683
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
were these libellous publicatioBs deemed, that the queen concludes one of her messages to par- liament by representing the licentiousness of the press. She is made to declare, that by seditious papers and factious rumours, designing men have been able to sink credit, and the innocent have suffered ; and she recommends the house to find a remedy." That remedy we have already shown was the stainp duty upon newspapers and pam- phlets.* " The insufficiency of Bolingbroke's expedient," continues Mr. Cooke, " soon became apparent to himself, and we find from his cor- respondence that he was often employed in prosecuting the printers of those papers which were most violent against him. swift, who certainly should have had a fellow feeling for these libellers, seems not only to have approved, but to have urged this severity .f The printers were often in prison, but discharged upon bail ; and the papers still appeared, with their satire more pungent by the treatment the authorswere smartrng under. The ill success of his prosecu- tions determined Bolingbroke to attempt an ex- pedient which, had it succeeded, would quicklv nave stopped the streams of vituperation which flowed from each party. Among the provisions of an act he proposed was one, that every printed hook, pamphlet, or paper which vxu mtblithed ihoald hear the uriter'i name and aadreu : a requisition which must have at once driven from the field of controversy all those men of eminence in the opposite parties who were bold so long as they could mingle masked in the fray, but who would have shrunk from openly exposing their reputations and their persons in so equivocal a contest. No one felt the inconvenience of the threatened measure more forcibly than the au- thor of the History of the Last Four Yean. His defence of anonymous writing, drawn forth by this occasion, is exceedingly amusing, when we consider the character of the works which Ae used to send forth, and die peculiar motives he usu- ally had for concealment. This bill, which so powerfully excited Swift's fears for the safety of libellers and the interests of religion and learn- ing, met with such opposition from both parties, that it was suffered to drop in the commons ; and the idea of farther fettering the press was abandoned as impracticable." On the accession of George 1. the whigs were placed in power, and the seals taken from Bolingbroke: the papers in his office were secured, on which hewitnorew to France, where the pretender invited him into his service. In the mean time he was impeached of high treason in England, and the same year he lost the favour of his new connexions. In this situation he set himself about making his peace at home, in which he succeeded, but did not obtain his full pardon till 1723, on which he returned to England, and recovered his family inheritance. Theremainderof his life was passed in a state of total exclusion from power ; and, under these circumstances, mortified ambition prompted him to join the opposition against sir
- See pec* 601, ante.
t See p*ge in, unit.
Robert Walpole, and to publish many political essays, in the Crafttman, in which patriotism was assumed as a mere instrument for annoying his political opponents. He wrote a number of philosophical aiscussions based on equally un- sound principles, and highly adverse to sound religion. When Bolingbroke found that Pope haa printed an unauthorised edition of the Pm- triot King, he employed Mallet (1749) as the executioner of his vengeance. Mallet wanted either virtue, or spirit, to refuse the office ; and was rewarded, not long after, with the legacy of lord Bolingbroke's works, which were publislied with a success very inadequate to Mallet's ex- pectation.*
1761. Alexander Macdonald published ha Gtelie Songi, being the second book which con- tained any poetry printed in that language.
1752, Jan. 4. Cownt Garden Jowmal, pub- lished on Tuesdays and Saturdays, No. 1. By sir Alexander Drawcansir, (Henry Fielding,) author of the Champion, True Patriot, and Jacohite Journal.
1762, March 3. Harrop's Manchetter Mer- cury, No. 1 , printed and published by Jo6e{di Harrop, at the sign of the Printing-press, oppo- site the Exchange, on Tuesday. No price affixed. At No. 9, the title is changed to Harrop'i Man- chetter Mercury and General Advertiter, em- bellished with a curious wood-cut, representing the interior of a printing-office, and published opposite the clock side of the Exchange. In 1764, Mr. Harrop gave, in weekly numbers, A new History of England, 778 pp. to encourage the sale of his newspaper: in an address, at the end of the work, the proprietor says it was at the cost of one hundred guineas.
1762, July 6. William Owen, bookseller, at Homer's head, near Temple bar, was tried at Guildhall, for printing and publishing a libel, entitled the Ctue of Alexander Murray, etq. and acquitted. This was the third great case, where the juries insisted on judging the matter of law, as well as of fact. See State Trials.
1752. The Magaziru of Magazines. In this magazine Gray's Elegy in a Country Church Yard first appeared.
1762. Hate at you all; or, the Drury-lant /i>«ma/,to be continued every Iliursday, price 3d.
• David Malloeb, or Mtllet, waa born of poor parent* ia the city of Edinburgh, about 1700, but snrmoontcd Hie dindvantage of Ilia birUi and fortnne. He received a por- tion of lil> education at tlie lUgli school of his nattve city, and became tutor to the soDSofthe duke of Montrose, with whom he travelled, and on his return settled in Loodoa. where he became an autlior by profession. In July 17M he published the ballad of Wiliiiim and Margartt, wlUdi is still popular. In April, 1734, he obtained the degree or)I.A. at St. M-vy's hall, Oxford. In 1740 he published a Lift •/ Lord Bacon : the duchess of Marlborough left liim jCIM* to write the life of her husband, which never appeared ; and he obtained a considerable pension from lord Bute tot de- fending his administntion. He was under aecietary to Frederic prince of Wales. Be died April 31, 17*4, and it was remarked of him, " that he was the only Scot whan Scotchmen did not commend." On which Mr. Stcevens remarked, that " he was the only Scotchman he ever knew unregretted by his countrymen." The news ot his death was followed by no enconUums on hi* writings or iiia vir- tues.
il
