Quarterly Review
VOLUME 13 , NUMBER 25 (April 1815)

NOTES

• This Number was published 20 June 1815 [Courier advertisement, 20 June 1815]
  
  
• This Number sold about 6000 in one day, including subscriptions [Murray MS., WG to Robert William Hay, 23 June 1815]
  
  
• Murray now prints 7000 [Warter, Letters of Robert Southey, II 419]
  
  
• This Number was the first QR to appear following the battle of Waterloo, 18 June 1815. (See #343.) Napoleon abdicated 22 June. The location of his exile, the island of St Helena, was selected by John Barrow as Second Secretary of the Admiralty (see QR #355, #359, #408, #418, and #661).
  
  
• Murray made a gift to Gifford of a presentation copy of the first twelve volumes of the Quarterly Review, bound in half-Russia [Murray MS., Cash Day Book, 1814-1816, p. 117, dated 28 June 1815]
  
  
• Important or otherwise interesting articles in this Number include: #332, #333, #335, #337, #339, #342, #343 (on Wellington, by Southey)
  
  
• Number of definite attributions for this issue: 8
  
  
• Number of probable or possible attributions for this issue: 3
  
  
• Number of articles for which no suggestion of authorship is made: 1
  

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CONTENTS, IDENTIFICATION OF CONTRIBUTORS, AND HISTORICAL NOTES

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332 Article 1. Miot, Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire des Expéditions en Egypte et en Syrie. Deuxième Edition. Revue, corrigeé et augmentée d'une Introduction, d'un Appendice, et de Faits, Pièces et Documens qui n'ont pu paroître sons le Gouvernement précédent, 1-55. Author: Robert Southey.

Running Title:  Miot's Mémoires de l'Expédition en Egypte, &c.

Notes: In attributing the article to Southey, Shine cites JM III's Register; Cottle 242-43; Southey 316, 577; and Warter II 394, 396, 402, 416-17, 419. 

The following evidence is published here for the first time. Ramos 141, 144. The article appears in Southey's definitive MS. list of his articles. 

JM II's marked QR: 'Southey'.

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

333 Article 2. Dictionnaire Chinois Francais et Latin, publié d'après l'Ordre de sa Majesté l'Empereur et Roi Napoléon le Grand. Par M. de Guignes, Résident de France à la Chine, attachè au Ministère des Relations extérieures, Correspondant de la première et de la troisième Classe de l'Institut, 56-76. Author: John Barrow.

Running Title: De Guignes's Dictionnaire Chinois. 

Notes: In attributing the article to Barrow, Shine cites only JM III's Register. 

The following evidence and information is published here for the first time. Murray MS., John Barrow to JM, 13 Jan. 1815, proposes an article on this topic. The article's author refers back to #85 and #147, both of which are by Barrow. The article is referred to at #349 and 389, both of which are by Barrow. The author of #142WI, Barrow, takes credit for this article and for articles #85, #119, #147, and #389, all of which are by Barrow. In his QR articles, it was Barrow's signature practice to refer to his own works. Murray paid about £5 to Messers Austen & Son for 'Engraving on Wood 142 blocks' of  Chinese characters that appear in this article [Murray MS., Cash Day Book 1814-1816, p. 119]. 

JM II's marked QR: 'Barrow'. 

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

334 Article 3. Mason, A Statistical Account or Parochial Survey of Ireland, drawn up from the Communications of the Clergy Vol. I., 76-82. Author: John Wilson Croker.

Running Title: Mason's Statistical Account of Ireland.

Notes: In attributing the article to Croker, Shine cites JM III's Register and Brightfield 454. 

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 bound volumes of Croker's articles.

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

335 Article 4. Southey, Roderick, the last of the Goths, 83-113. Author: Grosvenor Charles Bedford, with Robert Southey and ______ Nichol.

Running Title: Southey's Roderick.

