Etat. 71] DAVID BOSWELL 879 they were under his care, and that they should not be permitted to escape: but that he could assure them they need not be afraid of being burnt, for that the fire was not in the prison, properly so called, which was strongly built with stone and that if they would engage to be quiet, he himself would come in to them, and conduct them to the farther end of the building, and would not go out till they gave him leave. To this proposal they agreed; upon which Mr. Akerman, having first made them fall back from the gate, went in, and with a determined resolution ordered the outer turnkey upon no account to open the gate, even though the prisoners (though he trusted they would not) should break their word, and by force bring himself to order it. "Never mind me (said he), should that happen." The prisoners peaceably followed him, while he conducted them through passages of which he had the keys, to the extremity of the gaol, which was most distant from the fire. Having by this very judicious conduct fully satisfied them that there was no immediate risk, if any at all, he then addressed them thus: "Gentlemen, you are now convinced that I told you true. I have no doubt that the engines will soon extinguish this fire; if they should not, a sufficient guard will come, and you shall be all taken out and lodged in the Compters. I assure you, upon my word and honour, that I have not a farthing insured. I have left my house that I might take care of you. I will keep my promise, and stay with you if you insist upon it; but if you will allow me to go out and look after my family and property, I shall be obliged to you." Struck with his behaviour, they called out, "Master Akerman, you have done bravely; it was very kind in you: by all means go and take care of your own concerns." He did so accordingly, while they remained, and were all preserved. Johnson has been heard to relate the substance of this story with high praise, in which he was joined by Mr. Burke. My illustrious friend, speaking of Mr. Akerman's kindness to his prisoners, pronounced this eulogy upon his character:"He who has long had constantly in his view the worst of mankind, and is yet eminent for the humanity of his disposition, must have had it originally in a great degree, and continued to cultivate it very carefully." In the course of this month my brother David waited upon Dr. Johnson, with the following letter of introduction, which I had taken care should be lying ready on his arrival in London. "THIS will be delivered to you by my brother David, on his return from Spain. You will be glad to see the man who vowed to stand by the old castle of Auchinleck, with heart, purse, and sword;' that romantic family solemnity devised by me, of which you and I talked with complacency upon the spot. I trust that twelve years of absence have not lessened his feudal attachment; and that you will find him worthy of being introduced to your acquaintance. I have the honour to be, with affectionate veneration, my dear Sir, 66 Your most faithful humble servant, Johnson received him very politely, and has thus mentioned him in a letter to Mrs. Thrale: "I have had with me a brother of Boswell's, a Spanish merchant,† * * Vol. ii. Mrs. Piozzi has omitted the name, she best knows why. Now settled in London. whom the war has driven from his residence at Valencia; he is gone to see his friends, and will find Scotland but a sorry place after twelve years' residence in a happier climate. He is a very agreeable man, and speaks no Scotch." "SIR, 66 TO DR. BEATTIE, AT ABERDEEN. "MORE years* than I have any delight to reckon have passed since you and I saw one another of this, however, there is no reason for making reprehensory complaint :—Sic fata ferunt. But methinks there might pass some small interchange of regard between us. If you say that I ought to have written, I now write; and I write to tell you that I have much kindness for you and Mrs. Beattie; and that I wish your health better, and your life long. Try change of air, and come a few degrees southwards; a softer climate may do you both good; winter is coming in ; and London will be warmer, and gayer, and busier, and more fertile of amusement, than Aberdeen. My health is better; but that will be little in the balance, when I tell you that Mrs. Montague has been very ill, and is, I doubt, now but weakly. Mr. Thrale has been very dangerously disordered; but is much better, and I hope will totally recover. He has withdrawn himself from business the whole summer. Sir Joshua and his sister are well; and Mr. Davies has got great success as an author,† generated by the corruption of a bookseller. More news I have not to tell you, and therefore you must be contented with hearing, what I know not whether you much wish to hear,‡ "I FIND you have taken one of your fits of taciturnity, and have resolved not to write till you are written to; it is but a peevish humour, but you shall have your way. "I have sat at home in Bolt-court, all the summer, thinking to write the 'Lives,' and a great part of the time only thinking. Several of them, however, are done, and I still think to do the rest. "Mr. Thrale and his family have, since his illness, passed their time first at Bath, and then at Brighthelmstone; but I have been at neither place. I would have * I had been five years absent from London.-Beattie. Meaning his entertaining " Memoirs of David Garrick, Esq.," of which Johnson (as Davies informed me) wrote the first sentence; thus, giving, as it were, the key-note to the performance. It is, indeed, very characteristical of its author, beginning with a maxim, and proceeding to illustrate.-" All excellence has a right to be recorded. I shall, therefore, think it superfluous to apologise for writing the life of a man, who, by an uncommon assemblage of private virtues, adorned the highest eminence in a public profession." I wish he had omitted the suspicion expressed here, though I believe he meant nothing but jocularity; for though he and I differed sometimes in opinion, he well knew how much I loved and revered him.