Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

A D D DECENT MAN. 395
him), there was an end of his proceedings against you. He
said he understood you were a d d decent man, but that
you ought to take care of what you got your people to write
(true enough, entre nous). I excused you, inter alia, by saying
that your corporation affairs occupied your attention sadly
Duke of Brunswick, Marquis of Hastings, &c. "Well," said
he, "like enough. The- Scotch never lose an opportunity of
rubbing themselves to quality ; but, by God ! he could not take
a worse way of obliging Hastings than by abusing me." I hope
the article in the forthcoming Mag. will please him. At all
events, I have made him promise that he will not annoy Cadell
at all.
I am to see Martin again in the course of the week. I have
promised to introduce Crowe to him, which will be amusing. I
shall write to Wilson to ask his leave to mention his name sub
rosa, and I hope he will grant it.
I think I did a good job for you. As I cannot offer to give
people champagne at my own expense, I charge you the bill,
which, like Falstaff's, is rather heavier in the drinking than in
the eating. It amounts in all to £3, 7s., with which I debit
you.
The matter did not end there unfortunately, and
we fear that the publisher's pocket was once more
mulcted, though privately. But Maginn's good offices
are worth recording. His outset on life in London
had various amusing incidents connected with it, some
of which we may add here. Colburn was the first
publisher, or among the first, who systematically gave
himself to the production of fashionable novels and
the lightest of light literature. He had not long
before set up the ' New Monthly Magazine ' under
the editorship of Campbell the poet, was supposed to
be the inventor of an extraordinary new system of
puffery, and was the butt of all the wits. His reign
lasted a long time as a publisher of novels. He
was, as we have all understood, one of the celebrated
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