LIXXEAX SOCIETY OF LONDON. 4 1 



old types for a great inauj^ years. It is a question of fashion 

 rather than anything else. The types tliat you are interested in 

 have gone out of fashion, and that is the reason why they do not 

 appear in the typefounders' specimen books to-day. There are, 

 of course, people who have made a study of types and their dates ; 

 but it happens that the types we have been discussing, are what 

 are called Jobbing or Display types, used for circulars and adver- 

 tisements ; and no one is particularly interested in them. 



" My opinion about the little booklet which you showed to me is, 

 that it was not only set up, but was also printed off, and done up, 

 i. e. stitched and put into its cover, by an amateur printer, and 

 not by a regular printer. And it might very well have been 

 printed in Boston at the date mentioned." 



Mr. Hart also told me when I showed him the pamphlet a few 

 weeks ago that the paper had not been damped, and that this and 

 the setting-up, inking, and black mai-ks made by the "farnitiire" 

 showed that the worlc had not been done by a printer, but bj' an 

 amateur who had access to a press of fair size. In all these 

 respects the pamphlet presents an appearance remarkably dif- 

 ferent from the author's lecture, " Shall we have Free Speech?" 

 undoubtedly printed in 1860 — only eleven years later. 



It is perliaps worth recording that the two titles appear to have 

 been set up from a very small stock. The Brevier Monastic " i " 

 is without a dot, but this feature is only wanting from the two 

 letters in " Origin" : the " i" in "Life " has been printed from 

 a letter of another fount turned upside down, so that the dot is 

 below the line. 



Internal Evidence. 



Registration and Press notices. — The first and most important 

 line of evidence breaks dov.n. The following words are printed 

 on the back of the title-page : " Entered according to Act of 

 Congress, in the year 1849, by Geo. W. Sleeper, in the Clerk's 

 office of the District Court of Massachusetts." My friend 

 Prof. C. S. Minot of the Harvard University Medical School 

 has kindly written for me to Dr. H. Putnam of the Library 

 of Congress, Washington, who states, Apr. JiO, 1913: — "The 

 Register of Copyrights reports that the copyright records for 

 Massachusetts for the year 1819 are in his office and have been 

 examined page by page, without discovering the registration of 

 this work." Prof. Minot, however, writes, May 9, 1913: — 

 " The record of copyrights begins with 1846, and I understand 

 that the I'ecords for a few years are considered not to be perfect, 

 so that there is a possibility of Sleeper's pamphlet having been 

 issued and copyrighted, as stated on its title-page. It is, however, 

 extremely improbable that such was the case."' Enrtlier evidence 

 by Dr. Putnam is more positive : — " We find the names of both 

 the author and printer in the Boston directory for 1849. 

 Sleeper's name also appears in the Boston directory from 1849- 

 1855 inclusive ; then in the Providence directory from 1856-1865, 



