"Let them call me a nonentity if they will; I believe that some of those
who say I am a phantom would alter their tone provided they were to ask
me to a good dinner; bottles emptied and fowls devoured are not exactly
the feats of a phantom: no! I partake more of the nature of a Brownie or
Robin Goodfellow--goblins, 'tis true, but full of merriment and fun, and
fond of good eating and drinking. Occasionally I write a page or two of
my life. I am now getting my father into the Earl of Albemarle's
regiment, in which he was captain for many years. If I live, and my
spirits keep up tolerably well, I hope that within a year I shall be
able to go to press with something which shall beat the 'Bible in
Spain.'"

And a few days later:

"I have received your account for the two editions. I am perfectly
satisfied. We will now, whenever you please, bring out a third edition.

"The book which I am at present about will consist, if I live to finish
it, of a series of Rembrandt pictures, interspersed here and there with
a Claude. I shall tell the world of my parentage, my early thoughts and
habits, how I become a _sap-engro,_ or viper-catcher: my wanderings with
the regiment in England, Scotland, and Ireland, in which last place my
jockey habits first commenced: then a great deal about Norwich, Billy
Taylor, Thurtell, etc.: how I took to study and became a _lav-engro._
What do you think of this for a bill of fare? I am now in a blacksmith's
shop in the south of Ireland taking lessons from the Vulcan in horse
charming and horse-shoe making. By the bye, I wish I were acquainted
with Sir Robert Peel. I could give him many a useful hint with respect
to Ireland and the Irish. I know both tolerably well. Whenever there's a
row, I intend to go over with Sidi Habesmith and put myself at the head
of a body of volunteers."

During the negotiations for the publication of Mr. Horace Twiss's "Life
of the Earl of Eldon," Mr. Murray wrote to Mr. Twiss:

_John Murray to Mr. Twiss_.

_May_ 11, 1842.

"I am very sorry to say that the publishing of books at this time
involves nothing but loss, and that I have found it absolutely
necessary to withdraw from the printers every work that I had in the
press, and to return to the authors any MS. for which they required
immediate publication."

Mr. Murray nevertheless agreed to publish the "Life of Eldon" on
commission, and it proved very successful, going through several
editions.

Another work offered to Mr. Murray in 1841 was "The Moor and the Loch,"
by John Colquhoun, of Luss. He had published the first edition at
Edinburgh through Mr. Blackwood; and, having had some differences with
that publisher, he now proposed to issue the second edition in London.
He wrote to Mr. Murray desiring him to undertake the work, and received
the following reply:

_John Murray to Mr. Colquhoun_.

_March_ 16, 1841.

SIR,

I should certainly have had much pleasure in being the original
publisher of your very interesting work "The Moor and the Loch," but I
have a very great dislike to the _appearance even_ of interfering with
any other publisher. Having glass windows, I must not throw stones. With
Blackwood, indeed, I have long had particular relations, and they for
several years acted as my agents in Edinburgh; so pray have the kindness
to confide to me the cause of your misunderstanding with that house, and
let me have the satisfaction of at least trying in the first place to
settle the matter amicably. In any case, however, you may rely upon all
my means to promote the success of your work, the offer of which has
made me, dear Sir,

Your obliged and faithful Servant,

JOHN MURRAY.

_Mr. Colquhoun to John Murray_.

_March_ 20, 1841.

DEAR SIR,

I am much obliged by your note which I received yesterday. I shall
endeavour to see you directly, and when I explain the cause of my
dissatisfaction with Messrs. Blackwood, I am sure you will at once see
that it would be impossible for us to go on comfortably together with my
second edition; and even if any adjustment was brought about, I feel
convinced that the book would suffer. I do not mean to imply anything
against the Messrs. Blackwood as men of business, and should be sorry to
be thus understood; but this case has been a peculiar one, and requires
too long an explanation for a letter. In the meantime I have written to
you under the strictest confidence, as the Messrs. B. are not aware of
my intention of bringing out a second edition at the present time, or of
my leaving them. My reasons, however, are such that my determination
cannot be altered; and I hope, after a full explanation with you, that
we shall at once agree to publish the book with the least possible
delay. I shall be most happy to return your note, which you may
afterwards show to Messrs. B., and I may add that had you altogether
refused to publish my book, it could in no way have affected my decision
of leaving them.

I remain, dear Sir, faithfully yours,

JOHN COLQUHOUN.

Mr. Colquhoun came up expressly to London, and after an interview with
Mr. Murray, who again expressed his willingness to mediate with the
Edinburgh publishers, Mr. Colquhoun repeated his final decision, and Mr.
Murray at length agreed to publish the second edition of "The Moor and
the Loch." It may be added that in the end Mr. Colquhoun did, as urged
by Murray, return to the Blackwoods, who still continue to publish his
work.

Allan Cunningham ended his literary life by preparing the "Memoirs" of
his friend Sir David Wilkie. Shortly before he undertook the work he had
been prostrated by a stroke of paralysis, but on his partial recovery he
proceeded with the memoirs, and the enfeebling effects of his attack may
be traced in portions of the work. Towards the close of his life Wilkie
had made a journey to the East, had painted the Sultan at
Constantinople, and afterwards made his way to Smyrna, Rhodes, Beyrout,
Jaffa, and Jerusalem. He returned through Egypt, and at Alexandria he
embarked on board the _Oriental_ steamship for England. While at
Alexandria, he had complained of illness, which increased, partly in
consequence of his intense sickness at sea, and he died off Gibraltar on
June 1, 1841, when his body was committed to the deep. Turner's splendid
picture of the scene was one of Wilkie's best memorials. A review of
Allan Cunningham's work, by Mr. Lockhart, appeared in the _Quarterly_,
No. 144. Previous to its appearance he wrote to Mr. Murray as follows:

_Mr. Lockhart to John Murray_.

