1807, Dec. 17. Mr. Roworth obtained a verdict, with £100 damages against Mr. Wilkes, bookseller, for having pirated a work written by the plaintiff, called the Art of Self-Defence with the broad sword. This work, together with the prints, were copied into the Encyclopedia Londiensis, published by the defendant.
1807, Dec. Died,—Coleman, a very ingenious engraver in wood, whose talents had at different times procured him distinguished premiums from the society of arts, manufactures, &c.
1807, Jan. The Athenaeum, No. 1. A magazine of literary and miscellaneous information, published monthly. Conducted by Dr. John Aikin.
1807, Feb. 7. The Preston Journal, No. 1. printed and published by Thomas Croft.
1807, Feb. The Ruminator. For this highly interesting series of moral and sentimental essays, we are indebted to the editor of Censura Literaria, in which miscellany the first number of the Ruminator appeared, and continued monthly.
1807. The Director, a weekly literary journal, the author of which modestly observes, that he considers himself "as a mere guide-post to direct the course of others to moral and intellectual excellence;" and we must do him justice to declare that he has brought forward a work of merit.—Drake.
1807. March 28. The Sheffield Mercury, No. 1. Printed and published by William Todd. This paper was conducted by Mr. Todd until the 4th of October, 1826, when it was purchased by Mr. George Ridge, and still continues.
1807. The Inverness Journal.
1807. The Caledonia, published at Glasgow.
1807, June. The Inspector, written under the assumed name of Simon Peep, esq.
1808, Jan. 10. Died, William Edwards, bookseller at Halifax, in Yorkshire, aged 86 years. He was a character of very great eminence in his profession, and of no common estimation for the energies of his mind. The catalogues which he published were astonishingly rich in scarce and valuable books, of which the ornamental bindings were peculiarly elegant. He brought up several sons to his own profession, all of whom acquired very high celebrity.
1808, Feb. 8. The extensive printing-office of Mr. John Nichols, Red-lion-court, Fleet-street, London, entirely destroyed by fire, in which were consumed several valuable literary works, both printed and in progress.
1808, Feb. 22. Died, Thomas Etherington, bookseller, of Rochester, and son of Mr. Etherington of York.
1808. Feb. 29. Died, Henry Lasher Gardner, bookseller, opposite St. Clement's, Strand.
1808, May 8. Died, Sir Charles Corbett, bart, one of the oldest liverymen of the company of stationers, aged about 76. He was, in the outset of life, well known as a bookseller, opposite St. Dunstan's church; where he afterwards kept a lottery-office; had dame Fortune at his command and used to astonish the gaping crowd with the brilliancy of his nocturnal illuminations. But it is not in the power of the keeper of a lottery-office to command success. A very unfortunate mistake in the sale of a chance of a ticket, which came up a prize of £20,000, proved fatal to Mr. Corbett, and was with difficulty compromised, the chance having fallen into the hands of Edward Roe Yeo, esq. at that time M.P.for Coventry. Some years after, the empty title of baronet (a title, in his case, not strictly recognised in the college of arms) descended to Mr. Corbett, which he assumed, though he might have received a handsome douceur from some other branch of the family, if he would relinquish it.—Melancholy to relate! the latter days of this inoffensive character were clouded by absolute penury. Except a very trifling pension from the company of stationers, he had no means of subsistence but the precarious one of being employed, when his infirmities and bad state of health would permit him, in a very subordinate portion of the labours of a journeyman bookbinder.
1808, May 19. Died, Joseph Cooper, many years a printer of eminence, died suddenly, in a fit, whilst walking near Chelsea. Not a few splendid volumes were produced unostentatiously from his press, before the modern system of fine printing became so very prevalent. But he was unfortunate in business. Having no children, he acquired a tone of life a little too theatrical, and much too companionable; for he had considerable talents, and abounded in pleasantly and the milk of human kindness. He provided also, at an inconvenient expense to himself, for some relatives in the East Indies, in hopes of a princely return; which he never received. He speculated also in an attempt to make a species of printing-ink superior to any before known; but was not in that instance particularly successful. The evening of his life, however, was made comfortable, by the friendship of Messrs. Wedgwood and Bentley, who found in him a valuable assistant in their counting-house, and who proved to him inestimable friends.
1808, June 14. Died, John Walkden, (son of Richard Walkden, an old member of the company of stationers, who died in 1780), was a stationer in Shoe-lane, where he long carried on a very extensive trade, in quills particularly, and a beautifully black ink; and acquired a handsome fortune with an unexceptionable character. He was passionately fond of Handel's music, of which he possessed a sufficient quantity to make a sale of six days. At his house, in Highbury-place, he built a spacious music-room, in which he placed the bust of Handel over an excellent organ, on which he was a complete performer. He had also a house at Old Windsor, where he died.
1808, July 2. Harriot Hart, the publisher, and Henry White, the proprietor and editor of the Independent Whig, Sunday newspaper, received the following sentence in the court of king's bench, by judge Grose, for a libel on lord Ellenborough, and the juries who tried Bennet and Chapman, two slave captains tried and
