(Page 352).
On the passage in the text Macaulay in his Review of Croker's Edition ofBoswell's Life of Johnsonpartly founds the following criticism:—
'Johnson's visit to the Hebrides introduced him to a state of society completely new to him; and a salutary suspicion of his own deficiencies seems on that occasion to have crossed his mind for the first time. He confessed, in the last paragraph of hisJourney, that his thoughts on national manners were the thoughts of one who had seen but little, of one who had passed his time almost wholly in cities. This feeling, however, soon passed away. It is remarkable that to the last he entertained a fixed contempt for all those modes of life and those studies which tend to emancipate the mind from the prejudices of a particular age or a particular nation. Of foreign travel and of history he spoke with the fierce and boisterous contempt of ignorance. "What does a man learn by travelling? Is Beauclerk the better for travelling? What did Lord Charlemont learn in his travels, except that there was a snake in one of the pyramids of Egypt?"' Macaulay'sEssays, ed. 1843, i. 403.
In another passage (p. 400) Macaulay says:—
'Johnson was no master of the great science of human nature. He had studied, not the genus man, but the species Londoner. Nobody was ever so thoroughly conversant with all the forms of life and all the shades of moral and intellectual character which were to be seen from Islington to the Thames, and from Hyde-Park corner to Mile-end green. But his philosophy stopped at the first turnpike-gate. Of the rural life of England he knew nothing, and he took it for granted that everybody who lived in the country was either stupid or miserable.'
Of the two assertions that Macaulay makes in these two passages, while one is for the most part true, the other is utterly and grossly false. Johnson had no contempt for foreign travel. That curiosity which animated his eager mind in so many parts of learning did not fail him, when his thoughts turned to the great world outside our narrow seas. It was his poverty that confined him so long to the neighbourhood of Temple Bar. He must in these early days have sometimes felt with Arviragus when he says:—
'What should we speak ofWhen we are old as you? when we shall hearThe rain and wind beat dark December, howIn this our pinching cave, shall we discourseThe freezing hours away? We have seen nothing.'
With his pension his wanderings at once began. His friendship with the Thrales gave them a still wider range. His curiosity, which in itself was always eager, was checked in his more prosperous circumstances by his years, his natural unwillingness at any one moment to make an effort, and by the want of travelling companions who were animated by a spirit of inquiry and of enterprise equal to his own. He did indeed travel much more than is commonly thought, and was far less frequently to be seen rolling along Fleet-street or stemming the full tide of human existence at Charing Cross than his biographers would have us believe.
The following table, imperfect though it must necessarily be, shows how large a part of his life he passed outside 'the first turnpike-gate,' and beyond the smoke of London:—
1709-1736. The first twenty-seven years of his life he spent in small country towns or villages—Lichfield, Stourbridge, Oxford, Market-Bosworth, Birmingham. So late as 1781 Lichfield did not contain 4,000 inhabitants (Harwood'sHistory of Lichfield, p. 380); eight years later it was reckoned that a little over 8,000 people dwelt in Oxford (Parker'sEarly History of Oxford, ed. 1885, p. 229). In 1732 or 1733 Birmingham, when Johnson first went to live there, had not, I suppose, a population of 10,000. Its growth was wonderfully rapid. Between 1770 and 1797 its inhabitants increased from 30,000 to nearly 80,000 (Birmingham Directory for1780, p. xx, andA Brief History of Birmingham, p. 8).
1736-7. The first eighteen months of his married life he lived quite in the country at Edial, two miles from Lichfield.Ante, i. 97.
1737. He was twenty-eight years old when he removed to London.Ante, i. 110.
1739. He paid a visit to Appleby in Leicestershire and to Ashbourn.Ante, i. 82, 133 note 1.
1754. Oxford. July and August, about five weeks.Ante, i. 270, note 5.
1759. Oxford. July, length of visit not mentioned.Ante, i. 347.
1761-2. Lichfield. Winter, a visit of five days.Ante, i. 370.
1762. In the summer of this year his pension was granted, and he henceforth had the means of travelling.Ante, i. 372.
A trip to Devonshire, from Aug. 16 to Sept. 26; six weeks.Ante, i. 377.
Oxford. December. 'I am going for a few days or weeks to Oxford.' Letter of Dec. 21, 1762. Croker'sBoswell, p. 129.
1763. Harwich. August, a few days.Ante, i. 464.
Oxford. October, length of visit not mentioned. A letter dated Oxford,Oct. 27 [1763]. Croker'sBoswell, p. 161.
1764. Langton in Lincolnshire, part of January and February.Ante, i. 476.
Easton Maudit in Northamptonshire, part of June, July, and August.Croker'sBoswell, p. 166, note, andante, i. 486.
Oxford, October. Letter to Mr. Strahan dated Oxford, Oct. 24, 1764.Post, Addendato vol. v.
Either this year or the next Johnson made the acquaintance of the Thrales. For the next seventeen years he had 'an apartment appropriated to him in the Thrales' villa at Streatham' (ante, i. 493), a handsome house that stood in a small park. Streatham was a quiet country-village, separated by wide commons from London, on one of which a highwayman had been hanged who had there robbed Mr. Thrale (ante, iii. 239, note 2). According to Mrs. Piozzi Johnson commonly spent the middle of the week at their house, coming on the Monday night and returning to his own home on the Saturday (post, iv. 169, note 3). Miss Burney, in 1778, describes him 'as living almost wholly at Streatham' (ante, i. 493, note 3). No doubt she was speaking chiefly of the summer half of the year, for in the winter time the Thrales would be often in their town house, where he also had his apartment. Mr. Strahan complained of his being at Streatham 'in a great measure absorbed from the society of his old friends' (ante, iii. 225). He used to call it 'myhome' (ante, i. 493, note 3).
1765. Cambridge, early in the year; a short visit.Ante, i. 487.
Brighton, autumn; a short visit. Piozzi'sAnec. p. 126, andPiozziLetters, i. 1.
1766. Streatham, summer and autumn; more than three months. Ante, ii. 25, andPr. and Med. p. 71.
Oxford, autumn; a month.Ante, ii. 25.
1767. Lichfield, summer and autumn; 'near six months.'Ante, ii. 30, andPiozzi Letters, i. 4, 5.
1768. Oxford, spring; several weeks.Piozzi Letters, i. 6-15.
Townmalling in Kent, September; apparently a short visit.Pr. and Med. p. 81.
1769. Oxford, from at least May 18 to July 7.Piozzi Letters, i. 19-23, andante, ii. 67.
Lichfield and Ashbourn, August; a short visit.Piozzi Letters, i. 24, andante, ii. 67.
Brighton, part of August and September; some weeks.Ante, ii. 68, 70, and Croker'sBoswell, p. 198, letter dated 'Brighthelmstone. August 26, 1769.'
1770. Lichfield and Ashbourn, apparently whole of July.Piozzi Letters, i. 26-32.
1771. Lichfield and Ashbourn, from June 20 to after Aug. 5.Ante, ii. 141, 142, andPiozzi Letters, i. 36-54.
1772. Lichfield and Ashbourn, from about Oct. 15 to early in December.Piozzi Letters, i. 55-69.
1773. Oxford, April; a hurried visit.Ante, ii. 235, note 2.
Tour to Scotland from Aug. 6 to Nov. 26.Ante, ii. 265, 268.
Oxford, part of November and December.Ante, ii. 268.
