Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 31.djvu/252

 Patriot,’ ‘The Fireside Companion.’ J. B. Sumner (afterwards archbishop of Canterbury) wrote ‘Conversations with an Unbeliever,’ and apparently papers on political economy; J. M. Turner (bishop of Calcutta 1829–32) wrote on ‘Naval Victories,’ and Locker on ‘The Bible and Liturgy.’ The editor wrote a series of simple tales. In June 1820 Knight became editor and part proprietor of a London weekly paper, ‘The Guardian,’ in which he combined literature with politics, and (apparently) set the first example of summarising articles in the magazines. J. W. Croker, in spite of their political differences, helped him in both departments. ‘Croker was,’ says Knight, ‘always ready to give me his opinion, as I believed honestly, and was always glad to gossip with me on subjects of literature.’ The ‘Plain Englishman’ came to an end in December 1822; the ‘Guardian’ was sold at the same time; and in the course of 1823 Knight, partly at Croker's instigation, started as a publisher in London. In the course of the past two years, as an interlude to more serious business, he had been publishing the ‘Etonian’ (October 1820 to July 1821), and had by this means come into contact with W. M. Praed, J. Moultrie, W. S. Walker, and H. N. Coleridge, who now were Cambridge undergraduates. With the help of these, reinforced by Macaulay, Malden, and others, he started ‘Knight's Quarterly Magazine,’ edited by himself, and ‘printed for Charles Knight & Co., 7 Pall Mall East’ (1823–4). Matthew Davenport Hill, De Quincey, and others contributed (cf. Notes and Queries, 1st ser. ix. 103, 334); but the magazine was hardly successful, and practically dropped with the sixth number, though one other was published a year later. In 1824 Knight published Vieusseux's ‘Italy and the Italians,’ and in July 1825, for the Cambridge University Press, a translation by C. R. Sumner (afterwards bishop of Winchester) of Milton's ‘Treatise on Christian Doctrine.’ In November he was preparing a scheme for a ‘national library,’ a cheap series of books which should condense the information contained in voluminous and extensive works. But this was cut short by the financial panic. The prospectus ultimately appeared in the name of Messrs. Murray, and arrangements were even begun for the merging of Knight's business in that firm. These, however, fell through, and with them Knight's business. In the summer of 1827 he was compelled to place his affairs in the hands of trustees. After a short period of promiscuous literary work on James Silk Buckingham's paper, ‘The Sphinx,’ on the ‘London Magazine,’ of which he became part proprietor in March 1828, and elsewhere, he undertook to superintend the publications of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, which (taking its title from that of an article in the ‘Plain Englishman’) had been organised a few months earlier by Brougham, M. D. Hill, and others. At first his duties were mainly those of ‘reader’ for the committee; subsequently he wrote and edited. He had not yet re-established himself as a publisher, and the first number (for 1828) of the ‘British Almanack and Companion,’ which he had long projected as an antidote to the trash which was still disseminated under the name of almanacks, and which the society now took up, bears the imprint of Baldwin & Cradock. But by 31 March 1829 he was again in Pall Mall East. On that day appeared ‘The Menageries,’ written by him as the first volume of the ‘Library of Entertaining Knowledge.’ From this time till its dissolution in 1846 Knight remained the society's publisher. In this capacity he produced the ‘Quarterly Journal of Education,’ 1831–6; the ‘Penny Magazine,’ 1832–1845—this by the end of its first year had a sale of two hundred thousand; the ‘Penny Cyclopædia,’ 1833–44; the ‘Gallery of Portraits,’ 1832; besides smaller works. Early in 1832 a new post, which it was proposed to create at the board of trade, for arranging official documents, was offered to him by Lord Auckland, then president. Knight wisely refused, for his nature, at once practical and impatient of restraint, would have chafed beyond endurance at the pedantries of a government department. However, in 1835, when the new poor law was coming into operation, Knight was appointed publisher by authority to the commission. About this time he removed his place of business to Ludgate Street. In 1831 and 1832 he wrote ‘The Results of Machinery’ (of which Spring Rice said ‘that it had effected more good for the repression of outrage than a regiment of horse’) and ‘Capital and Labour.’ These were afterwards reprinted in one volume under the title ‘Knowledge is Power.’ In 1836 he began to publish in parts the ‘Pictorial Bible.’ This was quickly followed by Lane's ‘Arabian Nights;’ then came the ‘Pictorial History of England’ by G. L. Craik and C. MacFarlane, with other contributors, published in monthly parts for seven years, from 1837, a book which is still unbeaten as a history of England for domestic use. ‘London’ (1841–4) was in great part written by Knight himself. From 1837 he had been occupied with what he himself probably regarded as his magnum opus. From the time of his boyish experience he had