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 NINETEENTH CENTURY.

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Vfenti to pay a fine of £100 to the king ; Shackle and Arrovrsmith £500 each, and all to be imprisoned nine months ; to give secnrity for five ye:irs, themselves in £S00, and two sureties of if250 each, for a libel upon the memory of lady Caroline Wiottesley.*

1S21, Dee. 6. DUd, William Perby, the celebrated proprietor and editor of the Morning Chronicle, which, for the period of thirty years, he conducted with great ability and indepen- dence of spirit — wrote his paper into celebrity, and himsaf into affluence, and died an honest man in the cause he had advocated. He was bom in Aberdeen, Oct. 30, 1756, and received his education at the high school, and in 1771, he entered Marischal coirege,in the university of Aberdeen. He was intended for the profession of the law, but his father's misfortune in trade, who was a house-builder, induced young Peny, in 1774, to proceed to Edinburgh, with the hope of procuring employment as a clerk in some writer's chambers. Failing in bis application in that city, he came to the resolution of trying his fortune in England. So, like his native aurora boiealis, constantly shooting southwards, he pro- ceeded to Manchester, where he succeeded in obtaining a situation in the counting-house of a Mr. Dinwiddle, a> respectable manufacturer, in which he remained for two years. During his stay in Manchester, Mr. Perry, who was yet only in the nineteenth year of his age, attracted the notice, and procured the friendship of several principal gentlemen in the town, by the singular talents he displayed in a debating society, which they had estaolished for the discussion of moral and philosophical subjects. Mr. Perry also pro- duced several literary essays of great merit. Encouraged by this success, Mr. Perry deter- mined to seek a wider field for the exercise of his talents ; and with this view set out for London, in the beginning of 1777, carrying with him a number of letters of introduction and recom- mendation from his friends in Manchester to in- fluential individuals in the metropolis. For some time, however, these were unavailing. But the following circumstance, at length procured him the employment which he sought, and placed him in the path to that eminence which he after- vvards attained. While waiting in London for some situation presenting itself, be amused him- self in writing fugitive verses and short essays, which he put into the letter box of the General A.dverti*er, as the casual contributions of an ano- nymous correspondent, and they were of such merit as to procure immediate insertion. It hap- pened that one of the parties to whom he had a letter of introduction, namely, Messrs. Richard- son and Urquhart, were part proprietors of the Advertiser, and on these gentlemen Mr. Perry ■was ill the habit of calling daily, to inquire if any situation had yet offered for him. On enter- ingr their shop one day to make the usual inquiry, 'M.T. Perry found Mr. Urquhart earnestly en-

for 1803 read istl.
 * See page Sit <mtt, for anecdote of the J»k» BuU, and

gaged in reading an article in the AJtertiur, and evidentlv wiui great satisfaction. When he had finished, the iotmer put the now almost hopeless question, whether any situation had yet presented itself ? and it was answered in the ne- gative ; " but," added Mr. Urquhart, "if you could write such articles as this," pointing to that which he had j ust been reading, " you would find immediate employment" Mr. Perry glanced at the article, discovered that it was one of his own, and convinced his friend, Mr. Urquhart, by showing another article in manuscript, which he had intended to put into the box as usual, before returning home. Pleased with the discovery, Mr. Urouhart immediately said that he would propose him as a stipendiary writer for the paper, at a meeting of the proprietors, which was to take place that very evening. The result was, that on the next day he was employed at the rate of a guinea a-week, with an aaditional half guinea for assistance to the London Evening Pott, printed by the same person. On receiving these appoint- ments Mr. Perry devoted himself with great assi- duity to the discharge of their duties, and made efforts before unknown in the newspaper estab- lishments of London.

In 1782, Mr. Perry commenced the European Magazine, upon a plan then new, and from the ability with which it was conducted, added very much to the reputation and popularity of its editor. Having conducted this journal for twelve months, he was chosen by the proprietors of the Cfazetteer to be the editor, at a salaiy of four guineas per week ; but under an express condi- tion, made by himself, that he should be in no way constrained in his political opinions and sentiments, which were those of Charles James Fox, of whom he was a devoted admirer. He effected a great improvement in the reporting department, by employing a series of reporters who should relieve each other by turns, and thus supply a constant and uninterrupted succession of matter. By this means he was enabled to mve in the morning all the debates which had tfucen place on the preceding night, a point which his predecessor in the editorship of the Gazetteer bad been in arrears for months.* One of Mr. Perry's favourite recreations was that of attend- ing and takingpart in the discussions of debating

fTom every part of the empire, the dally press of the me- tropolis has, within the last few years, shown almost In- credible exertion. Most of the persons so engaged are gentlemen of edncation, and so active and able are most of them, that it is not an nnflreqarnt thing for one reporter to supply from the notes of three quarters of an hour, to the paper upon which he Is engaged, from two to three columns of closely printed matter. A great number of the repoiters are law students, and to give a libt of those who have descended to this useful but laborious occupation, would be astonishing. The late James Stephen, esq., master in chancery, while studying for the law, and his circumstances being nairow, became editor and reporter of tbeJfonnng ChrmieU till his appointment to a situation In the West ladies. He retomed to England with a hand- some fortune, and obtained a seat in parliament, where he greatly dlstlngaished himself in teaisting the motion of the benchers St Lincoln's inn, to prevent barristers being employed on newspapers. In opiiosing that motion Mr. Stephen very candidly stated the Act that he had honestly
 * With respect to reporting, not only ia London, but

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