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We shall avail ourselves of the TRANSACTIONS of the different focieties establifhed for the diffemination of knowledge in ourown country; and shall select the most important papers from the memoirs of every foreign academy, and from the records of every univerfity in Europe.

Among the various fubjects of which we mean to treat will be included every fpecies of mechanical combinations, whether remarkable for their utility or ingenuity, effays on natural history, and interefting chemical and electrical experiments,

By our choice of fubjects, and by our mode of communicating them, we truft that our Philofophical Papers will appear an object of importance to men of fcience. At the fame time, it is our hope to render them, by their clearness fources of utility and entertainment to thofe who have been prevented from acquiring a deep infight into thefe fubjects by other neceffary avocations.

III. ASTRONOMY, MATHEMATICS, AND NAVIGATION. AFTER our papers on fubjects of Natural Philofophy, we fhall lay before out readers an accurate account of aftronomical and nautical difcoveries, with treatises on the various branches of the mathematics.

A wide field is thus opened, and though there feldom arifes a HERSCHELL. we hope to find matter to gratify the lovers of aftronomy. To improvements in navigation we will carefully attend, and the numerous admirers of mathema tical fubjects will find in our effays entertainment blended with inftruction,

In this department, as in the former, we shall enrich our work with extracts from foreign journals, as well as with accounts of the difcoveries recorded in England. We fhall felect the moft curious paffages from every valuable book on fcientific fubjects, for the entertainment of our readers. So that, in these two divifions of The London Magazine, the public will find a complete view of the prefent state of fcience in Europe.

IV. MATHEMATICAL QUESTIONS...

THE next department of our work will be allotted to Mathematical Queftions; in which ufeful fubjects will be preferred to thofe which are abftrufe.

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If any gentleman, who purfues thefe fubjects for pleasure or improvement, fhould favour us with anfwers, they will be inferted in a future number. To thefe correspondents clearness is recommended rather than difficulty.

If any question be tranfmitted to us, it must be accompanied with a refo lution. It will otherwife, in all probability, be rejected; as to refolve every queftion which might be fent would employ too much of our time, even if we poffeffed abilities equal to a task fo arduous. In this department, likewife, we fhall most fedulously endeavour to avoid errors, and fhall confider ingenuity, and neatnefs in compofition, as the strongest pleas that can be advanced in fa vour of any folution.

The utility of fuch a collection can hardly be difputed, and one of the firft mathematicians that this nation, or any other, has produced, afferts, that correfpondencies of this nature have" contributed more to the ftudy and improvement of the mathematics, than half the books which have been professedly written on the fubject."

V. MEDICINE.

THIS divifion of our work will be employed, only occafionally, when any re markable cafe in furgery, or any difcovery in medicine, offers itfelf for infertion.

We wish that our labours fhould prove really beneficial to the community. The health of the body, as well as the improvement of the mental faculties, fhall be confidered by us as an object of confequence.

VI. MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS.

IN this department it is our wish to gain the attention of every reader, and to admit the communications of every correfpondent, who difplays ingenuity in his compofitions, and writes on subjects that merit attention.

In the almost boundless variety of topics which crowd upon us in this divifion of our Magazine, we may particularize critical difquifitions, effays on points of tafte, lives of eminent men, biographical, literary, and entertaining anecdotes of diftinguished characters, improvements in agriculture, enquiries on fubjects of antiquity, a detail of modern difcoveries, and papers of amusement,

In thefe articles, which will be partly original, and partly felected from the works of celebrated authors in all languages, we fhall attend more minutely to grammatical correctnefs, and to the various ornaments of ftyle, than is ufually fuppofed to be neceffary in thofe compofitions which are prefented to the public, through the channel of a Magazine.

VII. POETRY.

IN the department allotted to Poetry, we do not promife a very plentiful harveft. It is our intention to raise our work in every refpect above mediocrity. We fhall, therefore, admit no poetical compofition into our collection which does not poffefs fome portion of merit;

"For middling poets, or degrees in wit,

"Nor men, nor gods, nor rubrick-pofts admit,"

as our English Terence has admirably translated the well known adage of Horace.

VIII. THE LITERARY REVIEW.

IN our work, an account of new publications will fill an important depart

ment.

The union of the three fpecies of criticism, which have been with great propriety intitled the Philofophical, the Historical or Explanatory, and the Corrective, feems to form the province of the reviewer.

In our account of Books we fhall endeavour to point out the principles upon which good writing depends: we fhall comment on the examples prefented to our view, and examine whether by their excellencies they confirm and illuftrate the rules of compofition, which the decifive confent of the learned has established through fucceffive ages; or whether their authors, by a deficiency in genius, tafte, or judgement, have infringed the critical canons. Laftly, we fhall think it incumbent on us, to point out, with a view to correction, the errors and inaccuracies which fometimes creep into the most polished writings. Of these three departments, the laft is infinitely the most disagreeable:

Hoc opus, hic labor eft!

