Chapter VII (2)

Through this advertisement Corder became acquainted with a lady who kept the Grove House Academy at Ealing, near London. They were married, and he went to reside with his wife at Grove House, where he was arrested one morning in the spring of 1828. Various circumstances pointed to him as the murderer of Maria Marten, and he was tried for the crime at Bury St. Edmunds on Aug. 6, 1828. The crowd was so great that the counsel and officers of the court had to fight their way to their places. Corder appeared at the bar dressed in a new suit of black, and with his hair combed over his forehead. He wore a pair of blue French spectacles, through which he eyed the witnesses smilingly. Being called on for his defence, he read a statement which amounted to charging Maria Marten with having committed suicide. He said that in consequence of a quarrel they had in the Red Barn she shot herself with one of two pistols which he had with him:--'The instant the mischief happened, I thought to have made it public; but this would have added to the suspicion, and I then resolved to conceal her death. I then buried her in the best way I could. I tried to conceal the fact as well as I could, giving sometimes one reason for her absence, and sometimes another.' He was found guilty and sentenced to death, and the night before his execution he made the following confession:--'I acknowledge being guilty of the death of poor Maria Marten, by shooting her with a pistol. The particulars are as follows: When we left her father's house, we began quarrelling about the burial of the child, she apprehending that the place wherein it was deposited would be found out. The quarrel continued for about three quarters of an hour upon this and about other subjects. A scuffle ensued, and during the scuffle, and at the time I think that she had hold of me, I took the pistol from the side pocket of my shooting-coat.... I have been guilty of great idleness, and at times led a dissolute life, but I hope through the mercy of God to be forgiven.--W. CORDER.'

This murder excited great and marked interest, not only in Suffolk, but through the whole country. On Aug. 10, 1828, the day before the execution, the _Observer_ published a portrait of Corder and a view of the Red Barn, which are here copied. The excitement showed itself in the streets, where puppet shows represented the scene of the crime, and Methodist preachers held forth in the fields near the barn to thousands of attentive listeners. The Red Barn itself was nearly pulled to pieces by curiosity seekers.

On the Monday of the execution all the workmen in Bury struck work in order to see the murderer hanged, and persons came from long distances for the same purpose. One man was pestered by every one he met on his return by inquiries whether Corder had really been hung that morning. This was repeated so often that he became quite weary of the constantly recurring question, 'Is Corder executed?' In the evening, in order to get rid of the gloomy feelings created by what he had witnessed, he went to the theatre, where he arrived somewhat late. The play ('Macbeth') had advanced to the fourth scene of the first act as he seated himself in the pit. The newcomer, who was better acquainted with the details of the murder in the Red Barn than with the plays of Shakespeare, was not a little astonished when King Duncan entered, and, fixing his eye upon him, repeated what he thought was the same question that had been so often addressed to him that day, 'Is execution done on Cawdor?'

The _Observer_ continued its illustration of events as they occurred, sharing the engravings with _Bell's Life_ and the _Englishman_. St. Katharine's Docks were opened on Oct. 25th, 1828, and on the following day the _Observer_ published a bird's eye view of the docks, showing the ceremonies attending the opening. In January, 1829, appeared two views of Buckingham Palace, then building for George IV.; and in August a cut of the 'Post-Office Accelerator,' a carriage for conveying London postmen to their several districts. A portrait of Rowton, the winner of the Great St. Leger for 1829, was given in September. This year the lovers of wonderful shows were attracted to an exhibition in London of two Siamese youths who were united together by a short cartilaginous band at the pit of the stomach, but with no other connexion existing between them. They were perfectly straight and well made, and walked with a gait like other people; being perfect in all their parts, and having all their functions distinct. Their names were Chang and Eng; and they were first discovered on the banks of the Siam river, fishing, by Mr. Hunter, an American, by whom they were taken to New York, where they were exhibited, and were afterwards brought to England. They were supposed to be about eighteen years old when they were exhibited in London in 1829. The _Observer_ of November 22, 1829, published a long account of the Siamese Twins, with a woodcut representing them as they were exhibited to the public.

After having been exhibited for several years in London and the provinces, the Siamese twins went to America, where they settled on a farm, and married sisters. In the year 1869 they returned to London, and were as elderly men again exhibited; but they soon went back to America, where in a few years they died, both together. A similar exhibition was made in London about 1868 of twin girls, named Millie-Christine, or the 'Two-headed Nightingale,' and it was probably the appearance of these two 'black birds' that suggested the idea of the Siamese twins appearing again in public.

