William Minto and Henry Austin Dobson

“ Addison was the chief contributor to the new venture, and the history of it belongs more to his life. Nevertheless, it is to be remarked as characteristic of the two writers that in this as in the Tatler Addison generally follows Steele's lead in the choice of subjects. The first suggestion of Sir Roger de Coverley was Steele's although it was Addison that filled in the outline of a good-natured country gentleman with the numerous little whimsicalities that convert Sir Roger into an amiable and exquisitely ridiculous provincial oddity. ”

“ There never was a time when literary talent was so much sought after and rewarded by statesmen. Addison had already been waited on in " his humble lodgings in the Haymarket," and advanced to office, when his friend the successful dramatist was appointed to the office of gazetteer. This was in April or May 1707. It was Steele's first connexion with journalism. The periodical was at that time taking the place of the pamphlet as an instrument for working on public opinion. ”

“ This sketch, in which Topham figures as Trim the sexton, and the author as Lorry Slim, gives an earnest of Sterne’s powers as a humorist. It was not published until after his death, when it appeared in 1769 under the title of A Political Romance, and afterwards the History of a Warm Watch-Coat. The first two volumes of Tristram Shandy were issued at York in 1759 and advertised in London on the 1st of January 1760, and at once made a sensation. York was scandalized at its clergyman’s indecency, and indignant at his caricature as “Slop” of a local physician (Dr John Burton) ”

“ It had a much shorter career, extending to only a hundred and seventy-six numbers, of which Steele wrote eighty-two. This was the last of his numerous periodicals in which he had the material assistance of Addison. But he continued for several years to project journals, under various titles, some of them political, some social in their objects, most of them very short-lived. Steele was a warm partisan of the principles of the Revolution, as earnest in his political as in his other convictions. ”

“ With the accession of the House of Hanover his fortunes changed. Honours and substantial rewards were showered upon him. He was made a justice of the peace, deputy-lieutenant of Middlesex, surveyor of the royal stables, governor, of the royal company of comedians—the last a lucrative post—and was also knighted (1715) . After the suppression of the Jacobite rebellion he was appointed one of the commissioners of forfeited estates, and spent some two years, in Scotland in that capacity. In 1718 he obtained a patent for a plan for bringing salmon alive from Ireland. ”