Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/172

138 138 CONSTABLE, C A DELL, AND BLACK. right might expire before the sum could be returned, endeavoured to obtain a special additional term, and On more than one occasion Serjeant Talfourd intro- duced a bill into the House of Commons to this effect, but without success. Fortunately, however, the event showed that Cadell was commercially fully jus- tified in his generosity, for before his death not only had he been reimbursed his ^"30,000, but a handsome profit had been earned " for the benefit of all whom it might concern." According to Mr. James Mylne, one of Cadell's executors, the following is the total sale of Scott's works from the time they came into Cadell's hands until his death : Circulation, Waverley Novels ... ... 78,2705613 Poetical Works ... ..; 41,340 ,, Prose Works ... ... 8,260 ,, Life by Lockhart ... .. 26,060,, Tales of a Grandfather ) (as a separate taork) { Selections ... ... ... 7>55 and, as a test of the popularity of the Peoples Edition of the writings^and Life, he states that the following numbers originally printed in weekly sheets were issued : Novels ... ... ... ... 7>H5, I 97 Poetry ... ... ... 674,955 Prose ... ... ... ... 269,406 Life ... ... ... 459,291 Total Sheets 8,518,849 Robert Cadell died on January 21 st, 1849, after a long career rendered prosperous by this splendid pro- perty, and on March 26th, 1851, the novels, poems, prose works, and the " Life" by Lockhart were put up to