In June, 1830, George the Fourth died, and the _Observer_ published several engravings connected with the event. On June 24th appeared a portrait of 'His Majesty George the Fourth as he last appeared in his Pony Phaeton in Windsor Park;' and on July 18 three illustrations of the lying-in-state and the funeral were published.

'The King is dead! Long live the King!' So said the citizens of London when they invited William IV. and Queen Adelaide to a banquet at Guildhall on the following November 9; and on the 1st, eight days before the entertainment came off, the _Observer_ duly supplied the public with 'A correct view of the grand civic entertainment,' as it was to be. On Aug. 1, 1831, new London Bridge was opened by the King and Queen, and two engravings illustrative of the event were published in the _Observer_, the _Morning Chronicle_, _Bell's Life_, and the _Englishman_. One of them is interesting, as it shows the relative positions of the old and the new bridge. The view was taken from the tower of St. Saviour's Church, Southwark, looking towards Fish Street Hill.

The _Observer_ of Sept. 11, 1831, contained four illustrations of the coronation of King William IV. and Queen Adelaide, together with long and elaborate descriptions. There was another paper in existence at this time called the _United Kingdom_, which also illustrated the coronation. This was the period of the great Reform agitation, when the newspapers were absorbed in political excitement; and after this the _Observer_ for a time ceased to give any illustrations.

On July 28, 1835, a diabolical attempt was made in Paris to shoot Louis-Philippe, king of the French. The assassin, whose name was Fieschi, constructed an infernal machine, consisting of twenty-five barrels, charged with various kinds of missiles, and lighted simultaneously by a train of gunpowder. The machine was fired from a window as the King rode along the lines of the National Guard, on the Boulevard du Temple, accompanied by his three sons and suite. The King and his sons escaped, but Marshal Mortier was shot dead and many officers were dangerously wounded. Amongst the spectators upwards of forty persons were killed or injured. In its number for August 9, 1835, the _Observer_ gave a sketch of the attempted assassination, a portrait of the criminal, and a representation of the infernal machine.

The actual infernal machine, with a waxen effigy of Fieschi, formed for many years a prominent attraction at Madame Tussaud's Exhibition.

The reign of William IV. was a short one, and soon the _Observer_ had to illustrate his funeral, as it had done that of his predecessor. The number for July 3, 1837, contained three engravings of the royal obsequies, and ere long the brief rule of the Sailor King was forgotten in the dawning glories of the Victorian era. The epoch of railways was opening. The Greenwich Railway was the first railway out of London, and the next was the North-Western, or the London and Birmingham as it was then called. On July 24, 1837, the _Observer_ published a large woodcut of the 'Grand entrance to the London and Birmingham Railway at Euston Square.' Mr. Hardwick's massive structure was then in progress, and formed the entrance to the first of the great London railway stations--vast buildings, some of which have swallowed up whole streets, and contributed greatly to alter the appearance of London in their vicinity.

On July 24, 1837, a balloon ascended from Vauxhall with a parachute attached, in which was Mr. Cocking, who in descending was killed. The _Observer_ published illustrations of this event, which excited great interest at the time. Other papers illustrated Mr. Cocking's death, which I will recount more at length when I come to treat of the _Weekly Chronicle_, which contained more illustrations of the event than any other paper. A large engraving appeared in the _Observer_ for August 20, 1837, representing the Waterloo shield, given by Lord George Bentinck, and run for at Goodwood Races, 1837.

When Her Majesty Queen Victoria paid her first visit to the City of London after her accession, the _Observer_ came out with larger engravings than it had ever before produced. Two large views of the interior of Guildhall were given, together with a panoramic sketch of the royal and civic procession, and a portrait of the youthful Queen, 'surrounded by a beautiful Emblematic Design, in which innocence and strength are happily portrayed by the playfulness of the Doves and the fearless defiance of the Lion.' Such was the flowery language of the _Observer_ in those days.

The _Observer_ of July 2, 1838, was a double number, price tenpence, and contained several illustrations of the coronation of Queen Victoria, which were also printed in _Bell's Life_. I have copied one of them, not because it is particularly good, but simply to mark an important historical event, which ought to have some record in an account of illustrated journalism.

