Chapter V: Part 5

How Scott bore the blow, and, what he dreaded infinitely more than the mere loss of money--the exposure it entailed of his connection with the printing house, we all know; how he declined to accept any compromise; how he sold off his Abbotsford estate, which he had devoted all the efforts of his genius to acquire, and which he loved so well; how he slaved and toiled until the incredible sum was repaid--but, alas! at the expense of a life more precious than all the lucre of creditors; and how his last words on his death-bed were his best epitaph:--“My dear, be a good man, be virtuous, be religious--be a good man! Nothing else will give you any comfort when you come to lie here.”

Our matter, however, is with Constable. He saw his fortunes--the strong up-buildings of a gloriously successful lifetime--dashed to the ground at one blow. With a young family growing up around him, sick in body and weary in soul, he too had to begin life afresh. All his “sunshine” friends fell off, Scott was alienated, and his stock, which he had been wont to contemplate as a mine of wealth, was sequestered, and sold for a tithe of its value.[13] Cadell, his late partner, purchased the copyrights of the “Waverley Novels” for £8,500, and, securing Scott’s countenance, set up as a fortunate rival.

Constable, however, went manfully to work at his proposed Miscellany. Captain Basil Hall, in kindly consideration, made him a present of his _Voyages_, and this was brought out in 1827, for the small sum of one shilling, and proved fairly successful. This same year, by-the-by, was commenced the _Library of Useful Knowledge_, by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, who, following Constable, had the “honour of leading the way in that fearful inroad upon dearness of the good old times of publishing, which first developed itself in the wicked birth of what the literary exclusives called the _Sixpenny Sciences_.”

Constable’s prospects were brightening; he had now gathered round him all the younger literary men of the day, when, in the midst of his struggles, his old disease of dropsy again attacked him, and he died on the 21st July, 1827.

His widow and family were left in sorry circumstances, but his son Thomas eventually attained the position of an eminent and well-known printer in Edinburgh. The Ballantynes, with whom he had been so intimately connected, disproved many of Lockhart’s assertions, by showing that, by dint of hard work and good business habits, they were capable of success, unaided by the help of Sir Walter Scott.

Constable, if not the most successful, was certainly the most eminent of the Scotch publishers. It is pleasant where the two lives have been so curiously blended to be able to quote Scott’s estimate of his character:--

“His vigorous intellect and vigorous ideas have not only rendered his native country the merit of her own literature, but established there a court of letters which commanded respect even from those most inclined to dissent from many of its canons. The effect of these changes operated, in a great measure, by the strong sense and sagacious calculation of an individual who knew how to avail himself, to an unhoped-for extent, of the various kinds of talents which his country produced, will probably appear much clearer to the generation which shall follow the present.”

The remaining portion of this chapter will in itself bear ample testimony to the truth of this prediction; for we shall have to touch upon two distinct lives, and two long and very successful lives, to trace the progress of the chief works which passed out of Constable’s hands so shortly before his death.

Robert Cadell had been admitted a partner in the house upon his marriage with Constable’s daughter, but she died childless long before the failure, and Cadell was soon married again to a Miss Mylne. Thus the family ties were severed, and, when the crash came, Cadell felt no hesitation in entering the field as a rival to his late partner.

The stock of the Waverley Novels was sold off, far below the market value, and the London publishers, judging from this that the intrinsic worth of the copyright had irretrievably declined, allowed Cadell, as we have seen, in conjunction with Scott, to become the purchaser at the low price of £8500. The success of the republication was astounding, and showed what real life and vivacity was still left in the copyright. By this scheme the whole of the novels were reprinted in five-shilling volumes with excellent illustrations, giving for ten shillings in two volumes what had been originally published in three at a guinea and a half.

After Scott’s death the debt still amounted to £54,000; his life was insured for £22,000, there was £2000 in hand, and now Cadell most handsomely advanced £30,000 in order that the remaining debt might be liquidated, taking as his only security the right to the profit that might accrue from the copyright property. The family, dreading that the term of copyright might expire before the sum could be returned, endeavoured to obtain a special additional term, and on more than one occasion Serjeant Talfourd introduced a bill into the House of Commons to this effect, but without success. Fortunately, however, the event showed that Cadell was commercially fully justified in his generosity, for before his death not only had he been reimbursed his £30,000, but a handsome profit had been earned “for the benefit of all whom it might concern.”

According to Mr. James Mylne, one of Cadell’s executors, the following is the total sale of Scott’s works from the time they came into Cadell’s hands until his death:--

_Circulation._

Waverley Novels 78,270 sets

Poetical Works 41,340 ”

Prose Works 8,260 ”

_Life_ by Lockhart 26,060 ”

_Tales of a Grandfather_
(as a separate work) 22,190 ”

Selections 7,550 ”

and, as a test of the popularity of the _People’s Edition_ of the writings and _Life_, he states that the following numbers originally printed in weekly sheets were issued:

Novels 7,115,197
Poetry 674,955
Prose 269,406
Life 459,291
----------
Total Sheets 8,518,849

