The Anti-Jacobin Review and Magazine, or, Monthly Political and Literary Censor (1798 to 1821), a conservative British political periodical, was founded by John Gifford

John Gifford

John Gifford was an English political writer. He was born John Richards Green until changing his name at the age of 23....

 [pseud. of John Richards Green] (1758–1818) after the demise of William Gifford

William Gifford

William Gifford was an English critic, editor and poet, famous as a satirist and controversialist.-Life:Gifford was born in Ashburton, Devonshire to Edward Gifford and Elizabeth Cain. His father, a glazier and house painter, had run away as a youth with vagabond Bampfylde Moore Carew, and he...

's The Anti-Jacobin, or, Weekly Examiner

Anti-Jacobin

The Anti-Jacobin, or, Weekly Examiner was a newspaper founded by George Canning in 1797. William Gifford was its editor. Its first issue was published on 20 November and during the parliamentary session of 1797–98 it was issued every Monday....

(1797–1798). Gifford and Andrew Bisset were the chief writers, and the political philosopher James Mill

James Mill

James Mill was a Scottish historian, economist, political theorist, and philosopher. He was a founder of classical economics, together with David Ricardo, and the father of influential philosopher of classical liberalism, John Stuart Mill.-Life:Mill was born at Northwater Bridge, in the parish of...

 wrote reviews. Described as "often scurrilous" and "ultra-Tory

Tory

Toryism is a traditionalist and conservative political philosophy which grew out of the Cavalier faction in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It is a prominent ideology in the politics of the United Kingdom, but also features in parts of The Commonwealth, particularly in Canada...

," the journal contained essays, reviews, and satirical engravings, notably by James Gillray

James Gillray

James Gillray , was a British caricaturist and printmaker famous for his etched political and social satires, mainly published between 1792 and 1810.- Early life :He was born in Chelsea...

. It grew out of the political ferment of the period and was a vocal element of the British Anti-Jacobin

Jacobin (politics)

A Jacobin , in the context of the French Revolution, was a member of the Jacobin Club, a revolutionary far-left political movement. The Jacobin Club was the most famous political club of the French Revolution. So called from the Dominican convent where they originally met, in the Rue St. Jacques ,...

 backlash against the ideals of the French Revolution

French Revolution

The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

.

Contributors included Robert Bisset (1758/9–1805), John Bowles

John Bowles (author)

John Bowles was an English barrister and author.He gained his bachelor of laws degree on 25 March 1779 from the University of Douai and the university licensed him on 11 May 1781. He wrote more than 33 pamphlets—16 on the British war against revolutionary France—between 1791 and 1817...

 (1751–1819), Arthur Cayley (1776–1848), George Gleig

George Gleig

George Gleig was a Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church.He was born at Boghall, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, the son of a farmer. At the age of thirteen he entered King's College, University of Aberdeen, where the first prize in mathematics and physical and moral sciences fell to him...

, Samuel Henshall (1764/5–1807), James Hurdis

James Hurdis

James Hurdis was a clergyman and a poet. He studied at St Mary Hall, Oxford and Magdalen College, Oxford, later becoming a Fellow of Magdalen College. He was the vicar for the West Sussex village of Burpham and it was there that he wrote The Village Curate...

, John Oxlee

John Oxlee

John Oxlee was an English philologist and writer on theology.-Biography:Oxlee, son of a well-to-do farmer in Yorkshire, was born at Guisborough in Cleveland, Yorkshire, on 25 September 1779, and was educated at Sunderland. After devoting himself to business for a short time he studied mathematics...

 (1779–1854), Richard Penn (1733/4–1811), Richard Polwhele

Richard Polwhele

Richard Polwhele was a Cornish clergyman, poet and topographer.-Biography:Born at Truro, Cornwall, Polwhele met literary luminaries Catharine Macaulay and Hannah More at an early age. He was educated at Truro Grammar School, where he precociously published The Fate of Llewellyn...

, John Skinner

John Skinner

John Skinner was a Scottish historian and song-writer.Born in Balfour, Aberdeenshire, he was a son of a schoolmaster at Birse, and was educated at Marischal College....

 (1744–1816), William Stevens (1732–1807), and John Whitaker

John Whitaker (historian)

John Whitaker B.D., F.S.A. , was an English historian and Anglican clergyman. Besides historical studies on the Roman Empire and on the early history of Great Britain he was a reviewer for London magazines and a poet.-Life:He was the son of James Whitaker, innkeeper, and was born in Manchester on...

(1735–1808), though as items were frequently published anonymously attributions are often unclear.

Resources

• Stephen, Leslie. “Gifford, John (1758–1818).” Rev. Adam I. P. Smith. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. 7 May 2007.
• Strachan, John. “Gifford, William (1756–1826).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. May 2006. 7 May 2007.

Further reading

• Andrews, Stuart. The British Periodical Press and the French Revolution, 1789–99. New York: Palgrave, 2000. ISBN 0-333-73851-9