MEMOIR AND CORRESPONDENCE OF JOHN MURRAY JOHN MURRAY 1745-1793 iFronlispiece. A PUBLISHER AND HIS FRIENDS MEMOIR AND CORRESPONDENCE OF ~ JOHN MURRAY WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF THE HOUSE, 1768-1843 BY THE LATE SAMUEL SMILES, LL.D. CONDENSED AND EDITED BY THOMAS MACKAY WITH PORTRAITS LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. 191 1 PRINTED BY HAZEIX, WATSON AND VTNEY, LONDON AND AYLESBURY. PREFACE WHEN my Grandfather's Memoirs were published, twenty years ago, they met with a most favourable and gratifying reception at the hands of the public. Interest was aroused by the struggle and success of a man who had few advan- tages at the outset save his own shrewd sense and generous nature, and who, moreover, was thrown on his own re- sources to fight the battle of life when he was little more than a child. The chief value of these volumes, however, consists in the fact that they supply an important, if not an in- dispensable, chapter in the literary history of England during the first half of the nineteenth century. Byron and Scott, Lockhart, Croker, George Borrow, Hallam, Canning, Gifford, Disraeli, Southey, Milman are but a few of the names occurring in these pages, the whole list of which it would be tedious to enumerate. It may be admitted that a pious desire to do justice to the memory of John Murray the Second " the Anax of Publishers," as Byron called him led to the inclusion in the original volumes of some material of minor importance which may now well be dispensed with. I find, however, that the work is still so often quoted and referred to that I have asked my friend Mr. Thomas Mackay to prepare a new edition for the press. I am convinced that the way in which he has discharged his task will commend itself to the reading public. He has condensed the whole, has corrected errors, and has re- written certain passages in a more concise form. I desire to acknowledge my debt to him for what he has done, and to express a hope that the public may extend a fresh welcome to "an old friend with a new face." JOHN MURRAY. December, 1910. 2063773 CONTENTS CHAPTER I JOHN MACMUBBAY OK MURBAY The first John Murray An Officer of Marines Retires from Active Service His marriage Correspondence with William Falconer Falconer's death Murray purchases Sandby's business John Murray's first publications His writings Mr. Kerr Thomas Gumming goes to Ireland on behalf of Murray Prof. J. Millar Mr. Whitaker Defence of Sir R. Gordon Ross estate His controversy with Mr. Mason The Edinburgh booksellers Creech and Elliot Dr. Cullen The second John Murray His education Accident to his eye Illness and death of the elder John Murray p. 1 CHAPTER II JOHN MURRAY (ll.) BEGINNING OF HIS PUBLISHING CABEEB ISAAC D'ISBAELI, ETC. John Murray the Second " The Anax of Publishers " His start in business Murray and Highley Dissolution of the partner- ship Colman's " John Bull " Mr. Joseph Hume Archibald Constable John Murray a Volunteer The D'Israeli family Isaac D'Israeli's early works " Flim-Flams " Birth of Benjamin D'Israeli Projected periodical the " Institute " The "Miniature" Murray's acquaintance with Canning and Frere p. 11 CHAPTER III MUBRAY AND CONSTABLE HUNTER AND THE FORFARSHIRE LAIRDS MABRIAGE OF JOHN MURBAY Archibald Constable & Co. Alexander Gibson Hunter The Edinburgh Review Murray's early associations with Constable Dispute between Longman and Constable Murray appointed viii CONTENTS London Agent He urges reconciliation between Constable and Longman Mr. Murray visits Edinburgh Engaged to Miss Elliot Goes into Forf arshire Rude Hospitality Murray's marriage The D'Israelis . . . . p. 20 CHAPTER IV " MARMION " CONSTABLES AND BALLANTYNES THE "EDINBURGH REVIEW" Murray's business prospects Acquires a share of " Marmion " Becomes London publisher of the Edinburgh Review Ac- quaintance with Walter Scott Constable's money transactions Murray's remonstrance He separates from Constable The Ballantynes Scott joins their printing business Literary schemes . . . ' . . . . . p. 30 CHAPTER V ORIGIN OF THE " QUARTERLY REVIEW " Mr. Canning's early schemes for a Penny Newspaper The Anti- Jacobin The Edinburgh Review John Murray's letter to Mr. Canning Walter Scott's assistance Southey's letter to Scott Review of " Marmion " in the Edinburgh Murray's con- nections Meeting with James Ballantyne at Ferrybridge Visit to Scott at Ashestiel Letters to Scott Scott's letters to Murray, Ellis, and Gifford on the Quarterly Arrangements for the first number Articles by Scott James Mill Mrs. Inchbald Dr. Thomas Young . , . . . p. 35 CHAPTER VI THE " QUARTERLY " LAUNCHED Meeting of Murray and Ballantyne at Boroughbridge Walter Scott's interest in the new Review Publication of the first number of the Quarterly Scott's proposed " Secret History of the Court of James I." Portcullis copies "Old English Froissart" Opinions of the Quarterly Scott's energy and encouragement Murray's correspondence with Mr. Stratford Canning Murray's energy Leigh Hunt James Mill Gifford's un- punctuality Appearance of the second number Mr. Canning's contributions Appearance of No. 3 Letters from Mr. Ellis Isaac D'Israeli John Barrow's first connection with the Quarterly Robert Southey Appearance of No. 4 . p. 55 CONTENTS ix CHAPTER VII CONSTABLE AND BALLANTYNE Murray's and Ballantyne's joint enterprises Financial difficulties Murray's remonstrances Ballantyne's reckless speculations And disregard of Murray's advice Revival of Murray's business with Constable Publication of the " Lady of the Lake " Murray excluded from his promised share of it Transfers his Edinburgh agency to Mr. William Blackwood Publication of No. 5 of the Quarterly Southey's articles and books Unpunctuality of the Review Gifford's review of " The Daughters of Isenberg " His letter to Miss Palmer Dispute between Murray and Gifford Attacks on the Edin- burgh Review by the Quarterly Murray's disapproval of them The Ballantynes and Constables applying for money Nos. 8 and 9 of the Review Southey's Publications Letters from Scott His review of the " Curse of Kehama " Southey's dependence on the Quarterly His letter to Mr. Wynn. p. 69 CHAPTER VIII MURRAY AND GIFFORD RUPTURE WITH CONSTABLE PROSPERITY OF THE " QUARTERLY " Increasing friendship between Murray and Gifford Gifford's opinion of humorous articles Mr. Pillans Gifford's feeble health Murray's financial difficulties Remonstrates with Constable Correspondence with and dissociation from Con- stable Quarterly Review No. 12 Gifford's severe remarks on Charles Lamb His remorse Quarterly Review No. 14 Murray's offer to Southey of 1,000 guineas for his poem. - p. 78 CHAPTER IX LORD BYRON'S WORKS, 1811 TO 1814 Lord Byron's first acquaintance with Mr. Murray Mr. Dallas's offer to Cawthorn and Miller Murray's acceptance of " Childe Harold " Byron's visits to Fleet Street Murray's letters to Byron Gifford's opinion of the Poem Publication of " Childe Harold " Its immediate success Byron's presenta- tion to the Prince of Wales Murray effects a reconciliation between Byron and Scott Letters to and from Scott Pub- lication of " The Giaour," " Bride of Abydos " and " Corsair " x CONTENTS Correspondence with Byron " Ode to Napoleon " " Lara " and "Jacqueline" . -.'. . . . . . p. 84 CHAPTER X ME. MURRAY'S REMOVAL TO 50, ALBEMARLE STREET Murray's removal to Albemarle Street Miller's unfriendly be- haviour Progress of the Quarterly Miscellaneous publications D'Israeli's " Calamities of Authors " Letters from Scott and Southey Southey's opinions on the patronage of literature Scott's embarrassments Recklessness of the Ballantynes Scott applies to Murray for a loan Publication of " Waverley " Mystery of the authorship Mr. Murray's proposed trip to France His letters to Mrs. Murray Education of his son Announcement of Lord Byron's engagement Mr. Murray's visit to Newstead Abbey Murray in Edinburgh Mr. William Blackwood Visit to Abbotsford Letter to Lord Byron Letters from Blackwood The " Vision of Don Roderick " p. 93 CHAPTER XI MURRAY'S DRAWING-ROOM BYRON AND SCOTT WORKS PUBLISHED IN 1815 Murray's drawing-room in Albemarle Street A literary centre George Ticknor's account of it Letter from Gifford Death of his housekeeper Nancy First meeting of Byron and Scott Recollections of John Murray III. Napoleon's escape from Elba Waterloo Mr. Blackwood's letter Suppression of an article written for the Edinburgh Mr. Murray's collection of portraits of authors Mr. Scott's visit to Brussels, Waterloo, etc. Mr. Murray's visit to Paris Return home Important diplomatic correspondence offered by Miss Waldie Miss Austen " Emma " Mr. Malthus's works Letters from W. Scott . . * ".: ...... . p. 105 CHAPTERI XI VARIOUS PUBLICATIONS CHARLES MATURIN S. T. COLERIDGE LEIGH HUNT Charles Maturin His early career His early publications And application to W. Scott Performance of " Bertram " at Drury Lane Published by Murray " Manuel, a Tragedy " CONTENTS xi Murray's letter to Byron Death of Maturin S. T. Cole- ridge Correspondence about his translation of " Faust " " Glycine," " Remorse," " Christabel," " Zapolya," and other works Further correspondence Leigh Hunt Asked to con- tribute to the Quarterly " Story of Rimini " Murray's letters to Byron and Hunt Negotiations between Murray and Leigh Hunt p. 115 CHAPTER XIII THOMAS CAMPBELL JOHN CAM HOBHOTTSE J. W. CHOKER JAMES HOGG, ETC. Thomas Campbell His early works Acquaintance with Murray " Selections from the British Poets " Letters to Murray Proposed Magazine And Series of Ancient Classics Close friendship between Campbell and Murray Murray undertakes to publish the " Selections from British Poets " Campbell's explanation of the work " Gertrude pf Wyoming " Scott reviews Campbell's poems in the Quarterly Campbell's Lec- tures at the Royal Institution Campbell's satisfaction with Murray's treatment of him " Now Barabbas was a publisher " Increase of Murray's business Dealings with Gifford Mr. J. C. Hobhouse His " Journey to Albania " Isaac D'Israeli's " Character of James I." Croker's " Stories for Children " The division of profits Sir John Malcolm Increasing number of poems submitted to Mr. Murray James Hogg His works And letters to Murray The " Repository " Correspondence with Murray Hogg asks Murray to find a wife for him p. 128 CHAPTER XIV LORD BYRON'S DEALINGS WITH MR. MURRAY continued Lord Byron's marriage Letters from Mr. Murray during the honeymoon Mr. Fazakerly's interview with Bonaparte Byron's pecuniary embarrassments Murray's offers of assist- ance " Siege of Corinth " " Parisina " Byron refuses re- muneration Pressed to give the money to Godwin, Maturin, and Coleridge Murray's remonstrance Gifford's opinion of the " Siege of Corinth " and Mr. D'Israeli's Byron leaves England Sale of his Library The " Sketch from Private Life " Mr. Sharon Turner's legal opinion Murray's letter on the arrival of the MS. of " Childe Harold," Canto III. xii CONTENTS His offer of terms Letters from Mrs. Leigh Scott's letters about his review of " Childe Harold " in the Quarterly Letters from Lady Byron, Lady Caroline Lamb, and Mrs. Graham " Manfred " Murray's letter to Byron " Manuscrit venu de Ste. Helene " Southey's " Wat Tyler " Fourth Canto of " Childe Harold " Letter from Murray Difference between Lord Byron and Murray Letter from Mr. Hobhouse p. 136 CHAPTER XV LORD BYRON'S DEALINGS WITH MR. MURRAY continued THE DEATH OF ALLEGRA, ETC. " Beppo " Letters from Murray Letter from Murray His visit to Abbotsford Byron's proposed "Tales" Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine Letters from Lord Byron His opinions of Isaac D'Israeli's Works " Don Juan " Murray's remon- strances and suggestions Mr. D. Kinnaird's letter about the purchase of " Mazeppa " and " Don Juan " Letters about Lord Byron and " Don Juan " from Gifford Mr. S. Turner's opinion concerning the copyright Opinions of Mr. Bell and Mr. Shadwell The copyright maintained Byron's intention of going to S. America Countess Guiccioli Letter from Mr. Hobhouse Mr. Hobhouse in Newgate Letters from Lady Bessborough and Lady Caroline Lamb Byron sends Cantos III. and IV. of " Don Juan " and other MSS. " Morgante Maggiore " Gifford's opinion Mr. Croker's letter to Murray about " Don Juan " " My boy Hobby O ! " Hobhouse's letter about the Cambridge Whig Club Byron's controversy with the Rev. W. L. Bowles " Sardanapalus " " The Two Foscari " " Cain " Publication and piracy of " Cain " Severe criticisms Sir W. Scott's opinion Byron's letter on the subject Legal proceedings Death of Allegra Murray's correspondence with Mr. Cunningham . . p. 150 CHAPTER XVI BYRON'S DEATH AND THE DESTRUCTION OF HIS MEMOIRS Byron's last letter to Murray False rumour of a satire on Gifford Byron's death Letter of the Dean of Westminster respecting the burial in the Abbey The funeral The story of the Byron Memoirs The MS. given to Moore Who sold it to Murray On Byron's death they become Murray's absolute property CONTENTS xiii The destruction of the MS. Mrs. Leigh's letter to Mr. Hodgson Mr. Murray's letter to Mr. R. Wilmot Horton on the destruction of the Memoirs Moore's preparations for a Life of Byron . * p. 165 CHAPTER XVII SCOTT'S NOVELS BLACKWOOD AND MURRAY Murray's alliance with Blackwood Blackwood's position in Edin- burgh Letters from Blackwood The Constables and Ballan- tynes Blackwood's aspirations Authorship of " Waverley Novels " Blackwood's interviews with Ballantyne Mys- terious negotiations " A Blind Bargain " Murray and Blackwood accept the proposal Unaccountable delays The secret of the authorship of the Novels Ballantyne's pretexts and embarrassments Blackwood's anxiety Letter from Blackwood The Novel at last " The Black Dwarf " Letter from Ballantyne to Blackwood Pecuniary straits of Scott and Ballantyne Publication of "Tales of my Landlord" Letters from Murray to Blackwood, and to Scott Scott's review of the " Tales of my Landlord " in the Quarterly Increased mystery concerning the authorship The Prince Regent's direct inquiry, and Scott's answer . . p. 177 CHAPTER XVIII ALLIANCE WITH BLACKWOOD BLACKWOOD'S " EDINBURGH MAGAZINE " TEEMINATION OF PARTNERSHIP Origin of Blackwood's Magazine Murray's share in it Letters from Blackwood Opposition of Constable John Wilson and J. G. Lockhart Sensation created by the " Chaldee MS." Authorship of the article Murray's remonstrances with Blackwood Attacks on " The Cockney School of Poetry " Murray's renewed protests His correspondence with Black- wood on the subject Hazlitt's threatened action " Hypocrisy Unveiled " Injudicious conduct of Lockhart and Wilson Murray's vexation at the incident Anonymous pamphlet against Murray Progress of Hazlitt's action Settlement of the dispute Continued personalities in the Magazine Murray's renewed protests He withdraws from the Magazine Oliver and Boyd become Murray's Edinburgh agents p. 190 xiv CONTENTS CHAPTER XIX WOBKS PUBLISHED IN 1817-18 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. Works published by Murray and Blackwood jointly Illness of Scott Efforts to help the Ettrick Shepherd Murray's offers of assistance Scott reviews the " Wake " Hogg's house at Eltrive Scott and the Quarterly " Bob Roy " The " Scottish Regalia " " The Heart of Midlothian " Appeal to Scott for an article " Lord Orford's Letters " Murray and James Hogg at Abbotsford Conclusion of Hogg's correspondence Robert Owen Increased number of would-be poets Sharon Turner Gifford's illness Croker and Barrow edit Quarterly Review p. 199 CHAPTER XX HALLAM BASIL HALL CRABBE HOPE HORACE AND JAMES SMITH Mr. Hallam Sir H. Ellis's " Embassy to China " Correspondence with Lady Abercorn about new books Proposed Monthly Register Mr. Croker's condemnation of the scheme Crabbe's Works Mr. Murray's offer Mr. Rogers's negotiations Hope's " Anastasius " " Rejected Addresses " Colonel Macirone's action against the Quarterly Murray's entertain- ments Mrs. Bray's account of them . . . p. 206 CHAPTER XXI MEMOIRS OF LADY HERVEY AND HORACE WALPOLE BELZONI MILMAN SOUTHEY MRS. RUNDELL, ETC. Lady Hervey's Letters Mr. Croker's letter about the editing of them Horace Walpole's Memoirs Mr. Murray's correspond- ence with Lord Holland The Suffolk papers, edited by Mr. Croker Mrs. Delany's Letters Letter from Mr. Croker Horace Walpole's " Reminiscences," edited by Miss Berry Tomline's " Life of Pitt " Giovanni Belzoni His early career and works His sensitiveness His death Examples of his strength Rev. H. H. Milman's Works, " Fazio," " Samor," " The Fall of Jerusalem," " Martyr of Antioch," " Belshazzar " Murray's dealings with Milman Benjamin Disraeli Letters from Southey about his articles on Cromwell The New Churches, etc. " The Book of the Church " Warren Hastings, etc The Carbonari Mr. Eastlake Mrs. Graham Galignani's pirated edition of Byron Mrs. Rundell's " Cookery Book " Dispute with Longman's An injunction obtained . * . . . . . . p. 215 CONTENTS xv CHAPTER XXII WASHINGTON IRVING TJGO FOSCOLO LADY CAROLINE LAMB " HAJJI BABA " MRS. MARKHASl'S HISTORIES Washington Irving His early dealings with Murray He cornea to England His description of a dinner at Murray's " The Sketch Book " Published in England by Miller Afterwards undertaken by Murray Terms of purchase Irving's ill- success in business " Bracebridge Hall " James Fenimore Cooper Ugo Foscolo His early career First article in the Quarterly Letter from Mr. T. Mitchell Foscolo's peculiarities Digamma Cottage His Lectures Death of Foscolo Lady C. Lamb " Glenarvon " " Penruddock " " Ada Reis " Letter from the Hon. Wm. Lamb Lord J. Russell His proposed History of Europe Mr. James Morier's " Hajji Baba " Letter of Mirza Abul Hassan Mrs. Markham's " History of England " Allan Cunningham . . p. 231 CHAPTER XXIII GIFFORD'S RETIREMENT FROM THE EDITORSHIP OF THE " QUARTERLY " AND DEATH Gifford's failing health Difficulty of finding a successor Barrow's assistance Gifford's letter to Mr. Canning Irregularity of the numbers Southey's views as to the Editorship Gifford's letter to Mr. Canning Appointment of Mr. J. T. Coleridge Murray's announcement of the appointment to Gifford Close of Mr. Gifford's career His correspondence with Murray Letter from Mr. R. Hay to the present Mr. Murray about Gifford p. 242 CHAPTER XXIV THE " REPRESENTATIVE " Murray's desire to start a new periodical Benjamin Disraeli Projected morning paper Benjamin Disraeli's early career and writings Letters to Murray about " Aylmer Papillon " Benjamin Disraeli's increasing intimacy with Murray Origin of the scheme to start a daily paper South American speculation Messrs. Powles Agreement to start a daily paper the Representative Benjamin Disraeli's journey to consult Sir W. Scott about the editorship His letters to Murray Visit to Chiefswood Progress of the negotiation xvi CONTENTS Mr. Lockhart's reluctance to assume the editorship Letter from Mr. I. D'Israeli to Murray Mr. Lockhart's first intro- duction to Murray His letter about the editorship Sir W. Scott's letter to Murray Editorship of Quarterly offered to Lockhart Murray's letter to Sir W. Scott Mr. Lockhart accepts the editorship of the Quarterly Disraeli's activity in promoting the Representative His letters to Murray Premises taken Arrangements for foreign correspondence Letters to Mr. Maas Engagement of Mr. Watts and Mr. S. C. Hall Mr. Disraeli ceases to take part in the undertaking Publication of the Representative Dr. Maginn Failure of the Representative Effect of the strain on Murray's health Letters from friends The financial crisis Failure of Constable and Ballantyne The end of the Representative Coolness between Murray and Mr. D'Israeli . . p. 250 CHAPTER XXV MB. LOCKHART AS EDITOR OF THE " QUARTERLY " HALLAM WORDSWORTH DEATH OF CONSTABLE The editorship of the Quarterly Mr. Lockhart appointed Letter from Sir W. Scott, giving his opinion of Lockhart's abilities and character Letters from Mr. Lockhart Mr. Croker's article on " Paroles d'un Croyant " Charles Butler Blanco White Controversies, etc. Wordsworth's Works Letter from Mr. Lockhart Renewed intercourse between Murray and Constable . . . . ...* * .. . p. 273 CHAPTER XXVI SIR WALTER'S LAST YEARS South American speculation Captain Head, R.E. His rapid rides across the Pampas His return home and publication of his work Results of his mission Mr. Disraeli and Mr. Powles Letter from Mr. B. Disraeli Irving's " Life of Columbus " His agent, Col. Aspinwall Letter of warning from Mr. Sharon Turner Southey's opinion " The Conquest of Granada " Lockhart's and Croker's opinions The financial result of their publication Correspondence between Irving and Murray " Tales of the Alhambra " Murray's sub- sequent lawsuit with Bohn about the copyrights Review of Hallam's " Constitutional History " in the Quarterly Mr. Hallam's remonstrance Letter from Murray Letter CONTENTS xvii from Mr. Mitchell Southey's discontent Sir W. Scott and Lockhart Scott's articles for the Quarterly Sir H. Davy's " Salmonia "Anecdote of Lord Nelson The Duke of Welling- ton Murray's offer to Scott for a History of Scotland Sale of Sir W. Scott's copyrights Murray's offer for " Tales of a Grandfather " Scott's reply Scott's closing years Murray's resignation of his one-fourth share of " Marmion " Scott's last contributions to the Quarterly His death Mr. John Murray's account of the Theatrical Fund Dinner p. 283 CHAPTER XXVIT NAPIER'S " PENINSULAR WAB " CROKER'S " BOSWELL " " THE FAMILY LIBRARY " ETC. Napier's " History of the Peninsular War " Origin of the work Col. Napier's correspondence with Murray Publication of Vol. I. Controversy aroused by it Murray ceases to publish the work His letter to the Morning Chronicle The Duke of Wellington's Despatches Croker's edition of " Boswell's Johnson " Correspondence with Croker, Lockhart, etc. Publication of the book Its value Letter from Mrs. Shelley Mr. Henry Taylor's " Isaac Comnenus " " Philip van Artevelde " " The Family Library " and the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge The progress of "' The Family Library " Milman's " History of the Jews " Controversy aroused by it Opinion of the Jews . . . . p. 293 CHAPTER XXVIII MOORE'S " LIFE OF BYRON " Murray purchases the remainder of Byron's Poema Leigh Hunt's " Recollections " Moore selected as the biographer of Byron Collection of Letters and Papers Lockhart and Scott's opinion of the w r ork Publication of the first volume of Byron's " Life " Mrs. Shelley's letter Publication of the second volume Letters from Mrs. Somerville and Croker Capt. Medwin's Conversations Pecuniary results of Lord Byron's " Life " Reviews of Moore's works in the Quarterly Moore on Editors Complete edition of " Byron's Works " Letters from Countess Guiccioli and Sir R. Peel Thorwaldsen's statue of Lord Byron Refused at Westminster Abbey, but erected in Trinity College Library, Cambridge . . p. 303 6 xviii CONTENTS CHAPTER XXIX BENJAMIN DISRAELI THOMAS CARLYLE AND OTHERS Mr. Benjamin Disraeli " Vivian Grey " Requests interview with Murray Correspondence Negotiations about the " Psy- chological Romance " Disraeli pressing It is published under the title of " Contarini Fleming " Mr. Disraeli's " Gallomania" Correspondence with Murray Letters from Baron de Haber Thomas Carlyle and " Sartor Resartus " Publication offered and accepted Finally declined " Sartor Resartus " pub- lished . . . . . . . . ''.. . p. 312 CHAPTER XXX MB. GLADSTONE AND OTHERS Mr. Gladstone's " Church and State " and " Church Principles " T. F. Buxton's " Slave Trade " Letter from Mr. Longman Lord Dudley's posthumous works Letter to the Bishop of Llandaff Mrs. Jameson's " Picture Galleries " Sir Robert Peel Printers' errors Origin of the Handbooks Mrs. Starke's Guides Mr. John Murray's account of his early travels when writing the Handbooks Later editors and con- tributors . . . t . . . . . . . . p. 331 CHAPTER XXXI GEORGE BORROW RICHARD FORD HORACE TWISS JOHN STERLING MR. GLADSTONE DEATH OF SOUTHEY, ETC. George Borrow Gypsies and Bible in Spain Richard Ford Letters from Borrow Twiss's " Life of Eldon " Colquhoun's " Moor and the Loch " Reconciliation of Mr. Colquhoun and Blackwood Allan Cunningham's " Memoirs of Wilkie " Letter from Lockhart John Sterling John Stuart Mill's " Logic " Works refused Southey's finances, illness, and death Letter from Mr. Gladstone Mr. Murray's illness and death . . " V. . . P- 338 CHAPTER XXXII JOHN MURRAY AS A PUBLISHER . . . . , , p. 354 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS JOHN MURRAY, 1745-1793 Frontispiece FACING PAGE JOHN MURRAY, 1788-1843 144 xix MEMOIRS OF JOHN MURRAY CHAPTER I JOHN MACMURRAY OR MURRAY THE publishing house of Murray dates from the year 1768, in which year John MacMurray, a lieutenant of Marines, having retired from the service on half-pay, purchased the bookselling business of William Sandby, at the sign of the " Ship," No. 32, Fleet Street, opposite St. Dunstan's Church. John MacMurray was descended from the Murrays of Athol. His uncle, Colonel Murray, was " out " in the rising of 1715, under the Earl of Mar, served under the Marquis of Tullibardine, the son of his chief, the Duke of Athol, and led a regiment in the abortive fight of Sheriffmuir. After the rebellion Colonel Murray retired to France, where he served under the exiled Duke of Ormonde, who had attached himself to the Stuart Court. The Colonel's brother Robert followed a safer course. He prefixed the " Mac " to his name ; settled in Edin- burgh ; adopted the law as a profession, and became a Writer to the Signet. He had a family of three daughters, Catherine, Robina, and Mary Anne ; and two sons, Andrew and John. John, the younger of Robert MacMurray 's sons, was born at Edinburgh in 1745. After receiving a good general education, he entered the Royal Marines under the special patronage of Sir George Yonge, Bart.,* a well-known official of the last century, and his commission as second lieutenant was dated June 24, 1762. Peace was signed at * Sir George Yonge was Governor of the Cape of Good Hope, and subsequently Secretary at War ; he died in 1812. 