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pen in

Johnson told me that Dr. Dodd was very little acquainted with him, having been but once in his company, many years previous to this period (which Ærat. 68. was precisely the state of my own acquaintance with Dodd); but in his distress he bethought himself of Johnson's persuasive power of writing, if haply it might avail to obtain for him the royal mercy. He did not apply to him directly, but, extraordinary as it may seem, through the late Countess of Harrington, who wrote a letter to Johnson, asking him to employ his favour of Dodd. Mr. Allen, the printer, who was Johnson's landlord and next neighbour in Bolt-court, and for whom he had much kindness, was one of Dodd's friends, of whom, to the credit of humanity be it recorded, that he had many who did not defert him, even after his infringement of the law had reduced him to the state of a man under sentence of death. Mr.' Allen told me that he carried Lady Harrington's letter to Johnson, that Johnson read it walking up and down his chamber, and seemed much agitated, after which he said “ I will do what I can ;-" and certainly he did make extraordinary exertions.

He this evening, as he had obligingly promised in one of his letters, put into my hands the whole series of his writings upon this melancholy occasion, and I shall present my readers with the abstract which I made from the collection; in doing which I studied to avoid copying what had appeared in print, and now make part of the edition of “ Johnfon's Works,” published by the Booksellers of London, but taking care to mark Johnson's variations in some of the pieces there exhibited.

Dr. Johnson wrote in the first place, Dr. Dodd's “ Speech to the Recorder of London,” at the Old-Bailey, when sentence of death was about to be pronounced upon him.

He wrote also “ The Convict's Address to his unhappy Bretheren,” a sermon delivered by Dr. Dodd, in the chapel of Newgate. According to Johnson's manuscript it began thus after the text, What fall I do to be saved ?-_" These were the words with which the keeper, to whose custody Paul and Silas were committed by their prosecutors, addressed his prisoners, when he saw them freed from their bonds by the perceptible agency of divine favour, and was, therefore, irresistibly convinced that they were not offenders against the laws, but martyrs to the truth."

Dr. Johnson was so good as to mark for me with his own hand, on a copy of this fermon which is now in my possession, such passages as were added by Dr. Dodd. They are not many : Whoever will take the trouble to look at the printed copy and attend to what I mention, will be satisfied of this.

There

1777. There is a short introduction by Dr. Dodd, and he also inserted this senEtat68 erat. 8. tence, “ You see with what confusion and dishonour I now stand before you ;-

no more in the pulpit of instruction, but on this humble seat with yourselves.” The notes are entirely Dodd's own, and Johnson's writing ends at the words, “ the thief whom he pardoned on the cross.” What follows was supplied by Dr. Dodd himself,

The other pieces written 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 from the city of London; “but (said he, with a significant smile) they mended it.”

The last of these articles which Johnson wrote is “ Dr. Dodd's last folemn 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 æconomy;" and in the next sentence he introduced the words which I distinguish by Italicks, “ My life for some feza 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 :

“ 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 Nightest hint from me, of what infinite utility the Speech + on the aweful day has been to me. I I sexperience, every hour, some good effect from it. I am sure that effects still

1777.

more falutary 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 Ærat. 68. 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.”

He added, “ May God ALMIGHTý bless and reward, with his choicest 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 aslistance 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.”

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:

“ 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, tỏ 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.

“ 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 some Vol. II.

T

obscure

1777 obscure corner of a foreign country, where, if I can ever attain confidence to Ærat. 78. 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:

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 fuccess.—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 bim 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 fuffered publick execution for immorality; and I know not whether it would

l not be more for the interest 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

2

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The supreme power has, in all ages, paid fome attention to the voice of the people; and that voice does not least deserve to be heard, when it Æcat. 68. 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 intreat 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, now Lord Hawkesbury; and that he did not even deign to sew 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 alledged ; 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 10 some neglect, or accident, Johnson's letter never came to Lord Hawkesbury'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 answer with which he was pleased immediately to honour me, thus expresses himself: " I have always respected the memory of Dr. Johnson, and admire his writings ; and I frequently read many parts of them with pleasure and great improvement."

All applications for the Royal Mercy having failed, Dr. Dodd prepared himself for death; and, with a warmth of gratitude, wrote to Dr. Johnson as follows: