ton had been for forty years a highly respectable | ducats from the king of the Netherlands.* On local preacher in the Wesleyan methodist con- one side is a correct likeness of his majesty, nexion. He was an affectionate father, a kind beautifully executed, surrounded with master, and a humble and sincere Christian. 1834, July 27. The duty on almanacks repealed to the amount of £25,000.

1834. The number of advertisements published in Great Britain, was 1,110,000 at one shilling and sixpence each.

1834, Aug. 4. Henry HetheriNGTON, printer, in the Strand, London, convicted in his absence, he having neglected to obey the magistrate's summons, in two penalties of £20 each, for vending two numbers of the Twopenny Weekly Despatch, an unstamped newspaper

1834, Auy. 27. Died, GEORGE CLYMER, inventor and manufacturer of the Columbian printing press. He was descended from a Swiss family, who left Geneva, and settled in Pennsylvania, in North America, long before the revolution of 1776, and in that struggle for liberty they took an active part, for a Clymer appears among the signatures to the declaration of independence. Mr. Clymer's father was an extensive farmer, settled in Bucks county, state of Pennsylvania, and brought up the subject of this memoir till about the sixteenth year of his age, who, even at that very early period, showed very superior mechanical skill in the construction of a plough, on a new and greatly improved principle, so infinitely superior to those then in use, as to attract the attention of the most scientific men of the day. After many years spent at carpenter work and cabinet making, he turned his attention to the study of hydraulics, in which he soon excelled most of his predecessors in the construction of a pump, the superiority of which was proved in clearing the coffer-dams of the first permanent bridge erected across the Schuylkill, at Philadelphia. This pump was capable of discharging five hundred gallons of water per minute, together with sand, gravel, stones, &c. Such was its amazing power, that eighteen and twenty-four pound shot have often been pumped up and discharged by

one individual. For this invention he obtained

a patent at Washington, and subsequently one in England. The crude and defective condition

of the printing press was the next object which took his attention; and in 1797, Mr. Clymer commenced his improvements first upon the old wooden presses, and afterwards of metal, till by great attention and anxiety he produced the Columbian, which he introduced into England in the year 1817. Without wishing to detract from the merits of one or two other presses, now generally used, it must be acknowledged, and that upon the authority of many experienced journeymen printers, that there is not a press by which the workman can do a day's labour with less exertion to himself than the Columbian. Its beauty, simplicity of construction, durability, and power, must ever rank this press as the most perfect ever invented. Mr. Clymer, for his invention, had the honour of receiving a gold medal of the value of one hundred golden

WILLH. NASS. BELG, REX. LUXEND. K. DUI,

and on the other side is the following inscription, surrounded with a wreath of exquisite workmanship

GEORGIO
CLYMERO

VIRO SOLERTISSIMO
PRO OBLATO

PRELO TYPOGRAPHICO
SINGULARI ARTE

CONFECTO

REX

DEDIT
MDCCCXIX.

Mr. Clymer married Margaret, daughter of the late judge Backhouse, of Durham in works, Pennsylvania, by whom he had several children; but only three daughters survived Mr. Alexander Renfrew Shaw, of Finsburyhim. The youngest daughter was married to street, London. In person Mr. George Clymer was rather tall, with a manly and dignified countenance; the true index to a noble and generous mind. He was a good husband, a firm friend, and an indulgent parent. He died in London, at the advanced age of eighty years sent a challenge to Mr. Fraser, proprietor of 1834, Sept 3. T. S. DUNCOMBE, esq., M.P. Fraser's Magazine, for an article inserted therein, duct. Mr. Fraser very justly had him bound animadverting on that gentleman's public conover to keep the peace in a bond of £500.

1834, Sept. 16. Died, WILLIAM BLACKWOOD, of Edinburgh, and originator of the magazine an eminent bookseller and publisher, in the city which bears his name.

He was born in Edis

burgh, December 20, 1776, of parents whe though in humble circumstances, bore a respectable character, and were able to give him a to literature determined them in the choice of his superior elementary education; and his devotion calling. At the age of fourteen, he commenced an apprenticeship with the well-known house of and before he quitted their roof, had largely Bell and Bradfute, booksellers, in Edinburgh, stored his mind with reading of all sorts, but Soon after the expiration of his apprenticeship, more especially Scottish History and Antiquities. [1797] he was selected by Messrs. J. Mundell and Co. then carrying on an extensive publishing business in the Scottish capital, to take the charge of a branch of their concern, which they had resolved to establish in the city of Glasgow. Mr. Blackwood acted as the Glasgow agent of Mundell and Co. for a year, during which time he improved greatly as a man of business. At the end of the year, when the business he had

* The medal weighs between eleven and twelve ounces. and was allowed by several scientific gentlemen to be the most elegant they had ever seen.

