You are well acquainted with the nature of a literary undertaking which has occupied my time for several years, and which I am now prepared to submit to the public eye. To describe it however more particularly, it will contain the Constitutional History of England from the accession of Henry VII. to the death of George II., and will bear this or some equivalent title. I consider it in a great degree as a continuation of the eighth chapter of the ‘View of the Middle Ages,’ in which the progress of the English government was deduced, to the reign of Henry VII., at which the present work begins.
The length, as far as I am able to judge, will be very
nearly the same as that of the former; namely, two volumes in quarto,
containing from 1100 to 1200 pages. The octavo editions I rather conceive
should be in four volumes, and consequently each rather smaller than those of
the corresponding editions of the ‘Middle Ages.’ I should wish to put the
first part of the copy into the
| 242 | MEMOIRS OF JOHN MURRAY |
I have every reason to be satisfied with your fairness and liberality on the former occasions, when I was comparatively a stranger to the world of letters, and the success of so extensive a work as the ‘View of the Middle Ages’ was very precarious. But as I have a right to calculate at present on a speedy sale, I think it reasonable to ask a larger proportion of the profits than before, and conceive that a sum equivalent to two-thirds of the net receipts, will be no more than a just price. I should propose on these terms to print 750 copies in quarto, so as to enable the purchasers of the first edition of the ‘Middle Ages’ to complete their set in the same form, and to proceed as nearly as possible at the same time with an edition in octavo, so that there may be no great interval in the publication.
It does not occur to me that I have omitted anything very important; but if so it will be easy for us to come to an explanation.
