The Story of the English Magazines

THE magazine, which to-day forms so important a part of periodical English literature, is a little more than a century and a half old. The Gentleman’s Magazine of Cave may be said to represent its infancy, the Monthly Magazine of Sir Richard Phillips its youth, Blackwood’s, Fraser’s, and Bentley’s Miscellany its manhood, and the Cornhill and Macmillan’s its maturer age. In the various stages of its growth, the parent stem has produced many promising offshoots, healthy enough in the bud, but destined to wither away in the leaf, leaving no trace of their existence but a name and an entry in the chronicles of the bibliographer. Cave, the well-known printer of the Johnson era, was the author of the magazine whence all other English magazines are sprung, the Gentleman’s. The project of such a publication had been in his mind for some years before 1731, the date of its first appearance. After in vain endeavoring to secure the coöperation of the London booksellers, be found himself in that year able to commence such a work on his own account, the duties of editor being at first performed by himself. The first number appeared in the form of an unpretending octavo pamphlet of forty-five pages, at the price of sixpence, under the title of the Gentleman’s Magazine and Trader’s Monthly Intelligencer; as if to imply that the tastes and interests of both the aristocratic and mercantile classes, of both town and country, would be attended to. Herein Mr. Cave showed himself to be a very shrewd and discerning publisher, considerably in advance of his fellows of that day. The bulk of the work consisted of abridgments of the best articles in the political and literary journals of shorter periods, a list of which he gives in the first number of his magazine in the page following the title : The Craftsman, London Journal, Free Briton, etc., and last, though not the least interesting of all, our old friend The Grubstreet Journal. The nominal authors of the extracts used are appended, as if to indicate that the editor is desirous of acknowledging his indebtedness to all from whom he borrows. These, as regards the last named publication, are sufficiently suggestive : Mr. Bavius, Mr. Mævius, Mr. Spondee, Mr. Dactyl, and Messrs. Conundrum, Quidnunc, Orthodoxo, and Quibus. Following “an impartial view of the various weekly Essays, controversial, humorous, and political, religious, moral, and sentimental,” comes the Monthly Intelligencer, containing foreign and domestic occurrences, and a register of births, marriages, and deaths. Observations on gardening and a list of new publications complete the table of contents. A short advertisement or two helps to fill up the last page. The whole is edited by Sylvan us Urban of Aldermanbury, Gent., the place of publication being the far-famed gate of St. John, Clerkenwell.

Unlike so many of his successors in the hazardous business of publishing, Mr. Cave had not miscalculated the literary needs of the public. His magazine did, in fact, meet a want which was unsatisfied. It enjoyed immediate and, what is more, permanent success, insomuch that a second edition of the first number was issued with the third, and reprints of the first five numbers with the eighth; and the circulation showed a steady increase. Upon the cover of the eighth number was imprinted for the first time the quaint little wood-cut of St. John’s Gate, which for so long a period distinguished the older magazine, and still serves to denote the parentage of its remote descendant, the Gentleman’s Magazine of to-day. Cave’s original publication lasted in unbroken sequence from January, 1731, to June, 1783, a period of fifty-two years, and twenty-nine after its author’s death. A new series was begun in the following mouth of July, and continued to June, 1784, when the magazine was relinquished for a time, but it was subsequently revived in various forms ; and it has since been issued monthly under the time-honored title down to the very date of this present article.

The earlier history of the Gentleman’s Magazine may be traced in Boswell’s Life of Johnson. That eminent man was almost from the beginning one of its few paid contributors ; and there is some evidence to show that, for a time at least, he occupied the more honorable but not more lucrative post of editor. He comes upon the scene in the usual fashion, as a suppliant for the consideration of “ Mr. Sylvanus Urban ” in respect of a packet of “copy.” “ Having observed,” he writes in his first letter to Cave, submitting his first contribution, — “ having observed in your paper very uncommon offers of encouragement to men of letters,” — this in allusion to Cave’s offer of a prize of fifty pounds for the best set of verses on a religious subject, — “ I do not doubt you will look at this poem which I send, and reward it in a different manner from a mercenary bookseller, who counts the lines he purchases and considers nothing but the bulk.” Admirable, bold - spirited Dr. Johnson ! Was there ever, before or since, a petitioner for an editor’s goodwill who, at the very starting-point of a literary career, wrote in such strain ?