_February_ 25, 1843.

DEAR MURRAY,

I don't know if you have read much of "The Life of Wilkie." All
Cunningham's part seems to be wretched, but in the "Italian and Spanish
Journals and Letters" Wilkie shines out in a comparatively new
character. He is a very eloquent and, I fancy, a deep and instructive
critic on painting; at all events, Vol. ii. is full of very high
interest.... Is there anywhere a good criticism on the alteration that
Wilkie's style exhibited after his Italian and Spanish tours? The
general impression always was, and I suppose will always be, that the
change was for the worse. But it will be a nice piece of work to account
for an unfortunate change being the result of travel and observation,
which we now own to have produced such a stock of admirable theoretical
disquisition on the principles of the Art. I can see little to admire or
like in the man Wilkie. Some good homely Scotch kindness for kith and
kin, and for some old friends too perhaps; but generally the character
seems not to rise above the dull prudentialities of a decent man in awe
of the world and the great, and awfully careful about No. 1. No genuine
enjoyment, save in study of Art, and getting money through that study.
He is a fellow that you can't suppose ever to have been drunk or in
love--too much a Presbyterian Elder for either you or me.

Mr. Murray received a communication (December 16, 1841), from Mr. John
Sterling, Carlyle's friend, with whom he had had transactions on his own
account. "Not," he said, "respecting his own literary affairs, but those
of a friend." The friend was Mr. John Stuart Mill, son of the historian
of British India. He had completed his work on Logic, of which Mr.
Sterling had the highest opinion. He said it had been the "labour of
many years of a singularly subtle, patient, and comprehensive mind. It
will be our chief speculative monument of this age." Mr. Mill himself
addressed Mr. Murray, first on December 20, 1841, while he was preparing
the work for the press, and again in January and February, 1842, when he
had forwarded the MS. to the publisher, and requested his decision. We
find, however, that Mr. Murray was very ill at the time; that he could
not give the necessary attention to the subject; and that the MS. was
eventually returned.

When Copyright became the subject of legislation in 1843, Mr. Murray
received a letter from Mr. Gladstone.

_Mr. Gladstone to John Murray_.

WHITEHALL, _February_ 6, 1843.

MY DEAR SIR,

I beg leave to thank you for the information contained in and
accompanying your note which reached me on Saturday. The view with which
the clauses relating to copyright in the Customs Act were framed was
that those interested in the exclusion of pirated works would take care
to supply the Board of Customs from time to time with lists of all works
under copyright which were at all likely to be reprinted abroad, and
that this would render the law upon the whole much more operative and
more fair than an enormous catalogue of all the works entitled to the
privilege, of which it would be found very difficult for the officers at
the ports to manage the use.

Directions in conformity with the Acts of last Session will be sent to
the Colonies.

But I cannot omit to state that I learn from your note with great
satisfaction, that steps are to be taken here to back the recent
proceedings of the Legislature. I must not hesitate to express my
conviction that what Parliament has done will be fruitless, unless the
_law_ be seconded by the adoption of such modes of publication, as will
allow the public here and in the colonies to obtain possession of new
and popular English works at moderate prices. If it be practicable for
authors and publishers to make such arrangements, I should hope to see a
great extension of our book trade, as well as much advantage to
literature, from the measures that have now been taken and from those
which I trust we shall be enabled to take in completion of them; but
unless the proceedings of the trade itself adapt and adjust themselves
to the altered circumstances, I can feel no doubt that we shall relapse
into or towards the old state of things; the law will be first evaded
and then relaxed.

I am, my dear Sir,

Faithfully yours,

W.E. GLADSTONE.

Here it is fitting that a few paragraphs should be devoted to the
closing years of Robert Southey, who for so many years had been the
friend and coadjutor of the publisher of the _Quarterly_.

Between 1808 and 1838, Southey had written ninety-four articles for the
_Quarterly_; the last was upon his friend Thomas Telford, the engineer,
who left him a legacy. He had been returned Member of Parliament for
Downton (before the Reform Bill passed), but refused the honour--a
curious episode not often remembered in the career of this distinguished
man of letters. When about fifty-five years old, his only certain source
of income was from his pension, from which he received ВЈ145, and from
his laureateship, which was ВЈ90. But the larger portion of these sums
went in payment for his life insurance, so that not more than ВЈ100 could
be calculated on as available. His works were not always profitable. In
one year he only received ВЈ26 for twenty-one of his books, published by
Longman.

Murray gave him ВЈ1,000 for the copyright of the "Peninsular War"; but
his "Book of the Church" and his "Vindiciae" produced nothing.

Southey's chief means of support was the payments (generally ВЈ100 for
each article) which he received for his contributions to the
_Quarterly_; but while recognizing this, as he could not fail to do, as
well as Murray's general kindness towards him, he occasionally allowed a
vein of discontent to show itself even in his acknowledgment of favours
received.

In 1835 Southey received a pension of ВЈ300 from the Government of Sir
Robert Peel. He was offered a Baronetcy at the same time, but he
declined it, as his circumstances did not permit him to accept the
honour.

_Mr. Southey to John Murray_.

_June_ 17, 1835.

"What Sir Robert Peel has done for me will enable me, when my present
engagements are completed, to employ the remainder of my life upon those
works for which inclination, peculiar circumstances, and long
preparation, have best qualified me. They are "The History of Portugal,"
"The History of the Monastic Orders," and "The History of English
Literature," from the time when Wharton breaks off. The possibility of
accomplishing three such works at my age could not be dreamt of, if I
had not made very considerable progress with one, and no little, though
not in such regular order, with the others."

Shortly after his second marriage, Southey's intellect began to fail
him, and he soon sank into a state of mental imbecility. He would wander
about his library, take down a book, look into it, and then put it back
again, but was incapable of work. When Mr. Murray sent him the octavo
edition of the "Peninsular War," his wife answered:

_Mrs. Southey to John Murray_.

