In 1770, he published a political pamphlet, entitled "The False Alarm," intended to justify the conduct of the ministry and their majority in the House of Commons, for having virtually assumed it as an axiom, that the expulsion of a member of parliament was equivalent to exclusion, and thus having declared Colonel Luttrell to be duly elected for the county of Middlesex, notwithstanding Mr. Wilkes had a great majority of votes. This being justly considered as a gross violation of the right of election, an alarm for the constitution extended itself all over the kingdom. To prove this alarm to be false, was the purpose of Johnson's pamphlet; but even his vast powers were inadequate to cope with constitutional truth and reason, and his argument failed of effect; and the House of Commons have since expunged the offensive resolution from their Journals. That the House of Commons might have expelled Mr. Wilkes repeatedly, and as often as he should be re-chosen, was not denied; but incapacitation cannot be but by an act of the whole legislature. It was wonderful to see how a prejudice in favour of government in general and an aversion to popular clamour, could blind and contract such an understanding as Johnson's, in this particular case; yet the wit, the sarcasm, the eloquent vivacity which this pamphlet displayed, made it be read with great avidity at the time, and it will ever be read with pleasure, for the sake of its composition. That it endeavoured to infuse a narcotic indifference, as to public concerns, into the minds of the people, and that it broke out sometimes into an extreme coarseness of contemptuous abuse, is but too evident. It must not, however, be omitted, that when the storm of his violence subsides, he takes a fair opportunity to pay a grateful compliment to the King, who had rewarded his merit:"These low-born rulers have endeavoured, surely without effect, to alienate the affections of the people from the only King who for almost a century has much appeared to desire, or much endeavoured to deserve them." And, "Every honest man must lament, that the faction has been regarded with frigid neutrality by the Tories, who being long accustomed to signalise their principles by opposition to the Court, do not yet consider, that they have at last a King who knows not the name of party, and who wishes to be the common father of all his people."? 2 To this pamphlet, which was at once discovered to be Johnson's, several answers came out, in which care was taken to remind the "The False Alarm" was published by T. Cadell, in the Strand, Jan. 16. 1770; a second edition appeared Feb. 6., and a third, March 13. WRIGHT. 2 This," says Mrs. Piozzi, "his first and favourite pamphlet, was written at our house, between eight o'clock on Wednesday night and twelve o'clock on Thursday night: we read it to Mr. Thrale, when he came very late home from the House of Commons." Boswell, it must be remembered, was a Wilkite. CuOKER. public of his former attacks upon government, and of his now being a pensioner, without allowing for the honourable terms upon which Johnson's pension was granted and accepted, or the change of system which the British court had undergone upon the accession of his present Majesty. He was, however, soothed in the highest strain of panegyric, in a poem called "The Remonstrance," by the Rev. Mr. Stockdale 3, to whom he was, upon many occasions, a kind protector. The following admirable minute made by him, describes so well his own state, and that of numbers to whom self-examination is habitual, that I cannot omit it: — himself that he can keep his resolutions, nor is he June 1. 1770. Every man naturally persuades convinced of his imbecility but by length of time and frequency of experiment. This opinion of our own constancy is so prevalent, that we always despise him who suffers his general and settled purpose to be overpowered by an occasional desire. They, therefore, whom frequent failures have made desperate, cease to form resolutions; and they who are become cunning, do not tell them. Those who do not make them are very few, but of their effect little is perceived; for scarcely any man persists in a course of life planned by choice, but as he is restrained from deviation by some external power. the observation of his own rules. I never yet saw He who may live as he will, seldom lives long in Harriot's, nor a regular man, except Mr. a regular family, unless it were that of Mrs. -", whose exactness I know only by his own report, and Psalmanazer, whose life was, I think, uniform." [Pr. and Med. p. 100.] Of this year I have obtained the following letters: JOHNSON TO DR. FARMER. "SIR, "Johnson's Court, March 21. 