Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 04.djvu/173

 In 1777 these gentlemen met at the Chapter Coffee-house, Paternoster Row, and resolved to bring out a collection of the works of English poets, afterwards known as 'Johnson's Poets,' of which the first edition appeared in 1779, and the second in 1790.

Bell, who was agent for the brothers Martin, owners of the Apollo Press in Edinburgh, brought out, in London 1782, their edition of the 'British Poets,' the early volumes of which, issued in 1777, had stimulated the London trade to their undertaking of 1779. Bell's work was in one hundred and nine volumes, 18mo, and bore the general title of 'Bell's edition: The Poets of Great Britain complete from Chaucer to Churchill.' Each volume was illustrated by a frontispiece, an engraved title or a portrait after the designs of Stodhardt, Mortimer, and other artists of the day. Martin and Bell were debarred by an exclusive copyright from inserting in their collection Young, Mallet, Akenside, and Gray, which appeared in the London trade edition, together with Dorset, Stepney, Walsh, Duke, and Sprat, rhymesters whom Bell had cast aside. The attractiveness of this pocket edition nevertheless was indubitable, and Mr. Bell's enterprise and good taste were generally acknowledged. He published a similar edition of 'Shakespeare' and 'The British Theatre.'

He is distinguished among printers as being the first to discard the long (s) from his fount of type. He was one of the original proprietors of the 'Fashionable World,' of the 'Oracle,' and of the 'Morning Post' (1772). He established a Sunday newspaper, 'Bell's Weekly Messenger,' much esteemed for its country politics and accounts of country markets. 'La Belle Assemblée,' an illustrated monthly publication, was another of his successful projects. In Leigh Hunt's 'Autobiography' (i. 276) is a description of Bell's appearance, ending thus: 'He had no acquirements, perhaps not even grammar; but his taste in putting forth a publication, and getting the best artists to adorn it, was new in those times, and may be admired in any.

Bell was, in fact, the pioneer in that kind of publication so much in vogue in later days, by which the multitude is taught to feel an interest in the best literature by means of prints and illustrations executed by good artists. He died at Fulham in 1831, in the eighty-sixth year of his age.

 BELL, JOHN (1764–1836), barrister-at-law, only son of Matthew Bell, was born at Kendal, Westmoreland, 23 Oct. 1764, and was educated at the grammar school at Beetham in the same county and at Trinity College, Cambridge. There he graduated in 1786, was first Smith's prizeman and senior wrangler, and was subsequently elevated to a fellowship at his college, and entered at the Middle Temple 10 Nov. 1787, and at Gray's Inn 8 Nov. 1790, having taken his M.A. degree in the preceding year. After reading for some time in the chambers of Samuel (afterwards Sir Samuel) Romilly, he began to 'practise below the bar' i.e. as a special pleader, in 1790, and was called to the bar in 1792. He devoted himself to the equity branch of the profession, and gradually acquired an extensive practice in the court of Chancery. He did not, however, attain the rank of king's counsel until 1816, though long before that date he had gained a reputation as a lawyer second to that of none of his contemporaries. Lord Eldon is said, in conversation with the prince regent, to have described Bell as the best lawyer then at the equity bar, although he could 'neither read, write, walk, nor talk.' Bell was lame, spoke with a broad Westmoreland accent, the effect of which was heightened by a confirmed and distressing stammer, and wrote a hand never more than barely legible. He was accustomed to say that he wrote three hands, one which he himself could read, one which his clerk could read, and one which neither he nor his clerk could read. Nevertheless, his penetrating intelligence and thorough knowledge of law secured for him a large and lucrative practice. Between 1816 and 1819 his name occurs with extraordinary frequency in the reports, but thenceforward is very rarely found there; and he does not seem to have been engaged in any case of great importance after 1820, some years before he retired from professional life. He gave evidence before the commission which was appointed in 1824 to inquire into and report upon the procedure of the court of Chancery, but his lifelong familiarity with the business of this court appears to have had the effect of rendering him almost as obstinately averse to change as the lord chancellor (Eldon). Though conservative as a lawyer, in politics Bell was a whig. In person he was short, stout, and round-shouldered. In 1830 he published a pamphlet entitled 'Thoughts on the proposed Alterations in the Court of Chancery.' He died at his house in Bedford Square 6 Feb. 1836, leaving his wife Jane, daughter of Henry Grove, and an only son, Matthew Bell, now of Bourne Park, Kent, surviving him. Lord Langdale, who had been his pupil, was one of his executors. 