Page:A dictionary of printers and printing.djvu/947

 940

HISTOEY OF PRINTING.

newspaper, and for some years that of editor, in which capacity he ably supported those liberal principles to which he was, through life, most ardently attached, in a very spirited and inde- pendent manner,at a time when the maintaining independent principles was a matter of consider- able danger. Mr. Preston died, aged eighty.

During his long residence in Newcastle, he endeared himself to an extensive circle of ac- quaintance, by his uniformly kind, cheerful, and social temper, by bis mild unassuming manners, and by his benevolent and guileless disposition. His memory will long be cherished by a numer- ous body of friends, to whom his death has proved a sincere source of regret, and it may, we are sure, with truth be asserted of him, that he left not an enemy behind.

All honour to Mm, who, wltb spirit anshaken, 'Midst dan^rs undaunted, still dares to be troe ;

Whose pen could each echo of liberty waken. A* thejr slumbered around in the hearts of the fisw.

AU honour to him, who, with magical sallies. Shed rapture, like light, round the wit-haUowed board.

Who banished alike envy, dulness, and malice, — In the tme heart of manhood who struck every chord.

1835, Jvly 17. Died, John Stanfield, book- seller and printer, at Bradford, Yorkshire, in the sixty-first year of his age.

1835. L'iMPRiMERiERorALE,* orthe govern- ment printing-office, Vieil.Rue duTemple,Paris, contained at this time fifty-six sets ot oriental dbaracters, 126,000 Chinese groupet, and com- .prised all the known alphabets of the Asiatic nations, ancient as well as modern, and sixteen sets of the alphabets of European countries, where the Latin characteis are not used, as with us. The total weight of types is at least eighty- three tons English, being sufficient to print 7812 sheets octavo, at the same time making about 260 volumes, or 126,000 pages. There are one hundred common presses and six steam machines, which are allowed to strike off 278,000 sheets, or 556 reams of paper in a-day, which is equal to 9366 volumes octavo, of thirty sheets per volume. This immense stock enables the estab- lishment to keep the presses set with 5000


 * Founded by Frauds I, intheyearI5S!,seep.2fM,a>i<e.

A French periodical of 1836, contained the following Interesting calcnlatioos concerning the longevity of Part sian printers, of that period : — In twenty .&ree printtag- offices, in Paris, there were noticed in each, printers whose ages range from forty to seventy years. Aii aged master printer asserted that he had known more than fifty com- positors or pressmen who had passed their sixtieth year. Among thirty-five persons engaged In one office, one-third ranged from forty.five to seventy years of age. A printer who worked In an office a few years ago, said there were, out of forty workmen, twenty-five whose ages ranged from fifty to seventy years. The office was very appro- priately termed imprimerie blrbtutiert, or *' The printing- office of the grey beards.'* There are seventeen printers now working in Paris, of whom seven are seventy years of age, one eighty, and another eighty-two. A printer worked in the office of Dldot,the younger, until his death, when he was eigrhty-six years of age ; and another con- tinued to work until the age of eighty-fonr. Among the deaths in Paris, in one year, there were twenty-five printers, whose age8 varied fTom fifty -five to sevcnty-elgbt yeara ; among the returns of the hospital for the aged, the deaths of four printers were announced, whose ag«s were respec- tively sixty-four, seventy-fire, and seventy eight.

formula of the public offices. The asniial con- sumption of paper by the royal printing-presses is from agh^ to one hundred tnousand reams, or 261 to 326 reams per working day. The number of workmen usually employed is from 350 to 450.

1835, Atu. 14. The printing-office of Messrs. Dewiuk and Son, in Barbican, London, together with houses and property of considerable value, destroyed by fire.

1835, Avfi. 20. Died, John Tymbs, formerly proprietor of the Worcetter Journal. He died at Worcester, aged eighty-four years.

1835, i4ti^. 25. Dud, Evan Williams, who had been for upwards of forty years a Cambriaa bookseller in the Strand, London, and for thirty- five years a most active member of the Weldi charity school. Mr. Williams died at Fenton- ville, aged eighty-six years.

1835, Aug. 28: Died, Mr. Chater, of the firm of GrosrenoT and Chater, stationers, .Corn- hill, London. Mr. Chater was giving evidenee before the lord mayor, at the mansion house, in favour of his servant, when he was so affected that he bursfa blood vessel internally, and imme- diately dropped in the arms of the marshal, and expired, aged seventy-two years.

1835, Sept. 4. The third centenarr of the

Sublication of the firtt Englith Bible, by Miles loverdale. See page 260 ante. 1835, Sept. Upwards of twenty newspaper establishments destroyed in a calamitous fire at New York, in North America.

1835, Sept. II. Died, Thomas Benslet, an eminent printer, of London. He was the son of a printer, in the neighbourhood of the Strand, where Mr. Bensley was first established; but he afterwards removed to Bolt-court, Fleet-ctreet, where he succeeded Mr. Edward Allen, the " dear friend" of Dr. Johnson. Mr. Bensley's skill as a practical printer, was not inferior to that of his great cot«mporary, Mr. Bulmer.

" Pleased ■* we now the giateful strain pnrsoe. Two sons of science pass before our view. Who to theh: works perfection can impart. And snatch firom Itarb'rous bands onr sinking art ; Their sldll the sharp fine outline still snppUea; From vellum leaves their graoefhl types arise; And whilst our breasts the rival hopes expand, Bdlmu ami BiNSLav wett-eam'd praise demand."*

Whilst Mr. Bulmer astonished the public with his magnificent edition of Boydell's Shakepeare, Mr. Bensley jproduced a rival production in Macklin's Bible. To use the words of Dr. Dibdin, " While the Shakspeare gallery and the Shakspeare press were laying such fast hold of the tongues and the purses of the public, a noble spirit of rivalry was evinced by the Macklin's of rleet-street; Keynolds, West, Opie, Fnseli, Northcote, Hamilton, and othets, were engaged to exercise their magic pencils in the decotnuon of what was called the Poei't Gallery, aud among other specimens of the naUonal splendour and patriotism came forth the edition of Thom-


 * M'Creery's poem of the Preu, part I.

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