himself plunders, the country is a gainer, compared with being plundered by numbers."

Of the distinctions of Tory and Whig, he said, "A wise Tory and a wise Whig, I believe, will agree. Their principles are the same, though their modes of thinking are different. A high Tory makes Government unintelligible; it is lost in the clouds. A violent Whig makes it impracticable; he is for allowing so much liberty to every man, that there is not power enough to govern any man. The prejudice of the Tory is for establishment; the prejudice of the Whig is for innovation. A Tory does not wish to give more real power to Government, but that Government should have more reverence. Then they differ as to the Church. The Tory is not for giving more legal power to the Clergy, but wishes they should have a considerable influence, founded on the opinion of mankind; the Whig is for limiting and watching them with a narrow jealousy."

At a time when fears of an invasion were circulated, Mr. Spottiswoode observed, that Mr. Fraser the engineer, who had lately come from Dunkirk, said, that the French had the same fears of us. "It is thus (said Johnson) that mutual cowardice keeps us in peace. Were one half of mankind brave, and one half cowards, the brave would be always beating the cowards. Were

t

all brave, they would lead a very uneasy life; all would be continually fighting: but being all cowards, we go on very well."

Lord Graham commended Dr. Drummond at Naples, as a man of extraordinary talents;—and added, that he had a great love of liberty.JOHNSON. "He is young, my Lord (looking to his Lordship with an arch smile); all boys love liberty, till experience convinces them that they are not so fit to govern themselves as they imagined. We are all agreed as to our own liberty: we would have as much of it as we can get; but we are not agreed as to the liberty of others; for in proportion as we take, others must lose. I believe we hardly wish that the mob should have liberty to govern us. When that was the case some time ago, no man was at liberty not to have candles in his windows."-RAMSAY. "The result is, that order is better than confusion."—J. "The result is, that order cannot be had but by subordination."

On another occasion, petitions being mentioned, he said, “This petitioning is a new mode of distressing government, and a mighty easy one, I will undertake to get petitions either against quarter guineas or half guineas, with the help of a little hot wine. There must be no yielding to encourage this. The object is not important.

enough. We are not to blow up half a dozen palaces, because one cottage is burning."

He had great compassion for the miseries and distresses of the Irish nation, particularly the Papists; and severely reprobated the debilitating policy of the British government, which, he said, was the most detestable mode of persecution. To a gentleman, who hinted that such policy might be necessary to support the authority of the English government, he replied by saying, "Let the authority of the English government perish, rather than be maintained by iniquity. Better would it be to restrain the turbulence of the natives by the authority of the sword, and to make them amenable to law and justice by an effectual and vigorous police, than to grind them to powder by all manner of disabilities and incapacities. Better (said he) to hang or drown people at once, than by an unrelenting persecution to beggar and starve them.”

"The notion of liberty (he observed) amuses the people of England, and helps to keep off the tædium vitæ. When a butcher tells you that his heart bleeds for his country, he has, in fact, no uneasy feeling."

He said, he was glad Lord George Gordon had escaped, rather than that a precedent should be established for hanging a man for constructive

treason; which he considered would be a dangerous engine of arbitrary power.

He would not admit the importance of the question concerning the legality of general war→ rants. "Such a power (he observed) must be vested in every government, to answer particular cases of necessity; and there can be no just complaint but when it is abused, for which those who administer government must be answerable. It is a matter of such indifference, a matter about which the people care so very little, that were a man to be sent over Britain, to offer them an exception from it for an halfpenny a piece, very few would purchase it." This perhaps was a specimen of that laxity of talking which he has often been heard fairly to acknowledge.

He said "The duration of Parliament, whether for seven years or the life of the King, appears to me so immaterial, that I would not give half a crown to turn the scale one way or the other. The habeas corpus is the single advantage which our government has over that of other countries."

Speaking of the national debt, he said, it was an idle dream to suppose that the country could sink under it. "Let the public creditors be ever so clamorous, the interest of millions must ever prevail over that of thousands."

To Mr. Boswell (who had thoughts of getting

into Parliament) he said, "You are entering upon a transaction which requires much prudence. You must endeavour to oppose without exasperating; to practise temporary hostility, without producing enemies for life.—This is, perhaps, hard to be done; yet it has been done by many, and seems most likely to be effected by opposing merely upon general principles, without descending to personal or particular censures or objections. One thing I must enjoin you, which is seldom observed in the conduct of elections. I must entreat you to be scrupulous in the use of strong liquors.-One night's drunkenness may defeat the labours of forty days well employed. Be firm, but not clamorous; be active, but not malicious; and you may form such an interest, as may not only exalt yourself, but dignify your family."

Lord Newhaven and Johnson carried on an argument for some time, concerning the Middlesex election. Johnson said, "Parliament may be considered as bound by law, as a inan is bound where there is nobody to tie the knot.. As it is clear that the House of Commons may expel, and expel again and again, why not allow of the power to incapacitate for that parliament, rather than have a perpetual contest kept up between Parliament and the People."-Lord Newhaven took the opposite side, but respectfully