I have read the letter I received yesterday evening with the greatest interest, and closed it with the sincerest pleasure. I think we now begin to understand each other, and if we do that I am sure I have no sort of apprehension as to the result of the whole business. But in writing one must come to the point, therefore I proceed at once to your topics in their order, and rely on it I shall speak as openly on every one of them as I would to my brother.
Mr. Croker’s behaviour has indeed distressed me, for I had always considered him as one of those bad enemies who make excellent friends. I had not the least idea that he had ever ceased to regard you personally with friendship, even affection, until B. D. told me about his trafficking with Knight; for as to the little hints you gave me when in town, I set all that down to his aversion for the notion of your setting up a paper, and thereby dethroning him from his invisible predominance over the Tory daily press, and of course attached little importance to it. I am now satisfied, more particularly after hearing how he behaved himself in the interview with you, that there is some deeper feeling in his mind. The correspondence that has been passing between him and me may have been somewhat imprudently managed on my part. I may have committed myself to a certain extent in it in more ways than one. It is needless to regret what cannot be undone; at all events, I perceive that it is now over with us for the present. I do not, however, believe but that he will continue to do what he has been used to do for the Review; indeed, unless he makes the newspaper business his excuse, he stands completely pledged to me to adhere to that.
But with reverence be it spoken, even this does not seem to
me a matter of very great moment. On the contrary, I believe that his papers in
the Review have (with a few exceptions) done the work a great deal more harm than
good. I cannot express what I feel; but there was always the bitterness of
Gifford without his dignity, and the
bigotry of Southey without his
bonne-foi . His scourging of
such poor deer as Lady Morgan was unworthy
of a work of that rank. If we can get the same information elsewhere, no fear that we need equally regret the
secretary’s
| 226 | MEMOIRS OF JOHN MURRAY |
I am vexed not a little at Mr. Barrow’s imprudence in mentioning my name to Croker and to Rose as in connection with the paper; and for this reason that I was most anxious to have produced at least one number of the Review ere that matter should have been at all suspected. As it is, I hope you will still find means to make Barrow, Rose, and Croker (at all events the two last) completely understand that you had, indeed, wished me to edit the paper, but that I had declined that, and that then you had offered me the Review.
No matter what you say as to the firm belief I have expressed that the paper will answer, and the resolutions I have made to assist you by writing political articles in it. It is of the highest importance that in our anxiety about a new affair one should not lose sight of the old and established one, and I can believe that if the real state of the case were known at the outset of my career in London, a considerable feeling detrimental to the Quarterly might be excited. We have enough of adverse feelings to meet, without unnecessarily swelling their number and aggravating their quality.
I beg you to have a serious conversation with Mr. Barrow on this head, and in the course of it take care to make him thoroughly understand that the prejudices or doubts he gave utterance to in regard to me were heard of by me without surprise, and excited no sort of angry feeling whatever. He could know nothing of me but from flying rumours, for the nature of which he could in no shape be answerable. As for poor Rose’s well-meant hints about my “identifying myself perhaps in the mind of society with the scavengers of the press,” “the folly of your risking your name on a paper” &c. &c., of course we shall equally appreciate all this. Rose is a timid dandy, and a bit of a Whig to boot. I shall make some explanation to him when I next have occasion to write to him, but that sort of thing would come surely with a better grace from you than from me. I have not a doubt that he will be a daily scribbler in your paper ere it is a week old.
To all these people—Croker as well as the rest—John Murray is of much more importance than they ever can be
| LOCKHART’S VIEWS AND PLANS. | 227 |
I come to pleasanter matters. Nothing, indeed, can be more handsome, more generous than Mr. Coleridge’s whole behaviour. I beg of you to express to him the sense I have of the civility with which he has been pleased to remember and allude to me, and assure him that I am most grateful for the assistance he offers, and accept of it to any extent he chooses. I shall be most happy to have his paper on the West Indies as soon as he finds it convenient to do it, and shall wait upon him as soon as I get to London, in order that I may have the benefit of his advice and instruction as to the affairs of the Review in general. I hope Mr. Southey will execute the proposed article on the Law Society, a subject which I should think is eminently suited for him, and trust that you will put him in possession of the materials he requires forthwith if you have not already done so.
The subject of Medical Jurisprudence is one which I think ought to be taken up in the Quarterly Review. Two very good English books have recently been published on this subject, but neither of them equal to the great French one they pillage. The topic is interesting, or ought to be so, to every man who is liable to act as a grand juryman, and it is in that view, and with relation to that class, that I should wish to see a luminous article written by some first-rate hand. Could Mr. Laurence* do this? at all events, could you consult with him in regard to it? What an amusing essay Southey could write if he had those books before him! but then he would want the scientific knowledge.
I have had a great deal of conversation with Scott about Byron. He desires me to tell you, in the first place, that it is his decided opinion you ought forthwith to put forth a complete edition of all his works, ‘Don Juan’ and everything. It was right in you not to encourage even him in the writing of such things when he might be writing others.
* The eminent surgeon. |
| 228 | MEMOIRS OF JOHN MURRAY |
I wrote to Disraeli
yesterday about my motions southwards. I much regret that it is not possible
for me to be in town now before the 10th or 11th; by that last day I can
promise that I shall be there. Mrs.
Lockhart is most sensible, as well as I, to the kindness with
which you and Mrs. Murray have offered
us shelter in Whitehall Place. We have connections, however, who would take it
amiss did we place ourselves under any private roof but theirs. She has an old
godmother in Piccadilly, &c. &c. In short, I believe we must decline
your proffered kindness; though, if circumstances should appear to admit of our
coming to you, be assured we shall avail ourselves of your hospitalities
without hesitation. At all events, I shall be in town
and at your service then, and if other arrangements admit of
| SCOTT’S OPINION OF LOCKHART | 229 |
My wife joins me in best compliments and thanks to Mrs. Murray, and I assure you I sign myself with the most perfect sincerity,
