As we shall not have another chance of returning to modern magazine

literature, we may not inappropriately close the chapter with a

short account of one or two of the most successful of the high-class

publications.

It was not to be expected that the marvellous success of _Blackwood’s

Edinburgh Magazine_ would be allowed to pass unchallenged. The honour

as well as the fortunes of the Southron publishers forbade it. In

1820, the _London Magazine_, a name borrowed from an old and defunct

periodical, was established by Baldwin, Craddock, and Joy, under the

editorship of John Scott, formerly of the _Champion_ newspaper. Many

men of talent joined the staff, but Scott’s old colleague, Wainwright,

afterwards infamous as the insurance murderer, aided and abetted his

chief in a series of very offensive personal articles. In two or three

of them a fierce attack was made upon Sir Walter Scott, as being a mere

pretender to the authorship of the Waverley Novels (which, as Scott was

doing his utmost to hide his light under a bushel, was scarcely called

for); and in addition to this the writers made an onslaught on all who

were supposed to be connected with Blackwood or his magazine. Lockhart,

with all the sensitiveness of your true satirist, called immediately

for an apology, and was evaded by a demand that he should first disavow

his connection with Blackwood. This was out of the question, and Mr.

Christie, to whom Lockhart had entrusted negotiations, feeling that

Scott was shuffling, and that he himself was being trifled with, let

drop some expressions on his own account calculated to give offence.

A meeting was arranged. Christie fired down the field, but Scott, not

perceiving this, aimed deliberately at his opponent, but missed his

mark. Christie, seeing his adversary again prepare to fire in his

direction, did not a second time waste his powder, and the result was

that Scott was mortally wounded.

Dreadful as was the catastrophe, and the sensation it made at the time,

it tended to soften the asperities of the press, and was instrumental

in bringing a better spirit to critical discussion.

After Mr. Scott’s death, the proprietorship of the _London Magazine_

was transferred to Taylor and Hessay, the poetical publishers. The

first of these gentlemen was the original proclaimer of Francis as the

author of the “Letters of Junius;” the second will ever be remembered

for his kindliness to John Keats. Mindful of the success of Blackwood,

they retained the editorship in their own hands, and, again like him,

were most liberal in their payments--a pound a page for prose, and

two pounds for verse, was the _honarium_ of ordinary contributors;

Charles Lamb receiving, very fitly, two or three times that amount. It

is Charles Lamb’s name that is now most intimately connected with the

_London Magazine_, for here it was that the famous “Essays of Elia”

first appeared. Among the other contributors we find many celebrated

names; Hazlitt furnished all the articles upon the drama, Mr. Carlyle

contributed the “Life and Writings of Schiller” to the last three

volumes, and here De Quincey first published his “Confessions of

an English Opium-Eater,” filled with the weirdest fancies and the

loveliest word-pictures in our literature. Here, too, Tom Hood fleshed

his maiden sword; and among the other writers we find the names of

Keats, Landor, Hartley Coleridge, Barry Cornwall, and Bowring. Such

an array of talent did not, however, avail, without steady editorial

skill, to win a wide popularity, and in 1825 the publication was

suspended.

We have seen that Maginn had accompanied Lockhart to the south. In

1827 the _Standard_ newspaper was founded, and he was installed in the

editorial chair, where for some seven or eight years he drew £500 a

year. His unrivalled facility in dashing off slashing articles upon any

subject, quickly raised his income to eighteen or nineteen hundred;

but his ever-increasing habits of intemperance rendered regularity of

work impossible. Together with Lockhart and other writers, he planned

a London monthly rival to _Blackwood_, and in 1829 an East India

merchant of the name of Fraser was found willing to make the necessary

advances, and _Fraser’s Magazine_ was started. An editor was kept to

correct the proofs, and to go to prison, as occasion might require;

but Maginn contributed a large proportion of the first three numbers,

and was virtually the manager. Hogg, who, as Wilson said, had made a

perfect stye of every magazine in the kingdom, was invited up to town.

Its rollicking tone, untempered by any genuine humour, was wofully

overdone, and smacked of the reeking laughter of the pothouse. Maginn,

having no one to direct his shafts, attacked every one right and left,

and selected a series of literary and political butts for continuous

practice, among whom were Professor Wilson, Tom Campbell, and Lord

Ellesmere, who were insulted in the most audacious manner; and language

and criticism like this gave constant rise to cudgellings, law-suits,

and duels. Maginn, however, had plenty of courage--was as reckless with

his pistol as his pen. Captain Berkeley having called at the office,

seen Fraser, and horsewhipped him for a libel, was challenged by the

writer of it--Maginn--who, sobered down for the moment, stood his fire

for three rounds with the utmost nonchalance. In spite of the humour of

Thackeray and the philosophy of Carlyle, lately admitted to its pages,

_Fraser’s Magazine_ was commercially not successful until Maginn and

Hogg were banished from the staff. When, however, it got into better

hands, and led a cleanlier life, an ample field was found for its

circulation.

Thackeray, whom we mentioned above, was instrumental in effecting a

thorough change in periodical literature. When under his direction,

the _Cornhill_ was started, to give for a shilling all that had before

been given for two shillings and sixpence, the bookselling world was

incredulous of success, and the book-buying world scarcely hopeful.

More than 100,000 copies of the first number were sold, and as soon as

it was seen that a vastly wide-spread circulation is infinitely more

valuable than a narrower sphere at a much higher rate, a crowd of other

shilling magazines were produced, among which it is enough to mention

_Temple Bar_, _London Society_, _Macmillan’s_, _Belgravia_, and a score

of others, some of which were doubtless successful, but many more or

less ephemeral. One detrimental fact has of course arisen from such a

multiplicity of organs; the available talent of the day, such as it

is, cannot now be concentrated. The same curse haunts the theatre; at

present one “star” is as much as the greediest can expect on one stage.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

_CHAMBERS, KNIGHT, AND CASSELL_:

“LITERATURE FOR THE PEOPLE.”

We have already seen, in our short sketches of the Bells, the Cookes,

the Donaldsons, and the Constables, some endeavour--neither faint

nor altogether unsuccessful, yet not more than a trial venture, for

education was still a monopoly of rank and riches--to render books the

property and the birthright of the people. In our present chapter,

however, we come to a new phase in the history of bookselling. The

schoolmaster, as Brougham said, was abroad; the repressive taxes on

knowledge either were, or were about to be, removed; learning, or a

smattering of learning, was within the reach of most. The battle of

future progress was to be fought out with the pen, just as the triumphs

of early civilization had been achieved with the lance and with the

sword. The public writer henceforth was to occupy the preacher’s

pulpit, and his congregation, far above the limits of any St. Peter’s

or St. Paul’s, was to be told only by millions. Books were to be no

longer the curious luxuries of the rich man’s library, or the hoarded

and hardly-earned treasures of the student’s closet, but were to be

fairly placed at the disposal of the many.

Talent certainly, if not genius, is only the product of the

requirements of the time and place; and as soon, therefore, as cheap

books were in real request, men thoroughly competent and thoroughly

earnest came forward to supply the want--fighting bravely, with all the

strong energy of their wills, to do the work that each had chosen, and

yet each as certainly acted upon invisibly, insensibly, and inevitably,

by the true, if word-worn, laws of supply and demand.