This is the poft of drudgery; and unthankful is the employment, as well as laborious. In general, we shall not, in our articles, enter into minute details, and, in our choice of books, we shall felect those from the mafs of daily publications which are written on inftructive and amufing fubjects. Works of learning and taste, we fhall examine with care and attention, but fhall review no book merely because it is dull, or because it ferves to difplay our talents for ridicule, and our abilities for correction. But

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all works of an immoral tendency, and thofe which may contribute to a falfo tafte in compofition, we fhall treat with the afperity which they deserve.

Let it not, however, be expected, that we fhall retail fcandalous anecdotes, draw family pictures, or write the fecret hiftories of living authors. Our pages fhall never give pain to modeft genius, or trefpafs on the circle of domeftic happiness. We review the works of authors, and not their private conduct. We wish to cull flowers from every part of the gardens of literature and amufement, but it fhall be our endeavour to felect those only which are without thoms for the acceptance of our readers.

IX. THE ENGLISH THEATRE, AND REGISTER OF PUBLIC ENTERTAINMENTS.

AFTER our Literary Review, we fhall give a fummary account of the state of the theatres. In this department will be given a fhort account of every new theatrical performance, with the prologue, epilogue, fongs, and other appendages, interfperfed with occafional strictures on the merits of managers and per

formers.

We fhall fometimes alfo add a short view of the other public amusements, in the number and variety of which our metropolis exceeds, perhaps, every city in Europe.

X. MONTHLY CHRONOLOGY.

FOREIGN tranfactions and domeftic incidents fhould be related without biafs, and with the niceft accuracy. This is always expected, frequently promised, and feldom performed.

We fhall endeavour to avoid contradictions and falfe accounts; and fhall infert no relation of events which appears to want the fanction of autho rity, or to be diftorted by prejudice; and, in collecting and arranging thefe materials, we shall be lefs liable to mistakes than thofe from whofe accounts we draw them, as we shall avail ourselves of their own recantations.

We wish our Magazine to be confidered, not merely as a repofitory of the day, but as a faithful regifter of news, births, deaths, marriages, preferments, stocks, bankruptcies, &c. for the confultation and advantage of pofterity; and when viewed in this rational light, there will be found few books in any library of more real fervice and entertainment, than a series of The London Magazine.

The infertion of prints has, of late years, been confidered as forming a neceffary part of the plan of a Magazine. Such a cuftom is furely "more honoured in the breach, than the obfervance." We hope to prove ourselves fuperior to fuch paltry decorations. Should any fubject, however, appear of fufficient im portance to merit the notice of the publick, we intend to prefent our readers with an engraving, by the hand of a mafter, which shall reflect credit on our publication.

It now only remains for us to give a general invitation to correfpondents. We fhall be happy to allow a place to any ingenious compofition: we shall attend to hints for the improvement of our plan, and adopt them with gratitude, if worthy approbation.

Such are our defigns. Some of our departments are original, and peculiar to ourfelves. The public, however, will judge of the care and kill with which our plan has been formed, and will decide on the ability with which it shall be executed. Our fuccefs, we know, will depend upon our merit.

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PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY.

Tdith's motion, on the 21st, proHE divifion on Lord John Cavenduced the effect that was propofed by it. It forced the Earl of Shelburne from the helm; and his colleagues fhared his fate. The feals of office were not immediately refigned in form: but they were only held, for the purpofe of preventing an entire ceffation of public bufinefs, till a new adminiAtration fhould be formed. In the interval the struggles for power were directed with a violence that did little credit to the competitors. But there was fomething that gave the judicious and difintereffed part of the nation more difguft than the violence of competition. They faw fo much hypocrify under the difguife of patriotifm; fuch felfifhnefs in principle, fuch duplicity in conduct among the great leaders of the COALITION, that they grew fick of profeffions; and having difcovered fo many of the orators, whofe tongues dropped manna, to be falfe and hollow in fome things, were ready to fufpect that they were fo in all, and deserved, inftead of public confidence, public deteftation.

