896
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
best tables as the " ingenious Mr. Rolt." Aken- side at length detected the fraud, and vindicated his right, by publishing the poem with the real author's name . Dr. Campbell, of St. Andrew's, wrote a treatise on the Authenticity of the Gotpel Hitlory, and sent the manuscript to his friend and counbyman, Mr. Innes, a clergyman in England. The latter published it with his own name, and, before the imposition was discovered, obtained considerable promotion as a reward of merit. Dr. Hugh Blair, and Mr. Ballantine, a iriend of his, when students of divinity, wrote a poem, entitled Redemption, copies of which in MS. ^ere handed about. They were at length surprised to see a pompous edition, in folio, dedi- cated to the queen, by a Mr. Dangler, as his own.
1825, April. Died, John Arliss, of Gutter- lane, Cheapside, London, celebrated as one of the most elegant printers of his time. Mr. Arliss likewise possessed a considerable taste in embel- lishing juvenile works with wood engravings, and in conjunction with Mr. Whittingham, may be said to have largely contributed to the revival of the beautiful in the art of printing. When residing in Newgate-street, Mr. Arliss established the Pochet Magazine, which attained a veij ex- tensive circulation. Besides his concern in New- gate-street, he had previously been engaged in business with Messrs. Whittingham, Huntsman, Knevett, &c. ; but like Didot, of Paris, the pro- fits of Mr. Arliss's speculations did not keep pace with the approbation of the public. For some years, he had been in ill health ; and through this, with other circumstances, be left a family of five young children totally un- provided for.
1826, May 2. Died, William Hall, proprie- tor of the Oxford Journal, aged seventy-five. And two days after, aged eighty-two, Joseph Mayow, many years bookkeeper on that paper.
1825, Aftg. 3. Died, Tbomas Newton, news- paper agent, of Warwick-square, London. He was a native of Hereford, and died at Clapham. William Tayler had commenced the business of newspaper agency about 1785, and with whom Mr. Newton bad been in partnership.
1825, Aug. 5. Mb. — Jddoe, editor of the Cheltenham Chronicle, obtained a verdict and £6i)Q damages, at the Hereford assizes, against colonel Fitzharding Berkeley, now lord Segrave, for a most brutal and dastardly attack on that gentleman in his own house, concerning a para- graph which had appeared in the Chronicle.
1625. A law was passed rendering the name of a member of parliament unnecessary on the cover of newspapers, and thus their transmission by post became entirely open to the public, upon the condition that they " shall be sent without covers, or in covers open at the sides, and shall not contain any other paper or thing whatso- ever ;" also, " that there shall be no writing other than the superscription upon such printed paper, or upon the cover thereof ;" and in the event of these restrictions notbeing duly complied with, the whole of such piusket is " to be charged with treble the duty of postage."
1825. An act to allow newspapers to be printed on any sized paper, and to reduce the stamp duty on newspapers. The size of newspapers by the former act was twenty-two inches long, and seventeen and one-eighth inches wide.
1825. Among the proposals in this year, ao prolific of projects, there was one for a joint stock company, or tociety for the eneouragemeiU of literature. There was not one word about the encouragement of literature beyond the tiUe.
1525, Sept. 19. Died, James Eaton, a com- positor in the printing-office of Messrs. Ni;holt and Son, to whom he had served a faithful and dutiful apprenticeship, and so ingratiated him- self into their good opinion, as to be looked npos more in the light of a son than a dependent He was early left an orphan, but, by the kindness of an uncle, was placed in Christ's hospital, whm he imbibed those precepts which had an eridrat good effect on his life and conduct -, and from the Christian patience and resignation erinced by him in a long illness, we may humbly hope, that though he died young, he had lived long enough to secure his eternal happiness. He died at Islip, Northamptonshire, aged twenty- five years, sincerely lamented by his friends.
1825, Oct. 26. Died, John M'Arthub, esq., aged sixty-six years. This gentleman was fc« more than thirty years the principal conductor of the business of the king's printing.«ffice,* and with very few exceptions attended at die parlia- ment office, Westminster, daily, during that period, for the purpose of comparing with the originals all acts of parliaments, and such public records of the house of lords as were ordered to be printed. He possessed great urbanity of manners, the kindest and most friendly dis- position, and a warm benevolence of heart, which rendered him the patron of the distrrased wherever he found them. Of him it may be truly said, that he " did good by stealth, and blush'd to find it fame." The remembrance of his virtues will be coeval with the existence of all who knew his worth.
1826, Nov. 1. Died, Geobge Nicholson, printer and bookseller, at Stourport, in Worces- tershire, aged sixty-three years. He was a native of Bradford," in Yorkshire. We cannot forbear some brief record of a man whose talents entitle him to notice; whose name we hesitate not to ^lace with the names of Dodsley and Baskerville. Possessing like them, an ardent thirst for literature ana science, like diem he has also enriched our libraries with many vala- able works. The Literary Miscellany, or Elegaat Selections from the most Popular Authors in prose and verse, 20 vols. 18mo. is a beautiful specimen of his ingenuity in the art of printing,
- On Jan. g, ISIS, died Old JoBN, who during a period
of eighty jeors filled the homble, though not unimixHtaat Btation of an errand carrier, or as be styled ****"«*", " the Icing's messenger" at his majesty's printijig-office ; sad vho yielded to none of his m^esty's ministers in the coo- cepUon of the dignity of bis oAce, when entrusted viQi the klnir's speeches, addresses, and other papen of tott. He had acted with fidelity in this way tnm the days of sir Rol>ert Walpole to the days of lord Liverpool, the most important in the annals of the English prras.
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