Vol 12. No. 23

Quarterly Review
VOLUME 12 , NUMBER 23 (October 1814)

Notes | Contents, Identification of Contributors, and Historical Notes | Key to Abbreviations | Permissions

NOTES

This Number was published 6 Jan. 1815 [Courier advertisement, 6 Jan. 1815]
Thomas Allen, Murray's Edinburgh printer, congratulates Murray on printing 7000 copies of the Review [Murray MS., Allen to JM, Jan. 1815]
A Note appears on page 267-69 of this Number concerning Article #104, by John Barrow. (Cf. #311)
'I think better of the Quarterly since I have looked a little more into it. But I must say, that there is as great a difference between Jeffrey's best papers (such as that on Parliamentary Reform in the thirty-fourth Number) and your politics, as between Handel and his bellow-blower.' [Murray MS., Peter Elmsley to JM, 19 Jan. 1815; but see note to #206–Elmsley had an uneasy relationship with JM and the QR]
Murray MS., WG to Octavius Gilchrist, 22 Dec. 1814, asks if he has made progress on his Article
Items for 1815 from Jack Lynch's literary resources page, slightly modified and with additions:
- Napoleon escapes from Elba, enters Paris 20 March 1815. (See QR #321 in the previous Number)
- 18 June: Napoleon is soundly defeated in the Battle of Waterloo and is exiled to the isolated Atlantic island of St. Helena (with the location of his exile having been chosen by John Barrow, an important writer for the Quarterly Review).
- 'Holy Alliance' of Christian monarchs formed by Russia, Prussia, Austria, France, Spain and Sweden.
- After years of economic blockades, and American and European wars, the British national debt stands in excess of 850 million pounds sterling. (Approximately £36 billion in today's money, as calculated using the online resource, How much is that Worth Today?.) The English countryside suffers wide-spread economic distress.
- April: Massive volcanic eruption of Mt. Tambora in the Dutch East Indies.
- Church Missionary Society refuses services of three prospective women missionaries; Bible Christians church founded; Thomas Chalmers inducted into the Tron Church, Edinburgh; Chalmers delivers his Astronomical Discourses
- Wordsworth publishes collected Poems; Keats becomes a medical student in London; The Brothers Grimm publish their Fairy Tales (see QR #497); Scott publishes Guy Mannering (see QR #330).
- Anthony Trollope is born this year.

Important or otherwise interesting articles in this Number include: #315, #316, #317 (George Canning's only contribution to the QR that he wrote not in collaboration with others), #321
Number of definite attributions for this issue: 10
Number of probable or possible attributions for this issue: 1

CONTENTS, IDENTIFICATION OF CONTRIBUTORS, AND HISTORICAL NOTES

311 Article 1. Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, undertaken for the Purpose of completing the Discovery of that vast Country, and prosecuted in the Years 1801, 1802, and 1803, in his Majesty's Ship Investigator, and subsequently in the Armed Vessel Porpoise and Cumberland Schooner. With an Account of the Shipwreck of the Porpoise, Arrival of the Cumberland at Mauritius, and Imprisonment of the Commander during six Years and a half in the Island, 1-46. Author: John Barrow.

Running Title: Flinders's A Voyage to Terra Australis.

Textual Note: A note concerning this article appears as an appendix to Number 23, on pp.267-69.

Notes: In attributing the article to Barrow, Shine cites JM III's Register; Gentleman's Magazine XXI 139; and Smiles I 262. Shine also quotes from the following letters. Murray MS., WG to JM, [26 July 1814]: 'I wish you could get poor Flinders book to Mr Barrow.' Murray MS., WG to JM, [20 Oct. 1814 postmark; notation on letter in JM II's hand: 'Flinders, Q.R. 23.']: 'Barrow is hard at work on Flinders ....'

The following evidence is published here for the first time. Gentleman's Magazine (Feb. 1844), 139; (March 1844), 246. The article's author refers back to #104, which is also by Barrow. The author also quotes from #282, by Barrow, the same passage that is quoted in #297, which is also an article by Barrow. In his QR articles, it was Barrow's signature practice to refer to his own works. Note the author's adoption of the form, '31st of March, 1803,' '8th of April' etc., characteristic of Barrow. The author doubts the fact of cannibalism (that he calls anthropophagism; p.23), a position Barrow consistently took (cf. #68, #347).

JM II's marked QR: 'Barrow'.

JM III's Register: attribution to Barrow, but without evidence.

