Etat. 67.

a

« DEAR SIR,

“ VERY early in April we leave England, and in the beginning of the next week I shall leave London for a short time; of this I think it necessary to inform you, that you may not be disappointed in any

of

your enterprises. I had not fully resolved to go into the country before this day.

“ Please to make my compliments to Lord Hailes; and mention very particularly to Mrs. Boswell my hope that she is reconciled to, Sir,

" Your faithful servant, “ March 12, 1776.

SAM. JOHNSON.”

Above thirty years ago, the heirs of Lord Chancellor Clarendon presented the University of Oxford with the continuation of his History, and such other of his Lordship's manuscripts as had not been published, on condition that the profits arising from their publication should be applied to the establishment of a Manege in the University. The gift was accepted in full convocation. A person being now recommended to Dr. Johnson, as fit to superintend this proposed riding-school, he exerted himself with that zeal for which he was remarkable upon every similar occasion. But, on enquiry into the matter, he found that the scheme was not likely to be foon carried into execution; the profits arising from the Clarendon press being, from some mismanagement, very scanty. This having been explained to him by' a respectable dignitary of the church, who had good means of knowing it, he wrote a letter upon the subject, which at once exhibits his extraordinary precision and acuteness, and his warm attachment to his ALMA MATER.

To the Reverend Dr. WETHERELL, Master of University-College, Oxford.
"DEAR SIR,

“ FEW things are more unpleasant than the tranfaction of business
with men who are above knowing or caring what they have to do; such as
the trustees for Lord Cornbury's institution will, perhaps, appear, when you
have read Dr. *******'s letter.

“ The last part of the Doctor's letter is of great importance. The complaint? which he makes I have heard long ago, and did not know but it was

redressed. It is unhappy that a practice fo erroneous has not yet been altered; 1776. for altered it must be, or our press will be useless with all its privileges. The Ærat. 67.

. booksellers, who, like all other men, have strong prejudices in their own favour, are enough inclined to think the practice of printing and selling books by any but themselves, an encroachment on the rights of their fraternity, and have need of stronger inducements to circulate academical publications than those of one another ; for, of that mutual co-operation by which the general trade is carried on, the University can bear no part. Of those whom he neither loves nor fears, and from whom he expects no reciprocation of good offices, why should any man promote the interest but for profit? I suppose, with all our scholastick ignorance of mankind, we are still too knowing to expect that the booksellers will erect themselves into patrons, and buy and sell under the influence of a disinterested zeal for the promotion of learning

“ To the booksellers, if we look for either honour or profit from our press, not only their common profit, but something more must be allowed ; and if books, printed at Oxford, are expected to be rated at a high price, that price must be levied on the publick, and paid by the ultimate purchaser, not by the intermediate agents. What price shall be set upon the book, is, to the booksellers, wholly indifferent, provided that they gain a proportionate profit by negociating the sale.

“ Why books printed at Oxford should be particularly dear, I am, however, unable to find. We pay no rent; we inherit many of our instruments and materials ; lodging and victuals are cheaper than at London ; and, therefore, workmanship ought, at least, not to be dearer. Our expences are naturally less than those of booksellers; and, in most cases, communities are content with less profit than individuals.

“ It is, perhaps, not considered through how many hands a book often passes, before it comes into those of the reader; or what part of the profit each hand must retain, as a motive for transmitting it to the next.

“ We will call our primary agent in London, Mr. Cadell, who receives our books from us, gives them room in his warehouse, and issues them on demand; by him they are sold to Mr. Dilly, a wholesale bookseller, who sends them into the country; and the last seller is the country bookseller. Here are three profits to be paid between the printer and the reader, or in the style of commerce, between the manufacturer and the consumer; and if

any of these profits is too penuriouly distributed, the process of commerce is interrupted.

1776.

Ætat. 67.

“ We are now come to the practical question, what is to be done? You will tell me, with reason, that I have said nothing, till I declare how much, according to my opinion, of the ultimate price ought to be distributed through the whole succession of sale.

“ The deduction, I am afraid, will appear very great: but let it be confidered before it is refused. We must allow, for profit, between thirty and thirty-five per cent. between six and feven shillings in the pound; that is, for every book which costs the last buyer twenty shillings, we must charge Mr. Cadell with fomething less than fourteen. We must set the copies at fourteen shillings each, and superadd what is called the quarterly-book, or for every hundred books fo charged we must deliver an hundred and four.

“ The profits will then stand thus :

« Mr. Cadell, who runs no hazard, and gives ‘no credit, will be paid for warehouse room and attendance by a shilling profit on each book, and his chance of the quarterly-book.

“ Mr. Dilly, who buys the book for fifteen Millings, and who will expect the quarterly-book if he takes five-and twenty, will fell it to his country customer at sixteen and six-pence, by which, at the hazard of loss, and the certainty of long credit, he gains the regular profit of ten per cent, which is expected in the wholesale trade.

“ The country bookseller, buying at sixteen and six-pence, and commonly trusting a considerable time, gains but three and six-pence, and, if 'he trusts a year, not much more than two and fix-pence; otherwise than as he may, perhaps, take as long credit as he gives.

