exclusively in connection with bookselling, was occupying his leisure hours in literary composition, which came upon him like an inspiration at nineteen years of age. His tastes and powers in this respect suggested the idea of a small periodical which we might mutually undertake, He was to be the editor and principal writer. I was to be the printer and publisher, and also to contribute articles as far as time permitted. The periodical was duly announced in a limited way, and commenced. A name was adopted from the optical toy invented by Sir David Brewster, about which all classes were for a time nearly crazy. It was called the Kaleidoscope; or, Edinburgh Literary Amusement. In size, it was sixteen pages octavo, the price threepence, and it was to appear once a fortnight. The waiting for proofs, favoured with an opportunity of seeing the compositors pursue their ingenious art, and learning how types were arranged in lines and pages. Recollections of what I had thus seen of compositorship were now revived, and I began to set up my song-book without receiving any special instruction; my composing frame being placed in such a situation that I was ready to attend to my book-stall. My progress in compositorship was at first slow; I had to feel my way. A defective adjustment of the lines to a uniform degree of tightness was my greatest trouble, but this was got over. The art of working my press had next to be acquired, and in this there was no difficulty. After an interval of fifty years, I recollect the delight I experienced in working off my first impression -the pleasure since of seeing hundreds of thou-first number was issued on Saturday, 6th Octosands of sheets pouring from machines in which I claim an interest being nothing to it! I think there was a degree of infatuation in my attachment to that jangling, creaking, wheezing little press. Placed at the only window in my apartment, within a few feet of my bed, I could see its outlines in the silvery moonlight when I awoke; and there, at the glowing dawn did its figure assume distinct proportions. When daylight came fully in, it was impossible to resist the desire to rise and have an hour or two of exercise at the little machine. With an imperfect apparatus, the execution of my song-book was far from good. Still it was legible in the old ballad and chapbook style, and I was obliged to be content. Little by little I got through the small volume. It was a tedious drudgery. With my limited fount, I could set up no more than eight small pages, forming the eighth part of a sheet. After printing the first eight, I had to distribute the letter and set up the second eight, and so on throughout a hundred pages. Mouths were consumed in the operation. The number of copies printed was 750, to effect which I had to pull the press 20,000 times. But labour, as already hinted, cost nothing. I set the types in the intervals of business, particularly during wet weather, when the stall could not be put out, and the presswork was executed late at night or early in the morning. The only outlay worth speaking of for the little volume was that incurred for paper, which I was unable to purchase in greater quantities than a few quires at a time, and therefore at a considerable disadvantage in price. Ultimately, when the printing was completed, and the volume had been put in boards, I sold the entire issue, either in single copies at a shilling, or wholesale to other stall-keepers, and, after paying all expenses, cleared about nine pounds by the transaction." "As my business increased my typographical capabilities also became greater, and I was accordingly led to new aspirations. Robert, who had made corresponding advances in business, but ber 1821. The mechanical execution of this literary serial sorely tested the powers of my poor little press, which received sundry claspings of iron to strengthen it for the unexpected duty. My muscular powers likewise underwent a trial. I had to print the sheet in halves, one after the other, and then stitch the two together. I set all the types, and worked off all the copies, my younger brother James, a fairhaired lad, rolling on the ink, and otherwise rendering assistance. This was the hardest task I had yet undergone; for, being pressed by time, there was no opportunity for rest. Occupied with business, the composing-frame, and the press, also with some literary composition, I was in harness sixteen hours a day; took no more than a quarter of an hour to meals; and never gave over work till midnight. Sometimes I had dreadful headaches. Of course, I do not justify this excessive application. It was clearly wrong. I was acting in violation of the laws of health. Enthusiasm alone kept me up-certainly no material stimulus. My only excuse for this ardently-pursued labour, which must have been troublesome to quietlydisposed neighbours, was what at the same period might have been offered by my brother for his incessant self-sacrificing exertions-a desire to overcome a condition that provoked the most stinging recollections. I should probably have broken down but for the weekly repose and fresh air of Sunday, when, after attending church I had an exhilarating ramble on the sands and links. Robert wrote nearly the whole of the articles in the Kaleidoscope, verse as well as prose. My contributions consisted of only three or four papers. The Kaleidoscope