Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

THE publisher's INDIGNATION. 83
when I find the sequel and conclusion of the transaction
in a correspondence between Murray and
Blackwood, containing a packet of letters which had
passed between the latter and James Ballantyne. A
sudden thunderbolt had fallen into the peaceful air,
in the shape of an advertisement of a fifth edition
as about to be issued by Constable, without warning
given to the original publishers or any preparation
for such an announcement :
W. Blackwood to James Ballantyne.
—
6th May 1817.
I was SO completely surprised, and I must say indignant,
yesterday, when I saw in your paper an advertisement announcing
the publication of a new edition of the first ' Tales of my
Landlord,' that had I written at the moment I might have given
way to feelings that would not have been pleasant to either of
us. My opinion of the matter is not now one whit altered, but
I trust I shall be able to state it more calmly.
In the first place, then, I beg to say that as I have upwards
of 1200 copies here, and as I believe Mr Murray has also some
hundreds of the fourth edition on hand, a new edition was quite
uncalled for and unnecessary ; and you, besides, were not en-
titled to put a new edition to the press without having first
consulted us, and ascertained that our stock was nearly
exhausted.
In the next place, I beg to say that, even had another edition
been required, Mr Murray and I were both by courtesy and
right entitled to the first offer of it. I was surely entitled to
expect this from the repeated assurances you gave me that the
author was perfectly willing, after our stipulated number was
exhausted, that the future editions should go on with us, exactly
on the same terms. ... As another edition, however, is unfor-
tunately not yet required, it is unnecessary for us to discuss
this last point at present, and I therefore return to the first
point—the state of the fourth edition. From this you must
see the necessity of instantly repairing the injury which has