and happily, if he fail to properly digest his food. a persons who cannot digest milk when gulped or drunk down quickly, readily do so when it is slowly sipped. The habit of taking one's breakfast in the manner recommended is so very easily acquired, that, after the first trial, no inconvenience will be felt; in fact, the food will be enjoyed, and the pleasure of the meal greatly increased. Indiscretions committed at the dinner-table are credited as the cause of many dyspeptic attacks; but probably more may be traced to the pernicious habit indicated and indulged in by so many persons at breakfast and tea. A final hint as to the tea at breakfast. The We trust that the following hints-for which we are indebted to Mr Andrew W. Tuer, Editor of The Paper and Printing Trades Journalsupplementary to our paper in a recent issue (No. 927) on the subject of Dyspepsia, may not only be the means of bringing relief to the sufferer, but may rout the enemy altogether. The commonest and most distressing symptoms of indigestion are a sense of weight or oppression in the stomach after partaking of agenerally unenjoyed-meal, often followed by irritability of temper, depression of spirits, and sense of general discomfort vaguely termed epicurean method of making it, and that, we 'out of sorts. An attack may last for days, or believe, practised by professional tea-tasters, is to for weeks, or be so long continued as to become put a single spoonful-let it be of the best and almost chronic. Medicine may give temporary without any admixture of green-into a breakrelief, but that is all. The cause of the mischief, fast cup, which is filled up with boiling water, which may be taken to result from a fermentive covered with a plate or saucer, and allowed to process communicated to every meal almost as stand for three minutes only, when-after desoon as swallowed, must be removed. An anti-canting into another cup, so as to dispose of the septic must be looked for, that, while stopping leaves, which will remain behind-the tea is or killing the ferment, will be harmless to the made. Sugar is added to taste, and lastly milk system; and we find it in glycerine, which was and very little, if any, of it. Tea made first mentioned in connection with indigestion in this manner is not only most deliciously about eighteen months ago by Doctors Sydney aromatic, but most digestible; for the bitter Ringer and William Murrell, in a joint article tannin, which is apt to harden-literally to tan in The Lancet, wherein its use was recommended the food in the stomach, is left behind. in cases of flatulence, acidity, and pyrosis. Glycerine is not only an antiseptic or ferment killer agreeable to take, but appears to possess the singular quality of passing through the digestive organs unchanged. A drachm of glycerine mixed in half a wineglass full of water is to be swallowed with, or immediately after each meal until the enemy takes to flight, which in an ordinary case will be in from one to two days, and in an obstinate one, perhaps a fortnight. Sooner or later, unless the predisposing causes are removed, another attack will follow, and the glycerine will have to be resumed. 'Predisposing causes' having been referred to, it must now be the endeavour to find out what they are, so that a perfect cure may be effected and the glycerine discarded altogether. One's own common-sense would suggest that food known to disagree should be avoided. Indigestion is often set up at the earliest, and to the dyspeptic, the lightest meal of the day, at which he probably confines himself to crisp toast buttered as soon as cold, bread-and-butter with a very lightly boiled egg, or a little fat bacon, the whole moistened with a little tea. In the word just used, 'moistened,' probably lies the 'predisposing cause.' The food, when only half chewed, is moistened with a sip of tea to expedite its departure to the stomach; but to insure its digestion, be it ever so simple, the food must be thoroughly masticated and receive during the process the necessary moisture from the saliva. Food should be swallowed without any extraneous aid in a liquid form, and ought never to be washed down. A sip of tea may be taken between the bites, but not when there is food in the mouth, of which a fair quantity ought to be disposed of before the tea is even thought of. The tea itself, by being slowly sipped, receives its share of the saliva, and is rendered more digestible. And this assertion is borne out by the fact, that many THE SHADOWED CROSS. I traced the haunts he loved the best At early dawn I sought his grave, 'Mid quaint-carved stones, o'ergrown with moss, And, kneeling there in tearless woe, Methought I heard my darling say: Which, as a dream, shall pass away, Then found my anguish vent in tears, And when I rose, thus comforted, J. W. BROWN. Printed and Published by W. & R. CHAMBERS, 47 Paternoster Row, LONDON, and 339 High Street, Edinburgh. All Rights Reserved. POPULAR LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART. CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS. No. 944.