# Cowie's Printer's Pocket-Book and Manual/Abstracts of the Acts relative to Printers

ABSTRACTS OF THE ACTS RELATIVE TO PRINTERS.
We shall now present our readers with brief notices of the different Acts of Parliament which have been passed respecting printers, in order that the profession may know how far the several clauses affect them, with respect to whatever they may hereafter print.
By the Act 13 Geo. II. c. 19, (to restrain and prevent the excessive increase of horse-races, &c.) it is enacted, "That every person or persons who shall make, print, publish, advertise, or proclaim any advertisement or notice of any plate, prize sum of money, or other thing of less value than fifty pounds to be run for by any horse, mare, or gelding, shall forfeit and lose the sum of one hundred pounds."
By the Act 25 Geo. II. cap. 36, (for the better preventing thefts and robberies,) it is enacted, "That any person publicly advertising a reward with 'No questions asked,' for the return of things which have been stolen or lost, or making use of any such words in such public advertisement, &c. shall for every such offence forfeit fifty pounds."
The Act 39 Geo. III. cap. 79, (for the more effectual suppression of societies established for seditious and treasonable purposes,) contains several provisions and penalties respecting printers, letter founders, and printing press makers.
Sect. 23 enacts, "That, from and after the expiration of forty days from the day of passing this Act, every person having any printing press, or types for printing, shall cause a notice thereof, signed in the presence of and attested by one witness, to be delivered to the Clerk of the Peace acting for the county, stewartry, riding, division, city, borough, town, or place, where the same shall be intended to be used, or his deputy, according to the form prescribed in the schedule hereunto annexed: and such Clerk of the Peace, ​or deputy respectively, shall, and he is hereby authorized and required to grant a certificate in the form prescribed in the schedule hereunto annexed, for which such Clerk of the Peace, or deputy, shall receive the fee of one shilling, and no more; and such Clerk of the Peace, or his deputy, shall file such notice, and transmit an attested copy thereof to one of his Majesty's principal Secretaries of State; and every person who, not having delivered such notice, and obtained such certificate as aforesaid, shall, from and after the expiration of forty days next after the passing of this Act, keep or use any printing press or types for printing, or having delivered such notice and obtained such certificate as aforesaid, shall use any printing press or types for printing in any other place than the place expressed in such notice, shall forfeit and lose the sum of twenty pounds."
Sect. 24 exempts his Majesty's printers, and the public presses belonging to the Universities.
Sect. 25 and 26 relate to type founders and press makers.
Sect. 27 enacts, "That from and after the expiration of forty days after the passing of this Act, every person who shall print any paper or book whatsoever, which shall be meant or intended to be published or dispersed, whether the same shall be sold or given away, shall print upon the front of every paper, if the same shall be printed on one side only, and upon the first and last leaves of every paper or book which shall consist of more than one leaf, in legible characters, his or her name, and the name of the city, town, parish, or place, and also the name (if any) of the square, street, lane, court, or place, in which his or her dwelling-house, or usual place of abode shall be; and every person who shall omit so to print his name and place of abode on every such paper or book printed by him, and also every person who shall publish or disperse, or assist in publishing or dispersing, either gratis or for money, any printed paper or book ​which shall have been printed after the expiration of forty days from the passing of this Act, and on which the name and place of abode of the person printing the same shall not be printed as aforesaid, shall, for every copy of such paper so published or dispersed by him, forfeit and pay the sum of twenty pounds."
Sect. 28 exempts papers printed by authority of either House of Parliament.
Sect. 29 enacts, "That every person who, from and after the expiration of forty days after the passing of this Act, shall print any paper for hire, reward, gain, or profit, shall carefully preserve and keep one copy (at least) of every paper so printed by him or her, on which he or she shall write, or cause to be written or printed, in fair and legible characters, the name and place of abode of the person or persons by whom he or she shall be employed to print the same: and every person printing any paper for hire, reward, gain, or profit, who shall omit or neglect to write, or cause to be written or printed as aforesaid, the name and place of his or her employer, on one of such printed papers, or to keep or preserve the same for the space of six calendar months next after the printing thereof, or to produce and shew the same to any Justice of the Peace, who, within the said space of six calendar months shall require to see the same, shall, for every such omission, neglect, or refusal, forfeit and lose the sum of £20.
Form of Notice to be given to the Clerk of the Peace, that any Person keeps any Printing Press or Types for Printing.
To the Clerk of the Peace for —————— [here insert the county, stewartry, riding, division, city, borough, town, or place,] or his deputy.
I, A. B. of —————— do hereby declare that I have a printing press and types for printing, which I propose to use for printing within ——————, and which I require to ​be entered for that purpose, in pursuance of an Act passed in the thirty-ninth year of his Majesty King George the Third, entitled, "An Act for the more effectual suppression of societies established for seditious and treasonable purposes, and for better preventing treasonable and seditious practices."
Witness my hand this ———— day of ——————.
Signed in the presence of ——————.
