WILLIAM, an eminent printer, was born at Edinburgh in the year 1715. His father, who had a small appointment in the customs, gave his son the education which every one of decent rank then received in a country where the avenues to learning were easy, and open to men of the most moderate circumstances. After having passed through the tuition of a grammar school, he was put apprentice to a printer; and when a very young man, removed to a wider sphere in that line of business, and went to follow his trade in London. Sober, diligent, and attentive, while his emoluments were for some time very scanty, he contrived to live rather within than beyond his income; and though he married early, and without such a provision as prudence might have looked for in the establishment of a family, he continued to thrive, and to better his circumstances. This he would often mention as an encouragement to early matrimony; and used to say, that he never had a child born that Providence did not send some increase of income to provide for the increase of his household. With sufficient vigour of mind, he had that happy flow of animal spirits that is not easily discouraged by unpromising appearances.

His abilities in his profession, accompanied with perfect integrity and unabating diligence, enabled him, after the first difficulties were overcome, to advance with rapid success. And he was one of the most flourishing men of the trade, when, in the year 1770, he purchased a share of the patent for king's printer of Mr Eyre, with whom he maintained the most cordial intimacy during the rest of his life. Beside the emoluments arising from this appointment, as well as from a very extensive private business, he now drew largely from a field which required some degree of speculative sagacity to cultivate, on account of the great literary property which he acquired by purchasing the copy-rights of the most celebrated authors of the time. In this his liberality kept pace with his prudence, and in some cases went perhaps rather beyond it. Never had such rewards been given to the labours of literary men as now were received from him and his associates in those purchases of copy-rights from authors.

Having now attained the first great object of business, wealth, Mr Strahan looked with a very allowable ambition on the stations of political rank and eminence. Politics had long occupied his active mind, which he had for many years pursued as his favourite amusement, by corresponding on that subject with some of the first characters of the age. Mr Strahan's queries to Dr Franklin in the year 1769, reflecting the discontents of the Americans, published in the London Chronicle of 28th July 1778, show the just conception he entertained of the important consequences of that dispute, and his anxiety as a good subject to investigate, at that early period, the proper means by which their grievances might be removed, and a permanent harmony restored between the two countries. In the year 1775 he was elected a member of parliament for the borough of Malmesbury in Wiltshire, with a very illustrious colleague, the Hon. C. J. Fox; and in the succeeding parliament, for Wootton Bassett, in the same county. In this station, applying himself with that industry which was natural to him, he was a useful member, and attended the house with scrupulous punctuality. His talents for business acquired the consideration to which they were entitled, and were not unnoticed by the minister.

In his political connection he was constant to the friends to whom he had first been attached. He was a steady supporter of that party who were turned out of administration in spring 1784, and lost his seat in the house of commons by the dissolution of parliament with which that change was followed: a situation which he did not shew any desire to resume on the return of the new parliament; arising from a feeling of some decline in his health, which had rather suffered from the long fittings and late hours with which the political warfare in the preceding had been attended. Without any fixed disease, his strength visibly declined; and though his spirits survived his strength, yet the vigour and activity of his mind were considerably impaired. Both continued gradually to decline till his death, which happened on the 9th of July 1785 in the 71st year of his age.

Endued with much natural sagacity, and an attentive observation of life, he owed his rise to that station of opulence and respect which he attained, rather to his own talents and exertion, than to any accidental occurrence of favourable or fortunate circumstances. His mind was not unformed by letters; and from a habit of attention to style, he acquired a considerable portion of critical acuteness in the discernment of its beauties and defects? In one branch of writing he particularly excelled—the epistolary; in which he not only showed the precision and clearness of business, but possessed a neatness as well as a fluency of expression which few letter-writers have been known to surpass. Letter-writing was one of his favourite amusements; and among his correspondents were men of such eminence and talents as well repaid his endeavours to entertain them. Among these, as before mentioned, was the judicious celebrated Dr Franklin, originally a printer like Mr Strahan, whose friendship and correspondence, notwithstanding the difference of their sentiments in political matters, he continued to enjoy till his death. One of the latest letters which he received from his illustrious and venerable friend contained a humorous allegory of the state of politics in Britain, drawn from the profession of printing; of which, though the doctor had quitted the exercise, he had not forgotten the terms.

The judicious disposition which Mr Strahan made of his property, affords an evident proof of his good sense and propriety. After providing munificently for his widow and children, his principal study seems to have been to mitigate the affliction of those (and many there were) who would more immediately have felt his loss, by bequeathing them liberal annuities for their lives; and (recollecting that all of a profession are not equally provident) he left 1000l. to the Company of Stationers, the interest to be divided among infirm old printers.

As the virtuous connections of the life and the heart are always pleasing to trace,—of Mr Strahan it may briefly be said, that his capacity, diligence, and probity, raised him to the head of his profession. The good humour and obliging disposition which he owed to nature, he cultivated with care, and confirmed by habit. His sympathetic heart beat time to the joy and sorrow of his friends. His advice was always ready to direct youth, and his purse open to relieve indigence. Living in times not the purest in the English annals, he escaped unfulfilled through the artifices of trade and the corruption of politics. In him a strong natural sagacity, improved by an extensive knowledge of the world, served only to render respectable his unaffected simplicity of manners, and to make his Christian philanthropy more discerning and useful. The uninterrupted health and happiness which accompanied him for half a century in the capital, proves honestly to be the best policy, temperance the greatest luxury, and the essential duties of life its most agreeable amusement. In his elevated fortune, none of his former acquaintance ever accused him of neglect. He attained prosperity without envy, enjoyed wealth without pride, and dispensed bounty without ostentation.