Robert Cadell died on January 21st, 1849, after a long career rendered prosperous by this splendid property, and on March 26th, 1851, the novels, poems, prose works, and the “Life” by Lockhart were put up to auction at the London Coffee House by Mr. Hodgson. The sale brought together the largest “trade” gathering that has ever been witnessed; there were publishers from the “Row” and Albemarle Street, booksellers from Ave Maria and Ivy Lanes, and speculators from every corner of the kingdom. The stock had been valued at £10,193 3_s._, a very low figure, and it was announced that this would be sold only with the copyrights, and that the trustees retained the right of bidding. After much disputing as to these restrictions £5000 was offered, and quickly rose by leaps of £500 to £10,500, when Mr. Bohn and the “Row” retired, and the struggle lay between Mr. Virtue and some imaginary bidder, visible only to the eyes of the auctioneer. At £13,500 the copyright was “bought in” making the price, including the stock, £23,693 3_s._

This afforded a wonderful contrast to the former sale at £8500, more especially when we consider that the copyright of the earlier novels had only five or six years more to run.

In a few weeks after this it was announced in the _Scotsman_ that the whole of the copyrights were transferred to the hands of another eminent publishing firm in Edinburgh--Messrs. A. and C. Black, who, in conjunction with their friends, Messrs. Richardson Brothers, became the possessors at the price of £27,000.

Leaving the Waverley Novels for a time, it will be necessary to bring up the narrative of the career of Mr. Adam Black to the period when he was able to become the owner of the most valuable literary property that has ever existed.

Adam Black, the son of Charles Black, a builder of Edinburgh, was born in that town in the year 1784, and was educated primarily at the High School, on his entrance as a pupil at which, tradition says, he was accompanied by his father, who, having just left his employment for the purpose, appeared in full working garb, the mason’s white leathern apron included. At the University his talents speedily procured him admittance into that clique of young Liberals who were afterwards to effect such a change in Edinburgh, indeed in cosmopolitan politics. After serving his apprenticeship to the book trade, in partnership with his nephew, the bookselling business of Adam and Charles Black was founded. In 1817 he married Isabella, only daughter of James Tait, architect (sister of William Tait, the well-known originator of _Tait’s Magazine_), and at the time of Constable’s failure was in a steady and prosperous way of business. This disaster was the means of making many fortunes, and in 1826 the _Edinburgh Review_ appeared under the joint proprietorship of Thomas Norton Longman and Adam and Charles Black. As we have followed the career of the _Review_ in our history of the Longman family, it will be unnecessary to enter fully into the changes of management and the success of later numbers.

Another work, however, afterwards thrown on the market, which also became the property of Messrs. A. and C. Black, is of such literary importance that we must again for a moment retrace our steps, in order to keep up the proper sequence of our narrative.

The idea of a compilation that should embrace all human knowledge is of very great antiquity. Pliny, in fact claims the name of “Encyclopædia” for his _Natural History_; but it was not till the sixteenth century that any attempt was made at arranging the matter in a systematic manner, though the Arabians are said to have had a true _Encyclopædia_ centuries before that date. It was long, however, before the idea occurred of employing the lexographic plan as a basis of a universal _répertoire_ of learning, and the first great step in advance was the _Lexicon Technicum_ of Dr. Harris, completed and published at London in the year 1710. The _Cyclopædia_ of Ephraim Chambers, with which we have previously dealt, appeared in 1728, and for a long time was the supreme authority; through its success at home and abroad a new impulse was given to the desire for such publications. In France the _Encyclopédie_ was projected by the Abbé de Gua, and was based originally on an unpublished translation of Chambers’s _Cyclopædia_, made by an Englishman named Mills. In consequence of a quarrel with the publishers, De Gua threw it up, and it was then transferred to Diderot and D’Alembert; to become the text-book of the French philosophers. The publication of the seventeen volumes extended from 1751 to 1765, and six years after the latter date appeared the first volume of the _Encyclopædia Britannica_.

The plan and all the principal articles of this now important work were in this first edition devised and written by William Smellie.

Smellie began life as a compositor, and he used to lay down his composing-stick for an hour or two daily to attend the classes of the Edinburgh University. At the age of nineteen he was engaged by Murray and Cochrane as corrector of their press in general and conductor and compiler of the _Scots Magazine_ at a salary of sixteen shillings a week. If the saying that “Edinburgh never had a Grub Street” is true, it must have arisen rather from the perseverance of the writers than from the uniform generosity of the publishers.

The agreement upon which the _Encyclopædia_ was undertaken was still in existence when Kerr wrote Smellie’s _Life_; as a literary curiosity we quote it:--

“Mr. Andrew Bell to Mr. William Smellie.

“SIR,--As we are engaged in publishing a ‘Dictionary of the
Arts and Sciences,’ and as you have informed us that there
are fifteen capital sciences, which you will undertake for,
and write up the sub-divisions and detached parts of them,
conforming to your plan, and likewise to prepare the whole work
for the press, &c., &c. We hereby agree to allow you £200 for
your trouble.”

