The religious sentiments, which the publishers thought less likely to offend English than Scotch readers, were probably the same 'opinions on religion, whose inconsequence' Medwin declares to be a sufficient indication that the poem was the composition of two different writers. That the publishers had reason to think these sentiments little adapted to the feelings of their fellow-countrymen of North Britain will appear probable to readers who recall the part played by Ahasuerus in _Queen Mab_,--a poem that resembled the poem of _The Wandering Jew_ in containing passages that were the direct offspring of the memorable fragment. Medwin says that on their completion, Shelley sent the seven or eight cantos 'to Campbell for his opinion on their merits, with a view to publication,' and that the author of the _Pleasures of Hope_ returned the MS. with the remark that there were only two good lines in it:-- 'It seemed as if an angel's sigh Had breathed the plaintive symphony,' lines, by the way (Medwin adds), 'savouring strongly of Walter Scott.' The peculiarities of Mr. Medwin's habitual inexactness countenance the suspicion that, though the poem came under Campbell's critical consideration _through_ Shelley's act, the author of the _Pleasures of Hope_ would not have seen it had he not been the particular literary friend and adviser, whose 'opinion' determined John Ballantyne and Co. not to publish the work. Anyhow, Campbell read and condemned the poem which the publishers declined,--the poem which Shelley (on receiving the letter of 24th September, 1810, from the Edinburgh publishers) lost no time in offering to John Joseph Stockdale, the Pall Mall (London) publisher, whose dealings with the poet and the poet's father were laid before the public in _Stockdale's Budget_ (1827). In one of the several puerile letters, whose style affords conclusive testimony that he was not the author of the _A.M. Oxon._ letter, Shelley wrote to Stockdale from Field Place on 28th September, 1810 (just a month before he went into 'residence' at Oxford): 'I sent, before I had the pleasure of knowing you, the MS. of a poem to Messieurs Ballantyne and Co., Edinburgh; they have declined publishing it, with the inclosed letter. I now offer it to you, _and depend upon your honour as a gentleman for a fair price for the copyright_. It will be sent to you from Edinburgh. The subject is _The Wandering Jew_. As to its containing Atheistical principles, I assure you, I was wholly unaware of the fact hinted at. _Your good sense will point out to you the impossibility of inculcating pernicious doctrines in a poem, which as you will see is so totally abstract from any circumstances which occur under the possible view of mankind._'