in the same type. On February 3, 1812, Jefferson wrote to Ezra Sargeant, the printer: “ Observing that you edit the Edinburgh Review, re-printed in N. York, and presuming that your occupations in that line are not confined to that single work, I take the liberty of addressing the present letter to you . . . the correctness with which your edition of the Edinburgh Review is printed, and of the passages quoted in those languages [i.e. French, Spanish, Latin and Greek] induces me to propose to you the publication of the case I speak of . . .” [for this letter in full, see no. 3501]

Jefferson’s interest in Destutt de Tracy’s Commentary on Montesquieu [see no. 2327] caused him to try, without success, to have this book reviewed in the Edinburgh Review. In a letter to the Marquis de Lafayette concerning this work, dated from Monticello, May 17, 1816, he wrote: “ . . . with respect to the Commentary of Montesquieu there is a fact of some note. you are aware that the Edinburg review is considered as the ablest work of that kind which has ever been published. means were taken to place this work in the in the [ sic -- Ed. ] hand of the Editor. but while the work itself, & the principles of his Review permitted him to say nothing against it, it’s being an American publication was ground enough to avoid saying any thing in it’s favor. they have therefore not even mentioned it in their Monthly catalogue of new publication. such are the feelings of that country towards this . . . ”

The Edinburgh Review was a quarterly periodical established in Edinburgh in October 1802 by Francis Jeffrey, Henry Brougham and Sydney Smith. It was reprinted in Boston and in New York.