NOTES BY THE WAY.
��163
��Tract
Society's
Publications.
��tion of the Society. During that year 682 new publications were Total issue of
issued, of which 268 were tracts. The Society has already published Religious
or helped others to publish, books and tracts in 250 languages,
dialects, and characters. The total circulation in the year from
the home depot, including books, tracts, booklets, handbills,
periodicals (reckoned in numbers), cards, and miscellaneous issues,
reached 31,646,560, including 15,227,990 tracts. The issues from
foreign depots, so far as can be ascertained, amounted to 20,000,000,
making a total circulation of 51,646,560, and of 3,438,565,420 since
the formation of the Society.
The Jubilee number records the important services rendered to the literature of the people by the Messrs. Chambers and John Cassell. In addition to these mention should be made of the father of our periodical literature, John Limbird, as well as Charles Knight. In January, 1822, Limbird started The Mirror, and it was published weekly at the then low price of twopence. It con- sisted of a sheet of sixteen demy octavo pages, with one or two woodcuts. In The Athenceum for the 22nd of January, 1831, the bound volume for the half year received high praise : "It is just the humanizing volume that ought to delight the fireside of every cottage in the kingdom." The notice was evidently written by Mr. Dilke. John Limbird died on the 30th of October, 1883, aged eighty-eight. The Penny Magazine was started ten years after The Mirror, being begun in March, 1832, Charles Knight undertaking the risk and becoming its editor, Alexander Ram- say acting as sub- editor. The title was originated by Mr. M. D. Hill, then member for Hull. Mr. Bulwer (afterwards Lord Lytton) in the House of Commons described it as " affording a trumpery education to the people," and Dr. Arnold described it as " all ramble-scramble." De Morgan was amongst its first contributors, writing for it a series of mathematical papers. Such was its suc- cess that at the end of its first year it had reached a sale of 200,000. The magazine terminated unexpectedly in 1845.
��Important
services of the
brothers
Chambers,
Cassell, John
Limbird, and
Charles
Knight.
��The Penny Magazine.
��'CHAMBERS'S EDINBURGH JOURNAL-'
Of the progress made by Chambers^ Edinburgh Journal when entering on its fourteenth year, the number for January 4th, 1845, contains an interesting account. The sale of the monthly part is given as forty thousand, while that of ' Chambers's Information for the People ' had been about a hundred and thirty thousand ; and the same article states that upwards of a quarter of a million of printed sheets left the house every week, " being as many as the whole newspaper press of Scotland issued in a month about the year 1833." It is curious that in the same article a suggestion should be made that books should be sold by general dealers.
L2
��Chambers'g
Edinburgh
Journal.
�� �
