no use against
the impetuous needs of Constable & Co. Only two months after the
transfer of the publication of the _Review_ to Mr. Murray, we find him
writing to "Dear Constable" as follows:

_John Murray to Mr. Archd. Constable_.

_October 1, 1807_.

"I should not have allowed myself time to write to you to-day, were not
the occasion very urgent. Your people have so often of late omitted to
give you timely notice of the day when my acceptances fell due, that I
have suffered an inconvenience too great for me to have expressed to
you, had it not occurred so often that it is impossible for me to
undergo the anxiety which it occasions. A bill of yours for L200 was due
yesterday, and I have been obliged to supply the means for paying it,
without any notice for preparation.... I beg of you to insist upon this
being regulated, as I am sure you must desire it to be, so that I may
receive the cash for your bills two days at least before they are due."

Mr. Murray then gives a list of debts of his own (including some of
Constable's) amounting to L1,073, which he has to pay in the following
week. From a cash account made out by Mr. Murray on October 3, it
appears that the bill transactions with Constable had become enormous;
they amounted to not less than L10,000.

The correspondence continued in the same strain, and it soon became
evident that this state of things could not be allowed to continue.
Reconciliations took place from time to time, but interruptions again
occurred, mostly arising from the same source--a perpetual flood of
bills and promissory notes, from one side and the other--until Murray
found it necessary to put an end to it peremptorily. Towards the end of
1808 Messrs. Constable established at No. 10 Ludgate Street a London
house for the sale of the _Edinburgh Review_, and the other works in
which they were concerned, under the title of Constable, Hunter, Park &
Hunter. This, doubtless, tended to widen the breach between Constable
and Murray, though it left the latter free to enter into arrangements
for establishing a Review of his own, an object which he had already
contemplated.

There were many books in which the two houses had a joint interest, and,
therefore, their relations could not be altogether discontinued.
"Marmion" was coming out in successive editions; but the correspondence
between the publishers grew cooler and cooler, and Constable had
constant need to delay payments and renew bills.

Mr.