Mr. Murray thoroughly followed his father’s idea, that the age had now come for the cheap publication of useful and practical books, and in the first year of his accession, issued the prospectus of his “Home and Colonial Library,” which, being published at half the price of the “Family Library,” was at least twice as successful, and was continued for upwards of six years. During these early years Mr. Murray made one mistake, and achieved one great success. The mistake was, however, in common with every publisher in London, for “Eöthen” went the rounds of the metropolitan book market, and was eventually published by a personal friend of Mr. Kinglake’s. Mindful of his father’s precedents, Murray soon secured the copyright. The success, on the contrary, consisted in accepting what other publishers had refused, and issued from Albemarle Street, Campbell’s “Lives of the Lord Chancellors” has proved one of the most successful biographical works of the time. In travel, biography, history, and science, the present Mr. Murray has fully sustained the name of the old house, and it is sufficient here to mention only the names of Hallam, Barrow, Wilkinson, Lyell, Gordon Cumming, Layard, Murchison, and Sir Robert Peel, to see how much we owe him. On Lockhart’s death, in 1854, the Reverend Whitwell Elwin was selected to fill the editorial chair of the _Quarterly_, and since that date the political opinions of the periodical have been considerably modified; at any rate, men of all parties have been allowed to write conscientiously in its pages, and it is even rumoured, that before this, its old opponent, Lord Brougham, contributed at least one article (that on _Chesterfield_, in vol. lxxvi.). Among the most successful library books that Mr. Murray has recently published, we must instance those by Mr. Smiles and Dr. Livingstone, and, more especially, those by Mr. Darwin. Mr. Murray’s name is, however, most familiar to us now as the publisher of the famous _Handbooks_ for travellers, the series now extending, not only through the outer world, but embracing our English counties; these latter, it is said, owing much to Mr. Murray’s personal editorship. In closing our short sketch of the “House of Murray,” we cannot refrain from re-echoing a wish that has been often uttered before, that the present representative may find time amidst his professional labours, to edit the letters and to write a worthy life of the great John Murray. No book that has ever been issued from Albemarle Street could be more popular or more welcome. [Illustration] _WILLIAM BLACKWOOD_: “BLACKWOOD’S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.”