But they contained news; and hence they were greedily purchased by the people, to whom a paper at sevenpence or eightpence was practically out of reach. As a counterpoise to this mischievous literature, Lord Brougham and the "Society for the Diffusionof Useful Knowledge" started the Penny Magazine, and Messrs. Chambers, of Edinburgh, issued their world-known Journal and Informa tion for the People. To Mr. Limbird, however, who is still living, and in business in the Strand -belongs the honour of first popularising cheap literature. In 1825, he brought out the Mirror, and other cheap weekly publications. Others sent forth the Guide to Knowledge, the Saturday Magazine, the Parterre, the Casket, the Family Herald, and similar serials, containing much useful and entertaining reading. Most of these were illustrated with wood engravings, some of which--strange as it may sound-have been kept in use in the cheap periodicals to this day. The Casket was published by Mr. William Strange, who is still alive, and in business in Amen Corner, Paternoster Row. The "unstamped press' "" soon became a formidable rival to its stamped and high-priced competitors. In the Times, the Chronicle, the Post, the Herald, and the other daily papers at that period, we find frequent references to the Government prosecutions against the proprietors and vendors of what it was then the fashion to term the "seditious press." But prosecution did not deter such men as Hetherington, Carlile, and Cleave, from issuing their penny and twopenny broadsheets of news and criticism. The more active the Government became in attempting to suppress the unstamped papers, the more determined seemed their promoters to resist all its attempts. If Hetherington was fined one week for issuing a Twopenny Dispatch, he would puzzle the Somerset House authorities the next week by bringing out a Penny Times. Various ingenious devices were employed to deceive and mislead the officers employed by the Government. Many of the unstamped papers were printed in Crane Court, Fleet Street; and there, on their several days of publication, would watch the officers of Mr. Tilsley, the Somerset House solicitor, ready to seize them immediately they came from the press. But the printers were quite equal to the emergency. They would make up sham parcels of waste papers and send them out, with an ostentatious show of secrecy. The officers-simple fellows enough, though they were called "Government spies, "Somerset House myrmidons," and other opprobrious names, in the unstamped papers-duly took possession of the parcels, after a decent show of resistance by their bearers, while the real newspapers intended for sale to the public were sent flying by thousands down a shoot in Fleur-de-Lys Court, and thence distributed, in the course of the next hour or two, all over the town. Fleur-de-Lys Court was swallowed up in the enlargement of Fetter Lane a few years afterwards, though even now a ruinous house exists to mark the site of the famous shoot. As early as 1801, William Cobbett had started a daily newspaper called the Porcupine, but it had no very long life, and was succeeded by the well-known Political Register, which, for more than thirty years, was the organ of this singular man's opinions. In this publication Cobbett continually urged the Government to abolish or amend the press laws; but up to his death, in 1835, he was unsuccessful in the object of his agitation. His whole life was intimately connected with the press, for the freedom of which he did, perhaps, more than any man of his time. He had the satisfaction, however, of knowing that the stamp acts, and other imposts which prevented the free circulation of newspapers, were doomed; for, in little more than a year after his decease-namely, on the 15th of September, 1836-the duty on newspapers was reduced from fourpence a copy to a penny; which duty remained till its compulsory use was finally abolished in 1855-the advertisement duty having been discontinued in 1853. Our readers know what a weight of influence was brought to bear upon the Cabinet before the abolition of the stamp duty on newspapers, except for postal purposes, took place; and what an amount of writing and speaking were necessary in order to accomplish it, and the subsequent abolition of the paper duty. To return, however, to the unstamped papers. The years 1834, 1835, and 1836 were eventful to the proprietors of the most notable of them. Prosecutions against the projectors, publishers, and vendors of unstamped papers were of weekly occurrence. Hetherington was convicted over and over again, for selling the Twopenny Dispatch, the Poor Man's Guardian, and other unstamped journals; Cleave* was convicted in penalties of £500 for selling various numbers of the Weekly Police Gazette; in like manner, Watson, and Cousins were repeatedly summoned for similar offences against the stamp acts, and as repeatedly