Memoir of John Murray
John Wilson Croker to John Murray, 29 March 1823
Brighton, March 29th, 1823.
As I shall not be in Town in time to see you to-morrow, I send
you some papers. I return the Poor article* with its additions. Let the
author’s amendments be attended to, and let his termination be inserted
between his former conclusion and that which I have written. It is a good
article, not overdone and yet not dull. I return, to be set up, the article [by Captain Procter] on Southey’s
‘Peninsular
War.’ It is very bad—a mere abstracted
history of the war itself, and not in the least a review of the book. I have taken pains to remove some part of this
error, but you must feel how impossible it is to change the whole frame of such
an article. A touch thrown in here and there will give some relief, and the
character of a review will be in some small degree
preserved. This cursed system of writing dissertations will be the death of us,
and if I were to edit another number, I should make a great alteration in that
particular. But for this time I must be satisfied with plastering up what I
have not time to rebuild. One thing I would do immediately if I were you. I
would pay for articles of one sheet as much as for
articles of two and three, and, in fact, I would scarcely permit an article to exceed one sheet. I would reserve such
extension for matters of great and immediate interest and importance. I am
delighted that W.† undertakes one, he will do it well; but remember the
necessity of absolute secrecy on this point, and indeed
on all others. If you were to publish such names as Cohen and Croker and
![]()
![]()
![]()
| 58 | MEMOIRS OF JOHN MURRAY | |
![]()
Collinson and Coleridge, the magical we would have
little effect, and your Review would be absolutely despised—omne ignotum pro mirifico. I suppose I
shall see you about twelve on Tuesday. Could you not get me a gay light article
or two? If I am to edit for you, I cannot find time to
contribute. Madame
Campan’s poem will more than expend my leisure. I came
here for a little recreation, and I am all day at the desk as if I were at the
Admiralty. This Peninsular article has cost me two days’ hard work, and
is, after all, not worth the trouble; but we must have something about it, and
it is, I suppose, too late to expect anything better. Mr.
Williams’s article on Sir W.
Scott is contemptible, and would expose your Review to the ridicule of the whole bar; but it may be made something
of, and I like the subject. I had a long and amusing talk with the Chancellor the night before last, on his own and
his brother’s judgments; I wish I had time to embody our conversation in
an article.
Yours ever,
J. W. C.
Southey is very long, but as good as
he is long—I have nearly done with him. I write very slowly, and
cannot write long. This letter is written at three sittings.
Jeanne-Louise-Henriette Campan (1752-1822)
She was lady-in-waiting to Queen Marie Antoinette, afterwards the head-mistress of a
fashionable school in Paris.
Sir John Taylor Coleridge (1790-1876)
Barrister, nephew of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and writer for the
Quarterly Review, of which he was briefly editor in 1824, succeeding William
Gifford.
John Wilson Croker (1780-1857)
Secretary of the Admiralty (1810) and writer for the
Quarterly
Review; he edited an elaborate edition of Boswell's
Life of
Johnson (1831).
George Robert Gleig (1796-1888)
Prolific Tory writer who rose to attention with
The Subaltern,
serialized in
Blackwood's; he was appointed chaplain-general of the
forces in 1844.
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.
Sir Francis Palgrave (1788-1861)
Barrister, medieval historian, and writer for the
Quarterly
Review; he was keeper of her majesty's records, 1838-61.
George Procter (1795 c.-1842)
Superintendent at Sandhurst, writer for the
Quarterly Review, and
author of
The History of Italy (1844); he died at sea.
John Scott, first earl of Eldon (1751-1838)
Lord chancellor (1801-27); he was legal counsel to the Prince of Wales and an active
opponent of the Reform Bill.
Robert Southey (1774-1843)
Poet laureate and man of letters whose contemporary reputation depended upon his prose
works, among them the
Life of Nelson, 2 vols (1813),
History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (1823-32) and
The Doctor, 7 vols (1834-47).
Joseph Blanco White (1775-1841)
Emigrated to England from Seville in 1810, studied at Oxford and was tutor to Lord
Holland's son Henry; he wrote for the
New Monthly Magazine and
published on theology.
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.
