The second Edinburgh Review, founded in 1802, became one of the most influential British magazines of the 19th century. It promoted Romanticism and Whig politics.

Started on 10 October 1802 by Francis Jeffrey, Sydney Smith and Henry Brougham, it was published by Archibald Constable in quarterly issues until 1929. It began as a literary and political review. Under its first permanent editor, Francis Jeffrey (the first issue was edited by Sydney Smith), it was a strong supporter of the Whig party and liberal politics, and regularly called for political reform. Its main rival was the Quarterly Review which supported the Tories. The magazine was also noted for its attacks on the Lake Poets, particularly William Wordsworth.

It was owned at one point by John Stewart, whose wife Louisa Hooper Stewart (1818–1918) was an early advocate of women's suffrage, having been educated at the Quaker school of Newington Academy for Girls.

It took its Latin motto judex damnatur ubi nocens absolvitur (the judge is condemned when the guilty is acquitted) from Publilius Syrus.

The magazine ceased publication in 1929.

Ina Ferris, “The Debut of The Edinburgh Review, 1802″
The publication of The Edinburgh Review in October 1802 was to alter the landscape and status ofperiodical publications for the nineteenth century. In its entry into the lowly sphere of reviewwriting, the new journal instituted key innovations that transformed the literary review into apowerful cultural forum within an expanding print culture.

The Edinburgh Review
Volume 1 (1802) (pdf)

Selections from the Edinburgh Review
Comprising the best articles in that journal, from its commencement to the present time with a preliminary dissertation and explanatory notes edited by Maurice Cross, secretary to the Belfast Historical Society in four volumes (1833)

PREFACE

The plan and contents of the following work are so fully detailed in the Preliminary Dissertation, that it only remains to explain the circumstances under which it is offered to the public. The Editor, having been for many years a reader and an admirer of the Edinburgh Review, has frequently regretted that no selection had been made of its most valuable articles on Literature, Philosophy, and Politics. The idea suggested itself, that these, if properly chosen, and separated from all extraneous matter, would form a publication of considerable interest and utility to those persons, especially, who have not the good fortune to possess a copy of the original.

That a judicious selection from a work of so voluminous a nature, and embracing so great a diversity of subjects, could not be made without considerable labour, may be easily conceived. The Editor was oppressed by the abundance of materials; and the difficulty of selection was increased by the general excellence of the articles among which he had to choose. He excluded from his plan those which referred to temporary topics ; but, even after this was done, he was frequently at a loss what to insert, and what to leave out. His object was to embody in these Selections the best papers in the Review, particularly those of permanent interest, or likely to attract the greatest number of readers. Whether he has succeeded the public will decide. Those best acquainted with the diversified contents of the original work, will probably be the least disposed to censure his defects.

As the articles comprise discussions on a variety of important questions, they are distributed under appropriate heads, without regard to the time of their publication in the Review. The number of the volume and page from which each disquisition has been taken is stated in notes. References are also occasionally made to articles which could not be reprinted for want of space. To the reader these will afford facilities in referring to the original work, the value of which cannot be depreciated by any abridgement of its contents, however ample. In addition to a Table of Contents, there is an Analytical Index, at the end of the Fourth Volume, which will be found both copious and accurate.

The Editor confidently expects that these volumes will meet with a favourable reception. The celebrity of the authors, the variety of the style, and the attraction of the subjects, can hardly fail to procure for them abundance of readers.

Volume 1  |  Volume 2  |  Volume 3  |  Volume 4