 Bonar was friendly to the article authors, however, and conceived the plan of paying them as well as the article reviewers, and of allowing them to retain copyright for separate publication of their work.The "Britannica" explicitly positioned itself as a conservative publication in reaction to the radical French "Encyclopédie" of Diderot published between 1751 and 1766.In the royal dedication penned on 10 December 1800, Dr. Gleig elaborated on the editorial purpose of the "Britannica"

The fourth edition was begun in 1800 and completed in 1810, comprising 20 volumes with 16,033 pages and 581 plates engraved by Andrew Bell.