thief whom he pardoned on the cross.' What fol [Dr. Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale with some degree of complacency, in Miss Porter's judgment (to whom he had not imparted his transactions with Letters, Dodd)" Lucy said, "When I read Dr. Dodd's sermon to the prisoners, I said, Dr. Johnson could not make a better.""] 9 Aug. 1777. The other pieces mentioned by Johnson in the above-mentioned collection are two letters, one to the 'Lord Chancellor Bathurst (not Lord North, as is erroneously supposed), and one to Lord Mansfield. A Petition from Dr. Dodd to the King. A Petition from Mrs. Dodd to the Queen. Observations of some length inserted in the newspapers, on occasion of Earl Percy's having presented to his majesty a petition for mercy to Dodd, signed by twenty thousand people, but all in vain. He told me that he had also written a petition for the city of London; "but (said he, with a significant smile) they mended it 1." دو The last of these articles which Johnson wrote is 'Having unexpectedly, by the favour of Mr. Stone, of London Field, Hackney, seen the original in Johnson's handwriting of "The Petition of the City of London to his Majesty, in favour of Dr. Dodd," I now present it to my readers, with such passages as were omitted enclosed in crotchets, and the additions or variations marked in italicks. Divinity "That William Dodd, Doctor of Laws, now lying under sentence of death in your majesty's gaol of Newgate for the crime of forgery, has for a great part of his life set a useful and laudable example of diligence in his calling [and, as we have reason to believe, has exercised his ministry with great fidelity and efficacy], which, in many instances, has produced the most happy effect. "That he has been the first institutor [or] and a very earnest and active promoter of several modes of useful charity, and [that], therefore [he], may be considered as having been on many occasions a benefactor to the publick. "[That when they consider his past life, they are willing to suppose his late crime to have been, not the consequence of habitual depravity, but the suggestion of some sudden and violent temptation.] 66 [That] your petitioners, therefore, considering his case as, in some of its circumstances, unprecedented and peculiar, and encouraged by your majesty's known clemency, [they] most humbly recommend the said William Dodd to [his] your majesty's most gracious consideration, in hopes that he will be found not altogether [unfit] unworthy to stand an example of royal mercy.”—BosWELL. [It does seem that these few alterations were amendments.-ED.] "Dr. Dodd's last solemn Declaration," which he left with the sheriff at the place of execution. Here also my friend marked the variations on a copy of that piece now in my possession. Dodd inserted, "I never knew or attended to the calls of frugality, or the needful minuteness of painful economy;" and in the next sentence he introduced the words which I distinguished by italicks: " My life for some few unhappy years past has been dreadfully erroneous." Johnson's expression was hypocritical; but his remark on the margin is, "With this he said he could not charge himself." Having thus authentically settled what part of the "Occasional Papers," concerning Dr. Dodd's miserable situation, came from the pen of Johnson, I shall proceed to present my readers with my record of the unpublished writings relating to that extraordinary and interesting matter. I found a letter to Dr. Johnson from Dr. Dodd, May 23, 1777, in which "The Convict's Address" seems clearly to be meant: "DR. DODD TO DR. JOHNSON. "I am so penetrated, my ever dear sir, with a sense of your extreme benevolence towards me, that I cannot find words equal to the sentiments of my heart. * * "You are too conversant in the world to need the slightest hint from me of what infinite utility the speech1 on the awful day has been to me. I experience, every hour, some good effect from it. I am sure that effects still more salutary and important must follow from your kind and intended favour. I will labour-God being my helper-to do justice to it from the pulpit. I am sure, had I your sentiments constantly to deliver from thence, in all their mighty force and power, not a soul could be left unconvinced and unpersuaded. "May God Almighty bless and reward, with his choicest * 1 His speech at the Old Bailey when found guilty.-BOSWELL. * comforts, your philanthropick actions, and enable me at all times to express what I feel of the high and uncommon obligations which I owe to the first man in our times." On Sunday, June 22, he writes, begging Dr. Johnson's assistance in framing a supplicatory letter to his majesty: "If his majesty could be moved of his royal clemency to spare me and my family the horrours and ignominy of a publick death, which the publick itself is solicitous to wave, and to grant me in some silent distant corner of the globe to pass the remainder of my days in penitence and prayer, I would bless his clemency and be humbled." A This letter was brought to Dr. Johnson when in church. He stooped down and read it, and wrote, when he went home, the following letter for Dr. Dodd to the king: SIR,-May it not offend your majesty, that the most miserable of men applies himself to your clemency, as his last hope and his last refuge; that your mercy is most earnestly and humbly implored by a clergyman, whom your laws and judges have condemned to the horrour and ignominy of a publick execution. "I confess the crime, and own the enormity of its consequences, and the danger of its example. Nor have I the confidence to petition for impunity; but humbly hope, that publick security may be established, without the spectacle of a clergyman dragged through the streets, to a death of infamy, amidst the derision of the profligate and profane; and that justice may be satisfied with irrevocable exile, perpetual disgrace, and hopeless penury. 