Memoir of John Murray
John Wilson Croker to John Murray, 26 March 1831
Kensington Palace, March 26th, 1831.
I return you a cheque for fifty guineas, which I suppose you
meant for the article in the Q. R. on ‘The French ![]()
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Revolution.’ If so, it is much too large a sum, and
I could only look upon it as a kind of retaining fee, and not as a
remuneration. Now, I want no retainer, for I am willing to help now and then,
as opportunities may arise; and therefore you must forgive my insisting on your
cutting down the said cheque to the ordinary size; for instance, what any of
the authors (except Southey) of the
other articles have received. This I leave to your honour, and when you have
done so, pray carry the reduced amount to my credit with you, for I fear I must
be in your debt.
Yours ever,
John Wilson Croker (1780-1857)
Secretary of the Admiralty (1810) and writer for the
Quarterly
Review; he edited an elaborate edition of Boswell's
Life of
Johnson (1831).
John Murray II (1778-1843)
The second John Murray began the
Quarterly Review in 1809 and
published works by Scott, Byron, Austen, Crabbe, and other literary notables.
Robert Southey (1774-1843)
Poet laureate and man of letters whose contemporary reputation depended upon his prose
works, among them the
Life of Nelson, 2 vols (1813),
History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (1823-32) and
The Doctor, 7 vols (1834-47).
The Quarterly Review. (1809-1967). Published by John Murray, the
Quarterly was instigated by Walter
Scott as a Tory rival to the
Edinburgh Review. It was edited by
William Gifford to 1824, and by John Gibson Lockhart from 1826 to 1853.
