He had brought out some successful works; but money came in slowly, and his chief difficulty was the want of capital.

He was therefore under the necessity of refusing to publish works which might have done something to establish his reputation.
At this juncture, i.e.in 1771, an uncle died leaving a fortune of L17,000, of which Mr.Murray was entitled to a fourth share.

On the strength of this, his friend Mr.Kerr advanced to him a further sum of L500.

The additional capital was put into the business, but even then his prosperity did not advance with rapid strides; and in 1777 we find him writing to his friend Mr.Richardson at Oxford.
_John Murray to Mr.Richardson_.
DEAR JACK, I am fatigued from morning till night about twopenny matters, if any of which is forgotten I am complained of as a man who minds not his business.

I pray heaven for a lazy and lucrative office, and then I shall with alacrity turn my shop out of the window.
A curious controversy occurred in 1778 between Mr.Mason, executor of Thomas Gray the poet, and Mr.Murray, who had published a "Poetical Miscellany," in which were quoted fifty lines from three passages in Gray's works.
Mr.Murray wrote a pamphlet in his own defence, and the incident is mentioned in the following passage from Boswell's "Life": "Somebody mentioned the Rev.Mr.Mason's prosecution of Mr.Murray, the bookseller, for having inserted in a collection only fifty lines of Gray's Poems, of which Mr.Mason had still the exclusive property, under the Statute of Queen Anne; and that Mr.Mason had persevered, notwithstanding his being requested to name his own terms of compensation.