1 2 JOHN MACMURRAY OR MURRAY the treaty of Paris in 1763, and young MacMurray found himself quartered at Chatham, where the monotony of the life to a young man of an active and energetic temperament became almost intolerable. He determined therefore to retire on half-pay at the age of twenty-three, and become a London bookseller ! It is not improbable that he was induced to embark on his proposed enterprise by his recent marriage with Nancy Wemyss, daughter of Captain Wemyss, then residing at Brompton, near Chatham. While residing at Chatham, MacMurray renewed his acquaintance with William Falconer, the poet, and author of " The Shipwreck," who, like himself, was a native of Edinburgh. To this friend, who was then on the eve of sailing to India, he wrote : BROMPTON, KENT, October 16, 1768. DEAR WILT,, Since I saw you, I have had the intention of embarking in a scheme that I think will prove successful, and in the progress of which I had an eye towards your participating. Mr. Sandby, Bookseller, opposite St. Dunstan's Church, Fleet Street, has entered into company with Snow and Denne, Bankers. I was introduced to this gentleman about a week ago, upon an advantageous offer of succeeding him in his old business ; which, by the advice of my friends, I propose to accept. Now, although I have little reason to fear success by myself in this undertaking, yet I think so many additional advantages would accrue to us both, were your forces and mine joined, that I cannot help mentioning it to you, and making you the offer of entering into company. He resigns to me the lease of the house, the goodwill, etc. ; and I only take his bound stock, and fixtures, at a fair appraisement, which will not amount to much beyond 400, and which, if ever I mean to part with, cannot fail to bring in nearly the same sum. The shop has been long established in the Trade ; it retains a good many old customers ; and I am to be ushered immediately into public notice by the sale of a new edition of " Lord Lyttelton's Dialogues " ; and afterwards by a like edition of his " History." These Works I shall sell by commission, upon a certain profit, without risque ; and Mr. Sandby has promised to continue to me, always, his good offices and recommendations. These are the general outlines ; and if you entertain a notion that the conjunction will suit you, advise me, and you shall be assumed upon equal terms ; for I write to you before the affair is finally settled ; not that I shall refuse it if you don't concur (for I am determined on the trial by myself) ; but that I think it will turn out better were we joined ; and this consideration alone prompts 32, FLEET STREET 3 me to write to you. Many Blockheads in the Trade are making fortunes ; and did we not succeed as well as they, I think it must be imputed only to ourselves. Make Mrs. McMurray's compliments and mine to Mrs. Falconer ; we hope she has reaped much benefit from the saltwater bath. Consider what I have proposed ; and send me your answer soon. Be assured in the meantime, that I remain, Dear Sir, Your affectionate and humble servant, JOHK McMuRRAY. P.S. My advisers and directors in this affair have been Thomas Gumming, Esq., Mr. Archibald Paxton, Mr. James Paterson of Essex House, and Messrs. J. and W. Richardson, Printers. These, after deliberate reflection, have unanimously thought that I should accept Mr. Sandby's offer. Falconer's answer to this letter has not been preserved. It did not delay his departure from Dover in the Aurora frigate. The vessel touched at the Cape ; set sail again, and was never afterwards heard of. It is supposed that she was either burnt at sea, or driven northward by a storm and wrecked on the Madagascar coast. Falconer intended to have prefixed some complimentary lines to Mr. Murray to the third edition of " The Shipwreck," but they were omitted in the hurry of leaving London and England for India. Notwithstanding the failure of MacMurray to obtain the aid of Falconer in his partnership, he completed alone his contract with Mr. Sandby. His father at Edinburgh supplied him with the necessary capital, and he began the bookselling business in November 1768. He dropped the prefix " Mac " from his surname ; put a ship in full sail at the head of his invoices ; and announced himself to the public in the following terms : " John Murray (successor to Mr. Sandby), Bookseller and Sta- tioner, at No. 32, over against St. Dunstan's Church, in Fleet Street, London, sells all new Books and Publications. Fits up Public or Private Libraries in the neatest manner with Books of the choicest Editions, the best Print, and the richest Bindings. Also, executes East India or foreign Commissions by an assortment of Books and Stationary suited to the Market or Purpose for which it is destined ; all at the most reasonable rates." Among the first books he issued were new editions of Lord Lyttelton's " Dialogues of the Dead/' and of his " History of King Henry the Second," in stately quarto 4 JOHN MACMURRAY OR MURRAY volumes, as well as of Walpole's " Castle of Otranto." He was well supported by his friends, and especially by his old brother officers, and we find many letters from all parts of the world requesting him to send consignments of books and magazines, the choice of which was, in many cases, left entirely to his own discretion. In 1769 he received a letter from General Sir Robert Gordon, then in India, who informed him that he had recommended him to many of his comrades. Sir R. Gordon to John Murray. " Brigadier-General Wedderburn has not forgotten his old school-fellow, J. McMurray. Send me British news, and inform me of all political and other affairs at home." [He also added that Colonel Mackenzie, another old friend, is to be his patron.] " I hope," says Sir R. Gordon, in another letter, " that you find more profit and pleasure from your new employment than from that of the sword, which latter, you may remember, I endeavoured to dissuade you from returning to ; but a little trial, and some further experience, at your time of life, cannot hurt you. . . . My best compliments to Mrs. Murray, who I suppose will not be sorry for your laying aside the wild Highland ' Mac ' as unfashionable and even dangerous in the circuit of Wilkes's mob ; but that, I am convinced, was your smallest consideration." The nature of Mr. Murray's business, and especially his consignments to distant lands, rendered it necessary for him to give long credit, while the expense and the risk of bringing out new books added a fresh strain on his resources. In these circumstances, he felt the need of fresh capital, and applied to his friend Mr. William Kerr, Surveyor of the General Post Office for Scotland, for a loan. Mr. Kerr responded in a kindly letter. Though he could not lend much at the time, he sent Mr. Murray 150, " lest he might be prejudiced for want of it," and added a letter of kind and homely advice. In order to extend his business to better advantage, Mr. Murray endeavoured to form connections with book- sellers in Scotland and Ireland. In the first of these countries, as the sequel will show, the firm established permanent and important alliances. To push the trade in Ireland he employed Thomas Gumming, a Q,uaker mentioned in Boswell's " Life of Johnson," who had been one of his advisers as to the purchase of Mr. Sandby's business. BOOKSELLING IN IRELAND 5 Mr. T. Gumming to John Murray. " On receipt of thine I constantly applied to Alderman Faulkener, and showed him the first Fable of Florian, but he told me that he would not give a shilling for any original copy whatever, as there is no law or even custom to secure any property in books in this kingdom [Ireland]. From him, I went directly to Smith and afterwards to Bradley, etc. They all gave me the same answer. . . . Sorry, and very sorry I am, that I cannot send a better account of the first commission thou hast favoured me with here. Thou may'st believe that I set about it with a perfect zeal, not lessened from the consideration of the troubles thou hast on my account, and the favours I so constantly receive from thee ; nor certainly that my good friend Dr. Langhorne was not altogether out of the question. None of the trade here will transport books at their own risque. This is not a reading, but a hard-drinking city ; 200 or 250 are as many as a bookseller, except it be an extraordinary work indeed, ever throws off at an impression." Mr. Murray not only published the works of others, but became an author himself. He wrote two letters in the Morning Chronicle, in defence of his old friend Colonel (afterwards Sir) Robert Gordon, who had been censured for putting an officer under arrest during the siege of Broach, in which Gordon had led the attack. The Colonel's brother, Gordon of Gordonstown, wrote to Murray, saying, " Whether you succeed or not, your two letters are ad- mirably written ; and you have obtained great merit and reputation for the gallant stand you have made for your friend." The Colonel himself wrote (August 20, 1774) : " I cannot sufficiently thank you, my dear sir, for the extraordinary zeal, activity, and warmth of friendship, with which you so strenuously supported and defended my cause, and my honour as a soldier, when attacked so injuriously by Colonel Stuart, especially when he was so powerfully supported." Up to this time Mr. Murray's success had been very moderate. He had brought out some successful works ; but money came in slowly, and his chief difficulty was the want of capital. He was therefore under the necessity of refusing to publish works which might have done some- thing to establish his reputation. At this juncture, i.e. in 1771, an uncle died leaving a fortune of 17,000, of which Mr. Murray was entitled to a fourth share. On the strength of this, his friend Mr. Kerr advanced to him a further sum of 500. The 6 JOHN MACMURRAY OR MURRAY additional capital was put into the business, but even then his prosperity did not advance with rapid strides ; and in 1777 we find him writing to his friend Mr. Richard- son at Oxford. John Murray to Mr. Richardson. DEAR JACK, I am fatigued from morning till night about twopenny matters, if any of which is forgotten I am complained of as a man who minds not his business. I pray heaven for a lazy and lucrative office, and then I shall with alacrity turn my shop out of the window. A curious controversy occurred in 1778 between Mr. Mason, executor of Thomas Gray the poet, and Mr. Murray, who had published a " Poetical Miscellany," in which were quoted fifty lines from three passages in Gray's works. Mr. Murray wrote a pamphlet in his own defence, and the incident is mentioned in the following passage from Boswell's " Life " : " Somebody mentioned the Rev. Mr. Mason's prosecution of Mr. Murray, the bookseller, for having inserted in a collection only fifty lines of Gray's Poems, of which Mr. Mason had still the exclusive property, under the Statute of Queen Anne ; and that Mr. Mason had persevered, notwithstanding his being requested to name his own terms of compensation. Johnson signified his displeasure at Mr. Mason's conduct very strongly ; but added, by way of showing that he was not surprised at it, ' Mason's a Whig.' Mrs. Knowles (not hearing distinctly) : ' What ! a prig, Sir ? ' Johnson : ' Worse, Madam ; a Whig ! But he is both ! ' ' Mr. Murray had considerable intercourse with the publishers of Edinburgh, among the chief of whom were Messrs. Creech & Elliot, and by their influence he soon established a connection with the professors of Edinburgh University. Creech, who succeeded Mr. Kincaid in his business in 1773, occupied a shop in the Luckenbooths, facing down the High Street, and commanding a prospect of Aberlady Bay and the north coast of Haddingtonshire. Being situated near the Parliament House the centre of literary and antiquarian loungers, as well as lawyers Creech's place of business was much frequented by the gossipers, and was known as Creech's Levee. Creech himself, dressed in black-silk breeches, with powdered hair and full of humorous talk, was one of the most conspicuous members of the group. He was also an author, though EDINBURGH BOOKSELLERS 7 this was the least of his merits. He was an appreciative patron of literature, and gave large sums for the best books of the day. Mr. Elliot, whose place of business was in the Parliament Close, and whose daughter subsequently married Mr. Murray's son the subject of this biography, was a publisher of medical and surgical works, and Mr. Murray Avas his agent for the sale of these in London. We find from Mr. Elliot's letters that he was accustomed to send his parcels of books to London by the Leith fleet, accom- panied by an armed convoy. In June 1780 he wrote : " As the fleet sails this evening, and the schooner carries 20 guns, I hope the parcel will be in London in four or five days " ; and shortly afterwards : "I am sending you four parcels of books by the Carron, which mounts 22 guns, and sails with the Glasgow of 20 guns." The reason of the Edinburgh books being conveyed to London guarded by armed ships, was that war was then raging, and that Spain, France, and Holland were united against England. The American Colonies had also rebelled, and Paul Jones, holding their commission, was hovering along the East Coast with three small ships of war and an armed brigantine. It was therefore necessary to protect the goods passing between Leith and London by armed convoys. Sometimes the vessels on their return were quarantined for a time in Inverkeithing Bay. The first Mrs. Murray died, leaving her husband child- less, and he married again. By his second wife he had three sons and two daughters, two of the sons, born in 1779 and 1781 respectively, died in infancy, while the third, John, born in 1778, is the subject of this Memoir. In 1782 he writes to his friend the Rev. John Whitaker : " We have one son and daughter, the son above four years, and the daughter above two years, both healthy and good-natured." In June 1782 Mr. Murray had a paralytic stroke, by which he, for a time, lost the use of his left side, and though he shortly recovered, and continued his work as before, he was aware of his dangerous position. To a friend going to Madeira in September 1791 he wrote : " Whether we shall ever meet again is a matter not easily determined. The stroke by which I suffered in 1782 is 8 JOHN MACMURRAY OR MURRAY only suspended ; it will be repeated, and I must fall in the contest." In the meantime Mr. Murray made arrangements for the education of his son. He was first sent for a year to the High School of Edinburgh. While there he lived with Mr. Robert Kerr, author of several works on Chemistry and Natural History, published by Mr. Murray. Having passed a year in Edinburgh, the boy returned to London, and after a time was sent to a school at Margate. There he seems to have made some progress. To a friend Mr. Murray wrote : " He promises, I think, to write well, although his master complains a little of his indolence, which I am afraid he inherits from me. If he does not overcome it, it will overcome him." In a later letter he said : " The school is not the best, but the people are kind to him, and his health leaves no alternative. He writes a good hand, is fond of figures, and is coming forward both in Latin and French. Yet he inherits a spice of indolence, and is a little impatient in his temper. His appearance open, modest, and manly is much in his favour. He is grown a good deal, and left us for Margate (after his holiday) as happy as could be expected." In the course of the following year Mr. Murray sent the boy to a well-known school at Gosport, kept by Dr. Burney, one of his old friends. Burney was a native of the North of Ireland, and had originally been called Mac- Burney, but, like Murray, he dropped the Mac. While at Dr. Burney 's school, young Murray had the misfortune to lose the sight of his right eye. The writing- master was holding his penknife awkwardly in his hand, point downwards, and while the boy, who was showing up an exercise, stooped to pick up the book which had fallen, the blade ran into his eye and entirely destroyed the sight. To a friend about to proceed to Gosport, Mr. Murray wrote : " Poor John has met with a sad accident, which you will be too soon acquainted with when you reach Gosport. His mother is yet ignorant of it, and I dare not tell her." Eventually the boy was brought to London for the purpose of ascertaining whether something might be done by an oculist for the restoration of his sight. But the cornea had been too deeply wounded ; the fluid of HIS SON'S EDUCATION 9 the eye had escaped ; nothing could be done for his relief, and he remained blind in that eye to the end of his life.* His father withdrew him from Dr. Burney's school, and sent him in July 1793 to the Rev. Dr. Roberts, at Lough- borough House, Kennington. In committing him to the schoolmaster's charge, Mr. Murray sent the following introduction : " Agreeable to my promise, I commit to you the charge of my son, and, as I mentioned to you in person, I agree to the terms of fifty guineas. The youth has been hitherto well spoken of by the gentleman he has been under. You will find him sensible and candid in the information you may want from him ; and if you are kind enough to bestow pains upon him, the obligation on my part will be lasting. The branches to be learnt are these : Latin, French, Arithmetic, Mercantile Accounts, Elocution, History, Geography, Geometry, Astronomy, the Globes, Mathematics, Philosophy, Dancing, and Martial Exercise." Certainly, a goodly array of learning, knowledge, and physical training ! To return to the history of Mr. Murray's publications. Some of his best books were published after the stroke of paralysis which he had sustained, and among them must be mentioned Mitford's " History of Greece," Lava- ter's work on Physiognomy, and the first instalment of Isaac D'Israeli's " Curiosities of Literature." The following extract from a letter to the Rev. Mr. Whitaker, dated December 20, 1784, takes us back to an earlier age. " Poor Dr. Johnson's remains passed my door for interment this afternoon. They were accompanied by thirteen mourning coaches with four horses each ; and after these a cavalcade of the carriages of his friends. He was about to be buried in Westminster Abbey." In the same year the Rev. Alexander Fraser of Kirkhill, near Inverness, communicated to Mr. Murray his intention of publishing the Memoirs of Lord Lovat, the head of his clan. Mr. Fraser's father had received the Memoirs in manuscript from Lord Lovat, with an injunction to * Long afterwards Chantrey the sculptor, who had suffered a similar misfortune, exclaimed, " What ! are you too a brother Cyclops ? " but, as the narrator of the story used to add, Mr. Murray could see better with one eye than most people with two. 10 JOHN MACMURRAY OR MURRAY publish them after his death. " My father," he said, " had occasion to see his Lordship a few nights before his execution, when he again enjoined him to publish the Memoirs." General Fraser, a prisoner in the Castle of Edinburgh, had requested, for certain reasons, that the publication should be postponed ; but the reasons no longer existed, and the Memoirs were soon after pub- lished by Mr. Murray, but did not meet with any success. The distressed state of trade and the consequent an- xieties of conducting his business hastened Mr. Murray's end. On November 6, 1793, Samuel Highley, his principal assistant, wrote to a correspondent : " Mr. Murray died this day after a long and painful illness, and appointed as executors Dr. G. A. Paxton, Mrs. Murray, and Samuel Highley. The business hereafter will be conducted by Mrs. Murray." The Rev. Donald Grant, D.D., and George Noble, Esq., were also executors, but the latter did not act. The income of the property was divided as follows : one half to the education and maintenance of Mr. Murray's three children, and the other half to his wife so long as she remained a widow. But in the event of her marrying again, her share was to be reduced by one-third and her executorship was to cease. John Murray began his publishing career at the age of twenty-three. He was twenty-five years in business, and he died at the comparatively early age of forty-eight. That publishing books is not always a money-making business may be inferred from the fact that during these twenty-five years he did not, with all his industry, double his capital. CHAPTER II JOHN MURRAY (ll.) BEGINNING OF HIS PUBLISHING CAREER ISAAC D'lSRAELI, ETC. JOHN MURRAY THE SECOND the " Anax of Publishers," according to Lord Byron was born on November 27, 1778. He was his father's only surviving son by his second marriage, and being only fifteen at his father's death, was too young to enter upon the business of the firm, which was carried on by Samuel Highley the " faithful shopman " mentioned in the elder Murray's will for the benefit of his widow and family. What his father thought of him, of his health, spirits, and good nature, will have been seen from the preceding chapter. Young