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with Mr. Coulson-Vansittart? told me his distemper.-Afterwards we were at Burke's [at Beaconsfield], where we heard

of the dissolution of the parliament 3-We went home.

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66 MR. BOSWELL TO DR. JOHNSON.

"Edinburgh, 30th August, 1774. "You have given me an inscription for a portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots, in which you, in a short and striking manner, point

our healths drank in form, and I half believe in Latin."-Piozzi MS. The Editor suspects that Mrs. Piozzi, writing after a lapse of forty years, mentioned Queen's by mistake for University College.-ED.]

[Mr. Coulson was a senior Fellow of University College; in habit and appearance somewhat resembling Johnson himself, and was considered in his time as an Oxford character. He took his degree of A. M. April 12, 1746. After this visit, Dr. Johnson told Mrs. Thrale that he was the man designated in the Rambler, under the name of Gelidus the philosopher-DUPPA. It was Mrs. Piozzi's confusion of names, as she herself admits in her MS. letters to Mr. Duppa, which gave rise to the unfounded idea that Gelidus was meant for Professor Colson, of Cambridge (See ante, p. 38 and 88); Mrs. Piozzi meant Mr. Coulson, Fellow of University; but even as to this Mr. Coulson, of Oxford, Mrs. Piozzi must have been in some degree of error. Coulson was a humourist, and Johnson may have caught some hints from him; but the greater number of the points of

the character of Gelidus could have no resemblance to him. Lord Stowell informs the editor that he was very eccentric. He would on a fine day hang out of the college windows his various pieces of apparel to air, which used to be universally answered by the young men hanging out from all the other windows quilts, carpets, rags, and every kind of trash, and this was called an illumination. His notions of the eminence and importance of his academic situation were so peculiar, that, when he afterwards accepted a college living, he expressed to Lord Stowell his doubts whether, after living so long in the great world, he might not grow weary of the comparative retirement of a country parish.-ED.]

2 [See ante, p.,298 and 299, n. The distemper was no doubt a tendency to depression of spirits, which Dr. Johnson alludes to in the last cited passage.-ED.]

out her hard fate. But you will be pleased to keep in mind, that my picture is a representation of a particular scene in her history

her being forced to resign her crown, while she was imprisoned in the castle of Lochlevin. I must, therefore, beg that you will be kind enough to give me an inscription suited to that particular scene; or determine which of the two formerly transmitted to you is the best; and at any rate, favour me with an English translation. It will be doubly kind if you comply with my request speedily.

"Your critical notes on the specimen of Lord Hailes's 'Annals of Scotland' are excellent. I agreed with you on every one of them. He himself objected only to the alteration of free to brave, in the passage where he says that Edward 'departed with the glory due to the conqueror of a free people." He says, to call the Scots brave would only add to the glory of their conqueror. You will make allowance for the national zeal of our annalist. I now send a few more leaves of the Annals, which I hope you will peruse, and return with oboccasion. Lord Hailes writes to me thus: servations, as you did upon the former 'Mr. Boswell will be pleased to express the grateful sense which Sir David Dalrymple has of Dr. Johnson's attention to his little specimen. The further specimen will show,

that

Even in an Edward he can see desert.'

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"It gives me much pleasure to hear that a republication of Isaac Walton's Lives is intended. You have been in a mistake in thinking that Lord Hailes had it in view. I remember one morning, while he sat with you in my house, he said, that there should be a new edition of Walton's Lives; and you said that they should be benoted a little.' This was all that passed on that subject. You must, therefore, inform Dr. Horne, that he may resume his plan. I enclose a note concerning it; and if Dr. Horne will write to me, all the attention that I can give shall be cheerfully bestowed upon what I think a pious work, the preservation and elucidation of Walton, by whose writ ings I have been most pleasingly edified."

"MR. BOSWELL TO DR. JOHNSON.

"Edinburgh, 16th Sept. 1774. "Wales has probably detained you longer than I supposed. You will have become

• [Dissolved the 30th September, 1774.—Ed.]

