heathen poet's, Propertius, advice, as most properly becoming each man.

THE

LONDON PRINTER,

HIS LAMENTATION:

OR,

THE PRESS OPPRESSED, OR OVERPRESSED.

September, 1660. Quarto, containing eight pages,

In this sheet of paper is contained, first, a short account of Printing in general, as its usefulness, where and by whom invented; and then a declaration of its esteem and promotion in England, by the several kings and queens, since its first arrival in this nation; together with the methods taken by the Crown for its better regulation and government, till the year 1640; when, says the Author, this trade, art, and mystery, was prostituted to every vile purpose, both in church and state; where he bitterly inveighs against Christopher Barker, John Bill, Thomas Newcomb, John Field, and Henry Hills, as interlopers, 'and, under the king's patent, were the only instruments of inflaming the people against the king and his friends, &c. As more fully appeareth in the following paper.

HOW venerable and worthily honoured, in all kingdoms and

commonwealths, the wonderful and mysterious invention, utility, and dignity of printing have always been, cannot be rationally contradicted; comparing it especially with the miserable condition and barbarousness of the ancients, as well in the eastern as the western parts of the world (as Strabo de Situ Orbis writeth) who, as he saith, for the better conveying to posterity the memorable acts and monuments of their present times, conceived and Contrived at first no better medium, than the impression thereof th their fingers, or little sticks, in ashes or sand, thinly dispersed spread abroad in vaults and cells: But, experience being the

mistress of art, some better wits at length invented knives, and other instruments, for the incision of letters in barks of trees; others, for the graving or carving of them in stone; others, with pincers in leaves of laurel, fig-trees, and other crassy leaves (as in China, and other parts of the Indies and eastern countries) impressed their memorials in uncouth characters: Since that, the use of lead was brought in estimation, for the insculption of words in a more convenient method. But (as the adage is true, facile est inventis addere, and use tends every day more and more to perfection) the happy experiment first of parchment, and then of paper, was ingeniously found out, with the use of canes, pencils, quills, and ink of several sorts: Yet, all this while, the benefit, accruing by that invention, tended no further, than to the composing of one single manuscript at one time, by the labour and inscription of one single person: The rarity and paucity whereof hath caused such honour, reverence, and authority to be put upon the antiquities of our ancestors, as they worthily merit.

But, at length, this vast expence of time and pains forced men's wits, by a cogent necessity, to enquire into, and search out the more occult and secret mysteries of art, for the better convenience and communication of their writings: And thereupon, by the blessing of Almighty God, upon the study and industry of John Gottenburg, the rare and incomparable mystery and science of printing of books was invented and practised at Mentz in Germany, above two-hundred years ago; and, soon after, that art was brought over into England by one William Caxton, a worshipful mercer of the famous city of London, and there put in use, with meritorious approbation of the religious and virtuous king Henry the Sixth, and all the estates of this kingdom. Since which time, being about two-hundred and twenty years elapsed, that ingenious mystery, splendor of art, and propagatrix of knowledge hath been. duly countenanced and encouraged, with so much favour and respect of all our English princes, that it is, by laudable succession of time, arrived at that exquisite perfection, as we now see it in itself. For true is the character of a printer, to wit:

Imprimit ille die, quantum non scribitur anno.

In English thus:

In one day's time a printer will print more,
Than one man write could in a year before.

To pretermit the honour and esteem placed upon it, in parti cular, by Henry the Eighth, and Edward the Sixth, and the in-. corporation of the Stationers Company by Queen Mary, merely and only for her favour and respect to the printers, and not to the booksellers (albeit they were both in their several faculties. then constituted in one body and society, under one generical and individual term of Stationers*): Let us come to the reign of the

As may more particularly be seen in the Charter of this Company, lately published by Tho mas Osborne of Gray's-Inn.

