What historical event / injunction does Swift allude to in this paragraph of "An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity"?

Question

An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity begins with following:

I am very sensible what a weakness and presumption it is to reason against the general humour and disposition of the world. I remember it was with great justice, and a due regard to the freedom, both of the public and the press, forbidden upon several penalties to write, or discourse, or lay wagers against the — even before it was confirmed by Parliament; because that was looked upon as a design to oppose the current of the people, which, besides the folly of it, is a manifest breach of the fundamental law, that makes this majority of opinions the voice of God. In like manner, and for the very same reasons, it may perhaps be neither safe nor prudent to argue against the abolishing of Christianity, at a juncture when all parties seem so unanimously determined upon the point, as we cannot but allow from their actions, their discourses, and their writings.

What historical event does Swift allude to in this paragraph? What written opinions were forbidden?

Answer 1

An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity was published in 1708, and so Swift must have been referring to events at the beginning of the eighteenth century. The exact event he had in mind is curiously elided in the text source quoted in the question, but is present in other sources, such as here or at Project Gutenberg, and reads:

I remember it was with great justice, and a due regard to the freedom both of the public and the press, forbidden upon several penalties to write, or discourse, or lay wagers against the Union, even before it was confirmed by parliament

the "Union" here refers to the Acts of Union passed by the English and Scottish Parliaments in 1707, which led to the creation of Great Britain.

The text claims that before the Union was passed, it was illegal to "write, discourse, or lay wagers" against it. This seems surprising at first, as the law used at about that time to censor writings, the Licensing Act, lapsed in 1695 and was no longer in effect, and indeed a great deal of pamphlets and discourse were written and circulated about the impending act of Union. However, Karin Bowie in Public Opinion, Popular Politics and the Union of 1707 notes that:

An English Privy Council censorship proclamation of July 1706 had forbidden writing against the Union, but the response of the London papers to this order varied with their politics.

So it appears that such a censorship order was given, but that by and large it was not actually followed.