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were written on was all consumed. Mr. Sastres | tation of offences by voluntary penance, or ensaw him cast a melancholy look upon their ashes, courage others to practise severity upon themwhich he took up and examined, to see if a word selves. He even once said, that he thought it was still legible. Nobody has ever mentioned an error to endeavour at pleasing God by taking what became of Miss Aston's letters, though he the rod of reproof out of his hands 3.' once told me himself they should be the last papers he would destroy, and added these lines with a very faltering voice:

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"When Mr. Rose, of Hammersmith', contending for the preference of Scotch writers over the English, after having set up his authours like nine-pins, while the Doctor kept bowling them down again; at last, to make sure of victory, he named Ferguson upon Civil Society, and praised the book for being written in a new manner. 'I do not, said Johnson, perceive the value of this new manner; it is only like Buckinger, who had no hands, and so wrote with his feet.'

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"Mr. Thrale had a very powerful influence over the Doctor, and could make him suppress many rough answers: he could likewise prevail on him to change his shirt, his coat, or his plate, almost before it became indispensably necessary.

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"He once observed of a Scotch lady who had given him some kind of provocation by receiving him with less attention than he expected, that she resembled a dead nettle; if she were alive she would sting.'

"He rejected from his Dictionary every authority for a word that could only be gleaned from writers dangerous to religion or morality-'I would not,' said he, send people to look in a book for words, that by such a casual seizure of the mind might chance to mislead it forever.'

Let us

"Dr. Johnson never gave into ridiculous refinements either of speculation or practice, or suffered himself to be deluded by specious appearances. 'I have had dust thrown in my eyes too often,' would he say, 'to be blinded so. never confound matters of belief with matters of opinion.' Some one urged in his presence the preference of hope to possession; and, as I remember, produced an Italian sonnet on the subject. Let us not,' cried Johnson, amuse ourselves with subtilties and sonnets, when speaking about that hope, which is the follower of faith and the precursor of eternity; but if you only mean those air-built hopes which to-day excites and tomorrow will destroy, let us talk away, and remember that we only talk of the pleasures of hope; we feel those of possession, and no man in his senses would change the last for the first : such hope is a mere bubble, that by a gentle breath may be blown to what size you will almost, but a rough blast bursts it at once. Hope is an amusement rather than a good, and adapted to none but very tranquil minds.'

"When I (Mrs. Piozzi,) knowing what subject he would like best to talk on, asked him how his opinion stood towards the question between Pascal and Soame Jennings about number and numeration? as the French philosopher observes, that infinity, though on all sides astonishing, appears most so when connected with the idea of number; for the notions of infinite number, and infinite number we know there is, stretches one's capacity still more than the idea of infinite space ⚫ such a notion indeed,' adds Pascal, can scarcely find room in the human mind.' The English authour on the other hand exclaims, Let no man give himself leave to talk about infinite number, for infinite number is a contradiction in terms; whatever is once numbered we all see cannot be infinite.' 'I think,' said Dr. Johnson after a pause, we must settle the matter thus: numeration is certainly infinite, for eternity might be employed in adding unit to unit; but every number is in itself finite, as the possibility of doubling it easily "It was not however from the want of a susproves besides, stop at what point you will, ceptible heart that he hated to cite tender expresyou find yourself as far from infinitude as ever.' sions, for he was more strongly and more violent"His spirit of devotion had an energy that afly affected by the force of words representing fected all who ever saw him pray in private. The coldest and most languid hearers of the word must have felt themselves animated by his manner of reading the Holy Scriptures; and to pray by his sick bed required strength of body as well as of mind, so vehement were his manners, and his tones of voice so pathetic.

