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1861. Illness of

daughter.

1862. Removal

from

Street.

Cholera in Spitalfields.

In the year 1861 I gave up the work, being compelled to take this course by the illness of my dear daughter and the many months of her residence with her mother at Hastings.

In 1862 I removed from Wellington Street to Canonbury. On account of distance my Wellington attendance at Bloomsbury was much interrupted, and for several years we had sittings at Dr. Allon. Union Chapel. Dr. Allon's congregation were engaged in important work having for its object the improvement of the condition of the poor in Spitalfields. In connexion with this work I paid visits to that district. At this time the people of Spitalfields were stricken with cholera, and the most active measures were taken by the church and congregation to mitigate its virulence. Nothing daunted either the teachers in the schools or the visitors to the neighbourhood. All the work was fully continued, a part of the buildings being appropriated for dispensing medicines and advice. Bad water, bad drainage, crowded dwellings, and poor food had made havoc with the people. Cleanliness, medicines, and a more generous living soon brought the disease under control. Printed notices were issued to the effect that " no water should be used until previously boiled." Church, chapel, and poor-law guardians were efficiently at work in this matter.

1868. Removes to

Road.

In 1868 I removed to Burghley Road, Highgate Road. The omnibuses offering greater Highgate facilities to attend at Bloomsbury Chapel, we again joined that church, and continued there until 1877.

My friend Mr. Coxeter having presented a freehold site for a Baptist Chapel in the Highgate Road, a building committee was formed, Mr. Joseph Salter acting as secretary. Upon his death I was requested to take his place. I did so until the building was completed in February, 1877, when the membership of my dear wife and myself was transferred from Bloomsbury.

The Autobiographical Notes left by John Francis finish here.

Highgate Road Chapel opened

1877.

The

Athenæum

founded by

1828.

CHAPTER II.

THE FOUNDING OF THE ATHENÆUM.

THE history of the founding of the Athenæum is a singular and varied one. There had been Buckingham a literary paper with this title started by Dr. Aikin in 1807, but it died in 1809. The originator of the later paper, Mr. James Silk Buckingham* a man of roving and restless dispo

* Mr. James Silk Buckingham was born August 25th, 1786. In 1812, passing the Mansion House, he noticed that a meeting was being held in reference to the renewal of the charter of the East India Company, then about to expire. He went in and found Mr. Alderman Waithman speaking strongly against the monopoly, and advocating free trade with India. This produced a great impression upon him, and when, in 1816, travelling in India without a licence, he was banished by order of the Company, he determined to do all in his power to sweep away this restriction, and started the Calcutta Journal to advocate his views; but in 1823 the attacks made in its columns upon the monopoly caused him to be again expelled. He represented Sheffield in the Radical interest 1832-37, and died, after a life of extraordinary vicissitude and adventure, on June 30th, 1855. The Court of Directors of the East India Company made amends for their former ill treatment by granting him a pension. He had also 200l. a year from the Civil List.

sition, fond of travel and adventure, and with a love of change-was the last person one would have expected to have embarked on an enterprise requiring so much quiet, constant, and persistent labour to secure any chance of success.

He was already the proprietor of the Sphynx, The Sphynx. a journal of politics, literature, and news,". published twice a week, on Wednesday and

Herald.

Saturday evenings, price 7d.; of the Oriental The Oriental Herald, "confined chiefly to the discussion of India and its affairs," an octavo magazine of 200 pages, published monthly at 5s.; also of the Verulam, "a weekly periodical of scientific information alone," price Is. stamped and 8d. unstamped.

The

Verulam.

Dr.

To these, on Wednesday, the 2nd of January, 1828, he added the Athenæum. All the papers were published at the same office, 147, Strand, close to Somerset House. Dr. Stebbing, in the Athenæum of the 19th of Stebbing. January, 1878, states that he was one of the band of literary men engaged with Mr. Buckingham in the very first planning of the new journal, and in shaping the mode of its publication. He and Charles Knight* promised

*Mr. J. Macfarlane, in a letter of February, 1884, to the late Mr. Swift, printer, of Newton Street, Holborn, relates that he was engaged in the printing office as maker up, and while at work on the first number "my

Charles

Knight.

their best help, and the agreement was that they and other contributors should be paid according to the standard remuneration for articles in good periodicals. The price of the paper was 8d., or if stamped to go by post, Is.

Mr. Buckingham in the first number issued a bold and spirited address announcing himself as editor, and part proprietor with Mr. Mr. Colburn. Colburn: probably rivals will "insinuate that the Literary independence of the Athenæum will be endangered by the union. Let them endeavour to create this impression as they may. The answer, and the antidote, are both at hand. And first, Mr. Colburn has, in the most open and explicit manner, disclaimed all exercise of authority, or interference, even in the minutest particular, as to any matter connected with the Literary management of the, Work, leaving to me the sole and undivided power of doing whatever I may think just in this respect. Secondly, his pecuniary interest in the property is not greater than my own; so that I being

respected friend the late Mr. Charles Knight came into the composing-room and requested me to allow him to go on with what I was doing. I at once did so, and was both surprised and pleased to see the ability he displayed in handling the matter for making up." Mr. Macfarlane is still living, aged eighty-nine, and was in 1884 elected to the Caxton Pension.

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