glorious queen Elisabeth, of ever blessed memory; and then we shall plaincy and perspicuously discover her majesty's great love and royal a lection to printing and printers; who, for the sake of them and it, so far descended from her royal throne, as that her Aighness not only made several gracious grants unto them, for berier i sintaining their poor, but also graciously recommended (for the special encouragement, and better subsistence of the masfor posters) the regulation of that mystery, and the professors Proof, to the right honourable and judicious, the Lords of her Mfqjesty's most honourable Privy Council; who, 23 Jun. 28 ka mad: a memorable and noble decree in the Star-Chamber, mining the Anmber of master printers in England to the number of twenty, to have the use and exercise of printing-houses for the fwe bong (besides her majesty's printers, and the printers allowed For the Universities) limiting and confining them within such an excellent method and strict regulation, as tended very much to the price and security of the church and state. But, as the world wizeth old as doth a garment, and the corruptions and evil manwork of times and men grow daily to a greater maturity and ripehed in sin and wickedness; and that all human kind are boldly Faclined to rush through any forbidden mischief (like the old race of the giants, and the builders of Babel) so in tract and process of time, and especially in these later days (notwithstanding the severity and authority of that good decree of the queen's time) printing and printers, about the year 1637, were grown to such a monstrous excess and exorbitant disorder, that the prudent limits and rules of that laudable decree were as much transgressed and infringed at that time, as the King's-Bench rules in Southwark have been extended and eloined in later days, for want of due execution of justice.

Wherefore, by the special command of our late royal and most illustrious king Charles, of blessed memory, the right honourable Thomas Lord Coventry, lord keeper of the great seal of England; the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, his Grace the Lord Bishop of London, lord high treasurer of England, the Lords Chief JusFors, and the Lord Chief Baron, being sat together in council in the Star Choumber, 11 July, 13 Car. and reviewing and maturely considering the said decree and ordinances of the queen's time; in very great wisdom, prudence, and policy of state, thought fit and adjudged not only to confirm the same, but also to make and subjoin thereto several useful and convenient additions and suppleHuenta, as the reason of state and the necessity of the times did then repulis Which last decree (with due renown to the memory of This mockers thereof) was the best and most exquisite form and conAntutum for the good government and regulation of the press, that FIFE was pronounced, or can reasonably be contrived, to keep it in dus order and regular exercise.

But now may we well with sorrow cry out at this day, with the comolham, O compara! O mores! or, in another sense, with the apies by the Canticles, chil. v. 15. Take us the foxes, the

little foxes, that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes." Never was there such an honourable, ingenious, and profitable mystery and science in the world so basely intruded upon, and disesteemed, so carelesly regarded, so unworthily subjected to infamy and disgrace, by being made so common, as printing hath been since 1640, in the days of our miserable confusions and calamities: Neither can it be repaired, or restored to its native worth and regular constitution, so long as such horrid monstrosities and gibbous excrescences are suffered to remain and tumour in that disorderly and confused body, as now it existeth in itself.

The excessive number of printing-houses and master-printers, or such at least as use and exercise the faculty of printing (though some be booksellers only by trade and education, and others are of other trades, not relative to printing) is at present multiplied and increased to above triple the number of twenty, constituted by that decree of the Star-Chamber; so that, by means of that exorbitant and excessive number of above sixty printing-houses in and about London, and the necessitous conditions of many of the prin ters themselves, and the imposition of others upon them (who, if they will not adventure to print for them what is unlawful and offensive to the state and government, being treasonable and seditious, and most profitable for sale, shall not be employed upon things lawful and expedient) all the irregularities, inconveniences, and mischiefs, that can be imagined to be committed and done by the too much liberty and licentiousness of the press, have been and are occasioned at this day, and daily will (without some speedy remedy and restriction, for the better encouragement of the honest and ingenious artists) be continued amongst us. How can it, in reason, be conceived to stand with the royalty and dignity of his most excellent majesty (whom God Almighty prosper and preserve) or with the safety and security of his kingdoms, to permit and suffer either the fore-mentioned inconveniences for the future, or such notorious impieties and abominable indignities and insolences, done and offered to his majesty's most sacred person and estate, to go unpunished in the actors thereof; who are nevertheless in truth and reality 1.is majesty's printers; against whom there is just cause of complaint at this present. As for example, Mr. Christopher Barker and Mr. John Bill, by their education and quality, have little or no skill or experience in the faculty and art of printing, as to the manual operation thereof, being never brought up in that mystery: And the old proverb is and will be true, to wit, Senex Psittacus non capit ferulam. And albeit they are said and intitle themselves (by a very questionable and doubtful authority both in law and equity) to be his majesty's printers; yet indeed are they but nominal and titular; for that the manual work and impression itself, as well of the late acts of parliament, as also of his majesty's proclamations, and other royal acts of state, hath been actually performed by Thomas Newcomb, John Field, and Henry Hills, printers: Which three persons, to give them their proper characters, have been the only insruments and incendiaries