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HISTORY OF PRINTING.

beside tliein in silence, and heard with apparent indifference a discussion which might be said to involve his ruin. He came and departed without being known to any one but Harding. When the bill against the printer of the Drapier's Letters* was about to be presented to the grand jury, Swift addressed to that body a paper, en- titled SeasonahU Advice, exhorting them to re- member the story of the league made by the wolves with the sheep, on condition of their parting with the shepnerds and mastiffs, after which they ravaged the flock at pleasure : some spirited verses were also circulated, and also the memorable and apt quotation from scripture, by a Quaker: — ^"And the people said unto Saul, shall Jonathan die, who has wrought this great salvation in Israel? God forbid: as the Lord liveth, there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground, for he hath wrought with God this day. So the people rescued Jonathan that be died not." Tnus admonished, by sense, law, and scripture, the grand j ury assembled. It was in vain that the same lord chief justice Whit- shed, who had caused the dean's ^rmer tract to be denounced as seditious, and procured a verdict against die printer, exerted himself strenuously upon this similar occasion. The hour of in- timidation was past, and the grand jury, conscious of what the country expected from them, brought in a verdict of ignoramus upon the bill. Wbit- shed, after demanding, unconstitutionally, and with indecorous violence, the reasons of their verdict, could only gratify his impotent resent- ment like his prototype Scroggs, on a similar occasion, by dissolving the grand jury. They returned intothemassof general society honoured and thanked for the part which they had acted ; and the chief justice, on the contrary, was exe- crated for his arbitrary conduct. There is reason to believe that the death of Whilshed, which speedily followed, was hiistened by the various affronts which were heaped upon him. Swift was determined to gibbet his very memory, and vindicates himself for so doing.

Swift being on a visit to the castle, asked lord

Iitah preaa for Independence. They were written by dean Swift, then residing in Dublin, and began to appear in J7SS, signed M. B. Dnipier. The occasion which called them forth was a patent which goremment granted to one Isaac Wood, to (applr a defldency in the copper colnsf^ of Ireland to the amonnt of ^108,000. Abstracteilly, there was nothing wrong in this ; bat the patent had been ob- tained sunr^tioasly ; the local government had never been consulted. In short, the whole aJlUr was a Job, and was reckoned not only an insult to, but an attack on the independence of Ireland . Swift, being then ont of fisTonr, lost not this oppottnnity of retaliating upon Walpole's ad- ministration, attacking at once the scheme and all con- nected with it i and as the subject principally aiXected the shopkeepers, tradecmen, and lower orders, the author Ingeniously adapted his Myle to the comprehension of the most ignorant, and also published them in the cheapest form. They were hawked throneh the streets at a penny a-piece, and pasted up at the alehouses, and other public places throughout the country. The ferment produced by these letters is, perhaps, unparalleled. Both houses of parliament, and parties of all sects, political or relic^ous, united in exprnsing their detestation of the scheme, which was finally dropped, after ^40,000 worth had been coined ; Wood himself hoinR indemnified with a grant of .^^000 a-ycar for twelve years.
 * niete letters were the flnt snccetsfU itnig^e of the

Carteret how he could concur in the prosecutiia of a poor honest fellow, who had been gaUtj rf no other crime than that of writing three or kmr letters for the good of his country ? His excd- lency replied, m the words of Virgil,

" Regni novitas me talia eogit molki.'*

Lord Carteret lived, at that very time, in great friendship with the dean ; and, therefcHC, if ke suspected the real author, could have no siocerF wish that he might be discovered.

1724. A compleat and private Li*l of all ^ Printing-houses in and about the Citie* of L4mdm and Wettmimler, together with the Primiert' names, what News-papen they print, and what theij are to be found : alto an Aceotmt of tlu Pnnting-houses in the several Corporation Town* in England ; most humbly laid before the Bifki Honourable the Lord Viscount Toumahnti. Printed by William Bowyer, in White-Friai*. This was the production of Samuel Negus, a printer, who took upon him to distinguish them by their political principles, and was rewarded by a letter-carrier's place in the post-offic«. The introductory epistle is here given : —

" To the right honourable lord visconat Townshend, one of his majesty's principal secre- taries of state.

" My good lord ; I was persuaded by some friends, who have the honour to be known to your lordship (which is a happiness I hare act yet arrived at), to offer this list to rour lordship's perusal. I have the misfortune of being bron^t up to this business, and was set ap of my tr»df by the goodness and generosity of my ctct- honourcd uncle, captain Samuel Brown, of Nor- wich, (through the persuasions of my two excel- lent friends Mr. John Gumey and Mr. Joha Eccleston). Your lordship may not be altogether insensible of the hardships and the temputimi a young beginner in printing may meet wiik from the disaffected; and how hard it is tat such men to subsist, whose natural inclinatkot are to be truly loyal and UxQv honest, and at the same time want employ; while the disaffected printers flourish, and have more than tbey can dispatch. I have been a printer about twenty- three years, but have not been for myself above two vears ; in which time I have suffered venr much for want of employ. On this accoimt 1 have implored coimsellor Britriff, Mr. Bacon, Mr. Gumey, col. Francis Negpus, Mr. Churchfll, and some other gentlemen, that they would please to move your lordship on my behalf, that you would please to get me admitted ta an extraordinary messenger, in which station I should not doubt of pleasing your lordship.

" When your lordship is pleased to cast an eye on the number of printing-houses there are in and about the cities of London and West- minster, your lordship will not be so much sur- prized at the present ingratitude and dissatisfac- tion of a rebellious set of men. They have no way tn vend their poison, but by the help of the press. Thus printing-houses arc daily set up and supported by unknown bands. The eountn

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