On the occasion of Her Majesty's marriage, the _Observer_ published a wedding number, containing several engravings, which were introduced to the reader thus:--'Little in the way of explanation is necessary to render the sketches in the opposite page, with which we have illustrated our account of the splendid ceremonials of Her Majesty's Nuptials on Monday last, intelligible. Our readers will no doubt make due allowance for any imperfections which may be discovered, when they reflect on the fact that the whole of the labours of the artists and the engravers have been accomplished in less than a week, and this under circumstances of difficulty, in obtaining admission to the scenes to be sketched, almost insurmountable. We should not be doing justice to our engraver were we not to state that it is to Mr. Orrin Smith we owe the consummation of our desire to gratify our patrons.'

On October 30, 1841, a fire occurred in the Tower of London, when the Armoury and 280,000 stand of arms were destroyed. On November 7 the _Observer_ published three illustrations of this great fire. On November 14 it presented its subscribers with a large emblematic engraving on the occasion of the birth of the Prince of Wales. In the following January, when the Prince of Wales was christened, it published a large page engraving designed by W. B. Scott, and engraved by Smith and Linton, containing the ceremony of christening in St. George's Chapel, the banquet in St. George's Hall, illustrations of the history of the Princes of Wales from the presentation of the first Prince of Wales to the Welsh, to the religious instruction of Edward VI. by Archbishop Cranmer, including the battle of Cressy with the feats of the Black Prince, and the subsequent pageantry attending the introduction of the King of France as a prisoner into London over London Bridge; following this is the dismissal of Falstaff and his profligate companions by Henry V., with views of Windsor, &c. From this time until 1847 the _Observer_ published no more engravings. In the interval the _Illustrated London News_ commenced its career. On July 12, 1847, the _Observer_ published the last of its illustrations. This was on the installation of Prince Albert as Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. The engravings have the name of W. J. Linton attached to them, and are on a larger scale, and are better done than anything hitherto appearing in the same paper.

The _Weekly Chronicle_, the first number of which was published September 18, 1836, started with the idea of illustrating the news of the day as one of its principal features. The price was threepence, and with it was incorporated the _Weekly Times_. In the first number the public were 'requested to be on their guard against the substitution of any other paper.' This probably had reference to some threatened rivalship, for exactly a year later appeared _Holt's Weekly Chronicle_, a paper which also gave illustrations of current events. It published engravings connected with the rebellion in Canada, and also illustrated the burning of the Royal Exchange in 1838. It appears to have had only a brief existence. The first number of the _Weekly Chronicle_ contained an engraving of 'the new grand Balloon which ascended from Vauxhall Gardens with nine persons on Friday, September 9th, engraved by W. C. Walker, from a drawing made by a gentleman who ascended expressly for this paper.' Number 2 contained a page of comic sketches, apparently by Seymour, and with the number for October 30, 1836, was presented gratis an almanack containing a view of the new Houses of Parliament, not quite as the design was eventually carried out. Very early in its career the _Weekly Chronicle_ selected the criminal records as favourite subjects for illustration. Perhaps some memory of the profits realised by the _Observer_ on the occasion of the Weare murder induced the conductors to cultivate this class of news. Certainly nothing more repulsive ever figured in the pages of an illustrated newspaper than some of the woodcuts published by the _Weekly Chronicle_.

Towards the end of 1836 another attempt was made on the life of the King of the French, and on January 8, 1837, the _Weekly Chronicle_ published a portrait of the criminal. A month or two later the public were enlightened as to the personal appearance of another murderer, one Pegsworth, who had his portrait taken in Newgate on the morning of his execution. The annals of crime were varied by the exploits of war, and a view of the heights of Amelzagame illustrated the career of the Spanish Legion under the command of General Evans. In the spring of 1837 occurred the Greenacre murder, and the _Weekly Chronicle_ at once went into the case with an evident determination to do full justice to its sensational merits. From the first examination of the murderer before the magistrates to his final exit in the Old Bailey the artists of the paper were on the alert, pencil in hand. It is a painful fact that the numbers of the _Weekly Chronicle_ containing the illustrations of the Greenacre murder had a very large sale. The details of the crime are too shocking to recapitulate, but I will give a list of the woodcuts published in connexion with it.

April 2, 1837.--A sketch of Greenacre taken while under examination at the police-office. Head of the murdered woman as preserved in spirits at Paddington Workhouse.

