The virulency of this theological warfare died away in James's reign, but only to be renewed with equal rancour in that of Charles, when Marprelatism was again called into activity by the high-church freaks of Archbishop Laud. Vox Borealis, or a Northerne Discoverie by way of Dialogue between Jamie and Willie, is an example of these later attacks upon the overbearing of the mitre, and affords the imprint—

"Amidst the Babylonians. Printed by Margery Marprelate, in Thwack-Coat Lane, at the Signe of the Crab-Tree Cudgell, without any privilege of the Cater-Caps, 1641."

Others of this stamp will occur to your readers: this time the Puritans had the best of the struggle, and ceased not to push their advantage until they brought their enemy to the block.

When the liberty of the press was imperfectly understood, the political satirist had to tread warily; consequently we find that class of writers protecting themselves by jocular or patriotic imprints. A satirical pamphlet upon the late Sicke Commons is "Printed in the Happie Year 1641." A Letter from Nobody in the City to Nobody in the Country is "Printed by Somebody, 1679." Somebody's Answer is "Printed for Anybody." These were likely of such a tendency as would have rendered both author and printer amenable to somebody, say Judge Jeffries. During the administration of Sir Robert Walpole, there were many skirmishing satirists supported by both ministry and people, such as James Miller, whose pamphlet, contra, Are these things so? is "Printed for the perusal of all Lovers of their Country, 1740." This was answered by the ministers' champion, James Dance, alias Love, in Yes, they are! alike addressed to the "Lovers of their Country." What of That? was the next of the series, being Miller's reply, who intimated this time that it was "Printed, and to be had of all True Hearts and Sound Bottoms."

When there was a movement for an augmentation of the poor stipends of the Scots Clergy in 1750, there came out a pamphlet under the title of The Presbyterian Clergy seasonably detected, 1751, which exceeds in scurrility, if possible, the famous or infamous, Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence Displayed; both author and printer, however, had so much sense as to remain in the background, and the thing purported to be "Printed for Mess John in Fleet Street." Under the title of The Comical History of the Marriage betwixt Heptarchus and Fergusia, 1706[[1]], the Scots figured the union of the Lord Heptarchus, or England, with the independent, but coerced, damsel Fergusia, or Scotland; the discontented church of the latter

finding that the former broke faith with her, could not help giving way to occasional murmurings, and these found vent in (among others) a poetical Presbyterian tract, entitled Melancholy Sonnets, or Fergusia's Complaint upon Heptarchus, in which the author reduced to rhyme the aforesaid Comical History, adding thereto all the evils this ill-starred union had entailed upon the land after thirty-five years' experience. This curious production was "Printed at Elguze? for Pedaneous, and sold by Circumferaneous, below the Zenith, 1741."[[2]] Charles II., when crowned at Scone, took the solemn league and covenant; but not finding it convenient to carry out that part of his coronation oath, left the Presbyterians at the Restoration in the lands of their enemies. To mark their sense of this breach of faith, there was published a little book[[3]] describing the inauguration of the young profligate, which expressively purports to be "Printed at Edinburgh in the Year of Covenant-breaking." The Scots folk had such a horror of anything of a deistical tendency, that John Goldie had to publish his Essays, or an Attempt to distinguish true from false Religion (popularly called "Goldie's Bible"), at Glasgow, "Printed for the Author, and sold by him at Kilmarnock, 1779;" neither printer nor bookseller would, apparently, be identified with the unclean thing. Both churchmen and dissenters convey their exultations, or denouncements, upon political changes, through the medium of imprints; and your correspondents who have been discussing that matter, will see in some of these that the "Good Old Cause" may be "all round the compass," as Captain Cuttle would say, depending wholly upon the party spectacles through which you view it. Legal Fundamental Liberty, in an epistle from Selburne to Lenthal, is "Reprinted in the Year of Hypocritical and Abominable Dissimulation, 1649;" on the other hand, The Little Bible of that militant soldier Captain Butler is "Printed in the First Year of England's Liberty, 1649." The Last Will and Testament of Sir John Presbyter is "Printed in the Year of Jubilee, 1647." A New Meeting of Ghosts at Tyburn, in which Oliver, Bradshaw, and Peters figure, exhibits its royal tendency, being "Printed in the Year of the Rebellious Phanatick's Downfall, 1660." "Printed at N., with Licence," is the cautious imprint of a republication of Doleman's Conference in 1681. A proper Project to Startle Fools is "Printed in a Land where Self's cry'd up, and Zeal's cry'd down, 1699." The Impartial Accountant, wherein it is demonstratively made known how to pay the National Debt, and that without a New Tax, or any Inconveniency to the People, is "Printed for a Proper Person," and, I may add, can be had of a certain person, if Mr. Gladstone will come down with an adequate consideration for the secret! These accountants are all mysterious,—you would think they were plotting to empty the treasury rather than to fill it; another says his Essay Upon National Credit is "Printed by A. R. in Bond's Stables!" Thomas Scott, the English minister at Utrecht, published, among other oddities, Vox Cœlis; or Newes from Heaven, being Imaginary Conversations there between Henry VIII.(!), Edward VI, Prince Henrie, and others, "Printed in Elysium, 1624." Edward Raban, an Englishman, who set up a press in the far north, published an edition of Lady Culros' Godlie Dreame, and finding that no title commanded such respect among the canny Scots as that of Laird, announced the book to be "Imprinted at Aberdene, by E. R., Laird of Letters, 1644." The Instructive Library, containing a list of apocryphal books, and a satire upon some theological authors of that day, is "Printed for the Man in the Moon, 1710." The Oxford Sermon Versified, by Jacob Gingle, Esq., is "Printed by Tim. Atkins at Dr. Sacheverell's Head, near St. Paul's, 1729." "Printed, and to be had at the Pamphlett Shops of London and Westminster," was a common way of circulating productions of questionable morals or loyalty. The Chapmen, or Flying-Stationers, had many curious dodges of this kind to give a relish to their literary wares: The Secret History of Queen Elizabeth and the Earl of Essex derived additional interest in the eyes of their country customers by its being "Printed at Cologne for Will-with-the-Wisp, at the Sign of the Moon in the Ecliptic, 1767." The Poems of that hard-headed Jacobite, Alexander Robertson of Struan, are "Printed at Edinburgh for Charles Alexander, and sold at his house in Geddes Close, where Subscribers may call for their Copies, circa 1750."[[4]] The New Dialogues of the Dead are "Printed for D. Y., at the foot of Parnassus Hill, 1684." Professor Tenant's poem of Papistry Stormed imitates the old typographers, it being "Imprentit at Edinbrogh be Oliver and Boyd, anno 1827." A rare old book is Goddard's

