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ATTRIBUTIONS OF AUTHORSHIP IN THE BRITISH CRITIC DURING THE EDITORIAL REGIME OF ROBERT NARES, 1793-1813 by Emily Lorraine de Montluzin
  
  
  
  
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ATTRIBUTIONS OF AUTHORSHIP IN THE BRITISH CRITIC
DURING THE EDITORIAL REGIME OF ROBERT NARES, 1793-1813
by
Emily Lorraine de Montluzin

Unlike John Henry Newman, editor of the British Critic during most of its final and turbulent years, the conductors of the early series of the periodical left no extant master list of contributors. Though Archdeacon Robert Nares's authorship of the prefaces to volumes 1-42 is well established[1] and though Derek Roper in Reviewing before the "Edinburgh," 1788-1802 (London, 1978) notes in passing a handful of reviewers whom he mentions as British Critic contributors,[2] no list exists in print of attributions of authorship in the first series of the British Critic (1793-1813) comparable to that appearing in Esther Rhoads Houghton's "The British Critic and the Oxford Movement," Studies in Bibliography 16 (1963): 119-137 (encompassing the years 1836-43). Nevertheless it is possible, using John Nichols's invaluable Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century (9 vols.; London, 1812-15) and Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century (8 vols.; London, 1817-58) as well as the Gentleman's Magazine's obituary columns and the rich literary memoirs of the Cornish clergyman and poet Richard Polwhele, among other sources, to unearth the identities of a number of contributors to the British Critic during its first series, over which Nares presided as editor. It is the purpose of this article to identify the authors of over 100 reviews that appeared during Nares's editorial regime and integrate them with Nares's prefaces, thus lifting to a degree the curtain of anonymity that has long made the first series of the British Critic virtually terra incognita among eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century British literary periodicals.[3]

The British Critic in its early years was very much a product of its times, and any attempt to explain the deep sense of commitment of Nares and his fellow contributors to preserve the status quo in Church and state falls short


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if it does not take into proper consideration the political climate from which the British Critic sprang and which molded its editorial outlook. Quite simply, the two decades during which Nares served as editor constituted one of the most traumatic periods in recent British history, and to Nares and his fellow conservatives the events of those years must have resembled nothing less than a political and social earthquake whose aftershocks never seemed to end. The British Critic came into being early in that volatile period as part of a deliberate counterattack launched by a variety of conservative groups (some of them interconnected) to stem the sudden and alarming groundswell of Jacobinism within the British Isles. In January 1793 a coalition of High-Church followers of the Reverend William Jones of Nayland, calling itself the Society for the Reformation of Principles by appropriate Literature, established a new monthly literary review to be published by the old and respected firm of Rivingtons, which under the joint aegis of the devout and ardently Tory brothers Francis and Charles Rivington then stood at the head of the religious book trade in London. According to its prospectus the purpose of the periodical was two-fold: to provide an alternative to the powerful Opposition literary reviews--the Monthly, the Critical, the English, and the Analytical--and to defend the Constitution and the Church against all attackers (BC 1 [1793]: 1-2). Thus the British Critic was ushered into the world, blessed by the imprimatur of the Church and funded in part by William Pitt's secret service money,[4] with "PRO PATRIA" on its frontispiece and the defense of orthodoxy on every page.

Religion was without a doubt the dominant element in the character of the British Critic, and to the periodical's original conductors, the Reverend Robert Nares (1753-1829) and the Reverend William Beloe (1758-1817), fell the task of shaping the British Critic's religious policy during its first series. Beloe, classicist, prebendary of Lincoln and St. Paul's, and (briefly) Keeper of Printed Books in the British Museum ("which situation he lost, by an act of treachery and fraud on the part of a person admitted to see and examine the Books and Drawings" [Lit. Anec. 9: 94]) was the High-Church force on the editorial board of the periodical. Nares, the author of "several timely pamphlets, well calculated to abate the torrent of revolution and infidelity" (GM 99-i [1829]: 370), Keeper of Manuscripts in the British Museum, and archdeacon of Stafford, represented the more moderate wing of the Church. Scholarly opinion for a long time has differed concerning which of the two, Nares or Beloe, should be accorded the title of official editor. Though some earlier press historians have named Beloe as first editor and Nares as his assistant and successor,[5] John Nichols can safely be trusted in calling Nares the


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editor and Beloe the co-proprietor.[6] "Mr. Beloe was joint Proprietor with Mr. Archdeacon Nares, and the respectable house of Rivington," Nichols asserts. "The Editorship was entrusted to the judgment, sagacity, learning, and acuteness, of Mr. Nares . . ." (Lit. Anec. 9: 95n). Nichols's evidence is conclusive. Not only was he the most scrupulously accurate press historian of his day, incessantly revising his massive Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century and Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century and his meticulously compiled obituary columns in the Gentleman's Magazine; in addition he was a personal acquaintance of Nares, the colleague to whom Nares appealed to print in the Gentleman's Magazine unpublished installments of several ongoing British Critic reviews[7] when Nares was replaced as editor by William Van Mildert, Thomas F. Middleton, and Thomas Rennell. Certainly Nares's correspondence with the British Critic's contributors is testament to his editorial responsibility in assigning review articles to his stable of writers, determining the printing schedule for reviews, offering to send proofs, making editorial emendations, and apologizing for an omission in text.[8]

To a greater degree than any other literary journal of its day, with the possible exception of the Anti-Jacobin Review, the British Critic was a periodical with a mission. Nares's rather florid preface to the 1800 volume makes clear the sense of ideological commitment that he and his contributors shared. "At a time of gloom and apprehension," he tells his readers, "when Faction and Impiety had grown insolent and menacing, and those principles which our Church and Constitution support . . . had scarcely any public advocates; . . . duty bid us quit our private walk, to do our utmost for the general cause." Nearly a decade of revolution and war abroad and political turmoil at home had brought no security and surely, in Nares's mind, no justification for letting down his guard. "The season of gloom is not yet past! Britain, after exhausting her strength to support the liberties of Europe . . . [is still menaced]. The storm lowers on every side; and the power that wages


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war against all duties, human and divine, is daily gaining strength by victories." Consigning the nation's fate to God's hands, Nares reiterates his intention to do his part as a foot soldier for Church and King. "Our office is clearly marked. It is, to wield the arms that we are competent to use, in defence of a pure church and wisely ordered state . . ." (BC 16 [1800]: i-iii). The battlefield imagery Nares invokes was no mere rhetorical flourish; and the 1801 preface even more explicitly employs the language of combat, as Nares conjures up a picture of the British Critic's Old Roman contributors, sacrificing their peaceful leisure, like Cincinnatus leaving his plough, to fight the good fight against the Jacobin menace. "[T]here are enemies with whom, for the sake of public happiness and tranquillity, BRITISH CRITICS must not make even a moment's truce," Nares declares. "These are, the assailants of religion, infidelity and impiety; or the disturbers of the state, faction and disloyalty; enemies, whose inroads called us from our voluntary studies, to a state of literary warfare; to wield the pen, and shed the ink, which otherwise would have been quietly consumed, in defence of all that we hold sacred in religion, valuable in law, or useful in society" (BC 18 [1801]: i).

