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jealousy of the Scotch, and their resentment at having their country described by him as it really was; when to say that it was a country as good as England would have been a gross falsehood. "None of us," said he, "would be offended if a foreigner who has travelled here should say, that vines and olives don't grow in England." And as to his prejudice against the Scotch, which I always ascribed to that nationality which he observed in them, he said to the same gentleman, "When I find a Scotchman, to whom an Englishman is as a Scotchman, that Scotchman shall be as an Englishman to me." His intimacy with many gentlemen of Scotland, and his employing so many natives of that country as his amanuenses, prove that his prejudice was not virulent; and I have deposited in the British Museum, amongst other pieces of his writing, the following note in answer to one from me, asking if he would meet me at dinner at the Mitre, though a friend of mine, a Scotchman, was to be there:"

"Mr. Johnson does not see why Mr. Boswell should suppose a Scotchman less acceptable than any other man. He will be at the Mitre."

My much-valued friend Dr. Barnard, now Bishop of Killaloe, having once expressed to him an apprehension that if he should visit Ireland he might treat the people of that country more unfavourably than he had done the Scotch, he answered, with strong pointed double-edged wit, "Sir, you have no reason to be afraid of me. The Irish are not in a conspiracy to cheat the world by false representations of the merits of their countrymen. No, sir: the Irish are a fair people; they never speak well of one Murph. another." [Mr. Murphy relates Essay, that Johnson one day asked him, "Have you observed the difference between your own country impudence and Scotch impudence?" Murphy answering in the negative; " Then I will tell you," said Johnson: "the impudence of an Irishman is the impudence of a fly that buzzes about you, and you put it away, but it returns again, and still-flutters and teases. The impudence of a Scotchman is the impudence of a leech that fixes and sucks your blood."

P. 105.

Johnson told me of an instance of Scottish nationality, which made a very unfavourahis life with great assiduity, as will be seen in the last volume of this work.-ED.]

[We may be allowed to express our wonder at the extreme prejudice of Johnson against Scotland and the Scotch; which is the more surprising, because he was himself a jacobite, and many of his earliest acquaintances and some of his nearest friends were Scotch (ante, p. 169). The Editor has a strong suspicion that there was some personal cause for this unreasonable, and, as it appears, unaccountable antipathy.-ED.]

ble impression upon his mind. A Scotchman of some consideration in London solicited him to recommend, by the weight of his learned authority, to be master of an English school, a person of whom he who recommended him confessed he knew no more but that he was his countryman. Johnson was shocked at this unconscientious conduct.

All the miserable cavillings against his "Journey," in newspapers, magazines, and other fugitive publications, I can speak from certain knowledge, only furnished him with sport, At last there came out a scurrilous volume 2, larger than Johnson's own, filled with malignant abuse, under á name, real or fictitious, of some low man in an obscure corner of Scotland, though supposed to be the work of another Scotchman, who has found means to make himself well known both in Scotland and England. The effect which it had upon Johnson was, to produce this pleasant observation to Mr. Seward, to whom he lent the book: "This fellow must be a blockhead." They don't know how to go about their abuse. Who will read a five shilling book against me? No, sir, if they had wit, they should have kept pelting me with pamphlets,'

"MR. BOSWELL TO DR. JOHNSON.

"Edinburgh, 18th Feb. 1775. "You would have been very well pleased if you had dined with me to-day. I had for my guest, Macquharrie, young Maclean of Col, the successor of our friend, a very amiable man, though not marked with such active qualities as his brother; Mr. Maclean of Torloisk in Mull 3, a gentleman of Sir Allan's family; and two of the clan Grant; so that the Highland and Hebridean genius reigned. We had a great deal of conversation about you, and drank your health in a bumper. The toast was not proposed by me, which is a circumstance to be remarked, for I am now so connected with you, that any thing that I can say or do to your honour has not the value of an additional compliment. It is only giving you a guinea out of that

[This was, no doubt, Dr. M'Nicol's book, which has been more than once referred to. It is styled "Remarks on Dr. Samuel Johnson's Journey to the Hebrides, &c., by the Rev. Donald M Nicol, A. M., Minister of Lismore, in Argyllshire." It had, by way of motto, a citation from Ray's Proverbs: “Old men and travellers LIE by authority." It was not printed till 1779. The second Scotchman, whom Mr. Boswell supposes to have helped in this work, Sir James Mackintosh very reasonably surmises to have been Macpherson.-ED.]

3 [Maclean of Torloisk was grandfather to the present Marchioness of Northampton.-WALTER SCOTT.]

treasure of admiration which already belongs to you, and which is no hidden treasure; for I suppose my admiration of you is co-existent with the knowledge of my character.

