w/nm" H "- tMt fm im)0 ii i*»M ■"' CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 189I BY HENRY WILLIAMS ^AGE Cornell University Library PR 3533.B74F56 Croker's Boswell and Boswell.Studies in 3 1924 013 187 061 S.^ Cornell University B/f Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013187061 CEOKEE'S BOSWELL BOSWELL. CKOKEK'S BOSWELL AND BOSWELL. muMts in tie ^'fif^ at Muan:' PEECY FITZGEEALD, M.A., P.S.A. " I know at this time no less than a hundred and twenty-seven Jesuits between Charing Cross and Temple Bar ! " Croaker, in " The Good-Natured Mem." LONDON : CHAPMAN & HALL Limited, 193, PICCADILLY. 1880. lONDOH : BBADBDBY, AGSEW, ft CO., PRINTEBa, WHITEFRUBS. ^nntxxhtlOi, WITH MUCH REOARD, THE EEV. WHITEWELL ELWIN. PREFACE. The following pages have been written con amove, with a view of contributing to the further enjoyment of one of the most enjoyable books in our language. Many an old monument, however, before its beauties can be thoroughly appreciated, must be first cleared of its whitewash, pews, and "churchwarden's Gothic" which has overlaid the genuine work; and to this wholesome restoration of "Boswell's Johnson" the first portion of the volume is devoted. The Eeader, like myself, will be amazed to discover that " one of the best edited books in the English language," as the "Quarterly Keview" styled " Croker's Boswell," exhibits an elaborate system of defecement and mutilation : and that the Editor has shown himself a perfect "churchwarden" in his destructive labours. As a new and revised edition of his otherwise excellent work is announced, it is hoped that what is submitted here will not be over- looked. PAKT THE FIKST. CEOKEE'S BOSWELL. CEOKEE'S BOSWELL. CHAPTEE I. A EBVIEWEE OP THE OLB TIMES. " Mr. Ei&by was member for one of Lord Mon- moutli's boroughs. He was the manager of Lord Monmouth's parliamentary influence, and the auditor of his vast estates. He was more ; he was Lord Monmouth's companion when in England, his corre- spondent when abroad ; hardly his counsellor, for Lord Monmouth never required advice ; but Mr. Eigby could instruct him in matters of details, which Mr. Eigby made amusing. Eigby was not a pro- fessional man ; indeed, his origin, education, early pursuits, and studies were equally obscure; but he had contrived in good time to squeeze himself into parliament, by means which no one could ever com- prehend, and then set up to be a perfect man of business. The world took him at his word, for he was bold, acute, and voluble ; with no thought, but a good deal of desultory information; and though destitute of all imagination and noble sentiment, was B 2 CROKER'S BOSWELL. blessed with a vigorous, mendacious fancy, fruitful in small expedients, and never happier than when de- vising shifts for great men's scrapes. " They say that aU of us have one chance in this life, and so it was with Eigby. After a struggle of many years, after a long series of the usual alter- natives of small successes and small failures, after a few cleverish speeches and a good many cleverish pamphlets, with a considerable reputation, indeed, for pasquinades, most of which he never wrote, and articles in reviews to which it was whispered he had contributed, Eigby, who had abeady intrigued himself into a subordinate office, met with Lord Monmouth. " Mr. Eigby had a classical retreat, not distant from this establishment, which he esteemed a Tusculum. There, surrounded by his busts and books, he wrote his lampoons and articles ; massacred a she liberal (it was thought that no one could lash a woman like Eigby), cut up a rising genius whose politics were different from his own, or scarified some unhappy wretch who had brought his claims before parliament, proving, by garbled extracts from official corres- pondence that no one could refer to, that the malcon- tent instead of being a victim, was, on the contrary, a defaulter. Tadpole and Taper would back Eigby for a ' slashing reply ' against the field. Here, too, at the end of a busy week, he found it occasionally con- venient to entertain a clever friend or two of equivocal A REVIFAVER OF THE OLD TIMES. 5 reputation, with wliom he had become acquainted in former days of equal brotherhood. No one was more faithful to his early friends than Mr. Eigby, par- ticularly if they could write a squib." Such was the portrait drawn by Mr. Disraeli of the most successful editor of Boswell's Johnson — Mr. John Wilson Croker. It can scarcely be considered over-coloured. As a commentary on this sketch, to show what training this strangely constituted mind had under- gone, we need only consider the extraordinary series of articles on which he had been engaged for so many years. AU these were of a special kind. Wherever there was a subject which seemed to be fitted with secret drawers, and crannies, and unsavoury corners, our critic nibbed his admiralty quill and set himself with due gusto to his office, By-and-by, haviag found the passion growing on him, the next step was to discover secret drawers and crannies where none such existed. A volume could be written fitted with the extraordinary mare's nests constructed during a long course of years by this artificer. His vision grew distempered, his temper morbid. Like his name- sake in the play, he seemed to see plots and devilish combinations everywhere. He gradually learned a sort of art in these things ; and, by ingeniously putting detached passages and facts together — setting them ont in short abrupt paragraphs and dressing them in a CROKEKS BOSW^LL. peculiar livery of italics and capitals — contrived to impose some startling effects on the superficial reader. The effect was heightened by rough language, boister- ous scorn, and loud noisy laugh as of contempt and de- rision. This art was the peculiar patent of Mr. Croker. At the same time it must be said that if a reader desires a couple of hours of genuine amusement not unmixed with wonder, let him peruse the articles on "The Georgian Era" (Q. E. v. 53, p. 458), that on " Heron's notes" (v. 90, p. 206), on "Prince Puckler Muskau " (v. 46, p. 518), or the short one on Lady Morgan's "Italy" (v. 25, p. '529). There are various wciidQB passim on French subjects, on French ladies, who generally are "raked fore and aft," bludgeoned in the most merciless style. Some are really excellent from their untiring vivacity and versatility of abuse. "Witness the one on Lord Malmesbury's expedition to the Court of Bruns- wick ; and his exposes of the vaunts of French military spadassms, are quite appropriate and even necessary. Special objects of hffe hatred were, first and foremost, literary women. 2nd. Eadicals. 3rd. Frenchmen and perhaps foreigners ia general. All persons falling within these objectionable categories he pursued and hunted down. The late Lady Morgan was a particular object of his detestation. He regularly waited in ambush for each of her books. He had been one of her ad- A REVIEWER OF THE OLD TIMES. 7 mirers in Dublin wlien a young barrister, and only a few years later, on the publication of her 'Trance," assailed her in an article unique for rudeness and malignancy. In it she is accused seriatim of "Bad taste, bombast and nonsense, blunders, ignorance of the French language and manners, Jacobioism, falsehood, licentiousness, and impiety." It is sprinkled thickly with such extraordinary phrases as " She impudently calls them," " disgusting in principle and contemptible in style," "this woman." "She boasts," he says, "that O'Donnell has been translated into three languages. What three languages ? She does not state ; but if the English be one of them, we humbly beg to be informed where that work is to be had." And almost the last words are : " This, we fear, is of a piece with the rest ; or, in other words, a downright falsehood." Lady Morgan, however, presently retorted by in- troducing him as " Crawley " into one of her novels. When her next book of travels appeared, the reviewer fell on her in his turn, and thus it went on. "When Lord John Eussell published his Memoirs of Moore, political partisanship, and some resentment towards the poet, joined to inflame the critic's bile. Eeviewing the work, he says : — " On Moore's wife the editor appends this note : — " ' Mr. Moore was married to Miss Dyke on March 22, 1§11, at St, Martjii's Cburcli in London,' CROKER'S BOSWELL. " We throw into a foot-note a few words on this subject (chiefly collected from the Diary) which seem necessary to supply the editor's injudicious omission, and to explain Moore's real position. We do so the more willingly, lost our silence, added to that of Lord John, should lead to a suspicion that anything could be truly, said derogatory in the slightest degree from the merits of ' this excellent person,' as she is, no doubt justly, described by Lord John, and by every one else that we have ever heard speak of her." The ''foot-note" accordingly was supplied, in which all about her origin and profession, was carefully brought together for the benefit of the poor lady. The ingenious reason, " lest our silence should lead to suspicion that anything derogatory" could be said, being the most amusing trait that could bo found in the annals of "slashing" reviews. A great portion of the article in question is devoted to analyzing the Diary with a view of supporting a theory highly agreeable to poor Mrs. Moore — ^that her husband was setting 4own records of sham affection for her in his Diary — which he takes the trouble thus to tabulate : — "This contrast between his professions and his practice may, in the hurry and bustle of the Diary, escape a cursory reader — but will bo exhibited in the following synopsis of Moore's movements and on- gagements for a fortnight at the AlUe des Veuves — A REVIEWER OF THE OLD TIMES. 9 which we select, not as being pecnliarlT erratic, hnt only for the singularity of its conelnding day having been dedicated to ' Bessy " : — " 1820. Morning. Erening. XoT. 24. — ^Into Paris at 3 . Dined at Terrs. \Sr, Eessr.] 2.5.— Early into Paris . Dined at Loid John's hoteL pTo Bk5t.] 26. — Walked into Paris. pTot stated where dined, bat prohahly at home.] 27. — ^Eady into Paris . IHned at Yeiy's. \So Eesay.] 28. — Early into Paris . Dined at Mad. de Son^s- [Xo Bessy.] 29. — Party at home, song. 30. — In Paris . . Dined at Lord Gianard's, sung, ps o Etesy.] Dec. 1. — [Xot stated] . . Dined at Lord Bancliffe's, song. [X o Bessy.] 2. — Pn ot stated] , . [Probably at home.] 3. — [Probably at home] Dined at home. 4. — ^Into town . . Dined at a lestanratenrs, then went to the Forsters, snng, and home by 12. [No Be»y.] 5. — ^Into town at 4 . Dined at Yery'"=. [Xo Be^y.] 6. — Walked for an hour by the Seine . Dined at home. — id. pp. 172, 176. '■ We produce rather copious specimens of the Tarious ingenious devices by which ]^Ioore manages to tickle himself : — ' Eeceived a letter from Eogers, which begins thus : — " What a lucky fellow you are ! Surely you must have been horn v:ith a rose on your lips and a nightingale ■'•in[/ing on the top of your ledP ' — iy. 139. Bom ' at the comer of Little Longford Street' with a rose in his mouth, and not, as most people are, in U-% mothers bed, 10 CROKERS BOSWELL. but in Us own ! Was Mr. Eogers laughing at him ? ' Saw the Examiner, which quotes my IS'eapolitan verses from the Chronicle, and says " Their fine spirit and flowing style sufficiently in- dicate the poet and patriot from whose pen they come." ' — iii. 224. ' The Examiner quoted some lines I had sent to Perry [of the Morning Chronicle], and added, " We think we can recognise whose easy and sparkling hand it is.'' I wonder he found me out.' — ii. 183. Other persons might be in doubt whether there was not some other poet and patriot, and some other easi/ and sparkling hand in all Eng- land : but Moore has no doubt at all, and ^nds himself out directly. ' A flourishing speech of Shiel's about me in the Irish papers. Says I am the first poet of the day, and " join the beauty of the bird of Paradise' s plumes to the strength of the eagle's wing." ' — iv. 243. " Going one night to Almack's, he asks a lady whether she did not think Lady Charlement lovely — ' Beautiful,' replied the lady — so notorious a truism that we doubt whetllBr Moore himself would have thought of noticing it — ^if the lady had not added — ' as lovely as Lalla Roolch herself ! ' He goes to dine with Mr. Eogers's brother and sister, at High- bury, and flnds ' Miss Eogers very agreeable.' No doubt ; and we dare say the lady was always so : but what was the peculiar agreeability of that day ? — ' She mentioned that she had had a letter from a A REVIEWER OF THE OLD TIMES, ii friend in Germany saying that the Germans were learning English in order to read ' — Milton, Shak- speare ? — No : — ' Lord Byron and me.' — ii. 299. ' By the lye^ was pleased to hear from Eogers that Luttrell said, " If anybody can make such a subject [Captaia Eock] lively, Moore will." By the lye, received a letter from a Sir John Wycherly, of whom I know nothing, apologising for such a liberty with the first poet of the age.'' — iii. 11. He meets Mr. Hutchinson, just come from being made M.P. for Cork, where — ^ By the lye, they hipped and hurraed me as the Poet, Patriot, and Pride of Ireland. I am becoming a stock toast at their dinners. Had seen this very morning an account of a dinner to Mr. Denny of Cork, when I was drunk as the Poet, and Patriot with great applause.' — ii. 157. Tor- got, ly the lye, to take notice of some verses of Luttrell's : — " I am told, dear Moore, your lays are sung — Can it be true, you lucky man ? — By moonlight, in the Persian tongue, Along the streets of Ispahan." ' — iii. 301. But he does not tell us that Mr. Luttrell's authority for the fact was — Moore himself, who in another ly the lye tells us where he got it. ' By the lye, Mr. Stretch, with whom I walked yesterday [in Paris] said he had been told by the nephew of the Persian Ambassador, that Lalla Bookh had been translated 12 CROKER'S BOSWELL. into their language, and that the songs are snng about everywhere.' — iii. 167. He meets Mr. and Miss Canning at a Paris dinner, and observed — 'a circumstance which showed a very pleasant sort of intelligence between the father and the daughter.' — iii. IGO. Our readers will, by this time, not be surprised at the ^pleasant sort' of sympathy which Moore's ingenuity was on the watch to detect be- tween these two brilliant intelligences. 'J,' adds the Diarist — ' I told a story to Miss Canning, which the father was the only one who overheard, and it evidently struc/c them both as very comical.' — lb. Occasionally his self-importance takes a still higher flight. At an assembly at Dervronshire House — ' The Duke, in coming to the door to meet the Buke of Wel- lington, near whom I stood, turned aside first to shake hands with me — though the great Captain's hand was waiting ready stretched ouf — iv. 76. Sometimes when we think that he is about to offer a sugar-plum to a bystander, we are surprised at the legerdemain with which he pops ft into his own mouth. Thus — Catalani visits Dublin when Moore happened to be there; a Mr. Abbot 'brought my sister Ellen to introduce to Catalani. Her kindness to Nell, calling her'— of course one expects some little kind com- pliment to the young lady herself — not a bit of it — ' calling her— fo swur d'AnacrSon ! ' We shall con- clude these, after all, scanty samples with one which A REVIEWER ,0F THE OLD TIMES. 