Murray returned to school, and remained there for about two years longer, until the marriage of his mother to Lieutenant Henry Paget, of the West Norfolk Militia, on September 28, 1795, when he returned to 32, Fleet Street, to take part in the business. Mrs. Paget ceased to be an executor, retired from Fleet Street, and went to live at Bridgenorth with her husband, taking her two daughters Jane and Mary Anne Murray to live with her, and receiving from time to time the money necessary for their education. The executors secured the tenancy of No. 32, Fleet Street, part of the stock and part of the copyrights, for the firm of Murray & Highley, between whom a partner- ship was concluded in 1795, though Murray was still a minor. In the circumstances Mr. Highley of course took the principal share of the management, but though a very respectable person, he was not much of a business man, and being possessed by an almost morbid fear of 11 12 THE FOUNDING OF THE BUSINESS running any risks, he brought out no new works, took no share in the new books that were published, and it is doubtful whether he looked very sharply after the copy- rights belonging to the firm. He was mainly occupied in selling books brought out by other publishers. The late Mr. Murray had many good friends in India, who continued to send home their orders to the new firm of Murray & Highley. Amongst them were Warren Hastings and Joseph Hume. Hume had taken out with him an assortment of books from the late Mr. Murray, which had proved very useful ; and he wrote to Murray and Highley for more. Indeed, he became a regular customer for books. Meanwhile Murray fretted very much under the careless and indifferent management of Highley. The executors did not like to be troubled with his differences with his partner, and paid very little attention to him or his affairs. Since his mother's remarriage and removal to Bridge- north, the young man had literally no one to advise with, and was compelled to buffet with the troubles and diffi- culties of life alone. Though inexperienced, he had, however, spirit and common sense enough to see that he had but little help to expect from his partner, and the difficulties of his position no doubt contributed to draw forth and develop his own mental energy. He was not a finished scholar, but had acquired a thorough love of knowledge and literature, and a keen perception of the beauties of our great English classics. By acquiring and cultivating a purity of taste, he laid the foundations of that quick discrimination which, combined with his rapidly growing knowledge of men and authors, rendered him afterwards so useful, and even powerful, in the pursuit of his profession. Mr. Murray came of age on November 27, 1799 ; but he was prudent enough to continue with Highley for a few years longer. After four years more, he determined to set himself free to follow his own course, and the in- numerable alterations and erasures in his own rough draft of the following letter testify to the pains and care which he bestowed on this momentous step. SEPARATION FROM MR. HIGHLEY 13 John Murray to Mr. Highley. GREAT QUEEN STREET, Friday, November 19, 1802. MR. HIGHLEY, I propose to you that our partnership should be dissolved on the twenty-fifth day of March next : That the disposal of the lease of the house and every other matter of difference that may arise respecting our dissolution shall be determined by arbitrators each of us to choose one and that so chosen they shall appoint a third person as umpire whom they may mutually agree upon previous to their entering upon the business : I am willing to sign a bond to this effect immediately, and I think that I shall be able to determine my arbitrator some day next week. As I know this proposal to be as fair as one man could make to another in a like situation, and in order to prevent unpleasant altercation or unnecessary discussion, I declare it to be the last with which I intend to trouble you. I take this opportunity of saying that, however much we may differ upon matters of business, I most sincerely wish you well. JOHN MURRAY. In the end they agreed to draw lots for the house, and Murray had the good fortune to remain at No. 32, Fleet Street. Mr. Highley removed to No. 24 in the same street, and took with him, by agreement, the principal part of the medical works of the firm. Mr. Murray now started on his own account, and began a career of pub- lication almost unrivalled in the history of letters. Before the dissolution of partnership, Mr. Murray had seen the first representation of Colman's Comedy of " John Bull " at Covent Garden Theatre, and was so fascinated by its " union of wit, sentiment, and humour/' that the day after its representation he wrote to Mr. Colman, and offered him 300 for the copyright. No doubt Mr. Highley would have thought this a rash proceeding. John Murray to Mr. Colman. " The truth is that during my minority I have been shackled to a drone of a partner ; but the day of emancipation is at hand. On the twenty -fifth of this month [March 1803] I plunge alone into the depths of literary speculation. I am therefore honestly ambitious that my first appearance before the public should be such as will at once stamp my character and respectability. On this account, therefore, I think that your Play would be more advantageous to me than to any other bookseller ; and as ' I am not covetous of Gold,' I should hope that no trifling cousidera- 14 THE FOUNDING OF THE BUSINESS tion will be allowed to prevent my having the honour of being Mr. Colman's publisher. You see, sir, that I am endeavouring to interest your feelings, both as a Poet and as a Man." Mr. Colman replied in a pleasant letter, thanking Mr. Murray for his liberal offer. The copyright, however, had been sold to the proprietor of the theatre, and Mr. Murray was disappointed in this, his first independent venture in business. The times were very bad. Money was difficult to be had on any terms, and Mr. Murray had a hard task to call in the money due to Murray & Highley, as well as to collect the sums due to himself. Mr. Joseph Hume, not yet the scrupulous financier which he grew to be, among others, was not very prompt in settling his accounts ; and Mr. Murray wrote to him, on July 11, 1804 : " On the other side is a list of books (amount 92 8a. Gd.), con- taining all those for which you did me the favour to writ : and I trust that they will reach you safely. ... If in future you could so arrange that my account should be paid by some house in town within six months after the goods are shipped, I shall be perfectly satisfied, and shall execute your orders with much more despatch and pleasure. I mention this, not from any apprehension of not being paid, but because my circumstances will not permit me to give so large an extent of credit. It affords me great pleasure to hear of your advancement ; and I trust that your health will enable you to enjoy all the success to which your talents entitle you." He was, for the same reason, under the necessity of declining to publish several new works offered to him, especially those dealing with medical and poetical subjects. Mr. Archibald Constable of Edinburgh, and Messrs. Bell & Bradfute, Mr. Murray's agents in Edinburgh, were also communicated with as to the settlement of their accounts with Murray & Highley. " I expected," he said, " to have been able to pay my respects to you both this summer [1803], but my military duties, and the serious aspect of the times, oblige me to remain at home." It was the time of a patriotic volunteer movement, and Mr. Murray was enrolled as an ensign in the 3rd Regiment of Royal London Volunteers. It cannot now be ascertained what was the origin of the acquaintance between the D'Israeli and Murray ISAAC DISRAELI 15 families, but it was of old standing. The first John Murray published the first volumes of Isaac D'Israeli's " Curiosities of Literature " (1791), and though no correspondence between them has been preserved, we find frequent mention of the founder of the house in Isaac D'Israeli's letters to John Murray the Second. His experiences are held up for his son's guidance, as for example, when Isaac, urging the young publisher to support some petition to the East India Company, writes, " It was a ground your father trod, and I suppose that connection cannot do you any harm " ; or again, when dissuading him from under- taking some work submitted to him, " You can mention to Mr. Harley the fate of Professor Musseus' ' Popular Tales/ which never sold, and how much your father was disappointed." On another occasion we find D'ls- raeli, in 1809, inviting his publisher to pay a visit to a yet older generation, " to my father, who will be very glad to see you at Margate." Besides the " Curiosities of Literature," and " Flim- Flams," the last a volume not mentioned by Lord Beacons- field in the " Life " of his father prefixed to the 1865 edition of the " Curiosities of Literature," Mr. D'Israeli published through Murray, in 1803, a small volume of " Narrative Poems " in 4to. They consisted of " An Ode to his Favourite Critic " ; " The Carder and the Currier, a Story of Amorous Florence " ; " Cominge, a Story of La Trappe " ; and " A Tale addressed to a Sybarite." The verses in these poems run smoothly, but they contain no wit, no poetry, nor even any story. They were never reprinted. The following letter is of especial interest, as fixing the date of an event which has given rise to much dis- cussion the birth of Benjamin Disraeli. Mr. Isaac D' 'Israeli to John Murray. December 22, 1804.* MY DEAR. Sm, Mrs. D'Israeli will receive particular gratification from the interesting note you have sent us on the birth of our boy when * Mr. D'Israeli was living at this time in King's Road (now 1, John Street), Bedford Row, in a corner house overlooking Gray's Inn Gardens. 16 THE FOUNDING OF THE BUSINESS she shall have read it. In the meanwhile accept my thanks, and my best compliments to your sister. The mother and infant are both doing well. Ever yours, I. D'l. Some extracts from their correspondence will afford an insight into the nature of the friendship and business relations which existed between Isaac D 'Israeli and his young publisher as well as into the characters of the two men themselves. From a letter dated Brighton, August 5, 1805, from Mr. D'Israeli to John Murray : " Your letter is one of the repeated specimens I have seen of your happy art of giving interest even to commonplace correspondence, and I, who am so feelingly alive to the ' pains and penalties ' of postage, must acknowledge that such letters, ten times repeated, would please me as often. " We should have been very happy to see you here, provided it occasioned no intermission in your more serious occupations, and could have added to your amusements. "With respect to the projected 'Institute,'* if that title be English doubtless the times are highly favourable to patronize a work skilfully executed, whose periodical pages would be at once useful information, and delightful for elegant composition, embellished by plates, such as have never yet been given, both for their subjects and their execution. Literature is a perpetual source opened to us ; but the Fine Arts present an unploughed field, and an originality of character. . . . But Money, Money must not be spared in respect to rich, beautiful, and interesting Engra- vings. On this I have something to communicate. Encourage Dagley, f whose busts of Seneca and Scarron are pleasingly executed ; but you will also want artists of name. I have a friend, extremely attached to literature and the fine arts, a gentleman of opulent fortune ; by what passed with him in conversation, I have reason to believe that he would be ready to assist by money to a con- siderable extent. Would that suit you ? How would you arrange with him ? Would you like to divide your work in Shares ? He is an intimate friend of West's, and himself too an ingenious writer. " How came you to advertise ' Domestic Anecdotes ' ? Kearsley printed 1,250 copies. I desire that no notice of the authors of that work may be known from your side. " At this moment I receive your packet of poems, and Shoe's letter. I perceive that he is impressed by your attentions and * This was a work at one time projected by Mr. Murray, but other more pressing literary arrangements prevented the scheme being carried into effect. f The engraver of the frontispiece of " Flim-Flams." ISAAC DISRAELI 17 your ability. It will always afford me one of my best pleasures to forward your views ; I claim no merit from this, but my dis- cernment in discovering your talents, which, under the genius of Prudence (the best of all GeniJ for human affairs), must inevitably reach the goal. The literary productions of I. D['Israeli] and others may not augment the profits of your trade in any considerable degree ; but to get the talents of such writers at your command is a prime object, and others will follow. " I had various conversations with Phillips * here ; he is equally active, but more wise. He owns his belles-lettres books have given no great profits ; in my opinion he must have lost even by some. But he makes a fortune by juvenile and useful compilations. You know I alwaj^s told you he wanted literary taste like an atheist, who is usually a disappointed man, he thinks all belles lettres are nonsense, and denies the existence of taste ; but it exists ! and I flatter myself you will profit under that divinity. I have much to say on this subject and on him when we meet. " At length I have got through your poetry : it has been a weary task ! The writer has a good deal of fire, but it is rarely a very bright flame. Here and there we see it just blaze, and then sink into mediocrity. He is too redundant and tiresome. . . . 'Tis a great disadvantage to read them in MS., as one cannot readily turn to passages ; but life is too short to be peeping into other peoples' MSS. / prefer your prose to your verse. Let me know if you receive it safely, and pray give no notion to any one that I have seen the MS." Mr. D'Israeli to John Murray. " It is a most disagreeable office to give opinions on MSS. ; one reads them at a moment when one has other things in one's head then one is obliged to fatigue the brain with thinking ; but if I can occasionally hinder you from publishing nugatory works, I do not grudge the pains. At the same time I surely need not add, how very confidential such communications ought to be." Mr. I. D'Israeli to John Murray. I am delighted by your apology for not having called on me after I had taken my leave of you the day before ; but you can make an unnecessary apology as agreeable as any other act of kindness. . . . You are sanguine in your hope of a good sale of " Curiosities," it will afford us a mutual gratification ; but when you consider it is not a new work, though considerably improved I confess, and that those kinds of works cannot boast of so much novelty as they did about ten years ago, I am somewhat more moderate in my hopes. * Sir Richard Phillips, bookseller. This is the publisher whose book on philosophy George Borrow was set to translate into German, and who recommended him to produce something in the style of " The Dairyman's Daughter " I 18 THE FOUNDING OF THE BUSINESS What you tell me of F. F. from Symond's, is new to me. I sometimes throw out in the shop remote hints about the sale of books, all the while meaning only mine ; but they have no skill in construing the timid wishes of a modest author ; they are not aware of his suppressed sighs, nor see the blushes of hope and fear tingling his cheek ; they are provokingly silent, and petrify the imagination. . . . Believe me, with the truest regard, Yours ever, I. D'lSRAELI. Mr. D' 'Israeli to John Murray. Saturday, May 31, 1806. KING'S ROAD. MY DEAR FRIEND, It is my wish to see you for five minutes this day, but as you must be much engaged, and I am likely to be prevented reach- ing you this morning, I shall only trouble you with a line. Most warmly I must impress on your mind the necessity of taking the advice of a physician. Who ? You know many. We have heard extraordinary accounts of Dr. Baillie, and that (what is more extraordinary) he is not mercenary. . . . I have written this to impress on your mind this point. Seeing you as we see you, and your friend at a fault, how to decide, and you without some relative or domestic friend about you, gives Mrs. D'l. and myself very serious concerns for you know we do take the warmest interest in your welfare and your talents and industry want nothing but health to make you yet what it has always been one of my most gratifying hopes to conceive of you. Yours very affectionately, I. D 'ISRAELI. A circumstance, not without influence on Murray's future, occurred about this time with respect to the " Miniature," a volume of comparatively small importance, consisting of essays written by boys at Eton, and originally published at Windsor by Charles Knight. Through Dr. Rennell, Master of the Temple, his friend and neighbour, who lived close at hand, Murray became acquainted with the younger Rennell, Mr. Stratford Canning, Gaily Knight, the two sons of the Marquis Wellesley, and other young Etonians, who had originated and conducted this School magazine. Thirty-four numbers appeared in the course of a year, and were then brought out in a volume by Mr. Knight at the expense of the authors. The transaction had involved them in debt. " Whatever chance of success our hopes may dictate," wrote Stratford Canning, " yet our apprehensions teach us to tremble at the possibility of additional expenses," and the sheets lay unsold on THE "MINIATURE" 19 the bookseller's hands. Mr. Murray, who was consulted about the matter, said to Dr. Rennell, " Tell them to send the unsold sheets to me, and I will pay the debt due to the printer." The whole of the unsold sheets were sent by the " Windsor Waggon " to Mr. Murray's at Fleet Street. He made waste-paper of the whole bundle there were 6,376 numbers in all, brought out a new edition of 750 copies, printed in good type, and neatly bound, and announced to Stratford Canning that he did this at his own cost and risk, and would make over to the above Etonians half the profits of the work. The young authors were highly pleased by this arrangement, and Stratford Canning wrote to Murray (October 20, 1805) : " We cannot sufficiently thank you for your kind attention to our concerns, and only hope that the success of the embryo edition may be equal to your care." How great was the importance of the venture in his eyes may be judged from the naive allusion with which he proceeds : "It will be a week or two before we commit it to the press, for amidst our other occupations the business of the school must not be neglected, and that by itself is no trivial employ- ment." By means of this transaction Murray had the sagacity to anticipate an opportunity of making friends of Canning and Frere, who were never tired of eulogizing the spirit and enterprise of the young Fleet Street publisher. Stratford Canning introduced him to his cousin George, the great minister, whose friendship and support had a very considerable influence in promoting and establishing his future prosperity. It is scarcely necessary to add that the new edition of the " Miniature " speedily became waste paper. CHAPTER III MURRAY AND CONSTABLE HTJNTER AND THE FORFARSHIRE LAIRDS MARRIAGE OF JOHN MURRAY THE most important publishing firm with which Mr. Murray was connected at the outset of his career was that of Archibald Constable & Co., of Edinburgh. This connection had a considerable influence upon Murray's future fortunes. Constable, who was about four years older than Murray, was a man of great ability, full of spirit and enterprise. He was by nature generous, liberal, and far-seeing. The high prices which he gave for the best kind of literary work drew the best authors round him, and he raised the publishing trade of Scotland to a height that it had never before reached, and made Edinburgh a great centre of learning and literature. In 1800 he commenced the Farmer's Magazine, and in the following year acquired the property of the Scots Magazine, a venerable repertory of literary, historical, and antiquarian matter ; but it was not until the estab- lishment of the Edinburgh Review, in October 1802, that Constable's name became a power in the publishing world. In the year following the first issue of the Review, Con- stable took into partnership Alexander Gibson Hunter, eldest son of David Hunter, of Blackness, a Forfarshire laird. The new partner brought a considerable amount of capital into the firm, at a time when capital was greatly needed in that growing concern. His duties were to take charge of the ledger and account department, though he never took much interest in his work, but preferred to call in the help of a clever arithmetical clerk. It is unnecessary to speak of the foundation of the Edinburgh Review. It appeared at the right time, and 20 THE CONSTABLES OF EDINBURGH 21 was mainly supported by the talents of Jeffrey, Brougham, Sydney Smith, Francis Horner, Dr. Thomas Brown, Lord Murray, and other distinguished writers. The first number immediately attracted public attention. Mr. Joseph Mawman was the London agent, but some dissatisfaction having arisen with respect to his management, the London sale was transferred to the Messrs. Longman, with one half share in the property of the work. During the partnership of Murray and Highley, they had occasional business transactions with Constable of Edinburgh. Shortly after the partnership was dissolved in March 1803, Murray wrote as follows to Mr. Constable : April 25, 1803. ' ' I have several works in the press which I should be willing to consign to your management in Edinburgh, but that I presume you have already sufficient business upon your hands, and that you would not find mine worth attending to. If so, I wish that you would tell me of some vigorous young bookseller, like myself, just starting into business, upon whose probity, punctuality, and exertion you think I might rely, and I would instantly open a correspondence with him ; and in return it will give me much pleasure to do any civil office for you in London. I should be happy if any arrangement could be made wherein we might prove of reciprocal advantage ; and were you from your superabundance to pick me out any work of merit of which you would either make me the publisher in London, or in which you would allow me to become a partner, I dare say the occasion would arise wherein I could return the compliment, and you would have the satisfaction of knowing that your book was in the hands of one who has not yet so much business as to cause him to neglect any part of it." Mr. Constable's answer was favourable. In October 1804 Mr. Murray, at the instance of Constable, took as his apprentice Charles Hunter, the younger brother of A. Gibson Hunter, Constable's partner. The apprentice- ship was to be for four or seven years, at the option of Charles Hunter. These negotiations between the firms, and their increasing interchange of books, showed that they were gradually drawing nearer to each other, until their correspondence became quite friendly and even intimate. Walter Scott was now making his appearance as an author ; Constable had published his " Sir Tristram " in May 1804, and his " Lay of the Last Minstrel " in January 1805. Large numbers of these works were forwarded to London and sold by Mr. Murray. 