as the success of the work must be rapid, great,
and certain.

With regard to the first volume having been shown to Mr.
Gifford, I must state in justification of Mr. Murray, that
Mr. G. is the only friend whom he consults on all occasions,
and to whom his most secret transactions are laid open. He
gave him the work, not for the purpose of criticism, but
that as a friend he might partake of the enjoyment he had in
such an extraordinary performance. No language could be
stronger than Mr. Gifford's, as I mentioned to you; and as
the same thing had occurred to Mr. G. as to you and me, you
thought there would be no harm in stating this to the
author.

I have only again to express my regret at what has taken
place, and to beg you will communicate this to the author in
any way you may think proper.

Yours, etc.,

W. BLACKWOOD.

(A much fuller and more accurate knowledge of this whole
transaction, than that possessed by Lockhart, can be
gathered from the annals of the two great publishing
houses concerned in it;--Smiles's _Memoir of John
Murray_ (vol. i. chap. xviii.), and Mrs. Oliphant's
_William Blackwood and his Sons_ (vol. i. pp. 56-92),
especially from the latter work, in which the whole
incident is set in its proper light. Notwithstanding the
heavy preliminary tax for unsalable books from the
Ballantynes' "wretched stock," neither publisher seems
to have had a moment's doubt as to the acceptance of the
offer of the ostensibly anonymous Work of Fiction,
though they were much fretted by the delays,
uncertainties, and mysteries attending the matter. "One
in business must submit to many things, and swallow many
a bitter pill, when such a man as Walter Scott is the
object in view," writes Blackwood to Murray,--the
bitterness being largely the dealing with James
Ballantyne. "John I always considered as no better than
a swindler, but James I put some trust and confidence
in. You judged him more accurately." ... And on another
occasion,--"Except my wife, there is not a friend whom I
dare