The first proprietors were Andrew Bell, engraver, and Colin Macfarquhar, printer. The publication was commenced in weekly numbers in 1771, and completed in 1773, by which time the bulk in all consisted only of three small quarto volumes. A second edition was called for in 1776, and Smellie was offered a share in the property, but he declined to have anything more to do with it, as upon the recommendation of “a very distinguished nobleman” it was resolved to introduce a complete system of biography. The proprietors engaged, instead, James Tytler, a laborious miscellaneous writer, and a man of extraordinary knowledge. A large proportion of the additional matter, by which the work was extended from three to ten volumes, was due to his pen, but the payment for this labour is said to have been very small, and the unfortunate author was not able to support his family in a style superior to that of a common labourer. At one time, during the progress of the work, he lived at the village of Duddingston, in the house of a washerwoman, whose tub inverted formed the only desk at his disposal, and one of his children was frequently despatched with a parcel of “copy” upon which their next meal depended.

This second edition consisted of 1500 copies, and extended to ten volumes quarto. The third edition, to which Tytler also contributed, was commenced in 1789. Till then it had been considered in the south as “a Scots rival of little repute” (to Chambers’s _Cyclopædia_), but in this edition, beside the method and comprehensiveness of the plan, it rose greatly above its former level in its practical and speculative departments. It was completed in 1797, in eighteen volumes, to which Professor Robison supplied two supplementary volumes to complete the series he had commenced when the principal work was far advanced. The sale of this edition extended to ten thousand copies, and the proprietors are said to have netted £42,000 of clear profit, besides being paid for their respective work--the one as printer, the other as engraver. Much of this, of course, was due to poor Tytler’s labours, who was still living in the utmost penury. He was, however, perfectly regardless about poverty, having no desire to conceal it from the world. He would finish his frugal meal of a cold potato before the eyes of a stranger with as much nonchalance as if it had been a sumptuous repast. He had that contentment with poverty which is so apt to make it permanent, and this, in addition to his imprudent and intemperate habits, cut off all chance of a higher social position. As a proof of his extraordinary stock of general knowledge, his biographer relates a characteristic anecdote.

“A gentleman in this city of Edinburgh once told me he wanted as much matter as would form a junction between a certain history and its continuation to a later period. He found Tytler lodged in one of those elevated apartments called _garrets_, and was informed by the old woman with whom he resided, that he could not see him, as he had gone to bed rather the worse for liquor. Determined, however, not to depart without his errand, he was shown into Mr. Tytler’s apartment by the light of a lamp, where he found him in the situation described by the landlady. The gentleman having acquainted him with the nature of the business which brought him at so late an hour, Mr. Tytler called for pen and ink, and in a short time produced about a page and a half of letterpress, which answered the end as completely as if it had been the result of the most mature deliberation, previous notice, and a mind undisturbed by any liquid capable of deranging its ideas.”

On the death of Macfarquhar the whole work became the property of Andrew Bell.

The fourth edition, augmented to twenty volumes, was completed in 1810, under the able superintendence of Dr. James Millar; but the editor was prevented from availing himself of Professor Robison’s excellent supplementary articles by a temporary separation of that property from that of the principal work. This issue consisted of three thousand five hundred copies.

With the completion of this edition the progress of improvement was for a time suspended; but in 1814 the copyright of the work was purchased by Archibald Constable, who, with the enterprise that always distinguished him, at once projected a supplement, which extended to six volumes. It was placed under the skilful management of Professor Macney Napier, and the publication lasted from 1815 to 1824. Many very distinguished authors were engaged as contributors, among whom we may specially mention Arago, Biot, and Dugald Stewart; and all the resources of the proprietors were devoted to this favourite undertaking.

In 1829 the whole of the copyrights (including that of Professor Robison’s supplementary articles) passed into the hands of Messrs. A. and C. Black, assisted by their friends; and we are now able to resume our narrative at the point we left it.

The property was at first a joint stock concern, resembling the original proprietorship, and was, we believe, owned in equal shares by Mr. Abraham Thomson, as the binder; Mr. Thomas Allan, as the printer; and Messrs. A. and C. Black, as publishers. Mr. Thomson died shortly afterwards, and the Messrs. Black became the possessors of his interest in the work. Some years afterwards, the share held by Mr. Allan, who was a banker in Edinburgh, and also printer and proprietor of the _Caledonian Mercury_, also fell into the hands of the Messrs. Black. At this time the new edition was in midway progress, and the enormous expense necessary to complete the work rendered the venture single-handed something more than hazardous. But the ability, tact, immense energy, and unceasing labour of Mr. Adam Black, then in the prime of life, proved equal to the task he had undertaken, and in this case it may truly be said that for years he went on literally scattering bread upon the waters, and most deservedly did he obtain his reward. Previously, we believe, to the completion of this edition, Mr. Charles Black, who had long been in delicate health, died.

