It was founded by Gilbert Stuart, who pursued an aggressive editorial line that eventually led to the magazine's demise.
Early advantages were negated by Stuart's tendency to pursue private vendettas against lawyers and other historians; William Smellie the printer struggled to contain him.
Stuart's slashing article on the Elements of Criticism by Lord Kames, was completely metamorphosed by Smellie.
[2] The climax was reached in an article by Stuart and A. Gillies, written over the protests of Smellie, on Lord Monboddo's Origin and Progress of Language.
It was scurrilous and abusive, ran through several numbers of the fifth volume, and caused the magazine to be stopped.