"Of the pathetic in poetry he never liked to speak, and the only passage I ever heard him applaud as particularly tender in any common book was Jane Shore's exclamation in the last act,

'Forgive me! but forgive me!'

ideas capable of affecting him at all, than any other man in the world, I believe; and when he would try to repeat the celebrated Prosa Ecclesiastica pro Mortuis, as it is called, beginning Dies ira, Dies illa, he could never pass the stanza ending thus, Tantus labor non sit cassus, without bursting into a flood of tears; which sen"Though Dr. Johnson kept fast in Lent, par-sibility I used to quote against him when he would ticularly the holy week, with a rigour very dangerous to his general health; and had left off wine (for religious motives as I always believed, though he did not own it), yet he did not hold the commu

1 [It is presumed that Mrs. Piozzi meant Dr. Rose, of Chiswick.-ED. |

2 [A person born without hands, who contrived to produce very fine specimens of penmanship.-ED.]

inveigh against devotional poetry, and protest that all religious verses were cold and feeble, and unworthy the subject, which ought to be treated with higher reverence, he said, than either poets or painters could presume to excite or bestow."

3 [He certainly left it off on account of his health, but no doubt considered it a pious duty to do so, if it disordered his mind. Ante, vol. i. p. 226.-ED.]

One of his friends had a daughter about four- | teen years old, "fat and clumsy: and though the father adored, and desired others to adore her, yet being aware perhaps that she was not what the French call pétrie des graces, and thinking, I suppose, that the old maxim, of beginning to laugh at yourself first where you have any thing ridiculous about you, was a good one, he comically enough called his girl Trundle when he spoke of her; and many who bore neither of them any ill-will felt disposed to laugh at the happiness of the appellation. 'See now,' said Dr. Johnson, 'what haste people are in to be hooted. Nobody ever thought of this fellow nor of his daughter, could he but have been quiet himself, and forborne to call the eyes of the world on his dowdy and her deformity. But it teaches one to see at least, that if nobody else will nickname one's children, the parents will e'en do it themselves.'

"He had for many years a cat which he called Hodge, that kept always in his room at Fleetstreet; but so exact was he not to offend the human species by superfluous attention to brutes, that when the creature was grown sick and old, and could eat nothing but oysters, Dr. Johnson always went out himself to buy Hodge's dinner, that Francis the black's delicacy might not be hurt, at seeing himself employed for the convenience of a quadruped."

He was very fond of travelling, and would have gone "all over the world; for the very act of going forward was delightful to him, and he gave himself no concern about accidents, which he said never happened: nor did the running away of the horses on the edge of a precipice between Vernon and St. Denys in France convince him to the contrary; for nothing came of it,' he said, 'except that Mr. Thrale leaped out of the carriage into a chalk-pit, and then came up again, looking as white!' When the truth was, all our lives were saved by the greatest providence ever exerted in favour of three human creatures; and the part Mr. Thrale took from desperation was the likeliest thing in the world to produce broken limbs and death.

"Yet danger in sickness he did not contemplate so steadily. One day, when he thought himself neglected by the non-attendance of Sir Richard Jebb, he conjured me to tell him what I thought of him, and I made him a steady, but as I thought a very gentle harangue, in which I confirmed all that the Doctor had been saying, how no present danger could be expected; but that his age and continued ill health must naturally accelerate the arrival of that hour which can be escaped by none. 'And this,' said Johnson, rising in great anger, 'is the voice of female friendship, I suppose, when the hand of the hangman would be softer.'

"Another day, when he was ill, and exceedingly low-spirited, and persuaded that death was not far distant, I appeared before him in a darkcoloured gown, which his bad sight, and worse apprehensions, made him mistake for an iron grey. "Why do you delight,' said he, thus to thicken the gloom of misery that surrounds me? is not

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here sufficient accumulation of horror without an

ticipated mourning?' This is not mourning, sir,' said I, drawing the curtain, that the light might fall upon the silk, and show it was a purple

mixed with green. Well, well,' replied he, changing his voice, you little creatures should never wear those sort of clothes, however; they are unsuitable in every way. What! have not all insects gay colours?'

"He was no enemy to splendour of apparel, or pomp of equipage: Life,' he would say, 'is barren enough surely with all her trappings; let us therefore be cautious how we strip her.' In matters of still higher moment he once observed, when speaking on the subject of sudden innovation, He who plants a forest may doubtless cut down a hedge yet I could wish methinks that even he would wait till he sees his young plants grow.'

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"His equity in giving the character of living acquaintance ought not undoubtedly to be omitted in his own, whence partiality and prejudice were totally excluded, and truth alone presided in his tongue: a steadiness of conduct the more to be commended, as no man had stronger likings or aversions.