Upon Jeffrey’s retirement in 1829, Macney Napier, Professor of Conveyancing in the University of Edinburgh, was promoted to the editorship of the _Edinburgh Review_, and Mr. Black also secured his services for the management of the seventh edition of the _Encyclopædia_. Napier was assisted by James Brown, LL.D., as sub-editor, and on his shoulders most of the hard work fell. Brown, who was trained as an advocate at the Scottish bar, relinquished this for literature. His thorough scholarship enabled him to undertake almost any department of literary work, and rendered him invaluable for the revisal of such a work as the _Encyclopædia_. He was also a ready and slashing political writer, at a time when political feeling was rampant. Remarkable alike for his mental activity and his personal irascibility, the one great difficulty lay in managing the Doctor. As an instance of this, the article “Alphabet” was entrusted to Brown for the new edition of the _Encyclopædia_. He was at the same time editor of the _Caledonian Mercury_, and on the appearance of something in that paper which led to a quarrel with Mr. Allan, the proprietor, who was also a shareholder in the _Encyclopædia_, Brown declined to go on with “Alphabet.” The part in which this was to appear was due, and Brown was inflexible. The subject was a difficult one, peculiarly suited to Brown’s abilities, and it was not easy elsewhere to find so competent a writer. In these circumstances, Mr. Black adopted the experiment of passing over that part and bringing out the succeeding one. Thus circumvented, Brown came to terms, and things again went on smoothly. But, notwithstanding his proverbial kindliness of disposition, he was hasty in coming to conclusions, and was always getting into scrapes of one kind or another; and a duel, in which he and Charles Maclaren, editor of the _Scotsman_, figured as principals, furnished the Edinburgh _gamins_ with a popular street song. He escaped all duellistic dangers, however, but his unremitting labours brought on a stroke of apoplexy, of which he died in 1841.

The great feature of the new edition was the preliminary “Dissertations,” which were commenced by Professors Stewart and Playfair, who were both carried off in the midst of their labours. Sir James Mackintosh, who undertook to complete his friend’s “History of Ethical and Political Philosophy” (the Metaphysical portion had been completed by Stewart) was also summoned from his labours before the Political division was commenced; and the “History of the Physical Sciences” was brought down by Professor Leslie to the commencement of this century.

“The ‘Dissertations’ produced by these four extraordinary men are still regarded with peculiar pride in Scotland; indeed, few nations can boast of such an intellectual group living at the same time, and adorning the same society; and yet, with powers of mind not far from equality, how various were their gifts, and how diversified their genius!”[14]

The seventh edition was commenced in monthly parts in March, 1830, and finished in January, 1842. Of its success it is almost unnecessary to speak; with confidence reposed in the proprietors sufficient to command the services of such writers as Young, Malthus, Macculloch, Mill, Roget, Wilson, Empson, De Quincey, and Tytler, while the editor can count on the aid of friends like Scott, Playfair, Stewart, Leslie, Lord Jeffrey, Sir William Hamilton, and Sir John Barrow, it is not difficult to anticipate the result. The mere cost of presentation copies amounted to £416 16_s._, and the amount of duty on the paper employed exceeded £6000; while, to go into heavier matters, the total expense of the twenty-one quarto volumes was, in a trial in the Jury Court of Scotland, proved to have been no less a sum than £125,667 9_s._ 3_d._ This amount, of course, includes every item of expenditure, among which the following are the most important:--

£ _s._ _d._

Contributions and Editing 22,590 2 11
Printing 18,610 1 4
Stereotyping 3,317 5 8
Paper 27,854 15 7
Bookbinding 12,739 12 2
Engraving and Plate-printing 11,777 18 1

The literary contributions to the first volume of “Dissertations” alone cost upwards of £3450.

The work was eminently successful, and this immense expenditure shows us something of what “success” means in this instance. The commercial management of an undertaking like this was sufficient to occupy the attention of a man of extraordinary diligence; but Mr. Black found time, not only to contribute several articles to his _Encyclopædia_, but to take a very warm and prominent interest in the government of his native city; and from 1843 to 1848 he occupied the highest position to which a citizen of Edinburgh can aspire--that of Lord Provost.

Enterprise and success, more especially when they are mingled with real desert, and caused by honest service, are qualities of which the Scotch, perhaps more than any other nation, are peculiarly proud; and when the representation of Edinburgh became vacant in 1856, a large and influential party at once nominated Mr. Adam Black to fill the post. Mr. Adam Black was a thorough-going Liberal and a Nonconformist, and a party of the electors received his nomination in a spirit of the greatest bitterness, and an opposition candidate was brought forward. The election came off on the 8th February, 1856, and Mr. Black, the friend of political freedom when friends were few, the champion of religious charity and goodwill when enemies were many, was rewarded for his consistency and his many services by a larger number of votes than had been polled for twenty years--no weak test of popular approbation. As a contemporary opinion, we may quote the _Scotsman_ of that date:--“Honour to the candidate! Sincerely reluctant to compete for the honour, no sooner was he embarked, and saw that the great principles and the reputation of the city were concerned and imperilled in his person, than he threw himself into the work with a vigour that made even the youngest and most energetic of his supporters stand aside. We don’t care who knows it: Mr. Black was the most effective member of his own committee--in word and in act, by day and by night, the veteran was ready with guidance and warning and incentive. In all his many battles in the public cause, he never made a better fight than when achieving this victory which so gloriously crowns his career.”

In the House Mr. Black distinguished himself by his assiduity to business, and in 1864 he introduced his Copyright Bill, which, though it contained much that was good, was ultimately thrown out.

Upon completion of the seventh edition, a number of cheap reprints were issued of the most famous articles of the “Encyclopædia,” and met with a very favourable reception.

