*

In 1740, Dr. Johnson wrote for the Gentleman's Magazine the "Preface,"† the "Life of Admiral Blake,"* and the first parts of those of "Sir Francis Drake,"* and " Philip Barretier," 2*both which he finished the following year. He also wrote an "Essay on Epitaphs," and an "Epitaph on Philips, a Musician," which was afterwards published, with some other pieces of his, in Mrs. Williams's Miscellanies. This Epitaph is so exquisitely beautiful, that I remember even Lord Kames 3, strangely prejudiced as he was against Dr. Johnson, was compelled to allow it very high praise. It has been ascribed to Mr. Garrick, from its appearing at first with the signature G.; but I have heard Mr. Garrick declare, that it was written by Dr. Johnson, and give the following account of the manner in which it was composed. Johnson and he were sitting together; when, amongst other things, Garrick repeated an Epitaph upon this Philips by a Dr. Wilkes, in these words:

"Exalted soul ! whose harmony could please
The love-sick virgin, and the gouty ease;
Could jarring discord, like Amphion, move
To beauteous order and harmonious love;
Rest here in peace, till angels bid thee rise,
And meet thy blessed Saviour in the skies."

Johnson shook his head at these commonplace funeral lines, and said to Garrick, "I think, Davy, I can make a better.", Then, stirring about his tea for a little while, in a state of meditation, he almost extempore produced the following verses:

"Philips, whose touch harmonious could remove
The pangs of guilty power or hapless love;
Rest here, distress'd by poverty no more,
Here find that calm thou gav'st so oft before ;

Johnson (added he), though so wise a fellow, is more like King David than King Solomon; for he says, in his haste, that all men are liars." Dr. Johnson made four lines on the death of poor Hogarth, which were equally true and pleasing:

*The hand of him here torpid lies,
That drew the essential form of grace;
Here closed in death the attentive eyes,
That saw the manners in the face.'"

"I know not," adds Mrs. Piozzi, "why Garrick's were preferred to them." See this question answered, and the lines correctly given, post, sub December 12. 1771. CROKER.

! This preface is nothing but a few lines, no doubt by Johnson, introducing a learned essay on the "Acta Diurna of the old Romans," by some other hand. - CROKER.

His attention was probably drawn to Barretier by Miss Carter, with whom that young man, who is represented as having been from his infancy a prodigy of learning, corresponded. Johnson seems to have been somewhat, and yet not Sciently, incredulous as to the almost miraculous extent his acquirements, and confesses that he had few materials but those furnished by Barretier's father; and certainly what has been preserved of his correspondence in the Life of Mrs. Carter (70-94.), does not justify the extraordinary accounts which we read of his learning and genius. He died in 1740, . 19. — CRoker.

Heary Home, one of the Lords of Session in Scotland, author of the "Elements of Criticism," "Sketches of the History of Man," and other ingenious works. -CROKER.

The epitaph of Philips is in the porch of Wolverhampton church. The prose part of it is curious:

Near this place lies Charles Claudius Philips, whose site contempt of riches, and inimitable performances upon the violin, made him the admiration of all that knew him. He was born in Wales, made the tour of Europe, and, after the experience of both kinds of fortune, died in 1732."

Mr. Garrick appears not to have recited the verses correctly, the original being as follows. One of the various

"St. John's Gate, January 31st, 1740-41. "SIR, Dr. James presses me with great would exert your interest with Mr. Warren to warmth to remind you of your promise, that you bring their affairs to a speedy conclusion; this you know, Sir, I have some right to insist upon, as Mr. Cave was, in some degree, diverted from attending to the arbitration by my assiduity in expediting the agreement between you; but I do not imagine many arguments necessary to prevail upon Mr. Warren to do what seems to be no less desired by him than the Doctor. If he entertains any suspicion that I shall endeavour to enforce the barely willing, to forbear all mention of the quesDoctor's arguments, I am willing, and more than

tion.

He that desires only to do right, can oblige nobody by acting, and must offend every man that expects favours. It is perhaps for this reason that Mr. Cave seems very much inclined to resign the office of umpire; and since I know not whom to propose in his place equally qualified and disinterested, and am yet desired to propose somebody, I believe the most eligible method of determining this vexatious affair will be, that each

readings is remarkable, as it is the germ of Johnson's concluding line: —

"Exalted soul, thy various sounds could please
The love-sick virgin, and the gouty ease;
Could jarring crowds, like old Amphion, move
To beauteous order and harmonious love;
Rest here in peace, till angels bid thee rise,
And meet thy Saviour's consort in the skies."
BLAKEWAY.