22 EARLY BUSINESS AND MARRIAGE At the end of 1805 differences arose between the Con- stable and Longman firms as to the periodical works in which they were interested. The editor and proprietors of the Edinburgh Review were of opinion that the interest of the Longmans in two other works of a similar character the Annual Review and the Eclectic tended to lessen their exertions on behalf of the Edinburgh. It was a matter that might easily have been arranged ; but the correspondents were men of hot tempers, and with pens in their hands, they sent stinging letters from London to Edinburgh, and from Edinburgh to London. Rees, Longman's partner, was as bitter in words on the one side as Hunter, Constable's partner, was on the other. At length a deadly breach took place, and it was resolved in Edinburgh that the publication of the Edinburgh Review should be transferred to John Murray, Fleet Street. Alexander Gibson Hunter, Constable's partner, wrote to Mr. Murray to tell of the rupture and to propose a closer alliance with him. Mr. Murray replied : John Murray to Mr. A. G. Hunter. December 7, 1805. " With regard to the important communication of your last letter, I confess the surprise with which I read it was not without some mixture of regret. The extensive connections betwixt your house and Longman's cannot be severed at once without mutual inconvenience, and perhaps mutual disadvantages, your share of which a more protracted dismemberment might have prevented. From what I had occasion to observe, I did not conceive that your concerns together would ever again move with a cordiality that would render them lasting ; but still, I imagined that mutual interest and forbearance would allow them to subside into that indifference which, without animosity or mischief, would leave either party at liberty to enter upon such new arrangements as offered to their separate advantage. I do not, however, doubt but that all things have been properly considered, and perhaps finally settled for the best ; but Time, the only arbitrator in these cases, must decide. " In your proposed engagements with Mr. Davies, you will become better acquainted with a man of great natural talents, and thoroughly versed in business, which he regulates by the most honourable principles. As for myself, you will find me exceedingly assiduous in promoting your views, into which I shall enter with feelings higher than those of mere interest. Indeed, linked as our houses are at present, we have a natural tendency to mutual 23 good understanding, which will both prevent and soften those as- perities in business which might otherwise enlarge into disagree- ment. Country orders [referring to Constable & Co.'s ' general order '] are a branch of business which I have ever totally declined as incompatible with my more serious plans as a publisher. But your commissions I shall undertake with pleasure, and the punc- tuality with which I have attempted to execute your first order you will, I hope, consider as a specimen of my disposition to give you satisfaction in every transaction in which we may hereafter be mutually engaged." It was a great chance for a young man entering life with a moderate amount of capital, to be virtually offered an intimate connection with one of the principal publishing houses of the day. It was one of those chances which, " taken at the flood, lead on to fortune," but there was also the question of honour, and Mr. Murray, notwith- standing his desire for opening out a splendid new con- nection in business, would do nothing inconsistent with the strictest honour. He was most unwilling to thrust himself in between Constable and Longman. Instead, therefore, of jumping at Constable's advantageous offer, his feelings induced him to promote a reconciliation between the parties ; and he continued to enjoin for- bearance on the part of both firms, so that they might carry on their business transactions as before. Copies of the correspondence between Constable and the Long- mans were submitted to referees (Murray and Davies), and the following was Mr. Murray's reply, addressed to Messrs. Constable & Co. : John Murray to Messrs. Constable & Co. December 14, 1805. GENTLEMEN, Mr. Hunter's obliging letter to me arrived this morning. That which he enclosed with yours to his brother last night, Charles gave me to read. The contents were very flattering. Indeed, I cannot but agree with Mr. H. that his brother has displayed very honourable feelings, upon hearing of the probable separation of your house, and that of Messrs. Longman & Co. Mr. Longman was the first who mentioned this to him, and indeed from the manner in which Charles related his conversation upon the affair, I could not but feel renewed sensations of regret at the unpleasant termina- tion of a correspondence, which, had it been conducted upon Mr. Longman's own feelings, would have borne, I think, a very different aspect. Longman spoke of you both with kindness, and mildly complained that he had perceived a want of confidence on your 24 EARLY BUSINESS AND MARRIAGE part, ever since his junction with Messrs. Hurst & Orme. He confessed that the correspondence was too harsh for him to support any longer ; but, he added, " if we must part, let us part like friends." I am certain, from what Charles reported to me, that Mr. L. and I think Mr. R. [Rees] are hurt by this sudden disunion. Recollect how serious every dispute becomes upon paper, when a man writes a thousand asperities merely to show or support his superior ability. Things that would not have been spoken, or perhaps even thought of in conversation, are stated and horribly magnified upon paper. Consider how many disputes have arisen in the world, in which both parties were so violent in what they believed to be the support of truth, and which to the public, and indeed to themselves a few years afterwards, appeared unwise, because the occasion or cause of it was not worth contending about. Consider that you are, all of you, men who can depend upon each other's probity and honour, and where these essentials are not wanting, surely in mere matters of business the rest may be palliated by mutual bearance and forbearance. Besides, you are so con- nected by various publications, your common property, and some of them such as will remain so until the termination of your lives, that you cannot effect an entire disunion, and must therefore be subject to eternal vexations and regrets which will embitter every transaction and settlement between you. You know, moreover, that it is one of the misfortunes of our nature, that disputes are always the most bitter in proportion to former intimacy. And how much dissatisfaction will it occasion if either of you are desirous in a year or two of renewing that in- timacy which you are now so anxious to dissolve to say nothing of your relative utility to each other a circumstance which is never properly estimated, except when the want of the means reminds us of what we have been at such pains to deprive ourselves. Pause, my dear sirs, whilst to choose be yet in your power ; show yourselves superior to common prejudice, and by an immediate exercise of your acknowledged pre-eminence of in- tellect, suffer arrangements to be made for an accommodation and for a renewal of that connexion which has heretofore been productive of honour and profit. I am sure I have to apologize for having ventured to say so much to men so much my superiors in sense and knowledge of the world and their own interest ; but sometimes the meanest bystander may perceive disadvantages in the movements of the most skilful players. You will not, I am sure, attribute anything which I have said to an insensibility to the immediate advantages which will arise to myself from a determination opposite to that which I have taken the liberty of suggesting. It arises from a very different feeling. I should be very little worthy of your great confidence and attention to my interest upon this occasion, if I did not state freely the result of my humble consideration of this matter ; and having done so, I do assure you that if the arrangements which you now propose are carried into effect, I will apply the most arduous attention to your interest, to which I will turn the channel of my own thoughts and business, which, I am proud to say, is MURRAY AND LONGMANS 25 rising in proportion to the industry and honourable principles which have been used in its establishment. I am every day adding to a most respectable circle of literary connexions, and I hope, a few months after the settlement of your present affairs, to offer shares to you of works in which you will feel it advantageous to engage. Besides, as I have at present no particular bias, no enor- mous works of my own which would need all my care, I am better qualified to attend to any that you may commit to my charge ; and, being young, my business may be formed with a disposition, as it were, towards yours ; and thus growing up with it, we are more likely to form a durable connexion than can be expected with persons whose views are imperceptibly but incessantly diverging from each other. Shoxild you be determined irrevocably determined (but con- sider !) upon the disunion with Messrs. Longman, I will just observe that when persons have been intimate, they have discovered each other's vulnerable points ; it therefore shows no great talent to direct at them shafts of resentment. It is easy both to write and to say ill-natured, harsh, and cutting things of each other. But remember that this power is mutual, and in proportion to the poignancy of the wound which you would inflict will be your own feelings when it is returned. It is therefore a maxim which I laid down soon after a separation which I had, never to say or do to my late colleague what he could say or do against me in return. I knew that I had the personal superiority, but what his own ingenuity could not suggest, others could write for him. I must apologize again for having been so tedious, but I am sure that the same friendliness on your part which has produced these hasty but well-meant expostulations will excuse them. After this, I trust it is unnecessary for mo to state with how much sincerity, I am, dear sirs, Your faithful friend, JOHN MTJEBAY. Ten days after this letter was written, Mr. Murray sent a copy of it to Messrs. Longman & Co., and wrote : John Murray to Messrs. Longman & Co. December 24, 1805. GENTLEMEN, The enclosed letter will show that I am not ignorant that a misunderstanding prevails betwixt your house and that of Messrs. Constable & Co. With the cause, however, I am as yet unacquainted ; though I have attempted, but in vain, to obviate a disunion which I most sincerely regret. Whatever arrangements with regard to myself may take place in consequence will have arisen from circumstances which it was not in my power to prevent ; and they will not therefore be suffered to interfere in any way with those friendly dispositions which will continue, I trust, to obtain between you and, gentlemen, Your obedient servant, J. MURRAY. 26 EARLY BUSINESS AND MARRIAGE But the split was not to be avoided. It appears, how- ever, that by the contract entered into by Constable with Longmans in 1803, the latter had acquired a legal right precluding the publication of the Edinburgh Eeview by another publisher without their express assent. Such assent was not given, and the London publication of the Edinburgh continued in Longman's hands for a time ; but all the other works of Constable were at once trans- ferred to Mr. Murray. Mr. Constable invited Murray to come to Edinburgh to renew their personal friendship, the foundations of which had been laid during Mr. Murray's visit to Edinburgh in the previous year ; and now that their union was likely to be much closer, he desired to repeat the visit. Mr. Murray had another, and, so far as regarded his personal happiness, a much more important object in view. This arose out of the affection which he had begun to entertain for Miss Elliot, daughter of the late Charles Elliot, pub- lisher, with whom Mr. Murray's father had been in such constant correspondence. The affection was mutual, and it seemed probable that the attachment would ripen into a marriage. Now that his reputation as a publisher was becoming established, Mr. Murray grew more particular as to the guise of the books which he issued. He employed the best makers of paper, the best printers, and the best book-binders. He attended to the size and tone of the paper, and quality of the type, the accuracy of the printing, and the excellence of the illustrations. All this involved a great deal of correspondence. We find his letters to the heads of departments full of details as to the turn-out of his books. Everything, from the beginning to the end of the issue of a work the first inspection of the MS., the consultation with confidential friends as to its fitness for publication, the form in which it was to appear, the cor- rection of the proofs, the binding, title, and final advertise- ment engaged his closest attention. Besides the elegant appearance of his books, he also aimed at raising the standard of the literature which he published. He had to criticize as well as to select ; to make suggestions as to improvements where the manuscript was regarded with favour, and finally to launch the book at the right FORFARSHIRE LAIRDS 27 time and under the best possible auspices. It might almost be said of the publisher, as it is of the poet, that he is born, not made. And Mr. Murray appears, from the beginning to the end of his career, to have been a born publisher. In August 1806, during the slack season in London, Mr. Murray made his promised visit to Edinburgh. He was warmly received by Constable and Hunter, and enjoyed their hospitality for some days. After business matters had been disposed of, he was taken in hand by Hunter, the junior partner, and led off by him to enjoy the perilous hospitality of the Forfarshire lairds. Those have been called the days of heroic drinking. Intemperance prevailed to an enormous extent. It was a time of greater licentiousness, perhaps, in all the capitals of Europe, and this northern one among the rest, than had been known for a long period. Men of the best education and social position drank like the Scandinavian barbarians of olden times. Tavern-drinking, now almost unknown among the educated and professional classes of Edinburgh, was then carried by all ranks to a dreadful excess. Murray was conducted by Hunter to his father's house of Eskmount in Forfarshire, where he was most cordially received, and in accordance with the custom of the times the hospitality included invitations to drinking bouts at the neighbouring houses. An unenviable notoriety in this respect attached to William Maule (created Baron Panmure 1831). He was the second son of the eighth Earl of Dalhousie, but on succeeding, through his grandmother, to the estates of the Earls of Panmure, he had assumed the name of Maule in lieu of that of Ramsay. Much against his will, Murray was compelled to take part in some of these riotous festivities with the rollicking, hard-drinking Forfarshire lairds, and doubtless he was not sorry to make his escape at length uninjured, if not unscathed, and to return to more congenial society in Edinburgh. His attachment to Miss Elliot ended in an engagement. In the course of his correspondence with Miss Elliot's 28 trustees, Mr. Murray gave a statement of his actual finan- cial position at the time : " When I say," he wrote, " that my capital in business amounts to five thousand pounds, I meant it to be understood that if I quitted business to-morrow, the whole of my property being sold, even disadvantageously, it would leave a balance in my favour, free from debt or any incumbrance, of the sum above specified. But you will observe that, continuing it as I shall do in business, I know it to be far more considerable and productive. I will hope that it has not been thought uncandid in me if I did not earlier specify the amount of my circumstances, for I considered that I had done this in the most delicate and satisfactory way when I took the liberty of referring you to Mr. Constable to whom I con- sequently disclosed my affairs, and whose knowledge of my con- nexions in business might I thought have operated more pleasingly to Miss Elliot's friends than any communication from myself." The correspondence with Miss Elliot went on, and at length it was arranged that Mr. Murray should proceed to Edinburgh for the marriage. He went by mail in the month of February. A tremendous snowstorm set in on his journey north. From a village near Doncaster he wrote to Constable : " The horses were twice blown quite round, unable to face the horrid blast of cold wind, the like of which I have never known before. There was at the same time a terrible fall of snow, which completely obscured everything that could be seen from the coach window. The snow became of great depth, and six strong horses could scarcely pull us through. We are four hours behind time." From Doncaster he went to Durham in a postchaise ; and pushing onward, he at last reached Edinburgh after six days' stormy travelling. While at Edinburgh, Mr. Murray resided with Mr. Sands, one of the late Charles Elliot's trustees. The marriage took place on March 6, 1807, and the newly married pair at once started for Kelso, in spite of the roads being still very bad, and obstructed by snow. Near Blackshields the horses fell down and rolled over and over. The postboy's leg was broken, and the carriage was sadly damaged. A neighbouring blacksmith was called to the rescue, and after an hour and a half the carriage was sufficiently repaired to be able to proceed. A fresh pair of horses was obtained at the next stage, and the married couple reached Kelso in safety. They A DINNER AT MR. DISRAELI'S 29 remained there a few days, waiting for Mrs. Elliot, who was to follow them ; and on her arrival, they set out at once for the south. The intimacy which existed between Mr. Murray and Mr. DTsraeli will be observed from the fact that the latter was selected as one of the marriage trustees. A few days after the arrival of the married pair in London, they were invited to dine with Mr. D'Israeli and his friends. Mr. Alexander Hunter, whom Mr. Murray had invited to stay with him during his visit to London, thus describes the event : " Dressed, and went along with the Clan Murray to dine at Mr. D 'Israeli's, where we had a most sumptuous banquet, and a very large party, in honour of the newly married folks. There waa a very beautiful woman there, Mrs. Turner, wife of Sharon Turner, the Anglo-Saxon historian, who, I am told, was one of the Godwin school ! If they be all as beautiful, accomplished, and agreeable as this lady, they must be a deuced dangerous Bet indeed, and I should not choose to trust myself amongst them. " Our male part of the company consisted mostly of literary men Cumberland, Turner, D'Israeli, Basevi, Prince Hoare, and Cervetto, the truly celebrated violoncello player. Turner was the most able and agreeable of the whole by far ; Cumberland, the most talkative and eccentric perhaps, has a good sprinkling of learning and humour in his conversation and anecdote, from having lived so long amongst the eminent men of his day, such as Johnson, Foote, Garrick, and such like. But his conversation is sadly disgusting, from his tone of irony and detraction conveyed in a cunning sort of way and directed constantly against the Edin- burgh Review, Walter Scott (who is a ' poor ignorant boy, and no poet,' and never wrote a five-feet line in his life), and such other d d stuff." CHAPTER IV " MARMION " CONSTABLES AND BALLANTYNES THE " EDINBURGH REVIEW " MR. MURRAY was twenty -nine years old at the time of his marriage. That he was full of contentment as well as hope at this time may be inferred from his letter to Con- stable three weeks after his marriage : John Murray to Mr. Constable. March 27, 1807. " I declare to you that I am every day more content with my lot. Neither my wife nor I have any disposition for company or going out ; and you may rest assured that I shall devote all my attention to business, and that your concerns will not be less the object of my regard merely because you have raised mine so high. Every moment, my dear Constable, I feel more grateful to you, and I trust that you will ever find me your faithful friend. J. M." Some of the most important events in Murray's career occurred during the first year of his married life. Chief among them may perhaps be mentioned his part share in the publication of " Marmion " (in February 1808) which brought him into intimate connection with Walter Scott and his appointment for a time as publisher in London of the Edinburgh Review ; for he was thus brought into direct personal contact with those forces which ulti- mately led to the chief literary enterprise of his life the publication of the Quarterly Review. Mr. Scott called upon Mr. Murray in London shortly after the return of the latter from his marriage in Edin- burgh. John Murray to Mr, Constable. March 27, 1807. " Mr. Scott called upon me on Tuesday, and we conversed for an hour. . . . He appears very anxious that ' Marmion ' should be 30 THE "EDINBURGH REVIEW" 31 published by the King's birthday. . . . He said he wished it to be ready by that time for very particular reasons ; and yet he allows that the poem is not completed, and that he is yet undetermined if he shall make his hero happy or otherwise." The other important event, to which allusion has been made, was the transfer to Mr. Murray of part of the London agency for the Edinburgh Review. At the beginning of 1806 Murray sold 1,000 copies of the Review on the day of its publication, and the circulation was steadily in- creasing. Constable proposed to transfer the entire London publication to Murray, but the Longmans pro- tested, under the terms of their existing agreement. In April 1807 they employed as their attorney Mr. Sharon Turner, one of Murray's staunchest allies. Turner in- formed him, through a common friend, of his having been retained by the Longmans ; but Murray said he could not in any way " feel hurt at so proper and indis- pensable a pursuit of his profession." The opinion of counsel was in favour of the Messrs. Longman's con- tention, and of their " undisputable rights to one-half of the Edinburgh Review so long as it continues to be pub- lished under that title." Longman & Co. accordingly obtained an injunction to prevent the publication of the Edinburgh Review by any other publisher in London without their express consent. Matters were brought to a crisis by the following letter, written by the editor, Mr. Francis Jeffrey, to Messrs. Constable & Co. : June 1, 1807. GENTLEMEN, I believe you understand already that neither I nor any of the original and regular writers in the Review will ever contribute a syllable to a work belonging to booksellers. It is proper, how- ever, to announce this to you distinctly, that you may have no fear of hardship or disappointment in the event of Mr. Longman succeeding in his claim to the property of this work. If that claim be not speedily rejected or abandoned, it is our fixed resolution to withdraw entirely from the Edinburgh Review ; to publish to all the world that the conductor and writers of the former numbers have no sort of connection with those that may afterwards appear ; and probably to give notice of our intention to establish a new work of a similar nature under a different title., I have the honour to be, gentlemen, Your very obedient servant, F. JEFFREY. 