ABSTRACT
First published Edinburgh Saturday Post, 1 September 1827, p. 132. Reprinted Tave, pp. 91–4 (with attribution, p. 94). The article seems to have clearly been written by a regular for the Post, and it anticipates later ones on the same subject (see below, pp. 244–51, and Vol. 6, pp. 202–16). One of those later articles, undoubtedly by De Quincey, refers to this piece (see below, p. 250). Supporting evidence includes colloquialisms like ‘kicked out’ (which recurs at pp. 173 and 259, below, and Vol. 6, p. 232 and elsewhere), the use of italics for ‘That’ the sentence beginning with ‘But’, and the interest in London’s Standard newspaper.
