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V. STATESMen of EuropE. France. Part II., Leisure Hour,
VI. THROUGH CHINESE SPECTACLES,

POETRY.

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From Blackwood's Magazine.

JOHN MURRAY AND HIS FRIENDS.* "METHINKS," says George Heriot to Sir Mungo Malagrowther, in the "Fortunes of Nigel," "it were unseemly that I, who have furnished half the cupboards in broad Britain, should have my own covered with paltry pewter." It would have been equally unseemly if John Murray, who had in his lifetime published so many excellent biographies, should have been denied a good memoir to himself. The career of a man whom Lord Byron had dubbed the "Anax of Publishers, the Anak of Stationers," and whom his fellow-publishers hailed with acclamation as the "Emperor of the West," must necessarily form an important chapter in literary history, full of interesting recollections of mighty authors, and recording the inner history of our closest friends, the standard volumes on our library shelves.

verdict; literary history teems with examples of his fallibility and his rapacity. The Curlls and the Griffithses have given a character to their craft which their more righteous successors have with difficulty lived down. And even such a work as lies before us a plain tale of honorable and generous dealing in literary wares — will only go a certain length in vindicating the "trade in the auctorial imagination. There is a good reason for it: the number of successful authors is small, very small; the crowd of ambitious and disappointed writers is numberless as the sands on the seashore. The former may complaisantly allow the publisher to be a Mæcenas; the latter will assuredly revile him as a Shylock.

The position of a publisher, while it exposes him to extravagant and unreasonable expectations, also lays upon him obligations from which all other classes of traders are happily exempt. We may dismiss the idea that it is his duty to recog.

In literature,

as in horticulture, forcing is not always
attended by success. But we may justly

recognize a work of genius when it is
brought to him, and that he shall aid the
author in placing it before the public. But
here comes in the publisher's difficulty.
He may be quite alive to the merits and
worth of a work, but he is also aware
that these will not appeal to public opinion
and public taste, which make
up the gauge
that he has to go by.
good instance of this in Murray's dealing
with Carlyle and "Sartor Resartus."

The history of literature from the publisher's that is, from the practicalpoint of view, has been much less illus-nize genius in the germ, and to nurse it as trated than is advantageous. The life of in a hothouse through the bud and blosthe author is a debt claimed by the world, som until the fruit is ripe. and only too readily paid even when the obligation is not overwhelming. Naturally in such a record the publisher, in-demand that the publisher shall be able to dispensable as are his functions, does not always figure in the best light. It is he who subjects genius to base mechanical measurement; who keeps the key of the gate between it and a public eager to greet it with open arms; and who will by no means allow it to pass without taking toll of its effects. The publisher is the sharp point of contact which the author or the poet first encounters in his descent from the spiritual ether to the grosser mundane atmosphere. Mind is confronted with matter; sordid realities are weighed against intellectual ideas, and the lead almost shakes the quicksilver out of the balance; there is a shock and a disillusion. The publisher arrogates to himself the attributes of justice, and we willingly concede him the bandage. We have only too many precedents for impugning his

* A Publisher and his Friends: Memoir and Corre spondence of the late John Murray. By Samuel Smiles, LL.D. Two volumes. London: Murray, 1891.

We have a very

Carlyle came up from Craigenputtock with the MS. of "Sartor Resartus," and with a letter of introduction from Lord Jeffrey to Mr. Murray. Some delay occurred in examining the work, and Jeffrey called and induced the publisher to venture upon an edition of seven hundred and fifty on a "half-profits" agreement liberal enough offer, considering that Carlyle was only known as the author of "Schiller "and the translator of " Wilhelm Meister," and the contributor of some review articles. But Carlyle had mean

a

while taken his MS. round the Row, with | tensive in import. The shop he went into

was the "Ship," opposite St. Dunstan's
Church; and here for twenty-five years be
carried on a solid business, publishing a
number of works of which scarcely the
names linger in our literature, except
Isaac D'Israeli's "Curiosities of Liter-
ature,'
"Whitaker's " Manchester," Mit-
ford's "Greece," and Lavater's "Physiog
nomy," his last and worst enterprise, over
whic: he lost £3,900 for the engraving of
the plates. He also made some essays in
periodical publication, an annual London
Mercury, written mostly by himself, and
the English Review, in which he had the
doubtful assistance for some time of the
notorious and unfortunate Gilbert Stuart.
Lieutenant Murray was still a young man
when he died, and his son, who was to
succeed him in the business, was only
fifteen at the time.

very indifferent success; and when Murray heard of other refusals, he was naturally unwilling to proceed with the book upon trust. The MS. was read, evidently by Lockhart, whose opinion, in quasiirony, has been since permanently appended to the work. "He thought it might be a translation. The work displayed, here and there, some felicity of thought and expression, with considerable fancy and knowledge, but whether or not it would take with the public seemed doubtful." It is not to be wondered at, under the circumstances, that Murray was indisposed to give Carlyle the benefit of the doubt, and that the work had to be taken back to Craigenputtock, and find its way to the public in course of time through the pages of Fraser." But as Dr. Smiles truly observes, "Carlyle himself created the taste to appreciate Sartor Resartus.' Had it then been published, it would probably have proved a blank in the liter-ing smooth water under him when he was ary lottery; Carlyle would perhaps have been discouraged from further work in his native vein, and Murray would most probably have lost his money. It requires the cumulative force of Carlyle's books to enable us to appreciate them individually, and it is the publisher's daily experience to meet with works holding out a promise that is never justified.

name.

