titled "Taxation no Tyranny; an Answer to the Resolutions and Address of the American Congress." He had long before indulged most unfavourable sentiments of our fellow-subjects in America. For as early as 1769, I was told by Dr. John Campbell, that he had said of them, "Sir, they are a race of convicts, and ought to be thankful for any thing we allow them short of hanging." "2 appear why, either by himself or those who revised it. They appear printed in a few proof leaves of it in my possession, marked with corrections in his own handwriting. I shall distinguish them by italics. In the paragraph where he says, the Americans were incited to resistance by European intelligence from "men whom they thought their friends, but who "and made by their selfishness, the enemies of their country." And the next paragraph ran thus: "On the original contrivers of mischief, rather than on those whom they have deluded, let an insulted nation pour out its vengeance." Of this performance I avoided to talk with him; for I had now formed a clear and settled opinion, that the people of America were well warranted to resist a claim that their fellowsubjects in the mother country should have the entire command of their fortunes, by taxing them without their own consent; and the extreme violence which it breathed appeared to me so unsuitable to the mildness of a Christian philosopher, and so directly opposite to the principles of peace which he had so beautifully recommended in his pamphlet respecting Falkland's Islands, that I was sorry to see him appear in so unfavourable a light. Besides, I could not perceive in it that ability of "Unhappy is that country in which men can hope The tranargument, or that felicity of expression, for for advancement by favouring its enemies. which he was, upon other occasions, so emi-quillity of stable government is not always easily prenent. Positive assertion, sarcastical severity, but what can be the hope of quiet, when factions hostile served against the machinations of single innovators; and extravagant ridicule, which he himself reto the legislature can be openly formed and openly probated as a test of truth, were united in this avowed?" rhapsody. That this pamphlet was written at the desire of those who were then in power, I have no doubt, and indeed, he owned to me, that it had been revised and curtailed by some of them. He told me that they had struck out one passage, which was to this effect: "That the colonists could with no solidity argue from their not having been taxed while in their infancy, that they should not now be taxed. We do not put a calf into the plough; we wait till he is an ox." He said, “They struck it out either critically as too ludicrous, or politically as too exasperating. I care not which. It was their business. If an architect says, I will build five stories, and the man who employs him says, I will have only three, the employer is to decide." "Yes, Sir," said I, "in ordinary cases: but should it be so when the architect gives his skill and labour gratis?" Unfavourable as I am constrained to say my opinion of this pamphlet was, yet since it was congenial with the sentiments of numbers at that time, and as every thing relating to the writings of Dr. Johnson is of importance in literary history, I shall therefore insert some passages which were struck out, it does not 1 Published March 7. 1775, by T. Cadell in the Strand.-WRIGHT. I am very suspicious of anecdotes at second hand, and caunot believe that this coarse and foolish phrase was seriously uttered by Johnson. Something like it may have The paragraph which came next was in these words: After the paragraph which now concludes the pamphlet, there follows this, in which he certainly means the great Earl of Chatham, and glances at a certain popular Lord Chancellor. 3 66 If, by the fortune of war, they drive us utterly away, what they will do next can only be conjectured. If a new monarchy is erected, they will want a king. He who first takes into his hand the sceptre of America should have a name of good omen. WILLIAM has been known both a conqueror and deliverer; and perhaps England, however contemned, might yet supply them willing to be governed; and it is possible that King with another WILLIAM. Whigs, indeed, are not WILLIAM may be strongly inclined to guide their measures: but Whigs have been cheated like other mortals, and suffered their leader to become their tyrant, under the name of their protector. What more they will receive from England, no man can tell. In their rudiments of empire they may want a Chancellor." Then came this paragraph: "Their numbers are, at present, not quite sufficient for the greatness which, in some form of government or other, is to rival the ancient monarchies; but by Dr. Franklin's rule of progression, they will. in a century and a quarter, be more than equal to the