A short time, however, before this day arrived, the more active of the partners called upon the author, and informed him, that they should feel themselves much obliged if he would change the title-page of the intended pamphlet. Our friend expressed great surprise, and desired an explanation of the motives which induced such a request. The reply was to this effect:—That it was hardly possible then to foresee how matters would ultimately turn out; that they had among their best customers individuals of STRONG political opinions, who might hereafter take great offence at their publishing a pamphlet with such a title. The author, who was loyal to the very core, endeavoured to argue and remonstrate, but all in vain. A new title was prefixed, the old one at some expence cancelled, and the brochure made its appearance with the more harmless and less offensive inscription of “Brief Memoirs of the Leaders of the French Revolution.” A large impression was very soon sold. The scrupulous feelings on matters which regarded politics, rather increased than diminished on the part of this house. The author afterwards composed a waggish sort of parody, or rather commentary, on Paine’s Rights of Man, in which many of that writer’s doctrines and positions were turned to ridicule. He offered it to the Black Letter Bookseller, who ingenuously acknowledged that such was the spirit of the times, as to compel him to decline being the publisher of any works of a political tendency. Adde vultum habitumque hominis. Nam neque chorda sonum reddit quem vult manus et mens, Nec semper feriet quodcunque minabitur arcus. CHAPTER XLIV. We have now to introduce a Bookseller of a very singular description, who in our notes is termed the Exotic Bookseller. He was the introducer of a new æra in the profession of which he was so successful a member, and the anecdotes of his rise, from a humble station to great opulence, and to a familiar communication with the noble and the great, would of themselves form a very interesting and entertaining narrative. Equidem plura audivi quam credo, sed nec affirmare sustineo de quibus dubito, nec subducere quæ accepi. His father honourably and successfully pursued the occupation, which descended to the son, in a remote provincial town, and had deservedly obtained great reputation from the elegance and neatness of his bindings. If the intelligence received by the Sexagenarian be not fallacious, he was the inventor of the art of painting landscapes on the edges of the external leaves of a book, which only became visible when unfolded to a certain distance.