Memoir of John Murray
John Murray to Robert Southey, 11 December 1824
Albemarle Street, Dec. 11th, 1824.
My dear Sir,
Having possessed myself of your valuable opinion and advice
with regard to the choice of a new Editor for the Quarterly Review, I did
not like to trouble you further until after necessary circumspection and the
arrangement of some delicate interests, I could feel satisfied that I might
venture to make my election with propriety and with safety. It is with no small
degree of pleasure that I can ![]()
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now inform you that my
decision accords with your recommendation, and that, after the little that
there can be to negotiate, I have every reason to believe that it will
terminate in Mr. Coleridge’s
accepting the Editorship. In the meantime, it would be a kind and serviceable
act if you were so good as to write your opinion and recommendation of
Mr. Coleridge to Mr.
Canning and Mr. Croker,
whose confidence is of great importance for us to obtain.
I shall only add that I rely upon the promise of your fervid
support under this new arrangement, and that I remain always, etc.,
J. M.
George Canning (1770-1827)
Tory statesman; he was foreign minister (1807-1809) and prime minister (1827); a
supporter of Greek independence and Catholic emancipation.
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).
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.