fined or imprisoned. Nor were the prosecutions confined to the metropolis. Mr. Abel Heywood, the eminent bookseller and newsvendor, of Manchester-who has lived to become alderman and mayor of his native city-was repeatedly mulcted in fines for selling unstamped papers, and once, at least, imprisoned. Poor and struggling men, women, and innocent little boys, were brought continually before the magistrates for infringements of the law, and imprisoned when they were unable to pay the fines. Above five hundred suffered from first to last for selling unstamped papers; and so great a nuisance did the informations become, that the magistrates openly complained of the severity of the law, and often inflicted merely nominal punishments. The records of Somerset House at this period abound in notices of similar convictions. We have been favoured by Mr. Tilsley, of the Inland Revenue Office, son of the gentleman mentioned above, with a sight of these records; and it is very curious to note how many familiar names we meet in connection with these press prosecutions. For instance, there is Mr. Thomas Lyttleton Holt, the original projector of the Weekly Chronicle-which still exists as an obscure advocate of Insurance Offices; Mr. D. B. Cousins, proprietor of the London Free Press, the Cosmopolitan, the Weekly Herald, and other unstamped papers. Mr. Cousins, who still carries on the business of a printer in the Strand, also published a newspaper on cotton cloth, presuming that the act, i William IV., cap. 17, freed cotton goods from taxation. But the authorities stopped its issue, and ultimately nearly ruined its proprietor. Then we find Mr. John Watson, Cleave had passed several of his early years in America. He was a genial, warm-hearted and intelligent man; he had been a Republican, but the gradual amelioration of the laws softened down his extreme opinions. A slight brogue indicated that he was either a native of Ireland, or had passed some years in that country. + This gentleman is now, we believe, connected with the Birmingham Press. At the time of the Railway mania, in 1845, he started the Iron Times, a paper which is said to have produced a profit of a thousand pounds a week; but it soon collapsed. We wish Mr. Holt could be induced to write his autobiography; it would be a work of great inte est, and would in itself be a history of the cheap publisher of the Monthly Political Register, a twopenny paper, published in 1836. This gentleman, who was prosecuted more than twice or thrice, for selling Paine's Age of Reason—a work which nobody cares to buy or read, now that any one may print and sell it-is also still alive, though he has retired from business. Mr. Watson brought out the Investigator, under the management of Charles Southwell. Then, again, we meet with the names of Holyoake, Nicholson, Patey, and others, which we readily recognise. But, it may be asked, what sort of papers were these unstamped journals that the Government tried in vain to suppress? It is to be regretted that nothing like a complete collection of them is anywhere to be found. The British Museum Library possesses only a few of the more prominent among them; and, in consequence of their being published surreptitiously, and in defiance of the law, the very names of many have passed away from public memory. Indeed, no record of them, apart from the brief notices in the journals of the Somerset House prosecutions, is known to exist; and their history never has been, and never can be, fully told. We may say, however, that many of the unstamped newspapers published between 1833 and 1836 were little, if at all, inferior to the lowpriced weekly journals of the present time. They were all intensely radical. Many were republican, and some blasphemous; but that was a sort of necessity of the times, and of the manner of their production. Opinions ran a little more wild or were at least expressed with somewhat more of warmth and openness at the period of Lord John's Reform Bill than in these days of respectable mediocrity and flat political sentiment. The most foul-mouthed and licentious paper, we regret to say, was the John Bull, a high-priced weekly journal, much patronised by the Tories, and edited by Mr. Theodore Hook; but it possessed the redeeming feature of being a thick and thin supporter of Church and State. The popular high-priced paper was the Weekly Dispatch, the property of the late Mr. Alderman Harmer. In this paper appeared the free-thinking letters of "Publicola. The Dispatch was published on Sundays, and was commonly lent out by newsvenders at a penny an hour, notwithstanding the heavy penalty incurred by so doing. All the unstamped papers had their parliamentary debates, their reports of law and police cases, their comments on men and things, and their advertisements-of course free of duty in every case where the payment of the duty could be evaded. "A The Weekly