Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

CONTROVERSIES. 85
ciple of the case, which shows that Mr Blackwood
was right in his surmise that the intention of the
premature advertisement was to buy out the interest
which he and Mr Murray held in this much-discussed
publication. Ballantyne adds :
I beg to reply that any injury that may have arisen from
this transaction to Mr Murray or you is not imputable to me,
but that it appears common justice and common sense that this
last edition should not come into the market until the stock in
hand shall be sold off or otherwise settled, so that you may be
no loser. As I am the only person with whom you can transact
in this matter, I shall lose not a moment in transmitting either
your present letter or a more formal claim on your part (as you
think best) to the author. Nothing will give me more pleasure,
nor is there anything which I can consider as more a duty, than
that I should give you every aid in my power to arrange this
matter, so as to prevent your being losers by the edition which
you purchased.
Mr Blackwood's reply was naturally an angry one.
As a matter of course, he repudiates Ballantyne's
somewhat impudent argument as to not being any
—
longer the agent of the mysterious author :
W. Blackvjood to J. Ballantyne.
I admit most freely that if you stood in the capacity of a
mere printer, it was your business to execute the order without
consulting B. or any other letter of the alphabet. The present
case, however, is very different. We entered into a transaction,
relying upon each other as men of business and character who
would honourably and fairly fulfil our mutual engagements.
The author might change as often as he pleased, but he had
no right to do the smallest act which might interfere with any
arrangement which you had contracted in his naiie, and with
his authority. I need hardly repeat what you seem to be
sensible of, that the publication of this fifth edition (at all
—