time for the punishment of books. The custom of book-burning,
never formally abolished, died out at last from a gradual decline
of public belief in its efficacy; just as tortures died out, and
judicial ordeals died out, and, as we may hope, even war will die
out, before the silent, disintegrating forces of increasing
intelligence. As our history goes on, one becomes more struck by
the many books which escape burning than by the few which incur
it. The tale of some of those which were publicly burnt during
the eighteenth century has already been told; so that it only
remains to bring together, under their various heads, the
different literary productions which complete the record of
British works thus associated with the memory of the hangman.

After the beginning of the Long Parliament, the House of Commons
constituted itself the chief book-burning authority; but the
House of Lords also, of its own motion, occasionally ordered the
burning of offensive literary productions. Thus, on March 29th,
1642, they sentenced John Bond, for forging a letter purporting
to be addressed to Charles I. at York from the Queen in Holland,
to stand in the pillory at Westminster Hall door and in
Cheapside, with a paper on his head inscribed with "A contriver
of false and scandalous libels," the said letter to be called in
and burnt near him as he stood there.

On December 18th, 1667, they sentenced William Carr, for
dispersing scandalous papers against Lord Gerrard, of Brandon, to
a fine of L1000 to the King, and imprisonment in the Fleet, and
ordered the said papers to be burnt.

On March 17th, 1697, a sentence of burning was voted by them
against a libel called _Mr. Bertie's Case, with some Remarks on
the Judgment Given Therein_.

Sometimes they thought in this way to safeguard not merely truth
in general, or the honour of their House, but also the interests
of religion; as when, on December 8th, 1693, they ordered to be
burnt by the hangman the very next day a pamphlet that had been
sent to several of them, entitled _A Brief but Clear Confutation
of the Trinity_, a copy of which possibly still lies hid in some
private libraries, but about which, not having seen it, I can
offer no judgment. At that time Lords and Commons alike
disquieted themselves much over religious heresy, for in 1698 the
Commons petitioned William III. to suppress pernicious books and
pamphlets directed against the Trinity and other articles of the
Faith, and g