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292 292 HENR Y COLB URN. quiet after the literary circles of London, and to London he again returned, paying the forfeiture in full. This time he opened a house in Great Marl- borough Street, as his old establishment in New Burlington Street was, of course, in possession of Mr. Bentley, whose business had already assumed for- midable proportions. At Great Maryborough Street, Colburn succeeded in rallying round him all his old authors, and, perhaps, the greatest triumphs that date from thence, are Miss Strickland's "Lives of the Kings and Queens of England and Scotland," for the copyright of the first of which he paid 2000. Burke's " Peerage," " Baronetage," and " Landed Gentry" were also among his most profitable posses- sions. Throughout the whole of his business life, Colburn had a very keen perception as to what the public required, and of the market value of the productions offered him ; and yet he was almost uniformly liberal in his dealings. His judgment of copyrights was occasionally assisted by Mr. Forbes and Mr. Charles Oilier. Of course, among the multitude of books he pro- duced, many were utterly worthless, beyond affording a passing recreation to the library subscribers, and many even were pecuniary failures. The most ludicrous of these failures was a scheme originated by John Gait, a constant contributor to the Neiv Monthly. This was a periodical, which, under the title of the New British Theatre, published the best of those dramatic productions, which the managers of the great playhouses had previously rejected. The audacity of the scheme carried it through for a short time, but soon the unfortunate editor was smothered amid such