When we call _Blackwood’s_ the first _real_ magazine it is by virtue of worth, not fact. There were numerous periodicals preceding and contemporary with it. Most of them have never been heard of by the average citizen, and no doubt oblivion is the kindest shroud to fold them in. The _Monthly Review_, founded in 1749, was the oldest. It ran till 1845 and is remembered chiefly for the fact that it had decided Whiggish leanings with a touch of the Nonconformist. _The Critical Review_, a Tory organ, ran from 1756 to 1817, the natal year of “Maga”, as _Blackwood’s_ was fondly dubbed. _The British Critic_, 1793-1843, was a mouthpiece for High Church opinion; and _The Christian Observer_, 1802-1857, served the same purpose for the evangelicals. _The Anti-Jacobin_, 1797-98, was almost the only journal of the time where talent or wit appeared often enough not to be accidental, and it ran only eight months. _The Gentleman’s Magazine_, 1731-1868, has come in for a small share of immortality, but could never aspire to be considered a “moulder of opinion”. It published good prose and verse, and articles of antiquarian and literary tone; its scholarship was fair. When this is said, all is said. _The Edinburgh Review_ and _The Quarterly_ are the only two besides _Blackwood’s_ which come down to the Twentieth Century with any degree of lasting fame. In 1755 had appeared the first _Edinburgh Review_ “to be published every six months”. It survived only two numbers, being too radical and self-sufficient in certain philosophical and religious views for that day of orthodoxy. In October 1802 the first number of the _Edinburgh Review and Critical Journal_, a quarterly, appeared, which according to the advertisement in the first number was to be “distinguished for the selection rather than for the number of its articles”.[3] Its aim was to enlighten and guide the public mind in the paths of literature, art, science, politics,--with perhaps a bit of emphasis on the words _guide_ and _politics_. Francis Jeffrey, of whom Lockhart, later one of the leading lights of _Blackwood’s_, says, “It is impossible to conceive the existence of a more fertile, teeming intellect”,[4] was the first editor and remained so until 1829. In the first number, October 1802, there were twenty-nine articles, contributed by Sydney Smith, Jeffrey, Francis Horner, Brougham, and Thomson, Murray and Hamilton. During its first three years the _Review_ distinguished itself by adding such names to its list as Walter Scott, Playfair, John Allen, George Ellis, and Henry Hallam. With such pens supporting it, it would have been strange if it had not been readable. There was indeed an air of vitality and energy throughout, which distinguished it from any of its forerunners; it spoke as one having authority; and men turned as instinctively to Francis Jeffrey and the _Edinburgh Review_ for final verdicts, as it never entered their heads to seriously consider the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ or even the