The first literary periodical in English was the Mercurius Librarius, or a Fcιithful Account of all Books and Pamphlets (1680), a mere catalogue, followed by Weekly Memorials for the Ingenious (16th January 1681/82 to 15th January 1683), which was more of the type of the Journal des Savants, whence it borrowed many contributions, and by the Bibliothèque Universelle et Historique (January 1686-93), begun by Jean Leclerc, continued with the assistance of J. de la Crose, and carried on during the last six years of its existence by J. Bernard. Of the History of Learning (1691; another with the same title in 1694) only a few numbers appeared, as the conductor, De la Crose, started the Works of the Learned (August 1691 to April 1692), devoted principally to Continental scholarship. The Compleat Library (fWP2 to December 1693) was a ventureof John Dunton; the Memoirs for the Ingenious (1693) ran to six monthly numbers, and another with the same title appeared in the following year, only to enjoy an equally brief career. The first periodical of merit and influence was the History of the JFbrfø of the Learned (1699-1712), largely consisting of descriptions of foreign books. The Memoirs of Literature, the first English review consisting entirely of original matter, published in London from 1710 to 1714, had for editor Michel de la Roche, a French Protestant refugee, who also edited at Amsterdam the Bibliothèque Angloise (1717-19), and subsequently Mémoires Littéraires de la Grande Bretagne (17 20-24). Returning to England in 1725, he recommenced his New Memoirs of Literature (1725-28), and in 1730 a Literary Journal. Dr Samuel Jebb started Bibliotheca Literaria (17 22-24), which dealt with medals and antiquities as well as with literature, but only ten numbers appeared. The Present State of the Republick of Letters -w⅛s> commenced by Andrew Reid in January 1728, and completed in December 1736. It contained not only excellent reviews of English books but papers from the works of foreigners, and, as well as the Historia Literaria (1730-34) of Archibald Bower, was very successful. The Bee (1733-34) of the unfortunate Eustace Budgell, and the Literary Magazine (17 35-36), with which Ephraim Chambers had much to do, were very short-lived. In 1737 the History of the JForfø of the Learned appeared again, and was continued without intermission until 1743, when its place was taken by A Literary Journal (Dublin, 1744-49), the first review published in Ireland. The Museum (1746) of R. Dodsley united the character of a review of books with that of a literary magazine. Although England can show nothing like the Journal des Savants, which has flourished almost without a break for 220 years, a nearly· complete series of reviews of English literature may be made up from 1681 to the present day.

After the close of the first quarter of the 18th century the literary journal began to assume more of the style of the .modern review, and in 1749 the title and the chief features were united in the Monthly Review, established by Ralph Griffiths, who conducted it until 1803, whence it was edited by his son down to 1825. It came to an end in 1845. From its commencement the Review dealt with science and literature, as well as with literary criticism. It was Whig in politics and Nonconformist in theology. The Tory party and the established church were defended in the Critical Review (1756-1817), founded by Archibald Hamilton and supported by Smollett, Johnson, and Robertson. Johnson took a considerable part in the Literary Magazine (1756-58). The reviews rapidly increased in number towards the end of the century. Among the principal were the London Review (1775-80), A New Review (1782-86), the English Review (1783-96), incorporated in 1797 with the Analytical Review (1788-99), the AntiJacobin Review and Magazine (1798-1821), and the British Critic (1793-1843), the organ of the High Church party, and first edited by Archdeacon Nares and Beloe.

