party should draw up in a narrow compass his own state of the case, and his demand upon the other; and each abate somewhat, of which himself or his friends may think due to him by the laws of rigid justice. This will seem a tedious method, but will, I hope, be shortened by the desire, so often expressed on each side, of a speedy determination. If either party can make use of me in this transac tion, in which there is no opportunity for malevolence or prejudice to exert themselves, I shall be well satisfied with the employment. Mr. Cave, who knows to whom I am writing, desires me to mention bis interest', of which I need not remind you that it is complicated with yours; and therefore cannot be neglected by you without opposition to motives, far stronger than the persuasions of, Sir, your humble servant, Pocock, MSS. "SAM. JOHNSON." JOHNSON TO PAUL, In Birmingham. "At the Black Boy, over against Durham Yard, "Strand, March 31st, 1741. SIR, The hurry of removing and some other hindrances, have kept me from writing to you since you left us, nor should I have allowed myself the pleasure of doing it now, but that the Doctor [James] has pressed me to offer you a proposal, which I know not why he does not rather make himself; but his request, whatever be the reason of it, is too small to be denied. He proposes, 1. To pay you immediately, or give you satisfactory security for the speedy payment of £100. 2. To exchange general releases with Mr. Warren. These proposals he makes upon the conditions formerly offered, that the bargain for spindles shall be vacated. The securities for Mr. Warren's debts released, and the debt of £65 remitted with the addition of this new article, that Mr. Warren shall give him the books bought for the carrying on of their joint undertaking. What difference this new demand may make, I cannot tell, nor do I intend to be understood in these proposals to express any of my own sentiments, but merely to write after a dictation. I believe I have expressed the Doctor's meaning, but being disappointed of an interview with him, cannot shew him this, and he generally hints his intentions somewhat obscurely. He is very impatient for an answer, and desires me to importune you for one by the return of the post. I am not willing, in this affair, to request anything on my own account; for you know already, that an agreement can only be made by a communication of your thoughts, and a speedy agreement only by an expeditious communication. I hope to write soon on some more agreeable subject; for though, perhaps, a man cannot easily In 1741 he wrote for the Gentleman's Magazine the "Preface;"† "Conclusion of his Lives of Drake and Barretier ;"*"A free Translation of the Jests of Hierocles, with an Introduction;"† and, I think, the following pieces: "Debate on the Proposal of Parliament to Cromwell, to assume the Title of King, abridged modified, and digested;"2† "Translation of Abbé Guyon's Dissertation on the Amazons;"† "Translation of Fontenelle's Panegyric on Dr. Morin." Two notes upon this appear to me undoubtedly his. He this year, and the two following, wrote the Parliamentary Debates. He told me himself, that he was the sole composer of them for those three years only. He was not, however, precisely exact in his statement, which he mentioned from hasty recollection; for it is sufficiently evident, that his composition of them began November 19. 1740, and ended February 23. 1742-3.3 Birch, that Cave had better assistance for that It appears from some of Cave's letters to Dr. branch of his Magazine, than has been generally supposed; and that he was indefatigable in getting it made as perfect as he could. Thus, 21st July, 1735, "I trouble you with the inclosed, because you said you could easily correct what is here given for Lord Chesterfield's speech. I beg you will do so as soon as you can for me, because the month is far advanced." And 15th July, 1737, "As you remember the debates so far as to perceive the speeches already printed are not exact, I beg the favour that you will peruse the inclosed, and, in the best manner your memory will serve, correct the mistaken passages, or add any thing that is omitted. I should be very glad to have something of the Duke of Newcastle's speech, which would be particularly of service. A gentleman has Lord Bathurst's speech to add something to." And July 3, 1744, "You will see what stupid, low, abominable stuff is put upon your noble and learned friend's 1738. I, however, see abundant reason to believe that he wrote them from the time (June 1738) that they assumed the Lilliputian title, and even the "Introduction" to this new form is evidently his; and when Mr. Boswell limits Johnson's share to the 23d of Feb. 1743, he refers to the date of the debate itself, and not to that of the report, for the debates on the Gin Act (certainly reported by Johnson), which took place in Feb. 1743, were not concluded in the Magazine till February, 1744: so that instead of two years and nine months, according to Mr. Boswell's reckoning, we have, I think. Johnson's own evidence that he was employed in this way for near six years from 1738 to 1744. CROKER. I suppose, in another compilation of the same kind.BOSWELL. 