Memoir of John Murray
John Gibson Lockhart to John Murray, 7 February 1826
That I should have been in any measure accessory to bringing
you into the present situation weighs, I assure you, more heavily on my spirits
than even the mass of domestic melancholy with which I am at present
surrounded. What I can do in any way is always at your service, but even the
depression is proof enough that I have not the iron nerves of the man fitted
for daily collision with the world. I hope you have never for a moment supposed
it possible that I should add to your embarrassments by being willing to touch
unearned gold. The Quarterly Review, I think, promises well. Let us hope for
better days. If something very effectual be not done for the mechanical
arrangements in the course of a few days, I shall undoubtedly return to the
opinion which we carried with us one day to Mr.
Powles.
Very sincerely yours,
John Gibson Lockhart (1794-1854)
Editor of the
Quarterly Review (1825-1853); son-in-law of Walter
Scott and author of the
Life of Scott 5 vols (1838).
John Murray II (1778-1843)
The second John Murray began the
Quarterly Review in 1809 and
published works by Scott, Byron, Austen, Crabbe, and other literary notables.
John Diston Powles (1788-1867)
Speculator in Spanish American mining; John Murray and Benjamin Disraeli were involved
with his projects, which went bankrupt in 1826.
The Quarterly Review. (1809-1967). Published by John Murray, the
Quarterly was instigated by Walter
Scott as a Tory rival to the
Edinburgh Review. It was edited by
William Gifford to 1824, and by John Gibson Lockhart from 1826 to 1853.