"You then are going wild about Ossian: Why do you think any part can be proved? The dusky manuscript of Egg is probably not fifty years old: if it be an hundred, it "I find that the Highlanders and Hebri- proves nothing. The tale of Clanranald deans in general are much fonder of your is no proof. Has Clanranald told it? Can he 'Journey,' than the low-country or hither prove it? There are, I believe, no Erse Scots. One of the Grants said to-day, that manuscripts. None of the old families had he was sure you were a man of a good a single letter in Erse that we heard of. heart, and a candid man, and seemed to You say it is likely that they could write hope he should be able to convince you of The learned, if any learned there were, the antiquity of a good proportion of the could; but knowing by that learning some poems of Ossian. After all that has passed, written language, in that language they I think the matter is capable of being prov-wrote, as letters had never been applied to ed to a certain degree. I am told that their own. If there are manuscripts, let Macpherson got one old Erse MS. from them be shown, with some proof that they Clanranald, for the restitution of which he are not forged for the occasion. You say executed a formal obligation; and it is af many can remember parts of Ossian. I befirmed, that the Gaelick (call it Erse or call lieve all those parts are versions of the Enit Irish) has been written in the Highlandsglish; at least there is no proof of their anand Hebrides for many centuries. It is tiquity. reasonable to suppose, that such of the inhabitants as acquired any learning, possessed the art of writing as well as their Irish neighbours and Celtick cousins; and the question is, can sufficient evidence be shown of this?

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Macpherson is said to have made some translations himself; and having taught a boy to write it, ordered him to say that he had learnt it of his grandmother. The boy, when he grew up, told the story. This Mrs. Williams heard at Mr. Strahan's table. Don't be credulous; you know how little a Highlander can be trusted. Macpherson is, so far as I know, very quiet. Is not that proof enough? Every thing is against him. No visible manuscript: no

"Those who are skilled in ancient writings can determine the age of MSS., or at least can ascertain the century in which they were written; and if men of veracity, who are so skilled, shall tell us that MSS. in the possession of families in the High-inscription in the language: no corresponlands and isles are the works of a remote age, I think we should be convinced by their testimony.

"There is now come to this city, Ranald Macdonald from the Isle of Egg, who has several MSS. of Erse poetry, which he wishes to publish by subscription. I have engaged to take three copies of the book, the price of which is to be six shillings, as I would subscribe for all the Erse that can be printed, be it old or new, that the language may be preserved. This man says, that some of his manuscripts are ancient; and, to be sure, one of them which was shown to me does appear to have the duskiness of antiquity.

"The inquiry is not yet quite hopeless, and I should think that the exact truth may be discovered, if proper means be used. I am, &c. "JAMES BOSWELL."

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dence among friends: no transaction of business, of which a single scrap remains in the ancient families. Macpherson's pretence is that the character was Saxon. If he had not talked unskilfully of manuscripts, he might have fought with oral tradition much longer. As to Mr. Grant's information, 1 suppose he knows much less of the matter than ourselves.

"In the mean time, the bookseller says that the sale is sufficiently quick. They printed four thousand. Correct your copy wherever it is wrong, and bring it up. Your friends will all be glad to see you. ‘I think of going myself into the country about May.

"I am sorry that I have not managed to send the book sooner. I have left four for you, and do not restrict you absolutely to follow my directions in the distribution. You must use your own discretion.

"Make my compliments to Mrs. Boswell: I suppose she is now beginning to forgive me. I am, dear sir, your humble servant, SAM. JOHNSON."

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lished as riding-master there, under the Duchess of Queensberry's donation 1.

66 DR. JOHNSON TO MRS. THRALE.
"University College, 3d March, 1775.

p. 212.

Lett. v. i. "The fate of my proposal for our friend Mr. Carter will be decided on Monday. Those whom I have spoken to are all friends. I have not abated any part of the entrance or payment, for it has not been thought too much, and I hope he will have scholars.

"I am very deaf; and yet cannot well help being much in company, though it is often very uncomfortable. But when I have done this thing, which I hope is a good thing, or find that I cannot do it, I wish to live a while under your care and protection."]

On Tuesday, 21st March, I arrived in London; and on repairing to Dr. Johnson's before dinner, found him in his study, sitting with Mr. Peter Garrick, the elder brother of David, strongly resembling him in countenance and voice, but of more sedate and placid manners 2. Johnson in formed me, that though Mr. Beauclerk was in great pain, it was hoped he was not in danger, and that he now wished to consult Dr. Heberden, to try the effect of a "new understanding." Both at this interview, and in the evening at Mr. Thrale's, where he and Mr. Peter Garrick and I met again, he was vehement on the subject of the Ossian controversy; observing, "We do not know that there are any ancient Erse manuscripts; and we have no other reason to disbelieve that there are men with three heads, but that we do not know that there are any such men." He also was outrageous upon his supposition that my countrymen loved Scotland better than truth," saying, "All of them,-nay, not all,-but droves of them, would come up, and attest any thing for the honour of Scotland." He also persevered in his wild allegation, that he questioned if there was a tree between Edinburgh and the English border older than himself. I assured him he was mistaken, and suggested that the proper punishment would be that he should receive a stripe at every tree above a hundred years old, that was found within that space. He laughed, and said, "I believe I might submit to it for a baubee."

