(see Liberty of the Press, Encycl.), has been an officer in almost every civilized nation, till the end of the last century that the office was abolished in Great Britain. Professor Beckmann, with his usual industry*, has proved that such an office was established not only in the Roman Empire, but even in the republic, and in the free states of ancient Greece. At Athens, the works of Protagoras were prohibited; and all the copies of them which could be collected were burnt by the public crier. At Rome, the writings of Numa, which had been found in his grave, were, by order of the senate, condemned to the fire, because they were contrary to the religion which he had introduced. As the populace at Rome were, in times of public calamity, more addicted to superstition than seemed proper to the government, an order was issued, that all superstitious and astrological books should be delivered into the hands of the praetor. This order was often repeated; and the emperor Augustus caused more than twenty thousand of these books to be burnt at one time. Under the same emperor the satirical works of Labienus were condemned to the fire, which was the first instance of this nature; and it is related as something singular, that, a few years after, the writings of the person who had been the cause of the order for that purpose shared the like fate, and were also publicly burnt. When Crematius Cordus, in his history, called C. Caius the last of the Romans, the festal, in order to flatter Tiberius, caused the book to be burnt; but a number of copies were saved by being concealed. Antiochus Epiphanes caused the books of the Jews to be burnt; and in the first centuries of our era the books of the Christians were treated with equal severity, of which Arnobius bitterly complains. We are told by Eusebius, that Diocletian caused the sacred Scriptures to be burnt. After the spreading of the Christian religion the clergy exercised, against books that were either unfavourable or disagreeable to them, the same severity which they had inflicted in the heathens as foolish and prejudicial to their own cause.

Soon after the invention of printing, laws began to be made for subjecting books to examination; a regulation proposed even by Plato; and which has been wished for by many since. Our author gives a great deal of curious information on this important subject, which our limits do not permit us to repeat; but it is apparent from his work, that the liberty of the press is but a modern privilege; and that it has not been enjoyed completely in any country but this happy island.