In one of his registers of this year, there occurs the following curious paffage : “ Jan. 20. The ministry is dissolved. I prayed with Francis, and gave thanks 8.” It has been the subject of discussion, whether there are two distinct particulars mentioned here, or that we are to understand the giving of thanks to be in consequence of the diffolution of the ministry. In support of the last of these conjectures, may be urged his mean opinion of that ministry, which has frequently appeared in the course of this work, and it is strongly confirmed by what he said on the subject to Mr. Seward :—"I am glad the ministry is removed. Such a bunch of imbecility never disgraced a country, If they sent a messenger into the City to take up a printer, the messenger was taken up instead of the printer, and committed by the sitting Alderman. If they sent one army to the relief of another, the first army was defeated and taken before the second arrived. I will not say that what they did was always wrong; but it was always done at a wrong time.” To Mrs. STRAHAN. " DEAR MADAM, “ Mrs. WILLIAMS shewed me your kind letter. This little habitation is now but a melancholy place, clouded with the gloom of disease and death. Of the four inmates, one has been suddenly snatched away ; two are oppressed by very aMictive and dangerous illness; and I tried yesterday to gain some relief by a third bleeding, from a disorder which has for some time distressed me, and I think myself to-day much better. “ I am glad, dear Madam, to hear that you are so far recovered as to go to Bath. Let me once more entreat you to stay till your health is not only obtained but confirmed. Your fortune is such as that no moderate 8 Prayers and Meditations, p. 209, expence 1782. Ætat. 73 expence deserves your care; and you have a husband who, I believe, does not regard it. Stay, therefore till you are quite well. I am, for my part, very much deserted; but complaint is useless. I hope God will bless you, and I desire you to form the same wish for me. I am, dear Madam, or Your most humble servant, « Feb. 4, 1782. SAM. JOHNSON." To EDMOND MALONE, Esa. " SIR, “ I Have for many weeks been so much out of order, that I have gone out only in a coach to Mrs. Thrale's, where I can use all the freedom that sickness requires. Do not, therefore, take it amiss, that I am not with you and Dr. Farmer. I hope hereafter to see you often. I am, Sir, I , SAM. JOHNson." To the same. « Dear Sir, “ I hope I grow better, and shall soon be able to enjoy the kindness of my friends. I think this wild adherence to Chatterton more unaccountable than the obstinate defence of Offian. In Offian there is a national pride, which may be forgiven, though it cannot be applauded. In Chatterton there is nothing but the resolution to say again what has once been said. I am, Sir, " Your humble servant, « March 2, 1782. SAM. JOHNSON.” These short letters shew the regard which Dr. Johnson entertained for Mr. Malone, who the more he is known is the more highly valued. It is much to be regretted that Johnson was prevented from sharing the elegant hospitality of that gentleman's table, at which he would in every respect have been fully gratified. Mr. Malone, who has so ably succeeded him as an Editor of Shakspeare, has, in his Preface, done great and just honour to Johnson's memory To Mrs. Lucy Porter, in Lichfield. « DEAR MADAM, “ I went away from Lichfield ill, and have had a troublesome time with my breath; for some weeks I have been disordered by a cold, of which could not get the violence abated, till I had been let blood three times. I a 1782. 1 Ætat. 73. a have not, however, been so bad but that I could have written, and I am sorry My dwelling is but melancholy, both Williams, and Desmoulins, and “ Such is the appearance of the world about me; I hope your scenes are more cheerful. But whatever befals us, though it is wise to be serious, it is useless and foolish, and perhaps sinful to be gloomy. Let us, therefore, keep ourselves as easy as we can; though the loss of friends will be felt, and poor Levett had been a faithful adherent for thirty years. Forgive me, my dear love, the omission of writing ; I hope to mend that and my other faults. Let me have your prayers. “ Make my compliments to Mr. Cobb, and Miss Adey, and Mr. Pearson, and the whole company of my friends. I am, my dear, , " Your most humble servant, " London, March 2, 1782. SAM. JOHNSON." a To the fame. « DEAR MADAM, “ MY last was but a dull letter, and I know not that this will be I “ I have, by advertising, found poor Mr. Levett's brothers in Yorkshire, “ To be sick, and to see nothing but sickness and death, is but a gloomy " Make 1782. Ætat. 73• “ Make my compliments to Mrs. Cobb, and Miss Adey, and my old