-Beattie. Etat. 71] DAVIES'S "MEMOIRS OF GARRICK " 881 gone to Lichfield if I could have had time, and I might have had time if I had been active; but I have missed much, and done little. "In the late disturbances, Mr. Thrale's house and stock were in great danger; the mob was pacified, at their first invasion, with about £50 in drink and meat; and at their second, were driven away by the soldiers. Mr. Strahan got a garrison into his house, and maintained them a fortnight; he was so frightened that he removed part of his goods. Mrs. Williams took shelter in the country. "I know not whether I shall get a ramble this autumn; it is now about the time when we were travelling. I have, however, better health than I had then, and hope you and I may yet show ourselves on some part of Europe, Asia, or Africa.* In the meantime, let us play no trick, but keep each other's kindness by all means in our power. "The bearer of this is Dr. Dunbar, of Aberdeen, who has written and published a very ingenious book,† and who I think has a kindness for me, and will, when he knows you, have a kindness for you. "I suppose your little ladies are grown tall and your son has become a learned young man. I love them all, and I love your naughty lady, whom I never shall persuade to love me. When the Lives' are done, I shall send them to complete her collection, but must send them in paper, as, for want of a pattern, I cannot bind them to fit the rest. "I am, Sir, "Yours most affectionately, "SAM. JOHNSON. "London, Aug. 21, 1780." *It will no doubt be remarked how he avoids the rebellious land of America. This puts me in mind of an anecdote for which I am obliged to my worthy social friend, Governor Richard Penn: At one of Miss E. Hervey's assemblies, Dr. Johnson was following her up and down the room; upon which Lord Abington observed to her, Your great friend is very fond of you, you can go nowhere without him.'- Ay (said she), he would follow me to any part of the world.'-' Then (said the Earl), ask him to go with you to America.'" "Essays on the History of Mankind." 56-(2279) From an engraving LORD GEORGE GORDON (b. 1751, d. 1793) third son of the third Duke of Gordon, he was educated at Eton and entered the Navy, but retired as a lieutenant in 1772. On June 2nd, 1780, as president of the Protestant Association, he headed a mob of 50,000 persons, who marched to the House of Commons with a petition for the repeal of the Catholic Relief Act. The agitation led to terrible riots in which much property was destroyed, including the house of Lord Mansfield (chief justice), Newgate prison, and many houses and Roman Catholic chapels, besides which there were over 200 people killed and nearly 250 injured. Gordon was tried for treason, but acquitted. In 1787 he was imprisoned in Newgate (where he died) for libels on the British Government and Marie Antoinette. This year he wrote to a young clergyman in the country the following very excellent letter, which contains valuable advice to divines in general: 66 DEAR SIR, "NOT many days ago, Dr. Lawrence showed me a letter, in which you make mention of me: I hope, therefore, you will not be displeased that I endeavour to preserve your good-will by some observations which your letter suggested to me. You are afraid of falling into some improprieties in the daily service by reading to an audience that requires no exactness. Your fear, I hope, secures you from danger. They who cont.act absurd habits are such as have no fear. It is impossible to do the same thing very often, without some peculiarity of manner: but that manner may be good or bad, and a little care will at least preserve it from being bad : to make it good, there must, I think, be something of natural or casual felicity, which cannot be taught. "Your present method of making your sermons seems very judicious. Few frequent preachers can be supposed to have sermons more their own than yours will be. Take care to register, somewhere or other, the authors from whom your several discourses are borrowed; and do not imagine that you shall always remember, even what perhaps you now think it impossible to forget. "My advice, however, is that you attempt, from time to time, an original sermon; and in the labour of composition, do not burden your mind with too much at once; do not exact from yourself, at one effort of excogitation, propriety of thought and elegance of expression. Invent first, and then embellish. The production of something, where nothing was before, is an act of greater energy than the expansion or decoration of the thing produced. Set down diligently your thoughts as they rise in the first words that occur; and when you have matter, you will easily give it form: nor, perhaps, will this method be always necessary; for, by habit, your thoughts and diction will flow together. "The composition of sermons is not very difficult: the divisions not only help the memory of the hearer, but direct the judgment of the writer; they supply sources of invention, and keep every part in its proper place. “What I like least in your letter is your account of the manners of your parish; from which I gather that it has been long neglected by the parson. The Dean of Carlisle,* who was then a little rector in Northamptonshire, told me that it might be discerned whether or no there was a clergyman resident in a parish, by the civil or savage manner of the people. Such a congregation as yours stands in need of much reformation; and I would not have you think it impossible to reform them. A very savage parish was civilized by a decayed gentlewoman, who came among them to teach a petty school. My learned friend, Dr. Wheeler of Oxford, when he was a young man, had the care of a neighbouring parish for £15 a year, which he was never paid; but he counted it a convenience that it compelled him to make a sermon weekly. One woman he could not bring to the communion; and when he reproved or exhorted her, she only answered that she was no scholar. He was advised to set some good woman or man of the parish, a little wiser than herself, to talk to her in a language level to her mind. Such honest, I may call them holy, artifices, must be practised by every clergyman; for all means must be tried by which souls may be saved. Talk to your people, however, as much as you can ; and you will find that the more frequently you converse with them upon religious subjects, the more willingly they will attend, and the more submissively they will * Dr. Percy, now Bishop of Dromore. |