April 9.--Greenacre taking notes at his examination before the magistrates at Marylebone Police Office. Exterior of Greenacre's house in Carpenter's Buildings, Windmill Lane, Camberwell. View of Pineapple Gate, Edgware Road, where the body was found. Matthew Hale, lock-keeper, who found the head. Rear of Greenacre's house. A back room looking into the garden. Portraits of Mrs. Gale and child taken while under examination at Marylebone Police Office. Room where the horrible mutilation was committed. Osierbed in Cold Harbour Lane, where the legs were found.

April 16.--Trial of Greenacre.

April 23.--Chapel in Newgate, sketched during the preaching of the condemned sermon to Greenacre.

April 30.--Greenacre in condemned cell.

1. Sheriffs' Pew.
2. Governor's Pew.
3. Condemned Pew.]

On May 7 the _Weekly Chronicle_ wound up this series of illustrations by publishing a large cut, which it entitled, 'A scene in the Old Bailey, immediately before the execution, engraved expressly for the _Weekly Chronicle_ by a distinguished artist.' According to an announcement in the paper itself, the sale of the _Weekly Chronicle_ during the publication of these engravings was 130,000.

On May 14, 1837, the _Weekly Chronicle_ published portraits of Sir Francis Burdett and Mr. Leader, the former of a superhuman length, with a shocking bad hat. In the following number, as if the public had not been sufficiently supplied with horrors, there was printed 'a sketch of Eliza Davis as she lay on the mattress after the murder.' This was known as the Frederick Street murder, and was remarkable from the circumstances, and from the fact that the murderer was never discovered. This paper now commenced 'The Pictorial Gallery, illustrating every object of interest and curiosity in Art, Science, Literature, and Amusement. (To be continued weekly.)' In this series were published a view of the Euston Railway Station, a portrait of Madame Taglioni, a sketch of a novel mode of propelling balloons, representations of the Bedouin Arabs, the City of London School, the Adelaide Gallery, the Hippodrome at Bayswater, proclamation of Queen Victoria at Temple Bar, portraits of the Queen, the late King, the Earl of Durham, and the Duchess of Kent. Then followed a view of the Royal Mausoleum at Windsor, and several illustrations of Mr. Cocking's fatal descent in a parachute.

Mr. Cocking was an enthusiast in aerostation--he was, in fact, balloon mad, and had spent years in inventing a parachute which he believed to be perfectly safe, and in which he ascended from Vauxhall Gardens on July 24, 1837, attached to Mr. Green's Royal Nassau balloon. The experiment was widely advertised, and when the day and hour arrived the poor enthusiast faithfully appeared, and ascended in his fatal machine for more than a mile. He then himself liberated the parachute from the balloon. For a few seconds he descended steadily; the parachute then collapsed, broke, turned over, and shot straight down to the earth a hopeless ruin. Poor Cocking was still in the basket of the parachute when he reached the earth, but was quite insensible, and in ten minutes he was dead. The parachute fell at Lee; and it is recorded that not only was the machine itself carried away piecemeal, but the dead man's purse was stolen from his pocket, his watch, his snuff-box, his eye-glass were taken, even the cap was stolen from his head, the shoes were pulled from his feet, the buttons from his dress. Such statements seem incredible, and for the credit of human nature one could wish they were false; but they have been seriously made, and never contradicted.

The _Weekly Chronicle_ published several illustrations of this event. They represent Mr. Cocking in the car of the parachute at the moment of ascension; the Nassau balloon as it appeared from the Royal Gardens, Vauxhall; the parachute in its various stages in its descent; and Mr. Cocking as he lay for the inspection of the jury in the room at the Tiger's Head, at Lee. The first of these I have copied.

This rash adventure was wound up by the opening of a subscription list for the benefit of Cocking's widow, which was headed by the Queen with 50_l._ The Gas Company that had supplied the gas for the disaster gave 30_l._, and the proprietors of Vauxhall gave the gardens for a benefit. Thus the friends who ought to have restrained the vanity of the enthusiast and the speculators who led him on to his fate did their best in the way of atonement; but it was clearly a case where the civil power ought to have interposed to prevent the fatal catastrophe.

The _Chronicle_ varied its illustrations of events by an occasional portrait of a public man, such as Mr. T. Wakley, Mr. Roebuck, Lord John Russell, and Daniel Whittle Harvey. The Queen's first visit to the City, and her Majesty delivering her speech to her first Parliament, furnished subjects for large woodcuts. Early in the year 1838 the Royal Exchange was burnt, and this historical event was made the subject of an engraving in the number for January 14, 1838.