Police Gazette (published by Cleave and Strange) was, for instance, what we should now call a rather rabid specimen of radicalism. But it contained no more of obscenity or ribaldry than is to be found in Reynolds' Newspaper or the Police News of later date. It had a woodcut heading, with figures of a woman as Truth, and a labourer as Justice, and bore mottoes from Sallust and Madison: "Liberty with danger is to be preferred to slavery with security;' well-instructed people alone can be a free people." On the front page it had generally a political caricature-such as a poor man carrying home a bundle of clothes being stopped by a rough-looking fellow, who insists on examining the parcel, to see if it contains any unstamped papers. It was tolerably well printed on thin, poor paper, and was published weekly, at two. pence a copy. Cleave's business fell off after the reduction of the duty. One of the active contributors to the politic press of this period was William Carpenter who is still alive. He wrote the "Peerag an for the People," the "Political Text-Book, "Anecdotes of the French Revolution,' other popular works published by Strange, Tegg &c.; but his most marked effort to evade th stamp duty was by writing a Political Lette every week, and, after the manner of Junius addressing each one to a different public person age. This letter, contained a summary of all the political news of the week. Thus, a letter to the Duke of Wellington or to Earl Grey, would, or publication, make readers acquainted with al they desired to know. But the Government stopped the issue of these letters as an infringement of the stamp act. 66 Among other unstamped papers were the Monthly Political Register, price 2d. ; the Weekly Police Gazette; the Penny Satirist, a broadsheet issued by Mr. Cousins as a cheap substitute for a weekly newspaper, adorned with cuts of rather rude and primitive appearance. This publication was continued long after the reduction of the stamp duties. Then we find the Free Press, the Weekly Herald, 24d., published and edited by 'Benjamin Franklin, junior," a nom de plume assumed by Mr. Cousins to confuse the stamp office people. In the same way, Hetherington called himself Watson, and Cleave adopted the name of Wakeling. The Weekly True Sun, edited by John Bell, a relation of the proprietor of Bell's Life in London; the People's Police Gazette, the National, the London Dispatch, with a portrait of Richard Oastler; the Pioneer, Holt's Chronicle, the British Liberator, the Man, the Cosmopolite, the Newsman's Weekly Chronicle, and the Movement. The London Dispatch and People's Political and Social Reformer, was one of the most prominent of the unstamped papers. It was carried on previous to September, 1836; and after the reduction of the stamp duty, appeared as a stamped weekly paper, price 34d. Its first number under legal auspices bears an address from its proprietor and editor, in which he says, in italics The trade in unstamped papers is virtually abolished by the new Act. The new Stamp Act, that precious legacy of the Whigs, came into operation on the 15th inst. (September, 1836). I have therefore suspended, for the present, my intention of bringing out a penny pamphlet paper, till I can see what can be done towards effecting the same end through a news. paper. We make a hazardous experiment, for less than 16,000 copies cannot be made to pay." Mr. Hetherington was a true prophet. The reduction of the stamp and advertisement duties did virtually abolish the trade in unstamped papers-a trade which has never revived; for, while the old Act compelled the authorities to summon offenders before a magistrate, the new Act gave them power to seize unstamped papers which contained news, wherever and whenever they might be found; and to break into any printing-office, and seize not only any unstamped newspapers, but all other printed paper, type, presses, machines, and all other implements of printing, for the use of "His Most Gracious Majesty." There were certainly questions raised, from time to time, as to what is news, and what constitutes a newspaper; and on more than one occasion, literary and scientific papers-like the Atheneum and the Mechanics' Magazine, for in the authorities never went to extremities, and contented thamselves with allowing such periodicals to stamp those portions of their impressions which were intended to be forwarded by post. The definition of a newspaper was never, indeed, finally settled, although it was attempted in the case of the Household Narrative, in 1852. It appears strange to us that successive parliaments so long resisted the reduction of the stamp duties and abolition of the taxes on knowledge; but it must be borne in mind that the arguments employed by the early advocates were not calculated to impress legislators with the force of their reasoning. The unstamped papers were uniformly opposed to the