"When Mr. Thrale built the new library at Streatham, and hung up over the books the pertraits of his favourite friends, that of Dr. Johnson was last finished, and closed the number." Upon this occasion Mrs. Thrale summed up Dr. Johnson's character in the following verses :— "Gigantic in knowledge, in virtue, in strength, Our company closes with Johnson at length; So the Greeks from the cavern of Polypheme past, When wisest, and greatest, Ulysses came last, To his comrades contemptuous, we see him look down On their wit and their worth with a general frown Since from Science' proud tree the rich fruit he receives, Who could shake the whole trunk while they turn'd a few leaves.

His piety pure, his morality nice

Protector of virtue, and terror of vice;
In these features Religion's firm champion display,
Shall make infidels fear for a modern crusade.
While th' inflammable temper, the positive tongue,
Too conscious of right for endurance of wrong,
We suffer from Johnson, contented to find,
That some notice we gain from so noble a mind
And pardon our hurts, since so often we've found
The balm of instruction pour'd into the wound.
'Tis thus for its virtues the chemists extol
Pure rectified spirit, sublime alcohol:
From noxious putrescence, preservative pure,
A cordial in health, and in sickness a cure;
But exposed to the sun, taking fire at his rays,
Burns bright to the bottom, and ends in a blaze."

III.

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS.

"DR. JOHNSON TO MR. C. HICKMAN' "This letter, on the occasion of the writer's being rejected on his application for the situation of usher to the grammar school at Stourbridge 2, has recently bees print

1 [Probably the brother of the lady mentioned ante, V. i. p. 33.-ED.]

2 [Dr. Johnson was at Stourbridge school, half-scholar, half-usher, in 1726; but it has not been stated tist after his return from Oxford he attempted to become a assistant there. This letter, however, proves that e met in the summer of 1731 some disappointment at Stour Yet that seems to be a strange subject for Mr. Hick bridge, and it was probably of the kind above stated. to have asked to see celebrated in a copy of verses. The Editor can only repeat, that the years 1750 and 1733, de ring which Mr. Boswell erroneously imagined that John son was at Oxford, are an obscure and unexplained portion of his life. See ante, vol. i. p. 27.—ED.]

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ed, for the first time, from the original, | other book, than you construe to Mr. Bright. by the editor of the Manchester Herald."-Gentleman's Magazine.

Gent.

lxxxiii. p. 18.

dear sir, yours affectionately,

The more books you look into for your entertainment, with the greater variety of style you will make yourself acquainted. Turner I do not know; "Lichfield, 30th Oct. 1731. but think that if Clark be better, you should change "SIR,-I have so long neglected to it, for I shall never be willing that you should Mag. v. return you thanks for the favours and as- trouble yourself with more than one book to sistance I received from you at Stour- learn the government of words. What book bridge, that I am afraid you have now that one shall be, Mr. Bright must determine. Be done expecting it. I can indeed make no apology, but diligent in reading and writing, and doubt but by assuring you, that this delay, whatever not of the success. Be pleased to make my comwas the cause of it, proceeded neither from for-pliments to Miss Page and the gentlemen. I am, getfulness, disrespect, nor ingratitude. Time has not made the sense of obligation less warm, nor the thanks I return less sincere. But while I am acknowledging one favour, I must beg another-that you would excuse the composition of the verses you desired. Be pleased to consider that versifying "DEAR SIR,-You did not very soon answer against one's inclination is the most disagreeable my letter, and therefore cannot complain that I thing in the world; and that one's own disap-make no great haste to answer yours. I am well pointment is no inviting subject; and that though the desire of gratifying you might have prevailed over my dislike of it, yet it proves upon reflection so barren, that to attempt to write upon it, is to undertake to build without materials.

"As I am yet unemployed, I hope you will, if any thing should offer, remember and recommend, sir, your humble servant,

MS.

"SAM. JOHNSON."

"TO MR. ELPHINSTON'.

