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HISTORY OF PRINTING.
1831, Feb. 7. A work was presented to llieir majesties, (William IV.* and his consort) at Bnghton, which may be rcMrdedas a typo- ffraphiiml wonder. — ^Tne New Testament, printed in gold, on porcelain paper,t and for the first time successfully executed on both sides. Two years had been employed in perfecting the work, the gold in which is valued at five guineas. Only one hundred copies were printed.
18.31, Feb. Vi. Died, Alexander Laurie, printer of the Gazette for Scotland.
1831, Feb. 28. Died, Thomas Cbopp, editor and proprietor of the Bolton Chronicle, aged thirty-five years. Mr. Cropp fell a victim to a coach accident in the preceding June.
1831, Feb. 26. Died, John Bell, formerly of the Strand, bookseller. Few men have con- tributed more, by their industry and good taste, to the improvement of the graphic and typo- graphic arts than Mr. Bell; witness his beautiful editions of the Britith Poets and Shakspeare. He was one of the original proprietors of the Fashion- able World, the Oracle, and the Morning Post, and projector of that well-established Sunday newspaper. Bell's Weekly Messenger.X Another of his successful projects was the elegant monthly publication La Belle Assemblie. Mr. Bell, in publishing his British Theatre, first set the fashion, which soon became general, of discard- ing the long f, about 1795. He died at Ful- ham, in the eighty-sixth year of his age. He was one of the most marked men of his day ; he possessed a masculine understanding, which a long course of observation, and a particular quickness and facility in observing, had very highly cultivated — so as to have given him a judgment as just and exact as his powers of conception were vigorous and acute. He had an instinctive perception of what was beautiful in every possible combination of the arts.
1831, March 15. A meeting of the founders,
Matrons, and members of a projected association or the encouragement of literature. It was proposed to raise a fund of jC 10,000, for the purpose of publishing works of merit, where authors and publishers could not agree, — to advance money in some cases to the authors in the progress of their labours, — and to allow them a handsome per-centage on the profits.
- W'iUiam IV. asccoded the tbroDcs of Great Britaio
and Hanover, on the death of his elder brother George IV. Jane 26, 1830, aged sixty-eight years.
t .'u8t as the professors of the typographie art were in despair that British skill would ever aeconiplish the lon^ wished for rtCHlderatum as printing in gold or silver, Mefisrs. De La Rue, Cornish, and Rock, of London, to the BstunishmeDt and delight of the literaiy world, sent forth their novel preparation of porcelain paper and card, the enamelled surface of which is at once chaste and cle^nt, and as reflective and clear as a mirror ; its immediate use formed another and very important era in the art of letter- press printing, particularly from wood cn^ravingrs, bor- ders, &c. The works which have been executed in ^Id, silver, and bronze, on porcelain paper and card, leave nothing more to wish in this beautiful invention.
t Francis Ludlow Holt, a barrister, married a niece of Mr. Bell's, and was for a long time connected with him in the management of the DUpatck, for which he generally wrote the leading articles. He was the author of the Land ve Unt in, com. 1804; the Laio of LittI, 1815, &c
1831, March IS. Died, Thomas Paths, of the firm of Payne and Foss, booksellers, b Pall-mall, London. Mr. Payne was the eldea son of Thomas Payne, who died in 1799; m bom in London, Oct. 10, 1762, and was eduald at M. Metayer's, a classical school of repulauon, in Charterhouse-square. His father was annott that be should be instructed in every biuicb of education necessary to an intimate acquainunct with the contents and reputation of book in foreign languages. This initiation into the history of books, Mr. Payne augmented eteato a high degree of critical knowledge, by frequem tours on the continent, and particularly b] an amicable intercourse with the eminent scbolais and collectors, whose conversation for manj years lormed the attraction of his well-frequtsted premises. Confidence was uniformly placed in his judgment and opinion, by the most eininem and curious bibliographers of the day, that per- haps it would be difiicult to mention a gentle- man of his profession, whose loss was moie deeply regretted. He inherited the character as well as the name of his excellent father; ibe epithet of honest, it has been observed, nas so entirely hereditary , as to be allowed, not bi common, but by universal consent, to descend, without any bar, from father to son ; asd in addition he had acquired the appellation of the " father of the booksellers." After canying on business at the Mewsgate, almost from his io- fancy, Mr. Payne removed, in 18ll6, to Pali- mall, where his learned friends had a place of assembling more commodious than any in Ljd- don. In 1813, he txjok into partnerbhip Mr. Henry Foss, who had been his apprentice. Mt. Payne died in London, at the advanced age of seventy-nine years, and his remains were internd in the parish church of St. Martin in the Fields.
1831, March 20. The rev. Duncan M'Crair, an ordained minister of the church of ScoUand, examined at the police court, Edinburgh, on the charge of purloining a Bible from the shop of t bookseller in that city. The library of the fw. gentleman being searched, several stolen boob were found. He heard the charge very com- posedly, and begged he might be bailed, in oidei to give him an opportunity oi preparing his sermon for the ensuing day ! He was fullj committed for trial, and on June 6, was sen- tenced to fourteen years' transportation.
1831, March 25. Died, John Barker, for. merly a printer in the Old Bailey, but for manj years a respected member of the court of assis- tants of the stationers' company. He died at Kentish town, aged eighty-two years.
1831, April 6. Died,Hie rev. Joux Walker, B.L.C, aged sixty-one years. He was one of the original proprietors of the Oxford Herald, and for some time the editor.
1831, April II. i>te(f, Alexander Ackman, jun. printer to bis majesty, and the hon. house of assembly, in the island of Jamaica, and pro- prietor of the Royal Jamaica Gazette. He left a widow and eight children ; and his father, whom he succeeded in business, survived him.
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