PLAN of this WORK. T HE Editor, confulting no other character than what is indicated by the title, will not fcruple, in announcing his defign, to be more explicit and fincere, than might be expedient from an attention either to profit or fame. The following will be the objects of this publication. 1. To cultivate a general spirit of independence, free thinking, free speaking and free writing, in all matters ecclefiaftical as well as civil; perfonal and public; philological and philosophical; grave and comical; in verse as well as profe. 2. To take advantage of the decifion of the Courts of Law which has destroyed the mercenary monopolies of Bookfellers, by confining Literary Property to the fecurity which it has fufficiently obtained from acts of Parliament, and upon occafion to give whole works to the Public at the reasonable price they ought to bear. As other objects are meant to be attended to in this work than a captivation of the eye with the ornaments of a Print, under pretence of which the price of ordinary compilations is greatly raised (not that it is determined to reject intirely the affiftance of the engraver's art) but especially as profit is leaft of all the object of the editor, though among the publications of the month a specimen of the Letter-prefs and Paper may be pointed out, this publication will be as little exampled in price as in the choice of matter. Upon a calculation Counsellor Rous's uncandid Inveftigation of the prefent prevailing Topic, now fold by the notorious Stockdale for One Shilling, if republifhed here, as it undoubtedly will not be, would then be delivered to the Public at its real value---one half-penny. 3. Although political pamphlets may frequently make their re-appearance, yet a place will be given to what is scarce and curious in print of every nature. 4. The fugitive effays, letters and verses in the Chronicles of the day, or the Magazines of the month, and even of preceding periods, may poffibly obtain a concentration of their volatility and a filtration from the dregs of nonsense with which they are invariably mixed. 5. Proceedings in Parliament and the Courts of Juftice will be watched and commented upon. 6. Vulgar Errors of all forts will be attacked and exposed, but more efpecially that most abfurd of all pofitions, that the Law of the Land is the perfection of human Reason. The Law of the Land is indeed little underftood, and like other fubjects, as little understood, is thereby frequently held up as an object of veneration. The mist of ignorance being dispelled, worship will cease of course; I wish amendment may as readily follow. 7. The king and fenate being men of whom the People of England are above all concerned to have true notions, their characters will be individually and freely defcribed. 8. The Pulpit will be another object of attention; neither will those prefuming Reverend Captains of the Church triumphant here on earth be permitted any longer to retail their weekly infults to good fenfe, without animadverfion, though they may ftill glory in the fecurity of not being contradicted on their own Mountebank ftages. A Party of men of Letters, whofe nerves as well as heads are good, and who are therefore not to be frightened by the Bugbear of any Religion; will be commiflioned to patrole from Church to Church on the Parfon's (vulgarly called the Lord's) day, to watch, reprehend and annihilate the falfe confequence of thefe tranfmundane Empirics; and by causing the Theatre in which they fhall be brought to fpeak, to be better proportioned to the extent of matters into which they launch, effect, by the space that is given, the evaporation of that importance which which they affumingly acquire in a circle of their own circumfcription. This part of the Plan is, at least, intirely new. 9. Not to be prolix; it is by publishing what others dare not publish, and by speaking out painiy of perfons and things, without any mean or fuperftitious veneration for names or notions, that the Editor hopes to juftify the title of an Intrepid Magazine; to eftablish his claim to intrepidity and to rescue from contempt the latter term, comprehenfive in the force of the expreffion, but too long proftituted to mercenary and infignificant purposes. Although the Editor will not promise to confult any other judgement than his own, as to the Pieces which shall be admitted into this publication, he will pay every due attention less than that promife, to the correfpondences with which he may be favoured by an address to the Bookfeller. It will foon be needlefs to mention upon what principles of writing fuch communications can become acceptable. Of the political tenets at least of the Editor no donbt shall be entertained; by name of party he is a Whig ; in abstract sentiments a Republican; and as to the distinctions of the day between men and men, he is a moft determined Foxite; upon grounds of reafoning not of perfonal affection; he is unacquainted with Mr. Fox as well as Mr. Pitt, and enough has been given of the Plan to fhew that the. work is not defigned to ferve the perfonal cause of either. Truth is the only Regent, and Liberty the only Minifter acknowledged in this Publication. It will be endeavoured to make the appearance of this work statedly periodical, but as the Editor is not a fuppliant to the Public, nor in search of a regular return of gain, and has only his own leisure and his own inclination to confult, the defigned periods are at present uncertain and may be unequal. The bulk may vary alfo as well as the time of publication; it is almoft needlefs to add, that the price in such case of variety will accordingly vary. CON |