Smith at once perceived the names of some of the houses in the trade to which the unlucky parcel had gone, without success." Sterne could not find a bookseller who would pay fifty pounds for "Tristram Shandy," he therefore issued it on his own account, and it proved a saleable work, gaining for its author a front place amongst English humorists. Mrs. Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was written as a serial for the "National Era," an anti-slavery journal published at Washington. It was next offered to Messrs. Jewett & Co., but their reader and critic pronounced it not a story of sufficient interest to be worth reproducing in book form. The wife of the latter strenuously insisted that it would meet with a favourable reception, and advised its publication. In a notice of Mrs. Stowe, it is stated that in four years 313,000 copies had been printed in the United States alone, probably as many more in Great Britain. Miss Warner's popular novel, "The Wide, Wide World," was declined by a leading New York publisher. It is said that several well-known houses refused to have anything to do with one of the most popular books of recent times, "Vice Versâ"; even when in type, two American firms did not discover its worth, and rejected it. Some notable books in history, travels, poetry, and science have been "Declined with thanks." Both Murray and Longman were afraid to risk the publication of Prescott's "Ferdinand and Isabella," but Bentley brought out the book, and according to his statement it is the most successful work that he has published. A score of houses refused to publish "Eöthen." The author in despair handed his manuscript to one of the lesser known booksellers, and printed it at his own cost; it was extremely successful. After twenty-five editions of Buchan's "Domestic Medicine" had been sold, one thousand six hundred pounds was paid for the copyright, yet, strange to state, before it was published not a single firm in Edinburgh would pay a hundred pounds for it. Strahan, the King's printer, had offered to him the first volume of Blair's "Sermons," and, after a careful perusal, concluded that the work would not be one to find a ready sale. Dr. Johnson, however, came to the rescue, and with his eloquence induced Mr. Strahan to pay a hundred pounds for the copyright. It had a large circulation; for a second volume, three hundred pounds was the amount gladly paid, and for subsequent volumes six hundred pounds each.