Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/295

255 CHAMBERS, KNIGHT, AND CASSELL. 255 pelled him to retain, or to lose much of the assistance which had given to the Quarterly Magazine its peculiar character." He could not hesitate in his choice, and with the sixth number the work ceased, being, how- ever, continued under the editorship of Maiden, and in the hands of another publisher for a quarter longer, but the panic that ruined Scott and Constable, and shook so many publishing houses, made small work of the transplanted Quarterly. This period of Knight's life may be regarded as the time when he sowed his publishing wild oats ; hence- forth sterner work awaited him. Among, however, the earliest of his distinct publications may be menr tioned Milton's " Treatises on Christian Doctrine/' then first discovered among the documents at the State Paper Office. Knight had fortunately no bills afloat at the time of the panic which, in connection with his endeavour to assist the Windsor bank, he so graphically describes " In the Albany we found the partners of one firm deliberating by candle light a few words showed how unavailing was the hope of help from them : ' We shall ourselves stop at nine o'clock.' The dark December morning gradually grew lighter ; the gas lamps died out ; but long before it was perfect day we found Lombard Street blocked up by eager crowds, each man struggling to be foremost at the bank where he kept his accounts, if its doors should be opened." Still, Mr. Knight, though not directly involved, found, like many other publishers, that the schemes of 1825 would not sell in 1826, and that the booksellers must, spite of themselves, " hold on " as best they could. Colburn, indeed, was the only one who still continued his ventures, and from the light and soothing nature