1770. - As no man ought to keep wholly to himself any possession that may be useful to the public, I hope you will not think me unreasonably intrusive, if I have recourse to you for such information as you are more able to give me than any other man. "In support of an opinion which you have already placed above the need of any more support, Mr. Steevens, a very ingenious gentleman, lately of King's College, has collected an account of all the translations which Shakspeare might have seen and used. He wishes his catalogue to be perfect, and therefore entreats that you will favour him by the insertion of such additions as the accuracy of your inquiries has enabled you to make. To this request, I take the liberty of adding my own solicitation. The Rev. Percival Stockdale, whose strange and rambling Autobiography" was published in 1808: he was the author of several bad poems, and died in 1810, at the age of 75. He was Johnson's neighbour for some years, both in Johnson's Court and Bolt Court. - CROKER. 4 The name in the original manuscript is, as Dr. Hall informed me, Campbell. The Scotch non juring Bishop Campbell was probably the person meant. See an account of this gentleman, post, Oct. 25. 1773. CROKER. "We have no immediate use for this catalogue, and therefore do not desire that it should interrupt or hinder your more important employments. But it will be kind to let us know that you receive it. I am, Sir. &c., SAM. JOHNSON." [JOHNSON TO MISS PORTER. "May 1. 1770. “DEAREST MADAM, — Among other causes that have hindered me from answering your last kind letter, is a tedious and painful rheumatism, that has afflicted me for many weeks, and still continues to molest me. I hope you are well, and will long keep your health and your cheerfulness. "One reason why I delayed to write was, my uncertainty how to answer your letter. I like the thought of giving away the money very well; but when I consider that Tom Johnson is my nearest relation, and that he is now old and in great want; that he was my playfellow in childhood, and has never done any thing to offend me; I am in doubt, whether I ought not rather give it him than any other. "Of this, my dear, I would have your opinion. I would willingly please you, and I know that you will be pleased best with what you think right. Tell me your mind, and do not learn of me to neglect writing; for it is a very sorry trick, though it be mine. "Your brother is well; I saw him to-day, and thought it long since I saw him before: it seems he has called often, and could not find me. I am, my dear, your affectionate humble servant, -Pearson MSS. "SAM. JOHNSON." JOHNSON TO MISS PORTER. "London, May 29. 1770. "MY DEAREST DEAR,I am very sorry that your eyes are bad; take great care of them, especially by candlelight. Mine continue pretty good, but they are sometimes dim. My rheumatism grows gradually better. I have considered your letter, and am willing that the whole money should go where you, my dear, originally intended. I hope to help Tom some other way. So that matter is over. "Dr. Taylor has invited me to pass some time with him at Ashbourne; if I come, you may be sure that I shall take you and Lichfield in my way. When I am nearer coming, I will send you word. "Of Mr. Porter I have seen very little, but I know not that it is his fault, for he says that he often calls, and never finds me; I am sorry for it, for I love him. Mr. Mathias has lately had a great deal of money left him, of which you have probably heard already. I am, my dearest, your SAM. JOHNSON."] most affectionate servant, you JOHNSON TO THOMAS WARTON. "London, June 23. 1770. "DEAR SIR, -The readiness with which were pleased to promise me some notes on Shakspeare, was a new instance of your friendship. I shall not hurry you; but am desired by Mr. Steevens, who helps me in this edition, to let you know, that we shall print the tragedies first, and shall therefore want first the notes which belong to them. We think not to incommode the readers with a supplement; and therefore, what we cannot put into its proper place, will do us no good. We shall not begin to print before the end of six weeks, perhaps not so soon. I am, &c., "SAM JOHNSON. "I [JOHNSON TO MRS. THRALE. "Lichfield, July 7. 1770. "I thought I should have heard something to-day about Streatham; but there is no letter; and I need some consolation, for rheumatism is come again, though in a less degree than formerly. I reckon to go next week to Ashbourne, and will try to bring you the dimensions of the great bull. The skies and the ground are all so wet, that I have been very little abroad: and Mrs. Aston is from home, so that I have no motive to walk; when she is at home, she lives on the top of Stowhill, and I commonly climb up to see her once a day. There is nothing there now but the empty To write to you about Lichfield is of no use, for you never saw Stowpool, nor Boroweop hill. I believe you may find Borow or Boroughcop-hill in my Dictionary, under cop or cob Nobody here knows what the name imports." nest. 64 "Lichfield, July 11, 1770. Mr. Greene', the apothecary, has found a book which tells who paid levies in our parish, and how much they paid, above an hundred years ago. Do you not think we study this book hard? Nothing is like going to the bottom of things. Many families that paid the parish rates are now extinct, like the race of Hercules. Pulvis et umbra sumus. What is nearest us touches us most. The passions rise higher at domestic than at imperial tragedies. I am not wholly unaffected by the revolutions in Sadler Street; nor can forbear to mourn, when old names vanish away, and new come into their place." "Ashbourne, July 20. 