1774. Tour to North Wales (Derbyshire, Chester, Conway, Anglesey, Snowdon, Shrewsbury, Worcester, Birmingham, Oxford, Beaconsfield) from July 5 to Sept. 30.Ante, ii. 285, andpost, v. 427.
1775. Oxford, March; a short visit.Piozzi Letters, i. 212.
Oxford, Lichfield, Ashbourn, from end of May till some time in August.Ante, ii. 381, andPiozzi Letters, i. 223-301.
Brighton; apparently a brief visit in September. Croker'sBoswell, p. 459.
A tour to Paris (going by Calais and Rouen and returning by Compiegne, St. Quintin, and Calais), from Sept. 15 to Nov. 12.Ante, ii. 384, 401.
1776. Oxford, Lichfield, Ashbourn, March 19-29. (The trip was cut short by young Thrale's death.)Ante, ii. 438, and iii. 4.
Bath, from the middle of April to the beginning of May.Ante, iii. 44, 51.
Brighton, part of September and October; full seven weeks.Ante, iii. 92.
1777. Oxford, Lichfield, and Ashbourn, from about July 28 to about Nov. 6.Ante, iii. 129, 210, andPiozzi Letters, i. 348-396 and ii. 1-16 (the letter of Oct. 3, i. 396, is wrongly dated, as is shown by the mention of Foote's death).
Brighton, November; a visit of three days.Ante, iii. 210.
1778. Warley Camp, in Essex, September; about a week.Ante, iii. 360.
1779. Lichfield, Ashbourn, from May 20 to end of June.Ante, iii. 395, andPiozzi Letters, ii. 44-55.
Epsom, September; a few days.Pr. and Med. pp. 181, 225.
1780. Brighton. October. MS. letter dated Oct. 26, 1780 to Mr. Nichols in the British Museum.
1781. Oxford, Birmingham, Lichfield, Ashbourn, from Oct. 15 to Dec. 11.Post, iv. 135, and Croker'sBoswell, p. 699, note 5.
1782. Oxford, June; about ten days.Post, iv. 151, andPiozzi Letters, ii. 243-249.
Brighton, part of October and November.Post, iv. 159.
1783. Rochester, July; about a fortnight.Post, iv. 233.
Heale near Salisbury, part of August and September; three weeks.Post, iv. 233, 239.
1784. Oxford, June; a fortnight.Post, iv. 283, 311.
Lichfield, Ashbourn, Oxford, from July 13 to Nov. 16.Post, iv. 353, 377.
That he was always eager to see the world is shown by many a passage in his writings and by the testimony of his biographers. How Macaulay, who knew hisBoswellso well, could have accused him of 'speaking of foreign travel with the fierce and boisterous contempt of ignorance' would be a puzzle indeed, did we not know how often this great rhetorician was by the stream of his own mighty rhetoric swept far away from the unadorned strand of naked truth. To his unjust and insulting attack I shall content myself with opposing the following extracts which with some trouble I have collected:—
1728 or 1729. Johnson in his undergraduate days was one day overheard saying:—
'I have a mind to see what is done in other places of learning. I'll go and visit the Universities abroad. I'll go to France and Italy. I'll go to Padua.'Ante, i. 73.
1734. 'A generous and elevated mind is distinguished by nothing more certainly than an eminent degree of curiosity, nor is that curiosity ever more agreeably or usefully employed than in examining the laws and customs of foreign nations.'Ante, i. 89.
1751. 'Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristicks of a vigorous intellect.'Rambler, No. 103. 'Curiosity is in great and generous minds the first passion and the last; and perhaps always predominates in proportion to the strength of the contemplative faculties.'Ib. No. 150.
1752. Francis Barber, describing Johnson's friends in 1752, says:—
'There was a talk of his going to Iceland with Mr. Diamond, which would probably have happened had he lived.'Ante, i. 242. Johnson, in a letter to the wife of the poet Smart, says, 'we have often talked of a voyage to Iceland.'Post, iv. 359 note. Mrs. Thrale wrote to him when he was in the Hebrides in 1773:—'Well! 'tis better talk of Iceland. Gregory challenges you for an Iceland expedition; but I trust there is no need; I suppose good eyes might reach it from some of the places you have been in.'Piozzi Letters, i. 188.
1761. Johnson wrote to Baretti:—
'I wish you had staid longer in Spain, for no country is less known to the rest of Europe.'Ante, i. 365. He twice recommended Boswell to perambulate Spain.Ante, i. 410, 455.
1763. 'Dr. Johnson flattered me (Boswell) with some hopes that he would, in the course of the following summer, come over to Holland, and accompany me in a tour through the Netherlands.'Ante, i. 470.
1772. He said that he had had some desire, though he soon laid it aside, to go on an expedition round the world with Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander.Ante, ii. 147.
1773. 'Dr. Johnson and I talked of going to Sweden.' Boswell'sHebrides,post, v. 215.
On Sept. 9, 1777, Boswell wrote to Johnson:—
'I shrink a little from our scheme of going up the Baltick: I am sorry you have already been in Wales; for I wish to see it.'Ante, iii. 134. Four days later Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale:—'Boswell shrinks from the Baltick expedition, which, I think, is the best scheme in our power: what we shall substitute I know not. He wants to see Wales; but except the woods of Bachycraigh (post, v. 436), what is there in Wales, that can fill the hunger of ignorance, or quench the thirst of curiosity? We may, perhaps, form some scheme or other; but in the phrase ofHockley in the Hole, it is a pity he has not abetter bottom.'Ib. note 1.
Boswell writes:—
'Martin's account of the Hebrides had impressed us with a notion that we might there contemplate a system of life almost totally different from what we had been accustomed to see…. Dr. Johnson told me that his father put Martin's account into his hands when he was very young, and that he was much pleased with it.'Post, v. 13.
From the Hebrides Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale:—
'I have a desire to instruct myself in the whole system of pastoral life; but I know not whether I shall be able to perfect the idea. However, I have many pictures in my mind, which I could not have had without this journey; and should have passed it with great pleasure had you, and Master, and Queeney been in the party. We should have excited the attention and enlarged the observation of each other, and obtained many pleasing topicks of future conversation.'Piozzi Letters, i. 159. 'We travelled with very little light in a storm of wind and rain; we passed about fifty-five streams that crossed our way, and fell into a river that, for a very great part of our road, foamed and roared beside us; all the rougher powers of nature except thunder were in motion, but there was no danger. I should have been sorry to have missed any of the inconveniencies, to have had more light or less rain, for their co-operation crowded the scene and filled the mind.'Ib. p. 177.
Seepost, v. 334 for the splendid passage in which, describing the emotions raised in his mind by the sight of Iona, he says:—
'Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses, whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings…. That man is little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plains of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona.'
Macaulay seems to have had the echo of these lines still in his ear, when he described imagination as 'that noble faculty whereby man is able to live in the past and in the future, in the distant and in the unreal.'Essays, ed. 1853, iii. 167.
1774. When he saw some copper and iron works in Wales he wrote:—
'I have enlarged my notions.'Post, v. 442. See alsoante, iii. 164.
His letter to Warren Hastings shows his curiosity about India.Ante,iv. 68.
1775. The Thrales had just received a sum of £14,000. Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale:—
'If I had money enough, what would I do? Perhaps, if you and master did not hold me, I might go to Cairo, and down the Red Sea to Bengal, and take a ramble to India. Would this be better than building and planting? It would surely give more variety to the eye, and more amplitude to the mind. Half fourteen thousand would send me out to see other forms of existence, and bring me back to describe them.'Piozzi Letters, i. 266.
