WILLIAM THE THIRD.

5

short time this bill came back with an important amendment.The Lords had inserted in the list of Acts to be continued theAct which placed the press under the control of licensers. TheCommons resolved not to agree to the amendment, demandeda conference, and appointed a committee of managers. Theleading manager was Edward Clarke, a stanch Whig, whorepresented Taunton, the stronghold, during fifty troubledyears, of civil and religious freedom.

Clarke delivered to the Lords in the Painted Chamber apaper containing the reasons which had determined the LowerHouse not to renew the Licensing Act. This paper completelyvindicates the resolution to which the Commons had come. Butit proves at the same time that they knew not what they weredoing, what a revolution they were making, what a power theywere calling into existence. They pointed out concisely,clearly, forcibly, and sometimes with a grave irony which is notunbecoming, the absurdities and iniquities of the statute whichwas about to expire. But all their objections will be found torelate to matters of detail. On the great question of principle,on the question whether the liberty of unlicensed printing be,on the whole, a blessing or a curse to society, not a word issaid. The Licensing Act is condemned, not as a thing essen-tially evil, but on account of the petty grievances, the exac-tions, the jobs, the commercial restrictions, the domiciliaryvisits which were incidental to it. It is pronounced mischievousbecause it enables the Company of Stationers to extort moneyfrom publishers, because it empowers the agents of the govern-ment to search houses under the authority of general w'arrants,because it confines the foreign book trade to the port of Lon-don; because it detains valuable packages of books at theCustom House till the pages are mildewed. The Commonscomplain that the amount of the fee which the licenser maydemand is not fixed. They complain that it is made penal in

CHAP

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liiilS.