Notes: In attributing the article to Bedford, Shine cites JM III's Register and Graham 41. Shine also quotes from the following two letters. Murray MS., WG to JM, [1814]: 'Grosvenor Bedford was not selected by me .... He was fixed upon by Southey himself.' Murray MS., WG to JM [28 Jan. 1815]: '... the difficulty with me is Southey. He entertains a very high opinion of his friend's talents, as he shewed by employing him & he has seen & approved the critique. ... he is after all the sheet anchor of the Revw & should not be lightly hurt. Grosvenor Bedford's influence with him is ... great ... some little good may be done by a few omissions towards the conclusion ... you have not the last revise, in which I made a few alterations ....'  

The following evidence is published here for the first time. Bodleian MS. Eng lett. d. 52 (f.123), Grosvenor Bedford to Robert Southey, 18 Feb. 1815; (f.125), 25 Feb. 1815; (f.127), 27 Feb. 1817, identify Bedford as the author of this review and suggest that Southey and Nichol each had a hand in revising it. (The identity of Nichol is not certain.)

The subject of this article was reviewed in ER #722, June 1815, by Francis Jeffrey.

JM II's marked QR: 'Bedford'

JM III's Register attribution to Bedford citing JM II's marked QR.

336 Article 5. A new Covering to the Velvet Cushion, 113-19. Author not identified.

Running Title: A New Covering to the Velvet Cushion.

Notes: In the absence of guidance from JM III's Register, Shine does not suggest an author for this article. 

The following information is published here for the first time. Bodleian MS., Eng. lett. 134 (f.41), John Keble to John Taylor Coleridge, [11 Apr. 1815], says he thinks The Velvet Cushion should be defended against the review in Rennell's British Critic. The Keble - Coleridge letters appear to suggest that Keble did not contribute to the QR in this period; there is no indication in the letters that Coleridge took up Keble's suggestion and submitted a review. A man named Collinson (certainly either John Collinson or his uncle Septimus Collinson) is a candidate for authorship of this article. He is mentioned as a contributor by John Wilson Croker in an 1823 letter to John Murray: '... remember the necessity of absolute secrecy on this point, and indeed on all others. If you were to publish such names as Cohen and Croker and Collinson and Coleridge, the magical WE would have little effect, and your Review would be absolutely despised—omne ignotum pro mirifico.' (Croker to Murray, Brighton, 29 March 1823 quoted in Smiles II 57-58). In the article's head note, the word 'new' appears in lower case, as above. See also #327.

337 Article 6. The Journal of a Mission to the Interior of Africa in the Year 1805. By Mungo Park. Together with other Documents, official and private, relating to the same Mission. To Which is prefixed an Account of the Life of Mr. Park, 120-51. Author: John Barrow.

Running Title: Park's Journal of a Mission to the Interior of Africa.

Notes: In attributing the article to Barrow, Shine cites Seymour, ed. The 'Pope' of Holland House; Selections from the Correspondence of John Wishaw and His Friends: 1830-1840 (1906), 28. In suggesting Robert Southey as an alternative attribution, Shine cites JM III's Register. 

The following evidence and information was first published in VPR 27. BL MS. 35,611 (f.299), John Barrow to Macvey Napier, 23 Oct. 1815: 'You are quite right in your conjecture—the Article in the Quarterly has brought upon me the superintendence of a Expedition up the Niger ....' The article is referred to at #457 (twice) and #531 (specific reference), both of which are by Barrow. In his QR articles, it was Barrow's signature practice to refer to his own works. Notice the author's adoption of the form '30th January, 1805,' '1st September, 1811,' typical of Barrow. The author of the article speaks of the Saints (evangelical parliamentary philanthropists) as 'so numerous and powerful a body, armed with a more than ordinary influence over the feelings and opinions of the public ....' 

The subject of this article was reviewed in ER #719, Feb. 1815, by Henry Brougham.

