I. THAT which subjects the Houses of Peers to be searched for Unlicensed Books, by Warrant from a Secretary of State, upon the bare Suspicion and Suggestion of a Messenger of the Press, without Oath.

II. (This other Clause) And be it farther Enacted, by the Authority aforesaid, That no Person or Persons shall within this Kingdom, or elsewhere, Imprint or cause to be Imprinted, &c. any Copy or Copies, Book or Books, or part of any Book or Books, or Forms of blank Bills or Indentures, for any of his Majesteis Islands, Printed be­yond the Seas or elsewhere, which any Person or Persons, by Vertue of any Letters Patents Granted or Assigned to him or them, or which shall hereafter be Granted or Assignd to him or them, Or, (where the same are not Granted by any Letters Patents) by Force or Vertue of any Entry or Entries thereof duly made or to be made, in the Register-book of the said Company of Stationers, &c. have or shall have the right Priviledge, Authority or Allowance solely to Print, &c. upon the Penalty of For­feiture, and also 6 s. 8d. for every Book or Part, &c. and punishment of the Party as an Offender against the Act. Whereby,

1. If any Man hath a Property in any Copy, which falls within a Patent Granted (or to be Granted) he is subject to the Penalties though his Book be Licensed.

2. If any Entry be made in the Register-book (in such Form as they count [Duly] no Man shall Print his own Copy, after it hath been Stoln from him and Entered as anothers; which has often happened in Fact: Whereby the right Owner is deprived of Remedy or Reparation by any other Law.

3. There being no sufficient Provision, for destroying the Forfeitures, it hath been an occasion, for the Company, to seize Foreign Books, and sell them again (to the prejudice of the English Printers and Booksellers, and Destruction of the English Manufacture) and to re-seize them, toties quoties, in the Hands of those Persons, who have bought them of the Company or their Agents, which ap­pears to have been their frequent Practice.