its contents when its sale, under its original condition, had ceased.

Among our notices of eminent bibliopolists we must not omit the name of Andrew Millar, or the laconic missives that passed between him and Dr. Johnson-although the incident may be already familiar to the reader.

The great lexicographer having wearied the expectation of the trade for his long promised work, and no less the patience of his publisher, who had already advanced him, in various sums, the amount of £1,500, he was induced, on receipt of the concluding sheet of his Dictionary, to send to the doctor the following:-" A. Millar sends his compliments to Mr. Samuel Johnson, with money for the last sheet of copy of Dictionary, and thanks God he has done with him." To which our author replied, Samuel Johnson returns compliments to Mr. Andrew Millar, and is very glad to find (as he does by his note), that Mr. A. M. has the grace to thank God for anything."

Honorable mention also should be made, of a name which has never, perhaps, been eclipsed in the annals of book-craft. We refer to that of Nicholls, whose "Literary Anecdotes," as well as his numerous other works, will link his memory to many a distant year, and whose otherwise immense industry and labors, as printer, compiler, and publisher, would scarce require the aid of "Sylvanus Urban" to immortalize his name. The mantle of the sire has descended upon the son, who has published several historical works, and among others, an "Account of the Guildhall, London," historical notices of "Fonthill Abbey," &c. Sotheby, the celebrated book-auctioneer of London, whose establishment, originally founded by Baker (his great uncle), in 1744, was one of the earliest that ever existed in London. He was a man of extensive learning and literary acquirements, and had been many years occupied in collecting materials for an elaborate work on the "Early History of Printing." He is favorably known to the literary world by his interesting work, in folio, on the "Hand

writing of Melanchthon and Luther." Davy of Devonshire, once a bookseller of eminence, was afterwards distinguished for his attainments in biblical literature, and will be long remembered by his voluminous "System of Divinity in a series of Sermons," comprising 26 vols. 8vo. John Gough, of Dublin, bookseller, was also author of "A Tour in Ireland," "History of Quakers," and other works of note. William Harrod was a worthy but eccentric bookseller, whose pen produced several topographical works. Samuel Rosseau, who, when an apprentice to Nicholls, used to collect old epitaphs, it is said actually taught himself in the intervals of business, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Syriac, Persian and Arabic, as well as two or three of the modern languages; besides having edited, in after life, several useful and popular works on elementary education. To name Dodsley, would prove almost his sufficient eulogy; his valuable series of "Annual Registers," and collected edition of 'Old Plays," being literary performances sufficient to form a monument to his memory. Nicholson, of Worcester, is another member of the bookselling fraternity, who has added to the stores of literature; and the name of Constable, of Edinburgh, whose literary taste and great bibliographical knowledge, independently of his having been the originator of the Edinburgh Review, sufficiently entitle him to be noticed among the class. Ballantyne, the publisher and confidant of Sir Walter Scott, who was the sprightly author of the "Widow's Lodgings," and other works in the department of elegant literature, in addition to his vast fund of anecdote, is equally entitled to distinction; as well as Blackwood, for seventeen years the editor of the inimitable periodical that still retains his name. James Lackington-the well-known London bookseller-may be said to have established his claim to our notice from the publication of his "Auto-biography." From the shades of obscurity, he was indebted to thriftiness and parsimony, no less than to his untiring zeal and exertions, for his ultimate distinction. Although we may not