The means by which this end was to be attained were many, and the

labourers in the new fields of cheap literature numerous; but in our

present chapter, as elsewhere, we have selected the representative

men and the typical means. The names of Chambers, Knight, and Cassell

(the latter certainly in a less degree) are inextricably woven into

the movement, of which at present we have only seen the commencement;

and the plan by which the most expensive treasures of literature, the

choicest garnerings of our knowledge, were placed at the disposal of

the meagrest purse, was almost universally that of distribution into

small weekly or monthly parts, at an infinitesimal cost--a method that

may with justice be styled the people’s intellectual savings bank; and

it is to the early history of the people’s intellectual savings bank

that we now address ourselves.[18]

Robert Chambers was born at Peebles, on the banks of the Tweed,

on 10th July, 1802, two years later than his brother William, with

whom his whole career is intimately connected. They were the sons of

James Chambers, at one time a prosperous muslin weaver, employing

some hundred looms. Their father is described as “a lover of books, a

keen politician, and an open-hearted friend;” but having already been

generous beyond his means to the poor French prisoners in Scotland, he

was completely ruined by the introduction of machine-weaving looms,

and was compelled to sell his modest patrimony, and remove with his

family to Edinburgh, with only a few shillings in his pocket on which

to start life afresh. But before this the young lads’ education had

commenced. At Peebles there were certainly no newspapers; but their

old nurse sung ballads and told them legendary stories of the former

exploits of the warriors of the country side; and then there was old

Tam Fleck, a host in himself, who had struck out a wandering profession

of his own, a “flichty chield,” who went about with a translation of

Josephus (Lestrange, 1720) from house to house. “Weel, Tam, what’s

the news the nicht?” would one of the neighbours say, as Tam entered

with the ponderous volume under his arm. “Bad news, bad news,” replied

Tam. “Titus has begun to besiege Jerusalem--it’s gaun to be a terrible

business.” At the little village school, too, William was introduced

to Latin for the fee of five shillings a quarter, and Robert was well

grounded by Mr. Gray in English for two shillings and twopence. Robert

was a quiet, self-contained boy, unable from a painful weakness in his

feet to join heartily in the usual games of his schoolfellows. “Books,”

he writes in the preface to his collected works, “not playthings,

filled my hands in childhood. At twelve I was deep, not only in poetry

and fiction, but in encyclopædias.” Receiving his first education at

the Burgh Grammar School, he acquired afterwards, at the Edinburgh High

School, under the tuition of Mr. Benjamin Mackay, the usual elements of

a classical education, embracing, indeed, as much Latin as enabled him

in after-life to read Horace with ease and pleasure.

[Illustration: Dr. Robert Chambers.

1802-1871.]

After months of pence-scraping and book-hoarding, Robert succeeded in

collecting a stock worth about forty shillings; and with nothing but

these, his yearning for independence, and his determination to write

books by-and-by, and at present to sell them, the young boy of sixteen

opened a little shop or stall in Leith Street. His brother William,

after serving an apprenticeship to a Mr. Sutherland, also started as a

bookseller and printer in the immediate neighbourhood; and from this

time forward--a time when most boys were cursing the master’s ferule

and the Latin syntax--they were both independent. Of this period Robert

gives the following graphic and almost painfully accurate account in a

letter to Hugh Miller, written in 1854:--

“Your autobiography has set me a thinking of my own youthful

days, which were like yours in point of hardship and

humiliation, though different in many important circumstances.

My being of the same age with you, to exactly a quarter of a

year, brings the idea of a certain parity more forcibly upon

me. The differences are as curious to me as the resemblances.

Notwithstanding your wonderful success as a writer, I think my

literary tendency must have been a deeper and more absorbing

peculiarity than yours, seeing that I took to Latin and to

books both keenly and exclusively, while you broke down in

your classical course, and had fully as great a passion for

rough sport and enterprise as for reading, that being again a

passion of which I never had one particle. This has, however,

resulted in making you, what I never was inclined to be, a

close observer of external nature--an immense advantage in

your case. Still I think I could present against your hardy

field observations by frith and fell, and cave and cliff,

some striking analogies in the finding out and devouring of

books, making my way, for instance, through a whole chestful

of the “Encyclopædia Britannica,” which I found in a lumber

garret. I must also say that an unfortunate tenderness of feet,

scarcely yet got over, had much to do in making me mainly a

fireside student. As to domestic connections and conditions,

mine being of the middle classes were superior to yours for the

first twelve years. After that, my father being unfortunate

in business, we were reduced to poverty, and came down to

even humbler things than you experienced. I passed through

some years of the direst hardship, not the least evil being a

state of feeling quite unnatural in youth, a stern and burning

defiance of a social world in which we were harshly and coldly

treated by former friends, differing only in external respects

from ourselves. In your life there is one crisis where I think

your experiences must have been somewhat like mine; it is the

brief period at Inverness. Some of your expressions there bring

all my own early feelings again to life. A disparity between

the internal consciousness of powers and accomplishments and

the external ostensible aspect led in me to the very same wrong

methods of setting myself forward as in you. There, of course,

I meet you in warm sympathy. I have sometimes thought of

describing my bitter painful youth to the world, as something

in which it might read a lesson; but the retrospect is still

too distressing. I screen it from the mental eye. The one grand

fact it has impressed is the very small amount of brotherly

assistance there is for the unfortunate in this world....

Till I proved that I could help myself, no friend came to

me. Uncles, cousins, &c., in good positions in life--some of

them stoops of kirks, by-the-by--not one offered, nor seemed

inclined to give, the smallest assistance. The consequent

defying, self-relying spirit in which, at sixteen, I set out

as a bookseller with only my own small collection of books as

a stock--not worth more than two pounds, I believe--led to my

being quickly independent of all aid; but it has not been all a

gain, for I am now sensible that my spirit of self-reliance too

often manifested itself in an unsocial, unamiable light, while

my recollections of ‘honest poverty’ may have made me too eager

to attain and secure worldly prosperity.”

This period of struggle, however, opened his heart in after-life to

all who were battling in like circumstances, for those who knew him

well say that “many young literary men owed much to his help, for he

was ever ready with kindly counsel as well as in more solid assistance

when needed.” It is pleasant to think that his little ciphering book,

still in existence (the handwriting of which is extremely neat, so neat

indeed that the young penman was employed by the civic authorities to

engross on vellum the address presented to George IV. on his visit to

Edinburgh in 1822), containing his first year’s account of profit and

loss, shows a balance small, certainly, but amply sufficient for his

modest wants, for their united daily household expenses did not exceed

one shilling.

Once a bookseller, Robert speedily found opportunity to become an

author, and he undertook the editorship of a small weekly periodical

called the _Kaleidoscope_; while his brother William, in order to

do all the manual work connected with it, taught himself the art of

printing, and with an old fount of type, and a clumsy wooden press,

which he had purchased for three pounds, composed and worked off all

the impressions; his own contributions, some of them poetical, “finding

their way into the stick without the intervention of copy.” Here he was

often seen, “a slim, light-eyed boy in his shirt-sleeves, tugging away

with desperate energy at his old creaking press.” When his very small

and imperfect fount was inadequate to the demand for larger letters, he

would sit up, after his long day’s labour for half the night, carving

the requisite capitals out of a piece of wood with his penknife. This

first venture was necessarily short-lived, and died in the January of

the year 1822--at which date they both gave up their bookstalls and

took regular shops.

Nothing daunted by the untimely fate of his first effort, Robert

entered the field again, and from his connection with the Tweed, and

with the assistance of friends from that quarter, who aided him in the

identification of some of Scott’s characters, he produced a book that

seemed likely to be popular--“Illustrations of the Author of Waverley,”

consisting of descriptive sketches of the supposed originals of the

great novelist. The book was a success, not so much from a pecuniary

point of view, but as introducing the author to the kindly notice of

several literary men, and gaining him the friendship of Scott, still

the anonymous “Wizard of the North,” who mentions him in his diary as

“a clever young fellow, but spoils himself by too much haste.”

In the following year, when he was still only twenty years of age, he

produced the “Traditions of Edinburgh”--a book that is, of his many

contributions to the social and antiquarian history of his native land,

still, perhaps, the most popular. Every type of it was set up, every

sheet of it pulled at press, by his brother, and the first edition,

dated 1823, presents a curious contrast to the handsome copy published

in 1869. The _Traditions_ was a book the immediate popularity of which

raised the author in public esteem, though its value is greater still

at the present day, when many of the interesting associations connected

with scenes and places are rapidly changing their character, or have

been swept away altogether. Others than Scott even then expressed their

wonder “where the boy got all his information.” In a sketch of Robert

Chambers, by the son of one of his earliest friends, that appeared in

_Lippincott’s Magazine_ for July, 1871, an amusingly frank letter is

quoted, which shows that the young writer was already getting into the

“swim” of authorship:--“You may depend upon a copy of the ‘Traditions

of Edinburgh,’ and a review of them as soon as they are ready. I am

busy just now in writing reviews of them myself, for the various works

I can get them put into, being now come to a resolution that an author

always undertakes his own business best, and is indeed the only person

capable of doing his work justice. I stood too much upon punctilio

in my maiden work, the ‘Illustrations,’ and left the review of it

to fellows who knew nothing about the subject, at least had not yet

thought of it half so much as I had, who was quite _au fait_ with the

whole matter.”

