The
usual publishing business was neglected; letters remained unanswered,
manuscripts remained unread, and some correspondents became excessively
angry at their communications being neglected.
Mr. Murray's worries were increased by the commercial crisis then
prevailing, and by the downfall of many large publishing houses. It was
feared that Mr. Murray might be implicated in the failures. At the end
of January, the great firm of Archibald Constable & Co., of Edinburgh
publishers of Sir Walter Scott's novels, was declared bankrupt; shortly
after, the failure was announced of James Ballantyne & Co., in which Sir
Walter Scott was a partner; and with these houses, that of Hurst,
Kobinson & Co., of London, was hopelessly involved. The market was
flooded with the dishonoured paper of all these concerns, and mercantile
confidence in the great publishing houses was almost at an end. We find
Washington Irving communicating the following intelligence to A.H.
Everett, United States Minister at Madrid (January 31, 1826):
"You will perceive by the papers the failure of Constable & Co., at
Edinburgh, and Hurst, Robinson & Co.
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