The foundation of the great publishing houses of London is co-temporary in date with the origin of the private banks and famous breweries; for, as in the case of these establishments, the connections requisite were so extensive, and the needful capital, to render venture a success, so large, that in many instances the present great publishing firms have been the work of three, in some cases even of five, generations. There have, of course, been isolated exceptions, as in the instance of Archibald Constable, of Edinburgh; but these rare cases, though often beneficial to the world at large, have seldom been individually successful. John McMurray, the founder of the great London house of Murray, was born in Edinburgh about the year 1795, of very respectable parents, who not only gave him a good education, but enlisted for him the sympathies of Sir George Yonge, then an official in high favour. Through Sir George’s influence a commission was obtained in the Royal Marines, and in 1762, we find from the Navy List, that John McMurray joins his frigate full, probably, of hopeful anticipations of the promotion that sometimes came so speedily in the days of the old French wars. The Peace of Paris, however, was signed in the following year, and, spite of patronage and merit, McMurray was, in 1768, still a second lieutenant, and, in point of seniority, thirty-fourth on the list. Disgusted with a profession from which he could hope so little, and eager for a more useful career in life, in this same year he embraced an opportunity that seemed to give him a chance of exchanging the lounging idleness of Chatham barracks for the busy activity of London business, in a trade very congenial to his tastes, and not unaccompanied with hopes of solid emolument. Among the friends he had made either afloat or at his Chatham quarters was William Falconer, who, a sailor boy “before the mast,” had in the very year of McMurray’s first entry into the service, published the beautiful poem of the “Shipwreck.” This poem attracted great attention, and the author was promoted to the more honourable than lucrative position of midshipman. Fellow-townsmen--and in those days blood was thicker than water--and in some degree fellow-students, for both were lovers of books, they became firm friends; and McMurray’s first thought, when the offer of a bookseller’s business was put before him, was to secure the aid of his literary friend in his new venture; and an interesting letter, still preserved, gives the history of his commencement as a bookseller. Addressed to “Mr. William Falconer, at Dover,” it runs as follows:-- “Brompton, Kent, 16th Oct., 1768.