This year the _Weekly Chronicle_ also published several engravings illustrative of the rebellion in Canada, including a portrait of Papineau, the insurgent leader, and views of Quebec and Montreal. The murder of Eliza Grimwood in the Waterloo Road furnished another opportunity for sensational sketches, and in the same number that contained them (June 10, 1838) appeared three illustrations of the Courtney Riots at Canterbury.

In 1833 an eccentric person, calling himself Sir William Courtney, appeared at Canterbury and attracted much attention by his half-crazed appearance and his frequent harangues on the grievances of the poor. He presented himself as a candidate to represent the city of Canterbury in Parliament, but this ambition was frustrated by his being tried and found guilty of perjury, an offence he had committed on behalf of some smugglers on the Kentish coast. He was sentenced to imprisonment and transportation; but, being proved insane, the sentence was commuted, and he was confined in a lunatic asylum. Here he remained four years, and was then liberated under the belief that he was restored to a rational state. He was, however, madder than ever, having while in confinement brooded over his supposed wrongs and the sufferings of the oppressed poor until he fancied himself a prophet and a deliverer sent from heaven. With the cunning of madness he counterfeited sanity, and thus was able to resume what he considered his prophetic mission. He harangued about the new poor law, promised cheap bread to all who would follow him, and on May 29, 1838, he gathered together a band of about twenty men, with whom he marched from one place to another, proclaiming that he would make May 29 more memorable than it had ever been in connexion with the restoration of Charles II. This went on for a day or two, when a farmer, named Curtis, having his field-work stopped by the leading away of his men, went to a magistrate and obtained a warrant to apprehend them. In an attempt to execute this warrant a constable was killed by Courtney, who now broke into a rhapsody of exultation, declared that a second Gideon was come to slay the ungodly, and that all should perish who opposed the prophet. With outstretched sword he cried, 'I am the only Saviour of you all. You need not fear, for I will bring you through all.' The excitement had now become so general, and the menaces of Courtney and his armed party so alarming, that the magistrates resolved on the instant capture of this dangerous maniac and his ignorant followers. They came up with the rioters at a place called the Osier Bed, where Courtney's men threatened the magistrates and constables with bludgeons and fire-arms. After firing his pistol at one of the party who attempted to arrest him, Courtney and his men broke away to Bossenden Wood, and the magistrates, seeing no other resource, sent at once for a detachment of the 45th Regiment from Canterbury Barracks. Courtney had now proclaimed to his followers that he was no other than Jesus Christ returned to earth, and that they were safer with him than if they were in their beds; therefore they must resist the soldiers, and they were sure of victory. In the meantime a hundred men of the 45th Regiment, headed by Lieutenant Bennett, surrounded Bossenden Wood. Accompanied by the civil magistrates, they advanced to close round the rioters, when Courtney fired at the young Lieutenant commanding the party, and shot him dead. The next minute the prophet himself was slain by a soldier, who covered him with his musket as he fired at Lieutenant Bennett. Then ensued a hand-to-hand fight, which resulted in the death of seven of the rioters and one constable, besides several persons seriously wounded.

The illustrations of these riots in the _Weekly Chronicle_ of June 10, 1838, consist of the following:--

1. 'Courtney with his troops leaving Bossenden Farm.'

2. 'The death of Lieutenant Bennett. Courtney in the act of exhorting his men to advance.'

3. 'Interior of the Red Lion stables, with the bodies as they were laid out after the conflict.'

Courtney, whose real name was John Thom, was undoubtedly mad. He never could have found followers, except amongst the most degraded and ignorant; and it is hoped he did better service to his countrymen than he ever dreamt of by drawing attention to the dreadful evils arising from the want of education among the rural population. Most of his followers could neither read nor write, and were so totally unacquainted with the simplest truths of Christianity that they believed him when he asserted that he was Gideon, Samson, and Jesus Christ all in one, and that he had descended from heaven to redress the wrongs of the poor, but more especially to reduce the price of bread!

