American dictionary of printing and bookmaking

(New York :  H. Lockwood,  1894.)

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PRINTING AND BOOKMAKING.
 

ENG
 

ordinance was not enforced. In the years which next
followed many books were prohibited, and licenses were
found necessary. As a consequence illicit printing be¬
came common. Whoever had anything to print against
any existing abuses sought a printer in some place little
likely to be suspected, and his work was there put in
type. These printers moved from town to town and
from house to house, being advised of movements against
themselves by others of the same views in politics or
religion as their own. They were the easier enabled to
do this, as a hundred or two hundred pounds of type was
sufficient for their uses ; they had no extensive array of
tools, and any carpenter, sufficiently directed, could make
a press. In 1687, by a decree of the Star Chamber to
put an end to such practices and to free publication
otherwise, it was ordered that there should henceforth
be no more than twenty printers, exclusive of those at
the universities, and four letter-founders. This had been
once before decreed. Archbishop Whitgift in 1585 had
framed an enactment, passed by the same court, but both
alike were habitually violated, and the number of print¬
ers kept increasing. If discovered, however, to be acting
in contravention of the law they were treated with the
utmost rigor. After these enactments were repealed
others were passed, but there is none now which inter¬
feres with the liberty of printing. The construction of
the English laws respecting treason, blasphemy and dis¬
orderly conduct was until about 1820 of extreme sever¬
ity, as it now is with libel.

Day was the first who made much use of the Roman
character, the original faces having been black-letter.
In 1600 little black-letter was used except in ecclesiasti¬
cal and legal books. Presses did not improve much
until a century later. The first regular newspaper was
issued in 1622, but no daily journal appeared until 1702.
In Moxon's book, Mechanick Exercises, published in
1683, he says: ''The number of founders or printers
were grown very many, insomuch that, for the more
easy management of typography, the operators had
found it necessary to divide it into the several trades of
the master printer, the letter cutter, the letter caster, the
letter dresser, the compositor, the corrector, the press¬
man, the ink maker, besides several trades which they
take into their assistance, as the smith, the joiner, &c."
About the time Franklin went to London the art had
become settled in its usages, which were much like those
at present, except in regard to capitalizing, then much
freer than now. Among the ornaments of the art in the
years which followed were Caslon, the type-founder;
Richardson, the novelist, who had a large establishment,
and Baskerville, Bulmer, Nichols and Bowyer,

Stereotyping in the modern way began by the efforts
of the Earl of Stanhope, who also first introduced the
iron press. It was in London that the exertions of Konig
to construct a power-press were successful, and there
also composition rollers were first used. The general
work of England has always been good, and although
in particular lines that country is surpassed by France,
Germany and America, her average is still high. There
have been many eminent printers there since the begin¬
ning of this century.

Before 1750 no account was kept of the number of
newspapers sold in England. The total was then about
25,000 a day, if all were considered daily. The popu¬
lation of the country might then have been 7,000,000.
In 1760 there were sold about 30,000 daily, and in 1790
about 50,000. The circulation increased about one-half
in the j'^ears between 1811 and 1882, although the popu¬
lation had not grown much more than 10 per cent. In
the former year 75,000 copies were demanded, and in the
latter 95,000. The largest provincial circulations in 1833
were the Leeds Mercury, 6,000 copies a week ; the Liver¬
pool Mercury, 8,400 ; the Manchester Times, 3,600 ; the
Manche-stier Guardian, 8,600 ; and the Stamford Mercury,
5,200. There were only two newspapers in Birming¬
ham, six in Bristol, ten in Liverpool, four in Sheffield,
 

five in Manchester, and four in Leeds. Thirteen pub¬
lished fewer than 200 a week, and one published less
than forty a week. There were then only 178 country
newspapers in England, or less than the State of New
York possessed at the same time, with one-sixth of the
population. This may chiefly be ascribed to the extra¬
ordinarily heavy taxes upon advertisements and upon
circulation.

In 1834 newspapers in London were sold by the pub¬
lishers to newsmen. At that time the better class of
daily papers sold single copies when asked for at four¬
teen or fifteen cents American money. The newsmen
purchased the sevenpenny journals by quires of twenty-
seven papers, paying therefor thirteen shillings, so that
their gross profit on this number of papers was forty-four
cents. The stamp duty was then f ourpence, leaving the
cost of production of the paper at six or seven cents, out
of which must be taken the newsdealer's discount. It
was estimated by McCulloch that the newspaper propri¬
etor thus received about five cents for each copy. There
seems to have been in 1832 ten dailies in London. The
largest circulation was that of the Times, about 11,000
a day; the next the Morning Herald, with 7,400, and
then followed the Morning Chronicle, Morning Adver¬
tiser, Morning Post, Public Ledger, Courier, Globe, Sun
and Standard with less circulations, but exactly what
they were cannot be told, as their returns are mixed up
with others, except in the case of the Courier and Sun,
which printed, respectively, about 3,000 and 2,500. On
the principal journals the stamp duty paid on circulation
was $290,000, |115,000 and $110,000. The advertise¬
ment duties on the Times were $75,000, and on the next
journal in magnitude about half that sum. The receipts
from that source are not known. The expense of the
Parliamentary report was about $15,000 a year, ten re¬
porters being required.

The total number of newspapers in England in 1824 was
166, of which thirty-one were in London and 135 in the
provinces; in 1886 there were 1,634, of which 409 were in
London and 1,225 in the provinces. The change in the
quantity and quality of matter has also been very great.
At the earlier date country newspapers were filled almost
entirely with local news, but at the present day they have
well-written editorials, foreign correspondence, an abun¬
dance of telegraphic news, literary matter, a London let¬
ter and a w^ealth of local information, generally, how¬
ever, written in a very colorless style. They contain
from four to eight times as much matter as they did fifty
years ago. More than a score of the larger journals have
private wires, and from fifty to sixty newspapers have
full reports of all that is done in Parliament. Single
weekly newspapers have been sold for $250,000. This
is more than any weekly paper, not intended for circu¬
lation throughout the whole of the United States, would
bring on this side of the water.

Newspapers do not constitute as large a part of the
printing business in England as they do here. In nearly
every town printing existed before a newspaper was
thought of, and in the larger places, when journalism
did begin, expenses were so great comparatively, and
London overshadowed all other places so completely,
that growth was slow. Until nearly sixty years ago
there was a tax of fourpence on all newspapers, a duty
of three shillings and sixpence on every advertisement,
and threepence per pound weight. This necessitated a
charge of sevenpence for newspapers and seven shillings
for an advertisement, no matter how small. Few kinds
of business could pay for advertisements at this rate, and
the effect on circulation of the other two charges was
that only families which could afford to keep a coach
were rich enough to take in a daily paper. In 1836 the
stamp duty was reduced from fourpence to a penny;
the duty on advertisements was taken off in 1853, and in
1855 the penny stamp was removed. The last of the
taxes, that of three halfpence per pound on paper, was
removed in 1861.   Since 1861 the English press has been

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