SOURCE: A review of Cobbett's Political Register, in The Edinburgh Review, Vol. X, No. 20, July, 1807, pp. 386-421.

Jeffrey was a founder and editor of the Edinburgh Review, one of the most influential nineteenth-century British magazines. A liberal Whig, he often allowed his political beliefs to color his critical opinions. In the following excerpt, Jeffrey writes of Cobbett as a political opportunist who overstates the issue of corruption in British politics.

We are induced to take some notice of [CobbeUt's Political Register] because we are persuaded that it has more influence with that most important and most independent class of society, which stands just above the lowest, than was ever possessed before by any similar publication. Its circulation and its popularity are, we think, upon the whole, very creditable to the country. It is written with great freedom, and often with great force of argument. It flatters few national...