"For these causes, being desirous to make provision in this case, without derogating from our former placards against lampoons, and other defamatory and scandalous writings, issued from time to time, and in particular from our renovation of the 18th of January, 1691, and our placard of the 17th of March, 1754, we have thought fit for the discovery of the author or authors of the said seditious and slanderous libel, entitled _Aan het Volk van Nederland_, and of his or their accomplices, to promise a reward of a thousand ryders of gold, (fourteen thousand florins) to him who shall give the necessary indications by which the author, writer, or printer of the said libel, or all those who may have had a part in it in any other manner, may fall into the hands of justice, and may be convicted of the fact; and in case that the informer was an accomplice in it, we declare by these presents, that we will pardon him for whatever upon this occasion he may have done amiss against his sovereign; moreover, he shall also enjoy the reward in question, and his name shall not be pointed out, but kept secret. "Forbidding, consequently, in the most solemn manner by these presents, every one of what estate, quality or condition soever he may be, to reprint in any manner the said seditious and slanderous libel, to distribute, scatter, or spread it, upon pain of the confiscation of the copies, and a fine of six thousand florins, besides at least, an everlasting banishment from the Province of Holland and West Friesland, which fine shall go, one third to the officer who shall make the seizure; another third to the informer; and the remaining third to the use of the poor of the place where the seizure shall be made. And whereas, some persons, to keep their unlawful practices concealed, may be tempted to pretend, that the libel in question had been addressed to them under a simple cover, they know not by whom, nor from what place, we ordain and decree, that all printers, booksellers, and moreover all and every one, to whom the said seditious and slanderous libel, entitled _Aan het Volk van Nederland_, may be sent, whether to be sold, given as a present, distributed, lent or read, shall be held to carry it forthwith; and deliver it to the officer or the magistrate of the place of their residence, or of the place where they may receive it, under penalty of being held for disseminators of it, and as such punished in the manner before pointed out. Ordaining most expressly to our Attorney-General, and to all our other officers, to execute strictly and exactly the present placard, according to the form and contents of it, without dissimulation or connivance, under pain of being deprived of their employments. And to the end, that no one may pretend cause of ignorance, but that every one may know how he ought to conduct himself in this regard, we order that these presents be published, and posted up everywhere, where it belongs, and where it is customary to do it.