We have seen that in 1851 the Messrs. Black, in conjunction with Messrs. Richardson Brothers, became possessed of the Waverley Novels. Ultimately, the Messrs. Black purchased, it is said, the Messrs. Richardsons’ share, and are now believed to be the sole proprietors of Sir Walter Scott’s works. In the management of this property Mr. Adam Black exhibited the same rare sagacity, and reaped the same successful reward as in the former important work. In the middle of 1852, he announced that 120,000 complete sets of the Waverley Novels had been sold in this country alone since their first publication; and in 1858 an ingenious mathematician computed that the weight of the paper used for them was upwards of 3500 tons.

Among the most important editions issued by Messrs. Black we may instance the following:--

£ _s._ _d._

A Re-issue of the “Cabinet Edition” in 1853-54 at 3 15 0

” ” ” 1860 ” 3 10 0

The “People’s Edition” in 5 vols. ” 1855 ” 2 2 0

“Railway Edition” in 25 vols. ” 1858-60 ” 1 17 6

New Illustrated Edition in 48 vols. founded on
“Author’s Favourite” ” 1859-61 ” 10 13 0

“Shilling Edition” in 25 vols. ” 1862-63 ” 1 5 0

At our present writing a beautiful new edition, the “Centenary,” is being published.

The moment that the copyrights of the earlier novels expired the market was flooded with cheap reprints; but the Messrs. Black were equal to the occasion. They issued a trade reminder to the public that the edition of 1829 was thoroughly revised by the author, was altered in almost every page and largely augmented by notes, and that it still was copyright, and as a death-blow to the reprints by rival houses they brought out the “sixpenny edition” in monthly volumes, each volume containing a complete tale with all the matter that had appeared in the more expensive editions. Thanks to former stereotypes they were thus enabled to present a series of the cheapest and most valuable books that any house in the country has yet been able to produce. The publication lasted from November, 1866, to November, 1868, and the complete issue consisted of twenty-five volumes, and thus the public were able to purchase for twelve shillings and sixpence what had originally cost upwards of forty pounds. Constable himself in his wildest dreams of cheap publishing never imagined such a marvellous feature as this.

As a proof of their popularity we quote from a contemporary writer in the _Illustrated Times_, 25th of September, 1867. The writer was travelling down to Wales, and, at the London station, he said, “‘Boy, where are the Scott novels?’ ‘Don’t keep them,’ he replied. ‘Don’t keep them! Why not?’ ‘Because, if we did, we should not sell anything else.’ Here then, to begin with, is a small fact worth reflection. Some of the novels were first published fifty years ago. Can you point out any other series of books, or even any single book, a sixpenny edition of which Mr. Smith would be afraid to lay upon his bookstalls for fear the public might refuse to buy anything else?” At every station the writer made the same inquiry and met with the same result.

As through the business talents of the publishers, the printed works of Sir Walter Scott were reduced in price, so through the fame of the author did the autograph remains rise to a very wonderful fictitious value. Mr. Cadell made a remarkable collection of all the manuscripts he could purchase, and on the 9th of July, 1868, his collection was sold for £1073; while even a corrected proof of “Peveril of the Peak” realized £25.

The seventh edition of the “Encyclopædia Britannica” was finished, as we have previously stated, in 1842, and met with, not only an immediate, but also a continuous sale, but human knowledge refuses to be stereotyped, and at the close of 1852 the eighth edition was commenced, occupying nine years in the publication. The proprietors justly claim for it the proud title of “the largest literary enterprise ever undertaken by any single house in Great Britain.” The editorial charge was entrusted to Dr. Thomas Stewart Trail, professor of medical jurisprudence in the University of Edinburgh; and, among the more important new contributors, we may mention Archbishop Whately, Professor Blackie, and Dr. Forbes, the latter of whom contributed a new “Dissertation” to the introductory volume. Lord Macaulay contributed five of the leading biographies “as a token of friendship to the senior proprietor.” “Any article of any value in any preceding edition,” says the editor, “has been reprinted in this--in all cases with corrections, and frequently with considerable additions. Besides these, it has received so great an accession of original contributions, that nine-tenths of its contents may be said to be absolutely new,” and this will probably apply with the same force to the ninth edition, which is to be commenced next year.

Long before this date Mr. Adam Black was assisted in his business by his sons. He retired from the house in 1865, and now laden with honours in public, and successes in business, life, he may fairly claim to be the Nestor of publishers. He must have seen many changes in the literary world, and marked many vicissitudes in the “realms of print;” but the changes as far as they operated for him were for the better, and vicissitudes seem invariably to have kept outside his charmed circle.

In the year 1861, a very valuable work--the “Collected Writings of the late Thomas De Quincey”--came into the hands of Messrs. Black; but, as the public are almost entirely indebted to the laborious care and patient perseverance of another publisher, Mr. James Hogg, then of Edinburgh, for the production of this collection, which then consisted of fourteen volumes, we have thought it better that this account should form a kind of supplement to our present chapter.

For a period of about forty years De Quincey had been an extensive contributor to periodical literature, and it is scarcely surprising that, during such a length of time, the sources even where many of his contributions originally appeared had been forgotten, and that the very existence of a few had altogether escaped the author’s recollection. Various attempts had been made to induce De Quincey to draw together and revise a selection from the more important of his scattered writings, but from his varying state of health and, consequent on this, his inveterate habit of procrastination, the work was always postponed; and from his advanced years, all hope was given up of the collected works ever appearing under the superintendence of the author.

