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Foreign and Colonial Quarterly Review / New Quarterly Review

On December 17, 1842, an advertisement in the Spectator jauntily announced:
 
On the 31st December, will be published. No. 1 of THE FOREIGN AND COLONIAL QUARTERLY REVIEW; Embracing the pure Advocacy of our Conservative Policy at Home and Abroad. The existing Foreign Reviews, two in Number, are both opposed to Conservatism. One is consistent in its opposition; the other has become an opponent by a direct apostacy [sic], from its late opinions. Under these circumstances, and with a view to afford Conservatism a fair field, a new Review has been deemed necessary, And it will have the support of the late Editor and leading Contributors of the "Foreign Quarterly," together with the aid of an extensive and long established correspondence and connexion [sic] with the literati of the Continent.
 
The new periodical was edited by Dr. James W. Worthington, a London clergyman and ardent Tory who had been forced from his previous position as editor of the Foreign Quarterly Review (FQR) in the spring of 1842.  Worthington successfully attracted several other co-proprietors (among whom was the yet-to-be-exposed plagiarist and embezzler Thomas Powell) to his new venture, and apparently had secured the support of the conservative publisher, John Murray.
 
As he claimed, Worthington did retain many of the FQR’s contributors. Although Worthington maintained the practice of anonymity, it is clear that Johann Lhotsky (a fervently anti-Austrian ethnic Czech, born in Poland), Samuel Birch (a leading Egyptologist and keeper of antiquities at the British Museum), George Stephens (a teacher of English in Stockholm and expert on Swedish culture), Antonio Gallenga (an Italian political refugee and journalist), and Edward Clarkson (an expert on antiquities and early promoter of the Suez canal), all wrote for the Foreign and Colonial Quarterly Review.
 
However, in its initial issue the F&CQR brought into the fold a “big fish,” William Ewart Gladstone, who dwarfed Worthington’s old FQR team and who came to be associated with the new review in popular opinion. Gladstone found in Worthington and the F&CQR a vehicle for his important essay “Commercial Policy at Home and Abroad.” Over time Gladstone contributed two additional articles to the review --"The Present Aspect of the Church" (October 1843) and "The Theses of Erastus" (October 1844).  “Commercial Policy of the Peel Government” (January 1844) was widely thought to be Gladstone's; however, he publically disavowed authorship.
 
Other prominent contributors included the novelist and travel writer Julia Pardoe, the essayist Thomas Adolphus Trollope, the historian Archibald Allison, the statesman and editor Sir John Barrow, the historian and novelist G.P.R. James, and the critic George Henry Lewes.  Perhaps the most regular contributors were the Athenaeum’s long-standing music critic Henry Fothergill Chorley; the erstwhile poet and essayist Richard Henry (or Hengist) Horne; and the general man-of-letters John Abraham Heraud.  Heraud’s relationship with Worthington and the F&CQR did not end well -- at one point Worthington took offense to a proffered essay by Heraud on Descartes and declared he would no longer publish his works.  Heraud circumvented this injunction by submitting further contributions through Thomas Powell, who passed them on anonymously to Worthington, who in turn published them without knowing their source.  After the bankruptcy of the F&CQR in 1847, Heraud sued unsuccessfully to receive payment for these surreptitiously submitted articles.
 
Although neither Elizabeth Barrett Barrett nor Robert Browning ever wrote for the F&CQR, Chorley, Horne, Heraud – and, at one time, Thomas Powell -- were all to varying degrees part of the Browning-Barrett circle, and the published Brownings' correspondence includes many references to these men and various articles in the review.  Additionally, and probably working through one of the above intermediaries, Browning used his influence to have an essay on Rabelais by his friend Joseph Arnould published in the January 1845 issue.
 
Each number of the F&CQR consisted of (1) approximately ten extended review articles, each of which typically addressed several related works; (2) perhaps a half dozen Critical Sketches, which were essentially short reviews, each usually dealing with one work; and (3) sections devoted to correspondence, literary notices and obituaries, comments on literary actives abroad; colonial intelligence, and lists of works published. The Curran Index listing below covers the extended review articles.
 
The publication history of the Foreign and Colonial Quarterly Review was turbulent, suggesting continual financial instability and perhaps discord between the proprietors and their publishers.  Volume I, consisting of the January and April 1843 issues, was published by Whittaker and Co.  Volume II (July and October 1843) listed two publishers, Whittaker and Co., and Smith, Elder, and Co. By Volume III (January and April of 1844), Smith, Elder, and Co. was the sole publisher. Smith, Elder continued to publish Volume IV, however the name of the periodical was changed to the New Quarterly Review; or, Home, Foreign, and Colonial Journal. Nominally this change was made to reflect the true content of the review; however, there were newspaper reports in 1844 about another prospective periodical to be titled the New Quarterly Review which was being considered by Scottish interests, and the name change may have been a preemptive move by Worthington and his associates.
 
In 1845 publication was turned over to John W. Parker, who successively published Volumes V (Jan and April 1846) and VI (July and October 1846). Newspaper announcements and commentaries indicate John W. Parker published Volume VII on schedule, in January and April of 1846; however, surviving bound versions of Volume VII date numbers 14 and 15 as being respectively published in April and July.
 