-VOL. XIX. SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 1882. OUR JUBILEE YEAR. REMINISCENCES OF A LONG AND BUSY LIFE. THE year 1882, now commenced, happens to be It The first idea that occurs in a very prolonged retrospect is the prodigious change that has taken place in the social conditions of the country. I feel as if living in a new world, yet with the wonted tokens of antiquity observable as of yore. Old notions and prejudices have silently passed away. The denser forms of ignorance have disappeared. Many pretentious bugbears have been exploded. Grievous indications of poverty in many quarters have been superseded by symptoms of individual and national prosperity. There used to be frequent uproars about the anticipated ruin of labour by the introduction of machinery. Although machinery has in almost all the industrial arts been freely introduced, PRICE 14d there is more employment of labour than ever. By the removal of taxes which pressed severely not only on the absolute necessaries of life, but on many articles in common use, a great saving has been effected. All imported food was taxed; salt was taxed to more than thirty times its natural value; soap was taxed; leather was taxed; paper of all kinds was taxed; newspapers were taxed; candles were taxed; windowlights were taxed; spring-carts, such as are now largely used by tradesmen, were taxed; postletters were taxed according to distance, so that some people could not afford to receive them. At one time, as I recollect, tea was sold at eight shillings a pound; and sugar was four times the price it now is. Through the removal of so many exactions, and from other causes, the humbler classes are now better paid for their labour, better fed, better clothed, and better housed; they are likewise much more thrifty, as is testified by the large deposits in the Savingsbanks. Perhaps the most remarkable thing of all is the change as to facility of transit by sea and land through the agency of steam, while telegraphic communications are effected with the swiftness of lightning. Life may not be extended in point of years, but time is immensely economised, and a man may now do more than double what he could attempt to overtake fifty to sixty years since; this, indeed, may be called one of the prime factors in national advancement, which is seldom adverted to. I could refer to numerous meliorations that have occurred in the general political organisation without having provoked disturbance. Common-sense now dispassionately settles matters formerly left to the dominion of temper. Notwithstanding a thousand apprehensions, the envied fabric of British constitutional liberty remains unchanged -only, I think, materially strengthened, with the grand old monarchy towering over all, and with its foundations securely anchored in the affections of the people. Born in 1800, I am excluded from any remembrance of the great convulsion in France; but the surgings of that terrible affair were still everywhere visible. Bonaparte was a name of terror. The British Islands were a universal camp. Soldiers were seen, and the beating of drums was heard in all directions. A resolution to preserve the country from invasion, seemed to animate all hearts. The oldest of my distinct recollections as concerns public events was the Battle of Trafalgar, October 21, 1805, when I was over five years of age. At the firesides were heard gratulations on the victory, which at once settled Napoleon's projects of invasion; these tokens of joy, however, being saddened by the intelligence of the death of Nelson. It has been always something for me to say with a sense of satisfaction that I remember that great naval achievement, the Battle of Trafalgar. sion. I was not fated to receive more than a plain education in the place of my birth, a small country town in the south of Scotland. Matters there were still somewhat primitive. In the schools I passed through, there was not a map, nor a book on geography, or history, or science. The only instruction consisted of the three Rs, finishing off with a dose of Latin. It was a simple and cheap arrangement, diversified with boisterous outdoor exercises, and a certain amount of fighting, in which I was forced to take a part. My instruction in Latin came abruptly to a concluLieutenant Waters, in one of the old novels, says, with more energy than elegance, that he still bore the marks of 'Homo' on his person. I likewise have the honour of bearing similar evidences of my acquaintance with Homo. One day, not being quite prompt in answering a question in Latin grammar, my teacher, in one of his irascible moods (which were always distinguishable by his wearing a short bottle-green coat), lifted a ruler and inflicted a sharp blow on the top of my head, which almost deprived me of consciousness, and which, while leaving a small protuberance, is on occasions, after an interval of seventy years, still felt to be awkwardly painful. So much for my acquaintance with Homo. With every respect for his agency in mental culture, I shortly afterwards bade the academy good-bye; and so ended my classical education, or school education of any kind. It was a miserable business; but after all, I have reason to think it was the best thing that could have happened. An over-cramming of classical learning might have sent me in a wrong direction. I had secured the means of self-instruction through books, and that was deemed sufficient. All depended on making a proper use of the means. My brother Robert, two years younger, more docile and meditative, took kindly to Homo, and