there was no press, required its Acts of Assembly to be printed, and the work of our sister province for many years supplied him with a portion of his income. Six years later he put on his imprint for the first volume of laws published there," Printer to the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty for the Province of New Jersey." This was continued by his family after him. His grandson, William Bradford, printed the "Laws of New Jersey," edited by Leaming and Spicer, in the year 1752.

The most notable work issued by him, after his Laws, was the Book of Common Prayer. It has been seen that Bradford was not a bigot, for while he was in Philadelphia he proposed to publish the Bible, with a supplement for those who desired it, containing the Book of Common Prayer. There was not then enough means in that colony to bring out the book, even without the Common Prayer, but when he came to New York and became a member of Trinity Church the project grew again in his mind. On the 23d of August, 1704, we find in the records of Trinity, then only some eight years old, that it was ordered that that church wardens "do lend Mr. Bradford Thirty or Forty Pounds for six months, on security, without interest, for purchasing paper to print Common Prayer Books." For the return of this the Rev. John Sharpe, chaplain of the troops and an assistant minister, became security. It was, however, a number of years before the paper was bought and used; he was not ready. A subscription paper must be circulated, and doubtless this took a long time. Perhaps other type was needed from England. At any rate, the book was not issued till 1710, and until within twenty years all the knowledge that was extant concerning this first edition of the Book of Common Prayer, the noble heritage of all Protestants who speak the English language, was this entry and another, also in the records of Trinity Church, saying:

"In consideration of the great loss he has sustained in printing the Common Prayer and New Version of the Psalms, Ordered that the Church Wardens deliver to Mr. Bradford his said Bond."

Until the publication of John William Wallace's Address upon Bradford in 1863, in which he stated these facts, not a single copy of this book was known to exist. It had completely disappeared. The oldest communicant in Trinity and the most learned Bradford

bibliophile, for we have our Bradford cult in America as there is a Caxton cult in England, had never heard of it. No one could say how large the edition was. It might have been and probably was at least eight hundred copies. Some might have been destroyed by fire, theft, or water, but one or two hundred would probably have been in the hands of the worshippers here, in Philadelphia, in Burlington, and in Virginian villages. None had apparently survived the severe usage, Sunday after Sunday, of turning the leaves back and forth during the service. Yet a printed book is hard to destroy. It may apparently have vanished, when it has only been relegated to the attic or buried beneath garments in a closet. The Bradford Prayer Book did exist, and two copies are now known to be extant, both being in the possession of the Pennsylvania Historical Society. They are of different editions, one having been brought out in 1710 and another in 1714. Both are small quartos. Its title runs thus :

The Book of | Common-Prayer, and Administration of the | Sacraments, And Other | Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, | According to the Use of the Church of England. | Together with the Psalter, | or | Psalms of David, | Pointed as they are to be Sung or Said in Churches. | Printed and Sold by William Bradford in New-York, 1710.

Facing the title page are the royal arms of Great Britain, and following it, prefatory to the body of the book, are twenty-three pages, containing "Rules for the more devout behaviour in the time of divine service in the Church of England; with some explanations of the Common Prayer." The volume contains the "New version of the Psalms of David, fitted to the tunes used in churches, by N. Tate and N. Brady." John William Wallace, who examined this volume very critically after it was first discovered, says that the Prayer Book part is in type of different sizes, some being small pica and some bourgeois, although the subjects were continuous. The Psalms are in another small pica from the first; the paper is different, and there is a different paging. It was probably printed also as a separate volume. The rule-work in the book is probably made up of odds and ends, but the presswork is good.

LOUDON'S DIARY.

The veteran printer, Samuel Loudon, began on the 15th of February, 1792, a new journal which he entitled "The Diary, or, Loudon's Register." Four different kinds of type are used in these few words. "The Diary" is in a light-faced German text; "or" is in italic, "Loudon's " in Roman capitals and lower case, and "Register" in capitals of an italic light faced shaded. These four kinds of type are justified in with each other, "The Diary being the largest, of about canon size, and the "or" is of about double small pica, or half the size. The paper is about 17 by 20, a folio, each page having three columns, set in brevier and long primer. The line below the heading reads: "[FIVE DOLLARS per Ann.] WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1792. [No. 1.]"

In his Salutatory the editor says:

"THE EDITOR gratefully acknowledges his obligations to the PUBLIC for their liberal encouragement since the appearance of his Proposals. From the present uninteresting state of public occurrences and the preparations necessary to set the springs of a new machine in motion he might have been inclined to solicit the indulgence of his friendly Patrons, in postponing the Publication. But as the number of his Subscribers was such as to enable him to fulfil his promise with respect to the time of commencement it was thought more conformable to that punctuality which should be observed in public engagements to step forward, "with all his imperfections on his head." He has had occasion to remark the difficulty of turning water into new channels, and is conscious that, however careful to furnish something, if not interesting, yet might probably amuse, the present appearance of his Paper could not in the rigor of justice entitle him to any great share of Public favor. In short, he sensibly feels how much he stands in need of that indulgence which the candid and generous seldom refuse to new and useful undertakings when they bid fair to merit future applause. He would not infer from this that he has met with any other difficulties than those he had a right to expect, and in the further prosecution of the work he

flatters himself it will appear that his hopes of giving general satisfaction have not been unreasonably sanguine."

The striking feature of this paper, viewed from the standpoint of to-day, is the fact that there is scarcely any news about New York. We read about the arrest of the King of France in his own palace, the defeat of Lafayette for Mayor of Paris, what Congress would do in case both President and Vice-President were disabled, and rhymed jokes about Sam Johnson, but scarcely anything about New York, more important to the readers than any foreign country or any affair outside of its own bounds. Whatever is new is nearly always in the advertisements. In the first number is one from the theatre, as follows:

"Theatre. By the Old American Company. This Evening, the 15th February, will be performed, A Comedy, Called, The Fashionable Lover. End of the Play, Dancing on the Tight Rope, Tumbling by the Little Devil and Monsieur Placide. The Little Devil will jump the Tramplane, and make a Somerset through a Hogshead, both ends being stopped up. To conclude with an Historic Pantomime, with Dancing, called, The Old Soldier. In the course of the Pantomime, there will be a fight with Sabres between the Old Soldier and the Two Thieves. Vivat Respublica."

Apparently the theatre was open only three nights in the week, for the next performance was on Friday, and the third on Monday. Friday was Madame Placide's night. She made her first appearance on the tight rope. The play was "The Chances, or the Two Constantias," and there was a heroic pantomime, called "La Belle Dorothee." This was in three acts. Monsieur Placide jumped over a garter six feet high, backward and forward, and displayed a flag in various attitudes. The bill concludes, as bills generally did at that day, with "Vivat Respublica." Not that actors cared anything more about the Republic than others, but it had become the habit to use this phrase among them. It died out about 1810. On Monday was performed "He Would be a Soldier," together with a dancing ballet entitled the "Old Schoolmaster Grown Young." The Little Devil, whom we take to have been an Infant Phenomenon, danced with two eggs under his feet; he jumped over ten men's heads, and turned a somerset over a shower of fire. Monsieur Placide was not behindhand. He

threw a dollar from his foot, and caught it in a glass on his head, and also balanced a peacock's feather. It concluded with the "Alemande" by Monsieur and Madame Placide. Other plays performed during the season were the "Beau's Stratagem," " More Ways than One," "The Prisoner at Large, or the Humors of Killarney," "The Poor Soldier," "Selima and Azor," for Mr. Henry's night, with songs by Mrs. Henry; "The Recess, or the Masked Apparition," "All the World's a Stage," "King Henry Fourth," "The Padlock," "The Rivals," "Man and Wife," "The Provoked Husband," "Catherine and Petruchio," "The Busy Body." The advertisements then come to an end. Among the actors and actresses whose names are mentioned are Mrs. Rankin, Miss Tuke, Mr. Harper, Mr. Wools, Mr. Martin, and Mr. Hallam. The prices were for the pit six shillings, boxes eight shillings, and gallery four shillings. This is a dollar, seventy-five cents, and fifty cents, in modern notation, and is higher than our best theatres were in 1860. The doors were open at five o'clock, and the curtain rose at half-past six.

A correspondent inquired in this Magazine for information about the Stock Exchange. Did it exist before 1817? Probably not; but speculation was rife in the four or five years after the adoption of the Federal Constitution, and the dealers in New York City combined to make sales easy. "The Stock Exchange Office," says one advertisement," is opened at No. 22, Wall Street, for the accommodation of the dealers in stock, and in which Public Sales will be daily held at noon, as usual, in rotation, by A. L. B. & Sons, J. Pintard, McEvers & Barclay, Cortlandt & Ferrers, Jay & Sutton." These are auctioneers' names chiefly, the first being Anthony L. Bleecker. John Pintard was the founder of the Historical Society. The stocks dealt in were "half shares," whatever they might be; 6 per cents, 3 per cents, New York Bank, Tammanial tontine scrip, Friary, Bancker's certificates, North Carolina surplus, and registered debt. So far as appears by the Diary, this combination of auctioneers did not hold together very long, for the advertisement was soon discontinued. There was a good reason. Sales had been stopped. On March 23d a notice read: "A meeting was held at Corre's Hotel on Wednesday last (March 21) of the merchants and dealers in stocks, when they