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negotiating with the widow he had ſold the future copyright for £25 to Brabazon Aylmer, of The Three Pigeons in Cornhill; in 1683 this Aylmer ſold half the copyright to the riſing young bookſeller, Jacob Tonſon, then of the Judge’s Head in Chancery Lane; in 1690-1 Tonſon acquired the other half; and from that time till about 1760, ſuch were the old notions and cuſtoms of the book-trade, that the ſale of Paradiſe Loſt, and indeed of all Milton’s poetry, was an almoſt unbroken monopoly of the famous firm of the Tonſons. In 1727, when the Tonſons were already rolling in wealth, much of it derived from their numerous editions of Paradiſe Loſt and the other poems of Milton, in all varieties of forms, Milton’s widow died in extreme old age and in very ſtraitened circumſtances at Nantwich, and Milton’s youngeſt and laſt ſurviving daughter, Deborah Clarke, died in mere penury in London.

   Edinburgh: Dec., 1876.