Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/206

170 i;o JOHN MURRAY. also except Hood. I have seldom seen a pleasanter man to deal with. Our names are what he principally wants, especially yours. ... I do not wish even in confidence to say anything ill of the London book- sellers beyond their deserts ; but I can assure you that to compare this offer of Murray's with their usual offers is magnanimous indeed. Longman and Rees and a few of the great booksellers have literally monopolized the trade, and the business of literature is getting a dreadful one indeed. The Row folks have done nothing for me yet ; I know not what they in- tend. The fallen prices of literature which is getting worse by the horrible complexion of the times make me often rather gloomy at the life I am likely to lead. You may guess, therefore, my anxiety to close with this proposal ; and you may think me charitable indeed to retain myself from wishing that you were as poor as myself, that you might have motives to lend your aid." Scott, however, was too busy on higher paid work and was obliged to decline the offer, and for the present Campbell went back to his "hack- work." Poor Campbell had suffered much from the publishers. His "Pleasures of Hope" had been re- jected by every bookseller in Glasgow and Edinburgh ; not one of them would even risk paper and printing upon the chance of its success. At last Messrs. Mun- dell and Son, printers to the University of Glasgow, with much reluctance undertook its publication, upon the liberal condition of allowing the author fifty copies at trade price, and, in the event of its reaching a second edition, a gratuity of ten pounds. A few years afterwards, when Campbell was present at a literary dinner party, he was asked to give a toast, and without a moment's hesitation he^proposed " Bonaparte."