Summary: Defends Mungo Park against the accusation that much of his Journal was composed by another hand and the evangelicals' suggestion that he was indifferent to slavery. The article summarizes the narrative from Park's Journal of his exploration of the Niger River and provides a lengthy narrative of Park's death from dysentery. It concludes with a discussion of the source of the Niger. The author speculates that the Niger meets the Nile and that the Niger and Zaire rivers are one and the same. 

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

338 Article 7. Elton, Specimens of the Classic Poets, in a chronological Series from Homer to Tryphiodorus, translated into English Verse, and illustrated with Biographical and Critical Notices, 151-58. Author: Henry Hallam, probably.

Running Title: Elton's Specimens of the Classic Poets.

Notes: In attributing the article to Hallam, Shine cites JM III's Register and says to see also Smiles I 285. 

The following information is published here for the first time. No objective evidence outside of JM II's marked QR has been identified to support this entirely plausible attribution of the article to Henry Hallam. Smiles at I 285 asserts that Hallam had an article in this Number but does not indicate the source of the assertion, but it is probably JM III's Register that in turn depends upon JM II's marked QR.

JM II's marked QR: 'H. Hallam'.

JM III's Register: attribution to Hallam, but without evidence and almost certainly derived from JM II's marked QR.

339 Article 8. Gall and Spurzheim, The Physiognomical System of Doctors Gall and Spurzheim, founded on an Anatomical and Physiological Examination of the Nervous System in general, and of the Brain in particular, and indicating the Dispositions and Manifestations of the Mind, 159-78. Author: William Rowe Lyall, possibly.

Running Title: Gall and Spurzheim's Physiognomical System.

Notes: In the absence of guidance from JM III's Register, Shine does suggest an author for this article. 

The following information was first published in VPR 28. Support for the attribution to Lyall is based entirely on internal evidence. In the opinion of the present writer, the strongest element in this evidence is the article's commonality with Lyall's known method of argumentation. The author's dependence on italicized words and phrases is a peculiar practice shared by Lyall. There is a reference in the article to #322, which is by Lyall, specifically to 'doubts respecting the substantial existence of those many simple and elementary faculties with which the mind is commonly considered endowed' (p.165.)  In #322 and #339 the review impugns the authors' motives and mildly and ironically chides their character. In both articles the authors' arguments are placed under a microscope and methodically dissected; in both articles the author employs a gentle satire. In both cases the reviewer believes the authors' suppositions do not stand up under close scrutiny. The author of #322 and the author of #339 very frequently employ italics; each repeatedly uses the phrases 'we do not,' 'we would not,' 'we have not,' and 'having thus'. Similarly, the reviewer of Wordsworth in #362 (Lyall, attributed on fairly good evidence), like the reviewers in #332 and #339, challenges the consistency of the author's assertions and his practice (in Wordsworth's case, his claim to write in the simple language of everyday is contradicted, the reviewer says, by his poems, whose language, expression, and meaning are obscure). The author of these three articles is fond of the uncommon word 'phraseology.' Against the attribution to Lyall is the comment on page 161 of #339 that author suffers from 'imperfect eye-sight.' In his portraits and in his effigy in Canterbury cathedral, Lyall is not represented as wearing spectacles. Perhaps misleadingly, WG was effectively blind in one eye.

Richard Chenevix, a reviewer in the QR who later wrote on Gall and Spurzheim, would be a candidate except that, as John van Wyhe notes (in a personal correspondence with the present writer, quoted by permission), 'it is unlikely that Chenevix wrote the QR article. His later Foreign Quarterly Review article was a glowing confirmation of phrenology, and the QR article was the first to really damn phrenology in Britain (excepting one in the Edinburgh in 1803). The QR article on Spurzheim came at a time when Spurzheim was first touring Britain and published his first book. The article is really a rebuke of Spurzheim's pretension.'

The subject of this article was reviewed in ER #731, June 1815, by John Gordon.

An electronic transcript of #339 is available at John van Wyhe's excellent website, Phrenology.

