The Life and Letters of John Gibson Lockhart
Chapter 16: 1832-36
John Gibson Lockhart to Henry Hart Milman, 5 May 1831
“Last night Jeffrey made a very unfortunate début—where he was good, he was far too metaphysical for
the House, going into first principles, which they always vote above; and, on
the whole, his matter was poor and his manner feeble—so much so, that I
could not have recognised my once voluble and sarcastic ally. Croker (Quarterly versus Edinburgh!) was capital
and most powerful. I never saw so much horror excited as by his slashing
dissection of Lord John Russell; and the
House, at first cold and reluctant, became, as he went on, intoxicated with
glee. He had some real eloquent declamation too, and his delivery was manly and
authoritative, wherever it was not diabolical and vindictive.—Yours
truly,
“J. G. Lockhart.
“London, Saturday,
May 5, 1831.”
John Wilson Croker (1780-1857)
Secretary of the Admiralty (1810) and writer for the
Quarterly
Review; he edited an elaborate edition of Boswell's
Life of
Johnson (1831).
Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey (1773-1850)
Scottish barrister, Whig MP, and co-founder and editor of the
Edinburgh
Review (1802-29). As a reviewer he was the implacable foe of the Lake School of
poetry.
John Russell, first earl Russell (1792-1878)
English statesman, son of John Russell sixth duke of Bedford (1766-1839); he was author
of
Essay on the English Constitution (1821) and
Memoirs of the Affairs of Europe (1824) and was Prime Minister (1865-66).
The Quarterly Review. (1809-1967). Published by John Murray, the
Quarterly was instigated by Walter
Scott as a Tory rival to the
Edinburgh Review. It was edited by
William Gifford to 1824, and by John Gibson Lockhart from 1826 to 1853.
