48 THE FOUNDING OF THE ATHENÆUM. The business of the Athenæum placed in his hands. Francis entered the Athenæum office in management September, 1831, and on the 4th of October the entire business management was placed in his hands. The evidence of his presence was soon manifest out of doors, for Jerdan in referring to the reduction in price says, "That sagacious measure was followed up by the most diligent adoption of all business resources so essential to successful publishing." The first gratis On the 15th of October was issued the first Supplement. gratis supplement, containing eight pages of reading matter, making with the number twentyfour pages for fourpence; but, alas for the proprietors! there were only five columns of advertisements. Among them it is interesting to find one announcing the first catalogue of that eminent bookseller Mr. Bohn. the newspapers, and would make his way through any crowd rather than disappoint his employer. He often related to his friends what a narrow escape he had on the occasion of the execution of the banker Fauntleroy, on the 30th of November, 1824. He was obliged to pass through the Old Bailey just after the execution, and the crowd was so dense and disorderly, that he was only saved by timely help from being crushed to death. CHAPTER III. THE ATHENÆUM, 1832—1846. ON the 7th of January, 1832,* Mr. Dilke states:-" Our success has exceeded even our own sanguine hopes. It has been more rapid and triumphant than was perhaps ever known. From a comparatively low state of existence the Athenæum has risen to a sale exceeding that of any literary paper. We say not this boastingly, but encouragingly, to those active and zealous friends who have, in increasing numbers, taken an interest in our success, and this, too, not on personal or private grounds— but the better one, of principle. That the establishment of this paper has done good we are certain. The mystery of trade criticism and broad-sheet paragraphs has been utterly exposed...... But the exposure, though a serviceable duty to the public, has been most painful to ourselves, and we rejoice that the necessity gets less every hour. We need not assure our *This year Mr. Dilke and Mr. Holmes became sole proprietors, Mr. Dilke owning three-fourths, and Mr. Holmes one-fourth. (Biographical sketch by Mr. Dilke's grandson, Sir Charles Dilke.) 1832. Mr. Dilke's New Year's address. Poem by readers that we shall resolutely pursue the same course until publishers are content to allow others to judge of the merits of their works. Unshrinking and uncompromising when the battle was to be fought at all disadvantages, we are not likely to desert our standard now that the battle is won, and we have only to share the honours and glories of the triumph." The following short poem by Carlyle also appeared in the issue of January 7th :— FAUST'S CURSE. [From Goethe.] -"Our armies swore terribly in Flanders," said the Corporal, "but it was nothing to this." "IF, through th' abyss of terror stealing, Those touching sounds* my purpose+ stay'd- I curse the more whate'er environs A curse on all, one seed that scatters And Patience more than all be curs'd!"— "Of the Christmas Hymns from the neighbouring church." "+Of Suicide." Francis, naturally enough, announced it in the bill of contents for the week. The bill was, as usual, placed outside the office, without a thought that Carlyle would take offence. That he did take offence is shown by his diary:-" Jan. 13th, 1832. Last Friday saw my name in large letters at the Athenæum office in Catherine Street; hurried on with downcast eyes as if I had seen myself in the pillory......Why yield even half a hair's breadth to puffing? Abhor it, utterly divorce it, and kick it to the Devil."* On the 24th of March an advertisement appears of the first number of Tait's Edinburgh Magazine; and on the 31st, to be published on that day by Charles Knight, is announced the first number of the Penny Magazine, "under the superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge." Shopkeepers and hawkers are informed that they may be supplied wholesale by Groombridge, Panyer Alley, Paternoster Row. Tait's Edinburgh Magazine. Penny Magazine. On the 5th of May the office of the journal Removal to 2, Catherine was removed from No. 7, to No. 2, Catherine Street,+ a small, inconvenient house, a little way * 'Carlyle: History of the First Forty Years of his Life,' by James Anthony Froude, M.A., vol. ii. p. 230. This house was rented from the notorious Charles Molloy Westmacott, "the great Captain of the Age," that publication, so celebrated for "ink making" and "black Street. Death of Sir Walter Scott. up on the left from the Strand, and within a few doors of the corner house in Exeter Street, where Johnson took lodgings when he and his pupil, David Garrick, paid their first visit to London in 1737. The Catherine Street entrance to the Gaiety Restaurant now occupies its site. The restaurant was preceded by the New Exeter Change (an attempt at a second Lowther Arcade), which ran through to Wellington Street. On the 29th of September, on the front page, a short notice with a black border announces the death of Sir Walter Scott, and the next number, for October 6th, is devoted exclusively to an account of his life and works, written by Allan Cunningham. During this year the contributors to the Contributors Athenæum included Thomas Carlyle, the Ettrick Athenæum. Shepherd, Hood, Hervey, William and Mary to the Howitt, Leigh Hunt, Mrs. Fletcher (born Jewsbury), Charles Lamb, Leitch Ritchie, William Roscoe, and Thomas Roscoe. mail," being published at No. I. A full and interesting sketch of this "worthy" is to be found in the Fraser "Gallery of Illustrious Literary Characters." The portrait by Maclise shows the knowing horsewhip in the hat. "The lash, that is visible outside, curvets with so much ease, that one cannot be deceived as to the nature of the 'tool'; it is loaded, and no mistake." |