Page:Cartoon portraits and biographical sketches of men of the day.djvu/88

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JOHN HOLLINGSHEAD.


For fifteen years Mr. Hollingshead has been an active literary and public man. His literary career was begun much later than that of several of his contemporaries, but by his industry and ability he speedily succeeded in placing himself in the van. And in that particular walk of life to which he has devoted his energies, he may be placed in the first rank.

John Hollingshead was born in London in September 1829. He is the son of Mr. Henry Randall Hollingshead; and being intended by his father for a City life, he was educated with this end in view at Homerton. His family have been connected for many generations with City and business circles, and at an early age Mr. Hollingshead was placed with a London firm. But his literary tastes were so strong that he decided to embark on what is to ninety-nine aspirants out of a hundred the frailest bark that ever was launched—literary pursuits.

Having left his desk and the Gillott of commerce, he took up the quill of the man of letters; and when only twenty-six years of age, he had made such headway that his performances strongly recommended him to the late Charles Dickens, who engaged him permanently for the staff of 'Household Words.' Mr. Hollingshead was also a contributor to many leading papers, magazines, and reviews,—among which we may mention the 'Daily News,' 'London Review,' 'Punch,' ' Athenæum,' 'Times of India,' 'Cornhill Magazine,' 'All the Year Round,' and to the columns of 'Once a Week.' Mr. Hollingshead was—we suppose is—a philosophical Radical, and in all the publications he wrote for he religiously preserved his political consistency. He was the devoted disciple of J. Bentham when that worthy was neglected. He can now see Jeremy's image every time he walks on the pavement in front of the façade of Burlington House. Many of Mr. Hollingshead's most successful papers were written with the intention of making popular the principles of Mill and Bentham; and it appears that