Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/139

107 THE LONGMAN FAMIL Y. 107 Library," commenced in 1851, is deservedly worthy of notice. In this year occurred the unusual pheno- menon of a pamphlet, bearing on its title-page the joint names of Mr. Longman and Mr. Murray. This was a reprint of some correspondence with Earl Russell, in his official capacity, as to the injustice of the State undertaking the publication of school-books at the national expense, and compelling the govern- ment schools to adopt them thus creating a perfect monopoly and interfering with private enterprise, The books in question were published by the Irish Educa- tional Commissioners, but more than three-quarters of them were eventually sold in England many of them, especially the collection of poetry, were, it was further urged, pirated from copyright works. The correspondence was long and protracted on the side of the publishers ; and as is often the case in an important public question, Earl Russell's replies con- sisted of the merest acknowledgment. Mr. Long- man had, however, an opportunity of a pleasant re- venge. Tom Moore had left all his papers, letters, and journals to the care of his friend, Earl Russell a man who, as Sydney Smith said, thought he could do anything " build St. Paul's, cut for the stone, or com- mand the Channel Fleet." The one thing apparently he could not do was the editorship or composition of a Poet's Life. The. material, indeed, was ample, and seems to have been printed pretty much as it came to hand. However, the sum which Mr. Longman gave for the papers appeared, together with the pension, an ample provision for the devoted " Bessy." Among the later efforts of the firm we may here mention the issue of many finely illustrated works, and we must also chronicle the fact that in 1863 72