When Mr. Duncombe (the member for the county) prefented, on the 24th of February, the Yorkshire petition to the Houfe, for a more equal reprefentition in parliament, he bestowed fome high compliments on Mr. Pitt for the zeal he had manifefted in effecting a reform, and at the fame time cenfured, Lord North for a contrary difpofition; adding, that it would be with reluc fance that he fhould fupport an adminiftration of which that noble lord fhould form a part. This called up lordship's new friend Mr. Burke, who declared that Lord North had not said,

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but to any alteration in the conftitution that he was an enemy to reformation of this country. Sir William Stanhope expreffed his furprife at feeing Mr. Burke ftand up the advocate of a man whom he himself had more than once averred in that Houfe to be a very fit object for impeachment: yea, against whom he once went fo far as to declare that he had in his pocket an impeachment ready drawn, and that if the Houfe was prepared to execute it he was prepared to bring it forward. Mr. Duncombe faid that he had not expreffed himfelf fufficiently strong and decifive: inftead, therefore, of faying that he fhould reluctantly fupport an adminiftration that admitted Lord North to a fhare in it, that he would pofitively aver that he never would fupport it at all. He judged of the man by his measures; and concluded that the past were only fo many wretched earnests of the future.

The petition (together with another to the fame purport by the corporation of York, prefented by Sir Charles Turner) was brought up, read, and ordered to lie upon the table.

On February 28, Sir George Yonge (the Secretary at War) flated that 1,300,000l. having been already voted on eftimates for the extraordinaries of the army, there ftill remained 1,616,000l, This, he faid, was a confiderable fum; but he had the pleafure to inform the committee that it was lefs by 800,000l. than the effimates for the fame fervice in the year 1781. He moved for 1,616,000l. and the motion paffed the House without any debate.

The fame day the Chancellor of the Exchequer moved that the House should refolve itself into a Committee of Ways

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and Means, in which he further moved that a fum not exceeding one million fterling be raised on Exchequer bills to be redeemed out of the first aids granted to his Majefty for the year 1784. The motion paffed without oppofition. After the Houfe was fumed, the Chancellor of the Exchequer brought in his bill for abolishing certain finecure and patent places in the Cuftoms, and for making compenfation for thofe who might fuffer by the abolition of fuch places. Mr. Burke expreffed his difapprobation of the bill, but deferred oppofition to it till the fecond reading of it, when a debate on its merits would of course take place. He offered, however, one reafon that led him to dislike the reformation it pretended to effect. He thought it would deftroy thofe counterbalances which every state ought to have within itfelf against the preponderancy of any particular branch of government. An order was made for the printing of the bill, and that it should be read a fecond time on the Monday fortnight.

March 3d, The Secretary at War moved that estimates for the ordinary expences of the army fhould be referred to a Committee of Supply. Mr. David Hartley oppofed the motion as far as related to the estimates of the German troops; and infifted on dividing the Houfe in order to take the fenfe of the members. On a divifion Mr. Hartley found a majority of 175 againft him, and in favour of the original motion."

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year than there were the last year; but as four regiments had been lent by Ireland to England, and which were put on the English establishment, the faving would be for the prefent year of the pay of between five and fix thoufand

men.

The feveral refolutions refpecting the army eftimates were agreed to; but on the fecond reading of the refolutions on the following day (March 4) Sir P. J. Clerke expreffed diffatisfaction at the idea of putting officers of the American corps on the establishment. This (he faid) would give them, not only halfpay, but rank in the army, to the prejudice of many of our own officers who deferved well of the public; and poffibly we should foon hear of a MajorGeneral Simcoe, though that gentleman hath at prefent no rank in England.

The Houfe then went into a Committee of Supply, and the Secretary at War ftated the different defcriptions of corps in the army, and the fums neceffary for their fubfiftence for 121 days; but ftating the whole year's pay for the Germans (which Mr. Hartley, and nine other members difapproved of) dating for the whole army from the 24th of December laft. He faid the number, of men voted for the land-fervice laft year amounted to 186,220; but as the independent companies which had been ordered to be raised in 1780 had not been compleated, they had been taken off the establishment, by which reduction there would be fewer men by nine or ten thousand to provide for this

Mr. George Onflow oppofed the refolution which gave eftablishment and. rank to the Provincial corps, and divided the Houfe on a motion he made,, which was feconded by Sir Cecil Wray, for re-committing the refolution, when the numbers ftood, Ayes 37.. Noes 76.

March 5. The bill for fecuring to Ireland the exclufive right of legifla ture and judicature, after a light amendment propofed by Lord Beauchamp, was agreed to. By this bill England renounces all jurisdiction over Ireland for ever.

The next day Mr. Powys made his promifed motion refpecting the grant of penfions to the following effectthat "Whereas his Majefty hath from his paternal regard to the welfare of his people, and his defire to avoid impofing any new burthens on the public, been gracioufly pleafed to fupprefs the feveral offices mentioned in his Majefty's meffage to this Houfe in the last feffion of parliament, and has likewife. given his royal affent to an act for carrying the said most gracious defign into execution, and for regulating the granting of penfions, and preventing all exceffes therein; this House trufts that fome œconomical moderation, will. be adhered to in refpect to any penfion his Majefty may be advifed to grant

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