These periodicals had now become extremely numerous, and many of the leading London publishers found it convenient to maintain their own particular organs. It is not a matter of surprise, therefore, that the authority of the reviews should have fallen somewhat in public estimation. The time was ripe for one which should be quite independent of the booksellers, and which should also aim at a higher standard of excellence. As far back as 1755 Adam Smith, Blair, and others had endeavoured to carry on such a quarterly without achieving success, and in 1773 Gilbert Stuart and William Smellie issued during three years an Edinburgh Magazine and Review. To the northern capital is also due the first high-class critical journal which has kept up its reputation to the present day. The Edinburgh Review was established in 1802 by Jeffrey, Scott, Horner, Brougham, and Sydney Smith. It created a new era in periodical criticism, and assumed from the commencement a wider range and more elevated tone than any of its predecessors. The first editor was Sydney Smith, then Jeffrey for many years, and afterwards Macvey Napier. At one time 20,000 copies are said to have been published, but the circulation declined in 1832 to less than 9000. Scott, being dissatisfied with the new review, persuaded John Murray, to start its brilliant Tory competitor, the Quarterly Review (1809), first edited by William Gifford, then by Sir J. T. Coleridge, and subsequently by J. G. Lockhart. The Westminster Review (1824), established by the disciples of Jeremy Bentham, advocated radical reforms in church, state, and legislation. In 1836 it was joined to the London Review (1829), founded by Sir William Molesworth, and then bore the name of the London and Westminster Review till 1851, when it returned to the original title. The other quarterly reviews are the Eclectic Review (1805-68), edited down to 1834 by Josiah Conder and supported by the Dissenters; the British Review (1811- 25); the Christian Remembrancer (1819-68); the Retrospective Review (1820-26, 1828, 1853-54), for old books; the Foreign Quarterly Review (1827-46), afterwards incorporated with the Westminster·, the Foreign Review (1828- 29); the Dublin Review (1836), still continued as the organ of the Roman Catholics; the Foreign and Colonial Quarterly Review (1843-47); the Prospective Review (1845-55), given up to theology and literature, previously the Christian Teacher (1835-44); the North British Revierv (1844-71); the British Quarterly Review (1845), successor to the British and Foreign Review (1835-44); the New Quarterly Review (1852-61); the Scottish Review (1853-62), published at Glasgow; the Wesleyan London Quarterly Review (1853); the National Review (1855-64); the Diplomatic Review (1855-81); the Irish Quarterly Review (1851-59), brought out in Dublin; the Home and Foreign Review (1862-64); the Fine Arts Quarterly Review (1863-65); the New Quarterly Magazine (1873-80); the Catholic Union Review (1863-74); the Anglican Church Quarterly Review (1875); Mind (1876), dealing with mental philosophy; the Modern Review (1880); and the Scottish Review (1882).

The monthly reviews include the Christian Observer (1802-57), conducted by members of the established church upon evangelical principles, with Zachary Macaulay as the first editor; and the Monthly Repository (1806-37), originally purely theological, but after coming into the hands of the Rev. W. J. Fox made entirely literary and political. The Fortnightly Review (1865) was intended as a kind of English Revue des Deux Mondes. Since 1866 it has appeared monthly. The Contemporary Reviere (1866) and the Nineteenth Century (1877) are similar in character, consisting of signed articles by men of mark of all opinions upon questions of the day. The National Review (1883) was brought out to supply the demand for an exclusively Conservative review, and Modern Thought (1879) for the free discussion of political, religious, and social subjects.

The weekly reviews dealing generally with literature, science, and art are the Literary Gazette (1817-62), first edited by William Jerdan, which had for many years a circulation of 6000 copies; the Athenaeum (1828), established by Silk Buckingham, but which was not very successful until it was taken over by C. W. Dilke; and the Academy (1869), founded, and at first edited, by Dr Appleton. Those which also include political and social topics are the Examiner (1808-81), the Spectator (1828), the Saturday Review (1855), and the Chronicle (1867-68). The reviews in the Academy are signed.

Soon after the introduction of the literary journal in England, one of a more familiar tone was started by the eccentric John Dunton A thenian Gazette, or Casuistical Mercury, resolving all the most Nice and Curious Questions (1689/90 to 1695/96), a kind of forerunner of Notes and Queries, being a penny weekly sheet, with a quarterly critical supplement. In the last part the publisher announces that it will be continued “as soon as ever the glut of news is a little over.” Defoe’s Review (1704-13) dealt chiefly with politics and commerce, but the introduction in it of what its editor fittingly termed the “scandalous club” was another step nearer the papers of Steele and the periodical essayists, the first attempts to create an organized popular opinion in matters of taste and manners. These little papers, rapidly thrown off for a temporary purpose, were destined to form a very important part of the literature of the 18th century, and in some respects its most marked feature. Although the frequenters of the clubs and coffee-houses were the persons for whom the essay-papers were mainly written, a proof of the increasing refinement of the age is to be found in the fact that now for the first time were women specially addressed as part of the reading public. The Tatter was commenced by Richard Steele in 1709, and issued thrice a week until 1711. The idea was at once extremely popular, and a dozen similar papers were started within the year, at least one half bearing colourable imitations of the title. Addison contributed to the Tatter, and together with Steele established and carried on the Spectator (1710-14), and subsequently the Guardian (1713). The newspaper tax enforced in 1712 was a sore blow. Before this time the daily issue of the Spectator had reached 3000 copies; it then fell to 1600; the price was raised from a penny to twopence, but the paper came to an end in 1714. Dr Drake {Essays illustr. of the Rambler, &c., ii. 490) drew up an imperfect list of the essayists, and reckoned that from the Tatter to Johnson’s Rambler, during a period of forty-one years, 106 papers of this description were published. Dr Drake continued the list down to 1809, and described altogether 221 which had appeared within a hundred years. The following is a list of the most considerable, with their dates, founders, and chief contributors.