Though the British Critic's spirit never faltered, its effectiveness in the fight against radicalism eventually waned. To a large extent the decline was the result of a chain of unsettling shifts in management and recastings in format. The commencement of the second series saw drastic changes in organization and soon the elimination of the entire British Catalogue section, that monthly conglomeration of thumbnail reviews that allowed conservative reviewers such scope in awarding damnation or praise to scores of authors, popular or obscure. With the mid-1820's came the end of the second series, a short-lived third, the change from monthly to quarterly publication, the commencement of a fourth series, and merger with the Quarterly Theological Review to form the British Critic, Quarterly Theological Review and Ecclesiastical Record. Meanwhile a parade of short-term editors--Archibald Montgomery Campbell,[9] James Shergold Boone, Samuel Roffey Maitland, John Henry Newman, and Thomas Mozley--brought another element of discontinuity to the review's career.

The British Critic fell in 1843, the victim not of victorious Jacobins or later British radicals, but of its own extremism. A take-over by the Oxford Movement, in the form of Newman, Mozley, and their adherents, precipitated a drastic decline in circulation and led the Society for the Propagation of the Christian Gospel to sever its 75-year connection with the Rivington publishing house. In 1843 the anti-Oxford-Movement forces, led by William Palmer of Worcester College, prevailed upon Francis Rivington (great-grandson of the founder of the firm) to halt publication of the British Critic on the grounds that it was dividing the Church that it had been established to defend.[10] It was an ignominious end for a periodical that had always prided


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itself on the purity of its principles and the sacredness of its mission.

While the fight against political and religious radicalism consumed a disproportionate amount of the British Critic's attention, the review did upon occasion become embroiled in apolitical controversies. One of those was a contentious dispute over the existence and location of ancient Troy, a dispute launched by the publication of Observations upon a Treatise, entitled A Description of the Plain of Troy, by Monsieur le Chevalier (1795) and A Dissertation concerning the War of Troy and the Expedition of the Grecians, as described by Homer, shewing that no such Expedition was ever undertaken and that no such city of Phrygia existed (1796) by Jacob Bryant (1715-1804), classical scholar and author of theological treatises. The debate was joined with passion by contending armies of Troy skeptics and Troy apologists, two in the latter camp being the British Critic's William Vincent and John Whitaker.

The attribution of the various articles appearing in the British Critic concerning the Troy controversy requires an especially careful sifting of evidence. The root of the difficulty lies in William Vincent's categorical claim to have supplied all the reviews printed in the British Critic dealing with the querelle over Troy. Writing to John Nichols on 1 February 1814 with regard to the British Critic's two-part treatment of J. B. S. Morritt's A Vindication of Homer, and of the ancient Poets and Historians who have recorded the Siege and Fall of Troy (BC 12 [1798]: 632-645; 13 [1799]: 116-135), Vincent declares, "[T]he Review which you impute to Gilbert Wakefield, and call indecent, was mine, as were all the articles in the 'British Critick,' on the several publications relative to the Controversy about the Troad. . . . Mr. Bryant's answer [to the review] in his 'Expostulation' was outrageous," Vincent adds. "He called the Writer an Assassin, which in a following article, and by private correspondence I called upon him to retract. This he would not do; and therefore I dropped the controversy . . ." (Illust. 3: 772-773). Vincent relied upon a colleague to reply to Bryant on his behalf in the British Critic's critique of Bryant's Expostulation (BC 15 [1800]: 55-69), appending several trenchant paragraphs of his own.[11] Vincent himself clearly wrote the joint review of J. B. S. Morritt's Additional Remarks on the Topography of Troy, &c. in Answer to Mr. Bryant's last Publication and of William Francklin's Remarks and Observations on the Plain of Troy, made during an Excursion in June, 1799 (BC 16 [1800]: 418-424). He supplied the review of Richard Chandler's The History of Ilium or Troy (BC 22 [1803]: 545-549), an article devoted entirely to the Troy controversy, noting that "we enter with pleasure into every part of the debate . . ." (p. 545). He specifically claimed authorship (in Illust. 3: 773) of the review of William Gell's Topography of Troy (BC 25 [1805]: 349-361), in which he seized the opportunity to attack Bryant's contention that Troy did not exist, while professing "that


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we have always respected . . . [Bryant's] abilities, his learning, and integrity" (p. 350). Vincent in addition may have written the critique of Bryant's Observations upon some Passages in Scripture (BC 24 [1804]: 665-679; 25 [1805]: 46-58), a critique that includes a paragraph (p. 666) seeking to refute Bryant's opinions concerning Troy. He may also have reviewed Edward Daniel Clarke's Travels in various Countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa, Part the First (BC 38 [1811]: 484-497, 603-616), though it contains no reference to the Troy controversy, since Vincent acknowledged authorship of the review (BC 40 [1812]: 97-110, 616-624) of Part the Second of Clarke's Travels, which covers Clarke's visit to the supposed site of Troy. In fact, the first installment of the British Critic's two-part review of that work is almost entirely devoted to a recapitulation of the various opinions of Chevalier, Bryant, Morritt, Francklin, Chandler, Gell, and others with regard to the Troy controversy. Conversely, in a letter of 3 February 1814 to John Nichols, Vincent noted that he was not the author of the review of Hobhouse's comments on the Troy controversy and that in fact his critique of Clarke was his final review for the British Critic on the subject of Troy, adding, "I have concluded my labours, with my friend Nares's resignation of his concern in the 'British Critick'" (Illust. 3: 773-774).

Vincent's claims to a virtual monopoly of the British Critic's coverage of the Troy controversy notwithstanding, Richard Polwhele provides evidence that Polwhele's friend, John Whitaker--not Vincent--wrote the articles concerning the debate over Troy that appeared in the numbers of the British Critic before December 1798:

In 1796 [Polwhele writes], the famous controversy began respecting the very existence of Troy, and of the Trojan War, which had been opened by the learned and excellent Jacob Bryant in two quarto tracts. One of these was entitled "Observations upon a Treatise entitled, 'A Description of the Plain of Troy, by M. Le Chevalier:'" [sic] the other, "A Dissertation concerning the War of Troy and the Expedition of the Greeks, as described by Homer; showing that no such Expedition was ever undertaken, and that no such City of Phrygia ever existed." . . . Nor was he overlooked in the British Critic.

It was not possible that Dr. Vincent should be inattentive to this contest, or indifferent to the subject of it; but at the time when it commenced, he was too much occupied by his own objects to take up the pen. The Review [i.e., the British Critic] had then its most learned contributor in Whitaker; who furnished two powerful articles on Bryant's first Dissertation [BC 9 (1797): 535-547, 591-603]. It was not till Mr. Morritt's able Vindication of Homer appeared in 1798, that Dr. Vincent began to take an active part in the controversy. He then entered the field with spirit against the venerable, but paradoxical mythologist; and though assailed by rather unfair weapons, never afterwards receded from his ground. He fought with vigour, but with a strict regard to the laws of literary chivalry. His first critique, upon the subject of Homer and Troy, appeared in the Brit. Crit. Vol. XII. p. 632 [BC 12 (1798): 632-645], in a Review of Mr. Morritt's work. . . . (Biog. Sketches 3: 100n-101n)

Polwhele also supplies evidence[12] of an additional Whitaker contribution concerning the Troy controversy, Whitaker's review of Bryant's A Dissertation

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concerning the War of Troy, and the Expedition of the Grecians, as described by Homer
(BC 9 [1797]: 604-615). The attributions of authorship listed below accept as conclusive Polwhele's intimate knowledge of his friend Whitaker's reviews. Polwhele's information thus provides a useful corrective to Vincent's blanket claim to the authorship of "all the articles in the 'British Critick,' on the several publications relative to the Controversy about the Troad" (Illust. 3: 772-773).

