676
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
pioached the venerable publication wbich preceded and survived it; still the Univerial was judiciously planned and respectably executed, and deserved the success which it obtained. It is also reeommended to us, by the fact, that it was one of the earliest periodi<»ls not exclusively addressed to " the gentry," and condescended to number " fanners and tradesmen" among those to whom it looked for support
}747. BiUiotkimu BritamUqve. This useful account of Englisn books begins in 1733, and ' closes in 1747, Hague, 23 voG. It was written by some literary Frenchmen, noticed by La Croze in his Voyage Littiraire, who designates the writers iu this most tantalizing manner : " Les auteurs sont gens de merite, et qui entendent tous parfaitment I'Angloia; Messrs. S. B. le M. p. et le savant Mr. D." Posterity, says D' Israeli, has been partially let into the secret : De Missy was one of the contributors, and War- burton communicated his project of an edition of Vellaui Paterculus.
1748. A trial concerning the right of literary property between the company of stationers of London and the printers of Scotland, the issue of which was unfavourable to the plantiSs.
1748. HoDBiOANT, the well-known Hebrew critic, set up a press at his country house in the village of Avilly, distant about twenty-five miles from Paris, and there printed his Hebrew Ptalter, one hundred copies only struck off, which bears the imprint Luyduni Batavorum. In 1763 he printed the Proverbs, in Hebrew, and also some publications in French.
1748. Benjamin Mecom, of Boston, opened a printing-office at St. John's, the capital of the island of Antigua, and commenced the publica- tion of a newspaper.
174S,Aug.9. Alexander Blackwell,M.D. was beheaded at Stockholm, iu Sweden. He was the son of the rev. Thos. Blackwell, principal of the Mareschal college, Aberdeen. Having received a liberal education, he studied physic at Leyden, and acquired a proficiency in the modern languages. On bis return home be married a gentleman's daughter* in the neighbourhood of Aberdeen, and proposed practising physic in that part of the kingdom; but in about two years, finding his expectations disappointed, he came to London, where he met with still less encourage- ment as a physician, and commenced corrector of the press in the office of Mr. Wilkins. After some years spent in this employment, be set up as a printer himself, and carried on several large works, till 1734, when he became a bankrupt. How he passed his time for the next four years
- A MrtoM Herbal, containing five hondredcata of the
most naetal Plants which ve now used in the practice of Pbjsicii, engraved on folio copper-plates, after drawings taken ftom the life, by Elizabeth BlackweU. To whichla added, a short Description of the Plants, and their com- mon nses in phjrsick, 1730, 9 vols, folio. To the tint rolDme is prefixed a recommendation f^om the dis- tinguished names of Dr. Mead, Dr. Tdasier, Dr. Stuart, Or. Douglas, Dr. Sheraid, Mr. Oieselden, Mr. Miller, Mr. Band, and Mr. NtckoUs, dated Oct. I, 173s j and another from the president and censors of the college of physicians, dated July I, 1737.
is not precisely ascertained; but in or about the year 1740 he went to Sweden, again assumed the medical profession, and was well received in that capacity; till, turning projector, he laid a scheme before his Swedish majesty for draining the fens and marshes, and thousands were em- ployed in prosecuting it under the doctor's direc- tion, for which he haid some allowance from the king. This scheme succeeded so well, he turned his thoughts to others of greater importance, which in the end proved fatal to him. He was suspected of being concerned in a plot with count Tessin, and was tortured; which not producing a confessing, he was beheaded. Dr. BlackweU was possessed of a good natural genius, but was somewhat flighty, and a little conceited. His conversation, however, was facetious and agree- able; and he might bie considered on the whole as a well-bred accomplished gentleman. The British ambassador was recalled from Sweden in 1648, among other reasons, for the imptttati(ms thrown on his Britannic miyesty in the trial ot Dr. Alexander Blackwell.
1748, Sept. 27. Died, James Tbomson, author of the Seatotu, Cattle cf Indolence, and other poems of merit. He was the son of a cler- gyman, and born at Edman, in Roxbur^ishire, September 11, 1700, and educated for the Scottish church; bat at an early period of life he removed to London, where, in 1726, he publiiAied his poem of Winter, which lay imnoticed for a considerable time, when Mr. Michell, a gentle- man of taste, promulgated its merit in the best circles, and then all was right. Summer, Sprinf, and Avtunm, successively appeared, and formed what now passes by the greneral title of his Seaiont. Tnese poems are in blank verse, and describe the various natural appearances of the year, in a very rich and eloquent, and often sublime style of language. In 1729, he sold Sophonuba,a. tragedy,ana Spring, for JC137 1 Os. to Andrew Millar,* the eminent bookseller; and for the Seasons, and some other pieces, he ob- tained £105 from John Millar, which were again sold to Andrew Millar nine years after- wards, for the same sum; and when Andrew Millar died, in 1768, his executors sold the whole copyright to the trade for £505. Thom- son wrote another large poem, entitled Liberty, which, being upon an abstract subject, never became popular, though it contains many fine passages. The Cattle of Indolence was designed as a kind of satire on his own soft and lethargic character, but is nevertheless the most perfect, and perhaps the most poetical of all his compo- sitions. Though slothful in the extreme, he
- When Thomson first went to London, he took op bia
abode with Mr. Park Egertan, bookseller, near Whitehall, and finished his poem of Winter in an apartment over tb* shop. It remained on his shelves a long Ume unnoticed j but alter Thomson began to gain some reputation ms a poet, he either went himself, or was taken by Mallet, to Andrew Millar, in the Strand, with whom he entered into new engagements for printing his worlo, which ao much incenwd hi* patron, and his oonatrymaa also, Uiat they were never afterwards cordially reconciled, althoogfa lord LytUeton took uncommon pains to mediate be tw een them.
k