15 takes the timisual form of humility, and is, -with its context, even more amusing. After a page of re- capitulation of the yarious forms of compliment and odours of incense which he received at a Harmonic meeting at Bath, he concludes with the most amiable naivete : ' During the ball was stared at on all sides without mercy. In such a place as Bath any little lion makes a stir.' — ii. 280, This is rather hard on Bath, as we have just seen what pains the same little lion takes to let us know that he was making the same kind of stir all the world over — in various shapes and distant regions — as a nightingale, a bird of Paradise, an eagle, and a dandy— at Berlia, Cork, Ispahan, and the corner of Little Longford Street ! " But at the close comes a touch truly characteristic. He had nearly exhausted the subject in an article of enormous length — 70 pages long. As it is passing through the press he tells us that a new publication on the subject has just appeared of remarkable interest. "The details in it," he says, with anti- cipatory unction, " are often very painful — sometimes ignoble — but they are intensely characteristic,— and more vivid — though it is merely a pamphlet — more real and true than all Lord John Eussell's volumes." This existing production was after Mr, Croker's own heart, for it was what ? the reader may guess ; a cata- logue of a mass of private family letters which Lord 14 CROKER'S BOSWELL. John was discreet enougli not to use or felt that he ought not to use. They were to be sold by auction. Even the wretched scraps given in the catalogue were of sufficient interest, because secret. There was the charm. It suggests the story told by Johnson of some man who pestered him again for an article which Johnson could not find, and which continued to be of the last importance and moment to him so long as Johnson could not find it ; when he did, he said it was of no consequence. The article excited much attention and deep resent- ment, and in. the next instalment of the life, Lord John Eussell, in reference to a remark of Moore's, "Barnes begged me to spare Croker, which I told him was an unnecessary caution, as wc were old allies," added this biting comment : — "To Moore it was unnecessary to address a request to spare a friend. If the request had been addressed to the other party to spare Moore, what would have been the result ? Probably while Moore was alive and able to wield his pen, it would have been successful. Had Moore been dead it would only have served to give additional zest to the pleasure of safe malignity." It will hardly be credited that the Eeviewer who in his article had exhausted all the arts of ridicule and ill-nature, was stung to fury by this allusion, and wrote in his most deadly style to protest — now, he said, in his seventy- fourth year, and a probably advanced stage of a A REVIEWER OF THE OLD TIMES. tj mortal disease, pleas that might have been vainly addressed to Mm. As to "safe malignity," "your own feelings would be a test of that ; those best can paint them who have felt them most." He then spoke of " your personal impertiaence to me," and declared that Moore was always asking him for official favours, and on excellent terms with him. Lord John wrote in reply with equal bitterness, frankly owning that he had written the note designedly, haviag in view the attack on Mrs. Moore, then in broken health and shattered spirits. "Were you justified," he asks, " in embittering the last years of the widow of Moore, sneering at his domestic affections, and loading his memory with reproach on account of a few depreciating phrases ? I omitted several passages regarding you, which, though not bitter and malicious, might, I thought, give you pain." He adds that, " there was one passage in which he said he found you less clever and more vain than he had supposed." The veteran had not lost his cunning, and knew how to retort. In return for this threat he writes : — " What ! my lord, have you ventured to contrast what you indicate as my malignant ingratitude to- wards Moore with his undeviating and kindly feelings towards me, while it turns out you had before your eyes several mentions of me still more offensive ! " The turn he gives to Lord John's reference to Mrs. 1 6 CHOKER^ S BOS WELL. Moore is no less adroit. She was, lie declared, "an amiable lady, for whom I feel, without knowing her, as much sympathy and respect as your lordship pro- fesses, and more than you have shown in the indis- creet and heedless way in which you have so inextric- ably mixed up her name in almost every page of the discordant farrago." Lord John, however, closed his letter in reply with a sort of apology, which ought to have soothed the old Eeviewer : — " I may add an expression of my regret that, at your age and in your present state, you should have been annoyed by the publication of Moore's 'Diary.' " This did not quite content Croker :— "I was not annoyed hy the publication of Mooreh ' Diary ^ but by your lordship's note which was no part of the ' Diary,' but on the contrary, at variance with its text, and which contained a double imputation which I felt to be whoUy undeserved. Your lordship, I am sure, wUl feel that the nearer one approaches to the limits of life the more chary one ought to be of one's repu- tation and honour," And then, with some of the old craft, throws out a feeler, as to the letters of his which Lord John held. " I cannot but hope, for Moore's sake, that those other passages which your lordship has alluded to may be traceable to the same not unamiable motive." This was received coldly : — "It would be, of coursoj A REVIEWER OF THE OLD TIMES. 17 useless for us to attempt to persuade one anotlier. Mrs. Moore has many, or at least several, of yours to lier husband wMcli I have not seen ; of course I should not think of publishing them without your permission." On which the old Keviewer breaks out into a fury : — " There is an expression in your last note which I think is necessary to notice. " I had no motive and no intention to persuade your lordship to anything. I did not meddle with your opinions. I charged you with a gross and de- liberate offence against me. The public is now the judge whether I have proved my charge." It is not diflS.cult, however, to trace the reason of a special exhibition of malevolence in the case of the "Heron Notes." An old baronet published his recollections in his 86th year, and was assailed in the most unexampled style', for his " innocuous, though disreputable twaddle," and for recording, " as matters of fact, imputations on our political friends, and in one instance at least against ourselves, of the most absolute falsehood — falsehood which can only be attri- buted to the grossest ignorance, or to the blindest malice, or a combination of both — and under which, personally contemptible as the penman may be, neither truth, justice, friendship, nor honour can permit us to be silent." The baronet having alluded to his family, our 18 CROKEKS BOS WELL, Eeviewer set about Ms favourite researelxes : — " His nephew tells us 'his professional liae was the not hrilliant one of a chamber counsel or special pleader,' and that — ' from not being worth a farthing ' — ' he had acquired an income that allowed him to be liviag in respect and comfort in Grosvenor Square,' at the time that he was so strangely selected by Lord Buck- inghamshire for an important political office. We are afraid that Sir Eobert's gratitude to his benefactor — and perhaps the same vanity which induced him to record the residence ia Grosvenor Square — may have caused him to assign to the old gentleman a pro- fessional grade, 'not brilliant' indeed — as he admits — but stiU somewhat higher than exact truth would warrant ; for we find from an entry in the EoUs that ' Eichard Heron, of Newark, in the county of Nottingham, was admitted a solicitor on the 24th of May, 1748,' and continued on the roll tiU the 25th of April, 1769 — the date, we suppose, of his retirement to ' the respect and comfort of Grosvenor Square' " • The old man having said something of Prince Polignac and the Duke of "Wellington, our Eeviewer repHes : — " "We do not presume to controvert Sir Eobert's experiments on owls and mice ; but as to the Duke of Wellington and Prince Polignac, we now repeat, that the fact which Sir Eobert says he has reason to Icnow^ is a downright lie," A REVIEWER OF THE OLD TIMES. 19 He winds up in this strain : — "It is distasteful and grievous to us to be forced by this crazy- simpleton to reproduce on so small an occasion tbe illustrious names we have above enumerated — and we shall conclude this topic by confessing that the only thing that looks like candour throughout the entire volume is the kind of moral courage — very like impudence — which has induced Sir Kobert to publish concerning such men such passages as we have quoted. "We have exhausted our space, our time, and perhaps the patience of our readers — certainly our own. We could have extended ten times farther our exposure of this farrago of nonsense and libel; but we have confined ourselves to some prominent cases which admitted of documentary and chronological refutation. "We trust, however, that we have done enough in thus warning the public against about the falsest and most impudent publication we have ever happened to read." The reader will speculate as to the reason for this surprising display of venom. The unfortunate old baronet had called Mr. Croker " a most determiaed Jobber," and dwelt on a transaction which at the time had caused some talk. It is amusing, then, to find Mr. Croker indignantly vindicating "Mr. Croker" from behind his Quarterly screen. At the same time it may be believed th^^t he wrote in tMs fashion because he 0% 20 CROKERS BOSWELL. could -write in no other way, and I can fancy that he was all the time perfectly genuine, and from habit had grown to believe that he was denouncing in certainly strong, but suitable terms, what he supposed deserved to be stigmatized. CHAPTER II. MR. choker's system OF EDITING. It is curious that two professional critics of repu- tation should have attempted of late years to treat Mr. BosweU's great work, each on a totally different priaciple. The Eight Honourable J. Wilson Croker, in. what has long been considered the standard edition, exhibited one process ; and Mr. George Henry Lewes ■ — a writer of a very different type — superintended another. Mr. Croker's method was to expand, fill out, add profuse garnishings, and sauce. Mr. Lewes's was to boil down, strain through sieves and jelly-bags, until aU that was superfluous was got rid of. Both modes, as it might be said of cookery, are equally false and objectionable, and utterly spoil the meat thus treated. But it is bewildering to find that two men, whose profession was criticism, who had spent their lives ia cultivating the critical faculty, and who, if the nice instinct were wanting, could by practice have sup- plied it — should have been so utterly astray in the most eleraentary principles of the gay science. Mr. Croker was for some thirty or forty years connected 22 CROKEI?S BOSWELL. with the " Quarterly Eeview," and scarcely a number appeared without a contribution from his hand. Mr. G. H. Lewes was presumed to be a critic of the first order, of the finest and most cultured taste. Yet Mr, Croker thought it orthodox to insert large batches of foreign matter wherever he could find an opening, to rough-hew his author, re-shape, trans- pose, and omit where it seemed good to him ; to reprove sentiments that were unpalatable, correct the various speakers in the dialogue, substitute proper words for improper ones ; and generally maul, trim, and restore according to his whims and prejudices. Mr. Lewes, on the contrary, decreed that BosweU himself had been too diffuse, and would gain by com- pression, applied almost by hydraulic power. A Mr. Main — now dead — worked at the task under his supervision ; all Hght talk, that did not refer to some essential principle, bearing on Johnson's character and proceedings, was got rid oi as waste flesh ; the pith and substance being left, in the shape it ought to have been put before the public, had our biographer known better. This principle was gravely set out in an introduction to the small volume, into which the great work had been squeezed ; and many, while in- different to the performance, will remember the sense almost of bewilderment with which people of culture speculated over the meaning and motive of so incon- sistent a process. Of the two, his was certainly the MR. CROKEKS SYSTEM OF EDITING. 23 worst piece of sacrilege ; for in Mr. Croker's volumes, the original structure can be made out, thougli much, maimed. It was in the year 1831, that this laborious work made its appearance in five volumes, when it became at once established in the rank of works " which no gentleman's library should be without." "We are told officially that 40,000 copies have been sold, "and such is stiU the demand for it, that even now a new edition is in preparation." This total seems much less than one could have anticipated, considering the long interval of nearly fifty years; and the fact of a new edition being got ready, may attend even a very moderate demand. On that new edition, however, it is hoped that what is contained in the following pages may have a wholesome influence, being prompted solely by interest in, and admira- tion for, BosweU's impartial and ever-entertaining book. "We shall proceed f investigate some of the leading blemishes of Mr. Croker's treatment of our author. § The System of Wholesale Interpolation. The principles which Mr. Croker laid down for himself in his undertaking, were based on false critical instinct. Krst, to consider his plea for bringing foreign matter into BosweU's work. 24 CHOICE R'S BOS WELL. All through he has introduced into the text large portions of Johnson's letters to Mrs. Thrale. For this proceeding he devises, as usual, a theory. Boswell would have used them if he could ; so " valuahle " are they. Mr. Croker is, therefore, only doing what Boswell would have done. But why did not Boswell use them? They were " out of his reach." He dared not, owing to the law of copyright; though from them he has occasionally, but cautiously — having fear of the copyright law before his eyes — ^made iateresting extracts. Now, Mr. Croker must have known that Boswell had' no such scruples as to other works, such as Hawkins's or Mrs. Piozzi's. Again, he takes special complacency in ha^^dng thrust the " Tour to the Hebrides " iuto the body of the work in its proper chronological place. This proceeding he thus jus- tifies : — "The most important addition, however, which I have made is one that needs no apology — the incorpo- ration with the ' Life* of the whole of the ' Tour to the Hebrides,' which Boswell published in one volume in 1785, and which, no doubt, i£ he could legally have done so, he would himself have incorporated in the ' Life ' — of which indeed he expressly tells us, he looks on the ' Tour ' but as a portion. It is only wonderful, that since the copyright has expired, any gdition of his ' Life of Johnson ' should have been MR. CROKER'S SYSTEM OF EDITING. 25 published without the addition of this, the most original, curious, and amusing portion of the whole biography." It may be safely stated (1) that Boswell would not have incorporated the " Tour " with the " Life ; " and (2) it is almost certain that he could have done so, had he wished it. (1) Boswell had too much critical tact to make such a fusion of what are distinct works. Any one with critical faculty will see that the elaborate treat- ment of so short an episode in Johnson's career, by which the treatment of a few weeks fills a space equal to a fourth of the whole "Life," would disturb the balance of the work. The reader Avho comes to read Johnson's life^ and its important facts, will feel him- self too long delayed over such details. This, it seems to me, is unanswerable. Further, the tone is different. There Boswell writes as, in familiar phrase, " our own reporter," or journalist. He is describing his own adventures. It is an account of a Tour. In the other he is the grave biographer — judicial ■ — with his own personality more or less sunk. But the two works make one, and should be iaseparable— the "Tour" coming after the "Life."* Indeed, our author himself would seem to have expressed his own wishes on this poiat when he says : * This arrangement lias been followed in the present writer's edition, as in Malone's and many others. 26 CRO ITER'S BOS WELL. " His various adTentures, and the force and viva- city of his mind, as exercised during this peregrina- tion, upon innumerable topics, have been faithfully, and to the best of my abilities, displayed in my ' Journal of a Toiir to the Hebrides,' to which, as the public has been pleased to honour it by a very ex- tensive circulation, / beg leave to refer, as to a separate and remarkable portion of his life, which may he there seen in detaiV (2) Mr. Croker's idea that Boswell had not the potver to combine his two works, seems fanciful. They were both issued by the same publisher, Mr. Dilly, his old friend and host, who would have com- plied with any wish of his. An.d as Boswell pub- lished the "Life" on "his own account," and as no new edition of the "Tour" had been called for since 1786, there would have been no difficulty in making an agreement. Again, Mr. Croker's arrangement causes a cer- tain dislocation, passages having to be shifted ; and above all, Boswell's always interesting, because candid, prefaces, advertisements, dedications, &c., are thrown out altogether ! Nay, Mr. Boswell's table of contents to the " Tour," epitomizing the subject of each day's adventure, it also dismisses ; and a new set of headings, of Croker's own manufacture, is sub* stituted. Boswell's are very bright and efiective; Croker's, fuller and duller. MR. CROKER'S SYSTEM OF EDITING. 2f The division iato chapters, which we owe to Mr. Croker's direction, and which is adopted in suc- ceeding editions, is yet another proof of the lack of the true, fine, critical instiact. A few words will show this. The vulgar idea would be that a book has only to be cut up, or divided, into chapters. • But it should be written ia chapters. A chapter is, or should be, a form of the composition, artistically devised ; the events arranged with a view to effect ; the close written up to, or written down to, as the case may be. It will be seen at once that this result cannot be secured by merely insertiag the heading " Chapter " at particular intervals. But, it seems to me, the whole tone of Boswell's book is opposed to these forms; it is a sustained and unbroken narrative, and the style is suited to the form. In process of time it was forced on Croker that he had gone astray ; but how reluctantly, and with what haughty pride he acknowledged the necessity of change, will be seen from the following : "I hazarded," he says, "the experiment of ia- laying upon the text such passages from the other biographers of Johnson as seemed necessary to fill up the long and frequent chasms which exist in Bos- well's narrative. This plan afforded a more complete view of Johnson's life, though it gave, I must own, a less perfect one of Boswell's work. It had, also, as I 28 CROKER'S BOSWELL. originally feared, 'a confused and heterogeneous appearance' — with the further disadvantage of not completely fulfilling its object — for the materials turned out to be too copious to admit of a thorough incorporation. On the whole, then, the pubKsher thought it better, in a second edition, 8 vols. 12mo, 1835, to omit from the text all extracts from other works. . . . BosweU's ' Tour to the Hebrides,' ' John- son's own Letters,' his ' Notes of a Tour in Wales,' and extracts from his correspondence with Mrs. Thrale, being only excepted. That edition included some corrections and many additions of my own ; but it was carried through the press by the late Mr. Wright, . . . who selected the Johnsoniana, broke the narrative iuto chapters, and added some notes, which I have now marked with his name." "A complete view of Johnson's life." He thus stiU beHeved that this was the proper view to take. It may be doubted if there are " any long and fre- quent chasms" in BosweU's narrative, which is cer- tainly complete from Jiis poiut of view, though not offering the same amount of details in every part. This is the mistake of modern biography ; the sup- posing that details are sufficient to furnish forth a view of a man's life. MR. CROKER'S SYSTEM OF EDITING. 