“My dear Sir,—I received
your letter, which is a melancholy one, and I heartily wish it were in my power
to answer it as I might formerly have done. But you know that were I to apply
to any bookseller unconnected with myself to take a work in which he did not
see his immediate profit—and, if he did, my intervention would be useless—he
would naturally expect me in some way or other to become bound to make up the
risk. Now, I have no dealings with any except Cadell, nor can I have, as he has engaged great part of his
fortune in my publication. By the great bankruptcy of Constable in Edinburgh, and Hurst and Robinson in London, some years ago, I lost, I need hardly say,
more than all I was worth. I might have taken a commission of bankruptcy, or I
| SIR WALTER SCOTT. | 313. |
“Still, however, I have an easy income, and will willingly join in any subscription to cover the expense of publication of any work, not religious or political, which you choose to undertake. Suppose the price a guinea, I mean I would subscribe for ten copies, for which I should hold one sufficient. If a hundred, or even fifty gentlemen would subscribe in the same proportion only to the merit of their own means, the urgency of the occasion would be in some degree met. I cannot be further useful, for till a month or two ago I had not a silver spoon which I could call my own, or a book of my own to read out of a pretty good library, which is now my own once more by the voluntary relinquishment of the parties concerned. I have been thus particular in this matter, though not the most pleasant to write about, because I wish you to understand distinctly the circumstances which leave me not at liberty to engage in this matter to the extent you wish.
“I am, my dear sir, your very obedient, humble servant,
