Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/198

164 164 JOHN MURRAY. author, and was completely issued in 17712, and, published " with a certain profit, without risque," must have proved much more remunerative than the original "Henry II." was to Sandby, who generously offered to pay for the author's corrections, and who found to his cost that not a single line was left as originally printed. Murray seems to have kept up his connection with Edinburgh, for in 1773 we find him London agent for the, Edinburgh Magazine and Review, and in the fol- lowing year, when it was proposed to separate the Magazine from the Review, Stuart writes to Smellie : "Murray seems fully apprised of the pains and at- tentions that are necessary, has literary connections, and is fond of the employment ; let him, therefore, be the London proprietor." Murray consented to " take a share," if his advice were attended to ; but the scheme of a review came to nothing, and even the existing Edinburgh Magazine and Revieiv died, in 1776, of a violent attack on Lord Monboddo's "Ori- gin of Language." Murray offered his condolence in the following laconic note : " DEAR SMELLIE, I am sorry for the defeat you have met with. Had you praised Lord Monboddo instead of damning him, it would not have happened. "Yours, &c. "JOHN MURRAY." Murray, now that the Edinburgh scheme had come to nothing, commenced in 1780 a volume of annual intelligence of his own under the title of the London Mercury ; and in January, 1783, with the assistance of a staff of able writers, among whom were Dr. Whit-