Etat. 72] I agreeable family, memory, maintain THE HOUSE OF DR. EDWARD YOUNG, AT WELWYN, HERTS to which place Johnson and Boswell paid a visit to the poet's son on June 2, 1871. ing that forgetfulness was a man's own fault. "To remember and to recollect (said he) are different things. A man has not the power to recollect what is not in his mind; but when a thing is in his mind, he may remember it." The remark was occasioned by my leaning back on a chair, which a little before "Sir (said he), I had perceived to be broken, and pleading forgetfulness as an excuse. its being broken was certainly in your mind." When I observed that a housebreaker was in general very timorous;-JOHNSON : "No wonder, Sir; he is afraid of being shot getting into a house, or hanged when he has got out of it." He told us that he had in one day written six sheets of a translation from the French; adding, "I should be glad to see it now. I wish that I had copies of all the pamphlets written against me, as it is said Pope had. Had I known that I should make so much noise in the world, I should have been at pains to collect them. I believe there is hardly a day in which there is not something about me in the newspapers." On Monday, June 4, we all went to Luton-Hoe, to see Lord Bute's magnificent seat, for which I had obtained a ticket. As we entered the Park, I talked in a high style of my old friendship with Lord Mountstuart, and said, "I shall probably be much at this place." The Sage, aware of human vicissitudes, gently checked me: "Don't you be too sure of that." He made two or three peculiar observations; as when shown the botanical garden, "Is not every garden a botanical garden?" When told that there was a shrubbery to the extent of several miles; "That is making a very foolish use of the ground; a little of it is very well." When it was proposed that we should walk on the pleasure-ground; "Don't let us fatigue ourselves. Why should we walk there? Here's a fine tree, let's get to the top of it." But upon the whole, he was very much pleased. He said, "This is one of the places I do not regret having come to see. It is a very stately place, indeed; in the house magnificence is not sacrificed to convenience, nor convenience to magnificence. The library is very splendid; the dignity of the rooms is very great; and the quantity of pictures is beyond expectation, beyond hope." It happened without any previous concert, that we visited the seat of Lord Bute upon the King's birthday; we dined and drank his Majesty's health at an inn, in the village of Luton. In the evening I put him in mind of his promise to favour me with a copy of his celebrated letter to the Earl of Chesterfield, and he was at last pleased to comply with this earnest request, by dictating it to me from his memory; for he believed that he himself had no copy. There was an animated glow in his countenance while he thus recalled his high-minded indignation. He laughed heartily at a ludicrous action in the Court of Session, in which I was counsel. The Society of Procurators, or Attorneys, entitled to practise in the inferior courts at Edinburgh, had obtained a royal charter, in which they had taken care to have their ancient designation of Procurators changed into that of Solicitors, from a notion, as they supposed, that it was more genteel; and this new title they displayed by a public advertisement for a General Meeting at their HALL. It has been said that the Scottish nation is not distinguished for humour; and, indeed, what happened on this occasion may in some degree justify the remark; for although this society had contrived to make themselves a very prominent object for the ridicule of such as might stoop to it, the only joke to which it gave rise was the following paragraph, sent to the newspaper called the Caledonian Mercury. "A correspondent informs us that the Worshipful Society of Chaldeans, Cadies, or Running-Stationers of this city are resolved, in imitation, and encouraged by the singular success of their brethren, of an equally respectable Society, to apply for a Charter of their Privileges, particularly of the sole privilege of PROCURING, in the most extensive sense of the word, exclusive of chairmen, porters, penny-post men, and other inferior ranks; their brethren the R-Y-L S-LL-RS, alias P-C-RS, before the INFERIOR Courts of this City, always excepted. "Should the Worshipful Society be successful, they are farther resolved not to be puffed up thereby, but to demean themselves with more equanimity and decency than their R-y-l, learned and very modest brethren above mentioned have done upon their late dignification and exaltation." A majority of the members of the Society prosecuted Mr. Robertson, the publisher of the paper, for damages; and the first judgment of the whole Court very wisely dismissed the action: Solventur risu tabulæ, tu missus abibis. But a new trial or review was granted upon a petition, according to the forms in Scotland. This petition I was engaged to answer; and Dr. Johnson, with great alacrity, furnished me this evening with what follows: "All injury is either of the person, the fortune, or the fame. Now it is a certain thing, it is proverbially known, that a jest breaks no bones. They never have gained half-a-crown less in the whole profession since this mischievous paragraph has appeared; and, as to their reputation, what is their reputation but an instrument of getting money? If, therefore, they have lost no money, the question upon reputation may be answered by a very old position-De minimis non curat Prætor. "Whether there was or was not, an animus injuriandi, is not worth inquiring, if no injuria can be proved. But the truth is, there was no animus injuriandi. It was only an animus irritandi,* which happening to be exercised upon a genus * Mr. Robertson altered this word to jocandi, he having found in Blackstone that to irritate actionable. Etat. 72] LUTON-HOE 965 irritabile produced unexpected violence of resentment. Their irritability arose only from an opinion of their own importance, and their delight in their new exaltation. What might have been borne by a Procurator could not be borne by a Solicitor. Your Lordships well know that honores mutant mores. Titles and dignities play strongly on the fancy. As a madman is apt to think himself grown suddenly great, so he that grows suddenly great is apt to borrow a little from the madman. To co-operate with their resentment would be to promote their frenzy; nor is it possible to guess to what they might proceed, if to the new