ns. The Catholics were not emancipated, nor the game-laws
softened, nor the Court of Chancery reformed, nor the slave-trade
abolished. Cruel punishment still disgraced the criminal code, libel was
put down with vindictive severity, prisoners were not allowed counsel in
capital cases, and many other grievances now wholly or partially
redressed were still flourishing in full force.

Were they put down solely by the 'Edinburgh Review?' That, of course,
would not be alleged by its most ardent admirers; though Sydney Smith
certainly holds that the attacks of the 'Edinburgh' were amongst the
most efficient causes of the many victories which followed. I am not
concerned to dispute the statement; nor in fact do I doubt that it
contains much truth. But if we look at the 'Review' simply as literary
connoisseurs, and examine its volumes expecting to be edified by such
critical vigour and such a plentiful outpouring of righteous indignation
in burning language as might correspond to this picture of a great organ
of liberal opinion, we shall, I fear, be cruelly disappointed. Let us
speak the plain truth at once. Everyone who turns from the periodical
literature of the present day to the original 'Edinburgh Review' will be
amazed at its inferiority. It is generally dull, and, when not dull,
flimsy. The vigour has departed; the fire is extinct. To some extent, of
course, this is inevitable. Even the magnificent eloquence of Burke has
lost some of its early gloss. We can read, comparatively unmoved,
passages that would have once carried us off our legs in the exuberant
torrent of passionate invective. But, making all possible allowance for
the fading of all things human, I think that every reader who is frank
will admit his disappointment. Here and there, of course, amusing
passages illuminated by Sydney Smith's humour or Jeffrey's slashing and
swaggering retain a few sparks of fire. The pertness and petulance of
the youthful critics are amusing, though hardly in the way intended by
themselves. But, as a rule, one may most easily characterise the
contents by saying that few of the articles would have a chance of
acceptance by the editor of a first-rate periodical to-day; and that the
majority belong to an inferior variety of what is now called
'padding'--mere perfunctory bits of work, obviously manufactured by the
critic out of the book before him.

The great political importance of the 'Edinburgh Review' belongs to a
later period. Wh