Taller (12th April 1709 to 2d January 1710/11), Steele, Addison, Swift, Hughes, &c.; Spectator (1st March 1710/11 to 20th December 1714), Addison, Steele, Budgell, Hughes, Grove, Pope, Parnell, Swift, &c.; Guardian (12th March 1713 to 1st October 1713), Steele, Addison, Berkeley, Pope, Tickell, Budgell, &c.; Rambler (20th March 1750 to 14th March 1752), Johnson; Adventurer (7th November 1752 to 9th March 1754), Hawkesworth, Johnson, Bathurst, Warton, Chapone; JVorld (4th January 1753 to 30th December 1756), E. Moore, earl of Chesterfield, R. O. Cambridge, earl of Orford, Soame Jenyns, &c.; Connoisseur (31st January 1754 to 30th September 1756), Colman, Thornton, Warton, earl of Cork, &c.; Idler (15th April 1758 to 5th April 1760), Johnson, Sir J. Reynolds, and Bennet Langton; Bee (6th October 1759 to 24th November 1759), O. Goldsmith; Mirror (23d January 1779 to 27th May 1780), Mackenzie, Craig, Abercromby, Home, Bannatyne, &c.; Lounger, (5th February 1785 to 6th January 1787), Mackenzie, Craig, Abercromby, Tytler; Observer (1785 to 1790), Cumberland; Looker-on (10th March 1792 to 1st February 1794), W. Roberts, Beresford, Chalmers.

As from the “pamphlet of news” arose the weekly paper wholly devoted to the circulation of news, so from the general newspaper was specialized the weekly or monthly review of literature, antiquities, and science, which, when it included essay-papers, made up the magazine or miscellaneous repository of matter for information and amusement. Several monthly publications had come into existence since 1681, but perhaps the first germ of the magazine is to be found in the Gentleman’s Journal (1691-94) of Peter Motteux, which, besides the news of the month, contained miscellaneous prose and poetry. In 1722 Dr Samuel Jebb included antiquarian notices as well as literary reviews in his Bibliotheca Literaria (1722-24), but the Gentleman’s Magazine, founded in 1731, fully established, through the tact and energy of the publisher Edward Cave, the type of the magazine, from that time so marked a feature of English periodical literature. This magazine, so long a source of fortune to its successive owners, was vainly offered during four years to different publishers before Cave was able to start it himself. The first idea is due to Motteux, from whom the title, motto, and general plan were borrowed. The chief feature in the new venture at first consisted of the analysis of the journals, which Cave undertook personally. Prizes were offered for poetry. In April 1732 the leading metropolitan publishers, jealous of the interloper Cave, started the London Magazine, or Gentleman’s Monthly Intelligencer (1732-84), which had a long and prosperous career. The new magazine closely copied Cave’s title, plan, and aspect, and bitter war was long waged between the two. The rivalry was not without benefit to the literary public, as the conductors of each used every effort to improve their own review. Cave introduced the practice of giving engravings, maps, and portraits, but his greatest success was the addition of Johnson to the regular staff. This took place in 1738, when the latter wrote the preface to the volume for that year, observing that the magazine had “given rise to almost twenty imitations of it, which are either all dead or very little regarded.” The plan was also imitated in Denmark, Sweden, and Germany. Cave edited his magazine down to his death in 17 54, when it was continued by his brother-in-law David Henry, afterwards by John Nichols and his son. The specially antiquarian and historical features were dropped in 1868, and it was changed to a miscellany of light literature.

Many other magazines were produced in consequence of the success of these two. It will be sufficient to mention the folF τ ing. The Scots Magazine (1739-1817) was the first published in Scotland; from 1817 to 1826 it was styled the Edinburgh Magazine. The Universal Magazine (1747) had a short, if brilliant, career; but the European Magazine, founded by James Perry in 1782, lasted down to 1826. Of more importance than these, or than the Royal Magazine (1759-71), was the Monthly Magazine (1796- 1843), with which Priestley and Godwin were originally connected. During thirty years the Monthly was conducted by Sir Richard Phillips, under whom it became more statistical and scientific than literary. Class magazines were represented by the Edinburgh Farmer’s Magazine (1800-25) and the Philosophical Magazine (1798), established in London by Alexander Tilloch; the latter at first consisted chiefly of translations of scientific articles from the French. The following periodicals, all of which date from the 18th century, are still published :—the Gentleman’s Magazine (1731), the Gospel Magazine (1768), Wesleyan Methodist Magazine (1778), Curtis’s Botanical Magazine (1786), Evangelical Magazine (1793), Methodist New Connexion Magazine (1797), Philosophical Magazine (1798).

