In 1507 the first printing press was established in Edinburgh, in Scotland. Such is a brief history of the art of printing in the various countries of Europe. The first gazette* is stated to have been published in Paris in 1631. The first English gazette made its appearance at Oxford, in a folio half-sheet. It was afterward removed to London, and called the London Gazette.

The American colonies availed themselves, though in a very limited measure, of this invention at an early period of their settlements. In 1639 a printing press was set up by Mr. Stephen Day in Cambridge, Mass.; and the first thing that was printed on it was the Freeman's Oath; and the next an Almanac made for New-England by Mr. William Peirce. It seems, however, that any one who chose was not at liberty to print; for in 1662, we find the General Court of Massachusetts appointing two licensers of the press; and in 1664, to prevent irregularities and abuse of the authorities of the country, the same court ordered that there should be no printing press allowed in any town within the jurisdiction of the state except at Cambridge. And in 1683 it appears that the governor of Virginia was ordered to allow no person to use a printing press on any occasion whatever. In 1686, Randolph, governor of Massachusetts, forbade any one to print without his consent. Thus early did tyranny exert itself in suppressing information in these infant colonies.

In 1687 a printing press was established in Philadelphia, by Mr. William Bradford. In 1709 Mr. Thomas Short set up a printing press in New-London, in the colony of Connecticut. In 1726 Mr. William Parks commenced printing in Virginia, and also in Annapolis in Maryland. In 1732 the Rhode Island Gazette was published in Newport.

In 1741 The General Magazine and Historical Chronicle was published in Philadelphia by Benjamin Franklin, who had before served as an apprentice to the printing business with his brother in Boston, and afterward had improved his knowledge of the art by about eighteen months' service in London. In 1756 a press was established at Portsmouth, by Mr. Daniel Fowle, and a paper called the New-Hampshire Gazette was published. In 1763 the Georgia Gazette was first published at Savannah, by James Johnston. In 1793 a printing press was set up in Knoxville, Tennessee; and in 1795 one was established in Cincinnati, Ohio.

But notwithstanding the great improvements hitherto made in the art of printing, by which such facilities were furnished for the general diffusion of knowledge and information, there remained still higher attainments in this admirable art, both in the construction of the presses,

* Gazette is said to be derived from the Italian word Gazeta, which was a Venetian coin, the value of an ordinary newspaper, first printed in Venice.

with appropriate apparatus, and in the typographical department. This was furnished by stereotype printing, which is said to have been the invention of William Ged, of Edinburgh, who was first a goldsmith, and afterward a printer in that city. The word itself is derived from two Greek terms, dregeos, solid, and ruros, a type, indicative of this method of printing from solid types cast into the form of plates, instead of moveable types. The following are the circumstances which led to the discovery of this valuable improvement in the art of printing.

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Mr. Ged, above mentioned, being naturally of an ingenious and inquisitive mind, while a goldsmith had made various improvements in his profession, and was finally led to turn his attention to printing. In 1725 conversing with a printer on the disadvantages experienced in Scotland from the want of a letter foundry, and thence adverting to the inconveniencies of single types, and the tediousness and expensiveness of putting them together in pages, the printer, aware of the mechanical eminence of God, asked him if it were not practicable to remedy so great and palpable a defect. I replied,' says Ged, that I judged it more practicable for me to make plates from the composed pages than single types. To this the printer replied, that if such a thing could be done, an estate might be made by it. I then desired that he would give me a page for an experiment, which, after some days' trial. I found practicable, and so continued for nearly two years, improving on my invention, and making a great many experiments, several of which were expensive; but the more I practised, and the less chargeable materials I used, I was the more successful, till at last I brought it to bear so that no distinction could be made between the impression from my plates and that from the types.'

Such was the invention of Ged. And though he was encouraged by a gentleman of fortune to proceed in the execution of his design, the other printers, thinking that if he succeeded their business would be ruined, dissuaded the person who had offered his assistance from furnishing the requisite funds, assuring him that his whole fortune would be insufficient for such an undertaking. Being disappointed in Edinburgh, Ged removed to London; but even here the same narrow jealousy prevented his success; the artisans in the printing department, fearing that their craft was in danger, particularly the king's printers. In 1739 he returned to Edinburgh, and, aided by the liberality of his friends, he succeeded in printing a stereotype edition of Sallust, in one hundred and fifty pages, 12mo. But even in this small work, he met with the most pointed opposition. No compositor could be persuaded to set up the types from which the plate was to be cast; and his own son, only twelve years of age, then an apprentice to a printer, did this part of the process at night, or during his intervals of labor. He afterward

printed another small work, Scougal's Life of God in the Souls of Men. Mr. Ged died in 1749, and the two sons whom he left behind him settled in Jamaica, where they both died. In consequence of these events, no more was done in the art of stereotyping until about the year 1781, when Dr. Tilloch, a Scotch gentleman, and editor of the Philosophical Magazine, brought the merits of Mr. Ged before the public in the columns of his Journal. Dr. Tilloch, indeed, may be considered the second inventor of this art, as he proved the practicability and vast utility of using plates instead of moveable types for all works of permanent use. Since that period they have been gradually gaining admission into the printing offices, until at length they are now generally used for almost all standard works; and it has done much to lower the price of books, as a set of stereotype plates cost only double the amount of one single type edition. Bibles, Testaments, in various languages, dictionaries, school books, and all standard works, are now thrown into the market on the cheapest terms by means of stereotype plates.

