“The wit and fun of these imitations are undeniable, and their injustice is equally so. ERSKINE, with all his egotism, was, and remains, the greatest of English advocates. He stemmed and turned the tide which threatened to sweep away the most valued of our free institutions in 1794; and (we say with LORD BROUGHAM) ‘Before such a precious service as this, well may the lustre of statesmen and orators grow pale’. MACKINTOSH was pre-eminently distinguished by the comprehensiveness and moderation of his views; nor could any man be less disposed by temper, habits, or pursuits towards revolutionary courses. His lectures on _The Law of Nature and Nations_ were especially directed against the new morality in general, and GODWIN’S _Political Justice_ in particular. “At a long subsequent period (1807) CANNING, when attacked in Parliament for his share in _The Anti-Jacobin_, declared that ‘he felt no shame for its character or principles, nor any other sorrow for the share he had had in it than that which the imperfection of his pieces was calculated to inspire’. Still, it is one of the inevitable inconveniences of a connection with the Press that the best known writers should be made answerable for the errors of their associates; and the license of _The Anti-Jacobin_ gave serious and well-founded offence to many who shared its opinions and wished well to its professed object. In WILBERFORCE’S _Diary_ for May 18, 1799, we find ‘PITT, CANNING, and PEPPER ARDEN came in late to dinner. I attacked CANNING on indecency of _Anti-Jacobin_.’ COLERIDGE, in his _Biographia Literaria_, complains bitterly of the calumnious accounts given by _The Anti-Jacobin_ of his early life, and asks with reason, ‘Is it surprising that many good men remained longer than perhaps they otherwise would have done adverse to a party which encouraged and openly rewarded the authors of such atrocious calumnies?’ “Mr. Edmonds says that PITT got frightened, and that the publication was discontinued at the suggestion of the Prime Minister. It is not unlikely that CANNING, now a member of the House of Commons and Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, found his connection with it embarrassing, as his hopes rose and his political prospects expanded. Indeed, it may be questioned whether a Parliamentary career can ever be united with that of the daily or weekly journalist without compromising one or both. At all events, the original _Anti-Jacobin_ closed with the number containing _New Morality_, and CANNING had nothing to do with the _monthly review_ started under the same name.” THE _ANTI-JACOBIN_ AS AN AID TO GOVERNMENT. [Considering _The Anti-Jacobin_ from a national as well as a literary point of view, we cannot do better than use a portion of an Essay on English Political Satires by the late JAS. HANNAY, in the _Quarterly Review_, April, 1857.]