From this period Robert Chambers’ books were marketable productions,

and publishers began to seek out the young author. On the occasion of

the great fires in November, 1824, when hundreds of poor families were

rendered destitute, having no money wherewith to aid the victims, he

wrote an account of the historical “Fires in Edinburgh,” and assigned

the profits, which were considerable, to the fund collected for the

benefit of the sufferers; and from this time books flowed from his

pen in rapid succession. In 1825, he composed, for a bookseller, his

“Popular Walks in Edinburgh,” partly the result of rambles in the

nooks and corners of the quaint old city, in company with Sir Walter

Scott. In 1826, he published his “Popular Rhymes of Scotland,” and

then started on foot, as if to cure his ailment by pedestrianism, on

a rambling journey through the country, and published the result of

his explorations in his “Pictures of Scotland,” which passed through

several editions, and is still a lively companion to the tourist. In

this same year, 1827, he contributed to Constable’s _Miscellany_ the

five volumes containing his “Histories of the Scottish Rebellion”--of

which, that concerning the affairs of 1845, while true to facts, had

all the glowing charms of a romance--and a “Life of James I.,” in two

volumes. Next appeared three volumes of “Scottish Ballads and Songs,”

followed by a “Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen”--the four

volumes being commenced in 1832 and concluded in 1835--one of the most

trustworthy and most entertaining books of reference in existence. A

supplementary and fifth volume was afterwards added by the Reverend

Thomas Thomson. Besides writing these various works, and giving some

attention to his ordinary business, he found time to act as editor of

the _Edinburgh Advertiser_.

In 1829, Robert Chambers married Miss Anne Kirkwood, of Edinburgh, a

lady of very congenial qualities and attainments, and whose musical

accomplishments constantly supplied him--after his heavy daily

labours--with the recreation essential to one so passionately fond of

music.

William Chambers was toiling away busily in his little shop in the

Broughton suburb--writing, printing, and selling books. After some

minor efforts at authorship, he wrote the “Book of Scotland,” giving

an account of the legal constitution and customs of his native

country. This was followed by the “Gazetteer of Scotland,” written

in conjunction with his brother, which, from the then scanty printed

material at their disposal, must have cost them an immensity of labour.

In 1832 came the turning point of the cause of the two brothers. The

struggle for parliamentary reform had awakened a necessity for the

spread of education. The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge

had already been doing good service to the cause, with Lord Brougham

as its president, and Charles Knight as its manager. And on the 4th

of February, 1832, appeared the first number of Chambers’ _Edinburgh

Journal_. Mr. William Chambers has himself, in a letter to the

editor of the _Athenæum_ (April 1st, 1871), replied to a statement

in a former number, that upon seeing a copy of the prospectus of the

_Penny Magazine_, he put forward several suggestions to one of the

chief promoters, and that his self-love being wounded by receiving no

reply to his letter, he determined to realize his unappreciated ideas

himself. The following, in his own letter, is, of course, the accurate

history of the origin of the periodical.

“In the beginning of January, 1832, I conceived the idea of a cheap

weekly periodical devoted to wholesome popular instruction, blended

with original amusing matter, without any knowledge whatever of the

prospectus of the _Penny Magazine_, or even hearing that such a thing

was in contemplation. My periodical was to be entitled Chambers’

_Edinburgh Journal_, and the first number was to appear on the 4th

of February. In compliment to Lord Brougham as an educationist, I

forwarded to him a copy of my prospectus, with a note explaining the

nature of my attempt to aid as far as I was able in the great cause

with which his name was identified. To this communication I received no

acknowledgment, but no self-love was wounded. My work was successful,

and I was too busy to give any consideration as to what his lordship

thought of it, if he thought of it at all. The first time I heard of

the projected _Penny Magazine_ was about a month after the _Journal_

was set on foot and in general circulation.”

The success of the new _Journal_ was unprecedented; it immediately

obtained a circulation of 50,000, and by 1845, when the folio, after a

trial of the quarto, was exchanged for the octavo form, 90,000 copies

were required to supply the demand. Started six weeks before the _Penny

Magazine_, it is still the most successful and the most instructive of

the cheap hebdomadal periodicals. At the very first flush of success,

Robert Chambers’ assistance was called in as editor, and in a short

time the brothers finally entered into partnership as publishers;

and their triumphs were henceforth achieved conjointly--“both of

them,” says an able writer in an old number of the _Dublin University

Magazine_, “trained to habits of business and punctuality; both of them

upheld in all their dealings by strict prudence and conscientiousness;

and both of them practised, according to their different aims and

tendencies, in literary labour.”

Seldom, if ever, have two members of a publishing firm been so

admirably fitted for their business.

From the very outset the brothers were thrown entirely on their own

resources; they had no literary jealousy, and eagerly enlisted on their

staff most of the young aspirants in Scotland, who have since achieved

a world-wide reputation. It was, however, to Mr. Robert Chambers’

contributions that the _Journal_ was primarily indebted for success,

his delightful essays, æsthetic and humorous, permanently fixing the

work in public esteem. Gifted with a keenly-accurate observation,

with a grave yet kindly humour, his vignettes of life and character,

under the _nom de plume_ of Mr. Baldestone, were so truthful and

so “telling,” that they met with a very favourable reception, when

republished separately, in seven volumes, in 1844. “It was my design,”

he says in the preface, “from the first, to be the essayist of the

middle class--that in which I was born and to which I continue to

belong. I, therefore, do not treat their manners and habits as one

looking _de haut en bas_, which is the usual style of essayists, but

as one looking round among the firesides of my friends.” This was,

doubtless, the primary secret of their success.

When Leigh Hunt, in 1834, established his _London Journal_, he

announced that he intended to follow the plan of Chambers’ _Edinburgh

Journal_, “with a more southern element” added. This compliment, from

a veteran so famous and so experienced, led to an interchange of

editorial courtesies, in the course of which Robert Chambers claimed

the distinction for his brother William--which had been somewhere

awarded to Leigh Hunt--of having been the first to introduce cheap

periodical literature of a superior class. Leigh Hunt, in reply, while

upholding his own title to priority by the indubitable evidence of the

dates of his _Indicator_, _Tatler_, &c., cordially admitted that his

young rivals had more wisely achieved the desired end by interesting a

wider and less educated public.

In a few years all Edinburgh proved to be equal only to produce the

Scotch edition of the _Journal_, a branch house was established in the

English metropolis, the command of which was entrusted to a younger

brother, Mr. David Chambers, who was born in the year 1820, and who

was afterwards taken into partnership. Unlike his brothers, he had

little taste for literature. In connection with the subsequent conduct

of the _Journal_, we may mention the names of T. Smibert and Leich

Ritchie (both deceased), and Mr. W. H. Wills, and Mr. James Payn, the

sensational novelist, who for many years has had the leading conduct.

In 1844, Robert Chambers published a work written in conjunction with

Dr. Carruthers, afterwards greatly enlarged, which takes a far higher

rank than any preceding compilation of a similar character. This was

Chambers’ “Cyclopædia of English Literature,” in which no less than

832 authors are treated critically and biographically, specimens of

their most characteristic writings being quoted in addition. From the

intrinsic value of the contents, and the marvellous cheapness of the

price, a great popularity was attained, and in a few years 130,000

copies were sold in England alone, while in America it was at least as

popular.

Among his other works at this period we may mention a labour of love--a

chronological edition of Burns’ poems, so arranged with a connecting

narrative as to serve also as a biography. The proceeds of the sale

went towards securing a comfortable fortune for the poet’s sister. We

must mention, also, in passing, “The Domestic Annals of Scotland,” and

a dainty little volume of verse, printed for private circulation only,

in 1835.

A book appeared about this time entitled, “Vestiges of the Natural

History of Creation,” which was written to prove that the Divine

Governor of this world conducts its passing affairs by a fixed rule,

termed natural law. The orthodox party professed to be alarmed at the

temerity of the writer, and by them the book was hailed with contumely.

It was known that the proof sheets had passed through the hands of

Mr. Robert Chambers, and on no better authority than this, not only

did the public believe the story, but the “Vestiges” was entered in

the catalogue of the British Museum under his name. A writer in the

_Critic_ boldly stated, “on eminent authority,” that George Combe was

the author, and though this was contradicted, and though the authorship

is still a mystery, it would appear that Combe had, at all events,

something to do with the work. In 1848, Robert Chambers was selected to

be Lord Provost of Edinburgh; he was requested to deny the authorship,

but his refusal to plead, and his consequent retirement, were probably

due to his contempt for people who could make the authorship of a book

a barrier to civic honours. His brother William, however, afterwards

filled the office with such satisfaction to his fellow-citizens, that

he was re-elected, after serving the prescribed term of three years.