'Regions mountainous and wild, thinly inhabited and little cultivated, make a great part of the earth, and he that has never seen them must live unacquainted with much of the face of nature, and with one of the great scenes of human existence.' Johnson'sWorks, ix. 36. 'All travel has its advantages. If the traveller visits better countries he may learn to improve his own; and if fortune carries him to worse he may learn to enjoy it.'Ib. p. 136.
To Dr. Taylor he wrote:—
'I came back last Tuesday from France. Is not mine a kind of life turned upside down? Fixed to a spot when I was young, and roving the world when others are contriving to sit still, I am wholly unsettled. I am a kind of ship with a wide sail, and without an anchor.'Ante, ii. 387, note 2.
1776. In the spring of this year everything was settled for his journey to Italy with the Thrales. Hannah More wrote (Memoirs, i. 74):—
'Johnson and Mr. Boswell have this day set out for Oxford, Lichfield, &c., that the Doctor may take leave of all his old friends previous to his great expedition across the Alps. I lament his undertaking such a journey at his time of life, with beginning infirmities. I hope he will not leave his bones on classic grounds.'
Boswell tells how—
'Speaking with a tone of animation Johnson said, "We must, to be sure, see Rome, Naples, Florence, and Venice, and as much more as we can."'Ante, iii. 19.
When the journey was put off by the sudden death of Mr. Thrale's son,Boswell wrote:—
'I perceived that he had so warmly cherished the hope of enjoying classical scenes, that he could not easily part with the scheme; for he said, "I shall probably contrive to get to Italy some other way."'Ib. p. 28.
A day later Boswell wrote:—
'A journey to Italy was still in his thoughts. He said, "A man who has not been in Italy is always conscious of an inferiority, from his not having seen what it is expected a man should see. The grand object of travelling is to see the shores of the Mediterranean."'Ib. p. 36. 'Johnson's desire to go abroad, particularly to see Italy, was very great; and he had a longing wish, too, to leave some Latin verses at the Grand Chartreux. He loved indeed the very act of travelling…. He was in some respects an admirable companion on the road, as he piqued himself upon feeling no inconvenience, and on despising no accommodations.' Piozzi'sAnec. p. 168.
Johnson, this same year, speaking of a friend who had gone to the EastIndies, said:—
'I had some intention of accompanying him. Had I thought then as I do now, I should have gone.'Ante, iii. 20. According to Mr. Tyers he once offered to attend another friend to India. Moreover 'he talked much of travelling into Poland to observe the life of the Palatines, the account of which struck his curiosity very much.'Johnsoniana, ed. 1836, p. 157.
1777. Boswell wrote to Johnson this year (ante, iii. 107):—
'You have, I believe, seen all the cathedrals in England except that ofCarlisle.'
This was not the case, yet most of them he had already seen or lived to see. With Lichfield, Oxford, and London he was familiar. Winchester and Exeter he had seen in 1762 on his tour to Devonshire (ante, i. 377), Peterborough, Ely, Lincoln, York, and Durham he no doubt saw in 1773 on his way to Scotland. The first three he might also have seen in 1764 on his visit to Langton (ante, i. 476). Chester, St. Asaph, Bangor, and Worcester he visited in 1774 in his journey to Wales (post, v. 435, 436, 448, 456). Through Canterbury he almost certainly passed in 1775 on his way to France (ante, ii. 384). Bristol he saw in 1776 (ante, iii. 51). To Chichester he drove from Brighton in 1782 (post, iv. 160). Rochester and Salisbury he visited in the summer of 1783 (post, iv. 233). Wells he might easily have seen when he was at Bath in 1776 (ante, iii. 44), and possibly Gloucester. Through Norwich he perhaps came on his return from Lincolnshire in 1764 (ante, i. 476). Hereford, I think, he could not have visited.
When in the September of this year Johnson and Boswell were driving in Dr. Taylor's chaise to Derby, 'Johnson strongly expressed his love of driving fast in a post-chaise. "If," said he, "I had no duties, and no reference to futurity, I would spend my life in driving briskly in a post-chaise with a pretty woman; but she should be one who could understand me, and would add something to the conversation"' (ante, iii. 162). He had previously said (ante, ii. 453), as he was driven rapidly along in a post-chaise, 'Life has not many things better than this.'
1778. Boswell wrote to Johnson:—
'My wife is so different from you and me that she dislikes travelling.'Ante, iii. 219.
Later on in the year Boswell records:—
'Dr. Johnson expressed a particular enthusiasm with respect to visiting the wall of China. I catched it for the moment, and said I really believed I should go and see the wall of China had I not children, of whom it was my duty to take care. "Sir, (said he,) by doing so you would do what would be of importance in raising your children to eminence. There would be a lustre reflected upon them from your spirit and curiosity. They would be at all times regarded as the children of a man who had gone to view the wall of China. I am serious, Sir."'Ante, iii. 269.
1780. In August he wrote to Boswell:—
'I know not whether I shall get a ramble this summer…. I hope you and I may yet shew ourselves on some part of Europe, Asia, or Africa.'Ante, iii. 435.
In the same year Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale:—
'I hope you have no design of stealing away to Italy before the election, nor of leaving me behind you; though I am not only seventy, but seventy-one.'Piozzi Letters, ii. 177.
On Oct. 17 he wrote:—
'The summer has been foolishly lost, like many other of my summers and winters. I hardly saw a green field, but staid in town to work, without working much.'Ante, iii. 441.
1784. Johnson's wish to go to Italy in the last year of his life was caused by the hope that it might be good for his health. 'I do not,' he wrote, 'travel for pleasure or curiosity; yet if I should recover,' he added, 'curiosity would revive.'Post, iv. 348.
Mrs. Piozzi, without however giving the year, records:—
'Dr. Johnson was very angry with a gentleman at our house for not being better company, and urged that he had travelled into Bohemia and seen Prague. "Surely," added he, "the man who has seen Prague might tell us something new and something strange, and not sit silent for want of matter to put his lips in motion."' Piozzi'sJourney, ii. 317.
All these passages shew, what indeed is evident enough from the text, that it was not travelling in general but travelling between the ages of nineteen and twenty-four, with a character unformed, a memory unstored, and a judgment untrained, that Johnson attacked. It was a common habit in his day to send young men of fortune to make the tour of Europe, as it was called, at an age when they would now be sent to either Oxford or Cambridge. Lord Charlemont was but eighteen when he left England. Locke, at the end of his work onEducation, said in 1692 much the same as Johnson said in 1778.
'The ordinary time of travel,' he wrote, 'is from sixteen to one and twenty.' He would send any one either at a younger age than sixteen under a tutor, or at an older age than twenty-one without a tutor; 'when he is of age to govern himself, and make observations of what he finds in other countries worthy his notice … and when, too, being thoroughly acquainted with the laws and fashions, the natural and moral advantages and defects of his own country, he has something to exchange with those abroad, from whose conversation he hoped to reap any knowledge.'
