The Sun.
London, England, 1859-12-19 00:00:00

THE FIRST' EIVGLIBII PRINTER.

An attempt was made a few years since, at the
instance of several leading litterateurs, to raise a
fund for a monument to William Caxton. The
learned and the great were present, and spoke
loudly in honour of the champion of intellectual
liberty for England, but the enthusiasm evaporated
iu words, and the insufficient amount subscribed
having been handed over by Dean Milman to the
committee of the Printers' Pension Society, an en-
deavour has since been made to increase the fund
sufficiently for the foundation of a " Caxton Pen-
sion." With the view of aiding this project, the
Rev. J. M. Bellew, a few days since, delivered a
lecture upon " Caxton and his Times," at St. Mar-
tin's Hall, to a numerous and highly interested
auditory.
After a few prefatory remarks, the rev. lecturer
commenced by describing the scene of Caxton's birth
in the Weald of Kent, and the careful education be-
stowed on the young lad by his yeoman father. It
was not until the age of eighteen that the young
man left his Kentish grammar-school for an appren-
ticeship in London to Robert Large, a mercer of
Cheap. The mercers of London in those days were
not mere dealers in small wares as at an earlier
period, or mere linendrapers as at the present
period ; they were wholesale merchants, and from
the time of Edward 111. were the chief woolstaplers
of the country, having then constant dealings with
the Low Countries, and so being the channels
whereby valuable foreign MSS. found their way
into England. It was thus *William Caxton,
in his apprenticeship, met with early facilities
for acquiring knowledge of languages. Remaining
with his master until his death in 1441, Caxton
then, at the instance of his brother mercers, went
to the Low Countries as commissioner for adjusting
new channels for their trade, disturbed by the
quarrels of the Dukes of Burgundy and the English
Sovereigns. Twenty-three years later, in 1464,
Caxton was appointed Royal Commissioner by Ed-
ward 111, to confirm a treaty of trade with Bur-
gundy. All the best years of his life, therefore,
were passed in Bruges, Ghent, Cologne, Mentz, and
the German cities, where his long residence made
him familiar with the invention of printing and
the difficulties which obstructed its early develop-
ment; and when the company of printers was
broken up by the siege of Mentz, and the partner-
ship of Faust and Guttenberg dissolved, Caxton
became one of the earliest and readiest scholars of
an art then no longer secret. He set up a printing
press in Cologne, whence he issued his first publica-
tion, " The History of Troy," but between 1470 and
1474, at the request of Edward IV., he came over to
England, bringing with him his printing
presses, types, and craftsmen. In the almonry of
`Westminster, just where 'Victoria-street now com-
mences, -William Caxton, at the age of 60, established
the first printing press in England, and, with Wyn-
ken de Worde and Pynson, his favourite workmen,
published the first book printed in England, " The
Game of Chess." This was followed, up to the
time of his death, in 1491, by no less than
sixty-two works —in all upwards of 5,000
closely-printed folio pages—the greater portion
translated by himself from the French or Latin,
and afterwards " set up" in type, also by himself.
He died in his 81st year, while his "Lives of the
Fathers" was passing through the press, and was
buried in the graveyard of St. Margaret's West-
minster. Pynson, who received the appointment of
King's Printer after Caxton's death, resided where
now stands the Times office, and gave its name to
the spot. The lecturer, who was much applauded
throughout, concluded with a resume of the develop-
' ment of English literature, taking occasion from
the example of William Caxton, to enforce the dig-
nity of labour, and impress the value and sure ulti-
mate success of earnest perseverance.