another letter, "that you find more profit and pleasure from your new
employment than from that of the sword, which latter, you may remember,
I endeavoured to dissuade you from returning to; but a little trial, and
some further experience, at your time of life, cannot hurt you.... My
best compliments to Mrs. Murray, who I suppose will not be sorry for
your laying aside the wild Highland 'Mac' as unfashionable and even
dangerous in the circuit of Wilkes's mob; but that, I am convinced, was
your smallest consideration."

The nature of Mr. Murray's business, and especially his consignments to
distant lands, rendered it necessary for him to give long credit, while
the expense and the risk of bringing out new books added a fresh strain
on his resources. In these circumstances, he felt the need of fresh
capital, and applied to his friend Mr. William Kerr, Surveyor of the
General Post Office for Scotland, for a loan. Mr. Kerr responded in a
kindly letter. Though he could not lend much at the time, he sent Mr.
Murray £150, "lest he might be prejudiced for want of it," and added a
letter of kind and homely advice.

In order to extend his business to better advantage, Mr. Murray
endeavoured to form connections with booksellers in Scotland and
Ireland. In the first of these countries, as the sequel will show, the
firm established permanent and important alliances. To push the trade in
Ireland he employed Thomas Cumming, a Quaker mentioned in Boswell's
"Life of Johnson," who had been one of his advisers as to the purchase
of Mr. Sandby's business.

_Mr. T. Gumming to John Murray_.

"On receipt of thine I constantly applied to Alderman Faulkener, and