SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
566
There was a Charles Mbarne, bookseller to the king, who died in the latter part of the year 1686, and was most probably a son of the above. His stock of French books was sold by Mr. W. Cooper, February 28, 1687, at the King's arms. Charing cross ; and his English books by Mr. Millington, at Richard's co£^ house.
1683, Jan. 27. The Engluh Gvtman, or Cap- tain Hilton's Memoirs, the Grand Informer.
1683. Feb. 10. Scot's Memoin,by way of Dia- logue, No. 1.
1683. Scotch Memoin, by vay of Dialogue between John and Elymat. Printed, No. 1 and 2 for William Abbinton, and the subequent numbers for Richard Butts, at the Bear and Orange tree, in Prince's-street. February.
1683, March 22. Domestick Intelligence, pub- lished grati$ ereryThursday, for the promoting of Trade, by B. Harris.
1683. Weekly Memento for the Ingeniotu ; or an Account of Books in 1682.
1683, June 28. 7%« Jockey's Intelligencer; or. Weekly Advertisements of Horses and second- hand Coaches to be bought or sold. In this paper the charge for inserting advertisements (then untaxed) was a shilling for a horse or coach, for notification, and sixpence for renewal. Printed by J. Smith.
1683, Dee. 7. On this day was beheaded, on a groundless charge of high treason, on Tower- hill, die celebrated Algernon Sydney. He was a great patriot, and an eminent politician. His principles were highly appreciated, and his writings are still held in great repute. His Discourses on Government are chiefly designed to show the necessity of a balance between the popular and monarchial parts of a mixed govern- ment, and have obviously a particular reference to the political evils of his own time, to which, unfortunately he was himself a victim.
The holdeat son of public iml
See Sydoey leaning o'er the block I U* mien,
Hli voice, Ua hand, onsliaken, dear, Kiene;
Onconqaer'd patriot I form'd by ancient lore.
The love of ancient tireedom to restore.
Who nobly acted what be boldly wrote
And seal'd by death, the lesaooa that he tanght.
He was the son of Robert earl of Leicester, and born about 1617. He distinguished himself at the b^inning of the civil wars by his oppo- sition to Charles I., but when Cromwell assumed the sovereignty, under the title of protector, Sydney retired to private life. He was appre- hended on a charge of being concerned in the Ryehouse plot, tried before judge Jefferies, and sentenced to death. The sentence against him was declared illegal in the fijst parliament of William and Mary. His Discovrtes were not published until the year 1689, and again by Hollis. Lord William Russell had before fallen a victim to the jealously smd fears of the king. This eminent patriot was beheaded in LincoIiTs Inn Fields, Jiuy 21, 1682, aged forty-four years.
1684, Feb. 5. A remarkable frost overspread the Thames from the beginning of December, 1683, until February 5, 1684. Evelyn, who was
an eye-witness of the diversions carried on upon the ice, furnishes perhaps, the most extraordinary account of it in his Diary, where, on January 24, he observes that " the frost continuing more and more severe, the Thames before London was still planted with boothes in formal streetes, all sorts of trades and shops fumish'd, and full of commodities, even to a printing presse, where the people and ladyes tooke a fancy to have their names printed, and the day and yeare set down when printed on the Thames : this humour took so universally, that 'twas estimated the printer gained £5 a day, for printing a line onely, at sixpence a name, besides what he got by ballads, &c. Coaches plied from Westminster to the Temple, and from several other stairs to and fro, as in the streets ; sleds, sliding with skeetes, a bull baiting, horse and coach races, puppet-plays, and interludes, cookes, tipling, and other lewd places, so that it seem'd to be a bacchanalian triumph, or carnival on the water." Charles II. with other personages of the royal family, visited these diversion8,and had theirnames printed on the ice. The author of some curious verses, entitled, Thamatii's Advice to the Painter,from her Frigid Zone ; or. Wonders upon the Water, sajrs.
Then draw the King, who on his Leads doth stay, To see the throne as on a Lord Mayor's day. And thai onto Ills Nobles pleas'd to say , With these Hen on this Ice, I'de nudeitake To cause the Turk all Europe to forsake : An army of these Men, arm'd and compleat. Would soon the Turk in Cliristendom defeat.
The same poem contains the following advice to its readers :
'To the Primt-hotue go
When Men the Art ofPrbMng soon do know:
Where for a Tttuter you may nave your Name
Printed, hereafter for to show the same ;
And sore in/onn«r ages ne'er was found
A Prtu to pHfU where men so oft were drowned.*
London : Printed by 6. Croom, on the ICE, on the River of Thames, January 31 , 1684.
1684. Nouvelles de la Republique des Lettres. The celebrated Peter Bavle published this work. He possessed the art, acquired by habit, of reading a book by his fingers, as it has been happily expressed ; and of comprising, in con- cise extracts, a just notion of a book, without the addition of irrelevant matter. Lively, neat, and full of that attic salt which gives a relish to the driest disquisitions, for the first time the ladies and all the beau-monde, took an interest in the labours of the critic. He wreathed the rod of criticism with roses. Yet even Bayle, who declared himself to be a reporter, and not a judge, Bayle the discreet sceptic, could not long satisfy his readers. His panegyric was thought somewhat prodigal; his fluency of style some- what too familiar; and others afiiected not to relish his gaiety. In his latter volumes, to still
- The origioal at this poem is in the possession of Mr.
WtHlam Vfeott, of the London InsUtntion, whose vsluable collection of rarities can also boast one of the very papers on which the king and bis royal companions had their names printed. This document consists of a quarter-sheet of coane Dutch jmftt.
/"
Google^
