He described the course likely to be pursued, and the political ground occupied, by an aristocratic party in opposition, coquetting with popular principles for the sake of popular support.

He showed how this idea was realized in the conduct of the Whig party, and of the _Edinburgh Review_ as its chief literary organ.

He described, as their main characteristic, what he termed "seesaw"; writing alternately on both sides of the question which touched the power or interest of the governing classes; sometimes in different articles, sometimes in different parts of the same article: and illustrated his position by copious specimens.

So formidable an attack on the Whig party and policy had never before been made; nor had so great a blow ever been struck, in this country, for Radicalism; nor was there, I believe, any living person capable of writing that article except my father.[2] In the meantime the nascent _Review_ had formed a junction with another project, of a purely literary periodical, to be edited by Mr.Henry Southern, afterwards a diplomatist, then a literary man by profession.
The two editors agreed to unite their corps, and divide the editorship, Bowring taking the political, Southern the literary department.
Southern's Review was to have been published by Longman, and that firm, though part proprietors of the _Edinburgh_, were willing to be the publishers of the new journal.

But when all the arrangements had been made, and the prospectuses sent out, the Longmans saw my father's attack on the _Edinburgh_, and drew back.