(Vol. viii., pp. 272. 346. 625.; Vol. ix., p. 78.)
The well-known law dictionary, entitled _The Interpreter_, by John Cowel,
LL.D., was burned (1610) under a proclamation of James I. (D'Israeli's
_Calamities of Authors_, ed. 1840, p. 133.)
In June, 1622, the Commentary of David Pare, or Paraeus _On the Epistle to
the Romans_, was burned at London, Oxford, and Cambridge, by order of the
Privy Council. (Wood's _Hist. and Antiq. of Univ. of Oxford_, ed. Gutch,
vol. ii. pp. 341-345.; Cooper's _Annals of Cambridge_, vol. iii. pp. 143,
144.)
On the 12th of February, 1634, _Elenchus Religionis Papisticae_, by John
Bastwicke, M.D., was ordered to be burned by the High Commission Court.
(Prynne's _New Discovery of the Prelates' Tyranny_, p. 132.)
On the 10th of February, 1640-1 the House of Lords ordered that two books
published by John Pocklington, D.D., entitled _Altare Christianum_, and
_Sunday no Sabbath_, should be publicly burned in the city of London and
the two Universities, by the hands of the common executioner; and on the
10th of March the House ordered the Sheriffs of London and the
Vice-Chancellors of both the Universities, forthwith to take care and see
the order of the House carried into execution. (_Lords' Journals_, vol. iv.
pp. 161. 180.)
On the 13th of August, 1660, Charles II. issued a proclamation against
Milton's _Defensio pro Populo Anglicano_, his _Answer to the Portraiture of
his Sacred Majesty in his Solitude and Sufferings_, and a book by John
Goodwin, late of Coleman Street, London, Clerk, entitled _The Obstructors
of Justice_. All copies of these books were to be brought to the sheriffs
of counties, who were to cause the same to be publicly burned by the hands
of the common hangman at the next assizes. (Kennett's _Register and
Chronicle_, p. 207.) This proclamation is also printed in Collet's _Relics
of Literature_, with the inaccurate date 1672, and the absurd statement
that no copy of the proclamation was discovered till 1797.
In January, 1692-3, a pamphlet by Charles Blount, Esq., entitled _King
William and Queen Mary, Conquerors, &c._, was burned by the common hangman
in Palace Yard, Westminster. (Bohun's _Autobiography_, ed. S. W. Rix, vol.
xxiv. pp. 106, 109. 113.; Wilson's _Life of De Foe_, vol. i. p. 179 _n_.)
The same parliament consigned to the flames Bishop Burnet's _Pastoral
Letter_, which had been published 1689. (Wilson's _Life of De Foe_, vol. i.
p. 179.)
On the 31st of July, 1693, the second volume of Anthony a Wood's _Athenae
Oxonienses_ was burned in the Theatre Yard at Oxford by the Apparitor of
the University, in pursuance of the sentence of the University Court in a
prosecution for a libel on the memory of Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon.
(_Life of Mr. Anthony a Wood_, ed. 1772, p. 377.)
On the 25th of February, 1702-3, the House of Commons ordered De Foe's
_Shortest Way with the Dissenters_ to be burned by the hands of the common
hangman on the morrow in New Palace Yard. (Wilson's _Life of De Foe_, vol.
ii. p. 62.)
In or about 1709, John Humphrey, an aged non-conformist minister, having
published a pamphlet against the Test, and circulated it amongst the
members of parliament, was cited before a committee, and his work was
ordered to be burned by the common hangman. (Wilson's _Life of De Foe_,
vol. iii. p. 52.)
The _North Briton_, No. 45., was on the 3rd of December, 1763, burned by
the common hangman at the Royal Exchange, by order of the House of {227}
Commons. The following account is from Malcolm's _Anecdotes of London_,
4to., 1808, p. 282.:
"The 3rd of December was appointed for this silly ceremony, which took
place before the Royal Exchange, amidst the hisses and execrations of
the mob, not directed at the obnoxious paper, but at Alderman Harley,
the sheriffs, and constables, the latter of whom were compelled to
fight furiously through the whole business. The instant the hangman
held the work to a lighted link it was beat to the ground, and the
populace, seizing the faggots prepared to complete its destruction,
fell upon the peace-officers and fairly threshed them from the field;
nor did the alderman escape without a contusion on the head, inflicted
by a bullet thrown through the glass of his coach; and several other
persons had reason to repent the attempt to burn that publicly which
the _sovereign people_ determined to approve, who afterwards exhibited
a large _jack-boot_ at Temple Bar, and burnt it in triumph, unmolested,
as a species of retaliation."
I am not aware that what Mr. Malcolm terms a "silly ceremony" has been
repeated since 1763.