[Owen of Lanark; An Editor’s Apology]

First published Edinburgh Saturday Post, 22 September 1827, p. 159. Reprinted Tave, pp. 116n-7n. In the previous week’s article on Robert Owen, the implication was made that ‘all people’ in Britain were in ‘complete darkness’ about the implications of Owen’s theories (see above, p. 63). But a letter to the editor, signed ‘B.’, pointed out that ‘Mr. Malthus did summary justice’ to Owen’s doctrines ‘long ago’. Now that De Quincey is known to have been the editor of the Post in September 1827, the following unsigned editorial apology may be attributed to him.