A high sense of rectitude is apparent in all his business transactions; and Charles Knight did him no more than justice in saying that he had “left an example of talent and honourable conduct which would long be a model for those who aim at distinction in the profession.”  He would have nothing to do with what was poor and shabby.  When it was suggested to him, as a young publisher, that his former partner was ready to bear part of the risk in a contemplated undertaking, he refused to associate his fortunes with a man who conducted his business on methods that he did not approve.  “I cannot allow my name to stand with his, because he undersells all other publishers at the regular and advertised prices.”  Boundless as was his admiration for the genius of Scott and Byron, he abandoned one of the most cherished objects of his ambition-to be the publisher of new works by the author of “Waverley”—­rather than involve himself further in transactions which he foresaw must lead to discredit and disaster; and, at the risk of a quarrel, strove to recall Byron to the ways of sound literature, when through his wayward genius he seemed to be drifting into an unworthy course.

In the same way, when the disagreement between the firms of Constable and Longmans seemed likely to turn to his own advantage, instead of making haste to seize the golden opportunity, he exerted himself to effect a reconciliation between the disputants, by pointing out what he considered the just and reasonable view of their mutual interests.  The letters which, on this occasion, he addressed respectively to Mr. A.G.  Hunter, to the Constables, and to the Longmans, are models of good sense and manly rectitude.  Nor was his conduct to Constable, after the downfall of the latter, less worthy of admiration.  Deeply as Constable had injured him by the reckless conduct of his business, Murray not only retained no ill-feeling against him, but, anxious simply to help a brother in misfortune, resigned in his favour, in a manner full of the most delicate consideration, his own claim to a valuable copyright.  The same warmth of heart and disinterested friendship appears in his efforts to re-establish the affairs of the Robinsons after the failure of that firm.  Yet, remarkable as he was for his loyalty to his comrades, he was no less distinguished by his spirit and independence.  No man without a very high sense of justice and self-respect could have conducted a correspondence on a matter of business in terms of such dignified propriety as Murray employed in addressing Benjamin Disraeli after the collapse of the Representative.  It is indeed a proof of power to appreciate character, remarkable in so young a man, that Disraeli should, after all that had passed between them, have approached Murray in his capacity of publisher with complete confidence.  He knew that he was dealing with a man at once shrewd and magnanimous, and he gave him credit for understanding how to estimate his professional interest apart from his sense of private injury.