Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/240

204 264 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD. Of course, the actual inventorship of the new ject is a disputed point, but the evidence seems to tell us that, however the idea of a new Conservative organ had been talked over in literary coteries (and what scheme has not been planned a thousand times before execution whenever literary men meet together ?), the plan had long been entertained and spoken of by Blackwood ; and, as he proceeded -to carry it into execution, the scheme may to all intents and purposes be regarded as his own. Two gentlemen were engaged Pringle and Cleg- horn who had received their training in the enemy's camp, as editors in chief, and with the assistance of Hogg, and the promised support of Scott and many other men of talent, the first number of the Edinburgh Monthly Magazine was issued on All-Fools' Day, 1817 an ominous day for Blackwood, for he soon discovered that the prophets he had summoned to curse, heaped blessings on the heads of his opponents. This first number differed but little from other periodi- cals of its class. Only half the space was devoted to original matter, and the very opening pages contained a panegyric upon Horner, then lately deceased, an Edinburgh Reviewer a Whig, and not much else. " You can't say too much about Sydney Smith and Brougham," said Scott to Jeffrey ; " but I will not admire your Horner. He always puts me in mind of Obadiah's bull, who, although, as Father Shandy ob- served, he never produced a calf, went through his business with such a grave demeanour that he always maintained his credit in the parish." Nor was this the worst. In No. 3 a violent defence of the Edinburgh was undertaken warmly. This was too much for Blackwood ; he gave his editors notice of a