expect to attain my desire in that respect, it would be a great satisfaction, as well as an honour to our work, to have the favour of the genuine speech. It is a method that several have been pleased to take, as I could show, but I think myself under a restraint. I shall say so far, that I have had some by a third hand, which I understood well enough to come from the first; others by penny-post, and others by the speakers themselves, who have been pleased to visit St. John's Gate, and show particular marks of their being pleased."[Birch's MSS. in Brit. Mus. 4302.]

There is no reason, I believe, to doubt the veracity of Cave. It is, however, remarkable that none of these letters are in the years during which Johnson alone furnished the Debates, and one of them is in the very year after he ceased from that labour. Johnson told me, that as soon as he found that the speeches were thought genu"for he ine, he determined that he would write no more of them; would not be accessory to the propagation of falsehood." And such was the tenderness of his conscience, that a short time before his death he expressed his regret for his having been the author of fictions which had passed for realities.

He nevertheless agreed with me in thinking, that the debates which he had framed were to be valued as orations upon questions of public importance. They have accordingly been collected in volumes, properly arranged, and recommended to the notice of parliamentary speakers by a preface, written by no inferior hand.' I must, however, observe, that although there is in those debates a wonderful store of political information, and very powerful eloquence, I cannot agree that they exhibit the manner of each particular speaker, as Sir John Hawkins seems to think. But, indeed, what opinion can we have of his judgment and taste in public speaking, who presumes to give, as the characteristics of two celebrated orators, "the deep-mouthed rancour of Pulteney, and the yelping pertinacity of Pitt ?"

2

1 I am assured that the editor is Mr. George Chalmers, whose commercial works are wellknown and esteemed.-BOSWELL,

2 Mr. Murphy says:-"That Johnson was the author of the debates during that period (Nov. 19, 1740, to Feb. 1742-3) was not generally known; but the secret transpired several years afterwards, and was avowed by himself on the following occasion:-Mr. Wedderburne (afterwards Lord Loughborough and Earl of Rosslyn), Dr. Johnson, Dr. Francis (the translator of Horace), the present writer, and others, dined with the late Mr. Foote. An important debate towards the end of Sir Robert Walpole's administration being mentioned, Dr. Francis

observed, "that Mr. Pitt's speech on that occasion was the best he had ever read." He added "that he had employed eight years of his life in the study of Demosthenes, and finished a translation of that celebrated orator, with all the decorations of style and language within the reach of his capacity; but he had met with nothing equal to the speech above mentioned." Many of the company remembered the debate; and some passages were cited with the approbation and applause of all present. During the ardour of conversation, Johnson remained silent. As soon as the warmth of praise subsided, he opened with these words:-"That speech I wrote in a garret in Exeter Street." The company was struck with astonishment. After staring at each other in silent amaze, Dr. Francis asked how that speech could be written by him? "Sir," said Johnson, "I wrote it in Exeter Street. I never had been in the Cave had interest with the door-keepers. He, gallery of the House of Commons but once. and the persons employed under him, gained admittance: they brought away the subject of discussion, the names of the speakers, the sides they took, and the order in which they rose, together with notes of the arguments advanced in the course of the debate. The whole was afterwards communicated to me, and I composed the speeches in the form which they now have in the Parliamentary Debates." To this discovery Dr. Francis made answer :-" Then, sir, you have exceeded Demosthenes himself; for to say that you have exceeded Francis's Demosthenes, would be saying nothing." The rest of the company bestowed lavish encomiums on Johnson: one, in particular, praised his impartiality; observing, that he dealt out reason and eloquence with an equal hand to both parties. "That is not quite true," said Johnson; "I saved appearances tolerably well, but I took care that the WHIG DOGS should not have the best of it."

CHAPTER VII.

1741-1744

Johnson finishes Irene "--Writes "Essay on the Account of the Conduct of the Duchess of Marlborough "-Lives of Burman and Sydenham-" Proposals for printing Bibliotheca Harleiana "-Projects a History of Parliament-Writes "Considerations on the Dispute between Crousaz and Warburton, on "Pope's Essay on Man "-" Dedication to James's Dictionary ""Friendship, an Ode "-His extreme Indigence at this Time-His Acquaintance with Savage-Anecdotes-Publishes "The Life of Richard Savage "Case of the Countess of Macclesfield-Writes "Preface to the Harleian Miscellany."

THIS year I find that his tragedy of IRENE had been for some time ready for the stage, and that his necessities made him desirous of getting as much as he could for it without delay; for there is the following letter from Mr. Cave to Dr. Birch, in the same volume of manuscripts in the British Museum, from which I copied those above quoted. They were most obligingly pointed out to me by Sir William Musgrave, one of the curators of that noble repository.

"Sept. 9, 1741.

