WHereas by the antient Laws and Satutes 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, and by a late Statute made in the Thirteenth year of His Majesties Reign, Whoso­ever shall Utter or Publish any words, or things to Incite and Stir up the People to hatred or dislike of the Person of His Majesty, or the Establisht Government, is thereby made uncapable of holding any Office or Imployment whatsoever either in Church or State. 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 only 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: His Majesty considering therefore that Offences of this nature, cannot proceed from want or ignorance of Laws to Restrain and punish them, but must of necessity proceed from the restlesse Ma­lice of some, whose seditious ends and aims are already too well known, or from the carelesse demeanour of others, who presume too much upon His Majesties accustomed Clemency and Goodnesse, Hath thought fit by Advice of His Council, to Publish this His Royal Proclamation; And doth hereby fore­warn, and straitly Command all His Loving 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 Ʋtter 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 Counsellours 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 punishable, not onely in the Speakers, but in the Hearers also, unlesse they do speedily reveal the same unto some of His Majesties Privy Council, or some other His Majesties Judges or Justices of the Peace within the space of four and twenty hours next after such [...]ords spoken. Therefore that all men may be left without excuse, who shall not hereafter contain them­ [...]elves within that modest and dutiful Regard which becomes them, His Majesty doth further De­clare, That he 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, His Majesty being resolved to Suppresse this unlawful and undutiful kind of Discourse, by a most Strict and Exemplary Punish­ment of all such Offenders as shall be hereafter discovered.

Given at Our Court at Whitehall, the 12 ^th day of June, in the 24 ^th year of Our Reign, 1672.

GOD save the KING.