diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 4 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-0.txt | 14029 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-0.zip | bin | 326264 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h.zip | bin | 3607574 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/52362-h.htm | 18834 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/cover.jpg | bin | 150068 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_000.jpg | bin | 96599 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_001.jpg | bin | 14905 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_005.jpg | bin | 29749 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_005b.jpg | bin | 4279 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_006.jpg | bin | 10104 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_007.jpg | bin | 26131 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_008.jpg | bin | 11462 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_009.jpg | bin | 26506 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_012.jpg | bin | 54878 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_012b.jpg | bin | 79804 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_014.jpg | bin | 77428 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_014b.jpg | bin | 75542 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_016.jpg | bin | 60070 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_016b.jpg | bin | 75470 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_020.jpg | bin | 38270 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_020b.jpg | bin | 52247 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_022.jpg | bin | 56702 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_022b.jpg | bin | 11329 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_022c.jpg | bin | 52490 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_024.jpg | bin | 102050 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_028.jpg | bin | 50759 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_028b.jpg | bin | 95962 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_048.jpg | bin | 77906 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_048b.jpg | bin | 95781 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_056.jpg | bin | 99526 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_058.jpg | bin | 100056 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_058b.jpg | bin | 93025 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_066.jpg | bin | 98431 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_072.jpg | bin | 100372 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_076.jpg | bin | 87064 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_076b.jpg | bin | 95557 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_079.jpg | bin | 26506 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_088.jpg | bin | 93040 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_109.jpg | bin | 14611 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_110.jpg | bin | 29177 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_112.jpg | bin | 100908 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_158.jpg | bin | 16217 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_159.jpg | bin | 24393 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_166.jpg | bin | 89114 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_199.jpg | bin | 23865 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_233.jpg | bin | 12840 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_234.jpg | bin | 25578 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_236.jpg | bin | 97409 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_252.jpg | bin | 102336 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_278.jpg | bin | 14450 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_279.jpg | bin | 26102 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_295.jpg | bin | 12260 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_296.jpg | bin | 29471 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_332.jpg | bin | 16242 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_333.jpg | bin | 27233 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_346.jpg | bin | 11911 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_347.jpg | bin | 24120 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_363.jpg | bin | 25272 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_378.jpg | bin | 14459 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_379.jpg | bin | 24266 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_398.jpg | bin | 12391 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_399.jpg | bin | 23035 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_412.jpg | bin | 26236 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_420.jpg | bin | 8675 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_421.jpg | bin | 24559 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_424.jpg | bin | 102386 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_432.jpg | bin | 6216 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_433.jpg | bin | 24596 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_440.jpg | bin | 9559 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_441.jpg | bin | 26035 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52362-h/images/i_483.jpg | bin | 9287 -> 0 bytes |
74 files changed, 17 insertions, 32863 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..24bd42c --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #52362 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/52362) diff --git a/old/52362-0.txt b/old/52362-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 084cc12..0000000 --- a/old/52362-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,14029 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of A History of Booksellers, the Old and the -New, by Henry Curwen - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: A History of Booksellers, the Old and the New - -Author: Henry Curwen - -Release Date: June 18, 2016 [EBook #52362] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF BOOKSELLERS, OLD AND NEW *** - - - - -Produced by MWS, Charlie Howard, and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - - A - HISTORY OF BOOKSELLERS, - - _THE OLD AND THE NEW_. - - - BY HENRY CURWEN. - - - [Illustration] - - - “In these days, ten ordinary histories of kings and courtiers were - well exchanged against the tenth part of one good History of - Booksellers.”--THOMAS CARLYLE. - - - WITH PORTRAITS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. - - - London: - CHATTO AND WINDUS, PICCADILLY. - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -PREFACE. - - -“History” has been aptly termed the “essence of innumerable -biographies;” and this surely justifies us in the selection of our -title; but in inditing a volume to be issued in a cheap and popular -form, it was manifestly impossible to trace the careers of all the -eminent members, ancient and modern, of a Trade so widely extended; -had we, indeed, possessed all possible leisure for research, every -available material, and a space thoroughly unlimited, it is most -probable that the result would have been distinguished chiefly for -its bulk, tediousness, and monotony. It was resolved, therefore, in -the first planning of the volume, to primarily trace the origin and -growth of the Bookselling and Publishing Trades up to a comparatively -modern period; and then to select, for fuller treatment, the most -typical English representatives of each one of the various branches -into which a natural division of labour had subdivided the whole. -And, by this plan, it is believed that, while some firms at present -growing into eminence may have been omitted, or have received but -scant acknowledgment, no one Publisher or Bookseller, whose spirit -and labours have as yet had time to justify a claim to a niche in the -“HISTORY OF BOOKSELLERS,” has been altogether passed over. In the -course of our “HISTORY,” too, we have been necessarily concerned with -the manner of the “equipping and furnishing” of nearly every great -work in our literature. So that, while on the one hand we have related -the lives of a body of men singularly thrifty, able, industrious, and -persevering--in some few cases singularly venturesome, liberal, and -kindly-hearted--we have on the other, by our comparative view, tried to -throw a fresh, at all events a concentrated, light upon the interesting -story of literary struggle. - -No work of the kind has ever previously been attempted, and this fact -must be an apology for some, at least, of our shortcomings. - - H. C. - - _November, 1873._ - -[Illustration] - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -CONTENTS. - - - PAGE - THE BOOKSELLERS OF OLDEN TIMES 9 - - THE LONGMAN FAMILY 79 - _Classical and Educational Literature._ - - CONSTABLE, CADELL, AND BLACK 110 - _The “Edinburgh Review,” “Waverley Novels,” and - “Encyclopædia Britannica.”_ - - JOHN MURRAY 159 - _Belles-Lettres and Travels._ - - WILLIAM BLACKWOOD 199 - “_Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine._” - - CHAMBERS, KNIGHT, AND CASSELL 234 - _Literature for the People._ - - HENRY COLBURN 279 - _Three-Volume Novels and Light Literature._ - - THE RIVINGTONS, THE PARKERS, AND JAMES NISBET 296 - _Religious Literature._ - - BUTTERWORTH AND CHURCHILL 333 - _Technical Literature._ - - EDWARD MOXON 347 - _Poetical Literature._ - - KELLY AND VIRTUE 363 - _The “Number” Trade._ - - THOMAS TEGG 379 - _Book-Auctioneering and the “Remainder Trade.”_ - - THOMAS NELSON 399 - _Children’s Literature and “Book-Manufacturing.”_ - - SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, AND CO. 412 - _Collecting for the Country Trade._ - - CHARLES EDWARD MUDIE 421 - _The Lending Library._ - - W. H. SMITH AND SON 433 - _Railway Literature._ - - PROVINCIAL BOOKSELLERS 441 - _York: Gent and Burdekin. Newcastle: Goading, Bryson, - Bewick, and Charnley. Glasgow: Fowlis and Collins. - Liverpool: Johnson. Dublin: Duffy. Derby: Mozley, - Richardson, and Bemrose. Manchester: Harrop, Barker, - Timperley, and the Heywoods. Birmingham: Hutton, - Baskerville, and “The Educational Trading Co.” Exeter: - Brice. Bristol: Cottle._ - -[Illustration] - - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -_THE BOOKSELLERS OF OLDEN TIMES._ - - -Long ages before the European invention of the art of printing, long -even before the encroaching masses of Huns and Visigoths rolled the -wave of civilization backward for a thousand years, the honourable -trades, of which we aim to be in some degree the chroniclers, had their -representatives and their patrons. Without going back to the libraries -of Egypt--a subject fertile enough in the pages of mythical history--or -to the manuscript-engrossers and sellers of Ancient Greece--though by -their labours much of the world’s best poetry, philosophy, and wit was -garnered for a dozen centuries, like wheat ears in a mummy’s tomb, to -be scattered to the four winds of heaven, when the Mahometans seized -upon Constantinople, thenceforth to fructify afresh, and, in connection -with the art of printing, as if the old world and the new clasped -hands upon promise of a better time, to be mainly instrumental in the -“revival of letters”--it will be sufficient for our present purpose -to know that there were in Rome, at the time of the Empire, many -publishing firms, who, if they could not altogether rival the magnates -of Albemarle Street and the “Row,” issued books at least as good, -and, paradoxical as it may seem, at least as cheaply as their modern -brethren. - -To the sauntering Roman of the Augustan age literature was an -essential; never, probably, till quite modern times was education--the -education, at all events, that supplies a capability to read and -write--so widely spread. The taste thus created was gratified in many -ways. If the Romans had no Mudie, they possessed public libraries, -thrown freely open to all. They had public recitations, at which -unpublished and ambitious writers could find an audience; over which, -too, sometimes great emperors presided, while poets, with a world-wide -reputation, read aloud their favourite verses. They had newspapers, the -subject-matter of which was wonderfully like our own. The principal -journal, entitled _Acta Diurna_, was compiled under the sanction of -the government, and hung up in some place of frequent resort for the -benefit of the multitude, and was probably copied for the private -accommodation of the wealthy. All public events of importance were -chronicled here; the reporters, termed _actuarii_, furnished abstracts -of the proceedings in the law courts and at public assemblies; there -was a list of births, deaths, and marriages; and we are informed -that the one article of news in which the _Acta Diurna_ particularly -abounded was that of reports of trials for divorce. Juvenal tells -us that the women were all agog for deluges, earthquakes, and other -horrors, and that the wine-merchants and traders used to invent false -news in order to affect their various markets. But, in addition to -all these means for gratifying the Roman taste for reading, every -respectable house possessed a library, and among the better classes the -slave-readers (_anagnostæ_) and the slave-transcribers (_librarii_) -were almost as indispensable as cooks and scullions. At first we -find that these slaves were employed in making copies of celebrated -books for their masters; but gradually the natural division of labour -produced a separate class of publishers. Atticus, the Moxon of the -period, and an author of similar calibre, saw an opening for his -energies in the production of copies of favourite authors upon a -large scale. He employed a number of slaves to copy from dictation -simultaneously, and was thus able to multiply books as quickly as they -were demanded. His success speedily finding imitators, among whom were -Tryphon and Dorus, publishing became a recognized trade. The public -they appealed to was not a small one. Martial, Ovid, and Propertius -speak of their works as being known all the world over; that young and -old, women and girls, in Rome and in the provinces, in Britain and in -Gaul, read their verses. “Every one,” says Martial, “has me in his -pocket, every one has me in his hands.” - - “Laudat, amat, cantat nostros mea Roma libellos: - Meque sinus omnis, me manus omnis habet.” - -Horace speaks of the repugnance he felt at seeing his works in the -hands of the vulgar. And Pliny writes that Regulus is mourning -ostentatiously for the loss of his son, and no one weeps like -him--_luget ut nemo_. “He composes an oration which he is not content -with publicly reciting in Rome, but must needs enrich the provinces -with a thousand copies of it.” - -School-books, too, an important item in publishing eyes, were in demand -at Rome: Juvenal says that “the verses which the boy has just _conned -over_ at his desk he stands up to repeat,” and Persius tells us that -poets were ambitious to be read in the schools; while Nero, in his -vanity, gave special command that his verses should be placed in the -hands of the students. - -Thus, altogether, there must have been a large book-buying public, and -this fact is still further strengthened by the cheapness of the books -produced. M. Geraud[1] concludes that the prices were lower than in our -own day. According to Martial the first book of his Epigrams was to be -bought, neatly bound, for five denarii (nearly three shillings), but -in a cheaper binding for the people it cost six to ten sestertii (a -shilling to eighteenpence); his thirteenth book of Epigrams was sold -for four sestertii (about eightpence), and half that price would, he -says, have left a fair profit (Epig. xiii. 3). He tells us, moreover, -that it would only require one hour to copy the whole of the second -book, - - “Hæc una peragit librarius hora.” - -This book contains five hundred and forty verses, and though he may -be speaking with poetical licence, the system of abbreviations did -undoubtedly considerably lessen the labour of transcribing, and -it would be quite possible, by employing a number of transcribers -simultaneously, to produce an edition of such a work in one day. - -In Rome, therefore, we see that from the employment of slave -labour--and some thousands of slaves were engaged in this work of -transcribing--books were both plentiful and cheap.[2] - -[Illustration: William Caxton. The first printer at Westminster. - -1410-1491.] - -[Illustration: Caxton’s Monogram. - -(_Facsimile from his Works._)] - -In the Middle Ages this state of things was entirely altered. Men -were too busy in giving and receiving blows, in oppressing and being -oppressed, to have the slightest leisure for book-learning. Slaves, -such as then existed, were valued for far different things than -reading and writing; and even their masters’ kings, princes, lords, -and other fighting dignitaries, would have regarded a quill-pen, in -their mail-gloved hands, as a very foolish and unmanly weapon. There -was absolutely no public to which bookmakers could have appealed, and -the art of transcribing was confined entirely to a few monks, whose -time hung heavily upon their hands; and, as a natural result, writers -became, as Odofredi says, “no longer writers but painters,” and books -were changed into elaborate works of art. Nor was this luxurious -illumination confined to Bibles and Missals; the very law-books were -resplendent, and a writer in the twelfth century complains that in -Paris the Professor of Jurisprudence required two or three desks to -support his copy of Ulpian, gorgeous with golden letters. No wonder -that Erasmus says of the _Secunda Secundea_ that “no man can carry it -about, much less get it into his head.” - -At first there was no trade whatever in books, but gradually a system -of barter sprung up between the monks of various monasteries; and with -the foundation of the Universities a regular class of copyists was -established to supply the wants of scholars and professors, and this -improvement was greatly fostered by the invention of paper. - -The booksellers of this period were called _Stationarii_, either from -the practice of stationing themselves at booths or stalls in the -streets (in contradistinction to the itinerant vendors) or from the -other meaning of the Latin term _statio_, which is, Crevier tells us, -_entrepôt_ or depository, and he adds that the booksellers did little -else than furnish a place of deposit, where private persons could send -their manuscripts for sale. In addition to this, indeed as their chief -trade, they sent out books to be read, at exorbitant prices, not in -volumes, but in detached parts, according to the estimation in which -the authors were held. - -In Paris, where the trade of these _stationarii_ was best developed, -a statute regarding them was published in 1275, by which they were -compelled to take the oath of allegiance once a year, or, at most, once -every two years. They were forbidden by this same statute to purchase -the books placed in their hands until they had been publicly exposed -for sale for at least a month; the purchase money was to be handed over -direct to the proprietor, and the bookseller’s commission was not to -exceed one or two per cent. In addition to the _stationarii_, there -were in Paris several pedlars or stall-keepers, also under University -control, who were only permitted to exhibit their wares under the free -heavens, or beneath the porches of churches where the schools were -occasionally kept. The portal at the north end of the cross aisle in -Rouen Cathedral is still called _le Portail des Libraires_. - -[Illustration: Wynkyn de Worde. 1493-1534. The second printer at -Westminster. - -(_From a drawing by Fathorne._)] - -[Illustration: Headpiece of William Caxton.] - -In England the first stationers were probably themselves the engrossers -of what they sold, when the learning and literature of the country -demanded as the chief food A B C’s and Paternosters, Aves and Creeds, -Graces and Amens. Such was the employment of our earliest stationers, -as the names of their favourite haunts--Paternoster Row, Amen -Corner, and Ave Maria Lane--bear ample witness; while the term -stationer soon became synonymous with bookseller, and, in connection -with the Stationers’ Company, of no little importance, as we shall soon -see, in our own bookselling annals. - -In 1292, the bookselling corporation of Paris consisted of twenty-four -copyists, seventeen bookbinders, nineteen parchment makers, thirteen -illuminators, and eight simple dealers in manuscripts. But at the time -when printing was first introduced upwards of six thousand people are -said to have subsisted by copying and illuminating manuscripts--a fact -that, even if exaggerated, says something for the gradual advancement -of learning. - -The European invention of printing, which here can only be mentioned; -the diffusion of Greek manuscripts and the ancient wisdom contained -therein, consequent upon the capture of Constantinople by the Turks; -the discovery of America; and, finally, the German and English -religious Reformations, were so many rapid and connected strides in -favour of knowledge and progress. All properly-constituted conservative -minds were shocked that so many new lights should be allowed to stream -in upon the world, and every conceivable let and hindrance was called -up in opposition. Royal prerogatives were exercised, Papal bulls were -issued, and satirists (_soi-disant_) were bitter. A French poet of this -period, sneering at the invention of printing, and the discovery of the -New World by Columbus, says of the press, in language conveyed by the -following doggerel:-- - - “I’ve seen a mighty throng - Of printed books and long, - To draw to studious ways - The poor men of our days; - By which new-fangled practice, - We soon shall see the fact is, - Our streets will swarm with scholars - Without clean shirts or collars, - With Bibles, books, and codices - As cheap as tape for bodices.” - -In spite of this feeling against the popularization of learning and the -spread of education--a feeling not quite dead yet, if we may trust the -evidence of a few good old Tory speakers on the evil effects (forgery, -larceny, and all possible violation of the ten commandments) of popular -education--a feeling perhaps subsiding, for a country gentleman of -the old school told us recently that he “would wish every working man -to read the Bible--the Bible only--and _that_ with difficulty”--a -progressive sign--the world was too well aware of the good to be -gathered from the furtherance of these novelties to willingly let them -die, and though the battle was from the first a hard one, it has been, -from first to last, a winning battle. - -[Illustration: Richard Pynson. Died about 1530.] - -[Illustration: Monogram used by Richard Pynson.] - -It will be essential throughout this chapter, and indeed throughout the -whole work, to bear in mind that it was not till quite modern times -that a separate class was formed to buy copyrights, to employ printers, -and to sell the books wholesale, to which their names were affixed -on the title-pages--to be in fact, in the modern acceptation of the -word, Publishers. There was no such class among the old booksellers; -but they had to do everything for themselves, to construct the types, -presses, and other essentials for printing, to bind the sheets when -printed, and finally, when the books were manufactured, to sell them -to the general public. For long, many of the booksellers had printing -offices; they all, of course, kept shops, at which not only printed -books but stationery was retailed; bookbinders were not unfrequent -among them; and, to very recent times, they were the chief proprietors -of newspapers, a branch of the trade that appears, from some modern -instances, to be again falling in their direction. - -In England the printing press found a sure asylum, but at first the -books printed were very few in number and the issue of each book small. -The works produced by Caxton consisted almost entirely of translations. -“Divers famous clerks and learned men,” says one of the early printers, -“translated and made many noble works into our English tongue. Whereby -there was much more plenty and abundance of English used than there -was in times past.” Wynkyn de Worde followed closely in his master’s -footsteps; but soon a new source of employment for the press was -discovered, and De Worde turned his attention to the production of -_Accidences_, _Lucidaries_, _Orchards of Words_, _Promptuaries for -Little Children_, and the like. With the Reformation came of course a -great demand for Bibles, and, between the years 1526 and 1600, so great -was the rush for this new supply of hitherto forbidden knowledge that -we have no less than three hundred and twenty-six editions, or parts of -editions, of the English Bible. - -In the “Typographical Antiquities” of Ames and Herbert are recorded -the names of three hundred and fifty printers in England and Scotland, -who flourished between 1474 and 1600. Though these “printers” were -also booksellers, their history belongs more properly to the annals -of printing. We will, therefore, confine ourselves to a preliminary -account of the Stationers’ Company, and then enter forthwith upon such -biographical sketches as our space will allow, of the men who may be -regarded, if not uniformly in the modern sense as publishers, at any -rate as the representative booksellers of old London. - -The “Stationers or Text-writers who wrote and sold all sorts of books -then in use” were first formed into a guild in the year 1403, by the -authority of the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen, and possessed -ordinances made for the good government of their fellowship; and thus -constituted they assembled regularly in their first hall in Milk Street -under the government of a master and two wardens; but no privilege or -charter has ever been discovered, under which, at that period, they -acted as a corporate body. The Company had, however, no control over -printed books until they received their first charter from Mary and -Philip on 4th May 1557. The object of the charter is thus set forth in -the preamble: “Know ye that we, considering and manifestly perceiving -that several seditious and heretical books, both in verse and prose, -are daily published, stamped and printed, by divers scandalous, -schismatical, and heretical persons, not only exciting our subjects -and liege-men to sedition and disobedience against us, our crown -and dignity; but also to the renewal and propagating very great and -detestable heresies against the faith and sound Catholic doctrine of -Holy Mother the Church; and being willing to provide a proper remedy -in this case,” &c. The powers granted to the Company by this charter -were, verbally, absolute. Not only were they to search out, seize, and -destroy books printed in contravention of the monopoly, or against the -faith and sound Catholic doctrine of Holy Mother Church; but they might -seize, take away, have, burn, or convert to their own use, whatever -they should _think_ was printed contrary to the form of any statute, -act, or proclamation, made or _to be_ made. And this charter renewed -by Elizabeth in 1588, amplified by Charles II. in 1684, and confirmed -by William and Mary in 1690, is still virtually in existence. It is -scarcely strange that such enormous powers as these were but little -respected; indeed Queen Elizabeth herself was one of the first to -invade their privileges, and she granted the following, among other -monopolies, away from the Stationers’ Company:-- - - To Byrde, the printing of music books. - To Serres, psalters, primers, and prayer books. - To Flower, grammars. - To Tothill, law books. - To Judge (the Queen’s Printer), Bibles and Testaments. - To Watkin and Roberts, almanacs and prognostications. - To Vautrollier, Latin Testaments and other Latin books. - To Marsh, school-books. - To Day, A B C’s and catechisms. - -(This last had his printing office in Moorgate Street, ornamented with -the motto, “Arise, for it is Day!”) - -The Stationers’ Company, sorely damaged in trade by the sudden -and almost entire loss of their privileges, petitioned the Queen, -representing that they were subject to certain levies, that they -supplied when called upon a number of armed men, and that they expected -to derive some benefit when they underwent these liabilities. As a -reply they were severely reprimanded for daring to question the Queen’s -prerogative, upon which they petitioned again, but more humbly, that -they might at least be placed on an equal footing with the interlopers, -and be permitted to print something or other. Her Majesty was shortly -pleased to sanction an arrangement by which they were to possess the -exclusive right of printing and selling psalters, primers, almanacs, -and books tending to the same purpose--the _A B C_’s, the _Little -Catechism_, Nowell’s _English_ and _Latin Catechisms_, &c. - -Ward, and Wolf a fishmonger, however, disputed the power of the -Company, declaring it to be lawful, according to the written law of -the land, for any printer to print all books; and when the Master and -Wardens of the Company went to search Ward’s house, preparatory to -seizing, burning, or conveying away his books, they were ignominiously -defeated by his wife. The Lord Treasurer likewise sent commissioners -thither, “but they, too, could bring him to nothing.” - -Learning from this how useless the tremendous powers conferred upon -them by their charter really were, the Stationers’ Company took a wiser -course and subscribed £15,000 to print the books in which they had the -exclusive property. - -[Illustration: Richard Grafton, English Printer and Historian. Died -after 1572. The first printer of the Common Prayer.] - -[Illustration: John Wight or Wyghte. Was living in 1551. A printer of -law books.] - -The “entry” of copies at Stationers’ Hall was commenced in 1558, but -without the delivery of any books, and these entries seem originally to -have been intended by the booksellers of the Company to make known to -each other their respective copyrights, and to act as advertisements -of the works thus entered. Half a century later, Sir Thomas Bodley -was appointed librarian at Oxford, and so great was his zeal for -obtaining books that he persuaded the Company of Stationers in London -to give him a copy of every book that was printed, and this voluntary -offering was rendered compulsory by the celebrated Licensing Act of -1663, which prohibited the publication of any book unless licensed -by the Lord Chamberlain, and entered in the Stationers’ Registers, -and which fixed the number of copies to be presented gratis at -three. In the reign of William and Mary the liberty of the press was -restored, but in the new Act the door was unfortunately thrown open -to infractions of literary property by clandestine editions of books, -and in the following reign the property of copyright was secured for -fourteen years, though the perpetuity of copyright was still vulgarly -believed in, and, by the better class of booksellers, still respected. -The number of compulsory presentation copies was gradually increased -to eleven, forming a very heavy tax upon expensive books, and was only -in our own times reduced to five. At present the registration of books -at Stationers’ Hall is quite independent of the presentations, which -are still compulsory. The fee for the registration or assignment of a -copyright is five shillings. - -By the end of the last century all the privileges and monopolies of -the Company had been shredded away till they had nothing left but -the right to publish a common Latin primer and almanacs. In 1775 J. -Carnan,[3] an enterprizing tradesman, questioning the legality of -the latter monopoly, published an almanac on his own account, and -defended himself against an action brought by the Company in which the -monopoly was declared worthless. As, however, the Company still paid -the Universities for the lease of the sole right to publish almanacs, -they endeavoured to recover their privilege by Act of Parliament, but -were defeated by Erskine in a memorable speech, who showed that, while -supposed to be protectors of the order and the decencies of the press, -the Company had not only entirely omitted to exercise their duties, -but that, even in using their privileges, they had, to increase their -revenue, printed, in the “Poor Robin’s” and other almanacs, the most -revolting indecencies; and the question was decided against them. - -[Illustration: - - Rayne Wolfe. - Paul’s Churchyard. - - King Henry VIII.’s - printer. -] - -[Illustration: 1547.] - -[Illustration: John Day or Daye. “A famous printer. He lived over -Aldgate.” - -1522-1584.] - -The “earliest men of letters”--if we accept the word in its modern -meaning of those who earn their bread by their pens--were the -dramatists; but the publication of their plays was a mere appendix -to the acting thereof, and Shakespeare never drew a penny from the -printing of his works. The Elizabethan dramatists--the Greenes and -Marlowes--led a life of wretchedness only paralleled later on by the -annals of Grub Street. As the use of the printing press expanded, -however, a race of authors by profession sprang into existence. At -the time of the Commonwealth James Howell, author of the “Epistolæ -Ho-elianæ,” who was thrown into the Fleet prison, appears to have made -his bread by scribbling for the booksellers; Thomas Fuller, also, was -among the first, as well as the quaintest, hack-writers; he observes, -in the preface to his “Worthies,” that no stationers have hitherto -lost by him. His “Holy State” was reprinted four times before the -Restoration, but the publisher continued to describe the last two -impressions, on the title-page, as only the third edition, as if he -were unwilling that the extent of the popularity should be known--a -fact probably unprecedented. But still the great writers had either -private means, or lived on the patronage of rank and wealth; for the -reward of a successful book in those days did not lie in so much hard -cash from one’s publisher, but in hopes of favour and places from -the great. The famous agreement between Milton and Samuel Simmons, a -printer, is one of the earliest authenticated agreements of copy money -being given for an original work; it was executed on April 27th, 1667, -and disposes of the copyright of “Paradise Lost” for the present sum -of five pounds, and five pounds more when 1300 copies of the first -impression should be sold in retail, and the like sum at the end of -the second and third editions, _to be accounted as aforesaid; and -that_ (each of) _the said first three impressions shall not exceed -fifteen books or volumes of the said manuscript_. The price of the -small quarto edition was three shillings in a plain binding. Probably, -as Sir Walter Scott remarks, the trade had no very good bargain of it, -for the first impression of the poem does not seem to have been sold -off before the expiration of seven years, nor till the bookseller (in -accordance with a practice nor confined solely to that age) had given -it five new title-pages. The second five pounds was received by Milton, -and in 1680, for the present sum of eight pounds, his widow resigned -all further right in the copyright, and thus the poem was sold for -eighteen pounds instead of the stipulated twenty. The whole transaction -must be regarded rather as an entire novelty, than as an example of a -bookseller’s meanness--a view too often unjustly taken. - -The first “eminent man of letters” was Dryden, who serves us as a -connecting link between those who earned their livelihood by writing -for the stage and those who earned it by working for the booksellers, -and the first “eminent publisher” was Jacob Tonson, his bookseller. -Dryden, like his predecessors, commenced life as a dramatist, but -in his times plays acquired a marketable value elsewhere than on -the stage. Before Tonson started, Dryden’s works--almost entirely -plays--were sold by Herringman, the chief bookseller in London, says -Mr. Peter Cunningham, before Tonson’s time; but now only remembered -because Dryden lodged at his house, taking his money out in kind, as -authors then often did. - -[Illustration: Jacob Tonson. - -1656-1736. - -(_From the Portrait by Kneller._)] - -Jacob Tonson, born in 1656, was the son of a barber-surgeon in Holborn, -who died when his two sons were both very young, leaving them each a -hundred pounds to be paid them on their coming of age. The two lads -resolved to become printers and booksellers, and, at fourteen, Jacob -was apprenticed to Thomas Barnet. After serving the usual term of seven -years he was admitted to the freedom of the Stationers’ Company, and -immediately commenced business with his small capital at the Judge’s -House, in Chancery Lane, close to the corner of Fleet Street. Like -many other publishers he began trade by selling second-hand books and -those produced by other firms, but he soon issued plays on his own -account; finding, however, that the works of Otway and Tate, which -were among his first attempts, had no very extensive sale, he boldly -made a bid for Dryden’s next play, but the twenty pounds required by -the author was too great a venture for his small capital, so “Troilus -and Cressida; or Truth found too Late,” was published conjointly by -Tonson and Levalle in 1679. This connection with Dryden, which lasted -till the poet’s death, was of only less importance to the furtherance -of Tonson’s fortune than a bargain concluded four years later with -Brabazon Aylmer for one-half of his interest in the “Paradise Lost,” -which Dryden told him was one of the greatest poems England had ever -produced. Still he waited four years before he ventured to publish, and -then only by the safe method of subscription, and in 1788 the folio -edition came out, and by the sale of this and future editions Tonson -was, according to Disraeli, enabled to keep his carriage. The other -moiety of the copyright was subsequently purchased. There is a pleasant -description of Tonson, in these early days, in a short poem by Rowe:-- - - “While in your early days of reputation - You for blue garter had not such a passion, - While yet you did not live, as now your trade is, - To drink with noble lords and toast their ladies, - Thou Jacob Tonson, wert, to my conceiving, - The cheerfullest, best honest fellow living.” - -From John Dunton, the bookseller, we get the following -description:--“He was bookseller to the famous Dryden, and is himself -a very good judge of persons and authors; and, as there is nobody more -competently qualified to give their opinion upon another, so there is -none who does it with a more severe exactness, or with less partiality; -for, to do Mr. Tonson justice, he speaks his mind upon all occasions, -and will flatter nobody.” - -Not only did Tonson first make “Paradise Lost” popular, but some years -afterwards he was the first bookseller to throw Shakespeare open to a -reading public. - -Then, as now, however, the works in most urgent demand were -“novelties,” and with these Dryden supplied his publisher as fast -almost as pen could drive upon paper. From the correspondence between -Dryden and Tonson, printed in Scott’s edition of the poet’s works, -they seem to have been privately on very friendly terms, falling -out only when agreements were to be signed or payments to be made. -Tonson was at this time publishing what are sometimes known as -_Tonson’s_, sometimes as _Dryden’s_, _Miscellany Poems_, written, so -the title-pages averred, by the “most eminent hands.” _Apropos_ of -this, Pope writes, “Jacob creates poets as kings create knights, not -for their honour, but for their money. I can be satisfied with a bare -saving gain without being thought an eminent hand.” The first volume of -the “Miscellany” was published in 1684, and the second in the following -year, and of this second, Dryden writes, after thanking the bookseller -for two melons--“since we are to have nothing but new, I am resolved -we shall have nothing but good, whomever we disoblige.” The third -“Miscellany” was published in 1693, and Tonson sends an earnest letter -of remonstrance anent the amount of “copy” received of the translation -of Ovid:--“You may please, sir, to remember that upon my first proposal -about the third ‘Miscellany,’ I offered fifty pounds, and talked of -several authors without naming Ovid. You asked if it should not be -guineas, and said I should not repent it; upon which I immediately -complied, and left it wholly to you what, and for the quantity too; -and I declare it was the furthest in the world from my thoughts that -by leaving it to you I should have the less.” He proceeds to show that -Dryden had sold a previous, though recent translation to another -bookseller at the rate of 1518 lines for forty guineas, while he adds, -“all that I have for fifty guineas are but 1446; so that if I have no -more, I pay ten guineas above forty, and have 72 lines less for fifty -in proportion. I own, if you don’t think fit to add something more, I -must submit; ’tis wholly at your choice, for I left it entirely to you; -but I believe you cannot imagine I expected so little; for you were -pleased to use me much kindlier in Juvenal, which is not reckoned so -easy to translate as Ovid. Sir, I humbly beg your pardon for this long -letter, and, upon my word, I had rather have your good will than any -man’s alive.” - -These were hard times for Dryden, for through the change of government -he had been deprived of the laureateship, and it is little likely that -Tonson ever received his additional lines or recovered his money. -Frequent at this period were the bickerings between them. On one -occasion, the bookseller having refused to advance a sum of money, the -poet forwarded the following triplet with the significant message, -“Tell the dog that he who wrote these lines can write more:”-- - - “With leering looks, bull-faced and freckled fair, - With two left legs, with Judas-coloured hair, - And frowsy pores that taint the ambient air.” - -The descriptive hint is said to have been successful. On another -occasion, when Bolingbroke was visiting Dryden, they heard a footstep. -“This,” said Dryden, “is Tonson; you will take care not to depart -before he goes away; for I have not completed the sheet which I -promised him; and, if you leave me unprotected, I shall suffer all the -rudeness to which resentment can prompt his tongue.” And yet, almost -at this period, we find Dryden writing, “I am much ashamed of myself -that I am so much behindhand with you in kindness.” - -[Illustration: Richard Jones, Jhones, or Johnes, English Printer. Was -living in 1571.] - -[Illustration: John Dunton. - -1659-1733.] - -Dryden’s translations of the classics had been most successful in -selling off the “Miscellanies” very rapidly, and Tonson now induced the -author, by the offer of very liberal terms, to commence a translation -of Virgil. As usual, the preliminary terms were to be settled in a -tavern--a custom between authors and booksellers that seems to have -been universal. “Be ready,” writes Dryden, “with the price of paper, -and of the books. No matter for any dinner; for that is a charge to -you, and I care not for it. Mr. Congreve may be with us as a common -friend.” There were two classes of subscribers, the first of whom paid -five guineas each, and were individually honoured with the dedication -of a plate, with their arms engraved underneath; the second class paid -two guineas only. The first class numbered 101, and the second 250, -and the money thus received, minus the expense of the engravings, was -handed over to Dryden, who received in addition from Tonson fifty -guineas a book for the _Georgics_ and _Æneid_, and probably the same -for the _Pastorals_ collectively. But the price actually charged to -the subscribers of the second class appears to have been exorbitant, -and reduced the amount of Dryden’s profits to about twelve or thirteen -hundred pounds--still a very large sum in those days. Frequent, -however, were the disputes between them during the progress of the -work. The currency at this time was terribly deteriorated. In October, -1695, the poet writes, “I expect fifty pounds in good silver: not such -as I have had formerly. I am not obliged to take gold, neither -will I; nor stay for it beyond four-and-twenty hours after it is -due.” Good silver, however, was very scarce, and was at a premium of -forty per cent; so after a year’s wrangling he had to put up with the -fate of all who then sold labour for money. “The Notes and Queries,” -continues Dryden, perhaps as a gibe at Jacob’s parsimony, “shall be -short; because you shall get the more by saving paper.” Again he -attacks him, this time half playfully:--“Upon trial I find all of your -trade are sharpers, and you not more than others; therefore I have -not wholly left you.” Tonson all along wished to dedicate the work to -King William, but Dryden, a staunch Tory, would not yield a tittle of -his political principles, so the bookseller consoled himself by slyly -ordering all the pictures of Æneas in the engravings to be drawn with -William’s characteristic hooked nose; a manœuvre that gave rise to the -following:-- - - “Old Jacob, by deep judgments swayed, - To please the wise beholders, - Has placed old Nassau’s hook-nosed head - On young Æneas’ shoulders. - - “To make the parallel hold tack, - Methinks there’s little lacking; - One took his father pick-a-back, - And t’other sent his packing.” - -In December, 1699, Dryden finished his last work, the “Fables,” for -which “ten thousand verses” he was paid the sum of two hundred and -fifty guineas, with fifty more to be added at the beginning of the -second impression. In this volume was included his Ode to St. Cecilia, -which had first been performed at the Music Feast kept in Stationers’ -Hall, on the 22nd of November, 1697. - -In 1700 the poet died, but Tonson was by this time in affluent -circumstances. - -About the date of Dryden’s death, probably before it, as his portrait -was included among the other members, the famous Kit-Cat Club was -founded by Tonson. Various are the derivations of the club. The most -circumstantial account of its origin is given by the scurrilous writer, -Ned Ward, in his “Secret History of Clubs.” It was established, he -says, “by an amphibious mortal, chief merchant to the Muses, to -inveigle new profitable chaps, who, having more wit than experience, -put but a slender value as yet upon their maiden performances.” -(Tonson must have been a rare publisher if he found “new chaps” to be -in any way profitable.) With the usual custom of the times, Tonson -was always ready to give his author, especially upon concluding a -bargain, wherewithal to drink, but he now proposed to add pastry in -the shape of mutton pies, and, according to Ward, promises to make the -meeting weekly, provided his clients would give him the first refusal -of their productions. This generous proposal was very readily agreed -to by the whole poetic class, and the cook’s name being Christopher, -called for brevity Kit, and his sign the Cat and Fiddle, they very -merrily derived a quaint denomination from puss and her master, and -from thence called themselves the Kit-Cat Club. According to Arbuthnot, -their toasting-glasses had verses upon them in honour of “old cats and -young kits,” and many of these toasts were printed in Tonson’s fifth -“Miscellany.” At first they met in Shire Lane, (Ward says Gray’s Inn -Lane), and subsequently at the Fountain Tavern in the Strand. In a -short time the chief men of letters having joined the club, “many -of the quality grew fond of sharing the everlasting honour that was -likely to crown the poetical society.” Sir Godfrey Kneller, himself -a member, painted portraits of all the members, commencing with the -Duke of Somerset, and these were hung round the club-room at Tonson’s -country house at Water Oakeley, where the members of the club were in -after-times wont to meet. The tone of the club-room became decidedly -political, and interesting as it is, our space forbids us to do more -than give the following lines from “Faction Displayed” (1705), which, -by-the-way, quotes Dryden’s threatening triplet, already alluded to:-- - - “I am the Touchstone of all modern wit; - Without my stump, in vain you poets writ. - Those only purchase everlasting fame - That in my ‘Miscellany’ plant their name. - I am the founder of your loved Kit-Kat, - A Club that gave direction to the state. - ’Twas here we first instructed all our youth - To talk profane and laugh at sacred truth; - We taught them how to toast and rhyme and bite, - To sleep away the day, and drink away the night.” - -By this time Tonson had taken his nephew into partnership, had left his -old shop in Chancery Lane, and changed his sign from the “Judge’s Head” -to the “Shakespeare’s Head;” and he and his descendants had certainly a -right to the latter symbol, for the editions of Rowe, Pope, Theobald, -Warburton, Johnson, and Capell, were all associated with their name. -The following schedule of the prices paid to the various editors -possesses some bibliographical interest:-- - - £ _s._ _d._ - - Rowe 36 10 0 - Hughes 28 7 0 - Pope 217 12 0 - Fenton 30 14 0 - Gay 35 17 6 - Whalley 12 0 0 - Theobald 652 10 0 - Warburton 500 0 0 - Capell 300 0 0 - Dr. Johnson, for 1st edition. 375 0 0 - ” for 2nd edition. 100 0 0 - -Upon Dryden’s death Tonson had looked round anxiously for a likely -successor, and had made humble overtures to Pope, and in his later -“Miscellanies” appeared some of Pope’s earliest writings; but Pope soon -deserted to Tonson’s only rival--Bernard Lintot, who also opposed him -in an offer to publish a work of Dr. Young’s. The poet answered both -letters the same morning, but unfortunately cross-directed them: in the -one intended for Tonson he said that Lintot was so great a scoundrel -that printing with him was out of the question, and in Lintot’s that -Tonson was an old rascal. - -Jacob Tonson died in 1736, and is reported on his death-bed to have -said--“I wish I had the world to begin again, because then I should -have died worth a hundred thousand pounds, whereas now I die worth only -eighty thousand;”--a very improbable story, for, in spite of Dryden’s -complaints, Tonson seems to have been a generous man for the times, -and to have fully earned his title of the “prince of booksellers.” His -nephew died a few months before this, and was succeeded by his son, -Jacob Tonson the third, who carried on the business in the same shop -opposite Catherine Street in the Strand, until his removal across the -road, only a short time before his death. He died in 1767, when the -time-honoured name was erased from the list of booksellers. - -Bernard Lintot, or, as he originally wrote his name, Barnaby Lintott, -was the son of a Sussex yeoman, and commenced business as a bookseller -at the sign of the Cross Keys, between the Temple Gates, in the year -1700. He is thus characterized by John Dunton--“He lately published -a collection of _Tragic Tales_, &c., by which I perceive he is angry -with the world, and scorns it into the bargain; and I cannot blame him: -for D’Urfey (his author) both treats and esteems it as it deserves; -too hard a task for those whom it flatters; or perhaps for Bernard -himself, should the world ever change its humour and grin upon him. -However, to do Mr. Lintot justice, he is a man of very good principles, -and I dare engage will never want an author of _Sol-fa_,[4] so long as -the play-house will encourage his comedies.” The world, however, did -grin upon him, for in 1712 he set up a “Miscellany” intended to rival -Tonson’s, and here appeared the first sketch of the “Rape of the Lock,” -and this introduction to Pope was to turn out of as much importance in -his fortunes as the previous connection with Dryden had been to Tonson. - -A memorandum-book, preserved by Nichols, contains an exact account of -the money paid by Lintot to his various authors. Here are the receipts -for Pope’s entire works:-- - - £ _s._ _d._ - 1712, Feb. 19. Statius, first book; Vertumnus and - Pomona 16 2 6 - 1712, March 21. First edition of the Rape 7 0 0 - 1712, April 9. To a Lady presenting Voiture upon - Silence to the author of a Poem called - Successio 3 16 6 - 1712-13, Feb. 23. Windsor Forest 32 5 0 - 1713, July 22. Ode on St. Cecilia’s Day 15 0 0 - 1714, Feb. 20. Additions to the Rape 15 0 0 - 1715, Feb. 1. Temple of Fame 32 5 0 - 1715, April 31. Key to the Lock 10 15 0 - 1716, July 17. Essay on Criticism 15 0 0 - ------------- - -In 1712 Pope, mindful of Dryden’s success, commenced his translation -of Homer, and in 1714 Lintot, equally mindful probably of the -profits Tonson had derived from Virgil, made a splendid offer for -its publication. He agreed to provide at his own expense all the -subscription and presentation copies, and in addition to pay the author -two hundred pounds per volume. The Homer was to consist of six quarto -volumes, to be delivered to subscribers, as completed, at a guinea a -volume, and through the unremitting labours of the poet’s literary and -political friends, six hundred and fifty-four copies were delivered at -the original rate, and Pope realized altogether the munificent sum of -five thousand, three hundred and twenty pounds, four shillings. - -It was probably just after the publication of the first volume, in -August, 1714, that Pope wrote his exquisitely humorous letter to the -Earl of Burlington, describing a journey to Oxford, made in company -with Lintot. “My lord, if your mare could speak, she would give an -account of what extraordinary company she had on the road; which since -she cannot do, I will.” Lintot had heard that Pope was “designed for -Oxford, the seat of the Muses, and would, as my bookseller, by all -means accompany me thither.... Mr. Lintot began in this manner: ‘Now, -damn them, what if they should put it in the newspapers, how you and I -went together to Oxford? What would I care? If I should go down into -Sussex, they would say I was gone to the Speaker. But what of that? -If my son were but big enough to go on with the business, by God! I -would keep as good company as old Jacob.’... As Mr. Lintot was talking -I observed he sat uneasy on his saddle, for which I expressed some -solicitude. ‘’Tis nothing,’ says he; ‘I can bear it well enough, but -since we have the day before us, methinks it would be very pleasant for -you to rest awhile under the woods.’ When we alighted, ‘See here, what -a mighty pretty Horace I have in my pocket! what if you amused yourself -by turning an ode, till we mount again? Lord, if you pleased, what a -clever Miscellany might you make at leisure hours.’ ‘Perhaps I may,’ -said I, ‘if we ride on; the motion is an aid to my fancy, a round trot -very much awakens my spirits; then jog on apace, and I’ll think as hard -as I can.’ - -“Silence ensued for a full hour, after which Mr. Lintot tugged the -reins, stopped short and broke out, ‘Well, sir, how far have you gone?’ -I answered, ‘Seven miles.’ ‘Zounds, sir,’ said Lintot, ‘I thought you -had done seven stanzas. Oldworth, in a ramble round Wimbleton hill, -would translate a whole ode in half this time. I’ll say that for -Oldworth (though I lost by his Sir Timothy’s), he translates an ode of -Horace the quickest of any man in England. I remember Dr. King would -write verses in a tavern three hours after he could not speak; and -there’s Sir Richard, in that rambling old chariot of his, between Fleet -ditch and St. Giles’s pound shall make half a job.’ ‘Pray, Mr. Lintot,’ -said I, ‘now you talk of translators, what is your method of managing -them?’ ‘Sir,’ replied he, ‘those are the saddest pack of rogues in the -world; in a hungry fit, they’ll swear they understand all the languages -in the universe. I have known one of them take down a Greek book upon -my counter and cry, Ay, this is Hebrew. I must read it from the latter -end. My God! I can never be sure of those fellows, for I neither -understand Greek, Latin, French nor Italian myself.’ ‘Pray tell me next -how you deal with the critics.’ ‘Sir’, said he, ‘nothing more easy. -I can silence the most formidable of them; the rich ones for a sheet -a-piece of the blotted manuscript, which costs me nothing; they’ll go -about to their acquaintance and pretend they had it from the author, -who submitted to their correction: this has given some of them such -an air, that in time they come to be consulted with, and dictated to -as the top critic of the town. As for the poor critics, I’ll give you -one instance of my management, by which you may guess at the rest. A -lean man, that looks like a very good scholar, came to me t’other day; -he turned over your Homer, shook his head, shrugged up his shoulders, -and pished at every line of it. One would wonder, says he, at the -strange presumption of some men; Homer is no such easy task, that every -stripling, every versifier--He was going on, when my wife called to -dinner. ‘Sir,’ said I, ‘will you please to eat a piece of beef with -me?’ ‘Mr. Lintot,’ said he, ‘I am sorry you should be at the expense -of this great book; I am really concerned on your account.’ ‘Sir, I am -much obliged to you; if you can dine upon a piece of beef, together -with a slice of pudding.’ ‘Mr. Lintot, I do not say but Mr. Pope, if he -would condescend to advise with men of learning--’ ‘Sir, the pudding -is on the table, if you please to go in.’ My critic complies, he comes -to a taste of your poetry, and tells me in the same breath that the -book is commendable and the pudding excellent. These, my lord, are a -few traits by which you may discern the genius of Mr. Lintot, which I -have chosen for the subject of a letter. I dropt him as soon as I got -to Oxford.” - -Pope’s _Iliad_ took longer in coming out than was expected. Gay writes -facetiously, “Mr. Pope’s _Homer_ is retarded by the great rains that -have fallen of late, which causes the sheets to be long a-drying.” -However, in 1718, the six volumes had been completely delivered to the -subscribers, and three days afterwards Tonson announced, as a rival, -the first book of Homer’s _Iliad_, translated by Mr. Tickell. “I send -the book,” writes Lintot to Pope, “to divert an hour, it is already -condemned here; and the malice and juggle at Button’s (for Addison had -assisted Tickell in the attempted rivalry) is the conversation of those -who have spare moments from politics.” - -Lintot intended to reimburse his expenses by a cheap edition, but here -he was anticipated by the piratical dealers, who caused a cheap edition -to be published in Holland; a nefarious proceeding that Lintot met by -bringing out a duodecimo edition at half-a-crown a volume, “finely -printed from an Elzevir letter.” - -The _Odyssey_ was published in 1725, likewise by subscription, and -Pope gained nearly three thousand pounds by the transaction, avowing, -however, that he had only “undertaken” the translation, and had been -assisted by friends; and “undertaker Pope” became a favourite byword -among his many unfriendly contemporaries. Lintot was, however, -disappointed with his share of the profits, and, pretending to have -found something invalid in the agreement, threatened a suit in -Chancery. Pope denied this, quarrelled, and finally left him, and -turned his rancour to good account in the pages of the _Dunciad_. - -By this time Lintot’s fortunes were firmly assured. Pope was, says Mr. -Singer, “at first apprehensive that the contract (for the _Iliad_) -might ruin Lintot, and endeavoured to dissuade him from thinking any -more of it. The event, however, proved quite the reverse. The success -of the work was so unparalleled as to at once enrich the bookseller, -and prove a productive estate to his family,” and he must have -certainly been progressing when Humphrey Walden, custodian of the Earl -of Oxford’s heraldic manuscripts, made, in 1726, the following entry -in his diary: “Young Mr. Lintot, the bookseller, came inquiring after -_arms_, as belonging to his father, mother and other relations, who -now, it seems, want to turn gentlefolks. I could find none of their -names.” “Young Mr. Lintot” was Bernard’s son and successor--Henry. - -There was scarcely a writer of eminence in the “Augustan Era,” whose -name is not to be found in Lintot’s little account book of moneys paid. -In 1730, however, he appears to have relinquished his business and -retired to Horsham in Sussex, for which county he was nominated High -Sheriff, in November, 1735, an honour which he did not live to enjoy, -and which was consequently transferred to his son. Henry Lintot died in -1758, leaving £45,000 to his only daughter, Catherine. - -Edmund Curll is, perhaps, as a name, better known to casual readers -than any other bookseller of this period, and it is not a little -comforting to find that the obloquy with which he has ever been -associated was richly merited. He was born in the west of England, and -after passing through several menial capacities, became a bookseller’s -assistant, and then kept a stall in the purlieus of Covent Garden. The -year of his birth is unknown, and the writer of a contemporary memoir, -_The Life and Writings of E. C--l_, who prophesied that “if he go on -in the paths of glory he has hitherto trod,” his name would appear in -the _Newgate Calendar_, has unluckily been deceived. He appears to -have first commenced publishing in the year 1708, and to have combined -that honourable task with the vending of quack pills and powders for -the afflicted. The first book he published was _An Explication of -a Famous Passage in the Dialogue of St. Justin Martyr with Typhon, -concerning the Immortality of Human Souls_, bearing the date of 1708; -and, curiously enough, religious books formed in aftertime a very large -portion of his stock, side by side, of course, with the most filthy and -ribald works that have ever been issued. - -In 1716 began his quarrel with Pope, originating as far as we know -in the publication of the _Court Poems_, the advertisement of which -said that the coffee-house critics assigned them either to a Lady -of Quality, Mr. Gay, or the translator of _Homer_. It is not clear -now whether Pope was really annoyed by the appearance of the volume, -or whether he had first secretly promoted it, and then endeavoured -to divert suspicion. At all events, he had a meeting with Curll at -the “Swan Tavern,” in Fleet Street, where, writes the bookseller, -“My brother, Lintot, drank his half-pint of old hock, Mr. Pope his -half-pint of sack, and I the same quantity of an emetic powder; but -no threatenings past. Mr. Pope, indeed, said that no satire should -be printed (tho’ he has now changed his mind). I answered that they -should not be wrote, for if they were they would be printed.” Curll, -on entering the tavern, declared he had been poisoned, and for months -the town was amused with broadsides and pamphlets relative to the -affair. Pope afterwards published his version of the story in his -_Miscellanies_; the “Full and True Account” is, however, as gross and -unquotable as Curll’s own worst publication. - -Later on in the same year the bookseller fell into a fresh scrape. A -Latin discourse had been pronounced at the funeral of Robert South by -the captain of Westminster School, and Curll, thinking it would be -readily purchased by the public, - - “did th’ oration print, - Imperfect, with false Latin in’t,” - -and thereby aroused the anger of the Westminster scholars, who enticed -him into Dean’s Yard on the pretence of giving him a more perfect copy; -there, he met with a college salutation, for he was first presented -with the ceremony of the blanket, in which, “when the skeleton had -been well shook, he was carried in triumph to the school, and, after -receiving a mathematical construction for his false concords, he was -re-conducted to Dean’s Yard, and on his knees asking pardon of the -aforesaid Mr. Barber (the captain whose Latin he had murdered) for his -offence, he was kicked out of the yard, and left to the huzzas of the -rabble.” - -No sooner was Curll out of one scrape than he fell into another; for, -still in this same year, he was summoned to the bar of the House of -Lords for printing and publishing a paper entitled _An Account of the -Trial of the Earl of Winton_, a breach of the standing orders of the -House. However, having received kneeling a reprimand from the Lord -Chancellor, he was dismissed upon payment of the fees. - -While the authorities were quick enough to punish any violation of -their own peculiar privileges, they were graciously pleased to wink -at the perpetual offences Curll was committing against public morals, -for Curll was a strong politician on the safe party side, and in his -political publications had in view the interests of the government. -However, he was attacked on all sides by public opinion and the press. -_Mist’s Weekly Journal_ for April 5, 1718, contained a very strong -article on the “Sin of Curllicism.” “There is indeed but one bookseller -eminent among us for this abomination, and from him the crime takes -its just denomination of Curllicism. The fellow is a contemptible -wretch a thousand ways; he is odious in his person, scandalous in his -fame; ... more beastly, insufferable books have been published by this -one offender than in thirty years before by all the nation.” Curll, -“the Dauntless,” did not long remain in silence, and his reply is -characteristically outspoken, for the writer was never a coward. “Your -superannuated letter-writer was never more out than when he asserted -that Curllicism was but of four years’ standing. Poor wretch! he is but -a novice in chronology;” and then, after threatening the journalist -with the terrors of an outraged government, he concludes “in the words -of a late eminent controvertist, the Dean of Chichester.” - -Curll was fond of the dignitaries of the Church, and endeavoured -to play a shrewd trick upon one of them; he sent a copy of Lord -Rochester’s _Poems_ (certainly not the most innocent book he published) -to Dr. Robinson, Bishop of London, with a tender of his duty, and a -request that his lordship would please to revise the interleaved volume -as he thought fit; but the bishop, not to be caught, “smiled” and said, -“I am told that Mr. Curll is a shrewd man, and should I revise the book -you have brought me, he would publish it as approved by me.”[5] - -Public dissatisfaction seems to have been expressed more forcibly -against Curll than heretofore, and to have taken the form of a -remonstrance to government, for he published _The Humble Representation -of Edmund Curll, Bookseller and Citizen of London, containing Five -Books complained of to the Secretary_. As the books were eminently of a -nature requiring an apology, we cannot do more than give their titles: -1. _The Translation of Meibomius and Tractatus de Hermaphroditis_; 2. -_Venus in the Cloister_; 3. _Ebrietatis Encomium_; 4. _Three New Poems, -viz. Family Duty, The Curious Wife, and Buckingham House_; and 5. _De -Secretis Mulierum_. At last the government did interfere, as we learn -from a notice in _Boyer’s Political State_, Nov. 1725:-- - -“On Nov. 30, 1725, Curll, a bookseller in the Strand, was tried at the -King’s Bench Bar, Westminster, and convicted of printing and publishing -several obscene and immodest books, greatly tending to the corruption -and depravation of manners, particularly one translated from a Latin -treatise entitled _De Usu Flagrorum in Re Venereâ_; and another from -a French book called _La Religieuse en Chemise_.” In the indictment -Curll is thus accurately summed up: _homo iniquus et sceleratus ac -nequiter machinans et intendens bonos mores subditorum hujus regni -corrumpere et eos ad nequitiam inducere_; and in the _State Trials_ we -read the following report of the sentence:-- - -“This Edmund Curll stood in the pillory at Charing Cross, but was -not pelted or used ill; for being an artful, cunning (though wicked) -fellow, he had contrived to have printed papers dispersed all about -Charing Cross, telling the people how he stood there for vindicating -the memory of Queen Anne.” - -It does, in fact, appear that he received three sentences at once, and -that not until Feb. 12, 1728. For publishing the _Nun in her Smock_, -and the treatise _De Usu Flagrorum_, he was sentenced to pay a fine of -twenty-five marks each, and to enter into recognizances of £100 for -his good behaviour for one year; but for publishing the _Memoirs of -John Ker of Kersland, Esq._ (a political offence), he was fined twenty -marks, and ordered to stand in the pillory for the space of one hour.[6] - -In 1729 Curll was again pilloried--this time by Pope in the _Dunciad_, -in connection with Tonson and Lintot: - - “With authors, stationers obey’d the call - (The field of glory is a field for all); - Glory and gain th’ industrious tribe provoke, - And gentle Dulness ever loves a joke; - A poet’s form she placed before their eyes, - And bade the nimblest racer seize the prize. - - * * * * * - - ----Lofty Lintot in the circle rose: - ‘The Prize is mine, who ‘tempts it are my foes; - With me began this genius, and shall end.’ - He spoke, and who with Lintot shall contend? - - “Fear held them mute. Alone untaught to fear, - Stood dauntless Curll: ‘Behold that rival here! - The race by vigour, not by vaunts, is won: - So take the hindmost, hell,’ he said, ‘and run.’ - Swift as a bard the bailiff leaves behind - He left huge Lintot, and outstript the wind. - As when a dab-chick waddles through the copse - On feet and wings, and flies, and wades, and hops, - So labouring on with shoulders, hands, and head, - Wide as a windmill all his figure spread, - With arms expanded Bernard views his state, - And left-legged Jacob seems to emulate.” - -And finally Curll stumbles into an unsavoury pool:-- - - “Obscene with filth the miscreant lies bewrayed, - Fallen in the plash his wickedness had laid; - Then first (if poets aught of truth declare) - The caitiff vaticide conceived a prayer.” - -In reference to Curll there is a note to this passage, “He carried the -trade many lengths beyond what it ever before had arrived at; he was -the envy and admiration of all his profession. He possessed himself -of a command over all authors whatever; he caused them to write what -he pleased; they could not call their very names their own. He was -not only famous among them; he was taken notice of by the state, the -church, and the law, and received particular marks of distinction from -each.” - -We have no space to discuss the vexed question as to how the letters -of Pope published by Curll came into his hands--the discussion would -occupy a volume and remain a moot question after all. But we are -disposed to believe with Johnson and Disraeli that “being inclined -to print his own letters, and not knowing how to do so without the -imputation of vanity, what in this country has been done very rarely, -he contrives an appearance of compulsion; that when he could complain -that his letters were surreptitiously published, he might decently -and defensively publish them himself.” The letters at all events were -genuine, and Pope in a feigned or real indignation caused Curll to -be brought for a third time (the second had been for publishing the -Duke of Buckingham’s words) before the bar of the House of Lords for -disobeying its standard rules; but on examination the book was not -found to contain any letters from a _peer_, and Curll was dismissed, -and boldly continued the publication till five volumes had been issued. - -In spite, or perhaps on account of the unblushing effrontery with -which he run amuck at everything and everybody, Curll was a successful -man, as his repeated removals to better and better premises plainly -testifies. Over his best shop in Covent Garden he erected the Bible as -a sign. He has had many apologists, among others worthy John Nichols, -as deserving commendation for his industry in preserving our national -remains, but the scavenger, when he gathers his daily filth, lays -little claim to doing a meritorious action, he only works unpleasantly -for his daily bread; and it has been the repeated cry of publishers, -even in our own times, in reproducing an immoral book, that they were -wishing only for the preservation of something rare and curious. It -were not well that any book once written should ever die,--that any one -link in the vast chain of human thought should ever be irrecoverably -lost, but the publisher of such a book must, at least, bear the same -penalty of stigma as the author, for he has not even the author’s -self-vanity as an excuse, but only the still more wretched plea of -mercenary motive. We will conclude our notice of Curll by an extract -from “John Buncle,” by Thomas Amory, who knew him personally and -well. “Curll was in person very tall and thin--an ungainly, awkward, -white-faced man. His eyes were a light gray--large, projecting, -goggle, and purblind. He was splay-footed and baker-kneed.... He was -a debauchee to the last degree, and so injurious to society, that by -filling his translations with wretched notes, forged letters, and bad -pictures, he raised the price of a four-shilling book to ten. Thus, in -particular, he managed Burnet’s ‘Archæology.’ And when I told him he -was very culpable in this and other articles he sold, his answer was, -‘What would I have him do? He was a bookseller;--his translators, in -pay, lay three in a bed at the Pewter Platter Inn, in Holborn, and he -and they were for ever at work deceiving the public.’ He, likewise, -printed the lewdest things. He lost his ears for the ‘Nun in her Smock’ -and another thing. As to drink, he was too fond of money to spend any -in making himself happy that way; but, at another’s expense, he would -drink every day till he was quite blind and as incapable of self-motion -as a block. This was Edmund Curll. But he died at last as great a -penitent, I think, in the year 1748 (it was 1747), as ever expired. I -mention this to his honour.”[7] - -Thomas Guy, more eminent certainly as a very successful money-maker, -and a generous benefactor to charitable institutions, than as a -bookseller, was born in Horsley-down, the son of a coal-heaver and -lighterman. The year of his birth is uncertain, but in 1660, he -was bound apprentice to John Clarke, bookseller, in the porch of -Mercers’ Chapel, and, in 1668, having been admitted a liveryman of the -Stationers’ Company, he opened a small shop in “Stock Market” (the site -of the present Mansion House, then a fruit and flower market, where, -also, offenders against the law were punished) with a stock-in-trade -worth above £200. From the first, Guy’s chief business seems to have -been in Bibles, for Maitland, his biographer relates, “The English -Bibles, printed in this kingdom, being very bad, both in the letter -and the paper, occasioned divers of the booksellers in this city to -encourage the printing thereof in Holland, with curious types and -fine paper, and imported vast numbers of the same to their no small -advantage. Mr. Guy, soon becoming acquainted with this profitable -commerce, became a large dealer therein.” As early as Queen Elizabeth’s -time, the privilege of printing Bibles had been conferred on the -Queen’s (or King’s) printer, conjointly, of course, with the two -Universities, and the effect of this prolonged monopoly resulted, not -only in exorbitant prices, but in great typographical carelessness, -and, says Thomas Fuller, under the quaint heading of “Fye for Shame,” -“what is but carelessness in other books is impiety in setting forth -of the Bible.” Many of the errors were curious;--the printers in -Charles I.’s reign had been heavily fined for issuing an edition in -which, the word “not” being omitted, the seventh, commandment had been -rendered a positive, instead of a negative injunction. The _Spectator_ -wickedly suggests that, judging from the morals of the day, very many -copies must have got abroad into continuous use. In the Bible of 1653, -moreover, the printers allowed “know ye not that the _un_righteous -shall inherit the kingdom of God” to stand uncorrected. However, the -Universities and the King’s printer still possessed the monopoly, and -this new trade of good cheap Bibles “proving not only very detrimental -to the public revenues, but likewise to the King’s printer, all ways -and means were devised to quash the same, which, being vigorously put -in execution, the booksellers, by frequent seizures and prosecutions, -became so great sufferers, that they judged a further pursuit thereof -inconsistent with their interests.” Defeated in this manner, Guy -cautiously induced the University of Oxford to contract with him for an -assignment of their privilege, and not only obtained type from Holland, -and printed the Bible in London, but was, later on, in 1681, according -to Dunton, a partner with Parker in printing the Bible, at Oxford -(Parker could have been no connection of the famous publishing family). - -[Illustration: Thomas Guy, founder of Guy’s Hospital. 1644-1724. - -(_From the statue by J. Bacon, R.A._)] - -[Illustration: Guy’s Hospital. - -(_Bird’s-eye view from a Print, 1738._)] - -Guy seems to have contracted in his early days very frugal and -personally pernicious habits. According to Nichols, he is said to have -dined every day at his counter, “with no other table-cloth than an old -newspaper,” and if the “Intelligence” or the “Newes” of that period -really served him for a cloth, the dish that contained his meat must -have been uncommonly small. “He was also,” it is added, “as little -nice in his apparel.” It was probably, too, in the commencement of his -career, that, looking round for a tidy and inexpensive helpmate, -he asked his servant-maid to become his wife. The girl, of course, -was delighted, but, alas! presumed too much upon her influence over -her careful lover; seeing that the paviours who were repairing the -street, in front of the house (an order was issued, in 1671, to every -householder to pave the street in front of his dwelling, “for the -breadth of six feet at least from the foundation”) had neglected a -broken place, she called their attention to it, but they told her that -Guy had carefully marked a particular stone, beyond which they were not -to go. “Well,” said the girl, “do you mend it; tell him I bade you, -and I know he will not be angry.” When Guy saw the extra charge in the -bill, however, he at once renounced his matrimonial scheme. - -The Bible trade proved prosperous, and Guy, ready for any lucrative and -safe investment for his money, speculated in Government securities, -and, according to Nichols and Maitland, acquired the “bulk of his -fortune” by purchasing seaman’s tickets; but the practice of paying the -royal sailors by ticket does not seem to have existed later than the -year 1684; so that if he dealt in them at all it must have been a very -early period in his career, when it appears unlikely that he would have -had much spare cash to invest. Maitland adds “_as well as in Government -securities_, and this was probably the manner in which the ‘bulk of his -fortune’ was really acquired.” - -That his finances were in a healthy condition, is apparent, from his -appearance in Parliament as member for Tamworth, from 1695 to 1707. -According to Maitland, “as he was a man of unbounded charity, and -universal benevolence, so he was likewise a good patron of liberty, -and the rights of his fellow-subjects; which, to his great honour, -he strenuously asserted in divers parliaments.” An honourable -testimony to his character, supported also by Dunton: “Thomas Guy, of -Lombard-street, makes an eminent figure in the Company of Stationers, -having been chosen sheriff of London, and paid the fine.... He is a man -of strong reason, and can talk very much to the purpose on any subject -you can propose. He is truly charitable.” - -Throughout his life, he was very kind to his relatives, lending money -when needed to help some, and pensioning others. To charities, whose -purpose was pure benevolence, apart from sectarian motive, his purse -was ever open, and St. Thomas’s Hospital and the Stationers’ Company -were largely indebted to his generosity. - -In his latter days, Guy was able to multiply his fortune many fold. -The South Sea Company was a good investment for a wary, cool-headed -business man, and he became an original holder in the stock. “It no -sooner received,” says Maitland, “the sanction of Parliament, than the -national creditors from all parts came crowding to subscribe into the -said company the several sums due to them from the government, by which -great run, £100 of the Company’s stock, that before was sold at £120 -(at which time, Mr. Guy was possessed of £45,500 of the said stock) -gradually arose to above £1,050. Mr. Guy wisely considering that the -great use of the stock was owing to the iniquitous management of a few, -prudently began to sell out his stock at about £300 (for that which -probably at first did not cost him about £50 or £60) and continued -selling till it arose to about £600 when he disposed of the last of his -property in the said company,” and then the terrible panic came. - -He was between seventy and eighty years of age when he determined to -devote his fortune to building and endowing a hospital which should -bear his name, and, dying in 1724, he lived just long enough to see -the walls roofed in. The cost of building “Guy’s Hospital” amounted to -£18,793, and he left £219,499 as endowment. At Tamworth, his mother’s -birthplace, which he represented in Parliament for many years, he -erected alms-houses and a library. Christ’s Hospital received £400 a -year for ever, and, after many gifts to public charities, he directed -that the balance of his fortune, amounting to about £80,000, should -be divided among all who could prove themselves in any degree related -to him. Guy’s noble philanthropy would be unequalled in bookselling -annals, but that Edinburgh, happily boasting of a Donaldson, can rival -London in the generosity of a bookseller. - -We have had occasion to quote several times from “Dunton’s Characters;” -and, as the author was himself a bookseller, and was, moreover, the -only contemporary writer who thought it worth his while to preserve any -continuous record of the bookselling fraternity, we must give him a -passing notice here. John Dunton, the son of a clergyman, was born in -1689, and, after passing through a disorderly apprenticeship, commenced -bookselling “in half a shop, a warehouse, and a fashionable chamber.” -“Printing,” he says, “was the uppermost in my thoughts, and hackney -authors began to ply me with specimens as earnestly and with as much -passion and concern as the waterman do passengers with oars and sculls.” - -Having some private capital he went ahead merrily, printing six -hundred books, of which he repented only of seven, and these he -recommends all who possess to burn forthwith. Somewhat erratic in his -habits he went to America to recover a debt of £500, consoling his -wife, “dear Iris,” through whom he became connected with Wesley’s -father, by sending her sixty letters in one ship. Here he stayed for -nearly a twelvemonth, pleasantly viewing the country at his leisure, -and cultivating a platonic friendship with maids and widows. At his -return he found his business disordered, and sought to make amends by -another voyage to Holland. By this time he had pretty nearly dissipated -his capital, but luckily came “into possession of a considerable -estate” through the death of a cousin. “The world,” he says, “now -smiled on me, and I have humble servants enough among the stationers, -booksellers, printers, and binders.” - -Of all his publications, the only one that attained any fame was the -“Athenian Mercury,” which reached twenty volumes. His three literary -associates in this work were Samuel Wesley, Richard Sault, and Dr. John -Norris, and with his aid they resolved all “nice and curious questions -in prose and verse,” concerning physic, philosophy, love, &c. They were -afterwards reprinted in four volumes, under the title of the _Athenian -Oracle_, and form a curious picture of the wants, manners, and opinions -of the age; but the work is, perhaps, chiefly to be remembered as one -of the earliest periodicals not professing to contain “news.” - -Dunton now, finding that he did not make much money by bookselling in -London, went over to Dublin for six months with a cargo of books and -started as auctioneer, naturally falling foul of the Irish booksellers, -whom he dressed off in a tract entitled “The Dublin Scuffle.” He -returned to England complacently believing that he had done more -service to learning by his auctions “than any single man that had come -into Ireland these hundred years.” - -In London, however, he was by this time so involved in commercial -difficulties, that he was fain to give up bookselling altogether, and -take to bookmaking instead; and his pen was so indefatigable that he -soon bid fair to be the author of as many volumes as he had published. -The book that concerns us most here is the “Life and Errors of John -Dunton, written by himself in Solitude,” in which is included the -“Lives and Characters of a Thousand Persons now living in London.” In -this latter part he was obliged, “out of mere gratitude,” “to draw -the characters of the most eminent of the profession in the three -kingdoms;” consequently we find some half-dozen lines of “character” -given to every bookseller of his time in London, “gratitude” compelling -him, however, to be almost invariably laudatory; the other parts of the -“three kingdoms” are thus summarily and easily dealt with, “Of three -hundred booksellers now trading in country towns, I know not of one -knave or a blockhead amongst them all.” The book, however rambling and -incoherent, contains much worth preservation, and is not unpleasant -desultory reading. - -Dunton’s own “character” has been preserved elsewhere than in his _Life -and Confessions_. Warburton describes him as “an auction bookseller -and an abusive scribbler;” Disraeli, “as a crack-brain, scribbling -bookseller, who boasted that he had a thousand projects, fancied he had -methodised six hundred, and was ruined by the fifty he executed.” His -greatest project, by the way, was intended “to extirpate lewdness from -London.” “Armed with a constable’s staff, and accompanied by a clerical -companion, he sallied forth in the evening, and followed the wretched -prostitutes home to a tavern, where every effort was used to win the -erring fair to the paths of virtue; but these he observes were perilous -adventures, as the cyprians exerted every art to lead him astray in the -height of his spiritual exhortations.” - -There is something so Quixotic about his schemes, so complacent about -his marvellous self-vanity, that we are really grieved when we find him -ending his life, as most “projectors” do, with _Dying Groans from the -Fleet Prison; or, a Last Shift for Life_. Shortly after this, in 1733, -his teeming brain and his eager pen were at rest for ever. - -Another bookseller, also a “man of letters,” but of very different -calibre from poor John Dunton, must have a niche here, not because he -was eminent as a publisher, but because he was, taken altogether, the -most famous man who has ever stood behind a bookseller’s counter. One -of our greatest novelists, his general life is so well known, that we -will only treat here of his bookselling career. Samuel Richardson, -born in 1689, was the son of a joiner in Derbyshire; a quiet shy boy, -he became the confident and love-letter writer of the girls in his -neighbourhood, gaining thereby his wonderful knowledge of womankind. -Fond of books, and longing for opportunities of study, he was, at the -age of sixteen, apprenticed to John Wilde, of Stationers’ Hall, but -his master, though styling him the “pillar of his house,” grudged him, -he says, “every hour that tended not to his profit.” So Richardson -used to sit up half the night over his books, careful at that time to -burn only his own candles. On the termination of his apprenticeship, -he became a journeyman and corrector of the press, and six years later -commenced business in an obscure court in Fleet-street, where he filled -up his leisure hours by compiling indices, and writing prefaces and -what he terms “honest dedications” for the booksellers. - -Through his industry and perseverance his business became much -extended, and he was selected by Wharton to print the _True Briton_; -but, after the publication of the sixth number, he would not allow his -name to appear, and consequently escaped the results of the ensuing -prosecution. Through the friendly interest of Mr. Speaker Onslow he -printed the first edition of the _Journal of the House of Commons_, -completed in twenty-six folio volumes, for which, after long and -vexatious delays, he received upwards of £3000. He also printed from -1736 to 1737 the _Daily Journal_, and in 1738 the _Daily Gazette_. - -In 1740 Mr. Rivington and Mr. Osborne proposed that he should write -for them a little volume of letters, which resulted in his first novel -_Pamela_, the publication of which will be treated in our account of -the Rivingtons. This was followed by _Clarissa_, one of the few books -from which it is absolutely impossible to steal away, when once the -dread of its size has been overcome. Though famous now as the first -great _novelist_ who had written in the English tongue, Richardson was -not then above his daily work. He writes to his friend Mr. Defreval, -“You know how my business engages me. You know by what snatches of time -I write, that I may not neglect that, and that I may preserve that -independency which is the comfort of my life. I never sought out of -myself for patrons. My own industry and God’s providence have been my -sole reliance.” In 1754, he was, to the great honour of the members, -chosen master of the Stationers’ Company, the only fear of his friends -being that he would not play the _gourmand_ well. “I cannot,” writes -Edwards, “but figure to myself the miserable example you will set at -the head of their loaded tables, unless you have two stout jaw-workers -for your wardens, and a good hungry court of assistants.” - -[Illustration: Samuel Richardson, Bookseller and Novelist. 1689-1761. - -(_From a Picture by Chamberlin._)] - -The honourable post he occupied shows his position in the trade at this -time. This was improved in 1760, by the purchase of a moiety of the -patent of law-printer, which he carried on in partnership with Miss -Lintot, grand-daughter of Bernard Lintot. He died in the following -year, leaving funeral-rings to thirty-four of his acquaintances, and -adding in his will, “Had I given rings to all the ladies who have -honoured me with their correspondence, and whom I sincerely venerate -for their amiable qualities, it would, even in this last solemn act, -appear like ostentation.” It is impossible in treating of Richardson -not to refer to his vanity; but the love of praise was his only fault, -and it has grown to us, like the foible of a loved friend, dearer than -all his virtues. It is not unpleasant to think that the ladies of -that time, by the way in which they petted, coaxed, and humoured him, -conferred an innocent pleasure upon the truest of all the delineators -of their sex, except perhaps Balzac, who, if he knows it better, is -more unfortunate in his knowledge. With all Richardson’s vanity, he -drew a portrait of himself that is not far removed from caricature. -“Short, rather plump than emaciated, notwithstanding his complaints; -about five feet five inches; fair wig; lightish cloth coat, all black -besides; one hand generally in his bosom, the other a cane in it, -which he leans upon under the skirts of his coat usually, that it may -imperceptibly serve him as a support, when attacked by sudden tremors -or startlings, and dizziness which too frequently attacks him, but, -thank God, not so often as formerly; looking directly foreright as -passers-by would imagine, but observing all that stirs on either side -of him without moving his short neck; hardly ever turning back; of a -light brown complexion; teeth not yet failing him; smoothish face and -ruddy cheeked; at some times looking to be about sixty-five, at other -times much younger; regular even pace, stealing away ground rather than -seeming to rid it; a gray eye, too often over-clouded by mistiness from -the head; by chance lively--very lively it will be, if he have hope of -seeing a young lady whom he loves and honours; his eye always on the -ladies; if they have very large hoops, he looks down supercilious, and -as if he would be thought wise, but, perhaps, the sillier for that; as -he approaches a lady, his eyes are never set upon her face but upon her -feet, and thence he raises it pretty quickly for a dull eye; and one -would think (if one thought him at all worthy of observation) that from -her air and (the last beheld) her face, he sets her down in his mind as -so and so, and then passes on to the next object he meets.” - -Among other letters to Richardson we come across an affecting one -from Dr. Johnson: “I am obliged to entreat your assistance, I am under -arrest for five pounds eighteen shillings.” As round Pope and Dryden -formerly, so it is now round Johnson that the booksellers of the next -decade cluster; and from the moment when first he rolled into a London -bookseller’s shop, his huge unwieldy body clad in coarse country -garments, worn and travel-stained, his face scarred and seamed with -small-pox--to ask for literary employment, and to be told he had better -rather purchase a porter’s knot, the future of the trade was very much -wrapt up in his own. Forced by hunger to work for the most niggardly -pay, he was yet not to be insulted with impunity. “Lie there, thou -lump of lead,” he exclaims as he knocked down Osborne of Gray’s Inn -Gate, with a folio. “Sir,” he explains to Boswell afterwards, “he was -impertinent to me, and I beat him.” - -[Illustration: Edward Cave, founder of the “Gentleman’s Magazine.” -1691-1754.] - -[Illustration: The King’s Printing House, Blackfriars. - -(_From a drawing made about 1750._)] - -Among the earliest of Johnson’s employers was Edward Cave. The son -of a shoemaker at Rugby, he contrived, in spite of the contumely -excited by his low estate, to pick up much learning at the Grammar -School, and after narrowly escaping an university training, and for a -while obtaining his livelihood as clerk to a collector of excise and -apprentice to a timber merchant, he found more congenial employment -in a printing office, and conducted a weekly newspaper at Norwich. -Returning to London, he contrived by multifarious work--correcting for -the press, contributing to _Mist’s Journal_, writing news letters, and -filling a situation in the Post Office simultaneously--to save a small -sum of money sufficient to start a petty printing office at St. John’s -Gate. He was now able to realize a project he had before offered -to half the booksellers in London, of establishing the _Gentleman’s -Magazine_, and to Cave must be conceded the honour of inventing that -popular species of periodical literature. The first number was printed -in 1731, and its success induced several rivals to enter the field, -but only one--_The London Magazine_--and that a joint concern of the -leading publishers, was at all able to hold any opposition to it; and -the _London Magazine_ ceased to exist in 1785, while the _Gentleman’s -Magazine_ has only quite recently displayed a sudden rejuvenation. In -its early days Johnson was the chief contributor to its pages. He had -a room set apart for him at St. John’s Gate, where he wrote as fast as -he could drive his pen, throwing the sheets off, when completed, to the -“copy” boy. The _Life of Savage_ was written anonymously, in 1744, and -Mr. Harte spoke in high terms of the book, while dining with Cave. The -publisher told him afterwards: “Harte, you made a man very happy the -other day at my house by your praise of _Savage’s Life_.” “How so? none -were present but you and I.” Cave replied, “You might observe I sent a -plate of victuals behind the screen; there lurked one whose dress was -too shabby for him to appear; your praise pleased him much.” - -In 1736, Cave began to carry out his scheme of publishing the reports -of the debates in Parliament in the monthly pages of his magazine. With -a friend or two he used to lurk about the lobby and gallery, taking sly -notes in dark corners, remembering what they could of the drift of the -argument, and then retiring to a neighbouring tavern to compare and -adjust their notes. This rough material was placed in the hands of an -experienced writer, and thus dressed up, presented to the readers of -the magazine. In 1738, the House complained of the breach of privilege -committed by Cave, and, among other debaters, Sir William Younge -earnestly implored the House to put a summary check to these reports, -prophesying that otherwise “you will have the speeches of the House -every day printed, even during your session, and we shall be looked -upon as the most contemptible assembly on the face of the earth.” -After this check some expedient was necessary, and the proceedings in -Parliament were given as _Debates in the Senate of Great Lilliput_, and -were entrusted to Johnson’s pen. On one occasion a large company were -praising a speech of Pitt’s; Johnson sat silent for a while, then said, -“That speech I wrote in a yard in Exeter Street.” It had been reprinted -_verbatim_ from the magazine, and had been drawn up entirely from -rough notes and hints supplied by the messengers. When congratulated -on his uniform political impartiality, Johnson replied: “That is not -quite true, sir; I saved appearances well enough, but I took care that -the Whig dogs should not have the best of it.” Cave’s attention to -the magazine was unremitting to the day of his death; “he scarce ever -looked out of the window,” says Johnson, “but for its improvement.” - -In 1749, the first popular review was started, by Ralph Griffiths; but -before the time of the _Monthly Review_ there had been various journals -professing to deal only with literature. In 1683, had been published -a _Weekly Memento for the Ingenius, or an Account of Books_, and, -in 1714, the first really critical journal, under the quaint title, -_The Waies of Literature_, and these had been succeeded by others. -Still, the _Monthly Review_ was a very great improvement. Among the -chief early contributors was Goldsmith, who escaped the miseries of -ushership, and the weariness of a diplomaless doctor, waiting for -patients who never came, or, at all events, never paid, to live as a -hack writer in Griffiths’ house. Here, induced by want, or kindliness -to a fellow-starver, he got into trouble by borrowing money from his -master to pay for clothes, and appropriating it to other purposes. -Termed villain and sharper, and threatened with the Roundhouse, he -writes: “No, sir; had I been a sharper, had I been possessed of less -good nature and native generosity, I might surely now have been in -better circumstances; I am guilty I own of meanness, which poverty -unavoidably brings with it.” - -As to the payment for periodical writing in that day, we are told -by an author who recollected the _Monthly Review_ for fifty years, -that in its most palmy days only four guineas a sheet were given to -the most distinguished writers, and as late as 1783, when it was -reported that Doctor Shebbeare received as much as six guineas, Johnson -replied, “Sir, he might get six guineas for a particular sheet, but not -_communibus sheetibus_;” and yet he afterwards explains the fact of so -much good writing appearing anonymously, without hope of personal fame, -“those who write in them write well in order to be paid well.” - -Of all the booksellers of the Johnsonian era, Robert Dodsley, however, -was _facile princeps_. Born in the year 1703, he commenced life as a -footman, but a poem entitled _The Muse in Livery_, so interested his -mistress, the Hon. Mrs. Lowther, that she procured its publication -by subscription. After this he entered the service of Dartineuf, a -celebrated voluptuary, the reputed son of Charles II., and one of the -most intimate friends of Pope. Here he wrote a dramatic satire, _The -Toy Shop_, with which Pope was so pleased, that he interested himself -in procuring its acceptance at Covent Garden. The piece was successful, -and Pope, adding a substantial present on his own account of one -hundred pounds, Dodsley was enabled to open a small bookseller’s shop -in Pall Mall, then far from enjoying its present fashionable repute. -In this new situation, without any apprenticeship whatever, he soon -attracted the attention not only of celebrated literary men, but his -shop became a favourite lounge for noble and wealthy _dilettanti_. -In 1738, began his first acquaintance with Johnson, who offered him -the manuscript of _London, a Satire_. “Paul Whitehead had a little -before got ten guineas for a poem, and I would not take less than Paul -Whitehead,” and without any haggling, the bargain was concluded. Busy -as he soon began to be in his shop, Dodsley did not neglect original -composition. He produced several successful farces, and in 1744, -edited and published the work by which his name is best known now, _A -Collection of Plays by Old Authors_, which did much to revive the study -of Elizabethan literature, and was most fruitful in its influence on -later generations. - -In about the following year Dodsley proposed to Johnson that he should -write a dictionary of the English language, and after some hesitation -on the author’s part, the proposal was accepted. The dictionary was -to be the joint property--as was then beginning to be the case with -all works of importance--of several booksellers, viz.: Robert Dodsley, -Charles Hitch, Andrew Millar, Messrs. Longman, and Messrs. Knapton; the -management of it during publication being confided to Andrew Millar. -The work took eight years, instead of the three on which Johnson -had calculated, of very severe study and labour, and the £1575 which -was then considered a very handsome _honorarium_, was all drawn out -in drafts, for at the dinner given in honour of the completion of -the great work, when the receipts were produced it was found that he -had nothing more to receive. Johnson, after sending his last “copy” -to Millar, inquired of the messenger what the bookseller said. “He -said, ‘Thank God I have done with him.’” “I am glad,” said the Doctor -smiling, “that he thanks God for anything.” - -Andrew Millar was by this time the proprietor of Tonson’s shop in -Fleet Street, and was a man of great enterprise. He was the publisher, -among other authors, of Thomson, Fielding, and Hume, and Johnson -invariably speaks well of him. “I respect Millar, sir; he has raised -the price of literature:” “and,” writes John Nichols, “Jacob Tonson and -Andrew Millar were the best _patrons_ of literature, a fact rendered -unquestionable by the valuable works produced under their fostering -and genial hands.” Literature now was rapidly changing its condition. -Johnson had discovered that the subscription system was essentially a -rotten one, and that the real reading public, the author’s legitimate -patrons, were reached of course through the medium of the booksellers: -“He that asks for subscriptions soon finds that he has enemies. All -who do not encourage him defame him:” and then again--“Now learning -is a trade; a man goes to a bookseller and gets what he can. We have -done with patronage. In the infancy of learning we find some great men -praised for it. This diffused it among others. When it becomes general -an author leaves the great and applies to the multitude.” As to what -the booksellers of the eighteenth century were, and as to how they -compare with the publishers of the nineteenth century, we will quote -from an unedited letter of Mr. Thomas Carlyle, dated 3rd May, 1852, -addressed to Mr. John Chapman, bookseller (Emerson’s first English -publisher, we believe), now Dr. Chapman:-- - -“The duties of society towards literature in this new condition of -the world are becoming great, vital, inextricably intricate, little -capable of being done or understood at present, yet all important to -be understood and done if society will continue to exist along with -it, or it along with society. For the highest provinces of spiritual -culture and most sacred interests of men down to the lowest economic -and ephemeral concerns, where ‘free press’ rules supreme, society was -itself with all its sovereignties and parliaments depending on the -thing it calls literature; and bound by incalculable penalties in many -duties in regard to that. Of which duties I perceive finance alone, -and free trade alone will by no means be found to be the sum.... -What alone concerns us here is to remark that the present system of -book-publishing discharges none of these duties--less and less makes -even the appearance of discharging them--and, indeed, as I believe, -is, by the nature of the case, incapable of ever, in any perceptible -degree, discharging any of them in the times that now are. A century -ago, there was in the bookselling guild if never any royalty of -spirit, as how could such a thing be looked for there? yet a spirit -of merchanthood, which had its value in regard to the prosaic parts -of literature, and is even to be thankfully remembered. By this solid -merchant spirit, if we take the victualling and furnishing of such an -enterprise as Samuel Johnson’s _English Dictionary_ for its highest -feat (as perhaps we justly may); and many a _Petitor’s Memories_, -_Encyclopædia Britannica_, &c., in this country and others, for its -lower, we must gratefully admit the real usefulness, respectability, -and merit to the world. But in later times owing to many causes, which -have been active, not on the book guild alone, such spirit has long -been diminished, and has now ‘as good as disappeared without hope of -reinstation in this quarter.’” - -To return to Dodsley, we find that in 1753 he commenced the _World_, a -weekly essay ridiculing “with novelty and good humour, the fashions, -follies, vices, and absurdities of that part of the human species -which calls itself the World”. Three guineas was allowed as literary -remuneration for each number, but Moore, the editor, a receiver -of this allowance, obtained much gratuitous assistance from Lord -Chesterfield, Horace Walpole, and other men of wit and fashion. Another -periodical, but a bi-weekly, the _Rambler_, all the work of Samuel -Johnson, appeared without intermission for the space of two years, -and in its gravity, its high morality, and its sententious language -presents a curious contrast to its livelier companion. Dodsley, after -having published Burke’s earliest productions, entrusted to his care -the management of a very important venture, the _Annual Register_, -which was to carry Dodsley’s name up to our own times. In the same -year, 1758, his last play _Cleone_, in which he ventured to rise to -tragedy, after having been declined by Garrick was acted at Covent -Garden amidst the greatest applause, and for a number of nights, that, -in those times, constituted a wonderful “run.” And the author, fond -to distraction of his last child, “went every night to the stage side -and cried at the distress of poor Cleone;” yet when it was reported -that Johnson had remarked that if Otway had written it, no other of his -pieces would have been remembered, Dodsley had the good sense to say -“it was too much.” - -A long and prosperous career enabled Dodsley to retire some years -before his death, which occurred at Durham, in 1764. - -Thomas Cadell, who had served his apprenticeship to Andrew Millar, was -now taken into partnership, and in a few years he and the Strahans -quite filled the place that Dodsley and Millar had previously occupied. -Together they became the proprietors of the copyright of works by the -great historical and philosophical writers who shed a lustre round -the close of the eighteenth century, and among their clients we find -the names of Robertson, Gibbon, Adam Smith and Blackstone. For the -_History of Charles V._ Robertson received £4500, then supposed to be -the largest sum ever paid for the copyright of a single work, and out -of Gibbon’s _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_ the booksellers are -said to have cleared £60,000. Cadell retired with an enormous fortune, -and was honoured by being elected Sheriff of London at a very critical -and important time. Alexander Strahan, became King’s printer, and left -a fortune of upwards of a million. His business was eventually carried -on by the Spottiswoodes. - -[Illustration: Thomas Cadell. - -1742-1802.] - -The practice, we have already referred to, of booksellers fraternising -pleasantly together for the purpose of bringing out expensive editions -at a lessened risk, led to many famous associations, the earliest -of which, the “Congers,” will be dealt with hereafter in connection -with the history of families still represented in the trade, but the -“Chapter Coffee House” is too important to be passed over altogether. - -There is an amusing account of the Chapter Coffee House in the first -number of the _Connoisseur_. It “is frequented by those encouragers of -learning, the booksellers.... Their criticisms are somewhat singular. -When they say a good book, they do not mean to praise the style or -sentiment, but the quick and extensive sale of it.... A few nights ago -I saw one of these gentlemen take up a sermon, and after seeming to -peruse it for some time, with great attention, he declared it was ‘very -good English.’ The reader will judge whether I was most surprised or -diverted, when I discovered that he was not commending the purity or -elegance of the diction, but the beauty of the type, which, it seems, -is known among the printers by that appellation.... The character of -the bookseller is generally formed on the writers in his service. Thus -one is a politician or a deist; another affects humour, or aims at -turns of wit or repartee; while a third perhaps is grave, moral, and -sententious.” - -In this Coffee House the associated booksellers met to talk over their -plans, and many a germ of most valuable projects was originated here; -the books so published coming in time to be called “Chapter Books.” -Among the chief members of the association were John Rivington, John -Murray, and Thomas Longman, James Dodson, Alderman Cadell, Tom Davies, -Robert Baldwin (whose name, if not family, figured in bookselling -annals for a century and a half), Peter Elmsley, and Joseph Johnson. -Johnson was Cowper’s publisher; the first volumes of the poems fell -dead, and he begged the author to think nothing further of the loss, -which they had agreed to share. In gratitude Cowper sent him the _Task_ -as a present; it was a wonderful success, and altogether Johnson is -said to have made £10,000 out of Cowper’s poems. He assisted in the -publication of the _Homer_ without any compensation at all. The most -important “Chapter books” were Johnson’s _English Poets_, including his -_Lives of the English Poets_, for which latter he received two hundred -guineas, and a present of another hundred, and, on their re-publication -in a separate edition, a fourth hundred. “Sir,” observed the Doctor to -a friend, “I have always said the booksellers were a generous set of -men. Nor in the present instance have I reason to complain. The fact -is, not that they paid me too little, but that I have written too much.” - -Of course when the booksellers met, the literary men were not far -absent. “I am quite familiar” (writes poor Chatterton in his sad, -boastful letters, meant to cheer up the hearts of the dear ones at -home, while his own heart was breaking in London) “at the Chapter -Coffee House, and know all the geniuses there. A character is now quite -unnecessary; an author carries his character in his pen.” - -Later on, the Chapter Coffee House became the place of call for poor -parsons, who stood there ready for hire, on Sunday mornings, at sums -varying from five shillings to a guinea. Sermons, too, were kept in -stock here for purchase, or could be written, there and then, to order. - -At the very close of the last century a fresh band of “Associated -Booksellers” was formed, consisting of the following: Thomas Hood -(father of the poet), John Cuthel, James Nunn, J. Lea, Lackington, -Allen and Co., and others. The vignette which ornamented their books -was a Beehive, with the inscription of “Associated,” and thus they got -the title of the “Associated Busy Bees.” - -Two of the principal booksellers towards the end of the last century, -require, from the magnitude of their business, a somewhat lengthier -notice. - -George Robinson, born at Dalston near Carlisle, received his business -training under John Rivington. In 1764 he started as a wholesale -bookseller in Paternoster Row, and, by 1780, he could boast of the -largest wholesale trade in London. Nor were the higher branches of his -calling neglected, and in the purchase of copyrights he rivalled the -oldest established firms. Among his publications we may mention the -_Critical Review_, the _Town and Country Magazine_, and the _New Annual -Register_; the _Modern Universal History_ (in sixty volumes), the -_Biographica Britannica_, and Russell’s _Ancient and Modern Europe_; -_Bruce’s Travels_ and the _Travels of Anacharsis_; the illustrated -works of Hogarth, Bewick, and Heath; and the lighter productions of -Macklin, Murphy, Godwin, Mrs. Inchbald, Mrs. Radcliffe, Dr. Moore, and -Dr. Wolcot. - -For the _Mysteries of Udolpho_ Mrs. Radcliffe received five hundred -guineas, the largest sum that had at that time been given for a -novel, and Peter Pindar (Dr. Wolcot) made a still better bargain for -his poems. They had already acquired a prodigious popularity, and in -selling the copyright a question arose, as to whether they should be -purchased for a lump sum or an annuity. While the treaty was pending -Wolcot was seized with a violent and rather ostentatious attack of -asthma, which sadly interrupted him in discussing the arrangements, and -he was eagerly offered an annuity of £250. The arrangement was made by -Walker, a partner with Robinson in this transaction. Walker soon called -to inquire after his friend’s illness, “Thank you, much better,” said -Wolcot, “I have taken measure of my asthma, the fellow is troublesome, -but I know his strength and am his master.” Walker’s face grew longer, -and when he rejoined his wife in the next room, the doctor heard a -shrill, feminine expostulation, “There, you’ve done it, I told you he -wouldn’t die!” He outlived all the parties concerned, and was in his -own case, perhaps, scarcely justified in originating the famous saying, -“that publishers quaff champagne out of the skulls of authors.” - -This over-eager parsimony was not in any way due to Robinson; his -generosity to his authors was well known, and his house became a -general rendezvous for the literary men of the day, who were heartily -welcome whenever they chose to turn up, provided always that they did -not come late for dinner. After Robinson’s death in 1801, his son and -brother carried on the business, but met with reverses, principally -through loss of stock at a fire; but the wonderful prices that were -realized at the auction, consequent on their declared bankruptcy, -fairly set them afloat again. One bookseller, alone, is said to -have invested £40,000 at the sale, and even the copyright of Vyse’s -_Shilling Spelling Book_ was sold for £2,500, with an annuity of fifty -guineas a year to the old schoolmaster Vyse. - -James Lackington, in his _Memoirs and Confessions_ has left plenty of -material, had we space, for an amusing and instructive biography. He -was born at Wellington in 1746, and his father, a drunken cobbler, -would not even pay the requisite twopence a week for his son’s -education. Loafing about the streets all day as a child, he thought he -might turn his wanderings to account by crying pies, and as a pie-boy -he acquired such a pre-eminence that he was soon engaged to vend -almanacs. At fourteen he left this vagrant life to be apprenticed to a -shoemaker, and his master’s family becoming strong adherents to the new -sect of Methodists, he too was converted, and would trudge, he says, -through frost and snow at midnight to hear “an inspired husbandman, -shoemaker, blacksmith, or a woolcomber” preach to ten or a dozen -people, when he might have quietly stopped at home to listen to “the -sensible and learned ministers at Taunton.” - -However, what he heard “made me think they knew many matters of which I -was totally ignorant,” and he set to work arduously at night to learn -his letters, and when he was able to read, he bought Hobbe’s _Homer_ at -a bookstall, and found that his letters did but little in assisting his -comprehension; however, in his zeal for knowledge he allowed himself -“but three hours’ sleep in the twenty-four.” The art of writing was -acquired in a similar manner, and then he started on a working tour, -making shoes on the road for sustenance, but suffering many hardships -and miseries. To make matters worse, at Bristol he married a young -girl of his own class, whose ill-health, though he was passionately -fond of her, added no little to his troubles. Accordingly he went -to London, that for her sake he might earn higher wages, and not -altogether unhopeful of the fortunes he had heard were to be gained -there by dogged hard work and endurance. They arrived with the typical -half-crown in their pockets, and then Lackington, anxious to obtain -the small legacy of £10 he had left at home, went for it personally; -“it being such a prodigious sum that the greatest caution was used -on both sides, so that it cost me about half the money in going down -for it, and in returning to town again.” After working some time as a -journeyman bookseller he opened a little cobbler’s shop; and, thinking -he knew as much about books as the keeper of an old bookstall in the -neighbourhood, wishing also to have opportunity for study, he invested -a guinea in a bagful of old books. To increase his stock he borrowed £5 -from a fund “Mr. Wesley’s people kept to lend out, for three months, -without interest, to such of their society whose characters were good, -and who wanted a temporary relief.... In our new situation we lived in -a very frugal manner, often dining on potatoes and quenching our thirst -with water; being absolutely determined, if possible, to make some -provision for such dismal times as sickness, shortness of work, &c., -which we had frequently been involved in before, and could scarcely -help expecting not to be our fate again.” He soon found customers, -and “as ‘soon laid out the money’ in other old trash which was daily -brought for sale.” - -[Illustration: James Lackington, Bookseller. - -1746-1816.] - -In a short time he had realized £25, and was able to take a book-shop -in Chiswell Street; and here he almost immediately lost his wife, which -for a time involved him in the deepest distress, but in the following -year he married again, and then resolved to quit his Wesleyan friends, -a sect he thought incompatible with the dignity of a bookseller; -indeed “Mr. Wesley often told his society in Broadment, Bristol, in -my hearing, that he could never keep a bookseller six months in his -flock.” From this time success uniformly attended his undertakings, -and was due, he says, primarily to his invariable principle of selling -at very low figures and only for ready-money. When he began to attend -the trade sales he created consternation among his brethren. “I was -very much surprised to learn that it was common for such as purchased -remainders to destroy or burn one-half or three-fourths of such books, -and to charge the full publication price, or nearly that, for such as -they kept on hand.” With this rule he complied for a short time; but -afterwards resolved to keep the whole stock. The trade endeavoured to -hinder his appearance at the sale-rooms, but in time they were forced -to yield, and he continued to sell off remainders at half or a quarter -the published price.[8] “By selling them in this cheap manner, I have -disposed of many hundred thousand volumes, many thousand of which -have been intrinsically worth their original prices.” Such a method -attracted a crowd of customers, and he soon began to buy manuscripts -from authors. As to how his circumstances were improving we read, “I -discovered that lodgings in the country were very healthy. The year -after, my country lodging was transformed into a country house, and in -another year the inconveniences attending a stage coach were remedied -by a chariot,” on the doors of which “I have put a motto to remind me -to what I am indebted to my prosperity, viz.:--Small Profits do Great -Things.” Again, he was very fond of repeating, “I found all I possess -in small _profits_, bound by _industry_ and clasped with _economy_.” - -The shop in Chiswell Street was now changed into a huge building at the -corner of Finsbury Square, grandly styled the “Temple of the Muses;” -above it floated a flag, over the door was the inscription “Cheapest -bookshop in the world,” and inside appeared the notice that “the lowest -price is marked on every Book, and no abatement made on any article.” -“Half-a-million of volumes” were said, according to his catalogue, -“to be constantly on sale,” and these were arranged in galleries and -rooms, rising in tiers--the more expensive books at the bottom, and -the prices diminishing with every floor, but all numbered according to -a catalogue, which Lackington compiled himself, and even the first he -issued contained 12,000 volumes. During his first year at the “Temple -of the Muses” he cleared £5000. In 1798, he was able to retire with -a large fortune, and he again joined the Methodists, building and -endowing three chapels for them, in contrition for having maligned them -in his rambling _Memoirs_. Latterly he was fond of travelling, and made -a tour of bookselling inspection through England and Scotland, seeing -discouraging signs in every town but Edinburgh, “where indeed a few -capital articles are kept.” “At York and Leeds there were a few (and -but very few) good books; but in all the other towns between London and -Edinburgh nothing but trash was to be found.” In Scotland, he looked -forward with great curiosity to seeing the women washing soiled linen -in the rivers, standing bare-legged the while, and indeed this incident -seems to have afforded him more gratification than any in his travels -except the following: “In Bristol, Uxbridge, Bridgewater, Taunton, -Wellington, and other places, I amused myself in calling on some of -my masters, with whom I had, about twenty years before, worked as a -journeyman shoemaker. I addressed each with ‘Pray, sir, have you got -any occasion?’ which is the term made use of by journeymen in that -useful occupation, when seeking employment. Most of these honest men -had quite forgotten my person, as many of them had not seen me since I -worked for them; so that it is not easy for you to conceive with what -surprize and astonishment they gazed on me. For you must know that I -had the vanity (I call it humour) to do this in my chariot, attended -by my servants; and on telling them who I was all appeared to be very -happy to see me.” - -James Lackington died in his country house in Budleigh Lutterton, in -Devonshire, in 1815. His life is an eminent example how a man of no -attainments or advantages can conquer success by sheer hard work and -perseverance. - -Lackington was not the only man of his time who perceived that the -conditions of literature were displaying at least a chance of change; -that the circle of the book-buying public was incessantly enlarging, -and that, by supplying the best books at the cheapest remunerative -rates, not only would the progress of education be accelerated, but -that the very speculation would bring fortune as well as honour to -the innovators in the Trade. One of the first booksellers to adopt -this principle was John Bell, whose name is still preserved in -_Bell’s Weekly Messenger_. His _British Poets_, _British Theatre_ and -_Shakespeare_, published in small pocket volumes, carried consternation -into the trade, but scattered the English classics broadcast among -the people. He was the first to discard the long s. He was soon -rivalled by Cook and Harrison, and all three were distinguished, not -only by publishing in little pocket volumes, exquisitely printed, and -embellished by the best artists for the many, what had before been -produced in folios and quartos for the few, but as the inventors of the -“number trade,” by which even expensive works were sold in small weekly -portions to those to whom literature had hitherto been an unknown -luxury. Such were the _Lives of Christ_, _The Histories of England_, -_Foxe’s Book of Martyrs_, _Family Bibles with Notes_, and _The Works -of Flavius Josephus_. Many of these “number books,” though of no -great literary merit, exhibited every possible attraction on their -copious title-pages, and were announced with the then novel terms of -“beautiful,” “elegant,” “superb,” and “magnificent.” - -[Illustration: Andrew Donaldson. - -(_From an Etching by Kay. 1789._)] - -[Illustration: Stationers’ Hall, near Paternoster Row. - -(_From an Etching by R. Cole. 1750._)] - -But the pioneer to whom the cheap book-buying public is most indebted -was Alexander Donaldson, who, though an Edinburgh man, fought out his -chief battles among his London brethren. Donaldson’s contemporaries in -Edinburgh in the middle of the eighteenth century were Bell, Ellis, -and Creech, the only bookseller worth recording before that date being -Alexander Ramsay, the poet. Donaldson having struck out the idea of -publishing cheap reprints of popular works, extended his business by -starting a bookshop in the Strand, London--a step that brought him into -collision with the London publishers--and authors, for Johnson calls -him “a fellow who takes advantage of the state of the law to injure -his brethren ... and supposing he did reduce the price of books is no -better than Robin Hood who robbed the rich in order to give to the -poor.” In 1771, Donaldson reprinted Thomson’s _Seasons_, and an action -at law was brought against him by certain booksellers. He proved that -the work in question had first been printed in 1729, that its author -died in 1748, and that the copyright consequently expired in 1757; and -the Lords decided in his favour, thereby settling finally the vulgar -and traditional theory that copyright was the interminable possession -of the purchaser. To follow this interesting question for a moment. In -Anne’s reign it was decided that copyright was to last for fourteen -years, with an additional term of fourteen years, provided that the -author was alive at the expiry of the first. In 1773-4, following upon -Donaldson’s prosecution, a bill to render copyright perpetual passed -through the Commons, but was thrown out in the Lords, and in 1814 the -term of fourteen years and a conditional fourteen was extended to -a definite and invariable period of twenty-eight years. Finally in -1842, the present law was passed, by which the term was prolonged to -forty-two years, but the copyright was not to expire in any case before -seven years after the author’s death. - -Donaldson left a very large fortune, which was greatly augmented by his -son, who bequeathed the total amount, a quarter of a million, to found -an educational hospital for poor children in Edinburgh, under the title -of “Donaldson’s Hospital.” - -During the period under review the localities affected by the -bookselling and publishing trade had greatly changed and altered. The -stalls of the “Chap. Book” venders had disappeared from London Bridge -and the Exchange, and even Little Britain had been entirely vacated. -Little Britain, from the time of the first Charles to Mary and -William, was as famous for books as Paternoster Row afterwards became. -But, even in 1731, a writer in the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ says, “The -race of booksellers in Little Britain is now almost extinct; honest -Ballard, well known for his curious divinity catalogues (he was said -to have been the first to print a catalogue), being then the only -genuine representative ... it was, in the middle of the last century, a -plentiful and learned emporium of learned authors, and men went thither -as to a market. This drew to the place a mighty trade, the rather -because the shops were spacious and the learned gladly resorted to -them, where they seldom failed to meet with agreeable conversations.” -The son of this Ballard died in 1796, and was by far the best of the -Little Britain booksellers. When the “trade” deserted Little Britain, -about the reign of Queen Anne, they took up their abode in Paternoster -Row, then principally in the hands of mercers, haberdashers, and -lace-men--a periodical in 1705 mentioning even the “semptresses of -Paternoster Row;” for the old manuscript venders, who had christened -the whole neighbourhood, had died out centuries before. It now became -the headquarters of publishers and more especially of old booksellers, -but with the introduction of magazines and “copy” books, that latter -portion of the trade migrated elsewhere, and the street assumed its -present appearance of wholesale warehouses, and general and periodical -publishing houses. It was not long indeed before the tide of fashion -carried many of the eminent firms westward, and the movement in that -direction is still apparent. - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -_THE LONGMAN FAMILY._ - -CLASSICAL AND EDUCATIONAL LITERATURE. - - -The family of Longman can trace a publishing pedigree back to a date -anterior to that of any other house still represented amongst us--the -Rivingtons only excepted. As in the previous chapter, we shall select -one member--necessarily that one to whom most public interest is -attached--as the typical representative of the firm, touching lightly, -however, upon all. And, in accordance with the scheme of the present -volume, our remarks will primarily be devoted to a narrative of their -business connections with that branch of literature--classical and -educational works--with which the name of Longman is more immediately -associated. - -For the whole of the seventeenth century the Longman family occupied -the position of thriving citizens in the busy seaport town of Bristol, -then the Liverpool of the day, and acquired some considerable wealth -in the manufacture of soap and sugar, achieving in many instances the -highest honours in civic authority. Ezekiel Longman, who is described -as “of Bristol, gentleman,” died in the year 1708, leaving, by a second -marriage, a little boy only nine years of age, who, as Thomas Longman, -is afterwards to be the founder of the great Paternoster Row firm. - -By a provision of his father’s will, Thomas was to be “well and -handsomely bred and educated according to his fortune;” this, we -presume, was duly accomplished, and in June, 1716, we find that he was -bound apprentice for seven years to Mr. John Osborn, bookseller, of -Lombard Street, London--a man in a good, substantial way of business, -but not to be confused with the other Osbornes of the time. Unlike -Jacob, Longman served his seven years, and reaped a due reward in the -person of his master’s daughter; and, as at the expiry of his time, the -house of William Taylor (known to fame as the publisher of _Robinson -Crusoe_) had lost its chief, Osborn being appointed executor for the -family, we find that in August, 1824 “all the household goods and books -bound in sheets” according to valuation were purchased by Longman for -£2,282 9_s._ 6_d._--a very considerable sum in those days, and, towards -the end of the month, £230 18_s._ was further paid for part shares in -several profitable copyrights. - -In acquiring this business Longman took possession of two houses, both -ancient in the trade, the _Black Swan_ and the _Ship_, which, through -the profitable returns of _Robinson Crusoe_, Taylor had amalgamated -into one; and here on the self-same freehold ground, the immense -publishing establishment of the modern Longmans is still standing. - -The first trade mention we find of his name occurs in a prospectus -dated Oct., 1724, of a proposal to publish, by subscription, _The Works -of the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esq._ (the father of chemistry, and -brother of the Earl of Cork), “to be printed for W. and J. Innes, at -the West End of St. Paul’s Churchyard, J. Osborn, at the _Oxford Arms_, -in Lombard Street, and T. Longman, at the _Ship_ and _Black Swan_, -in Paternoster Row.” In a few months after this Osborn followed his -daughter to the Row, and, adding his capital to that of his son-in-law, -remained in partnership with him until the end of his days. - -In 1726, we find their names conjointly prefixed to the first edition -of Sherlock’s _Voyages_, and between that date and 1730 to a great -variety of school books. - -All the works of importance, many even of the minor books, were, at -that time, published not only by subscription in the first instance, -but the remaining risk, and the trouble of a pretty certain venture, -were divided amongst a number of booksellers: and the share system was -so general that in the books of the Stationers’ Company there is a -column ruled off, before the entries of the titles of works and marked -“Shares,” and subdivided into halves, eight-twelfths, sixteenths, -twenty-fourths, and even sixty-fourths. Much of the speculative portion -of a bookseller’s business in those days consisted, therefore, not in -the original publication of books, but in the purchase and sale of -their shares, and to this business we find that Thomas Longman was -especially addicted. As early as November, 1724, he bought one-third of -the _Delphin Virgil_ from Jacob Tonson, junior; in 1728 a twentieth of -Ainsworth’s _Latin Dictionary_, one of the most profitable books of the -last century, for forty pounds, and, much later on, one-fourth part of -the _Arabian Nights’ Entertainment_ for the small sum of twelve pounds. - -The chief interest of the career of the house at this period lies in -their connection with the _Cyclopædia_ of Ephraim Chambers, which was -not only the parent of all our English encyclopædias, but also the -direct cause of the famous _Encyclopédie_ of the French philosophers. -Longman’s share in this work, first published in 1728, cost but fifty -pounds, and consisted, probably, only of one sixty-fourth portion; as, -however, the proprietors died off, Longman steadily purchased all the -shares that were thrown on the book-market, until, in the year 1740, -the Stationers’ book assigns him eleven out of the sixty-four--a larger -number than was ever held by any other proprietor. - -One of the few direct allusions to Longman’s personal character relates -to his kindness to Ephraim Chambers. A contemporary writes in the -_Gentleman’s Magazine_:--“Mr. Longman used him with the liberality of -a prince, and the kindness of a father; even his natural absence of -mind was consulted, and during his illness jellies and other proper -refreshments were industriously left for him at those places where -it was least likely that he should avoid seeing them.” Chambers had -received £500 over and above the stipulated price for this great work, -and towards the latter end of his life was never absolutely in want of -money; yet from forgetfulness, perhaps from custom, he was parsimonious -in the extreme. A friend called one day at his chambers in Gray’s Inn, -and was pressed to stay dinner. “And what will you give me, Ephraim?” -asked the guest; “I dare engage you have nothing for dinner!” To which -Mr. Chambers calmly replied, “Yes, I have a fritter, and if you’ll stay -with me I’ll have two.” - -After the death of his partner and father-in-law, who bequeathed him -all his books and property, Thomas Longman seems to have prospered -amazingly. In 1746 he took into partnership one Thomas Shenrell; but, -except for the fact that this name figures in conjunction with his -for the two following years, then to disappear for ever, little more -is known. In 1754, however, he took a nephew into partnership, after -which the title-pages of their works ran:--“Printed for T. and T. -Longman at the _Ship_ in Pater-Noster-Row.” Before this, however, he -is to be found acting in unison with Dodsley, Millar, and other great -publishers of the day, in the issue of such important works as Dr. -Samuel Johnson’s _Dictionary of the English Language_. On the 10th of -June, 1855, only _two_ months after the publication of the dictionary, -he died, and Johnson is obliged to put off his well-earned holiday-trip -to Oxford. “Since my promise two of our partners are dead (Paul -Knapton was the second) and I was solicited to suspend my excursion -till we could recover from our confusion. Thomas Longman the first had -no children, and left half the partnership stock to his nephew and -namesake, the rest of the property going to his widow.” - -Thomas Longman, the nephew, was born in 1731, and, at the age of -fifteen, entered the publishing firm as an apprentice, and at the date -of his uncle’s death was only five-and-twenty. - -Under his management the old traditions were kept up--more copyrights -of standard books were purchased, the country trade extended, and -more than this the business relations of the house were very vastly -increased in the American colonies. One of Osborn’s earliest books, -by-the-way, had been entered at Stationers’ Hall in 1712 as _Psalms, -Hymns, and Spiritual Songs of the Old and New Testament. For the -edification and comfort of the Saints in Public and Private, more -especially in New England_. The nephew probably followed up the -colonial trade of his uncle and master, for at the first commencement -of hostilities in that country he had a very large sum engaged in that -particular business, and, to the honour of the succeeding colonists, -several of his correspondents behaved very handsomely in liquidating -their debts in full, even subsequent to amicable arrangements and to -the peace of 1783. - -As in the case of the founder of the house, the folio _Cyclopædia_, -still the only one in the field, occupied the chief attention of -the firm. Already in 1746 it had reached a fifth edition; “and -whilst,” adds Alexander Chalmers, “a sixth edition was in question -the proprietors thought that the work might admit of a supplement in -two additional folio volumes. This supplement, which was published -in the joint names of Mr. Scott and Dr. Hill, though containing a -number of valuable articles, was far from being uniformly conspicuous -for its exact judgment and due selection, a small part of it only -being executed by Mr. Scott, Dr. Hill’s task having been discharged -with his usual rapidity.” There the matter stood for some years, -when the proprietors determined to convert the whole into one work. -Several editions were tried and found wanting, and finally Dr. John -Calder, the friend of Dr. Percy, was engaged, but provisionally only, -for the duty. He drew up an elaborate programme, containing no less -than twenty-six propositions. The agreement, as it illustrates, in -some degree, the relative positions of authors and publishers, may -be quoted. Dr. Calder agreed to prepare a new edition of _Chambers’s -Cyclopædia_ to be completed in two years. He received £50 as a -retaining fee upon signing the agreement, and £50 a quarter until -the work was finally out of the printer’s hands. In spite of this -retaining fee the proprietors appear to have been smitten with fear, -perhaps dreading a repetition of Dr. Hill’s inaccuracies, and sent -round a specimen sheet to the eminent _literati_ of the day, asking -their opinions upon the matter and the style. All the verdicts were -unfavourable, one contemptuous critic complaining that the author had -twice referred favourably to the _Encyclopædia Britannica_, “a Scots -rival publication in little esteem.” Dr. Johnson cut away a large -portion of his sheet as worthless; but, at poor Calder’s request, who -began to be perplexedly alarmed by all these adverse reviews, explained -this superfluity as arising simply from _trôp de zèle_. “I consider -the residuum which I lopped away, not as the consequence of negligence -or inability, but as the result of superfluous business, naturally -exerted in the first article. He that does too much soon learns to do -less.” Then apologizing for Calder’s turbulence and impatience, the -kindly doctor prays “that he may stand where he stood before, and be -permitted to proceed with the work with which he is engaged. Do not -refuse this request, sir, to your most humble servant, Samuel Johnson.” -Again and again the doctor interposed his influence, but in vain, and -Abraham Rees, a young professor in a dissenting college near town, -was engaged, and a new issue of the _Cyclopædia_ (still Chambers’s), -in weekly parts, was commenced in 1778, running on till 1786, -attaining a circulation of four or five thousand, then a large one, -for each number; and Longman, as chief proprietor, must have profited -exceedingly by the work. - -In the books of the Stationers’ Company we find repeated entry of -Longman as publisher or shareholder in such miscellaneous works as -_Gil Blas_, _Humphrey Clinker_, and _Rasselas_; and, true to the old -traditions of the firm, educational works were by no means neglected. -Among others we note a record of _Cocker’s Arithmetic_, since -proverbially and bibliographically famous. - -Cocker was an unruly master of St. Paul’s School, twice deposed for -his extreme opinions, but twice restored for his marvellous talents of -teaching. “He was the first to reduce arithmetic to a purely mechanical -art.” The first edition, however, was published only after his death -by his friend “John Hawkins, writing master”--a copy sold by Puttick -and Simpson, in 1851, realized £8 10_s._ The fifty-second edition was -published in 1748, and the last reprint, though at that time the work -was in Longman’s hands, bears “Glasgow, 1777,” on the title-page. - - “Ingenious Cocker now to rest thou’rt gone, - No art can show thee fully, but thy own, - Thy rare arithmetic alone can show - The vast _sums_ of thanks we for thy labour owe.” - -In those days the publishers clave together in a manner undreamt of -in these latter times of keener competition. Nichols, in speaking -of James Robson (a Bond-street bookseller), and a literary club of -booksellers, observes that Mr. Longman, with the late Alderman Cadell, -James Dodsley, Lockyer, Davies, Peter Elmsley, Honest Tom Payne of -the Mew’s Gate, and Thomas Evans of the Strand, were all members of -this society. They met first at the “Devil’s Tavern,” Temple-bar, then -moved to the “Grecian,” and finally from a weekly gathering, became a -monthly meeting at the “Shakspeare.” Here was originated the germ of -many a valuable production. Under their auspices Davies (in whose shop -Boswell first met Johnson) produced his only valuable work, the _Life -of Garrick_. Poor Davies had been an actor till Churchill’s satire -drove him off the stage-- - - “He mouths a sentence as curs mouth a bone.” - -From this he fled to the refuge of a bookselling shop in -Russell-street, Covent-garden. He is described variously as “not a -bookseller, but a gentleman dealing in books,” and as “learned enough -for a clergyman.” Here he strived indifferently well till we come upon -his epitaph-- - - “Here lies the author, actor Thomas Davies, - Living he shone a very _rara avis_; - The scenes he played life’s audience must commend-- - He honour’d Garrick, Johnson was his friend.” - -At this club meeting, too, Johnson’s _Lives of the Poets_ were first -resolved on, and by the club clique the work was ultimately produced. - -William West, a bookseller’s assistant, who died at a great age at the -Charter House, in 1855, has left in his _Fifty Years’ Reminiscences_, -and in the pages of the _Aldine Magazine_, a number of garrulous, -amusing, but sometimes incoherent stories of the old booksellers. -West says he knew all the members of the club, and bears witness -that “Longman was a man of the most exemplary character both in his -profession and in his private life, and as universally esteemed for his -benevolence as for his integrity.” He mentions in particular Longman’s -generosity in offering George Robinson any sum he wished on credit, -when his business was in a critical condition. - -West adds, “I was in the habit of going to Mr. Longman’s almost daily -from the years 1785 to 1787 or 1788, for various books for country -orders, being what is termed in all wholesale booksellers’ shops ‘a -collector.’ Mr. Norton Longman had been caused by his father wisely -to go through this same wholesome routine of his profession; and I am -informed that the present Mr. L. (Thomas Norton Longman), although at -the very head of the book trade, has pursued a similar course with his -sons.” - -Longman--and this brings us to the subject--had married a sister of -Harris, the patentee, and long the manager of Covent Garden Theatre. -By her he had three sons, and of these Thomas Norton Longman, born in -1771, about 1792 began to take his father’s place in the publishing -establishment; and about this time Thomas Brown entered the office as -an apprentice. In 1794, Mr. Owen Rees was admitted a member, and the -firm’s title was altered to “Longman and Co.;” and at this time, too, -the younger Evans, “rating,” we are told, “only as third wholesale -bookseller in England,” became bankrupt, and the whole of his picked -stock was transferred to 39, Paternoster Row. The stock was further -increased by a legacy from the elder Evans to Brown’s father in 1803. -This elder Evans, as the publisher of the _Morning Chronicle_, had -incurred the displeasure of Goldsmith, who, mindful of Johnson’s former -valour, “went to the shop,” says Nichols, “cane in hand, and fell upon -him in a most unmerciful manner. This Mr. Evans resented in a truly -pugilistic method, and in a few moments the author of the _Vicar of -Wakefield_ was disarmed and stretched on the floor, to the no small -diversion of the bystanders.” - -[Illustration: Thomas Longman. - -1771-1842.] - -Seven years, however, before this, Thomas Longman the second died, on -the 5th February, 1797. Of the position to which he had attained it is -sufficient to mention that when the Government were about to impose -an additional duty on paper, subsequent to that of 1794, the firm of -Longman urged such strong and unanswerable arguments against it and its -impolicy that the idea was relinquished; and at this time the house had -nearly £100,000 embarked in various publications. - -Longman left his business to his eldest son, and to his second son, -George, he bequeathed a handsome fortune, which enabled him to become a -very extensive paper manufacturer at Maidstone, in Kent, and for some -years he represented that borough in Parliament. As a further honour, -he was drawn for Sheriff of London, but did not serve the office. - -Edward Longman, the third son, was drowned at an early age in a voyage -to India, whither he was proceeding to a naval station in the East -India Company’s service. - -At the time of Thomas Norton Longman’s accession to the chiefdom of -the Paternoster Row firm, the literary world was undergoing a seething -revolution. Genius was again let loose upon the earth to charm all men -by her beauty, and to scare them for a while by her utter contempt for -precedent. The torpor in which England had been wrapped during the -whole of the foregone Hanoverian dynasty was changing into an eager -feeling of unrest, and, later on, to a burning desire to do something, -no matter what, and to do it thoroughly in one’s own best manner, and -at one’s own truest promptings. No man saw the coming change more -clearly than Longman; and anxious to profit by the first-fruits of -the future, yet careful not to cast away in his hurry that ponderous -ballast of dictionary and compilation, he soon gathered all the young -writers of the day within the precincts of his publishing fold. - -Down at Bristol, the ancestral town of both Longman and Rees, Joseph -Cottle had been doing honest service--without, we fear, much profit--in -issuing the earliest works of young men who were to take the highest -rank among their fellows. Cottle had published Southey’s _Joan of -Arc_ in 1796, and in 1798 had issued the _Lyrical Ballads_, the joint -composition of Coleridge and Wordsworth. When, in 1800, Longman -purchased the entire copyrights of the Bristol firm, at a fair and -individual valuation, the _Lyrical Ballads_ were set down in the bill -at exactly nothing, and Cottle obtained leave to present the copyright -to the authors. In connection with Cottle and Longman, we must here -mention a story that does infinite credit to both. At the very close -of the eighteenth century, Southey and Cottle in conjunction prepared -an edition of Chatterton’s works, to be published by subscription for -the benefit of his sister, whose sight was now beginning to fail her. -Hitherto, though much money had been made from the works of the “boy -poet,” they had been printed only for the emolument of speculators. - -The edition unfortunately proved a failure, but Longman and Rees -entered into a friendly arrangement with Southey, and he was able to -report in 1804 that Mrs. Newton lived to receive £184 15_s._ from the -profits, when, as she expressed it, she would otherwise have wanted -bread. Ultimately, Mary Ann Newton, the poet’s niece, received about -£600, the fruits of the generous exertion of a brother poet, and of -the good feeling of a kind-hearted publisher. - -The first edition of the _Lyrical Ballads_ did eventually sell out, and -then Wordsworth, detaching his own poems from the others, and adding -several new ones thereto, obtained £100 from Longman for the use of two -editions, but the sale was so very slow that the bargain was probably -unprofitable. - -In this same year 1800 the house of Longman also published Coleridge’s -translation of Schiller’s _Wallenstein_, written in the short space of -six weeks. Very few copies were sold, but after remaining on hand for -sixteen years, the remainder was sold off rapidly at a double price. - -Southey (a Bristol man himself) met, too, with much kindness from the -firm, but after his first poem with but little, as a poet, from the -public. We have seen before that “the profits” on _Madoc_ “amounted -to exactly three pounds seventeen shillings and a penny.” No wonder -that he writes to a friend, “Books are now so dear that they are -becoming articles of fashionable furniture more than anything else; -they who do buy them do not read, and they who read them do not buy -them. I have seen a Wiltshire clothier who gives his bookseller no -other instructions than the dimensions of his shelves; and have just -heard of a Liverpool merchant who is fitting up a library, and has -told his bibliopole to send him Shakespeare, Milton, and Pope, and -if any of those fellows should publish anything new to let him have -it immediately. If _Madoc_ obtains any celebrity, its size and cost -will recommend it to those gentry _libros consumere nati_, born to -buy octavos and help the revenue.” Southey’s prose, however, proved -infinitely more profitable, and for some years he was the chief -contributor to Longman’s _Annual Review_ started in 1802, the same -year as the _Edinburgh Review_. About this time Longman first went to -Scotland, paid a visit to Walter Scott, and purchased the copyright -of the _Minstrelsy_ then publishing; and in the following year Rees -crossed the borders, and returned with an arrangement to publish the -_Lay of the Last Minstrel_ on the half-profit system, Constable having, -however, a very small share in it. Scott’s moiety of profits was £169 -6_s._, and success being then ensured, Longman offered £500 for the -copyright, which was at once accepted. They afterwards added £100, -“handsomely given to supply the loss of a fine horse which broke down -suddenly while the author was riding with one of the worthy publishers” -(Owen Rees). - -Already in the first few years of the century we find the house -connected with Wordsworth, Southey, Coleridge, and Scott, but it was -by no means entirely to poetry that Longman and Rees trusted. In 1799 -they purchased the copyright of Lindley Murray’s _English Grammar_, one -of the most profitable school books ever issued from the press--for -many years the annual sale of the _Abridgment_ in England alone was -from 48,000 to 50,000 copies. Chambers’ _Cyclopædia_ was entirely -re-written, re-cast, and re-christened, and again, under the management -of Abraham Rees, after whom it was named, came out in quarto form in -parts, but at a total cost of £85. The ablest scientific and technical -writers of the day were retained, and among them we find the names -of Humphry Davy, John Abernethy, Sharon Turner, John Flaxman, and -Henry Brougham. For the first twenty years of this century Rees’ _New -Cyclopædia_ filled the place that the _Encyclopædia Britannica_--“a -Scots rival in little esteem”--was afterwards to occupy. - -In 1803, we find the trade catalogue has extended so much in bulk and -character that it is divided into no less than twenty-two classes. -Among their books we note Paley’s _Natural Theology_ (ten editions -published in seven years), Sharon Turner’s _Anglo-Saxon History_, -Pinkerton’s _Geography_, Cowper’s _Homer_, and Gifford’s _Juvenal_. - -About this time too, they engaged very extensively in the old book -trade, a branch of the business discarded about the year 1840. In -a catalogue of the year 1811 we find some very curious books. Here -are the celebrated _Roxburgh Ballads_, now in the British Museum; a -Pennant’s _London_, marked £300; a Granger’s _Biographical Dictionary_, -£750; Pilkington’s _Dictionary of Painters_, £420; two volumes of -_Cromwelliana_, £250; an extraordinary assemblage of Caxtons, Wynkyn de -Wordes, and other early printed books, one supposed to date from 1446; -a unique assemblage of _Garrickiana_, and many other articles of a -matchless character.[9] - -Longman was himself indefatigable in business, for fifty years -unremittingly he came from and returned to Hampstead on horseback; but -as the rious branches of the trade clearly prove, the superintendence -of so vast a business was altogether beyond the power of any single -man; and perhaps nothing tended more to raise the firm to the eminent -position it soon attained than the plan of introducing fresh blood -from time to time;--the new members being often chosen on account of -the zeal and talent they had displayed as servants of the house. In -1804 Thomas Hurst, with the whole of his trade and connection, and -Cosmo Orme (the founder of the hospital for decayed booksellers) were -admitted. In 1811, Thomas Brown, whom we have already noticed as an -apprentice, became a member of the firm, and until his retirement -in 1859, took the sole management of the cash department, with so -regular and just a system that an author could always learn what was -coming to him, and when he was to receive it--a plan _not_ invariably -adopted in a publisher’s counting-house. The firm was in 1824 further -strengthened by the admission of Bevis Green, who had been apprenticed -to Hurst in 1807. The title of the firm at this, its best known, period -was, therefore, “Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green.” When, -however, Thomas Roberts entered, the title was changed to “Longman, -Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green;” but we are anticipating, for -Roberts died as recently as 1865, having acquired some distinction in -private life as a Numismatist. For the sake of convenience, and for the -sequence of the story, it will, perhaps, be as well to consider the -firm as represented, as in fact from his leading position it was by -Thomas Norton Longman, touching only upon the others individually when -some directly personal interest arises. Before all these partnerships, -however, were accomplished facts Longman had taken a much more -precious, and even more zealous partner in the person of Miss Mary -Slater of Horsham, Sussex, whom he had married as far back as the 2nd -July, 1799. - -Wordsworth of course continued his connection with the firm, though his -profits were absolutely _nil_. Though a poetic philosopher he was not -quite proof against the indifference of the public. In the edition -of the _Lyrical Ballads_ published in 1805 we find the significant -epigraph, _Quam nihil ad genium, Papinique tuum_. In 1807, he published -two new volumes, in which appeared many of his choicest pieces, and -among them his first sonnets. Jeffrey, however, maintained that they -were miserably inferior, and his article put an absolute stop to -the sale. Wordsworth had, perhaps deprived himself of all right to -complain, for his harshest reviewer did him far more justice than -he was wont to deal out to his greatest contemporaries. In 1814, we -find Longman announcing, “Just published, the _Excursion_, being a -portion of the _Recluse_, by William Wordsworth, in 4to., price £2 -2_s._, boards.” Jeffrey used the famous expression--“This will never -do;” and Hogg wrote to Southey that Jeffrey had _crushed_ the poem. -“What!” retorted Southey, “Jeffrey _crush_ the _Excursion_! Tell him he -might as easily crush Skiddaw!” Wordsworth, who had invariably a high -value of his own works, even of his weakest ones, writes also,--“I am -delighted to learn that the Edinburgh Aristarch has declared against -the _Excursion_, as he will have the mortification of seeing a book -enjoy a high reputation to which he has not contributed.” For a while, -however, Jeffrey’s curse was potent, and it took six years to exhaust -an edition of only 500 copies. We need scarcely follow Wordsworth’s -various publications (do their dates not lie on every table of every -drawing-room in the land?), but the whole returns from his literary -labours up to 1819 had not amounted to £140; and even in 1829 he -remarks that he had worked hard through a long life for less pecuniary -emolument than a public performer earns for two or three songs. - -Longman had at one time an opportunity of becoming Byron’s publisher, -but declined the _English Bards and Scotch Reviewers_ on account of -the violent attacks it contained upon his own poets--those of the Lake -school. With Scott we have seen that he had had dealings, and in these, -at all events, Sir Walter’s joke, that _Longmanum est errare_, did not -hold good. Before the collective edition of 1830, 44,000 copies of the -_Lay of the Last Minstrel_ were sold. Though Longman was inclined to -believe that Scott was not the author of _Waverley_, he was equally -anxious to secure the publication of some of that extraordinary series -of romances; and at a time when the Ballantynes were in trouble, -purchased _Guy Mannering_ by granting bills in advance for £1500, and -taking a portion of their stock, to the extent of about £600 more. The -_Monastery_ was also published by him in 1820, and he is said, though -the authority is more than dubious, to have paid Scott upwards of -£20,000 in about fifteen years. - -What Scott was to Constable, and Byron to Murray, that was Moore -to Longman. “Anacreon Moore,” as he loved to be called, had gained -a naughty reputation from _Mr. Thomas Little’s Poems_, and, in -1811, we find him writing to Longman--“I am at last come to a -determination to bind myself to your service, if you hold the same -favourable disposition towards me as at our last conversation upon -business. To-morrow I shall be very glad to be allowed half-an-hour’s -conversation with you, and as I dare say I shall be _up all night -at Carlton House_, I do not think I could reach your house before -four o’clock. I told you before that I never could work without a -retainer. It will not, however, be of that exorbitant nature which -your liberality placed at my disposal the first time.” Soon after -this the Prince Regent threw over his old Whig friend, but Moore was -so successful in his political warfare that he more than gained as a -poet what he lost as a courtier, and his _Two-penny Post Bag_ went -through fourteen editions. He was, however, anxious to apply his genius -to the creation of some work more likely to raise his reputation than -the singing of lascivious songs, or the jerking off of political -squibs. Accordingly Perry, the editor of the _Morning Chronicle_, was -sent to discuss preliminary matters with Longman. “I am of opinion,” -said Perry, “that Mr. Moore ought to receive for his poem the largest -price that has been given in our day for such a work.” “That,” replied -Longman promptly, “was £3000.” “Exactly so,” rejoined the editor, “and -no smaller a sum ought he to receive.” Longman insisted upon a perusal -beforehand:-- - -“Longman has communicated his readiness to terms, on the basis of the -three thousand guineas, but requires a perusal beforehand; this I have -refused. I shall have no ifs.” - -Again Moore writes, “To the honour and glory of romance, as well on -the publisher’s side as on the poet’s, this very generous view of the -transaction was without any difficulty acceded to;” and again, “There -has seldom occurred any transaction in which trade and poetry have -shone so satisfactorily in each other’s eyes.” So Moore left London -to find a quiet resting-place “in a lone cottage among the fields in -Derbyshire,” and there _Lalla Rookh_ was written; the snows of two -or three Derbyshire winters aiding, he avers, his imagination, by -contrast, to paint the everlasting summers and glowing scenery of the -East. The arrangement had hitherto been verbal, but on going up to -town, in the winter of 1814, he received the following agreement from -Longman. - - “COPY OF TERMS WRITTEN TO MR. MOORE. - - “That upon your giving into our hands a poem of yours of the - length of _Rokeby_, you shall receive from us the sum of £3000. - We also agree to the stipulation that the few songs which you - may introduce into the work shall be considered as reserved for - your own setting.” - -Soon Moore writes to say that about 4000 lines are perfectly finished, -but he is unwilling to show any portion of the work until the 6000 are -completed, for fear of disheartenment. He requests Longman, however, -“to tell our friends that they are done, a poetic licence to prevent -the teasing wonderment of the literary quidnuncs at my being so long -about it.” Longman replies that “we are certainly impatient for the -perusal of your poem, but solely for our gratification. Your sentiments -are always honourable.” At length, after very considerable delays on -the part of the author, the poem appeared, and its wonderful success -fully justified the publisher’s extraordinary liberality. Moore drew a -thousand pounds for the discharge of his debts, and left, temporarily -only, we fear, £2000 in Longman’s hands, the interest of which was to -be paid quarterly to his father. - -This was Moore’s greatest effort; nor did he attempt to surpass it. One -substantial proof of admiration of the poet’s performance should not -be overlooked: “The young Bristol lady,” says Moore in his diary, Dec. -23rd, 1818, “who inclosed me three pounds after reading _Lalla Rookh_ -had very laudable ideas on the subject; and if every reader of _Lalla -Rookh_ had done the same I need never have written again.” - -As it was, however, he was soon obliged to set to work once more--this -time as a biographer. The lives of Sheridan, Fitzgerald, and many -others, bear testimony to his industry; but in spite, perhaps because, -of their pleasant gossiping tone, they are far from accurate. At one -time he had so many lives upon his hands together, that he suggested -the feasibility of publishing a work to be called the _Cat_, which -should contain nine of them. His _Life of Byron_ we have already -alluded to, but we must again call attention to Longman’s generosity in -allowing him to transfer the work to Murray. Longman was not less eager -in his kindness to his clients in private than in business relations. -His Saturday “Weekly Literary Meetings” were about the pleasantest and -most sociable in London. As early as 1804 we find Southey writing to -Coleridge: “I wish you had called on Longman; that man has a kind heart -of his own, and I wish you to think so; the letter he sent me was a -proof of it. Go to one of his Saturday evenings, you will see a coxcomb -or two, and a dull fellow or two; but you will, perhaps, meet Turner -and Duppa, and Duppa is worth knowing.” Throughout the day the new -publications were displayed in a separate department for the use of the -literary men, and house dinners were of frequent occurrence; the whole -of the “Lake School” were steady recipients of Longman’s hospitality -whenever they came to town. - -As, perhaps, the strongest proof of a man’s kindliness of heart, -Longman is invariably represented as being “almost adored by his -domestics, from his uniform attention to the comforts of those who have -grown gray in his service.” He was a liberal patron of the “Association -for the Relief of Decayed Booksellers,” and was also one of the -“Court of Assistants of the Company of Stationers,” but, with the -characteristic modesty of his disposition, paid the customary fine to -be allowed to decline the offices of warden and master of the company. - -For many years the “House” had been London agents and part proprietors -of the _Edinburgh Review_, and when the commercial crash of 1826 -destroyed Constable’s huge establishment, the property was virtually -in their own hands, and the number for December, 1826, is printed -for “Longman, Rees, Orme, Browne, and Green, London, and Adam Black, -Edinburgh;” and if we “read between the lines” of the new designation -we learn that Hurst had been concerned in some bill transactions, -and had been this year compelled to retire (he died an inmate of the -Charter House, in 1847), and we may also gather something of the strong -connection that was to be formed with the house of Adam Black. - -Jeffrey retired from the editorial chair in 1829, but Macney Napier, -the editor of the _Encyclopædia Britannica_ was appointed in his -stead, and the literary management of the journal was still continued -in Edinburgh. Sydney Smith ceased to write for the _Review_ in 1827; -but in 1825 an article was contributed on Milton, by a young man of -five-and-twenty; and Mr. Thomas Babington Macaulay, who, as Moore said, -could do any mortal thing but forget, was destined to be, not only the -most brilliant of the daring and talented band of Edinburgh Reviewers, -but eventually, one of the most powerful contributors to Longman’s -fortune and reputation.[10] - -To return again to educational works, we find that in Mangnall’s -_Questions_ a property had been acquired that fully rivalled Murray’s -_Mrs. Markham_. A type now of a hideously painful and parrot-like -system of teaching (what negations of talent our sisters and mothers -owe to this encyclopædic volume we shudder to sum up!) it was imitated -and printed in every direction. Poor Miss Mangnall! who recollects -now-a-days that in 1806 she commenced her literary life with a volume -of poems? A very similar book, but on scientific questions, was _Mrs. -Marcet’s Conversations_, which was not only profitable to Longman, -but American booksellers, up to the year 1853, had reaped an abundant -harvest from the sale of 160,000 copies. - -The attempts already made by Constable and Murray to promote the -sale of cheap and yet excellent books, led Longman to establish his -_Cabinet Encyclopædia_. The management was given to Dr. Lardner, -then a professor at the London University, and all, or nearly all, -Longman’s literary connections were pressed into service on his staff -of contributors. In the prospectus we see the names of Scott, Moore, -Mackintosh, Coleridge, Miss Edgeworth, Herschell, Long, Brewster, De -Morgan, Thirlwall, and, of course, Southey. The _Times_ gave more -than a broad hint that some of the names were put forward as lures, -and nothing else. Southey was anxious that this “insinuation” should -be brought before a court of law, where the writer may be “taught -that not every kind of slander may be published with impunity.” The -proprietors, however, contented themselves with publishing books, most -indubitably written by the authors whose names they bore. The first -volume was published in 1829, and at the close of the series, in 1846, -one hundred and thirty-three volumes had been issued, the whole of -which were eminently successful, and some few of them, such as Sir John -Herschell’s _Astronomy_, in particular, have since been expanded into -recognised and standard works. - -Another valuable work which has been a constant source of wealth to -the firm, somewhat similar in scope to the preceding, was McCulloch’s -_Commercial Dictionary_, first published in 1832; in which year the -present Mr. Thomas Longman was admitted a partner, being joined by his -brother, Mr. William Longman, in 1839. With young Mr. Thomas Longman, -Moore appears to have been particularly friendly, addressing him always -as “Dear Tom.” As far back as 1829, we see the poet requesting that -some one might be sent over to have “poor Barbara’s” grave made tidy, -for fear that his wife Bessy, who was about to make a loving pilgrimage -thither, might be shocked, and we read afterwards that “young Longman -kindly rode over twice to Hornsey for the purpose.” In Moore’s diary, -too, for 1837, we find many regrets for the loss of Rees--a man “who -may be classed among those solemn business-ties, the breaking of which -by death cannot but be felt solemnly, if not deeply.” And again, later -on, in 1840: “Indeed, I will venture to say that there are few tributes -from authors to publishers more honourable (or I will fairly say more -deserved) than those which will be found among my papers relative to -the transactions for many years between myself and my friends of the -‘Row.’” - -Thomas Longman the third was now an old man, but still constantly -attentive to business. In his time he had seen many changes, but none -more striking than those that occupied his latter days. _Madoc_ was -still lying on his shelves, but Southey was poet-laureate. Scott and -Byron had in succession entranced the world. They had now withdrawn, -and no third king arose to demand recognition. It was in the calm that -followed that Wordsworth obtained a hearing. In 1839, the University -of Oxford conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws, amid the -enthusiastic applause of a crowded theatre. Younger men were coming -to the fore, and though his contemporaries were fast dying off, still -Longman was as eager for business as ever, and as ready, when it was -over, for his chief pleasure--the enjoyments of domestic life; for his -favourite pursuits--the love of music and the culture of fruits and -flowers. As far as health and activity went, though in his 72nd year, -he was still in the prime of life, when, on his usual ride to town, his -horse fell, near the Small-pox Hospital, St. Pancras, and he was thrown -over the animal’s head and struck the ground with such violence as to -fracture his skull and injure his spine; and in a few days afterwards -he died at his residence, Greenhill House, Hampstead, on 28th August, -1842--leaving a blank, not only in his own family circle, but in the -hearts of all who had known him as a master, or had reaped a benefit -from the uniform generosity of his business dealings. - -Mr. McCulloch and many of his literary clients erected a monument, the -bust of which, by Mr. Moore, is said to be a good likeness, to his -memory--an affectionate tribute seldom paid by men-of-letters to a -publisher--now standing in Hampstead church. - -His personalty was sworn under £200,000, and was principally left to -his widow and family. The former, however, did not long survive her -sorrow, but died some ten weeks after her husband. - -Their second son, Mr. Charles Longman, of Two Waters, joined Mr. -Dickenson, in the trade of wholesale stationers and paper-makers, -in which they have since then attained a pre-eminence. Their eldest -daughter married Mr. Spottiswoode, the Queen’s printer, and the third -daughter is the wife of Reginald Bray, Esq., of Shere. - -The succession of a Thomas Longman to the chiefdom of the house is, -Mr. Knight says somewhere, as certain as the accession of a George was -in the Hanoverian dynasty: and the present Mr. Longman, aided by his -brother William, took command of the gigantic firm in Paternoster Row. -The very year of their father’s death was a year to be long remembered -in the annals of the firm for an unusually successful “hit,” in the -production of the _Lays of Ancient Rome_. Not even in the palmy days -of Scott and Byron was such an immediate and enormous circulation -attained. In 1844, Macaulay ceased to contribute to the _Edinburgh -Review_--nearly twenty years from the date of his first contributions; -receiving latterly, we believe, £100 as a minimum price for an article. -A collective edition of these essays was published in America; and -within five years sixty thousand volumes were sold, and, as many of -these were imported into England, Macaulay authorised the proprietors -of the _Review_ to issue an English edition, which certainly proved -the most remunerative collection of essays ever published in this or -any other country. The English edition contains twenty-seven essays, -in some editions twenty-six. The Philadelphia edition contains eleven -additional essays.[11] - -These essays were all very excellent, but Macaulay’s admirers regretted -with Tom Moore, “that his great powers should not be concentrated -upon one great work, instead of being scattered in Sibyl’s leaves,” -and great was the satisfaction in 1841, when it was known that he was -engaged upon a History of England, and the publication of the work was -looked forward to with the greatest eagerness; and in 1849 the first -two volumes appeared. Success was immediate--“Within six months,” -says the _Edinburgh Review_, “the book has run through five editions, -involving an issue of above 18,000 copies.” By 1856, the sale of -these two volumes had reached nearly 40,000 copies, and in the United -States 125,000 copies were sold in five years. For the privilege of -publication for ten years, it is said that Mr. Longman allowed the -author £600 per annum; the copyright remaining in Macaulay’s possession. - -This success, however, was nothing to that achieved by the third and -fourth volumes; and the day of their publication, 17th Dec., 1855, will -be long remembered in the annals of Paternoster Row. It was presumed -that 25,000 copies would be quite sufficient to meet the first public -demand; but this enormous pile of books, weighing fifty-six tons, was -exhausted the first day, and eleven thousand applicants were still -unsatisfied. In New York one house sold 73,000 volumes (three different -styles and prices) in ten days, and 25,000 more were immediately issued -in Philadelphia--10,000 were stereotyped, printed, and in the hands -of the publishers within fifty working hours. The aggregate sale in -England and America, within four weeks of publication, is said to have -exceeded 150,000 copies. Macaulay is also stated to have received -£16,000 from Mr. Longman for the copyright of the third and fourth -volumes.[12] - -Upon the death of Mr. Macney Napier, the editorship of the _Review_ was -transferred to Mr. Empson, Jeffrey’s son-in-law; while he in turn was -succeeded by Sir George Cornewall Lewis, who finally gave place to Mr. -H. Reeve. - -In the way of cheap literature the “Travellers’ Library,” commenced -in 1851, is deservedly worthy of notice. In this year occurred the -unusual phenomenon of a pamphlet, bearing on its title-page the joint -names of Mr. Longman and Mr. Murray. This was a reprint of some -correspondence with Earl Russell, in his official capacity, as to the -injustice of the State undertaking the publication of school-books -at the national expense, and compelling the government schools to -adopt them--thus creating a perfect monopoly and interfering with -private enterprise. The books in question were published by the Irish -Educational Commissioners, but more than three-quarters of them were -eventually sold in England--many of them, especially the collection of -poetry, were, it was further urged, pirated from copyright works. The -correspondence was long and protracted on the side of the publishers; -and as is often the case in an important public question, Earl -Russell’s replies consisted of the merest acknowledgment. Mr. Longman -had, however, an opportunity of a pleasant revenge. Tom Moore had -left all his papers, letters, and journals to the care of his friend, -Earl Russell--a man who, as Sydney Smith said, thought he could do -anything--“build St. Paul’s, cut for the stone, or command the Channel -Fleet.” The one thing apparently he could not do was the editorship -or composition of a Poet’s Life. The material, indeed, was ample, and -seems to have been printed pretty much as it came to hand. However, the -sum which Mr. Longman gave for the papers appeared, together with the -pension, an ample provision for the devoted “Bessy.” - -Among the later efforts of the firm we may here mention the issue of -many finely illustrated works, and we must also chronicle the fact -that in 1863--the business connections and stock of the Parkers were -added to the enormous trade of the leviathan firm. Giving a glance -at the changes that have taken place in the members of the firm, we -have merely space to note that at Cosmo Orme’s death in 1859 Mr. Brown -retired, and at his decease on the 24th of March, 1869, left an immense -fortune, more than £100,000 going in various legacies, of which the -Booksellers’ Provident Retreat and Institution each received £10,000, -the Royal Literary Fund £3000, and the Stationers’ Company in all -£10,000, the balance after the various legacies, and there were no -less than sixty-eight legatees, going to the grandchildren of Thomas -Norton Longman. The personalty of Mr. B. E. Green, who died about the -same date, was sworn under £200,000. Two of the former assistants, Mr. -Dyer and Mr. Reader, have, on the good old system, been admitted to -the firm, which now stands “Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer.” Mr. -Roberts, as before stated, died in 1865. - -Both the Messrs. Longman are well known for their literary talents--Mr. -Thomas Longman as editor of a magnificent edition of the New Testament; -and Mr. William as an historical author. The first of his works was, we -believe, privately printed, _A Tour in the Alps, by W. L._ Mr. William -Longman has always been an enthusiastic Alpine traveller. He has, -however, more recently published a _History of the Life and Times of -Edward III._, in two volumes, and at our present writing a new work has -just appeared in which he says playfully, “I trust authors will forgive -me, and not revenge themselves by turning publishers;” and he adds -heartily and generously, “There is, nevertheless, some advantage in a -publisher dabbling in literature, for it shows him the difficulties -with which an author has to contend--the labour which is indispensable -to produce a work which may be relied on--and it increases the sympathy -which should, and which in these days does, exist between author and -publisher.” These latter lines surely form a very fitting sentence with -which to conclude our short history of the house of Longman. - -[Illustration] - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -_CONSTABLE, CADELL, AND BLACK._ - -THE “EDINBURGH REVIEW,” “WAVERLEY NOVELS,” AND “ENCYCLOPÆDIA -BRITANNICA.” - - -From 1790 to 1820 Edinburgh richly deserved the honourable title of -“Modern Athens.” Her University and her High School, directed by men -pre-eminently fitted for their duties, capable of firing their pupils’ -minds with a noble purpose, endowed with a lofty ideal of a master’s -responsibilities--in fact, possessed of all the qualities that Dr. -Arnold afterwards displayed elsewhere--attracted and educated a set -of young men, unrivalled, perhaps, in modern times for genius and -energy, for wit and learning. Nothing, then, was wanting to their due -encouragement but a liberal patron, and this position was speedily -occupied by a publisher, who, in his munificence and venturous spirit, -soon outstripped his boldest English rival--whose one fault was, in -fact, that of always being a Mæcenas, never a tradesman. - -Archibald Constable was born on the 24th of February, 1776, at Kellie, -in the parish of Carnbee in Fifeshire. He was the son of Thomas -Constable, who, through his sagacity in rural matters, had risen -to the position of land steward or baillie to the Earl of Kellie. -The first thirteen or fourteen years of Archibald’s life were passed -beneath his father’s roof, and his education, such as the parish school -of Carnbee then afforded, consisted of a course of reading in the -vernacular tongue, writing, arithmetic, and some elementary lessons -in trigonometry, and beyond this humble curriculum, we believe his -subsequent acquisitions did not much extend. Still, though he never -attained any proficiency in academical studies, his native talents and -address generally enabled him to both surmount and conceal it. - -From an early age Archibald was possessed of a desire to enter upon a -bookseller’s useful career--a desire in his case not altogether unmixed -with the hope of acquiring literary distinction. In 1788 therefore, -he became apprenticed to Mr. Peter Hill, bookseller of Edinburgh, the -old friend and correspondent of Burns. While a lad in Hill’s shop he -seems to have devoted his leisure hours to the acquisition of that -knowledge of the early and rare productions of the Scottish press, and -of all publications relating generally to the history, antiquities, -and literature of Scotland, for which, throughout his subsequent -career, he continued to exhibit a strong predilection. About the time -of the expiration of his apprenticeship he married the daughter of -David Willison, a printer, who, though previously very averse to the -match, was subsequently of some service in enabling him to start for -himself. Having hired a small shop in the High Street, afterwards -rendered conspicuous by his celebrity as a publisher, he issued, in -November, 1795, the first of his Sale Catalogues of rare and curious -books, which soon drew to his shop all the bibliographers and lovers -of learning in the city. In this line of trade he speedily acquired -considerable eminence, not so much by the extensiveness of his stock, -for his capital was of the smallest, as by his personal activity, his -congenial curiosity, and his quick intelligence. Here it was that -Heber, in the course of his bibliomaniacal prowlings, came across -Leyden, perched perpetually on a ladder reading some venerable folio, -which his purse forbade him to purchase, but which through Constable’s -kindness was placed in this manner at his disposal. Heber soon brought -him under Scott’s notice, and thus had the pleasure of introducing -the two most promising young men of the day to each other. Constable -had, however, an ambition too strong to be satisfied with the routine -business of a second-hand book-shop. Even before his shop in the High -Street was fairly opened, he had himself offered a book to the trade--a -reprint of Bishop Beveridge’s _Private Thoughts on Religion_, struck -off coarsely upon a whitey-brown sort of “tea-paper;” but still it was -his first, and, as Archibald proudly said, “it was a pretty enough -little bookie!” - -[Illustration: Archibald Constable. - -1775-1827.] - -Among other publications in which from his first outset he had -been engaged, and which at the time he esteemed as by no means -inconsiderable, were Campbell’s “History of Scottish Poetry,” Dalzell’s -“Fragments of Scottish History,” and Leyden’s edition of the “Complaint -of Scotland.” In 1801 he acquired the property of the _Scots Magazine_, -a miscellany which had commenced in 1739, and which was still esteemed -as a repository of curious facts. This congenial publication engaged -at first a considerable share of his personal attention, and, aided -by the talents of Leyden, Murray, and Macneil, its reputation as a -critical journal was raised into some importance. - -Of all the extraordinary geniuses with whom Constable came into -contact, none were more conspicuous to those near enough to judge than -Leyden, his first editor of the periodical. A poet, an antiquarian, -an Orientalist, he will long be distinguished among those whom the -elasticity and ardour of genius have raised to distinction from an -obscure and humble origin. The son of a day labourer at Denholm, -he had, by sheer force of will, worked his way to the college of -Edinburgh, where he at once obtained the friendship of many eminent -literary men. His acquaintance with Scott soon introduced him into the -best society in Edinburgh--which was then the most intellectual society -in Europe--and here his wild uncouthness of demeanour did not at all -interfere with the general appreciation of his genius, his gigantic -endowments, and his really amiable virtues. Fixing his ambition on the -East, where he hoped to rival the achievements of Sir William Jones, he -obtained in 1802 the promise of some literary appointment in the East -India Company’s service; but when the time drew near it was discovered -that the patronage of the season had been exhausted, with the exception -of one surgeon-assistant’s commission, and he was informed that if he -wished to accept it he must qualify within six months. He grappled -at once with the task, and accomplished what takes other men three -or four years in attainment within the incredibly short space of six -months. He sailed for India in 1803, and died in 1811, at the early age -of thirty-six, having in the seven years of his sojourn achieved the -reputation of the most marvellous of Orientalists. His poetical remains -were collected and given to the public in 1821, and exhibit in some -instances a power of numbers which for mere melody of sound has seldom -been surpassed in the English language. - -In 1802, Constable commenced the _Farmer’s Magazine_, under the -management of an able East Lothian agriculturist, Mr. R. Brown, then -of Markle. This work enjoyed a reputation contemporary with the whole -of his business life. Altogether, Constable was making fair way as a -publisher, when, in 1802, the _Edinburgh Review_ burst like a bombshell -upon an astonished world, and gave him just reason to believe that his -professional fortune was thoroughly ensured in the most glorious manner. - -The origin of the _Review_, like the beginnings of all things, is -wrapped in doubt and mystery. Hitherto in the critical department of -English literature, a review had been little more than a peg upon which -to hang books for advertisement, and in which the general bearings -of science, literature, and politics were left almost untouched. In -Scotland, criticism was at a still lower ebb, for the country had -possessed no regular review at all since the old _Edinburgh Review_ had -expired in 1756, after a flickering existence of a twelvemonth. - -“One day,” writes Sydney Smith, “we happened to meet in the eighth -or ninth storey (it was the third) of a flat in Buccleuch-place, the -elevated residence of the then Mr. Jeffrey. I proposed that we should -get up a review. This was acceded to with acclamations. I was appointed -editor, and remained long enough in Edinburgh to edit the first number -of the _Edinburgh Review_. The motto I proposed was-- - - ‘Tenui musam meditamur avenâ.’ - - ‘We cultivate literature upon a little oatmeal.’ - -But this was too near the truth to be admitted, and so we took our -present grave motto from Publius Lyrus, of whom none of us had, I am -sure, read a single line; and so began what has since turned out to be -a very important and able journal. When I left Edinburgh it fell into -the stronger hands of Lord Jeffrey and Lord Brougham, and reached the -highest point of popularity and success.” - -It was resolved to bring out the first number of the work in June, -1802; but its outset was surrounded with many difficulties, arising -from want of experience in its chief conductors. The meetings of the -conspirators were held in a little room off Willison’s (Constable’s -father-in-law’s) office in Craig’s-court, to which each man was -requested to steal singly, by whichever way would be least suspicious; -and there they examined and criticised each other’s productions, and -corrected the proof sheets as they were thrown off. Here it was that -Jeffrey once rushed down excitedly into Willison’s printing-office, -crying, “Where is your pepper-box, man--your pepper-box?” In vain the -printer declared he had no such useful article on the premises; Jeffrey -persisted that the proof sheets must have been dusted with commas from -a pepper-box, so lavish had the printer been with his points. Through -various delays, typographical and otherwise, the first number, as we -have seen, did not appear until the following November. - -Lord Brougham, in the first volume of his recently-published -autobiography, flatly contradicts this account. “Nothing,” he says, -“can be more imaginary than nearly the whole of it.” Still, when -Sydney Smith published his version of the history, neither Lord -Brougham nor any other person interested took the trouble to contradict -it; and we are inclined to accept rather an account written within a -short time of the foundation of the _Review_ than to receive another -version written by an octogenarian at an interval of more than half a -century. A letter, moreover, of Sydney Smith’s, first published in the -_Athenæum_ of April 1st, 1871, shows clearly that the proprietors of -the journal presented him “with books to the value of £100 (corrected -to £114) as a memorial of their respect for having planned and -contributed to a work which to them has been a source of reputation as -well as of emolument.” On the other hand, Sydney Smith’s editorship -certainly did not extend beyond the first number, and was probably even -in that subject to the direction of Jeffrey. - -The list of contributions to the first four numbers may, however, be -accepted as indisputable evidence of Brougham’s enormous powers of -work. To these four numbers he contributed twenty-one articles, besides -portions of four others. Smith contributed eighteen, Jeffrey sixteen, -and Horner seven. Brougham, too, kept up this rate of contribution more -steadily than any of his colleagues. To the first twenty numbers he -contributed no less than eighty articles, Jeffrey seventy-five, Smith -twenty-three, and Horner fourteen. By this time the new periodical was -fairly launched, and the additional services of such men as Playfair, -Thomas Brown, Walter Scott, Hallam, Murray, and Stodhart, had been -secured. - -The extensive circulation and reputation of the _Edinburgh Review_ -was, Scott himself says, due to two circumstances; first that it -was entirely uninfluenced by the booksellers; and, secondly, the -regular payment of editor and contributors: Jeffrey receiving, from -the commencement of his labours, £300 per annum (afterwards increased -to £800), whilst every contributor was compelled, even if wealthy, to -accept a minimum bonus of £10 (afterwards raised to £16) per sheet. - -Never before had the enterprise of young and almost unknown men started -so ambitious a scheme, and never since have pluck and learning, -talent and genius been so amply rewarded. They found the world of -English society, English literature, and English politics warped and -dwarfed--scared by the French Revolution and the American Republic -into a dormant state of Toryism--they found matters thus, and in -an incredibly short time they almost changed the current of the -national thought. Jeffrey, with his clear, legal mind, his startling -and brilliant manner of expression, his sarcasm cold and sharp-edged -as a Toledo blade, unfortunately only too capable of wounding too -deeply--won the position of the greatest English critic of all time, -and of the most eminent Scottish lawyer of the day--achieving the -highest honours open to the advocates of Edinburgh. Brougham, with his -ponderous learning, his marvellous versatility, his immense powers of -work, became not only the first English lawyer, but one of the first -English statesmen of his time. Sydney Smith, the wittiest man certainly -of his century, might have attained the highest honours open to his -calling, had he not preferred the more humble and more praiseworthy -career of being a liberal clergyman at a time when the wearers of his -cloth were one and all rank Tories to the backbone. - -Constable, who had at first been rather startled and alarmed at the -design of the _Edinburgh Review_, was not prepared, any more than -the projectors themselves, for its immediate and splendid success. -Without a publisher of his cast of mind the work, however, might -have encountered some difficulties, and he was not slow to perceive, -nor backward to follow, that line of conduct towards its conductors, -without the observance of which the new relations between them could -not long have been sustained harmoniously. The present proprietors of -the work became, some years after its commencement, sharers of the -property, but the publishing department remained, we believe, under his -direction for many years. - -In 1804 Constable assumed as partner Alexander Gibson Hunter, of -Blackness, and from that time the business was carried on under the -title of Archibald Constable and Co. In the following year, 1805, -he added to the list of his periodicals the _Medical and Surgical -Journal_, a work projected in concert with Dr. Andrew Duncan, and -which existed till 1855, when it was united to the _Medical Journal of -Science_. It was in this year, also, that the firm published a poem, -which was eventually to do more for the enlargement of their business -and the honour of their name than even the famous _Review_ itself. - -Walter Scott, as we have seen, while still unknown to fame, had been a -frequent visitor at Constable’s old book-shop. The publishers of the -first edition of the _Lay of the Last Minstrel_ were Longman and Co. of -London, and Archibald Constable and Co. of Edinburgh; the latter firm -taking but a small venture in the risk. The profit was to be divided -equally between the author and the publishers, and Scott’s portion -amounted to £169 6_s._ Longman, when a second edition was called for, -offered £500 for the copyright, which was immediately accepted, but -they afterwards added, as the Introduction says, “£100 in their own -unsolicited kindness.” In the history of British poetry nothing had -ever equalled the demand for the _Lay of the Last Minstrel_. 