ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the institutionalization of the review form, specifically focusing on the Edinburgh Review, The Quarterly, and The Westminster Review. It is this rise to predominance of the liberal-democratic state form that provides the critical moment around which discussion in this chapter is organized. Cox also argued that the function of the critical reviews served as a replacement for the conversation and personal contacts of a small and compact society by focusing critical discussion. Fonblanque was also a regular contributor to the Westminster in the Examiner were effective in securing Catholic emancipation, the Reform Acts, the reduction of taxes on knowledge and eventually the destruction of the mercantilist system. A more coherent and educated reading public allowed these quarterlies to practice a style of criticism that was lengthy and intellectual. The success of the Edinburgh and the review formits popularizationhad the effect of fragmenting philosophic Whiggism, dissipating the very identity of this political ideology.