29 § Omissions — Alterations of the Text. These are of the most arbitrary description ; notes being made into text, and text into notes; with altera- tions of sentences, omissions of lines, &c. I will give only a few specimens of this treatment, adding that it is carried out consistently through the whole work. Under date of Nov., 1754, Johnson writes to Warton, who supplied Boswell with some notes. One of them, on Zachariah Williams, is wholly left out; others, re-shaped. On the lines of Levett, at the verse, " Nor, letter'd arrogance, deny," &c., BosweU has a "hit" at the knight: "In both editions of Sir J. Hawkins' life of Dr. Johnson, 'lettered igno- rance' is printed." This Mr. Croker suppresses. A characteristic note of Boswell's, on the lines, "A painted vest Prince Yortiger had on," runs as follows, Mr. Croker suppressing all the words in italics. " An acute correspondent of the ' European Maga- zine,' April, 1792, has completely exposed the [a] mistake, which, has heen unaccountably frequent in., [of] ascribing these lines to Blackmore, notwithstanding that Sir Eichard Steele, in that very popular work, ' The Spectator,' No. 43, mentions them as written by the author of ' The British Princes,' the Hon. Edward Howard." Again. Garrick writes to Boswell : 30 CROKEKS BOS WELL. " Now, for tlie Epitaphs ! " " These, together toith the verses on George the Second, and Colley Cibher, as his Poet Laureat, of which imper- fect copies have gone about, tvill appear in my ' Life oj Dr. Johnson.'' " " I have no more paper," &c. Now this break, and the pleasant advertisement, are quite Boswellian. But Croker dismisses it alto- gether, and substitutes : " This refers to the epitaph on Philips, and the verses on George the Second, and Colley Gibber, as his poet laureat, for which see ante, p. 43." On one of Johnson's Latin letters to Dr. Laurence, dated May, 1782, BosweU has a note, consisting of three short extracts from letters to Dr. Laurence's daughter, introduced by : — " Soon after the above letter. Dr. Laurence left London." Mr. Croker inserts it in the text, though the word "above" is peculiarly appropriate to a note. A note, under Nov., 1783, begirming, " My worthy friend, Mr. John Nichflls, was present when Mr. Hen- derson, the actor, paid a visit to Dr. Johnson, and was received in a very courteo^is manner. See ' Gent. Mag.,' June." " See ' Gent. Mag.' ! " Boswell would never have thus disfigured his text. "When Boswell speaks of ^^ Emhru" for Edinburgh, Mr. Croker alters it to " JMru," MR. CROKER'S SYSTEM OF EDITING. 3' Speaking of an inscription on Lord Lovat's tomb, in tlie Highlands, "we find the following ia Croker's text : — " There is an inscription on a piece of white marble inserted in it, which I suspect to have been the com- position of Lord Lovat himself, being much in his pompous style. " I have preserved this iascription, though of no great value, thinking it characteristical of a man who has made some noise in the world. Dr. Johnson said it was poor stuff, such as Lord Lovat's butler might have written." It will be seen that something is wrong here. The iascription is expected between the two paragraphs. In Boswell we find it, but his Editor has thrust it into a note. The note on the story of Lady Grange's imprisonment is cut into two, and referred to different portions of the text. Certain omissions are most unaccountable. When Johnson was dying, we are told : — "Mr. Windham having placed a pillow conve- niently to support him, he thanked him for his kind- ness, and said, ' That will do — all that a pillow can do,'" We look in vain for this passage in any of Mr. Croker's later editions. Why it was omitted is inscrutable. Another of Mr. Croker's arbitrary proceedings is 32 CROKERS BOS WELL. the removal of some of his author's notes and ar- guments, which seemed to him too long for their place, to the end of the book. These dictated plead- ings, such as " The Argument for the Negro," " The Schoolmaster," &c., are certainly uniaterestiug ; but stiU we like them in their place ; they have an artistic fitness, and we seem to hear the pon- derous sage rolling out his periods as his secretary wrote. But what wiU be said to the following? In a discussion on happiness and misery, Boswell puts a long note about a Eev. Mr. Churton, who had "favoured him with some remarks;" which, however, did not seem suitable to Mr. Croker : — "Here followed a very long note, or rather dis- sertation, by the Eev. Mr. Churton, on the subject of Johnson's opinion of the misery of human life, which I have thought will be read most conveniently in the Appendix; and, indeed, I only insert it there that my readers may have all Boswell.'^ " Indeed, I only insert it there " (!) Now portions of this note are specially characteristic, and in Boswell's quaintly formal manner : "Though I have, in some degree, obviated any reflections against my illustrious friend's dark views of life, when considering in the course of this work his 'Eambler' and his ' Easselas,' I am obliged to Mr. Churton for complying with my request of his permission to insert his remarks, being conscious of MR, CROKER'S SYSTEM OF EDITING. 33 the weight of tvhai he judicially suggests as to the melancholy in my oivn constitution. His more pleasing views of life, I hope, are just. * * * "His letter was accompanied with a present from himself of his ' Sermons at the Bampton Lecture,' and from his friend, Dr. Townson, the venerable rector of Malpas, in Chesliire, of his ' Discourses on the Gospels,' together with the following extract of a letter from that excellent person, who is now gone to receive the reward of his labours : ' Mr. Boswell is not only very entertaining in his works, but they are so replete with moral and religious sentiments, without an instance, as far as I know, of a contrary tendency, that I cannot help having a great esteem for him; and if you think such a trifle as a copy of the Discourses, ex dono authoris, would be accept- able to him, I should be happy to give him this small testimony of my regard.' Such spontaneous testimonies of approbation from such men, without any personal acquaintance with me, are truly valuable and encouragiag." And our commentator had doubts whether this should not be omitted altogether ! Under June, 1784, we find a whole paragraph taken from Boswell's controversy Avith Miss Seward, which is in a different style, and concludes with this inartistic sentence, suited to a contro- versial paper in the magazine where it appeared. 34 CROKER'S BOSWELL. "What are ve to tMnk of the scraps of letters between her and Mr. Hayley impoliticly attempting to undermine the noble pedestal on which public opinion has placed Dr. Johnson?" This joins but clumsily with BosweU's own text, " On Sunday, June 27, I found him rather better." Under date of June, 1781, a paragraph beginning, " The following letters were written at this time by Johnson to Miss Eeynolds," &c., with two letters, from a note of Malone's, are inserted in the text. In the notice of the "Lives of the Poets," BosweU says, " That he, however, had a good deal of trouble, and some anxiety, in carrying on the work, we see from a series of letters to Mr. Nichols, the printer, whose variety of Hterary inquiry and obliging dis- position rendered him useful to Johnson. Mr. Steevens appears, from the papers in his possession," &c. A note, and a number of extracts from these letters, are subjoined. Mr. Croker inserts these in the text. But, as at the close there is a passage which would come irf awkwardly, " See several more in the ' Gentleman's Magazine.' The Editor of the Miscellany," &c., he consigns that to a note. He is not quite candid, too, as to certain dis- coveries he has made, and special privileges of in- formation which were accorded to him. Of Johnson's long letter to the King's Librarian, Dr. Barnard, Mr. BosweU has said: — "I wished much to have MR. CROKER'S SYSTEM OF EDITING. 35 gratified my readers with the perusal of this letter, and have reason to think that his Majesty would have been graciously pleased to permit its publica- tion ; but Mr. Barnard, to whom I applied, declined it ' on his own account.' — ^Boswell. " I was more fortunate, and this letter will be found under its proper date," says Mr. Croker. Who would not suppose from this, that by special favour, not accorded to Boswell, Mr. Croker was allowed to publish it? The document in question is to be found ia a very accessible "Eeport," and also in the stUl more accessible pages of the " Gentle- man's Magazine." But, after all these faults — ^faults of disfigurement — Croker's "Boswell " remains a most remarkable monu- ment of industry, research, and information of a very interesting kind. He himself possessed great stores of curious learning, and, from long practice in review- ing the important memoirs that came out in his time, had acquired the knowledge of much secret political history, as it is called. Where his prejudices did not disturb him, he deals with these matters in a very interestiag way. He was, however, but too often under the influence of a parti pris. But his signal advantage was the favour he enjoyed of com- munication with personages who had actually known or who were indirectly connected with Johnson, while his position as a political litterateur of eminence, with D 2 35 CROKERS BOSWELL. the command of a great review, opened to him large stores of private papers. No one seems to have been more ■universally assisted or to have been so successful ia accnmulatiiig curious details, important letters, and the like. Some fifty years ago it was even still possible to meet with survivors of the Johnsonian era, and Mr. Croker was fortunate enough to be just in time to collect valuable information, for giving colour and flavour to his work. Of these persons the most im- portant was Lord Stowell, the " Dr. Scott of the Com- mons " of Boswell, Mr. Titzherbert, Mr. Ohohnondeley, and the evergreen Miss Monkton, later Lady Cork, who survived till 1840 ; with the venerable Dr. Eouth, of Magdalen, the last who had seen Johnson as- cending the steps of one of the colleges at Oxford — nay, had even been shown by a contemporary of Addison's the rooms the latter had occupied. This venerable " Don " died so lately as the year 1855. Mr. Croker had spoken with Miss Langton and Lady Keith, Mrs, Thrale's daughter, later the Countess Flahault ; and, according to Lord Macaulay, had been refused papers by Miss Burney, then Madame D'Arblay. He had also met one of the Miss BLornecks whom Goldsmith so admired. These cer- tainly were special advantages, and, by an industrious, pushing character, likely to be tui-ned to the best profit, MR. CROKERS SYSTEM OF EDITING. 37 His preface, in which lie gives a detailed account of the personages who assisted him. — these links with Johnson times — is a most entertaining "piece," and has a strange interest from the names with which it is dotted, now, with Mr. Croker himself, passed away. Our obligations to him, therefore, are of the most substantial kind. The inore reason that his work shoxdd be cleared of its remaining blemishes. CHAPTEE IIL MACAULAY AND CEOKEE. We now approach, tlie well-known encounter between these two writers which was so unbecoming — it must be said — an episode in the lives of both. There have been many combats of tlie kind ; but few so bitter or offering so singular a display of malevo- lent and unchristian feeling. It seems strange that the matter was not referred to the mode of arbitra- tion then fashionable. It must be said the essayist appears to have been the party the most, or rather the one, to blame. It may have been that like the English officer at Paris after Waterloo — ^who took on himseK to seek a quarrel with a professional duellist, long the pest of society, for the purpose of des- troying him — Macaulay may have wished to chastise a wantonly aggressive personage. But on both sides a more curious display of roused malignant passions, nursed and inflamed for years, could not be matched. I dwell on it more particularly, because it opens up many interesting points of discussion connected with Johnson. The immediate cause of quarrel, as is well known. MACAULAY AND CROKER. 39 was an encounter in the House of Commons on the Eeform Bill. The merits of Macaulay's speech seem to have been a little exaggerated; as there were others during the debates who fell on the unhappy Croker, and who equally deserved the hackneyed praise of " making one of the best, if not the best, speeches they had ever heard." That strange taste for per- version of facts, which seemed to be half constitu- tional, half fostered by habit and prejudice, had led him into an ingeniously distorted account of the differences between Charles I. and his Parliament — which appeared to be damaging — ^none of the "Whigs having sujB&cient historical "baggage" to correct him. It was the late Lord Derby, primed by Sir John Hobhouse, that undertook to expose him with this result : — "Mr. Croker," says Sir D. le Marchant, "whose assurance was proverbial, at first listened to him with apparent indifference; but as he proceeded in his attack, supported by immense cheering from a very large majority of the House, Mr. Croker' s courage gave way — he became very pale, and pulled his hat over his brows. Lord Althorp thought that he was going to faint, and he did not recover himself the whole night. I am bound in candour to confess that Lord Althorp, who followed Mr. Croker in the debate on the preceding night, missed the credit of this victory from his imperfect historical recollections, as did 4° CROKEES BOSWELL. many of the other Whigs ; and it was Sir John Hobhonse (afterwards Lord Bronghton) to whom Mr. Stanley owed the information Avhich he turned to such good account." This shows that our critic lived in this atmosphere of casuistry. He was everywhere, in his critical labours as in his speeches, of the same temper. But what shall be said of Macaulay, who, exulting in his sense of victory, which in another might tend to modera- tion or pity, is only thinking of further humiliation for his foe.* "That impudent leeriug Croker con- gratulated the House on the proof which I had given of my readiness. He was afraid, he said, that I had been silent so long on account of the many allusions which had been made to Calne. Now that I had risen again he hoped that they should hear me often. Sea whether I do not dust that varlef s jaclcet for him in the next number of the Blue and YelloAV. I detest him more than cold hoiled veaiy He was, moreover, "a bad, a very bad man : a scandal to politics and letters." He had "IBeaten him black and blue." When the article 'appeared he announced trium- phantly that he had '■'■smashed his Book." It is certainly extraordinary that one so amiable in his family relations should have not exhibited the mode of hostility in favour with magnanimous minds, viz., contemptuous silence. But in Mr. Trevelyan's interesting records there are many significant traits MACAULAY AND CROKER. 41 and incidents wticli seem to have been passed by in the general acclaim, and wHch betoken a ratber Crokerisb feeling towards tbose who opposed or crossed him in his Hterary path. But not content with the hayiag " smashed " this book, the essayist returned to the charge in his review of Madame D'Arblay's "Diary": — "There was no want of low minds and bad hearts in the generation which witnessed her first appearance. There was the envious Kenrick and the savage Wolcot, the asp George Stevens, and the polecat John Williams. It did not, however, occur to them to search the parish register of Lynn, in order that they might be able to twit a lady with having con- cealed her age. That truly chivabous exploit was reserved for a had loriter of our oivn time, whose spite she liad provoked hy not furnishing him loith materials for a tvorthless edition of BosivelVs Life 'of Johnson, some sheets of which our readers have doubtless seen round parcels of better boolcs.^^ It is painful to read these words, which seem to be less expressive of his dislike — even hatred — " of a bad writer," than of a man that was odious to him. When in the year 1843 the Eeviewer was brought before the public in connection with the notorious Lord Hertford's will, and other enemies were enjoyiag the spectacle of the ferocious and pitiless denouncer of all trespasses against morals and 42 CROKEl^S BOSWELL. decorum, being convicted of having tolerated or favoured his patron's excesses, the essayist seemed to have found special delight in the exposure, Mr. Trevelyan tells us gravely, " In a singularly power- ful letter, written as late as 1843, he (Macaulay) recites in detail certain unsavoury portions of that gentleman's private life which were not only part of the stock-gossip of every how-window in St. James's Street, but which had been brought into the light of day in the course either of parliamentary or judicial investigations. After illustrating these transactions with evidence which proved that he did not take up an antipathy on hearsay, Macaiday comments on them in such terms as clearly indicate that his animosity to Croker arose from incompatibility of moral senti- ments, and not of political opinions." — ^Vol. i. p. 124. Some twenty years later came the return blow for the critique on Boswell, which, severe as it was, was studiously moderate in style. Indeed, the old truculent " tomahawking " had gone out. But though labom'ed, and coloured with animosity, the objections were considered to be faii'ly sustained. We shall examine in what fashion Mr. Macau:lay proceeded to ''dust this varlet's jacket," and ''beat him " black and blue." In this discussion, though Macaulay was wantonly savage, and used vitupera- tions totally disproportionated to the offences he censuredj he is found right almost in omnibus ; and MACAULAY AND CROKER. 