GRETA HALL, _May_ 15, 1840.

If the word _pleasure_ were not become to me as a _dead letter, I_
should tell you with how much I took possession of your kind gift. But I
_may_ tell you truly that it gratified, and more than gratified me, by
giving pleasure to my dear husband, as a token of your regard for him,
so testified towards myself. The time is not far passed when we should
have rejoiced together like children over such an acquisition.

Yours very truly and thankfully,

CAR. SOUTHEY.

_May_ 23, 1840.

DEAR SIR,

Very cordially I return your friendly salutations, feeling, as I do,
that every manifestation of kindness for my husband's sake is more
precious to me than any I could receive for my own exclusively.
Two-and-twenty years ago, when he wished to put into your hands, as
publisher, a first attempt of mine, of which he thought better than it
deserved, he little thought in that so doing he was endeavouring to
forward the interests of his future wife; of her for whom it was
appointed (a sad but honoured lot) to be the companion of his later
days, over which it has pleased God to cast the "shadow before" of that
"night in which no man can work." But twelve short months ago he was
cheerfully anticipating (in the bright buoyancy of his happy nature) a
far other companionship for the short remainder of our earthly sojourn;
never forgetting, however, that ours must be short at the longest, and
that "in the midst of life we are in death." He desires me to thank you
for your kind expressions towards him, and to be most kindly remembered
to you. Your intimation of the favourable progress of his 8vo "Book of
the Church" gave him pleasure, and he thanks you for so promptly
attending to his wishes about a neatly bound set of his "Peninsular
War." Accept my assurances of regard, and believe me to be, dear Sir,

Yours very truly,

CAROLINE SOUTHEY.

On September 17, 1840, Mr. Murray sent to Mr. Southey a draft for ВЈ259,
being the balance for his "Book of the Church," and informed him that he
would be pleased to know that another edition was called for. Mrs.
Southey replied:

_Mrs. Southey to John Murray_.

"He made no remark on your request to be favoured with any suggestions
he might have to offer. _My_ sad persuasion is that Robert Southey's
works have received their last revision and correction from his mind and
pen."

GRETA HALL, _October 5_, 1840.

DEAR SIR,

I will not let another post go out, without conveying to you my thanks
for your very kind letter last night received. It will gratify you to
know that its contents (the copy of the critique included), aroused and
fixed Mr. Southey's attention more than anything that has occurred for
months past--gratifying him, I believe, far more than anything more
immediately concerning himself could have done. "Tell Murray," he said,
"I am very much obliged to him." It is long since he has sent a message
to friend or relation.

Now let me say for myself that I am very thankful to _you_--very
thankful to my indulgent reviewer--and that if I could yet feel interest
about anything of my own writing, I should be pleased and encouraged by
his encomium--as well as grateful for it. But if it did _not sound
thanklessly_, I should say, "too late--too late--it comes too late!"
and that bitter feeling came upon me so suddenly, as my eyes fell upon
the passage in question, that they overflowed with tears before it was
finished.

But he _did take interest in_ it, at least for a few moments, and so it
was not _quite_ too late; and (doing as I _know he would have me)_, I
shall act upon your most _kind_ and _friendly_ advice, and transmit it
to Blackwood, who will, I doubt not, be willingly guided by it.

It was one of my husband's pleasant visions before our marriage, and his
favourite prospect, to publish a volume of poetry conjointly with me,
not weighing the disproportion of talent.

I must tell you that immediately on receiving the _Review_, I should
have written to express my sense of your kindness, and of the flattering
nature of the critique; but happening to _tell_ Miss Southey and her
brother that you had sent it me, as I believed, as an obliging personal
attention, they assured me I was mistaken, and that the numbers were
only intended for "their set." Fearing, therefore, to arrogate to myself
more than was designed for me, I kept silence; and now expose _my
simplicity_ rather than _leave_ myself _open_ to the imputation of
unthankfulness. Mr. Southey desires to be very kindly remembered to you,
and I am, my dear Sir,

Very thankfully and truly yours, Car. Southey.

P.S.--I had almost forgotten to thank you for so kindly offering to send
the _Review_ to any friends of mine, I may wish to gratify. I _will_
accept the proffered favour, and ask you to send one addressed to Miss
Burnard, Shirley, Southampton, Hants. The other members of my family and
most of my friends take the _Q.R._, or are sure of seeing it. This last
number is an excellent one.

Southey died on March 21, 1843. The old circle of friends was being
sadly diminished. "Disease and death," his old friend Thomas Mitchell,
one of the survivors of the early contributors to the _Quarterly_, wrote
to Murray, "seem to be making no small havoc among our literary
men--Maginn, Cunningham, Basil Hall, and poor Southey, worst of all.
Lockhart's letters of late have made me very uneasy, too, about him. Has
he yet returned from Scotland, and is he at all improved?" Only a few
months later Mr. Murray himself was to be called away from the scene of
his life's activity. In the autumn of 1842 his health had already begun
to fail rapidly, and he had found it necessary to live much out of
London, and to try various watering-places; but although he rallied at
times sufficiently to return to his business for short periods, he never
recovered, and passed away in sleep on June 27, 1843, at the age of
sixty-five.




CHAPTER XXXII

JOHN MURRAY AS A PUBLISHER


In considering the career of John Murray, the reader can hardly fail to
be struck with the remarkable manner in which his personal qualities
appeared to correspond with the circumstances out of which he built his
fortunes.