It may be an item of interesting information to some of our readers to know the mode of casting the solid plates for stereotype printing. The work to be stereotyped is first set up by the compositor with moveable types in distinct pages. From these pages, after being carefully corrected, a mould in plaster, the basis of which is gypsum, is taken; and from this mould an impression is cast, forming an exact fac-simile of the moveable types originally set up by the compositor in the ordinary way. Like most other useful inventions, when a knowledge of them is once obtained, and their value duly appreciated, we wonder that it should not have been sooner discovered. See New Edinburgh Encyclopedia; Dr. A. Clarke's Bibliographical Miscel lany, and Holmes's Annals of America.

This ingenious discovery, together with the improvements which have been, and are continually introduced into the art of printing, by power presses, which may be moved either by hand, by a horse, or by steam, not only lightens the expense of printing, but also affords facilities for the despatch of this branch of mechanical labor, which contributes wonderfully to the diffusion of science and general information. Some of these presses will throw off from 1,000 to 1,500 sheets in one hour.

On reviewing this subject, one can hardly avoid noticing the coincidences of Divine Providence in furnishing means to God's servants that they might more effectually promote His cause. About the same time that Luther commenced the Reformation in Germany, the art of printing was discovered. And how powerfully and efficiently this mechanical engine was used to diffuse abroad those grand and reforming VOL. IV.-October, 1833.

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principles which Luther was instrumental in reviving, we need not undertake to tell, as it is known to all who have the slightest acquaintance with the history of this great and beneficial process. It is true, that the enemies of the cause availed themselves of the same weapon in defence of error; but the evil is much more than counterbalanced by the immense advantages resulting from a proper application of this powerful instrument. Begin at the grand epoch of the Reformation, trace it along down to the present time, in company with the art of printing, and see how the principles of civil and religious liberty have been developed, and what an influence has been exerted on the understandings, as well as on the civil and moral conduct of mankind. Tyrants and errorists have trembled for their fate ever since this engine of truth has been in successful operation; and they will continue to tremble until they are both driven from all their lurking places, and from all their strong holds,-so we most ardently pray.

But what an era is this in which we live! Look again at the history of this art. What expedients have been resorted to, more especially in the old world, to silence the voice of this mighty orator. Even to the present time, with the exception of England and its dependencies, there is no part of Europe where the press is entirely free; nor will it be, so long as tyranny is permitted to sport itself with the miseries of mankind. An effort to silence it, or so control it as to make it subserve the cause of tyranny, procured the recent revolution in France. And it is only so far as this tyranny is exercised over the press that the rational liberty of the people is restrained and abridged. This is well understood by the despots of the old world; and hence the rigorous measures they have adopted to restrain the liberty of the press, and to circumscribe the circulation of the principles of civil and religious freedom. The same blind principle has ever led the despotic Church of Rome to prevent the circulation of the Holy Scriptures and Protestant books among its members. Adopting the absurd maxim, that ignorance is the mother of devotion,' this Church has uniformly refused to avail itself of the means offered by the art of printing to enlighten its members in the great principles of religion, any farther than they are taught and explained by men of its own communion. Hence the tenacity with which they hold fast the unmeaning and unscriptural tenets and ceremonies by which that fallen and corrupt Church is distinguished; and hence also this Church has been ever closely wedded with civil despotisms, emulating them in their zealous efforts to destroy the liberties of the people.

It is, indeed, a remarkable fact in the history of our race, that ignorance and tyranny, science and liberty, have ever been companions. And this fact should inspire the friends of freedom, of just rights

and privileges, to be zealous in the propagation of sound knowledge, and of all those principles of civil and religious liberty which are essential to the well-being of community. We need not wonder, therefore, that the friends of the Redeemer, all those who are alive to His important interests, are upon the alert in availing themselves of the press to spread abroad the truths of His religion. Let them ply themselves to this work with prudence, zeal, and perseverance, and they shall witness the reward of their labors.

We read and hear much of the wisdom and knowledge of the ancients. And it is a truth which cannot be controverted that many of them are justly celebrated on account of their high attainments in literature, and in many of the important arts and sciences. But how exceedingly circumscribed must have been the circle of knowledge and general information in those times, when all the books in existence were confined to manuscripts, in comparison to what it is now! Learning was monopolized entirely by a very few. These formed a complete aristocracy in the department of knowledge. Hence the veneration in which they were held by the many; and hence, also, the facility with which the learned few, or those of them who were so disposed, could impose upon the ignorant credulity of the uninstructed multitude. This fact accounts for the existence of the tribes of witches, wizzards, jugglers, and necromancers, which infested society, and imposed upon the ignorant populace by their artful tricks. Understanding how to control the laws of nature by chemical operations, they deluded the senses and understandings of the people, by making them believe that invisible spirits were their obedient agents, and that by their power over them, they could command them to their assistance to produce those wonderful events. This, also, explains the reason why God commanded all witches to be slain among the people of Israel. They wickedly used their arts to delude the people by imposing upon their credulity, and hence to induce them to conclude that these necromancers were some 'great ones,' who might be adored as gods. Were ignorance of the laws of nature, and of chemical combinations and processes as universally prevalent now as it was then, the same impositions might be practised with equal facility and success, and the world would still be infested with similar impostures. How strange is it, that amid all the lights of science, the prevalence of the pure doctrines of the Gospel, and the superior advantages of literature and the arts, the belief in witchcraft, according to the modern acceptation of the word, should still have such a strong hold in the minds of many people! So difficult is it to eradicate old superstitions and prejudices.

But we were about to say that the knowledge of the ancients, though pre-eminent among a few who devoted themselves exclusively