"20th April, 1749. "SIR,-I have for a long time intended to answer the letter which you were pleased to send me, and know not why I have delayed it so long, but that I had nothing particular either of inquiry or information to send you; and the same reason might still have the same consequence, but I find in my recluse kind of life, that I am not likely to have much more to say at one time than at another, and that therefore I may endanger by an appearance of neglect long continued, the loss of such an acquaintance as I know not where to supply. I therefore write now to assure you how sensible I am of the kindness you have always expressed to me, and how much I desire the cultivation of that benevolence which perhaps nothing but the distance between us has hindered from ripening before this time into friendship. Of myself I have very little to say, and of any body else less; let me however be allowed one thing, and that in my own favour-that I am, dear sir, your most humble servant,

Rose MSS.

SAM. JOHNSON."

"TO MR. GEORGE STRAHAN, AT SCHOOL.
19th Feb. [1763.]
"DEAR GEORGE,—I am glad that you
have found the benefit of confidence, and
hope you will never want a friend to whom
you may safely disclose any painful secret. The
state of your mind you had not so concealed but
that it was suspected at home, which I mention
that if any hint should be given you, it may not
be imputed to me, who have told nothing but to
yourself, who had told more than you intended.
"I hope you read more of Nepos, or of some

1 See ante, vol. i. p. 85.-ED.]

"SAM. JOHNSON."

"TO THE SAME.

"26th March, 1763.

enough satisfied with the proficiency that you make, and hope that you will not relax the vigour of your diligence. I hope you begin now to see that all is possible which was professed. Learning is a wide field, but six years spent in close application are a long time; and I am still of opinion, that if you continue to consider knowledge as the most pleasing and desirable of all acquisitions, and do not suffer your course to be interrupted, you may take your degree not only without deficiency, but with great distinction.

"You must still continue to write Latin. This is the most difficult part, indeed the only part that is very difficult of your undertaking. If you can exemplify the rules of syntax, I know not whether it will be worth while to trouble yourself with any more translations. You will more increase your number of words, and advance your skill in phraseology, by making a short theme or two every day; and when you have construed properly a stated number of verses, it will be pleasing to go from reading to composition, and from composition to reading. But do not be very particular about method; any method will do if there be but diligence. Let me know, if you please, once a week what you are doing. I am, dear George, your humble servant,

"SAM. JOHNSON."

"TO THE SAME.

"16th April, 1763. "DEAR SIR,-Your account of your proficience is more nearly equal, I find, to my expec tations than your own. You are angry that a theme on which you took so much pains was at last a kind of English Latin; what could you expect more? If at the end of seven years you write good Latin, you will excel most of your contemporaries: Scribendo disces, scribere. It is only by wri ting ill that you can attain to write well. Be but diligent and constant, and make no doubt of success.

"I will allow you but six weeks for Tully's Offices. Walker's Particles I would not have you trouble yourself to learn at all by heart, but look in it from time to time and observe his notes and remarks, and see how they are exemplified. The translation from Clark's history will improve you, and I would have you continue it to the-end of the book.

"I hope you read by the way at loose hours other books, though you do not mention them; for no time is to be lost; and what can be done with a master is but a small part of the whole. I would have you now and then try at some English verses. When you find that you have mistaken any thing, review the passage carefully and settle it in your mind.

"Be pleased to make my compliments, and those of Miss Williams, to all our friends. I am, dear sir, yours most affectionately,

"SAM. JOHNSON."

"TO THE SAME.

"20th Sept. 1763.

"DEAR SIR,-I should have answered your last letter sooner if I could have given you any valuable or useful directions; but I knew not any way by which the composition of Latin verses can be much facilitated. Of the grammatical part which comprises the knowledge of the measure of the foot, and quantity of the syllables, your grammar will teach you all that can be taught, and even of that you can hardly know any thing by rule but the measure of the foot. The quantity of syllables even of those for which rules are given is commonly learned by practice and retained by observation. For the poetical part, which comprises variety of expression, propriety of terms, dexterity in selecting commodious words, and readiness in changing their order, it will all be produced by frequent essays and resolute perseverance. The less help you have the sooner you will be able to go forward without help.

"I suppose you are now ready for another authour. I would not have you dwell longer upon one book than till your familiarity with its style makes it easy to you. Every new book will for a time be difficult. Make it a rule to write something in Latin every day; and let me know what you are now doing, and what your scheme is to do next. Be pleased to give my compliments to Mr. Bright, Mr. Stevenson, and Miss Page. I am, dear sir, your affectionate servant,

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and hope to love you long. You have hitherto done nothing to diminish my good will, and though you had done much more than you have supposed imputed to you, my good will would not have been diminished.

