804
HI ST OR i' OF PRINTING.
1800, May 16. The English baptist mission- aries, who entered India in 1793, not being per- mitted to fix themselves within the territories belonging to the East India company, obtained leave to reside at Serampore,* in Bengal ; and these zealous men having procured a printing- pressf and types from Calcutta, commenced their industrious and memorable typographical career, with an edition of the New Testament, in Bengalee, the first sheet of which was worked off on the above day. The first page of St. Matthew's gospel was taken off for a specimen on the 18th of March. The edition consisted of two thousand copies, seventeen hundred were printed on Patna paper, and three hundred on paper brought from England. Five hundred extra copies of St. Matthew's gospel were struck off for immediate gratuitous distribation. Their labours proceeded with unabated and uninter- rupted ardour until the year 1812, under which year the printing-house was destroyed by fire.
1800, Jtme 3. Died, William Rou th, printer and publisher of the Bristol Joumal,m the prime of lii^ ; and on the following day, as Mrs. Routh, wife of George Routh, printer, was addressing a letter to him on the death of his brother (George Routh being at Bath for his health) she was suddenly taken ill, and expired almost instantly.
1800. Died, William Haas, an ingenious letter-founder at Basil. He improved the art of printing by many useful inventions ; such as a lia1ance-press,systematic sets of lines and spaces; a method of printing geographical charts and maps with moveable types, &c. The last- mentioned discovery, however, is ascribed to Breitkopf, a printer of Leipsic. See page 782, ante. Haas published A Description of the Printing Press.
1800, Oct. 25. Died, Thomas Macklin, an eminent printseller, and proprietor of the Poet's Gallery, in Fleet-street, London, to whose spirited and enterprising exertions the professors of historical engraving and printing in this country were indebted for many brilliant oppor- tunities of displaying and improving their talents in the exhibition of the Poefs Gallery. His splendid edition of the Bible, then on the eve of being completed, is an unrivalled monument of the taste and energy of the individual who planned and carried it into execution, and of the liberality of the nation whose munificence enabled him to accomplish so magnificent an undertaking. It exhibits the utmost perfection of both the arts of engraving and printing. No more were printed than were subscribed for. Mr. Macklin died in London, in the fortieth Tear of his age ; and of him it may truly be said, that the arts lost a most industrious and enterprising
- Sermmpore, a Danish settlement, is pleasantly situated
on the banks of the Hoogly river, one of the streams of the Ganges, abont fifteen miles to the notth of Calcutta. It was foonded by the Danes about the year 1S76.
t Tills press had been porchased In September, 1798, by Dr. Carey, and was at first conveyed to his residence, at Modnabottz ; bnt I do not find, says Or. Cotton, that any nse was made of it prerioosly to the removal ot the mis. siramries from that station to Senunpore.
tradesman, and sodety a valiuble and nspecU
able member.
1800, Nov. 11. Died, JoHH Albin, principal bookseller at Spalding, in Lincolnshire, in tfae seventy-third year of his age.
1800, Dee. 24. Meeting of the masters and journeymen printers in London, to consider the state of the prices paid for their work.
1800, Dec. 27. Died, Thomas Cadell, a very eminent and worthy bookseller of London, whose life furnishes another instance, (of the many recorded in this work) that application and industry seldom fail to meet with due reward. He was born in Wine-street, Bristol ; and served an apprenticeship to Andrew Millar, noticed at page 718 ante. Mr. Cadell, in 1767, succeeded to the business; and, at an early period of life, was at the head of his profession. Introduced by Mr. Millar to writers of the first rank in literature, who had found in him their best Msecenas — to Johnson, Hume, Warburton, Hurd, Sec. &c. — he pursued the very same com- mendable track ; and acting upon the liberal principle of his predecessor in respect to authors, enlarged upon it in an extent, which, at the same time that it did honour to his spirit, was well suited to the more enlightened period in which he carried on business. In conjunction with William and Andrew Strahan, munificent remunerations were held out to writers of the most eminent talents; and it is owing to the spirit and generosity of these worthy booksellers, that the world has been enriched by the labours of Robertson,* Blackstone, Gibbon,! Bum, Henry,
- William Robertson, IX.D. was born in the parish c<
Borthwick, Mid Lothian, in Scotland, in the year 1731, and educated at Edinburgh. In 1741 he was licensed to preach, in two years afterwards obtained the living of Oladsmoir, in Bast Lothian. In I7S9 appeared bis Hutmy of SeoUtmi, see page 711, mie. In 17(H) he published his HItlorf 0/ the Beign of Charles V. and tais^last considerable work, the Hittory ofAmtriea, appeared in 1777. Dr. Robertsoa had enjoyed several considerable church preferments^ besides a pension of ^200 a-year from the klfag ; and being a man of prudence, temperance, and natural dignity of character the latter part of his life was spent in the en- joyment of almost every worldly blessing. He died at Edinbo>Kl>i June II, I79S.
t Edward Gibbon was born at Futn^, April S7, 1737, and died at Fletching, Jan. 18, 1794. The first volame of his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire^ appeared in 1770, and the remaining five In the coarse 0^ the twelve ensuing years. j6'60,000 has been gained by the booksellers, says a modern writer, out of Gibbon^ History of the Roman Empire^ though the author received but jffioo for the copyright. It has been pronounced by the public to be a performance of vast and accural* research, and of enlarged and philosophical thinking ; aboundinfr in splendid passages and curlons dlscnssions ; and written in a style, which, though aOiKtedly aonoroos and occasionally obscore, is such as to display i^ttae author a thotongh mastery of the English language. Notwith- standing an oblique attack upon Chilstiiinity, which was very generally condemned, it has taken a secure place among the English classics, and must ever form a con. spicuoos object in tfae literary history of the eighteenth century. l%e sixth volume of this great work was finished at Lausanne, when Gibbon makes the following remarks ; " It was on the day, or rather night, of the 27tb of Jnne, 1787, between the hours of eleven and twelve, that 1 wrote the last lines of the last page, in a summer-house in my garden. After laying down my pen, I took several turns in a berceau. or covered walk of acacias, which commands a prospect of the country, the lake, and the mountains. The silver orb of the moon was reflected from the waters. I will not dissemble the first emotions of Joy on the recovery of my flreedom, and perhaps the eetablishmeat of my Aone"
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