inhabitants of Europe. When the Whigs of America are thus been one of those hasty conversational sarcasms to which he multiplied, let the princes of the earth tremble in their palaces. If they should continue to double and to double, their own hemisphere would not contain them. But let not our boldest oppugners of authority look forward with delight to this futurity of Whiggism." How it ended I know not, as it is cut off abruptly at the foot of the last of these proof pages. His pamphlets in support of the measures of administration were published on his own account, and he afterwards collected them into a volume, with the title of "Political Tracts, by the Author of the Rambler," with this motto: "Fallitur egregio quisquis sub principe credit Servitium; nunquam libertas gratior extat Quam sub rege pio." - Claudianus.1 These pamphlets drew upon him numerous attacks. Against the common weapons of literary warfare he was hardened; but there were two instances of animadversion which I communicated to him, and from what I could judge, both from his silence and his looks, appeared to me to impress him much. 2 and so valuable a work, was capable of prostituting his talents in such productions as The False Alarm, the Thoughts on the Transactions respecting Falkland's Islands,' and The Patriot."" I am willing to do justice to the merit of Dr. Towers, of whom I will say, that although I abhor his Whiggish democratical notions and propensities (for I will not call them principles), I esteem as an ingenious, knowing, and very convivial man. The other instance was a paragraph of a letter to me, from my old and most intimate friend the Rev. Mr. Temple, who wrote the character of Gray, which has had the honour to be adopted both by Mr. Mason and Dr. Johnson in their accounts of that poet. The words were, "How can your great, I will not say your pious, but your moral friend, support the barbarous measures of administration, which they have not the face to ask even their infidel pensioner Hume to defend?" However confident of the rectitude of his John-easiness that his conduct should be erroneously own mind, Johnson may have felt sincere unimputed to unworthy motives by good men; and that the influence of his valuable writings should on that account be in any degree ob One was, "A Letter to Dr. Samuel son, occasioned by his late political Publications." It appeared previous to his "Taxation no Tyranny," and was written by Dr. Joseph Towers. In that performance, Dr. Johnson was treated with the respect due to so eminent a man, while his conduct as a political writer was boldly and pointedly arraigned, as inconsistent with the character of one, who, if he did employ his pen upon politics, "it might reasonably be expected should distinguish himself, not by party violence and rancour, but by moderation and by wisdom." It concluded thus: I would, however, wish you to remember, should you again address the public under the character of a political writer, that luxuriance of imagination or energy of language will ill compensate for the want of candour, of justice, and of truth. And I shall only add, that should I hereafter be disposed to read, as I heretofore have done, the most excellent of all your performances, The Rambler,' the pleasure which I have been accustomed to find in it will be much diminished by the reflection that the writer of so moral, so elegant, 1 "He errs who deems obedience to a prince Slav'rya happier freedom never reigns Than with a pious Monarch."- Stil, iii. 113.- C. 2 Mr. Boswell, by a very natural prejudice, construes Johnson's silence and looks into something like a concurrence in his own sentiments; but it does not appear that Johnson ever abated one jot of the firmness and decision of his opinion on these questions. See his conversation passim, and his letter to John Wesley, post, Feb. 6. 1776. — CROKER. 3 Dr. Joseph Towers, a miscellaneous writer, and a preacher among the Unitarians, was born in 1737, and died 1799. WRIGHT. 4 Boswell is here very inconsistent; for, abhorring Dr. Towers's Whiggish democratical notions and propensities, how can he allow any weight to his opinions in a case which called these propensities into full effect; and above structed or lessened. of distinguished talents and very elegant manHe complained to a right honourable friend' ners, with whom he maintained a long intimacy, and whose generosity towards him will afterwards appear, that his pension having been given to him as a literary character, he had been applied to by administration to write political pamphlets; and he was even so much irritated, that he declared his resolution to resign his pension. His friend showed him the impropriety of such a measure, and he afterwards expressed his gratitude, and said he had received good advice. To that friend he once signified a wish to have his pension secured to him for his life; but he neither asked nor received from government any reward whatsoever for his political labours. On Friday, March 24., I met him at the LITERARY CLUB, where were Mr. Beauclerk, Mr. Langton, Mr. Colman, Dr. Percy, Mr. Vesey, Sir Charles Bunbury, Dr. George For all, how could he suppose that Dr. Johnson, with his known feelings and opinions, could be influenced by a person professing such doctrines? CROKER. 