By consort, in the above lines, I suppose concert is meant ; but still I do not see the germ of Johnson's thought. CROKER.

5 This is the first of a dozen letters or notes of Johnson (communicated to me by Mr. Peter Cunningham) addressed, two in 1741, and the rest in 1755-6, to a Mr. Lewis Paul, of Birmingham and subsequently of Brook Green, Hammer. smith. They relate to some question of business between Paul, Warren the Birmingham bookseller, Dr. James, and Cave, Johnson acting as a common friend of all the parties. The case seems to have been that Paul had invented what Cave calls "a machine for making the new spindles for spinning wool and cotton." Towards trying this, Warren and James appear to have advanced money; and on some difference between them, Cave, at Johnson's request, consented to be an umpire. Cave, however, who, as Johnson says in his Life, impaired his fortune by innumerable projects, of which none succeeded," had himself some pecuniary interest in the concernas landlord, it seems, of the mill in which the machine was worked; and in 1756, Johnson was again mediating between Paul and Cave's representatives. The whole affair is very obscure, and the letters, though marked with Johnson's usual good sense, are perhaps hardly worth inserting; yet I am willing to preserve them as additional proofs of his kindness to his friends, and as affording glimpses of his life at periods of which Boswell knew nothing. The originals are in the possession of Mr. Lewis Pocock. CROKER, 1845.

party should draw up in a narrow compass his own state of the case, and his demand upon the other; and each abate somewhat, of which himself or his friends may think due to him by the laws of rigid justice. This will seem a tedious method, but will, I hope, be shortened by the desire, so often expressed on each side, of a speedy determination. If either party can make use of me in this transaction, in which there is no opportunity for malevolence or prejudice to exert themselves, I shall be well satisfied with the employment.

Mr. Cave, who knows to whom I am writing, desires me to mention bis interest', of which I need not remind you that it is complicated with yours; and therefore cannot be neglected by you without opposition to motives, far stronger than the persuasions of, Sir, your humble servant, - Pocock, MSS.

"SIR,

"SAM. JOHNSON."

"Strand, March 31st, 1741.

The hurry of removing and some other hindrances, have kept me from writing to you since you left us, nor should I have allowed myself the pleasure of doing it now, but that the Doctor [James] has pressed me to offer you a proposal, which I know not why he does not rather make himself; but his request, whatever be the reason of it, is too small to be denied. He proposes, 1. To pay you immediately, or give you satisfactory security for the speedy payment of £100. 2. To exchange gene ral releases with Mr. Warren. These proposals he makes upon the conditions formerly offered, that the bargain for spindles shall be vacated. The securities for Mr. Warren's debts released, and the debt of £65 remitted with the addition of this new article, that Mr. Warren shall give him the books bought for the carrying on of their joint undertaking. What difference this new demand may make, I cannot tell, nor do I intend to be understood in these proposals to express any of my own sentiments, but merely to write after a dictation. I believe I have expressed the Doctor's meaning, but being disappointed of an interview with him, cannot shew him this, and he generally hints his intentions somewhat obscurely.

He is very impatient for an answer, and desires me to importune you for one by the return of the post. I am not willing, in this affair, to request anything on my own account; for you know already, that an agreement can only be made by a communication of your thoughts, and a speedy agreement only by an expeditious communication.

I hope to write soon on some more agreeable subject; for though, perhaps, a man cannot easily

"I have no encouragement to mention anything of my affairs to Mr. Paul, after such a letter as he sent to Mr. Johnson, who had made some mention or enquiry for me. Though I am to be kept in the dark, I suppose you who are on the spot must know what hopes you have of being reimbursed your money, and shall be glad of a line on that head." Cave to Mr. Warren, in Birmingham, April 9. 1741.-P. CUN

NINGHAM.

2 This is an arrangement of the report of a debate between Cromwell and a committee of the Parliament. It is to be regretted that Johnson did not rather reprint the original report, which the editors of the Parliamentary History do not appear to have seen. - CROKER.