32 CONSTABLES AND BALLANTYNES A copy of this letter was at once forwarded to Messrs. Longman. Constable, in his communication accompanying it, assured the publishers that, in the event of the editor and contributors to the Edinburgh Review withdrawing from the publication and establishing a new periodical, the existing Review would soon be of no value either to proprietors or publishers, and requested to be informed whether they would not be disposed to transfer their interest in the property, and, if so, on what considerations. Constable added : " We are apprehensive that the editors will not postpone for many days longer that public notifica- tion of their secession, which we cannot help anticipating as the death-blow of the publication." Jeffrey's decision seems to have settled the matter. Messrs. Longman agreed to accept 1,000 for their claim of property in the title and future publication of the Edinburgh Review. The injunction was removed, and the London publication of the Review was forthwith trans- ferred to John Murray, 32, Fleet Street, under whose auspices No. 22 accordingly appeared. Thus far all had gone on smoothly. But a little cloud, at first no bigger than a man's hand, made its appearance, and it grew and grew until it threw a dark shadow over the friendship of Constable and Murray, and eventually led to their complete separation. This was the system of persistent drawing of accommodation bills, renewals of bills, and promissory notes. Constable began to draw heavily upon Murray in April 1807, and the promissory notes went on accumulating until they constituted a mighty mass of paper money. Murray's banker cautioned him against the practice. But repeated expostulation was of no use against the impetuous needs of Constable & Co. Only two months after the transfer of the publica- tion of the Review to Mr. Murray, we find him writing to " Dear Constable " as follows : John Murray to Mr. Archd. Constable. October 1, 1807. " I should not have allowed myself time to write to you to-day, were not the occasion very urgent. Your people have so often of late omitted to give you timely notice of the day when my accept- ances fell due, that I have suffered an inconvenience too great for me to have expressed to you, had it not occurred so often that it ACCOMMODATION BILLS 33 is impossible for me to undergo the anxiety which it occasions. A bill of yours for 200 was due yesterday, and I have been obliged to supply the means for paying it, without any notice for prepara- tion. ... I beg of you to insist upon this being regulated, as I am sure you must desire it to be, so that I may receive the cash for your bills two days at least before they are due." Mr. Murray then gives a list of debts of his own (including some of Constable's) amounting to 1,073, which he has to pay in the following week. From a cash account made out by Mr. Murray on October 3, it appears that the bill transactions with Constable had become enor- mous ; they amounted to not less than 10,000. The correspondence continued in the. same strain, and it soon became evident that this state of things could not be allowed to continue. Reconciliations took place from time to time, but interruptions again occurred, mostly arising from the same source a perpetual flood of bills and promissory notes, from one side and the other until Murray found it necessary to put an end to it peremptorily. Towards the end of 1808 Messrs. Constable established at No. 10 Ludgate Street a London house for the sale of the Edinburgh Review, and the other works in which they were concerned, under the title of Constable, Hunter, Park & Hunter. This, doubtless, tended to widen the breach between Constable and Murray, though it left the latter free to enter into arrangements for establishing a Review of his own, an object which he had already contemplated. There were many books in which the two houses had a joint interest, and, therefore, their relations could not be altogether discontinued. " Marmion " was coming out in successive editions ; but the correspondence between the publishers grew cooler and cooler, and Constable had constant need to delay payments and renew bills. Mr. Murray had also considerable bill transactions with Ballantyne & Co. of Edinburgh. James and John Ballan- tyne had been schoolfellows of Walter Scott at Kelso, and the acquaintance there formed was afterwards re- newed. James Ballantyne established the Kelso Mail in 1796, but at the recommendation of Scott, for whom he had printed a collection of ballads, he removed to Edinburgh in 1802. There he printed the " Border Minstrelsy," for Scott, who assisted him with money. Ballantyne was in frequent and intimate correspondence with Murray from the year 1806, and had printed for him Hogg's " Ettrick Shepherd/' and other works. It was at this time that Scott committed the great error of his life. His professional income was about 1,000 a year, and with the profits of his works he might have built Abbotsford and lived in comfort and luxury. But in 1805 he sacrificed everything by entering into partnership with James Ballantyne, and embarking in his printing concern almost the whole of the capital which he possessed. He was bound to the firm for twenty years, and during that time he produced his greatest works. It is true that but for the difficulties in which he was latterly immersed, we might never have known the noble courage with which he met and rose superior to misfortune. In 1808 a scheme of great magnitude was under con- templation by Murray and the Ballantynes. It was a uniform edition of the " British Novelists," beginning with De Foe, and ending with the novelists at the close of last century ; with biographical prefaces and illustrative notes by Walter Scott. A list of the novels, written in the hand of John Murray, includes thirty-six British, besides eighteen foreign authors. The collection could not have been completed in less than two hundred volumes. The scheme, if it did not originate with Walter Scott, had at least his cordial support. Mr. Murray not unreasonably feared the cost of carrying such an undertaking to completion. It could not have amounted to less than twenty thousand pounds. Yet the Ballantynes urged him on. They furnished statements of the cost of printing and paper for each volume. " It really strikes me," said James Ballantyne, " the more I think of and examine it, to be the happiest speculation that has ever been thought of." This undertaking eventually fell through. Only the works of De Foe were printed by the Messrs. Ballantyne, and published by Mr. Murray. The attention of the latter became absorbed by a subject of much greater importance to him the establishment of the Quarterly Review. This for a time threw most of his other schemes into the shade. CHAPTER V ORIGIN OF THE " QUARTERLY REVIEW " THE publication of a Tory Review was not the result of a sudden inspiration. The scheme had long been pondered over. Mr. Canning had impressed upon Mr. Pitt the importance of securing the newspaper press, then almost entirely Whiggish or Revolutionary, on the side of his administration. To combat, in some measure, the demo- cratic principles then in full swing, Mr. Canning, with others, started, in November 1797, the Anti-Jacobin, or Weekly Examiner. The Anti-Jacobin ceased to be published in 1798, when Canning, having been appointed Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, found his time fully occupied by the business of his department, as well as by his parliamentary duties, and could no longer take part in that clever publica- tion. Four years later, in October 1802, the first number of the Edinburgh Review was published. It appeared at the right time, and, as the first quarterly organ of the higher criticism, evidently hit the mark at which it aimed. It was conducted by some of the cleverest literary young men in Edinburgh Jeffrey, Brougham, Sydney Smith, Francis Homer, Dr. Thomas Brown, and others. Though Walter Scott was not a founder of the Review, he was a frequent contributor. In its early days the criticism was rude, and wanting in delicate insight ; for the most part too dictatorial, and often unfair. Thus Jeffrey could never appreciate the merits of Wordsworth, Southey, and Coleridge. " This will never do ! " was the commencement of his review of Wordsworth's noblest poem. Jeffrey boasted that he had " crushed the ' Excursion.' ' " He might as well say," observed Southey, " that he could crush Skiddaw." 35 36 ORIGIN OF THE "QUARTERLY REVIEW" Ignorance also seems to have pervaded the article written by Brougham, in the second number of the Edinburgh, on Dr. Thomas Young's discovery of the true principles of interferences in the undulatory theory of light. Sir John Herschell, a more competent authority, said of Young's discovery, that it was sufficient of itself to have placed its author in the highest rank of scientific immor- tality. The situation seemed to Mr. Murray to warrant the following letter : John Murray to the Right Hon. George Canning. September 25, 1807. SIR, I venture to address you upon a subject that is not, perhaps, undeserving of one moment of your attention. There is a work entitled the Edinburgh Review, written with such unquestionable talent that it has already attained an extent of circulation not equalled by any similar publication. The principles of this work are, however, so radically bad that I have been led to consider the effect that such sentiments, so generally diffused, are likely to pro- duce, and to think that some means equally popular ought to be adopted to counteract their dangerous tendency. But the publica- tion in question is conducted with so much ability, and is sanctioned with such high and decisive authority by the party of whose opinions it is the organ, that there is little hope of producing against it any effectual opposition, unless it arise from you, Sir, and your friends. Should you, Sir, think the idea worthy of encouragement, I should, with equal pride and willingness, engage my arduous exertions to promote its success ; but as my object is nothing short of producing a work of the greatest talent and importance, I shall entertain it no longer if it be not so fortunate as to obtain the high patronage which I have thus taken the liberty to solicit. Permit me, Sir, to add that the person who addresses you is no adventurer, but a man of some property, and inheriting a business that has been established for nearly a century. I therefore trust that my application will be attributed to its proper motives, and that your goodness will at least pardon its obtrusion. I have the honour to be, Sir, Your must humble and obedient Servant, JOHN MUBBAY. So far as can be ascertained, Mr. Canning did not answer this letter in writing. But a communication was shortly after opened with him through Mr. Stratford Canning, whose acquaintance Mr. Murray had made through the publication of the " Miniature," referred to in a preceding chapter. Mr. Canning was still acting as Secretary of WALTER SCOTT 37 State for Foreign Affairs, and was necessarily cautious, but Mr. Stratford Canning, his cousin, was not bound by any such official restraints. In January 1808 he intro- duced Mr. Gifford to Mr. Murray, and the starting of the proposed new periodical was the subject of many con- sultations between them. Walter Scott still continued to write for the Edinburgh, notwithstanding the differences of opinion which existed between himself and the editor as to political questions. He was rather proud of the Review, inasmuch as it was an outgrowth of Scottish literature. Scott even en- deavoured to enlist new contributors, for the purpose of strengthening the Review. He wrote to Robert Southey in 1807, inviting him to contribute to the Edinburgh. The honorarium was to be ten guineas per sheet of sixteen pages. This was a very tempting invitation to Southey, as he was by no means rich at the time, and the pay was more than he received for his contributions to the Annual Register, but he replied to Scott as follows : Mr. Southey to Mr. Scott. December, 1807. " I have scarcely one opinion in common with it [the Edinburgh Review] upon any subject. . . . Whatever of any merit I might insert there would aid and abet opinions hostile to my own, and thus identify me with a system which I thoroughly disapprove. This is not said hastily. The emolument to be derived from writing at ten guineas a sheet, Scotch measure, instead of seven pounds for the Annual, would be considerable ; the pecuniary advantage resulting from the different manner in which my future works would be handled [by the Review] probably still more so. But my moral feelings must not be compromised. To Jeffrey as an individual I shall ever be ready to show every kind of individual courtesy ; but of Judge Jeffrey of the Edinburgh Review I must ever think and speak as of a bad politician, a worse moralist, and a critic, in matters of taste, equally incompetent and unjust." * Walter Scott, before long, was led to entertain the same opinion of the Edinburgh Review as Southey. A severe and unjust review of " Marmion," by Jeffrey, appeared in 1808, accusing Scott of a mercenary spirit in writing for money (though Jeffrey himself was writing for money in the same article), and further irritating Scott by asserting that he " had neglected Scottish feelings * " The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey," iii. pp. 124-5. 38 ORIGIN OF THE "QUARTERLY REVIEW" and Scottish characters." " Constable," Avrites Scott to his brother Thomas, in November 1808, " or rather that Bear, his partner [Mr. Hunter], has behaved by me of late not very civilly, and I owe Jeffrey a flap with a foxtail on account of his review of ' Marmion,' and thus doth the whirligig of time bring about my revenges." Murray, too, was greatly annoyed by the review of " Marmion." " Scott," he used to say, " may forgive but he can never forget this treatment " ; and, to quote the words of Mr. Lockhart : " When he read the article on ' Marmion/ and another on foreign politics, in the same number of the Edinburgh Review, Murray said to himself, ' Walter Scott has feelings, both as a gentleman and a Tory, which these people must now have wounded ; the alliance between him and the whole clique of the Edinburgh Review is now shaken ' " ; and, as far at least as fche politi- cal part of the affair was concerned, John Murray's sagacity was not at fault. Mr. Murray at once took advantage of this opening to draw closer the bonds between himself and Ballantyne, for he well knew who was the leading spirit in the firm, and showed himself desirous of obtaining the London agency of the publishing business, which, as he rightly discerned, would soon be started in connection with the Canongate Press, and in opposition to Constable. The large increase of work which Murray was prepared to place in the hands of the printers induced Ballantyne to invite him to come as far as Ferrybridge in Yorkshire for a personal conference. At this interview various new projects were discussed among them the proposed Novelists' Library and from the information which he then obtained as to Scott's personal feelings and literary projects, Murray considered himself justified in at once proceeding to Ashestiel, in order to lay before Scott himself, in a personal interview, his great scheme for the new Review. He arrived there about the middle of October 1808, and was hospitably welcomed and entertained. He stated his plans, mentioned the proposed editor of the Review, the probable contributors, and earnestly in- vited the assistance of Scott himself. During Murray's visit to Ashestiel No. 26 of the Edin- burgh Review arrived. It contained an^article entitled MURRAY VISITS WALTER SCOTT 39 " Don Cevallos on the Occupation of Spain." It was long supposed that the article was written by Brougham, but it has since been ascertained that Jeffrey himself was the author of it. This article gave great offence to the friends of rational liberty and limited monarchy in this country. Scott forthwith wrote to Constable : " The Edinburgh Review Iwtd become such as to render it impossible for me to become a contributor to it ; now it is such as I can no longer continue to receive or read it." " The list of the then subscribers," said Mr. Cadell to Mr. Lockhart, " exhibits, in an indignant dash of Con- stable's pen opposite Mr. Scott's name, the word ' STOPT ! ' ' Mr. Murray never forgot his visit to Ashestiel. Scott was kindness itself ; Mrs. Scott was equally cordial and hospitable. Richard Heber was there at the time, and the three went out daily to explore the scenery of the neighbourhood. They visited Melrose Abbey, the Tweed, and Dryburgh Abbey, not very remote from Melrose, where Scott was himself to lie ; they ascended the Eildon Hills, Scott on his sheltie often stopping by the way to point out to Murray and Heber, who were on foot, some broad meadow or heather-clad ground, as a spot where some legend held its seat, or some notable deed had been achieved during the wars of the Borders. Scott thus converted the barren hillside into a region of interest and delight. From the top of the Eildons he pointed out the scene of some twenty battles. Very soon after his return to London, Murray addressed the following letter to Mr. Scott : John Murray to Mr. Scott. October 26, 1808. DEAR SIR, Although the pressure of business since my return to London has prevented me writing to you sooner, yet my thoughts have, I assure you, been almost completely employed upon the important subjects of the conversation with which you honoured me during the time I was experiencing the obliging hospitality of Mrs. Scott and yourself at Ashestiel. Then, after a reference to the Novelists' Library men- tioned in the last chapter, the letter continues : " I have seen Mr. William Gifford, hinting distantly at a Review ; he admitted the most imperious necessity for one, and that too 40 in a way that leads me to think that he has had very important communications upon the subject. ... I feel more than ever confident that the higher powers are exceedingly desirous for the establishment of some counteracting publication ; and it will, 1 suspect, remain only for your appearance in London to urge Borne very formidable plan into activity." This letter was crossed in transit by the following : Mr. Scott to John Murray. ASHESTIEL, BY SELKIRK, October 30, 1808. DEAR SIR, Since I had the pleasure of seeing you I have the satisfaction to find that Mr. Gifford has accepted the task of editing the in- tended Review. This was communicated to me by the Lord Advocate, who at the same time requested me to write Mr. Gifford on the subject. I have done so at great length, pointing out what- ever occurred to me on the facilities or difficulties of the work in general, as well as on the editorial department, offering at the same time all the assistance in my power to set matters upon a good footing and to keep them so. I presume he will have my letter by the time this reaches you, and that he will communicate with you fully upon the details. I am as certain as of my existence that the plan will answer, provided sufficient attention is used in procuring and selecting articles of merit. What Scott thought of Murray's visit to Ashestiel may be inferred from his letter to his political confidant, George Ellis, of which, as it has already appeared in Scott's Life, it is only necessary to give extracts here : Mr. Scott to Mr. George Ellis. November 2, 1808. DEAR ELLIS, We had, equally to our joy and surprise, a flying visit from Heber about three weeks ago. He staid but three days, but, between old stories and new, we made them very merry in their passage. During his stay, John Murray, the bookseller in Fleet Street, who has more real knowledge of what concerns his business than any of his brethren at least, than any of them that I know came to canvass a most important plan, of which I am now, in " dern privacie," to give you the outline. I had most strongly recommended to our Lord Advocate (the Right Hon. J. C. Colqu- houn) to think of some counter measures against the Edinburgh Review, which, politically speaking, is doing incalculable damage. I do not mean this in a party way ; the present ministry are not all I could wish them, for (Canning excepted) I doubt there is among them too much self-seeking. . . . But their political principles are sound English principles, and, compared to the greedy and in- efficient horde which preceded them, they are angels of light and "A GOOD PLOT" 41 purity. It is obvious, however, that they want defenders, both in and out of doors. Pitt's " Love and fear glued many friends to him ; And now he's fallen, those tough co-mixtures melt." Then, after a reference to the large circulation (9,000) and mischievous politics of the Edinburgh Review, he proceeds : Now, I think there is balm in Gilead for all this, and that the cure lies in instituting such a Review in London as should be conducted totally independent of bookselling influence, on a plan as liberal as that of the Edinburgh, its literature as well supported, and its principles English and constitutional. Accordingly, I have been given to understand that Mr. William Gifford is willing to become the conductor of such a work, and I have written to him, at the Lord Advocate's desire, a very voluminous letter on the subject. Now, should this plan succeed, you must hang your birding-piece on its hook, take down your old Anti-Jacobin armour, and " remember your swashing blow." It is not that I think this projected Review ought to be exclusively or principally political ; this would, in my opinion, absolutely counteract its purpose, which I think should be to offer to those who love their country, and to those whom we would wish to love it, a periodical work of criticism conducted with equal talent, but upon sounder principles. Is not this very possible ? In point of learning, you Englishmen have ten times our scholarship ; and, as for talent and genius, " Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than any of the rivers in Israel ? " Have wo not yourself and your cousin, the Roses, Malthus, Matthias, Gifford, Heber, and his brother ? Can I not procure you a score of blue-caps who would rather write for us than for the Edinburgh Review if they got as much pay by it ? "A good plot, good friends, and full of expectation an excellent plot, very good friends ! " Heber's fear was lest we should fail in procuring regular steady contributors ; but I know so much of the interior discipline of reviewing as to have no apprehension of that. Provided we are once set a-going by a few dashing numbers, there would be no fear of enlisting regular contributors ; but the amateurs must bestir themselves in the first instance. From the Government we should be entitled to expect confidential communications as to points of fact (so far as fit to be made public) in our political disquisitions. With this advantage, our good cause and St. George to boot, we may at least divide the field with our formidable com- petitors, who, after all, are much better at cutting than parrying, and whose uninterrupted triumph has as much unfitted them for resisting a serious attack as it has done Buonaparte for the Spanish war. Jeffrey is, to be sure, a man of the most uncommon versatility of talent, but what then ? " General Howe is a gallant commander, There are others as gallant as he." 42 ORIGIN OF THE "QUARTERLY REVIEW" Think of all this, and let me hear from you very soon on the subject. Canning is, I have good reason to know, very anxious about the plan. I mentioned it to Robert Dundas, who was here with his lady for a few days on a pilgrimage to Melrose, and he highly ap- proved of it. Though no literary man, he is judicious, clair-voyant, and uncommonly sound-headed, like his father, Lord Melville. With the exceptions I have mentioned, the thing continues a secret. . . . Ever yours, WALTER SCOTT. Mr. Scott to John Murray. November 2, 1808. I transmitted my letter to Mr. Gifford through the Lord Ad- vocate, and left it open that Mr. Canning might read it if he thought it worth while. I have a letter from the Advocate highly approving my views, so I suppose you will very soon hear from Mr. Gifford specifically on the subject. It is a matter of immense consequence that something shall be set about, and that without delay. . . . The points on which I chiefly insisted with Mr. Gifford were that the Review should be independent both as to bookselling and ministerial influences meaning that we were not to be advocates of party through thick and thin, but to maintain constitutional principles. Moreover, I stated as essential that the literary part of the work should be as sedulously attended to as the political, because it is by means of that alone that the work can acquire any firm and extended reputation. Moreover yet, I submitted that each contributor should draw money for his article, be his rank what it may. This general rule has been of great use to the Edinburgh Review. Of terms I said nothing, except that your views on the subject seemed to me highly liberal. I do not add further particulars because I dare Bay Mr. Gifford will show you the letter, which is a very long one. Believe me, my dear Sir, with sincere regard, Your faithful, humble Servant, WALTER SCOTT. In a subsequent letter to Mr. Ellis, Scott again indicates what he considers should be the proper management of the proposed Review. " Let me touch," he says, " a string of much delicacy the political character of the Review. It appears to me that this should be of a liberal and enlarged nature, resting upon principles indulgent and conciliatory as far as possible upon mere party questions, but stern in detecting and exposing all attempts to sap our constitutional fabric. Religion is another slippery station ; here also I would endeavour to be as impartial as the subject will admit of. ... The truth is, there is policy, as well as morality, in keeping our swords clear as well as sharp, and not forgetting the Gentleman in the Critic. The public apptite is soon gorged with SCOTT'S LETTER TO GIFFORD 43 any particular style. The common Reviews, before the appearance of the Edinburgh, had become extremely mawkish ; and, unless when prompted by the malice of the bookseller or reviewer, gave a dawdling, maudlin sort of applause to everything that reached even mediocrity. The Edinburgh folks squeezed into their sauce plenty of acid, and were popular from novelty as well as from merit. The minor Reviews, and other periodical publications, have outred the matter still further, and given us all abuse and no talent. . . . This, therefore, we have to trust to, that decent, lively, and reflecting criticism, teaching men not to abuse books, but to read and to judge them, will have the effect of novelty upon a public wearied with universal efforts at blackguard and indis- criminating satire. I have a long and very sensible letter * from John Murray, the bookseller, in which he touches upon this point very neatly." Scott was most assiduous in his preparations for the first number. He wrote to his brother, Thomas Scott, asking him to contribute an article ; to Charles Kirk- patrick Sharpe, of Christ Church, Oxford ; to Mr. Morritt, of Rokeby Park, Yorkshire ; and to Robert Southey, of Keswick, asking them for contributions. To Mr. Sharpe he says : " The Hebers are engaged, item Rogers, Southey, Moore (Ana- creon), and others whose reputations Jeffrey has murdered, and who are rising to cry woe upon him, like the ghosts in ' King Richard.' " Scott's letter to Gifford, the intended editor, was full of excellent advice. It was dated " Edinburgh, October 25, 1808." We quote from it several important passages : "John Murray, of Fleet Street," says Scott, "a young book- seller of capital and enterprise, and with more good sense and propriety of sentiment than fall to the share of most of the trade, made me a visit at Ashestiel a few weeks ago ; and as I found he had had some communication with you upon the subject, I did not hesitate to communicate my sentiments to him on this and some other points of the plan, and I thought his ideas were most liberal and satisfactory. " The office of Editor is of such importance, that had you not been pleased to undertake it, I fear the plan would have fallen wholly to the ground. The full power of control must, of course, be vested in the editor for selecting, curtailing, and correcting the contributions to the Review. But this is not all ; for, as he is the person immediately responsible to the bookseller that the work (amounting to a certain number of pages, more or less) shall be * Given below, under date November 15, 1808, 44 ORIGIN OF THE "QUARTERLY REVIEW" before the public at a certain time, it will be the editor's duty to consider in due turn the articles of which each number ought to consist, and to take measures for procuring them from the persons best qualified to write upon such and such subjects. But this is sometimes so troublesome, that I foresee with pleasure you will Boon be obliged to abandon your resolution of writing nothing yourself. At the same time, if you will accept of my services as a sort of jackal or lion's provider, I will do all in my power to assist in this troublesome department of editorial duty. " But there is still something behind, and that of the last con- sequence. One great resource to which the Edinburgh editor turns himself, and by which he gives popularity even to the duller articles of his Review, is accepting contributions from persons of inferior powers of writing, provided they understand the books to which their criticisms relate ; and as such are often of stupefying mediocrity, he renders them palatable by throwing in a handful of spice, namely, any lively paragraph or entertaining illustration that occurs to him in reading them over. By this sort of veneering he converts, without loss of time or hindrance to business, articles, which in their original state might hang in the market, into such goods as are not likely to disgrace those among which they are placed. This seems to be a point in which an editor's assistance is of the last consequence, for those who possess the knowledge necessary to review books of research or abstruse disquisitions, are very often unable to put the criticisms into a readable, much more a pleasant and captivating form ; and as their science cannot be attained ' for the nonce,' the only remedy is to supply their deficiencies, and give their lucubrations a more popular turn. " There is one opportunity possessed by you in a particular degree that of access to the best sources of political information. It would not, certainly, be advisable that the work should assume, especially at the outset, a professed political character. On the contrary, the articles on science and miscellaneous literature ought to be of such a quality as might fairly challenge competition with the best of our contemporaries. But as the real reason of instituting the publication is the disgusting and deleterious doctrine with which the most popular of our Reviews disgraces its pages, it is essential to consider how this warfare should be managed. On this ground, I hope it is not too much to expect from those who have the power of assisting us, that they should on topics of great national interest furnish the reviewers, through the medium of their editor, with accurate views of points of fact, so far as they are fit to be made public. This is the most delicate and yet most essential part of our scheme. " On the one hand, it is certainly not to be understood that we are to be held down to advocate upon all occasions the cause of administration. Such a dereliction of independence would render us entirely useless for the purpose we mean to serve. On the other hand, nothing will render the work more interesting than the public learning, not from any vaunt of ours, but from their own observation, that we have access to early and accurate in- formation on points of fact. The Edinburgh Review has profited ENLISTMENT OF CONTRIBUTORS 45 much by the pains which the Opposition party have taken to possess the writers of all the information they could give them on public matters. Let me repeat that you, my dear sir, from enjoying the confidence of Mr. Canning, and other persons in power, may easily obtain the confidential information necessary to give credit to the work, and communicate it to such as you may think proper to employ in laying it before the public." Mr. Scott further proceeded, in his letter to Mr. Gifford, to discuss the mode and time of publication, the choice of subjects, the persons to be employed as contributors, and the name of the proposed Review, thus thoroughly identi- fying himself with it. " Let our forces," he said, " for a number or two, consist of volun- teers or amateurs, and when we have acquired some reputation, we shall soon levy and discipline our forces of the line. After all, the matter is become very serious eight or nine thousand copies of the Edinburgh Review are regularly distributed, merely because there is no other respectable and independent publication of the kind. In this city (Edinburgh), where there is not one Whig out of twenty men who read the work, many hundreds are sold ; and how long the generality of readers will continue to dislike politics, so artfully mingled with information and amusement, is worthy of deep consideration. But it is not yet too late to stand in the breach ; the first number ought, if possible, to be out in January, and if it can burst among them like a bomb, without previous notice, the effect will be more striking. " Of those who might be intrusted in the first instance you are a much better judge than I am. I think I can command the assistance of a friend or two here, particularly William Erskine, the Lord Advocate's brother-in-law and my most intimate friend. In London, you have Malthus, George Ellis, the Roses, cum pluribua aliia. Richard Heber was with me when Murray came to my farm, and, knowing his zeal for the good cause, I let him into our counsels. In Mr. Frere we have the hopes of a potent ally. The Rev. Reginald Heber would be an excellent coadjutor, and when I come to town I will sound Matthias. As strict secrecy would of course be observed, the diffidence of many might be overcome. For scholars you can be at no loss while Oxford stands where it did ; and I think there will be no deficiency in the scientific articles." Thus instructed, Gifford proceeded to rally his forces. There was no want of contributors. Some came invited, some came unsought ; but, as the matter was still a secret, the editor endeavoured to secure contributions through his personal friends. For instance, he called upon Mr. Rogers to request him to secure the help of Moore. " I must confess," said Rogers to Moore, " I heard of the nw quarterly with pleasure, as I thought it might correct an evil we 46 ORIGIN OF THE "QUARTERLY REVIEW" had long lamented together. Gifford wishes much for contributors, and is exceedingly anxious that you should assist him as often as you can afford time. . . . All this in confidence of course, as the secret is not my own." Gifford also endeavoured to secure the assistance of Southey, through his friend, Mr. Grosvenor Bedford. Southey was requested to write for the first number an article on the Affairs of Spain. This, however, he declined to do ; but promised to send an article on the subject of Missionaries. "Let not Gifford," he wrote to Bedford, in reply to his letter, " suppose me a troublesome man to deal with, pertinacious about trifles, or standing upon punctilios of authorship. No, Grosvenor, I am a quiet, patient, easy-going hack of the mule breed ; regular as clockwork in my pace, sure-footed, bearing the burden which is laid on me, and only obstinate in choosing my own path. If Gifford could see me by this fireside, where, like Nicodemus, one candle suffices me in a large room, he would see a man in a coat ' still more threadbare than his own ' when he wrote his ' Imitation,' working hard and getting little a bare maintenance, and hardly that ; writing poems and history for posterity with his whole heart and soul ; one daily progressive in learning, not so learned as he is poor, not so poor as proud, not so proud as happy." Mr. James Battantyne to John Murray. October 28, 1808. " Well, you have of course heard from Mr. Scott of the progress of the ' Great Plan.' Canning bites at the hook eagerly. A review termed by Mr. Jeffrey a tickler, is to appear of Dryden in this No. of the Edinburgh. By the Lord ! they will rue it. You know Scott's present feelings, excited by the review of ' Marmion.' What will they be when that of Dryden appears ? " It was some time, however, before arrangements could be finally made for bringing out the first number of the Quarterly. Scott could not as yet pay his intended visit to London, and after waiting for about a month, Murray sent him the following letter, giving his further opinion as to the scope and object of the proposed Review : John Murray to Mr. Scott. November 15, 1808. DEAR SIB, I have been desirous of writing to you for nearly a week past, as I never felt more the want of a personal conversation. I will endeavour, however, to explain myself to you, and will rely on your confidence and indulgence for secrecy and attention in MURRAY TO SCOTT 47 what I have to communicate. I have before told you that the idea of a new Review has been revolving in my mind for nearly two years, and that more than twelve months ago I addressed Mr. Canning on the subject. The propriety, if not the necessity, of establishing a journal upon principles opposite to those of the Edinburgh Review has occurred to many men more enlightened than myself ; and I believe the same reason has prevented others, as it has done myself, from attempting it, namely, the immense difficulty of obtaining talent of sufficient magnitude to render success even doubtful. By degrees my plan has gradually floated up to this height. But there exists at least an equal difficulty yet that peculiar talent in an editor of rendering our other great resources advan- tageous to the best possible degree. This, I think, may be accom- plished, but it must be effected by your arduous assistance, at least for a little time. Our friend Mr. Gifford, whose writings show him to be both a man of learning and wit, has lived too little in the world lately to have obtained that delicacy and tact whereby he can feel at one instant, and habitually, whatever may gratify public desire and excite public attention and curiosity. But this you know to be a leading feature in the talents of Mr. Jeffrey and his friends; and that, without the most happy choice of subjects, as well as the ability to treat them well catching the " manners living as they rise " the Edinburgh Review could not have attained the success it has done ; and no other Review, however prepon- derating in solid merit, will obtain sufficient attention without them. Entering the field too, as we shall do, against an army commanded by the most skilful generals, it will not do for us to leave any of our best officers behind as a reserve, for they would be of no use if we were defeated at first. We must enter with our most able commanders at once, and we shall then acquire confidence, if not reputation, and increase in numbers as we proceed. Our first number must contain the most valuable and striking information in politics, and the most interesting articles of general literature and science, written by our most able friends. If our plan appears to be so advantageous to the ministers whose measures, to a certain extent, we intend to justify, to support, to recommend and assist, that they have promised their support ; when might that support be so advantageously given, either for their own interests or ours, as at the commencement, when we are most weak, and have the most arduoxis onset to make, and when we do and must stand most in need of help ? If our first number be not written with the greatest ability, upon the most interesting topics, it will not excite public attention. No man, even the friend of the principles we adopt, will leave the sprightly pages of the Edin- burgh Review to read a dull detail of staid morality, or dissertations on subjects whose interest has long fled. I do not say this from any, even the smallest doubt, of our having all that we desire in these respects in our power ; but because I am apprehensive that without your assistance it will not be drawn into action, and my reason for this fear I will thus submit to you. You mentioned in your letter to Mr. Gifford, that our Review should 48 ORIGIN OF THE "QUARTERLY REVIEW" open with a grand article on Spain meaning a display of the political feeling of the people, and the probable results of this important contest. I suggested to Mr. Gifford that Mr. Frere should be written to, which he said was easy, and that he thought he would do it ; for Frere could not only give the facts upon the subject, but could write them better than any other person. But having, in my project, given the name of Southoy as a person who might assist occasionally in a number or two hence, I found at our next interview that Mr. Gifford, who does not know Mr. Southey, had spoken to a friend to ask Mr. S. to write the article upon Spain. It is true that Mr. Southey knows a great deal about Spain, and on another occasion would have given a good article upon the subject ; but at present his is not the kind of knowledge which we want, and it is, moreover, trusting our secret to a stranger, who has, by the way, a directly opposite bias in politics. Mr. Gifford also told me, with very great stress, that among the articles he had submitted to you was [one on] Hodgson's Translation of Juvenal, which at no time could be a very interesting article for us, and having been published more than six months ago, would probably be a very stupid one. Then, you must observe, that it would necessarily involve a comparison with Mr. Gifford's own translation, which must of course be praised, and thus show an individual feeling the least spark of which, in our early numbers, would both betray and ruin us. He talks of reviewing himself a late translation of " Persius," for (entre nou#) a similar reason. He has himself nearly completed a translation, which will be published in a few months. In what I have said upon this most exceedingly delicate point, and which I again submit to your most honourable confidence, I have no other object but just to show you without reserve how we stand, and to exemplify what I set out with that without skilful and judicious management we shall totally mistake the road to the accomplishment of the arduous task which we have undertaken, and involve the cause and every individual in not merely defeat, but disgrace. I must at the same time observe that Mr. Gifford is the most obliging and well-meaning man alive, and that he is perfectly ready to be instructed in those points of which his seclusion renders him ignorant ; and all that I wish and mean is, that we should strive to open clearly the view which is so obvious to us that our first number must be a most brilliant one in every respect ; and to effect this, we must avail ourselves of any valuable political information we can command. Those persons who have the most interest in supporting the Review must be called upon immediately for their strenuous personal help. The fact must be obvious to you, that if Mr. Canning, Mr. Frere, Mr. Scott, Mr. Ellis, and Mr. Gifford, with their immediate and true friends, will exert themselves heartily in every respect, so as to produce with secrecy only one remarkably attractive number, their further labour would be comparatively light. With such a number in our hands, we might select and obtain every other help that we required ; and then the persons named would only b called upon for their information, facts, hints, advice, and occaaional WALTER SCOTT TO MURRAY 49 articles. But without this without producing a number that shall at least equal, if not excel, the best of the Edinburgh Review, it were better not to be attempted. We should do more harm to our cause by an unsuccessful attempt ; and the reputation of the Edinburgh Review would be increased inversely to our fruitless opposition. . . . With respect to bookselling interference with the Review, I am equally convinced with yourself of its total incom- patibility with a really respectable and valuable critical journal. I assure you that nothing can be more distant from my views, which are confined to the ardour which I feel for the cause and principles which it will be our object to support, and the honour of professional reputation which would obviously result to the publisher of so important a work. It were silly to suppress that I shall not be sorry to derive from it as much profit as I can satis- factorily enjoy, consistent with the liberal scale upon which it is my first desire to act towards every writer and friend concerned in the work. Respecting the terms upon which the editor shall be placed at first, I have proposed, and it appears to be satisfactory to Mr. Gifford, that he shall receive, either previous to, or imme- diately after, the publication of each number, the sum of 160 guineas, which he is to distribute as he thinks proper, without any question or interference on my part ; and that in addition to this, he shall receive from me the sum of 200 annually, merely as the editor. This, Sir, is much more than I can flatter myself with the return of, for the first year at least ; but it is my intention that his salary shall ever increase proportionately to the success of the work under his management. The editor has a most arduous office to perform, and the success of the publication must depend in a great measure upon his activity. I am, dear Sir, Your obliged and faithful Servant, JOHN MURRAY. It will be observed from this letter, that Mr. Murray was aware that, besides skilful editing, sound and practical business management was necessary to render the new Review a success. The way in which he informs Mr. Scott about Gifford 's proposed review of " Juvenal " and " Per- sius," shows that he fully comprehended the situation, and the dangers which would beset an editor like Gifford, who lived for the most part amongst his books, and was, to a large extent, secluded from the active world. On the same day Scott was writing to Murray : Mr. Scott to John Murray. EDINBURGH, November 15, 1808. DEAR SIR, I received two days ago a letter from Mr. Gifford highly approving of the particulars of the plan which I had sketched for the Review. But there are two points to be considered. In the 4 50 ORIGIN OF THE "QUARTERLY REVIEW" first place, I cannot be in town as I proposed, for