The _Edinburgh Review_ was first published in 1802. The plan was
suggested by Sydney Smith, at a meeting of _literati_, in the fourth or
fifth flat or story, in Buccleugh-place, Edinburgh, then the elevated
lodging of Jeffrey. The motto humorously proposed for the new review by
its projector was, “_Tenui musam meditamur avena_,”--_i. e._, “We
cultivate literature upon a little oatmeal;” but this being too nearly
the truth to be publicly acknowledged, the more grave dictum of “_Judex
damnatur cum nocens absolvitur_” was adopted from _Publius Syrus_, of
whom, Sydney Smith affirms, “None of us, I am sure, ever read a single
line!” Lord Byron, in his fifth edition of _English Bards and Scotch
Reviewers_, refers to the reviewers as an “oat-fed phalanx.”