subjects which the plan will consistently exclude. It will invariably be remembered, that this new periodical must, if it fulfill its object, become the visitant of Families, the entertainer of the Gentle; that it is addressed not to Mothers only, but to Daughters. This recollection will ensure the observance of a fixed principle in the conduct of it, and forbid the introduction of many subjects, which, however fitted for illustration in a separate form, can have no place on this "more removed ground."
The general outline of the design with which this Magazine is commenced has been broadly marked out. Intentions are intimated, but no promise expressed. If a pledge were to be hazard at all, it might assuredly be given on behalf of George Cruikshank.
In securing the co-operation of this admirable artist, the strongest assurance is given, not only of unequalled excellence in tragic and humorous illustration, but of an anxious and thoughtful principle of responsibility in the exercise of that power. No work can need a surer guarantee than that which is conveyed in the association of an artist, who has passed an important portion of his life in satirizing and ridiculing human follies, without giving one moment's pain to a fellow-creature; who has faithfully delineated almost every diversity of character, without creating a single enemy. George Cruikshank, will be the illustrator of Ainsworth's Magazine.
This address opened in a certain formal style, balance its sentences, as introductory address will, in spite of the writer. The formality happily vanished as the statement proceeded. And now, having deprecated the formal style, it is time to do that which people general do with a bad habit—return to it. The address, therefore, terminates with a phrase that usually serves for the commencement of a prospectus: "It is an excellent saying of the younger Pliny"—that Ainsworth's Magazine not only surpassed all of its predecessors, but eclipsed all its contemporaries! The younger Pliny, if he said so, was, we hope, a prophet.
