NINETEENTH CENTURY.
901
1826. Jon. The Liverpool ChrmueU. Messn. Darid Boss lad William Nightingale are now (1837) proprietors and printers of liiis paper.
1826. The Aberdeen Obierver, established by Messrs. John Davidson and Co. printers, and other gentlemen. This paper was started on conservative principles, in order to oppose the Aberdeen Herald, which had been commenced in 1822, on strong reforming prineiples.
1827, Jan. 26. Died, R. Lonebghan, proprie- tor of the Dublin Morning Pott, aged forty-five years. Mr. Lonergban died at Dublin.
1827, /on. Mr. Sams, bookseller, St. James's, street, London, paid a fine of £5 for neglecting to pay to the $tamp office the amount of duty on a pamphlet, entitled A narrative of the lot! illnest of the duke of York, by sir Herbert Taylor.
1827. Conttable't Miscellany, published by .\rchibald Constable, Edinburgh. The aim of Mr. Constable was to produce books at the old rate of cheapness, without any diminution of excellence. The example was followed by Messrs. Longman and John Murray, of Lon- don; Messrs. Oliver and Boyd, in Scotland; and others who found it to their advantage in reducing the price of books, and gratifjring Ifar^e mmbera of me purchatere that had crowded in the new mart of literature. In this year also commenced the Library of Uiefid Knowledge, by the society for the diffusion of useful know- ledge, a society well deserving its name, which also had the " honour of leading the way in that fearful inroad upon dearness of the good old limes of publishing, which first developed itself m the wicked birth of what the literary exclusives called the sixpenny sciences."*
1827. The Criticrf and Scribblers of the Day. By a Scribbler. London.
1827. The number of new publications issued from 1800 to this year, includmg reprints altered in size and price, but excluding pamphlets, was, according to the London Catalogue, 19,860. Deducting one-fifth for the reprints, we have 15,868 new books in twenty-seven years ; shewing an average of 588 new books per year, being an increase of 216 per year over the last eleven years of the eighteenth century.
- This society consUti of the moct eminent Utenoy
duracten of the day, beaded by lord Broosham w cbair. man, and several otber noblemen and tHend* of the dif- fmion of knowledge among the great mass of the people. See the Quarterly Journal of Eibieation, issued by the society. Thia society employed men of adequate abiUtiee to write a body of treatises on sciences, which treatises should be pablisbed at sixpence each. A great pablishing house in l>>ndon undertook the Library of Ute/ut Knov- Itdg; bat declined to proceed with it before the appear- ance of the first number. Mr. Baldwin became the pub- lisher, and was succeeded by Mr. Charles Knight.
t Lord Sbaftsbury makes the following observation on Critics: — "I take upon me absolutely to condemn the bshionable and preiwling custom of inveighing against crUici as the common eneniies, thepestaand incendiaries of the commonwealth of wit and letters. I assert, on the contrary, that they are the props and pillars of the building I and that without the encouragement and propagation of such a race, we should remain as Ootkie architects as ever."
" nom the consideratloD of ancient as well as modern time, it appear* that the cause of the erUies is the same with that of wit, learning, and good sense."
1827 JWy21. Died, AtCBiBAU) Constablb, who, if not the most fortmate, was by tax the most eminent, publisher that ever adoraed the Scottish capital. He was born Feb. 24, 1776, at Kellie, in the county of Fife, where he received a plain education at the parish school, and in 1788 was bound apprentice to Peter Hill, book- seller, in Edinburgh, the friend and correspon- dent of Bums. About the time of the expira- tion of hisa]pprenticeship,he married the dangh- ter of Da^-id Willison, printer, who though averse to the match, was of some service in enabling him to set up for himself. This latter step he took in the year 1706, at a shop near the cross, in the High-street. Mr. Constable soon began to attract the notice of the learned of Edinburgh, by his knowledge of rare books, par- ticularir those connected with the early literatnre of Scotland ; and several years before his name had become known to the world as a considerable publisher,lie had succeeded as well by his amenity of manners, as by his professional intelligence and activity, in rendering his shop the favourite resort of all the more curious and aspiring spirits of the place, including Mr. 1. 6. Dalzelf, Mr. Richard Ueber, Mr. Alexander Campbell, Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Alexander Murmy,* Dr. John Leyden,t Mr. Walter Scott, Mr. Thomas Thomson, and other admirers of Scottish litera- ture. In 1801, Mr. Constable acquired the property of the Scots Magazine, upon which he employed the talents of Leyden, Murray, Mac- neil, and other eminent men in succession. He had always longed to become instrumental in adding something of importance to the stock of knowledge, and to enrol bis name in the list of the more liberal and enterprising publishers of the day. His fame as a publisher commenced with the appearance of the Edinburgh Review, 1802, which he had the honour of ushering into the world, and he long ministered to its success and its glory by a deportment towards its eon-
- Alexander Murray, who from the lowly condition of
a shepherd boy, raised himself to the situation of pro- fessor of oriental languages In the university of Edin- burgh, was a minister of the Scottiah church, and born Oct. as, I77>, at a place called Oonkitterick, in Galloway, in the south of Scotland, where bis father was a shep- herd, and reared a large family in bumble comfort and respectability. In the Literarf History of Oalloway Mr. Murray has written a nanatlve of himself, to which the reader is refierred, as aUbrding an instance of the utmost persevenmce in the punoit of knowledge under diffleul- ties i nor should it be forgot that, to James Klnnear, a Journeyman printer of Efinburgh, Dr. Muiray always acknowledged himself under the greatest obligatioDS, even before and after lie was intixjdnced to Dr. B^rd, his faith- ful Mend and patron throogh life. Dr. Murray died deeply lamented, April 15, 1813.
t John Leyden, a poet, an antiquary, and crieotalM, will long be distinguished among those whom the clastleity and ardour of genius have raised to diatinctian flroaa an obscure and humble origin. He was the son of a day labourer, and bora at the village of Denholm, in Rox- bur^nhire, Sept. 8, 177S, and lired to sock country labour as salted his strength. In I TOO, be attended the college of Edinburgh, where he obtained the fHendshlp of many eminent literary characters. In April, ims, he left Soot- land for the East Indies, and died on the island of Java, Augustas, I8II. His poetical remaina were collected and given to the public in isai, and in some instances ezUUt a power of nnmbera which, for the mere melody of sound, has seldom been excelled in English poetry.