The attributions that follow encompass, besides Nares's prefaces and several of his reviews, articles by twelve additional British Critic contributors: John Brand, George Ellis, George Gleig (Bishop of Brechin), John Hellins, Samuel Parr, Thomas Percy (Bishop of Dromore), Richard Polwhele, Richard Porson, John Stoddart, William Vincent, John Whitaker, and Joseph White. All attributions of authorship appear first in the "Synopsis by Contributor," which provides a convenient listing of the finds according to author. The "Chronological Listing in the British Critic" next sets forth for each item the full citation from the British Critic, the author's name, and the source of the attribution. Abbreviated titles used in the "Chronological Listing" as well as in the notes appear as follows:

                 
BC   British Critic
Biog. Sketches   Polwhele, Richard. Biographical Sketches in Cornwall. 3 vols. Truro, 1831. 
DNB   Dictionary of National Biography. 1908-1909 ed. 
GM   Gentleman's Magazine
Illust Nichols, John. Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century. 8 vols. London, 1817-58. 
Lit. Anec.   ----. Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century. 9 vols. London, 1812-15. 
Reiman  Reiman, Donald H., ed. The Romantics Reviewed: Contemporary Reviews of British Romantic Writers. Part A: The Lake Poets. New York, 1972. 
Roper  Roper, Derek. Reviewing before the "Edinburgh," 1788-1802. London, 1978. 
Trad. and Recoll.   Polwhele, R[ichard]. Traditions and Recollections; Domestic, Clerical, and Literary. 2 vols. London, 1826. 

SYNOPSIS BY CONTRIBUTOR

BRAND, Rev. John [Fitz-John][13] (1743-1808): rector of St. George's, Southwark; brother of the radical feminist Hannah Brand; rabid Tory, bitter opponent of Dissenters, and "profound mathematician" (GM 78-ii [1808]: 1134), who published political and financial pamphlets and supplied the British Critic as well as the Anti-Jacobin Review with articles on finance and political economy.

BC contributions: 9 (1797): 284-295 [?]; 19 (1802): 268-279, 374-381, 580-588; 20 (1802): 329-330.


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ELLIS, George (1753-1815): diplomat, poet, and antiquarian; author of Specimens of Early English Poets and Specimens of Early English Romances in Metre; contributor to the Rolliad; collaborator with George Canning and John Hookham Frere in launching the Anti-Jacobin; or, Weekly Examiner and later the Quarterly Review, to which Ellis would be a steady contributor.

BC contributions: 19 (1802): 570-576; 20 (1802): 8-13.

GLEIG, George (1753-1840): bishop of Brechin and primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church; successful campaigner for the lifting of the penal laws that restricted Scottish Episcopacy and for a full partnership between the Scottish Episcopal Church and the Church of England; co-editor of the third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica and contributor to a variety of periodicals.

BC contributions: 42 (1813): 343-359, 448-461, 554-581.

HELLINS, Rev. John (d. 1827): vicar of Potterspury, Northants.; self-taught mathematician; author of a number of papers on mathematics and astronomy published in the Royal Society's Philosophical Transactions and contributor of specialized reviews of mathematical works to the British Critic between 1795 and 1814 (GM 98-i [1828]: 181).

BC contributions: 6 (1795): 413-418; 21 (1803): 272-284; 23 (1804): 143-156, 489-494; 24 (1804): 653-660; 25 (1805): 141-147; 38 (1811): 622-628; 42 (1813): 502-512.

NARES, Rev. Robert (1753-1829): canon residentiary of Lichfield and archdeacon of Stafford; philologist; Keeper of Manuscripts at the British Museum; co-conductor and principal editor of the British Critic, 1793-1813, in which capacity he supplied the prefaces to the 42 volumes of the first series and moderated the influence of Beloe and his High-Church friends upon the periodical's religious policy.

BC contributions: 1 (1793): i-xii; 2 (1793): iii-xvii; 3 (1794): iii-xxi; 4 (1794): iii-xxi; 5 (1795): i-xvi; 6 (1795): i-xvi; 7 (1796): i-xx; 8 (1796): i-xx; 9 (1797): i-xix; 10 (1797): i-xxii; 11 (1798): i-xvi; 12 (1798): i-xvi; 13 (1799): i-xix; 14 (1799): i-xviii; 15 (1800): i-xxii; 16 (1800): i-xxii; 17 (1801): i-xix; 18 (1801): i-xx, 529 [concluding sentence of 524-529]; 19 (1802): i-xv; 20 (1802): i-xxi, 295-298; 21 (1803): i-xvi, 406-411; 22 (1803): i-xvii; 23 (1804): iii-xix; 24 (1804): iii-xx, 231-243; 25 (1805): iii-xix, 98 [?]; 26 (1805): iii-xx; 27 (1806): iii-xvi; 28 (1806): iii-xix; 29 (1807): iii-xv; 30 (1807): iii-xix; 31 (1808): iii-xix; 32 (1808): iii-xviii; 33 (1809): iii-xix; 34 (1809): iii-xxiii; 35 (1810): iii-xix; 36 (1810): iii-xx; 37 (1811): iii-xx; 38 (1811): iii-xix; 39 (1812): iii-xvi; 40 (1812): iii-xx; 41 (1813): iii-xx; 42 (1813): iii-xxiii.

PARR, Rev. Samuel (1747-1825): rector of Wadenhoe, Northants.; schoolmaster, preacher, and raconteur; "the Whig Dr. Johnson," whose large girth and bushy wig were caricatured by cartoonists and whose habits of supporting reformist causes, flogging schoolboys, and detesting Evangelicals earned him equal fame; the only known contributor to the British Critic who proudly swam against the conservative tide.

BC contributions: 3 (1794): 48-61, 121-139, 302-330, 412-424; 5 (1795): 58-62 [?], 148-156 [?], 344-358 [?].


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PERCY, Thomas, bishop of Dromore, County Down (1729-1811): ballad collector chiefly known for his publication in 1765 of Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, which exerted a significant influence upon British readers' growing interest in primitive verse and thus upon early Romanticism.

BC contributions: 16 (1800): 345-361; 18 (1801): 286-295, 359-365, 524-529 [with Robert Nares, who wrote the concluding sentence, p. 529]; 25 (1805): 99.