312 Article 2. Eustace, A Letter from Paris, to George Petre, Esq.; Shepherd, Paris in 1802 and 1814; Wake, Mon Journal de Huit Jours; or, the History of a Week's Absence from Maidstone, and of a Visit to France, in September, 1814; Wansey, Visit to Paris in June, 1814; Letters from a Lady to her Sister during a Tour to Paris, in April and May, 1814; Planta, The Picture of Paris; or, Stranger's Guide to the French Metropolis, 46-60. Author: John Wilson Croker.

Running Title: Eustace, Shepherd, &c. on Paris.

Notes: In attributing the article to Croker, Shine cites JM III's Register and Brightfield 454. Shine also quotes from Murray MS, WG to JM [1814]: 'Has Mr Croker seen the other little publication Mon voyage de huit Jours? It is more comical than Wanseys.'

The following evidence is published here for the first time. Claimed by Croker in four of his Clements Library MS. lists and included in the Cambridge University Library bound volumes of Croker's articles.

[Bookseller's note on Wansey: 'A series of letters from Wansey to various friends and family, describing his trip from Dieppe to Paris. Wansey spent much of the latter part of his life engaged in travel, literature, and antiquarian research. He wrote several pamphlets on the wool tax and was the author of a treatise on poor-house reform.']

Shepherd's volume was reviewed in ER, #692, Sept. 1814, by Henry Brougham.

JM III's Register: attribution to Croker, citing unspecified letters.

313 Article 3. The Works of the English Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper; including the Series edited, with Prefaces Biographical and Critical, by Dr. Samuel Johnson; and the most approved Translations. The additional lives by Alexander Chalmers, 60-90. Author: Robert Southey, with William Gifford.

Running Title: Chalmers's English Poets.

Notes: In attributing the article to Southey, Shine cites JM III's Register; Cottle 242-43; Southey 577; Warter II 393-94; Greever 120-21; Graham 41; Spurgeon II 66; and Clark 179. Shine also quotes from BL MS. 28603 [no folio number given], Robert Southey to William Peachey, 1 Feb. 1815: 'I have been vexed to see that what I had said of your friend Bowles in the last Quarterly has been cut down, & converted by this mutilation into an equivocal kind of compliment,—or at best but a cold half-praise,—which I should be the last man to offer. My words were—Bowles—who yet lives to enjoy his fame, & to whom we gladly take the opportunity of returning our thanks for the pleasure & benefit which we derived from his poems in our youth.'

The following evidence is published here for the first time. The article appears in Southey's definitive MS. list of his QR articles. Ramos 132, 139. Compare #310, also by Southey on Chalmers's English Poets. The passage Southey complains of is rendered on page 89 as: ' ... and Bowles, who yet lives, and to whom we gladly offer our thanks for the pleasure which we derived from his poems in our younger days.'

JM II's marked QR: 'Southey'.

314 Article 4. Wells, An Essay on Dew, and several Appearances connected with it, 90-99. Author: Thomas Young.

Running Title: Wells on Dew.

Notes: In attributing the article to Young, Shine cites JM III's Register; Young's MS. list of his QR articles reproduced in Quarterly Journal of Science, XXVIII (1829), 157; Gentleman's Magazine XXI 139; and another version of Young's own list reproduced in Thomas Joseph Pettigrew, Biographical Memoirs of the Most Celebrated Physicians, Surgeons, etc., etc. (1840), IV 21. Shine also quotes from Murray MS., WG to JM, [ 18 or 21 Nov. 1814]: 'I enclose for Rowarth [the printer] from Dr. Y.'

The following evidence is published here for the first time. The article does not appear in Young's list of his QR articles reproduced in [Hudson Gurney], Memoir of ... Young (1831), 56-60. According to Gurney, Young did propose the subject as an article for the Encyclopaedia Britannica. It is possible that Gurney, thinking there was a mistaken repetition, redacted Young's MS. list.

JM III's Register: attribution to Young, but without evidence.

315 Article 5. Wordsworth, The Excursion; a Poem, 100-111. Author: Charles Lamb, with William Gifford.

Running Title: Wordsworth's Excursion.

Notes: In co-attributing the article to Lamb and Gifford, Shine cites JM III's Register; Lamb I 160-72, 466n; Lucas II 139, 139n, 149-50 and notes; Hutchinson I 203-16, 216n; Selincourt II 620, 642, 715-16; Knight II 44; Morley I 81, 81n; Bowles 71; Warter II 393-94; Gentleman's Magazine XXI 140; CHEL XII 213; Graham 41; Holloway in RES X 63; and CBEL III 172. Shine says to see also Clark 187, 273n; Lucas II 136-39, 146-48, 148n; Wordsworth 59; and Robinson I 153. In suggesting an attribution to Lamb alone, Shine cites Graham in SP XXII 509 and Clark 179, 201, 203.