Government. They held up its leading men to ridicule, and bitterly satirized every act in which prominent Whigs or Tories took part. The reduction of the stamp duties in 1836 was received with derisive thanks; and even the liberal stamped papers of the time covertly insulted the lawmakers by a "Price of the weekly announcement thus : — paper, 3d.; taxes on knowledge, 4d.: total, 7d." But with the ameliorations inaugurated by the Reform Bill of 1832, and followed by the abolition of the Corn Laws in 1846, the final extinction of the enactments which fettered the press seemed certain. Readers of to-day know how great has been the impetus given to education and social reform by unfettered liberty of printing. They maintain, with Joseph Story, the American poet, that "Here shall the Press the people's rights maintain, PRINTING TRADE GOSSIP. The printing trade has been exceedingly flat during the past month, not only in London, but throughout the provinces. From Sheffield, Manchester, Liverpool, and Birmingham, we have the same tale-trade dull, general depression. Nearly double the usual number of compositors travelling with trade cards have been relieved in the country during the past twelve months, and the London Society has expended large sums in relieving its unemployed members, of whom about 200 are still on the call-book. A short time ago, there appeared in the Morning Star an article describing most pathetically the abject condition of the out-of-work compositors at Racquet Court. The account was very much overdrawn, and, as it turned out, not strictly correct. However, it had the effect of inducing a benevolent lady to offer £20 to the Secretary for their relief. The Committee, however, instructed the Secretary to thank the lady for her kindness, and respectfully to decline the offer; at the same time informing her that the statements which induced it were much exaggerated. A letter in reply to the article was sent to the Star, but that paper refused to insert it. The members of the London Society of Compositors, at their last Delegate Meeting, granted £30 from their funds to the Tailors' Association to assist them in prolonging the strike against their masters. The system of picketing was denounced by the Compositors, who lamented the dishonourable conduct of which the tailors had been guilty. Some members very pertinently asked, "What has the Compositors' Society to do with the tailors? But this sensible query was regarded as inadmissible by the majority, who evidently think that the interests of masters are antagonistic to those of the employed, and that all who resist deserve to be supported. A special Delegate Meeting of the London Thursday in October, to receive a report from a Committee which has been sitting for some months past on the Apprentice and Turnover question. It is not known what course of action the Committee will recommend. The last time the compositors struck in a body was on the apprentice question, when they were signally defeated. The masters are just as determined now, as then, not to be interfered with as to whom they shall employ. With regard to turnovers, it is possible that the masters may unite with the men in effecting an alteration; for the present system is said to have been a great cause of that deterioration which has taken place in the personnel of compositors, of which some of the respectable employers complained at the Conference with the men on the Advance of Wages' question. A dispute has taken place between Messrs. Wyman and their compositors, with reference to the St. Stephens' Chronicle. The men claim to be paid for it as a newspaper, not only on the ground that it contains bona fide news, but also that it is composed under all the disadvantages connected with a newspaper. Messrs. Wyman declining to pay for it other than as a publication, the men took out summonses against them in the Westminster County Court for the extra charge. Mr. Wyman, jun., has since made an affidavit to the effect that the result of the trial will materially affect him, as well as the whole body of master printers, and that as the case involves many nice points, it would be more satisfactory to have it tried in a superior court. He has thus succeeded in getting the case removed to the Court of Common Pleas, where it will be tried immediately after the long vacation. The result is anxiously looked forward to by both masters and men. The letter-press printers of Manchester, who about two years ago obtained a reduction of four hours' labour a week, have now memorialized their employers for an advance of two shillings upon their present minimum wages. Although the masters have not yet replied to the memorial, the journeymen appear to be sanguine of success, believing that an open rupture would be very inconvenient to their employers. Messrs. Unwin, printers, whose premises in Bucklersbury are required for city improvements, have