Mr. Murray, it may here be mentioned, had much communication with Sir Robert Peel during his parliamentary career. He published many of Peel's speeches and addresses—his Address to the Students of Glasgow University; his Speeches on the Irish Disturbances Bill, the Coercion Bill, the Repeal of the Union, and the Sugar Bills—all of which were most carefully revised before being issued. Sugar had become so cloying with Sir Robert, that he refused to read his speeches on the subject. "I am so sick of Sugar," he wrote to Murray, "and of the eight nights' debate, that I have not the courage to look at any report of my speech—at least at present." A later letter shows that the connection continued.
The Rt. Hon. Sir R. Peel to John Murray.
July or August, 1840.
DEAR SIR,
Your printer must be descended from him who omitted not from the seventh Commandment, and finding a superfluous "not" in his possession, is anxious to find a place for it.
I am sorry he has bestowed it upon me, and has made me assure my constituents that I do not intend to support my political principles. Pray look at the 4th line of the second page of the enclosed.
Faithfully yours,
ROBERT PEEL.
No account of Mr. Murray's career would be complete without some mention of the "Handbooks," with which his name has been for sixty years associated; for though this series was in reality the invention of his son, it was Mr. Murray who provided the means and encouragement for the execution of the scheme, and by his own experience was instrumental in ensuring its success.
As early as 1817 Hobhouse had remarked on the inadequate character of most books of European travel. In later years Mrs. Starke made a beginning, but her works were very superficial and inadequate, and after personally testing them on their own ground, Mr. John Murray decided that something better was needed.