ZAE
 

AMERICAN DICTIONARY OF
 

^ THE last letter of the alphabet, is little used.

^ ' It is a little thicker than an en quadrat. As
a numeral it signified 2,000 among the Ro-

"Ijj    mans.    The position of z is not invariable

"*f in the case. It is often transposed with x,
also a letter little used. ^ The transposition of infre¬
quently used letters is very common.

Zaehnsdorf, Joseph, the great London bookbinder,
died in that city at the end of 1887, aged seventy-two.
He was bora at Pesth, in Hungary, in 1815, and after
serving his traveling apprenticeship at Yienna and Paris
went to London, where lie arrived in 1837. lie was first
with Wesley & Co., and then with Mackenzie, two of the
best binders in the city. In 1842 he began business on
his own account, and gradually attracted much custom
of the best class. He obtained honorable mention at tho
first world's fair in London, and medals at the Crystal
Palace in 1865; Paris, 1867; Yienna, 1873; and South
Kensington, 1874.

Zarot, Anthony, the supposed inventor of signa¬
tures. It is now well known, however, that the practice
did not originate with any particular printer, but was
known long before the art was discovered, as it was nec¬
essary for scribes to mark what they had written so that
binders need make no mistake, Zarot began the print¬
ing business in Milan, Italy, in 1470, and the commonly
received account says no other printer was known to
have used signatures before the appearance of his edi¬
tion of Terence. He continued printing until 1500, when
he is supposed to have died.

Zell, Ulric, a printer of Cologne, among the first
who learned the^ art. His same is frequently mentioned
on account of the direct teslimony he gives in favor of
Gutenberg being the Id ven tor of typography, and for
an incidenta] mention of a previous practice, nmch less
skilKul, in the Low Countries.

Zenger, John Peter, a printer, of New York, was
born in Germany and came from the Palatinate of the
Rhine to this country in 1710 with his mother, Johanna
Zenger. He was then aged thirteen. On October 26 of
that year he was apprenticed to William Bradford, the
earliest printer of New York, by Governor Hunter, It
is probable that his time ran until he was twenty-one,
which would be in 1718. He had apparently received
the rudiments of an education better than common, and
he improved his opportunities, becoming on the wliole
a better workman than Bradford, although never entirely
accurate in his English. He began a printing-office in
1726, according to Thomas, but in 1725, in conjunction
with Bradford, ho published Frilinghausen's Klagte van
Eenige Leeden. During his first j^ear alone he published
several pamphlets. He was originally in Smith street,
but in 1734 removed to Broad street, near the upper end
of the Long Bridge. In 1733 he began the second news¬
paper in New York, which was entitled the Journal. It
appeared with a date line, Monday, October 5, which
was a whole month wrong, the true date being Novem.-
ber 5. The price was three shillings a quarler, which,
reduced to specie from the New York currency, was at

590
 

the rate of a doDar and a half a year. It was founded
in opposition to Governor Cosby's administration. Rip
V'sn Dam had been acting governor during an Inter¬
regnum in the office, but when he was reJicved by Gov¬
ernor Cosby the lat!:er sued him for half his fees, ^ Much
bitterness was occasioned, AW of the leading men were
arrayed on one side or the other, and the ablest lawyers
supported Yan Dam and Zenger. The governor ar¬
rested the printer for libel, and threw him into jail on
Sunday, November 17, 1734. There he remained for
many months, liis paper was ordered to be burned by
the common hangman; but as the corporation of the city
refused to direct him to do so thc order was executed by
the sheriff's own negro. The specific thing charged as
a libel was, in substance, " the people of this city [New
York] and ]3rovince think, as matters now stand, that
their liberties and properties are precarious, and that
slavery is likely to ])e entailed on them and their poster¬
ity, if some i)ast things be not amended." The mayor
and magistrates refused to join against Zenger, and so
did the Provincial Assembly. The lawyers retained for
the defense excepted to the constitution of tlie court,
which they regarded as irregular. This the presiding
justice took as a personal insult, and the counsel were
thrown over the bar. The governor and j udgcs were de¬
termined to convict. In this emergency, as there were
no lawyers of any considerable ability remaining in New
York, Zenger's friends engaged the most ceJebrated Phih
adelphia lawyer, Andrew Hamilton, to conduct the de¬
fense. The publication of the article was confessed, but
it was denied to be a libel. Mr. Hamilton oft'ered to
prove that the assertions were true, but tlie court de¬
clined to permit this. It maintained that as the publi¬
cation was admitted the libel was admitted, and that the
jury had nothing to do exceiit bring in a verdict of
guilty. This Mr. Hamilton refused to admit, and ar¬
gued'as a point of law that such a decision could not be
supported. This he maintained in a speech of remark¬
able ingenuity, really intended, howe^^er, for the public.
It dwelt very little upon the law, but was an extremel}'"
eloquent appeal founded upon the jirinciples of justice
which apply to all men. It produced a great and long-
enduring effect. He maintained that to be a libel a
statement must be untrue and must also be injurious.
The attorney-general was overmatched, and neither he
nor the }>i'esiding justice was able to refute the argu¬
ments advanced by Hamilton, nor to silence him. The
jury v/ere convinced and brought in a verdict of not
guHty, although against the express charge of thc court
and against the entire previous current of English de¬
cisions. Their verdict was substantial^ that the truth
was no libel, and was the first assertion of a truth which
is now regarded as axiomatic in America. There was
no further prosecution of Zenger, although pretexts
might no doubt have been devised to do so, and he con¬
tinued the publication of his paper and the prosecution
of his printing business until his death, in 1746. His
journal was then carried on by his widow, Catharine
Zenger, until December, 1748, when she resigned its
publication to her son, John Zenger. He continued the
work until about 1752.