Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/623

 ii s. vi. DEC. -28, i9i2.] ,\ OTES AND QUERIES.

515

BENJAMIN HARRIS (11 S. vi. 449). The following supplements the information given in The Times. Domestick Intelligence ; or, News both from City and Country, was printed for Benjamin Harris " at the Sta- tioners' Arms, in the Piazza under the Royal Exchange, Cornhill.'' This was continued (1680-81) as The Protestant (Domestick) Intelligence, of which Nos. 56-114 (15 April. 1681) are in the British Museum. It was suspended from 16 April to 28 Dec., 1680, and during this period seven numbers of The True Protestant (Domestick) Intelligence were issued. These are attributed in the British Museum Catalogue as " apparently from the press of B. Harris : ' ; but while in prison Harris issued a notice, dated 27 April, 1680, to the effect that, contrary to pub- lished report, he was not concerned, directly or indirectly, with the news-sheet called The True Protestant Domestick Intelligence, which had been first issued four days earlier, and, owing to the somewhat similar title of his paper commenced in 1679, had been attributed to him (Nichols, ' Lit. Anec.,' iv. 66).

Harris cautioned the public against a rival print entitled The True Domestick Intelligence as being a " Popish impostor." This paper was numbered so that its estab- lishment might be thought of earlier date than was really the case, No. 1. 26 Aug., 1679, being numbered 15. In this year (1679) Harris is stated to have published Domestick Intelligence for the promoting of Trade. He was fined 500J., pilloried, and committed to King's Bench Prison in South- wark for printing seditious literature, and on 5 Feb., 1679/80, there was published

" A Short but just Account of the Tryal of Benjamin Harris for printing a seditious book, called 'An Appeal from the Country to the City for the preservation of His Majesties person.. .". and the Protestant Religion.' "

A copy of this is in the British Museum.

On 16 Feb., 1681/2, Harris published The Weekly Discoverer Strip 'd naked ; or, Jest and Earnest exposed to Publick View in his Proper Colours, of which five numbers are in the British Museum ; and on 22 March, 1682/.'{, he commenced another Domestick Intelligence, "published gratis every Thursday for the promoting of Trade," and all persons who took The Weekly News, which had then been in existence for a few months, were " desired to ask this paper of the hawkers every Thursday gratis." In 1691 a " B. Harris " was associated with others in the publication of the City Mer- cury, "or advertisements concerning Trade/'

but the subject of this notice is said to have been then in exile in America. The London Post of 1699, published by Harris, is not recorded by Nichols or Timperley ; but the latter mentions another paper with a similar title, of which No. 1, printed by Harris in Gracechurch Street, was issued 15 Oct., 1715. This, however, is not in the British Museum Catalogue.

Dunton the bookseller says of Harris that he was a brisk asserter of English liberties, and once printed a book with that very title. He sold ' A Protestant Petition ' in King Charles's reign, for which they fined him 500Z., and set him once in the pillory ; but his wife (like a kind rib) stood by him to defend her husband against the mob. After this, having a deal of mercury in his natural temper, he travelled to New England, where he followed bookselling, and then coffee- selling, and then printing, but continued Ben Harris still ; and is now bookseller and printer, in Gracechurch Street, as we find by his London Post ; so that his conversation is general (but never impertinent), and his wit pliable to all invention. But yet his vanity (if he has any) gives no allay to his wit, and is no more than might justly spring from conscious virtue ; and I do him but justice in this part of his character, for in once travelling with him from Bury fair, I found him to be the most ingenuous and innocent companion I had ever met with."

In the British Museum is a satirical ballad on Harris entitled ' The Saint turn'd Curtezan,' published c. 1681. Another ballad, ' The Protestant Cuckold,' which appeared in 1681, reflects on the character of his wife Ruth, and in this he is called the " Protestant Newsforger."

The editions of ' The Protestant Tutor ' in the B.M. are those of 1679 and 1716, and one dated "1720?" Lowndes records one dated 1713. Harris also wrote (see B.M. Cat.) " The New English Tutor, enlarged for the more easy attaining the true reading of English. To which is added, Milk for Babes.' ' The Catalogue date is " 1710 ? "

ROLAND AUSTIN.

Public Library, Gloucester.

THE STONES OF LONDON (US. vi. 429). It may surprise some to learn of one quarry that has contributed. In his ' Destruction of Ancient Rome' (Macmillan, 1901), Prof. Lanciani, after describing how marble obtained by demolishing buildings in Rome was employed in the construction of the cathedral at Aix-la-Chapelle and of numerous churches and cathedrals in Italy, gives an instance of exportation to England :

" Giaoomo Boni, in a paper road at a urn-ting of the British and American Society of Rome, March 28, 1893, makes an interesting statement regarding the use of Roman materials in West- minster Abbey. ' Among the most important