[News from Spain and Portugal]

First published Edinburgh Saturday Post, 29 September 1827, p. 164. Never reprinted. De Quincey probably wrote many more such leaders than it is possible to identify; but in this case the internal evidence is strong, and the article is linked to others in the present edition. The free use of italics, dashes, and rhetorical questions, the italicization of ‘that’, and the sentences beginning with ‘Now’ or ‘But’, were favourite techniques of his. Allusions to Paradise Lost, to classical literature, and to an ‘old fable’, also strongly suggest De Quincey, when they appear in the Edinburgh newspaper of which he was both the editor, and the only regular English contributor. The British, rather than Scottish, perspective, and the mention of ‘England’, where ‘Britain’ might be more appropriate, also point to De Quincey. The phrase ‘chateaux en Espagne’ re-appears in an article of 9 February 1828 (see below, p. 264), which is known to be De Quincey’s because it is linked to a manuscript in his handwriting (see below, p. 261). Another term, ‘waive’, was a favourite of De Quincey’s around 1827. Finally, the suggestion that Don Miguel’s promise of ‘good behaviour’ might be no stronger than ‘sealing wax’ is recounted with pride, in a much later leader (see below, p. 304).