Whether Cave acted upon the hint, and judged the lines by their merit, and not according to the number of their syllables, is not disclosed. But the poem was accepted, and doubtless the remuneration was satisfactory, for Johnson at once became a regular paid contributor and the chief literary adviser of the editor. For several years the Gentleman’s Magazine was his principal source of employment and support, and it was largely indebted to his pen for the early success it attained and for its long career of later prosperity. He introduced new features which at once enhanced its popularity. The most important of these were the substitution of some pages of original prose for the uninteresting extracts hitherto taken from the public journals, and the publication of a monthly epitome of the debates in Parliament under the title of The Senate of Lilliput. The Life of Savage was perhaps the ablest contribution from Johnson’s pen to the pages of Cave’s periodical, and for this he received payment at the rate of two guineas a sheet. Curious as it may seem to the voluntary contributors to the monthly magazines of our own day, — to which, by the way, some of the American magazines in this respect furnish an exception, — Dr. Johnson was paid for his copy when it had been accepted. Under his skillful guidance, then, the Gentleman’s Magazine prospered more and more, and ultimately attained a monthly circulation of ten thousand. If we compare this with the average issue of more modern magazines, such a circulation, taking into account the lack of postal and other facilities for the distribution of books in Johnson’s time, must be allowed to be very considerable. Cave kept a good lookout forward, and watched his chances very narrowly. His ears were always open to the gossip of the trade, and when he heard — as not unnaturally he sometimes would — that a customer had talked of discontinuing his subscription, off he would go to Johnson and give a note of warning thus : “Let us have something good this month, for I am told Mr. So and So talks of withdrawing his subscription.” With a man of such excellent business ability as publisher, and an honest, striving worker like Johnson for his chief literary adviser, it is no wonder that the Gentleman’s Magazine proved one of the most successful literary ventures of the last century.

The success of Cave’s scheme brought many competitors into the field, the most vigorous of which were the London Magazine and the Monthly Review. The former of these ran its elder contemporary pretty close, oftentimes excelling it in the priority and accuracy of its parliamentary intelligence, which was then held to be of special interest; for until Johnson started the idea, no one had thought of systematically describing the proceedings of Parliament. The Monthly Review became so prosperous that it reached the advanced age of ninety-six years, having been born eighteen years later than the Gentleman’s Magazine, and only ended its long career of usefulness in 1845. The European Magazine, and the Literary Magazine or Universal Review, were earlier and no less sturdy rivals, though not so long-lived. But by far the ablest of the English magazines brn in the last century was the Monthly Magazine, or British Register, founded by Richard Phillips. It was begun in 1796, and lasted in unbroken sequence till 1825, when a new series was begun. It was the same size as its monthly contemporaries, namely octavo ; consisted of from eighty to one hundred pages of reading matter, printed in double columns ; and was sold originally at one shilling, subsequently raised to eighteen pence, and afterwards to two shillings, a number. “When it was first planned, two leading ideas,” says the Preface to the first volume, “occupied the minds of those who undertook to conduct it. The first was that of laying before the public various objects of information and discussion,both amusing and instructive; the second was that of lending aid to the propagation of those liberal principles respecting some of the most important concerns of mankind which have been either deserted or virulently opposed by other periodical miscellanies, but upon the manly and rational support of which the fame and fate of the age must depend.” It would be no inaccurate comparison to say that, in respect of the enterprise it showed and the broadly liberal views it expressed, the Monthly Magazine of eighty years ago bore some resemblance to the London Daily News of to-day. For that early period, the foreign intelligence which the magazine published was exceptionally interesting. Its correspondents contributed letters on a variety of topics from almost all parts of the globe. Its home news was instructive and entertaining, and, if necessarily of older date than that which appeared in the daily and weekly journals, was for the most part more trustworthy and exact. Its editorial comments, though brief and somewhat scattered, — for the magazine did not profess to deal editorially with any question, — were generally to the point, outspoken, fearless, and sincere. It never wavered in its championship of every good cause, and in its condemnation of anything that savored of oppression, intolerance, and fraud. It opened its pages to the discussion of any matter calculated to serve the interests of humanity, and vigorously asserted the rights of the many against the pretensions and aggressiveness of the few. In short, it was an honest, enterprising, high-toned, and extremely well-edited magazine, which not only well deserved all the prestige it acquired in its day, but an honorable place in the literary annals of our own, as having furnished the plan for at least one prominent London periodical. The Athenæum is more indebted, for its chief characteristics as a literary journal, to the Monthly Magazine of the early part of the century than to any other of its forerunners or contemporaries.