5 Mr. Gerard Hamilton. Johnson was certainly dissatisfied with Lord North, and some complaint of that kind he may have made to Mr. Hamilton-but that he ever, as Boswell seems to insinuate, confessed that his political pamphlets did not convey his own real opinions, I entirely discredit, not only from a consideration of Johnson's own character and principles, but from the evidence of all his other friends-persons who knew him more intimately than Mr. Hamilton- Mrs. Thrale, Mr. Murphy, Sir J. Hawkins, Mr. Tyers who all declare that his political pamphlets expressed the opinions which in private he always maintained. Mr. Boswell, we have seen, was of the same opinion until he took up the adverse side of the political question, and then he hints at Johnson's "uneasiness "" and plaints." CROKER. com dyce, Mr. Steevens, and Mr. Charles Fox. Before he came in, he talked of his "Journey to the Western Islands," and of his coming away, "willing to believe the second sight," which seemed to excite some ridicule. I was then so impressed with the truth of many of the stories of which I had been told, that I avowed my conviction, saying, "He is only willing to believe: I do believe. The evidence is enough for me, though not for his great mind. What will not fill a quart bottle will fill a pint bottle. I am filled with belief." "Are you?" said Colman; "then cork it up." I found his "Journey" the common topic of conversation in London at this time, wherever I happened to be. At one of Lord Mansfield's formal Sunday evening conversations, strangely called Levées, his lordship addressed me, "We have all been reading your travels, Mr. Boswell." I answered, "I was but the humble attendant of Dr. Johnson." The Chief-Justice replied, with that air and manner which none, who ever saw and heard him, can forget, "He speaks ill of nobody but Ossian." 2 66 Johnson was in high spirits this evening at the club, and talked with great animation and success. He attacked Swift, as he used to do upon all occasions. "The Tale of a Tub' is so much superior to his other writings, that one can hardly believe he was the author of it3: there is in it such a vigour of mind, such a swarm of thoughts, so much of nature, and art, and life." I wondered to hear him say of "Gulliver's Travels," - "When once you have thought of big men and little men, it is very easy to do all the rest." I endeavoured to make a stand for Swift, and tried to rouse those who were much more able to defend him; but in vain. Johnson at last, of his own accord, allowed very great merit to the inventory of articles found in the pocket of "the Man Mountain," particularly the description of his watch, which it was conjectured was his God, as he consulted it upon all occasions. He observed, that Swift put his name to but two things (after he had a name to put), "The Plan for the Improvement of the English Language," and the last "Drapier's Letter." From Swift, there was an easy transition to 1 "Journey," ed. 1785, p. 256.-BOSWELL. Boswell, however, changed his own opinion before he printed his Tour. See antè, p. 349. CROKER. 2 It is not easy to guess how the air and manner, even of Lord Mansfield, could have set off such an unmeaning expression as this. Johnson denied the authenticity of the poems attributed to Ossian, but that was not speaking ill of Ossian, in the sense which Mr. Boswell evidently gives to the phrase. CROKER, 3 This doubt has been much agitated on both sides, I think without good reason. See Addison's " Freeholder," May 4th, 1714; " An Apology for the Tale of a Tub;" Dr. Hawkesworth's "Preface to Swift's Works," and Swift's "Letter to Tooke the Printer," and Tooke's " Answer" in that collection; Sheridan's" Life of Swift; " Mr. Courtenay's note on p. 3. of his "Political Review of the Literary and Moral Character of Dr. Johnson ;" and Mr. Cooksey's "Essay on the Life and Character of John, Lord Somers, Baron of Evesham." Dr. Johnson here speaks only to the internal evidence. I take leave to differ from him, having a very high estination of the powers of Dr. Swift. His "Sentiments of a Church-of-England-man; "his" Sermon on the Trinity," Mr. Thomas Sheridan. JOHNSON. "Sheridan is a wonderful admirer of the tragedy of Douglas, and presented its author with a gold medal. Some years ago, at a coffee-house in Oxford, I called to him, 'Mr. Sheridan, Mr. Sheridan, how came you to give a gold medal to Home, for writing that foolish play?' This, you