Goldsmith, in hisPresent State of Polite Learning, ch. xiii, wrote in 1759:—
'We see more of the world by travel, but more of human nature by remaining at home…. A youth just landed at the Brille resembles a clown at a puppet-show; carries his amazement from one miracle to another; from this cabinet of curiosities to that collection of pictures; but wondering is not the way to grow wise…. The greatest advantages which result to youth from travel are an easy address, the shaking off national prejudices, and the finding nothing ridiculous in national peculiarities. The time spent in these acquisitions could have been more usefully employed at home.' Gibbon (Misc. Works, i. 197) says that 'the previous and indispensable requisites of foreign travel are age, judgment, a competent knowledge of men and books, and a freedom from domestic prejudices.'
When he was only eighteen years old he saw the evils of early travelling:—
'I never liked young travellers; they go too raw to make any great remarks, and they lose a time which is (in my opinion) the most precious part of a man's life.'Ib. p. 98.
Cowper, in hisProgress of Error(ed. 1782, i. 60), describes how—
'His stock, a few French phrases got by heart,With much to learn and nothing to impart,The youth obedient to his sire's commands,Sets off a wanderer into foreign lands.
* * * * *
Returning he proclaims by many a grace,By shrugs and strange contortions of his face,How much a dunce that has been sent to roamExcels a dunce that has been kept at home.'
(Page356.)
In the years 1751-2-3, the Lord Mayor was not appointed by rotation; Sir G. Champion, the senior Alderman, being accused of a leaning towards Spain. From 1754 to 1765 (inclusive) if there was in any year a contest, yet in each case the senior Alderman nominated was chosen. From 1766 to 1775 (inclusive) there was in every year a departure from the order of seniority. In 1776-8 the order of seniority was again observed; so that two years before Johnson made his remark the irregularity had come to an end. This information I owe to the kindness of Mr. Scott, the excellent Chamberlain of the City. Sir George Champion had been passed over in the year 1739 also. In an address to the Liverymen he says that 'the disorders and great disturbance to the peace of the city, which in former times had been occasioned by the over-eagerness of some, too ambitious and impatient to obtain this great honour, had been quieted' by the adoption of the order of seniority.Gent. Mag. 1739, p. 595. Among the Lord Mayors from 1769-1775 (inclusive) we find Beckford, Trecothick, Crosby, Townshend, Bull, Wilkes, and Sawbridge. 'Where did Beckford and Trecothick learn English?' asked Johnson (ante, iii. 76). Crosby, in the year of his mayoralty (1770-1), was committed to the Tower by the House of Commons, for having himself committed to prison a messenger of the House when attempting to arrest the printer of theLondon Evening Debates, who was accused of a breach of privilege in reporting the Debates (Parl. Hist. xvii. 155). Townshend in the same year refused to pay the land-tax, on the plea that his county (Middlesex) was no longer represented, as Wilkes's election had been annulled (Walpole's Letters, v. 348). Bull in the House of Commons violently attacked Lord North's ministry (Parl. Hist. xix. 980). Sawbridge, year after year, brought into Parliament a bill for shortening the duration of parliaments. During his Mayoralty he would not suffer the pressgangs to enter the city. (Walpole'sJournal of the Reign of George III, ii. 84.)
Among the Aldermen the Court-party had a majority. In April 1769 Wilkes's eligibility for election as an Alderman was not allowed by a majority of ten to six (Walpole'sMemoirs of the Reign of George III, iii. 360, andAnn. Reg. xii. 92). On his release from prison in April 1770 he was, however, admitted without a division (ib. xiii. 99). When, in March 1770, the City presented an outspoken remonstrance to the King, sixteen Aldermen protested against it (Walpole'sLetters, v. 229). About this time there arose a great division in the popular party in the City. According to Lord Albemarle, in hisMemoirs of Rockingham, ii. 209, from the period of this struggle 'the Whigs and what are now called Radicals became two distinct sections of the Liberal party.' Townshend, who in this followed the lead of Lord Shelburne, headed the more moderate men against Wilkes. The result was that in 1771 each section running a candidate for the Mayoralty, a third man, Nash, who was opposed to both, was returned (Walpole'sMemoirs of the Reign of George III, iv. 345, andAnn. Reg. xiv. 146).
The Livery, for a time at least, was Wilkite. Wilkes's name was sent up as Lord Mayor at the top of the list in 1772 and 1773, but he was in each case passed over by the Court of Aldermen. It was not till 1774 that he was elected by a kind of 'Hobson's choice.' The Aldermen had to choose between him and the retiring Lord Mayor, Bull. Walpole, writing of Nov. 1776, says the new Lord Mayor 'invited the Ministers to his feast, to which they had not been asked for seven years' (Journal of the Reign of George III, ii. 84). See Boswell'sHebrides,post, v. 339.
THE INMATES OF JOHNSON'S HOUSE.(Page 368.)
In September of this year (1778) Miss Burney records the following conversation at Streatham:—'MRS. THRALE. "Pray, Sir, how does Mrs. Williams like all this tribe?" DR. J. "Madam, she does not like them at all; but their fondness for her is not greater. She and Desmoulins quarrel incessantly; but as they can both be occasionally of service to each other, and as neither of them have any other place to go to, their animosity does not force them to separate." … MR. T. "And pray who is clerk of your kitchen, Sir?" DR. J. "Why, Sir, I am afraid there is none; a general anarchy prevails in my kitchen, as I am told by Mr. Levett, who says it is not now what it used to be." MRS. T. "Mr. Levett, I suppose, Sir, has the office of keeping the hospital in health, for he is an apothecary." DR. J. "Levett, Madam, is a brutal fellow, but I have a good regard for him; for his brutality is in his manners, not his mind." MR. T. "But how do you get your dinners drest?" DR. J. "Why, Desmoulins has the chief management of the kitchen; but our roasting is not magnificent, for we have no jack." MR. T. "No jack! Why, how do they manage without?" DR. J. "Small joints, I believe, they manage with a string, and larger are done at the tavern. I have some thoughts (with a profound gravity) of buying a jack, because I think a jack is some credit to a house." MR. T. "Well, but you'll have a spit too." DR. J. "No, Sir, no; that would be superfluous; for we shall never use it; and if a jack is seen, a spit will be presumed." MRS. T. "But pray, Sir, who is the Poll you talk of? She that you used to abet in her quarrels with Mrs. Williams, and call out,At her again, Poll! Never flinch, Poll!" DR. J. "Why, I took to Poll very well at first, but she won't do upon a nearer examination." MRS. T. "How came she among you, Sir?" DR. J. "Why, I don't rightly remember, but we could spare her very well from us. Poll is a stupid slut. I had some hopes of her at first; but when I talked to her tightly and closely, I could make nothing of her; she was wiggle waggle, and I could never persuade her to be categorical."' Mme. D'Arblay'sDiary,i. 114.
More than a year later Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale:—'Discord keeps her residence in this habitation, but she has for some time been silent. We have much malice, but no mischief. Levett is rather a friend to Williams, because he hates Desmoulins more. A thing that he should hate more than Desmoulins is not to be found.'Piozzi Letters, ii. 80. Mrs. Piozzi (Anec. p. 213) says:—'He really was oftentimes afraid of going home, because he was so sure to be met at the door with numberless complaints; and he used to lament pathetically to me that they made his life miserable from the impossibility he found of making theirs happy, when every favour he bestowed on one was wormwood to the rest. If, however, I ventured to blame their ingratitude, and condemn their conduct, he would instantly set about softening the one and justifying the other; and finished commonly by telling me, that I knew not how to make allowances for situations I never experienced.' Hawkins (Life, p. 404) says:—'Almost throughout Johnson's life poverty and distressed circumstances seemed to be the strongest of all recommendations to his favour. When asked by one of his most intimate friends, how he could bear to be surrounded by such necessitous and undeserving people as he had about him, his answer was, "If I did not assist them, no one else would, and they must be lost for want."' 'His humanity and generosity, in proportion to his slender income, were,' writes Murphy (Life, p. 146), 'unbounded. It has been truly said that the lame, the blind, and the sorrowful found in his house a sure retreat.' See alsoante, iii. 222. At the same time it must be remembered that while Mrs. Desmoulins and Miss Carmichael only brought trouble into the house, in the society of Mrs. Williams and Levett he had real pleasure. Seeante, i. 232, note 1, and 243, note 3.
