The Sun.
London, England, 1808-11-25 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

[As We have paid partictilar aiiention to.the Periodical Work
referred ton) the following Letter, and have seen it rapidly
.;.-generating from a Review of Literature into a vehicle of
virulent party-spleen and outrageous Democracy, v‘e readi-
ly give insertion to an Article which Lolly devclopes its
chari,etrii which may materially tend to open the eyes
of the eublic to its misenievous tendency.]

SIR,
" JaLobinism is no more," says a popular Author
in a Note to a late Edition of his Works, and at the
time that Note was written 1 should have had no
hese •fion inagreeihg with him ; but when I read a
Journal of great circulation, which I have just _re-
eel% eel from Scotland, I am disposed to think that
he Author in question has been too satiguibe
itt that idea, and that Jacobinism is still alive and
vigorous in the Edinturgh, Review..
Ut that Journal I have been a constant reader ever
since its commencement, and having been. born in,
Scotland, though I have long ceased to be a resident
. there, I coidess I felt some degree of national pride
in the reputation, and indeed in the execution, of the
WOrk. I was nut, however, so nationally partial as
not to perceive some defeas in the performance. I
found in it..a system of severity (which its motto in-
deed held out).rather, as it appeared to me, too harsh
to be pleasant to a liberal-minded critic. There was,
besides, what perhaps'this system of castigation na-
turally produced, a 'desire of bringing forth Books
-to public notice, not because of their excellence, but
exactly the reverse, because they were foolish and
nbsurde and admitted of that ridicule which was the
favourite object of the Review to inflict on poor
authors; I found sometimes rather a.disposition than
• a title to sneer, and a confidence, I might perhaps
say a petulance, 'not always supported by knowledge
of the subject of Which the Reviewer treated. I soon
also began to perceive a party leaning in the
Writers, which sometimes seemed. to direa their
choice of articles, and sometimes to affea their opil-
nion on those which they had seletted. But those •
clef etta, some of-which were common to other works
of the same kind, were compensated by a degree
of acuteness in argument, of vivacity in remark, and
of vigour in Style, which I own I was much pleased.
with, though 1 sometimes took myself to task for ill-
nature or unchaniablenes in the amusement.
But in reading the article on " Cevallos's Expo-
sition of the late Events in Spain," in the last Num-
ber of this Review,' I could have' imagined myself
to have taken up a Journal of about sixteen years old,
written by sonic of those zealous Members of the
Corresponding or Constitutional Societies, who pro. .
posed to renovate our Constitution (a phrase which
this Reviewer has borrowed from them)
,at that cri-
ical period.
After rather a desponding view of the situation of ,
the Spanish Patriots, and of the probable result of the
present struggle, the Reviewer felicitates himself on
their success, temporal.) as it may be, and imperfeet,
15 may be its issue to shake off intirely the yoke of
Buonaparte,—because it will spew all Europe, and
particularly Great Britain, what the people, the
mere people, the lowest ranks of the coMentioity,
" the mob itself," when properly rouzed, can do
to emancipate: themselves front the slavery imposed ,
on them by an intriguing and unprincipled Minis
nistration - He exults in that change of opinion
which the events at Spain will produce, or rather-,
according to him, has already produced, in, every
Englishman who has wished v. ell to the patriotic
cause in that Country ; every Englishman, as 'lle
presses it " except a few wreteited intriguers, who
shuddered in secret at the overthrow of the worse
Guverement in Chris'.endetn, who put up their
pray ers that the reform of abuses might be nipped he
the bud by the success of the l'rench arms, or at
least that sonic excesses on the part of the
people might render the Spanish RevolUtion.odious
iu the eyes of this Country, and save-our State from
those horrible reforms which had well nigh purified
and overwhelmed us eighteen years agO. These happy
effects," continues he, " have already floaed from
'the Spanish Revolution, and are sure to spread over
this great Country the blessings 91 free diScussion,
watchful jealousy of the Government, and unspar-
ing reform (Li' existing abuses." , It' my recollection
does not fah me, some of this thin-veiled cant of
Jacobinistri was to a very tittle that which was
spread by, the industry of the Societies abOveonen •
tioued, in half-Penny pamphlets, on coarse paper, and
in the ancient ballad-form, over every town,
and hamlet in Great Britain ; for what purpose we
have not yet furgotten, though we hardly supposed
that the hardihood of attar modern Journalist would
have ventured to, use it again so soon after the escape
of the Country from its etfeas.
So near indeed, and so faithful hA the 'Reviewer
made his imitation of the stile of those quondam.Re-
forruers, that he leas condescended to use an 4pres-
siau, of which, perhaps, now-they "would be 'asham-
ed. " It-a headed Monarchy ahall be the fihal result
of the patriotic exertions of the Spaniards," he adds,
" Whether •Ferdinand ur .charles be the Monarch
we care not ; or whether a ntio sock be brought from
Germany for a breed." This is a stroke of Week-
rdisin rat her beyond even the blackguards of Chalk
Farm or the Corresponding Committees: it is such a
ribbald joke ,aaaiust our venerable Moharch, assn-I
will not siiy ine fealty of a subject, for this enlight-
ened refOrieer would probably laugh that egression
to scoru—but the feeliegs or a Geetleavan shoulo
hare preveuted any elan from writteg, and which, in
*my tpi non, nu l-113/1 with the feelings of a Gentle-
- roan .st:oakt expose lihnseif to the insult of reading,
acid theiefore 1 ho; :e given orders to• viy bookseller to
send me no inure anzbers oftl,;e E.l,,lburgit Review:

