Murray's
hands in a few days; but that "it would be disagreeable to him to have
it referred to Mr. Southey for an opinion." Murray, it should be
mentioned, had published Southey's "History of the War in Spain." Some
negotiations ensued, in the course of which Mr. Murray offered 500
guineas for the volume. This proposal, however, was declined by Colonel
Napier.
Murray after fuller consideration offered a thousand guineas, which
Colonel Napier accepted, and the volume was accordingly published in the
course of 1828. Notwithstanding the beauty of its style and the grandeur
of its descriptions, the book gave great offence by the severity of its
criticism, and called forth a multitude of replies and animadversions.
More than a dozen of these appeared in the shape of pamphlets bearing
their authors' names, added to which the _Quarterly Review_, departing
from the general rule, gave no less than four criticisms in succession.
This innovation greatly disgusted the publisher, who regarded them as so
much lead weighing down his _Review_, although they proceeded from the
pen of the Duke's right-hand man, the Rt.
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