1778. "I came hither on Wednesday, having staid one night at a lodge in the forest of Nedewood. Dr. Taylor's is a very pleasant house, with a lawn and a lake, and twenty deer and five fawns upon the lawn. Whether I shall by any light see Matlock I do not yet know. "That Baretti's book, [“ Travels through Spain, Portugal, and France,"] would please you all, I make no doubt. I know not whether the world has ever seen such travels before. Those whose 3 At the corner of which stood his own house. I have satisfied myself on the spot that Michael Johnson's emerveedment in Sadler Street, (antè, p. 4. n. 2.) for which he paie two shillings and sixpence a year, and a lease of which was renewed to his son, was most probably a shop bow-window, which jutted out into Sadler Street.CROKER. lot it is to ramble can seldom write, and those who know how to write very seldom ramble. If Sidney had gone, as he desired, the great voyage with Drake, there would probably have been such a narrative as would have equally satisfied the poet and the philosopher." "Ashbourne, July 23. 1770. "I have seen the great bull', and very great he is. I have seen likewise his heir apparent, who promises to inherit all the bulk and all the virtues of his sire. I have seen the man who offered an hundred guineas for the young bull, while he was yet little better than a calf. Matlock, I am afraid, I shall not see, but I purpose to see Dovedale; and, after all this seeing, I hope to see you."] -- JOHNSON TO JOSEPH WARTON. "Sept. 21. 1770. "DEAR SIR, I am revising my edition of Shakspeare, and remember that I formerly misrepresented your opinion of Lear. Be pleased to write the paragraph as you would have it, and send it. If you have any remarks of your own upon that or any other play, I shall gladly receive them. Make my compliments to Mrs. Warton. I sometimes think of wandering for a few days to Winchester, but am apt to delay. I am, Sir, your most humble servant, SAM. JOHNSON." JOHNSON TO FRANCIS BARBER, At Mrs. Clapp's, Bishop- Stortford. "London, Sept. 25. 1770. “DEAR FRANCIS, I am at last sat down to write to you, and should very much blame myself for having neglected you so long, if I did not impute that and many other failings to want of health. I hope not to be so long silent again. I am very well satisfied with your progress, if you can really perform the exercises which you are set; and I hope Mr. Ellis does not suffer you to impose on hirm, or on yourself. Make my compliments to Mr. Ellis, and to Mrs. Clapp, and Mr. Smith. "Let me know what English books you read for your entertainment. You can never be wise unless you love reading. Do not imagine that I shall forget or forsake you; for if, when I examine you, I find that you have not lost your time, you shall want no encouragement from yours affectionately, "SAM JOHNSON." 1 Dr. Taylor had a remarkably fine breed of cattle; and one bull, in particular, was of celebrated size and beauty. - CROKER 2 Dr. William Maxwell was the son of Dr. John Maxwell, Archdeacon of Downe, in Ireland, and cousin of the Honourable Henry Maxwell, Bishop of Dromore in 1765, and of Meath in 1766, from whom he obtained preferment; but having a considerable property of his own, he resigned the living when, as it is said, his residence was insisted on; and be fixed himself in Bath, where he died, so late as 1818, at the age of 87. Dr. Maxwell was deservedly proud of his acquaintance with Johnson, and had caught something of his style of conversation. Some of his anecdotes are trifling, others obscure, some misprinted, and several, I suspect, misstated; which is not surprising, as they seem to have been these holidays. If you are invited out you may go, if Mr. Ellis gives leave. I have ordered you some clothes, which you will receive, I believe, next week. My compliments to Mrs. Clapp, and to Mr. Ellis, and to Mr. Smith, &c. I am your affectionate, SAM. JOHNSON." CHAPTER XXIV. 1770. 1 Love. Dr. Marwell's Collectanea.