POLWHELE, Rev. Richard (1760-1838): vicar of Manaccan, Cornwall; author of West Country histories, sets of literary memoirs, and the anti-feminist poem The Unsex'd Females; contributor to numerous periodicals, particularly the Anti-Jacobin Review, in which he used his critic's license to parade his Church-and-king sentiments and denounce radicals who "muttered sedition from their lurking-holes and scattered, in dark corners, the seeds of anarchy."[14]

BC contributions: 34 (1809): 173-177 [?], 616-621; 35 (1810): 1-15, 112-120; 42 (1813): 586-593.

PORSON, Richard (1759-1808): regius professor of Greek at Cambridge; author of critical editions of Euripides; best known in his lifetime for his contentious quarrel with Archdeacon George Travis, whose assertion of the authenticity of 1 John 5: 7 Porson attacked in Letters to Archdeacon Travis in Answer to Defence of the Three Heavenly Witnesses.

BC contribution: 17 (1801): 453-460.

STODDART, Sir John (1773-1856): journalist and jurist; writer for The Times, 1810-16 (under the signature "J.S."); founder and editor of The New Times, in which capacity he was attacked remorselessly by William Hone and Hone's caricaturist George Cruikshank, who satirized Stoddart as "Dr. Slop"; later chief justice and justice of the vice-admiralty court on Malta.

BC contribution: 17 (1801): 125-131.

VINCENT, Rev. William (1739-1815): headmaster of Westminster School, where he gained dubious distinction in 1792 for expelling Robert Southey for daring to write The Flagellant as an exposé of Vincent's notorious penchant for flogging; dean of Westminster; widely respected classical scholar, particularly in the study of geography and ancient voyages; the British Critic's leading opponent of Jacob Bryant and Bryant's fellow Troy skeptics.

BC contributions: 2 (1793): 1-6 [?], 146-152 [?], 301-309 [?]; 3 (1794): 510-517, 620-629; 10 (1797): 221-233, 362-374; 12 (1798): 632-645; 13 (1799): 116-135; 15 (1800): 69; 16 (1800): 418-424; 22 (1803): 545-549; 24 (1804): 665-679 [?]; 25 (1805): 46-58 [?], 349-361; 36 (1810): 209-228 [?]; 38 (1811): 484-497 [?], 603-616 [?]; 40 (1812): 97-110, 616-624.

WHITAKER, Rev. John (1735-1808): rector of Ruan Lanihorne, Cornwall; antiquary and author of a badly flawed History of Manchester; writer for the Anti-Jacobin Review, the English Review, and the Gentleman's Magazine as well as the British Critic; fiery opponent of Jacobins and Dissenters,


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though not so fanatical as to deserve Richard Warner's characterization of him as "half-cracked with ultra loyalty."[15]

BC contributions: 1 (1793): 109 [?]; 8 (1796): 81-84; 9 (1797): 241-246, 354-363, 535-547, 591-603, 604-615, 699; 11 (1798): 13-17, 140-148, 345-358; 13 (1799): 97-108, 275-284, 356-362, 410-419; 14 (1799): 639-649 [?]; 15 (1800): 21-31 [?], 260-263; 16 (1800): 530-537.

WHITE, Rev. Joseph (1745-1814): Laudian professor of Arabic and regius professor of Hebrew at Oxford; specialist as well in Syriac and Persian studies; deliverer of the controversial 1784 Bampton Lecture, which gave rise to charges of plagiarism that would seriously damage his reputation; reviewer of various publications in Hebrew and oriental literature for the British Critic.[16]

BC contributions: 2 (1793): 43-51 [?]; 4 (1794): 413-416 [?]; 8 (1796): 446-449 [?], 577-587; 9 (1797): 667-669 [?]; 11 (1798): 603-606 [?]; 14 (1799): 38-45 [?], 121-127 [?]; 15 (1800): 354-356 [?]; 17 (1801): 324-325 [?]; 19 (1802): 1-15 [?], 134-154 [?], 283-293 [?], 343-355 [?], 524-530 [?], 623-631 [?]; 20 (1802): 53-61 [?], 165-171 [?], 641-645; 26 (1805): 287-292; 27 (1806): 53-57 [?]; 28 (1806): 465-479 [?], 608-619 [?]; 29 (1807): 134-147 [?], 368-375 [?], 496-508 [?]; 30 (1807): 15-23; 31 (1808): 22-25.

CHRONOLOGICAL LISTING IN THE BRITISH CRITIC

       
1 (1793)  i-xii. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
1 (1793):  109. Review: "A Discourse, preached on Sunday, December 30, 1792, at the Parish Church of Kenton, &c. By the Rev. R. Polwhele." John Whitaker [?]. [Trad. and Recoll. 1: 153n] 
2 (1793):  iii-xvii. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
2 (1793):  1-6. Review: "The History, civil and commercial of the British Colonies in the West Indies. By Bryan Edwards, Esq. of the Island of Jamaica." William Vincent [?]. [Vincent in a letter of 3 February 1814 to John Nichols notes that he has reviewed Bryan Edwards's Jamaica (Illust. 3: 774), a statement that appears to refer to this review] 

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2 (1793):  43-51. Review: "An Hebrew and English Lexicon. . . . The Third Edition. . . . By John Parkhurst." Joseph White [?]. [GM 84-i (1814): 628] 
2 (1793):  146-152. Review: "Edwards's History of the West Indies [cont.]." William Vincent [?]. [See attribution for BC 2 (1793): 1-6] 
2 (1793):  301-309. Review: "Edwards's History of the West Indies [conc.]." William Vincent [?]. [See attribution for BC 2 (1793): 1-6]  
3 (1794):  iii-xxi. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
3 (1794):  48-61. Review: "[Dr. Charles Combe and Henry Homer, eds.,] Q. Horatii Flacci Opera, cum variis Lectionibus, notis Variorum, et Indice Locupletissimo. Tom. II." Samuel Parr. [Illust. 7: 609; Lit. Anec. 3: 163n; GM 95-i (1825): 369, 369n] 
3 (1794):  121-139. Review: "Q. Horatii Flacci Opera [cont.]." Samuel Parr. [Illust. 7: 609; Lit. Anec. 3: 163n; GM 95-i (1825): 369, 369n] 
3 (1794):  302-330. Review: "Q. Horatii Flacci Opera [cont.]." Samuel Parr. [Illust. 7: 609; Lit. Anec. 3: 163n; GM 95-i (1825): 369, 369n] 
3 (1794):  412-424. Review: "Q. Horatii Flacci Opera [conc.]." Samuel Parr. [Illust. 7: 609; Lit. Anec. 3: 163n; GM 95-i (1825): 369, 369n] 
3 (1794):  510-517. Review: "A critical Inquiry into the Life of Alexander the Great, by the Ancient Historians. From the French of the Baron de St. Croix: with Notes and Observations, by Sir Richard Clayton, Bart." William Vincent. [Illust. 3: 774] 
3 (1794):  620-629. Review: "Sir Richard Clayton's Translation of St. Croix's Inquiry into the Life of Alexander the Great [conc.]." William Vincent. [Illust. 3: 774] 
4 (1794):  iii-xxi. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
4 (1794):  413-416. Review: "Specimens of Hindoo Literature. . . . By N. E. Kindersley." Joseph White [?]. [GM 84-i (1814): 628] 
5 (1795):  i-xvi. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
5 (1795):  58-62. Review: "Q. Horatii Flacci quae supersunt, recensuit et notis instruxit, Gilbertus Wakefield. . . ." Samuel Parr [?]. [Similarities in both style and emphasis with Parr's review of Q. Horatii Flacci Opera (BC 3 [1794]: 48-61, 121-139, 302-330, and 412-424); inclusion in various installments of the review of Wakefield's Horace of references to Wakefield's Silva Critica (which Parr in BC 3 [1794]: 320 had announced his intention to discuss in the BC); Nares's comment of 10 April 1794 to Parr that "[w]e now begin to look forward to your remarks on Wakefield, which shall have a place as early as possible, and as distinguished, whenever it may suit you to furnish us with them" (Illust. 7: 609)] 
5 (1795):  148-156. Review: "Wakefield's Horace [cont.]." Samuel Parr [?]. [See 5 (1795): 58-62] 
5 (1795):  344-358. Review: "Wakefield's Horace [conc.]." Samuel Parr [?]. [See 5 (1795): 58-62]  
6 (1795):  i-xvi. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
6 (1795):  413-418. Review: "The Method of finding the Longitude. . . . By William Wales." John Hellins. [GM 98-i (1828): 181] 
7 (1796):  i-xx. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 