* * * * *
(Page 370, note i.)
'Agli Illustrissimi Signori Il Presidente e Consiglieri dell' AcademiaReale delle arti in Londra.
'Avreste forse illustrissimi Signori potuto scegliere molte persone piu degne dell' ufficcio di Segretario per la corrispondenza straniera; ma non sarebbe, son certo, stato possibile di trovar alcuno dal quale questa distinzione sarebbe stata piu stimata. Sento con un animo molto riconoscente la parzialitá che l'Academia a ben voluto mostrar per me; e mi conto felicissimo che la mia elezione sia stata graziosamente confirmata dalla sua Maestá lo stesso Sovrano che a fondato l'Academia, e che si é sempre mostrato il suo beneficente Protettore.
'Vi prego, Signori, di credere que porro ogni mio studio a contribuire tanto che potro alia prosperita della nostra instituzione ch' é gia arrivata ad un punto si rispettevole.
'Ho l'onore d'essere, 'Illustrissimi Signori, 'Vostro umilissimo, 'e divotissimo servo, 'Giacomo Boswell.' 'Londra, '31 d'Ottobre, 1791.'
'A Messieurs Le President et les autres Membres du Conseil de l'AcademieRoyale des Arts à Londres.
'Messieurs,
'C'est avec la plus vive reconnoissance que J'accepte la charge deSecretaire pour la Correspondence etrangêre de votre Academie á laquelleJ'ai eu l'honneur d'etre choisi par vos suffrages unanimes gracieusementconfirmés par sa Majesté.
'Ce choix spontané Messieurs me flatte beaucoup; et m'inspire des desirs les plus ardens de m'en montrer digne, au moins par la promptitude avec laquelle Je saisirai toute occasion de faire ce que Je pourrai pour contribuer á l'avantage des Arts et la celebrité de l'Academie.
'J'ai l'honneur d'etre avec toute la consideration possible,
'Messieurs,
'Votre serviteur tres obligé tres humble et tres fidel,'Boswell.''A Londres,'ce 31 d'Octobre, 1791'
[In this letter I have made no attempt to correct Boswell's errors.]
'To the President and Council of The Royal Academy of Arts in London.
'Gentlemen,
'Your unsolicited and unanimous election of me to be Secretary for Foreign Correspondence to your Academy, and the gracious confirmation of my election by his Majesty, I acknowledge with the warmest sentiments of gratitude and respect.
'I have always loved the Arts, and during my travels on the Continent I did not neglect the opportunities which I had of cultivating a taste for them.[1372] That taste I trust will now be much improved, when I shall be so happy as to share in the advantages which the Royal Academy affords; and I fondly embrace this very pleasing distinction as giving me the means of providing additional solace for the future years of my life.
'Be assured, Gentlemen, that as I am proud to be a member of an Academy which has the peculiar felicity of not being at all dependant on a Minister[1373], but under the immediate patronage and superintendence of the Sovereign himself, I shall be zealous to do every thing in my power that can be of any service to our excellent Institution.
'I have the honour to be,
'Gentlemen,
'Your much obliged
'And faithful humble servant,
'London,
'31 October, 1791.'
'I am much obliged to you for the very polite terms in which you have been pleased to communicate to me my election to be Secretary for Foreign Correspondence to the Royal Academy of Arts in London; and I request that you will lay before the President and Council the enclosed letters signifying my acceptance of that office.
'I am with great regard,
'Sir,
'Your most obedient humble servant,
'London,
'31 October, 1791.
'To John Richards, Esq., R.A. &c.'
Bennet Langton's letter of acceptance of the Professorship of AncientLiterature in the place of Johnson is dated April 2, 1788.
I must express my acknowledgments to the President and Council of the Royal Academy for their kindness in allowing me to copy the above letters from the originals that are in their possession.
[1] See ante, March 15, 1776.
[2]Anecdotes of Johnson, p. 176. BOSWELL. 'It is,' he said, 'soverydifficult for a sick man not to be a scoundrel.' Ib. p. 175. He called Fludyer a scoundrel (ante, March 20, 1776), apparently because he became a Whig. 'He used to say a man was a scoundrel that was afraid of anything. "Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o'clock is," he said, "a scoundrel."' Johnson'sWorks(1787), xi. 199, 211. Mr. Croker points out that 'Johnson in hisDictionarydefinedknave, a scoundrel;sneakup, a scoundrel;rascal, a scoundrel;loon, a scoundrel;lout, a scoundrel;poltroon, a scoundrel; and that he coined the wordscoundrelism' (Boswell'sHebrides, Aug. 25, 1773). Churchill, inThe Ghost, Book ii. (Poems, i. 1. 217), describes Johnson as one
'Who makes each sentence current pass,Withpuppy, coxcomb, scoundrel, ass.'
Swift liked the word. 'God forbid,' he wrote, 'that ever such a scoundrel as Want should dare to approach you.' Swift'sWorks, ed. 1803, xviii. 39.
[3] Seeante, i. 49, for Johnson's fondness for the old romances.
[4] Boswell,ante, i. 386, implies that Sheridan's pension was partly due to Wedderburne's influence.
[5] Seeante, i. 386.
[6] Akenside, in hisOde to Townshend(Book ii. 4), says:—
'For not imprudent of my loss to come,I saw from Contemplation's quiet cellHis feet ascending to another home,Where public praise and envied greatness dwell.'
He had, however, no misgivings, for he thus ends:—
'Then for the guerdon of my lay,This man with faithful friendship, will I say,From youth to honoured age my arts and me hath viewed.'
[7] We have now more knowledge generally diffused; all our ladies read now 'which is a great extension.'Post, April 29, 1778.
[8] Seepost, April, 28, 1783.
[9] Seepost, March 22, 1783.
[10] Seepost, March 18, 1784.
[11] Newbery, the publisher, was the vendor of Dr. James's famous powder. It was known that on the doctor's death a chemist whom he had employed meant to try to steal the business, under the pretence that he alone knew the secret of the preparation. A supply of powders enough to last for many years was laid in by Newbery in anticipation, while James left an affidavit that the chemist was never employed in the manufacture. He, however, asserted that James was deprived of his mental faculties when the affidavit was made. Evidence against this was collected and published; the conclusion to the Preface being written by Johnson.A Bookseller of the Last Century, p. 138. Seeante, i. 159.
[12] Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale on the birth of a second son who died early:—'I congratulate you upon your boy; but you must not think that I shall love him all at once as well as I love Harry, for Harry you know is so rational. I shall love him by degrees.'Piozzi Letters, i. 206. A week after Harry's death he wrote:—'I loved him as I never expect to love any other little boy; but I could not love him as a parent.'Ib. p. 310.