5 Doubtless, Lord Hardwicke. - BosWELL. character, such as I should quite reject, and endeavour to do something better towards doing justice to the character. But as I cannot expect to attain my desire in that respect, it would be a great satisfaction, as well as an honour to our work, to have the favour of the genuine speech. It is a method that several have been pleased to take, as I could show, but I think myself under a restraint. I shall say so far, that I have had some by a third hand, which I understood well enough to come from the first; others by penny-post, and others by the speakers themselves, who have been pleased to visit St. John's Gate, and show particular marks of their being pleased."-[Birch's MSS. in Brit. Mus. 4302.] 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 I am assured that the editor is Mr. George Chalmers, whose commercial works are well known and esteemed.BO WELL. This collection is stated in the Preface to the Parliamentary History, vol. x., to be very incomplete: of thirty-two debates, twelve are given under wrong dates, and several of Johnson's best compositions are wholly omitted; amongst others the important debate of Feb. 13 1741, on Mr. Sandys's motion for the removal of Sir Robert Walpole: other omissions, equally striking, are complained of. CROKER. Sir J. Hawkins's account of the origin and progress of this system of reporting the debates and of Johnson's share in it is too long (pp.94-132) to be introduced here, but is curious and worth consulting. Hawkins, however, seems (as well as the other biographers) to have overrated the value, to Cave and the public, of Johnson's Parliamentary Debates. It is shown in the preface to the Parliamentary History for 1738 (ed. 1812), that one of Cave's rivals, the London Magazine, often excelled the Gentleman's Magazine, in the priority and accuracy of its parliamentary reports, which were contributed by Gordon, the translator of Tacitus. Of the reports in the Gentleman's Magazine, Mr. Murphy says: "That Johnson was the author of the debates was not generally known; but the secret transpired several years afterwards, and was avowed by himself on the following occasion:- Mr. Wedderburne (afterwards Lord Loughborough and Earl of Rosslyn), Dr. Johnson, Dr. Francis (the transistor of Horace), Murphy himself, and others, dined with the late Mr. Foote. An important debate towards the end of Sir Robert Walpole's administration being mentioned, Dr. Francis observed, "that Mr. Pitt's speech on that occasion was the best he had ever read." He added, "that be had employed eight years of his life in the study of Detosthenes, and finished a translation of that celebrated erator, with all the decorations of style and language within the reach of his capacity; but he had met with nothing equal to the speech above mentioned." Many of the company remembered the debate; and some passages were cited with the approbation and applause of all present. During the ardour of conversation, Johnson remained silent. As soon as the warmth of praise subsided, he opened with these words: "That speech I wrote in a garret in Exeter Street." hand.1 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 John Hawkins seems to think. But, indeed, the manner of each particular speaker, as Sir 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 ?"2 The company was struck with astonishment. After staring at each other in silent amaze, Dr. Francis asked how that speech could be written by him? "Sir," said Johnson, "I wrote it in Exeter Street. I never have been in the gallery of the House of Commons but once. Cave had interest with the door-keepers He, and the persons employed under him, gained admittance: they brought away the subject of discussion, the names of the speakers, the sides they took, and the order in which they rose, together with notes of the arguments advanced in the course of the debate. The whole was afterwards communicated to me, and I composed the speeches in the form which they now have in the Parliamentary Debates." To this discovery Dr. Francis made answer: Then, sir, you have exceeded Demosthenes himself, for to say that you have exceeded Francis's Demosthenes, would be saying nothing." The rest of the company bestowed lavish encomiums on Johnson: one, in particular, praised his impartiality; observing, that he dealt out reason and eloquence with an equal hand to both parties. "That is not quite true," said Johnson; "I saved appearances tolerably well, but I took care that the WHIG DOGS should not have the best of it." - - Murphy. The speech of Mr. Pitt's referred to was, no doubt, the celebrated reply to old Horace Walpole, beginning "The atrocious crime of being a young man," March 10. 1741; but there is in the statement a slight inaccuracy, arising, perhaps, from a slip of Johnson's memory, who, by Mr. Boswell's list of Johnson's residences, appears not to have resided in Exeter Street after his return to London in 1737. But he may have resided there a second time, or, after the lapse of so many years, have forgotten the exact place. There can be no doubt that Murphy's report was accurate. It is very remarkable that Dr. Maty, who wrote the Life and edited the Works of Lord Chesterfield, with the use of his Lordship's papers, under the eye of his surviving friends, and in the lifetime of Johnson, should have published, as "specimens of his Lordship's eloquence, in the strong nervous style of Demosthenes, as well as in the witty ironical manner of Tully," three speeches, which are certainly Johnson's composition. See Chesterfield's Works, vol. ii. p. 319. and post, May 13. 1778. — CROKER. 