received £8,431 by way of compensation. Their business will be removed to Oxford Court, Cannon Street. Messrs. Kelly & Co., who some months ago removed their printing business to 15, Gate Street, Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, have just taken No. 12, Carey Street, as their publishing office and counting house. Mr. The Printers' Readers of London, adopting the suggestions contained in the BOOKSELLER of Jan. 31, have resolved to ask their employers for a higher rate of remuneration. A General Meeting of the correctors of the press was heid at the Salisbury Hotel, Salisbury Square, on the 17th instant, under the presidency of Mr. Charles Dickens. There was a full attendance. Dickens said he had consented to occupy the chair for two reasons-first, because he thought that openness and publicity in such cases were a very wholesome example, very much needed at this time, and were highly becoming to a body of men associated with that great public safeguard-the press; secondly, because he knew from some slight practical experience what the duties of correctors of the press were, and how those duties were usually discharged; and he mechanical, that they were not mere matters of manipulation and routine; but that they required from those who performed them much natural intelligence, much super-added cultivation, readiness of reference, quickness of resource, an excellent memory, and a clear understanding. The first resolution expressed the opinion of the meeting that the value of the services rendered by the Printers' Readers of London was not adequately recognised by their employers. The second was to the effect that a memorial, of which the following is an abstract, be adopted by the meeting : "The lower purchasing power of money of late years has been the cause of an advance of wages in most skilled trades. The major part of the printing trade has shared in this advance, but readers have been overlooked. 86 Reading being a mental operation, a reader's efficiency depends upon his personal qualifications. A minimum salary is not, therefore, fixed, but an advance of ten per cent. is requested. Overtime should be better regulated, readers often getting a lower payment for nightwork than compositors. "The more a reader learns the more valuable he is to his employer; study should, therefore, be encouraged by liberal treatment. The recent advance having raised the rate of the compositor, that of the reader should be proportionately raised, so that the old distinction should be at least maintained. "Further, the employment is unwholesome, study is expensive, and a reader's position and (if at all educated) tastes involve a greater outlay in the necessaries and conveniences of life than those of other printers." The remaining business was the appointment of a Committee to sign and present the Memorial to the Master Printers of London, and, if necessary, to confer with them thereon. A vote of thanks to the Chairman having been carried by acclamation, Mr. Dickens, in reply, stated, that they were heartily welcome to the small service he had rendered, and expressed his belief that their calm and temperate proceedings would finally result in the establishment of relations of perfect amity between the employers and the employed, and consequently, in the general welfare of both. A new composing and distributing machine, to work by steam, has been recently patented by Mr. Mackie, of Warrington, and is announced to be ready in a few weeks. It is stated that this machine is capable of composing fifty columns, provided it be the same matter, simultaneously. It is intended to supply these columns, set in new miniou, length of the Times, on loan, at 2s. 6d. each. The customer to whom these columns are supplied, to be at liberty to break up the matter in any way to suit his requirements. Practical men have grave doubts as to its success, for, if the machine will do all Mr. Mackie says, utility?" Newspapers can be supplied already "Where, they ask, is its with stereo paragraphs by the single inch as well as column. Stereo plates cost less for carriage than type, and stand less chance of being damaged or broken. Besides, many provincial newspapers have two or three pages printed in London, and thus dispense with plates altogether. Mr. Mackie admits an enormous stock of type is necessary. Printers find it as cheap to stereotype their formes and work from the plates; it economises their type and g ves them the same advantage as if the matt A new and complete library edition Thackeray's works is announced by Mes Smith, Elder, & Co, to be completed in al twenty volumes. The illustrations will incl all those printed in the original editions, prin from the woodcuts which have never before b used; also some new ones. The publishers in possession of new and interesting matt which will be printed in this series, and they that every care will be taken to make