When he entered his profession, the standard of conduct in every
department of life connected with the publishing trade was determined by
aristocratic ideas. The unwritten laws which regulated the practice of
bookselling in the eighteenth century were derived from the Stationers'
Company. Founded as it had been on the joint principles of commercial
monopoly and State control, this famous organization had long lost its
old vitality. But it had bequeathed to the bookselling community a large
portion of its original spirit, both in the practice of cooperative
publication which produced the "Trade Books," so common in the last
century, and in that deep-rooted belief in the perpetuity of copyright,
which only received its death-blow from the celebrated judgment of the
House of Lords in the case of Donaldson _v_. Becket in 1774. Narrow and
exclusive as they may have been in their relation to the public
interest, there can be no doubt that these traditions helped to
constitute, in the dealings of the booksellers among themselves, a
standard of honour which put a certain curb on the pursuit of private
gain. It was this feeling which provoked such intense indignation in the
trade against the publishers who took advantage of their strict legal
rights to invade what was generally regarded as the property of their
brethren; while the sense of what was due to the credit, as well as to
the interest, of a great organized body, made the associated
booksellers zealous in the promotion of all enterprises likely to add to
the fame of English literature.

Again, there was something, in the best sense of the word, aristocratic
in the position of literature itself. Patronage, indeed, had declined.
The patron of the early days of the century, who, like Halifax, sought
in the Universities or in the London Coffee-houses for literary talent
to strengthen the ranks of political party, had disappeared, together
with the later and inferior order of patron, who, after the manner of
Bubb Dodington, nattered his social pride by maintaining a retinue of
poetical clients at his country seat. The nobility themselves, absorbed
in politics or pleasure, cared far less for letters than their fathers
in the reigns of Anne and the first two Georges. Hence, as Johnson said,
the bookseller had become the Maecenas of the age; but not the
bookseller of Grub Street. To be a man of letters was no longer a
reproach. Johnson himself had been rewarded with a literary pension, and
the names of almost all the distinguished scholars of the latter part of
the eighteenth century--Warburton, the two Wartons, Lowth, Burke, Hume,
Gibbon, Robertson--belong to men who either by birth or merit were in a
position which rendered them independent of literature as a source of
livelihood. The author influenced the public rather than the public the
author, while the part of the bookseller was restricted to introducing
and distributing to society the works which the scholar had designed.

Naturally enough, from such conditions arose a highly aristocratic
standard of taste. The centre of literary judgment passed from the
half-democratic society of the Coffee-house to the dining-room of
scholars like Cambridge or Beauclerk; and opinion, formed from the
brilliant conversation at such gatherings as the Literary Club;
afterwards circulated among the public either in the treatises of
individual critics, or in the pages of the two leading Monthly Reviews.
The society from which it proceeded, though not in the strict sense of
the word fashionable, was eminently refined and widely representative;
it included the politician, the clergyman, the artist, the connoisseur,
and was permeated with the necessary leaven of feminine intuition,
ranging from the observation of Miss Burney or the vivacity of Mrs.
Thrale, to the stately morality of Mrs. Montagu and Mrs. Hannah More.

On the other hand, the whole period of Murray's life as a publisher,
extending, to speak broadly, from the first French Revolution to almost
the eve of the French Revolution of 1848, was characterized in a marked
degree by the advance of Democracy. In all directions there was an
uprising of the spirit of individual liberty against the prescriptions
of established authority. In Politics the tendency is apparent in the
progress of the Reform movement. In Commerce it was marked by the
inauguration of the Free Trade movement. In Literature it made itself
felt in the great outburst of poetry at the beginning of the century,
and in the assertion of the superiority of individual genius to the
traditional laws of form.

The effect produced by the working of the democratic spirit within the
aristocratic constitution of society and taste may without exaggeration
be described as prodigious. At first sight, indeed, there seems to be a
certain abruptness in the transition from the highly organized society
represented in Boswell's "Life of Johnson," to the philosophical
retirement of Wordsworth and Coleridge. It is only when we look beneath
the surface that we see the old traditions still upheld by a small class
of Conservative writers, including Campbell, Rogers, and Crabbe, and, as
far as style is concerned, by some of the romantic innovators, Byron,
Scott, and Moore. But, generally speaking, the age succeeding the first
French Revolution exhibits the triumph of individualism. Society itself
is penetrated by new ideas; literature becomes fashionable; men of
position are no longer ashamed to be known as authors, nor women of
distinction afraid to welcome men of letters in their drawing-rooms. On
all sides the excitement and curiosity of the times is reflected in the
demand for poems, novels, essays, travels, and every kind of imaginative
production, under the name of _belles lettres_.

A certain romantic spirit of enterprise shows itself in Murray's
character at the very outset of his career. Tied to a partner of a petty
and timorous disposition, he seizes an early opportunity to rid himself
of the incubus. With youthful ardour he begs of a veteran author to be
allowed the privilege of publishing, as his first undertaking, a work
which he himself genuinely admired. He refuses to be bound by mere
trading calculations. "The business of a publishing bookseller," he
writes to a correspondent, "is not in his shop, or even in his
connections, but in his brains." In all his professional conduct a
largeness of view is apparent. A new conception of the scope of his
trade seems early to have risen in his mind, and he was perhaps the
first member of the Stationers' craft to separate the business of
bookselling from that of publishing. When Constable in Edinburgh sent
him "a miscellaneous order of books from London," he replied: "Country
orders are a branch of business which I have ever totally declined as
incompatible with my more serious plans as a publisher."

With ideas of this kind, it may readily be imagined that Murray was not
what is usually called "a good man of business," a fact of which he was
well aware, as the following incident, which occurred in his later
years, amusingly indicates.

The head of one of the larger firms with which he dealt came in person
to Albemarle Street to receive payment of his account. This was duly
handed to him in bills, which, by some carelessness, he lost on his way
home, He thereupon wrote to Mr. Murray, requesting him to advertise in
his own name for the lost property. Murray's reply was as follows:

TWICKENHAM, _October_ 26, 1841.

