was seen as a threat to the government, facilitating the spread of revolutionary ideas. The act enhanced government control and censorship.

Opposition newspapers used the act as a warning precedent. In March 1742, The Champion claimed that, had Walpole remained in office, "the Liberty of the Press ... could not have been preserved," alleging that a bill had been prepared to subject printing to a licenser on the model of the stage restraints introduced in 1737.

In 1758,

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