In the number for December, 1811, appears an advertisement which fairly sets forth the scope of the magazine. Communications (to be sent to 5 Buckingham Gate) are invited on all subjects, “ practical and speculative.” “ In the order of their insertion,” says the editor — who appears from the beginning to have been none other than the publisher, Richard Phillips himself; if this were so, he was an uncommonly energetic and highly-talented man, — “in the order of their insertion preference is, however, always given to Notices of Improvements in the Arts of Life ; to economical Subjects in general; to original facts in Natural History, and in the various Sciences ; to accounts of Tours and Voyages ; to topographical Descriptions, particularly of Distant Countries; to accounts of curious objects of remote Antiquity; to original Biography, Anecdotes, and Letters of eminent or remarkable persons; to observations on the state of Society and Manners in various countries and places ; to Copies or Extracts of scarce and interesting Tracts; to illustrations of Classical Authors; to fugitive pieces of original Poetry ; and to letters of Literary persons on points of inquiry connected with the objects of their pursuits.” In addition to such matter there was published each month a variety of other useful information : a description of patents lately enrolled ; a list of new publications arranged under subject headings ; notices of literary works in progress, domestic and foreign ; a discussion of the proceedings of learned societies ; a retrospect of the Fine Arts and review of musical publications ; a statement of public affairs containing extracts from official documents ; reports of diseases, and of the progress in chemistry, agriculture, etc.; and a full and interesting account of occurrences arranged in the order of the counties. Occasional wood-cuts were given to elucidate the text. At the end of every six months a supplementary number was issued, under the title of a Half-Yearly Retrospect of Literature, consisting of seventy-five pages, and dealing with books published not only in Great Britain, but in France, Germany, and the United States of America.

