ABSTRACT
The lapsing of the Licensing Act We writers of essays, or (as they are termed) periodical papers, justly claim to ourselves a place among the modern improvers of literature. Neither Bentley nor Burman, nor any other equally sagacious commentator, has been able to discover the least traces of any similar productions among the ancients: except we can suppose, that the history of Thucydides was retailed weekly in six-penny numbers; that Seneca dealt out his morality every Saturday; or that Tulley wrote speeches and philosophical disquisitions, whilst Virgil and Horace clubbed together to furnish the poetry, for a Roman Magazine.