see, was wanton and insolent; but I meant to be wanton and insolent. A medal has no value but as a stamp of merit. And was Sheridan to assume to himself the right of giving that stamp? If Sheridan was magnificent enough to bestow a gold medal as an honorary reward of dramatic excellence, he should have requested one of the Universities to choose the person on whom it should be conferred. Sheridan had no right to give a stamp of merit: it was counterfeiting Apollo's coin." 4 On Monday, March 27., I breakfasted with him at Mr. Strahan's. He told us, that he was engaged to go that evening to Mrs. Abington's benefit. "She was visiting some ladies whom I was visiting, and begged that I would come to her benefit. I told her I could not hear: but she insisted so much on my coming, that it would have been brutal to have refused her." This was a speech quite characteristical. He loved to bring forward his having been in the gay circles of life; and he was, perhaps, a little vain of the solicitations of this elegant and fashionable actress. He told us the play was to be "The Hypocrite," altered from Cibber's "Nonjuror," so as to satirise the Methodists. "I do not think," said he, "the character of the Hypocrite justly applicable to the Methodists, but it is very applicable to the Nonjurors. I once said to Dr. Madan [Madden], a clergyman of Ireland, who was a great Whig, that perhaps a Nonjuror would have been less criminal in taking the oaths imposed by the ruling power, than refusing them; because refusing them necessarily laid him under almost an irresistible temptation to be more criminal; for a man must live, and if he precludes himself from the support furnished by the establishment will probably be reduced to very wicked shifts to maintain himself." 5 BOSWELL. "I should think, Sir, that a man who took the oaths con " and other serious pieces, prove his learning as well as his acuteness in logic and metaphysics; and his various compositions of a different cast exhibit not only wit, humour, and ridicule, but a knowledge "of nature, and art, and life; a combination, therefore, of those powers, when (as the "Apology" says) the author was young, his invention at the height, and his reading fresh in his head," might surely produce" The Tale of a Tub."- BosWELL. See antè, p. 154. n. 1. and 277. n. 2. a refutation of Johnson's strange paradoxes about Swift and the Tale of a Tub. - CROKER. 4 The medal was presented in 1757, and Mr. Whyte, the friend of Sheridan, (antè, p. 166. n. 1.) gives its history thus: "When Sheridan undertook to play Douglas in Dublin, he had liberally written to Home, promising him the profits of the third night. It happened, however, that these profits fell very short, and Sheridan was rather perplexed what to do. At first, he thought of offering the author a piece of plate, but, on the suggestion of Mr. Whyte, the idea of a medal was adopted ;" and it had, said Whyte," the additional value of being conveyed to Mr. Home by the hands of Lord Macartney and Lord Bute."- CROKER. 5 This was not merely a cursory remark; for in his Life Mr. Strahan talked of launching into the great ocean of London, in order to have a chance for rising into eminence; and observing that many men were kept back from trying their fortunes there, because they were born to a competency, said, "Small certainties are the bane of men of talents;" which Johnson confirmed. Mr. Strahan put Johnson in mind of a remark which he had made to him: "There are few ways in which a man can be more innocently employed than in getting money." "The more one thinks of this," said Strahan, "the juster it will appear." Mr. Strahan had taken a poor boy from the country as an apprentice, upon Johnson's recommendation. Johnson having inquired after him, said, "Mr. Strahan, let me have five guineas on account, and I'll give this boy one. Nay, if a man recommends a boy, and does nothing for him, it is sad work. Call him down. I followed him into the court-yard 3, behind Mr. Strahan's house; and there I had a proof of what I heard him profess, that he talked alike to all. "Some people tell you that they let themselves down to the capacity of their of Fenton, he observes, "With many other wise and virtuous men, who, at that time of discord and debate (about the beginning of this century), consulted conscience, well or ill formed, more than interest, he doubted the legality of the government; and refusing to qualify himself for public em. ployment, by taking the oaths required, left the University without a degree." This conduct Johnson calls "perverseness of integrity." The question concerning the morality of taking oaths, of whatever kind, imposed by the prevailing power at the time, rather than to be excluded from all consequence, or even any considerable usefulness in society, has been agitated with all the acuteness of casuistry. It is