748
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
answered all the panoses of a book almanack ; so that the sale of the latter had considerably fidlen, to the loss both of the trader in book al- manacks and the revenue. This appeared by a comparison uf the duties paid on sheet and book almanacks in two given years. In one year 316,515 sheet almanacks, and 261,000 book al- Inanacks had paid duty ; but, in the next year, the contrivance of printmg on a sheet that folded like a book had so far succeeded, that the sale of the book almanacks fell short 32,000 of what it had been the year before. To remedy this, he proposed to equalize the duties on both, which would be by laying twopence additional on sheet almanacks : this was but a trifle to an individual, considering that it was an expense that came but once a year ; and the produce of this ad- ditional duty would be about £2,600 a year. Out of this money, he proposed to give £500 per annum to each of the two universities, as a compensation for what the^ had lost by judg- ment in the common pleas, which had de- stroyed the monopoly of printing almanacks, that the two universities had enioyed for near two centuries." The house agreea to the report of the committee of ways and means, agreeing to the two resolutions for laying an additionEd tax on all sheet almanacks, and granting an annuity of £500 out of the produce to each of the two universities.*
1781, May 8. The exclusive right of the king's printer to print Forms of Prayer, fully established in the court of exchequer.
1781. The New Annual BegUter, containing the history of the preceding year. It was pro- jected and originally edited by Dr. Kippis;^ after whose death, in 1795, it was conducted by Uie rev. Thomas Morgan, LX.D., the coadjutor of Dr. Aikin in the preparation of his Biographi- cal Dictionary. Watt, m his Bibliotheca Bntan- nica, states that this publication was at one time edited by the late Mr. John Mason Good; but we do not observe that this is mentioned in Dr. Olintbus Gregory's life of that gentleman. The Neie Annual Register was continued till 1825, but it never attained the reputation of its pre- decessor and rival.
1781. Died, John Henry Milleb,' formerly a printer at Zurich, in Switzerland, and after- wards at Philadelphia, where he published a
- When the doty waa taken off almuiaclu, in the year
1S34, it vUlnotbean improper question to aalc if theg;xant to the nniveraittes ceased ?
t Andrew Klppls was born at Nottingham, Uarcb S8, 1 7St, died at London, Octobers, ITQS, and was buried in BonhUl fields. He was a writer in the Uanthty Bmiew some time ; and in 1781 had a share in the IMrarg, which failed. He vas chosen philological tutor in the academy for the education of dissenting ministers. In 1773 he pbblished a Vmdication of the Protalant DiuaUing Min- Utert, with regard to their late Application to Parliajnent. which brought him into a controversy with dean Tucker. In 1777 he became the editor of the new edition of the BiograpMca Britamiiea : live Tolmnes of this were pub- lished in his Ufe-time, and the greatest part of the sixth was prepared before his death. In 1788 he published the Life of Captain Cook, in one Tolnme, 4to. and in the same year a Life of Dr. Lardner, prellxed to his works. Dr. Kippis was also the writer of the Hitlory of Knowledge, tec. in the New Anmial Regteter, and a variety of other pieces, particularly sermons and tracts.
newspaper fai theyear 1744. He then removed to Marienberg, in Upper Saxony, and after various peregrinations he finally fixed himself in Penn- sylvania, where he ended his days.
1781, July. In the court of long's bench the printer of the London Coarant was sentenced to oe fined £100, imprisoned for a year, and at the expiration of his confinement to be set in the pillory for one hour. The printer of the Noon Gazette, for having copied the paragraph, was sentenced to pay a fine of £100, and a year's imprisonment ; and as he had pnbUsbed a para- graph the following day, justifying what he had done, he was for the second offence ordered an additional six months' imprisonment, and to stand in the pillory. The publisher of the Morn- ing Herald was ordered to pay a fine of £100, and to be imprisoned one year. The printer of the Gazetteer (being a female) was sentenced to pay a fine of £50, and to be imprisoned six months, for a libel on the Russian ambassador.
1781, June as. The Manchester Chronicle, No. 1, printed and published by Charles Wheeler, in Hunter's lane. The Mercury was the only paper in Manchester when Mr. Wheeler com- menced the Chronicle.
1781. The first newspaper in the Hungarian language, appeared at Presburg.
1782, Aug. 12. William Cowfeu, the cele- brated poet, was prevented by rains and floods from visiting lady Austen, who suggested the Task. Cowper beguiled the time by writing to her the following Imes, and afterwards printing them with his own hand. He sent a copy of these verses, so printed, to his sister, accompanied by the subjoined note, written upon his typc^^ra- phical labours.
To watch the itonna, and hear the sky. Give all the almanadu the lie : To shake with cold, and see the plains In antumn drown'd with wintry tains : Tis thos I spend my moments here. And wish myself a Dutch mynheer; I then should have no end of wlt^ For lumpish Hollander unflt : Nor should I then repine at mud. Or meadows delng*d with a flood ; But in a bor live well content. And find it Just my element; Should be a clod and not a man. Nor wish in vain for slater Anne, With charitable aid to dra^ My mind out of its proper quag ; Should have the genius of a boor. And no ambition to have more.
Mr dear Sister, — ^You see my b^inniog ; I do not know but in time I mav proceed to the printing ' of halfpenny ballads. Excuse the coarseness of my paper ; I wasted so much before I could accomplish any thing legible, that I could not afford finer. I intend to employ an ingenious mechanic of this town to make me a longer case, for you mi^ observe that my lines turn up their tails like Dutch mastiffs; so diffi- cult do I find it to make the two halves exactly coincide with each other.
We wait with impatience for the departure of this unseasonable flood. We think of you, and talk of you ; but we can do no more till the
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