bourhood, some of which were at a considerable distance from Lichfield. At that time booksellers' shops in the provincial towns of England were very rare, so that there was not one even in Birmingham, in which town old Mr. Johnson used to open a shop every market-day. He was a pretty good Latin scholar,' and a citizen so creditable as to be made one of the magistrates of Lichfield; and, being a man of good sense, and skill in his trade, he acquired a reasonable share of wealth, of which, however, he afterwards lost the greatest part, by engaging unsuccessfully in a manufacture of parchment. He was a zealous high-churchman and royalist, and retained his 1 Extract of a letter, dated Trentham, St. Peter's Day, 1716, written by the Reverend George Plaxton, chaplain at that time to Lord Gower, may serve to show the great estimation in which the father of our great moralist was held :-"Johnson, the Litchfield Librarian, is now here; he propagates learning all over this diocese, and advanceth knowledge to its just height; all the clergy here are his Pupils, and suck all they have from him; Allen cannot make a warrant without his precedent, nor our quondam John Evans draw a recognizance sine directione Michaelis." -Gentleman's Magazine, October, 1791. Note in second edition, vol. i., p. 13.

2

Johnson, in his Dictionary, defines "EXCISE, a hateful tax, levied upon commodities, and adjudged not by the common judges of property, but by wretches hired by those to whom excise is paid ;" and, in the Idler (No. 65), he calls a Commissioner of Excise "one of the lowest of all human beings." This violence of language seems so unreasonable, that I was induced to suspect some cause of personal animosity; this mention of the trade in parchment (an exciseable article) afforded a clue, which has led to the confirmation of that suspicion. In the records of the Excise Board is to be found the following letter, addressed to the supervisor of excise at Lichfield :-" July 27. 1725. The Commissioners received yours of the 22d instant, and since the justices would not give judgment against Mr. Michael Johnson, the tanner, notwithstanding the facts were fairly against him, the Board direct that the next time he offends, you do not lay an information against him, but send an affidavit of the fact, that he may be prosecuted in the Exchequer."-It does not appear whether he offended again, but here is a sufficient cause of his son's animosity against Commissioners of Excise, and of the allusion in the Dictionary to the special jurisdiction under which that revenue is administered. The reluctance of the justices to convict will appear not unnatural, when it is recollected that M. Johnson was, this very year, chief magistrate of the city.—Croker.

“It does not appear,” says Mr. Croker," whether he offended again :”

attachment to the unfortunate house of Stuart, though he reconciled himself, by casuistical arguments of expediency and necessity, to take the oaths imposed by the prevailing power.

There is a circumstance in his life somewhat romantic, but so well authenticated, that I shall not omit it. A young woman of Leek, in Staffordshire, while he served his apprenticeship there, conceived a violent passion for him; and, though it met with no favourable return, followed him to Lichfield, where she took lodgings opposite to the house in which he lived, and indulged her hopeless flame. When he was informed that it so preyed upon her mind that her life was in danger, he, with a generous humanity, went to her and offered to marry her, but it was then too late : her vital power was exhausted; and she actually exhibited one of the very rare instances of dying for love. She was buried in the cathedral of Lichfield; and he, with a tender regard, placed a stone over her grave with this inscription:

Here lies the Body of

Mrs. ELIZABETH BLANEY, a Stranger.

She departed this Life

20th of September, 1694.'

JOHNSON'S mother was a woman of distinguished understanding. I asked his old school-fellow, Mr. Hector, a surgeon, of Birmingham, if she was not vain of her son. He said, "she nay, rather, it does not appear whether he offended at all. The case was evidently dismissed by the magistrates, who refused to entertain it; not only, it may reasonably be inferred, because Michael Johnson was chief magistrate of the city, but because, like many charges made under the farming system of the collection of duties, it could not be substantiated. At any rate, though the discovery of the alleged offence may redound to the credit of Mr. Croker's sagacity, his unhesitating acceptance of the one-sided evidence did not savour of the respectful consideration which was due to good old Michael, who, for anything proved to the contrary, might have been grossly slandered by the charge.-Editor.

The Rev. J. G. Lonsdale, Canon of Lichfield, informs me that the stone is no longer to be found. "The action of our damp climate here on stone is terribly mischievous, and inscriptions cut within my own memory are rapidly fading away."-Editor.

2 He died Sept. 2, 1794, æt. 85. He was, therefore, about the same age as Johnson.--Croker.