43 the spectacle of casuistry offered by the raging and writhing victim in his own defence, certainly cannot be matched. So transparent are his excuses, that it can only be charitably supposed that, he was bHnded by his prejudices in his own favour, and resentment at the treatment he experienced. In "Blackwood's Magazine " appeared the reply to Macaulay's attacks, written in the character of an impartial friend vindicating his friend, but well known to have been Mr. Croker's own work. Through some curious infatuation, Macaulay's attack, and this presumed defence, are prefixed to all the recent editions ; so that the reader can see the strength of the one and the feebleness of the other. Macaulay objects : — " Mr. Croker says, that at the commencement of the intimacy between Dr. Johnson and Mrs. Thrale, in 1765, the lady was 25 years old." Here is the reply : — " Why, Mr. Croier says no siich thing. He says, ' Mrs. Thrale was 25 years of age when the acquaintance commenced,' but lie does not say when it commenced, nor when it became intimacy. It is Mr. Boswell who states that in 1765 Mr. Johnson was introduced into the family of Mrs. Thrale ; but in the very next page we find Mrs. Thrale herself stating that the acquaintance began in 1764, and that the more strict intimacy might be dated from 1766. So that the discrepancy of two or three years which, by a double falsification of Mr. Croker's words, the Eeviewer attributes to him, belongs really to Mr. Boswell and Mrs. Thrale them- selves," But still it will be seen, Croker's calculation, "twenty-five years old," must be based on either 44 CROKER'S BOSWELL. Boswell's or Mrs. Thrale's statement. Accepting even this discrepancy, he gives no date himself. This will be enough to support Macaulay's next argument, for she vould have heen either twenty-four or twenty- five. It may he added that Macaulay did not impute any such " discrepancy " as Croker mentions to him. Macaulay goes on : — " In another place he says that Mrs. Thrale's 35th year coincided with Johnson's 70th. Johnson -was horn in 1709 ; if, therefore, Mrs. Thrale's 35th coincided with Johnson's 70th, she could have been but 21 years old in 1765." The answer : — " Mr. Croker states, that from a passage in one of Johnson's letters, •/le suspects' and 'it may be surmised'^ that Mrs. Thrale's 35th and Johnson's 70tli years coincided.' Is it not an absolute misrepresentation to call an opinion, advanced in the cautious terms of surmise and suspicion, as a statement of a fact 1 " Macaulay adds : — " We will not decide between them ; we will only say that the reason he gives for thinking that Mrs. Thrale was exactly 35 years old when Johnson was 70, appears to us utterly frivolous.'' Croker in reply : — " Mr. Croker's reason is this : Mrs. Thrale had offended Johnson, by fupposing him to be 72 when he was only 70. Of this Johnson com- plains, at first somewhat seriously, but he afterwards gaily adds, ' If you try to plague me (on the subject of age), I shall tell you that life begins to decline at 35.' Mr. Croker's note on this passage, which the Reviewer has misrepresented as an assertion, is, ' It may be surmised, that Mrs. Thrale, at her last birthday, was 35.' Surmise appears to bo too diibious an expression. The meaning seems indisputable ; and if this be not the point of Johnson's retort, what is it 1 " Still, our commentator's " surmise " or " suspicion "^ MACAULAY AND CROKER. 45 can only be dealt witli quantum valeat, and it will not fit with BosweU's or Mrs. Thrale's date, thus supporting Macaulay's objection. Croker, he shows, does not agree with himself, and that was his point. So having suspected or surmised that Mrs. Thrale was thirty-five when Johnson was seventy, she was certainly either twenty-four or twenty-six, if Croker adopts Thrale's or BosweU's " commencement of the acquaintance — if his own, twenty-one — ^but there is no room for twenty-five. But now we turn to his later note on the text, and read with wonder the cool admission : — " She was about twenty -four or twenty-five years of age when the acquaintance commenced. At the -time of my first edition I was unable to ascertain precisely Mrs. Piozzi's age — ^but a subsequent publication named Piossiana, fixes her birth on her own authority to the 16th January, 1740 ; yet even that is not quite con- clusive, for she calls it 1740 old style, that is, 1741. I must now, of course, adopt, though not without some doubt, the lady's reckoning. See Quarterly Review, vol. xlix. p. 252." So all the " surmises," /'suspicions," comparisons with Johnson's age are admittedly unsound. "Why not handsomely dismiss them ? Even the objection of the " old style " being "not conclusive," is unin- telligible. It may be added that, in Mr. Hayward's book (p-40) "Mr. Salusbury, referring to a china, 46 CROKER'S BOSWELL. bowl in his possession, says : ' The slip of paper now in it is in my father's handwriting, and copied, I have heard him say, from the original slip, which was worn out by age and fingering. The exact words are " In this bason was baptised Hester L3m.ch Salusbury, 16th Jan, 1740-41 old style, at BodviUe in Carnarvonshire." ' " We go on : — " But tliis is not all : Mr. Croker, in another place, assigns the year 1777 as the date of the complimentary lines which Johnson made on Mrs. Thrale's 35th birthday. If this date be correct, Mrs. Thrale must have been born in 1742, and could have been only 23 when her acquaint- ance with Johnson commenced." This was indeed being " spitted like larks." Thus answered : — "Mr. Croker does no such tiling. He inserts the complimentary lines under the year 1777, because he must needs place them somewhere, and, in the doubt of two or three years, which, as I have already shown, may exist between Mr. Boswell's account and Mrs. Thrale's own, he placed them under 1777 ; but, so far from positively assigning them to that particular year, he cautiously premises, ' li was about this time that these verses were written ; ' and he distinctly states, in two other notes, that he doubts whether that was the precise date. Here again, therefore, his Eeviewer is dishonest. ' Two of Mr. Croker's three statements must be false.' Mr. Croker has made but one statement, and tliat is not impugned; the two discrepancies belong to Mr. Boswell and Mi's, ThraJe, and the falsehood — to the Reviewer." Under 1777, because he must needs place them somewhere (!). But a reviewer could not dis- cover this secret reason. Macaulay is entirely justified and his manes propitiated by the verses in later editions heing put back to the year 1776. MACAULAY AND CROKER. A7 A discussion on Lord Mansfield's age. Macanlay says : — " Mr. Croker informs his readers, that Lord Mansfield survived John- son full ten years. Lord Mansfield survived Dr. Johnson just eight years and a (quarter," The answer is bewildering : — " The Eeviewer is right. Dr. Johnson died in 1784, and Lord Mans- field in 1793. But the occasion on which Mr. Croker used the inaccu- rate colloquial phrase of full ten years, makes the inaccuracy of no conseqiience at all. He is noticing an anecdote of a gentleman's having stated that he called on Dr. Johnson soon after Lord Mansfield's death, and that Johnson said, 'Ah, sir, there was little learning, and less virtue.' This cruel anecdote Mr. Croker's natural indignation refutes from his general recollection, and without waiting to consult the printed obitu- aries, he exclaims, ' It cannot be true, for Lord Mansfield survived Johnson yiiH ie» 1/eors.'' whereas he ought to have said, ' It cannot be true, because Lord Mansfield survived Johnson " eight years and three months ; " ' or, what would have been still more accurate, ' eight years, three months, and seven days ! ' " Macaulay's point is the attempted accuracy of the word '■'• fulV which certainly means "not less than; " "about" might have fairly passed. " Mr. Croker teUs us that the great Marquess of Montrose was beheaded at Edinburgh in 1650. There is not a forward boy in any school in England who does not know that the Marquess was hanged. The account of the execution is one of the finest passages in Lord Clarendon's history. We can scarcely suppose that Mr. Croker has never read the passage ; and yet we can scai'cely suppose that any one who has ever perused so noble and pathetic a story can have utterly forgotten all its most striking circumstances." • It is almost enough to give the following without comment. But this may be said, that in common parlance and in common sense, "beheading" and 48 CROKER'S BOSWELL. " hanging " are need to describe the particular mode of ialdng away life. No one would think of saying that a person had been executed by the axe, who had been hanged and then had his head severed from his body. " We really almost suspect that the Bevuwer himself has not read the passage to which he refers, or he could hardly have accused Mr. Crolier of showing — by having said that Montrose was ' beheaded,' when the Keviewer thinks he should have said ' hanged ' — that he had forgotten the most ' striking passage ' of Clarendon's noble ' account of the execu~ Hon.' For it is not on the execution itself that Lord Clarendon dwells with the most pathos and effect, but on the previous indignities at and after his trial, which Montrose so magnanimously endured. Clarendon, with scrupulous delicacy, avoids all mention of the pemUiar mode of death, and is wholly silent as to any of the circumstances of the execution, leaving the reader's imagination to supply, from the terms of the sentence, the odious details ; but the Reviewer, if he had really known or felt the true pathos of the story, would have remembered that the sentence was, that the Marr[uess should be hanged and beheaded, and that his liead should ' be stuck on the Tolbooth of Edinburgh ; ' and it was this very circumstance of the beheading, which excited in Montrose that burst of eloquence which is the most striJcing beauty of the whole of the ' noble and pathetic story.' ' I am prouder,' said he to his persecutors, ' to have my head set upon the place it is appointed to be, than I should be to have my picture hung in the King's bedchamber ! ' And this the beheading — ^is the incident which the Reviewer imagines that Mr. Croker may have ' forgotten,' hecsmse he does tell us that Montrose was beheaded, when he should have drily told us he was hanged," Macaulay goes on : — " 'Nothing,' says Mr. Croker, 'can be more imfounded than the assertion that Byng fell a martyr to political party. By a strange coincidence of circumstances it happened that there was a total change ... * ® of admimstration between Ms condemnation and death, so that one party presided at his trial, and another at his execution. There can be no stronger proof that he was not a political martyr.' No^v, what will our readers think of this writer, when we assure them that this state- ment, so confidently made respecting events so notorious, is absolutely M AC AULA Y AND CROKER. 49 untrue ? One and the same administration was in office when tlie court- martial on Byng commenced its sittings, through the whole trial, at the condemnation and at the execution. In the month of November, 1756, the Duke of ^Newcastle and Lord Hardwicke resigned ; the Duke of Devonshire became first Lord of the Treasury, and Mr. Pitt, Secretary of State. This administration lasted till the month of AprU, 1757. Byng's court-martial began to sit on the 28th of December, 1756. He was shot on the 14th March, 1757. There is something at once diverting and provoking in the cool and authoritative manner in which Mr. Croker makes these random assertions.-' Mr. Croker answers (some sentences not to the point being omitted) :^ " This contradiction to Mr. Croker, ' so confidently made with respect to events so notorious,' is absolutely untrue ! But so it is. The Re- viewer catches at what may be a verbal inaccuracy (I doubt whether it be one, but at worst it is no more), and is himself guilty of the most direct and substantial falsehood. Of all the audacities of which this Reviewer has been guilty, this is the greatest, not merely because it is the most important as an historical question, but because it is an instance of — to use his own expression — ' the most scandalous inaccuracy.' The question between Mr. Croker and the Reviewer is this, — whether one Ministry did not prosecute Byng, and a succeeding Ministry execute him 1 Mr. Croker says ay — the Reviewer says no. Byng's action was in May, 1756, at which time the Duke of Newcastle was Minister, and Mr. Pitt and Lord Temple in violent opposition ; and when the account of the action arrived in England, ' the Ministers ' (see Campbell's Lives of the Admirals) — ' the Ministers determined to turn, if possible, the popular clamour and indignation from themselves, upon the Admiral.' And, again, ' the hired writers in the pay of the Ministry were set to work to censure his conduct in the roost violent and inflammatory manner.' And, again, ' The popular clamour and indignation were so extremely violent that Ministers were under the necessity of making known their intention to try Byng. On the 26th July, Byng arrived at Portsmouth, and was committed to close custody. . . . " 'The Ministers,' says Charnock (Naval Biog., Vol. iv. p. 159), 'treated him like a criminal already condemned.' " In these circumstances, and while Byng was on the brink of his trial about the 20th November, 1756, his inveterate enemies, the Ministers, resigned, and a total change of administration took place, So> CROKER'S BOSWELL. •* The now .«fclmimstration, however, resolved to execute the intentions of the former— the proceedings instituted against Byng by the Duke of JSTcwcastle's administration were followed up by Mr. Pitt's ; and the imprisonment of Byng, which was ordered by Lord Anson, was ter- minated by his execution, the warrant for which was signed by Lord Temple, six months after ! Now, if Mr. Croker had been writing his- tory, or even a review, he probably might not have said that 'the change of Ministers took place between the condemnation and death,' if by condemnation the actual sentence of the court were to be under- stood. Certainly the actual trial happened to be held a few days after the accession of the new Ministry, but the prosecution — the alleged prosecution — the official condemnation — the indictment, if I may borrow the common law expression— the collection of'the evidence in support of it— and every step preparatory to the actual swearing of the court, were all perpetrated under the auspices of the old Ministry. " After this, nobody can have any doubt in deciding which speaks the historic truth — he, certainly, who represents one set of Ministers as conducting the prosecution, and the other as ordering 1;he execu- tion. " Mr. Croker, on this occasion, as on many others, has looked to the spirit of the proceeding, as well as to the letter — to the design as well as the cZafe— andhas contributed to trace historic truth by the motives and causes of events, rather than by the day of the month on which the events happen to explode. — His justification and the refutation of hia Ee viewer are complete ! " That tlie words " between his condemnation and his death," mean " between the determination to bring him to trial and his diath/' seems the most curious quibble, or rather attempt at a quibble. It is simply a device thought of apres couj^, and is actually dis- posed of by his own words in the same sentence, " so that one party presided at his trial, and another at his execution," Yet notwithstanding these elaborate vindications, we find the word ivithdratvn and " accusation " substituted for " condemnation." MAC AULA Y AND CROKER. 51 " Nothing can be more unfounded than the asser- tion that Byng was a martyr to ^ political persecution? It is impossible to read the trial witho-at being con- vinced that he had misconducted himself ; and the extraordinary proceedings in both Houses of Parlia- ment subsequent to his trial, prove, at once, the zeal of his friends to invalidate the finding of the court- martial, and the absence of any reason for doing so. By a strange coincidence of circumstances, it happened that there was a total change of ministry between the accusation and the sentence, so that one party prepared the trial and the other directed the execution : there can be no stronger proof that he was not 2i, political martyr. See this subject treated at large in the Quarterly Revieiv for April, 1822 — 1831. But though legally, and, I believe, justly con- victed, it is likely that he would have been pardoned had not popular fury ran so high. The puhlic had from the first condemned the unhappy admiral, and anticipated his fate. Thus Lloyd writes on the 30th September, 1756, three months before the change of ministry, and six months before Byngh execution : — ■ So ministers of basest tricks, I love a fling at politics ; Amuse tlie nation's court and Idng, By breaking Ii"[o'w]ke and hanging Byng.' "And in the London Magazine for the same month, E 2 52 CROKERS BOSWELL. in a long vituperative poem, addressed to Byng, are these lines : — ' An injured nation must be satisfied ; To public execution thou must go, A public spectacle of shame and woe.' " These latter passages are prompted by the old feeling, and are Vadresse of his enemy. I have found, however, that this theory was a favourite hobby of the author's, introduced into many articles in the Quarterly Review, e. y., into that on the Memoirs of Walpole, those of Lord Waldegrave, and others of the kind, in which he presses the same fallacy, vis., that it was determined to bring Byng to trial by one set of ministers, but that his actual trial and execu- tion took place under another. The verses quoted prove nothing except that some of the people wished him to be hanged. It would have been more candid to have frankly admitted that the words " one party presided at his trial " — though, indeed, it is forcing the meaning of words a good deal— were a slip of the memory or pen for, — "prepared to bring him to trial." But, after all, it is no injustice to such a partisan as Mr. Croker to assume that there was purpose in his statement, and that in this persistent recur- rence to this topic there was an intention to white- wash Mr. Pitt, who was in the second Ministry, showing that he inherited the case from his prede- cessors. MACAULAY AND CROKER. 