44,000 -copies were disposed of before Scott superintended the edition of 1830, -to which the biographical introductions were prefixed. - -In the ensuing year Constable issued a beautiful edition of what -he termed _Works of Walter Scott, Esq._, comprising the poem just -mentioned, the “Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border,” “Sir Tristram,” and -a series of “Lyrical Ballads.” - -In 1806 it was rumoured that Scott had a new poem in hand. Longman -at once opened negotiation as to its purchase, but in vain; and in a -short time the London publishers heard with a feeling of jealousy, not -unmixed with honest amazement, that Constable had offered one thousand -guineas for a poem which had not yet been completed, and of which he -had not even seen the scheme. - -It may be gathered from the Introduction of 1830 that private -circumstances of a delicate nature rendered it desirable for Scott to -obtain the immediate command of such a sum; the price was actually paid -long before the poem was published; and it suited well with Constable’s -character to imagine that his readiness to advance the money may have -outstripped the calculations of more experienced dealers. - -The bargain having, however, been concluded he was too wary to keep the -venture entirely to himself, and he consequently tendered one-fourth of -the copyright to Mr. Miller of Albemarle Street, and to Mr. Murray, -then of Fleet Street, London, and in both cases the offer was eagerly -accepted. - -_Marmion_, the poem in question, which had been announced by an -advertisement in 1857, as _Six Epistles from Ettrick Forest_, met with -an immense success, and 2000 copies, at a guinea and a half each, were -disposed of in less than a month. - -As an instance of the freedom Constable left to Jeffrey in the -conduct of the _Review_, we are not a little astonished to read that -the venture, in which he had risked so much, was attacked in a most -slashing manner in his own journal. Jeffrey, thinking nothing of so -ordinary a circumstance, sent the article to Scott with a note stating -that he would come to dinner on the following Tuesday. Scott, though -wounded by the tone of the _Review_, did his best to conceal it. Mrs. -Scott, however, was very cool in her manner, and, as Jeffrey was -taking leave, could no longer restrain her pique, and in her broken -English--“Well, guid night, Mr. Jeffrey; dey tell me you have abused -Scott in the _Review_; and I hope Mr. Constable has paid you well for -writing it.” This anecdote, insignificant in itself, prepares us to -some extent for the coldness between them, which led Scott to originate -the _Quarterly Review_. - -Emboldened still further by the success of _Marmion_, Constable now -engaged Scott to edit the works of Swift, and as Scott had several like -engagements on hand--he held, in fact, five separate agreements at the -same time, for the London publishers--offered him £1500 for his new -undertaking. - -Constable was at this time in an apparently assured line of success. -Though of a very sanguine nature--a quality without which no projector -could possibly succeed--he was one of the most sagacious persons who -ever followed his profession. A brother poet of Scott says of him: “Our -butteracious friend turns up a deep draw-well;” and another eminent -writer still more intimately connected had already christened him “the -Crafty”--a title which, of all the flying burrs, was the one that -stuck the firmest. His fair and handsome physiognomy was marked by an -unmistakable and bland astuteness of expression. He generally avoided -criticism as well as authorship, both being out of his “proper line.” - -But of this “proper line,” and his own qualification for it, his esteem -was ample. The one flaw, and the fatal flaw, in his character as a -business man was his hatred of accounts, for he systematically refused -during the most vigorous years of his life to examine or sign a balance -sheet. Scott, in describing his appearance, says, “Ay, Constable is -indeed a grand-looking chield. He puts me in mind of Fielding’s apology -for Lady Booby--to wit that Joseph Andrews had an air which to those -who had not seen many noblemen, would give an idea of nobility.” His -conversation was manly and vigorous, abounding in Scotch anecdotes -of the old times, and he could, when he had a mind, control the -extravagant vanity which at times made him ridiculous. His advice was -often useful to Scott, and more than one of the subjects of the novels, -and many of the titles, were due to his recommendations. Cadell, his -partner, says that in his high moods he used to stalk up and down the -room exclaiming, “By God! I am all but the author of the Waverley -novels!” - -Of course, as a successful publisher, Constable was overwhelmed -with the manuscripts of embryo genius. One or two stories are worth -repeating of the men who applied to him, but in vain. Hogg, the Ettrick -Shepherd, had already sold a volume of minor poems to Constable, when -setting to work in earnest he went to him again; but “the Crafty” was -too wise to buy a pig in a poke, and refused to have anything to do -with the matter until he had seen the MS. This reasonable request the -poet refused with, “What skill have you about the merit of a book?” “It -may be so, Hogg,” replied the Jupiter Tonans of Scottish publishers; -“but I know as well how to sell a book as any man, which should be some -consequence of yours, and I know too how to buy one.” Hogg, however, -easily found another publisher, and the _Queen’s Wake_ was soon as -widely popular as its great merits deserved. - -The other refusal, unfortunately, did not end in the same happy manner. -Robert Tannahill, a Scotch weaver, whose songs in their artless -sweetness, their simplicity of diction, their tenderness of sentiment, -have long since won distinction, came up to Edinburgh very poor in -purse, but rich in the future that poetic aspirations imaged forth. -He put his manuscripts into Constable’s hands, offering the whole of -them at a very small price. Day after day he waited for an answer, -with a mind alternating between hope and fear. Constable, who always -distrusted his own judgment in such matters, and who, perhaps, at the -moment had no one else to consult, eventually returned the poems. -Tannahill in a madness of despair put a period to his existence, adding -one to those “young shadows” who hover round the shrine of genius, as -if to warn all but the boldest from attempting to approach it. - -The business of Constable’s house was now so large and extensive -that he thought it a hardship that so much of his wares should pass -through the hands of English agents, who not only absorbed a large -share of his profits, but who could not be expected to serve him with -the same zeal as his own immediate followers. He and his Edinburgh -partner, therefore, in 1808, joined with Charles Hunter and John Park -in commencing a general bookselling establishment in London, under the -designation of Constable, Hunter, Park, and Hunter. - -Shortly after this a breach that had been created between Scott and -Constable widened until at last they parted. Scott always maintained -that the quarrel was directly caused by the intemperate language of -Hunter, Constable’s original partner; but the severance was probably in -reality due to the influence of a third person--James Ballantyne--and -was, perhaps to a certain extent, influenced by a feeling of pique -at Jeffrey’s recent conduct. In 1808 he took a part, perhaps as a -suggester, certainly as a zealous promoter, in the establishment of -the _Quarterly Review_, as a political and literary counterpoise to -the _Edinburgh Review_. Already, in 1805, he had become a partner in -the printing house of James Ballantyne and Company, though the fact -remained for the public, and for all his friends but one, a profound -secret. “The forming of this connection,” says Lockhart, “was one of -the most important steps in Scott’s life. He continued bound by it -during twenty years, and its influence on his literary exertions and -his worldly fortunes was productive of much good and not a little -evil. Its effects were in truth so mixed and balanced during the -vicissitudes of a long and vigorous career, that I at this moment -doubt whether it ought, on the whole, to be considered with more -of satisfaction or regret.” Scott’s wish, openly expressed in his -correspondence, of thwarting Constable in his attempts to obtain a -monopoly of Scottish literature, resulted in the establishment of a -new and rival bookselling firm, under the title of John Ballantyne -and Co., to which he appears to have supplied the whole capital--at -any rate he subscribed his own half, with one-fourth, the portion of -James Ballantyne, and not improbably also the other fourth for John -Ballantyne. - -John and James Ballantyne were the sons of a merchant at Kelso, and -here it was they went to school with Walter Scott, and thus commenced -an acquaintance so fraught with interest to all three. Early in life -James Ballantyne, though not bred to the trade, nor “to the manner -born,” opened a printing house at Kelso and started the _Kelso Mail_ -newspaper, in which his brother John soon joined him. Having made some -improvements in the art of printing, which rendered their provincial -printing famous, they were persuaded to move to Edinburgh, and here -they founded a press which, rivalling in its productions the works of -a Baskerville or a Bensley, is at this present time as famous as ever. -From their first start their old connection with Scott was serviceable, -and in 1800 they printed his first important work, the _Minstrelsy of -the Scottish Border_, and from the time, 1805, when he first became -commercially interested in their business, they were firm friends and -faithful allies. Scott, to his dying day, certainly reciprocated their -kindly feelings, though Lockhart, his biographer, has since his death -said very harsh things of the evil resulting from the connection. It -is only fair to the Ballantynes to remember that both before and -after the period of partnership with him, their house was eminently -successful. In the meantime, Constable was busy publishing the works of -Dugald Stewart, who at this time occupied the same place in metaphysics -as Sir Walter did in poetry. The _Philosophical Essays_, published -in 1810, excited great, and even popular, attention. He also became -the proprietor of the _Encyclopædia Britannica_, for which he paid an -enormous price, and to which he published an excellent supplement. We -shall, however, treat more fully of the _Encyclopædia_ in connection -with Mr. Adam Black. We may here mention, as among Constable’s other -successful publications, Wood’s excellent edition of Douglas’s -_Scottish Peerage_, and Chalmers’ _Caledonia_. - -The London branch was found to be unattended with the expected -advantages, and was given up in 1811. In the early part of this same -year Hunter retired from the Edinburgh house, upon which Constable, -acting upon the liberal view he always entertained as to the value -of his stock, and being, perhaps, not unwilling to impress the world -with an exalted idea of his property, allowed his partner a greater -amount of actual cash (£17,000 is understood to be the sum) than -was really his due. Robert Cathcart, of Drum, writer-to-the-signet, -and Robert Cadell, then a clerk in his employ, were admitted as -partners. Cathcart, however, dying the following year, Cadell remained -Constable’s sole partner. - -Constable had, of course, felt considerably hurt at Scott’s desertion. -Sometimes it is related he would pace up and down the room, as was -his wont, raving grandiloquently of those who kick down the ladder by -which they have risen. But now that Hunter had left the firm, and now -that it was found that the new _Quarterly_ did not in the least damage -the value of the old one, a reconciliation could not but take place -between men who had formerly been so friendly, and on the publication -of the _Lady of the Lake_, Constable willingly gave the Ballantynes the -value of his experience and trade knowledge, though he was not directly -interested in the work. - -The new poem was published just before the season for excursions, and -thousands rushed off at once to view the scenery of Loch Katrine; and -it is a well-ascertained fact that from the date of the appearance of -this volume, assisted by subsequent of his publications, the post-horse -duty in Scotland rose in an extraordinary degree. - -Scott now found out that his move to the Ballantynes had not been -attended with the success he expected. John Ballantyne proved but an -irregular hand at book-keeping, and James was too much addicted to good -cheer (or Lockhart sadly belies him) to be really serviceable as a -business man. In vain did Scott write amusing letters of remonstrance; -the publisher’s business was neglected, and the firm, as booksellers, -fell into difficulties. Constable was appealed to, and, finally, for -£2000 consented to purchase most of the stock, and a complete business -reconciliation was effected between him and Scott. The Ballantynes, -however, still maintained their printing house, in which Scott was -secretly the principal proprietor, and at which he insisted that all -his own works should at all times, no matter who the publisher, be -printed. - -About the year 1805 Scott had written a third part of a novel, which -was advertised by John Ballantyne, under the title of _Waverley_, -but he was unwilling to risk the loss of his poetical reputation by -attempting a new style of composition. He, therefore, threw aside the -work, and stumbling upon it in 1811, when his poetical reputation -was beginning to wane, and soon after he had threatened, half in fun -and half in earnest, “If I fail now I will write prose for life,” -he at once completed the story. The current rumour of the new novel -having been rejected by several London publishers, is entirely untrue. -The work was printed by the Ballantynes, and through the whole -series the greatest secrecy as to the author’s name was preserved. -James Ballantyne himself transcribed the “copy,” and copied Scott’s -corrections on to a duplicate proof sheet; nor was there a single -instance of treachery throughout the whole time of the secret. - -When the printed volumes of _Waverley_ were put into Constable’s hands, -he did not for a moment doubt its authorship, but at once offered £700 -for the copyright: this, we must remember, for a work to be published -anonymously, at a time when Miss Edgeworth, the most popular novelist -of her day, had never realized a like sum. The offer was, however, -declined, and ultimately an arrangement was come to by which author and -publisher were to share the profits. - -_Waverley_ took two or three months to win public favour, and then a -perfect _furore_ set in. Sloop-load after sloop-load was sent off to -the London market, and on the rumoured loss of one of these vessels, -half London was in despair. The interest, too, excited by public -curiosity as to the author’s name, was carefully fostered, and in a -short time 12,000 copies were disposed of. - -Scott employed part of his literary gain in purchasing a property -within three miles of Melrose, and gradually enlarged the -dwelling-house until it became a castellated mansion of considerable -size. The desire of becoming an extensive landed proprietor, became -with him a far stronger passion than any craving for literary fame. -It was more his desire, according to James Ballantyne himself, to -“add as much as possible to the little realm of Abbotsford, in order -that he might take his place, not among the great literary names -which posterity is to revere, but among the country gentlemen of -Roxburghshire.” - -Under the influence of this infatuation, Scott produced a series of -novels, of which it will suffice to state the names and dates. - -To _Waverley_ succeeded, in 1815, _Guy Mannering_; in 1816, _The -Antiquary_, and the first series of the _Tales of My Landlord_, -containing _The Black Dwarf_ and _Old Mortality_; in 1818, _Rob Roy_ -and the second series of the _Tales of My Landlord_, containing the -_Heart of Mid Lothian_; and, in 1819, the third series, containing the -_Bride of Lammermoor_ and a _Legend of Montrose_. _Ivanhoe_ was to -have been issued as a separate work, by another anonymous author, so -as to spur the interest of a public that might possibly be flagging; -but the publication of a novel in London, pretending to be a fourth -series of the _Tales of My Landlord_, determined him to produce it as -the veritable production of the author of _Waverley_. This was followed -in quick succession by _The Monastery_ and _The Abbot_, in 1820; -_Kenilworth_ and _The Pirate_, in 1821; _The Fortunes of Nigel_ and -_Hallidan Hill_, a dramatic poem, for the copyright of which Constable -gave £1000, in 1822; _Peveril of the Peak_, _Quentin Durward_, and -_St. Ronan’s Well_, in 1823; _Red Gauntlet_, in 1824; and _Woodstock_, -in 1825. - -The vast amount of business arising from these publications, produced -in Constable’s mind a conviction that he was a wealthy and prosperous -man. Though never possessed of much free capital, he saw around him -every day such proofs of an enlarging amount of stock, that nothing -less than the demonstration of figures--a demonstration he cordially -hated--could have given him greater assurance of his affluent -condition. Like Scott, he, too, was intoxicated with success. He had -a magnificent way of transacting all business, and living rather like -a princely father of letters, than a tradesman aiming at making them -subservient to his use, he was led into an expenditure beyond his means. - -Another error lay in his yielding to Scott’s desire for money, and -the means of raising money by pre-payment for literary work yet to be -accomplished. Of Scott’s profits on his works, Lockhart makes the -following statements: “Before Sir Walter went to London, in November, -1821, he concluded another negotiation of importance with the house of -Constable and Co. They agreed to give, for the remaining copyright of -the four novels published between December, 1819, and January, 1821--to -wit _Ivanhoe_, _The Monastery_, _The Abbot_, and _Kenilworth_--the -sum of five thousand guineas. The stipulation about not revealing -the author’s name under a penalty of £2000, was repeated. By these -four novels, the fruits of scarcely more than a twelve months’ -labour, he had already cleared at least £10,000 before this bargain -was completed.... I cannot pretend to guess what the actual state of -Scott’s pecuniary affairs was at the time when John Ballantyne’s death -relieved them from one great source of complication and difficulty.... -He must (in his improvements at Abbotsford) have reckoned on clearing -£30,000, at least, in the course of two years, by the novels written -within the period, and the publishers, as we have seen, were willing -to give him £6000, within the space of two years, for works of a less -serious sort, likely to be despatched at leisure hours, without at all -interfering with the main manufacture. But, alas! even this was not -all.... Before _The Fortunes of Nigel_ issued from the press, Scott -had exchanged instruments, and received his bookseller’s bills for no -less than “four works of fiction,” not one of them otherwise described -in the deeds of agreement. And within two years all this anticipation -had been wiped off by _Peveril of the Peak_, _Quentin Durward_, _St. -Ronan’s Well_, and _Red Gauntlet_; and the new castle was at that time -complete, and overflowing with all its splendour; but by that time the -end was also approaching!” - -To return for a moment to Constable’s life as apart from the author of -_Waverley_; he had, as we have seen, entertained in early years strong -literary aspirations, and he repeatedly expressed a touching regret at -the nonfulfilment of his hopes. The only literary efforts that have -been distinctly traced to his pen consist of an edition of _Lamont’s -Diary_, in 1810; a compilation of the poetry contained in the Waverley -Novels, and the composition of a small volume which appeared in 1822, -under the title of _Memoirs of George Heriot_, jeweller to King James, -containing an account of the hospital founded by him at Edinburgh. In -1816 he lost his wife, and in 1818 he married Miss Charlotte Neale, -who survived him. In the early part of 1822 his health suffered so -severely that he was obliged to sojourn in the south for a while. In -1823, though professedly a Whig in politics, he was included by the -liberal policy of the Government in a list of new magistrates for the -city of Edinburgh; and in the same year he moved from the warehouse, -which he had occupied for twenty years in the High Street, to an -elegant mansion in the New Town, adjacent to the Register House, which -had become his own through his second wife. - -Constable had at this time all the personal and outward appearance of -a successful man. He was stout and portly in body, and rather defiant -and imperious in his manner. Among the trade he was known as the “Czar -of Muscovy;” of the London potentates, John Murray had earned the -_sobriquet_ of the “Emperor of the West,” and Longman and his string -of partners as the “Divan.” Constable had christened John Ballantyne -the “Dey of Algiers,” but, as John complained, had subsequently deposed -him. The “Czar,” however, was too fond of these nicknames. Longman was -one day dining with him: “What fine swans you have on your pond there,” -quoth the Londoner. “Swans,” cried Constable, “they are only geese, -man! There are just five of them, if you please to observe, and their -names are Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown.” This skit cost “the -Crafty” a good bargain. - -About the year 1825, Constable devised a scheme greater than any he -had yet floated, and the adoption of which was eventually destined -to effect an entire revolution in the bookselling trade. After long -study of the annual schedule of tax-payers, he established his -premises clearly enough. There was undoubtedly an immense majority -of respectable British families who never thought of buying a book. -“Look,” he cried to Scott, “at the small class of people who pay the -powder tax, what a trifle it is to each, and yet what a fortune it -would bring to a bookseller! If I live for half-a-dozen years,” he -continued, “I shall make it as impossible that there should not be -a good library in every decent house in Great Britain, as that the -shepherd’s ingle nook should want the ‘saut poke.’” - -“Troth,” said Scott, “if you live you are indeed likely to be - - ‘The great Napoleon of the realms of _print_.’” - -“If you outlive me,” retorted Constable, “I bespeak that line for my -tombstone.... At three shillings or half-a-crown a volume every month, -which must and shall sell, not by thousands, and tens of thousands, but -by hundreds of thousands, and, ay, by millions! Twelve volumes in the -year, a halfpenny of profit on every copy of which will make me richer -than all the copyrights of all the quartos that ever were, or ever will -be, hot-pressed! Twelve volumes so good that millions must wish to -possess them, and so cheap that every butcher callant may have them if -he pleases to let me tax him sixpence a week!” - -Scott saw the feasibility of the scheme, and it was decided to start at -once with a life of the “other Napoleon,” and a portion of one of the -“Waverley Novels.” - -But, alas! before the plan could be carried into execution, the crisis -came. Lockhart received a letter from London stating that Constable’s -London banker had thrown up his book, and he galloped over at once to -Sir Walter’s, who smiled, re-lit his cigar, took the news coolly, and -declined to believe it, and for the moment he was right. - -Lockhart’s account of the terrible failure in which Scott was involved -is this: Whenever Constable signed a bill for the purpose of raising -money among the bankers, for fear of accident, or any neglect in taking -the bill up before it fell due, he deposited a counter-bill, signed -by Ballantyne, on which, if need were, Constable might raise a sum of -money equivalent to that for which he had pledged his word; but these -counter-bills were allowed to lie in Constable’s desk till they assumed -the size of a “sheaf of stamps;” and when the hour of distress came, -Constable rushed with these bills to the money-changers, and thus the -Ballantynes who were liable to Constable for, say £25,000, were legally -liable for £50,000. Constable, in his turn, carried on the same game -with the London house of Hurst, Robinson, and Co., his agents--and upon -a much larger scale. They neglected their own business of bookselling -and entered heavily into speculation in hops, and in the panic of the -close of 1825, availed themselves of Constable’s credit, and he of the -Ballantynes, and the loss descended upon their principal partner, Scott. - -This account has been contradicted by the representatives of John -Ballantyne, in two pamphlets, refuting Lockhart’s history of the -affair, and proving their side of the question by reference to the old -account books; Cadell, Constable’s quondam partner, and certainly not -biassed in his favour, throws his vote in with the Ballantynes. The -responsibilities they undertook were solely at the bidding of Scott, -and for his benefit; and in proof of this, they quote a clause from -the last deed of partnership, dated 1st April, 1822. - -“The said Sir Walter Scott shall remain liable for such bills and debts -as there shall be due and current.” - -When the persons most interested differ vitally, it is hard to decide; -however, the result of it all was, that when Hurst, Robinson, and Co. -stopped payment in London, Constable failed for upwards of a quarter -of a million, and the Ballantynes were also bankrupt to the extent -of £88,607 19_s._ 9_d._ It was in the middle of January, 1826, that -the actual crash came. Splendid and magnificent to the very last, -Constable rushed off to town as fast as post-horses could carry him. -He drove straight to Lockhart’s house, “and asked me,” says that -gentleman, “to accompany him as soon as he could get into his carriage -to the Bank of England, and support him (as a confidential friend of -the author of the ‘Waverley Novels’) in his application for a loan -of £100,000 to £200,000 on the security of the copyrights in his -possession”--a proposal that would have rather startled the old lady -of Threadneedle-street, who was, at that time of unparalleled panic, -according to Mr. Huskisson’s subsequent confession in the House, on the -very verge of suspending payment herself. When Lockhart refused--and, -of course, without direct instructions from Sir Walter, he could not -hazard such a step--Constable became livid with rage, stamped on the -ground, and swore that he could and would go alone. - -How Scott bore the blow, and, what he dreaded infinitely more than the -mere loss of money--the exposure it entailed of his connection with the -printing house, we all know; how he declined to accept any compromise; -how he sold off his Abbotsford estate, which he had devoted all the -efforts of his genius to acquire, and which he loved so well; how he -slaved and toiled until the incredible sum was repaid--but, alas! at -the expense of a life more precious than all the lucre of creditors; -and how his last words on his death-bed were his best epitaph:--“My -dear, be a good man, be virtuous, be religious--be a good man! Nothing -else will give you any comfort when you come to lie here.” - -Our matter, however, is with Constable. He saw his fortunes--the strong -up-buildings of a gloriously successful lifetime--dashed to the ground -at one blow. With a young family growing up around him, sick in body -and weary in soul, he too had to begin life afresh. All his “sunshine” -friends fell off, Scott was alienated, and his stock, which he had been -wont to contemplate as a mine of wealth, was sequestered, and sold -for a tithe of its value.[13] Cadell, his late partner, purchased the -copyrights of the “Waverley Novels” for £8,500, and, securing Scott’s -countenance, set up as a fortunate rival. - -Constable, however, went manfully to work at his proposed Miscellany. -Captain Basil Hall, in kindly consideration, made him a present of his -_Voyages_, and this was brought out in 1827, for the small sum of one -shilling, and proved fairly successful. This same year, by-the-by, -was commenced the _Library of Useful Knowledge_, by the Society for -the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, who, following Constable, had the -“honour of leading the way in that fearful inroad upon dearness of -the good old times of publishing, which first developed itself in the -wicked birth of what the literary exclusives called the _Sixpenny -Sciences_.” - -Constable’s prospects were brightening; he had now gathered round him -all the younger literary men of the day, when, in the midst of his -struggles, his old disease of dropsy again attacked him, and he died on -the 21st July, 1827. - -His widow and family were left in sorry circumstances, but his son -Thomas eventually attained the position of an eminent and well-known -printer in Edinburgh. The Ballantynes, with whom he had been so -intimately connected, disproved many of Lockhart’s assertions, by -showing that, by dint of hard work and good business habits, they were -capable of success, unaided by the help of Sir Walter Scott. - -Constable, if not the most successful, was certainly the most eminent -of the Scotch publishers. It is pleasant where the two lives have -been so curiously blended to be able to quote Scott’s estimate of his -character:-- - -“His vigorous intellect and vigorous ideas have not only rendered -his native country the merit of her own literature, but established -there a court of letters which commanded respect even from those most -inclined to dissent from many of its canons. The effect of these -changes operated, in a great measure, by the strong sense and sagacious -calculation of an individual who knew how to avail himself, to an -unhoped-for extent, of the various kinds of talents which his country -produced, will probably appear much clearer to the generation which -shall follow the present.” - -The remaining portion of this chapter will in itself bear ample -testimony to the truth of this prediction; for we shall have to touch -upon two distinct lives, and two long and very successful lives, to -trace the progress of the chief works which passed out of Constable’s -hands so shortly before his death. - -Robert Cadell had been admitted a partner in the house upon his -marriage with Constable’s daughter, but she died childless long before -the failure, and Cadell was soon married again to a Miss Mylne. Thus -the family ties were severed, and, when the crash came, Cadell felt no -hesitation in entering the field as a rival to his late partner. - -The stock of the Waverley Novels was sold off, far below the market -value, and the London publishers, judging from this that the intrinsic -worth of the copyright had irretrievably declined, allowed Cadell, as -we have seen, in conjunction with Scott, to become the purchaser at the -low price of £8500. The success of the republication was astounding, -and showed what real life and vivacity was still left in the copyright. -By this scheme the whole of the novels were reprinted in five-shilling -volumes with excellent illustrations, giving for ten shillings in two -volumes what had been originally published in three at a guinea and a -half. - -After Scott’s death the debt still amounted to £54,000; his life was -insured for £22,000, there was £2000 in hand, and now Cadell most -handsomely advanced £30,000 in order that the remaining debt might be -liquidated, taking as his only security the right to the profit that -might accrue from the copyright property. The family, dreading that -the term of copyright might expire before the sum could be returned, -endeavoured to obtain a special additional term, and on more than one -occasion Serjeant Talfourd introduced a bill into the House of Commons -to this effect, but without success. Fortunately, however, the event -showed that Cadell was commercially fully justified in his generosity, -for before his death not only had he been reimbursed his £30,000, but a -handsome profit had been earned “for the benefit of all whom it might -concern.” - -According to Mr. James Mylne, one of Cadell’s executors, the following -is the total sale of Scott’s works from the time they came into -Cadell’s hands until his death:-- - - _Circulation._ - - Waverley Novels 78,270 sets - - Poetical Works 41,340 ” - - Prose Works 8,260 ” - - _Life_ by Lockhart 26,060 ” - - _Tales of a Grandfather_ - (as a separate work) 22,190 ” - - Selections 7,550 ” - -and, as a test of the popularity of the _People’s Edition_ of the -writings and _Life_, he states that the following numbers originally -printed in weekly sheets were issued: - - Novels 7,115,197 - Poetry 674,955 - Prose 269,406 - Life 459,291 - ---------- - Total Sheets 8,518,849 - -Robert Cadell died on January 21st, 1849, after a long career rendered -prosperous by this splendid property, and on March 26th, 1851, the -novels, poems, prose works, and the “Life” by Lockhart were put up to -auction at the London Coffee House by Mr. Hodgson. The sale brought -together the largest “trade” gathering that has ever been witnessed; -there were publishers from the “Row” and Albemarle Street, booksellers -from Ave Maria and Ivy Lanes, and speculators from every corner of -the kingdom. The stock had been valued at £10,193 3_s._, a very low -figure, and it was announced that this would be sold only with the -copyrights, and that the trustees retained the right of bidding. After -much disputing as to these restrictions £5000 was offered, and quickly -rose by leaps of £500 to £10,500, when Mr. Bohn and the “Row” retired, -and the struggle lay between Mr. Virtue and some imaginary bidder, -visible only to the eyes of the auctioneer. At £13,500 the copyright -was “bought in” making the price, including the stock, £23,693 3_s._ - -This afforded a wonderful contrast to the former sale at £8500, more -especially when we consider that the copyright of the earlier novels -had only five or six years more to run. - -In a few weeks after this it was announced in the _Scotsman_ that -the whole of the copyrights were transferred to the hands of another -eminent publishing firm in Edinburgh--Messrs. A. and C. Black, who, in -conjunction with their friends, Messrs. Richardson Brothers, became the -possessors at the price of £27,000. - -Leaving the Waverley Novels for a time, it will be necessary to bring -up the narrative of the career of Mr. Adam Black to the period when he -was able to become the owner of the most valuable literary property -that has ever existed. - -Adam Black, the son of Charles Black, a builder of Edinburgh, was born -in that town in the year 1784, and was educated primarily at the High -School, on his entrance as a pupil at which, tradition says, he was -accompanied by his father, who, having just left his employment for -the purpose, appeared in full working garb, the mason’s white leathern -apron included. At the University his talents speedily procured him -admittance into that clique of young Liberals who were afterwards to -effect such a change in Edinburgh, indeed in cosmopolitan politics. -After serving his apprenticeship to the book trade, in partnership -with his nephew, the bookselling business of Adam and Charles Black -was founded. In 1817 he married Isabella, only daughter of James Tait, -architect (sister of William Tait, the well-known originator of _Tait’s -Magazine_), and at the time of Constable’s failure was in a steady and -prosperous way of business. This disaster was the means of making many -fortunes, and in 1826 the _Edinburgh Review_ appeared under the joint -proprietorship of Thomas Norton Longman and Adam and Charles Black. -As we have followed the career of the _Review_ in our history of the -Longman family, it will be unnecessary to enter fully into the changes -of management and the success of later numbers. - -Another work, however, afterwards thrown on the market, which also -became the property of Messrs. A. and C. Black, is of such literary -importance that we must again for a moment retrace our steps, in order -to keep up the proper sequence of our narrative. - -The idea of a compilation that should embrace all human knowledge is of -very great antiquity. Pliny, in fact claims the name of “Encyclopædia” -for his _Natural History_; but it was not till the sixteenth century -that any attempt was made at arranging the matter in a systematic -manner, though the Arabians are said to have had a true _Encyclopædia_ -centuries before that date. It was long, however, before the idea -occurred of employing the lexographic plan as a basis of a universal -_répertoire_ of learning, and the first great step in advance was -the _Lexicon Technicum_ of Dr. Harris, completed and published at -London in the year 1710. The _Cyclopædia_ of Ephraim Chambers, with -which we have previously dealt, appeared in 1728, and for a long time -was the supreme authority; through its success at home and abroad a -new impulse was given to the desire for such publications. In France -the _Encyclopédie_ was projected by the Abbé de Gua, and was based -originally on an unpublished translation of Chambers’s _Cyclopædia_, -made by an Englishman named Mills. In consequence of a quarrel with the -publishers, De Gua threw it up, and it was then transferred to Diderot -and D’Alembert; to become the text-book of the French philosophers. -The publication of the seventeen volumes extended from 1751 to 1765, -and six years after the latter date appeared the first volume of the -_Encyclopædia Britannica_. - -The plan and all the principal articles of this now important work were -in this first edition devised and written by William Smellie. - -Smellie began life as a compositor, and he used to lay down his -composing-stick for an hour or two daily to attend the classes of the -Edinburgh University. At the age of nineteen he was engaged by Murray -and Cochrane as corrector of their press in general and conductor and -compiler of the _Scots Magazine_ at a salary of sixteen shillings a -week. If the saying that “Edinburgh never had a Grub Street” is true, -it must have arisen rather from the perseverance of the writers than -from the uniform generosity of the publishers. - -The agreement upon which the _Encyclopædia_ was undertaken was still in -existence when Kerr wrote Smellie’s _Life_; as a literary curiosity we -quote it:-- - - “Mr. Andrew Bell to Mr. William Smellie. - - “SIR,--As we are engaged in publishing a ‘Dictionary of the - Arts and Sciences,’ and as you have informed us that there - are fifteen capital sciences, which you will undertake for, - and write up the sub-divisions and detached parts of them, - conforming to your plan, and likewise to prepare the whole work - for the press, &c., &c. We hereby agree to allow you £200 for - your trouble.” - -The first proprietors were Andrew Bell, engraver, and Colin -Macfarquhar, printer. The publication was commenced in weekly numbers -in 1771, and completed in 1773, by which time the bulk in all consisted -only of three small quarto volumes. A second edition was called for in -1776, and Smellie was offered a share in the property, but he declined -to have anything more to do with it, as upon the recommendation of “a -very distinguished nobleman” it was resolved to introduce a complete -system of biography. The proprietors engaged, instead, James Tytler, a -laborious miscellaneous writer, and a man of extraordinary knowledge. -A large proportion of the additional matter, by which the work was -extended from three to ten volumes, was due to his pen, but the payment -for this labour is said to have been very small, and the unfortunate -author was not able to support his family in a style superior to that -of a common labourer. At one time, during the progress of the work, he -lived at the village of Duddingston, in the house of a washerwoman, -whose tub inverted formed the only desk at his disposal, and one of his -children was frequently despatched with a parcel of “copy” upon which -their next meal depended. - -This second edition consisted of 1500 copies, and extended to ten -volumes quarto. The third edition, to which Tytler also contributed, -was commenced in 1789. Till then it had been considered in the south as -“a Scots rival of little repute” (to Chambers’s _Cyclopædia_), but in -this edition, beside the method and comprehensiveness of the plan, it -rose greatly above its former level in its practical and speculative -departments. It was completed in 1797, in eighteen volumes, to which -Professor Robison supplied two supplementary volumes to complete the -series he had commenced when the principal work was far advanced. -The sale of this edition extended to ten thousand copies, and the -proprietors are said to have netted £42,000 of clear profit, besides -being paid for their respective work--the one as printer, the other as -engraver. Much of this, of course, was due to poor Tytler’s labours, -who was still living in the utmost penury. He was, however, perfectly -regardless about poverty, having no desire to conceal it from the -world. He would finish his frugal meal of a cold potato before the eyes -of a stranger with as much nonchalance as if it had been a sumptuous -repast. He had that contentment with poverty which is so apt to make -it permanent, and this, in addition to his imprudent and intemperate -habits, cut off all chance of a higher social position. As a proof of -his extraordinary stock of general knowledge, his biographer relates a -characteristic anecdote. - -“A gentleman in this city of Edinburgh once told me he wanted as much -matter as would form a junction between a certain history and its -continuation to a later period. He found Tytler lodged in one of those -elevated apartments called _garrets_, and was informed by the old woman -with whom he resided, that he could not see him, as he had gone to -bed rather the worse for liquor. Determined, however, not to depart -without his errand, he was shown into Mr. Tytler’s apartment by the -light of a lamp, where he found him in the situation described by the -landlady. The gentleman having acquainted him with the nature of the -business which brought him at so late an hour, Mr. Tytler called for -pen and ink, and in a short time produced about a page and a half of -letterpress, which answered the end as completely as if it had been the -result of the most mature deliberation, previous notice, and a mind -undisturbed by any liquid capable of deranging its ideas.” - -On the death of Macfarquhar the whole work became the property of -Andrew Bell. - -The fourth edition, augmented to twenty volumes, was completed in 1810, -under the able superintendence of Dr. James Millar; but the editor -was prevented from availing himself of Professor Robison’s excellent -supplementary articles by a temporary separation of that property from -that of the principal work. This issue consisted of three thousand five -hundred copies. - -With the completion of this edition the progress of improvement was -for a time suspended; but in 1814 the copyright of the work was -purchased by Archibald Constable, who, with the enterprise that always -distinguished him, at once projected a supplement, which extended to -six volumes. It was placed under the skilful management of Professor -Macney Napier, and the publication lasted from 1815 to 1824. Many -very distinguished authors were engaged as contributors, among whom -we may specially mention Arago, Biot, and Dugald Stewart; and all the -resources of the proprietors were devoted to this favourite undertaking. - -In 1829 the whole of the copyrights (including that of Professor -Robison’s supplementary articles) passed into the hands of Messrs. A. -and C. Black, assisted by their friends; and we are now able to resume -our narrative at the point we left it. - -The property was at first a joint stock concern, resembling the -original proprietorship, and was, we believe, owned in equal shares -by Mr. Abraham Thomson, as the binder; Mr. Thomas Allan, as the -printer; and Messrs. A. and C. Black, as publishers. Mr. Thomson died -shortly afterwards, and the Messrs. Black became the possessors of his -interest in the work. Some years afterwards, the share held by Mr. -Allan, who was a banker in Edinburgh, and also printer and proprietor -of the _Caledonian Mercury_, also fell into the hands of the Messrs. -Black. At this time the new edition was in midway progress, and the -enormous expense necessary to complete the work rendered the venture -single-handed something more than hazardous. But the ability, tact, -immense energy, and unceasing labour of Mr. Adam Black, then in the -prime of life, proved equal to the task he had undertaken, and in -this case it may truly be said that for years he went on literally -scattering bread upon the waters, and most deservedly did he obtain his -reward. Previously, we believe, to the completion of this edition, Mr. -Charles Black, who had long been in delicate health, died. - -Upon Jeffrey’s retirement in 1829, Macney Napier, Professor of -Conveyancing in the University of Edinburgh, was promoted to the -editorship of the _Edinburgh Review_, and Mr. Black also secured -his services for the management of the seventh edition of the -_Encyclopædia_. Napier was assisted by James Brown, LL.D., as -sub-editor, and on his shoulders most of the hard work fell. Brown, -who was trained as an advocate at the Scottish bar, relinquished this -for literature. His thorough scholarship enabled him to undertake -almost any department of literary work, and rendered him invaluable -for the revisal of such a work as the _Encyclopædia_. He was also a -ready and slashing political writer, at a time when political feeling -was rampant. Remarkable alike for his mental activity and his personal -irascibility, the one great difficulty lay in managing the Doctor. As -an instance of this, the article “Alphabet” was entrusted to Brown for -the new edition of the _Encyclopædia_. He was at the same time editor -of the _Caledonian Mercury_, and on the appearance of something in that -paper which led to a quarrel with Mr. Allan, the proprietor, who was -also a shareholder in the _Encyclopædia_, Brown declined to go on with -“Alphabet.” The part in which this was to appear was due, and Brown -was inflexible. The subject was a difficult one, peculiarly suited to -Brown’s abilities, and it was not easy elsewhere to find so competent -a writer. In these circumstances, Mr. Black adopted the experiment -of passing over that part and bringing out the succeeding one. Thus -circumvented, Brown came to terms, and things again went on smoothly. -But, notwithstanding his proverbial kindliness of disposition, he -was hasty in coming to conclusions, and was always getting into -scrapes of one kind or another; and a duel, in which he and Charles -Maclaren, editor of the _Scotsman_, figured as principals, furnished -the Edinburgh _gamins_ with a popular street song. He escaped all -duellistic dangers, however, but his unremitting labours brought on a -stroke of apoplexy, of which he died in 1841. - -The great feature of the new edition was the preliminary -“Dissertations,” which were commenced by Professors Stewart and -Playfair, who were both carried off in the midst of their labours. Sir -James Mackintosh, who undertook to complete his friend’s “History of -Ethical and Political Philosophy” (the Metaphysical portion had been -completed by Stewart) was also summoned from his labours before the -Political division was commenced; and the “History of the Physical -Sciences” was brought down by Professor Leslie to the commencement of -this century. - -“The ‘Dissertations’ produced by these four extraordinary men are still -regarded with peculiar pride in Scotland; indeed, few nations can boast -of such an intellectual group living at the same time, and adorning the -same society; and yet, with powers of mind not far from equality, how -various were their gifts, and how diversified their genius!”[14] - -The seventh edition was commenced in monthly parts in March, 1830, and -finished in January, 1842. Of its success it is almost unnecessary to -speak; with confidence reposed in the proprietors sufficient to command -the services of such writers as Young, Malthus, Macculloch, Mill, -Roget, Wilson, Empson, De Quincey, and Tytler, while the editor can -count on the aid of friends like Scott, Playfair, Stewart, Leslie, Lord -Jeffrey, Sir William Hamilton, and Sir John Barrow, it is not difficult -to anticipate the result. The mere cost of presentation copies -amounted to £416 16_s._, and the amount of duty on the paper employed -exceeded £6000; while, to go into heavier matters, the total expense -of the twenty-one quarto volumes was, in a trial in the Jury Court of -Scotland, proved to have been no less a sum than £125,667 9_s._ 3_d._ -This amount, of course, includes every item of expenditure, among which -the following are the most important:-- - - £ _s._ _d._ - - Contributions and Editing 22,590 2 11 - Printing 18,610 1 4 - Stereotyping 3,317 5 8 - Paper 27,854 15 7 - Bookbinding 12,739 12 2 - Engraving and Plate-printing 11,777 18 1 - -The literary contributions to the first volume of “Dissertations” alone -cost upwards of £3450. - -The work was eminently successful, and this immense expenditure shows -us something of what “success” means in this instance. The commercial -management of an undertaking like this was sufficient to occupy the -attention of a man of extraordinary diligence; but Mr. Black found -time, not only to contribute several articles to his _Encyclopædia_, -but to take a very warm and prominent interest in the government of his -native city; and from 1843 to 1848 he occupied the highest position to -which a citizen of Edinburgh can aspire--that of Lord Provost. - -Enterprise and success, more especially when they are mingled with -real desert, and caused by honest service, are qualities of which the -Scotch, perhaps more than any other nation, are peculiarly proud; and -when the representation of Edinburgh became vacant in 1856, a large and -influential party at once nominated Mr. Adam Black to fill the post. -Mr. Adam Black was a thorough-going Liberal and a Nonconformist, and -a party of the electors received his nomination in a spirit of the -greatest bitterness, and an opposition candidate was brought forward. -The election came off on the 8th February, 1856, and Mr. Black, the -friend of political freedom when friends were few, the champion of -religious charity and goodwill when enemies were many, was rewarded for -his consistency and his many services by a larger number of votes than -had been polled for twenty years--no weak test of popular approbation. -As a contemporary opinion, we may quote the _Scotsman_ of that -date:--“Honour to the candidate! Sincerely reluctant to compete for the -honour, no sooner was he embarked, and saw that the great principles -and the reputation of the city were concerned and imperilled in his -person, than he threw himself into the work with a vigour that made -even the youngest and most energetic of his supporters stand aside. We -don’t care who knows it: Mr. Black was the most effective member of his -own committee--in word and in act, by day and by night, the veteran was -ready with guidance and warning and incentive. In all his many battles -in the public cause, he never made a better fight than when achieving -this victory which so gloriously crowns his career.” - -In the House Mr. Black distinguished himself by his assiduity to -business, and in 1864 he introduced his Copyright Bill, which, though -it contained much that was good, was ultimately thrown out. - -Upon completion of the seventh edition, a number of cheap reprints were -issued of the most famous articles of the “Encyclopædia,” and met with -a very favourable reception. - -We have seen that in 1851 the Messrs. Black, in conjunction with -Messrs. Richardson Brothers, became possessed of the Waverley Novels. -Ultimately, the Messrs. Black purchased, it is said, the Messrs. -Richardsons’ share, and are now believed to be the sole proprietors of -Sir Walter Scott’s works. In the management of this property Mr. Adam -Black exhibited the same rare sagacity, and reaped the same successful -reward as in the former important work. In the middle of 1852, he -announced that 120,000 complete sets of the Waverley Novels had been -sold in this country alone since their first publication; and in 1858 -an ingenious mathematician computed that the weight of the paper used -for them was upwards of 3500 tons. - -Among the most important editions issued by Messrs. Black we may -instance the following:-- - - £ _s._ _d._ - - A Re-issue of the “Cabinet Edition” in 1853-54 at 3 15 0 - - ” ” ” 1860 ” 3 10 0 - - The “People’s Edition” in 5 vols. ” 1855 ” 2 2 0 - - “Railway Edition” in 25 vols. ” 1858-60 ” 1 17 6 - - New Illustrated Edition in 48 vols. founded on - “Author’s Favourite” ” 1859-61 ” 10 13 0 - - “Shilling Edition” in 25 vols. ” 1862-63 ” 1 5 0 - -At our present writing a beautiful new edition, the “Centenary,” is -being published. - -The moment that the copyrights of the earlier novels expired the market -was flooded with cheap reprints; but the Messrs. Black were equal -to the occasion. They issued a trade reminder to the public that the -edition of 1829 was thoroughly revised by the author, was altered in -almost every page and largely augmented by notes, and that it still was -copyright, and as a death-blow to the reprints by rival houses they -brought out the “sixpenny edition” in monthly volumes, each volume -containing a complete tale with all the matter that had appeared in -the more expensive editions. Thanks to former stereotypes they were -thus enabled to present a series of the cheapest and most valuable -books that any house in the country has yet been able to produce. -The publication lasted from November, 1866, to November, 1868, and -the complete issue consisted of twenty-five volumes, and thus the -public were able to purchase for twelve shillings and sixpence what -had originally cost upwards of forty pounds. Constable himself in his -wildest dreams of cheap publishing never imagined such a marvellous -feature as this. - -As a proof of their popularity we quote from a contemporary writer -in the _Illustrated Times_, 25th of September, 1867. The writer was -travelling down to Wales, and, at the London station, he said, “‘Boy, -where are the Scott novels?’ ‘Don’t keep them,’ he replied. ‘Don’t keep -them! Why not?’ ‘Because, if we did, we should not sell anything else.’ -Here then, to begin with, is a small fact worth reflection. Some of -the novels were first published fifty years ago. Can you point out any -other series of books, or even any single book, a sixpenny edition of -which Mr. Smith would be afraid to lay upon his bookstalls for fear the -public might refuse to buy anything else?” At every station the writer -made the same inquiry and met with the same result. - -As through the business talents of the publishers, the printed works -of Sir Walter Scott were reduced in price, so through the fame of the -author did the autograph remains rise to a very wonderful fictitious -value. Mr. Cadell made a remarkable collection of all the manuscripts -he could purchase, and on the 9th of July, 1868, his collection was -sold for £1073; while even a corrected proof of “Peveril of the Peak” -realized £25. - -The seventh edition of the “Encyclopædia Britannica” was finished, -as we have previously stated, in 1842, and met with, not only an -immediate, but also a continuous sale, but human knowledge refuses -to be stereotyped, and at the close of 1852 the eighth edition was -commenced, occupying nine years in the publication. The proprietors -justly claim for it the proud title of “the largest literary enterprise -ever undertaken by any single house in Great Britain.” The editorial -charge was entrusted to Dr. Thomas Stewart Trail, professor of -medical jurisprudence in the University of Edinburgh; and, among the -more important new contributors, we may mention Archbishop Whately, -Professor Blackie, and Dr. Forbes, the latter of whom contributed -a new “Dissertation” to the introductory volume. Lord Macaulay -contributed five of the leading biographies “as a token of friendship -to the senior proprietor.” “Any article of any value in any preceding -edition,” says the editor, “has been reprinted in this--in all cases -with corrections, and frequently with considerable additions. Besides -these, it has received so great an accession of original contributions, -that nine-tenths of its contents may be said to be absolutely new,” -and this will probably apply with the same force to the ninth edition, -which is to be commenced next year. - -Long before this date Mr. Adam Black was assisted in his business by -his sons. He retired from the house in 1865, and now laden with honours -in public, and successes in business, life, he may fairly claim to -be the Nestor of publishers. He must have seen many changes in the -literary world, and marked many vicissitudes in the “realms of print;” -but the changes as far as they operated for him were for the better, -and vicissitudes seem invariably to have kept outside his charmed -circle. - -In the year 1861, a very valuable work--the “Collected Writings of the -late Thomas De Quincey”--came into the hands of Messrs. Black; but, -as the public are almost entirely indebted to the laborious care and -patient perseverance of another publisher, Mr. James Hogg, then of -Edinburgh, for the production of this collection, which then consisted -of fourteen volumes, we have thought it better that this account should -form a kind of supplement to our present chapter. - -For a period of about forty years De Quincey had been an extensive -contributor to periodical literature, and it is scarcely surprising -that, during such a length of time, the sources even where many of his -contributions originally appeared had been forgotten, and that the very -existence of a few had altogether escaped the author’s recollection. -Various attempts had been made to induce De Quincey to draw together -and revise a selection from the more important of his scattered -writings, but from his varying state of health and, consequent on this, -his inveterate habit of procrastination, the work was always postponed; -and from his advanced years, all hope was given up of the collected -works ever appearing under the superintendence of the author. - -In the year 1845, the well-known periodical, _Hogg’s Instructor_, was -started under the management and sole responsibility of Mr. Hogg. -Sixteen volumes of the _Instructor_ as a weekly serial were published, -and among many other contributors of note was the “Opium-Eater,” and -from the commencement of their intercourse De Quincey and Mr. Hogg -became firm friends. - -About this time several volumes of De Quincey’s writings had been -collected and published by Messrs. Ticknor and Fields, of Boston, U.S., -without, of course, the advantage of the author’s own revisal; and, as -the papers had been originally hurriedly written for magazines, and -as, during the lapse of time, many changes had become unavoidable, -the author felt that, in justice to himself, extensive additions -and, in some cases, suppressions were necessary. Arrangements were -accordingly entered into for bringing out the collected works at home -in a thoroughly revised and amended form, Mr. Hogg undertaking all the -responsibility, and engaging to give his aid both in collecting the -materials, and in generally seeing the volumes through the press. On -the announcement of the publication it was confidently predicted by -some of those who had been engaged in the previous attempts that not -a single volume would ever appear. In order to afford ample time for -the thorough revision of the work it was arranged that the publication -should be spread over three years. The first volume appeared in 1853; -but, instead of three years bringing the series to a close, eight -years had elapsed before the thirteenth volume was completed, and -then De Quincey died--the remainder of the thirteenth, and the whole -of the fourteenth, being due to Mr. Hogg. During these eight years -almost daily interviews or correspondence occurred between De Quincey -and Mr. Hogg. To use the author’s words, “the joint labour and patient -perseverance spent in the preparation of these volumes was something -perfectly astounding.” In addition to the frequent and protracted -interviews, the correspondence which passed during the progress of the -work would fill a goodly volume. - -In order to account for the delays which so frequently occurred, De -Quincey remarks upon one occasion:--“I suffer from a most afflicting -derangement of the nervous system, which at times makes it difficult -for me to write at all, and always makes me impatient, in a degree not -easily understood, of recasting what may seem insufficiently or even -incoherently expressed.” But, while suffering under this cause, he -laboured under a daily and more formidable bar to progress, as annoying -and perplexing to himself as to others. For many years he had been in -the habit of correcting manuscript or of jotting down on loose sheets, -more frequently on small scraps of paper, any stray thoughts that -occurred to him, intending to use them as occasion might afterwards -offer. These papers, however, instead of being methodically arranged -and preserved, were carelessly laid aside, and were soon mixed up with -letters, proofs, old and new copy, newspapers, periodicals, and other -confusing litter, and the numerous volumes he received from literary -friends and admirers, all huddled together on chairs, tables, or -wherever they at the moment might be stowed. Placing a high value on -many things in this heterogeneous mass, and feeling assured in his own -mind that strange hands would only render confusion worse confounded, -he would allow no one to endeavour to put the things in order. Indeed, -if anything could have ruffled his gentle nature into the use of an -angry word it would have been the attempt to meddle with these papers. -They very rapidly increased, and every search after missing copy or -proofs made matters worse. When a dead block occurred his invariable -practice was to build them up, as they lay, against the wall of the -room, and, as a consequence, everything went astray. A few extracts -from notes to Mr. Hogg will show the labour, suffering, and worry -which this state of chaos entailed:--“My dear Sir,--It is useless to -trouble you with the _ins_ and _outs_ of the process--the result is, -that, working through most part of the night, I have not yet come to -the missing copy. I am going on with the search, yet being walled up -in so narrow an area (not larger than a postchaise as regards the free -space), I work with difficulty, and the _stooping_ kills me. I greatly -fear that the entire day will be spent in the search.” - -“Yesterday, suddenly, I missed the interleaved volume. I have been -unrolling an immense heap of newspapers, &c., ever since six a.m. How -so thick a vol. _can_ have hidden itself, I am unable to explain.” - -“The act of _stooping_ has for many years caused me so much illness, -that in this search, all applied to papers lying on the floor, -entangled with innumerable newspapers, I have repeatedly been forced -to pause. I fear that the seventeen or eighteen missing pages may have -been burned suddenly lighting candles; and I am more surprised at -finding so many than at missing so few.” - -“I am utterly in the dark as to where this paper is--whether _chez -moi_, or _chez la presse_ (I use French simply as being the briefest -way of conveying my doubts). Now mark the difference to me, according -to the answer. 1. On the assumption that the paper is in _my_ -possession, then, of course, I will seek till I find it, and no labour -will be thrown away. But 2. On the counter assumption that the paper -is all the while in the possession of the press, the difference to me -would be this: That I should be searching for perhaps half a day, and, -as it is manifestly not on my table, I should proceed on the postulate -that it must have been transferred to the floor, consequently the work -would all be unavoidably a process of stooping, and all labour lost, -from which I should hardly recover for a fortnight. This explains to -you my earnestness in the matter. Exactly the same doubt applies (and -therefore exactly the same dilemma or alternative of stoop or stoop -not) to some other papers.” - -How keenly De Quincey felt in consequence of these continually -recurring delays, the following sentences will show:--“It distracts -me to find that I have been constantly working at the wrong part. It -is most unfortunate, nor am I able to guess the cause, that I who am -rendered seriously unhappy whenever I find or suppose myself to have -caused any loss of time to a compositor, whose time is generally his -main estate, am yet continually doing so unintentionally and in most -cases unconsciously. It seems as if to the very last my destiny were to -cause delays.” - -The frequency of the communications and personal interviews which -occurred during the eight years in which the works were in progress -may be inferred from the following:--“My dear Sir,--I have been in -great anxiety through yesterday and to-day as to the cause of a -mysterious interruption of the press intercourse with me. Now, it -has happened once before that we were at cross purposes, each side -supposing itself stopped by the other. As the easiest way, therefore, -of creeping out of the mystery I repeat it to you.” - -Notwithstanding the continual interruptions and the difficulty of -dragging the volumes through the press, the cordial and friendly -feeling which existed between De Quincey and Mr. Hogg was never -interrupted by a single jarring word. - -Since the fourteen volumes passed into the hands of Messrs. Black, they -have added other two volumes, made up of biographies contributed by De -Quincey to the “Encyclopædia Britannica,” and a number of papers which -remained in Mr. Hogg’s hands. - -[Illustration] - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -_JOHN MURRAY_: - -BELLES-LETTRES AND TRAVELS. - - -The foundation of the great publishing houses of London is co-temporary -in date with the origin of the private banks and famous breweries; for, -as in the case of these establishments, the connections requisite were -so extensive, and the needful capital, to render venture a success, -so large, that in many instances the present great publishing firms -have been the work of three, in some cases even of five, generations. -There have, of course, been isolated exceptions, as in the instance -of Archibald Constable, of Edinburgh; but these rare cases, though -often beneficial to the world at large, have seldom been individually -successful. - -John McMurray, the founder of the great London house of Murray, was -born in Edinburgh about the year 1795, of very respectable parents, -who not only gave him a good education, but enlisted for him the -sympathies of Sir George Yonge, then an official in high favour. -Through Sir George’s influence a commission was obtained in the Royal -Marines, and in 1762, we find from the Navy List, that John McMurray -joins his frigate full, probably, of hopeful anticipations of the -promotion that sometimes came so speedily in the days of the old French -wars. The Peace of Paris, however, was signed in the following year, -and, spite of patronage and merit, McMurray was, in 1768, still a -second lieutenant, and, in point of seniority, thirty-fourth on the -list. Disgusted with a profession from which he could hope so little, -and eager for a more useful career in life, in this same year he -embraced an opportunity that seemed to give him a chance of exchanging -the lounging idleness of Chatham barracks for the busy activity of -London business, in a trade very congenial to his tastes, and not -unaccompanied with hopes of solid emolument. - -Among the friends he had made either afloat or at his Chatham quarters -was William Falconer, who, a sailor boy “before the mast,” had in -the very year of McMurray’s first entry into the service, published -the beautiful poem of the “Shipwreck.” This poem attracted great -attention, and the author was promoted to the more honourable than -lucrative position of midshipman. Fellow-townsmen--and in those days -blood was thicker than water--and in some degree fellow-students, for -both were lovers of books, they became firm friends; and McMurray’s -first thought, when the offer of a bookseller’s business was put before -him, was to secure the aid of his literary friend in his new venture; -and an interesting letter, still preserved, gives the history of his -commencement as a bookseller. Addressed to “Mr. William Falconer, at -Dover,” it runs as follows:-- - - “Brompton, Kent, 16th Oct., 1768. - - “DEAR WILL,--Since I saw you, I have had the intention of - embarking in a scheme that I think will prove successful, - and in the progress of which I had an eye towards your - participating. Mr. Sandby, bookseller, opposite St. Dunstan’s - church, has entered into company with Snow and Denne, bankers. - I was introduced to this gentleman about a month ago, upon - an advantageous offer of succeeding him in his old business, - which, by the advice of my friends, I propose to accept. Now, - although I have little reason to fear success by myself in this - undertaking, yet I think so many additional advantages would - accrue to us both, were your forces and mine joined, that I - cannot help mentioning it to you, and making you the offer - of entering into company. He resigns to me the lease of the - house; the goodwill ----; and I only take his bound stock, and - fixtures, at a fair appraisement, which will not amount to more - than £400, and which, if I ever mean to part with, cannot fail - to bring in nearly the same sum. The shop has long continued - in the trade; it retains a good many old customers; and I am - to be ushered immediately into public notice by the sale of a - new edition of Lord Lyttelton’s ‘Dialogues;’ and afterwards - by a like edition of his ‘History.’ These works I shall sell - by commission, upon a certain profit without risque; and Mr. - Sandby has promised to continue to me, always, his good offices - and recommendations. These are the general outlines; and if you - entertain a notion that the conjunction would suit you, advise - me, and you shall be assumed upon equal terms. - - “Many blockheads in the trade are making fortunes; and did we - not succeed as well as they, I think it must be imputed only to - ourselves.... Consider what I have proposed, and send me your - answer soon. Be assured in the meantime that I remain, dear Sir, - - “Your affectionate and humble Servant, - “JOHN MCMURRAY. - - “P.S.--My advisers and directors in this affair have been - Thomas Cumming, Esq., Mr. Archibald Paxton, Mr. Samuel - Paterson, of Essex House, and Messrs. J. and W. Richardson, - printers. These, after deliberate reflection, have unanimously - thought that I should accept of Mr. Sandby’s offer.” - -From some reason or other the offer was declined; perhaps, as -Falconer’s biographer asserts, he was at this time (though absent for -a while at Dover) living with his pretty little wife in an attic in -Grub Street, toiling at his “Marine Dictionary,” and with no prospect -of raising the money requisite for the partnership proposed; perhaps -he had already accepted the pursership of the “Aurora” frigate. At -all events, immediately after the publication of the third edition of -his “Shipwreck,” which was to have contained some lines addressed to -McMurray, which, in the hurry of departure were omitted, he sailed in -the “Aurora” for India. The Cape was safely reached, but after leaving -it the “Aurora” was never heard of again. Ship, crew, and passengers -were all lost, and, through the untimely death of the author, the -“Shipwreck” acquired a melancholy and almost prophetic interest, which -speedily exhausted the third and many future editions. - -In the meantime John McMurray had commenced bookselling in earnest. It -was at a time when, through Wilkes and Bute, national feeling seems to -have run very high, and to be a Scotchman was hardly a recommendation -to a beginner, and we find that, though McMurray headed all his trade -bills with a ship, as a proud testimony to his naval antecedents, he -found it convenient to drop the Scotch prefix of Mc. The following copy -of a trade card issued at the time is the first record we have of this -alteration of title. - - JOHN MURRAY (successor to Mr. SANDBY), - Bookseller and Stationer, - At No. 32, over-against St. Dunstan’s Church, - in Fleet Street, - London. - - Sells all new Books and Publications. Fitts up Public or - Private Libraries in the neatest manner with Books of the - choicest editions, the best Print, and the richest Bindings. - - Also, - - Executes East India or Foreign Commissions by an assortment of - Books and Stationary suited to the Market or Purpose for which - it is destined; all at the most reasonable rates. - -Murray found that Sandby’s connection at Fleet Street was a good -one--Mr. William Sandby, indeed, could have been no ordinary -bookseller, for his father was a prebendary of Gloucester, and his -brother a master of Magdalen College, while he was accepted as partner -in a wealthy banking firm--the trade were inclined to “back him -up,” and he was able to extend his business considerably in India -and Edinburgh, where he had many friends. The new edition of Lord -Lyttelton’s “History” was brought out in stately quarto volumes, as -befitted the rank of the author, and was completely issued in 1771-2, -and, published “with a certain profit, without risque,” must have -proved much more remunerative than the original “Henry II.” was to -Sandby, who generously offered to pay for the author’s corrections, and -who found to his cost that not a single line was left as originally -printed. - -Murray seems to have kept up his connection with Edinburgh, for in 1773 -we find him London agent for the _Edinburgh Magazine and Review_, and -in the following year, when it was proposed to separate the _Magazine_ -from the _Review_, Stuart writes to Smellie:--“Murray seems fully -apprised of the pains and attentions that are necessary, has literary -connections, and is fond of the employment; let him, therefore, be the -London proprietor.” Murray consented to “take a share,” if his advice -were attended to; but the scheme of a review came to nothing, and -even the existing _Edinburgh Magazine and Review_ died, in 1776, of a -violent attack on Lord Monboddo’s “Origin of Language.” Murray offered -his condolence in the following laconic note:-- - - “DEAR SMELLIE,--I am sorry for the defeat you have met with. - Had you praised Lord Monboddo instead of damning him, it would - not have happened. - - “Yours, &c. - “JOHN MURRAY.” - -Murray, now that the Edinburgh scheme had come to nothing, commenced in -1780 a volume of annual intelligence of his own under the title of the -_London Mercury_; and in January, 1783, with the assistance of a staff -of able writers, among whom were Dr. Whittaker and Gilbert Stuart, who -had lately come from Scotland, he started the _English Review_. - -A great portion of Murray’s retail stock was medical books, and for -many years the house had a reputation in the medical world. Of the -books, however, which he published, those more latterly issued proved -by far the most successful, such as Langhorne’s “Plutarch’s Lives,” -Mitford’s “Greece,” and, in 1791, a thin octavo in which the elder -Disraeli first gave the public his “Curiosities of Literature”--all of -them works which have since been annual sources of revenue to the firm. - -Murray found time, however, amidst all this business, to indulge -his own literary tastes and aspirations, which had at one time been -strong. Some of his pamphlets--such as the “Letter to Mr. Mason on his -Edition of Gray’s Poems, and the Practice of Booksellers” (1777); his -“Considerations on the Freight and Shipping of the East India Company” -(1786), and “An Author’s Conduct to the Public, stated in the Behaviour -of Dr. William Cullen” (1784)--acquired much transient reputation. - -After a career, as successful we imagine as his wishes could desire, -John Murray died on the 6th November, 1793, leaving behind him a -widow, two daughters, and an only son, and bequeathing to the latter a -business which was destined to carry the name of John Murray wherever -the English language was spoken, and wherever English books were read, -as the most venturesome and yet the most successful publisher who has -ever, in London at all events, encouraged the struggles of authorship -and gratified the tastes of half a world of readers. - -John Murray, the son, the more immediate object of our memoir, was -born in 1778, and was consequently only fifteen at the time of his -father’s death. He had been educated primarily at the High School of -Edinburgh, doubtless with a view of keeping up the Scotch connection, -and had afterwards been removed to “various English seminaries”--among -others to Dr. Burney’s academy at Gosport, where, through the -carelessness of a writing-master, while making a pen with a penknife, -he lost the sight of one of his eyes. The founder of the house not -only left the business to his son, but left also a council of regency -to manage affairs until he came to the natural years of discretion. By -a last will, dated about one month before his death, the elder John -Murray appointed four executors--among them his widow, Hester Murray, -and Archibald Paxton, who in his letter to Falconer he had named as one -of his principal advisers in adopting the bookselling trade. For a year -or two after 1793 the name of “H. Murray” figures at the top of the -bills and trade circulars, and then disappears from them, Mrs. Murray -having, it seems, in 1795, married “Henry Paget, Lieutenant in the -West Norfolk Militia,” and retired entirely from the management of the -business. Murray was still too young to carry on the shop unaided, so -his guardians admitted Mr. Highley, for a long time chief factotum in -the shop and manager of the medical department, to a partnership with -him. By the agreement the title of the new firm was to be “Murray and -Highley;” the latter was solely to conduct the business, and to receive -half the profits until young John came of age, after which they were to -enjoy equal powers and “share and share” alike. - -[Illustration: John Murray--reading a newspaper. - -1778-1843.] - -Mr. Highley, who seems to have been a steady, plodding man with -much latent exertion against all speculative venture, did little to -increase the standing of the firm; probably he imagined that the trade -in medical books, as it was attended with the least risk, was the most -remunerative portion of the business. His worthy soul was vexed at the -anger excited by Whitaker’s slashing articles in the _English Review_. -“Enraged authors,” it appears, took to sending huge parcels of defiant, -contemptuous, and, worse still, unpaid MSS. to the publisher of the -_Review_, complaining of the treatment which their books suffered at -the hands of his critics, and “enraged authors” seem at this time to -have been about the only readers of the savage periodical in question. -One of the last numbers contains a notice that all unpaid post parcels -may be inquired for again at the General Post Office; and soon after -Mr. Highley eased his shoulders of this burden by merging the _English -Review_ in the _Analytical_. - -Young Murray was at this time of a very different temperament to his -partner--full of youth, fire, and energy, and uncommonly gifted with -that speculative spirit which must have caused the elder man many a -time to shake his head sagely, and to lift his gravely deprecating -eyebrows. In fact, youth and age can never see matters with the same -eyes;--the one looks as through a telescope magnifying all things -within vision some hundred-fold; the other peers cautiously through -spectacles, misty and begrimed, more used in guiding immediate -footsteps than in gazing far ahead. Murray had attained his majority -in 1799, and in four years the two partners resolved to sever their -connection in a pleasant and friendly manner. By the formal deed of -separation, dated 25th March, 1803, Highley retained all the medical -business. But the principal act of parting was of anything but a formal -nature. They drew lots for the old house and Murray was fortunate -enough to secure the winning prize. Highley moved to No. 24, Fleet -Street, but was able afterwards, in 1812, when Murray migrated to -Albemarle Street, to move back again, and here he increased his medical -connection, leaving a thriving business to his son. - -In this very year of separation the _Edinburgh Review_ was started, and -Murray was probably reminded of the scheme in which his father had once -been concerned with Smellie to produce a periodical under a similar -title, but the time was not yet ripe for his own projects. - -In 1806, at the age of twenty-four, he married Miss Elliot of -Edinburgh, a young lady descended from one of the best-known publishers -in the Modern Athens, and this, perhaps, drawing his attention to -household matters, led to the publication of Mrs. Rundell’s “Domestic -Cookery Book.” It is said that the receipts came from the note-book -of the mother of the late Admiral Burney, with whose family, be it -remembered, he had been at school at Gosport. This was the first and -one of the most lucrative “hits” that Murray made, and perhaps in the -important items of £ _s._ _d._ rivalled “Childe Harold” itself. Byron -sings of it in playful jealousy:-- - - “Along thy sprucest book-shelves shine - The works thou deemest most divine, - The Art of Cookery and mine, - My Murray!” - -Murray’s ambition however was not to be satisfied with the sop of -a successful cookery book. His marriage may be supposed to have -strengthened his interests in the Scotch metropolis, for in the -following year we find Constable offering him a fourth share in Scott’s -forthcoming poem of “Marmion.” “I am,” writes Murray on the 6th Feb., -1807, “truly sensible of the kind remembrance of me in your liberal -purchase. You have rendered Mr. Miller no less happy by your admission -of him; and we both view it as honourable, profitable, and glorious to -be concerned in the publication of a new poem by Walter Scott.” For an -account of the success of “Marmion” we must refer the reader to the -life of Archibald Constable; it is enough for our present purpose to -know that Murray afterwards said that this fourth share, for which he -paid £250, brought him in a return of fifty-fold. - -The publication of “Marmion” was followed by a connection with Scott, -who in the succeeding year edited for him Strutt’s “Queen Hoo Hall.” - -Scott had before this been concerned with Campbell in a projected -series of “Biographies of the Poets,” which had however come to -nothing. Murray now thought that Scott’s talents, and more especially -perhaps his name, would bestow certain success upon the project; and we -find Campbell, who had just made a “poet’s marriage”--with love enough -in his heart and genius enough in his brain, but “with only fifty -pounds in his writing desk”--inditing to Scott as follows:-- - - “MY DEAR SCOTT,--A very excellent and gentlemanly man--albeit - a bookseller--Murray of Fleet Street, is willing to give for - our joint ‘Lives of the Poets,’ on the plan we proposed to the - trade a twelvemonth ago, a thousand pounds.... Murray is the - only gentleman in the trade except Constable.... I may perhaps - also except Hood. I have seldom seen a pleasanter man to deal - with. Our names are what he principally wants, especially - _yours_.... I do not wish even in confidence to say anything - ill of the London booksellers beyond their deserts; but I can - assure you that to compare this offer of Murray’s with their - usual offers is magnanimous indeed. Longman and Rees and a - few of the great booksellers have literally monopolized the - trade, and the business of literature is getting a dreadful - one indeed. The Row folks have done nothing for me yet; I know - not what they intend. The fallen prices of literature--which - is getting worse by the horrible complexion of the times--make - me often rather gloomy at the life I am likely to lead. You - may guess, therefore, my anxiety to close with this proposal; - and you may think me charitable indeed to retain myself from - wishing that you were as poor as myself, that you might have - motives to lend your aid.” - -Scott, however, was too busy on higher paid work and was obliged to -decline the offer, and for the present Campbell went back to his -“hack-work.” Poor Campbell had suffered much from the publishers. His -“Pleasures of Hope” had been rejected by every bookseller in Glasgow -and Edinburgh; not one of them would even risk paper and printing -upon the chance of its success. At last Messrs. Mundell and Son, -printers to the University of Glasgow, with much reluctance undertook -its publication, upon the liberal condition of allowing the author -fifty copies at trade price, and, in the event of its reaching a -second edition, a gratuity of ten pounds. A few years afterwards, when -Campbell was present at a literary dinner party, he was asked to give -a toast, and without a moment’s hesitation he proposed “Bonaparte.” -Glasses were put down untouched, and shouts of “The Ogre!” resounded. -“Yes, gentlemen,” said Campbell gravely, “here is to Bonaparte; he has -just shot a bookseller!” Amid shouts of applause, for the dinner was in -“Bohemia,” the glasses were jangled and the toast was drank, for the -news had but just arrived that Palm, a bookseller of Nuremburg, had -been shot by the Emperor’s orders. - -Constable scarcely thought, when he offered the fourth share of -“Marmion” to Murray, that he was fostering a dangerous rival. Yet in -the very year after the publication of “Marmion” he was projecting a -rival quarterly, and the following letter to Canning, first printed in -“Barrow’s Autobiography,” shows that Murray is entitled to the whole -credit of the new scheme. - - “September 25th, 1807. - - “SIR,--I venture to address you upon a subject that is perhaps - not undeserving of one moment of your attention. - - “There is a work entitled the _Edinburgh Review_, written with - such unquestionable talent that it has already attained an - extent of circulation not equalled by any similar publication. - The principles of this work are, however, so radically bad, - that I have been led to consider the effect which such - sentiments, so generally diffused, are likely to produce, and - to think that some means equally popular ought to be adopted - to counteract their dangerous tendency. But the publication in - question is conducted with so much ability, and is sanctioned - and circulated with such high and decisive authority by the - party of whose opinions it is the organ, that there is little - hope of producing against it any effectual opposition, unless - it arise from you, sir, and from your friends. Should you, sir, - think the idea worthy of encouragement I should, with equal - pride and willingness, engage my arduous exertions to promote - its success; but as my object is nothing short of producing a - work of the greatest talent and importance, I shall entertain - it no longer, if it be not so fortunate as to obtain the high - patronage which I have thus, sir, taken the liberty to solicit. - - “Permit me to add, sir, that the person who thus addresses - you is no adventurer, but a man of some property, including a - business that has been established for nearly half a century. I - therefore trust that my application will be attributed to its - proper motives, and that your goodness will at least pardon its - intrusion. - - “I have the honour to be, Sir, &c., &c., - “JOHN MURRAY.” - -Canning read the letter, and though for the present it was put away -in his desk unanswered, the contents were not forgotten, for a few -years before this he had heard Murray’s name mentioned in a very -honourable way. Some Etonians, among them Canning’s nephew, had started -a periodical called the _Miniature_, which brought them some fame, -but left them under a pecuniary loss. Murray, with his usual good -nature, and with something of the tact which afterwards made him so -many powerful friends, took all copies off their hands, paid all their -expenses, and though he found little demand for the work, offered -to print a new edition. This was a trait of character that, with a -clear-headed, far-seeing man like Canning, would probably go far. As -yet, however, the Principal Secretary for Foreign Affairs, though he -gave the matter careful consideration, did not care to commit himself -upon paper. - -Two months, however, before this letter Scott and Southey had been -corresponding about the _Edinburgh Review_, Southey stating that he -felt himself unable to contribute to a periodical of such political -views, and Scott heartily agreeing in deprecating the general tone of -the _Review_. - -Early in 1808, a very severe article came out in the _Review_ anent -“Marmion.” Murray pricked up his ears, and, as he afterwards told -Lockhart, “When I read the article on ‘Marmion,’ and another on general -politics in the same number of the _Review_ I said to myself, ‘Walter -Scott has feelings both as a gentleman and as a Tory, which those -people must now have wounded. The alliance between him and the whole -clique of the _Edinburgh Review_, the proprietor included, is shaken,’” -“and,” adds Lockhart, “as far at least as the political part of the -affair was concerned, John Murray’s sagacity was not at fault.” - -Murray saw that the right way to approach Scott was through the -Ballantynes’ printing press, in which Scott at this time was a -secret partner, and in which he always expressed openly the greatest -interest. So urgent did Murray’s tenders of work become that a meeting -at Ferrybridge, in Yorkshire, was arranged; and here Murray received -from Ballantyne the gratifying news that Scott had quarrelled with -Constable, and that it was resolved to establish a rival firm. Murray, -who never wasted an opportunity from lack of decision, posted on to -Ashestiel and had an interview with Scott himself, and the proposal of -a new quarterly Tory periodical was eagerly snatched at. Strangely -enough Murray arrived just as Scott, after reading an article on -Spanish matters, had written to have his name erased from the list -of subscribers to the _Edinburgh_. Murray was able to announce, too, -that Gifford, the editor of the late _Anti-Jacobin_, had promised -co-operation, and in a letter to Gifford we see Scott’s satisfaction -clearly enough:-- - -“John Murray of Fleet Street, a young bookseller of capital and -enterprize, and with more good sense and propriety of sentiment than -fall to the share of most of the trade, made me a visit at Ashestiel a -few weeks ago, and as I found he had had some communication with you on -the subject, I did not hesitate to communicate my sentiments to him on -these and some other points of the plan, and I thought his ideas were -most liberal and satisfactory.” - -Soon after Canning wrote to the Lord Advocate on the subject, and -the Lord Advocate communicated with Scott, who recommended that in -all things save politics the _Edinburgh_ should be taken as a model, -especially in the liberal payment of _all_ contributors, and in the -unfettered judgment of the editor. Gifford was unanimously fixed on as -fitted for the editorial chair. That he possessed vigour was apparent -from his success--a plough-boy, a sailor, a cobbler, then a classical -scholar, the translator of “Juvenal,” the biting satirist of the -“Baviad and Mæviad,” the brilliant editor of the _Anti-Jacobin_, who so -well suited to out-rival Jeffrey? - -All the talent available was secured. Scott came to town to be present -at the birth of the expected prodigy, and well he might, for three -of the articles in the first number were his own. Rose, and young -Disraeli, and Hookham Frere, and Robert Southey--the future back-bone -of the _Review_--were all represented, and on 1st February, 1809, the -first number of the _Quarterly Review_ was published. According to -tradition there were high jinks at Murray’s shop in Fleet Street when -the first numbers arrived from the binders; a triumphal column of the -books “was raised aloft in solemn joy in the counting-house, the best -wine in the cellar was uncorked, and glasses in hand John Murray and -assistants danced jubilant round the pile.” The pile, however, did not -long remain, as so many famous columns have done to mock the hope of -its builders, but the whole issue was sold almost immediately, and a -second edition was called for. - -To the second number Canning himself contributed, and received his -payment of ten guineas per sheet. Barrow, too, was introduced, who -contributed, in all, no less than one hundred and ninety-five articles, -“on every subject, from ‘China’ to ‘Life Assurance.’” After Barrow and -Croker, Southey was, perhaps, the most prolific; to the first hundred -and twenty-six numbers he contributed ninety-four articles--many of -them of great permanent value--and to him Murray uniformly exhibited -a generosity almost without parallel. For an article on the “Lives -of Nelson,” he received twenty guineas a sheet, double what Southey -himself acknowledged to be ample, and he was offered £100 to enlarge -the article into a volume, and having exceeded the estimated quantity -of print, Murray paid him double the amount stipulated, adding another -200 guineas when the book was revised for the “Family Library.” For the -review of the “Life of Wellington,” Southey got £100, and he thought -the sum so large that he himself calls it “a ridiculous price;” yet -this ridiculous price he continued to receive, and he was in the habit -of saying that he was as much overpaid for his articles by Murray, -as he was underpaid for the rest of his work for other publishers. -“Madoc,” of which he had great hopes, brought him £3 19_s._ 1_d._ for -the first twelvemonth, and the three volumes of the “History of the -Brazils,” scarcely paid their expenses of publication. - -Of the other contributors it is unnecessary to speak fully here; but -the _Review_, now that it was established, gave Murray at once a -pre-eminence in the London trade, by bringing him into connection with -the chief Conservative statesmen, and with the principal literary men -in England. - -The alliance that Murray had formed with the Ballantynes was soon -dissolved, for Murray, though venturous enough, was a man of business, -and their loose, slip-shod way of general dealings, did not at -all satisfy his requirements. William Blackwood, then a dealer in -antiquarian books, was chosen instead as Edinburgh agent, and, in -conjunction with him, Murray purchased the first series of the “Tales -of My Landlord.” This was in 1816, and some payments for _Quarterly -Review_ articles was well-nigh the last business communication between -Scott and Murray. - -Now that Murray had so completely rivalled Constable in one line--that -of the _Review_--he wished to rival him in another. Constable had -made an apparent fortune out of Scott’s poetry, in which Murray had -in one case, to the extent of one quarter, participated. Scott had, -it is true, left Constable, but was for the present unalienable from -the Ballantynes, who at this moment enjoyed the dubious services of a -London branch. - -Looking round among the young and rising writers of the day, for one -who was likely to enhance the fame and increase the wealth of his -house, Murray mentally selected Lord Byron, then known, not only as -the noble poetaster of the “Hours of Idleness,” but as the bitterest -satirist who had dipped pen in gall since Pope had lashed the -hack-writers of his time in the “Dunciad.” Murray made no secret of his -wish to secure Byron as a client, and the rumour of this desire reached -the ears of Mr. Dallas, the novelist, who happened at that very moment -to be seeking a publisher for a new poem in two cantos, by his distant -cousin and dear college chum, Lord Byron. Byron had just arrived from -the East, bringing with him a satire, entitled “Hints from Horace,” of -which he was not a little hopeful, and also, as he casually mentions, -a “new attempt in the Spenserian stanza.” Dallas read the “new -attempt,” and, enthralled by its beauty, forthwith undertook securing -its publication. But, even in those days of venturous publishers and -successful poems, the matter looked easier than it proved. Longman -declined to publish a poem by a writer who had so recently lashed his -own favourite authors. Miller, of Abermarle Street, a notable man in -his day, and generous withal (had he not given the widow of the late -Charles James Fox £1500 for her defunct husband’s historical fragments, -and did he not eagerly snatch at one-fourth share of “Marmion?”) would -have none of it, his noble patron, Lord Elgin, being abused in the very -first canto. Dallas then appears to have heard a rumour of Murray’s -willingness; the manuscript was taken to him, and £600 was offered, -there and then, for the copyright. Byron was at that time unwilling to -receive money for work done solely for love and fame; he had lately -attacked Scott in a directly personal manner, as “Apollo’s venal son:”-- - - “Though Murray with his Miller may combine - To yield thy Muse just half-a-crown per line!” - -and generously made a present of the copyright to Dallas--a brother -author, less gifted in purse and brain--and thus the bargain was -concluded. This was the commencement of a friendship between author -and publisher which has, perhaps, only one parallel in literary -annals--that of Scott and Constable. From the letters between Byron -and Murray we can discern clearly that the connection, tinged as it -was with much generous feeling on both sides, was far from being of a -purely commercial nature. - -“Childe Harold,” for this, of course, is the poem referred to, was -“put in hand” at once. Quartos were then in vogue for all books -likely to attract attention, and Murray insisted that profit as well -as portliness was to be found therein. Byron was for octavos and -popularity; but as he said wofully at the end of one of his letters, -“one must obey one’s bookseller.” During the progress of the printing, -Byron would lounge into the shop in Fleet Street, fresh from Angelo’s -and Jackson’s. “His great amusement,” says Murray, “was in making -thrusts with his stick, in fencer’s fashion, at the ‘sprucebooks,’ as -he called them, which I had arranged upon my shelves. He disordered a -row for me in a short time, always hitting the volume he had singled -out for the exercise of his skill. I was sometimes, as you will guess, -glad to get rid of him.” As for correction, Byron was willing enough to -defer at any time to Murray’s advice, upon all questions but politics, -though only to a limited extent: “If you don’t like it, say so, and -I’ll alter it, but _don’t_ suggest anything instead.” In one letter we -find a strange absence of a young writer’s anxiety anent the importance -of typography. “The printer may place the notes in his _own way_, -or in any _way_, so that they are out of my way.” In another: “_You -have looked at it?_ to much purpose, to allow so stupid a blunder to -stand; it is not ‘courage,’ but ‘carnage,’ and if you don’t want to -see me cut my own throat see it altered!” Again, but later, “If every -syllable were a rattlesnake, or every letter a pestilence, they should -not be expunged.” “I do believe the Devil never created or perverted -such a fiend as the fool of a printer.” “For God’s sake,” he writes in -another place, “instruct Mr. Murray not to allow his shopman to call -the work ‘Child of Harrow’s Pilgrimage!!!’ as he has done to some of -my astonished friends, who wrote to inquire after my sanity on the -occasion, as well they might!” To John Murray we imagine Lord Byron -must have appeared as much of a contradiction as he did to the world -outside. - -Byron was extremely anxious that no underhand means should be used -to foster the success of “Childe Harold.” “Has Murray,” he writes to -Dallas, “shown the work to any one? He may--but I will have no traps -for applause.” On receipt of a rumour from Dallas, he indites a stormy -letter to Murray, absolutely forbidding that Gifford should be allowed -to look at the book before publication. Before the letter arrived, -however, Gifford had expressed a very strong opinion, indeed, as to the -merit of the poem, which he declared to “be equal to anything of the -present day.” Byron wrote again to Murray, “as never publisher was -written to before by author:”--“It is bad enough to be a scribbler, -without having recourse to such shifts to escape from or deprecate -censure. It is anticipating, begging, kneeling, adulating--the devil! -the devil! the devil! and all without my wish, and contrary to my -desire.” - -In the early spring of 1812, “Childe Harold” was ready, and three -days before its appearance, Byron made his maiden speech in the House -of Lords; a speech which was received with attention and hailed with -applause, from those whose applause was in itself fame. It is needless -here to recapitulate the success of “Childe Harold,” how, on the day -after publication, Lord Byron awoke, and, as he himself phrased it, -found himself famous. - -The publication of “Childe Harold,” was not the only important event -of this year, 1812, to the subject of our memoir. In this same year, -Murray purchased the stock-in-trade of worthy Mr. Miller, of 50, -Albemarle Street, and migrated thither, leaving the old shop, east of -Temple Bar, to be re-occupied by-and-by (in 1832) by the Highley family. - -Here it was, at Albemarle Street, that Murray attained the highest -pinnacle of fame on which ever publisher stood. His drawing-room, -at four o’clock, became the favourite resort of all the talent in -literature and in art that London then possessed, and there _were_ -giants in those days. There it was his “custom of an afternoon,” to -gather together such men as Byron, Scott, Moore, Campbell, Southey, -Gifford, Hallam, Lockhart, Washington Irving, and Mrs. Somerville; and, -more than this, he invited such artists as Laurence, Wilkie, Phillips, -Newton, and Pickersgill to meet them and to paint them, that they -might hang for ever on his walls. Famous tales, too, are told of the -“publisher’s dinners;” of tables surrounded as never any king’s table -but that of the “Emperor of the West’s” had ever been. As Byron makes -Murray say, in his mock epistle to Dr. Palidori-- - - “The room’s so full of wits and bards, - Crabbes, Campbells, Crokers, Freres, and Wards, - And others, neither bards nor wits, - My humble tenement admits - All persons in the dress of gent, - From Mr. Hammond to Dog Dent. - A party dines with me to-day, - All clever men who make their way; - Crabbe, Malcolm, Hamilton, and Chantrey - Are all partakers of my pantry. - - * * * * * - - My room’s so full--we’ve Gifford here, - Reading MS. with Hookham Frere, - Pronouncing on the nouns and particles - Of some of our forthcoming articles.” - -Mr. Planché, in his recently-published “Recollections,” gives us an -amusing account of one of these literary réunions; this time, however, -at the house of Horace Twiss. Murray, James Smith, and others remained -in the dining-room very late, and the party grew noisy and merry, for -Hook was giving some of his wonderful extempore songs. Pressed for -another, he declared that the subject should be “John Murray;” but the -“Emperor of the West” objected most vehemently, and vainly chased Hook -round the table in furtive endeavours to stop a recitative, of which -Planché only remembers the beginning:-- - - “My friend, John Murray, I see, has arrived at the head of the table, - And the wonder is, at this time of night, that John Murray should be - able. - He’s an excellent hand at supper, and not a bad hand at lunch, - But the devil of John Murray is, that he never will pass the punch!” - -Among the many instances of Murray’s munificence was the offer of £3000 -to Crabbe for his “Tales of the Hall,” and the copyright of his prior -works. Some zealous friends, however, thought this too small a sum, -and opened negotiations with another firm, but the other firm offered -considerably less; and Crabbe, fearing that Murray might consider the -bargain as out of his hands entirely now, went straightway to Albemarle -Street with Rogers and Moore as mediators. Murray, however, assured -them that he had from the first considered the matter as entirely -settled. - -Lord Byron’s personal connection with the Albemarle Street clique -was of comparatively short existence, for, in 1816, he left England -for the last time; but to the time of his death he kept up a regular -correspondence with Murray of the frankest and most cordial kind. Now, -Murray hearing that Lord Byron was in difficulties, sends him a draft -for £1500, promising another for the same amount in the course of a few -months, and offering to sell the copyright of his works for his use, -if that were not sufficient. Then, again, in a freak, Byron presents -Murray with “Parisina” and the “Siege of Corinth,” and returns the -cheque for £1000 which the publisher had forwarded. - -“Your offer is liberal in the extreme, and much more than the two poems -can possibly be worth; but I cannot accept it, nor will not. You are -most welcome to them as an addition to the collected volumes, without -any demand or expectation on my part whatever. - -“P.S.--I have enclosed your draft, _torn_, for fear of accidents by the -way. I wish you would not throw temptation in mine; it is not from a -disdain of the universal idol, nor from a present superfluity of his -treasures, I can assure you, that I refuse to worship him; but what is -right is right, and must not yield to circumstances.” - -The following is in a somewhat different tone:-- - -“You offer 1500 guineas for the new canto of (”Don Juan“). I won’t take -it. I ask 2500 guineas for it, which you will either give or not, as -you think proper. If Mr. Moore is to have 3000 for “Lalla,” &c., if Mr. -Crabbe is to have 3000 for his prose or poetry, I ask the aforesaid -price for mine.” (“Beppo” was eventually thrown into the bargain.) -“You are an excellent fellow, _mio caro_ Murray, but there is still -a little leaven of Fleet Street about you now and then--a crumb of -the old loaf.... I have a great respect for your good and gentlemanly -qualities, and return your friendship towards me; and although I think -you are a little spoiled by ‘villanous company,’ with persons of -honour about town, authors, and fashionables, together with your ‘I -am just going to call at Carlton House, are you walking that way?’--I -say, notwithstanding ‘pictures, taste, Shakespeare, and the musical -glasses,’ you deserve the esteem of those whose esteem is worth having.” - -Now, like a spoiled child, Byron wishes back all his copyrights, and -intends to suppress all that he has ever written, and Murray has to -chide him and coax him, with much disinterestedness, urging him to -labour steadily for a few years upon some work worthy of his talents, -and fit to be a true monument of his fame. - -Some of Byron’s letters are in an earnest, many in a playful, mood, -most in prose, but sometimes the poet breaks into a charming doggerel -of delicious “chaff.” Here is one specimen:-- - -“TO MR. MURRAY. - - “Strahan, Tonson, Lintot of the times, - Patron and publisher of rhymes, - For thee the bard of Pindus climbs, - My Murray. - - “To thee, with hope and terror dumb, - The unfledged MS. authors come; - Thou printest all--and sellest some-- - My Murray. - - “Upon thy tables’ baize so green, - The last new _Quarterly_ is seen,-- - But where is thy new magazine, - My Murray? - - “Along thy sprucest bookshelves shine - The works thou deemest most divine,-- - The ‘Art of Cookery,’ and mine, - My Murray. - - “Tours, Travels, Essays, too, I wist, - And Sermons to thy mill bring grist; - And then thou hast the ‘Army List,’ - My Murray. - - “And Heaven forbid I should conclude - Without the ‘Board of Longitude,’ - Although this narrow paper would, - My Murray!” - - VENICE, March 25, 1818. - -There was no end to Byron’s wit and playfulness. Sometimes Murray would -act as a mentor and adviser in more serious matters, but his advice -would be pleasantly turned off with a jest. At the time when Byron was -most calumniated, when there were cruel stories afloat about the life -he led and the opinions he held (though none so cruel as have since -been promulgated by a well-known American authoress), Murray’s soul was -comforted by the present of a Bible--a gift from the illustrious poet. -“Could this man,” he asked, “be a deist, an atheist, or worse, when he -sent Bibles about to his publishers?” Turning it over in wonderment, -however, some inquisitive member of his four-o’clock clique found a -marginal correction--“Now Barabbas was a robber,” altered into “Now -Barabbas was a _publisher_.” A cruel stab, a “palpable hit,” maybe, -at some publishers, but, as regards Murray, an uproarious joke to be -gleefully repeated to every comer. As a refutation of this playful -libel, and as the clearest and most succinct way of showing what -amounts of money Byron really did receive, we append the following -account:-- - - £ - 1807 _Hours of Idleness_ - 1809 _English Bards and Scotch Reviewers_ - 1812 _Childe Harold_, I. II.[A] 600 - 1813 _The Gaiour_ 525 - ” _Bride of Abydos_ 525 - 1814 _Corsair_[15] 525 - ” _Lara_ 700 - 1815 _Hebrew Melodies_[16] - 1816 _Childe Harold_, III. 1,575 - ” _Siege of Corinth_ 525 - ” _Parisina_ 525 - ” _Prisoner of Chillon_ 525 - 1817 _Manfred_ 315 - ” _Lament of Tasso_ 315 - 1818 _Beppo_ 525 - ” _Childe Harold_, IV. 2,100 - 1819 _Mazeppa_ 525 - ” _Don Juan_, I. II. 1,525 - 1820 _Don Juan_, III. IV. V. 1,525 - ” _Marino Faliero_ - ” _Doge of Venice_ 1,050 - 1821 _Sardanapalus_, _Cain_, and _Foscari_ 1,100 - ” _Vision of Judgment_[17] - 1822 _Werner_; _Deformed Transformed_; _Heaven - and Earth_, to which were added _Hours - of Idleness_, _English Bards_, _Hints - from Horace_, &c. 3,885 - Sundries 450 - 1822 _Don Juan_, VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. XI. - 1823 _Age of Bronze_, _The Island_, and more - cantos of _Don Juan_ - ------ - Total £19,340 - _Life_, by Thomas Moore 4,200 - ------ - £23,540 - -Murray’s kindness to Byron may be said to have displayed itself -even after his death. In 1821, Byron had given his friend Moore his -autobiography, partly as a means of justifying his character, partly to -enrich his friend. Moore, pressed as usual for money, made over the MS. -to Murray for the sum of 2000 guineas, undertaking to edit it in case -of survivorship. He subsequently intended to modify the transaction by -a clause to be inserted in the deed, by which he, Moore, should have -the option of redeeming it within three months after Byron’s death. -When Byron did die, in 1824, the MS. was given to Gifford to read, and -found to be far too gross for publication, and, spite of Moore’s wish -to modify it, Sir John Hobhouse and Mrs. Leigh insisted upon its being -destroyed. Murray offered to give it up upon repayment of the 2000 -guineas; and after an unpleasant scene in Murray’s shop, the MS. was -destroyed by Wilmot Horton and Colonel Doyle, with the full consent of -Moore, who repaid Murray the sum advanced by a draft on Rogers. - -No sooner had it been burnt than it was found that, through the want of -the clause above named, Moore’s interest in the MS. had entirely ceased -at Byron’s death; and though Moore, nobly and firmly, refused to -receive the money back from Byron’s friends, he chose to consider for a -time that Murray had wronged him. - -He took a proposal to Longman of a “Life of Byron,” and the matter -was partially arranged, when Moore, urged on both by his feelings -and his friends, seeing Murray in the street, started after him. -“Mr. Murray, some friends of yours and mine seem to think that we -should no longer continue on these terms. I therefore proffer you -my hand, and most heartily forgive and forget all that has passed.” -Murray’s face brightened into smiles, and on parting he said, “God -bless you, sir, God bless you!” Longman agreed, upon this, that Murray -was the publisher to whom a life of Byron most properly belonged, -and Murray eventually gave £4200 for one of the most delightful and -entertaining biographies in our literature--a companion volume, in -every way, to Boswell’s “Johnson” and Lockhart’s “Scott.” Murray, in -this transaction, seems to have behaved with generous firmness. Now -that Byron was dead, the autobiography would certainly have proved -the most remunerative of all his works; and Moore himself, in his -Diary, ultimately confessed that “Murray’s conduct” had been admirable -throughout. - -In this year, 1824, not only did Murray lose the services and the -friendship of his best client, Lord Byron, who died at Missolonghi on -the 19th of April, but Gifford, the able editor of the _Quarterly_, -was incapacitated for further work, and resigned his post. Mr. John -Coleridge, then a young barrister, succeeded, but though accomplished, -clever, and able, he was “scarcely strong enough for the place;” -Southey found out his incapacity for saying “no,” and under his -auspicious reign began to make the _Review_ a quarterly issue of -his own miscellaneous works. Strangely enough in the mourning coach -that followed Gifford to his grave Murray drove with the man who was -destined as an editor to rival the powers of the upbuilder of the -_Quarterly’s_ reputation--this of course was John Gibson Lockhart, -a young Edinburgh advocate, the son-in-law of Scott, and more than -that, the author of “Peter’s Letters,” of “Valerius,” of “Reginald -Dalton,” the translator of “Frederick Schlegel,” and the “Ancient -Spanish Ballads,” and the noted contributor to _Blackwood_. Moore -first heard of the arrangement down at Abbotsford, when Scott, after -dinner, hopeful of his daughter’s interests, and proud, may be, of -his son-in-law, grew confidential. “Lockhart was about to undertake -the _Quarterly_, has agreed for five years; salary £1200 a year, and -if he writes a certain number of articles it will be £1500 a year.” -In this year, though the prospects of the _Quarterly_ were ably -secured, Murray met with the only really adverse turn of fortune, to -which through a long career, and a bold one, he was ever subject. The -terrible commercial crisis which had been so long overhanging, burst -at last into a deluge of ruin--Constable’s house was swept away, the -Ballantynes were for the moment overthrown, and Scott had to give up -his lordly estates of Abbotsford, and generously work his life out -to redeem a name on which he deemed a commercial slur had been cast. -Murray, though he suffered by the panic, as all must suffer in the -time of a general epidemic, was not severely hurt. Still, looking back -now with the wisdom of wiseacres, who think we could have prophesied -easily the actual events that did occur, the time does seem a strange -one in which to start a new venture. This was nothing less than the -establishment of a new Conservative journal, which was to rival the -_Times_ as the _Quarterly_ rivalled the _Edinburgh_. According to -the current rumour, it was young Disraeli (now the wily and veteran -leader of the Conservative party) who first proposed the scheme; -and, according to current rumour still, it was under his editorship, -and with Dr. Maginn as chief foreign correspondent, that the -_Representative_ (price sevenpence daily) was started on the 26th of -January, 1826. The journal was able, well-informed, and well-written, -but the _Times_ had a monopoly, and the Conservative party were not -strong enough to support a first-rate organ of their own, and after -a brief existence of six months, the _Representative_ gave up the -struggle. Murray was wont in future days, when rash young speculators -urged the necessity of embracing some opening for a new daily paper, to -point to a ledger on his book-shelves and say grimly, “Twenty thousand -pounds lie buried there!” - -The question as to who was the actual editor of the _Representative_ -has never been definitely settled. Mr. Disraeli, until the last year, -never disclaimed the supposed connection, and silence was considered -as proverbially affirmative. Lockhart, too, has been put forward -as a claimant. The nearest approach to any opinion that might have -been final was given by the late James Hannay in the pages of the -_Edinburgh Courant_. “We had the best authority for what we said--nay, -the only authority--since even to Mr. Murray the question of the -_Representative’s_ editorship is not a personal one. We now add that -Mr. Disraeli’s long silence in the matter admits of an explanation -which will gratify his admirers of all parties. He hesitated to come -forward with any eagerness to make a denial, which might have been -interpreted as springing from a wish to disclaim newspaper association, -but when the story was passing into literature in such a book as the -biography of an eminent British writer, it was time to protest against -any further propagation of the story, once and for all.” But this “best -and only authority” did nothing to render the question less intricate, -for when Mr. Grant published the first instalment of his “History -of the Newspaper Press,” he thoroughly outdid Hannay, and with that -ingenuous facility of arbitrating over moot points, and that mysterious -power of catching rumours, as boys catch moths, and pinning them down -in his collection under the general label of “facts,” gave full details -of Mr. Disraeli’s connection with the _Representative_, the amount of -his salary, together with a luxurious description of the splendours of -his editorial offices! Mr. Disraeli roused at last, replied curtly that -the whole narrative was entirely imaginary, and utterly devoid of fact -or foundation in any one point. He has since then in a letter, upon -a similar question, written by his solicitor to the _Leisure Hour_, -declared that:-- - -“Mr. Disraeli never in his life required or received any remuneration -for anything he ever wrote, except for books bearing his name. - -“Mr. Disraeli never was editor of the _Star Chamber_, or any other -newspaper, journal, review, or magazine, or anything else.” - -To return, however, to legitimate book-publishing. About this time -Campbell’s old scheme of “Biographies of the Poets” was revived, -re-appearing under the title of “Specimens of the British Poets;” and -Murray was so pleased with the work that he made the stipulated sum of -£500 into double that amount. To Allen Cunningham, too, he gave £50 per -volume additional for his “Lives of the British Artists,” and made the -payment retrospective. - -We could repeat five hundred anecdotes of his liberal and kindly -generosity, but our space only permits us to record another, which it -is very pleasant to read about. - -It was twenty-two years since the obscure Fleet Street bookseller had -embraced the “glorious and profitable” opportunity of taking a fourth -share in “Marmion,” and since then Sir Walter Scott had achieved an -unparalleled position in the world of English letters, had written -innumerable works, and had earned unheard-of sums--and had been -completely ruined. With the aid of his creditors, Scott was now seeking -to recover all his copyrights for a final edition of his collected -works. All had been bought back save this fourth share of “Marmion.” -Lockhart was commissioned by his father-in-law to inquire on what -terms the share might be re-purchased, and this was Murray’s immediate -reply:-- - - “Albemarle Street, June 8th, 1829. - - “MY DEAR SIR,--Mr. Lockhart has this moment communicated - your letter respecting my fourth share of the copyright of - ‘Marmion.’ I have already been applied to by Messrs. Constable - and Messrs. Longman to know what sum I would sell this share - for; but so highly do I estimate the honour of being, even in - so small a degree, the publisher of the author of this poem, - that no pecuniary consideration whatever can induce me to part - with it. - - “But there is a consideration of another kind, which until now - I was not aware of, which would make it painful to me if I were - to retain it longer. I mean the knowledge of its being required - by the author, into whose hands it was spontaneously resigned - in the same instant that I read his request. - - “The share has been profitable to me fifty-fold beyond what - either publisher or author could have anticipated, and, - therefore, my returning it on such an occasion, you will, I - trust, do me the favour to consider in no other light than as - a mere act of grateful acknowledgment, for benefits already - received by - - “My dear Sir, - “Your obliged and faithful Servant, - “JOHN MURRAY.” - -This noble act, we must remember, was performed at a time when the -future was anything but bright, or at all events when the present -was dismally gloomy. “Lydia Whyte,” writes Tom Moore, “told me that -Murray was very unsuccessful of late. Besides the failure of his -_Representative_, the _Quarterly_ did not look very promising, and he -was about to give up the fine house he had taken in Whitehall, and -return to live in Albemarle-street.” - -Constable had, some years previous, hit upon the idea of appealing to -a public that should be numbered, not by tens of thousands, but by -hundreds of thousands, ay, and by millions! and had just commenced his -“Miscellany.” Murray, quick to receive a good idea, started at once -into competition with his “Family Library,” Lockhart commencing the -series with a “Life of Napoleon” and the “Court and Camp of Bonaparte.” -Cunningham followed with his “Lives of the British Painters,” and -Southey revised his “Life of Nelson,” and expanded another review -article into a “Life of Wellington,” on terms equally munificent with -the other. - -Cheap editions of Byron were multiplied by the score; Landor received -a thousand guineas for his “Journals of African Travel,” and Napier -another thousand for his first volume of the “History of the Peninsular -War.” If Murray neglected opportunities, he generally managed to -retrieve them. He might have had the “Bridgewater Treatises;” and he -says, “The ‘Rejected Addresses’ were offered me for ten pounds, and -I let them go by as the kite of the moment. See the result! I was -determined to pay for my neglect, and I bought the remainder of the -copyright for 150 guineas.” Murray might have added that he generously -gave the Smiths a handsome share in the ultimate profits. - -Sometimes, too, he had the sagacity to buy the _failures_ as well as -the successes of other publishers. Constable produced a little “History -of England,” in one small volume, which fell still-born from the press. -Murray purchased it for a trifle, re-christened it with his usual -happiness, and as “Mrs. Markham’s History of England” the work has been -an annual source of revenue to the house, as the present Mr. Murray’s -last trade sale list would tell us. - -Murray was never dazzled by the fame of his Byrons, his Moores, his -Campbells, and his Crabbes, but always recollected that “taste” is -flitting, while works that only aid the necessities of mankind are -always saleable. The “Army and Navy List” and the “Nautical Almanack” -are every whit as profitable to-day as in the first year of their -publication. Moore tells a story that shows he could still occupy his -mind as well as fill his purse with “Mrs. Rundell’s Cookery Book.” -“Called at Murray’s,” he writes in his “Diary,” for 1831: “mentioned to -him Lady Morgan’s wish to contribute something to his ‘Family Library,’ -and that she has materials ready for the lives of five or six Dutch -painters. ‘Pray, isn’t Lady Morgan a very good cook?’ I answered I -didn’t know; but why did he ask? ‘Because,’ said he, ‘if she would do -something in that line--’ ‘Why, you don’t mean,’ said I, ‘that she -should write a cookery book for you?’ ‘No,’ answered John, coolly, ‘not -so much as that; but that she should re-edit mine’ (Mrs. Rundell’s, by -which he had made heaps of money). Oh, that she could have heard this -with her own ears! Here ended my negotiations for her Ladyship.” - -It was not merely to Englishmen that Murray extended a helping and a -generous hand. When the first volume of the “Sketch Book,” originally -published in America, made its appearance in London, it was declined -by Murray, and Irving was about to publish it on his own account; but -after all arrangements had been made the printer failed. Lockhart had -praised the book in _Blackwood_; and Scott, seeing at once its sterling -worth, with his usual kindliness, pressed its merits upon Murray, who -gave Irving £200 for it, afterwards more than doubling the amount. -Murray’s transactions with Irving exhibit a singular phase of the -international copyright law. This is how their account stands-- - - £ - “Sketch Book” 467 - “Bracebridge Hall” 1050 - “Tales of a Traveller” 1575 - “Life of Columbus” 3150 - “Companions of Columbus” 525 - “Conquest of Grenada” 2100 - “Tour on the Prairies” 400 - “Abbotsford and Newstead” 400 - “Legends of Spain” 100 - ---- - Total £9767 - -These sums of money having been paid, Mr. Bohn reprinted the volumes in -a cheap edition. A law suit was of course the result, in which Murray’s -expenses ran up to £850, and Mr. Bohn’s were probably as heavy. The -question, however, was settled amicably, without being fought to the -bitter end, and Irving received no more money from this side the -Atlantic. - -Most of the famous men with whom Murray had been connected had by this -time disappeared, many of them having shed their rays meteor-like, and -having done the duty unto which they were created in a momentary flash. -The seething excitement called into being by the throes of the first -French Revolution had subsided, and there were neither readers left -to appreciate true poetry, nor true poets remaining, with strength of -voice left in them to bring back memories in passion-laden melodies of -the troublous times they sprung from. All, on the contrary, was quiet -and easeful--a happy time for commerce, but a barren hour for art. - -Murray, skilled as any pilot in watching the direction of the wind, -turned his attention to the publication of travels and expeditions--the -very books for a fireside afternoon, when the wind is howling outside, -and the snow-storm beating on the windows--and very soon Albemarle -Street was as famous for its “Travels” as it had previously been for -its “Belles-Lettres.” Among the most valuable and successful of these -were the expeditions of Mungo Park, Belzoni, Parry, Franklin, Denham, -and Clapperton. - -Murray had just launched his “Classical Handbooks,” under the -editorship of his son--had just made, in trade parlance, “another great -hit” in Lady Sale’s “Journal in Afghanistan”--when an attack of general -debility and exhaustion compelled him to leave business and success -alone--and for ever. He rallied so often that no serious results were -anticipated by his family or physician; but after a very short illness -he died suddenly on the 27th June, 1843, in the fifty-sixth year of his -age, leaving three daughters and one only son. To his widow, in a will -dated only seven days before his death, he bequeathed the whole of his -estate. - -A gentleman by manners and education; generous and open-handed, not for -purposes of display, often not from mere trade motives, but from a true -desire to return to genius and industry something of what he derived -from them; an excellent man of business, with more powers of work than -most men, understanding better than any how to measure the calibre -of an author’s genius, and to gauge the duration of his popularity; -skilful in timing a publication, so as to ensure a favourable -reception, and yet honestly abhorring any recourse to the low art of -puffing--such was John Murray as a publisher; the best representative -of an honourable calling, and one who by his own influence tended -not a little to make the years of his own working life the best -representative period of English literature. - -Mr. John Murray, who succeeded at once to his father’s business, was -born in the year 1808, and was consequently, in 1843, admirably -fitted, by years and professional training, to take the management -of so important a concern. He was educated at the Charterhouse and -at Edinburgh University, and had had, moreover, all the advantages -that foreign travel could bestow. As early as 1831, we hear of “Mr. -John Murray, Jun.,” at Weimar, presenting Goethe with the dedication -of Byron’s “Marino Faliero,” and being received, together with that -mocking and yet reverent tribute, in a gracious, kindly manner. - -Mr. Murray thoroughly followed his father’s idea, that the age had now -come for the cheap publication of useful and practical books, and in -the first year of his accession, issued the prospectus of his “Home -and Colonial Library,” which, being published at half the price of the -“Family Library,” was at least twice as successful, and was continued -for upwards of six years. During these early years Mr. Murray made one -mistake, and achieved one great success. The mistake was, however, in -common with every publisher in London, for “Eöthen” went the rounds -of the metropolitan book market, and was eventually published by a -personal friend of Mr. Kinglake’s. Mindful of his father’s precedents, -Murray soon secured the copyright. The success, on the contrary, -consisted in accepting what other publishers had refused, and issued -from Albemarle Street, Campbell’s “Lives of the Lord Chancellors” has -proved one of the most successful biographical works of the time. In -travel, biography, history, and science, the present Mr. Murray has -fully sustained the name of the old house, and it is sufficient here -to mention only the names of Hallam, Barrow, Wilkinson, Lyell, Gordon -Cumming, Layard, Murchison, and Sir Robert Peel, to see how much we owe -him. - -On Lockhart’s death, in 1854, the Reverend Whitwell Elwin was selected -to fill the editorial chair of the _Quarterly_, and since that date -the political opinions of the periodical have been considerably -modified; at any rate, men of all parties have been allowed to write -conscientiously in its pages, and it is even rumoured, that before -this, its old opponent, Lord Brougham, contributed at least one article -(that on _Chesterfield_, in vol. lxxvi.). - -Among the most successful library books that Mr. Murray has recently -published, we must instance those by Mr. Smiles and Dr. Livingstone, -and, more especially, those by Mr. Darwin. - -Mr. Murray’s name is, however, most familiar to us now as the publisher -of the famous _Handbooks_ for travellers, the series now extending, not -only through the outer world, but embracing our English counties; these -latter, it is said, owing much to Mr. Murray’s personal editorship. - -In closing our short sketch of the “House of Murray,” we cannot refrain -from re-echoing a wish that has been often uttered before, that the -present representative may find time amidst his professional labours, -to edit the letters and to write a worthy life of the great John -Murray. No book that has ever been issued from Albemarle Street could -be more popular or more welcome. - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -_WILLIAM BLACKWOOD_: - -“BLACKWOOD’S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.” - - -We have already, in our account of Archibald Constable, shown how -deeply the brilliant writers--who for a while gave a bold literary -supremacy to the northern capital--were indebted to the daring spirit -and the generous purse of one Scottish publisher; we have here to -follow the narrative of a rival’s life--a life at outset very similar, -but soon diverging widely, and which, actuated by very different -principles, and aiming at very different results, was destined to open -the arena of literary struggle to those whom honest political feeling -had for a moment rendered dumb and inactive. - -William Blackwood was born at Edinburgh, on the 20th Nov., 1776, of -parents in an humble position in life, who, however, with the honest -endeavour of most of their class in the north, contrived to give him a -very excellent elementary education. From his earliest days, William -had exhibited a strong love for books, and at the age of fourteen he -was apprenticed to Bell and Bradfute, of his native city; nor, indeed, -did his education suffer from this premature removal from school; -there is much leisure in a bookseller’s shop, even for an industrious -boy, and opportunity of more various reading than comes within the -reach of many sixth-form scholars and university undergraduates. “It -was here,” says an obituary notice, “that he had so largely stored -his mind with reading of all sorts, but more especially with Scottish -history and antiquities, that on establishing himself in business, his -accomplishments attracted the notice of persons whose good opinion -was distinction.” Before the expiry of his time, in 1797, he must -also have displayed a talent for business life, for we find that -he was immediately engaged by Messrs. Mundell & Co., then largely -employed in the book trade at Edinburgh, to take the sole management -of a branch house at Glasgow; and being thus, at the early age of -twenty years, thrown almost entirely upon his own resources, and with -his own judgment for his only guidance, he acquired that decision of -character which distinguished him throughout after-life, and which -was so instrumental in the fortunes of his house. In spite, however, -of all his efforts, the firm of Mundell & Co. did not prosper at -Glasgow--it was they, the reader may, perhaps, remember, who purchased -the “Pleasures of Hope,” for only fifty printed copies of the work, -from Campbell--and after his year’s service was over, he returned to -Edinburgh, and re-entered the employment of Bell and Bradfute, with -whom he remained for another year. In 1800, he entered into partnership -with Mr. Ross, bookseller and bookseller’s auctioneer; but the -auctioneering part of the business proved distasteful to him, and the -old book trade presented a much more suitable field for his talents. -With the energy of youth he started for London, and was initiated into -the mysteries of bibliography by Mr. Cuthell, “famous,” as Nichols -says, “for his catalogues.” Here he stayed for three years, and then, -in 1804, came back to Edinburgh and opened an old-book shop, in South -Bridge Street. For several years he almost confined his attention to -the sale of rare and curious books, more especially those relating to -the antiquities and early history of Scotland. His shop, like that -of Constable, soon became a regular literary haunt, and he speedily -acquired a reputation second to none of his own line in Edinburgh, and -in the matter of catalogues, he rivalled Cuthell, his master; that one -published in 1812 being the first in which the books were regularly -classified, and “continues,” says Mr. Chambers, “to be an authority -to the present day.” The old-book trade was at that time in its most -flourishing condition, Dibdin was firing the minds of curiosity-seekers -with a love for rare quartos and folios; Heber, and many more after -his kind, were spending the main portion of their time, and the vast -bulk of their fortunes, in the acquisition of immense libraries; and -the old-booksellers of the day were making large incomes. Blackwood’s -success by no means satisfied his ambition, but enabled him to enter -the field of publishing as a rival to Constable, who was now at the -height of his glory. As early as 1811, we find him bringing out “Kerr’s -Voyages,” a work of considerable importance and expense, and which was -shortly succeeded by Macrie’s “Life of Knox.” - -Blackwood’s sojourn in London, and the credit attracted by his -enterprising book-catalogues, led the way to his being appointed agent -to several of the London booksellers, among others, to John Murray, -and to them, conjointly, the tale of the “Black Dwarf” was offered -when Scott considered it desirable to bring it out in other hands, and -with a title-page apparently by another author. Blackwood wrote to say -that, in his opinion, the unravelling of the end of the story might be -improved, and offered to pay for cancelling the proofs. Gifford, too, -to whom Murray had shown it, was of a like opinion. Scott differed most -essentially; witness his letter to Ballantyne:-- - - “DEAR JAMES, - - “I have received Blackwood’s impudent letter. G---- d---- his - soul, tell him and his coadjutor that I belong to the Black - Hussars of Literature, who neither give nor receive criticism. - I’ll be cursed but this is the most impudent proposal that ever - was made.” - -This, of course, brought the proposal to a close for the time, though, -as Lockhart says, “Scott did both know and appreciate Blackwood better -in after times.” - -Blackwood was now, from the profits of the old-book trade and the -success of his own publishing ventures, in a fair way to success, and -in 1816 he took the bold step of selling off all his old stock and -migrating to Prince’s Street. “He took possession,” says Lockhart, in -“Peter’s Letters,” “of a large and airy suite of rooms in Prince’s -Street, which had formerly been occupied by a notable confectioner, and -whose threshold was, therefore, familiar enough to all the frequenters -of this superb promenade.... Stimulated, I suppose, by the example and -success of John Murray, whose agent he is, he determined to make, if -possible, Prince’s Street to the High Street, what the other had made -Albemarle Street to the Row.” It was not without much forethought, -we may be sure, that this step was undertaken, and the speedy -establishment of the famous magazine clearly shows us what was the -chief motive to such a venturous change. - -The magazine literature of the day was wofully weak. The vitality with -which Cave had endowed the _Gentleman’s Magazine_, had long since died -away. No more such “hack-writers” as Johnson and Goldsmith came forward -to enliven its pages, at the meagre payment of four guineas a sheet, -and now it only-- - - “Hopped its pleasant way from church to church, - And nursed its little bald biography.” - -Such was the type of English periodical literature, and the Scotch -were certainly no better off. The _Scots Magazine_ stood Constable, -it is true, in good stead, but only as a nursery ground, from which -writers might be trained for transplantation to a stronger soil. Vastly -different was the condition of the rival quarterlies; but still, in -Scotland at all events, the _Edinburgh_ carried everything after its -own desire. Wit the writers had in plenty--learning, too, and the gift -of open-speaking; but to fairness, biassed as they were by party ties, -they never laid the least claim, and yet all Edinburgh was enthralled -by the opinions of the _Edinburgh Review_, for intellectual attainments -at that time commanded for their possessors the leading place in the -society of the Modern Athens, and, as the principles advocated in its -pages were decidedly opposed to those of the existing administration, -the success it indubitably had attained, the vast following it was -gathering, not only irritated but alarmed the Scotch Tory party. - -Of course, the actual inventorship of the new project is a disputed -point, but the evidence seems to tell us that, however the idea of -a new Conservative organ had been talked over in literary coteries -(and what scheme has not been planned a thousand times before -execution whenever literary men meet together?), the plan had long -been entertained and spoken of by Blackwood; and, as he proceeded to -carry it into execution, the scheme may to all intents and purposes be -regarded as his own. - -Two gentlemen were engaged--Pringle and Cleghorn--who had received -their training in the enemy’s camp, as editors in chief, and with the -assistance of Hogg, and the promised support of Scott and many other -men of talent, the first number of the _Edinburgh Monthly Magazine_ -was issued on All-Fools’ Day, 1817--an ominous day for Blackwood, for -he soon discovered that the prophets he had summoned to curse, heaped -blessings on the heads of his opponents. This first number differed -but little from other periodicals of its class. Only half the space -was devoted to original matter, and the very opening pages contained a -panegyric upon Horner, then lately deceased, an _Edinburgh Reviewer_--a -Whig, and not much else. “You can’t say too much about Sydney Smith and -Brougham,” said Scott to Jeffrey; “but I will not admire your Horner. -He always puts me in mind of Obadiah’s bull, who, although, as Father -Shandy observed, he never produced a calf, went through his business -with such a grave demeanour that he always maintained his credit in -the parish.” Nor was this the worst. In No. 3 a violent defence of the -_Edinburgh_ was undertaken warmly. This was too much for Blackwood; he -gave his editors notice of a coming change, and after much chaffering -he was glad to pay £125 down, and get rid at once of them and the -magazine; and--somewhat, doubtless, to his chagrin--they immediately -returned to Constable and took charge of the _Scots Magazine_, which, -under the title of _Constable’s Edinburgh Magazine_, made a futile -effort to re-juvenate itself. - -With the sixth number of the _Edinburgh Monthly Magazine_ had appeared -a notice stating that “this work is now discontinued, this being the -last number of it;” but in the following month, with an alteration in -the title, it arose, Phœnix-like, from the ashes, and, as _Blackwood’s -Edinburgh Magazine_, No. 7, created a sensation which has never -perhaps been equalled. There was, to commence with, a monstrous list -of all possible and impossible articles, chiefly threatened attacks -upon the _Edinburgh_, then a violent attack upon their former defence -of the _Edinburgh Reviewer’s_ onslaught upon Burns and Wordsworth; -but the great feature in No. 7 (No. 1 in reality of _Blackwood_) was -the “Translation from an Ancient Caldee Manuscript,” in which the -circumstances of the late feud, and Constable’s endeavours to repair -the fortunes of his old magazine, and the resuscitation of “Maga”--the -birth, that is, of the genuine “Maga”--are thrown into an allegorical -burlesque. - -“The two beasts (the two late editors), the lamb and the bear, came -unto the man who was clothed in plain apparel, and stood in the door -of his house; and his name was as if it had been the colour of ebony -(_Blackwood_), and his number was the number of a maiden when the days -of her virginity have expired (_No. 17, Prince’s Street_), ... and they -said unto him, Give us of thy wealth, that we may eat and live, and -thou shalt enjoy the fruits of our labour for a time, times or half a -time. - -“And he answered and said unto them, What will ye unto me whereunto I -may employ you? - -“And they proffered unto him a Book, and they said unto him, Take thou -this, and give us a piece of money, that we may eat and drink and our -souls may live. - -“And we will put words into thy Book that shall astonish the children -of thy people. And it shall be a light unto thy feet and a lamp unto -thy path; it shall also bring bread to thy household, and a portion to -thy maidens. - -“And the man hearkened unto their voice, and he took their Book, and he -gave them a piece of money, and they went away rejoicing in heart. And -I heard a great noise, as if it had been the noise of many chariots, -and of horsemen prancing upon their horses. - -“But after many days they put no words in the Book, and the man was -astonied, and waxed wroth, and said unto them, What is this that ye -have done unto me, and how shall I answer those to whom I am engaged? -And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that. - -“And the man wist not what for to do; and he called together the -friends of his youth, and all those whose heart was as his heart, -and he entreated them, and they put words into the Book; and it went -abroad, and all the world wondered after the Book, and after the two -beasts that had put such amazing words into the Book. - -“Then the man who was crafty in counsel and cunning in all manner of -work (_Constable_), when this man saw the Book, and beheld the things -which were in the Book, he was troubled in spirit and much cast down. - -“And he hated the Book and the two beasts that put words into the Book, -for he judged according to the reports of men; nevertheless, the man -was crafty in counsel, and more cunning than his fellows. - -“And he said unto the two beasts, Come ye and put your trust under the -shadow of my wings, and we will destroy the man whose name is as ebony -and his Book. - -“And the two beasts gave ear unto him, and they came over to him, and -bowed down before him with their faces to the earth.... - -“Then was the man whose name is as ebony ‘sore dismayed,’ and appealed -to the great magician who dwelleth by the old fastness hard by the -river Jordan which is by the Border (_to Walter Scott_), and the -magician opened his mouth and said, Lo! my heart wisheth thy good, and -let the thing prosper which is in thy hands to do it. - -“But thou seest that my hands are full of working, and my labour is -great. For, lo! I have to feed all the people of my land, and none -knoweth whence his food cometh, but each man openeth his mouth and my -hand filleth it with pleasant things. (_This is more than a shrewd -guess of the authorship of the Waverley Novels._) - -“Moreover, thine adversary also is of my familiars (_Constable, his -publisher_). - -“Yet be thou silent, peradventure will I help thee some little.” - -Chapter II. shows us Blackwood gazing despondently from his inner -chamber, when a veiled figure appears, who - -“Gave unto the man in plain apparel a tablet containing the names of -those upon whom he should call; and when he called they came, and -whomsoever he asked he came.... - -“And the first which came was after the likeness of the beautiful -leopard, from the valley of the palm-trees, whose going forth was -comely as the greyhound, and his eyes like the lightning of fiery flame -(_Professor Wilson, author of the ‘Isle of Palms.’_)... - -“There came also from a far country, the scorpion which delighteth to -sting the faces of men, that he might sting sorely the countenance of -the man which is crafty, and of the two beasts (_Lockhart_). - -“Also the great wild boar from the forest of Lebanon, and he roused up -his spirit; and I saw him whetting his dreadful tusks for the battle” -(_James Hogg_). - -Then come Dr. Macrie, Sir William Hamilton, Arthur Mower, “and the -hyæna that escheweth the light, and cometh forth at eventide to raise -up and gnaw the bones of the dead, and it is as a riddle unto a vain -man (_Riddell, the legal antiquarian_). - -“And the beagle and the slowhound after their kind, and all the beasts -of the field, more than could be numbered, they were so many.” - -In Chapter III., Constable finds that the “bear” and the “lamb” are -unprofitable servants, and he, too, calls for aid, but Jeffrey--“the -familiar spirit unto whom he had sold himself”--Leslie, and -Playfair--contributors to the _Edinburgh_--refuse to come. In Chapter -IV., Constable does get aid from Macney Napier, and others. - -“And when I saw them all gathered together, I said unto myself, Of a -truth the man which is crafty hath many in his host, yet, think I, -that scarcely will these be found sufficient against them which are in -the gates of the man who is clothed in plain apparel.... - -“Verily the man which is crafty shall be defeated, and there shall not -escape one to tell of his overthrow. - -“And while I was yet speaking, the hosts drew near, and the city was -moved; and my spirit failed within me, and I was sore afraid, and I -turned to escape away. - -“And he that was like unto the messenger of a king, said unto me, Cry: -and I said, What shall I cry? for the day of vengeance is come upon all -those that ruled the nation with a rod of iron. - -“And I fled into an inner chamber to hide myself, and I heard a great -tumult, but I wist not what it was.” - -It is very hard for us now to duly appreciate the crushing effect of -this Caldee manuscript. - -It is certainly humorous, after a fashion now so prevalent in America, -and undoubtedly witty. - -Among the Edinburgh people of that time, when every man knew his -neighbour, the effect was absolutely prodigious. A yell of despairing -pain arose from one portion of the Whig party, who, if they had no -administrative power in their hands, had hitherto held a patent of all -literary ability; and from the other portion came an equally discordant -cry, which eventually culminated in a fierce accusation of blasphemy -and irreligion. Perhaps, however, the strongest test we can apply to -the power of this galling squib is the fact that every title bestowed -in its pages has “stuck” to the individual against whom it was directed. - -Blackwood was alarmed at the commotion he had caused, withdrew the -obnoxious article from the second edition, suppressed it in what he -could of the first, and in the second number inserted the following -announcement:--“The editor has learnt with regret that an article in -the first edition of last number, which was intended merely as a _jeu -d’esprit_, has been construed so as to give offence to individuals -justly entitled to respect and regard; he has, on that account, -withdrawn it in the second edition, and can only add that, if what has -happened could have been anticipated, the article in question certainly -never would have appeared.” It was, however, too late, war had been -declared to the knife, and Blackwood was nothing loath to continue the -struggle. - -“The conception of the Caldee MS.,” says Wilson’s son-in-law, Professor -Ferrier, “and the first thirty-seven verses of Chapter I., are to be -ascribed to the Ettrick Shepherd; the rest of the composition falls to -be divided between Professor Wilson and Mr. Lockhart, in proportions -which cannot now be determined.” Again, Mrs. Gordon tells us that this -audacious squib was composed in her grandmother’s house, 23, Queen -Street, where Wilson lived, “amid such shouts of laughter as made the -ladies in the room above send to inquire and wonder what the gentlemen -below were about;” and yet she adds, as if to protect her father from -suspicion of a share in it, that she “cannot trace to her father’s hand -any instance of unmanly attack, or one shade of real malignity.” Very -probably not; but at the same time the fun of the squib is decidedly in -Wilson’s favourite manner. “An old contributor to _Blackwood_,” who, -in 1860, furnished a most interesting and full account of Maga and -Blackwoodiana to the columns of the _Bookseller_, asserts, in reference -to Hogg’s claim, “on the best authority (that of the man who did write -it), that there is no foundation whatever for any such pretext. The -hare was started by Wilson at one of those _symposia_ which preceded -and perhaps suggested the _Noctes_. The idea was caught up with avidity -by Hogg, and some half-dozen verses were suggested by him on the -ensuing day; but we are, we believe, correct in affirming that no part -of his _ébauche_ appeared in the original or any other draft of the -article.” It is to be wished that this writer, whose article evidently -exhibits personal knowledge, and, apart from a running attack upon -Hogg, due impartiality, had, in putting forward a new version of the -story, in contradiction to those already given, been enabled to give us -the name of the writer, apparently, from the wording of the context, a -new claimant. - -Not only were Blackwood’s “enemies” discomforted, but even his friends -were sore dismayed. The first number of _Blackwood_ bore the imprint -of John Murray, but the “Caldee MS.” caused him to withdraw his name, -but after passing through the hands of three different London agents, -the sixth again appeared under his countenance. This number, however, -contained some unpalatable strictures on Gifford and the _Quarterly -Reviewers_, and the Albemarle Street patronage was again withdrawn, -only to be renewed in the eleventh number; but by the time it reached -the seventeenth he washed his hands of it entirely, and in future it -appeared without the ornamental appendage of any London bookseller’s -name; the agency, distinctly one of sale only, was given to Cadell and -Davies, who found it profitable enough to occupy the greater part of -their attention. Cadell, naturally as nervous as Murray of giving, or -being in any way instrumental in giving, offence, kept a stereotyped -reply in readiness for any angry victim who rushed into his shop for -redress--“I know nothing of the contents of the magazine; I am merely -the carrier of a certain portion of its circulation to its English -readers.” - -From the commencement of the new series--from the foundation that is -of _Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine_--Blackwood’s fortunes and even the -story of his life are inextricably bound up in the progress of the -periodical; for he did not again, once he had got rid of Pringle and -Cleghorne, entrust its charge and conduct to the care of any editor. -For a long time Wilson was supposed to occupy the editorial chair. -This supposition is treated in a letter, printed by his daughter: “Of -_Blackwood_ I am not the editor, although I believe I very generally -got both the credit and discredit of being Christopher North. I am one -of the chief writers, perhaps the chief writer, but never received one -shilling from the proprietor, except for my own compositions. Being -generally on the spot, I am always willing to give him my advice, and -to supply such articles as are most wanted, when I have leisure.” “From -an early period of its progress,” says Lockhart, speaking of Blackwood -and the magazine, “it engrossed a very large share of his time; and -though he scarcely ever wrote for its pages himself (three articles, -we believe, he did contribute), the general management and arrangement -of it, with the very extensive literary correspondence which this -involved, and the constant superintendence of the press, would have -been more than enough to occupy entirely any man but one of his -first-rate energies.” - -Before we follow up the chronicle of the life of _Blackwood_ and its -proprietor, it will be necessary to take a retrospective glance at -the causes which rendered it possible to convert the snug, orthodox, -and more than slightly Whiggish _Edinburgh Monthly Magazine_ into -the slashing, defiant, jovial, dare-devil of _Blackwood’s Edinburgh -Magazine_. This change was chiefly due to the influence of two men, -Wilson and Lockhart, who, together with Hogg, had, under the old -régime, contributed all there was of wit and sparkle. With these three -writers, and the promise of further support, Blackwood had changed his -mind as to putting his ill-fated periodical to the untimely end he had -announced; and we have seen something, and shall see more, as to how -far this determination was justified by success. In the meantime, it is -essential to know a little of these two men, to whom primarily all the -success was due. - -John Wilson, the great Tory champion, was descended, not from a county -family, but from a wealthy Paisley manufacturer; and, after taking all -possible prizes at Glasgow University, went to conquer fresh worlds at -Oxford, where he not only won the Newdigate prize of £50 by one of the -best prize poems extant, in fifty lines, but excelled in all sports, to -which a magnificent frame, a temper universally good, a wild exuberance -of animal spirits, and a thirsty love of adventure could contribute. - -Strange tales are told of his Oxford escapades; of recess rambles -with strolling players; of wanderings, when smitten by the charms of -a gipsy-girl, for weeks together with her tribe; of sojournings as a -waiter at a country inn, to be close to one of the fair waitresses. - -However, his dreams of adventure were surrendered only after having -planned an expedition to Timbuctoo, and he purchased an estate at -Windermere, to be near the Lake school of poets, with whom he soon -threw in his fortune. After the publication of the “Isle of Palms,” -and the “City of the Plague,” he joined the Scotch Bar, and in the -Parliament House struck up an acquaintance with another briefless -barrister--Lockhart, seven years younger than himself. - -John Gibbon Lockhart was also educated at Glasgow University, where -gaining the “Snell” foundation, he was sent, at sixteen, to Balliol; -after taking a first-class degree he travelled on the Continent, -returning only when it was necessary to enter at Edinburgh as an -advocate. Silent in private life, he found he could not speak at all in -public; and many years afterwards, when making a speech at a farewell -dinner, given in honour of his departure to undertake the editorship of -the _Quarterly_, he broke down, as usual, and stuttered, “Gentlemen, -you know I can’t make a speech; if I could, we shouldn’t be here.” - -Briefless both, and both endowed with strong literary tastes, they -became sworn friends, though Wilson, with his splendid physique, his -loose-flowing yellow hair, his deep-blue eyes, his glowing imagination, -his eloquent tongue, and his defiance of all precedent, was as opposite -a being as well could be imagined to Lockhart, who, to borrow Wilson’s -own words, had “an e’e like an eagle’s, and a sort of lauch about the -screwed-up mouth o’ him that fules ca’d nae canny, for they couldna -tholl the meaning o’t; and either set dumb-foundered, or pretended to -be engaged to sooper, and slunk out o’ the room.” - -With two such men as these it was little wonder that Blackwood resolved -to continue the battle. The weapon, however, which had been so -successfully used in the onslaught upon the _Edinburgh Review_ became -in the hands of young writers flushed with victory, instruments of -aggression against those who had never offended; and, as it happened -that the writers who were most personal in their attacks upon friend -and foe alike were also the cleverest and most brilliant, Blackwood’s -position became one of difficulty. Lockhart “who stung the faces -of men”--and sometimes their hearts--cared little as to who his -shafts were directed against so long as they were sharp and biting. -Cameleon-like he appeared in a thousand different forms. Now as the -“veiled editor” himself, now the Dr. Morris of “Peter’s Letters,” -and now as Baron Lauerwinkel, stabbing his contemporaries under the -guise of a German commentator. Against all the members of the “Cockney -School,” a personal invective was habitually employed by him, at which -in these calmer days of drier criticism we can only stand aghast. He -says of Leigh Hunt, “The very concubine of so impure a wretch would be -to be pitied; but, alas, for the wife of such a husband!”--and so forth. - -In the February number of _Maga_ a new contributor, Billy Maginn, made -his first bow to the public as Mr. Ensign O’Doherty. Maginn was at this -time a rollicking young Irishman of marvellous classical and literary -acquirements, who at four-and-twenty had achieved the difficult honour -of taking a degree of Doctor of Laws at Dublin, never before earned -by one so young. He had a wonderful gift of improvising in either -verse or prose, and his talents were so versatile, his reading, though -desultory, so universal, that he could immediately treat any subject, -no matter what, in a sparkling and dashing manner. When, however, -under the influence of liquor, he was perfectly unmanageable; and his -writings bore every stamp of his own character. One of his first -squibs in _Blackwood_ was a Latin version of “Chevy-chase,” which, in a -foot-note expressed more than a doubt as to the Hebraical knowledge of -Professor Leslie--an Edinburgh Reviewer who had recently been appointed -to the University Chair of Philosophy. The enraged professor summoned -the aid of the law. Blackwood accepted the challenge and inserted -another article by Maginn, which stated that the professor “did not -even know the alphabet of the tongue which he had the imprudence to -pretend to criticise,” and charged him, in addition, of stealing his -pet theories respecting heat, from an old volume of the “Philosophical -Transactions.” The damages awarded amounted to £100, but as all the -legal talent in Edinburgh was engaged in what was regarded as a party -trial, the costs were unusually heavy. Nothing scared, however, -Blackwood welcomed the writer to Edinburgh when he chose to cast off -his incognita. - -The magazine was thriving now, and circulated throughout the kingdom. -Blackwood, busy as he was with its management, found time to push his -general publishing business steadily forward. The issue of Brewster’s -“Edinburgh Encyclopædia” was continued, and Lockhart’s talents were -utilized beyond the pale of _Maga_. In 1818 Schlegel’s “History of -Literature,” translated by Lockhart, was published; and in 1819 -appeared Lockhart’s “Peter’s Letters to his Kinsfolk, by Dr. Peter -Morris”--a series of sketches of all things Scotch, from which we -extract an account of Blackwood and his shop:-- - -“First there is as usual a spacious place set apart for retail -business, and a numerous detachment of young clerks and apprentices, -to whose management this important department of the concern is -entrusted. Then you have an elegant oval saloon, lighted from the roof, -where various groups of loungers and literary dilettanti are engaged -in looking at, or criticising among themselves, the publications just -arrived by that day’s coach from town. In such critical colloquies, -the voice of the bookseller himself may ever and anon be heard -mingling the broad and unadulterated notes of its Auld Reekie’s -music; for, unless occupied in the recesses of the premises with some -other business, it is here that he has his usual station. He is a -nimble, active-looking man of middle age, and moves from one corner -to another with great alacrity, and apparently under the influence of -high animal spirits. His complexion is very sanguinous, but nothing -can be more intelligent, keen, and sagacious than the expression of -the physiognomy; above all the gray eyes and eye-brows, as full of -locomotion as those of Catalani’s. The remarks he makes are in general -extremely acute--much more so indeed than any other member of the trade -I ever heard speak upon such topics. The shrewdness and decision of the -man can, however, stand in need of no testimony beyond what his own -conduct has afforded--above all in the establishment of his magazine -(the conception of which I am assured was entirely his own)--and the -subsequent energy with which he has supported it through every variety -of good and evil fortune. It would be unfair to lay upon his shoulders -any portion of the blame which any part of his book may have deserved; -but it is impossible to deny that he is well entitled to whatever merit -may be supposed to be due to the erection of a work founded in the main -upon good principles, both political and religious, in a city where a -work upon such principles must have been more wanted, and, at the same -time, more difficult than in any other with which I am acquainted.” - -On leaving the shop, Dr. Peter is taken to dine at “a house in the -immediate neighbourhood, frequently alluded to in the magazine as -the great haunt of his wits.” This was Ambrose’s, mentioned in the -“Caldee MS.”--“as thou lookest to the road of Gabriel and the land of -_Ambrose_.” At this favourite tavern, at the _noctes cœnæque deum_, -was foreshadowed what was destined to be by far the most interesting -portion of the earlier series of _Blackwood_. - -The first trace we can find in the magazine of these famous _réunions_ -is in the number for August, 1819, where a work on military matter -is reviewed by two different critics while enjoying their evening -glasses at Ambrose’s. This was followed up next month by a paper which -occupied the whole of the number, entitled “Christopher in the Tent”--a -sketch, suppositious, of course, of a country expedition of the whole -staff--full of rollicking humour and uproarious fun, with etchings by -Lockhart and jokes by all. - -In the following year, 1820, the first of Blackwood’s really classic -novels appeared in the magazine. This was the “Ayrshire Legatees,” by -John Galt; and the editor, quick to perceive talent and eager to retain -it, published in rapid succession a series of tales and sketches by the -modern Smollet. - -This year, too, was an important one for both of the chief -contributors. Lockhart, whose rising merits had long since attracted -the attention of Scott, married the “Great Magician’s favourite -daughter;” and Wilson, to the terror of half Edinburgh, became a -candidate for the chair of Moral Philosophy at the University. -Curious reports were spread of half true tales of youthful adventure, -of bull-hunts by the shores of Windermere; of cock-fights in his own -drawing-room; of a thousand escapades of one kind or another; and these -were capped by a rumour that he was not very sound in either religion -or morals; and even Tory counsellors shrunk from supporting a man who -was said to be a fast liver and a free thinker. The Whigs started -an excellent rival, Sir William Hamilton, and the contest was very -keen. “I wad like to gie ye ma vote, Mr. Wulson,” said an Edinburgh -magistrate, “but I’m feared. They say ye dunna expect to be saved by -grace.” “I don’t know much about that, baillie; but if I am not saved -by grace I am sure my works won’t save me.” “That’ll do, that’ll do; -I’ll gie you my vote.” Others were of a like mind, for Wilson was a man -whom to know was to love, and the election was secured. - -Immediately after the election Wilson returned to Elleray to -recruit; and here an event happened which not only shows his natural -impetuosity, but which might have been of very serious consequence, -and, as a version of the story has recently appeared in “Barham’s -Life,” it may not be altogether out of place to give the correct -version here. - -Lord M----r and three Oxford friends, one of whom had just been -ordained, had started in their own coach upon a rollicking tour -homewards; their journey, even in those free-and-easy times, was marked -by a blackguardism of conduct almost unparalleled. - -At York they halted for a few days--few because the inhabitants would -stand their presence no longer, and, after paying £150 for their hotel -bills, and for the Vandalism they had committed in the town, they -drove on to Windermere, and put up at the Ferry Hotel. Here they stayed -for nearly four days, disporting themselves like Yahoos. Wilson, as is -well known, was “Admiral of the Windermere Fleet,” and chanced, while -they were in the neighbourhood, to hold a regatta, giving his friends -a tea at Ullock’s Hotel, Bowness, when the amusements of the day were -over. - -Hither the travelling adventurers came by water; at the landing stage, -however, one of the number, seeing a fisherman washing his nets in -the lake, crept behind him, and with a shove and a hoarse laugh sent -him into the water. Westmoreland blood is not easily cooled, and the -peasant, seizing his attacker, ducked him within an inch of his life. -Nothing daunted the other three proceeded to the hotel, and entered a -room where tea was laid out for a large party; to knock the tray over, -to pull the cloth off, to dance upon the tea-pot till it was flattened, -and the crockery till it was smashed into a thousand smithereens, was, -of course, only the work of an instant. Hearing the clatter, Mrs. -Wilson hurried downstairs, and Lord M----r, mistaking her for the -landlady, seized her by the neck, and tried to ravish a kiss. At this -critical moment the Professor entered--one blow “from the shoulder” -laid the noble lord at his feet; then, like a genuine old heathen -warrior, placing one foot upon the neck of the prostrate wretch--“if -you other two scoundrels are not out of this room in an instant, I’ll -squeeze the man’s breath out of his body.” They heard--and fled. -Wilson, in a fury of excitement, took boat to Belle Isle, and urged Mr. -Curwen to act as his friend. Mr. Curwen represented that Lord M----r -was utterly beneath contempt--that no professor of moral philosophy -had ever been engaged in a cause of honour; that all his friends had -been representing him as a quiet, orderly man--in fact, brought forward -a thousand arguments which might have been of the utmost weight to a -reasonable being--but not just at present to Wilson; he flung out of -the room, crossed the lake, and sought a gallant naval officer, Captain -Br----, who, a true Sir Lucius O’Trigger, said the matter was in good -hands, and looked up his pistols. They adjourned to Elleray to wait the -expected challenge: but on the evening of the following day, getting -tired of inaction, they set out on a drive to see why the storm did -not commence. Further search was endless. Lord M----r and his friends -had taken to their coach and fled; they could not, however, get their -horses out of the stables until they had paid an hotel bill of £120 -and £20 to the landlord of Ullock’s Hotel for damages. Thus the affair -ended happily, and Wilson was able to return peaceably to Edinburgh to -fulfil his new duties. - -Few men ever undertook so important a charge with so little -preparation. “But there was,” says one who listened to him, “a genius -in Wilson; there was grandeur in his conceptions, and true nobility -in the tone and spirit of his lectures. I can compare them to nothing -save the braying of the trumpet that sent a body of high-bred cavalry -against the foe. ‘Charge! and charge home!’ Wilson’s action upon the -better and more pure-minded of his pupils was pre-eminently beneficial. -His lectures deeply influenced their characters for humanity, for -unselfishness, for high and honourable resolve to fight the battle of -life; like the old Danish hero ‘to dare nobly, to will strongly, and -never to falter in the path of duty.’ Such was Wilson’s creed; and, -till 1850, when he was found stricken down in his private room, ten -minutes after the class hour, he astonished and delighted all that was -intellectual in Edinburgh by these, aptly termed, ‘volcanic lectures on -ethics.’” - -Much work, however, had to be gone through before that date; his -private fortune had been lost some years back by the failure of a house -of business, and he was one of those men whom, the more work is thrown -on them the more they are able to go through with. - -In 1822 appeared the first specimen of his power as a novelist in the -“Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life,” which went rapidly through -edition after edition; and in the March of this year appeared also the -first number of the _Noctes Ambrosianæ_--a curt dialogue between the -editor and Ensign O’Doherty; it was not for seventeen numbers that -Wilson, almost sorry, commenced that wonderful series that became -one of the literary wonders of the day; and for thirteen years as -Christopher North he continued to delight the world, and it is as -Christopher North, in his shooting-jacket, with gun or fishing-rod, -by the lochs or by the moors, amid the scenery which he has so -marvellously limned, and the emotions to which he has given utterance, -that he will be remembered to all time. - -In 1824 we see that Carlyle gets his first pleasant encouragement -in _Maga_, and Moir’s most famous production, the “Autobiography of -Mansie Wauch,” appears. Moir--a young surgeon of only nineteen when -he first appeared in the pages of the original _Edinburgh Monthly -Magazine_--had at once attracted the attention of William Blackwood--“a -man,” says Moir’s biographer, “of rare sagacity, courage, and -persevering energy.” As “Delta,” in the pages of _Maga_, the popularity -of Moir’s softer and sweeter pieces was very great; and when “Mansie” -appeared, “there were districts,” says Aird again, “where country -clubs, waiting impatiently for the magazine, met monthly as soon as it -was issued, and had ‘Mansie’ read aloud by one of their number, amid -explosions of congregated laughter.” - -Lockhart, too, had since his marriage been wielding his pen as freely -as ever. “Valerius” and “Adam Blair” had both been successful ventures -for Blackwood; and were succeeded in 1822 by the “Spanish Ballads,” -which have so much of the true ring of original poetry about them, that -Lockhart’s friends always regretted that he did not devote his time -more exclusively to the composition of some original poetical work. In -1825 the editorship of the _Quarterly_ was offered him, and Blackwood -lost one of his earliest and strongest supporters. Shortly after this -the other satirical spirit of the periodical--Billy Maginn--also moved -southward. - -But Blackwood was too firmly established now to dread the loss of any -single contributor save one. The famous _Noctes_ were, in reality, -only just commencing; and there it is that the character of the -Ettrick Shepherd most shines--vicariously, however, for his popularity -is chiefly due to the piquancy and vitality with which the genius -of Wilson endowed him. Whatever is best in the national genius of -Scotland, in humour, poetry, imagination, and fervour, are poured forth -in the quaint and broad language of the Shepherd. But enough of the -_Noctes_; are they not still familiar volumes upon the tables of all -who read? - -This year (1826), in which Blackwood was at the height of his success, -was fatal, as we have before seen, to Constable; and with his failure -disappeared for ever that rival to _Maga_, Constable’s _Edinburgh -Monthly Magazine_. - -In being thus minute in the history of the magazine, we can scarcely -be said to be neglecting the history of its proprietor, for their -careers were inextricably bound up together, and Blackwood looked upon -it as a father might upon a darling son. In the exulting vanity of his -success, he was induced, about 1825, to print for private circulation, -an alphabetical list of contributors, and sent Wilson a proof, who, -by way of remonstrance, dashed in the names of such celebrities as -Omai the Otaheitan, and Pius VII., with the names of some of the most -egregious fools and mountebanks he had ever met with, and returned it -to the printer, who duly furnished Blackwood with a revise; and the -absurd incongruity of the names showed him the incautious impropriety -of which he had been guilty. Two impressions only were reserved, one -for Blackwood and one for the professor. - -As an editor, the punctuality and alacrity with which he acknowledged -the communications of his contributors was wonderful; “and,” says the -“Old Contributor,” “along with the mail coach copy of the magazine, -or by an early post after its publication, came a letter to each -contributor, full of shrewd hints for his future guidance, and often, -not merely suggesting the subject for a future paper, but indicating -with delicate hesitation the mode in which he fancied it might be -discussed with the best advantage.... The ‘pudding’ was invariably -associated with praise. At the head or foot of the welcome missive -was a cheque for your article, the amount of which was not carved and -patted like a pound of butter, into exact weight, but measured with no -penurious hand.... He hated a cockney as Johnson hated a Scotsman, and -considered all writers on this side the border, who did not contribute -to _Maga_, as falling within this category.” - -In 1827, Blackwood brought out two books, which were alike only in -achieving, each of them, a vast popularity. One was “The Youth and -Manhood of Cyril Thornton,” by Captain Hamilton, and the other “The -Course of Time,” by Pollok, a Scottish, if not a British, classic. The -_Edinburgh Encyclopædia_ was continued till its final completion in -eighteen quarto volumes, and not the least important of his publishing -successes was the reproduction of the chief distinct works of Wilson, -Lockhart, Hogg, Moir, Galt, and other writers connected with the -magazine. He also continued to the close of his career, to carry on an -extensive trade in retail bookselling. - -In addition to these heavy labours, he still found opportunity during -some of the best years of his life to take a prominent part in the -affairs of the city of Edinburgh, for which he was twice a magistrate, -“and in that capacity,” says Lockhart, “distinguished himself by an -intrepid zeal in the reform of burgh management, singularly in contrast -with his avowed sentiments respecting constitutional reform.” Here he -often exhibited in the conduct of debate and the management of less -vigorous minds, a very rare degree of tact and sagacity. - -To return to the magazine. After Lockhart and Maginn left Edinburgh, -the bitterly personal tone by which it had been so frequently -disfigured, was almost entirely dropped; and this negative fact, aided -by the positive one of the great popularity of the _Noctes_, raised the -circulation immensely. - -In 1826, an early Elleray friend of Wilson’s, De Quincey, “the -opium-eater,” began to discourse of things German in the pages of -_Maga_; and in 1830, the “Diary of a Late Physician” was commenced. -This, one of the most successful works of modern fiction, had, Warren -tells us, “been offered successively to the conductors of three leading -magazines in London, and rejected as ‘unsuitable for their pages,’ -and ‘not likely to interest the public.’... I have this morning been -referring to nearly fifty letters which he (Blackwood) wrote to me -during the publication of the first fifteen chapters of his ‘Diary.’ -The perusal of them occasioned me lively emotion. All of them evidence -the remarkable tact and energy with which he conducted his magazine.... -He was a man of strong intellect, of great personal sagacity, of -unrivalled energy and industry, of high and inflexible honour in every -transaction, great or small, that I ever heard of his being concerned -in.” - -Contemporary with the publication of the “Diary,” was that of the -successful books “Tom Cringle’s Log” and “Sir Frizzle Pumpkin’s Nights -at Mess,” the first by Michael Scott, and the second by the Reverend -Mr. White. In May, 1832, appeared Wilson’s review of Mr. Tennyson’s -first volume; in which the affectations of Mr. Tennyson’s earlier -writings were ridiculed, but his more worthy pieces were praised in -no niggardly terms. At the moment Mr. Tennyson was irritated, but -his anger soon evaporated in some not very pungent lines to “Rusty, -Crusty Christopher,” which he has long since seen fit to suppress; and, -eventually, he exhibited a due acknowledgment of the truth of Wilson’s -criticism, by removing several pieces and altering others. “Stoddart -and Aytoun,” writes Wilson in this same review, “he of the ‘Death Wake’ -and he of ‘Poland,’ are graciously regarded by old Christopher; and -their volume--presentation copies--have been placed among the essays of -those gifted youths, of whom, in riper years, much may be confidently -predicted of fair and good”--a sentence worth quoting, when it is -remembered that Aytoun afterwards married Wilson’s daughter, and in a -few years occupied his position in the pages of _Maga_ itself. - -In 1833, Blackwood was still full of schemes and enterprises; he -commenced the publication of Alison’s “History of Europe.” Only the -first two volumes were published, and then not altogether successfully, -when Blackwood was stricken down by a mortal disease, a tumour in the -groin, which, in a weary illness of four months, exhausted his physical -energies, but left his temper calm and unruffled, and his intellect -vigorous to the last. He was attended by Moir--the sweet-toned “Delta” -of his magazine--who had another dying patient scarce a hundred yards -off. This was Galt, who had been personally estranged from Blackwood -by rough advice and strictures as to one of his stories. Now, however, -that they lay dying so near each to each, the old friendliness -returned, and Moir bore pleasant messages and hopeful wishes from one -bedside to another. They never met again. Galt lingered on for years, -but Blackwood died on the 10th of September, 1834, in the fifty-seventh -year of his age. - -We have already given his character as described by those who knew him -best, and it were idle to add any weaker testimony. - -He left a widow and a family of seven sons and two daughters, many of -them very young; and the management of the business devolved upon the -two elder, Robert and Alexander, who had for some years been associated -with their father. - -Until 1845, these gentlemen were at the head of the flourishing -business, and with such a start they could not fail to succeed. -The magazine, in spite of all rivals, continued to be as great a -favourite as ever, though in a year or so after the death of the -elder Blackwood, Wilson withdrew almost entirely from its pages, and -his position was eventually occupied by his son-in-law, Professor -Aytoun. Many new contributors, without distinction of sect or party, -were added to the staff; and even Douglas Jerrold and Walter Savage -Landor--ultra-radicals, both--were made free of its pages. John -Sterling, “our new contributor,” as Wilson fondly called him, fully -retained the old reputation for deliciously sparkling poems and essays; -and Lord Lytton, in the “Poems and Ballads of Schiller,” kept alive -the cosmopolitan spirit of poetry inaugurated by Lockhart. In 1845, -Alexander Blackwood died, and was shortly afterwards followed by his -brother, when John, the third son, the present proprietor of the -business and the present editor of _Blackwood_, who was born in 1818, -succeeded. So popular had _Maga_ become in the colonies, and more -especially in the United States, that a reprint of it was regularly -published there every month. Mr. John Blackwood took counsel with the -American lawyers, obtained an American contributor, and then threatened -the Yankee publisher with all the terrors of the law, if the number -were pirated as usual--a successful step, for ever since that date a -tribute tithe has been regularly paid for the right of republication. A -branch house was started in London; the firm was also increased by the -return from India of William Blackwood, who was a major in the Indian -army. - -In 1848 Lord Lytton commenced the “Caxtons,” and novel after novel from -his pen appeared in _Maga_ to be anonymously successful even to the day -of his death. For a period of twenty-five years, some of the finest -novels and life-pictures in the language have made their first way to -public favour through the medium of the magazine; and Mrs. Oliphant -and George Eliot owed their first encouragement to the discernment -of Mr. John Blackwood. That _Maga_ is still _facile princeps_ of the -monthly literature is evident enough even from a bare mention of latest -ventures, from the talent of “Earl’s Dene” and the wit of the “Battle -of Dorking.” - -Alison’s “History of Europe” very soon proved its worth in the eyes of -the public; and among other more recent successes of the house we may -mention the novels of George Eliot, particularly “Middlemarsh,” which -came out in an altogether novel form. - -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.” - -[Illustration] - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -_HENRY COLBURN_: - -THREE VOLUME NOVELS AND LIGHT LITERATURE. - - -Round Henry Colburn clusters a body of writers, lighter and gayer, -and consequently more ephemeral than any we have yet noticed--men and -women, too, for the matter of that, who purchased immediate success too -often with a disregard of future reputation. - -As a lad, Henry Colburn was placed in the establishment of William -Earle, bookseller, of Albemarle Street, and after this preliminary -training obtained the situation of assistant to a Mr. Morgan, the -principal of a large circulating library in Conduit Street. Here he -had, of course, ample opportunity of gauging the reading taste of the -general public, and it is probably from this early connection with -the library-subscribing world that he determined henceforth to devote -himself almost exclusively to the production of the light novelties -which he saw were so eagerly and so incessantly demanded. In 1816 -he succeeded to the proprietorship of the library, and conducted -the business with great spirit and success until, removing to New -Burlington Street, he resigned the Conduit Street Library to the hands -of Messrs. Saunders and Ottley, who, until their recent dissolution, -were famous, not only for their circulating library, but for the -tender care they bestowed upon the works of suckling poets and -poetasters. - -Before this change of residence, however, Colburn had already made -several serious ventures on his own account. All through his long -career we shall find that he speculated in journalistic venture with as -much spirit as he showed in any of his daring schemes to win popular -credit and applause. In 1814, with the assistance of Mr. Frederick -Shoberl, he originated the _New Monthly Magazine and Universal -Register_, on “the principles of general patriotism and loyalty,” -founded, as its name implied, in direct opposition to Sir Richard -Philips’ _Old Monthly_. Among the early editors were Dr. Watkins -and Alaric Watts, but in 1820 a new series was commenced under the -title of the _New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal_, and Thomas -Campbell, the poet, was appointed editor. The agreement still exists in -Beattie’s “Life of Campbell,” and was unusually liberal. He agreed to -edit the periodical for three years, to supply in all twelve articles, -six in verse, six in prose; and for these and his editorial services -he received five hundred pounds per annum, to be increased if the -circulation of the magazine materially improved. He was, of course, -assisted by a sub-editor, and allowed a liberal sum for the payment of -contributors. The magazine prospered, and passed successively through -the editorial hands of Bulwer Lytton (1832) and Theodore Hook. In -1836 a third series appeared under Mr. Harrison Ainsworth, and though -Colburn parted with the proprietorship to Messrs. Chapman and Hall, and -they in their turn to Messrs. Adams and Francis, Mr. Harrison Ainsworth -was till yesterday at his editorial post, delighting our children with -precisely the same kind of enthralling romances with which he beguiled -our fathers. - -In 1817 Colburn determined to introduce a paper upon the plan of a -popular German prototype, and on the 26th January the first number of -the _Literary Gazette_ appeared, price one shilling. H. E. Lloyd, a -clerk in the Foreign Department of the Post-Office, a good linguist, -and a well-known translator from the German, was the chief contributor, -and appears to have shared the editorial duties with Miss Ross, a lady -afterwards pensioned by the Government. The reputation achieved was -great, especially in reference to the Fine Arts, which were skilfully -handled by William Carey, and at the twenty-sixth number Mr. Jerdan, -formerly editor of the _Sun_, purchased a third of the property, and -became the regular editor. Messrs. Longman eagerly embraced the offer -of a third share, and with a staff of contributors, who varied from -Canning to Maginn, the _Literary Gazette_ obtained a wide popularity, -and was recognized as an authority upon other matters than literature. -At present, however, the _Gazette_ is most gratefully remembered as -having encouraged in its poetical columns (fairly and impartially -opened to merit, however obscure), the earliest writings of Mrs. -Hemans, Bowles, Hood, Swain, James Smith, Howitt, and even Tupper. -In 1842 Jerdan bought out Colburn and the Messrs. Longman, and from -his hands the editorship passed to L. Phillips, L. Beeve, and J. L. -Jephson. In 1858 a new series was commenced, under, successively, S. -Brooks, H. Christmas, W. R. Workman, F. Arnold, John Morley, and C. W. -Goodwin. In 1862 it was finally incorporated with the _Parthenon_. - -In 1816, the year before the foundation of the _Literary Gazette_, -Colburn had, as we have seen, migrated to New Burlington Street, and -soon rendered his shop famous as the chief emporium for the purchase -and sale of novels and other light literature. The first book issued -from the new establishment was Lady Morgan’s “Zana”--a work certainly -not worth much, but scarcely meriting an attack in the _Quarterly_, -which Talfourd stigmatises as “one of the coarsest insults ever offered -in print by man to woman;” however, through the power of her ladyship’s -name, and with the aid of skilful advertising--in which Colburn was -perhaps the greatest expert in a time when the art had not reached its -present high state of development--“Zana” proved eminently successful. -Talented in a manner Lady Morgan certainly was, and, as a proof, is -said to have made more than twenty-five thousand pounds by her pen. -She had published a volume of verses at the unfortunately early age of -fourteen, and this idea of precocity seems to us to accompany all her -works. - -At the suggestion of his friend Mr. Upcott, Colburn undertook, in -1818, the publication of “Evelyn’s Diary,” and its success would have -been almost unparalleled had it not been followed in 1825 by the -“Diary of Pepys.” For more than 150 years this work reposed unread and -unknown, until Mr. John Smith succeeded in deciphering the stenographic -characters which had concealed so much amusement from the world. The -work, edited by Lord Braybrooke, was published in two volumes at six -guineas, and though this and the two succeeding editions, at five -guineas, were almost worthless from the editorial excisions they had -undergone from the too-modest fingers of the noble editor, the issues -went off very rapidly, and Colburn obtained a very handsome profit on -the £2200 he had paid for the copyright. In the fourth edition of 1848 -Lord Braybrooke was urged to restore those characteristic passages -which he had before condemned, and the full value of the work, as a -photographic picture of an amusing, though dissolute, time was firmly -established. Evelyn had before given us the history of Charles the -Second’s Court, with a gravity and openly-expressed reprobation which -finely suited his character of a worthy and dignified old English -country gentleman; but still it is now to the pages of Pepys that all -the world turns for an account of the royal domestic life of certainly -the most infamous period of our annals. He is so charmingly garrulous, -jotting down each night such quaint thoughts on what he had seen during -the day, writing them by his fireside, with the same nonchalance with -which he put on his night-cap, and with as little suspicion of ever -being surprised in the one act as the other, that his truthfulness, his -openness, and his scarcely-concealed partiality for as much vagabonding -and frolicsome society as Mrs. Pepys would permit, carry the reader -irresistibly along with him. - -It is, however, when we come to the novels that Colburn ushered into -the world, that we strike upon the one vein of profitable ore that he -made so peculiarly his own; and _facile princeps_ of all his novelistic -clients, stands Theodore Hook. To understand the genius of all Hook’s -works, it is essential to take a short retrospective view of his life -and character. Two things, above all else, strike us in regarding -him--that he possessed the greatest love of joke and frolic, and the -most marvellous memory with which ever man was gifted. As a boy of -seventeen, he dashed off an amusing comedy; this, he tells us in the -really autobiographical sketch of “Gilbert Gurney,” was the process. -“To work I went, bought three or four French vaudevilles, and filching -an incident from each, made up my very effective drama, the ‘Soldier’s -Return.’” And for this bantling he received the handsome first-earnings -of fifty pounds. Living, at a time when other boys were at school, -in the gayest of all society in London, a welcome guest behind the -curtain at every theatre, and hailed as a good fellow in every literary -coterie, young Hook led a rollicking, devil-may-care life, giving the -world back with interest the rich amusement he gathered from it. Now, -making a random bet that a corner house in Berners Street should, -within a week, be the most famous house in London; and within the time -taking his opponent to a commanding window, that he might acknowledge -that the wager had been fairly won; and the strange scene in the -thoroughfare must have soon convinced him. The Duke of York, drawn by -six grey horses, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Mayor in -formal state, every woman of notorious virtue, every man of any fame -or notoriety, porters bustling up with wine-casks and beer-barrels, -milliners with bonnet-boxes crushed and battered, pastry-cooks with -dainty dishes that the street gamins soon picked out of the gutters, -undertakers with rival coffins, variously made to exact measurement, -hackney-coaches, and vans, and waggons by the hundred--in fact, half -the world of London was there by invitations especially adapted to -move each individual case, and the other half soon came as spectators. -The impotent “Charleys” of the day found their efforts useless to -dispel the block and crush, and long before the crowd was cleared away, -the next day’s papers were ringing with the “Berners Street Hoax.” -Again, we find him donning a scarlet coat, and, as the Prince Regent’s -messenger, delivering a letter to an obnoxious actor, eagerly inviting -him to dine with that august personage; and then joining in the crush -outside Holland House, to see his enemy come away discomfited as an -impostor. No occasion was sacred from his jests, and his exuberant -spirits were scarcely in accordance with the tranquillity of academic -life. At his very matriculation the Vice-chancellor, struck by his -youthful appearance, asked him if he was fully prepared to sign the -thirty-nine articles. “Oh, certainly, sir,” replied Hook with cool -assiduity, “forty, if you please.” Indignantly he was told to withdraw, -and it took weeks of friendly interposition to appease the outraged -dignitary. At the age of twenty he wrote his first novel, but it was -a failure, and he shortly afterwards received the appointment of -accountant-general and treasurer at the Mauritius. Here he stayed -for some years, leading a life of pleasure, and going to the office -only five times in the whole period, when suddenly a commission was -appointed to inquire into the accounts, and he was dragged off from -a supper, given in his honour, to prison, charged with a theft of -£20,000, and sent under arrest to England. This “complaint of the -chest,” as he observed to a friend who was astonished to see him back -so soon, was afterwards reduced to £12,000, and for this he was judged -to be accountable, and put into the debtors’ prison. Here, from his -diary, he seems to have enjoyed himself as much as ever, drinking as a -loyal subject should, to the “health of my august detainer, the king.” -However, political influence was brought to bear upon the Government, -and he was set at liberty with the burden of the debt hanging very -lightly round his neck. - -In 1820 he founded the _John Bull_ newspaper, strongly in favour of the -king’s interests, scurrilous as it was witty; everybody read it, and -for some years it yielded him £2000 per annum. His life we see had been -sufficiently various, and not an incident of it was ever forgotten, for -his memory was probably unrivalled. He made a bet that he would repeat -in order the names of all the shops on one side of Oxford Street, and -he only misplaced one; and he gained another wager by saying from -memory a whole column of _Times_ advertisement, which he had only once -conned over; and on another occasion he utterly discomfited a universal -critic, by engaging him in a conversation anent lunar eclipses, and -then discharging three columns of the “Encyclopædia Britannica” at -him, without pause or hesitation. He had, too, the gift of improvising -verse in our stubborn English tongue, and was known on one occasion to -introduce the names of fifty guests at a supper-table, in a song of -fifty verses--each verse a rhymed epigram. - -With attainments and experiences like these, Colburn may be considered -as a wise rather than a venturous man when he offered Hook £600 to -write a novel. The idea of the “Sayings and Doings” was struck out at -a _John Bull_ gathering, and the book when published in 1824, was so -successful that 6000 copies of the three volumes were soon disposed -of,[21] and the generous publisher made the author a present of -£350. For the _second series_ (published in 1825), and the _third -series_ (published in 1828), he received a thousand guineas each. In -1830 appeared “Maxwell,” perhaps the best of his novels, and this was -followed by the “Parson’s Daughter” (1833), “Jack Brag” (1837), and -numerous others, for all of which he was very handsomely paid. But -though he was earning at this period, upwards of £3000 a year by his -pen, he was spending more than £6000, and was obliged, not only to make -fresh engagements with his publishers, but to fore-draw to a very large -extent, and to change his plans considerably with each instalment of -indebtedness. Colburn and Bentley seem to have treated him with marked -esteem and consideration, and his letters perpetually show this: “I -have been so liberally treated by your house, that it seems almost -presuming upon kindnesses” (1831). Again, in 1837: “I assure you I -would not press the matter in a quarter where I am proud and happy to -say--as I do to everybody--I have met with the greatest liberality.” - -In 1834 he took the management of the _New Monthly_, and to its pages -he contributed what may be considered an autobiographical sketch. -“Gilbert Gurney” and the sequel “Gilbert Married,” the second of which -unfortunately was not autobiographical; for he had formed ties with a -woman who had not only sacrificed everything to him, but during the -period of his imprisonment and his many troubles had behaved with -exemplary faithfulness and unremitting attention; and these ties he had -not the courage to legally strengthen. At his death the crown seized -what little property he possessed, in the shape of household chattels -and newspaper shares, to liquidate his unfortunate debt, and his -children were left penniless. A subscription was raised--if literary -men are improvident (though many have more excuses for improvidence -than Theodore Hook), they are at least kindly-hearted--and a sum of -£3000 was collected, to which the King of Hanover contributed £500. -As a strange test of Hook’s joviality it is stated that the receipts -of the dining-room of the Athenæum Club fell off by £300 when his -well-known seat in “Temperance Corner” became vacant. - -Another of the novelists with whom Colburn had long and intimate -dealings was G. P. R. James, one of the most indefatigable writers that -ever drove pen over paper. We give for the sake of clearness, a tabular -statement of his extraordinary labours:-- - - 51 Novels in 3 Volumes 153 Volumes. - 2 ” 4 ” 8 ” - 6 ” 2 ” 12 ” - 16 ” 1 ” 16 ” - Edited Works 14 ” - Miscellaneous Contributions would fill say 10 ” - --- - 223 Volumes. - -Truly a gargantuan labour! Some of James’s early writings had -attracted the attention of Washington Irving, who strongly advised -the undertaking of some more important work, and as a consequence -“Richelieu” was commenced. After it had received Scott’s approval it -was submitted to Colburn, and published in 1828 with a success that -determined the young author’s future career. We cannot, of course, -follow the progress of the 223 volumes as they issued from the press. -It would be absurd to look for originality in a book-manufacturer -of this calibre, and, as Whipple says, James “was a maker of books -without being a maker of thought.” Still they served their purpose of -enriching the author and publishers, and at a time when the public -appetite was less jaded than at present, his works were eagerly looked -for, and even now many readers agree with Leigh Hunt:--“I hail every -fresh publication of James, though I hardly know what he is going to do -with his lady, and his gentleman, and his landscape, and his scenery, -and his mystery, and his orthodoxy, and his criminal trial.” - -In 1826 Colburn published Banim’s “Tales of the O’Hara Family,” a book -that excited a very strong interest in the public mind, and in the same -year he issued “Vivian Grey,” by a young author whose life was to be -as romantic as his story. Mr. Disraeli’s first book contains a curious -confession of his youthful aspirations, and even a curiously exact -prototype of his future life. This was followed in 1831 by the “Young -Duke.” “Bless me!” the elder Disraeli exclaimed when he read this -eloquent account of aristocratic circles, “why the boy has never sat in -the same room as a duke in his life.” Mr. Disraeli’s novels soon became -famous for the portraits or caricatures of distinguished living people, -scarcely disguised under the slightest of all possible pseudonyms; to -those living in the metropolis the likenesses were evident enough, and -a regular key was published to each for the benefit of our country -cousins. - -In 1829 Colburn published “Frank Mildmay,” a novel full of false -morality and falser style, but delineating sea life with such a flavour -of fun and frolic, adventures and brine, that Marryat was at once -hailed as a true successor to Smollett. This was followed by a rapid -succession of sea stories, among the best of which undoubtedly are -“Peter Simple” and “Midshipman Easy.” The perusal of these works has -probably done more to turn youthful aspiration and energies to the -choice of a profession than any series of formal injunctions ever -penned. Old King William, the Sailor-King, was so entranced with “Peter -Simple” that he begged to be introduced to the author, and promised -to bestow some honourable distinction upon him for his services; but -afterwards recollecting suddenly that he “had written a book against -the impressment of seamen,” he refused to fulfil his pledge. When, -later on, Colburn published Marryat’s “Diary in America,” the Yankees -felt terribly outraged, and the severe criticism that followed speedily -emptied his shelves of a large edition. - -This was emphatically the period of fashionable novels, and the great -outside world was perpetually calling out for more and more romantic -accounts of that attractive region to which middle-class thought -could only aspire in reverent fancy. And though these novels seemed -written primarily to illustrate the moral lesson of Touchstone to -the Shepherd--“Shepherd, wert thou ever at court?” “No.” “Then thou -art damned”--the public received the oracle, not only with humility, -but thankfulness. For a time Mr. Bulwer Lytton was a disciple of -this fashionable school, but even “Pelham” has an interest greater -than any other specimen of its class, for though, in some degree, an -illustration of the maxim that “manners make the man,” the threads -of a darker and more tragic interest are interwoven with the tale. -As an artistic worker, as a true delineator of our subtler and -deeper passions, Lord Lytton was far above any other of Colburn’s -writers--above, indeed, any other writer of the day; while his -sophistry, immense as it undoubtedly is, only lends a more forcible and -enthralling interest to his plots. None of Colburn’s novelists--and -their name was legion--brought in more grist to the publishing mill -than Lord Lytton; and, when the meal had been baked several times, -Messrs. Routledge paid the author £20,000 for all future use of these -works--as popular now perhaps in their cheap editions as they have ever -been before. - -To return for a moment more immediately to Colburn’s life, we find him -still speculating in periodical literature, and with the same success -as ever. In 1828 he commenced the _Court Journal_, and in the following -year started the _United Service Magazine_, while for many years he -possessed a considerable interest in the _Sunday Times_ newspaper; and -all these periodicals are still held in popular esteem. - -The printing expenses of his enormous business had been very -considerable, and in 1830 he resolved to take his principal printer, -Mr. Richard Bentley, into partnership; but the alliance did not last -long, and in August, 1832, the connection was dissolved, and Colburn -relinquished the business in New Burlington Street to Mr. Bentley, -giving him a guarantee in bond that he would not recommence publishing -again within twenty miles of London. - -However, his heart was so intuitively set upon the profitable risks of -a publisher’s career, that he could not quietly retire in the prime -of life, and, accordingly, he started a house at Windsor, so as to -be within the letter of the law, but the garrison town was sadly -quiet after the literary circles of London, and to London he again -returned, paying the forfeiture in full. This time he opened a house in -Great Marlborough Street, as his old establishment in New Burlington -Street was, of course, in possession of Mr. Bentley, whose business -had already assumed formidable proportions. At Great Marlborough -Street, Colburn succeeded in rallying round him all his old authors, -and, perhaps, the greatest triumphs that date from thence, are Miss -Strickland’s “Lives of the Kings and Queens of England and Scotland,” -for the copyright of the first of which he paid £2000. Burke’s -“Peerage,” “Baronetage,” and “Landed Gentry” were also among his most -profitable possessions. - -Throughout the whole of his business life, Colburn had a very keen -perception as to what the public required, and of the market value of -the productions offered him; and yet he was almost uniformly liberal in -his dealings. His judgment of copyrights was occasionally assisted by -Mr. Forbes and Mr. Charles Ollier. - -Of course, among the multitude of books he produced, many were utterly -worthless, beyond affording a passing recreation to the library -subscribers, and many even were pecuniary failures. The most ludicrous -of these failures was a scheme originated by John Galt, a constant -contributor to the _New Monthly_. This was a periodical, which, under -the title of the _New British Theatre_, published the best of those -dramatic productions, which the managers of the great playhouses had -previously rejected. The audacity of the scheme carried it through for -a short time, but soon the unfortunate editor was smothered amid such -a heap of dramatic rubbish, coming at every fresh post, to the table of -the benevolent encourager of youthful aspirations, that he was fain to -acknowledge the justice of the managers’ previous decisions. - -Although Colburn was throughout his career chiefly successful as a -caterer for the libraries, supplying them with novels, which, by some -mysterious law, were required to consist of three volumes of about -three hundred pages each, the cost of the whole fixed immutably at -one guinea and a half, his “Modern Novelists,” containing his best -copyright works, in a cheap octavo form, attained the number of -nineteen, being published at intervals between 1835 and 1841, and -formed a valuable addition to the popular literature of the time. - -Finally, Colburn, having acquired an ample competence, retired from -business, in favour of Messrs. Hurst and Blackett, still, however, -retaining his name to some favourite copyrights. He had been twice -married, the second time, in 1841, to the daughter of Captain Crosbie, -R.N. - -After a period of well-earned leisure, rendered pleasingly genial by -the constant society of his literary friends, Henry Colburn died, on -the 16th of August, 1855, at his house in Bryanston Square. - -The whole of his property was sworn to be under £35,000, and went to -his wife and her family. Two years later, the seven copyrights he had -reserved were sold by auction, and realised the large sum of £14,000, -to which Miss Strickland’s “Lives of the Queens of England” alone -contributed £6900. - -As publisher of three volume novels, Colburn was succeeded by two -principal rival houses, with the foundation of each of which he was in -some way concerned. As Mr. Bentley’s establishment in New Burlington -Street was only a further development of Colburn’s old house, a few -words may not be out of place concerning it. In 1837, Mr. Bentley -proposed to start a periodical to rival the _New Monthly_, and at the -preliminary meeting it was proposed to call it the _Wit’s Miscellany_, -but James Smith objected to this as being too pretentious, upon which -Mr. Bentley proposed the title of _Bentley’s Miscellany_. “Don’t you -think,” interposed Smith, “that that would be going too far the other -way?” However, the name was adopted (Mr. Bentley denies the accuracy of -this anecdote--but _se non è vero, è ben trovato_). One of the chief -contributors to the new _Miscellany_ was Barham, who had been a school -chum of Mr. Bentley’s at St. Paul’s, and, until 1843, the “Ingoldsby -Legends” delighted the public in the pages of the _Miscellany_. The -last poem of the “Legends” was published in Colburn’s _New Monthly_, -but by Barham’s express wish, the song he wrote on his death-bed, “As I -Lay Athynkynge,” appeared, as fitly closing his career, in _Bentley_. -The first editor of _Bentley’s Miscellany_, was no less a man than -Charles Dickens, who had previously contributed the “Sketches by Boz” -to the _Morning Chronicle_, and who soon, as the author of _Pickwick_, -became the most popular writer of the day. Mr. Bentley was one of the -first publishers to secure Dickens’s services, and in his magazine -“Oliver Twist” appeared. The editorship afterwards passed into the -hands of Mr. Harrison Ainsworth and Mr. A. Smith. For the magazine, as -for his ordinary business, Mr. Bentley secured the aid of most of the -writers who had graduated first under Colburn; and to enumerate them -would, with the exception of “Father Prout,” be merely a repetition -of names already mentioned, and those who have won popularity since -then have scarcely yet had time to lose it. An amusing story, however, -worth repeating, has been recently told by the _Athenæum_, anent -“Eustace Conway,” a novel by the late Mr. Maurice. “We believe,” says -that journal, “we are not going too far in telling the following story -about it. Mr. Maurice sold the novel to the late Mr. Bentley somewhere -about the year 1830; but the excitement caused by the Reform Bill -being unfavourable to light literature, Mr. Bentley did not issue it -till 1834, when he had quite lost sight of its author, then a curate -in Warwickshire. The villain of the novel was called Captain Marryat; -and Mr. Maurice, who first learned of the publication of his book -from a review in our columns, had soon the pleasure of receiving a -challenge from the celebrated Captain Marryat. Great was the latter’s -astonishment on learning that the anonymous author of ‘Eustace Conway’ -had never heard of the biographer of ‘Peter Simple,’ and, being in Holy -Orders, was obliged to decline to indulge in a duel.” Mr. Bentley died -in September, 1871, and was succeeded in the business by his son, who -for many years had been associated with him. - -[Illustration] - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -_THE RIVINGTONS, THE PARKERS, AND JAMES NISBET_: - -RELIGIOUS LITERATURE. - - -Not only is the Rivington family the oldest still existing in -bookselling annals, but even in itself it succeeded, a century and a -half ago, to a business already remarkable for antiquity. In 1711, -on the death of Richard Chiswell, styled by Dunton “the Metropolitan -of booksellers,” his premises and his trade passed into the hands -of Charles Rivington, and the sign of the “Bible and the Crown” was -then first erected over the doorway of the house in Paternoster Row; -and from that time to this the “Bible and the Crown” might have been -fairly stamped upon the cover of nearly every book issued from the -establishment, as a seal and token of its contents. - -Charles Rivington was born at Chesterfield, in Derbyshire, towards -the close of the seventeenth century, and from a very early age he -evinced such a taste for religious books that his friends determined -to send him to London, that he might become a theological bookseller. -Having served his apprenticeship with a Mr. Matthews, he was, in -1711, made free of the city, preparatory to entering into business -on his own account, and, bearing the date of that year, billheads -are still existing to which his name is affixed. In 1718 we find -him, in conjunction with other firms, issuing proposals to print by -subscription Mason’s “Vindication of the Church of England, and the -Ministry thereof,” a principle that the family has steadily adhered -to ever since; for though Rivington published one of Whitfield’s very -earliest works, “The Nature and Necessity of a New Birth in Christ,” -preached at Bristol in September, 1737, the author was then a young -Oxford student, who had been but just ordained; and Wesley, too, the -other great religious mover of the day, was still a fellow of Lincoln -College, Oxford, when Rivington brought out his edition of Thomas à -Kempis’ “Imitation of Christ,” a book that has, after the Bible, gone -through more editions than any other. - -About 1719, an association of some half-a-dozen respectable booksellers -entered into partnership for the purpose of printing expensive books, -and styled themselves the printing _Conger_,[22] and, in 1736, another -similar company was started by Rivington and Bettesworth, who termed -themselves the “New Conger.” - -Much of Rivington’s business consisted in the publication of sermons, -which, as a simple commission trade, was profitable without risk. An -amusing story is told, which proves that the ponderous nature of his -trade stock did not prevent Charles Rivington from being a man of -kindly humour. A poor vicar, in a remote country diocese, had preached -a sermon so acceptable to his parishioners, that they begged him to -have it printed, and, full of the honour conferred and the greater -honours about to come, the clergyman at once started for London, was -recommended to Rivington, to whom he triumphantly related the object -of his journey. Rivington agreed to his proposals, and asked how many -copies he would like struck off. “Why, sir,” replied the clergyman, “I -have calculated that there are in the kingdom ten thousand parishes, -and that each parish will, at least, take one and others more, so that -I think we may venture to print thirty-five or thirty-six thousand -copies.” - -Rivington remonstrated, the author insisted, and the matter was -settled. With great self-denial, the clergyman waited at home for -nearly two months in silence, but at length the hope of fame and riches -so tormented him that he could hold out no longer, and he wrote to -Rivington desiring him to send in the debtor and creditor account at -once, but adding liberally that the remittance might be forwarded at -his own convenience. What, then, was his astonishment, anguish, and -tribulation, when the following account was received:-- - - The Revd. Dr. * * * - - To C. Rivington, Dr. - - £ _s._ _d._ - To Printing and Paper, 35,000 Copies of Sermons 785 5 6 - By sale of 17 Copies of said Sermon 1 5 6 - -------------- - Balance due to C. Rivington £784 0 0 - -------------- - -In a day or two he received a letter from Rivington to the following -purport:-- - -“REV. SIR,--I beg pardon for innocently amusing myself at your -expense, but you need not give yourself any uneasiness. I knew better -than you could do the extent of the sale of single sermons, and -accordingly printed one hundred copies, to the expense of which you are -heartily welcome.”