Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/182

148 CONSTABLE, CADELL AND BLACK. Quincey, and Tytler, while the editor can count on the aid of friends like Scott, Playfair, Stewart, Leslie, Lord Jeffrey, Sir William Hamilton, and Sir John Barrow, it is not difficult to anticipate the result. The mere cost of presentation copies amounted to ,416 i6s., and the amount of duty on the paper employed exceeded ^6000 ; while, to go into heavier matters, the total expense of the twenty-one quarto volumes was, in a trial in the Jury Court of Scotland, proved to have been no less a sum than 12 5,667 9^. ^d- This amount, of course, includes every item of expen- diture, among which the following are the most im- portant : s. d. Contributions and Editing . 22, 590 2 1 1 Printing 18,610 I 4 Stereotyping . . . . 3,317 5 8 Paper 27,854 15 7 Bookbinding .... 12,739 12 2 Engraving and Plate-printing . n,777 J 8 I The literary contributions to the first volume of " Dissertations " alone cost upwards of 3450. The work was eminently successful, and this im- mense expenditure shows us something of what " success " means in this instance. The commercial management of an undertaking like this was sufficient to occupy the attention of a man of extraordinary diligence ; but Mr. Black found time, not only to contribute several articles to his Encyclopedia, but to take a very warm and prominent interest in the government of his native city ; and from 1843 to 1848 he occupied the highest position to which a citizen of Edinburgh can aspire that of Lord Provost. Enterprise and success, more especially when they