53 Next as to Johnson's remark on Gibbon : — " But -vve must proceed. These volumes contain mistakes more gross, if possible, than any we have yet mentioned. Boswell has recorded some observations made by J ohnson on the changes -which took place in Gibbon's religious opinions. ' It is said,' cried the Doctor, laughing, ' that he has been a Mahometan.' ' This sarcasm,' says the editor, ' pro- bably alludes to the tenderness with which Gibbon's malevolence to Christianity induced him to treat Mahometanism in his History.' Now, the sarcasm was uttered in 1776 ; and that part of the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire which relates to Mahometanism was not published till 1788, twelve years after the date of this conversa- tion, and nearly four years after the death of Johnson." The answer : — " What ! does the Reviewer doubt that Mr. Croker is rigMj and that Gibbon was tbe person intended ? " Certainly not. He adopts, -v^dthout acknowledgement, Mr. Croker's interpretation, but then turns round and says, 'You bave given a bad reason for a just conclusion.' Then why does the Reviewer not give a better, and explain why he adopts Mr. Croker's opinion, if lie is not satisfied with Mr. Croker's reason 1 The fact is, the poor creature is at his skeleton work again. He found that the origin of Mahometanism which sprung up about the year 600, could not be chronologically included in the first volume of Gibbon, which ends about the year 300. And he kindly informs Mr. Croker that Gibbon's account of Mahomet- anism was not published till after Johnson's death ; but the Reviewer chooses to forget that, in every page of his first volume as of his last, Gibbon takes or makes opportunities of sneering at and depreciating Christianity ; while, on the other hand, he shows everywhere remarkable ' tenderness ' for Paganism and Mahometanism. " These insinuations and innuendos are to be found all through the work, and are indeed the great peculiarity of his style. " It is evident, too, from' the concluding part of Mr. Croker's note, which the Reviewer has suppressed, that this was his meaning ; for Mr. Croker adds, ' something of this sort must have been in Johnson's mind on this occasion.' If Mr. Croker had meant to allude to the professed history of Mahometanism, published in Gibbon's latter volumes, he could not have spoken dubiously about it, as ' something of this sort,' for time the bi^s is glear and certaji), It js therefore evident that Mr, 54 CROKER'S BOSWELL. Croker meant to allude to Gibbon's numerous insinuations against Christianity in the first volumes ; and if Johnson did not mean ' some- thing of this sort,' I wish the Reviewer would tell us what he meant." But there is more to como. Mr. Croker, as we have seen, on consideration being inclined to suspect some earlier infidelity at Oxford, connected, too, with. Arabic, " To what, then, it has been asked, could Johnson allude ? " Macaulay proceeded to anticipate Croker's question. " Possibly to some anecdote or conversation of which all trace is lost. One con- jecture may be offered, though with diffidence. Gibbon tells us in his Memoirs that at Oxford he took . a fancy for studying Arabic, and was prevented from doing so by the remonstrances of his tutor. Soon after this, the young man fell in with Bossuet's con- troversial writiQgs and was speedily converted by them to the Eoman Catholic Faith. The- apostacy of a gentleman commoner would, of coui-se, be for a time the chief subject of conversation in the common rooms of Magdalen. His whim about Arabic learn- ing would naturally ^e mentioned, and would give occasion to some jokes about the probability of his turning Mussulman. If such jokes were made, Johnson, who frequently visited Oxford, was very likely to hear of them." By a strange coincidence, Mr. Croker " is inclined to suspect" the same thing. But the irrefragable Macaulay was not to be thus disposed of. He re- MACAULAY AND CROKER. 55 turned to the charge, and crushed anew his already- prostrate foe. "A defence of this blunder," he says, was attempted. That the celebrated chapters in which Gibbon has traced the progress of Mahomedan- ism were not written in ]776 could not be denied. But it was confidently asserted that his partiality to Mahomedanism appeared in his first volume. This assertion is untrue ; no passage which can by any act be construed into the faintest indication of the faintest partiality for Mahomedanism has been quoted, or ever will be quoted, from the first volume of the " History of the Decline and Fall of the Eoman Empire." What a terrible enemy to encounter — no loose or reckless statement could pass with him ! " This assertion is untrue " — words deliberately chosen, and the most offensive he could choose, it wou.ld almost seem, to mark his belief that the man, in Johnson's words, "lied, and knew that he lied." The hapless commentator had the degradation of putting under his hand an admission that this was so, but ia a note in a later edition we find this extraordinary voUe- faee : "As there can be no doubt that Gibbon and his History are the author and the work here alluded to, I once thought that some sceptical expressions in the celebrated fifteenth and sixteenth chapters might have prompted this sarcasm, but I am now incliued to suspect that it may have referred to some Oxford ronio-cirs of earlier infidelity. S6 CROKEK'S BOSWELL. Gibbon, in bis Memoirs, confesses tbat the erratic course of study, -which finally led to his conversion to Popery, began at Oxford by a turn towards ' oriental learning and an incliaation to study Arabic' ' His tutor,' he adds, ' discouraged this childish fancy.' He complains, too, of the invidious whispers which were afterwards circulated in Oxford on the subject of his apostacy ; and as we may be certaia that Johnson did not speak without a meaning, I now believe that some whisper of this early inclination to Arabic learning and the language of the Eoran may have reached Johnson and occasioned this sarcasm. — C. 1835." Thus, still writhing at the recollection, he seems to seek some new device, and adroitly shifts the refer- ence from the word "Mahometan" to the last word of the sentence, so that the word " infidelity " which then occurs may be brought ia. The disingenuousness of this seems extraordinary, for the point of Macaulay's remarks, as well as of Croker's, was con- nected with this word •' Mahometan." On the publication of the Yicar of Wakefield : — " ' It was in the year 1761/ says Mr. Croker, ' that Goldsmith pub- lished his " Vicar of WakefiGld." This leads the editor to observe a more serious inaccuracy of Mrs. Piozzi than Mr. Boswell notices, when he says Johnson left her table to go and sell the "Vicar of Wakefield " for Goldsmith. Now, Dr. Johnson was not acc^uainted with the Thralcs till 1765, four years after the book had been published.' Mr. Croker, in reprehending the fancied inaccuracy of Mrs. Thrale, has himself shown a degree of inaccuracy, or, to speak more properly, a degree of ignoreince MAC AULA Y AND CROKER. 57 hardly credible. The " Traveller" was not published till 1V65 ; and it is a fact as notorious as any in literary history, that the " Vicar of Wake- field," though written before the " Traveller," Avas published after it. It is a fact which Mr. Croker may find in any common " Life of Gold- smith " ; in that written by Mr. Chalmers, for example. It is a fact which, as Bo.^well tells us, was distinctly .stated by Johnson, in a con- versation with Sir Joshua Reynolds. It is, therefore, quite possible and probable, that the celebrated scene of the landlady, the sheriff's-oiflcer, and the bottle of Madeira, may have taken place in 1765. Now, Mrs. Thrale expressly says that it was near the beginning of her acquaintance with Johnson, in 1765, or, at all events, not later than 1766, that he left her table to succour his friend. Her acoujacy is therefore completely vindicated." The answer : — "Here again the Eeviewer, in attempting to correct a verbal inaccu- racy, displays ' the error or the ignorance ' of which he unjustly accuses Mr. Croker. It would, indeed, have been more accurate if Mr. Croker had said that Goldsmith had, in 1761, ' soli the work to the publisher,' for it was not actually published to the world till after the ' Traveller' ; but the fact as to the publication has nothing to do with the point in ques- tion, which is the time when Goldsmith sold the work, and whether Johnson could have left Thrale's table to sell it for him,— in other words, whether the sale took place prior to 1765. Mr. Croker again says ay — the Eeviewer says no — and the Reviewer is again decidedly in the wrong, and Mr. Croker is clearly right, according to the very authority to which the Reviewer refers ns. Chalmers tells us, indeed, that the novel was published after the poem ; but he also tells us, to the utter discomfiture of the Reviewer, that ' the novel was sold, and the money paid for it, some time befo7-e ! ' So that the sale took place, even according to the Reviewer's own admission, before 1765. " The Reviewer states that the ' Traveller ' was not published till 1765 ; but even in this fact he is wrong. The ' Traveller ' was pub- lished in 1764 ; and if he will open the Gentleman's Macja'dne for 1764, he will find extracts in it from that poem. This fact corroborates Mr. Croker's inference ; Mrs. Piozzi had said that ' Johnson was called away from her table either in 1765 or 17C6, to sell the novel.' Mr. Croker says this must be inaccurate, because the book was sold long before that date. Now it is proved that it was sold before the publication of the ' Traveller,' and it is also proved that the ' Traveller ' was published in 58 CROKER'S BOSWELL. 1764 ; and, finally, the Eeviewer's assertion, that ' it is quite possible and frolahle that the sale took place in 1765,' is thus shown to be ' a monstrous blunder.' " Mr. Macaulay — in Ms published Essays — ^put the case very forcibly, and fairly acknowledged that "a slight iaaccuracy, immaterial to the argument, has been removed." This mistake, so handsomely acknowledged, was no more than putting the publi- cation of the Traveller in the year 1765 instead of 1764. In the Essays he thus summarises his objection : " In the first place Johnson became acquainted with the Thrales not in 1765 but in 1764, and during the last weeks of 1764 dined with them every Thursday, as written in Mrs. Piozzi's 'Anecdotes.' In the second place, Goldsmith published his 'Vicar of Wakefield" not in 1761 but in 1766." Croker's justification on this is more startling than any we have had as yet. The argument to prove Mrs. Thrale's " inaccuracy " is that — as the " Vicar " was published in 1761, and Johnson, who only came to. know the Thrales some years, y inferring exactly u-ltat the JRecuu-er himself does, that Sir Joseph Maflbey was inaccurate in thus applying to Douglas what had been really said of Ossian ! " But the Reviewer, in addition to suppressing Mr. C'roker's statement, blunders his o'mi facts ; for he tells us that Johns'jn's vi-it to Oxford, about the time of his doctoi-'s degree, was 'in the spring of 1776.' I beg to inform him it was in the latter end of May, 1775. (See 'Boswell,' V. iii. p. 2.J4.) The matter is of no moment at all, but shows that the Eeviewer falls into the very inaccuracies for which he arraigns Mr. Croker, and which he jiolitely calls in this very instance ' scandalous ! ' " The ■words "the time of his doctor's degree'''' not Crokcr's but Sir J. Mawbey's, and luijustly attri- buted to Croker ! Wby, lie bases Ms refutation of Sir J. Mawbey on these very words, wMch. lie adopts. "Xo"w mark! .Jokason's visit to Oxford, about the time of Ms doctor's degree, was in 17-54 " (!). In the correction of Macaulay, about this visit, Croker must, in the hackneyed phrase, have been dreaming or dozing. Macaulay did not say that "Ms visit about the time of Ms doctor's degi-ee " was in 1776. He simply states that he took Ms doctor's degree in 1775, and visited the University in the spring of 1776. The next, as it opens discussion and various opiMons, may be passed over : — "Boswell has preserved a poor epigram by Johnson, in.-cribed ' ad Laurarn parituram.' Mr. Croker censures the poet for applying the word puella to a lady in Laura's situation, and for talking of the beauty o Lucina. ' Lucina,' he says, ' was never famed for her beauty.' If Sir Eobert Peel had seen this note, he po.-:iiljly would again have refuted Mr. Crokcr's critici.-.ms by an appeal to Horace. In the secular ode, Lucina is used as one of the names of Diana, and the beauty of Diana is extolled by all the most orthodox doctors of ancient mythology, from Homer, in his ' Odyssey/ to Claudian, in his ' Eape of Proserpine,' In 62 CROKER'S- BOSWELL. another ode Horace describes Diana as the goddess who assists the ' lahorantes utero puellas.' " The answer : — " Euge ! by this rule the Eeviewer -would prove that Hecate was famed for her beauty, for ' Hecate is one of the names of Diana, and the beauty of Diana,' and, consequently, of Hecate, ' is extolled by all the most orthodox doctors of heathen mythology.' Mr. Croker does not, as the Eeviewer says he does, censure the poet for the application of the word puella to a lady in Laura's situation ; but he says that the designation in the first line — which was proposed as a thesis— oi the lady as pulcherrima puella, would lead us to expect anything rather than the turn which the latter lines of the epigram take, of representing her as about to lie-in. It needs not the authority either of Horace or the Eeviewer to prove that 'puellx' will sometimes be found ' laborantes utero.' But it will take more than the authority of the Eeviewer to persuade me that Mr. Croker was iraong in saying that it seema a very strange mode of complimenting an English beauty." The next is the rather piquant discussion about Priace Titi : — " Johnson found in the library of a French lady, whom he visited during his short visit to Paris, some works which he regarded with great disdain. ' I looked,' says he, ' into the books in the lady's closet, and, in contempt, showed them to Mr. Thrale. Prince Titi — Biblio- theque des Fdes— and other iooks.' 'The History of Prince Titi,' obser\'es Mr. Croker, ' was said to be the autobiography of Frederick Prince of Wales, but was probably written by Ralph his secretary.' A more absurd note never was penned. The History of Prince Titi, to which Mr. Croker refers, whether written by Prince Frederick or by Ealph, was certainly never piMished. If Jlr. Croker had taken the trouble to read with attention the very passage in Park's Eoyal and Noble Authors, which he cites as his authority, he would have seen that the manuscript was given up to the Government. " Even if this memoii- had been printed, it was not very likely to find its way into a French lady's bookcase. And M'ould any man in his senses speak contemptuously of a French lady for having in her posses- sion an English work so curious and interesting as a Life of Prince M AC AULA y AND CROKER. 63 Frederick, whether written by himself or by a confidential secretary, must have been 1 " The history at which Johnson langhed was a very proper companion to the Bibliothfeqne des Fees — a fairy tale about good Prince Titi, and naughty Prince Violent. Mr. Croker may find it in the Magasin des Enfans, the first French book which the little girls of England read to their governesses.'' The answer : — " Here is a pretty round assertion of a matter of fact. ' The History of Prince Titi, whether written by Prince Frederick or Ralph, was certainly never piMishei 1 ' Now, imfortunately for this learned Re- viewer, we have at this moment on our table the HiSTOIRE DU Peince Titi. A{lkgorie) '&{oyale). Paris : chez la Veuve Oissot, Quai de Conti, k la Croix d'Or. And not only was it thus •published in Paris, but it was translated into English, and republished in London, under the title of THE History OF Prince Titi, A Boyal Allegory. Translated by a Lady. What say you to that, Mr. Reviewer ? Is not this, to say the least ot it, ' a scandalous inaccuracy, and is not he who falls into such a mistake as this entitled to no confidence whatever ! ' " But ' if it has been printed, it was not likely to have found its way into the French lady's bookcase.' Why not'!— it was written in French, printed m Paris, a very neat little volume, and is, moreover, just such a piece of fashionable secret history as would be sure to ' find its way to a French lady's bookcase.' " But the real fairy tale would have been ' » very proper companion 64 CROKER'S BOSWELL. to the BibliotlifecLue des Fees.' Indeed ! Pray has tte Reviewer, then, ever seen that fairy tale in a seyamis vohrnne, ? He seems to imply that it has heen so published ; and yet in the next sentence he tells us it is to he found in the Magasiti des Enfans. But even here he is mistaken. The old fairy tale of Prince Titi is not to be found in the Magasin des Enfans ; but a rifacimento of it is, and Madame de Beaimiont was even blamed by some critics for having spoiled the old story by her modern version. " We have no doubt in the world that Mr. Croker is quite right that the Boyal Allegory of Peince Titi (the only vohune with that title which we ever heard oij was on the lady's table, perhaps laid there purposely, in the expectation that her English visitors would think it a literary curiosity, which, indeed, it has proved to be ; for Dr. Johnson seems not to have known what it was, and the Edinburgh Reviewer had never seen it, and, even now, so obstinately disbelieves the fact, that he ungratefully calls his informant very hard names. "We add, as a point of literary history connected with this curious little volume, that it is possible that Ralph may have been preparing a continuation of it, which has been suppressed ; but it is hardly possible that he could have had any share in the composition of the original volume, which was written before Ralph was in the Prince's confidence." I confess that one might be inclined to take Croker' s side here. " A more absurd note never was penned," is itself absurd, and ludicrously ex- aggerated. The words "Eoyal AUegory" might have warranted Mr. Croker' s sm:niise ; the question whether the book was given up to the Govern- ment or ever published at all, may be left to the literary antiquaries. But it was a just judgment on Croker for dragging ia so far-fetched a conunent. Dr. Johnson evidently considered it a fairy tale, and no need arose from the incident to enter on a display of Bibliographical lore — but indeed all Mr. Croker' s notes on Johnson's French Diary are out of place. M AC AULA Y AND CROKER. 