Note 12 — MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL.

This person is entitled to more than a passing notice. Long before the modern publication of cheap literature by W. and R. Chambers and Charles Knight, Alexander Donaldson opened a shop in London for the sale of what were termed “spurious editions” of popular books. The London booksellers endeavoured to check his enterprise, but were defeated in the courts of law. Latterly he was unfortunate. His nephew, James Donaldson, also a printer at Edinburgh, founded and endowed the hospital in that city which bears his name. For that purpose he bequeathed the sum of £200,000.