Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 39.djvu/399

 The project suggested about this time to Murray by Benjamin Disraeli for starting a daily newspaper, to be entitled 'The Representative,' was perhaps the only one of Murray's important enterprises which brought him nothing but mortification and loss, and the only one in which his usual excellent judgment failed to be displayed. Nothing can more forcibly evince the extraordinary talent of Disraeli than the spell which at the age of twenty he threw over this sagacious and experienced man of the world. At the same time it is sufficiently evident that the secret of his fascination lay in his own intense belief in his own project, and that the measures he took to further it were judicious as well as energetic ; while it is by no means certain that the scheme might not have been a success after all if Murray had not trusted his confederate only by halves. When Disraeli, not from his own default, but from that of the person on whom he had relied, proved unable to advance his share of the capital, Murray immediately broke with him, and in so doing 'took the post-horses from his carriage,' as Brougham said on another occasion. It is strange that all the resources of his house .should have produced nothing more creditable, but so it was : 'The Representative' was an unmitigated failure from first to last, and its discontinuance in July 1826, after an ignominious existence of six months, left Murray no other cause for self-congratulation than the fortitude with which he had shown himself capable of bearing a loss of 26,000l. The affair naturally led to the interruption of his old friendship with the elder Disraeli, and sowed the seeds of the enmity between Disraeli and Croker which bore literary fruit in 'Coningsby.' It also inspired 'Vivian Grey,' long supposed to have been derived from actual experience of party cabals, but now seen to be neither more nor less than the history of 'The Representative' transported into the sphere of politics. Murray and Disraeli were afterwards coldly reconciled, and the latter's 'Contarini Fleming' and 'Gallomania' were published in Albemarle Street. Another reconciliation, prompted by the strongest mutual interest, produced Moore's 'Life of Byron' and his edition of Byron's works, Murray buying up all the copyrights not already in his possession for more than 3,000l.

Murray's latter years were unmarked by striking incidents. He published many of the most important books of his day, among which may be particularly mentioned the first volume of Napier's 'Peninsular War,' by which he lost heavily; Croker's 'Boswell,' so lashed by Macaulay and slighted by Carlyle; Borrow's 'Bible in Spain,' Lyell's 'Geology,' and Mrs. Somerville's 'Connection of the Physical Sciences;' and he narrowly escaped publishing 'Sartor Resartus'and Mill's 'Logic.' He deferred so far to the growing taste for cheap literature as to bring out 'The Family Library,' a most admirable collection of popular treatises by Scott, Southey, Milman, Palgrave, and other first-class writers, which ran to forty-seven volumes, but does not appear to have been exceedingly profitable. Another very important undertaking was that of the world-famous handbooks, which originated in the publication by him of Mrs. Mariana Starke's 'Guide for Travellers on the Continent' in 1820, but received their present form as a consequence of the continental travels of his son, the third John Murray [q. v.] He depended much on his own judgment; his principal literary advisers seem to have been Lockhart, Milman, Barrow, and Lady Calcott.

Murray's health began to decline in the autumn of 1842, and he died on 27 June 1843. His character was that of a consummate man of business, who had caught from his pursuits much of the urbanity that should characterise the man of letters, and possessed moreover an innate generosity and magnanimity which continually streams forth in his transactions with individuals, and inspired this general maxim : 'The business of a publishing bookseller is not in his shop, or even in his connections, but in his brains.' These qualities were evinced not merely by his frequently munificent dealings with individual authors, but by his steady confidence in the success of the best literature, and his pride in being himself the medium for giving it to the world. His own interest was indeed the polestar of his life, nor could he otherwise have obtained his extraordinary success ; but he was always ready to devote time, trouble, and money to the service of others. If some instances of his liberality to the most conspicuous writers (who not unfrequently repaid him in kind) may have been the effect of calculation, he was also liberal to some, like Maturin and Foscolo, from whom he could expect little return. He did more than any man of his time to dignify the profession of bookselling, and was amiable and estimable in every private relation.

A portrait of Murray by Pickersgill was lent by his son to the third loan exhibition of national portraits.