The following discussion, published here for the first time, is followed by evidence for authorship that is also published here for the first time.

'I never felt more vexed in my life,' Lamb wrote to Wordsworth when he saw what WG had made of this review (letter #287, 7 Jan. 1815 in Marrs, Letters of Charles and Mary Anne Lamb III 128). In an earlier episode, in QR #177, WG had gravely insulted Lamb by calling him a 'poor maniac'. When challenged by Southey to explain himself in that instance, WG abjectly apologized and claimed that in using the epithet he had known Lamb only by name. Southey accepted the apology and then persuaded Lamb to contribute the review on Wordsworth. Upon receiving the article, WG applied his editorial pen. He did so to make it, he said, less foolish. After its publication, Lamb told Wordsworth that a third of the article had been altered, with twelve or so passages excised and the whole rendered unintelligible.

Looking at the matter disinterestedly, however, it is difficult to see grounds for Lamb's complaint. Few if any critics or historians have come to the defence of WG; most—apparently without looking too deeply into the matter—have sided with Lamb, as does Marrs (III 132n). Marrs quotes at great length a reviewer in the Athenaeum who suggested the episode revealed in WG a 'deep-seated corruption of principle if not of character'. But none of that is true if the article deserved to be rescued from Lamb's 'foolishness,' as indeed may have been the case if the testimony of Grosvenor Bedford, Southey's friend and as such not usually an apologist for WG's excisions, is to be credited. Bedford saw at least a part of Lamb's manuscript and thought it 'both feeble and affected' (Bodleian MS. Eng. d.52 ff.117-18, 1 Feb. 1815).

Contrast Bedford's view of the manuscript with the published article, which is to say Lamb's work as revised by WG. It reads well. What WG preserved of Lamb's original manuscript is a forceful, clear, comprehensive discussion of the poem and an explanation of its Romantic principles. WG preserved many wonderfully expressive passages, such as the following: 'Nothing can be conceived finer than the manner of introducing these tales. With heaven above his head, and the mouldering turf at his feet – standing betwixt life and death – he seems to maintain that spiritual relation which he bore to his living flock, in its undiminished strength, even with their ashes; and to be in his proper cure, or diocese, among the dead.' (p.108) WG permitted Lamb to praise Wordsworth unambiguously and fulsomely: 'The causes which have prevented the poetry of Mr. Wordsworth from attaining its full share of popularity are to be found in the boldness and originality of his genius.' (p.110) WG admitted a number of challenging insightful definitions of Romanticism, including Lamb's suggestive 'Natural Methodism' (p.105) and 'To a mind constituted like that of Mr. Wordsworth, the stream, the torrent, and the stirring leaf – seem not merely to suggest associations of deity, but to be a kind of speaking communication with it.' (p.108)

Too, some of WG's excisions appear to make eminent sense. He removed, because he thought it digressive and believed it would unnecessarily bring the QR into direct conflict with the Edinburgh Review, an apparently elaborate refutation of Francis Jeffrey's classification in the August 1807 Edinburgh of Wordsworth, Southey, and Coleridge as 'Lake Poets'. WG and JM were careful to pick their fights with the Edinburgh, as for example in #17 and #168 when WG removed passages from Southey's articles critical of their northern rival. We can lament the loss of Lamb's discussion of the term 'Lake Poets', but WG's action is defensible.

The following relevant primary evidence is published here for the first time. Bodleian MS. Eng d. 52 (ff.100-1), Grosvenor Bedford to Robert Southey, 30 Oct. 1814, demonstrates that Lamb was at least consulted by WG about the excisions he wanted to make. Bedford states that WG returned the Wordsworth review to Lamb for 'some slight alteration,' including cutting from the beginning of the article a refutation of the 'Lake Poets' classification. Bodleian MS. Eng d. 52 (ff.117-18), Bedford to Southey, 1 Feb. 1815, says that Frank Sayers of Norwich (a contributor to the QR) wondered if the article was intended as a burlesque. Bedford had seen parts at least of the original MS. and did not think well of it. He thought it 'feeble and affected.' Bodleian MS. Eng d.52 (ff.121-22), Bedford to Southey, 15 Feb. 1815, Southey wished to see the original MS. of the article; it had already been destroyed. NLS MS. 866 (f.149), WG to Walter Scott, 11 Sept. 1817: 'He [Southey] forced Lambe [sic] upon me for a foolish Art and was then hurt because to save the Revw. I made it less so.'