66 My life, sir, has not been useless to mankind. I have benefited many. But my offences against God are numberless, and I have had little time for repentance. Preserve me, sir, by your prerogative of mercy, from the necessity of appearing unprepared at that tribunal, before which kings and subjects must stand at last together. Permit me to hide my guilt in [He afterwards expressed a hope that this deviation from the duties of the place would be forgiven him.-ED.] some obscure corner of a foreign country, where, if I can ever attain confidence to hope that my prayers will be heard, they shall be poured with all the fervour of gratitude for the life and happiness of your majesty.—I am, sir, your majesty's, &c." Subjoined to it was written as follows: "DR. JOHNSON TO DR. DODD. “SIR,—I most seriously enjoin you not to let it be at all known that I have written this letter, and to return the copy to Mr. Allen in a cover to me. I hope I need not tell you that I wish it success. But do not indulge hope. Tell nobody." It happened luckily that Mr. Allen was pitched on to assist in this melancholy office, for he was a great friend of Mr. Akerman, the keeper of Newgate. Dr. Johnson never went to see Dr. Dodd. He said to me, "It would have done him more harm than good to Dodd, who once expressed a desire to see him, but not earnestly." Dr. Johnson, on the 20th of June, wrote the following letter: "TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE CHARLES JENKINSON. "SIR,-Since the conviction and condemnation of Dr. Dodd, I have had, by the intervention of a friend, some intercourse with him, and I am sure I shall lose nothing in your opinion by tenderness and commiseration. Whatever be the crime, it is not easy to have any knowledge of the delinquent, without a wish that his life may be spared ; at least when no life has been taken away by him. I will, therefore, take the liberty of suggesting some reasons for which I wish this unhappy being to escape the utmost rigour of his sentence. "He is, so far as I can recollect, the first clergyman of our church who has suffered publick execution for immorality; and I know not whether it would not be more for the interests of religion to bury such an offender in the obscurity of perpetual exile, than to expose him in a cart, and on the gallows, to all who for any reason are enemies to the clergy. "The supreme power has, in all ages, paid some attention to the voice of the people; and that voice does not least deserve to be heard when it calls out for mercy. There is now a very general desire that Dodd's life should be spared. More is not wished; and, perhaps, this is not too much to be granted. "If you, sir, have any opportunity of enforcing these reasons, you may, perhaps, think them worthy of consideration: but whatever you determine, I most respectfully entreat that you will be pleased to pardon for this intrusion, sir, your most obedient and most humble servant, “Sam. JOHNSON." It has been confidently circulated, with invidious remarks, that to this letter no attention whatever was paid by Mr. Jenkinson (afterwards Earl of Liverpool), and that he did not even deign to show the common civility of owning the receipt of it. I could not but wonder at such conduct in the noble lord, whose own character and just elevation in life, I thought, must have impressed him with all due regard for great abilities and attainments. As the story had been much talked of, and apparently from good authority, I could not but have animadverted upon it in this work, had it been as was alleged; but from my earnest love of truth, and having found reason to think that there might be a mistake, I presumed to write to his lordship, requesting an explanation; and it is with the sincerest pleasure that I am enabled to assure the world that there is no foundation for it, the fact being, that owing to some neglect, or accident, Johnson's letter never came to Lord Liverpool's hands. I should have thought it strange indeed, if that noble lord had undervalued my illustrious friend'; but instead of this being the case, his lordship, in the very polite [It would not be surprising if it had been so treated. Mr. Jenkinson was at this time Secretary at War, and was obnoxious to popular odium from an unfounded imputation of being the channel of a secret influence over the king. To request, therefore, his influence with the king on a matter so wholly foreign to his duties and station was a kind of verification of the slander ;--and however Lord Liverpool's prudence may have inclined him, at a subsequent period, to answer Mr. Boswell's inquiries, there seems to be some reason why he should have been offended at the liberty taken with him by Dr. Johnson.-ED.] |