asgow, Edinburgh, and Oxford (at which latter, however, he only
remained a year, deriving very little benefit or pleasure from his
sojourn at Queen's College), he was called to the Scottish bar. He
practised at first with very little success, and in 1798 had serious
thoughts of taking up literary life in London. But he could obtain no
footing, and, returning to Edinburgh and marrying a cousin, he fell into
the company of Sydney Smith, who was there with a pupil. It seems to be
admitted that the idea of a new _Review_--to be entirely free from the
control or influence of publishers, to adopt an independent line of
criticism (independent, but somewhat mistaken; for the motto _Judex
damnatur cum nocens absolvitur_ gives a very one-sided view of the
critic's office), and to be written for fair remuneration by persons of
more or less distinct position, and at any rate of education--originated
with Sydney Smith. He is also sometimes spoken of as the first "editor,"
which would appear to be a mistake. At first (the original issue was in
October 1802) the review appears to have been a kind of republic; the
contributors being, besides Jeffrey and Sydney, a certain Francis Horner
(who died too soon to demonstrate the complete falsity of the golden
opinions entertained of him by his friends), Brougham, and some
Professors of Edinburgh University. But no such plan has ever succeeded,
though it has been more than once tried, and very soon accident or
design showed that Jeffrey was the right man to take the command of the
ship. The _Review_ was not ostensibly a political one at first, and for
some years Tories, the greatest of whom was Scott, wrote in it. But the
majority of the contributors were Whigs, and the whole cast of the
periodical became more and more of that complexion, till at last,
private matters helping public, a formidable secession took place, and
the _Quarterly_ was founded.

From time to time students of literature turn to the early numbers of
these famous periodicals, of the _Edinburgh_ especially, with the
result, usually of a certain, sometimes of a considerable,
disappointment. With the exception of a few things already known from
their inclusion in their authors' collected works, the material as a
whole is apt to seem anything but extraordinarily good; and some wonder
is often expressed at the effect which it originally had. This arises
from insufficient attention to a few obvious, but for that very reason
easi