EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
717
his shop: it was in my own chamber.' Of Os- borne's philological attainments, the meanest opinion must be fonned, if we jndg« £tom his advertisements, which were sometimes inserted in the London Gazette, and drawn up in the most ridiculously vain and ostentatious style. He used to tell the public, that ' he possessed all the pompous editions of Classicks and Lexi- cons.' 1 insert the two following advertisements, prefixed, the one to his Catalogue of 1748, the other to that of 1753, for the amusement of my bibliographical readers, and as a model for Messrs. Favne, White, MiUer, Evans, Priest- ley, Cuthell, &c.: 'This Catalogue being very larg^, and of consequence very expensive to the proprietor, he humbly requests, that, if it falls into the hands of any gentleman gratu, who chooses not himself to be a purchaser of any of the books contained in it, that such gentle- man will be pleased to recommend it to any other whom he thinlcs may be so, or to return it' " To his Catalogue of 1753 was the following : ' To the NobiUty and Gentry who please to favour me with their commands. It is hoped, as I intend to give no offence to any nobleman or gentleman, dbat do me the honour of being my customer, by putting a price on my Cata- logue, by which means they may not receive it as usual — it is desired that such nobleman or gentleman as have not received it, would be pleased to send for it; and it's likewise requested of such gentlemen who do receive it, that, if they chuse not to purchase any of the books themselves, they would recommaid it to any bookish gentleman of their acquaintance, or to return it; and the &vour shall be acknowledged by, their most obedient and obliged,
'T.OSBORNB.'
"The Harleian collection of manuscripts was purchased by government for £10,000, and is now deposited in the British Museum. The books were disposed of to Thomas Osborne, of Gray's Inn, bookseller; — ^to the irreparable loss, and I had almost said, the indelible disgrace, of the country. It is, indeed, for ever to be lamented, that a collection, so extensive, so various, so magnificent, and intrinsically valu- able, should have become the property of one, who necessarily, &om his situation in life, be- came a purchaser, only that he might be a vender, of the volumes. Osborne gave £13,000 for the collection; a sum, which must excite the astonishment of the present age, when it is informed that lord Oxford gave £18,000 for the binding only, of the least part of them. In the year 1743-4, appeared an account of this collection, under the following title, Caudogut Bibliotheca Harleianie, ^c. in four volumes (the 5th not properly appertaining to it.) Dr. John- son was employed by Osborne to write the Preface, which, says Boswell, ' he has done with an ability that cannot fail to impress all his readers with admiration of his philological attainments. The first two volumes are written in Latin by Johnson; the third and fourth volumes, which are a repetition of the two
former, are composed in English by Oldys ; and notwithstanding its defects, it is the best cata- logue of a large library of which we can boast. It should be in every good collection. To the volumes was prefixed the following advertise- ment : ' As the curiosity of spectators, before die sale, may produce disorder in the disposition of the books, it is necessary to advertise the pnb- Uc, that there will be no admission into the librarv before the day of sale, which will be on Tuesday the 14th of February, 1744.' It seems that Osborne had charged the sum of ds. for each of his first two volumes, which was repre- sented by the booksellers 'as an avaricious inno- vation ;' and, in a paper published in the Cham- pion, tiiey, or their mercenaries, reasoned so jusdy as to aUege, that, if Osbome could afford a verv large price for die library, he might therefore affoni to give away the Catalogue,' Preface to vol. iii. p. 1. To this charge Os- bome answered, that his Catalogue was drawn up with great pains, and at a heavy expense; but, to obviate all objections, ' those,' says he, ' who have paid five siuUings a volume, sliall be allowed, at any time witlun three months after the day of sale, either to return them in ex- change for books, or to send them back, and re- ceive their money.' This, it must be confessed, was sufficiendy Uberal. Osborne was also ac- cused of rating ki$ books at too high a price. To this the following was his reply, or rather Dr. Johnson's ; for the style of the doctor is sufficiendy manifest : ' If, therefore, I have set a high value upon books — if I have vainly imagined litera- ture to be more fashionable than it really is, or idlv hoped to revive a taste well nigh extinguished, I Imow not why I should be persecuted with clamour and invective, since I shall only suffer by my mistake, and be obliged to keep those books which I was in hope* of selling.' Preface to the 3d volume. The fact was, that Osborne's charges were extremely moderate ; and the sale of the books was so very slow, that Johnson assured Boswell, ' there was not much gained by the bargain.' There will also be found, in Osborne's Catalogue of 1748 and 1753, some of die scarcest books in English literature, marked at two, or three, or four shillings, for which three times the number of poimds is now pven."
1767. The New TVriameRf, translated into the Gaelic language by the rev. James Stuart,* minister of KilUn, and printed at Edinburgh, at die expense of the " Society in Scotland for pro- pagating Christian Elnewledge;" assisted by a grant of £300 from the London society. It was printed in 8vo. with rules for reading die Gaelic at the end.
1767, Smt. Died, John Ubers, a journeyman printer, at Amsterdam, in Holland, at the extra- ordinary age of one hundred and six years.
1767, Dee. Died, John Reeves, an eminent law printer in the Savoy, London.
- Mr. Stmutt died Jane 30, 1789. in the sgth yeu of hi*
age, and tbe flftjr-iecond of Ills ministrv.
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