The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1819-12-13 00:00:00

HOUSE OF COMMONS, SATV*DAY, Drcv.misca 11.

The House met at three o'clock, but were
riot strinninned by the Black Roil till lieu.
1. nr. 0•I iigniring the reason of the delay, it
reoppseld that the Lords could not proceed to open
Ilat Commit-ion, inasmuch as no Bishop was in
tettrendance in read prayers. At length one was
fnund by their Lordship.' messenger. The prayers
I.eing over, the Black Rod appeared at the Bar of
e Common., mud the SPEAKER, attended by
.evreal Xleinhers, went to the HMlge or Peers. On
ti.eir return, the SPEAKER informed the House the
Royal A.sei.t had beeu given by Commission
tv the Training to Arms Bill.

fur the feerfoinesee or the prestintplioosnes, rash%
nesse, of • prefsoctiovay licenser. And to what
an author this violenc bath been lately done. and
is what book of greatest consequence to be faith-
fully published. I could now instance, but I shall
forbear till a store convenient season. Yet if these
things be not presented seriously and timely by
them who have the remedy in their power, lout that
such iron moulds as these shall have authority to
gnaw out the choicest periods of eaquisitest book•,
and to commit such a treacherous fraud upon the
orphan remainders of worthiest men alter death, the
more sorrow will belong to that haples race of men,
whose misfortune it is to have understanding.
Henceforth let no man care to learn, or care to be
more than worldly wise; for certainly in higher
matters to be ignorant and slothful, to be a com-
mon stedfest dunce, will be the only pleasant life,
and only in request.

" And as it is • pariietilsr disesteem of every
knowing person al;ve, most injurious to the writ-
ten lobe/ars of the deed, so to me it terms an under-
valuing and vilyfying of a whole nation. I cannot
set so light by all the inventions, the art, the wit,
the grave and solid judgment which is in England,
as that it can be comprehended in any twenty
capacities, how good soccer, much lease that it
should not passe, except their superintemlance he
over it, except it be shifted and strained with
their strainers, that it mould be unc•rrent without
their manual stamp. Truth and understanding are
not such wards as to be monopolized and traded iii
by tickets, and statutes, and standards. We must
rot think to mike a staple commodity of all the
knowledge in the hind, to mask and license it like
our broad cloath and our wool packs. What is it
bias servitude like that imposed by the Philistines,
not to be allowed the sharpning of our own axes
and coulters, but we must repair hem all quarters
to twenty licensing forges.
• • • • •

" Nor is it to the common people Jesse than • re-
proach; fu► if we be so jealous over them, ar that
we dare not trust them with an English pamphlet,
what doe we but censure them for • giddy, vicious,
and ungrounded people ; in such a sick and weak
estate of faith and discretion, as to be able to let
nothing down but through the pipe of • licenser
That this is care or love of them we cannot pre-
tend—wisdom we cannot call it, because it stops
but one breach of license, nor that neither, when
es those corruptionswhich it seeks to prevent, break
in faster at other dores which cannot be shut.
And, in conclusion, it reflects to the disrepute of
cur Ministers also, and of whose labours we should
hope better. and of the p►o6ciencie which their
flocks reaps by them, then that after all this light
of the Gospel which is and is to be, and all this
continual preaching, they should still be frequented
with such an unprincipled, uneditied, and !sick
rabble, as that the whilte of every new pamphlet
should stagger them out of their catechism and
Christian walking.
" And lest should persuade ye, Lords and Com-
mons, that these arguments of learned men's dis-
couragement at this boar order, are mere flourishes,
and not reall, I could reconn what I have seen and
heard in other countries. where this kind of inqui-
sition tyrannizes; where I have sat among their
learned men, for that honor I had, and hin counted
happy to be born in such • place of philosophic
freedom, as they supposed England was, while
themselves did nothing but bemoan the servil con-
dition into which learning amongst them was
brought, that this was it which had dampt the
glory of Italian wits, that nothing had bin there
written now these many years but flattery and fus-
tian. There it was that I found and visited the
famous GALILEO, grown old, a prisoner to the
Inquisition, for thinking in astronomy wherein
than the Franciscan and Dominican licensers
thought.
• • • • •

" For when God shakes a kingdome with strong
and healthful! commotion, to a general! reforming,
'tis not untrue that many sectaries and false
teachers are then busiest in wincing; but yet more
true it is, that God then raises to his own work
men of rare abilities, and more than common in-
dustry, not only to look back and revise what
hath bin taught heretofore, but to gain further,
and goe on, some new enlightened steps in the dis-
covery of truth."

LONDON.
MONDAY. Dicssissa 13, 1819.

The Manager. among the Radical Ref irmers
have, we lament to say, convened a meeting of the
popolace fur th 4 day at Maachester, and
taneous meeting• are proposed to be held in some
of the neighbouring villages, foe the purpose, say
their placards, of remonstrating with the PRINCE
RCOENT and both Houses of Parliament upon the
impropriety of passing the measures proposed by
the Ministers against the freedom of deliheration
and the liberty of the press. No doubt these
people, however erroneous may be their principles,
have as good a right to meet fur the purposes stated
in their advertisements, as the wisest and most loyal
of his Majesty's sal jects ; but after the events

, •R ..-.A.