I feel greatly obliged by the favour of your kind letter,
and for the good opinion which you are disposed to entertain of certain plans,
of which you will by degrees be enabled to form, I hope, a still more
satisfactory estimate. At present, I will take the liberty of assuring you,
that after your confidence in me, I will neither propose nor think of anything
respecting Mr. Lockhart that has not
clearly for its basis the honour of his family. With regard to our Great
Plan—which really ought not to be designated a newspaper, as that
department of literature has hitherto been conducted—Mr.
Lockhart was never intended to have
| MURRAY’S PROPOSAL. | 199 |
In order, however, to completely obviate any difficulties which have been urged, I have proposed to Mr. Lockhart to come to London as the editor of the Quarterly—an appointment which, I verily believe, is coveted by many of the highest literary characters in the country, and which, of itself, would entitle its possessor to enter into and mix with the first classes of society. For this, and without writing a line, but merely for performing the duties of an editor, I shall have the pleasure of allowing him a thousand pounds a year; and this, with contributions of his own, might easily become £1500, and take no serious portion of his time either. Then, for his connection with the paper, he will become permanently interested in a share we can guarantee to him for three years, and which, I am confident, will be worth, at the end of that period, at least £3000; and the profits from that share will not be less than £1500 per annum. I have lately heard, from good authority, that the annual profit of the Times is £40,000, and that a share in the Courier sold last week (wretchedly conducted, it seems) at the rate of £100,000 for the property.
But this is not all. You know well enough that the business
of a publishing bookseller is not in his shop or even his connection, but in
his brains; and we can put forward together a series of valuable literary
works, and without, observe me, in any of these plans, the slightest risk to
Mr. Lockhart. And I do most solemnly
assure
| 200 | MEMOIRS OF JOHN MURRAY |
