Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/269

233 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD. 233 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 instru- mental 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 book- selling 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, Macmillaii 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.