- Johnson's Politics, and DURING this year there was a total cessation of all correspondence between Dr. Johnson and me, without any coldness on either side, but merely from procrastination, continued from day to day; and, as I was not in London, I had no opportunity of enjoying his company and recording his conversation. To supply this blank, I shall present my readers with some Collectanea, obligingly furnished to me by the Rev. Dr. Maxwell 2, of Falkland, in Ireland, some time assistant preacher at the Temple, and for many years the social friend of Johnson, who spoke of him with a very kind regard. Collectanea. "My acquaintance with that great and venerable character commenced in the year 1754. I was introduced to him by Mr. Grierson 3, his Majesty's printer at Dublin, a gentleman of uncommon learning, and great wit and vivacity. Mr. Grierson died in Germany, at the age of twenty-seven. Dr. Johnson highly respected his abilities, and often observed, that he possessed more extensive knowledge than any man of his years he had ever known. His industry was equal to his talents; and he par written for Mr. Boswell's publication from memory, a great many years after the events. CROKER. 3 Son of the learned Mrs. Grierson, who was patronised by the late Lord Granville, and was the editor of several of the classics. BOSWELL. Her edition of Tacitus, with the notes of Rychius, in three volumes, 8vo. 1730, was dedicated, in very elegant Latin [from her own pen], to John, Lord Carteret (afterwards Earl Granville), by whom she was patronised during his residence in Ireland as Lord Lieutenant between 1724 and 1730. MALONE. Lord Carteret gave her family the lucrative patent office of king's printer in Ireland, still enjoyed by her descendants. She was very handsome, as well as learned.-CROKER. The patent has just expired -P. CUNNINGHAM, 1846. ticularly excelled in every species of philological learning, and was, perhaps, the best critic of the age he lived in. "I must always remember with gratitude my obligation to Mr. Grierson, for the honour and happiness of Dr. Johnson's acquaintance and friendship, which continued uninterrupted and undiminished to his death: a connection that was at once the pride and happiness of my life. "What pity it is, that so much wit and good sense as he continually exhibited in conversation, should perish unrecorded! Few persons quitted his company without perceiving themselves wiser and better than they were before. On serious subjects he flashed the most interesting conviction upon his auditors; and upon lighter topics, you might have supposed Albano musas de monte locutas. Though I can hope to add but little to the celebrity of so exalted a character, by any communications I can furnish, yet, out of pure respect to his memory, I will venture to transmit to you some anecdotes concerning him, which fell under my own observation. The very minutia of such a character must be interesting, and may be compared to the filings of diamonds. "In politics he was deemed a Tory, but certainly was not so in the obnoxious or party sense of the term; for while he asserted the legal and salutary prerogatives of the crown, he no less respected the constitutional liberties of the people. Whiggism, at the time of the Revolution, he said, was accompanied with certain principles; but latterly, as a mere party distinction under Walpole and the Pelhams, was no better than the politics of stock-jobbers, and the religion of infidels. "He detested the idea of governing by parliamentary corruption, and asserted most strenuously, that a prince steadily and conspicuously pursuing the interests of his people could not fail of parliamentary concurrence. A prince of ability, he contended, might and should be the directing soul and spirit of his own administration; in short, his own minister, and not the mere head of a party and then, and not till then, would the royal dignity be sincerely respected. "Johnson seemed to think, that a certain degree of crown influence over the Houses of Parliament, (not meaning a corrupt and shameful dependence) was very salutary, nay, even necessary, in our mixed government. For,' said he, if the members were under no crown influence, and disqualified from receiving any gratification from Court, and resembled, as they possibly might, Pym and Haslerig, and other stubborn and sturdy members of the Long Parliament, the wheels of government would be totally obstructed. Such men would oppose, merely to show their power, from envy, jealousy, and perversity of disposition; and, not gaining themselves, would hate and oppose all who did not loving the person of the prince, and conceiving they owed him little gratitude, from the mere spirit of insolence and contradiction, they would oppose and thwart him upon all occasions.' "The inseparable imperfection annexed to all buman governments consisted, he said, in not being able to create a sufficient fund of virtue and prin 1 No doubt Madame de Boufflers. See post, sub an. 1775. -CROKER. ciple to carry the laws into due and effectual execution. Wisdom might plan, but virtue alone could execute. And where could sufficient virtue be found? A variety of delegated, and often discretionary, powers must be entrusted somewhere; which, if