ABSTRACT
First published in The Examiner, XII, 3 January 1819, pp. 1–2. Most scholars of the literature and politics of the Romantic era would concur with Hunt’s proclamation at the start of 1819: ‘This is the commencement . . . of one of the most important years that have been seen for a long while’ (below, p. 175). As Hunt foresaw, 1819 became the annus mirabilis for many English writers and the annus terribilis of the political world, to use the phrasing on the book jacket of James Chandler’s fittingly titled England in 1819 (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1998), the authoritative study of England’s literary and political culture in 1819. Shelley, fully sharing Hunt’s view that the year was big with change, memorably explained why in his sonnet titled ‘England in 1819’:
