LITERARY AND DOMESTIC LIFE. 293 



Uranus poem, the proprietor of it being some old Don, who for these 

 seven years had dunned Murray constantly, the bookseller in the 

 mean time writing, he says, to Blackwood, equally in vain. 



" One thing remains; that the whole MS. be forthwith transmit- 

 ted to Murray ; in that case the old gent, may probably never know 

 of the printing of any part. I fear the volume is heavy on the whole ; 

 but I know the deepness of my own prejudice against metaphysical 

 essays, and would fain hope it is not largely partaken. 



" Maginn is off for Paris, where I hope he will behave himself. 

 He has an opportunity of retrieving much, if he will use it. I 

 think there can be nothing in his removal to injure his writings in 

 Blackwood, but au contraire, and certainly nothing to diminish 

 their quantity. 



" Mr. has yesterday transferred to me the treasures of 



the Review ; and I must say, my dear Wilson, that his whole stock 

 is not worth five shillings. Thank God, other and better hands are 

 at work for my first number, or I should be in a pretty hobble. 

 My belief is that he has been living on the stock bequeathed by 

 Gifford, and the contributions of a set of d — d idiots of Oriel. 

 But mind now, Wilson, I am sure to have a most hard struggle to 

 get up a very good first Number, and, if I do not, it will be the 

 Devil. I entreat you to cast about for a serious and important 

 subject ; give your mind full scope, and me the benefit of a week's 

 Christmas leisure. 



"Murray's newspaper concerns seem to go on flourishingly. 

 The title, I am rather of belief, will be ' The Representative,'* but 

 he has not yet fixed. 



" I shall write you in due time, and at length, as to that busi- 

 ness. 



" As for me personally, every thing goes on smoothly. I have 

 the kindest letters from Southey, and indeed from all the real sup- 



* Murray's newspaper concerns did not go on " flourishingly." as may be gathered from the fol- 

 lowing note:— "With Mr. Benjamin Disraeli for editor, and witty Dr. Maginn for Paris Corres- 

 pondent, John Murray's new daily paper, The Representative ([.rice 7d.), began its inauspicious 

 career on the 25th January, 1S26. It is needless to rake up the history of a dead and buried dis- 

 aster. After a short and unhappy career of six months, The Beprt 8> ntatvoe expired of debility 

 on the subsequent 29th of July. The Thames was not on fire, and Printing House Square stood 

 calmly where it had stood. When, in after years, sanguine and speculative projectors enlarged to 

 John Murray on the excellent opening for a new daily paper, he of Albemarle streel would shake 

 his head, and with rather a melancholy expression of countenance, pointing to a thin folio on his 

 shelves, would say, 'Twenty thousand pounds ar* buried there.'"— "Histories of Publishing 

 Houses," Critic, January I'i. lot*). 