In the year 1845, the well-known periodical, _Hogg’s Instructor_, was started under the management and sole responsibility of Mr. Hogg. Sixteen volumes of the _Instructor_ as a weekly serial were published, and among many other contributors of note was the “Opium-Eater,” and from the commencement of their intercourse De Quincey and Mr. Hogg became firm friends.

About this time several volumes of De Quincey’s writings had been collected and published by Messrs. Ticknor and Fields, of Boston, U.S., without, of course, the advantage of the author’s own revisal; and, as the papers had been originally hurriedly written for magazines, and as, during the lapse of time, many changes had become unavoidable, the author felt that, in justice to himself, extensive additions and, in some cases, suppressions were necessary. Arrangements were accordingly entered into for bringing out the collected works at home in a thoroughly revised and amended form, Mr. Hogg undertaking all the responsibility, and engaging to give his aid both in collecting the materials, and in generally seeing the volumes through the press. On the announcement of the publication it was confidently predicted by some of those who had been engaged in the previous attempts that not a single volume would ever appear. In order to afford ample time for the thorough revision of the work it was arranged that the publication should be spread over three years. The first volume appeared in 1853; but, instead of three years bringing the series to a close, eight years had elapsed before the thirteenth volume was completed, and then De Quincey died--the remainder of the thirteenth, and the whole of the fourteenth, being due to Mr. Hogg. During these eight years almost daily interviews or correspondence occurred between De Quincey and Mr. Hogg. To use the author’s words, “the joint labour and patient perseverance spent in the preparation of these volumes was something perfectly astounding.” In addition to the frequent and protracted interviews, the correspondence which passed during the progress of the work would fill a goodly volume.

In order to account for the delays which so frequently occurred, De Quincey remarks upon one occasion:--“I suffer from a most afflicting derangement of the nervous system, which at times makes it difficult for me to write at all, and always makes me impatient, in a degree not easily understood, of recasting what may seem insufficiently or even incoherently expressed.” But, while suffering under this cause, he laboured under a daily and more formidable bar to progress, as annoying and perplexing to himself as to others. For many years he had been in the habit of correcting manuscript or of jotting down on loose sheets, more frequently on small scraps of paper, any stray thoughts that occurred to him, intending to use them as occasion might afterwards offer. These papers, however, instead of being methodically arranged and preserved, were carelessly laid aside, and were soon mixed up with letters, proofs, old and new copy, newspapers, periodicals, and other confusing litter, and the numerous volumes he received from literary friends and admirers, all huddled together on chairs, tables, or wherever they at the moment might be stowed. Placing a high value on many things in this heterogeneous mass, and feeling assured in his own mind that strange hands would only render confusion worse confounded, he would allow no one to endeavour to put the things in order. Indeed, if anything could have ruffled his gentle nature into the use of an angry word it would have been the attempt to meddle with these papers. They very rapidly increased, and every search after missing copy or proofs made matters worse. When a dead block occurred his invariable practice was to build them up, as they lay, against the wall of the room, and, as a consequence, everything went astray. A few extracts from notes to Mr. Hogg will show the labour, suffering, and worry which this state of chaos entailed:--“My dear Sir,--It is useless to trouble you with the _ins_ and _outs_ of the process--the result is, that, working through most part of the night, I have not yet come to the missing copy. I am going on with the search, yet being walled up in so narrow an area (not larger than a postchaise as regards the free space), I work with difficulty, and the _stooping_ kills me. I greatly fear that the entire day will be spent in the search.”

“Yesterday, suddenly, I missed the interleaved volume. I have been unrolling an immense heap of newspapers, &c., ever since six a.m. How so thick a vol. _can_ have hidden itself, I am unable to explain.”

“The act of _stooping_ has for many years caused me so much illness, that in this search, all applied to papers lying on the floor, entangled with innumerable newspapers, I have repeatedly been forced to pause. I fear that the seventeen or eighteen missing pages may have been burned suddenly lighting candles; and I am more surprised at finding so many than at missing so few.”

“I am utterly in the dark as to where this paper is--whether _chez moi_, or _chez la presse_ (I use French simply as being the briefest way of conveying my doubts). Now mark the difference to me, according to the answer. 1. On the assumption that the paper is in _my_ possession, then, of course, I will seek till I find it, and no labour will be thrown away. But 2. On the counter assumption that the paper is all the while in the possession of the press, the difference to me would be this: That I should be searching for perhaps half a day, and, as it is manifestly not on my table, I should proceed on the postulate that it must have been transferred to the floor, consequently the work would all be unavoidably a process of stooping, and all labour lost, from which I should hardly recover for a fortnight. This explains to you my earnestness in the matter. Exactly the same doubt applies (and therefore exactly the same dilemma or alternative of stoop or stoop not) to some other papers.”

How keenly De Quincey felt in consequence of these continually recurring delays, the following sentences will show:--“It distracts me to find that I have been constantly working at the wrong part. It is most unfortunate, nor am I able to guess the cause, that I who am rendered seriously unhappy whenever I find or suppose myself to have caused any loss of time to a compositor, whose time is generally his main estate, am yet continually doing so unintentionally and in most cases unconsciously. It seems as if to the very last my destiny were to cause delays.”

