The Life and Letters of John Gibson Lockhart
Chapter 22: 1850-53
John Gibson Lockhart to Henry Hart Milman, 26 April 1851
“Sussex Place, Regent’s Park,
April 26, 1851.
“Dear Dean,—I fear
you have decidedly cut me as Editor of the Quarterly Review. But if
not, ![]()
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there is a book by the Rev. Moses ——, which would, I
think, form a capital subject for you. He is a clerk in English orders—a
Polish Jew by birth—and his book is in letters to all sorts of grandees,
the Duke of Manchester, Archbishops of
Canterbury, York, and Dublin, Bishop of Chester, &c., &c. A more
impudent, silly, and ignorant book never appeared; and he seems to be, in every
sense, a lewd fellow of the baser sort. The folly of our Ashleys, &c., in patronising hoc genus of charlatan, richly deserves a
little castigation. In short, never was a more thorough humbug.
“To do the thing effectively would require learning,
as well as a sense of the ridiculous. Therefore, unless you could handle this
Moses, or point out some one else able and willing to do so in true style, I
see no chance of my getting the sort of article that is wanted.
“Have you seen Moses, or shall I send him? He would,
at least, amuse an evening hour—if you ever spend a quiet evening at this
time of the year.—Ever yours,
Anthony Ashley- Cooper, seventh earl of Shaftesbury (1801-1885)
The son of the sixth earl (d. 1851); he was asocial reformer who introduced legislation
to relieve women and children laboring in coal mines and to limit the work-day for factory
laborers to ten hours.
John Gibson Lockhart (1794-1854)
Editor of the
Quarterly Review (1825-1853); son-in-law of Walter
Scott and author of the
Life of Scott 5 vols (1838).
Moses Margoliouth (1815-1881)
A Polish-born merchant who converted from Judaism to Anglicanism in 1838; after education
at Trinity College, Dublin he entered the clergy and published
History of
the Jews in Great Britain, 3 vols (1851).
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.
