P R E 



152 



P R I 



I'rcsses 



II 

 Dr. Price. 



PRESSES, PRINTING. See PRINTING PRESSES. 



PRESSES for copperplate printing. See PRINTING 

 PRESS. 



PRESTER-JOHN, or JEAN, is the name given to 

 the emperor of the Abyssinians. The word Jean sig- 

 nifies priest in the Abyssinian language; and the 

 princes of the country having been priests, the appel- 

 lation Prester-John was naturally applied to them by 

 foreigners ; the name being entirely unknown in that 

 country. 



PRESTON, a large and thriving borough and market 

 town of England, in the county palatine of Lancaster. 

 The town is situated on an eminence rising from the 

 north bank of the river Kibble, across which anew bridge 

 was erected in 1781. The streets are broad and regular, 

 and the houses handsome and recently built. The 

 parish church is a large building, and the parish has 

 three chapels of ease, Broughton, St. Laurence, and 

 the New Chapel. The town-hall is a very large and 

 handsome building, containing a picture of George II. 

 The assembly rooms, which were built at the sole ex- 

 pence of the Earl of Derby, are elegant and commo- 

 dious. The new prison, or penitentiary-house, near 

 the entrance of the town from Chorley by Walton 

 Bridge, is constructed on the plan of Mr. Howard, and 

 has for its object solitary confinement and reformation 

 only. The charities consist of two schools, one for 

 twenty-five boys, and the other for twenty-five girls. 

 Cotton goods, and other manufactured articles, are 

 made here in great quantities, and are exported by 

 means of the river Ribble, which is navigable to the 

 town for vessels of considerable burden, and for barges 

 and boats ten miles higher. Preston likewise carries 

 on some foreign and coasting trade. The government 

 is vested in the mayor, twoJjjailiffs, recorder, aldermen, 

 common council men, ano^i town clerk. The town 

 returns two members to parliament, who are chosen 

 by about 600 electors. Near the town there are many 

 fine walks, but the favourite one is that of Haynum, 

 from which Prince Charles is said to have viewed the 

 town and the ceuntry below it in 1745 with extraor- 

 dinary emotions. 



According to the census of 1821, the population of 

 the borough of Preston is, 



Houses, - - . 4014 



Families, ... 4989 



Do. employed in trade, . - 4629 



Males, 11,856 



Females, 12,719 



Total population, - . 24,575 



See the Beauties of England and Wales, vol. ix. 

 p. 106; and Dr. Aikin's Description of the Country 

 thirty or forty miles round Manchester. 



PRETTIGAU, is the name of one of the divisions 

 of the Grisons in Switzerland. It comprehends the 

 districts of Kloster, Castels, and Schiers. It forms a 

 valley eight leagues in length, and four in breadth. 

 It is well peopled, and is supposed to have been the 

 territory of the Rucantii. The land is fertile, parti- 

 cularly in pasturage. The baths of Gavey, which 

 were formerly celebrated, are in the district of Schiers. 

 PRICE, DR. RICHARD, a celebrated author, was 

 born at Ty-yn-ton, in Glamorganshire, on the 22d 

 February 1723. Having received the rudiments of 

 his education at Neath, he was placed in 1735 under 

 the care of the Rev. Samuel Jones; and, with the view 

 ot being educated to the clerical profession, he went in 

 1739 to the academy of the Rev. Vavasor Griffith of 

 5 



Talgarth. After the death of his father and mother Dr. 

 in 1739 and 1740, he was sent to London, to his s 

 uncle, the Rev. Samuel Price, and was entered a 

 student in the academy, of which Mr. Eames was the 

 head tutor. After studying mathematics and ethics, 

 &c. at the academy for four years, he became domes- 

 tic chaplain to Mr. Streatfield of Stoke New ington. 

 In 1757, he married, and in 1758 he became pastor of 

 the congregation of Newington Green. In the same 

 year he published his first work, entitled, A Review of 

 the Principal Questions and Difficulties in Morals, 

 which added greatly to his reputation, and which 

 went through several editions. The fundamental 

 principle maintained in this work, is that it is the un- 

 derstanding, and not the moral sense which determines 

 concerning actions. 



In 1763, Mr. Price was chosen afternoon preacher 

 to the congregation in Poor Jewry Street. In 1769, 

 he gave to the Royal Society a demonstration of a rule 

 in the doctrine of chances, and, on the 5th December 

 1765, he was admitted a fellow of that learned body. 

 In 1767, he published four dissertations, on Provi- 

 dence, Prayer, &c. In 1769, he communicated to the 

 Royal Society, " Observations on the Expectations of 

 Lives, the Increase of Mankind," &c. which was after- 

 wards reprinted with corrections and additions in his 

 work on Reversionary Payments, &c. which appeared 

 in 1771. This valuable work went through several 

 editions. The important topics of public credit, and 

 the national debt, which were discussed in that work, 

 were treated of at greater length in an " Appeal to the 

 public on the subject of the national debt," which ap- 

 peared in 1778. 



During the American war, Dr. Price entered into 

 the political controversies of that period, and publish- 

 ed several pamphlets on the nature and value of civil 

 liberty, which are now forgotten. The next work 

 which he composed, was " A Free Discussion of the 

 Doctrines of Materialism and Philosophical Necessi- 

 ty," in a correspondence between Dr. Price and Dr. 

 Priestley. 



When Lord Shelburne was prime minister, he was 

 assisted by Dr, Price in drawing up a scheme for pay- 

 ing off the national debt, but a change of ministry frus- 

 trated this scheme, and induced Dr. Price to communi- 

 cate it to the public, in a treatise, entitled, " The state 

 of the Public Debts and Finances, at signing the 

 preliminary articles of peace in January 1783; with a 

 plan for raising money by Public Loans, and for re- 

 deeming the Public Debts." At a subsequent period, 

 Mr. Pitt is said to have received from Dr. Price three 

 separate plans of a sinking fund, one of which formed 

 the foundation of the system now in operation. 



In 1784 Dr. Price published " Observations on the 

 Importance of the American Revolution, and the 

 means of making it useful to the World ;" and in 1786 

 he published a volume of sermons, partly on practical, 

 and partly on doctrinal subjects. When a new acade- 

 mical institution was established by the dissenters in 

 1786, at Hackney, Dr. Price was appointed tutor in 

 the higher branches of the mathematics ; but he soon 

 after resigned that situation in favour of his nephew, 

 the Rev. George Cadogan Morgan, author of Lectures 

 on Electricity, and of a paper, in the Philosophical Trans- 

 actions for 1785, on the light of bodies in a state- of 

 combustion. 



In a sermon "On the love of our country," preached 

 on the 4th Nov. 1789, before the society for comme- 

 morating the Revolution of 1688, Dr. Price adverted 



