EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
801
evasion of the law, and calculated to afford such a harvest to the common informer, (as an instance of which, one of them, from some in- advertence or misconception of the printer, talked, in the true spint of renal espionai^, exoltingly of the five thousand penalties of £20 each, for omitting the name upon an annual pocket-book,) that an act was passed in 1811 to restrict to twenty-five penalties, for any one and the same book, and empowering magistrates to mitigate even to jC6, and quarter sessions to giant still further relief. The spirit of the act was, however, followed up by the Castlereagh ad- ministration, in December, 1819.
1799. Died, Charles Joseph Panckoocke, one of the. most eminent booksellers and pub- lishers of Paris. He was the son of Andrew Joseph Panckoucke, noticed at page 686 ante, bom at Lisle, in 1736, and brought up under his father as a bookseller. At the age of twenty- eight he settled at Paris, where he soon took the lead in his profession, and his knowledge of ty- pography made him celebrated all over Europe. He has made his name particularly memorable by the establishment of we Moniteur,* the idea of which is said to have suggested itself to him from what he saw during a visit to England of the influence of the newspaper press, even at that time. With him also onginated the Ency- clopidie Methodique, and continued to be pub- lished for more than one hundred and fifty volumes. Panckoucke lived in habits of inti- macy with the most distinguished French writers and men of genius of his time. He was also the author of a considerable number of works.
- For the origin of newspapers in France, see ptige 473
o$»ie. What progress the periodical press made in Prance, we have not been able to ascertain ; bat tbere was reallf no political press there until the year 1789. when the constituent assembly In the declaration of rights, decreed (5th October] that the Aree commonlcatlon of thoughts and opinions Is one of the most precious rlg:hts of man, and that every citizen may therefore speak, write, and print freely. This decree, which formally recognised the liberty of the press, at the same time called It Into exist- ence. But DO distinction was made between the various modes of publication, and no greater securities were re- quired for newspapers than for books and pamphlets. The periodical press was a stranger to the habits of the coun- try, and the public were not prepared for it. Violent and witty pamphlets were Indeed written, but no one had yet learned either to write or read a joornal. In this respect the Moniteur began the education of the conunanlty In France. No journals were previously known, except the Mercurtt the QaxeUe de France, and the Courrter de Pro- vence. As men's passions became heated, a new brood was hatched, amongst which were Marat's Ami du Peuple, and Hebeif s Pere Dutehene. The rapidity and acerbity of the pamphlets of the time were suited to the taste of a people which lived upon excitement. Violent alternations of licence and despotism distinguished the most stormy period of the revolution; yet, in sidteof the extravagance of the one, and the disproportionale severity of the other, the press continued to make way. Under the consulate and the empire it was subjected to systematic control. No Journal could appear without the authority of the minister of the Interior ; the number of provincial papers was at this onsettled time, limited to one for each department, and these were placed under the authority of the prefects. On some occasions, however. Napoleon himself becmme a loamaUst, and replied in the MonUeur to the manifestoes or the BriUah government. He alsoeneonraged a revival of reUgions doctrines, the influence of which was felt in literature before It reached the sphere of politic*. Of this school the Journal da Debate was the centre, and Chateau* brland and Bonald were the organs.
1799, May 30. John Parry, the proprietor, John Vint, the printer, and George Ross, the publisher of the Courier newspaper, were con- victed in the court of king's bench for publishing a paragraph, ttating the emperor of Riutia to be a tyrant among his subjects, and ndie^out to the rest of Europe. Mr. Parry was sentenced to pay the sum of £100, to be imprisoned in the king's bench for six months, and find securities for his good behaviour for five years, himself in £500, and two sureties in £250 each. Vint and Ross to be imprisoned in the same jail for one calendar month each. Speaking of the opposi- tion papers at this time, George Canning says :
CovHera, and Start, sedition's evening host. Ye Morning Chronicle and Morning Pott ; Whether you make the Rtgktt 0/ Man your theme. Your country libel, and your God blaspheme.
1799, June 13. Died, George Sabl, book- seller in the Strand, London ; who by unremitting integrity, punctuality, and despatch, had fonu^ for himself a connexion in the wholesale line no less honourable than advantageous. In gathering up the varieties of antiquarian literature, his diligence was known to most modern collectors ; while his various publications for the mental culture and moral guidance of youth, found their way into many respectable seminaries of education throughout the kingdom. These pub- lications were chiefly edited by Mr. Thomas Park, who distinguished himself by a variety of elegant publications. Mr. Sael died at the age of thirty-eight, of a pulmonary consumption, which is thought to have originated from exces- sive application to business.
1799. Died, Samoel Bladon, a bookseller, who resided in Patemoster-row, and from bis integ^ty and skill as an accountant, was fre- quently an arbitrator in complicated accounts.
1799, Oct. 23. Died, William Binoley, bookseller, who has already been noticed at page 723 ante, for his imprisonment during the days of " Wilkes and Liberty." After his banluruptcy, he sought refuge in freland, where for several years he carried on the business of a bookseller; but, returning to London, in 1783, he found an asylum in the office of Mr. John Nichols, the printer, (in which capacity he originally set out in life,) and where ne in some degree found repose from the turmoils of political strife. He could not, however, refrain from authorship, and published several pamphlets. A periodical work, entitled the New Plain Dealer ; or. Will Free- man's Budget, appeared between 1791 and 1794, consisting chiefly of politics and invectives agrsunst courtiers and their dependents ; prefixed to it was a portrait of the author, under the character of an English citizen, who was two years imprisoned in English bastiles, without trial, conviction, or sentence, and a long ac- count of his own sufferings, under the title of A Sketch of English Liberty; in which be states that £500 was actually voted to him at a meeting of the Constitutional society, on the suggestion of Mr. Home Tooke ; but that, at a subsequent meeting, Mr. Wilkes stood foremost
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