not
stop.' I saw he did not like to continue the subject, and we talked of
something else."

Croker also was quite willing to enter into this scheme, and jointly
with Barrow to undertake the temporary conduct of the _Review_. They
received much assistance also from Mr. J.T. Coleridge, then a young
barrister. Mr. Coleridge, as will be noticed presently, became for a
time editor of the _Quarterly_. "Mr. C. is too long," Gifford wrote to
Murray, "and I am sorry for it. But he is a nice young man, and should
be encouraged."

CHAPTER XX

HALLAM BASIL HALL--CRABBE--HOPE--HORACE AND JAMES SMITH

In 1817 Mr. Murray published for Mr. Hallam his "View of the State of
Europe during the Middle Ages." The acquaintance thus formed led to a
close friendship, which lasted unbroken till Mr. Murray's death.

Mr. Murray published at this time a variety of books of travel. Some of
these were sent to the Marquess of Abercorn--amongst them Mr.
(afterwards Sir) Henry Ellis's "Proceedings of Lord Amherst's Embassy to
China," [Footnote: "Journal of the Proceedings of the late Embassy to
China, comprising a Correct Narrative of the Public Transactions of the
Embassy, of the Voyage to and from China, and of the Journey from the
Mouth of the Peiho to the Return to Canton." By Henry Ellis, Esq.,
Secretary of the Embassy, and Third Commissioner.] about which the
Marchioness, at her husband's request, wrote to the publisher as
follows:

_Marchioness of Abercorn to John Murray_,

_December_ 4, 1817.

"He returns Walpole, as he says since the age of fifteen he has read so
much Grecian history and antiquity that he has these last ten years been
sick of the subject. He does not like Ellis's account of 'The Embassy to
China,' [Footnote: Ellis seems to have been made very uncomfortable by
the publication of his book. It was severely reviewed in the _Times_,
where it was said that the account (then in the press) by Clark Abel,
M.D., Principal Medical Officer and Naturalist to the Embassy, would be
greatly superior. On this Ellis wrote to Murray (October 19, 1817): "An
individual has seldom committed an act so detrimental to his interests
as I have done in this unfortunate publication; and I shall be too happy
when the lapse of time will allow of my utterly forgetting the
occurrence. I am already indifferent to literary criticism, and had
almost forgotten Abel's approaching competition." The work went through
two editions.] but is pleased