The publishing house of Murray dates back to the year 1768, and its contemporary head is John Murray III. of that The business began coevally with a great change in the profession of literature, of which Johnson's indignant denunciations of the patron, and Goldsmith's vindication of the craft of letters in his "Enquiry into Polite Learning," were certain keynotes. With this change the establishment of the house of Murray was coincident, and it is to its renown that it has done much none more - to elevate the literary calling to dignity and independence. In that year a Scotch lieutenant of marines, thrown out of active service by the peace, and despairing of promotion, quitted Chatham for Fleet Street and be came a "bookseller." We have an affectionate liking for this ancient term, for its more modern substitute is often not coex

Although the heir to an established house, John Murray II. was far from find

launched into business. He had a partner, Mr. Highley, whom he felt to be an incubus upon his views, and he early showed his firmness and decision by getting rid of him. His earlier letters indicate a remarkable grasp of business, enterprise, determination, and great consistency of purpose and principle, which were the dominant characteristics of his successful life. He had had a fair education at Dr. Burney's and other good private schools; and he had that discriminative literary instinct and taste which, whether the product of education or a natural gift, is the note of all great publishers. His correspondence from the beginning proves how readily he had mastered his position. The author looks to his publisher for a plain, matterof-fact, sensible opinion; he will not tol erate the language of superior criticism; and while welcoming genuine and spontaneous appreciation, he resents nothing more than flattery from such a source. Murray understood this well, and his letters were undoubtedly as pleasant as valuable to the recipients. Writing to him on one occasion, Isaac D'Israeli thus compliments him:

Your letter is one of the repeated speci mens I have seen of your happy art of giving

interest even to commonplace correspondence; | Dr. Smiles has been able to make out in
and I, who am so feelingly alive to the pains his elaborate work.
and penalties of postage, must acknowledge
that such letters, ten times repeated, would
please me as often.

Lord Byron's appreciation of Murray's
letters had long ago made us familiar with
their merits, and in the volumes before us
we find even fair and fashionable dames
like Lady Caroline Lamb and Mrs. Norton
hanging on his accents, or rather on his

pen.

We have now the counterpart of this correspondence presented to us in many of Murray's own letters; and while they do not present us with many fresh facts, they strongly confirm our previous opinion that it was a piece of rare good fortune for Byron to have Murray for his publisher and literary adviser. In a letter which we do not find quoted by Dr. Smiles, Byron mentions that he had never met but three men who would have held out a finger to him, and of these Murray was the only one who offered it while he really wanted

its sceptical views and an attack on Lord Elgin in the original. Murray consulted Gifford, whose opinion was favorable, and six hundred guineas were given for the copyright.

The two great facts in John Murray's career, which, by their importance and wide-spreading consequences, throw into the shade all his other literary acts, im-it. The memoir before us renders Murportant as they are intrinsically when ray's good offices and Byron's gratitude viewed by themselves, were his associa- quite intelligible. tion with Byron and his publication of the The connection began with "Childe Quarterly Review; and naturally both Harold." Dallas, to whom Byron had these subjects occupy a large portion of presented the MS., brought it to Murray Dr. Smiles's volumes. Those who ex-after Miller had refused it on account of pected important additions to our "Byroniana" will, however, feel considerable disappointment. We are merely again led over the same old ground that we have already traversed with Moore. This is not surprising; for the great bulk of Moore's materials, including all the letters from poet to publisher, were supplied by Murray, who, in a jocular balancing of accounts with Moore, credits himself with £2,000 for "contributing one-half of the work myself by Lord Byron's letters to his publisher." It is in these letters the frankest of all Byron's outpourings, whimsical, riotous, querulous, biting, and affectionate, a delightful medley of mixed feelings that we like to find the "dear Mr. Murray," who was

In a d -d hurry

To set up this ultimate canto;
and to whose account it was laid that
For Orford and for Waldegrave
You gave much more than me you gave,
Which is not fairly to behave,
My Murray.

Because if a live dog, 'tis said,
Be worth a lion fairly sped,

A live lord should be worth two dead,
My Murray.

The Murray who is the interlocutor in the
Byron correspondence has a better charter
of immortality granted to him than even

That Mr. Murray was quick in recognizing [says Dr. Smiles] the just value of poetical works and the merits of Lord Byron's poem, is evident from the fact that at the very time that Miller declined to publish “Childe Harold," he accepted a poem by Rosa Matilda (Temple) which Murray had refused to publish, and that it was sold the year after as waste-paper, whilst Murray jumped at the offer of publishing Lord Byron's poem, and did not hesitate to purchase the copyright for a large price.

From the first Murray was a critic as well as publisher of Byron's poetry; and fortified by the opinion of Gifford, against which his lordship was at first disposed to rebel, although he afterwards came to regard Gifford as an oracle, Murray is often found applauding, deprecating, and sug gesting, as the sheets passed through the press. We quote at length from the first letter to Lord Byron given in these volumes, as it gives the keynote to Murray's intercourse with his noble author, and may serve as an excellent sample of numerous other admirable letters which want of space prevents us from even referring to.