WHEREAS by the antient Laws and Statutes of this Realm , great and heavy penalties are Inflicted upon all such as shall be found to be spreaders of false News , or Promoters of any Malicious Slanders and Calumnies in their ordinary and common Discourses . Notwithstanding all which Laws and Statutes , there have been of late more bold and Licentious Discourses then formerly ; and men have assumed to themselves a Liberty , not onely in Coffee-houses , but in other Places and Meetings , both publick and private , to censure and defame the Proceedings of State , by speaking evil of things they understand not ; and endeavouring to create and nourish an universal jealousie and Dissatisfaction in the minds of all His Majesties good Subjects : We the Lord Lieutenant and Council considering that Offences of this nature , cannot proceed from want or Ignorance of Laws to Restrain and Punnish them , but must of necessity proceed from the r●●tless malice of some , whose Seditious ends and aims are already too well known , or from the careless demeanour of others who presume too much upon His Majesties accustomed Clemency and Goodness , have thought fit by this Our Proclamation to forewarn , and straitly command all His Majesties Subjects , of what state or condition soever they be , from the highest to the lowest , that they presume not henceforth by writing or speaking , to Utter or publish any false News or Reports , or to intermeddle with the Affairs of State and Government or with the persons of any His Majesties Councellors or Ministers , in their common and ordinary discourses , as they will answer the contrary at their utmost perils . And because all bold and irreverent Speeches touching matters of this high nature are Punnishable , not only in the speakers , but in the hearers also , unless they do speedily reveal the same unto some of His Majesties Privy Council , or some other His Majesties Judges or Justices of the Peace , therefore that all men may be left without excuse , who shall not hereafter contain themselves within that modest and dutiful regard which becomes them We do further declare , that we will proceed with all severity against all manner of persons who shall use any bold or unlawful speeches of this nature , or be present at any Coffee-house , or other publick or Private meeting where such speeches are used without revealing the same in due time , we being resolved to suppress this unlawful and undutiful kind of discourse by a most strict and exemplary punishment of all such offenders as shall be hereafter discovered .