P R I 



174 



P R I 



ductor g, and is distributed on the peripheries of the 

 rollers by the table h, which slides laterally. 



The motion of the handle having passed the inking 

 9 10 ro ^ ers over tne tv P es > tne roller frame at the end of its 

 ' course strikes a slider i, which brings quickly forward 

 the frisket d with a sheet of paper under the plattin, 

 so as to receive the pinch of the press 



of the partition-treaty, he went to assist our ambassa- 

 dor in Paris. On the death of the illustrious Locke, 

 Prior succeeded him at the Board of Trade ; and he 

 sat in parliament as member for East Grimstead. 



Amid the bustle and duties of these high situations, 

 Prior seems to have, in a great degree, neglected the 

 muses. He resumed his poetical labours, however, by 



Prior 



The table carrying the types, and balanced by the celebrating the great victories of Blenheim and Ramil- 



i* * _ _ i / 11 i. " i._ ,1 :_ 7. > /I 10 lioo on r\ ho cnnn afYlpi* TiiiKlicTiorl o \m\ nr\-io r\f -\y-mw A 



weight ,;', rises and' falls by jointed pieces k, and is 

 guided by cylindrical sliders working in sockets /, /. 

 The fly-wheel, by striking a small lever, locks the cam 

 m to the shaft of the fly-wheel, and causes the cam to 

 go round with it. The larger diameter of the cam 

 pressing against the jointed pieces k, brings them al- 

 most into a vertical position, in consequence of which 

 the table is raised with great force against the plattin, 

 and the impression given to the types. As the cam re- 

 volves, the jointed pieces k fall back, and the table de- 

 scends. In order to take oft' the printed sheet, a pair 

 of broad nippers o are attached to cords coiled round 

 the wheels n, n, and driven by the pulley ^ when the 

 roller frame c advances. As the roller frame c returns 

 to ink the types, the nippers take hold of the edges 

 of the paper, and draw off the sheet, and by pressing 

 against an inclined plane, the chops of the nippers open, 

 and deposit the sheet upon the heap at p. 



The inking rollers having inked the types, and the 

 frisket d having been thus withdrawn, the second sheet 

 of paper is placed on the frisket d 1, and is printed as 

 formerly. In this way the machine prints alternately 

 sheets laid on at either end of the machine. 



After the types have been used, and the requisite 

 number of impressions taken from them, instead of be- 

 ing distributed they are put into the melting pot, and 

 recast by the first apparatus. 



We expect to be able to give some further details re- 

 specting this machinery in the description of the plates 

 at the end of the volume. See Newton's Journal of 

 the Arts, vol. vi. p. 225, 281, &c. 



PRIOR, MATTHEW, a celebrated English poet, was 

 -born in 1664; but whether in London, or at Win- 

 born, in Dorsetshire, is not ascertained. His father, 

 who was a joiner, died when his son was young, and 

 left him to the care of an uncle, a vintner, who sent 

 him to Westminster school. In order to teach him his 

 own business, his uncle took young Prior from school ; 

 'nit his taste for the classics was fixed, and the Earl of 

 Dorset fortunately encountered him in his uncle's ta- 

 vern reading Horace. This nobleman was so i>:uch 

 gratified with the manners and talents of the young 

 man, that he sent him to St. John's College, Cam- 

 bridge, where he was admitted in 1682, and obtained 

 a fellowship in 1686'. At this university Prior became 



lies, and he soon after published a volume of poems, 

 which concluded with the popular poem of Hemy and 

 Emma, or the Nut-brown Maid. 



The experience which Prior had acquired in diplo- 

 macy, induced our government to send him to Paris 

 in nil, with proposals for peace; and, in August 

 1712, he was with Lord Bolingbroke, who had been 

 sent to Paris to adjust some differences that had oc- 

 curred. Having remained in France with the autho- 

 rity of an ambassador, and possessing the confidence 

 of the court of St. Germains, he was charged by the 

 French king with a special letter to Queen Anne in 

 favour of the Elector of Bavaria. The Duke of Shrews- 

 bury having declined to be joined in the same commis- 

 sion as ambassador with Prior, left Paris in 1713, when 

 our author publicly assumed the functions of ambas. 

 sador, which he continued to discharge till he was su- 

 perseded by the Earl of Stair, at the death of Queen 

 Anne. Upon his return, in 1715, the whigs, who 

 were now in power, committed him to the custody of 

 a messenger. Mr. Walpole subsequently moved an 

 impeachment against him, on a charge of high treason, 

 for holding secret conferences with the French pleni- 

 potentiary. He was even made an exception to the 

 act of grace which was passed in 1717; but though he 

 was treated with undue rigour, it was thought prudent 

 to discharge him without a trial. 



The fellowship of St. John's College being now the 

 only provision on which he depended for his future 

 support, his poetical talents were again called into 

 action. He completed his poem, entitled Solomon, 

 which, with some other poems, filled a folio volume, 

 which was published by subscription at two guineas, 

 and, through the exertions of his friends, brought him 

 in a considerable sum. 



Prior had conceived the design of writing a history 

 of his own times, a task for which his knowledge of 

 political affairs rendered him peculiarly qualified. A 

 lingering illness, however, prevented him from mak- 

 ing any progress in this work, and put an end to his 

 life on the 18th September 1721, in the fifty-eighth 

 year of his age, at Wimpole, the Earl of Oxford's 

 seat in Cambridgeshire. His remains were deposited 

 in Westminster Abbey; and on his monument, for 

 which he left ,500, is a long Latin epitaph, written 



intimate with Charles Montague, afterwards Earl of by Dr. Freind, the master of Westminster school. 



Halifax ; in conjunction with whom he composed the 



Country Mouse and City Mouse, a parody on Dryden's 



poem of the Hind and Panther. He next wrote his 



Ode on the Deily, which appeared in 1688. 



In the year 1689, he was introduced at court by the 



Earl of Dorset ; and, in the year following, he was no- 



jminated secretary to the English plenipotentiaries at 



the Hague. In l6'97 he was made under-secretary to the 



commissioners for the treaty of Ryswick, and, on his 

 return, he was appointed secretary to the Lord Lieu- 

 tenant of Ireland. In l6'98 he went out as secretary to 

 the British ambassador in France, the Earl of Portland; 

 and he continued in that office under his successor the 

 Earl of Jersey. Some time afterwards he was appointed 

 wader-secretary of state ; and during the negotiation 



A complete edition of Prior's poems was published 

 in 1733, in 3 vols. 8vo. See Johnson's Lives of the 

 Poets; and the Biographia Britannica. 



PROGRESSION. See ALGEBRA, Vol. I. Sect. 

 VIII. p. 450. 



PROJECTILES. See GUNNERY, Vol. X. p. 562, 

 and PNEUMATICS, Vol. XVI. p. 6'72. 



PROJECTION OF THE SPHERE. See GJEO- 

 GEAPHY, Vol. X. Chap. iii. p. 160166. 



PROME. See BIRMAN EMPIRE, Vol. III. p. 526. 



PRONOUN. See LANGUAGE, Vol. XII. p. 57p. 



PROPERTY LITERARY. See LXTERARY PRO- 

 PERTY, Vol. XIII. p. 42. 



PROPORTION. See ALGEBRA, Vol. I. p. 428, 

 and ARITHMETIC, Vol. II. Chap. vi. p. 403. 



1 



