[News from Portugal and London]

First published Edinburgh Evening Post, 24 May 1828, p. 21. Never reprinted. As co-editor of the Evening Post at this time, De Quincey took special responsibility for its political columns. The evidence of surviving issues suggests that he wrote most or all of the leading articles, from May 1828 to early 1829. A similar leader, three weeks later in the Post, specifically refers to this piece in terms of what ‘we added’ (below, p. 200). Other evidence here includes ‘between’, the several dashes, the sentences beginning with ‘But’, ‘inlimine’, the italicized word ‘their’, the use of ‘1st’, and ‘2dly’ and the editorial phrase like ‘our readers’. All are common features of De Quincey’s writing in 1828 and establish his presence beyond reasonable doubt. See also Vol. 5, pp. 80–3 and 303–5, and below, pp. 223–4 and 307, for De Quincey’s continuing interest in the news from Portugal.