The proclamation was a crucial instrument of governmentand administration in the seventeenth and eighteenthcenturies; it was also the most frequently encountered item ofofficial print. Long published, promulgated and posted in theimmediately recognisable broadside format, and subsequentlyprinted in the Dublin Gazette, proclamations were normallyissued by the Lord Lieutenant (or Lords Justices) and PrivyCouncil. Since they engaged with virtually every aspect ofgovernment, they were an essential complement to the act ofparliament in the governance and administration of thekingdom. On average, between ten and thirty proclamationswere issued annually between 1660 and 1820, though thefrequency with which they were issued, and the subjects theyengaged with, depended on the political state of thekingdom.