...
I declare to God that had I known what I had so incautiously engaged in,
I would not have undertaken what I have done, or have suffered what I
have in my feelings and character--which no man had hitherto the
slightest cause for assailing--I would not have done so for any sum....
In answer to these remonstrances Blackwood begged him to dismiss the
matter from his mind, to preserve silence, and to do all that was
possible to increase the popularity of the magazine. The next number,
he said, would be excellent and unexceptionable; and it proved to be so.
The difficulty, however, was not yet over. While the principal editors
of the Chaldee Manuscript had thus revealed themselves to the author of
"Hypocrisy Unveiled," the London publisher of _Blackwood_ was, in
November 1818, assailed by a biting pamphlet, entitled "A Letter to Mr.
John Murray, of Albemarle Street, occasioned by his having undertaken
the publication, in London, of _Blackwood's Magazine_." "The curse of
his respectability," he was told, had brought the letter upon him. "Your
name stands among the very highest in the department of Literature which
has fallen to your lot: the eminent persons who have confided in you,
and the works you have given to the world, have conduced to your
establishment in the public favour; while your liberality, your
impartiality, and your private motives, bear testimony to the justice of
your claims to that honourable distinction.
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