continued to prosecute his studies in that direction some time longer. Both, however, were alike anxious to make up for deficiencies by selfreliance. A little room we occupied was our college. Every spare hour, morning, noon, and night, was devoted to books. We went right through a circulating library, which the small town had the happiness to possess, besides devouring every book within the domestic circle. Light and heavy literature were equally acceptable. The object was to fill the mind with anything that was harmlessly amusing and instructive. At from ten to twelve years of age we had in a way digested much of the Encyclopædia Britannica,' and by this means alone we acquired a knowledge of the physical sciences, not a word of which could have been learned at school. Useful as it proved, such a method of rushing on from book to book is certainly not to be commended. Fortunately, we had good memories, with some sense of discrimination. Robert's memory was wonderful. Like storms, which though appalling, are sometimes beneficial, misfortunes in ordinary life are occasionally blessings in disguise. A quiet home tribulation. was suddenly plunged in My father, a man of benevolent disposition, but with inconsiderately, as a merchant, giving credit to no great vigour of character, was ruined by a parcel of unprincipled French prisoners of war on parole. It was a clean sweep; and it would have been utterly disastrous, but for the interposition of my mother, a woman of singular nerve and resolution, by nature a lady, and whom circumstances made a heroine. There was new and more nothing for it but to seek a By a wise resopromising scene of operations. lution, the family removed to Edinburgh in December 1813; thus quitting a locality where their lineage had existed in the modest position of small proprietors since the days of Robert Bruce. The wrench was sharp, but imperative. At this point, I feel it desirable for a moment to lay aside any consideration of the career pursued by Robert, my younger associate, and to confine myself to a personal narrative. with literature, I was, in May 1814, apprenAnxious to be employed in some way connected ticed for five years to a bookseller. He happened to be a relentless disciplinarian; but that perhaps was rather a good thing for a young fellow entering the world. As our family had soon occasion to remove to a situation a few miles from town, it was my luck to be consigned to the lodging of a decent but penurious widow, in which humble live for some years, and to make both ends meet, refuge I am to be supposed as endeavouring to lodgings and shoe-leather included, on a revenue of four shillings a week. It was a hard but somewhat droll scrimmage with semi-starvation; for, as concerns food, it was an attempt to live on threepence-halfpenny a day. Yet, it was done, and I never thought much about it. I was in the midst of a busy and enlightened I enjoyed a charming indulgence in the Pleacommunity; and if I did at times feel hungry, sures of Hope. I was young, healthy, and resolute in perseverance. It was a most fortunate circumstance that nobody knew me, or cared any Journal thing about me. Acquaintanceships would have been thraldom. Isolation was independence. I was, in short, left to fight the Battle of Life in my own way. Youths, generally, make a great mistake in the cultivation of acquaintances, who only embarrass them. The world at large is the true reliance. At intervals, I pursued educational matters in a small way. I made experiments in electricity with the aid of an apparatus which I managed to purchase from very limited savings. I likewise made a study of French, with which I was slightly familiar from recollecting the language of the French prisoners of war. On Sundays I carried a French New Testament in my pocket to church, and pored over its construction in relation to English. At the time I entered on the busy world, there was much to exhilarate the youthful mind. The close of the French war was coincident with the commencement of the Waverley Novels. When Waverley,' in three volumes, was issued in 1814 by Constable, there was a great commotion in the trade; my being despatched for relays of copies, and carrying parcels of them to an eager class of customers, being one of my amusing facts to look back upon. There was a great mystery as to the authorship of this and the speedily succeeding fictions; but it in time fastened down on Walter Scott, whose bulky figure and good-natured countenance were familiar in the streets of Edinburgh. The great victory at Waterloo in 1815, when Bonaparte was done for at last, caused immense public rejoicings. It was the end of a frightful and protracted effort, that had loaded the country with an almost unendurable amount of taxation. The outburst of the Waverley Novels was followed by various symptoms of mental awakenings in the Scottish capital. There were two striking indications of the kind, each the antipodes of the other. The Scotsman newspaper, in the Whig interest, sounded the death-knell of hundreds of vexatious abuses, and caused a prodigious sensation. Taking an interest in its projected appearance, I, in the enthusiasm of the moment, made a push to buy the first copy issued; but such was the crowd, I failed in the attempt; I, however, was able to secure the second copy that