758
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
1785, Nov. 8. Tkt North Coymtry Journal; or the Inaartial IrUdligeiutr. Printed and pnb- lished in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, by Leonard tJm- fiterile. Small folio.
1785, Dec. 5. On this day an important cause was tri^ before the court of session in Scotland, respecting literary property. The proprietors of the Encyehpadta BriUamiea had printed a great part of Gilbert Stuart's history in their work ; the court determined, they were subject to the penalty of the acts.
1786. The Obtener, by Mr. Richard Cumber- land. These essays may be classed under. the appellations of literary, critical, and narrative; humorous, moral, and religious. They were printed at Tunbridge Wells, and published in London by Charles Dilly. The Obterver had extended to six volumes in 1798, and in 1803, it was incorporated with the British Euayiit; and in 1808, It was reprinted in 3 rols. 12mo.
1786, Feb. 20. John Almon, proprietor and printer of the General Advertiser,* was tried in Westminster hall, before lord Mansfield, for a libel against the right hon. William Pitt, chan- cellor of the exchequer, charging the ministry with stock jobbing, &c. In his new situation as printer of the General Advertiser, he was again the object of the enmity of the court. It was singular Mr. Pitt should be tempted to seize so trifling an occasion to commence a prosecution against the fiiend of his father,-)- for printing a paragraph, which, it is more than probable, any other minister would hare despised and forgot. The damages were laid at Jb 10,000, and the jury gave £150. This prosecution was com- menced in the star chambermode, by information ex officio. There is a circumstance which shows that the ministers took more care and caution in the institution of this prosecution than they usually observe in the commencement of more important measures. This was, before the de- fendant was served with any notice, they retained
• John Almm, bookseller. In PiccuUllT, whom we have beibn noticed, retired from Jxnidon in Jane, 1781, and In the following An^nit he had the misfortune to lose his wife. In the month of September, 1784, he married the widow of W. Parker, printer of the Oeneral Adtjertiier, and ntnnied once more to London and to business, taking np his residence In Fleet4treet. Be left ease and afBoence to enconnter HUgxa and rescue indigence.
t William Pitt, earl of Chatham, was the sonof Richard Pitt, esq. of Boconock, in Cornwall, was born Nov. IS, 1708, and died llay 11, 1778. After receiving a liberal edu- cation, he obtained a oometcy of hone, and soon after that a seat In the house of commons, where he greatly disUnipiisbed himself by his eloquence in opposttton to what he considered as the aiMtiary and Indefensible mea- sures of sir Robeit Walpole. To tills apposition he was Indebted, in 174s, fbr a legacy of £lO,oo«, by thedocbess dowager of Mailboroneh, "on acconnt," ss the will ex- presses it, " of his ment in the noUe defence he made for tile support of the laws of XnglaDd, and to prevent the ruin of his country." His patriotic and Ibrmldable oppo- sition to the introduction of general warrants wUl lie re- membered to the latest po^erity, as will his eloquent, though unsuccessfol, deprecation of the measures adopted in 17m, which finally ended in the loss of our American colonies, and that of relievlnr Protestant dissenting mi- nisters from the hardship of bong required to subscribe to the doctrinal articles of the chuirch of England. His re- mains were interred with great funeral pomp in the nortii crass of Westminster-abbey ; and on the spot is a stately monument.
the flower of the bar against Um. No less than six of the most eminent council were retained to support this prosecution. This was being ex- ceeoingly illiberal, and leaves us scarcely any room to doubt of the motives in which this proee- cution originated. Mr. Almon was exoeeoingly deceived in the steps of this prosecution by hia attorney, who repeatedly assured him, that the trial would not come on. ' Whether it was sheer ignorance, or neglect, or any other cause, is not ' now worth ascertaining. It is certain, that when the trial came on, it was discovered that even the ordinary attention had not been paid. How- ever, as a spirited defence was deprecated, very little was said ; and the naked fact of selline the paper at the printer's house, was all the evi- dence upon which the jury formed their verdict, which was for the crown. The confidential junto had now full scope for their vengeance; and that they were determined to gruify all their former resentment, Mr. Almon had inform- ation in streams from all quarters; for they were so elated by the success of their manoeuvre in liaving ensnared him, that they made the ex- pected punishment the subject of their conver- sations at table, at the opera, at Randagh, and other places. Some days after the trial, Mr. Almon happened to meet in the street (between Clare market and Lincolns Inn) one of the prin- cipal law officers of the crown, who, in the course of the conversation that passed between them, assured Mr. Almon, that he should press for the severest punishment, and in particular, for the pillory. The French poet, Cori]eilIe,says,
Cest le crime qui fait la honte, et non pas I'tdufinid.
His political sins were too many to be for- given ; and the junto too much embittered not to embrace the hist opportunity for revenge. In this situation he was obliged to dispose of his paper, and printing matenals, with all possible expedition. Unfortunately for him, the person who contracted for them, and who g^ot possession, proved insolvent, and he did not receive for his property, which had cost him several thousand pounds, an eighth part of the value. Under the advice of many of his Mends, and even of some of the learned gentlemen, who had been returned against him, he went to France; and there, as Mr. Wilkes says, " met vrith that pro- tection which an innocent man had a right to expect, but could not find in his own country." The selection of a paltry paragraph, written, aa it seems, for the purpose of prosecution,* and prosecuting him only for it; amounts to almost
- A fiBw years ago a rascally attorney sent to the diHier-
ent newspsfiers an advertisement of a watch being lost ; and otfeied a reward for the recovery, in certain words which had been proscribed by an old act of parliament. He then brought actions against the printers for Om penalty) and thereby levied a considerable booty; as they were all glad to compound the matter aOur tiian go into a court of law, where their conduct seldom meets with a favourable construction. The printer of a newspaper cannot everlastingly stand at the side of his press. His health and constitution would In a few years be destroyed by it. He therefore must at intervals trust to servants.— Designing men watch these opportunities.
VjOOQ IC
