Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

A NEW PUBLISHER. 335
ability of correspondence with any part of the world from this
place, and to me it has no other fault whatever.
I really would like better that my book were published in
London, because my bookseller and stile are so well known
that I may as well put my name to it as publish it with you.
I do not know about the transaction, I myself will never try
to do it, and I take it very kind in you offering your experi-
enced hand, though it is only of a. piece with all your doings
formerly. It is, however, somewhat ticklish. Should I trust
it solely to Mr Scott, it would be conducted through the
medium of Ballantyne, and would likely fall into hands I
should not like, most probably Hurst & Eobinson. I might
as well give up all previous connections and publish it at
home. With Murray and Cadell or Davies I should be in
the same scrape as with yourself. I really think, then, that
you should try your hand with Longman & Co., and if you
cannot arrange matters, we shall try what can be done some
other way. Be sure you keep them in the dark : I would not
even tell them the name, but merely that it is a Eomance or
Tale of Chivalry, in two volumes, descriptive of the characters
of the English and Scots Borderers in ancient times. I remember
of having a letter once from Longmg,n & Co., wherein
they stated one-sixth to be their proportion of the author's
profits, but that, indeed, was on a small edition. However, I
leave this entirely to yourself. If you think proper to do this,
the sooner you begin the correspondence the better, as I would
like to have everything ready for throwing it off in the spring
when I am in town.
This perhaps is a unique instance of the employment
of one publisher to arrange terms with another
for the publication of a book. The book in question
was probably one called ' The Three Perils of Man,'
published by Messrs Longman, apparently in 1822.
" Lord preserve us ! what a medley I made of it
for I never in my life rewrote a page of prose," says
Hogg in his Autobiography ; " and being impatient
to get hold of some of Messrs Longman's money or
!