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"TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.

"London, 1st Oct. 1774. "DEAR SIR,-Yesterday I returned from my Welsh journey. I was sorry to leave my book suspended so long; but having an opportunity of seeing, with so much convenience, a new part of the island, I could not reject it. I have been in five of the six counties of North Wales; and have seen St. Asaph and Bangor, the two seats of their bishops; have been upon Penmaenmaur and Snowdon, and passed over into Anglesea. But Wales is so little different from England, that it offers nothing to the speculation of the traveller.

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 political 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 energetick 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.

TO MR. PERKINS 2.

"25th October, 1774. SIR,-You may do me a very great fa

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

"When I came home, I found several of your papers, with some pages of Lord Hailes's Annals, which I will consider. I am in haste to give you some account of myself, lest you should suspect me of negli-vour. Mrs. Williams, a gentlewoman whom gence in the pressing business which I find recommended to my care, and which I knew nothing of till now, when all care is vain 1. "In the distribution of my books, I pur-pital. pose to follow your advice, adding such as shall occur to me. I am not pleased with your notes of remembrance added to your names, for I hope I shall not easily forget them.

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"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 peti

* 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 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. in the counting-house a fine proof of the admiraDr. Johnson esteemed him much. He hung up ble mezzotinto of Dr. Johnson, by Doughty; and when Mrs. Thrale asked him somewhat flippantly,

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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."-BOSWELL

tioner, and which the petitioner is after-wish that they might be given before they wards to fill up, and return to them again. are bought; but I am afraid that Mr. StraThis we must have, or we cannot proceed han will send to you and to the booksellers at according to their directions. You need, I the same time. Trade is as diligent as believe, only ask for a petition; if they in- courtesy. I have mentioned all that you quire for whom you ask, you can tell recommended. Pray make my compliments them. to Mrs. Boswell and the younglings. The club has, I think, not yet met.

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

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TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. "London, 27th Oct. 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 Maclean 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.

"Tell me, and tell me honestly, what you think and what others say of our travels. Shall we touch the continent 3?-I am, dear sir, your most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON."

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.

"I have printed two hundred and forty pages. I am able to do nothing much worth doing to dear Lord Hailes's book. II 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, 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.

"" TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.

"26th Nov. 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 2. As soon as I can, I will take care that copies be sent to you, for I would

In the newspapers.-BOSWELL.

2 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?"-BoSWELL.

"In this week I read Virgil's Pastorals. learned to repeat the Pollio and Gallus. I read carelessly the first Georgick."

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."

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The first effort of his pen in 1775, was "Proposals for publishing the Works of Mrs. Charlotte Lennox 1f," 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 publick 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 profit 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 Easy Lessons in Italian and English t."

"TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.

"14th January, 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 if any mistake is committed, or any thing 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."

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MR. BOSWELL TO DR. JOHNSON. "Edinburgh, 19th Jan. 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

[See ante, p. 95.-ED.]

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 mean time, 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 page 106, for Gordon read Murchison; and in page $57, for Maclean read Macleod 2.

"But I am now to apply to you for im mediate 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 3."

66 TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. 1st January, 1775. "DEAR SIR,-I long to hear how you like the book; it is, I think, much liked here. But Macpherson is very furious; can you give me any more intelligence about

2 [It is strange that these errors have never been corrected: they will be found in vol. viii. pp. 265 and 401, of Murphy's edition, and vol. ix. pp. 44 and 150, of the Oxford edition.-ED.]

3 In the court of session 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.-Bos

WELL.

him, or his Fingal? Do what you can, and do it quickly. Is Lord Hailes on our side? "Pray let me know what I owed you when I left you, that I may send it to you. "I am going to write about the Americans. If you have. picked up any hints among your lawyers, who are great masters of the law of nations, or if your own mind suggests any thing, let me know. But mum, it is a secret.

"I will send your parcel of books as soon as I can; but I cannot do as I wish. However, you find every thing mentioned in the book which you recommended.

