1775. that, and would pick your pocket after you came out. JOHNSON. "Nay, my dear lady, there is no wit in what our friend added; there is only abuse. You Etat. 66. may as well fay of any man that he will pick a pocket. Besides, the man who is ftationed at the door does not pick people's pockets: that is done within, by the auctioneer." Mrs. Thrale told us, that Tom Davies repeated, in a very bald manner, the ftory of Dr. Johnson's firft repartee to me, which I have related exactly. He made me fay, "I was born in Scotland," inftead of "I come from Scotland;" fo that Johnfon's faying, "That, Sir, is what a great many of your countrymen cannot help," had no point, or even meaning: and that upon this being mentioned to Mr. Fitzherbert, he obferved, "It is not every man that can carry a bon mot." On Monday, April 10, I dined with him at General Oglethorpe's, with Mr. Langton and the Irish Dr. Campbell, whom the General had obligingly given me leave to bring with me. This learned gentleman was thus gratified with a very high intellectual feaft, by not only being in company with Dr. Johnfon, but with General Oglethorpe, who had been fo long a celebrated name both at home and abroad.. I must, again and again, intreat of my readers not to fuppofe that my imperfect record of converfation contains the whole of what was faid by Johnson, or other eminent perfons who lived with him. What I have preferved, however, has the value of the moft perfect authenticity. He this day enlarged upon Pope's melancholy remark, 2 Page 211. "Man never is, but always to be bleft." 3 Let me here be allowed to pay my tribute of moft fincere gratitude to the memory of that excellent perfon, my intimacy with whom was the more valuable to me, because my first acquaintance with him was unexpected and unfolicited. Soon after the publication of my "Account of Corfica," he did me the honour to call on me, and approaching me with a frank courteous air, said, "My name, Sir, is Oglethorpe, and I wish to be acquainted with you." I was not a little flattered to be thus addreffed by an eminent man, of whom I had read in Pope, from my early years, "Or, driven by ftrong benevolence of foul, "Will fly, like OGLETHORPE, from pole to pole." I was fortunate enough to be found worthy of his good opinion, infomuch, that I not only was invited to make one in the many refpectable companies whom he entertained at his table, but had a cover at his hofpitable board every day when I happened to be difengaged; and in his fociety I never failed to enjoy learned and animated converfation, feaforfed with genuine fentiments of virtue and religion.. He 1775. L He afferted, that the prefent was never a happy ftate to any human being; Atat. 66. but that, as every part of life, of which we are conscious, was at fome point of time a period yet to come, in which felicity was expected, there was fome happiness produced by hope. Being preffed upon this fubject, and asked if he really was of opinion that though, in general, happiness was very rare in human life, a man was not fometimes happy in the moment that was prefent, he answered, Never, but when he is drunk." He urged General Oglethorpe to give the world his Life. He faid, “I know no man whofe Life would be more interesting. If I were furnished with materials, I fhould be very glad to write it *." Mr. Scott of Amwell's Elegies were lying in the room. mediocribus effe poetis "Non Di, non homines, non conceffere columna." for here (I observed,) was a very middle-rate poet, who pleased many readers, and therefore poetry of a middle fort was entitled to fome efteem; nor could I see why poetry should not, like every thing else, have different gradations of excellence, and, confequently of value. Johnson repeated the common remark, that "as there is no neceffity for our having poetry at all, it being merely a luxury, an instrument of pleasure, it can have no value, unless when exquifite in its kind." I declared myself not fatisfied. "Why then, Sir, (faid he,) Horace and you must fettle it." He was not much in the humour of talking. No more of his converfation for fome days appears in my journal, except that when a gentleman told him he had bought a fuit of laces for his lady. He faid, "Well, Sir, you have done a good thing, and a wife thing." "I have done a good thing, (faid the gentleman,) but I do not know that I have done a wife thing." JOHNSON. "Yes, Sir; no money is better spent than what is laid out for domestick satisfaction. A man is pleased that his wife is dreft as well as other people; and a wife is pleased that she is drest.” 4 The General seemed unwilling to enter upon it at this time; but upon a subsequent occafion he communicated to me a number of particulars, which I have committed to writing; but I was not fufficiently diligent in obtaining more from him, not apprehending that his friends were fo foon to lose him; for notwithstanding his great age, he was very healthy and vigorous, and was at laft carried off by a violent fever, which is often fatal at any period of life. On On Friday, April 14, being Good-Friday, I repaired to him in the morning, according to my ufual cuftom on this day, and breakfafted with him. I observed that he fasted so very strictly, that he did not even tafte bread, and took no milk with his tea, I fuppofe because it is a kind of animal food. He entered upon the ftate of the nation, and thus difcourfed: "Sir, the great misfortune now is, that government has too little power. All that it has to bestow, must of neceffity be given to fupport itself; fo that it cannot reward merit. No man, for inftance, can now be made a Bishop for his learning and piety; his only chance for promotion is his being connected with fomebody who has parliamentary intereft. Our several ministries in this reign have outbid each other in conceffions to the people. Lord Bute, though a very honourable man,-a man who meant well,-a man who had his blood full of prerogative,—was a theoretical statesman,—a book-minister,—and thought this country could be governed by the influence of the Crown alone. Then, Sir, he gave up a great deal. He advised the King to agree that the Judges fhould hold their places for life, inftead of lofing them at the acceffion of a new King. Lord Bute, I fuppofe, thought to make the King popular by this conceffion; but the people never minded it; and it was a moft impolitick measure. There is no reason why a Judge fhould hold his office for life, more than any other person in publick trust. A Judge may be partial otherwise than to the Crown: we have feen Judges partial to the populace. A Judge become corrupt, and yet there may not be legal evidence against him. A Judge may become froward from age. A Judge may grow unfit for his office in many ways. It was defirable that there fhould be a