Within a few weeks after the victory of Waterloo, when to side with Napoleon Bonaparte was to confess one’s self an enemy of England, the Monthly Magazine protested against the “ ostracism ” of “ that great man,” for “ the supposed crimes of being beloved by the French, and for long successfully opposing the enemies of France.” “ Of what use can be the language of Truth,” asks the editor, “during the ebullitions of passion and the shouts of victory ? The answer which follows the question might lead us to give place to the official documents of the month without commentary ; but silence at such a moment would be derilection of duty, unworthy of the pretensions of a just cause and disrespectful to our readers. . . . We are advocates of the eternal principles of the law of nations, that all people have a right to choose and regulate their own government, and that foreigners have no right to interfere in questions between governments and their people. . . . Justice alone is power, and no adjustment of human interests can be solid, final, or permanent which is not founded on immutable principles of justice. It is a foolish or wicked endeavor to force what is not just on the acceptance of mankind that occasions all the wars and disturbances in the world ; and it is therefore in the last degree absurd and useless in the authorities of the European nations to expect to calm the passions and to procure a permanent peace except by deferring in all things to truth and justice. We could tell them in a few words how happiness and peace might be restored in Europe without the aid of a single soldier and without the cost of a single pound sterling; but our means would require as a preliminary a victory over their own passions, and the adoption of a policy in many respects the very opposite of that which has been pursued. We should tell England to reëstablish the treaty of Amiens and recall the message of 1803; we should tell Prussia to maintain the empire of Frederic and respect the provinces of her neighbors; Russia to stay at home, cultivate its vast possessions, and civilize its people ; Austria to enjoy its fine position and climate and to refuse foreign subsidies; and we should exhort all to leave France to herself, and to acknowledge and live on willing terms of amity with whomsoever the French people might freely elect as their public head or heads.” Such principles might lend support to the most broadly liberal “platform” of to-day; and the manner in which they are expressed would bring no discredit to the pen of the most cultivated of English writers. It is not easy to trace the authorship of the best articles in the Monthly Magazine, as they are mostly published with initials only, or over pseudonyms. But one of the most constant of the editor’s correspondents for a number of years was a certain Mr. Capel Loff’t, who used to annoy Charles Lamb by signing their common initials — as, of course, he had a right — to his very feeble sonnets. Charles Lamb spoke of him as being “ the genius of absurdity;” but Mr. Lofft’s worst fault seems to have been a too great fondness for the gray goose quill. He could never let it lie idle, and wrote with it on every conceivable subject, from Capital Punishment to the Flight of Meteors. The chief contributors, however, signed themselves “ Common Sense,” “ Plain Dealer,” “ PoliticoEconomicus,” and the like. The most uninteresting part of the magazine is that reserved to the poets, whose lines on Beauty, To Clarissa, To a Fair Recluse, and so on, read now as the stupidest twaddle. But poetry appears to have been almost as popular as prose in Sir Richard Phillips’s day.

In 1814, when the old Monthly was at the zenith of its popularity, having attained a circulation of eight thousand, the New Monthly Magazine and Universal Register was started by Colburn, then of Conduit Street. Three years later Blackwood’s was born, and three years later still the London Magazine (we are not sure if this was not a new series of the older periodical of that name), in whose pages first appeared the delightful Essays of Elia. Neither the New Monthly nor Blackwood’s, when they were first published, differed in any important particular — either in their general “make-up,” or in the matter which appeared in their pages—from Sir Richard Phillips’s magazine. The editor of Blackwood’s advertised his intention to make that publication “a repository of whatever may be supposed to be most interesting to general readers.” The tastes of such were best consulted, it seemed, in copying the plan of the old Monthly. He simply followed the order of that publication in regard to its contents, and published a number of original communications and select extracts ; an antiquarian repertory, which department the editor promised would be of special interest to his readers, as access had been allowed him “ to unpublished MSS., both in the national and family repositories ; ” some pieces of original poetry; a review of new publications and of articles in the periodicals; useful information on literary and scientific subjects ; together with a monthly register of public events. The magazine, which first appeared in April, 1817, consisted of one hundred and twenty pages. The New Monthly Magazine, which was first issued in January, 1814, price 2s., threw down the gauntlet, and at once proclaimed itself the uncompromising political opponent of the old Monthly. It began with a long address to the public, abusive of “ the demon Bonaparte ” and of the editor of its rival, who, “ nursed in the school of Jacobinism,” had preferred the interests of France to those “of our common country.” The country, nevertheless, had made a noble stand against the usurper, and it was the duty of every honest Englishman to take his stand by the country ; with a great deal more to the same purpose. The New Monthly was started on political grounds chiefly, and aimed at securing the support of the Tories. Later, it took a literary turn, changed its second title from Universal Register to Literary Journal, and began an entirely new career. It was one of the first of the purely literary magazines published in London, and was edited successively by Thomas Campbell, Theodore Hook, Tom Hood, and W. Harrison Ainsworth. But before it reached its greatest popularity and could afford, as it did, to raise its price from 2s. and 2s. 6d. to 3s. 6d. a number, it was indebted to another periodical for many an original idea. This was the London Magazine, of the second decade of the century.