[13] Johnson had known this anxiety. He wrote to Mrs. Thrale from Ashbourne on July 7, 1775:—'I cannot think why I hear nothing from you. I hope and fear about my dear friends at Streatham. But I may have a letter this afternoon—Sure it will bring me no bad news.'Ib. i. 263. See Boswell'sHebrides, Sept. 21, 1773.
[14] Seeante, ii. 75.
[15]ante, April 10, 1775.
[16] Seeante, March 21, 1776, andpost, Sept. 19, 1777.
[17] The phrase 'vexing thoughts,' is I think, very expressive. It has been familiar to me from my childhood; for it is to be found in thePsalms in Metre, used in the churches (I believe I should saykirks) of Scotland,Psal. xliii. v. 5;
'Why art thou then cast down, my soul?What should discourage thee?And why withvexing thoughts artthouDisquieted in me?'
Some allowance must no doubt be made for early prepossession. But at a maturer period of life, after looking at various metrical versions of thePsalms, I am well satisfied that the version used in Scotland is, upon the whole, the best; and that it has in general a simplicity andunctionof sacred Poesy; and in many parts its transfusion is admirable. BOSWELL.
[18] 'Burke and Reynolds are the same one day as another,' Johnson said,post, under Sept. 22, 1777. Boswell celebrates Reynolds's 'equal and placid temper,'ante, i. I. On Aug. 12, 1775, he wrote to Temple:—'It is absurd to hope for continual happiness in this life; few men, if any, enjoy it. I have a kind of belief that Edmund Burke does; he has so much knowledge, so much animation, and the consciousness of so much fame.'Letters of Boswell, p. 212.
[19]ante, i. 446.
[20] Baretti says, that 'Mrs. Thrale abruptly proposed to start for Bath, as wishing to avoid the sight of the funeral. She had no man-friend to go with her,' and so he offered his services. Johnson at that moment arrived. 'I expected that he would spare me the jaunt, and go himself to Bath with her; but he made no motion to that effect.'European Mag. xiii. 315. It was on the evening of the 29th that Boswell found Johnson, as he thought, not in very good humour. Yet on the 30th he wrote to Mrs. Thrale, and called on Mr. Thrale. On April 1 and April 4 he again wrote to Mrs. Thrale. He would have gone a second time, he says, to see Mr. Thrale, had he not been made to understand that when he was wanted he would be sent for.Piozzi Letters, i. 309-314.
[21] Pope,Essay on Man, iv. 390. Boswell twice more applies the same line to Johnson, post, June 3, 1781, and under Dec. 13, 1784.
[22] Imlac consoles the Princess for the loss of Pekuah. 'When the clouds of sorrow gather over us, we see nothing beyond them, nor can imagine how they will be dispelled; yet a new day succeeded to the night, and sorrow is never long without a dawn of ease. But they who restrain themselves from receiving comfort do as the savages would have done, had they put out their eyes when it was dark.'Rasselas, ch. 35. 'Keep yourself busy,' wrote Johnson to Mrs. Thrale, 'and you will in time grow cheerful. New prospects may open, and new enjoyments may come within your reach.'Piozzi Letters.
[23] Seeante, i. 86. It was reprinted in 1789.
[24] See Boswell'sHebridesunder Nov. 11, 1773.
[25] Seepost, under April 29, 1776.
[26] In like manner he writes, 'I catched for the moment an enthusiasm with respect to visiting the Wall of China.'postApril 10, 1778. Johnson had had some desire to go upon Cook's expedition in 1772.ante, March 21, 1772.
[27] Mme. D'Arblay (Memoirs of Dr. Burney, i. 284) describes 'the perfect case with which Omai managed a sword which he had received from the King, and which he had that day put on for the first time in order to go to the House of Lords.' He is the 'gentle savage' in CowpersTask, i. 632.
[28] See ante, ii. 50.
[29] Voltaire (Siècle de Louis XV, ch. xv.), in his account of the battle of Fontenoy, thus mentions him:—'On était à cinquante pas de distance…. Les officiers anglais saluèrent les Français en ôtant leurs chapeaux…. Les officiers des gardes françaises leur rendirent le salut, Mylord Charles Hay, capitaine aux gardes anglaises, cria:—Messieurs des gardes françaises, tirez. Le comte d'Auteroche leur dit a voix haute:—Messieurs, nous ne tirons jamais les premiers; tirez vous-mêmes.'
[30] Seepost, 1780, in Mr. Langton'sCollection. Hay was third in command in the expedition to North America in 1757. It was reported that he said that 'the nation's wealth was expended in making sham-fights and planting cabbages.' He was put under arrest and sent home to be tried.Gent. Mag. 1758, p. 170. Mr. Croker says that 'the real state of the case was that he had gone mad, and was in that state sent home.' He died before the sentence of the court-martial was promulgated. Croker'sBoswell, p. 497.
[31] InThoughts on the Coronation of George III(Works, v. 458) he expressed himself differently, if indeed the passage is of his writing (seeante, i. 361). He says: 'It cannot but offend every Englishman to see troops of soldiers placed between him and his sovereign, as if they were the most honourable of the people, or the King required guards to secure his person from his subjects. As their station makes them think themselves important, their insolence is always such as may be expected from servile authority.' In hisJourney to the Hebrides(ib. ix. 30) he speaks of 'that courtesy which is so closely connected with the military character.' Seepost, April 10, 1778.
[32] 'It is not in the power even of God to make a polite soldier.' Meander; quoted by Hume,Essays, Part i. 20, note.
[33] In Johnson's Debates for 1741 (Works, x. 387) is on the quartering of soldiers. By the Mutiny Act the innkeeper was required to find each foot-soldier lodging, diet, and small beer for fourpence a day. By the Act as amended that year if he furnished salt, vinegar, small-beer, candles, fire, and utensils to dress their victuals, without payment, he had not to supply diet except on a march.Ib. pp. 416, 420. The allowance of small-beer was fixed at five pints a day, though it was maintained that it should be six. Lord Baltimore, according to Johnson, said that 'as every gentleman's servants each consumed daily six pints, it surely is not to be required that a soldier should live in a perpetual state of warfare with his constitution.'Ib. p. 418. Burke, writing in 1794, says:—'In quarters the innkeepers are obliged to find for the soldiers lodging, fire, candle-light, small-beer, salt and vinegar gratis.' Burke'sCorres. iv. 258. Johnson wrote in 1758 (Works, vi. 150):—'The manner in which the soldiers are dispersed in quarters over the country during times of peace naturally produces laxity of discipline; they are very little in sight of their officers; and when they are not engaged in the slight duty of the guard are suffered to live every man his own way.' Fielding, inTom Jones, bk. ix. ch. 6, humourously describes an innkeeper's grievances.
[34] This alludes to the pleadings of a Stoic and an Epicurean for and against the existence of the Divinity in Lucian'sJupiter the Tragic. CROKER.
[35] 'There is a time when every man is weary of raising difficulties only to ask himself with the solution and desires to enjoy truth without the labour or hazard of contest.' Johnson'sWorks, vi. 497. SeeanteMay 7, 1773, andpost, April 3, 1779, where he says, 'Sir, you are to a certain degree hurt by knowing that even one man does not believe.' Hume, in his EssayOf Parties in General, had written:—'Such is the nature of the human mind, that it always takes hold of every mind that approaches it; and as it is wonderfully fortified and corroborated by an unanimity of sentiments, so is it, shocked and disturbed by any contrariety.' 'Carlyle was fond of quoting a sentence of Novalis:—"My conviction gains infinitely the moment another soul will believe in it."'Saturday Review, No. 1538, p. 521. 'The introducing of new doctrines,' said Bacon, 'is an affectation of tyranny over the understandings and beliefs of men.' Bacon'sNat. Hist., Experiment 1000.
