POLITICAL, LITERARY, AND MORAL. 423 



* What, the ' Lives and Doings of Mrs. Brownrigg,' I suppose. 

 Well, I pity him. This 'raw-head and bloody-bone ' writing I 

 cannot digest. It is satisfactory however to see that the evil is 

 curing itself. Public taste is again reverting to the healthy standard 

 of our noblest writers. Pope, Milton, Cowper, are already in the 

 field, while cheap and popular reprints of our best divines and 

 moral writers are diffusing their healthy influence through society." 



" I am glad to hear you speak thus of reprints ; there has been a 

 huge outcry raised against them." 



" Yes, there has. In the present instance, however, there are evi- 

 dences of a transition in literature; and you will see a new and 

 higher order of original writing spring from them. The cheap pub- 

 lications have paved the way ; and, though we have repudiated the 

 mode in which many of these have been got up, they have sti- 

 mulated the public mind, and they must either keep pace with it or 

 perish." 



"Apropos, speaking of reprints; what constitutes right in such 

 cases : Cowper, you see, is at issue between two houses, and Sir 

 John the Ross has been forestalled." 



" Cowper is national property, and therefore every man who 

 treats him honourably has an undoubted right to turn him to ac- 

 count. The question is, whether a prior announcement should be 

 considered binding upon publishers. Now I happen to know that 

 when Cunningham's edition of Burns was announced, Mr. Murray 

 and Mr. Lockhart were engaged in getting up an edition, and that 

 they were taken quite aback when the field was occupied. Their 

 illustrations were in hand, and the Life written, and every thing was 

 in preparation. In this instance, however, Mr. Murray, on finding 

 that the arrangements were bonajide, and that there was no chance 

 of a coalition of the works, kept his in abeyance." 



" Honourable on Mr. Murray's part, though it is possible he 

 might have been much longer engaged in getting up his book than 

 the present publisher." 



" Very possible ; and his conduct is, I suppose, a tacitly acknow- 

 ledged rule in the trade ; still it is a rule which may admit of ques- 

 tion. Thus, a speculative house might issue prospectuses of half a 

 dozen works, none of which would ever arrive at perfection ; or a good 

 house, preparing an elaborate and expensive work, might have their 