“ Never was a periodical work commenced,” writes Talfourd, in his Life of Lamb, “ with happier auspices, numbering a list of contributors more original in thought, more fresh in spirit, more sportive in fancy, or directed by an editor better qualified by nature and study to preside over its fortunes than this.” Taylor and Hessey were the publishers, John Scott was the editor, and Coventry Patmore his literary aid. Afterwards Tom Hood joined the staff as sub-editor. The principal contributors were Lamb, at his wisest, sagest, airiest, indiscreetest, best ; Barry Cornwall, “ in the first bloom of his modest and enduring fame; ” John Hamilton Reynolds, “ lighting up the wildest eccentricities and most striking features of many-colored life with vivid fancy;” and Hazlitt, “ whose pen gave radiant expression to the results of the solitary musings of many years,” Cary, the translator of Dante, De Quincey, author of the Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, and Thomas Griffiths Wainwright, of infamous reputation, were others of the original contributors. After the good old fashion of “ the great trade,” the publishers used to assemble their contributors round their hospitable table in Fleet Street, and discuss the bill for the month. The Essays of Elia were the chief attraction. They brought fame to the magazine and renown to their author. “ I have had the honor of dining at the Mansion House,” wrote Lamb to a friend, “ by special card from the Lord Mayor, who never saw my face, nor I his ; and all from being a writer in a magazine.” But Taylor and Hessey’s venture, which went forth so merrily, did not meet with all the support it deserved. Finding their magazine go off very heavily at 2s. 6d., they raised the price to 3s. 6d., and published contributions from outsiders, members of that hard-working contingent of obscure writers who are ever willing to do the most work for the least pay. “ Having more authors than they want,” Lamb gently complains, as if he foresaw the inevitable result, " they increase the number of them.” The end came, and the London Magazine, which was started under such promising conditions, ceased to be. It had, however, borne good fruit in its day. It succeeded in giving a fresher and brighter form to periodical literature, in providing the public with a miscellany in which fiction and well-written original essays and amusing sketches composed the principal part, to the exclusion of polities and dull disquisitions on abstruse subjects. Thereafter more than one publisher fashioned his magazine on the lines first drawn by the projectors of the London Magazine.

We may now gain an insight into that always interesting, and to many hardly less important, matter of the remuneration made to authors for articles contributed to the magazines. Johnson, as we have remarked, appears to have considered himself fairly treated in being paid at the rate of two guineas per sheet of copy. This is a little better than 2s. 6d. per page of print. Sir Richard Phillips, the reading matter of whose magazine was cut up into short paragraphs, one communication seldom extending over a page, got most of his contributions for nothing. An honorarium of one guinea was considered a proper payment for a report; and the supplementary reviews of books were done in the editor’s office. In its later years eight guineas a sheet was considered fair pay. Lamb, in a letter to Coleridge, banters him upon a refusal to write for Blackwood’s. “ Why you should refuse twenty guineas per sheet for Blackwood’s, or any other magazine,” he writes, “ passes my poor comprehension.” This would seem to imply that in Lamb’s time (1821-1831) such a rate of payment, namely, £1 6s. 3d. a page, was exceptional; though later, when Lamb himself was writing for Colburn’s New Monthly, he received somewhat more, £1 11s. 6d. Later still (1837), the contributions of authors of acknowledged reputation were made the subject of a special agreement with the publishers ; but ordinary contributors received from 15s. to 21s. per page. This arrangement would seem to hold good still. There were, and are, in fact, two scales of payment, the editor being the judge of an author’s claim to be paid according to the higher or lower rate. Generally speaking, 10s. 6d. per page is the lowest limit, 21s. the highest ; excepting in the case of an author whose literary reputation stands very high. He may then command almost any terms he please, always supposing that editor and publisher agree in considering it an object to secure his copy. One hundred guineas is an exceptional honorarium for an author to receive for an article, though even that handsome fee has been voluntarily given ; indeed, we know of one instance, at least, where nearly twice that sum was paid for a contribution to one of the London reviews. The long-established rule has been, The greater the author’s reputation, the greater the amount paid for his services ; and this rule was made long previous to the time when periodical literature had grown so popular in England as to be able to command the best work of the leading men of letters of the day. It originated, of course, with the booksellers in that nursery of England’s earlier literature, Fleet Street, who offered for an author’s copy what appeared to be its market value, and no more, though perhaps seldom judging it by the highest intellectual standard. But the maxim is as old as trade itself, and may be traced to those most elementary business principles which say that skilled labor is of higher value than unskilled labor, and that a superior article is worth more money than an inferior one.

