242
��NOTES BY THE WAY.
��Toplady's
testimony to
him.
��obtained employment with Mr. Doudney in Long Lane, the premises being named " The City Press." When Mr. Doudney in 1846 gave up the business in order to become a clergyman of the Church of England, he looked round among the people he employed, and duly examined the claims of each in order to decide to whom to offer the business. His choice fell on Collingridge, who purchased it of him ; and when Collingridge, started his paper he gave to it the name of his house. Mr. Doudney was for more than fifty years editor of The Gospel Magazine. He was described by Mr. Collingridge as a man of such open generosity that he could never keep any money in his pocket. Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Doudney, on accepting the living of Bunmahon in the diocese of Cashel, established a printing office for the benefit of poor boys, and these waifs he made competent to print not only his parish magazine, Dr. Gill's but also the Bible Commentary in six quarto volumes of the learned Commentary. Dr q^ who from 172 Q till his death was pastor of the Southwark Baptist Church, now meeting at the Metropolitan Tabernacle. Toplady said of him, " This age has not produced a more learned, pious, and profound divine " ; and Spurgeon wrote of him as " one of the most learned men that the Baptist denomination has ever produced." On the publication of his Commentary the title of D.D. was received by him from Aberdeen ; and on his deacons congratulating him, he thanked them pleasantly, adding, " I neither thought it, nor bought it, nor sought it." He was full of quiet humour, and, on one of his hearers expressing dissatisfaction with his preaching, said, pointing him to the pulpit, " Go up and do better ; go up and do better." Dr. Gill's pulpit is still pre- served at the Spurgeon Pastors' College, and made use of by the students. Gill died on the 14th of October, 1771, and was buried in Bunhill Fields.
The City When The City Press was started there was no paper devoted
Press the first to the interests of the City, and the proceedings of the Corporation
paper devoted were not reported adequately or systematically. The City Press
to City was intended to be, and it has been, loyal to the Corporation, but
s s ' has criticized where and when it thought fit, and the result has been
to bring about reforms from within rather than from without.
The paper has been identified with many of the forward movements
which, in the course of years, the Corporation has initiated and
carried through. At the time The City Press was founded, the
voice of " reform " was in the air, and would-be despoilers of the
Corporation were to be found in all directions. Half a century has
passed, and in the Jubilee number of The City Press it is claimed that
" the City more than maintains its ground. Other authorities have sprung into existence, but the Corporation remains at the head of the municipal life of London, and is still the body which is called upon, at times of national rejoicing and emergency, to take its place in the van, ancj to formulate and direct public opinion,"
��His pulpit.
�� �
