Among the least known, but none the less among the most estimable, of the advocates of the rights of the oppressed species and the heralds of the dawn of a better day, the humble Yorkshire printer, who undertook the unpopular and unremunerative work of publishing to the world the sorrows and sufferings of the non-human races, claims our high respect and admiration. He has also another title (second only to his humanitarian merit) to the gratitude of posterity as having been the originator of cheap literature of the best class, and of the most instructive sort, which, alike by the price and form, was adapted for wide circulation. George Nicholson was born at Bradford. He early set up a printing press, and began the publication of his _Literary Miscellany_, “which is not, as the name might lead one to suppose, a magazine, but a series of choice anthologies, varied by some of the gems of English literature. The size is a small 18mo., scarcely too large for the waistcoat pocket. The printing was a beautiful specimen of the typographic art, and for the illustrations he sought the aid of the best artists. He was one of the patrons of Thomas Bewick, some of whose choicest work is to be found in the pamphlets issued by Nicholson. He also issued 125 cards, on which were printed favourite pieces, afterwards included in the _Literary Miscellany_. This ‘assemblage of classical beauties for the parlour, the closet, the carriage, or the shade,’ became very popular, and extended to twenty volumes. The plan of issuing them in separate numbers enabled individuals to make their own selection, and they are found bound up in every possible variety. Complete sets are now rare, and highly prized by collectors.” Of his many useful publications may be enumerated--_Stenography: The Mental Friend and Rational Companion, consisting of Maxims and Reflections relating to the Conduct of Life_. 12mo. _The Advocate and Friend of Woman._ 12mo. _Directions for the Improvement of the Mind._ 12mo. _Juvenile Preceptor._ Three vols., 12mo. The books which concern us now are--_On the Conduct of Man to Inferior Animals_ (Manchester, 1797: this was adorned by a woodcut from the hand of Bewick). And his _magnum opus_, which appeared in the year 1801, under the title of _The Primeval Diet of Man: Arguments in Favour of Vegetable Food; with Remarks on Man’s Conduct to [other] Animals_ (Poughnill, near Ludlow).