vacancies were to be filled up by the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop of London, and printing was not to be allowed elsewhere than in London, York (where the Archbishop of York was to license all books), {427} and the two Universities. This Act was to continue for two years, from 10th June, 1662. It was renewed by the 16 Car. II. c. 8.; 16 & 17 Car. II. c. 7.; and 17 Car. II. c. 4., and expired on the 26th May, 1679,--a day rendered ever memorable by the passing of the Habeas Corpus Act: but in less than a year afterwards the judges unanimously advised the king that he might by law prohibit the printing and publishing of all news-books and pamphlets of news not licensed by His Majesty's authority; and accordingly on the 17th May, 1680, appeared in the _Gazette_ a proclamation restraining the printing of such books and pamphlets without license. The Act of 1662 was revived for seven years, from 24th June, 1685, by 1 Jac. II. c. 17. s. 15., and, even after the Revolution, was continued for a year longer by 4 & 5 Wm. and Mary, c. 24. s. 14. When that year expired, the press of England became free; but on the 1st of April, 1697, the House of Commons, after passing a vote against John Salusbury, printer of the _Flying Post_, for a paragraph inserted in that journal tending to destroy the credit and currency of Exchequer Bills, ordered that leave should be given to bring in a bill to prevent the writing, printing, and publishing any news without licence. Mr. Poultney accordingly presented such a bill on the 3rd of April. It was read a first time; but a motion to read it a second time was negatived. (_Commons' Journals_, xi. 765. 767.) This attempt again to shackle the press seems to have occasioned "A Letter to a Member of Parliament showing that a restraint on the Press is inconsistent with the Protestant Religion and dangerous to the Liberties of the Nation." Printed 1697, and reprinted in Cobbett's _Parliamentary History_, v. App. p. cxxx. C.H. COOPER. Cambridge, October 29. 1850. * * * * * REMAINS OF JAMES II. (Vol. ii., pp. 243. 281.) To the information which has recently been furnished in your pages respecting the remains of James II., it may be not uninteresting to add the inscription which is on his monument in the church of St. Germain-en-Laye, and which I copied, on occasion of my last visit to France. The body of the king, or a considerable portion of it, which had remained unburied, was, I believe, interred at St. Germain soon after the termination of the war in 1814; but it being necessary to rebuild the church, the remains were exhumed and re-interred in 1824. Vicissitudes as strange in death as in life seem to have attended this unhappy king. The following is the inscription _now_ on his monument in the parish church of St. Germain: "REGIO CINERI PIETAS REGIA.