[23] - -In 1736 Rivington became an active member of a society for promoting -the encouragement of learning, but as he and his colleagues sustained -much injury through it, this was in the following year abandoned. - -In 1737 we find him venturing in a very different path. “Two -booksellers,” writes Richardson, “my particular friends (Rivington and -Osborne), entreated me to write for them a little volume of letters, in -a common style, on such subjects as might be of use to those country -readers who were unable to indite for themselves. ‘Would it be any -harm,’ said I, ‘in a piece you want to be written so low, if one should -instruct them how they should think and act in common cases, as well as -indite?’ They were the more urgent for me to begin the little volume -for the hint. I set about it, and in the progress of writing two or -three letters to instruct handsome girls who were obliged to go out -to service, as we phrase it, how to avoid the snares that might be -laid against their virtue, the above story occurred to me, and hence -sprang ‘Pamela.’” The first two volumes of the story were written in -three months, and never was a book of this kind more generally or more -quickly admired. Pope asserted that it would do more good than twenty -sermons, mindful, perhaps, of its publisher; Slocock and many other -eminent divines recommended it from the pulpit; a critic declared that -if all books were burnt, the Bible and ‘Pamela’ ought to be preserved; -and even at fashionable Ranelagh, where the former was in but little -request, “it was usual for the ladies to hold up the volume (the -latter) to one another, to show that they had got the book that every -one was talking of.” What, however, was more to Rivington’s purpose, -the volume went through five editions in the year of publication, 1741. - -This success closed Charles Rivington’s business life, for he died on -the 25th of February, 1742. - -By Ellen Pease, his wife, a native of Durham, he had six children, to -whom his friend Samuel Richardson, the executor also of his will, acted -as guardian. - -Charles, the founder, was succeeded by John and James, who carried on -the publishing business conjointly for several years, after which James -joined a Mr. Fletcher, in St. Paul’s Churchyard, with whom he brought -out Smollett’s “History of England,” by which £10,000 was cleared--the -largest profit that had yet been made on any single book. This success, -however, encouraged James to neglect his affairs, and he took to -frequenting Newmarket; racing and gambling soon ended in a failure, -and in 1760 he thought it advisable to start for the New World. Here, -in Philadelphia, he commenced his celebrated _Gazette_, and, as he -advocated the British interests and took the loyal side, his premises -were destroyed by the rebels, and his type cast into republican -bullets. James Rivington then came back to London, where he obtained -the appointment of “King’s printer to America,” and furnished afresh -with types and presses he returned to recommence his _Royal Gazette_, -which he carried on boldly up to the withdrawal of the British troops; -and as he had contrived somehow, it is said by forwarding early -intelligence, to propitiate the enemy, he was allowed to continue his -paper, which soon died for want of subscribers; but until 1802 he lived -in New York, leaving many descendants there. Even in those early and -unsophisticated days, Yankee gentlemen had contracted the habit of -“cowhiding” obnoxious or impertinent editors, and the wit of the _Royal -Gazette_ was in its time sufficiently stinging and personal to involve -its proprietor in many of these little difficulties. James Rivington -relates rather an amusing story of an interview with Ethan Allen, -one of the republican heroes, who came for the express purpose of -administering chastisement. He says:-- - -“I was sitting down, after a good dinner, with a bottle of Madeira -before me, when I heard an unusual noise in the street, and a huzza -from the boys. I was on the second story, and, stepping to the window, -saw a tall figure in tarnished regimentals, with a large cocked hat and -an enormously long sword, followed by a crowd of boys, who occasionally -cheered him with huzzas, of which he seemed quite unaware. He came -up to my door and stopped. I could see no more--my heart told me it -was Ethan Allen. I shut my window, and retired behind my table and my -bottle. I was certain the hour of reckoning had come--there was no -retreat. Mr. Staples, my clerk, came in, paler than ever, clasping -his hands--‘Master, he has come!’ ‘I know it.’ I made up my mind, -looked at the Madeira, possibly took a glass. ‘Show him up, and if -such Madeira cannot mollify him, he must be harder than adamant.’ -There was a fearful moment of suspense; I heard him on the stairs, -his long sword clanking at every step. In he stalked. ‘Is your name -James Rivington?’ ‘It is, sir, and no man can be more delighted to -see Colonel Ethan Allen.’ ‘Sir, I have come----’ ‘Not another word, my -dear Colonel, until you have taken a seat and a glass of old Madeira.’ -‘But, sir, I don’t think it proper--’ ‘Not another word, Colonel, but -taste this wine; I have had it in glass ten years.’ He took the glass, -swallowed the wine, smacked his lips, and shook his head approvingly. -‘Sir, I come----’ ‘Not another word until you have taken another glass, -and then, my dear Colonel, we will talk of old officers, and I have -some queer events to detail.’ In short, we finished three bottles of -Madeira, and parted as good friends as if we never had cause to be -otherwise.” - -In England, to return there, John Rivington was still successfully -fostering his father’s business. A quiet and sedate man, with nothing -of James’ rashness and venture about him, he is described by West -as being stout and well formed, particularly neat in his person, -of dignified and gentlemanly address, going with gold-headed cane -and nosegay twice a day to service at St. Paul’s--as befitted the -great religious publisher of the day, and living generally upon the -most friendly terms with the members of the Episcopal Bench, and -breakfasting every alternate Monday with Bishop Seeker at Lambeth. A -kind master, too, for coming back on the 30th of January, from service, -and finding his sons and clerks plodding at the desk--“Tous, sous, how -is this?--I always put my shutters up on this day.” - -In May, 1743, he married a sister of Sir Francis Gosling, Alderman, -afterwards Lord Mayor, and as she brought him a fortune and fifteen -children, the match may probably be considered a prosperous one. - -Orthodox in his views, and true in business to the professions he -held out privately, Wesley and Whitfield had to go elsewhere for a -publisher, although there must have been plenty of temptation to -incline the trade to patronise Methodism, for Coote, in a comedy of -his, published in 1757, makes a bookseller say:--“I don’t deal in the -sermon way now; I lost money by the last I printed, for all ’twas by a -Methodist.” But John Rivington would have none of them, and in 1752 we -find him publishing “The Mischiefs of Enthusiasm and Bigotry: an Assize -Sermon by the Rev. R. Hurd;” and about 1760 he was appointed publisher -to the venerable “Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge”--an -office that remained in the family for upwards of seventy years. -Dissent in itself was injurious enough to his interests, but when -Wilberforce and Hannah More succeeded in making a portion of the Church -“Evangelical,” upwards of half his customers deserted to a rival shop -in Piccadilly. - -Some time before this he had admitted his sons, Francis and Charles, -into partnership, and he was then appointed manager in general of the -works published by his _clique_;--that is, of standard editions of -Shakespeare, Milton, Locke, and other British classics, and of such -religious works as were produced in an expensive and bulky form; and -of these works, two especially, Dr. Dodd’s “Commentary,” and Cruden’s -“Concordance” stand out so prominently that some slight account of -their authors may not be unacceptable. - -William Dodd was a man of great learning, and a very popular preacher -in the metropolis, and in 1776, when he was appointed chaplain to -the King, took his degree of LL.D. Ambitious and fond of display he -found himself in debt, and determined to make a bold effort to secure -the Rectory of St. George’s, Hanover Square. To her great surprise -the wife of Lord Chancellor Apsley received an anonymous letter -offering her £3000 if she would procure Dr. Dodd’s presentation to -the parish. This insulting proposal was traced to Dodd, and the King -ordered that he should be deprived of his chaplaincy. This disgrace, -of course, involved him still further, and to extricate himself from -these difficulties he was tempted to forge the name of his pupil, Lord -Chesterfield, to a bond for £4200. On the discovery of the forgery, Mr. -Manley, a solicitor, called upon the doctor with the bill, leaving it -on the table in a room where a fire was burning, when he went out for -the obvious purpose of refreshment. Dr. Dodd appears to have been too -honest to destroy the fatal document, and he was afterwards tried and -condemned for forgery, and, spite of all the strenuous efforts of his -friends, was executed on 27th of June, 1777. - -Alexander Cruden, one of the most useful men who have ever followed -the painstaking and praiseworthy profession of index-making, was born -in Aberdeen in 1701. An unfortunate passion, which was treated by its -unworthy object with great contumely, weakened his senses, and on the -discovery that the girl he worshipped was pregnant by her own brother, -he went for a short time entirely out of his mind. On his recovery, -he was sent to London in the hopes that the difficulty of obtaining -position and livelihood might act tonically. At one of the first houses -at which he called, the door was opened by the wretched girl herself, -and poor Cruden rushed off wildly and vacantly into the streets. -For many years he was a bookseller, doubly entitled, therefore, to -a notice here, and upon the counter of his shop, under the Royal -Exchange, his famous and laborious “Concordance” was compiled. Queen -Caroline, to whom it was dedicated, unluckily died before publication, -and the downfall of the expectations he had formed from her patronage -was too much for the author, and his friends were compelled to place -him in a lunatic asylum. Having made his escape, he brought an action -against his relatives for false imprisonment--offering his sister -the choice of Newgate, Reading and Aylesbury jails, and the prison -at Windsor Castle. He was never insane in the eyes of his employers, -and as a corrector of the press, especially in the finer editions of -the classics, his services were invaluable. Henceforth he adopted the -name of “Alexander the Corrector,” as expressive of his character of -censor general to the public morals. Armed with a large sponge, his -favourite and incessant weapon, he perambulated the town, wiping out -all obnoxious signs, more especially “Number 45,” then rendered famous -by Wilkes. Giving out, too, that he had a commission from above to -preach a general reformation of manners, he made the attempt first -among the gownsmen at Oxford, and then among the prisoners at Newgate; -but in neither case did he meet with much encouragement. He asked for -knighthood from the King, and a vacant ward from his fellow-citizens; -and on refusal said that he possessed the hearts if not the hands of -his friends. He was found dead on his knees, apparently in a posture of -prayer, at his lodgings in Islington on November 1st, 1770. - -Samuel Richardson appears to have entertained grateful remembrance of -the commission to write the “Familiar Letters to and from several -Persons upon Business and other Subjects,” for on his death he left a -mourning ring to James Rivington. - -During Dodsley’s illness, Rivington and his sons managed the _Annual -Register_, and when on his death it was sold to Orridge and others, -they started an annual of their own, which lasted till 1812, and -then till 1820 was in abeyance, resumed again till 1823, and in the -following year the two were merged into one, and after being published -for a few years by the Baldwins, its management returned again to their -own hands. Through the _Register_ they were brought into connection -with Burke, and were subsequently publishers of his more important -works. - -At all times the Rivingtons took a very great interest in the -Stationers’ Company; this was especially the case with James, who -served as master, and at the same time he, his two brothers, and -his four sons were all members of the livery. He held many public -appointments, was in commission of the peace, a governor of most of the -Royal hospitals, and a director of the “Amicable Society,” and of the -Union Fire Office. - -He died, universally regretted, on the 16th of February, 1792, in his -seventy-second year, and was followed by his widow in the succeeding -October. - -Owing to the split we have referred to in his business, and to -his uniform generosity, the fortune he left behind him was not -large--indeed, money hoarding has been an attribute of none of the -Rivington family. - -His two elder sons, Francis and Charles, carried on the business -vigorously. Another son, Robert, captain of the “Kent”--East -Indiaman--fell, gallantly defending his ship in the Bay of Bengal, and -was thus celebrated in the _Gentleman’s Magazine_:-- - - * * * * * - - “His manly virtue mark’d the generous source, - And naval toil confirm’d the naval force; - In fortune’s adverse trial undismay’d, - A seaman’s zeal and courage he display’d; - For honour firmly stood, at honour’s post, - And gain’d new glory when his life he lost!” - -A fourth son John, a printer in St. John’s Square, had died previously -in 1785. - -The first important event in the new publishing house was the -establishment of the _British Critic_, in which Nares and Beloe were -conjoint partners with Francis and Charles Rivington. The _British -Critic_ was started in January, 1793, in monthly numbers of two -shillings each, and by the end of the century attained a circulation of -3500. The editorship was entrusted to Nares, and with the assistance of -Beloe it was conducted down to the forty-second volume in 1813. William -Beloe was some time librarian of the British Museum, but a stranger -who had been admitted to the print-room, having abused his confidence, -and stolen some of the pictures, the librarian was somewhat unjustly -asked to resign. Among the other contributors to the _British Critic_ -were Dr. Parr--of whom Christopher North says, not unfairly, “in his -character of a wit and an author one of the most genuine feather-beds -of humbug that ever filled up a corner of the world”--and Whittaker, -author of the “History of Manchester.” In 1813, the second series of -the _Critic_ was commenced, under the editorship of the Rev. W. R. -Lyall, afterwards Dean of Canterbury; in 1825 the publication was made -quarterly, and a third series began, which, however, only reached -three volumes. - -Of all the literary men connected with the Rivingtons of this era, -none were more useful, and few deserve more grateful remembrance -from posterity, than George Ayrscough---_facile princeps_ of index -makers. Originally a miller’s labourer, he obtained a situation in -the Rivingtons’ shop, and was afterwards promoted to a clerkship in -the British Museum; soon after his further rise to the position of -assistant librarian he took orders; but it is as a maker of catalogues -and indexes that he is still known; and how great the labour and -patient skill needful in compiling the indexes to the _Gentleman’s -Magazine_, the _Monthly Review_, and the _British Critic_ must have -been, all students can approximately guess from the immensity of labour -saved individually by their use. - -John, the eldest son of Francis, was admitted a partner in 1810, and -in 1819 they took a lease of No. 3, Waterloo Place; and so popular -were they at the time that it is said Sir James Allen Park, one of the -judges, came down to the new house before nine o’clock on New-year’s -Day, that he might enrol himself as their first customer. In 1820 -they determined to start a branch house for the sale of second-hand -books and general literature, and John Cochrane was placed at the head -of this establishment. He collected one of the finest stocks ever -gathered, and published the best and most carefully compiled catalogue -that had then been issued, extending to 815 pages, and enumerating -17,328 articles, many of the rarest kind. The business, however, -entailed considerable losses, and was abandoned in 1827. - -On October 18, 1822, Francis Rivington, the senior partner, died, -earning a character for high probity and sincere and unaffected piety. -Like his father he had been a governor in many charitable institutions. -“Such a man,” says the author of his obituary notice, “cannot go -unwept to the grave; and the writer of this article, after a friendly -intercourse of sixty years, is not ashamed to say that at this moment -his eyes are moister than his pen”--a quaint but sincere tribute. He -had married Miss M. Elhill, sister of an eminent lead merchant, and -four of his sons survived him. - -In 1827 George and Francis, sons of Charles, joined the firm; and in -1831, Charles, the younger of the two original brothers, was found dead -on the floor of his dressing-room. In social life he was distinguished -by the mildness and complacence of his temper; and his conversation was -invariably enlivened with anecdotes and memories of the literary men -and clergymen with whom he had come in contact. - -The firm now, therefore, consisted of John, the son of the elder, and -Francis and George, two sons of the younger brother. - -We shall see, in the following memoirs of the Parkers, how marvellously -religious life was quickened at Oxford by the publication of Keble’s -“Christian Year.” This feeling, intense in its inner nature as any -of the revivals, culminated or fulminated in the publication of the -“Tracts for the Times”--the most important work, perhaps, with which -the Rivingtons have ever been connected; and worthy, therefore, of -the scanty notice for which we can afford space here. The “Tracts -for the Times” were commenced in 1833, at a time, according to the -writers, “when irreligious principles and false doctrines had just -been admitted into public measures on a large scale ... when the Irish -sees had been suppressed by the state against the Church’s wish.... -They were written with the hope of rousing members of the Church to -comprehend her alarming position--of helping them to realize the -fact of the gradual growth, allowance, and establishment of unsound -principles in her internal concerns; and, having this object, they -used spontaneously the language of alarm and complaint. They were -written as a man might give notice of a fire or inundation, so as to -startle all who heard him” (vol. iii. p. 3). As far as fulfilment of -intention went in startling, the writers were perfectly successful. -Exhibiting great talents, depth of thought, logical power, acuteness -of reasoning, and an undoubted religious feeling, their effect was -spontaneous. By one party, and an increasing one, the writers were -welcomed with a reverend love that almost forbade criticism, and -by the other with the greatest uneasiness and suspicion. The chief -writers in the series, for the “Tracts” continued to appear during the -space of several years, were Newman, Pusey, Keble, and Williams. In -Ireland the clergy were anxious to come over in a body, and greet them -collectively. In Scotland, Pusey and Newman were denounced at a public -dinner as enemies to the established religion; and at Oxford, where -they were personally loved and respected, they were looked upon by a -large portion of the members with peculiar distrust. Parties in the -Church were formed, and claimed, or were christened after, the names -of the writers--such were originally the _Puseyites_ and _Newmaniacs_. -At length the famous “Number 90” appeared, and was thus greeted by the -University:--“Modes of interpretation such as are suggested in this -tract, evading rather than explaining the sense of the 39 articles, and -reconciling subscription to them with the adoption of errors which they -were destined to counteract, defeat the object, and are inconsistent -with the due observance of the above-mentioned statement.” The Bishop -of Oxford forbade their further publication, and shortly afterwards -Newman, the author of “Number 90,” showed his honesty by going over to -the Roman Catholic Church. - -The publication of these “Tracts” still further strengthened the -Rivingtons in their position of High Church publishers, and their -business benefited considerably by the great increase of the High -Church party. - -In 1827 a fourth series of the _British Critic_ was commenced, -incorporated with the _Theological Review_. In 1843, however, in -consequence of the extreme views that had been expressed in its pages, -the publication was discontinued, to the very great regret of the -clergy; the _English Review_, which started from its ashes, met with -but little support, and lasted only till 1853. - -To complete our personal account of the firm:--John Rivington, who -married Anne, daughter of the Rev. John Blackburn, canon of York, died -21st November, 1841, at the age of 62. His son John was admitted a -partner in 1836, and is the present head of the firm. George Rivington -died in 1842, having retired on account of ill health in 1857, and in -1859 Mr. Francis Rivington retired from active partnership. The present -representatives of the firm consist, therefore, of Mr. John Rivington, -fifth in descent from the founder, and Mr. Francis Hansard Rivington, -who is the sixth. - -In 1853 the firm removed their place of business from the ancient house -in St. Paul’s Churchyard, and consolidated it at 3, Waterloo Place, -retaining nothing but some warehouses in Paternoster Row. In 1862, -after an interval of thirty years, they re-acquired the agency of the -Cambridge “Press”--a famous manufactory of Bibles, Prayer Books, and -Church Services; and in the next year, 1863, they opened branch houses -at both Oxford and Cambridge--an extension of business that, after a -long life of 160 years, says something for the vitality of the firm. - - * * * * * - -In treating of the Parkers, it will be necessary to bear in mind the -essential fact that there were two distinct families of that name, both -engaged in the publication of religious books, and both interested in -the “Bible Press”--the one at Oxford and the other at Cambridge; and -though its chief interest, as regards later years, will be centred in -the younger (publishing) family, who began life in London, it will be -necessary, according to our general plan, to give a preliminary glance -at the elder family, whose name is more intimately connected with the -University of Oxford. - -The first of the Parkers with whom we need concern ourselves was Dr. -Samuel Parker, sometime Bishop of Oxford. The product of a changeable -age, he was a very Vicar of Bray. While at the University of Oxford, -he affected to lead a strictly religious life, and entered a weekly -society then called the “Gruellers,” because their chief diet was -water gruel; and it was observed “that he put more graves into his -porridge than all the rest.” Formerly a nonconformist, having once -taken orders, he became chaplain to a nobleman in London, whom he -amused with his humorous sallies at the expense of his old comrades -the Puritans. During Charles’s reign, his writings were distinguished -by the bitterness of his attacks upon the dissenting party; and on the -accession of James he was installed in the bishopric of Oxford, upon -the death of Dr. Fell--the famous subject of inexplicable dislike. He -now embraced the Romish religion, “though,” writes Father Peter, a -Jesuit, “he hath not yet declared himself openly; the great obstacle -is his wife, whom he cannot rid himself of.” Finding the cause growing -desperate, he sent a discourse to James, urging him to embrace the -Protestant religion. His authority in the diocese became contemptible, -and he died unlamented in 1687. He left, however, a son of his own -name, an excellent scholar and a man of singular modesty, who married -a bookseller’s daughter, of Oxford, and had a numerous family, to -support whom he not only wrote, but published, and himself sold, books -of a learned class--the most important of which was the “Bibliotheca -Biblica.” He died in 1730, and his son, Sackville Parker, was an -eminent bookseller in the Turl, his shop being chiefly frequented -by the High Church and non-juring clergy. He was one of the four -octogenarian Oxford booksellers who all died between 1795 and 1796, and -whose united years amounted to 342. He was succeeded by Joseph Parker, -his nephew. - -About the year 1790, Joseph Parker was apprenticed to Daniel Prince, -whose successor, Joshua Cooke, was agent to the University Press, -and thus he was able to become acquainted with the management of its -publications. The Bible Press was at this period in debt, and was an -annual expense to the University, but Parker saw the feasibility of -making it a profitable concern, and, by dint of strenuous persuasion, -was, in 1805, allowed to enter into partnership with the University -Press, jointly with Cooke and Samuel Collingwood, the latter of whom -attended to the printing, while the publishing business was left -entirely in Joseph Parker’s hands. Great difficulty was felt at first -in borrowing money to meet that advanced by the University. In a few -years, however, the debts were paid off, and large profits began to -come in, and during his lifetime he was able to pay over upwards of -£100,000 into the University chest, building in addition the new -printing-office, at a cost of £40,000, investing large sums in “plant,” -and leaving a concern that was worth £10,000 a year to the partnership. - -For the seven years previous to 1815 the number of Bibles printed at -Oxford was 460,500; Testaments, 386,000; of prayer-books, 400,000; of -catechisms, psalters, &c., 200,000; and the money received as drawback -for paper duty amounted to £18,658 2_s._ 6_d._ For the same period -at Cambridge the Bibles numbered 392,000; the Testaments, 423,000; -the Prayer-books, 194,000; while the drawback was only upwards of -£1087 7_s._ 6_d._ In addition to his interest in the Bible Press, -which yielded him about £1000 a year, Joseph Parker, on the death of -his regular trade partner, Hanwell, became sole proprietor of the -old-established bookselling business of Fletcher and Hanwell, in the -Fleet, and, on the retirement of Cooke, succeeded to the office of -“Warehouse-keeper,” and also to the appointment of agent for the sale -of books published on the “Learned” side of the press; the value of -the books sold on this side amounted to from £3000 to £5000 annually, -while on the Bible side under his management the sales were something -like £100,000 worth. - -By far the most important work, however, with which Joseph Parker’s -name is concerned, is Keble’s “Christian Year.” We believe that the -first risk of publishing was insured by Sir John Coleridge. Nothing -could be more unassuming than its first appearance in 1827, in two -little volumes, without even the authority of an author’s name. None -of the regular literary journals noticed its publication, excepting a -friendly greeting in a footnote to an article on another subject in the -_Quarterly Review_. Appealing to no enthusiastic feelings, deprecating -excitement, and courting no parties, silently and imperceptibly at -first, but with increasing rapidity, it found its way among all -sections of churchmen, and was the real commencement of that movement -in the Church with which afterwards the “Tracts for the Times” were -associated. At Oxford, when once its popularity was attained, its -effects were marvellous; young men dropped the slang talk of horses -and women and wine, and went about with hymns upon their lips; instead -of the riotous joviality of “wines,” the evening meetings became -austere; and even the most careless made some little temporary effort -to be better and purer. Partaking of the nature of a revival--among -a better-educated and less-impressionable class than that usually -affected by such movements--its strongest outward symptoms were of -longer than ordinary duration, and its inner effects much deeper. - -The most popular volume of poems of recent times, it is said in the -number of its editions to have out-rivalled Mr. Tupper’s works (we -state a fact merely, with an apology for mentioning the two names -together); in less than twenty years, twenty-seven editions had been -exhausted.[24] - -The author’s profits, as well as the publisher’s, were large, and the -Rev. J. Keble devoted his portion of them to the entire reconstruction -of his own church, that of Hursley, in Hampshire. - -In 1832 Joseph Parker retired from business, retaining, however, his -share in the Bible Press until his death in 1850. - -Mr. John Henry Parker, his nephew, was the son of John Parker, -merchant, of the City of London, and was born in the year 1806. After -receiving a good education at Dr. Harris’s school at Chiswick, he -entered the bookselling trade in 1821, and was consequently fully -prepared, eleven years later, to occupy the position just vacated by -his uncle. - -Mr. John Henry Parker is known almost as well as an antiquarian, and -as a writer on architecture, as a publisher. He continued his uncle’s -business at Oxford, and extended it to London, where for many years -it was under the management of Mr. Whitaker. The University, however, -bought in again the share held by his uncle, in 1850, and declined -admitting Mr. J. H. Parker as a partner unless he undertook to give up -general business, as by a clause in the deed of partnership none of -the temporary proprietors are allowed to follow any other calling. Mr. -Parker’s business was in such a profitable condition as to render such -a step totally out of the question. He acted, however, as agent for the -Oxford Press for many years. - -In 1856 the Gentleman’s Magazine was transferred to his house, and -for some time he was, with two other gentlemen, conjoint editor; and -in 1863 he retired in favour of his son James, devoting his time -exclusively to the study of architecture. Among his best-known writings -are “The Glossary of Architecture,” and “An Introduction to the Study -of Architecture,” both of which are considered standard works on the -subject. - -In 1863, the year of his retirement, the agency of the works published -by the delegates of the Oxford University Press was transferred to -Messrs. Macmillan and Co., and the ancient connection was altogether -broken. Mr. James Parker, however, still continues the Oxford -book-trade, though we believe the London house does the more important -business. - -Having dealt thus cursorily with the firm of John Henry and Joseph -Parker, of London and Oxford, we come to the somewhat similar title of -John William Parker and Son, of the West Strand, London. - -John William Parker,[25] whose father was in the navy, was born in the -year 1793, and at an early age entered the service of the late Mr. -Clowes, printer, then only commencing business, and, at the age of -14, was bound apprentice to him. Here he took a strong dislike to the -irksomeness of case, and it was found more profitable to employ him -in the counting-house generally, where his retentive memory and his -habits of close observation were quickly turned to good account. When, -indeed, most of the records were destroyed by the outbreak of a fire, -young Parker’s memory was found most essential as a substitute for the -current business documents. - -Messrs. Clowes commenced their printing establishment in a very small -way, but soon progressed, and were among the first to use the steam -press; but as they were then in Northumberland Court, Strand, their -neighbour, the Duke of Northumberland, brought an action against -them for causing a nuisance, and eventually bought them out of their -tenement, and Parker induced Clowes to purchase the lease and plant -of a factory in Duke Street, Stamford Street, which had been started -unsuccessfully by Applegarth, the inventor of the steam press. Here, -undisturbed by neighbouring aristocrats, Parker became the manager -of the business, and it prospered so exceedingly that he established -a printing-press of his own in the immediate vicinity, and found it -necessary to live in Stamford Street, where he made the acquaintance -of Dr. D’Oyley, Rector of Lambeth, Dr. Mant, and a number of other -influential clergymen, whose connection with the venerable “Society -for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge” eventually stood him in good -stead. - -About the year 1828, the University of Cambridge found that the -receipts from its Press were barely sufficient to cover the expenses, -while at the sister University, under the management of Collingwood -and Mr. Joseph Parker, the annual returns were not only large, but -increasing yearly. In this strait the Syndics applied to Mr. Clowes, -who sent Mr. Parker down to inspect. The sensible manner in which -he at once detected the faults of the establishment, and suggested -improvements, led to his immediate engagement as advising printer at -a salary of £200; and he soon proved his worth by turning to account -the apparently useless stereotype plates; from one set alone, in one -year, he cleared £1500 by cutting out the heads of chapters, &c., and -re-setting them in new type. He re-opened the account with the “Bible -Society,” and in dealing with the “Christian Knowledge Society,” -abolished the tax of middlemen. - -Parker had hoped, by his energy and perseverance, to become a partner -with Mr. Clowes, but finding this precluded by family arrangements, -he established himself at 445, West Strand, and at once received the -appointment of “publisher of the books issued under the direction of -the Committee of General Literature and Education, appointed by the -Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.” This “Committee” had been -established to sanction and recommend books of a wholesome character, -but which, not dealing chiefly with religious matters, were believed to -be out of the legitimate sphere of the original Society’s operations. - -In July the first number of the _Saturday Magazine_ appeared. Mr. -Parker was his own editor, and many of the illustrations were from -the pencil of his son, Mr. Frederick Parker, who died very young. The -_Saturday Magazine_--one of the three parents of our cheap periodical -literature--was published weekly at the low price of a penny, and, a -_répertoire_ of useful and entertaining facts, and not much else, was -intended to counteract the effects of the licentious publications of -the day, then the only ones within reach of the poorer classes. It was -continued successfully for thirty-five volumes; but is more interesting -now as the foreshadowing of a better time than for any intrinsic value -of its own. It was eventually merged in _Parker’s London Magazine_. - -445, West Strand became, of course, the Cambridge Depository for -Bibles, Testaments, and Common Prayer-books printed at the University -Press, and, at the death of Smith, Parker was appointed printer to -the University at a salary of £400 a year, and visited Cambridge once -or twice a fortnight. For many years, in spite of all his strenuous -efforts and his repeated advice, the Bible Society set their faces -resolutely against steam-printing. On one occasion he prepared a large -edition of the nonpareil Bible at two-thirds of the price then charged, -and took a dozen copies to the manager, Mr. Cockle, hoping that the -Bible Society would encourage so laudable an improvement. The manager -hummed and hawed, sent for the binder, told him in confidence that -the Cambridge people had kindly prepared some cheap Bibles printed -by machinery, but he thought “from the smallness of the margins they -_might_ not fold evenly, and was not sure that, as a cheaper ink had -been used, they _might_ not set off when pressed,” and all these -predictions were verified, and the Committee would not sanction the -purchase of such rubbish. Strangely enough, two or three years later, -when cheap Bibles were eagerly called for, the whole of the rejected -set were purchased by the Society, and no difficulty was experienced in -their manipulation. - -William IV. having expressed his royal wish for a Bible, Mr. Parker -determined to print one specially, and on the occasion of the -installation prepared a dozen sheets, which were pulled by the Duke -of Wellington and other magnates; this is the first book ever printed -with red rules round, and, as the “King’s Bible,” attained in various -forms and sizes a great success. A committee was appointed to read and -revise it, and it was purposed to make it the standard edition. One -copy upon vellum was intended for the King, but as he died before its -completion, her present Majesty Queen Victoria was graciously pleased -to accept it. After some years Parker’s interest in the Bible Press -flagged, and much dissatisfaction was caused, and about 1853 he retired -altogether from the management. - -Parker had from a very early date thought of printing his own books, -and started an office that was afterwards removed to St. Martin’s Lane, -but ultimately relinquished the management to Mr. Harrison, whom he -took into partnership. When the Council of Education was formed Parker -was appointed publisher, and gave every assistance in the way of funds -and encouragement, and Mr. Hullah, in particular, found in him a warm -supporter. - -Parker was twice married; by his first wife he had two sons, Frederick -and John William, and this latter, born in 1820, after receiving a good -education at King’s College, was admitted into the house in 1843, and -in a few years took the chief management of the general business. - -Under Mr. John William Parker, Jun., the house became identified with -the Liberal and Broad Church party, and till his death he held the -reins of _Fraser’s Magazine_ entirely in his own hands. Strangely had -that periodical altered since the days of Maginn and Fraser. Now it was -the centre, in connection with 445, West Strand, from which issued the -teachings of Maurice, Kingsley, and Tom Brown--the nursery of muscular -Christianity--in one sense the cradle of Christian Socialism. - -Mr. Parker, Jun., in his capacity of publisher and editor felt an -immense responsibility, and really believed that the bishops of the -Church of England held but sinecure offices, while he, and the heads -of other publishing firms, were our virtual spiritual fathers and -directors. He made himself no partizan in the religious and political -questions of the day, and no prospect of pecuniary advantage would -induce him to publish a book until he was first assured that it was the -expression of honest conviction, or the result of honest labour. “One -day,” says the writer of an obituary notice, “going into Mr. Parker’s -room, we found his pale face paler than usual with anger. ‘Look at -these,’ he said, putting a bundle of letters into our hands, ‘or rather -do not look at them.’ A lady, eminent in certain circles as a spiritual -teacher, wanted him to publish a devotional book for her. She had sent -him the private correspondence of some thirty different ladies, who had -trusted her with the innermost secrets of their souls and consciences, -as an advertisement of herself, her abilities, and her popularity. Mr. -Parker was perhaps never seen more indignant. He declined the book on -the spot. He returned the letters with a regret that the lady should -have sent him what had been intended for no eye but her own. A few -days after he showed us the lady’s reply. Stung by the rebuke, she had -dropped the mask for the moment, and had told him she did not require -to be lectured on her duty by an insolent tradesman.” - -Of the success with which Mr. Parker’s publications met it is -sufficient to mention the names of Maurice, Kingsley, Mill, Buckle, -and Lewis. Fruitful of discussion as were the works of the writers -mentioned, they were all thrown into a temporary shade by the cry that -arose on the publication, in 1860, of “Essays and Reviews,” to which -only the first named contributed. Shortly after the appearance of the -volume a document was issued, bearing the signature of every bishop of -the united Church, condemning many of the propositions of the book as -inconsistent with an honest subscription to her formularies. This was -succeeded by an address to the Archbishop of Canterbury, signed by more -than 10,000 clergymen, condemning in the strongest terms the teaching -of the essayists. As we all remember, the case was tried in the Court -of Arches, and led to the temporary suspension of Dr. Williams and Mr. -Wilson; a suspension that was afterwards reversed by the Privy Council. -But this case, interesting as it may be for the student in the future, -though one of too many _causes célèbres_ of church persecution, is too -well known to detain us longer at present. - -Mr. Parker, who took a deep interest in all religious questions, held -weekly gatherings at his house, and was loved and respected by his -clients, who regarded him as a friend rather than a business aid. He -died in 1861, and for the moment the knot of earnest men who were -clustered round _Fraser’s Magazine_ were dispersed. But in the year -1863 the agency of the works published by the delegates of the Oxford -University Press was transferred from the other Parkers to Messrs. -Macmillan, and henceforth _Macmillan’s Magazine_ and its contributors -may be considered as an offshoot from 445, West Strand. - -After the death of his son, Mr. Parker, who had for some years taken -little active part in the management of the business, took his old -assistant, Mr. William Butler Bown, into partnership; but the -connection did not last long, and in 1863 the stock and copyrights were -disposed of to Messrs. Longman, who agreed to allow Mr. Bown an annuity -of £750 a year, which he only lived a year and a half to enjoy. - -On May 18th, 1870, Mr. John William Parker died at his country house -near Farnham. By his first wife he left two daughters living, and by -his second (the daughter of Dr. Mantell, the well-known geologist) -one son and two daughters. He was seventy-eight years of age at the -time of his death; and, though his life presents us with little that -is striking or historically strange, he had played an honest part -manfully, and may be remembered as one of the few instances in which a -publisher, successful as an architect of his own fortune, has been wise -enough to transfer his business at the very zenith of its success to -the keeping of other hands, when he had ascertained that his own were -too aged for its proper maintenance and management. The Broad Church, -so called, and the liberal thought of the country, owe much to the now -defunct firm of John William Parker and Son. - - * * * * * - -JAMES NISBET, the son of a poor Scotch farmer, who afterwards became -a cavalry serjeant, was born on Feb. 3rd, 1785. After receiving the -ordinary rudiments of education he was apprenticed to Mr. Wilson of -Kelso for three years, but having obtained the offer of a situation in -London he was permitted to leave before his indentures had expired. He -left Scotland with only four guineas in his purse, and being delayed on -the road, was obliged to sell his violin. On reaching town he became -clerk to a Mr. Hugh Usher, a West India merchant in Moorfields, and his -salary commencing at £54 12_s._ per annum took some years before it -increased to £120. - -James Nisbet’s career has been to a certain extent chronicled by his -son-in-law, the Rev. J. A. Wallace, in a volume entitled, “Lessons from -the Life of James Nisbet, the Publisher”--not, says the author, “a -mere biography”--would that it were!--but a series of forty chapters -or lessons, each commencing with a text and ending with a hymn. To its -rambling and incoherent pages we are indebted, however, to many of the -facts in the following notice. - -On the evening of Nisbet’s arrival in London a young Scottish friend -took him about sight-seeing. The walk terminated in a blind alley and a -strange looking house--which instinct at once told him was “the house -of the destroyer.” He gave up intercourse with his companion, and fled -away hastily, and not till some few days afterwards, when he found a -refuge in the Swallow Street Chapel, did he recover his equanimity. - -From his earliest boyhood he had a great liking for “the courts of the -Lord;” a pocket-book dated 1805, contains a list of places at which -the gospel was reported to be purely preached. It seems, too, that -his favourite books at this time were Henry’s “Commentary,” Cruden’s -“Concordance,” Hall’s “Contemplations,” and Baxter’s “Saints’ Rest.” At -the Swallow Street Chapel he met his future wife. - -As befitted a persevering and energetic man he was an early riser, yet -he found that not only did his business require it, but he discovered -“our Lord when on earth rising a great while before day that He might -spend some time in secret prayer, and David says, ‘Early will I seek -Thee.’” So good a habit scarcely needed so lofty an apology. - -His father appears to have remonstrated with him as to his excess of -zeal: “Concerning the meetings you attend, God Almighty never designed -man to spend all his time in godliness; He designed such as you and me -to work for our bread”--advice that had not much effect, for we find -Nisbet writing when down home in Scotland in 1808, “I have lost much -time in coming here--no Thursday night sermons, no companion with whom -I would wish to be on intimate friendship, and no Sabbath schools; and -the Sabbath is a very poor Sabbath, very unlike our dear Sabbath in -London.” - -Having, however, returned to London in 1809, he commenced business -for himself on a very limited scale as a bookseller in Castle Street, -and characteristically the first books sold were copies of Streeter’s -“Catechism.” In due course of time he prospered, was admitted to the -freedom of the City of London, and elected to the office of Renter -Warden in the Stationers’ Company. - -As soon as his reputation as a religious publisher was established, he -purchased a house in Berners Street--“the great object of his ambition -being, not to amass a large fortune for aggrandisement, but to be the -pious proprietor of a comfortable dwelling, which he could throw open -for the hospitable entertainment of godly men.” - -He firmly adhered to his principles of publishing books of one peculiar -class, and rigidly excluded everything that was not of a moral or -religious character; and not satisfied with purchasing the copyright -of his authors upon highly advantageous terms, often added a liberal -bonus when the work proved profitable. “To such a degree,” says his -biographer, “did his generosity overflow, that one estimable man, -‘whose praise is in all the churches,’ felt constrained to put the -curb on his publisher’s largesse. ‘I shall agree to accept one hundred -pounds, and no more,’ commences one of his legal agreements.” - -Such conduct had its reward, for, says Mr. Wallace, “notwithstanding -the humble position which James Nisbet occupied as a mere shopkeeper, -so high was the estimation in which he was held as a philanthropist and -a churchman that he was occasionally honoured by pressing invitations -from families in the higher ranks of life, to visit them at their -country seats”--the lesson drawn from such amazing condescension by the -biographer being, “Him that honoureth I will honour”--and accordingly -Nisbet went for a whole week to Tollymore Park, and naturally writes -from there: “What a blessed thing it is to be a Christian.” The curious -chapter in which this visit is recorded is headed, “Yea, brother, let -me have joy of thee in the Lord.” - -Among the numerous authors with whom Nisbet was connected was Edward -Irving, for whom he published “Discourses on Daniel’s Vision of the -Four Beasts,” and other books. Irving, by far the greatest orator and -most eloquent speaker of our later times, “was for long enshrined -in the warm recesses of Nisbet’s heart, and Nisbet not only sat -under him, but contributed £21,000 to the Regent’s Square Church. -But the love of truth was in Nisbet stronger than earthly affection, -and soon the gift of speaking with unknown tongues was discovered.” -“Last Sabbath,” writes Nisbet, “a most tumultuous scene took place, -the lives of many people being in jeopardy, so that even Mr. Irving -himself was terrified, and said that he would not allow the spirits -to speak again in public.” He was then accused of heresy, and Nisbet, -like most conscientious men, felt constrained to side against him. An -ecclesiastical assize was holden for his trial, in March, 1833, at -which a strange scene occurred. His answer to the charge was rather an -authoritative command than an apology, perorating thus:-- - -“I stand here not by constraint, but willingly. Do what you like. I ask -not judgment of you; my judgment is with my God; and as to the General -Assembly, the spirit of judgment is departed from it. Oh, know ye not -how near ye are to the brink of destruction. Ye need not expedite your -fall. All are dead carrion. The Church is struggling with many enemies, -but her word is within herself--I mean this wicked assembly.” - -Then after the trial he was found guilty, and the sentence of -deposition was about to be prefaced with prayer, when a loud voice was -heard from behind a pew where Irving stood:--“Arise, depart! arise, -depart! flee ye out, flee ye out of here! ye cannot pray! How can ye -pray? How can ye pray to Christ whom ye deny? Ye cannot pray. Depart, -depart! flee, flee!” The church was at this moment wrapped in silent -darkness, and when this strange voice ceased, the 2000 sprang trembling -to their feet as though the judgment day had come. On lighting a -candle, however, it was ascertained that the speaker was a Mr. Dow, who -had been lately ousted from the church for similar views. Irving rose -grandly to obey the call, and pressing through the crowd that thronged -the doorway and the aisles he thundered: “Stand forth! stand forth! -what, will ye not obey the voice of the Holy Ghost? As many as will -obey the voice of the Holy Ghost, let them depart!” Onward he went to -the door, and then came to the last words:--“Prayer, indeed, oh!” and -thus he left his church for ever. - -Thousands and almost millions of tracts and small books did Nisbet -scatter broadcast, freely to those who could not pay, with small charge -to those who could. And at the period of the “Disruption” he circulated -at his own expense, not only in Scotland and Ireland, but all over -England, great multitudes of Dr. James Hamilton’s “Farewell.” But even -in the midst of these labours the ungodly were busy, and a rumour was -circulated that James Nisbet had gone over to the Church of Rome; and -this, in spite of his well-known antipathies, gained considerable -credence. The following is from a letter from Mr. Wolff:--“I, a few -days ago, read in the _Morning Post_ that an eminent and successful -bookseller had entered the Church of Rome. I thought that this -bookseller must be one of the Tractarian party (the Rivingtons), but -to my utter astonishment I heard it whispered that the bookseller was -nobody else than Mr. James Nisbet, his whole family, and my old friend -Mr. Murray, with the observation that ‘one extreme leads to the other -extreme.’... My dear Nisbet and Murray, what could induce you to do -such a spite to your John Knox, Chalmers, and Gordon, and join with -a rotten church? Nobody is more impatient in acknowledging the good -things to be found in the Church of Rome than myself, yet I would -rather see the Pope and all his cardinals fly to the moon than become -a Papist again. In fact I never was one.” (A curious way of putting it.) - -This was not the only hoax by which James Nisbet was a sufferer. Later -on, a practical joke was played upon him by some wag, who sent the -following to a large number of country papers:-- - - “Nearly Ready, in Three Handsome Octavo Volumes, - “LITERARY PYROTECHNICS; or, Squibs, Pasquins, Lampoons, and other - Sparkling Pleasantries, by the best English Writers, from the - Reign of Elizabeth to the Present Day, with Philological Notes - by the Hon. the Vice-Chancellor Sir William Page Wood, Knt. - “James Nisbet and Co., Berners-street, London.” - -This very advertisement was directed to be inserted in the next issue, -and a copy of the paper containing the advertisement was to be sent to -the publisher with the price of inserting it four or six times. About -one hundred papers fell into the snare, to James Nisbet’s horror and -amazement. - -Nisbet was a very charitable man to all of his way of thinking. The -“Saints” were freely welcomed to his hospitable house, which was used -as a free hotel by travelling missionaries and preachers, who often -said a grateful “grace for all the rich mercies of his table.” He was -one of the chief supporters of the Fitzroy Schools, and one of the most -zealous founders of the Sunday School Union. Nor was he wanting in -generosity to general and more publicly useful charities; and, during -a period of thirty years, his books show that he collected for more -than five hundred institutions, and that the total amount that passed -through his hands was £114,339 16_s._ 4_d._ - -It is pleasant, amid the farrago of religious cant and trash with which -the “Lessons from his Life” are surrounded, to find some glimmering -of the real man--the enterprising and successful bookseller. “From his -energy of character, and from habit, he was more accustomed to lead -others than to be led himself; therefore, any attempt to alter or set -aside arrangements which he had himself devised ... was almost sure to -meet with, on his part, a strenuous and determined resistance.” - -In 1854, when the cholera was raging in London, his brave conduct was -far above any party praise. The position of chairman of the Middlesex -Hospital devolved temporarily upon him, and fearlessly he set about his -difficult duty. Day after day he was at his post, directing all things, -and alleviating, with every means in his power, the physical sufferings -of the patients; and still, while adopting all that was proper to -check the progress of the disease, not unmindful of administering the -consolations of religion. - -He died on the 8th November, 1854, having been seized with a violent -illness on his return from a before-breakfast visit to the Orphan -Working School at Haverstock Hill. - -In a funeral sermon, preached by Dr. Hamilton at Regent’s Square -church, his character is thus summed up, both sides of it being -cautiously exhibited:--“With a sanguine temperament, he had strong -convictions and an eager spirit; and, whilst he sometimes magnified -into an affair of principle a matter of secondary importance, he was -impatient of opposition, and did not always concede to an opponent the -sincerity he so justly claimed for himself. Then, again, his openness -was almost excessive, and his determination to flatter nobody sometimes -led him to say things more plain than pleasant.... Those only could -appreciate his excellence who either knew his entire mode of life, or -whose casual acquaintance was confined to the walks of his habitual -benevolence.” - -As a publisher, he was eminently successful, and reaped a due reward -for his honest industry; never had he a bad debt but once, and, on -recovering that unexpectedly, he presented the amount of it, in a -silver service, to a church. The books he issued were chiefly of an -ephemeral religious class, and literature is certainly less indebted to -his success than were the charitable institutions of the day. - -Mr. James Murray, who had been Nisbet’s partner in business for many -years, succeeded to the command of the firm; and, after his death at -Richmond in June, 1862, Mr. Watson, the present manager, was appointed -by the family to superintend the whole concern. - -[Illustration] - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -_BUTTERWORTH AND CHURCHILL_: - -TECHNICAL LITERATURE. - - -In treating of “technical literature,” we shall encounter many works -which were rightly described by Charles Lamb as “books which are -not books;” and the present chapter will be interesting rather as -containing biographical notices of men who thoroughly deserved, and -thoroughly achieved, success, than for any bibliographical anecdotes we -can lay before the reader. - -The value of technical literature, in a publishing point of view, had -been correctly estimated in the very earliest times of bookselling -annals, and Richard Tottell (or Tothill), an original member of the -Stationers’ Company, and eventually their chairman, had in Edward the -Sixth’s reign, and subsequently in Queen Elizabeth’s, succeeded in -obtaining a patent for law-books; and when, through the petition of the -Stationers’ Company, he was compelled to forego some of the works which -he had thus monopolised, he warily “kept his law-books to himself, -and yielded ‘Dr. Wilson upon Usurie,’ and ‘The Sonnets of th’ Earle -of Surrey.’” Tothill, however, did still publish other books than -those relating to the very remunerative branch of law; for, in 1562, -he produced “Stow’s Abridgment of the Chronicles of England;” and, -in 1590, “Tusser’s Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry.” His name -would, probably, have been unknown, at all events forgotten, had he not -occupied the _Hands and Star_ in Temple Bar, the very same shop which, -two-and-a-half centuries afterwards, Henry Butterworth again rendered -famous as the great emporium of legal books. - -Tothill was succeeded by John More (he had been previously represented, -but only for awhile, by Barker and others), and we have already seen -that Samuel Richardson, and Lintott’s granddaughter, had obtained the -patent of King’s Printers for legal books; this brings us up in date -to, at all events, the uncle of the subject of our present memoir. - -Henry Butterworth, the most famous of all our law-publishers, was born -on 28th February, 1786, in the city of Coventry. His father was a -wealthy timber-merchant, and his ancestors fairly claimed alliance with -the great county families, though Butterworth Hall, in the township of -Butterworth, near Rochdale, in their possession since Stephen’s reign, -had already fallen into alien hands. The Rev. John Butterworth, his -grandfather, had removed from Rochdale to Coventry; he was well known -as the author of a “Concordance to the Holy Scriptures,” which passed -through several editions, and was the received work upon the subject -until the appearance of Cruden’s more famous “Concordance.” - -Young Henry Butterworth was educated at the Public Grammar School, -in Coventry, and afterwards placed under the tutorial care of Dr. -Johnson, of Bristol; but at the early age of fourteen, his education -(inasmuch as book-learning was concerned) was considered at an end, -and he entered the large sugar-refinery of Mr. Stock, of Bristol. But -the hot atmosphere, and the incessant and laborious toil, proved too -much for young Butterworth’s health, though the work had otherwise -been rendered pleasant enough through his master’s kindness. As he had -already shown much business talent and ability, Stock urged Mr. Joseph -Butterworth, his own relation by marriage, and Henry Butterworth’s -uncle, to do something for the lad. Joseph Butterworth accordingly made -overtures to Henry’s family, and though they were loath to send their -son to the distant trials and temptations of the metropolis, the offer -was a tempting one, as it contained a tacit promise of admitting him, -at some future time, to a partnership in the enormous business. Young -Butterworth at once determined to accept the proposal; and on the 5th -December, 1801, he arrived in London by the Bristol coach, having left -Bristol straightway, without even having had an opportunity of bidding -his relatives farewell. - -The business carried on at No. 43, Fleet Street, was on a very -extensive scale, and Joseph Butterworth was not only a well-known -member of Parliament, but was an exceedingly wealthy and zealous -philanthropist; and at his uncle’s dinner table young Henry Butterworth -met many eminent and good men who were associated together to fight -in a common cause--among others we may particularize Wilberforce, -Teignmouth, Liverpool, Bexley, Zachary Macaulay, and Robert and Charles -Grant--and from the time of his first introduction he enrolled his name -among these ardent religious and social reformers. - -Young Butterworth entered very heartily into the conduct of his -uncle’s business, and, owing to his efforts, its relations were very -vastly extended. - -In 1813 he was in a position to marry a lady of birth and fortune, the -daughter of Captain Whitehead, of the Fourth Irish Dragoon Guards, who -not only afterwards entered fully into all his philanthropic projects, -but possessed a refined and cultivated intellect, which found utterance -in a volume of “Songs and Poems,” by E. H. B., published by Pickering -in 1848, which are evidently, as the authoress says of another gift-- - - “An offering from a heart sincere. - Tho’ small and worthless, what I send, - ’Tis hallowed by affection’s tear.” - -In 1818, Butterworth found that there was little likelihood of his -admission, as had been previously agreed upon, to a satisfactory share -of his uncle’s business; and having now to consider not only his own -interests, but the welfare of a wife and family, he determined, with -a sense of disappointment, to seek an independent roof, and there to -carry out, on his own account, the art and mystery of law printing. - -Before we follow him to his new abode, we will devote a few words -to his uncle’s successful career. Joseph Butterworth, who had, in -connection with Whieldon, founded a very large law-publishing business, -realized, it is said, the largest fortune ever made by law publishing, -and was one of the original founders of the British and Foreign Bible -Society, its earliest meetings being held at his house in Fleet Street. -His son died before him, and his business was sold to Messrs. Saunders -and Benning; and after various fortunes, the shop became the Bible -warehouse of Messrs. Spottiswoode. - -Henry Butterworth, supported by his father’s capital, took a lease -of No. 7, Fleet Street, a house which had been, as we have seen -previously, occupied by Tothill and other ancient law publishers. And -from this shop were issued the vellum-bound volumes whose contents -are sacred to all but those assiduously apprenticed to the law. -Butterworth’s position was still further improved by his appointment to -the profitable post of Queen’s law publisher. To the general student -the law-books of the period are as little known as they were to that -worthy country justice who, wishing to learn something definite about -the law he so zealously administered, told his bookseller to send -him forthwith the “Mirror for Magistrates;” and the vastly popular -law-books did not, of course, come within the province of the technical -publisher. Butterworth, however, saw the decline of two works which -had been regarded as time-honoured text-books on the subject--Burn’s -“Justice” and Blackstone’s “Commentaries.” Many booksellers had made -large fortunes out of Burn since the time when the author, wearied -out with carrying his manuscript from shop to shop, had accepted -a nominal fee to get it off his hands; and now Butterworth, by -publishing Serjeant Stephen’s celebrated “Commentaries on the Laws -of England”--the most successful law-work of modern times--erased -Blackstone from the category of legal text-books. - -Butterworth, however, though energetic as a publisher, found time -to take part in the government of the city. In 1823 he was elected -as representative of the ward of Farringdon Street Without, but he -afterwards declined to be nominated to the office of sheriff. However, -his connection with the city was still further strengthened by his -appointment as Commissioner of Income and Property Tax, and Land and -Assessed Taxes for London, and also as Commissioner of Roads. On his -first arrival in town he had served in a light volunteer regiment, -recruited to resist the aggression of the great Napoleon; and on his -retirement from the corporation, about the year 1841, he received a -captain’s commission in the Royal London Militia. - -We gather something of Butterworth’s general kindness and consideration -to those beneath him in station from the following anecdote:--Shortly -after the passing of the new Poor Law Act in 1834, the guardians of -the West Surrey Union ordered that the annual Christmas dinner for -the workhouse inmates should consist, as wont, of roast beef and -plum-pudding. The Poor Law Board--a new broom--was horrified at this -munificence, and sent down their inspector, Dr. Kay, to inquire into -the proposed extravagance. He offered a compromise by substituting -boiled beef for roast, not that it would be in any degree cheaper, -but that (a satisfactory object, we suppose, to the Board) it would -not be quite so palatable. Butterworth, who was one of the guardians, -was inflexible, and finally sent in his resignation; but as he was -too useful a local authority to be spared, the Board sent back the -resignation, and permitted the paupers to feast upon the disputed beef, -roast. - -In his later years Butterworth took much interest in church-building, -and at Tooting, St. Dunstan’s-in-the-West, and his native city of -Coventry, he subscribed large sums for that purpose. - -After the death of his wife, which occurred in 1853, he gradually -withdrew from general society, though he still attended the -congenial meetings of the Stationers’ Company. The day of his death -was, curiously enough, the most important day in the law publishing -year--the first day of term--2nd November, 1860. On the previous -evening he had given his annual admonition to those around him in -business to awake up from the lethargy of the long vacation, and on the -following morning it was found that he had passed away, as if in sleep. - -For nearly sixty years Butterworth had occupied a leading position -as a publisher and as a citizen, and during that period had won the -friendship and respect of all who came in contact with him. The alms -which his industry enabled him to make were conscientiously, quietly, -and discriminatingly bestowed: and the painted glass memorial window -erected to him in the choir of the Cathedral of St. Paul’s was a -fitting tribute from a very large number of friends and admirers, many -of whom had experienced the kindly assistance of his friendship and -advice. - - * * * * * - -As we have previously seen, divinity and education were among the -first subjects to attract a special attention, and works relating to -them would otherwise have come within our category of technical books. -No sooner, however, were the lawyers fairly supplied with special -text-books than the doctors began to clamour for the like, and the -publisher who has of all others most zealously administered to their -wants is still happily amongst us. - -John Churchill was born about the commencement of the century, and -was apprenticed in the year 1816 to Messrs. Cox and Son, medical -booksellers in Southwark. “The house of business was,” he says, -“immediately adjoining Guy’s and St. Thomas’s Hospitals, and became -the daily resort of the lecturers and numerous students of the schools; -I thus early in life became known to the celebrated men of the day, -little anticipating that eventually I should become the publisher of -Guy’s and St. Thomas’s Hospital Reports, and of so large a proportion -of the works that issued from the medical press.” - -At the time when young Churchill entered the profession of medical -publishing, the periodicals, and, of course, the standard technical -works, presented a striking contrast to those at present in existence, -for now the medical profession assert, with the greatest truth, that -their special organs are of far higher intrinsic worth, and of far -better “tone” of thought and expression, than those relating to any -other purely technical subject. For years, however, after Churchill -became a bookseller’s assistant the medical press was only on a par -with the papers relating to the other professions, and was chiefly -represented by the _Medico-Chirurgical Review_, founded by J. -Johnson in 1820, and the _Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal_, a -work we have already come across in our notice of Constable. These -reviews contained no original reports, no strictures on the hospital -appointments then jobbed, like everything else, to men of wealth, -family, and interest. In fact, they consisted of little besides long -and elaborate abstracts of new books. - -On Sunday, 2nd October, 1823, the first number of a journal that was -to cause a great revolution in medical literature, and to affect in -no slight degree the whole medical profession, was issued from a -small publishing shop in the Strand. The journal was, of course, the -_Lancet_, and the publisher young Thomas Wakley. Wakley had walked the -united hospitals of Guy’s and St. Thomas’s, and had taken his degree -in 1817. He does not appear to have practised regularly till, about -1822, he took a small shop in the Strand, and with the assistance, in -a pecuniary point of view, of Collard (now the senior partner of the -famous piano factory) determined to start a thoroughly independent -medical journal. The first number contained a report of a lecture -by Sir A. Cooper, printed from memory. The professors and hospital -officers fired up, and for long Wakley had to encounter the same -difficulties and almost the same penalties which Cave had previously -undergone in commencing his reports of Parliamentary proceedings. As a -former student, Wakley attended the lectures, and, like other students, -was seen to take occasional notes. Cooper could not, however, bring -the charge home till he hit upon the device of calling at midnight -at his lodgings, and asking to see the “doctor” upon urgent medical -business, when he surprised him red-handed correcting a proof-sheet of -a lecture. The discovery was so sudden and so undeniable that neither -could refrain from laughter; and eventually Cooper, not ill-humouredly, -offered to allow his lectures to appear if the proofs were first sent -him for revision. Consequently, Cooper, though often criticised in the -_Lancet_, never received a nickname, as did most of the other medical -celebrities of the day. For instance, Brodie was known as the “little -eminent;” Earle, the “cock sparrow;” Mayo, the “owl;” and Halford, the -“eel-backed.” - -The _Lancet_, for many years, was hated by that part of the profession -interested in vested rights, and eagerly patronised by general surgeons -and students. The language of the _Lancet_ was as violent as the -many abuses it attacked could justify; and Cobbett, who was a friend -and adviser of Wakley’s, was adopted as a model, while a barrister, -named Keen, used to join the party on printing nights to see that the -free strictures were not legally liable as libels. An active, though -unpaid, member of the staff, was Lawrence, who, however, forsook his -reforming principles when once he became a placeman, and was succeeded -by Wardrop, whose scurrility, wit, and venom did much in giving the -_Lancet_ a lasting reputation for raciness of style and satirical -power. They were shortly afterwards joined by Mr. J. F. Clarke, who -edited the periodical for upwards of forty years, and to whose amusing -and graphic autobiography we are indebted for much of the preceding -details. The success of the _Lancet_ soon enabled Wakley to enter -Parliament as a representative of Finsbury, and he actually combined -together the work of the legislator, the coroner, and the editor, often -toiling unremittingly for eighteen consecutive hours. - -By the time the _Lancet_ was thus firmly established, Churchill, long -out of his apprenticeship, had commenced medical publishing on his own -account; and from his famous shop, in New Burlington Street, issued -most of the standard works upon the subject; and, encouraged by the -success of the _Lancet_, he determined to make his establishment the -centre of periodical, as well as more permanent, medical literature. In -1836, was started therefrom the _British and Foreign Medical Review_, -conducted first by J. Forbes, and afterwards by J. C. Conolly. In 1848, -it was merged into the _Medico-Chirurgical Review_, which, from 1824 -to 1847, had been under the editorship of H. J. Johnson. These two -were now amalgamated into the _British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical -Review_, which, dating from Churchill’s establishment, has acquired a -professional standing equal to that of the _Edinburgh_ and _Quarterly -Reviews_ in more general criticism. In 1839, appeared the first number -of the _Medical Times and Gazette_, which, under the editorial care of -T. P. Healey, and subsequently of J. L. Bushman, has found a very large -and influential _clientèle_. - -The medical writers have at present something in common with the early -authors. Their works bring them in more remuneration through eventual -patronage than from habitual sale, but their patronage is that of all -the great public, who are waiting to have their ailments cured. As an -instance of the way in which literature may improve the position of a -medical man, it is stated by Mr. W. Clarke that, through Elliotson’s -clinical reports in the _Lancet_, his income was raised, in one year, -from £500 to £5000. And yet, on the other hand, when he openly gave in -his adherence to the newly-imported doctrine of mesmerism, his large -public and private practice almost entirely deserted him; and as the -legitimate organs were closed to one so abandoned as even to experiment -in “the unknown,” he started a medico-mesmeric journal of his own, the -_Zoist_, which was, of course, not published by Mr. Churchill. - -There is necessarily the same want of general interest in medical as in -legal bibliography; and, as in the latter case, works more popularly -known were almost invariably published by the usual popular publishers. -For instance, Dr. Buchan’s “Domestic Medicine”--probably the most -profitable medical book ever written (but not to the author, as he sold -the copyright for five pounds), after being re-written by Smellie--was -issued in 1770, by the ordinary booksellers. During the author’s -lifetime, nineteen editions, each of five thousand, were published, and -the volume was translated into all the modern languages. - -If Mr. Churchill’s catalogue can show no book with a popularity like -this, it displays many which, appealing only to a class audience, and -necessarily obliged to keep pace with the discoveries of the day, -have at once retained their high price and yet reached the honour of -numerous editions. - -It is probably owing chiefly to this fact of an incessant demand by a -large section of, at all events, one branch of students, that technical -publishing has proved so remunerative, and has escaped, in a great -degree, the risk attached to other departments of the trade. - -At the close of the year 1870, Mr. Churchill resolved to give up the -active management of his large business, and issued a farewell circular -to the trade: “After fifty-five years’ active and immediate association -with your profession, I see it my duty to retire into private life. -Be my future days few or many, I shall ever retain a lively sense of -the many friendships I have formed, and of the unvarying proofs of -confidence and regard shown to me through so long a series of years. -My pathway of life has been a happy one, bringing me into daily -correspondence with the _élite_ of the profession, and united with them -in promoting the interests of science and literature, while the success -of my many publications has both gratified and amply rewarded my -exertions. My sons, John and Augustus Churchill, have been eight years -associated with me. I may be influenced by a father’s feelings, but I -believe I can honestly state that, by education, earnest purpose in the -fulfilment of duty, a high sense of integrity guiding and regulating -their transactions, they will be found worthy of your confidence, and -thus maintain the character of the house whose reputation and business -transactions have extended to all parts of the world.” To this honest -expression of well-earned business contentment, we can only add our -wishes that Mr. Churchill’s years of retirement may be as happy as his -years of toil have been useful and beneficial. - -Among other technical publishers, Mr. Henry Laurie, whose house dates -from the commencement of English hydrography, and whose numerous -publications are known wherever English navigation has extended, -requires at least a mention here. The oldest existing house of -this nature, but one, in Europe (Gerard Hulst Van Keulen & Co., of -Amsterdam, being the exception), it was founded by R. Sayer, at the -“Golden Busk” (53, Fleet Street), in conjunction with John Senex, the -well-known cosmographer. Here Cook’s original charts were issued; and -it says something for his accuracy that his “Survey of the South Coast -of Newfoundland” has not yet been superseded. On Sayer’s death, the -business was relinquished to Robert Laurie and James Whittle, and, in -1812, the former was succeeded by his son, R. H. Laurie, who, on the -death of Whittle, became sole proprietor. In a short time, the business -extended to the production of illustrations of all descriptions, whilst -the maps produced, under the care of De la Rochette, John Purdy, and -Mr. Findlay, still retained their pre-eminence; the business was, -however, again restricted to hydrography. R. H. Laurie died as recently -as January 19, 1858, leaving two daughters, and the establishment was -continued under the direction of his sole executor, Mr. Findlay. - -[Illustration] - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -_EDWARD MOXON_: - -POETICAL LITERATURE. - - -After Dodsley’s death, though poetry was at times far from being -an unprofitable speculation, the publishers seem to have shunned -it as a speciality; and, accordingly, a Constable, a Murray, and a -Longman, though gathering large incomes from the sale of the works -of some one or two great poets, placed their main reliance upon the -prose compositions that administered to either the pleasure or the -necessities of their public. - -For a time, Taylor and Hessey almost adopted poetical publications as -the mainstay of their business; and in their generous encouragement of -Keats, and others of lesser note, including Clare, are to be gratefully -remembered; but their trade-life as poetical publishers was brief, and -it remained for Edward Moxon to identify his name with all the best -poetry of the period in which he lived, to a greater extent than any -previous bookseller at any time whatsoever. - -Edward Moxon, not unlike some others of his craft, began life with -strong literary aspirations. His warm admiration for genius, his -hearty good-fellowship, and his longings for a literary career, -brought him into contact with some of the greatest writers of the -day, and attracted their support and friendship. As early as 1824 he -was made a welcome member of the brilliant circle that owned Charles -Lamb as its chief, and to be a _protégé_ of Lamb’s was a passport -into all literary society. In 1826, he published his first volume, -“The Prospect; and other Poems;” and his friends received it with all -possible kindness, as, perhaps, containing germs of something better. -Even Wordsworth, usually very niggard of praise, wrote him a letter of -encouragement--and warning:--“Fix your eye upon acquiring independence -by an honourable business, and let the Muse come after rather than go -before.” But advice of this nature, even when given with the practical -illustrations that Wordsworth’s own career might have furnished, -had little likelihood of being accepted by a young and impetuous -poetaster; and in 1829 we find Moxon launching another venture on the -world--“Christmas, a poem”--to be as coldly received by the “general -public” as the former. What, however, the advice of a veteran poet -could not effect, a stronger power was able to accomplish. - -During Lamb’s residence at Enfield, their acquaintance ripened into -a very frequent intercourse, and eventually resulted in Moxon’s -engagement to a young lady who spent most of her time under the -protection of Lamb and his sister. Lamb had met Miss Isola some years -before at Cambridge, and had taken so much interest in the little -orphan girl, who was then living with her grandfather--an Italian -refugee, and a teacher of languages--that by degrees he came to be -looked upon as almost a natural guardian. Marriage, however, was out -of the question until her lover had some more substantial manner of -livelihood than the cultivation of the Muse seemed ever likely to -afford him. In this strait, Rogers came forward and generously offered -to start him in life as a publisher, and, with the goal of matrimony in -view, the offer was eagerly accepted. - -Accordingly, in 1830, Moxon opened a small publishing shop at 34, New -Bond Street. The first volume he issued was “Charles Lamb’s Album -Verses,” and the dedication sufficiently explains its purpose:-- - - “DEAR MOXON,--I do not know to whom a Dedication of these - trifles is more properly due than to yourself: you suggested - the printing of them--you were desirous of exhibiting a - specimen of the _manner_ in which the publications entrusted to - your future care would appear. With more propriety, perhaps, - the ‘Christmas,’ or some of your own simple, unpretending - compositions, might have served this purpose. But I forget--you - have bid a long adieu to the Muse ... it is not for me nor you - to allude in public to the kindness of our honoured friend, - under whose auspices you are becoming a bookseller. May this - fine-minded veteran in verse enjoy life long enough to see his - patronage justified. I venture to predict that your habits of - industry, and your cheerful spirit, will carry you through the - world. - - “ENFIELD, 1st June, 1830.” - -An unfavourable notice of these “Album Verses” appeared in the -_Literary Gazette_; but Lamb was too well loved to lack defenders, and -some verses in reply, by Southey, were soon afterwards inserted in the -_Times_. - -In the following year the _Englishman’s Magazine_ came into Moxon’s -hands, and to its pages Elia lent the charm of his pen. Although it -only lasted from April till October, its columns still present us with -matter of literary interest. In the same number we find a sonnet signed -“A. Tennyson,” and a very long review upon “Poems, chiefly Lyrical, -by Alfred Tennyson,” written by his friend Arthur H. Hallam. This was -almost Mr. Tennyson’s first avowed appearance in public; and as Mr. -Moxon’s name was so intimately associated with the poet’s future works, -we may be allowed to go back for a moment. In 1827 a little duodecimo -volume of 240 pages, entitled “Poems, by Two Brothers,” was published -by J. and J. Jackson, Market Place, Louth; and the “two brothers” were -Charles and Alfred Tennyson, the latter being only seventeen years -of age. In 1829 Mr. Tennyson gained the Chancellor’s gold medal at -Cambridge for a prize poem on “Timbuctoo,” his friend Hallam being also -one of the competitors. The prize poem was printed with his name, and, -a thing quite unprecedented, was noticed at length in the _Athenæum_, -as indicating “really first-rate poetical genius, and which would have -done honour to any man that ever wrote.... How many men have lived for -a century who could equal this?” In the following year, 1830, appeared -the “Poems, chiefly Lyrical, by Alfred Tennyson;” London: Effingham -Wilson, Royal Exchange, 1830 (pp. 154); and it was these, of course, -which were reviewed by Hallam in the _Englishman’s Magazine_. In the -course of a very long notice, the writer says:--“The features of -original genius are clearly and strongly marked. The author imitates -nobody; we recognise the spirit of the age, but not the individual -pen of this or that writer.... In presenting the young poet to the -public as one not studious of instant popularity, and unlikely to -attain it ... we have spoken in good faith, commending the volume to -feeling hearts and imaginative tempers.” Even before this review, -deeply interesting when we remember what a loving and loved friend he -was who wrote it, the little volume was noticed in the _Westminster -Review_ by, it is believed, Mr. John Stuart Mill, as demonstrating “the -possession of powers, to the future direction of which we look with -some anxiety. He has shown, in the lines from which we quote, his own -just conception of the grandeur of a poet’s calling; and we look to him -for its fulfilment.” Encouragement such as this led Moxon to publish -a further volume of Mr. Tennyson’s poems in 1833, and the connection -thus commenced lasted throughout his lifetime. In a letter addressed -to him by Wordsworth, as a northern correspondent in the book-market, -there is intelligence, neither pleasant for a veteran poet to indite, -nor for a young publisher to receive:--“There does not seem to be much -genuine relish for poetical publications in Cumberland, if I may judge -from the fact of not a copy of my poems having been sold there by one -of the leading booksellers, though Cumberland is my native county.” In -this same year, too, Moxon published, for the first time, a collected -edition of the “Last Essays of Elia;” but before this time he proved, -by his attention to his business, that he was worthy of Miss Isola’s -hand. Lamb’s letters to Moxon, in the few weeks preceding the marriage, -are in his happiest, most delicately-bantering style--for instance: -“For God’s sake give Emma no more watches--_one_ has turned her head. -She is arrogant and insulting. She said something very unpleasant to -our old clock in the passage, as if he did not keep time, and yet he -had made her no appointment. She takes it out every moment to look at -the minute hand. She lugs us out into the field, because there the -bird-boys cry out--‘You, pray, sir, can you tell us the time?’ and she -answers them punctually. She loses all her time looking to see what the -time is! I heard her whispering just now--‘so many hours, minutes, &c., -to Tuesday; I think St. George’s goes too slow.’... She has spoilt some -of the movements. Between ourselves, she has kissed away the ‘half-past -twelve,’ which I suppose to be the canonical hour in Hanover Square.” -On the 30th July they were married. Lamb, as long as he lived, regarded -them with almost paternal affection, and, at his death, left Moxon his -treasured collection of books. - -Meanwhile the illustrated edition of Rogers’s “Italy” was in -preparation, and with a view to its publication Moxon moved to Dover -Street, Piccadilly. - -Rogers spared no cost in the production of what was intended to be -the most beautifully illustrated volume that had ever been published. -£10,000 was spent on the illustrations and the engraving of them. -There were fifty-six engravings in all by Turner, Stothard, and other -eminent artists. Turner was to have received fifty pounds apiece for -his drawings, but at one time the whole speculation threatened to turn -out a failure, and he then offered the bard the use of them for five -pounds each instead. To match this luxurious volume the illustrated -edition of Rogers’s “Poems” was brought out, at a further cost of -£5000, with seventy-two engravings by Turner, Stothard, Landseer, -Eastlake, &c., and, in spite of the enormous outlay on the two works, -their increasing popularity must have recouped the poet, for upwards -of 50,000 copies are said to have been sold before the year 1847. -Moxon was always proud of the share he had taken in the production of -these works. All the volumes he issued were indeed remarkable for the -beautiful manner in which they were “got up,” and in 1835 he published -such an exquisite edition of his own sonnets that the beauty of this -dandy of a book enraged and alarmed a writer in the _Quarterly_:--“Its -typographical splendours led us to fear that this style of writing was -getting into fashion,” but fortunately for the reviewer’s peace of mind -he discovered “that Mr. Moxon the bookseller is his own poet, and that -Mr. Moxon the poet is his own bookseller.... The necessity of obtaining -an imprimatur of a publisher is a very wholesome restraint, from which -Mr. Moxon--unluckily for himself and for us--found himself relieved.” -Surely after a notice like this--indeed we have only quoted the -kindlier portion, for often as publishers din the unsaleable nature of -the drug poetry into the ears of young writers, the charm of retorting -upon a bookseller seldom falls so temptingly before an author.--Moxon -must have regretted that he did not cleave to a promise, held out in -his first essay in 1826:-- - - “You’ll hear no more from me, - If critics prove unkind; - My next in simple prose must be; - Unless I favour find.” - -This will perhaps suffice as a specimen of the productions of -Moxon’s muse, though the first lines in the volume, a “Sonnet to a -Nightingale,” are inviting. They had been the cause of much pleasantry -among the author’s friends, as having been penned by one who had -never heard the song of the bird to which they were addressed, and -the internal evidence upon this point is indubitably strong; the -sonnet perhaps, to state it in proportion, is to Keats’s “Ode to the -Nightingale,” as the owl’s screeching “too-whit” to “Sweet quired -Philomela.” - -By this time, however, Moxon, in spite of his bad poetry, had made a -wide reputation as a poetical publisher, and from his establishment was -issued, not only all that was most valuable of contemporary poetical -literature, but with true catholic taste, the works of our older -dramatic poets, edited for the most part by the Rev. Alexander Dyce. By -degrees, too, Moxon was enabled to add to his catalogue the works of -many of the poets who had shed a lustre upon the two first decades of -this century, especially the works of Keats, Shelley, and Leigh Hunt. - -In 1839 he brought out Mrs. Shelley’s edition of her husband’s -poems--the first “complete edition” that had been published. In the -following year a bookseller in the Strand named Hetherington was -indicted for selling a work entitled “Haslam’s Letters to the Clergy -of all Denominations,” and was sentenced to four months’ imprisonment, -as having published in this volume sundry “libels” against the Old -Testament. While the trial was pending, Hetherington commissioned a -servant of his, named Holt, to purchase copies of “Shelley’s Poems” -from the publisher, and from the retail dealers, and then obtained -a similar indictment against Moxon. The celebrated trial the “Queen -_v._ Moxon” was of course the result. The prosecution relied chiefly -upon certain passages in “Queen Mab,” more especially in the notes, -and these were read in order to prove the charge of blasphemy. Mr. -Serjeant Talfourd was engaged for the defence. “I am called,” he -commenced, “from the bar in which I usually practise, to defend from -the odious charge of blasphemy one with whom I have been acquainted for -many years--one whom I have always believed incapable of wilful offence -towards God or towards man--one who was introduced to me in early -days, by the dearest of my friends who has gone before--by Charles -Lamb--to whom the wife of the defendant was an adopted daughter.” After -a magnificent oration in which he asked, with a fitting indignation, -“if the publisher of any penny blasphemy is to have the right of -prescribing to us legally that such and such pages are to be torn from -the treasured volumes of our choicest literature,” he left in the -hands of the jury “the cause of genius--the cause of learning--the -cause of history--the cause of thought,” and concluded by a tribute to -Moxon’s character--“beginning his career under the auspices of Rogers, -the eldest of a great age of poets, and blessed with the continued -support of that excellent person, who never broke by one unworthy -line the charm of moral grace which pervades his works, he has been -associated with Lamb, whose kindness ennobled all sects, all parties, -all classes, and whose genius shed new and pleasant lights on daily -life; with Southey, the pure and childlike in heart; with Coleridge, -in the light of whose Christian philosophy the indicted poems would -assume their true character, as mournful, yet salutary, specimens of -powers developed imperfectly in this world; and with Wordsworth, whose -works, so long neglected and scorned, but so long silently nurturing -tastes for the lofty and the pure, it has been Mr. Moxon’s privilege -to diffuse largely throughout this and other lands, and with them -the sympathies which link the human heart to nature and to God, and -all classes of mankind to each other.” Lord Denman, before whom the -case was tried, instructed the jury, in his summing up, to administer -the law as it undoubtedly stood, though he himself was of opinion -that the best and most effectual method of acting in regard to such -doctrines was to refute them by argument and reasoning rather than -by persecution. The jury accordingly returned a verdict of guilty, -unaccompanied by any observation whatsoever. The illegal passages were -eliminated for a time; and thus the matter ended. The trial took place -in June, 1841, at a time when Moxon was in great sorrow for the loss of -his eldest son, and much sympathy was exhibited towards him. - -Shelley’s name, however, was designed to be associated with further -publishing vexations. In 1852, Moxon issued a volume entitled “Letters -of P. B. Shelley,” with an introductory essay by Mr. Robert Browning. -The usual presentation copies were sent to the papers, the “Letters” -were generally noticed as being essentially characteristic, but the -discretion shown in printing them was much questioned. Naturally -Mr. Browning’s essay attracted a large share of attention, though -consisting of but forty-four pages, for it is his only acknowledged -prose work (why, by the way, has it never been reprinted?). He -describes Shelley as a man “true, simple-hearted, and brave; and -because what he acted corresponded to what he knew, so I call him a -man of religious mind, because every audacious negative cast up by -him against the Divinity was interpreted with a mood of reverence and -adoration.” An early copy of the volume was sent to Mr. Tennyson, and -Mr. Palgrave, who was then paying him a visit, turned over its pages -until he came to a passage in a letter which he at once recognised -(with a most dutiful and filial remembrance), as a portion of an -article upon “Florence,” which Sir Francis Palgrave had contributed to -the _Quarterly Review_. He immediately communicated with his father, -who, after comparing the printed letter with the printed article, -wrote to Moxon and informed him that this letter was cribbed bodily -from the _Quarterly Review_. Moxon replied that the original was in -Shelley’s handwriting and that it bore, moreover, the proper dated -postmark. Even the experts pronounced the letters genuine, and the -detectives were then set to work--the book having, of course, been -immediately withdrawn from publication. The MSS., which had been bought -at public auction, were traced to Mr. White, a bookseller in Pall -Mall. He alleged that in 1848, two women began to bring him letters -of Byron’s for sale, at first in driblets and impelled by poverty, -they then offered him other letters by Shelley, and books with Byron’s -autograph and MS. notes. His suspicions were aroused, he followed them -home, and insisted upon seeing the real owner of the letters. This -person was introduced to him as Mr. G. Byron, a son of the poet, and -thus he thought the mystery satisfactorily explained. He then sold the -letters relating more purely to family matters to Shelley’s relatives; -Murray became the eventual purchaser of Byron’s, and Moxon of Shelley’s -letters--and Murray, who only had his volume in the press, at once -stopped it. The letters are now believed to have been the forgeries by -G. Byron, and are indeed indexed under his name in the British Museum -Catalogue. The system upon which he had obtained money for them appears -to have been very extensive and well organised, and as some few were -probably genuine, and others based upon a substratum of truth, the -difficulty of judging those which in various ways have got into print, -was extreme. Altogether, this is one of the most notable literary -forgeries of modern times. - -To return, however, to Moxon, we find that in 1835, conjointly with -Longman, he published Wordsworth’s “Yarrow Revisited,” and shortly -after this the poet transferred all his works from the Messrs. Longman, -and we believe that Moxon purchased the copyrights of the past poems -for the sum of one thousand pounds. - -Mr. Browning’s earlier volumes, like Mr. Tennyson’s “Lyrical Poems,” -had been published by Effingham Wilson, but in 1840 Moxon issued -“Sordello.” This was followed by “Bells and Pomegranates,” published in -numbers between 1842 and 1845, and by a “Blot in the Scutcheon,” (acted -at Drury Lane in 1843), and which, though unsuccessful on the stage, -was in the opinion of Charles Dickens “the finest poem of the century.” -In 1848, however, Mr. Browning removed his works to the care of Messrs. -Chapman and Hall. - -Among the other authors whose productions were issued by Moxon -somewhere at this period, and whom we cannot do more than mention, were -Talfourd, Monkton Milnes (Lord Houghton), Tom Hood, Barry Cornwall -(Proctor), Sheridan Knowles (who was by turn an usher, a journalist, -a dramatic poet, and a dissenting minister), Quillinan (whose works -Landor wittily, though unjustly, described as Quillinanities), Mr. -Browning (for a brief period only), Haydn, and Dana. - -Mr. Tennyson had been silent for ten years, had been maturing his -talents, been mourning for the death of his friend Hallam, and probably -during the whole of this time not a thousand copies of his poems had -been sold. But he was already acknowledged as one of our greatest -living poets by a small and ardent band of admirers, and in 1842 he -was induced to break his long silence and publish an edition of his -poems in two volumes, of which the second was composed entirely of new -pieces, and in the first some were new, and many had been re-written. -By this time his success was publicly and generally acknowledged, and -fresh editions were called for in 1843, 1845, 1847, and from that -date in still more rapid succession. The beauty and purity of his -poems attracted royal favour, and in 1846 he received a pension from -the crown, and this unfortunately gave offence to some rivals in the -divine art, and Lord Lytton in the “New Timon” attacked “Schoolmiss -Alfred.” To this Mr. Tennyson replied by a poem published in _Punch_ -(February, 1846), which may be summed up in the two words, “Thou -bandbox.” In 1843, Wordsworth, in a letter to Reed, says, “I saw -Tennyson when I was in London several times. He is decidedly the first -of our living poets (_sic_), and I hope will live to give the world -still better things. You will be pleased to hear that he expressed, in -the strongest terms, his gratitude to my writings. To this I was far -from indifferent, though persuaded that he is not much in sympathy with -what I should myself most value in my attempts, viz., the spirituality -with which I have endeavoured to invest the material universe, and the -moral relations under which I have wished to exhibit its most ordinary -appearances.” Again, in 1848, Mr. Emerson, in describing a visit to -Wordsworth, says, “Tennyson, he thinks, a right poetic genius, though -with some affectation. He had thought an elder brother of Tennyson at -first the better poet, but must now reckon Alfred the true one.” - -When Wordsworth died in 1850, the laureateship was offered to Mr. -Rogers, and the letter conveying the offer was written by Prince -Albert. The poet, however, was now eighty-seven years of age, and he -felt that his years and his wealth should prevent him from interfering -with the claims of younger and poorer men, and he generously felt -impelled to decline the honour, which was then conferred upon Mr. -Tennyson, who received, as he says so beautifully, in reference to -Wordsworth, the - - “Laurel, greener from the brows - Of him who uttered nothing base.” - -Before this, however, the “Princess” and “In Memoriam” had appeared. -For a time Mr. Tennyson was again silent, breaking his silence only -by four poems contributed to the _Examiner_, and by the “Ode on the -Death of the Duke of Wellington” (Moxon, 1852). One of the four poems -in the _Examiner_, however, was “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” and -of this Moxon published a quarto sheet of four pages.--“Having heard -that the brave soldiers before Sebastopol, whom I am proud to call my -countrymen, have a liking for my ballad on the ‘Charge of the Light -Brigade’ at Balaclava, I have ordered a thousand copies of it to be -printed for them.--ALFRED TENNYSON.”[26] - -In 1855 appeared another poem resulting from the war--“Maud,” one -of the most beautiful and least understood of all Mr. Tennyson’s -compositions. - -On the 3rd of June, 1858, Edward Moxon died, having, as a publisher, -earned the esteem of all his clients and the gratitude of all the -public. What his services to literature have been the names comprised -in his catalogues bear ample witness. Truly Lamb’s dedicatory prophecy -had been amply fulfilled! On his death the immediate management of -the firm devolved upon Mr. J. Bertrand Payne, and under his rule the -business was distinguished rather for the energy with which the already -published works were pushed forward than for any encouragement held out -to acknowledged genius. Mr. Payne himself undertook the superintendence -of the “Moxon’s Miniature Series,” and, as soon as the “Idylls of the -King” had been published, of the luxurious edition of them illustrated -by that extraordinary genius, M. Gustave Doré. There was one exception -to his lack of enterprise. In 1861 Mr. Pickering published the “Queen -Mother” and “Rosamond,” two plays by Mr. Swinburne, then a young -man of eighteen. Except in the case of a condemnatory notice in the -_Athenæum_ these poems attracted little or no attention; but in 1865 -“Moxon and Son” published the “Atalanta in Calydon,” which at once -marked out the author as the most musical, and one of the greatest, of -our living singers. It was at all events pretty generally acknowledged -that for true poetic inspiration, momentary if it were, no poet of our -generation could rival Mr. Swinburne. This opinion was still further -strengthened by the publication of “Chastelard,” in 1866. When, however -the “Poems and Ballads” appeared, they were met by such a whirlwind -of abuse from critics, whose professional morality was supposed to -have been shame-stricken, that the publishers explained that they -were unaware of the nature of the poems they had laid before the -public, and suppressed the edition before it got into circulation. As -a consequence the few copies that had been sold were eagerly sought -at a price of five guineas, and the volume was speedily republished -in America. In this strait, Mr. J. Camden Hotten came forward, and to -him Mr. Swinburne confided all his hitherto published poems, including -the much-abused and also much-praised “Poems and Ballads.” His latest -works, however, “The Ode to the French Republic,” and the “Songs before -Sunrise,” have been issued by Mr. Ellis, who as the publisher of Mr. -Morris, Mr. Swinburne, and Mr. Rossetti, bids fair to occupy the -position so long and so honourably occupied by Moxon as a distinctively -poetical publisher. - -Before this Mr. Tennyson had removed his copyrights to the care of Mr. -Strahan, and though in 1869 Mr. Arthur Moxon was admitted a member of -the firm, the old glory had departed from them; and in the summer of -the year 1871 the whole business was transferred to Messrs. Ward, Lock, -and Tyler, and Mr. Beeton was appointed manager; the house in Dover -Street was no longer retained, though Mr. Arthur Moxon’s services have -been secured to superintend the business department. The first volume -issued under the new régime--the “Sonnets” of Edward Moxon--is a timely -tribute to the founder of the famous house. We could not, perhaps, give -him higher praise than in saying that he was as good as a publisher as -he was indifferent as a poet. - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -_KELLY AND VIRTUE_: - -THE “NUMBER” TRADE. - - -The “Number Publishers” may be looked upon as the modern pioneers of -literature; their books are circulated by a peculiar method, among -a peculiar public, almost entirely through the agency of their own -canvassers, without the intervention of any other bookseller, and -the works thus sold are scarcely known to the ordinary members of -the publishing world. As the business is conducted by house to house -visitation, a substratum of the public is reached which is entirely -out of the stretch of the regular bookselling arm, though, when once -a taste for reading has been developed, the regular bookseller cannot -fail to benefit, as he will from every onward step in education and -progress. - -The _Canvassing Trade_ is conducted by only a few houses in London, -Edinburgh, and Glasgow. In our introductory chapter we caught a glimpse -of some of the earlier members, but in modern times two names--Kelly, -and, in a much broader sense, Virtue--stand forward prominently, and to -these two we shall address ourselves. - -Thomas Kelly[27] was born at Chevening, in Kent, on the 7th of January, -1777. His father was a shepherd, who, having received a jointure of -£200 with his wife, risked the capital first in a little country -inn, and afterwards in leasing a small farm of about thirty acres of -cold, wet land, where he led a starving, struggling life during the -remainder of his days. When only twelve years old, barely able to read -and write, young Kelly was taken from school, and put to the hard work -of the farm, leading the team or keeping the flock, but he was not -strong enough to handle the plough. The fatigue of this life, and its -misery, were so vividly impressed upon his memory, that he could never -be persuaded to revisit the neighbourhood in after-life; and though -at the time he endeavoured to conceal his feelings from his family, -the bitterness of his reflections involuntarily betrayed his wishes. -He fretted in the daytime until he could not lie quietly in his bed -at night, and early one morning he was discovered in a somnambulant -state in the chimney of an empty bedroom, “on,” as he said, “his road -to London.” After this his parents readily consented that he should -try to make his way elsewhere, and a situation was obtained for him -in the counting-house of a Lambeth brewer. After about three years’ -service here, the business failed, and he was recommended to Alexander -Hogg, bookseller of Paternoster Row. The terms of his engagement were -those of an ordinary domestic servant; he was to board and lodge on the -premises, and to receive ten pounds yearly, but his lodging, or, at all -events, his bed, was under the shop counter. - -Alexander Hogg, of 16, Paternoster Row, had been a journeyman to Cooke, -and had very successfully followed the publication of “Number” books. -In the trade he was looked upon as an unequalled “puffer,” and when the -sale of a book began to slacken, he was wont to employ some ingenious -scribe to draw up a taking title, and the work, though otherwise -unaltered, was brought out in a “new edition,” as, according to a -formula, the “Production of a Society of Gentlemen: the whole revised, -corrected, and improved by Walter Thornton, Esq., A.M., and other -gentlemen.” - -Kelly’s duties were to make up parcels of books for the retail -booksellers, and his zeal displayed itself even in somnambulism, and -one night when in a comatose state, he actually arranged in order -the eighty numbers of “Foxe’s Martyrs,” taken from as many different -compartments. He spent all his leisure in study, and soon was able -to read French with fluency, gaining the proper accent by attending -the French Protestant church in Threadneedle Street. The good old -housekeeper, at this time his only friend, was a partaker of his -studies; at all events, he gave her the benefit of all the more amusing -and interesting matter he came across. His activity, though it rendered -the head-shopman jealous, attracted Hogg’s favourable attention, -and the clever discovery of a batch of stolen works, still further -strengthened the interest he felt in his serving boy. The thieves, -owing to the lad’s ingenuity, were apprehended and convicted, and Kelly -had to come forward as a witness. “This was my first appearance at the -Old Bailey, and as I was fearful I might give incorrect evidence, I -trembled over the third commandment. How could I think, while shaking -in the witness-box, that I should ever be raised to act as Her -Majesty’s First Commissioner at the Central Criminal Court of England!” - -Half of his scanty pittance of ten pounds was sent home to aid his -parents, and as his wages increased, so did this dutiful allowance. In -this situation Kelly remained for twenty years and two months, and at -no time did he receive more than eighty pounds per annum, and it is -believed that when his stipend reached that petty maximum, he defrayed -the whole of his father’s farm rent. That he was not entirely satisfied -with his prospects, is evident from the fact that about ten years after -he joined Hogg he accepted a clerkship in Sir Francis Baring’s office, -but so necessary had he become to the establishment he was about to -leave, that his late master prevailed upon him to accept board and -residence in exchange for what assistance he might please to render -over hours. After six weeks of this double work, poor Kelly’s health -began to suffer, and it was plain that he must confine his labours to -one single branch of trade. “Thomas,” said his master, sagaciously -enough, though probably with a view to his own interests, “you never -can be a merchant, but you _may_ be a bookseller.” This advice chimed -in with his inclination, if not with his immediate prospects, and Kelly -devoted himself to bookselling. - -At length Hogg, falling into bad health, and desiring to be relieved -from business, proposed to Kelly that he should unite in partnership -with his son; but the conscientious assistant felt constrained to -decline the tempting offer, by reason of the young man’s character, -and resolved rather to attempt business on his own account. In 1809, -therefore, he started in a little room in Paternoster Row, sub-rented -from the landlord--a friendly barber. On his small front room he wrote -his name, “Thomas Kelly,” and by way of advertising his change of -position, he generally stood downstairs in the common doorway. To all -the “Row” Hogg’s able assistant had been known simply as “Thomas,” and -one old acquaintance actually asked him, “Well, Thomas, who is this -Kelly that you have taken up with?” - -For the first two years his operations were confined solely to the -purchase and sale of miscellaneous books on a small scale, and the -limited experiment proved successful. Of “Buchan’s Domestic Medicine” -he bought one thousand copies in sheets at a low price, and, having -prefixed a short memoir of the author, and divided them into numbers -or parts, he went out himself in quest of subscribers; and a thousand -copies of the “New Week’s Preparation” were treated in a like manner -and with similar success. Henceforth he resolved to print at his own -risk, always adopting the sectional method, and working his books, from -first to last, entirely through the hands of his own agents, and the -profit he found in this scheme depended almost entirely upon the happy -knowledge he possessed of human character, and the cautious foresight -with which he was able to select his canvassers. One of the first works -he published in this manner was a large Family Bible, edited by J. -Mallam, Rector of Hilton, afterwards known as “Kelly’s Family Bible.” -To each of his canvassers he gave stock on credit, worth from twenty -to one hundred pounds, ready money was insisted on, and this plan -insured a speedy return of capital. The Bible extended to one hundred -and seventy-three numbers, and the entire work cost the subscribers -£5 15_s._, paid, of course, in weekly or monthly driblets; and, as -80,000 copies were soon sold, the gross receipts must have reached -£460,000. Nearly half this sum, however, went in the agents’ allowances -for canvassing and delivery. The paper duty alone on this one work was -estimated at upwards of £20,000. To this Bible succeeded “The Life of -Christ,” “Foxe’s Martyrs,” and the “History of England,” all in folio, -with copper-plate embellishments; and “Hervey’s Meditations,” “Bunyan’s -Pilgrim’s Progress,” and various other popular works, in octavo. - -Six months after he had left his former situation, Hogg died, and the -son soon fell into difficulties, and was obliged to relinquish the -business, which Kelly immediately purchased, speedily adding to it the -trade of Cooke, the owner of No. 17, and thus uniting the two concerns -into one. - -About the year 1814 the system of printing books from stereotype plates -began to be very generally adopted for large editions, and Kelly at -once saw its advantages, but, of course, as in all improvements, the -trade set themselves against the innovation, and he had to purchase -land at Merton, and erect a foundry of his own, and then, and not till -then, the printers relinquished their opposition, and the building was -abandoned. It was about this time, in March, 1815, that he very nearly -lost a moiety of his fortune through fire. Luckily, upon the outbreak -of a fire in the neighbourhood a few days before, he had been alarmed, -and had gone straightway to the office of the Phœnix Company, and paid -a deposit on the insurance. Before the policy was made out, the whole -of his stock was destroyed, but the Phœnix Company paid up without an -hour’s delay, and, in return, he never cancelled a single policy with -them until this sum had been reimbursed. How largely Kelly traded may -be gathered from the fact that from one of his agents alone he often -received from £4000 to £5000 per annum. - -To revert for a moment to his private life; his father had died in -1810, when the bookseller was still a struggling man, but, in spite of -his difficulties, he paid at once the amount of his father’s debts; -and brought his mother up to Wimbledon, where she lived to see her son -a wealthy and prosperous man. To his old master’s widow he generously -allowed an annuity, and even aided young Hogg, who had pursued him with -inveterate hatred, with the loan of £600. He never married. When little -known he saved a member of the Court of Aldermen from bankruptcy by -an advance of £4000, and he was always ready to lend out his money to -those in trouble. But once, when asked to give his acceptance to ten -or twelve thousand pounds worth of bills--in these terms, “Will you, -for once in your life, do a good action, and oblige me?”--he thought -himself perfectly justified in refusing, and soon after the acceptor of -these bills failed. In 1823 he was elected into the Common Council of -his ward; in 1825 he served as Sheriff with Mr. Alderman Crowder, on -whose death he succeeded to the Alderman’s gown of Farringdon Without. -He always lamented his want of a systematic education, and late in life -he endeavoured, in some way, to supply the place of it by experience -gathered from foreign travel. - -Notwithstanding his immense issues of costly books, he exercised the -most watchful prudence. “Books,” he says, “generally, printed in the -ordinary way, only sell 500 or 1000 copies, and periodical publications -would be ruinous. Nothing but a vast sale will prove remunerative,” -and this “vast sale” he certainly effected in almost every instance. -He published twelve separate issues of the Bible, and disposed of, -probably, not less than 250,000 copies. The following is a list of -his more important works:--“History of the French Revolution,” 20,000 -copies at £4; “Hume’s England,” 5,000, at £4 18_s._; “The Gazetteer,” -4,000, at £4 10_s._; “The Oxford Encyclopædia,” 4,000 at £6 (and the -£24,000 only barely covered the original outlay); “The Geography,” -30,000 at £4 4_s._; and the “Architectural Works,” 50,000, at an -average of £1 13_s._ To these may be added “The Life of Christ,” -of which, in folio and quarto, not fewer than 100,000 copies were -distributed, at prices varying from £1 1_s._ to £2. No wonder, with -figures like these (for which we are indebted to Mr. Fell’s volume), -that the trade objected to this method of transacting business, but the -difference was confined merely to business relations, for every one of -the numerous booksellers in the Ward signed the request asking him to -stand as Alderman. - -In 1836 he received the highest honour to which a citizen of London -can aspire, for he was elected Lord Mayor. His year of office was a -memorable one, and the first entertainment of Queen Victoria occurred -on the very day of his retirement from office, and thus he narrowly -escaped the honour of a baronetcy, for he had the good sense to decline -the requisition to stand a second time. - -His appearance in his robes of office is thus described by M. Titus -Perondi, a French traveller:--“The new Lord Mayor appeared in a gilded -chariot, almost as grand as the King’s, drawn by six bay horses, -richly caparisoned.... He does not seem to be more than sixty-two years -of age, and his figure, slight as it is, is still imposing--for the -flowing wig and ermine mantle, which encircled all his person, added -not a little to the dignity of his presence.... A thriving bookseller, -yet a perfectly honest man, and very charitable.” The last sentence is -an admirable summary of his character. - -The attainment of this honour terminated his commercial and public -life, for after this date he relinquished, in a great degree, his -business cares; but to an extreme old age he retained his faculties, -and he retained also his habits of quiet and discriminating charity, -doing good by stealth, and blushing to find it known. On the 20th -October, 1854, he paid his last visit to his parent’s grave, and was -there heard to murmur, “How very happy I am.” His failing health -compelled him to visit Margate, and here, on the 7th of September, -1855, he died in a ripe old age. A letter, written just before his -death, evidently betrays a lingering fondness for early childish -days:--“We are surrounded by fields of fully-ripening corn--some cut, -some cutting,” babbling, like Falstaff, of green fields, till the sixty -years of town life were forgotten. - -Thomas Kelly was one of those men of whom the London citizens are -so proud--men who come to the mighty centre of commerce utterly -friendless, and worse still, penniless, and whom industry, labour, and -good fortune exalt to the very pinnacle of a good citizen’s fondest -dreams. But he was more than a Lord Mayor--he was a true friend; he was -a loving, dutiful, and tender son--qualities not always insured even by -commercial success. - -Mr. George Virtue was another of those men of whom, in this history, we -have had not a few examples, who, beginning life without any fictitious -advantages, have made success their goal, and, in attaining it, have -not only amassed princely fortunes for themselves and their families, -but have opened up new branches of industry, and have afforded -employment to hundreds whose bread depends upon their daily labours. - -His father was a native of Fogo, in Berwickshire, who first at -Coldstream, and afterwards at Wooler, in Northumberland, let out for -hire carts and carters to the neighbouring farmers. In the year 1793, -his second son, George, was born at Coldstream, and there and at -Wooler, he passed the early years of his boyhood. In 1810, his father -met with an accident, which caused him to relinquish the business he -had hitherto been engaged in. His eldest son, James, who had a good -engagement in London, gave up his employment and hastened home, and -removing with the family to Coldstream, commenced business there as a -mason, taking his brother George as an apprentice. - -Mrs. Somerton, their married sister, had a large house, near the Houses -of Parliament, in London, which she let out, much on the plan of the -club-chambers of the present day. George had come up to London, partly -on business, partly on a visit to his sister, and not wishing to return -to the North, he made an arrangement to remain with Mrs. Somerton. - -The house was chiefly frequented by members of Parliament and men in -the higher grades of life; and one of the former, who had taken a -fancy to George Virtue, asked him what he would like to be. George at -once replied, “A bookseller,” and his patron assisted him in stocking -a shop in the neighbourhood. This was about the year 1820. At first -his trade consisted entirely in the retail business, but by degrees -he was able to purchase entire remainders of that distinct class of -religious publications which were then sold chiefly in numbers. These -he re-issued; and as he did his own canvassing, no zeal was wanting -in the service, and his success was by no means indifferent. Once -established, he was able to canvass for the books of other publishers; -and on the 15th July, 1821, the first number of a work was published, -which took the town by storm. Whether Mr. Virtue’s canvassing powers -were acknowledged by the trade at this early period, or whether his -peculiar class of customers was considered as most amenable to the work -in question, we know not, but he was given an interest of one kind -or another, either as part proprietor or as a purchaser on unusually -liberal terms in the famous “Life in London; or, the Adventures of Tom -and Jerry,” issued by Sherwood, Neeley, and Jones, of Paternoster Row. -The book was written by Pierce Egan, afterwards the founder of _Bell’s -Life_. - -Works describing country sports and pastimes had proved so acceptable -that it was imagined that a volume issued in numbers, setting forth -the humours of town life would be equally taking. The illustrations -by J. R. and George Cruikshank proved irresistible. The work was so -successful that innumerable imitations appeared, one of which (“Shade -of Lackington!”) was published by Jones and Co., who occupied his -former place of business, the “Temple of the Muses” in Finsbury Square. -There was absolutely a _furore_ for the work. Dibdin, Barryman, Farell, -Douglas Jerrold, Moncrieff, and others adapted it for the stage. It was -on the boards of ten theatres at one time; and at the Adelphi, where -Moncrieff’s adaptation was produced, it enjoyed the then unparalleled -run of three hundred nights. At last, Pierce Egan, declaring that no -less than sixty-five separate publications had been derived from his -work, brought forward his own characteristic version, which, however, -proved a failure. - -All the world bought “Tom and Jerry,” and having roared over the -plates, tossed them not unnaturally aside; so that a work, which, in -popularity, had been the “Pickwick” of its day, became so wonderfully -scarce that when Mr. Thackeray, with whom it had been an early -favourite, wanted a copy for a review he was writing upon Mr. George -Cruikshank’s works, he applied at all the libraries, including the -British Museum, in vain. The work was advertised for in the _Times_ -with like result, and he had to depend upon his memory for his -description. However, twenty years after, when he wished to make it -the subject of one of the most charming of the “Roundabout Papers,” he -found that it had been added to the Museum Library. - -It was, however, with the contemporary popularity that Mr. Virtue was -concerned, and by it his business was largely increased. - -In 1831, his affairs warranted an important move to the vicinity of -Paternoster Row, and about this time he married a Miss Sprent, a -lady from Manchester. From his new abode the works which he at first -issued were of much the same stamp as those which Messrs. Kelly, Hogg, -and Cooke had previously spread abroad; but he soon struck out into -a higher class of literature. His first very successful book was “A -Guide to Family Devotion,” by Dr. Alexander Fletcher. The work was -undertaken by Mr. Virtue, as Dr. Fletcher says, “at great expense -and some hazard, during the years 1833-1834.” The volume contained -730 prayers, 730 hymns, and 730 selected passages of Scripture, -suitable for Morning and Evening Service, throughout the year, and -was illustrated by engravings by the best artists. The popularity it -achieved was enormous: thirty editions of a thousand each were soon -issued, and, as the _Times_ said, “30,000 copies of a book of Common -Prayer, recommended by twenty-five distinguished ministers, cannot be -dispersed throughout England without effecting some change in the minds -of probably 200,000 persons.” - -In America, the “Guide to Family Devotion” was as successful as at -home, and upwards of one hundred ministers there sent in testimonials -to its worth. By 1850, the sale is said to have exceeded 50,000 copies. - -Mr. Virtue, about this time, entered into an engagement with W. Henry -Bartlett, who, pencil in hand, travelled over the four quarters of the -globe, making sketches, which that enterprising publisher issued in -volumes, illustrated with beautiful steel engravings and descriptive -letterpress. The first of these was “Switzerland,” published in 1835, -in two quarto volumes. This was followed by Scotland, Palestine, the -Nile, and America. Of the Switzerland, 20,000 copies were sold; and in -the production of the two volumes on Scotland, upwards of one thousand -persons were employed at a cost of £40,000. The number of engraved -plates in these volumes amounted to a thousand. - -When Mr. Virtue commenced these illustrated volumes, the Fine Art -tastes of the public were in a very uneducated condition; but, -selecting the best artists and employing the best engravers, he set a -good example, which was speedily followed by others. In 1839, Messrs. -Hodgson and Graves had started a cheap periodical devoted to Art, under -the title of the _Art Union_, intended chiefly as an organ of the -print trade; but it was not till the year 1849 that this publication -passed into the hands of Mr. Virtue, who changed the title to the _Art -Journal_, and devoted it to the development of Fine Art and Industrial -Art, with illustrations on steel and wood by the first artists of the -day. The _Art Journal_, it is admitted, has done more than any private -venture or corporate body to disseminate true ideas of Art in England. -The _Art Journal_, though among the very earliest of those periodicals -in which Art was brought to the aid of Literature, still towers proudly -above all. Since its foundation, the _Art Journal_ has presented the -public with between eight and nine hundred steel engravings and above -30,000 engravings on wood. - -No less than one hundred illustrated volumes were issued from Mr. -Virtue’s establishment, and for their production it was found necessary -to erect a large establishment in the City Road. Almost every engraver -of any reputation in this country has been employed on one or other of -Mr. Virtue’s illustrated works. Indeed, had it not been for the field -of labour opened by the _Art Union_, in their yearly distribution -of engravings, and for the encouragement held out by Mr. Virtue in -the production of his illustrated works and the _Art Journal_, it -is said that the art of line engraving would have quite died out in -England; and for his services to the public, and, through them, to the -profession, he is certainly entitled to be regarded as the first Art -publisher of his time. - -To go to a very different branch of his business, Mr. Virtue was not -idle in the production of any book likely to win the favour of the -public. In 1847, Dr. Cumming, then widely known as a preacher only, -delivered a series of lectures at Exeter Hall upon the Apocalypse, -which riveted public attention. He was urged by his friends to publish -the lectures upon their completion, and said that he would be willing -to do so, if he was sure that the proceeds would suffice to pay for -putting up stained glass windows in his church. Mr. Virtue heard this, -ascertained the value of the windows, and offered their outside cost -down in hard cash in exchange for the copyright. Dr. Cumming eagerly -accepted the offer, and by the “Apocalyptic Sketches” the publisher -realized the handsome sum of four thousand pounds. He afterwards made -the author a present of a hundred pounds, and engaged him to write a -continuation, at an honorarium of five pounds per sheet of thirty-two -pages, which eventually proved to be equally successful. - -Many years before his death, Mr. George Virtue parted with the business -to his son, Mr. James Sprent Virtue, the present head of the firm. - -On the 8th December, 1868, George Virtue, senior, died in his -seventy-sixth year, having earned the respect of all the hundreds -to whom he afforded employment, and of the outside world; for all -recognised that integrity and strict justice to his _employés_ was -a main cause of his success, while his prosperity had been aided by -thorough business habits and intense application to his duties. - -He had been one of the representatives of the ward of Farringdon -Without in the Common Council of the City of London for many years, and -was held in the highest esteem by his fellow-citizens. It was in his -civic capacity that he was invited by the Viceroy of Egypt, with other -members of the Corporation, to pay a visit to that country, an honour -which his constant attention to his public duties had fully merited in -selecting him as one of the representatives of the City of London on -that occasion. - -[Illustration] - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -_THOMAS TEGG_: - -BOOK-AUCTIONEERING AND THE “REMAINDER TRADE.” - - -Thomas Tegg[28] was born at Wimbledon, in Surrey, on the 4th of -March, 1776. His father was a grocer, who not only was successful in -business, but “wore a large wig,” was a Latin scholar, and something -of a mathematician; he died, however, when his son was only five years -old, and was speedily followed by his wife, and the poor little lad -“found it to be a dreadful thing when sorrow first takes hold of an -orphan’s heart.” For the sake of economy, he was sent to Galashiels, in -Selkirkshire, where he was boarded, lodged, clothed, and educated for -ten guineas per annum. This severance from all home ties was at first -more than the little orphan could bear, and many a time, he tells us, -did he steal off to the quiet banks of the Tweed, and cry himself to -sleep in his loneliness. A scrap of paper, which had been given him -before leaving home, bearing the magic word “London,” was carefully -treasured in all his wanderings, and in the associations it called -up, in the hopes it excited in all his wondering, childish dreams, -proved a soothing solace to his troubles. His schoolmaster, too, was a -kind-hearted man, who made a point of studying each boy’s individual -character, and of educating each for his individual calling. Ruling by -“kindness rather than by flagellation,” he frequently took his pupils -for country rambles, and taught them lessons out of the great book -of Nature. Nor was he wholly forgotten by his relatives, for we read -that he was sent a parcel of tea--then a wonderful luxury. After much -consultation as to the best method of cooking the delicacy, one-half -of it was boiled in the “big pot,” the liquor strained off and the -leaves served up as greens; “but,” he adds, “it was not eaten.” After -staying at Galashiels for four years, he was given the choice of being -apprenticed either to a saddler or a bookseller; and his fondness for -books, and the desire already formed of being at some time a bookseller -in the London he pictured to himself every night in his dreams, led him -at once to select the latter alternative. His dominie at parting, gave -him a copy of “Dr. Franklin’s Life and Essays,” a book he treasured in -all times of prosperity and adversity, and kept to the day of his death. - -On a cold, raw morning in September, he started on foot for Dalkeith, -with only sixpence in his pocket; some friendly farmers on the road -gave him a lift in their cart, and in his gratitude he confided to them -his boyish hopes of being by-and-by a great book-merchant in London. At -Dalkeith he was bound apprentice to Alexander Meggett, a bookseller, -and “from this humble origin,” says Tegg, proudly, “I, who am now one -of the chief booksellers in London, have risen.” His master, kindness -itself before the indentures were signed, turned out to be “a tyrant as -well as an infidel.” “Every market-day he got drunk and came home and -beat the whole of us. Once I said, ‘I have done nothing to deserve a -beating.’ ‘Young English rascal,’ said he, ‘you may want it when I am -too busy, so I will give it to you now.’” Tegg’s fellow-apprentice had, -like him, an ambition, but it was to become the first whistler in the -kingdom. - -Tegg’s apprenticeship had by this time become intolerable, and, as he -had been latterly engaged in reading “Robinson Crusoe” and “Roderick -Random,” he resolved to run away and lead an adventurous life himself. -Though it was in the depth of winter, he travelled along on foot, -sleeping sometimes under hedges laden with hoar-frost. But soon his -little hoarding of ten shillings was exhausted; at Berwick, therefore, -he tried to make a livelihood by selling chap-books, but was recognised -for a runaway apprentice and had again to fly. At this period he tells -us he found out the utility of pawnbrokers’ shops, and discovered, -also, the value of small sums. “He who has felt the want of a penny is -never likely to dissipate a pound.” Another lesson, too, he gathered -from his wanderings, which was always when in trouble to apply to a -woman. “Never,” he says, “did I plead to a woman in vain.” At Newcastle -he made the acquaintance of Bewick, the engraver; there he might have -remained, but his heart was set upon reaching London. At Sheffield he -was seized by the parish officer for travelling on Sunday, but when -he told his story the severity of Bumbledom itself relented, and the -beadle found him a home, and even paid the requisite eighteenpence a -week which defrayed the cost of lodging, bread-making, and a weekly -clean shirt. Here he was engaged by Mr. Gale, the proprietor of the -_Sheffield Register_, at seven shillings a week, a wretched pittance, -but sufficient for his small wants, even enabling him to purchase -new clothes. At the _Register_ office he met some men of note, among -others, Tom Paine and Dibdin. Paine was “a tall, thin, ill-looking -man. He had a fiend-like countenance, and frequently indulged in oaths -and blasphemy.” After a nine months’ sojourn, Tegg left Sheffield, and -having visited Ireland and North Wales, entered the service of a Mr. -Marshall, at Lynn, where he remained for three or four years. - -Early in 1796, however, he mounted the London and Cambridge coach, and, -with a few shillings in his pockets, with a light heart in his breast, -he bade good-bye to friends, telling them that he would never come back -till he could drive down in his carriage. - -On the coach he met some other young men, who, like himself, were going -up to London in search of employment, but who intended to spend the -first few days in sight-seeing, and asked him to join their party. -But Tegg resisted the temptation, and when London, the London of his -dreams--but how black, smoke-filled, and inhospitable!--was really -reached, he alighted at the Green Dragon in Bishopsgate Street, and, -struggling through the busy stream of men who filled the city streets, -he went straightway in search of employment, to the first book-shop -that met his eyes. This happened to be Mr. Lane’s “Minerva Library,” in -Leadenhall Street. “What can you do?” asked Lane. “My best,” rejoined -Tegg. “Do you wear an apron?” Tegg produced one and tied it on. “Go -to work,” said Lane, and thus, “in less than half-an-hour from my -arrival, I was at work in one of the best houses in London.” Early next -morning, map in hand, he took an exploring walk, and was astonished -and delighted with all he saw, for to the young bookseller, with his -mind wrapt up entirely in his projects of success, the perpetual rush -of unknown faces--that he had never seen before, would never see -again--the jostling eagerness of crowds, going incessantly this way -and that, the noisy din of carts and carriages, the vastness of the -buildings, and the vagueness of the never-ending streets, did not -bring that feeling of utter loneliness which so many of us remember in -our first solitary entry into London. Nor was the country lad to be -beguiled by any of the myriad temptations that were ready on all sides -to divide his attention from his business. “I resolved,” he writes, “to -visit a place of worship every Sunday, and to read no loose or infidel -books; that I would frequent no public-houses, that I would devote -my leisure to profitable studies, that I would form no friendships -till I knew the parties well, and that I would not go to any theatre -till my reason fortified me against my passions.” This perseverance -did not immediately meet with its deserved reward, for having been -sent, with the other shopmen, to make an affidavit as to the numbers -of an election bill that had been struck off, before the Lord Mayor, -he said boldly, that he did not even know that they had been printed; -the Lord Mayor was pleased with the answer, and censured Lane severely -for tempting the boy to commit a perjury; and Lane, in his rage, -dismissed him forthwith. Tegg walked out of the shop, down-hearted for -the moment, perhaps, but self-possessed and reliant, and entering the -shop of John and Arthur Arch, at the corner of Gracechurch Street, -the kindly Quakers took him at once into their employ, and here he -stayed until entering into business on his own account. His new masters -were strict but affectionate. He soon asks for a holiday, “We have no -objection, but where art thou going, Thomas?” “To Greenwich fair, sir.” -“Then we think thou hadst better not go. Thou wilt lose half a day’s -wages. Thou wilt spend at least the amount of two days’ wages more, and -thou wilt get into bad company.” At two, however, he was told he might -go; but as soon as he reached London Bridge his heart smote him, and -he returned. “Why, Thomas, is this thee? Thou art a prudent lad.” And -when Saturday came, his masters added a guinea to his weekly wages as -a present. From this, Tegg says, he himself learnt to be a kind though -strict master, and during his fifty years of business life, he never -used a harsh word to a servant, and dismissed but three. - -Having received £200 from the wreck of the family prospects, Tegg -took a shop, in partnership with a Mr. Dewick, in Aldersgate Street, -and became a “bookmaker” as well as a bookseller; and his first book, -the “Complete Confectioner,” though it contained only one hundred -lines of original matter, reached a second edition. After a short -time he indulged in a tour to Scotland, where he found that his old -schoolmaster had died from the effects of an amputation; and in -this same journey he honestly bought up the unlapsed time of his -apprenticeship. On returning to London he re-entered the service of -the Messrs. Arch, and took unto himself a wife. The story of his -courtship is pleasantly and naïvely told. Coming down the stairs -of his new lodgings, “I was met by a good-looking, fresh-coloured, -sweet-countenanced country girl; and without thinking of the -impropriety I ventured to wink as she passed. On looking up the stairs, -I saw my fair one peeping through the balusters at me. I was soon on -speaking terms with her, and told her I wanted a wife, and bade her -look out for one for me; but if she failed in the search she must take -the office herself. After waiting a short time, no return being made, I -acted on this agreement. Young and foolish both, we were married at St. -Bride’s church, April 20, 1800.... I was most happy in my choice, and -cannot write in adequate terms of my dear partner, who possesses four -qualities seldom found in one woman--good nature, sound sense, beauty, -and prudence.” - -After his marriage, he again opened a shop in St. John’s Street, -Clerkenwell, and here he “wrote all night and worked all day,” while -his partner was drinking himself to death. His wife was ill, two of the -children died, and the future looked terribly gloomy; for a “supposed -friend” prevailed upon him to discount a bill for £172 14_s._ 9_d._ out -of his little capital of two hundred pounds, and the bill, of course, -turned out to be utterly worthless. In this strait he acted with much -energy, dissolved his partnership, called a meeting of his creditors, -and found a friend who nobly came forward as a security; and he left -his home, declaring he would never return until he could pay the -uttermost farthing. “God,” he writes solemnly, “never forsook me. A man -may lose his property and yet not be ruined; peace and pride of heart -may be more than equivalents.” - -Tegg now took out a country auction licence, and determined to try his -fortune in the provinces. - -A few words on the book-auction trade may have a passing interest here. -According to Dibdin, the first book auction of which we have any record -in England occurred in 1676, when Cooper, the bookseller, prefixed the -following address to his catalogue:--“Reader, it hath not been usual -here in England to make sale of books by way of auction, or who will -give most for them; but it having been practised in other countries, -to the great advantage of both buyers and sellers, it was therefore -conceived (for the encouragement of learning) to publish the sale of -those books in this manner of way.” The innovation was successful. -Cooper established a reputation as a book-auctioneer, and in London -such sales became common. In a few years we read of the practice being -extended to Scotland, and to the larger towns in England, such as Leeds -and York. John Dunton, with his usual versatility, took over a cargo of -books to sell at Dublin, and after that date attendance at the country -fairs with books to sell by auction became quite a distinct branch -among the London booksellers. The leading auctioneer in Dunton’s time -was Edward Millington. “He had a quick wit and a wonderful fluency -of speech. There was usually as much wit in his ‘One, two, three!’ -as can be met with in a modern play. ‘Where,’ said Millington, ‘is -your generous flame for learning? Who but a sot or a blockhead would -have money in his pocket, and starve his brains?’” At this time it -appears that bids of one penny were very commonly offered and accepted. -Book-auctioneering soon became a distinct trade altogether, and -required not only much fluency of speech and power of persuasion, -but a very exact knowledge of the science of bibliography. For this -latter speciality Samuel Paterson, of King Street, Covent Garden, was -particularly famous. Perhaps no bookseller ever lived who knew so -much about the contents of the books he sold. When, in compiling his -catalogues, he met with an unknown book he would sit perusing it for -hours, utterly unmindful of the time of sale, and oblivious of the -efforts of his clerk to call his attention to the lateness of the time. -Baker, Leigh, and Sotheby, all of York Street, Covent Garden, were also -eminent in this branch of the trade; but the prince of book-auctioneers -was James Christie, whose powers of persuasion were rendered doubly -effective by a quiet, easy flow of conversation, and a gentle -refinement of manners. At the close of the century, the booksellers’ -trade sales were held at the Horn Tavern, in Doctors’ Commons, and were -preceded by a luxurious dinner, when the bottle and the jest went round -merrily, and the competition was heightened by wine and laughter. - -Tegg, to retake the thread of our story after this digression, started -with a very poor stock, consisting of shilling political pamphlets, -and some thousands of the _Monthly Visitor_. At Worcester, however, he -purchased a parcel of books from a clergyman for ten pounds, but when -the time for payment arrived the good man refused to accept anything. -At Worcester, too, it was that he held his first auction. “With a -beating heart I mounted the rostrum. The room was crowded. I took £30 -that first night, and in a few days a knife and fork was provided for -me at many of the houses of my customers. God helps those, I thought, -who help themselves.” With his wife acting as clerk, he travelled -through the country, buying up the duplicates at all the gentlemen’s -libraries he could hear of, and rapidly paying off his debts. This -led him to return to his shop in Cheapside, but his ardent desire -for advancement involved him again in difficulties. “One day I was -called from the shop three times by the sheriff’s officers (a few -years afterwards I paid a fine of £400 to be excused serving sheriff -myself). Bailiffs are not always iron-hearted. I have met with very -kind officers; some have taken my word for debt and costs, and one lent -me the money to pay both” (O rare bum-bailiff! why is not thy name -recorded?). - -Still Tegg was making gradual way, in spite of occasional difficulties -which again led him to the pawnshops, but with more precious pledges -than when at Berwick he asked a rosy-cheeked Irish girl how he might -best raise money on a silk handkerchief, for now his watch and spoons -could accommodate him, when needful, with fifty pounds. About this -time one of the most interesting episodes of his life was commenced. -He had purchased a hundred pounds’ worth of books from Mr. Hunt, who, -hearing of his struggles, bade him to pay for them when he pleased. -Tegg, in the fulness of his gratitude, told him that should he, in -his turn, ever need aid he should have it; but the wealthy bookseller -smiled at the young struggler’s evident simplicity. We will tell the -rest of the story in Tegg’s own words. “Thirty years after, I was in -my counting-house, when Mr. Hunt, with a queer-looking companion, came -in and reminded me of my promise. He was under arrest, and must go to -prison unless I would be his bail. I acknowledged the obligation, but -I would first take my wife’s opinion. ‘Yes, my dear, by all means -help Mr. Hunt,’ was her answer. ‘He aided us in trouble; you can do no -less for him.’ Next morning I found I had become his surety for thirty -thousand pounds. I was sharply questioned in court as to my means, and, -rubbing his hands together, Mr. Barrister remarked that Book-selling -must be a fine trade, and wished he had been brought up to it. I -answered, ‘The result did not depend on the trade, but on the man; -for instance, if I had been a lawyer I would not have remained half -this time in your situation--I would have occupied a seat with their -lordships.’ There was a laugh in court, and the judge said, ‘You may -stand down.’” - -When success first really dawned, Tegg began to feel poignantly the -want of a more complete education; however, he determined to employ -the powers he possessed as best he could. His earliest publications -consisted of a series of pamphlets, printed in duodecimo, with -frontispieces, containing abridgments of popular works; and the series -extended to two hundred, many of them circulating to the extent of -4000 copies. As an instance of his business energy, we may cite the -following:--Tegg heard one morning from a friend that Nelson had been -shot at Trafalgar. He set an engraver to work instantly on a portrait -of the hero, purchased the _Naval Chronicle_, found ample material for -a biography; and, in a few hours, “The Whole Life of Nelson” was ready -for the press. Such timely assiduity was rewarded by a sale of 5000 -sixpenny copies. On another occasion, when on a summer jaunt to Windsor -with a friend, it was jocularly resolved that, as they had come to -see the king, they ought to make his Majesty pay the expenses of the -trip. Tegg suggested a Life of Mrs. Mary Anne Clarke, with a coloured -portrait. 13,000 copies were sold at seven-and-sixpence each; and, as -he observes, the “bill was probably liquidated.” - -Among his other cheap books were--“Tegg’s Chronology,” “Philip Quail,” -and--perhaps the most successful and useful of all--a diamond edition -of “Johnson’s Dictionary,” published when the original edition was -selling at five guineas. - -In 1824 he purchased the copyright of Hone’s “Every-Day Book” and -“Table Book;” republished the whole in weekly parts, and cleared a very -large profit. - - “I like you and your book, ingenious Hone! - In whose capacious, all-embracing leaves - The very marrow of traditions shown, - And all that History, much that Fiction weaves.” - -So sang Charles Lamb; and Southey says of these two delightful -works:--“The ‘Every-Day Book’ and ‘Table Book’ will be a fortune a -hundred years hence, but they have failed to make Hone’s fortunes.” -However, Tegg gave him five hundred pounds to compile the “Year Book,” -which proved much less successful than the others. - -Hone had been a bookseller in the Strand, where he probably acquired -his miscellaneous stock of quaint knowledge about old English customs, -and all that appertained to a race fast dying out. After the famous -trial, in which his “Parodies” were charged as being “blasphemy,” he -immediately stopped the sale of them; and, though at that time in -urgent need of money, he resolutely refused tempting offers for copies. -“The story of my three-days’ trial at Guildhall,” he writes, “may be -dug out from the journals of the period; the history of my mind, my -heart, my scepticism, and my atheism remain to be written.” It is -said that he was first awakened to a better way of thinking, in the -following manner:--One day, walking in the country, he saw a little -girl standing at a doorway, and stopped to ask her for a drink of milk; -and, observing a book in her hand, he inquired what it was. She said it -was a Bible; and, in reply to some depreciatory remark of his, added, -in her simple wonder--“I thought everybody loved their Bible, sir!” - -By this time Tegg was thriving;--he bought his first great-coat, and -the first silk pelisse for his wife, and was able to make a rule -of paying in cash, which he found an immense advantage. The book -auctions, continued nightly at 111, Cheapside, formed the immediate -stepping-stone to his wealth. He visited all the trade sales, and -bought up the “remainders,” _i.e._, surplus copies of works in which -the original publishers had no faith;--“I was,” he writes, “the -broom that swept the booksellers’ warehouses.” At one of the dinners -preceding these trade sales, he heard Alderman Cadell give the then -famous toast--“The Bookseller’s four B’s”--Burns, Blair, Buchan, and -Blackstone. In the auctioneer’s rostrum he was very lively and amusing, -and the room became well known all over London. At one of the last -sales, a gentleman who purchased a book asked if “he ever left off -selling for a single night?” Fifteen years before, on his road to the -dock to embark for Calcutta, he found Tegg busy, and as busy still on -his return. “If ever man was devoted to his profession, I am that man,” -says Tegg; and again--“I feel that my moral courage is sufficient to -carry out anything I resolve to accomplish.” - -Now that his own publications were proving very lucrative, Tegg -resolved to abandon the auctioneering portion of the business, and -confine himself to the more legitimate trade; and, at his last sale, -he took upwards of eighty pounds. The purchase and sale of remainders, -however, still formed a very important branch of his traffic. - -About this time he took another journey to Scotland, and had an -interview with Sir Walter Scott, who had, he says, “nothing in his -manner or conversation to impress a visitor with his greatness.” -Immediately on his return he made his final remove to the Mansion -House, Cheapside--once the residence of the Lord Mayor--and the annual -current of sales rose in the proportion of from eighteen to twenty-two. -Now a popular as well as a wealthy man, he was elected a Common -Councillor of the Ward of Cheap, took a country house at Norwood, with -a beautiful garden attached--“though I scarcely knew a rose from a -rhododendron”--and set up a carriage. - -It was, of course, from the Mansion House that his well-known -publications were dated. In 1825, the year after the purchase of the -“Table Book,” he published the “London Encyclopædia;” it was a time of -great financial difficulty (as we have, indeed, seen in almost all our -lives of contemporary publishers); his bills were dishonoured to the -extent of twenty thousand pounds; and the work was began solely to give -employment to those who had been faithful in more prosperous years. The -public, however, supported the undertaking, and Tegg was rewarded for -his courage. - -The time of the panic, in 1826, was a season of severe trial, in -domestic as well as pecuniary matters; and Tegg, though he maintained -that few men were ever insolvent through mere misfortune, began to -fear that despondency would deprive him of his reason. And now it was -that he appreciated more than ever the brave qualities of his wife, -who roused and manned him again to the struggle; till, in the end, he -became a gainer rather than a loser by the crisis, for the best books -were then sold as almost worthless; and at Hurst and Robinson’s sale he -purchased the most popular of Scott’s novels at fourpence a volume. - -Among his other great “remainder” bargains we may mention the purchase -of the remainder and copyright of “Murray’s Family Library” in 1834. -He bought 100,000 volumes at one shilling, and reissued them at more -than double the price. His greatest triumph of all was, however, the -acquisition of “Valpy’s Delphin Classics,” in one hundred and sixty-two -large octavo volumes, the stock amounting to nearly fifty thousand -copies, the whole of which were sold off in two years. - -To return to his own publications, we find that, up to the close of -1840, he had issued four thousand works on his own account, and “not -more than twenty were failures.” - -Tegg’s reputation as a bookseller chiefly rests upon his cheap reprints -and abridgments of popular works; and, in connection with these, his -name is mentioned in Mr. Carlyle’s famous petition on the Copyright -Bill. Though we have failed to ascertain to what general or particular -works Mr. Carlyle refers, the petition is of such curious interest -to all concerned in the writing and selling of books, that we do not -hesitate to quote it in extenso[29]:-- - - “To the honourable the Commons of England, in Parliament - assembled, the Petition of Thomas Carlyle, a Writer of Books, - - “Humbly sheweth, - - “That your petitioner has written certain books, being incited - thereto by various innocent or laudable considerations, chiefly - by the thought that the said books might in the end be found to - be worth something. - - “That your petitioner had not the happiness to receive from - Mr. Tegg, or any Publisher, Re-publisher, Printer, Book-buyer, - or other the like men, or body of men, any encouragement or - countenance in the writing of said books, or to discern any - chance of receiving such; but wrote them by effort of his own - will, and the favour of Heaven. - - “That all useful labour is worthy of recompense; that all - honest labour is worthy of the chance of recompense; that the - giving and assuring to each man what recompense his labour - has actually merited, may be said to be the business of - all Legislation, Polity, Government and social arrangement - whatsoever among men;--a business indispensable to attempt, - impossible to accomplish accurately, difficult to accomplish - without inaccuracies that become enormous, insupportable, and - the Parent of Social Confusion which never altogether end. - - “That your petitioner does not undertake to say what recompense - in money this labour of his may deserve; whether it deserves - any recompense in money, or whether money in any quantity could - hire him to do the like. - - “That this labour has found hitherto in money, or money’s - worth, small recompense or none; but thinks that, if so, - it will be at a distant time, when he, the labourer, will - probably be no longer in need of money, and those dear to him - will still be in need of it. - - “That the law does, at least, protect all persons in selling - the productions of their labour at what they can get for it, in - all market-places, to all lengths of time. Much more than this - the law does to many, but so much it does to all, and less than - this to none. - - “That your petitioner cannot discover himself to have done - unlawfully in this his said labour of writing books, or to have - become criminal, or to have forfeited the law’s protection - thereby. Contrariwise, your petitioner believes firmly that he - is innocent in said labour; that if he be found in the long-run - to have written a genuine, enduring book, his merit therein, - and desert towards England and English and other men will be - considerable, not easily estimated in money; that, on the other - hand, if his book prove false and ephemeral, he and it will be - abolished and forgotten, and no harm done. - - “That in this manner your petitioner plays no unfair game - against the world: his stake being life itself, (for the - penalty is death by starvation), and the world’s stake nothing, - till it see the die thrown; so that in every case the world - cannot lose. - - “That in the happy and long-doubtful event of the game’s going - in his favour, your petitioner submits that the small winnings - thereof do belong to him or his, and that no other man has - justly either part or lot in them at all, now, henceforth, or - for ever. - - “May it, therefore, please your Honourable House to protect him - in said happy and long-doubtful event, and (by passing your - Copyright Bill), forbid all Thomas Teggs, and other extraneous - persons entirely unconcerned in this adventure of his, to steal - from him his small winnings, for a space of sixty years, at - shortest. After sixty years, unless your Honourable House - provide otherwise, they may begin to steal. - - “And your petitioner will ever pray. - “THOMAS CARLYLE.” - -Tegg did not confine his business to these cheap reprints, but issued -many books which were altogether beyond the popular taste and purse, -such as “Blackstone,” edited by Price; Smith’s “Wealth of Nations,” -Burton’s “Anatomy of Melancholy,” Locke’s Works, (in ten volumes), -Bishop Butler’s Works, and Hooker’s “Ecclesiastical Polity,” &c. Out -of Dr. Adam Clarke’s “Family Bible” he is said to have made a small -fortune; the work was stereotyped, and re-issue after re-issue was -published. - -In 1835 he was nominated Alderman of his Ward, but was not elected; in -the following year he was chosen Sheriff, and paid the fine to escape -serving, having resolved to forego any further civic distinctions. To -the usual fine of £400 he added another hundred, and the whole went -to found a “Tegg Scholarship” at the City of London School, and he -still further increased the value of the gift by adding thereto a very -valuable collection of books. - -On 21st April, 1845, Thomas Tegg died, after a long and painful -illness, brought on by over-exertion, mental and physical. His third -son, Alfred Byron Tegg, a youth of twenty, then studying at Pembroke -College, Oxford, was so affected by the shock of his father’s death -that he died almost on receipt of the news, and was buried the same day -as his father at Wimbledon--Thomas Tegg’s native village. - -At the commencement of his autobiography, Tegg says, and the narrative -bears the veracity of the statement upon every page:--“In sitting down -to write some account of my past life, I feel as if I were occupied -in making my will. I feel at a loss to express fully my emotions. I -write in a grateful spirit. What I have acquired has been acquired by -industry, patience, and privation,” and he adds elsewhere, “I can say -in passing through life, whether rich or poor, my spirit never forsook -me so as to prevent me from rallying again. I have seen and associated -with all ranks and stations in society. I have lodged with beggars, and -had the honour of presentation to Royalty. I have been so reduced as to -plead for assistance, and, by the goodness of Providence, I have been -able to render it to others.” - -He was generally believed to have been the original of Twigg in Hood’s -“Tylney Hall.” - -From the commencement of his career, Tegg made commercial success -his one aim in life; and with much patience, much endurance, and -much labour, he achieved it thoroughly, and, in the achieving of it -honestly, he conferred a great and lasting benefit upon the world; -for the book merchant holds in his hands the power to do good, or -to do evil, far beyond any other merchant whatsoever. Rising from a -humble position in life, he never forgot his early friends, never left -unrewarded, when possible, his early encouragers and assistants. And -if he was proud in having thus been the architect of his own fortune -and position, this pride surely was a less ignoble one than that which -leads one-half the world to go through life exultantly, with no other -self-conscious merit than having, by a simple accident, been born in -wealthier circumstances than the other half. - -Tegg left behind him a large family who inherited something of their -father’s energy and vigour. With his friendly aid and encouragement -they, many of them, went elsewhere to seek their fortunes--two to -Australia and two to Dublin; and with native perseverance, with a name -that was known wherever books were sold and bought, with their father’s -connection to support them, and their father’s stock to fill their -shops, they have not failed to reap something of their father’s success. - -Thomas Tegg was succeeded in London by his son and late partner, Mr. -William Tegg, and under his management the business of the house has -assumed a graver and more staid appearance. In the preface to the -twelfth edition of Parley’s “Tales about Animals,” Mr. William Tegg -claims the authorship of the whole series published by him under the -pseudonyme of “Peter Parley,”[30] a _nom de plume_, we believe, that -has covered more names than any other ever adopted by English writers. - -[Illustration] - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -_THOMAS NELSON_: - -CHILDREN’S LITERATURE AND “BOOK-MANUFACTURING.” - - -Had we space--we have all the will--to be garrulous, we should -infallibly have commenced this chapter by a long account of John -Newberry, the celebrated publisher of children’s literature. His -books were distinguished by the originality and the homeliness of -their style, and were wonderfully adapted to the capacities of the -little readers to whom, in one instance, at all events, “The History -of Little Goody Two Shoes,” they were specially dedicated: “To all -young gentlemen and ladies who are good, or intend to be good, this -book is inscribed, by their old friend, Mr. John Newberry, in St. -Paul’s Churchyard.” Mr. John Newberry was himself, in many cases, the -author of these volumes, “price 2_d._, gilt,” which he produced; but -he was assisted by men who were distinguished in other walks of life, -especially by Mr. Griffith Jones, editor of the _London Chronicle_, the -_Daily Advertiser_, and the _Public Ledger_, and by Oliver Goldsmith, -who makes Dr. Primrose, when sick and penniless at an inn, pay a -hearty tribute to a traveller who had succoured him. “This person was -no other than the philanthropic bookseller in St. Paul’s Churchyard, -who had written so many little books for children: he called himself -their friend, but he was the friend of all mankind. He was no sooner -alighted but he was in haste to be gone, for he was ever on business -of the utmost importance, and was at that time actually compiling -materials for the history of one, Mr. Thomas Trip.” Newberry purchased -the copyright of the “Traveller” for twenty guineas, and eventually -offered a hundred guineas for the “Deserted Village,” which Goldsmith -wished to return when he found that he was receiving payment at the -rate of five shillings a line. - -However historically interesting and bibliographically curious, -Newberry’s business, measured in bulk, was as a molehill to a mountain -when compared to the enormous trade carried on by the largest of our -modern publishers of juvenile literature--perhaps, also the largest -book-manufacturer in the world. - -Thomas Nelson was born at Throsk, a few miles east of Stirling, in the -year 1780, and was brought up in the very bosom of that strong, stern, -unwavering religious faith, which has so often seemed the fitting -complement to the ruggedness of the Scotch character; and which, among -the other worldly advantages of its system of training, has often -prepared its votaries for a successful career in business. His father -led a quiet, retired life upon a small farm, not far from the famous -field of Bannockburn, and was so satisfied with the content of his -humble lot, that he repeatedly refused to take advantage of offered -opportunities of making money, by permitting a pottery to be erected -on his land. In those days, great gatherings of those known as the -Covenanters took place in many parts of Scotland, at the sacramental -seasons, and Nelson’s father thought but little of travelling forty -miles in order that he might enjoy the privilege of the communion -service. Upon the mind of the young lad, who often accompanied his -father, these meetings, all probably that varied the monotony of a -rustic life, made an indelible impression. When, like many youths -of his time who had their own paths to clear in the world’s jungle, -he resolved to leave Scotland and to seek his fortunes in the West -Indies, his father accompanied him on the road to Alloa, the place of -embarkation, and during the journey asked him, “Have you ever thought -that in the country to which you are going, you will be far away from -the means of grace?” “No, father,” replied the son, “I never thought of -that; and I won’t go.” And immediately the scheme was abandoned, and -they retraced their steps homewards. - -When, however, he was about twenty years of age, young Nelson tore -himself from the parental roof, and went to London, and after passing -through all the difficulties that are so familiar to young lads who -have to fight their own battles unaided, he entered the service of a -publishing house--an event that determined, doubtless, the course of -his after-life. One of his early associates in business was Thomas -Kelly, and, like his friend, Nelson, while diligent and conscientious -in his daily duties, still found time for intellectual and religious -culture. With a few young Scotchmen, he established a weekly-fellowship -meeting, which was held every Sunday. One of the association was -employed at the dockyard, during Lord Melville’s administration at -the Admiralty, and lost his situation through his refusal to work -on Sundays. Lord Melville, however, who had often seen him in the -dockyard, enquired the cause of his absence, and on learning the -fact of his dismissal, severely rebuked the officials, and shortly -afterwards advanced him to a higher post. - -In the latter years of Nelson’s residence in London, he was engaged in -obtaining orders for the Stratford Edition of “Henry’s Bible,” a work -issued in shilling parts, to be bound up in six large folio volumes, -which was held in high repute, and attained a large circulation. Nelson -secured the names of a great number of subscribers, chiefly in the -northern district of London. - -After having thus received the necessary business training, and -acquired the necessary commercial experience, Nelson determined to -make a start upon his own account, and left London for Edinburgh. -Here at first he rented a small apartment, which he occupied as a -book-warehouse, stocked chiefly with second-hand books, and from this -little establishment he issued the “Scots Worthies,” and one or two -other works, in monthly parts. In a few years afterwards he removed -to the well-known small shop at the corner of the West Bow. Here he -commenced his cheap issues in 24mo., of such works as Baxter’s “Saints’ -Rest,” Booth’s “Reign of Grace,” “Mac Ewan on the Types,” and some of -Willison’s works. Indeed, we have been told, epigrammatically, that -Nelson, in this little corner shop of the West Bow, commencing with a -humble reprint of “The Vicar of Wakefield,” arrived in time at the more -ponderous honour of “Josephus.” In his early publishing career, he and -Peter Brown, another bookseller engaged in the same line of business in -Edinburgh, were of considerable service to each other, for though they -were not in partnership, they contributed jointly to defray the cost -of composing and stereotyping a considerable number of octavo volumes, -comprising the works of Paley, Leighton, Romaine, Newton, and others. -Thus, half the cost of production was saved to each, while the stock -of each was doubled. These books were not at first sold through the -booksellers, but vacant shops were opened in the evenings in the large -towns, where single copies were sold by auction, and the same practice -was extended to smaller places, chiefly on the periodical recurrence -of the Scotch fairs. This innovation, of course, excited a strong -feeling of animosity among the trade, who, for some years, did their -best to thwart the sale of Nelson’s publications. Indeed, in 1829, when -Nelson, encouraged by the success of his auction sales, engaged Mr. -James Macdonald to travel Scotland regularly, his mission, owing to the -stigma attached to the auction business, was a failure. At Aberdeen the -booksellers rose up in arms, and only one bookseller, Mr. George King, -had the courage to give Macdonald an order. - -Though opposed in the country, and though for many years he did not -accumulate much capital, yet, from his well-known and strict integrity, -Nelson never wanted funds to carry out his plans. At the very time that -Macdonald was suffering defeat in each country town, Nelson was enabled -to purchase from a printer, at a comparatively low price, “Macknight on -the Epistles,” in four volumes, octavo; and the popularity of that work -forced a quick sale throughout the trade, and gave his business a very -considerable impulse. - -Nelson was still convinced that the only method of extending his -business to any considerable importance, was by means of a regular -system of travelling, and Macdonald was succeeded by Mr. Peters, whose -success was considerably greater; but it was not until Mr. William -Nelson, the eldest son of the founder, took to the road, that the trade -business was really consolidated, not only in Scotland, but also in -London and the chief towns of the united kingdom. In fact, it may be -said, that Mr. William Nelson was the real builder of the business, -working upwards from a foundation that was certainly narrow and -circumscribed. Mr. Thomas Nelson, the younger brother, was soon after -this admitted to the firm, and undertook the energetic superintendence -of the manufacturing department, and was the originator of the -extensive series of school-books. - -Johnson of Liverpool used to narrate that he remembered young Nelson on -his first (English) journey, and that he gave him what Nelson called -a “braw order.” Shortly after this he was, according to the same -authority, joined by Mr. James Campbell, who left the carpenter’s bench -to become a “bagman,” and was soon the chief assistant in the firm’s -employ.