340 Article 9. Rice, Inquiry into the Effects of the Irish Grand Jury Laws, 178-82. Author: John Wilson Croker.

Running Title: Rice—on the Irish Grand Jury Laws.

Notes: In attributing the article to Croker, Shine cites JM III's Register and Brightfield 454. 

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

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

341 Article 10. Reliquiae Sacrae, sive Autorum fere jam perditorum secundi tertiique Saeculi Fragmenta quae supersunt. Ad Codices MSS. recensuit, notisque illustravit Martinus Josephus Routh, S. T. P. Collegii S. Magdalenae Præses. Oxonii. Vol. I. et II., 183-92. Author: Charles James Blomfield, probably.

Running Title: Routh's Reliquae Sacrae.

Notes: In the absence of guidance from JM III's Register, Shine does not suggest an author for this article. 

The following evidence was first published in VPR 28. Compare the author's recommending Marsh on page 187 with #346, by Blomfield; and note #207. Article #83, by Whitaker or D'Oyly, has none of Blomfield's parading of classical knowledge. Blomfield was a promoter of Marsh's interests (cf. #207 and #346).

342 Article 11. Wraxall, Historical Memoirs of My Own Time from 1772 to 1784, 193-215. Author: John Wilson Croker.

Running Title: Wraxall's Historical Memoirs of My Own Time.

Notes: In attributing the article to Croker, Shine cites JM III's Register; Brightfield 454; and Gentleman's Magazine XXI 140. Shine also summarizes and quotes from the following letter. Iowa MS., JM to John Wilson Croker, n.d., [Shine's summary]: 'Urging Croker to fulfill an article on Wraxall's tales, Murray makes the following suggestions and comments. 'Choose extracts such as Sir W. Hamilton's account of Ferdinand. Give the last part of the pretender, which will permit of much fervor in its contemnation [sic]. This article should occupy 24 pages [Shine points out, actually 23]. When it is finished, this issue of Q R will be ready to publish.' 

The following evidence and information is published here for the first time. Claimed by Croker in four of his Clements Library MS. lists and included in the Cambridge University bound volumes of Croker's articles. The article occasioned Sir N[athaniel] William Wraxall, Historical Memoirs of My Own Time. Part the First, From 1772 to 1780. Part the Second, From 1781 to 1784. Second Edition. In Two Volumes. [with] An Answer to the Calumnious Misrepresentations of the "Quarterly Review," the "British Critic," and the "Edinburgh Review," Contained in their Observations on Sir N. William Wraxall's Historical Memoirs of His Own Time (1815). Second edition.

[Bookseller's note: 'Wraxall (1751-1831), baronet and a member of parliament, in the course of his wide spread travels and political experience met with many significant political figures of his day. This second edition of this present work, which, because Wraxall held Count Woronzow responsible for the insinuation that the empress Catherine of Russia had caused the Princess of Wurtemberg to be executed, led to Wraxall's conviction for libel, does not contain certain passages present in the first edition. Nevertheless, it is an important account of events surrounding many of the significant figures of the day.']

JM II's marked QR: 'Croker'. 

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

343 Article 12. Elliott, The Life of the Most Noble Arthur Duke of Wellington, from the Period of his first Achievements in India, down to his Invasion of France, and the Peace of Paris in 1814, 215-75. Author: Robert Southey.

Running Title: Life of Wellington.

Notes: In attributing the article to Southey, Shine cites JM III's Register; Water II 399, 402, 411, 419; Grierson IV 75, 75n; Cottle 242-43; Southey 577; Smiles I 270; Gentleman's Magazine XXI 140; QR CCX 760n; and Ticknor I 50. 

The following evidence is published here for the first time. The article appears in Southey's definitive MS. list of his QR articles. Murray MS., Robert Southey to JM, 15 Feb. 1818, Southey promises this article. Ramos 144.

JM II's marked QR: [in pencil] 'Southey'.

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