1. Courtney.

2. Lieutenant Bennett.

3. Sergeant Langley making a thrust at Courtney with a bayonet, and
was knocked down with a bludgeon.

4. Six Magistrates.

5. Soldier who stepped forward and shot Courtney.

6. Major Armstrong.

7. Detachment of the 45th Regiment loading.

8. Lieutenant Bennett's detachment.

9. The man Wills, who knocked down Sergeant Langley.

10. Courtney's flag.

11. J. N. Knatchbull firing at Courtney.]

The _Weekly Chronicle_ illustrated the coronation of Queen Victoria by a view of 'The interior of the Abbey at the moment of Her Majesty assuming the Crown,' and a full-page engraving of the Coronation Procession. Two pages of engravings were given on the occasion of the Queen's marriage; and on November 1, 1841, a large 'view of the Tower of London as it appeared on fire on the morning of Sunday, the 31st ult., from a drawing by a distinguished artist.' On January 29, 1842, the same paper illustrated the christening of the Prince of Wales, with its attendant ceremonies and festivities; and later in the same year were published the last of its illustrations, relating to the employment of women and children in coal-mines.

The _Observer_, _Bell's Life_, and the _Weekly Chronicle_, which during more than twenty years had been the chief representatives of pictorial journalism, gradually abandoned the practice of giving illustrations after the _Illustrated London News_ was established. Two or three other newspapers occasionally published engravings, but they were very few, and appeared at long intervals. The _Sunday Times_ illustrated the trial of Thurtell for the murder of Mr. Weare, and on Nov. 2, 1834, it published several engravings of the destruction of the Houses of Parliament, two of which, representing the ruins, are of sufficient interest to introduce here.

The _Champion_ of Nov. 13, 1836, has an engraving of the interior of a cotton-factory; and the _Weekly Herald_ in the same year issued two engravings illustrating the story of Wat Tyler:--'1. Workshop scene; Wat Tyler knocking the Tyrant Tax-gatherer's brains out;' the principal characters equipped in boots, buckles, and belts, in true theatrical style 2. 'Smithfield scene; the assassin Walworth treacherously murdering the brave but too-confiding Wat Tyler.' The same paper also issued this year a view of St. Peter's, Rome. The _Magnet_, a paper started in 1837, illustrated the proclamation of Queen Victoria, William IV. lying in state, the Canadian rebellion, burning of the Royal Exchange, coronation of Queen Victoria, and on Jan. 4, 1841, the removal of the remains of Napoleon I. from St. Helena. There are two engravings of this interesting historical event. The first is entitled, 'A correct view, taken on the spot, of the interior of the tent at St. Helena, after the disinterment of the body of Napoleon, at the instant of the removal of the lid from the coffin; the remains of the Emperor appearing (as one of the spectators remarked) as if he were asleep.' I have copied the second cut, which represents the embarkation of the body, and is one of the last examples of pictorial journalism before the birth of the _Illustrated London News_.

Before concluding this part of my subject it is fitting that I should include the _Penny Magazine_ amongst the pictorial journals which immediately preceded the establishment of a regular illustrated newspaper. The _Penny Magazine_, though not a newspaper, was intended to supplant the cheap and pernicious contraband newspapers that then existed in large numbers. It was the most successful experiment that England had then seen of the art of illustration in combination with the steam press, and was the best attempt that had been made in a cheap form to elevate the public taste.

Mr. Charles Knight, who thus, in the _Penny Magazine_, led the way in combining literature with art in a popular form, was a staunch advocate of education, and he never ceased in his endeavours to improve the condition of the masses. He said, 'the poor man must be made a thinking man--a man capable of intellectual pleasures; he must be purified in his tastes, and elevated in his understanding; he must be taught to comprehend the real dignity of all useful employments; he must learn to look upon the distinctions of society without envy or servility; he must respect them, for they are open to him as well as to others; but he must respect himself more. The best enjoyments of our nature might be common to him and the most favoured by fortune. Let him be taught how to appreciate them. Diminish the attractions of his sensual enjoyments by extending the range of his mental pleasures.'[5] With such convictions, Mr. Knight, in 1827, joined the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, a new educational movement then just started by the Reform Party. He brought out, under its auspices, a great number of useful works, most of which were profusely illustrated. In 1832 Mr. Knight resided in the Vale of Health on Hampstead Heath. One of his neighbours was Mr. M. D. Hill, an active member of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. It was a time of great political excitement, and the town was flooded with unstamped weekly publications, which in some degree came under the character of contraband newspapers, and were nearly all dangerous in principle and coarse in language. Mr. Knight and Mr. Hill often walked to town together, and their conversation naturally turned to a subject in which they both felt a special interest--the means of improving the condition of the people by the diffusion of cheap literature, and so counteracting the dangerous and offensive publications which then abounded. One morning in early spring their talk was of this kind, when Mr. Hill exclaimed, 'Let us see what something cheap and good can accomplish! Let us have a Penny Magazine!' Mr. Knight immediately adopted the suggestion, which was cordially approved by the Lord Chancellor Brougham; and on March 31, 1832, appeared the first number of 'the _Penny Magazine_ of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.' It was necessary to avoid making the new periodical anything like a newspaper lest it should become liable to stamp duty, and at first very little expense was incurred for illustrations, most of the engravings in the early numbers being reprinted from other works of the Society. It was not till six months had elapsed that Mr. Knight ventured into the wide field of illustration, and made the public familiar with great works of art, such as the 'Laocoon,' the 'Apollo Belvedere,' the 'Dying Gladiator,' the 'Cartoons,' &c. The best pictures of the old masters were intermingled with scenes at home and abroad, with places of renown and illustrious men of all nations and of every age.