the Commissioners under the Judicial Bill, to whom I am to act as clerk, have re- solved that their final sittings shall be held here, so that I have now no chance of being in London before spring. This is very unlucky, as Mr. Gifford proposes to wait for my arrival in town to set the great machine a-going. I shall write to him that this is impossible, and that I wish he would, with your assistance and that of his other friends, make up a list of the works which the first number is to contain, and consider what is the extent of the aid he will require from the North. The other circumstance is, that Mr. Gifford pleads the state of his health and his retired habits as sequestrating him from the world, and rendering him less capable of active exertion, and in the kindest and most polite manner he expresses his hope that he should receive very extensive assistance and support from me, without which he is pleased to say he would utterly despair of success. Now between ourselves (for this is strictly confidential) I am rather alarmed at this prospect. I am willing, and anxiously so, to do all in my power to serve the work ; but, my dear sir, you know how many of our very ablest hands are engaged in the Edinburgh Review, and what a dismal work it will be to wring assistance from the few whose indolence has left them neutral. I can, to be sure, work like a horse myself, but then I have two heavy works on my hands already, namely, " Somers " and " Swift." Constable had lately very nearly relinquished the latter work, and I now heartily wish it had never commenced ; but two volumes are nearly printed, so I conclude it will now go on. If this work had not stood in the way, I should have liked Beaumont and Fletcher much better. It would not have required half the research, and occupied much less time. I plainly see that, according to Mr. Gifford's view, I should have almost all the trouble of a co-editor, both in collecting and revising the articles which are to come from Scotland, as well as in supplying all deficiencies from my own stores. These considerations cannot, however, operate upon the first number, so pray send me a list of books, and perhaps you may send some on a venture. You know the department I had in the Edinburgh Review. I will sound Sou they, agreeable to Mr. Gifford's wishes, on the Spanish affairs. The last number of the Edinburgh Review has given disgust beyond measure, owing to the tone of the article on Cevallos' expose. Subscribers are falling off like withered leaves. I retired my name among others, after explaining the reasons both to Mr. Jeffrey and Mr. Constable, so that there never was such an opening for a new Review. I shall be glad to hear what you think on the subject of terms, for my Northern troops will not move without pay ; but there is no hurry about fixing this point, as most of the writers in the first number will be more or less indifferent on the subject. For my own share, I care not what the conditions are, unless the labour expected from me is to occupy a considerable portion of time, in which case they might become an object. While we are on this subject, I may as well mention that as you incur so large an outlay in the case of the SCOTT-MURRAY CORRESPONDENCE 51 Novels, I would not only be happy that my remuneration should depend on the profits of the work, but I also think I could command a few hundreds to assist in carrying it on. By the way, I see " Notes on Don Quixote " advertised. This was a plan I had for enriching our collection, having many references by me for the purpose. I shall be sorry if I am powerfully antici- pated. Perhaps the book would make a good article in the Review. Can you get me " Gaytoun's Festivous Notes on Don Quixote " ? I think our friend Ballantyne is grown an inch taller on the subjects of the "Romances." Believe me, dear Sir, Yours very truly, WALTER SCOTT. Gifford is much pleased with you personally. John Murray to Mr. Scott. November 19, 1808. " Mr. Gifford has communicated to me an important piece of news. He met his friend, Lord Teignmouth, and learned from him that he and the Wilberforce party had some idea of starting a journal to oppose the Edinburgh Review, that Henry Thornton and Mr. [Zachary] Macaulay were to be the conductors, that they had met, and that some able men were mentioned. Upon sounding Lord T. as to their giving us their assistance, he thought this might be adopted in preference to their own plans. ... It will happen fortunately that we intend opening with an article on the mission- aries, which, as it will be written in opposition to the sentiments in the Edinburgh Review, is very likely to gain that large body of which Wilberforce is the head. I have collected from every Missionary Society in London, of which there are no less than five, all their curious reports, proceedings and history, which, I know, Sydney Smith never saw ; and which I could only procure by personal application. Southey will give a complete view of the subject, and if he will enter heartily into it, and do it well, it will be as much as he can do for the first number. These transactions contain, amidst a great deal of fanaticism, the most curious in- formation you can imagine upon the history, literature, topography and manners of nations and countries of which we are otherwise totally ignorant. ... If you have occasion to write to Southey, pray urge the vast importance of this subject, and entreat him to give it all his ability. I find that a new volume of Burns' (' The Reliques ') will be published by the end of this month, which will form the subject of another capital article under your hands. I presume ' Sir John Carr (Tour in Scotland) ' will be another article, which even you, I fancy, will like ; ' Mrs. Grant of Laggan,' too, and perhaps your friend Mr. Cumberland's ' John do Lan- caster.' . . . Are you not sufficiently well acquainted with Miss (Joanna) Baillie, both to confide in her, and command her talents ? If so, you will probably think of what may suit her, and what may apply to her. Mr. Heber, too, would apply to his brother at your request, and his friend Coplestone, who will also be written to by a friend of Gifford's. . . ." 52 ORIGIN OF THE "QUARTERLY REVIEW" Scott was very desirous of enlisting George Canning among the contributors to the Quarterly. He wrote to his friend Ellis : Mr. Scott to Mr. O. Ellis. " As our start is of such immense consequence, don't you think Mr. Canning, though unquestionably our Atlas, might for a day find a Hercules on whom to devolve the burden of the globe, while he writes for us a review ? I know what an audacious request this is, but suppose he should, as great statesmen sometimes do, take a political fit of the gout, and absent himself from a large ministerial dinner which might give it him in good earnest dine at three on a chicken and pint of wine, and lay the foundation of at least one good article ? Let us but once get afloat, and our labour is not worth talking about ; but, till then, all hands must work hard." This suggestion was communicated by George Ellis to Gifford, the chosen editor, and on December 1, Murray informed Scott that the article on Spain was proceeding under Mr. Canning's immediate superintendence. Canning and Gifford went down to Mr. Ellis 's house at Sunninghill, where the three remained together for four days, during which time the article was hatched and completed. On receiving the celebrated " Declaration of West- minster " on the Spanish War, Scott wrote to Ellis : ' ' Tell Mr. Canning that the old women of Scotland will defend the country with their distaffs, rather than that troops enough be not sent to make good so noble a pledge. Were the thousands that have mouldered away in petty conquests or Lilliputian ex- peditions united to those we have now in that country, what a band would Sir John Moore have under him ! . . . Jeffrey has offered terms of pacification, engaging that no party politics should again appear in his Review. I told him I thought it was now too late, and reminded him that I had often pointed out to him the con- sequences of letting his work become a party tool. He said ' he did not fear for the consequences there were but four men he feared as opponents.' ' Who are these ? ' ' Yourself for one.' ' Certainly you pay me a great compliment ; depend upon it I will endeavour to deserve it.' ' Why, you would not join against me ? ' ' Yes, I would, if I saw a proper opportunity : not against you personally, but against your politics." ' You are privileged to be violent.' ' I don't ask any privilege for undue violence. But who are your other foemen ? ' ' George Ellis and Southey.' The other he did not name. All this was in great good humour ; and next day I had a very affecting note from him, in answer to an invitation to dinner. He has no suspicion of the Review what- ever." MRS. INCHBALD 53 In the meantime, Mr. Murray continued to look out for further contributors. Mr. James Mill, of the India House, in reply to a request for assistance, wrote : " You do me a great deal of honour in the solicitude you express to have me engaged in laying the foundation stone of your new edifice, which I hope will be both splendid and durable ; and it is no want of zeal or gratitude that delays me. But this ponderous Geography, a porter's, or rather a horse's load, bears me down to a degree you can hardly conceive. What I am now meditating from under it is to spare time to do well and leisurely the Indian article (my favourite subject) for your next number. Besides, I shall not reckon myself less a founder from its having been only the fault of my previous engagements that my first article for you appears only in the second number, and not in the first part of your work." Another contributor whom Mr. Murray was desirous to secure was Mrs. Inchbald, authoress of the " Simple Story." The application was made to her through one of Murray's intimate friends, Mr. Hoppner, the artist. Her answer was as follows : Mrs. Inchbald to Mr. Hoppner. December 31, 1808. MY DEAR SIR, As I wholly rely upon your judgment for the excellency of the design in question, I wish you to be better acquainted with my abilities as a reviewer before I suffer my curiosity to be further gratified in respect to the plan of the work you have undertaken, or the names of those persons who, with yourself, have done me the very great honour to require my assistance. Before I see you, then, and possess myself of your further confidence, it is proper that I should acquaint you that there is only one department of a Review for which I am in the least qualified, and that one combines plays and novels. Yet the very few novels I have read, of later publications, incapacitates me again for detecting plagiary, or for making such comparisons as proper criticism may demand. You will, perhaps, be surprised when I tell you that I am not only wholly unacquainted with the book you have mentioned to me, but that I never heard of it before. If it be in French, there will be another insurmountable difficulty ; for, though I read French, and. have translated some French comedies, yet I am not so per- fectly acquainted with the language as to dare to write remarks upon a French author. If Madame Cottin's " Malvina " be in English, you wish it speedily reviewed, and can possibly have any doubt of the truth of my present report, please to send it me ; and whatever may be the contents, I will immediately essay my abilities on the work, or immediately return it as a hopeless case. Yours very faithfully, E. INCHBALD. 54 ORIGIN OF THE "QUARTERLY REVIEW" On further consideration, however, Mrs. Inchbald modestly declined to become a contributor. Notwith- standing her great merits as an author, she had the ex- tremest diffidence in her own abilities. Mrs. Inchbald to John Murray. " The more I reflect on the importance of the contributions intended for this work, the more I am convinced of my own inability to become a contributor. The productions in question must, I am convinced, be of a certain quality that will demand far more acquaintance with books, and much more general knowledge, than it has ever been my good fortune to attain. Under these circumstances, finding myself, upon mature consideration, wholly inadequate to the task proposed, I beg you will accept of this apology as a truth, and present it to Mr. Hoppner on the first opportunity ; and assure him that it has been solely my reluctance to yield up the honour he intended me which has tempted me, for an instant, to be undecided in my reply to his overture. I am, Sir, with sincere acknowledgments for the politeness of your letter to me, " E. INCHBALD." And here the correspondence dropped. It is now difficult to understand the profound secrecy with which the projection of the new Review was carried on until within a fortnight of the day of its publication. In these modern times widespread advertisements an- nounce the advent of a new periodical, whereas then both publisher and editor enjoined the utmost secrecy upon all with whom they were in correspondence. Still, the day of publication was very near, when the Quarterly was, according to Scott, to " burst like a bomb " among the Whigs of Edinburgh. The only explanation of the secrecy of the preliminary arrangements is that probably down to the last it was difficult to ascertain whether enough materials could be accumulated to form a sufficiently good number before the first Quarterly Review was launched into the world. CHAPTER VI THE " QUABTEELY " LAUNCHED WHILE Mr. Gifford was marshalling his forces and pre- paring for the issue of the first number of the Quarterly, Mr. Murray was corresponding with James Ballantyne of Edinburgh as to the works they were jointly engaged in bringing out, and also with respect to the northern agency of the new Review. An arrangement was made between them that they should meet at Boroughbridge, in York- shire, at the beginning of January 1809, for the purpose of concocting their plans. Ballantyne proposed to leave Edinburgh on January 5, and Murray was to set out from London on the same day, both making for Borough- bridge. A few days before Ballantyne left Edinburgh he wrote to Murray : " I shall not let a living soul know of my intended journey. Entire secrecy seems necessary at present. I dined yesterday tcte-d-tete with Mr. Scott, and had a great deal of highly important conversation with him. He showed me a letter bidding a final farewell to the house of Constable." It was mid-winter, and there were increasing indications of a heavy storm brewing. Notwithstanding the severity of the weather, however, both determined to set out for their place of meeting in Yorkshire. Two days before Ballantyne left Edinburgh, he wrote as follows : Mr. Ballantyne to John Murray. January 4, 1809. DEAR MURRAY, It is blowing the devil's weather here ; but no matter if the mail goes, I go. I shall travel by the mail, and shall, instantly on arriving, go to the " Crown," hoping to find you and an imperial dinner. By the bye, you had better, on your arrival, take places 55 66 THE "QUARTERLY" LAUNCHED north and south for the following day. In four or five hours after your receiving this, I expect to shake your princely paw. Thine, J. B. Scott also sent a note by the hand of Ballantyne to tell of his complete rupture with Constable owing to " Mr. Hunter's extreme incivility." As a result of these negotiations the Ballantynes were appointed publishers of the new Review in Edinburgh, and, with a view to a more central position, they took premises in South Hanover Street. Scott wrote with reference to this : Mr. Scott to John Murray. February, 1809. I enclose the promised " Swift," and am now, I think, personally out of your debt, though I will endeavour to stop up gaps if I do not receive the contributions I expect from others. Were I in the neighbourhood of your shop in London I could soon run up half a sheet of trifling articles with a page or two to each, but that is impossible here for lack of materials. When the Ballantynes open shop you must take care to have them supplied with food for such a stop-gap sort of criticism. I think we will never again feel the pressure we have had for this number ; the harvest has literally been great and the labourers few. Yours truly, W. S. Mr. James Ballantyne to John Murray. January 27, 1809. " I see or hear of nothing but good about the Review. Mr. Scott is at this moment busy with two articles, besides the one he has sent. In conversation a few days since, I heard a gentleman ask him, ' Pray, sir, do you think the Quarterly Review will be equal to the Edinburgh ? ' His answer was, ' I won't be quite sure of the first number, because of course there are difficulties attending the commencement of every work which time and habit can alone smooth away. But I think the first number will be a good one, and in the course of three or four, / think we'll sweat them I ' " The first number of the Quarterly Review was published at the end of February, 1809. Like most first numbers, it did not entirely realize the sanguine views of its pro- moters. It did not burst like a thunder-clap on the reading public ; nor did it give promise to its friends ENGLISH MEMOIRS 57 that a new political power had been born into the world. The general tone was more literary than political ; and though it contained much that was well worth reading, none of its articles were of first-rate quality. Walter Scott was the principal contributor, and was keenly interested in its progress, though his mind was ever teeming with other new schemes. The allusion in the following letter to his publication of " many un- authenticated books," if unintentional, seems little less than prophetic. Mr. Scott to John Murray. EDINBURGH, February 25, 1809. DEAR SIR, I see with pleasure that you will be out on the first. Yet I wish I could have seen my articles in proof, for I seldom read over my things in manuscript, and always find infinite room for improvement at the printer's expense. I hope our hurry will not be such another time as to deprive me of the chance of doing the best I can, which depends greatly on my seeing the proofs. Pray have the goodness to attend to this. I have made for the Ballantynes a little selection of poetry, to be entitled " English Minstrelsy " ; I also intend to arrange for them a first volume of English Memoirs, to be entitled " Secret History of the Court of James I." To consist of Osborne's " Traditional Memoirs." Sir Anthony Welldon's " Court and Character of James I." Heylin's " Aulicus Coquinarise." Sir Edward Peyton's " Rise and Fall of the House of Stewart.' ' I will add a few explanatory notes to these curious memoirs, and hope to continue the collection, as (thanks to my constant labour on " Somers ") it costs me no expense, and shall cost the proprietors none. You may advertise the publications, and Ballan- tyne, equally agreeable to his own wish and mine, will let you choose your own share in them. I have a commission for you in the way of art. I have published many unauthenticated books, as you know, and may probably bring forward many more. Now I wish to have it in my power to place on a few copies of each a decisive mark of appropriation. I have chosen for this purpose a device borne by a champion of my name in a tournament at Stirling ! It was a gate and portcullis, with the motto CLAUSUS TUTUS ERO. I have it engraved on a seal, as you may remark on the enclosure, but it is done in a most blackguard style. Now what I want ia to have this same gateway and this same portcullis and this same motto of clausus tutus ero, which is an anagram of Walterus Scotus (taking two single E/'s for the W), cut upon wood in the most elegant manner, so as to make a small vignette capable of being applied to 58 THE "QUARTERLY" LAUNCHED a few copies of every work which I either write or publish. This fancy of making portcullis copies I have much at heart, and trust to you to get it accomplished for me in the most elegant manner. I don't mind the expense, and perhaps Mr. Westall might be dis- posed to make a sketch for me. I am most anxious to see the Review. God grant we may lose no ground ; I tremble when I think of my own articles, of two of which I have but an indefinite recollection. What would you think of an edition of the " Old English Frois- sart," say 500 in the small antique quarto, a beautiful size of book ; the spelling must be brought to an uniformity, the work copied (as I could not promise my beautiful copy to go to press), notes added and illustrations, etc., and inaccuracies corrected. I think Johnes would be driven into most deserved disgrace, and I can get the use of a most curious MS. of the French Froissart in the Newbattle Library, probably the finest in existence after that of Berlin. I am an enthusiast about Berners' Froissart, and though I could not undertake the drudgery of preparing the whole for the press, yet Weber * would do it under my eye upon the most reason- able terms. I would revise every part relating to English history. I have several other literary schemes, but defer mentioning them till I come to London, which I sincerely hope will be in the course of a month or six weeks. I hear Mr. Canning is anxious about our Review. Constable says it is a Scotch job. I could not help quizzing Mr. Robert Miller, who asked me in an odd sort of way, as I thought, why it was not out ? I said very indifferently I knew nothing about it, but heard a vague report that the Edition was to be much enlarged on account of the expected demand. I also inclose a few lines to my brother, and am, dear Sir, Very truly yours, W. SCOTT. It is universally agreed here that Cumberland is five hundred degrees beneath contempt. Ballantyne, Scott's partner, and publisher of the Review in Edinburgh, hastened to communicate to Murray their joint views as to the success of the work. Mr. Ballantyne to John Murray. February 28, 1809. MY DEAR MURKAY, I received the Quarterly an hour ago. Before taking it to Mr. Scott, I had just time to look into the article on Burns, and at the general aspect of the book. It looks uncommonly well. . . . The view of Burns' character is better than Jeffrey's. It is written in a more congenial tone, with more tender, kindly feeling. Though not perhaps written with such elaborate eloquence as Jeffrey's, the thoughts are more original, and the style equally powerful, * Henry Weber, Scott's amanuensis. THE FIRST NUMBER 59 The two first articles (and perhaps the rest are not inferior) will confer a name on the Review. But why do I trouble you with my opinions, when I can give you Mr. Scott's ? He has just been reading the Spanish article beside me, and he again and again interrupted himself with expressions of the strongest admiration. Three days later, Ballantyne again wrote : " I have now read ' Spain,' ' Burns,' ' Woman,' ' Curran,' ' Cid,' ' Carr,' ' Missionaries.' Upon the whole, I think these articles most excellent. Mr. Scott is in high spirits ; but he says there are evident marks of haste in most of them. With respect to his own articles, he much regrets not to have had the opportunity of revising them. He thinks the ' Missionaries ' very clever ; but he shakes his head at 'Sidney,' 'Woman,' and 'Public Characters.' Our copies, which we expected this morning, have not made their appearance, which has given us no small anxiety. We are panting to hear the public voice. Depend upon it, if our exertions are continued, the thing will do. Would G. were as active