730
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
grammatical education, which he considerably improved; bat their circumstances in the sequel being too narrow to enable them to complete their wishes, he was obliged, at the age of seven- teeo, to think of some other avocation. At this time, Mr. Bliss, a printer of Exeter, wanting a person capable of correcting the press, young Brice was proposed to, and accepted by him, as an apprentice, for the term of five years. How- ever, naving long before his service expired, in- considerately contracted marriage, and being un- able to support a family of a wife and two chil- dren, he enlisted as a soldier, in order to cttncel his indentures; and, by the interest of his friends, very soon procured his discharge. Soon after, in 1714, he commenced business for him- self, but with fewer materials than can easily be imagined, having but one size of letter, namely Great Primer, for every sort of business, includ- ing a newspaper. To supply this deficiency, he carved in wood the title of his newspaper, and, in the same manner obviated every difficulty that could arise from a want of varieW in his types. In this manner he conducted business for several yeaii, with great credit to himself. The popular opinion of him now was such, with respect both to the benevolence and activity of his disposition, that he was solicited by the debt- ors in the city and county prisons to lay before the public the grievances which they laboured under from the severity of their keepers. This solicitation, the period of which was about the year 1722, bnngs to our recoU^tion that memorable era in 1729, which will be ever dear to humanity, when the house of commons ap- pointed a committee to inquire into the state of the gaols throughout the kingdom. Nor does it appear that the complaints of the debtors of £xeter were without foundation; and, indeed, the deplorable scenes discovered by the committee of the house of commons, in the Fleet prison only, are by no means exaggerated by Thomson in the following pathetic lines in his Winter :
And here can I forget the gen'roiu band,
yfbo, tonch'd with haman woe, redressive seaich'd
Into the honon of the gloomy jail?
ITnidtled, and unheard, where mis'ry moans j
Where slcluieu pines i where thirst and hanger burn.
And poor misfortune feels the lash of vice.
-While in the land of llbertr, the land
Whose ev'ry street and public meeting glow
With open freedom, little tyrants rag'd;
Snatch'd the lean morsel from the starving mouOi i
Tore born cold wlnt'ry limbs the tatter'd weed;
Ev'n robbM them of the last of comforts, sleep j
The free-bom Briton to the dungeon chaln'd,
-Or, as the lust of cruelty prevallUI,
At pleasoie mark'd him with inglorious stripes;
And crushed out lives, by secret barb'rous ways.
That for their country would have toil'd or Ued.
But benevolence is sometimes too ardent and impetuous in the generosity of exertion; while the intrepid villain, the veteran in guilt, deeply intrenched in the chicanery of law, perceives his numberless resources, and with all the certainty of cool and collected cunning, prepares the legal ambuscades for the unwary champion of hu- manity. In all probability, this observation was within the experience of Mr. Brice, who, having
readily complied with the solicitatton of ikr prisoners, soon found himself hanassed by ■■ expensive law-suit, which terminated in his ham cast in damages that he was unable to discbaigc. To avoid the consequences that might be nata- rally expected to flow from this serere decisiai, Mr. Brice, for seven years, was under the neces- sity of assuming the chaJacter which he had been so ardently defending, and of sulmutti^ to a voluntary confinement in his own home. This enabled him to conduct his business wUi his wonted assiduity, without the more disagiee- able alternative of a prison &om home. But his business as a printer, during this period, did not attract his entire attention. We find Ub equally active and prolific as an author. Amoof otner pamphlets he published a Poem on JUherti/, a subject, which we may suppose to have bees very near his heart, and in which, as might naturally be expected, there were manj sevcR sarcasms against his late prosecuton. This poem contains some very good lines; bnt, bdig written in blank verse, in a quaint s^le pecnBv to himself, in general, did not please. The profits he derived from the publication of thii poem were, however, sufficient to enable him to compound with the keepers of the prisons, aaJ to regain his liberty. From this period, bit business greatly increased, and he 8o<hi afier published a collection of stories and poems under the tide of the Agreeable CroUimaufry, or Mattk- lest Medley, a great part of whiqh were the Vi- sions of his own lively imagination. About the year 1740, he set up a printing press at Truro, it Cornwall (the first in that county) at the same time continuing his business at Exeter. Bnt, his press in Cornwall not answering his expecta. tion, he removed the printing materials loExets, and confined all his exertions to that city. Hoe he was ever the patron of the stage; for, in 174i. when the players were prosecuted as ragnsts, and obliged to relinquish their theatre, whick was afterwards purchased by the methodista, aad converted into their chapel, Mr. Brice steoj forth in defence of the players, and published i poem, entitied The Play-home Church, or meg Actor* of Devotion. From this title it may be easily imagined what was the opinion he enter- tained of uiis religious sect; and perhaps numj good people, from this single circumstance, may conceive very unfavourable sentiments of him. The mob, in fact, were so spirited up by this poetical invective, that the methodists were sood obliged to abandon the place to its former pos- sessors, whom Mr. Brice now protected, by enga^g them as his covenant-servants to per- form gratis. To these itinerant gentry, the strutting monarchs of an hour, Mr. Brice's house was ever open, and fur them his table plentifully supplied; nor did he refrain, on aoy emergency, to appear in any humorous charac- ter. He was as singular in his speech, as re. markable in his manners and dress; which ia- dnced Mr. King to exhibit him in the diaracter of lord Ogleby, which Mr. Garrick introdnced in the Clandettine Marriage. His populaii^
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