3 Boswell must mean that the sole and exclusive composition by Johnson began at this date; because we have seen that he had been employed on these debates as early as

In 1741 he wrote for the Gentleman's Magazine the "Preface;"†"Conclusion of his Lives of Drake and Barretier;"*"A free Translation of the Jests of Hierocles, with an Introduction;"† and, I think, the following pieces: "Debate on the Proposal of Parliament to Cromwell, to assume the Title of King, abridged modified, and digested;"2+ "Translation of Abbé Guyon's Dissertation on the Amazons ;"† "Translation of Fontenelle's Panegyric on Dr. Morin." Two notes upon this appear to me undoubtedly his. He this year, and the two following, wrote the Parliamentary Debates. He told me himself, that he was the sole composer of them for those three years only. was not, however, precisely exact in his statement, which he mentioned from hasty recollection; for it is sufficiently evident, that his composition of them began November 19. 1740, and ended February 23. 1742-3.3

It

appears

He

Birch, that Cave had better assistance for that branch of his Magazine, than has been generally supposed; and that he was indefatigable in getting it made as perfect as he could. Thus, 21st July, 1735,

from some of Cave's letters to Dr.

"I trouble you with the inclosed, because you said you could easily correct what is here given for Lord Chesterfield's speech. I beg you will do so as soon as you can for me, because the month is far advanced."

And 15th July, 1737,

"As you remember the debates so far as to perceive the speeches already printed are not exact, I beg the favour that you will peruse the inclosed, and, in the best manner your memory will serve, correct the mistaken passages, or add any thing that is omitted. I should be very glad to have something of the Duke of Newcastle's speech, which would be particularly of service. A gentleman has Lord Bathurst's speech to add something to." And July 3, 1744,

"You will see what stupid, low, abominable stuff is put upon your noble and learned friend's

4

1738. I, however, see abundant reason to believe that he wrote them from the time (June 1738) that they assumed the Lilliputian title, and even the "Introduction to this new form is evidently his; and when Mr. Boswell limits Johnson's share to the 23d of Feb. 1743, he refers to the date of the debate itself, and not to that of the report, for the debates on the Gin Act (certainly reported by Johnson), which took place in Feb. 1743, were not concluded in the Magazine till February, 1744: so that instead of two years and months, according to Mr. Boswell's reckoning, we have, 1 think, Johnson's own evidence that he was employed in this way for near six years — from 1738 to 1744. ČROKER.

nine

I suppose, in another compilation of the same kind. — BOSWELL.

5 Doubtless, Lord Hardwicke. — BoswELL.

character, such as I should quite reject, and endeavour to do something better towards doing justice to the character. But as I cannot expect to attain my desire in that respect, it would be a great satisfaction, as well as an honour to our work, to have the favour of the genuine speech. It is a method that several have been pleased to take, as I could show, but I think myself under a restraint. I shall say so far, that I have had some by a third hand, which I understood well enough to come from the first; others by penny-post, and others by the speakers themselves, who have been pleased to visit St. John's Gate, and show particular marks of their being pleased."—[Birch's MSS. in Brit. Mus. 4302.]

There is no reason, I believe, to doubt the veracity of Cave. It is, however, remarkable that none of these letters are in the years during which Johnson alone furnished the Debates, and one of them is in the very year after he ceased from that labour. Johnson told me, that as soon as he found that the speeches were thought genuine, he determined that he would write no more of them; "for he would not be accessory to the propagation of falsehood." And such was the tenderness of his conscience, that a short time before his death he expressed his regret for his having been the author of fictions, which had passed for realities.

He nevertheless agreed with me in thinking that the debates which he had framed were to be valued as orations upon questions of public importance. They have accordingly been collected in volumes, properly arranged, and recommended to the notice of parliamentary speakers by a preface, written by no inferior

