Page:A Catalogue of the Birmingham Collection - 1918.pdf/17

Rh loose gossip: but it seems strange that Macaulay, a man of encyclopædic knowledge, should have forgotten that the opening of shops or stalls for the sale of books at fairs or on market days was a custom as old as the invention of printing, and universal in all civilised countries. William Hutton followed that very plan much later in the eighteenth century.

The first two hooks known to have been actually printed in Birmingham are A Sermon on the Martyrdom of King Charles the First, printed and sold by Matthew Unwin, 1717, and A Loyal Oration composed by James Parkinson, Chief Master of the Free School of Birmingham, with the same date. The only question which arises is whether Birmingham was before or behind the times in this matter, and that is answered by a passage in the autobiography of Thomas Gent, a noted bookseller of York. Speaking of the year 1714, he says "there were few printers in England, except in London, at that time—None then, I am sure, at Chester, Liverpool, Whitehaven, Preston, Manchester, Kendal, and Leeds." It has also been conclusively proved that Johnson's first work, a translation of The Voyage of Father Lobo to Abyssinia, a book of considerable size, was printed here by Warren in 1735, although with the imprint of London publishers.

It is impossible here to do more than mention the memorable work of Baskerville, which lasted from 1750 to 1775. By this work, the more remarkable because Baskerville started with absolutely no knowledge of printing, Birmingham became world-famous as the metropolis of the art, and a place of pilgrimage to all who cared for the making of the book in its perfection. The subject occupies five pages in this catalogue.

Here we may briefly chronicle the beginnings of the newspaper press in Birmingham. The Birmingham Journal was first published by Warren on November 14th, 1732. A single copy of a single number, that for May 21st, 1733, is all that is known to survive. It is in the possession of the Proprietors of the Daily Post, who have presented a photographic facsimile to the Reference Library. With Aris's Birmingham Gazette, which began on November 16th, 1741, the case is very different. It exists even to the present day, and, owing chiefly to the kindness of the present proprietors, a nearly complete set in 222 volumes has been placed in the library, an altogether invaluable storehouse of the detailed history of our town.

It would be obviously impossible to attempt hero any description, or even analysis, of the actual literature properly so called, vast in volume and often excellent in quality, which has been produced in Birmingham. It must suffice to say that practically the whole of it is upon our shelves. All local books are added to the library as a matter of course, and those which are lacking are only so because they are for some reason unobtainable. Much more to the purpose is it to give some idea of the enormous store of what may be called the historical records of the life of our city. In some respects, these are analogous to the manuscripts and deeds which are our only guide to the remote past, although the majority are now in printed form.

The government and management of a vast city such as ours accumulates these records in ever increasing numbers. They are seldom read, but they must always be in place for reference. A few examples will show their nature. There are 323 local Acts of Parliament relating to transit by road, canal, or rail, alone. Miscellaneous Acts fill fifteen pages of the catalogue, which, we may say, averages about thirty entries to the page. Of volumes relating to the Poor Rate, we have no less than 830, placed in the Library for public reference, and these are sometimes invaluable, as necessarily containing references to every individual house.

The educational work of the city in the direction of art alone fills 12 pages; Libraries and the Midland Institute each occupy 12 pages, and King Edward's School 6 pages, and Education generally 7 pages. Fourteen pages are required to chronicle the stormy episodes of Priestley and the Riots; there are thirty-four novels based on Birmingham