volumes of the lives and trials of criminals [the Newgate Lives and
Trials of Lavengro], each to contain not less than a thousand pages.
{44a} For this work he was to receive the munificent sum of fifty
pounds, which was to cover all expenses incurred in the purchase of
books, papers and manuscripts necessary to the compilation of the
work. This was only one of the employments that the fertile brain of
the publisher had schemed for him. He was also to make himself
useful in connection with the forthcoming Universal Review.
"Generally useful, sir--doing whatever is required of you"; for it
was not Sir Richard's custom to allow young writers to select their
own subjects.

With impressive manner and ponderous diction, Sir Richard Phillips
unfolded his philanthropic designs regarding the young writer to whom
his words meant a career. He did not end with the appointment of
Borrow as general utility writer upon The Universal Review; but
proceeded to astonish him with the announcement that to him, George
Borrow, understanding German in a manner that aroused the "strong
admiration" of William Taylor, was to be entrusted the translating
into that tongue of Sir Richard Phillips' book of Philosophy. {44b}
If translations of Goethe into English were a drug, Sir Richard
Phillips' Proximate Causes was to prove that neither he nor his book
would be a drug in Germany. For this work the remuneration was to be
determined by the success of the translation, an arrangement
sufficiently vague to ensure eventual disagreement.

When Sir Richard had finished his account of what were his intentions
towards his guest, he gave him to understand that the interview was
at an end, at the same time intimating how seldom it was that he
dealt so generously with a young writer. Borrow then rose from the