“Your most welcome letter came after me here, where, in the vague pursuit of a less expensive residence, I have come, intending by reason of late events to shorten sail, not knowing what weather may be in store for us.
“M’Glashan’s [? offer of] arbitration promises well, but you are quite right not to concede the acknowledgment of the a/c as a preliminary. My object would be far rather to buy than to sell, but Curry asks £2500 for his interest,--nearly as much as he gave me originally. If we could induce him to make a reasonable demand, I think I could induce a publisher to treat for the books, so that I would be more disposed now simply to press the ‘Hinton’ settlement, which, according to the a/c you have sent me, is a complete puzzle--2000 being rated as 1000 copies (as you have yourself observed).... I believe M’Glashan intends fairly by me, but, from a careless remark of Hugh Baker, he fancied he was to be immediately examined before a Master in Chancery, and with native prudence [he] abstained from opening any correspondence in the conjuncture.... Chapman’s letter will show you _his_ opinion of the trickery the Currys are attempting. He--Chapman--said £800 would not be more than a fair sum for my interest,--all claims of ‘Hinton’ being previously settled to my satisfaction.... M’O.’s estimate of Chapman (Hall is since dead) is perfectly correct. They are, as indeed is every bookseller of the London trade that I have conversed with, very inferior to M’G. himself in natural acuteness and knowledge of books, book-writers, and book-readers. He is without question the very ablest man in his walk, and--now that Blackwood* is gone--far above Murray, Colburn, Longman, and the rest of them; and in London, and with capital, would beat them hollow.”
* William Blackwood, founder of the firm.
“M’Glashan is so far fair that he says he insisted that in my share of half profits the expense counted against me should be limited to the mere paper and press-work, and not the eleventh part of the whole original cost--authorship, engraving, stereotyping, &c. Now the question is, Is this the spirit and meaning of the a/c now furnished?
* The letter enclosing Curry’s a/c had not yet reached Lever. It had gone to Zurich (or via Zurich).--E. D.