Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/193

159 JOHN MURRA Y: BELLES-LETTRES AND TRAVELS. HP HE foundation of the great publishing houses of London is co-temporary in date with the origin of the private banks and famous breweries ; for, as in the case of these establishments, the connections requisite were so extensive, and the needful capital, to render venture a success, so large, that in many instances the present great publishing firms have been the work of three, in some cases even of five, genera- tions. There have, of course, been isolated excep- tions, as in the instance of Archibald Constable, of Edinburgh ; but these rare cases, though often bene- ficial to the world - at large, have seldom been in- dividually successful. John McMurray, the founder of the great London house of Murray, was born in Edinburgh about the year 1795, of very respectable parents, who not only gave him a good education, but enlisted for him the sympathies of Sir George Yonge, then an official in high favour. Through Sir George's influence a com- mission was obtained in the Royal Marines, and in