Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

52 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD.
in the confidence of the great English publisher, and
intrusted with an astounding unpublished work of the
great English poet, was the man above all others to
be trusted. The rumour of that great entertainment
— " that Mr Scott dined with me, and read the poems,
and was in raptures with them"—ran over all the
town. " I should have liked," adds Blackwood
with natural triumph, " to have seen Constable
when he first heard the intelligence." Thus all the
elements of dramatic interest were in the position,
pure hero-worship and love of literature, honest de-
termination to secure one's own interest, and lively
pleasure in discomfiting a rival. To the credit of
both publishers, it must be added that the first motive
was quite as genuine as the others ; and if ever the
younger of the two envied his partner, it was for
his power magnificently to send that thousand
guineas to the object of their admiration, without
taking thought. "You have the happiness of mak-
ing it a liberal profession, and not a mere business
of pence," he wrote admiringly. "This I consider
one of the greatest privileges we have in our business."
We may pause, however, here to note that these
poems were of course published shortly after, not in
Lord Byron's collected works, and that he was per-
suaded to accept the publisher's liberal ofier, though
before this time the noble poet's career was drawing
near that crash of ruin and misadventure in which it
closed in England, but into which we are glad to have
no occasion to enter. Here is a curious piece of criti-
cism on Murray's part, in answer, it would appear, to
some impertinent comments of the public upon the
publication. It accompanies a consignment of four
—