Among novelists, those of Scott’s contemporaries to whom he gave the highest praise were women.  This is, however to be expected, and it is natural to find Jane Austen receiving the highest praise of all; since Scott was emphatically not of the tribe of critics who are able to appreciate only one kind of novel or poem.  Her novels seemed to grow upon him and he read them often.  It was in connection with her “exquisite touch” that he was moved to reflect, in the words so often quoted from his Journal, “The Big Bow-wow strain I can do myself like any now going."[319] Among the expressions of admiration which occur in his review of Emma,[320] Scott records a characteristic bit of protest in regard to the tendency of Miss Austen and other novelists to make prudence the guiding motive of all their favorite young women characters, especially in matters of the heart.  He did not like this pushing out of Cupid to make way for so moderate a virtue as prudence; he thought that it is often good for young people to fall in love without regard to worldly considerations.  Scott rated Miss Edgeworth nearly as high as Miss Austen, and hers is the added honor of having inspired the author of Waverley with a desire to emulate her power.[321] With these two novelists he associated Miss Ferrier, as well as the somewhat earlier writer, Fanny Burney.[322]

Aside from these women and Henry Mackenzie, perhaps the highest praise that Scott bestowed on any contemporary novelist was given to Cooper.  Here, as in the case of Byron, Scott seemed to ignore the other writer’s indebtedness to himself.  He speaks, in the general preface to the Waverley Novels, of “that striking field in which Mr. Cooper has achieved so many triumphs”; and at another time calls him “the justly celebrated American novelist.”  In his Journal he comments on The Red Rover[323] and The Prairie;[324] The Pilot he recommends warmly in a letter to Miss Edgeworth.[325]

The personal relations between “the Scotch and American lions,” as Scott called himself and Cooper, when they met in Parisian society in 1826,[326] had some interesting consequences.  Cooper suggested to Scott that he try to secure for himself part of the profits arising from the publication of his works in America, by entering them as the property of some citizen.[327] They finally concluded to substitute for this plan one suggested by Scott, which involved the writing by the Author of Waverley, of a letter addressed to Cooper, to be transmitted by him to some American publisher who would undertake the publication of an authorized edition of which half the profits should go to the author.  Future works were to be sent over to this publisher in advance of their appearance in England.  The letter was really an appeal to the justice of the American people, and contained an allusion to the publication of Irving’s works in England according to a plan very similar to that proposed by Scott.  But the scheme failed