"I write thus largely on this suspicion, which you have suffered to enter into your mind, because in youth we are apt to be too rigorous in our expectations, and to suppose that the duties of life are to be performed with unfailing exactness and regularity; but in our progress through life we are forced to abate much of our demands, and to take friends such as we can find them, not as we would make them.

"These concessions every wise man is more ready to make to others, as he knows that he shall often want them for himself; and when he remembers how often he fails in the observance of a cultivation of his best friends, is willing to suppose that his friends may in their turn neglect him, without any intention to offend him.

"When therefore it shall happen, as happen it will, that you or I have disappointed the expectation of the other, you are not to suppose that you have lost me, or that I intended to lose you; nothing will remain but to repair the fault, and to go on as if it never had been committed. I am, sir, your affectionate servant,

66

"SAM. JOHNSON.”

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TO MISS REYNOLDS. "Oxford, 27th Oct. [1758.] "Your letter has scarcely come time enough to make an answer possible. I MSS. wish we could talk over the affair. I cannot go now. I must finish my book. I do not know Mr. Collier'. I have not money beforehand sufficient. How long have you known Collier, that you should put yourself into his hands? I once told you that ladies were timorous and yet not cautious.

"If I might tell my thoughts to one with whom they never had any weight, I should think it best to go through France. The expense is not great; I do not much like obligation, nor think the grossness of a ship very suitable to a lady. Do not go till I see you. I will see you as soon as I I am, my dearest, most sincerely yours, "SAM. JOHNSON."

66

TO W. S. JOHNSON 2, LL. D. STRATFORD,

CONNECTICUT. "Johnson's-court, Fleet-street, London, March 4, 1773"SIR,-Of all those whom the various accidents of life have brought within Gent. my notice, there is scarce any man whose M acquaintance I have more desired to cul- p. 520. tivate than yours. I cannot indeed charge

can. "14th July, 1763. "DEAR GEORGE,-To give pain ought always to be painful, and I am sorry that I have been the occasion of any uneasiness to you, to whom I hope never to [do] any thing but for your benefit or your pleasure. Your uneasiness was without any reason on your part, as you had written with sufficient frequency to me, and I had only neglected to answer them, because as nothing new had been proposed to your study, no new direction or incitement could be offered you. But if it had happened that you had omitted what you did not omit, and that I had for an hour, or a week, or a much longer time, thought myself put out of your mind by something to which presence gave that prevalence, which presence will sometimes give even where there is the most prudence and experience, you are not to imagine that my friendship is light enough to be blown away by the first cross blast, or that my regard or kindness hangs by so slender a hair as to be broken off by the unfelt weight of a petty offence. I love you,

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1 Captain Collier, since Sir George, proposed at that time to sail to the Mediterranean with his lady-Miss REYNOLDS. (And it would seem offered Miss Reynolds that Johnson might be of the party. Sir Joshus had a passage; and Miss Reynolds appears to have wished gone to the Mediterranean in a similar way with Captain Keppel.-ED.]

This gentleman spent several years in England about the 2 The late William Samuel Johnson of Connecticut. middle of the last century. He received the degree of doctor of civil law from the university of Oxford; and this circumstance, together with the accidental similari. ty of name, recommended him to the acquaintance of Dr. Samuel Johnson. Several letters passed between

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you with neglecting ine, yet our mutual inclina- | tion could never gratify itself with opportunities. The current of the day always bore us away from one another, and now the Atlantic is between us. "Whether you carried away an impression of me as pleasing as that which you left me of yourself, I know not; if you did you have not forgotten me, and will be glad that I do not forget you. Merely to be remembered is indeed a barren pleasure, but it is one of the pleasures which is more sensibly felt as human nature is more exalted. To make you wish that I should have you in my mind, I would be glad to tell you something which you do not know; but all public affairs are printed; and as you and I have no common friend, I can tell you no private history.

"The government, I think, grow stronger, but I am afraid the next general election will be a time of uncommon turbulence, violence, and outrage.

