A Publisher and His Friends | Page 8

sent the following introduction:
"Agreeable to my promise, I commit to you the charge of my son, and,
as I mentioned to you in person, I agree to the terms of fifty guineas.
The youth has been hitherto well spoken of by the gentleman he has
been under. You will find him sensible and candid in the information
you may want from him; and if you are kind enough to bestow pains
upon him, the obligation on my part will be lasting. The branches to be
learnt are these: Latin, French, Arithmetic, Mercantile Accounts,
Elocution, History, Geography, Geometry, Astronomy, the Globes,
Mathematics, Philosophy, Dancing, and Martial Exercise."
Certainly, a goodly array of learning, knowledge, and physical training!
To return to the history of Mr. Murray's publications. Some of his best
books were published after the stroke of paralysis which he had
sustained, and among them must be mentioned Mitford's "History of
Greece," Lavater's work on Physiognomy, and the first instalment of
Isaac D'Israeli's "Curiosities of Literature."

The following extract from a letter to the Rev. Mr. Whitaker, dated
December 20, 1784, takes us back to an earlier age.
"Poor Dr. Johnson's remains passed my door for interment this
afternoon. They were accompanied by thirteen mourning coaches with
four horses each; and after these a cavalcade of the carriages of his
friends. He was about to be buried in Westminster Abbey."
In the same year the Rev. Alexander Fraser of Kirkhill, near Inverness,
communicated to Mr. Murray his intention of publishing the Memoirs
of Lord Lovat, the head of his clan. Mr. Eraser's father had received the
Memoirs in manuscript from Lord Lovat, with an injunction to publish
them after his death. "My father," he said, "had occasion to see his
Lordship a few nights before his execution, when he again enjoined
him to publish the Memoirs." General Fraser, a prisoner in the Castle of
Edinburgh, had requested, for certain reasons, that the publication
should be postponed; but the reasons no longer existed, and the
Memoirs were soon after published by Mr. Murray, but did not meet
with any success.
The distressed state of trade and the consequent anxieties of conducting
his business hastened Mr. Murray's end. On November 6, 1793, Samuel
Highley, his principal assistant, wrote to a correspondent: "Mr. Murray
died this day after a long and painful illness, and appointed as
executors Dr. G.A. Paxton, Mrs. Murray, and Samuel Highley. The
business hereafter will be conducted by Mrs. Murray." The Rev.
Donald Grant, D.D., and George Noble, Esq., were also executors, but
the latter did not act.
The income of the property was divided as follows: one half to the
education and maintenance of Mr. Murray's three children, and the
other half to his wife so long as she remained a widow. But in the event
of her marrying again, her share was to be reduced by one-third and her
executorship was to cease.
John Murray began his publishing career at the age of twenty-three. He
was twenty-five years in business, and he died at the comparatively
early age of forty-eight. That publishing books is not always a

money-making business may be inferred from the fact that during these
twenty-five years he did not, with all his industry, double his capital.


CHAPTER II
JOHN MURRAY (II.)--BEGINNING OF HIS PUBLISHING
CAREER--ISAAC D'ISRAELI, ETC.
John Murray the Second--the "Anax of Publishers," according to Lord
Byron--was born on November 27, 1778. He was his father's only
surviving son by his second marriage, and being only fifteen at his
father's death, was too young to enter upon the business of the firm,
which was carried on by Samuel Highley--the "faithful shopman"
mentioned in the elder Murray's will--for the benefit of his widow and
family. What his father thought of him, of his health, spirits, and good
nature, will have been seen from the preceding chapter.
Young Murray returned to school, and remained there for about two
years longer, until the marriage of his mother to Lieutenant Henry
Paget, of the West Norfolk Militia, on September 28, 1795, when he
returned to 32, Meet Street, to take part in the business. Mrs. Paget
ceased to be an executor, retired from Fleet Street, and went to live at
Bridgenorth with her husband, taking her two daughters--Jane and
Mary Anne Murray--to live with her, and receiving from time to time
the money necessary for their education.
The executors secured the tenancy of No. 32, Fleet Street, part of the
stock and part of the copyrights, for the firm of Murray & Highley,
between whom a partnership was concluded in 1795, though Murray
was still a minor. In the circumstances Mr. Highley of course took the
principal share of the management, but though a very respectable
person, he was not much of a business man, and