MY DEAR-----,

I am exceedingly sorry for the vexatious, though, I hope, only temporary
loss which you have met with; but I have so little character for being a
man of business, that if the bills were advertised in _my_ name it would
be publicly confirming the suspicion--but in your own name, it will be
only considered as a very extraordinary circumstance, and I therefore
give my impartial opinion in favour of the latter mode. Remaining, my
dear-----,

Most truly yours,

JOHN MURRAY.

The possession of ordinary commercial shrewdness, however, was by no
means the quality most essential for successful publishing at the
beginning of the nineteenth century. Both Constable and Ballantyne were
men of great cleverness and aptitude for business; but, wanting certain
higher endowments, they were unable to resist the whirl of excitement
accompanying an unprecedented measure of financial success. Their ruin
was as rapid as their rise. To Murray, on the other hand, perhaps their
inferior in the average arts of calculation, a vigorous native sense,
tempering a genuine enthusiasm for what was excellent in literature,
gave precisely that mixture of dash and steadiness which was needed to
satisfy the complicated requirements of the public taste.

A high sense of rectitude is apparent in all his business transactions;
and Charles Knight did him no more than justice in saying that he had
"left an example of talent and honourable conduct which would long be a
model for those who aim at distinction in the profession." He would have
nothing to do with what was poor and shabby. When it was suggested to
him, as a young publisher, that his former partner was ready to bear
part of the risk in a contemplated undertaking, he refused to associate
his fortunes with a man who conducted his business on methods that he
did not approve. "I cannot allow my name to stand with his, because he
undersells all other publishers at the regular and advertised prices."
Boundless as was his admiration for the genius of Scott and Byron, he
abandoned one of the most cherished objects of his ambition-to be the
publisher of new works by the author of "Waverley"--rather than involve
himself further in transactions which he foresaw must lead to discredit
and disaster; and, at the risk of a quarrel, strove to recall Byron to
the ways of sound literature, when through his wayward genius he seemed
to be drifting into an unworthy course.

In the same way, when the disagreement between the firms of Constable
and Longmans seemed likely to turn to his own advantage, instead of
making haste to seize the golden opportunity, he exerted himself to
effect a reconciliation between the disputants, by pointing out what he
considered the just and reasonable view of their mutual interests. The
letters which, on this occasion, he addressed respectively to Mr. A.G.
Hunter, to the Constables, and to the Longmans, are models of good sense
and manly rectitude. Nor was his conduct to Constable, after the
downfall of the latter, less worthy of admiration. Deeply as Constable
had injured him by the reckless conduct of his business, Murray not
only retained no ill-feeling against him, but, anxious simply to help a
brother in misfortune, resigned in his favour, in a manner full of the
most delicate consideration, his own claim to a valuable copyright. The
same warmth of heart and disinterested friendship appears in his efforts
to re-establish the affairs of the Robinsons after the failure of that
firm. Yet, remarkable as he was for his loyalty to his comrades, he was
no less distinguished by his spirit and independence. No man without a
very high sense of justice and self-respect could have conducted a
correspondence on a matter of business in terms of such dignified
propriety as Murray employed in addressing Benjamin Disraeli after the
collapse of the _Representative_. It is indeed a proof of power to
appreciate character, remarkable in so young a man, that Disraeli
should, after all that had passed between them, have approached Murray
in his capacity of publisher with complete confidence. He knew that he
was dealing with a man at once shrewd and magnanimous, and he gave him
credit for understanding how to estimate his professional interest apart
from his sense of private injury.

Perhaps his most distinguishing characteristic as a publisher was his
unfeigned love of literature for its own sake. His almost romantic
admiration for genius and its productions raised him above the
atmosphere of petty calculation. Not unfrequently it of course led him
into commercial mistakes, and in his purchase of Crabbe's "Tales" he
found to his cost that his enthusiastic appreciation of that author's
works and the magnificence of his dealings with him were not the measure
of the public taste. Yet disappointments of this kind in no way
embittered his temper, or affected the liberality with which he treated
writers like Washington Irving, of whose powers he had himself once
formed a high conception. The mere love of money indeed was never an
absorbing motive in Murray's commercial career, otherwise it is certain
that his course in the suppression of Byron's Memoirs would have been
something very different to that which he actually pursued. On the
perfect letter which he wrote to Scott, presenting him with his fourth
share in "Marmion," the best comment is the equally admirable letter in
which Scott returned his thanks. The grandeur--for that seems the
appropriate word--of his dealings with men of high genius, is seen in
his payments to Byron, while his confidence in the solid value of
literary excellence appears from the fact that, when the _Quarterly_ was
not paying its expenses, he gave Southey for his "Life of Nelson" double
the usual rate of remuneration. No doubt his lavish generosity was
politic as well as splendid. This, and the prestige which he obtained as
Byron's publisher, naturally drew to him all that was vigorous and
original in the intellect of the day, so that there was a general desire
among young authors to be introduced to the public under his auspices.
The relations between author and publisher which had prevailed in the
eighteenth century were, in his case, curiously inverted, and, in the
place of a solitary scholar like Johnson, surrounded by an association
of booksellers, the drawing-room of Murray now presented the remarkable
spectacle of a single publisher acting as the centre of attraction to a
host of distinguished writers.

In Murray the spirit of the eighteenth century seemed to meet and
harmonize with the spirit of the nineteenth. Enthusiasm, daring,
originality, and freedom from conventionality made him eminently a man
of his time, and, in a certain sense, he did as much as any of his
contemporaries to swell that movement in his profession towards complete
individual liberty which had been growing almost from the foundation of
the Stationers' Company. On the other hand, in his temper, taste, and
general principles, he reflected the best and most ancient traditions of
his craft. Had his life been prolonged, he would have witnessed the
disappearance in the trade of many institutions which he reverenced and
always sought to develop. Some of them, indeed, vanished in his own
life-time. The old association of booksellers, with its accompaniment of
trade-books, dwindled with the growth of the spirit of competition and
the greater facility of communication, so that, long before his death,
the co-operation between the booksellers of London and Edinburgh was no
more than a memory. Another institution which had his warm support was
the Sale dinner, but this too has all but succumbed, of recent years, to
the existing tendency for new and more rapid methods of conducting
business. The object of the Sale dinner was to induce the great
distributing houses and the retail booksellers to speculate, and buy an
increased supply of books on special terms. Speculation has now almost
ceased in consequence of the enormous number of books published, which
makes it difficult for a bookseller to keep a large stock of any single
work, and renders the life of a new book so precarious that the demand
for it may at any moment come to a sudden stop.