[31] - -Before this, however, the energy displayed by Mr. William Nelson had -thoroughly consolidated the business, and had entirely dissipated the -previous prejudice excited by the auction sales, the more especially -as the lowest prices were at once fixed to the trade upon every book -issued by the establishment. Mr. Campbell’s success as a commercial -man was considerable, and by his subsequent energy and integrity as an -agent, at home and in the colonies, the demand for Messrs. Nelson and -Sons’ books began to assume a considerable magnitude. - -In 1843, the firm removed their place of business to Hope Park; we -shall refer to this establishment subsequently--and upon the death of -Peter Brown (he had for some years ceased to co-operate actively with -them), the stereotype plates which had been the joint property of both -firms, became by purchase the exclusive possessions of Messrs. Nelson, -and this gave them an advantage in the market they did not formerly -possess. - -Even while in London, Nelson had collected the works of his favourite -divines for his private use, and he now carried out more thoroughly the -scheme, commenced in conjunction with Peter Brown, of publishing cheap -editions of such books that they might be brought within the easy reach -of thousands. Such cheap issues are now a common feature of the trade, -but he was one of the first Edinburgh booksellers to introduce the -new order of things. The series was very popular, but still it was by -the publication of juvenile literature that Nelson’s great commercial -success was achieved. The works of this special, and apparently -inexhaustible class were distinguished by a good moral tendency, purity -of diction, and elegance of production, and were laudably free from -sectarian bias, and extreme opinion. It will, perhaps, suffice our -present purpose to instance, among his many authors, R. M. Ballantyne, -as a favourite with his boyish, and A. L. O. E. with her girlish, -readers. One of Nelson’s periodicals attained a large circulation; this -was the _Family Treasury_, edited by Dr. Andrew Cameron, and numbering -among its contributors such writers as Dr. Guthrie, Dr. Vaughan, Dean -Trench, and Brownlow North; in its columns the charming “Chronicles of -the Schönberg Cotta Family” first appeared. - -Among the greatest of the more recent triumphs of the firm in the way -of books for children, was the introduction of coloured illustrations -upon a black background--a striking and emphatic method of throwing the -coloured pictures into strong relief; the books illustrated upon this -principle proved so successful that a host of imitators adopted the -same method. The firm are also well known as extensive publishers of -a greatly improved series of schoolbooks, of maps, embracing new and -ingenious features, and of gift and prize books. Latterly, however, -they have entered into a wider and more liberal field, and their -current catalogue embraces works in most departments of literature. - -For the last five-and-twenty years of his life, Nelson was more or less -of an invalid; though from 1843 to 1850 he enjoyed a kind of respite; -but during this whole period his sons were associated with him in -the business, and during the latter and greater portion of it, the -management devolved entirely upon them. Thomas Nelson, the founder, -died on March 23rd, 1861, and showed upon his death-bed the effects of -that strong piety to which, since a child, he had accustomed his mind. -When it was thought proper to announce to him that his end was near, he -received the intelligence with the calmest equanimity:--“I thought so; -my days are wholly in God’s hands. He doeth all things well. His will -be done!” and then he took up his Testament again, saying, “Now I must -finish my chapter.” He was buried in the Grange Cemetery, among many -Scottish worthies, and lies side by side with Hugh Miller. - -Thomas Nelson was distinguished not only by his energy and strict -integrity, but by a generous hospitality of the genuine Scottish type. -Even when his business was of very small dimensions, his old-fashioned -dining-room was generally filled by the Scottish clergy, when any -general meeting brought them to the metropolis. - -Messrs. William and Thomas Nelson, of course, continued the business, -and we cannot, perhaps, convey a better idea of the magnitude to which -the trade has in their hands extended than by giving a description of -their establishment in all its branches, and for this description we -are indebted chiefly to Mr. Bremner’s “Industries of Scotland.” - -Taking printing, publishing, and bookbinding together, Thomas Nelson -and Sons, of Hope Park, are the most extensive house in Scotland. They -removed to their present establishment a quarter of a century ago, and -were compelled, after a lapse of ten years, to build a new range of -offices far exceeding anything of the kind in the city of Edinburgh, -and probably unparalleled out of it. The main part of the building -consists of three conjoined blocks, forming three sides of a square. -Part of the surrounding ground is laid out as an ornamental grass-plot, -and a new machine-room has been recently erected upon another portion. - -In the main building there are three floors apportioned to the various -branches of the trade. Machinery is used wherever it is possible, and -by its aid, and by a well-organized system of division of labour, -the number of books manufactured is enormous. Everything, from the -compilation of a book to the lettering of its binding, is done upon -the premises, and for the founts of type and the paper alone are the -proprietors indebted to outside help. - -The letterpress department consists of a spacious composing-room, -a splendidly fitted machine-room, a press-room, and a stereotype -foundry. As very large numbers of the works are issued, they are almost -invariably printed from stereotype plates--a process said to have been -invented by William Ged, a goldsmith in Edinburgh at the beginning of -the last century; the Dutch, however, with some justice, claim the -discovery for one of their countrymen, a very long time before this -date; at all events, the process was still almost a novelty when, as -we have seen, Kelly first utilized it in London. In the machine-room -and the press-room there are nineteen machines and seventeen presses -constantly at work. Here large numbers of children’s books are -produced, and a number of machines are devoted to colour printing. - -From the machine-room the sheets are taken to the drying-room, where -they are hung up in layers upon screens, which, when filled, are run -into a hot-air chamber, where the ink is thoroughly dried in six or -eight hours. - -The bookbinding department occupies several large rooms, and -employs two-thirds of all the work-people engaged. Although machines -are provided for a great variety of operations, a large amount of -hand-labour is found to be indispensable. As soon as the sheets -have been thoroughly dried, they are folded by young women, as the -machine-folding is only suitable for the coarser kinds of work. After -this process, the sheets are arranged by another staff of girls in the -proper order for binding, compressed in a powerful press, and notches -for the binding cords are cut by a machine. They are then passed on to -the sewers, who sit upon long benches plying their deft needles. - -The case-makers have by this time prepared the cases, and in connection -with this department there is a cloth-dyeing and embossing branch, -where the cloths are prepared; the coloured and enamelled papers for -the insides are also made upon the premises. The case-makers are -divided into half-a-dozen different sections, each of which performs a -certain and distinct portion of the work. The pasteboard and cloth are -first cut to the required size, and then one girl spreads the glue upon -the cloth, a second lays the board upon its proper place, a third tucks -the cloth in all round, a fourth smoothes off the work, and the covers -are now taken to the embosser, who puts on the ornamental additions, -and finally the books are fixed in the cases, and sent down to their -warehouse, whence they are despatched to all corners of the world, -principally, of course, to the London and New York branches. - -The lithographic establishment comprises a number of rooms. Sixteen -machines and presses are constantly engaged, principally in the -production of maps, book illustrations, coloured pictures, and the -beautifully-tinted lithographic views, which Messrs. Nelson were mainly -instrumental in introducing to the notice of the public. Among the -artists employed here in executing preliminary work are photographers, -draughtsmen, steel, copper, and wood engravers, and electrotypers. -By a process patented by Messrs. Nelson, in conjunction with Mr. -Ramage (to whose services they owe much of the superiority of their -illustrations), a drawing or print may be converted into an engraving -suitable for printing from by the simple action of light, and these -engravings, either for copper-plate or letter-press printing, may be -multiplied and made larger or smaller at will. The storerooms are said -to contain upwards of fifty thousand wood-cuts and electrotypes. - -Even the inks and varnishes are manufactured upon the premises. - -Messrs. Thomas Nelson and Sons employ some four hundred and fifty -work-people in their establishment, about one-half of whom are young -women. - -The whole of Scotland is of course supplied from the head-quarters in -Hope Park; but they have also large branches in London and New York. -The former--situated in, or rather forming, Warwick Buildings, at the -corner of Paternoster Row--is, though a branch, as large a bookselling -warehouse as any in London, and in its interior arrangements is -unrivalled. The basement storey is devoted to the stowage of wholesale -stock and the execution of export and country orders, and over the shop -there are four lofty floors. - -The Scotch have during the century especially cultivated the trade of -printing and bookselling. In the former branch alone, ten thousand -persons are employed in Scotland, five thousand of whom are engaged in -the capital. In 1860 there were in Edinburgh no less than thirty firms, -who combine the united business of publishing and bookselling, besides -ninety who confine themselves to bookselling alone. The eight or nine -leading houses, with one exception, print themselves the books they -sell; a practice which is almost indigenous to Edinburgh, or, at all -events, does not obtain in London. The advantage of cheap labour, which -includes, of course, cheap paper, are here so great, especially in the -issue of large editions, as to more than counteract the drawback in the -shape of transit cost to, and agents’ commission in, London. We have -already entered into the history of several of these leading Edinburgh -houses, and as our space is growing scanty, we can scarcely now do more -than mention the firm of Oliver and Boyd; and though, from their long -standing and importance, the career of the house would afford material -for an interesting chapter, we must hope to have an opportunity of -recurring to the subject at a not very distant time. Formerly Oliver -and Boyd enjoyed a very large share of the Scotch country business, and -occupied indeed much the same position in the northern, as is held by -Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., in the southern, capital. Of later years, -however, their attention has been more exclusively fixed upon the -publication of educational works, and among the writers whose books -have been issued by them, the names of Spalding, Reid, Morell, White, -and McCulloch, are known to every schoolboy. “The Edinburgh Academy -Class-Books” have also attained a very wide circulation far beyond the -walls of the Edinburgh Academy; and “Oliver and Boyd’s Catechisms,” -published at the low price of ninepence each, are used in nearly all -elementary classes where science, in any form, is taught. As a book -of reference for students of every grade, of a larger growth, _Oliver -and Boyd’s Edinburgh Almanac_ is, perhaps, unrivalled for the fulness -and yet conciseness of every branch of official information, at all -essential to the inhabitants of Scotland. - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -_SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, AND CO._: - -COLLECTING FOR THE COUNTRY TRADE. - - -We have, by this time, given historico-biographical notices of -publishers and booksellers, representing very various phases of the -“trade;” but we have still to show how, in the economy of publishing, -and through an ingenious division of labour, the smaller booksellers in -town, and all the booksellers in the country and the colonies, are kept -constantly supplied with books and periodicals. - -Before a new book is published, the work is taken round to the larger -houses in the “Row,” and other parts of London, and “subscribed,” that -is the first price to the trade, and the actual selling price to the -public are quoted, and orders at the former price are given, according -to the purchaser’s faith in the expected popularity of the work in -question. - -The wholesale houses, in their turn, supply all the country, colonial, -and smaller London orders, reaping, of course, a due advantage from -having the volumes demanded already stowed in their warehouses. - -By far the largest business in this branch of the trade is executed -by the old-established firm of Simpkin, Marshall, and Company, -and though they by no means confine their attention solely to the -commission-paying business of middlemen--for they are themselves -publishers of educational and other widely-circulating works--yet their -name has long, throughout the length and breadth of the land, been held -synonymous with this wholesale supply of the requirements of other -houses. - -The real founder of this enormous traffic was, Benjamin Crosby. The -son of a Yorkshire grazier, he came to London to seek his fortunes, -and was apprenticed to James Nunn, a bookseller in Great Queen Street. -As soon as his indentures had expired, he obtained a situation under -George Robinson--the “King of the Booksellers”--and, in a few years -after this, succeeded to the business of Mr. Stalker, of Stationers’ -Hall Court. Crosby was one of the first London booksellers who -travelled regularly through the country, soliciting orders for the -purpose of effecting sales and extending his connections. In a short -time he acquired a pre-eminence as a supplier of the country houses, -and also as one of the largest purchasers at trade sales, especially -when publishers’ stocks were sold off. The extension of the business -had been very materially assisted by the unremitting exertions of two -assistants--Simpkin and Marshall--and when, in 1814, he was stricken -by a sudden attack of paralysis, he made over a certain portion of -his stock and the whole of his country connection to Robert Baldwin, -and Cradock and Joy, he left the remainder, with the premises and the -London connection, to Simpkin and Marshall. Soon after this, a second -attack deprived him of his speech, and for a time of his reason, and -he died in the following year, 1815. - -Under Simpkin and Marshall, which was now, of course, the new title -of the firm, the business soon began again to expand, for they -retained most of their London connections, and following Crosby’s -example, attracted the attention of many country clients, whom -they not only supplied with books, but for whose publications they -became the London agents--a business without speculative risk, and -consequently profitable. For instance, in 1827, an unpretentious little -volume--“Poems by Two Brothers,” having the modest motto, _Hæc nos -novimus esse nihil_, published by J. and J. Jackson, Louth, was also -stamped with the imprimatur of Simpkin and Marshall, and thus they had -the signal honour of being Mr. Tennyson’s first London publishers, -though very probably the honour in this case was greater than the -profit. - -In 1828, Simpkin retired, or rather was bought out of the business by -Mr. Miles, who immediately took the financial management of the whole -concern, and the firm adopted the new title of “Simpkin, Marshall and -Co.” Simpkin, however, did not die until the 25th of December, 1854, -and thus enjoyed a long period of peaceful superannuation. - -The practice of lending their names to the works published by their -country clients, though free from business venture, was not unattended -by legal risk, for in 1834 they had an action brought against them for -libel, which at the time attracted a very general and lively interest; -though they were indicted solely as the London agents of _Tait’s -Edinburgh Magazine_, in which a series of articles had appeared, -reflecting on the conduct of Richmond, a man notorious as a spy, and -who, as an instrument of the Government, had procured the execution of -Hardie and his companion at Glasgow in the winter of 1819-20. Richmond -laid the damages that his character had sustained at the absurd figure -of five thousand pounds, but Mr. Serjeant Talfourd, to whom the defence -was entrusted, so thoroughly exposed the antecedents and present means -of livelihood of the plaintiff that before the trial was over he was -absolutely fain to withdraw his action and elect to be non-suited. - -In 1837 Baldwin and Cradock failed, and handed over the country -connection they had derived from Crosby, to Simpkin, Marshall and -Company. This occurred on the October “Magazine day” of that year; for -three days and three nights the partners and their assistants never -left the establishment at Stationers’ Hall Court, and Baldwin’s country -clients were so pleased that they had been spared so much expected -delay and annoyance that one and all resolved to keep their business -in the hands of their new agents; and with this addition to their -trade, the business relations of Simpkin, Marshall and Company were now -infinitely beyond anything that even Crosby had before experienced. - -In 1855, Richard Marshall retired from the business, and consequently, -the management of the concern remained almost entirely in the hands of -Mr. Miles’s two sons. Marshall died at the ripe age of seventy-five, on -the 17th of November, 1863. - -In 1859 the premises were rebuilt and enlarged, and every possible -improvement, to save trouble and economise time, was introduced into -the new establishment. Among the gentlemen who had been employed in the -old warehouse was Mr. F. Laurie, a barrister-at-law, who afterwards -served in the printed-book department of the British Museum, and who -was widely known as the author of a “Life of Henry Fielding,” and -as a frequent contributor to periodical literature. As none of the -country booksellers have more than one London agent, by him they are -supplied with the books and periodicals of all the London publishers, -an arrangement that saves an infinity of trouble, expense and delay. -A century ago, in the days of small things, the agent made himself -useful to the provincial bookseller in many other ways than in the mere -supplying of publications. In many cases he was expected to forward -the newspapers, but other and stranger commissions often fell to his -lot. A great wholesale house in London at the present day would be -rather surprised to receive the following orders, which, however, all -occur in a bookseller’s records late in the eighteenth century:--“1 -sliding Gunter from some of the instrument makers;” “two-eighth share -of lottery-tickets;” “1 oz. of Maker’s Cobalt, as advertized on the -cover of the _Gentleman’s Magazine_;” or a direction “to please and -send on Saturday, and pay Mr. Barratt, Parliament Place, Palace Yard, -Westminster, £1 0_s._ 6_d._, King’s Rent, due 10th of October last, for -the Vicarage of Holy Cross, Shrewsbury.” - -We cannot, perhaps, convey a better idea of the manner in which -business is conducted by these wholesale houses in the “Row,” than by -giving a description of “Magazine day,”--by far the busiest time in -each month. Very quiet is Paternoster Row generally, and its solitude -is broken only by the fitful and fleeting appearance of publishers, -their agents, and literary men--the latter, as a rule, in clerical -costume, with white neckties which betray their avocation as lying -in “the religious publication line of business;” while its silence -is broken by some venturous barrel-organ player, or by an old blind -fiddler, whose music is appreciated and encouraged by the young -shop-boys, lurking behind each alley corner to enjoy the furtive -pipe. But on “Magazine day” all this is changed, the street is now -a struggling scene of bustle and confusion; now every house is in -a thrill of agitation from the garret to the cellar, and now every -business nerve is strained. Owing to the inconvenient innovation of -magazine proprietors, in publishing their periodicals on different -days, “Magazine day” has lost much of its pristine glory, but even now -the work commences on the eve of the chief day of publication, which is -known consequently as “late night,” for the assistants are generally -kept busily engaged till twelve or one o’clock. By the morning’s post -of this preceding day the country orders arrive, and the invoices have -to be made out from the lists received. Every regular customer has -his allotted pigeon-hole, into which the invoices are put as soon as -copied, together with such of the books he has ordered as are on the -premises; for the majority of the smaller country booksellers take -advantage of their monthly parcels, and to save expense of frequent -railway carriage, include also in their orders such recent books as -they may require. Early in the morning, or sometimes on the night -before, the magazines arrive, and it is on this morning that the real -work begins, for though as large a stock of current literature is kept -in each warehouse as is possible, there are still many publishers to -be sent to. While the assistants are busily engaged sorting out the -books, and supplying each order with the works they have in hand, -the “collectors” are furnished with lists of the books required from -other houses. The “collector” is by no means an unimportant person in -a publisher’s establishment; though “seedy” in attire and suspicious -in general appearance, he is entrusted with large sums of money, for -the cheaper publications are all paid for in ready cash. Bag in hand he -rushes in hot haste all over London, and with an impudent tongue and -a pair of brawny shoulders, thrusts himself to the front place before -each publisher’s counter. As we listen for a moment to the reply he -receives as to the price of a cheap periodical, we may gain an insight -into the middleman’s system of profit. “Sixes are fours and twelves -are thirteens!” yells the shop-boy, the which being interpreted means -that the wholesale price of the sixpenny periodical in question is -fourpence, and that thirteen copies go to the dozen. - -The bustle at each establishment is, of course, greatly increased by -the fact that each house has to supply the wants of others, as well -as to satisfy its own--all the counters of the wholesale booksellers -being filled with screeching collectors, with greedily-gaping bags. -Early in the afternoon, however, the collectors return, and now the -books, magazines, and invoices are carried into the packing department, -and such works as could not be obtained are written off as “out of -print,” &c. Packing is an art not easily acquired, and necessitates the -patient and skilful use of much brown paper, and, in many houses, of -paper-pulp stereo-moulds, by way of stiffening. The smaller parcels are -finished first, and as soon as all are ready for removal the carriers’ -carts and vans arrive; all entering the Row in regular order from the -Ludgate Hill end, and leaving it in the direction of Cheapside. By -the time that peace and quietude are restored to the neighbourhood, -some two and a half millions of volumes and periodicals (Simpkin, -Marshall and Company alone having probably despatched from six to eight -hundred different parcels) are flying from London to all parts of the -kingdom--to be greedily devoured and depreciatingly criticised on the -morrow. - -Not the least profitable portion of the business done by Simpkin, -Marshall and Company lies in their Colonial trade, for in this branch, -in common with other houses, they insist upon ready money payments, and -consequently all bad and doubtful debts are avoided. - -Besides holding many valuable copyrights in educational works, and -publishing to a large extent upon commission, they, as we have -previously shown, are the London agents for all works published by -their country clients. Nothing, perhaps, is more curious among modern -“literary curiosities” than the sudden and unparalleled popularity of -a small pamphlet entitled “Dame Europa’s School,” written in a style -and manner not unfamiliar to us in Swift’s inimitable “Tale of a Tub;” -witty, certainly, and undeniably apropos to the times, this clever -skit was taken by its author, Mr. Pullen, a minor canon of Salisbury -Cathedral, through the usual round of the London publishers, and, -as usual with pamphlets, they one and all declined even to read the -manuscript. Mr. Pullen, in despair, gave it to Mr. Brown, a bookseller -of Salisbury, to publish on commission--that is, the author undertook -all the risk, and the publisher charged merely a certain percentage on -the sales--and limited the amount that was to be spent in advertising -to two or three pounds. As Simpkin, Marshall and Company were Mr. -Brown’s London agents, the metropolitan sale was entrusted to their -care. Without any further trouble or expenditure, the little venture -was launched, and in something like a week had created such a _furore_ -that the printing had to be transferred to London, and Mr. Pullen is -stated to have cleared a handsome sum from the extraordinary sale -of his pamphlet, and the commissions gathered by the London and the -country publishers were certainly unprecedented in connection with a -little venture of this description. The London booksellers to whom it -had been offered now began to bestir themselves, and in a few weeks -there were no less than seven-and-thirty imitations of “Dame Europa’s -School” in the field, more than one of which are said to have been -written by very high dignitaries of the Church. All of these have, -however, already disappeared from circulation, though it seems probable -that the marvellously clever illustrations to the original “Dame -Europa’s School,” by Mr. Nast, one of the few really humorous artists -that America has produced, will preserve it for a time from the usual -fate of ephemeral literature. - -[Illustration] - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -_CHARLES EDWARD MUDIE_: - -THE LENDING LIBRARY. - - -Leaving for a while the publishers and vendors of books, we come -now to the truest disseminators of literature among those who would -otherwise have formed a non-reading, non-thinking, untaught class -in the community--a class who, originally at all events, were shut -out from the inheritance of the precious garnerings bequeathed by -long generations of writers having aught of genius, wit, or industry -to leave behind--for they were debarred from all enjoyment of such -heritage through their sheer inability to pay the literary legacy duty -demanded by the appointed tax-gatherers, the booksellers. - -In former times, of course, the very capability to read was confined -to the student, and to the poor student especially were the early -circulating libraries addressed. The first circulating library of -which we have any authentic history--for most history is much other -than authentic--was, according to Dr. Adam Clarke and other eminent -antiquarians, founded at Cæsarea about the year 309 A.D., by St. -Pamphilus, who united in his character the best attributes of the -Christian and the philosopher. In a few years the library contained -upwards of 30,000 volumes, an enormous number, considering the age -at which it existed. The collection was, however, intended only for -religious purposes, and the loan of the books was distinctly confined -to “religiously disposed persons.” At Paris and elsewhere traces of -this collection are still said to exist. - -In the middle ages, the practice of lending out books, or exchanging -them between monastery and monastery, was not uncommon, and by the -early stationers of Paris the manuscripts were cut up into small -portions (much as the present librarian’s novel requires to be divided -into three volumes), to the greater profit of the lenders; but we come -to very modern times before we find that circulating libraries, in the -modern acceptation of the term, were established. - -The first circulating library in London was founded by Wright, a -bookseller of 132, Strand, about the year 1730. Franklin, writing of a -time some five years previous to this, says:--“While I lodged in Little -Britain, I formed an acquaintance with a bookseller of the name of -Wilcox, whose shop was next door to me. _Circulating libraries were not -then in use._ We agreed that for a reasonable retribution, of which I -have forgotten the price, I should have free access to his library, and -take what books I pleased, which I was to return when I had read them.” -Among Wright’s earliest rivals were the Nobles, John Bell (the cheap -publisher), Thomas Lowndes, and notably Samuel Bathoe, who died in -1768, and to whom, erroneously, the credit of the innovation has been -very generally attributed. As late, however, as 1770, there were only -four real circulating libraries in the capital. - -The practice soon spread through the country. Shortly after Wright’s -death, Hatton established a circulating library at Birmingham. In 1745, -Watts introduced a circulating library into Cambridge, greatly extended -afterwards by John Nicholson, known by the _sobriquet_ of “Maps,” -who used to carry a sack of books to each undergraduate’s rooms, in -case they felt a sudden inclination for reading something newer than -Homer, Xenophon, or Euclid. By the year 1755 we find that circulating -libraries had extended to the extreme north of England, for Newcastle -then boasted the possession of two. - -Though the custom was rapidly obtaining in town and country, the books -lent out to read were generally very similar in title to those in -the famous list in the “Rivals,” which caused Sir Anthony Absolute’s -condemnation--“A circulating library in a town is an evergreen tree of -diabolical knowledge; it blossoms throughout the year. And depend on -it, that they who are so fond of handling the leaves will long for the -fruit at last.” We have still only to go to our little country towns -and petty watering-places--few now, fortunately, still beyond the arm -of “Smith” or “Mudie”--to see the circulating library in its pristine -form. - -At first the benefits that must inevitably accrue from the movement to -the publishers as well as to the public were by no means recognized. -Lackington tells us that “when the circulating libraries were first -opened the booksellers were most alarmed, but experience has proved -that the sale of books, so far from being diminished thereby, has been -most greatly increased.” - -Under the care of Hookham and Eber, these circulating libraries did -undoubtedly improve, for the proprietors now began to consider the -wants of students as well as the idle pleasure of loungers who thought -with Gray that the acmé of human happiness consisted in lying upon a -sofa reading the latest licentious novelties of Crébillon _fils_ and -his genus. The movement was further accelerated by the foundation of -book-clubs, the first of which is said to have sprung out of Burn’s -“Bachelor’s Club.” For forty or fifty years these book-clubs did good -service in the cause of education and progress, especially under -the fostering care of Mr. Charles Knight and the Society for the -Diffusion of Useful Knowledge; but soon an organizing genius arose -who was not only to render book-clubs, save those affiliated to his -own, unnecessary, but was to develop the full power of co-operation -in the circulating library itself. And his advent was favoured by a -wonderfully extended system of transport through the agency of the -railways. - -Charles Edward Mudie was born in the year 1818, in Cheyne Walk, -Chelsea, where his father kept a little newspaper shop, at which -stationery and other articles were retailed, and where books of the -fugitive fiction class could be borrowed at the usual suburban charge -of a penny the volume. - -[Illustration: Charles Edward Mudie, founder of Mudie’s Library.] - -Mr. Mudie’s education was, as he says, “properly cared for,” and -he stayed at home assisting in his father’s business until he was -twenty-two years of age; and even in his early days he made it -his great ambition to possess a circulating library of his own, -declaring that when once he was started he would be second to none. - -In the year 1840, he opened a little shop in Upper King Street, -Bloomsbury, and he carried on precisely the same trade as his father -did in Cheyne Walk. By degrees, however, he neglected the newspaper -and general stationery business, and devoted himself more exclusively -to the circulating library, which he increased at such a rapid rate -that the father became alarmed at the speculative spirit of his son. In -1842, Mr. Mudie commenced his system of lending out one exchangeable -volume to subscribers at the rate of a guinea per annum; and as he made -the addition of every new work, immediately upon its publication, a -feature in his establishment, he produced an entire revolution in the -circulating library movement, and was rewarded by a rapidly increasing -number of subscribers. Nor did he at this early period confine his -dealings solely to circulating the books of other publishers. He was -himself in some instances a publisher, and from his establishment -issued the first English edition of James R. Lowell’s “Poems,” and Mr. -George Dawson’s first “Orations.” - -In 1852 the library had grown too large for the house in Upper King -Street, and he removed his business to two houses which form part of -his present establishment--the penultimate house in New Oxford Street, -and the penultimate house in Museum Street; and though the corner -house intervened, the two were connected by a passage. Gradually, as -the business grew, the houses on either side were absorbed. In 1860 -the large hall was opened, and inaugurated by a festive gathering of -literary men and publishers; and the entire block of building, as it -stands at present, occupies the sites of eight houses, and even now -great additions are being made to the rear of the premises. As the -popularity of the library increased, branch houses were opened in the -city, in Birmingham and Manchester, and arrangements were made with -literary institutions, provincial libraries, book-clubs, and societies. - -The magnitude of the business had, however, now grown beyond the limit -of individual capital, and, in 1864, Mr. Mudie found it desirable to -form his library into a limited liability company. The value of the -property was estimated at £100,000; of this he reserved £50,000, and -the remaining £50,000 was immediately subscribed by Mr. Murray, Mr. -Bentley, and other publishers; Mr. Mudie’s services being, naturally, -retained at a salary of £1,000 per annum, in addition to his half -interest in the business. - -This change, and the increase of capital, proved in every way -beneficial to the expansion of the library; and since penning this -account we have received a circular announcing an enormous increase of -business. From the 18th August, 1871, the Directors of Mudie’s Select -Library (Limited) became possessors of the English and Foreign Library -and its large connection. This library, which was originally known as -“Hookham’s,” at one time possessed one of the finest collections of -rare and valuable standard works in London. - -On entering Mudie’s Select Library, from New Oxford Street, we pass -through the show-rooms devoted to the sale of bound books; for -though the directors do not enter into the usual speculations of the -bookselling trade, the clean copies of popular works are put into -ornamental bindings, and in this manner a very extensive business is -done in works adapted for presents and prizes. Behind these show-rooms -stands the Great Hall, a large room, on the wall of which 16,000 -of the current works most in vogue are shelved. What most strikes -us here is the great order and method that everywhere obtains. The -volumes are arranged in alphabetical order, and every attendant goes -straight to the required book, without hesitation or delay. For each -London customer a card is reserved bearing his name, and these cards -are kept, like the books, in an alphabetical system. The books taken -out are entered on the card, the books brought back ticked off, and -the method is found to be as successful as it certainly is simple. -The longer lists of large and country subscribers are still, however, -entered in the ledgers. Proceeding upstairs to the first floor, we -find books, still current, but not quite so incessantly called for. -On the first floor, too, we have the private offices for clerks, and -the foreign department. Mudie’s collection of German works is the -best of any of the London circulating libraries, and the German books -are said to be much more earnestly read than the French, occasional -and popular novels, of course, excepted. On the higher floors the -standard catalogued works are stowed, their popularity diminishing as -the altitude of their resting place increases. As soon as a book is -published in a shilling or other cheap edition, it ceases to be much -demanded here. For instance, Lord Lytton’s novels are in very little -request. On the contrary, we were told that no sets of books are so -rapidly “worn out” as the works of Charles Dickens. - -The stock of books is so incessantly varying through the sale of -old and the purchase of new volumes, that we were told that it was -impossible to give anything like an estimate of the numbers. Some idea -of the magnitude of the library may, however, be gathered from the -following:-- - -Of the last two volumes of Macaulay’s “History of England,” 2400 copies -were taken, and the public demand for them was so extraordinary that a -whole shop, now the large room on the left as one enters, was devoted -to their stowage and exchange. There were taken, of Dr. Livingstone’s -first African Travels, 2000 copies; and of Mr. Tennyson’s “Enoch -Arden,” 2500 (the largest number required of any poetical work); of -Mr. Disraeli’s “Lothair” 1500 copies were at first subscribed, but it -was soon found necessary to increase the number to 3000. The demand -was, however, as brief as it was eager, and the monumental pile of -“remainders” in Mr. Mudie’s cellar is the largest that has ever been -erected there to the hydra of ephemeral admiration. About 600 copies -of each of the two great reviews--the _Edinburgh_ and _Quarterly_--are -required as a first instalment; but should any article prove more -than usually attractive to the public, a large addition is made--this -was notably the case with that number of the _Quarterly_ containing -the famous article on the “Talmud;” 100 copies of the _Revue des Deux -Mondes_ are required fortnightly to satisfy foreign students; and -we believe that, of all novels which are likely to prove ordinarily -popular, as many as 400 are at once ordered. The onus of selecting -the books rests entirely in Mr. Mudie’s own hands, and it has often -been objected that his decisions are somewhat arbitrary;--for instance -Mr. Swinburne is tabooed, while M. Paul de Koch is made free of the -establishment--that, in short, the subscribers should be considered as -responsible judges of what books they do, and do not, desire to read. -However, as it is, Mr. Mudie’s principles of selection are broad enough -to satisfy very various classes of readers. Of course the largest class -of all are the novel-devourers, and it is said that, as the coarser -novels of the day are almost exclusively written by women, so it is -by women that they are chiefly patronised. The large field opened to -female labour in the manufacture of library fiction is worth a moment’s -consideration, for the road has been cleared towards it, not by -platform gatherings of stentorian amazons, but simply by the ordinary -laws of supply and demand. - -On analysing Mudie’s clearance catalogue for August, 1871 (and this -catalogue is one of the best guides to the popular novel literature -of the last few years), we find that there are 441 works of fiction -written by authors under their own names, or by authors whose -pseudonymes are perfectly well known. Of these 441 distinct works, -212 are written by men, and 229 by women; so that, by what seems to -us a not unfair test, actually more than half the novels of the day -are written by female authors. To another large class of readers (the -good people who go to Mr. and Mrs. German Reed’s entertainments, and -not to the theatre), the ordinary novels are _caviare_; and they -require their fiction seasoned, not by sensation, but by religious -precept. Scientific books, once asked for only by students, are vastly -increasing in popularity; and the “fairy tales of science,” as narrated -by a Huxley or a Darwin, are beginning to be as eagerly demanded as the -latest productions of Miss Braddon or Mr. Wilkie Collins. - -In the basement cellars, extending under the whole building, the -“remainders” are stowed in huge bales, ready for sale or export. These -are principally purchased by the country circulating libraries, and by -shippers to the colonies and British possessions; and thus the name -of Mudie--and the well-known yellow label, familiar in every English -household--is carried wherever the English tongue is spoken. - -About eighty assistants are employed in the central house alone, -without reckoning those engaged in the city and the country branches. -The system of leaving books at the subscribers’ own homes, recently -introduced, is becoming more and more popular: five vans go out daily -on their respective rounds, and 8000 calls are generally made in the -course of the week. - -Mr. Mudie’s services as a public benefactor in the cause of extended -education, were some years since publicly recognized by the ratepayers -of Westminster, in his election to the London School Board; and it -is to be hoped that his knowledge of the practical use of the boon -conferred upon the higher classes by the increased facilities of -book-hiring, may lead him to urge upon his colleagues the advisability -of establishing free circulating libraries for the use of those whose -educational guardians they have recently become. The gift of tools is -of very little moment to any one, if there is to be no occasion for -their use; and in many instances it will be an absolute cruelty to -teach children to read, and then to hurl them back on the atrocious -literature of slum shops. At present, the fact that London is still -without any pretence to a free circulating library, or indeed to an -absolutely free library of any kind, is doubly disgraceful to our -pachydermatous local authorities, because several provincial towns have -shamed us by a good example. When the schoolmaster first began to -bestir himself abroad in England, a taste for reading was encouraged, -which soon spread in every direction, and by degrees a loud demand, -satisfied at present only in a very limited degree, began to make -itself heard for the establishment of free libraries. - -In 1845, Mr. William Ewart succeeded in passing a bill through the -House to encourage the establishment of museums, and, legally intended, -to include also libraries. By this act the local authorities, in towns -with a population exceeding 10,000, possessed the power of levying a -halfpenny rate for this purpose; and the sum so raised was to be spent -in providing buildings, and in paying the expenses of conservation, -not of accumulation. At this time, an official inquiry shows us that -Manchester, with a population of 360,000 persons, was the only town -in the kingdom which possessed a perfectly free library--this was the -Chetham _Endowed_ Library (said to be the oldest in Europe), which -consisted of only 19,000 volumes. A further act was passed in 1850, -distinctly referring to libraries, under the title of the “Public -Library and Museum Act,” by the provisions of which a majority of the -ratepayers, at any properly summoned meeting, can levy a halfpenny in -the pound for the establishment of free libraries. - -In 1852, chiefly owing to the exertions of the late Sir John Potter, -the Manchester Free Library was opened, and is supported by the -ratepayers. Since that time, four additional free lending libraries, -with newspaper-rooms attached, have been affiliated to it. In 1869 the -main library contained upwards of 84,000 volumes. A guarantee from any -householder is all that is required by those wishing to partake of the -benefits of the Manchester libraries. - -The Liverpool Library, the best used of all these institutions, was -founded chiefly through the munificence of Mr. William Brown, who, at -its opening in 1860, was created a baronet. It consists of a reference -and two lending libraries, and in 1867, though there were only 45,668 -volumes in the reference library, the daily issue of books actually -averaged 2041. - -At Bebbington, a suburb of Liverpool, or, more justly, of Birkenhead, -a very excellent free circulating library has been established by Mr. -Meyer, the eminent goldsmith and antiquarian, and its advantages are -duly appreciated by the residents for miles around. - -At Birmingham there are five different libraries and reading-rooms, -containing, in all, 52,269 volumes. In 1869, 300,031 volumes were -borrowed by 9688 persons, of whom no fewer than 5607 were under twenty -years of age. - -The “lending library” at all these towns appears to be of a more -popular character than the “reference library,” though both are -essential. - -After this short survey, it does indeed seem disgraceful to the London -authorities that now, when the State is absolutely preparing its -weapons to battle with Ignorance, when Education is to be made possible -to all, patent to all, Mr. Mudie should be allowed, unrivalled, to -supply so admirably the literary wants of the wealthy, and that the -poor should be refused the cheapest and most remunerative of all -boons--a free opportunity of gaining knowledge. - -[Illustration] - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -_W. H. SMITH AND SON_: - -RAILWAY LITERATURE. - - -W. H. Smith, the originator of the enormous traffic in the sale and -loan of books, and in the sale of newspapers and periodicals, in -connection with our extended railway system, was born on the 7th -of July, 1792. As he was, from early years, intended for entirely -different pursuits from that which he eventually followed, he cannot -be said to have received a special business training. While still a -boy, family circumstances rendered it desirable that he should take the -control of a small newspaper establishment at the West End of London, -and though his inclinations were decidedly opposed to a petty trade -of this nature, he made duty paramount to likings or dislikings, and -gave all his attention to his business. In a short time he was able -to move to a larger shop in the Strand, and here he added the sale -of stationery to the newspaper traffic. At that time the mails were -conveyed from London by coaches leaving at night only, so that the -morning papers could not be received in Liverpool or Manchester until -forty-eight hours after publication. Smith now conceived the idea of -forwarding the newspapers by express parcels by the coaches leaving -London in the morning, and as these coaches generally left before the -delivery of the morning papers, he kept a relay of swift, long-legged -horses, which started as soon as the papers came to hand, and caught -up the coaches where they could. By this means he actually secured the -delivery of the news in the large Northern towns four-and-twenty hours -in advance of the mail. For some years the returns from this business -were altogether inadequate to the cost and trouble incurred, and many -men would have abandoned so desperate an enterprise, but Smith had -faith in the scheme, and his perseverance was rewarded by the largest -newspaper business in Europe. His attention was almost entirely given -to the newspaper branch of his trade, and after a time everything else -gave way to it. - -When railways first began to supersede coaches, Smith at once availed -himself of the new facilities thus afforded in the transit of his -newspapers. Up to 1848 no systematic arrangements had been made to -supply passengers at the stations with either papers or books. The -privilege of satisfying public requirements had not been regarded as -possessing any value, and the only idea those who had the right of -selling books there put into actual execution was to avoid all risk -whatsoever in providing for their possible customers. The result was, -of course, very far from satisfactory, and it occurred to Smith, in -1848, to tender for the exclusive right of vending books and papers on -the Birmingham Railway. The general satisfaction which this innovation -afforded, induced the Directors of other companies to open the way to -similar arrangements, and thus the newspaper trade of W. H. Smith -and Son (for he had by this time taken his son into partnership), was -established at almost every station of importance in the kingdom; but -the original cost of organization was enormous, and two or three years -elapsed before any actual profit was realised. - -Soon, of course, at the railway stalls, books as well as papers were -vended, and the special requirements of passengers called into being -several cheap series of light works of fiction, calculated to while -away the tedium of a railway journey. By degrees, too, a circulating -library was formed and extended, and, as Smith and Son possessed -unparalleled advantages in the way of cheap transit of goods, and in -their already-established branches, extending throughout the kingdom -wherever the iron horse had previously cleared the way, they were able -to supplement Mudie’s Library most efficiently. - -In 1852 W. H. Smith, senior, first felt the symptoms of a diseased -heart, and in 1854 he retired from business altogether, spending the -remainder of his days at his country residence at Bournemouth, and here -he died on the 28th of July, 1855. - -Upon Mr. W. H. Smith, son of the founder, the business now devolved, -and, while extending its ramifications in all directions, he found time -and opportunity to embrace a career of more general utility. Elected by -the householders of Westminster as a member of the House of Commons, to -the exclusion of Mr. J. S. Mill, he has won the good opinions of all -parties by the active part he has always taken in Metropolitan matters, -and by the staunchness with which he has defended the privileges of -London citizens. The confidence of the public was again expressed in -his favour when he was chosen a member of the School Board for London. -It is understood that of late years a great part of the management of -the business establishment has devolved upon Mr. Lethbridge, the junior -member of the firm. - -As we have already, in our chapter on Mr. Mudie, devoted ourselves -especially to the circulating library, we will endeavour here to give -only a short account of the newspaper business of W. H. Smith and Son. - -If we walk down the Strand at four o’clock in the morning, we find -the whole street deserted and dull until we reach a row of red carts, -bearing the name of the firm. When, however, we enter the establishment -by which they are waiting, all is business and bustle. The interior -of the large building is, in shape, not unlike a bee-hive; the -ground-floor forms, as it were, the pit, and the two galleries the -boxes, of a theatre. In these galleries nearly two hundred men and boys -are already busy folding papers. - -At five o’clock the “dailies” begin to arrive, and the advent of the -_Times_ is hailed with a consternation of enthusiasm. The huge bundles -are fiercely attacked, and folded off in a shorter time than one -could imagine possible; and then the _Telegraph_, _Daily News_, and -_Standard_ are assaulted. As soon as the folding has been partially -completed, a portion of the assistants are told off to make the proper -assortment for each country place, and each packer has now a boy to -wait upon him, who shouts out his individual wants. - -At the door the carts are waiting ready to drive off with the parcels -to the different railway termini, and by about a quarter to six all the -first trains out of London are supplied, and in less than two hours the -whole kingdom has been fed with morning newspapers, including between -20,000 and 30,000 copies of the _Times_. - -This scene occurs every week-day morning, but on Friday afternoon, -on the arrival of the weekly papers, the bustle of business is even -greater, and the parcels (those for the post only) are removed by -fourteen vans sent from the General Post Office. - -In connection with the “Railway Libraries,” it may be interesting to -learn something of the publisher who has identified them with his -business. Mr. George Routledge is a native of Cumberland--a county, -perhaps, as much as any other, famous for the commercial success of its -natives--who, after serving his apprenticeship at Carlisle, came up to -London, and obtained employment in the house of Baldwin and Craddock. -Soon, however, he opened a little shop of his own in Ryder’s Court, -Leicester Square, for the sale of cheap and second-hand books. Here, -however, at first he had much spare time on his hands, and he managed -to procure a subordinate position in the Tithe Office. The work was -not heavy, and the extra salary enabled him to increase his legitimate -business. During the holiday time granted him by the Office, he made -two or three journeys of exploration into the country, and found that -a wide field existed there for a venturous and indomitable bookseller. -Accordingly, he set to work to buy remainders, and having by degrees -established agencies in the country, the young and almost unknown -bookseller of Ryder’s Court was able to compete in the auction-rooms, -and generally with success, against Mr. Bohn and other influential -members of the trade--much to their astonishment, and not a little to -their consternation. It was now time to give up the aid of the Tithe -Office, and in 1845 Mr. Routledge moved to larger premises in Soho -Square, and in 1848 Mr. William Warne, his brother-in-law, and for -long his assistant, was admitted into partnership, being joined by Mr. -F. Warne, three years later, when the firm moved again to Farringdon -Street. - -While at Soho Square, the publications of Messrs. Routledge and Warne -had consisted chiefly of reprints, and here the remainder trade had -been vastly extended, but now they began to enter into direct dealings -with noted authors on a scale that fully equalled the transactions of -the first publishing firms. Perhaps the boldest of their early ventures -was the offer of £20,000 to Sir E. Bulwer Lytton for the right of -issuing a cheap series of his works for the term of ten years, from -1853-1863. In spite of the enormous outlay they were very willing, on -the expiry of the time, to take a fresh lease of the popular volumes; -so that an offer originally deemed by the trade to be Quixotic, if not -ruinous, must have reaped the success that its liberality and boldness -deserved; and by their association with Sir E. Bulwer Lytton, a great -_prestige_ was at once acquired. Similar arrangements were made with -other distinguished novelists, nearly all of whom we have met before -in our previous article on Colburn--Mr. G. P. R. James, Mr. Disraeli, -Mr. Harrison Ainsworth, and Mr. Howard Russell; while these successful -re-issues were quickly followed by the publication of original works by -Mayne Reed, Grant, and others, and by the first English edition of many -of Prescott’s and Longfellow’s productions. - -The various popular series known as the “Railway Library,” the “Popular -Library,” &c., comprising many hundred volumes of standard works, -afforded the chief business at Smith’s bookstalls, and were, through -Mr. Routledge’s complete network of agents and connections, scattered -broadcast over the country. Among the first books they brought out at a -shilling were the works of Fenimore Cooper, Captain Marryat, Washington -Irving, and Mrs. Stowe. Of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” half-a-million copies -are said to have been sold. Of Russell’s “Narrative of the Crimean -War,” 20,000; of Soyer’s “Shilling Cookery,” 250,000; and of “Rarey on -Horse Training,” 150,000 copies were disposed of in a very few weeks. -As an example of the energy and enterprise of the firm, it is stated -that when the copy of “Queechy” was received upon one Monday morning, -it was at once placed in the printer’s hands; on Thursday the sheets -were at the binder’s, and on the Monday following 20,000 copies had -been disposed of to the trade. - -Besides these cheap works, Mr. Routledge has issued a multitude of more -expensive volumes, illustrated by the best artists, and “got up” in the -most luxurious styles. Among these it will be enough here to mention -his numerous Shakespeares, Wood’s “Natural History” and Wood’s “Natural -History of Man,” and Routledge’s “English Poets.” How extensive the -Fine Art business of the firm must have been may be gathered from the -fact that before 1855 they had paid one engraving house--the Messrs. -Dalziel Brothers--upwards of £50,000. - -In 1854, Mr. Routledge established a branch house at New York, and -in 1865, Mr. F. Warne--his brother had previously died--on the -termination of the partnership, established a fresh business in Bedford -Street, Covent Garden. With his two sons--Mr. Robert and Mr. Edmund -Routledge--the founder now carries on the business at Broadway, Ludgate -Hill, having removed thither when the railway improvements took place -in Farringdon Street. - - NOTE.--For these statistics and much of our sketch we are - indebted to a writer in the _Bookseller_, who “obtained the - information from trustworthy sources.” - -[Illustration] - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -_PROVINCIAL BOOKSELLERS._ - - _York_: _Gent and Burdekin._ - - _Newcastle_: _Goading, Bryson, Bewick, and Charnley._ - - _Glasgow_: _Fowlis and Collins._ - - _Liverpool_: _Johnson._ - - _Dublin_: _Duffy._ - - _Derby_: _Mozley, Richardson, and Bemrose._ - - _Manchester_: _Harrop, Barker, Timperley, and the Heywoods._ - - _Birmingham_: _Hutton, Baskerville, and “The Educational - Trading Co.”_ - - _Exeter_: _Brice._ - - _Bristol_: _Cottle._ - - -In this short chapter on provincial bookselling, we shall be -necessarily obliged to confine our notice to those representatives -of the trade in the larger country towns who were characteristically -as well as bibliopolically famous--who, with their native talent, -determination, and endurance, would have succeeded in any walk of life, -had they not, fortunately for the interest of our history, embraced the -profession of bookselling. - -In old days, York was the natural capital of the North of England; a -position acquired, of course, in times of ecclesiastical supremacy, -but still retained for centuries after the Reformation. When the cost -and difficulty of transit were great, the country folk looked to their -own capital cities to supply them with literary food, and the annals -of bookselling at York go back to nearly as ancient a date as those of -London; and, indeed, Thomas Gent, whom we select as our representative -of the York booksellers, might have figured in the earlier portion of -our introductory chapter, had he not been reserved for a more fitting -place here. - -Thomas Gent, though of a Staffordshire family, was born in Dublin, and -was apprenticed by his parents, poor though industrious people, to a -printer in that city. In 1710, after three years’ brutal treatment from -his employers, he ran away to London, where, as he was not a freeman of -the city, he lived upon what he calls “smouting work” for four years, -and then accepted a situation with Mr. White of York, who, as a reward -for printing the Prince of Orange’s declaration when all the London -printers were afraid, had been created King’s printer for York and -five other counties. White must have enjoyed plenty of business, there -being few printers out of London at that time--“None,” says Gent, “I am -sure at Chester, Liverpool, Whitehaven, Preston, Manchester, Kendal, -and Leeds.” When Gent, terminating his long walk from London, arrived -at York, the door was opened by “Mistress White’s head maiden, who is -now my dear spouse,” but he had to wait nearly as long a time as Jacob -served for Rachel before he could claim “my dearest.” - -Gent was as happy in York as he could well be, was earning money and -respected by all, when his parents bade him come back to Dublin, and -what made his departure grievous?--“I scarce knew, however, through -respect of Mrs. Alice Guy.... Indeed I was not very forward in love -or desire of matrimony till I knew the world better, and consequently -should be more able to provide such a handsome maintenance as I confess -I had ambition enough to desire.... However, I told her (because my -irresolution should not anticipate her advancement) that I should -respect her as one of the dearest of friends; and receiving a little -dog from her, as a companion on the road, I had the honour to be -accompanied as far as Bramham Moor by my rival” (his master’s grandson). - -At Dublin he was soon threatened with seizure for having broken his -apprenticeship, and though his friends offered to buy his freedom, he -had received a letter from his dearest at York, saying he was expected -there, and he could not resist the opportunity of meeting her again. -His friends were much concerned at parting with him so soon, “but -my unlucky whelp that had torn my new hat to pieces seemed no wise -affected by my taking boat; so I let the rascal stay with my dear -parents, who were fond of him for my sake, as he was of them for his -own.” - -After a stay of a few months at York, he came to London, resolved to -scrape and save money enough to warrant him offering a home to “Mrs. -Alice Guy,” and in 1817 he became free of the City of London, and set -to work in grim earnest, “many times from five in the morning till -twelve at night, and frequently without food from breakfast till five -or six in the evening, through hurry with hawkers;” for at times he -was in a ballad-house, now toiling at case, now writing “last words -and confessions,” now reporting sermons “for a crown piece and a -pair of breeches”--(profitable penny-a-lining that!)--again printing -treasonable papers, for which he was seized by the authorities; -and pirating and abridging “Robinson Crusoe,” the first part of -which appeared in 1717, for which greater crime he went scot free. -Occasionally he went home, but scarcely found it worth his while to -stay in Dublin, and his parents’ “melting tears caused mine to flow, -and bedewed my pillow every night after that I lodged with them. ‘What, -Tommy,’ my mother would sometimes say, ‘this English damsel of yours, -I suppose, is the chiefest reason why you slight us and your native -country! Well,’ added she, ‘the ways of Providence are unsearchable.’” - -Gent, however, “provident overmuch,” made the heart of his English -damsel sick with hope deferred--and “yet” he writes, “I could not well -help it. I had a little money, it is very true, but no certain home -wherein to invite her. I knew she was well fixed; and it pierced me -to the very heart to think if through any miscarriage or misfortune I -should alter her condition for the worse instead of the better. Upon -this account my letters to her at this time were not so amorously -obliging as they ought to have been from a sincere lover; by which she -had reason, however she might have been mistaken, to think that I had -failed in my part of those tender engagements which had passed between -us.” - -After serving some time with Watts, Tonson’s printing partner, and -also with Henry Woodfall, founder of a long line of famous printers, -he purchased a quantity of old type from Mist, the proprietor of the -well-known journal, and just as he was conning over his matrimonial -prospects, “one Sunday morning as my shoes were japanning by a little -boy at the end of the lane, there came Mr. John Hoyle. ‘Mr. Gent,’ said -he, ‘I have been at York to see my parents, and am but just as it were -returned to London. I am heartily glad to see you, but sorry to tell -you that you have lost your old sweetheart; for I assure you that she -is really married to your rival, Mr. Bourne.’ I was so thunderstruck -that I could scarcely return an answer.” - -In this grief he betook himself to the Muse, and as he had formerly -earned the title of the Bellman’s Poet, he indicted the “Forsaken -Lover’s Letter to his Former Sweetheart,” to a tune “much in request, -and proper for the flute;” and not caring that his master should know -of his great disappointment, he gave the copy to Mr. Dodd, “who, -printing the same, sold thousands of them, for which he offered me a -price; but as it was on my own proper concern, I scorned to accept of -anything except a glass of comfort or so.” “Proper concerns” in the -shape of heartaches, disappointments, and miseries, have been traded -in to better purpose by less modest singers, but Gent’s mental anguish -seems sincere; he “was then worn down to a shadow,” and weary of his -endless and now purposeless struggle. Work, however, a palliative if -not a cure, was again eagerly resorted to, and Gent found employment -first with Mr. Samuel Richardson, and afterwards, and more permanently, -with Mrs. Dodd. Here he continued till on another “Sunday morning -Mr. Philip Wood, a quondam partner of Mr. Midwinter’s, entering my -chambers--‘Tommy,’ said he, ‘all these fine material of yours must be -moved to York,’ at which, wondering, ‘What mean you?’ said I. ‘Ay,’ -said he,’ ‘and you must go to, without it’s your own fault; for your -first sweetheart is now at liberty, and left in good circumstances by -her dear spouse, deceased but of late.’ ‘I pray heaven,’ answered I, -‘that his precious soul may be happy; and for aught I know it may be -as you say, for indeed I think I may not trifle with a widow, as I -have formerly done with a maid.’” So he paid forthwith his coach fare -down to York, and found his dearest much altered, for he had not seen -her these ten years. There was no need of new courtship, “but decency -suspended the ceremony of marriage for some time, till my dearest, -considering the ill-consequence of delay in her business, as well as -the former ties of love that passed innocently between us, by word and -writing, gave full consent to have the nuptials celebrated.” - -But, alas! when he became a master instead of a servant, and she a -mistress instead of a maid, he found her “temper much altered from -that sweet natural softness and most tender affection that rendered -her so amiable to me while I was more juvenile and she a widow. My -dear’s uncle, White, as he calls himself, who, as the only printer -in Newcastle, had heaped up riches,” was angry that he had not been -chosen to manage his niece’s shop, and actually came to York to found -a rival establishment. Gent started a paper, and, though he persevered -in its publication for many years, he was at length out-rivalled by -White. In the publication of books he was much more successful. In -1726 he printed some books “learnedly translated into English by John -Clarke, a schoolmaster in Hull,” as well as two editions of Erasmus. -But the works by which he acquired most money and reputation were -written as well as published by himself--“The Famous History of the -City of York,” “History of the Loyal Town of Ripon,” and the “History -of the Royal and Beautiful Town of Kingstown-upon-Hill.” At this time -his business is thus described by a card still existing:--“Within his -well-contrived office aforesaid printing is performed in a curious and -judicious manner, having sets of fine characters for the Greek, Latin, -English, Mathematics, &c. He sells the histories of Rome, France, -England, particularly of this ancient City, Aynsty, and extensive -County, in five volumes; likewise a book of the holy life of St. -Winnifred, and her wonderful Cambrian fountain. He has stimulated an -ingenious founder to cast such musical types, for the common press, as -never yet were exhibited; and has prepared a new edition of his York -History against the time when the few remaining copies of that first -and large impression are disposed off.” He died, however, at York in -1778, in his eighty-seventh year, in somewhat reduced circumstances, -solely, he alleges, through the animosity of his uncle White. The -manuscript of his interesting autobiography was discovered casually -in Ireland, and was published only in 1832. From its quaintness and -simplicity, above all from its minuteness of detail, it is evident -enough where the abridger of “Robinson Crusoe” borrowed his manner and -style; and the reader will probably not quarrel with us for having -given as much of the narrative as possible in the author’s own words. - -Chief among the more recent York booksellers was Richard Burdekin, who -died only twelve years since. In his younger days he was a traveller to -the local firm of Wilson & Sons, who at the beginning of the century -were well known as publishers of the works of Lindley Murray, which -are said at that time to have achieved an annual sale of 100,000 -copies. What Burdekin’s efforts in his masters’ service were, we can -gather from the fact that he rode his favourite horse 30,000 miles -in search of orders, which in a short time doubled the receipts of -his employers. Soon he joined Spence in an old-established business, -and eventually became senior partner of the firm. His trade extended -to forty miles round York, and for fifty-five years he continued to -sell, and in a lesser degree to publish, such books as might suit the -inhabitants of the three ridings. - -We have seen that Gent describes his dear’s uncle White as having -heaped up riches as the only Newcastle printer. He could, however, -scarcely have been the only printer there, for we find that even when -Charles I. made Newcastle his headquarters he brought with him Robert -Barker, who had, as we have elsewhere noticed, enjoyed certain patents -under the two preceding monarchs. If there were no previous printers -at Newcastle in Barker’s time, one, at least, must have started very -shortly afterwards, for in 1656 we find the death of “James Chantler, -bookseller,” recorded, and in those times the booksellers were mainly -supplied from local sources. - -From Chantler’s time we find that books and stationery were the staple -commodities of Tyne Bridge, and for nearly a couple of centuries the -“brigg” has been a favourite resort of the trade. We find the names of -Randell, Maplisden, Linn, and Akenhead occurring in the list of the -Newcastle Stationers’ Company; and at the close of 1746 John Goading -printed the first number of the _Newcastle General Magazine_. “For too -long,” said the preface, “had the northern climes been deprived of a -repository of learning; too long had those geniuses that now began to -shine been consealed in darkness for want of a proper channel to convey -their productions into light;” but in 1760 the northern geniuses were -again “consealed in darkness,” for the magazine came to an end. Four -years later, however, Thomas Slack founded the _Newcastle Chronicle_, -which has gone on continuously to the present day, being now one of the -very best daily papers out of London. To its columns we are indebted -for much of the preceding. - -Goading had continued his general publishing business with some energy, -and in 1751 he issued Blenerhasset’s “History of England”--from the -landing of the Phœnicians to the death of George I.--and in his list of -subscribers we find no less than eight Newcastle booksellers, one of -whom was Martin Bryson, the friend and correspondent of Allan Ramsay, -the Scotch poet and Edinburgh bookseller, who addressed a letter to him -in rhyme-- - - “To Martin Bryson, on Tyne Brigg, - An upright, downright, honest Whig.” - -Bryson’s name occurs on a title-page as early as 1722. His house and -stock were destroyed by the great Newcastle fire of 1750, and after -this occurrence he took, William Charnley, the son of a Penrith -haberdasher and one of his many apprentices, into partnership. - -To diverge for a moment from this pedigree of bibliopoles, we come to -by far the greatest name connected in any way with the production of -books at Newcastle--that, of course, of Thomas Bewick; and though his -life belongs more properly to the history of engraving, for many years -the books that were illustrated by his pencil gave the northern town -such a world-wide reputation that we feel justified in devoting a page -or two to his memory. - -Thomas Bewick was born at Cherryburn, twelve miles to the west of -Newcastle, in 1753, receiving a limited, but as far as it went a -thorough education; his genius displayed itself in early childish -days by such chalk drawings on barn-walls and stable-doors as have -almost invariably discovered the bent of youthful artistic genius. At -the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to Mr. Beilby, of Newcastle, an -engraver in copper-plate, and though Beilby’s business lay rather in -the production of brass door-plates, and the emblazoning of spoons and -watches, than in Fine Art illustrations, the master soon appreciated -and encouraged his pupil’s wonderful talents. During the period of -his apprenticeship, young Bewick paid only ninepence a week for his -lodging, and brought back a coarse brown loaf in every weekly visit to -his home at Cherryburn. As soon as his term of seven years had expired, -he still continued in Beilby’s service, but devoted himself henceforth -to wood-engraving. Shortly afterwards he received a premium from the -Society of Arts for a woodcut of the “Huntsman and the Old Hound,” -and this induced him in the following year to go to London in quest -of labour and fortune, but he found the metropolis so little to his -liking that he writes home: “I would rather be herding sheep on Mickley -Bank-top than remain in London, although for doing so I was to be made -the premier of England.” With his distaste for town life and his strong -love for the country--for its scenery changing with every season, for -its living forms of animal and plant life, for all, in short, that -incessantly appealed to a wonderful artistic instinct, Bewick was -easily persuaded by his old master, Beilby, to return to Newcastle, and -enter into partnership with him--his brother John becoming their joint -apprentice. The publication of the illustrations to “Gay’s Fables,” and -the “Select Fables,” by the brothers, spread their reputation far and -wide, and placed them far above competition in the art. In 1785, Thomas -Bewick began the cuts for his “History of Quadrupeds,” though the work -was not completed and published until 1790. The “text,” or literary -matter, was contributed by his partner, Beilby, but it was of course on -account of the illustrations that three large editions were called for -within three years. In this successful venture, the two partners were -associated with a printer of the name of Hodgson, and unfortunately, -after his death, the arrangement was made the grounds of dispute by -his widow, and Bewick was compelled to remove the printing of the work -to another establishment. In 1797 appeared the first volume of the -“History of British Birds,” and almost immediately afterwards, Beilby -retired from the partnership, leaving Bewick to produce and compile -the work alone. The tail-pieces in the first edition of the Birds -are considered Bewick’s _chefs d’œuvres_--as Professor Wilson says, -“There is a moral in every tail-piece--a sermon in every vignette.... -His books lie on our parlour, bed-room, dining-room, drawing-room and -study tables, and are never out of place or time. Happy old man! The -delight of childhood, manhood, decaying age!” After founding a famous -school for wood-engravers at Newcastle--William Harvey was among his -pupils--Bewick died in 1828, leaving the business to his son, Mr. R. E. -Bewick. - -Charnley left Bryson in 1755, and started a circulating library of 2000 -volumes, the subscription being twelve shillings a year, and though -this method of disseminating books had only been practised in London -within the previous twenty years, we find that one Barba, who dabbled -likewise in prints and tea, had already been for some years in the -field. When Bryson died, Charnley succeeded to his business on the -bridge, and after having been washed out by an overflow of the river, -he removed to safer premises in the Great Market in 1777. Charnley died -in 1803. An anecdote connected with him is still gleefully told by the -Newcastle pitmen, and is worth repeating. He was deaf and obliged to -use an ear-trumpet; and on being accosted by a collier, he clapped, as -usual, his instrument to his ear, in order to catch the words. “Nay, -man,” cried the pitman, not to be imposed upon; “thou’s not gaun to mak -me believe thou can play that trumpet wi’ thy lug!” - -Emerson Charnley succeeded his father, and was styled by Dibdin -“the veteran emperor of Northumbrian booksellers;” till 1860 this -old established business remained in the family, when it became the -property of Mr. William Dodd, for many years its manager. - -We have already referred so often to the Scotch publishers, that we can -only find room for Glasgow as representing the Scotch provincial trade. -Printing was introduced there in the year 1630 by George Anderson, -who was succeeded in 1661 by Robert Saunders, and the whole printing -business of the West of Scotland (except one newspaper) was carried on -by Saunders and his son until 1730, when the art was further improved -by R. Uric. Five years later it appears from Morrison’s “Dictionary -of Decisions of the Court of Sessions” that a new comer “was debarred -from any concern in bookselling within the city of Glasgow, because -the place was judged too narrow for two booksellers at a time.” In the -teeth of this arbitrary decision Robert Fowlis, who as a young barber -had attracted the notice of some of the university professors, and had -been encouraged to attend the lectures, opened a book-shop in 1739. In -1743 he was appointed printer to the university, and in the following -year he produced his celebrated immaculate edition of “Horace,” which -was hung up on the college walls with a reward appended for every -mistake discovered. In the course of thirty years they produced as many -well printed classics as Bodoni of Parma, or Barbon of Paris, and their -books, in exactness and beauty of type, almost rival the Aldine series. -They endeavoured to devote the money which their success brought them -in to the establishment of an academy for the cultivation of the Fine -Arts, but this grand, and then novel, project produced their ruin, -without in any way affecting the artistic taste of Scotland. After -the death of his younger brother, Robert was compelled to send the -collection of pictures to London for sale, and as he was in immediate -want of money he insisted upon the auction taking place at a time when -the picture market was glutted. The sale catalogue forms three volumes, -and yet after all expenses were defrayed the balance in his favour -amounted only to fifteen shillings. He died on his way back to Glasgow -in 1776. - -The bookselling and book-manufacturing trades have changed strangely -in Glasgow, since the time when the city was judged “too narrow” for -two booksellers. At present these branches of industry are only -surpassed in Edinburgh, and one Glasgow establishment at least is -without a parallel in London. Messrs. Collins, Son, and Co., actually -give employment to about seven hundred hands. The ground-floor of -their immense building is devoted to the warehousing of paper, -account-books, copy-books and general stationery. On the main floor of -the establishment one hundred binders are constantly at work, and on -the floor above the folding and sewing of the sheets is executed by -two hundred girls and women. In the rear stands the engine-house and -printing office where sixteen platten and cylinder typographic machines -are kept working at full steam, upon dictionaries, school-books, -Bibles, prayer-books, devotional, and other publications. Seven -lithographic machines are constantly employed upon atlases and -their celebrated copy-books, and it has been found that the finest -lithographic work can be better executed by the machine than, as till -very recently, at press. Everything is done on the premises, which -extend from Stirling’s Road to Heriot Hill, except making the paper and -casting the type.[32] - -As further proof of the magnitude of the business, we may quote a -recent statement of Mr. Henderson, one of the partners. In 1869 there -were “issued from the letter-press section of the establishment, no -fewer than 1,352,421 printed and bound works--equal to about 4500 per -day, or 450 passing through the hands of the workers every working -hour.” - -Little more than a hundred years ago the great seaport town of -Liverpool was a little fishing village, and, consequently, the -bookselling trade there is of a very recent growth. Among the first -important members of the fraternity were Darton and Freer; but perhaps -the most famous Liverpool bibliopole of his day was Thomas Johnson. -He started in Dale Street, in 1829, with a stock of books only large -enough to fill the bottom shelves of his window; and at the back of his -shop, scarce hidden, he kept his bed and household utensils. However, -he had the happy knack of making friends in all quarters; and when at -a large trade sale, offered on unusually advantageous terms, he had -speedily emptied his meagre purse, and was looking wistfully at the -bargains falling to all his neighbours, a Liverpool merchant bade him -go on purchasing to the extent of £100 or £150, adding that he himself -would take the risk. This timely aid set Johnson up in a comparatively -princely manner, and after he had been in business a few years his -periodical catalogue extended to 300 pages. At this time the country -booksellers were chiefly dependent for their stocks upon the sales of -private libraries, but the Liverpool booksellers possessed another -large means of supplying their wants. The Bible Society in Dublin was -very busy in distributing new Bibles in all directions, which the good -Catholics at once carried to the pawnshops. These were purchased again -by Mr. Duffy, who brought them over to Liverpool in huge sacks, and -exchanged them for books more agreeable to the Irish taste. - -By degrees Johnson combined publishing and auctioneering with the -more legitimate business. His first venture in the former capacity -was Abbot’s collected works; but by far his most successful were the -Lectures on “Revivals,” and on “Professing Christians,” by Mr. Finney, -of which he sold 150,000 copies. As an auctioneer, he was a lesser, or -Liverpool edition, of Tegg, and his rooms under the Liver theatre were -crowded nightly. On one occasion Johnson is said to have purchased the -entire contents of Baldwin’s Bible room, and he was well known to have -been the largest consumer of Bibles out of London; and when Arnold left -the Bagsters, and commenced Bible printing on his own account, Johnson -was his favourite customer. Arnold’s puffing hand-bills vie with the -choicest pill-mongering productions. After a violent tirade against -Puseyism he continues thus, _re_ his “Domestic Bible,” and “Bible -Commentary:”-- - -“He has provided you the seed; He will help you to sow it, He will -help you to reap it. Sow it then, sow freely--sow largely--sow -bountifully--sow perseveringly. It may be bought cheaply--may be had -in any quantity--has never been known to fail in its effects. There -are agents for its sale in every town in Great Britain, you may obtain -it from any bookseller in penny and threepenny packages. Sow it, men -of Britain--sow it in schools--in families--in every town--in every -village--in every hamlet of England, Wales, and Scotland. Sow it beyond -the sea--for it will grow on foreign shores. Send it to Ireland, to -the Colonies, to India, to China, and sow it there. Send it to the -continent and to Africa and sow it there.” And so on _ad nauseam_. -The seed, however, proved very unprofitable to Arnold; and shortly -after his failure Johnson was also obliged to give up business, having -signed some unfortunate bills. He afterwards rejoined his father in -Manchester. - -Another well-known Liverpool bookseller was “Dandy” Cruikshank, of -Castle Street, who maintained that he was the handsomest man in -England, and whose vanity extended to his trade, for his specialities -were books bound in pink and orange. - -At the present time there are about sixty booksellers in Liverpool; -and Mr. Edward Howell, an apprentice of Johnson’s, possesses the -largest stock, consisting of 100,000 volumes, and is known also as a -religious publisher. Mr. Philip, another leading bookseller, has two -establishments in Liverpool, and a branch house in London, while Mr. -Cornish, of Holborn, has an establishment in Liverpool, as well as in -Dublin. - -Crossing the Channel for a moment, we have an opportunity of saying -something of the Dublin booksellers; but we shall not be detained long, -as, in this branch of industry, the Irish capital presents a striking -contrast to the Scottish. In the interval between the cessation of -the licensing system and the Copyright Act of the 8th Anne, there -was no legal protection for literary property, and book-pirates -consequently abounded. One of the tribe has been celebrated by Dunton: -“Mr. Lee, in Lombard Street--such a pirate, such a cormorant never was -before--copies, books, men, ships, all was one; he held no propriety, -right or wrong, good or bad, till at last he began to be known; and -the booksellers, not enduring so ill a man among them, to disgrace -them, spewed him out, and off he marched for Ireland, where he acted as -felonious Lee (!) as he did in London.” There, however, till the Act of -Union, in 1801, book-pirates abounded, greatly to the discouragement -of native talent, and even of native industry, for Gent tells us -repeatedly that it was almost impossible for a journeyman printer to -earn wherewithall to exist on in the Dublin printing offices. In 1753 -we find Samuel Richardson publishing a pamphlet--“The History of Sir -Charles Grandison before Publication by certain Booksellers in Dublin.” -It appears that sheets had been stolen from Richardson’s warehouse, and -that three Irish booksellers each produced cheap editions of nearly -half the entire novel, before a single volume had appeared in England. -There was no legal remedy; but “what,” asks the _Gray’s Inn Journal_ -indignantly, “what then should be said of Exshaw, Wilson, and Saunders, -booksellers in Dublin, and perpetrators of this vile act of piracy? -They should be expelled from the Republic of Letters as literary Goths -and Vandals, who are ready to invade the property of every man of -genius.” With the Act of Union, however, the Dublin booksellers were -made amenable to English law, and a dolorous cry arose that their trade -was ruined, and that the “vested right” they had inherited, to prey -upon the Saxon, had been abolished by the cruel conquerors. From this -moment, of course, Irish bookselling was obliged to take a higher tone. -In a few years the _Dublin Review_ and the _Dublin University Magazine_ -vindicated the intellectual powers of the natives, and for a long time -were widely circulated in Ireland, and were then mainly indebted to -the enterprise of Irish authors and booksellers. When the Commission -of National Education was appointed in Ireland, Mr. Thom was selected -as a publisher, and, through their pecuniary aid, was enabled to bring -out a series of “Irish National School Books,” that for cheapness -and excellence are probably still unrivalled. These led, as we have -previously seen, to petitions from the English publishers, complaining -of state interference with the ordinary and commercial laws of -bookselling, and to trials for infringement of copyright. However, in -the long-run the Irish Commissioners were successful, and Mr. Longman, -one of the complainants, eventually accepted their English agency. -Besides his connection with the Commission, Mr. Thom has acquired a -reputation in the Bookselling world by his excellent “Irish Almanac,” -which, till recently, was unrivalled by the English almanacs of any -London firms. - -Latterly, however, Irish bookselling, as far as individual enterprize -goes, has been commonly associated with the name of James Duffy. He was -born in 1809, and after being apprenticed to a draper in the country, -found employment in Dublin, and here, like Robert Chambers, he invested -his spare coppers in picking up old books. At last he found trade so -bad that he determined to emigrate, and accordingly, as he possessed -no funds, he took his books to an auctioneer; at the sale, to his -surprise, he found that the books he had purchased for pence, now -produced as many shillings. Upon this he determined to drop the scheme -of emigration, and to turn bookseller. As we have before mentioned, he -collected the Bibles which the Catholics received from the Church of -England propagandists only to turn into money, and took them over to -Liverpool, where he exchanged them for books less unlawful in Papist -eyes. At first he hawked these about the country, but eventually took -a place of business in Anglesea Street, Dublin, and there began to -publish the “Bruton Series” of thrilling tales of robbers, battles, -adventures, and the like, at the low price of twopence each. In 1842 he -was appointed bookseller to the Repeal Agitators, and produced, under -their auspices, the “Library of Ireland,” consisting of patriotic and -national collections of poems, &c., edited or written by some of the -most brilliant of the National party. However, the movement for Repeal -collapsed, and before this Duffy had discerningly turned his attention -to less ephemeral publications, and produced editions of Carleton, -Banin, and other native celebrities. The famine of 1846 affected every -trade, and as the people had no money to buy bread, the sale of books -was, of course, utterly hopeless, and Duffy found that he could not -meet his engagements. His creditors granted him time, and the money was -to be paid in instalments. He sold his copyrights in England, and paid -the first instalment promptly. But when the time was due for the second -he saw no prospect of meeting it. A neighbour, however, called John -Donnegan, hearing that he was ruined, carried him a stocking full of -money, his lifetime’s hoardings, threw it down before him, with “Just -take that, and see if it is any use to you! Pay me when you can,” and -refusing to take any receipt, rushed out again. The stocking contained -nearly £1200, and Duffy was able not only to pay his creditors, but to -turn his attention to the publication of more important works than he -had hitherto attempted, such as the Douay Bible, Missals, Prayer-books, -and many historical works, and it was not long before he was in a -position to repay the kindly loan. About 1860 he opened a branch house -in London, and at that period the success of his publishing career may -be said to have culminated, for after the death of his wife he confined -himself almost entirely to disposing of his old stock. He died on the -4th of July of the year 1871, regretted by his fellow-citizens in -Dublin, and by his brother bibliopoles throughout the kingdom.[33] - - * * * * * - -If it were not for want of space there are several towns in the Midland -Counties which deserve notice here on account of their bibliopolical -fame--none more so, perhaps, than Derby, which at present possesses -no less than three large bookselling firms, which have also branch -businesses in London, Messrs. Richardson and Son having in addition -another establishment at Dublin. As Roman Catholic publishers some -of their productions have achieved an enormous circulation, notably -“The Crown of Jesus,” which, honoured with the approval of the Pope, -and of all the English dignitaries of the Roman Catholic Church, long -since attained an issue of 100,000 copies. The works of Frederick -William Faber, D.D., late of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, have -also been among the most popular of Messrs. Richardson and Son’s -publications. The Mozleys, of Derby, have long been in the trade, and -are represented both in the country and in London; one of the family -was well known in connection with the editorial staff of the _Times_ -newspaper. The Mozleys publish the _Monthly Packet_, edited by Miss -Younge, and also the majority of that lady’s separate works. A third -firm, Messrs. Bemrose and Sons, have gained a considerable reputation -as archæological publishers, and as the proprietors of Mrs. Warren’s -“Household Manuals.” - -At Halifax, where the book trade is of a more recent date, Messrs. -Milner and Sowerby, by their services in the cause of cheap -publications of really good and standard works, have done much to -counteract the effects of cheap and pernicious literature. “The Cottage -Library” has long been known all over England, and was one of the first -shilling series of really good books published--certainly the first in -a neat form and with a neat binding, issued at this low price, and is -still, in its extent and scope, unrivalled. - -Manchester was one of the first provincial towns in England to which -the printer and bookseller came, for it must be remembered that the -trades were for centuries almost synonymous. The art of printing is -said to have been introduced here in 1588, when Penny went through -the kingdom with an itinerant press, but his plant was seized and -destroyed by the fifth Earl of Derby. However, the innovation was -effected, and the new art was firmly lodged. Manchester, nevertheless, -in these early days was a place of such importance that a mere -catalogue of the members of the trade would more than fill the few -pages at our command. Among the booksellers of the last century we -can only mention Haslingden, who published “Tim Bobbin”--a book -still famous; the Sowlers, one of the descendants of whom started -the _Courier_, under the editorship of Alaric A. Watts, in 1825, -and the journal still enjoys a wide popularity; Joseph Harrop, who -originated the _Manchester Mercury_ in 1752, published the “History -of Man” in sixpenny numbers, but Harrop’s well-known folio Bible was -issued by his son and successor; the firm of Clarke Brothers amassed -a large fortune in school books and stationery; and about the same -time Banks and Co. were also doing an immense trade upon a thoroughly -reprehensible system. Hayward, who was their managing partner, opened -shops in various places, placed his own servants in possession, and -made them accept bills to a very large amount. These bills were -discounted at the Manchester Bank, and when the crash came the bank -was a creditor upon the estate to the amount of £120,000, while the -London publishers were indebted to the extent of £100,000. Among the -shopmen in charge under Hayward’s system was Timperley, a printer, and -a man of considerable literary ability. To pay the debts contracted -through this wholesale acceptance of bills, he consigned his stock to -an auctioneer, who, after disposing of it by auction, ran off with the -proceeds of the sale. Timperley, heart-broken by misfortune, accepted -a literary engagement with Fisher and Jackson, of London, and in -their service he died. In early days he had been a soldier, had gone -through many campaigns, had served at Waterloo, and had well earned -his pension of a shilling per diem. He is now known chiefly as the -author of the “Manchester Historical Recorder,” and of “Timperley’s -Typographical Dictionary”--one of the most accurate, laborious, and -voluminous compilations ever made, and one to be gratefully remembered -by all students of the history of the printing press in this country. -Another worthy of typographical fame was Bent, who, after doing a large -bookselling business among the Manchester Unitarians, then, at all -events, the most cultivated portion of the inhabitants, started “Bent’s -Literary Advertiser,” the first bookseller’s organ, and which latterly -has been incorporated in the _Bookseller_. The _Bookseller_ was started -in 1857 by Mr. Whitaker, and among its earliest contributors were many -men of some note, especially Alaric Watts. From the first it filled an -acknowledged void, and, as a trade journal, has never been surpassed. -From the interest of the notes and trade gossip contained in its pages, -as well as from the more solid information in its lists of works and -announcements, it has secured a wide popularity here and abroad, and -has been the precursor of similar journals in America and elsewhere. - - * * * * * - -Among other important Manchester publishers were R. & W. Dean, who -introduced stereotyping into the city, and issued a large series of -popular and useful books. From some cause or another, they failed, and -their stereos came into the possession of Samuel Johnson, the father -of the Liverpool bookseller. Johnson now became a publisher on a very -extensive scale, and is said to have been the originator of the royal -32mo. literature, which is now chiefly identified with Halifax. - -In our own times, Manchester bookselling has been principally -represented by the brothers Abel and John Heywood--a name almost as -widely known as that of any London firm. The brothers were born at -Prestwich, of very humble parentage; their father, indeed, is said at -one time to have been in receipt of parish relief. Abel began life as -a warehouse boy, on the scanty pittance of eighteenpence a week; but -at the age of twenty he was summarily dismissed by his master in a fit -of passion. He now obtained the wholesale agency for the _Poor Man’s -Guardian_, and was very shortly afterwards fined £54 for selling it -without a stamp. He could not pay the fine, and was sent to prison for -four months; but his family managed the shop during his incarceration, -still selling the _Guardian_ as before, but in a quieter manner. In -1834 and in 1836 he was again fined, but now he could afford to pay. -The Government next tried to seize the papers while in the hands of the -carriers, and they were obliged consequently to be sent through the -country carefully concealed--embedded in a chest of tea or a hamper -of shoes. As soon, however, as the duty was reduced from fourpence to -a penny, the poorer classes were able to pay for stamped papers. Abel -Heywood was, nevertheless, again the subject of a legal prosecution for -the publication of a penny pamphlet by Haslam. Acting with vigorous -promptness, he caused three or four copies of Shelley’s works to be -purchased from the chief Manchester booksellers, and then contended -that the poems were more blasphemous than his pamphlet. The Government -did not care to excite the ill-feelings of the reading public by -sending booksellers of position to prison, and as the cases were -precisely similar, they relinquished the prosecution. Probably this -decisive conduct suggested the same course to Hetherington, who was -afterwards the cause of that famous trial, the Queen _v._ Moxon. - -In 1838, Fergus O’Connor started the _Northern Star_, and for four -years its prosperity at the time was unexampled. Heywood sold 18,000 -copies weekly. By degrees his periodical trade increased enormously. -In 1847 he joined some paper-stainers, and the firm soon became one -of the largest in the world. In the year 1860 the paper duty paid by -them amounted to more than £20,000. Among the most successful of his -recent publications have been “Abel Heywood’s Penny Guide Books.” The -series now embraces upwards of seventy-five numbers, referring to every -place of importance or interest in the kingdom. He has also issued the -whole of the popular tale, “The Gates Ajar,” for the same price--one -penny--giving in a pamphlet form what usually occupies a goodly volume. - -Abel Heywood, however, was as well known as a distinguished public man -as a successful bookseller. In 1835 he was appointed a Commissioner -of Police, and during the Manchester riots in 1842 and 1849 he took -a conspicuous part in quelling the disturbances. Elected to the -corporation, he became an alderman in 1853, and in 1859 he was third in -the list of candidates at the general Parliamentary elections. In 1862 -he was elected Mayor of Manchester; in 1864 he took his son, Abel, into -partnership. - -John Heywood commenced life in the same lowly circumstances as his -brother, and at the age of fourteen found employment as a handloom -weaver. Within ten years his wages rose from half-a-crown to thirty -shillings a week; and when in receipt of this latter sum he regularly -allowed his mother a pound a week. At the age of four-and-twenty he -married, and to improve his worldly position, accepted the management -of a small factory at Altrincham, in Cheshire; but as the speculation -proved a failure, he returned to his former occupation of “dressing” -for power-loom weavers, at which he remained until his thirty-fifth -year. Desirous of rendering even his spare time profitable, he had -bought a paper-ruling machine, upon which he worked in the evenings; -and Abel, who was now a successful bookseller in Oldham Street, offered -him a situation in his establishment as paper-ruler, with a salary of -two pounds a week: and in his brother’s employ he remained for seven -years. In 1842, however, determined to make a start for himself, he -took a little shop in Deansgate, and, assisted by his son John, a lad -of thirteen, the business, originally infinitesimal, increased rapidly -and vastly. At first they confined their efforts almost entirely to the -sale of weekly or Sunday papers, and they were able to carry abroad -conveniently under their arms all the newspapers they could dispose -of. In a few months, however, the aid of a wheelbarrow was required, -and this, in turn, was discarded for a pony and trap. After adding -every possible enlargement to the old premises, they were obliged in -1859 to take a shop on the opposite side of the street; and year after -year, as the business expanded, addition after addition was made to the -premises, until three buildings were rolled into one, and at the end -of another seven years a huge six-storey manufactory was built in the -rear of the triangular shop. The increase of the working staff kept -pace with the growth of the establishment, and now, instead of the -armful or the barrow-load, a special railway truck, with a freightage -of about two tons, comes down from London five times a week; some -hundred and fifty assistants supply the place of the lad of thirteen, -and nine spring-carts have been introduced in lieu of the little pony -trap. A thousand parcels are made up each day, and between three and -four hundred orders are received by every morning’s post; for, besides -being the largest newsvendors and booksellers out of London, the firm -are the largest copybook makers in the kingdom. Fifteen hundred gross -of copybooks are despatched from the warehouses every month; and it -is stated that the weekly issue of newspapers, magazines, and other -periodicals amounts to the almost incredible number of a quarter of a -million. - -In 1864, John Heywood, senior, died, and the business devolved upon his -son, who had inherited all his father’s energy and industry. In 1867 -he introduced a platten printing machine, adapted to take impressions -from the stereo-plates of his school-books--known as “John Heywood’s -Code,” “John Heywood’s Manchester Reader,” &c.--and before long he -resolved to become a regular printer as well as a publisher, and the -“Excelsior Printing Works” were erected about a mile from Deansgate, -where 355 people are constantly employed in the manufacture of books, -in a manner very similar to that previously described in our accounts -of the Messrs. Nelson and Collins, of Scotland. Among the books -published by Mr. John Heywood are dialectic works, many of which are -regarded, justly, as Lancashire classics. One of his latest triumphs -has been the issue of the “Science Lectures for the People,” delivered -at the Hulme Town Hall, and sold separately at a penny each--a fact -that says something as to the good taste of the factory lads. Four -monthly and three weekly periodicals are published by Mr. John Heywood. -Of the former the _Railway Guide_ is the most widely circulated, while -the _Lithographer_ is indispensable to the many decorative artists of -the neighbourhood; and _Ben Brierley’s Journal_, with its vernacular -contributions, finds its way to every Lancashire fireside. Of the -latter, the _Sphinx_, a satirical journal, is the most popular. - -The career of the two Heywoods is a striking example of the labour, -energy, and success which Lancashire folk are apt to think the true -attributes of the typical “Manchester man;” and if they have not been -instrumental in adding much to the higher literature of the world, -their publications have very widely extended the taste for knowledge -among the lower orders in the north of England. - - * * * * * - -Even in Birmingham the trade of bookselling was introduced at a -comparatively recent date. Dr. Johnson tells us that his father used -to open a bookstall here on market days; and Boswell adds, in a note, -that there was not then a single regular bookshop in the whole town. -Elsewhere he tells us that “Mr Warren was the first established -bookseller in Birmingham, and was very attentive to Johnson, who -he soon found could be of much service to him in his trade by his -knowledge of literature; and he even obtained the assistance of his -pen in furnishing some numbers of a periodical essay, printed in -the newspaper of which Warren was proprietor.” Mr Warren, however, -though Johnson’s first encourager, has long since been forgotten, and -Birmingham bookselling is now universally identified with the name of -William Hutton; and from his autobiography, published in 1816--perhaps -the most interesting record of a self-made life that has ever been -personally indited--we give a short sketch of his career. - -William Hutton was born at Derby, in 1723. His father, a drunken -wool-comber, scarcely brought home wherewithal to keep the wretched -family from starvation, and “consultations were held (when the child -was six years old) about fixing me in some employment for the benefit -of the family. Winding quills for the weaver was mentioned, but -died away. Stripping tobacco for the grocer, by which I was to earn -fourpence a week, was proposed, but it was at last concluded that I -was too young for any employment.” Next year, however, the result of -the consultation was otherwise, and he was placed in a silk-mill; -the youngest, and by far the smallest, of the 300 persons employed, -a lofty pair of pattens were tied on to his feet so that he might be -able to reach the engine; and he continues:--“I had now to rise at -five every morning, summer and winter, for seven years; to submit -to the cane whenever convenient to the master; to be the constant -companion of the most rude and vulgar of the human race; never taught -by nature, nor ever wishing to be taught.” Brutally treated, so that -the scars of his chastisements remained on his body through life, he -left the mill as soon as ever his apprenticeship expired; “a place,” -he says, “most curious and pleasing to the eye,” but which had given -him a seven years’ heart-ache. He was now bound for another term to -an uncle--a stocking-maker at Nottingham. “My task was to earn for my -uncle 5_s._ 10_d._ a week. The first week I could reach this sum I was -to be gratified with sixpence, but ever after, should I fall short or -go beyond it, the loss or profit was to be my own.” In this situation, -he was not only thrashed by his master, but starved by his aunt; -and, goaded by the taunts of the neighbours, he fled away, but was -reluctantly compelled to return. In 1744 his apprenticeship expired, -and for two years longer he remained as a journeyman in the same -employment, but he now made the melancholy discovery--for all trade -was in a very wretched condition at the time--that he had served two -separate terms of seven years, to two separate trades, and yet could -subsist upon neither. - -A gradually acquired taste for reading led him to purchase a few -books, and their tattered condition prompted him to try his hand at -binding; and, as he could get no employment in his own avocations, -he determined to start afresh as a bookbinder. His friends sneered at -his ambitious hopes, but his sister supported him firmly. There were -no binding tools to be purchased then in the country, so his sister -“raised three guineas, sewed them in my shirt-collar, for there was no -doubt but I should be robbed,” and put eleven shillings in his pocket -as a sop to the expected highwayman, and off he started for London, -walking fifty-one miles the first day and reaching it on the third. -Here he invested his three guineas in tools, and stayed three days, -seeing all that could be seen for nothing, his only paid entertainment -being a visit to Bedlam, which cost a penny. Three days more, and -he was back at Nottingham, terribly worn-out and footsore, but with -fourpence still remaining out of his little travelling fund. - -He now took a small shop, fourteen miles from Nottingham, at an annual -rent of twenty shillings, and “in one day became the most eminent -bookseller in Southwell,” but he still lived at Nottingham. “During the -rainy winter months,” he says, “I set out from Nottingham at five every -Saturday morning, carried a burthen of from three to thirty pounds’ -weight to Southwell, opened shop at ten, starved it all day upon bread, -cheese, and half a pint of ale; took from 1_s._ to 6_s._, shut up at -four, and by trudging through the solitary night and the deep roads -five hours more, I arrived at Nottingham by nine, where I always found -a mess of milk-porridge by the fire, prepared by my valuable sister. -But nothing short of resolution and rigid economy could have carried me -through this scene.” - -There was little profit, however, in such a life, laborious as it was, -and in 1750 he made an exploring journey to Birmingham, where he found -there were only three booksellers--Warren, Aris, and Wollaston, and -here he resolved to settle, hoping that he might escape the envy of -“the three great men.” - -He obtained the use of half a little shop for the moderate premium of -one shilling per week, but he had as yet to find wherewith to stock -it. On a visit to Nottingham, he met a friendly minister, who asked, -for the weather was inclement, why he had ventured so far without a -great-coat, and who on receiving no reply, shrewdly guessed Hutton’s -impoverished condition, from his draggled, thread-bare garments, and -offered him a couple of hundred-weight of books at his own price, and -that price to be postponed to the future, and by way of receipt the -young bookseller gave him the following: “I promise to pay to Ambrose -Rudsall £1 7_s._, when I am able.” The debt was speedily cancelled. - -His period of probation was sufficiently severe: “Five shillings a -week covered all my expenses, as food, washing, lodging, &c.,” but -by degrees the better-informed and wealthier of the young clerks and -apprentices began to frequent his shop, and were attracted by his -zeal, and his evident love for the books he sold. With his skill in -binding, he could furbish up the shabbiest tomes, and greatly increase -their marketable value. By the end of his first year he found that he -had, by the most rigid economy, saved up twenty pounds. Things were -brightening, but the overseers, who at that time possessed a terrible -power over the poorest classes, ostensibly dreading lest he should -become chargeable to the parish, refused his payment of the rates, -and bade him remove elsewhere. In this strait he exhibited much -worldly wisdom, and invested half his little hoarding in a fine suit -of clothes, purchased from one of the overseers, who happened to be a -draper. - -In the following year, 1751, he took a better shop, next door to a -Mr. Grace, a hosier, and in a quiet, undemonstrative manner, fell in -love with his neighbour’s niece. “Time gave us,” he says, “numberless -opportunities of observing each other’s actions, and trying the tenour -of conduct by the touchstone of prudence. Courtship was often a -disguise. We had seen each other when disguise was useless. Besides, -nature had given to few women a less portion of deceit.” The uncle at -length consented to the match, and, with Sarah, Hutton received a dowry -of £100; and, as he had already amassed £200 of his own, from this -happy moment his fortunes ran smoothly upwards. - -He now increased an otherwise profitable trade by starting a -circulating library--perhaps the first that was attempted in the -provinces; and about this same time, 1753, he acquired a very useful -friend in the person of Robert Bage, the paper-maker, and undertook the -retail portion of the paper business. “From this small hint,” he says, -“I followed the stroke forty years, and acquired an ample fortune.” And -yet, though waxing yearly richer and richer, he adds, “I never could -bear the thought of living to the extent of my income. I never omitted -to take stock or regulate my annual expenses, so as to meet casualties -and misfortunes.” By degrees he became invested with civic dignities, -and little by little he acquired the standing of a landed proprietor. -Without neglecting his business he now found leisure for literary -composition; and in his last work--“A Trip to Coatham”--he tells us, “I -took up my pen, and that with fear and trembling, at the advanced age -of fifty-six, a period when most would lay it down. I drove the quill -thirty years, during which time I wrote and published thirty books.” - -His first work, the “History of Birmingham,” appeared, and these thirty -tomes of verse and prose followed in quick succession. - -In 1802 he published his best-known work, the “History of the Roman -Wall.” Antiquarians had, before this, described the famous line of -defence, but hitherto no one had attempted a personal inspection. -Seventy-five years old, still hale and hearty, with an enthusiasm akin -to that of youth, he started on foot for Northumberland, accompanied -by his daughter on horse-back. Intent upon reaching the scene of his -antiquarian desires, “he turned,” writes his daughter, “neither to the -right nor the left, except to gratify me with a sight of Liverpool. -Windermere he saw, and Ullswater he saw, because they lay under his -feet, but nothing could detain him from his grand object.” On his -return journey, after every hollow of the ground, every stone of the -Wall, between Carlisle and Newcastle, had been examined, he was bitten -in the leg by a dog, but even this did not restrain him. Within four -days of home “he made forced journeys, and if we had had a little -further to go the foot would have knocked up the horse! The pace he -went did not even fatigue his shoes. He walked the whole 600 miles in -one pair, and scarcely made a hole in his stockings.” - -Almost to the last he preserved his physical powers comparatively -intact. When he was eighty-eight, he writes--“At the age of eighty-two -I considered myself a young man. I could, without fatigue, walk forty -miles a day. But during the last few years I have felt a sensible -decay, and, like a stone rolling downhill, its velocity increases with -its progress. The strings of the instrument are one after another -giving way, never to be brought into tune.” Yet he did not die till -1815, at the ripe old age of ninety-two. - - * * * * * - -At the close of the last century Hutton lost a valuable collection of -books, and other valuable property, through the lawless riots that -took place in his native city; of these disturbances the author of the -_Press_ says:-- - - “When Birmingham, for riots and for crimes, - Shall meet the keen reproach of future times, - Then shall she find, amongst our honoured race, - One name to save her from entire disgrace.” - -This “one name” was that of John Baskerville, a printer, a contemporary -of Hutton, and one of the most famous English type-founders. Commencing -life as a schoolmaster, his inclination for books turned his attention -to type-founding, but he spent £600 before he produced one letter that -thoroughly satisfied his exquisitely critical taste, and probably some -thousands before his business began to prove remunerative; and, after -all, his printing speculations yielded more honour than profit. Upon -paying a heavy royalty to the University of Cambridge, he was allowed -to print a Bible in royal folio, which, for beauty of type, is still -unrivalled; but the slender and delicate form of his letters were, as -Dr. Dibdin remarks, better suited to smaller books, and show to the -greatest advantage in his 12mo. “Virgil” and “Horace.” His strenuous -endeavours, and his large outlay, met with but little return; and -he writes of the “business of printing” as one “which I am heartily -tired of, and repent I ever attempted.” He died in 1775, and appears -to have printed nothing during the last ten years of his life. By the -direction left in his will, he was buried under a windmill in his own -garden, with the following epitaph on his tomb-stone: “Stranger! beneath -this cone, in unconsecrated ground, a friend to the liberties of -mankind directed his body to be inurned. May the example contribute to -emancipate thy mind from the idle fears of superstition, and the wicked -arts of priesthood.” His fount of type was unluckily allowed to leave -the country, and was purchased by Beaumarchais, of Paris, who produced -some exquisite editions, particularly of Voltaire’s works, but who lost -upwards of one million livres in his speculations. - - * * * * * - -A successful modern bookselling venture in this city resulted from the -establishment of the “Educational Trading Company (Limited)”--a novel -phase in the trade--of which the chief proprietor and chairman was -Mr. Josiah Mason. The business management was placed in the hands of -Mr. Kempster, and, by a thorough system of travellers, who personally -canvassed the proprietors of schools and colleges, offering them very -liberal terms, a large connection was almost immediately established. -The company’s operations were, of course, confined to the publication -of cheap educational works; and some of these, such as Gill’s and -Moffat’s series, attained a wide popularity, and necessitated, in 1870, -the opening of a London branch at St. Bride’s Avenue, and another -branch house at Bristol. - -One of the most famous booksellers and printers of the West of -England was Andrew Brice, who was born in Exeter in the year 1690. -He was educated in early life with a view to the ministry, but -family misfortunes obliged him to become apprentice to Bliss, a -printer in that city. Long before the expiry of his apprenticeship -the improvident young printer married, and, being unable to support -a wife and two children upon the pittance he received, he enlisted -as a soldier in order to break his indentures, and, by the interest -of his friends, soon procured a discharge. He commenced business on -his own account, and started a newspaper, but, possessing only one -kind of type, he carved in wood the title and such capitals as he -stood in need of. Becoming embarrassed through a law suit, in which -heavy damages were cast against him, he was obliged to bar himself -in his own house to escape the debtor’s gaol. He spent seven long -years in this domestic confinement, but still continued to conduct -his business with assiduity, and, as a solace, to compose a poem, -“On Liberty,” the profits of which enabled him to compound with the -keepers of the city prison. After regaining his freedom his business -largely increased, and, in 1740, he set up a printing-press at Truro, -the first introduced into Cornwall; the miners were, however, at that -time in little need of literature, and he soon removed the types to -Exeter. Among his chief publications were the “Agreeable Gallimanfly; -or, Matchless Medley,” a collection of verses chiefly the production -of his own pen; the “Mob-aid,” so full of newly-coined words that, in -Devonshire, “Bricisms” were for long synonymous with quaint novelty of -expression; and the folio “Geographical Dictionary,” which occupied -ten years in publication and is still far from complete. Brice was at -all times a shielder of the oppressed; and when the Exeter play-actors -were purchased out of their theatre by the Methodists, who converted it -into a chapel, and indicted them as vagrants, he published a poem--“The -Playhouse Church; or, new Actors of Devotion,” which so stirred up -popular feeling that the Methodists were fain to restore the place to -its former possessors, who, under Brice’s patronage, opened their house -for some time gratis to all comers. In gratitude the players brought -his characteristics of speech and dress into their dramas, and even -Garrick eventually introduced him, under, of course, a pseudonyme, in -the “Clandestine Marriage.” At the time of his death, in 1773, he was -the oldest master-printer in England. His corpse lay for some days -in state at the Apollo Inn; every person admitted to view it paid a -shilling, and the money so received went towards defraying the expense -of his funeral, which was attended by three hundred freemasons, for he -had not only been a zealous member of the fraternity, but at the period -of his decease he was looked upon as the father of the craft. - - * * * * * - -Another West of England worthy, though he was only a bookseller for -the short space of seven years, has perhaps higher claim upon our -attention than any other provincial bibliopole. Joseph Cottle was born -at Bristol in the year 1770, and at the age of twenty-one he became a -bookseller in his native city. In 1795 he published a volume of his own -“Poems”--and himself an author he was generously able to appreciate -the work of better men. Through extraordinary circumstances he became -acquainted with Coleridge, Southey, Wordsworth, and Lamb, when they -were still unknown to fame, and with a rare perception of genius he was -able to assist them materially towards the goal of success. From his -interesting “Early Recollections,” we gather that one evening Coleridge -told him despondently that he had been the round of London booksellers -with a volume of poems, and that all but one had refused to even look -over the manuscript, and that this one proffered him six guineas for -the copyright, which sum, poor as he was, he felt constrained to -decline. Cottle at once offered the young author thirty guineas, and -actually paid the money before the completion of the volume, which -appeared in 1796. - -To Southey he made the same bid for his first volume, and the offer -was eagerly accepted. Cottle at once, however, added, “You have read -me some books of your ‘Joan of Arc,’ which poem I perceive to have -great merit. If it meet with your concurrence I will give you fifty -guineas for this work, and publish it in quarto, when I will give you -in addition fifty copies to dispose of among your friends.” Southey -corroborates this account, and further says, “It can rarely happen that -a young author should meet with a bookseller as inexperienced and as -ardent as himself; and it would be still more extraordinary if such -mutual indiscretion did not bring with it cause for regret to both. -But this transaction was the commencement of an intimacy which has -continued without the slightest shade of displeasure at any time on -either side to the present day.” Cottle ordered a new fount of type -“for what was intended to be the handsomest book that Bristol had ever -yet sent forth,” and owing, perhaps, more to the party feelings of the -periodical press, and the subject of the poem, than to any intrinsic -merit, other than as holding out vague hope of future promise, the -young author acquired a sudden reputation, which was afterwards fully -sustained by his prose if not by his poetry. - -Later on Cottle was introduced to Wordsworth, who read him portions of -his “Lyrical Ballads.” The venturous bookseller made him the same offer -of thirty guineas for the first-fruits of his genius, saying that it -would be a gratifying circumstance to issue the first volumes of three -such poets, and (a veritable prophecy) “a distinction that might never -again occur to a provincial bookseller.” After mature consideration, -Wordsworth accepted the offer; but the “Lyrical Ballads,” in which -also Coleridge’s “Ancient Mariner” first appeared, went off so slowly -that he was compelled to part with the greater part of the five -hundred copies to Arch, a London bookseller. We have already related -how Cottle, and after him, Longman, rendered material assistance to -Chatterton’s sister, by an edition of the poems of the Sleepless Boy -who perished in his Pride, and how in 1798 Cottle disposed of all his -copyrights to Longman, and obtained his consent to return the copyright -of the “Lyrical Ballads” to the author. - -Though Cottle henceforth gave up bookselling, he did not forego -book-making. In 1798 he published his “Malvern Hills,” in 1801 his -“Alfred,” and in 1809 the “Fall of Cambria.” These last effusions -attracted the venom of Lord Byron’s pen, who writes in bitter prose, -“Mr. Cottle, Amos, Joseph, I know not which, but one or both, once -sellers of books they did not write, now writers of books that do not -sell, have published a pair of epics,” and in bitterer verse: - - “Bœotian Cottle, rich Bristowa’s boast, - Imports old stories from the Cambrian coast, - And sends his goods to market, all alive, - Lines forty thousand, cantos twenty-five. - - * * * * * - - Oh, Amos Cottle!--Phœbus! what a name - To fill the speaking trump of future fame!-- - Oh, Amos Cottle! for a moment think - What meagre profits spring from pen and ink! - When thus devoted to poetic dreams - Who will peruse thy prostituted reams? - Oh, pen perverted, paper misapplied! - Had Cottle still adorned the counter’s side, - Bent o’er the desk, or, born to useful toils, - Been taught to make the paper which he soils, - Plough’d, delved, or plied the oar with lusty limb, - He had not sung of Wales, nor I of him.” - -Of course, this confusion of the names of the two brothers was -intentionally meant to strengthen the gibe. Though Cottle was at best -an indifferent poet his name would have survived as a generous friend -even if Lord Byron had not honoured him with his satire. - -After having personally encouraged the youthful genius of such authors -as Coleridge, Southey, and Wordsworth, and after having enjoyed their -friendship and esteem, it was natural that Cottle, when their names -had become familiar words in every household in England, should wish -to preserve what he could of the history of their early days. In 1837 -he published his “Early Recollections,” but as he had felt compelled -to decline to contribute them in any mutilated form to the authorised, -and insufferably dull, life of Coleridge, the work was greeted by the -_Quarterly Review_ with a howl of contemptuous abuse, as consisting of -the “refuse of advertisements and handbills, the sweepings of a shop, -the shreds of a ledger, and the rank residuum of a life of gossip.” -This is certainly “slashing criticism” with a vengeance: Cottle based -the value of his book upon the ground of his having been a bookseller, -and to taunt him with the fact is as unmanly as the whole description -of the work is false. He lays the slightest possible stress upon -the assistance he had been able to render the illustrious authors -pecuniarily, and only brings it forward at all as furnishing matter -for literary history; and to most students the literary history of the -early struggles of genius does possess the highest interest. Cottle -was certainly unskilled in the art of composition, and was undoubtedly -garrulous, but the gossip anent such writers, when prompted, as in this -case, by truth and affection, is worth tomes of disquisitions upon -their virtues or their faults. Joseph Cottle died as recently as 1854, -and his memory is already half-forgotten, and yet had we wished to -close our annals of the “trade” by tributes paid by illustrious writers -to the worth and integrity of its members, we could find none more -fitting than the letters of two famous poets to an obscure provincial -bookseller. - - “DEAR COTTLE,--On the blank leaf of my poems I can most - appropriately write my acknowledgments to you, for your too - disinterested conduct in the purchase of them.... Had it not - been for you none, perhaps, of them would have been published, - and some not written. - - “Your obliged and affectionate friend, - S. T. COLERIDGE.” - -Again:-- - - “Do you suppose, Cottle, that I have forgotten those true and - most essential acts of friendship which you showed me when I - stood most in need of them? Your house was my house when I had - no other.... Sure I am that there never was a more generous or - kinder heart than yours, and you will believe me when I add - that there does not live that man upon earth whom I remember - with more gratitude and affection.... Good-night, my dear old - friend and benefactor. - - “ROBERT SOUTHEY.” - - -[Illustration: THE END.] - - - BILLING, PRINTER, GUILDFORD, SURREY. - - - - -FOOTNOTES - - -[1] “Essai sur les Livres dans l’Antiquité.” - -[2] For a very interesting article on this subject, see _Cornhill -Magazine_, vol. ix. - -[3] Carnan is said, by Mr. Knight, to have been so frequently -prosecuted that he invariably kept a clean shirt in his pocket, that -he might lessen the inconvenience of being carried off unexpectedly to -Newgate. - -[4] D’Urfey was a music-master. - -[5] This anecdote is often incorrectly related of Wilkes and the _Essay -on Woman_. - -[6] The _Daily Post_, Feb. 13, 1728. - -[7] A most interesting and voluminous collection of “notes” in -reference to Curll was contributed to “Notes and Queries” (2nd series, -vols. ii., iii., and x.) by M.N.S. Many of our facts in relation to him -have been taken from that source, and for a far fuller account, in the -rough material, we refer the reader thither. - -[8] West says he sat next Lackington at a sale when he spent upwards of -£12,000 in an afternoon. - -[9] _Bookseller_, June, 1865. - -[10] As we shall have no other opportunity of referring to the third -in rank of the leading quarterlies, we must, perforce, compress its -history in a foot-note. The _Westminster Review_ was started more than -fifty years ago, by Jeremy Bentham, who was succeeded in editorship -by Sir John Browning, in conjunction with General Perronet Thompson, -whose labours in the cause of radical reform gave him considerable -notoriety at the time. They made way for the accomplished statesman -Sir William Molesworth, the editor of _Hobbes_. A profounder thinker -still, Mr. John Stuart Mill, followed. Most of his philosophical essays -appeared in its pages, at a time when Grote and Mr. Carlyle were both -contributing. For more than twenty years now the _Review_ has been -in the hands of Dr. Chapman, who, beginning life as a bookseller in -Newgate Street, was the first English publisher to recognise the -value of Emerson’s writings. Under Dr. Chapman, what is now the -great feature--the Quarterly Summary of Contemporary Literature--was -introduced. The _Review_ has lately attracted much attention by the -bold manner in which the “Social Evil” and the “Contagious Diseases -Acts” have been discussed in its columns, and these articles are -generally attributed to the able pen of the editor himself. - -[11] - I. “On Dryden.” (_E. R._, 1828.) - II. “History.” (_E. R._, 1828.) - III. “Mirabeau.” (_E. R._, 1832.) - IV. “Cowley and Milton.” - V. “Mitford’s Greece.” - VI. “Athenian Orator.” - VII. “Barère’s Memoirs.” - VIII. “Mill’s Essay on Government.” (_E. R._, 1829.) - IX. “Bentham’s Defence of Mill.” (_E. R._, 1829.) - X. “Utilitarian Theory of Government.” (_E. R._, 1829.) - XI. “Charles Churchill.” - -Many of these may be found in the volume of _Miscellanies_ published by -Longmans. It has been denied that No. XI. is by Macaulay at all. - -[12] For a further account of these extraordinary sales, see Allibone’s -_Dictionary of English Literature_, vol. ii., from which many of the -above facts have been drawn. - -[13] Among the sufferers by this failure was the family of Robert -Watt, M.D., author of “Bibliotheca Britannica,” for which £2000 had -been given in bills, all of which were dishonoured. He was a ploughboy -until his seventeenth year, wrote many medical treatises, and occupied -his concluding years with a work precious and indispensable to -every student. The whole plan of the “Bibliotheca” is new, and few -compilations of similar magnitude and variety ever presented, in a -first edition, a more complete design and execution. - -[14] _Quarterly Review_, vol. lxx. - -[15] Given to Dallas. - -[16] Published by James Power, music seller. - -[17] Written at Geneva, and published by John Hunt, London. - -[18] This sketch was written before the publication of Mr. W. -Chambers’s life of his brother, but has been revised in accordance with -that interesting memoir. - -[19] Mr. Long has deposited in the Public Library at Brighton his -private copy of the “Encyclopædia,” interleaved with the names of the -contributors, and other interesting information as to the progress of -the work. - -[20] Mr. G. W. M. Reynolds, of the “Mysteries of London” notoriety, -commenced life also as a temperance lecturer, and was at one time -editor of the _Teetotaller_ Newspaper. - -[21] Lockhart, in his article in the _Quarterly_, says that Hook’s -diary shows a clear profit of £2000 on the _first series_. This must be -incorrect. - -[22] The term _Conger_ is ingeniously said to be derived from the eel, -meaning that the association, collectively, would swallow all smaller -fry. - -[23] _Aldine Magazine_, p. 50. - -[24] It was from the intricacy of thought of some few of the poems of -the “Christian Year,” that Sydney Smith christened it by the name of -“The Sunday Puzzle.” - -[25] For the facts in the earlier portion of this memoir we are -indebted to an interesting obituary notice in the _Bookseller_. - -[26] For a very interesting bibliographical account of Mr. Tennyson’s -works, showing the various changes which the poems have undergone, see -“Tennysoniana,” by R. H. Shepherd (1856). - -[27] For a full account of this interesting and successful bookseller -_see_ “Life of Alderman Kelly,” by the Rev. R. C. Fell (1856). - -[28] Tegg left a manuscript autobiography, which was published twenty -years after his death, in the _City Press_; to this interesting -memorial we are indebted for the facts in our present narrative. - -[29] This “Petition” was first printed in the _Examiner_, 7th April, -1839, and afterwards republished. - -[30] The _Bookseller_, June, 1864. - -[31] The _Bookseller_, 1861. - -[32] The above account is abridged from the _Bookseller_ of November, -1869. - -[33] To a timely notice in a recent number of the _Bookseller_ we are -indebted for the main facts in Duffy’s life. - - - - -Transcriber’s Notes - - -Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a -predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not -changed. - -Simple typographical errors were corrected; occasional unbalanced -quotation marks retained. - -Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained. - -Arithmetic and date-sequence errors have not been corrected. - -Page 22: The second illustration (“1547”) may be part of the -illustration just above it. - -Page 93: “as the rious” was printed that way; may be a typgraphical -error for “as the various”. - -Page 152: “Dr. Thomas Stewart Trail” may be a misspelling of “Traill”. - -Page 221: “looked up his pistols” may be a misprint for “locked”. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A History of Booksellers, the Old and -the New, by Henry Curwen - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF BOOKSELLERS, OLD AND NEW *** - -***** This file should be named 52362-0.txt or 52362-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/2/3/6/52362/ - -Produced by MWS, Charlie Howard, and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, -and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive -specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this -eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook -for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports, -performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given -away--you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks -not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the -trademark license, especially commercial redistribution. - -START: FULL LICENSE - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full -Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at -www.gutenberg.org/license. - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or -destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your -possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a -Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound -by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the -person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph -1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this -agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the -Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection -of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual -works in the collection are in the public domain in the United -States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the -United States and you are located in the United States, we do not -claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, -displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as -all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope -that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting -free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm -works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the -Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily -comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the -same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when -you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are -in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, -check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this -agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, -distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any -other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no -representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any -country outside the United States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other -immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear -prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work -on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, -performed, viewed, copied or distributed: - - This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and - most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no - restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it - under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this - eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the - United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you - are located before using this ebook. - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is -derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not -contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the -copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in -the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are -redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply -either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or -obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any -additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms -will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works -posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the -beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including -any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access -to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format -other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official -version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site -(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense -to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means -of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain -Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the -full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -provided that - -* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed - to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has - agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid - within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are - legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty - payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in - Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg - Literary Archive Foundation." - -* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all - copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue - all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm - works. - -* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of - any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of - receipt of the work. - -* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than -are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing -from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The -Project Gutenberg Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project -Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may -contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate -or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other -intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or -other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or -cannot be read by your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium -with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you -with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in -lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person -or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second -opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If -the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing -without further opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO -OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT -LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of -damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement -violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the -agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or -limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or -unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the -remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in -accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the -production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, -including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of -the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this -or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or -additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any -Defect you cause. - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of -computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It -exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations -from people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future -generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see -Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at -www.gutenberg.org - - - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by -U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the -mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its -volunteers and employees are scattered throughout numerous -locations. Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt -Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to -date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and -official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact - -For additional contact information: - - Dr. Gregory B. Newby - Chief Executive and Director - gbnewby@pglaf.org - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide -spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND -DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular -state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To -donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. - -Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project -Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be -freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and -distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of -volunteer support. - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in -the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not -necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper -edition. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search -facility: www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. - diff --git a/old/52362-0.zip b/old/52362-0.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index f7bb3f9..0000000 --- a/old/52362-0.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h.zip b/old/52362-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 8b7633a..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/52362-h.htm b/old/52362-h/52362-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index 7311672..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/52362-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,18834 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" - "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> - <head> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> - <title> - The Project Gutenberg eBook of A History of Booksellers, by Henry Curwen. - </title> - <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> - <style type="text/css"> - -body { - margin-left: 2.5em; - margin-right: 2.5em; -} - -h1, h2 { - text-align: center; - clear: both; - margin-top: 2.5em; - margin-bottom: 1em; -} - -h1 {line-height: 1;} - -h2+p {margin-top: 1.5em;} -h2 .subhead {display: block; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;} - -.transnote h2 { - margin-top: .5em; - margin-bottom: 1em; -} - -.subhead { - text-indent: 0; - text-align: center; - font-size: 80%; -} - -p { - text-indent: 1.75em; - margin-top: .51em; - margin-bottom: .24em; - text-align: justify; -} -.caption p {text-align: center; text-indent: 0; margin-top: 0;} -p.center {text-indent: 0;} - -.p0 {margin-top: 0em;} -.p1 {margin-top: 1em;} -.p2 {margin-top: 2em;} -.p4 {margin-top: 4em;} -.b0 {margin-bottom: 0;} -.up2 {margin-top: -2.5em;} -.vspace {line-height: 1.5;} -.vspace2 {line-height: 2.5;} - -.in0 {text-indent: 0;} -.in1 {padding-left: 1em;} -.in2 {padding-left: 2em;} -.in4 {padding-left: 4em;} -.l1 {padding-right: 1em;} -.l2 {padding-right: 2em;} -.l4 {padding-right: 4em;} -.lm2 {margin-left: -2em; padding-bottom: 1em;} - -.small {font-size: 70%;} -.smaller {font-size: 85%;} -.larger {font-size: 125%;} -.large {font-size: 150%;} - -p.drop-cap {text-indent: 0; margin-bottom: 1.1em;} -p.drop-cap:first-letter { - float: left; - margin: .07em .4em 0 0; - font-size: 300%; - line-height:0.7em; - text-indent: 0; - clear: both; -} -p.drop-cap .smcap1 {margin-left: -1.2em;} -p.drop-cap.b .smcap1 {margin-left: -1.4em;} -p.drop-cap.al .smcap1 {margin-left: -1.8em;} -p .smcap1 {font-size: 125%;} -.smcap1 {text-transform: uppercase;} - -img.drop-cap { - float: left; - margin: -1em .75em 0 0; -} - -span.dc {visibility: hidden; display: none;} -p.dcl2 {text-indent: -.6em;} - -.center {text-align: center;} - -.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} -.smcap.smaller {font-size: 75%;} - -hr { - width: 33%; - margin-top: 6em; - margin-bottom: 6em; - margin-left: 33%; - margin-right: auto; - clear: both; -} - -.tb { - text-align: center; - padding-top: .76em; - padding-bottom: .24em; -} - -table { - margin: 1.5em auto 1.5em auto; - max-width: 80%; - min-width: 30%; - border-collapse: collapse; -} -table.notpad {margin-top: 0;} - -.tdl { - text-align: left; - vertical-align: top; - padding-right: 1em; - padding-left: 1.5em; - text-indent: -1.5em; -} -.tdl.in10 {padding-left: 10em;} - -.tdc {text-align: center;} -.tdc.rpad1 {padding-right: 1em;} -.tdr { - text-align: right; - vertical-align: bottom; - padding-left: .3em; - white-space: nowrap; -} -table#macaulay {margin-left: 2em;} -#macaulay .tdr {padding-right: .75em;} - -#toc .tdl, #toc .tdr {padding-bottom: .75em;} -#toc .tdr.nobotpad {padding-bottom: 0;} -#toc .tdr {vertical-align: top;} -.bt {border-top: thin solid black;} -.bb {border-bottom: thin solid black;} -.tdl.figspace {padding-left: .5em; text-indent: 0;} -table#receipts .tdl {padding-left: 3.5em; text-indent: -3.5em;} - -.pagenum { - position: absolute; - right: 4px; - text-indent: 0em; - text-align: right; - font-size: 70%; - font-weight: normal; - font-variant: normal; - font-style: normal; - letter-spacing: normal; - line-height: normal; - color: #acacac; - border: 1px solid #acacac; - background: #ffffff; - padding: 1px 2px; -} - -.figcenter { - margin: 2em auto 2em auto; - text-align: center; - page-break-inside: avoid; - max-width: 100%; -} - -img { - padding: 1em 0 0 0; - max-width: 100%; - height: auto; -} - -.caption { - font-weight: bold; - text-align: center; - margin-top: .5em; -} - -.captionl { - text-align: left; - font-size: smaller; -} -.captionr { - text-align: right; - font-size: smaller; -} - -ul {margin-left: 3em; padding-left: 0;} -li {list-style-type: none; padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -2.5em; text-align: left;} -li.figspace {padding-left: 2.5em; text-indent: -2.5em;} - -.footnotes { - border: thin dashed black; - margin: 4em 5% 1em 5%; - padding: .5em 1em .5em 1.5em; -} - -.footnote {font-size: .95em;} -.footnote p {text-indent: 1em;} -.footnote p.in0 {text-indent: 0;} -.footnote p.fn1 {text-indent: -.7em;} -.footnote p.fn2 {text-indent: -1.1em;} - -.fnanchor { - vertical-align: 80%; - line-height: .7; - font-size: .75em; - text-decoration: none; -} -.footnote .fnanchor {font-size: .8em;} -.fnanchor.smaller {font-size: .5em; vertical-align: text-top;} - -blockquote { - margin-left: 5%; - margin-right: 5%; - font-size: 95%; -} - -blockquote.narrow {margin: auto; max-width: 35em;} - -.poem-container { - text-align: center; - font-size: 98%; -} - -.poem, .ilb { - display: inline-block; - text-align: left; - margin-left: 0; -} - -.poem br {display: none;} - -.poem .stanza{padding: 0.5em 0;} - -.poem .tb {margin: .3em 0 0 0; padding: 0;} - -.poem span.iq {display: block; margin-left: -.5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} -.poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} -.poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 1em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} -.poem span.i18 {display: block; margin-left: 7.5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} -.poem span.i22 {display: block; margin-left: 8.5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} - -.transnote { - background-color: #EEE; - border: thin dotted; - font-family: sans-serif, serif; - color: #000; - margin-left: 5%; - margin-right: 5%; - margin-top: 4em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - padding: 1em; -} -.covernote {visibility: hidden; display: none;} - -.sigright { - margin-right: 2em; - text-align: right;} - -.wspace {word-spacing: .3em;} - -span.locked {white-space:nowrap;} - -.uppercase {text-transform: uppercase;} - -.sans {font-family: sans-serif;} -.bbox {border: thin solid black; padding: 1em; margin: 1.5em auto; max-width: 30em;} - -@media print, handheld -{ - h1, .chapter, .newpage {page-break-before: always;} - h2 {page-break-before: avoid;} - h1.nobreak, h2.nobreak, .nobreak {page-break-before: avoid; padding-top: 0;} - .intact {page-break-inside: avoid;} - - p { - margin-top: .5em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: .25em; - } - - table {width: 100%; max-width: 100%;} - - .tdl { - padding-left: .5em; - text-indent: -.5em; - padding-right: 0; - } - - p.drop-cap {text-indent: 1.75em; margin-bottom: .24em;} - p.drop-cap:first-letter { - float: none; - font-size: 100%; - margin-left: 0; - margin-right: 0; - text-indent: 1.75em; - } - - p.drop-cap.i .smcap1, p.drop-cap.a .smcap1, p.drop-cap .smcap1, - p.drop-cap.b .smcap1, p.drop-cap.al .smcap1 {margin-left: 0;} - p .smcap1 {font-size: 100%;} - .smcap1 {font-variant: normal;} - - img.drop-cap {visibility: hidden; display: none; - float: none; - margin: 0; -} - - span.dc {visibility: visible; display: inline;} - p.dcl2 {text-indent: 1.75em;} - -} - -@media handheld -{ - body {margin: 0;} - h2 {page-break-before: avoid;} - - hr { - margin-top: .1em; - margin-bottom: .1em; - visibility: hidden; - color: white; - width: .01em; - display: none; - } - - ul {margin-left: 1em; padding-left: 0;} - li {list-style-type: none; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1.5em;} - li.figspace {padding-left: 1.5em; text-indent: -1.5em;} - - blockquote {margin: 1.5em 3% 1.5em 3%;} - - .poem-container {text-align: left; margin-left: 5%;} - .poem, .ilb {display: block; margin-left: 10%;} - .poem .tb {text-align: left; padding-left: 2em;} - .poem .stanza {page-break-inside: avoid;} - - .transnote { - page-break-inside: avoid; - margin-left: 2%; - margin-right: 2%; - margin-top: 1em; - margin-bottom: 1em; - padding: .5em; - } - .covernote {visibility: visible; display: block; text-align: center;} -} - </style> - </head> - -<body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of A History of Booksellers, the Old and the -New, by Henry Curwen - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: A History of Booksellers, the Old and the New - -Author: Henry Curwen - -Release Date: June 18, 2016 [EBook #52362] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF BOOKSELLERS, OLD AND NEW *** - - - - -Produced by MWS, Charlie Howard, and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class="transnote covernote"> -<p class="center">Transcriber’s Note<br /> -Text on cover added by Transcriber and placed in the Public Domain.</p> -</div> - -<div id="if_i_000" class="newpage figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> - <img src="images/i_000.jpg" width="600" height="374" alt="" /></div> - -<h1 class="vspace2 wspace"><span class="small">A</span><br /> -HISTORY OF BOOKSELLERS,<br /> - -<span class="subhead"><i>THE OLD AND THE NEW</i>.</span></h1> - -<p class="p2 center large"><span class="smcap">By</span> HENRY CURWEN.</p> - -<div id="if_i_001" class="figcenter" style="width: 148px;"> - <img src="images/i_001.jpg" width="148" height="144" alt="" /></div> - -<div class="p1 center"><div class="ilb smaller"> -<p>“In these days, ten ordinary histories of kings and courtiers were well exchanged<br /> -against the tenth part of one good History of Booksellers.”—<span class="smcap">Thomas Carlyle.</span> -</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="p2 smaller sans center">WITH PORTRAITS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.</p> - -<p class="p2 center vspace">London:<br /> -<span class="larger wspace">CHATTO AND WINDUS, PICCADILLY.</span></p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_v">v</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div id="if_i_005" class="figcenter" style="width: 380px;"> - <img id="PREFACE" src="images/i_005.jpg" width="380" height="82" alt="" /></div> - -<h2 class="nobreak">PREFACE.</h2> -</div> - -<div> - <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_005b.jpg" width="62" height="63" alt="H" /></div> - -<p class="in0 dcl2"><span class="uppercase"><span class="dc">“H</span>istory”</span> has been aptly termed the -“essence of innumerable biographies;” and -this surely justifies us in the selection of -our title; but in inditing a volume to be issued in a -cheap and popular form, it was manifestly impossible -to trace the careers of all the eminent members, -ancient and modern, of a Trade so widely extended; -had we, indeed, possessed all possible leisure for -research, every available material, and a space -thoroughly unlimited, it is most probable that the -result would have been distinguished chiefly for its -bulk, tediousness, and monotony. It was resolved, -therefore, in the first planning of the volume, to -primarily trace the origin and growth of the Bookselling -and Publishing Trades up to a comparatively -modern period; and then to select, for fuller treatment, -the most typical English representatives of each -one of the various branches into which a natural -division of labour had subdivided the whole. And, -by this plan, it is believed that, while some firms at -present growing into eminence may have been -omitted, or have received but scant acknowledgment,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_vi">vi</a></span> -no one Publisher or Bookseller, whose spirit and labours -have as yet had time to justify a claim to a niche in -the “<span class="smcap">History of Booksellers</span>,” has been altogether -passed over. In the course of our “<span class="smcap">History</span>,” -too, we have been necessarily concerned with the -manner of the “equipping and furnishing” of nearly -every great work in our literature. So that, while on -the one hand we have related the lives of a body of -men singularly thrifty, able, industrious, and persevering—in -some few cases singularly venturesome, -liberal, and kindly-hearted—we have on the other, by -our comparative view, tried to throw a fresh, at all -events a concentrated, light upon the interesting story -of literary struggle.</p> - -<p>No work of the kind has ever previously been -attempted, and this fact must be an apology for -some, at least, of our shortcomings.</p> - -<p class="sigright">H. C.</p> - -<p class="in0 in1"><i>November, 1873.</i></p> - -<div id="if_i_006" class="figcenter" style="width: 183px;"> - <img src="images/i_006.jpg" width="183" height="100" alt="" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_vii">vii</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div id="if_i_007" class="figcenter" style="width: 358px;"> - <img src="images/i_007.jpg" width="358" height="76" alt="" /></div> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><a id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS.</h2> -</div> - -<table id="toc" summary="Contents"> - <tr class="small"> - <td> </td> - <td class="tdr nobotpad">PAGE</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">THE BOOKSELLERS OF OLDEN TIMES</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_1">9</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">THE LONGMAN FAMILY<br /><i>Classical and Educational Literature.</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_2">79</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">CONSTABLE, CADELL, AND BLACK<br /><i>The “<cite>Edinburgh Review</cite>,” “<cite>Waverley Novels</cite>,” and “<cite>Encyclopædia Britannica</cite>.”</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_3">110</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">JOHN MURRAY<br /><i>Belles-Lettres and Travels.</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_4">159</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">WILLIAM BLACKWOOD<br />“<i><cite>Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine</cite>.</i>”</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_5">199</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">CHAMBERS, KNIGHT, AND CASSELL<br /><i>Literature for the People.</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_6">234</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">HENRY COLBURN<br /><i>Three-Volume Novels and Light Literature.</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_7">279</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">THE RIVINGTONS, THE PARKERS, AND JAMES NISBET<br /><i>Religious Literature.</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_8">296</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">BUTTERWORTH AND CHURCHILL<br /><i>Technical Literature.</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_9">333</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">EDWARD MOXON<br /><i>Poetical Literature.</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_10">347</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">KELLY AND VIRTUE<br /><i>The “Number” Trade.</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_11">363</a><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_viii">viii</a></span></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">THOMAS TEGG<br /><i>Book-Auctioneering and the “Remainder Trade.”</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_12">379</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">THOMAS NELSON<br /><i>Children’s Literature and “Book-Manufacturing.”</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_13">399</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, AND CO.<br /><i>Collecting for the Country Trade.</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_14">412</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">CHARLES EDWARD MUDIE<br /><i>The Lending Library.</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_15">421</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">W. H. SMITH AND SON<br /><i>Railway Literature.</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_16">433</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">PROVINCIAL BOOKSELLERS<br /><i>York: Gent and Burdekin. Newcastle: Goading, Bryson, Bewick, and Charnley. Glasgow: Fowlis and Collins. Liverpool: Johnson. Dublin: Duffy. Derby: Mozley, Richardson, and Bemrose. Manchester: Harrop, Barker, Timperley, and the Heywoods. Birmingham: Hutton, Baskerville, and “The Educational Trading Co.” Exeter: Brice. Bristol: Cottle.</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_17">441</a></td></tr> -</table> - -<div id="if_i_008" class="figcenter" style="width: 167px;"> - <img src="images/i_008.jpg" width="167" height="98" alt="" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_9">9</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div id="if_i_009" class="figcenter" style="width: 373px;"> - <img id="hdr_1" src="images/i_009.jpg" width="373" height="79" alt="" /> -</div> -<h2 class="nobreak"><i>THE BOOKSELLERS OF OLDEN TIMES.</i></h2> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap al"><span class="smcap1">Long</span> ages before the European invention of the art -of printing, long even before the encroaching masses -of Huns and Visigoths rolled the wave of civilization -backward for a thousand years, the honourable trades, -of which we aim to be in some degree the chroniclers, -had their representatives and their patrons. Without -going back to the libraries of Egypt—a subject fertile -enough in the pages of mythical history—or to the -manuscript-engrossers and sellers of Ancient Greece—though -by their labours much of the world’s best poetry, -philosophy, and wit was garnered for a dozen centuries, -like wheat ears in a mummy’s tomb, to be scattered to -the four winds of heaven, when the Mahometans seized -upon Constantinople, thenceforth to fructify afresh, -and, in connection with the art of printing, as if the -old world and the new clasped hands upon promise of -a better time, to be mainly instrumental in the “revival -of letters”—it will be sufficient for our present purpose -to know that there were in Rome, at the time of the -Empire, many publishing firms, who, if they could not -altogether rival the magnates of Albemarle Street and -the “Row,” issued books at least as good, and, paradoxical<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_10">10</a></span> -as it may seem, at least as cheaply as their -modern brethren.</p> - -<p>To the sauntering Roman of the Augustan age literature -was an essential; never, probably, till quite modern -times was education—the education, at all events, that -supplies a capability to read and write—so widely spread. -The taste thus created was gratified in many ways. If -the Romans had no Mudie, they possessed public -libraries, thrown freely open to all. They had public -recitations, at which unpublished and ambitious writers -could find an audience; over which, too, sometimes -great emperors presided, while poets, with a world-wide -reputation, read aloud their favourite verses. -They had newspapers, the subject-matter of which -was wonderfully like our own. The principal journal, -entitled <cite xml:lang="la" lang="la">Acta Diurna</cite>, was compiled under the sanction -of the government, and hung up in some place of -frequent resort for the benefit of the multitude, and -was probably copied for the private accommodation -of the wealthy. All public events of importance were -chronicled here; the reporters, termed <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">actuarii</i>, furnished -abstracts of the proceedings in the law courts -and at public assemblies; there was a list of births, -deaths, and marriages; and we are informed that the -one article of news in which the <cite xml:lang="la" lang="la">Acta Diurna</cite> particularly -abounded was that of reports of trials for divorce. -Juvenal tells us that the women were all agog for -deluges, earthquakes, and other horrors, and that the -wine-merchants and traders used to invent false news -in order to affect their various markets. But, in -addition to all these means for gratifying the Roman -taste for reading, every respectable house possessed a -library, and among the better classes the slave-readers -(<i xml:lang="la" lang="la">anagnostæ</i>) and the slave-transcribers (<i xml:lang="la" lang="la">librarii</i>) were<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_11">11</a></span> -almost as indispensable as cooks and scullions. At -first we find that these slaves were employed in -making copies of celebrated books for their masters; -but gradually the natural division of labour produced -a separate class of publishers. Atticus, the Moxon of -the period, and an author of similar calibre, saw an -opening for his energies in the production of copies of -favourite authors upon a large scale. He employed a -number of slaves to copy from dictation simultaneously, -and was thus able to multiply books as -quickly as they were demanded. His success speedily -finding imitators, among whom were Tryphon and -Dorus, publishing became a recognized trade. The -public they appealed to was not a small one. Martial, -Ovid, and Propertius speak of their works as -being known all the world over; that young and old, -women and girls, in Rome and in the provinces, in -Britain and in Gaul, read their verses. “Every one,” -says Martial, “has me in his pocket, every one has -me in his hands.”</p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="iq">“Laudat, amat, cantat nostros mea Roma libellos:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Meque sinus omnis, me manus omnis habet.”<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="in0">Horace speaks of the repugnance he felt at seeing his -works in the hands of the vulgar. And Pliny writes -that Regulus is mourning ostentatiously for the loss -of his son, and no one weeps like him—<i xml:lang="la" lang="la">luget ut nemo</i>. -“He composes an oration which he is not content -with publicly reciting in Rome, but must needs enrich -the provinces with a thousand copies of it.”</p> - -<p>School-books, too, an important item in publishing -eyes, were in demand at Rome: Juvenal says that “the -verses which the boy has just <em>conned over</em> at his desk<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_12">12</a></span> -he stands up to repeat,” and Persius tells us that poets -were ambitious to be read in the schools; while Nero, -in his vanity, gave special command that his verses -should be placed in the hands of the students.</p> - -<p>Thus, altogether, there must have been a large -book-buying public, and this fact is still further -strengthened by the cheapness of the books produced. -M. Geraud<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">1</a> concludes that the prices were lower -than in our own day. According to Martial the first -book of his Epigrams was to be bought, neatly bound, -for five denarii (nearly three shillings), but in a -cheaper binding for the people it cost six to ten sestertii -(a shilling to eighteenpence); his thirteenth -book of Epigrams was sold for four sestertii (about -eightpence), and half that price would, he says, have -left a fair profit (Epig. xiii. 3). He tells us, moreover, -that it would only require one hour to copy the -whole of the second book,</p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="iq">“Hæc una peragit librarius hora.”<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="in0">This book contains five hundred and forty verses, -and though he may be speaking with poetical licence, -the system of abbreviations did undoubtedly considerably -lessen the labour of transcribing, and it would be -quite possible, by employing a number of transcribers -simultaneously, to produce an edition of such a work -in one day.</p> - -<p>In Rome, therefore, we see that from the employment -of slave labour—and some thousands of slaves -were engaged in this work of transcribing—books were -both plentiful and cheap.<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">2</a></p> - -<div id="if_i_012" class="figcenter" style="width: 245px;"> - <img src="images/i_012.jpg" width="245" height="338" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p>William Caxton. The first printer at Westminster.</p> - -<p>1410–1491.</p></div></div> - -<div id="if_i_012b" class="figcenter" style="width: 407px;"> - <img src="images/i_012b.jpg" width="407" height="309" alt="" /> - - <div class="caption"><p>Caxton’s Monogram.</p> - -<p>(<i>Facsimile from his Works.</i>)</p></div></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_13">13</a></span> -In the Middle Ages this state of things was entirely -altered. Men were too busy in giving and receiving -blows, in oppressing and being oppressed, to have the -slightest leisure for book-learning. Slaves, such as -then existed, were valued for far different things than -reading and writing; and even their masters’ kings, -princes, lords, and other fighting dignitaries, would -have regarded a quill-pen, in their mail-gloved hands, -as a very foolish and unmanly weapon. There was -absolutely no public to which bookmakers could -have appealed, and the art of transcribing was confined -entirely to a few monks, whose time hung -heavily upon their hands; and, as a natural result, -writers became, as Odofredi says, “no longer writers -but painters,” and books were changed into elaborate -works of art. Nor was this luxurious illumination -confined to Bibles and Missals; the very law-books -were resplendent, and a writer in the twelfth century -complains that in Paris the Professor of Jurisprudence -required two or three desks to support his copy of -Ulpian, gorgeous with golden letters. No wonder -that Erasmus says of the <cite xml:lang="la" lang="la">Secunda Secundea</cite> that “no -man can carry it about, much less get it into his -head.”</p> - -<p>At first there was no trade whatever in books, but -gradually a system of barter sprung up between the -monks of various monasteries; and with the foundation -of the Universities a regular class of copyists was -established to supply the wants of scholars and professors, -and this improvement was greatly fostered by -the invention of paper.</p> - -<p>The booksellers of this period were called <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">Stationarii</i>, -either from the practice of stationing themselves -at booths or stalls in the streets (in contradistinction<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_14">14</a></span> -to the itinerant vendors) or from the other -meaning of the Latin term <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">statio</i>, which is, Crevier -tells us, <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">entrepôt</i> or depository, and he adds that the -booksellers did little else than furnish a place of -deposit, where private persons could send their manuscripts -for sale. In addition to this, indeed as their -chief trade, they sent out books to be read, at exorbitant -prices, not in volumes, but in detached parts, -according to the estimation in which the authors were -held.</p> - -<p>In Paris, where the trade of these <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">stationarii</i> was -best developed, a statute regarding them was published -in 1275, by which they were compelled to take -the oath of allegiance once a year, or, at most, -once every two years. They were forbidden by this -same statute to purchase the books placed in their -hands until they had been publicly exposed for sale -for at least a month; the purchase money was to -be handed over direct to the proprietor, and the bookseller’s -commission was not to exceed one or two per -cent. In addition to the <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">stationarii</i>, there were in -Paris several pedlars or stall-keepers, also under -University control, who were only permitted to exhibit -their wares under the free heavens, or beneath the -porches of churches where the schools were occasionally -kept. The portal at the north end of the -cross aisle in Rouen Cathedral is still called <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">le Portail -des Libraires</i>.</p> - -<div id="if_i_014" class="figcenter" style="width: 322px;"> - <img src="images/i_014.jpg" width="322" height="441" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p>Wynkyn de Worde. 1493–1534. The second printer at Westminster.</p> -<p>(<i>From a drawing by Fathorne.</i>)</p></div></div> - -<div id="if_i_014b" class="figcenter" style="width: 411px;"> - <img src="images/i_014b.jpg" width="411" height="185" alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Headpiece of William Caxton.</div></div> - -<p>In England the first stationers were probably themselves -the engrossers of what they sold, when the -learning and literature of the country demanded as -the chief food A B C’s and Paternosters, Aves and -Creeds, Graces and Amens. Such was the employment -of our earliest stationers, as the names of their<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_15">15</a></span> -favourite haunts—Paternoster Row, Amen Corner, -and Ave Maria Lane—bear ample witness; while -the term stationer soon became synonymous with -bookseller, and, in connection with the Stationers’ -Company, of no little importance, as we shall soon -see, in our own bookselling annals.</p> - -<p>In 1292, the bookselling corporation of Paris consisted -of twenty-four copyists, seventeen bookbinders, -nineteen parchment makers, thirteen illuminators, and -eight simple dealers in manuscripts. But at the time -when printing was first introduced upwards of six -thousand people are said to have subsisted by -copying and illuminating manuscripts—a fact that, -even if exaggerated, says something for the gradual -advancement of learning.</p> - -<p>The European invention of printing, which here -can only be mentioned; the diffusion of Greek manuscripts -and the ancient wisdom contained therein, -consequent upon the capture of Constantinople by -the Turks; the discovery of America; and, finally, -the German and English religious Reformations, were -so many rapid and connected strides in favour of -knowledge and progress. All properly-constituted -conservative minds were shocked that so many new -lights should be allowed to stream in upon the -world, and every conceivable let and hindrance was -called up in opposition. Royal prerogatives were -exercised, Papal bulls were issued, and satirists (<i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">soi-disant</i>) -were bitter. A French poet of this period, -sneering at the invention of printing, and the discovery -of the New World by Columbus, says of the -press, in language conveyed by the following <span class="locked">doggerel:—</span></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_16">16</a></span></p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="iq">“I’ve seen a mighty throng<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Of printed books and long,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">To draw to studious ways<br /></span> -<span class="i0">The poor men of our days;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">By which new-fangled practice,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">We soon shall see the fact is,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Our streets will swarm with scholars<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Without clean shirts or collars,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">With Bibles, books, and codices<br /></span> -<span class="i0">As cheap as tape for bodices.”<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="in0">In spite of this feeling against the popularization of -learning and the spread of education—a feeling not -quite dead yet, if we may trust the evidence of a few -good old Tory speakers on the evil effects (forgery, -larceny, and all possible violation of the ten commandments) -of popular education—a feeling perhaps subsiding, -for a country gentleman of the old school -told us recently that he “would wish every working -man to read the Bible—the Bible only—and <em>that</em> with -difficulty”—a progressive sign—the world was too well -aware of the good to be gathered from the furtherance -of these novelties to willingly let them die, and -though the battle was from the first a hard one, it has -been, from first to last, a winning battle.</p> - -<div id="if_i_016" class="figcenter" style="width: 283px;"> - <img src="images/i_016.jpg" width="283" height="348" alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Richard Pynson. Died about 1530.</div></div> - -<div id="if_i_016b" class="figcenter" style="width: 262px;"> - <img src="images/i_016b.jpg" width="262" height="313" alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Monogram used by Richard Pynson.</div></div> - -<p>It will be essential throughout this chapter, and -indeed throughout the whole work, to bear in mind -that it was not till quite modern times that a separate -class was formed to buy copyrights, to employ printers, -and to sell the books wholesale, to which their -names were affixed on the title-pages—to be in fact, in -the modern acceptation of the word, Publishers. -There was no such class among the old booksellers; but -they had to do everything for themselves, to construct -the types, presses, and other essentials for printing, to -bind the sheets when printed, and finally, when the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_17">17</a></span> -books were manufactured, to sell them to the general -public. For long, many of the booksellers had printing -offices; they all, of course, kept shops, at which -not only printed books but stationery was retailed; -bookbinders were not unfrequent among them; and, -to very recent times, they were the chief proprietors -of newspapers, a branch of the trade that appears, -from some modern instances, to be again falling in -their direction.</p> - -<p>In England the printing press found a sure asylum, -but at first the books printed were very few in number -and the issue of each book small. The works -produced by Caxton consisted almost entirely of -translations. “Divers famous clerks and learned -men,” says one of the early printers, “translated and -made many noble works into our English tongue. -Whereby there was much more plenty and abundance -of English used than there was in times past.” -Wynkyn de Worde followed closely in his master’s -footsteps; but soon a new source of employment for -the press was discovered, and De Worde turned his -attention to the production of <cite>Accidences</cite>, <cite>Lucidaries</cite>, -<cite>Orchards of Words</cite>, <cite>Promptuaries for Little Children</cite>, -and the like. With the Reformation came of course -a great demand for Bibles, and, between the years -1526 and 1600, so great was the rush for this new -supply of hitherto forbidden knowledge that we have -no less than three hundred and twenty-six editions, -or parts of editions, of the English Bible.</p> - -<p>In the “Typographical Antiquities” of Ames and -Herbert are recorded the names of three hundred and -fifty printers in England and Scotland, who flourished -between 1474 and 1600. Though these “printers” -were also booksellers, their history belongs more<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_18">18</a></span> -properly to the annals of printing. We will, therefore, -confine ourselves to a preliminary account of the -Stationers’ Company, and then enter forthwith upon -such biographical sketches as our space will allow, of -the men who may be regarded, if not uniformly in -the modern sense as publishers, at any rate as the -representative booksellers of old London.</p> - -<p>The “Stationers or Text-writers who wrote and -sold all sorts of books then in use” were first formed -into a guild in the year 1403, by the authority of the -Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen, and possessed -ordinances made for the good government of their -fellowship; and thus constituted they assembled -regularly in their first hall in Milk Street under the -government of a master and two wardens; but no -privilege or charter has ever been discovered, under -which, at that period, they acted as a corporate body. -The Company had, however, no control over printed -books until they received their first charter from -Mary and Philip on 4th May 1557. The object of -the charter is thus set forth in the preamble: “Know -ye that we, considering and manifestly perceiving that -several seditious and heretical books, both in verse -and prose, are daily published, stamped and printed, -by divers scandalous, schismatical, and heretical -persons, not only exciting our subjects and liege-men -to sedition and disobedience against us, our crown -and dignity; but also to the renewal and propagating -very great and detestable heresies against the faith -and sound Catholic doctrine of Holy Mother the -Church; and being willing to provide a proper remedy -in this case,” &c. The powers granted to the Company -by this charter were, verbally, absolute. Not -only were they to search out, seize, and destroy books<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_19">19</a></span> -printed in contravention of the monopoly, or against -the faith and sound Catholic doctrine of Holy Mother -Church; but they might seize, take away, have, burn, -or convert to their own use, whatever they should -<em>think</em> was printed contrary to the form of any statute, -act, or proclamation, made or <em>to be</em> made. And this -charter renewed by Elizabeth in 1588, amplified by -Charles II. in 1684, and confirmed by William and -Mary in 1690, is still virtually in existence. It is -scarcely strange that such enormous powers as these -were but little respected; indeed Queen Elizabeth -herself was one of the first to invade their privileges, -and she granted the following, among other monopolies, -away from the Stationers’ <span class="locked">Company:—</span></p> - -<ul><li>To Byrde, the printing of music books.</li> -<li>To Serres, psalters, primers, and prayer books.</li> -<li>To Flower, grammars.</li> -<li>To Tothill, law books.</li> -<li>To Judge (the Queen’s Printer), Bibles and Testaments.</li> -<li>To Watkin and Roberts, almanacs and prognostications.</li> -<li>To Vautrollier, Latin Testaments and other Latin books.</li> -<li>To Marsh, school-books.</li> -<li>To Day, A B C’s and catechisms.</li> -</ul> - -<p>(This last had his printing office in Moorgate Street, -ornamented with the motto, “Arise, for it is Day!”)</p> - -<p>The Stationers’ Company, sorely damaged in trade -by the sudden and almost entire loss of their privileges, -petitioned the Queen, representing that they -were subject to certain levies, that they supplied -when called upon a number of armed men, and that -they expected to derive some benefit when they<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_20">20</a></span> -underwent these liabilities. As a reply they were -severely reprimanded for daring to question the -Queen’s prerogative, upon which they petitioned again, -but more humbly, that they might at least be placed -on an equal footing with the interlopers, and be permitted -to print something or other. Her Majesty -was shortly pleased to sanction an arrangement by -which they were to possess the exclusive right of -printing and selling psalters, primers, almanacs, and -books tending to the same purpose—the <em>A B C</em>’s, the -<cite>Little Catechism</cite>, Nowell’s <cite>English</cite> and <cite>Latin Catechisms</cite>, -&c.</p> - -<p>Ward, and Wolf a fishmonger, however, disputed -the power of the Company, declaring it to be lawful, -according to the written law of the land, for any -printer to print all books; and when the Master and -Wardens of the Company went to search Ward’s -house, preparatory to seizing, burning, or conveying -away his books, they were ignominiously defeated by -his wife. The Lord Treasurer likewise sent commissioners -thither, “but they, too, could bring him to -nothing.”</p> - -<p>Learning from this how useless the tremendous -powers conferred upon them by their charter really -were, the Stationers’ Company took a wiser course -and subscribed £15,000 to print the books in which -they had the exclusive property.</p> - -<div id="if_i_020" class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> - <img src="images/i_020.jpg" width="209" height="339" alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Richard Grafton, English Printer and Historian. Died after 1572. - The first printer of the Common Prayer.</div></div> - -<div id="if_i_020b" class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> - <img src="images/i_020b.jpg" width="247" height="295" alt="" /> - <div class="caption">John Wight or Wyghte. Was living in 1551. A printer of law books.</div></div> - -<p>The “entry” of copies at Stationers’ Hall was -commenced in 1558, but without the delivery of any -books, and these entries seem originally to have been -intended by the booksellers of the Company to make -known to each other their respective copyrights, and -to act as advertisements of the works thus entered. -Half a century later, Sir Thomas Bodley was appointed<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_21">21</a></span> -librarian at Oxford, and so great was his zeal for -obtaining books that he persuaded the Company of -Stationers in London to give him a copy of every -book that was printed, and this voluntary offering -was rendered compulsory by the celebrated Licensing -Act of 1663, which prohibited the publication of any -book unless licensed by the Lord Chamberlain, and -entered in the Stationers’ Registers, and which fixed -the number of copies to be presented gratis at three. -In the reign of William and Mary the liberty of the -press was restored, but in the new Act the door was -unfortunately thrown open to infractions of literary -property by clandestine editions of books, and in the -following reign the property of copyright was secured -for fourteen years, though the perpetuity of copyright -was still vulgarly believed in, and, by the better class -of booksellers, still respected. The number of compulsory -presentation copies was gradually increased -to eleven, forming a very heavy tax upon expensive -books, and was only in our own times reduced to five. -At present the registration of books at Stationers’ -Hall is quite independent of the presentations, which -are still compulsory. The fee for the registration or -assignment of a copyright is five shillings.</p> - -<p>By the end of the last century all the privileges -and monopolies of the Company had been shredded -away till they had nothing left but the right to publish -a common Latin primer and almanacs. In 1775 -J. Carnan,<a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">3</a> an enterprizing tradesman, questioning -the legality of the latter monopoly, published an<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_22">22</a></span> -almanac on his own account, and defended himself -against an action brought by the Company in which -the monopoly was declared worthless. As, however, -the Company still paid the Universities for the lease -of the sole right to publish almanacs, they endeavoured -to recover their privilege by Act of Parliament, but -were defeated by Erskine in a memorable speech, -who showed that, while supposed to be protectors of -the order and the decencies of the press, the Company -had not only entirely omitted to exercise their duties, -but that, even in using their privileges, they had, to -increase their revenue, printed, in the “Poor Robin’s” -and other almanacs, the most revolting indecencies; -and the question was decided against them.</p> - -<div id="if_i_022" class="figcenter" style="width: 286px;"> - <img src="images/i_022.jpg" width="286" height="348" alt="" /> - <div class="captionl"> -<span class="in1">Rayne Wolfe.</span><br /> -Paul’s Churchyard.</div> - -<div class="captionr up2"> -King Henry VIII.’s<br /> -<span class="l2">printer.</span></div></div> - -<div id="if_i_022b" class="figcenter" style="width: 275px;"> - <img src="images/i_022b.jpg" width="275" height="128" alt="" /> - <div class="caption">1547.</div></div> - -<div id="if_i_022c" class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> - <img src="images/i_022c.jpg" width="254" height="312" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p>John Day or Daye. “A famous printer. He lived over Aldgate.”</p> - -<p>1522–1584.</p></div></div> - -<p>The “earliest men of letters”—if we accept the -word in its modern meaning of those who earn their -bread by their pens—were the dramatists; but the -publication of their plays was a mere appendix to the -acting thereof, and Shakespeare never drew a penny -from the printing of his works. The Elizabethan -dramatists—the Greenes and Marlowes—led a life of -wretchedness only paralleled later on by the annals of -Grub Street. As the use of the printing press expanded, -however, a race of authors by profession sprang -into existence. At the time of the Commonwealth -James Howell, author of the “Epistolæ Ho-elianæ,” -who was thrown into the Fleet prison, appears to -have made his bread by scribbling for the booksellers; -Thomas Fuller, also, was among the first, as well as -the quaintest, hack-writers; he observes, in the preface -to his “Worthies,” that no stationers have hitherto -lost by him. His “Holy State” was reprinted four -times before the Restoration, but the publisher continued -to describe the last two impressions, on the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_23">23</a></span> -title-page, as only the third edition, as if he were -unwilling that the extent of the popularity should be -known—a fact probably unprecedented. But still -the great writers had either private means, or lived -on the patronage of rank and wealth; for the reward -of a successful book in those days did not lie in so -much hard cash from one’s publisher, but in hopes of -favour and places from the great. The famous agreement -between Milton and Samuel Simmons, a printer, -is one of the earliest authenticated agreements of -copy money being given for an original work; it was -executed on April 27th, 1667, and disposes of the -copyright of “Paradise Lost” for the present sum -of five pounds, and five pounds more when 1300 -copies of the first impression should be sold in retail, -and the like sum at the end of the second and third -editions, <em>to be accounted as aforesaid; and that</em> (each -of) <em>the said first three impressions shall not exceed -fifteen books or volumes of the said manuscript</em>. The -price of the small quarto edition was three shillings -in a plain binding. Probably, as Sir Walter Scott -remarks, the trade had no very good bargain of it, for -the first impression of the poem does not seem to -have been sold off before the expiration of seven -years, nor till the bookseller (in accordance with a -practice nor confined solely to that age) had given it -five new title-pages. The second five pounds was -received by Milton, and in 1680, for the present sum -of eight pounds, his widow resigned all further right -in the copyright, and thus the poem was sold for -eighteen pounds instead of the stipulated twenty. -The whole transaction must be regarded rather as an -entire novelty, than as an example of a bookseller’s -meanness—a view too often unjustly taken.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_24">24</a></span> -The first “eminent man of letters” was Dryden, -who serves us as a connecting link between those who -earned their livelihood by writing for the stage and -those who earned it by working for the booksellers, -and the first “eminent publisher” was Jacob Tonson, -his bookseller. Dryden, like his predecessors, -commenced life as a dramatist, but in his times plays -acquired a marketable value elsewhere than on the -stage. Before Tonson started, Dryden’s works—almost -entirely plays—were sold by Herringman, the chief -bookseller in London, says Mr. Peter Cunningham, -before Tonson’s time; but now only remembered -because Dryden lodged at his house, taking his money -out in kind, as authors then often did.</p> - -<div id="if_i_024" class="figcenter" style="width: 398px;"> - <img src="images/i_024.jpg" width="398" height="526" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p>Jacob Tonson.</p> - -<p>1656–1736.</p> - -<p>(<i>From the Portrait by Kneller.</i>)</p></div></div> - -<p>Jacob Tonson, born in 1656, was the son of a barber-surgeon -in Holborn, who died when his two sons -were both very young, leaving them each a hundred -pounds to be paid them on their coming of age. The -two lads resolved to become printers and booksellers, -and, at fourteen, Jacob was apprenticed to Thomas -Barnet. After serving the usual term of seven -years he was admitted to the freedom of the Stationers’ -Company, and immediately commenced business -with his small capital at the Judge’s House, in -Chancery Lane, close to the corner of Fleet Street. -Like many other publishers he began trade by selling -second-hand books and those produced by other firms, -but he soon issued plays on his own account; finding, -however, that the works of Otway and Tate, which were -among his first attempts, had no very extensive sale, -he boldly made a bid for Dryden’s next play, but the -twenty pounds required by the author was too great a -venture for his small capital, so “Troilus and Cressida; -or Truth found too Late,” was published conjointly by<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_25">25</a></span> -Tonson and Levalle in 1679. This connection with -Dryden, which lasted till the poet’s death, was of -only less importance to the furtherance of Tonson’s -fortune than a bargain concluded four years later -with Brabazon Aylmer for one-half of his interest in -the “Paradise Lost,” which Dryden told him was one -of the greatest poems England had ever produced. -Still he waited four years before he ventured to publish, -and then only by the safe method of subscription, -and in 1788 the folio edition came out, and by the -sale of this and future editions Tonson was, according -to Disraeli, enabled to keep his carriage. The other -moiety of the copyright was subsequently purchased. -There is a pleasant description of Tonson, in these -early days, in a short poem by <span class="locked">Rowe:—</span></p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="iq">“While in your early days of reputation<br /></span> -<span class="i0">You for blue garter had not such a passion,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">While yet you did not live, as now your trade is,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">To drink with noble lords and toast their ladies,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Thou Jacob Tonson, wert, to my conceiving,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">The cheerfullest, best honest fellow living.”<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>From John Dunton, the bookseller, we get the -following description:—“He was bookseller to the -famous Dryden, and is himself a very good judge of -persons and authors; and, as there is nobody more -competently qualified to give their opinion upon -another, so there is none who does it with a more -severe exactness, or with less partiality; for, to do -Mr. Tonson justice, he speaks his mind upon all -occasions, and will flatter nobody.”</p> - -<p>Not only did Tonson first make “Paradise Lost” -popular, but some years afterwards he was the first -bookseller to throw Shakespeare open to a reading -public.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_26">26</a></span> -Then, as now, however, the works in most urgent demand -were “novelties,” and with these Dryden supplied -his publisher as fast almost as pen could drive upon -paper. From the correspondence between Dryden -and Tonson, printed in Scott’s edition of the poet’s -works, they seem to have been privately on very -friendly terms, falling out only when agreements were -to be signed or payments to be made. Tonson was -at this time publishing what are sometimes known as -<em>Tonson’s</em>, sometimes as <em>Dryden’s</em>, <cite>Miscellany Poems</cite>, -written, so the title-pages averred, by the “most -eminent hands.” <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">Apropos</i> of this, Pope writes, -“Jacob creates poets as kings create knights, not for -their honour, but for their money. I can be satisfied -with a bare saving gain without being thought an -eminent hand.” The first volume of the “Miscellany” -was published in 1684, and the second in the following -year, and of this second, Dryden writes, after -thanking the bookseller for two melons—“since we -are to have nothing but new, I am resolved we shall -have nothing but good, whomever we disoblige.” -The third “Miscellany” was published in 1693, and -Tonson sends an earnest letter of remonstrance anent -the amount of “copy” received of the translation of -Ovid:—“You may please, sir, to remember that upon -my first proposal about the third ‘Miscellany,’ I offered -fifty pounds, and talked of several authors without -naming Ovid. You asked if it should not be guineas, -and said I should not repent it; upon which I immediately -complied, and left it wholly to you what, and -for the quantity too; and I declare it was the furthest -in the world from my thoughts that by leaving it to -you I should have the less.” He proceeds to show -that Dryden had sold a previous, though recent translation<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_27">27</a></span> -to another bookseller at the rate of 1518 lines -for forty guineas, while he adds, “all that I have for -fifty guineas are but 1446; so that if I have no more, -I pay ten guineas above forty, and have 72 lines less -for fifty in proportion. I own, if you don’t think fit -to add something more, I must submit; ’tis wholly at -your choice, for I left it entirely to you; but I believe -you cannot imagine I expected so little; for you were -pleased to use me much kindlier in Juvenal, which is -not reckoned so easy to translate as Ovid. Sir, I -humbly beg your pardon for this long letter, and, -upon my word, I had rather have your good will than -any man’s alive.”</p> - -<p>These were hard times for Dryden, for through the -change of government he had been deprived of the -laureateship, and it is little likely that Tonson ever -received his additional lines or recovered his money. -Frequent at this period were the bickerings between -them. On one occasion, the bookseller having refused -to advance a sum of money, the poet forwarded -the following triplet with the significant message, -“Tell the dog that he who wrote these lines can write -<span class="locked">more:”—</span></p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="iq">“With leering looks, bull-faced and freckled fair,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">With two left legs, with Judas-coloured hair,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">And frowsy pores that taint the ambient air.”<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>The descriptive hint is said to have been successful. -On another occasion, when Bolingbroke was visiting -Dryden, they heard a footstep. “This,” said Dryden, -“is Tonson; you will take care not to depart before -he goes away; for I have not completed the sheet -which I promised him; and, if you leave me unprotected, -I shall suffer all the rudeness to which resentment<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_28">28</a></span> -can prompt his tongue.” And yet, almost at -this period, we find Dryden writing, “I am much -ashamed of myself that I am so much behindhand -with you in kindness.”</p> - -<div id="if_i_028" class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> - <img src="images/i_028.jpg" width="264" height="314" alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Richard Jones, Jhones, or Johnes, English Printer. Was living in 1571.</div></div> - -<div id="if_i_028b" class="figcenter" style="width: 374px;"> - <img src="images/i_028b.jpg" width="374" height="380" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p>John Dunton.</p> - -<p>1659–1733.</p></div></div> - -<p>Dryden’s translations of the classics had been most -successful in selling off the “Miscellanies” very -rapidly, and Tonson now induced the author, by the -offer of very liberal terms, to commence a translation -of Virgil. As usual, the preliminary terms were to -be settled in a tavern—a custom between authors and -booksellers that seems to have been universal. “Be -ready,” writes Dryden, “with the price of paper, and -of the books. No matter for any dinner; for that is -a charge to you, and I care not for it. Mr. Congreve -may be with us as a common friend.” There were two -classes of subscribers, the first of whom paid five -guineas each, and were individually honoured with -the dedication of a plate, with their arms engraved -underneath; the second class paid two guineas only. -The first class numbered 101, and the second 250, -and the money thus received, minus the expense of -the engravings, was handed over to Dryden, who received -in addition from Tonson fifty guineas a book -for the <cite>Georgics</cite> and <cite>Æneid</cite>, and probably the same -for the <cite>Pastorals</cite> collectively. But the price actually -charged to the subscribers of the second class appears -to have been exorbitant, and reduced the amount of -Dryden’s profits to about twelve or thirteen hundred -pounds—still a very large sum in those days. -Frequent, however, were the disputes between them -during the progress of the work. The currency at -this time was terribly deteriorated. In October, -1695, the poet writes, “I expect fifty pounds in good -silver: not such as I have had formerly. I am not<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_29">29</a></span> -obliged to take gold, neither will I; nor stay for it -beyond four-and-twenty hours after it is due.” Good -silver, however, was very scarce, and was at a premium -of forty per cent; so after a year’s wrangling -he had to put up with the fate of all who then sold -labour for money. “The Notes and Queries,” continues -Dryden, perhaps as a gibe at Jacob’s parsimony, -“shall be short; because you shall get the -more by saving paper.” Again he attacks him, this -time half playfully:—“Upon trial I find all of your -trade are sharpers, and you not more than others; -therefore I have not wholly left you.” Tonson all -along wished to dedicate the work to King William, -but Dryden, a staunch Tory, would not yield a tittle -of his political principles, so the bookseller consoled -himself by slyly ordering all the pictures of Æneas in -the engravings to be drawn with William’s characteristic -hooked nose; a manœuvre that gave rise to -the <span class="locked">following:—</span></p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="iq">“Old Jacob, by deep judgments swayed,<br /></span> -<span class="i2">To please the wise beholders,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Has placed old Nassau’s hook-nosed head<br /></span> -<span class="i2">On young Æneas’ shoulders.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="iq">“To make the parallel hold tack,<br /></span> -<span class="i2">Methinks there’s little lacking;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">One took his father pick-a-back,<br /></span> -<span class="i2">And t’other sent his packing.”<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>In December, 1699, Dryden finished his last work, -the “Fables,” for which “ten thousand verses” he was -paid the sum of two hundred and fifty guineas, with -fifty more to be added at the beginning of the second -impression. In this volume was included his Ode to -St. Cecilia, which had first been performed at the -Music Feast kept in Stationers’ Hall, on the 22nd of -November, 1697.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_30">30</a></span> -In 1700 the poet died, but Tonson was by this time -in affluent circumstances.</p> - -<p>About the date of Dryden’s death, probably before -it, as his portrait was included among the other members, -the famous Kit-Cat Club was founded by Tonson. -Various are the derivations of the club. The -most circumstantial account of its origin is given by -the scurrilous writer, Ned Ward, in his “Secret History -of Clubs.” It was established, he says, “by an -amphibious mortal, chief merchant to the Muses, to -inveigle new profitable chaps, who, having more wit -than experience, put but a slender value as yet upon -their maiden performances.” (Tonson must have -been a rare publisher if he found “new chaps” to be -in any way profitable.) With the usual custom of the -times, Tonson was always ready to give his author, -especially upon concluding a bargain, wherewithal to -drink, but he now proposed to add pastry in the shape -of mutton pies, and, according to Ward, promises to -make the meeting weekly, provided his clients would -give him the first refusal of their productions. This -generous proposal was very readily agreed to by -the whole poetic class, and the cook’s name being -Christopher, called for brevity Kit, and his sign the -Cat and Fiddle, they very merrily derived a quaint -denomination from puss and her master, and from -thence called themselves the Kit-Cat Club. According -to Arbuthnot, their toasting-glasses had verses -upon them in honour of “old cats and young kits,” -and many of these toasts were printed in Tonson’s -fifth “Miscellany.” At first they met in Shire Lane, -(Ward says Gray’s Inn Lane), and subsequently at -the Fountain Tavern in the Strand. In a short time -the chief men of letters having joined the club,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_31">31</a></span> -“many of the quality grew fond of sharing the everlasting -honour that was likely to crown the poetical -society.” Sir Godfrey Kneller, himself a member, -painted portraits of all the members, commencing -with the Duke of Somerset, and these were hung -round the club-room at Tonson’s country house at -Water Oakeley, where the members of the club were -in after-times wont to meet. The tone of the club-room -became decidedly political, and interesting as -it is, our space forbids us to do more than give the -following lines from “Faction Displayed” (1705), -which, by-the-way, quotes Dryden’s threatening triplet, -already alluded <span class="locked">to:—</span></p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="iq">“I am the Touchstone of all modern wit;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Without my stump, in vain you poets writ.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Those only purchase everlasting fame<br /></span> -<span class="i0">That in my ‘Miscellany’ plant their name.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I am the founder of your loved Kit-Kat,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">A Club that gave direction to the state.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">’Twas here we first instructed all our youth<br /></span> -<span class="i0">To talk profane and laugh at sacred truth;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">We taught them how to toast and rhyme and bite,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">To sleep away the day, and drink away the night.”<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>By this time Tonson had taken his nephew into -partnership, had left his old shop in Chancery Lane, -and changed his sign from the “Judge’s Head” to the -“Shakespeare’s Head;” and he and his descendants -had certainly a right to the latter symbol, for the -editions of Rowe, Pope, Theobald, Warburton, Johnson, -and Capell, were all associated with their name. -The following schedule of the prices paid to the -various editors possesses some bibliographical <span class="locked">interest:—</span></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_32">32</a></span></p> - -<table summary="prices paid"> - <tr> - <td> </td> - <td class="tdc">£</td> - <td class="tdc"><i>s.</i></td> - <td class="tdc"><i>d.</i></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Rowe</td> - <td class="tdr">36</td> - <td class="tdr">10</td> - <td class="tdr">0</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Hughes</td> - <td class="tdr">28</td> - <td class="tdr">7</td> - <td class="tdr">0</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Pope</td> - <td class="tdr">217</td> - <td class="tdr">12</td> - <td class="tdr">0</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Fenton</td> - <td class="tdr">30</td> - <td class="tdr">14</td> - <td class="tdr">0</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Gay</td> - <td class="tdr">35</td> - <td class="tdr">17</td> - <td class="tdr">6</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Whalley</td> - <td class="tdr">12</td> - <td class="tdr">0</td> - <td class="tdr">0</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Theobald</td> - <td class="tdr">652</td> - <td class="tdr">10</td> - <td class="tdr">0</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Warburton</td> - <td class="tdr">500</td> - <td class="tdr">0</td> - <td class="tdr">0</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Capell</td> - <td class="tdr">300</td> - <td class="tdr">0</td> - <td class="tdr">0</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Dr. Johnson, for 1st edition.</td> - <td class="tdr">375</td> - <td class="tdr">0</td> - <td class="tdr">0</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">”</span> <span style="padding-left: 2.66em;">for 2nd edition.</span></td> - <td class="tdr">100</td> - <td class="tdr">0</td> - <td class="tdr">0</td></tr> -</table> - -<p>Upon Dryden’s death Tonson had looked round -anxiously for a likely successor, and had made -humble overtures to Pope, and in his later “Miscellanies” -appeared some of Pope’s earliest writings; but -Pope soon deserted to Tonson’s only rival—Bernard -Lintot, who also opposed him in an offer to publish -a work of Dr. Young’s. The poet answered both -letters the same morning, but unfortunately cross-directed -them: in the one intended for Tonson he -said that Lintot was so great a scoundrel that printing -with him was out of the question, and in Lintot’s that -Tonson was an old rascal.</p> - -<p>Jacob Tonson died in 1736, and is reported on his -death-bed to have said—“I wish I had the world to -begin again, because then I should have died worth a -hundred thousand pounds, whereas now I die worth -only eighty thousand;”—a very improbable story, for, -in spite of Dryden’s complaints, Tonson seems to -have been a generous man for the times, and to have -fully earned his title of the “prince of booksellers.” -His nephew died a few months before this, and was -succeeded by his son, Jacob Tonson the third, who -carried on the business in the same shop opposite -Catherine Street in the Strand, until his removal<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_33">33</a></span> -across the road, only a short time before his death. -He died in 1767, when the time-honoured name was -erased from the list of booksellers.