[36] 'We must own,' said Johnson, 'that neither a dull boy, nor an idle boy, will do so well at a great school as at a private one.' Boswell'sHebrides, Aug. 22, 1773. Seeante, under Dec. 5, 1775. On June 16, 1784, he said of a very timid boy:—'Placing him at a public school is forcing an owl upon day.' Lord Shelburne says that the first Pitt told him 'that his reason for preferring private to public education was, that he scarce observed a boy who was not cowed for life at Eton; that a public school might suit a boy of a turbulent forward disposition, but would not do where there was any gentleness.' Fitzmaurice'sShelburne, i. 72.
[37] 'There are,' wrote Hume in 1767, 'several advantages of a Scots education; but the question is, whether that of the language does not counterbalance them, and determine the preference to the English.' He decides it does. He continues:—'The only inconvenience is, that few Scotsmen that have had an English education have ever settled cordially in their own country; and they have been commonly lost ever after to their friends.' J.H. Burton'sHume, ii. 403.
[38] He wrote to Temple on Nov. 28, 1789:—'My eldest son has been at Eton since the 15th of October. You cannot imagine how miserable he has been; he wrote to me for some time as if from the galleys, and intreated me to come to him.'Letters of Boswell, p. 314. On July 21, 1790, he wrote of his second son who was at home ill:—'I am in great concern what should be done with him, for he is so oppressed at Westminster School by the big boys that I am almost afraid to send him thither.'Ib. p. 327. On April 6, 1791, he wrote:—'Your little friend James is quite reconciled to Westminster.'Ib. p. 337. Southey, who was at Westminster with young Boswell, describes 'the capricious and dangerous tyranny' under which he himself had suffered. Southey'sLife, i. 138.
[39] Horace, Satires, i. 6. 65-88.
[40] Dr. Adam Smith, who was for some time a Professor in the University of Glasgow, has uttered, in hisWealth of Nations[v. I, iii. 2], some reflections upon this subject which are certainly not well founded, and seem to be invidious. BOSWELL.
[41] Seeante,ii. 98.
[42] Gibbon denied this. 'The diligence of the tutors is voluntary, and will consequently be languid, while the pupils themselves, or their parents, are not indulged in the liberty of choice or change,'Misc. Works, i. 54. Of one of his tutors he wrote:—'He well remembered that he had a salary to receive, and only forgot that he had a duty to perform.'Ib. p. 58. Boswell,post, end of Nov. 1784, blames Dr. Knox for 'ungraciously attacking his venerableAlma Mater.' Knox, who was a Fellow of St. John's, left Oxford in 1778. In hisLiberal Education, published in 1781, he wrote:—'I saw immorality, habitual drunkenness, idleness and ignorance, boastingly obtruding themselves on public view.' Knox'sWorks, iv. 138. 'The general tendency of the universities is favourable to the diffusion of ignorance, idleness, vice, and infidelity among young men.'Ib. p. 147. 'In no part of the kingdom will you meet with more licentious practices and sentiments, and with less learning than in some colleges.'Ib. p. 179. 'The tutors give what are called lectures. The boys construe a classic, the jolly young tutor lolls in his elbow-chair, and seldom gives himself the trouble of interrupting the greatest dunce.'Ib. p. 199. 'Some societies would have been glad to shut themselves up by themselves, and enjoy the good things of the cook and manciple, without the intrusion of commoners who come for education.'Ib. p. 200. 'The principal thing required is external respect from the juniors. However ignorant or unworthy a senior fellow may be, yet the slightest disrespect is treated as the greatest crime of which an academic can be guilty.'Ib. p. 201. The Proctors gave far 'more frequent reprimands to the want of a band, or to the hair tied in queue, than to important irregularities. A man might be a drunkard, a debauchee, and yet long escape the Proctor's animadversion; but no virtue could protect you if you walked on Christ-church meadow or the High Street with a band tied too low, or with no band at all; with a pig-tail, or with a green or scarlet coat.'Ib. p. 159. Only thirteen weeks' residence a year was required.Ib. p. 172. The degree was conferred without examination.Ib. p. 189. After taking it 'a man offers himself as a candidate for orders. He is examined by the Bishop's chaplain. He construes a few verses in the Greek testament, and translates one of the articles from Latin into English. His testimonial being received he comes from his jolly companions to the care of a large parish.'Ib. p. 197. Bishop Law gave in 1781 a different account of Cambridge. There, he complains, such was the devotion to mathematics, that 'young men often sacrifice their whole stock of strength and spirits, and so entirely devote most of their first few years to what is calledtaking a good degree, as to be hardly good for anything else.' Preface to Archbishop King'sEssay on the Origin of Evil, p. xx.
[43] According to Adam Smith this is true only of the Protestant countries. In Roman Catholic countries and England where benefices are rich, the church is continually draining the universities of all their ablest members. In Scotland and Protestant countries abroad, where a chair in a university is generally a better establishment than a benefice, by far the greater part of the most eminent men of letters have been professors.Wealth of Nations, v. i. iii. 3.
[44] See Boswell'sHebrides, Aug. 17, 1773.
[45] Dr. Goldsmith was dead before Mr. Maclaurin discovered the ludicrous errour. But Mr. Nourse, the bookseller, who was the proprietor of the work, upon being applied to by Sir John Pringle, agreed very handsomely to have the leaf on which it was contained cancelled, and re-printed without it, at his own expence. BOSWELL. In the second edition, published five years after Goldsmith's death, the story remains. In a foot-note the editor says, that 'he has been credibly informed that the professor had not the defect here mentioned.' The story is not quite as Boswell tells it. 'Maclaurin,' writes Goldsmith (ii. 91), 'was very subject to have his jaw dislocated; so that when he opened his mouth wider than ordinary, or when he yawned, he could not shut it again. In the midst of his harangues, therefore, if any of his pupils began to be tired of his lecture, he had only to gape or yawn, and the professor instantly caught the sympathetic affection; so that he thus continued to stand speechless, with his mouth wide open, till his servant, from the next room, was called in to set his jaw again.'
[46] Dr. Shebbeare (post, April 18, 1778) was tried for writing a libellous pamphlet. Horace Walpole says:—'The bitterest parts of the work were a satire on William III and George I. The most remarkable part of this trial was the Chief Justice Mansfield laying down for law that satires even on dead Kings were punishable. Adieu! veracity and history, if the King's bench is to appreciate your expressions!'Memoirs of the Reign of George II, iii. 153.
