Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/282

244 244 CHAMBERS, KNIGHT, AND CASSELL. 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 de- termined 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 hear- ing 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 com- munication 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 Maga- zine was about a month after the Journal was set on foot and in general circulation." The success of the new Journal v&$ 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