was handed out (January 25, 1817). The price was tenpence, owing to the limitation of advertisements, and the costly government stamp. Yet, the sale was immense. This is one of my pleasant retrospects. The Scotsman, in its modernised form and price, has long been the leading newspaper in Edinburgh. The other circumstance to be noted was the publication of Blackwood's Magazine by an enterprising bookseller of that name (April 1817). It drew around it a number of able literary supporters, Wilson, Lockhart, the Ettrick Shepherd, and others, whose jeux-d'esprit speedily gave the work a renown, which, with good management, has carried it on till the present day. Having elsewhere related some of the queer incidents in this period of my life, I pass on to a subject more immediately on hand. My apprenticeship came to a close in 1819, and with Memoir of Robert Chambers, with Autobiographic Reminiscences of W. Chambers, 10th Edition, 1878. five shillings in my pocket-to which sum my weekly wage had been latterly advanced-I was left to begin the struggle of independent exertion. I was fortunate in the moment when thrown on my own resources. A London bookseller, who had come to conduct a trade-sale in Edinburgh, sought my assistance to arrange his specimens. I willingly lent my aid; and this worthy person, understanding that I wanted to begin business, but had only five shillings of capital, gave me an excellent selection of books on credit to the value of ten pounds. Borrowing a truck for the occasion, I wheeled the books to a small place of business I had secured in Leith Walk; and there I exhibited my stock of books on a stall, which I constructed of wood bought with the five shillings. Again, fortune proved favourable. The books were speedily disposed of, and a fresh stock was ordered. A good start had been made. After discharging all my obligations, I had a few pounds over, and by following a rigorous system of thrift, things were decidedly looking up. In the petty business I had begun, there was much idle time, particularly in wet weather. As a relief from ennui, and if possible to pick up a few shillings, I took to copying small pieces of poetry with a crow-pen, for albums, in a style resembling fine print. This answered so far; but it was slow work, with no prospect of permanent advantage. A brilliant idea shot up. I must have a press and types. There was the small drawback of having no practical knowledge of printing, and no money wherewith to buy a proper stock of materials. As for the knowledge, that hardly cost a thought. In casual visits to printing offices, I had seen types set, and impressions taken. There was surely no difficulty that a few days' experience could not overcome. Then, as regards money, I happened to have three pounds on hand. As if good luck was determined to follow me, a person offered to sell me a small hand-press, and a quantity of types sufficient for a beginning; price of the whole, including type-cases, only three pounds. types were dreadfully old and worn. They had been employed for the last twenty years in printing a newspaper. The press could print only half a sheet at a time, and made a fearfully wheezing noise when the screw was brought to the pull. These were untoward circumstances that could not be helped, and had to be made the best of. I actually, with these poor appliances, began the business of a printer in addition to my small bookselling concern. After a little time overcoming every difficulty, I managed to execute an edition, small size, of the Songs of Robert Burns, with my own hands bound the copies in boards with coloured wrapper, sold the whole off, and cleared eight pounds by the transaction. It was all found money; for the work had been done early in the morning, and during bad weather. The a My next exploit was of a more ambitious description. It consisted of nothing less than trying to print a periodical, of which Robert was to act as editor. It was to come out fortnightly, and extend to sixteen octavo pages. The eight pounds realised by the success of my Burns, helped to purchase a new fount of letter for the occasion. The old jangling press was still to do duty. The name of the aspiring periodical was The Kaleidoscope, which went through a brief the present Journal, and the first number career of eight numbers, between the 6th October appeared on Saturday the 4th of February. It 1821 and 12th January 1822. The papers, contained an introductory article, written in a mostly of a humorous character, were nearly fevered state of feeling, as may be judged by the all written by Robert. I was not able to do following passages. much in the way of writing. The setting of types, and the toil of working the press, besides other business duties, were enough, and more than enough, for, under the heavy labour, I considerably broke down in health, and was fain to give the whole thing up. After this, I for a time stuck to bookselling and to job printing. The larger class of letters required for hand-bills, such as Dog Lost,' I cut in wood with a penknife. I also printed some small pamphlets of the nature of chap-books, which I was occasionally able to pen. One of them was a History of the Gypsies. From 1822 till 1832, much writing to little purpose; I was, however, gaining literary experience, and from having to write at