did not last. It sold pretty well, but only to the extent of paying expenses, yielding no reward whatever for literary efforts. The concluding number appeared on the 12th of January 1822 " When Robert Chambers in 1822 had issued his "Illustrations of the Author of Waverley," he had fairly begun an industrious literary career. This work was well received, and was followed dress, written in a fervid state of feeling. sale of 50,000 copies; and at the third number, when copies were consigned to an agent in London for dispersal through England, the sale rose to 80,000, at which it long remained, with scarcely any advertising to give it publicity. Until the fourteenth number of the in 1824 by "Traditions of Edinburgh," a work which, from his previous training, he was well qualified to write. This led to an acquaintance with Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, and a friend-days there was, for Scotland, the unprecedented ship with Sir Walter Scott. The author of "Waverley" forwarded a budget of reminiscences to the young author. "Walks in Edinburgh," a companion to the "Traditions," appeared in 1825, and his "Popular Rhymes of Scotland" was issued early in 1826. His "Picture of Scotland," partly the result of previous work, Robert was only in the position of conhistorical study, and of walks over various distributor. Then abandoning his separate protricts of Scotland, appeared in the same year. fessional relations, he became joint-editor, and All the while he was engaged in the prosecution was also associated with me in the firm of of the bookselling business, which had been W. & R. Chambers." gradually growing upon him. His "History of The first number of Charles Knight's Penny the Rebellion of 1745," and some other similar Magazine was issued on the 31st March 1832. works, appeared in the series called Constable's Chambers's Journal still survives in a green old Miscellany. "Scottish Ballads and Songs," age, having witnessed the death of a host of and the "Biography of Distinguished Scots-imitators, and still possessing a circulation of men," appeared in 1829; and in the same year over 70,000 copies monthly. he married. Between 1829 and 1832 he edited a Conservative newspaper called the Edinburgh Advertiser. William for a time relinquished his printing, and along with Robert was engaged in a "Gazetteer of Scotland," for which they were to be paid £100. This helped still further to bring them into notice. In 1832 the country seemed ripe for a higher class of cheap literature. The Edinburgh School of Arts, founded in 1821, was the pioneer of other similar institutions which were started throughout the country. The writings of Scott, Byron, Southey, and Wordsworth, the discussions regarding the Reform Bill, with the rapid development of the newspaper press and the higher class reviews and magazines, had assisted this consummation. That William Chambers understood the signs of the times, we learn from his biography. "In 1831 I resolved to take advantage of the evidently growing taste for cheap literature, and lead off, as far as was in my power, in a proper direction. Before taking any active step, I mentioned the matter to Robert. Let us, I said, endeavour to give a reputable literary character to what is at present mostly mean or trivial, and of no permanent value; but he, thinking only of the not very creditable low-priced papers then current, did not entertain a favourable opinion of my projected undertaking. With all loyalty and affection, however, he promised to give me what literary assistance was in his power, and in this I was not disappointed. Consulting no one else, and in that highly-wrought state of mind which overlooks all but the probability of success, I at length, in January 1832, issued the prospectus of Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, a weekly sheet at three-halfpence. Announcing myself as editor, I stated that "no communications in verse or prose were wanted." The first number appeared on Saturday, the 4th of February 1832. It contained an opening ad The success of 1832 was a hopeful basis for further operations. Combining business and literary talent in a happy and successful partnership, the two brothers entertained the comprehensive design of editing, printing, and pub. lishing works of a popularly instructive and entertaining tendency. Their after-success is now a matter of history. The well-known "Information for the People" was first issued in 1833. It aimed at giving distinct information on interesting branches of science-physical, mathematical, and moral-natural history, political history, geography, and literature, and various miscellaneous topics. Since its first issue over 170,000 sets have been sold. In 1835 a series of school-books was commenced, which comprehended a section on physical science. Robert Chambers, besides other volumes, contributed a "History of the British Empire," and "History of the English Language and Literature" to this series. Objections have been raised as to the too secular character of some of these school-books, but it may be remembered at the same time, that in avoiding anything of a controversial nature, they also solved the "religious difficulty" with many. When the "Miscellany of Useful and Entertaining Tracts" appeared, it was also highly successful. What they have justly described as their "crowning effort in