CHAMBERS, KNIGHT, AND CASSELL. 243 taining books of reference in existence. A supple- mentary and fifth volume was afterwards added by the Reverend Thomas Thomson. Besides writing these various works, and giving some attention to his ordinary business, he found time to act as editor of the Edinburgh Advertiser. In 1829, Robert Chambers married Miss Anne Kirkwood, of Edinburgh, a lady of very congenial qualities and attainments, and whose musical accom- plishments constantly supplied him after his heavy daily labours with the recreation essential to one so passionately fond of music. William Chambers was toiling away busily in his little shop in the Broughton suburb writing, printing, and selling books. After some minor efforts at authorship, he wrote the " Book of Scotland," giving an account of the legal constitution and customs of his native country. This was followed by the "Gazetteer of Scotland," written in conjunction with his brother, which, from the then scanty printed material at their disposal, must have cost them an immensity of labour. In 1832 came the turning point of the cause of the two brothers. The struggle for parliamentary reform had awakened a necessity for the spread of education. The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge had already been doing good service to the cause, with Lord Brougham as its president, and Charles Knight as its manager. And on the 4th of February, 1832, appeared the first number of Chambers' Edin- burgh Journal. Mr. William Chambers has himself, in a letter to the editor of the AtJtenceum (April 1st, 1871), replied to a statement in a former number, that upon seeing a copy of the prospectus of the Penny
