CHAPTER III.

1774-1775.

Mr. Thrale's Political Position-Johnson's "Patriot."-Death of young Col-Mr. PerkinsHoole's Tragedy-Charlotte Lennox-Baretti's "Easy Lessons "--Case of Dr. MemisLord Hailes's "Annals "--Mary Queen of Scots-American Politics--Ossian-Letter to Macpherson--Personal Courage-Foote-Publishes "Journey to the Western Islands"Mr. Knox-Mr. Tytler-Mr. Windham-Irish and Scotch Impudence compared-Ossian Controversy-Visit to Oxford.

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PARLIAMENT having been dissolved, and his friend Mr. Thrale, who was a steady supporter of government, having again to encounter the storm of a contested election, he wrote a short pamphlet, entitled "The Patriot," "* addressed to the electors of Great Britain a title which, to factious men who consider a patriot only as an opposer of the measures of government, will appear strangely misapplied. It was, however, written with energetic vivacity; and, except those passages in which it endeavours to vindicate the glaring outrage of the House of Commons in the case of the Middlesex election, and to justify the attempt to reduce our fellow-subjects in America to unconditional submission, it contained an admirable display of the properties of a real patriot, in the original and genuine sense; a sincere, steady, rational, and unbiassed friend to the interests and prosperity of his king and country. It must be acknowledged, however, that both in this and his two former pamphlets, there was amidst many powerful arguments, not only a considerable portion of sophistry, but a contemptuous ridicule of his opponents, which was very provoking.

LETTER 193.

TO MR. PERKINS. 1

"October 25, 1774. "SIR,-You may do me a very great favour. Mrs. Williams, a gentlewoman

1 Mr. Perkins was for a number of years the worthy superintendent of Mr. Thrale's great brewery, and after his death became one of the proprietors of it; and now resides in

whom you may have seen at Mr. Thrale's, is a petitioner for Mr. Hetherington's charity; petitions are this day issued at Christ's hospital.

"I am a bad manager of business in a crowd; and if I should send a mean man, he may be put away without his errand. I must, therefore, entreat that you will go, and ask for a petition for Anna Williams, whose paper of inquiries was delivered with answers at the counting-house of the hospital on Thursday the 20th. My servant will attend you thither, and bring the petition home when you have it.

"The petition which they are to give us, is a form which they deliver to every petitioner, and which the petitioner is afterwards to fill up, and return to them again. This we must have, or we cannot proceed according to their directions. You need, I believe, only ask for a petition; if they inquire for whom you ask, you can tell them.

"I beg pardon for giving you this trouble; but it is a matter of great importance. I am, Sir, your most humble servant,

LETTER 194.

TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.

"SAM JOHNSON."

"London, Oct. 27, 1774.

"DEAR SIR,-There has appeared lately in the papers an account of the boat overset between Mull and Ulva, in which many passengers were lost, and among them Macleon of Col. We, you know, were once drowned; I hope, therefore, that the story is either wantonly or erroneously told. Pray satisfy me by the next post.

"I have printed 240 pages. I am able to do nothing much worth doing to dear Lord Hailes's book. I will, however, send back the sheets; and hope, by degrees, to answer all your reasonable expectations.

Mr. Thrale has happily surmounted a very violent and acrimonious opposition; but all joys have their abatement; Mrs. Thrale has fallen from her horse, and hurt herself very much. The rest of our friends I believe, are well. My compliments to Mrs. Boswell.-I am, Sir, your most affectionate servant, "SAM JOHNSON."

This letter, which shows his tender concern for an amiable young gentleman to whom he had been very much obliged in the Hebrides,

Mr. Thrale's house in Southwark, which was the scene of so many literary meetings, and in which he continues the liberal hospitality for which it was eminent. Dr. Johnson esteemed him much. He hung up in the counting-house a fine proof of the admirable mezzotinto of Dr. Johnson, by Doughty; and when Mrs. Thrale asked him somewhat flippantly, "Why do you put him up in the counting-house?" He answered, "Because, Madam, I wish to have one wise man there." "Sir," said Johnson, "I thank you. It is a very handsome compliment, and I believe you speak sincerely."

1 In the newspapers.

I have inserted according to its date, though before receiving it I had informed him of the melancholy event that the young Laird of Col was unfortunately drowned.

LETTER 195.

TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.

"Nov. 26, 1774.

"DEAR SIR,--Last night I corrected the last page of our Journey to the Hebrides.' The printer has detained it all this time, for I had, before I went into Wales, written all except two sheets. The Patriot' was called for by my political friends on Friday, was written on Saturday, and I have heard little of it. So vague are conjectures at a distance.' As soon as I can, I will take care that copies be sent to you, for I would wish that they might be given before they are bought: but I am afraid that Mr. Strahan will send to you and to the booksellers at the same time. Trade is as diligent as courtesy. I have mentioned all that you recommended. Pray make my compliments to Mrs. Boswell and the younglings. The club has, I think, not yet met. me, and tell me honestly, what you think and what others say of our travels. Shall we touch the continent ??—I am, dear Sir, your most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON."

Tell

In his manuscript diary of this year, there is the following entry :

Nov. 27. Advent Sunday. I considered that this day, being the beginning of the ecclesiastical year, was a proper time for a new course of life. I began to read the Greek Testament regularly at one hundred and sixty verses every Sunday. This day I began the Acts.-"In this week I read Virgil's Pastorals. I learned to repeat the Pollio and Gallut. I read carelessly the first Georgic."