Many of Robert Chambers’s earliest essays in his _Journal_ had been

upon geology, and to this branch of science he became more and more

addicted, and as a geologist and antiquarian he turned to good account

a somewhat extensive course of foreign travel. In 1848 he visited

Switzerland; in 1849 Sweden and Norway; and in later years Iceland and

the Faroe Isles, Canada, and the United States. One of the results of

these travels was a volume on “Ancient Sea Margins”--containing a new

theory, that had previously been propounded by him in a paper read

before the “British Association,” and had attracted no little attention.

To supplement what their _Journal_ could not supply to the reading

public, he and his brother also wrote, with not very much assistance,

and, of course published, “Information for the People,” “Papers for the

People,” and a series of miscellaneous tracts: 200,000 of the first

named are said to have been sold.

During all this hard work Robert Chambers helped to conduct one of

the largest printing and publishing concerns in Scotland. One of the

chiefest triumphs of the brothers was “Chambers’s Educational Course,”

an educational project so complete that few men could have ever hoped

to realize it. This series begins with a three-halfpenny infant primer,

and goes onward through a whole library of grammars, dictionaries,

histories, scientific, and all primary class books, and cheap editions

of standard foreign and classical authors, till it culminates in a

popular “Encyclopædia” in ten thick volumes. This “Encyclopædia” was

originally founded on the “German Conversations’ Lexicon,” but the

articles were in all cases either re-written or thoroughly revised.

It admirably supplies the wants of those readers for whom the “Penny

Encyclopædia” was in the first instance devised, before its expansion

into the present more expensive form.

Literary honours fell fast upon Robert Chambers. He enjoyed the rare

distinction of being nominated into the Athenæum Club by its committee

of management, and was elected a member of many scientific societies;

and finally the University of St. Andrews conferred on him the degree

of Doctor of Laws.

In 1864 appeared his first real work, the “Book of Days,” but the

success that attended it was dearly bought. He had found it necessary

to reside for some years in London, in order to avail himself of the

inexhaustible treasures of the British Museum, but on his return to

Scotland he was often heard to say “that book is my death-blow.” His

nervous system was shattered, and literary labour was at an end.

After the completion of seventy volumes, and innumerable articles,

compelling almost incessant mental effort for five-and-forty years, the

overworked brain at last demanded repose. The descendants of Smollett,

the novelist, offered him the use of some hitherto untouched family

documents, and he was tempted once more to essay the long-loved task

of composition; the volume was printed in 1867, and is said to bear

painful marks of the undue strain from which his mind had suffered.

The very last years of his life were spent at St. Andrews, where

on March 17th, 1871, he died, saying, “Quite comfortable--quite

happy--nothing more!” leaving a family of nine children, one of whom,

Mr. Robert Chambers, has for some time been a partner in the firm. His

second wife (his first had died in 1863) did not survive him.

Few men have worked so hard as Robert Chambers; his life, busy in its

threefold capacity of author, editor, and publisher, can scarcely have

known an unprofitable hour; few men have worked so well, for not a line

that he has written, not a book that he has published, but has tended

in some way to the education and social improvement of the people; and

few men have reaped such an honourable and profitable reward for their

labours.

Dr. Carruthers, his colleague in the “Cyclopædia of English

Literature,” says, “His worldly prosperity kept pace with his

acquirements and his labours; he was enabled to practise a liberal

hospitality and a generous citizenship; strangers of any mark in

literature or science were cordially welcomed, and a forenoon

antiquarian ramble with Robert Chambers in the old town of Edinburgh,

or a social evening with him in Doune Terrace, were luxuries highly

prized and long remembered. Thus we have an instance of a life

meritorious, harmonious in all its parts, happy, and benefiting society

equally by its direct operation and its example.”

The news of Robert Chambers’s death so affected his brother, Mr. David

Chambers, who was at that time confined to his home through illness,

that it caused the rupture of a blood-vessel in the liver, and three

days after this he followed his elder brother; like him he had been an

earnest friend of press reform, and had devoted much of his time to

promoting the repeal of the fiscal restrictions upon newspapers.

Mr. William Chambers, who undertook from the first the largest share in

the mercantile concerns of the firm, has still found time to accomplish

a large amount of literary work. In addition to the book previously

mentioned, he has published, among others, “Travels in Italy,” and a

“History of Peebleshire,” and the “Memoir of Robert Chambers,” besides

contributing freely to the _Journal_, and other of their serial

publications.

* * * * *

Charles Knight was born at Windsor in the year 1791, and was the only

child of his father, a bookseller and printer of some importance

in that town, who, by his connection with the _Microcosm_, a paper

conducted by Canning, and written by Hookham Frere, “Bobus” Smith, and

other Etonians, had made many influential friends. The last number of

this schoolboy journal appeared, however, four years before the birth

of his son.

Charles was educated at the school of a Dr. Nicholas at Ealing, and

his early avidity for reading had, he himself thinks, much to do with

rendering his constitution weak and feeble. At the age of fourteen he

signed indentures of apprenticeship to his father, and in 1812, when

he attained his majority, he was sent up for a few weeks to London

to undergo a short term of training in the office of the _Globe_

newspaper, so as to give him practical experience in reporting and

other journalistic work; for from early boyhood he had determined to

possess a paper of his own. On Aug. 1st of the same year his desire was

realized, and, in conjunction with his father, he started the _Windsor

and Eton Express_, the editorship of which he continued up to the year

1827, finding time, however, in the midst of his busy life, to devote

to the cultivation of more general literature. In 1813 appeared the

first original work from his pen, “Arminius,” a tragedy--which had

been offered to the manager of Drury Lane Theatre, and had of course

been rejected, but very courteously. During his residence at Windsor

he was co-editor, with H. E. Locker, of the _Plain Englishman_, a

miscellaneous journal, which only lasted from 1820 to 1822.

His first venture into the dimly descried regions of popular literature

appeared, he says, in the _Windsor Express_ for Dec. 11, 1819, in a

paper called “Cheap Publications,” and was followed by others, till, in

one of the last numbers of the _Plain Englishman_, we come across an

article entitled “Diffusion of Useful Knowledge”--a straw which shows

which way his mind was turning.

[Illustration: Charles Knight.

1791-1873.]

Among Mr. Knight’s other literary labours at this time, in 1820, he

undertook the editorship of the _Guardian_, again in partnership

with a colleague; and his life, divided between Windsor and London,

became one of very pleasurable excitement. His connection, too, with a

literary journal, served to render him familiar with the aspects of the

publishing trade in London, and at the end of 1822 he sold his share of

the _Guardian_, and took up his position in Pall Mall East, and started

as a publisher.

One day, shortly after this, coming back jaded and weary from

his London office he found two Eton lads--W. M. Praed and Walter

Blunt--waiting at his cottage with an eager proposal that he should

publish an Eton miscellany. Generously and sympathetically did Mr.

Knight enter into the schemes of the schoolboys; and the plan of

the _Etonian_ was forthwith drawn up. Knight found much pleasure in

watching and assisting the young periodical, which was a kind of

pleasant nursery ground for the growth and display of the youthful

talent of which Eton then proudly and unwontedly boasted. “It was

refreshing,” he writes, “after the dry labours of his day in town,

to watch the bright, earnest, happy face of Mr. Blunt, who took a

manifest delight in doing the editorial drudgery; the worst proofs (for

in the haste unavoidable in periodical literature he would sometimes

catch hold of a proof _un_read) never disturbed the serenity of his

temper. To him it seemed a real happiness to stand at a desk in the

composing-room.” But Praed it was, with his sparkling wit, his elegant

aptness of expression, and his boyish gallantry that yet smacked of the

wise experience of age, who was the life and soul of the project, and

his contributions eventually occupied fully one-fourth of the whole

miscellany, and when he went to Cambridge it was thought advisable,

perhaps found necessary, to terminate the _Etonian_ altogether. Still

Mr. Knight’s chief hopes as a publisher were centred in the promise of

his young Eton friends, and during a week passed with them at Cambridge

the general plan of _Knight’s Quarterly Magazine_ was settled, and he

was introduced to Derwent, Coleridge, Malden, and Macaulay, afterwards

his chief contributors.

Mr. Knight was his own editor, and with the assistance of such writers,

his periodical could not fail to be a success. Even Christopher

North, in Edinburgh, was moved to write of them as a hopeful class

of “young scholars,” and Knight retorted to this stale accusation of

youth by declaring that he had read and rejected seventy-eight prose

articles, and one hundred and twenty copies of occasional verses, “all

the property of the old periodical press,” while Praed wrote saucily

enough, that “Christopher North is a barn from his wig to his slippers.”

