Of Free Church and Scottish parentage, the North British assigned space to secular reviews and foreign as well as domestic newspapers.

1. [Moncrieff, James]. “Lord Jeffrey's Contributions to the Edinburgh Review.” 1 (1844): 252–84.

Construed Francis Jeffrey's articles in the Edinburgh as “parts of a great and gradually matured system of criticism” unlike those of others of its reviewers, among them T. B. Macaulay. Jeffrey was also effective as the Review 's editor. That position required being “a mark for every disappointed friend or foe to fling at – daily devoured by the petulance of authors – the jealousies and intolerable delays of contributors, and the grumblings of publishers.”

The goal of the Edinburgh was “to induce on the public mind habits of calm and just thinking, and a spirit of unprejudiced inquiry after truth and justice in politics.” It succeeded because of talented scribes who extended its influence without the severity often attributed to them. In other serials of the day, such as the New Monthly Magazine, there was too much information to notice good writing.

2. [Moncrieff, James]. “Recent Novels.” 1 (1844): 545–79.

Conceded that periodicals in 1844 had a “better tone” than before even though “a flood of nonsense, childishness, false morals, and infidelity…flows from this copious fountain.”

3. [Cunningham, William]. “The United States of North America.” 2 (1844–45): 136–74.

Announced that every small town in the United States had a newspaper, which everyone read. Large towns usually had two dailies, a respectable penny and disreputable halfpenny.