Excerpt from The Works of the Rev. Sydney Smith To appreciate the value of the Edinburgh Review, the state of Eu land at the pe riod when that journal began should be had in remembrance. The C olios were not emancipated - the Co ration and Test Acts were unrepealed - the Game horribly oppressiv tee] Traps and Springfiuns were set all over the country Prisonem tried for their Lives could have no Counsel - Lord Eldon and the Court of Chancery pressed heavily u on mankind - Libel was Eunisheti by the most cruel and vindictive inprisonmen e principles of Political conomy were little understood - the Law of Debt and of Cons iracy were upon the worst possible footing - tho enormous wickedness of the Slave rade was tolerated - a thousand evils were in exis tence, which the talents of good and able men have since lessened or removed; and these efi'ects have been not a little assisted by the honest boldness of the Edinburgh. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.