The London Review, 1829

the ambitious project of a new quarterly review in the field already occupied by the Edinburgh, the Quarterly, and the Westminster first occurred to Nassau Senior, Professor of Political Economy at Oxford, sometime in the spring of 1828. ¹ After engaging the support of his friend Richard Whately, then Principal of St. Alban Hall and soon to be Archbishop of Dublin, he used the good offices of Dr. Thomas Mayo to persuade Blanco White, on July 27, to become the editor. ² White was an Englishman brought up as a Catholic in Spain, now a convert to the Church of England and a tutor at Oxford, where he enjoyed the privileges of the Oriel common room. During the next months the three associates were busy approaching potential contributors, attempting to draw up a prospectus—which was never written (the policy is in the first article, “Journals and Reviews”)—and choosing a title. Because they themselves and two-thirds of the contributors were connected with Oxford, the Oxford Review must have been considered; but no doubt the desire to àvoid a parochial and university appearance dictated the choice of something more metropolitan. The first issue appeared on February 20, 1829, the second on, or just before, June 10. ³ There was no third. The periodical, as White was to say, “totally failed of success.” ⁴