a nobleman, is obliged in his History (of Henry II.) to write the most vulgar Whiggism."

An animated debate took place whether Martinelli should continue his History of England to the present day. GOLDSMITH. "To be sure he should." JOHNSON. "No, Sir; he would give great offence. He would have to tell of almost all the living great what they do not wish told." GOLDSMITH. "It may, perhaps, be necessary for a native to be more cautious; but a foreigner who comes among us without prejudice, may be considered as holding the place of a judge, and may speak his mind freely." JOHNSON. "Sir, a foreigner, when he sends a work from the press, ought to be on his guard against catching the error and mistaken enthusiasm of the people among whom he happens to be." GOLDSMITH. "Sir, he wants only to sell his history, and to tell truth; one an honest, the other a laudable motive." JOHNSON. "Sir, they are both laudable motives. It is laudable in a man to wish to live by his labours; but he should write so as he may live by them, not so as he may be knocked on the head. I would advise him to be at Calais before he publishes his history of the present age. A foreigner who attaches himself to a political party in this country, is in the worst state that can be imagined: he is looked upon as a mere intermeddler. A native may do it from interest." BOSWELL. "Or principle." GOLDSMITH. “There are people who tell a hundred political lies every day, and are not hurt by it. Surely, then, one may tell truth with safety." JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, in the first place, he who tells a hundred lies has disarmed the force of his lies. But, besides; a man had rather have a hundred lies told of him, than one truth which he does not wish should be told." GOLDSMITH. "For my part, I'd tell truth, and shame the devil." JOHNSON. "Yes, Sir; but the devil will be angry. I wish to shame the devil as much as you do, but I should choose to be out of the reach of his claws." GOLDSMITH. "His claws can do you no harm, when you have the shield of truth."

It having been observed that there was little hospitality in London: JOHNSON. "Nay, Sir, any man who has a name, or

who has the power of pleasing, will be very generally invited in London. The man Sterne, I have been told, has had engagements for three months." GOLDSMITH. "And a very dull fellow." JOHNSON. "Why, no, Sir."1

Martinelli told us, that for several years he lived much with Charles Townshend,' and that he ventured to tell him he was a bad joker. JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, thus much I can say upon the subject. One day he and a few more agreed to go and dine in the country, and each of them was to bring a friend in his carriage with him. Charles Townshend asked Fitzherbert to go with him, but told him, 'You must find somebody to bring you back; I can only carry you there.' Fitzherbert did not much like this arrangement. He however consented, observing sarcastically, 'It will do very well; for then the same jokes will serve you in returning as in going."

An eminent public character being mentioned: JOHNSON.

Sterne, as may be supposed, was no great favourite with Dr. Johnson; and a lady once ventured to ask him how he liked Yorick's sermons: "I know nothing about them, Madam," was his reply. But some time afterwards, forgetting himself, he severely censured them, and the lady very aptly retorted, "I understood you to say, Sir, that you had never read them." "No, Madam, I did read them, but it was in a stage-coach. I should never have deigned even to look at them had I been at large." Craddock's Mem., p. 208.-Croker.

2 The Right Hon. Charles Townshend, brother of the first Marquis Townshend, whose great but eccentric talents have been so celebrated by Horace Walpole and immortalized by Burke. He died September 4, 1767.-Croker.

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"This is an instance," as Sir James Mackintosh observed to me, "which proves that the task of elucidating Boswell has not been undertaken too soon." Sir James, Lord Wellesley, Mr. Chalmers, and I doubted, at first, whether the "eminent public character" was not Mr. Fox, and the friend of Johnson's, too much the echo" of the former, Mr. Burke; but we finally agreed that Mr. Burke and Sir Joshua Reynolds were meant ; the designation of eminent public character was, in 1773, more appropriate. to Burke than to Fox. Mr. Fox, too, had lately changed his party, while Burke always maintained (see post, 15th August, 1773), and was, indeed, the first who, in his Thoughts on the Present Discontents, openly avowed and advocated the principle of inviolable adherence to political connections, "putting," as Mr. Prior says, "to silence the hitherto common reproach applied to most public characters of being party-men." Life of

"I remember being present when he showed himself to be so corrupted, or at least something so different from what I think right, as to maintain, that a member of parliament should go along with his party, right or wrong. Now, Sir, this is so remote from native virtue, from scholastic virtue, that a good man must have undergone a great change before he can reconcile himself to such a doctrine. It is maintaining that you may lie to the public; for you lie when you call that right which you think wrong, or the reverse. A friend of ours, who is too much an echo of that gentleman, observed, that a man who does not stick uniformly to a party, is only waiting to be bought. Why then, said I, he is only waiting to be what that gentleman is already."

We talked of the king's coming to see Goldsmith's new play. "I wish he would," said Goldsmith: adding, however, with an affected indifference, "Not that it would do me the least good." JOHNSON. "Well then, Sir, let us say it would do him good (laughing). No, Sir, this affectation will not pass; it is mighty idle. In such a state as ours, who would not wish to please the chief magistrate?" GOLDSMITH. "I do wish to please him. I remember a line in Dryden,

'And every poet is the monarch's friend.'