thi complete and permanent edition of Thackera works. OBITUARY. June 10. At his residence, Hackney, M Charles Wright. The deceased, who was bo about the year 1809, was, at the usual age, a prenticed to Mr. Wickstead, of Great W Street, and afterwards of Old Compton Stre Soho. From thence he went as assistant Mr. John Bohn, Henrietta Street, father of M Henry G. Bohn, and about the year 1834 enter the service of Messrs. Payne & Foss, in Pall Ma where his knowledge of books and attention business gained him many friends; among them Mr. Penn, of Stoke Pogis, who invited hi to become his librarian, a post which he accepted and about the year 1854 he left London for h new employment, thinking that he would remai there for life; but in this he was disappointed as Mr. Penn's circumstances underwent a revers and the fine library was broken up. Messr Payne & Foss having given up their business Mr. Wright went to Mr. Lionel Booth's, in Re gent Street, but his attempt to cultivate the trad in expensive books was a failure. He next se to work to produce an exact reprint of the firs edition of Shakspeare. Of this publication h saw two parts through the press; but disagreeing with Mr. Booth over the work, he left, and Mr Booth employed some one else to prepare the third and concluding part. The loss of his situa tion preyed upon his mind, and he fell into a bad state of health, unfitting him for any further employment; and in this condition he remained up to the time of his death. A widow, with six daughters and one son, are left totally unprovided for. As He Aug. 29. At Edinburgh, aged 91, Mr. Duncan Stevenson, printer and publisher. This gentleman was well known in Edinburgh, where he had been intimately connected as a publisher, a newspaper proprietor, and a printer, for nearly three-quarters of a century. He was born in Argyllshire, and at an early age succeeded to the estate of Glenfeochan, near Oban, which had been acquired by his father, who had successfully worked the quarries of Balachoilish. the eldest of several sons and daughters, among whom the estate was divided, Mr. Duncan Stevenson was in the position of heir without a sufficient income to support a large estate. therefore disposed of his property, divided its proceeds among the legatees, and invested his own share in the printing and publishing firm of Mundell & Doig, at that time one of the largest and most successful in Edinburgh. But this firm did not long maintain its old supremacy, and Mr. Stevenson withdrew from it, and set up for himself as a printer, chiefly of law the stirring times of the Peninsular War dispapers. After a while he became the proprietor and printer of the Edinburgh Chronicle and the Edinburgh Correspondent. He spared no exertion in procuring the earliest intelligence from the theatre of operations. and set an example of neti lowed by the Scottish press. Soon afterwards he was appointed publisher of the Beacon, an uncompromising and thoroughly Tory paper; but not being able to carry out certain views of his own, he withdrew from the Beacon, and in 1833, on his appointment as printer to the University of Edinburgh, removed to Bank Close, and thence, as City improvements extended, to Thistle Street, where he conducted the first stereotyping establishment in Edinburgh. These premises being burnt down in 1846, were speedily rebuilt, and the business was again in full operation. In 1856 he retired from the printing business, which he sold to Messrs. Blackwood, and henceforward confined himself to the stereotyping branch, which is still carried on by his son. Mr. Stevenson was a genuine Tory of the old school; he possessed great business talents, agreeable and courteous manners, a firm will, a generous spirit, and an open hand. At the time of his death he was the oldest deputy-lieutenant in the county of Argyll, his commission bearing date Sept. 25, 1802, four years before the battle of Trafalgar! Aug. 31, Mr. Benjamin Nock, aged 52, for more than a quarter of a century a well-known medical bookseller, and one of the firm of S. and B. Nock, now of 16, Bloomsbury Street. The business will still be carried on under the same form of address. September 1. At 12, Pelham Place, Brompton, aged 61, Mr. David Craven, of the Educational Department in the South Kensington Museum. The deceased, a native of Yorkshire, was, we believe, for some years in the house of Messrs. Baldwin and Cradock, and afterwards in hat of Messrs. Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., whence he went to the late Mr. Pickering as managing and confidential assistant. On the break-up of the business, after Mr. Pickering's death, Mr. Craven obtained an appointment at the South Kensington Museum. Sept. 10, at her residence, Boscawen Street, Truro, aged 79, Mrs. Elizabeth Heard, bookseller, printer, and publisher of the West Briton newspaper; one of the oldest and most respected members of the provincial trade. A gentleman, who is well acquainted with the West of England, thus writes respecting this estimable lady:-"I know of no woman connected with the book and newspaper trade, who was better known and more respected than Mrs. Heard. She had carried on business in Boscawen Street, Truro, for close upon sixty years, and I will venture to state that no commercial gentleman who ever called upon her but would be struck with her great judgment, her courtesy, and the desire which she ever evinced to do unto others as she would be done unto." Mrs. Heard was the widow of Mr. John Heard, the founder of the business, and lost her husband about forty-five years ago. She was left with a youthful family entirely dependent on her exertions. She was born in London in the year 1787, her father, Mr. Goodridge, being a successful tradesman. Her mother was from Edinburgh. Those who remember the perilous days a journalist had to pass through from the year 1815-the time of the peace to the time of the repeal of the Corn Laws, are aware that it was no easy matter to conduct the business affairs of a leading newspaper like the West Briton and Cornwall Advertiser; but Mrs. Heard was a woman of great industry and integrity, and in the conduct of a large miscellaneous business for a long series of years, she won golden oniniona from everyone with whom she had in tercourse. The business will be carried on by her younger son, Mr. Edward Heard, who has been associated with her for upwards of thirty years. Sept. 14. At Cookham, Thomas Henry Ryall, historical engraver to her Majesty. Mr. Ryall began his career as an engraver by the production of Lodge's Portraits. Subsequently he engraved Sir William Ross's miniature portraits of the Queen and Prince Albert; also Sir George Hayter's Coronation picture, and Leslie's picture of the Princess Royal's christening. These semipublic commissions procured for him the title of Historical Engraver to her Majesty ; but the work to which his name is most frequently attached is the series of Portraits of Conservatives who flourished about the time of the first Reform Bill. September 17, at Christchurch, Hants, aged 75, Mr. Joseph White, bookseller and stationer, an old and much respected inhabitant of that ancient town. Mr. White, who was born March2, 1792, commenced business in the year 1819. He was entirely self-taught, and appears to have been a man of great industry and perseverance; in his first essays in binding, he made his own boards by pasting sheets of old newspapers together, but afterwards turned out some respectable work, and bound the greater portion of the library of the late Lord Stuart de Rothesay, at Highcliffe Castle. He also taught himself the art of printing. The business, at first the only bookseller's in Christchurch, will be carried on by the widow, in conjunction with her son. In Sept. 21. At his residence, Painter-Stainers' Hall, Little Trinity Lane, aged 63, Mr. Frederic Guest Tomlins. The deceased was formerly in the employment of Messrs. Whittaker & Co., as publishing clerk and literary assistant to the late Mr. George B. Whittaker, and left about the time of that gentleman's death. He soon afterwards commenced business as a publisher in Southampton Street, Strand, and there issued a periodical called the Self Educator, which was not very successful. He afterwards opened a shop for new and second-hand books in Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, near the British Museum; but this after a while he gave up, and confined his attention to literary pursuits. his early days he was a contributor to Hetherington's Poor Man's Guardian, and latterly to theeekly Times, in which the series of articles signed "Littlejohn were from his pen. was sub-editor of Douglas Jerrold's Weekly Paper, and was, we believe, editorially connected with the Weekly Times, and also, soon after it started, with the Leader. As a Shakespearian scholar he had few superiors. He was Secretary to the Shakespeare Society, and for many years wrote the dramatic criticisms of the Morning Advertiser. He was also the author of a play, brought out at Sadler's Wells, entitled "Garcia;" a History of England; a History of the United States of America; a Universal History; and several other works published in parts. On the death of his uncle he was elected clerk of the Painter's Company, an office which had previously been held by his grandfather. He September 21. At Durham, aged 88, Mrs. Frances Andrews, bookseller, widow of Mr. George Andrews, by whom the business was founded in 1808. Mr. Andrews died in 1832, and the business was carried on for the benefit of the widow by her son George, who died in 1861, and her daughter, Frances. The latter, in 1862, married the eminent architectural engraver, Mr. John Henry Le Keux, and since that date the business has been carried on by Mrs. Le Keux, under the name of Andrews & Co. |