ABSTRACT
John Gibson Lockhart (1794–1854) became editor of the Quarterly Review in 1826 and remained in that position until 1853. However, John Wilson Croker (1780–1857), was the most influential writer for the journal, often co-ordinating his published responses with those of Sir Robert Peel.
The journal’s response to the ‘Tamworth Manifesto’ was a stout defence of Peel’s reputation, and consistency and unqualified support for his minority government. It noted that the Manifesto ‘in itself and independently of its topics’ offered evidence that he was prepared ‘to meet the exigencies of the times’. The document was acclaimed as an unprecedented ‘ministerial profession of faith’ which demonstrated Peel’s acceptance of the consequences of the Reform Act.
Given the circumstances under which the government was formed, the Quarterly regarded the issue of the day as the maintenance of the British Constitution. It hailed Peel’s actions in forming and executing his ministry, associating them with Edmund Burke’s prescription for good governance – ‘a disposition to preserve and an ability to improve’. The article noted the ‘highly honourable but over sensitive’ temper of the ‘Derby Dilly’ in refusing to join the government and went so far as to place Peel’s ministry in succession to the great Whig ministries of the eighteenth century, in terms of actuating principles.
The Quarterly offered wholehearted support for Peel’s government, on the grounds that it provided ‘the only possible barrier’ against the ‘deluge’ which would result from ‘the march of innovation’. It regarded modern Whigs as ‘Destructives’ who had already terminated the careers of Lords Grey and Stanley. If Peel’s government was not given the ‘fair trial’ he had requested in the Manifesto, it would lead to ‘the final and fatal confirmation of all our fears’.