"Of literature no great product has appeared, or is expected; the attention of the people has for some years been otherwise employed.

"I was told a day or two ago of a design which must excite some curiosity. Two ships are in preparation which are under the command of Captain Constantine Phipps, to explore the northern ocean; not to seek the north-east or the north-west passage, but to sail directly north, as near the pole as they can go. They hope to find an open ocean, but I suspect it is one mass of perpetual congelation. I do not much wish well to discoveries, for I am always afraid they will end in conquest and robbery.

"I have been out of order this winter, but am grown better. Can I never hope to see you again, or must I be always content to tell you that in another hemisphere I am, sir, your most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON."

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them, after the American Dr. Johnson had returned to his native country; of which, however, it is feared that this is the only one remaining,—Gent. Mag.

[This circumstance enables us to state that the East Indian friend, mentioned in p. 55, was Mr. Joseph Fowke, and to guess that he (and not one of the Vansittarts, as Mr. Tyers thought) was alluded to in vol. i. p. 136. The arrival of this collection of papers" is no doubt the cu rious incident mentioned ante, p. 57.-E.] Mr. J. Fowke, who died about 1794, was born about the year 1715, and entered into the service of the East India Company at the age of 17. He remained at Fort St. George I VOL. II. 65

seems to have been injured by the prosecution and the sentence. His first desire is, that I should prepare his narrative for the press; his second, that if I cannot gratify him by publication, I would transmit the papers to you. To a compliance with his first request I have this objection; that I live in a reciprocation of civilities with Mr. Hastings, and therefore cannot properly diffuse a narrative, intended to bring upon him the censure of the publick. Of two adversaries, it would be rash to condemn either upon the evidence of the other; and a common friend must keep himself suspended, at least till he has heard both.

"I am therefore ready to transmit to you the papers, which have been seen only by myself; and beg to be informed how they may be conveyed to you. I see no legal objection to the publication; and of prudential reasons, Mr. Fowke and you will be allowed to be fitter judges.

"If you would have me send them, let me have proper directions: if a messenger is to call for them, give me notice by the post, that they may be ready for delivery.

"To do my dear Mr. Fowke any good would give me pleasure; I hope for some opportunity of performing the duties of friendship to him, without violating them with regard to another. I am, sir, your most humble servant,

"SAM. JOHNSON,"

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"TO RICHARD BEATNIFFE, ESQ. "Bolt-Court, Fleet-street, 14th Feb. 1782. "SIR,-Robert Levet, with whom I have been connected by a friendship of vol. many years, died lately at my house. His death was sudden, and no will has yet been found; I therefore gave notice of his death in the papers, that an heir, if he has any, may appear. He has left very little; but of that little his brother is doubtless heir, and your friend may be perhaps his brother. I have had another application from one who calls himself his brother:

till 1748, and when he returned to England was offered the government either of Bengal or Madras. This offer was by no means so advantageous as it would be at pres ent; Mr. Fowke therefore declined it, and remained in England until 1771. At this period he returned to India, where some differences of opinion unfortunately occurred

between him and the Provisional Government, which ended in his being tried in June, 1775, in the Supreme Court of Bengal, under two indictments. In the first of these trials the verdict was, not guilty. In the second, in which Mr. Fowke was implicated with Nundocomar and Rads Churn, the verdict was, "Joseph Fowke and Nundocomar, guilty: Rada Churn, not guilty." In the year 1728 Mr. Fowke flually quitted Bengal, with a recommendation from Lord Cornwallis to the Court of Directors, as a person entitled to receive the pension which was promised to their servants returning from

Bengal out of employment. This recommendation was, however, rejected. After a lapse of some time, the claim was brought forward by Mr. Burke (with the readers of whose works the case of Nundocomar must be familiar in the House of Commons, when the following resolution was made in his favour —

"Resolved, That it appears to this House, that the said Joseph Fowke is entitled to the pension or allowance engaged to be paid by the East India Company to their servants, under certain descriptions, and under certain conditions, expressed in their letter from the Court of Directors of the 21st of September, 1785, to the Goveri – or-General and Council of Bengsl, from the time in which, by the said letter of the 21st of Senteniber, 175, persons described in the said letter were to receive the same.”- Gent. Mag.

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