There is no reason, I believe, to doubt the veracity of Cave. It is, however, remarkable that none of these letters are in the years during which Johnson alone furnished the Debates, and one of them is in the very year after he ceased from that labour. Johnson told me, that as soon as he found that the speeches were thought genuine, he determined that he would write no more of them; "for he would not be accessory to the propagation of falsehood." And such was the tenderness of his conscience, that a short time before his death he expressed his regret for his having been the author of fictions, which had passed for realities.

He nevertheless agreed with me in thinking that the debates which he had framed were to be valued as orations upon questions of public importance. They have accordingly been collected in volumes, properly arranged, and recommended to the notice of parliamentary speakers by a preface, written by no inferior hand.' I must, however, observe, that, although there is in those debates a wonderful store of political information, and very powerful eloquence, I cannot agree that they exhibit the manner of each particular speaker, as Sir John Hawkins seems to think. But, indeed, what opinion can we have of his judgment and taste in public speaking, who presumes to give, as the characteristics of two celebrated orators, "the deep-mouthed rancour of Pulteney, and the yelping pertinacity of Pitt?" a

This year I find that his tragedy of "Irene" had been for some time ready for the stage, and that his necessities made him desirous of getting as much as he could for it without delay; for there is the following letter from Mr. Cave to Dr. Birch, in the same volume of manuscripts in the British Museum from which I copied those above quoted. They were most obligingly pointed out to me by Sir William Musgrave, one of the curators [trustees] of that noble repository.

I am assured that the editor is Mr. George Chalmers, whose commercial works are well known and esteemed.

"Sept. 9, 1741.

"I have put Mr. Johnson's play into Mr. Gray's' hands, in order to sell it to him, if he is inclined to buy it; but I doubt whether he will or not. He would dispose of the copy, and whatever advantage may be made by acting it. Would your society, or any gentleman, or body of men that you know, take such a bargain? He and I are very unfit to deal with theatrical persons. Fleetwood was to have acted it last season, but Johnson's diffidence or vented it."

3

pre

I have already mentioned that "Irene " was not brought into public notice till Garrick was manager of Drury-lane Theatre.

In 1742 he wrote for the "Gentleman's Magazine,” the "Preface," + the "Parliamentary Debates," "Essay on the Account of the Conduct of the Duchess of Marlborough," then the popular topic of conversation. This Essay is a short but masterly performance. We find him, in No. 13 of his "Rambler," censuring a profligate sentiment in that "Account;" and again insisting upon it strenuously in conversation.5 "An Account of the Life of Peter Burman," I believe

1

' John Gray was a bookseller, at the Cross Keys in the Poultry, the shop formerly kept by Dr. Samuel Chandler. Like his predecessor, he became a dissenting minister; but he afterwards took orders in the Church, and held a living at Ripon in Yorkshire.-Wright.

2 In the first edition, vol. i., p. 8o, there was this note :-It is strange that a printer who knew so much as Cave, should conceive so ludicrous a fancy as that the Royal Society would purchase a play. In the second edition, vol. i., p. 130, this undergoes a transformation, and we find :

Not the Royal Society; but the Society for the Encouragement of Learning, of which Dr. Birch was a leading member. Their object was, to assist authors in printing expensive works. It existed from about 1735 to 1746, when, having incurred a considerable debt, it was dissolved.

3 There is no erasure here, but a mere blank; to fill up which may be an exercise for ingenious conjecture.

4

• From one of his letters to a friend, written in June, 1742, it should seem that he then purposed to write a play on the subject of Charles the Twelfth of Sweden, and to have it ready for the ensuing winter. The passage alluded to, however, is somewhat ambiguous; and the work which he then had in contemplation may have been a history of that monarch. Malone.

5

Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, third edition, p. 167.