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as England, would have been a grofs falfehood. "None of us, (faid he,) Atat. 66. would be offended if a foreigner who has travelled here fhould fay, that vines and olives don't grow in England." And as to his prejudice against the Scotch, which I always afcribed to that nationality which he observed in them, he faid to the fame gentleman, "When I find a Scotchman to whom an Englishman is as a Scotchman, that Scotchman fhall be as an Englishman to me." His intimacy with many gentlemen of Scotland, and his employing fo many natives of that country as his amanuenfes, prove that his prejudice was not virulent; and I have depofited in the British Museum, amongst other pieces of his writing, the following note, in answer to one from me, asking if he would meet me at dinner at the Mitre, though a friend of mine, a Scotchman, was to be there :-" Mr. Johnson does not fee why Mr. Boswell fhould fuppofe a Scotchman lefs acceptable than any other man. He will be at the Mitre."

My much-valued friend Dr. Barnard, now Bishop of Killaloe, having once expreffed to him an apprehenfion, that if he should visit Ireland he might treat the people of that country more unfavourably than he had done the Scotch, he answered, with ftrong pointed double-edged wit, "Sir, you have no reason to be afraid of me. The Irish are not in a confpiracy to cheat the world by falfe reprefentations of the merits of their countrymen. No, Sir; the Irish are a FAIR PEOPLE:-they never fpeak well of one another."

Johnson told me an instance of Scottish nationality, which made a very unfavourable impreffion upon his mind. A Scotchman, of fome confideration in London, folicited him to recommend, by the weight of his learned authority, to be master of an English school, a perfon of whom he who recommended him confeffed he knew no more but that he was his countryman. Johnfon was fhocked at this unconscientious conduct.

All the miferable cavillings against his "Journey," in newspapers, magazines, and other fugitive publications, I can speak from certain knowledge, only furnished him with sport. At laft there came out a fcurrilous volume, larger than Johnson's own, filled with malignant abuse, under a name, real or fictitious, of fome low man in an obfcure corner of Scotland, though fuppofed to be the work of another Scotchman, who has found means to make himself well known both in Scotland and England. The effect which it had upon Johnson was, to produce this pleafant obfervation to Mr. Seward, to whom he lent the book: "This fellow must be a blockhead. They don't know how to go about their abuse. Who will read a five fhilling book against me? No, Sir, if they had wit, they fhould have kept pelting me with pamphlets."

Mr.

Mr. BOSWELL to Dr. JOHNSON.

Edinburgh, Feb. 18, 1775. "YOU would have been very well pleafed if you had dined with me to day. I had for my guefts, Macquharrie, young Maclean of Col, the fucceffor of our friend, a very amiable man, though not marked with fuch active qualities as his brother, Mr. Maclean of Torloisk in Mull a gentleman of Sir Allan's family, and two of the clan Grant, fo that the Highland and Hebridean genius reigned. We had a great deal of converfation about you, and drank your health in a bumper. The toast was not proposed by me, which is a circumstance to be remarked, for I am now fo connected with you, that any thing that I can fay or do to your honour has not the value of an additional compliment. It is only giving you a guinea out of that treasure of admiration which already belongs to you, and which is no hidden treasure ; for I fuppofe my admiration of you is co-existent with the knowledge of my

character.

"I find that the Highlanders and Hebrideans in general are much fonder of your Journey,' than the low-country or hither Scots. One of the Grants faid to day, that he was fure you were a man of a good heart, and a candid man, and feemed to hope he fhould be able to convince you of the antiquity of a good proportion of the poems of Offian. After all that has paffed, I think the matter is capable of being proved to a certain degree. I am told that Macpherson got one old Erfe MS. from Clanranald, for the reftitution of which he executed a formal obligation; and it is affirmed, that the Gaelick (call it Erfe or call it Irish,) has been written in the Highlands and Hebrides for many centuries. It is reasonable to fuppofe, that fuch of the inhabitants as acquired any learning, poffeffed the art of writing as well as their Irish neighbours and Celtick coufins; and the queftion is, can fufficient evidence be fhewn of this?

"Those who are skilled in ancient writings can determine the age of MSS.. or at least can ascertain the century in which they were written; and if men of veracity, who are fo fkilled, fhall tell us that MSS. in the poffeffion of families in the Highlands and ifles, are the works of a remote age, I think we fhould be convinced by their testimony.

"There is now come to this city, Ranald Macdonald, from the Isle of Egg, who has feveral MSS. of Erfe poetry, which he wishes to publish by fubfcription. I have engaged to take three copies of the book, the price of

1775

Etat. 66.

1775.

which is to be fix fhillings, as I would subscribe for all the Erfe that can be Atat. 66. printed, be it old or new, that the language may be preferved. This man fays, that fome of his manufcripts are ancient; and, to be fure, one of them which was fhewn to me does appear to have the duskynefs of antiquity.

The inquiry is not yet quite hopeless, and I fhould think that the exact truth may be discovered, if proper means be used. I am, &c.

"DEAR SIR,

To JAMES BOSWELL, Eq.

JAMES BOSWELL."

"I AM forry that I could get no books for my friends in Scotland. Mr. Strahan has at laft promifed to fend two dozen to you. If they come, put the names of my friends into them; you may cut them out, and paste them with a little ftarch in the book.

