[‘The March of Liberalism’]

First published Edinburgh Evening Post, 28 March 1829, p. 36. Never reprinted. This leader continues many of the topics of De Quincey’s leading articles for the Post, with many of the customary marks of his style. Evidence includes the series of rhetorical questions, the sentences starting with ‘But’, inverted sentences like ‘Sorry should we be’, the use of italics, and ‘between’ in place of ‘betwixt’. Other signs include ‘viz.’, the slang expression ‘kicked … out of office’, and favourite words like ‘odious’, ‘apostatize’, and ‘apostacy’. For proof that De Quincey wrote on Irish affairs for the Evening Post, in much the same intemperate spirit as the present article, see the passage reprinted from manuscript on pp. 306–7 (below). Like many of De Quincey’s political articles, this one appeals to Burkean notions of ‘ancient and established principles’ and ‘The faith of treaties and solemn compacts’.