100

The case of the negro Somerset.

[A.D. 1776.

of King's Bench, that a negro cannot be taken out of the kingdom without his own consent.'

caped from him, had been seized, and confined in irons on board a ship in The Thames that was bound for Jamaica, and had been brought on a writ of Habeas Corpus before the Court of King's Bench was discharged by Lord Mansfield. Howell's State Trials, xx. 79, and Lofft's Reports, 1772, p. 1. 'Lord Mansfield,' writes Lord Campbell (Lives of the Chief Justices, ii. 418), 'first established the grand doctrine that the air of England is too pure to be breathed by a slave.' According to Lord Campbell, Mansfield's judgment thus ended:The air of England has long been too pure for a slave, and every man is free who breathes it. Every man who comes into England is entitled to the protection of English law, whatever oppression he may heretofore have suffered, and whatever may be the colour of his skin:

"Quamvis ille niger, quamvis tu candidus esses." Let the negro be discharged.'

Where Lord Campbell found this speech, that is to say if he did not put it together himself, I cannot guess. Mansfield's judgment was very brief. He says in the conclusion:-'The only question before us is, whether the cause on the return [to the writ of habeas corpus] is sufficient. If it is, the negro must be remanded; if it is not, he must be discharged. Accordingly the return states that the slave departed, and refused to serve; whereupon he was kept to be sold abroad. So high an act of dominion must be recognised by the law of the country where it is used. The power of a master over his slave has been extremely different in different countries. The state of slavery is of such a nature that it is incapable of being introduced on any reasons, moral or political. . . . It is so odious that nothing can be suffered to support it but positive law. Whatever inconveniences therefore may follow from a decision, I cannot say this case is allowed or approved by the law of England; and therefore the black must be discharged.' Lofft's Reports, 1772, p. 19. The judgment of the court,' says Broom (Constitutional Law, 1885, p. 99), ' was delivered by Lord Mansfield, C. J., after some delay, and with evident reluctance.' The passage about the air of England that Campbell puts into Mansfield's mouth is found in Mr. Hargrave's argument on May 14, 1772, where he speaks of England as 'a soil whose air is deemed too pure for slaves to breathe in.' Lofft's Reports, p. 2. Mr. Dunning replied:-' 'Let me take notice, neither the air of England is too pure for a slave to breathe in, nor the laws of England have rejected servitude.' Ib. p. 12. Serjeant Davy rejoined :- It has been asserted, and is now repeated by me, this air is too pure for a slave to breathe in. I trust

'Dr.

Aetat. 67.]

'DEAR SIR,

Seized by the gout.

'DR. JOHNSON TO MR. BOSWELL.

ΙΟΙ

'I make haste to write again, lest my last letter should give you too much pain. If you are really oppressed with overpowering and involuntary melancholy, you are to be pitied rather than reproached.

Now, my dear Bozzy, let us have done with quarrels and with censure. Let me know whether I have not sent you a pretty library. There are, perhaps, many books among them which you never need read through; but there are none which it is not proper for you to know, and sometimes to consult. Of these books, of which the use is only occasional, it is often sufficient to know the contents, that, when any question arises, you may know where to look for information.

'Since I wrote, I have looked over Mr. Maclaurin's plea, and think it excellent. How is the suit carried on? If by subscription, I commission you to contribute, in my name, what is proper. Let nothing be wanting in such a case. Dr. Drummond', I see, is superseded. His father would have grieved; but he lived to obtain the pleasure of his son's election, and died before that pleasure was abated.

'Langton's lady has brought him a girl, and both are well; I dined with him the other day.

*

*

*

'It vexes me to tell you, that on the evening of the 29th of May I was seized by the gout, and am not quite well. The pain has not been violent, but the weakness and tenderness were very troublesome, and what is said to be very uncommon, it has not alleviated my other disorders. Make use of youth and health

I shall not quit this court without certain conviction of the truth of that assertion.' Ib. p. 17. Lord Mansfield said nothing about the air. The line from Virgil, with which Lord Campbell makes Mansfield's speech end, was 'the happily chosen motto' to Maclaurin's published argument for the negro; Joseph Knight, post, under Nov.

29, 1777.

1 The son of Johnson's old friend, Mr. William Drummond. (See vol. ii. pp. 30-33.) He was a young man of such distinguished merit, that he was nominated to one of the medical professorships in the College of Edinburgh without solicitation, while he was at Naples. Having other views, he did not accept of the honour, and soon afterwards died. BOSWELL.

102

Johnson's spontaneous tenderness.' [A.D. 1776.

while you have them; make my compliments to Mrs. Boswell. I am, my dear Sir,

'July 6', 1776.'

'Your most affectionate

'SAM. JOHNSON.'

'MR. BOSWELL TO DR. JOHNSON.

'Your letter of the second of this month was rather a harsh medicine; but I was delighted with that spontaneous tenderness, which, a few days afterwards, sent forth such balsam as your next brought me. I found myself for some time so ill that all I could do was to preserve a decent appearance, while all within was weakness and distress. Like a reduced garrison that has some spirit left, I hung out flags, and planted all the force I could muster, upon the walls. I am now much better, and I sincerely thank you for your kind attention and friendly counsel.