title of Solicitor, should be added the elation of victory and triumph. "We consider your Lordships as the protectors of our rights, and the guardians of our virtues; but believe it not included in your high office that you should flatter our vices, or solace our vanity; and, as vanity only dictates this prosecution, it is humbly hoped your Lordships will dismiss it. "If every attempt, however light or ludicrous, to lessen another's reputation is to be punished by a judicial sentence, what punishment can be sufficiently severe for him who attempts to diminish the reputation of the Supreme Court of Justice, by reclaiming upon a cause already determined, without any change in the state of the question? Does it not imply hopes that the Judges will change their opinion? Is not uncertainty and inconstancy in the highest degree disreputable to a Court? Does it not suppose that the former judgment was temerarious or negligent? Does it not lessen the confidence of the public? Will it not be said that jus est aut incognitum, aut vagum? and will not the consequence be drawn, misera est servitus? Will not the rules of action be obscure? Will not he who knows himself wrong to-day, hope that the Courts of Justice will think him right to-morrow? Surely, my Lords, these are attempts of dangerous tendency, which the Solicitors, as men versed in the law, should have foreseen and avoided. It was natural for an ignorant printer to appeal from the Lord Ordinary; but from lawyers, the descendants of lawyers, who have practised for three hundred years, and have now raised themselves to a higher denomination, it might be expected, that they should know the reverence due to a judicial determination: and, having been once dismissed, should sit down. in silence." I am ashamed to mention that the Court, by a plurality of voices, without having a single additional cir From an engraving LUTON-HOE, BEDFORDSHIRE The seat of Lord Bute. breakfast; I mentioned a friend of mine having resolved never to marry a pretty woman. JOHNSON: Sir, it is a very foolish resolution to resolve not to marry a pretty woman. Beauty is of itself very estimable. No, Sir, I would prefer a pretty woman, unless there are objections to her. A pretty woman may be foolish; a pretty woman may be wicked; a pretty woman may not like me. But there is no such danger in marrying a pretty woman. as is apprehended; she A pretty woman, if will not be persecuted if she does not invite persecution. she has a mind to be wicked, can find a readier way than another; and that is all." I accompanied him in Mr. Dilly's chaise to Shefford, where, talking of Lord Bute's never going to Scotland, he said, "As an Englishman, I should wish all the Scotch gentlemen should be educated in England; Scotland would become a province; they would spend all their rents in England." This is a subject of much consequence, and much delicacy. The advantage of an English education is unquestionably very great to Scotch gentlemen of talents and ambition; and regular visits to Scotland, and perhaps other means, might be effectually used to prevent them from being totally estranged from their native country, any more than a Cumberland or Northumberland gentleman, who has been educated in the South of England. I own, indeed, that it is no small misfortune for Scotch gentlemen who have neither talents nor ambition, to be educated in England, where they may be perhaps distinguished only by a nick-name, lavish their fortune in giving expensive entertainments to those who laugh at them, and saunter about as mere idle insignificant hangers-on even upon the foolish great; when if they had been judiciously brought up at home, they might have been comfortable and creditable members of society. At Shefford I had another affectionate parting from my revered friend, who was taken up by the Bedford coach, and carried to the metropolis. I went with Messieurs Dilly to see some friends at Bedford; dined with the officers of the militia of the county, and next day proceeded on my journey. CHAPTER LI-1781-1782 DEATH OF ROBERT LEVETT Johnson's Beneficence-Thomas Astle's "Alfred - Mr. Bewley-St. Martin's Street-Johnson's Resolutions His Visit to Oxford, Birmingham, Lichfield and Ashbourne-Death of Robert Levett -Johnson's Verses on his old Friend-Chatterton and Ossian-Mrs. Careless-Letters to Lucy Porter-"The Beauties and The Deformities of Johnson-Mr. Perkins-Death of Lord Auchinleck-Johnson's Ill-health-Makes a Parting Use of the Library at Streatham-Visits Chichester, Petworth, Cowdray, and Brighthelmstone. "DEAR SIR, " ઃઃ TO BENNET LANGTON, ESQ. "How welcome your account of yourself and your invitation to your new house was to me, I need not tell you, who consider our friendship not only as formed by choice, but as matured by time. We have been now long enough acquainted to have many images in common, and therefore to have a source of conversation which neither the learning nor the wit of a new companion can supply. "My 'Lives' are now published; and if you will tell me whither I shall send them, that they may come to you, I will take care that you shall not be without them. "You will, perhaps, be glad to hear that Mrs. Thrale is disencumbered of her brewhouse; and that it seemed to the purchaser so far from an evil, that he was content to give for it a hundred and thirty-five thousand pounds. Is the nation ruined? "Please to make my respectful compliments to Lady Rothes, and keep me in the memory of all the little dear family, particularly Mrs. Jane. "Bolt-court, June 16, 1781." "I am, Sir, "Your affectionate humble servant, Johnson's charity to the poor was uniform and extensive, both from inclination and principle. He not only bestowed liberally out of his own purse, but what is more difficult as well as rare, would beg from others, when he had proper objects in view. This he did judiciously as well as humanely. Mr. Philip Metcalfe tells me that when he has asked him for some money for persons in distress, and Mr. Metcalfe has offered what Johnson thought too much, he insisted on taking less, saying, "No, no, Sir: we must not pamper them." I am indebted to Mr. Malone, one of Sir Joshua Reynolds's executors, for the following note, which was found among his papers after his death, and which, we may presume his unaffected modesty prevented him from communicating to me with the other letters from Dr. Johnson with which he was pleased to furnish me. However slight in itself, as it does honour to that illustrious painter, and most amiable man, I am happy to introduce it. |