</p> - -<p>Bernard Lintot, or, as he originally wrote his name, -Barnaby Lintott, was the son of a Sussex yeoman, -and commenced business as a bookseller at the sign of -the Cross Keys, between the Temple Gates, in the year -1700. He is thus characterized by John Dunton—“He -lately published a collection of <cite>Tragic Tales</cite>, &c., by -which I perceive he is angry with the world, and scorns -it into the bargain; and I cannot blame him: for -D’Urfey (his author) both treats and esteems it as it -deserves; too hard a task for those whom it flatters; -or perhaps for Bernard himself, should the world ever -change its humour and grin upon him. However, to -do Mr. Lintot justice, he is a man of very good principles, -and I dare engage will never want an author of -<cite>Sol-fa</cite>,<a id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">4</a> so long as the play-house will encourage his -comedies.” The world, however, did grin upon him, -for in 1712 he set up a “Miscellany” intended to rival -Tonson’s, and here appeared the first sketch of the -“Rape of the Lock,” and this introduction to Pope -was to turn out of as much importance in his fortunes -as the previous connection with Dryden had been to -Tonson.</p> - -<p>A memorandum-book, preserved by Nichols, contains -an exact account of the money paid by Lintot -to his various authors. Here are the receipts for -Pope’s entire <span class="locked">works:—</span></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_34">34</a></span></p> - -<table id="receipts" summary="receipts"> - <tr> - <td> </td> - <td class="tdc">£</td> - <td class="tdc"><i>s.</i></td> - <td class="tdc"><i>d.</i></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">1712, Feb. 19. Statius, first book; Vertumnus and Pomona</td> - <td class="tdr">16</td> - <td class="tdr">2</td> - <td class="tdr">6</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">1712, March 21. First edition of the Rape</td> - <td class="tdr">7</td> - <td class="tdr">0</td> - <td class="tdr">0</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">1712, April 9. To a Lady presenting Voiture upon Silence to the author of a Poem called Successio</td> - <td class="tdr">3</td> - <td class="tdr">16</td> - <td class="tdr">6</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">1712–13, Feb. 23. Windsor Forest</td> - <td class="tdr">32</td> - <td class="tdr">5</td> - <td class="tdr">0</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">1713, July 22. Ode on St. Cecilia’s Day</td> - <td class="tdr">15</td> - <td class="tdr">0</td> - <td class="tdr">0</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">1714, Feb. 20. Additions to the Rape</td> - <td class="tdr">15</td> - <td class="tdr">0</td> - <td class="tdr">0</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">1715, Feb. 1. Temple of Fame</td> - <td class="tdr">32</td> - <td class="tdr">5</td> - <td class="tdr">0</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">1715, April 31. Key to the Lock</td> - <td class="tdr">10</td> - <td class="tdr">15</td> - <td class="tdr">0</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">1716, July 17. Essay on Criticism</td> - <td class="tdr">15</td> - <td class="tdr">0</td> - <td class="tdr">0</td></tr> -</table> - -<p>In 1712 Pope, mindful of Dryden’s success, commenced -his translation of Homer, and in 1714 Lintot, -equally mindful probably of the profits Tonson -had derived from Virgil, made a splendid offer for its -publication. He agreed to provide at his own expense -all the subscription and presentation copies, -and in addition to pay the author two hundred pounds -per volume. The Homer was to consist of six quarto -volumes, to be delivered to subscribers, as completed, -at a guinea a volume, and through the unremitting -labours of the poet’s literary and political friends, six -hundred and fifty-four copies were delivered at the -original rate, and Pope realized altogether the munificent -sum of five thousand, three hundred and twenty -pounds, four shillings.</p> - -<p>It was probably just after the publication of the -first volume, in August, 1714, that Pope wrote his -exquisitely humorous letter to the Earl of Burlington, -describing a journey to Oxford, made in company -with Lintot. “My lord, if your mare could -speak, she would give an account of what extraordinary -company she had on the road; which since she -cannot do, I will.” Lintot had heard that Pope was -“designed for Oxford, the seat of the Muses, and -would, as my bookseller, by all means accompany me -thither.... Mr. Lintot began in this manner: ‘Now,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_35">35</a></span> -damn them, what if they should put it in the newspapers, -how you and I went together to Oxford? -What would I care? If I should go down into Sussex, -they would say I was gone to the Speaker. But -what of that? If my son were but big enough to go -on with the business, by God! I would keep as good -company as old Jacob.’... As Mr. Lintot was talking -I observed he sat uneasy on his saddle, for which I expressed -some solicitude. ‘’Tis nothing,’ says he; ‘I -can bear it well enough, but since we have the day -before us, methinks it would be very pleasant for you -to rest awhile under the woods.’ When we alighted, -‘See here, what a mighty pretty Horace I have in -my pocket! what if you amused yourself by turning -an ode, till we mount again? Lord, if you pleased, -what a clever Miscellany might you make at leisure -hours.’ ‘Perhaps I may,’ said I, ‘if we ride on; -the motion is an aid to my fancy, a round trot very -much awakens my spirits; then jog on apace, and I’ll -think as hard as I can.’</p> - -<p>“Silence ensued for a full hour, after which Mr. -Lintot tugged the reins, stopped short and broke out, -‘Well, sir, how far have you gone?’ I answered, -‘Seven miles.’ ‘Zounds, sir,’ said Lintot, ‘I thought -you had done seven stanzas. Oldworth, in a ramble -round Wimbleton hill, would translate a whole ode in -half this time. I’ll say that for Oldworth (though I -lost by his Sir Timothy’s), he translates an ode of -Horace the quickest of any man in England. I -remember Dr. King would write verses in a tavern -three hours after he could not speak; and there’s Sir -Richard, in that rambling old chariot of his, between -Fleet ditch and St. Giles’s pound shall make half a -job.’ ‘Pray, Mr. Lintot,’ said I, ‘now you talk of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_36">36</a></span> -translators, what is your method of managing them?’ -‘Sir,’ replied he, ‘those are the saddest pack of rogues -in the world; in a hungry fit, they’ll swear they -understand all the languages in the universe. I have -known one of them take down a Greek book upon my -counter and cry, Ay, this is Hebrew. I must read -it from the latter end. My God! I can never be -sure of those fellows, for I neither understand Greek, -Latin, French nor Italian myself.’ ‘Pray tell me -next how you deal with the critics.’ ‘Sir’, said he, -‘nothing more easy. I can silence the most formidable -of them; the rich ones for a sheet a-piece of the -blotted manuscript, which costs me nothing; they’ll -go about to their acquaintance and pretend they had -it from the author, who submitted to their correction: -this has given some of them such an air, that in time -they come to be consulted with, and dictated to as -the top critic of the town. As for the poor critics, I’ll -give you one instance of my management, by which -you may guess at the rest. A lean man, that looks -like a very good scholar, came to me t’other day; he -turned over your Homer, shook his head, shrugged -up his shoulders, and pished at every line of it. One -would wonder, says he, at the strange presumption -of some men; Homer is no such easy task, that every -stripling, every versifier—He was going on, when my -wife called to dinner. ‘Sir,’ said I, ‘will you please -to eat a piece of beef with me?’ ‘Mr. Lintot,’ said -he, ‘I am sorry you should be at the expense of this -great book; I am really concerned on your account.’ -‘Sir, I am much obliged to you; if you can dine -upon a piece of beef, together with a slice of pudding.’ -‘Mr. Lintot, I do not say but Mr. Pope, if he would -condescend to advise with men of learning—’ ‘Sir, the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_37">37</a></span> -pudding is on the table, if you please to go in.’ My -critic complies, he comes to a taste of your poetry, -and tells me in the same breath that the book is commendable -and the pudding excellent. These, my -lord, are a few traits by which you may discern the -genius of Mr. Lintot, which I have chosen for the -subject of a letter. I dropt him as soon as I got to -Oxford.”</p> - -<p>Pope’s <cite>Iliad</cite> took longer in coming out than was -expected. Gay writes facetiously, “Mr. Pope’s <cite>Homer</cite> -is retarded by the great rains that have fallen of late, -which causes the sheets to be long a-drying.” However, -in 1718, the six volumes had been completely -delivered to the subscribers, and three days afterwards -Tonson announced, as a rival, the first book of -Homer’s <cite>Iliad</cite>, translated by Mr. Tickell. “I send -the book,” writes Lintot to Pope, “to divert an hour, -it is already condemned here; and the malice and -juggle at Button’s (for Addison had assisted Tickell -in the attempted rivalry) is the conversation of those -who have spare moments from politics.”</p> - -<p>Lintot intended to reimburse his expenses by a -cheap edition, but here he was anticipated by the -piratical dealers, who caused a cheap edition to be -published in Holland; a nefarious proceeding that -Lintot met by bringing out a duodecimo edition at -half-a-crown a volume, “finely printed from an Elzevir -letter.”</p> - -<p>The <cite>Odyssey</cite> was published in 1725, likewise by -subscription, and Pope gained nearly three thousand -pounds by the transaction, avowing, however, that he -had only “undertaken” the translation, and had -been assisted by friends; and “undertaker Pope” -became a favourite byword among his many unfriendly<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_38">38</a></span> -contemporaries. Lintot was, however, disappointed -with his share of the profits, and, pretending to have -found something invalid in the agreement, threatened -a suit in Chancery. Pope denied this, quarrelled, and -finally left him, and turned his rancour to good -account in the pages of the <cite>Dunciad</cite>.</p> - -<p>By this time Lintot’s fortunes were firmly assured. -Pope was, says Mr. Singer, “at first apprehensive that -the contract (for the <cite>Iliad</cite>) might ruin Lintot, and -endeavoured to dissuade him from thinking any more -of it. The event, however, proved quite the reverse. -The success of the work was so unparalleled as to at -once enrich the bookseller, and prove a productive -estate to his family,” and he must have certainly been -progressing when Humphrey Walden, custodian of -the Earl of Oxford’s heraldic manuscripts, made, in -1726, the following entry in his diary: “Young Mr. -Lintot, the bookseller, came inquiring after <em>arms</em>, as -belonging to his father, mother and other relations, -who now, it seems, want to turn gentlefolks. I could -find none of their names.” “Young Mr. Lintot” was -Bernard’s son and successor—Henry.</p> - -<p>There was scarcely a writer of eminence in the -“Augustan Era,” whose name is not to be found in -Lintot’s little account book of moneys paid. In 1730, -however, he appears to have relinquished his business -and retired to Horsham in Sussex, for which county -he was nominated High Sheriff, in November, 1735, -an honour which he did not live to enjoy, and which -was consequently transferred to his son. Henry -Lintot died in 1758, leaving £45,000 to his only -daughter, Catherine.</p> - -<p>Edmund Curll is, perhaps, as a name, better known -to casual readers than any other bookseller of this<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_39">39</a></span> -period, and it is not a little comforting to find that -the obloquy with which he has ever been associated -was richly merited. He was born in the west of -England, and after passing through several menial -capacities, became a bookseller’s assistant, and then -kept a stall in the purlieus of Covent Garden. The -year of his birth is unknown, and the writer of a contemporary -memoir, <cite>The Life and Writings of E. C—l</cite>, -who prophesied that “if he go on in the paths of glory -he has hitherto trod,” his name would appear in the -<cite>Newgate Calendar</cite>, has unluckily been deceived. He -appears to have first commenced publishing in the -year 1708, and to have combined that honourable -task with the vending of quack pills and powders for -the afflicted. The first book he published was <em>An -Explication of a Famous Passage in the Dialogue of -St. Justin Martyr with Typhon, concerning the Immortality -of Human Souls</em>, bearing the date of 1708; and, -curiously enough, religious books formed in aftertime -a very large portion of his stock, side by side, of -course, with the most filthy and ribald works that -have ever been issued.</p> - -<p>In 1716 began his quarrel with Pope, originating as -far as we know in the publication of the <cite>Court Poems</cite>, -the advertisement of which said that the coffee-house -critics assigned them either to a Lady of Quality, Mr. -Gay, or the translator of <cite>Homer</cite>. It is not clear now -whether Pope was really annoyed by the appearance -of the volume, or whether he had first secretly promoted -it, and then endeavoured to divert suspicion. -At all events, he had a meeting with Curll at the -“Swan Tavern,” in Fleet Street, where, writes the -bookseller, “My brother, Lintot, drank his half-pint -of old hock, Mr. Pope his half-pint of sack, and I the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_40">40</a></span> -same quantity of an emetic powder; but no threatenings -past. Mr. Pope, indeed, said that no satire -should be printed (tho’ he has now changed his mind). -I answered that they should not be wrote, for if they -were they would be printed.” Curll, on entering the -tavern, declared he had been poisoned, and for months -the town was amused with broadsides and pamphlets -relative to the affair. Pope afterwards published his -version of the story in his <cite>Miscellanies</cite>; the “Full and -True Account” is, however, as gross and unquotable -as Curll’s own worst publication.</p> - -<p>Later on in the same year the bookseller fell into a -fresh scrape. A Latin discourse had been pronounced -at the funeral of Robert South by the captain of -Westminster School, and Curll, thinking it would be -readily purchased by the public,</p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i22">“did th’ oration print,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Imperfect, with false Latin in’t,”<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="in0">and thereby aroused the anger of the Westminster -scholars, who enticed him into Dean’s Yard on the -pretence of giving him a more perfect copy; there, he -met with a college salutation, for he was first presented -with the ceremony of the blanket, in which, -“when the skeleton had been well shook, he was carried -in triumph to the school, and, after receiving a -mathematical construction for his false concords, he -was re-conducted to Dean’s Yard, and on his knees -asking pardon of the aforesaid Mr. Barber (the captain -whose Latin he had murdered) for his offence, -he was kicked out of the yard, and left to the huzzas -of the rabble.”</p> - -<p>No sooner was Curll out of one scrape than he fell -into another; for, still in this same year, he was summoned<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_41">41</a></span> -to the bar of the House of Lords for printing -and publishing a paper entitled <cite>An Account of the -Trial of the Earl of Winton</cite>, a breach of the standing -orders of the House. However, having received -kneeling a reprimand from the Lord Chancellor, he -was dismissed upon payment of the fees.</p> - -<p>While the authorities were quick enough to punish -any violation of their own peculiar privileges, they -were graciously pleased to wink at the perpetual -offences Curll was committing against public morals, -for Curll was a strong politician on the safe party -side, and in his political publications had in view the -interests of the government. However, he was attacked -on all sides by public opinion and the press. -<cite>Mist’s Weekly Journal</cite> for April 5, 1718, contained -a very strong article on the “Sin of Curllicism.” -“There is indeed but one bookseller eminent among -us for this abomination, and from him the crime -takes its just denomination of Curllicism. The fellow -is a contemptible wretch a thousand ways; he is -odious in his person, scandalous in his fame; ... -more beastly, insufferable books have been published -by this one offender than in thirty years before by all -the nation.” Curll, “the Dauntless,” did not long -remain in silence, and his reply is characteristically -outspoken, for the writer was never a coward. “Your -superannuated letter-writer was never more out than -when he asserted that Curllicism was but of four -years’ standing. Poor wretch! he is but a novice in -chronology;” and then, after threatening the journalist -with the terrors of an outraged government, he concludes -“in the words of a late eminent controvertist, -the Dean of Chichester.”</p> - -<p>Curll was fond of the dignitaries of the Church, and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_42">42</a></span> -endeavoured to play a shrewd trick upon one of -them; he sent a copy of Lord Rochester’s <cite>Poems</cite> -(certainly not the most innocent book he published) -to Dr. Robinson, Bishop of London, with a tender of -his duty, and a request that his lordship would please -to revise the interleaved volume as he thought fit; -but the bishop, not to be caught, “smiled” and said, -“I am told that Mr. Curll is a shrewd man, and -should I revise the book you have brought me, he -would publish it as approved by me.”<a id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">5</a></p> - -<p>Public dissatisfaction seems to have been expressed -more forcibly against Curll than heretofore, and to -have taken the form of a remonstrance to government, -for he published <cite>The Humble Representation -of Edmund Curll, Bookseller and Citizen of London, -containing Five Books complained of to the Secretary</cite>. -As the books were eminently of a nature requiring -an apology, we cannot do more than give their titles: -1. <cite>The Translation of Meibomius and Tractatus de -Hermaphroditis</cite>; 2. <cite>Venus in the Cloister</cite>; 3. <cite>Ebrietatis -Encomium</cite>; 4. <cite>Three New Poems, viz. Family -Duty, The Curious Wife, and Buckingham House</cite>; -and 5. <cite xml:lang="la" lang="la">De Secretis Mulierum</cite>. At last the government -did interfere, as we learn from a notice in <cite>Boyer’s -Political State</cite>, Nov. 1725:—</p> - -<p>“On Nov. 30, 1725, Curll, a bookseller in the Strand, -was tried at the King’s Bench Bar, Westminster, and -convicted of printing and publishing several obscene -and immodest books, greatly tending to the corruption -and depravation of manners, particularly one translated -from a Latin treatise entitled <cite xml:lang="la" lang="la">De Usu Flagrorum -in Re Venereâ</cite>; and another from a French<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_43">43</a></span> -book called <cite xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">La Religieuse en Chemise</cite>.” In the indictment -Curll is thus accurately summed up: <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">homo -iniquus et sceleratus ac nequiter machinans et intendens -bonos mores subditorum hujus regni corrumpere et eos -ad nequitiam inducere</i>; and in the <cite>State Trials</cite> we -read the following report of the <span class="locked">sentence:—</span></p> - -<p>“This Edmund Curll stood in the pillory at Charing -Cross, but was not pelted or used ill; for being an -artful, cunning (though wicked) fellow, he had contrived -to have printed papers dispersed all about -Charing Cross, telling the people how he stood there -for vindicating the memory of Queen Anne.”</p> - -<p>It does, in fact, appear that he received three sentences -at once, and that not until Feb. 12, 1728. -For publishing the <cite>Nun in her Smock</cite>, and the treatise -<cite xml:lang="la" lang="la">De Usu Flagrorum</cite>, he was sentenced to pay a fine of -twenty-five marks each, and to enter into recognizances -of £100 for his good behaviour for one year; -but for publishing the <cite>Memoirs of John Ker of -Kersland, Esq.</cite> (a political offence), he was fined -twenty marks, and ordered to stand in the pillory for -the space of one hour.<a id="FNanchor_6" href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">6</a></p> - -<p>In 1729 Curll was again pilloried—this time by -Pope in the <cite>Dunciad</cite>, in connection with Tonson and -Lintot:</p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="iq">“With authors, stationers obey’d the call<br /></span> -<span class="i0">(The field of glory is a field for all);<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Glory and gain th’ industrious tribe provoke,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">And gentle Dulness ever loves a joke;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">A poet’s form she placed before their eyes,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">And bade the nimblest racer seize the prize.<br /></span> -</div> - -<div class="tb">* <span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">*</span></div> - -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_44">44</a></span> -<span class="i0">——Lofty Lintot in the circle rose:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">‘The Prize is mine, who ‘tempts it are my foes;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">With me began this genius, and shall end.’<br /></span> -<span class="i0">He spoke, and who with Lintot shall contend?<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i2">“Fear held them mute. Alone untaught to fear,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Stood dauntless Curll: ‘Behold that rival here!<br /></span> -<span class="i0">The race by vigour, not by vaunts, is won:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">So take the hindmost, hell,’ he said, ‘and run.’<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Swift as a bard the bailiff leaves behind<br /></span> -<span class="i0">He left huge Lintot, and outstript the wind.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">As when a dab-chick waddles through the copse<br /></span> -<span class="i0">On feet and wings, and flies, and wades, and hops,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">So labouring on with shoulders, hands, and head,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Wide as a windmill all his figure spread,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">With arms expanded Bernard views his state,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">And left-legged Jacob seems to emulate.”<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="in0">And finally Curll stumbles into an unsavoury <span class="locked">pool:—</span></p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="iq">“Obscene with filth the miscreant lies bewrayed,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Fallen in the plash his wickedness had laid;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Then first (if poets aught of truth declare)<br /></span> -<span class="i0">The caitiff vaticide conceived a prayer.”<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>In reference to Curll there is a note to this passage, -“He carried the trade many lengths beyond what it -ever before had arrived at; he was the envy and -admiration of all his profession. He possessed himself -of a command over all authors whatever; he -caused them to write what he pleased; they could not -call their very names their own. He was not only -famous among them; he was taken notice of by the -state, the church, and the law, and received particular -marks of distinction from each.”</p> - -<p>We have no space to discuss the vexed question as -to how the letters of Pope published by Curll came -into his hands—the discussion would occupy a volume -and remain a moot question after all. But we are -disposed to believe with Johnson and Disraeli that -“being inclined to print his own letters, and not<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_45">45</a></span> -knowing how to do so without the imputation of -vanity, what in this country has been done very rarely, -he contrives an appearance of compulsion; that when -he could complain that his letters were surreptitiously -published, he might decently and defensively publish -them himself.” The letters at all events were genuine, -and Pope in a feigned or real indignation caused Curll -to be brought for a third time (the second had been -for publishing the Duke of Buckingham’s words) before -the bar of the House of Lords for disobeying its -standard rules; but on examination the book was -not found to contain any letters from a <em>peer</em>, and Curll -was dismissed, and boldly continued the publication -till five volumes had been issued.</p> - -<p>In spite, or perhaps on account of the unblushing -effrontery with which he run amuck at everything -and everybody, Curll was a successful man, as his -repeated removals to better and better premises -plainly testifies. Over his best shop in Covent -Garden he erected the Bible as a sign. He has had -many apologists, among others worthy John Nichols, -as deserving commendation for his industry in preserving -our national remains, but the scavenger, when -he gathers his daily filth, lays little claim to doing -a meritorious action, he only works unpleasantly for -his daily bread; and it has been the repeated cry of -publishers, even in our own times, in reproducing an -immoral book, that they were wishing only for the -preservation of something rare and curious. It were -not well that any book once written should ever -die,—that any one link in the vast chain of human -thought should ever be irrecoverably lost, but the -publisher of such a book must, at least, bear the -same penalty of stigma as the author, for he has not<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_46">46</a></span> -even the author’s self-vanity as an excuse, but only -the still more wretched plea of mercenary motive. -We will conclude our notice of Curll by an extract -from “John Buncle,” by Thomas Amory, who knew -him personally and well. “Curll was in person very -tall and thin—an ungainly, awkward, white-faced -man. His eyes were a light gray—large, projecting, -goggle, and purblind. He was splay-footed and -baker-kneed.... He was a debauchee to the -last degree, and so injurious to society, that by filling -his translations with wretched notes, forged letters, -and bad pictures, he raised the price of a four-shilling -book to ten. Thus, in particular, he managed Burnet’s -‘Archæology.’ And when I told him he was -very culpable in this and other articles he sold, his -answer was, ‘What would I have him do? He was -a bookseller;—his translators, in pay, lay three in a -bed at the Pewter Platter Inn, in Holborn, and he -and they were for ever at work deceiving the public.’ -He, likewise, printed the lewdest things. He lost his -ears for the ‘Nun in her Smock’ and another -thing. As to drink, he was too fond of money to -spend any in making himself happy that way; but, -at another’s expense, he would drink every day till -he was quite blind and as incapable of self-motion as -a block. This was Edmund Curll. But he died at last -as great a penitent, I think, in the year 1748 (it was -1747), as ever expired. I mention this to his -honour.”<a id="FNanchor_7" href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">7</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_47">47</a></span> -Thomas Guy, more eminent certainly as a very successful -money-maker, and a generous benefactor to -charitable institutions, than as a bookseller, was born -in Horsley-down, the son of a coal-heaver and -lighterman. The year of his birth is uncertain, but -in 1660, he was bound apprentice to John Clarke, -bookseller, in the porch of Mercers’ Chapel, and, in -1668, having been admitted a liveryman of the -Stationers’ Company, he opened a small shop in -“Stock Market” (the site of the present Mansion -House, then a fruit and flower market, where, also, -offenders against the law were punished) with a stock-in-trade -worth above £200. From the first, Guy’s -chief business seems to have been in Bibles, for -Maitland, his biographer relates, “The English Bibles, -printed in this kingdom, being very bad, both in -the letter and the paper, occasioned divers of the -booksellers in this city to encourage the printing -thereof in Holland, with curious types and fine paper, -and imported vast numbers of the same to their no -small advantage. Mr. Guy, soon becoming acquainted -with this profitable commerce, became a large dealer -therein.” As early as Queen Elizabeth’s time, the -privilege of printing Bibles had been conferred on -the Queen’s (or King’s) printer, conjointly, of course, -with the two Universities, and the effect of this prolonged -monopoly resulted, not only in exorbitant -prices, but in great typographical carelessness, and, -says Thomas Fuller, under the quaint heading of “Fye -for Shame,” “what is but carelessness in other books -is impiety in setting forth of the Bible.” Many of -the errors were curious;—the printers in Charles I.’s -reign had been heavily fined for issuing an edition in -which, the word “not” being omitted, the seventh,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_48">48</a></span> -commandment had been rendered a positive, instead -of a negative injunction. The <cite>Spectator</cite> wickedly suggests -that, judging from the morals of the day, very -many copies must have got abroad into continuous -use. In the Bible of 1653, moreover, the printers -allowed “know ye not that the <em>un</em>righteous shall -inherit the kingdom of God” to stand uncorrected. -However, the Universities and the King’s printer still -possessed the monopoly, and this new trade of good -cheap Bibles “proving not only very detrimental to -the public revenues, but likewise to the King’s printer, -all ways and means were devised to quash the same, -which, being vigorously put in execution, the booksellers, -by frequent seizures and prosecutions, became -so great sufferers, that they judged a further pursuit -thereof inconsistent with their interests.” Defeated -in this manner, Guy cautiously induced the University -of Oxford to contract with him for an assignment of -their privilege, and not only obtained type from -Holland, and printed the Bible in London, but was, -later on, in 1681, according to Dunton, a partner with -Parker in printing the Bible, at Oxford (Parker could -have been no connection of the famous publishing -family).</p> - -<div id="if_i_048" class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> - <img src="images/i_048.jpg" width="286" height="351" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p>Thomas Guy, founder of Guy’s Hospital. 1644–1724.</p> - -<p>(<i>From the statue by J. Bacon, R.A.</i>)</p></div></div> - -<div id="if_i_048b" class="figcenter" style="width: 429px;"> - <img src="images/i_048b.jpg" width="429" height="310" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p>Guy’s Hospital.</p> - -<p>(<i>Bird’s-eye view from a Print, 1738.</i>)</p></div></div> - -<p>Guy seems to have contracted in his early days -very frugal and personally pernicious habits. According -to Nichols, he is said to have dined every day at -his counter, “with no other table-cloth than an old -newspaper,” and if the “Intelligence” or the “Newes” -of that period really served him for a cloth, the dish -that contained his meat must have been uncommonly -small. “He was also,” it is added, “as little nice in -his apparel.” It was probably, too, in the commencement -of his career, that, looking round for a tidy and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_49">49</a></span> -inexpensive helpmate, he asked his servant-maid to -become his wife. The girl, of course, was delighted, -but, alas! presumed too much upon her influence over -her careful lover; seeing that the paviours who were repairing -the street, in front of the house (an order was -issued, in 1671, to every householder to pave the -street in front of his dwelling, “for the breadth of six -feet at least from the foundation”) had neglected a -broken place, she called their attention to it, but they -told her that Guy had carefully marked a particular -stone, beyond which they were not to go. “Well,” -said the girl, “do you mend it; tell him I bade you, -and I know he will not be angry.” When Guy saw -the extra charge in the bill, however, he at once -renounced his matrimonial scheme.</p> - -<p>The Bible trade proved prosperous, and Guy, ready -for any lucrative and safe investment for his money, -speculated in Government securities, and, according -to Nichols and Maitland, acquired the “bulk of his -fortune” by purchasing seaman’s tickets; but the -practice of paying the royal sailors by ticket does not -seem to have existed later than the year 1684; so -that if he dealt in them at all it must have been a -very early period in his career, when it appears unlikely -that he would have had much spare cash to invest. -Maitland adds “<em>as well as in Government securities</em>, -and this was probably the manner in which the ‘bulk -of his fortune’ was really acquired.”</p> - -<p>That his finances were in a healthy condition, is apparent, -from his appearance in Parliament as member -for Tamworth, from 1695 to 1707. According to -Maitland, “as he was a man of unbounded charity, -and universal benevolence, so he was likewise a good -patron of liberty, and the rights of his fellow-subjects;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_50">50</a></span> -which, to his great honour, he strenuously asserted -in divers parliaments.” An honourable testimony -to his character, supported also by Dunton: -“Thomas Guy, of Lombard-street, makes an eminent -figure in the Company of Stationers, having been -chosen sheriff of London, and paid the fine.... -He is a man of strong reason, and can talk very -much to the purpose on any subject you can propose. -He is truly charitable.”</p> - -<p>Throughout his life, he was very kind to his relatives, -lending money when needed to help some, -and pensioning others. To charities, whose purpose -was pure benevolence, apart from sectarian motive, -his purse was ever open, and St. Thomas’s Hospital -and the Stationers’ Company were largely indebted -to his generosity.</p> - -<p>In his latter days, Guy was able to multiply his -fortune many fold. The South Sea Company was a -good investment for a wary, cool-headed business -man, and he became an original holder in the stock. -“It no sooner received,” says Maitland, “the sanction -of Parliament, than the national creditors from all -parts came crowding to subscribe into the said company -the several sums due to them from the government, -by which great run, £100 of the Company’s -stock, that before was sold at £120 (at which time, -Mr. Guy was possessed of £45,500 of the said stock) -gradually arose to above £1,050. Mr. Guy wisely -considering that the great use of the stock was owing -to the iniquitous management of a few, prudently -began to sell out his stock at about £300 (for that -which probably at first did not cost him about £50 -or £60) and continued selling till it arose to about -£600 when he disposed of the last of his property<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_51">51</a></span> -in the said company,” and then the terrible panic -came.</p> - -<p>He was between seventy and eighty years of age -when he determined to devote his fortune to building -and endowing a hospital which should bear his name, -and, dying in 1724, he lived just long enough to see -the walls roofed in. The cost of building “Guy’s -Hospital” amounted to £18,793, and he left £219,499 -as endowment. At Tamworth, his mother’s birthplace, -which he represented in Parliament for many years, -he erected alms-houses and a library. Christ’s Hospital -received £400 a year for ever, and, after many -gifts to public charities, he directed that the balance -of his fortune, amounting to about £80,000, should -be divided among all who could prove themselves in -any degree related to him. Guy’s noble philanthropy -would be unequalled in bookselling annals, but that -Edinburgh, happily boasting of a Donaldson, can -rival London in the generosity of a bookseller.</p> - -<p>We have had occasion to quote several times -from “Dunton’s Characters;” and, as the author was -himself a bookseller, and was, moreover, the only contemporary -writer who thought it worth his while to -preserve any continuous record of the bookselling -fraternity, we must give him a passing notice here. -John Dunton, the son of a clergyman, was born in -1689, and, after passing through a disorderly apprenticeship, -commenced bookselling “in half a shop, -a warehouse, and a fashionable chamber.” “Printing,” -he says, “was the uppermost in my thoughts, and -hackney authors began to ply me with specimens as -earnestly and with as much passion and concern as -the waterman do passengers with oars and sculls.”</p> - -<p>Having some private capital he went ahead merrily,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_52">52</a></span> -printing six hundred books, of which he repented only -of seven, and these he recommends all who possess to -burn forthwith. Somewhat erratic in his habits he -went to America to recover a debt of £500, consoling -his wife, “dear Iris,” through whom he became connected -with Wesley’s father, by sending her sixty -letters in one ship. Here he stayed for nearly a -twelvemonth, pleasantly viewing the country at his -leisure, and cultivating a platonic friendship with -maids and widows. At his return he found his -business disordered, and sought to make amends by -another voyage to Holland. By this time he had -pretty nearly dissipated his capital, but luckily came -“into possession of a considerable estate” through the -death of a cousin. “The world,” he says, “now -smiled on me, and I have humble servants enough -among the stationers, booksellers, printers, and -binders.”</p> - -<p>Of all his publications, the only one that attained -any fame was the “Athenian Mercury,” which reached -twenty volumes. His three literary associates in this -work were Samuel Wesley, Richard Sault, and Dr. -John Norris, and with his aid they resolved all “nice -and curious questions in prose and verse,” concerning -physic, philosophy, love, &c. They were afterwards -reprinted in four volumes, under the title of the -<cite>Athenian Oracle</cite>, and form a curious picture of the -wants, manners, and opinions of the age; but the -work is, perhaps, chiefly to be remembered as one of -the earliest periodicals not professing to contain -“news.”</p> - -<p>Dunton now, finding that he did not make much -money by bookselling in London, went over to -Dublin for six months with a cargo of books and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_53">53</a></span> -started as auctioneer, naturally falling foul of the -Irish booksellers, whom he dressed off in a tract -entitled “The Dublin Scuffle.” He returned to -England complacently believing that he had done -more service to learning by his auctions “than any -single man that had come into Ireland these hundred -years.”</p> - -<p>In London, however, he was by this time so involved -in commercial difficulties, that he was fain to give up -bookselling altogether, and take to bookmaking -instead; and his pen was so indefatigable that he -soon bid fair to be the author of as many volumes as -he had published. The book that concerns us most -here is the “Life and Errors of John Dunton, written -by himself in Solitude,” in which is included the -“Lives and Characters of a Thousand Persons now -living in London.” In this latter part he was obliged, -“out of mere gratitude,” “to draw the characters of -the most eminent of the profession in the three -kingdoms;” consequently we find some half-dozen -lines of “character” given to every bookseller of his -time in London, “gratitude” compelling him, however, -to be almost invariably laudatory; the other -parts of the “three kingdoms” are thus summarily -and easily dealt with, “Of three hundred booksellers -now trading in country towns, I know not of one -knave or a blockhead amongst them all.” The book, -however rambling and incoherent, contains much -worth preservation, and is not unpleasant desultory -reading.</p> - -<p>Dunton’s own “character” has been preserved elsewhere -than in his <cite>Life and Confessions</cite>. Warburton -describes him as “an auction bookseller and an -abusive scribbler;” Disraeli, “as a crack-brain,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_54">54</a></span> -scribbling bookseller, who boasted that he had a -thousand projects, fancied he had methodised six -hundred, and was ruined by the fifty he executed.” -His greatest project, by the way, was intended “to -extirpate lewdness from London.” “Armed with a -constable’s staff, and accompanied by a clerical companion, -he sallied forth in the evening, and followed -the wretched prostitutes home to a tavern, where -every effort was used to win the erring fair to the -paths of virtue; but these he observes were perilous -adventures, as the cyprians exerted every art to lead -him astray in the height of his spiritual exhortations.”</p> - -<p>There is something so Quixotic about his schemes, -so complacent about his marvellous self-vanity, that -we are really grieved when we find him ending his -life, as most “projectors” do, with <cite>Dying Groans -from the Fleet Prison; or, a Last Shift for Life</cite>. -Shortly after this, in 1733, his teeming brain and his -eager pen were at rest for ever.</p> - -<p>Another bookseller, also a “man of letters,” but of -very different calibre from poor John Dunton, must -have a niche here, not because he was eminent as a -publisher, but because he was, taken altogether, the -most famous man who has ever stood behind a bookseller’s -counter. One of our greatest novelists, his -general life is so well known, that we will only treat -here of his bookselling career. Samuel Richardson, -born in 1689, was the son of a joiner in Derbyshire; a -quiet shy boy, he became the confident and love-letter -writer of the girls in his neighbourhood, gaining -thereby his wonderful knowledge of womankind. -Fond of books, and longing for opportunities of study, -he was, at the age of sixteen, apprenticed to John<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_55">55</a></span> -Wilde, of Stationers’ Hall, but his master, though -styling him the “pillar of his house,” grudged him, he -says, “every hour that tended not to his profit.” So -Richardson used to sit up half the night over his -books, careful at that time to burn only his own -candles. On the termination of his apprenticeship, he -became a journeyman and corrector of the press, and -six years later commenced business in an obscure -court in Fleet-street, where he filled up his leisure -hours by compiling indices, and writing prefaces and -what he terms “honest dedications” for the booksellers.</p> - -<p>Through his industry and perseverance his business -became much extended, and he was selected by -Wharton to print the <cite>True Briton</cite>; but, after the -publication of the sixth number, he would not allow -his name to appear, and consequently escaped the -results of the ensuing prosecution. Through the -friendly interest of Mr. Speaker Onslow he printed -the first edition of the <cite>Journal of the House of Commons</cite>, -completed in twenty-six folio volumes, for -which, after long and vexatious delays, he received -upwards of £3000. He also printed from 1736 to -1737 the <cite>Daily Journal</cite>, and in 1738 the <cite>Daily -Gazette</cite>.</p> - -<p>In 1740 Mr. Rivington and Mr. Osborne proposed -that he should write for them a little volume of letters, -which resulted in his first novel <cite>Pamela</cite>, the publication -of which will be treated in our account of the -Rivingtons. This was followed by <cite>Clarissa</cite>, one of -the few books from which it is absolutely impossible -to steal away, when once the dread of its size has -been overcome. Though famous now as the first great -<em>novelist</em> who had written in the English tongue,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_56">56</a></span> -Richardson was not then above his daily work. He -writes to his friend Mr. Defreval, “You know how my -business engages me. You know by what snatches of -time I write, that I may not neglect that, and that I -may preserve that independency which is the comfort -of my life. I never sought out of myself for patrons. -My own industry and God’s providence have been my -sole reliance.” In 1754, he was, to the great honour -of the members, chosen master of the Stationers’ -Company, the only fear of his friends being that he -would not play the <em>gourmand</em> well. “I cannot,” -writes Edwards, “but figure to myself the miserable -example you will set at the head of their loaded -tables, unless you have two stout jaw-workers for your -wardens, and a good hungry court of assistants.”</p> - -<div id="if_i_056" class="figcenter" style="width: 404px;"> - <img src="images/i_056.jpg" width="404" height="532" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p>Samuel Richardson, Bookseller and Novelist. 1689–1761.</p> - -<p>(<i>From a Picture by Chamberlin.</i>)</p></div></div> - -<p>The honourable post he occupied shows his position -in the trade at this time. This was improved in 1760, -by the purchase of a moiety of the patent of law-printer, -which he carried on in partnership with Miss -Lintot, grand-daughter of Bernard Lintot. He died -in the following year, leaving funeral-rings to thirty-four -of his acquaintances, and adding in his will, -“Had I given rings to all the ladies who have -honoured me with their correspondence, and whom I -sincerely venerate for their amiable qualities, it would, -even in this last solemn act, appear like ostentation.” -It is impossible in treating of Richardson not to refer -to his vanity; but the love of praise was his only -fault, and it has grown to us, like the foible of a loved -friend, dearer than all his virtues. It is not unpleasant -to think that the ladies of that time, by -the way in which they petted, coaxed, and humoured -him, conferred an innocent pleasure upon the truest -of all the delineators of their sex, except perhaps<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_57">57</a></span> -Balzac, who, if he knows it better, is more unfortunate -in his knowledge. With all Richardson’s vanity, he -drew a portrait of himself that is not far removed -from caricature. “Short, rather plump than emaciated, -notwithstanding his complaints; about five feet -five inches; fair wig; lightish cloth coat, all black -besides; one hand generally in his bosom, the other -a cane in it, which he leans upon under the skirts of -his coat usually, that it may imperceptibly serve him -as a support, when attacked by sudden tremors or -startlings, and dizziness which too frequently attacks -him, but, thank God, not so often as formerly; looking -directly foreright as passers-by would imagine, -but observing all that stirs on either side of him without -moving his short neck; hardly ever turning back; -of a light brown complexion; teeth not yet failing -him; smoothish face and ruddy cheeked; at some -times looking to be about sixty-five, at other times -much younger; regular even pace, stealing away -ground rather than seeming to rid it; a gray eye, too -often over-clouded by mistiness from the head; by -chance lively—very lively it will be, if he have hope -of seeing a young lady whom he loves and honours; -his eye always on the ladies; if they have very large -hoops, he looks down supercilious, and as if he would -be thought wise, but, perhaps, the sillier for that; as -he approaches a lady, his eyes are never set upon her -face but upon her feet, and thence he raises it pretty -quickly for a dull eye; and one would think (if one -thought him at all worthy of observation) that from -her air and (the last beheld) her face, he sets her -down in his mind as so and so, and then passes on to -the next object he meets.”</p> - -<p>Among other letters to Richardson we come across<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_58">58</a></span> -an affecting one from Dr. Johnson: “I am obliged to -entreat your assistance, I am under arrest for five -pounds eighteen shillings.” As round Pope and -Dryden formerly, so it is now round Johnson that the -booksellers of the next decade cluster; and from the -moment when first he rolled into a London bookseller’s -shop, his huge unwieldy body clad in coarse -country garments, worn and travel-stained, his face -scarred and seamed with small-pox—to ask for literary -employment, and to be told he had better rather -purchase a porter’s knot, the future of the trade was -very much wrapt up in his own. Forced by hunger -to work for the most niggardly pay, he was yet not -to be insulted with impunity. “Lie there, thou lump -of lead,” he exclaims as he knocked down Osborne of -Gray’s Inn Gate, with a folio. “Sir,” he explains to -Boswell afterwards, “he was impertinent to me, and I -beat him.”</p> - -<div id="if_i_058" class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> - <img src="images/i_058.jpg" width="319" height="442" alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Edward Cave, founder of the “Gentleman’s Magazine.” 1691–1754.</div></div> - -<div id="if_i_058b" class="figcenter" style="width: 404px;"> - <img src="images/i_058b.jpg" width="404" height="311" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p>The King’s Printing House, Blackfriars.</p> - -<p>(<i>From a drawing made about 1750.</i>)</p></div></div> - -<p>Among the earliest of Johnson’s employers was -Edward Cave. The son of a shoemaker at Rugby, he -contrived, in spite of the contumely excited by his -low estate, to pick up much learning at the Grammar -School, and after narrowly escaping an university -training, and for a while obtaining his livelihood as -clerk to a collector of excise and apprentice to a -timber merchant, he found more congenial employment -in a printing office, and conducted a weekly -newspaper at Norwich. Returning to London, he -contrived by multifarious work—correcting for the -press, contributing to <cite>Mist’s Journal</cite>, writing news -letters, and filling a situation in the Post Office simultaneously—to -save a small sum of money sufficient to -start a petty printing office at St. John’s Gate. He -was now able to realize a project he had before offered<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_59">59</a></span> -to half the booksellers in London, of establishing the -<cite>Gentleman’s Magazine</cite>, and to Cave must be conceded -the honour of inventing that popular species of periodical -literature. The first number was printed in -1731, and its success induced several rivals to enter -the field, but only one—<cite>The London Magazine</cite>—and -that a joint concern of the leading publishers, was at -all able to hold any opposition to it; and the <cite>London -Magazine</cite> ceased to exist in 1785, while the <cite>Gentleman’s -Magazine</cite> has only quite recently displayed a -sudden rejuvenation. In its early days Johnson was -the chief contributor to its pages. He had a room -set apart for him at St. John’s Gate, where he wrote -as fast as he could drive his pen, throwing the sheets -off, when completed, to the “copy” boy. The <cite>Life of -Savage</cite> was written anonymously, in 1744, and Mr. -Harte spoke in high terms of the book, while dining -with Cave. The publisher told him afterwards: -“Harte, you made a man very happy the other day -at my house by your praise of <cite>Savage’s Life</cite>.” “How -so? none were present but you and I.” Cave replied, -“You might observe I sent a plate of victuals behind -the screen; there lurked one whose dress was too -shabby for him to appear; your praise pleased him -much.”</p> - -<p>In 1736, Cave began to carry out his scheme of -publishing the reports of the debates in Parliament in -the monthly pages of his magazine. With a friend or -two he used to lurk about the lobby and gallery, -taking sly notes in dark corners, remembering what -they could of the drift of the argument, and then -retiring to a neighbouring tavern to compare and -adjust their notes. This rough material was placed -in the hands of an experienced writer, and thus<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_60">60</a></span> -dressed up, presented to the readers of the magazine. -In 1738, the House complained of the breach of privilege -committed by Cave, and, among other debaters, -Sir William Younge earnestly implored the House to -put a summary check to these reports, prophesying -that otherwise “you will have the speeches of the -House every day printed, even during your session, -and we shall be looked upon as the most contemptible -assembly on the face of the earth.” After this check -some expedient was necessary, and the proceedings in -Parliament were given as <cite>Debates in the Senate of -Great Lilliput</cite>, and were entrusted to Johnson’s pen. -On one occasion a large company were praising a -speech of Pitt’s; Johnson sat silent for a while, then -said, “That speech I wrote in a yard in Exeter -Street.” It had been reprinted <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">verbatim</i> from the -magazine, and had been drawn up entirely from rough -notes and hints supplied by the messengers. When -congratulated on his uniform political impartiality, -Johnson replied: “That is not quite true, sir; I saved -appearances well enough, but I took care that the -Whig dogs should not have the best of it.” Cave’s -attention to the magazine was unremitting to the day -of his death; “he scarce ever looked out of the -window,” says Johnson, “but for its improvement.”</p> - -<p>In 1749, the first popular review was started, by -Ralph Griffiths; but before the time of the <cite>Monthly -Review</cite> there had been various journals professing to -deal only with literature. In 1683, had been published -a <cite>Weekly Memento for the Ingenius, or an -Account of Books</cite>, and, in 1714, the first really critical -journal, under the quaint title, <cite>The Waies of Literature</cite>, -and these had been succeeded by others. Still, -the <cite>Monthly Review</cite> was a very great improvement.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_61">61</a></span> -Among the chief early contributors was Goldsmith, -who escaped the miseries of ushership, and the weariness -of a diplomaless doctor, waiting for patients who -never came, or, at all events, never paid, to live as a -hack writer in Griffiths’ house. Here, induced by -want, or kindliness to a fellow-starver, he got into -trouble by borrowing money from his master to pay -for clothes, and appropriating it to other purposes. -Termed villain and sharper, and threatened with the -Roundhouse, he writes: “No, sir; had I been a -sharper, had I been possessed of less good nature -and native generosity, I might surely now have been -in better circumstances; I am guilty I own of meanness, -which poverty unavoidably brings with it.”</p> - -<p>As to the payment for periodical writing in that -day, we are told by an author who recollected the -<cite>Monthly Review</cite> for fifty years, that in its most palmy -days only four guineas a sheet were given to the most -distinguished writers, and as late as 1783, when it -was reported that Doctor Shebbeare received as much -as six guineas, Johnson replied, “Sir, he might get six -guineas for a particular sheet, but not <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">communibus -sheetibus</i>;” and yet he afterwards explains the fact of -so much good writing appearing anonymously, without -hope of personal fame, “those who write in them -write well in order to be paid well.”</p> - -<p>Of all the booksellers of the Johnsonian era, Robert -Dodsley, however, was <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">facile princeps</i>. Born in the -year 1703, he commenced life as a footman, but a -poem entitled <cite>The Muse in Livery</cite>, so interested his -mistress, the Hon. Mrs. Lowther, that she procured -its publication by subscription. After this he entered -the service of Dartineuf, a celebrated voluptuary, the -reputed son of Charles II., and one of the most intimate<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_62">62</a></span> -friends of Pope. Here he wrote a dramatic -satire, <cite>The Toy Shop</cite>, with which Pope was so pleased, -that he interested himself in procuring its acceptance -at Covent Garden. The piece was successful, and -Pope, adding a substantial present on his own account -of one hundred pounds, Dodsley was enabled to open -a small bookseller’s shop in Pall Mall, then far from -enjoying its present fashionable repute. In this new -situation, without any apprenticeship whatever, he -soon attracted the attention not only of celebrated -literary men, but his shop became a favourite lounge -for noble and wealthy <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">dilettanti</i>. In 1738, began his -first acquaintance with Johnson, who offered him the -manuscript of <cite>London, a Satire</cite>. “Paul Whitehead -had a little before got ten guineas for a poem, and I -would not take less than Paul Whitehead,” and without -any haggling, the bargain was concluded. Busy -as he soon began to be in his shop, Dodsley did not -neglect original composition. He produced several -successful farces, and in 1744, edited and published -the work by which his name is best known now, -<cite>A Collection of Plays by Old Authors</cite>, which did much -to revive the study of Elizabethan literature, and was -most fruitful in its influence on later generations.</p> - -<p>In about the following year Dodsley proposed to -Johnson that he should write a dictionary of the -English language, and after some hesitation on the -author’s part, the proposal was accepted. The dictionary -was to be the joint property—as was then -beginning to be the case with all works of importance—of -several booksellers, viz.: Robert Dodsley, -Charles Hitch, Andrew Millar, Messrs. Longman, and -Messrs. Knapton; the management of it during -publication being confided to Andrew Millar. The<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_63">63</a></span> -work took eight years, instead of the three on which -Johnson had calculated, of very severe study and -labour, and the £1575 which was then considered a -very handsome <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">honorarium</i>, was all drawn out in drafts, -for at the dinner given in honour of the completion -of the great work, when the receipts were produced it -was found that he had nothing more to receive. -Johnson, after sending his last “copy” to Millar, -inquired of the messenger what the bookseller said. -“He said, ‘Thank God I have done with him.’” “I -am glad,” said the Doctor smiling, “that he thanks -God for anything.”</p> - -<p>Andrew Millar was by this time the proprietor of -Tonson’s shop in Fleet Street, and was a man of -great enterprise. He was the publisher, among other -authors, of Thomson, Fielding, and Hume, and -Johnson invariably speaks well of him. “I respect -Millar, sir; he has raised the price of literature:” “and,” -writes John Nichols, “Jacob Tonson and Andrew -Millar were the best <em>patrons</em> of literature, a fact -rendered unquestionable by the valuable works -produced under their fostering and genial hands.” -Literature now was rapidly changing its condition. -Johnson had discovered that the subscription system -was essentially a rotten one, and that the real reading -public, the author’s legitimate patrons, were reached -of course through the medium of the booksellers: -“He that asks for subscriptions soon finds that he -has enemies. All who do not encourage him defame -him:” and then again—“Now learning is a trade; -a man goes to a bookseller and gets what he can. -We have done with patronage. In the infancy of -learning we find some great men praised for it. This -diffused it among others. When it becomes general<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_64">64</a></span> -an author leaves the great and applies to the multitude.” -As to what the booksellers of the eighteenth -century were, and as to how they compare with the -publishers of the nineteenth century, we will quote -from an unedited letter of Mr. Thomas Carlyle, dated -3rd May, 1852, addressed to Mr. John Chapman, -bookseller (Emerson’s first English publisher, we -believe), now Dr. <span class="locked">Chapman:—</span></p> - -<p>“The duties of society towards literature in this -new condition of the world are becoming great, vital, -inextricably intricate, little capable of being done or -understood at present, yet all important to be understood -and done if society will continue to exist along -with it, or it along with society. For the highest -provinces of spiritual culture and most sacred interests -of men down to the lowest economic and ephemeral -concerns, where ‘free press’ rules supreme, society was -itself with all its sovereignties and parliaments depending -on the thing it calls literature; and bound -by incalculable penalties in many duties in regard to -that. Of which duties I perceive finance alone, and -free trade alone will by no means be found to be the -sum.... What alone concerns us here is to remark -that the present system of book-publishing discharges -none of these duties—less and less makes even the -appearance of discharging them—and, indeed, as I -believe, is, by the nature of the case, incapable of -ever, in any perceptible degree, discharging any of -them in the times that now are. A century ago, there -was in the bookselling guild if never any royalty of -spirit, as how could such a thing be looked for there? -yet a spirit of merchanthood, which had its value in -regard to the prosaic parts of literature, and is even -to be thankfully remembered. By this solid merchant<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_65">65</a></span> -spirit, if we take the victualling and furnishing of such -an enterprise as Samuel Johnson’s <cite>English Dictionary</cite> -for its highest feat (as perhaps we justly -may); and many a <cite>Petitor’s Memories</cite>, <cite>Encyclopædia -Britannica</cite>, &c., in this country and others, -for its lower, we must gratefully admit the real usefulness, -respectability, and merit to the world. But in -later times owing to many causes, which have been -active, not on the book guild alone, such spirit has -long been diminished, and has now ‘as good as disappeared -without hope of reinstation in this quarter.’”</p> - -<p>To return to Dodsley, we find that in 1753 he -commenced the <cite>World</cite>, a weekly essay ridiculing -“with novelty and good humour, the fashions, follies, -vices, and absurdities of that part of the human species -which calls itself the World”. Three guineas was -allowed as literary remuneration for each number, -but Moore, the editor, a receiver of this allowance, -obtained much gratuitous assistance from Lord Chesterfield, -Horace Walpole, and other men of wit and -fashion. Another periodical, but a bi-weekly, the -<cite>Rambler</cite>, all the work of Samuel Johnson, appeared -without intermission for the space of two years, and -in its gravity, its high morality, and its sententious -language presents a curious contrast to its livelier -companion. Dodsley, after having published Burke’s -earliest productions, entrusted to his care the management -of a very important venture, the <cite>Annual -Register</cite>, which was to carry Dodsley’s name up to our -own times. In the same year, 1758, his last play -<cite>Cleone</cite>, in which he ventured to rise to tragedy, -after having been declined by Garrick was acted at -Covent Garden amidst the greatest applause, and for -a number of nights, that, in those times, constituted a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_66">66</a></span> -wonderful “run.” And the author, fond to distraction -of his last child, “went every night to the stage side -and cried at the distress of poor Cleone;” yet when it -was reported that Johnson had remarked that if -Otway had written it, no other of his pieces would -have been remembered, Dodsley had the good sense -to say “it was too much.”</p> - -<p>A long and prosperous career enabled Dodsley to -retire some years before his death, which occurred at -Durham, in 1764.</p> - -<p>Thomas Cadell, who had served his apprenticeship -to Andrew Millar, was now taken into partnership, -and in a few years he and the Strahans quite filled -the place that Dodsley and Millar had previously -occupied. Together they became the proprietors of -the copyright of works by the great historical and -philosophical writers who shed a lustre round the close -of the eighteenth century, and among their clients we -find the names of Robertson, Gibbon, Adam Smith -and Blackstone. For the <cite>History of Charles V.</cite> -Robertson received £4500, then supposed to be the -largest sum ever paid for the copyright of a single -work, and out of Gibbon’s <cite>Decline and Fall of the -Roman Empire</cite> the booksellers are said to have -cleared £60,000. Cadell retired with an enormous -fortune, and was honoured by being elected Sheriff of -London at a very critical and important time. Alexander -Strahan, became King’s printer, and left a -fortune of upwards of a million. His business was -eventually carried on by the Spottiswoodes.</p> - -<div id="if_i_066" class="figcenter" style="width: 394px;"> - <img src="images/i_066.jpg" width="394" height="459" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p>Thomas Cadell.</p> - -<p>1742–1802.</p></div></div> - -<p>The practice, we have already referred to, of booksellers -fraternising pleasantly together for the purpose -of bringing out expensive editions at a lessened risk, -led to many famous associations, the earliest of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_67">67</a></span> -which, the “Congers,” will be dealt with hereafter in -connection with the history of families still represented -in the trade, but the “Chapter Coffee House” is too -important to be passed over altogether.</p> - -<p>There is an amusing account of the Chapter Coffee -House in the first number of the <cite>Connoisseur</cite>. It “is frequented -by those encouragers of learning, the booksellers.... -Their criticisms are somewhat singular. -When they say a good book, they do not mean to -praise the style or sentiment, but the quick and extensive -sale of it.... A few nights ago I saw one of these -gentlemen take up a sermon, and after seeming to peruse -it for some time, with great attention, he declared -it was ‘very good English.’ The reader will judge -whether I was most surprised or diverted, when I discovered -that he was not commending the purity or -elegance of the diction, but the beauty of the type, -which, it seems, is known among the printers by that -appellation.... The character of the bookseller is -generally formed on the writers in his service. Thus -one is a politician or a deist; another affects humour, -or aims at turns of wit or repartee; while a third perhaps -is grave, moral, and sententious.”</p> - -<p>In this Coffee House the associated booksellers -met to talk over their plans, and many a germ of most -valuable projects was originated here; the books so -published coming in time to be called “Chapter -Books.” Among the chief members of the association -were John Rivington, John Murray, and Thomas -Longman, James Dodson, Alderman Cadell, Tom -Davies, Robert Baldwin (whose name, if not family, -figured in bookselling annals for a century and a half), -Peter Elmsley, and Joseph Johnson. Johnson was -Cowper’s publisher; the first volumes of the poems<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_68">68</a></span> -fell dead, and he begged the author to think nothing -further of the loss, which they had agreed to share. -In gratitude Cowper sent him the <cite>Task</cite> as a present; -it was a wonderful success, and altogether Johnson -is said to have made £10,000 out of Cowper’s -poems. He assisted in the publication of the <cite>Homer</cite> -without any compensation at all. The most important -“Chapter books” were Johnson’s <cite>English -Poets</cite>, including his <cite>Lives of the English Poets</cite>, -for which latter he received two hundred guineas, and -a present of another hundred, and, on their re-publication -in a separate edition, a fourth hundred. “Sir,” -observed the Doctor to a friend, “I have always said -the booksellers were a generous set of men. Nor in -the present instance have I reason to complain. The -fact is, not that they paid me too little, but that I -have written too much.”</p> - -<p>Of course when the booksellers met, the literary -men were not far absent. “I am quite familiar” -(writes poor Chatterton in his sad, boastful letters, -meant to cheer up the hearts of the dear ones at -home, while his own heart was breaking in London) -“at the Chapter Coffee House, and know all the -geniuses there. A character is now quite unnecessary; -an author carries his character in his pen.”</p> - -<p>Later on, the Chapter Coffee House became the -place of call for poor parsons, who stood there ready -for hire, on Sunday mornings, at sums varying from -five shillings to a guinea. Sermons, too, were kept -in stock here for purchase, or could be written, there -and then, to order.</p> - -<p>At the very close of the last century a fresh band -of “Associated Booksellers” was formed, consisting -of the following: Thomas Hood (father of the poet),<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_69">69</a></span> -John Cuthel, James Nunn, J. Lea, Lackington, Allen -and Co., and others. The vignette which ornamented -their books was a Beehive, with the inscription of -“Associated,” and thus they got the title of the “Associated -Busy Bees.”</p> - -<p>Two of the principal booksellers towards the end -of the last century, require, from the magnitude of -their business, a somewhat lengthier notice.</p> - -<p>George Robinson, born at Dalston near Carlisle, -received his business training under John Rivington. -In 1764 he started as a wholesale bookseller in Paternoster -Row, and, by 1780, he could boast of the -largest wholesale trade in London. Nor were the -higher branches of his calling neglected, and in the -purchase of copyrights he rivalled the oldest established -firms. Among his publications we may mention -the <cite>Critical Review</cite>, the <cite>Town and Country Magazine</cite>, -and the <cite>New Annual Register</cite>; the <cite>Modern -Universal History</cite> (in sixty volumes), the <cite>Biographica -Britannica</cite>, and Russell’s <cite>Ancient and Modern Europe</cite>; -<cite>Bruce’s Travels</cite> and the <cite>Travels of Anacharsis</cite>; the -illustrated works of Hogarth, Bewick, and Heath; -and the lighter productions of Macklin, Murphy, -Godwin, Mrs. Inchbald, Mrs. Radcliffe, Dr. Moore, -and Dr. Wolcot.</p> - -<p>For the <cite>Mysteries of Udolpho</cite> Mrs. Radcliffe -received five hundred guineas, the largest sum that -had at that time been given for a novel, and Peter -Pindar (Dr. Wolcot) made a still better bargain for -his poems. They had already acquired a prodigious -popularity, and in selling the copyright a question -arose, as to whether they should be purchased for a -lump sum or an annuity. While the treaty was pending -Wolcot was seized with a violent and rather ostentatious<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_70">70</a></span> -attack of asthma, which sadly interrupted him in -discussing the arrangements, and he was eagerly -offered an annuity of £250. The arrangement was -made by Walker, a partner with Robinson in this -transaction. Walker soon called to inquire after his -friend’s illness, “Thank you, much better,” said Wolcot, -“I have taken measure of my asthma, the fellow -is troublesome, but I know his strength and am his -master.” Walker’s face grew longer, and when he -rejoined his wife in the next room, the doctor heard -a shrill, feminine expostulation, “There, you’ve done -it, I told you he wouldn’t die!” He outlived all the -parties concerned, and was in his own case, perhaps, -scarcely justified in originating the famous saying, -“that publishers quaff champagne out of the skulls of -authors.”</p> - -<p>This over-eager parsimony was not in any way -due to Robinson; his generosity to his authors -was well known, and his house became a general -rendezvous for the literary men of the day, who -were heartily welcome whenever they chose to turn -up, provided always that they did not come late -for dinner. After Robinson’s death in 1801, his son -and brother carried on the business, but met with -reverses, principally through loss of stock at a fire; -but the wonderful prices that were realized at the -auction, consequent on their declared bankruptcy, -fairly set them afloat again. One bookseller, alone, -is said to have invested £40,000 at the sale, and even -the copyright of Vyse’s <cite>Shilling Spelling Book</cite> was -sold for £2,500, with an annuity of fifty guineas a -year to the old schoolmaster Vyse.</p> - -<p>James Lackington, in his <cite>Memoirs and Confessions</cite> -has left plenty of material, had we space, for an<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_71">71</a></span> -amusing and instructive biography. He was born at -Wellington in 1746, and his father, a drunken cobbler, -would not even pay the requisite twopence a week -for his son’s education. Loafing about the streets -all day as a child, he thought he might turn his -wanderings to account by crying pies, and as a pie-boy -he acquired such a pre-eminence that he was -soon engaged to vend almanacs. At fourteen he -left this vagrant life to be apprenticed to a shoemaker, -and his master’s family becoming strong adherents to -the new sect of Methodists, he too was converted, -and would trudge, he says, through frost and snow at -midnight to hear “an inspired husbandman, shoemaker, -blacksmith, or a woolcomber” preach to ten -or a dozen people, when he might have quietly stopped -at home to listen to “the sensible and learned ministers -at Taunton.”</p> - -<p>However, what he heard “made me think they -knew many matters of which I was totally ignorant,” -and he set to work arduously at night to learn his -letters, and when he was able to read, he bought -Hobbe’s <cite>Homer</cite> at a bookstall, and found that his letters -did but little in assisting his comprehension; -however, in his zeal for knowledge he allowed himself -“but three hours’ sleep in the twenty-four.” The art -of writing was acquired in a similar manner, and then -he started on a working tour, making shoes on the -road for sustenance, but suffering many hardships -and miseries. To make matters worse, at Bristol he -married a young girl of his own class, whose ill-health, -though he was passionately fond of her, added -no little to his troubles. Accordingly he went to -London, that for her sake he might earn higher -wages, and not altogether unhopeful of the fortunes he<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_72">72</a></span> -had heard were to be gained there by dogged hard -work and endurance. They arrived with the typical -half-crown in their pockets, and then Lackington, -anxious to obtain the small legacy of £10 he had -left at home, went for it personally; “it being such a -prodigious sum that the greatest caution was used on -both sides, so that it cost me about half the money in -going down for it, and in returning to town again.” -After working some time as a journeyman bookseller -he opened a little cobbler’s shop; and, thinking he -knew as much about books as the keeper of an old -bookstall in the neighbourhood, wishing also to have -opportunity for study, he invested a guinea in a bagful -of old books. To increase his stock he borrowed -£5 from a fund “Mr. Wesley’s people kept to lend -out, for three months, without interest, to such of -their society whose characters were good, and who -wanted a temporary relief.... In our new situation -we lived in a very frugal manner, often dining on -potatoes and quenching our thirst with water; being -absolutely determined, if possible, to make some provision -for such dismal times as sickness, shortness of -work, &c., which we had frequently been involved in -before, and could scarcely help expecting not to be -our fate again.” He soon found customers, and “as -‘soon laid out the money’ in other old trash which -was daily brought for sale.”</p> - -<div id="if_i_072" class="figcenter" style="width: 376px;"> - <img src="images/i_072.jpg" width="376" height="440" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p>James Lackington, Bookseller.</p> - -<p>1746–1816.</p></div></div> - -<p>In a short time he had realized £25, and was able -to take a book-shop in Chiswell Street; and here he -almost immediately lost his wife, which for a time involved -him in the deepest distress, but in the following -year he married again, and then resolved to quit his -Wesleyan friends, a sect he thought incompatible with -the dignity of a bookseller; indeed “Mr. Wesley often<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_73">73</a></span> -told his society in Broadment, Bristol, in my hearing, -that he could never keep a bookseller six months in -his flock.” From this time success uniformly attended -his undertakings, and was due, he says, primarily to his -invariable principle of selling at very low figures and -only for ready-money. When he began to attend the -trade sales he created consternation among his brethren. -“I was very much surprised to learn that it -was common for such as purchased remainders to -destroy or burn one-half or three-fourths of such books, -and to charge the full publication price, or nearly that, -for such as they kept on hand.” With this rule he -complied for a short time; but afterwards resolved to -keep the whole stock. The trade endeavoured to -hinder his appearance at the sale-rooms, but in time -they were forced to yield, and he continued to sell off -remainders at half or a quarter the published price.<a id="FNanchor_8" href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">8</a> -“By selling them in this cheap manner, I have disposed -of many hundred thousand volumes, many -thousand of which have been intrinsically worth their -original prices.” Such a method attracted a crowd of -customers, and he soon began to buy manuscripts from -authors. As to how his circumstances were improving -we read, “I discovered that lodgings in the country -were very healthy. The year after, my country -lodging was transformed into a country house, and in -another year the inconveniences attending a stage -coach were remedied by a chariot,” on the doors of -which “I have put a motto to remind me to what I -am indebted to my prosperity, viz.:—Small Profits do -Great Things.” Again, he was very fond of repeating,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_74">74</a></span> -“I found all I possess in small <em>profits</em>, bound by <em>industry</em> -and clasped with <em>economy</em>.”</p> - -<p>The shop in Chiswell Street was now changed into -a huge building at the corner of Finsbury Square, -grandly styled the “Temple of the Muses;” above it -floated a flag, over the door was the inscription -“Cheapest bookshop in the world,” and inside appeared -the notice that “the lowest price is marked on -every Book, and no abatement made on any article.” -“Half-a-million of volumes” were said, according to -his catalogue, “to be constantly on sale,” and these -were arranged in galleries and rooms, rising in tiers—the -more expensive books at the bottom, and the -prices diminishing with every floor, but all numbered -according to a catalogue, which Lackington compiled -himself, and even the first he issued contained 12,000 -volumes. During his first year at the “Temple of the -Muses” he cleared £5000. In 1798, he was able to -retire with a large fortune, and he again joined the -Methodists, building and endowing three chapels for -them, in contrition for having maligned them in his -rambling <cite>Memoirs</cite>. Latterly he was fond of travelling, -and made a tour of bookselling inspection through -England and Scotland, seeing discouraging signs in -every town but Edinburgh, “where indeed a few -capital articles are kept.” “At York and Leeds there -were a few (and but very few) good books; but in -all the other towns between London and Edinburgh -nothing but trash was to be found.” In Scotland, he -looked forward with great curiosity to seeing the -women washing soiled linen in the rivers, standing -bare-legged the while, and indeed this incident seems -to have afforded him more gratification than any in -his travels except the following: “In Bristol, Uxbridge,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_75">75</a></span> -Bridgewater, Taunton, Wellington, and other places, I -amused myself in calling on some of my masters, -with whom I had, about twenty years before, worked -as a journeyman shoemaker. I addressed each with -‘Pray, sir, have you got any occasion?’ which is the -term made use of by journeymen in that useful occupation, -when seeking employment. Most of these -honest men had quite forgotten my person, as many -of them had not seen me since I worked for them; so -that it is not easy for you to conceive with what surprize -and astonishment they gazed on me. For you -must know that I had the vanity (I call it humour) to -do this in my chariot, attended by my servants; and -on telling them who I was all appeared to be very -happy to see me.”</p> - -<p>James Lackington died in his country house in -Budleigh Lutterton, in Devonshire, in 1815. His life -is an eminent example how a man of no attainments -or advantages can conquer success by sheer hard work -and perseverance.</p> - -<p>Lackington was not the only man of his time who -perceived that the conditions of literature were displaying -at least a chance of change; that the circle of -the book-buying public was incessantly enlarging, -and that, by supplying the best books at the cheapest -remunerative rates, not only would the progress of -education be accelerated, but that the very speculation -would bring fortune as well as honour to the innovators -in the Trade. One of the first booksellers to -adopt this principle was John Bell, whose name is -still preserved in <cite>Bell’s Weekly Messenger</cite>. His -<cite>British Poets</cite>, <cite>British Theatre</cite> and <cite>Shakespeare</cite>, -published in small pocket volumes, carried consternation -into the trade, but scattered the English<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_76">76</a></span> -classics broadcast among the people. He was the -first to discard the long s. He was soon rivalled by -Cook and Harrison, and all three were distinguished, -not only by publishing in little pocket volumes, exquisitely -printed, and embellished by the best artists -for the many, what had before been produced in folios -and quartos for the few, but as the inventors of the -“number trade,” by which even expensive works were -sold in small weekly portions to those to whom literature -had hitherto been an unknown luxury. Such -were the <cite>Lives of Christ</cite>, <cite>The Histories of England</cite>, -<cite>Foxe’s Book of Martyrs</cite>, <cite>Family Bibles with Notes</cite>, -and <cite>The Works of Flavius Josephus</cite>. Many of these -“number books,” though of no great literary merit, -exhibited every possible attraction on their copious -title-pages, and were announced with the then novel -terms of “beautiful,” “elegant,” “superb,” and “magnificent.”</p> - -<div id="if_i_076" class="figcenter" style="width: 289px;"> - <img src="images/i_076.jpg" width="289" height="351" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p>Andrew Donaldson.</p> - -<p>(<i>From an Etching by Kay. 1789.</i>)</p></div></div> - -<div id="if_i_076b" class="figcenter" style="width: 406px;"> - <img src="images/i_076b.jpg" width="406" height="316" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p>Stationers’ Hall, near Paternoster Row.</p> - -<p>(<i>From an Etching by R. Cole. 1750.</i>)</p></div></div> - -<p>But the pioneer to whom the cheap book-buying -public is most indebted was Alexander Donaldson, -who, though an Edinburgh man, fought out his chief -battles among his London brethren. Donaldson’s -contemporaries in Edinburgh in the middle of the -eighteenth century were Bell, Ellis, and Creech, the -only bookseller worth recording before that date being -Alexander Ramsay, the poet. Donaldson having -struck out the idea of publishing cheap reprints of -popular works, extended his business by starting a -bookshop in the Strand, London—a step that brought -him into collision with the London publishers—and -authors, for Johnson calls him “a fellow who takes -advantage of the state of the law to injure his -brethren ... and supposing he did reduce the price -of books is no better than Robin Hood who robbed<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_77">77</a></span> -the rich in order to give to the poor.” In 1771, -Donaldson reprinted Thomson’s <cite>Seasons</cite>, and an action -at law was brought against him by certain booksellers. -He proved that the work in question had first been -printed in 1729, that its author died in 1748, and that -the copyright consequently expired in 1757; and the -Lords decided in his favour, thereby settling finally -the vulgar and traditional theory that copyright was -the interminable possession of the purchaser. To follow -this interesting question for a moment. In Anne’s -reign it was decided that copyright was to last for -fourteen years, with an additional term of fourteen -years, provided that the author was alive at the expiry -of the first. In 1773–4, following upon Donaldson’s -prosecution, a bill to render copyright perpetual -passed through the Commons, but was thrown out in -the Lords, and in 1814 the term of fourteen years -and a conditional fourteen was extended to a definite -and invariable period of twenty-eight years. Finally -in 1842, the present law was passed, by which the -term was prolonged to forty-two years, but the copyright -was not to expire in any case before seven years -after the author’s death.</p> - -<p>Donaldson left a very large fortune, which was -greatly augmented by his son, who bequeathed the -total amount, a quarter of a million, to found an -educational hospital for poor children in Edinburgh, -under the title of “Donaldson’s Hospital.”</p> - -<p>During the period under review the localities affected -by the bookselling and publishing trade had -greatly changed and altered. The stalls of the “Chap. -Book” venders had disappeared from London Bridge -and the Exchange, and even Little Britain had been -entirely vacated. Little Britain, from the time of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_78">78</a></span> -first Charles to Mary and William, was as famous for -books as Paternoster Row afterwards became. But, -even in 1731, a writer in the <cite>Gentleman’s Magazine</cite> -says, “The race of booksellers in Little Britain is now -almost extinct; honest Ballard, well known for his curious -divinity catalogues (he was said to have been the -first to print a catalogue), being then the only genuine -representative ... it was, in the middle of the last -century, a plentiful and learned emporium of learned -authors, and men went thither as to a market. This -drew to the place a mighty trade, the rather because -the shops were spacious and the learned gladly resorted -to them, where they seldom failed to meet with -agreeable conversations.” The son of this Ballard -died in 1796, and was by far the best of the Little -Britain booksellers. When the “trade” deserted -Little Britain, about the reign of Queen Anne, they -took up their abode in Paternoster Row, then principally -in the hands of mercers, haberdashers, and lace-men—a -periodical in 1705 mentioning even the -“semptresses of Paternoster Row;” for the old manuscript -venders, who had christened the whole neighbourhood, -had died out centuries before. It now became -the headquarters of publishers and more -especially of old booksellers, but with the introduction -of magazines and “copy” books, that latter portion -of the trade migrated elsewhere, and the street assumed -its present appearance of wholesale warehouses, -and general and periodical publishing houses. It was -not long indeed before the tide of fashion carried -many of the eminent firms westward, and the movement -in that direction is still apparent.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_79">79</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div id="if_i_079" class="figcenter" style="width: 373px;"> - <img id="hdr_2" src="images/i_079.jpg" width="373" height="79" alt="" /> -</div> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><i>THE LONGMAN FAMILY.</i><br /> - -<span class="subhead">CLASSICAL AND EDUCATIONAL LITERATURE.</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">The</span> family of Longman can trace a publishing -pedigree back to a date anterior to that of any -other house still represented amongst us—the Rivingtons -only excepted. As in the previous chapter, we -shall select one member—necessarily that one to whom -most public interest is attached—as the typical representative -of the firm, touching lightly, however, upon -all. And, in accordance with the scheme of the -present volume, our remarks will primarily be devoted -to a narrative of their business connections with that -branch of literature—classical and educational works—with -which the name of Longman is more immediately -associated.</p> - -<p>For the whole of the seventeenth century the -Longman family occupied the position of thriving -citizens in the busy seaport town of Bristol, then the -Liverpool of the day, and acquired some considerable -wealth in the manufacture of soap and sugar, achieving -in many instances the highest honours in civic authority. -Ezekiel Longman, who is described as “of -Bristol, gentleman,” died in the year 1708, leaving, by -a second marriage, a little boy only nine years of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_80">80</a></span> -age, who, as Thomas Longman, is afterwards to be -the founder of the great Paternoster Row firm.</p> - -<p>By a provision of his father’s will, Thomas was to -be “well and handsomely bred and educated according -to his fortune;” this, we presume, was duly -accomplished, and in June, 1716, we find that he was -bound apprentice for seven years to Mr. John Osborn, -bookseller, of Lombard Street, London—a man in a -good, substantial way of business, but not to be confused -with the other Osbornes of the time. Unlike -Jacob, Longman served his seven years, and reaped a -due reward in the person of his master’s daughter; -and, as at the expiry of his time, the house of William -Taylor (known to fame as the publisher of -<cite>Robinson Crusoe</cite>) had lost its chief, Osborn being -appointed executor for the family, we find that in -August, 1824 “all the household goods and books -bound in sheets” according to valuation were purchased -by Longman for £2,282 9<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i>—a very considerable -sum in those days, and, towards the end of -the month, £230 18<i>s.</i> was further paid for part shares -in several profitable copyrights.</p> - -<p>In acquiring this business Longman took possession -of two houses, both ancient in the trade, the -<cite>Black Swan</cite> and the <cite>Ship</cite>, which, through the profitable -returns of <cite>Robinson Crusoe</cite>, Taylor had amalgamated -into one; and here on the self-same freehold -ground, the immense publishing establishment of the -modern Longmans is still standing.</p> - -<p>The first trade mention we find of his name occurs -in a prospectus dated Oct., 1724, of a proposal to publish, -by subscription, <cite>The Works of the Honourable -Robert Boyle, Esq.</cite> (the father of chemistry, and -brother of the Earl of Cork), “to be printed for W.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_81">81</a></span> -and J. Innes, at the West End of St. Paul’s Churchyard, -J. Osborn, at the <cite>Oxford Arms</cite>, in Lombard -Street, and T. Longman, at the <cite>Ship</cite> and <cite>Black -Swan</cite>, in Paternoster Row.” In a few months after -this Osborn followed his daughter to the Row, and, -adding his capital to that of his son-in-law, remained -in partnership with him until the end of his days.</p> - -<p>In 1726, we find their names conjointly prefixed to -the first edition of Sherlock’s <cite>Voyages</cite>, and between -that date and 1730 to a great variety of school books.</p> - -<p>All the works of importance, many even of the -minor books, were, at that time, published not only -by subscription in the first instance, but the remaining -risk, and the trouble of a pretty certain venture, -were divided amongst a number of booksellers: and -the share system was so general that in the books of -the Stationers’ Company there is a column ruled off, -before the entries of the titles of works and marked -“Shares,” and subdivided into halves, eight-twelfths, -sixteenths, twenty-fourths, and even sixty-fourths. -Much of the speculative portion of a bookseller’s -business in those days consisted, therefore, not in the -original publication of books, but in the purchase and -sale of their shares, and to this business we find that -Thomas Longman was especially addicted. As early -as November, 1724, he bought one-third of the <cite>Delphin -Virgil</cite> from Jacob Tonson, junior; in 1728 a twentieth -of Ainsworth’s <cite>Latin Dictionary</cite>, one of the most -profitable books of the last century, for forty pounds, -and, much later on, one-fourth part of the <cite>Arabian -Nights’ Entertainment</cite> for the small sum of twelve -pounds.</p> - -<p>The chief interest of the career of the house at this -period lies in their connection with the <cite>Cyclopædia</cite> of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_82">82</a></span> -Ephraim Chambers, which was not only the parent of -all our English encyclopædias, but also the direct -cause of the famous <cite>Encyclopédie</cite> of the French philosophers. -Longman’s share in this work, first published -in 1728, cost but fifty pounds, and consisted, -probably, only of one sixty-fourth portion; as, however, -the proprietors died off, Longman steadily purchased -all the shares that were thrown on the book-market, -until, in the year 1740, the Stationers’ book -assigns him eleven out of the sixty-four—a larger -number than was ever held by any other proprietor.</p> - -<p>One of the few direct allusions to Longman’s personal -character relates to his kindness to Ephraim -Chambers. A contemporary writes in the <cite>Gentleman’s -Magazine</cite>:—“Mr. Longman used him with the -liberality of a prince, and the kindness of a father; -even his natural absence of mind was consulted, and -during his illness jellies and other proper refreshments -were industriously left for him at those places where it -was least likely that he should avoid seeing them.” -Chambers had received £500 over and above the -stipulated price for this great work, and towards the -latter end of his life was never absolutely in want of -money; yet from forgetfulness, perhaps from custom, -he was parsimonious in the extreme. A friend called -one day at his chambers in Gray’s Inn, and was -pressed to stay dinner. “And what will you give me, -Ephraim?” asked the guest; “I dare engage you have -nothing for dinner!” To which Mr. Chambers calmly -replied, “Yes, I have a fritter, and if you’ll stay with -me I’ll have two.”</p> - -<p>After the death of his partner and father-in-law, -who bequeathed him all his books and property, -Thomas Longman seems to have prospered amazingly.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_83">83</a></span> -In 1746 he took into partnership one Thomas Shenrell; -but, except for the fact that this name figures in conjunction -with his for the two following years, then -to disappear for ever, little more is known. In -1754, however, he took a nephew into partnership, -after which the title-pages of their works ran:—“Printed -for T. and T. Longman at the <cite>Ship</cite> in -Pater-Noster-Row.” Before this, however, he is to be -found acting in unison with Dodsley, Millar, and -other great publishers of the day, in the issue of such -important works as Dr. Samuel Johnson’s <cite>Dictionary -of the English Language</cite>. On the 10th of June, 1855, -only <em>two</em> months after the publication of the dictionary, -he died, and Johnson is obliged to put off his well-earned -holiday-trip to Oxford. “Since my promise -two of our partners are dead (Paul Knapton was the -second) and I was solicited to suspend my excursion -till we could recover from our confusion. Thomas -Longman the first had no children, and left half the -partnership stock to his nephew and namesake, the -rest of the property going to his widow.”</p> - -<p>Thomas Longman, the nephew, was born in 1731, -and, at the age of fifteen, entered the publishing firm -as an apprentice, and at the date of his uncle’s death -was only five-and-twenty.</p> - -<p>Under his management the old traditions were -kept up—more copyrights of standard books were -purchased, the country trade extended, and more -than this the business relations of the house were very -vastly increased in the American colonies. One of -Osborn’s earliest books, by-the-way, had been entered -at Stationers’ Hall in 1712 as <cite>Psalms, Hymns, and -Spiritual Songs of the Old and New Testament. For -the edification and comfort of the Saints in Public and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_84">84</a></span> -Private, more especially in New England</cite>. The -nephew probably followed up the colonial trade of his -uncle and master, for at the first commencement of -hostilities in that country he had a very large sum -engaged in that particular business, and, to the honour -of the succeeding colonists, several of his correspondents -behaved very handsomely in liquidating their -debts in full, even subsequent to amicable arrangements -and to the peace of 1783.</p> - -<p>As in the case of the founder of the house, the folio -<cite>Cyclopædia</cite>, still the only one in the field, occupied -the chief attention of the firm. Already in 1746 it -had reached a fifth edition; “and whilst,” adds -Alexander Chalmers, “a sixth edition was in question -the proprietors thought that the work might admit of -a supplement in two additional folio volumes. This -supplement, which was published in the joint names -of Mr. Scott and Dr. Hill, though containing a number -of valuable articles, was far from being uniformly -conspicuous for its exact judgment and due selection, -a small part of it only being executed by Mr. Scott, -Dr. Hill’s task having been discharged with his usual -rapidity.” There the matter stood for some years, -when the proprietors determined to convert the whole -into one work. Several editions were tried and found -wanting, and finally Dr. John Calder, the friend of -Dr. Percy, was engaged, but provisionally only, for -the duty. He drew up an elaborate programme, containing -no less than twenty-six propositions. The -agreement, as it illustrates, in some degree, the relative -positions of authors and publishers, may be quoted. -Dr. Calder agreed to prepare a new edition of -<cite>Chambers’s Cyclopædia</cite> to be completed in two years. -He received £50 as a retaining fee upon signing the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_85">85</a></span> -agreement, and £50 a quarter until the work was -finally out of the printer’s hands. In spite of this -retaining fee the proprietors appear to have been -smitten with fear, perhaps dreading a repetition of -Dr. Hill’s inaccuracies, and sent round a specimen -sheet to the eminent <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">literati</i> of the day, asking their -opinions upon the matter and the style. All the -verdicts were unfavourable, one contemptuous critic -complaining that the author had twice referred -favourably to the <cite>Encyclopædia Britannica</cite>, “a Scots -rival publication in little esteem.” Dr. Johnson cut -away a large portion of his sheet as worthless; but, -at poor Calder’s request, who began to be perplexedly -alarmed by all these adverse reviews, explained this -superfluity as arising simply from <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">trôp de zèle</i>. “I -consider the residuum which I lopped away, not as -the consequence of negligence or inability, but as the -result of superfluous business, naturally exerted in the -first article. He that does too much soon learns to -do less.” Then apologizing for Calder’s turbulence -and impatience, the kindly doctor prays “that he may -stand where he stood before, and be permitted to -proceed with the work with which he is engaged. Do -not refuse this request, sir, to your most humble -servant, Samuel Johnson.” Again and again the -doctor interposed his influence, but in vain, and -Abraham Rees, a young professor in a dissenting -college near town, was engaged, and a new issue of -the <cite>Cyclopædia</cite> (still Chambers’s), in weekly parts, was -commenced in 1778, running on till 1786, attaining a -circulation of four or five thousand, then a large one, -for each number; and Longman, as chief proprietor, -must have profited exceedingly by the work.</p> - -<p>In the books of the Stationers’ Company we find<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_86">86</a></span> -repeated entry of Longman as publisher or shareholder -in such miscellaneous works as <cite>Gil Blas</cite>, -<cite>Humphrey Clinker</cite>, and <cite>Rasselas</cite>; and, true to the old -traditions of the firm, educational works were by no -means neglected. Among others we note a record of -<cite>Cocker’s Arithmetic</cite>, since proverbially and bibliographically -famous.</p> - -<p>Cocker was an unruly master of St. Paul’s School, -twice deposed for his extreme opinions, but twice -restored for his marvellous talents of teaching. “He -was the first to reduce arithmetic to a purely -mechanical art.” The first edition, however, was -published only after his death by his friend “John -Hawkins, writing master”—a copy sold by Puttick -and Simpson, in 1851, realized £8 10<i>s.</i> The fifty-second -edition was published in 1748, and the last -reprint, though at that time the work was in Longman’s -hands, bears “Glasgow, 1777,” on the title-page.</p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="iq">“Ingenious Cocker now to rest thou’rt gone,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">No art can show thee fully, but thy own,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Thy rare arithmetic alone can show<br /></span> -<span class="i0">The vast <em>sums</em> of thanks we for thy labour owe.”<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>In those days the publishers clave together in a -manner undreamt of in these latter times of keener -competition. Nichols, in speaking of James Robson -(a Bond-street bookseller), and a literary club of booksellers, -observes that Mr. Longman, with the late -Alderman Cadell, James Dodsley, Lockyer, Davies, -Peter Elmsley, Honest Tom Payne of the Mew’s -Gate, and Thomas Evans of the Strand, were all -members of this society. They met first at the -“Devil’s Tavern,” Temple-bar, then moved to the -“Grecian,” and finally from a weekly gathering, became<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_87">87</a></span> -a monthly meeting at the “Shakspeare.” Here was -originated the germ of many a valuable production. -Under their auspices Davies (in whose shop Boswell -first met Johnson) produced his only valuable work, -the <cite>Life of Garrick</cite>. Poor Davies had been an actor -till Churchill’s satire drove him off the <span class="locked">stage—</span></p> - -<p class="center"> -“He mouths a sentence as curs mouth a bone.” -</p> - -<p>From this he fled to the refuge of a bookselling shop -in Russell-street, Covent-garden. He is described -variously as “not a bookseller, but a gentleman -dealing in books,” and as “learned enough for a -clergyman.” Here he strived indifferently well till -we come upon his <span class="locked">epitaph—</span></p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="iq">“Here lies the author, actor Thomas Davies,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Living he shone a very <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">rara avis</i>;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">The scenes he played life’s audience must commend—<br /></span> -<span class="i0">He honour’d Garrick, Johnson was his friend.”<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="in0">At this club meeting, too, Johnson’s <cite>Lives of the Poets</cite> -were first resolved on, and by the club clique the -work was ultimately produced.</p> - -<p>William West, a bookseller’s assistant, who died at -a great age at the Charter House, in 1855, has left in -his <cite>Fifty Years’ Reminiscences</cite>, and in the pages of the -<cite>Aldine Magazine</cite>, a number of garrulous, amusing, -but sometimes incoherent stories of the old booksellers. -West says he knew all the members of the -club, and bears witness that “Longman was a man -of the most exemplary character both in his profession -and in his private life, and as universally esteemed for -his benevolence as for his integrity.” He mentions in -particular Longman’s generosity in offering George -Robinson any sum he wished on credit, when his -business was in a critical condition.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_88">88</a></span> -West adds, “I was in the habit of going to Mr. -Longman’s almost daily from the years 1785 to 1787 -or 1788, for various books for country orders, being -what is termed in all wholesale booksellers’ shops ‘a -collector.’ Mr. Norton Longman had been caused by -his father wisely to go through this same wholesome -routine of his profession; and I am informed that the -present Mr. L. (Thomas Norton Longman), although -at the very head of the book trade, has pursued a -similar course with his sons.”</p> - -<p>Longman—and this brings us to the subject—had -married a sister of Harris, the patentee, and long the -manager of Covent Garden Theatre. By her he had -three sons, and of these Thomas Norton Longman, -born in 1771, about 1792 began to take his father’s -place in the publishing establishment; and about this -time Thomas Brown entered the office as an apprentice. -In 1794, Mr. Owen Rees was admitted a -member, and the firm’s title was altered to “Longman -and Co.;” and at this time, too, the younger Evans, -“rating,” we are told, “only as third wholesale bookseller -in England,” became bankrupt, and the whole -of his picked stock was transferred to 39, Paternoster Row. -The stock was further increased by a legacy -from the elder Evans to Brown’s father in 1803. This -elder Evans, as the publisher of the <cite>Morning Chronicle</cite>, -had incurred the displeasure of Goldsmith, who, mindful -of Johnson’s former valour, “went to the shop,” -says Nichols, “cane in hand, and fell upon him in a -most unmerciful manner. This Mr. Evans resented in -a truly pugilistic method, and in a few moments the -author of the <cite>Vicar of Wakefield</cite> was disarmed and -stretched on the floor, to the no small diversion of the -bystanders.”</p> - -<div id="if_i_088" class="figcenter" style="width: 367px;"> - <img src="images/i_088.jpg" width="367" height="463" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p>Thomas Longman.</p> - -<p>1771–1842.</p></div></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_89">89</a></span> -Seven years, however, before this, Thomas Longman -the second died, on the 5th February, 1797. Of the -position to which he had attained it is sufficient to -mention that when the Government were about to -impose an additional duty on paper, subsequent to -that of 1794, the firm of Longman urged such strong -and unanswerable arguments against it and its impolicy -that the idea was relinquished; and at this time the -house had nearly £100,000 embarked in various -publications.</p> - -<p>Longman left his business to his eldest son, and to -his second son, George, he bequeathed a handsome -fortune, which enabled him to become a very extensive -paper manufacturer at Maidstone, in Kent, and for -some years he represented that borough in Parliament. -As a further honour, he was drawn for Sheriff of -London, but did not serve the office.</p> - -<p>Edward Longman, the third son, was drowned at an -early age in a voyage to India, whither he was proceeding -to a naval station in the East India Company’s -service.</p> - -<p>At the time of Thomas Norton Longman’s accession -to the chiefdom of the Paternoster Row firm, the -literary world was undergoing a seething revolution. -Genius was again let loose upon the earth to charm -all men by her beauty, and to scare them for a while -by her utter contempt for precedent. The torpor in -which England had been wrapped during the whole of -the foregone Hanoverian dynasty was changing into -an eager feeling of unrest, and, later on, to a burning -desire to do something, no matter what, and to do it -thoroughly in one’s own best manner, and at one’s own -truest promptings. No man saw the coming change -more clearly than Longman; and anxious to profit by<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_90">90</a></span> -the first-fruits of the future, yet careful not to cast -away in his hurry that ponderous ballast of dictionary -and compilation, he soon gathered all the young -writers of the day within the precincts of his publishing -fold.</p> - -<p>Down at Bristol, the ancestral town of both Longman -and Rees, Joseph Cottle had been doing honest -service—without, we fear, much profit—in issuing the -earliest works of young men who were to take the -highest rank among their fellows. Cottle had published -Southey’s <cite>Joan of Arc</cite> in 1796, and in 1798 -had issued the <cite>Lyrical Ballads</cite>, the joint composition -of Coleridge and Wordsworth. When, in 1800, -Longman purchased the entire copyrights of the -Bristol firm, at a fair and individual valuation, the -<cite>Lyrical Ballads</cite> were set down in the bill at exactly -nothing, and Cottle obtained leave to present the copyright -to the authors. In connection with Cottle and -Longman, we must here mention a story that does -infinite credit to both. At the very close of the -eighteenth century, Southey and Cottle in conjunction -prepared an edition of Chatterton’s works, to be published -by subscription for the benefit of his sister, -whose sight was now beginning to fail her. Hitherto, -though much money had been made from the works -of the “boy poet,” they had been printed only for the -emolument of speculators.</p> - -<p>The edition unfortunately proved a failure, but -Longman and Rees entered into a friendly arrangement -with Southey, and he was able to report in 1804 -that Mrs. Newton lived to receive £184 15<i>s.</i> from the -profits, when, as she expressed it, she would otherwise -have wanted bread. Ultimately, Mary Ann Newton, -the poet’s niece, received about £600, the fruits of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_91">91</a></span> -generous exertion of a brother poet, and of the good -feeling of a kind-hearted publisher.</p> - -<p>The first edition of the <cite>Lyrical Ballads</cite> did -eventually sell out, and then Wordsworth, detaching -his own poems from the others, and adding several -new ones thereto, obtained £100 from Longman for -the use of two editions, but the sale was so very slow -that the bargain was probably unprofitable.</p> - -<p>In this same year 1800 the house of Longman also -published Coleridge’s translation of Schiller’s <cite>Wallenstein</cite>, -written in the short space of six weeks. -Very few copies were sold, but after remaining on -hand for sixteen years, the remainder was sold off -rapidly at a double price.</p> - -<p>Southey (a Bristol man himself) met, too, with much -kindness from the firm, but after his first poem with -but little, as a poet, from the public. We have seen -before that “the profits” on <cite>Madoc</cite> “amounted to -exactly three pounds seventeen shillings and a penny.” -No wonder that he writes to a friend, “Books are now -so dear that they are becoming articles of fashionable -furniture more than anything else; they who do buy -them do not read, and they who read them do not buy -them. I have seen a Wiltshire clothier who gives his -bookseller no other instructions than the dimensions -of his shelves; and have just heard of a Liverpool -merchant who is fitting up a library, and has told his -bibliopole to send him Shakespeare, Milton, and Pope, -and if any of those fellows should publish anything -new to let him have it immediately. If <cite>Madoc</cite> -obtains any celebrity, its size and cost will recommend -it to those gentry <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">libros consumere nati</i>, born to buy -octavos and help the revenue.” Southey’s prose, -however, proved infinitely more profitable, and for<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_92">92</a></span> -some years he was the chief contributor to Longman’s -<cite>Annual Review</cite> started in 1802, the same year as -the <cite>Edinburgh Review</cite>. About this time Longman -first went to Scotland, paid a visit to Walter Scott, -and purchased the copyright of the <cite>Minstrelsy</cite> then -publishing; and in the following year Rees crossed -the borders, and returned with an arrangement to -publish the <cite>Lay of the Last Minstrel</cite> on the half-profit -system, Constable having, however, a very small -share in it. Scott’s moiety of profits was £169 6<i>s.</i>, -and success being then ensured, Longman offered £500 -for the copyright, which was at once accepted. They -afterwards added £100, “handsomely given to supply -the loss of a fine horse which broke down suddenly -while the author was riding with one of the worthy -publishers” (Owen Rees).</p> - -<p>Already in the first few years of the century we -find the house connected with Wordsworth, Southey, -Coleridge, and Scott, but it was by no means entirely -to poetry that Longman and Rees trusted. In 1799 -they purchased the copyright of Lindley Murray’s -<cite>English Grammar</cite>, one of the most profitable school -books ever issued from the press—for many years the -annual sale of the <cite>Abridgment</cite> in England alone was -from 48,000 to 50,000 copies. Chambers’ <cite>Cyclopædia</cite> -was entirely re-written, re-cast, and re-christened, and -again, under the management of Abraham Rees, after -whom it was named, came out in quarto form in parts, -but at a total cost of £85. The ablest scientific and -technical writers of the day were retained, and among -them we find the names of Humphry Davy, John -Abernethy, Sharon Turner, John Flaxman, and Henry -Brougham. For the first twenty years of this century -Rees’ <cite>New Cyclopædia</cite> filled the place that the <cite>Encyclopædia<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_93">93</a></span> -Britannica</cite>—“a Scots rival in little esteem”—was -afterwards to occupy.</p> - -<p>In 1803, we find the trade catalogue has extended -so much in bulk and character that it is divided into -no less than twenty-two classes. Among their books -we note Paley’s <cite>Natural Theology</cite> (ten editions -published in seven years), Sharon Turner’s <cite>Anglo-Saxon -History</cite>, Pinkerton’s <cite>Geography</cite>, Cowper’s <cite>Homer</cite>, -and Gifford’s <cite>Juvenal</cite>.</p> - -<p>About this time too, they engaged very extensively -in the old book trade, a branch of the business discarded -about the year 1840. In a catalogue of the -year 1811 we find some very curious books. Here -are the celebrated <cite>Roxburgh Ballads</cite>, now in the -British Museum; a Pennant’s <cite>London</cite>, marked -£300; a Granger’s <cite>Biographical Dictionary</cite>, £750; -Pilkington’s <cite>Dictionary of Painters</cite>, £420; two -volumes of <cite>Cromwelliana</cite>, £250; an extraordinary -assemblage of Caxtons, Wynkyn de Wordes, and -other early printed books, one supposed to date from -1446; a unique assemblage of <cite>Garrickiana</cite>, and -many other articles of a matchless character.<a id="FNanchor_9" href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">9</a></p> - -<p>Longman was himself indefatigable in business, for -fifty years unremittingly he came from and returned -to Hampstead on horseback; but as the rious -branches of the trade clearly prove, the superintendence -of so vast a business was altogether beyond -the power of any single man; and perhaps nothing -tended more to raise the firm to the eminent position -it soon attained than the plan of introducing fresh -blood from time to time;—the new members being -often chosen on account of the zeal and talent they -had displayed as servants of the house. In 1804<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_94">94</a></span> -Thomas Hurst, with the whole of his trade and connection, -and Cosmo Orme (the founder of the hospital -for decayed booksellers) were admitted. In 1811, -Thomas Brown, whom we have already noticed as an -apprentice, became a member of the firm, and until -his retirement in 1859, took the sole management of -the cash department, with so regular and just a system -that an author could always learn what was coming -to him, and when he was to receive it—a plan <em>not</em> -invariably adopted in a publisher’s counting-house. -The firm was in 1824 further strengthened by the -admission of Bevis Green, who had been apprenticed -to Hurst in 1807. The title of the firm at this, its -best known, period was, therefore, “Longman, Hurst, -Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green.” When, however, -Thomas Roberts entered, the title was changed to -“Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green;” -but we are anticipating, for Roberts died as recently -as 1865, having acquired some distinction in private -life as a Numismatist. For the sake of convenience, -and for the sequence of the story, it will, perhaps, be -as well to consider the firm as represented, as in fact -from his leading position it was by Thomas Norton -Longman, touching only upon the others individually -when some directly personal interest arises. Before -all these partnerships, however, were accomplished -facts Longman had taken a much more precious, and -even more zealous partner in the person of Miss Mary -Slater of Horsham, Sussex, whom he had married as -far back as the 2nd July, 1799.</p> - -<p>Wordsworth of course continued his connection -with the firm, though his profits were absolutely <em>nil</em>. -Though a poetic philosopher he was not quite proof -against the indifference of the public. In the edition<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_95">95</a></span> -of the <cite>Lyrical Ballads</cite> published in 1805 we find the -significant epigraph, <cite xml:lang="la" lang="la">Quam nihil ad genium, Papinique -tuum</cite>. In 1807, he published two new volumes, in -which appeared many of his choicest pieces, and -among them his first sonnets. Jeffrey, however, -maintained that they were miserably inferior, and his -article put an absolute stop to the sale. Wordsworth -had, perhaps deprived himself of all right to complain, -for his harshest reviewer did him far more justice than -he was wont to deal out to his greatest contemporaries. -In 1814, we find Longman announcing, “Just published, -the <cite>Excursion</cite>, being a portion of the <cite>Recluse</cite>, by -William Wordsworth, in 4to., price £2 2<i>s.</i>, boards.” -Jeffrey used the famous expression—“This will never -do;” and Hogg wrote to Southey that Jeffrey had -<em>crushed</em> the poem. “What!” retorted Southey, -“Jeffrey <em>crush</em> the <cite>Excursion</cite>! Tell him he might as -easily crush Skiddaw!” Wordsworth, who had invariably -a high value of his own works, even of his -weakest ones, writes also,—“I am delighted to learn -that the Edinburgh Aristarch has declared against the -<cite>Excursion</cite>, as he will have the mortification of seeing -a book enjoy a high reputation to which he has not -contributed.” For a while, however, Jeffrey’s curse -was potent, and it took six years to exhaust an edition -of only 500 copies. We need scarcely follow Wordsworth’s -various publications (do their dates not lie on -every table of every drawing-room in the land?), -but the whole returns from his literary labours up to -1819 had not amounted to £140; and even in 1829 -he remarks that he had worked hard through a long -life for less pecuniary emolument than a public performer -earns for two or three songs.</p> - -<p>Longman had at one time an opportunity of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_96">96</a></span> -becoming Byron’s publisher, but declined the <cite>English -Bards and Scotch Reviewers</cite> on account of the violent -attacks it contained upon his own poets—those of the -Lake school. With Scott we have seen that he had -had dealings, and in these, at all events, Sir Walter’s -joke, that <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">Longmanum est errare</i>, did not hold good. -Before the collective edition of 1830, 44,000 copies -of the <cite>Lay of the Last Minstrel</cite> were sold. Though -Longman was inclined to believe that Scott was not the -author of <cite>Waverley</cite>, he was equally anxious to secure -the publication of some of that extraordinary series of -romances; and at a time when the Ballantynes were -in trouble, purchased <cite>Guy Mannering</cite> by granting bills -in advance for £1500, and taking a portion of their -stock, to the extent of about £600 more. The -<cite>Monastery</cite> was also published by him in 1820, and he -is said, though the authority is more than dubious, to -have paid Scott upwards of £20,000 in about fifteen -years.</p> - -<p>What Scott was to Constable, and Byron to Murray, -that was Moore to Longman. “Anacreon Moore,” as -he loved to be called, had gained a naughty reputation -from <cite>Mr. Thomas Little’s Poems</cite>, and, in 1811, we find -him writing to Longman—“I am at last come to a -determination to bind myself to your service, if you -hold the same favourable disposition towards me as -at our last conversation upon business. To-morrow I -shall be very glad to be allowed half-an-hour’s conversation -with you, and as I dare say I shall be <em>up all -night at Carlton House</em>, I do not think I could reach -your house before four o’clock. I told you before -that I never could work without a retainer. It will -not, however, be of that exorbitant nature which your -liberality placed at my disposal the first time.” Soon<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_97">97</a></span> -after this the Prince Regent threw over his old Whig -friend, but Moore was so successful in his political -warfare that he more than gained as a poet what he -lost as a courtier, and his <cite>Two-penny Post Bag</cite> went -through fourteen editions. He was, however, anxious to -apply his genius to the creation of some work more -likely to raise his reputation than the singing of lascivious -songs, or the jerking off of political squibs. -Accordingly Perry, the editor of the <cite>Morning Chronicle</cite>, -was sent to discuss preliminary matters with Longman. -“I am of opinion,” said Perry, “that Mr. -Moore ought to receive for his poem the largest price -that has been given in our day for such a work.” -“That,” replied Longman promptly, “was £3000.” -“Exactly so,” rejoined the editor, “and no smaller a -sum ought he to receive.” Longman insisted upon a -perusal <span class="locked">beforehand:—</span></p> - -<p>“Longman has communicated his readiness to -terms, on the basis of the three thousand guineas, but -requires a perusal beforehand; this I have refused. -I shall have no ifs.”</p> - -<p>Again Moore writes, “To the honour and glory of -romance, as well on the publisher’s side as on the -poet’s, this very generous view of the transaction was -without any difficulty acceded to;” and again, “There -has seldom occurred any transaction in which trade -and poetry have shone so satisfactorily in each other’s -eyes.” So Moore left London to find a quiet resting-place -“in a lone cottage among the fields in Derbyshire,” -and there <cite>Lalla Rookh</cite> was written; the -snows of two or three Derbyshire winters aiding, he -avers, his imagination, by contrast, to paint the everlasting -summers and glowing scenery of the East. -The arrangement had hitherto been verbal, but on<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_98">98</a></span> -going up to town, in the winter of 1814, he received -the following agreement from Longman.</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p class="center larger">“COPY OF TERMS WRITTEN TO MR. MOORE.</p> - -<p>“That upon your giving into our hands a poem of yours of the length -of <cite>Rokeby</cite>, you shall receive from us the sum of £3000. We also -agree to the stipulation that the few songs which you may introduce -into the work shall be considered as reserved for your own setting.”</p></blockquote> - -<p>Soon Moore writes to say that about 4000 lines are -perfectly finished, but he is unwilling to show any -portion of the work until the 6000 are completed, for -fear of disheartenment. He requests Longman, however, -“to tell our friends that they are done, a poetic -licence to prevent the teasing wonderment of the -literary quidnuncs at my being so long about it.” Longman -replies that “we are certainly impatient for the -perusal of your poem, but solely for our gratification. -Your sentiments are always honourable.” At length, -after very considerable delays on the part of the -author, the poem appeared, and its wonderful success -fully justified the publisher’s extraordinary liberality. -Moore drew a thousand pounds for the discharge of -his debts, and left, temporarily only, we fear, £2000 -in Longman’s hands, the interest of which was to be -paid quarterly to his father.</p> - -<p>This was Moore’s greatest effort; nor did he attempt -to surpass it. One substantial proof of admiration of -the poet’s performance should not be overlooked: -“The young Bristol lady,” says Moore in his diary, -Dec. 23rd, 1818, “who inclosed me three pounds after -reading <cite>Lalla Rookh</cite> had very laudable ideas on the -subject; and if every reader of <cite>Lalla Rookh</cite> had -done the same I need never have written again.”</p> - -<p>As it was, however, he was soon obliged to set to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_99">99</a></span> -work once more—this time as a biographer. The lives -of Sheridan, Fitzgerald, and many others, bear testimony -to his industry; but in spite, perhaps because, -of their pleasant gossiping tone, they are far from -accurate. At one time he had so many lives upon his -hands together, that he suggested the feasibility of -publishing a work to be called the <cite>Cat</cite>, which should -contain nine of them. His <cite>Life of Byron</cite> we have -already alluded to, but we must again call attention -to Longman’s generosity in allowing him to transfer -the work to Murray. Longman was not less eager in -his kindness to his clients in private than in business -relations. His Saturday “Weekly Literary Meetings” -were about the pleasantest and most sociable in -London. As early as 1804 we find Southey writing -to Coleridge: “I wish you had called on Longman; -that man has a kind heart of his own, and I wish you -to think so; the letter he sent me was a proof of it. -Go to one of his Saturday evenings, you will see a -coxcomb or two, and a dull fellow or two; but you -will, perhaps, meet Turner and Duppa, and Duppa is -worth knowing.” Throughout the day the new publications -were displayed in a separate department for -the use of the literary men, and house dinners were of -frequent occurrence; the whole of the “Lake School” -were steady recipients of Longman’s hospitality whenever -they came to town.</p> - -<p>As, perhaps, the strongest proof of a man’s kindliness -of heart, Longman is invariably represented as -being “almost adored by his domestics, from his -uniform attention to the comforts of those who have -grown gray in his service.” He was a liberal patron -of the “Association for the Relief of Decayed Booksellers,” -and was also one of the “Court of Assistants<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_100">100</a></span> -of the Company of Stationers,” but, with the characteristic -modesty of his disposition, paid the customary -fine to be allowed to decline the offices of warden and -master of the company.</p> - -<p>For many years the “House” had been London -agents and part proprietors of the <cite>Edinburgh Review</cite>, -and when the commercial crash of 1826 destroyed -Constable’s huge establishment, the property was -virtually in their own hands, and the number for -December, 1826, is printed for “Longman, Rees, -Orme, Browne, and Green, London, and Adam Black, -Edinburgh;” and if we “read between the lines” of the -new designation we learn that Hurst had been concerned -in some bill transactions, and had been this -year compelled to retire (he died an inmate of the -Charter House, in 1847), and we may also gather -something of the strong connection that was to be -formed with the house of Adam Black.</p> - -<p>Jeffrey retired from the editorial chair in 1829, but -Macney Napier, the editor of the <cite>Encyclopædia -Britannica</cite> was appointed in his stead, and the literary -management of the journal was still continued in -Edinburgh. Sydney Smith ceased to write for the -<cite>Review</cite> in 1827; but in 1825 an article was contributed -on Milton, by a young man of five-and-twenty; and -Mr. Thomas Babington Macaulay, who, as Moore -said, could do any mortal thing but forget, was destined -to be, not only the most brilliant of the daring -and talented band of Edinburgh Reviewers, but eventually, -one of the most powerful contributors to Longman’s -fortune and reputation.<a id="FNanchor_10" href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">10</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_101">101</a></span> -To return again to educational works, we find that -in Mangnall’s <cite>Questions</cite> a property had been acquired -that fully rivalled Murray’s <cite>Mrs. Markham</cite>. A type -now of a hideously painful and parrot-like system of -teaching (what negations of talent our sisters and -mothers owe to this encyclopædic volume we shudder -to sum up!) it was imitated and printed in every -direction. Poor Miss Mangnall! who recollects now-a-days -that in 1806 she commenced her literary life -with a volume of poems? A very similar book, but -on scientific questions, was <cite>Mrs. Marcet’s Conversations</cite>, -which was not only profitable to Longman, but -American booksellers, up to the year 1853, had -reaped an abundant harvest from the sale of 160,000 -copies.</p> - -<p>The attempts already made by Constable and -Murray to promote the sale of cheap and yet excellent -books, led Longman to establish his <cite>Cabinet -Encyclopædia</cite>. The management was given to Dr. -Lardner, then a professor at the London University,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_102">102</a></span> -and all, or nearly all, Longman’s literary connections -were pressed into service on his staff of contributors. -In the prospectus we see the names of Scott, Moore, -Mackintosh, Coleridge, Miss Edgeworth, Herschell, -Long, Brewster, De Morgan, Thirlwall, and, of course, -Southey. The <cite>Times</cite> gave more than a broad hint -that some of the names were put forward as lures, -and nothing else. Southey was anxious that this -“insinuation” should be brought before a court of -law, where the writer may be “taught that not every -kind of slander may be published with impunity.” -The proprietors, however, contented themselves with -publishing books, most indubitably written by the -authors whose names they bore. The first volume -was published in 1829, and at the close of the series, -in 1846, one hundred and thirty-three volumes had -been issued, the whole of which were eminently successful, -and some few of them, such as Sir John -Herschell’s <cite>Astronomy</cite>, in particular, have since been -expanded into recognised and standard works.</p> - -<p>Another valuable work which has been a constant -source of wealth to the firm, somewhat similar in scope to -the preceding, was McCulloch’s <cite>Commercial Dictionary</cite>, -first published in 1832; in which year the present Mr. -Thomas Longman was admitted a partner, being -joined by his brother, Mr. William Longman, in 1839. -With young Mr. Thomas Longman, Moore appears to -have been particularly friendly, addressing him always -as “Dear Tom.” As far back as 1829, we see the poet -requesting that some one might be sent over to have -“poor Barbara’s” grave made tidy, for fear that his -wife Bessy, who was about to make a loving pilgrimage -thither, might be shocked, and we read afterwards that -“young Longman kindly rode over twice to Hornsey<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_103">103</a></span> -for the purpose.” In Moore’s diary, too, for 1837, we -find many regrets for the loss of Rees—a man “who -may be classed among those solemn business-ties, the -breaking of which by death cannot but be felt -solemnly, if not deeply.” And again, later on, in -1840: “Indeed, I will venture to say that there are -few tributes from authors to publishers more honourable -(or I will fairly say more deserved) than those -which will be found among my papers relative to the -transactions for many years between myself and my -friends of the ‘Row.’”</p> - -<p>Thomas Longman the third was now an old man, -but still constantly attentive to business. In his time -he had seen many changes, but none more striking -than those that occupied his latter days. <cite>Madoc</cite> was -still lying on his shelves, but Southey was poet-laureate. -Scott and Byron had in succession entranced -the world. They had now withdrawn, and no third -king arose to demand recognition. It was in the calm -that followed that Wordsworth obtained a hearing. -In 1839, the University of Oxford conferred upon him -the degree of Doctor of Laws, amid the enthusiastic -applause of a crowded theatre. Younger men were -coming to the fore, and though his contemporaries -were fast dying off, still Longman was as eager for -business as ever, and as ready, when it was over, for his -chief pleasure—the enjoyments of domestic life; for -his favourite pursuits—the love of music and the culture -of fruits and flowers. As far as health and activity -went, though in his 72nd year, he was still in the prime -of life, when, on his usual ride to town, his horse fell, -near the Small-pox Hospital, St. Pancras, and he was -thrown over the animal’s head and struck the ground -with such violence as to fracture his skull and injure<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_104">104</a></span> -his spine; and in a few days afterwards he died at -his residence, Greenhill House, Hampstead, on 28th -August, 1842—leaving a blank, not only in his own -family circle, but in the hearts of all who had known -him as a master, or had reaped a benefit from the uniform -generosity of his business dealings.</p> - -<p>Mr. McCulloch and many of his literary clients -erected a monument, the bust of which, by Mr. -Moore, is said to be a good likeness, to his memory—an -affectionate tribute seldom paid by men-of-letters -to a publisher—now standing in Hampstead church.</p> - -<p>His personalty was sworn under £200,000, and was -principally left to his widow and family. The former, -however, did not long survive her sorrow, but died -some ten weeks after her husband.</p> - -<p>Their second son, Mr. Charles Longman, of Two -Waters, joined Mr. Dickenson, in the trade of wholesale -stationers and paper-makers, in which they have -since then attained a pre-eminence. Their eldest -daughter married Mr. Spottiswoode, the Queen’s -printer, and the third daughter is the wife of Reginald -Bray, Esq., of Shere.</p> - -<p>The succession of a Thomas Longman to the chiefdom -of the house is, Mr. Knight says somewhere, as -certain as the accession of a George was in the Hanoverian -dynasty: and the present Mr. Longman, aided -by his brother William, took command of the gigantic -firm in Paternoster Row. The very year of their -father’s death was a year to be long remembered in -the annals of the firm for an unusually successful “hit,” -in the production of the <cite>Lays of Ancient Rome</cite>. Not -even in the palmy days of Scott and Byron was such -an immediate and enormous circulation attained. In -1844, Macaulay ceased to contribute to the <cite>Edinburgh<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_105">105</a></span> -Review</cite>—nearly twenty years from the date of his first -contributions; receiving latterly, we believe, £100 as a -minimum price for an article. A collective edition of -these essays was published in America; and within five -years sixty thousand volumes were sold, and, as many -of these were imported into England, Macaulay authorised -the proprietors of the <cite>Review</cite> to issue an English -edition, which certainly proved the most remunerative -collection of essays ever published in this or any -other country. The English edition contains twenty-seven -essays, in some editions twenty-six. The Philadelphia -edition contains eleven additional essays.<a id="FNanchor_11" href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">11</a></p> - -<p>These essays were all very excellent, but Macaulay’s -admirers regretted with Tom Moore, “that his great -powers should not be concentrated upon one great -work, instead of being scattered in Sibyl’s leaves,” and -great was the satisfaction in 1841, when it was known -that he was engaged upon a History of England, and -the publication of the work was looked forward to -with the greatest eagerness; and in 1849 the first two -volumes appeared. Success was immediate—“Within -six months,” says the <cite>Edinburgh Review</cite>, “the book -has run through five editions, involving an issue of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_106">106</a></span> -above 18,000 copies.” By 1856, the sale of these two -volumes had reached nearly 40,000 copies, and in the -United States 125,000 copies were sold in five years. -For the privilege of publication for ten years, it is said -that Mr. Longman allowed the author £600 per -annum; the copyright remaining in Macaulay’s possession.</p> - -<p>This success, however, was nothing to that achieved -by the third and fourth volumes; and the day of their -publication, 17th Dec., 1855, will be long remembered -in the annals of Paternoster Row. It was presumed -that 25,000 copies would be quite sufficient to meet -the first public demand; but this enormous pile of -books, weighing fifty-six tons, was exhausted the first -day, and eleven thousand applicants were still unsatisfied. -In New York one house sold 73,000 volumes -(three different styles and prices) in ten days, and -25,000 more were immediately issued in Philadelphia—10,000 -were stereotyped, printed, and in the -hands of the publishers within fifty working hours. -The aggregate sale in England and America, within -four weeks of publication, is said to have exceeded -150,000 copies. Macaulay is also stated to have received -£16,000 from Mr. Longman for the copyright -of the third and fourth volumes.<a id="FNanchor_12" href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">12</a></p> - -<p>Upon the death of Mr. Macney Napier, the editorship -of the <cite>Review</cite> was transferred to Mr. Empson, -Jeffrey’s son-in-law; while he in turn was succeeded -by Sir George Cornewall Lewis, who finally gave place -to Mr. H. Reeve.</p> - -<p>In the way of cheap literature the “Travellers’<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_107">107</a></span> -Library,” commenced in 1851, is deservedly worthy -of notice. In this year occurred the unusual phenomenon -of a pamphlet, bearing on its title-page the -joint names of Mr. Longman and Mr. Murray. This -was a reprint of some correspondence with Earl -Russell, in his official capacity, as to the injustice of -the State undertaking the publication of school-books -at the national expense, and compelling the government -schools to adopt them—thus creating a perfect -monopoly and interfering with private enterprise. The -books in question were published by the Irish Educational -Commissioners, but more than three-quarters of -them were eventually sold in England—many of -them, especially the collection of poetry, were, it was -further urged, pirated from copyright works. The -correspondence was long and protracted on the -side of the publishers; and as is often the case in an -important public question, Earl Russell’s replies consisted -of the merest acknowledgment. Mr. Longman -had, however, an opportunity of a pleasant revenge. -Tom Moore had left all his papers, letters, -and journals to the care of his friend, Earl Russell—a -man who, as Sydney Smith said, thought he could do -anything—“build St. Paul’s, cut for the stone, or command -the Channel Fleet.” The one thing apparently -he could not do was the editorship or composition of -a Poet’s Life. The material, indeed, was ample, and -seems to have been printed pretty much as it came to -hand. However, the sum which Mr. Longman gave -for the papers appeared, together with the pension, an -ample provision for the devoted “Bessy.”</p> - -<p>Among the later efforts of the firm we may here -mention the issue of many finely illustrated works, -and we must also chronicle the fact that in 1863—<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_108">108</a></span>the -business connections and stock of the Parkers -were added to the enormous trade of the leviathan -firm. Giving a glance at the changes that have taken -place in the members of the firm, we have merely -space to note that at Cosmo Orme’s death in 1859 -Mr. Brown retired, and at his decease on the 24th of -March, 1869, left an immense fortune, more than -£100,000 going in various legacies, of which the Booksellers’ -Provident Retreat and Institution each received -£10,000, the Royal Literary Fund £3000, and -the Stationers’ Company in all £10,000, the balance -after the various legacies, and there were no less than -sixty-eight legatees, going to the grandchildren of -Thomas Norton Longman. The personalty of Mr. -B. E. Green, who died about the same date, was -sworn under £200,000. Two of the former assistants, -Mr. Dyer and Mr. Reader, have, on the good old -system, been admitted to the firm, which now stands -“Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer.” Mr. Roberts, -as before stated, died in 1865.</p> - -<p>Both the Messrs. Longman are well known for their -literary talents—Mr. Thomas Longman as editor of -a magnificent edition of the New Testament; and -Mr. William as an historical author. The first of his -works was, we believe, privately printed, <cite>A Tour in the -Alps, by W. L.</cite> Mr. William Longman has always -been an enthusiastic Alpine traveller. He has, however, -more recently published a <cite>History of the Life and -Times of Edward III.</cite>, in two volumes, and at our -present writing a new work has just appeared in which -he says playfully, “I trust authors will forgive me, -and not revenge themselves by turning publishers;” -and he adds heartily and generously, “There is, -nevertheless, some advantage in a publisher dabbling<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_109">109</a></span> -in literature, for it shows him the difficulties with -which an author has to contend—the labour which is -indispensable to produce a work which may be relied -on—and it increases the sympathy which should, and -which in these days does, exist between author and -publisher.” These latter lines surely form a very -fitting sentence with which to conclude our short -history of the house of Longman.</p> - -<div id="if_i_109" class="figcenter" style="width: 141px;"> - <img src="images/i_109.jpg" width="141" height="154" alt="" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_110">110</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div id="if_i_110" class="figcenter" style="width: 378px;"> - <img id="hdr_3" src="images/i_110.jpg" width="378" height="80" alt="" /></div> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><i>CONSTABLE, CADELL, AND BLACK.</i><br /> - -<span class="subhead">THE “EDINBURGH REVIEW,” “WAVERLEY NOVELS,” -AND “ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA.”</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">From</span> 1790 to 1820 Edinburgh richly deserved the -honourable title of “Modern Athens.” Her University -and her High School, directed by men pre-eminently -fitted for their duties, capable of firing their -pupils’ minds with a noble purpose, endowed with a lofty -ideal of a master’s responsibilities—in fact, possessed -of all the qualities that Dr. Arnold afterwards displayed -elsewhere—attracted and educated a set of -young men, unrivalled, perhaps, in modern times for -genius and energy, for wit and learning. Nothing, -then, was wanting to their due encouragement but a -liberal patron, and this position was speedily occupied -by a publisher, who, in his munificence and venturous -spirit, soon outstripped his boldest English rival—whose -one fault was, in fact, that of always being a -Mæcenas, never a tradesman.</p> - -<p>Archibald Constable was born on the 24th of February, -1776, at Kellie, in the parish of Carnbee in -Fifeshire. He was the son of Thomas Constable,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_111">111</a></span> -who, through his sagacity in rural matters, had risen -to the position of land steward or baillie to the Earl -of Kellie. The first thirteen or fourteen years of -Archibald’s life were passed beneath his father’s roof, -and his education, such as the parish school of Carnbee -then afforded, consisted of a course of reading in the -vernacular tongue, writing, arithmetic, and some elementary -lessons in trigonometry, and beyond this -humble curriculum, we believe his subsequent acquisitions -did not much extend. Still, though he never -attained any proficiency in academical studies, his -native talents and address generally enabled him to -both surmount and conceal it.</p> - -<p>From an early age Archibald was possessed of a -desire to enter upon a bookseller’s useful career—a -desire in his case not altogether unmixed with the -hope of acquiring literary distinction. In 1788 therefore, -he became apprenticed to Mr. Peter Hill, bookseller -of Edinburgh, the old friend and correspondent -of Burns. While a lad in Hill’s shop he seems to -have devoted his leisure hours to the acquisition of -that knowledge of the early and rare productions of -the Scottish press, and of all publications relating -generally to the history, antiquities, and literature of -Scotland, for which, throughout his subsequent career, -he continued to exhibit a strong predilection. About -the time of the expiration of his apprenticeship he -married the daughter of David Willison, a printer, -who, though previously very averse to the match, was -subsequently of some service in enabling him to start -for himself. Having hired a small shop in the High -Street, afterwards rendered conspicuous by his celebrity -as a publisher, he issued, in November, 1795, the -first of his Sale Catalogues of rare and curious books,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_112">112</a></span> -which soon drew to his shop all the bibliographers -and lovers of learning in the city. In this line of -trade he speedily acquired considerable eminence, not -so much by the extensiveness of his stock, for his -capital was of the smallest, as by his personal activity, -his congenial curiosity, and his quick intelligence. -Here it was that Heber, in the course of his bibliomaniacal -prowlings, came across Leyden, perched perpetually -on a ladder reading some venerable folio, -which his purse forbade him to purchase, but which -through Constable’s kindness was placed in this -manner at his disposal. Heber soon brought him -under Scott’s notice, and thus had the pleasure of -introducing the two most promising young men of -the day to each other. Constable had, however, an -ambition too strong to be satisfied with the routine -business of a second-hand book-shop. Even before -his shop in the High Street was fairly opened, he had -himself offered a book to the trade—a reprint of -Bishop Beveridge’s <cite>Private Thoughts on Religion</cite>, -struck off coarsely upon a whitey-brown sort of “tea-paper;” -but still it was his first, and, as Archibald -proudly said, “it was a pretty enough little bookie!”</p> - -<div id="if_i_112" class="figcenter" style="width: 389px;"> - <img src="images/i_112.jpg" width="389" height="487" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p>Archibald Constable.</p> - -<p>1775–1827.</p></div></div> - -<p>Among other publications in which from his first -outset he had been engaged, and which at the time he -esteemed as by no means inconsiderable, were Campbell’s -“History of Scottish Poetry,” Dalzell’s “Fragments -of Scottish History,” and Leyden’s edition of -the “Complaint of Scotland.” In 1801 he acquired -the property of the <cite>Scots Magazine</cite>, a miscellany -which had commenced in 1739, and which was still -esteemed as a repository of curious facts. This -congenial publication engaged at first a considerable -share of his personal attention, and, aided by the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_113">113</a></span> -talents of Leyden, Murray, and Macneil, its reputation -as a critical journal was raised into some importance.</p> - -<p>Of all the extraordinary geniuses with whom Constable -came into contact, none were more conspicuous -to those near enough to judge than Leyden, his first -editor of the periodical. A poet, an antiquarian, an -Orientalist, he will long be distinguished among those -whom the elasticity and ardour of genius have raised -to distinction from an obscure and humble origin. -The son of a day labourer at Denholm, he had, by -sheer force of will, worked his way to the college of -Edinburgh, where he at once obtained the friendship -of many eminent literary men. His acquaintance -with Scott soon introduced him into the best society -in Edinburgh—which was then the most intellectual -society in Europe—and here his wild uncouthness of -demeanour did not at all interfere with the general -appreciation of his genius, his gigantic endowments, -and his really amiable virtues. Fixing his ambition -on the East, where he hoped to rival the achievements -of Sir William Jones, he obtained in 1802 the promise -of some literary appointment in the East India Company’s -service; but when the time drew near it was -discovered that the patronage of the season had been -exhausted, with the exception of one surgeon-assistant’s -commission, and he was informed that if he -wished to accept it he must qualify within six months. -He grappled at once with the task, and accomplished -what takes other men three or four years in attainment -within the incredibly short space of six months. -He sailed for India in 1803, and died in 1811, at the -early age of thirty-six, having in the seven years of -his sojourn achieved the reputation of the most marvellous -of Orientalists. His poetical remains were<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_114">114</a></span> -collected and given to the public in 1821, and exhibit -in some instances a power of numbers which for mere -melody of sound has seldom been surpassed in the -English language.</p> - -<p>In 1802, Constable commenced the <cite>Farmer’s -Magazine</cite>, under the management of an able East -Lothian agriculturist, Mr. R. Brown, then of Markle. -This work enjoyed a reputation contemporary with -the whole of his business life. Altogether, Constable -was making fair way as a publisher, when, in 1802, the -<cite>Edinburgh Review</cite> burst like a bombshell upon an -astonished world, and gave him just reason to believe -that his professional fortune was thoroughly ensured -in the most glorious manner.</p> - -<p>The origin of the <cite>Review</cite>, like the beginnings of all -things, is wrapped in doubt and mystery. Hitherto -in the critical department of English literature, a -review had been little more than a peg upon which to -hang books for advertisement, and in which the -general bearings of science, literature, and politics -were left almost untouched. In Scotland, criticism -was at a still lower ebb, for the country had possessed -no regular review at all since the old <cite>Edinburgh -Review</cite> had expired in 1756, after a flickering existence -of a twelvemonth.</p> - -<p>“One day,” writes Sydney Smith, “we happened -to meet in the eighth or ninth storey (it was the third) -of a flat in Buccleuch-place, the elevated residence of -the then Mr. Jeffrey. I proposed that we should get -up a review. This was acceded to with acclamations. -I was appointed editor, and remained long enough in -Edinburgh to edit the first number of the <cite>Edinburgh -Review</cite>. The motto I proposed <span class="locked">was—</span></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_115">115</a></span></p> - -<p class="p1 center">‘Tenui musam meditamur avenâ.’<br /> -‘We cultivate literature upon a little oatmeal.’</p> - -<p>But this was too near the truth to be admitted, and -so we took our present grave motto from Publius -Lyrus, of whom none of us had, I am sure, read a -single line; and so began what has since turned out -to be a very important and able journal. When I left -Edinburgh it fell into the stronger hands of Lord -Jeffrey and Lord Brougham, and reached the -highest point of popularity and success.”</p> - -<p>It was resolved to bring out the first number of the -work in June, 1802; but its outset was surrounded -with many difficulties, arising from want of experience -in its chief conductors. The meetings of the conspirators -were held in a little room off Willison’s (Constable’s -father-in-law’s) office in Craig’s-court, to which -each man was requested to steal singly, by whichever -way would be least suspicious; and there they -examined and criticised each other’s productions, -and corrected the proof sheets as they were thrown -off. Here it was that Jeffrey once rushed down -excitedly into Willison’s printing-office, crying, -“Where is your pepper-box, man—your pepper-box?” -In vain the printer declared he had no -such useful article on the premises; Jeffrey persisted -that the proof sheets must have been dusted with -commas from a pepper-box, so lavish had the printer -been with his points. Through various delays, typographical -and otherwise, the first number, as we have -seen, did not appear until the following November.</p> - -<p>Lord Brougham, in the first volume of his recently-published -autobiography, flatly contradicts this account. -“Nothing,” he says, “can be more imaginary -than nearly the whole of it.” Still, when Sydney<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_116">116</a></span> -Smith published his version of the history, neither -Lord Brougham nor any other person interested took -the trouble to contradict it; and we are inclined -to accept rather an account written within a short -time of the foundation of the <cite>Review</cite> than to receive -another version written by an octogenarian at an -interval of more than half a century. A letter, moreover, -of Sydney Smith’s, first published in the -<cite>Athenæum</cite> of April 1st, 1871, shows clearly that the -proprietors of the journal presented him “with books -to the value of £100 (corrected to £114) as a memorial -of their respect for having planned and contributed -to a work which to them has been a source of -reputation as well as of emolument.” On the other -hand, Sydney Smith’s editorship certainly did not -extend beyond the first number, and was probably -even in that subject to the direction of Jeffrey.</p> - -<p>The list of contributions to the first four numbers -may, however, be accepted as indisputable evidence -of Brougham’s enormous powers of work. To these -four numbers he contributed twenty-one articles, besides -portions of four others. Smith contributed eighteen, -Jeffrey sixteen, and Horner seven. Brougham, -too, kept up this rate of contribution more -steadily than any of his colleagues. To the first -twenty numbers he contributed no less than eighty -articles, Jeffrey seventy-five, Smith twenty-three, and -Horner fourteen. By this time the new periodical -was fairly launched, and the additional services of -such men as Playfair, Thomas Brown, Walter Scott, -Hallam, Murray, and Stodhart, had been secured.</p> - -<p>The extensive circulation and reputation of the -<cite>Edinburgh Review</cite> was, Scott himself says, due to -two circumstances; first that it was entirely uninfluenced<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_117">117</a></span> -by the booksellers; and, secondly, the regular -payment of editor and contributors: Jeffrey receiving, -from the commencement of his labours, £300 per -annum (afterwards increased to £800), whilst every -contributor was compelled, even if wealthy, to accept -a minimum bonus of £10 (afterwards raised to £16) -per sheet.</p> - -<p>Never before had the enterprise of young and -almost unknown men started so ambitious a scheme, -and never since have pluck and learning, talent and -genius been so amply rewarded. They found the -world of English society, English literature, and -English politics warped and dwarfed—scared by the -French Revolution and the American Republic into a -dormant state of Toryism—they found matters thus, -and in an incredibly short time they almost changed -the current of the national thought. Jeffrey, with his -clear, legal mind, his startling and brilliant manner of -expression, his sarcasm cold and sharp-edged as a -Toledo blade, unfortunately only too capable of -wounding too deeply—won the position of the greatest -English critic of all time, and of the most eminent Scottish -lawyer of the day—achieving the highest honours -open to the advocates of Edinburgh. Brougham, -with his ponderous learning, his marvellous versatility, -his immense powers of work, became not only the first -English lawyer, but one of the first English statesmen -of his time. Sydney Smith, the wittiest man -certainly of his century, might have attained the -highest honours open to his calling, had he not preferred -the more humble and more praiseworthy career -of being a liberal clergyman at a time when the -wearers of his cloth were one and all rank Tories to -the backbone.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_118">118</a></span> -Constable, who had at first been rather startled and -alarmed at the design of the <cite>Edinburgh Review</cite>, was -not prepared, any more than the projectors themselves, -for its immediate and splendid success. Without a -publisher of his cast of mind the work, however, might -have encountered some difficulties, and he was not -slow to perceive, nor backward to follow, that line of -conduct towards its conductors, without the observance -of which the new relations between them -could not long have been sustained harmoniously. -The present proprietors of the work became, some -years after its commencement, sharers of the property, -but the publishing department remained, we believe, -under his direction for many years.</p> - -<p>In 1804 Constable assumed as partner Alexander -Gibson Hunter, of Blackness, and from that time the -business was carried on under the title of Archibald -Constable and Co. In the following year, 1805, he -added to the list of his periodicals the <cite>Medical and -Surgical Journal</cite>, a work projected in concert with -Dr. Andrew Duncan, and which existed till 1855, -when it was united to the <cite>Medical Journal of Science</cite>. -It was in this year, also, that the firm published a -poem, which was eventually to do more for the enlargement -of their business and the honour of their -name than even the famous <cite>Review</cite> itself.</p> - -<p>Walter Scott, as we have seen, while still unknown -to fame, had been a frequent visitor at Constable’s -old book-shop. The publishers of the first -edition of the <cite>Lay of the Last Minstrel</cite> were Longman -and Co. of London, and Archibald Constable -and Co. of Edinburgh; the latter firm taking but a -small venture in the risk. The profit was to be divided -equally between the author and the publishers,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_119">119</a></span> -and Scott’s portion amounted to £169 6<i>s.</i> Longman, -when a second edition was called for, offered £500 for -the copyright, which was immediately accepted, but -they afterwards added, as the Introduction says, “£100 -in their own unsolicited kindness.” In the history of -British poetry nothing had ever equalled the demand -for the <em>Lay of the Last Minstrel</em>. 44,000 copies were -disposed of before Scott superintended the edition of -1830, to which the biographical introductions were -prefixed.</p> - -<p>In the ensuing year Constable issued a beautiful -edition of what he termed <em>Works of Walter Scott, -Esq.</em>, comprising the poem just mentioned, the “Minstrelsy -of the Scottish Border,” “Sir Tristram,” and a -series of “Lyrical Ballads.”</p> - -<p>In 1806 it was rumoured that Scott had a new poem -in hand. Longman at once opened negotiation as to -its purchase, but in vain; and in a short time the -London publishers heard with a feeling of jealousy, -not unmixed with honest amazement, that Constable -had offered one thousand guineas for a poem which -had not yet been completed, and of which he had not -even seen the scheme.</p> - -<p>It may be gathered from the Introduction of 1830 -that private circumstances of a delicate nature rendered -it desirable for Scott to obtain the immediate -command of such a sum; the price was actually paid -long before the poem was published; and it suited -well with Constable’s character to imagine that his -readiness to advance the money may have outstripped -the calculations of more experienced dealers.</p> - -<p>The bargain having, however, been concluded he was -too wary to keep the venture entirely to himself, and he -consequently tendered one-fourth of the copyright to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_120">120</a></span> -Mr. Miller of Albemarle Street, and to Mr. Murray, -then of Fleet Street, London, and in both cases the -offer was eagerly accepted.</p> - -<p><em>Marmion</em>, the poem in question, which had been -announced by an advertisement in 1857, as <em>Six -Epistles from Ettrick Forest</em>, met with an immense success, -and 2000 copies, at a guinea and a half each, were -disposed of in less than a month.</p> - -<p>As an instance of the freedom Constable left to -Jeffrey in the conduct of the <em>Review</em>, we are not a little -astonished to read that the venture, in which he had -risked so much, was attacked in a most slashing manner -in his own journal. Jeffrey, thinking nothing of -so ordinary a circumstance, sent the article to Scott -with a note stating that he would come to dinner on -the following Tuesday. Scott, though wounded by -the tone of the <em>Review</em>, did his best to conceal it. Mrs. -Scott, however, was very cool in her manner, and, as -Jeffrey was taking leave, could no longer restrain her -pique, and in her broken English—“Well, guid night, -Mr. Jeffrey; dey tell me you have abused Scott in the -<em>Review</em>; and I hope Mr. Constable has paid you well -for writing it.” This anecdote, insignificant in itself, -prepares us to some extent for the coldness between -them, which led Scott to originate the <em>Quarterly Review</em>.</p> - -<p>Emboldened still further by the success of <em>Marmion</em>, -Constable now engaged Scott to edit the works -of Swift, and as Scott had several like engagements -on hand—he held, in fact, five separate agreements -at the same time, for the London publishers—offered -him £1500 for his new undertaking.</p> - -<p>Constable was at this time in an apparently assured -line of success. Though of a very sanguine nature—a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_121">121</a></span> -quality without which no projector could possibly -succeed—he was one of the most sagacious persons -who ever followed his profession. A brother poet of -Scott says of him: “Our butteracious friend turns -up a deep draw-well;” and another eminent writer -still more intimately connected had already christened -him “the Crafty”—a title which, of all the flying -burrs, was the one that stuck the firmest. His fair -and handsome physiognomy was marked by an unmistakable -and bland astuteness of expression. He -generally avoided criticism as well as authorship, both -being out of his “proper line.”</p> - -<p>But of this “proper line,” and his own qualification -for it, his esteem was ample. The one flaw, and the -fatal flaw, in his character as a business man was his -hatred of accounts, for he systematically refused during -the most vigorous years of his life to examine or sign -a balance sheet. Scott, in describing his appearance, -says, “Ay, Constable is indeed a grand-looking chield. -He puts me in mind of Fielding’s apology for Lady -Booby—to wit that Joseph Andrews had an air which -to those who had not seen many noblemen, would -give an idea of nobility.” His conversation was -manly and vigorous, abounding in Scotch anecdotes -of the old times, and he could, when he had a mind, -control the extravagant vanity which at times made -him ridiculous. His advice was often useful to Scott, -and more than one of the subjects of the novels, -and many of the titles, were due to his recommendations. -Cadell, his partner, says that in his high moods -he used to stalk up and down the room exclaiming, -“By God! I am all but the author of the Waverley -novels!”</p> - -<p>Of course, as a successful publisher, Constable was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_122">122</a></span> -overwhelmed with the manuscripts of embryo genius. -One or two stories are worth repeating of the men -who applied to him, but in vain. Hogg, the Ettrick -Shepherd, had already sold a volume of minor poems -to Constable, when setting to work in earnest he went -to him again; but “the Crafty” was too wise to buy a -pig in a poke, and refused to have anything to do with -the matter until he had seen the MS. This reasonable -request the poet refused with, “What skill have you -about the merit of a book?” “It may be so, Hogg,” -replied the Jupiter Tonans of Scottish publishers; -“but I know as well how to sell a book as any man, -which should be some consequence of yours, and I -know too how to buy one.” Hogg, however, easily -found another publisher, and the <em>Queen’s Wake</em> was -soon as widely popular as its great merits deserved.</p> - -<p>The other refusal, unfortunately, did not end in the -same happy manner. Robert Tannahill, a Scotch -weaver, whose songs in their artless sweetness, their -simplicity of diction, their tenderness of sentiment, -have long since won distinction, came up to Edinburgh -very poor in purse, but rich in the future that poetic -aspirations imaged forth. He put his manuscripts -into Constable’s hands, offering the whole of them at -a very small price. Day after day he waited for an -answer, with a mind alternating between hope and -fear. Constable, who always distrusted his own judgment -in such matters, and who, perhaps, at the -moment had no one else to consult, eventually returned -the poems. Tannahill in a madness of despair put a -period to his existence, adding one to those “young -shadows” who hover round the shrine of genius, as if -to warn all but the boldest from attempting to approach -it.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_123">123</a></span> -The business of Constable’s house was now so large -and extensive that he thought it a hardship that so -much of his wares should pass through the hands of -English agents, who not only absorbed a large share -of his profits, but who could not be expected to serve -him with the same zeal as his own immediate followers. -He and his Edinburgh partner, therefore, in 1808, -joined with Charles Hunter and John Park in commencing -a general bookselling establishment in -London, under the designation of Constable, Hunter, -Park, and Hunter.</p> - -<p>Shortly after this a breach that had been created -between Scott and Constable widened until at last -they parted. Scott always maintained that the -quarrel was directly caused by the intemperate -language of Hunter, Constable’s original partner; but -the severance was probably in reality due to the -influence of a third person—James Ballantyne—and -was, perhaps to a certain extent, influenced by a -feeling of pique at Jeffrey’s recent conduct. In 1808 -he took a part, perhaps as a suggester, certainly as a -zealous promoter, in the establishment of the <em>Quarterly -Review</em>, as a political and literary counterpoise to the -<em>Edinburgh Review</em>. Already, in 1805, he had become -a partner in the printing house of James Ballantyne -and Company, though the fact remained for the public, -and for all his friends but one, a profound secret. -“The forming of this connection,” says Lockhart, -“was one of the most important steps in Scott’s life. -He continued bound by it during twenty years, and -its influence on his literary exertions and his worldly -fortunes was productive of much good and not a little -evil. Its effects were in truth so mixed and balanced -during the vicissitudes of a long and vigorous career,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_124">124</a></span> -that I at this moment doubt whether it ought, on the -whole, to be considered with more of satisfaction or -regret.” Scott’s wish, openly expressed in his correspondence, -of thwarting Constable in his attempts to -obtain a monopoly of Scottish literature, resulted in -the establishment of a new and rival bookselling firm, -under the title of John Ballantyne and Co., to which -he appears to have supplied the whole capital—at any -rate he subscribed his own half, with one-fourth, the -portion of James Ballantyne, and not improbably also -the other fourth for John Ballantyne.</p> - -<p>John and James Ballantyne were the sons of a -merchant at Kelso, and here it was they went to -school with Walter Scott, and thus commenced -an acquaintance so fraught with interest to all three. -Early in life James Ballantyne, though not bred to -the trade, nor “to the manner born,” opened a printing -house at Kelso and started the <em>Kelso Mail</em> newspaper, -in which his brother John soon joined him. -Having made some improvements in the art of printing, -which rendered their provincial printing famous, -they were persuaded to move to Edinburgh, and here -they founded a press which, rivalling in its productions -the works of a Baskerville or a Bensley, is at this -present time as famous as ever. From their first -start their old connection with Scott was serviceable, -and in 1800 they printed his first important work, the -<em>Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border</em>, and from the time, -1805, when he first became commercially interested in -their business, they were firm friends and faithful -allies. Scott, to his dying day, certainly reciprocated -their kindly feelings, though Lockhart, his biographer, -has since his death said very harsh things of the evil -resulting from the connection. It is only fair to the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_125">125</a></span> -Ballantynes to remember that both before and after -the period of partnership with him, their house was -eminently successful. In the meantime, Constable -was busy publishing the works of Dugald Stewart, -who at this time occupied the same place in metaphysics -as Sir Walter did in poetry. The <cite>Philosophical -Essays</cite>, published in 1810, excited great, and even -popular, attention. He also became the proprietor of -the <cite>Encyclopædia Britannica</cite>, for which he paid an -enormous price, and to which he published an excellent -supplement. We shall, however, treat more fully of -the <cite>Encyclopædia</cite> in connection with Mr. Adam Black. -We may here mention, as among Constable’s other -successful publications, Wood’s excellent edition of -Douglas’s <cite>Scottish Peerage</cite>, and Chalmers’ <cite>Caledonia</cite>.</p> - -<p>The London branch was found to be unattended -with the expected advantages, and was given up in -1811. In the early part of this same year Hunter -retired from the Edinburgh house, upon which -Constable, acting upon the liberal view he always -entertained as to the value of his stock, and being, -perhaps, not unwilling to impress the world with an -exalted idea of his property, allowed his partner a -greater amount of actual cash (£17,000 is understood -to be the sum) than was really his due. Robert Cathcart, -of Drum, writer-to-the-signet, and Robert -Cadell, then a clerk in his employ, were admitted as -partners. Cathcart, however, dying the following -year, Cadell remained Constable’s sole partner.</p> - -<p>Constable had, of course, felt considerably hurt at -Scott’s desertion. Sometimes it is related he would -pace up and down the room, as was his wont, raving -grandiloquently of those who kick down the ladder by -which they have risen. But now that Hunter had<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_126">126</a></span> -left the firm, and now that it was found that the new -<cite>Quarterly</cite> did not in the least damage the value of -the old one, a reconciliation could not but take place -between men who had formerly been so friendly, and -on the publication of the <cite>Lady of the Lake</cite>, Constable -willingly gave the Ballantynes the value of his -experience and trade knowledge, though he was not -directly interested in the work.</p> - -<p>The new poem was published just before the season -for excursions, and thousands rushed off at once to -view the scenery of Loch Katrine; and it is a well-ascertained -fact that from the date of the appearance -of this volume, assisted by subsequent of his publications, -the post-horse duty in Scotland rose in an -extraordinary degree.</p> - -<p>Scott now found out that his move to the Ballantynes -had not been attended with the success he -expected. John Ballantyne proved but an irregular -hand at book-keeping, and James was too much -addicted to good cheer (or Lockhart sadly belies him) -to be really serviceable as a business man. In vain -did Scott write amusing letters of remonstrance; the -publisher’s business was neglected, and the firm, as -booksellers, fell into difficulties. Constable was appealed -to, and, finally, for £2000 consented to purchase -most of the stock, and a complete business -reconciliation was effected between him and Scott. -The Ballantynes, however, still maintained their -printing house, in which Scott was secretly the principal -proprietor, and at which he insisted that all his -own works should at all times, no matter who the -publisher, be printed.</p> - -<p>About the year 1805 Scott had written a third part -of a novel, which was advertised by John Ballantyne,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_127">127</a></span> -under the title of <cite>Waverley</cite>, but he was unwilling to -risk the loss of his poetical reputation by attempting -a new style of composition. He, therefore, threw -aside the work, and stumbling upon it in 1811, when -his poetical reputation was beginning to wane, and -soon after he had threatened, half in fun and half in -earnest, “If I fail now I will write prose for life,” he -at once completed the story. The current rumour of -the new novel having been rejected by several London -publishers, is entirely untrue. The work was printed -by the Ballantynes, and through the whole series the -greatest secrecy as to the author’s name was preserved. -James Ballantyne himself transcribed the “copy,” and -copied Scott’s corrections on to a duplicate proof -sheet; nor was there a single instance of treachery -throughout the whole time of the secret.</p> - -<p>When the printed volumes of <cite>Waverley</cite> were put -into Constable’s hands, he did not for a moment doubt -its authorship, but at once offered £700 for the copyright: -this, we must remember, for a work to be published -anonymously, at a time when Miss Edgeworth, -the most popular novelist of her day, had never -realized a like sum. The offer was, however, declined, -and ultimately an arrangement was come to -by which author and publisher were to share the -profits.</p> - -<p><cite>Waverley</cite> took two or three months to win public -favour, and then a perfect <em>furore</em> set in. Sloop-load -after sloop-load was sent off to the London market, -and on the rumoured loss of one of these vessels, half -London was in despair. The interest, too, excited by -public curiosity as to the author’s name, was carefully -fostered, and in a short time 12,000 copies were disposed -of.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_128">128</a></span> -Scott employed part of his literary gain in purchasing -a property within three miles of Melrose, -and gradually enlarged the dwelling-house until it -became a castellated mansion of considerable size. -The desire of becoming an extensive landed proprietor, -became with him a far stronger passion than -any craving for literary fame. It was more his desire, -according to James Ballantyne himself, to “add as -much as possible to the little realm of Abbotsford, in -order that he might take his place, not among the great -literary names which posterity is to revere, but among -the country gentlemen of Roxburghshire.”</p> - -<p>Under the influence of this infatuation, Scott produced -a series of novels, of which it will suffice to -state the names and dates.</p> - -<p>To <cite>Waverley</cite> succeeded, in 1815, <cite>Guy Mannering</cite>; -in 1816, <cite>The Antiquary</cite>, and the first series of the -<cite>Tales of My Landlord</cite>, containing <cite>The Black Dwarf</cite> -and <cite>Old Mortality</cite>; in 1818, <cite>Rob Roy</cite> and the second -series of the <cite>Tales of My Landlord</cite>, containing the -<cite>Heart of Mid Lothian</cite>; and, in 1819, the third series, -containing the <cite>Bride of Lammermoor</cite> and a <cite>Legend of -Montrose</cite>. <cite>Ivanhoe</cite> was to have been issued as a separate -work, by another anonymous author, so as to -spur the interest of a public that might possibly be -flagging; but the publication of a novel in London, -pretending to be a fourth series of the <cite>Tales of My -Landlord</cite>, determined him to produce it as the veritable -production of the author of <cite>Waverley</cite>. This was -followed in quick succession by <cite>The Monastery</cite> and -<cite>The Abbot</cite>, in 1820; <cite>Kenilworth</cite> and <cite>The Pirate</cite>, in -1821; <cite>The Fortunes of Nigel</cite> and <cite>Hallidan Hill</cite>, a dramatic -poem, for the copyright of which Constable -gave £1000, in 1822; <cite>Peveril of the Peak</cite>, <cite>Quentin<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_129">129</a></span> -Durward</cite>, and <cite>St. Ronan’s Well</cite>, in 1823; <cite>Red Gauntlet</cite>, -in 1824; and <cite>Woodstock</cite>, in 1825.</p> - -<p>The vast amount of business arising from these -publications, produced in Constable’s mind a conviction -that he was a wealthy and prosperous man. -Though never possessed of much free capital, he saw -around him every day such proofs of an enlarging -amount of stock, that nothing less than the demonstration -of figures—a demonstration he cordially -hated—could have given him greater assurance of his -affluent condition. Like Scott, he, too, was intoxicated -with success. He had a magnificent way of -transacting all business, and living rather like a -princely father of letters, than a tradesman aiming at -making them subservient to his use, he was led into -an expenditure beyond his means.</p> - -<p>Another error lay in his yielding to Scott’s desire -for money, and the means of raising money by pre-payment -for literary work yet to be accomplished. -Of Scott’s profits on his works, Lockhart makes the -following statements: “Before Sir Walter went to -London, in November, 1821, he concluded another -negotiation of importance with the house of Constable -and Co. They agreed to give, for the remaining copyright -of the four novels published between December, -1819, and January, 1821—to wit <cite>Ivanhoe</cite>, <cite>The Monastery</cite>, -<cite>The Abbot</cite>, and <cite>Kenilworth</cite>—the sum of five thousand -guineas. The stipulation about not revealing the -author’s name under a penalty of £2000, was repeated. -By these four novels, the fruits of scarcely more than -a twelve months’ labour, he had already cleared at -least £10,000 before this bargain was completed.... -I cannot pretend to guess what the actual state of -Scott’s pecuniary affairs was at the time when John<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_130">130</a></span> -Ballantyne’s death relieved them from one great -source of complication and difficulty.... He must -(in his improvements at Abbotsford) have reckoned on -clearing £30,000, at least, in the course of two years, by -the novels written within the period, and the publishers, -as we have seen, were willing to give him -£6000, within the space of two years, for works of a -less serious sort, likely to be despatched at leisure -hours, without at all interfering with the main manufacture. -But, alas! even this was not all.... Before -<cite>The Fortunes of Nigel</cite> issued from the press, Scott had -exchanged instruments, and received his bookseller’s -bills for no less than “four works of fiction,” not one -of them otherwise described in the deeds of agreement. -And within two years all this anticipation -had been wiped off by <cite>Peveril of the Peak</cite>, <cite>Quentin -Durward</cite>, <cite>St. Ronan’s Well</cite>, and <cite>Red Gauntlet</cite>; and -the new castle was at that time complete, and overflowing -with all its splendour; but by that time the -end was also approaching!”</p> - -<p>To return for a moment to Constable’s life as apart -from the author of <cite>Waverley</cite>; he had, as we have -seen, entertained in early years strong literary aspirations, -and he repeatedly expressed a touching regret -at the nonfulfilment of his hopes. The only literary -efforts that have been distinctly traced to his pen -consist of an edition of <cite>Lamont’s Diary</cite>, in 1810; a -compilation of the poetry contained in the Waverley -Novels, and the composition of a small volume which -appeared in 1822, under the title of <cite>Memoirs of George -Heriot</cite>, jeweller to King James, containing an account -of the hospital founded by him at Edinburgh. In -1816 he lost his wife, and in 1818 he married Miss -Charlotte Neale, who survived him. In the early<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_131">131</a></span> -part of 1822 his health suffered so severely that he -was obliged to sojourn in the south for a while. In -1823, though professedly a Whig in politics, he was -included by the liberal policy of the Government in a -list of new magistrates for the city of Edinburgh; -and in the same year he moved from the warehouse, -which he had occupied for twenty years in the High -Street, to an elegant mansion in the New Town, -adjacent to the Register House, which had become -his own through his second wife.</p> - -<p>Constable had at this time all the personal and -outward appearance of a successful man. He was -stout and portly in body, and rather defiant and -imperious in his manner. Among the trade he was -known as the “Czar of Muscovy;” of the London -potentates, John Murray had earned the <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">sobriquet</i> of -the “Emperor of the West,” and Longman and his -string of partners as the “Divan.” Constable had -christened John Ballantyne the “Dey of Algiers,” but, -as John complained, had subsequently deposed him. -The “Czar,” however, was too fond of these nicknames. -Longman was one day dining with him: -“What fine swans you have on your pond there,” quoth -the Londoner. “Swans,” cried Constable, “they are -only geese, man! There are just five of them, if -you please to observe, and their names are Longman, -Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown.” This skit cost “the -Crafty” a good bargain.</p> - -<p>About the year 1825, Constable devised a scheme -greater than any he had yet floated, and the adoption -of which was eventually destined to effect an entire -revolution in the bookselling trade. After long study -of the annual schedule of tax-payers, he established -his premises clearly enough. There was undoubtedly<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_132">132</a></span> -an immense majority of respectable British families -who never thought of buying a book. “Look,” he -cried to Scott, “at the small class of people who pay -the powder tax, what a trifle it is to each, and yet -what a fortune it would bring to a bookseller! If I -live for half-a-dozen years,” he continued, “I shall -make it as impossible that there should not be a good -library in every decent house in Great Britain, as that -the shepherd’s ingle nook should want the ‘saut -poke.’”</p> - -<p>“Troth,” said Scott, “if you live you are indeed -likely to be</p> - -<p class="center smaller"> -‘The great Napoleon of the realms of <em>print</em>.’” -</p> - -<p>“If you outlive me,” retorted Constable, “I bespeak -that line for my tombstone.... At three shillings or -half-a-crown a volume every month, which must and -shall sell, not by thousands, and tens of thousands, but -by hundreds of thousands, and, ay, by millions! -Twelve volumes in the year, a halfpenny of profit on -every copy of which will make me richer than all the -copyrights of all the quartos that ever were, or ever -will be, hot-pressed! Twelve volumes so good that -millions must wish to possess them, and so cheap that -every butcher callant may have them if he pleases to -let me tax him sixpence a week!”</p> - -<p>Scott saw the feasibility of the scheme, and it was -decided to start at once with a life of the “other -Napoleon,” and a portion of one of the “Waverley -Novels.”</p> - -<p>But, alas! before the plan could be carried into -execution, the crisis came. Lockhart received a -letter from London stating that Constable’s London -banker had thrown up his book, and he galloped over<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_133">133</a></span> -at once to Sir Walter’s, who smiled, re-lit his cigar, -took the news coolly, and declined to believe it, and -for the moment he was right.</p> - -<p>Lockhart’s account of the terrible failure in which -Scott was involved is this: Whenever Constable -signed a bill for the purpose of raising money among -the bankers, for fear of accident, or any neglect in -taking the bill up before it fell due, he deposited a -counter-bill, signed by Ballantyne, on which, if need -were, Constable might raise a sum of money equivalent -to that for which he had pledged his word; but -these counter-bills were allowed to lie in Constable’s -desk till they assumed the size of a “sheaf of stamps;” -and when the hour of distress came, Constable rushed -with these bills to the money-changers, and thus the Ballantynes -who were liable to Constable for, say £25,000, -were legally liable for £50,000. Constable, in his turn, -carried on the same game with the London house of -Hurst, Robinson, and Co., his agents—and upon a -much larger scale. They neglected their own business -of bookselling and entered heavily into speculation in -hops, and in the panic of the close of 1825, availed -themselves of Constable’s credit, and he of the Ballantynes, -and the loss descended upon their principal -partner, Scott.</p> - -<p>This account has been contradicted by the representatives -of John Ballantyne, in two pamphlets, refuting -Lockhart’s history of the affair, and proving -their side of the question by reference to the old account -books; Cadell, Constable’s quondam partner, -and certainly not biassed in his favour, throws his vote -in with the Ballantynes. The responsibilities they -undertook were solely at the bidding of Scott, and for -his benefit; and in proof of this, they quote a clause<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_134">134</a></span> -from the last deed of partnership, dated 1st April, -1822.</p> - -<p>“The said Sir Walter Scott shall remain liable for -such bills and debts as there shall be due and current.”</p> - -<p>When the persons most interested differ vitally, it is -hard to decide; however, the result of it all was, that -when Hurst, Robinson, and Co. stopped payment in -London, Constable failed for upwards of a quarter of a -million, and the Ballantynes were also bankrupt to the -extent of £88,607 19<i>s.</i> 9<i>d.</i> It was in the middle of -January, 1826, that the actual crash came. Splendid -and magnificent to the very last, Constable rushed off -to town as fast as post-horses could carry him. He -drove straight to Lockhart’s house, “and asked me,” -says that gentleman, “to accompany him as soon as -he could get into his carriage to the Bank of England, -and support him (as a confidential friend of the author -of the ‘Waverley Novels’) in his application for a loan -of £100,000 to £200,000 on the security of the copyrights -in his possession”—a proposal that would have -rather startled the old lady of Threadneedle-street, -who was, at that time of unparalleled panic, according -to Mr. Huskisson’s subsequent confession in the -House, on the very verge of suspending payment herself. -When Lockhart refused—and, of course, without -direct instructions from Sir Walter, he could not -hazard such a step—Constable became livid with rage, -stamped on the ground, and swore that he could and -would go alone.</p> - -<p>How Scott bore the blow, and, what he dreaded infinitely -more than the mere loss of money—the exposure -it entailed of his connection with the printing -house, we all know; how he declined to accept any -compromise; how he sold off his Abbotsford estate,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_135">135</a></span> -which he had devoted all the efforts of his genius to -acquire, and which he loved so well; how he slaved -and toiled until the incredible sum was repaid—but, -alas! at the expense of a life more precious than all -the lucre of creditors; and how his last words on his -death-bed were his best epitaph:—“My dear, be a -good man, be virtuous, be religious—be a good man! -Nothing else will give you any comfort when you come -to lie here.”</p> - -<p>Our matter, however, is with Constable. He saw -his fortunes—the strong up-buildings of a gloriously -successful lifetime—dashed to the ground at one blow. -With a young family growing up around him, sick in -body and weary in soul, he too had to begin life afresh. -All his “sunshine” friends fell off, Scott was alienated, -and his stock, which he had been wont to contemplate -as a mine of wealth, was sequestered, and sold for a -tithe of its value.<a id="FNanchor_13" href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">13</a> Cadell, his late partner, purchased -the copyrights of the “Waverley Novels” for £8,500, -and, securing Scott’s countenance, set up as a fortunate -rival.</p> - -<p>Constable, however, went manfully to work at his -proposed Miscellany. Captain Basil Hall, in kindly -consideration, made him a present of his <cite>Voyages</cite>, and -this was brought out in 1827, for the small sum of one -shilling, and proved fairly successful. This same year, -by-the-by, was commenced the <cite>Library of Useful<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_136">136</a></span> -Knowledge</cite>, by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful -Knowledge, who, following Constable, had the “honour -of leading the way in that fearful inroad upon dearness -of the good old times of publishing, which first developed -itself in the wicked birth of what the literary -exclusives called the <cite>Sixpenny Sciences</cite>.”</p> - -<p>Constable’s prospects were brightening; he had now -gathered round him all the younger literary men of -the day, when, in the midst of his struggles, his old -disease of dropsy again attacked him, and he died on -the 21st July, 1827.</p> - -<p>His widow and family were left in sorry circumstances, -but his son Thomas eventually attained the -position of an eminent and well-known printer in -Edinburgh. The Ballantynes, with whom he had -been so intimately connected, disproved many of -Lockhart’s assertions, by showing that, by dint of -hard work and good business habits, they were capable -of success, unaided by the help of Sir Walter Scott.</p> - -<p>Constable, if not the most successful, was certainly -the most eminent of the Scotch publishers. It is -pleasant where the two lives have been so curiously -blended to be able to quote Scott’s estimate of his -<span class="locked">character:—</span></p> - -<p>“His vigorous intellect and vigorous ideas have not -only rendered his native country the merit of her own -literature, but established there a court of letters which -commanded respect even from those most inclined to -dissent from many of its canons. The effect of these -changes operated, in a great measure, by the strong -sense and sagacious calculation of an individual who -knew how to avail himself, to an unhoped-for extent, -of the various kinds of talents which his country produced,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_137">137</a></span> -will probably appear much clearer to the generation -which shall follow the present.”</p> - -<p>The remaining portion of this chapter will in itself -bear ample testimony to the truth of this prediction; -for we shall have to touch upon two distinct lives, and -two long and very successful lives, to trace the progress -of the chief works which passed out of Constable’s -hands so shortly before his death.</p> - -<p>Robert Cadell had been admitted a partner in the -house upon his marriage with Constable’s daughter, -but she died childless long before the failure, and -Cadell was soon married again to a Miss Mylne. -Thus the family ties were severed, and, when the -crash came, Cadell felt no hesitation in entering the -field as a rival to his late partner.</p> - -<p>The stock of the Waverley Novels was sold off, far -below the market value, and the London publishers, -judging from this that the intrinsic worth of the copyright -had irretrievably declined, allowed Cadell, as we -have seen, in conjunction with Scott, to become the -purchaser at the low price of £8500. The success of -the republication was astounding, and showed what -real life and vivacity was still left in the copyright. -By this scheme the whole of the novels were reprinted -in five-shilling volumes with excellent illustrations, -giving for ten shillings in two volumes what had been -originally published in three at a guinea and a half.</p> - -<p>After Scott’s death the debt still amounted to -£54,000; his life was insured for £22,000, there was -£2000 in hand, and now Cadell most handsomely advanced -£30,000 in order that the remaining debt might -be liquidated, taking as his only security the right to -the profit that might accrue from the copyright property. -The family, dreading that the term of copyright<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_138">138</a></span> -might expire before the sum could be returned, -endeavoured to obtain a special additional term, and -on more than one occasion Serjeant Talfourd introduced -a bill into the House of Commons to this -effect, but without success. Fortunately, however, the -event showed that Cadell was commercially fully justified -in his generosity, for before his death not only -had he been reimbursed his £30,000, but a handsome -profit had been earned “for the benefit of all whom it -might concern.”</p> - -<p>According to Mr. James Mylne, one of Cadell’s -executors, the following is the total sale of Scott’s -works from the time they came into Cadell’s hands -until his <span class="locked">death:—</span></p> - -<table summary="Scott sales"> - <tr> - <td> </td> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2"><i>Circulation.</i></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Waverley Novels</td> - <td class="tdr">78,270</td> - <td class="tdc">sets</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Poetical Works</td> - <td class="tdr">41,340</td> - <td class="tdc">”</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Prose Works</td> - <td class="tdr">8,260</td> - <td class="tdc">”</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><cite>Life</cite> by Lockhart</td> - <td class="tdr">26,060</td> - <td class="tdc">”</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><cite>Tales of a Grandfather</cite><br />(as a separate work)</td> - <td class="tdr">22,190</td> - <td class="tdc">”</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Selections</td> - <td class="tdr">7,550</td> - <td class="tdc">”</td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="in0">and, as a test of the popularity of the <cite>People’s Edition</cite> -of the writings and <cite>Life</cite>, he states that the following -numbers originally printed in weekly sheets were -issued:</p> - -<table summary="numbers printed in weekly sheets"> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Novels</td> - <td class="tdr">7,115,197</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Poetry</td> - <td class="tdr">674,955</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Prose</td> - <td class="tdr">269,406</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Life</td> - <td class="tdr">459,291</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Total Sheets</td> - <td class="tdr">8,518,849</td></tr> -</table> - -<p>Robert Cadell died on January 21st, 1849, after a -long career rendered prosperous by this splendid property, -and on March 26th, 1851, the novels, poems, -prose works, and the “Life” by Lockhart were put up to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_139">139</a></span> -auction at the London Coffee House by Mr. Hodgson. -The sale brought together the largest “trade” gathering -that has ever been witnessed; there were publishers -from the “Row” and Albemarle Street, booksellers -from Ave Maria and Ivy Lanes, and speculators -from every corner of the kingdom. The stock -had been valued at £10,193 3<i>s.