Thomas Campbell received, at the age of 21 years, £60 for his "Pleasures of Hope," certainly a small amount for a fine poem, yet it gave him a name, and enabled him to obtain large sums for some very slight literary services. The publisher of his "Pleasures of Hope" did not treat him in a generous manner, and his conduct appears to have embittered his mind as will be gathered from the following anecdote. He was present at a party at a period when the actions of Bonaparte were most severely condemned. On being called upon for a toast, Campbell gave "The Health of Napoleon." This caused a great surprise to all the company, and an explanation was called for. "The only reason I have for proposing to honour Bonaparte," said he, "is that he had the virtue to shoot a bookseller." Palm, a bookseller, had recently been executed in Germany by order of the French chief. It may here be mentioned that the copyright of the "Life of Bonaparte," by Sir Walter Scott, with some copies of the work, was sold for £18,000. Successful school-books are often gold mines for the authors and publishers. The copyright of "Vyse's Spelling-Book" was sold for £2,000 and an annuity of £50 to the compiler. The copyright of Rundell's "Domestic Cookery" realised a couple of thousand pounds, and many other works of this class have been extremely popular. Very large sums have been paid for historical works. Hume received £700 a volume; and Smollett, for a catch-penny rival work, cleared £2,000. The money made by Henry is set down at £3,300. The booksellers, says Mr. Leslie Stephen, made £6,000 out of Robertson's "History of Scotland." He was paid for his "Charles V." the handsome sum of £4,500. Lingard's "History of England" is, without doubt, an able work, and for it the author was paid £4,683. The author's profits for the "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," by Gibbon, are put down at £10,000.