Page:A dictionary of printers and printing.djvu/586

 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

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the jury became very well inclined to have found not guilty; but there was one amongst them who loved mischief, and he was for hang- ing them for being Jacobites, not for being g^ty: and being since told of the severity of their verdict, he readily acknowledged, that the evidence did not amount to the proof of the fact ; but, saitb he, what of that ? I believed he was guilty, and I will hang a hundred of them for half so much evidence.

When the jury appeared, the question was asked, whether they were agreed of tneir verdict? A zealous man answered, No. Whereat the court frowned, and shewed themselves much displeased, when the foreman of the jury, (de- sirous that all men may have fair play for their lives) put this question to the bench. Whether the having those things by him, without making any further use of them, did affect the prisoner as to life? Now this question was very perti- nent, though nothing pleasing ; but after some frowniug and pouting, the court answered. No. But that was nottheir business, they were to find it printing, and that was a sufficient overt act. Some of the jurymen, by way of complaint, said thus : My lord, our foreman is of opinion this fact is not proved. — Court : WheUier it be proved or no, you ought to determine ; the bare finding the books in his custody would not be treason ; but the case is, gentlemen, here is a man that has a printing-press, to which no man has admission but himself; and this man is found with an errata, and &c., so that he must needs print the treason. To this a juryman answered, 'Tis a very strong presumption, my lord. And then baron Powell clenched the nail with this grave saying, " a violent presumption is as much as if a man had been there and done it himself." These answers being returned to questions, the jury were sent back again, where fumost three hours more were spent in debating the matter, before they could come to a conclu- sion; they then complied and brought in the prisoner guilty. The matter now lay wholly before the city recorder, sir Salathiel Lovell, who after a flourish or two of empty rhetoric, pro- ceeded to pronounce that dieadful sentence which the law allots to treason ; to have the heart and bowels torn out, and burnt, amd the body dis- membered, and the quarters set up, or disposed OS authority orders.

Whilst Mr. Anderton was preparing for his death, his friends were struggling for his life. He had many friends upon the account of his known ability, industry, and integrity; others were taken up with his manly behaviour, and clear pleading upon his trial ; and many more were forward to move in his case, in pity or indigna- tion, at his usage, but all their efforts joined with that of his wife were of no avail, and the dreadful sentence was put into execution at Ty- burn, upon the sixteenth day of the same month, except the disembowelling.

It was then well known that Anderton did not print the French Canqueit, and that it was printed at a press which he never saw, and by

persons with whom, for a long time, he had no communication : for the government had at that time in their custody those persons, who knew when and where it was printed, and (as it was said) had made a discovery of all, perhaps of more than they knew. The papers of that sort taken upon the prisoner, were sent to him the day before he was seized: and some have a vehemeut suspicion, that it being resolved he should be taken the next day, those pamphlets were sent before-hand, that something might certainly be found upon him ; but his inuocence in that matter hath since been made evident to all the world, by an irrefragable testimony ; for at this September sessions at the Old Bailey, Price, in open court, made oath, that he, and the prisoners then at the bar, Newbolt and Butler, printed the French Conquett. — See Ho- well's State Trials, vol. 12, pp. 1240-1267.

1693, Feb. 14. The Jovial Mercury. No. 1.

1693, Feb. 18. The Ladiet Mercury, No. 1.

1693, April 18. Proceeding! of the Parliament of Scotland. Edinburgh. Sold by R. Baldwin. No. 1. Licensed April 29.

1693, May 31. Observatiom upon the most re- markable Occurrences in our Weekly News. No. 1.

1694. By the firm and decisive tone of the house of commons, the last restrictive laws against the press expired in England, and from this time it has been generally considered to be free. It was granted, says our philosophic Hume, to the great displeasure of the king and his mi- nisters, who, seeing no where, in any govern- ment during present or past ages, any example of such unlimited freedom, doubted much of its salutary effects. At the same time the oppres- sive statutes of giving three copies of every printed book were rcpc^ed.

1694, Sept. 13. IHed, John Barbiee d'An- couR, a French advocate of talent, and a cele- brated critic. When he was near his death, a friend told him that he left an immortal name behind him. " Alas !" said the critic, " if my works should have any sort of value of them- selves, I have been wrong in the choice of my subjects; I have dealt only in criticism, which never lasts long. For if the book criticised fall into contempt, the criticism falls with it, since it is immediately seen to be useless ; and if, in spite of the criticism, the work stands its ground, then the criticism is equally forgotten, since it is im- mediately thought to be unjust !" Pope says,

" TIs hard to say. If greater want of skill Appear In wiitiiig, or of Jadgiug ill."

It is related of Barbier, that he married the daughter of his bookseller, as a discharge for a heavy debt.

1694, Nov. 25. Died, John Tillotson, arch- bishop of Canterbury, and a very distinguished theological writer. He was born at Sowerby, in Yorkshire, September 29, 1630, and rose through several gradations to the highest office of the church. Birch, in his life ot the arch- bishop, states that on account of his great cele- brity as a divine, a bookseller gave to his widow

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