172 Mi. Gijford. [FEB. 



lie ; all who Lad their fortunes to make by trafficking with their principles ; 

 all who were afraid to declare theirfaith in a God, or their loyalty to a 

 king; and all who cared for neither the one nor the other ; all the disap- 

 pointed, the bankrupt, the profligate, the bloodthirsty, the atheist, the 

 mad, were Whigs, sworn on the altar of republicanism, and stretching out 

 their arms to give the fraternal embrace to the revolutionary state that stood 

 on the other side of the Channel, dripping with regicide. 



In this crisis, the Anti-jacobin Newspaper was commenced. Its principal 

 contributors were men of scholarship, pleasantry, and what was of more 

 importance to success than either, of intimate intercourse with the higher 

 ranks of both the country and the administration. This enabled them to 

 speak with a decided tone, that gave them the most immediate advantage 

 over the adverse journals, which pre-eminent in impudence as they were, 

 dared not always affirm or deny with the vigour essential to popular con- 

 fidence. The Anti-jacobin had a corner expressly for the " the Lies " of 

 the opposition papers, which it dashed in the teeth of the Whigs, with the 

 least conceivable ceremony. A considerable succession of pleasant bur- 

 lesques on the puffs, fooleries, sentimentalities and sublimities of the Whigs 

 and their instruments, made the Anti-jacobin amusing even to those who 

 hated its politics. And some bold and polished specimens of poetry, unat- 

 tainable by the opposite journals, completed its superiority. A burlesque 

 of the German drama ; The Loves of the Triangles, a burlesque of Dar- 

 win's Loves of the Plants. " Morality," a powerful poetic satire on the 

 new fantasies of reform, were among the finer features of the work ; and 

 its effect in repelling their insolence, and blunting the mischief of the re- 

 volutionary journals, was beyond question. But it ceased at the close of 

 the year. Its contributors had gradually become known, as is the inevit- 

 able case in all joint contributions of public writing. The names of Can- 

 ning, Ellis, Frere, Lord Morrington, and others, had involuntarily made 

 their way through the disguise of Gifford's editorial cloak. And whether 

 their decorum was touched, or the time was suddenly employed, they 

 gave up the Anti-jacobin. It is curious that Mr. Pitt began an Essay on 

 Revolutionary Principles, which he had not the patience to extend beyond 

 a single page, it breaks off abruptly. The most fluent and deep-thinking 

 speaker of his aera ; he was probably disgusted with the tardiness of the 

 pen. Like Michael Angelo, he scorned to waste on oils, the genius that 

 in fresco was Creation. 



But this connection served the pecuniary interests of the editor. Govern- 

 ments are in general careless of services, where the servant is not powerful 

 enough to establish his claim to compulsory gratitude ; and of all govern- 

 ments of the globe, that of England has at all times exhibited the most 

 exemplary delicacy of finance in the recompence of literature. The minis- 

 terial recollection of Gifford's services was not a signal exception to the 

 rule ; yet he obtained, we believe, on this occasion, the paymastership of 

 a department of the Household. 



The final and luckiest accident of his life, was the rise of the Edinburgh 

 Review. The Whig papers had been bruised, if not yet altogether 

 crushed, when their spirit started up in another shape. The Dragon ap- 

 peared in the northern hemisphere, and its appearing " portended disastrous 

 eclipse " to constitutional literature. In England, as was observed before, 

 the first impulse is always wrong. The first impulse was -to receive the 

 Northern Review as an oracle. It was cleverly compiled ; was always 

 showy; often learned; sometimes eloquent; it dashed boldly into the 