The country booksellers--a class in which Murray was always deeply
interested--are dying out. Profits on books being cut down to a minimum,
these tradesmen find it almost impossible to live by the sale of books
alone, and are forced to couple this with some other kind of business.

The apparent risk involved in Murray's extraordinary spirit of adventure
was in reality diminished by the many checks which in his day operated
on competition, and by the high prices then paid for ordinary books. Men
were at that time in the habit of forming large private libraries, and
furnishing them with the sumptuous editions of travels and books of
costly engraving issued from Murray's press. The taste of the time has
changed. Collections of books have been superseded, as a fashion, by
collections of pictures, and the circulating library encourages the
habit of reading books without buying them. Cheap bookselling, the
characteristic of the age, has been promoted by the removal of the tax
on paper, and by the fact that paper can now be manufactured out of
refuse at a very low cost. This cheapness, the ideal condition for which
Charles Knight sighed, has been accompanied by a distinct deterioration
in the taste and industry of the general reader. The multiplication of
reviews, magazines, manuals, and abstracts has impaired the love of, and
perhaps the capacity for, study, research, and scholarship on which the
general quality of literature must depend. Books, and even knowledge,
like other commodities, may, in proportion to the ease with which they
are obtained, lose at once both their external value and their intrinsic
merit.

Murray's professional success is sufficient evidence of the extent of
his intellectual powers. The foregoing Memoir has confined itself almost
exclusively to an account of his life as a publisher, and it has been
left to the reader's imagination to divine from a few glimpses how much
of this success was due to force of character and a rare combination of
personal qualities. A few concluding words on this point may not be
inappropriate.

Quick-tempered and impulsive, he was at the same time warm-hearted and
generous to a fault, while a genuine sense of humour, which constantly
shows itself in his letters, saved him many a time from those troubles
into which the hasty often fall. "I wish," wrote George Borrow, within a
short time of the publisher's death, "that all the world were as gay as
he."

He was in some respects indolent, and not infrequently caused serious
misunderstandings by his neglect to answer letters; but when he did
apply himself to work, he achieved results more solid than most of his
compeers. He had, moreover, a wonderful power of attraction, and both in
his conversation and correspondence possessed a gift of felicitous
expression which rarely failed to arouse a sympathetic response in those
whom he addressed. Throughout "the trade" he was beloved, and he rarely
lost a friend among those who had come within his personal influence.

He was eager to look for, and quick to discern, any promise of talent in
the young. "Every one," he would say, "has a book in him, or her, if one
only knew how to extract it," and many was the time that he lent a
helping hand to those who were first entering on a literary career.

To his remarkable powers as a host, the many descriptions of his dinner
parties which have been preserved amply testify; he was more than a mere
entertainer, and took the utmost pains so to combine and to place his
guests as best to promote sympathetic conversation and the general
harmony of the gathering. Among the noted wits and talkers, moreover,
who assembled round his table he was fully able to hold his own in
conversation and in repartee.

On one occasion Lady Bell was present at one of these parties, and
wrote: "The talk was of wit, and Moore gave specimens. Charles thought
that our host Murray said the best things that brilliant night."

Many of the friends whose names are most conspicuous in these pages had
passed away before him, but of those who remained there was scarcely one
whose letters do not testify to the general affection with which he was
regarded. We give here one or two extracts from letters received during
his last illness.

Thomas Mitchell wrote to Mr. Murray's son:

"Give my most affectionate remembrances to your father. More than once I
should have sunk under the ills of life but for his kind support and
countenance, and so I believe would many others say besides myself. Be
his maladies small or great, assure him that he has the earnest
sympathies of one who well knows and appreciates his sterling merits."

Sir Francis Palgrave, who had known Mr. Murray during the whole course
of his career, wrote to him affectionately of "the friendship and
goodwill which," said he, "you have borne towards me during a period of
more than half my life. I am sure," he added, "as we grow older we find
day by day the impossibility of finding _any_ equivalent for old
friends." Sharon Turner also, the historian, was most cordial in his
letters.

"Our old friends," he said, "are dropping off so often that it becomes
more and more pleasing to know that some still survive whom we esteem
and by whom we are not forgotten.... Certainly we can look back on each
other now for forty years, and I can do so as to you with great pleasure
and satisfaction, when, besides the grounds of private satisfaction and
esteem, I think of the many works of great benefit to society which you
have been instrumental in publishing, and in some instances of
suggesting and causing. You have thus made your life serviceable to the
world as well as honourable to yourself.... You are frequently in my
recollections, and always with those feelings which accompanied our
intercourse in our days of health and activity. May every blessing
accompany you and yours, both here and hereafter."

It was not only in England that his loss was felt, for the news of his
death called forth many tokens of respect and regard from beyond the
seas, and we will close these remarks with two typical extracts from the
letters of American correspondents.

To Mr. Murray's son, Dr. Robinson of New York summed up his qualities in
these words:

"I have deeply sympathised with the bereaved family at the tidings of
the decease of one of whom I have heard and read from childhood, and to
whose kindness and friendship I had recently been myself so much
indebted. He has indeed left you a rich inheritance, not only by his
successful example in business and a wide circle of friends, but also
in that good name which is better than all riches. He lived in a
fortunate period--his own name is inseparably connected with one of the
brightest eras of English literature--one, too, which, if not created,
was yet developed and fostered by his unparalleled enterprise and
princely liberality. I counted it a high privilege to be connected with
him as a publisher, and shall rejoice in continuing the connection with
his son and successor."


