Lockhart's account of the latter that Scott not only did not respect,
but despised him, though he cordially liked him, and that he passed
over, in judging him, vices which in a brother or son of his own he
would severely have rebuked. I believe myself that his liking for
co-operation with both, was greatly founded on his feeling that they
were simply creatures of his, to whom he could pretty well dictate
what he wanted,--colleagues whose inferiority to himself unconsciously
flattered his pride. He was evidently inclined to resent bitterly the
patronage of publishers. He sent word to Blackwood once with great
hauteur, after some suggestion from that house had been made to him
which appeared to him to interfere with his independence as an author,
that he was one of "the Black Hussars" of literature, who would not
endure that sort of treatment. Constable, who was really very liberal,
hurt his sensitive pride through the _Edinburgh Review_, of which
Jeffrey was editor. Thus the Ballantynes' great deficiency--that
neither of them had any independent capacity for the publishing
business, which would in any way hamper his discretion--though this is
just what commercial partners ought to have had, or they were not
worth their salt,--was, I believe, precisely what induced this Black
Hussar of literature, in spite of his otherwise considerable sagacity
and knowledge of human nature, to select them for partners.
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