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HISTORY OF PRINTING.
1689, Feb. 13. The Revolution. William Prince of Orange, and the Princess Maiy, a daughter of the abdicatin)/^ monarch, are pro- claimed on this day, (Wednesday) with the approbation of the lords and commons.
The most important period in the history of Great Britain, is that of the revolution under William III. Then it was that our constitution, after many fluctuations, and frequent struggles for power by the different members of it, (several of them attended by vast effusions of blood,) was finally settled. A revolution so remarkable, and attended with such happy consequences, has per- haps no parallel in the history of the world. This it was, says Hume, that cut off all pretensions to power founded on hereditary right; when a prince was chosen who received the crown on express conditions, and found his authority established on the same bottom with the privi- leges of the people ; so that there have been no differences between our kings and parliament since. Indeed, all the danger we have reason to apprehend since that period, seems to be from the aid which the parliament itself may be in- duced, by indirect methods, to give the court, to encroach upon the liberties of 5xe people ; or as Montesquieu observes, when the executive shall be more corrupt than the crown.
1689, Mat/ 26. John White was a printer in the city of York, and at the landing of the prince of Orange, in 1688, printed his manifesto. It having been refused by all the printers in Eng- land, and for which he was sent prisoner to Hull castle, where he was confined till the place sur- rendered. He was afterwards rewarded by king William's appointing him his majesty's sole printer for the city of York, and the five northern counties, OS appears by his majesty's grant, dated at Hampton court. May 26, 1689.
1689. John Dryden being unable both from religious and political prepossessions, to take the oaths to the government of William and Mary, this illustrious poet was compelled with an an- guished heart to resign his offices. They were conferred, with a salary increased to £300, upon Thomas Shadwell, a person now only known to British literature through the immortal satire of MacJlecnoe,m which Dryden had pilloried him as the prince of dullness.
The ra8t to some Mat meuiing make pretence, Bnt SbwlweU never deviates into sense. Some beams of wit on other souls may U, Strilie through, and make a lucid interval ; But Shadwell's genuine night admits no rajr.
A modern critic, reviewing the comedies of Thomas Shadwell, gives a judgment, which will be startling to those who have been content to take him upon the opinion of his great rival and antagonist. According to a writer, in the Re- troivective Review, xvi. 56. " he was an accom- plisned observer of human nature, )iaiL a ready power of seizing the ridiculous in the manners of the times, was a man of sense and information, and displayed in his writings a very considerable fund of humour." Whatever truth there may be in this decision, it seems reasonable to con-
clude with sir Walter Scott, that, in his adToe*n of wbif principles, and the sufferings be bard endured under the old government, as a " dob- conforming poet," he probably possessed merits with king William, which were deemed by that prince as of more importance than all the geniiis of Shakspeare, Milton, and Dryden, if it oobU have been united in one person.
1689. At the end of the Ninth CoUecdtm «f Papert relative to the pretent Junetmre of Affcirt in England, quarto, ttiere is a curious adrertiae- ment, of which the following is nearly a veriw- tim copy: — Lately published, the Trial of Mr. Papillon ; by which it is manifest that tbe (then) lord chief justice Jefferies* had neither learning, law, nor good manners, bnt great impadence, (a& was said of him by Charles II.) in abudng' all those worthy citizens who voted for Mr. Papilkai and Mr. Dubois, calling them a parcel of S^c- tious, pragmatical, sneaking, canting, snivelliBg. prick-eared, crop-eared, atheistical fellows, ras- cals, and scoundrels, as in page 19 of that trial may be seen. Sold by Michaiel Janeway, aod most booksellers.
1689. Susanna Lathum gave the company of stationers a silver tankard " The gift of Snsaoin Lathum," 31 oz. 15 dwts.
1698, June. Died, Peter Palliot, bistorio- grapher, printer, and bookseller, ro the king (^ France, and genealogist of the duchy of Bnr- gundy, was born at Paris, March 19, 1608. In his youth he showed a taste for genealogy, and heraldic studies, in which he made great profici- ency, by a relation who had published a «t>rk on armorial bearing. In bis 25th year he settled at Dijon, where he manied Vivanda Spirinx, the daughter of a printer and bookseller, with whoa he entered into business. At his leisure hours however, he pursued his heraldic studies, and laboured with so much perseverance as to produce five large works in folio. He left also thir- teen volumes of manuscript collections, respecting the family of Burgundy. It is an aidditioial and remarkable proof of his industry and inge- nuity, that he engraved the whole of the plates in these volumes with his own hand. Palliot died at Dyon, at the age of 89.
1689, Jan. 10. EngUutd an. unlucky Soil far Popery, (no printer's name.) No. 1.
The same paper in French.
1689, Jan. 14. King James't Letter to the Lords and othert of hit Privy Cowncel,fram Su Germans en Laye.
1689, Jan. 15. London Intelligence, No. I.
1689, Jan. 19. Weekly Memorialt; or, an Account of Books lately set forth ; with other Accounts relating to Learning; by authority. No. 1. This is the earliest specimen of an English Review.
- George Jefferies, baron Wem, commonly koowm by the
name of ] odge Jefferies, the infiunons lord chancellot ondiT James II., and one of the greatest advlaers and promotsn of all the opprrasive and arbitrary meaatires of tlutt an- happy tyrannical reign. His sangoinary and inhuman proceedings will ever render his name detested. He died
a prisoner in the tower, April 18, i689.