In 1777 these gentlemen met at the Chapter Coffee-house, Paternoster Row, and resolved to bring out a collection of the works of English poets, afterwards known as 'Johnson's Poets,' of which the first edition appeared in 1779, and the second in 1790.
Bell, who was agent for the brothers Martin, owners of the Apollo Press in Edinburgh, brought out, in London 1782, their edition of the 'British Poets,' the early volumes of which, issued in 1777, had stimulated the London trade to their undertaking of 1779. Bell's work was in one hundred and nine volumes, 18mo, and bore the general title of 'Bell's edition: The Poets of Great Britain complete from Chaucer to Churchill.' Each volume was illustrated by a frontispiece, an engraved title or a portrait after the designs of Stodhardt, Mortimer, and other artists of the day. Martin and Bell were debarred by an exclusive copyright from inserting in their collection Young, Mallet, Akenside, and Gray, which appeared in the London trade edition, together with Dorset, Stepney, Walsh, Duke, and Sprat, rhymesters whom Bell had cast aside. The attractiveness of this pocket edition nevertheless was indubitable, and Mr. Bell's enterprise and good taste were generally acknowledged. He published a similar edition of 'Shakespeare' and 'The British Theatre.'
He is distinguished among printers as being the first to discard the long ſ (s) from his fount of type. He was one of the original proprietors of the 'Fashionable World,' of the 'Oracle,' and of the 'Morning Post' (1772). He established a Sunday newspaper, 'Bell's Weekly Messenger,' much esteemed for its country politics and accounts of country markets. 'La Belle Assemblée,' an illustrated monthly publication, was another of his successful projects. In Leigh Hunt's 'Autobiography' (i. 276) is a description of Bell's appearance, ending thus: 'He had no acquirements, perhaps not even grammar; but his taste in putting forth a publication, and getting the best artists to adorn it, was new in those times, and may be admired in any.
Bell was, in fact, the pioneer in that kind of publication so much in vogue in later days, by which the multitude is taught to feel an interest in the best literature by means of prints and illustrations executed by good artists. He died at Fulham in 1831, in the eighty-sixth year of his age.
[Timperley's Dictionary of Printers, p. 916; Knight's Shadows of the Old Booksellers, p. 250, 246, 276; Leigh Hunt's Autobiography, i. 276.]
BELL, JOHN (1764–1836), barrister-at-law, only son of Matthew Bell, was born at
Kendal, Westmoreland, 23 Oct. 1764, and
was educated at the grammar school at
Beetham in the same county and at Trinity
College, Cambridge. There he graduated in
1786, was first Smith's prizeman and senior
wrangler, and was subsequently elevated to a
fellowship at his college, and entered at the
Middle Temple 10 Nov. 1787, and at Gray's
Inn 8 Nov. 1790, having taken his M.A.
degree in the preceding year. After reading
for some time in the chambers of Samuel
(afterwards Sir Samuel) Romilly, he began
to 'practise below the bar' i.e. as a special
pleader, in 1790, and was called to the bar in
1792. He devoted himself to the equity
branch of the profession, and gradually acquired an extensive practice in the court of
Chancery. He did not, however, attain the
rank of king's counsel until 1816, though
long before that date he had gained a reputation as a lawyer second to that of none of
his contemporaries. Lord Eldon is said, in
conversation with the prince regent, to have
described Bell as the best lawyer then at
the equity bar, although he could 'neither
read, write, walk, nor talk.' Bell was lame,
spoke with a broad Westmoreland accent,
the effect of which was heightened by a confirmed and distressing stammer, and wrote a
hand never more than barely legible. He was
accustomed to say that he wrote three hands,
one which he himself could read, one which
his clerk could read, and one which neither he
nor his clerk could read. Nevertheless, his
penetrating intelligence and thorough knowledge of law secured for him a large and
lucrative practice. Between 1816 and 1819
his name occurs with extraordinary frequency
in the reports, but thenceforward is very
rarely found there; and he does not seem to
have been engaged in any case of great importance after 1820, some years before he
retired from professional life. He gave evidence before the commission which was appointed in 1824 to inquire into and report
upon the procedure of the court of Chancery,
but his lifelong familiarity with the business
of this court appears to have had the effect
of rendering him almost as obstinately averse
to change as the lord chancellor (Eldon).
Though conservative as a lawyer, in politics
Bell was a whig. In person he was short,
stout, and round-shouldered. In 1830 he
published a pamphlet entitled 'Thoughts on
the proposed Alterations in the Court of
Chancery.' He died at his house in Bedford
Square 6 Feb. 1836, leaving his wife Jane,
daughter of Henry Grove, and an only son,
Matthew Bell, now of Bourne Park, Kent,
surviving him. Lord Langdale, who had
been his pupil, was one of his executors.
