Transcription
Lt. Alex’r Slidell
U.S. Frigate Brandywine
Med’[?] Squadron
New York. February 18th 1831 _
My dear Slidell,
Shortly after your departure in / the Brandywine, I received from your father, a copy of the / second edition of [your] work, which I immediately forwarded at / your requested to my Uncle Washington. I wrote to him at the / same time begging him to make some enquiry as to the prospect / of finding a publisher for it in London. I yesterday received from / him a reply + in lieu of any remarks of my own, I give you his / own verbatim. This letter is dated at London.30th Dec. 1830. / He says “I am at present so much engaged by business that / “ I can give you but a brief reply to your letter. I have correct / “ and trimmed up the two volumes of Mr Slidell for publication, / “ and Mr Murray is about to bring them out in a neat edition. / “ I shall take care to have it favorable noticed in the Quarterly / “ Review. As the work is already in print and at its second edition / “ it is of course any body’s property on this side of the Atlantic. I / “ do not know therefore whether I shall be able to get any [^ thing] from Mr / “ Murray for it; but the coming out under his auspices, and aided / by the countenance of the Quarterly Review, is enough to set / up an author up with the public. Slidell will be able to / make a better bargain for any future work: Indeed Mr Mur - / “ ray is desirous of having any manuscript be can furnish, / “ and I have promised him he shall have an offer of the /
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“ manuscript [Tour?] to Granada +c. I wish you, therefore, / “ to advise Mr Slidell’s friends not to publish that M.S. in / the United States . until an arrangement has been made / “ for its simultaneous publication in London. Should I / “ therefore continue here any length of time I should be / “ happy to make the arrangement for Slidell with Mr. / “ Murray. I hope [??] Slidell will go on to write: / “ I think his pen will be a source both of reputation and / “ profit to him and that in a very great degree, It gives / “ me the sincerest delight to be of any service in launching / “ him before the European public, for he is a young man / “ for whom I entertain a most affectionate regard.”
I need not say, My dear Slidelll how truly I am gratified / at this intelligence; I give you my hearty congratulations on / your having got into the hands of so gentlemanly + liberal a / publisher as Murray . and I trust that along with the popular / applause which cannot fail to be your [need] / this arrange - / ment may lay the foundation of something more substantial. / I beg you will take my Uncle his advice with regard to the / exercise of your pen. I would particularly request that you / would desire your father to hand over the M.S. of the “Granada” / to me to be forwarded to my Uncle Washington. He will / not probably remain in London more than twelve months / longer + while he is there you may depend upon it that /
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Your interests will be well taken care of _ / I need scarcely add that if my services can avail you [aught?] / that you may command them most freely _
I find that the vefsel by which I am to dispatch / this + which has been detained by bad weather, is on the / very one [? leaving] the wharf. I am obliged therefore to de - / sist with regret from giving you any account of our mutual / acquaintances in this city. Hoffman remains at his / [post] very much in [ [??-ater gas?] that is to day, about one half / the time in the garret + the other in the cellar. I am glad / however to find that he continues please with his situation, / + I have reason to believe that it will add to his reputation / as well as his finances.
I young ladies of our large family connexion are much / as of old + when I say that none of them are married or / at present likely to be so, I have said all that can be told / of them. Truly, when I attempt to give any particular de - / tails of the lives of individuals, I am reminded of a remark / of some one, now forgotten, that “Life is like a lawyer’s or a / Doctor’s bill, made up of very insignificant items in its pro - / gress, with a great sum total at the end –”
By a letter rec yesterday from My Uncle Peter _ who / is now at Paris, I find that your brother [??] had presented / a letter of introduction I gave him _ The Dr. was much / pleased with him + spoke very highly of him _ It also /
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mentioned you in terms of great regard.
In the hope of soon hearing from you with directions / for the publication of the Sequel of “A Year in Spain” I / remain, in haste,
ever sincerely yours,
Pierre S. Irving
My brother Edgar continues at home, I regret to say, / in a very delicate state of health - his constitution / is much impaired + the late cold weather has / been very unfavorable for him - [?]Transcriber
Kathryn AlexanderLanguage
English
