Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

JOINT EDITORS. 191
of the Admiralty was to be the editor, but he is sadly deficient
in the Literse Humaniores, and has never read anything but
geography. Murray and Blackwood, however, may now do
much in unison.
The two bibliopoles have offered John "Wilson and myself
£500 a-year between us to conduct their Magazine, and to pay
us and our friends at the 'handsomest rate they can afford per
sheet for what we write. This agreement we have made for
one year, at the end of which we expect the work will be
established, so as to afford better things. They at present
print 6000, and expect soon to sell that number regularly.
Our only object is to make the book a good one : to this you
can much contribute, and I trust you will do so, and you shall
be paid for your trouble. Of the last Welsh pieces you have
sent, I am afraid most are too strictly antiquarian, and locally
so, for the Magazine readers in their present uninitiated state.
Do give us some things more in the fashion of the Tale of Ivan,
more intelligible to all to begin with. Mr Merivale, author of
' Orlando in Eoncesvalles,' who was a friend of Mr Johnes, and
may therefore be known to you, has agreed to write a good deal,
and I think his knowledge of old French and Italian books may
render him a most valuable hand. ... It strikes me that
a most amusing series of papers might be given on the Fathers,
translating and commenting on those rare views of society and
manners, and also those specimens of eloquence which are lost
to the world in that mass of unread folios. Would you under-
take this ? I suppose you have, or could easily procure, copies
of the most important, and I really conceive you might furnish
us with a most valuable body of entertaining as well as instruc-
tive matter. Think of this: you will perceive very soon a
change, I hope much for the better, in the contents of the
Magazine. Whatever you can do in the way of curious information,
above all things, will be paid for handsomely and
instantly, in case these should be matters of any moment in
your eyes : for the longer one lives the more visible becomes
the ubiquity of the reign of Diva Pecunia.
The statement in this letter of the absolute engagement
of Lockhart and Wilson to edit the Magazine is