_Quarterly_, I am deeply, both publicly and personally, interested, and
have taken a leading part with Mr. George Ellis, Hookham Frere, Walter
Scott, Rose, Southey, and some others; our object in that work being to
counteract the _virus_ scattered among His Majesty's subjects through
the pages of the _Edinburgh Review_. Now, I wish to enlist you in our
corps, not as a mere advising idler, but as an efficient labourer in our
friend Gifford's vineyard.'"

Mr. Barrow modestly expressed a doubt as to his competence, but in the
sequel, he tells us, Mr. Canning carried his point, and "I may add, once
for all, that what with Gifford's eager and urgent demands, and the
exercise becoming habitual and not disagreeable, I did not cease writing
for the _Quarterly Review_ till I had supplied no less, rather more,
than 190 articles."

The fourth number of the _Quarterly_, which was due in November, was not
published until the end of December 1809. Gifford's excuse was the want
of copy. He wrote to Mr. Murray: "We must, upon the publication of this
number, enter into some plan for ensuring regularity."

Although it appeared late, the fourth number was the best that had yet
been issued. It was more varied in its contents; containing articles by
Scott, Southey, Barrow, and Heber. But the most important article was
contributed by Robert Grant, on the "Character of the late C.J. Fox."
This was the first article in the _Quarterly_, according to Mr. Murray,
which excited general admiration, concerning which we find a memorandum
in Mr. Murray's own copy; and, what was an important test, it largely
increased the demand for the _Review_.