</i>, a very low figure, -and it was announced that this would be sold only -with the copyrights, and that the trustees retained -the right of bidding. After much disputing as to -these restrictions £5000 was offered, and quickly rose -by leaps of £500 to £10,500, when Mr. Bohn and -the “Row” retired, and the struggle lay between Mr. -Virtue and some imaginary bidder, visible only to the -eyes of the auctioneer. At £13,500 the copyright -was “bought in” making the price, including the -stock, £23,693 3<i>s.</i></p> - -<p>This afforded a wonderful contrast to the former -sale at £8500, more especially when we consider that -the copyright of the earlier novels had only five or six -years more to run.</p> - -<p>In a few weeks after this it was announced in the -<cite>Scotsman</cite> that the whole of the copyrights were transferred -to the hands of another eminent publishing -firm in Edinburgh—Messrs. A. and C. Black, who, in -conjunction with their friends, Messrs. Richardson -Brothers, became the possessors at the price of -£27,000.</p> - -<p>Leaving the Waverley Novels for a time, it will be -necessary to bring up the narrative of the career of -Mr. Adam Black to the period when he was able to -become the owner of the most valuable literary property -that has ever existed.</p> - -<p>Adam Black, the son of Charles Black, a builder of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_140">140</a></span> -Edinburgh, was born in that town in the year 1784, -and was educated primarily at the High School, on -his entrance as a pupil at which, tradition says, he -was accompanied by his father, who, having just left -his employment for the purpose, appeared in full -working garb, the mason’s white leathern apron included. -At the University his talents speedily procured -him admittance into that clique of young -Liberals who were afterwards to effect such a change -in Edinburgh, indeed in cosmopolitan politics. After -serving his apprenticeship to the book trade, in partnership -with his nephew, the bookselling business of -Adam and Charles Black was founded. In 1817 he -married Isabella, only daughter of James Tait, architect -(sister of William Tait, the well-known originator -of <cite>Tait’s Magazine</cite>), and at the time of Constable’s -failure was in a steady and prosperous way of business. -This disaster was the means of making many -fortunes, and in 1826 the <cite>Edinburgh Review</cite> appeared -under the joint proprietorship of Thomas Norton -Longman and Adam and Charles Black. As we -have followed the career of the <cite>Review</cite> in our history -of the Longman family, it will be unnecessary to -enter fully into the changes of management and the -success of later numbers.</p> - -<p>Another work, however, afterwards thrown on the -market, which also became the property of Messrs. -A. and C. Black, is of such literary importance that -we must again for a moment retrace our steps, in order -to keep up the proper sequence of our narrative.</p> - -<p>The idea of a compilation that should embrace all -human knowledge is of very great antiquity. Pliny, -in fact claims the name of “Encyclopædia” for his -<cite>Natural History</cite>; but it was not till the sixteenth<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_141">141</a></span> -century that any attempt was made at arranging the -matter in a systematic manner, though the Arabians -are said to have had a true <cite>Encyclopædia</cite> centuries -before that date. It was long, however, before the -idea occurred of employing the lexographic plan as a -basis of a universal <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">répertoire</i> of learning, and the first -great step in advance was the <cite>Lexicon Technicum</cite> of -Dr. Harris, completed and published at London in the -year 1710. The <cite>Cyclopædia</cite> of Ephraim Chambers, -with which we have previously dealt, appeared in -1728, and for a long time was the supreme authority; -through its success at home and abroad a new impulse -was given to the desire for such publications. In -France the <cite>Encyclopédie</cite> was projected by the Abbé -de Gua, and was based originally on an unpublished -translation of Chambers’s <cite>Cyclopædia</cite>, made by an -Englishman named Mills. In consequence of a -quarrel with the publishers, De Gua threw it up, and -it was then transferred to Diderot and D’Alembert; -to become the text-book of the French philosophers. -The publication of the seventeen volumes extended -from 1751 to 1765, and six years after the latter date -appeared the first volume of the <cite>Encyclopædia Britannica</cite>.</p> - -<p>The plan and all the principal articles of this now -important work were in this first edition devised and -written by William Smellie.</p> - -<p>Smellie began life as a compositor, and he used to -lay down his composing-stick for an hour or two -daily to attend the classes of the Edinburgh University. -At the age of nineteen he was engaged by -Murray and Cochrane as corrector of their press in -general and conductor and compiler of the <cite>Scots -Magazine</cite> at a salary of sixteen shillings a week. If<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_142">142</a></span> -the saying that “Edinburgh never had a Grub Street” -is true, it must have arisen rather from the perseverance -of the writers than from the uniform generosity -of the publishers.</p> - -<p>The agreement upon which the <cite>Encyclopædia</cite> was -undertaken was still in existence when Kerr wrote -Smellie’s <cite>Life</cite>; as a literary curiosity we quote <span class="locked">it:—</span></p> - -<blockquote> -<p class="in2"> -“Mr. Andrew Bell to Mr. William Smellie. -</p> - -<p>“<span class="smcap">Sir</span>,—As we are engaged in publishing a ‘Dictionary -of the Arts and Sciences,’ and as you have informed -us that there are fifteen capital sciences, which you -will undertake for, and write up the sub-divisions and -detached parts of them, conforming to your plan, and -likewise to prepare the whole work for the press, &c., -&c. We hereby agree to allow you £200 for your -trouble.”</p></blockquote> - -<p>The first proprietors were Andrew Bell, engraver, -and Colin Macfarquhar, printer. The publication -was commenced in weekly numbers in 1771, and -completed in 1773, by which time the bulk in all consisted -only of three small quarto volumes. A second -edition was called for in 1776, and Smellie was offered -a share in the property, but he declined to have anything -more to do with it, as upon the recommendation -of “a very distinguished nobleman” it was resolved -to introduce a complete system of biography. The -proprietors engaged, instead, James Tytler, a laborious -miscellaneous writer, and a man of extraordinary -knowledge. A large proportion of the additional -matter, by which the work was extended from three -to ten volumes, was due to his pen, but the payment -for this labour is said to have been very small, and -the unfortunate author was not able to support his<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_143">143</a></span> -family in a style superior to that of a common labourer. -At one time, during the progress of the work, he lived -at the village of Duddingston, in the house of a washerwoman, -whose tub inverted formed the only desk at -his disposal, and one of his children was frequently -despatched with a parcel of “copy” upon which their -next meal depended.</p> - -<p>This second edition consisted of 1500 copies, and -extended to ten volumes quarto. The third edition, -to which Tytler also contributed, was commenced in -1789. Till then it had been considered in the south -as “a Scots rival of little repute” (to Chambers’s -<cite>Cyclopædia</cite>), but in this edition, beside the method -and comprehensiveness of the plan, it rose greatly -above its former level in its practical and speculative -departments. It was completed in 1797, in eighteen -volumes, to which Professor Robison supplied two -supplementary volumes to complete the series he had -commenced when the principal work was far advanced. -The sale of this edition extended to ten -thousand copies, and the proprietors are said to have -netted £42,000 of clear profit, besides being paid for -their respective work—the one as printer, the other as -engraver. Much of this, of course, was due to poor -Tytler’s labours, who was still living in the utmost -penury. He was, however, perfectly regardless about -poverty, having no desire to conceal it from the -world. He would finish his frugal meal of a cold -potato before the eyes of a stranger with as much -nonchalance as if it had been a sumptuous repast. -He had that contentment with poverty which is so -apt to make it permanent, and this, in addition to his -imprudent and intemperate habits, cut off all chance -of a higher social position. As a proof of his extraordinary<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_144">144</a></span> -stock of general knowledge, his biographer -relates a characteristic anecdote.</p> - -<p>“A gentleman in this city of Edinburgh once told -me he wanted as much matter as would form a -junction between a certain history and its continuation -to a later period. He found Tytler lodged in one of -those elevated apartments called <em>garrets</em>, and was informed -by the old woman with whom he resided, that -he could not see him, as he had gone to bed rather -the worse for liquor. Determined, however, not to -depart without his errand, he was shown into Mr. -Tytler’s apartment by the light of a lamp, where he -found him in the situation described by the landlady. -The gentleman having acquainted him with the nature -of the business which brought him at so late an hour, -Mr. Tytler called for pen and ink, and in a short time -produced about a page and a half of letterpress, -which answered the end as completely as if it had -been the result of the most mature deliberation, previous -notice, and a mind undisturbed by any liquid -capable of deranging its ideas.”</p> - -<p>On the death of Macfarquhar the whole work became -the property of Andrew Bell.</p> - -<p>The fourth edition, augmented to twenty volumes, -was completed in 1810, under the able superintendence -of Dr. James Millar; but the editor was prevented -from availing himself of Professor Robison’s -excellent supplementary articles by a temporary -separation of that property from that of the principal -work. This issue consisted of three thousand five -hundred copies.</p> - -<p>With the completion of this edition the progress of -improvement was for a time suspended; but in 1814 -the copyright of the work was purchased by Archibald<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_145">145</a></span> -Constable, who, with the enterprise that always distinguished -him, at once projected a supplement, which -extended to six volumes. It was placed under the -skilful management of Professor Macney Napier, and -the publication lasted from 1815 to 1824. Many very -distinguished authors were engaged as contributors, -among whom we may specially mention Arago, Biot, -and Dugald Stewart; and all the resources of the proprietors -were devoted to this favourite undertaking.</p> - -<p>In 1829 the whole of the copyrights (including that -of Professor Robison’s supplementary articles) passed -into the hands of Messrs. A. and C. Black, assisted by -their friends; and we are now able to resume our narrative -at the point we left it.</p> - -<p>The property was at first a joint stock concern, -resembling the original proprietorship, and was, we -believe, owned in equal shares by Mr. Abraham -Thomson, as the binder; Mr. Thomas Allan, as the -printer; and Messrs. A. and C. Black, as publishers. -Mr. Thomson died shortly afterwards, and the Messrs. -Black became the possessors of his interest in the work. -Some years afterwards, the share held by Mr. Allan, -who was a banker in Edinburgh, and also printer and -proprietor of the <cite>Caledonian Mercury</cite>, also fell into the -hands of the Messrs. Black. At this time the new -edition was in midway progress, and the enormous -expense necessary to complete the work rendered the -venture single-handed something more than hazardous. -But the ability, tact, immense energy, and unceasing -labour of Mr. Adam Black, then in the prime of life, -proved equal to the task he had undertaken, and in -this case it may truly be said that for years he went -on literally scattering bread upon the waters, and most -deservedly did he obtain his reward. Previously, we<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_146">146</a></span> -believe, to the completion of this edition, Mr. Charles -Black, who had long been in delicate health, died.</p> - -<p>Upon Jeffrey’s retirement in 1829, Macney Napier, -Professor of Conveyancing in the University of Edinburgh, -was promoted to the editorship of the <cite>Edinburgh -Review</cite>, and Mr. Black also secured his services -for the management of the seventh edition of the -<cite>Encyclopædia</cite>. Napier was assisted by James Brown, -LL.D., as sub-editor, and on his shoulders most of the -hard work fell. Brown, who was trained as an advocate -at the Scottish bar, relinquished this for literature. -His thorough scholarship enabled him to undertake -almost any department of literary work, and rendered -him invaluable for the revisal of such a work as the -<cite>Encyclopædia</cite>. He was also a ready and slashing -political writer, at a time when political feeling was -rampant. Remarkable alike for his mental activity -and his personal irascibility, the one great difficulty -lay in managing the Doctor. As an instance of this, -the article “Alphabet” was entrusted to Brown for the -new edition of the <cite>Encyclopædia</cite>. He was at the same -time editor of the <cite>Caledonian Mercury</cite>, and on the -appearance of something in that paper which led to a -quarrel with Mr. Allan, the proprietor, who was also -a shareholder in the <cite>Encyclopædia</cite>, Brown declined to -go on with “Alphabet.” The part in which this was -to appear was due, and Brown was inflexible. The -subject was a difficult one, peculiarly suited to Brown’s -abilities, and it was not easy elsewhere to find so competent -a writer. In these circumstances, Mr. Black -adopted the experiment of passing over that part and -bringing out the succeeding one. Thus circumvented, -Brown came to terms, and things again went on -smoothly. But, notwithstanding his proverbial kindliness<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_147">147</a></span> -of disposition, he was hasty in coming to conclusions, -and was always getting into scrapes of one -kind or another; and a duel, in which he and Charles -Maclaren, editor of the <cite>Scotsman</cite>, figured as principals, -furnished the Edinburgh <em>gamins</em> with a popular street -song. He escaped all duellistic dangers, however, but -his unremitting labours brought on a stroke of -apoplexy, of which he died in 1841.</p> - -<p>The great feature of the new edition was the preliminary -“Dissertations,” which were commenced by -Professors Stewart and Playfair, who were both -carried off in the midst of their labours. Sir James -Mackintosh, who undertook to complete his friend’s -“History of Ethical and Political Philosophy” (the -Metaphysical portion had been completed by Stewart) -was also summoned from his labours before the -Political division was commenced; and the “History -of the Physical Sciences” was brought down by Professor -Leslie to the commencement of this century.</p> - -<p>“The ‘Dissertations’ produced by these four extraordinary -men are still regarded with peculiar pride in -Scotland; indeed, few nations can boast of such an -intellectual group living at the same time, and adorning -the same society; and yet, with powers of mind -not far from equality, how various were their gifts, and -how diversified their genius!”<a id="FNanchor_14" href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">14</a></p> - -<p>The seventh edition was commenced in monthly -parts in March, 1830, and finished in January, 1842. -Of its success it is almost unnecessary to speak; with -confidence reposed in the proprietors sufficient to command -the services of such writers as Young, Malthus, -Macculloch, Mill, Roget, Wilson, Empson, De<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_148">148</a></span> -Quincey, and Tytler, while the editor can count on -the aid of friends like Scott, Playfair, Stewart, Leslie, -Lord Jeffrey, Sir William Hamilton, and Sir John -Barrow, it is not difficult to anticipate the result. The -mere cost of presentation copies amounted to £416 -16<i>s.</i>, and the amount of duty on the paper employed -exceeded £6000; while, to go into heavier matters, -the total expense of the twenty-one quarto volumes -was, in a trial in the Jury Court of Scotland, proved -to have been no less a sum than £125,667 9<i>s.</i> 3<i>d.</i> -This amount, of course, includes every item of expenditure, -among which the following are the most <span class="locked">important:—</span></p> - -<table summary="presentation copy costs"> - <tr> - <td > </td> - <td class="tdc">£</td> - <td class="tdc"><i>s.</i></td> - <td class="tdc"><i>d.</i></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Contributions and Editing</td> - <td class="tdr">22,590</td> - <td class="tdr">2</td> - <td class="tdr">11</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Printing</td> - <td class="tdr">18,610</td> - <td class="tdr">1</td> - <td class="tdr">4</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Stereotyping</td> - <td class="tdr">3,317</td> - <td class="tdr">5</td> - <td class="tdr">8</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Paper</td> - <td class="tdr">27,854</td> - <td class="tdr">15</td> - <td class="tdr">7</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Bookbinding</td> - <td class="tdr">12,739</td> - <td class="tdr">12</td> - <td class="tdr">2</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Engraving and Plate-printing</td> - <td class="tdr">11,777</td> - <td class="tdr">18</td> - <td class="tdr">1</td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="in0">The literary contributions to the first volume of -“Dissertations” alone cost upwards of £3450.</p> - -<p>The work was eminently successful, and this immense -expenditure shows us something of what -“success” means in this instance. The commercial -management of an undertaking like this was sufficient -to occupy the attention of a man of extraordinary -diligence; but Mr. Black found time, not only to -contribute several articles to his <cite>Encyclopædia</cite>, but to -take a very warm and prominent interest in the -government of his native city; and from 1843 to 1848 -he occupied the highest position to which a citizen of -Edinburgh can aspire—that of Lord Provost.</p> - -<p>Enterprise and success, more especially when they<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_149">149</a></span> -are mingled with real desert, and caused by honest -service, are qualities of which the Scotch, perhaps -more than any other nation, are peculiarly proud; -and when the representation of Edinburgh became -vacant in 1856, a large and influential party at -once nominated Mr. Adam Black to fill the post. Mr. -Adam Black was a thorough-going Liberal and a -Nonconformist, and a party of the electors received -his nomination in a spirit of the greatest bitterness, -and an opposition candidate was brought forward. -The election came off on the 8th February, 1856, and -Mr. Black, the friend of political freedom when friends -were few, the champion of religious charity and goodwill -when enemies were many, was rewarded for his -consistency and his many services by a larger number -of votes than had been polled for twenty years—no -weak test of popular approbation. As a contemporary -opinion, we may quote the <cite>Scotsman</cite> of that -date:—“Honour to the candidate! Sincerely reluctant -to compete for the honour, no sooner was he -embarked, and saw that the great principles and the -reputation of the city were concerned and imperilled -in his person, than he threw himself into the work -with a vigour that made even the youngest and most -energetic of his supporters stand aside. We don’t -care who knows it: Mr. Black was the most effective -member of his own committee—in word and in act, -by day and by night, the veteran was ready with -guidance and warning and incentive. In all his many -battles in the public cause, he never made a better -fight than when achieving this victory which so -gloriously crowns his career.”</p> - -<p>In the House Mr. Black distinguished himself by -his assiduity to business, and in 1864 he introduced<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_150">150</a></span> -his Copyright Bill, which, though it contained much -that was good, was ultimately thrown out.</p> - -<p>Upon completion of the seventh edition, a number -of cheap reprints were issued of the most famous -articles of the “Encyclopædia,” and met with a very -favourable reception.</p> - -<p>We have seen that in 1851 the Messrs. Black, in -conjunction with Messrs. Richardson Brothers, became -possessed of the Waverley Novels. Ultimately, the -Messrs. Black purchased, it is said, the Messrs. Richardsons’ -share, and are now believed to be the sole proprietors -of Sir Walter Scott’s works. In the management of -this property Mr. Adam Black exhibited the same rare -sagacity, and reaped the same successful reward as in -the former important work. In the middle of 1852, -he announced that 120,000 complete sets of the -Waverley Novels had been sold in this country alone -since their first publication; and in 1858 an ingenious -mathematician computed that the weight of the paper -used for them was upwards of 3500 tons.</p> - -<p>Among the most important editions issued by -Messrs. Black we may instance the <span class="locked">following:—</span></p> - -<table summary="editions issued by M. Black"> - <tr> - <td colspan="4"> </td> - <td class="tdc">£</td> - <td class="tdc"><i>s.</i></td> - <td class="tdc"><i>d.</i></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">A Re-issue of the “Cabinet Edition”</td> - <td class="tdc">in </td> - <td class="tdl">1853–54</td> - <td class="tdc">at</td> - <td class="tdr">3</td> - <td class="tdr">15</td> - <td class="tdr">0</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc l2">”<span class="in4">”</span></td> - <td class="tdc">”</td> - <td class="tdl">1860</td> - <td class="tdc">”</td> - <td class="tdr">3</td> - <td class="tdr">10</td> - <td class="tdr">0</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">The “People’s Edition” in 5 vols.</td> - <td class="tdc">”</td> - <td class="tdl">1855</td> - <td class="tdc">”</td> - <td class="tdr">2</td> - <td class="tdr">2</td> - <td class="tdr">0</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">“Railway Edition” in 25 vols.</td> - <td class="tdc">”</td> - <td class="tdl">1858–60</td> - <td class="tdc">”</td> - <td class="tdr">1</td> - <td class="tdr">17</td> - <td class="tdr">6</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">New Illustrated Edition in 48 vols. founded on<br />“Author’s Favourite”</td> - <td class="tdc">”</td> - <td class="tdl">1859–61</td> - <td class="tdc">”</td> - <td class="tdr">10</td> - <td class="tdr">13</td> - <td class="tdr">0</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">“Shilling Edition” in 25 vols.</td> - <td class="tdc">”</td> - <td class="tdl">1862–63</td> - <td class="tdc">”</td> - <td class="tdr">1</td> - <td class="tdr">5</td> - <td class="tdr">0</td></tr> -</table> - -<p>At our present writing a beautiful new edition, the -“Centenary,” is being published.</p> - -<p>The moment that the copyrights of the earlier -novels expired the market was flooded with cheap<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_151">151</a></span> -reprints; but the Messrs. Black were equal to the -occasion. They issued a trade reminder to the -public that the edition of 1829 was thoroughly revised -by the author, was altered in almost every page and -largely augmented by notes, and that it still was -copyright, and as a death-blow to the reprints by -rival houses they brought out the “sixpenny edition” -in monthly volumes, each volume containing a complete -tale with all the matter that had appeared in -the more expensive editions. Thanks to former -stereotypes they were thus enabled to present a series -of the cheapest and most valuable books that any -house in the country has yet been able to produce. -The publication lasted from November, 1866, to -November, 1868, and the complete issue consisted of -twenty-five volumes, and thus the public were able -to purchase for twelve shillings and sixpence what -had originally cost upwards of forty pounds. Constable -himself in his wildest dreams of cheap -publishing never imagined such a marvellous feature -as this.</p> - -<p>As a proof of their popularity we quote from a -contemporary writer in the <cite>Illustrated Times</cite>, 25th of -September, 1867. The writer was travelling down to -Wales, and, at the London station, he said, “‘Boy, -where are the Scott novels?’ ‘Don’t keep them,’ he -replied. ‘Don’t keep them! Why not?’ ‘Because, -if we did, we should not sell anything else.’ Here -then, to begin with, is a small fact worth reflection. -Some of the novels were first published fifty years -ago. Can you point out any other series of books, or -even any single book, a sixpenny edition of which -Mr. Smith would be afraid to lay upon his bookstalls -for fear the public might refuse to buy anything<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_152">152</a></span> -else?” At every station the writer made the same -inquiry and met with the same result.</p> - -<p>As through the business talents of the publishers, -the printed works of Sir Walter Scott were reduced -in price, so through the fame of the author did the autograph -remains rise to a very wonderful fictitious value. -Mr. Cadell made a remarkable collection of all the -manuscripts he could purchase, and on the 9th of -July, 1868, his collection was sold for £1073; while -even a corrected proof of “Peveril of the Peak” realized -£25.</p> - -<p>The seventh edition of the “Encyclopædia Britannica” -was finished, as we have previously stated, in 1842, -and met with, not only an immediate, but also a continuous -sale, but human knowledge refuses to be -stereotyped, and at the close of 1852 the eighth edition -was commenced, occupying nine years in the publication. -The proprietors justly claim for it the proud -title of “the largest literary enterprise ever undertaken -by any single house in Great Britain.” The -editorial charge was entrusted to Dr. Thomas Stewart -Trail, professor of medical jurisprudence in the -University of Edinburgh; and, among the more important -new contributors, we may mention Archbishop -Whately, Professor Blackie, and Dr. Forbes, -the latter of whom contributed a new “Dissertation” -to the introductory volume. Lord Macaulay contributed -five of the leading biographies “as a token -of friendship to the senior proprietor.” “Any article -of any value in any preceding edition,” says the -editor, “has been reprinted in this—in all cases with -corrections, and frequently with considerable additions. -Besides these, it has received so great an accession of -original contributions, that nine-tenths of its contents<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_153">153</a></span> -may be said to be absolutely new,” and this will probably -apply with the same force to the ninth edition, -which is to be commenced next year.</p> - -<p>Long before this date Mr. Adam Black was assisted -in his business by his sons. He retired from the -house in 1865, and now laden with honours in public, -and successes in business, life, he may fairly claim to be -the Nestor of publishers. He must have seen many -changes in the literary world, and marked many -vicissitudes in the “realms of print;” but the changes -as far as they operated for him were for the better, -and vicissitudes seem invariably to have kept outside -his charmed circle.</p> - -<p>In the year 1861, a very valuable work—the “Collected -Writings of the late Thomas De Quincey”—came -into the hands of Messrs. Black; but, as the public -are almost entirely indebted to the laborious care and -patient perseverance of another publisher, Mr. James -Hogg, then of Edinburgh, for the production of this -collection, which then consisted of fourteen volumes, -we have thought it better that this account should -form a kind of supplement to our present chapter.</p> - -<p>For a period of about forty years De Quincey had -been an extensive contributor to periodical literature, -and it is scarcely surprising that, during such a length -of time, the sources even where many of his contributions -originally appeared had been forgotten, and that -the very existence of a few had altogether escaped -the author’s recollection. Various attempts had been -made to induce De Quincey to draw together and -revise a selection from the more important of his -scattered writings, but from his varying state of health -and, consequent on this, his inveterate habit of procrastination, -the work was always postponed; and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_154">154</a></span> -from his advanced years, all hope was given up of -the collected works ever appearing under the superintendence -of the author.</p> - -<p>In the year 1845, the well-known periodical, -<cite>Hogg’s Instructor</cite>, was started under the management -and sole responsibility of Mr. Hogg. Sixteen -volumes of the <cite>Instructor</cite> as a weekly serial were -published, and among many other contributors of note -was the “Opium-Eater,” and from the commencement -of their intercourse De Quincey and Mr. Hogg -became firm friends.</p> - -<p>About this time several volumes of De Quincey’s -writings had been collected and published by Messrs. -Ticknor and Fields, of Boston, U.S., without, of -course, the advantage of the author’s own revisal; -and, as the papers had been originally hurriedly -written for magazines, and as, during the lapse of -time, many changes had become unavoidable, the -author felt that, in justice to himself, extensive additions -and, in some cases, suppressions were necessary. -Arrangements were accordingly entered into for -bringing out the collected works at home in a -thoroughly revised and amended form, Mr. Hogg -undertaking all the responsibility, and engaging to -give his aid both in collecting the materials, and in -generally seeing the volumes through the press. On -the announcement of the publication it was confidently -predicted by some of those who had been engaged in -the previous attempts that not a single volume would -ever appear. In order to afford ample time for the -thorough revision of the work it was arranged that -the publication should be spread over three years. -The first volume appeared in 1853; but, instead of -three years bringing the series to a close, eight years<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_155">155</a></span> -had elapsed before the thirteenth volume was completed, -and then De Quincey died—the remainder -of the thirteenth, and the whole of the fourteenth, -being due to Mr. Hogg. During these eight years -almost daily interviews or correspondence occurred -between De Quincey and Mr. Hogg. To use the -author’s words, “the joint labour and patient perseverance -spent in the preparation of these volumes -was something perfectly astounding.” In addition to -the frequent and protracted interviews, the correspondence -which passed during the progress of the -work would fill a goodly volume.</p> - -<p>In order to account for the delays which so -frequently occurred, De Quincey remarks upon -one occasion:—“I suffer from a most afflicting -derangement of the nervous system, which at times -makes it difficult for me to write at all, and always -makes me impatient, in a degree not easily understood, -of recasting what may seem insufficiently or -even incoherently expressed.” But, while suffering -under this cause, he laboured under a daily and more -formidable bar to progress, as annoying and perplexing -to himself as to others. For many years he had -been in the habit of correcting manuscript or of -jotting down on loose sheets, more frequently on -small scraps of paper, any stray thoughts that -occurred to him, intending to use them as occasion -might afterwards offer. These papers, however, -instead of being methodically arranged and preserved, -were carelessly laid aside, and were soon mixed up -with letters, proofs, old and new copy, newspapers, -periodicals, and other confusing litter, and the -numerous volumes he received from literary friends -and admirers, all huddled together on chairs, tables,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_156">156</a></span> -or wherever they at the moment might be stowed. -Placing a high value on many things in this heterogeneous -mass, and feeling assured in his own mind -that strange hands would only render confusion worse -confounded, he would allow no one to endeavour to -put the things in order. Indeed, if anything could -have ruffled his gentle nature into the use of an angry -word it would have been the attempt to meddle with -these papers. They very rapidly increased, and every -search after missing copy or proofs made matters -worse. When a dead block occurred his invariable -practice was to build them up, as they lay, against -the wall of the room, and, as a consequence, everything -went astray. A few extracts from notes to Mr. -Hogg will show the labour, suffering, and worry which -this state of chaos entailed:—“My dear Sir,—It is -useless to trouble you with the <em>ins</em> and <em>outs</em> of the -process—the result is, that, working through most part -of the night, I have not yet come to the missing copy. -I am going on with the search, yet being walled up -in so narrow an area (not larger than a postchaise as -regards the free space), I work with difficulty, and the -<em>stooping</em> kills me. I greatly fear that the entire day -will be spent in the search.”</p> - -<p>“Yesterday, suddenly, I missed the interleaved -volume. I have been unrolling an immense heap of -newspapers, &c., ever since six a.m. How so thick a -vol. <em>can</em> have hidden itself, I am unable to explain.”</p> - -<p>“The act of <em>stooping</em> has for many years caused me -so much illness, that in this search, all applied to -papers lying on the floor, entangled with innumerable -newspapers, I have repeatedly been forced to pause. -I fear that the seventeen or eighteen missing pages -may have been burned suddenly lighting candles;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_157">157</a></span> -and I am more surprised at finding so many than at -missing so few.”</p> - -<p>“I am utterly in the dark as to where this paper is—whether -<i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">chez moi</i>, or <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">chez la presse</i> (I use French -simply as being the briefest way of conveying my -doubts). Now mark the difference to me, according -to the answer. 1. On the assumption that the paper -is in <em>my</em> possession, then, of course, I will seek till I -find it, and no labour will be thrown away. But 2. -On the counter assumption that the paper is all the -while in the possession of the press, the difference to -me would be this: That I should be searching for -perhaps half a day, and, as it is manifestly not on my -table, I should proceed on the postulate that it must -have been transferred to the floor, consequently the -work would all be unavoidably a process of stooping, -and all labour lost, from which I should hardly recover -for a fortnight. This explains to you my earnestness -in the matter. Exactly the same doubt applies -(and therefore exactly the same dilemma or alternative -of stoop or stoop not) to some other papers.”</p> - -<p>How keenly De Quincey felt in consequence of -these continually recurring delays, the following -sentences will show:—“It distracts me to find that I -have been constantly working at the wrong part. It -is most unfortunate, nor am I able to guess the cause, -that I who am rendered seriously unhappy whenever I -find or suppose myself to have caused any loss of time -to a compositor, whose time is generally his main -estate, am yet continually doing so unintentionally -and in most cases unconsciously. It seems as if to the -very last my destiny were to cause delays.”</p> - -<p>The frequency of the communications and personal -interviews which occurred during the eight years in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_158">158</a></span> -which the works were in progress may be inferred -from the following:—“My dear Sir,—I have been in -great anxiety through yesterday and to-day as to the -cause of a mysterious interruption of the press intercourse -with me. Now, it has happened once before -that we were at cross purposes, each side supposing -itself stopped by the other. As the easiest way, -therefore, of creeping out of the mystery I repeat it to -you.”</p> - -<p>Notwithstanding the continual interruptions and the -difficulty of dragging the volumes through the press, -the cordial and friendly feeling which existed between -De Quincey and Mr. Hogg was never interrupted by -a single jarring word.</p> - -<p>Since the fourteen volumes passed into the hands of -Messrs. Black, they have added other two volumes, -made up of biographies contributed by De Quincey -to the “Encyclopædia Britannica,” and a number of -papers which remained in Mr. Hogg’s hands.</p> - -<div id="if_i_158" class="figcenter" style="width: 136px;"> - <img src="images/i_158.jpg" width="136" height="142" alt="" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_159">159</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div id="if_i_159" class="figcenter" style="width: 359px;"> - <img id="hdr_4" src="images/i_159.jpg" width="359" height="84" alt="" /></div> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><i>JOHN MURRAY</i>:<br /> - -<span class="subhead">BELLES-LETTRES AND TRAVELS.</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">The</span> foundation of the great publishing houses of -London is co-temporary in date with the origin -of the private banks and famous breweries; for, as in -the case of these establishments, the connections -requisite were so extensive, and the needful capital, to -render venture a success, so large, that in many -instances the present great publishing firms have been -the work of three, in some cases even of five, generations. -There have, of course, been isolated exceptions, -as in the instance of Archibald Constable, of -Edinburgh; but these rare cases, though often beneficial -to the world at large, have seldom been individually -successful.</p> - -<p>John McMurray, the founder of the great London -house of Murray, was born in Edinburgh about the -year 1795, of very respectable parents, who not only -gave him a good education, but enlisted for him the -sympathies of Sir George Yonge, then an official in -high favour. Through Sir George’s influence a commission -was obtained in the Royal Marines, and in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_160">160</a></span> -1762, we find from the Navy List, that John -McMurray joins his frigate full, probably, of hopeful -anticipations of the promotion that sometimes came -so speedily in the days of the old French wars. The -Peace of Paris, however, was signed in the following -year, and, spite of patronage and merit, McMurray -was, in 1768, still a second lieutenant, and, in point -of seniority, thirty-fourth on the list. Disgusted with -a profession from which he could hope so little, and -eager for a more useful career in life, in this same -year he embraced an opportunity that seemed to give -him a chance of exchanging the lounging idleness of -Chatham barracks for the busy activity of London -business, in a trade very congenial to his tastes, and -not unaccompanied with hopes of solid emolument.</p> - -<p>Among the friends he had made either afloat or -at his Chatham quarters was William Falconer, who, -a sailor boy “before the mast,” had in the very year -of McMurray’s first entry into the service, published -the beautiful poem of the “Shipwreck.” This poem -attracted great attention, and the author was promoted -to the more honourable than lucrative position -of midshipman. Fellow-townsmen—and in those -days blood was thicker than water—and in some -degree fellow-students, for both were lovers of books, -they became firm friends; and McMurray’s first -thought, when the offer of a bookseller’s business was -put before him, was to secure the aid of his literary -friend in his new venture; and an interesting letter, -still preserved, gives the history of his commencement -as a bookseller. Addressed to “Mr. William Falconer, -at Dover,” it runs as <span class="locked">follows:—</span></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_161">161</a></span></p> - -<blockquote> -<p class="sigright"> -“Brompton, Kent, 16th Oct., 1768. -</p> - -<p>“<span class="smcap">Dear Will</span>,—Since I saw you, I have had the -intention of embarking in a scheme that I think will -prove successful, and in the progress of which I had -an eye towards your participating. Mr. Sandby, -bookseller, opposite St. Dunstan’s church, has entered -into company with Snow and Denne, bankers. -I was introduced to this gentleman about a month -ago, upon an advantageous offer of succeeding him -in his old business, which, by the advice of my -friends, I propose to accept. Now, although I have -little reason to fear success by myself in this undertaking, -yet I think so many additional advantages -would accrue to us both, were your forces and mine -joined, that I cannot help mentioning it to you, and -making you the offer of entering into company. He -resigns to me the lease of the house; the goodwill ——; -and I only take his bound stock, and fixtures, -at a fair appraisement, which will not amount -to more than £400, and which, if I ever mean to part -with, cannot fail to bring in nearly the same sum. -The shop has long continued in the trade; it retains -a good many old customers; and I am to be ushered -immediately into public notice by the sale of a new -edition of Lord Lyttelton’s ‘Dialogues;’ and afterwards -by a like edition of his ‘History.’ These -works I shall sell by commission, upon a certain -profit without risque; and Mr. Sandby has promised to -continue to me, always, his good offices and recommendations. -These are the general outlines; and if -you entertain a notion that the conjunction would suit -you, advise me, and you shall be assumed upon equal -terms.</p> - -<p>“Many blockheads in the trade are making fortunes;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_162">162</a></span> -and did we not succeed as well as they, I -think it must be imputed only to ourselves.... -Consider what I have proposed, and send me your -answer soon. Be assured in the meantime that I remain, -dear Sir,</p> - -<p class="sigright"> -<span class="l1">“Your affectionate and humble Servant,</span><br /> -“<span class="smcap">John McMurray</span>. -</p> - -<p>“P.S.—My advisers and directors in this affair have -been Thomas Cumming, Esq., Mr. Archibald Paxton, -Mr. Samuel Paterson, of Essex House, and Messrs. J. -and W. Richardson, printers. These, after deliberate -reflection, have unanimously thought that I should accept -of Mr. Sandby’s offer.”</p></blockquote> - -<p>From some reason or other the offer was declined; -perhaps, as Falconer’s biographer asserts, he was at -this time (though absent for a while at Dover) living -with his pretty little wife in an attic in Grub Street, -toiling at his “Marine Dictionary,” and with no prospect -of raising the money requisite for the partnership -proposed; perhaps he had already accepted the -pursership of the “Aurora” frigate. At all events, -immediately after the publication of the third edition -of his “Shipwreck,” which was to have contained -some lines addressed to McMurray, which, in the -hurry of departure were omitted, he sailed in the -“Aurora” for India. The Cape was safely reached, -but after leaving it the “Aurora” was never heard of -again. Ship, crew, and passengers were all lost, and, -through the untimely death of the author, the “Shipwreck” -acquired a melancholy and almost prophetic -interest, which speedily exhausted the third and -many future editions.</p> - -<p>In the meantime John McMurray had commenced<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_163">163</a></span> -bookselling in earnest. It was at a time when, -through Wilkes and Bute, national feeling seems to -have run very high, and to be a Scotchman was -hardly a recommendation to a beginner, and we find -that, though McMurray headed all his trade bills with -a ship, as a proud testimony to his naval antecedents, -he found it convenient to drop the Scotch prefix of -Mc. The following copy of a trade card issued at -the time is the first record we have of this alteration -of title.</p> - -<blockquote class="bbox"> -<p class="center"> -JOHN MURRAY (successor to Mr. <span class="smcap">Sandby</span>),<br /> -Bookseller and Stationer,<br /> -At No. 32, over-against St. Dunstan’s Church,<br /> -in Fleet Street,<br /> -London. -</p> - -<p class="in0">Sells all new Books and Publications. Fitts up Public or Private -Libraries in the neatest manner with Books of the choicest -editions, the best Print, and the richest Bindings.</p> - -<p class="center">Also,</p> - -<p class="in0">Executes East India or Foreign Commissions by an assortment of -Books and Stationary suited to the Market or Purpose for which -it is destined; all at the most reasonable rates.</p></blockquote> - -<p>Murray found that Sandby’s connection at Fleet -Street was a good one—Mr. William Sandby, indeed, -could have been no ordinary bookseller, for his father -was a prebendary of Gloucester, and his brother a -master of Magdalen College, while he was accepted -as partner in a wealthy banking firm—the trade were -inclined to “back him up,” and he was able to extend -his business considerably in India and Edinburgh, -where he had many friends. The new edition of -Lord Lyttelton’s “History” was brought out in -stately quarto volumes, as befitted the rank of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_164">164</a></span> -author, and was completely issued in 1771–2, and, -published “with a certain profit, without risque,” must -have proved much more remunerative than the -original “Henry II.” was to Sandby, who generously -offered to pay for the author’s corrections, and who -found to his cost that not a single line was left as -originally printed.</p> - -<p>Murray seems to have kept up his connection with -Edinburgh, for in 1773 we find him London agent for -the <cite>Edinburgh Magazine and Review</cite>, and in the following -year, when it was proposed to separate the -<cite>Magazine</cite> from the <cite>Review</cite>, Stuart writes to Smellie:—“Murray -seems fully apprised of the pains and attentions -that are necessary, has literary connections, -and is fond of the employment; let him, therefore, be -the London proprietor.” Murray consented to “take -a share,” if his advice were attended to; but the -scheme of a review came to nothing, and even the -existing <cite>Edinburgh Magazine and Review</cite> died, in -1776, of a violent attack on Lord Monboddo’s “Origin -of Language.” Murray offered his condolence in -the following laconic <span class="locked">note:—</span></p> - -<blockquote> - -<p>“<span class="smcap">Dear Smellie</span>,—I am sorry for the defeat you -have met with. Had you praised Lord Monboddo -instead of damning him, it would not have happened.</p> - -<p class="sigright"> -<span class="l4">“Yours, &c.</span><br /> -“<span class="smcap">John Murray</span>.” -</p></blockquote> - -<p>Murray, now that the Edinburgh scheme had come -to nothing, commenced in 1780 a volume of annual -intelligence of his own under the title of the <cite>London -Mercury</cite>; and in January, 1783, with the assistance -of a staff of able writers, among whom were Dr. Whittaker<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_165">165</a></span> -and Gilbert Stuart, who had lately come from -Scotland, he started the <cite>English Review</cite>.</p> - -<p>A great portion of Murray’s retail stock was medical -books, and for many years the house had a reputation -in the medical world. Of the books, however, -which he published, those more latterly issued proved -by far the most successful, such as Langhorne’s -“Plutarch’s Lives,” Mitford’s “Greece,” and, in 1791, -a thin octavo in which the elder Disraeli first gave -the public his “Curiosities of Literature”—all of -them works which have since been annual sources of -revenue to the firm.</p> - -<p>Murray found time, however, amidst all this business, -to indulge his own literary tastes and aspirations, -which had at one time been strong. Some of his -pamphlets—such as the “Letter to Mr. Mason on his -Edition of Gray’s Poems, and the Practice of Booksellers” -(1777); his “Considerations on the Freight -and Shipping of the East India Company” (1786), -and “An Author’s Conduct to the Public, stated in the -Behaviour of Dr. William Cullen” (1784)—acquired -much transient reputation.</p> - -<p>After a career, as successful we imagine as his -wishes could desire, John Murray died on the 6th -November, 1793, leaving behind him a widow, two -daughters, and an only son, and bequeathing to the -latter a business which was destined to carry the -name of John Murray wherever the English language -was spoken, and wherever English books were read, -as the most venturesome and yet the most successful -publisher who has ever, in London at all events, -encouraged the struggles of authorship and gratified -the tastes of half a world of readers.</p> - -<p>John Murray, the son, the more immediate object<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_166">166</a></span> -of our memoir, was born in 1778, and was consequently -only fifteen at the time of his father’s death. He had -been educated primarily at the High School of Edinburgh, -doubtless with a view of keeping up the Scotch -connection, and had afterwards been removed to -“various English seminaries”—among others to Dr. -Burney’s academy at Gosport, where, through the carelessness -of a writing-master, while making a pen with -a penknife, he lost the sight of one of his eyes. The -founder of the house not only left the business to his -son, but left also a council of regency to manage -affairs until he came to the natural years of discretion. -By a last will, dated about one month before his -death, the elder John Murray appointed four executors—among -them his widow, Hester Murray, and -Archibald Paxton, who in his letter to Falconer he -had named as one of his principal advisers in adopting -the bookselling trade. For a year or two after 1793 -the name of “H. Murray” figures at the top of the -bills and trade circulars, and then disappears from -them, Mrs. Murray having, it seems, in 1795, married -“Henry Paget, Lieutenant in the West Norfolk -Militia,” and retired entirely from the management -of the business. Murray was still too young to carry -on the shop unaided, so his guardians admitted Mr. -Highley, for a long time chief factotum in the shop -and manager of the medical department, to a partnership -with him. By the agreement the title of the new -firm was to be “Murray and Highley;” the latter was -solely to conduct the business, and to receive half the -profits until young John came of age, after which they -were to enjoy equal powers and “share and share” -alike.</p> - -<div id="if_i_166" class="figcenter" style="width: 370px;"> - <img src="images/i_166.jpg" width="370" height="447" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p>John Murray—reading a newspaper.</p> - -<p>1778–1843.</p></div></div> - -<p>Mr. Highley, who seems to have been a steady,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_167">167</a></span> -plodding man with much latent exertion against all -speculative venture, did little to increase the standing -of the firm; probably he imagined that the trade in -medical books, as it was attended with the least risk, -was the most remunerative portion of the business. -His worthy soul was vexed at the anger excited by -Whitaker’s slashing articles in the <cite>English Review</cite>. -“Enraged authors,” it appears, took to sending huge -parcels of defiant, contemptuous, and, worse still, -unpaid MSS. to the publisher of the <cite>Review</cite>, complaining -of the treatment which their books suffered -at the hands of his critics, and “enraged authors” -seem at this time to have been about the only -readers of the savage periodical in question. One of -the last numbers contains a notice that all unpaid -post parcels may be inquired for again at the General -Post Office; and soon after Mr. Highley eased his -shoulders of this burden by merging the <cite>English -Review</cite> in the <cite>Analytical</cite>.</p> - -<p>Young Murray was at this time of a very different -temperament to his partner—full of youth, fire, and -energy, and uncommonly gifted with that speculative -spirit which must have caused the elder man many a -time to shake his head sagely, and to lift his gravely -deprecating eyebrows. In fact, youth and age can -never see matters with the same eyes;—the one looks -as through a telescope magnifying all things within -vision some hundred-fold; the other peers cautiously -through spectacles, misty and begrimed, more used in -guiding immediate footsteps than in gazing far ahead. -Murray had attained his majority in 1799, and in four -years the two partners resolved to sever their connection -in a pleasant and friendly manner. By the -formal deed of separation, dated 25th March, 1803,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_168">168</a></span> -Highley retained all the medical business. But the -principal act of parting was of anything but a formal -nature. They drew lots for the old house and Murray -was fortunate enough to secure the winning prize. -Highley moved to No. 24, Fleet Street, but was able -afterwards, in 1812, when Murray migrated to Albemarle Street, -to move back again, and here he increased -his medical connection, leaving a thriving -business to his son.</p> - -<p>In this very year of separation the <cite>Edinburgh -Review</cite> was started, and Murray was probably -reminded of the scheme in which his father had once -been concerned with Smellie to produce a periodical -under a similar title, but the time was not yet ripe -for his own projects.</p> - -<p>In 1806, at the age of twenty-four, he married Miss -Elliot of Edinburgh, a young lady descended from -one of the best-known publishers in the Modern -Athens, and this, perhaps, drawing his attention to -household matters, led to the publication of Mrs. -Rundell’s “Domestic Cookery Book.” It is said that -the receipts came from the note-book of the mother of -the late Admiral Burney, with whose family, be it -remembered, he had been at school at Gosport. This -was the first and one of the most lucrative “hits” -that Murray made, and perhaps in the important -items of £ <i>s.</i> <i>d.</i> rivalled “Childe Harold” itself. Byron -sings of it in playful <span class="locked">jealousy:—</span></p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="iq">“Along thy sprucest book-shelves shine<br /></span> -<span class="i0">The works thou deemest most divine,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">The Art of Cookery and mine,<br /></span> -<span class="i18">My Murray!”<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>Murray’s ambition however was not to be satisfied -with the sop of a successful cookery book. His<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_169">169</a></span> -marriage may be supposed to have strengthened his -interests in the Scotch metropolis, for in the following -year we find Constable offering him a fourth share in -Scott’s forthcoming poem of “Marmion.” “I am,” -writes Murray on the 6th Feb., 1807, “truly sensible -of the kind remembrance of me in your liberal purchase. -You have rendered Mr. Miller no less happy -by your admission of him; and we both view it as -honourable, profitable, and glorious to be concerned -in the publication of a new poem by Walter Scott.” -For an account of the success of “Marmion” we must -refer the reader to the life of Archibald Constable; it -is enough for our present purpose to know that -Murray afterwards said that this fourth share, for which -he paid £250, brought him in a return of fifty-fold.</p> - -<p>The publication of “Marmion” was followed by a -connection with Scott, who in the succeeding year -edited for him Strutt’s “Queen Hoo Hall.”</p> - -<p>Scott had before this been concerned with Campbell -in a projected series of “Biographies of the Poets,” which -had however come to nothing. Murray now thought -that Scott’s talents, and more especially perhaps his -name, would bestow certain success upon the project; -and we find Campbell, who had just made a “poet’s -marriage”—with love enough in his heart and genius -enough in his brain, but “with only fifty pounds in -his writing desk”—inditing to Scott as <span class="locked">follows:—</span></p> - -<blockquote> - -<p>“<span class="smcap">My dear Scott</span>,—A very excellent and gentlemanly -man—albeit a bookseller—Murray of Fleet -Street, is willing to give for our joint ‘Lives of the Poets,’ -on the plan we proposed to the trade a twelvemonth -ago, a thousand pounds.... Murray is the only gentleman -in the trade except Constable.... I may perhaps<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_170">170</a></span> -also except Hood. I have seldom seen a pleasanter -man to deal with. Our names are what he principally -wants, especially <em>yours</em>.... I do not wish even in -confidence to say anything ill of the London booksellers -beyond their deserts; but I can assure you -that to compare this offer of Murray’s with their usual -offers is magnanimous indeed. Longman and Rees -and a few of the great booksellers have literally -monopolized the trade, and the business of literature -is getting a dreadful one indeed. The Row folks have -done nothing for me yet; I know not what they intend. -The fallen prices of literature—which is getting -worse by the horrible complexion of the times—make -me often rather gloomy at the life I am likely to lead. -You may guess, therefore, my anxiety to close with -this proposal; and you may think me charitable indeed -to retain myself from wishing that you were as poor as -myself, that you might have motives to lend your aid.”</p></blockquote> - -<p>Scott, however, was too busy on higher paid -work and was obliged to decline the offer, and -for the present Campbell went back to his “hack-work.” -Poor Campbell had suffered much from the -publishers. His “Pleasures of Hope” had been rejected -by every bookseller in Glasgow and Edinburgh; -not one of them would even risk paper and printing -upon the chance of its success. At last Messrs. Mundell -and Son, printers to the University of Glasgow, -with much reluctance undertook its publication, upon -the liberal condition of allowing the author fifty copies -at trade price, and, in the event of its reaching a -second edition, a gratuity of ten pounds. A few years -afterwards, when Campbell was present at a literary -dinner party, he was asked to give a toast, and without -a moment’s hesitation he proposed “Bonaparte.”<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_171">171</a></span> -Glasses were put down untouched, and shouts of “The -Ogre!” resounded. “Yes, gentlemen,” said Campbell -gravely, “here is to Bonaparte; he has just shot a -bookseller!” Amid shouts of applause, for the dinner -was in “Bohemia,” the glasses were jangled and the -toast was drank, for the news had but just arrived -that Palm, a bookseller of Nuremburg, had been shot -by the Emperor’s orders.</p> - -<p>Constable scarcely thought, when he offered the -fourth share of “Marmion” to Murray, that he was -fostering a dangerous rival. Yet in the very year -after the publication of “Marmion” he was projecting -a rival quarterly, and the following letter to Canning, -first printed in “Barrow’s Autobiography,” shows that -Murray is entitled to the whole credit of the new -scheme.</p> - -<blockquote> -<p class="sigright"> -“September 25th, 1807. -</p> - -<p>“<span class="smcap">Sir</span>,—I venture to address you upon a subject -that is perhaps not undeserving of one moment of -your attention.</p> - -<p>“There is a work entitled the <cite>Edinburgh Review</cite>, -written with such unquestionable talent that it has -already attained an extent of circulation not equalled -by any similar publication. The principles of this -work are, however, so radically bad, that I have been -led to consider the effect which such sentiments, so -generally diffused, are likely to produce, and to think -that some means equally popular ought to be adopted -to counteract their dangerous tendency. But the -publication in question is conducted with so much -ability, and is sanctioned and circulated with such -high and decisive authority by the party of whose -opinions it is the organ, that there is little hope of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_172">172</a></span> -producing against it any effectual opposition, unless it -arise from you, sir, and from your friends. Should you, -sir, think the idea worthy of encouragement I should, -with equal pride and willingness, engage my arduous -exertions to promote its success; but as my object -is nothing short of producing a work of the greatest -talent and importance, I shall entertain it no longer, -if it be not so fortunate as to obtain the high patronage -which I have thus, sir, taken the liberty to solicit.</p> - -<p>“Permit me to add, sir, that the person who thus -addresses you is no adventurer, but a man of some -property, including a business that has been established -for nearly half a century. I therefore trust -that my application will be attributed to its proper -motives, and that your goodness will at least pardon -its intrusion.</p> - -<p class="sigright"> -<span class="l2">“I have the honour to be, Sir, &c., &c.,</span><br /> -“<span class="smcap">John Murray</span>.” -</p></blockquote> - -<p>Canning read the letter, and though for the present -it was put away in his desk unanswered, the contents -were not forgotten, for a few years before this he had -heard Murray’s name mentioned in a very honourable -way. Some Etonians, among them Canning’s nephew, -had started a periodical called the <cite>Miniature</cite>, which -brought them some fame, but left them under a pecuniary -loss. Murray, with his usual good nature, and -with something of the tact which afterwards made -him so many powerful friends, took all copies off their -hands, paid all their expenses, and though he found -little demand for the work, offered to print a new -edition. This was a trait of character that, with a -clear-headed, far-seeing man like Canning, would probably -go far. As yet, however, the Principal Secretary<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_173">173</a></span> -for Foreign Affairs, though he gave the matter -careful consideration, did not care to commit himself -upon paper.</p> - -<p>Two months, however, before this letter Scott and -Southey had been corresponding about the <cite>Edinburgh -Review</cite>, Southey stating that he felt himself unable to -contribute to a periodical of such political views, and -Scott heartily agreeing in deprecating the general -tone of the <cite>Review</cite>.</p> - -<p>Early in 1808, a very severe article came out in -the <cite>Review</cite> anent “Marmion.” Murray pricked up -his ears, and, as he afterwards told Lockhart, “When -I read the article on ‘Marmion,’ and another on -general politics in the same number of the <cite>Review</cite> I -said to myself, ‘Walter Scott has feelings both as a -gentleman and as a Tory, which those people must -now have wounded. The alliance between him and -the whole clique of the <cite>Edinburgh Review</cite>, the proprietor -included, is shaken,’” “and,” adds Lockhart, -“as far at least as the political part of the affair was -concerned, John Murray’s sagacity was not at fault.”</p> - -<p>Murray saw that the right way to approach Scott -was through the Ballantynes’ printing press, in which -Scott at this time was a secret partner, and in which -he always expressed openly the greatest interest. So -urgent did Murray’s tenders of work become that a -meeting at Ferrybridge, in Yorkshire, was arranged; -and here Murray received from Ballantyne the gratifying -news that Scott had quarrelled with Constable, -and that it was resolved to establish a rival firm. -Murray, who never wasted an opportunity from lack -of decision, posted on to Ashestiel and had an interview -with Scott himself, and the proposal of a new -quarterly Tory periodical was eagerly snatched at.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_174">174</a></span> -Strangely enough Murray arrived just as Scott, after -reading an article on Spanish matters, had written to -have his name erased from the list of subscribers to -the <cite>Edinburgh</cite>. Murray was able to announce, too, -that Gifford, the editor of the late <cite>Anti-Jacobin</cite>, had -promised co-operation, and in a letter to Gifford we -see Scott’s satisfaction clearly <span class="locked">enough:—</span></p> - -<p>“John Murray of Fleet Street, a young bookseller -of capital and enterprize, and with more good sense -and propriety of sentiment than fall to the share of -most of the trade, made me a visit at Ashestiel a few -weeks ago, and as I found he had had some communication -with you on the subject, I did not hesitate to -communicate my sentiments to him on these and some -other points of the plan, and I thought his ideas were -most liberal and satisfactory.”</p> - -<p>Soon after Canning wrote to the Lord Advocate -on the subject, and the Lord Advocate communicated -with Scott, who recommended that in all things save -politics the <cite>Edinburgh</cite> should be taken as a model, -especially in the liberal payment of <em>all</em> contributors, -and in the unfettered judgment of the editor. Gifford -was unanimously fixed on as fitted for the editorial -chair. That he possessed vigour was apparent from -his success—a plough-boy, a sailor, a cobbler, then a -classical scholar, the translator of “Juvenal,” the -biting satirist of the “Baviad and Mæviad,” the brilliant -editor of the <cite>Anti-Jacobin</cite>, who so well suited to out-rival -Jeffrey?</p> - -<p>All the talent available was secured. Scott came -to town to be present at the birth of the expected -prodigy, and well he might, for three of the articles -in the first number were his own. Rose, and young -Disraeli, and Hookham Frere, and Robert Southey—<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_175">175</a></span>the -future back-bone of the <cite>Review</cite>—were all represented, -and on 1st February, 1809, the first number -of the <cite>Quarterly Review</cite> was published. According -to tradition there were high jinks at Murray’s shop -in Fleet Street when the first numbers arrived from -the binders; a triumphal column of the books “was -raised aloft in solemn joy in the counting-house, the -best wine in the cellar was uncorked, and glasses in -hand John Murray and assistants danced jubilant -round the pile.” The pile, however, did not long remain, -as so many famous columns have done to mock -the hope of its builders, but the whole issue was sold -almost immediately, and a second edition was called -for.</p> - -<p>To the second number Canning himself contributed, -and received his payment of ten guineas per sheet. -Barrow, too, was introduced, who contributed, in all, -no less than one hundred and ninety-five articles, “on -every subject, from ‘China’ to ‘Life Assurance.’” -After Barrow and Croker, Southey was, perhaps, the -most prolific; to the first hundred and twenty-six -numbers he contributed ninety-four articles—many of -them of great permanent value—and to him Murray -uniformly exhibited a generosity almost without -parallel. For an article on the “Lives of Nelson,” he -received twenty guineas a sheet, double what Southey -himself acknowledged to be ample, and he was offered -£100 to enlarge the article into a volume, and having -exceeded the estimated quantity of print, Murray -paid him double the amount stipulated, adding -another 200 guineas when the book was revised for -the “Family Library.” For the review of the “Life -of Wellington,” Southey got £100, and he thought the -sum so large that he himself calls it “a ridiculous<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_176">176</a></span> -price;” yet this ridiculous price he continued to -receive, and he was in the habit of saying that he -was as much overpaid for his articles by Murray, as -he was underpaid for the rest of his work for other -publishers. “Madoc,” of which he had great hopes, -brought him £3 19<i>s.</i> 1<i>d.</i> for the first twelvemonth, -and the three volumes of the “History of the Brazils,” -scarcely paid their expenses of publication.</p> - -<p>Of the other contributors it is unnecessary to speak -fully here; but the <cite>Review</cite>, now that it was established, -gave Murray at once a pre-eminence in the -London trade, by bringing him into connection with -the chief Conservative statesmen, and with the principal -literary men in England.</p> - -<p>The alliance that Murray had formed with the -Ballantynes was soon dissolved, for Murray, though -venturous enough, was a man of business, and their -loose, slip-shod way of general dealings, did not at all -satisfy his requirements. William Blackwood, then a -dealer in antiquarian books, was chosen instead as -Edinburgh agent, and, in conjunction with him, Murray -purchased the first series of the “Tales of My Landlord.” -This was in 1816, and some payments for -<cite>Quarterly Review</cite> articles was well-nigh the last business -communication between Scott and Murray.</p> - -<p>Now that Murray had so completely rivalled Constable -in one line—that of the <cite>Review</cite>—he wished to -rival him in another. Constable had made an apparent -fortune out of Scott’s poetry, in which Murray -had in one case, to the extent of one quarter, participated. -Scott had, it is true, left Constable, but was -for the present unalienable from the Ballantynes, who -at this moment enjoyed the dubious services of a -London branch.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_177">177</a></span> -Looking round among the young and rising writers -of the day, for one who was likely to enhance the -fame and increase the wealth of his house, Murray -mentally selected Lord Byron, then known, not only -as the noble poetaster of the “Hours of Idleness,” but as -the bitterest satirist who had dipped pen in gall since -Pope had lashed the hack-writers of his time in the -“Dunciad.” Murray made no secret of his wish to -secure Byron as a client, and the rumour of this desire -reached the ears of Mr. Dallas, the novelist, who -happened at that very moment to be seeking a publisher -for a new poem in two cantos, by his distant -cousin and dear college chum, Lord Byron. Byron -had just arrived from the East, bringing with him a -satire, entitled “Hints from Horace,” of which he was -not a little hopeful, and also, as he casually mentions, -a “new attempt in the Spenserian stanza.” Dallas -read the “new attempt,” and, enthralled by its beauty, -forthwith undertook securing its publication. But, -even in those days of venturous publishers and successful -poems, the matter looked easier than it proved. -Longman declined to publish a poem by a writer who -had so recently lashed his own favourite authors. -Miller, of Abermarle Street, a notable man in his day, -and generous withal (had he not given the widow of -the late Charles James Fox £1500 for her defunct -husband’s historical fragments, and did he not eagerly -snatch at one-fourth share of “Marmion?”) would -have none of it, his noble patron, Lord Elgin, being -abused in the very first canto. Dallas then appears -to have heard a rumour of Murray’s willingness; the -manuscript was taken to him, and £600 was offered, -there and then, for the copyright. Byron was at that -time unwilling to receive money for work done solely<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_178">178</a></span> -for love and fame; he had lately attacked Scott in a -directly personal manner, as “Apollo’s venal <span class="locked">son:”—</span></p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="iq">“Though Murray with his Miller may combine<br /></span> -<span class="i0">To yield thy Muse just half-a-crown per line!”<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="in0">and generously made a present of the copyright to -Dallas—a brother author, less gifted in purse and -brain—and thus the bargain was concluded. This -was the commencement of a friendship between author -and publisher which has, perhaps, only one parallel in -literary annals—that of Scott and Constable. From -the letters between Byron and Murray we can discern -clearly that the connection, tinged as it was with -much generous feeling on both sides, was far from -being of a purely commercial nature.</p> - -<p>“Childe Harold,” for this, of course, is the poem -referred to, was “put in hand” at once. Quartos -were then in vogue for all books likely to attract -attention, and Murray insisted that profit as well as -portliness was to be found therein. Byron was for -octavos and popularity; but as he said wofully at -the end of one of his letters, “one must obey one’s -bookseller.” During the progress of the printing, -Byron would lounge into the shop in Fleet Street, -fresh from Angelo’s and Jackson’s. “His great -amusement,” says Murray, “was in making thrusts -with his stick, in fencer’s fashion, at the ‘sprucebooks,’ -as he called them, which I had arranged upon my -shelves. He disordered a row for me in a short time, -always hitting the volume he had singled out for the -exercise of his skill. I was sometimes, as you will -guess, glad to get rid of him.” As for correction, -Byron was willing enough to defer at any time to -Murray’s advice, upon all questions but politics,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_179">179</a></span> -though only to a limited extent: “If you don’t like -it, say so, and I’ll alter it, but <em>don’t</em> suggest anything -instead.” In one letter we find a strange absence of a -young writer’s anxiety anent the importance of typography. -“The printer may place the notes in his -<em>own way</em>, or in any <em>way</em>, so that they are out of my -way.” In another: “<em>You have looked at it?</em> to much -purpose, to allow so stupid a blunder to stand; it is -not ‘courage,’ but ‘carnage,’ and if you don’t want -to see me cut my own throat see it altered!” Again, -but later, “If every syllable were a rattlesnake, or -every letter a pestilence, they should not be expunged.” -“I do believe the Devil never created or -perverted such a fiend as the fool of a printer.” “For -God’s sake,” he writes in another place, “instruct -Mr. Murray not to allow his shopman to call the work -‘Child of Harrow’s Pilgrimage!!!’ as he has done to -some of my astonished friends, who wrote to inquire -after my sanity on the occasion, as well they might!” -To John Murray we imagine Lord Byron must have -appeared as much of a contradiction as he did to the -world outside.</p> - -<p>Byron was extremely anxious that no underhand -means should be used to foster the success of “Childe -Harold.” “Has Murray,” he writes to Dallas, “shown -the work to any one? He may—but I will have no -traps for applause.” On receipt of a rumour from -Dallas, he indites a stormy letter to Murray, absolutely -forbidding that Gifford should be allowed to -look at the book before publication. Before the letter -arrived, however, Gifford had expressed a very strong -opinion, indeed, as to the merit of the poem, which he -declared to “be equal to anything of the present day.” -Byron wrote again to Murray, “as never publisher<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_180">180</a></span> -was written to before by author:”—“It is bad enough -to be a scribbler, without having recourse to such -shifts to escape from or deprecate censure. It is -anticipating, begging, kneeling, adulating—the devil! -the devil! the devil! and all without my wish, and -contrary to my desire.”</p> - -<p>In the early spring of 1812, “Childe Harold” was -ready, and three days before its appearance, Byron -made his maiden speech in the House of Lords; a -speech which was received with attention and hailed -with applause, from those whose applause was in itself -fame. It is needless here to recapitulate the success -of “Childe Harold,” how, on the day after publication, -Lord Byron awoke, and, as he himself phrased it, -found himself famous.</p> - -<p>The publication of “Childe Harold,” was not the -only important event of this year, 1812, to the subject -of our memoir. In this same year, Murray purchased -the stock-in-trade of worthy Mr. Miller, of 50, Albemarle -Street, and migrated thither, leaving the old -shop, east of Temple Bar, to be re-occupied by-and-by -(in 1832) by the Highley family.</p> - -<p>Here it was, at Albemarle Street, that Murray attained -the highest pinnacle of fame on which ever -publisher stood. His drawing-room, at four o’clock, -became the favourite resort of all the talent in literature -and in art that London then possessed, and there -<em>were</em> giants in those days. There it was his “custom -of an afternoon,” to gather together such men as Byron, -Scott, Moore, Campbell, Southey, Gifford, Hallam, -Lockhart, Washington Irving, and Mrs. Somerville; -and, more than this, he invited such artists as Laurence, -Wilkie, Phillips, Newton, and Pickersgill to meet -them and to paint them, that they might hang for<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_181">181</a></span> -ever on his walls. Famous tales, too, are told of the -“publisher’s dinners;” of tables surrounded as never -any king’s table but that of the “Emperor of the -West’s” had ever been. As Byron makes Murray say, -in his mock epistle to Dr. <span class="locked">Palidori—</span></p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="iq">“The room’s so full of wits and bards,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Crabbes, Campbells, Crokers, Freres, and Wards,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">And others, neither bards nor wits,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">My humble tenement admits<br /></span> -<span class="i0">All persons in the dress of gent,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">From Mr. Hammond to Dog Dent.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">A party dines with me to-day,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">All clever men who make their way;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Crabbe, Malcolm, Hamilton, and Chantrey<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Are all partakers of my pantry.<br /></span> -</div> - -<div class="tb">* <span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">*</span></div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">My room’s so full—we’ve Gifford here,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Reading MS. with Hookham Frere,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Pronouncing on the nouns and particles<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Of some of our forthcoming articles.”<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>Mr. Planché, in his recently-published “Recollections,” -gives us an amusing account of one of these -literary réunions; this time, however, at the house of -Horace Twiss. Murray, James Smith, and others remained -in the dining-room very late, and the party -grew noisy and merry, for Hook was giving some of -his wonderful extempore songs. Pressed for another, -he declared that the subject should be “John Murray;” -but the “Emperor of the West” objected most vehemently, -and vainly chased Hook round the table in furtive -endeavours to stop a recitative, of which Planché -only remembers the <span class="locked">beginning:—</span></p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="iq">“My friend, John Murray, I see, has arrived at the head of the table,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">And the wonder is, at this time of night, that John Murray should be able.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">He’s an excellent hand at supper, and not a bad hand at lunch,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">But the devil of John Murray is, that he never will pass the punch!”<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_182">182</a></span> -Among the many instances of Murray’s munificence -was the offer of £3000 to Crabbe for his “Tales of the -Hall,” and the copyright of his prior works. Some -zealous friends, however, thought this too small a sum, -and opened negotiations with another firm, but the -other firm offered considerably less; and Crabbe, -fearing that Murray might consider the bargain as out -of his hands entirely now, went straightway to Albemarle -Street with Rogers and Moore as mediators. -Murray, however, assured them that he had from the -first considered the matter as entirely settled.</p> - -<p>Lord Byron’s personal connection with the Albemarle -Street clique was of comparatively short existence, for, -in 1816, he left England for the last time; but to the -time of his death he kept up a regular correspondence -with Murray of the frankest and most cordial kind. -Now, Murray hearing that Lord Byron was in difficulties, -sends him a draft for £1500, promising another -for the same amount in the course of a few months, -and offering to sell the copyright of his works for his -use, if that were not sufficient. Then, again, in a -freak, Byron presents Murray with “Parisina” and -the “Siege of Corinth,” and returns the cheque for -£1000 which the publisher had forwarded.</p> - -<p>“Your offer is liberal in the extreme, and much -more than the two poems can possibly be worth; but -I cannot accept it, nor will not. You are most welcome -to them as an addition to the collected volumes, -without any demand or expectation on my part whatever.</p> - -<p>“P.S.—I have enclosed your draft, <em>torn</em>, for fear of -accidents by the way. I wish you would not throw -temptation in mine; it is not from a disdain of the -universal idol, nor from a present superfluity of his<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_183">183</a></span> -treasures, I can assure you, that I refuse to worship -him; but what is right is right, and must not yield -to circumstances.”</p> - -<p>The following is in a somewhat different <span class="locked">tone:—</span></p> - -<p>“You offer 1500 guineas for the new canto of (”Don -Juan“). I won’t take it. I ask 2500 guineas for it, -which you will either give or not, as you think proper. -If Mr. Moore is to have 3000 for “Lalla,” &c., if Mr. -Crabbe is to have 3000 for his prose or poetry, I ask -the aforesaid price for mine.” (“Beppo” was eventually -thrown into the bargain.) “You are an excellent -fellow, <i xml:lang="it" lang="it">mio caro</i> Murray, but there is still a little leaven -of Fleet Street about you now and then—a crumb of -the old loaf.... I have a great respect for your good -and gentlemanly qualities, and return your friendship -towards me; and although I think you are a little -spoiled by ‘villanous company,’ with persons of honour -about town, authors, and fashionables, together with -your ‘I am just going to call at Carlton House, are -you walking that way?’—I say, notwithstanding -‘pictures, taste, Shakespeare, and the musical glasses,’ -you deserve the esteem of those whose esteem is worth -having.”</p> - -<p>Now, like a spoiled child, Byron wishes back all his -copyrights, and intends to suppress all that he has -ever written, and Murray has to chide him and coax -him, with much disinterestedness, urging him to -labour steadily for a few years upon some work -worthy of his talents, and fit to be a true monument -of his fame.</p> - -<p>Some of Byron’s letters are in an earnest, many in a -playful, mood, most in prose, but sometimes the poet -breaks into a charming doggerel of delicious “chaff.” -Here is one <span class="locked">specimen:—</span></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_184">184</a></span></p> - -<p class="p1 center">“TO MR. MURRAY.</p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="iq">“Strahan, Tonson, Lintot of the times,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Patron and publisher of rhymes,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">For thee the bard of Pindus climbs,<br /></span> -<span class="i22">My Murray.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="iq">“To thee, with hope and terror dumb,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">The unfledged MS. authors come;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Thou printest all—and sellest some—<br /></span> -<span class="i22">My Murray.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="iq">“Upon thy tables’ baize so green,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">The last new <cite>Quarterly</cite> is seen,—<br /></span> -<span class="i0">But where is thy new magazine,<br /></span> -<span class="i22">My Murray?<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="iq">“Along thy sprucest bookshelves shine<br /></span> -<span class="i0">The works thou deemest most divine,—<br /></span> -<span class="i0">The ‘Art of Cookery,’ and mine,<br /></span> -<span class="i22">My Murray.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="iq">“Tours, Travels, Essays, too, I wist,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">And Sermons to thy mill bring grist;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">And then thou hast the ‘Army List,’<br /></span> -<span class="i22">My Murray.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="iq">“And Heaven forbid I should conclude<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Without the ‘Board of Longitude,’<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Although this narrow paper would,<br /></span> -<span class="i22">My Murray!”<br /></span> -</div> - -<div class="lm2"><span class="smcap">Venice</span>, March 25, 1818. -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>There was no end to Byron’s wit and playfulness. -Sometimes Murray would act as a mentor and adviser -in more serious matters, but his advice would be -pleasantly turned off with a jest. At the time when -Byron was most calumniated, when there were cruel -stories afloat about the life he led and the opinions he -held (though none so cruel as have since been promulgated -by a well-known American authoress), Murray’s -soul was comforted by the present of a Bible—a gift -from the illustrious poet. “Could this man,” he asked, -“be a deist, an atheist, or worse, when he sent Bibles<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_185">185</a></span> -about to his publishers?” Turning it over in wonderment, -however, some inquisitive member of his four-o’clock -clique found a marginal correction—“Now -Barabbas was a robber,” altered into “Now Barabbas -was a <em>publisher</em>.” A cruel stab, a “palpable hit,” -maybe, at some publishers, but, as regards Murray, an -uproarious joke to be gleefully repeated to every -comer. As a refutation of this playful libel, and as -the clearest and most succinct way of showing what -amounts of money Byron really did receive, we append -the following <span class="locked">account:—</span></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_186">186</a></span></p> - -<table summary="payments to Byron"> - <tr> - <td colspan="2"> </td> - <td class="tdc in1">£</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">1807</td> - <td class="tdl"><cite>Hours of Idleness</cite></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">1809</td> - <td class="tdl"><cite>English Bards and Scotch Reviewers</cite></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">1812</td> - <td class="tdl"><cite>Childe Harold</cite>, I. II.[A]</td> - <td class="tdr">600</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">1813</td> - <td class="tdl"><cite>The Gaiour</cite></td> - <td class="tdr">525</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc rpad1">”</td> - <td class="tdl"><cite>Bride of Abydos</cite></td> - <td class="tdr">525</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">1814</td> - <td class="tdl"><cite>Corsair</cite><a id="FNanchor_15" href="#Footnote_15" class="fnanchor">15</a></td> - <td class="tdr">525</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc rpad1">”</td> - <td class="tdl"><cite>Lara</cite></td> - <td class="tdr">700</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">1815</td> - <td class="tdl"><cite>Hebrew Melodies</cite><a id="FNanchor_16" href="#Footnote_16" class="fnanchor">16</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">1816</td> - <td class="tdl"><cite>Childe Harold</cite>, III.</td> - <td class="tdr">1,575</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc rpad1">”</td> - <td class="tdl"><cite>Siege of Corinth</cite></td> - <td class="tdr">525</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc rpad1">”</td> - <td class="tdl"><cite>Parisina</cite></td> - <td class="tdr">525</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc rpad1">”</td> - <td class="tdl"><cite>Prisoner of Chillon</cite></td> - <td class="tdr">525</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">1817</td> - <td class="tdl"><cite>Manfred</cite></td> - <td class="tdr">315</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc rpad1">”</td> - <td class="tdl"><cite>Lament of Tasso</cite></td> - <td class="tdr">315</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">1818</td> - <td class="tdl"><cite>Beppo</cite></td> - <td class="tdr">525</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc rpad1">”</td> - <td class="tdl"><cite>Childe Harold</cite>, IV.</td> - <td class="tdr">2,100</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">1819</td> - <td class="tdl"><cite>Mazeppa</cite></td> - <td class="tdr">525</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc rpad1">”</td> - <td class="tdl"><cite>Don Juan</cite>, I. II.</td> - <td class="tdr">1,525</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">1820</td> - <td class="tdl"><cite>Don Juan</cite>, III. IV. V.</td> - <td class="tdr">1,525</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc rpad1">”</td> - <td class="tdl"><cite>Marino Faliero</cite></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc rpad1">”</td> - <td class="tdl"><cite>Doge of Venice</cite></td> - <td class="tdr">1,050</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">1821</td> - <td class="tdl"><cite>Sardanapalus</cite>, <cite>Cain</cite>, and <cite>Foscari</cite></td> - <td class="tdr">1,100</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc rpad1">”</td> - <td class="tdl"><cite>Vision of Judgment</cite><a id="FNanchor_17" href="#Footnote_17" class="fnanchor">17</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">1822</td> - <td class="tdl"><cite>Werner</cite>; <cite>Deformed Transformed</cite>; <cite>Heaven and Earth</cite>,<br />to which were added <cite>Hours of Idleness</cite>,<br /><cite>English Bards</cite>, <cite>Hints from Horace</cite>, &c.</td> - <td class="tdr">3,885</td></tr> - <tr> - <td> </td> - <td class="tdl">Sundries</td> - <td class="tdr">450</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">1822</td> - <td class="tdl"><cite>Don Juan</cite>, VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. XI.</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">1823</td> - <td class="tdl"><cite>Age of Bronze</cite>, <cite>The Island</cite>, and more cantos of<br /><cite>Don Juan</cite></td></tr> - <tr> - <td> </td> - <td class="tdl in10">Total</td> - <td class="tdr bt">£19,340</td></tr> - <tr> - <td> </td> - <td class="tdl"><cite>Life</cite>, by Thomas Moore</td> - <td class="tdr">4,200</td></tr> - <tr> - <td> </td> - <td> </td> - <td class="tdr bt">£23,540</td></tr> -</table> - -<p>Murray’s kindness to Byron may be said to have -displayed itself even after his death. In 1821, Byron -had given his friend Moore his autobiography, partly -as a means of justifying his character, partly to enrich -his friend. Moore, pressed as usual for money, made -over the MS. to Murray for the sum of 2000 guineas, -undertaking to edit it in case of survivorship. He -subsequently intended to modify the transaction by a -clause to be inserted in the deed, by which he, Moore, -should have the option of redeeming it within three -months after Byron’s death. When Byron did die, in -1824, the MS. was given to Gifford to read, and found -to be far too gross for publication, and, spite of Moore’s -wish to modify it, Sir John Hobhouse and Mrs. Leigh -insisted upon its being destroyed. Murray offered to -give it up upon repayment of the 2000 guineas; and -after an unpleasant scene in Murray’s shop, the MS. -was destroyed by Wilmot Horton and Colonel Doyle, -with the full consent of Moore, who repaid Murray the -sum advanced by a draft on Rogers.</p> - -<p>No sooner had it been burnt than it was found that, -through the want of the clause above named, Moore’s -interest in the MS. had entirely ceased at Byron’s<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_187">187</a></span> -death; and though Moore, nobly and firmly, refused to -receive the money back from Byron’s friends, he chose -to consider for a time that Murray had wronged him.</p> - -<p>He took a proposal to Longman of a “Life of -Byron,” and the matter was partially arranged, when -Moore, urged on both by his feelings and his friends, -seeing Murray in the street, started after him. “Mr. -Murray, some friends of yours and mine seem to think -that we should no longer continue on these terms. I -therefore proffer you my hand, and most heartily forgive -and forget all that has passed.” Murray’s face -brightened into smiles, and on parting he said, “God -bless you, sir, God bless you!” Longman agreed, -upon this, that Murray was the publisher to whom a -life of Byron most properly belonged, and Murray -eventually gave £4200 for one of the most delightful -and entertaining biographies in our literature—a companion -volume, in every way, to Boswell’s “Johnson” -and Lockhart’s “Scott.” Murray, in this transaction, -seems to have behaved with generous firmness. Now -that Byron was dead, the autobiography would certainly -have proved the most remunerative of all his -works; and Moore himself, in his Diary, ultimately -confessed that “Murray’s conduct” had been admirable -throughout.</p> - -<p>In this year, 1824, not only did Murray lose the -services and the friendship of his best client, Lord -Byron, who died at Missolonghi on the 19th of April, -but Gifford, the able editor of the <cite>Quarterly</cite>, was -incapacitated for further work, and resigned his post. -Mr. John Coleridge, then a young barrister, succeeded, -but though accomplished, clever, and able, he was -“scarcely strong enough for the place;” Southey -found out his incapacity for saying “no,” and under<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_188">188</a></span> -his auspicious reign began to make the <cite>Review</cite> a -quarterly issue of his own miscellaneous works. -Strangely enough in the mourning coach that followed -Gifford to his grave Murray drove with the man who -was destined as an editor to rival the powers of the -upbuilder of the <cite>Quarterly’s</cite> reputation—this of course -was John Gibson Lockhart, a young Edinburgh -advocate, the son-in-law of Scott, and more than that, -the author of “Peter’s Letters,” of “Valerius,” of -“Reginald Dalton,” the translator of “Frederick -Schlegel,” and the “Ancient Spanish Ballads,” and -the noted contributor to <cite>Blackwood</cite>. Moore first -heard of the arrangement down at Abbotsford, when -Scott, after dinner, hopeful of his daughter’s interests, -and proud, may be, of his son-in-law, grew confidential. -“Lockhart was about to undertake the <cite>Quarterly</cite>, has -agreed for five years; salary £1200 a year, and if he -writes a certain number of articles it will be £1500 -a year.” In this year, though the prospects of the -<cite>Quarterly</cite> were ably secured, Murray met with the -only really adverse turn of fortune, to which through -a long career, and a bold one, he was ever subject. -The terrible commercial crisis which had been so long -overhanging, burst at last into a deluge of ruin—Constable’s -house was swept away, the Ballantynes were for -the moment overthrown, and Scott had to give up his -lordly estates of Abbotsford, and generously work his -life out to redeem a name on which he deemed a -commercial slur had been cast. Murray, though he -suffered by the panic, as all must suffer in the time of -a general epidemic, was not severely hurt. Still, -looking back now with the wisdom of wiseacres, who -think we could have prophesied easily the actual events -that did occur, the time does seem a strange one in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_189">189</a></span> -which to start a new venture. This was nothing less -than the establishment of a new Conservative journal, -which was to rival the <cite>Times</cite> as the <cite>Quarterly</cite> rivalled -the <cite>Edinburgh</cite>. According to the current rumour, it -was young Disraeli (now the wily and veteran leader -of the Conservative party) who first proposed the -scheme; and, according to current rumour still, it -was under his editorship, and with Dr. Maginn as -chief foreign correspondent, that the <cite>Representative</cite> -(price sevenpence daily) was started on the 26th of -January, 1826. The journal was able, well-informed, -and well-written, but the <cite>Times</cite> had a monopoly, and -the Conservative party were not strong enough to -support a first-rate organ of their own, and after a -brief existence of six months, the <cite>Representative</cite> gave -up the struggle. Murray was wont in future days, -when rash young speculators urged the necessity of -embracing some opening for a new daily paper, to -point to a ledger on his book-shelves and say grimly, -“Twenty thousand pounds lie buried there!”</p> - -<p>The question as to who was the actual editor of the -<cite>Representative</cite> has never been definitely settled. Mr. -Disraeli, until the last year, never disclaimed the supposed -connection, and silence was considered as proverbially -affirmative. Lockhart, too, has been put forward -as a claimant. The nearest approach to any -opinion that might have been final was given by the -late James Hannay in the pages of the <cite>Edinburgh -Courant</cite>. “We had the best authority for what we -said—nay, the only authority—since even to Mr. -Murray the question of the <cite>Representative’s</cite> editorship -is not a personal one. We now add that Mr. Disraeli’s -long silence in the matter admits of an explanation -which will gratify his admirers of all parties. He hesitated<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_190">190</a></span> -to come forward with any eagerness to make a -denial, which might have been interpreted as springing -from a wish to disclaim newspaper association, but -when the story was passing into literature in such a book -as the biography of an eminent British writer, it was -time to protest against any further propagation of the -story, once and for all.” But this “best and only authority” -did nothing to render the question less intricate, -for when Mr. Grant published the first instalment of -his “History of the Newspaper Press,” he thoroughly -outdid Hannay, and with that ingenuous facility of -arbitrating over moot points, and that mysterious -power of catching rumours, as boys catch moths, and -pinning them down in his collection under the general -label of “facts,” gave full details of Mr. Disraeli’s connection -with the <cite>Representative</cite>, the amount of his -salary, together with a luxurious description of the -splendours of his editorial offices! Mr. Disraeli roused -at last, replied curtly that the whole narrative was entirely -imaginary, and utterly devoid of fact or foundation -in any one point. He has since then in a letter, -upon a similar question, written by his solicitor to the -<cite>Leisure Hour</cite>, declared <span class="locked">that:—</span></p> - -<p>“Mr. Disraeli never in his life required or received -any remuneration for anything he ever wrote, except -for books bearing his name.</p> - -<p>“Mr. Disraeli never was editor of the <cite>Star Chamber</cite>, -or any other newspaper, journal, review, or -magazine, or anything else.”</p> - -<p>To return, however, to legitimate book-publishing. -About this time Campbell’s old scheme of “Biographies -of the Poets” was revived, re-appearing under the -title of “Specimens of the British Poets;” and Murray -was so pleased with the work that he made the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_191">191</a></span> -stipulated sum of £500 into double that amount. To -Allen Cunningham, too, he gave £50 per volume -additional for his “Lives of the British Artists,” and -made the payment retrospective.</p> - -<p>We could repeat five hundred anecdotes of his -liberal and kindly generosity, but our space only permits -us to record another, which it is very pleasant to -read about.</p> - -<p>It was twenty-two years since the obscure Fleet -Street bookseller had embraced the “glorious and profitable” -opportunity of taking a fourth share in “Marmion,” -and since then Sir Walter Scott had achieved -an unparalleled position in the world of English -letters, had written innumerable works, and had -earned unheard-of sums—and had been completely -ruined. With the aid of his creditors, Scott was now -seeking to recover all his copyrights for a final edition -of his collected works. All had been bought back -save this fourth share of “Marmion.” Lockhart was -commissioned by his father-in-law to inquire on what -terms the share might be re-purchased, and this was -Murray’s immediate <span class="locked">reply:—</span></p> - -<blockquote> -<p class="sigright"> -“Albemarle Street, June 8th, 1829. -</p> - -<p>“<span class="smcap">My dear Sir</span>,—Mr. Lockhart has this moment -communicated your letter respecting my fourth share -of the copyright of ‘Marmion.’ I have already been -applied to by Messrs. Constable and Messrs. Longman -to know what sum I would sell this share for; -but so highly do I estimate the honour of being, -even in so small a degree, the publisher of the author -of this poem, that no pecuniary consideration whatever -can induce me to part with it.</p> - -<p>“But there is a consideration of another kind,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_192">192</a></span> -which until now I was not aware of, which would -make it painful to me if I were to retain it longer. -I mean the knowledge of its being required by the -author, into whose hands it was spontaneously resigned -in the same instant that I read his request.</p> - -<p>“The share has been profitable to me fifty-fold -beyond what either publisher or author could have -anticipated, and, therefore, my returning it on such -an occasion, you will, I trust, do me the favour to -consider in no other light than as a mere act of grateful -acknowledgment, for benefits already received by</p> - -<p class="sigright"> -<span class="l4">“My dear Sir,</span><br /> -<span class="l1">“Your obliged and faithful Servant,</span><br /> -“<span class="smcap">John Murray</span>.” -</p></blockquote> - -<p>This noble act, we must remember, was performed -at a time when the future was anything but bright, or -at all events when the present was dismally gloomy. -“Lydia Whyte,” writes Tom Moore, “told me that -Murray was very unsuccessful of late. Besides the -failure of his <cite>Representative</cite>, the <cite>Quarterly</cite> did not -look very promising, and he was about to give up the -fine house he had taken in Whitehall, and return to -live in Albemarle-street.”</p> - -<p>Constable had, some years previous, hit upon the -idea of appealing to a public that should be numbered, -not by tens of thousands, but by hundreds of -thousands, ay, and by millions! and had just commenced -his “Miscellany.” Murray, quick to receive -a good idea, started at once into competition with his -“Family Library,” Lockhart commencing the series -with a “Life of Napoleon” and the “Court and Camp -of Bonaparte.” Cunningham followed with his “Lives -of the British Painters,” and Southey revised his “Life<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_193">193</a></span> -of Nelson,” and expanded another review article into -a “Life of Wellington,” on terms equally munificent -with the other.</p> - -<p>Cheap editions of Byron were multiplied by the -score; Landor received a thousand guineas for his -“Journals of African Travel,” and Napier another -thousand for his first volume of the “History of the -Peninsular War.” If Murray neglected opportunities, -he generally managed to retrieve them. He might -have had the “Bridgewater Treatises;” and he says, -“The ‘Rejected Addresses’ were offered me for ten -pounds, and I let them go by as the kite of the -moment. See the result! I was determined to pay -for my neglect, and I bought the remainder of the -copyright for 150 guineas.” Murray might have added -that he generously gave the Smiths a handsome share -in the ultimate profits.</p> - -<p>Sometimes, too, he had the sagacity to buy the -<em>failures</em> as well as the successes of other publishers. -Constable produced a little “History of England,” in -one small volume, which fell still-born from the press. -Murray purchased it for a trifle, re-christened it with -his usual happiness, and as “Mrs. Markham’s History -of England” the work has been an annual source of -revenue to the house, as the present Mr. Murray’s last -trade sale list would tell us.</p> - -<p>Murray was never dazzled by the fame of his Byrons, -his Moores, his Campbells, and his Crabbes, but -always recollected that “taste” is flitting, while works -that only aid the necessities of mankind are always -saleable. The “Army and Navy List” and the -“Nautical Almanack” are every whit as profitable -to-day as in the first year of their publication. Moore -tells a story that shows he could still occupy his mind<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_194">194</a></span> -as well as fill his purse with “Mrs. Rundell’s Cookery -Book.” “Called at Murray’s,” he writes in his -“Diary,” for 1831: “mentioned to him Lady -Morgan’s wish to contribute something to his -‘Family Library,’ and that she has materials ready -for the lives of five or six Dutch painters. ‘Pray, -isn’t Lady Morgan a very good cook?’ I answered -I didn’t know; but why did he ask? ‘Because,’ said -he, ‘if she would do something in that line—’ ‘Why, -you don’t mean,’ said I, ‘that she should write a -cookery book for you?’ ‘No,’ answered John, coolly, -‘not so much as that; but that she should re-edit -mine’ (Mrs. Rundell’s, by which he had made heaps -of money). Oh, that she could have heard this with -her own ears! Here ended my negotiations for her -Ladyship.”</p> - -<p>It was not merely to Englishmen that Murray extended -a helping and a generous hand. When the -first volume of the “Sketch Book,” originally -published in America, made its appearance in London, -it was declined by Murray, and Irving was about -to publish it on his own account; but after all -arrangements had been made the printer failed. -Lockhart had praised the book in <cite>Blackwood</cite>; and -Scott, seeing at once its sterling worth, with his usual -kindliness, pressed its merits upon Murray, who gave -Irving £200 for it, afterwards more than doubling the -amount. Murray’s transactions with Irving exhibit a -singular phase of the international copyright law. -This is how their account <span class="locked">stands—</span></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_195">195</a></span></p> - -<table summary="Murray-Irving account"> - <tr> - <td> </td> - <td class="tdc in1">£</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">“Sketch Book”</td> - <td class="tdr">467</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">“Bracebridge Hall”</td> - <td class="tdr">1050</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">“Tales of a Traveller”</td> - <td class="tdr">1575</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">“Life of Columbus”</td> - <td class="tdr">3150</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">“Companions of Columbus”</td> - <td class="tdr">525</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">“Conquest of Grenada”</td> - <td class="tdr">2100</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">“Tour on the Prairies”</td> - <td class="tdr">400</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">“Abbotsford and Newstead”</td> - <td class="tdr">400</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">“Legends of Spain”</td> - <td class="tdr">100</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr l2">Total</td> - <td class="tdr bt">£9767</td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="in0">These sums of money having been paid, Mr. Bohn -reprinted the volumes in a cheap edition. A law suit -was of course the result, in which Murray’s expenses -ran up to £850, and Mr. Bohn’s were probably as -heavy. The question, however, was settled amicably, -without being fought to the bitter end, and Irving -received no more money from this side the Atlantic.</p> - -<p>Most of the famous men with whom Murray had -been connected had by this time disappeared, many -of them having shed their rays meteor-like, and having -done the duty unto which they were created in a -momentary flash. The seething excitement called -into being by the throes of the first French Revolution -had subsided, and there were neither readers left to -appreciate true poetry, nor true poets remaining, with -strength of voice left in them to bring back memories -in passion-laden melodies of the troublous times they -sprung from. All, on the contrary, was quiet and -easeful—a happy time for commerce, but a barren -hour for art.</p> - -<p>Murray, skilled as any pilot in watching the direction -of the wind, turned his attention to the publication -of travels and expeditions—the very books for a -fireside afternoon, when the wind is howling outside, -and the snow-storm beating on the windows—and -very soon Albemarle Street was as famous for its -“Travels” as it had previously been for its “Belles-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_196">196</a></span>Lettres.” -Among the most valuable and successful -of these were the expeditions of Mungo Park, Belzoni, -Parry, Franklin, Denham, and Clapperton.</p> - -<p>Murray had just launched his “Classical Handbooks,” -under the editorship of his son—had just -made, in trade parlance, “another great hit” in Lady -Sale’s “Journal in Afghanistan”—when an attack of -general debility and exhaustion compelled him to -leave business and success alone—and for ever. He -rallied so often that no serious results were anticipated -by his family or physician; but after a very short illness -he died suddenly on the 27th June, 1843, in the -fifty-sixth year of his age, leaving three daughters and -one only son. To his widow, in a will dated only -seven days before his death, he bequeathed the whole -of his estate.</p> - -<p>A gentleman by manners and education; generous -and open-handed, not for purposes of display, often -not from mere trade motives, but from a true desire -to return to genius and industry something of what -he derived from them; an excellent man of business, -with more powers of work than most men, understanding -better than any how to measure the calibre -of an author’s genius, and to gauge the duration of his -popularity; skilful in timing a publication, so as to -ensure a favourable reception, and yet honestly abhorring -any recourse to the low art of puffing—such was -John Murray as a publisher; the best representative -of an honourable calling, and one who by his own -influence tended not a little to make the years of his -own working life the best representative period of -English literature.</p> - -<p>Mr. John Murray, who succeeded at once to his -father’s business, was born in the year 1808, and was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_197">197</a></span> -consequently, in 1843, admirably fitted, by years and -professional training, to take the management of so -important a concern. He was educated at the Charterhouse -and at Edinburgh University, and had had, -moreover, all the advantages that foreign travel could -bestow. As early as 1831, we hear of “Mr. John -Murray, Jun.,” at Weimar, presenting Goethe with the -dedication of Byron’s “Marino Faliero,” and being -received, together with that mocking and yet reverent -tribute, in a gracious, kindly manner.</p> - -<p>Mr. Murray thoroughly followed his father’s idea, -that the age had now come for the cheap publication -of useful and practical books, and in the first year of -his accession, issued the prospectus of his “Home -and Colonial Library,” which, being published at half -the price of the “Family Library,” was at least twice -as successful, and was continued for upwards of six -years. During these early years Mr. Murray made -one mistake, and achieved one great success. The -mistake was, however, in common with every publisher -in London, for “Eöthen” went the rounds of -the metropolitan book market, and was eventually -published by a personal friend of Mr. Kinglake’s. -Mindful of his father’s precedents, Murray soon secured -the copyright. The success, on the contrary, consisted -in accepting what other publishers had refused, -and issued from Albemarle Street, Campbell’s “Lives -of the Lord Chancellors” has proved one of the -most successful biographical works of the time. -In travel, biography, history, and science, the present -Mr. Murray has fully sustained the name of the old -house, and it is sufficient here to mention only the -names of Hallam, Barrow, Wilkinson, Lyell, Gordon<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_198">198</a></span> -Cumming, Layard, Murchison, and Sir Robert Peel, -to see how much we owe him.</p> - -<p>On Lockhart’s death, in 1854, the Reverend Whitwell -Elwin was selected to fill the editorial chair of -the <cite>Quarterly</cite>, and since that date the political opinions -of the periodical have been considerably modified; -at any rate, men of all parties have been allowed to -write conscientiously in its pages, and it is even -rumoured, that before this, its old opponent, Lord -Brougham, contributed at least one article (that on -<cite>Chesterfield</cite>, in vol. lxxvi.).</p> - -<p>Among the most successful library books that Mr. -Murray has recently published, we must instance -those by Mr. Smiles and Dr. Livingstone, and, more -especially, those by Mr. Darwin.</p> - -<p>Mr. Murray’s name is, however, most familiar to us -now as the publisher of the famous <cite>Handbooks</cite> for -travellers, the series now extending, not only through -the outer world, but embracing our English counties; -these latter, it is said, owing much to Mr. Murray’s -personal editorship.</p> - -<p>In closing our short sketch of the “House of Murray,” -we cannot refrain from re-echoing a wish that -has been often uttered before, that the present representative -may find time amidst his professional -labours, to edit the letters and to write a worthy life -of the great John Murray. No book that has ever -been issued from Albemarle Street could be more -popular or more welcome.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_199">199</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div id="if_i_199" class="figcenter" style="width: 354px;"> - <img id="hdr_5" src="images/i_199.jpg" width="354" height="83" alt="" /></div> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><i>WILLIAM BLACKWOOD</i>:<br /> - -<span class="subhead">“BLACKWOOD’S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.”</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">We</span> have already, in our account of Archibald -Constable, shown how deeply the brilliant -writers—who for a while gave a bold literary supremacy -to the northern capital—were indebted to the -daring spirit and the generous purse of one Scottish -publisher; we have here to follow the narrative of a -rival’s life—a life at outset very similar, but soon -diverging widely, and which, actuated by very different -principles, and aiming at very different results, was -destined to open the arena of literary struggle to -those whom honest political feeling had for a moment -rendered dumb and inactive.</p> - -<p>William Blackwood was born at Edinburgh, on the -20th Nov., 1776, of parents in an humble position in -life, who, however, with the honest endeavour of most -of their class in the north, contrived to give him a -very excellent elementary education. From his -earliest days, William had exhibited a strong love for -books, and at the age of fourteen he was apprenticed -to Bell and Bradfute, of his native city; nor, indeed, did -his education suffer from this premature removal from -school; there is much leisure in a bookseller’s shop,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_200">200</a></span> -even for an industrious boy, and opportunity of more -various reading than comes within the reach of many -sixth-form scholars and university undergraduates. -“It was here,” says an obituary notice, “that he had so -largely stored his mind with reading of all sorts, but -more especially with Scottish history and antiquities, -that on establishing himself in business, his accomplishments -attracted the notice of persons whose -good opinion was distinction.” Before the expiry -of his time, in 1797, he must also have displayed a -talent for business life, for we find that he was immediately -engaged by Messrs. Mundell & Co., then -largely employed in the book trade at Edinburgh, to -take the sole management of a branch house at Glasgow; -and being thus, at the early age of twenty -years, thrown almost entirely upon his own resources, -and with his own judgment for his only guidance, he -acquired that decision of character which distinguished -him throughout after-life, and which was so instrumental -in the fortunes of his house. In spite, however, of all -his efforts, the firm of Mundell & Co. did not prosper -at Glasgow—it was they, the reader may, perhaps, -remember, who purchased the “Pleasures of Hope,” -for only fifty printed copies of the work, from -Campbell—and after his year’s service was over, he -returned to Edinburgh, and re-entered the employment -of Bell and Bradfute, with whom he remained for -another year. In 1800, he entered into partnership -with Mr. Ross, bookseller and bookseller’s auctioneer; -but the auctioneering part of the business proved distasteful -to him, and the old book trade presented a -much more suitable field for his talents. With the -energy of youth he started for London, and was -initiated into the mysteries of bibliography by Mr.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_201">201</a></span> -Cuthell, “famous,” as Nichols says, “for his catalogues.” -Here he stayed for three years, and then, in -1804, came back to Edinburgh and opened an old-book -shop, in South Bridge Street. For several years -he almost confined his attention to the sale of rare -and curious books, more especially those relating to -the antiquities and early history of Scotland. His -shop, like that of Constable, soon became a regular -literary haunt, and he speedily acquired a reputation -second to none of his own line in Edinburgh, and in the -matter of catalogues, he rivalled Cuthell, his master; -that one published in 1812 being the first in which -the books were regularly classified, and “continues,” -says Mr. Chambers, “to be an authority to the -present day.” The old-book trade was at that time -in its most flourishing condition, Dibdin was firing the -minds of curiosity-seekers with a love for rare quartos -and folios; Heber, and many more after his kind, -were spending the main portion of their time, and the -vast bulk of their fortunes, in the acquisition of -immense libraries; and the old-booksellers of the day -were making large incomes. Blackwood’s success by -no means satisfied his ambition, but enabled him to -enter the field of publishing as a rival to Constable, -who was now at the height of his glory. As early as -1811, we find him bringing out “Kerr’s Voyages,” a -work of considerable importance and expense, and -which was shortly succeeded by Macrie’s “Life of -Knox.”</p> - -<p>Blackwood’s sojourn in London, and the credit -attracted by his enterprising book-catalogues, led the -way to his being appointed agent to several of the -London booksellers, among others, to John Murray, -and to them, conjointly, the tale of the “Black<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_202">202</a></span> -Dwarf” was offered when Scott considered it desirable -to bring it out in other hands, and with a title-page -apparently by another author. Blackwood wrote -to say that, in his opinion, the unravelling of the end -of the story might be improved, and offered to pay -for cancelling the proofs. Gifford, too, to whom -Murray had shown it, was of a like opinion. Scott -differed most essentially; witness his letter to <span class="locked">Ballantyne:—</span></p> - -<blockquote> -<p> -“<span class="smcap">Dear James</span>, -</p> - -<p>“I have received Blackwood’s impudent letter. -G—— d—— his soul, tell him and his coadjutor that I -belong to the Black Hussars of Literature, who -neither give nor receive criticism. I’ll be cursed but -this is the most impudent proposal that ever was -made.”</p></blockquote> - -<p>This, of course, brought the proposal to a close for -the time, though, as Lockhart says, “Scott did both -know and appreciate Blackwood better in after times.”</p> - -<p>Blackwood was now, from the profits of the old-book -trade and the success of his own publishing -ventures, in a fair way to success, and in 1816 he took -the bold step of selling off all his old stock and -migrating to Prince’s Street. “He took possession,” -says Lockhart, in “Peter’s Letters,” “of a large and -airy suite of rooms in Prince’s Street, which had -formerly been occupied by a notable confectioner, -and whose threshold was, therefore, familiar enough -to all the frequenters of this superb promenade.... -Stimulated, I suppose, by the example and success of -John Murray, whose agent he is, he determined to -make, if possible, Prince’s Street to the High Street, -what the other had made Albemarle Street to the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_203">203</a></span> -Row.” It was not without much forethought, we -may be sure, that this step was undertaken, and the -speedy establishment of the famous magazine clearly -shows us what was the chief motive to such a venturous -change.</p> - -<p>The magazine literature of the day was wofully -weak. The vitality with which Cave had endowed -the <cite>Gentleman’s Magazine</cite>, had long since died away. -No more such “hack-writers” as Johnson and Goldsmith -came forward to enliven its pages, at the meagre -payment of four guineas a sheet, and now it <span class="locked">only—</span></p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="iq">“Hopped its pleasant way from church to church,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">And nursed its little bald biography.”<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>Such was the type of English periodical literature, -and the Scotch were certainly no better off. The -<cite>Scots Magazine</cite> stood Constable, it is true, in good -stead, but only as a nursery ground, from which -writers might be trained for transplantation to a -stronger soil. Vastly different was the condition of -the rival quarterlies; but still, in Scotland at all -events, the <cite>Edinburgh</cite> carried everything after its own -desire. Wit the writers had in plenty—learning, too, -and the gift of open-speaking; but to fairness, biassed -as they were by party ties, they never laid the least -claim, and yet all Edinburgh was enthralled by the -opinions of the <cite>Edinburgh Review</cite>, for intellectual -attainments at that time commanded for their possessors -the leading place in the society of the Modern -Athens, and, as the principles advocated in its pages -were decidedly opposed to those of the existing -administration, the success it indubitably had attained, -the vast following it was gathering, not only -irritated but alarmed the Scotch Tory party.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_204">204</a></span> -Of course, the actual inventorship of the new project -is a disputed point, but the evidence seems to tell -us that, however the idea of a new Conservative organ -had been talked over in literary coteries (and what -scheme has not been planned a thousand times before -execution whenever literary men meet together?), the -plan had long been entertained and spoken of by -Blackwood; and, as he proceeded to carry it into -execution, the scheme may to all intents and purposes -be regarded as his own.</p> - -<p>Two gentlemen were engaged—Pringle and Cleghorn—who -had received their training in the enemy’s -camp, as editors in chief, and with the assistance of -Hogg, and the promised support of Scott and many -other men of talent, the first number of the <cite>Edinburgh -Monthly Magazine</cite> was issued on All-Fools’ Day, -1817—an ominous day for Blackwood, for he soon -discovered that the prophets he had summoned to -curse, heaped blessings on the heads of his opponents. -This first number differed but little from other periodicals -of its class. Only half the space was devoted to -original matter, and the very opening pages contained -a panegyric upon Horner, then lately deceased, an -<cite>Edinburgh Reviewer</cite>—a Whig, and not much else. -“You can’t say too much about Sydney Smith and -Brougham,” said Scott to Jeffrey; “but I will not -admire your Horner. He always puts me in mind of -Obadiah’s bull, who, although, as Father Shandy observed, -he never produced a calf, went through his -business with such a grave demeanour that he always -maintained his credit in the parish.” Nor was this -the worst. In No. 3 a violent defence of the -<cite>Edinburgh</cite> was undertaken warmly. This was too -much for Blackwood; he gave his editors notice of a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_205">205</a></span> -coming change, and after much chaffering he was -glad to pay £125 down, and get rid at once of them -and the magazine; and—somewhat, doubtless, to his -chagrin—they immediately returned to Constable and -took charge of the <cite>Scots Magazine</cite>, which, under the -title of <cite>Constable’s Edinburgh Magazine</cite>, made a futile -effort to re-juvenate itself.</p> - -<p>With the sixth number of the <cite>Edinburgh Monthly -Magazine</cite> had appeared a notice stating that “this -work is now discontinued, this being the last number -of it;” but in the following month, with an alteration -in the title, it arose, Phœnix-like, from the ashes, and, -as <cite>Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine</cite>, No. 7, created -a sensation which has never perhaps been equalled. -There was, to commence with, a monstrous list of all -possible and impossible articles, chiefly threatened -attacks upon the <cite>Edinburgh</cite>, then a violent attack -upon their former defence of the <cite>Edinburgh Reviewer’s</cite> -onslaught upon Burns and Wordsworth; but -the great feature in No. 7 (No. 1 in reality of <cite>Blackwood</cite>) -was the “Translation from an Ancient Caldee -Manuscript,” in which the circumstances of the late -feud, and Constable’s endeavours to repair the fortunes -of his old magazine, and the resuscitation of -“Maga”—the birth, that is, of the genuine “Maga”—are -thrown into an allegorical burlesque.</p> - -<p>“The two beasts (the two late editors), the lamb -and the bear, came unto the man who was clothed in -plain apparel, and stood in the door of his house; and -his name was as if it had been the colour of ebony -(<cite>Blackwood</cite>), and his number was the number of a -maiden when the days of her virginity have expired -(<cite>No. 17, Prince’s Street</cite>), ... and they said unto -him, Give us of thy wealth, that we may eat and live,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_206">206</a></span> -and thou shalt enjoy the fruits of our labour for a time, -times or half a time.</p> - -<p>“And he answered and said unto them, What will -ye unto me whereunto I may employ you?</p> - -<p>“And they proffered unto him a Book, and they -said unto him, Take thou this, and give us a piece of -money, that we may eat and drink and our souls may -live.</p> - -<p>“And we will put words into thy Book that shall -astonish the children of thy people. And it shall be -a light unto thy feet and a lamp unto thy path; it -shall also bring bread to thy household, and a portion -to thy maidens.</p> - -<p>“And the man hearkened unto their voice, and he -took their Book, and he gave them a piece of money, -and they went away rejoicing in heart. And I heard -a great noise, as if it had been the noise of many -chariots, and of horsemen prancing upon their horses.</p> - -<p>“But after many days they put no words in the -Book, and the man was astonied, and waxed wroth, -and said unto them, What is this that ye have done -unto me, and how shall I answer those to whom I am -engaged? And they said, What is that to us? see -thou to that.</p> - -<p>“And the man wist not what for to do; and he -called together the friends of his youth, and all those -whose heart was as his heart, and he entreated them, -and they put words into the Book; and it went abroad, -and all the world wondered after the Book, and after -the two beasts that had put such amazing words into -the Book.</p> - -<p>“Then the man who was crafty in counsel and -cunning in all manner of work (<cite>Constable</cite>), when this -man saw the Book, and beheld the things which were<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_207">207</a></span> -in the Book, he was troubled in spirit and much cast -down.</p> - -<p>“And he hated the Book and the two beasts that -put words into the Book, for he judged according to -the reports of men; nevertheless, the man was crafty -in counsel, and more cunning than his fellows.</p> - -<p>“And he said unto the two beasts, Come ye and -put your trust under the shadow of my wings, and we -will destroy the man whose name is as ebony and his -Book.</p> - -<p>“And the two beasts gave ear unto him, and they -came over to him, and bowed down before him with -their faces to the earth....</p> - -<p>“Then was the man whose name is as ebony ‘sore -dismayed,’ and appealed to the great magician who -dwelleth by the old fastness hard by the river Jordan -which is by the Border (<em>to Walter Scott</em>), and the -magician opened his mouth and said, Lo! my heart -wisheth thy good, and let the thing prosper which is -in thy hands to do it.</p> - -<p>“But thou seest that my hands are full of working, -and my labour is great. For, lo! I have to feed all -the people of my land, and none knoweth whence his -food cometh, but each man openeth his mouth and -my hand filleth it with pleasant things. (<em>This is more -than a shrewd guess of the authorship of the Waverley -Novels.</em>)</p> - -<p>“Moreover, thine adversary also is of my familiars -(<cite>Constable, his publisher</cite>).</p> - -<p>“Yet be thou silent, peradventure will I help thee -some little.”</p> - -<p>Chapter II. shows us Blackwood gazing despondently -from his inner chamber, when a veiled figure -appears, who</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_208">208</a></span> -“Gave unto the man in plain apparel a tablet containing -the names of those upon whom he should call; -and when he called they came, and whomsoever he -asked he came....</p> - -<p>“And the first which came was after the likeness of -the beautiful leopard, from the valley of the palm-trees, -whose going forth was comely as the greyhound, -and his eyes like the lightning of fiery flame (<em>Professor -Wilson, author of the ‘Isle of Palms.’</em>)...</p> - -<p>“There came also from a far country, the scorpion -which delighteth to sting the faces of men, that he -might sting sorely the countenance of the man which -is crafty, and of the two beasts (<cite>Lockhart</cite>).</p> - -<p>“Also the great wild boar from the forest of Lebanon, -and he roused up his spirit; and I saw him -whetting his dreadful tusks for the battle” (<cite>James -Hogg</cite>).</p> - -<p>Then come Dr. Macrie, Sir William Hamilton, -Arthur Mower, “and the hyæna that escheweth the -light, and cometh forth at eventide to raise up and -gnaw the bones of the dead, and it is as a riddle unto -a vain man (<cite>Riddell, the legal antiquarian</cite>).</p> - -<p>“And the beagle and the slowhound after their -kind, and all the beasts of the field, more than could -be numbered, they were so many.”</p> - -<p>In Chapter III., Constable finds that the “bear” -and the “lamb” are unprofitable servants, and he, -too, calls for aid, but Jeffrey—“the familiar spirit unto -whom he had sold himself”—Leslie, and Playfair—contributors -to the <cite>Edinburgh</cite>—refuse to come. In -Chapter IV., Constable does get aid from Macney -Napier, and others.</p> - -<p>“And when I saw them all gathered together, I -said unto myself, Of a truth the man which is crafty<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_209">209</a></span> -hath many in his host, yet, think I, that scarcely will -these be found sufficient against them which are in the -gates of the man who is clothed in plain apparel....</p> - -<p>“Verily the man which is crafty shall be defeated, -and there shall not escape one to tell of his overthrow.</p> - -<p>“And while I was yet speaking, the hosts drew -near, and the city was moved; and my spirit failed -within me, and I was sore afraid, and I turned to -escape away.</p> - -<p>“And he that was like unto the messenger of a -king, said unto me, Cry: and I said, What shall I -cry? for the day of vengeance is come upon all those -that ruled the nation with a rod of iron.</p> - -<p>“And I fled into an inner chamber to hide myself, -and I heard a great tumult, but I wist not what it was.”</p> - -<p>It is very hard for us now to duly appreciate the -crushing effect of this Caldee manuscript.</p> - -<p>It is certainly humorous, after a fashion now so -prevalent in America, and undoubtedly witty.</p> - -<p>Among the Edinburgh people of that time, when -every man knew his neighbour, the effect was absolutely -prodigious. A yell of despairing pain arose -from one portion of the Whig party, who, if they had -no administrative power in their hands, had hitherto -held a patent of all literary ability; and from the -other portion came an equally discordant cry, which -eventually culminated in a fierce accusation of blasphemy -and irreligion. Perhaps, however, the strongest -test we can apply to the power of this galling squib is -the fact that every title bestowed in its pages has -“stuck” to the individual against whom it was directed.</p> - -<p>Blackwood was alarmed at the commotion he had<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_210">210</a></span> -caused, withdrew the obnoxious article from the -second edition, suppressed it in what he could of the -first, and in the second number inserted the following -announcement:—“The editor has learnt with regret -that an article in the first edition of last number, -which was intended merely as a <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">jeu d’esprit</i>, has been -construed so as to give offence to individuals justly -entitled to respect and regard; he has, on that account, -withdrawn it in the second edition, and can -only add that, if what has happened could have been -anticipated, the article in question certainly never -would have appeared.” It was, however, too late, -war had been declared to the knife, and Blackwood -was nothing loath to continue the struggle.</p> - -<p>“The conception of the Caldee MS.,” says Wilson’s -son-in-law, Professor Ferrier, “and the first thirty-seven -verses of Chapter I., are to be ascribed to the -Ettrick Shepherd; the rest of the composition falls to -be divided between Professor Wilson and Mr. Lockhart, -in proportions which cannot now be determined.” -Again, Mrs. Gordon tells us that this audacious squib -was composed in her grandmother’s house, 23, Queen -Street, where Wilson lived, “amid such shouts of -laughter as made the ladies in the room above send to -inquire and wonder what the gentlemen below were -about;” and yet she adds, as if to protect her father -from suspicion of a share in it, that she “cannot trace -to her father’s hand any instance of unmanly attack, -or one shade of real malignity.” Very probably not; -but at the same time the fun of the squib is decidedly -in Wilson’s favourite manner. “An old contributor to -<cite>Blackwood</cite>,” who, in 1860, furnished a most interesting -and full account of Maga and Blackwoodiana to -the columns of the <cite>Bookseller</cite>, asserts, in reference to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_211">211</a></span> -Hogg’s claim, “on the best authority (that of the man -who did write it), that there is no foundation whatever -for any such pretext. The hare was started by -Wilson at one of those <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">symposia</i> which preceded and -perhaps suggested the <cite>Noctes</cite>. The idea was caught -up with avidity by Hogg, and some half-dozen verses -were suggested by him on the ensuing day; but we -are, we believe, correct in affirming that no part of his -<i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">ébauche</i> appeared in the original or any other draft of -the article.” It is to be wished that this writer, whose -article evidently exhibits personal knowledge, and, -apart from a running attack upon Hogg, due impartiality, -had, in putting forward a new version of the -story, in contradiction to those already given, been enabled -to give us the name of the writer, apparently, -from the wording of the context, a new claimant.</p> - -<p>Not only were Blackwood’s “enemies” discomforted, -but even his friends were sore dismayed. The first number -of <cite>Blackwood</cite> bore the imprint of John Murray, but -the “Caldee MS.” caused him to withdraw his name, -but after passing through the hands of three different -London agents, the sixth again appeared under his -countenance. This number, however, contained some -unpalatable strictures on Gifford and the <cite>Quarterly -Reviewers</cite>, and the Albemarle Street patronage was -again withdrawn, only to be renewed in the eleventh -number; but by the time it reached the seventeenth -he washed his hands of it entirely, and in future it appeared -without the ornamental appendage of any London -bookseller’s name; the agency, distinctly one of -sale only, was given to Cadell and Davies, who found -it profitable enough to occupy the greater part of their -attention. Cadell, naturally as nervous as Murray of -giving, or being in any way instrumental in giving,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_212">212</a></span> -offence, kept a stereotyped reply in readiness for any -angry victim who rushed into his shop for redress—“I -know nothing of the contents of the magazine; I -am merely the carrier of a certain portion of its circulation -to its English readers.”</p> - -<p>From the commencement of the new series—from -the foundation that is of <cite>Blackwood’s Edinburgh -Magazine</cite>—Blackwood’s fortunes and even the story of -his life are inextricably bound up in the progress of -the periodical; for he did not again, once he had got -rid of Pringle and Cleghorne, entrust its charge and -conduct to the care of any editor. For a long time -Wilson was supposed to occupy the editorial chair. -This supposition is treated in a letter, printed by his -daughter: “Of <cite>Blackwood</cite> I am not the editor, although -I believe I very generally got both the credit -and discredit of being Christopher North. I am one -of the chief writers, perhaps the chief writer, but never -received one shilling from the proprietor, except for -my own compositions. Being generally on the spot, -I am always willing to give him my advice, and to -supply such articles as are most wanted, when I have -leisure.” “From an early period of its progress,” says -Lockhart, speaking of Blackwood and the magazine, -“it engrossed a very large share of his time; and -though he scarcely ever wrote for its pages himself -(three articles, we believe, he did contribute), the -general management and arrangement of it, with the -very extensive literary correspondence which this involved, -and the constant superintendence of the press, -would have been more than enough to occupy entirely -any man but one of his first-rate energies.”</p> - -<p>Before we follow up the chronicle of the life of -<cite>Blackwood</cite> and its proprietor, it will be necessary to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_213">213</a></span> -take a retrospective glance at the causes which rendered -it possible to convert the snug, orthodox, and -more than slightly Whiggish <cite>Edinburgh Monthly -Magazine</cite> into the slashing, defiant, jovial, dare-devil -of <cite>Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine</cite>. This change -was chiefly due to the influence of two men, Wilson -and Lockhart, who, together with Hogg, had, under -the old régime, contributed all there was of wit and -sparkle. With these three writers, and the promise of -further support, Blackwood had changed his mind as -to putting his ill-fated periodical to the untimely end -he had announced; and we have seen something, and -shall see more, as to how far this determination was -justified by success. In the meantime, it is essential -to know a little of these two men, to whom primarily -all the success was due.</p> - -<p>John Wilson, the great Tory champion, was descended, -not from a county family, but from a -wealthy Paisley manufacturer; and, after taking all -possible prizes at Glasgow University, went to conquer -fresh worlds at Oxford, where he not only won the -Newdigate prize of £50 by one of the best prize -poems extant, in fifty lines, but excelled in all sports, -to which a magnificent frame, a temper universally -good, a wild exuberance of animal spirits, and a -thirsty love of adventure could contribute.</p> - -<p>Strange tales are told of his Oxford escapades; of -recess rambles with strolling players; of wanderings, -when smitten by the charms of a gipsy-girl, for weeks -together with her tribe; of sojournings as a waiter at -a country inn, to be close to one of the fair waitresses.</p> - -<p>However, his dreams of adventure were surrendered -only after having planned an expedition to Timbuctoo, -and he purchased an estate at Windermere, to be near<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_214">214</a></span> -the Lake school of poets, with whom he soon threw in -his fortune. After the publication of the “Isle of -Palms,” and the “City of the Plague,” he joined the -Scotch Bar, and in the Parliament House struck up an -acquaintance with another briefless barrister—Lockhart, -seven years younger than himself.</p> - -<p>John Gibbon Lockhart was also educated at Glasgow -University, where gaining the “Snell” foundation, -he was sent, at sixteen, to Balliol; after taking a -first-class degree he travelled on the Continent, returning -only when it was necessary to enter at Edinburgh -as an advocate. Silent in private life, he found -he could not speak at all in public; and many years -afterwards, when making a speech at a farewell dinner, -given in honour of his departure to undertake the -editorship of the <cite>Quarterly</cite>, he broke down, as usual, -and stuttered, “Gentlemen, you know I can’t make a -speech; if I could, we shouldn’t be here.”</p> - -<p>Briefless both, and both endowed with strong literary -tastes, they became sworn friends, though Wilson, -with his splendid physique, his loose-flowing yellow -hair, his deep-blue eyes, his glowing imagination, his -eloquent tongue, and his defiance of all precedent, -was as opposite a being as well could be imagined to -Lockhart, who, to borrow Wilson’s own words, had -“an e’e like an eagle’s, and a sort of lauch about the -screwed-up mouth o’ him that fules ca’d nae canny, for -they couldna tholl the meaning o’t; and either set -dumb-foundered, or pretended to be engaged to -sooper, and slunk out o’ the room.”</p> - -<p>With two such men as these it was little wonder -that Blackwood resolved to continue the battle. The -weapon, however, which had been so successfully used -in the onslaught upon the <cite>Edinburgh Review</cite> became<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_215">215</a></span> -in the hands of young writers flushed with victory, -instruments of aggression against those who had never -offended; and, as it happened that the writers who -were most personal in their attacks upon friend and -foe alike were also the cleverest and most brilliant, -Blackwood’s position became one of difficulty. Lockhart -“who stung the faces of men”—and sometimes -their hearts—cared little as to who his shafts were -directed against so long as they were sharp and -biting. Cameleon-like he appeared in a thousand -different forms. Now as the “veiled editor” himself, -now the Dr. Morris of “Peter’s Letters,” and now as -Baron Lauerwinkel, stabbing his contemporaries -under the guise of a German commentator. Against -all the members of the “Cockney School,” a personal -invective was habitually employed by him, at which -in these calmer days of drier criticism we can only stand -aghast. He says of Leigh Hunt, “The very concubine -of so impure a wretch would be to be pitied; but, alas, -for the wife of such a husband!”—and so forth.</p> - -<p>In the February number of <cite>Maga</cite> a new contributor, -Billy Maginn, made his first bow to the public -as Mr. Ensign O’Doherty. Maginn was at this time -a rollicking young Irishman of marvellous classical -and literary acquirements, who at four-and-twenty -had achieved the difficult honour of taking a degree -of Doctor of Laws at Dublin, never before earned by -one so young. He had a wonderful gift of improvising -in either verse or prose, and his talents were so -versatile, his reading, though desultory, so universal, -that he could immediately treat any subject, no matter -what, in a sparkling and dashing manner. When, -however, under the influence of liquor, he was perfectly -unmanageable; and his writings bore every<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_216">216</a></span> -stamp of his own character. One of his first squibs -in <cite>Blackwood</cite> was a Latin version of “Chevy-chase,” -which, in a foot-note expressed more than a doubt as -to the Hebraical knowledge of Professor Leslie—an -Edinburgh Reviewer who had recently been appointed -to the University Chair of Philosophy. The enraged -professor summoned the aid of the law. Blackwood -accepted the challenge and inserted another article -by Maginn, which stated that the professor “did not -even know the alphabet of the tongue which he had -the imprudence to pretend to criticise,” and charged -him, in addition, of stealing his pet theories respecting -heat, from an old volume of the “Philosophical -Transactions.” The damages awarded amounted to -£100, but as all the legal talent in Edinburgh was -engaged in what was regarded as a party trial, the -costs were unusually heavy. Nothing scared, however, -Blackwood welcomed the writer to Edinburgh -when he chose to cast off his incognita.</p> - -<p>The magazine was thriving now, and circulated -throughout the kingdom. Blackwood, busy as he -was with its management, found time to push his -general publishing business steadily forward. The -issue of Brewster’s “Edinburgh Encyclopædia” was -continued, and Lockhart’s talents were utilized beyond -the pale of <cite>Maga</cite>. In 1818 Schlegel’s “History of -Literature,” translated by Lockhart, was published; -and in 1819 appeared Lockhart’s “Peter’s Letters to -his Kinsfolk, by Dr. Peter Morris”—a series of -sketches of all things Scotch, from which we extract an -account of Blackwood and his <span class="locked">shop:—</span></p> - -<p>“First there is as usual a spacious place set apart -for retail business, and a numerous detachment of -young clerks and apprentices, to whose management<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_217">217</a></span> -this important department of the concern is entrusted. -Then you have an elegant oval saloon, lighted from the -roof, where various groups of loungers and literary dilettanti -are engaged in looking at, or criticising among -themselves, the publications just arrived by that day’s -coach from town. In such critical colloquies, the -voice of the bookseller himself may ever and anon be -heard mingling the broad and unadulterated notes of -its Auld Reekie’s music; for, unless occupied in the -recesses of the premises with some other business, it -is here that he has his usual station. He is a nimble, -active-looking man of middle age, and moves from -one corner to another with great alacrity, and apparently -under the influence of high animal spirits. His -complexion is very sanguinous, but nothing can be -more intelligent, keen, and sagacious than the expression -of the physiognomy; above all the gray eyes and -eye-brows, as full of locomotion as those of Catalani’s. -The remarks he makes are in general extremely acute—much -more so indeed than any other member of -the trade I ever heard speak upon such topics. The -shrewdness and decision of the man can, however, -stand in need of no testimony beyond what his own -conduct has afforded—above all in the establishment -of his magazine (the conception of which I am assured -was entirely his own)—and the subsequent -energy with which he has supported it through every -variety of good and evil fortune. It would be unfair -to lay upon his shoulders any portion of the blame -which any part of his book may have deserved; but -it is impossible to deny that he is well entitled to -whatever merit may be supposed to be due to the -erection of a work founded in the main upon good -principles, both political and religious, in a city where<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_218">218</a></span> -a work upon such principles must have been more -wanted, and, at the same time, more difficult than in -any other with which I am acquainted.”</p> - -<p>On leaving the shop, Dr. Peter is taken to dine at -“a house in the immediate neighbourhood, frequently -alluded to in the magazine as the great haunt of his -wits.” This was Ambrose’s, mentioned in the “Caldee -MS.”—“as thou lookest to the road of Gabriel and the -land of <cite>Ambrose</cite>.” At this favourite tavern, at the -<i xml:lang="la" lang="la">noctes cœnæque deum</i>, was foreshadowed what was -destined to be by far the most interesting portion of -the earlier series of <cite>Blackwood</cite>.</p> - -<p>The first trace we can find in the magazine of these -famous <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">réunions</i> is in the number for August, 1819, -where a work on military matter is reviewed by two -different critics while enjoying their evening glasses -at Ambrose’s. This was followed up next month by -a paper which occupied the whole of the number, -entitled “Christopher in the Tent”—a sketch, suppositious, -of course, of a country expedition of the whole -staff—full of rollicking humour and uproarious fun, -with etchings by Lockhart and jokes by all.</p> - -<p>In the following year, 1820, the first of Blackwood’s -really classic novels appeared in the magazine. This -was the “Ayrshire Legatees,” by John Galt; and the -editor, quick to perceive talent and eager to retain it, -published in rapid succession a series of tales and -sketches by the modern Smollet.</p> - -<p>This year, too, was an important one for both of -the chief contributors. Lockhart, whose rising merits -had long since attracted the attention of Scott, married -the “Great Magician’s favourite daughter;” and Wilson, -to the terror of half Edinburgh, became a candidate -for the chair of Moral Philosophy at the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_219">219</a></span> -University. Curious reports were spread of half true -tales of youthful adventure, of bull-hunts by the -shores of Windermere; of cock-fights in his own -drawing-room; of a thousand escapades of one kind -or another; and these were capped by a rumour that -he was not very sound in either religion or morals; -and even Tory counsellors shrunk from supporting a -man who was said to be a fast liver and a free thinker. -The Whigs started an excellent rival, Sir William -Hamilton, and the contest was very keen. “I wad -like to gie ye ma vote, Mr. Wulson,” said an Edinburgh -magistrate, “but I’m feared. They say ye -dunna expect to be saved by grace.” “I don’t know -much about that, baillie; but if I am not saved by -grace I am sure my works won’t save me.” “That’ll -do, that’ll do; I’ll gie you my vote.” Others were -of a like mind, for Wilson was a man whom to know -was to love, and the election was secured.</p> - -<p>Immediately after the election Wilson returned -to Elleray to recruit; and here an event happened -which not only shows his natural impetuosity, but -which might have been of very serious consequence, -and, as a version of the story has recently appeared in -“Barham’s Life,” it may not be altogether out of place -to give the correct version here.</p> - -<p>Lord M——r and three Oxford friends, one of -whom had just been ordained, had started in their -own coach upon a rollicking tour homewards; their -journey, even in those free-and-easy times, was -marked by a blackguardism of conduct almost unparalleled.</p> - -<p>At York they halted for a few days—few because -the inhabitants would stand their presence no longer, -and, after paying £150 for their hotel bills, and for<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_220">220</a></span> -the Vandalism they had committed in the town, they -drove on to Windermere, and put up at the Ferry -Hotel. Here they stayed for nearly four days, disporting -themselves like Yahoos. Wilson, as is well -known, was “Admiral of the Windermere Fleet,” -and chanced, while they were in the neighbourhood, -to hold a regatta, giving his friends a tea at Ullock’s -Hotel, Bowness, when the amusements of the day -were over.</p> - -<p>Hither the travelling adventurers came by water; -at the landing stage, however, one of the number, -seeing a fisherman washing his nets in the lake, crept -behind him, and with a shove and a hoarse laugh sent -him into the water. Westmoreland blood is not easily -cooled, and the peasant, seizing his attacker, ducked -him within an inch of his life. Nothing daunted the -other three proceeded to the hotel, and entered a -room where tea was laid out for a large party; to -knock the tray over, to pull the cloth off, to dance -upon the tea-pot till it was flattened, and the crockery -till it was smashed into a thousand smithereens, was, -of course, only the work of an instant. Hearing the -clatter, Mrs. Wilson hurried downstairs, and Lord -M——r, mistaking her for the landlady, seized her -by the neck, and tried to ravish a kiss. At this critical -moment the Professor entered—one blow -“from the shoulder” laid the noble lord at his feet; -then, like a genuine old heathen warrior, placing one -foot upon the neck of the prostrate wretch—“if you -other two scoundrels are not out of this room in an -instant, I’ll squeeze the man’s breath out of his body.” -They heard—and fled. Wilson, in a fury of excitement, -took boat to Belle Isle, and urged Mr. Curwen -to act as his friend. Mr. Curwen represented that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_221">221</a></span> -Lord M——r was utterly beneath contempt—that no -professor of moral philosophy had ever been engaged -in a cause of honour; that all his friends had been -representing him as a quiet, orderly man—in fact, -brought forward a thousand arguments which might -have been of the utmost weight to a reasonable being—but -not just at present to Wilson; he flung out of -the room, crossed the lake, and sought a gallant -naval officer, Captain Br——, who, a true Sir Lucius -O’Trigger, said the matter was in good hands, and -looked up his pistols. They adjourned to Elleray to -wait the expected challenge: but on the evening of -the following day, getting tired of inaction, they set -out on a drive to see why the storm did not commence. -Further search was endless. Lord M——r -and his friends had taken to their coach and fled; -they could not, however, get their horses out of the -stables until they had paid an hotel bill of £120 and -£20 to the landlord of Ullock’s Hotel for damages. -Thus the affair ended happily, and Wilson was able -to return peaceably to Edinburgh to fulfil his new -duties.</p> - -<p>Few men ever undertook so important a charge -with so little preparation. “But there was,” says one -who listened to him, “a genius in Wilson; there was -grandeur in his conceptions, and true nobility in the -tone and spirit of his lectures. I can compare them -to nothing save the braying of the trumpet that sent -a body of high-bred cavalry against the foe. ‘Charge! -and charge home!’ Wilson’s action upon the better -and more pure-minded of his pupils was pre-eminently -beneficial. His lectures deeply influenced -their characters for humanity, for unselfishness, for -high and honourable resolve to fight the battle of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_222">222</a></span> -life; like the old Danish hero ‘to dare nobly, to will -strongly, and never to falter in the path of duty.’ -Such was Wilson’s creed; and, till 1850, when he -was found stricken down in his private room, ten -minutes after the class hour, he astonished and delighted -all that was intellectual in Edinburgh by -these, aptly termed, ‘volcanic lectures on ethics.’”</p> - -<p>Much work, however, had to be gone through before -that date; his private fortune had been lost some -years back by the failure of a house of business, and -he was one of those men whom, the more work is -thrown on them the more they are able to go through -with.</p> - -<p>In 1822 appeared the first specimen of his power as -a novelist in the “Lights and Shadows of Scottish -Life,” which went rapidly through edition after edition; -and in the March of this year appeared also the first -number of the <cite xml:lang="la" lang="la">Noctes Ambrosianæ</cite>—a curt dialogue -between the editor and Ensign O’Doherty; it was -not for seventeen numbers that Wilson, almost sorry, -commenced that wonderful series that became one of -the literary wonders of the day; and for thirteen -years as Christopher North he continued to delight -the world, and it is as Christopher North, in his -shooting-jacket, with gun or fishing-rod, by the lochs -or by the moors, amid the scenery which he has so -marvellously limned, and the emotions to which he -has given utterance, that he will be remembered to -all time.</p> - -<p>In 1824 we see that Carlyle gets his first pleasant -encouragement in <cite>Maga</cite>, and Moir’s most famous -production, the “Autobiography of Mansie Wauch,” -appears. Moir—a young surgeon of only nineteen -when he first appeared in the pages of the original<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_223">223</a></span> -<cite>Edinburgh Monthly Magazine</cite>—had at once attracted -the attention of William Blackwood—“a man,” says -Moir’s biographer, “of rare sagacity, courage, and -persevering energy.” As “Delta,” in the pages of -<cite>Maga</cite>, the popularity of Moir’s softer and sweeter -pieces was very great; and when “Mansie” appeared, -“there were districts,” says Aird again, “where -country clubs, waiting impatiently for the magazine, -met monthly as soon as it was issued, and had ‘Mansie’ -read aloud by one of their number, amid explosions -of congregated laughter.”</p> - -<p>Lockhart, too, had since his marriage been wielding -his pen as freely as ever. “Valerius” and “Adam -Blair” had both been successful ventures for Blackwood; -and were succeeded in 1822 by the “Spanish -Ballads,” which have so much of the true ring of -original poetry about them, that Lockhart’s friends -always regretted that he did not devote his time more -exclusively to the composition of some original poetical -work. In 1825 the editorship of the <cite>Quarterly</cite> -was offered him, and Blackwood lost one of his -earliest and strongest supporters. Shortly after this -the other satirical spirit of the periodical—Billy -Maginn—also moved southward.</p> - -<p>But Blackwood was too firmly established now to -dread the loss of any single contributor save one. -The famous <cite>Noctes</cite> were, in reality, only just commencing; -and there it is that the character of the -Ettrick Shepherd most shines—vicariously, however, -for his popularity is chiefly due to the piquancy and -vitality with which the genius of Wilson endowed -him. Whatever is best in the national genius of -Scotland, in humour, poetry, imagination, and fervour, -are poured forth in the quaint and broad language of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_224">224</a></span> -the Shepherd. But enough of the <cite>Noctes</cite>; are they -not still familiar volumes upon the tables of all who -read?</p> - -<p>This year (1826), in which Blackwood was at the -height of his success, was fatal, as we have before -seen, to Constable; and with his failure disappeared -for ever that rival to <cite>Maga</cite>, Constable’s <cite>Edinburgh -Monthly Magazine</cite>.</p> - -<p>In being thus minute in the history of the magazine, -we can scarcely be said to be neglecting the -history of its proprietor, for their careers were inextricably -bound up together, and Blackwood looked -upon it as a father might upon a darling son. In the -exulting vanity of his success, he was induced, about -1825, to print for private circulation, an alphabetical -list of contributors, and sent Wilson a proof, who, by -way of remonstrance, dashed in the names of such -celebrities as Omai the Otaheitan, and Pius VII., -with the names of some of the most egregious fools -and mountebanks he had ever met with, and returned -it to the printer, who duly furnished Blackwood with -a revise; and the absurd incongruity of the names -showed him the incautious impropriety of which -he had been guilty. Two impressions only were -reserved, one for Blackwood and one for the professor.</p> - -<p>As an editor, the punctuality and alacrity with -which he acknowledged the communications of his -contributors was wonderful; “and,” says the “Old -Contributor,” “along with the mail coach copy of the -magazine, or by an early post after its publication, -came a letter to each contributor, full of shrewd hints -for his future guidance, and often, not merely suggesting -the subject for a future paper, but indicating with<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_225">225</a></span> -delicate hesitation the mode in which he fancied it -might be discussed with the best advantage.... The -‘pudding’ was invariably associated with praise. At -the head or foot of the welcome missive was a cheque -for your article, the amount of which was not carved -and patted like a pound of butter, into exact weight, -but measured with no penurious hand.... He hated -a cockney as Johnson hated a Scotsman, and considered -all writers on this side the border, who did -not contribute to <cite>Maga</cite>, as falling within this category.”</p> - -<p>In 1827, Blackwood brought out two books, which -were alike only in achieving, each of them, a vast -popularity. One was “The Youth and Manhood of -Cyril Thornton,” by Captain Hamilton, and the -other “The Course of Time,” by Pollok, a Scottish, -if not a British, classic. The <cite>Edinburgh Encyclopædia</cite> -was continued till its final completion in eighteen -quarto volumes, and not the least important of his -publishing successes was the reproduction of the -chief distinct works of Wilson, Lockhart, Hogg, -Moir, Galt, and other writers connected with the -magazine. He also continued to the close of his -career, to carry on an extensive trade in retail bookselling.</p> - -<p>In addition to these heavy labours, he still found -opportunity during some of the best years of his life -to take a prominent part in the affairs of the city of -Edinburgh, for which he was twice a magistrate, -“and in that capacity,” says Lockhart, “distinguished -himself by an intrepid zeal in the reform of burgh -management, singularly in contrast with his avowed -sentiments respecting constitutional reform.” Here -he often exhibited in the conduct of debate and the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_226">226</a></span> -management of less vigorous minds, a very rare -degree of tact and sagacity.</p> - -<p>To return to the magazine. After Lockhart and -Maginn left Edinburgh, the bitterly personal tone by -which it had been so frequently disfigured, was almost -entirely dropped; and this negative fact, aided by -the positive one of the great popularity of the <cite>Noctes</cite>, -raised the circulation immensely.</p> - -<p>In 1826, an early Elleray friend of Wilson’s, De -Quincey, “the opium-eater,” began to discourse of -things German in the pages of <cite>Maga</cite>; and in 1830, -the “Diary of a Late Physician” was commenced. -This, one of the most successful works of modern -fiction, had, Warren tells us, “been offered successively -to the conductors of three leading magazines in -London, and rejected as ‘unsuitable for their pages,’ -and ‘not likely to interest the public.’... I have -this morning been referring to nearly fifty letters -which he (Blackwood) wrote to me during the publication -of the first fifteen chapters of his ‘Diary.’ The -perusal of them occasioned me lively emotion. All -of them evidence the remarkable tact and energy -with which he conducted his magazine.... He was -a man of strong intellect, of great personal sagacity, -of unrivalled energy and industry, of high and inflexible -honour in every transaction, great or small, -that I ever heard of his being concerned in.”</p> - -<p>Contemporary with the publication of the “Diary,” -was that of the successful books “Tom Cringle’s -Log” and “Sir Frizzle Pumpkin’s Nights at Mess,” -the first by Michael Scott, and the second by the -Reverend Mr. White. In May, 1832, appeared Wilson’s -review of Mr. Tennyson’s first volume; in which -the affectations of Mr. Tennyson’s earlier writings<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_227">227</a></span> -were ridiculed, but his more worthy pieces were -praised in no niggardly terms. At the moment Mr. -Tennyson was irritated, but his anger soon evaporated -in some not very pungent lines to “Rusty, Crusty -Christopher,” which he has long since seen fit to suppress; -and, eventually, he exhibited a due acknowledgment -of the truth of Wilson’s criticism, by removing -several pieces and altering others. “Stoddart -and Aytoun,” writes Wilson in this same review, “he -of the ‘Death Wake’ and he of ‘Poland,’ are graciously -regarded by old Christopher; and their -volume—presentation copies—have been placed -among the essays of those gifted youths, of whom, in -riper years, much may be confidently predicted of -fair and good”—a sentence worth quoting, when it is -remembered that Aytoun afterwards married Wilson’s -daughter, and in a few years occupied his position in -the pages of <cite>Maga</cite> itself.</p> - -<p>In 1833, Blackwood was still full of schemes and -enterprises; he commenced the publication of Alison’s -“History of Europe.” Only the first two volumes -were published, and then not altogether successfully, -when Blackwood was stricken down by a mortal -disease, a tumour in the groin, which, in a weary illness -of four months, exhausted his physical energies, -but left his temper calm and unruffled, and his intellect -vigorous to the last. He was attended by Moir—the -sweet-toned “Delta” of his magazine—who had another -dying patient scarce a hundred yards off. This was -Galt, who had been personally estranged from Blackwood -by rough advice and strictures as to one of his -stories. Now, however, that they lay dying so near -each to each, the old friendliness returned, and Moir -bore pleasant messages and hopeful wishes from one<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_228">228</a></span> -bedside to another. They never met again. Galt -lingered on for years, but Blackwood died on the 10th -of September, 1834, in the fifty-seventh year of his -age.</p> - -<p>We have already given his character as described -by those who knew him best, and it were idle to add -any weaker testimony.</p> - -<p>He left a widow and a family of seven sons and two -daughters, many of them very young; and the -management of the business devolved upon the two -elder, Robert and Alexander, who had for some -years been associated with their father.</p> - -<p>Until 1845, these gentlemen were at the head of -the flourishing business, and with such a start they -could not fail to succeed. The magazine, in spite of -all rivals, continued to be as great a favourite as ever, -though in a year or so after the death of the elder -Blackwood, Wilson withdrew almost entirely from its -pages, and his position was eventually occupied by -his son-in-law, Professor Aytoun. Many new contributors, -without distinction of sect or party, were -added to the staff; and even Douglas Jerrold and -Walter Savage Landor—ultra-radicals, both—were -made free of its pages. John Sterling, “our new contributor,” -as Wilson fondly called him, fully retained -the old reputation for deliciously sparkling poems and -essays; and Lord Lytton, in the “Poems and Ballads -of Schiller,” kept alive the cosmopolitan spirit of -poetry inaugurated by Lockhart. In 1845, Alexander -Blackwood died, and was shortly afterwards -followed by his brother, when John, the third son, the -present proprietor of the business and the present -editor of <cite>Blackwood</cite>, who was born in 1818, succeeded. -So popular had <cite>Maga</cite> become in the colonies, and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_229">229</a></span> -more especially in the United States, that a reprint -of it was regularly published there every month. Mr. -John Blackwood took counsel with the American -lawyers, obtained an American contributor, and then -threatened the Yankee publisher with all the terrors -of the law, if the number were pirated as usual—a -successful step, for ever since that date a tribute tithe -has been regularly paid for the right of republication. -A branch house was started in London; the firm was -also increased by the return from India of William -Blackwood, who was a major in the Indian army.</p> - -<p>In 1848 Lord Lytton commenced the “Caxtons,” -and novel after novel from his pen appeared in -<cite>Maga</cite> to be anonymously successful even to the -day of his death. For a period of twenty-five -years, some of the finest novels and life-pictures in -the language have made their first way to public -favour through the medium of the magazine; and -Mrs. Oliphant and George Eliot owed their first -encouragement to the discernment of Mr. John -Blackwood. That <cite>Maga</cite> is still <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">facile princeps</i> of -the monthly literature is evident enough even from a -bare mention of latest ventures, from the talent of -“Earl’s Dene” and the wit of the “Battle of Dorking.”</p> - -<p>Alison’s “History of Europe” very soon proved its -worth in the eyes of the public; and among other -more recent successes of the house we may mention -the novels of George Eliot, particularly “Middlemarsh,” -which came out in an altogether novel form.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>It was not to be expected that the marvellous success<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_230">230</a></span> -of <cite>Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine</cite> would be -allowed to pass unchallenged. The honour as well -as the fortunes of the Southron publishers forbade it. -In 1820, the <cite>London Magazine</cite>, 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 <cite>Champion</cite> 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.</p> - -<p>Dreadful as was the catastrophe, and the sensation -it made at the time, it tended to soften the asperities<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_231">231</a></span> -of the press, and was instrumental in bringing a better -spirit to critical discussion.</p> - -<p>After Mr. Scott’s death, the proprietorship of the -<cite>London Magazine</cite> 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 <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">honarium</i> 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 <cite>London Magazine</cite>, 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.</p> - -<p>We have seen that Maginn had accompanied Lockhart -to the south. In 1827 the <cite>Standard</cite> newspaper -was founded, and he was installed in the editorial<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_232">232</a></span> -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 <cite>Blackwood</cite>, and in 1829 an East India merchant of -the name of Fraser was found willing to make the -necessary advances, and <cite>Fraser’s Magazine</cite> 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, <cite>Fraser’s Magazine</cite> was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_233">233</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>Thackeray, whom we mentioned above, was instrumental -in effecting a thorough change in periodical -literature. When under his direction, the <cite>Cornhill</cite> -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 -<cite>Temple Bar</cite>, <cite>London Society</cite>, <cite>Macmillan’s</cite>, <cite>Belgravia</cite>, -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.</p> - -<div id="if_i_233" class="figcenter" style="width: 190px;"> - <img src="images/i_233.jpg" width="190" height="118" alt="" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_234">234</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div id="if_i_234" class="figcenter" style="width: 360px;"> - <img id="hdr_6" src="images/i_234.jpg" width="360" height="75" alt="" /></div> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><i>CHAMBERS, KNIGHT, AND CASSELL</i>:<br /> - -<span class="subhead">“LITERATURE FOR THE PEOPLE.”</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">We</span> 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_235">235</a></span> -hardly-earned treasures of the student’s closet, but -were to be fairly placed at the disposal of the many.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.<a id="FNanchor_18" href="#Footnote_18" class="fnanchor">18</a></p> - -<p>Robert Chambers was born at Peebles, on the banks<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_236">236</a></span> -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,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_237">237</a></span> -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.</p> - -<div id="if_i_236" class="figcenter" style="width: 385px;"> - <img src="images/i_236.jpg" width="385" height="493" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p>Dr. Robert Chambers.</p> - -<p>1802–1871.</p></div></div> - -<p>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:—</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p>“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<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_238">238</a></span> -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<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_239">239</a></span> -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.”</p></blockquote> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_240">240</a></span> -loss, shows a balance small, certainly, but amply -sufficient for his modest wants, for their united daily -household expenses did not exceed one shilling.</p> - -<p>Once a bookseller, Robert speedily found opportunity -to become an author, and he undertook the -editorship of a small weekly periodical called the -<cite>Kaleidoscope</cite>; 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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_241">241</a></span> -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.”</p> - -<p>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 <cite>Traditions</cite> 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 <cite>Lippincott’s Magazine</cite> 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_242">242</a></span> -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 <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">au fait</i> with the -whole matter.”</p> - -<p>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 <cite>Miscellany</cite> -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<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_243">243</a></span> -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 <cite>Edinburgh Advertiser</cite>.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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’ <cite>Edinburgh -Journal</cite>. Mr. William Chambers has himself, -in a letter to the editor of the <cite>Athenæum</cite> (April 1st, -1871), replied to a statement in a former number, that -upon seeing a copy of the prospectus of the <cite>Penny<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_244">244</a></span> -Magazine</cite>, 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.</p> - -<p>“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 <cite>Penny Magazine</cite>, or even hearing -that such a thing was in contemplation. My -periodical was to be entitled Chambers’ <cite>Edinburgh -Journal</cite>, 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 <cite>Penny Magazine</cite> -was about a month after the <cite>Journal</cite> was set on -foot and in general circulation.”</p> - -<p>The success of the new <cite>Journal</cite> 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 <cite>Penny Magazine</cite>, it is still the most -successful and the most instructive of the cheap -hebdomadal periodicals. At the very first flush of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_245">245</a></span> -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 <cite>Dublin -University Magazine</cite>, “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.”</p> - -<p>Seldom, if ever, have two members of a publishing -firm been so admirably fitted for their business.</p> - -<p>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 -<cite>Journal</cite> 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 -<i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">nom de plume</i> 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 <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">de haut en bas</i>, -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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_246">246</a></span> -When Leigh Hunt, in 1834, established his <cite>London -Journal</cite>, he announced that he intended to follow the -plan of Chambers’ <cite>Edinburgh Journal</cite>, “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 <cite>Indicator</cite>, <cite>Tatler</cite>, &c., cordially admitted -that his young rivals had more wisely achieved the -desired end by interesting a wider and less educated -public.</p> - -<p>In a few years all Edinburgh proved to be equal -only to produce the Scotch edition of the <cite>Journal</cite>, 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 <cite>Journal</cite>, 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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_247">247</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 <cite>Critic</cite> 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_248">248</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>Many of Robert Chambers’s earliest essays in his -<cite>Journal</cite> 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.</p> - -<p>To supplement what their <cite>Journal</cite> 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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_249">249</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_250">250</a></span>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.”</p> - -<p>The news of Robert Chambers’s death so affected -his brother, Mr. David Chambers, who was at that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_251">251</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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 <cite>Journal</cite>, and other of -their serial publications.</p> - -<div class="tb">* <span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">*</span></div> - -<p>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 <cite>Microcosm</cite>, 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.</p> - -<p>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 <cite>Globe</cite> newspaper,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_252">252</a></span> -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 <cite>Windsor and Eton Express</cite>, 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 <cite>Plain Englishman</cite>, a miscellaneous -journal, which only lasted from 1820 to 1822.</p> - -<p>His first venture into the dimly descried regions of -popular literature appeared, he says, in the <cite>Windsor -Express</cite> for Dec. 11, 1819, in a paper called “Cheap -Publications,” and was followed by others, till, in one -of the last numbers of the <cite>Plain Englishman</cite>, we -come across an article entitled “Diffusion of Useful -Knowledge”—a straw which shows which way his -mind was turning.</p> - -<div id="if_i_252" class="figcenter" style="width: 378px;"> - <img src="images/i_252.jpg" width="378" height="445" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p>Charles Knight.</p> - -<p>1791–1873.</p></div></div> - -<p>Among Mr. Knight’s other literary labours at this -time, in 1820, he undertook the editorship of the -<cite>Guardian</cite>, 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 <cite>Guardian</cite>, and took up his position in Pall -Mall East, and started as a publisher.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_253">253</a></span> -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 <cite>Etonian</cite> 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 <em>un</em>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 <cite>Etonian</cite> 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 -<cite>Knight’s Quarterly Magazine</cite> was settled, and he -was introduced to Derwent, Coleridge, Malden, and -Macaulay, afterwards his chief contributors.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_254">254</a></span> -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.”</p> - -<p>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 <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">jeux -d’esprits</i>, 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 <cite>Quarterly Magazine</cite> attained a great celebrity -as the most classical, and yet the lightest, gayest, and -most pleasing periodical of the day.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_255">255</a></span> -him to retain, or to lose much of the assistance -which had given to the <cite>Quarterly Magazine</cite> 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 <cite>Quarterly</cite>.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_256">256</a></span> -of his publications, chiefly fictions calculated to allay -the torture of reality, he was able to reap a reward for -his temerity.</p> - -<p>Every day found Mr. Knight more sick of his prospects -than the last. The <cite>Brazen Head</cite>, 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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_257">257</a></span> -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 <cite>British -Almanac</cite>, and the <cite>Companion to the Almanac</cite>—a -wonderful change for the better after the “Poor -Robins” and “Old Moores” of the past.</p> - -<p>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 -<cite>Penny Magazine</cite>, subsequent by only a very few weeks -to <cite>Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal</cite>.</p> - -<p>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 <cite>Penny Magazine</cite>.” -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_258">258</a></span> -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 <cite>Blackwood</cite>. -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.</p> - -<p>In spite of the somewhat scurrilous attacks made -upon the <cite>Penny Magazine</cite> by Colburn in his <cite>New -Monthly</cite> it was a continuous success, and ultimately -paved the way to a work infinitely more important—the -“Penny Encyclopædia.”</p> - -<p>It will be essential here to understand the position -of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_259">259</a></span> -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<i>d.</i> Almanack,” “The Penny Sheet Almanack,” and -“The British Working-man’s Almanack.” Then came -the <cite>Penny Magazine</cite>, the <cite>British Quarterly Journal of -Education</cite>, 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_260">260</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>Mr. Knight was originally associated with Mr. Long -in the editorial duties, but soon wisely gave up the -management of the literary department.</p> - -<p>Mr. George Long, who is now leaving a Professorship -at Brighton College for Chichester,<a id="FNanchor_19" href="#Footnote_19" class="fnanchor">19</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_261">261</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_262">262</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>This was followed in 1843 by the “Illustrated -London,” certainly the best and most trustworthy -history we yet have <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">in extenso</i> of the great metropolis.</p> - -<p>The issue of the “weekly volumes” was also in -progress, commencing with a “Life of Caxton,” by<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_263">263</a></span> -Mr. Knight himself; but the series soon became the -“shilling volumes.”</p> - -<p>The <cite>Penny Magazine</cite> terminated on the 27th Dec., -1845, and its continuation, <cite>Knight’s Penny Magazine</cite>, -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.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_264">264</a></span> -sanguine friends of improvement could not in 1826 -have hoped to witness in twenty years.”</p> - -<p>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).</p> - -<p>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 <span class="locked">knowledge:—</span></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_265">265</a></span></p> - -<table summary="Knight's range of works"> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Analytical Accounts of Great Writers, English and Foreign</td> - <td class="tdr">13</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Biography</td> - <td class="tdr">33</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">General History</td> - <td class="tdr">5</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">English History</td> - <td class="tdr">26</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Geography, Travel, and Topography</td> - <td class="tdr">33</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Natural History</td> - <td class="tdr">17</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Fine Arts and Antiquities</td> - <td class="tdr">8</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Arts and Sciences, Political Philosophy, &c.</td> - <td class="tdr">14</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Natural Theology and Philosophy</td> - <td class="tdr">15</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">General Literature</td> - <td class="tdr">16</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Original Fiction</td> - <td class="tdr">6</td></tr> - <tr> - <td> </td> - <td class="tdr bt">186</td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="in0">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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>In 1854 appeared the “Popular History of England;” -it was completed in 1862.</p> - -<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_266">266</a></span> -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.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_267">267</a></span></p> - -<div class="tb">* <span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">*</span></div> - -<p><span class="smcap">John Cassell</span>, 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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_268">268</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_269">269</a></span> -the <cite>Preston Temperance Advocate</cite>: “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<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_270">270</a></span> -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.<a id="FNanchor_20" href="#Footnote_20" class="fnanchor">20</a></p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_271">271</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>In 1850 the <cite>Working Man’s Friend</cite> appeared, the -precursor of many similar works, and was followed, -immediately after the Great Exhibition, by the -<cite>Illustrated Exhibitor</cite>—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.</p> - -<p>Among all the works published by the firm perhaps -the most useful was, and indeed is, the <cite>Popular Educator</cite>; -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 <cite>Technical Educator</cite>. 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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_272">272</a></span> -encourager of the reading than of the writing world; -but among the works claiming originality as well as -cheapness, the <cite>History of England</cite> is perhaps the best; -the <cite>Natural History</cite> 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 <cite>Family Paper</cite> and the <cite>Quiver</cite> -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 <cite>Magazine</cite>, held faithfully to its promise of -pure and wholesome literature.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_273">273</a></span> -the <cite>Family Bible</cite>, 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 <cite>Bookseller</cite> -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 <cite>Cassell’s Family Bible</cite>. 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 <cite>family Bible</cite>.”</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_274">274</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<div class="tb">* <span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">*</span></div> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_275">275</a></span> -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 <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">nondescripto</i>; 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 <cite>Literary Gazette</cite>, 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.’”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_276">276</a></span> -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<i>s</i>. 6<i>d</i>. 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,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_277">277</a></span> -Mr. Bohn was the only member of the trade who -endeavoured in 1860 to exert his influence against the -abolition of the paper duty.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 <cite>New York -Round Table</cite> 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_278">278</a></span> -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.”</p> - -<div id="if_i_278" class="figcenter" style="width: 141px;"> - <img src="images/i_278.jpg" width="141" height="154" alt="" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_279">279</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div id="if_i_279" class="figcenter" style="width: 357px;"> - <img id="hdr_7" src="images/i_279.jpg" width="357" height="76" alt="" /></div> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><i>HENRY COLBURN</i>:<br /> - -<span class="subhead">THREE VOLUME NOVELS AND LIGHT LITERATURE.</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap b"><span class="smcap1">Round</span> Henry Colburn clusters a body of writers, -lighter and gayer, and consequently more ephemeral -than any we have yet noticed—men and women, -too, for the matter of that, who purchased immediate -success too often with a disregard of future reputation.</p> - -<p>As a lad, Henry Colburn was placed in the establishment -of William Earle, bookseller, of Albemarle -Street, and after this preliminary training obtained the -situation of assistant to a Mr. Morgan, the principal of -a large circulating library in Conduit Street. Here -he had, of course, ample opportunity of gauging the -reading taste of the general public, and it is probably -from this early connection with the library-subscribing -world that he determined henceforth to -devote himself almost exclusively to the production -of the light novelties which he saw were so eagerly and -so incessantly demanded. In 1816 he succeeded to -the proprietorship of the library, and conducted the -business with great spirit and success until, removing -to New Burlington Street, he resigned the Conduit -Street Library to the hands of Messrs. Saunders and -Ottley, who, until their recent dissolution, were famous,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_280">280</a></span> -not only for their circulating library, but for the tender -care they bestowed upon the works of suckling -poets and poetasters.</p> - -<p>Before this change of residence, however, Colburn had -already made several serious ventures on his own account. -All through his long career we shall find that he -speculated in journalistic venture with as much spirit -as he showed in any of his daring schemes to win -popular credit and applause. In 1814, with the assistance -of Mr. Frederick Shoberl, he originated the -<cite>New Monthly Magazine and Universal Register</cite>, -on “the principles of general patriotism and loyalty,” -founded, as its name implied, in direct opposition to -Sir Richard Philips’ <cite>Old Monthly</cite>. Among the early -editors were Dr. Watkins and Alaric Watts, but in 1820 -a new series was commenced under the title of the -<cite>New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal</cite>, and -Thomas Campbell, the poet, was appointed editor. -The agreement still exists in Beattie’s “Life of Campbell,” -and was unusually liberal. He agreed to edit the -periodical for three years, to supply in all twelve -articles, six in verse, six in prose; and for these and -his editorial services he received five hundred pounds -per annum, to be increased if the circulation of the -magazine materially improved. He was, of course, -assisted by a sub-editor, and allowed a liberal sum for -the payment of contributors. The magazine prospered, -and passed successively through the editorial hands -of Bulwer Lytton (1832) and Theodore Hook. In -1836 a third series appeared under Mr. Harrison -Ainsworth, and though Colburn parted with the proprietorship -to Messrs. Chapman and Hall, and they -in their turn to Messrs. Adams and Francis, Mr. Harrison -Ainsworth was till yesterday at his editorial post,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_281">281</a></span> -delighting our children with precisely the same kind -of enthralling romances with which he beguiled our -fathers.</p> - -<p>In 1817 Colburn determined to introduce a paper -upon the plan of a popular German prototype, and on -the 26th January the first number of the <cite>Literary -Gazette</cite> appeared, price one shilling. H. E. Lloyd, a -clerk in the Foreign Department of the Post-Office, a -good linguist, and a well-known translator from the -German, was the chief contributor, and appears to -have shared the editorial duties with Miss Ross, a lady -afterwards pensioned by the Government. The reputation -achieved was great, especially in reference to -the Fine Arts, which were skilfully handled by William -Carey, and at the twenty-sixth number Mr. Jerdan, -formerly editor of the <cite>Sun</cite>, purchased a third of the -property, and became the regular editor. Messrs. -Longman eagerly embraced the offer of a third share, -and with a staff of contributors, who varied from -Canning to Maginn, the <cite>Literary Gazette</cite> obtained a -wide popularity, and was recognized as an authority -upon other matters than literature. At present, however, -the <cite>Gazette</cite> is most gratefully remembered as -having encouraged in its poetical columns (fairly and -impartially opened to merit, however obscure), the -earliest writings of Mrs. Hemans, Bowles, Hood, -Swain, James Smith, Howitt, and even Tupper. In -1842 Jerdan bought out Colburn and the Messrs. -Longman, and from his hands the editorship passed -to L. Phillips, L. Beeve, and J. L. Jephson. In 1858 -a new series was commenced, under, successively, -S. Brooks, H. Christmas, W. R. Workman, F. Arnold, -John Morley, and C. W. Goodwin. In 1862 it was -finally incorporated with the <cite>Parthenon</cite>.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_282">282</a></span> -In 1816, the year before the foundation of the -<cite>Literary Gazette</cite>, Colburn had, as we have seen, -migrated to New Burlington Street, and soon rendered -his shop famous as the chief emporium for the purchase -and sale of novels and other light literature. -The first book issued from the new establishment was -Lady Morgan’s “Zana”—a work certainly not worth -much, but scarcely meriting an attack in the <cite>Quarterly</cite>, -which Talfourd stigmatises as “one of the coarsest -insults ever offered in print by man to woman;” -however, through the power of her ladyship’s name, -and with the aid of skilful advertising—in which -Colburn was perhaps the greatest expert in a time -when the art had not reached its present high state of -development—“Zana” proved eminently successful. -Talented in a manner Lady Morgan certainly was, -and, as a proof, is said to have made more than twenty-five -thousand pounds by her pen. She had published -a volume of verses at the unfortunately early age of -fourteen, and this idea of precocity seems to us to -accompany all her works.