In all this Scott, not James Ballantyne, played the leading part. In a letter of October 15, 1815, referring to the failure of his brother’s bookselling business, and equally applicable to this new imbroglio, the printer writes to Scott: “I am singularly and hopelessly ignorant in these matters; but I fancy the truth is that, owing to the bad success of the bookselling speculation, and the injudicious drafts so long made on the business that throve, I am, _de jure et de facto_, wholly dependent on you.” It would appear that James Ballantyne was right in this—that the trouble arose not through any incompetence on the printer’s part, but mainly through the setting up of the firm of John Ballantyne & Co., and the speculations of the publishing firms. “Scott was always incurring expenses, often heavy expenses, for other people. Thus, when Mr. Terry, the actor, became lessee and manager of the Adelphi Theatre, London, Scott became his surety for £1250, while James Ballantyne became his surety for £500 more, and both these sums had to be paid by Scott after Terry’s failure in 1828. Such obligations as these, however, would have been nothing when compared with Sir Walter’s means, had all his bills on Constable been duly honoured, and had not the printing firm of Ballantyne & Co. been so deeply involved with Constable’s house, that it necessarily became insolvent when he stopped.”[33] Scott’s share of the large sum involved by the failure was ultimately paid in full by himself and his representatives, while the other firms paid their creditors about ten per cent. of the amount due. It must be kept in mind, however, so far as Constable’s house was concerned, that their property appears to have been foolishly sacrificed by forced sales of copyrights and stock. The printing-office at Paul’s Work in those days was as complete in all its arrangements as any one of the inimitable volumes which issued from it; and no printed book was put into the binder’s hands till the sheets were thoroughly dry and the ink was fully “ripened.” The business was vigorous, and, as we have seen, in 1822 no fewer than 145,000 volumes issued from the Ballantyne Press, all from the pen of Scott—an extraordinary number of volumes in those days of hand-presses; and this leaves out of reckoning work done for other authors and publishers.