At length a deadly breach took place, and it was resolved in Edinburgh that the publication of the _Edinburgh Review_ should be transferred to John Murray, Fleet Street.

Alexander Gibson Hunter, Constable's partner, wrote to Mr.Murray to tell of the rupture and to propose a closer alliance with him.
Mr.Murray replied: _John Murray to Mr.A.G.

Hunter.
December 7, 1805_.
"With regard to the important communication of your last letter, I confess the surprise with which I read it was not without some mixture of regret.

The extensive connections betwixt your house and Longman's cannot be severed at once without mutual inconvenience, and perhaps mutual disadvantages, your share of which a more protracted dismemberment might have prevented.

From what I had occasion to observe, I did not conceive that your concerns together would ever again move with a cordiality that would render them lasting; but still, I imagined that mutual interest and forbearance would allow them to subside into that indifference which, without animosity or mischief, would leave either party at liberty to enter upon such new arrangements as offered to their separate advantage.