Mrs. L.H. Sigourney wrote from Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.:

"Your father's death is a loss which is mourned on this side of the
Atlantic. His powerful agency on the patronage of a correct literature,
which he was so well qualified to appreciate, has rendered him a
benefactor in that realm of intellect which binds men together in all
ages, however dissevered by political creed or local prejudice. His
urbanity to strangers is treasured with gratitude in many hearts. To me
his personal kindness was so great that I deeply regretted not having
formed his acquaintance until just on the eve of my leaving London. But
his parting gifts are among the chief ornaments of my library, and his
last letter, preserved as a sacred autograph, expresses the kindness of
a friend of long standing, and promises another 'more at length,' which,
unfortunately, I had never the happiness of receiving."


THE END




INDEX


Abercorn, Marq. and Marchioness of,
Allegra, death of; buried at Harrow,
Athenaeum Club,
Austen, Miss Jane, "Northanger
  Abbey,"; Novels published
  by Murray,
Austria, Empress of,

Baillie, Miss Joanna,
Ballantyne & Co. (John & James),
  bill transactions with Murray;
  partnership with
  Scott; proposed edition of
  "British Novelists,"; Works
  of De Foe; James B. meets
  Murray at Boroughbridge;
  appointed Edinburgh agents for
  _Q.R._; views on _Q.R._;
  close alliance with Murray;
  financial difficulties;
  breach with Murray; failure
  of _Edinburgh Ann. Reg_.;
  "Waverley,"; "Lord of the
  Isles,"; "Don Roderick,";
  Scott's proposed letters
  from the Continent; proposal
  to Murray and Blackwood
  about Scott's works; in
  debt to Scott; "Tales of
  my Landlord," "The Black
  Dwarf,"; bankruptcy;
  death of John Ballantyne,
Barker, Miss,
Barrow, Sir John, induced by
  Canning to write for _Q. R_.;
  visit to Gifford; consulted
  by Murray about voyages or
  travels; nicknamed "Chronometer"
  by B. Disraeli,
Bartholdy, Baron,
Barton, Bernard,
Basevi, junr., George,
Bastard, Capt.,
Beattie, Dr.,
Bedford, Grosvenor,
Bell, Lady,
Bell & Bradfute,
Bellenden, Mary,
Belzoni, Giovanni,
Berry, Miss, edits "Horace Walpole's
  Reminiscences,"
Blackwood, William, appointed
  Murray's Agent for Scotland;
  visits Murray; intimacy with
  Murray; early career;
  threatens Constable with proceedings
  for printing Byron's
  "Poems,"; refuses to sell
  "Don Juan,"; alliance and
  correspondence with Murray;
  Ballantyne's proposals
  about Scott's works; _Blackwood's
  Magazine_ started;
  Murray's remonstrance about the
  personality of articles;
  Hazlitts libel action;
  interested with Murray in various
  works,
_Blackwood's Magazine_ started
  (first called _Edinburgh Magazine_);
  article attacking
  Byron; "Ancient Chaldee
  MS.,"; "The Cockney
  School of Poetry,"; personality
  of articles,;
  "Hypocrisy Unveiled," etc.;
  Murray retires from--Cadell and
  Davies appointed London Agents
  for,
Blessington, Countess of, "Conversations
  with Lord Byron,"
Blewitt, Octavian,
Borrow, George,
  his youth;
  capacity for learning languages;
  appointed Agent to the Bible Society--Russia, Norway, Turkey and Spain,
  his translation of the Bible;
  called Lavengro,
  his splendid physique,
  "Gypsies of Spain,"
  "The Bible in Spain,"
  as a horse-breaker,
  remarks on Allan Cunningham's death,
  asked to become a member of the Royal Institution,
"Boswell's Johnson,"
  Croker's edition of,
Bray, Mrs.,
Brockedon, William,
  his portrait of the Countess Guiccioli,
  his help in Murray's Handbooks,
Brougham, Lord,
  his article in _Ed. Rev._ on Dr. Young's theory of light,
  Chairman of the Society for the diffusion of Useful Knowledge,
Broughton, Lord, _see_ Hobhouse.
Buccleuch, Duke of,
  his present of a farm to James Hogg,
Butler, Charles,
  "Books on the R. Cath. Church,"
Burney, Dr.,
Buxton, Thos. Powell,
  "Slave Trade and its Remedy,"
Byron, Lord,
  first association and meeting with Murray,
  "Childe Harold,"
  presented to Prince Regent,
  friendship with Scott,
  "Giaour," "Bride of Abydos,"
  "Corsair,"
  "Ode to Napoleon,"
  "Lara,"
  marriage,
  meets Scott at Murray's house,
  remarks on Battle of Waterloo,
  portrait by Phillips,
  kindness to Maturin,
  dealings with Murray,
  residence in Piccadilly,
  pecuniary embarrassments,
  Murray's generous offer,
  Murray's remonstrance,
  "Siege of Corinth" and "Parisina,"
  separation from wife,
  sale of effects,
  "Sketch from Private Life,"
  leaves England,
  "Childe Harold" and "Prisoner of Chillon,"
  remarks on Scott's Review of "Childe Harold," Canto III.,
  "Manfred,"
  attack of fever at Venice,
  "Childe Harold," Canto IV.,
  visit from Hobhouse,
  his bust by Thorwaldsen,
  correspondence with Murray in 1817 to 1822,
  "Beppo,"
  Frere's "Whistlecraft,"
  at Venice,
  opinion of Southey,
  "Don Juan," Cantos I. and II.;
  Murray's suggestions as to,
  hatred of Romilly,
  "Letter of Julia,"
  "Mazeppa," "Ode to Venice,"
  Copyright of "Don Juan,"
  Countess Guiccioli: proposal to visit S. America,
  "Don Juan," Cantos III. and IV.,
  "Don Juan," Canto V.,
  Murray's refusal to publish further Cantos of "Don Juan,"
  "My boy Hobby O!"
  Hobhouse's anger,
  Whig Club at Cambridge,
  pamphlet on "Bowles' strictures,"
  "Sardanapalus,"
  "The Two Foscari," "Cain, a Mystery,"
  injunction in case of "Cain,"
  death and burial of Allegra,
  illness, and last letter to Murray,
  adopts Hato or HatagГ©e,
  the Suliotes incident,
  death: Murray's application for his burial in Westminster Abbey refused,
  Memoirs and Moore,
  destruction of Memoirs,
  agreement between Moore and Murray,
  Moore undertakes to write "Life,"
  Murray's negotiations with Moore as to "Life,"
  agreement as to "Life,"
  Vol. I. of "Life" published,
  Vol. II.,
  Murray's proposed edition of his works,
  Thorwaldsen's statue refused by Dean of Westminster,
  attempt to alter Dean's decision;
  the statue placed in library of Trinity College, Cambridge,
Byron, Lady, her offer to Murray
  for redemption of Byron's Memoirs,

