ich is so intrinsically valuable, and which has been so generally
admired, and it is some satisfaction to me to find by this result that
my own proposal to you was perfectly just. I will not, however, venture
to offer you a less sum for the second volume, but recommend that you
should, in justice to yourself, apply to some other publishers; if you
should obtain from them the sum which you are right in expecting, it
will afford me great pleasure, and, if you do not, you will find me
perfectly ready to negotiate; and in any case I shall continue to be,
with the highest esteem, dear Sir,

Your obliged and faithful servant,

JOHN MURRAY.

I am confident you will do me the justice to insert this letter, and
have no doubt its contents will convince Colonel Napier that his
recollection of the circumstances has been incomplete.

I have the honour to be, sir,

Your obedient humble Servant,

JOHN MURRAY.

It may not be generally known that we owe to Colonel Napier's work the
publication of the Duke of Wellington's immortal "Despatches." The Duke,
upon principle, refused to read Napier's work; not wishing, as he said,
to quarrel with its author. But he was made sufficiently acquainted with
the contents from friends who had perused it, and who, having made the
campaigns with him, could point to praise and blame equally undeserved,
to designs misunderstood and misrepresented, as well as to supercilious
criticism and patronizing approval, which could not but be painful to
the great commander. His nature was too noble to resent this; but he
resolved, in self-defence, to give the public the means of ascertaining
the truth, by publishing all his most important and secret despatches,
in order, he said, to give the world a correct account not only of what
he did, but of what he intended to do.

Colonel Gurwood was appointed editor of the "Despatches" and, during
their preparation, not a page escaped the Duke's eye, or his own careful
revision. Mr. Murray, who was honoured by being chosen as the publisher,
compared this wonderful collection of documents to a watch: hitherto the
general public had only seen in the successful and orderly development
of his campaigns, as it were the hands moving over the dial without
fault or failure, but now the Duke opened the works, and they were
enabled to inspect the complicated machinery--the wheels within
wheels--which had produced this admirable result. It is enough to state
that in these de