any Fee or Reward; and the Clerk of the said Company of Stationers,
shall, when and as often as thereunto required, give a Certificate under
his Hand of such Entry or Entries, and for every such Certificate, may
take a Fee not exceeding Six Pence.
Provided nevertheless, That if the Clerk of the said Company of
Stationers, for the time being shall Refuse or Neglect to Register, or
make such Entry or Entries, or to give such Certificate, being thereunto
Required by the Author or Proprietor of such Copy or Copies, in the
Presence of Two or more Credible Witnesses, That then such Person and
Persons so refusing, Notice being first duly given of such Refusal, by
an Advertisement in the Gazette, shall have the like Benefit, as if such
Entry or Entries, Certificate or Certificates had been duly made and
given; and that the Clerks so refusing, shall, for any such Offence,
Forfeit to the Proprietor of such Copy or Copies the Sum of Twenty
Pounds, to be Recovered in any of Her Majesty's Courts of Record at
Westminster, by Action of Debt, Bill, Plaint, or Information, in which
no Wager of Law, Essoign, Privilege or Protection, or more than one
Imparlance shall be allowed.
Provided nevertheless, and it is hereby further Enacted by the Authority
aforesaid, That if any Bookseller or Booksellers, Printer or Printers,
shall, after the said Five and twentieth Day of March, One thousand
seven hundred and ten, set a Price upon, or Sell or Expose to Sale, any
Book or Books at such a Price or Rate as shall be Conceived by any
Person or Persons to be High and Unreasonable; It shall and may be
Lawful for any Person or Persons to make Complaint thereof to the Lord
Archbishop of Canterbury for the time being; the Lord Chancellor, or
Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of Great Britain for the time being; the
Lord Bishop of London for the time being; the Lord Chief Justice of the
Court of Queen's Bench, the Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common
Pleas, the Lord Chief Baron of the Court of Exchequer, for the time
being; the Vice Chancellors of the Two Universities for the time being,
in that part of Great Britain called England; the Lord President of the
Sessions for the time being; the Lord Justice General for the time
being; the Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer for the time being; the
Rector of the College of Edinburgh for the time being, in that part of
Great Britain called Scotland; who, or any one of them, shall and have
hereby full Power and Authority from time to time, to Send for, Summon,
or Call before him or them such Bookseller or Booksellers, Printer or
Printers, and to Examine and Enquire of the reason of the Dearness and
Inhauncement of the Price or Value of such Book or Books by him or them
so Sold or Exposed to Sale; and if upon such Enquiry and Examination it
shall be found, that the Price of such Book or Books is Inhaunced, or