The success of the _Penny Magazine_ was a surprise to the publisher and an astonishment to most persons. At the end of 1832 it had reached a sale of 200,000 in weekly numbers and monthly parts, and it soon produced a revolution in popular art throughout the world. Stereotype casts of its best cuts were supplied for the illustration of publications of a similar character which appeared in Germany, France, Holland, Livonia, Bohemia, Italy, Ionian Islands, Sweden, Norway, Spanish America, and the Brazils. The entire work was also reprinted in the United States from plates sent from this country.[6]

It continued its prosperous career for nine years, when a new series was commenced, with considerable improvements in engraving and printing. Five volumes of the new series were published, but the sale declined, owing to the commencement of illustrated newspapers, and the _Penny Magazine_ in its old form came to an end in 1845, three years after the commencement of the _Illustrated London News_.[7] _Knight's Penny Magazine_, a smaller miscellany, commencing in January, 1846, kept up the old name for six months longer, and then it ceased to exist. In announcing its discontinuance, Mr. Knight thus closes this interesting chapter of literary history:--'The present series of the _Penny Magazine_ is closed, after an experience of only six months. The editor has no reason to complain of the want of public encouragement, for the sale of this series has exceeded that of its predecessor in 1845. But the sale, such as it is, is scarcely remunerative; and there are indications that it may decline rather than increase. This is a hint which cannot be mistaken. It shall not be said of his humble efforts to continue, upon an equality with the best of his contemporaries, a publication which once had a decided pre-eminence, that

"Superfluous lags the veteran on the stage."

He leaves this portion of popular literature to be cultivated by those whose new energy may be worth more than his old experience. The _Penny Magazine_ shall begin and end with him. It shall not pass into other hands.'

Mr. Knight attributed the falling off in the sale of the _Penny Magazine_ to the extended sale of newspapers and the application of wood-engravings to their illustration; and in his _Passages of a Working Life_ he relates how he first heard of the journal that was destined to succeed the _Penny Magazine_ in the field of popular art:--'In 1842, having occasion to be in attendance at the Central Criminal Court, my curiosity was excited by an unusual spectacle--that of an artist, seated amongst the civic dignitaries on the bench, diligently employed in sketching two Lascars, on their trial for a capital offence. What was there so remarkable in the case, in the persons, or even in the costume of the accused, that they should be made the subject of a picture? The mystery was soon explained to me. The _Illustrated London News_ had been announced for publication on the Saturday of the week in which I saw the wretched foreigners standing at the bar. I knew something about hurrying on wood-engravers for the _Penny Magazine_, but a newspaper was an essentially different affair. How, I thought, could artists and journalists so work concurrently that the news and the appropriate illustrations should both be fresh? How could such things be managed with any approach to fidelity of representation unless all the essential characteristics of a newspaper were sacrificed in the attempt to render it pictorial? I fancied that this rash experiment would be a failure. It proved to be such a success as could only be ensured by resolute and persevering struggles against natural difficulties.'

