TO DAY IN HISTORY

Southland Times, Issue 20523, 27 June 1928, Page 6

TO DAY IN HISTORY

JUNE 27 Born: Louis XII (The Just) of France, at Blois, 1462; Charles IX of France at St. Germain, 1550; Charles XII of Sweden, 1682; Charles Stuart Parnell, Irish leader, 1846. Died: Jean Rotron, most eminent French dramatist before Canneille, 1650; Christian Heinecken, prodigy of learning, at Lubeck, 1725; Abbe de Chanlieu, French poet, 1740; Dr. William Dodd, executed at Tyburn, 1777; John Murray, publisher, at London, 1843. Event: Massacre at Cawnpore (Indian Mutiny), 1857. CHRISTIAN HEINECKEN. Christian Heinecken, one of the most remarkable beings recorded in the history of mankind, was born of respectable parentage at Lubeck, in 1721. If he had come into the world during the dim and distant ages of antiquity, the whole story of his wonders might have been set down as a myth, but the comparatively late period of his birth and the unimpeachable character of the numerous witnesses that testify to his extraordinary precocity, leave no alternative to belief and wonder. He spoke it is said, and spoke sensibly too, within a few hours of his birth; when ten months he could converse on most subjects; when a year old he was perfect in the Old Testament, and in another short month he mastered the New. When two and a-half years old he could answer any question in ancient or modern history or geography. He next acquired Latin and French, both of which he spoke with great facility at the Court of Denmark to which he was taken in his fourth year. His feeble con stitution prevented him from being weaned until he was five years old, when he died in consequence of this necessary change of diet. JOHN MURRAY. During the last century no name was seen more frequently on the title-pages of first rate books than that of John Murray; and few perhaps are aware that the reason for its long continuance arose from the faci that there has been a dynasty of three John Murrays. The founder of the house was John Mac Murray, who was born in Edinburgh about 1745, and commenced life in the Marines. In 1768, Lieut. Mac Murray, growing tired of his profession, bought for £4OO the stock and goodwill of Paul Sandby, bookseller, 32 Fleet Street, opposite St. Dunstan’s Church, and close to Falcon Court, the site of the offices of Wynkyn de Worde, whose sign was the Falcon. He was anxious to secure his friend Falconer the author of “The Shipwreck” as a partner; but Falconer declined and the following year lost, his life in the wreck of the Aurora, off the African coast. Dropping the prefix of Mac, as Scotsmen were not then popular in London, Murray contrived, with much diligence, to improve and extend the business he had purchased, At the end of twenty-five years, in 1793, he died, leaving his trade, under executors, to his son John at that time a minor of fifteen, having been born in the house over the Fleet Street shop on the 27th November, 1778. John II was educated at the best schools his father could find; among others at the High School at Edinburgh and at Dr. Burney’s at Gosport where he lost an eye by the writing master’s penknife accidentally running into it. For a time young Murray had for a partner Samuel Highley a long tried assistant of his father; but feeling hampered by his associate’s slow and cautious ways he obtained a dissolution of the connection in 1803—Highley moving off a few doors to carry on book-selling and leaving Murray to his more hazardous adventures as a publisher. One of his earliest and greatest was the “Quarterly Review.” On the Ist of February, 1809, the first number of the “Quarterly Review” appeared and its success was instant and decisive, the circulation quickly rising to 12,000 copies. The “Review” was the origin of Mr Murray’s eminent fortune. It brought round him such a galaxy of genius as no publisher, before had had at his service. In 1812 he removed from under the shadow of Temple Bar to a western position in Albemarle Street where his drawing room became the resort in London of Scott, Byron, Campbell, Hever, Disraeli, Canning, Hallem, Croker, Barrow, Madame de St ad, Crabbe, Southey, Belzoni, Washington Irving, Lockhart and many more, remembered and forgotten. Murray’s life-long distinction was his masterly enterprise, his fine combination of liberality with prudence and his consummate literary and commercial tact. His transactions were the admiration and despair of lesser men. An intimate alliance of business and friendship subsisted for a time between Murray and the Balantynes and Constable of Edinburgh. Constable gave Scott £l,OOO for the copyright of “Marmion” before it was written, of which Murray took a fourth; and when Scott was in his difficulties he gracefully made him a present of his share. Murray published “The Tales of My Landlord,” and the secret of the Great Unknown was manifest to him from the beginning. He early foresaw th? result of the reckless trading of John Balantyne, and after repeated warnings finally broke off connection with him. Happy would it have been for Scott had he taken the same course.

Mr. Murray made Lord Byron’s acquaintance in 1811, and gave him £6OO for the first two cantos of “Childe Harold” while the poet’s fame was unestablished, thus showing in a most happy instance that independent perception of literary talent which may be said to be highest gift of the great publishers. It is understood that by Mr Murray’s aid and advice the poet profited largely. Hearing in 1815 that he was in pecuniary difficulties, Murray sent him a draft of £1,500 promising another for the same amount in the course of a few months, and offering to sell the copyrights if necessity required. From first to last he paid Byron £20,000 for his poems. Byron playfully styled him “The Anak of stationers,” and presented him with a handsome Bible, with the text, “Now Barabbas was a robber” altered to “Barabbas was a publisher.” Byron gave Moore his “Autobiography” and Murray lent Moore £2,000 on the security of th» manuscript; and when Moore repaid the hard cash in order to destroy the memoir, Murray made up the loss by giving Moore £4,000 for his "Life of Byron.” In 1826, seduced by others more sanguine than himself, he started “The Representative,” a daily newspaper, price sevenpence, edited by Mr Benjamin Disraeli, and intended to rival “The Times.” It was a complete failure, and was stopped at the end of six months, with a loss to Mr Murray of £20,000. It was the solitary serious miscalculation of his life. On June 27, 1843, Mr Murray closed his arduous and honourable career at the age of sixty-five, and was succeeded by his son John Murray 111., who maintained undimmed the glory of his father’s house as publisher of the best books by the best authors.