related, that he who devised the oath of abjuration profligately boasted, that he had framed a test which should damm one half of the nation, and starve the other." Upon minds not exalted to inflexible rectitude, or minds in which zeal for a party is predominant to excess, taking that oath against conviction may have been palliated under the plea of necessity, or ventured upon in heat, as upon the whole producing more good than evil. At a county election in Scotland, many years ago, when there was a warm contest between the friends of the Hanoverian succession, and those against it, the oath of abjuration having been demanded, the freeholders upon one side rose to go away. Upon which a very sanguíne hearers. I never do that. I speak uniformly, in as intelligible a manner as I can." "Well, my boy, how do you go on?" "Pretty well, Sir; but they are afraid I ar' n't strong enough for some parts of the business." JOHNSON." Why, I shall be sorry for it; for, when you consider with how little mental power and corporeal labour a printer can get a guinea a week, it is a very desirable occupation for you. Do you hear-take all the pains you can; and if this does not do, we must think of some other way of life for you. There's a guinea." Here was one of the many, many instances of his active benevolence. At the same time, the slow and sonorous solemnity with which, while he bent himself down, he addressed a little thick short-legged boy, contrasted with the boy's awkwardness and awe, could not but excite some ludicrous emotions. I met him at Drury Lane playhouse in the evening. Sir Joshua Reynolds, at Mrs. Abington's request, had promised to bring a body of wits to her benefit; and having secured forty places in the front boxes, had done me the honour to put me in the group. Johnson sat on the seat directly behind me; and as he could neither see nor hear at such a distance from the stage, he was wrapped up in grave abstraction, and seemed quite a cloud, amidst all the sunshine of glitter and gaiety. I wondered at his patience in sitting out a play of five acts, and a farce of two. He said very little; but after the prologue to "Bon Ton" had been spoken, which he could hear pretty well from the more slow and distinct utterance, he talked on prologue-writing, and observed, "Dryden has written prologues superior to any that David Garrick has written; but David Garrick has written more good prologues than Dryden has done. It is wonderful that he has been able to write such variety of them." At Mr. Beauclerk's, where I supped, was Mr. Garrick, whom I made happy with Johnson's praise of his prologues; and I suppose in gratitude to him, he took up one of his favourite gentleman, one of their number, ran to the door to stop them, calling out with much earnestness, "Stay, stay, my friends, and let us swear the rogues out of it !"-BoSWELL. 1 What evidence is there of this being the prevailing sin of the nonjuring clergy beyond Cibber's comedy, which, slight evidence as it would be at best, is next to none at all on this occasion for Cibber's play was a mere adaptation of Molière's Tartuffe? - CROKER. 2 Dr. Harwood sent me the following extract from the book containing the proceedings of the corporation of Lichfield: "19th July, 1712. Agreed that Mr. Michael Johnson be, and he is hereby elected a magistrate and brother of their incorporation; a day is given him to Thursday next to take the oath of fidelity and allegiance, and the oath of a magistrate. Signed, &c."-" 25th of July, 1712. Mr. Johnson took the oath of allegiance, and that he believed there was no transubstantiation in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, before, &c."-CROKER. was 3 In New Street, near Gough Square, in Fleet Street, whither, in February, 1770, the king's printing house removed from what is still called Printing House Square, Blackfriars, and near which this volume is now printing by Mr. Spottiswoode. Mr. Strahan's very respectable grandson and successor.- CROKER. topics, the nationality of the Scotch, which he maintained in a pleasant manner, with the aid of a little poetical fiction. "Come, come, don't deny it: they are really national. Why, now, the Adams are as liberal-minded men as any in the world: but, I don't know how it is, all their workmen are Scotch. You are, to be sure, wonderfully free from that nationality; but so it happens, that you employ the only Scotch shoeblack in London." He imitated the manner of his old master with ludicrous exaggeration; repeating, with pauses and half-whistlings interjected, looking downwards all the time, and, while pronouncing the four last words, absolutely touching the ground with a kind of contorted gesticulation.3 sive; and I wish it could be preserved as music is written, according to the very ingenious method of Mr. Steele, who has shown how the recitation of Mr. Garrick, and