"Langton is here; we are all that ever we were. He is a worthy fellow; without malice, though not without resentment 1. "Poor Beauclerk is so ill that his life is thought to be in danger. Lady Di nurses him with very great assiduity.

"Reynolds has taken too much to strong liquor 2, and seems to delight in his new character.

"This is all the news that I have; but as you love verses, I will send you a few which I made upon Inchkenneth 3; but remember the condition, you shall not show them, except to Lord Hailes, whom I love better than any man whom I know so little. If he asks you to transcribe them for him, you may do it; but I think he must promise not to let them be copied again, nor to show them as mine.

"I have at last sent back Lord Hailes's sheets. I never think about returning them, because I alter nothing. You will see that I might as well have kept them. However, I am ashamed of my delay; and if I have the honour of receiving any more, promise punctually to return them by the next post. Make my compliments to dear Mrs. Boswell, and to Miss Veronica. I am, dear sir, yours most faithfully,

"SAM. JOHNSON 4."

[This refers to the coolness alluded to, ante, p. 321, n. and 351.-ED.]

2 It should be recollected that this fanciful description of his friend was given by Johnson after he himself had become a water-drinker.-BosWELL. [This good-natured intimation of Mr. Boswell's cannot be admitted as an explanation of this expression. Johnson had been a waterdrinker ever since 1766 (see ante, p. 227), and, therefore, that could not be his motive for making, nine years after, an observation on Sir Joshua's "new character." Sir Joshua was always convivial, and this expression was either an allusion to some little anecdote now forgotten, or arose out of that odd fancy which Johnson (perhaps from his own morbid feelings) entertained, that every one who drank wine, in any quantity whatsoever, was more or less drunk. ED.]

[See ante, p. 437.-ED.]

"C MR. BOSWELL TO DR. JOHNSON.
"Edinburgh, 27th Jan. 1775.

“You rate our lawyers here too high, when you call them great masters of the law of nations.

"As for myself, I am ashamed to say I have read little and thought little on the subject of America. I will be much obliged to you, if you will direct me where I shall find the best information of what is to be said on both sides. It is a subject vast in its present extent and future consequences. The imperfect hints which now float in my mind tend rather to the formation of an opinion that our government has been precipitant and severe in the resolutions taken against the Bostonians. Well do you know that I have no kindness for that race. But nations, or bodies of men, should, as well as individuals, have a fair trial, and not be condemned on character alone. Have we not express contracts with our colonies, which afford a more certain foundation of judgment, than general political speculations on the mutual rights of states and their provinces or colonies? Pray let me know immediately what to read, and I shall diligently endeavour to gather for

historical picture, Mary, Queen of Scots, and afterwards favoured me with an English translation. Mr. Alderman Boydell, that eminent patron of the arts, has subjoined them to the engraving from my picture.

"Maria Scotorum Regina,
Hominum seditiosorum
Contumeliis lassata,
Minis territa, clamoribus victa,
Libello, per quem
Regno cedit,
Lacrimans trepidansque
Nomen apponit."
"Mary, Queen of Scots,
Harassed, terrified, and overpowered
By the insults, menaces,
And clamours

Of her rebellious subjects,
Sets her hand,

With tears and confusion,

To a resignation of the kingdom."-Boswell.

No

[It may be doubted whether "regno cedit," in the sense here intended, is quite correct. one is ignorant that "foro cedit, vitâ cedit," and similar expressions, are classical; and that if Mary had been quitting the kingdom, instead of resigning the crown, regno cedit would be correct and elegant; but if regnum means regal rights, the accusative case would seem the more consonant with the analogies of grammar. Tacitus seems to make this distinction; he says of troops abandoning a position, "loco cedunt " (German. 6); but when they resign the spoils of the conquered, he says, "bona interfectorum cedunt" (Hist. 4, 64). So also Virgil,cedat fama loco" (7 En. 332), for giving way; but "cedat jus proprium regi" (11 Æn. 359), for the resigna

He now sent me a Latin inscription for my tion of a right.-ED.]

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