YOUNG SMELLIE, for he was then only sixteen or seventeen years of age, made a most excellent use of the well-merited favour of his masters, as he materially contributed to the support of his sisters, who were almost entirely dependant upon his industry and fraternal affection.

WHILE an apprentice, he asked and received liberty from his masters to attend some of the classes in the University. The printing-office in which he served was situate within the precincts of the College, and he generally continued at work till he heard the bell ring for lecture; when he immediately laid down his composing-stick, shifted his coat, ran off with his note-book under his arm, and returned to his work immediately after lecture.

In the year 1757, when Mr SMELLIE was still apprentice and corrector to Messrs HAMILTON, BALFOUR, and NEIL, and only in his seventeenth year, the Edinburgh Philosophical Society offered a prize for the most accurate edition of a Latin classic. On this occasion Mr SMELLIE, in the name of his masters, became a competitor, and produced

an edition of TERENCE in duodecimo, the whole of which he set up and corrected himself, and for which the prize was awarded to his masters, as the work was published under their names. This medal is of silver, and of considerable size. On one side the word MERENTI is surrounded by a wreath of lau rels; on the other side are these words:

THE EDINBURGH SOCIETY,

TO MESSRS HAMILTON, BALFOUR, AND NEIL,
PRINTERS IN EDINBURGH,

FOR THEIR EDITION OF TERENCE,
M,DCC,LVII.

THE book itself, however, is dated in 1758; it being an ordinary circumstance with booksellers and printers, towards the close of a year, to date publications as if printed in the subsequent year. The following account of this edition by HARWOOD is repeated by DIBDIN, in his Introduction to the Classics, vol. ii. p. 270.

TERENCE, Edinburgh, 1758, in 12mo. "THIS edition," says HARWOOD, "was purposely published for the prize offered by the

University of Edinburgh, and obtained it. It is an immaculate edition, unknown to the Bipont editors."

HARWOOD is however mistaken in referring the offered prize to the University of Edinburgh; it was given by the Edinburgh Philosophical Society, originally instituted in 1731 for the improvement of medical knowledge; remodelled in 1739, so as to include subjects of philosophy and literature, under the name of the Edinburgh Society for improving Arts and Sciences, but more generally known by the name of the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh. In its original establishment, it published several valuable volumes under the name of Medical Essays; and in its more extended constitution, other volumes called Essays and Observations Physical and Literary. In 1782, the members of this Society, with many other eminent, scientific, and literary men, were incorporated, by charter from the King, into the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

THIS edition of Terence, besides its incomparable accuracy, is a very beautiful piece of typography, and might challenge compa

rison in point of fine printing with any of the boasted works which have issued of late years from the crack printing-houses either of London or Edinburgh. In point of accuracy it leaves them all behind. The ink used on this occasion is said to have been made from the soot, or lamp-black, gathered from the University lamps. The edition has now become very scarce and dear, a perfect copy selling for two guineas.

IT

It appears from one of the letters which will be found in the sequel, that Messrs HAMILTON, BALFOUR, & NEIL carried on a newspaper at this period named the Chronicle. What particular concern Mr SMELLIE took in the conduct of this paper is unknown; but, as corrector of the press to his masters, it is highly probable that the selection of articles of intelligence would chiefly rest on his care. From the same authority, this newspaper seems to have been unsuccessful; as in 1759 its publication was limited to once a week, and it was altogether discontinued long ago. During many years the publication of newspapers in Edinburgh was a poor concern; and three separate papers, two of them thrice a week, and the third twice, afforded very scan

ty profits to their proprietors. These three are now the sources of very considerable opulence; and besides their eight weekly sheets, five other newspapers are published weekly by new adventurers, including a Gazette or government newspaper.

THE period of his indentures expired on the 1st of April 1759, when he must have attained to his nineteenth year. By this time, or soon afterwards, his merits as a steady compositor and accurate corrector, and the value of his early attainments in literature and science, became known to Messrs MURRAY & COCHRANE, then very respectable printers in Edinburgh, and which house still carries on business under the same firm. Besides their ordinary business as printers, these gentlemen carried on the Scots Magazine, a monthly periodical work of miscellaneous literature, which has maintained considerable celebrity among works of that description, from 1st January 1739 to the present day, a long period of seventy-two years; while numerous rivals in both of the British metropolitan cities, and in many provincial towns, have strutted their hour on the public stage, and have successively dropped into oblivion. The