Thirdly.—­That if you wish the Bargain, which I had understood myself to have made with you, unmade, you have only to cause your Printer, who is now working on my MS., to return the same, without damage or delay, and consider the business as finished.  I remain, Sir, your obedient servant,

THOMAS CARLYLE.

In the meantime Murray submitted the MS. to one of his literary advisers, probably Lockhart, whose report was not very encouraging.  Later, as Mr. Carlyle was unwilling to entertain the idea of taking his manuscript home with him, and none of the other publishers would accept it, he urgently requested Mr. Murray again to examine it, and come to some further decision.  “While I, with great readiness,” he said, “admit your views, and shall cheerfully release you from all engagement, or shadow of engagement, with me in regard to it:  the rather, as it seems reasonable for me to expect some higher remuneration for a work that has cost me so much effort, were it once fairly examined, such remuneration as was talked of between us can, I believe, at all times, be procured.”  He then proposed “a quite new negotiation, if you incline to enter on such”; and requested his decision.  “If not, pray have the goodness to cause my papers to be returned with the least possible delay.”  The MS. was at once returned; and Carlyle acknowledged its receipt: 

Mr. Carlyle to John Murray.

October 6, 1831.

MY DEAR SIR,

I have received the MS., with your note and your friend’s criticism, and I find it all safe and right.  In conclusion, allow me to thank you for your punctuality and courtesy in this part of the business; and to join cordially in the hope you express that, in some fitter case, a closer relation may arise between us.  I remain, my dear Sir, faithfully yours,

T. CARLYLE.

Mr. Carlyle returned to Craigenputtock with his manuscript in his pocket; very much annoyed and disgusted by the treatment of the London publishers.  Shortly after his arrival at home, he wrote to Mr. Macvey Napier, then editor of the Edinburgh Review: 

“All manner of perplexities have occurred in the publishing of my poor book, which perplexities I could only cut asunder, not unloose; so the MS., like an unhappy ghost, still lingers on the wrong side of Styx:  the Charon of Albemarle Street durst not risk it in his sutilis cymba, so it leaped ashore again.  Better days are coming, and new trials will end more happily.”

A little later (February 6, 1832) he said: 

“I have given up the notion of hawking my little manuscript book about any further.  For a long time it has lain quiet in its drawer, waiting for a better day.  The bookselling trade seems on the edge of dissolution; the force of puffing can go no further; yet bankruptcy clamours at every door:  sad fate! to serve the Devil, and get no wages even from him!  The poor bookseller Guild, I often predict to myself, will ere long be found unfit for the strange part it now plays in our European World; and give place to new and higher arrangements, of which the coming shadows are already becoming visible.”