cheap and instructive literature," was the commencement in 1859, under the editorship of Dr Andrew Findlater, of the "Encyclopædia: a Dictionary of Universal Knowledge for the People." This work was completed in ten volumes in 1868, and has since been revised by competent hands, and otherwise kept up to date. perhaps the most useful of all their publications, has had large circulation, and has become a standard work in Great Britain, America, and the Colonies. This work, Of independent works, William Chambers production he overtaxed his strength, and he retired to his country house at Abbey Park, St Andrews, in shattered and enfeebled health. A "Life of Smollett," with characteristic specimens of his writings, was the only other separate work from his pen. In 1868 he received the honorary degree of LL.D. from the University of St Andrews. Domestic afflictions, the death of his wife and a daughter in 1863, pressed heavily upon him. He married again in 1867, and his last years were spent, for the most part, in the pleasant retirement of his 1870. He now felt that his days were numbered, and after several changes of air and scene, he died on 17th March 1871, in his sixty-ninth year. His death had without doubt been found time to write and publish: "The Book of Scotland," "The Youth's Companion and Counsellor," 1860; "Something of Italy," 1862; "History of Peeblesshire," 1864; "Wintering in Mentone," 1870; "France: its History and Revolutions," 1871, and "Chambers's Social Science Tracts." Robert Chambers was no less actively industrious, confining himself more exclusively to the literary side of publishing. His papers to Chambers's Journal did not occupy him longer than one or two days a week, and the remainder of his time was well utilised. In conjunction with Profes-country house. His second wife died in January sor Wilson he assisted in producing a work on the "Land of Burns," which was published by Messrs Blackie & Sons. He projected a "Cyclopædia of English Literature," that should form a history, critical and biographi-hastened by overwork. In his interesting mecal, of British authors, from the earliest to the present times, accompanied with a systematised series of extracts-a concentration of the best productions of English intellect, set in a biographical and critical history of the literature itself. In this work he was assisted by Dr Robert Carruthers of Inverness. The book was finished in 1844, and has proved both useful and successful. A new and revised edition, with many additions and alterations, was issued in 1877. His "Select Writings," in seven volumes, were issued in 1847. His researches in geology, and in the mutations that had in the course of ages taken place on the earth's surface, partly the result of a course of foreign travel, were published in 1848, under the title of "Ancient Sea-Margins." His "Life and Works of Burns" appeared in 1850; "Tracings in Iceland and the Faroe Islands" in 1856; "Domestic Annals of Scotland," 1859; "Memoirs of a Banking House," 1860; " Edinburgh Papers," 1861; "The Book of Days," a miscellany of popular antiquities in connection with the calendar, including anecdotes, biographies, curiosities of literature, and oddities of human life and character, on the plan of Hone's "Every Day Book," was to be his last great work. In its moir William writes: "My brother produced upwards of seventy volumes, exclusively of detached papers, which it would be impossible to enumerate. His whole writings had for their aim the good of society-the advancement in some shape or other of the true and beautiful. It will hardly be thought that I exceed the proper bounds of panegyric in stating that in the long list of literary compositions of Robert Chambers, we see the zealous and successful student, the sagacious and benevolent citizen, and the devoted lover of his country." William Chambers, in 1859, perhaps mindful of what Alexander Elder's circulating library had been to him in the early Peebles days, gifted to his native town a suite of buildings, consisting of a library of ten thousand volumes, reading-room, museum, gallery of art, and lecture-hall. In 1865 he was elected Lord Provost of Edinburgh, and succeeded while in office in securing an Act of Parliament for the sanitary improvement of a great part of the overcrowded and badly-ventilated portion of the old town of Edinburgh. One of the broad and handsome streets, to the north of the College, a result of these improvements, has been called Chambers Street. LORD MACAULAY. [1800-1859.] FEW names are more familiar to the English reading public than that of Lord Macaulay, poet, essayist, and historian. His biography by his nephew, Mr Trevelyan, shows a successful life, happy, industrious, and beneficent. Macaulay was descended from a line of Scotch parish ministers, his great-grandfather being minister of Tiree and Coll; his granduncle, of Ardnamurchan; his grandfather, John Macau lay, was successively the minister of Barra, South Uist, Inverary, and Cardross. One of his uncles, becoming a clergyman in the Church of England, made the acquaintance of Mr Thomas Babington, owner of Rotheley Temple, Leicestershire. He afterwards married one of Macaulay's aunts, and presented his brother-in-law to the living of Rotheley. His father, Zachary Macaulay, born in 1768, had been sent out to Jamaica by a Scotch house of business as