I am well aware that you would not wish to publish anything derogatory to the high reputation which you have so deservedly acquired; but Shakespeare, Byron, and Scott have written works that do not sell; and, as you expect money for the work which you wish to allow me the honour of publishing, how am I to judge of its value if I am not previously allowed to read it?

Mrs. Jameson at length submitted her work for Mr. Murray’s inspection; and after some negotiation, her Guide-Book was purchased for L400.

Mr. Murray, it may here be mentioned, had much communication with Sir Robert Peel during his parliamentary career.  He published many of Peel’s speeches and addresses—­his Address to the Students of Glasgow University; his Speeches on the Irish Disturbances Bill, the Coercion Bill, the Repeal of the Union, and the Sugar Bills—­all of which were most carefully revised before being issued.  Sugar had become so cloying with Sir Robert, that he refused to read his speeches on the subject.  “I am so sick of Sugar,” he wrote to Murray, “and of the eight nights’ debate, that I have not the courage to look at any report of my speech—­at least at present.”  A later letter shows that the connection continued.

The Rt.  Hon. Sir R. Peel to John Murray.

July or August, 1840.

DEAR SIR,

Your printer must be descended from him who omitted not from the seventh Commandment, and finding a superfluous “not” in his possession, is anxious to find a place for it.

I am sorry he has bestowed it upon me, and has made me assure my constituents that I do not intend to support my political principles.  Pray look at the 4th line of the second page of the enclosed.

Faithfully yours,

ROBERT PEEL.

No account of Mr. Murray’s career would be complete without some mention of the “Handbooks,” with which his name has been for sixty years associated; for though this series was in reality the invention of his son, it was Mr. Murray who provided the means and encouragement for the execution of the scheme, and by his own experience was instrumental in ensuring its success.

As early as 1817 Hobhouse had remarked on the inadequate character of most books of European travel.  In later years Mrs. Starke made a beginning, but her works were very superficial and inadequate, and after personally testing them on their own ground, Mr. John Murray decided that something better was needed.

Of the origin of the Guide-books Mr. John Murray the Third has given the following account in Murray’s Magazine for November 1889.

“Since so many thousands of persons have profited by these books, it may be of some interest to the public to learn their origin, and the cause which led me to prepare them.  Having from my early youth been possessed by an ardent desire to travel, my very indulgent father acceded to my request, on condition that I should prepare myself by mastering the language of the country I was to travel in.  Accordingly, in 1829, having brushed up my German, I first set foot on the Continent at Rotterdam, and my ‘Handbook for Holland’ gives the results of my personal observations and private studies of that wonderful country.