Additional primary and secondary material: Univ. of Texas MSS., Charles Lamb to William Wordsworth, 9 Aug. 1814, 28 Dec. 1814, and 7 Jan. 1815, transcribed in Marrs, discuss Lamb's preparation of this article and WG's editorial changes. See Marrs, Letters of Charles and Mary Anne Lamb III 131-33n; John I. Ades, 'Lamb on Wordsworth's Excursion,' Review of Arts and Letters, 3 (1969), 1-9.

The subject of this article was reviewed in ER #696, Nov. 1814, by Francis Jeffrey.

JM III's Register: attribution to Lamb, but without evidence.

316 Article 6. A. W. Schlegel, Cours de Littérature Dramatique. Traduit d'Allemand, 112-46. Author: Francis Hare-Naylor.

Running Title: Schlegel's Cours de Littérature Dramatique.

Notes: In attributing the article to Hare-Naylor, Shine cites JM III's Register and Griggs II 126. Shine also quotes from Murray MS., WG to JM, [26 July 1814]: 'I have got Mrs Hoppner rummaging for Schlegel & <Cunningham> ... I think Mr Naylor will do the first well and I shall be very glad to try Mr Hare with the latter [#327?].' [Quarterly Review Archive editor's note: Shine conjectures that the illegible word in the letter is Birmingham. Having seen the original, it appears to the present writer that the word is instead 'Cunningham'.]

The following evidence and information is published here for the first time. No evidence to indicate Coleridge's involvement has been found.

Schlegel on the drama was the subject of an article in the ER, #748, Feb. 1816, by William Hazlitt.

JM III's Register: 'F. Hare Naylor or Coleridge.' and note: 'from a letter of F. H N's. July 21st 1814 [and] from a letter of S T C's Sept 10. 1814. See also WG July 26/14. '

317 Article 7. Count de Salis, Proposal for improving the System of Friendly Societies, &c.; Myers, Essay on improving the Condition of the Poor, &c., 146-59. Author: George Canning.

Running Title: On improving the Condition of the Poor.

Notes: In querying its attribution of the article to Robert Southey, Shine cites JM III's Register; Gentleman's Magazine XXI 139; and QR CCX 746. Shine alludes to a quotation from Southey 313: 'You would see in the last number [of QR] two articles of mine—the one upon the History of Poetry [#313], the other upon Forbes Travels [#319], both deplorably mutilated.'

The following evidence demonstrating Canning's authorship of this article was first published in VPR 28. This is the only article that Canning wrote for the QR not in collaboration with others. Harewood MS., WG to George Canning, Tuesday noon, [n.d. but late Oct. 1814], says that because he has let the printers close the 'July' Number it is perhaps too late to insert Canning's 'little Art.' and asks if it could be made the introduction to the review Canning had promised for the October Number, which, WG says, must be ready by the end of December. The letter also praises George Ellis's 'beautiful Art. on Lord Byron' (i.e., #308). The date of the letter and the issue Number referred to are established by the Ellis reference. This is the only Number that bears the title page date of October in which appears a review of Byron by Ellis. Harewood MS., WG to George Canning, 9 Nov. 1814, sends slips of a review by Canning in which Whitebread is mentioned (see pp.155-56 of this article).

The subject of this article was reviewed in ER #727, June 1815, by an unidentified author.

JM III's Register: attribution to Southey, but without evidence.

318 Article 8. [Brown,] The Paradise of Coquettes, a Poem in Nine Parts, 159-79. Author: Francis Cohen, probably.

Running Title: Paradise of Coquettes.

Notes: In attributing the article to Cohen, Shine cites JM III's Register and Smiles I 284-85, 285n.

The following evidence is published here for the first time. Murray MS., Peter Elmsley to JM, 16 Jan. 1815, asks who wrote this article and conjectures that it is the author of #298 (Cohen, later known as Francis Palgrave). Note the author's use of the form 'Charles the Second,' which is consistent with Cohen's practice. BL MS. 28099 (ff.23-24), WG to George Ellis, 14 May 1814, proposes this work to Ellis as a topic for review. Murray MS., WG to Octavius Gilchrist, 22 Dec. 1814, asks if he has made progress on his article. John Murray was the London publisher of the book under review.