[47] What Dr. Johnson has here said, is undoubtedly good sense; yet I am afraid that law, though defined byLord Coke'the perfection of reason,' is not altogetherwith him; for it is held in the books, that an attack on the reputation even of a dead man, may be punished as a libel, because tending to a breach of the peace. There is, however, I believe, no modern decided case to that effect. In the King's Bench, Trinity Term, 1790, the question occurred on occasion of an indictment,The Kingv.Topham, who, as aproprietorof a news-paper entitledThe World, was found guilty of a libel against Earl Cowper, deceased, because certain injurious charges against his Lordship were published in that paper. An arrest of Judgment having been moved for, the case was afterwards solemnly argued. My friend Mr. Const, whom I delight in having an opportunity to praise, not only for his abilities but his manners; a gentleman whose ancient German blood has been mellowed in England, and who may be truely said to unite theBaronand theBarrister, was one of the Counsel for Mr. Topham. He displayed much learning and ingenuity upon the general question; which, however, was not decided, as the Court granted an arrest chiefly on the informality of the indictment. No man has a higher reverence for the law of England than I have; but, with all deference I cannot help thinking, that prosecution by indictment, if a defendant is never to be allowed to justify, must often be very oppressive, unless Juries, whom I am more and more confirmed in holding to be judges of law as well as of fact, resolutely interpose. Of late an act of Parliament has passed declaratory of their full right to one as well as the other, in matter of libel; and the bill having been brought in by a popular gentleman, many of his party have in most extravagant terms declaimed on the wonderful acquisition to the liberty of the press. For my own part I ever was clearly of opinion that this right was inherent in the very constitution of a Jury, and indeed in sense and reason inseparable from their important function. To establish it, therefore, by Statute, is, I think, narrowing its foundation, which is the broad and deep basis of Common Law. Would it not rather weaken the right of primo-geniture, or any other old and universally-acknowledged right, should the legislature pass an act in favour of it? In myLetter to the People of Scotland, against diminishing the number of the Lords of Session, published in 1785, there is the following passage, which, as a concise, and I hope a fair and rational state of the matter, I presume to quote: 'The Juries of England are Judges oflawas well as of fact, inmany civil, and in allcriminalstrials. That my principles ofresistancemay not be misapprehended and more than my principles ofsubmission, I protest that I should be the last man in the world to encourage Juries to contradict rashly, wantonly, or perversely, the opinion of the Judges. On the contrary, I would have them listen respectfully to the advise they receive from the Bench, by which they may be often well directed in formingtheir own opinion; which, "and not anothers," is the opinion they are to returnupon their oaths. But where, after due attention to all that the judge has said, they are decidedly of a different opinion from him, they have not only apower and a right, but they arebound in conscienceto bring in a verdict accordingly.' BOWELL.The Worldis described by Gifford in hisBaviad and Marviad, as a paper set up by 'a knot of fantastic coxcombs to direct the taste of the town.' Lowndes (Bibl. Man. ed. 1871, p. 2994) confounds it withThe Worldmentionedante, i. 257. The 'popular gentleman' was Fox, whose Libel Bill passed the House of Lords in June 1792.Parl. Hist. xxix. 1537.
[48] Nobody, that is to say, but Johnson.Post, p. 24, note 2.
[49] Of this service Johnson recorded:—'In the morning I had at church some radiations of comfort.'Pr. and Med. p. 146.
[50] Baretti, in a marginal note onPiozzi Letters, i. 311, says:— 'Mr. Thrale, who was a worldly man, and followed the direction of his own feelings with no philosophical or Christian distinctions, having now lost the strong hope of being one day succeeded in the profitable Brewery by the only son he had left, gave himself silently up to his grief, and fell in a few years a victim to it.' In a second note (ii. 22) he says:—'The poor man could never subdue his grief on account of his son's death.'
[51] A gentleman, who from his extraordinary stores of knowledge, has been stiledomniscient. Johnson, I think very properly, altered it to all-knowing, as it is averbum solenne, appropriated to the Supreme Being. BOSWELL.
[52] Mrs. Thrale wrote to him on May 3:—'Should you write about Streatham and Croydon, the book would be as good to me as a journey to Rome, exactly; for 'tis Johnson, notFalkland's Islandsthat interest us, and your style is invariably the same. The sight of Rome might have excited more reflections indeed than the sight of the Hebrides, and so the book might be bigger, but it would not be better a jot.'Piozzi Letters, i 318.
[53] Hawkins says (Life, p. 84) that 'Johnson was never greedy of money, but without money could not be stimulated to write. I have been told by a clergyman with whom he had been long acquainted, that, being (sic) to preach on a particular occasion, he applied to him for help. "I will write a sermon for thee," said Johnson, "but thou must pay me for it."' Seepost, May 1, 1783. Horace Walpole (Letters, viii. 150) records an anecdote that he had from Hawkins:—'When Dr. Johnson was at his work on hisShakespeare, Sir John said to him, "Well! Doctor, now you have finished yourDictionary, I suppose you will labour your present workcon amorefor your reputation." "No Sir," said Johnson, "nothing excites a man to write but necessity."' Walpole then relates the anecdote of the clergyman, and speaks of Johnson as 'the mercenary.' Walpole's sinecure offices thirty-nine years before this time brought him in 'near, £2000 a year.' In 1782 he wrote that his office of Usher of the Exchequer was worth £1800 a year.Letters, i. lxxix, lxxxii.
[54] Swift wrote in 1735, when he was sixty-seven:—'I never got a farthing by anything I writ, except one about eight years ago, and that was by Mr. Pope's prudent management for me.'Works, xix. 171. It was, I conjecture,Gulliver's Travels. Hume, in 1757, wrote:—'I am writing theHistory of Englandfrom the accession of Henry VII. I undertook this work because I was tired of idleness, and found reading alone, after I had often perused all good books (which I think is soon done), somewhat a languid occupation.' J. H. Burton'sHume, ii. 33.
[55] This Mr. Ellis was, I believe, the last of that profession calledScriveners, which is one of the London companies, but of which the business is no longer carried on separately, but is transacted by attornies and others. He was a man of literature and talents. He was the authour of a Hudibrastick version of Maphæsus'sCanto, in addition to theÆneid; of some poems in Dodsley'sCollections; and various other small pieces; but being a very modest man, never put his name to anything. He shewed me a translation which he had made of Ovid'sEpistles, very prettily done. There is a good engraved portrait of him by Pether, from a picture by Fry, which hangs in the hall of the Scriveners' company. I visited him October 4, 1790, in his ninety-third year, and found his judgment distinct and clear, and his memory, though faded so as to fail him occasionally, yet, as he assured me, and I indeed perceived, able to serve him very well, after a little recollection. It was agreeable to observe, that he was free from the discontent and fretfulness which too often molest old age. He in the summer of that year walked to Rotherhithe, where he dined, and walked home in the evening. He died on the 31st of December, 1791. BOSWELL. The version of Maphæsus's 'bombastic' additionalCantois advertised in theGent. Mag. 1758, p. 233. The engraver of Mr. Ellis's portrait in the first two editions is called Peffer.
[56] 'Admiral Walsingham boasted that he had entertained more miscellaneous parties than any other man in London. At one time he had received the Duke of Cumberland, Dr. Johnson, Mr. Nairne the optician, and Leoni the singer. It was at his table that Dr. Johnson made that excellent reply to a pert coxcomb who baited him during dinner. "Pray now," said he to the Doctor, "what would you give, old gentleman, to be as young and sprightly as I am?" "Why, Sir, I think," replied Johnson, "I would almost be content to be as foolish."' Cradock'sMemoirs, i. 172.
[57] 'Dr. Johnson almost always prefers the company of an intelligent man of the world to that of a scholar.' Mme. D'Arblay'sDiary, i. 241.
[58] See J.H. Burton'sHume, i. 174, for an account of him.
[59] Lord Macartney, who with his other distinguished qualities, is remarkable also for an elegant pleasantry, told me, that he met Johnson at Lady Craven's, and that he seemed jealous of any interference: 'So, (said his Lordship, smiling,)I kept back.' BOSWELL.