EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
787
1795, May 23. Died, Stanley Chowder, for many yeais a considerable wholesale bookseller on the north side of Paternoster-row. He was an elitx of sir James Hodges. In the latter part of his life, finding business decline, he was for- tunate enough to obtain the place of clerk to the commissioners of the commutation hou.se and window tax for London, which afforded him a comfortable asylum in his old age.
I79d, June 12. Died, James Fletcher, a bookseller at Oxford, aged eighty-seven years and seven months. He was a native of Salis- bury, in Wiltshire.
1795, Junt 24. Died, William Smellie, an eminent naturalist, miscellaneous writer, and printer, in the city of Edinburgh, where he was Dorn about the year 1740. He received the rudiments of his education at the parish school at DuddingstOB, and was for some time at the high school of Edinburgh. His father, who was a builder, and constructor of the martyrs' tomb, in the Greyfriars church-yard, at first wished to apprentice him to a stay-maker, but the business of a printer was ultimately pre- ferred, and he was indentured to Messrs. Hamil- ton, Balfour, and Neil, then eminent professors of that art in the Scottish capital. While yet very young, he had the misfortune to lose nis father; but the exemplary conduct of the young
Srinter soon placed him above the necessity of epending upon others for his subsistence. Every leisure moment was devoted to study, or literary pursuits; and only a few years of his apprenticeship had elapsed, when he was ap- pointed by his employers to the responsible office of corrector of the press, with a weekly allow- ance of ten shilling', in place of his stipulated wages of three shillings. Instead of wasting his earnings on frivolity or dissipation, young Smel- lie took the opportunity of attending a regular course of the university classes. The result of this was soon evidenced, by his producing an edition of Terence, in 12mo. 1758, wholly set up and corrected by himself; which Harwood, the philologist, declares to be " an immaculate edition;" and which gained to his masters an honoraiT prize, offered by the Edinburgh Philo- sophical society, for the best edition of a Latin classic. Upon the expiry of his indentures, Mr. Smellie, then only nineteen years of age,accepted employment from Messrs. Murray and Cochrane, printers in Edinburgh, as corrector of their press, and conductor of the Scott Magazine. Notwithstanding, however,his severe professional labours, he still prosecuted his classical studies with greater ardour; and nothing, perhaps, can better illustrate the self-ta.sking nature of Mr. Smellie's mind, than the fact, that he instructed himself in the Hebrew language, solely that he might be tliereby fitted for superintending a grammar of that tongue, then about to be published by professor Robertson. He continued m the employment of the above gentlemen for six years; that is to say, until ue year 1765, during which time we find him steadily advanc- ing himself in life, extending his acquaintance
amongst the literati of the day, and improvin^f himself by every means within his reach. He had a decided preference to the study of natural history, especially of botany, and about the year 1760, collected an extensive Hortm Siccui from the fields around Edinburgh, which he pre- sented to Dr. Hope, professor of botany in the university. He likewise in the same year gained the honorary gold medal given by the professor for the best botanical dissertation; and soon afterwards wrote various other discourses on vege- tation, generation, &c., all of which were sub- sequently published in a large work solely writ- ten by himself, entitled the PhUotophy of Natu- ral tiistory. He was besides no mean chemist, at a time when chemistry had scarcely been re- duced to ascience.andwas generally heldas alike visionary and vain. Upon the publication of the Euayt of the celebrated David Hume,* printed by Mr. Smellie, an extended correspondence took place between them, in which the latter contested with great lo^cal force and acumen many of the heterodox doctrines advanced by the former; particularly that respecting the credi- bility of miracles. He lived in terms of great intimacy with Dr. William Buchan, author of (he well-known Dotnatic Medicine. That work passed through the press in Messrs. Murray and Cocbrane's printing office, and entirely under Mr. Smellie's superintendence. Dr. Buchan him- S'ilf then residing in England. It is well ascer- tained that Mr. Smellie contributed materially, both by his medical and philological knowledge, to the value and celebnty of the publication; and from the fact, indeeid, of his having re- written the whole of it for the printers, he was very generally considered at the time, in Edin- burgh, to be the sole author of it. In 1763, being then only twenty-three years of age, Mr. Smellie married a Miss Robertson, who was very respectably connected. By this marriage he had thirteen children, many of whom he had lost bj disease. In 1765, upon the conclusion of his engagement with Messrs. Murray and Cochrane, he commenced business as a master-printer, in conjunction with Mr. Auld, Mr. Smellie's pecu- niary proportion of the copartnery being advan- ced for him by Dr. Hope and Dr. Fergusson, professors in the university. In 1767, a new co- partnery was formed by the introduction of Mr. Balfour, bookseller, who brought along with him the property of a newspaper called the Weekly Jonmal, which had for a considerable time previously been established. The manage-
- David Home, celebiated ta a metaphysical and histo-
rical writer, was born In the city of EdlDborch, AprQ IS, 1711, where he died, August a, 177<. His Hiitory o/ England was the first example of the highest kind of his- torical composition which appeared in English literature. The first volome, embracing the period from the accession of James 1. to the revolntion, was pablished in 1 754; and the second, appeared in 1756; and, notwithstanding the superior erudition, accuracy, and even elegance, of sub- sequent writers, it has since been the standard worlc upon thesnbject. Besides the profits it brought him he obtained a pension from lord Bute. In 1 703 he accompanied the earl of Hertford In his embassy to Paris, where in 176s be remained charge d'aflklrs. After his death appeared a work by him, called IHattgua emceming Nnttirol iiefifion.
VjOOQ IC