65 But it is different with his rejoinder. Such " quibbling " is strange indeed. The point about the fairy tale " being published in a separate volume," which Macaulay does not say it was, is unworthy. But another is almost unique. Macaulay had said that the story of Prince Titi would be found in the Magasin des Enfans, and the reply is, " No ; this is false : it is not to be found, because that is merely a version." Croker does not see that for Macaulay's argument this is enough — as Johnson had merely looked at the titles of the stories. More significant, however, is the last paragraph, where he is forced to own that Ealph had written a " Prince Titi " that may have been suppressed. In his later edition, Croker retorts : — "Now, every item, great and small, of this state- ment, is a blunder, or worse ; some of Avhich, as relating to a curious point of literary history, it seems worth while to correct. A book of this title ivas published in Paris, in 1735, and republished in 1752, under the title of "Histoire du Prince Titi, A(lle- gorie) E(oyale) ; and there is a copy of it in the Museum; and two English translations were adver- tised in the Gentleman^ and the London Magazines for February, 1736, one of them with this title : ' The History of Prince Titi ; a Eoyal Allegory, in Three Parts. "With an Essay on Allegorical "Writing and a Key, By the Honourable Mrs, Stanley, and sold by 65 CROKEE'S BOS WELL. E. Curl, price 3s." And it is mentioned as published by Park in his note (v. 354) on the passage quoted, which, it seems, Mr. Macaulay never read at all. Neither of the translations have I been able to find ; but in the Trench work, amidst the puerility and nonsense of a very stupid fairy tale, it is clear enough, without any key, that by Prince Titi, King Ginguet, and Queen Tripasse, are meant Prince Frederick, George II., and Queen Caroline." Mr. Macaulay says on the ©vtjtoi, *tXoi : — "Mr. Croker has favoured us with some Greek of his own. 'At the altar,' says Dr. Johnson, ' I recommended my 8. ^.' ' These letters, says the editor, (which Dr. Strahan seems not to have under- stood,) probably mean dvtyroi i\ot — departed friends.' Johnson was not a first-rate Greek scholar ; hut he knew more Greek than most hoys when they leave school ; and no schoolboy could venture to use the word dmrroi in the sense which Mr. Croker ascribes to it without imminent danger of a flogging." The answer : — " The question is not here about classical Greek, but what Johnson meant by the cipher e. *. Mr. Croker' s solution is not only ingenious, but, we think, absolutely certain : it means ' departed friends,' beyond all doubt. See, in Dr. Strahan's book, under ' Easter Sunday, 1781,' an instance of the same kind — ' I commended {in prayer) my e friends.' The Reviewer, with notabl# caution, omits to tell vis which of the derivatives of Oavaros and Qi/rja-Ka he would have chosen ; but we think with Mr. Croker that none was more likely to have occurred to Johnson's mind than Gvjjtoi, because it is good Ch'eeJi, and is moreover a word which we find him quoting on another occasion, in which he deplores the loss of a friend. Good Greek, we say, in defiance of the menaced flogging ; for we have authority that we suppose even the Reviewer may bow to. " What does the Reviewer think of the well-known passage in the Supplices of Euripides, cited even in Hederic ? — ' Badi, Kal avriacrov , 1iKV(iiv Tf ^vT^rav K6fuiTai, b(jJ.af,' — Yi 275, MACAULAY AND CROKER. 67 where Teuj/uji/ 6viyrav is used in the same sense as XcKvav Savovriov, v. 12 and 85 ; TcKvav (jiSiufvcuv, v. 60 ; and TeKvav KarBavovrav, v. 103 ! " Suppose it had been — (piKuv re dvrjTav, " The Edinburgh Reviewer seems inclined to revive his old reputa- tion for Greek ! He thought he was safely sneering at Mr. Croker, and he unexpectedly finds himself coireeiing Euripides." The question is a classical one. On Croker' s defence Macanlay afterwards added a note : — " An attempt ■\vas made to vindicate this blunder by quoting a grossly corrupt passage from the I/fertSes of Euripides. The true reading, as every scholar knoAVS, is TeKvmv Te9v£(i)Ta)v. Indeed, without this emendation it would not be easy to construe the words, even if @vaTO)v could bear the meaning which Mr. Croker assigns to it." I myself would offer a conjecture which seems more plausible. "My @. $. . ." was " my Beta ^iXa," i.e., " my beloved Tetty," the t becoming th as in Elizabeth, her name. The objec- tion from "my friends " would be slight. As all Johnson's diaries were hard to decipher and tran- scribe, it ran probably " my ^ friend." Another classical discussion : — " Mr. Croker has also given its a specimen of his skill in translating Latin. Johnson wrote a note in which he consulted his friend, Dr. Lamence, on the propriety of losing some blood. The note contains these words : — ' Si per te licet, imperatur nuncio Holderum ad me deducere.' Johnson should rather have written ' imperatum est.' But the meaning of the words is perfectly clear. ' If you say yes, the messenger has orders to bring Holder to me,' Mr. Croker translates the words as follows ; ' If you consent, pray tell the messenger to bring F 2 68 CROKERS BOS WELL. Holder to me.' If Mr. Croker ia resolved to write on points of classical learning, we would advise him to begin by giving an hour every morning to our old friend Corderiua. " The answer : — " This is excellent ! The Reviewer tells us that Johnson's Latin is incorrect, and then blames Mr. Croker for not having correctly translated that which the Reviewer thinks himself obliged to alter, in order to make it intelligible. " Mr. Croker probably saw, as well as the Reviewer, that the phrase was inaccurate ; but, instead of clumsily changing imperatur into impe- raHm est, (which, with all deference to the Reviewer, is much worse than the original,) he naturally supposes that imperatur, the indicative mood, is merely the transcriber's error of a single letter for either the imperative or the conditional moods, and translates it accordingly, without thinking it necessary to blazon the exploit in a long explana- tion, — ' How a's deposed, and e with pomp restored.' " We venture to surmise, that, if Johnson'.'? original note be in existence, it will be found that he wrote the word as Mr. Croker has translated it, and has therefore not deserved the ignominy of having his Latin corrected by an Edinburgh Reviewer ; though, to be sure, that is no great insult, seeing that these omniscients appear inclined to correct the G^-eeh of Euripides." Mr. Croker virtually owns, as he is unfortunately obliged to do on all occasions, under the pitiless lash of his critic, that he w«s wrong. We could have a great deal of entertainment from passages, when Mr. Croker, as it were, veiling his face, chose to put away certain words and passages too strong, as he thought, for chaste eyes and ears polite. If this had been done throughout, there might have been something respectable in a consistent principlej but it is carriecl put i;i the n^ost capriojous MACAULAY AND CROKER. 69 ■way — words " quite stocking," as our neighbours say, being retained, and others more harmless omitted. "It was thus that Mr. Macaulay talked of my capricious delicacy in omitting, in one or two instances, an indecent passage, and in substituting, in two or thi'cc others, for a coarse word, a more decorous equi- valent ; and he regrets particularly the suppression of ' a strong old-fashioned English word, familiar to all ivho read their Bibles.'' It would be easy, I think, to refute Mr. Macaulay's general principle, and to expose his equally sophistical and irreverent allusion to the Bible ; but I shall here content myself with adducing the contrary authority of Sir "Walter Scott, and the author of the Lives of Burke and Goldsmith, who, having, since my edition and Mr. Macaulay's Ecview were published, occasion to quote some of those passages, adopted my reserve : and I am con- vinced that the public at large must approve of my endeavour to remove from this delightful book the few expressions that might offend female delicacy. I am sorry, however, to say, that one or two of Mr, Macaulay's ' strong old-fashioned tvords ' still remain, being so interwoven with the context, that I could not remove them without too much laceration." The vendetta between these two writers is truly painful and unbecoming in both. It is shocking to think of its being kept up unabated for some twenty years. "When the editor of Boswell emerged from his 70 CROKER'S BOSWELL. favourite Eeview, lie dealt a return blow for the old one. Even in Ms carefully drawn index, we find under "B." "Blundering criticism, see Macaulay, T. B."j and under "M." "Macaulay, Thomas Babbington, his blundering criticisms on former editions." CHAPTEE III. FALLACIES, " MARES' -NESTS," AND DELUSIONS. These, strange to say, enter largely into Mr. Croker's speculation; and they are iterated tkrough the work with such honest faith and determined language, and, it may he added, with such casuistry, that it is only when they are detached and examined, that the reader will see their absurdity. § Tliat Johnson was out tvith the Rebels of'4c5. First must be considered one of the most amusing of Mr. Croker's delusions, which he seems to have dreamed and pored over until it became a sort of fixed morbid impression, not to be displaced by years, argument, or common sense. It was neither more nor less than a conviction that the grave, sensible Johnson had been " out in the '45 ! " The notion, on the face of it, seems far-fetched ; but the absurdity lies in the extraordinary and extravagant grounds which have led a sober critic to adopt such a theory. These it will be interesting to consider for a few moments. 72 CROKERS BOSWELL. Speaking of Johnson's early struggles, BoswcU makes the observation, "it is somewhat curious, that his literary career appears to have been almost totally suspended in the years 1745 and 1746, those years which were marked by a civil war in Great Britain, when a rash attempt was made to restore the House of Stuart to the throne. That he had a ten- derness for that unfortunate House, is well known ; and some may fancifully imagine, that a sympathetic, anxiety impeded the exertion of his intellectual powers ; but I am inclined to think that he was, during this time, sketching the outlines of his great philological work." Tliis, it will be seen, is a fanciful reverie on Bos- well's part, and at most he supposes that Johnson's " sympathetic anxiety" was the cause of interruption. Here is the superstructure Mr. Croker at once begins to rear on this foundation : — " In the ' Garrick Correspondence,' there is a letter from Gilbert Walmesley, dated Nov. 3, 1746, con- taining this passage : *' When you see Mr. Jolinson, pray give my compliments, and tell him I esteem liim as a great genius — quite lost, both to himself and the world.' Upon which the editor observes, ^Between the years 1743 and 1746, Johnson literally ivrote nothing. The rebellion that tvas then rayiny perhaps ins2nred him with the hopes that attached to his political principles. He loved the House of Stuart, and in the FALLACIES, " MARES'-NESTS," AND DELUSIONS. 73 success of the Pretender might anticipate his oivn inde- pendence. Gr. C. i. 45. It would be, I readily admit, too fanciful to believe that his literary powers were suspended by ' sympathetic anxiety ; ' hut it is little less so to imagine with Mr. Bosivell., that he had em- ployed these two years in contemplative preparation for his futiu'e Dictionary. He must have had some means, however small, of subsistence. In the absence then of any other explanation, I cannot reject as alto- gether fanciful the idea of the Garrick editor, that he may have been diverted from his ordinary pursuits, not by ' sympathetic anxiety,' but by some mere per- sonal share in the proceedings of the Jacobite party. "We shall see hereafter that he was privy to the con- cealment of at least one of the Scotch Jacobites, who was hiding from justice for his share in the rebellion ; may he not have been in some difficulties which might occasion his own absence or concealment ? might this not have been the period of his temporary separation from his wife, if any such thing ever occurred ? and finally, it is at least a curious coinci- dence, that Johnson's disappearance from the ' Gen- tleman's Magazine,' Teb. 1744, is exactly contempora- neous with the arrest of Col. Cecil, the Pretender's agent, and the general agitation into which the country was thrown by the king's message to Parlia- ment announcing an invasion, and that he reappears in 1747, when the rebellion, and all its fatal conse- 74 CROKEl^S JBOSWELL. quences, were over. I have a strong suspicion that from this period dates what I may call his morbid antipathy to the Scotch ; and I also faintly suspect that a strong wish to recover an old letter out of the hands of Francis Stuart, one of his amanuenses in compiling the Dictionary, may have reference to this period." This is indeed a "mare's-nest." "Walmesley's re- mark, it is needless to say, does not refer to his being "in hiding," or otherwise afiected by the rebellion. " If you see Mr. Johnson, tell him," &c., is a natural, careless form of expression ; and his " being lost to himself and the world," means surely that he was consuming his talents as a bookseller's hack. The " Garrick editor," the garrulous, rambling Mr. Boaden, who flourished Avithin living memory, knew no more than what he found in Boswell, and his gratuitous statement that Johnson wrote nothing from 1743 is quite wrong. At starting, indeed, Mr. Croker is not wholly con- fident, for speaking of 1744, he says : — " In this and the two next years, Mr. Boswell has not assigned to Johnson any contributions to the ' Gentleman's Magazine ; ' yet there seems little doubt that from his connection mth that Avork he derived, for some years, the cliief and almost the only means of subsistence for himself and his wife ; perhaps he may have acted as general editor with an annual FALLACIES, " MARES'-NESTS" AND DELUSIONS. 75 allowance, and he no doubt employed himself on more literaiy works than have been acknowledged. In this point the public loss is, perhaps, not great. Wliat he was umvilling to avow, we need not be very BoUcitous to discover. Indeed, his personal history is, about this period, a blanlc, hidden, it is to be feared, in the obscurity of indigence — if there was not also some political motive for concealment.''^ But this is but a temporary hesitation, and he soon rallies, and adopts the theory manfully. Why should it be " imaginative " to suppose that he was engaged on such a vast work as his Dictionary, which would require much preparatory study ? Then comes the statement that Johnson was privy to the concealment of a Jacobite — a good specimen of that colouring and garbling which C'roker could not resist where he had a theory to make ou.t. One would suppose from this that he was contriving secret meetings, shielding the man, &c. But on turning to Boswell, we find that this was a Mr. Drummond, " who, during his concealment in London till the act of pardon came out, obtained the ac- quaintance of Dr. Johnson, who justly esteemed him a very worthy man." (!) In fact, busy with his literary labours, he had "come across " this Scotchman, Avho, he was told, had been concerned in the troubles, and was keej)ing quiet, and perhaps trying to earn something, till the general 76 CROA'EK-S BOSIVELL. amnesty came out. A rerv different thins to the " being privy to the concealment "' of a rebel. But if one were incUneil to solemnly refute such an hypo- thesis, it "woiild be enough to say. that it \rould have been knoun and recollected that Johnson had taken share in the i-ebellion; ospeoially, as it \ras long after made a charge against him that •• he had had an imcle hanged"' for some criminal offence; that he would have hardly Aentuivd to bring out a play so soon after the transaction ; and that the Government •would scarcely have conferred a pension on so disloyal an object. But noTV Mo come to the moi"e droll view of the case. As oiu* conunentator makes his laborious "vray thi'oiigh his task, ho begins to find himself at every stop confronted "with the most serious objections to his theory ; stumbling-blocks that he cannot remoA^e or pass by. But like Tertot's "mon siege est fait," the theory once set up is immoveable imd im- pei-ishable. Thus — •• I have heard liim declai-e," s;iys Boswell, '• that if holding up his right hand -woidd have seciu'cd victory at Culloden to Prince Chai-les's army, he was not sure he would have held it \ip ; so little con- fidence had he in the right claimed by the House of Stuart, and so feai'fiU was he of the eonsequeuees of another revolution on the thi-one of Great Britain. He, however, also said to the same gentleman, talking FALLACIES, " MARES'-NESTS;' AND DELUSIONS. 