252

Page 252
                             
8 (1796):  i-xx. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
8 (1796):  81-84. Review: "[Richard Polwhele's] The Influence of local Attachment with respect to Home." John Whitaker. [Biog. Sketches 3: 105, 108] 
8 (1796):  446-449. Review: "[C. F. Volney's] Simplification des langues Orientales, où Méthode nouvelle et facile d'apprendre les langues Arabe, Persane, et Turque." Joseph White [?]. [GM 84-i (1814): 628] 
8 (1796):  577-587. Review: "Specimens of Arabian Poetry, from the earliest Time to the Extinction of the Khaliphat. . . . By J. D. Carlyle." Joseph White. [GM 84-i (1814): 628] 
9 (1797):  i-xix. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
9 (1797):  241-246. Review: "Essays, by a Society of Gentlemen at Exeter." John Whitaker. ["The Rev. John Whitaker," Palatine Note-book 1 (2 May 1881): 80; Trad. and Recoll. 2: 463-464, 467] 
9 (1797):  284-295. Review: "Additional Facts, addressed to the serious Attention of the People of Great Britain, respecting the Expences of the War, and the State of the National Debt. By William Morgan, F.R.S. Third Edition." John Brand [?]. [Illust. 6: 532]  
9 (1797):  354-363. Review: "Essays, by a Society of Gentlemen at Exeter [cont.]." John Whitaker. ["The Rev. John Whitaker," Palatine Note-book 1 (2 May 1881): 80; Trad. and Recoll. 2: 463-464, 467] 
9 (1797):  535-547. Review: "Observations upon a Treatise entitled, A Description of the Plain of Troy, by Monsieur Le Chevalier. By Jacob Bryant." John Whitaker. ["The Rev. John Whitaker," Palatine Note-book 1 (2 May 1881): 80; Biog. Sketches 3: 100n-101n, 120] 
9 (1797):  591-603. Review: "Mr. Bryant's Observations on the Plain of Troy." John Whitaker. ["The Rev. John Whitaker," Palatine Note-book 1 (2 May 1881): 80; Biog. Sketches 3: 100n-101n, 120] 
9 (1797):  604-615. Review: "A Dissertation concerning the War of Troy and the Expedition of the Grecians, as described by Homer; shewing that no such Expedition was ever undertaken, and that no such City of Phrygia ever existed. By Jacob Bryant." John Whitaker. ["The Rev. John Whitaker," Palatine Note-book 1 (2 May 1881): 80; Biog. Sketches 3: 120. See also BC 9 (1797): 603, which indicates that the same person who wrote the review in BC 9 (1797): 591-603 wrote the review in BC 9 (1797): 604-615] 
9 (1797):  667-669. Review: "[Ouseley's] Oriental Collections, for January, February, and March, 1797." Joseph White [?]. [GM 84-i (1814): 628] 
9 (1797):  699. Note in "Acknowledgments to Correspondents" re "a long letter [received by the British Critic] from a writer in the 'Essays published by a Society of Gentlemen at Exeter.'" John Whitaker. ["The Rev. John Whitaker," Palatine Note-book 1 (2 May 1881): 80] 
10 (1797):  i-xxii. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
10 (1797):  221-233. Review: "An authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great-Britain to the Emperor of China. . . . By Sir George Staunton." William Vincent. [Illust. 3: 774] 

253

Page 253
                                         
10 (1797):  362-374. Review: "Authentic Account of the Embassy to China [conc.]." William Vincent. [Illust. 3: 774] 
11 (1798):  i-xvi. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
11 (1798):  13-17. Review: "The Sentiments of Philo Judaeus. . . . By Jacob Bryant." John Whitaker. ["The Rev. John Whitaker," Palatine Note-book 1 (2 May 1881): 80; Trad. and Recoll. 2: 486] 
11 (1798):  140-148. Review: "The Sentiments of Philo Judaeus. . . . By Jacob Bryant [cont.]." John Whitaker. ["The Rev. John Whitaker," Palatine Note-book 1 (2 May 1881): 80; Trad. and Recoll. 2: 486] 
11 (1798):  345-358. Review: "The History of Scotland. . . . By John Pinkerton." John Whitaker. ["The Rev. John Whitaker," Palatine Note-book 1 (2 May 1881): 80; Trad. and Recoll. 2: 485] 
11 (1798):  603-606. Review: "[Ouseley's] The Oriental Collections, for April, May, and June, 1797." Joseph White [?]. [GM 84-i (1814): 628] 
12 (1798):  i-xvi. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
12 (1798):  632-645. Review: "A Vindication of Homer, and of the ancient Poets and Historians who have recorded the Siege and Fall of Troy. In Answer to Two late Publications of Mr. Bryant. . . . By J. B. S. Morritt." William Vincent. [Illust. 3: 772-773] 
13 (1799):  i-xix. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
13 (1799):  97-108. Review: "Archaeologia, or Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity." John Whitaker. ["The Rev. John Whitaker," Palatine Note-book 1 (2 May 1881): 80; Trad. and Recoll. 2: 499] 
13 (1799):  116-135. Review: "Morritt's Vindication of Homer [conc.]." William Vincent. [Illust. 3: 772-773] 
13 (1799):  275-284. Review: "Archaeologia, or Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity." John Whitaker. ["The Rev. John Whitaker," Palatine Note-book 1 (2 May 1881): 80; Trad. and Recoll. 2: 499] 
13 (1799):  356-362. Review: "Archaeologia, or Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity." John Whitaker. ["The Rev. John Whitaker," Palatine Note-book 1 (2 May 1881): 80; Trad. and Recoll. 2: 499] 
13 (1799):  410-419. Review: "The History of Devonshire. . . . By the Reverend Richard Polwhele." John Whitaker. [Trad. and Recoll. 2: 497] 
14 (1799):  i-xviii. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
14 (1799):  38-45. Review: "[Ouseley's] The Oriental Collections, for July, August, September, October, November, December, 1797." Joseph White [?]. [GM 84-i (1814): 628] 
14 (1799):  121-127. Review: "[Ouseley's] The Oriental Collections, for 1797 [conc.]." Joseph White [?]. [GM 84-i (1814): 628] 
14 (1799):  639-649. Review: "Iter Britanniarum; or, that Part of the Itinerary of Antoninus which relates to Britain; with a new Comment. By the Rev. Thomas Reynolds." John Whitaker [?]. [GM 100-i (1830): 373] 
15 (1800):  i-xxii. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
15 (1800):  21-31. Review: "Reynolds's Iter Britanniarum [conc.]." John Whitaker [?]. [GM 100-i (1830): 373] 
15 (1800):  69. Concluding paragraphs (p. 69) of review: "An Expostulation, addressed to the British Critic. By Jacob Bryant [pp. 55-69]." William Vincent. [Illust. 3: 772-773] 

