Annals of Mr. Bowyer's Press from 1766 to 1777.. Page 1-29S First Publication of his Memoirs, and other Works... 294-304 LITERARY ANECDOTES OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. IN the beginning of the year 1766, by engaging in a partnership with the Writer of these Memoirs, Mr. BOWYER was again enabled to withdraw, in some degree, from that close application which had begun to be prejudicial to his health. His new Associate, whilst an Apprentice, had been intrusted with a considerable share of the management of the Printing-office; and the connexion was such as, I am proud to say, was highly satisfactory to Mr. BOWYER. To his Partner, it was all that a young man could possibly have hoped for; it was an introduction to a number of respectable Friends, whose patronage was equally honourable and advantageous. The good-natured Reader will pardon the vanity of this paragraph; it is meant as a tribute of gratitude to a Benefactor, whose memory the Writer cannot but heartily revere. In the succeeding Annals of Mr. BOWYER's Life, the mode hitherto adopted will be observed. The productions of the press will be considered as his, without encumbering the narrative with the unnecessary distinction of a Partnership. VOL. III. B In In this year Mr. BOWYER wrote an excellent Latin Preface to "Joannis Harduini, Jesuitæ, ad Censuram Scriptorum Veterum Prolegomena. Juxta Autographum; 8vo." In this Preface is a distinct account of the nature of the Work, as well as of the mode in which it was preserved "in naufragio fortunarum suarum, quod tota familia Jesuitica nuper fecit. Hoc verò fragmentum," says Mr. Bowyer, quasi ex undis ereptum, et in manus P. Vaillant† Bibliopolæ traditum, noluit ille orbi literario invidere. Paradoxa enim per se cum novitate suâ delectant, tum longè magis Harduini artificio exornata, qui tam bellè novit dare obscuris nitorem, lucidis umbram, fictis probabilitatem, omnibus denique speciem, prout velit, et gratiam. Istud, igitur, quicquid est, fideliter imprimendum curavit: autographumque ipsum in Museo Britannico reponendum, tanquam votivam tabulam, posteritati consecravit. Paucula hæc, quæ raptim prælibavi, erudito colloquio, quo vir reverendus Cæsar De Missy me honestavit, accepta debent referri. Si quid imprudenter dictum sit, meæ tribuendum est inscitiæ; si quid quod non displiceat, ejus laudi; qui mox, ut spero, plura super hâc re publicâ luce dignabitur." Mr. De Missy's remarks on the celebrated Jesuit's extraordinary production accordingly appeared about the same time, under the title of De Joannis Harduini Jesuitæ Prolegomenis cum Autographo collatis, Epistola, quam ad amicissi "I was glad to see your Preface; it is perhaps all I shall ever read of the book. Swift says, that he never knew but two or three good lyars in his life. You have shewn how evidently the most artful of them are detected, by shifting their sails, and not abiding by their own decisions. Surely your friend the Bookseller, whom you are obliging with a Preface, is, as usual, a little hard upon Authors; and more dictatorial than usual, when he won't let you write, to puff off his work gratis." Mr. Clarke, MS. + Mr. Paul Vaillant; of whom some account will be given in another part of this Work. Of this good and learned man, and truly primitive Christian, see hereafter, under the year 1774. mum mum virum Wilhelmum Bowyerum, iisdem nondum prostantibus, scripserat Cæsar Missiacus [vulgò C. De Missy] Reg. Mag. Brit. à Sacris Gallicè peragendis;" Svo. In the same year Mr. Bowyer printed a complete edition of the Works of Dr. William Harvey, in one quarto volume. The liberality with which this publication was conducted by the College of Physicians is a lasting monument of honour to themselves, and to the excellent Author whose invaluable writings were thus collected. Let me add, that it is also a good specimen of unostentatious Typography. Two Editions, in quarto, of "Observations on the Statutes, chiefly the more antient, from Magna Charta to the Twenty-first of James I. Cap. XXVII. With an Appendix, being a Proposal for new-modelling the Statutes. [By the Hon. Daines Barrington *.] *This worthy Judge, and truly benevolent gentleman, was the intimate friend of Mr. Bowyer; and I cannot pass by this fair opportunity of expressing my own obligations to him. To two of his brothers, the venerable Bishop of Durham, and the late gallant Admiral Barrington, and to their noble Father, the first Lord Viscount Barrington, my respects shall be paid under the year 1770.-The Hon. Daines Barrington was the fourth son of the first Viscount, by Anne his wife, daughter and coheiress of Sir William Daines. He was one of his Majesty's Counsel learned in the Law, and a Bencher of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple; appointed, May 24, 1751, Marshal of the High Court of Admiralty in England; which he resigned in 1753, on being appointed Secretary for the affairs of Greenwich Hospital; was appointed Justice of the Counties of Merioneth, Carnarvon, and Anglesey, 1757; and afterwards Second Justice of Chester, which he resigned after 1785, I believe, on a pension; and, at his death, retained only the place of Commissary-general of the Stores at Gibraltar. Although Mr. Barrington claimed no high distinction as a Lawyer, he was universally allowed to be a profound and judicious Antiquary. His first publication, which will always maintain its rank, and has gone through several editions, was his "Observations on the Statutes, 1766." The following year he exchanged his severer studies for those of a lighter kind, in Natural History, and published "The Naturalist's Calendar," which has also had more than one edition. In 1768 he gave the following proof of his liberality. April 25, 1768. Mr. Barrington finds that there have issued from Mr. Bowyer's warehouse, 400 copies of the second Edition of B 2 the |