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<DATE>2008-11-03</DATE>
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<NAME>Mona Logarbo</NAME>
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<ITEM>Proofed and reviewed as part of batch B080923.pdcc.</ITEM>
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<HEAD><HI>Stationars</HI> and <HI>Printers,</HI> a <HI>Privilegial,</HI> not <HI>Municipal</HI> Com|panie or Corporation, however their <HI>Proprieties</HI> to bee <HI>individually</HI> con&s;erved, <HI>Humbly pre&s;ented to the Honorable Committee for Examinations, &amp;c.</HI></HEAD>
<P>_HAving lately (as far as I might) di&s;cerned the &s;ubtle, yet ambiguous de&s;ires of &s;om, (not the &s;ounde&s;t nor mo&s;t able Printers) I finde their pretences to bee <HI>Regulation,</HI> as in order to them&s;elvs, but no way in relation to the Common-wealth: And their chief ends to apply to them&s;elvs Com|municatively the chiefe&s;t Copies, being the <HI>proprieties</HI> of other men. Where|fore that the&s;e <HI>innovating</HI> men &s;hould, if they would, better under&s;tand them&s;elvs, I have directed the&s;e &s;equels.</P>
<P N="1">1. A Companie <HI>Municipal</HI> is &s;uch an one which &s;ubordinately <HI>utitur regulis &s;uis in ordine ad &s;e;</HI> u&s;eth their own Rules and Con&s;titutions in relation to them&s;elvs, as do <HI>Mercers, Drapers, Fi&s;h-mongers, &amp;c.</HI> Al&s;o <HI>Gold-&s;miths, Bra&s;iers, Shoo-makers, &amp;c.</HI> All of whom can buy, barter, &s;ell, contract, work, &amp;c. without any &s;pecial privilege, order, or li|cence from any Superior, Superiors, Supervi&s;or or Supervi&s;ors. But <HI>Printers, Book-binders,</HI> and <HI>Book-&s;ellers</HI> cannot by Decrees and Ordinances (hitherto thought fit to continue) print, binde, or &s;ell a Book (imprinted within this Nation) but by <HI>&s;pecial licence and allowance;</HI> nor import from other Nations, but with like regard. And in <HI>France, Germanie, Spain,</HI> and other Countries, they cannot print, but for a certain determined time, &s;uch or &s;uch a Book; nor &s;ell, but for &s;uch a price (a convenience, which, I &s;uppo&s;e, would bee u&s;eful in this Common-wealth,) e&s;pecially for &s;om Books. So that albeit the <HI>Printers, Book-binders,</HI> and <HI>Book-&s;ellers,</HI> are a Companie which &s;ubordinately <HI>utitur &s;uis regulis,</HI> in &s;om things; yet they u&s;e &s;uch Rules and Con&s;titutions <HI>in ordine ad alios, viz.</HI> Their Superiors (or rather the Common-wealth) not <HI>ad &s;e;</HI> as the forementi|oned Companies do; And are therefore to bee accounted a <HI>Privilegial,</HI> not a <HI>Municipal</HI> Com|panie.</P>
<P N="2">2. And whereas the <HI>Printers</HI> would not only invade other mens Proprieties (thereby endeavour|ing to null, as much as in them lie's, <HI>Meum &amp; Tuum,</HI> and inducing, as far as may bee, an example of ill con&s;equence to this Common-wealth) but they would al&s;o de&s;troy (as I am credibly informed) <HI>Patrimonial</HI> Right; that is, that the Father of a free Stationar &s;hall not make his Son free; and con|&s;equently that his Son &s;hall not bee capable of having or enjoying the benefit of Printing his Fa|ther's Copies; This their endeavour I conceiv to bee mo&s;t injurious; For many a Stationar (in|cluding the Printers) have many times little or nothing to leav their Wives and Children, but their Copies: Which if they &s;hould, by the indirect <HI>device</HI> of the&s;e innovating Printers, be deprived of; then they cannot other way &s;ub&s;i&s;t. <HI>Moreover,</HI> why &s;hould any free Stationar bee debarred from &s;uch Right, which by the Rules and Con&s;titutions general of the honorable Citie of <HI>London</HI> every Free-man enjoyeth; to wit, to make his Son a Free-man? This I take to bee a device of the Printers again&s;t <HI>Matthew Barker,</HI> and others, who&s;e Rights they would invade. So that (in my opinion) it would bee requi&s;ite, that neither the <HI>Book-&s;ellers,</HI> nor the <HI>Printers,</HI> being (as I have al|readie in&s;tanced, but <HI>privilegial,</HI> and not properly <HI>municipal</HI>) debate nor draw any Act or Acts, on their own behalf, for regulating of Printers &amp; Printing: But that &s;uch Act or Acts bee from hence|forth debated by the Honorable Council of State, or by &s;uch as they &s;hall appoint, and by them drawn up and recommended to the Parlament, for the regulating of Printing it &s;elf in a true <HI>De|corum,</HI> as al&s;o of all <HI>Proprieties</HI> individually. And if this of <HI>Proprieties</HI> were but exactly con|&s;idered and reported, the&s;e new (and for the mo&s;t part mean) Innovators, would (in all probabi|litie) de&s;i&s;t from further trouble&s;om &s;olliciting the Honorable Council of State, and apply them|&s;elvs to bee ruled and governed, as their Honors, and high Court of Parlament &s;hould in their Wi&s;doms think fit.</P>
<P>If it &s;hould bee &s;aid, That none ought to exerci&s;e <HI>the Art or My&s;terie of Printing,</HI> but &s;uch as have &s;erved &s;even years to a Printer, in regard that <HI>Printing</HI> may be &s;aid to bee a <HI>manual</HI> occupation, and con&s;equently to bee comprehended within the Act of <HI>Eli&s;.</HI> 5. <HI>c.</HI> 4. I an&s;wer, That albeit Printing may in regard of its <HI>labor,</HI> bee &s;aid to bee a manual occupation; yet in regard of its <HI>END,</HI> it is a <HI>Pri|vilegial,</HI> and not a <HI>Popular</HI> manual occupation, no otherwi&s;e then <HI>Coyning.</HI> And that Act of <HI>Eli&s;.&amp;c.</HI> intend's onely <HI>manual occupations popular,</HI> not <HI>privilegial;</HI> as the clau&s;es thereof manife&s;t. So that the <HI>privilege of Printing,</HI> or right of Copies, may re&s;ide in one or more, who are no Arti&s;ts; and the performance of Printing in &s;uch onely who are Arti&s;ts in Printing.</P>
<CLOSER><DATELINE><DATE>Januarie 2. 1651.</DATE></DATELINE>
<SIGNED>William Ball.</SIGNED></CLOSER>
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