[Rumours of War]

First published Edinburgh Saturday Post, 8 December 1827, p. 244. Never reprinted. The article appeared on the fourth page, under the paper’s title and the date, in the spot usually reserved for De Quincey’s final comments for the week. The writer indicates (in a statement that would fit De Quincey’s role at the Post) that he has been closely following ‘the London papers within the last four months’. The final sentence seems to confirm that the writer was a regular contributor to the Post. The word ‘between’, and the italicization of ‘that’ very strongly suggest De Quincey. Other evidence includes the conversational tone, the use of italics, dashes, and short rhetorical questions like ‘What followed?’ or ‘And for what?’, the exclamation ‘article’, horresco referens’, and the sentences beginning with ‘But’. The phrase ‘red-hot alarmist’ recalls ‘red-hot jacobin’ (see p. 78), and the Anglicism ‘chanceries’ seems to be one of those tell-tale signs of Englishness that caused problems for De Quincey at the Post.