Page:A dictionary of printers and printing.djvu/893

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884

HISTORV OF PRINTING.

societies. By his singular fluency and force of speaking, he obtained the notice of Mr. Rtt, who, tnen a very young man, was in the practice of frequenting a society in which Mr. Perry was a frequent speaker, and is said to have been so impressed with his abilities as an orator, as to have had an offer of a seat in parliament con- veyed to him, after he had himself attained the dignity of chancellor of the exchequer. A similar oner was afterwards made by lord Shelbume ; but his political principles, from which no temp- tation could divert him, prevented his accepting eiUier of these flattering propositions. For many years he edited Debrett s Parliamentary Debates, and afterwards, in conjunction with a Mr. Gray, bought the Morning Chronicle from William Woodfall, which he continued to conduct till his death, which took place at Brighton, after a long and painful illness, in the sixty-fifth year of his age. The principles of the Morning Chro- nicle were always those of Mr. Fox,* friendly to liberty, order, and ri^ht government. The sound discretion and fair judgment with which Mr. Perry had always exercised his almost absolute power, called forth from sir James Mackintoshf in the house of commons, December 23, 1819, the most splendid panegyric which literary in- tegrity ever receivea. It was in a committee upon the abominable libel bill, Mr. Canning,

earned a livelihood bf that very practice, aud therefore be could not in conscience fotbeai exprening his decided diupprobation of such an interdict which would go very mach to cramp the intellectual energies of young men of genius, but of contracted circumstances, lliis speech

Kve great satisfaction to the house, and the Iwnctiers pru- aUy rescinded their resolution.

Aaabody, the reporters are g:eDtlemcn, and we never heard that they were corrupted, except by affection or aversion, or by civlUtieB in a gentlemanly way. Old Mr. Joliffe, for example, used to go into the reporters* room, merely as a lounge, and say, *' Are there any gentlemen of the press who want Itanks," and a reporter was sure to have as many as he chose to accept. Soon after, when the civility was forgotten, he would go again, and remon- strate in a lacliryniose tone, saying, " Now, my good fel- lows, give ns a decent speech, dont cut it short by saying only that Mr. Joliffe supported the motion. Remember I am a county member, and people think what I say of consequence, and you know I am a friend of the press."

  • When the whi^ came into power in the year 1S06,

they gave Bdr. Perry a situation of the value of jf 4,200 a-year, which he only held during their short-lived reign. He, however, procured situations of considerable value for two or three of his sons in India, which were permanent. The principal editor at that time under Mr. Perry, was the present Mr. Serjeant Spankie. This gen. tleman was sent out by the whigs, as Recorder in some court in India, but he returned in a few years and was made a seijeant-at-law.

A roagniflcent Maxarine Bible, In Mr. Perry's library, •old for one hundred and sixty guineas.

t Sir James Mackintosh, liait., was born ITdll, in the parish of Sores, in the conntv of Inverness, and received his education at the school of Tortrose, and at king's col- lege, Aberdeen, where bis studies were directed to the pro- lusion of the healing art, and in 1787 he took his doctor's degree in that faculty. He afterwards turned to the law; berime a student at Uncoln's inn, and soon displayed each uncommon powers of eloquence, as had a consider- able inHnence in the appointment of the advocate to the recorder of Bombay, where his oratorical talents frequently called fbith the admiration of the Europeans and natives. On his return to England sir James was elected into parliament, where he ably supported the popular party. Be died May so, 1833. As an historian he has unfolded and Judged the social and political improvement of the English nation, with the acuteness of a philosopher, and tha wisdom of a inctlcal itateamaii.

then a cabinet minister, admitted the title of Mr. Peny to the praises so eloquently bestowed.

Mr. Clements, proprietor of the Observer and the Englishman, purchased the copjrright of the Chronicle, for which he gave a ve^ great sum.

1821, May 5. The Manchester Chtardian, No. 1, printed and published by John Edward Tay- lor, Market-street, Manchester. Saturday.

1821. The Glasgow Free Preu, published on Wednesdays and Saturd^.

1821. iVotJ. 24. The (fatholic, edited by the rev. Mr. Gilbert, of Antigua. This work was con- tinued until 1 822, when the name was changed into the Catholic Pkoemx, edited by Mr. Grimes, surgeon, and printed by J. Pratt, Manchester.

1821, Dec. 1. The Northern Express, astd Lancashire Daily Post No. 1. This was the second attempt to establish a daily newspaper out of London ; the proprietor was Henry Bur- gess, who established a swift conveyance between London, Manchester, and Liverpool, by which two horses ran eight miles stages, at the rate of twelve miles an hour. The paper was printed in London and Stockport, and published in Man- chester every Saturday, price sevenpence. It continued for about three months.

1822, Jan. 21. Died, Benjamin Wrioht, printer, of Little Queen-street, Lincoln's Inn- nelds, London. He served his apprenticeship with Mr. Norbury, printer, of Brentford, but passed the prime of his life as an assistant in the print- ing-office of his friend, Mr. John Nichols. In the year, 1802, he formed a connexion in business with Mr. Thomas Burton, and after- wards entered' into partnership with him, and was his successor. Having obtained a very moderate competence, he retired wholly from business in 1819; but the death of an affection- ate wife, and his own declining health, prevented his looking for enjoyment. For the most scrupu- lous integrity, amiable singleness of heart, and unremitting industry, Mr. Wright had few equals, and he died at Kilbum, aged sixty- eight, regretted by all his friends.

1822. Parliament agreed to print the ancient histories of the kingdom.

1822, March 9. Died, Edwakd Daniel Clarke, LL.D. professor of mineralogy in the university of Cambridge. This celebrated travel- ler belongs to a literary family, his father, grand- father, and brother (the rev. James Stanier Clarke) having each attained considerable repu- tation by their publications. He was educated at Cambridge, and became a fellow of Jesus' college. In 1799 he set out on on extensive tour through Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Lap- land, Finland, Russia, Tartary, Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Greece, and Turkey, and returned from Constantinople in 1802, through Hungary, Germany, and France. In the course of his travels he collected a mag- nificent cabinet of minerals, together with a valuable assortment of manuscripts and ancient marbles, the latter of which. Including the famous Eleusinian Ceres, he deposited in the public library at Cambridge. He was also an

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