Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

B. S. Rintoul to W. Blackwood.
'THE SPECTATOR.' 513
159 Stband, July 7, 1828.
I have, in consequence of attempts to vulgarise and betwaddle
the ' Atlas '—contrary to our compact and to the line of con-
duct which gave that paper its literary character—withdrawn,
and all the literary contributors are with me. We have begun
the Spectator, also on the neutral ground in politics, but decided
in its criticisms. I have ordered you ten copies of the first
number. Help me to some publicity in the North. Tell your
London agent to send me the Magazine as heretofore. I should
say both the Magazines, for I owe you a notice of the Agricultural,—
" it is a debt of honour, and it must be paid " on the
appearance of No. 2. I decided on the ' Spectator ' too late to
get my Prospectus in last Magazine. I shall have a new
advertisement in time for the next. Perhaps Mr Cadell might
occasionally advertise a little in the 'Spec' on your account,
but our advertising space is to be very limited.
Six months later, the editor of the ' Spectator ' adds
an outline of its high aims and motives, which, though
the reader may be tempted to smile at a certain as-
sumption of superiority, and at the profound conviction
of the writer that the public had but to know in order
to recognise that superiority—have probably been as
nearly carried out as is permitted to man. Rintoul
himself had a bitter struggle, and died, we believe,
without achieving the success he hoped for : but his
successors have carried his forlorn standard to a point
at which—as is so rarely the case—this high ideal
appears not altogether unjustified ;
and have retained
a character, an honesty, and a personality far above
the level of the ordinary newspaper. Rintoul writes,
six months after the establishment of his paper, with
the thrill of that ideal in every word, and hopes which,
if fallacious, were never ignoble :
VOL. I.
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