The doubts which, in my correspondence with him, I had ventured to state as to the justice and wisdom of the conduct of Great Britain towards the American colonies,

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while I at the same time requested that he would enable me to inform myself upon that momentous subject, he had altogether disregarded; and had recently published a pamphlet, entitled " 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."

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 fellow-subjects 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 argument, or that felicity of expression, for which he was, upon other occasions, so eminent. Positive assertion, sarcastical severity, and extravagant ridicule, which he himself reprobated as a test of truth, were united in this rhapsody.

That this pamphlet was written at the desire of those who were then in power, I have no doubt 3; 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?"

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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

[Yet see ante, p. 161 and n.-ED.]

of importance in literary history, I shall therefore insert some passages which were struck out, it does not 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 italicks.

In the paragraph where he says, the Americans were incited to resistance by European intelligence from "men whom they thought their friends, but who were friends only to themselves," there followed -"and made by their selfishness, the enemies of their country.'

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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."

The paragraph which came next was in these words:

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 Authour of the Rambler," with this motto:

"Fallitur egregio quisquis sub principe credit Servitium; nunquam libertas gratior extat

Quam sub rege pio.”—Claudianus. These pamphlets drew upon him numerous attacks. Against the common weaUnhappy is that country in which men pons of literary warfare he was hardened; can hope for advancement by favouring its but there were two instances of animadverenemies. The tranquillity of stable gov- sion which I communicated to him, and ernment is not always easily preserved from what I could judge, both from his siagainst the machinations of single innova-lence and his looks, appeared to me to imtors; but what can be the hope of quiet, press him much 2. when factions hostile to the legislature can be openly formed and openly avowed?"

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 1.

"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 yel supply them with another WILLIAM. Whigs, indeed, are not willing to be governed; and it is possible that King 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 multiplied,

1 [Lord Camden.-ED.]

One was, "A Letter to Dr. Samuel Johnson, 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 publick 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 hereaf ter 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, and

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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 Mr. Wesley, post, 6th Feb 1776.-ED.]

so valuable a work, was capable of prostitu- | elegant manners, with whom he maintained ting his talents in such productions as The a long intimacy, and whose generosity toFalse Alarm,' the Thoughts on the Trans-wards him will afterwards appear, that his actions 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 him 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 own mind, Johnson may have felt sincere uneasiness that his conduct should be erroneously imputed to unworthy motives by good men; and that the influence of his valuable writings should on that account be in any degree obstructed or lessened.

He complained to a right honourable friend of distinguished talents and very

[Mr. 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 all, how could he suppose that Dr. Johnson, with his known feelings and opinions, could be influenced by a person professing such doctrines ?-ED.]

2 [Mr. Gerard Hamilton. This anecdote is wholly at variance with Mr. Boswell's own as sertion, ante, p. 161; and-without going the whole length of that assertion, "that Johnson's pension had no influence whatsoever on his political publications"-Mr. Hamilton's anecdote may be doubted, 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. HamiltonMrs. Thrale, Mr. Murphy, Sir J. Hawkins, Mr. Tyers who all declare that his political pamphlets expressed the opinions which in private conversation he always maintained. Mr. Boswell, we have seen, was of the same opinion as to Johnson's sincerity, till he took up the adverse side of the political question. Then, indeed, he admits, not only without contradiction, but with a species of confirmation, Mr. Hamilton's anecdote. It must, moreover, be observed, that the anecdote itself is not very consistent; for it states that Johnson consulted Mr. Hamilton on the contradictory obJects of resigning his pension altogether, and of endeavouring to have it secured to him for life. It must be recollected, in weighing Mr. Hamilton's testimony on this point, that we have it on

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 Fordyce, Mr. Steevens, and Mr. Charles Fox. Before he came in, we talked of his" Journey to the Western Islands," and of his coming away," willing to believe the second sight 3," 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 "

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Journey the common topick 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 4."

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 ly at second hand, and that there is reason to believe that he had been connected in some mysterious political engagement with Dr. Johnson, which might tend to discolour his view of this matter.-ED.]

3 Johnson's "Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland."-Works, vol. viii. p. 347.-BOSWELL.

[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.-ED.]

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