To the Manutii and the Stephenses we might add the names of many other learned printers of those early times; for example, that of Simon de Colines (in Latin, COLINEUS), who, after having been in partnership with the first Henry Stephens, the grandfather of the author of the Thesaurus, married his widow, and carried on the business, and who was profoundly versed in ancient literature that of BADIUS (often called Ascentius, from Asche, near Brussels, the place of his nativity), also a Parisian printer, who was the author of several learned works, and whose daughter, Petronilla, the wife of Robert, and the mother of the great Henry Stephens, was so erudite a lady that she is said to have taught both her children and her servants Latin, and to have permitted no other language to be spoken in the family that of FROBEN, who established his press at Basel in | Switzerland, and was so highly esteemed by Erasmus for his great learning, that this celebrated person was induced to take up his residence there in order to have his works printed by so able a scholar: and that of OPORINUS, the successor of Froben in the same city, many of the works published by whom, beside being remarkable for their correctness, are illustrated by his own prefaces and notes.

:

Of names belonging to later times, and to our own country, one of the most distinguished

is that of the very learned THOMAS RUDDIMAN, who carried on a considerable business in Edinburgh during the early part of last century. The editions of the classical authors that issued from his press were in general printed with very great accuracy, and often exhibited new readings and amendments of punctuation, in the highest degree creditable to the ingenuity and erudition of the editor, who found leisure for the preparation of several works of his own, among which may be particularly mentioned. a Latin grammar in two volumes, one of the most learned and elaborate performances in the whole range of philology. A new edition of this grammar was published in Germany, under the superintendence of one of the most eminent scholars of that country. Ruddiman held at the same time the office of librarian to the Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh (in which he was succeeded by the celebrated David Hume), and was also the publisher of a newspaper, which he had established himself. Among recent English printers, the well-known WILLIAM BowYER long presented a conspicuous example of that accomplished scholarship, united to the most diligent habits of business, which used to be so common in the good old times of the art. Nor ought we to forget his partner and successor, JOHN NICHOLS, whose

antiquarian knowledge, and extensive labours in different departments of literature, justly entitle him to a high place among the ornaments of his profession.

The father of SAMUEL RICHARDSON, the great novelist, was a joiner; and he himself, after having been taught reading and writing at a country school, was bound apprentice to a London printer, named Wilde, with whom he served for the usual period. Soon after his apprenticeship had expired, he found employment as foreman in a printing - office; but in this situation he remained for five or six years with scarcely a hope of any higher advancement. By the assistance of several friends, however, whom his industry, intelligence, and amiable manners had secured for him, he was at last enabled to enter into business on his own account; when, having established himself in a court in Fleet Street, his success speedily began to justify the expectations that had been entertained of him. Meanwhile his literary tastes, and even some indications he had given of his talents as a writer, had become known among his acquaintance, and he was employed on various occasions by the booksellers in the composition of prefaces and dedications for works which they were bringing out. At last they proposed to him the writing of a volume of Familiar Letters;

and it was this circumstance, we are told, which suggested the idea of his Pamela, the first production by which he obtained any distinction as an author. He was already in his fifty-second year when he commenced the composition of this work. And yet such was the eagerness with which he applied himself to it, that he finished the first part of it, consisting of two volumes, in as many months. It met, as is well known, with the most extraordinary success, having gone through five editions in the course of a year. The author, however, was not left to enjoy his popularity undisturbed; for, not to mention a good deal of severe criticism to which the conduct and moral tendency of the novel were subjected, the manner of the author was attacked with powerful ridicule by the celebrated Fielding in his Joseph Andrews. The effect of this satire was so keenly felt by Richardson, that he determined to show the world that he could write as well in another style, in proof of which he produced a continuation of the work, under the title of Pamela in High Life, which did not meet with much success. was not discouraged, however, by this failure, but only instructed by it in the true path in which he was fitted to excel. He returned to his studies, and after some years appeared again as an authority by the publication of the two first volumes

He

of his greatest work, his Clarissa Harlowe. The success of this production was immense. Appearing as it did in parts, it excited the public curiosity in the highest degree. During the progress of its publication, and when it was translated into French, it raised its author in the estimation of Continental critics to the first rank among the writers of the age. Richardson was in his sixtieth year when he gave this work to the world; but he had not yet concluded his literary career. Four years afterwards he appeared again before the public with another performance, his Sir Charles Grandison. This novel (like its immediate predecessor) extends to the unusual length of seven volumes; and it has been asserted that the author's original manuscript, had it not been subsequently curtailed, would have made a book of three times the size. We do not mention this as a proof of the industry of the writer. Prolixity was the besetting fault of Richardson; his works would have cost him more time and labour had he made them shorter. With his fulness of matter, and facility

of invention, it was comparatively easy for him to spread his story over any number of pages. What he most wanted was the art of rejection. Richardson is undoubtedly a great writer in the department to which his works belong. Amongst his chief faults we should especially reckon the general inelegance and extreme slovenliness of the style. This is a fault which the author, in all probability, could have materially corrected, had he taken the requisite pains.

Richardson's literary labours did not interfere with his attention to business or impede his commercial success. In 1754 we find him chosen Master of the Stationers' Company; and some years after he purchased half of the patent of king's printer. He had by this time, indeed, amassed a respectable fortune, which enabled him to indulge himself with the luxury of a country residence, where he spent the latter part of his life in the society of his friends, and the enjoyment of the public admiration which his writings had procured for him. He died in the year 1761, at the age of seventy-two.

PATERSON.

WILLIAM HUTTON was born in 1723, in the town of Derby, where his father was a working wool-comber, burthened with a large family, for whom his utmost exertions scarcely sufficed to procure subsistence. 'My poor mother,' says his son in the interesting account he has left of his life, more than once, one infant on her knee, and a few more hanging about her, have all fasted a whole day; and when food arrived, she has suffered them with a tear to take her share.' Of his mother, Hutton always retained the tenderest recollection. After a long endurance of this struggle, she died when he was only in his tenth year, and he and his brothers and sisters were left to the charge of their father, who, now become almost reckless from continued misfortune, and loosened as it were from his chief stay,

soon made matters worse than ever by taking to the alehouse, and often literally leaving his children to the mere mercies of chance.

'At one time,'

says Hutton, 'I fasted from breakfast one day till noon the next, and even then dined upon only flour and water boiled into a hasty-pudding. His father

appears to have been a man of a strong understanding, but of violent passions, over which he had little command. Notwithstanding his own dissoluteness, he was a despotic disciplinarian in regard to his children, and was wont to correct their slightest faults with terrible severity.

In the midst of all this misery their education could scarcely fail to be but indifferently attended to. In fact, even if they had been kept at school, the instructions they received there could have availed little against such utter