not governed by integrity and conscience, would necessarily be abused, till at last the constable would sell his for a shilling. "This excellent person was sometimes charged with abetting slavish and arbitrary principles of government. Nothing, in my opinion, could be a grosser calumny and misrepresentation; for how can it be rationally supposed, that he should adopt such pernicious and absurd opinions, who supported his philosophical character with so much dignity, | was extremely jealous of his personal liberty and independence, and could not brook the smallest ap- ¦ pearance of neglect or insult, even from the highest personages? "But let us view him in some instances of more familiar life. "His general mode of life, during my acquaintance, seemed to be pretty uniform. About twelve o'clock I commonly visited him, and frequently found him in bed, or declaiming over his tea, which he drank very plentifully. He generally had a levee of morning visiters, chiefly men of letters; Hawkesworth, Goldsmith, Murphy, Langton, Steevens, Beauclerk, &c. &c., and sometimes learned ladies; particularly I remember a French lady of wit and fashion doing him the honour of a visit. He seemed to me to be considered as a kind of public oracle, whom every body thought they had a right to visit and consult; and doubtless they were well rewarded. I never could discover how he found time for his compositions. He declaimed all the morning, then went to dinner at a tavern, where he commonly stayed late, and then drank his tea at some friend's house, over which he loitered a great while, but seldom took supper. I fancy he must have read and wrote chiefly in the night, for I can scarcely recollect that he ever refused going with me to a tavern, and he often went to Ranelagh, which he deemed a place of innocent recreation. "He frequently gave all the silver in his pocket to the poor, who watched him between his house and the tavern where he dined. He walked the streets at all hours, and said he was never robbed, for the rogues knew he had little money, nor had the appearance of having much. "Though the most accessible and communicative man alive, yet when he suspected he was invited to be exhibited, he constantly spurned the invitation. "Two young women from Staffordshire visited him when I was present, to consult him on the subject of Methodism, to which they were inclined. Come,' said he, you pretty fools, dine with Maxwell and me at the Mitre, and we will talk over that subject;' which they did, and after dinner be took one of them upon his knee, and fondled her for half an hour together. "Upon a visit to me at a country lodging near Twickenham, he asked what sort of society I had there. I told him, but indifferent; as they chiefly consisted of opulent traders, retired from business, He said, he never much liked that class of people : For, Sir,' said he, they have lost the civility of tradesmen, without acquiring the manners of gentlemen.' “Johnson was much attached to London: he observed, that a man stored his mind better there, than any where else; and that in remote situations a man's body might be feasted, but his mind was starved, and his faculties apt to degenerate, from want of exercise and competition. No place,' he said, 'cured a man's vanity or arrogance, so well as London; for as no man was either great or good per se, but as compared with others not so good or great, he was sure to find in the metropolis many his equals, and some his superiors.' He observed, that a man in London was in less danger of falling in love indiscreetly, than any where else; for there the difficulty of deciding between the conflicting pretensions of a vast variety of objects, kept him safe. He told me, that he had frequently been offered country preferment', if he would consent to take orders; but he could not leave the improved society of the capital, or consent to exchange the exhilarating joys and splendid decorations of public life, for the obscurity, insipidity, and uniformity of remote situations. "Speaking of Mr. Harte, Canon of Windsor, and writer of 'The History of Gustavus Adolphus,' he much commended him as a scholar, and a man of the most companionable talents he had ever known. He said, the defects in his History proceeded not from imbecility, but from foppery. He loved, he said, the old black-letter books; they were rich in matter, though their style was inelegant; wonderfully so, considering how conversant the writers were with the best models of antiquity. "Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy,' he said, was the only book that ever took him out of bed two hours sooner than he wished to rise.3 "He frequently exhorted me to set about writing a History of Ireland; and archly remarked, there had been some good Irish writers, and that one Irishman might at least aspire to be equal to another. He had great compassion for the miseries