short intervals in the course of business, I acquired a facility in letting down and taking up subjects abruptly which has proved useful through life. The works latterly undertaken and executed were the Gazetteer of Scotland, a tremendously heavy job-and the Book of Scotland, a volume which sketched the special legal institutes of the country; now deservedly forgotten and out of print. Robert had meanwhile taken honours with his pen. The Traditions of Edinburgh, a work of historic and antiquarian interestwhich was the last of my feats in type-setting, and drawing impressions with the hand-presswas issued in 1824. It at once brought fame and pecuniary advantage. Walter Scott called on Robert to compliment him on the work, and assist him with suggestions. At this time, we had each separately removed to commodious central places in Edinburgh. The period was not a very agreeable one in which to live. In the reign of William IV., there were so many things to correct, that society was kept in constant perturbation. In the midst of political contentions, connected with the Reform Bill, came an alarming epidemic of Asiatic cholera. "The principle by which I have been actuated is to take advantage of the universal appetite for instruction which at present exists; to supply to that appetite food of the best kind, in such forms and at such price as will suit the convenience of every man in the British dominions. Every Saturday, when the poorest labourer in the country draws his humble earnings, he shall have it in his power to purchase, with an insignificant portion of even that humble sum, a meal of healthful, useful, and agreeable mental instruction. Whether I succeed in my wishes, a brief space of time will determine. I throw myself on the good sense of my countrymen for support; all I seek is a fair field wherein to exercise my industry in their service.' I concluded by notifying the subjects which would receive particular attention. On the 31st of March 1832, being about six weeks after the commencement of Chambers's Journal, appeared the first number of the Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. It is learnt from Mr Charles Knight, its publisher, that the Penny Magazine was suggested to him on a morning in March, and that the Lord Chancellor (Brougham), who was waited on, cordially entered into the project, which was forthwith sanctioned by the Committee of the Society. The Penny Magazine, begun under such distinguished auspices, and which, as is understood, had a very large circulation, terminated unexpectedly in 1845; though not without having exerted, during its comparatively brief career, an influence, along with similar publications, in stimulating the growth of that cheap and wholesome literature which has latterly assumed such huge proportions. High as were my expectations, the success of the Journal exceeded them. In a few days there was for Scotland the unprecedented sale of thirty thousand copies; and shortly afterwards, when copies Although the period was in various ways were consigned to an agent in London for diffusion dismal, there were occasional gleams of a brighter through England, the sale rose to fifty thousand, at day. Schools of Arts and Mechanics' Institutes which it long remained, with scarcely any advertissprang up through the influence of thoughtful ing to give it publicity. Some years after this, the individuals. The Society for the Diffusion of circulation exceeded eighty thousand. Robert's Useful Knowledge was founded. Above all, there views having now considerably changed as regards sprang up a class of low-priced periodicals, mostly the importance of the undertaking, he was admitted worthless and ephemeral, but being popular a partner at the fourteenth number; and from among the masses'-a word which had come this time is dated the firm of W. & R. Chambers. into vogue-they answered the purpose of show- The early success of Chambers's Journal was pering how the wind blew. Here, said I, pondering haps partly due to the fact, that at that time on the subject, is my chance. I have waited the price of newspapers was usually sevenpence, for years for a favourable gale, and it has come owing to the heavy stamp and advertisement at last. Taking advantage of the growing taste duties. Chambers's Journal being free from these for cheap literature, let me lead it, if possible, exactions, and being a sheet at the price of threein a proper direction; let me endeavour to ele- halfpence, while in point of size it was nearly vate and instruct, independently of mere passing as large as a newspaper, was accepted as amusement; and in particular, let me avoid great bargain in reading. It found its way to political, sectarian, or any kind of controversial nooks and corners of the country to which no bias. The matter being important, I in the such papers had ever penetrated, the instrucfirst place consulted Robert on the subject; but tive and entertaining nature of the articles he declined to connect himself with the project, making it a special favourite with young people. though he promised to help with occasional Even until the present time, I continue to papers. No further time was lost in cogitation. receive communications from individuals embracIn January 1832, I issued the prospectus of ing recollections of the vast pleasure with a |