See Testimonials respecting the superiority, utility, and durability of the Patent Columbian Printing Press. Iss Where the Columbian press continues to be manufac tured. December 31, 1838.

conducted at Glasgow was given up, Mr. Black- men or of measures, ever dimmed his eye, or wood returned to Messrs. Bell and Bradfute, checked his courage. To youthful merit he was with whom he continued about a year longer. a ready and a generous friend, and in all respects He then [1800] entered into partnership with a man of large and liberal heart and temper. Mr. Robert Ross, a bookseller of some standing, During some of the best years of his life, he who also acted as an auctioneer of books. Not found time, in the midst of his own pressing long after, finding the line of business pursued business, to take rather a prominent part in the by Mr. Ross uncongenial to his taste, he retired affairs of the city of Edinburgh, of which he from the partnership, and proceeded to London, was twice a magistrate. Notwithstanding the placed himself, for improvement in the antiqua- great claims which were made upon his time, rian department of his trade, under Mr. Cuthill. Mr. Blackwood continued till his death to transReturning once more to Edinburgh in the year act a large share of business as a general pub1804, he established himself in business, where lisher. Not long before that event, he completed his accomplishments soon attracted the notice of the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, in 18 vols. 4to. persons whose good opinion was distinction. and, among his other more important publicaFor many years he confined his attention almost tions, may be reckoned Kerr's Collections of exclusively to the classical and antiquarian Voyages and Travels, in 18 vols. 8vo. The chief branches of the trade, and was regarded as one distinct works of Messrs. Wilson, Lockhart, of the best informed booksellers of that class in Hogg, Moir, Galt, and eminent persons conthe kingdom; but on removing from the Old to nected with his magazine, and some of the the New Town of Edinburgh, in 1816, he dis- writings of sir Walter Scott, were published by posed of his stock, and thenceforth applied Mr. Blackwood. He also continued till the close himself, with characteristic ardour, to general of his career to carry on an extensive trade in literature, and the business of a popular pub- retail bookselling. In the private relations, as lisher. In April, 1817, he put forth the first in the public conduct of his life, William Blacknumber of his journal-the most important wood may safely be recommended as a model to feature of his professional career. He had long those who come after him. He died at his house, before contemplated the possibility of once more in Ainslie-place, Edinburgh, on Tuesday, Sept. raising magazine literature to a rank not alto-16, in the fifty-eighth year of his age, leaving a gether unworthy of the great names which had been enlisted in its service in a preceding age: it was no sudden or fortuitous suggestion which prompted him to take up the enterprise, in which he was afterwards so pre-eminently successful as to command many honourable imitators. From an early period of its progress, his magazine engrossed a very large share of his time; and though he scarcely ever wrote for its pages himself, the general management and arrangement of it, with the very extensive literary correspondence which this involved, and the constant superintendence of the press, would have been more than enough to occupy entirely any man but one of first-rate energies.

No man ever conducted business of all sorts in a more direct and manly manner. His opinion was on all occasions distinctly expressed -his questions were ever explicit-his answers conclusive. His sincerity might sometimes be considered as rough, but no human being ever accused him either of flattering or of shuffling; and those men of letters who were in frequent communication with him, soon conceived a respect and confidence for him, which, save in a very few instances, ripened into cordial regard and friendship. The masculine steadiness, and imperturbable resolution of his character, were impressed on all his proceedings; and it will be allowed by those who watched him through his career, as the publisher of a literary and political miscellany, that these qualities were more than once very severely tested. He dealt by parties exactly as he did by individuals. Whether his principles were right or wrong, they were his, and he never compromised or complimented away one tittle of them. No changes, either of

widow, and a large family, some of them very young; his two eldest sons succeeded to the business, in which, from boyhood they were associated with their father.

1834, Oct. 10. The newspaper postage act came into operation this day. All foreign newspapers coming from countries where British journals circulate free of postage, allowed free admission to all parts of the British islands and colonies.

1834, Oct. 25. THOMAS CHARLES WILSON MAYHEW, proprietor and projector of several cheap popular works, having been connected with the Figaro, Lo Studio, the Diamond Shakspeare, the Popular Dictionary of Universal Information, &c. &c. At the time of his decease he was occupied in four periodical publications, a History of England, a Cyclopædia, a Translation of French Plays, and the National Library. The application which such a variety of literary labours required, together with certain complicated pecuniary transactions connected with the last, led to his death. The verdict of the coroner's jury was, that he "destroyed himself with prussic acid and fumes of charcoal, being in an unsound state of mind." His death took place in Bernard's Inn, London.

1834, Nov. 26. Died, L. B. SEELEY, bookseller, of Fleet-street, London. He died at Thames Ditton, aged sixty-eight years.