'Count Manucci' came here last week from travelling in Ireland. I have shown him what civilities I could on his own account, on your's, and on that of Mr. and Mrs. Thrale. He has had a fall from his horse, and been much hurt. I regret this unlucky accident, for he seems to be a very amiable man.'

As the evidence of what I have mentioned at the beginning of this year, I select from his private register the following passage:

'July 25, 1776. O GOD, who hast ordained that whatever is to be desired should be sought by labour, and who, by thy blessing,

1 In the third and subsequent editions the date is wrongly given as the 16th.

' A Florentine nobleman, mentioned by Johnson in his Notes of his Tour in France [ante, Oct. 18, 1775]. I had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with him in London, in the spring of this year. Boswell. Mrs. Thrale wrote to Johnson from Bath on May 16:-'Count Manucci would wait seven years to come with you; so do not disappoint the man, but bring him along with you. His delight in your company is like Boniface's exultation when the squire speaks Latin; for understand you he certainly cannot.' Piozzi Letters, i. 328. It was not the squire, but the priest, Foigard, who by his Latin did Boniface good. The Beaux Stratagem, act iii. sc. 2.

bringest

Aetat. 67.]

A prayer before study.

103

bringest honest labour to good effect, look with mercy upon my studies and endeavours. Grant me, O LORD, to design only what is lawful and right; and afford me calmness of mind, and steadiness of purpose, that I may so do thy will in this short life, as to obtain happiness in the world to come, for the sake of Jesus CHRIST Our Lord. Amen'.'

It appears from a note subjoined, that this was composed when he purposed to apply vigorously to study, particularly of the Greek and Italian tongues.'

Such a purpose, so expressed, at the age of sixty-seven, is admirable and encouraging; and it must impress all the thinking part of my readers with a consolatory confidence in habitual devotion, when they see a man of such enlarged intellectual powers as Johnson, thus in the genuine earnestness of secrecy, imploring the aid of that Supreme Being, 'from whom cometh down every good and every perfect gift'.'

'SIR,

'TO SIR JOSHUA Reynolds.

'A young man, whose name is Paterson, offers himself this evening to the Academy. He is the son of a man3 for whom I have long had a kindness, and who is now abroad in distress. I shall be glad that you will be pleased to shew him any little countenance, or pay him any small distinction. How much it is in your power to favour or to forward a young man I do not know; nor do I know how much this candidate deserves favour by his personal merit, or what hopes his proficiency may now give of future eminence. I recommend him as the son of my friend. Your character and station enable you to give a young man great encouragement by very easy means. You have heard of a man who asked no other favour of Sir Robert Walpole, than that he would bow to him at his levee.

'I am, SIR,

'Your most humble servant,

'SAM. JOHNSON.'

'Aug. 3, 1776.'

1 Pr. and Med. p. 151.

St. James, i. 17.

See ante, ii. 201, Seven and even eight years later Paterson was still a student in need of Johnson's recommendation. Post, June 2, 1783, and April 5, 1784.

'MR.

104

Granger's BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY. [A.D.1776,

'MR. BOSWELL TO DR. JOHNSON.

'Edinburgh, August 30, 1776. [After giving him an account of my having examined the chests of books which he had sent to me, and which contained what may be truely called a numerous and miscellaneous Stall Library, thrown together at random :-]

'Lord Hailes was against the decree in the case of my client, the minister'; not that he justified the minister, but because the parishioner both provoked and retorted. I sent his Lordship your able argument upon the case for his perusal. His observation. upon it in a letter to me was, "Dr. Johnson's Suasorium is pleasantly' and artfully composed. I suspect, however, that he has not convinced himself; for, I believe that he is better read in ecclesiastical history, than to imagine that a Bishop or a Presbyter has a right to begin censure or discipline è cathedra"."

'For the honour of Count Manucci, as well as to observe that exactness of truth which you have taught me, I must correct what I said in a former letter. He did not fall from his horse, which might have been an imputation on his skill as an officer of cavalry; his horse fell with him.

'I have, since I saw you, read every word of Granger's Biographical History. It has entertained me exceedingly, and I do not think him the Whig that you supposed'. Horace Walpole's being his patron is, indeed, no good sign of his political principles. But

1 See ante, p. 67.

"Why his Lordship uses the epithet pleasantly, when speaking of a grave piece of reasoning, I cannot conceive. But different men have different notions of pleasantry. I happened to sit by a gentleman one evening at the Opera-house in London, who, at the moment when Medea appeared to be in great agony at the thought of killing her children, turned to me with a smile, and said, ‘funny enough.' Bos

WELL.

• Dr. Johnson afterwards told me, that he was of opinion that a clergyman had this right. Boswell.

4

-'The

Johnson, nearly three years earlier, had said of Granger:-" dog is a Whig. I do not like much to see a Whig in any dress; but I hate to see a Whig in a parson's gown.' Boswell's Hebrides, Sept. 24, 1773.

''I did my utmost,' wrote Horace Walpole (Letters, v. 168), 'to dissuade Mr. Granger from the dedication, and took especial pains to get my virtues left out of the question.'

he