the breach between Constable's and Longmans' (the original London publishers of that Review), Murray took over (in 1807) the rights of publication; and for a year his name appeared on the title-page of the · Edinburgh.' In 1808 he took a share in the publication of Marmion, thus coming into direct personal touch with Scott; and about the same time he entered into business arrangements with the Ballantynes, whose partner Scott had lately-in an evil hour-become. The cessation (in 1808) of Murray's connexion with Constable's, as joint publisher of the Edinburgh,' did not affect his relations with Scott, while it left Murray free to establish, if he wished, a Review of his own. His treatment at the hands of the northern firm had not been such as to impose upon him any scruples about entering the lists against them; while the success of their Review-the circulation of which was now at least 5000 quarterly *-and the growing vehemence of its politics, were at once a stimulus and an encouragement to the foundation of a rival organ. The first and most important step was to find an editor. On October 30, 1808, Murray wrote to Scott, informing him that Gifford had accepted the post. It does not appear that any one else was approached. The choice was, on the whole, a good one, and was justified by the success of the Review, which was established long before the first editor's tenure of the office came to an end. William Gifford's early career was one of the most romantic in the annals of literature. Born in 1757, the son of a scapegrace father who died of drink, and of & fond but feckless mother; left an orphan and a pauper at eight years old; maimed as a child by an accident which deformed him for life; sent to sea as a lad on a Brixham coaster, and afterwards apprenticed to a shoemaker at Ashburton-he nevertheless contrived to show in early years his inborn love of learning and literature. He saved what money he could earn by reciting verses to buy books, worked out mathematical problems with an awl on leather beaten smooth, and made his first essays in composition. His schooling had been cut short by apprenticeship; his brutal master seized his books and his * Edinburgh Review,' October 1902, p. 291. Scott ('Life,' ii. 129) pats it at 9000, or (ib. p. 140) at 'eight or nine thousand.' put a stop to his writing. When in the depths of despair, he was rescued by the intervention of William Cookesley, a local doctor, who, with the aid of other friends, bought him out of his apprenticeship and sent him to school again. Soon afterwards, a Bible-clerkship at Exeter College, procured by the kind offices of Cookesley, enabled him to go to Oxford. To his great distress-for, to. the end of his life, Gifford retained feelings of the warmest affection and gratitude towards his first patron-Cookesley died in the spring of 1781. Gifford, however, with the help of other friends, contrived to complete his university course, and took his degree in 1782. He had already begun a translation of Juvenal, and endeavoured to find subscribers who would enable him to publish it. It was in the course of this attempt that he made acquaintance with Richard, Earl Grosvenor, who took Gifford into his house and made him tutor to his son. With this son he travelled on the Continent, and saw the world; while Lord Grosvenor's position enabled the young man to make useful friends at home. It was probably his weak health, and the habitual indolence of which that weakness was partly the cause, which hindered him from publishing anything of importance for more than a decade after his degree. But in 1794 his satire, the 'Baviad,' followed next year by the Mæviad,' gave him a recognised position in the world of letters. No one, it may be surmised, except professed students of literary history, reads the 'Baviad' and the 'Mæviad' nowadays; and the reason is not far to seek. These poems are admirable in versification and satirical power; but satires have little chance of survival unless, like those of Juvenal, they attack vices more or less common to all ages and all countries, or, like 'Hudibras,' ridicule persons whose qualities, good and bad, have left a permanent mark on history. The Della-Cruscan group of poetasters, whom Gifford so vigorously lashed, have deservedly fallen into oblivion; and the verses which consigned them to it, whatever their intrinsic merit, could not expect to outlive them long. Such lines as the following may be of more or less universal application: 'Abortive thoughts, that right and wrong confound, False glare, incongruous images combine; And noise and nonsense clatter through the line.' But it matters little to us now that the rash critics of the day dealt out unmerited praise 'to Este's unmeaning dash, To Topham's fustian, Reynolds' flippant trash, 'Beauty and worth are purchased much too dear, The striking passages, and, while she notes The ability shown in Gifford's verses led Canning and his friends to make him, in 1797, editor of the AntiJacobin'; and the brilliant success of that short-lived periodical not only enhanced his reputation, but gave him valuable political connexions. It was thus a man of no ordinary powers and experience whose services Murray enlisted for the leadership of his new Review. Round him were collected a group of writers, varying widely in talent, in temper, and in knowledge. Chief among them was the great Sir Walter, then plain Mr Scott, already known for his translations from Goethe, his Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border,' and his edition of Dryden, and famous for his early poems, 'The Lay' and 'Marmion." He had begun to write Waverley,' but it was to be five years yet before that epoch-making romance appeared, 6 |