254

Page 254
                                     
15 (1800):  260-263. Review: "Grecian Prospects: a Poem. . . . By Mr. Polwhele." John Whitaker. [Biog. Sketches 3: 143-144] 
15 (1800):  354-356. Review: "Epitome of the Ancient History of Persia, extracted and translated from the Jehan Ara, a Persian Manuscript. By William Ouseley. . . ." Joseph White [?]. [GM 84-i (1814): 628] 
16 (1800):  i-xxii. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
16 (1800):  345-361. Review: "The History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester. By John Nichols. . . . Volume III. Part I." Thomas Percy, Bishop of Dromore. [Illust. 7: 589n; 8: 88n] 
16 (1800):  418-424. Review: "Additional Remarks on the Topography of Troy, &c. in Answer to Mr. Bryant's last Publication. By J. B. S. Morritt [;] Remarks and Observations on the Plain of Troy, made during an Excursion in June, 1799. By William Francklin." William Vincent. [Illust. 3: 772-773] 
16 (1800):  530-537. Review: "Specimens and Parts; containing a History of the County of Kent. . . . By Samuel Henshall [;] The Saxon and English Languages reciprocally illustrative of each other. . . . By Samuel Henshall." John Whitaker. [Trad. and Recoll. 2: 500] 
17 (1801):  i-xix. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
17 (1801):  125-131. Review: "Lyrical Ballads, with other Poems: in Two Vols. By W. Wordsworth. Second Edition." John Stoddart. [Reiman 1: 131, citing Chester L. Shaver, ed., The Letters of William and Dorothy Wordsworth, vol. 1: The Early Years 1787-1805 (2d ed., rev.; Oxford, 1967), p. 320, n. 3] 
17 (1801):  324-325. Review: "A Hebrew Grammar, for the Use of the Students of the University of Dublin. By the Rev. Gerald Fitzgerald. . . ." Joseph White [?]. [GM 84-i (1814): 628] 
17 (1801):  453-460. Review: "[Gilbert Wakefield's] T. Lucretii Cari de Rerum Natura Libros Sex." Richard Porson. [DNB 20: 455] 
18 (1801):  i-xx. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
18 (1801):  286-295. Review: "Letters addressed to a young Man. . . . By Mrs. West." Thomas Percy, Bishop of Dromore. [Illust. 7: 592n] 
18 (1801):  359-365. Review: "Mrs. West's Letters to a Young Man [cont.]." Thomas Percy, Bishop of Dromore. [Illust. 7: 592n] 
18 (1801):  524-529. Review: "Letters addressed to a young Man [cont.]." Thomas Percy, Bishop of Dromore, and Robert Nares (who wrote the concluding sentence, p. 529). [Illust. 7: 592n; 593-594, 594n] 
19 (1802):  i-xv. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
19 (1802):  1-15. Review: "Critical Remarks on the Hebrew Scriptures: corresponding with a new Translation of the Bible. By the Rev. Alexander Geddes. . . . Vol. I. . . ." Joseph White [?]. [GM 84-i (1814): 628] 
19 (1802):  134-154. Review: "[Geddes's] Critical Remarks on the Hebrew Scriptures, &c. [cont.]." Joseph White [?]. [GM 84-i (1814): 628]  
19 (1802):  268-279. Review: "A Comparative View of the Public Finances, from the Beginning to the Close of the late Administration. By William Morgan." John Brand. [Illust. 6: 532] 
19 (1802):  283-293. Review: "[Geddes's] Critical Remarks on the Hebrew Scriptures, &c. [cont.]." Joseph White [?]. [GM 84-i (1814): 628] 

255

Page 255
                                       
19 (1802):  343-355. Review: "[Geddes's] Critical Remarks on the Hebrew Scriptures, &c. [cont.]." Joseph White [?]. [GM 84-i (1814): 628] 
19 (1802):  374-381. Review: "A Comparative View of the Public Finances, &c. [cont.]." John Brand. [Illust. 6: 532] 
19 (1802):  524-530. Review: "[Geddes's] Critical Remarks on the Hebrew Scriptures, &c. [cont.]." Joseph White [?]. [GM 84-i (1814): 628] 
19 (1802):  570-576. Review: "[Walter Scott's] Minstrelsy of the Scottish Borders. . . ." George Ellis. [Roper 33, 57, and 277 (n. 12) citing H. J. C. Grierson, ed., The Letters of Sir Walter Scott (12 vols.; London, 1932-37) 1: 185n]  
19 (1802):  580-588. Review: "A Comparative View of the Public Finances, &c. [conc.]." John Brand. [Illust. 6: 532] 
19 (1802):  623-631. Review: "[Geddes's] Critical Remarks on the Hebrew Scriptures, &c. [cont.]." Joseph White [?]. [GM 84-i (1814): 628]  
20 (1802):  i-xxi. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
20 (1802):  8-13. Review: "The Complaynt of Scotland, written in 1548; with a Preliminary Dissertation and Glossary. By John Leyden. . . ." George Ellis. [Roper 33, 57, and 277 (n. 12) citing H. J. C. Grierson, ed., The Letters of Sir Walter Scott (12 vols.; London, 1932-37) 1: 185n]  
20 (1802):  53-61. Review: "[Geddes's] Critical Remarks on the Hebrew Scriptures, &c. [cont.]." Joseph White [?]. [GM 84-i (1814): 628] 
20 (1802):  165-171. Review: "[Geddes's] Critical Remarks on the Hebrew Scriptures, &c. [conc.]." Joseph White [?]. [GM 84-i (1814): 628]  
20 (1802):  295-298. Review: "The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith." Robert Nares. [Illust. 7: 598, 601-602; 8: 671] 
20 (1802):  329-330. Review: "Remarks on Mr. Morgan's Comparative View of the Public Finances, from the Beginning to the Close of the late Administration." John Brand. [Illust. 6: 532] 
20 (1802):  641-645. Review: "A Specimen of the Conformity of the European Languages, particularly the English, with the Oriental Languages, especially the Persian. . . . By Stephen Weston. . . ." Joseph White. [GM 84-i (1814): 628] 
21 (1803):  i-xvi. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
21 (1803):  272-284. Review: "Elementary Treatises on the fundamental Principles of practical Mathematics. . . . By Samuel Lord Bishop of Rochester (now of St. Asaph)." John Hellins. [GM 98-i (1828): 181] 
21 (1803):  406-411. Review: "The Infidel Father. By . . . [Mrs. West]." Robert Nares. [Illust. 7: 601, 601n] 
22 (1803):  i-xvii. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
22 (1803):  545-549. Review: "The History of Ilium or Troy. . . . By the Author of 'Travels in Asia Minor and Greece' [Dr. Richard Chandler]." William Vincent. [Illust. 3: 772-773] 
23 (1804):  iii-xix. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
23 (1804):  143-156. Review: "Analytical Institutions, in Four Books: originally written in Italian, by Donna Maria Gaetana Agnesi. . . . Translated into English, by the late Rev. John Colson. . . . Now first printed . . . under the Inspection of the Rev. John Hellins." John Hellins. [GM 98-i (1828): 181] 