as Scott and Murray ! " Murray had plenty of advisers. Gifford said he had too many. His friend, Sharon Turner, was ready with his criticism on No. 1. He deplored the appearance of the article by Scott on " Carr's Tour in Scotland." * Mr. Sharon Turner to John Murray. " I cannot endure the idea of an individual being wounded merely because he has written a book. If, as in the case of the authors attacked in the ' Baviad,' the works censured were vitiating our literature or, as in the case of Moore's Poems, corrupting our morals if they were denouncing our religious principles, or attacking those political principles on which our Government subsists let them be criticised without mercy. The salus publica demands the sacrifice. But to make an individual ridiculous merely because he has written a foolish, if it be a harmless book, is not, I think, justifiable on any moral principle. . . I repeat my principle. Whatever tends to vitiate our literary taste, our morals, our religious or political principles, may be fairly at the mercy of criticism. So, whatever tends to introduce false science, false history, indeed, falsehood in any shape, exposes itself to the censor's rod. But harmless, inoffensive works should be passed by. Where * Scott himself had written to Murray about this, which he calls " a whisky-frisky article," on June 30. " I take the advantage of forwarding Sir John's Review, to send you back his letters under the same cover. He is an incomparable goose, but as he is innocent and good-natured, I would not like it to be publicly known that the flagellation comes from my hand. Secrecy therefore will oblige me." 60 THE "QUARTERLY" LAUNCHED is the bravery of treading on a worm or crushing a poor fly ? Where the utility ? Where the honour ? " An edition of 4,000 copies had been printed ; this was soon exhausted, and a second edition was called for. Mr. Scott was ample in his encouragements. " I think," he wrote to Murray, " a firm and stable sale will be settled here, to the extent of 1,000 or 1,500 even for the next number. ... I am quite pleased with my ten guineas a sheet for my labour in writing, and for additional exertions. I will consider them as overpaid by success in the cause, especially while that success is doubtful." Ballantyne wrote to Murray in March : " Constable, I am told, has consulted Sir Samuel Romilly, and means, after writing a book against me, to prosecute me for stealing his plans ! Somebody has certainly stolen his brains ! " The confederates continued to encourage each other and to incite to greater effort the procrastinating Gifford. The following rather mysterious paragraph occurs in a letter from Scott to Murray dated March 19, 1809. " I have found means to get at Mr. G., and have procured a letter to be written to him, which may possibly produce one to you signed Rutherford or Richardson, or some such name, and dated from the North of England ; or, if he does not write to you, enquiry is to be made whether he would choose you should address him. The secrecy to be observed in this business must be most profound, even to Ballantyne and all the world. If you get articles from him (which will and must draw attention) you must throw out a false scent for enquirers. I believe this unfortunate man will soon be in London." In reply, Mr. Murray wrote on March 24 to Mr. Scott, urging him to come to London, and offering, " if there be no plea for charging your expenses to Government," to " undertake that the Review shall pay them as far as one hundred guineas." To this Scott replied: Mr. Scott to John Murray. EDINBURGH, March 27, 1809. I have only time to give a very short answer to your letter. Some very important business detains me here till Monday or Tuesday, on the last of which days at farthest I will set off for town, STRATFORD CANNING 61 and will be with you of course at the end of the week. As to my travelling expenses, if Government pay me, good and well ; if they do not, depend on it I will never take a farthing from you. You have, my good friend, enough of expense to incur in forwarding this great and dubious undertaking, and God forbid I should add so unreasonable a charge as your liberality points at. I am very frank in money matters, and always take my price when I think I can give money's worth for money, but this is quite extravagant, and you must think no more of it. Should I want money for any purpose I will readily make you my banker and give you value in reviews. John Ballantyne's last remittance continues to go off briskly ; the devil's in you in London, you don't know good writing when you get it. All depends on our cutting in before the next Edinburgh, when instead of following their lead they shall follow ours. Mrs. Scott is my fellow-traveller in virtue of an old promise. I am, dear Sir, yours truly, WALTER SCOTT. April 4, at night. I have been detained a day later than I intended, but set off to-morrow at mid-day. I believe I shall get franked, so will have my generosity for nothing. I hope to be in London on Monday. In sending out copies of the first number, Mr. Murray was not forgetful of one friend who had taken a leading part in originating the Review. In 1808 Mr. Stratford Canning, when only twenty years of age, had been selected to accompany Mr. Adair on a special mission to Constantinople. The following year, on Mr. Adair being appointed H.B.M. Minister to the Sublime Porte, Stratford Canning became Secretary of Legation. Mr. Murray wrote to him : John Murray to Mr. Stratford Canning. 32, FLEET ST., LONDON, March 12, 1809. DEAR SIR, It is with no small degree of pleasure that I send, for the favour of your acceptance, the first number of the Quarterly Review, a work which owes its birth to your obliging countenance and introduction of me to Mr. Gifford. I flatter myself that upon the whole you will not be dissatisfied with our first attempt, which is universally allowed to be so very respectable. Had you been in London during its progress, it would, I am confident, have been rendered more deserving of public attention. The letter goes on to ask for information on foreign works of importance or interest. 62 THE " QUARTERLY " LAUNCHED Mr. Stratford Canning replied : " With regard to the comission which you have given me, it is, I fear, completely out of my power to execute it. Literature neither resides at Constantinople nor passes through it. Even were I able to obtain the publications of France and Germany by way of Vienna, the road is so circuitous, that you would have them later than others who contrive to smuggle them across the North Sea. Every London newspaper that retails its daily sixpennyworth of false reports, publishes the French, the Hamburgh, the Vienna, the Frankfort, and other journals, full as soon as we receive any of them here. This is the case at all times ; at present it is much worse. We are entirely insulated. The Russians block up the usual road through Bucharest, and the Servians prevent the passage of couriers through Bosnia. And in addition to these difficulties, the present state of the Continent must at least interrupt all literary works. You will not, I am sure, look upon these as idle excuses. Things may probably improve, and I will not quit this country without commissioning some one here to send you anything that may be of use to so promising a publication as your Review." No sooner was one number published, than preparations were made for the next. Every periodical is a continuous work never ending, still beginning. New contributors must be gained ; new books reviewed ; new views criti- cised. Mr. Murray was, even more than the editor, the backbone of the enterprise : he was indefatigable in soliciting new writers for the Quarterly, and in finding the books fit for review, and the appropriate reviewers of the books. Sometimes the reviews were printed before the editor was consulted, but everything passed under the notice of Gifford, and received his emendations and final approval. Mr. Murray went so far as to invite Leigh Hunt to contribute an article on Literature or Poetry for the Quarterly. The reply came from John Hunt, Leigh's brother. He said : Mr. John Hunt to John Murray. " My brother some days back requested me to present to you his thanks for the polite note you favoured him with on the subject of the Review, to which he should have been most willing to have contributed in the manner you propose, did he not perceive that the political sentiments contained in it are in direct opposition to his own." This was honest, and it did not interfere with the per- JAMES MILL 63 sonal intercourse of the publisher and the poet. Murray afterwards wrote to Scott : " Hunt is most vilely wrong- headed in politics, which he has allowed to turn him away from the path of elegant criticism, which might have led him to eminence and respectability." James Mill, author of the " History of British India," sent an article for the second number ; but the sentiments and principles not being in accordance with those of the editor, it was not at once accepted. On learning this, he wrote to Mr. Murray as follows : Mr. James Mill to John Murray. MY DEAR SIR, I can have no objection in the world to your delaying the article I have sent you till it altogether suits your arrangements to make use of it. Besides this point, a few words of explanation may not be altogether useless with regard to another. I am half inclined to suspect that the objection of your Editor goes a little farther than you state. If so, I beg you will not hesitate a moment about what you are to do with it. I wrote it solely with a view to oblige and to benefit you personally, but with very little idea, as I told you at our first conversation on the subject, that it would be in my power to be of any use to you, as the views which I enter- tained respecting what is good for our country were very different from the views entertained by the gentlemen with whom in your projected concern you told me you were to be connected. To convince you, however, of my good-will, I am perfectly ready to give you a specimen, and if it appears to be such as likely to give offence to your friends, or not to harmonise with the general style of your work, commit it to the flames without the smallest scruple. Be assured that it will not make the smallest difference in my senti- ments towards you, or render me in the smallest degree less dis- posed to lend you my aid (such as it is) on any other occasion when it may be better calculated to be of use to you. Yours very truly, J. MILL. Gifford was not a man of business ; he was unpunctual. The second number of the Quarterly appeared behind its time, and the publisher felt himself under the necessity of expostulating with the editor. John Murray to Mr. Gifford. May 11, 1809. DEAR MR. GIFFORD, I begin to suspect that you are not aware of the complete misery which is occasioned to me, and the certain ruin which must attend the Review, by our unfortunate procrastination. Long before this, 64 THE "QUARTERLY" LAUNCHED every line of copy for the present number ought to have been in the hands of the printer. Yet the whole of the Review is yet to print. I know not what to do to facilitate your labour, for the articles which you have long had lie scattered without attention, and those which I ventured to send to the printer undergo such retarding corrections, that even by this mode we do not advance. I entreat the favour of your exertion. For the last five months my most imperative concerns have yielded to this, without the hope of my anxiety or labour ceasing. " Tanti miserere laboris," in my distress and with regret from JOHN MURRAY. Mr. Gifford's reply was as follows : " The delay and confusion which have arisen must be attributed to a want of confidential communication. In a word, you have too many advisers, and I too many masters." At last the second number of the Quarterly appeared, at the end of May instead of at the middle of April. The new contributors to this number were Dr. D'Oyley, the Rev. Mr. Walpole, and George Canning, who, in con- junction with Sharon Turner, contributed the last article on Austrian State Papers. As soon as the second number was published, Mr. Gifford, whose health was hardly equal to the constant strain of preparing and editing the successive numbers, hastened away, as was his custom, to the seaside. He wrote to Mr. Murray from Ryde : Mr. Qifford to John Murray. June 18, 1809. " I rejoice to hear of our success, and feel very anxious to carry it further. A fortnight's complete abstraction from all sublunary cares has done me much good, and I am now ready to put on my spectacles and look about me. . . . Hoppner is here, and has been at Death's door. The third day after his arrival, he had an apo- plectic fit, from which blisters, etc., have miraculously recovered him. . . . This morning I received a letter from Mr. Erskine. He speaks very highly of the second number, and of the Austrian article, which is thought its chief attraction. Theology, he says, few people read or care about. On this, I wish to say a word seriously. I am sorry that Mr. E. has fallen into that notion, too general I fear in Scotland ; but this is his own concern. I differ with him totally, however, as to the few readers which such subjects find ; for as far as my knowledge reaches, the reverse is ARTICLE BY CANNING 65 the fact. The strongest letter which I have received since I came down, in our favour, points out the two serious articles as masterly productions and of decided superiority. We have taught the truth I mention to the Edinburgh Review, and in their last number they have also attempted to be serious, and abstain from their flippant impiety. It is not done with the best grace, but it has done them credit, I hear. . . . When you make up your parcel, pray put in some small cheap ' Horace,' which I can no more do without than Parson Adams ex ' ^Eschylus.' I have left it somewhere on the road. Any common thing will do." Mr. Murray sent Gifford a splendid copy of " Horace " in the next parcel of books and manuscripts. In his reply Gifford, expostulating, " Why, my dear Sir, will you do these things ? " thanked him warmly for his gift. Mr. George Ellis was, as usual, ready with his criticism. Differing from Gifford, he wrote : " I confess that, to my taste, the long article on the New Testa- ment is very tedious, and that the progress of Socinianism is, to my apprehension, a bugbear which we have no immediate reason to be scared by ; but it may alarm some people, and what I think a dull prosing piece of orthodoxy may have its admirers, and promote our sale." Even Constable had a good word to say of it. In a letter to his partner, Hunter, then in London, he said : " I received the Quarterly Review yesterday, and immediately went and delivered it to Mr. Jeffrey himself. It really seems a respectable number, but what then ? Unless theirs improves and ours falls off it cannot harm us, I think. I observe that Nos. 1 and 2 extend to merely twenty-nine sheets, so that, in fact, ours is still the cheaper of the two. Murray's waiting on you with it is one of the wisest things I ever knew him do : you will not be behindhand with him in civility." No. 3 of the Quarterly was also late, and was not pub- lished until the end of August. The contributors were behindhand ; an article was expected from Canning on Spain, and the publication was postponed until this article had been received, printed and corrected. The foundations of it were laid by George Ellis, and it was completed by George Canning. Of this article Mr. Gifford wrote : " In consequence of my importunity, Mr. Canning has exerted himself and produced the best article that ever yet appeared in any Review." 66 THE "QUARTERLY" LAUNCHED Although Mr. Gifford was sometimes the subject of opprobrium because of his supposed severity, we find that in many cases he softened down the tone of the reviewers. For instance, in communicating to Mr. Murray the first part of Dr. Thomson's article on the " Outlines of Minera- logy," by Kidd, he observed : Mr. Gifford to John Murray. " It is very splenitick and very severe, and much too wantonly so. I hope, however, it is just. Some of the opprobrious language I shall soften, for the eternal repetitions of ignorance, absurdity, surprising, etc., are not wanted. I am sorry to observe so much Nationality in it. Let this be a secret between us, for I will not have my private opinions go beyond yourself. As for Kidd, he is a modest, unassuming man, and is not to be attacked with sticks and stones like a savage. Remember, it is only the epithets which I mean to soften ; for as to the scientific part, it shall not be meddled with." His faithful correspondent, Mr. Ellis, wrote as to the quality of this third number of the Quarterly. He agreed with Mr. Murray, that though profound, it was " most notoriously and unequivocally dull. . . . We must veto ponderous articles ; they will simply sink us." Isaac D 'Israeli also tendered his advice. He was one of Mr. Murray's most intimate friends, and could speak freely and honestly to him as to the prospects of the Review. He was at Brighton, preparing his third volume of the " Curiosities of Literature." Mr. I. D'Israeli to John Murray. " I have bought the complete collection of Memoirs written by individuals of the French nation, amounting to sixty-five volumes, for fifteen guineas. . . . What can I say about the Q. R. ? Certainly nothing new ; it has not yet invaded the country. Here it is totally unknown, though as usual the Ed. Rev. is here ; but among private libraries, I find it equally unknown. It has yet its fortune to make. You must appeal to the feelings of Gifford ! Has he none then ? Can't you get a more active and vigilant Editor ? But what can I say at this distance ? The disastrous finale of the Austrians, received this morning, is felt here as deadly. Buona- parte is a tremendous Thaumaturgus ! . . . I wish you had such a genius in the Q. R. . . . My son Ben assures me you are in Brighton. He saw you ! Now, he never lies." * * Mr. Murray was in Brighton at the time. MR. BARROW 67 Thus pressed by his correspondents, Mr. Murray did his best to rescue the Quarterly from failure. Though it brought him into prominent notice as a publisher, it was not by any means paying its expenses. Some thought it doubtful whether " the play was worth the candle." Yet Murray was not a man to be driven back by comparative want of success. He continued to enlist a band of com- petent contributors. Amongst these were some very eminent men : Mr. John Barrow of the Admiralty ; the Rev. Reginald Heber, Mr. Robert Grant (afterwards Sir Robert, the Indian judge), Mr. Stephens, etc. How Mr. Barrow was induced to become a contributor is thus explained in his Autobiography.* " One morning, in the summer of the year 1809, Mr. Canning looked in upon me at the Admiralty, said he had often troubled me on business, but he was now about to ask me a favour. ' I believe you are acquainted with my friend William Gifford ? ' ' By reputation,' I said, ' but not personally.' ' Then,' says he, ' I must make you personally acquainted ; will you come and dine with me at Gloucester Lodge any day, the sooner the more agreeable say to-morrow, if you are disengaged ? ' On accepting, he said, ' I will send for Gifford to meet you ; I know he will be too glad to come.' " ' Now,' he continued, ' it is right I should tell you that, in the Review of which two numbers have appeared, under the name of the Quarterly, I am deeply, both publicly and personally, inter- ested, and have taken a leading part with Mr. George Ellis, Hookham Frere, Walter Scott, Rose, Southey, and some others ; our object in that work being to counteract the virus scattered among His Majesty's subjects through the pages of the Edinburgh Review. Now, I wish to enlist you in our corps, not as a mere advising idler, but as an efficient labourer in our friend Gifford's vineyard.' " Mr. Barrow modestly expressed a doubt as to his com- petence, but in the sequel, he tells us, Mr. Canning carried his point, and " I may add, once for all, that what with Gifford's eager and urgent demands, and the exercise becoming habitual and not disagreeable, I did not cease writing for the Quarterly Review till I had supplied no less, rather more, than 190 articles." The fourth number of the Quarterly, which was due in November, was not published until the end of December 1809. Gifford's excuse was the want of copy. He wrote * " Autobiographical Memoir of Sir John Barrow," Murray, 1847. 68 THE "QUARTERLY" LAUNCHED to Mr. Murray : " We must, upon the publication of this number, enter into some plan for ensuring regularity." Although it appeared late, the fourth number was the best that had yet been issued. It was more varied in its contents ; containing articles by Scott, Southey, Barrow, and Heber. But the most important article was contributed by Robert Grant, on the " Character of the late C. J. Fox." This was the first article in the Quarterly, according to Mr. Murray, which excited general admiration, concerning which we find a memorandum in Mr. Murray's own copy ; and, what was an important test, it largely increased the demand for the Review. CHAPTER VII CONSTABLE AND BALLANTYNE DURING the year in which the Quarterly was first given to the world, the alliance between Murray and the Ballan- tynes was close and intimate : their correspondence was not confined to business matters, but bears witness to warm personal friendship. Murray was able to place much printing work in their hands, and amongst other books, " Mrs. Rundell's Cookery," a valuable property, which had now reached a very large circulation, was printed at the Canongate Press. They exerted themselves to promote the sale of one another's publications and engaged in various joint works, such, for example, as Grahame's " British Georgics " and Scott's " English Minstrelsy." In the midst of all these transactions, however, there were not wanting symptoms of financial difficulties, which, as in a previous instance, were destined in time to cause a severance between Murray and his Edinburgh agents. It was the old story drawing bills for value not received. Murray seriously warned the Ballantynes of the risks they were running in trading beyond their capital. James Ballantyne replied on March 30, 1809 : Mr. James Ballantyne to John Murray. " Suffer me to notice one part of your letter respecting which you will be happy to be put right. We are by no means trading beyond our capital. It requires no professional knowledge to enable us to avoid so fatal an error as that. For the few specula- tions we have entered into our means have been carefully calculated and are perfectly adequate." Yet at the close of the same letter, referring to the 69 70 CONSTABLE AND BALLANTYNE " British Novelists " a vast scheme, to which Mr. Murray had by no means pledged himself Ballantyne continues : " For this work permit me to state I have ordered a font of types, cut expressly on purpose, at an expense of near 1,000, and have engaged a very large number of compositors for no other object." On June 14, James Ballantyne wrote to Murray : " I can get no books out yet, without interfering in the printing office with business previously engaged for, and that puts me a little about for cash. Independent of this circumstance, upon which we reckoned, a sum of 1,500 payable to us at 25th May, yet waiting some cursed legal arrangements, but which we trust to have very shortly [ 1