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. "Sept. 9, 1741. “I have put Mr. Johnson's play into Mr. Gray's 1 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 3 prevented it." I have already inentioned 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 (10th Sept. 1773) insisting upon it strenuously in conversation. “An Account of the Life of Peter Burman,"* I believe chiefly taken from a foreign publication; as, indeed, he could not himself know much about Burman; "Additions to his Life of Barretier,"* ,"*"The Life of Sydenham,"* afterwards prefixed to Dr. Swan's edition of his works; "Proposals for printing Bibliotheca Harleiana, or a Catalogue of the Library of the Earl of Oxford."* His account of that celebrated collection of books, in which he displays the importance to literature, of what the French call a catalogue raisonné, when the subjects of it are extensive and various, and it is executed with ability, cannot fail to impress all his readers with admiration of his philological attainments. It was afterwards prefixed to the first volume of the Catalogue, in which the Latin accounts of books were written by him. He was employed in this business by Mr. Thomas Osborne the bookseller, who purchased the library for 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. Not the Royal Society [as Boswell in his two first editions had strangely stated), 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. BOSWELL. 3 There is no erasure here, but a mere blank; to fill up which may be an exercise for ingenious conjecture. BosWELL. Probably something equivalent to the reverse of diffidence.- CROKER. 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 | 1 13,000l., a sum which Mr. Oldys says, in one of his manuscripts, was not more than the binding of the books had cost; yet, as Dr. Johnson assured me, the slowness of the sale was such, that there was not much gained by it. It has been confidently related, with many embellishments, that Johnson one day knocked Osborne down in his shop with a folio, and put his foot upon his neck. The simple truth I had from Johnson himself. "Sir, he was impertinent to me, and I beat him. But it was not in his shop: it was in my own chamber." A very diligent observer may trace him where we should not easily suppose him to be found. I have no doubt that he wrote the little abridgment entitled "Foreign History," in the Magazine for December. To prove it, I shall quote the Introduction: "As this is that season of the year in which Nature may be said to command a suspension of hostilities, and which seems intended, by putting a short stop to violence and slaughter, to afford time for malice to relent, and animosity to subside; we can scarce expect any other account than of plans, negotiations, and treaties, of proposals for peace, and preparations for war." As also this passage: "Let those who despise the capacity of the Swiss, tell us by what wonderful policy, or by what happy conciliation of interests, it is brought to pass, that in a body made up of different communities and different religions, there should be no civil commotions, though the people are so warlike, that to nominate and raise an army is the same." I am obliged to Mr. Astle for his ready permission to copy the two following letters, of which the originals are in his possession. Their contents show that they were written about this time, and that Johnson was now engaged in preparing an historical account of the British Parliament. JOHNSON TO CAVE. [Aug. 1743.] "SIR, I believe I am going to write a long letter, and have therefore taken a whole sheet of paper. The first thing to be written about is our historical design. "You mentioned the proposal of printing in had in contemplation may have been a history of that monarch. MALONE. 5"A late female minister of state has been shameless enough to inform the world, that she used, when she wanted to extract any thing from her sovereign, to remind her of Montaigne's reasoning; who has determined, that to tell a secret to a friend is no breach of fidelity, because the number of persons trusted is not multiplied, a man and his friend being virtually the same." Rambler, No. 13 WRIGHT. 6 The same who is introduced into the Dunciad under disgusting circumstances, which disgrace Pope rather than Osborne, of whom Johnson says in his Life of the poet, that his impassible dulness" would not feel the satire. He died in 1767. CROKER. 7 See Censura Literaria, vol. i. p. 438. — WRIGHT. 8 Thomas Astle, Esq, many years Keeper of the Records in the Tower, one of the Keepers of the Paper Office, and Trustee of the British Museum. He contributed many articles to the Archæologia; but his principal work was the "Origin and Progress of Writing, as well Hieroglyphic as Elementary." He died Dec. 1. 1803.