Though, as I in euti oiled in. the.begtumng of these
I-en:Jai-1:s, 1 think'a politic:,! bias mat an expedient
charader in the composition of a Critical Journal,
the first objed of which„should be a fair account of
every respectable publiezition; on whatever side, or
with whatever general political ideas it may be! writ-
ten, yet I did not find much fault with a set•of clever
and ardent young men, whose vanity and ambition_
had been nipped in the bud by the unexpected fall
of the last Administration, for departing a little from

which I complain ; the first purp9se, indeed, seems .
either to be forgotten in ihe.zeal of reform;: or clum-:
sily managed in. the execution ; and I own 'I ai iti
some degree of doubt, whether this Reviewer's ten-
surd Of paltry Edpeditians, of a4asks against Allies
And inqtrenswe Neutral Pulver's, :Aid title solemn'
prayer that . the mUnagemeut ..of the war acne
hands of the lute ./.I(lnrlnistration, wrre.nat a flight tJf
that sarcastic iron} which is so frequent and favourite^
an „ingredient in the- cotnposition of the Edinburgh
Review.

It it were pOsale to carry this supposition so far
as to conceive the ironical stile employed in the, grave
discussion of such important political speculations, one
might be led to imagine the critic had used it when
he gives otir Miristers the.advice to avail themselves
of +l 41at.e"offers to, open a negotiation," •in order
to ".ptter derelic=tion of every tine 'British -objeEt,
an oblivion of all our' separate causes of quarrel with
France, on co edition that • good terms should be
granted to the Spanish Patriots ;" at least it is hardly
passible to keep a,grave countenance at hearing this
sage and truly politic counsel " for the salvation of
Europe," given by' a Reviewer who modestly holds
hiiiiself out as a consummate politician, and who, in
the concluding -paragraPh of this very article, calcu-
lates on
,the effects of this political revolution in
Spain, with the tone of a master, and the confidence
-
,of a prophet, as one. which is to reform the Con-
stitution of England, by raising up the power of real
. talents and worth (Undoubtedly among the first,
those of 'the Edinbarglilievietv), the true nobility
of a country—by exalting the mass of the commu-
,nity; and giving them, under the .guidance of that
virtual aristocracy, to directthe.Cnuncils of 'England
according to t ..e spirit, as well as the form, ()four
invaluable Constitution."

It is, worth while to observe in what a perverted ,
sense,this Reviewer, and the other Writers of his
cast, use the French phrase of the Rein of Terror.
With the French it had lice appropriate meaning of
that dire period when those savages who began to
sap the French Monarchy by insidious plans of re-
form', and captivating flattery of the mob of Paris,
very little different from those unfolded in this ar-
ticle of the • Edinburgh Review, had attained the
power of butchering by Myriads that very people
whoM their promises and pretences had deluded.—
But•the translation of .this phrase is applied by the
Reviewers to denote that period when every good
citizen, every-honest and .virtuous, man, had on-
ceive4 the just tear of that anarchy and those hor-
rors which France had experienced, being produced
in this formerly happy land, by the unwearied efforts
of a few madmen whose headsihad been turned by
an admiration of the French Revolution, assisted by
some others.less honest but more desperate, who
hoped to thrive amidst the general wreck and ruin
of the State. I will not be so unjust to the Edin-
burgh Reviewers as to class them among either of the
above two descriptions of men ; but they must forgive
my apprehensions (they have happily not yet reach-
ed the point of terror), that their doarines have a
tendency to produce the same political effeets.
But I hasten • to close this letter, already much
longer than I intended it to be, by the simple warn-
ing of a well-meaning man, to persons, who, like
me, without any party or political -consideration,
read such -traas as the Edinburgh RevieW, merely
as a literaryamaseMent, and'are apt, in the indul-
gence of such amusemr nt,. to overlook Inc motives
of the author, or the tendency of his writings, that
while they encourage or peruse this Journal under
the impression of its affording literary information
or critical discuision, or who indulge themselves
with the laugh it excites against ridiculous authors;
whom, but fur its ridicule, they would never have
read or pet haps heard of, they are in truth uninten-
tionally promoting the circulation not of a violent
party paMphlet, for that is in comparison a. harmless
publication, hilt of a work which uses the license of
the Press, in this period which it pretends to be the
reign of arbitrary and oppressive Administration, of
the 'fatal and degrading influence of the Crown, to
mi3lead the people, to vilify the Sovereign, and: to
shipwreck the Constitution. AGIES/IS.