84

lo

1762: ÆTAT. 53.]—A LADY having at this time solicited him to obtain the Archbishop of Canterbury's patronage to have her son sent to the University, one of those solicitations which are too frequent, where people, anxious for a particular object, do not consider propriety, or the opportunity which the persons whom they solicit have to assist them, he wrote to her the following answer, with a copy of which I am favoured by the Reverend Dr. Farmer, Master of Emanuel College, Cambridge.

'MADAM,-I hope you will believe that my delay in answering your letter could proceed only from my unwillingness to destroy any hope that you had formed. Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords: but, like all other pleasures immoderately enjoyed, the excesses of hope must be expiated by pain; and expectations improperly indulged, must end in disappointment. If it be asked, what is the improper expectation which it is dangerous to indulge, experience will quickly answer, that it is such expectation as is dictated not by reason, but by desire; expectation raised, not by the common occurrences of life, but by the wants of the expectant; an expectation that requires the common course of things to be changed, and the general rules of action to be broken. 'When you made your request to me, you should have considered, Madam, what you were asking. You ask me to solicit a great man, to whom I never spoke, for a young person whom I had never seen, upon a supposition which I had no means of knowing to be true. There is no reason why, amongst all the great, I should chuse to supplicate the Archbishop, nor why, among all the possible objects of his bounty, the Archbishop should chuse your son. I know, Madam, how unwillingly conviction is admitted, when interest opposes it; but surely, Madam, you must allow, that there is no reason why that should be done by me, which every other man may do with equal reason, and which, indeed no man can do properly, without some very particular relation both to the Archbishop and to you. If I could help you in this exigence by any proper means, it would

asure; but this proposal is so very remote from ethods, that I cannot comply with it, but at the answer and suspicions as I believe you do not undergo.

seen your son this morning; he seems a pretty will, perhaps, find some better friend than I can m; but, though he should at last miss the Unimay still be wise, useful, and happy. I am, our most humble servant,

..

I was very little known. My play-fellows were grown old, and forced me to suspect that I was no longer young. My only remaining friend has changed his principles, and was become the tool of the predominant faction. My daughterin-law, from whom I expected most, and whom I met with sincere benevolence, has lost the beauty and gaiety of youth, without having gained much of the wisdom of age. I wandered about for five days, and took the first convenient opportunity of returning to a place, where, if there is not much happiness, there is, at least, such a diversity of good and evil, that slight vexations do not fix upon the heart. 'May you, my Baretti, be very happy at Milan, or some other place nearer to, Sir, your most affectionate humble servant, 'SAM. JOHNSON.'

The accession of George the Third to the throne of these kingdoms, opened a new and brighter prospect to men of literary merit, who had been honoured with no mark of royal favour in the preceding reign. His present Majesty's education in this country, as well as his taste and beneficence, prompted him to be the patron of science and the arts; and early this year Johnson, having been represented to him as a very learned and good man, without any certain provision, his Majesty was pleased to grant him a pension of three hundred pounds a year. The Earl of Bute, who was then Prime Minister, had the honour to announce this instance of his Sovereign's bounty, concerning which, many and various stories, all equally erroneous, have been propagated: maliciously representing it as a political bribe to Johnson, to desert his avowed principles, and become the tool of a government which he held to be founded in usurpation. I have taken care to have it in my power to refute them from the most authentick information. Lord Bute told me, that Mr. Wedderburne, now Lord Loughborough, was the person who first mentioned this subject to him. Lord Loughborough told me, that the pension was granted to Johnson solely as the reward of his literary merit, without any stipulation whatever, or even tacit understanding that he should write for administration. His Lordship added. that he was con

1762]

JOHNSON'S PENSION

89

fident the political tracts which Johnson afterwards did write, as they were entirely consonant with his own opinions, would have been written by him though no pension had been granted to him.

Mr. Thomas Sheridan and Mr. Murphy, who then lived a good deal both with him and Mr. Wedderburne, told me, that they previously talked with Johnson upon this matter, and that it was perfectly understood by all parties that the pension was merely honorary. Sir Joshua Reynolds told me, that Johnson called on him after his Majesty's intention had been notified to him, and said he wished to consult his friends as to the propriety of his accepting this mark of the royal favour, after the definitions which he had given in his Dictionary of pension and pensioners. He said he would not have Sir Joshua's answer till next day, when he would call again, and desired he might think of it. Sir Joshua answered that he was clear to give his opinion then, that there could be no objection to his receiving from the King a reward for literary merit; and that certainly the definitions in his Dictionary were not applicable to him. Johnson, it should seem, was satisfied, for he did not call again till he had accepted the pension, and had waited on Lord Bute to thank him. He then told Sir Joshua that Lord Bute said to him expressly, 'It is not given you for anything you are to do, but for what you have done.' His Lordship, he said, behaved in the handsomest manner. He repeated the words twice, that he might be sure Johnson heard them, and thus set his mind perfectly at ease. This nobleman, who has been so virulently abused, acted with great honour in this instance, and displayed a mind truly liberal. A minister of a more narrow and selfish disposition would have availed himself of such an opportunity to fix an implied obligation on a man of Johnson's powerful talents to give him his support.

Mr. Murphy and the late Mr. Sheridan severally contended for the distinction of having been the first who mentioned to Mr. Wedderburne that Johnson ought to have a pension. When I spoke of this to Lord Loughborough, wishing to know if he recollected the prime mover in the business, he said, 'All his friends assisted:' and when I told him that

90

LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON

[

Mr. Sheridan strenuously asserted his claim to it, his L ship said, 'He rang the bell.' And it is but just to add, Mr. Sheridan told me, that when he communicated to Johnson that a pension was to be granted him, he replied a fervour of gratitude, 'The English language does not aff me terms adequate to my feelings on this occasion. I m have recourse to the French. I am pénétré with his Majes goodness.' When I repeated this to Dr. Johnson, he did contradict it.

This year his friend Sir Joshua Reynolds paid a visit some weeks to his native country, Devonshire, in which was accompanied by Johnson, who was much pleased w this jaunt, and declared he had derived from it a great cession of new ideas. He was entertained at the seats several noblemen and gentlemen in the West of Engla but the greatest part of the time was passed at Plymou where the magnificence of the navy, the ship-building a all its circumstances, afforded him a grand subject of c templation. The Commissioner of the Dock-yard paid h the compliment of ordering the yacht to convey him and friend to the Eddystone, to which they accordingly sail But the weather was so tempestuous that they could land.

Reynolds and he were at this time the guests of Dr. Mud the celebrated surgeon, and now physician of that place, more distinguished for quickness of parts and variety knowledge, than loved and esteemed for his amiable manne and here Johnson formed an acquaintance with Dr. Mudg father, that very eminent divine, the Reverend Zachari Mudge, Prebendary of Exeter, who was idolised in the we both for his excellence as a preacher and the uniform p fect propriety of his private conduct. He preached a s mon purposely that Johnson might hear him; and we sh see afterwards that Johnson honoured his memory by dra ing his character. While Johnson was at Plymouth, he sa a great many of its inhabitants, and was not sparing of very entertaining conversation. It was here that he ma that frank and truly original confession, that 'ignoran