The Printing Office

Printers have never, we think, recieved due appreciation for tho honorable confidence whioh they have preservedïn regard to the secrete with which they have necessarily been intrusted. Such a case as this oi'ten happens. An article in a newspaper or magazine rnakes wh&tis oalled a "sensation." It is entirely anonymous, and public ouriosity is exoited to the utmost to discover the name of its author. The writer may be a cabioet minister, a high official, a couricr or apy of the thousand and one persons, who, if he was suspected of writing for the press, would at once lose his position,his office - perhaps his reputation. On the other hand, the writer may be a struggling journalist, or a mere literary amateur. In any case his secret is preserved ; his anonymity is safo as long as it is confided to the printer. Some yenrs ago there was a great stir made about a book ontitled Ecce Homo. It was a clever work, and had an unexampled suocess. "Who is the author?" was the question on everybody's lips. Same scores of persons were named, and they ropudiated their participatiou in it. All sorts of conjecturen wcre hazarded, and no doubt large suins would have been paid by several conductors of journals for authentic information as to the namo of the author. Yet that uame was known to a mastcr printer, hia overseer, and at least some of the compositors, but it was never revealed. Wheu the name was published, it was not through the instrumcntality of the printers, but entirely independent of them. They had faithfully kept their secret. Going back a i'ow years the authorr-hip of' the Waverley novéis may be referred tu as a remarkable incident of literary liistory. Sir Walter Scott's secret, although known by twenty persons, including a number of printers, was so well concealud that the great imvelist oould not, even in his matchless vocabulary, find words of prai.se sufficient to express the sense of his greatful acknowledgement and wonderiog admiration for the matchless fidolity with which the mystery had been preserved. TUere is another species of secresy- that relating to the carcful supervisión of codudential public doeunieiit.s, books printed for secret societies, and the authorship of articlesor pamphlets.asalready referred to, which has Deen most honorably maintained. When treaties are prematurely publi.shed in newspapers the copy is obtained f'nmi Home leaky or venal efficial, and not from any of the printers who sot up or worked off the original. A case of this kind occurred a year or two ago, wherein a convention between this oountry and another power was revoalcd to one of the eveaing papers. In the foreign office, at Whitehall, there is a regular staff of printers alwaye at work, and it' thos: men liked, they inigHt Iet out secreta oí' the most momentous kind, any one of which would perbaps bc worth a few hundred pounds. But such a dereliction of duty has never yet ocenrred ; it waa a clerk, Dot the compositor who betrayed the trust. Most honorable to the profession is the story of Harding, the printer, who bravcly bore iiuprisonment rather than reyeal the authorship of the colebrated "Drapier" letters. The printer it iu his cell ualiuly refusing the eutreaties of his fríen divulgo the name of the jmtcr, Dean Swift, a church magnate, and a irreat wit, who dressed himself in the disguise of a low Irish pensant, and sat by, listcning to the noble refusal aDd the tender importunities, only anxious that no word or glance from the unfortunate printer should reveal the secret. Swift was bent solely upon securing his own safety at the expense of the other ; he cowered before the logal danger which Harding boldly confrontcd. The world has unequally allotted the nied of faine to the two combatants. The wit and tbü printer both fuugut the battlo fur lib'rty of the press until the sense of an outraged community released the typographer l'rom the peril so nobly eneountercd. In thousands of other instances similar fidelity has been exhibited. In short, it is part of the professional honor of a printer not to disclose, either wantonly or trom venal motives, the eecrets of any office in which he is employed. There is also the allegiaDce which printers pay to their chief in not divulging important intelligente. In some cases a compositor is necessarily intrusted with an item of news wbich would be negotiable immcdiately, and worth pounds to him. Seldom or ever is there a petrayal of trust in this way. The examination papers, printed so extensiyely in London, are of tbe most tremendous importance to certain classes, who would pay almost any sum to obtain the roughest proof the night before. An instance of this occurred quite recently. A printer was "got at," and promised a considerable amount of money for a rougb proof. What was the course uf action ? lic i-imply informed the authorities,aDd the tempter was punis-hed. It was another and creditable example of how well and honorably kept are the secrets of a printing office.