58A
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
even the world of light itself would communicate no light to us ; nor the canopy from which ten thousand lesser brilliants now shed their streams of radiance upon our path, be other than a star- less void, a dark and gloomy waste. So, were the vivifying labours of the press suspended, though those mightier master spirits of our com- mon nature — those worlds of intellectual energ;y which, as it were, of themselves, create the light in which they 'live and move' — might continue, though withdrawn from their influence over meaner minds, to solace their own spirits in the unborrowed wealth of native genius ; might still pursue in solitude their godlike course, revelling and rejoicing in all the delights of reiinied and elevated intellectual existence — we, who walk but by their light, who shine but by reason of their brightness, and are mentally visible to each other but as we radiate the scat- tered beams of their profuse effulgence, should soon present, in our degradation and debase- ment,- the appalling spectacle of a dark moral chaos, where every thing which now instructs, and charms, and ennobles, would speedily be buried beneath an ever-gathering, ever-deepen- ing cloud of cheerless, undistiuguishing bar- barism." — JiecollectioTu in Retirement.
1701. A bill for laying a stamp-duty of a penny upon every number of a periodical pub- lication, consisting of a whole sheet, and of a halfpenny when it consisted of only half a sheet, was first brought into parliament this year, though it did not then pass into a law. Among the loose sheets in the British museum, there is one entitled Reasons humbly offered to the Par- liament in behalf of several Persons concerned in Paper-making, Printing, and Publishing the Halfpenny Newspapers, against this bill while it was in dependence. From this statement it ap-
! tears that there were then in London five printers that is, we must suppose, master printers) en- gaged in the trade of these cheap periodical publications, which is spoken of as one of very recent origin. The quantity of paper consumed by them is estimated to amount^ " by a modest computation," to 20,000 reams in the year. Each of the five printers, it is stated, " pays 9s. per week duty to his majesty, over and besides 1». for every advertisement therein inserted, so that, by a like computation, each printer of the said halfpenny newspaper pays communibus annis to the king the sum of about £60, besides what the paper-maker pays."
The third objection urged against the pro- posed stamp-dutv lets us into a little more of the statistics of the trade. It runs thus : — " For that the said newspapers have been always a whole sheet and a half, and sold for one half- penny to the poorer sort of people, who are pur- chasers of it by reason of its cheapness, to divert themselves, and also to allure herewith their young children, and entice them to reading; and should a duty of three-halfpence be laid upon these newspapers (which by reason of the coarseness of the paper the generality of gentle- men are above conversing with) it would utterly
extinguish and suppress the same." It is added that hundreds of persons and families get their bread bv selling the publications in question. Many blind persons are stated to be thus em- ployed, and " divers of them," says the account, " who are industrious, and have but a penny or three-halfpence for stock to begin with in a morning, will before night advance it to eighteen pence or two shillings, which greatly tends to the comfortable support of such miserable, pour, and blind creatures, who sell them about the streets."*
1701. It is a curious fact, that all the im- provements in typography followed each other in such quick succession, that in a few years from its first invention in Europe, we find printers in possession of all our common modes of work- ing, and producing specimens of their art, which even now cannot be surpassed. Of this some of the early printed missals upon vellum afford ample proof. But if we have reason to be surprised at the quick steps by which printing with moveable types was perfected, we have more cause to wonaer why, with the acquisition of moveable types, the art became stationary. The transition from founding single letters to founding whole pages was so invitingly obvious, that the circumstance of its not having been at- tempted, may we think be more reasonably imputed to a want of enterprise, than to any ignorance of the perfect practicability of the art.
With regard to the merit of printing with stereotypes, Holland possesses far more substan- tial claims to the merit of this invention than to the glory of originating the noble art of typo- graphy. Besides a quarto bible published in 1711, there exists a Dutch bible, stereotyped in folio, at the commencement of this century. These are indisputable proofs that the art of
- A document, without date, about the beginning of 1696, in the British museum, entitled, the Cate of the Paper Traders, represents that a bill was then pending for laying ^20 per cent, upon paper, parchment, vellom, and pasteboard, to be imported; j£-90 per cent, on English papers, &c. ; and j£'i7 lOs. per cent, on goods then in hand
to be sold. It is stated that there were not then one hundred paper mills in all England, with the exception of that l)elonging to the company (what company is meant we do not know). The value of paper annaally made in England, at this time was only about jtr28,0OO. " The pa- per -malters," the representation goes on to say, "are generally very poor, and now can scarce maintain tiielr fomilies ; but when (as by this bill required) they moat pay, or give security for the duty before they sell, this mann- facture will be so much lessened that most of the mfOs must be ruined, and the makers, with their families, be- com'e a charge to their respective parishes. The same may be said of the parchment-makers. « « • The piintiiig trade now consumes the greatest part of the paper ; bat tf this duty be laid, the consumption will not be half what it now is, few books but that are of absolute necessity bcjng now printed by reason of the present advance opon paiKV; much less will they be able to bear the charge npoo the press when so great a doty shall be laid upon the coromo. nity. This will ruin some hundreds of booksellera, book. binders, and printers, and others depending on that tndci* It appears that under this act every sheet of paper that was sold to the public bore on it Uie king's stamp, and also that oflBces or shopsfor the retail of paper thus stamped were opened in all parts of the kingdom, by commissioDers appointed to see the act carried into effect. The commis- sioners seem to have obtained their enpplies <:t paper by contracting for it with certain manufactnrer^ The two principal offices of the commissioners were at Uocaln's- inn and Southwark,
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