Such evidences of his unceasing ardour, both for "divine and human lore," when advanced into his sixty-fifth year, and notwithstanding his many disturbances from disease, must make us at once honour his spirit, and lament that it should be so grievously clogged by its material tegument. It is remarkable that he was very fond of the precision which calculation produces. Thus we find in one of his manuscript diaries, "12 pages in 4to. Gr. Test. and 30 pages in Beza's folio, comprise the whole in 40 days."

Alluding to a passage in a letter of mine, where, speaking of his "Journey to the Hebrides," I say, "But has not 'The Patriot' been an interruption, by the time taken to write it, and the time luxuriously spent in listening to its applauses?"

2 We had projected a voyage together up the Baltic, and talked of visiting some of the more northern regions.

LETTER 196.

TO JOHN HOOLE, ESQ.1

"December 19, 1774.

"DEAR SIR, I have returned your play," which you will find underscored with red, where there was a word which I did not like. The red will be washed off with a little water. The plot is so well framed, the intricacy so artful, and the disentanglement so easy, the suspense so affecting, and the passionate parts so properly interposed, that I have no doubt of its success.-I am, Sir, your most humble servant, "SAM JOHNSON."

The first effort of his pen in 1775, was "Proposals for publishing the Works of Mrs. Charlotte Lennox," † in three volumes quarto. In his diary, January 2, I find this entry :-" Wrote Charlotte's Proposals." But, indeed, the internal evidence would have been quite sufficient. Her claim to the favour of the public was thus enforced :

"Most of the pieces, as they appeared singly, have been read with approbation, perhaps above their merits but of no great advantage to the writer. She hopes, therefore, that she shall not be considered as too indulgent to vanity, or too studious of interest, if from that labour which has hitherto been chiefly gainful to others, she endeavours to obtain at last some profits to herself and her children. She cannot decently enforce her claim by the praise of her own performances: nor can she suppose, that by the most artful and laboured address, any additional notice could be procured to a publication, of which her Majesty has condescended to be the patroness."

He this year also wrote the Preface to Baretti's " in Italian and English."†

Easy Lessons

LETTER 197.

TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.

"Jan. 14, 1775.

"DEAR SIR,-You never did ask for a book by the post till now, and I did not think on it. You see now it is done. I sent one to the king, and I hear he likes it. I shall send a parcel into Scotland for presents, and intend to give to many of my friends. In your catalogue you left out Lord Auchinleck. Let me know, as fast as you read it, how you like it; and let me know

1 John Hoole, who, from this time forward will be found much in Johnson's society, was the son of a watchmaker, born in Dec. 1727. He was a clerk in the India Hous, but devoted his leisure to literature. He published translations of Tasso's Jerusalem and Ariosto's Orlando. He died in 1803.-C.

2 Cleonice.-B. It was produced at Covent Garden, in March, 1775, but without success; in consequence of which Hoole returned to the publisher a part of the money he had received for the copyright.

if any mistake is committed, or anything important left out. I wish you could have seen the sheets. My compliments to Mrs. Boswell, and to Veronica, and to all my friends.-I am, Sir, your most humble servant,

"SAM. JOHNSON."

LETTER 198.

FROM MR. BOSWELL.

"Edinburgh, Jan. 19. 1775.

"BE pleased to accept of my best thanks for your Journey to the Hebrides,' which came to me by last night's post. I did really ask the favour twice; but you have been even with me by granting it so speedily. Bis dat qui cito dat. Though ill of a bad cold, you kept me up the greatest part of last night: for I did not stop till I had read every word of your book. I looked back to our first talking of a visit to the Hebrides, which was many years ago, when sitting by ourselves in the Mitre tavern in London, I think about witching time o' night; and then exulted in contemplating our scheme fulfilled, and a monumentum perenne of it erected by your superior abilities. I shall only say, that your book has afforded me a high gratification. I shall afterwards give you my thoughts on particular passages. In the meantime, I hasten to tell you of your having mistaken two names, which you will correct in London, as I shall do here, that the gentlemen who deserve the valuable compliments which you have paid them may enjoy their honours. In p. 106, for Gordon read Murchison; and in p. 357, for Maclean read Macleod.

“But I am now to apply to you for immediate aid in my profession, which you have never refused to grant when I requested it. I enclose you a petition for Dr. Memis, a physician at Aberdeen, in which Sir John Dalrymple has exerted his talents, and which I am to answer as counsel for the managers of the royal infirmary in that city. Mr. Jopp, the provost, who delivered to you your freedom, is one of my clients, and as a citizen of Aberdeen, you will support him.

"The fact is shortly this. In a translation of the charter of the infirmary from Latin into English, made under the authority of the managers, the same phrase in the original is in one place rendered physician, but when applied to Dr. Memis is rendered doctor of medicine. Dr. Memis complained of this before the translation was printed, but was not indulged with having it altered ; and he has brought an action for damages, on account of a supposed injury, as if the designation given to him was an inferior one, tending to make it be supposed he is not a physician, and consequently to hurt his practice. My father has dismissed the action as groundless, and now he has appealed to the whole court."

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1 In the court of sessions of Scotland an action is first tried by one of the judges, who is called the Lord Ordinary: and if either party is dissatisfied, he may appeal to the whole court, consisting of fifteen, the Lord President, and fourteen other judges, who have both in and out of court the title of Lords from the name of their estates; as, Lord Auchinleck, Lord Monboddo, &c.