er those at
the helm would now have reason to be pleased with their success. A
particular person may, with more safety, despise the opinion of the
vulgar, because it does a wise man no real harm or good, but the
administration a great deal; and whatever side has the sole management
of the pen, will soon find hands enough to write down their enemies as
low as they please. If the people had no other idea of those whom Her
Majesty trusts in her greatest affairs, than what is conveyed by the
passions of such as would compass sea and land for their destruction,
what could they expect, but to be torn in pieces by the rage of the
multitude? How necessary therefore was it, that the world should, from
time to time, be undeceived by true representations of persons and
facts, which have kept the kingdom steady to its interest, against all
the attacks of a cunning and virulent faction.

However, the mischiefs of the press were too exorbitant to be cured, by
such a remedy as a tax upon the smaller papers; and a Bill for a much
more effectual regulation of it was brought into the House of Commons,
but so late in the session, that there was no time to pass it: for there
hath hitherto always appeared, an unwillingness to cramp overmuch the
liberty of the press, whether from the inconveniencies apprehended from
doing too much, or too little; or whether the benefit proposed by each
party to themselves, from the service of their writers, towards
recovering or preserving of power, be thought to outweigh the
disadvantages. However it came about, this affair was put off from one
week to another, and the Bill not brought into the House till the eighth
of June. It was committed three days, and then heard of no more. In this
Bill there was a clause inserted, (whether industriously with design to
overthrow it) that the author's name, and place of abode, should be set
to every printed book, pamphlet, or paper; which I believe no man, who
hath the least regard to learning, would give his consent to: for,
besides the objection to this clause from the practice of pious men,
who, in publishing excellent writings for the service of religion, have
chosen, out of an humble Christian spirit, to conceal their names; it is
certain, that all persons of true genius or knowledge have an invincible
modesty and suspicion of themselves, upon their first sending their
thoughts into the world; and that those who are dull or superficial,
void of all-taste and judgm