1810. The Imperial and County Annual Register, two volumes 8vo. It seems to have been dropped after the first year.
1810. New Caricature Magazine, royal folio, by Thomas Rowlandson.
1811, Feb. 2. Died, William Richardson, many years a bookseller in Cornhill, London, aged seventy-five years.
1811, Feb. Peter Finnerty,[1] a reporter on the Morning Chronicle, received sentence in the court of king's bench for a libel on lord Castlereagh, for which he was condemned to an imprisonment of eighteen months in Lincoln jail, and to find security for his good behaviour for five years from that time, himself in £500, and two sureties in £200 each. He published His Case, including the law proceedings against him, and his treatment in Lincoln jail. 8vo. 1811. Mr. Finnerty died May 11, 1822.
1811, Feb. 8. The printing-office of Mr. Bernard, in Skinner-street, Snow-hill, London, destroyed by fire. It was occasioned by an accident in the press-room.
1811, Feb. 11. Eugenius Roche[2] was sentenced to he imprisoned twelve months in the Marshalsea, and to give security for his good behaviour for three years from that time, himself in £500, and two sureties in £250 each, for a libel in The Day morning newspaper, reflecting on the conduct of the military employed to preserve peace in Piccadilly, at the time of the serving of the speaker's warrant on sir Francis Burdett. On his liberation from confinement, Mr. Roche became editor of the National Register, a weekly paper; and subsequently the editor of a magazine called Literary Recreations. It is a curious fact, that in this periodical were printed some of the earliest productions of lord Byron, Allan Cunningham, and Gaspey.
1811, March 14. Walter Cox stood in the pillory, in Dublin, pursuant to his sentence, for a libel called the Painter Cut, published in the Irish Magazine, recommending a separation betwixt Great Britain and Ireland by a French force.
1811, March 29. Died, John Todd, aged seventy-five years, and who was for upwards of fifty years an eminent bookseller in Stonygate, in the city of York, where he succeeded Mr. Hildyard in 1757. Few country booksellers had exerted themselves with greater ardour and perseverance in the laborious pursuit of catalogue-making, with the respective value of each book attached, than Mr. Todd; of which the many curious and extensive collections, which he purchased and arranged at different periods, afford a sufficient proof. He was succeeded in his business by his two sons, who carried on the firm in such a manner, and on such a scale, as to cause their shop to be considered equal to any out of London.
1811, April 5. Died, Robert Raikes, proprietor of the Gloucester Journal, which had been instituted by his father, and conducted for many years with approbation. The name of Robert Raikes will not soon be forgotten among those who have diffused light over the dark places of the earth full of the hahitations of cruelty. He was born at Gloucester, September 14, in the year 1735, and was descended of a good family. The education Mr. Raikes received was liberal, and calculated for his future designation in life. At a proper season he was initiated into his father's business, which he afterwards conducted with punctuality, diligence, and care. Several pieces, among which may be pointed out the works of the dean of Gloucester,[3] are such as will suffer nothing by any comparison with the productions of modern typography. The incidents of Mr. Raikes's life are few, and those not enough distinguished from the rest of the world to admit of a particular detail. It is sufficient to say, that in his business he was prosperous, and that his attention was not so wholly confined to it, but that he found time to turn his thoughts to subjects connected with the great interests of mankind, and the welfare of society. By this means some consolation has been afforded to sorrow and imprudence; some knowledge, and consequently happiness, to youth and inexperience. The first object which demanded his notice, was the miserable state of the county bridewell within the city of Gloucester, which, being part of the county jail, the persons committed by the magistrates, out of session, for petty offences, associated, through necessity, with felons of the worst description, with little or no means of subsistence from labour; with little, if any, allowance from the county; without either meat, drink, or clothing; dependent chiefly on the precarious charity of such as visited the prison, whether brought thither by business, curiosity, or compassion. To relieve these miserable and forlorn wretches, and to render their
- ↑ Peter Finnerty was the most celebrated reporter of his day, and was engaged for many years on the Morning Chronicle, under Mr. Perry. He was the son of a tradesman at Loughrea, in the county of Galway, in Ireland. At an early age he had to seek his fortune at Dublin, and was brought up as a printer. In 1798 he succeeded Mr. Arthur O'Connor, as printer of the Press. The violence of that paper causing it to be prosecuted, he removed to London, and engaged himself as a parliamentary reporter. Having become acquainted with sir Home Popham, he sailed on the Walcheren expedition, for the purpose of writing its history; but being prevented carrying that object into effect, after a delay of some weeks, he returned to England, and resumed his occupation as a reporter. He died at Westminster, May 11, 1821, aged fifty-six years.
A full and accurate report of the trial of the author, brought by Peter Finnerty against Samuel Tipper, publisher of the Satirist, for a libel: London, 1809, 8vo. - ↑ Eugenius Roche, editor of the Courier London newspaper, died, deeply lamented by an extensive circle of acquaintance, in Hart-street, Bloomsbury, Nov. 9, 1829. He was born in Dublin, in 1786, and, before he was two years of age, his parents emigrated to France, where he received a liberal education, and in 1804 he returned to England, and devoted himself to literature. The only publications of Mr. Roche, that bear his name, are two tragedies, called the Invasion and William Tell; the latter of which was in rehearsal at Drury Lane when that theatre was destroyed by fire, and was consequently never produced. Mr. Roche also appeared as the author of words to a set of French Melodies, arranged by Madlle. Jams.
- ↑ Josiah Tucker, a celebrated divine, was born at Langhorne, in Carmarthenshire, in 1711. He was an able writer on commercial, political, and theological subjects. His principal performance is a Treatise on Civil Government, against Locke, 8vo. He died in 1799.
