In April 1817 appeared the first number of Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine. There seems to be a general understanding among bibliographers that the first numbers were known as the “Edinburgh Monthly Magazine”. According to the old volumes themselves, however, only the second number, the issue for May 1817, went by this title, the initial number and all the rest bearing the heading, Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine.[21] Messrs. Pringle and Cleghorn were the first joint editors, it was probably through James Hogg, known to us as the Ettrick Shepherd, that Blackwood first met these two men. If either of them could boast any literary pretensions, it was the younger, Thomas Pringle. He was from Hogg’s country, and Blackwood thought he divined in him the making of just such another “rustic genius” as Hogg. Cleghorn, former editor of the Farmers’ Magazine, was evidently a stick! It is difficult to conceive how William Blackwood, with his gift of insight, could give over the conduct of his pet plans into the hands of such a pair. But if he made a mistake, he soon made amends. Of the business arrangements between Blackwood and the two editors little of definite nature is known, except that the three were to be co-partners. Blackwood sustained the expense of publishing and printing; Pringle and Cleghorn supplied the material;—and the profits were to be divided! The editors expected £50 apiece per month, which seems unusual, considering that the circulation never exceeded 2500. It looks suspiciously probable that the early numbers were maintained at real financial loss to the publisher. There is no mention of paying contributors till later years. Very likely at that time writers were still above remuneration! The Edinburgh Review had done much to remedy this attitude, but a complete cure was not effected for some years to come.
[21] See Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, V. i
The Prospectus of the infant journal is interesting. It was to be “A Repository of whatever may be supposed to be most interesting to general readers”.[22] One strong point was to be an antiquarian repository; too, it was to criticise articles in other periodicals; it was to contain a “Register” of domestic and foreign events. Among other aims, one was entertainment. It was to be a miscellany of the original works of authors and poets; and what endears it to modern hearts above all things else, it was to be an open door for struggling young writers. By virtue of the anonymous nature of its contributions, this was made possible with no lessening of authority. The signatures in the early numbers were intended to be perplexing, and perplexing they remain to this day. But probably struggling young writers met with less encouragement at the hands of Pringle and Cleghorn than was William Blackwood’s original intention. Those two never went out of the way to drum up new material, while William Blackwood was a man alert and ever on the watch for another Walter Scott.
[22] Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, V. i, p. 2
Several numbers passed along peacefully enough. As Mr. Lang puts it, “Nothing could be more blameless”. That was the trouble—it was too blameless! Blackwood might have forgiven a flagrant crime, but this negative and inoffensive monthly fell with a dull thud in comparison with his mounting expectations! He knew, none better, that a periodical of any appreciable merit must necessarily bring upon itself as much genuine censure as applause. Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine for April 1817 brought neither. The great day came for the first issue, evening followed, and Edinburgh went to bed unmoved. With his overwhelming desire and ambition to rival the Edinburgh Review and electrify Edinburgh city with a stimulating diet, it is not likely that he would observe with much composure the advent of this cherished scheme of his into the world, containing for its first long article[23] six pages of “Memoirs of the Late Francis Horner, Esq., M. P.”, one of Jeffrey’s own right hand men!—or in finding in the department of “Periodical Works”,[24] a statistical and more or less pleasant rehashment of the contents of the last Reviews. Francis Horner had ever been one of the mainstays of the Edinburgh; and though it was altogether fitting and proper that the death of an illustrious statesman should be commemorated, it is not likely that William Blackwood welcomed as the first article in the first number of his new magazine, a wholly unmitigated extolling of one whose past influence he hoped to erase. Though the publisher’s generous mind would be the last to begrudge him the due honor of such phrases as “highly gifted individual”, “eminent statesman”, and the like, it cannot be imagined that he rejoiced over the words “original and enlightened views”, “correct and elegant taste”, when it was his ardent purpose to prove the Edinburgh and its builders the opposite of enlightened, and the embodiment of poor taste and incompetent judgment!
[23] Ibid., V. i, p. 3
[24] Ibid., V. i, p. 81
This same first number contains seven pages of discourse on “The Sculpture of the Greeks”[25], and the relation of Greek art to the environment in which it grew up,—all very learned and interesting, to be sure. There is a brief article on the “Present State of the City of Venice”[26], condensed and unromantic enough to grace a Travellers’ Guide. If Messrs. Pringle and Cleghorn had been anyone else but Messrs. Pringle and Cleghorn, they might have indulged the public with a thrill or two on such a subject as the city of Venice; but never a thrill do we get from cover to cover! The article which follows is “on the Constitution and Moral Effects of Banks for the Savings of Industry”[27]; and there are others of similar tone: “Observations on the Culture of the Sugar Cane in the United States”[28], “The Craniological Controversy”[29], “The Proposed Establishment of a Foundling Hospital in Edinburgh”[30], and the like. One short article, “An Account of the American Steam Frigate”[31], is still of genuine interest, attributing the conception of the invention to a “most ingenious and enterprising citizen”, Robert Fulton, Esq. It describes with naive emphasis the successful trip “to the ocean, eastward of Sandy Hook, and back again, a distance of fifty-three miles, in eight hours and twenty minutes. A part of this time she had the tide against her, and had no assistance whatever from the sails.”[32] It is known that the signature Zeta was used in the early numbers, by more than one person; but “Remarks on Greek Tragedy”[33], a criticism of Aeschylus’ Prometheus, signed Zeta, Mr. Lang attributes without hesitation to Lockhart. “Tales and Anecdotes of Pastoral Life”[34] and “Notices Concerning the Scottish Gypsies”[35] were also among the “Original Communications”, as the first division of the magazine was called. The former is perhaps the one attempt in the whole number at that sprightly nimble manner which was Blackwood’s aim. The second is a long article of some sixteen pages, delving back into the early history of the Egyptian pilgrims, quoting copiously from “Guy Mannering”, and referring familiarly to Walter Scott, and Mr. Fairburn and James Hogg. Both of these articles were continued in several subsequent numbers.
[25] Ibid., V. i, p. 9
[26] Ibid., V. i, p. 16