After the first two numbers, Macaulay felt constrained to retire, as

his father objected to the political opinions of the magazine, but

he was luckily induced to alter his mind, and to the future numbers

he contributed the best of his early poems--notably, “Moncontoria”

and “Ivry” and the “Songs of the Civil Wars.” Here, too, were printed

Praed’s most charming _jeux d’esprits_, so called, though depth of

feeling and nobleness of sentiment often lay beneath their airy

bantering tone. De Quincey, then almost starving in the streets of

London, was made lovingly free of its pages, and the _Quarterly

Magazine_ attained a great celebrity as the most classical, and yet the

lightest, gayest, and most pleasing periodical of the day.

Unfortunately a division occurred among the contributors

themselves--their opinions, and the opinions they expressed, were

as widely divergent as the four winds of heaven--their supply of

matter was quite irregular, varying with the individual amusements of

the hour--reaching, Knight tells us, to “wanton neglect;” and after

many dissensions, the publisher felt “that he had to choose between

surrendering the responsibility which his duties to society had

compelled him to retain, or to lose much of the assistance which had

given to the _Quarterly Magazine_ its peculiar character.” He could

not hesitate in his choice, and with the sixth number the work ceased,

being, however, continued under the editorship of Malden, and in the

hands of another publisher for a quarter longer, but the panic that

ruined Scott and Constable, and shook so many publishing houses, made

small work of the transplanted _Quarterly_.

This period of Knight’s life may be regarded as the time when he sowed

his publishing wild oats; henceforth sterner work awaited him. Among,

however, the earliest of his distinct publications may be mentioned

Milton’s “Treatises on Christian Doctrine,” then first discovered among

the documents at the State Paper Office.

Knight had fortunately no bills afloat at the time of the panic which,

in connection with his endeavour to assist the Windsor bank, he so

graphically describes--“In the Albany we found the partners of one

firm deliberating by candle light--a few words showed how unavailing

was the hope of help from them: ‘We shall ourselves stop at nine

o’clock.’ The dark December morning gradually grew lighter; the gas

lamps died out; but long before it was perfect day we found Lombard

Street blocked up by eager crowds, each man struggling to be foremost

at the bank where he kept his accounts, if its doors should be opened.”

Still, Mr. Knight, though not directly involved, found, like many

other publishers, that the schemes of 1825 would not sell in 1826,

and that the booksellers must, spite of themselves, “hold on” as best

they could. Colburn, indeed, was the only one who still continued his

ventures, and from the light and soothing nature of his publications,

chiefly fictions calculated to allay the torture of reality, he was

able to reap a reward for his temerity.

Every day found Mr. Knight more sick of his prospects than the last.

The _Brazen Head_, a weekly satirical and humorous journal of his just

started, lightened though it was by the rippling wit of Praed, fell

upon the public like a leaden lump.

Mr. Knight’s brain had long been filled with a scheme of popular and

cheap literature, and he now made up his mind to start afresh--to

tempt the world and bless it with a real “National Library,” so good

that all should desire, so cheap that all would buy. Lord Brougham,

who was at that moment organizing the “Society for the Diffusion of

Useful Knowledge,” heard of this plan and obtained an introduction to

the schemer. The idea of the National Library was at first taken up

by the Society, but was finally adopted by John Murray. Differences

of opinion as to the editorial responsibilities, and the arrangements

as to the transfer of his stock to Albemarle Street, presented new

difficulties, and thoroughly sick of the whole matter, Mr. Knight

suddenly abandoned it. The germ of his idea, however, bore fruit in

the “Treatises” published by the Society in March, and in the “Cabinet

Encyclopædia,” issued a few years afterwards by Longman. “My boat,”

writes Mr. Knight, “was stranded. Happily for me there were no wreckers

at hand ready for the plunder of my damaged cargo.” Anyhow, for the

time being, publishing was over. To a man of indomitable pluck, and

blessed with the pen of a ready writer, journalism presents a tolerably

open field, and to newspaper work Mr. Knight again addressed himself;

but in a few weeks a document, which Mr. Knight values, he says, as a

soldier values his first commission, reached him containing an offer

of the superintendence of the Society’s publications, an offer that

was forthwith accepted. As a first step, the “Library of Entertaining

Knowledge” was commenced, and, in 1828, he started the _British

Almanac_, and the _Companion to the Almanac_--a wonderful change for

the better after the “Poor Robins” and “Old Moores” of the past.

In 1832, Mr. Knight was offered an official position at the Board of

Trade, but fortunately for the education and interests of the people he

had the courage to refuse it, having the pleasure, however, of being

asked to recommend some one else to the post. In the March of this year

appeared the first number of the _Penny Magazine_, subsequent by only a

very few weeks to _Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal_.

The new periodical had been suggested by Mr. Hill in a conversation

about the wretched character of the cheap prints of the period. “Let

us,” he exclaimed, “see what something cheap and good can accomplish!

Let us have a penny magazine!” “And what shall be the title?” asked

Knight. “The _Penny Magazine_.” At once they went to the Lord

Chancellor, who entered cordially into the project, and though a few

old Whig gentlemen on the committee urged that the proposed price was

below the dignity of the Society, and muttered, “It is very awkward,

very awkward,” Mr. Knight undertook the risk, and was immediately

appointed editor.

The success of the magazine was amazing even to the sanguine editor; at

the close of 1832 it reached a sale of 200,000 in weekly and monthly

parts--representing probably a million readers, and Burke had only

forty years previous estimated the number of readers in this country

at 80,000! Among the contributors it will be sufficient to mention

Long, De Morgan, Creswick, Allan Cunningham, and Thomas Pringle, whilom

editor of the Whiggish _Blackwood_. One writer, however, stands out

from the rest, both by his misfortunes and his attainments--coming

not only under the “curse of poverty’s unconquerable ban,” but being

completely deaf and almost dumb. Recommended to Mr. Knight as an

extraordinary, though unknown genius, who had been brought up in a

charity school, stricken with a sudden and melancholy affliction, who

had worked his way to St. Petersburg, and thence through Russia to

Moscow, and on to Persia and the Desert; who knew French and Italian

perfectly; the kind-hearted publisher, from the very first, took a

liking to Kitto--soon to be known as an eminent traveller, Orientalist,

and Biblical commentator. After the first trial article of “The Deaf

Traveller,” Kitto was regularly engaged to assist Mr. Knight personally

in his own room; and here in his spare time he managed to acquire

German.

In spite of the somewhat scurrilous attacks made upon the _Penny

Magazine_ by Colburn in his _New Monthly_ it was a continuous success,

and ultimately paved the way to a work infinitely more important--the

“Penny Encyclopædia.”

It will be essential here to understand the position of the Society for

the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.

This Society was founded in 1826 by Lord Brougham and other gentlemen,

described by Mr. Knight as the leading statesmen, lawyers, and

philanthropists of the day. “It was a blow aimed at the monopoly of

literature--the opening of the flood-gates of knowledge.” At first

the Society possessed no charter, but obtained one in May, 1832, not

probably a very useful or essential gift, nominating Brougham as

president, Lord John Russell as vice-president, and William Tooke,

Esq., treasurer. No subscriptions were called for, or rather these

means had been at once abandoned, and the “arrangements made with

the publisher since the beginning of the Society have gone upon the

principle of leaving the committee as far as possible free from risk,

and unencumbered with commercial responsibility; but at the same time

deriving a fair proportion of pecuniary advantage from the ultimate

success of the undertaking.” The publisher in the first instance

paid down a certain sum for the copyright, sufficient to cover the

disbursements to the authors by the committee, who, after a limit of

sale, received a royalty of so much per thousand copies. At first the

Society’s publications abounded in almanacs; “The British Almanack,”

“The British 4_d._ Almanack,” “The Penny Sheet Almanack,” and “The

British Working-man’s Almanack.” Then came the _Penny Magazine_, the

_British Quarterly Journal of Education_, and the “Penny Encyclopædia,”

the first number of which was issued in July, 1833. It was originally

projected to form a moderate-sized book of eight volumes, and every

article was to be written expressly for the work. This limited size was

found to be incompatible with original work by the best writers, and

after a year the price and quantity were doubled; after three years

more, quadrupled. In the present form, and according to the original

scheme, the issue would have taken thirty-seven years. But this

increase of matter, while it largely enhanced the intrinsic value of

the work, was utterly fatal to its commercial success. The committee

got, says Mr. Knight, the credit of the work, without incurring any

of the risk; and the expenditure on literary matter alone amounted to

£40,000. The sale, owing to the increase of matter and price, rapidly

declined: at first consisting of 75,000 copies, it fell at the increase

to twopence to 55,000, in the second year to 44,000, and at the close

of the fourpenny period it was actually reduced to 20,000; and this

chronic loss entailed upon Mr. Knight for the duration of eleven years

absorbed every other source of profit in his extensive business. This

loss was still further augmented by the enormously heavy paper duty of

threepence per pound, but which was reduced in 1836 to half that price.