In February, 1830, Fraser’s Magazine was born. It was not of Scotch origin, as some have supposed, but first issued from 215 Regent Street, London, the place of business of Mr. James Fraser, a publisher. At the outset it produced no literary novelty, unless its prefatory confession of faith may be considered one, but closely followed the old lines of its predecessors, Blackwood’s and the rest. It was an octavo of one hundred and twenty-eight pages, price 2s. 6d.; and the first article which appeared in it was one on American poetry, — a review, in fact, of " Fugitive Poetry, by N. P. Willis. Boston: Pierce & Williams. 1829.” Within five years of starting, the magazine had advanced to the second place among the periodicals, of which Blackwood’s was then the chief. It has been the fashion, in praising the dash and brightness which early distinguished the pages of Fraser, to speak of its contributors as if they were specially enlisted by that magazine, and served on its staff alone. As a matter of fact the “ Fraserians,” so called, were no more exclusively Fraserians than they were Colburnians, or Bentleyites, or supporters of any other London house which published a magazine. They were literary free-lances, willing to take up a pen in any publisher’s service, so long as he was of good reputation and paid handsomely. Neither Barry Cornwall, nor Southey, Coleridge, Ainsworth, Jerdan, Father Prout, Lockhart, Gleig, Allan Cunningham, David Brewster, Thackeray, or Theodore Hook, wrote exclusively for Fraser’s. Their writings may be found in the pages of other contemporary English periodicals, if one has the leisure to search for them and space to set them down. But Fraser’s was undoubtedly the first magazine that brought together such an array of talent in one publication ; though Bentley’s Miscellany (of which we shall have something to say presently) shows an infinitely brighter galaxy of contributors to its first numbers than did Fraser’s at the starting-point of its career. In the Preface to our Second Decade, which opens the magazine for January, 1840, the editor dwells with becoming pride upon the splendid position which in so short a time Fraser’s had won for itself in the literature of the day. Mention is made of the “ distinct works ” which had even so early been “ woven ” out of its pages by Mitchell, “ heartstirring biographer of Wallenstein ; ” Thomas Carlyle, “ most original, graphic, and exciting of historians of the French Revolution; ” M. J. Chapman, “ the learned and the poetic; ” and John Abraham Heraud, the metaphysical and profound.” “Yellowplush (Thackeray) with pen and pencil contributed to ‘ the harmless mirth of nations; ’ Morgan Rattler (Banks) wittily rallied; O’Donoghue (Maguire?) related many a tale of Irish fun ; the gállant and gallánt Bombardinio (Colonel Mitchell) has narrated his experiences in love and war; the Dominie (poor Picken !) chattered over his Scotch anecdotes in the choicest patois of the land of cakes. Besides these masqueraders, we have been honored by the avowed contributions of Southey, Lockhart, Brewster, Gillies, Galt, Hogg, Gleig, Croker, Moir, Macnish, Lady Bulwer, Lady Mary Shepherd; with the unavowed assistance of several other persons of allowed wit, talent, and learning; with the counsel of Coleridge and the countenance of Scott. Into our pages have found their way some rare specimens of the ‘ old man eloquent,’ as well as of Byron and Shelley, which otherwise would, in all probability, not have seen the light.”