“ With less profit than this, and more you see he cannot have, the country bookseller cannot live; for his receipts are small, and his debts sometimes bad. “ Thus, dear Sir, I have been incited by Dr. *******'s letter to give

' you a detail of the circulation of books, which, perhaps, every man has not had opportunity of knowing; and which those who know it, do not, perhaps, always distinctly consider,

« I am, &c. “ March 12, 1776.

SAM. JOHNSON.'

8

Having arrived in London late on Friday, the 15th of March, I hastened 1776. next morning to wait on Dr. Johnson, at his house; but found he was Ærat. 67. removed from Johnson's-court, No. 7, to Bolt-court, No. 8, still keeping to his favourite Fleet-street. My reflection at the time upon this change as marked in my Journal, is, as follows, “I felt a foolish regret that he had left a court which bore his name; but it was not foolish to be affected with some tenderness of regard for a place in which I had seen him a great deal, from whence I had often issued a better and a happier man than when I went in, and which had often appeared to my imagination while I trod its pavement, in the folemn darkness of the night, to be sacred to wisdom and piety.” Being informed that he was at Mr. Thrale's, in the Borough, I haftened thither, and found Mrs. Thrale and him at breakfast. I was kindly welcomed. In a moment he was in a full glow of conversation, and I felt myself elevated as if brought into another state of being. Mrs. Thrale and I looked to each other while he talked, and our looks expressed our congenial admiration and affection for him. I shall ever recollect this scene with great pleasure. I exclaimed to her, “ I am now, intellectually, Hermippus redivivus, I am quite restored by him, by transfusion of mind.”

« There are many (the replied,) who admire and respect Mr. Johnson, but you and I love him."

He seemed very happy in the near prospect of going to Italy with Mr. and Mrs. Thrale. “But (said he,) before leaving England I am to take a jaunt to Oxford, Birmingham, my native city Lichfield, and my old friend, Dr. Taylor's, at Ashbourne, in Derbyshire. I shall go in a few days, and you,

. Boswell, shall go with me.”

” I was ready to accompany him; being willing even to leave London to have the pleasure of his conversation.

I mentioned with much regret the extravagance of the representative of a great family in Scotland, by which there was danger of its being ruined ; and as Johnson respected it for its antiquity, he joined with me in thinking it would be happy if this person should die. Mrs. Thrale seemed shocked at this, , as feudal barbarity; and said, “I do not understand this preference of the eftate to its owner ; of the land to the man who walks upon that land.” Johnson. “ Nay, Madam, it is not a preference of the land to its owner; it is the preference of a family to an individual. Here is an establishment in a country, which is of importance for ages not only to the chief but to his people; an establishment which extends upwards and downwards; that this should be destroyed by one idle fellow is a fad thing." 3

He

a

1776.

Atat. 67.

He said “ Entails are good, because it is good to preserve in a country, serieses of men, to whom the people are accustomed to look up as to their leaders. But I am for leaving a quantity of land in commerce, to excite industry and keep money in the country; for if no land were to be bought in a country, there would be no encouragement to acquire wealth, because a family could not be founded there; or if it were acquired, it must be carried away to another country where land may be bought. And although the land in every country will remain the same, and be as fertile where there is no money, as where there is, yet all that portion of the happiness of civil life, which is produced by money circulating in a country, would be lost.” Boswell. - Then, Sir, would it be for the advantage of a country that all its lands were sold at once?” Johnson. “So far, Sir, as money produces good it would be an advantage; for, then that country would have as much money circulating in it as it is worth. But to be sure this would be counterbalanced by disadvantages attending a total change of proprietors.”

I expressed my opinion that the power of entailing should be limited thus : " That there should be one third, or perhaps one half of the land of a country kept free for commerce; that the proportion allowed to be entailed, should be parcelled out so as that no family could entail above a certain quantity. Let a family according to the abilities of its representatives, be richer or poorer in different generations, or always rich if its representatives be always wise: but let its absolute permanency be moderate. In this way we should be certain of there being always a number of established roots; and as in the course of nature, there is in every age an extinction of some families, there would be continual openings for men ambitious of perpetuity, to plant a stock in the entail ground'. Johnson. “ Why, Sir, mankind will be better able to regulate the system of entails, when the evil of too much land being locked up by them is felt, than we can do at present when it is not felt.”

I mentioned Dr. Adam Smith's book on “ The Wealth of Nations,” which was just published, and that Sir John Pringle had observed to me, that Dr. Smith, who had never been in trade, could not be expected to write well

a

• The privilege of perpetuating in a family an estate and arms indefeasibly from generation to generation, is enjoyed by none of his Majesty's subjects except in Scotland, where the legal fi&tion of a fine and recovery is unknown. It is a privilege so proud, that I mould think it would be proper to have the exercise of it dependent on the royal prerogative. It seems absurd to permit the power of perpetuating their representation, to men, who having had no eminent merit, have truly no name. The King, as the impartial father of his people, would never refuse to grant the privilege to those who deserved it.

on