[The Foreign Journals]

First published Edinburgh Saturday Post, 3 May 1828, p. [412]. Never reprinted. Leaders for the Saturday Post often discussed the French journals, though with less energy, knowledge, and engagement than when the London press was the subject. De Quincey almost certainly wrote most, or quite possibly all, of these leaders too, but the evidence is less compelling. The present article is included because of its backward glances at previous leaders, as well as the large number of dashes, the Latin phrase ‘materia litis’ (which also appears above, p. 143), and the sentence beginning with ‘But’. Very few writers for the Post (if indeed any, other than De Quincey) were capable of producing quick, readable copy, like this piece, during the hectic last minutes before going to press. This article continues the subject of the French ambassador’s relations with ‘the Porte’, and expresses De Quinceyan skepticism over developments in Greece (see above, pp. 130–2, 147–8 and 154–8).