book keeper on an estate, where he became sole manager. His close contact with and knowledge of the evils of negro slavery caused him to throw up his situation when he was four-andtwenty from conscientious scruples, and return to his native country. He became the colleague of Granville Sharp, Wilberforce, and Thornton, as a slave abolitionist. For some time he resided at Sierra Leone, promoting various philanthropic objects; afterwards he became a thriving merchant, but neglecting his business in his over-zeal as a reformer, he brought poverty on the family. He married Miss Mills, a Quakeress. Thomas Macaulay was born in the house of his aunt, Mrs Babington, at Rotheley Temple, on 25th October 1800. While still very young, he remembered standing by his father's side look ing out of the nursery window at a cloud of black smoke which was pouring out of a tall chimney, and asking if that were the mouth of hell. His early years were spent at Clapham, where his precocity and his command of language were equally remarkable. His childhood was quiet and happy, and from three years of age he read incessantly. His memory retained the bookish phraseology. Here are three anecdotes regarding this period: "His father took him on a visit to Lady Waldegrave at Strawberry Hill, and was much pleased to exhibit to his old friend the fair bright boy, dressed in a green coat with red collar and cuffs, a frill at the throat, and white trousers. A servant who was waiting upon the company in the great gallery spilt some hot coffee over his legs. The hostess was all kindness and compassion, and when, after a while, she asked how he was feeling, the little fellow looked up in her face, and replied, "Thank you, madam, the agony is abated.' "He had a little plot of ground at the back of the house, marked out as his own by a row of oyster-shells, which a maid one day threw away as rubbish. He went straight to the drawing-room, where his mother was entertaining some visitors, walked into the circle, and said very solemnly, 'Cursed be Sally; for it is written, Cursed is he that removeth his neighbour's landmark.' "Mrs Macaulay explained to Tom that he must learn to study without the solace of bread and butter, to which he replied, 'Yes, mamma, industry shall be my bread and attention my work only were finished. He had also composed several hymns. At a later date he wrote Fingal," a poem, in twelve books. Hannah More and her sister made a companion of him during his visits at Barley Wood, where he would read prose and declaim poetry by the hour to these worthy ladies. Till her death Hannah More was his admirer and friend. In 1812 the young historian, having outgrown his Clapham school, was sent to a private school at Little Shelford, near Cambridge. "He was not unpopular among his fellow-pupils, who regarded him with admiration, tempered with the compassion which his utter inability to play at any sort of game would have excited in every school, public or private alike." Here he read widely, unceasingly, and rapidly, his powerful memory enabling him to take in almost at a glance the contents of a printed page. The letters he wrote at this time have a bookish tone. In the eyes of his sisters, who regarded him with passionate love and devotion, he could do no wrong, and they enjoyed his unruffled sweetness of temper, his unfailing flow of spirits, and his amusing talk. Strangers he cared little for, and while at home with his sisters working around him, he would read aloud from a novel, or, by way of variety, they would take a walk together outside. Poetry and novels, unless when he was at home for the holidays, were forbidden in the daytime in the Macaulay family, and were referred to as 'drinking drams in the morning." Zachary Macaulay entirely disapproved of novel reading; but the young people had their way, and became confirmed novel readers. While editor of the Christian Observer, an anonymous letter was inserted, which he afterwards discovered was written by his own son. This letter eulogised Fielding and Smollett, and drew down upon him the wrath of many of the contributors. Young Macaulay nevertheless continued to be reverent, devoted, and respectful towards his father, and eventually became the mainstay and support of the whole family. Macaulay took up his residence at Trinity College, Cambridge, in October 1818. He was the author of two prize poems, was elected to the Craven scholarship in 1821, and became a Fellow of Trinity College in 1822. He detested the labour of manufacturing Greek and Latin verse, cared little for mathematics, and his advice to writers of Latin prose was, "Soak your mind with Cicero." He distinguished himself in debating, and began to take an interest in politics. He still continued to read novels-good, bad, and indifferent and he would cry over the pathetic passages. His first public appearance as a speaker was at a meeting of the Anti-Slavery Society in June 1824. The Duke of Gloucester was in the chair, and his speech was highly successful. His father made but one remark on the speech, to the effect that, "It was ungraceful in so young a man to speak with folded arms in the presence of royalty." Macaulay was called to the bar in 1826, and joined the northern circuit at Leeds, but he did not look seriously upon the law as a profession, and he got little business either in London or on circuit. When Charles