King George III's Royal Proclamation For the Encouragement of Piety and Virtue, and for the Preventing and Punishing of Vice, Profaneness and Immorality exhorted the British public against sexually explicit material.
[1] It called for the suppression of all "loose and licentious Prints, Books, and Publications, dispersing Poison to the minds of the Young and Unwary and to Punish the Publishers and Vendors thereof".
[citation needed] It was issued on 1 June 1787 – after William Wilberforce and Bishop Porteous agreed to solicit (in the words of one source) "a Royal Proclamation such as earlier sovereigns had used in times of moral crisis".
[3] This version issued by King George III was to be read four times a year in churches, and was still being published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge in c.
[5] An editorialist writing in 1820 commented that: This proclamation is now considered, both by its deliverer and receiver, as a mere usual and commonplace document.