Mr. James Mill to John Murray.

My dear Sir,

I can have no objection in the world to your delaying the article I have sent you till it altogether suits your arrangements to make use of it.  Besides this point, a few words of explanation may not be altogether useless with regard to another.  I am half inclined to suspect that the objection of your Editor goes a little farther than you state.  If so, I beg you will not hesitate a moment about what you are to do with it.  I wrote it solely with a view to oblige and to benefit you personally, but with very little idea, as I told you at our first conversation on the subject, that it would be in my power to be of any use to you, as the views which I entertained respecting what is good for our country were very different from the views entertained by the gentlemen with whom in your projected concern you told me you were to be connected.  To convince you, however, of my good-will, I am perfectly ready to give you a specimen, and if it appears to be such as likely to give offence to your friends, or not to harmonise with the general style of your work, commit it to the flames without the smallest scruple.  Be assured that it will not make the smallest difference in my sentiments towards you, or render me in the smallest degree less disposed to lend you my aid (such as it is) on any other occasion when it may be better calculated to be of use to you.

Yours very truly,

J. Mill.

Gifford was not a man of business; he was unpunctual.  The second number of the Quarterly appeared behind its time, and the publisher felt himself under the necessity of expostulating with the editor.

John Murray to Mr. Gifford.

May 11, 1809.

Dear Mr. Gifford,

I begin to suspect that you are not aware of the complete misery which is occasioned to me, and the certain ruin which must attend the Review, by our unfortunate procrastination.  Long before this, every line of copy for the present number ought to have been in the hands of the printer.  Yet the whole of the Review is yet to print.  I know not what to do to facilitate your labour, for the articles which you have long had he scattered without attention, and those which I ventured to send to the printer undergo such retarding corrections, that even by this mode we do not advance.  I entreat the favour of your exertion.  For the last five months my most imperative concerns have yielded to this, without the hope of my anxiety or labour ceasing.

“Tanti miserere laboris,”

in my distress and with regret from

John Murray.

Mr. Gifford’s reply was as follows: 

“The delay and confusion which have arisen must be attributed to a want of confidential communication.  In a word, you have too many advisers, and I too many masters.”

At last the second number of the Quarterly appeared, at the end of May instead of at the middle of April.  The new contributors to this number were Dr. D’Oyley, the Rev. Mr. Walpole, and George Canning, who, in conjunction with Sharon Turner, contributed the last article on Austrian State Papers.