An Act was passed on the 10th of June, 1811, to amend and explain the above Act, by which it is enacted, "That nothing in the 27th Section of the said Act contained, shall extend to make any person or persons offending against the same, liable to more than twenty-five forfeitures or penalties for printing, or publishing, or dispersing, or assisting in publishing or dispersing, any number of copies of one and the same paper or book, contrary to the said Section of the said Act.
By the second Section of this Act, power is given to magistrates to mitigate the same to any sum not less than £5, with all reasonable costs incurred in the prosecution; and by the 4th Section, persons convicted under this amended Act may, if they think themselves aggrieved, appeal to the Quarter Sessions: where the justices, if they see cause, may mitigate any penalty or penalties, and may order any money to be returned which shall have been paid or levied under any conviction as aforesaid, and may also order and award such costs to be paid by either party to the other, as they shall think and judge reasonable.
The Act 60 Geo. III. cap. 9, to subject certain publications to the duties of Stamps upon Newspapers, and to make other regulations for restraining the abuses arising from the publication of blasphemous and seditious libels. December 30, 1819.
Sect. 1. All pamphlets and papers containing any public news, intelligence or occurrences, or any remarks or ​observations thereon, or upon any matter in church or state, printed in any part of the United Kingdom for sale, and published periodically, or in parts or numbers, at intervals not exceeding twenty-six days between the publication of any two such pamphlets or papers, parts or numbers, where any of the said pamphlets, &c., shall not exceed two sheets, or shall be published for sale for a less sum than sixpence, exclusive of the duty, shall be deemed and taken to be newspapers, agreeable to the Act of the 38th Geo. III. and subject to all the rules, &c., of all former Acts regarding newspapers, &c.
Sect. 2. No quantity of paper less than 21 inches in length, and 17 in breadth, to be deemed a sheet.
Sect. 3. No cover or blank leaf upon which any advertisement or other notice shall be printed, shall be deemed part of a pamphlet.
Sect. 4. Publications of the above nature, at intervals exceeding 26 days, to be published on the first day of every calendar month, or within two days before or after. Penalty £20.
Sect. 5. The price and day of publication to be printed on all periodicals, penalty for omission £20; persons liable to the above penalty for selling, or exposing for sale, any of the said publications for a less price than sixpence.
Sect. 6. Price not to extend to the allowance made to distributors, who buy to sell again.
Sect. 7. Pamphlets liable to the Stamp duties freed from all regulations respecting pamphlets.
Sect. 8. Persons not to print or publish newspapers, &c., or pamphlets of two sheets or under, of the above description, without entering into recognizance, or giving bond for securing fines upon conviction for libels. Penalty £20.
Sect. 9. If sureties pay any part of the money for which they are bound, or become bankrupts, new recognizance or bond with sureties must be given. Penalty £20.
​Sect. 10. Sureties may withdraw from their recognizance, upon giving twenty days previous notice, in writing, to the Commissioners or Distributors of Stamps in the district, and also to the printer or publisher; sureties not to be liable after the expiration of such notice. Bond or new sureties to be given before any more numbers are published, for every such offence, penalty £20.
Sect. 11. Bonds not subject to Stamp duties.
Sect. 12. Lists of recognizances to be sent to the Commissioners of Stamps four times a year; bonds, within ten days after the execution.
Sect. 13. Extending the provisions of former Acts relative to the delivery of newspapers, &c. to the Commissioners of Stamps. Penalty for neglect of delivery of such pamphlets or papers, £100.
Sect. 14. Commissioners refusing to take any pamphlet or paper, to give, if required, a certificate of such refusal.
Sect. 15 Persons selling papers, &c. not duly stamped, to be fined £20.
Sect. 16. Recognizance, in case of libel, to be of good behaviour, as well as to appear to answer.
Sect. 17. Fines, penalties, &c. to be recovered by action of debt, bill, plaint or information, &c., not more than £100 to be recovered before Justices of the Peace, for any penalty incurred in one day.
Sect. 18. Two or more Justices to hear and determine offences committed against this Act, within the limitation of three months; magistrates have power to mitigate penalties to one-fourth; reasonable costs, &c. must always be paid.
Sect 19. Persons refusing to appear and give evidence, when summoned s witneses, without satisfactory excuse to the magistrates, shall forfeit for each offence the sum of £20.
Sect. 21. Order or conviction of Justices not to be removed into any Court whatever, nor can the execution be superseded.
​Sect. 22. No action for penalties shall be commenced but in the name of the Attorney-General, in England and Ireland, and Advocate for Scotland, or some officer of the Stamp Duties.
Sect. 23. Duties to be under the management of the Commissioners of Stamps.
Sect. 24. Duties and discounts to be paid and allowed according to the provisions of former Acts.
Sect. 26, contains the following exceptions:—Acts, &c., printed for Government, School Books, subjects on Devotion, &c., Daily Accounts, Bills of Goods imported and exported, Warrants and Certificates for the delivery of goods, Weekly Bills of Mortality, Lists of Prices Current, State of the Markets, Accounts of the Arrival and Sailing of Merchants' Ships, &c., &c., provided they contain nothing more than the usual matter.
Sect. 27. Reprinted works published in numbers, not chargeable with the Stamp duty, provided that it had been printed two years, and not first published in parts or numbers.