WHEREAS by the antient Laws and Statutes of this Realm, great and heavy penalties are Inflicted upon all such as shall be found to be spreaders of false News, or Promoters of any Malicious Slanders and Calumnies in their ordinary and common Dis­courses. Notwithstanding all which Laws and Statutes, there have been of late more bold and Li­centious Discourses then formerly; and men have as­sumed to themselves a Liberty, not onely in Coffee-houses, but in other Places and Meetings, both pub­lick and private, to censure and defame the Proceed­ings of State, by speaking evil of things they under­stand not; and endeavouring to create and nourish an universal jealousie and Dissatisfaction in the minds of all His Majesties good Subjects: We the Lord Lieutenant and Council considering that Offences of this nature, cannot pro­ceed from want or Ignorance of Laws to Restrain and Punnish them, but must [Page] of necessity proceed from the r [...]tless malice of some, whose Seditious ends and aims are already too well known, or from the careless demeanour of others who presume too much upon His Majesties accustomed Clemency and Goodness, have thought fit by this Our Proclamation to forewarn, and straitly command all His Majesties Subjects, of what state or condition soever they be, from the highest to the lowest, that they presume not henceforth by writing or speaking, to Utter or publish any false News or Reports, or to intermeddle with the Affairs of State and Government or with the persons of any His Majesties Councellors or Ministers, in their common and ordinary discourses, as they will answer the contrary at their utmost perils. And because all bold and irreverent Speeches touching matters of this high nature are Punnishable, not only in the speakers, but in the hearers also, unless they do speedily reveal the same unto some of His Majesties Privy Council, or some other His Majesties Judges or Justices of the Peace, therefore that all men may be left without excuse, who shall not hereaf­ter contain themselves within that modest and dutiful regard which becomes them We do further declare, that we will proceed with all severity against all man­ner of persons who shall use any bold or unlawful speeches of this nature, or be present at any Coffee-house, or other publick or Private meeting where such speeches are used without revealing the same in due time, we being resolved to suppress this unlawful and undutiful kind of discourse by a most strict and exem­plary punishment of all such offenders as shall be hereafter discovered.