The subject of this article was reviewed in ER #715, Feb. 1815, by Francis Jeffrey.

[Bookseller's note: 'Brown (1778-1820), a Scot, is best known as a philosopher. His Observations on the Nature and Tendency of Mr. Hume's Doctrine Concerning the Relation of Cause and Effect, was published in Edinburgh, 1804. A contemporary reviewer wrote of Brown: "Neither Bacon, nor Hobbes, nor Berkeley, nor Locke, possessed powers of mind so splendid and so various". Poetry, however, was Brown's love from an early age. The product of many years of writing during leisure moments snatched from law and medical studies, Brown's medical practice, and his philosophical lectures at Edinburgh, Paradise was declared "the best and most brilliant imitation of Pope that has appeared since the time of the great writer." (Allibone III, p. 260). Later reviewers, however, have referred to his poetry as "commonplace" and "indifferent," declaring that it "never made much impression" (see DNB and EB-11). Shaw and Shoemaker 37103'].

JM III's Register: attribution to Francis Cohen, but without evidence.

319 Article 9. Forbes, Oriental Memoirs: selected and abridged from a Series of Familiar Letters written during Seventeen Years' Residence in India: including Observations on Parts of Africa and South America, and a Narrative of Occurrences in four India Voyages. Illustrated by Engravings and Original Drawings, 180-227. Author: Robert Southey, with William Gifford.

Running Title: Forbes's Oriental Memoirs.

Notes: In attributing the article to Southey, Shine cites JM III's Register; Warter II 395; Southey 577; and Graham 41. Shine also alludes to a quotation from Southey 313: 'You would see in the last number [of QR] two articles of mine—the one upon the History of Poetry [#313], the other upon Forbes Travels [#319], both deplorably mutilated.'

The following evidence is published here for the first time. The article is included in Southey's definitive MS. list of his QR articles. Ramos 141.

JM II's marked QR: 'Southey'.

JM III's Register: attribution to Southey, but without evidence.

320 Article 10. Captain Layman, Precursor to an Exposé on Forest Trees and Timber; connected with the Maritime Strength and Prosperity of the United Kingdom, and the Provinces, 227-38. Author: John Barrow.

Running Title: Layman on Trees, Timber, and Dry-rot, &c.

Notes: In attributing the article to Barrow, Shine cites JM III's Register and Smiles I 284.

The following evidence is published here for the first time. Murray MS., John Barrow to JM, 27 Nov. 1814, proposes this topic as a subject for review. This article is referred to in #514 and #704, both of which are by Barrow. In his QR articles, it was Barrow's signature practice to refer to his own works. The article is one in a series of articles by Barrow in which the problem of dry rot is discussed. The series includes #208, #245, #260, #280, #297, #320, #328, #514, #704, and #341WI.

JM III's Register: attribution to Barrow, and with the following note: 'from a letter of Barrows Nov 27, 1814.

321 Article 11. Giraud, Campagne de Paris en 1814, précédée d'un Coup-d'oeil sur celle de 1813; Histoire de la Régence à Blois; Itinéraire de Buonaparte, pour servir de suite à la Régence de Blois; Oraison Funè de Buonaparte. Par une Société de Gens de Lettres; Salgues, Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire de France sous le Gouvernement de Napoléon Buonaparte; Buonaparte peint par lui-même; Berneaud, Voyage à l'Ile d'Elbe; [Doris de Bourges,] Mémoires Secrets sur Napoléon Buonaparte; écrits par un Homme qui ne l'a pas quitté depuis quinze ans; Lettera di un Italiano al Signore di Chateaubriand, autore dell' Opera intitolata Buonaparte e i Borboni, 238-66. Author: John Wilson Croker.

Running Title: Memoirs of Buonaparte's Deposition, &c.

Notes: In attributing the article to Croker, Shine cites JM III's Register; Gentleman's Magazine XXI 140; and Brightfield 454 (that queries the article as Croker's). Shine also quotes from the following letters. Murray MS., WG to JM, [3 June 1814]: 'Mr Croker ... has sent to say that ... he will give us something on the voyage etc of Buonaparte to Elba—Nothing can be more desirable. Pray look & see, if there be among the new publications any trumpery pamphlet (no matter what) that notices the departure of the cidevant Emperor & Kind. I really feel most obliged to my Admiralty friend.' Murray MS., WG to JM [26 July 1814]: 'Mr Croker never writes to me so that I know not whether he will give us Elba. I hope, however, that he will.'

JM III's Register: attribution to Croker, but without evidence.