77 of King James the Second, ' It was become impossible for him to reign any longer in this country.' " This was a staggering passage; and there were others to follow in the same spirit. Blind to any defect in his original view, Mr. Croker had to devise a new theory. Johnson, seriously engaged in the re- bellion, had become disgusted at the behaviour of the Scotch at CuUoden, and had given them and the cause up ! This seems almost incredible ; but the view is gravely maintained all through the work. He says — " I cannot but believe that the events of 1745 had some influence on Dr. Johnson personally, to the diminution of his Jacobite feelings. See ante, p. 54, n. 2. The battle of CuUoden was fought some months after the Pretender's retreat out of England, tvhen, if at all, the occasion of JohnsorCs disgust must liave happened" "Occasion happened;" "if at all;" "cannot but believe." All this makes up a most curious bit of casuistry. The " disgust," which would suppose repulsion to what he had favoured, is a mere assump- tion, based on his first theory that Johnson had joined the cause, also an assumption. "Somebody," says Dr. Maxwell in his "Collect- anea," " observing that the Scotch Highlanders had made surprising efforts, considering their numerous vants," &c., " Yes, sir," said he, " their vants were? 78 CROKER'S BOSWELL. numerous ; but you have not mentioned the greatest of them all — the want of Law." This was surely plain speaking enough. But, says Croker, with more than usual solemnity, " It is not clear what is meant. Law, abstractedly speaking, would be one of the least wants of an invading army. Johnson, perhaps, meant either that they had not the law on their side, or that they had not legal means of enforcing discipline." The first was of course what Johnson did mean. But, goes on Croker, "I have before (p. 54, n. 2) expressed my suspicion, that Johnson had received some personal affront or injustice from the Scotch in 1745: but how or where he could have come across them, I cannot conjecture," Again and again, as the subject of Johnson's dislike to the Scotch recurs, — and readers will recall what a pleasant "light comedy" topic it forms in Boswell's Avork, Croker sternly will have it that it must be traced to that one cause. Does Boswell declare it was a prejudice of the head, not of the heart, for that Johnson liked them? "This is a distinction," says Croker, "which I am not siu-e that I understand. Did ^x. Boswell think that he improved the case by representing Johnson's dislike of Scotland as the result not of feeling but of reason ? . . . after all such allowances, I must repeat my suspicion that there was some personal cause for this unreasonable, and, as it appears, unaccountable antipathy," FALLACIES, " MARES'-NESTS," AND DELUSIONS. 79 And again, Boswell asked him, "Pray, sir, can you trace tlie cause of your antipathy to the Scotch?" Johnson. " I cannot, sir." Boswell. " Old Mr. Sheridan says it -was because they sold Charles the First." Johnson. " Then, sir, old Mr. Sheridan has found out a very good reason." Here Johnson speaks, if not " by the card," cer- tainly with tolerable directness. But Mr. Croker has the true motive ever before him. " "When Johnson asserted so distinctly that he could not trace the cause of his antipathy to the Scotch, it may seem unjust to attribute to him any secret personal motive. But it is the essence of prejudice to be unconscious of its cause; and, / am convinced that Johnson received in early life some serious injury or affront from the Scotch. See ante, p. 54, n. 2." It is hard to restrain a smile, or even a laugh, as we read this ! In vain Boswell goes on to give his opinion, that "probably," as he modestly says, this prejudice was owiag to his having had in his view, "the worst part of the Scottish nation, the needy adventurers." But Croker is on him again, feeling that this told against "the early affront." "This can hardly have been the cause; Johnson had no aversion to these men, because they were scholars, and he was kind to them," &c. But after these recurring difficulties, another blow to this theory of "disgust to Iho Jacobitism in So CROKERS BOSWELL. 1745," is in store for him, coining ia th.e shape of Johnson's praise of the Stuarts : — " Charles the Second knew his people, and re- warded merit. The church was at no time better filled than iu his reign. . He was the best king we have had from his time till the reign of our present Majesty, except James the Second, who was a very- good king." Mr. Croker gives up the matter in despair, with — " All this seems so contrary to historical truth and common sense, that I cannot account for it. We are not now likely to discover how Johnson should have contiuued to 1775 so ardent a Jacobite ! " Connected -with this, another specimen may be given. " I heard him once say, ' that after the death of a violent Whig, with whom he used to contend with great eagerness, he felt his Toryism much abated.' I suppose he meant Mr. Walmesley." " It seems unlikely," says Mr. Croker, " that he and Mr. Walmesley could have had much intercourse since 1737, when Johnson removed to London; Mr. Walmesley continuing to reside in Lichfield, where he died in 1751." Boswell, it will be seen, does not say it " was since 1737." Walmesley was his great friend at Lichfield before that date. Why could not the discussions have occurred after 1737 ? Because it would damage the theory that Johnson had ceased to be a Jacobite in 1745, Why, too, could he not FALLACIES, " MARES'-NESTS," AND DELUSIONS. 8i have seen Mr. "Walmesley on visits to LicMeld ? be- cause this would have been inconsistent with another gratuitous visit theory, viz., that Johnson for twenty years had never been down to see his mother ! It is thus that we track the passages of this curious mind. Having disposed of Boswell's modestly expressed hypo- thesis, he goes on to suggest the person with whom it was more likely, observe, that Johnson had this discussion : "it was more probably some member of the Ivy-lane Club, perhaps M'^Ghie^ who was a strong "Whig; as indeed was Dyer, but he survived to 1772." There is nothing to poiat to the Ivy-lane Club ; while the speculation on a speculation in Dyer's case, itself disposed of by a fatal objection, as soon as made, is highly characteristic. But we go on. Once, when Johnson was abusing the Scotch, he said pleasantly, " 'We should have had you for the same price, though there had been no union, as we might have had Swiss, or other troops. No, no, I shall agree to a separation. You have only to go home.'' Just as he had said this, I, to divert the subject, showed him the signed assurances of the three successive kings of the Hanover family, to maintain the presbyterian establishment in Scot- land. 'We'll give you that,' said he, 'into the bargain.' " What reader could mistake the lagt sentence— 82 CROKERS BOSWELL. " Keep your cimrcli ; we won't interfere with, tliat ; only go home ! " But thus Croker : ''This seems to have been a touch, of Jacobite jocularity, meaning that Johnson would be wUling, in consideration of the dissolution of the Union, to aUow the Hanover family to reign in Scotland [!], inferring, of course, that the Stuarts were to reign in England." " Amidst some patriotic groans, somebody (I think the Alderman) said, 'Poor old England is lost.' Johnson. ' Sir, it is not so much to be lamented that old England is lost, as that the Scotch have found it.'" On which Bos well has this note, and Croker a note on Boswell's : "It would not become me to expatiate on this strong and pointed remark, in which a very great deal of meaning is condensed. — BoswELL. Mr. Boswell seems to take as serious what was evidently a mere pleasantry, and could have no serious meaning that I can discover. — Ceokee." Considering that in the next line Mr. Wilkes alludes to Lord Bute, and that the Scotch influence at Court led to much political convulsion, Boswell was not far out in saying that there was a good deal of "meaning" in it; and, granting that it was "a pleasantry," it surely seems absurd to say that Johnson's remark "could have no serious meaning that I can discover." FALLACIES, '■ .MARES'-NESTS," AXD DELUSIOXS. 83 Boswell praises a passage in -Johnson's review of Tytler's "Mary Queen of Scots." '-It has been fashionable," he said, "to vilify the house of Stiiart, and to exalt and magnify the reign of Elizabeth. The Stuarts hare found few apologists, for the dead cannot pay for praise ; and who will, without reward, oppose the tide of popularity ? "' On which, Croker : " This sentence may be generous, but it is not very logical. Elizabeth was surely as dead as the Stuaits, and would no more pay for praise than they could." Amazing ! Elizabeth being dead, could not, any more than the Stuarts, pay for praise ; but she had successors, and therefore apologists, which the other had not. And was, therefore, secure of paid-for praise. §. That the Right Honourable Edmund Burke was a Man of Loose Character. Johnson, speaking ia his trenchant way of "a celebrated friend and eminent statesman," declared that he had his doubts of his morality if it were put to the test. " I fear," he said, " would not scruple to pick up a wench." Connected with which is the droUest of Mr. Groker's speculations. He cannot suppose that Johnson would apply such a description, to one so moral as Burke was, a father of a family, &e. He 6 2 84 CROKER'S BO SWELL. appears shocked at the idea, and is iadeed as uncon- sciously provocative of amusement as Boswell. His plan is this; having settled on a theory, i£ any- thing conflicted with it, he dismissed it on the ground of the truth of the theory. "Eminent person," he had decreed, always referred to Burke. The allusion was really to Windham, the unpublished portions of whose diary, I am assured, supports Johnson's speculation. " When I objected to keeping company," says Boswell, " with a notorious infidel, a celebrated friend of ours said to me, ' I do not think that men who live laxly in the world, as you and I do, can with propriety assume such an authority: Dr. Johnson may, who is uniformly exemplary in his con- duct. But it is not very consistent to shun an iofidel to-day, and get drunk to-morrow.' Johnson. 'Nay, sir, this is sad reasoning. Because a man cannot be right in all things, is he to be right in nothing ? Because a man sometimes gets drunk, is he there- fore to steal ? This doctriae would very soon bring a man to the gallows.' " First, who was the celebrated friend? "No doubt Mr. Burke," says Croker. What ! the decorous Burke, model father and husband, " living laxly ia the world," like Boswell ; " getting drunk to- morrow ! " Surely Windham would be a better guess. As we have just seen, Boswell, always FALLACIES, " MARES'-NESTS," AND DELUSIONS. 85 uses " eminent " as the fitting description of this great man. But, having fixed him with this character, Croker proceeds to vindicate the "sad reasoning" that Burke would never have been respon- sible for. Thus, " his advice, so far from being ' sad reasoning,' seems very sensible and just. Before you take upon yourself to be a censor morum, you should, at least, reform your own flagrant irregu- larities. And we know, when Boswell consulted Johnson about refusing to do law business of a Sunday, he advised him to comply with the practice of the world, till he should become so considerable as to be authorised to set an example. — Croxee, 1835." Of course, here is a complete misapprehension of Johnson. He was not urging Boswell to set up as CENSOR MOEUM, or to try and make others better, but simply, if bad, to avoid bad company, and not become worse. §. That near the End of his Life Johnson was buying up compromising Letters, Pocket-hooks, &g. Amusing as the Scotch delusion is, it is nothing to the development that it assumes later on, operating on a matter indirectly connected with it. At the end of his days, the excellent Johnson, more than usually scrupulous, is anxious not to have S6 CROKEI?S BOSIVELL. anytking on his conscience, and gives a commission to a Scotch. Mi-s. Stewai-t about a pocket-book that belonged to her deceased brother. In this matter the reader mnst prepare for an entertainment in which our commentator out-C'rokers Croker. His mania, it will be seen, bliads him to sense and syntax. " I wrote to him," says BosweU (from Ediubui-gh), " to say that, after a good deal of iaquiiy, I had dis- covered the sister of Mi-. Francis Stewart, one of his amanuenses when writing his Dictionary ; — that I had, as desired by him, paid her a guinea for an old pocket-book of her brother's, which he had retained ; — and that the good woman, who was in very mode- rate circumstances, but contented and placid, won- dered at his scrupulous and liberal honesty, and received the guinea as if sent her by Providence." This civility Johnson acknowledged handsomely, and having a fr-esh scruple as to an old letter of his own which he had found ia the pocket of the book, gives him a fui'ther commission : — " If you come hither through Edinbutgh, send for Mrs, Stewai-t, and give from me another guinea for the letter in the old case, to which I shall not be satisfied with my claim till she gives it me. * * * Tell her," he adds on another occasion, " that in the letter-case was a letter relating to me, for which I will give her another guinea. The letter is of consequence only to me." FALLACIES, " MARES -NESTS;' AND DELUSIONS. 87 Could anything be more simple, clear, or prosaic? What follows seems incredible, and is unprecedented ia the annals of misapprehension. Johnson, it may be repeated, for clearness' sake, had Stewart's old pocket-book in his possession; pays a guinea for it in lieu of compensation ; finds a letter in it ; and thinks, as he had received something not con- tracted for, he must pay another guinea, which is accordingly done. Now let us introduce Mr, Croker, who behaves on this occasion much as his immortal namesake in "The Goodnaturfed Man" would have done. He scents — ^what will the reader suppose ? — a damning piece of evidence that John- son was out in the '45 ! Here is this immortal note : — " This affair of Francis Stewart and the pocket-book, which Boswell quite mistoolc, was, I believe, mysteriously connected with some important detail of JohnsorCs former history. See the General Appendix, where I have ^collected all the information I can find on the subject." Turning eagerly to what is thus referred to — two closely printed columns — we find him. beginning to enter the morass by repeating that, " Indeed, Mr, Boswell's account of the little negotiation is very confused. In 1779 he (Boswell) states that he had, as desired by Johnson, ' discovered the sister of Stewart, and given her a guinea for an old pocket- book of her brother's which Dr. Johnson had re- CROKER'S BOSWELL. tained.' But this must have been a total mistake on the part of Bos-vvell ; for it appears that the sister had the pocket-book or letter-case in her own pos- session £!], and that it was for obtaining it that Johnson offered the guinea. The matter was pro- bably explained in some letters not given ; for in April, 1780, Johnson expresses satisfaction at the success of BosweU's transaction with Mrs. Stewart, by which it may be inferred that Boswell had obtained the hUer-case from her [!] ; but the nego- tiation was not terminated for four years after. In 1784, Johnson writes to BosweU, ' I desire you see Mrs. Stewart once again, and say that in the letter-case was a letter relating to me.' He now sees that the retention of Stewart's old pocket- book was a total misapprehension on the part of Boswell, and that he really wanted to obtain the pocket-book for the sake of the letter which it con- tained, and which he seems not to have gotten [!]. But what letter could this he of consequence to Johnson when on the verge of th* grave, yet so long neglected by him. BosweU's original error and his subsequent silence on the subject are very strange. * * * It might, no doubt, have been a mistake about the copy of the Dictionary, but this, as we shall see by the following explanation, could have hardly interested Johnson at the end of thirty years ; while the con- tradictions and mystery of the case as we have it, FALLACIES, " MAKES'-NESTS'^ AND DELUSIONS. 89 and the strange and titter ignorance of what Johnson tvas about in the years 1745-6 — together with many- smaller circumstances, incline me to suspect that Johnson may have taJcen some personal share in the disaffected movements of that pei'iod, and that the letter he was so anxious about, may have had some reference to those transactions in which Stuart was likely enough to have been engaged.''