944
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
1836, Feb. 5. In the court of exchequer, Mr. John Cleavb, the publisher of unstamped newspapers, was convicted in penalties of £500, in five numben of the Weekly Police Gazette. — Many prosecutions took place in several parts of the country, agwnst the venders of unstamped newspapers.
1836, March 14. Died, John Matne, author of the Siller Gvn and other poems, and editor and joint proprietor of the Sun London news- paper. A hioffrapher has indeed a pleasing task to perform, when he can at the same time raise memorials both to genius and to virtue, and such a task is ours in the present instance, while penning this brief notice of the author of the Siller Gun. Mr. Mayne was born in Dumfries. Ue received his education at the grammar school of that town ; and at a very early age he became a printer, and wrou^^t on a weekly newspaper, called the Dumfries Journal, conducted by pro- fessor Jackson. Before long, however, he left Dumfirie8for61asgow,accompanying his father's family, who took up their residence on a property they had acquired at Greathead, near that city. While a youth, " ere care was Iwm," to cherish native Scottish feelings, or, in other words, to breathe the breath of poetry; for in Scotland these two are aldn, — her grand and lovely scenery, her woods, her high hills, and lakes, together with the warm-heaitedncsBs of her lads and lasses, form a garden wherein poetry has been destined to take root and flouriso. These " feelings" ripened with his years ; nature was his study, if nature may be called a study. It was a happr choice. In 1777, the original of the Siller Gua was written ; it consisted of only twelve stanzas, printed at Dumfries, on a small 4to. page, which were shortly after extended to two cantos, and reprinted. In 1808, it was again put forth with material alterations and additions, extending it to four cantos, with notes and glossary. Another elegant edition, enlarged to five cantos, was publishni by subscription, in 1836. For some time after the first publication of the Siller Gun, Mr. Mayne corresponded with Ruddiman^s Magazine, a weekly miscel- lany, in which his Hallowe'en and other minor poems won him favour. While at Glasgow, Mr. Mayne passed throngh a regular time of service in the house of the Messrs. Foulis. This ended, and having to make his way in the world, he resolved on gomg to London, where he com- menced an active and honourable career, which he did not relinquish till a comparatively late period in life. For many years, he was printer, editor, and joint proprietor of the Star evening paper, in which not a few of his most beautifm ballads first appeared. He also corresponded with the mag^ines. As a poet of Scotland, though Bums alone surpassed him, Mr. Mayne was modest and unambitious ; he wrote little, but that little well. Perhaps where he most of all excelled was in his ballad effusions, such as his LogiM Braet, which is a general favourite. Allan Cunningham, of kindnd spirit, has told us of I Mr. Mayne, that "a better or warm-hearted /
man never existed." Another pleaabg writer truly said of him, " he never wrote a line, the tenaency of which was not to afford innocent amusement, or to improve and increase the htw- piness of mankind." Mr. Mayne attained a ripe old age, an age, indeed, few poets have numbered ; and if there is a blessing on earth, John Mayne had it; his memory is blessed. He was kind to every one, and universally beloved. To him the words of Shakspeare may be well applied : —
Rli Ufe wu renUe, and the dementi
Bo mixed in him, that nature mi^t stand up.
And uf to all the world, "Thlavaianun."
1836, Ajml 28. Mr. Buckingham obtained leave to bring in a bill for the rei^ of so much of the copyright act as enjoinea the gratuitous delivery of eleven copies of every publUied work to eleven public institutions, college, and libraries, of different towns in the kingdom. On the I3th of August, the following resolution was reported to the house of commons, and instruc- tion given to the committee on the copyright bill, to carry it into effect: — "That anniud compen- sation DC made out of the consolidated fund of Great Britain and Ireland, to any of the public libraries which may sustain loss by leason of being no longer entitled to a copy of every book which shall m printed and published."
1836, April. Mr. Richaro Harrison pro- duced a very correct and beautiful foe timde of Magna Charta. It is surrounded by the shields of twenty-five barons.
1836, Mav. Died, Edward Bddd, the sole conductor ol'^the Weit Briton newspaper, pub- lished at Truro, in Cornwall, where he died, aged sixty-one years.
1836,/une3. Dteii, Thom as Yacher, stationer, and publisher of Vacher's Parliamentary Com- panion, and other useful vade mecuvu.
1S36, July 2. Died, John Gardner, printer and bookseller, at Bolton, in Lancashire, in the seventieth year of his age. Mr. Gardner served his apprenticeship at Kendal, and had carried on the trade of printing and bookselling at Boltoo, for nearly fifty years. He was some time in partnership with Mr. John Yates, who had been his apprentice.* As captain of the grenadier company in the Bolton Local Militia, his remains were carried to the grave in Sl George's church. Little Bolton, by ten non-commissioned officen of that corps.
1836, July 20. The printing establishment of the American Bible "Society, was burnt at New York. Large editions of the Bible, in English, German, and Greek, with eighteen printing presses and a steam engine, were totally destroyed
1836, Sept. 8. Died, Benjamin BooTH^ovD, D.D., pastor of the independent church, at Highfield Chapel, Huddersfield. He was bora in Yorkshire, of very humble parents, and received little or no education ; but was put to assist his father, who was a shoemaker, from
- Mr. Tate* afleiwaids eommenoed the BoUon &nran.
but it did not continue long to eiMence. Be died at Bottoo, la October, IBSt.
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