Mr. Knight was originally associated with Mr. Long in the editorial

duties, but soon wisely gave up the management of the literary

department.

Mr. George Long, who is now leaving a Professorship at Brighton College

for Chichester,[19] had been bracketed with Macaulay and Professor

Malden for the Craven Scholarship--a fact that says something, were it

necessary, for his attainments--and was able to gather together the

most able men of the day on his staff, all of whom, whether belonging

to the Society or otherwise, were handsomely remunerated for their

labour. Upon De Morgan rested, perhaps, after the editor, the heaviest

labour, for he undertook the whole department of Mathematical Science.

The Biographical portion was chiefly due to G. C. Lewis, G. Long

himself, P. and W. Smith, and Donaldson. It is impossible, necessarily,

to mention many out of the 200 contributors, and it will suffice for

our purpose to enumerate the names of Professors Craik, Forbes, and

Donaldson, and Messrs. Ellis, Lewis, and Kitto, as writers on all

general subjects; and Mr. W. J. Broderip as taking the Natural History

department. Quite a new feature in the composition of the staff was the

introduction of foreign writers of eminence, who composed either in

their own language or in ours, all the articles being revised by the

editor and his assistants, and rendered into perfectly good English.

We must follow Mr. Knight’s own publications, remembering that their

issue was contemporary with the “Encyclopædia.” Next to that in

costliness was the “Gallery of Portraits,” issued in monthly parts at

half-a-crown each, to which, among other authors, Hallam and De Quincey

contributed.

The connection between Mr. Knight and Kitto was still very strong and

affectionate. In January, 1834, we find him detailing pleasantly the

amount of work he had to do for £16 a month--“a most comfortable sum

for me”--and later on we come across him asking Mr. Knight’s advice in

regard to his proposed marriage. “I have felt it prudent and proper to

postpone it for awhile until I should have consulted with you.... I

have hitherto been so connected in my employments with those who took a

strong personal interest in my affairs, and to whom I am accustomed to

talk freely about them, that I am led to trouble you more about myself

and my circumstances than is warranted by my existing relations. If so,

I doubt not your kindness will readily excuse the absence in a dumb man

of those little proprieties with which he has not had much opportunity

of becoming acquainted.” A curious subject on which to consult one’s

publisher, but then Mr. Knight was something more, and immediately

promised such remuneration and regular employment as would free Kitto’s

entrance into wedded life from the charge of imprudence.

The “Bilder Bibel,” then publishing in Germany, suggested to Mr. Knight

his “Pictorial Bible;” and Kitto, after having tested his own fitness

for the work thoroughly, boldly undertook to execute the whole task,

giving up, of course, all other work, and receiving £250 a year during

the progress of the book, and on completion such a sum of money as

seemed a small fortune. This completed--and it was one of the most

remunerative works upon which Mr. Knight was ever engaged--he commenced

his “Palestine,” and in such subjects Kitto found at last his true

vocation.

The “Pictorial History” occupied seven years in coming out, in parts,

of course. Mr. Craik wrote the social, religious, and commercial

portions, and Mr. C. Macfarlane undertook the larger department of

civil and military history; many other gentlemen also contributed. The

same fault occurred here as in the “Penny Encyclopædia”--it was too

long for serial publication. By an error of judgment on the part of the

editors, four of the eight volumes were devoted to the reign of George

III.; the subscribers became weary, and the project turned out to be a

commercial failure.

This was followed in 1843 by the “Illustrated London,” certainly the

best and most trustworthy history we yet have _in extenso_ of the great

metropolis.

The issue of the “weekly volumes” was also in progress, commencing with

a “Life of Caxton,” by Mr. Knight himself; but the series soon became

the “shilling volumes.”

The _Penny Magazine_ terminated on the 27th Dec., 1845, and its

continuation, _Knight’s Penny Magazine_, proving but barely

remunerative, the hint was taken, Mr. Knight declaring that it should

never be said of him, “Superfluous lags the veteran on the stage.”

The “Penny Encyclopædia” terminated in December, 1843, and though a

ruinous loss to Mr. Charles Knight, was at the same time, as regards

the general public, perhaps the greatest publishing triumph that

had yet been accomplished. The banquet given in his honour by the

contributors was, Mr. Knight tells us, the proudest moment in his life,

and was certainly a tribute as well earned as it was unique.

Into the next and grandest venture of the Society for the Diffusion of

Useful Knowledge Mr. Knight could not afford to take part--fortunately,

indeed, for the scheme, magnificent but futile, proved a deathblow to

the Society. The “New Biographical Dictionary” was intended to assume

proportions beyond anything of the kind hitherto attempted; but to

the astonishment of the committee it was found that when the letter A

was completed seven half volumes had been filled, and a loss of £5000

had been incurred. This was bad enough, but when contributors were

requested to send in suggestions as to the letter B, one man alone

forwarded more than 2000 names. By this time the Society had exhausted

its available funds, and, frightened by the prospect, thought itself

quite justified in retiring from the public scene. “Its work is done,

for its greatest object is achieved--fully, fairly, and permanently.

The public is supplied with cheap and good literature to an extent

which the most sanguine friends of improvement could not in 1826 have

hoped to witness in twenty years.”

In 1843, Mr. Knight had published his “Life of Shakespeare,” a work

by which, as a valuable history of Elizabethan times, and a charming,

though necessarily an imaginary, sketch of our greatest poet, the

author will, we think, though multitudinous in his writings, be most

distinctly remembered. His edition of Shakespeare, which for reverent

love and editorial labour is almost unrivalled, has appeared in various

guises, as the “Popular,” the “Library,” the “National,” the “Cabinet”

(three editions), the “Medium” (three editions), and the “Stratford”

(three editions).

By far the most remarkable of Mr. Knight’s labours, and perhaps the

most useful, was his “Shilling Volumes for all Readers” (1844-1849),

186 volumes, 16mo., in all; for though his editorial labours were

terminated when about two-thirds of the work was completed, he still

considered himself responsible as regards the general character of the

works. “I may confidently state,” he says, “that in this extensive

series, no single work, and no portion of a work, can be found that

may not safely be put into the hands of the young and uninformed,

with the security that it will neither mislead nor corrupt.” In a

postscript to the last volume he adds: “I now venture to believe that

I have accomplished what I proposed to do. First, I have endeavoured

to produce a series of books which comprehends something like the

range of literature which all well-educated persons desire to have at

their command.” Without attempting any very exact classification of

the various subjects of the volumes, they may be thus distributed into

large departments of knowledge:--

Analytical Accounts of Great Writers, English and Foreign 13

Biography 33

General History 5

English History 26

Geography, Travel, and Topography 33

Natural History 17

Fine Arts and Antiquities 8

Arts and Sciences, Political Philosophy, &c. 14

Natural Theology and Philosophy 15

General Literature 16

Original Fiction 6

----

186

After this noble endeavour in a good cause, it is literally

heartrending to read Mr. Knight’s candid confession that not twenty

volumes of the series achieved a circulation of 10,000 copies.

As soon as the Poor Law Board was established, Mr. Knight became

officially connected with it as an authorized publisher, and from that

time he almost entirely gave up general publishing, and his works were

entrusted to the care of other firms.

The copyright of the “Encyclopædia” remained in his possession, and was

turned to good account in the “National Encyclopædia,” and later on in

the “English Encyclopædia,” in which, however, nothing was reprinted

without thorough revision, many of the articles being entirely new.

Several of Mr. Knight’s productions, such as “The Land we Live in,”

commenced in 1847, turned out, in the hands of the “copy publisher,” to

be perfect mines of wealth.

In 1854 appeared the “Popular History of England;” it was completed in

1862.

In 1851 we find Mr. Knight going about as joint manager with Mr. Payne

Collier, of that band of illustrious amateur actors who have become so

famous. Among them we find Charles Dickens, Mark Lemon, G. Cruikshank,

Wilkie Collins, and R. H. Horne. “A joyous time, this,” writes Mr.

Knight, who had played the part of “One Tonson, a bookseller,”

“left-legged Jacob” having, he adds, “but a paltry representative.”

