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wateragubdde. Idonotthlnkourcoirespondenoe should drop because we are within a mile of each other; it is but an imaginary approximation, the flood having in reality as effectually parted us, as if the British channel rolled between us. Yours, my dear sister, with Mrs. U.'s best
lOTe, WILLIAM COWFES.
Monday, Aug. 19,1782.
1782. Died, William Fbancis de Bure, an eminent bookseller of Paris. His treatise of Scarce and Curious Books, 7 vols. 8vo. 1766, and his Muteum Typographieum, 1775, shew his industry and knowledge to great perfection.
1782, Feb. Maty's New Review, No. 1. This work was the production of Paul Henry Maty, son of Dr. Matthew Maty, who died August 2, 1786. He was born in 1745, and intended for the church, but his advancement was hindered by some scruples he entertained respecting the djoctrines of the Trinity. He was appomted one of the librarians of the British museum, and in 1778, a secretary of the royal society. In 1782 be commenced the above work, which he continued till 1786. In 1784, when there were great divisions in the royal society, occa- sioned by the dismissal of Dr. Hutton from the post of foreign secretary, Mr. Maty resigned his phtce. He died Jan. 1 6, 1 787.
1782. The Jemit. This periodical paper was commenced during the short-lived administra- tion of lord Shelbume, as characteristic of that nobleman. In this work Mr. Sheridan had a principal concern, and it was so severe upon the minister that the attorney-general was directed by government to institute a prosecution aeainst the publisher. It ought to be mentioned as a curious instance of we honaty of party, that when the conductors of this paper came soon after into power, they suffered the prosecution to go on, and the bookseller to be imprisoned twelve months without interposing on his behalf, or even paying the heavy expenses which he had incurred!
1782, Nov. 28. Died, Mr. Ridley, bookseller in St. James's-street.
1782. The European Magazine.
1783, Jan. The Cfentleman's Magazine, con- siderably enlarged, and from this time each year was divided into two volumes.
1783, March 29. Died, Thomas Caslon, an eminent bookseller in stationers'-court, and whose name appears conspicuously on the title-pages of the dav. He was master of the stationers' company m 1782.
1783. Joseph Francis Ignatius Hoffmann, a native of Alsace, (who settled the following year at Paris) availed himself of the discovery of Ged, which had been made in the art of stereo- typing, and endeavoured to extend it. He printed, on solid plates, several sheets of his Journal Polytype, and advertised father Che- mer's Rechercha tur let Maurei, 3 vols. 8vo. as a polytype book. Hoffmann was deprived of his pnntmg office in 1787, by a decree of the coimcil; and in 1792 he addressed a memoir to the mi- nister of the interior, to enable him to open a
new channel for his industry. He formed two sorts of types or puncheons; one for detached letters, and the other for letters collected into the syllables most frequently occurring in the French language. Hoffmann termed the art of casting types the art of polytypa, and that of re-uniting several characters into a single type, the art of logotype. In 1785, Joseph Carez, a printer at Toul, in France, chanced to obtain some numbers of Hoffmann's Journal Polytype; he was struck with the advantages which the new process seemed to offer, and commenced his first essays in editions, which he called omoiyped, in order to express the reunion of many types in one. He executed several liturgical and devo- tional works, and among others, an edition of the Vulgate Bible in nonpareil, which possesses great neatness.
1783. An Introduction to Logography : or, the art of arranging and composing for printing with words intire, their radices and terminations, instead of single letters. By his iVajesty's royal letters patent By Henry Johnson. London, printed loeographiodly. 8vo. Walter. This new method of composition was denominated iMgo- graphic, which consisted in the art of arranging and composing for printing with words intire, their radices and terminations, instead of single letters; for which invention Mr. Walter, the proprietor of the Timee newspaper, and part contriver of this new method, obtamed his majes- ty's letters patent; Mr. Johnson was a compo- sitor with Mr. Walter, and appears to have been at great trouble and not a little expense to prepare nis types, and published the above
famphlet to recommend them to the public, n the pamphlet Mr. Johnson s&m, by thU method, " the errors are far less tnan in com- mon; there can be none orthographical; nor can there be any misplacing, inverting, or omission of letters, nor substitution of one letter for an- other." It may be fairly asked, how came the word majesty, in the very title-page, to be misprinted najesty. Is this the extraordinary correctness that is to silence all objections? But, as well from this unluckv circumstance, as firom the awkward one of a single e which had drop- ped below the line, p. 47, in the familiar word extensive; common types appear to have been had recourse to, in aid oi this logographical scheme. Nor could it be otherwise, were his stock of letters ever so large; for when the inconceivable variety of whole words, and requi- dte combinations of letters are cast, there must still remain a great deficiency of technical and uncommon terms, with proper names, to be made up when wanted, from single letters; but nei^er the words majesty, nor extensive, rank in these classes : and even if it were possible for a printer to complete such a stock, is he to print all things in the same sized type; or is his whole stock of combinations to be multiplied in all the usual sizes, and then to be doubled for Roman and Italics in each? in this latter case, what sum of money would a printer require to set up with f what must be his stock of letters, sufficient to
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