256

Page 256
                                       
23 (1804):  489-494. Review: "An Introduction to the Theory and Practice of plane and spherical Trigonometry. . . . By Thomas Keith." John Hellins. [GM 98-i (1828): 181] 
24 (1804):  iii-xx. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
24 (1804):  231-243. Review: "English Metrical Romances, selected and published by Joseph Ritson . . . ; [Ritson's] Bibliographica Poetica: a Catalogue of English Poets, of the twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth Centuries." Robert Nares. [Illust. 7: 601, 603-606] 
24 (1804):  653-660. Review: "Analytical Institutions, in Four Books, &c. [cont]." John Hellins. [GM 98-i (1828): 181] 
24 (1804):  665-679. Review: "Observations upon some Passages in Scripture. . . . By Jacob Bryant." William Vincent [?]. [Illust. 3: 772-773; internal evidence] 
25 (1805):  iii-xix. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
25 (1805):  46-58. Review: "[Bryant's] Observations upon some Passages in Scripture [conc.]." William Vincent [?]. [Illust. 3: 772-773] 
25 (1805):  98-99. Staff note: "In Addition to Art. II. of the British Critic, for September, 1804. On Ritson's Metrical Romances." Robert Nares [?] (p. 98) and Thomas Percy, Bishop of Dromore (p. 99). [Illust. 7: 606-607, 607n] 
25 (1805):  141-147. Review: "Analytical Institutions, in Four Books, &c. [cont.]." John Hellins. [GM 98-i (1828): 181] 
25 (1805):  349-361. Review: "The Topography of Troy. . . . By William Gell." William Vincent. [Illust. 3: 773] 
26 (1805):  iii-xx. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
26 (1805):  287-292. Review: "Tentamen Palaeographiae Assyrio-Persicae. . . . An Essay on the Ancient Writing of the Assyrio-Persians; or an Attempt to illustrate the Monuments of those Nations, who in the earliest Ages inhabited Middle Asia: especially Inscriptions in the Wedge-like (or Arrow-headed) Character. By M. Ant. Aug. Hen. Lichtenstein." Joseph White. [GM 84-i (1814): 628] 
27 (1806):  iii-xvi. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
27 (1806):  53-57. Review: "Three Tracts on the Syntax and Pronunciation of the Hebrew Tongue; with an Appendix, addressed to the Hebrew Nation. By Granville Sharp. . . ." Joseph White [?]. [GM 84-i (1814): 628] 
28 (1806):  iii-xix. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
28 (1806):  465-479. Review: "The Book of the Prophet Isaiah: in Hebrew and English. The Hebrew Text metrically arranged: the Translation altered from that of Bishop Lowth. . . . By Joseph Stock. . . ." Joseph White [?]. [GM 84-i (1814): 628] 
28 (1806):  608-619. Review: "The Book of the Prophet Isaiah, in Hebrew and English . . . [cont.]." Joseph White [?]. [GM 84-i (1814): 628] 
29 (1807):  iii-xv. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
29 (1807):  134-147. Review: "The Book of the Prophet Isaiah, in Hebrew and English . . . [conc.]." Joseph White [?]. [GM 84-i (1814): 628] 
29 (1807):  368-375. Review: "The Book of Job, metrically arranged according to the Masora, and newly translated into English, with Notes Critical and Explanatory. . . . By the Right Rev. Joseph Stock, DD. Bishop of Killalla. . . ." Joseph White [?]. [GM 84-i (1814): 628] 

257

Page 257
                                             
29 (1807):  496-508. Review: "The Book of Job . . . [conc.]." Joseph White [?]. [GM 84-i (1814): 628] 
30 (1807):  iii-xix. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
30 (1807):  15-23. Review: "Ancient Alphabets and Hieroglyphic Characters explained: With an Account of the Egyptian Priests, their Classes, Initiation, and Sacrifices. In the Arabic Language by Ahmad Bin Abubekr Bin Washih, and in English by Joseph Hammer. . . ." Joseph White. [GM 84-i (1814): 628] 
31 (1808):  iii-xix. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
31 (1808):  22-25. Review: "Fragments of Oriental Literature. . . . By Stephen Weston. . . ." Joseph White. [GM 84-i (1814): 628]  
32 (1808):  iii-xviii. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
33 (1809):  iii-xix. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
34 (1809):  iii-xxiii. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
34 (1809):  173-177. Review: "General View of the Agriculture of the County of Devon. . . . By Charles Vancouver." Richard Polwhele [?]. [Biog. Sketches 3: 176] 
34 (1809):  616-621. Review: "A Tour through Cornwall. . . . By the Rev. Richard Warner of Bath." Richard Polwhele. [Illust. 7: 610] 
35 (1810):  iii-xix. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
35 (1810):  1-15. Review: "The Life of St. Neot. . . . By the Rev. John Whitaker." Richard Polwhele. [Illust. 7: 610; Biog. Sketches 3: 176] 
35 (1810):  112-120. Review: "An Essay on the Identity and general Resurrection of the human Body. . . . By Samuel Drew." Richard Polwhele. [Illust. 7: 610] 
36 (1810):  iii-xx. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
36 (September 1810):  209-228. Review: "Ta-Tsing-Leu-Lee, being the fundamental Laws, and a Selection from the supplementary Statutes of the penal Code of China. . . . By Sir George Thomas Staunton." William Vincent [?]. [As Vincent reviewed Staunton's Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great-Britain to the Emperor of China for BC 10 (1797): 221-233, 362-374, it is possible that he reviewed Staunton's Fundamental Laws of China as well] 
37 (1811):  iii-xx. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
38 (1811):  iii-xix. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
38 (1811):  484-497. Review: "Travels in various Countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa. By Edward Daniel Clarke, LL.D. Part the First[.] Russia, Tartary, and Turkey. Vol. I." William Vincent [?]. [Vincent reviewed Clarke's Part the Second in BC 40 (1812): 97-110; see below] 
38 (1811):  603-616. Review: "Clarke's Travels. [Part the First; conc.]." William Vincent [?]. [See BC 38 (1811): 484-497] 
38 (1811):  622-628. Review: "The Doctrine of Interest and Annuities analytically investigated and explained. . . . By Francis Baily." John Hellins. [GM 98-i (1828): 181] 
39 (1812):  iii-xvi. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
40 (1812):  iii-xx. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
40 (1812):  97-110. Review: "Travels in various Countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa. By Edward Daniel Clarke, L.L.D. Part the Second." William Vincent. [Illust. 3: 772-773] 

