By the death of his brother, Major Blackwood, John was once more left alone in the conduct of the business, which by this time, as has been shown, by the accession of well known and popular writers and by his skill and management, he had enormously increased, and was increasing daily. His work was, however, to be lightened and his loneliness cheered by the assistance and companionship of his nephew William, Major Blackwood's eldest son, who at the time of his father's death was a young man of six-and-twenty, and had been engaged for several years in the business which was to be the profession of his life. He then passed into the place his father had filled so successfully, and henceforth the Editor's letters and confidences are directed to his nephew, and the frequent allusions to “the Major,” with which readers of the second volume of this book have become familiar, drop out of sight, and their place in the Editor's correspondence is now taken by “My nephew,” or “Willie” as he familiarly termed him, and his name appears in the letters with the frequency which betokens the important position he now held, and the loving trust that was reposed in him. In the following year his Uncle John made him a partner, which is notified in a letter to Mrs Oliphant.