NINETEENTH CENTURY.
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enlarged ihape, whiuh was indeed equal to the uaial dimensions of the Enelish newspapets. From the same year the Sydney Oaxette was edited by the rer. Ralph Mansfield, then by the rev. H. Carmichael, and afterwards conducted by Edward O'Shaugnessy and a person named Watt, and published three times a-week. Mrs. Howe married Watt, and he was afterwards drowned at Port Macguire about the year 1835.
1621. The art of printing introduced into the Sandwich Islands, at Hononooro, a large town or village of Oahu. On the first Monday in January, 1822, the press was put in operation, and the first sheet oi a Hmvaxian ipelting-book was struck off. A knowledge of letters, with the art of writing and printing, were soon taught by the missionaries to such as were willing to learn it, and hare so extensively diCTased through the country the valuable acquisition, that almost all the chiefs, and great numbers of the common people, are now able to write readily, and even elegantly. Portions of the Old and New Tes- taments were translated into the Hawaiian language, and between the time when writing was introduced, and the close of the year 1834, twenty-seven publications were printed in the hitherto unknown tongue. All these works were of course the productions of Europeans, or of Americans of European descent, and were mostly translated from the English. That some of them at least were of considerable extent, and that large numbers were printed, may be judged from the fact that 36,640,920 pages were pub- lished in that interval. In toe course oi the year 1835, twelve publications were produced, chiefly educational ; among«lhese were Primary Lessons for Ckildren,Colbwin's Intellectual Arith- metic, the complete Neio Testament, and a Vocabulary of the language, which last is an interesting work, as helping to lay the founda- tion of a literature which will no doubt spring up among a numerous and intelligent people who have shewn themselves so eager to participate in the advantages of civilization. A newspaper of eight 4to. pages was established at Owhyhee, illustrated with wood cuts of animals, in 1835.
The following is an extract from the first English newspaper established in the Sandwich islands. Permission having been asked of the king previous to its commencement, the follow- ing is the curious but sensible reply of his Sand- wich majesty : —
TO STEPHEN O. MACKINTOSH.
HololuUe, Oahu. I assent to the letter which yon have sent me. Itaflbnls me pleasure to see the works of other lands and thin^ that are new. If I was there, I shoold very much like to see. I have said to Kinan, make printiog-presses. My tboagrht is ended. Love to yoa and Reynolds.
By king Kacikaodoli.
1821 , March. Mock Constitutional Associa- tion established in London ; for suppressing the liberty of the press, but crippled in its operations by the public indignation. When taxation bad done its utmost to cramp the energies of the newspaper press ; and when the different restric.
tive laws which we have noticed had been enforced, with the Intention of driving demo- cratical, seditious, and blasphemous writers from the field, all of which, even at their birth, gave proof of inefficiency, a new defence of political and religious orthodoxy was erected, called the " Constitutional Association," or better known by the name of the " Bridge-street gang," and a more inquisitorial institution was never planned in the most despotic times. This association undertook the suppression of every spark of free discussion in this counlry ; they undertook to do what the attorney -general never would have attempted, and put money into the hands of lawyers that would have been much better em- ployed in educating the lower classes, and the effects would have been equally salutary, in a national point of view, had it tdl been honestly and conscientiously expended in the dissemination of harmless religious tracts, or in warming the lazy eloquence of some loyal orthodox writer. Whether they accomplished what they undertook with all the vast outlay of money, and the ruin of many families, what would have been cured with the healing hand of time, or a removal of the grievances under which the press laboured, is a question the public can now decide. It is not a little remarkable that while the society directed its legal thunder against the poorer fry of book-retailers — against the pamphlet-hawker, and the cheap-book itinerant, — they never offered battle to any of the more powerftu hut not less orthodox and dangerous champions of the press.* 1821, May 13. Died, William Stevenson, F.S.A., upwards of thirty-five years proprietor of the Norfolk Chronicle. He was the eldest son of the rev. Seth Ellis Stevenson, of East Retford, Nottinghamshire, and rector of Tress- well, in that county. Mr. Stevenson served the office of sheriff of Norwich in 1799 : he was an able and industrious antiquary, and at all times desirous of promoting the objects of that society which had done him the honour of electing him one of its members. He was ever happy to be- friend indigent merit; and it was through his patronage that Mrs. Elizabeth Bentley, an ex- traordinary self-educated poetess in the city of Norwich, was first known to the public. Mr. Stevenson was a valuable correspondent of Mr. Nichols,whilst compiling his Literary Anecdotes. In the ninth volume of that work is a very in- teresting letter from Mr. Stevenson, communi- cating anecdotes of his friend Ignatius Sancho, which cannot fail of being perused with peculiar satisfaction. He was also a valuable corres- pondent to the Gentleman's Magazine, and edited A Suoplement to Bentham's History tmd An- tiguitus of the Cathedral of Ely, 4to.
- In July, i8SI,thelxmdonJaryfoandatrnebiU against
the committee of this association, for acta of oppression and extortion, but after a trial on the 15th of April, 183S, they were acquitted. On the uth of December, 1821, they prosecuted several printers and booksellers, but they failed in their neftilons attempt to convict them, in conse- quence of one of the sheriSk, who returned the Jury, being a member. It was strongly sospected that some of the Jury, and even the jndges, belonged to " the gang ' '
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