Cadell & Davies, appointed London Agents
  for _Blackwood's Magazine_,
Callcott, Lady, _see_ Graham, Mrs.
Campbell, Thomas, "Pleasures o
  Hope," "Hohenlinden," "The
  Exile of Erin," "Ye Mariners of
  England," "Battle of the Baltic,"
  "Lochiel's Warning"; correspondence
  with Scott; intimacy
  with Murray;
  proposed "Selection from British
  Poets"; "Gertrude
  of Wyoming"; Lectures on
  Poetry; "Now Barabbas
  was a Publisher"; his
  opinion of Mrs. Hemans's "Records
  of Woman,"
Canning, George, starts _Anti-Jacobin_;
  assists in starting _Quarterly Review_;
  article in _Q.R._ on "Austrian
  State Papers"; on Spain;
  views on the Royal Society
  of Literature; opinion of
  "Waverley"; letters from
  Gifford; called "X."
  by Benjamin Disraeli,
Canning, Stratford, "The Miniature";
  connection with
  _Q.R._; introduces Gifford
  to Murray; his mission to
  Constantinople,
Carlyle, Thomas, recommended to
  Murray by Lord Jeffrey;
  correspondence with Murray
  about "Sartor Resartus";
  "Sartor Resartus" declined
  by other publishers;
  returns to Craigenputtock;
  "Sartor Resartus" published in
  _Fraser's Magazine_, and, through
  Emerson's influence, in United
  States,
Cawthorn, publisher of "English
  Bards and Scotch Reviewers,"
Cervetto,
Chantrey, Sir F., calls Murray "a
  brother Cyclops," _note_
Chesterfield, Lord,
Cleghorn, James, Editor of _Blackwood's
  Magazine_,
Colburn, the publisher, "Vivian
  Grey"; declines "Sartor
  Resartus,"
Coleridge, John Taylor; appointed
  Editor to _Quarterly
  Review_; wishes to resign
  editorship,
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor;
  correspondence with Murray;
  Goethe's "Faust";
  "Wallenstein"; "The
  Friend"; "Remorse,"
  "Glycine," "Christabel,"
  "Christmas Tale," "Zapolya";
  opinion of Frere,
Colman's Comedy, "John Bull,"
Colquhoun, Rt. Hon. J.C. (Lord
  Advocate),
Colquhoun, John, "The Moor and
  the Loch"; correspondence
  with Murray; dissatisfaction
  with Blackwood; visit to
  London and interview with
  Murray,
Constable, Archibald (Constable &
  Co.); _Farmer's Magazine,
  Scots Magazine, Edinburgh
  Review_; his partner,
  A.G. Hunter; appointed
  Murray's agent; "Sir Tristram"
  and "Lay of the Last
  Minstrel"; breach with
  Longman; injunction as to
  _Edin. Rev._ obtained by Longman;
  letter from Jeffrey;
  Murray's remonstrances as to
  drawing bills;
  establishes London House;
  breach with Murray;
  final breach with Murray;
  fresh alliance with Scott;
  Campbell's "Selections from the British Poets";
  Poems by Byron on his Domestic Circumstances;
  Mrs. Markham's "History of England";
  bankruptcy;
  renews friendship with Murray;
  death,
Cooper, James Fenimore,
Coplestone,
Copyright Bill, the, Mr. Gladstone's remarks on,
Coxe, Archdeacon,
Crabbe, "Tales of the Hall," and other poems,
Creech and Elliot
Croker, Crofton
Croker, John Wilson,
  visit to Prince Regent,
  portrait by Eddis,
  "Stories for Children on Hist. of England",
  on "Don Juan" and Byron,
  takes charge of _Q.R._ during Gifford's illness,
  views on the _Monthly Register_,
  edits Lady Hervey's Letters,
  opinion of the Waldegrave and Walpole Memoirs,
  edits the Suffolk Papers,
  edits Mrs. Delany's Letters,
  Lockhart's opinion of him,
  "Boswell's Johnson",
  opinion of Moore's "Life of Byron",
  Moore's "Life of Lord Fitzgerald"
Cumberland, Richard,
  "John de Lancaster"
Cumming, Thomas
Cunningham, Allan,
  "Paul Jones: a Romance",
  his death,
  "Memoirs of Sir D. Wilkie",
  Lockhart's article in _Q.R._ on the "Memoirs"
Cunningham, Rev. J.W.,
  and the burial of Allegra at Harrow
Cuthill