"N. B. Mr. _Hogarth_ was, and is, obliged to defer the publication and delivery of the abovesaid prints till the 25th of _June_ next, in order to secure his property, pursuant to an act lately passed both houses of parliament, now waiting for the royal assent, to secure all new invented prints that shall be published after the 24th of _June_ next, from being copied without consent of the proprietor, and thereby preventing a scandalous and unjust custom (hitherto practised with impunity) of making and vending base copies of original prints, to the manifest injury of the author, and the great discouragement of the arts of painting and engraving." In _The Craftsman_, soon afterwards, appeared the following advertisement: "Pursuant to an agreement with the subscribers to the Rake's Progress, not to sell them for less than two guineas each set after publication thereof, the said original prints are to be had at Mr. _Hogarth's_, the _Golden-Head_, in _Leicester-fields_; and at _Tho. Bakewell's_, print-seller, next _Johnson's Court_, in _Fleet-street_, where all other print-sellers may be supplied. "In four days will be published, copies from the said prints, with the consent of Mr. _Hogarth_, according to the act of parliament, which will be sold at 2 _s._ 6 _d._ each set, with the usual allowance to all dealers in town and country; and, that the the publick may not be imposed on, at the bottom of each print will be inserted these words, _viz._ 'Published with the consent of Mr. _William Hogarth_, by _Tho. Bakewell_, according to act of parliament.' "N. B. Any person that shall sell any other copies, or imitations of the said prints, will incur the penalties in the late act of parliament, and be prosecuted for the same." This series of plates, however, as Mr. _Walpole_ observes, was pirated by _Boitard_ on one very large sheet of paper, containing the several scenes represented by _Hogarth_. It came out a fortnight before the genuine set, but was soon forgotten. The principal variations in these prints are the following: Plate I. The girl's face who holds the ring is erased, and a worse is put in.[1] The mother's head, &c. is lessened. The shoe-sole, cut from the cover of an ancient family Bible, together with a chest, is added; the memorandum-book removed into another place; the woollen-draper's shop bill,[2] appended to a roll of black cloth, omitted; the contents of the closet thrown more into shade.