Ged was, however, again thwarted in every direction by the treachery of his colleagues, especially of Thomas James, who continued to supply imperfect type, and actively intrigued with the King’s printers for the purpose of upsetting the University contract and discrediting the invention. With wonderful courage and perseverance Ged struggled against the opposition, and, it is said, completed two Prayer Books. The printers engaged on the work, however, were influenced by James, the compositors making malicious errors in the text, and the pressmen damaging the formes with their ink balls. The complaint thus raised against the type was the motive for sending James in 1732 to Holland, to procure fresh letter. This second expedition lacked all the interesting features of the first, and he returned after being absent for two months and spending £160, with only one fount of type, far too large for the requirements of the undertaking. Meanwhile, however, in consequence of the persistent animosity of the printers, the books were suppressed by authority, and the plates sent to the King’s printing house, and thence to Caslon’s foundry to be broken up.[411] Ged, shattered in health and fortune, returned to Edinburgh in 1733, where, by the assistance of his friends, he was enabled, after some delay, to finish his edition of Sallust.[412] He died in 1749.[413] {220} The dishonourable part taken by James in this business reacted on himself, for we find that he suffered considerably both in purse and business, in consequence of his connection with the undertaking. “The printers,” says Mores, “would not employ him, because the block printing, had it succeeded, would have been prejudicial to theirs.”[414] The rising fame of Caslon at this particular period contributed also, and with equal force, to the ill-success of his later years. Before his death, however, he added considerably to his foundry, chiefly by the purchase of the foundries of his old master, Robert Andrews, and of his son Sylvester at Oxford. By the former he acquired not only a large number of Roman and Italics, but also several Oriental and curious founts (some of which had formed the foundry of Moxon), which constituted the nucleus of that large collection for which his foundry subsequently became notorious. He died in 1736,[415] after a long illness, during which his son John James managed the business. The following circular, addressed to the printing trade at the time of his death, is interesting, not only as notifying the fact, but as being put forward as a specimen of the type of the foundry. ADVERTISEMENT.