The frequency of the communications and personal interviews which occurred during the eight years in which the works were in progress may be inferred from the following:--“My dear Sir,--I have been in great anxiety through yesterday and to-day as to the cause of a mysterious interruption of the press intercourse with me. Now, it has happened once before that we were at cross purposes, each side supposing itself stopped by the other. As the easiest way, therefore, of creeping out of the mystery I repeat it to you.”

Notwithstanding the continual interruptions and the difficulty of dragging the volumes through the press, the cordial and friendly feeling which existed between De Quincey and Mr. Hogg was never interrupted by a single jarring word.

Since the fourteen volumes passed into the hands of Messrs. Black, they have added other two volumes, made up of biographies contributed by De Quincey to the “Encyclopædia Britannica,” and a number of papers which remained in Mr. Hogg’s hands.

_JOHN MURRAY_:

BELLES-LETTRES AND TRAVELS.

The foundation of the great publishing houses of London is co-temporary in date with the origin of the private banks and famous breweries; for, as in the case of these establishments, the connections requisite were so extensive, and the needful capital, to render venture a success, so large, that in many instances the present great publishing firms have been the work of three, in some cases even of five, generations. There have, of course, been isolated exceptions, as in the instance of Archibald Constable, of Edinburgh; but these rare cases, though often beneficial to the world at large, have seldom been individually successful.

John McMurray, the founder of the great London house of Murray, was born in Edinburgh about the year 1795, of very respectable parents, who not only gave him a good education, but enlisted for him the sympathies of Sir George Yonge, then an official in high favour. Through Sir George’s influence a commission was obtained in the Royal Marines, and in 1762, we find from the Navy List, that John McMurray joins his frigate full, probably, of hopeful anticipations of the promotion that sometimes came so speedily in the days of the old French wars. The Peace of Paris, however, was signed in the following year, and, spite of patronage and merit, McMurray was, in 1768, still a second lieutenant, and, in point of seniority, thirty-fourth on the list. Disgusted with a profession from which he could hope so little, and eager for a more useful career in life, in this same year he embraced an opportunity that seemed to give him a chance of exchanging the lounging idleness of Chatham barracks for the busy activity of London business, in a trade very congenial to his tastes, and not unaccompanied with hopes of solid emolument.

Among the friends he had made either afloat or at his Chatham quarters was William Falconer, who, a sailor boy “before the mast,” had in the very year of McMurray’s first entry into the service, published the beautiful poem of the “Shipwreck.” This poem attracted great attention, and the author was promoted to the more honourable than lucrative position of midshipman. Fellow-townsmen--and in those days blood was thicker than water--and in some degree fellow-students, for both were lovers of books, they became firm friends; and McMurray’s first thought, when the offer of a bookseller’s business was put before him, was to secure the aid of his literary friend in his new venture; and an interesting letter, still preserved, gives the history of his commencement as a bookseller. Addressed to “Mr. William Falconer, at Dover,” it runs as follows:--

“Brompton, Kent, 16th Oct., 1768.

“DEAR WILL,--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, has entered into company with Snow and Denne, bankers.
I was introduced to this gentleman about a month 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 ----; and I only take his bound stock, and
fixtures, at a fair appraisement, which will not amount to more
than £400, and which, if I ever mean to part with, cannot fail
to bring in nearly the same sum. The shop has long continued
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 would suit you, advise
me, and you shall be assumed upon equal terms.

“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.... 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,
“JOHN MCMURRAY.

“P.S.--My advisers and directors in this affair have been
Thomas Cumming, Esq., Mr. Archibald Paxton, Mr. Samuel
Paterson, of Essex House, and Messrs. J. and W. Richardson,
printers. These, after deliberate reflection, have unanimously
thought that I should accept of Mr. Sandby’s offer.”

From some reason or other the offer was declined; perhaps, as Falconer’s biographer asserts, he was at this time (though absent for a while at Dover) living with his pretty little wife in an attic in Grub Street, toiling at his “Marine Dictionary,” and with no prospect of raising the money requisite for the partnership proposed; perhaps he had already accepted the pursership of the “Aurora” frigate. At all events, immediately after the publication of the third edition of his “Shipwreck,” which was to have contained some lines addressed to McMurray, which, in the hurry of departure were omitted, he sailed in the “Aurora” for India. The Cape was safely reached, but after leaving it the “Aurora” was never heard of again. Ship, crew, and passengers were all lost, and, through the untimely death of the author, the “Shipwreck” acquired a melancholy and almost prophetic interest, which speedily exhausted the third and many future editions.

In the meantime John McMurray had commenced bookselling in earnest. It was at a time when, through Wilkes and Bute, national feeling seems to have run very high, and to be a Scotchman was hardly a recommendation to a beginner, and we find that, though McMurray headed all his trade bills with a ship, as a proud testimony to his naval antecedents, he found it convenient to drop the Scotch prefix of Mc. The following copy of a trade card issued at the time is the first record we have of this alteration of title.

JOHN MURRAY (successor to Mr. SANDBY),
Bookseller and Stationer,
At No. 32, over-against St. Dunstan’s Church,
in Fleet Street,
London.

Sells all new Books and Publications. Fitts 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.

