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.'