"I have been much away from my desk this month. During an absence
your letter--with an inclosure or two--came. Before I could reply I
was again called away, and, just returning, I receive your note of
yesterday.
"I wrote to you in the first place because I thought you really took
an interest in the 'B.' as well as accepted its annual pecuniary
recognition of your association with it, and because, since the
completion of the first volume, you had contributed but very sparingly
to its pages,--had almost ceased even to send me good advice and better
criticism.
"I did not consider that you had broken off relations with our house
_in toto_, just because you fancied another strong box more secure
than ours, or wished to try whether the _parvenu_ hawkers and peddlers
of books could make the future of your literary life more pleasant
and profitable than your past had proved by following the established
routine of regular publishing. I should have thought that I was doing
you an injustice had I allowed myself to fancy that, because you wanted
to try a promising experiment, you and ourselves were not to [be]
considered as 'on terms' any more. Was I wrong?
"But, beyond this, I thought that if any difference of opinion were
to arise as to the proper earnings to be expected from, your books,
there could be no question as to the return made by the 'B.' for the
dozen or fifteen articles which you had contributed to it, and that as
you had sent but two papers to the volume of 1767 and none for that of
1768, there could be no _faux pas_ in asking you to supply something.
Again--was I wrong?
"A word as to the matter of names. It was my intention to have no
editorial names on the new cover, as so much correspondence has been
inflicted on 'the trio,' and as so many subscriptions have been sent to
one or the other of them personally; but by some blunder at the office,
the names crept on twice before I could lay them quite.
"Am I to understand that with the withdrawal of your name from the
cover of the 'B.' you desire that your relations with Maga shall cease,
and the allowance heretofore made in return for your name--and for your
contributions, which were originally expected to be monthly or when
desired--shall no longer be passed to your credit?"