-WRIGHT. numbers as an alteration in the scheme, but I believe you mistook, some way or other, my meaning; I had no other view than that you might rather print too many of five sheets, than of five and thirty. "With regard to what I shall say on the manner of proceeding, I would have it understood as wholly indifferent to me, and my opinion only, not my resolution. Emptoris sit eligere. and know whether his defence be at Bristol, and "I thought my letter would be long, but it is "The boy found me writing this almost in the dark, when could not quite easily read yours. "I have read the Italian: - nothing in it is well. I think the insertion of the exact dates of the most important events in the margin, or of so many events as may enable the reader to regulate the order of facts with sufficient exactness, the proper medium between a journal, which has regard only to time, and a history, which ranges facts according to their dependence on each other, and postpones or anticipates according to the convenience of narration. I think the work ought to partake of the spirit of history, which is contrary to minute exact-injury. I am almost well again.' ness, and of the regularity of a journal, which is inconsistent with spirit. For this reason, I neither admit numbers or dates, nor reject them. "I had no notion of having any thing for the Inscription. I hope you don't think I kept it to extort a price. I could think of nothing till to-day. If you could spare me another guinea for the history, I should take it very kindly, tonight; but if you do not I shall not think it an I am of your opinion with regard to placing most of the resolutions, &c. in the margin, and think we shall give the most complete account of parliamentary proceedings that can be contrived. The naked papers, without an historical treatise interwoven, require some other book to make them understood. I will date the succeeding facts with some exactness, but I think in the margin. "You told me on Saturday that I had received money on this work, and found set down 131. 2s. 6d. reckoning the half guinea of last Saturday. As you hinted to me that you had many calls for money, I would not press you too hard, and therefore shall desire only, as I send it in, two guineas for a sheet of copy; the rest you may pay me when it may be more convenient; and even by this sheet payment I shall, for some time, be very expensive. “The Life of Savage I am ready to go upon; and in great primer and pica notes, I reckon on sending in half a sheet a day; but the money for that shall likewise lie by in your hands till it is done. With the debates, shall not I have business enough if I had but good pens? "Towards Mr. Savage's Life what more have you got? I would willingly have his trial, &c., 1 "The Plain Dealer " was published in 1724, and contained some account of Savage. - BOSWELL. Perhaps the Runic Inscription, Gent. Mag. vol. xii. - MALONE. Certainly not-that was published in March. 1742, at least seventeen months before this letter was written; nor does there appear in the Magazine any inscription to which this can refer. It seemed at first sight probable that it might allude to the translation of Pope's Inscription on his Grotto, bich appeared (with an apology for haste) in the next Magazine; but the expression "I could think of nothing till to day," negatives that supposition. The inscription, then, was I suppose one which Cave requested Johnson to devise, and for which, when Johnson after a long delay produced it, Cave surprised him by paying. — CROKER. I have not discovered what this was. - BOSWELL. Mr. Hector was present when this Epigram was made impromptu. The first line was proposed by Dr. James, and Johnson was called upon by the company to finish it, which be instantly did. — BOSWELL. Angliacas inter pulcherrima Laura puellas, "Laura, of British girls the loveliest flower, Nor harm thee, envious of thy brighter bloom. JOHNSON TO CAVE. "SIR, — You did not tell me your determination about the Soldier's Letter, which I am confident was never printed. I think it will not do by itself, or in any other place, so well as the Mag. Extraordinary. If you will have it all, I believe you do not think I set it high; and I will be glad if what you give you will give quickly. "You need not be in care about something to print, for I have got the State Trials, and shall extract Layer, Atterbury, and Macclesfield from them, and shall bring them to you in a fortnight; after which I will try to get the South Sea Report." [No date, nor signature.] I would also ascribe to him an 66 Essay on Du Halde."† the Description of China, from the French of in 1743, are, the Preface †, the Parliamentary His writings in the Gentleman's Magazine Debates †, "Considerations on the Dispute between Crousaz and Warburton, on Pope's Essay on Man ;"† in which, while he defends Crousaz, he shows an admirable metaphysical acuteness and temperance in controversy: "Ad Lauram parituram Epigramma :"3* and, “A This version is, I am conscious, awkward enough, but not more so, I hope, than the original, which indeed, seems hardly worth the distinction of being specially quoted. If the first line was proposed as a thesis, we cannot much admire the style in which it was followed up: the designation, surely, of the lady as puella, would lead us to expect any thing rather than the turn which the epigram takes. Is not the second line gross and awkward; the third pedantic; and the conceit of the fourth not even classical for Lucina was never famed for her beauty; and does not the whole seem a very strange subject for poetical compliment? CROKER, 1831. An article in the Edinburgh Review, No. 107. p. 9., since republished in Mr. Macaulay's Essays, censures the foregoing note; and, somewhat superfluously, reminds us, that Horace talks of laborantes utero puellas." I never said or supposed that a person in that condition might not be still called “puella,” but I thought and think that if, as Boswell states, the first line was given as a thesis for the poet to pursue ad libitum in praise of" the prettiest girl in England," one never would have expected the turn