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TO HIS LORDSHIP

THE KEEPER OF THE SEALS.

My Lord,

      The Community of Sworn Booksellers and Printers of the University
of Paris, alarmed by the urgent and energetic solicitation of your
Lordship by Booksellers of the Provinces in favour of the withdrawal of
Privileges accorded to the Booksellers of Paris for the printing of Books,
observes in all humility that the proposals of the provincial Booksellers
is in such direct opposition to reason, natural equity, and the Laws and
Customs of the Realm, that it is astonishing that they should have dared
to apply to the Magistrate in sole charge of the administration of Justice
and the harmony of the State for the authorization of an enterprise so
injurious to both.
      Two propositions based on those principles which form the deepest
bond of all well-policed Societies, and two consequences which follow
necessarily from them, will make this truth quite obvious and, by dispelling
irrevocably the specious pretext of the Public Good which the Booksellers of
the Provinces have abused in order to take advantage of Your Lordship's
Religion, will restore to the Booksellers of Paris their peace of mind and
the honour of Your Lordship's Protection, of which these people strive to
deprive them; and will at the same time allow the domain of Letters to retain
the advantages it has found for so long in Privileges and in the Protection
which our Kings have hitherto seen fit to bestow upon it.
      Since the maxims which we shall offer in opposition to the proposals of
our Adversaries have their origin in Public Law and in the Law of the People,
we do not feel able to proceed without a preliminary observation concerning
the principles which they provide; not