Charles Knight was born at Windsor in 1791. The son of a bookseller, he very early became connected with the press. At the age of twenty-one he conducted the _Windsor and Eton Express_, and a few years later he became the editor of the _Guardian_, a London weekly paper. He afterwards started a monthly magazine called the _Etonian_, and amongst his contributors were Macaulay, Praed, and other clever young men who had been educated at Eton, some of whom supported him in a later venture, _Knight's Quarterly Magazine_. In the midst of his varied duties as author and publisher he never lost sight of the great question of popular education, and heartily joined in the movement for repealing the taxes on knowledge. He gave expression to his views in _The Struggles of a Book against Excessive Taxation_ and _The Case of the Authors as regards the Paper Duty_. He paid the enormous sum of 16,500_l._ for paper duty on the _Penny Cyclopedia_ alone, and on the same work he expended 40,000_l._ for literature and engravings. When this great and useful work was completed Mr. Knight was entertained at a public dinner presided over by Lord Brougham, when the leading men in literature and art united to do him honour. The _Penny Cyclopedia_ was not a commercial success, solely because of the paper duty.

Of the numerous illustrated works published by Mr. Knight, the _Pictorial Bible_ was the most successful in a pecuniary sense, and he considered the _Arabian Nights_ the most beautiful as regards illustrations. He was so ardent a promoter of illustrative art, that he invented a press for printing in colours, from which issued many coloured engravings for his various works, such as _Old England_, the _Farmer's Library_, &c.

Mr. Knight died at Addlestone, Surrey, March 9, 1873, and was buried in his native town of Windsor. A marble bust of him was placed by public subscription in the Council Chamber of that town, and two scholarships, bearing his name, were founded in the school of the Stationers' Company. It was well said of Charles Knight on the occasion of unveiling his bust at Windsor, that he set out in life with the desire to make knowledge a common possession instead of an exclusive privilege. He laboured for the good of his fellow-men rather than for the rewards of fame or fortune, and no man was more worthy of honour for his public services and his private virtues. The last time I saw him was at the grave of an old friend of his and mine; and as I recall the remembrance of his grey hair tossed in the wintry wind, I adopt in all seriousness what Douglas Jerrold said in jest, that two words would suffice for his epitaph--'good Knight.'

It is curious that the printing-press, which has worked such mighty changes, should have reproduced in another form the ancient jester who stood in cap and bells behind his master's chair, and the merry-andrew who made the rustics laugh upon the village green. The numerous satirical and humorous publications of the Victorian era represent a distinct kind of illustrated journalism, through which runs an amusing commentary on passing events, combined with a vein of satire always good-humoured and often instructive. At the head of this array of wit and wisdom stands _Punch_, who, however, was preceded by _Figaro in London_, conducted by Mr. Gilbert A'Beckett, afterwards one of _Punch's_ strongest supporters. Mr. A'Beckett faithfully acted up to his motto:--

'Satire should, like a polished razor keen,
Wound with a touch that's hardly felt or seen;'

but the constitution of _Figaro_ was not strong, and he died young.

While the _Penny Magazine_ was yet in vigorous life, and the _Illustrated London News_ was as yet unborn, there used to be a weekly gathering of authors, actors, and artists, at a tavern in Wych Street, Strand, where the late Mr. Mark Lemon presided as the genial host. This company of merry men were mostly on the sunny side of life, and disposed to look upon the world and the world's cares with a laughing eye. They were ever ready to go out of their way for the sake of a joke, and a pun, good or bad, was pleasant to them. In this congenial atmosphere _Punch_ germinated, and in July, 1841, that shrewd observer and good-humoured satirist appeared. Mr. _Punch_, like some other great men, had a hard struggle in his early days; but prosperous times came, and he now combines in his own person the dignity of age with the vivacity of youth. _Puck_, _Diogenes_, and numerous other imitators of _Punch_, attempted to obtain a share of public favour, but most of them died after a brief existence. The best of these that survive are _Fun_ and _Judy_, which, with the _Hornet_, _Vanity Fair_, _Figaro_ (a revival of the name), _Moonshine_, _Funny Folks_, and others, continue their weekly budgets with a smartness and vigour not unworthy of their great prototype.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] There was another Sunday paper in existence about this time, the
_Sunday Reformer and Universal Register_. In the number for Dec.
29th, 1793, there is a copperplate portrait of Robert Lowth, D.D.,
Lord Bishop of London, then recently deceased.

[2] 'Old Stories Retold,' in _All the Year Round_.

[3] Grant's _Newspaper Press_.

[4] 'Old Stories Retold,' in _All the Year Round_.

[5] _Passages of a Working Life._

[6] At this time there was another illustrated weekly magazine in
existence--the _Mirror_, which began about 1822. The engravings it
contained were chiefly of a topographical character.

[7] The _Saturday Magazine_ was started in imitation of the _Penny
Magazine_, and, like its prototype, had a considerable popularity for
some years.