1 I am assured that the editor is Mr. George Chalmers, whose commercial works are well known and esteemed. BOSWELL. This collection is stated in the Preface to the Parliamentary History, vol. x., to be very incomplete: of thirty-two debates, twelve are given under wrong dates, and several of Johnson's best compositions are wholly omitted; amongst others the important debate of Feb. 13. 1741, on Mr. Sandys's motion for the removal of Sir Robert Walpole : other omissions, equally striking, are complained of. CROKER. 2 Sir J. Hawkins's account of the origin and progress of this system of reporting the debates and of Johnson's share in it is too long (pp. 94-132.) to be introduced here, but is curious and worth consulting. Hawkins, however, seems (as well as the other biographers) to have overrated the value, to Cave and the public, of Johnson's Parliamentary Debates. It is shown in the preface to the Parliamentary History for 1739 (ed. 1812), that one of Cave's rivals, the London Magazine, often excelled the Gentleman's Magazine, in the priority and accuracy of its parliamentary reports, which were contributed by Gordon, the translator of Tacitus. Of the reports in the Gentleman's Magazine, Mr. Murphy says: That Johnson was the author of the debates was not generally known; but the secret transpired several years afterwards, and was avowed by himself on the following orcasion:- Mr. Wedderburne (afterwards Lord Loughborough and Earl of Rosslyn), Dr. Johnson, Dr. Francis (the translator of Horace), Murphy himself, and others, dined with the late Mr. Foote. An important debate towards the end of Sir Robert Walpole's administration being mentioned, Dr. Francis observed, "that Mr. Pitt's speech on that occasion was the best he had ever read." He added, "that he had employed eight years of his life in the study of Demosthenes, and finished a translation of that celebrated Grator, with all the decorations of style and language within the reach of his capacity; but he had met with nothing equal to the speech above mentioned." Many of the company remembered the debate; and some passages were cited with the approbation and applause of all present. During the ardour of conversation, Johnson remained silent. As soon as the warmth of praise subsided, he opened with these words:-"That speech I wrote in a garret in Exeter Street."

hand.' I must, however, observe, that, although there is in those debates a wonderful store of political information, and very powerful eloquence, I cannot agree that they exhibit John Hawkins seems to think. But, indeed, the manner of each particular speaker, as Sir what opinion can we have of his judgment and taste in public speaking, who presumes to give, as the characteristics of two celebrated orators, "the deep-mouthed rancour of Pulteney, and the yelping pertinacity of Pitt ?" 2

The company was struck with astonishment. After staring at each other in silent amaze, Dr. Francis asked how that speech could be written by him? "Sir," said Johnson, "I wrote it in Exeter Street. I never have been in the gallery of the House of Commons but once. Cave had interest with the door-keepers. He, and the persons employed under him, gained admittance: they brought away the subject of discussion, the names of the speakers, the sides they took, and the order in which they rose, together with notes of the arguments advanced in the course of the debate. The whole was afterwards communicated to me, and I composed the speeches in the form which they now have in the Parliamentary Debates." To this discovery Dr. Francis made answer:-" Then, sir, you have exceeded Demosthenes himself, for to say that you have exceeded Francis's Demosthenes, would be saying nothing." The rest of the company bestowed lavish encomiums on Johnson: one, in particular, praised his impartiality; observing, that he dealt out reason and eloquence with an equal hand to both parties. "That is not quite true," said Johnson; "I saved appearances tolerably well, but I took care that the WHIG DOGS should not have the best of it."- Murphy.

The speech of Mr. Pitt's referred to was, no doubt, the celebrated reply to old Horace Walpole, beginning"The atrocious crime of being a young man," March 10. 1741; but there is in the statement a slight inaccuracy, arising, perhaps, from a slip of Johnson's memory, who, by Mr. Boswell's list of Johnson's residences, appears not to have resided in Exeter Street after his return to London in 1737. But he may have resided there a second time, or, after the lapse of so many years, have forgotten the exact place. There can be no doubt that Murphy's report was accurate.

It is very remarkable that Dr. Maty, who wrote the Life and edited the Works of Lord Chesterfield, with the use of his Lordship's papers, under the eye of his surviving friends, and in the lifetime of Johnson, should have published, as "specimens of his Lordship's eloquence, in the strong nervous style of Demosthenes, as well as in the witty ironical manner of Tully," three speeches, which are certainly Johnson's composition. See Chesterfield's Works, vol. ii. p.319. and post, May 13. 1778. — CROKER,

in the British Museum, from which I copied those above quoted. They were most obligingly pointed out to me by Sir William Musgrave, one of the curators [trustees] of that noble repository.

Sept. 9, 1741.

"I have put Mr. Johnson's play into Mr. Gray's 1

hands, in order to sell it to him, if he is inclined to buy it; but I doubt whether he will or not. He would dispose of the copy, and whatever advantage may be made by acting it. Would your society, or any gentleman, or body of men that you know, take such a bargain? He and I are very unfit to deal with theatrical persons. Fleetwood was to have acted it last season, but Johnson's diffidence or 3 ' prevented it."

