254 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF [1802. 



a little contributed. To Sydney Smith much is there- 

 fore due. The share he had in this good work has 

 never been sufficiently appreciated. He was a very 

 remarkable man, a great lover of freedom, but a still 

 more fervent lover of truth. He was not led away 

 by the false appearance of liberty which the danger- 

 ous and mischievous doctrines of the French Ee volu- 

 tion too widely spread. He looked upon all that had 

 been going on in France with calm good sense ; and 

 in all his writings, while he was the unflinching advo- 

 cate of every sound principle, he earnestly protested 

 against the dangers to which true liberty was exposed 

 by the mistaken zeal of its first worshippers. 



I consider that the Review owed much of its con- 

 tinuing success to the wise advice which Smith ad- 

 ministered to Constable at the conclusion of his short 

 reign as quasi editor, and during the discussion of the 

 arrangement about to be made with Jeffrey. The 

 substance of this advice was, that a permanent editor 

 should be engaged at a liberal salary, and that every 

 contributor should be paid ten or twelve guineas 

 a-sheet. 



Constable, who, as I have stated, was the publisher 

 in Edinburgh, was more liberal-minded than any of his 

 craft, and he had the sagacity to see the good sense 

 of Smith's advice. From the great sale of the first 

 two numbers, he justly calculated upon a considerable 

 increase in future ; but he knew that this could only 

 be secured by inducing the best men to enrol them- 

 selves as contributors, and that however agreeable to 



