_December_ 24, 1805.

GENTLEMEN,

The enclosed letter will show that I am not ignorant that a
misunderstanding prevails betwixt your house and that of Messrs.
Constable & Co. With the cause, however, I am as yet unacquainted;
though I have attempted, but in vain, to obviate a disunion which I most
sincerely regret. Whatever arrangements with regard to myself may take
place in consequence will have arisen from circumstances which it was
not in my power to prevent; and they will not therefore be suffered to
interfere in any way with those friendly dispositions which will
continue, I trust, to obtain between you and, gentlemen,

Your obedient servant,

J. MURRAY.

But the split was not to be avoided. It appears, however, that by the
contract entered into by Constable with Longmans in 1803, the latter had
acquired a legal right precluding the publication of the _Edinburgh
Review_ by another publisher without their express assent. Such assent
was not given, and the London publication of the _Edinburgh_ continued
in Longman's hands for a time; but all the other works of Constable were
at once transferred to Mr. Murray.

Mr. Constable invited Murray to come to Edinburgh to renew their
personal friendship, the foundations of which had been laid during Mr.
Murray's visit to Edinburgh in the previous year; and now that their