It must be allowed that there was ample cause for congratulation here, and that Fraser’s Magazine was immensely in advance of the majority of its predecessors. “ ‘ From grave to gay, from lively to severe,’ from learning to sport, from prose to poetry, from metaphysic to fun, from science to mirth, the brilliant staff ranged,” wrote the editor of a later series of Fraser. “In their most sober moods they tried not to be dull; in their most jocular moods they never ceased to inculcate a feeling of honor and respect for religion, and those institutions which, humanly speaking, tend most materially to secure it upon earth. This was their ideal, at least, if their vivacity sometimes verged upon offensive personality, and their exposure of formalism and hypocrisy sometimes went near to license. In the main they were on the side of good taste, refinement, and moderation ; and their literary appreciation was always varied and free ranging, as with such a staff it could not fail to be.” So firm and strong was the position attained by Fraser’s Magazine in the favor of the reading public that for many years it held itself bravely against all comers at the very head of periodical literature. To the original brotherhood of contributors were added in after-time many who have left their impress on the wider literature of our day : among the number, Charles Kingsley, who published in it his earlier story Yeast, and Hypatia, in some respects the most elaborate and brilliant of his works; Arthur Helps, who contributed to its pages Friends in Council, and Companions of my Solitude ; John Stuart Mill, who gave to it one of the most mature productions of his pen, the well-known essay on Utilitarianism ; H. T. Buckle, who wrote for it his paper on the Influence of Women on the Progress of Knowledge; and last, not least, James Anthony Froude, sometime its editor, and a contributor of some of the best of the shorter studies. The excess of robust animal vitality which may be said to have characterized its early years brought about the inevitable reaction which gave to its later a tinge of seriousness and gloom which the editor of its final series vainly strove to dispel. Though, even in its decline, no duller than some of its contemporaries which still survive, Fraser’s Magazine, once the most vigorous and healthful, the most brilliant and witty, of all the English miscellanies, gradually fell away in circulation, and died at last of old age. It ended a long and prosperous career, extending over a period of fiftytwo years, in November, 1882. Whether the present sixpenny magazine of the Messrs. Longmans is to be considered its bantling we have no means of judging. It may be reasonably hoped not, for at present it discovers all the weakness and none of the strength of its distinguished predecessor.

Fraser’s was becoming famous, having succeeded in attracting to its service some of the best and brightest writers of the day, when another London magazine appeared, whose success promised to eclipse that of either of its older contemporaries. This was Bentley’s Miscellany, first published in 1837, and incorporated with Temple Bar in 1859. Looking over the contents of its earlier numbers and comparing them with the average of periodical literature now, one cannot help thinking that the English magazines have greatly deteriorated in popular interest since the days when Bentley’s was started. No magazine now published offers anything like the variety and freshness which its pages afforded. It seems to us that, taken altogether, it was the liveliest, the most entertaining, and the most novel of all the earlier magazines. It consisted of 104 pages, price 2s. 6d ; and though its greatest monthly sale never exceeded 9000, such a magazine, published at ls., with a staff of contributors as brilliant as that which the Miscellany commanded — if that were possible — would in these days probably have a circulation ten times as great, and would be the most popular magazine of the day. The first volume of Bentley’s Miscellany contains so much that is amusing that even at this distance of time it would almost bear reprinting, which is more than can be said of the initial numbers of the New Monthly, Blackwood’s, or Fraser’s. Boz was the first editor. Following a characteristic preface from his pen comes a song by Father Prout and a Prologue by Dr. Maguire. Among the other papers appearing in it are : Recollections of George Colman, by Theodore Hook; the opening chapters of Handy Andy, by Samuel Lover; A Legend of Manoir Hall, by the author of Headlong Hall ; Terence O’Shaughnessy, by Gleig ; the Sabine Fathers; a serenade, by Father Prout; some stray sketches, by Boz; the opening chapters of Oliver Twist, by the same ; and articles by Thomas Ingoldsby (Barham), Captain Marryat, Haynes Bayly, Hamilton Reynolds, W. Jordan, and Sheridan Knowles. “ The scenery will be supplied,” wrote Dickens, in the aforesaid preface, “ by the creative pencil of Mr. George Cruikshank ; the whole of the extensive and beautiful machinery will be under the superintendence of Mr. Samuel Bentley ; . . . and Mr. Richard Bentley has kindly consented to preside over the treasury department.” These were the general arrangements of the new undertaking.

