Lastly, the government found it necessary to put a check on the impudent attacks of the press. A rescript was issued, in which it was stated that the government saw with anger that evil-minded persons took advantage of the decree of September 14, 1770, to print offensive documents, and thus make an improper use of the liberty of the press which had been granted. By royal order, therefore, Struensee on October 3, requested an opinion from the Danish Chancery as to what measures would be best adapted to keep down the licence of the press, and on the 7th of the same month an edict appeared addressed to the authorities throughout the kingdom, containing "Stricter Regulations for the Publication of Books and Pamphlets without Censorship." In this edict the king declared that, as it could not be tolerated that a criminal use of the granted liberty of the press should be made in contravening other civil laws, all insults, pasquinades, and seditious writings would be subjected to legal punishments. In order to prevent the misuse of the press henceforth, every author of a work would be responsible that it contained nothing contrary to the existing laws and orders. Hence all printers would be for the future prohibited from printing books whose author's name they could not supply, or reprinting any work on whose title-page the name of the author or printer was not stated. For it would be an utter misapplication of freedom from censorship if it were to be regarded as synonymous with perfect impunity for printed insults and offences.[18] This restriction of the hitherto existing liberty of the press was carried out most humanely. No prosecution for libels took place in Denmark or Norway during Struensee's ministry, and only in the duchies an exchequer process was instituted against Count Waldemar von Schmettau for the "Pages for the Love of Truth," published by him. Struensee's own father, the superintendant-general of the duchies, denounced the author to the chief consistory of Gluckstädt as a blasphemer. The new regulations at first kept the literary partisans in some check, and toned down the former coarse and unbridled attacks on the government. But the libellers soon found out a way of employing their satirical powers without fear of punishment, and the sharpest pasquinades appeared in succession, whose mere titles were sufficient to make the reader comprehend their drift. Other pamphleteers contrived to wrap up their attacks on Struensee and his ministry in such an artful way as not to infringe on the new regulations.[19]