258

Page 258
               
40 (1812):  616-624. Review: "Clarke's Travels [conc.]." William Vincent. [Vincent wrote the first part of the review; see BC 40 (1812): 97-110] 
41 (1813):  iii-xx. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
42 (1813):  iii-xxiii. "Preface." Robert Nares. [GM 99-i (1829): 371] 
42 (1813):  343-359. Review: "The Life of John Knox. . . . By Thomas McCrie." George Gleig, Bishop of Brechin. [Gleig's letter (signed "G-- B--") in GM 84-i (1814): 545; Illust. 7: 622, 622n] 
42 (1813):  448-461. Review: "The Life of John Knox, &c. [cont.]." George Gleig, Bishop of Brechin. [Gleig's letter (signed "G-- B--") in GM 84-i (1814): 545; Illust. 7: 622, 622n] 
42 (1813):  502-512. Review: "The Doctrine of Life Annuities and Assurances. . . . By Francis Baily [cont.]." John Hellins. [GM 98-i (1828): 181] 
42 (1813):  554-581. Review: "The Life of John Knox, &c. [cont.]." George Gleig, Bishop of Brechin. [Gleig's letter (signed "G-- B--") in GM 84-i (1814): 545; Illust. 7: 622, 622n] 
42 (1813):  586-593. Review: "The Life and Administration of Cardinal Wolsey. By John Galt." Richard Polwhele. [Illust. 7: 618-619] 

NOTES

 
[1]

[Joseph Jekyll], obituary for Robert Nares, GM 99-i (1829): 371.

[2]

Pp. 23, 265 (n. 53, n. 54, n. 60), 268 (n. 99). Among the contributors to the British Critic whom Roper cites (p. 23) are the geologist Jean André Deluc (1727-1817) and the sermon writer Samuel Partridge (1750-1817), though their contributions have not been identified. In addition, Roper notes (ibid.), the British Critic's contributors in all probability included Thomas Maurice (1754-1824), the historian of India; and Thomas Rennell (1754-1840), dean of Westminster and master of the Temple.

[3]

Nathaniel Teich's six-page account of the British Critic over the course of its entire run (1793-1843) provides valuable information concerning the review, but his treatment of Nares's first series is of necessity cursory at best. (See Nathaniel Teich, "The British Critic," in Alvin Sullivan, ed., British Literary Magazines: The Romantic Age, 1789-1836 [Westport, Connecticut, 1983], pp. 57-62.)

[4]

Derek Roper believes that two grants of £50 each that Nares received from Pitt's secret service money were in fact start-up funds for the British Critic (Roper 23, 180, and 265 [n. 50]).

[5]

See for example Francis E. Mineka, The Dissidence of Dissent: The Monthly Repository, 1806-1838, under the Editorship of Robert Aspland, W. J. Fox, R. H. Horne, & Leigh Hunt; with a Chapter on Religious Periodicals, 1700-1825 (Chapel Hill, 1944), p. 51; John O. Hayden, The Romantic Reviewers, 1802-1824 (London, 1969), p. 44; and Reiman 1: 125. Walter [James] Graham, English Literary Periodicals (New York, 1930), p. 221, takes the path of least resistance in naming Nares and Beloe as joint editors.

[6]

Roper 23, and Teich, "The British Critic," in Sullivan, ed., British Literary Magazines: The Romantic Age, p. 58, concur in considering Nares to have been the British Critic's editor. Nares and Beloe did, however, have an equal interest in the financial fortunes of the British Critic, each owning a one-third share in the periodical, with Francis and Charles Rivington holding the third equal share.

[7]

See for example Nares's letter to Nichols of 17 March 1814 (Illust. 7: 621, 621n) concerning the eventual publication of John Hellins's review of Baily's Doctrine of Life Annuities and Assurances (GM 84-i [1814]: 261-264, 472-477) and Nares's letter to Nichols of 23 May 1814 (Illust. 7: 622, 622n) concerning the eventual publication of George Gleig's review of McCrie's Life of John Knox (GM 84-i [1814]: 569-571) and of Gleig's cover letter (GM 84-i [1814]: 545) pertaining to the review. See also Nares's recommendation of Richard Polwhele's services as a reviewer "to my successors," as he phrased it (Illust. 7: 618-619).

[8]

See for example Nares's correspondence with Thomas Percy, Bishop of Dromore (Illust. 6: 583; 7: 601, 601n, 604-607, 607n), Samuel Parr (ibid., 7: 609), and Richard Polwhele (ibid., 7: 610; Biog. Sketches 3: 176).

[9]

See Esther Rhoads Houghton, "A 'New' Editor of the British Critic," Victorian Periodicals Review 12 (1979): 102-105.

[10]

Good surveys of the events leading to the downfall of the British Critic are provided in Houghton's "The British Critic and the Oxford Movement," Studies in Bibliography 16 (1963): 119-137, and Houghton's and Josef L. Altholz's "The British Critic, 1824-1843," Victorian Periodicals Review 24 (1991): 111-118.

[11]

Vincent's concluding paragraphs are to be found on p. 69.

[12]

See Whitaker's letter of 26 July 1797 to Polwhele, Biog. Sketches 3: 120.

[13]

The Reverend John Brand, rector of St. George's, Southwark, is not to be confused with the Reverend John Brand (ca. 1743-1806), rector of St. Mary-at-Hill and secretary to the Society of Antiquaries.

[14]

[Richard Polwhele], "The Lawfulness of Defensive War . . . ," Anti-Jacobin Review 3 (1799): 185.

[15]

Richard Warner, Literary Recollections (2 vols.; London, 1830) 2: 127.

[16]

White's obituary (GM 84-i [1814]: 628) states that he "was the Reviewer of publications in Hebrew and subjects of Oriental literature in 'The British Critic.'" For the purpose of determining which British Critic reviews White wrote or may have written, this article makes use of the following guidelines: Scholarly reviews of oriental literature (especially Arabic or Persian literature) are assumed to be White's, particularly if they contain explications of passages quoted in oriental characters. Reviews of oriental literature of which White's authorship is less sure are attributed to him with a cautionary question mark. Scholarly reviews of Hebrew works (particularly those emphasizing textual criticism and containing explications of passages in Hebrew script) are also attributed to White with a question mark, taking into consideration the fact that expertise in Hebrew scholarship was not as specialized an accomplishment as expertise in Arabic and Persian. (In those cases a second strong possibility exists for the author of the reviews in question: Rev. George Bennet [1750-1835], described by the DNB [2: 229-230] as a Hebraist and "[o]ne of the principal contributors to the 'British Critic,' . . . [who] reviewed from time to time the works of some of the most celebrated English divines . . . ," though the DNB does not identify them.) Reviews of works dealing with the history, theology, jurisprudence, etc., of oriental lands are not assigned to White, even provisionally, as Thomas Maurice (who supplied unidentified contributions to the British Critic) or other reviewers could likewise have written them.