_April_ 25, 1803.

"I have several works in the press which I should be willing to consign
to your management in Edinburgh, but that I presume you have already
sufficient business upon your hands, and that you would not find mine
worth attending to. If so, I wish that you would tell me of some
vigorous young bookseller, like myself, just starting into business,
upon whose probity, punctuality, and exertion you think I might rely,
and I would instantly open a correspondence with him; and in return it
will give me much pleasure to do any civil office for you in London. I
should be happy if any arrangement could be made wherein we might prove
of reciprocal advantage; and were you from your superabundance to pick
me out any work of merit of which you would either make me the publisher
in London, or in which you would allow me to become a partner, I dare
say the occasion would arise wherein I could return the compliment, and
you would have the satisfaction of knowing that your book was in the
hands of one who has not yet so much business as to cause him to neglect
any part of it."

Mr. Constable's answer was favourable. In October 1804 Mr. Murray, at
the instance of Constable, took as his apprentice Charles Hunter, the
younger brother of A. Gibson Hunter, Constable's partner. The
apprenticeship was to be for four or seven years, at the option of
Charles Hunter. These negotiations between the firms, and their
increasing interchange of books, showed that they were gradually drawing
nearer to each other, until their correspondence became quite friendly
and even intimate. Walter Scott was now making his appearance as an
author; Constable had published his "Sir Tristram" in May 1804, and his
"Lay of the Last Minstrel" in January 1805. Large numbers of these works
were forwarded to London and sold by Mr. Murray.