"You then are going wild about Offian. Why do you think any part can be proved? The dufky manufcript of Egg is probably not fifty years old; if it be an hundred, it proves nothing. The tale of Clanranald has no proof. Has Clanranald told it? Can he prove it? There are, I believe, no Erfe manufcripts. None of the old families had a fingle letter in Erfe that we heard of. You fay it is likely that they could write. The learned, if any learned there were, could; but knowing by that learning fome written language, in that language they wrote, as letters had never been applied to their own. If there are manuscripts, let them be fhewn, with fome proof that they are not forged for the occafion. You say many can remember parts of Offian. I believe all those parts are versions of the English, at least there is no proof of their antiquity.

Macpherson is faid to have made fome tranflations himself, and having taught a boy to write it, ordered him to fay that he had learned it of his grandmother. The boy, when he grew up, told the ftory. This Mrs. Williams heard at Mr. Strahan's table. Do not be credulous; you know how little a Highlander can be trufted. Macpherson is, fo far as I know, very quiet. Is not that proof enough? Every thing is against him. No vifible manufcript; no infcription in the language: no correfpondence among friends: no tranfaction of business, of which a single scrap remains in the ancient families. Macpherson's pretence is, that the character was Saxon. If he had not talked

9 From a lift in his hand-writing,

unfkilfully

1775·

unfkilfully of manufcripts, he might have fought with oral tradition much longer. As to Mr. Grant's information, I suppose he knows much less of the tat. 66. matter than ourselves.

"In the mean time, the book feller fays that the fale' is fufficiently quick. They printed four thoufand. Correct your copy wherever it is wrong, and bring it up. Your friends will all be glad to fee you. I think of going myself into the country about May.

"I am forry that I have not managed to fend the books fooner. I have left four for you, and do not restrict you abfolutely to follow my directions in the distribution. You must use your own discretion.

"Make my compliments to Mrs. Bofwell; I fuppofe she is now juft beginning to forgive me. I am, dear Sir,

Feb. 25, 1775.

"Your humble fervant,

SAM. JOHNSON."

On Tuesday, March 21, I arrived in London; and on repairing to Dr. Johnson's before dinner, found him in his study, fitting with Mr. Peter Garrick, the elder brother of David, ftrongly resembling him in his countenance and voice, but of more fedate and placid manners. Johnfon informed me, that "though Mr. Beauclerk was in great pain, it was hoped he was not in danger, and that he now wished to confult Dr. Heberden to try the effect of a new understanding." Both at this interview, and in the evening at Mr. Thrale's, where he and Mr. Peter Garrick and I met again, he was vehement on the subject of the Offian controverfy; obferving, "We do not know that there are any ancient Erfe manuscripts; and we have no other reafon to disbelieve that there are men with three heads, but that we do not know that there are any fuch men." He alfo was outrageous, upon his fuppofition that my countrymen "loved Scotland better than truth," saying, "All of them,-nay not all,—but droves of them, would come up, and atteft any thing for the honour of Scotland." He also perfevered in his wild allegation, that he queftioned if there was a tree between Edinburgh and the English border older than himself. I affured him he was mistaken, and suggested that the proper punishment would be that he should receive a stripe at every tree above a hundred years old, that was found within that space. He laughed, and faid, "I believe I might submit to it for a bawbie!"

Of his " Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland."

Nnn

The

1775.

The doubts which, in my correfpondence with him, I had ventured to state Etat, 66, as to the justice and wisdom of the conduct of Great-Britain towards the American colonies, while I at the fame time requested that he would enable me to inform myself upon that momentous fubject, he had altogether difregarded; and had recently published a pamphlet, entitled, "Taxation no Tyranny; an Answer to the Refolutions and Addrefs of the American Congrefs.*

He had long before indulged most unfavourable fentiments of our fellow fubjects in America. For, as early as 1769, I was told by Dr. John Campbell, that he had faid of them, "Sir, they are a race of convicts, and ought to be thankful for any thing we allow them short of hanging."

Of this performance I avoided to talk with him; for I had now formed a clear and fettled opinion, that the people of America were well warranted to refift a claim that their fellow-fubjects in the mother-country fhould have the entire command of their fortunes, by taxing them without their own confent; and the extreme violence which it breathed, appeared to me fo unsuitable to the mildnefs of a Chriftian philofopher, and fo directly oppofite to the principles of peace which he had fo beautifully recommended in his pamphlet refpecting Falkland's Islands, that I was forry to fee him appear in fo unfavourable a light. Befides, I could not perceive in it that ability of argument, or that felicity of expreffion, for which he was, upon other occafions, fo eminent. Pofitive affertion, farcaftical severity, and extravagant ridicule, which he himself reprobated as a teft of truth, were united in this rhapsody.

That this pamphlet was written at the defire of those who were then in power, I have no doubt; and, indeed, he owned to me, that it had been revised and curtailed by fome of them. He told me, that they had struck out one paffage, which was to this effect: "That the Colonists could with no folidity argue from their not having been taxed while in their infancy, that they fhould not now be taxed. We do not put a calf into the plow; we wait till he is an ox." He faid, "They ftruck it out either critically, as too ludicrous, or politically, as too exafperating. I care not which. It was their bufinefs. If an architect fays, I will build five ftories, and the man who employs him fays, I will have only three, the employer is to decide." Yes, Sir, (faid I,) in ordinary cafes. But fhould it be fo when the archi tect gives his fkill and labour gratis?"

Unfavourable as I am conftrained to fay my opinion of this pamphlet was, yet, fince it was congenial with the fentiments of numbers at that time, and as every thing relating to the writings of Dr. Johnfon is of importance in literary

I