Page:A dictionary of printers and printing.djvu/868

 NINETEENTH CENTURY.

869

He was one of the oririiial founden of the Speculative societv of EcuubiUfrh. It has per- haps fallen to the lot of few men to hare enjoyed, more than Mr. Cieech did, the correspondence and confidence of most of the literary charac- ters who flourished in Scotland from about the middle to the end of the last century. His stock of books and copyrights were sold in July, 1816, at the Exchant^e coffee-house, Edinburgh.

1815, Jan. 10. Died, Robert Gilbert, a partner in the respectable firm of Law and Gil- bert, printers, St John's-square, London.

lh\i,Jan. 11. Died, John Yodno, proprietor and publisher of the Invemeu Journal.

1816, Jan. 19. Died, R.Wethebald, printer, at Durham, aged fifty-two years. He was the youngest son of Mr. K. Wetherald, who was the first that established the printing business at Sunderland, 4n the county of Durham.

1815, Jan. 23. Died, William Phillips, printer, Bristol.

1815, Jan. 26. Died, John Rose, printer and bookseller, Bristol. He was the author of A CotutitutionfU Cateekism, 8ru, 1795 ; and Letters to the Right Hon. C. B. Bathurst relative to the impritonment of John Gale Jones, 8ro. 1811.

1815. Benjamin Foster, an ingenious com- positor, in the employ of Mr. S. Hamilton, book- seller and printer, at Weybridge, invented the composition balls. The inventors of printing maekinertf soon caught the idea, and by running tfie composition as a coat upon wooden cylinders, produced the apparatus so long and unsuccess- fully sought by lord Stanhope, and without -which, no machine-printing would ever have succeeded. Mr. Foster was afterwards in busi- ness, in London, as a printers' ink manufacturer.

1815. Died, John Trusleb, LL. D. who may be considered the very cameleon of literature, and whose long and versatile life would furnish much amusement. He was born in London in 1735, and was bred to physic in a very humble line, though he afterwards contrived, without any academical education, to obtain orden, and for s(vne time officiated as curate in and about Liondun. In the year 1771, he started a project peculiar to himself, that of abridging the sermons of eminent divines, and printing them in the form of manuscripts, so as not only to save clergy- men the trouble of composing their discourses, but even of transcribing them. The scheme succeeded, and to the disgrace of the age there were not wanting many dignitaries of the church who gave their encouragement to this scandalous species of quackery. Dr. Truslernext established a printing and bookselling business upon an ex- tensive and very lucrative scale. He resided several years at Bath on the profits of his trade, and latterly on his estate on Englefield green, in Middlesex. This wholesale dader in compi- lations manufactured a great number of works, several of which, however, it must be acknow- ledged, have the merit of utility. In 1798 he puUished an Essay on Literary Property, 8vo.

1816, March 30. Died, — Drury, printer and bookseller, at Lincoln, aged fifty-seven years.

1815. An account of the visit of his royal highness the prince Regent, and their imperial and royal majesties the emperor of Russia and king of Prussia, to the university of Oxford, in June, 1814. Oxford : printed at the Clarendon press, 1816, folio, pp. 98, with a ground plan of the Radcliffe library, a view in outline, of the part of the interior of the theatre, and a sheet con- taining specimens of the various types used at the Clarendon press. This volume was not printed for sale. Twelve copies struck off for the royal personages, or public libraries. A copy was sold at the duke of York's* sale for £4 I4t.

1816. The stamp duty on newspapers was raised to fourpence, discoiut 30 per cent. Price to the public, sevenpence ; to the trade, 13s. per quire of twenty-seven. The duty payable on pamphlets was, for one whole sheet, and not ex- ceeding eight sheets in 8vo, or any lesser pag^, or not exceeding twelve sheets in 4to, or twenty sheets in folio, fur every sheet of any kind of paper contained in one copy thereof, 3s.

1815. An act of parliament was passed, to provide for the collection and management of the stamp duties on pamphlets, almanacks, and newspapers, in Ireland.

1816, March. Died, James Grist, many years a respectable printer and bookseller at Portsmouth.

1815, April. Died, James Claris, book- seller, at Canterbury, of which city he was a senior common councilman. In his profession, his knowledge was most extensive; and it was generally and truly remarked, that "he died without an enemy."

1816, June. Died, William Henry Lunn, a very eminent bookseller and proprietor of the Classical Library, Soho-square, London. Mr. Lunn resided as a bookseller at Cambridge for ten years. In March, 1797, he removed to London, and succeeded Mr. Samuel Hayes, in Oxford-street ; and afterwards, with the appro- bation of his friends, established the Classical Library, upon a new and extensive plan. The views of Mr. Lunn were announced in a perspicu- ous and even elegant advertisement,with a tone of thinking far raised above the narrow and selfish views of a mind intent only upon profit. The fortune which Mr. Lunn inherited fiom his father, Tas very inconsiderable. On his first settlement in London, a part of the property be- queathed to him ultimately by his uncle, Mr. Rabutte, of Cambridge, amounting neerlv to £10,000, came into his possession, and enabled him, doubtless, for some time to carry on with effect the concerns of the Classical Library. His vigilance and integrity were manifested in the good condition of his books ; and perhaps his munificence was more to be commended than his discretion. The whole of his property was embarked in his trade, and under circumstances more favourable his accumulation must have been rapid. But he had to struggle with un- usual and most stubborn difficulties. Like every


 * Born Aocnit IC, 17S3, and died Janoarr s, 18S7.

VjOOQ IC