Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

164 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD.
Now what applies to me in this respect, from the accident of
my being rather more in the public eye than either you or your
friends have been as yet, applies also, as I think you will admit,
no less to yourselves ; and you must be aware that what would
depreciate opinion respecting me must naturally operate in a
similar degree upon you. My hands are withered by it. I
cannot offer the work without the dread of reproachful refusal,
and as to obtaining contributions from men of character, I might
as soon ask them to let me stab them in their back.
This letter, perhaps, was not exactly of a kind to
please Blackwood, who was not disposed to transfer
his personal responsibility to any man, and to whom
the assumption of Mr Murray as the principal person
in the transaction, the man to whom all eyes were
turned, could scarcely be very palatable. He wrote,
however, with much temper and calmness, and an
evident desire to keep the peace, assuring his friend
that in future everything would go well, and that the
passion of the beginning was now to be restrained.
It is needless [he says] for you to distress yourself about what
is past ; for really when you examine the matter again coolly
and calmly, there is no such ground for alarm as you fear and
your friends have conjured up. And as for the future I now
feel perfectly at ease. Your letter has pleased and satisfied our
friends. Mr Wilson has called just now, and I have the happi-
ness of enclosing a most admirable letter which they have
written this morning, and which in fact leaves me almost
nothing to say.
The letter enclosed is as follows :
Lochhart and Wilson to John Murray.
Mr Wilson and I have read your letter to Mr Blackwood
with much regret, for we are well aware how much it must be
against your feelings and interests as well as our own that the
Magazine should expose those concerned in it to such troubles
as you have now described. We are willing to take your opinion
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