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 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

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to playhouse,, and again back again, all his life made up with wig and cravat, without one dram of thought in his composition ; but a person made up with sound worth, brave and generous; and shows, by his purchasing Dampier'i Voyaget, he knows how to value a good copy." Mr. Knap- ton continued business with great reputation till his death, in 1736 ; and was succeeded by two of his brothers, John and Patd Knapton, both men of great eminence.

1736, Feb. 22. Died, William Churchill, esq., bookseller to his majesty. He was im- mensely rich, to which his printing Rymer's Fadera, at queen Anne's expense, greatly con- tributed.

1736, May 25. Mr. Benjamin Motte, book- seller, London, filed a bill in chancery agaimt Mr. Faulkner,* bookseller, of Dublin, to prevent the sale of the Dublin edition of Swift's works in EnglMid. Swift interposed on this occasion, for he wrote a letter to MTotte of the above date, and it would appear his mediation was success- ful, fh>m the subsequent amicable interview between the two booksellers.

1736, May 27. A society for the encourage- ment of learning was established upon this day, in London, the object of which was to assist authors in the publication of their works. The duke of Richmond, president, with about one hundred members. Mr. Bowyer, Mr. Betten- ham, and Mr. Richardson, were the three first appointed printers; Mr. Gordon was the secre- tary, with a salary of £50 a-year, and Dr. Birch, treasurer. However liberal the idea of auch an institution might have been, the execu- tion of it counteracted the intention of its foun- ders. It was, in fact, a direct attack on the booksellers, who, after all, are certainly no bad " rewarders of literary merit;"* and their assist- ance having been found indispensably necessary to the undertaking, a contract was entered into, for three years, with A. Millar, J. Gray, and J. Nourse. A new contract was afterwards entered

tions fbr an edition of Swift's works, which he was then abont pobllshlng. On his retnin to OabUn, intending to pay his respects to the dean, he went, dressed In a laced waistcoat, bag-wig, and other fopperies. Swift received him as a perfect stranger. " Prar, sir, what are yoor commands with me?" "I Uioagiit it my duty, sir, to wait upon yon immediately after my arrival fkom London." " Piay, sir, who are yon t " " George Fanlkner, the printer 1 " " Yon George Fanlkner, the printer 1 1 Why yoo are the most impudent, barefaced unpostor I ever heard of. Fanlkner is a sober, sedate citizen, and wonld never trick himself out in lace and other fopperies. Get about your business, and thank your fctars I do not send you to the house of correction." Poor George hobbled away as fast as he could, and after changing his dress, re- tnrned immediately to the deanery. On his return. Swift went up and shook him most cordially by the hand. " My good friend George, I am heartily glad to see you safe re- turned. Here was an Impudent fdlow in a laced waist- coat, who would have Ma passed for yon ; but I soon sent him packing with a flea in his ear I "
 * George Faulkner went to London to solicit subscrip-

t 1 suppose this society for encouraging learning alarms the bookselleTs ; for It must be at last a downright trading society, a mere Conger (forgive me if I mis-spell so mys- terious a word.— See page 031 mte. I hope you will take care to be one of their printers, for they will certainly be a society for encouraging printing ; Learning perhaps may be too far gone, and past aU prirate encouragement."— Mr. Clarke to Mr. Bowser, earli/ in 1737.

into with six other booksellers (G. Strahan, C. Rivington, P. Vaillant, J. Brindley, S. Baker, and J. Osbom, jun.), whose profits on the busi- ness were so injudiciously retrenched, that the avowed purposes of the society were entirely frustrated. In 1742,athiid method was adopted, and the society chose to become their own book- sellers. The experiment was tried with .£lian De Animalibus, 4to. in 1743. A few months were sufiicient to demonstrate the impracticability of the attempt ; and before the year was at an end, they again had recouise to three booksellers, on a plan in some degree enlarged. Thus circum> stanced, they published bishop Tanner's Notitia Moruutica, folio, in January, 1743-4; and pro- fessor Stuart's English translation of sir Isaac Newton's Quadrature of Curvet, in September, 1745. But their finances were then become almost exhausted, after having suspended a sub- scription of nearly two thousand pounds. The Bihliotheca Brilannica of bishop Tanner was, however, completed under their patronage, in 1748 ; but, by A Memorial of the present State of Affairs of the Soeiett/, April 17, in that year, it appears they had incurred so considerable a debt as to be deterred at that time from proceed- ing farther in their project of printing.

1736. The Virginia Gazette. ,

1737, Jan. 1. Died, Richard Enaplock, bookseller, of whom Dunton says — " He printed Mr. Wesley's Defence of his Letter, &c., and then, to be sure, he is no dissenter. Howe\er, he is a very sober, honest man ; and has not one tmt in his whole life, except it be the printing that vialicimu and infamous pamphlet. Mrs. Knaplock, who died Nov. 29, 1772, gave £200 to the poor of the stationers' compwv.

1737, Jan. 7. Died, Richard Williamson, bookseller, Gray's Inn-gate. He was deputy receiver-general of the post-office revenue ; and clerk of the mis-sent and mis-directed letters. Like his predecessors, he was also a firm friend to both the Bowyers ; and the younger of Uiem, at the distance of more than half a century, evinced his grateful sense of former favours by the following clause in his last will: — ^"I give to the two sons and one daughter of the uite Rev. Mr. Maurrice, of Gothenburg, in Sweden, who married the only daughter of Mr. William- son, bookseller (in return for her father's friend- ship to mine,) £1000 four per cent, consolidated annuities, to be divided equally between them." Mr. Williamson was the faithful servant alluded to in the notice of Mr. Sare, at page 628 ante, and was succeeded in btisiness by Mr. Trye, who was the predecessor of the late Mr. William Flexney, who died Jan. 7, 1808, aged 77.

1737. Church History of England from 1500 to 1688, chiefly with regard to Catholics, being a complete account of the divorce, supremacy, disso- lution of monasteries, and the first attempts for a reformation under king Henry VIII. The un- settled state of the reformation under Eduxard VI. The interruption it met udth from queen Mary, toith the hand put to it by queen Elizabeth ; to- gether with the tarious fortunes of the Catholic

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