the compliment takes, of telling her, in very coarse terms, that she is about to be brought to bed, and of adding, by way of consolation, that she is handsomer than the midwife: for this learned critic has further discovered that "Lucina was one of the names of Diana, and the beauty of Diana is extolled by all the most orthodox doctors of ancient mythology." By this style of metonymy Hecate also might be made a partaker of Diana's beauty. See Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine for Nov. 1831. CROKER, 1846. Mr. Malone states, that an elegant Latin Ode “ Ad orna Latin Translation of Pope's Verses on his Grotto:" and, as he could employ his pen with equal success upon a small matter as a great, I suppose him to be the author of an advertisement for Osborne, concerning the great Harleian Catalogue. But I should think myself much wanting, both to my illustrious friend and my readers, did I not introduce here, with more than ordinary respect, an exquisitely beautiful Ode, which has not been inserted in any of the collections of Johnson's poetry, written by him at a very | early period, as Mr. Hector informs me, and inserted in the Gentleman's Magazine of this year. tissimam Puellam," which appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1743 (vol. xiii. p. 548.), was, many years ago, pointed out to James Bindley, Esq., as written by Johnson, and may safely be attributed to him. I do not think so: it appears to me to be in a different and (may I venture to aid?) better style than Johnson's; and I find, in the New Foundling Hospital for Wit, that it is attributed to Bishop Lowth.-CROKER. 1" SIR, That the Medicinal Dictionary is dedicated to you, is to be imputed only to your reputation for superior skill in those sciences which I have endeavoured to explain and facilitate: and you are, therefore, to consider this address, if it be agreeable to you, as one of the rewards of merit; and, if otherwise, as one of the inconveniences of eminence. "However you shall receive it, my design cannot be disappointed; because this public appeal to your judgment will show that I do not found my hopes of approbation upon the ignorance of my readers, and that I fear his censure least whose knowledge is most extensive. I am, Sir, your most obedient humble servant, R. JAMES."-BOSWELL. written, or assisted in writing, the proposals for this work; and being very fond of the study of physic, in which James was his master, he furnished some of the articles. He, however, certainly wrote for it the Dedication to Dr. Mead †, which is conceived with great address, to conciliate the patronage of that very eminent man.' It has been circulated 2, I know not with what authenticity, that Johnson considered Dr. Birch as a dull writer, and said of him, “Tom Birch is as brisk as a bee in conversation; but no sooner does he take a pen in his hand, than it becomes a torpedo to him, and benumbs all his faculties." That the literature of this country is much indebted to Birch's activity and diligence, must certainly be acknowledged. We have seen that Johnson honoured 3 him with a Greek Epigram; and his correspondence with him, during many years, proves that he had no mean opinion of him. JOHNSON TO BIRCH. "Thursday, Sept. 29. 1743. "SIR, I hope you will excuse me for troubling you on an occasion on which I know not whom else I can apply to: I am at a loss for the lives and characters of Earl Stanhope, the two Craggs, and the minister Sunderland; and beg that you will inform [me] where I may find them, and send any pamphlets, &c. relating to them to Mr. Cave, to be perused for a few days, by, Sir, your most humble servant, SAM. JOHNSON." His circumstances were at this time embarrassed; yet his affection for his mother was so warm, and so liberal, that he took upon himself a debt of hers, which, though small in itself, was then considerable to him. This appears from the following letter which he wrote to Mr. Levett, of Lichfield, the original of which lies now before me. JOHNSON TO MR. LEVETT, December 1. 1743. "SIR, I am extremely sorry that we have encroached so much upon your forbearance with respect to the interest, which a great perplexity of affairs hindered me from thinking of with that attention that I ought, and which I am not immediately able to remit to you, but will pay it (I 2 By Hawkins. Life, p. 209. There seems no reason to doubt that Dr. Birch's conversation exceeded his writings in vivacity, but the phrase itself is, as Mr. P. Cunningham observes, borrowed from Beau Nash, who said of himself that " his pen was a torpedo, which, when he grasped it, benumbed all his faculties." Goldsmith's Life of Nash. - CROKER. 3 No doubt, as the case has turned out, Birch is honoured by Johnson's compliment; but at the time when it was written, Birch was of eminence in the literary world, and (what affected Johnson more nearly) high in the estimation of Cave; and Johnson's learned flatteries of him, Miss Carter, and Mr. Urban, were all probably prompted by a desire to propitiate Cave. - CROKER. 4 Dr. Johnson was no doubt an affectionate son, and eren to indifferent persons the most charitable of men; but the praises which Boswell lavishes on this particular affair are uncalled for, as the debt was hardly so much Johnson's mother's as his own. It has already appeared that he had something of his father's property to expect after his mother's death (p. 19.); this was the house in Lichfield, |