other eminent speakers, might be transmitted to posterity in score. Next day [March 28.] I dined with Johnson at Mr. Thrale's. He attacked Gray, calling him "a dull fellow." BOSWELL. "I understand he was reserved, and might appear dull in company; but surely he was not dull in poetry." JOHNSON. "Sir, he was dull in company, dull in his closet, dull every where. He was dull in a new way, and that made many people think him GREAT. He was a mechanical Poet." He then repeated some ludicrous lines, which have escaped my memory, and said, "Is not that GREAT, like his Odes ?" Mrs. Thrale, maintained that his Odes were melodious; upon which he exclaimed, 66 Garrick, however, when he pleased, could imitate Johnson very exactly; for that great actor, with his distinguished powers of expres- I added, in a solemn tone, sion which were so universally admired, possessed also an admirable talent of mimicry. He was always jealous that Johnson spoke lightly of him. I recollect his exhibiting him to me one day, as if saying, "Davy has some convivial pleasantry about him, but 'tis a futile fellow;" which he uttered perfectly with the tone and air of Johnson. Weave the warp, and weave the woof;" I cannot too frequently request of my readers, while they peruse my account of Johnson's conversation, to endeavour to keep in mind his deliberate and strong utterance. His mode of speaking was indeed very impres 2 1 The architects of the Adelphi. — CROKER. "Man looks aloft, and with erected eyes Beholds his own hereditary skies." Dryden. Ov. Met. i. 13. This exhibition of Johnson's downward look and gesticulations while reciting os sublime and tollere vultus, resembles one which Lord Byron describes :-" Mr. Grattan's manners in private life were odd, but natural. Curran used to take him off, bowing to the very ground, and ‘thanking God that he had no peculiarity of gesture or appearance,' in a way irresistibly ridículous." Moore's Byron, i. 405. — CROKER. 3 Mr. Whyte has related an anecdote of Johnson's violence of gesticulation, which, without so much other evidence, one could have hardly believed. "The house on the right at the bottom of Beaufort Buildings was occupied by Mr. Chamberlaine, Mrs. Sheridan's eldest brother (an eminent surgeon), by whom Johnson was often invited in a snug way with the family party. At one of those social meetings Johnson as usual sat next the lady of the house; the dessert still continuing, and the ladies in no haste to withdraw, Mrs. Chamberlaine had moved a little back from the table, and was carelessly dangling her foot backwards and forwards as she sat, enjoying the feast of reason and the flow of soul.' Johnson, the while, in a moment of abstraction, was convalsively working his hand up and down, which the lady observing, she roguishly edged her foot within his reach, and, as might partly have been expected, Johnson clenched hold of it, and drew off her shoe; she started, and hastily exclaimed. O, fie! Mr. Johnson!' The company at first knew not what to make of it: but one of them, perceiving the joke, tittered. Johnson, not improbably aware of the trick, apologised. Nay, Madam, recollect yourself; I know not that I have justly incurred your rebuke; the emotion was involuntary, and the action not intentionally rude.'”. Whyte's Miscel. Nova, p. 50. See antè, p. 166. n. 1.-CROKER. 4 Very natural, even in a less sensitive creature than Garrick; but on this occasion at least Garrick had the good sense to turn the edge of Johnson's sarcasms by an easy gaiety. CROKER. 5 My noble friend Lord Pembroke said once to me at Wilton, with a happy pleasantry and some truth, “that Dr. "The winding-sheet of Edward's race." There is a good line.-"Ay," said he, "and the next line is a good one (pronouncing it contemptuously), 'Give ample verge and room enough.'— No, Sir, there are but two good stanzas in stanza, "For who to dumb forgetfulness a prey," &c. mistaking one word; for instead of precincts he Johnson's sayings would not appear so extraordinary, were " 7 I use the phrase in score, as Dr. Johnson has explained it in his Dictionary. "A song in SCORE, the words with the musical notes of a song annexed." But I understand that in scientific propriety it means all the parts of a musical composition noted down in the characters by which it is exhibited to the eye of the skilful. - BOSWELL. It was declamation that Steele pretended to reduce to notation by new characters. This he called the melody of speech, not the harmony, which the term in score implies. - BURNEY. The true meaning of the term score is, that when music, in different parts for different voices or instruments, is written on the same page, the bars, instead of being drawn only across each stave, are, to lead the eyes of the several performers, scored from the top to the bottom of the pages. - CROKER. 8 "Ample room and verge enough." - P. C. |