Knight started his Quarterly Magazine, Macaulay was one of its most reliable and attractive contributors. His father, however, disapproved of the whole publication from beginning to end, and Macaulay withdrew his name for a time from the list of contributors. His father having withdrawn his objections after the issue of the second number, Macaulay continued to be a contributor until the premature death of the periodical. Macaulay's connection with the Edinburgh Review began in August 1825, with the publication of his article on Milton. Like Lord Byron, says his biographer, he awoke one morning and found himself famous. Murray, the London publisher, declared it would be worth the copyright of "Childe Harold" to have him on the staff of the Quarterly. His breakfast-table was covered with cards of invita tion to dinner, while his father foresaw that the law would be less to him than it had ever previously been. Lord Jeffrey had some time before this shown himself anxious to secure fresh blood for the Edinburgh Review. Writing to a friend in London he said: "Can you not lay your hands on some clever young man who would write for us? The original supporters of the work are getting old, and either too busy or too stupid, and here the young men are mostly Tories." In acknowledging the receipt of Macaulay's manuscript, he said: "The more I think the less I can conceive where you picked up that style." In personal appearance, Praed's description of him in Knight's Quarterly Magazine is said to be correct: "There came up a short manly figure, marvellously upright, with a bad neckcloth, and one hand in his waistcoat pocket." His wardrobe was always overstocked. Later in life he indulged in a succession of emIbroidered waistcoats. When outside he wore new kid gloves, into which his fingers were usually slipped only half-way. He was destitute of bodily or athletic accomplishments. The exercise in which he most excelled was in walking rapidly, and perhaps reading rapidly at the same time, through some of the London thoroughfares. Indoors he was mostly on his feet, moving rapidly up and down the room as he talked. Crabb Robinson gave the following note of his appearance and manners in society in 1826: "I had a most interesting companion in young Macaulay, one of the most promising of the rising generation I have seen for a long time. He has a good face-not the delicate features of a man of genius and sensibility, but the strong lines and well-knit limbs of a man sturdy in body and mind. Very eloquent and cheerful. Overflowing with words, and not poor in thought. Liberal in opinion, but no Radical. He seems a correct as well as a full man. He showed a minute knowledge of subjects not introduced by himself." With people whom he really did not like, it may be noted, he would not even live on terms of apparent intimacy. The Macaulay family had settled in 50 Great Ormond Street in 1823, and these years were years of intense happiness to young Macaulay and to his sisters, by whom he was still looked up to and idolised. Between the years 1829 and 1834, his income from his Trinity fellowship brought him £300, and his income from the Edinburgh Review rather less. A commissionership of bankruptcy bestowed upon him by Lord Lyndhurst in consideration of his Tory antecedents, while he held it, brought his income up to about £1000. When the Cambridge Senate resolved to petition against the Catholic claims, a majority in favour of emancipation was gained by carrying down a stage-coachful of young Whig Masters of Arts, who were afterwards described by their opponents as "godless and briefless barristers." He visited Edinburgh in 1828, establishing a friendship with Lord Jeffrey, which ceased only with life. Mr Trevelyan describes the will of the nation in 1830, as paralysed within the senate, effectual care being taken that its voice should not be heard without. "The press was gagged in England, and throttled in Scotland." Macaulay entered Parliament as member for Calne in 1830, and on the 5th of April addressed the House of Commons on the second reading of Mr Robert Grant's bill for the removal of Jewish disabilities. In the autumn of this year he had his first taste of Continental travel, enjoying a visit to Paris. This visit was saddened by the news of the death of his sister Jane; his mother never recovered the shock, and died in 1832. An epitomised history of a period of French history was commenced by him for Lardner's "Cabinet Cyclopædia," but was never finished. When he entered Parliament his commissionership of bankruptcy was swept away, and with it his income. The produce of his pen brought him some £60 or £70 a quarter, while he had the support of the family mainly thrown upon him. At the height of his parliamentary fame, he was reduced to sell his gold medals gained at Cambridge; be was, however, never in debt, and never wrote or published anything contrary to his literary or political conscience. In a letter to a lifelong friend, Thomas Flower Ellis, he described what took place in the memorable division in the House of Commons on the second reading of the Reform Bill, which was carried by a majority of one: "The 'ayes' and 'noes' were like two volleys of cannon from opposite sides of a field of battle. When the Opposition went out into the lobby, an operation which took up twenty minutes or more, we spread ourselves |