Jerdan withdrew from the _Literary Gazette_ in 1850. The hopeless
struggle with the _Athenaeum_, involving a third reduction in price to
threepence, lasted until 1862, when the _Gazette_ was incorporated with
the _Parthenon_ and came to an end during the following year. Hervey
edited the _Athenaeum_ until 1853 when ill-health necessitated his
resignation. The later editors include William Hepworth Dixon, Norman
MacColl and at present Mr. Vernon Rendall. After the withdrawal of Dixon
in 1869 a reformation in the staff and management of the _Athenaeum_ took
place.

"Some old writers were parted with, and a great many fresh
contributors were found. While special departments, such as
science, art, music and the drama, were of necessity entrusted to
regular hands, indeed, the reviewing of books, now more than ever
the principal business of 'The Athenaeum,' was distributed over a
very large staff, the plan being to assign each work to a writer
familiar with its subject and competent to deal with it
intelligently, but rigidly to exclude personal favouritism or
prejudice, and to secure as much impartiality as possible. The rule
of anonymity has been more carefully observed in 'The Athenaeum'
than in most other papers. Its authority as a literary censor is
not lessened, however, and is in some respects increased, by the
fact that the paper itself, and not any particular critic of great
or small account, is responsible for the verdicts passed in its
columns." (Fox Bourne.)

Half a year after the inception of the _Athenaeum_, the first number of
the _Spectator_ was issued (July 6, 1828) by Robert Stephen Rintoul, an
experienced journalist who had launched the ill-fated semi-political
_Atlas_ two years before and therefore decided to confine his new
venture to literary and social topics. The political excitement of the
time soon aroused Rintoul's interest, and he undertook the advocacy of
the Reform Bill with all possible ardor. From him emanated the famous
battle-cry: "The Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the Bill." He
conducted the _Spectator_ with great skill until 1858, when he sold it
two months before his death. Although he wrote little for its pages,
Rintoul made the _Spectator_ a power in furthering all reforms. The
literary standard, while somewhat obscured for a time by its politics,
was high. In 1861 the _Spectator_ passed into the hands of