Among Mr. Knight’s chief literary labours, we must instance his

“Half-Hours with the Best Authors”--a book that has achieved a

world-wide popularity; “Once upon a Time;” and “Passages of a Working

Life for Half a Century” (in 3 volumes), a charming and interesting

autobiography, to which we are indebted for most of the facts in this

short notice of his life.

Full of years and of honours, Mr. Knight died at Addlestone, in Surrey,

on the 9th of March, 1873, aged eighty-one; and five days afterwards

was buried in the family vault at Windsor. The funeral was very large,

from the number of literary men attending, who wished to show their

feeling of affection and respect for the deceased. In the newspaper

notices, too, the tribute of praise was unanimous and hearty; and it

was resolved that the gratitude of writers and readers should not stop

here. A committee has been formed to erect some kind of memorial, and

many of the leading men of letters, as well as some of the leading

publishers, are taking part in it. It has been hoped that this memorial

may assume the shape of a free public library for London, and thus

initiate a movement that, to our shame, has made such successful way

in our great provincial towns. Nothing else could so appropriately

perpetuate the memory of a life so earnest in its purpose of spreading

cheap literature far and wide, so brave in difficulty, so utterly

unmindful of self-gain in the work planned out and done; that none who

know its story can gainsay Douglas Jerrold’s most happy epitaph, “Good

Knight.”

* * * * *

JOHN CASSELL, though of a family originally Kentish, was born at

Manchester on 23rd January, 1817. The child of poor parents, his school

education was very simple and elementary, and at an early age he

adopted the trade of carpentry. In most lads of that class, education,

such as it is, is totally ended when once they leave the school-house

to follow some manual calling; but from the day that Cassell took

his first serious step in life he determined to educate himself, to

break down the trammels of class ignorance, first of all in his own

case, and, that once accomplished, to assist with all the energy he

possessed, his brother workmen to do the same. At first he found

his evening studies, after a hard day’s work at the bench, somewhat

irksome and painful; but by degrees his reading became less and less

elementary, and eventually he acquired, not only a considerable

knowledge of English literature, but a fund of general information

which, on the platform, as well as in private life, stood him in

good stead; and he also attained sufficient proficiency in French to

be afterwards essentially serviceable in his repeated visits to the

Continent.

But, after all, his most valuable knowledge was acquired in the

carpenter’s shop, and among his fellow-workmen; for here he gained an

insight into the inner life--the struggles, privations, and miseries,

as well as the hopes and ambitions--of the working classes; and this

knowledge was carefully stored up until he should, at a future time,

see some way of firing their minds and ameliorating their condition.

In 1833 the total abstinence movement was commenced in Lancashire,

under the active leadership of Mr. Joseph Livesey, of Preston, and

known as “The Temperance Movement,” went through the length and

breadth of the land. About two years later, Livesey first met young

Cassell in a lecture-room or chapel in Manchester. “I remember quite

well,” he writes, “his standing on the right, just below or on the

steps of the platform, in his working attire, with a fustian jacket and

a white apron on”--a young man of eighteen, in the honestest and best

of uniforms--his industrial regimentals.

Into the temperance movement John Cassell threw himself heart and soul;

and thinking that London would afford a wider field for temperance

missionary labours, and that his daily bread, as an artizan, might

there be more easily earned, he left Manchester and arrived in the

Metropolis in October, 1836, and in a few days he found his way to

the New Jerusalem school-rooms in the Westminster Bridge Road, and

made his first public speech. He is described by one who was present,

as “a gaunt stripling, poorly clad, and travel-stained; plain,

straightforward in speech, but broad in provincialism.” Shortly

afterwards, he is again to be traced to Milton Street, Barbican. But

his appearance here marked an episode in his life; for his energy, his

evident thoroughness, and his frank confession that he carried all

his worldly goods in his little wallet, and that the few pence in his

pocket were his only fortune, at once gained him friends. A gentleman

present took him to his own home, and shortly afterwards presented him

to Mr. Meredith, who enrolled the young enthusiast forthwith among the

paid band of temperance agents he was generously supporting at his

own cost. With characteristic energy Cassell started on a temperance

tour--a journey fraught with difficulty and hardship; and a few months

after we find a notice of him in the _Preston Temperance Advocate_:

“John Cassell, the Manchester carpenter, has been labouring with

great success in the county of Norfolk. He is passing through Essex

on his way to London. He carries his watchman’s rattle--an excellent

accompaniment of temperance labours.” A strange life that gaunt young

prophet must have led; trudging about from town to village, sounding

an alarum ever as he went with his rattle, seeking by all means in his

power to rivet a momentary attention, and then from barrel-head or

tree-stump preaching in his broad Lancashire idiom a “New Crusade”--not

against such puny foes and nations as Turk or Saracen--not of mere

battles to be fought out by the exertion of so much or so little

physical strength--but of hideous vices to be conquered--vices that sat

like skeletons beside half the hearths in England then--and of noble

mental victories to be achieved. The women heard his rude eloquence,

and tears rushed to their eyes, as they prayed that their brothers and

sons might hearken and be convinced. The men paused on their way to the

pot-house, and heard how homes now desolate might be made happy, how

the weeping wife and the starving children might be rendered contented

and cheerful, how their own sodden lives might be again cleansed and

brightened;--then independence rose again from the hideous thrall that

bound them, and many paused for ever. Even those who knew the proper

use of alcohol listened with respectful attention to one who sought so

earnestly to provide a safeguard for other men weaker than themselves.

And thus Cassell trudged on, meeting often with scoffs and sneers,

suffering much weariness and many privations, but still hopeful,

eager, and earnest. In Lincolnshire his eloquent zeal won him not

only a convert but a wife, and from this time he found that temperance

lecturing was but a sorry provision for a family.[20]

Supported by his friends he now determined to aid the movement in

another manner--and he started a temperance publishing office and

bookshop at the very house in the Strand now occupied by Mr. Tweedie,

the present temperance publisher. For some time his trade went on

successfully, but he endeavoured to add to his resources by the

congenial management of a large tea and coffee business in Fenchurch

Street, and the liabilities he thus incurred overreached his capital.

Now, however, Cassell had many influential friends, and one of these

had sufficient faith in his capacity to start him afresh in life--this

time on a much larger scale. In his new business in La Belle Sauvage

Yard, he was associated with Messrs. Petter and Galpin, who before

then were not very considerable printers in the neighbourhood--and

they determined to devote themselves to the broader work of producing

cheap and popular books, then commencing to be in great demand--not

from policy only, though as the life of Robert Chambers shows it was a

moment when the tide of fortune might be advantageously made use of by

those brave enough and wise enough to see it--but also because it had

by this time been discovered that before the masses could be in any

signal way really raised in social condition they must be educated.

Being widely known as a man sprung from the people--as still one of

themselves--the working classes had faith in Cassell, and readily

purchased his books when they were not so readily tempted to try the

publications of the various societies. His knowledge of their real

conditions and their wants was very useful, and while his opinion

in every matter was most carefully adopted, the business department

remained rather in the hands of his junior partners, especially in

later years.

In 1850 the _Working Man’s Friend_ appeared, the precursor of

many similar works, and was followed, immediately after the Great

Exhibition, by the _Illustrated Exhibitor_--a comprehensive and

well-executed scheme intended to preserve a permanent reflection of the

World’s Great Fair. This same idea was successfully repeated in 1862.

Among all the works published by the firm perhaps the most useful was,

and indeed is, the _Popular Educator_; in this, for the weekly sum of

one penny, the vast store-house of human knowledge was thrown open;

the matter, carefully systematised and arranged so as to encourage

self-tuition, aided many a struggler in the path of progress. This was

ably followed by the _Technical Educator_. In the former of these works

Lord Brougham took an immense interest, and his opinion of John Cassell

was as pleasing as it was often repeated.

Of the illustrated works issued in the same cheap method many were

English, or rather European, classics, such as the “Pilgrim’s

Progress,” “Don Quixote,” “Foxe’s Book of Martyrs,” “Shakespeare,”

“Robinson Crusoe,” “Gulliver’s Travels,” &c. Like Tegg or Lackington,

Cassell must be looked upon rather as an encourager of the reading

than of the writing world; but among the works claiming originality as

well as cheapness, the _History of England_ is perhaps the best; the

_Natural History_ is well printed, well illustrated, and, as far as

regards the more legitimate department of the publisher’s trade, worthy

of praise; the “letter-press,” or literary portion, has, however,

been much criticised. The _Family Paper_ and the _Quiver_ attained a

very wide circulation, and while the latter is still one of the most

favourite distinctly religious serials of the day, the former, until it

was changed into the _Magazine_, held faithfully to its promise of pure

and wholesome literature.

