922
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
not of the gieateit possible value, but cunent enough, and ne used it liberally on all occasions. If with Dryden he kept a shop of condolence and congratulation, he did not sell his commodities — he sent out his hasty tributes among his friends like his namesake in Prior's poems, as the signs of benevolence.
Hi* Jog wu to tlu rlogera curled Wboeru either died or married,
1633, June 7. On this day the English refonn bill received the royal assent, when the people of England, as with one heart and voice, gave utterance to those grateful emotions which the consummation of their ardent wishes so justly inspired. Among the foremost on this occasion, stood forth the prest, the harbinger of the free- dom of the world ; and, not the least, by the splendour of their processions in all the great towns in the kingdom, did the members of the typographic art acknowledge the blessings which the reform bill was likely to accomplish, by the speedy removal of all those imposts which had 80 long retarded the progress of literature.f
1832, July 26. Mr. Smith, a bookbinder at the navy office, Somerset house, London, went to the top of the building, for the purpose of en- joying the prospect, when he was precipitated on the terrace andkilled. It was supposed ne missed his footing whilst looking through his glass.
1832, Aug. 10. Died, Mr. Thorpe, book- seller, at Oxford, of cholera, aged thirty years. He was the nephew of the celebrated London bookseller of that name, and son of Mr. Thorpe, who for many years was a bookseller at Cam- bridge. His death was very sudden.
1832, Aug. 23. Died, William M'Oavin^ editor of the Protettant, a periodical, the first six numbers of which appeared in the Glasgow Chronicle, then issued in weekly numbers.
• Dnrlnc the dimisaion on the reform UU, In the hooM of lordi, the ex-lord chancellor, Lyndhont, alladinr to the condncton of the oewipaper pre**, u ftiToarert of the meuore, made the followinc rattier cnrloo* obcervation : "A formidable and active body, to wit, the periodical prees, the gieater portion of whldi snpport thi< measnre for reasons that are soiBctently apparent. They proaper In agitation, and they think that the carryinK the biU will perpetoate^tatlon. Bceldes looking to what has occuired in France and Belgiom, theee conductors of the wess see a new road opened to their personal ambition, lliey Iw- lieve that they will be enabled to take a station in society, and to assome a power which. Are or rix years ago, never entered their minds." This was the opinion of a lawyer, once ft radical, until he was made a judge, when from his new elevation he took that commandhig view of things wlilch enabled him to- see that every thing was placed exactly where it ooght to be. Among the conductors of the periodical press, who have obtained seats in the legis- lature since the refonn bill, are Johu Walter, proprietor of the London Ttma, for the coontv of Berks. William Bird Brodie, proprietor of the Salimtry Jotimal, for the city of Salisbory. Edward Baines, proprietor of the Leedt Merewrf, for Leeds. J. 8. Bocliinitam, proprietor of the ^Mammh, for SheAeld. William Cobbett, for Oldham.
t Tbe real aoorces of the iqjary which llteiatare has todained In Oils eonntry, and of the impediments in the dlftiiiaa of knowledge, are to be found in the various lestrlctlons wtiich government have imposed opon the press, and in the destructive influence of unsparing taxa- Uoo.— /ate ttCreerp.
t In the eonetery at Olasgow there is a very handsome Bonoaeat, consisting of a pillar, with a statne, of Mr. M'Gavln, and long inscriptions on the fbnr ddea of the pMleital.
1832, Sept. 3. Died, Edward Jeifket, Ioi fifty years a bookseller in Pall-mall, London, where he died of apoplexy, in his seventieth yeu
1832, Sept. 3. Died, David Blacwe, pro. prietor of the Edinburgh Evening Pott, EiUx. burgh Weekly Chronicle, and the Eimlmrjk Literarg Gazette, of whom it is but justice to state that be gave an impetus to the peiiodictl press of Scotland productive of the greatest bent- fit to the public. Mr. Blackie di^ of cholen, at Bayswater, near Londop. His widow hsring been removed to Grove house, Bromptos, tlu residence of Mr. Jerdan, editor of the Lmdm Literary Gazette, was delivered of a daughtei,at one o'clock on Friday the 7th, within Ivdve hours of her husband's funeral.
1832, Sept. 10. I>ie(i, William Meoot, boot seller and printer, at Chelmsford, in Essex, ggtd seventy years. He was for upwards of forty years part proprietor of the Chelrruford ChrtM.
1832, Sept. 21. Died, Sir Walter Scon, hart., a distinguished poet and novelist. He was born at Edinburgh, August 15, 1771, and was a younger son of Walter Scott, writer to the signet, by Anne, daughter of Dr. John Rutherford,* professor of medicine in the nniTer- sity of Edinburgh. The first school he attended was at Kelso, where he had for his schooIfeUon James and John Ballantyne, who subseqiwndjr became intimately connected with him in pub- lic life. From Kelso he was removed to tie high school of Edinburgh, in 1779. He tkn served an apprenticeship to the legal business in his father's office, which was completed in 1792, by his entering at the Scottish bar. On the 24th of December, 1797, he married Misi Carpenter, a young Frenchwoman, of (tood parentage, whom he accidentally met at Gils- land well, in Cumberland, and who possessed a small annuity. It is tdso worthy of notice, tbsl, in 1799, he was appointed sheriff of Selkirk- shire, a respectable situation, to which an income of £300 was attached. The literary character of Scott is to be traced to the traditionary loie which he imbibed in the country, and his mis- cellaneous reading during a long illness. He read, by his own confession, all the old romances, old plays, and epic poems, contained in the extensive library of Mr. Sibbald, in Edinbuigh. The earlier years of his life, as an advocate, were devoted rather to the study of the Gennaii poets than to business ; and the result was, a translation of Burger's Lenore, and Der Wilit Jager, which he published in small 4to. in 1796. It was not till the vear 1805, when Scott bad reached the age of thirty-four, and had a femilv rising around him, that he attracted decided attention as an original poet ; but it was not till 1806, when he received the appointment of a principal clerk of session, tb^t be considered nimself at perfect liberty to pursue a literary career. Shortly after the publication of the Im/ of the Last Mtntlrel, Walter Scott entered into a secret partneisbip with James Ballantyne;
t Dr. Entbetftrd died in in'V, in his dgbty-fDOlth yar-
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