</p> - -<p>At the suggestion of his friend Mr. Upcott, Colburn -undertook, in 1818, the publication of “Evelyn’s Diary,” -and its success would have been almost unparalleled -had it not been followed in 1825 by the “Diary of -Pepys.” For more than 150 years this work reposed -unread and unknown, until Mr. John Smith succeeded -in deciphering the stenographic characters which had -concealed so much amusement from the world. The -work, edited by Lord Braybrooke, was published in -two volumes at six guineas, and though this and the -two succeeding editions, at five guineas, were almost -worthless from the editorial excisions they had undergone -from the too-modest fingers of the noble editor,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_283">283</a></span> -the issues went off very rapidly, and Colburn obtained -a very handsome profit on the £2200 he had paid for -the copyright. In the fourth edition of 1848 Lord -Braybrooke was urged to restore those characteristic -passages which he had before condemned, and the full -value of the work, as a photographic picture of an -amusing, though dissolute, time was firmly established. -Evelyn had before given us the history of Charles the -Second’s Court, with a gravity and openly-expressed -reprobation which finely suited his character of a -worthy and dignified old English country gentleman; -but still it is now to the pages of Pepys that all the -world turns for an account of the royal domestic life -of certainly the most infamous period of our annals. -He is so charmingly garrulous, jotting down each -night such quaint thoughts on what he had seen during -the day, writing them by his fireside, with the same -nonchalance with which he put on his night-cap, and -with as little suspicion of ever being surprised in the -one act as the other, that his truthfulness, his openness, -and his scarcely-concealed partiality for as much -vagabonding and frolicsome society as Mrs. Pepys -would permit, carry the reader irresistibly along with -him.</p> - -<p>It is, however, when we come to the novels that -Colburn ushered into the world, that we strike upon -the one vein of profitable ore that he made so peculiarly -his own; and <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">facile princeps</i> of all his novelistic -clients, stands Theodore Hook. To understand the -genius of all Hook’s works, it is essential to take a -short retrospective view of his life and character. -Two things, above all else, strike us in regarding -him—that he possessed the greatest love of joke and -frolic, and the most marvellous memory with which<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_284">284</a></span> -ever man was gifted. As a boy of seventeen, he -dashed off an amusing comedy; this, he tells us in -the really autobiographical sketch of “Gilbert Gurney,” -was the process. “To work I went, bought -three or four French vaudevilles, and filching an incident -from each, made up my very effective drama, -the ‘Soldier’s Return.’” And for this bantling he -received the handsome first-earnings of fifty pounds. -Living, at a time when other boys were at school, in -the gayest of all society in London, a welcome guest -behind the curtain at every theatre, and hailed as a -good fellow in every literary coterie, young Hook led -a rollicking, devil-may-care life, giving the world back -with interest the rich amusement he gathered from it. -Now, making a random bet that a corner house in -Berners Street should, within a week, be the most -famous house in London; and within the time taking -his opponent to a commanding window, that he might -acknowledge that the wager had been fairly won; -and the strange scene in the thoroughfare must have -soon convinced him. The Duke of York, drawn by -six grey horses, the Archbishop of Canterbury and -the Lord Mayor in formal state, every woman of -notorious virtue, every man of any fame or notoriety, -porters bustling up with wine-casks and beer-barrels, -milliners with bonnet-boxes crushed and battered, -pastry-cooks with dainty dishes that the street gamins -soon picked out of the gutters, undertakers with rival -coffins, variously made to exact measurement, hackney-coaches, -and vans, and waggons by the hundred—in -fact, half the world of London was there by invitations -especially adapted to move each individual case, -and the other half soon came as spectators. The -impotent “Charleys” of the day found their efforts<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_285">285</a></span> -useless to dispel the block and crush, and long before -the crowd was cleared away, the next day’s papers -were ringing with the “Berners Street Hoax.” Again, -we find him donning a scarlet coat, and, as the Prince -Regent’s messenger, delivering a letter to an obnoxious -actor, eagerly inviting him to dine with that august -personage; and then joining in the crush outside -Holland House, to see his enemy come away discomfited -as an impostor. No occasion was sacred from -his jests, and his exuberant spirits were scarcely in -accordance with the tranquillity of academic life. At -his very matriculation the Vice-chancellor, struck by -his youthful appearance, asked him if he was fully -prepared to sign the thirty-nine articles. “Oh, certainly, -sir,” replied Hook with cool assiduity, “forty, -if you please.” Indignantly he was told to withdraw, -and it took weeks of friendly interposition to -appease the outraged dignitary. At the age of -twenty he wrote his first novel, but it was a failure, -and he shortly afterwards received the appointment -of accountant-general and treasurer at the Mauritius. -Here he stayed for some years, leading a life of pleasure, -and going to the office only five times in the -whole period, when suddenly a commission was appointed -to inquire into the accounts, and he was -dragged off from a supper, given in his honour, to -prison, charged with a theft of £20,000, and sent -under arrest to England. This “complaint of the -chest,” as he observed to a friend who was astonished -to see him back so soon, was afterwards reduced to -£12,000, and for this he was judged to be accountable, -and put into the debtors’ prison. Here, from his -diary, he seems to have enjoyed himself as much as -ever, drinking as a loyal subject should, to the “health<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_286">286</a></span> -of my august detainer, the king.” However, political -influence was brought to bear upon the Government, -and he was set at liberty with the burden of the debt -hanging very lightly round his neck.</p> - -<p>In 1820 he founded the <cite>John Bull</cite> newspaper, -strongly in favour of the king’s interests, scurrilous as -it was witty; everybody read it, and for some years -it yielded him £2000 per annum. His life we see -had been sufficiently various, and not an incident of it -was ever forgotten, for his memory was probably -unrivalled. He made a bet that he would repeat in -order the names of all the shops on one side of Oxford -Street, and he only misplaced one; and he gained -another wager by saying from memory a whole -column of <cite>Times</cite> advertisement, which he had only -once conned over; and on another occasion he utterly -discomfited a universal critic, by engaging him in a -conversation anent lunar eclipses, and then discharging -three columns of the “Encyclopædia Britannica” -at him, without pause or hesitation. He had, too, the -gift of improvising verse in our stubborn English -tongue, and was known on one occasion to introduce -the names of fifty guests at a supper-table, in a song -of fifty verses—each verse a rhymed epigram.</p> - -<p>With attainments and experiences like these, Colburn -may be considered as a wise rather than a -venturous man when he offered Hook £600 to write -a novel. The idea of the “Sayings and Doings” was -struck out at a <cite>John Bull</cite> gathering, and the book -when published in 1824, was so successful that 6000 -copies of the three volumes were soon disposed of,<a id="FNanchor_21" href="#Footnote_21" class="fnanchor">21</a><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_287">287</a></span> -and the generous publisher made the author a present -of £350. For the <cite>second series</cite> (published in 1825), -and the <cite>third series</cite> (published in 1828), he received -a thousand guineas each. In 1830 appeared -“Maxwell,” perhaps the best of his novels, and this -was followed by the “Parson’s Daughter” (1833), -“Jack Brag” (1837), and numerous others, for all of -which he was very handsomely paid. But though he -was earning at this period, upwards of £3000 a year -by his pen, he was spending more than £6000, and was -obliged, not only to make fresh engagements with his -publishers, but to fore-draw to a very large extent, -and to change his plans considerably with each instalment -of indebtedness. Colburn and Bentley seem to -have treated him with marked esteem and consideration, -and his letters perpetually show this: “I have -been so liberally treated by your house, that it seems -almost presuming upon kindnesses” (1831). Again, in -1837: “I assure you I would not press the matter in -a quarter where I am proud and happy to say—as I -do to everybody—I have met with the greatest -liberality.”</p> - -<p>In 1834 he took the management of the <cite>New -Monthly</cite>, and to its pages he contributed what may -be considered an autobiographical sketch. “Gilbert -Gurney” and the sequel “Gilbert Married,” the -second of which unfortunately was not autobiographical; -for he had formed ties with a woman who had -not only sacrificed everything to him, but during the -period of his imprisonment and his many troubles -had behaved with exemplary faithfulness and unremitting -attention; and these ties he had not the -courage to legally strengthen. At his death the -crown seized what little property he possessed, in the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_288">288</a></span> -shape of household chattels and newspaper shares, to -liquidate his unfortunate debt, and his children were -left penniless. A subscription was raised—if literary -men are improvident (though many have more excuses -for improvidence than Theodore Hook), they are at -least kindly-hearted—and a sum of £3000 was collected, -to which the King of Hanover contributed -£500. As a strange test of Hook’s joviality it is -stated that the receipts of the dining-room of the -Athenæum Club fell off by £300 when his well-known -seat in “Temperance Corner” became vacant.</p> - -<p>Another of the novelists with whom Colburn had -long and intimate dealings was G. P. R. James, one -of the most indefatigable writers that ever drove pen -over paper. We give for the sake of clearness, a -tabular statement of his extraordinary <span class="locked">labours:—</span></p> - -<table summary="James' works"> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">51</td> - <td class="tdc">Novels in</td> - <td class="tdr">3</td> - <td class="tdc">Volumes</td> - <td class="tdr">153</td> - <td class="tdc">Volumes.</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl figspace">2</td> - <td class="tdc">”</td> - <td class="tdr">4</td> - <td class="tdc">”</td> - <td class="tdr">8</td> - <td class="tdc">”</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl figspace">6</td> - <td class="tdc">”</td> - <td class="tdr">2</td> - <td class="tdc">”</td> - <td class="tdr">12</td> - <td class="tdc">”</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">16</td> - <td class="tdc">”</td> - <td class="tdr">1</td> - <td class="tdc">”</td> - <td class="tdr">16</td> - <td class="tdc">”</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl" colspan="4">Edited Works</td> - <td class="tdr">14</td> - <td class="tdc">”</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl" colspan="4">Miscellaneous Contributions<br />would fill say</td> - <td class="tdr">10</td> - <td class="tdc">”</td></tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="4"> </td> - <td class="tdr bt">223</td> - <td class="tdc">Volumes.</td></tr> -</table> - -<p>Truly a gargantuan labour! Some of James’s -early writings had attracted the attention of Washington -Irving, who strongly advised the undertaking -of some more important work, and as a consequence -“Richelieu” was commenced. After it had received -Scott’s approval it was submitted to Colburn, and -published in 1828 with a success that determined the -young author’s future career. We cannot, of course, -follow the progress of the 223 volumes as they issued -from the press. It would be absurd to look for -originality in a book-manufacturer of this calibre,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_289">289</a></span> -and, as Whipple says, James “was a maker of books -without being a maker of thought.” Still they served -their purpose of enriching the author and publishers, -and at a time when the public appetite was less -jaded than at present, his works were eagerly looked -for, and even now many readers agree with Leigh -Hunt:—“I hail every fresh publication of James, -though I hardly know what he is going to do with -his lady, and his gentleman, and his landscape, and -his scenery, and his mystery, and his orthodoxy, and -his criminal trial.”</p> - -<p>In 1826 Colburn published Banim’s “Tales of -the O’Hara Family,” a book that excited a very -strong interest in the public mind, and in the same -year he issued “Vivian Grey,” by a young author -whose life was to be as romantic as his story. Mr. -Disraeli’s first book contains a curious confession of -his youthful aspirations, and even a curiously exact -prototype of his future life. This was followed in -1831 by the “Young Duke.” “Bless me!” the elder -Disraeli exclaimed when he read this eloquent account -of aristocratic circles, “why the boy has -never sat in the same room as a duke in his life.” -Mr. Disraeli’s novels soon became famous for the -portraits or caricatures of distinguished living people, -scarcely disguised under the slightest of all possible -pseudonyms; to those living in the metropolis the -likenesses were evident enough, and a regular key was -published to each for the benefit of our country -cousins.</p> - -<p>In 1829 Colburn published “Frank Mildmay,” a -novel full of false morality and falser style, but delineating -sea life with such a flavour of fun and frolic, -adventures and brine, that Marryat was at once<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_290">290</a></span> -hailed as a true successor to Smollett. This was -followed by a rapid succession of sea stories, among -the best of which undoubtedly are “Peter Simple” -and “Midshipman Easy.” The perusal of these -works has probably done more to turn youthful aspiration -and energies to the choice of a profession -than any series of formal injunctions ever penned. -Old King William, the Sailor-King, was so entranced -with “Peter Simple” that he begged to be introduced -to the author, and promised to bestow some honourable -distinction upon him for his services; but afterwards -recollecting suddenly that he “had written a -book against the impressment of seamen,” he refused -to fulfil his pledge. When, later on, Colburn published -Marryat’s “Diary in America,” the Yankees -felt terribly outraged, and the severe criticism that -followed speedily emptied his shelves of a large -edition.</p> - -<p>This was emphatically the period of fashionable -novels, and the great outside world was perpetually -calling out for more and more romantic accounts of -that attractive region to which middle-class thought -could only aspire in reverent fancy. And though -these novels seemed written primarily to illustrate -the moral lesson of Touchstone to the Shepherd—“Shepherd, -wert thou ever at court?” “No.” “Then -thou art damned”—the public received the oracle, not -only with humility, but thankfulness. For a time -Mr. Bulwer Lytton was a disciple of this fashionable -school, but even “Pelham” has an interest greater -than any other specimen of its class, for though, in -some degree, an illustration of the maxim that “manners -make the man,” the threads of a darker and more -tragic interest are interwoven with the tale. As an<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_291">291</a></span> -artistic worker, as a true delineator of our subtler -and deeper passions, Lord Lytton was far above any -other of Colburn’s writers—above, indeed, any other -writer of the day; while his sophistry, immense as it -undoubtedly is, only lends a more forcible and enthralling -interest to his plots. None of Colburn’s -novelists—and their name was legion—brought in -more grist to the publishing mill than Lord Lytton; -and, when the meal had been baked several times, -Messrs. Routledge paid the author £20,000 for all -future use of these works—as popular now perhaps in -their cheap editions as they have ever been before.</p> - -<p>To return for a moment more immediately to Colburn’s -life, we find him still speculating in periodical -literature, and with the same success as ever. In -1828 he commenced the <cite>Court Journal</cite>, and in the -following year started the <cite>United Service Magazine</cite>, -while for many years he possessed a considerable interest -in the <cite>Sunday Times</cite> newspaper; and all these -periodicals are still held in popular esteem.</p> - -<p>The printing expenses of his enormous business -had been very considerable, and in 1830 he resolved -to take his principal printer, Mr. Richard Bentley, -into partnership; but the alliance did not last long, -and in August, 1832, the connection was dissolved, -and Colburn relinquished the business in New Burlington -Street to Mr. Bentley, giving him a guarantee -in bond that he would not recommence publishing -again within twenty miles of London.</p> - -<p>However, his heart was so intuitively set upon the -profitable risks of a publisher’s career, that he could -not quietly retire in the prime of life, and, accordingly, -he started a house at Windsor, so as to be within the -letter of the law, but the garrison town was sadly<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_292">292</a></span> -quiet after the literary circles of London, and to -London he again returned, paying the forfeiture in -full. This time he opened a house in Great Marlborough -Street, as his old establishment in New -Burlington Street was, of course, in possession of Mr. -Bentley, whose business had already assumed formidable -proportions. At Great Marlborough Street, -Colburn succeeded in rallying round him all his old -authors, and, perhaps, the greatest triumphs that date -from thence, are Miss Strickland’s “Lives of the -Kings and Queens of England and Scotland,” for the -copyright of the first of which he paid £2000. -Burke’s “Peerage,” “Baronetage,” and “Landed -Gentry” were also among his most profitable possessions.</p> - -<p>Throughout the whole of his business life, Colburn -had a very keen perception as to what the public -required, and of the market value of the productions -offered him; and yet he was almost uniformly liberal -in his dealings. His judgment of copyrights was -occasionally assisted by Mr. Forbes and Mr. Charles -Ollier.</p> - -<p>Of course, among the multitude of books he produced, -many were utterly worthless, beyond affording -a passing recreation to the library subscribers, and -many even were pecuniary failures. The most -ludicrous of these failures was a scheme originated by -John Galt, a constant contributor to the <cite>New Monthly</cite>. -This was a periodical, which, under the title of the -<cite>New British Theatre</cite>, published the best of those -dramatic productions, which the managers of the great -playhouses had previously rejected. The audacity of -the scheme carried it through for a short time, but -soon the unfortunate editor was smothered amid such<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_293">293</a></span> -a heap of dramatic rubbish, coming at every fresh post, -to the table of the benevolent encourager of youthful -aspirations, that he was fain to acknowledge the -justice of the managers’ previous decisions.</p> - -<p>Although Colburn was throughout his career chiefly -successful as a caterer for the libraries, supplying them -with novels, which, by some mysterious law, were -required to consist of three volumes of about three -hundred pages each, the cost of the whole fixed immutably -at one guinea and a half, his “Modern -Novelists,” containing his best copyright works, in a -cheap octavo form, attained the number of nineteen, -being published at intervals between 1835 and 1841, -and formed a valuable addition to the popular literature -of the time.</p> - -<p>Finally, Colburn, having acquired an ample competence, -retired from business, in favour of Messrs. -Hurst and Blackett, still, however, retaining his name -to some favourite copyrights. He had been twice -married, the second time, in 1841, to the daughter of -Captain Crosbie, R.N.</p> - -<p>After a period of well-earned leisure, rendered -pleasingly genial by the constant society of his literary -friends, Henry Colburn died, on the 16th of August, -1855, at his house in Bryanston Square.</p> - -<p>The whole of his property was sworn to be under -£35,000, and went to his wife and her family. Two -years later, the seven copyrights he had reserved were -sold by auction, and realised the large sum of £14,000, -to which Miss Strickland’s “Lives of the Queens of -England” alone contributed £6900.</p> - -<p>As publisher of three volume novels, Colburn -was succeeded by two principal rival houses, with the -foundation of each of which he was in some way concerned.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_294">294</a></span> -As Mr. Bentley’s establishment in New Burlington -Street was only a further development of -Colburn’s old house, a few words may not be out of -place concerning it. In 1837, Mr. Bentley proposed -to start a periodical to rival the <cite>New Monthly</cite>, and at -the preliminary meeting it was proposed to call it the -<cite>Wit’s Miscellany</cite>, but James Smith objected to this as -being too pretentious, upon which Mr. Bentley proposed -the title of <cite>Bentley’s Miscellany</cite>. “Don’t you -think,” interposed Smith, “that that would be going -too far the other way?” However, the name was -adopted (Mr. Bentley denies the accuracy of this -anecdote—but <i xml:lang="it" lang="it">se non è vero, è ben trovato</i>). One of the -chief contributors to the new <cite>Miscellany</cite> was Barham, -who had been a school chum of Mr. Bentley’s at St. -Paul’s, and, until 1843, the “Ingoldsby Legends” -delighted the public in the pages of the <cite>Miscellany</cite>. -The last poem of the “Legends” was published in -Colburn’s <cite>New Monthly</cite>, but by Barham’s express -wish, the song he wrote on his death-bed, “As I Lay -Athynkynge,” appeared, as fitly closing his career, in -<cite>Bentley</cite>. The first editor of <cite>Bentley’s Miscellany</cite>, -was no less a man than Charles Dickens, who had -previously contributed the “Sketches by Boz” to the -<cite>Morning Chronicle</cite>, and who soon, as the author of -<cite>Pickwick</cite>, became the most popular writer of the day. -Mr. Bentley was one of the first publishers to secure -Dickens’s services, and in his magazine “Oliver Twist” -appeared. The editorship afterwards passed into the -hands of Mr. Harrison Ainsworth and Mr. A. Smith. -For the magazine, as for his ordinary business, Mr. -Bentley secured the aid of most of the writers who -had graduated first under Colburn; and to enumerate -them would, with the exception of “Father Prout,” be<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_295">295</a></span> -merely a repetition of names already mentioned, and -those who have won popularity since then have -scarcely yet had time to lose it. An amusing story, -however, worth repeating, has been recently told by -the <cite>Athenæum</cite>, anent “Eustace Conway,” a novel by -the late Mr. Maurice. “We believe,” says that -journal, “we are not going too far in telling the -following story about it. Mr. Maurice sold the novel -to the late Mr. Bentley somewhere about the year -1830; but the excitement caused by the Reform Bill -being unfavourable to light literature, Mr. Bentley did -not issue it till 1834, when he had quite lost sight of -its author, then a curate in Warwickshire. The villain -of the novel was called Captain Marryat; and Mr. -Maurice, who first learned of the publication of his -book from a review in our columns, had soon the -pleasure of receiving a challenge from the celebrated -Captain Marryat. Great was the latter’s astonishment -on learning that the anonymous author of ‘Eustace -Conway’ had never heard of the biographer of -‘Peter Simple,’ and, being in Holy Orders, was -obliged to decline to indulge in a duel.” Mr. Bentley -died in September, 1871, and was succeeded in the -business by his son, who for many years had been -associated with him.</p> - -<div id="if_i_295" class="figcenter" style="width: 141px;"> - <img src="images/i_295.jpg" width="141" height="107" alt="" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_296">296</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div id="if_i_296" class="figcenter" style="width: 380px;"> - <img id="hdr_8" src="images/i_296.jpg" width="380" height="80" alt="" /></div> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><i>THE RIVINGTONS, THE PARKERS, -AND JAMES NISBET</i>:<br /> - -<span class="subhead">RELIGIOUS LITERATURE.</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">Not</span> only is the Rivington family the oldest still -existing in bookselling annals, but even in itself -it succeeded, a century and a half ago, to a business -already remarkable for antiquity. In 1711, on the -death of Richard Chiswell, styled by Dunton “the -Metropolitan of booksellers,” his premises and his -trade passed into the hands of Charles Rivington, and -the sign of the “Bible and the Crown” was then first -erected over the doorway of the house in Paternoster -Row; and from that time to this the “Bible and the -Crown” might have been fairly stamped upon the -cover of nearly every book issued from the establishment, -as a seal and token of its contents.</p> - -<p>Charles Rivington was born at Chesterfield, in -Derbyshire, towards the close of the seventeenth century, -and from a very early age he evinced such a -taste for religious books that his friends determined -to send him to London, that he might become a theological -bookseller. Having served his apprenticeship<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_297">297</a></span> -with a Mr. Matthews, he was, in 1711, made free of -the city, preparatory to entering into business on his -own account, and, bearing the date of that year, billheads -are still existing to which his name is affixed. -In 1718 we find him, in conjunction with other firms, -issuing proposals to print by subscription Mason’s -“Vindication of the Church of England, and the -Ministry thereof,” a principle that the family has -steadily adhered to ever since; for though Rivington -published one of Whitfield’s very earliest works, “The -Nature and Necessity of a New Birth in Christ,” -preached at Bristol in September, 1737, the author -was then a young Oxford student, who had been but -just ordained; and Wesley, too, the other great -religious mover of the day, was still a fellow of Lincoln -College, Oxford, when Rivington brought out his -edition of Thomas à Kempis’ “Imitation of Christ,” a -book that has, after the Bible, gone through more -editions than any other.</p> - -<p>About 1719, an association of some half-a-dozen -respectable booksellers entered into partnership for -the purpose of printing expensive books, and styled -themselves the printing <cite>Conger</cite>,<a id="FNanchor_22" href="#Footnote_22" class="fnanchor">22</a> and, in 1736, another -similar company was started by Rivington and Bettesworth, -who termed themselves the “New Conger.”</p> - -<p>Much of Rivington’s business consisted in the publication -of sermons, which, as a simple commission -trade, was profitable without risk. An amusing story -is told, which proves that the ponderous nature of his -trade stock did not prevent Charles Rivington from -being a man of kindly humour. A poor vicar, in a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_298">298</a></span> -remote country diocese, had preached a sermon so -acceptable to his parishioners, that they begged him -to have it printed, and, full of the honour conferred -and the greater honours about to come, the clergyman -at once started for London, was recommended to -Rivington, to whom he triumphantly related the -object of his journey. Rivington agreed to his proposals, -and asked how many copies he would like -struck off. “Why, sir,” replied the clergyman, “I -have calculated that there are in the kingdom ten -thousand parishes, and that each parish will, at least, -take one and others more, so that I think we may venture -to print thirty-five or thirty-six thousand copies.”</p> - -<p>Rivington remonstrated, the author insisted, and the -matter was settled. With great self-denial, the -clergyman waited at home for nearly two months in -silence, but at length the hope of fame and riches so -tormented him that he could hold out no longer, and -he wrote to Rivington desiring him to send in the -debtor and creditor account at once, but adding -liberally that the remittance might be forwarded at -his own convenience. What, then, was his astonishment, -anguish, and tribulation, when the following -account was <span class="locked">received:—</span></p> - -<div class="intact"> -<p class="p1 in0 in4">The Revd. Dr. * * *</p> -<p class="center in2">To C. Rivington, Dr.</p> - -<table class="notpad" summary="Rivington's bill"> - <tr> - <td> </td> - <td class="tdc">£</td> - <td class="tdc"><i>s.</i></td> - <td class="tdc"><i>d.</i></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">To Printing and Paper, 35,000 Copies of Sermons</td> - <td class="tdr">785</td> - <td class="tdr">5</td> - <td class="tdr">6</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">By sale of 17 Copies of said Sermon</td> - <td class="tdr">1</td> - <td class="tdr">5</td> - <td class="tdr">6</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl in2">Balance due to C. Rivington</td> - <td class="tdr bt bb">£784</td> - <td class="tdr bt bb">0</td> - <td class="tdr bt bb">0</td></tr> -</table> -</div> - -<p>In a day or two he received a letter from Rivington -to the following <span class="locked">purport:—</span></p> - -<p>“<span class="smcap">Rev. Sir</span>,—I beg pardon for innocently amusing<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_299">299</a></span> -myself at your expense, but you need not give yourself -any uneasiness. I knew better than you could do -the extent of the sale of single sermons, and accordingly -printed one hundred copies, to the expense of -which you are heartily welcome.”<a id="FNanchor_23" href="#Footnote_23" class="fnanchor">23</a></p> - -<p>In 1736 Rivington became an active member of a -society for promoting the encouragement of learning, -but as he and his colleagues sustained much injury -through it, this was in the following year abandoned.</p> - -<p>In 1737 we find him venturing in a very different -path. “Two booksellers,” writes Richardson, “my -particular friends (Rivington and Osborne), entreated -me to write for them a little volume of letters, in a -common style, on such subjects as might be of use to -those country readers who were unable to indite for -themselves. ‘Would it be any harm,’ said I, ‘in a -piece you want to be written so low, if one should -instruct them how they should think and act in -common cases, as well as indite?’ They were the -more urgent for me to begin the little volume for the -hint. I set about it, and in the progress of writing -two or three letters to instruct handsome girls who -were obliged to go out to service, as we phrase it, how -to avoid the snares that might be laid against their -virtue, the above story occurred to me, and hence -sprang ‘Pamela.’” The first two volumes of the story -were written in three months, and never was a book of -this kind more generally or more quickly admired. -Pope asserted that it would do more good than twenty -sermons, mindful, perhaps, of its publisher; Slocock -and many other eminent divines recommended it from -the pulpit; a critic declared that if all books were<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_300">300</a></span> -burnt, the Bible and ‘Pamela’ ought to be preserved; -and even at fashionable Ranelagh, where the former -was in but little request, “it was usual for the ladies -to hold up the volume (the latter) to one another, to -show that they had got the book that every one was -talking of.” What, however, was more to Rivington’s -purpose, the volume went through five editions in the -year of publication, 1741.</p> - -<p>This success closed Charles Rivington’s business -life, for he died on the 25th of February, 1742.</p> - -<p>By Ellen Pease, his wife, a native of Durham, he -had six children, to whom his friend Samuel Richardson, -the executor also of his will, acted as guardian.</p> - -<p>Charles, the founder, was succeeded by John and -James, who carried on the publishing business conjointly -for several years, after which James joined a -Mr. Fletcher, in St. Paul’s Churchyard, with whom he -brought out Smollett’s “History of England,” by -which £10,000 was cleared—the largest profit that had -yet been made on any single book. This success, -however, encouraged James to neglect his affairs, and -he took to frequenting Newmarket; racing and -gambling soon ended in a failure, and in 1760 he -thought it advisable to start for the New World. -Here, in Philadelphia, he commenced his celebrated -<cite>Gazette</cite>, and, as he advocated the British interests and -took the loyal side, his premises were destroyed by -the rebels, and his type cast into republican bullets. -James Rivington then came back to London, where -he obtained the appointment of “King’s printer to -America,” and furnished afresh with types and presses -he returned to recommence his <cite>Royal Gazette</cite>, which -he carried on boldly up to the withdrawal of the -British troops; and as he had contrived somehow, it<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_301">301</a></span> -is said by forwarding early intelligence, to propitiate the -enemy, he was allowed to continue his paper, which -soon died for want of subscribers; but until 1802 he -lived in New York, leaving many descendants there. -Even in those early and unsophisticated days, Yankee -gentlemen had contracted the habit of “cowhiding” -obnoxious or impertinent editors, and the wit of the -<cite>Royal Gazette</cite> was in its time sufficiently stinging and -personal to involve its proprietor in many of these -little difficulties. James Rivington relates rather an -amusing story of an interview with Ethan Allen, -one of the republican heroes, who came for the express -purpose of administering chastisement. He <span class="locked">says:—</span></p> - -<p>“I was sitting down, after a good dinner, with a -bottle of Madeira before me, when I heard an unusual -noise in the street, and a huzza from the boys. I was -on the second story, and, stepping to the window, saw -a tall figure in tarnished regimentals, with a large -cocked hat and an enormously long sword, followed -by a crowd of boys, who occasionally cheered him -with huzzas, of which he seemed quite unaware. He -came up to my door and stopped. I could see no -more—my heart told me it was Ethan Allen. I shut -my window, and retired behind my table and my -bottle. I was certain the hour of reckoning had come—there -was no retreat. Mr. Staples, my clerk, came -in, paler than ever, clasping his hands—‘Master, he -has come!’ ‘I know it.’ I made up my mind, looked -at the Madeira, possibly took a glass. ‘Show him -up, and if such Madeira cannot mollify him, he must -be harder than adamant.’ There was a fearful moment -of suspense; I heard him on the stairs, his long sword -clanking at every step. In he stalked. ‘Is your -name James Rivington?’ ‘It is, sir, and no man can<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_302">302</a></span> -be more delighted to see Colonel Ethan Allen.’ ‘Sir, -I have come——’ ‘Not another word, my dear Colonel, -until you have taken a seat and a glass of old -Madeira.’ ‘But, sir, I don’t think it proper—’ ‘Not -another word, Colonel, but taste this wine; I have had -it in glass ten years.’ He took the glass, swallowed -the wine, smacked his lips, and shook his head -approvingly. ‘Sir, I come——’ ‘Not another word -until you have taken another glass, and then, my dear -Colonel, we will talk of old officers, and I have some -queer events to detail.’ In short, we finished three -bottles of Madeira, and parted as good friends as if -we never had cause to be otherwise.”</p> - -<p>In England, to return there, John Rivington was still -successfully fostering his father’s business. A quiet -and sedate man, with nothing of James’ rashness and -venture about him, he is described by West as being -stout and well formed, particularly neat in his person, -of dignified and gentlemanly address, going with gold-headed -cane and nosegay twice a day to service at St. -Paul’s—as befitted the great religious publisher of the -day, and living generally upon the most friendly terms -with the members of the Episcopal Bench, and -breakfasting every alternate Monday with Bishop -Seeker at Lambeth. A kind master, too, for coming -back on the 30th of January, from service, and finding -his sons and clerks plodding at the desk—“Tous, sous, -how is this?—I always put my shutters up on this -day.”</p> - -<p>In May, 1743, he married a sister of Sir Francis -Gosling, Alderman, afterwards Lord Mayor, and as -she brought him a fortune and fifteen children, the -match may probably be considered a prosperous one.</p> - -<p>Orthodox in his views, and true in business to the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_303">303</a></span> -professions he held out privately, Wesley and Whitfield -had to go elsewhere for a publisher, although -there must have been plenty of temptation to incline -the trade to patronise Methodism, for Coote, in a -comedy of his, published in 1757, makes a bookseller -say:—“I don’t deal in the sermon way now; I lost -money by the last I printed, for all ’twas by a Methodist.” -But John Rivington would have none of them, -and in 1752 we find him publishing “The Mischiefs -of Enthusiasm and Bigotry: an Assize Sermon by -the Rev. R. Hurd;” and about 1760 he was appointed -publisher to the venerable “Society for the Promotion -of Christian Knowledge”—an office that remained in -the family for upwards of seventy years. Dissent in -itself was injurious enough to his interests, but when -Wilberforce and Hannah More succeeded in making -a portion of the Church “Evangelical,” upwards of -half his customers deserted to a rival shop in -Piccadilly.</p> - -<p>Some time before this he had admitted his sons, -Francis and Charles, into partnership, and he was -then appointed manager in general of the works published -by his <em>clique</em>;—that is, of standard editions of -Shakespeare, Milton, Locke, and other British classics, -and of such religious works as were produced in an -expensive and bulky form; and of these works, two -especially, Dr. Dodd’s “Commentary,” and Cruden’s -“Concordance” stand out so prominently that some -slight account of their authors may not be unacceptable.</p> - -<p>William Dodd was a man of great learning, and a -very popular preacher in the metropolis, and in 1776, -when he was appointed chaplain to the King, took -his degree of LL.D. Ambitious and fond of display<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_304">304</a></span> -he found himself in debt, and determined to make a -bold effort to secure the Rectory of St. George’s, -Hanover Square. To her great surprise the wife of -Lord Chancellor Apsley received an anonymous letter -offering her £3000 if she would procure Dr. Dodd’s -presentation to the parish. This insulting proposal -was traced to Dodd, and the King ordered that he -should be deprived of his chaplaincy. This disgrace, -of course, involved him still further, and to extricate -himself from these difficulties he was tempted to forge -the name of his pupil, Lord Chesterfield, to a bond -for £4200. On the discovery of the forgery, Mr. -Manley, a solicitor, called upon the doctor with the -bill, leaving it on the table in a room where a fire -was burning, when he went out for the obvious purpose -of refreshment. Dr. Dodd appears to have been -too honest to destroy the fatal document, and he was -afterwards tried and condemned for forgery, and, spite -of all the strenuous efforts of his friends, was executed -on 27th of June, 1777.</p> - -<p>Alexander Cruden, one of the most useful men -who have ever followed the painstaking and praiseworthy -profession of index-making, was born in Aberdeen -in 1701. An unfortunate passion, which was -treated by its unworthy object with great contumely, -weakened his senses, and on the discovery that the -girl he worshipped was pregnant by her own brother, -he went for a short time entirely out of his mind. On -his recovery, he was sent to London in the hopes -that the difficulty of obtaining position and livelihood -might act tonically. At one of the first houses -at which he called, the door was opened by the -wretched girl herself, and poor Cruden rushed off -wildly and vacantly into the streets. For many<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_305">305</a></span> -years he was a bookseller, doubly entitled, therefore, -to a notice here, and upon the counter of his shop, -under the Royal Exchange, his famous and laborious -“Concordance” was compiled. Queen Caroline, to whom -it was dedicated, unluckily died before publication, -and the downfall of the expectations he had formed -from her patronage was too much for the author, and -his friends were compelled to place him in a lunatic -asylum. Having made his escape, he brought an -action against his relatives for false imprisonment—offering -his sister the choice of Newgate, Reading and -Aylesbury jails, and the prison at Windsor Castle. -He was never insane in the eyes of his employers, -and as a corrector of the press, especially in the -finer editions of the classics, his services were invaluable. -Henceforth he adopted the name of “Alexander -the Corrector,” as expressive of his character -of censor general to the public morals. Armed with a -large sponge, his favourite and incessant weapon, he -perambulated the town, wiping out all obnoxious -signs, more especially “Number 45,” then rendered -famous by Wilkes. Giving out, too, that he had a -commission from above to preach a general reformation -of manners, he made the attempt first among the -gownsmen at Oxford, and then among the prisoners -at Newgate; but in neither case did he meet with -much encouragement. He asked for knighthood from -the King, and a vacant ward from his fellow-citizens; -and on refusal said that he possessed the hearts if not -the hands of his friends. He was found dead on his -knees, apparently in a posture of prayer, at his lodgings -in Islington on November 1st, 1770.</p> - -<p>Samuel Richardson appears to have entertained -grateful remembrance of the commission to write the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_306">306</a></span> -“Familiar Letters to and from several Persons upon -Business and other Subjects,” for on his death he left -a mourning ring to James Rivington.</p> - -<p>During Dodsley’s illness, Rivington and his sons -managed the <cite>Annual Register</cite>, and when on his death -it was sold to Orridge and others, they started an -annual of their own, which lasted till 1812, and then -till 1820 was in abeyance, resumed again till 1823, -and in the following year the two were merged into -one, and after being published for a few years by the -Baldwins, its management returned again to their -own hands. Through the <cite>Register</cite> they were brought -into connection with Burke, and were subsequently -publishers of his more important works.</p> - -<p>At all times the Rivingtons took a very great interest -in the Stationers’ Company; this was especially -the case with James, who served as master, and at the -same time he, his two brothers, and his four sons -were all members of the livery. He held many -public appointments, was in commission of the peace, -a governor of most of the Royal hospitals, and a -director of the “Amicable Society,” and of the Union -Fire Office.</p> - -<p>He died, universally regretted, on the 16th of February, -1792, in his seventy-second year, and was -followed by his widow in the succeeding October.</p> - -<p>Owing to the split we have referred to in his -business, and to his uniform generosity, the fortune -he left behind him was not large—indeed, money -hoarding has been an attribute of none of the Rivington -family.</p> - -<p>His two elder sons, Francis and Charles, carried on -the business vigorously. Another son, Robert, captain -of the “Kent”—East Indiaman—fell, gallantly<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_307">307</a></span> -defending his ship in the Bay of Bengal, and was -thus celebrated in the <cite>Gentleman’s Magazine</cite>:—</p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"> - -<div class="tb">* <span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">*</span></div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<span class="iq">“His manly virtue mark’d the generous source,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">And naval toil confirm’d the naval force;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">In fortune’s adverse trial undismay’d,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">A seaman’s zeal and courage he display’d;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">For honour firmly stood, at honour’s post,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">And gain’d new glory when his life he lost!”<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>A fourth son John, a printer in St. John’s Square, -had died previously in 1785.</p> - -<p>The first important event in the new publishing -house was the establishment of the <cite>British Critic</cite>, in -which Nares and Beloe were conjoint partners with -Francis and Charles Rivington. The <cite>British Critic</cite> -was started in January, 1793, in monthly numbers of -two shillings each, and by the end of the century -attained a circulation of 3500. The editorship was -entrusted to Nares, and with the assistance of Beloe -it was conducted down to the forty-second volume in -1813. William Beloe was some time librarian of the -British Museum, but a stranger who had been admitted -to the print-room, having abused his confidence, -and stolen some of the pictures, the librarian was -somewhat unjustly asked to resign. Among the -other contributors to the <cite>British Critic</cite> were Dr. Parr—of -whom Christopher North says, not unfairly, “in -his character of a wit and an author one of the most -genuine feather-beds of humbug that ever filled up a -corner of the world”—and Whittaker, author of the -“History of Manchester.” In 1813, the second series -of the <cite>Critic</cite> was commenced, under the editorship of -the Rev. W. R. Lyall, afterwards Dean of Canterbury; -in 1825 the publication was made quarterly,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_308">308</a></span> -and a third series began, which, however, only reached -three volumes.</p> - -<p>Of all the literary men connected with the Rivingtons -of this era, none were more useful, and few -deserve more grateful remembrance from posterity, -than George Ayrscough—-<i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">facile princeps</i> of index -makers. Originally a miller’s labourer, he obtained a -situation in the Rivingtons’ shop, and was afterwards -promoted to a clerkship in the British Museum; soon -after his further rise to the position of assistant -librarian he took orders; but it is as a maker of -catalogues and indexes that he is still known; and -how great the labour and patient skill needful in compiling -the indexes to the <cite>Gentleman’s Magazine</cite>, the -<cite>Monthly Review</cite>, and the <cite>British Critic</cite> must have -been, all students can approximately guess from the -immensity of labour saved individually by their use.</p> - -<p>John, the eldest son of Francis, was admitted a -partner in 1810, and in 1819 they took a lease of No. -3, Waterloo Place; and so popular were they at the -time that it is said Sir James Allen Park, one of -the judges, came down to the new house before nine -o’clock on New-year’s Day, that he might enrol himself -as their first customer. In 1820 they determined -to start a branch house for the sale of second-hand -books and general literature, and John Cochrane was -placed at the head of this establishment. He collected -one of the finest stocks ever gathered, and published -the best and most carefully compiled catalogue that -had then been issued, extending to 815 pages, and -enumerating 17,328 articles, many of the rarest kind. -The business, however, entailed considerable losses, -and was abandoned in 1827.</p> - -<p>On October 18, 1822, Francis Rivington, the senior<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_309">309</a></span> -partner, died, earning a character for high probity and -sincere and unaffected piety. Like his father he had -been a governor in many charitable institutions. -“Such a man,” says the author of his obituary notice, -“cannot go unwept to the grave; and the writer of -this article, after a friendly intercourse of sixty years, -is not ashamed to say that at this moment his eyes -are moister than his pen”—a quaint but sincere -tribute. He had married Miss M. Elhill, sister of -an eminent lead merchant, and four of his sons survived -him.</p> - -<p>In 1827 George and Francis, sons of Charles, -joined the firm; and in 1831, Charles, the younger of -the two original brothers, was found dead on the floor -of his dressing-room. In social life he was distinguished -by the mildness and complacence of his -temper; and his conversation was invariably enlivened -with anecdotes and memories of the literary men and -clergymen with whom he had come in contact.</p> - -<p>The firm now, therefore, consisted of John, the son -of the elder, and Francis and George, two sons of the -younger brother.</p> - -<p>We shall see, in the following memoirs of the -Parkers, how marvellously religious life was quickened -at Oxford by the publication of Keble’s -“Christian Year.” This feeling, intense in its inner -nature as any of the revivals, culminated or fulminated -in the publication of the “Tracts for the Times”—the -most important work, perhaps, with which the -Rivingtons have ever been connected; and worthy, -therefore, of the scanty notice for which we can afford -space here. The “Tracts for the Times” were commenced -in 1833, at a time, according to the writers, -“when irreligious principles and false doctrines had<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_310">310</a></span> -just been admitted into public measures on a large scale -... when the Irish sees had been suppressed by the -state against the Church’s wish.... They were -written with the hope of rousing members of the -Church to comprehend her alarming position—of -helping them to realize the fact of the gradual growth, -allowance, and establishment of unsound principles -in her internal concerns; and, having this object, they -used spontaneously the language of alarm and complaint. -They were written as a man might give notice -of a fire or inundation, so as to startle all who heard -him” (vol. iii. p. 3). As far as fulfilment of intention -went in startling, the writers were perfectly successful. -Exhibiting great talents, depth of thought, logical -power, acuteness of reasoning, and an undoubted -religious feeling, their effect was spontaneous. By one -party, and an increasing one, the writers were welcomed -with a reverend love that almost forbade -criticism, and by the other with the greatest uneasiness -and suspicion. The chief writers in the series, for the -“Tracts” continued to appear during the space of -several years, were Newman, Pusey, Keble, and -Williams. In Ireland the clergy were anxious to come -over in a body, and greet them collectively. In Scotland, -Pusey and Newman were denounced at a public -dinner as enemies to the established religion; and at -Oxford, where they were personally loved and respected, -they were looked upon by a large portion of -the members with peculiar distrust. Parties in the -Church were formed, and claimed, or were christened -after, the names of the writers—such were originally -the <cite>Puseyites</cite> and <cite>Newmaniacs</cite>. At length the famous -“Number 90” appeared, and was thus greeted by the -University:—“Modes of interpretation such as are<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_311">311</a></span> -suggested in this tract, evading rather than explaining -the sense of the 39 articles, and reconciling subscription -to them with the adoption of errors which they were -destined to counteract, defeat the object, and are inconsistent -with the due observance of the above-mentioned -statement.” The Bishop of Oxford forbade -their further publication, and shortly afterwards -Newman, the author of “Number 90,” showed his -honesty by going over to the Roman Catholic Church.</p> - -<p>The publication of these “Tracts” still further -strengthened the Rivingtons in their position of -High Church publishers, and their business benefited -considerably by the great increase of the High -Church party.</p> - -<p>In 1827 a fourth series of the <cite>British Critic</cite> was -commenced, incorporated with the <cite>Theological Review</cite>. -In 1843, however, in consequence of the extreme views -that had been expressed in its pages, the publication -was discontinued, to the very great regret of the -clergy; the <cite>English Review</cite>, which started from its -ashes, met with but little support, and lasted only till -1853.</p> - -<p>To complete our personal account of the firm:—John -Rivington, who married Anne, daughter of the -Rev. John Blackburn, canon of York, died 21st November, -1841, at the age of 62. His son John -was admitted a partner in 1836, and is the present -head of the firm. George Rivington died in 1842, -having retired on account of ill health in 1857, and in -1859 Mr. Francis Rivington retired from active partnership. -The present representatives of the firm -consist, therefore, of Mr. John Rivington, fifth in -descent from the founder, and Mr. Francis Hansard -Rivington, who is the sixth.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_312">312</a></span> -In 1853 the firm removed their place of business -from the ancient house in St. Paul’s Churchyard, and -consolidated it at 3, Waterloo Place, retaining nothing -but some warehouses in Paternoster Row. In 1862, -after an interval of thirty years, they re-acquired the -agency of the Cambridge “Press”—a famous manufactory -of Bibles, Prayer Books, and Church Services; -and in the next year, 1863, they opened branch houses -at both Oxford and Cambridge—an extension of -business that, after a long life of 160 years, says -something for the vitality of the firm.</p> - -<div class="tb">* <span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">*</span></div> - -<p>In treating of the Parkers, it will be necessary to -bear in mind the essential fact that there were two -distinct families of that name, both engaged in the -publication of religious books, and both interested -in the “Bible Press”—the one at Oxford and the -other at Cambridge; and though its chief interest, -as regards later years, will be centred in the younger -(publishing) family, who began life in London, it will -be necessary, according to our general plan, to give a -preliminary glance at the elder family, whose name -is more intimately connected with the University of -Oxford.</p> - -<p>The first of the Parkers with whom we need concern -ourselves was Dr. Samuel Parker, sometime -Bishop of Oxford. The product of a changeable age, -he was a very Vicar of Bray. While at the University -of Oxford, he affected to lead a strictly religious life, -and entered a weekly society then called the “Gruellers,” -because their chief diet was water gruel; and it -was observed “that he put more graves into his -porridge than all the rest.” Formerly a nonconformist, -having once taken orders, he became chaplain<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_313">313</a></span> -to a nobleman in London, whom he amused with his -humorous sallies at the expense of his old comrades -the Puritans. During Charles’s reign, his writings -were distinguished by the bitterness of his attacks -upon the dissenting party; and on the accession of -James he was installed in the bishopric of Oxford, -upon the death of Dr. Fell—the famous subject of -inexplicable dislike. He now embraced the Romish -religion, “though,” writes Father Peter, a Jesuit, “he -hath not yet declared himself openly; the great -obstacle is his wife, whom he cannot rid himself of.” -Finding the cause growing desperate, he sent a discourse -to James, urging him to embrace the Protestant -religion. His authority in the diocese became contemptible, -and he died unlamented in 1687. He left, -however, a son of his own name, an excellent scholar -and a man of singular modesty, who married a bookseller’s -daughter, of Oxford, and had a numerous -family, to support whom he not only wrote, but -published, and himself sold, books of a learned class—the -most important of which was the “Bibliotheca -Biblica.” He died in 1730, and his son, Sackville -Parker, was an eminent bookseller in the Turl, his -shop being chiefly frequented by the High Church -and non-juring clergy. He was one of the four -octogenarian Oxford booksellers who all died between -1795 and 1796, and whose united years amounted -to 342. He was succeeded by Joseph Parker, his -nephew.</p> - -<p>About the year 1790, Joseph Parker was apprenticed -to Daniel Prince, whose successor, Joshua Cooke, was -agent to the University Press, and thus he was able to -become acquainted with the management of its publications. -The Bible Press was at this period in debt,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_314">314</a></span> -and was an annual expense to the University, but -Parker saw the feasibility of making it a profitable -concern, and, by dint of strenuous persuasion, was, in -1805, allowed to enter into partnership with the -University Press, jointly with Cooke and Samuel -Collingwood, the latter of whom attended to the -printing, while the publishing business was left entirely -in Joseph Parker’s hands. Great difficulty was felt -at first in borrowing money to meet that advanced by -the University. In a few years, however, the debts -were paid off, and large profits began to come in, and -during his lifetime he was able to pay over upwards -of £100,000 into the University chest, building in -addition the new printing-office, at a cost of £40,000, -investing large sums in “plant,” and leaving a concern -that was worth £10,000 a year to the partnership.</p> - -<p>For the seven years previous to 1815 the number of -Bibles printed at Oxford was 460,500; Testaments, -386,000; of prayer-books, 400,000; of catechisms, -psalters, &c., 200,000; and the money received as -drawback for paper duty amounted to £18,658 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> -For the same period at Cambridge the Bibles numbered -392,000; the Testaments, 423,000; the Prayer-books, -194,000; while the drawback was only upwards of -£1087 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> In addition to his interest in the Bible -Press, which yielded him about £1000 a year, Joseph -Parker, on the death of his regular trade partner, Hanwell, -became sole proprietor of the old-established bookselling -business of Fletcher and Hanwell, in the Fleet, -and, on the retirement of Cooke, succeeded to the -office of “Warehouse-keeper,” and also to the appointment -of agent for the sale of books published on the -“Learned” side of the press; the value of the books -sold on this side amounted to from £3000 to £5000<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_315">315</a></span> -annually, while on the Bible side under his management -the sales were something like £100,000 worth.</p> - -<p>By far the most important work, however, with -which Joseph Parker’s name is concerned, is Keble’s -“Christian Year.” We believe that the first risk of -publishing was insured by Sir John Coleridge. -Nothing could be more unassuming than its first -appearance in 1827, in two little volumes, without -even the authority of an author’s name. None of the -regular literary journals noticed its publication, -excepting a friendly greeting in a footnote to an -article on another subject in the <cite>Quarterly Review</cite>. -Appealing to no enthusiastic feelings, deprecating -excitement, and courting no parties, silently and -imperceptibly at first, but with increasing rapidity, it -found its way among all sections of churchmen, and -was the real commencement of that movement in the -Church with which afterwards the “Tracts for the -Times” were associated. At Oxford, when once its -popularity was attained, its effects were marvellous; -young men dropped the slang talk of horses and -women and wine, and went about with hymns upon -their lips; instead of the riotous joviality of “wines,” -the evening meetings became austere; and even the -most careless made some little temporary effort to be -better and purer. Partaking of the nature of a revival—among -a better-educated and less-impressionable -class than that usually affected by such movements—its -strongest outward symptoms were of longer than -ordinary duration, and its inner effects much deeper.</p> - -<p>The most popular volume of poems of recent times, -it is said in the number of its editions to have out-rivalled -Mr. Tupper’s works (we state a fact merely, -with an apology for mentioning the two names<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_316">316</a></span> -together); in less than twenty years, twenty-seven -editions had been exhausted.<a id="FNanchor_24" href="#Footnote_24" class="fnanchor">24</a></p> - -<p>The author’s profits, as well as the publisher’s, were -large, and the Rev. J. Keble devoted his portion of -them to the entire reconstruction of his own church, -that of Hursley, in Hampshire.</p> - -<p>In 1832 Joseph Parker retired from business, retaining, -however, his share in the Bible Press until his -death in 1850.</p> - -<p>Mr. John Henry Parker, his nephew, was the son of -John Parker, merchant, of the City of London, and was -born in the year 1806. After receiving a good education -at Dr. Harris’s school at Chiswick, he entered the -bookselling trade in 1821, and was consequently fully -prepared, eleven years later, to occupy the position -just vacated by his uncle.</p> - -<p>Mr. John Henry Parker is known almost as well as -an antiquarian, and as a writer on architecture, as a -publisher. He continued his uncle’s business at -Oxford, and extended it to London, where for many -years it was under the management of Mr. Whitaker. -The University, however, bought in again the share -held by his uncle, in 1850, and declined admitting -Mr. J. H. Parker as a partner unless he undertook to -give up general business, as by a clause in the deed of -partnership none of the temporary proprietors are -allowed to follow any other calling. Mr. Parker’s -business was in such a profitable condition as to -render such a step totally out of the question. He -acted, however, as agent for the Oxford Press for -many years.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_317">317</a></span> -In 1856 the Gentleman’s Magazine was transferred -to his house, and for some time he was, with two -other gentlemen, conjoint editor; and in 1863 he -retired in favour of his son James, devoting his time -exclusively to the study of architecture. Among his -best-known writings are “The Glossary of Architecture,” -and “An Introduction to the Study of Architecture,” -both of which are considered standard works -on the subject.</p> - -<p>In 1863, the year of his retirement, the agency of the -works published by the delegates of the Oxford -University Press was transferred to Messrs. Macmillan -and Co., and the ancient connection was altogether -broken. Mr. James Parker, however, still -continues the Oxford book-trade, though we believe -the London house does the more important business.</p> - -<p>Having dealt thus cursorily with the firm of John -Henry and Joseph Parker, of London and Oxford, we -come to the somewhat similar title of John William -Parker and Son, of the West Strand, London.</p> - -<p>John William Parker,<a id="FNanchor_25" href="#Footnote_25" class="fnanchor">25</a> whose father was in the -navy, was born in the year 1793, and at an early age -entered the service of the late Mr. Clowes, printer, -then only commencing business, and, at the age of 14, -was bound apprentice to him. Here he took a strong -dislike to the irksomeness of case, and it was found -more profitable to employ him in the counting-house -generally, where his retentive memory and his habits -of close observation were quickly turned to good -account. When, indeed, most of the records were -destroyed by the outbreak of a fire, young Parker’s<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_318">318</a></span> -memory was found most essential as a substitute for -the current business documents.</p> - -<p>Messrs. Clowes commenced their printing establishment -in a very small way, but soon progressed, and -were among the first to use the steam press; but as -they were then in Northumberland Court, Strand, -their neighbour, the Duke of Northumberland, brought -an action against them for causing a nuisance, and -eventually bought them out of their tenement, and -Parker induced Clowes to purchase the lease and -plant of a factory in Duke Street, Stamford Street, -which had been started unsuccessfully by Applegarth, -the inventor of the steam press. Here, undisturbed -by neighbouring aristocrats, Parker became the -manager of the business, and it prospered so exceedingly -that he established a printing-press of his own in -the immediate vicinity, and found it necessary to live -in Stamford Street, where he made the acquaintance of -Dr. D’Oyley, Rector of Lambeth, Dr. Mant, and a -number of other influential clergymen, whose connection -with the venerable “Society for the Promotion of -Christian Knowledge” eventually stood him in good -stead.</p> - -<p>About the year 1828, the University of Cambridge -found that the receipts from its Press were barely sufficient -to cover the expenses, while at the sister -University, under the management of Collingwood -and Mr. Joseph Parker, the annual returns were not -only large, but increasing yearly. In this strait the -Syndics applied to Mr. Clowes, who sent Mr. Parker -down to inspect. The sensible manner in which he -at once detected the faults of the establishment, and -suggested improvements, led to his immediate engagement -as advising printer at a salary of £200; and he<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_319">319</a></span> -soon proved his worth by turning to account the -apparently useless stereotype plates; from one set -alone, in one year, he cleared £1500 by cutting out the -heads of chapters, &c., and re-setting them in new -type. He re-opened the account with the “Bible -Society,” and in dealing with the “Christian Knowledge -Society,” abolished the tax of middlemen.</p> - -<p>Parker had hoped, by his energy and perseverance, -to become a partner with Mr. Clowes, but finding this -precluded by family arrangements, he established -himself at 445, West Strand, and at once received the -appointment of “publisher of the books issued under -the direction of the Committee of General Literature -and Education, appointed by the Society for Promoting -Christian Knowledge.” This “Committee” -had been established to sanction and recommend -books of a wholesome character, but which, not dealing -chiefly with religious matters, were believed to be out -of the legitimate sphere of the original Society’s -operations.</p> - -<p>In July the first number of the <cite>Saturday Magazine</cite> -appeared. Mr. Parker was his own editor, and many -of the illustrations were from the pencil of his son, -Mr. Frederick Parker, who died very young. The -<cite>Saturday Magazine</cite>—one of the three parents of our -cheap periodical literature—was published weekly at -the low price of a penny, and, a <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">répertoire</i> of useful and -entertaining facts, and not much else, was intended to -counteract the effects of the licentious publications of -the day, then the only ones within reach of the -poorer classes. It was continued successfully for -thirty-five volumes; but is more interesting now as -the foreshadowing of a better time than for any -intrinsic value of its own. It was eventually merged -in <cite>Parker’s London Magazine</cite>.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_320">320</a></span> -445, West Strand became, of course, the Cambridge -Depository for Bibles, Testaments, and Common -Prayer-books printed at the University Press, and, at -the death of Smith, Parker was appointed printer to -the University at a salary of £400 a year, and visited -Cambridge once or twice a fortnight. For many -years, in spite of all his strenuous efforts and his -repeated advice, the Bible Society set their faces -resolutely against steam-printing. On one occasion he -prepared a large edition of the nonpareil Bible at two-thirds -of the price then charged, and took a dozen -copies to the manager, Mr. Cockle, hoping that the -Bible Society would encourage so laudable an improvement. -The manager hummed and hawed, sent -for the binder, told him in confidence that the Cambridge -people had kindly prepared some cheap Bibles -printed by machinery, but he thought “from the -smallness of the margins they <em>might</em> not fold evenly, -and was not sure that, as a cheaper ink had been -used, they <em>might</em> not set off when pressed,” and all -these predictions were verified, and the Committee -would not sanction the purchase of such rubbish. -Strangely enough, two or three years later, when -cheap Bibles were eagerly called for, the whole of the -rejected set were purchased by the Society, and no -difficulty was experienced in their manipulation.</p> - -<p>William IV. having expressed his royal wish for a -Bible, Mr. Parker determined to print one specially, -and on the occasion of the installation prepared a -dozen sheets, which were pulled by the Duke of -Wellington and other magnates; this is the first book -ever printed with red rules round, and, as the “King’s -Bible,” attained in various forms and sizes a great -success. A committee was appointed to read and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_321">321</a></span> -revise it, and it was purposed to make it the standard -edition. One copy upon vellum was intended for the -King, but as he died before its completion, her present -Majesty Queen Victoria was graciously pleased to -accept it. After some years Parker’s interest in the -Bible Press flagged, and much dissatisfaction was -caused, and about 1853 he retired altogether from the -management.</p> - -<p>Parker had from a very early date thought of -printing his own books, and started an office that was -afterwards removed to St. Martin’s Lane, but ultimately -relinquished the management to Mr. Harrison, -whom he took into partnership. When the -Council of Education was formed Parker was appointed -publisher, and gave every assistance in the -way of funds and encouragement, and Mr. Hullah, -in particular, found in him a warm supporter.</p> - -<p>Parker was twice married; by his first wife he had -two sons, Frederick and John William, and this latter, -born in 1820, after receiving a good education at -King’s College, was admitted into the house in 1843, -and in a few years took the chief management of the -general business.</p> - -<p>Under Mr. John William Parker, Jun., the house became -identified with the Liberal and Broad Church -party, and till his death he held the reins of <cite>Fraser’s -Magazine</cite> entirely in his own hands. Strangely had -that periodical altered since the days of Maginn and -Fraser. Now it was the centre, in connection with -445, West Strand, from which issued the teachings of -Maurice, Kingsley, and Tom Brown—the nursery of -muscular Christianity—in one sense the cradle of -Christian Socialism.</p> - -<p>Mr. Parker, Jun., in his capacity of publisher and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_322">322</a></span> -editor felt an immense responsibility, and really believed -that the bishops of the Church of England -held but sinecure offices, while he, and the heads of -other publishing firms, were our virtual spiritual fathers -and directors. He made himself no partizan in -the religious and political questions of the day, and -no prospect of pecuniary advantage would induce him -to publish a book until he was first assured that it -was the expression of honest conviction, or the result -of honest labour. “One day,” says the writer of an -obituary notice, “going into Mr. Parker’s room, we -found his pale face paler than usual with anger. -‘Look at these,’ he said, putting a bundle of letters -into our hands, ‘or rather do not look at them.’ A -lady, eminent in certain circles as a spiritual teacher, -wanted him to publish a devotional book for her. -She had sent him the private correspondence of some -thirty different ladies, who had trusted her with the -innermost secrets of their souls and consciences, as an -advertisement of herself, her abilities, and her popularity. -Mr. Parker was perhaps never seen more indignant. -He declined the book on the spot. He -returned the letters with a regret that the lady -should have sent him what had been intended for no -eye but her own. A few days after he showed us -the lady’s reply. Stung by the rebuke, she had -dropped the mask for the moment, and had told -him she did not require to be lectured on her duty -by an insolent tradesman.”</p> - -<p>Of the success with which Mr. Parker’s publications -met it is sufficient to mention the names of Maurice, -Kingsley, Mill, Buckle, and Lewis. Fruitful of discussion -as were the works of the writers mentioned,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_323">323</a></span> -they were all thrown into a temporary shade by the -cry that arose on the publication, in 1860, of “Essays -and Reviews,” to which only the first named contributed. -Shortly after the appearance of the volume a -document was issued, bearing the signature of every -bishop of the united Church, condemning many of -the propositions of the book as inconsistent with an -honest subscription to her formularies. This was -succeeded by an address to the Archbishop of Canterbury, -signed by more than 10,000 clergymen, condemning -in the strongest terms the teaching of the -essayists. As we all remember, the case was tried in -the Court of Arches, and led to the temporary suspension -of Dr. Williams and Mr. Wilson; a suspension -that was afterwards reversed by the Privy -Council. But this case, interesting as it may be for -the student in the future, though one of too many -<i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">causes célèbres</i> of church persecution, is too well -known to detain us longer at present.</p> - -<p>Mr. Parker, who took a deep interest in all religious -questions, held weekly gatherings at his house, and -was loved and respected by his clients, who regarded -him as a friend rather than a business aid. He died -in 1861, and for the moment the knot of earnest men -who were clustered round <cite>Fraser’s Magazine</cite> were -dispersed. But in the year 1863 the agency of the -works published by the delegates of the Oxford -University Press was transferred from the other -Parkers to Messrs. Macmillan, and henceforth <cite>Macmillan’s -Magazine</cite> and its contributors may be considered -as an offshoot from 445, West Strand.</p> - -<p>After the death of his son, Mr. Parker, who had -for some years taken little active part in the management -of the business, took his old assistant, Mr. William<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_324">324</a></span> -Butler Bown, into partnership; but the connection -did not last long, and in 1863 the stock and -copyrights were disposed of to Messrs. Longman, -who agreed to allow Mr. Bown an annuity of £750 -a year, which he only lived a year and a half to -enjoy.</p> - -<p>On May 18th, 1870, Mr. John William Parker died -at his country house near Farnham. By his first -wife he left two daughters living, and by his second -(the daughter of Dr. Mantell, the well-known geologist) -one son and two daughters. He was seventy-eight -years of age at the time of his death; and, -though his life presents us with little that is striking -or historically strange, he had played an honest part -manfully, and may be remembered as one of the few -instances in which a publisher, successful as an architect -of his own fortune, has been wise enough to -transfer his business at the very zenith of its success -to the keeping of other hands, when he had ascertained -that his own were too aged for its proper -maintenance and management. The Broad Church, -so called, and the liberal thought of the country, owe -much to the now defunct firm of John William Parker -and Son.</p> - -<div class="tb">* <span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">*</span></div> - -<p><span class="smcap">James Nisbet</span>, the son of a poor Scotch farmer, -who afterwards became a cavalry serjeant, was born -on Feb. 3rd, 1785. After receiving the ordinary -rudiments of education he was apprenticed to Mr. -Wilson of Kelso for three years, but having obtained -the offer of a situation in London he was permitted to -leave before his indentures had expired. He left -Scotland with only four guineas in his purse, and -being delayed on the road, was obliged to sell his<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_325">325</a></span> -violin. On reaching town he became clerk to a Mr. -Hugh Usher, a West India merchant in Moorfields, -and his salary commencing at £54 12<i>s.</i> per annum -took some years before it increased to £120.</p> - -<p>James Nisbet’s career has been to a certain extent -chronicled by his son-in-law, the Rev. J. A. Wallace, -in a volume entitled, “Lessons from the Life of James -Nisbet, the Publisher”—not, says the author, “a mere -biography”—would that it were!—but a series of forty -chapters or lessons, each commencing with a text and -ending with a hymn. To its rambling and incoherent -pages we are indebted, however, to many of the facts -in the following notice.</p> - -<p>On the evening of Nisbet’s arrival in London a -young Scottish friend took him about sight-seeing. -The walk terminated in a blind alley and a strange -looking house—which instinct at once told him was -“the house of the destroyer.” He gave up intercourse -with his companion, and fled away hastily, and not -till some few days afterwards, when he found a refuge -in the Swallow Street Chapel, did he recover his -equanimity.</p> - -<p>From his earliest boyhood he had a great liking -for “the courts of the Lord;” a pocket-book dated -1805, contains a list of places at which the gospel -was reported to be purely preached. It seems, too, -that his favourite books at this time were Henry’s -“Commentary,” Cruden’s “Concordance,” Hall’s -“Contemplations,” and Baxter’s “Saints’ Rest.” At -the Swallow Street Chapel he met his future wife.</p> - -<p>As befitted a persevering and energetic man he -was an early riser, yet he found that not only did his -business require it, but he discovered “our Lord -when on earth rising a great while before day that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_326">326</a></span> -He might spend some time in secret prayer, and -David says, ‘Early will I seek Thee.’” So good a -habit scarcely needed so lofty an apology.</p> - -<p>His father appears to have remonstrated with him -as to his excess of zeal: “Concerning the meetings -you attend, God Almighty never designed man to -spend all his time in godliness; He designed such as -you and me to work for our bread”—advice that -had not much effect, for we find Nisbet writing when -down home in Scotland in 1808, “I have lost much -time in coming here—no Thursday night sermons, no -companion with whom I would wish to be on intimate -friendship, and no Sabbath schools; and the Sabbath -is a very poor Sabbath, very unlike our dear Sabbath -in London.”</p> - -<p>Having, however, returned to London in 1809, he -commenced business for himself on a very limited -scale as a bookseller in Castle Street, and characteristically -the first books sold were copies of Streeter’s -“Catechism.” In due course of time he prospered, was -admitted to the freedom of the City of London, and -elected to the office of Renter Warden in the -Stationers’ Company.</p> - -<p>As soon as his reputation as a religious publisher -was established, he purchased a house in Berners -Street—“the great object of his ambition being, not -to amass a large fortune for aggrandisement, but to -be the pious proprietor of a comfortable dwelling, -which he could throw open for the hospitable entertainment -of godly men.”</p> - -<p>He firmly adhered to his principles of publishing -books of one peculiar class, and rigidly excluded -everything that was not of a moral or religious -character; and not satisfied with purchasing the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_327">327</a></span> -copyright of his authors upon highly advantageous -terms, often added a liberal bonus when the work -proved profitable. “To such a degree,” says his biographer, -“did his generosity overflow, that one estimable -man, ‘whose praise is in all the churches,’ felt -constrained to put the curb on his publisher’s largesse. -‘I shall agree to accept one hundred pounds, and no -more,’ commences one of his legal agreements.”</p> - -<p>Such conduct had its reward, for, says Mr. Wallace, -“notwithstanding the humble position which James -Nisbet occupied as a mere shopkeeper, so high was -the estimation in which he was held as a philanthropist -and a churchman that he was occasionally honoured -by pressing invitations from families in the higher -ranks of life, to visit them at their country seats”—the -lesson drawn from such amazing condescension -by the biographer being, “Him that honoureth I will -honour”—and accordingly Nisbet went for a whole -week to Tollymore Park, and naturally writes from -there: “What a blessed thing it is to be a Christian.” -The curious chapter in which this visit is recorded is -headed, “Yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in the -Lord.”</p> - -<p>Among the numerous authors with whom Nisbet -was connected was Edward Irving, for whom he published -“Discourses on Daniel’s Vision of the Four -Beasts,” and other books. Irving, by far the greatest -orator and most eloquent speaker of our later times, -“was for long enshrined in the warm recesses of -Nisbet’s heart, and Nisbet not only sat under him, but -contributed £21,000 to the Regent’s Square Church. -But the love of truth was in Nisbet stronger than -earthly affection, and soon the gift of speaking with -unknown tongues was discovered.” “Last Sabbath,”<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_328">328</a></span> -writes Nisbet, “a most tumultuous scene took place, -the lives of many people being in jeopardy, so -that even Mr. Irving himself was terrified, and said -that he would not allow the spirits to speak again in -public.” He was then accused of heresy, and Nisbet, -like most conscientious men, felt constrained to side -against him. An ecclesiastical assize was holden for -his trial, in March, 1833, at which a strange scene -occurred. His answer to the charge was rather an -authoritative command than an apology, perorating -<span class="locked">thus:—</span></p> - -<p>“I stand here not by constraint, but willingly. Do -what you like. I ask not judgment of you; my -judgment is with my God; and as to the General -Assembly, the spirit of judgment is departed from it. -Oh, know ye not how near ye are to the brink of -destruction. Ye need not expedite your fall. All are -dead carrion. The Church is struggling with many -enemies, but her word is within herself—I mean this -wicked assembly.”</p> - -<p>Then after the trial he was found guilty, and the -sentence of deposition was about to be prefaced with -prayer, when a loud voice was heard from behind a -pew where Irving stood:—“Arise, depart! arise, -depart! flee ye out, flee ye out of here! ye cannot -pray! How can ye pray? How can ye pray to -Christ whom ye deny? Ye cannot pray. Depart, depart! -flee, flee!” The church was at this moment -wrapped in silent darkness, and when this strange -voice ceased, the 2000 sprang trembling to their feet -as though the judgment day had come. On lighting -a candle, however, it was ascertained that the speaker -was a Mr. Dow, who had been lately ousted from the -church for similar views. Irving rose grandly to obey<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_329">329</a></span> -the call, and pressing through the crowd that thronged -the doorway and the aisles he thundered: “Stand -forth! stand forth! what, will ye not obey the voice -of the Holy Ghost? As many as will obey the voice -of the Holy Ghost, let them depart!” Onward he -went to the door, and then came to the last words:—“Prayer, -indeed, oh!” and thus he left his church for -ever.</p> - -<p>Thousands and almost millions of tracts and small -books did Nisbet scatter broadcast, freely to those -who could not pay, with small charge to those who -could. And at the period of the “Disruption” he -circulated at his own expense, not only in Scotland -and Ireland, but all over England, great multitudes -of Dr. James Hamilton’s “Farewell.” But even in the -midst of these labours the ungodly were busy, and a -rumour was circulated that James Nisbet had gone -over to the Church of Rome; and this, in spite of his -well-known antipathies, gained considerable credence. -The following is from a letter from Mr. Wolff:—“I, a -few days ago, read in the <cite>Morning Post</cite> that an eminent -and successful bookseller had entered the Church -of Rome. I thought that this bookseller must be one -of the Tractarian party (the Rivingtons), but to my -utter astonishment I heard it whispered that the -bookseller was nobody else than Mr. James Nisbet, his -whole family, and my old friend Mr. Murray, with the -observation that ‘one extreme leads to the other extreme.’... -My dear Nisbet and Murray, what could -induce you to do such a spite to your John Knox, -Chalmers, and Gordon, and join with a rotten church? -Nobody is more impatient in acknowledging the good -things to be found in the Church of Rome than myself, -yet I would rather see the Pope and all his<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_330">330</a></span> -cardinals fly to the moon than become a Papist again. -In fact I never was one.” (A curious way of putting -it.)</p> - -<p>This was not the only hoax by which James Nisbet -was a sufferer. Later on, a practical joke was played -upon him by some wag, who sent the following to a -large number of country <span class="locked">papers:—</span></p> - -<blockquote class="narrow"> - -<p class="center b0">“Nearly Ready, in Three Handsome Octavo Volumes,</p> - -<p class="p0 b0">“LITERARY PYROTECHNICS; or, Squibs, Pasquins, Lampoons, -and other Sparkling Pleasantries, by the best English Writers, from -the Reign of Elizabeth to the Present Day, with Philological Notes by -the Hon. the Vice-Chancellor Sir William Page Wood, Knt.</p> - -<p class="p0 center"> -“James Nisbet and Co., Berners-street, London.” -</p></blockquote> - -<p>This very advertisement was directed to be inserted -in the next issue, and a copy of the paper containing -the advertisement was to be sent to the publisher with -the price of inserting it four or six times. About one -hundred papers fell into the snare, to James Nisbet’s -horror and amazement.</p> - -<p>Nisbet was a very charitable man to all of his way -of thinking. The “Saints” were freely welcomed to -his hospitable house, which was used as a free hotel -by travelling missionaries and preachers, who often -said a grateful “grace for all the rich mercies of his -table.” He was one of the chief supporters of the -Fitzroy Schools, and one of the most zealous founders -of the Sunday School Union. Nor was he wanting -in generosity to general and more publicly useful -charities; and, during a period of thirty years, his -books show that he collected for more than five -hundred institutions, and that the total amount that -passed through his hands was £114,339 16<i>s.</i> 4<i>d.</i></p> - -<p>It is pleasant, amid the farrago of religious cant and -trash with which the “Lessons from his Life” are<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_331">331</a></span> -surrounded, to find some glimmering of the real man—the -enterprising and successful bookseller. “From -his energy of character, and from habit, he was more -accustomed to lead others than to be led himself; -therefore, any attempt to alter or set aside arrangements -which he had himself devised ... was almost -sure to meet with, on his part, a strenuous and determined -resistance.”</p> - -<p>In 1854, when the cholera was raging in London, -his brave conduct was far above any party praise. -The position of chairman of the Middlesex Hospital -devolved temporarily upon him, and fearlessly he -set about his difficult duty. Day after day he was at -his post, directing all things, and alleviating, with -every means in his power, the physical sufferings of the -patients; and still, while adopting all that was proper -to check the progress of the disease, not unmindful of -administering the consolations of religion.</p> - -<p>He died on the 8th November, 1854, having been -seized with a violent illness on his return from a -before-breakfast visit to the Orphan Working School -at Haverstock Hill.</p> - -<p>In a funeral sermon, preached by Dr. Hamilton at -Regent’s Square church, his character is thus summed -up, both sides of it being cautiously exhibited:—“With -a sanguine temperament, he had strong convictions -and an eager spirit; and, whilst he sometimes -magnified into an affair of principle a matter of -secondary importance, he was impatient of opposition, -and did not always concede to an opponent the -sincerity he so justly claimed for himself. Then, -again, his openness was almost excessive, and his -determination to flatter nobody sometimes led him to -say things more plain than pleasant.... Those only<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_332">332</a></span> -could appreciate his excellence who either knew his -entire mode of life, or whose casual acquaintance was -confined to the walks of his habitual benevolence.”</p> - -<p>As a publisher, he was eminently successful, and -reaped a due reward for his honest industry; never -had he a bad debt but once, and, on recovering that -unexpectedly, he presented the amount of it, in a -silver service, to a church. The books he issued were -chiefly of an ephemeral religious class, and literature -is certainly less indebted to his success than were the -charitable institutions of the day.</p> - -<p>Mr. James Murray, who had been Nisbet’s partner -in business for many years, succeeded to the command -of the firm; and, after his death at Richmond in June, -1862, Mr. Watson, the present manager, was appointed -by the family to superintend the whole concern.</p> - -<div id="if_i_332" class="figcenter" style="width: 137px;"> - <img src="images/i_332.jpg" width="137" height="140" alt="" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_333">333</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div id="if_i_333" class="figcenter" style="width: 373px;"> - <img id="hdr_9" src="images/i_333.jpg" width="373" height="76" alt="" /></div> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><i>BUTTERWORTH AND CHURCHILL</i>:<br /> - -<span class="subhead">TECHNICAL LITERATURE.</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">In</span> treating of “technical literature,” we shall -encounter many works which were rightly described -by Charles Lamb as “books which are not -books;” and the present chapter will be interesting -rather as containing biographical notices of men who -thoroughly deserved, and thoroughly achieved, success, -than for any bibliographical anecdotes we can lay -before the reader.</p> - -<p>The value of technical literature, in a publishing -point of view, had been correctly estimated in the -very earliest times of bookselling annals, and Richard -Tottell (or Tothill), an original member of the Stationers’ -Company, and eventually their chairman, had -in Edward the Sixth’s reign, and subsequently in -Queen Elizabeth’s, succeeded in obtaining a patent -for law-books; and when, through the petition of the -Stationers’ Company, he was compelled to forego some -of the works which he had thus monopolised, he warily -“kept his law-books to himself, and yielded ‘Dr. -Wilson upon Usurie,’ and ‘The Sonnets of th’ Earle of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_334">334</a></span> -Surrey.’” Tothill, however, did still publish other -books than those relating to the very remunerative -branch of law; for, in 1562, he produced “Stow’s -Abridgment of the Chronicles of England;” and, in -1590, “Tusser’s Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry.” -His name would, probably, have been -unknown, at all events forgotten, had he not occupied -the <em>Hands and Star</em> in Temple Bar, the very same -shop which, two-and-a-half centuries afterwards, -Henry Butterworth again rendered famous as the -great emporium of legal books.</p> - -<p>Tothill was succeeded by John More (he had been -previously represented, but only for awhile, by Barker -and others), and we have already seen that Samuel -Richardson, and Lintott’s granddaughter, had obtained -the patent of King’s Printers for legal books; this -brings us up in date to, at all events, the uncle of the -subject of our present memoir.</p> - -<p>Henry Butterworth, the most famous of all our law-publishers, -was born on 28th February, 1786, in the -city of Coventry. His father was a wealthy timber-merchant, -and his ancestors fairly claimed alliance -with the great county families, though Butterworth -Hall, in the township of Butterworth, near Rochdale, -in their possession since Stephen’s reign, had already -fallen into alien hands. The Rev. John Butterworth, -his grandfather, had removed from Rochdale to -Coventry; he was well known as the author of a -“Concordance to the Holy Scriptures,” which passed -through several editions, and was the received work -upon the subject until the appearance of Cruden’s -more famous “Concordance.”</p> - -<p>Young Henry Butterworth was educated at the -Public Grammar School, in Coventry, and afterwards -placed under the tutorial care of Dr. Johnson, of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_335">335</a></span> -Bristol; but at the early age of fourteen, his education -(inasmuch as book-learning was concerned) was considered -at an end, and he entered the large sugar-refinery -of Mr. Stock, of Bristol. But the hot atmosphere, -and the incessant and laborious toil, proved -too much for young Butterworth’s health, though the -work had otherwise been rendered pleasant enough -through his master’s kindness. As he had already -shown much business talent and ability, Stock urged -Mr. Joseph Butterworth, his own relation by marriage, -and Henry Butterworth’s uncle, to do something for -the lad. Joseph Butterworth accordingly made overtures -to Henry’s family, and though they were loath to -send their son to the distant trials and temptations of -the metropolis, the offer was a tempting one, as it -contained a tacit promise of admitting him, at some -future time, to a partnership in the enormous business. -Young Butterworth at once determined to accept the -proposal; and on the 5th December, 1801, he arrived -in London by the Bristol coach, having left Bristol -straightway, without even having had an opportunity -of bidding his relatives farewell.</p> - -<p>The business carried on at No. 43, Fleet Street, was -on a very extensive scale, and Joseph Butterworth was -not only a well-known member of Parliament, but was -an exceedingly wealthy and zealous philanthropist; -and at his uncle’s dinner table young Henry Butterworth -met many eminent and good men who were -associated together to fight in a common cause—among -others we may particularize Wilberforce, Teignmouth, -Liverpool, Bexley, Zachary Macaulay, and Robert -and Charles Grant—and from the time of his first -introduction he enrolled his name among these ardent -religious and social reformers.</p> - -<p>Young Butterworth entered very heartily into the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_336">336</a></span> -conduct of his uncle’s business, and, owing to his -efforts, its relations were very vastly extended.</p> - -<p>In 1813 he was in a position to marry a lady of -birth and fortune, the daughter of Captain Whitehead, -of the Fourth Irish Dragoon Guards, who not only -afterwards entered fully into all his philanthropic -projects, but possessed a refined and cultivated intellect, -which found utterance in a volume of “Songs and -Poems,” by E. H. B., published by Pickering in 1848, -which are evidently, as the authoress says of another -<span class="locked">gift—</span></p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="iq">“An offering from a heart sincere.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Tho’ small and worthless, what I send,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">’Tis hallowed by affection’s tear.”<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>In 1818, Butterworth found that there was little -likelihood of his admission, as had been previously -agreed upon, to a satisfactory share of his uncle’s -business; and having now to consider not only his -own interests, but the welfare of a wife and family, he -determined, with a sense of disappointment, to seek -an independent roof, and there to carry out, on his own -account, the art and mystery of law printing.</p> - -<p>Before we follow him to his new abode, we will -devote a few words to his uncle’s successful career. -Joseph Butterworth, who had, in connection with -Whieldon, founded a very large law-publishing business, -realized, it is said, the largest fortune ever made -by law publishing, and was one of the original founders -of the British and Foreign Bible Society, its earliest -meetings being held at his house in Fleet Street. His -son died before him, and his business was sold to -Messrs. Saunders and Benning; and after various fortunes, -the shop became the Bible warehouse of Messrs. -Spottiswoode.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_337">337</a></span> -Henry Butterworth, supported by his father’s -capital, took a lease of No. 7, Fleet Street, a house -which had been, as we have seen previously, occupied -by Tothill and other ancient law publishers. And -from this shop were issued the vellum-bound volumes -whose contents are sacred to all but those assiduously -apprenticed to the law. Butterworth’s position was -still further improved by his appointment to the -profitable post of Queen’s law publisher. To the -general student the law-books of the period are as -little known as they were to that worthy country -justice who, wishing to learn something definite about -the law he so zealously administered, told his bookseller -to send him forthwith the “Mirror for -Magistrates;” and the vastly popular law-books did -not, of course, come within the province of the -technical publisher. Butterworth, however, saw the -decline of two works which had been regarded as -time-honoured text-books on the subject—Burn’s -“Justice” and Blackstone’s “Commentaries.” Many -booksellers had made large fortunes out of Burn since -the time when the author, wearied out with carrying -his manuscript from shop to shop, had accepted a -nominal fee to get it off his hands; and now Butterworth, -by publishing Serjeant Stephen’s celebrated -“Commentaries on the Laws of England”—the most -successful law-work of modern times—erased Blackstone -from the category of legal text-books.</p> - -<p>Butterworth, however, though energetic as a publisher, -found time to take part in the government of -the city. In 1823 he was elected as representative of -the ward of Farringdon Street Without, but he afterwards -declined to be nominated to the office of sheriff. -However, his connection with the city was still further<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_338">338</a></span> -strengthened by his appointment as Commissioner of -Income and Property Tax, and Land and Assessed -Taxes for London, and also as Commissioner of -Roads. On his first arrival in town he had served in -a light volunteer regiment, recruited to resist the -aggression of the great Napoleon; and on his retirement -from the corporation, about the year 1841, he -received a captain’s commission in the Royal London -Militia.</p> - -<p>We gather something of Butterworth’s general -kindness and consideration to those beneath him in -station from the following anecdote:—Shortly after -the passing of the new Poor Law Act in 1834, the -guardians of the West Surrey Union ordered that the -annual Christmas dinner for the workhouse inmates -should consist, as wont, of roast beef and plum-pudding. -The Poor Law Board—a new broom—was horrified -at this munificence, and sent down their inspector, -Dr. Kay, to inquire into the proposed extravagance. -He offered a compromise by substituting boiled beef -for roast, not that it would be in any degree cheaper, -but that (a satisfactory object, we suppose, to the -Board) it would not be quite so palatable. Butterworth, -who was one of the guardians, was inflexible, -and finally sent in his resignation; but as he was too -useful a local authority to be spared, the Board sent -back the resignation, and permitted the paupers to -feast upon the disputed beef, roast.</p> - -<p>In his later years Butterworth took much interest in -church-building, and at Tooting, St. Dunstan’s-in-the-West, -and his native city of Coventry, he subscribed -large sums for that purpose.</p> - -<p>After the death of his wife, which occurred in 1853, -he gradually withdrew from general society, though he<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_339">339</a></span> -still attended the congenial meetings of the Stationers’ -Company. The day of his death was, curiously -enough, the most important day in the law publishing -year—the first day of term—2nd November, 1860. -On the previous evening he had given his annual -admonition to those around him in business to awake -up from the lethargy of the long vacation, and on the -following morning it was found that he had passed -away, as if in sleep.</p> - -<p>For nearly sixty years Butterworth had occupied a -leading position as a publisher and as a citizen, and -during that period had won the friendship and respect -of all who came in contact with him. The alms -which his industry enabled him to make were conscientiously, -quietly, and discriminatingly bestowed: -and the painted glass memorial window erected to -him in the choir of the Cathedral of St. Paul’s was a -fitting tribute from a very large number of friends -and admirers, many of whom had experienced the -kindly assistance of his friendship and advice.</p> - -<div class="tb">* <span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">*</span></div> - -<p>As we have previously seen, divinity and education -were among the first subjects to attract a special -attention, and works relating to them would otherwise -have come within our category of technical books. -No sooner, however, were the lawyers fairly supplied -with special text-books than the doctors began to -clamour for the like, and the publisher who has of all -others most zealously administered to their wants is -still happily amongst us.</p> - -<p>John Churchill was born about the commencement -of the century, and was apprenticed in the year 1816 -to Messrs. Cox and Son, medical booksellers in Southwark. -“The house of business was,” he says, “immediately<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_340">340</a></span> -adjoining Guy’s and St. Thomas’s Hospitals, -and became the daily resort of the lecturers and -numerous students of the schools; I thus early in life -became known to the celebrated men of the day, little -anticipating that eventually I should become the -publisher of Guy’s and St. Thomas’s Hospital Reports, -and of so large a proportion of the works that issued -from the medical press.”</p> - -<p>At the time when young Churchill entered the profession -of medical publishing, the periodicals, and, of -course, the standard technical works, presented a -striking contrast to those at present in existence, for -now the medical profession assert, with the greatest -truth, that their special organs are of far higher -intrinsic worth, and of far better “tone” of thought -and expression, than those relating to any other purely -technical subject. For years, however, after Churchill -became a bookseller’s assistant the medical press was -only on a par with the papers relating to the other -professions, and was chiefly represented by the <cite>Medico-Chirurgical -Review</cite>, founded by J. Johnson in 1820, -and the <cite>Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal</cite>, -a work we have already come across in our notice of -Constable. These reviews contained no original -reports, no strictures on the hospital appointments -then jobbed, like everything else, to men of wealth, -family, and interest. In fact, they consisted of little -besides long and elaborate abstracts of new books.</p> - -<p>On Sunday, 2nd October, 1823, the first number of -a journal that was to cause a great revolution in -medical literature, and to affect in no slight degree -the whole medical profession, was issued from a small -publishing shop in the Strand. The journal was, of -course, the <cite>Lancet</cite>, and the publisher young Thomas<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_341">341</a></span> -Wakley. Wakley had walked the united hospitals of -Guy’s and St. Thomas’s, and had taken his degree in -1817. He does not appear to have practised regularly -till, about 1822, he took a small shop in the Strand, -and with the assistance, in a pecuniary point of view, -of Collard (now the senior partner of the famous piano -factory) determined to start a thoroughly independent -medical journal. The first number contained a report -of a lecture by Sir A. Cooper, printed from memory. -The professors and hospital officers fired up, and for -long Wakley had to encounter the same difficulties -and almost the same penalties which Cave had previously -undergone in commencing his reports of -Parliamentary proceedings. As a former student, -Wakley attended the lectures, and, like other students, -was seen to take occasional notes. Cooper could not, -however, bring the charge home till he hit upon the -device of calling at midnight at his lodgings, and -asking to see the “doctor” upon urgent medical -business, when he surprised him red-handed correcting -a proof-sheet of a lecture. The discovery was so -sudden and so undeniable that neither could refrain -from laughter; and eventually Cooper, not ill-humouredly, -offered to allow his lectures to appear if -the proofs were first sent him for revision. Consequently, -Cooper, though often criticised in the <cite>Lancet</cite>, -never received a nickname, as did most of the other -medical celebrities of the day. For instance, Brodie -was known as the “little eminent;” Earle, the “cock -sparrow;” Mayo, the “owl;” and Halford, the “eel-backed.”</p> - -<p>The <cite>Lancet</cite>, for many years, was hated by that -part of the profession interested in vested rights, and -eagerly patronised by general surgeons and students.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_342">342</a></span> -The language of the <cite>Lancet</cite> was as violent as the many -abuses it attacked could justify; and Cobbett, who -was a friend and adviser of Wakley’s, was adopted as -a model, while a barrister, named Keen, used to join -the party on printing nights to see that the free -strictures were not legally liable as libels. An active, -though unpaid, member of the staff, was Lawrence, -who, however, forsook his reforming principles when -once he became a placeman, and was succeeded by -Wardrop, whose scurrility, wit, and venom did much -in giving the <cite>Lancet</cite> a lasting reputation for raciness of -style and satirical power. They were shortly afterwards -joined by Mr. J. F. Clarke, who edited the -periodical for upwards of forty years, and to whose -amusing and graphic autobiography we are indebted -for much of the preceding details. The success of the -<cite>Lancet</cite> soon enabled Wakley to enter Parliament as a -representative of Finsbury, and he actually combined -together the work of the legislator, the coroner, and the -editor, often toiling unremittingly for eighteen consecutive -hours.</p> - -<p>By the time the <cite>Lancet</cite> was thus firmly established, -Churchill, long out of his apprenticeship, had commenced -medical publishing on his own account; and -from his famous shop, in New Burlington Street, issued -most of the standard works upon the subject; and, encouraged -by the success of the <cite>Lancet</cite>, he determined -to make his establishment the centre of periodical, as -well as more permanent, medical literature. In 1836, -was started therefrom the <cite>British and Foreign Medical -Review</cite>, conducted first by J. Forbes, and afterwards -by J. C. Conolly. In 1848, it was merged into the -<cite>Medico-Chirurgical Review</cite>, which, from 1824 to 1847,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_343">343</a></span> -had been under the editorship of H. J. Johnson. These -two were now amalgamated into the <cite>British and -Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review</cite>, which, dating from -Churchill’s establishment, has acquired a professional -standing equal to that of the <cite>Edinburgh</cite> and <cite>Quarterly -Reviews</cite> in more general criticism. In 1839, appeared -the first number of the <cite>Medical Times and Gazette</cite>, -which, under the editorial care of T. P. Healey, and -subsequently of J. L. Bushman, has found a very large -and influential <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">clientèle</i>.</p> - -<p>The medical writers have at present something in -common with the early authors. Their works bring -them in more remuneration through eventual patronage -than from habitual sale, but their patronage is -that of all the great public, who are waiting to have -their ailments cured. As an instance of the way in -which literature may improve the position of a medical -man, it is stated by Mr. W. Clarke that, through -Elliotson’s clinical reports in the <cite>Lancet</cite>, his income -was raised, in one year, from £500 to £5000. And -yet, on the other hand, when he openly gave in his adherence -to the newly-imported doctrine of mesmerism, -his large public and private practice almost entirely -deserted him; and as the legitimate organs were closed -to one so abandoned as even to experiment in “the -unknown,” he started a medico-mesmeric journal of -his own, the <cite>Zoist</cite>, which was, of course, not published -by Mr. Churchill.</p> - -<p>There is necessarily the same want of general interest -in medical as in legal bibliography; and, as in the -latter case, works more popularly known were almost -invariably published by the usual popular publishers. -For instance, Dr. Buchan’s “Domestic Medicine”—probably<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_344">344</a></span> -the most profitable medical book ever written -(but not to the author, as he sold the copyright for -five pounds), after being re-written by Smellie—was -issued in 1770, by the ordinary booksellers. During -the author’s lifetime, nineteen editions, each of five -thousand, were published, and the volume was translated -into all the modern languages.</p> - -<p>If Mr. Churchill’s catalogue can show no book with -a popularity like this, it displays many which, appealing -only to a class audience, and necessarily obliged to -keep pace with the discoveries of the day, have at once -retained their high price and yet reached the honour of -numerous editions.</p> - -<p>It is probably owing chiefly to this fact of an incessant -demand by a large section of, at all events, one -branch of students, that technical publishing has -proved so remunerative, and has escaped, in a great -degree, the risk attached to other departments of the -trade.</p> - -<p>At the close of the year 1870, Mr. Churchill resolved -to give up the active management of his large business, -and issued a farewell circular to the trade: -“After fifty-five years’ active and immediate association -with your profession, I see it my duty to retire -into private life. Be my future days few or many, I -shall ever retain a lively sense of the many friendships -I have formed, and of the unvarying proofs of confidence -and regard shown to me through so long a series -of years. My pathway of life has been a happy one, -bringing me into daily correspondence with the <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">élite</i> of -the profession, and united with them in promoting the -interests of science and literature, while the success of -my many publications has both gratified and amply<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_345">345</a></span> -rewarded my exertions. My sons, John and Augustus -Churchill, have been eight years associated with me. I -may be influenced by a father’s feelings, but I believe -I can honestly state that, by education, earnest purpose -in the fulfilment of duty, a high sense of integrity -guiding and regulating their transactions, they will be -found worthy of your confidence, and thus maintain -the character of the house whose reputation and business -transactions have extended to all parts of the -world.” To this honest expression of well-earned business -contentment, we can only add our wishes that Mr. -Churchill’s years of retirement may be as happy as his -years of toil have been useful and beneficial.</p> - -<p>Among other technical publishers, Mr. Henry -Laurie, whose house dates from the commencement of -English hydrography, and whose numerous publications -are known wherever English navigation has extended, -requires at least a mention here. The oldest -existing house of this nature, but one, in Europe -(Gerard Hulst Van Keulen & Co., of Amsterdam, -being the exception), it was founded by R. Sayer, at -the “Golden Busk” (53, Fleet Street), in conjunction -with John Senex, the well-known cosmographer. Here -Cook’s original charts were issued; and it says something -for his accuracy that his “Survey of the South -Coast of Newfoundland” has not yet been superseded. -On Sayer’s death, the business was relinquished to -Robert Laurie and James Whittle, and, in 1812, the -former was succeeded by his son, R. H. Laurie, who, -on the death of Whittle, became sole proprietor. In -a short time, the business extended to the production -of illustrations of all descriptions, whilst the maps produced, -under the care of De la Rochette, John Purdy,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_346">346</a></span> -and Mr. Findlay, still retained their pre-eminence; -the business was, however, again restricted to hydrography. -R. H. Laurie died as recently as January -19, 1858, leaving two daughters, and the establishment -was continued under the direction of his sole executor, -Mr. Findlay.</p> - -<div id="if_i_346" class="figcenter" style="width: 189px;"> - <img src="images/i_346.jpg" width="189" height="117" alt="" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_347">347</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div id="if_i_347" class="figcenter" style="width: 354px;"> - <img id="hdr_10" src="images/i_347.jpg" width="354" height="83" alt="" /></div> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><i>EDWARD MOXON</i>:<br /> - -<span class="subhead">POETICAL LITERATURE.</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap al"><span class="smcap1">After</span> Dodsley’s death, though poetry was at -times far from being an unprofitable speculation, -the publishers seem to have shunned it as a speciality; -and, accordingly, a Constable, a Murray, and a -Longman, though gathering large incomes from the -sale of the works of some one or two great poets, placed -their main reliance upon the prose compositions that -administered to either the pleasure or the necessities -of their public.</p> - -<p>For a time, Taylor and Hessey almost adopted -poetical publications as the mainstay of their business; -and in their generous encouragement of Keats, and -others of lesser note, including Clare, are to be gratefully -remembered; but their trade-life as poetical -publishers was brief, and it remained for Edward -Moxon to identify his name with all the best poetry -of the period in which he lived, to a greater extent -than any previous bookseller at any time whatsoever.</p> - -<p>Edward Moxon, not unlike some others of his craft, -began life with strong literary aspirations. His warm -admiration for genius, his hearty good-fellowship, and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_348">348</a></span> -his longings for a literary career, brought him into -contact with some of the greatest writers of the day, -and attracted their support and friendship. As early -as 1824 he was made a welcome member of the -brilliant circle that owned Charles Lamb as its chief, -and to be a <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">protégé</i> of Lamb’s was a passport -into all literary society. In 1826, he published his -first volume, “The Prospect; and other Poems;” and -his friends received it with all possible kindness, as, -perhaps, containing germs of something better. Even -Wordsworth, usually very niggard of praise, wrote -him a letter of encouragement—and warning:—“Fix -your eye upon acquiring independence by an honourable -business, and let the Muse come after rather than -go before.” But advice of this nature, even when -given with the practical illustrations that Wordsworth’s -own career might have furnished, had little likelihood -of being accepted by a young and impetuous poetaster; -and in 1829 we find Moxon launching another venture -on the world—“Christmas, a poem”—to be as coldly -received by the “general public” as the former. -What, however, the advice of a veteran poet could -not effect, a stronger power was able to accomplish.</p> - -<p>During Lamb’s residence at Enfield, their acquaintance -ripened into a very frequent intercourse, and -eventually resulted in Moxon’s engagement to a young -lady who spent most of her time under the protection -of Lamb and his sister. Lamb had met Miss Isola -some years before at Cambridge, and had taken so -much interest in the little orphan girl, who was then -living with her grandfather—an Italian refugee, and a -teacher of languages—that by degrees he came to be -looked upon as almost a natural guardian. Marriage, -however, was out of the question until her lover had<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_349">349</a></span> -some more substantial manner of livelihood than the -cultivation of the Muse seemed ever likely to afford -him. In this strait, Rogers came forward and generously -offered to start him in life as a publisher, and, -with the goal of matrimony in view, the offer was -eagerly accepted.</p> - -<p>Accordingly, in 1830, Moxon opened a small publishing -shop at 34, New Bond Street. The first -volume he issued was “Charles Lamb’s Album Verses,” -and the dedication sufficiently explains its <span class="locked">purpose:—</span></p> - -<blockquote> - -<p>“<span class="smcap">Dear Moxon</span>,—I do not know to whom a Dedication -of these trifles is more properly due than to -yourself: you suggested the printing of them—you -were desirous of exhibiting a specimen of the <em>manner</em> -in which the publications entrusted to your future -care would appear. With more propriety, perhaps, -the ‘Christmas,’ or some of your own simple, unpretending -compositions, might have served this purpose. -But I forget—you have bid a long adieu to the Muse -... it is not for me nor you to allude in public to the -kindness of our honoured friend, under whose auspices -you are becoming a bookseller. May this fine-minded -veteran in verse enjoy life long enough to see his -patronage justified. I venture to predict that your -habits of industry, and your cheerful spirit, will carry -you through the world.</p> - -<p>“<span class="smcap">Enfield</span>, 1st June, 1830.”</p></blockquote> - -<p>An unfavourable notice of these “Album Verses” -appeared in the <cite>Literary Gazette</cite>; but Lamb was too -well loved to lack defenders, and some verses in -reply, by Southey, were soon afterwards inserted in -the <cite>Times</cite>.</p> - -<p>In the following year the <cite>Englishman’s Magazine</cite><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_350">350</a></span> -came into Moxon’s hands, and to its pages Elia lent -the charm of his pen. Although it only lasted from -April till October, its columns still present us with -matter of literary interest. In the same number we -find a sonnet signed “A. Tennyson,” and a very -long review upon “Poems, chiefly Lyrical, by Alfred -Tennyson,” written by his friend Arthur H. Hallam. -This was almost Mr. Tennyson’s first avowed appearance -in public; and as Mr. Moxon’s name was so -intimately associated with the poet’s future works, we -may be allowed to go back for a moment. In 1827 -a little duodecimo volume of 240 pages, entitled -“Poems, by Two Brothers,” was published by J. and -J. Jackson, Market Place, Louth; and the “two -brothers” were Charles and Alfred Tennyson, the -latter being only seventeen years of age. In 1829 -Mr. Tennyson gained the Chancellor’s gold medal -at Cambridge for a prize poem on “Timbuctoo,” his -friend Hallam being also one of the competitors. -The prize poem was printed with his name, and, a -thing quite unprecedented, was noticed at length in -the <cite>Athenæum</cite>, as indicating “really first-rate poetical -genius, and which would have done honour to any -man that ever wrote.... How many men have lived -for a century who could equal this?” In the following -year, 1830, appeared the “Poems, chiefly Lyrical, by -Alfred Tennyson;” London: Effingham Wilson, -Royal Exchange, 1830 (pp. 154); and it was these, -of course, which were reviewed by Hallam in the -<cite>Englishman’s Magazine</cite>. In the course of a very long -notice, the writer says:—“The features of original -genius are clearly and strongly marked. The author -imitates nobody; we recognise the spirit of the age, -but not the individual pen of this or that writer....<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_351">351</a></span> -In presenting the young poet to the public as one not -studious of instant popularity, and unlikely to attain it -... we have spoken in good faith, commending the -volume to feeling hearts and imaginative tempers.” -Even before this review, deeply interesting when we -remember what a loving and loved friend he was who -wrote it, the little volume was noticed in the <cite>Westminster -Review</cite> by, it is believed, Mr. John Stuart -Mill, as demonstrating “the possession of powers, -to the future direction of which we look with some -anxiety. He has shown, in the lines from which we -quote, his own just conception of the grandeur of a -poet’s calling; and we look to him for its fulfilment.” -Encouragement such as this led Moxon to publish a -further volume of Mr. Tennyson’s poems in 1833, and -the connection thus commenced lasted throughout his -lifetime. In a letter addressed to him by Wordsworth, -as a northern correspondent in the book-market, -there is intelligence, neither pleasant for a veteran -poet to indite, nor for a young publisher to receive:—“There -does not seem to be much genuine relish for -poetical publications in Cumberland, if I may judge -from the fact of not a copy of my poems having been -sold there by one of the leading booksellers, though -Cumberland is my native county.” In this same year, -too, Moxon published, for the first time, a collected -edition of the “Last Essays of Elia;” but before this -time he proved, by his attention to his business, that he -was worthy of Miss Isola’s hand. Lamb’s letters to -Moxon, in the few weeks preceding the marriage, are -in his happiest, most delicately-bantering style—for -instance: “For God’s sake give Emma no more -watches—<em>one</em> has turned her head. She is arrogant -and insulting. She said something very unpleasant<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_352">352</a></span> -to our old clock in the passage, as if he did not keep -time, and yet he had made her no appointment. She -takes it out every moment to look at the minute hand. -She lugs us out into the field, because there the bird-boys -cry out—‘You, pray, sir, can you tell us the -time?’ and she answers them punctually. She loses -all her time looking to see what the time is! I heard -her whispering just now—‘so many hours, minutes, -&c., to Tuesday; I think St. George’s goes too slow.’... -She has spoilt some of the movements. Between -ourselves, she has kissed away the ‘half-past twelve,’ -which I suppose to be the canonical hour in Hanover -Square.” On the 30th July they were married. -Lamb, as long as he lived, regarded them with almost -paternal affection, and, at his death, left Moxon his -treasured collection of books.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile the illustrated edition of Rogers’s -“Italy” was in preparation, and with a view to its -publication Moxon moved to Dover Street, Piccadilly.</p> - -<p>Rogers spared no cost in the production of what -was intended to be the most beautifully illustrated -volume that had ever been published. £10,000 was -spent on the illustrations and the engraving of them. -There were fifty-six engravings in all by Turner, -Stothard, and other eminent artists. Turner was to -have received fifty pounds apiece for his drawings, -but at one time the whole speculation threatened to -turn out a failure, and he then offered the bard the -use of them for five pounds each instead. To match -this luxurious volume the illustrated edition of Rogers’s -“Poems” was brought out, at a further cost of £5000, -with seventy-two engravings by Turner, Stothard, -Landseer, Eastlake, &c., and, in spite of the enormous -outlay on the two works, their increasing popularity<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_353">353</a></span> -must have recouped the poet, for upwards of 50,000 -copies are said to have been sold before the year -1847. Moxon was always proud of the share he had -taken in the production of these works. All the -volumes he issued were indeed remarkable for the -beautiful manner in which they were “got up,” and -in 1835 he published such an exquisite edition of his -own sonnets that the beauty of this dandy of a book -enraged and alarmed a writer in the <cite>Quarterly</cite>:—“Its -typographical splendours led us to fear that this -style of writing was getting into fashion,” but fortunately -for the reviewer’s peace of mind he discovered -“that Mr. Moxon the bookseller is his own poet, and -that Mr. Moxon the poet is his own bookseller.... -The necessity of obtaining an imprimatur of a publisher -is a very wholesome restraint, from which Mr. -Moxon—unluckily for himself and for us—found -himself relieved.” Surely after a notice like this—indeed -we have only quoted the kindlier portion, for -often as publishers din the unsaleable nature of the -drug poetry into the ears of young writers, the charm -of retorting upon a bookseller seldom falls so temptingly -before an author.—Moxon must have regretted -that he did not cleave to a promise, held out in his -first essay in 1826:—</p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="iq">“You’ll hear no more from me,<br /></span> -<span class="i2">If critics prove unkind;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">My next in simple prose must be;<br /></span> -<span class="i2">Unless I favour find.”<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>This will perhaps suffice as a specimen of the -productions of Moxon’s muse, though the first lines -in the volume, a “Sonnet to a Nightingale,” are inviting. -They had been the cause of much pleasantry -among the author’s friends, as having been penned<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_354">354</a></span> -by one who had never heard the song of the bird to -which they were addressed, and the internal evidence -upon this point is indubitably strong; the sonnet perhaps, -to state it in proportion, is to Keats’s “Ode to -the Nightingale,” as the owl’s screeching “too-whit” to -“Sweet quired Philomela.”</p> - -<p>By this time, however, Moxon, in spite of his bad -poetry, had made a wide reputation as a poetical -publisher, and from his establishment was issued, not -only all that was most valuable of contemporary -poetical literature, but with true catholic taste, the -works of our older dramatic poets, edited for the most -part by the Rev. Alexander Dyce. By degrees, too, -Moxon was enabled to add to his catalogue the -works of many of the poets who had shed a lustre -upon the two first decades of this century, especially -the works of Keats, Shelley, and Leigh Hunt.</p> - -<p>In 1839 he brought out Mrs. Shelley’s edition of -her husband’s poems—the first “complete edition” -that had been published. In the following year a -bookseller in the Strand named Hetherington was -indicted for selling a work entitled “Haslam’s Letters -to the Clergy of all Denominations,” and was -sentenced to four months’ imprisonment, as having -published in this volume sundry “libels” against the -Old Testament. While the trial was pending, -Hetherington commissioned a servant of his, named -Holt, to purchase copies of “Shelley’s Poems” from -the publisher, and from the retail dealers, and then -obtained a similar indictment against Moxon. The -celebrated trial the “Queen <i>v.</i> Moxon” was of course -the result. The prosecution relied chiefly upon certain -passages in “Queen Mab,” more especially in -the notes, and these were read in order to prove the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_355">355</a></span> -charge of blasphemy. Mr. Serjeant Talfourd was -engaged for the defence. “I am called,” he commenced, -“from the bar in which I usually practise, to -defend from the odious charge of blasphemy one with -whom I have been acquainted for many years—one -whom I have always believed incapable of wilful -offence towards God or towards man—one who was -introduced to me in early days, by the dearest of my -friends who has gone before—by Charles Lamb—to -whom the wife of the defendant was an adopted -daughter.” After a magnificent oration in which he -asked, with a fitting indignation, “if the publisher of -any penny blasphemy is to have the right of prescribing -to us legally that such and such pages are to -be torn from the treasured volumes of our choicest -literature,” he left in the hands of the jury “the -cause of genius—the cause of learning—the cause of -history—the cause of thought,” and concluded by a -tribute to Moxon’s character—“beginning his career -under the auspices of Rogers, the eldest of a great -age of poets, and blessed with the continued support -of that excellent person, who never broke by one unworthy -line the charm of moral grace which pervades -his works, he has been associated with Lamb, whose -kindness ennobled all sects, all parties, all classes, -and whose genius shed new and pleasant lights on -daily life; with Southey, the pure and childlike in -heart; with Coleridge, in the light of whose Christian -philosophy the indicted poems would assume their -true character, as mournful, yet salutary, specimens of -powers developed imperfectly in this world; and with -Wordsworth, whose works, so long neglected and -scorned, but so long silently nurturing tastes for the -lofty and the pure, it has been Mr. Moxon’s privilege<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_356">356</a></span> -to diffuse largely throughout this and other lands, -and with them the sympathies which link the human -heart to nature and to God, and all classes of mankind -to each other.” Lord Denman, before whom -the case was tried, instructed the jury, in his summing -up, to administer the law as it undoubtedly stood, -though he himself was of opinion that the best and -most effectual method of acting in regard to such -doctrines was to refute them by argument and reasoning -rather than by persecution. The jury accordingly -returned a verdict of guilty, unaccompanied by -any observation whatsoever. The illegal passages -were eliminated for a time; and thus the matter -ended. The trial took place in June, 1841, at a -time when Moxon was in great sorrow for the loss of -his eldest son, and much sympathy was exhibited -towards him.</p> - -<p>Shelley’s name, however, was designed to be associated -with further publishing vexations. In 1852, -Moxon issued a volume entitled “Letters of P. B. -Shelley,” with an introductory essay by Mr. Robert -Browning. The usual presentation copies were sent -to the papers, the “Letters” were generally noticed as -being essentially characteristic, but the discretion -shown in printing them was much questioned. Naturally -Mr. Browning’s essay attracted a large share of -attention, though consisting of but forty-four pages, for it -is his only acknowledged prose work (why, by the way, -has it never been reprinted?). He describes Shelley -as a man “true, simple-hearted, and brave; and because -what he acted corresponded to what he knew, -so I call him a man of religious mind, because every -audacious negative cast up by him against the Divinity -was interpreted with a mood of reverence and adoration.”<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_357">357</a></span> -An early copy of the volume was sent to Mr. -Tennyson, and Mr. Palgrave, who was then paying -him a visit, turned over its pages until he came to a -passage in a letter which he at once recognised (with -a most dutiful and filial remembrance), as a portion of -an article upon “Florence,” which Sir Francis Palgrave -had contributed to the <cite>Quarterly Review</cite>. He -immediately communicated with his father, who, after -comparing the printed letter with the printed article, -wrote to Moxon and informed him that this letter -was cribbed bodily from the <cite>Quarterly Review</cite>. -Moxon replied that the original was in Shelley’s -handwriting and that it bore, moreover, the proper -dated postmark. Even the experts pronounced the -letters genuine, and the detectives were then set to work—the -book having, of course, been immediately withdrawn -from publication. The MSS., which had been -bought at public auction, were traced to Mr. White, a -bookseller in Pall Mall. He alleged that in 1848, two -women began to bring him letters of Byron’s for sale, -at first in driblets and impelled by poverty, they then -offered him other letters by Shelley, and books with -Byron’s autograph and MS. notes. His suspicions -were aroused, he followed them home, and insisted -upon seeing the real owner of the letters. This person -was introduced to him as Mr. G. Byron, a son of the -poet, and thus he thought the mystery satisfactorily -explained. He then sold the letters relating more -purely to family matters to Shelley’s relatives; Murray -became the eventual purchaser of Byron’s, and Moxon -of Shelley’s letters—and Murray, who only had his -volume in the press, at once stopped it. The letters -are now believed to have been the forgeries by G. -Byron, and are indeed indexed under his name in the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_358">358</a></span> -British Museum Catalogue. The system upon which -he had obtained money for them appears to have -been very extensive and well organised, and as some -few were probably genuine, and others based upon a -substratum of truth, the difficulty of judging those -which in various ways have got into print, was extreme. -Altogether, this is one of the most notable literary -forgeries of modern times.</p> - -<p>To return, however, to Moxon, we find that in 1835, -conjointly with Longman, he published Wordsworth’s -“Yarrow Revisited,” and shortly after this the poet -transferred all his works from the Messrs. Longman, -and we believe that Moxon purchased the copyrights -of the past poems for the sum of one thousand pounds.</p> - -<p>Mr. Browning’s earlier volumes, like Mr. Tennyson’s -“Lyrical Poems,” had been published by Effingham -Wilson, but in 1840 Moxon issued “Sordello.” This -was followed by “Bells and Pomegranates,” published -in numbers between 1842 and 1845, and by a “Blot -in the Scutcheon,” (acted at Drury Lane in 1843), -and which, though unsuccessful on the stage, was in -the opinion of Charles Dickens “the finest poem of -the century.” In 1848, however, Mr. Browning removed -his works to the care of Messrs. Chapman -and Hall.</p> - -<p>Among the other authors whose productions were -issued by Moxon somewhere at this period, and whom -we cannot do more than mention, were Talfourd, Monkton -Milnes (Lord Houghton), Tom Hood, Barry Cornwall -(Proctor), Sheridan Knowles (who was by turn -an usher, a journalist, a dramatic poet, and a dissenting -minister), Quillinan (whose works Landor wittily, -though unjustly, described as Quillinanities), Mr. -Browning (for a brief period only), Haydn, and Dana.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_359">359</a></span> -Mr. Tennyson had been silent for ten years, had been -maturing his talents, been mourning for the death of -his friend Hallam, and probably during the whole of -this time not a thousand copies of his poems had been -sold. But he was already acknowledged as one of -our greatest living poets by a small and ardent band -of admirers, and in 1842 he was induced to break his -long silence and publish an edition of his poems in -two volumes, of which the second was composed entirely -of new pieces, and in the first some were new, -and many had been re-written. By this time his -success was publicly and generally acknowledged, and -fresh editions were called for in 1843, 1845, 1847, and -from that date in still more rapid succession. The beauty -and purity of his poems attracted royal favour, and in -1846 he received a pension from the crown, and this -unfortunately gave offence to some rivals in the divine -art, and Lord Lytton in the “New Timon” attacked -“Schoolmiss Alfred.” To this Mr. Tennyson replied -by a poem published in <cite>Punch</cite> (February, -1846), which may be summed up in the two words, -“Thou bandbox.” In 1843, Wordsworth, in a letter -to Reed, says, “I saw Tennyson when I was in -London several times. He is decidedly the first of -our living poets (<i xml:lang="la" lang="la">sic</i>), and I hope will live to give the -world still better things. You will be pleased to hear -that he expressed, in the strongest terms, his gratitude -to my writings. To this I was far from indifferent, -though persuaded that he is not much in sympathy -with what I should myself most value in my attempts, -viz., the spirituality with which I have endeavoured -to invest the material universe, and the moral relations -under which I have wished to exhibit its most -ordinary appearances.” Again, in 1848, Mr. Emerson,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_360">360</a></span> -in describing a visit to Wordsworth, says, “Tennyson, -he thinks, a right poetic genius, though with some -affectation. He had thought an elder brother of -Tennyson at first the better poet, but must now -reckon Alfred the true one.”</p> - -<p>When Wordsworth died in 1850, the laureateship was -offered to Mr. Rogers, and the letter conveying the -offer was written by Prince Albert. The poet, however, -was now eighty-seven years of age, and he felt -that his years and his wealth should prevent him -from interfering with the claims of younger and poorer -men, and he generously felt impelled to decline the -honour, which was then conferred upon Mr. Tennyson, -who received, as he says so beautifully, in reference to -Wordsworth, the</p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="iq">“Laurel, greener from the brows<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Of him who uttered nothing base.”<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="in0">Before this, however, the “Princess” and “In Memoriam” -had appeared. For a time Mr. Tennyson was again -silent, breaking his silence only by four poems contributed -to the <cite>Examiner</cite>, and by the “Ode on the -Death of the Duke of Wellington” (Moxon, 1852). -One of the four poems in the <cite>Examiner</cite>, however, was -“The Charge of the Light Brigade,” and of this -Moxon published a quarto sheet of four pages.—“Having -heard that the brave soldiers before -Sebastopol, whom I am proud to call my countrymen, -have a liking for my ballad on the ‘Charge of -the Light Brigade’ at Balaclava, I have ordered a -thousand copies of it to be printed for them.—<span class="smcap">Alfred -Tennyson.</span>”<a id="FNanchor_26" href="#Footnote_26" class="fnanchor">26</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_361">361</a></span> -In 1855 appeared another poem resulting from the -war—“Maud,” one of the most beautiful and least -understood of all Mr. Tennyson’s compositions.</p> - -<p>On the 3rd of June, 1858, Edward Moxon died, -having, as a publisher, earned the esteem of all his -clients and the gratitude of all the public. What his -services to literature have been the names comprised -in his catalogues bear ample witness. Truly Lamb’s -dedicatory prophecy had been amply fulfilled! On -his death the immediate management of the firm -devolved upon Mr. J. Bertrand Payne, and under his -rule the business was distinguished rather for the -energy with which the already published works were -pushed forward than for any encouragement held out -to acknowledged genius. Mr. Payne himself undertook -the superintendence of the “Moxon’s Miniature -Series,” and, as soon as the “Idylls of the King” had -been published, of the luxurious edition of them illustrated -by that extraordinary genius, M. Gustave Doré. -There was one exception to his lack of enterprise. -In 1861 Mr. Pickering published the “Queen Mother” -and “Rosamond,” two plays by Mr. Swinburne, then -a young man of eighteen. Except in the case of a -condemnatory notice in the <cite>Athenæum</cite> these poems -attracted little or no attention; but in 1865 “Moxon -and Son” published the “Atalanta in Calydon,” -which at once marked out the author as the most -musical, and one of the greatest, of our living singers. -It was at all events pretty generally acknowledged -that for true poetic inspiration, momentary if it were, -no poet of our generation could rival Mr. Swinburne. -This opinion was still further strengthened by the -publication of “Chastelard,” in 1866. When, however -the “Poems and Ballads” appeared, they were<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_362">362</a></span> -met by such a whirlwind of abuse from critics, whose -professional morality was supposed to have been -shame-stricken, that the publishers explained that -they were unaware of the nature of the poems they -had laid before the public, and suppressed the edition -before it got into circulation. As a consequence the -few copies that had been sold were eagerly sought at -a price of five guineas, and the volume was speedily -republished in America. In this strait, Mr. J. Camden -Hotten came forward, and to him Mr. Swinburne confided -all his hitherto published poems, including the -much-abused and also much-praised “Poems and -Ballads.” His latest works, however, “The Ode to -the French Republic,” and the “Songs before Sunrise,” -have been issued by Mr. Ellis, who as the publisher -of Mr. Morris, Mr. Swinburne, and Mr. Rossetti, bids -fair to occupy the position so long and so honourably -occupied by Moxon as a distinctively poetical publisher.</p> - -<p>Before this Mr. Tennyson had removed his copyrights -to the care of Mr. Strahan, and though in 1869 -Mr. Arthur Moxon was admitted a member of the -firm, the old glory had departed from them; and in -the summer of the year 1871 the whole business was -transferred to Messrs. Ward, Lock, and Tyler, and -Mr. Beeton was appointed manager; the house in -Dover Street was no longer retained, though Mr. Arthur -Moxon’s services have been secured to superintend -the business department. The first volume issued -under the new régime—the “Sonnets” of Edward -Moxon—is a timely tribute to the founder of the -famous house. We could not, perhaps, give him -higher praise than in saying that he was as good as a -publisher as he was indifferent as a poet.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_363">363</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div id="if_i_363" class="figcenter" style="width: 356px;"> - <img id="hdr_11" src="images/i_363.jpg" width="356" height="85" alt="" /></div> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><i>KELLY AND VIRTUE</i>:<br /> - -<span class="subhead">THE “NUMBER” TRADE.</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">The</span> “Number Publishers” may be looked upon -as the modern pioneers of literature; their -books are circulated by a peculiar method, among a -peculiar public, almost entirely through the agency of -their own canvassers, without the intervention of any -other bookseller, and the works thus sold are scarcely -known to the ordinary members of the publishing -world. As the business is conducted by house to -house visitation, a substratum of the public is reached -which is entirely out of the stretch of the regular -bookselling arm, though, when once a taste for reading -has been developed, the regular bookseller cannot fail -to benefit, as he will from every onward step in education -and progress.</p> - -<p>The <cite>Canvassing Trade</cite> is conducted by only a few -houses in London, Edinburgh, and Glasgow. In our -introductory chapter we caught a glimpse of some of -the earlier members, but in modern times two names—Kelly, -and, in a much broader sense, Virtue—stand -forward prominently, and to these two we shall -address ourselves.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_364">364</a></span> -Thomas Kelly<a id="FNanchor_27" href="#Footnote_27" class="fnanchor">27</a> was born at Chevening, in Kent, on -the 7th of January, 1777. His father was a shepherd, -who, having received a jointure of £200 with his wife, -risked the capital first in a little country inn, and -afterwards in leasing a small farm of about thirty -acres of cold, wet land, where he led a starving, -struggling life during the remainder of his days. -When only twelve years old, barely able to read and -write, young Kelly was taken from school, and put to -the hard work of the farm, leading the team or keeping -the flock, but he was not strong enough to handle -the plough. The fatigue of this life, and its misery, -were so vividly impressed upon his memory, that he -could never be persuaded to revisit the neighbourhood -in after-life; and though at the time he endeavoured -to conceal his feelings from his family, the bitterness -of his reflections involuntarily betrayed his wishes. -He fretted in the daytime until he could not lie -quietly in his bed at night, and early one morning he -was discovered in a somnambulant state in the chimney -of an empty bedroom, “on,” as he said, “his road to -London.” After this his parents readily consented -that he should try to make his way elsewhere, and a -situation was obtained for him in the counting-house -of a Lambeth brewer. After about three years’ service -here, the business failed, and he was recommended to -Alexander Hogg, bookseller of Paternoster Row. The -terms of his engagement were those of an ordinary -domestic servant; he was to board and lodge on the -premises, and to receive ten pounds yearly, but his -lodging, or, at all events, his bed, was under the shop -counter.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_365">365</a></span> -Alexander Hogg, of 16, Paternoster Row, had been -a journeyman to Cooke, and had very successfully -followed the publication of “Number” books. In the -trade he was looked upon as an unequalled “puffer,” -and when the sale of a book began to slacken, he was -wont to employ some ingenious scribe to draw up a -taking title, and the work, though otherwise unaltered, -was brought out in a “new edition,” as, according to -a formula, the “Production of a Society of Gentlemen: -the whole revised, corrected, and improved by Walter -Thornton, Esq., A.M., and other gentlemen.”</p> - -<p>Kelly’s duties were to make up parcels of books for -the retail booksellers, and his zeal displayed itself -even in somnambulism, and one night when in a -comatose state, he actually arranged in order the -eighty numbers of “Foxe’s Martyrs,” taken from as -many different compartments. He spent all his -leisure in study, and soon was able to read French -with fluency, gaining the proper accent by attending -the French Protestant church in Threadneedle Street. -The good old housekeeper, at this time his only friend, -was a partaker of his studies; at all events, he gave -her the benefit of all the more amusing and interesting -matter he came across. His activity, though it -rendered the head-shopman jealous, attracted Hogg’s -favourable attention, and the clever discovery of a -batch of stolen works, still further strengthened the -interest he felt in his serving boy. The thieves, -owing to the lad’s ingenuity, were apprehended and -convicted, and Kelly had to come forward as a witness. -“This was my first appearance at the Old Bailey, and -as I was fearful I might give incorrect evidence, I -trembled over the third commandment. How could -I think, while shaking in the witness-box, that I<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_366">366</a></span> -should ever be raised to act as Her Majesty’s First -Commissioner at the Central Criminal Court of England!”</p> - -<p>Half of his scanty pittance of ten pounds was sent -home to aid his parents, and as his wages increased, -so did this dutiful allowance. In this situation Kelly -remained for twenty years and two months, and at no -time did he receive more than eighty pounds per -annum, and it is believed that when his stipend -reached that petty maximum, he defrayed the whole -of his father’s farm rent. That he was not entirely -satisfied with his prospects, is evident from the fact -that about ten years after he joined Hogg he accepted -a clerkship in Sir Francis Baring’s office, but so necessary -had he become to the establishment he was -about to leave, that his late master prevailed upon him -to accept board and residence in exchange for what -assistance he might please to render over hours. -After six weeks of this double work, poor Kelly’s -health began to suffer, and it was plain that he must -confine his labours to one single branch of trade. -“Thomas,” said his master, sagaciously enough, -though probably with a view to his own interests, -“you never can be a merchant, but you <em>may</em> be a -bookseller.” This advice chimed in with his inclination, -if not with his immediate prospects, and Kelly -devoted himself to bookselling.</p> - -<p>At length Hogg, falling into bad health, and desiring -to be relieved from business, proposed to Kelly -that he should unite in partnership with his son; but -the conscientious assistant felt constrained to decline -the tempting offer, by reason of the young man’s -character, and resolved rather to attempt business on -his own account. In 1809, therefore, he started in a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_367">367</a></span> -little room in Paternoster Row, sub-rented from the -landlord—a friendly barber. On his small front room -he wrote his name, “Thomas Kelly,” and by way of -advertising his change of position, he generally stood -downstairs in the common doorway. To all the “Row” -Hogg’s able assistant had been known simply as -“Thomas,” and one old acquaintance actually asked -him, “Well, Thomas, who is this Kelly that you have -taken up with?”</p> - -<p>For the first two years his operations were confined -solely to the purchase and sale of miscellaneous books -on a small scale, and the limited experiment proved -successful. Of “Buchan’s Domestic Medicine” he -bought one thousand copies in sheets at a low price, -and, having prefixed a short memoir of the author, -and divided them into numbers or parts, he went out -himself in quest of subscribers; and a thousand copies -of the “New Week’s Preparation” were treated in a -like manner and with similar success. Henceforth he -resolved to print at his own risk, always adopting the -sectional method, and working his books, from first to -last, entirely through the hands of his own agents, -and the profit he found in this scheme depended -almost entirely upon the happy knowledge he possessed -of human character, and the cautious foresight with -which he was able to select his canvassers. One of -the first works he published in this manner was a large -Family Bible, edited by J. Mallam, Rector of Hilton, -afterwards known as “Kelly’s Family Bible.” To -each of his canvassers he gave stock on credit, worth -from twenty to one hundred pounds, ready money -was insisted on, and this plan insured a speedy -return of capital. The Bible extended to one hundred -and seventy-three numbers, and the entire work cost<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_368">368</a></span> -the subscribers £5 15<i>s.</i>, paid, of course, in weekly or -monthly driblets; and, as 80,000 copies were soon -sold, the gross receipts must have reached £460,000. -Nearly half this sum, however, went in the agents’ -allowances for canvassing and delivery. The paper -duty alone on this one work was estimated at upwards -of £20,000. To this Bible succeeded “The Life of -Christ,” “Foxe’s Martyrs,” and the “History of -England,” all in folio, with copper-plate embellishments; -and “Hervey’s Meditations,” “Bunyan’s -Pilgrim’s Progress,” and various other popular works, -in octavo.</p> - -<p>Six months after he had left his former situation, -Hogg died, and the son soon fell into difficulties, -and was obliged to relinquish the business, which -Kelly immediately purchased, speedily adding to it the -trade of Cooke, the owner of No. 17, and thus uniting -the two concerns into one.</p> - -<p>About the year 1814 the system of printing books -from stereotype plates began to be very generally -adopted for large editions, and Kelly at once saw its -advantages, but, of course, as in all improvements, the -trade set themselves against the innovation, and he -had to purchase land at Merton, and erect a foundry -of his own, and then, and not till then, the printers -relinquished their opposition, and the building was -abandoned. It was about this time, in March, 1815, -that he very nearly lost a moiety of his fortune through -fire. Luckily, upon the outbreak of a fire in the neighbourhood -a few days before, he had been alarmed, and -had gone straightway to the office of the Phœnix -Company, and paid a deposit on the insurance. -Before the policy was made out, the whole of his -stock was destroyed, but the Phœnix Company paid<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_369">369</a></span> -up without an hour’s delay, and, in return, he never -cancelled a single policy with them until this sum had -been reimbursed. How largely Kelly traded may be -gathered from the fact that from one of his agents -alone he often received from £4000 to £5000 per -annum.</p> - -<p>To revert for a moment to his private life; his father -had died in 1810, when the bookseller was still a -struggling man, but, in spite of his difficulties, he paid -at once the amount of his father’s debts; and brought -his mother up to Wimbledon, where she lived to see -her son a wealthy and prosperous man. To his old -master’s widow he generously allowed an annuity, -and even aided young Hogg, who had pursued him -with inveterate hatred, with the loan of £600. He -never married. When little known he saved a -member of the Court of Aldermen from bankruptcy -by an advance of £4000, and he was always ready to -lend out his money to those in trouble. But once, -when asked to give his acceptance to ten or twelve -thousand pounds worth of bills—in these terms, -“Will you, for once in your life, do a good action, and -oblige me?”—he thought himself perfectly justified in -refusing, and soon after the acceptor of these bills -failed. In 1823 he was elected into the Common -Council of his ward; in 1825 he served as Sheriff with -Mr. Alderman Crowder, on whose death he succeeded -to the Alderman’s gown of Farringdon Without. He -always lamented his want of a systematic education, -and late in life he endeavoured, in some way, to supply -the place of it by experience gathered from foreign -travel.</p> - -<p>Notwithstanding his immense issues of costly books, -he exercised the most watchful prudence. “Books,”<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_370">370</a></span> -he says, “generally, printed in the ordinary way, only -sell 500 or 1000 copies, and periodical publications -would be ruinous. Nothing but a vast sale will prove -remunerative,” and this “vast sale” he certainly effected -in almost every instance. He published twelve separate -issues of the Bible, and disposed of, probably, not less -than 250,000 copies. The following is a list of his -more important works:—“History of the French -Revolution,” 20,000 copies at £4; “Hume’s England,” -5,000, at £4 18<i>s.</i>; “The Gazetteer,” 4,000, at £4 10<i>s.</i>; -“The Oxford Encyclopædia,” 4,000 at £6 (and the -£24,000 only barely covered the original outlay); -“The Geography,” 30,000 at £4 4<i>s.</i>; and the “Architectural -Works,” 50,000, at an average of £1 13<i>s.</i> To -these may be added “The Life of Christ,” of which, in -folio and quarto, not fewer than 100,000 copies were -distributed, at prices varying from £1 1<i>s.</i> to £2. No -wonder, with figures like these (for which we are -indebted to Mr. Fell’s volume), that the trade objected -to this method of transacting business, but the difference -was confined merely to business relations, for -every one of the numerous booksellers in the Ward -signed the request asking him to stand as Alderman.</p> - -<p>In 1836 he received the highest honour to which a -citizen of London can aspire, for he was elected Lord -Mayor. His year of office was a memorable one, and -the first entertainment of Queen Victoria occurred on -the very day of his retirement from office, and thus -he narrowly escaped the honour of a baronetcy, for -he had the good sense to decline the requisition to -stand a second time.</p> - -<p>His appearance in his robes of office is thus described -by M. Titus Perondi, a French traveller:—“The -new Lord Mayor appeared in a gilded chariot, almost<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_371">371</a></span> -as grand as the King’s, drawn by six bay horses, -richly caparisoned.... He does not seem to be -more than sixty-two years of age, and his figure, slight -as it is, is still imposing—for the flowing wig and -ermine mantle, which encircled all his person, added -not a little to the dignity of his presence.... A -thriving bookseller, yet a perfectly honest man, and -very charitable.” The last sentence is an admirable -summary of his character.</p> - -<p>The attainment of this honour terminated his commercial -and public life, for after this date he relinquished, -in a great degree, his business cares; but to -an extreme old age he retained his faculties, and he -retained also his habits of quiet and discriminating -charity, doing good by stealth, and blushing to find it -known. On the 20th October, 1854, he paid his last -visit to his parent’s grave, and was there heard to murmur, -“How very happy I am.” His failing health compelled -him to visit Margate, and here, on the 7th of -September, 1855, he died in a ripe old age. A letter, -written just before his death, evidently betrays a -lingering fondness for early childish days:—“We are -surrounded by fields of fully-ripening corn—some cut, -some cutting,” babbling, like Falstaff, of green fields, -till the sixty years of town life were forgotten.</p> - -<p>Thomas Kelly was one of those men of whom the -London citizens are so proud—men who come to -the mighty centre of commerce utterly friendless, and -worse still, penniless, and whom industry, labour, and -good fortune exalt to the very pinnacle of a good -citizen’s fondest dreams. But he was more than a -Lord Mayor—he was a true friend; he was a loving, -dutiful, and tender son—qualities not always insured -even by commercial success.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_372">372</a></span> -Mr. George Virtue was another of those men of -whom, in this history, we have had not a few examples, -who, beginning life without any fictitious advantages, -have made success their goal, and, in attaining it, have -not only amassed princely fortunes for themselves and -their families, but have opened up new branches of industry, -and have afforded employment to hundreds -whose bread depends upon their daily labours.</p> - -<p>His father was a native of Fogo, in Berwickshire, -who first at Coldstream, and afterwards at Wooler, in -Northumberland, let out for hire carts and carters to -the neighbouring farmers. In the year 1793, his -second son, George, was born at Coldstream, and -there and at Wooler, he passed the early years of his -boyhood. In 1810, his father met with an accident, -which caused him to relinquish the business he had -hitherto been engaged in. His eldest son, James, who -had a good engagement in London, gave up his employment -and hastened home, and removing with the -family to Coldstream, commenced business there as a -mason, taking his brother George as an apprentice.</p> - -<p>Mrs. Somerton, their married sister, had a large -house, near the Houses of Parliament, in London, which -she let out, much on the plan of the club-chambers -of the present day. George had come up to London, -partly on business, partly on a visit to his sister, and -not wishing to return to the North, he made an -arrangement to remain with Mrs. Somerton.</p> - -<p>The house was chiefly frequented by members of -Parliament and men in the higher grades of life; and -one of the former, who had taken a fancy to George -Virtue, asked him what he would like to be. George -at once replied, “A bookseller,” and his patron assisted -him in stocking a shop in the neighbourhood. This was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_373">373</a></span> -about the year 1820. At first his trade consisted entirely -in the retail business, but by degrees he was able -to purchase entire remainders of that distinct class of -religious publications which were then sold chiefly in -numbers. These he re-issued; and as he did his own -canvassing, no zeal was wanting in the service, and his -success was by no means indifferent. Once established, -he was able to canvass for the books of other publishers; -and on the 15th July, 1821, the first number -of a work was published, which took the town by -storm. Whether Mr. Virtue’s canvassing powers were -acknowledged by the trade at this early period, or -whether his peculiar class of customers was considered -as most amenable to the work in question, we know -not, but he was given an interest of one kind or -another, either as part proprietor or as a purchaser on -unusually liberal terms in the famous “Life in London; -or, the Adventures of Tom and Jerry,” issued by -Sherwood, Neeley, and Jones, of Paternoster Row. The -book was written by Pierce Egan, afterwards the -founder of <cite>Bell’s Life</cite>.</p> - -<p>Works describing country sports and pastimes had -proved so acceptable that it was imagined that a -volume issued in numbers, setting forth the humours -of town life would be equally taking. The illustrations -by J. R. and George Cruikshank proved irresistible. -The work was so successful that innumerable -imitations appeared, one of which (“Shade of Lackington!”) -was published by Jones and Co., who occupied -his former place of business, the “Temple of the -Muses” in Finsbury Square. There was absolutely a -<em>furore</em> for the work. Dibdin, Barryman, Farell, Douglas -Jerrold, Moncrieff, and others adapted it for the -stage. It was on the boards of ten theatres at one<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_374">374</a></span> -time; and at the Adelphi, where Moncrieff’s adaptation -was produced, it enjoyed the then unparalleled -run of three hundred nights. At last, Pierce Egan, -declaring that no less than sixty-five separate publications -had been derived from his work, brought forward -his own characteristic version, which, however, proved -a failure.</p> - -<p>All the world bought “Tom and Jerry,” and having -roared over the plates, tossed them not unnaturally -aside; so that a work, which, in popularity, had been -the “Pickwick” of its day, became so wonderfully -scarce that when Mr. Thackeray, with whom it had -been an early favourite, wanted a copy for a review he -was writing upon Mr. George Cruikshank’s works, he -applied at all the libraries, including the British -Museum, in vain. The work was advertised for in -the <cite>Times</cite> with like result, and he had to depend upon -his memory for his description. However, twenty -years after, when he wished to make it the subject of -one of the most charming of the “Roundabout Papers,” -he found that it had been added to the Museum -Library.</p> - -<p>It was, however, with the contemporary popularity -that Mr. Virtue was concerned, and by it his business -was largely increased.</p> - -<p>In 1831, his affairs warranted an important move to -the vicinity of Paternoster Row, and about this time -he married a Miss Sprent, a lady from Manchester. -From his new abode the works which he at first issued -were of much the same stamp as those which Messrs. -Kelly, Hogg, and Cooke had previously spread -abroad; but he soon struck out into a higher class of -literature. His first very successful book was “A -Guide to Family Devotion,” by Dr. Alexander<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_375">375</a></span> -Fletcher. The work was undertaken by Mr. Virtue, -as Dr. Fletcher says, “at great expense and some -hazard, during the years 1833–1834.” The volume -contained 730 prayers, 730 hymns, and 730 selected -passages of Scripture, suitable for Morning and Evening -Service, throughout the year, and was illustrated -by engravings by the best artists. The popularity it -achieved was enormous: thirty editions of a thousand -each were soon issued, and, as the <cite>Times</cite> said, “30,000 -copies of a book of Common Prayer, recommended -by twenty-five distinguished ministers, cannot be -dispersed throughout England without effecting some -change in the minds of probably 200,000 persons.”</p> - -<p>In America, the “Guide to Family Devotion” was -as successful as at home, and upwards of one hundred -ministers there sent in testimonials to its worth. By -1850, the sale is said to have exceeded 50,000 copies.</p> - -<p>Mr. Virtue, about this time, entered into an engagement -with W. Henry Bartlett, who, pencil in hand, -travelled over the four quarters of the globe, making -sketches, which that enterprising publisher issued in -volumes, illustrated with beautiful steel engravings -and descriptive letterpress. The first of these was -“Switzerland,” published in 1835, in two quarto -volumes. This was followed by Scotland, Palestine, -the Nile, and America. Of the Switzerland, 20,000 -copies were sold; and in the production of the two -volumes on Scotland, upwards of one thousand persons -were employed at a cost of £40,000. The number of -engraved plates in these volumes amounted to a -thousand.</p> - -<p>When Mr. Virtue commenced these illustrated -volumes, the Fine Art tastes of the public were in a -very uneducated condition; but, selecting the best<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_376">376</a></span> -artists and employing the best engravers, he set a good -example, which was speedily followed by others. In -1839, Messrs. Hodgson and Graves had started a -cheap periodical devoted to Art, under the title of -the <cite>Art Union</cite>, intended chiefly as an organ of the -print trade; but it was not till the year 1849 that this -publication passed into the hands of Mr. Virtue, who -changed the title to the <cite>Art Journal</cite>, and devoted it -to the development of Fine Art and Industrial Art, -with illustrations on steel and wood by the first artists -of the day. The <cite>Art Journal</cite>, it is admitted, has done -more than any private venture or corporate body to -disseminate true ideas of Art in England. The <cite>Art -Journal</cite>, though among the very earliest of those -periodicals in which Art was brought to the aid of -Literature, still towers proudly above all. Since its -foundation, the <cite>Art Journal</cite> has presented the public -with between eight and nine hundred steel engravings -and above 30,000 engravings on wood.</p> - -<p>No less than one hundred illustrated volumes were -issued from Mr. Virtue’s establishment, and for their -production it was found necessary to erect a large -establishment in the City Road. Almost every engraver -of any reputation in this country has been employed -on one or other of Mr. Virtue’s illustrated works. -Indeed, had it not been for the field of labour opened -by the <cite>Art Union</cite>, in their yearly distribution of engravings, -and for the encouragement held out by Mr. -Virtue in the production of his illustrated works and -the <cite>Art Journal</cite>, it is said that the art of line engraving -would have quite died out in England; and for -his services to the public, and, through them, to the -profession, he is certainly entitled to be regarded as -the first Art publisher of his time.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_377">377</a></span> -To go to a very different branch of his business, Mr. -Virtue was not idle in the production of any book -likely to win the favour of the public. In 1847, Dr. -Cumming, then widely known as a preacher only, delivered -a series of lectures at Exeter Hall upon the -Apocalypse, which riveted public attention. He was -urged by his friends to publish the lectures upon their -completion, and said that he would be willing to do so, -if he was sure that the proceeds would suffice to pay -for putting up stained glass windows in his church. -Mr. Virtue heard this, ascertained the value of the -windows, and offered their outside cost down in hard -cash in exchange for the copyright. Dr. Cumming -eagerly accepted the offer, and by the “Apocalyptic -Sketches” the publisher realized the handsome sum of -four thousand pounds. He afterwards made the -author a present of a hundred pounds, and engaged -him to write a continuation, at an honorarium of five -pounds per sheet of thirty-two pages, which eventually -proved to be equally successful.</p> - -<p>Many years before his death, Mr. George Virtue -parted with the business to his son, Mr. James Sprent -Virtue, the present head of the firm.</p> - -<p>On the 8th December, 1868, George Virtue, senior, -died in his seventy-sixth year, having earned the respect -of all the hundreds to whom he afforded employment, -and of the outside world; for all recognised -that integrity and strict justice to his <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">employés</i> was a -main cause of his success, while his prosperity had -been aided by thorough business habits and intense -application to his duties.</p> - -<p>He had been one of the representatives of the ward -of Farringdon Without in the Common Council of the -City of London for many years, and was held in the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_378">378</a></span> -highest esteem by his fellow-citizens. It was in his -civic capacity that he was invited by the Viceroy of -Egypt, with other members of the Corporation, to -pay a visit to that country, an honour which his -constant attention to his public duties had fully -merited in selecting him as one of the representatives -of the City of London on that occasion.</p> - -<div id="if_i_378" class="figcenter" style="width: 142px;"> - <img src="images/i_378.jpg" width="142" height="153" alt="" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_379">379</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div id="if_i_379" class="figcenter" style="width: 354px;"> - <img id="hdr_12" src="images/i_379.jpg" width="354" height="84" alt="" /></div> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><i>THOMAS TEGG</i>:<br /> - -<span class="subhead">BOOK-AUCTIONEERING AND THE “REMAINDER -TRADE.”</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">Thomas Tegg<a id="FNanchor_28" href="#Footnote_28" class="fnanchor smaller">28</a></span> was born at Wimbledon, in -Surrey, on the 4th of March, 1776. His father -was a grocer, who not only was successful in business, -but “wore a large wig,” was a Latin scholar, and something -of a mathematician; he died, however, when his -son was only five years old, and was speedily followed -by his wife, and the poor little lad “found it to be a -dreadful thing when sorrow first takes hold of an -orphan’s heart.” For the sake of economy, he was -sent to Galashiels, in Selkirkshire, where he was -boarded, lodged, clothed, and educated for ten guineas -per annum. This severance from all home ties was at -first more than the little orphan could bear, and many -a time, he tells us, did he steal off to the quiet banks -of the Tweed, and cry himself to sleep in his loneliness. -A scrap of paper, which had been given him -before leaving home, bearing the magic word “London,”<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_380">380</a></span> -was carefully treasured in all his wanderings, -and in the associations it called up, in the hopes it -excited in all his wondering, childish dreams, proved a -soothing solace to his troubles. His schoolmaster, too, -was a kind-hearted man, who made a point of studying -each boy’s individual character, and of educating -each for his individual calling. Ruling by “kindness -rather than by flagellation,” he frequently took his -pupils for country rambles, and taught them lessons -out of the great book of Nature. Nor was he wholly -forgotten by his relatives, for we read that he was sent -a parcel of tea—then a wonderful luxury. After -much consultation as to the best method of cooking -the delicacy, one-half of it was boiled in the “big pot,” -the liquor strained off and the leaves served up as -greens; “but,” he adds, “it was not eaten.” After -staying at Galashiels for four years, he was given the -choice of being apprenticed either to a saddler or a -bookseller; and his fondness for books, and the desire -already formed of being at some time a bookseller in -the London he pictured to himself every night in his -dreams, led him at once to select the latter alternative. -His dominie at parting, gave him a copy of -“Dr. Franklin’s Life and Essays,” a book he treasured -in all times of prosperity and adversity, and kept to -the day of his death.</p> - -<p>On a cold, raw morning in September, he started -on foot for Dalkeith, with only sixpence in his pocket; -some friendly farmers on the road gave him a lift in -their cart, and in his gratitude he confided to them -his boyish hopes of being by-and-by a great book-merchant -in London. At Dalkeith he was bound -apprentice to Alexander Meggett, a bookseller, and -“from this humble origin,” says Tegg, proudly, “I,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_381">381</a></span> -who am now one of the chief booksellers in London, -have risen.” His master, kindness itself before the -indentures were signed, turned out to be “a tyrant as -well as an infidel.” “Every market-day he got drunk -and came home and beat the whole of us. Once I -said, ‘I have done nothing to deserve a beating.’ -‘Young English rascal,’ said he, ‘you may want it -when I am too busy, so I will give it to you now.’” -Tegg’s fellow-apprentice had, like him, an ambition, -but it was to become the first whistler in the kingdom.</p> - -<p>Tegg’s apprenticeship had by this time become -intolerable, and, as he had been latterly engaged in -reading “Robinson Crusoe” and “Roderick Random,” -he resolved to run away and lead an adventurous -life himself. Though it was in the depth of winter, -he travelled along on foot, sleeping sometimes under -hedges laden with hoar-frost. But soon his little hoarding -of ten shillings was exhausted; at Berwick, -therefore, he tried to make a livelihood by selling -chap-books, but was recognised for a runaway apprentice -and had again to fly. At this period he tells -us he found out the utility of pawnbrokers’ shops, -and discovered, also, the value of small sums. “He -who has felt the want of a penny is never likely to -dissipate a pound.” Another lesson, too, he gathered -from his wanderings, which was always when in -trouble to apply to a woman. “Never,” he says, “did -I plead to a woman in vain.” At Newcastle he made -the acquaintance of Bewick, the engraver; there he -might have remained, but his heart was set upon -reaching London. At Sheffield he was seized by the -parish officer for travelling on Sunday, but when he -told his story the severity of Bumbledom itself relented, -and the beadle found him a home, and even<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_382">382</a></span> -paid the requisite eighteenpence a week which defrayed -the cost of lodging, bread-making, and a weekly -clean shirt. Here he was engaged by Mr. Gale, the -proprietor of the <cite>Sheffield Register</cite>, at seven shillings -a week, a wretched pittance, but sufficient for his -small wants, even enabling him to purchase new -clothes. At the <cite>Register</cite> office he met some men of -note, among others, Tom Paine and Dibdin. Paine -was “a tall, thin, ill-looking man. He had a fiend-like -countenance, and frequently indulged in oaths and -blasphemy.” After a nine months’ sojourn, Tegg left -Sheffield, and having visited Ireland and North Wales, -entered the service of a Mr. Marshall, at Lynn, where -he remained for three or four years.</p> - -<p>Early in 1796, however, he mounted the London -and Cambridge coach, and, with a few shillings in his -pockets, with a light heart in his breast, he bade good-bye -to friends, telling them that he would never come -back till he could drive down in his carriage.</p> - -<p>On the coach he met some other young men, who, -like himself, were going up to London in search of -employment, but who intended to spend the first -few days in sight-seeing, and asked him to join their -party. But Tegg resisted the temptation, and when -London, the London of his dreams—but how black, -smoke-filled, and inhospitable!—was really reached, -he alighted at the Green Dragon in Bishopsgate -Street, and, struggling through the busy stream of -men who filled the city streets, he went straightway -in search of employment, to the first book-shop that -met his eyes. This happened to be Mr. Lane’s -“Minerva Library,” in Leadenhall Street. “What -can you do?” asked Lane. “My best,” rejoined -Tegg. “Do you wear an apron?” Tegg produced<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_383">383</a></span> -one and tied it on. “Go to work,” said Lane, and -thus, “in less than half-an-hour from my arrival, I -was at work in one of the best houses in London.” -Early next morning, map in hand, he took an exploring -walk, and was astonished and delighted with all -he saw, for to the young bookseller, with his mind -wrapt up entirely in his projects of success, the perpetual -rush of unknown faces—that he had never -seen before, would never see again—the jostling -eagerness of crowds, going incessantly this way and -that, the noisy din of carts and carriages, the vastness -of the buildings, and the vagueness of the never-ending -streets, did not bring that feeling of utter -loneliness which so many of us remember in our first -solitary entry into London. Nor was the country lad -to be beguiled by any of the myriad temptations that -were ready on all sides to divide his attention from -his business. “I resolved,” he writes, “to visit a place -of worship every Sunday, and to read no loose or -infidel books; that I would frequent no public-houses, -that I would devote my leisure to profitable studies, -that I would form no friendships till I knew the parties -well, and that I would not go to any theatre till my -reason fortified me against my passions.” This perseverance -did not immediately meet with its deserved reward, -for having been sent, with the other shopmen, to make -an affidavit as to the numbers of an election bill that -had been struck off, before the Lord Mayor, he said -boldly, that he did not even know that they had been -printed; the Lord Mayor was pleased with the -answer, and censured Lane severely for tempting the -boy to commit a perjury; and Lane, in his rage, dismissed -him forthwith. Tegg walked out of the shop, -down-hearted for the moment, perhaps, but self-possessed<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_384">384</a></span> -and reliant, and entering the shop of John and -Arthur Arch, at the corner of Gracechurch Street, the -kindly Quakers took him at once into their employ, -and here he stayed until entering into business on his -own account. His new masters were strict but affectionate. -He soon asks for a holiday, “We have no -objection, but where art thou going, Thomas?” “To -Greenwich fair, sir.” “Then we think thou hadst -better not go. Thou wilt lose half a day’s wages. -Thou wilt spend at least the amount of two days’ -wages more, and thou wilt get into bad company.” -At two, however, he was told he might go; but as -soon as he reached London Bridge his heart smote -him, and he returned. “Why, Thomas, is this thee? -Thou art a prudent lad.” And when Saturday came, -his masters added a guinea to his weekly wages as a -present. From this, Tegg says, he himself learnt to -be a kind though strict master, and during his fifty -years of business life, he never used a harsh word to a -servant, and dismissed but three.</p> - -<p>Having received £200 from the wreck of the family -prospects, Tegg took a shop, in partnership with a -Mr. Dewick, in Aldersgate Street, and became a -“bookmaker” as well as a bookseller; and his first -book, the “Complete Confectioner,” though it contained -only one hundred lines of original matter, -reached a second edition. After a short time he -indulged in a tour to Scotland, where he found that -his old schoolmaster had died from the effects of an -amputation; and in this same journey he honestly -bought up the unlapsed time of his apprenticeship. -On returning to London he re-entered the service of -the Messrs. Arch, and took unto himself a wife. The -story of his courtship is pleasantly and naïvely told.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_385">385</a></span> -Coming down the stairs of his new lodgings, “I was -met by a good-looking, fresh-coloured, sweet-countenanced -country girl; and without thinking of the -impropriety I ventured to wink as she passed. On -looking up the stairs, I saw my fair one peeping -through the balusters at me. I was soon on speaking -terms with her, and told her I wanted a wife, and bade -her look out for one for me; but if she failed in the -search she must take the office herself. After waiting -a short time, no return being made, I acted on this -agreement. Young and foolish both, we were married -at St. Bride’s church, April 20, 1800.... I was -most happy in my choice, and cannot write in -adequate terms of my dear partner, who possesses -four qualities seldom found in one woman—good -nature, sound sense, beauty, and prudence.”</p> - -<p>After his marriage, he again opened a shop in St. -John’s Street, Clerkenwell, and here he “wrote all -night and worked all day,” while his partner was -drinking himself to death. His wife was ill, two of -the children died, and the future looked terribly -gloomy; for a “supposed friend” prevailed upon him -to discount a bill for £172 14<i>s.</i> 9<i>d.</i> out of his little -capital of two hundred pounds, and the bill, of course, -turned out to be utterly worthless. In this strait he -acted with much energy, dissolved his partnership, -called a meeting of his creditors, and found a friend -who nobly came forward as a security; and he left -his home, declaring he would never return until he -could pay the uttermost farthing. “God,” he writes -solemnly, “never forsook me. A man may lose his -property and yet not be ruined; peace and pride of -heart may be more than equivalents.”</p> - -<p>Tegg now took out a country auction licence,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_386">386</a></span> -and determined to try his fortune in the provinces.</p> - -<p>A few words on the book-auction trade may have -a passing interest here. According to Dibdin, the -first book auction of which we have any record in -England occurred in 1676, when Cooper, the bookseller, -prefixed the following address to his catalogue:—“Reader, -it hath not been usual here in England to -make sale of books by way of auction, or who will give -most for them; but it having been practised in other -countries, to the great advantage of both buyers and -sellers, it was therefore conceived (for the encouragement -of learning) to publish the sale of those books -in this manner of way.” The innovation was successful. -Cooper established a reputation as a book-auctioneer, -and in London such sales became -common. In a few years we read of the practice -being extended to Scotland, and to the larger towns in -England, such as Leeds and York. John Dunton, -with his usual versatility, took over a cargo of books -to sell at Dublin, and after that date attendance at -the country fairs with books to sell by auction became -quite a distinct branch among the London booksellers. -The leading auctioneer in Dunton’s time was Edward -Millington. “He had a quick wit and a wonderful -fluency of speech. There was usually as much wit in -his ‘One, two, three!’ as can be met with in a modern -play. ‘Where,’ said Millington, ‘is your generous -flame for learning? Who but a sot or a blockhead -would have money in his pocket, and starve his -brains?’” At this time it appears that bids of one penny -were very commonly offered and accepted. Book-auctioneering -soon became a distinct trade altogether, -and required not only much fluency of speech and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_387">387</a></span> -power of persuasion, but a very exact knowledge of -the science of bibliography. For this latter speciality -Samuel Paterson, of King Street, Covent Garden, was -particularly famous. Perhaps no bookseller ever lived -who knew so much about the contents of the books -he sold. When, in compiling his catalogues, he met -with an unknown book he would sit perusing it for -hours, utterly unmindful of the time of sale, and -oblivious of the efforts of his clerk to call his attention -to the lateness of the time. Baker, Leigh, and -Sotheby, all of York Street, Covent Garden, were -also eminent in this branch of the trade; but the -prince of book-auctioneers was James Christie, whose -powers of persuasion were rendered doubly effective -by a quiet, easy flow of conversation, and a gentle -refinement of manners. At the close of the century, -the booksellers’ trade sales were held at the Horn -Tavern, in Doctors’ Commons, and were preceded by -a luxurious dinner, when the bottle and the jest went -round merrily, and the competition was heightened -by wine and laughter.</p> - -<p>Tegg, to retake the thread of our story after this -digression, started with a very poor stock, consisting -of shilling political pamphlets, and some thousands of -the <cite>Monthly Visitor</cite>. At Worcester, however, he -purchased a parcel of books from a clergyman for ten -pounds, but when the time for payment arrived the -good man refused to accept anything. At Worcester, -too, it was that he held his first auction. “With a -beating heart I mounted the rostrum. The room -was crowded. I took £30 that first night, and in a -few days a knife and fork was provided for me at -many of the houses of my customers. God helps -those, I thought, who help themselves.” With his<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_388">388</a></span> -wife acting as clerk, he travelled through the country, -buying up the duplicates at all the gentlemen’s -libraries he could hear of, and rapidly paying off his -debts. This led him to return to his shop in Cheapside, -but his ardent desire for advancement involved -him again in difficulties. “One day I was called from -the shop three times by the sheriff’s officers (a few -years afterwards I paid a fine of £400 to be excused -serving sheriff myself). Bailiffs are not always iron-hearted. -I have met with very kind officers; some -have taken my word for debt and costs, and one lent -me the money to pay both” (O rare bum-bailiff! why -is not thy name recorded?).</p> - -<p>Still Tegg was making gradual way, in spite of -occasional difficulties which again led him to the -pawnshops, but with more precious pledges than when -at Berwick he asked a rosy-cheeked Irish girl how he -might best raise money on a silk handkerchief, for now -his watch and spoons could accommodate him, when -needful, with fifty pounds. About this time one of -the most interesting episodes of his life was commenced. -He had purchased a hundred pounds’ worth -of books from Mr. Hunt, who, hearing of his struggles, -bade him to pay for them when he pleased. Tegg, in -the fulness of his gratitude, told him that should he, -in his turn, ever need aid he should have it; but the -wealthy bookseller smiled at the young struggler’s -evident simplicity. We will tell the rest of the story -in Tegg’s own words. “Thirty years after, I was in -my counting-house, when Mr. Hunt, with a queer-looking -companion, came in and reminded me of my -promise. He was under arrest, and must go to prison -unless I would be his bail. I acknowledged the -obligation, but I would first take my wife’s opinion.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_389">389</a></span> -‘Yes, my dear, by all means help Mr. Hunt,’ was her -answer. ‘He aided us in trouble; you can do no less -for him.’ Next morning I found I had become his -surety for thirty thousand pounds. I was sharply -questioned in court as to my means, and, rubbing his -hands together, Mr. Barrister remarked that Book-selling -must be a fine trade, and wished he had been -brought up to it. I answered, ‘The result did not -depend on the trade, but on the man; for instance, if -I had been a lawyer I would not have remained half -this time in your situation—I would have occupied a -seat with their lordships.’ There was a laugh in court, -and the judge said, ‘You may stand down.’”</p> - -<p>When success first really dawned, Tegg began to -feel poignantly the want of a more complete education; -however, he determined to employ the powers he -possessed as best he could. His earliest publications -consisted of a series of pamphlets, printed in duodecimo, -with frontispieces, containing abridgments of -popular works; and the series extended to two -hundred, many of them circulating to the extent of -4000 copies. As an instance of his business energy, -we may cite the following:—Tegg heard one morning -from a friend that Nelson had been shot at Trafalgar. -He set an engraver to work instantly on a portrait of -the hero, purchased the <cite>Naval Chronicle</cite>, found ample -material for a biography; and, in a few hours, “The -Whole Life of Nelson” was ready for the press. Such -timely assiduity was rewarded by a sale of 5000 -sixpenny copies. On another occasion, when on a -summer jaunt to Windsor with a friend, it was jocularly -resolved that, as they had come to see the king, -they ought to make his Majesty pay the expenses of -the trip. Tegg suggested a Life of Mrs. Mary Anne<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_390">390</a></span> -Clarke, with a coloured portrait. 13,000 copies were -sold at seven-and-sixpence each; and, as he observes, -the “bill was probably liquidated.”</p> - -<p>Among his other cheap books were—“Tegg’s -Chronology,” “Philip Quail,” and—perhaps the most -successful and useful of all—a diamond edition of -“Johnson’s Dictionary,” published when the original -edition was selling at five guineas.</p> - -<p>In 1824 he purchased the copyright of Hone’s -“Every-Day Book” and “Table Book;” republished -the whole in weekly parts, and cleared a very large -profit.</p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="iq">“I like you and your book, ingenious Hone!<br /></span> -<span class="i2">In whose capacious, all-embracing leaves<br /></span> -<span class="i0">The very marrow of traditions shown,<br /></span> -<span class="i2">And all that History, much that Fiction weaves.”<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="in0">So sang Charles Lamb; and Southey says of these -two delightful works:—“The ‘Every-Day Book’ and -‘Table Book’ will be a fortune a hundred years -hence, but they have failed to make Hone’s fortunes.” -However, Tegg gave him five hundred pounds to -compile the “Year Book,” which proved much less -successful than the others.</p> - -<p>Hone had been a bookseller in the Strand, where -he probably acquired his miscellaneous stock of -quaint knowledge about old English customs, and -all that appertained to a race fast dying out. After -the famous trial, in which his “Parodies” were charged -as being “blasphemy,” he immediately stopped the -sale of them; and, though at that time in urgent need -of money, he resolutely refused tempting offers for -copies. “The story of my three-days’ trial at Guildhall,” -he writes, “may be dug out from the journals -of the period; the history of my mind, my heart, my<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_391">391</a></span> -scepticism, and my atheism remain to be written.” It -is said that he was first awakened to a better way of -thinking, in the following manner:—One day, walking -in the country, he saw a little girl standing at a doorway, -and stopped to ask her for a drink of milk; and, -observing a book in her hand, he inquired what it -was. She said it was a Bible; and, in reply to some -depreciatory remark of his, added, in her simple -wonder—“I thought everybody loved their Bible, sir!”</p> - -<p>By this time Tegg was thriving;—he bought his -first great-coat, and the first silk pelisse for his wife, -and was able to make a rule of paying in cash, which -he found an immense advantage. The book auctions, -continued nightly at 111, Cheapside, formed the -immediate stepping-stone to his wealth. He visited -all the trade sales, and bought up the “remainders,” -<i xml:lang="la" lang="la">i.e.</i>, surplus copies of works in which the original -publishers had no faith;—“I was,” he writes, “the -broom that swept the booksellers’ warehouses.” At -one of the dinners preceding these trade sales, he -heard Alderman Cadell give the then famous toast—“The -Bookseller’s four B’s”—Burns, Blair, Buchan, -and Blackstone. In the auctioneer’s rostrum he was -very lively and amusing, and the room became well -known all over London. At one of the last sales, a -gentleman who purchased a book asked if “he ever -left off selling for a single night?” Fifteen years -before, on his road to the dock to embark for Calcutta, -he found Tegg busy, and as busy still on his return. -“If ever man was devoted to his profession, I am that -man,” says Tegg; and again—“I feel that my moral -courage is sufficient to carry out anything I resolve to -accomplish.”</p> - -<p>Now that his own publications were proving very<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_392">392</a></span> -lucrative, Tegg resolved to abandon the auctioneering -portion of the business, and confine himself to the -more legitimate trade; and, at his last sale, he took -upwards of eighty pounds. The purchase and sale of -remainders, however, still formed a very important -branch of his traffic.</p> - -<p>About this time he took another journey to Scotland, -and had an interview with Sir Walter Scott, who -had, he says, “nothing in his manner or conversation -to impress a visitor with his greatness.” Immediately -on his return he made his final remove to the Mansion -House, Cheapside—once the residence of the Lord -Mayor—and the annual current of sales rose in the -proportion of from eighteen to twenty-two. Now a -popular as well as a wealthy man, he was elected a -Common Councillor of the Ward of Cheap, took a -country house at Norwood, with a beautiful garden -attached—“though I scarcely knew a rose from a -rhododendron”—and set up a carriage.</p> - -<p>It was, of course, from the Mansion House that his -well-known publications were dated. In 1825, the -year after the purchase of the “Table Book,” he -published the “London Encyclopædia;” it was a time -of great financial difficulty (as we have, indeed, seen in -almost all our lives of contemporary publishers); his -bills were dishonoured to the extent of twenty -thousand pounds; and the work was began solely to -give employment to those who had been faithful in -more prosperous years. The public, however, supported -the undertaking, and Tegg was rewarded for -his courage.</p> - -<p>The time of the panic, in 1826, was a season of -severe trial, in domestic as well as pecuniary matters; -and Tegg, though he maintained that few men were<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_393">393</a></span> -ever insolvent through mere misfortune, began to fear -that despondency would deprive him of his reason. -And now it was that he appreciated more than ever -the brave qualities of his wife, who roused and manned -him again to the struggle; till, in the end, he became -a gainer rather than a loser by the crisis, for the best -books were then sold as almost worthless; and at -Hurst and Robinson’s sale he purchased the most -popular of Scott’s novels at fourpence a volume.