owing to his having died on his passage to Massachusetts. By searching the ancient records of the college, &c. at Cambridge, Massachusetts, I have been enabled to collect the few particulars respecting him which I shall mention in course.

Another press, with types, and another printer, were, in 1660, sent over from England by the corporation for propagating the gospel, among the Indians, in Newengland. This press, &c. was designed solely for the purpose of printing the Bible, and other books, in the Indian language. On their arrival they were carried to Cambridge, and employed in the printing house already established in that place.

Notwithstanding Printing continued to be performed in Cambridge, from a variety of causes it happened, that many original works were sent from Newengland, Massachusetts in particular, to London, to be printed. Among these causes the principal were-first, the press at Cambridge had, generally, full employment; secondly, the Printing done there was executed in an inferior style; and, thirdly, many works on controverted points of religion, were not allowed to be printed in this country. Hence it happened that for more than eighty years after Printing was first practised in the colony, manuscripts were occasionally sent to England for publication.

The fathers of Massachusetts kept a watchful eye on the press; and, in neither a religious or civil point of view, were they disposed to give it much liberty. Both the civil and ecclesiastical rulers were fearful that if it was not under wholesome restraints,

contentions and heresies would arise among the people. In 1662, the government of Massachusetts appointed licensers of the press ;* and afterward, in 1664, passed a law that "no printing should be allowed in any town within the jurisdiction, except in Cambridge"-nor should any thing be printed there but what the government permitted through the agency of those persons who were empowered for the purpose. Offenders against this regulation were to forfeit their presses to the country, and to be disfranchised of the privilege of printing thereafter. In a short time, this law was so far repealed, as to permit the use of a press at Boston, and a person was authorized to conduct it; subject, however, to the licensers who were appointed for the purpose of inspecting it.

It does not appear that the press, in Massachusetts, was free from legal restraints till about the year 1755. Holyoke's Almanack, for 1715, has, in the title page, "Imprimatur, J. Dudley." A pamphlet, printed in Boston, on the subject of building market houses in that town, has the addition of, "Imprimatur, Samuel Shute, Boston, Feb. 19, 1719." James Franklin, in 1723, was ordered

* Gen. Daniel Gookin, and the rev. mr. Mitchel, of Cambridge, were the first appointed licensers of the press in this country.

† See this stated more at length in the account given of Samuel Green, printer at Cambridge, Massachusetts.

There was no market house in Boston till 1734. On the 20th of April, in that year, the town, after many years contest

by the government, not to publish "The NewEngland Courant," without previously submitting its contents to the secretary of the province; and, Daniel Fowle* was imprisoned by the house of representatives, in 1754, barely on suspicion of his having printed a pamphlet, said to contain reflections on some members of the general court.

For several years preceding the year 1730, the government of Massachusetts had been less rigid than formerly; and, after that period, I do not find that any officer is mentioned as having a particular control over the press. For a long time, however, the press appeared to be under greater restrictions here than in England; that is, till toward the close of the seventeenth century.

In the course of this work it will appear, that the presses established in other colonies were not entirely free from restraint.

In Virginia the first press was not introduced till about the year 1727. The rulers in that colony, in the seventeenth century, judged it best not to permit public schools, nor to allow the use of the

ing the question, voted to build three houses of wood; one at the south part of the town, near the Great Elms; another on the Old North square; the other, in a more central situation, near the Town Dock, where Faneuil Hall now stands. The three frames were erected the month following; and the sales, at the Town Dock market, commenced the 25th of the same month. In the course of two or three years, two of the market houses were sold by order of the town, for other uses; and the third was destroyed by "the people."

* See Franklin, and Fowle,

press.* And thus, by keeping the people in igno. rance, they thought to render them more obedient to the laws; prevent them from libelling the gov ernment, and to impede the growth of heresy, &c.

REMARKS.

THE press had become free some years previous to the commencement of the revolution; but it continued for a long time duly to discriminate between liberty and licentiousness. This freedom of the

press was the first, and one of the greatest agents in producing our national independence. The press appears to be now under no particular restraints, and no one can wish the liberty of it to be greater.

Except in Massachusetts, no presses were set up in the colonies till near the close of the seventeenth century. Printing then was performed in Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia," and afterward in that city, by the same press, which, in a few years subsequent, was removed to Newyork. In 1709, a press was established at Newlondon, in Connecticut; and, from this period, it was gradually introduced into the other colonies; as well as into several of the Westindia islands, belonging to Great Britain.

Till the year 1760, it appears that more books. were printed in Massachusetts, annually, than in any of the other colonies; and, before 1740, more print

* Chalmer's Annal. Vol 1. p. 32, and 345.

ing was done there than in all the other colonies. After 1760, the quantum of printing done in Boston and Philadelphia was nearly equal, till the commence. ment of the war. Newyork produced some octavo and duodecimo volumes.-The presses of Connecticut were not idle; they furnished many pamphlets on various subjects, and some small volumes. Some books were handsomely printed in Virginia and Maryland; and folio volumes of laws, and a few octavos and duodecimos, on religion, history and politics, issued from the presses of Carolina, Rhodeisland, Newhampshire, &c.

Before 1775, printing was confined to the capitals of the colonies; but the war occasioned the dispersion of presses, and many were set up in towns that were remote. After the establishment of our independence, by the peace of 1783, presses multiplied very fast, not only in seaports, but in all the principal inland towns and villages; and, it may now be said, that in the United States there are more presses employed than in any other part of the globe, containing the same number of inhabitants. The major part of these presses is used in printing newspapers; but newspapers form not the only branch of printing which has increased. Bibles of all the various sizes, Dictionaries in English and Latin, Greek Lexicons-most of the Greek and Latin classics, which are used in the country, numerous original works, as well as the republication of various European books of history, divinity, law, physic, philosophy, &c. in volumes of various magnitudes, now find their way through the presses of the United States.

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