"I have put Mr. Johnson's play into Mr. Gray's hands, in order to sell it to him, if he is inclined to buy it; but I doubt whether he will or not. He would dispose of the copy, and whatever advantage may be made by acting it. Would your society,' or any gentleman, or body of men that you know, take such a bargain? He and I are very unfit to deal with theatrical persons. Fleetwood was to have acted it last season, but Johnson's diffidence or prevented it."

2

I have already mentioned that "Irene," was not brought int public notice till Garrick was manager of Drury-lane theatre.

1 Not the Royal Society; but the Society for the Encouragement of Learning, of which Dr. Birch was a leading member.. Their object was, to assist authors in printing expensive works. It existed from about 1735 to 1746, when, having incurred a considerable debt, it was dissolved.

2 There is no erasure here, but a mere blank; to fill up which may be an exercise for ingenious conjecture.-BosWELL.

In 1742' he wrote for the Gentleman's Magazine, the "Preface,"+ the "Parliamentary Debates," "Essay on the Account of the Conduct of the Duchess of Marlborough," then the popular topic of conversation. This Essay is a short but masterly performance. We find him, in No. 13 of his Rambler, censuring a profligate sentiment in that "Account," and again insisting upon it strenuously in conversation. "An Account of the Life of Peter Burman,"* I believe chiefly taken from a foreign publication; as, indeed, he could not himself know much about Burman; "Additions to his Life of Barretier,” * "The Life of Sydenham," "* afterwards prefixed to Dr. Swan's edition of his works; "Proposals for printing Bibliothcca Harleiana, or a Catalogue of the Library of the Earl of Oxford." ""* His account of that celebrated collection of Books, in which he displays the importance to literature, of what the French call a catalogue raisonné, when the subjects of it are extensive and various, and it is executed with ability, cannot fail to impress all his readers with admiration of his philological attainments. It was afterwards prefixed to the first volume of the Catalogue, in which the Latin accounts of books were written by him. He was employed in this business by Mr. Thomas Osborne, the bookseller, who purchased the library for £13,000, a sum which Mr. Oldys says, in one of his manuscripts, was not more than the binding of the books had cost; yet, as Dr. Johnson assured me, the slowness of the sale was such, that there was not much gained by it. It has been confidently related, with many embellishments, that Johnson one day knocked Osborne down in his shop with a folio, and put his foot upon his. neck. The simple truth I had from Johnson him

2

1 From one of his letters to a friend written in June, 1742, it should seem that he then purposed to write a play on the subject of Charles the Twelfth of Sweden, and to have it ready for the ensuing winter. The passage alluded to, however, is somewhat ambiguous; and the work which he then had in contemplation may have been a history of that monarch.— MALONE.

2 Osborne appears, in the Dunciad, contending for the prize among the booksellers, and carrying it off:

"Osborne, though perfect modesty o'ercome,

Crown'd with the jordan, walks contented home."

He was extremely ignorant of title-pages or editions he had no knowledge or remembrance but in all the petty tricks of his trade he was most expert. Dr. Johnson, in his Life of Pope says, that he was "entirely destitute of shame, without sense of any disgrace, but that of poverty." He died in 1767.

self. แ

'Sir, he was impertinent to me, and I beat him. But it was not in his shop: it was in my own chamber."

A very diligent observer may trace him where we should not easily suppose him to be found. I have no doubt that he wrote the little abridgment entitled "Foreign History," in the Magazine for December.

To prove it I shall quote the introduction :—

"As this is that season of the year in which Nature may be said to command a suspension of hostilities, and which seems intended, by putting a short stop to violence and slaughter, to afford time for malice to relent, and animogity to subside; we can scarce expect any other account than of plans, negociations, and treaties, of proposals for peace, and preparations for war."

As also this passage:

"Let those who despise the capacity of the Swiss, tell us by what wonderful policy, or by what happy conciliation of interests, it is brought to pass, that in a body made up of different communities and different religions, there should be no civil commotions, though the people are so warlike, that to nominato and raise an army is the same."

I am obliged to Mr. Astle for his ready permission to copy the two following letters, of which the originals are in his possession. Their contents show that they were written about this time, and that Johnson was now engaged in preparing an historical account of the British Parliament.

LETTER 12.

TO MR. CAVE.

[Aug. 1748.]

"SIR,-I believe I am going to write a long letter, and have therefore taken a whole sheet of paper. The first thing to be written about is our historical design.

"You mentioned the proposal of printing in numbers as an alteration in the scheme, but I believe you mistook, some way or other, my meaning; I had other view than that you might rather print too many of five sheets, than of five and thirty.

"With regard to what I shall say on the manner of proceeding, I would have it understood as wholly indifferent to me, and my opinion only, not my resolution. Emptoris sit eligere.

"I think the insertion of the exact dates of the most important events in the margin, or of so many events as may enable the reader to regulate the order of facts with sufficient exactness, the proper medium between a journal, which has regard only to time, and a history, which ranges facts according to