</p> - -<p>Among his other great “remainder” bargains we -may mention the purchase of the remainder and -copyright of “Murray’s Family Library” in 1834. -He bought 100,000 volumes at one shilling, and reissued -them at more than double the price. His -greatest triumph of all was, however, the acquisition -of “Valpy’s Delphin Classics,” in one hundred and -sixty-two large octavo volumes, the stock amounting -to nearly fifty thousand copies, the whole of which -were sold off in two years.</p> - -<p>To return to his own publications, we find that, up -to the close of 1840, he had issued four thousand -works on his own account, and “not more than twenty -were failures.”</p> - -<p>Tegg’s reputation as a bookseller chiefly rests upon -his cheap reprints and abridgments of popular works; -and, in connection with these, his name is mentioned -in Mr. Carlyle’s famous petition on the Copyright Bill. -Though we have failed to ascertain to what general -or particular works Mr. Carlyle refers, the petition is -of such curious interest to all concerned in the writing -and selling of books, that we do not hesitate to quote -it in extenso<a id="FNanchor_29" href="#Footnote_29" class="fnanchor">29</a>:—</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_394">394</a></span></p> - -<blockquote> - -<p>“To the honourable the Commons of England, in -Parliament assembled, the Petition of Thomas Carlyle, -a Writer of Books,</p> - -<p class="in4"> -“Humbly sheweth, -</p> - -<p>“That your petitioner has written certain books, -being incited thereto by various innocent or laudable -considerations, chiefly by the thought that the said -books might in the end be found to be worth something.</p> - -<p>“That your petitioner had not the happiness to -receive from Mr. Tegg, or any Publisher, Re-publisher, -Printer, Book-buyer, or other the like men, or body of -men, any encouragement or countenance in the writing -of said books, or to discern any chance of receiving -such; but wrote them by effort of his own will, and -the favour of Heaven.</p> - -<p>“That all useful labour is worthy of recompense; -that all honest labour is worthy of the chance of -recompense; that the giving and assuring to each -man what recompense his labour has actually merited, -may be said to be the business of all Legislation, -Polity, Government and social arrangement whatsoever -among men;—a business indispensable to -attempt, impossible to accomplish accurately, difficult -to accomplish without inaccuracies that become -enormous, insupportable, and the Parent of Social -Confusion which never altogether end.</p> - -<p>“That your petitioner does not undertake to say -what recompense in money this labour of his may -deserve; whether it deserves any recompense in -money, or whether money in any quantity could hire -him to do the like.</p> - -<p>“That this labour has found hitherto in money, or -money’s worth, small recompense or none; but thinks -that, if so, it will be at a distant time, when he, the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_395">395</a></span> -labourer, will probably be no longer in need of money, -and those dear to him will still be in need of it.</p> - -<p>“That the law does, at least, protect all persons in -selling the productions of their labour at what they -can get for it, in all market-places, to all lengths of -time. Much more than this the law does to many, -but so much it does to all, and less than this to none.</p> - -<p>“That your petitioner cannot discover himself to -have done unlawfully in this his said labour of writing -books, or to have become criminal, or to have forfeited -the law’s protection thereby. Contrariwise, -your petitioner believes firmly that he is innocent in -said labour; that if he be found in the long-run to -have written a genuine, enduring book, his merit -therein, and desert towards England and English and -other men will be considerable, not easily estimated in -money; that, on the other hand, if his book prove -false and ephemeral, he and it will be abolished and -forgotten, and no harm done.</p> - -<p>“That in this manner your petitioner plays no unfair -game against the world: his stake being life itself, -(for the penalty is death by starvation), and the -world’s stake nothing, till it see the die thrown; so -that in every case the world cannot lose.</p> - -<p>“That in the happy and long-doubtful event of -the game’s going in his favour, your petitioner submits -that the small winnings thereof do belong to him -or his, and that no other man has justly either part or -lot in them at all, now, henceforth, or for ever.</p> - -<p>“May it, therefore, please your Honourable House -to protect him in said happy and long-doubtful event, -and (by passing your Copyright Bill), forbid all -Thomas Teggs, and other extraneous persons entirely -unconcerned in this adventure of his, to steal from<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_396">396</a></span> -him his small winnings, for a space of sixty years, at -shortest. After sixty years, unless your Honourable -House provide otherwise, they may begin to steal.</p> - -<p class="sigright"> -<span class="l4">“And your petitioner will ever pray.</span><br /> -“THOMAS CARLYLE.” -</p></blockquote> - -<p>Tegg did not confine his business to these cheap -reprints, but issued many books which were altogether -beyond the popular taste and purse, such as “Blackstone,” -edited by Price; Smith’s “Wealth of Nations,” -Burton’s “Anatomy of Melancholy,” Locke’s Works, -(in ten volumes), Bishop Butler’s Works, and Hooker’s -“Ecclesiastical Polity,” &c. Out of Dr. Adam -Clarke’s “Family Bible” he is said to have made a -small fortune; the work was stereotyped, and re-issue -after re-issue was published.</p> - -<p>In 1835 he was nominated Alderman of his Ward, -but was not elected; in the following year he was -chosen Sheriff, and paid the fine to escape serving, -having resolved to forego any further civic distinctions. -To the usual fine of £400 he added another -hundred, and the whole went to found a “Tegg -Scholarship” at the City of London School, and he -still further increased the value of the gift by adding -thereto a very valuable collection of books.</p> - -<p>On 21st April, 1845, Thomas Tegg died, after a -long and painful illness, brought on by over-exertion, -mental and physical. His third son, Alfred Byron -Tegg, a youth of twenty, then studying at Pembroke -College, Oxford, was so affected by the shock of his -father’s death that he died almost on receipt of the -news, and was buried the same day as his father at -Wimbledon—Thomas Tegg’s native village.</p> - -<p>At the commencement of his autobiography, Tegg -says, and the narrative bears the veracity of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_397">397</a></span> -statement upon every page:—“In sitting down to write -some account of my past life, I feel as if I were occupied -in making my will. I feel at a loss to express -fully my emotions. I write in a grateful spirit. What -I have acquired has been acquired by industry, -patience, and privation,” and he adds elsewhere, “I -can say in passing through life, whether rich or poor, -my spirit never forsook me so as to prevent me -from rallying again. I have seen and associated with -all ranks and stations in society. I have lodged with -beggars, and had the honour of presentation to -Royalty. I have been so reduced as to plead for -assistance, and, by the goodness of Providence, I have -been able to render it to others.”</p> - -<p>He was generally believed to have been the original -of Twigg in Hood’s “Tylney Hall.”</p> - -<p>From the commencement of his career, Tegg made -commercial success his one aim in life; and with -much patience, much endurance, and much labour, he -achieved it thoroughly, and, in the achieving of it -honestly, he conferred a great and lasting benefit -upon the world; for the book merchant holds in his -hands the power to do good, or to do evil, far beyond -any other merchant whatsoever. Rising from a -humble position in life, he never forgot his early -friends, never left unrewarded, when possible, his -early encouragers and assistants. And if he was -proud in having thus been the architect of his own -fortune and position, this pride surely was a less -ignoble one than that which leads one-half the world -to go through life exultantly, with no other self-conscious -merit than having, by a simple accident, been -born in wealthier circumstances than the other half.</p> - -<p>Tegg left behind him a large family who inherited<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_398">398</a></span> -something of their father’s energy and vigour. With -his friendly aid and encouragement they, many of -them, went elsewhere to seek their fortunes—two to -Australia and two to Dublin; and with native perseverance, -with a name that was known wherever books -were sold and bought, with their father’s connection to -support them, and their father’s stock to fill their shops, -they have not failed to reap something of their -father’s success.</p> - -<p>Thomas Tegg was succeeded in London by his son -and late partner, Mr. William Tegg, and under his -management the business of the house has assumed a -graver and more staid appearance. In the preface to -the twelfth edition of Parley’s “Tales about Animals,” -Mr. William Tegg claims the authorship of the whole -series published by him under the pseudonyme of -“Peter Parley,”<a id="FNanchor_30" href="#Footnote_30" class="fnanchor">30</a> a <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">nom de plume</i>, we believe, that has -covered more names than any other ever adopted by -English writers.</p> - -<div id="if_i_398" class="figcenter" style="width: 119px;"> - <img src="images/i_398.jpg" width="119" height="130" alt="" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_399">399</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div id="if_i_399" class="figcenter" style="width: 358px;"> - <img id="hdr_13" src="images/i_399.jpg" width="358" height="94" alt="" /></div> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><i>THOMAS NELSON</i>:<br /> - -<span class="subhead">CHILDREN’S LITERATURE AND “BOOK-MANUFACTURING.”</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">Had</span> we space—we have all the will—to be garrulous, -we should infallibly have commenced this -chapter by a long account of John Newberry, the celebrated -publisher of children’s literature. His books -were distinguished by the originality and the homeliness -of their style, and were wonderfully adapted to -the capacities of the little readers to whom, in one -instance, at all events, “The History of Little Goody -Two Shoes,” they were specially dedicated: “To all -young gentlemen and ladies who are good, or intend -to be good, this book is inscribed, by their old friend, -Mr. John Newberry, in St. Paul’s Churchyard.” Mr. -John Newberry was himself, in many cases, the author -of these volumes, “price 2<i>d.</i>, gilt,” which he produced; -but he was assisted by men who were distinguished in -other walks of life, especially by Mr. Griffith Jones, -editor of the <cite>London Chronicle</cite>, the <cite>Daily Advertiser</cite>, -and the <cite>Public Ledger</cite>, and by Oliver Goldsmith, who -makes Dr. Primrose, when sick and penniless at an<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_400">400</a></span> -inn, pay a hearty tribute to a traveller who had -succoured him. “This person was no other than the -philanthropic bookseller in St. Paul’s Churchyard, -who had written so many little books for children: he -called himself their friend, but he was the friend of all -mankind. He was no sooner alighted but he was in -haste to be gone, for he was ever on business of the -utmost importance, and was at that time actually -compiling materials for the history of one, Mr. Thomas -Trip.” Newberry purchased the copyright of the -“Traveller” for twenty guineas, and eventually offered -a hundred guineas for the “Deserted Village,” which -Goldsmith wished to return when he found that he was -receiving payment at the rate of five shillings a line.</p> - -<p>However historically interesting and bibliographically -curious, Newberry’s business, measured in bulk, -was as a molehill to a mountain when compared to -the enormous trade carried on by the largest of our -modern publishers of juvenile literature—perhaps, also -the largest book-manufacturer in the world.</p> - -<p>Thomas Nelson was born at Throsk, a few miles -east of Stirling, in the year 1780, and was brought up -in the very bosom of that strong, stern, unwavering -religious faith, which has so often seemed the fitting -complement to the ruggedness of the Scotch character; -and which, among the other worldly advantages of its -system of training, has often prepared its votaries for -a successful career in business. His father led a quiet, -retired life upon a small farm, not far from the famous -field of Bannockburn, and was so satisfied with the -content of his humble lot, that he repeatedly refused -to take advantage of offered opportunities of making -money, by permitting a pottery to be erected on his -land. In those days, great gatherings of those known<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_401">401</a></span> -as the Covenanters took place in many parts of Scotland, -at the sacramental seasons, and Nelson’s father -thought but little of travelling forty miles in order -that he might enjoy the privilege of the communion -service. Upon the mind of the young lad, who often -accompanied his father, these meetings, all probably -that varied the monotony of a rustic life, made an -indelible impression. When, like many youths of his -time who had their own paths to clear in the world’s -jungle, he resolved to leave Scotland and to seek his -fortunes in the West Indies, his father accompanied -him on the road to Alloa, the place of embarkation, -and during the journey asked him, “Have you ever -thought that in the country to which you are going, -you will be far away from the means of grace?” -“No, father,” replied the son, “I never thought of -that; and I won’t go.” And immediately the scheme -was abandoned, and they retraced their steps homewards.</p> - -<p>When, however, he was about twenty years of age, -young Nelson tore himself from the parental roof, and -went to London, and after passing through all the -difficulties that are so familiar to young lads who have -to fight their own battles unaided, he entered the service -of a publishing house—an event that determined, -doubtless, the course of his after-life. One of his early -associates in business was Thomas Kelly, and, like his -friend, Nelson, while diligent and conscientious in his -daily duties, still found time for intellectual and -religious culture. With a few young Scotchmen, he -established a weekly-fellowship meeting, which was -held every Sunday. One of the association was employed -at the dockyard, during Lord Melville’s administration -at the Admiralty, and lost his situation through<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_402">402</a></span> -his refusal to work on Sundays. Lord Melville, however, -who had often seen him in the dockyard, enquired -the cause of his absence, and on learning the -fact of his dismissal, severely rebuked the officials, -and shortly afterwards advanced him to a higher post.</p> - -<p>In the latter years of Nelson’s residence in London, he -was engaged in obtaining orders for the Stratford Edition -of “Henry’s Bible,” a work issued in shilling parts, to -be bound up in six large folio volumes, which was -held in high repute, and attained a large circulation. -Nelson secured the names of a great number of subscribers, -chiefly in the northern district of London.</p> - -<p>After having thus received the necessary business -training, and acquired the necessary commercial experience, -Nelson determined to make a start upon his -own account, and left London for Edinburgh. Here -at first he rented a small apartment, which he occupied -as a book-warehouse, stocked chiefly with second-hand -books, and from this little establishment he -issued the “Scots Worthies,” and one or two other -works, in monthly parts. In a few years afterwards -he removed to the well-known small shop at the -corner of the West Bow. Here he commenced his -cheap issues in 24mo., of such works as Baxter’s -“Saints’ Rest,” Booth’s “Reign of Grace,” “Mac Ewan -on the Types,” and some of Willison’s works. Indeed, -we have been told, epigrammatically, that Nelson, in -this little corner shop of the West Bow, commencing -with a humble reprint of “The Vicar of Wakefield,” -arrived in time at the more ponderous honour of -“Josephus.” In his early publishing career, he and -Peter Brown, another bookseller engaged in the same -line of business in Edinburgh, were of considerable -service to each other, for though they were not in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_403">403</a></span> -partnership, they contributed jointly to defray the -cost of composing and stereotyping a considerable -number of octavo volumes, comprising the works of -Paley, Leighton, Romaine, Newton, and others. Thus, -half the cost of production was saved to each, while -the stock of each was doubled. These books were -not at first sold through the booksellers, but vacant -shops were opened in the evenings in the large towns, -where single copies were sold by auction, and the -same practice was extended to smaller places, chiefly -on the periodical recurrence of the Scotch fairs. This -innovation, of course, excited a strong feeling of -animosity among the trade, who, for some years, did -their best to thwart the sale of Nelson’s publications. -Indeed, in 1829, when Nelson, encouraged by the success -of his auction sales, engaged Mr. James Macdonald -to travel Scotland regularly, his mission, owing to the -stigma attached to the auction business, was a failure. -At Aberdeen the booksellers rose up in arms, and -only one bookseller, Mr. George King, had the courage -to give Macdonald an order.</p> - -<p>Though opposed in the country, and though for -many years he did not accumulate much capital, yet, -from his well-known and strict integrity, Nelson never -wanted funds to carry out his plans. At the very -time that Macdonald was suffering defeat in each -country town, Nelson was enabled to purchase from a -printer, at a comparatively low price, “Macknight on -the Epistles,” in four volumes, octavo; and the popularity -of that work forced a quick sale throughout the -trade, and gave his business a very considerable -impulse.</p> - -<p>Nelson was still convinced that the only method of -extending his business to any considerable importance,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_404">404</a></span> -was by means of a regular system of travelling, and -Macdonald was succeeded by Mr. Peters, whose success -was considerably greater; but it was not until Mr. -William Nelson, the eldest son of the founder, took to -the road, that the trade business was really consolidated, -not only in Scotland, but also in London and -the chief towns of the united kingdom. In fact, it -may be said, that Mr. William Nelson was the real -builder of the business, working upwards from a -foundation that was certainly narrow and circumscribed. -Mr. Thomas Nelson, the younger brother, -was soon after this admitted to the firm, and undertook -the energetic superintendence of the manufacturing -department, and was the originator of the -extensive series of school-books.</p> - -<p>Johnson of Liverpool used to narrate that he remembered -young Nelson on his first (English) -journey, and that he gave him what Nelson called a -“braw order.” Shortly after this he was, according -to the same authority, joined by Mr. James Campbell, -who left the carpenter’s bench to become a -“bagman,” and was soon the chief assistant in the -firm’s employ.<a id="FNanchor_31" href="#Footnote_31" class="fnanchor">31</a></p> - -<p>Before this, however, the energy displayed by Mr. -William Nelson had thoroughly consolidated the -business, and had entirely dissipated the previous -prejudice excited by the auction sales, the more especially -as the lowest prices were at once fixed to the -trade upon every book issued by the establishment. -Mr. Campbell’s success as a commercial man was -considerable, and by his subsequent energy and integrity -as an agent, at home and in the colonies, the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_405">405</a></span> -demand for Messrs. Nelson and Sons’ books began to -assume a considerable magnitude.</p> - -<p>In 1843, the firm removed their place of business to -Hope Park; we shall refer to this establishment subsequently—and -upon the death of Peter Brown (he -had for some years ceased to co-operate actively with -them), the stereotype plates which had been the joint -property of both firms, became by purchase the -exclusive possessions of Messrs. Nelson, and this gave -them an advantage in the market they did not -formerly possess.</p> - -<p>Even while in London, Nelson had collected the -works of his favourite divines for his private use, and -he now carried out more thoroughly the scheme, -commenced in conjunction with Peter Brown, of publishing -cheap editions of such books that they might -be brought within the easy reach of thousands. Such -cheap issues are now a common feature of the trade, -but he was one of the first Edinburgh booksellers to -introduce the new order of things. The series was very -popular, but still it was by the publication of juvenile -literature that Nelson’s great commercial success was -achieved. The works of this special, and apparently -inexhaustible class were distinguished by a good -moral tendency, purity of diction, and elegance of -production, and were laudably free from sectarian -bias, and extreme opinion. It will, perhaps, suffice -our present purpose to instance, among his many authors, -R. M. Ballantyne, as a favourite with his boyish, -and A. L. O. E. with her girlish, readers. One of -Nelson’s periodicals attained a large circulation; this -was the <cite>Family Treasury</cite>, edited by Dr. Andrew -Cameron, and numbering among its contributors such -writers as Dr. Guthrie, Dr. Vaughan, Dean Trench,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_406">406</a></span> -and Brownlow North; in its columns the charming -“Chronicles of the Schönberg Cotta Family” first -appeared.</p> - -<p>Among the greatest of the more recent triumphs of -the firm in the way of books for children, was the introduction -of coloured illustrations upon a black -background—a striking and emphatic method of -throwing the coloured pictures into strong relief; the -books illustrated upon this principle proved so successful -that a host of imitators adopted the same -method. The firm are also well known as extensive -publishers of a greatly improved series of schoolbooks, -of maps, embracing new and ingenious features, -and of gift and prize books. Latterly, however, they -have entered into a wider and more liberal field, and -their current catalogue embraces works in most departments -of literature.</p> - -<p>For the last five-and-twenty years of his life, Nelson -was more or less of an invalid; though from -1843 to 1850 he enjoyed a kind of respite; but -during this whole period his sons were associated -with him in the business, and during the latter and -greater portion of it, the management devolved entirely -upon them. Thomas Nelson, the founder, died -on March 23rd, 1861, and showed upon his death-bed -the effects of that strong piety to which, since a -child, he had accustomed his mind. When it was -thought proper to announce to him that his end was -near, he received the intelligence with the calmest -equanimity:—“I thought so; my days are wholly in -God’s hands. He doeth all things well. His will be -done!” and then he took up his Testament again, -saying, “Now I must finish my chapter.” He was -buried in the Grange Cemetery, among many Scottish<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_407">407</a></span> -worthies, and lies side by side with Hugh -Miller.</p> - -<p>Thomas Nelson was distinguished not only by his -energy and strict integrity, but by a generous hospitality -of the genuine Scottish type. Even when his -business was of very small dimensions, his old-fashioned -dining-room was generally filled by the -Scottish clergy, when any general meeting brought -them to the metropolis.</p> - -<p>Messrs. William and Thomas Nelson, of course, -continued the business, and we cannot, perhaps, convey -a better idea of the magnitude to which the trade -has in their hands extended than by giving a description -of their establishment in all its branches, and for -this description we are indebted chiefly to Mr. Bremner’s -“Industries of Scotland.”</p> - -<p>Taking printing, publishing, and bookbinding -together, Thomas Nelson and Sons, of Hope Park, -are the most extensive house in Scotland. They -removed to their present establishment a quarter of a -century ago, and were compelled, after a lapse of ten -years, to build a new range of offices far exceeding -anything of the kind in the city of Edinburgh, and -probably unparalleled out of it. The main part of -the building consists of three conjoined blocks, forming -three sides of a square. Part of the surrounding -ground is laid out as an ornamental grass-plot, and -a new machine-room has been recently erected upon -another portion.</p> - -<p>In the main building there are three floors apportioned -to the various branches of the trade. -Machinery is used wherever it is possible, and by its -aid, and by a well-organized system of division of -labour, the number of books manufactured is enormous.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_408">408</a></span> -Everything, from the compilation of a book -to the lettering of its binding, is done upon the premises, -and for the founts of type and the paper alone -are the proprietors indebted to outside help.</p> - -<p>The letterpress department consists of a spacious -composing-room, a splendidly fitted machine-room, a -press-room, and a stereotype foundry. As very large -numbers of the works are issued, they are almost -invariably printed from stereotype plates—a process -said to have been invented by William Ged, a goldsmith -in Edinburgh at the beginning of the last -century; the Dutch, however, with some justice, -claim the discovery for one of their countrymen, a -very long time before this date; at all events, the -process was still almost a novelty when, as we have -seen, Kelly first utilized it in London. In the -machine-room and the press-room there are nineteen -machines and seventeen presses constantly at work. -Here large numbers of children’s books are produced, -and a number of machines are devoted to colour -printing.</p> - -<p>From the machine-room the sheets are taken to the -drying-room, where they are hung up in layers upon -screens, which, when filled, are run into a hot-air -chamber, where the ink is thoroughly dried in six or -eight hours.</p> - -<p>The bookbinding department occupies several -large rooms, and employs two-thirds of all the work-people -engaged. Although machines are provided -for a great variety of operations, a large amount of -hand-labour is found to be indispensable. As soon -as the sheets have been thoroughly dried, they are -folded by young women, as the machine-folding is -only suitable for the coarser kinds of work. After<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_409">409</a></span> -this process, the sheets are arranged by another staff -of girls in the proper order for binding, compressed -in a powerful press, and notches for the binding cords -are cut by a machine. They are then passed on to -the sewers, who sit upon long benches plying their -deft needles.</p> - -<p>The case-makers have by this time prepared the -cases, and in connection with this department there is -a cloth-dyeing and embossing branch, where the cloths -are prepared; the coloured and enamelled papers for -the insides are also made upon the premises. The -case-makers are divided into half-a-dozen different -sections, each of which performs a certain and distinct -portion of the work. The pasteboard and cloth are -first cut to the required size, and then one girl spreads -the glue upon the cloth, a second lays the board upon -its proper place, a third tucks the cloth in all round, a -fourth smoothes off the work, and the covers are now -taken to the embosser, who puts on the ornamental -additions, and finally the books are fixed in the cases, -and sent down to their warehouse, whence they are -despatched to all corners of the world, principally, of -course, to the London and New York branches.</p> - -<p>The lithographic establishment comprises a number -of rooms. Sixteen machines and presses are constantly -engaged, principally in the production of maps, -book illustrations, coloured pictures, and the beautifully-tinted -lithographic views, which Messrs. Nelson -were mainly instrumental in introducing to the notice -of the public. Among the artists employed here in -executing preliminary work are photographers, -draughtsmen, steel, copper, and wood engravers, and -electrotypers. By a process patented by Messrs. -Nelson, in conjunction with Mr. Ramage (to whose<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_410">410</a></span> -services they owe much of the superiority of their -illustrations), a drawing or print may be converted -into an engraving suitable for printing from by the -simple action of light, and these engravings, either for -copper-plate or letter-press printing, may be multiplied -and made larger or smaller at will. The storerooms -are said to contain upwards of fifty thousand -wood-cuts and electrotypes.</p> - -<p>Even the inks and varnishes are manufactured upon -the premises.</p> - -<p>Messrs. Thomas Nelson and Sons employ some -four hundred and fifty work-people in their establishment, -about one-half of whom are young women.</p> - -<p>The whole of Scotland is of course supplied from -the head-quarters in Hope Park; but they have also -large branches in London and New York. The -former—situated in, or rather forming, Warwick Buildings, -at the corner of Paternoster Row—is, though a -branch, as large a bookselling warehouse as any in -London, and in its interior arrangements is unrivalled. -The basement storey is devoted to the stowage of -wholesale stock and the execution of export and -country orders, and over the shop there are four lofty -floors.</p> - -<p>The Scotch have during the century especially cultivated -the trade of printing and bookselling. In the -former branch alone, ten thousand persons are employed -in Scotland, five thousand of whom are engaged -in the capital. In 1860 there were in Edinburgh no -less than thirty firms, who combine the united business -of publishing and bookselling, besides ninety who confine -themselves to bookselling alone. The eight or -nine leading houses, with one exception, print themselves -the books they sell; a practice which is almost<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_411">411</a></span> -indigenous to Edinburgh, or, at all events, does not -obtain in London. The advantage of cheap labour, -which includes, of course, cheap paper, are here so -great, especially in the issue of large editions, as to -more than counteract the drawback in the shape of -transit cost to, and agents’ commission in, London. -We have already entered into the history of several -of these leading Edinburgh houses, and as our space is -growing scanty, we can scarcely now do more than -mention the firm of Oliver and Boyd; and though, -from their long standing and importance, the career -of the house would afford material for an interesting -chapter, we must hope to have an opportunity of recurring -to the subject at a not very distant time. -Formerly Oliver and Boyd enjoyed a very large share -of the Scotch country business, and occupied indeed -much the same position in the northern, as is held by -Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., in the southern, capital. -Of later years, however, their attention has been more -exclusively fixed upon the publication of educational -works, and among the writers whose books have been -issued by them, the names of Spalding, Reid, Morell, -White, and McCulloch, are known to every schoolboy. -“The Edinburgh Academy Class-Books” have -also attained a very wide circulation far beyond the -walls of the Edinburgh Academy; and “Oliver and -Boyd’s Catechisms,” published at the low price of -ninepence each, are used in nearly all elementary -classes where science, in any form, is taught. As a -book of reference for students of every grade, of a -larger growth, <cite>Oliver and Boyd’s Edinburgh Almanac</cite> -is, perhaps, unrivalled for the fulness and yet conciseness -of every branch of official information, at all -essential to the inhabitants of Scotland.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_412">412</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div id="if_i_412" class="figcenter" style="width: 373px;"> - <img id="hdr_14" src="images/i_412.jpg" width="373" height="79" alt="" /></div> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><i>SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, AND CO.</i>:<br /> - -<span class="subhead">COLLECTING FOR THE COUNTRY TRADE.</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">We</span> have, by this time, given historico-biographical -notices of publishers and booksellers, representing -very various phases of the “trade;” but we -have still to show how, in the economy of publishing, -and through an ingenious division of labour, the -smaller booksellers in town, and all the booksellers in -the country and the colonies, are kept constantly supplied -with books and periodicals.</p> - -<p>Before a new book is published, the work is taken -round to the larger houses in the “Row,” and other -parts of London, and “subscribed,” that is the first -price to the trade, and the actual selling price to the -public are quoted, and orders at the former price are -given, according to the purchaser’s faith in the expected -popularity of the work in question.</p> - -<p>The wholesale houses, in their turn, supply all the -country, colonial, and smaller London orders, reaping, -of course, a due advantage from having the volumes -demanded already stowed in their warehouses.</p> - -<p>By far the largest business in this branch of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_413">413</a></span> -trade is executed by the old-established firm of -Simpkin, Marshall, and Company, and though they -by no means confine their attention solely to the commission-paying -business of middlemen—for they are -themselves publishers of educational and other widely-circulating -works—yet their name has long, throughout -the length and breadth of the land, been held -synonymous with this wholesale supply of the requirements -of other houses.</p> - -<p>The real founder of this enormous traffic was, -Benjamin Crosby. The son of a Yorkshire grazier, -he came to London to seek his fortunes, and was -apprenticed to James Nunn, a bookseller in Great -Queen Street. As soon as his indentures had expired, -he obtained a situation under George Robinson—the -“King of the Booksellers”—and, in a few years -after this, succeeded to the business of Mr. Stalker, of -Stationers’ Hall Court. Crosby was one of the first -London booksellers who travelled regularly through -the country, soliciting orders for the purpose of effecting -sales and extending his connections. In a short -time he acquired a pre-eminence as a supplier of the -country houses, and also as one of the largest purchasers -at trade sales, especially when publishers’ -stocks were sold off. The extension of the business -had been very materially assisted by the unremitting -exertions of two assistants—Simpkin and Marshall—and -when, in 1814, he was stricken by a sudden attack -of paralysis, he made over a certain portion of his -stock and the whole of his country connection to -Robert Baldwin, and Cradock and Joy, he left the -remainder, with the premises and the London connection, -to Simpkin and Marshall. Soon after this, a -second attack deprived him of his speech, and for a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_414">414</a></span> -time of his reason, and he died in the following year, -1815.</p> - -<p>Under Simpkin and Marshall, which was now, of -course, the new title of the firm, the business soon -began again to expand, for they retained most of their -London connections, and following Crosby’s example, -attracted the attention of many country clients, whom -they not only supplied with books, but for whose -publications they became the London agents—a business -without speculative risk, and consequently profitable. -For instance, in 1827, an unpretentious little -volume—“Poems by Two Brothers,” having the -modest motto, <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">Hæc nos novimus esse nihil</i>, published -by J. and J. Jackson, Louth, was also stamped with -the imprimatur of Simpkin and Marshall, and thus -they had the signal honour of being Mr. Tennyson’s -first London publishers, though very probably the -honour in this case was greater than the profit.</p> - -<p>In 1828, Simpkin retired, or rather was bought out -of the business by Mr. Miles, who immediately took -the financial management of the whole concern, and -the firm adopted the new title of “Simpkin, Marshall -and Co.” Simpkin, however, did not die until the -25th of December, 1854, and thus enjoyed a long -period of peaceful superannuation.</p> - -<p>The practice of lending their names to the works -published by their country clients, though free from -business venture, was not unattended by legal risk, -for in 1834 they had an action brought against them for -libel, which at the time attracted a very general and -lively interest; though they were indicted solely as -the London agents of <cite>Tait’s Edinburgh Magazine</cite>, in -which a series of articles had appeared, reflecting on -the conduct of Richmond, a man notorious as a spy,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_415">415</a></span> -and who, as an instrument of the Government, had -procured the execution of Hardie and his companion -at Glasgow in the winter of 1819–20. Richmond -laid the damages that his character had sustained at -the absurd figure of five thousand pounds, but Mr. -Serjeant Talfourd, to whom the defence was entrusted, -so thoroughly exposed the antecedents and present -means of livelihood of the plaintiff that before the -trial was over he was absolutely fain to withdraw his -action and elect to be non-suited.</p> - -<p>In 1837 Baldwin and Cradock failed, and handed -over the country connection they had derived from -Crosby, to Simpkin, Marshall and Company. This -occurred on the October “Magazine day” of that year; -for three days and three nights the partners and their -assistants never left the establishment at Stationers’ -Hall Court, and Baldwin’s country clients were so -pleased that they had been spared so much expected -delay and annoyance that one and all resolved to -keep their business in the hands of their new agents; -and with this addition to their trade, the business -relations of Simpkin, Marshall and Company were -now infinitely beyond anything that even Crosby had -before experienced.</p> - -<p>In 1855, Richard Marshall retired from the -business, and consequently, the management of the -concern remained almost entirely in the hands of Mr. -Miles’s two sons. Marshall died at the ripe age of -seventy-five, on the 17th of November, 1863.</p> - -<p>In 1859 the premises were rebuilt and enlarged, -and every possible improvement, to save trouble and -economise time, was introduced into the new establishment. -Among the gentlemen who had been employed -in the old warehouse was Mr. F. Laurie, a barrister-at-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_416">416</a></span>law, -who afterwards served in the printed-book -department of the British Museum, and who was -widely known as the author of a “Life of Henry -Fielding,” and as a frequent contributor to periodical -literature. As none of the country booksellers have -more than one London agent, by him they are -supplied with the books and periodicals of all the -London publishers, an arrangement that saves an -infinity of trouble, expense and delay. A century -ago, in the days of small things, the agent made himself -useful to the provincial bookseller in many other -ways than in the mere supplying of publications. In -many cases he was expected to forward the newspapers, -but other and stranger commissions often fell -to his lot. A great wholesale house in London at -the present day would be rather surprised to receive -the following orders, which, however, all occur in a -bookseller’s records late in the eighteenth century:—“1 -sliding Gunter from some of the instrument -makers;” “two-eighth share of lottery-tickets;” “1 oz. -of Maker’s Cobalt, as advertized on the cover of the -<cite>Gentleman’s Magazine</cite>;” or a direction “to please -and send on Saturday, and pay Mr. Barratt, Parliament -Place, Palace Yard, Westminster, £1 0<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i>, -King’s Rent, due 10th of October last, for the -Vicarage of Holy Cross, Shrewsbury.”</p> - -<p>We cannot, perhaps, convey a better idea of the -manner in which business is conducted by these -wholesale houses in the “Row,” than by giving a -description of “Magazine day,”—by far the busiest -time in each month. Very quiet is Paternoster Row -generally, and its solitude is broken only by the -fitful and fleeting appearance of publishers, their -agents, and literary men—the latter, as a rule, in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_417">417</a></span> -clerical costume, with white neckties which betray -their avocation as lying in “the religious publication -line of business;” while its silence is broken by some -venturous barrel-organ player, or by an old blind -fiddler, whose music is appreciated and encouraged -by the young shop-boys, lurking behind each alley -corner to enjoy the furtive pipe. But on “Magazine -day” all this is changed, the street is now a struggling -scene of bustle and confusion; now every house is in -a thrill of agitation from the garret to the cellar, and -now every business nerve is strained. Owing to the inconvenient -innovation of magazine proprietors, in publishing -their periodicals on different days, “Magazine -day” has lost much of its pristine glory, but even now -the work commences on the eve of the chief day of publication, -which is known consequently as “late night,” -for the assistants are generally kept busily engaged -till twelve or one o’clock. By the morning’s post of -this preceding day the country orders arrive, and the -invoices have to be made out from the lists received. -Every regular customer has his allotted pigeon-hole, -into which the invoices are put as soon as copied, -together with such of the books he has ordered as are -on the premises; for the majority of the smaller -country booksellers take advantage of their monthly -parcels, and to save expense of frequent railway -carriage, include also in their orders such recent -books as they may require. Early in the morning, or -sometimes on the night before, the magazines arrive, -and it is on this morning that the real work begins, -for though as large a stock of current literature is -kept in each warehouse as is possible, there are still -many publishers to be sent to. While the assistants -are busily engaged sorting out the books, and supplying<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_418">418</a></span> -each order with the works they have in hand, the -“collectors” are furnished with lists of the books -required from other houses. The “collector” is by -no means an unimportant person in a publisher’s -establishment; though “seedy” in attire and suspicious -in general appearance, he is entrusted with large -sums of money, for the cheaper publications are all -paid for in ready cash. Bag in hand he rushes in hot -haste all over London, and with an impudent tongue -and a pair of brawny shoulders, thrusts himself to -the front place before each publisher’s counter. As -we listen for a moment to the reply he receives as to -the price of a cheap periodical, we may gain an insight -into the middleman’s system of profit. “Sixes are -fours and twelves are thirteens!” yells the shop-boy, -the which being interpreted means that the wholesale -price of the sixpenny periodical in question is -fourpence, and that thirteen copies go to the dozen.</p> - -<p>The bustle at each establishment is, of course, -greatly increased by the fact that each house has to -supply the wants of others, as well as to satisfy its -own—all the counters of the wholesale booksellers -being filled with screeching collectors, with greedily-gaping -bags. Early in the afternoon, however, the -collectors return, and now the books, magazines, and -invoices are carried into the packing department, and -such works as could not be obtained are written off -as “out of print,” &c. Packing is an art not easily -acquired, and necessitates the patient and skilful use -of much brown paper, and, in many houses, of paper-pulp -stereo-moulds, by way of stiffening. The -smaller parcels are finished first, and as soon as all -are ready for removal the carriers’ carts and vans -arrive; all entering the Row in regular order from<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_419">419</a></span> -the Ludgate Hill end, and leaving it in the direction -of Cheapside. By the time that peace and quietude -are restored to the neighbourhood, some two and a -half millions of volumes and periodicals (Simpkin, -Marshall and Company alone having probably -despatched from six to eight hundred different -parcels) are flying from London to all parts of the -kingdom—to be greedily devoured and depreciatingly -criticised on the morrow.</p> - -<p>Not the least profitable portion of the business -done by Simpkin, Marshall and Company lies in their -Colonial trade, for in this branch, in common with -other houses, they insist upon ready money payments, -and consequently all bad and doubtful debts are -avoided.</p> - -<p>Besides holding many valuable copyrights in educational -works, and publishing to a large extent upon -commission, they, as we have previously shown, are -the London agents for all works published by their -country clients. Nothing, perhaps, is more curious -among modern “literary curiosities” than the sudden -and unparalleled popularity of a small pamphlet -entitled “Dame Europa’s School,” written in a style -and manner not unfamiliar to us in Swift’s inimitable -“Tale of a Tub;” witty, certainly, and undeniably -apropos to the times, this clever skit was taken by -its author, Mr. Pullen, a minor canon of Salisbury -Cathedral, through the usual round of the London -publishers, and, as usual with pamphlets, they one -and all declined even to read the manuscript. Mr. -Pullen, in despair, gave it to Mr. Brown, a bookseller -of Salisbury, to publish on commission—that is, the -author undertook all the risk, and the publisher -charged merely a certain percentage on the sales—and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_420">420</a></span> -limited the amount that was to be spent in advertising -to two or three pounds. As Simpkin, Marshall -and Company were Mr. Brown’s London agents, the -metropolitan sale was entrusted to their care. Without -any further trouble or expenditure, the little -venture was launched, and in something like a week -had created such a <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">furore</i> that the printing had to be -transferred to London, and Mr. Pullen is stated to -have cleared a handsome sum from the extraordinary -sale of his pamphlet, and the commissions gathered by -the London and the country publishers were certainly -unprecedented in connection with a little venture of this -description. The London booksellers to whom it had -been offered now began to bestir themselves, and in a -few weeks there were no less than seven-and-thirty -imitations of “Dame Europa’s School” in the field, -more than one of which are said to have been written -by very high dignitaries of the Church. All of these -have, however, already disappeared from circulation, -though it seems probable that the marvellously clever -illustrations to the original “Dame Europa’s School,” -by Mr. Nast, one of the few really humorous artists -that America has produced, will preserve it for a time -from the usual fate of ephemeral literature.</p> - -<div id="if_i_420" class="figcenter" style="width: 93px;"> - <img src="images/i_420.jpg" width="93" height="115" alt="" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_421">421</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div id="if_i_421" class="figcenter" style="width: 358px;"> - <img id="hdr_15" src="images/i_421.jpg" width="358" height="83" alt="" /></div> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><i>CHARLES EDWARD MUDIE</i>:<br /> - -<span class="subhead">THE LENDING LIBRARY.</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap al"><span class="smcap1">Leaving</span> for a while the publishers and vendors -of books, we come now to the truest disseminators -of literature among those who would otherwise -have formed a non-reading, non-thinking, untaught -class in the community—a class who, originally at all -events, were shut out from the inheritance of the -precious garnerings bequeathed by long generations -of writers having aught of genius, wit, or industry to -leave behind—for they were debarred from all enjoyment -of such heritage through their sheer inability to -pay the literary legacy duty demanded by the appointed -tax-gatherers, the booksellers.</p> - -<p>In former times, of course, the very capability to -read was confined to the student, and to the poor -student especially were the early circulating libraries -addressed. The first circulating library of which we -have any authentic history—for most history is much -other than authentic—was, according to Dr. Adam -Clarke and other eminent antiquarians, founded at<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_422">422</a></span> -Cæsarea about the year 309 <span class="smcap smaller">A.D.</span>, by St. Pamphilus, -who united in his character the best attributes of the -Christian and the philosopher. In a few years the -library contained upwards of 30,000 volumes, an -enormous number, considering the age at which it -existed. The collection was, however, intended only -for religious purposes, and the loan of the books was -distinctly confined to “religiously disposed persons.” -At Paris and elsewhere traces of this collection are -still said to exist.</p> - -<p>In the middle ages, the practice of lending out -books, or exchanging them between monastery and -monastery, was not uncommon, and by the early -stationers of Paris the manuscripts were cut up into -small portions (much as the present librarian’s novel -requires to be divided into three volumes), to the -greater profit of the lenders; but we come to very -modern times before we find that circulating libraries, -in the modern acceptation of the term, were established.</p> - -<p>The first circulating library in London was founded -by Wright, a bookseller of 132, Strand, about the year -1730. Franklin, writing of a time some five years -previous to this, says:—“While I lodged in Little -Britain, I formed an acquaintance with a bookseller of -the name of Wilcox, whose shop was next door to -me. <em>Circulating libraries were not then in use.</em> We -agreed that for a reasonable retribution, of which I -have forgotten the price, I should have free access to -his library, and take what books I pleased, which I -was to return when I had read them.” Among -Wright’s earliest rivals were the Nobles, John Bell -(the cheap publisher), Thomas Lowndes, and notably -Samuel Bathoe, who died in 1768, and to whom,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_423">423</a></span> -erroneously, the credit of the innovation has been -very generally attributed. As late, however, as 1770, -there were only four real circulating libraries in the -capital.</p> - -<p>The practice soon spread through the country. -Shortly after Wright’s death, Hatton established a -circulating library at Birmingham. In 1745, Watts -introduced a circulating library into Cambridge, -greatly extended afterwards by John Nicholson, -known by the <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">sobriquet</i> of “Maps,” who used to -carry a sack of books to each undergraduate’s rooms, -in case they felt a sudden inclination for reading -something newer than Homer, Xenophon, or Euclid. -By the year 1755 we find that circulating libraries had -extended to the extreme north of England, for Newcastle -then boasted the possession of two.</p> - -<p>Though the custom was rapidly obtaining in town -and country, the books lent out to read were generally -very similar in title to those in the famous list in the -“Rivals,” which caused Sir Anthony Absolute’s condemnation—“A -circulating library in a town is an -evergreen tree of diabolical knowledge; it blossoms -throughout the year. And depend on it, that they -who are so fond of handling the leaves will long for -the fruit at last.” We have still only to go to our -little country towns and petty watering-places—few -now, fortunately, still beyond the arm of “Smith” -or “Mudie”—to see the circulating library in its -pristine form.</p> - -<p>At first the benefits that must inevitably accrue -from the movement to the publishers as well as to the -public were by no means recognized. Lackington -tells us that “when the circulating libraries were first -opened the booksellers were most alarmed, but<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_424">424</a></span> -experience has proved that the sale of books, so far -from being diminished thereby, has been most greatly -increased.”</p> - -<p>Under the care of Hookham and Eber, these circulating -libraries did undoubtedly improve, for the -proprietors now began to consider the wants of -students as well as the idle pleasure of loungers who -thought with Gray that the acmé of human happiness -consisted in lying upon a sofa reading the latest -licentious novelties of Crébillon <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">fils</i> and his genus. -The movement was further accelerated by the foundation -of book-clubs, the first of which is said to have -sprung out of Burn’s “Bachelor’s Club.” For forty -or fifty years these book-clubs did good service in the -cause of education and progress, especially under the -fostering care of Mr. Charles Knight and the Society -for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge; but soon an -organizing genius arose who was not only to render -book-clubs, save those affiliated to his own, unnecessary, -but was to develop the full power of co-operation -in the circulating library itself. And his advent -was favoured by a wonderfully extended system of -transport through the agency of the railways.</p> - -<p>Charles Edward Mudie was born in the year 1818, -in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, where his father kept a -little newspaper shop, at which stationery and other -articles were retailed, and where books of the fugitive -fiction class could be borrowed at the usual suburban -charge of a penny the volume.</p> - -<div id="if_i_424" class="figcenter" style="width: 406px;"> - <img src="images/i_424.jpg" width="406" height="528" alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Charles Edward Mudie, founder of Mudie’s Library.</div></div> - -<p>Mr. Mudie’s education was, as he says, “properly -cared for,” and he stayed at home assisting in his -father’s business until he was twenty-two years of age; -and even in his early days he made it his great ambition -to possess a circulating library of his own, declaring<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_425">425</a></span> -that when once he was started he would be second -to none.</p> - -<p>In the year 1840, he opened a little shop in Upper -King Street, Bloomsbury, and he carried on precisely -the same trade as his father did in Cheyne Walk. -By degrees, however, he neglected the newspaper and -general stationery business, and devoted himself more -exclusively to the circulating library, which he increased -at such a rapid rate that the father became -alarmed at the speculative spirit of his son. In 1842, -Mr. Mudie commenced his system of lending out one -exchangeable volume to subscribers at the rate of -a guinea per annum; and as he made the addition of -every new work, immediately upon its publication, a -feature in his establishment, he produced an entire -revolution in the circulating library movement, and -was rewarded by a rapidly increasing number of subscribers. -Nor did he at this early period confine his -dealings solely to circulating the books of other publishers. -He was himself in some instances a publisher, -and from his establishment issued the first English -edition of James R. Lowell’s “Poems,” and Mr. George -Dawson’s first “Orations.”</p> - -<p>In 1852 the library had grown too large for the -house in Upper King Street, and he removed his -business to two houses which form part of his present -establishment—the penultimate house in New Oxford -Street, and the penultimate house in Museum Street; -and though the corner house intervened, the two were -connected by a passage. Gradually, as the business -grew, the houses on either side were absorbed. In -1860 the large hall was opened, and inaugurated by a -festive gathering of literary men and publishers; and -the entire block of building, as it stands at present,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_426">426</a></span> -occupies the sites of eight houses, and even now great -additions are being made to the rear of the premises. -As the popularity of the library increased, branch -houses were opened in the city, in Birmingham and -Manchester, and arrangements were made with literary -institutions, provincial libraries, book-clubs, and societies.</p> - -<p>The magnitude of the business had, however, now -grown beyond the limit of individual capital, and, in -1864, Mr. Mudie found it desirable to form his library -into a limited liability company. The value of -the property was estimated at £100,000; of this he -reserved £50,000, and the remaining £50,000 was -immediately subscribed by Mr. Murray, Mr. Bentley, -and other publishers; Mr. Mudie’s services being, -naturally, retained at a salary of £1,000 per annum, -in addition to his half interest in the business.</p> - -<p>This change, and the increase of capital, proved in -every way beneficial to the expansion of the library; -and since penning this account we have received a -circular announcing an enormous increase of business. -From the 18th August, 1871, the Directors of -Mudie’s Select Library (Limited) became possessors -of the English and Foreign Library and its large -connection. This library, which was originally known -as “Hookham’s,” at one time possessed one of the -finest collections of rare and valuable standard works -in London.</p> - -<p>On entering Mudie’s Select Library, from New -Oxford Street, we pass through the show-rooms devoted -to the sale of bound books; for though the directors do -not enter into the usual speculations of the bookselling -trade, the clean copies of popular works are put into -ornamental bindings, and in this manner a very<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_427">427</a></span> -extensive business is done in works adapted for -presents and prizes. Behind these show-rooms stands -the Great Hall, a large room, on the wall of which -16,000 of the current works most in vogue are -shelved. What most strikes us here is the great -order and method that everywhere obtains. The -volumes are arranged in alphabetical order, and every -attendant goes straight to the required book, without -hesitation or delay. For each London customer a -card is reserved bearing his name, and these cards -are kept, like the books, in an alphabetical system. -The books taken out are entered on the card, the -books brought back ticked off, and the method is -found to be as successful as it certainly is simple. -The longer lists of large and country subscribers are -still, however, entered in the ledgers. Proceeding -upstairs to the first floor, we find books, still current, -but not quite so incessantly called for. On the first -floor, too, we have the private offices for clerks, and -the foreign department. Mudie’s collection of German -works is the best of any of the London circulating -libraries, and the German books are said to be much -more earnestly read than the French, occasional and -popular novels, of course, excepted. On the higher -floors the standard catalogued works are stowed, their -popularity diminishing as the altitude of their resting -place increases. As soon as a book is published in a -shilling or other cheap edition, it ceases to be much -demanded here. For instance, Lord Lytton’s novels -are in very little request. On the contrary, we were -told that no sets of books are so rapidly “worn out” -as the works of Charles Dickens.</p> - -<p>The stock of books is so incessantly varying -through the sale of old and the purchase of new<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_428">428</a></span> -volumes, that we were told that it was impossible to -give anything like an estimate of the numbers. Some -idea of the magnitude of the library may, however, be -gathered from the <span class="locked">following:—</span></p> - -<p>Of the last two volumes of Macaulay’s “History of -England,” 2400 copies were taken, and the public -demand for them was so extraordinary that a whole -shop, now the large room on the left as one enters, -was devoted to their stowage and exchange. There -were taken, of Dr. Livingstone’s first African Travels, -2000 copies; and of Mr. Tennyson’s “Enoch Arden,” -2500 (the largest number required of any poetical -work); of Mr. Disraeli’s “Lothair” 1500 copies were -at first subscribed, but it was soon found necessary to -increase the number to 3000. The demand was, -however, as brief as it was eager, and the monumental -pile of “remainders” in Mr. Mudie’s cellar is the -largest that has ever been erected there to the hydra -of ephemeral admiration. About 600 copies of each -of the two great reviews—the <cite>Edinburgh</cite> and <cite>Quarterly</cite>—are -required as a first instalment; but should any -article prove more than usually attractive to the -public, a large addition is made—this was notably -the case with that number of the <cite>Quarterly</cite> containing -the famous article on the “Talmud;” 100 copies of -the <cite xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">Revue des Deux Mondes</cite> are required fortnightly -to satisfy foreign students; and we believe that, of all -novels which are likely to prove ordinarily popular, -as many as 400 are at once ordered. The onus of -selecting the books rests entirely in Mr. Mudie’s own -hands, and it has often been objected that his decisions -are somewhat arbitrary;—for instance Mr. -Swinburne is tabooed, while M. Paul de Koch is made -free of the establishment—that, in short, the subscribers<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_429">429</a></span> -should be considered as responsible judges of what -books they do, and do not, desire to read. However, -as it is, Mr. Mudie’s principles of selection are broad -enough to satisfy very various classes of readers. Of -course the largest class of all are the novel-devourers, -and it is said that, as the coarser novels of the day -are almost exclusively written by women, so it is by -women that they are chiefly patronised. The large -field opened to female labour in the manufacture of -library fiction is worth a moment’s consideration, for -the road has been cleared towards it, not by platform -gatherings of stentorian amazons, but simply by the -ordinary laws of supply and demand.</p> - -<p>On analysing Mudie’s clearance catalogue for -August, 1871 (and this catalogue is one of the best -guides to the popular novel literature of the last few -years), we find that there are 441 works of fiction -written by authors under their own names, or by -authors whose pseudonymes are perfectly well known. -Of these 441 distinct works, 212 are written by men, -and 229 by women; so that, by what seems to us a -not unfair test, actually more than half the novels of -the day are written by female authors. To another -large class of readers (the good people who go to Mr. -and Mrs. German Reed’s entertainments, and not to -the theatre), the ordinary novels are <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">caviare</i>; and -they require their fiction seasoned, not by sensation, -but by religious precept. Scientific books, once -asked for only by students, are vastly increasing in -popularity; and the “fairy tales of science,” as -narrated by a Huxley or a Darwin, are beginning -to be as eagerly demanded as the latest productions -of Miss Braddon or Mr. Wilkie Collins.</p> - -<p>In the basement cellars, extending under the whole<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_430">430</a></span> -building, the “remainders” are stowed in huge bales, -ready for sale or export. These are principally purchased -by the country circulating libraries, and by -shippers to the colonies and British possessions; and -thus the name of Mudie—and the well-known yellow -label, familiar in every English household—is carried -wherever the English tongue is spoken.</p> - -<p>About eighty assistants are employed in the central -house alone, without reckoning those engaged in the -city and the country branches. The system of leaving -books at the subscribers’ own homes, recently introduced, -is becoming more and more popular: five vans -go out daily on their respective rounds, and 8000 calls -are generally made in the course of the week.</p> - -<p>Mr. Mudie’s services as a public benefactor in the -cause of extended education, were some years since -publicly recognized by the ratepayers of Westminster, -in his election to the London School Board; and it is -to be hoped that his knowledge of the practical use of -the boon conferred upon the higher classes by the increased -facilities of book-hiring, may lead him to urge -upon his colleagues the advisability of establishing -free circulating libraries for the use of those whose -educational guardians they have recently become. -The gift of tools is of very little moment to any one, -if there is to be no occasion for their use; and in many -instances it will be an absolute cruelty to teach children -to read, and then to hurl them back on the atrocious -literature of slum shops. At present, the fact that -London is still without any pretence to a free circulating -library, or indeed to an absolutely free library -of any kind, is doubly disgraceful to our pachydermatous -local authorities, because several provincial towns -have shamed us by a good example. When the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_431">431</a></span> -schoolmaster first began to bestir himself abroad in -England, a taste for reading was encouraged, which -soon spread in every direction, and by degrees a loud -demand, satisfied at present only in a very limited -degree, began to make itself heard for the establishment -of free libraries.</p> - -<p>In 1845, Mr. William Ewart succeeded in passing a -bill through the House to encourage the establishment -of museums, and, legally intended, to include also -libraries. By this act the local authorities, in towns -with a population exceeding 10,000, possessed the -power of levying a halfpenny rate for this purpose; -and the sum so raised was to be spent in providing -buildings, and in paying the expenses of conservation, -not of accumulation. At this time, an official inquiry -shows us that Manchester, with a population of -360,000 persons, was the only town in the kingdom -which possessed a perfectly free library—this was the -Chetham <em>Endowed</em> Library (said to be the oldest in -Europe), which consisted of only 19,000 volumes. -A further act was passed in 1850, distinctly referring -to libraries, under the title of the “Public Library and -Museum Act,” by the provisions of which a majority -of the ratepayers, at any properly summoned meeting, -can levy a halfpenny in the pound for the establishment -of free libraries.</p> - -<p>In 1852, chiefly owing to the exertions of the late -Sir John Potter, the Manchester Free Library was -opened, and is supported by the ratepayers. Since -that time, four additional free lending libraries, with -newspaper-rooms attached, have been affiliated to it. -In 1869 the main library contained upwards of 84,000 -volumes. A guarantee from any householder is all that -is required by those wishing to partake of the benefits -of the Manchester libraries.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_432">432</a></span> -The Liverpool Library, the best used of all these -institutions, was founded chiefly through the munificence -of Mr. William Brown, who, at its opening in -1860, was created a baronet. It consists of a reference -and two lending libraries, and in 1867, though there -were only 45,668 volumes in the reference library, the -daily issue of books actually averaged 2041.</p> - -<p>At Bebbington, a suburb of Liverpool, or, more -justly, of Birkenhead, a very excellent free circulating -library has been established by Mr. Meyer, the eminent -goldsmith and antiquarian, and its advantages -are duly appreciated by the residents for miles around.</p> - -<p>At Birmingham there are five different libraries -and reading-rooms, containing, in all, 52,269 volumes. -In 1869, 300,031 volumes were borrowed by 9688 -persons, of whom no fewer than 5607 were under -twenty years of age.</p> - -<p>The “lending library” at all these towns appears -to be of a more popular character than the “reference -library,” though both are essential.</p> - -<p>After this short survey, it does indeed seem disgraceful -to the London authorities that now, when -the State is absolutely preparing its weapons to battle -with Ignorance, when Education is to be made possible -to all, patent to all, Mr. Mudie should be allowed, -unrivalled, to supply so admirably the literary wants -of the wealthy, and that the poor should be refused -the cheapest and most remunerative of all boons—a -free opportunity of gaining knowledge.</p> - -<div id="if_i_432" class="figcenter" style="width: 143px;"> - <img src="images/i_432.jpg" width="143" height="52" alt="" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_433">433</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div id="if_i_433" class="figcenter" style="width: 358px;"> - <img id="hdr_16" src="images/i_433.jpg" width="358" height="83" alt="" /></div> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><i>W. H. SMITH AND SON</i>:<br /> - -<span class="subhead">RAILWAY LITERATURE.</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">W. H. Smith</span>, the originator of the enormous -traffic in the sale and loan of books, and in -the sale of newspapers and periodicals, in connection -with our extended railway system, was born on the -7th of July, 1792. As he was, from early years, intended -for entirely different pursuits from that which -he eventually followed, he cannot be said to have -received a special business training. While still a -boy, family circumstances rendered it desirable that -he should take the control of a small newspaper -establishment at the West End of London, and though -his inclinations were decidedly opposed to a petty -trade of this nature, he made duty paramount to -likings or dislikings, and gave all his attention to his -business. In a short time he was able to move to a -larger shop in the Strand, and here he added the sale -of stationery to the newspaper traffic. At that time -the mails were conveyed from London by coaches -leaving at night only, so that the morning papers -could not be received in Liverpool or Manchester -until forty-eight hours after publication. Smith now<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_434">434</a></span> -conceived the idea of forwarding the newspapers by -express parcels by the coaches leaving London in the -morning, and as these coaches generally left before -the delivery of the morning papers, he kept a relay of -swift, long-legged horses, which started as soon as the -papers came to hand, and caught up the coaches -where they could. By this means he actually secured -the delivery of the news in the large Northern towns -four-and-twenty hours in advance of the mail. For some -years the returns from this business were altogether inadequate -to the cost and trouble incurred, and many men -would have abandoned so desperate an enterprise, but -Smith had faith in the scheme, and his perseverance -was rewarded by the largest newspaper business in -Europe. His attention was almost entirely given to -the newspaper branch of his trade, and after a time -everything else gave way to it.</p> - -<p>When railways first began to supersede coaches, -Smith at once availed himself of the new facilities thus -afforded in the transit of his newspapers. Up to 1848 -no systematic arrangements had been made to supply -passengers at the stations with either papers or books. -The privilege of satisfying public requirements had -not been regarded as possessing any value, and the -only idea those who had the right of selling books -there put into actual execution was to avoid all risk -whatsoever in providing for their possible customers. -The result was, of course, very far from satisfactory, -and it occurred to Smith, in 1848, to tender for the -exclusive right of vending books and papers on the -Birmingham Railway. The general satisfaction which -this innovation afforded, induced the Directors of -other companies to open the way to similar arrangements, -and thus the newspaper trade of W. H. Smith<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_435">435</a></span> -and Son (for he had by this time taken his son into -partnership), was established at almost every station -of importance in the kingdom; but the original cost -of organization was enormous, and two or three years -elapsed before any actual profit was realised.</p> - -<p>Soon, of course, at the railway stalls, books as well -as papers were vended, and the special requirements -of passengers called into being several cheap series of -light works of fiction, calculated to while away the -tedium of a railway journey. By degrees, too, a -circulating library was formed and extended, and, as -Smith and Son possessed unparalleled advantages in -the way of cheap transit of goods, and in their -already-established branches, extending throughout -the kingdom wherever the iron horse had previously -cleared the way, they were able to supplement -Mudie’s Library most efficiently.</p> - -<p>In 1852 W. H. Smith, senior, first felt the symptoms -of a diseased heart, and in 1854 he retired from business -altogether, spending the remainder of his days at -his country residence at Bournemouth, and here he -died on the 28th of July, 1855.</p> - -<p>Upon Mr. W. H. Smith, son of the founder, the -business now devolved, and, while extending its ramifications -in all directions, he found time and opportunity -to embrace a career of more general utility. -Elected by the householders of Westminster as a -member of the House of Commons, to the exclusion -of Mr. J. S. Mill, he has won the good opinions of all -parties by the active part he has always taken in -Metropolitan matters, and by the staunchness with -which he has defended the privileges of London -citizens. The confidence of the public was again -expressed in his favour when he was chosen a member<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_436">436</a></span> -of the School Board for London. It is understood -that of late years a great part of the management of -the business establishment has devolved upon Mr. -Lethbridge, the junior member of the firm.</p> - -<p>As we have already, in our chapter on Mr. Mudie, -devoted ourselves especially to the circulating library, -we will endeavour here to give only a short account -of the newspaper business of W. H. Smith and Son.</p> - -<p>If we walk down the Strand at four o’clock in the -morning, we find the whole street deserted and dull -until we reach a row of red carts, bearing the name -of the firm. When, however, we enter the establishment -by which they are waiting, all is business and -bustle. The interior of the large building is, in shape, -not unlike a bee-hive; the ground-floor forms, as it -were, the pit, and the two galleries the boxes, of a -theatre. In these galleries nearly two hundred men -and boys are already busy folding papers.</p> - -<p>At five o’clock the “dailies” begin to arrive, and the -advent of the <cite>Times</cite> is hailed with a consternation of -enthusiasm. The huge bundles are fiercely attacked, -and folded off in a shorter time than one could -imagine possible; and then the <cite>Telegraph</cite>, <cite>Daily -News</cite>, and <cite>Standard</cite> are assaulted. As soon as the -folding has been partially completed, a portion of the -assistants are told off to make the proper assortment -for each country place, and each packer has now a -boy to wait upon him, who shouts out his individual -wants.</p> - -<p>At the door the carts are waiting ready to drive off -with the parcels to the different railway termini, and -by about a quarter to six all the first trains out of -London are supplied, and in less than two hours the -whole kingdom has been fed with morning newspapers,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_437">437</a></span> -including between 20,000 and 30,000 copies -of the <cite>Times</cite>.</p> - -<p>This scene occurs every week-day morning, but on -Friday afternoon, on the arrival of the weekly papers, -the bustle of business is even greater, and the parcels -(those for the post only) are removed by fourteen -vans sent from the General Post Office.</p> - -<p>In connection with the “Railway Libraries,” it may -be interesting to learn something of the publisher who -has identified them with his business. Mr. George -Routledge is a native of Cumberland—a county, -perhaps, as much as any other, famous for the commercial -success of its natives—who, after serving his -apprenticeship at Carlisle, came up to London, and -obtained employment in the house of Baldwin and -Craddock. Soon, however, he opened a little shop of -his own in Ryder’s Court, Leicester Square, for the -sale of cheap and second-hand books. Here, however, -at first he had much spare time on his hands, -and he managed to procure a subordinate position in -the Tithe Office. The work was not heavy, and the -extra salary enabled him to increase his legitimate -business. During the holiday time granted him by -the Office, he made two or three journeys of exploration -into the country, and found that a wide field -existed there for a venturous and indomitable bookseller. -Accordingly, he set to work to buy remainders, -and having by degrees established agencies in the -country, the young and almost unknown bookseller of -Ryder’s Court was able to compete in the auction-rooms, -and generally with success, against Mr. Bohn -and other influential members of the trade—much to -their astonishment, and not a little to their consternation. -It was now time to give up the aid of the Tithe Office,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_438">438</a></span> -and in 1845 Mr. Routledge moved to larger premises -in Soho Square, and in 1848 Mr. William Warne, his -brother-in-law, and for long his assistant, was admitted -into partnership, being joined by Mr. F. Warne, three -years later, when the firm moved again to Farringdon -Street.</p> - -<p>While at Soho Square, the publications of Messrs. -Routledge and Warne had consisted chiefly of reprints, -and here the remainder trade had been vastly extended, -but now they began to enter into direct -dealings with noted authors on a scale that fully -equalled the transactions of the first publishing -firms. Perhaps the boldest of their early ventures -was the offer of £20,000 to Sir E. Bulwer Lytton for -the right of issuing a cheap series of his works for the -term of ten years, from 1853–1863. In spite of the -enormous outlay they were very willing, on the expiry -of the time, to take a fresh lease of the popular -volumes; so that an offer originally deemed by the -trade to be Quixotic, if not ruinous, must have reaped -the success that its liberality and boldness deserved; -and by their association with Sir E. Bulwer Lytton, a -great <em>prestige</em> was at once acquired. Similar arrangements -were made with other distinguished novelists, -nearly all of whom we have met before in our previous -article on Colburn—Mr. G. P. R. James, Mr. -Disraeli, Mr. Harrison Ainsworth, and Mr. Howard -Russell; while these successful re-issues were quickly -followed by the publication of original works by -Mayne Reed, Grant, and others, and by the first -English edition of many of Prescott’s and Longfellow’s -productions.</p> - -<p>The various popular series known as the “Railway -Library,” the “Popular Library,” &c., comprising<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_439">439</a></span> -many hundred volumes of standard works, afforded -the chief business at Smith’s bookstalls, and were, -through Mr. Routledge’s complete network of agents -and connections, scattered broadcast over the country. -Among the first books they brought out at a shilling -were the works of Fenimore Cooper, Captain -Marryat, Washington Irving, and Mrs. Stowe. Of -“Uncle Tom’s Cabin” half-a-million copies are said -to have been sold. Of Russell’s “Narrative of the -Crimean War,” 20,000; of Soyer’s “Shilling Cookery,” -250,000; and of “Rarey on Horse Training,” 150,000 -copies were disposed of in a very few weeks. As -an example of the energy and enterprise of the firm, -it is stated that when the copy of “Queechy” was -received upon one Monday morning, it was at once -placed in the printer’s hands; on Thursday the sheets -were at the binder’s, and on the Monday following -20,000 copies had been disposed of to the trade.</p> - -<p>Besides these cheap works, Mr. Routledge has issued -a multitude of more expensive volumes, illustrated by -the best artists, and “got up” in the most luxurious -styles. Among these it will be enough here to mention -his numerous Shakespeares, Wood’s “Natural History” -and Wood’s “Natural History of Man,” and -Routledge’s “English Poets.” How extensive the -Fine Art business of the firm must have been may be -gathered from the fact that before 1855 they had -paid one engraving house—the Messrs. Dalziel -Brothers—upwards of £50,000.</p> - -<p>In 1854, Mr. Routledge established a branch house -at New York, and in 1865, Mr. F. Warne—his brother -had previously died—on the termination of the partnership, -established a fresh business in Bedford Street, -Covent Garden. With his two sons—Mr. Robert and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_440">440</a></span> -Mr. Edmund Routledge—the founder now carries on -the business at Broadway, Ludgate Hill, having -removed thither when the railway improvements took -place in Farringdon Street.</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p><span class="smcap">Note.</span>—For these statistics and much of our sketch we are indebted -to a writer in the <cite>Bookseller</cite>, who “obtained the information from trustworthy -sources.”</p></blockquote> - -<div id="if_i_440" class="figcenter" style="width: 129px;"> - <img src="images/i_440.jpg" width="129" height="143" alt="" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_441">441</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div id="if_i_441" class="figcenter" style="width: 357px;"> - <img id="hdr_17" src="images/i_441.jpg" width="357" height="75" alt="" /></div> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><i>PROVINCIAL BOOKSELLERS.</i></h2> -</div> - -<blockquote> - -<p><i>York</i>: <i>Gent and Burdekin.</i></p> - -<p><i>Newcastle</i>: <i>Goading, Bryson, Bewick, and Charnley.</i></p> - -<p><i>Glasgow</i>: <i>Fowlis and Collins.</i></p> - -<p><i>Liverpool</i>: <i>Johnson.</i></p> - -<p><i>Dublin</i>: <i>Duffy.</i></p> - -<p><i>Derby</i>: <i>Mozley, Richardson, and Bemrose.</i></p> - -<p><i>Manchester</i>: <i>Harrop, Barker, Timperley, and the -Heywoods.</i></p> - -<p><i>Birmingham</i>: <i>Hutton, Baskerville, and “The Educational -Trading Co.”</i></p> - -<p><i>Exeter</i>: <i>Brice.</i></p> - -<p><i>Bristol</i>: <i>Cottle.</i></p></blockquote> - -<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">In</span> this short chapter on provincial bookselling, we -shall be necessarily obliged to confine our notice -to those representatives of the trade in the larger -country towns who were characteristically as well as -bibliopolically famous—who, with their native talent, -determination, and endurance, would have succeeded -in any walk of life, had they not, fortunately for the -interest of our history, embraced the profession of -bookselling.</p> - -<p>In old days, York was the natural capital of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_442">442</a></span> -North of England; a position acquired, of course, in -times of ecclesiastical supremacy, but still retained for -centuries after the Reformation. When the cost and -difficulty of transit were great, the country folk looked -to their own capital cities to supply them with literary -food, and the annals of bookselling at York go back to -nearly as ancient a date as those of London; and, indeed, -Thomas Gent, whom we select as our representative -of the York booksellers, might have figured in -the earlier portion of our introductory chapter, had he -not been reserved for a more fitting place here.</p> - -<p>Thomas Gent, though of a Staffordshire family, was -born in Dublin, and was apprenticed by his parents, -poor though industrious people, to a printer in that -city. In 1710, after three years’ brutal treatment -from his employers, he ran away to London, where, -as he was not a freeman of the city, he lived upon -what he calls “smouting work” for four years, and -then accepted a situation with Mr. White of York, -who, as a reward for printing the Prince of Orange’s -declaration when all the London printers were afraid, -had been created King’s printer for York and five -other counties. White must have enjoyed plenty of -business, there being few printers out of London at -that time—“None,” says Gent, “I am sure at Chester, -Liverpool, Whitehaven, Preston, Manchester, Kendal, -and Leeds.” When Gent, terminating his long walk -from London, arrived at York, the door was opened -by “Mistress White’s head maiden, who is now my -dear spouse,” but he had to wait nearly as long a -time as Jacob served for Rachel before he could -claim “my dearest.”</p> - -<p>Gent was as happy in York as he could well be, -was earning money and respected by all, when his<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_443">443</a></span> -parents bade him come back to Dublin, and what -made his departure grievous?—“I scarce knew, however, -through respect of Mrs. Alice Guy.... Indeed -I was not very forward in love or desire of matrimony -till I knew the world better, and consequently should -be more able to provide such a handsome maintenance -as I confess I had ambition enough to desire.... -However, I told her (because my irresolution -should not anticipate her advancement) that I should -respect her as one of the dearest of friends; and receiving -a little dog from her, as a companion on the -road, I had the honour to be accompanied as far as -Bramham Moor by my rival” (his master’s grandson).</p> - -<p>At Dublin he was soon threatened with seizure for -having broken his apprenticeship, and though his -friends offered to buy his freedom, he had received a -letter from his dearest at York, saying he was expected -there, and he could not resist the opportunity -of meeting her again. His friends were much concerned -at parting with him so soon, “but my unlucky -whelp that had torn my new hat to pieces seemed no -wise affected by my taking boat; so I let the rascal -stay with my dear parents, who were fond of him for -my sake, as he was of them for his own.”</p> - -<p>After a stay of a few months at York, he came to -London, resolved to scrape and save money enough -to warrant him offering a home to “Mrs. Alice Guy,” -and in 1817 he became free of the City of London, -and set to work in grim earnest, “many times from -five in the morning till twelve at night, and frequently -without food from breakfast till five or six in the -evening, through hurry with hawkers;” for at times he -was in a ballad-house, now toiling at case, now -writing “last words and confessions,” now reporting<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_444">444</a></span> -sermons “for a crown piece and a pair of breeches”—(profitable -penny-a-lining that!)—again printing -treasonable papers, for which he was seized by the -authorities; and pirating and abridging “Robinson -Crusoe,” the first part of which appeared in 1717, for -which greater crime he went scot free. Occasionally -he went home, but scarcely found it worth his while -to stay in Dublin, and his parents’ “melting tears -caused mine to flow, and bedewed my pillow every -night after that I lodged with them. ‘What, Tommy,’ -my mother would sometimes say, ‘this English damsel -of yours, I suppose, is the chiefest reason why you -slight us and your native country! Well,’ added she, -‘the ways of Providence are unsearchable.’”</p> - -<p>Gent, however, “provident overmuch,” made the -heart of his English damsel sick with hope deferred—and -“yet” he writes, “I could not well help it. I -had a little money, it is very true, but no certain -home wherein to invite her. I knew she was well -fixed; and it pierced me to the very heart to think -if through any miscarriage or misfortune I should -alter her condition for the worse instead of the better. -Upon this account my letters to her at this time were -not so amorously obliging as they ought to have been -from a sincere lover; by which she had reason, however -she might have been mistaken, to think that I -had failed in my part of those tender engagements -which had passed between us.”</p> - -<p>After serving some time with Watts, Tonson’s -printing partner, and also with Henry Woodfall, -founder of a long line of famous printers, he purchased -a quantity of old type from Mist, the proprietor -of the well-known journal, and just as he was -conning over his matrimonial prospects, “one Sunday<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_445">445</a></span> -morning as my shoes were japanning by a little boy -at the end of the lane, there came Mr. John Hoyle. -‘Mr. Gent,’ said he, ‘I have been at York to see my -parents, and am but just as it were returned to London. -I am heartily glad to see you, but sorry to tell -you that you have lost your old sweetheart; for I assure -you that she is really married to your rival, Mr. -Bourne.’ I was so thunderstruck that I could scarcely -return an answer.”</p> - -<p>In this grief he betook himself to the Muse, -and as he had formerly earned the title of the Bellman’s -Poet, he indicted the “Forsaken Lover’s -Letter to his Former Sweetheart,” to a tune “much in -request, and proper for the flute;” and not caring that -his master should know of his great disappointment, -he gave the copy to Mr. Dodd, “who, printing the -same, sold thousands of them, for which he offered -me a price; but as it was on my own proper concern, -I scorned to accept of anything except a glass of -comfort or so.” “Proper concerns” in the shape of -heartaches, disappointments, and miseries, have been -traded in to better purpose by less modest singers, but -Gent’s mental anguish seems sincere; he “was then -worn down to a shadow,” and weary of his endless and -now purposeless struggle. Work, however, a palliative -if not a cure, was again eagerly resorted to, and -Gent found employment first with Mr. Samuel Richardson, -and afterwards, and more permanently, with -Mrs. Dodd. Here he continued till on another -“Sunday morning Mr. Philip Wood, a quondam partner -of Mr. Midwinter’s, entering my chambers—‘Tommy,’ -said he, ‘all these fine material of yours -must be moved to York,’ at which, wondering, ‘What -mean you?’ said I. ‘Ay,’ said he,’ ‘and you must<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_446">446</a></span> -go to, without it’s your own fault; for your first -sweetheart is now at liberty, and left in good circumstances -by her dear spouse, deceased but of late.’ ‘I -pray heaven,’ answered I, ‘that his precious soul may -be happy; and for aught I know it may be as you -say, for indeed I think I may not trifle with a widow, -as I have formerly done with a maid.’” So he paid -forthwith his coach fare down to York, and found his -dearest much altered, for he had not seen her these -ten years. There was no need of new courtship, -“but decency suspended the ceremony of marriage -for some time, till my dearest, considering the ill-consequence -of delay in her business, as well as the -former ties of love that passed innocently between us, -by word and writing, gave full consent to have the -nuptials celebrated.”</p> - -<p>But, alas! when he became a master instead of a servant, -and she a mistress instead of a maid, he found her -“temper much altered from that sweet natural softness -and most tender affection that rendered her so amiable -to me while I was more juvenile and she a widow. -My dear’s uncle, White, as he calls himself, who, as -the only printer in Newcastle, had heaped up riches,” -was angry that he had not been chosen to manage -his niece’s shop, and actually came to York to found -a rival establishment. Gent started a paper, and, -though he persevered in its publication for many -years, he was at length out-rivalled by White. In -the publication of books he was much more successful. -In 1726 he printed some books “learnedly -translated into English by John Clarke, a schoolmaster -in Hull,” as well as two editions of Erasmus. -But the works by which he acquired most money and -reputation were written as well as published by himself—“The<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_447">447</a></span> -Famous History of the City of York,” -“History of the Loyal Town of Ripon,” and the -“History of the Royal and Beautiful Town of Kingstown-upon-Hill.” -At this time his business is thus -described by a card still existing:—“Within his well-contrived -office aforesaid printing is performed in a -curious and judicious manner, having sets of fine -characters for the Greek, Latin, English, Mathematics, -&c. He sells the histories of Rome, France, England, -particularly of this ancient City, Aynsty, and extensive -County, in five volumes; likewise a book of the -holy life of St. Winnifred, and her wonderful Cambrian -fountain. He has stimulated an ingenious founder to -cast such musical types, for the common press, as -never yet were exhibited; and has prepared a new -edition of his York History against the time when the -few remaining copies of that first and large impression -are disposed off.” He died, however, at York in -1778, in his eighty-seventh year, in somewhat reduced -circumstances, solely, he alleges, through the animosity -of his uncle White. The manuscript of his interesting -autobiography was discovered casually in Ireland, and -was published only in 1832. From its quaintness and -simplicity, above all from its minuteness of detail, it is -evident enough where the abridger of “Robinson -Crusoe” borrowed his manner and style; and the -reader will probably not quarrel with us for having -given as much of the narrative as possible in the -author’s own words.</p> - -<p>Chief among the more recent York booksellers was -Richard Burdekin, who died only twelve years since. -In his younger days he was a traveller to the local firm -of Wilson & Sons, who at the beginning of the century -were well known as publishers of the works of Lindley<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_448">448</a></span> -Murray, which are said at that time to have achieved -an annual sale of 100,000 copies. What Burdekin’s -efforts in his masters’ service were, we can gather from -the fact that he rode his favourite horse 30,000 miles -in search of orders, which in a short time doubled the -receipts of his employers. Soon he joined Spence in -an old-established business, and eventually became -senior partner of the firm. His trade extended to forty -miles round York, and for fifty-five years he continued -to sell, and in a lesser degree to publish, such books as -might suit the inhabitants of the three ridings.</p> - -<p>We have seen that Gent describes his dear’s uncle -White as having heaped up riches as the only Newcastle -printer. He could, however, scarcely have been -the only printer there, for we find that even when -Charles I. made Newcastle his headquarters he -brought with him Robert Barker, who had, as we have -elsewhere noticed, enjoyed certain patents under the -two preceding monarchs. If there were no previous -printers at Newcastle in Barker’s time, one, at least, -must have started very shortly afterwards, for in 1656 -we find the death of “James Chantler, bookseller,” -recorded, and in those times the booksellers were -mainly supplied from local sources.</p> - -<p>From Chantler’s time we find that books and -stationery were the staple commodities of Tyne -Bridge, and for nearly a couple of centuries the -“brigg” has been a favourite resort of the trade. We -find the names of Randell, Maplisden, Linn, and -Akenhead occurring in the list of the Newcastle -Stationers’ Company; and at the close of 1746 John -Goading printed the first number of the <cite>Newcastle -General Magazine</cite>. “For too long,” said the preface, -“had the northern climes been deprived of a repository<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_449">449</a></span> -of learning; too long had those geniuses that now -began to shine been consealed in darkness for want of -a proper channel to convey their productions into -light;” but in 1760 the northern geniuses were again -“consealed in darkness,” for the magazine came to an -end. Four years later, however, Thomas Slack -founded the <cite>Newcastle Chronicle</cite>, which has gone on -continuously to the present day, being now one of the -very best daily papers out of London. To its columns -we are indebted for much of the preceding.</p> - -<p>Goading had continued his general publishing business -with some energy, and in 1751 he issued Blenerhasset’s -“History of England”—from the landing of -the Phœnicians to the death of George I.—and in his -list of subscribers we find no less than eight Newcastle -booksellers, one of whom was Martin Bryson, the friend -and correspondent of Allan Ramsay, the Scotch poet -and Edinburgh bookseller, who addressed a letter to -him in <span class="locked">rhyme—</span></p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="iq">“To Martin Bryson, on Tyne Brigg,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">An upright, downright, honest Whig.”<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="in0">Bryson’s name occurs on a title-page as early as 1722. -His house and stock were destroyed by the great Newcastle -fire of 1750, and after this occurrence he took, -William Charnley, the son of a Penrith haberdasher -and one of his many apprentices, into partnership.</p> - -<p>To diverge for a moment from this pedigree of -bibliopoles, we come to by far the greatest name connected -in any way with the production of books at -Newcastle—that, of course, of Thomas Bewick; and -though his life belongs more properly to the history of -engraving, for many years the books that were illustrated -by his pencil gave the northern town such a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_450">450</a></span> -world-wide reputation that we feel justified in devoting -a page or two to his memory.</p> - -<p>Thomas Bewick was born at Cherryburn, twelve -miles to the west of Newcastle, in 1753, receiving a -limited, but as far as it went a thorough education; -his genius displayed itself in early childish days by -such chalk drawings on barn-walls and stable-doors -as have almost invariably discovered the bent of -youthful artistic genius. At the age of fifteen he was -apprenticed to Mr. Beilby, of Newcastle, an engraver -in copper-plate, and though Beilby’s business lay -rather in the production of brass door-plates, and the -emblazoning of spoons and watches, than in Fine -Art illustrations, the master soon appreciated and -encouraged his pupil’s wonderful talents. During the -period of his apprenticeship, young Bewick paid only -ninepence a week for his lodging, and brought back a -coarse brown loaf in every weekly visit to his home -at Cherryburn. As soon as his term of seven years -had expired, he still continued in Beilby’s service, -but devoted himself henceforth to wood-engraving. -Shortly afterwards he received a premium from the -Society of Arts for a woodcut of the “Huntsman and -the Old Hound,” and this induced him in the following -year to go to London in quest of labour and -fortune, but he found the metropolis so little to his -liking that he writes home: “I would rather be -herding sheep on Mickley Bank-top than remain in -London, although for doing so I was to be made the -premier of England.” With his distaste for town life -and his strong love for the country—for its scenery -changing with every season, for its living forms of -animal and plant life, for all, in short, that incessantly -appealed to a wonderful artistic instinct, Bewick was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_451">451</a></span> -easily persuaded by his old master, Beilby, to return -to Newcastle, and enter into partnership with him—his -brother John becoming their joint apprentice. -The publication of the illustrations to “Gay’s Fables,” -and the “Select Fables,” by the brothers, spread -their reputation far and wide, and placed them far -above competition in the art. In 1785, Thomas -Bewick began the cuts for his “History of Quadrupeds,” -though the work was not completed and published -until 1790. The “text,” or literary matter, -was contributed by his partner, Beilby, but it was of -course on account of the illustrations that three large -editions were called for within three years. In this -successful venture, the two partners were associated -with a printer of the name of Hodgson, and unfortunately, -after his death, the arrangement was made the -grounds of dispute by his widow, and Bewick was -compelled to remove the printing of the work to -another establishment. In 1797 appeared the first -volume of the “History of British Birds,” and almost -immediately afterwards, Beilby retired from the -partnership, leaving Bewick to produce and compile -the work alone. The tail-pieces in the first edition -of the Birds are considered Bewick’s <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">chefs d’œuvres</i>—as -Professor Wilson says, “There is a moral in every -tail-piece—a sermon in every vignette.... His -books lie on our parlour, bed-room, dining-room, -drawing-room and study tables, and are never out of -place or time. Happy old man! The delight of -childhood, manhood, decaying age!” After founding -a famous school for wood-engravers at Newcastle—William -Harvey was among his pupils—Bewick died -in 1828, leaving the business to his son, Mr. R. E. -Bewick.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_452">452</a></span> -Charnley left Bryson in 1755, and started a circulating -library of 2000 volumes, the subscription being -twelve shillings a year, and though this method of -disseminating books had only been practised in -London within the previous twenty years, we find -that one Barba, who dabbled likewise in prints and -tea, had already been for some years in the field. -When Bryson died, Charnley succeeded to his business -on the bridge, and after having been washed out by -an overflow of the river, he removed to safer premises -in the Great Market in 1777. Charnley died in 1803. -An anecdote connected with him is still gleefully told -by the Newcastle pitmen, and is worth repeating. -He was deaf and obliged to use an ear-trumpet; and -on being accosted by a collier, he clapped, as usual, -his instrument to his ear, in order to catch the words. -“Nay, man,” cried the pitman, not to be imposed -upon; “thou’s not gaun to mak me believe thou can -play that trumpet wi’ thy lug!”</p> - -<p>Emerson Charnley succeeded his father, and was -styled by Dibdin “the veteran emperor of Northumbrian -booksellers;” till 1860 this old established -business remained in the family, when it became the -property of Mr. William Dodd, for many years its -manager.</p> - -<p>We have already referred so often to the Scotch -publishers, that we can only find room for Glasgow -as representing the Scotch provincial trade. Printing -was introduced there in the year 1630 by George -Anderson, who was succeeded in 1661 by Robert -Saunders, and the whole printing business of the -West of Scotland (except one newspaper) was carried -on by Saunders and his son until 1730, when the art -was further improved by R. Uric. Five years later it<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_453">453</a></span> -appears from Morrison’s “Dictionary of Decisions of -the Court of Sessions” that a new comer “was -debarred from any concern in bookselling within the -city of Glasgow, because the place was judged too -narrow for two booksellers at a time.” In the teeth -of this arbitrary decision Robert Fowlis, who as a young -barber had attracted the notice of some of the -university professors, and had been encouraged to -attend the lectures, opened a book-shop in 1739. In -1743 he was appointed printer to the university, and -in the following year he produced his celebrated immaculate -edition of “Horace,” which was hung up on -the college walls with a reward appended for every -mistake discovered. In the course of thirty years -they produced as many well printed classics as -Bodoni of Parma, or Barbon of Paris, and their books, -in exactness and beauty of type, almost rival the -Aldine series. They endeavoured to devote the -money which their success brought them in to the -establishment of an academy for the cultivation of -the Fine Arts, but this grand, and then novel, project -produced their ruin, without in any way affecting the -artistic taste of Scotland. After the death of his -younger brother, Robert was compelled to send the -collection of pictures to London for sale, and as he -was in immediate want of money he insisted upon the -auction taking place at a time when the picture -market was glutted. The sale catalogue forms three -volumes, and yet after all expenses were defrayed the -balance in his favour amounted only to fifteen shillings. -He died on his way back to Glasgow in 1776.</p> - -<p>The bookselling and book-manufacturing trades -have changed strangely in Glasgow, since the time -when the city was judged “too narrow” for two<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_454">454</a></span> -booksellers. At present these branches of industry -are only surpassed in Edinburgh, and one Glasgow -establishment at least is without a parallel in London. -Messrs. Collins, Son, and Co., actually give employment -to about seven hundred hands. The ground-floor -of their immense building is devoted to the -warehousing of paper, account-books, copy-books and -general stationery. On the main floor of the establishment -one hundred binders are constantly at work, -and on the floor above the folding and sewing of the -sheets is executed by two hundred girls and women. -In the rear stands the engine-house and printing -office where sixteen platten and cylinder typographic -machines are kept working at full steam, upon -dictionaries, school-books, Bibles, prayer-books, devotional, -and other publications. Seven lithographic -machines are constantly employed upon atlases and -their celebrated copy-books, and it has been found -that the finest lithographic work can be better -executed by the machine than, as till very recently, -at press. Everything is done on the premises, which -extend from Stirling’s Road to Heriot Hill, except -making the paper and casting the type.<a id="FNanchor_32" href="#Footnote_32" class="fnanchor">32</a></p> - -<p>As further proof of the magnitude of the business, -we may quote a recent statement of Mr. Henderson, -one of the partners. In 1869 there were “issued from -the letter-press section of the establishment, no fewer -than 1,352,421 printed and bound works—equal to -about 4500 per day, or 450 passing through the hands -of the workers every working hour.”</p> - -<p>Little more than a hundred years ago the great -seaport town of Liverpool was a little fishing village,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_455">455</a></span> -and, consequently, the bookselling trade there is of a -very recent growth. Among the first important -members of the fraternity were Darton and Freer; -but perhaps the most famous Liverpool bibliopole of -his day was Thomas Johnson. He started in Dale -Street, in 1829, with a stock of books only large -enough to fill the bottom shelves of his window; and -at the back of his shop, scarce hidden, he kept his -bed and household utensils. However, he had the -happy knack of making friends in all quarters; and -when at a large trade sale, offered on unusually -advantageous terms, he had speedily emptied his -meagre purse, and was looking wistfully at the bargains -falling to all his neighbours, a Liverpool -merchant bade him go on purchasing to the extent -of £100 or £150, adding that he himself would take -the risk. This timely aid set Johnson up in a comparatively -princely manner, and after he had been in -business a few years his periodical catalogue extended -to 300 pages. At this time the country booksellers -were chiefly dependent for their stocks upon the sales -of private libraries, but the Liverpool booksellers -possessed another large means of supplying their -wants. The Bible Society in Dublin was very busy -in distributing new Bibles in all directions, which the -good Catholics at once carried to the pawnshops. -These were purchased again by Mr. Duffy, who -brought them over to Liverpool in huge sacks, and -exchanged them for books more agreeable to the -Irish taste.</p> - -<p>By degrees Johnson combined publishing and -auctioneering with the more legitimate business. His -first venture in the former capacity was Abbot’s -collected works; but by far his most successful were<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_456">456</a></span> -the Lectures on “Revivals,” and on “Professing -Christians,” by Mr. Finney, of which he sold 150,000 -copies. As an auctioneer, he was a lesser, or Liverpool -edition, of Tegg, and his rooms under the -Liver theatre were crowded nightly. On one occasion -Johnson is said to have purchased the entire -contents of Baldwin’s Bible room, and he was well -known to have been the largest consumer of Bibles -out of London; and when Arnold left the Bagsters, -and commenced Bible printing on his own account, -Johnson was his favourite customer. Arnold’s puffing -hand-bills vie with the choicest pill-mongering productions. -After a violent tirade against Puseyism he -continues thus, <em>re</em> his “Domestic Bible,” and “Bible -<span class="locked">Commentary:”—</span></p> - -<p>“He has provided you the seed; He will help you -to sow it, He will help you to reap it. Sow it then, -sow freely—sow largely—sow bountifully—sow perseveringly. -It may be bought cheaply—may be had -in any quantity—has never been known to fail in its -effects. There are agents for its sale in every town in -Great Britain, you may obtain it from any bookseller -in penny and threepenny packages. Sow it, men of -Britain—sow it in schools—in families—in every -town—in every village—in every hamlet of England, -Wales, and Scotland. Sow it beyond the sea—for it -will grow on foreign shores. Send it to Ireland, to -the Colonies, to India, to China, and sow it there. -Send it to the continent and to Africa and sow it there.” -And so on <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">ad nauseam</i>. The seed, however, proved -very unprofitable to Arnold; and shortly after his -failure Johnson was also obliged to give up business, -having signed some unfortunate bills. He afterwards -rejoined his father in Manchester.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_457">457</a></span> -Another well-known Liverpool bookseller was -“Dandy” Cruikshank, of Castle Street, who maintained -that he was the handsomest man in England, -and whose vanity extended to his trade, for his -specialities were books bound in pink and orange.</p> - -<p>At the present time there are about sixty booksellers -in Liverpool; and Mr. Edward Howell, an apprentice -of Johnson’s, possesses the largest stock, consisting -of 100,000 volumes, and is known also as a religious -publisher. Mr. Philip, another leading bookseller, -has two establishments in Liverpool, and a branch -house in London, while Mr. Cornish, of Holborn, has -an establishment in Liverpool, as well as in Dublin.</p> - -<p>Crossing the Channel for a moment, we have an -opportunity of saying something of the Dublin booksellers; -but we shall not be detained long, as, in this -branch of industry, the Irish capital presents a striking -contrast to the Scottish. In the interval between the -cessation of the licensing system and the Copyright -Act of the 8th Anne, there was no legal protection -for literary property, and book-pirates consequently -abounded. One of the tribe has been celebrated by -Dunton: “Mr. Lee, in Lombard Street—such a -pirate, such a cormorant never was before—copies, -books, men, ships, all was one; he held no propriety, -right or wrong, good or bad, till at last he began to -be known; and the booksellers, not enduring so ill a -man among them, to disgrace them, spewed him out, -and off he marched for Ireland, where he acted as -felonious Lee (!) as he did in London.” There, -however, till the Act of Union, in 1801, book-pirates -abounded, greatly to the discouragement of native -talent, and even of native industry, for Gent tells us -repeatedly that it was almost impossible for a journeyman<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_458">458</a></span> -printer to earn wherewithall to exist on in the -Dublin printing offices. In 1753 we find Samuel -Richardson publishing a pamphlet—“The History of -Sir Charles Grandison before Publication by certain -Booksellers in Dublin.” It appears that sheets had -been stolen from Richardson’s warehouse, and that -three Irish booksellers each produced cheap editions -of nearly half the entire novel, before a single volume -had appeared in England. There was no legal remedy; -but “what,” asks the <cite>Gray’s Inn Journal</cite> indignantly, -“what then should be said of Exshaw, Wilson, and Saunders, -booksellers in Dublin, and perpetrators of this -vile act of piracy? They should be expelled from the -Republic of Letters as literary Goths and Vandals, -who are ready to invade the property of every man -of genius.” With the Act of Union, however, the -Dublin booksellers were made amenable to English -law, and a dolorous cry arose that their trade -was ruined, and that the “vested right” they had -inherited, to prey upon the Saxon, had been abolished -by the cruel conquerors. From this moment, of -course, Irish bookselling was obliged to take a higher -tone. In a few years the <cite>Dublin Review</cite> and the -<cite>Dublin University Magazine</cite> vindicated the intellectual -powers of the natives, and for a long time were -widely circulated in Ireland, and were then mainly -indebted to the enterprise of Irish authors and booksellers. -When the Commission of National Education -was appointed in Ireland, Mr. Thom was selected as -a publisher, and, through their pecuniary aid, was -enabled to bring out a series of “Irish National -School Books,” that for cheapness and excellence -are probably still unrivalled. These led, as we have -previously seen, to petitions from the English publishers,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_459">459</a></span> -complaining of state interference with the -ordinary and commercial laws of bookselling, and to -trials for infringement of copyright. However, in the -long-run the Irish Commissioners were successful, and -Mr. Longman, one of the complainants, eventually -accepted their English agency. Besides his connection -with the Commission, Mr. Thom has acquired a -reputation in the Bookselling world by his excellent -“Irish Almanac,” which, till recently, was unrivalled -by the English almanacs of any London firms.</p> - -<p>Latterly, however, Irish bookselling, as far as -individual enterprize goes, has been commonly associated -with the name of James Duffy. He was born -in 1809, and after being apprenticed to a draper in the -country, found employment in Dublin, and here, like -Robert Chambers, he invested his spare coppers in -picking up old books. At last he found trade so bad -that he determined to emigrate, and accordingly, as -he possessed no funds, he took his books to an -auctioneer; at the sale, to his surprise, he found that -the books he had purchased for pence, now produced -as many shillings. Upon this he determined to drop -the scheme of emigration, and to turn bookseller. As -we have before mentioned, he collected the Bibles -which the Catholics received from the Church of -England propagandists only to turn into money, and -took them over to Liverpool, where he exchanged -them for books less unlawful in Papist eyes. At first -he hawked these about the country, but eventually -took a place of business in Anglesea Street, Dublin, -and there began to publish the “Bruton Series” of -thrilling tales of robbers, battles, adventures, and the -like, at the low price of twopence each. In 1842 he -was appointed bookseller to the Repeal Agitators,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_460">460</a></span> -and produced, under their auspices, the “Library of -Ireland,” consisting of patriotic and national collections -of poems, &c., edited or written by some of the -most brilliant of the National party. However, the -movement for Repeal collapsed, and before this Duffy -had discerningly turned his attention to less ephemeral -publications, and produced editions of Carleton, -Banin, and other native celebrities. The famine of -1846 affected every trade, and as the people had no -money to buy bread, the sale of books was, of course, -utterly hopeless, and Duffy found that he could not -meet his engagements. His creditors granted him -time, and the money was to be paid in instalments. -He sold his copyrights in England, and paid the first -instalment promptly. But when the time was due for -the second he saw no prospect of meeting it. A -neighbour, however, called John Donnegan, hearing -that he was ruined, carried him a stocking full -of money, his lifetime’s hoardings, threw it down -before him, with “Just take that, and see if it is any -use to you! Pay me when you can,” and refusing to -take any receipt, rushed out again. The stocking contained -nearly £1200, and Duffy was able not only to pay -his creditors, but to turn his attention to the publication -of more important works than he had hitherto -attempted, such as the Douay Bible, Missals, Prayer-books, -and many historical works, and it was not long -before he was in a position to repay the kindly loan. -About 1860 he opened a branch house in London, and -at that period the success of his publishing career -may be said to have culminated, for after the death -of his wife he confined himself almost entirely to disposing -of his old stock. He died on the 4th of July -of the year 1871, regretted by his fellow-citizens in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_461">461</a></span> -Dublin, and by his brother bibliopoles throughout the -kingdom.<a id="FNanchor_33" href="#Footnote_33" class="fnanchor">33</a></p> - -<div class="tb">* <span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">*</span></div> - -<p>If it were not for want of space there are several -towns in the Midland Counties which deserve notice -here on account of their bibliopolical fame—none -more so, perhaps, than Derby, which at present -possesses no less than three large bookselling firms, -which have also branch businesses in London, -Messrs. Richardson and Son having in addition -another establishment at Dublin. As Roman Catholic -publishers some of their productions have achieved an -enormous circulation, notably “The Crown of Jesus,” -which, honoured with the approval of the Pope, and of -all the English dignitaries of the Roman Catholic -Church, long since attained an issue of 100,000 copies. -The works of Frederick William Faber, D.D., late of -the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, have also been among -the most popular of Messrs. Richardson and Son’s -publications. The Mozleys, of Derby, have long been -in the trade, and are represented both in the country -and in London; one of the family was well known in -connection with the editorial staff of the <cite>Times</cite> newspaper. -The Mozleys publish the <cite>Monthly Packet</cite>, -edited by Miss Younge, and also the majority of that -lady’s separate works. A third firm, Messrs. Bemrose -and Sons, have gained a considerable reputation as -archæological publishers, and as the proprietors of Mrs. -Warren’s “Household Manuals.”</p> - -<p>At Halifax, where the book trade is of a more -recent date, Messrs. Milner and Sowerby, by their<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_462">462</a></span> -services in the cause of cheap publications of really -good and standard works, have done much to counteract -the effects of cheap and pernicious literature. -“The Cottage Library” has long been known all over -England, and was one of the first shilling series of -really good books published—certainly the first in a -neat form and with a neat binding, issued at this low -price, and is still, in its extent and scope, unrivalled.</p> - -<p>Manchester was one of the first provincial towns in England -to which the printer and bookseller came, for it -must be remembered that the trades were for centuries -almost synonymous. The art of printing is said to have -been introduced here in 1588, when Penny went through -the kingdom with an itinerant press, but his plant was -seized and destroyed by the fifth Earl of Derby. -However, the innovation was effected, and the new -art was firmly lodged. Manchester, nevertheless, in -these early days was a place of such importance that -a mere catalogue of the members of the trade would -more than fill the few pages at our command. -Among the booksellers of the last century we can -only mention Haslingden, who published “Tim -Bobbin”—a book still famous; the Sowlers, one of -the descendants of whom started the <cite>Courier</cite>, under -the editorship of Alaric A. Watts, in 1825, and the -journal still enjoys a wide popularity; Joseph Harrop, -who originated the <cite>Manchester Mercury</cite> in 1752, -published the “History of Man” in sixpenny numbers, -but Harrop’s well-known folio Bible was issued by his -son and successor; the firm of Clarke Brothers -amassed a large fortune in school books and stationery; -and about the same time Banks and Co. -were also doing an immense trade upon a thoroughly -reprehensible system. Hayward, who was their<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_463">463</a></span> -managing partner, opened shops in various places, -placed his own servants in possession, and made them -accept bills to a very large amount. These bills were -discounted at the Manchester Bank, and when the -crash came the bank was a creditor upon the estate -to the amount of £120,000, while the London publishers -were indebted to the extent of £100,000. -Among the shopmen in charge under Hayward’s -system was Timperley, a printer, and a man of considerable -literary ability. To pay the debts contracted -through this wholesale acceptance of bills, he -consigned his stock to an auctioneer, who, after disposing -of it by auction, ran off with the proceeds of -the sale. Timperley, heart-broken by misfortune, -accepted a literary engagement with Fisher and -Jackson, of London, and in their service he died. In -early days he had been a soldier, had gone through -many campaigns, had served at Waterloo, and had -well earned his pension of a shilling per diem. He is -now known chiefly as the author of the “Manchester -Historical Recorder,” and of “Timperley’s Typographical -Dictionary”—one of the most accurate, -laborious, and voluminous compilations ever made, -and one to be gratefully remembered by all students -of the history of the printing press in this country. -Another worthy of typographical fame was Bent, who, -after doing a large bookselling business among the -Manchester Unitarians, then, at all events, the most -cultivated portion of the inhabitants, started “Bent’s -Literary Advertiser,” the first bookseller’s organ, and -which latterly has been incorporated in the <cite>Bookseller</cite>. -The <cite>Bookseller</cite> was started in 1857 by Mr. Whitaker, -and among its earliest contributors were many men of -some note, especially Alaric Watts. From the first it<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_464">464</a></span> -filled an acknowledged void, and, as a trade journal, -has never been surpassed. From the interest of the -notes and trade gossip contained in its pages, as well -as from the more solid information in its lists of works -and announcements, it has secured a wide popularity -here and abroad, and has been the precursor of similar -journals in America and elsewhere.</p> - -<div class="tb">* <span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">*</span></div> - -<p>Among other important Manchester publishers were -R. & W. Dean, who introduced stereotyping into the -city, and issued a large series of popular and useful -books. From some cause or another, they failed, and -their stereos came into the possession of Samuel -Johnson, the father of the Liverpool bookseller. -Johnson now became a publisher on a very extensive -scale, and is said to have been the originator of the -royal 32mo. literature, which is now chiefly identified -with Halifax.</p> - -<p>In our own times, Manchester bookselling has been -principally represented by the brothers Abel and John -Heywood—a name almost as widely known as that of -any London firm. The brothers were born at Prestwich, -of very humble parentage; their father, indeed, -is said at one time to have been in receipt of parish -relief. Abel began life as a warehouse boy, on the -scanty pittance of eighteenpence a week; but at the -age of twenty he was summarily dismissed by his -master in a fit of passion. He now obtained the -wholesale agency for the <cite>Poor Man’s Guardian</cite>, and -was very shortly afterwards fined £54 for selling it -without a stamp. He could not pay the fine, and was -sent to prison for four months; but his family -managed the shop during his incarceration, still selling -the <cite>Guardian</cite> as before, but in a quieter manner.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_465">465</a></span> -In 1834 and in 1836 he was again fined, but now he -could afford to pay. The Government next tried to -seize the papers while in the hands of the carriers, and -they were obliged consequently to be sent through the -country carefully concealed—embedded in a chest of -tea or a hamper of shoes. As soon, however, as the -duty was reduced from fourpence to a penny, the -poorer classes were able to pay for stamped papers. -Abel Heywood was, nevertheless, again the subject -of a legal prosecution for the publication of a penny -pamphlet by Haslam. Acting with vigorous promptness, -he caused three or four copies of Shelley’s -works to be purchased from the chief Manchester -booksellers, and then contended that the poems were -more blasphemous than his pamphlet. The Government -did not care to excite the ill-feelings of the reading -public by sending booksellers of position to prison, -and as the cases were precisely similar, they relinquished -the prosecution. Probably this decisive conduct -suggested the same course to Hetherington, who -was afterwards the cause of that famous trial, the -Queen <i>v.</i> Moxon.</p> - -<p>In 1838, Fergus O’Connor started the <cite>Northern -Star</cite>, and for four years its prosperity at the time was -unexampled. Heywood sold 18,000 copies weekly. -By degrees his periodical trade increased enormously. -In 1847 he joined some paper-stainers, and the firm -soon became one of the largest in the world. In the -year 1860 the paper duty paid by them amounted to -more than £20,000. Among the most successful of -his recent publications have been “Abel Heywood’s -Penny Guide Books.” The series now embraces -upwards of seventy-five numbers, referring to every -place of importance or interest in the kingdom. He<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_466">466</a></span> -has also issued the whole of the popular tale, “The -Gates Ajar,” for the same price—one penny—giving -in a pamphlet form what usually occupies a goodly -volume.</p> - -<p>Abel Heywood, however, was as well known as a -distinguished public man as a successful bookseller. -In 1835 he was appointed a Commissioner of Police, -and during the Manchester riots in 1842 and 1849 he -took a conspicuous part in quelling the disturbances. -Elected to the corporation, he became an alderman -in 1853, and in 1859 he was third in the list of candidates -at the general Parliamentary elections. In 1862 -he was elected Mayor of Manchester; in 1864 he took -his son, Abel, into partnership.</p> - -<p>John Heywood commenced life in the same lowly -circumstances as his brother, and at the age of fourteen -found employment as a handloom weaver. -Within ten years his wages rose from half-a-crown to -thirty shillings a week; and when in receipt of this -latter sum he regularly allowed his mother a pound a -week. At the age of four-and-twenty he married, and -to improve his worldly position, accepted the management -of a small factory at Altrincham, in Cheshire; -but as the speculation proved a failure, he returned to -his former occupation of “dressing” for power-loom -weavers, at which he remained until his thirty-fifth -year. Desirous of rendering even his spare time profitable, -he had bought a paper-ruling machine, upon -which he worked in the evenings; and Abel, who was -now a successful bookseller in Oldham Street, offered -him a situation in his establishment as paper-ruler, -with a salary of two pounds a week: and in his -brother’s employ he remained for seven years. In -1842, however, determined to make a start for himself,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_467">467</a></span> -he took a little shop in Deansgate, and, assisted by -his son John, a lad of thirteen, the business, originally -infinitesimal, increased rapidly and vastly. At first -they confined their efforts almost entirely to the sale -of weekly or Sunday papers, and they were able to -carry abroad conveniently under their arms all the -newspapers they could dispose of. In a few months, -however, the aid of a wheelbarrow was required, and -this, in turn, was discarded for a pony and trap. -After adding every possible enlargement to the old -premises, they were obliged in 1859 to take a shop on -the opposite side of the street; and year after year, as -the business expanded, addition after addition was -made to the premises, until three buildings were rolled -into one, and at the end of another seven years a huge -six-storey manufactory was built in the rear of the -triangular shop. The increase of the working staff -kept pace with the growth of the establishment, and -now, instead of the armful or the barrow-load, a -special railway truck, with a freightage of about two -tons, comes down from London five times a week; -some hundred and fifty assistants supply the place of -the lad of thirteen, and nine spring-carts have been -introduced in lieu of the little pony trap. A thousand -parcels are made up each day, and between three and -four hundred orders are received by every morning’s -post; for, besides being the largest newsvendors and -booksellers out of London, the firm are the largest -copybook makers in the kingdom. Fifteen hundred -gross of copybooks are despatched from the warehouses -every month; and it is stated that the weekly -issue of newspapers, magazines, and other periodicals -amounts to the almost incredible number of a quarter -of a million.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_468">468</a></span> -In 1864, John Heywood, senior, died, and the business -devolved upon his son, who had inherited all his -father’s energy and industry. In 1867 he introduced -a platten printing machine, adapted to take impressions -from the stereo-plates of his school-books—known -as “John Heywood’s Code,” “John Heywood’s -Manchester Reader,” &c.—and before long he resolved -to become a regular printer as well as a publisher, and -the “Excelsior Printing Works” were erected about -a mile from Deansgate, where 355 people are constantly -employed in the manufacture of books, in a -manner very similar to that previously described in -our accounts of the Messrs. Nelson and Collins, of -Scotland. Among the books published by Mr. John -Heywood are dialectic works, many of which are -regarded, justly, as Lancashire classics. One of his -latest triumphs has been the issue of the “Science -Lectures for the People,” delivered at the Hulme -Town Hall, and sold separately at a penny each—a -fact that says something as to the good taste of the -factory lads. Four monthly and three weekly periodicals -are published by Mr. John Heywood. Of the former -the <cite>Railway Guide</cite> is the most widely circulated, while -the <cite>Lithographer</cite> is indispensable to the many decorative -artists of the neighbourhood; and <cite>Ben Brierley’s -Journal</cite>, with its vernacular contributions, finds its -way to every Lancashire fireside. Of the latter, the -<cite>Sphinx</cite>, a satirical journal, is the most popular.</p> - -<p>The career of the two Heywoods is a striking example -of the labour, energy, and success which Lancashire -folk are apt to think the true attributes of the typical -“Manchester man;” and if they have not been instrumental -in adding much to the higher literature of the -world, their publications have very widely extended<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_469">469</a></span> -the taste for knowledge among the lower orders in the -north of England.</p> - -<div class="tb">* <span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">*</span></div> - -<p>Even in Birmingham the trade of bookselling was -introduced at a comparatively recent date. Dr. -Johnson tells us that his father used to open a bookstall -here on market days; and Boswell adds, in a -note, that there was not then a single regular bookshop -in the whole town. Elsewhere he tells us that -“Mr Warren was the first established bookseller in -Birmingham, and was very attentive to Johnson, who -he soon found could be of much service to him in his -trade by his knowledge of literature; and he even -obtained the assistance of his pen in furnishing some -numbers of a periodical essay, printed in the newspaper -of which Warren was proprietor.” Mr Warren, -however, though Johnson’s first encourager, has long -since been forgotten, and Birmingham bookselling is -now universally identified with the name of William -Hutton; and from his autobiography, published in -1816—perhaps the most interesting record of a self-made -life that has ever been personally indited—we -give a short sketch of his career.</p> - -<p>William Hutton was born at Derby, in 1723. His -father, a drunken wool-comber, scarcely brought home -wherewithal to keep the wretched family from starvation, -and “consultations were held (when the child -was six years old) about fixing me in some employment -for the benefit of the family. Winding quills -for the weaver was mentioned, but died away. Stripping -tobacco for the grocer, by which I was to earn -fourpence a week, was proposed, but it was at last -concluded that I was too young for any employment.” -Next year, however, the result of the consultation was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_470">470</a></span> -otherwise, and he was placed in a silk-mill; the -youngest, and by far the smallest, of the 300 persons -employed, a lofty pair of pattens were tied on to his -feet so that he might be able to reach the engine; and -he continues:—“I had now to rise at five every morning, -summer and winter, for seven years; to submit -to the cane whenever convenient to the master; to be -the constant companion of the most rude and vulgar -of the human race; never taught by nature, nor ever -wishing to be taught.” Brutally treated, so that the -scars of his chastisements remained on his body -through life, he left the mill as soon as ever his -apprenticeship expired; “a place,” he says, “most -curious and pleasing to the eye,” but which had given -him a seven years’ heart-ache. He was now bound -for another term to an uncle—a stocking-maker at -Nottingham. “My task was to earn for my uncle -5<i>s.</i> 10<i>d.</i> a week. The first week I could reach this -sum I was to be gratified with sixpence, but ever after, -should I fall short or go beyond it, the loss or profit -was to be my own.” In this situation, he was not -only thrashed by his master, but starved by his aunt; -and, goaded by the taunts of the neighbours, he fled -away, but was reluctantly compelled to return. In -1744 his apprenticeship expired, and for two years -longer he remained as a journeyman in the same -employment, but he now made the melancholy discovery—for -all trade was in a very wretched condition -at the time—that he had served two separate terms of -seven years, to two separate trades, and yet could -subsist upon neither.</p> - -<p>A gradually acquired taste for reading led him to -purchase a few books, and their tattered condition -prompted him to try his hand at binding; and, as he<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_471">471</a></span> -could get no employment in his own avocations, he -determined to start afresh as a bookbinder. His -friends sneered at his ambitious hopes, but his sister -supported him firmly. There were no binding tools -to be purchased then in the country, so his sister -“raised three guineas, sewed them in my shirt-collar, -for there was no doubt but I should be robbed,” and -put eleven shillings in his pocket as a sop to the expected -highwayman, and off he started for London, -walking fifty-one miles the first day and reaching it -on the third. Here he invested his three guineas in -tools, and stayed three days, seeing all that could be -seen for nothing, his only paid entertainment being a -visit to Bedlam, which cost a penny. Three days -more, and he was back at Nottingham, terribly worn-out -and footsore, but with fourpence still remaining -out of his little travelling fund.</p> - -<p>He now took a small shop, fourteen miles from -Nottingham, at an annual rent of twenty shillings, -and “in one day became the most eminent bookseller -in Southwell,” but he still lived at Nottingham. -“During the rainy winter months,” he says, “I set -out from Nottingham at five every Saturday morning, -carried a burthen of from three to thirty pounds’ -weight to Southwell, opened shop at ten, starved it all -day upon bread, cheese, and half a pint of ale; took -from 1<i>s.</i> to 6<i>s.</i>, shut up at four, and by trudging -through the solitary night and the deep roads five -hours more, I arrived at Nottingham by nine, where I -always found a mess of milk-porridge by the fire, -prepared by my valuable sister. But nothing short of -resolution and rigid economy could have carried me -through this scene.”</p> - -<p>There was little profit, however, in such a life,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_472">472</a></span> -laborious as it was, and in 1750 he made an exploring -journey to Birmingham, where he found there were -only three booksellers—Warren, Aris, and Wollaston, -and here he resolved to settle, hoping that he might -escape the envy of “the three great men.”</p> - -<p>He obtained the use of half a little shop for the -moderate premium of one shilling per week, but he -had as yet to find wherewith to stock it. On a -visit to Nottingham, he met a friendly minister, who -asked, for the weather was inclement, why he had -ventured so far without a great-coat, and who on -receiving no reply, shrewdly guessed Hutton’s impoverished -condition, from his draggled, thread-bare -garments, and offered him a couple of hundred-weight -of books at his own price, and that price to be postponed -to the future, and by way of receipt the young -bookseller gave him the following: “I promise to pay -to Ambrose Rudsall £1 7<i>s.</i>, when I am able.” The -debt was speedily cancelled.</p> - -<p>His period of probation was sufficiently severe: -“Five shillings a week covered all my expenses, as -food, washing, lodging, &c.,” but by degrees the better-informed -and wealthier of the young clerks and -apprentices began to frequent his shop, and were -attracted by his zeal, and his evident love for the -books he sold. With his skill in binding, he could -furbish up the shabbiest tomes, and greatly increase -their marketable value. By the end of his first year -he found that he had, by the most rigid economy, -saved up twenty pounds. Things were brightening, -but the overseers, who at that time possessed a terrible -power over the poorest classes, ostensibly dreading -lest he should become chargeable to the parish, refused -his payment of the rates, and bade him remove<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_473">473</a></span> -elsewhere. In this strait he exhibited much worldly -wisdom, and invested half his little hoarding in a fine -suit of clothes, purchased from one of the overseers, -who happened to be a draper.</p> - -<p>In the following year, 1751, he took a better shop, -next door to a Mr. Grace, a hosier, and in a quiet, -undemonstrative manner, fell in love with his neighbour’s -niece. “Time gave us,” he says, “numberless -opportunities of observing each other’s actions, and -trying the tenour of conduct by the touchstone of -prudence. Courtship was often a disguise. We had -seen each other when disguise was useless. Besides, -nature had given to few women a less portion of -deceit.” The uncle at length consented to the match, -and, with Sarah, Hutton received a dowry of £100; -and, as he had already amassed £200 of his own, -from this happy moment his fortunes ran smoothly -upwards.</p> - -<p>He now increased an otherwise profitable trade -by starting a circulating library—perhaps the first -that was attempted in the provinces; and about this -same time, 1753, he acquired a very useful friend in -the person of Robert Bage, the paper-maker, and -undertook the retail portion of the paper business. -“From this small hint,” he says, “I followed the -stroke forty years, and acquired an ample fortune.” -And yet, though waxing yearly richer and richer, he -adds, “I never could bear the thought of living to the -extent of my income. I never omitted to take stock -or regulate my annual expenses, so as to meet casualties -and misfortunes.” By degrees he became invested -with civic dignities, and little by little he acquired -the standing of a landed proprietor. Without neglecting -his business he now found leisure for literary<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_474">474</a></span> -composition; and in his last work—“A Trip to -Coatham”—he tells us, “I took up my pen, and that -with fear and trembling, at the advanced age of fifty-six, -a period when most would lay it down. I drove the -quill thirty years, during which time I wrote and -published thirty books.”</p> - -<p>His first work, the “History of Birmingham,” -appeared, and these thirty tomes of verse and prose -followed in quick succession.</p> - -<p>In 1802 he published his best-known work, the -“History of the Roman Wall.” Antiquarians had, -before this, described the famous line of defence, but -hitherto no one had attempted a personal inspection. -Seventy-five years old, still hale and hearty, with an -enthusiasm akin to that of youth, he started on foot -for Northumberland, accompanied by his daughter on -horse-back. Intent upon reaching the scene of his -antiquarian desires, “he turned,” writes his daughter, -“neither to the right nor the left, except to gratify me -with a sight of Liverpool. Windermere he saw, and -Ullswater he saw, because they lay under his feet, but -nothing could detain him from his grand object.” On -his return journey, after every hollow of the ground, -every stone of the Wall, between Carlisle and Newcastle, -had been examined, he was bitten in the leg by -a dog, but even this did not restrain him. Within -four days of home “he made forced journeys, and if -we had had a little further to go the foot would have -knocked up the horse! The pace he went did not -even fatigue his shoes. He walked the whole 600 -miles in one pair, and scarcely made a hole in his -stockings.”</p> - -<p>Almost to the last he preserved his physical powers -comparatively intact. When he was eighty-eight, he<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_475">475</a></span> -writes—“At the age of eighty-two I considered myself -a young man. I could, without fatigue, walk forty -miles a day. But during the last few years I have -felt a sensible decay, and, like a stone rolling downhill, -its velocity increases with its progress. The strings -of the instrument are one after another giving way, -never to be brought into tune.” Yet he did not die -till 1815, at the ripe old age of ninety-two.</p> - -<div class="tb">* <span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">*</span></div> - -<p>At the close of the last century Hutton lost a -valuable collection of books, and other valuable -property, through the lawless riots that took place in -his native city; of these disturbances the author of -the <cite>Press</cite> <span class="locked">says:—</span></p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="iq">“When Birmingham, for riots and for crimes,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Shall meet the keen reproach of future times,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Then shall she find, amongst our honoured race,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">One name to save her from entire disgrace.”<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="in0">This “one name” was that of John Baskerville, a -printer, a contemporary of Hutton, and one of the -most famous English type-founders. Commencing -life as a schoolmaster, his inclination for books turned -his attention to type-founding, but he spent £600 -before he produced one letter that thoroughly satisfied -his exquisitely critical taste, and probably some -thousands before his business began to prove remunerative; -and, after all, his printing speculations yielded -more honour than profit. Upon paying a heavy -royalty to the University of Cambridge, he was -allowed to print a Bible in royal folio, which, for -beauty of type, is still unrivalled; but the slender -and delicate form of his letters were, as Dr. Dibdin -remarks, better suited to smaller books, and show to -the greatest advantage in his 12mo. “Virgil” and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_476">476</a></span> -“Horace.” His strenuous endeavours, and his large -outlay, met with but little return; and he writes of -the “business of printing” as one “which I am heartily -tired of, and repent I ever attempted.” He died in -1775, and appears to have printed nothing during the -last ten years of his life. By the direction left in his -will, he was buried under a windmill in his own -garden, with the following epitaph on his tomb-stone: -“Stranger! beneath this cone, in unconsecrated -ground, a friend to the liberties of mankind directed -his body to be inurned. May the example contribute -to emancipate thy mind from the idle fears of superstition, -and the wicked arts of priesthood.” His fount -of type was unluckily allowed to leave the country, -and was purchased by Beaumarchais, of Paris, who -produced some exquisite editions, particularly of -Voltaire’s works, but who lost upwards of one million -livres in his speculations.</p> - -<div class="tb">* <span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">*</span></div> - -<p>A successful modern bookselling venture in this -city resulted from the establishment of the “Educational -Trading Company (Limited)”—a novel phase -in the trade—of which the chief proprietor and chairman -was Mr. Josiah Mason. The business management -was placed in the hands of Mr. Kempster, and, by a -thorough system of travellers, who personally canvassed -the proprietors of schools and colleges, offering -them very liberal terms, a large connection was almost -immediately established. The company’s operations -were, of course, confined to the publication of cheap -educational works; and some of these, such as Gill’s -and Moffat’s series, attained a wide popularity, and -necessitated, in 1870, the opening of a London branch -at St. Bride’s Avenue, and another branch house at -Bristol.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_477">477</a></span> -One of the most famous booksellers and printers of -the West of England was Andrew Brice, who was -born in Exeter in the year 1690. He was educated -in early life with a view to the ministry, but family -misfortunes obliged him to become apprentice to -Bliss, a printer in that city. Long before the expiry -of his apprenticeship the improvident young -printer married, and, being unable to support a wife -and two children upon the pittance he received, he -enlisted as a soldier in order to break his indentures, -and, by the interest of his friends, soon procured a -discharge. He commenced business on his own -account, and started a newspaper, but, possessing -only one kind of type, he carved in wood the title -and such capitals as he stood in need of. Becoming -embarrassed through a law suit, in which heavy -damages were cast against him, he was obliged to -bar himself in his own house to escape the debtor’s -gaol. He spent seven long years in this domestic -confinement, but still continued to conduct his business -with assiduity, and, as a solace, to compose a -poem, “On Liberty,” the profits of which enabled him -to compound with the keepers of the city prison. -After regaining his freedom his business largely -increased, and, in 1740, he set up a printing-press at -Truro, the first introduced into Cornwall; the miners -were, however, at that time in little need of literature, -and he soon removed the types to Exeter. Among -his chief publications were the “Agreeable Gallimanfly; -or, Matchless Medley,” a collection of verses -chiefly the production of his own pen; the “Mob-aid,” -so full of newly-coined words that, in Devonshire, -“Bricisms” were for long synonymous with quaint -novelty of expression; and the folio “Geographical<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_478">478</a></span> -Dictionary,” which occupied ten years in publication -and is still far from complete. Brice was at all times -a shielder of the oppressed; and when the Exeter -play-actors were purchased out of their theatre by the -Methodists, who converted it into a chapel, and -indicted them as vagrants, he published a poem—“The -Playhouse Church; or, new Actors of Devotion,” -which so stirred up popular feeling that the Methodists -were fain to restore the place to its former -possessors, who, under Brice’s patronage, opened their -house for some time gratis to all comers. In gratitude -the players brought his characteristics of speech -and dress into their dramas, and even Garrick eventually -introduced him, under, of course, a pseudonyme, in -the “Clandestine Marriage.” At the time of his death, -in 1773, he was the oldest master-printer in England. -His corpse lay for some days in state at the Apollo -Inn; every person admitted to view it paid a shilling, -and the money so received went towards defraying the -expense of his funeral, which was attended by three -hundred freemasons, for he had not only been a zealous -member of the fraternity, but at the period of his decease -he was looked upon as the father of the craft.</p> - -<div class="tb">* <span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">*</span></div> - -<p>Another West of England worthy, though he was -only a bookseller for the short space of seven years, -has perhaps higher claim upon our attention than -any other provincial bibliopole. Joseph Cottle was -born at Bristol in the year 1770, and at the age of -twenty-one he became a bookseller in his native -city. In 1795 he published a volume of his own -“Poems”—and himself an author he was generously -able to appreciate the work of better men. Through -extraordinary circumstances he became acquainted<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_479">479</a></span> -with Coleridge, Southey, Wordsworth, and Lamb, when -they were still unknown to fame, and with a rare perception -of genius he was able to assist them materially -towards the goal of success. From his interesting -“Early Recollections,” we gather that one evening -Coleridge told him despondently that he had been -the round of London booksellers with a volume of -poems, and that all but one had refused to even look -over the manuscript, and that this one proffered him -six guineas for the copyright, which sum, poor as he -was, he felt constrained to decline. Cottle at once -offered the young author thirty guineas, and actually -paid the money before the completion of the volume, -which appeared in 1796.</p> - -<p>To Southey he made the same bid for his first -volume, and the offer was eagerly accepted. Cottle -at once, however, added, “You have read me some -books of your ‘Joan of Arc,’ which poem I perceive -to have great merit. If it meet with your concurrence -I will give you fifty guineas for this work, and publish -it in quarto, when I will give you in addition fifty -copies to dispose of among your friends.” Southey -corroborates this account, and further says, “It can -rarely happen that a young author should meet with a -bookseller as inexperienced and as ardent as himself; -and it would be still more extraordinary if such -mutual indiscretion did not bring with it cause for -regret to both. But this transaction was the commencement -of an intimacy which has continued without -the slightest shade of displeasure at any time on -either side to the present day.” Cottle ordered a new -fount of type “for what was intended to be the handsomest -book that Bristol had ever yet sent forth,” -and owing, perhaps, more to the party feelings of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_480">480</a></span> -periodical press, and the subject of the poem, than to -any intrinsic merit, other than as holding out vague -hope of future promise, the young author acquired a -sudden reputation, which was afterwards fully sustained -by his prose if not by his poetry.</p> - -<p>Later on Cottle was introduced to Wordsworth, -who read him portions of his “Lyrical Ballads.” The -venturous bookseller made him the same offer of -thirty guineas for the first-fruits of his genius, saying -that it would be a gratifying circumstance to issue the -first volumes of three such poets, and (a veritable -prophecy) “a distinction that might never again -occur to a provincial bookseller.” After mature consideration, -Wordsworth accepted the offer; but the -“Lyrical Ballads,” in which also Coleridge’s “Ancient -Mariner” first appeared, went off so slowly that he -was compelled to part with the greater part of the -five hundred copies to Arch, a London bookseller. -We have already related how Cottle, and after him, -Longman, rendered material assistance to Chatterton’s -sister, by an edition of the poems of the Sleepless -Boy who perished in his Pride, and how in 1798 Cottle -disposed of all his copyrights to Longman, and obtained -his consent to return the copyright of the -“Lyrical Ballads” to the author.</p> - -<p>Though Cottle henceforth gave up bookselling, he -did not forego book-making. In 1798 he published -his “Malvern Hills,” in 1801 his “Alfred,” and in -1809 the “Fall of Cambria.” These last effusions -attracted the venom of Lord Byron’s pen, who writes -in bitter prose, “Mr. Cottle, Amos, Joseph, I know -not which, but one or both, once sellers of books they -did not write, now writers of books that do not sell, -have published a pair of epics,” and in bitterer verse:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_481">481</a></span></p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="iq">“Bœotian Cottle, rich Bristowa’s boast,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Imports old stories from the Cambrian coast,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">And sends his goods to market, all alive,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Lines forty thousand, cantos twenty-five.<br /></span> -</div> - -<div class="tb">* <span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">*</span></div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Oh, Amos Cottle!—Phœbus! what a name<br /></span> -<span class="i0">To fill the speaking trump of future fame!—<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Oh, Amos Cottle! for a moment think<br /></span> -<span class="i0">What meagre profits spring from pen and ink!<br /></span> -<span class="i0">When thus devoted to poetic dreams<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Who will peruse thy prostituted reams?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Oh, pen perverted, paper misapplied!<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Had Cottle still adorned the counter’s side,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Bent o’er the desk, or, born to useful toils,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Been taught to make the paper which he soils,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Plough’d, delved, or plied the oar with lusty limb,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">He had not sung of Wales, nor I of him.”<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>Of course, this confusion of the names of the two -brothers was intentionally meant to strengthen the -gibe. Though Cottle was at best an indifferent poet -his name would have survived as a generous friend -even if Lord Byron had not honoured him with his -satire.</p> - -<p>After having personally encouraged the youthful -genius of such authors as Coleridge, Southey, and -Wordsworth, and after having enjoyed their friendship -and esteem, it was natural that Cottle, when their -names had become familiar words in every household -in England, should wish to preserve what he -could of the history of their early days. In 1837 he -published his “Early Recollections,” but as he had -felt compelled to decline to contribute them in any -mutilated form to the authorised, and insufferably -dull, life of Coleridge, the work was greeted by the -<cite>Quarterly Review</cite> with a howl of contemptuous abuse, -as consisting of the “refuse of advertisements and -handbills, the sweepings of a shop, the shreds of a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_482">482</a></span> -ledger, and the rank residuum of a life of gossip.” -This is certainly “slashing criticism” with a vengeance: -Cottle based the value of his book upon the ground -of his having been a bookseller, and to taunt him with -the fact is as unmanly as the whole description of the -work is false. He lays the slightest possible stress -upon the assistance he had been able to render the -illustrious authors pecuniarily, and only brings it forward -at all as furnishing matter for literary history; -and to most students the literary history of the early -struggles of genius does possess the highest interest. -Cottle was certainly unskilled in the art of composition, -and was undoubtedly garrulous, but the gossip anent -such writers, when prompted, as in this case, by truth -and affection, is worth tomes of disquisitions upon their -virtues or their faults. Joseph Cottle died as recently -as 1854, and his memory is already half-forgotten, and -yet had we wished to close our annals of the “trade” -by tributes paid by illustrious writers to the worth and -integrity of its members, we could find none more -fitting than the letters of two famous poets to an -obscure provincial bookseller.</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p>“<span class="smcap">Dear Cottle</span>,—On the blank leaf of my poems -I can most appropriately write my acknowledgments -to you, for your too disinterested conduct in -the purchase of them.... Had it not been for you -none, perhaps, of them would have been published, -and some not written.</p> - -<p class="sigright"> -<span class="l2">“Your obliged and affectionate friend,</span><br /> -<span class="smcap">S. T. Coleridge</span>.” -</p></blockquote> - -<p>Again:—</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p>“Do you suppose, Cottle, that I have forgotten -those true and most essential acts of friendship<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_483">483</a></span> -which you showed me when I stood most in need of -them? Your house was my house when I had no -other.... Sure I am that there never was a more -generous or kinder heart than yours, and you will -believe me when I add that there does not live that -man upon earth whom I remember with more gratitude -and affection.... Good-night, my dear old friend -and benefactor.</p> - -<p class="sigright"> -“<span class="smcap">Robert Southey.</span>” -</p></blockquote> - -<div id="if_i_483" class="figcenter" style="width: 175px;"> - <img src="images/i_483.jpg" width="175" height="84" alt="" /> - <div class="caption">THE END.</div></div> - -<p class="p4 center"> -<span class="small bt">BILLING, PRINTER, GUILDFORD, SURREY.</span> -</p> - -<div class="chapter"><div class="footnotes"> -<h2 class="nobreak p1"><a id="FOOTNOTES"></a>FOOTNOTES</h2> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="fn1"><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="fnanchor">1</a> “Essai sur les Livres dans l’Antiquité.”</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="fn1"><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="fnanchor">2</a> For a very interesting article on this subject, see <cite>Cornhill Magazine</cite>, -vol. ix.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="fn1"><a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="fnanchor">3</a> Carnan is said, by Mr. Knight, to have been so frequently prosecuted -that he invariably kept a clean shirt in his pocket, that he -might lessen the inconvenience of being carried off unexpectedly to -Newgate.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="fn1"><a id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4" class="fnanchor">4</a> D’Urfey was a music-master.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="fn1"><a id="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5" class="fnanchor">5</a> This anecdote is often incorrectly related of Wilkes and the <cite>Essay -on Woman</cite>.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="fn1"><a id="Footnote_6" href="#FNanchor_6" class="fnanchor">6</a> The <cite>Daily Post</cite>, Feb. 13, 1728.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="fn1"><a id="Footnote_7" href="#FNanchor_7" class="fnanchor">7</a> A most interesting and voluminous collection of “notes” in reference -to Curll was contributed to “Notes and Queries” (2nd series, vols. -ii., iii., and x.) by M.N.S. Many of our facts in relation to him have -been taken from that source, and for a far fuller account, in the -rough material, we refer the reader thither.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="fn1"><a id="Footnote_8" href="#FNanchor_8" class="fnanchor">8</a> West says he sat next Lackington at a sale when he spent upwards -of £12,000 in an afternoon.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="fn1"><a id="Footnote_9" href="#FNanchor_9" class="fnanchor">9</a> <cite>Bookseller</cite>, June, 1865.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_10" href="#FNanchor_10" class="fnanchor">10</a> As we shall have no other opportunity of referring to the third in -rank of the leading quarterlies, we must, perforce, compress its history -in a foot-note. The <cite>Westminster Review</cite> was started more than fifty -years ago, by Jeremy Bentham, who was succeeded in editorship by Sir -John Browning, in conjunction with General Perronet Thompson, whose -labours in the cause of radical reform gave him considerable notoriety -at the time. They made way for the accomplished statesman Sir -William Molesworth, the editor of <cite>Hobbes</cite>. A profounder thinker still, -Mr. John Stuart Mill, followed. Most of his philosophical essays -appeared in its pages, at a time when Grote and Mr. Carlyle were both -contributing. For more than twenty years now the <cite>Review</cite> has been in -the hands of Dr. Chapman, who, beginning life as a bookseller in Newgate -Street, was the first English publisher to recognise the value of -Emerson’s writings. Under Dr. Chapman, what is now the great -feature—the Quarterly Summary of Contemporary Literature—was introduced. -The <cite>Review</cite> has lately attracted much attention by the bold -manner in which the “Social Evil” and the “Contagious Diseases -Acts” have been discussed in its columns, and these articles are generally -attributed to the able pen of the editor himself.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_11" href="#FNanchor_11" class="fnanchor">11</a> -</p> - -<table id="macaulay" summary="Macaulay essays in Philadelphia edition of the Edinburgh Review"> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">I.</td> - <td class="tdl">“On Dryden.” (<i>E. R.</i>, 1828.)</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">II.</td> - <td class="tdl">“History.” (<i>E. R.</i>, 1828.)</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">III.</td> - <td class="tdl">“Mirabeau.” (<i>E. R.</i>, 1832.)</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">IV.</td> - <td class="tdl">“Cowley and Milton.”</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">V.</td> - <td class="tdl">“Mitford’s Greece.”</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">VI.</td> - <td class="tdl">“Athenian Orator.”</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">VII.</td> - <td class="tdl">“Barère’s Memoirs.”</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">VIII.</td> - <td class="tdl">“Mill’s Essay on Government.” (<i>E. R.</i>, 1829.)</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">IX.</td> - <td class="tdl">“Bentham’s Defence of Mill.” (<i>E. R.</i>, 1829.)</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">X.</td> - <td class="tdl">“Utilitarian Theory of Government.” (<i>E. R.</i>, 1829.)</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">XI.</td> - <td class="tdl">“Charles Churchill.”</td></tr> -</table> -<p> -Many of these may be found in the volume of <cite>Miscellanies</cite> published -by Longmans. It has been denied that No. XI. is by Macaulay at all.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_12" href="#FNanchor_12" class="fnanchor">12</a> For a further account of these extraordinary sales, see Allibone’s -<cite>Dictionary of English Literature</cite>, vol. ii., from which many of the above -facts have been drawn.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_13" href="#FNanchor_13" class="fnanchor">13</a> Among the sufferers by this failure was the family of Robert Watt, -M.D., author of “Bibliotheca Britannica,” for which £2000 had been -given in bills, all of which were dishonoured. He was a ploughboy -until his seventeenth year, wrote many medical treatises, and occupied -his concluding years with a work precious and indispensable to every -student. The whole plan of the “Bibliotheca” is new, and few compilations -of similar magnitude and variety ever presented, in a first edition, -a more complete design and execution.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_14" href="#FNanchor_14" class="fnanchor">14</a> <cite>Quarterly Review</cite>, vol. lxx.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_15" href="#FNanchor_15" class="fnanchor">15</a> Given to Dallas.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_16" href="#FNanchor_16" class="fnanchor">16</a> Published by James Power, music seller.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_17" href="#FNanchor_17" class="fnanchor">17</a> Written at Geneva, and published by John Hunt, London.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_18" href="#FNanchor_18" class="fnanchor">18</a> This sketch was written before the publication of Mr. W. -Chambers’s life of his brother, but has been revised in accordance with -that interesting memoir.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_19" href="#FNanchor_19" class="fnanchor">19</a> Mr. Long has deposited in the Public Library at Brighton his private -copy of the “Encyclopædia,” interleaved with the names of the contributors, -and other interesting information as to the progress of the work.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_20" href="#FNanchor_20" class="fnanchor">20</a> Mr. G. W. M. Reynolds, of the “Mysteries of London” notoriety, -commenced life also as a temperance lecturer, and was at one time editor -of the <cite>Teetotaller</cite> Newspaper.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_21" href="#FNanchor_21" class="fnanchor">21</a> Lockhart, in his article in the <cite>Quarterly</cite>, says that Hook’s diary -shows a clear profit of £2000 on the <cite>first series</cite>. This must be incorrect.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_22" href="#FNanchor_22" class="fnanchor">22</a> The term <cite>Conger</cite> is ingeniously said to be derived from the eel, -meaning that the association, collectively, would swallow all smaller -fry.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_23" href="#FNanchor_23" class="fnanchor">23</a> <cite>Aldine Magazine</cite>, p. 50.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_24" href="#FNanchor_24" class="fnanchor">24</a> It was from the intricacy of thought of some few of the poems of -the “Christian Year,” that Sydney Smith christened it by the name of -“The Sunday Puzzle.”</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_25" href="#FNanchor_25" class="fnanchor">25</a> For the facts in the earlier portion of this memoir we are indebted to -an interesting obituary notice in the <cite>Bookseller</cite>.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_26" href="#FNanchor_26" class="fnanchor">26</a> For a very interesting bibliographical account of Mr. Tennyson’s -works, showing the various changes which the poems have undergone, -see “Tennysoniana,” by R. H. Shepherd (1856).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_27" href="#FNanchor_27" class="fnanchor">27</a> For a full account of this interesting and successful bookseller <i>see</i> -“Life of Alderman Kelly,” by the Rev. R. C. Fell (1856).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_28" href="#FNanchor_28" class="fnanchor">28</a> Tegg left a manuscript autobiography, which was published twenty -years after his death, in the <cite>City Press</cite>; to this interesting memorial we -are indebted for the facts in our present narrative.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_29" href="#FNanchor_29" class="fnanchor">29</a> This “Petition” was first printed in the <cite>Examiner</cite>, 7th April, -1839, and afterwards republished.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_30" href="#FNanchor_30" class="fnanchor">30</a> The <cite>Bookseller</cite>, June, 1864.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_31" href="#FNanchor_31" class="fnanchor">31</a> The <cite>Bookseller</cite>, 1861.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_32" href="#FNanchor_32" class="fnanchor">32</a> The above account is abridged from the <cite>Bookseller</cite> of November, -1869.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_33" href="#FNanchor_33" class="fnanchor">33</a> To a timely notice in a recent number of the <cite>Bookseller</cite> we are -indebted for the main facts in Duffy’s life.</p></div> -</div></div> - -<div class="chapter"><div class="transnote"> -<h2 class="nobreak p1"><a id="Transcribers_Notes"></a>Transcriber’s Notes</h2> - -<p>Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a predominant -preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.</p> - -<p>Simple typographical errors were corrected; occasional unbalanced -quotation marks retained.</p> - -<p>Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained.</p> - -<p>Arithmetic and date-sequence errors have not been corrected.</p> - -<p>Page <a href="#Page_22">22</a>: The second illustration (“1547”) may be part of -the illustration just above it.</p> - -<p>Page <a href="#Page_93">93</a>: “as the rious” was printed that way; may be a typgraphical -error for “as the various”.</p> - -<p>Page <a href="#Page_152">152</a>: “Dr. Thomas Stewart Trail” may be a misspelling of “Traill”.</p> - -<p>Page <a href="#Page_221">221</a>: “looked up his pistols” may be a misprint for “locked”.</p> -</div></div> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A History of Booksellers, the Old and -the New, by Henry Curwen - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF BOOKSELLERS, OLD AND NEW *** - -***** This file should be named 52362-h.htm or 52362-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/2/3/6/52362/ - -Produced by MWS, Charlie Howard, and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, -and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive -specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this -eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook -for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports, -performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given -away--you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks -not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the -trademark license, especially commercial redistribution. - -START: FULL LICENSE - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full -Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at -www.gutenberg.org/license. - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or -destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your -possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a -Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound -by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the -person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph -1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this -agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the -Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection -of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual -works in the collection are in the public domain in the United -States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the -United States and you are located in the United States, we do not -claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, -displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as -all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope -that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting -free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm -works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the -Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily -comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the -same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when -you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are -in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, -check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this -agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, -distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any -other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no -representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any -country outside the United States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other -immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear -prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work -on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, -performed, viewed, copied or distributed: - - This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and - most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no - restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it - under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this - eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the - United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you - are located before using this ebook. - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is -derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not -contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the -copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in -the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are -redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply -either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or -obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any -additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms -will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works -posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the -beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including -any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access -to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format -other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official -version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site -(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense -to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means -of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain -Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the -full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -provided that - -* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed - to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has - agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid - within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are - legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty - payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in - Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg - Literary Archive Foundation." - -* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all - copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue - all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm - works. - -* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of - any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of - receipt of the work. - -* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than -are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing -from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The -Project Gutenberg Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project -Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may -contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate -or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other -intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or -other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or -cannot be read by your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium -with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you -with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in -lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person -or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second -opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If -the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing -without further opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO -OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT -LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of -damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement -violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the -agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or -limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or -unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the -remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in -accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the -production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, -including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of -the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this -or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or -additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any -Defect you cause. - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of -computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It -exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations -from people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future -generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see -Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at -www.gutenberg.org - - - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by -U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the -mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its -volunteers and employees are scattered throughout numerous -locations. Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt -Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to -date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and -official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact - -For additional contact information: - - Dr. Gregory B. Newby - Chief Executive and Director - gbnewby@pglaf.org - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide -spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND -DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular -state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To -donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. - -Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project -Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be -freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and -distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of -volunteer support. - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in -the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not -necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper -edition. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search -facility: www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. - - - -</pre> - -</body> -</html> diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/cover.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 02495a0..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/cover.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_000.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_000.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 0469cc1..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_000.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_001.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_001.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 49d98c4..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_001.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_005.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_005.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index f60880e..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_005.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_005b.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_005b.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 5b2f9e4..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_005b.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_006.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_006.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 1ccb671..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_006.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_007.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_007.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 5662271..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_007.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_008.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_008.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 74dfa05..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_008.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_009.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_009.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index c559fc5..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_009.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_012.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_012.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 9623853..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_012.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_012b.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_012b.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 7e38873..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_012b.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_014.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_014.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index fb472dd..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_014.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_014b.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_014b.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 57a3bc4..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_014b.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_016.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_016.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index d8ac310..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_016.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_016b.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_016b.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index b2c05ff..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_016b.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_020.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_020.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index f8b4838..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_020.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_020b.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_020b.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index f74a896..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_020b.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_022.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_022.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 51afd4f..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_022.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_022b.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_022b.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index f21caee..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_022b.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_022c.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_022c.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 319831f..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_022c.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_024.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_024.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 3422df7..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_024.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_028.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_028.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 6a22cd4..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_028.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_028b.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_028b.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 6a09500..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_028b.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_048.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_048.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 871fa5e..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_048.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_048b.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_048b.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 0fdbbac..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_048b.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_056.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_056.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index d9a2b59..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_056.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_058.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_058.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index fd8e57a..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_058.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_058b.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_058b.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 864fcf7..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_058b.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_066.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_066.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 3b98ba8..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_066.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_072.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_072.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 28df5a0..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_072.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_076.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_076.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 6473fca..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_076.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_076b.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_076b.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 12111dd..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_076b.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_079.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_079.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index c559fc5..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_079.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_088.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_088.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index a6c901e..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_088.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_109.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_109.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 1787c59..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_109.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_110.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_110.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index aa40731..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_110.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_112.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_112.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 955aee4..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_112.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_158.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_158.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index c08fece..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_158.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_159.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_159.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 758d3bf..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_159.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_166.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_166.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 386e915..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_166.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_199.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_199.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index c4e0bb7..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_199.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_233.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_233.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 6d61bf2..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_233.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_234.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_234.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index e284b6e..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_234.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_236.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_236.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 23472f0..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_236.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_252.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_252.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index cfe285c..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_252.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_278.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_278.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 82a93f8..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_278.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_279.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_279.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index dcc9930..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_279.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_295.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_295.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 3ad558f..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_295.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_296.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_296.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index c555048..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_296.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_332.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_332.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index e76bedc..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_332.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_333.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_333.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index c931694..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_333.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_346.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_346.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index e7821de..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_346.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_347.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_347.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index c2d879b..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_347.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_363.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_363.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 642f65e..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_363.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_378.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_378.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 082afb1..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_378.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_379.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_379.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index b5b6ddb..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_379.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_398.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_398.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 1913621..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_398.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_399.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_399.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 443d0d6..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_399.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_412.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_412.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index ba7276e..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_412.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_420.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_420.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index e3df6c1..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_420.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_421.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_421.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index d28bcb1..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_421.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_424.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_424.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index d97e3c7..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_424.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_432.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_432.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 3f1f4e9..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_432.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_433.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_433.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 41246e5..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_433.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_440.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_440.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 13b7c98..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_440.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_441.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_441.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 0e5153e..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_441.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52362-h/images/i_483.jpg b/old/52362-h/images/i_483.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index e33fba2..0000000 --- a/old/52362-h/images/i_483.jpg +++ /dev/null |