assign to his character any literary eminence, his career was marked by singular eccentricity; his spacious establishment in Finsbury Square, around which it is said that he actually drove a coach-and-four, contained an immense collection of books. Among his many expedients to excite notoriety, was the publication of an advertisement, stating that his coachhouse in Old Street had been robbed of 10,000 volumes, consisting chiefly of Dr. Watts' "Psalms and Hymns," a manoeuvre that answered the two-fold purpose of letting the world know that he kept a coach, and that even so large a quantity of books could scarce be missed from his collection. He also had the vanity to hoist a flag at the top of his house as a signal, whenever he arrived from his country-seat at Merton. His vanity was certainly very amusing, and excusable when we consider the disadvantages of his humble origin. At ten years old he commenced crying apple-pies in the streets, so that, as he himself intimates, he soon began to make a noise in the world. His success in this his first essay, induced speedily the exchange of tarts for books; thus he commenced his business as a bookseller, which one year yielded him a profit of £5,000. Here we might mention the name of John Trusler, who was distinguished as a doctor, parson, printer, and author; having fabricated many useful books, and amongst others, an "Essay on the Rights of Literary Property"-a subject, even at the present day, we regret to find, so very imperfectly understood among the mass of those to whose enjoyments it is made to yield so large a contribution. Davies, in 1817, compiled and published several amusing bibliographic works, one entitled, An Olio of Bibliographical and Literary Anecdote and Memoranda, and A Life of Garrick, which went through several editions. Richard Beatniffe, bookseller, of Norwich, wrote a Tour through Norfolk, and other works. Parkhurst (Johnson's friend) was of distinguished repute, and occupied many years in preparing a Talmudic Lexicon! Upham, of Exeter, also translated sacred books of the Buddhists.

Dr. William Russell, who died at the close of the last century, the well-known author of the History of Modern Europe, was originally apprenticed to a bookseller; a few years after which, he was engaged as a corrector of the press, and subsequently was enabled to devote himself to authorship. His historical works were the product of his maturer years. Whiston, the celebrated translator of Josephus, was also in his early days a bookseller. The same might be remarked of the renowned naturalist, Smellie, equally celebrated as having produced the best edition of Terence. He was, moreover, the antagonist of Hume, the refutation of whose atheistical opinions became the theme of his pen. Walwyn was a bardbookseller of eminence, "a worthy associate of Dryden." Watton, who kept a shop near St. Dunstan's many years, published and compiled several excellent works-among them the earliest history we possess of Baronets, occupying five octavo volumes. Godwin, whose Caleb Williams alone is sufficient to preserve his name from oblivion, was for a considerable time a bookseller, and ushered many books of value into tangible existence. Dr. Olinthus Gregory also was once a bookseller at Cambridge, and a teacher of mathematics at the same time.

John Lander, brother of the African traveller, was originally a bookseller. Devoting his leisure to literary pursuits, and his mind being inspired with a love of enterprise, he not only rendered important services to physical science, by the discovery of a problem which had long baffled the literati of Europe, and which has placed his name among the proudest in the annals of science, but he bequeathed to the world one of the most delightful and interesting narratives of travel in the English language. Sir Richard Phillips, of whose elementary writings, it is enough commendation to remark that they were sufficiently productive to become the adequate support of hist declining years, was not only the first publisher to introduce a reduction in the price of books, but the originator of a fund

for oppressed debtors-two things that go to his glory. In the same category was Booth, of London, whose knowledge of books, critical, not titulary, rendered him eminently distinguished; his collection was exceedingly rare and extensive. His literary capabilities were so far respected by Malone, the commentator of Shakespeare, that he consigned to him the onerous task of editing and arranging the annotations and remarks for his edition of the great dramatist. He also edited and compiled several documents for his Account of the Battle of Waterloo, two volumes quarto, which passed through the unprecedented number of nine editions in less than two years.

The race of author-booksellers, far from being extinct, is not less flourishing at the present day than it has been at any former period-while it embraces not a few of those who are emulous of the classic honors of their sires, and whose genius and labors will supply a worthy sequel to the past, and add a new lustre to the bibliographic history of the nineteenth century. We will commence with noticing the son of the senior member of one of the most distinguished bookselling houses in the British metropolis-we refer to the Longmans. William Longman has distinguished himself in the science of entomology, a subject that has already successfully engaged his pen. William Wood, the natural history bookseller, is undoubtedly deserving a place among the scientific writers of the day, which his esteemed work; Zoography, or the Beauties of Nature Displayed, in three large volumes, sufficiently attests. He is author of some four or five other important works, as well as editor of the beautiful edition of Buffon, in twenty volumes octavo, and contributor of several interesting papers to the Philosophical Transactions.*

Moxon, in early life, published Christmas, a poem, and a volume of Sonnets, which were so favorably noticed by Rogers, the poet, that a friendship ensued, which has since ripened with

The principal publishers of London are Longman & Co., Rivingtons, Whittaker & Co., Hamilton & Co., Simpkin & Co., Smith, Elder & Co., and at the "West End," Mur