ABSTRACT
William Maginn was chiefly known as a talented journalist of extreme Tory views. He was born in Cork and graduated from Trinity College, Dublin, at the age of fourteen, after which he returned home to join the staff of his fathers boys’ school. In 1816 Maginn obtained from Dublin a degree of Doctor of Laws. Shortly afterwards he began to send provocative and learned contributions to British periodicals, including Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine. There is no evidence that Maginn and Godwin ever met, but Maginns article is included because it exemplifies the standard nineteenth-century Tory caricature of Godwin as enfeebled and powerless, both as a man and as a writer. Maginns accompanying notice is similarly dismissive of Godwin as a revolutionary philosopher, while Godwin’s personal history is presented as a series of misfortunes brought about by his adherence to mistaken principles.