Account of the Life of Peter Burman," lieve chiefly taken from a foreign publication; as, indeed, he could not himself know much about Burman; "Additions to his Life of Barretier," The Life of Sydenham,"* afterwards prefixed to Dr. Swan's edition of his works; "Proposals for printing Bibliotheca Harleiana, or a Catalogue of the Library of the Earl of

Oxford."* His account of that celebrated col

lection of books, in which he displays the importance to literature, of what the French call a catalogue raisonné, when the subjects of it are extensive and various, and it is executed with ability, cannot fail to impress all his readers with admiration of his philological attainments. It was afterwards prefixed to the first volume of the Catalogue, in which the Latin accounts of books were written by him. He was employed in this business by Mr. Thomas Osborne the bookseller, who purchased the library for

John Gray was a bookseller, at the Cross Keys in the Poultry, the shop formerly kept by Dr. Samuel Chandler. Like his predecessor, he became a dissenting minister; but he afterwards took orders in the church, and held a living at Ripon in Yorkshire. WRIGHT.

2 Not the Royal Society [as Boswell in his two first editions had strangely stated], but the " Society for the Encouragement of Learning," of which Dr. Birch was a leading member. Their object was, to assist authors in printing expensive works. It existed from about 1735 to 1746, when, having incurred a considerable debt, it was dissolved,— BOSWELL.

3 There is no erasure here, but a mere blank; to fill up which may be an exercise for ingenious conjecture. - BosWELL. Probably something equivalent to the reverse of diffidence.- CROKER.

4 From one of his letters to a friend, written in June, 1742, it should seem that he then purposed to write a play on the subject of Charles the Twelfth of Sweden, and to have it ready for the ensuing winter. The passage alluded to, however, is somewhat ambiguous; and the work which he then

13,000l., a sum which Mr. Oldys says, in one of his manuscripts, was not more than the binding of the books had cost; yet, as Dr. Johnson assured me, the slowness of the sale was such, that there was not much gained by it. It has been confidently related, with many embellishments, that Johnson one day knocked Osborne down in his shop with a folio, and put his foot upon his neck. The simple truth I had from Johnson himself. "Sir, he was impertinent to me, and I beat him. But it was not in his shop: it was in my own chamber." A very diligent observer may trace him where we should not easily suppose him to be found. I have no doubt that he wrote the little abridgment entitled "Foreign History," in the Magazine for December. To prove it, I shall quote the Introduction :

"As this is that season of the year in which Nature may be said to command a suspension of hostilities, and which seems intended, by putting a short stop to violence and slaughter, to afford time for malice to relent, and animosity to subside; we can scarce expect any other account than of plans,

negotiations, and treaties, of proposals for peace, and preparations for war."

"Let those who despise the capacity of the Swiss, tell us by what wonderful policy, or by what happy conciliation of interests, it is brought to pass, that in a body made up of different communities and different religions, there should be no civil commotions, though the people are so warlike, that to nominate and raise an army is the same."

I am obliged to Mr. Astle for his ready which the originals are in his possession. Their permission to copy the two following letters, of contents show that they were written about this time, and that Johnson was now engaged in preparing an historical account of the British

Parliament.

had in contemplation may have been a history of that monarch. MALONE.

5" A late female minister of state has been shameless enough to inform the world, that she used, when she wanted to extract any thing from her sovereign, to remind her of Montaigne's reasoning; who has determined, that to tell a secret to a friend is no breach of fidelity, because the number of persons trusted is not multiplied, — a man and his friend being virtually the same." Rambler, No. 13. WRIGHT.

6 The same who is introduced into the Dunciad under disgusting circumstances, which disgrace Pope rather than Osborne, of whom Johnson says in his Life of the poet, that his" impassible dulness" would not feel the satire. He died

in 1767. CROKER.

7 See Censura Literaria, vol. i. p. 438. WRIGHT.

Thomas Astle, Esq., many years Keeper of the Records in the Tower, one of the Keepers of the Paper Office, and Trustee of the British Museum. He contributed many articles to the Archæologia; but his principal work was the "Origin and Progress of Writing, as well Hieroglyphic as Elementary." He died Dec. 1. 1803.- WRIGHT.