Wisdom Vault — onlinknow.co.za

There is hardly a wind that blows or a tide that flows in the Mersey that does not bring a ship freighted with cotton or some other costly commodity for Mr. Brown's house ; and not a lorry in the streets but what is destined to carry cloth or other 200 BUSINESS MEN. commodities, consigned to the care of Mr.

Brown, to be shipped to America, China, or other parts of the world." In 1846, at the age of sixty-two, Mr. Brown was elected M.P. for South Lancashire, and he sat in Parliament for thirteen years. Though by no means an effective debater, his speeches commanded attention by the amount of information which they conveyed.

On the occasion of Lord Palmerston's quarrel with the United States Government, who had somewhat hastily dis- missed the British Minister at Washington, Mr. Brown acted as a mediator ; and his commercial influence and upright cha- racter crowned his efforts with success.

It was a noble work to prevent two great nations, akin in race and language, from drawing the sword upon each other for a diplomatic punctilio. It was a work worthy of a British merchant and a Christian philanthropist. And surely we should not despise the calling which places a man in a position to do such a work.

We cannot, nor is it necessary for the proof of our thesis, that we should, dwell upon all the generous actions of William Brown. He may be said to have consummated them by his last — the foundation of the Free Library of Liverpool, at a cost of some ^45,000.

Three years later, public testimony was born to his " success in life" by his appointment as High Sheriff of Lancashire and his promotion to a baronetcy. He died on the 3d of March, 1864, at the age of seventy-nine. - The name of the Messrs.

Chambers has been rendered familiar to English-speaking people all over the world by the well-known " Journal " and the scarcely less well-known "Encyclopaedia," not to speak of other publications which have ministered largely to the moral and intellectual cultiva- tion of the masses.

The high reputation of the firm is due, in ROBERT CHAMBERS. 201 no small degree, to the literary labors of Dr. Robert Chambers. He was born at Peebles, on the banks of the Tweed, on the loth of July, 1802, two years later than his brother William, with whom he was afterwards so closely associated in the pub- lishing business.

They were the sons of James Chambers, a muslin weaver, whose reverses of fortune compelled him to remove to Edinburgh while his sons were still in their early boyhood. They had already received, however a certain modicum of education at the burgh school, and at the hands of their old nurse and one Tam Flack, a Peebles " character."

At Edinburgh their education was continued and completed at the High School. It was neither very wide nor very deep, but it served young Robert Chambers well, when, at the age of sixteen, having saved up a sum of about forty shillings, he opened a bookshop or book-stall in Leith Street.