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The Quarterly Review, Volume CLXII, No. CCCXXIV: April, 1886 (Dodo Press)
The Quarterly Review Volume CLXII No CCCXXIV April 1886 - Dodo Press Author:Various The Quarterly Review was a literary and political periodical founded in March 1809 by the well known London publishing house John Murray. Initially, the Quarterly was set up primarily to counter the influence on public opinion of the Edinburgh Review. Its first editor, William Gifford, was appointed by George Canning, at the time Foreign Secreta... more »ry, later Prime Minister. Early contributors included the Secretaries of the Admiralty John Wilson Croker and Sir John Barrow, the Poet Laureate Robert Southey, the poet-novelist Sir Walter Scott, the Italian exile Ugo Foscolo, the Gothic novelist Charles Robert Maturin, and the essayist Charles Lamb. Under Gifford, the journal took the Canningite liberal-conservative position on matters of domestic and foreign policy. It opposed major political reforms, but it supported the gradual abolition of slavery, moderate law reform, humanitarian treatment of criminals and the insane, and the liberalizing of trade. In a series of brilliant articles, Southey advocated a progressive philosophy of social reform. Reflecting divisions in the Tory party itself, under its third editor, John Gibson Lockhart, the Quarterly became less consistent in the political philosophy it espoused. Typical of early nineteenth-century journals, reviewing in the Quarterly was highly politicized and on occasion excessively dismissive. Writers and publishers known for their Unitarian or radical views were among the early journal's main targets. The Quarterly stopped publication in 1967.« less