“I have your favour, since the receipt of which
320 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“I have now to request your forgiveness for mentioning a plan which your friend Gillon and I have talked over together with a view as well to the public advantage as to your individual interest. It is nothing short of a migration from Kelso to this place, which I think might be effected upon a prospect of a very flattering nature.
“Three branches of printing are quite open in
Edinburgh, all of which I am well convinced you have both the ability and
inclination to unite in your person. The first is that of an editor of a
newspaper, which shall contain some thing of an uniform historical deduction of
events distinct from the farrago of detached and unconnected plagiarisms from
the London paragraphs of ‘The
Sun.’ Perhaps it might be possible (and Gillon has promised to make enquiry about it)
to treat with the proprietors of some established paper—suppose the Caledonian Mercury—and we would
all struggle to obtain for it some celebrity. To this might be added a
‘Monthly Magazine,’ and ‘Caledonian Annual Register,’ if you will; for
both of which, with the excellent literary assistance which Edinburgh at
present affords, there is a fair opening. The next object would naturally be
the execution of Session papers, the best paid work which a printer undertakes,
and of which, I dare
LETTER TO BALLANTYNE—APRIL, 1800. | 321 |
“It appears to me that such a plan, judiciously adopted and diligently pursued, opens a fair road to an ample fortune. In the mean while, the ‘Kelso Mail’ might be so arranged as to be still a source of some advantage to you; and I dare say, if wanted, pecuniary assistance might be procured to assist you at the outset, either upon terms of a share or otherwise; but I refer you for particulars to Joseph, in whose room I am now assuming the pen, for reasons too distressing to be declared, but at which you will readily guess. I hope, at all events, you will impute my interference to any thing rather than an impertinent intermeddling with your concerns on the part of, clear sir, your obedient servant,