With the cause, however, I am as yet unacquainted; though I have attempted, but in vain, to obviate a disunion which I most sincerely regret.

Whatever arrangements with regard to myself may take place in consequence will have arisen from circumstances which it was not in my power to prevent; and they will not therefore be suffered to interfere in any way with those friendly dispositions which will continue, I trust, to obtain between you and, gentlemen, Your obedient servant, J.MURRAY.
But the split was not to be avoided.

It appears, however, that by the contract entered into by Constable with Longmans in 1803, the latter had acquired a legal right precluding the publication of the _Edinburgh Review_ by another publisher without their express assent.

Such assent was not given, and the London publication of the _Edinburgh_ continued in Longman's hands for a time; but all the other works of Constable were at once transferred to Mr.Murray.
Mr.Constable invited Murray to come to Edinburgh to renew their personal friendship, the foundations of which had been laid during Mr.
Murray's visit to Edinburgh in the previous year; and now that their union was likely to be much closer, he desired to repeat the visit.

Mr.
Murray had another, and, so far as regarded his personal happiness, a much more important object in view.