poffibility of being delivered from him by a new King. That is now gone by an act of parliament ex gratia of the Crown. Lord Bute advised the King to give up a very large fum of money, for which nobody thanked him. It was of confequence to the King, but nothing to the publick, among whom it was divided. When may 3 From this too just observation there are fome eminent exceptions. The money arifing from the property of the prizes taken before the declaration of war, which were given to his Majesty by the peace of Paris, and amounted to upwards of 700,000l. and from the lands in the ceded islands, which were estimated at 200,000l. more. Surely, there was a noble munificence in this gift from a Monarch to his people. And let it be remembered, that during the Earl of Bute's administration, the King was graciously pleased to give up the hereditary revenues of the Crown, and to accept, instead of them, of the limited fum of 800,cool. a year; upon which Blackstone obferves, that “The hereditary revenues, being put under the fame management as the other branches of the publick patrimony, will produce more, and be better collected than heretofore; and the publick is a gainer of upwards of 100,0col. per annum, by this dif interested bounty of his Majefty." Book I. Chap. 8. p. 330. I fay ૦ ૧ ૧ 1775. Etat. 66. 1775. I fay Lord Bute advised, I mean, that fuch acts were done when he was minister, Etat. 66. and we are to fuppofe that he advifed them.Lord Bute fhewed an undue partiality to Scotchmen. He turned out Dr. Nichols, a very eminent man, from being phyfician to the King, to make room for one of his countrymen, a man very low in his profeffion. He had *********** and **** to go on errands for him. He had occafion for people to go on errands for him; but he should not have had Scotchmen; and, certainly, he should not have fuffered them to have accefs to him before the first people in England." I told him, that the admiffion of one of them before the firft people in England, which had given the greatest offence, was no more than what happens at every minifter's levee, where thofe who attend are admitted in the order that they have come, which is better than admitting them according to their rank; for if that were to be the rule, a man who has waited all the morning might have the mortification to fee a peer, newly come, go in before him, and keep him waiting ftill. JOHNSON. JOHNSON."True, Sir; but **** should not have come to the levee, to be in the way of people of confequence. He faw Lord Bute at all times; and could have faid what he had to fay at any time, as well as at the levee. There is now no Prime Minifter: there is only an agent for government in the House of Commons. We are governed by the Cabinet; but there is no one head there, as in Sir Robert Walpole's time." BOSWELL. "What then, Sir, is the use of Parliament ?" JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, Parliament is a larger council to the King; and the advantage of fuch a council is, having a great number of men of property concerned in the legislature, who, for their own interest, will not confent to bad laws. And you must have observed, Sir, that administration is feeble and timid, and cannot act with that authority and refolution which is neceffary. Were I in power, I would turn out every man who dared to oppofe me. Government has the diftribution of offices, that it may be enabled to maintain its authority." "Lord Bute (he added,) took down too faft, without building up fomething new." BOSWELL. "Because, Sir, he found a rotten building. The political coach was drawn by a fet of bad horfes: it was neceffary to change them." JOHNSON. "But he fhould have changed them one by one." I told him that I had been informed by Mr. Orme, that many parts of the East Indies were better mapped than the Highlands of Scotland. JOHNSON. "That a country may be mapped, it must be travelled over." "Nay, (faid I, meaning to laugh with him at one of his prejudices,) can't you fay, it is not worth mapping?" As 1775. As we walked to St. Clement's church, and faw feveral fhops open upon this most folemn faft-day of the Chriftian world, I remarked, that one dif- Atat. 66. advantage arifing from the immenfity of London, was, that nobody was heeded by his neighbour; there was no fear of cenfure for not obferving Good-Friday, as it ought to be kept, and as it is kept in country towns. He faid, it was, upon the whole, very well obferved even in London. He, however, owned, that London was too large; but added, "It is nonsense to say the head is too big for the body. It would be as much too big, though the body were ever fo large; that is to fay, though the country were ever fo extenfive. It has no fimilarity to a head connected with a body." Dr. Wetherell, Master of University College, Oxford, accompanied us home from church; and after he was gone, there came two other gentlemen, one of whom uttered the common-place complaints, that by the increase of taxes, labour would be dear, other nations would underfell us, and our commerce would be ruined. JOHNSON, (fmiling). "Never fear, Sir. Our commerce is in a very good state; and suppose we had no commerce at all, we could live very well on the produce of our own country." I cannot omit to mention, that I never knew any man who was lefs difpofed to be querulous than Johnson. Whether the subject was his own fituation, or the state of the publick, or the state of human nature in general, though he faw the evils, his mind was turned to refolution, and never to whining or complaint. We went again to St. Clement's in the afternoon. He had found fault with the preacher in the morning for not choosing a text adapted to the day. The preacher in the afternoon had chosen one extremely proper: "It is finished." After the evening service, he said, "Come, you shall go home with me, and fit just an hour." But he was better than his word; for after we had drunk tea with Mrs. Williams, he asked me to go up to his study with him, where we fat a long while together in a ferene undisturbed frame of mind, fometimes in filence, and fometimes converfing, as we felt ourselves inclined, or more properly speaking, as he was inclined; for during all the course of my long intimacy with him, my refpectful attention never abated, and my wish to hear him was fuch, that I conftantly watched every dawning of communication from that great and illuminated mind. In He obferved, "All knowledge is of itself of fome value. There is nothing fo minute or inconfiderable, that I would not rather know it than not. the fame manner, all power, of whatever fort, is of itself defirable. A man would not fubmit to learn to hem a ruffle, of his wife, or his wife's maid; but if a mere wish could attain it, he would rather wish to be able to hem a ruffle." Q 9 9 2 'He |