Scott, however, was too busy on higher paid work and was obliged to decline the offer, and for the present Campbell went back to his “hack-work.” Poor Campbell had suffered much from the publishers. His “Pleasures of Hope” had been rejected by every bookseller in Glasgow and Edinburgh; not one of them would even risk paper and printing upon the chance of its success. At last Messrs. Mundell and Son, printers to the University of Glasgow, with much reluctance undertook its publication, upon the liberal condition of allowing the author fifty copies at trade price, and, in the event of its reaching a second edition, a gratuity of ten pounds. A few years afterwards, when Campbell was present at a literary dinner party, he was asked to give a toast, and without a moment’s hesitation he proposed “Bonaparte.” Glasses were put down untouched, and shouts of “The Ogre!” resounded. “Yes, gentlemen,” said Campbell gravely, “here is to Bonaparte; he has just shot a bookseller!” Amid shouts of applause, for the dinner was in “Bohemia,” the glasses were jangled and the toast was drank, for the news had but just arrived that Palm, a bookseller of Nuremburg, had been shot by the Emperor’s orders. Constable scarcely thought, when he offered the fourth share of “Marmion” to Murray, that he was fostering a dangerous rival. Yet in the very year after the publication of “Marmion” he was projecting a rival quarterly, and the following letter to Canning, first printed in “Barrow’s Autobiography,” shows that Murray is entitled to the whole credit of the new scheme. “September 25th, 1807. “SIR,--I venture to address you upon a subject that is perhaps not undeserving of one moment of your attention. “There is a work entitled the _Edinburgh Review_, written with such unquestionable talent that it has already attained an extent of circulation not equalled by any similar publication. The principles of this work are, however, so radically bad, that I have been led to consider the effect which such sentiments, so generally diffused, are likely to produce, and to think that some means equally popular ought to be adopted to counteract their dangerous tendency. But the publication in question is conducted with so much ability, and is sanctioned and circulated with such high and decisive authority by the party of whose opinions it is the organ, that there is little hope of producing against it any effectual opposition, unless it arise from you, sir, and from your friends. Should you, sir, think the idea worthy of encouragement I should, with equal pride and willingness, engage my arduous exertions to promote its success; but as my object is nothing short of producing a work of the greatest talent and importance, I shall entertain it no longer, if it be not so fortunate as to obtain the high patronage which I have thus, sir, taken the liberty to solicit.