The increased influence of this class of periodical upon the public opinion of our own era was first apparent in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, founded in 1817 by the publisher of that name, and carried to a high degree of excellence by the contributions of Scott, Lockhart, Hogg, Maginn, Syme, and John Wilson, the editor. It is still issued, and has always remained Liberal in literature and Conservative in politics. The New Monthly Magazine is somewhat earlier in date. It was founded in 1814 by the London publisher Colburn, and was edited in turns by Campbell, Theodore Hook, Bulwer Lytton, and Ainsworth. Many of Carlyle’s and Thackeray’s pieces first appeared in Fraser’s Magazine (1830), long famous for its personalities and its gallery of literary portraits. The Metropolitan Magazine was started in opposition to Fraser, and was first edited by Campbell, who had left its rival. It subsequently came into the hands of Captain Marryatt, who printed in it many of his sea-tales. The British Magazine (1832-49) included religious and ecclesiastical information. From Ireland came the Dublin University Magazine (1833). The regular price of these magazines was half a crown; the first of the cheaper ones was Taù’s Edinburgh Magazine (1832-61) at a shilling. It was Radical in politics, and had Roebuck as one of its founders. Bentley’s Miscellany (1837-68) was exclusively devoted to novels, light literature, and travels. Several of Ainsworth’s romances, illustrated by Cruikshank, first saw the light in Bentley. The Nautical Magazine (1832) was addressed specially to sailors, and Colburn’s United Service Journal (1829) to both services. The Asiatic Journal (1816) dealt with Oriental subjects.

From 1815 to 1820 a number of low-priced and unwholesome periodicals flourished. The Mirror (1823-49), a twopenny illustrated magazine, begun by John Limbird, and the Mechanics Magazine (1823) were steps in a better direction. The political agitation of 1831 led to a further popular demand, and a supply of cheap and healthy serials for the reading multitude commenced with Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal (1832), the Penny Magazine (1832-45) of Charles Knight, issued under the patronage of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, and the Saturday Magazine (1832-44), begun by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. The first was published at l⅜d. and the last two at Id. Knight secured the best authors and artists of the day to write for and illustrate his magazine, which, though at first a commercial success, may have had the reason of its subsequent discontinuance in its literary excellence. At the end of 1832 it had reached a sale of 200,000 in weekly numbers and monthly parts. It came to an end in 1845 and was succeeded by Knight’s Penny Magazine (1845), which was stopped after six monthly parts. These periodicals were followed by a number of penny weeklies of a lower tone, such as the Family Herald (1843), the London Journal (1845), and Lloyds Miscellany; the two former are still thriving. In 1850 the sale of the first of them was placed at 175,000 copies, the second at 170,000, and Lloyds at 95,000. In 1846 fourteen penny and three halfpenny magazines, twelve social journals, and thirty-seven book-serials were produced every week in London. A further and permanent improvement in cheap weeklies for home reading may be traced from the foundation of Howitt’s Journal (1847-49), and more especially Household Words (1850), conducted by Charles Dickens, All the Year Round (1859), by the same editor, and afterwards by his son, Qnce a Week (1859), and the Leisure Hour (1852). The plan of Notes and Queries (1849), for the purpose of intercommunication among those interested in special points of literary and antiquarian character, has led to the adoption of similar departments in a great number of newspapers and periodicals, and, besides several imitators in England, there are now parallel journals in Holland, France, and Italy.

Recent shilling monthlies began with Macmillan (1859), the Cornhill (1860), and Temple Bar (1860). The Cornhill, first edited by Thackeray, was known for its specially literary tone down to 1883. St James’s Magazine (1861), Belgravia (1866), St Paul’s (1867-74), London Society (1862), and Tinsley’s (1867) are devoted chiefly to novels and light reading. The sixpenny illustrated magazines commenced with Good Words (1860) and the Quiver (1861), both religious in tendency. In 1882 Fraser changed its name to Longman’s Magazine, and was entirely popularized and reduced to sixpence. The Cornhill followed the same example in 1883, reducing its price to sixpence and devoting its pages to light reading. The English Illustrated Magazine (1883) was brought out in competition with the American Harper and Century. Of the artistic periodicals we may signalize the Art Journal (1849), long known for its line engravings, the Portfolio (1870), which has done much to popularize etching, and the Magazine of Art (1878).

The following statistics furnish an idea of the marvellous increase in the number of periodicals issued at different times during the last fifty years. In figures submitted to the House of Commons in 1864 Sir Edward Baines estimated the circulation of the monthly magazines in 1831 at no more than 125,000 copies; when he spoke the number had increased to 3,609,350. The weeklies might be reckoned in 1831 at about equal to the monthlies in circulation, and the miscellaneous serials at 120,000, amounting altogether to...