How, it is very sensibly asked, is the officer to know that there are books in the box till he has opened it?
Such were the arguments which did what Milton's Areopagitica had failed to do.
The Lords yielded without a contest.

They probably expected that some less objectionable bill for the regulation of the press would soon be sent up to them; and in fact such a bill was brought into the House of Commons, read twice, and referred to a select committee.

But the session closed before the committee had reported; and English literature was emancipated, and emancipated for ever, from the control of the government.

[563] This great event passed almost unnoticed.

Evelyn and Luttrell did not think it worth mentioning in their diaries.