It ought to be reversed." JOHNSON. "Nay, there are finer lines in Dryden on this subject :

'For colleges on bounteous Kings depend,
And never rebel was to arts a friend.'"

General Paoli observed, that successful rebels might. MARTINELLI. “Happy rebellions." GOLDSMITH. "We have no such phrase." GENERAL PAOLI. "But have you not the thing?" GOLDSMITH. "Yes; all our happy revolutions. They have hurt our constitution, and will hurt it, till we mend it by another HAPPY REVOLUTION."-I never before discovered that my friend Goldsmith had so much of the old prejudice in him.

Burke, vol. i., p. 232. This supposition being correct, the other was no doubt Sir Joshua Reynolds.-Croker.

General Paoli, talking of Goldsmith's new play said, “Il a fait un compliment très-gracieux à une certaine grande dame;" meaning a duchess of the first rank.'

I expressed a doubt whether Goldsmith intended it, in order that I might hear the truth from himself. It, perhaps, was not quite fair to endeavour to bring him to a confession, as he might not wish to avow positively his taking part against the Court. He smiled and hesitated. The General at once relieved him, by this beautiful image: "Monsieur Goldsmith est comme la mer, qui jette des perles et beaucoup d'autres belles choses, sans s'en apperçevoir." GOLDSMITH. "Très-bien dit, et très-élégamment."

A person was mentioned, who it was said could take down in short-hand the speeches in parliament with perfect exactness. JOHNSON. "Sir, it is impossible. I remember one Angel, who came to me to write for him a preface or dedication to a book upon short-hand, and he professed to write as fast as a man could speak. In order to try him, I took down a book, and read while he wrote; and I favoured him, for I read more deliberately than usual. I had proceeded but a very little way, when he begged I would desist, for he could not follow me." Hearing now for the first time of this preface or dedication, I said, "What an expense, Sir, do you put us to in buying books, to which you have written prefaces or dedications." JOHNSON. "Why, I have dedicated to the royal family all round; that is to say, to the last generation of the royal family." GOLDSMITH. "And perhaps, Sir, not one sentence of wit in a whole dedication." JOHNSON. "Perhaps not,

'The lady was Anne Luttrell, sister of Lord Carhampton, widow of Mr. Horton, whose marriage with the Duke of Cumberland had recently made a great noise, and was marked with the severe disapprobation of the king. The "compliment" no doubt was Hastings' speech to Miss Neville, in the second act, when he proposes to her to fly "to France, where, even among slaves, the laws of marriage are respected." The audience the first night applied this to the Duke of Cumberland, who happened to be present, with a burst of applause; but this, though it could not have pleased the king, did not prevent his ordering the play on its tenth night.—Croker. * Stenography, or Short-hand Improved. Lond. 1758.

Sir." BOSWELL. "What then is the reason for applying to a particular person to do that which any one may do as well?". JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, one man has greater readiness at doing it than another."

I spoke of Mr. Harris,' of Salisbury, as being a very learned man, and in particular an eminent Grecian. JOHNSON. "I am not sure of that. His friends give him out as such, but I know not who of his friends are able to judge of it." GOLDSMITH. "He is what is much better: he is a worthy humane man." JOHNSON. "Nay, Sir, that is not to the purpose of our argument: that will as much prove that he can play upon the fiddle as well as Giardini,' as that he is an eminent Grecian." GOLDSMITH. "The greatest musical performers have but small emoluments. Giardini, I am told, does not get above seven hundred a year." JOHNSON. "That is indeed but little for a man to get, who does best that which so many endeavour to do. There is nothing, I think, in which the power of art is shown so much as in playing on the fiddle. In all other things we can do something at first. Any man will forge a bar of iron, if you give him a hammer; not so well as a smith, but tolerably. A man will saw a piece of wood, and make a box, though a clumsy one; but give him a fiddle and a fiddlestick, and he can do nothing."

On Monday, April 19, he called on me with Mrs. Williams,

1 James Harris was born in the Close, Salisbury, July 20, 1709, and died there, December 22, 1780. In 1744 he published Three Treatises: the first concerning Art; the second concerning Music, Painting, and Poetry; the third concerning Happiness; in 1751, Hermes, the best known of his writings; in 1775, Philosophical Arrangements; and there appeared, in 1781, a posthumous work, Philological Enquiries, 2 vols., 8vo. All of these were collected, and published in 2 vols., 4to, 1801, with an account of his life and character by his son, the first Earl of Malmesbury. Chalmers' Biog. Dict.-Editor.

2 Felix Giardini, an Italian violinist and composer, was born at Turin, 1716, and died at Moscow, 1796. He came to London in 1744, and acquired a considerable fortune by his teaching and concerts, which he lost by undertaking the management of the Italian Opera. He then went to Moscow with the hope of retrieving his losses, and died there 1796. Didot, Biog. Gener.-Editor.