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Martineau the new editor of the 'Monthly Repository,' and wrote a life of Howard for the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Her father's widowed sister, Mrs. Lee, came to live with her mother at the same time. In 1829 the failure of the house in which the fortunes of the family had been invested brought them all into difficulties, and she was left penniless. The 'Life of Howard' had somehow vanished in the archives of the society, and no payment was received. She was forced to gain a living partly by needlework, and for two years lived on 60l. a year. Fox gave her 15l. a year, all the money at his disposal, for writing reviews in the 'Repository.' In it she also wrote the first number of the 'Traditions of Palestine,' the success of which encouraged the publication of the volume so called in the foil owing spring. Fox remained one of her most valued friends to the end of his life. Her mother, for domestic reasons, refused to permit her to accept a small post involving literary drudgery in London. The Central Unitarian Association offered prizes at this time for three essays, intended to convert the catholics, the Jews, and the Mahommedan8. Miss Martineau wrote for them all. The prize for the first was awarded to her in September 1830, and the other two prizes in the following May. The essays probably converted nobody, but brought in forty-five guineas. The prize-money enabled her to visit her brother James at Dublin in 1831, and while there she thought out a plan for a series of stories in illustration of political economy. She had touched similar subjects in her stories for Houlston in 1827, and had learnt shortly afterwards something about the science from the 'Conversations' of Mrs. [q. v.] The idea of the stories had then first occurred to her and been approved by her brother. She now determined to devote herself to the work entirely, and accepted small loans from two rich friends to set her free for the time. She wrote to publishers from Dublin without success, and in December 1831 went to London to carry on negotiations. After many repulses she finally agreed with a young publisher. Charles Fox, brother of W. J. Fox, to bring out her stories. He was to have half profits, and there was to be a subscript ion for five hundred copies before the publication began. The subscription only reached three hundred, but the series was begun in February 1832, and at once made a remarkable success. Her publisher wrote to her on 10 Feb. saying that the first edition of fifteen hundred copies was nearly exhausted, and proposing to print five thousand more. She soon became one of the 'lions ' of the day.

Her labours were severe. She had resolved, by the advice of her brother in Dublin, to bring out a story every month. Twenty-five numbers were thus produced, the last in February 1834. Besides this she wrote four 'poor-law tales' for the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge at Brougham's suggestion, and added in 1834 five supplementary tales called 'Illustrations of Taxation.' She had taken lodgings in Conduit Street, but her mother, after some months, took a house in Fludyer Street, Westminster, where they lived, together with her aunt, till she left London. She dined out every day except Sunday, and made acquaintance with all the literary celebrities. Hallam advised her; Sydney Smith joked with her; Milman, Malthus (with whom she stayed at Haileybury), Rogers, Monckton Milnes, Bulwer, and many others became friends. She knew Carlyle some time later, and suggested and managed his first course of lectures in 1837. She gave her impressions of 'literary lionism' in an article in the 'Westminster Review' for April 1839 (most of it reprinted in Autobiography, i. 271, &c), which shows that social flattery did not turn her head. Cabinet ministers asked her opinion of their methods; the retired governor of Ceylon (Sir Alexander Johnstone) crammed her for a tale to illustrate the monopoly of the East India Company; Brougham took her up warmly, and as chancellor supplied her with private papers in order that she might write effectively on behalf of the projected poor-law reforms; Owen tried unsuccessfully to get her to defend his socialism, and an agent of the American colonisation scheme endeavoured to imbue her with his theories about slavery. Croker attempted to 'destroy her' by an article in the 'Quarterly Review' for her support of Malthus, and Empson praised her in the 'Edinburgh.' She says (ib. i. 208) that her sale was increased by the suggestions of her wickedness in the 'Quarterly,' which is conceivable, and that it 'diminished markedly and immediately' after the praises of the 'Edinburgh,' because whig praises were disliked by the people. As, however, both 'articles appeared in the numbers for April 1833, the statements are not easily reconcilable. Empson says that she was writing too fast, and the stories therefore declined in interest. Some deduction must be made from her estimate of her own importance, and certainly from her imputations upon hostile editors. The 'tales' are now an unreadable mixture of fiction, founded on rapid cramming, with raw masses of the dismal science. They certainly show the true journalist's talent of turning hasty acquisi-