Mastiffe Whelpe, "Imprinted amongst the Antipodes, and are to be sould where they are to be bought." Another, by the same author, is a Satirical Dialogue, "Imprinted in the Low Countreyes for all such Gentlemen as are not altogether idle, nor yet well occupyed." These were both, I believe, libels upon the fair sex. John Stewart, otherwise Walking Stewart, was in the habit of dating his extraordinary publications "In the year of Man's Retrospective Knowledge, by Astronomical Calculation, 5000;" "In the 7000 year of Astronomical History in the Chinese Tables;" and "In the Fifth Year of Intellectual Existence." "Mulberry Hill, Printed at Crazy Castle," is an imprint of J. H. Stevenson. The Button Makers' Jests, by Geo. King. of St. James', is "Printed for Henry Frederick, near St. James' Square;" a coarse squib upon royalty. One Fisher entitled his play Thou shall not Steal; the School of Ingratitude. Thinking the managers of Drury Lane had communicated his performance, under the latter name, to Reynolds the dramatist, and then rejected it, he published it thus: "Printed for the curious and literary—shall we say? Coincidence! refused by the Managers, and made use of in the Farce of 'Good Living,'" published by Reynolds in 1797. Harlequin Premier, as it is daily acted, is a hit at the ministry of the period, "Printed at Brentafordia, Capital of Barataria, and sold by all the Booksellers in the Province, 1769." "Printed Merrily, and may be read Unhappily, betwixt Hawke and Buzzard, 1641," is the satisfactory imprint of The Downefall of temporising Poets, unlicensed Printers, upstart Booksellers, tooting Mercuries, and bawling Hawkers. Books have sometimes been published for behoof of particular individuals; old Daniel Rodgers, in his Matrimonial Honour, announces "A Part of the Impression to be vended for the use and benefit of Ed. Minsheu, Gent., 1650." How full of interest is the following, "Printed at Sheffield by James Montgomery, in the Hart's Head, 1795!" A poor man, by name J. R. Adam, meeting with reverses, enlisted, and after serving abroad for a period, returned but to exchange the barrack-room for the Glasgow Lunatic Asylum. Possessing a poetical vein, he indulged it here in soothing his own and his companions' misery, by circulating his verses on detached scraps, printed by himself. These on his enlargement he collected together, and gave to the world in 1845, under the title of the Gartnavel Minstrel, a neat little square volume of 104 pages, exceedingly well executed, and bearing the imprint "Glasgow, composed, printed, and published by J. R. Adam;" under any circumstances a most creditable specimen, but under those I have described "a rara avis in literature and art."

The list might be spun out, but I fear I have exceeded limits already with my dry subject.

J. O.

Footnote 1:[(return)]