It appears to have succeeded admirably. The management was from the first well supported by the company, and the public readily responded with their half-crowns. The monthly “ bill,” drawn up at the monthly magazine dinner, was exactly suited to the prevailing tastes of the day in matters theatrical, a thought which appears to have been present in the mind of Charles Dickens when he penned his preface. A pleasant little farce was always on the programme “ to play the house in ; ” something in the nature of a melodrama of the good " old Adelphi ” type followed ; and afterwards came a lighter piece, to send the people away satisfied and in good humor, looking forward to another “ good time ” when the company came that way again. Dickens, Marryat, Barham, Lover, and Sam Slick were the leading light comedians ; Ainsworth, Hamilton Reynolds, Jerdan, Leigh, and Barker the “heavy” gentlemen, willing, however, at a pinch, to play a part in any piece which the management might suggest, so long as it tended to the general success of the company. When Jack Sheppard was “ in the bills ” as the pièce de résistance, the receipts advanced to something like £800 per month. When that popular romance was concluded, they dropped to about £450. These amounts are based upon a circulation of 8500 and 5000 per month respectively. With Jack Sheppard, they stood at the former, without him, at the latter figure. So that Thackeray was not far from the truth when, in his story of Catherine, written just about the time that Ainsworth’s history was appearing in serial form, he remarked, ; The public will hear now of nothing but rogues.” Oliver Twist was the best written of the Miscellany ; after that, Jack Sheppard.

Ainsworth succeeded Charles Dickens in the editorial chair, and was for some time supported by a company of contributors as distinguished as that which gave a lustre to the short but brilliant engagement of Boz.

With the birth of the Cornhill, in 1858, the English magazine enters upon the last phase of its career. The wild oats of its youth have been sown, and it now takes the form of a sedate, authoritative, and highly-cultured literary journal. We hear no more of the boisterous hilarity of Fraser’s or the somewhat dissolute manners of Bentley’s. The public has had enough of both, and wishes now for a season of repose. Moreover, the public has grown older and wiser itself, and has done, at least for the present, with adventure and extravagance. It has become virtuous and regretful, and needs a little soothing and a little talking to, and is not averse to having its vices and its errors pointed out, so that while the time remains it may mend its ways, and become a less selfish and unprincipled public. And of all men Thackeray was just the man to give the public what it needed. Ten years before, he had preached to it with admirable effect from the by-ways of Vanity Fair, and later from the more secluded parts of the city ; and now it desired that he might take it, as it were, into his inner room, and talk to it there. The Roundabout Papers, first published in the Cornhill Magazine, were the pleasant little discourses he delivered on those occasions of semi-confidential intercourse with his readers. They showed their appreciation of his kindly efforts in their behalf by subscribing for the magazine which printed his essays to the unprecedented number of 100,000. These figures represent actually and bona fide the number of copies sold to the public. When the Cornhill was started, the average sale of each number of the magazine in the first year was 84,427, and the smallest sale of any one number was 67,019,— nearly ten times the sale of Bentley’s Miscellany in its palmiest days, and probably in the case of any English magazine never since exceeded. It would be no more than the truth to say that, without Thackeray’s name as editor, the Cornhill would never have attained its immense popularity. The papers which he wrote for it were as eagerly looked for, month by month, as were the famous concluding numbers of Pickwick. And when Thackeray died, the circulation gradually fell off, and the magazine never afterwards regained its once superlative position. Indeed, the sale in Thackeray’s days was quite unparalleled, as may be judged from the fact that the average monthly sale of its later contemporaries, Temple Bar, St. James’s, Belgravia, and the rest, has never exceeded 15,000. The quarterly Reviews, which are not here under consideration, have without actually disappearing themselves given rise to such monthly magazines as the Contemporary, Nineteenth Century, and Fortnightly, and there are some signs that the magazine of the old school is giving way in England before the newer school of illustrated magazines.

Charles E. Pascoe.