friend, Hetty Bailey, and to all the Lichfield ladies. I am, dear Madam, “ Yours, affectionately, “ Bolt-court, Fleet-street, Sam. JOHNSON.” March 19, 1782. On the day on which this letter was written, he thus feelingly mentions his respected friend and physician, Dr. Lawrence :-“ Poor Lawrence has almost lost the sense of hearing; and I have lost the conversation of a learned, intelligent, and communicative companion, and a friend whom long familiarity has much endeared. Lawrence is one of the best men whom I have known." Nostrum omnium misera Deus ?." It was Dr. Johnson's custom when he wrote to Dr. Lawrence concerning his own health, to use the Latin language. I have been favoured by Miss Lawrence with one of these letters as a specimen. T. LAWRENTIO, Medico S. “ NOVUM frigus, nova tusis, nova spirandi difficultas, ' novam fanguinis misionem suadent, quam tamen te inconsulto nolim fieri. Ad te venire vix pofsum, nec eft cur ad me venias. Licere vel non licere uno verbo dicendum eft; , « Mais Calendis, 1782. TO , Prayers and Meditations, p. 207. Mr. Holder, Dr. Johnson's apothecary. 2 Soon after the above letter, Dr. Lawrence left London, but not before the pally had made fo great a progress as to render him unable to write for hiinself. The following are extracts from letters addressed to one of his daughters : “ You will easily believe with what gladness I read that you had heard once again that voice to which we have all fo often delighted to attend. May you often hear it. If we had his mind, and his tongue, we could spare the rest. “ I am not vigorous, but much better than when dear Dr. Lawrence held my pulse the last time. Be so kind as to let me know, from one little interval to another, the state of his body. I an pleased that he remembers me, and hope that it never can be possible for me to forget hin. July 22, 1782.” “ I am much delighted even with the small advances which dear Dr. Lawrence makes towards recovery. If we could have again but his mind, and his tongue in his mind, and his right hand, we 1782. Ætat. 73. To Captain LANGTON', in ROCHESTER. « DEAR SIR, “IT is now long since we saw one another, and whatever has been the reason neither you have written to me, nor I to you. To let friendship die away by negligence and filence, is certainly not wise. It is voluntarily to throw away one of the greatest comforts of this weary pilgrimage, of which when it is, as it must be, taken finally away, he that travels on alone, will wonder how his esteem could be so little. Do noť forget me; you see that I do not forget you. It is pleasing in the silence of solitude to think, that there is one at least, however distant, of whose benevolence there is little doubt, and whom there is yet hope of seeing again. “ Of my life, from the time we parted, the history is mournful. The spring of last year deprived me of Thrale, a man whose eye for fifteen years had scarcely been turned upon me but with respect or tenderness; for such another friend, the general course of human things will not suffer man to hope. I passed the summer at Streatham, but there was no Thrale ; and having idled away the summer with a weakly body and neglected mind, I made a journey to Staffordshire on the edge of winter. The season was dreary, I was sickly, and found the friends sickly whom I went to fee. After a sorrowful sojourn, I returned to a habitation possesed for the present by two sick women, where my dear old friend, Mr. Levett, to whom as he used to tell me, I owe your acquaintance, died a few weeks ago, suddenly in his bed; there passed not, I believe, a minute between health and death. At night, as at Mrs. Thrale's, I was musing in my chamber, I thought with uncommon earneftness, that however I might alter my mode of life, or whithersoever I might remove, a we should not much lament the reft. I should not despair of helping the swelled hand by electricity, if it were frequently and diligently supplied. “ Let me know from time to time whatever happens ; and hope I need not tell you, how much I am interested in every change. Aug. 26, 1782." Though the accounts with which you favoured me in your last letter could not give me the pleasure that I wished, yet I was glad to receive it; for my affection to my dear friend makes me desirous of knowing his state, whatever it be. I beg, therefore, that you continue to let me know, from time to time, all that you observe. “ Many fits of severe illness have, for about three months past, forced my kind physician often upon my mind. I am now better, and hope gratitude, as well as distress, can be a motive to remembrance. Bolt-court, Fleet-street, Feb. 4, 1783." 3 Mr. Langton being at this time on duty at Rochester, he is addressed by his military title. Hhh 2 I would a |