According to newspaper advertisements and reviews, the first number of Volume VIII (number 15, nominally dated July 1846 and apparently still under the auspices of John W. Parker) was not issued until sometime in August.  Volume VIII, number 16, also came out late, in November, but now the stated publisher was James Gilbert.  The bound version of Volume VIII, issued by James Gilbert, notes the dates of publication of numbers 15 and 16 as October 1846 and January 1847.  Similarly, the newspaper announcement dates and bound version dates for the two numbers of the last Volume issued by James Gilbert, Volume IX (numbers 17 and 18), are offset by three months.
 
 


Hover over the periodical abbreviation or contributor name to see detailed information.

    F&CQR, Schiller, Life and Lyrical Compositions, 1 - 57, Jan 1843, John Herman Merivale, Noted in Merivale's diary; see Family Memorials, compiled by Anna W. Merivale (1884). Also attributed in The Dublin University Magazine, Oct 1844, p 379. [review] (12/15)

    F&CQR, Hymns and Lays of Ancient Germany, 57 - 100, Jan 1843, George Stephens, Attributed in Gunilla Bryman, ed., En värld för sig själv (Växjö University Press, Växjö universitet 2008). Stephens had written similar articles for Worthington when Worthington edited the Foreign Quarterly Review. [review] (12/15)

    F&CQR, Validity of Popular Judgment, 100 - 115, Jan 1843, Unknown [review] (12/15)

    F&CQR, Life and Times of Savonarola, 116 - 150, Jan 1843, John Abraham Heraud, Reprinted in part in John Abraham Heraud, The Life and Times of Girolamo Savonarola (London: Whittaker and Co., 1843). [review] (12/15)

    F&CQR, French Academy of Sciences, 151 - 165, Jan 1843, Unknown [review] (12/15)

    F&CQR, Modern Turkish Travellers, 166 - 193, Jan 1843, Julia Sophia Pardoe, Attributed to Miss Pardoe in a letter from Richard Horne to Elizabeth Barret Browning, June 1, 1843. See The Brownings’ Correspondence, 7, 167–168. Pardoe wrote on June 7, 1843 that she was only writing for Fraser's and for the F&CQR. [review] (12/15)

    F&CQR, Chinese Characteristics, 194 - 221, Jan 1843, Richard Henry Horne, Claimed by Horne in a letter dated January 5, 1843. See The Brownings’ Correspondence, 6, 270–271. Also attributed by Powell in Living Authors of England. [review] (08/16)

    F&CQR, Tariff. Commercial Policy at Home and Abroad, 222 - 273, Jan 1843, William E. Gladstone, Gladstone sent this article to Worthington on Dec 8, 1842. See Agatha Ramm, "Gladstone as Man of Letters," Nineteenth Century Prose XVII (Winter 1989-90). [review] (12/15)

    F&CQR, Spain, as it is, 273 - 300, Jan 1843, Henry Christmas (Noel-Fearn), possib., An associate of Worthington's, Christmas had been to Spain in 1842. [review] (08/16)

    F&CQR, Peace and Treaty with China, 301 - 333, Jan 1843, Sir John Barrow, Attributed in a letter from Richard Horne dated January 20, 1843. See The Brownings’ Correspondence, 6, 301–302. Note that Sir John Barrow's son also wrote for the F&CQR. [review] (12/15)

    F&CQR, Travels in Norway, 373 - 396, Apr 1843, John Barrow (1808-1898), According to a letter from Sir John Barrow to Napier dated 12 Oct. 1843 Barrow's son had supplied a little article on Norway to the Foreign and Colonial Review. (BL Add Mss. 34.624, fols. 121-122. [review] (08/16)

    F&CQR, Life and Opinions of Leibnitz, 397 - 445, Apr 1843, Unknown [review] (12/15)

    F&CQR, Polish Memoir Writers, 446 - 478, Apr 1843, Krystyn Lach Szyrma, prob., Szyrma was fluent in Polish and English. A brief bio establishes he wrote for the New Quarterly Review; see Miroslawa Podheckja, Tracing the Sources of Krystn Lach-Szyrma's English Polish Dictionary (2013) www.lingref.com/cpp/hel-lex/2012/paper2843.pdf. [review] (12/15)

    F&CQR, The Works of George Sand, 478 - 508, Apr 1843, Thomas Adolphus Trollope, This is the article described in Volume 1, page 280-281 of Trollope's What I Remember and associated there with the Foreign Quarterly. Trollope wrote on 4 June 1843 that his article on Sand had been published with tory bigotry interpolated by the editor. [review] (08/16)

    F&CQR, The Old World and the New New World, 509 - 524, Apr 1843, Unknown [review] (12/15)

    F&CQR, Railways on the Continent, 524 - 543, Apr 1843, Unknown [review] (12/15)

    F&CQR, Fresco Painting, 544 - 553, Apr 1843, Unknown [review] (12/15)

    F&CQR, The Dramatic Mind of Europe, 554 - 572, Apr 1843, Richard Henry Horne, This article was sent by Horne to EBB on Apr 27, 1843. He wrote "he" would not write the substantive papers on each country [see the intro to the article] See The Brownings’ Correspondence, 7, 90–91. Also attributed by Powell in Living Authors of England. [review] (08/16)

    F&CQR, The Canadas, 573 - 609, Apr 1843, George Payne Rainsford James, See correspondence from Gladstone on 20 Feb. 1843 (BL Add Mss 44.527 fol. 118); 25 Apr 1843 (BL Add Ms 44.527 fols 126-7). [review] (08/16)

    F&CQR, Life of Frederick William III, 610 - 620, Apr 1843, Unknown [review] (12/15)

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