Of either the literary life or domestic habits of Dr. Griffiths, little is known; in his character, industry and ingenuity were in an eminent degree combined; he was a steady advocate of literature; a firm friend, a cordial lover of the enjoyments of domestic happiness, and a zealous and successful promoter of the charms of social intercourse. There is a portrait of him in the European Magazine for January, 1804.[1] The Monthly Review has in its progress been materially instrumental in promoting the interests of science, and diffusing a taste for critical literature in this country; and at the time of the death of its venerable conductor, in the eighty-third year of his age, it had attained the zenith of its glory. But the work having lost the mind which planned and reared it, maintains but a secondary rank among our literary journals.
1803, Aug. 25. Died, Charles Burdon, a bookseller at Winchester, aged twenty-four.
1803, Nov. 11. Died, John Kerby, bookseller, Bond-street, London, aged sixty-three years.
1803, Dec. 10. Died, John Broughton Rudhall, bookseller and printer at Bristol, and printer of Felix Farley's Bristol Journal, in which he was succeeded by Mr. John Gutch, of whom Mr. Nichols observes, "This enterprising young bookseller, 'ex stirpe honesta oriundus in alma matre Oxoniensi,' has only to proceed as he has begun, and he will in due time arrive at the summit of eminence."
William Somerton, who died in February, 1804, had been employed upwards of fifty-three years on the above newspaper.
1803, Dec. 17. Died, John Gore, proprietor and printer of the Liverpool Advertiser, to the deep regret of a large circle of acquaintance. His son, Mr. Johnson Gore, succeeded to the business, which he conducted for thirty years.
1803, Jan. 1. The Manchester Telegraph and Weekly Advertiser, No. 1, price sixpence, printed and published by James Edmond and Co. Bow-lane, Manchester, with the following motto:
Laugh where we must, be candid where we can. — Pope.
1803, Jan. 8. The Pic Nic; consisting of fourteen weekly numbers, making two volumes 12mo, was got up under the auspices of Fulk Greville, esq. author of Reflection, a poem, 4to. 1790, and Letters to the Monthly Reviewers, 8vo. 1790. The Pic Nic ended April 9, 1803.
1803, Feb. The Monthly Spectator, No. 1.
1803, Aug. 6. The Mercantile Gazette; and Liverpool and Manchester Daily Advertiser, No. 1, printed by J. White, at the Hope press, Liverpool, and sold by Gerard Bancks, bookseller, St. Ann's-square, Manchester, price sixpence. This was the first attempt to establish a daily newspaper out of London, and originated with r. SoDlomon, the patentee of the well-known medicine, Balm of Gilead.
1803. The Poetical Magazine, published by Vernor and Hood, and edited by David Carey, author of the Pleasures of Nature, and other poems, foolscap 8vo. 1803.
1803. The Wanderer. These essays occupy two volumes 12mo. and are said to be written by Charles Fothergill, esq. In 1813, he published An Essay on the Philosophy, Study, and Use of Natural History, fc. 8vo.
1803, Nov. 12. The Man in the Moon; ended February 14, 1804. Said to be written by Mr. George Brewer, the author of Hours of Leisure.
1803. The Argus, printed and published by Joseph Aston, Manchester.
1803, Dec. 7. The Townsman, No. 1, printed and published by Gerard Bancks, Manchester. The editor of this paper was the eccentric and well known Mr. James Watson. — See the Spirit of the Doctor.
1804, Jan. 20. Died, Joseph Harrop, printer and bookseller, at Manchester, and proprietor of the Manchester Mercury, which he established in 1752, aged sixty-seven years. He was succeeded in business by his son James Harrop, who, on Saturday, June 30, 1804, in addition to the Mercury, which was published on Tuesday, issued the first number of the British Volunteer, price sixpence. This paper obtained a good circulation by meeting the mail at Derby, and bringing the news to Manchester by express.
1804, Jan. The art of stereotype printing (with the approbation of lord Stanhope) was offered to the university of Cambridge, by Mr. Wilson, a printer of respectability in London, for their adoption and use in the printing of bibles, testaments and prayer-books, upon certain terms and conditions, one of which was said to be, paying to Mr. Wilson £4000 for the secret of the new invention.
1804, March. The bible society commenced under the auspices of Mr. Granville Sharpe.
1804, April 4. Died, Philip Dece, many years bookseller and postmaster at Bury St. Edmunds. He was a man who devoted his time in promoting every humane and charitable institution, as far as his power would admit, and whose humble abilities appeared in several religious tracts in support of religion and government. He was in the fifty-ninth year of his age.
1804, May 26. William Cobbett, editor of the Political Register, found guilty in the court of king's bench for a libel against lord Hardwick and lord Redesdale, and the other officers of state in Ireland; and in the same court an action was brought by Mr. Plunkett, solicitor-general for Ireland, for libel, in which the jury awarded £500 damages.
1804. Died, Armand Gaston le Camus, author of Observations on the arrangement and classification of Libraries; A Memoir on Stereotype Printing, and other works. He was one of the commissioners from the national convention, arrested by general Dumourier, and given up to the Austrians, who exchanged him afterwards for the young princess, the daughter of Louis XVI.
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- ↑ Dr. Griffiths, Dr. Rose, and the rev. Jacob Hirons, married the three daughters of Samuel Clerk, D.D., a respectable dissenting minister at St. Albans, who died in 1750. Mrs. Griffiths, the last survivor of the three sisters, died at Turnham green, August 24, 1812.