In furtherance of his various schemes, Cassell often travelled,

particularly to France, where he was well known, and where he was thus

enabled to effect a very considerable business in the exchange and

purchase of illustrations for his various works. In 1859 he visited

America, and, with the reputation that preceded him, met with a very

flattering reception. On his return, with the energy that distinguished

his character he started a company for the manufacture of petroleum,

which was the first in England to recognise the value of the new

discovery. He also published a series of articles entitled “America

as it is,” in which the contest between North and South was discussed

with a keenness of vision that results proved to be correct and almost

prophetic.

Among the important items of his business, and according to popular

repute one of the most profitable, was the issue of weekly papers,

which, the outer pages being left blank for local news, were circulated

under various titles throughout the United Kingdom. But the greatest

venture of the firm was undoubtedly the _Family Bible_, which was

commenced in 1859. The cost of production is said to have amounted to

£100,000; in six years upwards of 350,000 copies were sold, and it is

at present calculated that half a million have been disposed of. Of the

influence of this and other kindred works in displacing the infamous

prints and penny serial horrors, the _Bookseller_ says--“We recently

took a survey of the shop-windows in the notorious locality known as

the Seven Dials. Here in one street, were three shops, the windows of

which were filled with really respectable publications. In one shop

scarcely anything was displayed but _Cassell’s Family Bible_. In every

one, of at least twenty-four, figured some event of sacred history. On

making inquiries we found that a very large number in the very poorest

neighbourhood was taking in the work every week, and expressed their

delight to possess a long coveted article of furniture in the shape of

a _family Bible_.”

Up to his death Cassell was true to his early resolutions of fostering

the progress of temperance and education, and on these subjects he was

a frequent and popular lecturer. He took also a lively interest in

the business of the firm, but latterly the management was virtually

in the hands of his partners. The “History of Julius Cæsar,” by the

ex-emperor, was, however, entrusted to his care, and was the last

publication in which he took an active interest. On the 1st of April,

1865, he died at his residence in Regent’s Park. He is described as

having “a fine, massive, muscular frame, active and temperate habits

of life, a cheerful disposition, a well-regulated mind, and troops

of friends.” Rising from the ranks, he was by his industry able to

leave his wife a shareholder in one of our largest book-manufacturing

firms to the extent of, it is said, forty-two thousand pounds. The

main interest of his life must, however, be considered to lie in the

earnestness with which he laboured in causes he felt worthy of all

labour, rather than in his career as a publisher, for the books he

issued were little other than reprints of books whose popularity had

been previously tested.

At the time of Cassell’s death it is said that upwards of 500 men were

employed at the works; that 855,000 sheets were printed off weekly,

requiring a consumption of 1310 reams of paper. Latterly Messrs.

Petter and Galpin have launched out into a vastly superior style of

book-publishing, and in placing the works of Gustave Doré before the

English public have taken very high rank as Fine Art publishers.

In other ways, too, they have shown a disposition to combine the

production of valuable original works with the cheaper serials with

which the name of their firm has been so long and successfully

associated.

* * * * *

It is impossible to close this chapter without referring to the

productions of Mr. Bohn. Our limited space and the value of his

publications--all the more valuable, doubtless, from being mainly

reproductions of standard works--alone prevent us from according him a

separate chapter.

Mr. Henry George Bohn, born in the year 1796, was the son of a

London bookseller, who came, however, of a German family. At an

early age he entered into his father’s business, but throughout

life, engrossed as deeply as any of his compeers in bookselling and

publishing transactions, he ever found time and opportunity for

literary labour, and, in all, twelve important works are due to

his pen, either as author, translator, or editor. The first of his

labours, the “Bibliotheca Parriana,” was published in 1827. Very soon

after, starting on his own account, he acquired a high reputation as

a dealer in rare and curious books, and for the spirit with which he

entered into the “remainder trade;” in this latter branch even Tegg

was compelled to confess that Mr. Bohn eventually surpassed him. The

merest reference to his monster “Guinea Catalogue” will give an idea of

the magnitude of his transactions at this period. Far, however, from

being a mere trade guide, this catalogue is an invaluable literary

work--the most useful, as it certainly is the largest, that has come

from Mr. Bohn’s pen. It is quaintly described by Allibone as “an

enormously thick _nondescripto_; Teutonic shape, best model; ... an

invaluable lexicon to any literary man, and ten guineas would be a

cheap price for a work calculated to save time by its convenience for

reference, and money by its stores of information as to the literary

and pecuniary value of countless tomes.” The _Literary Gazette_, in an

appreciative and well-earned compliment, says: “Mr. Bohn has outdone

all former doings in the same line, and given us a literary curiosity

of remarkable character. The volume is the squattest and the fattest

we ever saw. It is an alderman among books, not a very tall one; and

then, alderman-like, its inside is richly stuffed with a multitude of

good things. Why, there is a list of more than 23,000 articles, and

the pages reach to 1948!... This catalogue has cost him an outlay of

more than £2000, and it describes 300,000 volumes, a stock which could

hardly be realized at much less a ‘plum.’”

In 1846, Mr. Registrar Hazlitt suggested the idea of a cheap uniform

library of world-known books to David Bogue, the bookseller, who

consequently commenced his European Library. In 1846-7, fifteen works

were published, edited for the most part by Mr. W. Hazlitt. Mr. Bohn,

however, discovered that in many of these works copyrights, of which

he was the owner, were infringed, notably in Roscoe’s “Lorenzo de’

Medici” and “Leo X.” An injunction was obtained against the further

issue of one of Bogue’s volumes, and in defence, if not retaliation,

Mr. Bohn determined to enter the field as a publisher of a similar

series. In 1846 he produced the first volume of his Standard Library,

which, running on for 150 volumes, was sold at the then astoundingly

small price--considering their size, their quality, and the care with

which they were edited and printed--of 3_s_. 6_d_. each. In 1847,

the Scientific Library was commenced, and was rapidly followed by

the Antiquarian Library, the Classical, Illustrated, and Historical

Libraries, the British Classics, &c. Bogue’s small venture stood a poor

chance against enterprise of this gargantuan scale, and in a short time

his fifteen volumes came into Mr. Bohn’s possession. Without counting

the Shilling Library, or the more expensive works which were from time

to time issued, Mr. Bohn continued the various libraries which are so

immediately associated with his name, until the total number of 602

volumes afforded the student a collection of such books as he might

otherwise have spent a lifetime and a fortune in acquiring. To few

publishers, if to any, is the cheapening of the highest and rarest

classes of English and foreign literature more deeply indebted than to

Mr. Bohn. Strangely enough, however, Mr. Bohn was the only member of

the trade who endeavoured in 1860 to exert his influence against the

abolition of the paper duty.

Among the best known of Mr. Bohn’s own productions are his editions

of Lowndes’ “Manual,” Addison’s works, his “Polyglot of French

Proverbs,” his translation of Schiller’s “Robbers,” and his “Guide to

the Knowledge of Pottery and Porcelain,” which, though published in

1849, is still the standard work on the subject. His position as an

antiquarian is widely acknowledged, and he is a Vice-President of the

Society of Arts.

At an early period of his life Mr. Bohn married a daughter of the

senior partner in the firm of Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., an alliance

that doubtless strengthened his business connections. His trade sales

were for many years among the most important in London, lasting for

three or four days, and were conducted after the manner of the good old

school of booksellers--now, alas! almost extinct--with the pleasing

accompaniments of singing and supper. Though Mr. Bohn, a few years

since, transferred his “Libraries” and his premises in York Street to

Messrs. Bell and Daldy, he has not yet entirely severed his connection

with the bookselling world, though as the “father of the trade” he

has long since earned the right to leisure and retirement--a right

acknowledged not alone in England, for in June, 1869, the _New York

Round Table_ devoted an interesting article to Mr. Bohn’s retirement

from the publishing world, and observed that many of his articles

in “Lowndes” were unsurpassed in bibliography, especially those on

Shakespeare and Junius. “Indeed,” adds the writer, “if we may believe

report, such has been the unceasing devotion of Mr. Bohn to work that

for years he has subjected himself to a weekly examination by his

surgeon to warn him of the first symptoms of the collapse that such an

unintermitted strain upon his mind might be supposed to produce.”

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_HENRY COLBURN_: