In the year following that of Archdeacon's appointment a contract, similar to those of 1706 and 1727, was made with the Stationers' Company by which the Stationers, in return for an annual payment of £500, were granted the right of printing a large number of books (including school editions of classical authors, Lily's Grammar, Almanacks, Gradus ad Parnassum, Horn Book prints and Psalters) for the term of 21 years[121]. [Illustration: RIVINGTON'S ACCOUNT WITH THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1767] Later, in 1775, an Act of Parliament secured to the universities the perpetual copyright of all schoolbooks bequeathed to them; but in the same year it was ruled in the Court of Common Pleas that the right of printing almanacks was a common law right over which the Crown had no control, and the Stationers' Company thereupon discontinued their payments to the universities. However, in 1781 a new almanack duty act granted to each university the sum of £500 per annum as compensation. At Cambridge this sum was placed at the disposal of the Syndics of the Press for the publication of works of learning by the following grace of 11 June, 1782: Cum ad graves librorum imprimendorum sumptus sublevandos omnigenaeque adeo eruditionis studium promovendum, annuo quingentarum librarum reditu Academiam nuper auxerit munificentia publica; ne aut nostra negligentia deflorescat tantus publice habitus literis honos, aut in alios usus transferatur quod doctrinae amplificandae sacrum esse oporteat; placeat vobis ut Typographici Preli Curatores in hac etiam parte Syndici vestri constituantur, atque ut quingentae quotannis librae, si ipsis necessarium videatur, vel in novas veterum scriptorum editiones apparandas, vel in recentiorum opera divulganda insumendae iis hoc nomine e Communi Cista erogentur.... Since the abolition of the paper duty and the consequent loss to the university of the advantage of drawback, this grant constitutes the single subsidy which the Syndics of the Press receive from an outside source. About this time the competency of the Syndics was called into question. It was alleged, for instance, that one Syndic did not know the difference between _collating_ and _collecting_ MSS; a more serious charge was that the warehouse in Silver Street, acquired in 1672, was damp and that great injury had been done to the stock of sheets kept there. In reply, Dr Plumptre asserted that the damage done amounted only to £20. Archdeacon remained in office till the year of his death, 1795; in 1793 John Burges was elected printer and acted in partnership with him for two years.