Murray found that Sandby’s connection at Fleet Street was a good one--Mr. William Sandby, indeed, could have been no ordinary bookseller, for his father was a prebendary of Gloucester, and his brother a master of Magdalen College, while he was accepted as partner in a wealthy banking firm--the trade were inclined to “back him up,” and he was able to extend his business considerably in India and Edinburgh, where he had many friends. The new edition of Lord Lyttelton’s “History” was brought out in stately quarto volumes, as befitted the rank of the author, and was completely issued in 1771-2, and, published “with a certain profit, without risque,” must have proved much more remunerative than the original “Henry II.” was to Sandby, who generously offered to pay for the author’s corrections, and who found to his cost that not a single line was left as originally printed.

Murray seems to have kept up his connection with Edinburgh, for in 1773 we find him London agent for the _Edinburgh Magazine and Review_, and in the following year, when it was proposed to separate the _Magazine_ from the _Review_, Stuart writes to Smellie:--“Murray seems fully apprised of the pains and attentions that are necessary, has literary connections, and is fond of the employment; let him, therefore, be the London proprietor.” Murray consented to “take a share,” if his advice were attended to; but the scheme of a review came to nothing, and even the existing _Edinburgh Magazine and Review_ died, in 1776, of a violent attack on Lord Monboddo’s “Origin of Language.” Murray offered his condolence in the following laconic note:--

“DEAR SMELLIE,--I am sorry for the defeat you have met with.
Had you praised Lord Monboddo instead of damning him, it would
not have happened.

“Yours, &c.
“JOHN MURRAY.”

Murray, now that the Edinburgh scheme had come to nothing, commenced in 1780 a volume of annual intelligence of his own under the title of the _London Mercury_; and in January, 1783, with the assistance of a staff of able writers, among whom were Dr. Whittaker and Gilbert Stuart, who had lately come from Scotland, he started the _English Review_.

A great portion of Murray’s retail stock was medical books, and for many years the house had a reputation in the medical world. Of the books, however, which he published, those more latterly issued proved by far the most successful, such as Langhorne’s “Plutarch’s Lives,” Mitford’s “Greece,” and, in 1791, a thin octavo in which the elder Disraeli first gave the public his “Curiosities of Literature”--all of them works which have since been annual sources of revenue to the firm.

Murray found time, however, amidst all this business, to indulge his own literary tastes and aspirations, which had at one time been strong. Some of his pamphlets--such as the “Letter to Mr. Mason on his Edition of Gray’s Poems, and the Practice of Booksellers” (1777); his “Considerations on the Freight and Shipping of the East India Company” (1786), and “An Author’s Conduct to the Public, stated in the Behaviour of Dr. William Cullen” (1784)--acquired much transient reputation.

After a career, as successful we imagine as his wishes could desire, John Murray died on the 6th November, 1793, leaving behind him a widow, two daughters, and an only son, and bequeathing to the latter a business which was destined to carry the name of John Murray wherever the English language was spoken, and wherever English books were read, as the most venturesome and yet the most successful publisher who has ever, in London at all events, encouraged the struggles of authorship and gratified the tastes of half a world of readers.

John Murray, the son, the more immediate object of our memoir, was born in 1778, and was consequently only fifteen at the time of his father’s death. He had been educated primarily at the High School of Edinburgh, doubtless with a view of keeping up the Scotch connection, and had afterwards been removed to “various English seminaries”--among others to Dr. Burney’s academy at Gosport, where, through the carelessness of a writing-master, while making a pen with a penknife, he lost the sight of one of his eyes. The founder of the house not only left the business to his son, but left also a council of regency to manage affairs until he came to the natural years of discretion. By a last will, dated about one month before his death, the elder John Murray appointed four executors--among them his widow, Hester Murray, and Archibald Paxton, who in his letter to Falconer he had named as one of his principal advisers in adopting the bookselling trade. For a year or two after 1793 the name of “H. Murray” figures at the top of the bills and trade circulars, and then disappears from them, Mrs. Murray having, it seems, in 1795, married “Henry Paget, Lieutenant in the West Norfolk Militia,” and retired entirely from the management of the business. Murray was still too young to carry on the shop unaided, so his guardians admitted Mr. Highley, for a long time chief factotum in the shop and manager of the medical department, to a partnership with him. By the agreement the title of the new firm was to be “Murray and Highley;” the latter was solely to conduct the business, and to receive half the profits until young John came of age, after which they were to enjoy equal powers and “share and share” alike.

1778-1843.]

Mr. Highley, who seems to have been a steady, plodding man with much latent exertion against all speculative venture, did little to increase the standing of the firm; probably he imagined that the trade in medical books, as it was attended with the least risk, was the most remunerative portion of the business. His worthy soul was vexed at the anger excited by Whitaker’s slashing articles in the _English Review_. “Enraged authors,” it appears, took to sending huge parcels of defiant, contemptuous, and, worse still, unpaid MSS. to the publisher of the _Review_, complaining of the treatment which their books suffered at the hands of his critics, and “enraged authors” seem at this time to have been about the only readers of the savage periodical in question. One of the last numbers contains a notice that all unpaid post parcels may be inquired for again at the General Post Office; and soon after Mr. Highley eased his shoulders of this burden by merging the _English Review_ in the _Analytical_.