903
HISTORV^ OF PRINTING.
ducton and authors, as discreet and respectfiil as it was manly and liberal.* Some years after the first appearance of this celebrated journal, he became proprietor of another national work, the Encyclapaaia Britannica, 1812, for which he paid a price that excited the surprise of some of the most timid of his brethren. Daring the progress of these works, his house was still fur- ther aggrandized by thepublication and writings of Dug^d Stewart-f and sir Walter Scott. Bus intercourse with the latter was more intimate, varied, and extensive, and in many respects more remarkable than was ever before exemplied be- tween author and publisher.
In 1804 Mr. Constable had assumed as partner Alexander Gibson Hunter, of Blackness, and from that time the business was carried on under the designation of Archibald Constable and Com- pany. In 1808, a bookselling firm was estab- lished in London, under the firm of Constable, Hunter, Park, and Huuter, but not answering the expectations which were formed, it was given up in 181 1 . In the same year Mr. A. G. Hunter retired from the Edinburgh house, when Mr. Robert Cathcart, a writer to the signet, and Mr. Robert Cadell,then a clerk in the Bouse, became Mr. Constable's partners, under the designation of Constable and Co. Mr. Cathcart dying, in Nov. 1812, Mr. Cadell remained the sole part- ner. How it happened that with all the splen- did success, so beneficial and honourable to our literature, which attended Mr. Constable's under- takings, his publishing career should have closed so disastrously, we are not able to divine. He had iust completed the plan of the MUceUany, which bears his name, and was busied with well- founded hopes, in sanguine calculations of the returns which it would bring to his house. Its publication did not take place till afterthe failure of that establishment; and it is pleasing to reflect, that its subsequent success furnished some solace for his misfortunes, as well as some alleviation of his bodily sufiTerings; his final undertaking, thus proving to be his last and only means of support. A man joining such pro- fessional abilities to such liberal and extensive views ; so capable of appreciating literary merit, and so anxious to find for it employment and
- Edited by Frandi Itttrey, afterwards a Scottiah Jadg^e,
ander the title of lord Jeftey, whose pitiless severity towards writers of questionable ability, and the masterly and orii^al chatucter of the essays which appeared lo the work, instantaneously fixed the attention of the public. Bee page 813 ante. The honour of pablishing this work remained with Mr. Constable, until the year 1836.
tDogald Stewart, F. R. S. professor of moral philosophy In the nniverslty of Edinburgh, and author of many philo- sophical and other works, was the son of Dr. M. Stewart, born at Edinburgh, Nov. 2a, 1753, and died June 11, 1823! As an iiistmctor of youth, his eloquence, his enthusiastic love of knowledge, and the extensive runge of his inform- ation, made an extraordinary impression on the minds of the yoong, an impression which was felt in their stodies, and clearly indicated in the station which many of them attained in the ranks of worth and talent. As a man he was respected and beloved by every one who had the happiness of his acquaintance. In I sot, Mr. Fox created a dnecnre office, that of gazette-wiltet for Scotland, for the express purpose of rewarding Mr. Stewart, who en- Joyed with it a salary of tgKxt a-year, and which, after bis decease, was continued to his fietmily.
reward ; as largely endowed with the discernment, tact, and manners, necessary to maintain a useful honourable, and harmonious intercourse with literary men, is not a common character, even amon^ the improved race of modern bibliopolisis.
It IS painful to reflect on the change »hicli adversity brought over the mutual sentiments of Mr. Constable and sir Walter Scott; but as these events have been chronicled by abler hands,* it is sufficient to observe that Aey were in some degree intoxicated by the extraordinary success they had met with in their respective careers. They launched, without rudder or compass, into an ocean of bank credit, in which they were des- tined eventually to perish.
Mr. Constable had, in early life, entertained literary aspirations, only less ambitions than those by which he distinguished himself in com- mercial life. In 1823, he was included in a list of new justices of the peace for the city of Edin- bureh. In 1826, he had prqected a Mucelhav of Original and Selected Works, in LUeraturt, Art, and Science, which he designed to publidi in parts at one shilling each, every three constituting a volume. Unfortunately the com- mercial distresses which marked the close of
1825, operated unfavourably upon a London firm with which Archibald Constable and Com- pany were intimately connected ; and in Jan.
1826, both were compelled to stop paymentf The debts of the latter house were understood to be about a quarter of a million ; for a consider
- See Lockharf 8 U/e of Sir Walter Seolt, 7 vols, em
tSSS i and Chambers's Lhxa of eminent Seetenen, voL ir.
1 Among the sufferers by the failure of the house of Constable and Co. was the family of Robert Watt, M.O. author of the Bibliotheca Britannica, for which the mm of ifSOOO had been given in bills, but before any of them were honoured the house failed. Robert Watt, the son of a small farmer, in the county of Ayr, was born io May, 1774. He was a ploughboy until his seTentcratb year; but a thirst for knowledge, and a desire to end, soon manifested itself. In 1 793, be matilculatrd at Glas- gow, where be remained till 1797, eventually turned his attention to the study of medicine, settled at Paisley, sad was the author of many medical treatises, and other works. He died upon the I2th of Match, I8I9, aged only forty-flve, and was Interred in the Glasgow High Chnidi burying-gronnd. The whole plan of the Bibliotheca is new; and few compilations, of similar magnitude and variety, ever presented, in a first edition, a more complete design and execution. It is divided into two parts ; the first part containing an alphabetical list of authon, to the amount of above forty thousand, and under each a cbttmo- logical list of hisworks, their various editions, sires, price, &c., and also of the papers he may have contributed to the morecelebratedjonmalsof art and science. This division differs little in its construction from that of a common catalogue, only that it is universal in its character, and gives short biographical notices of the author, and critical opinions of his works. It also gives most ample lists of the various editions of the Greek and Roman classics, and, under the names of the early printers, lists of the various books which they printed. In the second part, all the titles of works recorded in the firct part, and also anooymous works, are arranged alphabeti- cally under their principal subjects. At bis death, the publication of the Biiliotheca devolved upon his two eldest sons, who devoted themselves to its completion with filial enthusiasm. They were both young men of the most promising abilities ; and it is to be feared that their lives were shortened by the assiduity with which they applied themselves to the important charge that was so prematurely laid upon them. The printing of the BibUotheea was completed in 1824, in four large qosrto volumes. The first division or portion of it was printed in Glasgow, and the second in Edinburgh.
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