and distresses of the Irish nation, particularly the Papists; and severely reprobated the barbarous debilitating policy of the British government, which, he said, was the most detestable mode of persecution. To a gentleman who hinted such policy might be necessary to support the authority of the English government, he replied by saying, Let the authority of the English government perish, rather than be maintained by iniquity. Better would it be to restrain the turbulence of the natives by the authority of the sword, and to make them amenable to law and justice by an effectual and vigorous police, than to grind them to powder by all manner of disabilities and incapacities. Better,' said he, 'to hang or drown people at once, than by an unrelenting persecution to beggar and starve them.' ! I suspect "frequently" to be an error - the offer of the bring of Langton (ante, p. 105. and 160.) is the only one mentioned by Boswell.-CROKER, 1846. : Walter Harte, born about 1707, A. M. of St. Mary Hall, in Oxford, was tutor to Lord Chesterfield's natural son, Mr. Stanhope, and was, by his Lordship's interest, made Canon of Windsor: he died in 1774. See more of Harte, post, March 30. 171.-CROKER. 3 Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy' is the most amusing and instructive medley of quotations and classical anecdotes I ever perused. If the reader has patience to go through his volumes, he will be more improved for literary conversation than by the perusal of any twenty other works with which I am acquainted."— Byron, vol. i. p. 144.WRIGHT. The moderation and humanity of the present times have, in some measure, justified the wisdom of his observations. "Dr. Johnson was often accused of prejudices, nay, antipathy, with regard to the natives of Scotland. Surely, so illiberal a prejudice never entered his mind and it is well known, many natives of that respectable country possessed a large share in his esteem: nor were any of them ever excluded from his good offices, as far as opportunity permitted. True it is, he considered the Scotch, nationally, as a crafty, designing people, eagerly attentive to their own interest, and too apt to overlook the claims and pretensions of other people. While they confine their benevolence, in a manner, exclusively to those of their own country, they expect to share in the good offices of other people. Now,' said Johnson, this principle is either right or wrong; if right, we should do well to imitate such conduct; if wrong, we cannot too much detest it.' Being solicited to compose a funeral sermon for the daughter of a tradesman, he naturally enquired into the character of the deceased; and being told she was remarkable for her humility and condescension to inferiors, he observed, that those were very laudable qualities, but it might not be so easy to discover who the lady's inferiors were. 66 66 "Of a certain player he remarked, that his conversation usually threatened and announced more than it performed; that he fed you with a continual renovation of hope, to end in a constant succession of disappointment. "When exasperated by contradiction, he was apt to treat his opponents with too much acrimony: as, Sir, you don't see your way through that question: Sir, you talk the language of ignorance.' On my observing to him, that a certain gentleman had remained silent the whole evening, in the midst of a very brilliant and learned society, 'Sir,' said he, the conversation overflowed, and drowned him.' "His philosophy, though austere and solemn, was by no means morose and cynical, and never blunted the laudable sensibilities of his character, or exempted him from the influence of the tender passions. Want of tenderness, he always alleged, was want of parts, and was no less a proof of stupidity than depravity. Speaking of Mr. Hanway, who published An Eight Days' Journey from London to Portsmouth,' Jonas,' said he, acquired some reputation by travelling abroad, but lost it all by travelling at home.' "Of the passion of love he remarked, that its violence and ill effects were much exaggerated; for who knows any real sufferings on that head, more than from the exorbitancy of any other passion? "He much commended Law's Serious Call,'" which, he said, was the finest piece of hortatory 4 Dr. Maxwell was mistaken, and would assuredly not have made such a statement after the publication of this work. Boswell himself confesses the antipathy, but it would be curious to know when it became so strong, and what its cause was, for one would have expected a directly contrary result from the Jacobite principles of his father and himself. -CROKER. 5 No doubt Mr. Sheridan. - CROKER. 6 He had published "An Account of the British Trade over the Caspian Sea, with Travels through Russia, Persia, Germany, and Holland." These travels contain very curious details of the then state of Persia. - CROKER. 7 See antè, p. 15. |