^ Was there ever such hopeless ohfuscation ! And was I right in promising entertainment ? There is absolutely nothing lilce it ! It is all to be set to the account of that original delusion, "which, like Mr. Dick's about Charles the First, intruded itself to the prejudice of his common sense and of plain English, Tet this wonderful mistake has never been corrected in all the innu- merable editions. §. That Lord Chesterfield behaved well to Johnson. Here is another delusion, associated with Lord Chesterfield's connection with Johnson's -Dictionary. Boswell's account of the Prospectus being inscribed to the Peer is, (a) that it was a suggestion of Dodsley's, to which Johnson agreed as an excuse for delay. He adds that allusions to Lord Chester- field's advice and opinions, in the body of the docu- ment, prove that there had been "particular com- 90 CROKER^S BOSWELL. munication with ^liis lordship concerning it," after the publisher had opened the matter to him. And Dr. Taylor told Boswell that {b) it had been taken from his house to be shown to Lord Chesterfield, This is aU consistent. Yet our Croker says as to {a) : " The reader will see on the next pages, under Johnson's own hand, that this account of the affair was inaccurate ; but if it were correct, would it not invalidate Johnson's subsequent complaint of Lord Chesterfield's inattention and ingratitude? for, even if his lordship had neglected that which had been dedicated to him only by laziness and accident, he could not justly be charged with ingratitude ; a dedicator who means no compliment, has no reason to complain if he be not rewarded : but more of this hereafter. — Ceoker." As to (J), Croker says that : " This also must be inacciu'ate, for the plan contains numerous allusions and references to Lord Chester- field's opinions ; and there is the evidence both of Lord Chesterfield and Johnson, that Dodsley was the person who comm«nicated with his lordship on the subject. — C. 1831. But I have positive evidence on this point. Mr. Anderdon purchased at Mr. James Boswell's sale many of his father's MSS., one of which he communicated to me, after my first edition, and which is very curious, and indeed important to the question between Lord Chesterfield and Johnson. It is a draft of the pro- FALLACIES, " MARES'-NESTS," AND DELUSIONS, gt speetus of the Dictionary carefully written by an amanuensis, but signed ia great form by Johnson's own hand. It was evidently that which was laid before Lord Chesterfield. Some useful remarks are made in his lordship's hand and some in another. Johnson adopted all these suggestions. Amongst them is to be found the opinion (see post, 21th March, 1772) that great should be pronounced grate, given in a couplet of Eowe,— ' As if misfortune made the throne her seat, And none could he unhappy hut the great.' ' Undoubtedly,'' remarked Lord Chesterfield, '« had rhyme, hut found in a good poet.'' This MS. now belongs to Mr. Lewis Pocock. — Crokee, 1846." Boswell had the account from Johnson himself and his friend Taylor. He saw no inconsistency or in- accuracy, as, indeed, there is none. Por in the next passage Boswell is talking of addressing the plan, for which leave would have to be obtained. When com- pleted it was lent to Taylor, and from his house carried to Lord Chesterfield. The allusions to Lord Chesterfield's opinions were no doubt the result of previous communications either in the shape of the marginal notes, or of that iaterview or two when Johnson " waited in your outer room." Not, as Mr. Croker seems to misunderstand, that Dodsley was the medium of communication for criticisms, as if his lordship's lexicographical opinions would be thus 92 CROKER'S BOSWELL. transmitted. Johnson does not give any " evidence " to that effect, nor does Boswell. I have not seen this MS. plan, but even from Mr. Pooock's Johnsonian Catalogue we can get a very accurate idea of how the case stands. In it we find two drafts. The first — " A short Scheme for compiling a new Dictionary of the English Language, dated Apl. 20, 1746. This most interesting manuscript (occupying 19 leaves) is entirely in the autograph of Dr. Johnson, and is the original draft of the 'Plan' before Dodsley had requested Johnson to inscribe it to Lord Chesterfield. There are some friendly critical observations on the blank pages in another hand." This is evidently the one seen by Mr. Croker, for he says that some of the iaterlineations are in Lord Chesterfield's handwriting, and some in another. These filled nearly nineteen leaves. Next came the official version, the result of his lordship's remarks, &c., and other amendments, also in Mr. Pocock's posses- sion. It is thus described : — " Original MS. of the Plan of Johnson's Dictionary, in 46 leaves qto, addressed to Lord Chesterfield. It is in the handwriting of an amanuensis, but has copious corrections in Dr. Johnson's own hand, with his subscription and signature at the end." Surely this makes all clear and intelligible, and quite bears out Boswell's account. FALLACIES, " MARES'-NESTS," AND DELUSIONS. 93 For the subsequent quarrel and the famous letter on the appearance of the Dictionary, Mr. Croker has a fresh theory, justifying Lord Chesterfield's neglect of Johnson on the ground of deafness, ill-health, with- drawal from society. " It must be remembered," he says, " that Johnson's introduction to Lord Chesterfield did not take place till his lordship was past fifti/^ and he was just then attacked by a disease which gradually estranged him from all society. The neglect lasted, it is charged, from 1748 to 1765 : now, his private letters to his most iatimate friends will prove that during that period Lord Chesterfield may be excused for not cultivating Johnson's society : — e.g. 20th Jan. 1749. ' My old disorder in my head hiadered me from ac- knowledging your former letters.' 30th June, 1752. ' I am here iu my hermitage, very deaf, and, conse- quently alone ; but I am less dejected than most peofle in my situation would he.'' 10th Oct. 1753. ' I belong no more to social life.'' Johnson, perhaps, knew nothing of all this, and imagined that Lord Ches- terfield decliued his acquaiatance on some opiuion derogatory to his personal pretensions. Mr. Tyers, however, suggests a more precise and probable ground for Johnson's animosity than Boswell gives, by hinting that Johnson expected some pecuniary assistance from Lord Chesterfield." But what Johnson complaias of is his treat- 9; CROKEl^S BOS WELL. ment when tlie patron was in good health and in society — " When, upon some sKght encouragement, I first visited your lordship, I was ovei-powered, like the rest of mankind, by the enchantment of your address ; but I found my attendance so little encouraged, that neither pride nor modesty would suffer me to con- tinue it." That was what he complained of. He was then kept waiting, or " repulsed from the door," when other company was admitted. It is much more likely, as suggested in an acute article on Johnson in the " Quarterly," that, as he was not then " the great Dr. Johnson," but obscure, Lord Chesterfield was dis- inclined to be, in familiar phrase, " bothered " with an tmcouth drudge. Finally, during the interval, Lord Chesterfield spoke in the House of Lords, received foreign guests, and was not "withdrawn from society " at all. • §. That Sir Joshua Tampered with a Letter to deprive Boswell of Credit. This question, apart fi'om the delusion, leads to an interesting point in Johnson's life, viz. : The applica- tion for an increase of Johnson's pension, to enable him to go to Italy. Boswell certainly first moved in the matter and wrote to Lord Thurlow ; but he owns that FALLACIES, " MARES' -NESTS;' AND DELUSIONS. 95 it had been often debated among Ms friends, and it was not until advised directly by Sir Jobsua that he wrote his letter. He had to leave town as soon as the matter was sent forward, and the "pious negotiation" was left ia the hands of Sir Joshua, a person of far greater weight and consideration, and with whom the whole matter was transacted. Hawkios says, " Sir Joshua undertook to solicit an addition to his pension, and to that end applied to Lord Thurlow." " It is strange," writes BosweU, " that Sir John Hawkins should have related that the application was made by Sir Joshua Keynolds, when he could so easily have been informed of the truth by inquiring of Sir Joshua. Sir John's carelessness to ascertain facts is very remarkable." Of all !Mr. Croker's extraordinary mysteries and "mares'-nests," the most singular is surely the one he contrived in connection with this affair of Johnson's pension. As is well known, " the application made through Lord Thurlow was not successful," but the latter generously offered an advance of five or sis himdred pounds on a mortgage of Johnson's pension, the security being merely added to save Johnson's pride. This was simple, but Mr. Croker found Lord Thurlow's letter among Eeynolds' papers, and there- upon proceeds to build his " nest " : — " It was stated that the cause of the failure was the refusal of the king himself, but from the following 96 CROKERS BOSWELL. letter it appears that tlie ' matter was never mentioned to his majesty ; that, as time pressed, his lordsliip proposed the before-mentioned arrangement as from himself, running the risk of obtaining the king's sub- sequent approbation when he should have an oppor- tunity of mentioning it to his majesty. This affords some, and yet not a satisfactory, explanation of the device suggested by Lord Thurlow of Johnson's giving him a mortgage on his pension. — ' Nov. 18, 1784. — ' Deak Sir, — ^My choice, if that had been left me, ■would certainly have been that the matter should not have been talked of at aU . . . It would have suited the purpose better if nobody had heard of it, except Dr. Johnson, you, and J. BosweU. But the chief ob- jection to the rumour is that his majesty is supposed to have refused it. Had that been so, I should not have communicated the circumstance. It was impossible for me to take the king's pleasure on the suggestion I presumed to move. I am an untoward solicitor. The time seemed to press, and I chose rather to take on myself the risk of his •majesty's concurrence than delay a journey which might conduce to Dr. Johnson's health and comfort . . .— Thuelov.' "That this letter was designedly kept from Mr. Boswell's knowledge, is rendered probable by the following curious circumstance. On the face of the original letter his name has been obliterated with so much care that but for the different colour of the ink FALLACIES, " MARES^-NESTS," AND DELUSIONS. 97 and some other small circumstances, it would not have been discoverable ; it is artfully done, and the sentence appears to run, ' except Dr. Johnson, you, and /' — Boswell being erased. This seems to be an uncandid trick, to defraud Boswell of his merit in this matter. — C." AH this, as Mr. Croker usually is on such matters, is simply absurd. The original refusal was in the first week ia September; but this letter is dated November 18, and refers not to the application for the increase of pension, but to Thurlow's proposal of the mortgage. Mr. Croker says that the phrase " impossible to take the king's pleasure," shows that no application to his majesty had been made at all. But all the following words, " the suggestion I presumed to move," prove that he is speaking of the mortgage, to which the king's consent was necessary. The increase to the pension had been refused by the king or by the minister. Then the story of Thurlow's generosity had got about, with the addition that the king had refused to allow the mortgage ; and, on Eeynolds writing to say that he had not published the matter, the chancellor wrote this letter. But there is something unexplained or passed over in this transaction, for at the moment Johnson had really plenty of money at command. Langton owed him £750, and a little later offered to repay him. CROKER'S BOSWELL. Dr. Percy, and Barclay and Perkins, the brewers, held monies of his, and, strangest of all, he had £1000 saved and invested in the funds. The expenses of the trip to Italy would have been covered by a couple of hundred of pounds, as his living there would have been about the same there as at home. Why, then, did Johnson require assistance from the public purse ? I think it wiU appear that Johnson had long entertained the idea of an increase to his pension, and fancied that here would be a good opportunity. On April 11, 1776, when Johnson dined at Paoli's with a party, no one suspected that the great moralist had that very morning written to the Chamberlain, to ask for rooms in Hampton Coui't Palace on the ground that — " Some of the apartments," he wrote, " are now vacant, in which I am encouraged to hope that I may, by an application to your lordship, obtain a residence. Such a grant would be considered by me as a great favour, and I hope, to a man who has had the honour of vindicating his Majesties Government^ a retreat in one of his homes may not be improperly or unworthily allowed." The request was politely refused on that day month. This curious incident escaped Mr. Croker, and it seems to me to point conclusively to the fact, that Johnson was considered — and considered himself — to be earning his pay and pension by being a political scribe in the FALLACIES, " MARES'-NESTS',' AND DELUSIONS. 99 interest of the Government. The idea of Mr, Croker, that he was not expected to work, and merely gaye an independent support, does not hold. Connected with this is that view of Mr. Croker's as to the £100 which Johnson wrote to a friend to invest for him, saying that it had come to In'm in an unexpected manner. Mr. Croker says it was payment for one of his Govern- ment pamphlets. If so, why " unexpected ? " And the Government would naturally think that their pensioner Avas sufficiently weU. remunerated. But this speculation is offered with due diffidence as coming from one who is reprobating speculation on insufficient grounds in another. The reader may fancy for himself the picture of Johnson domiciled at Hampton Court. The application and reply is given in Malone's " Memoirs," and in those of Mr. George Eose, "We may be certain that the erased words "J, Boswell " only existed for Mr. Croker's morbid and excited eyes. The fact is, in this part of the trans- action — viz., the mortgage — ^Lord Thurlow had nothing to do with Boswell, who had left town. Above aU, he was not likely to call him "J. BosweU." The words are probably " I, myself." It may, however, be the case that there was such an erasure, but, if so, it was done by Lord Thurlow on the ground of accuracy, probably recollecting that Boswell knew nothing of this part of the transaction. But the 100 CROKER'S EOSWELL, " unworthy attempt to cheat Boswell," by such, a man as Sir Joshua, is truly characteristic of the author of the virulent and " detective " articles which filled the " Quarterly Eeview." The fact is, however, the matter was mentioned to the king, though not officially, by West the painter. It was no doubt felt that too much was asked. Thurlow may have felt disinchned to press the matter on a man so odious to him as was Pitt. All these elements help to clear the matter from the confusion in which Mr. Croker left it. § That Johnson had no leanings to the Roman Catholic Faith. This idea, that Johnson should have been favour- ably inclined to the Eoman Catholic faith, inflames Mr. Croker to an extraordinary degree. A little instance wiU show this. It being reported to him that a Mr. Chamberlayne had given up good pros- pects in the Church of Bbgland, to become a Eoman Catholic, Johnson, ever on the side of principle, and sacrifices made for principle, exclaimed, fervently, " God Almighty bless him ] " Now to contrast Mr, Croker' s charitable view of this ordinary matter : — "Mr. Hallam informs me that there is here an inaccuracy. Mr. George Chamberlayne was a clerk in the Treasury, and never w£is in the Church of FALLACIES, " MARES'-NESTS;' AND DELUSIONS, loi England. He became a EomisL. priest, and died in London within the last twenty years." So far, so good, though we cannot he quite cer- tain that Mr. Hallam was accurate in his correction. For I find that Boswell had been corrected also, and in his first edition had put "preferment" instead of " prospects." This looks as if he was in possession of the real facts. However that may be, Mr, Croker set his detectives to work to hunt up something that would enfeeble Johnson's generous approbation. "What shall we suppose was his theory? The man was insane ! At least, it was likely he was. For Mr. Croker ascertained that his elder brother had .committed suicide by throwing himseK out of a window. And, adds our editor : — " The catastrophe of his elder brother makes me suspect something of mental aberration in this case, as there certainhj has been in numerous similar conversions.''^ Every reader will recall Johnson's numerous vindi- cations of Eoman Catholic doctrine ia discussions with Boswell, in which he has been merely considered to be talking for argument. But what is of more im- portance is his practice, of doing penance, fasting, and praying for the dead. His system of " proving himself," in his spiritual diary, approaches more to Eoman Catholic than to those records of " re- freshment" and "experiences," which are the staple I02 CROKER'S BOSWELL. of Hannali More and Wilberforce's diaries. He even declared that, if he were dying, "he would be a Papist ; " but that an obstinate rationality kept him back. It is remarkable, too, that Eoman Catholics have a sympathy with Johnson, from this instinct of union. Add to this, the extraordinary circumstance of his having seriously proposed to go and live with the Benedictines in the Convent at Paris. As to his " talking for argument " in the pleas he lu'ged for that religion, there is the remarkable circumstance to be considered, that his friend, who was drawing out these opinions from him, had himseK been a Eoman Catholic. In early life, when at Glasgow University, he had formally joined that communion. Efforts were made to detach him, by sending him to London. There Dr. Jortin was employed to win him back : not with much success, it Avould appear :— ^ " Your young gentleman called at my house on Thui'sday noon, April 3," writes Dr. Jortin. " But from that time to this I have heard nothing of him. He began, I suppose, t^ susj)ect some design upon him, and his new friends and fathers may have repre- sented me to him as an heretic and an infidel, whom he ought to avoid as he would the plague. I should gladly have used my best endeavours upon this melancholy occasion, but, to tell you the truth, my hopes of success would have been small. Nothing is more intractable than a fanatic. I heartily pity your FALLACIES, " MARES'-NESTS;' AND DELUSIONS. 103. good friend. If Ms son be really sincere in his new superstition, and sober in Ms morals, there is some comfort in that, for surely a man may be a Papist and an honest man." Even at the close of his life, Boswell used to allude to Ms own "Popish" hankerings. So when these two sympathisers discussed the matter, they were not likely to be talkuig for argument's sake. This religious sympathy is ^revealed in Boswell's notice of Mrs. Johnson's death. His own wife had died in 1790, just as his book was at press. So he could not put the matter as he wished, until issuing his "Corrections and Additions;" and, still distracted with his loss, he expressed his feelings in tMs pointed Avay : — " The folloiving very solemn and affecting prayer was found after Dr. Johnsonh decease. I present it to the world as an undoubted proof of a circumstance in the character of my illustrious fiend, which, though some, whose hard minds I never shall envy, may attack as superstitious, tvill, I am sure, endear him more to num- bers of good men. I have an additional, and that a p)ersonal, motive for presenting it, because it sanctions what I myself have ahvays maintained, and am fond to indulge : — " April 26, 1752, being after 12 at NigU of the 25 A. " ' Lord ! Governor of heaven and earth, in whose hands are embodied the departed spirits, if I04 CROKERS BOSWELL. thou hast' ordained the souls of the dead to minister to the living, and appointed my departed wife to have care of me, grant that I may enjoy the good effects of her attention and ministration, whether exercised by appearance, impulses, dreams, or in any other manner agreeable to thy government. Forgive my presumption, enlighten my ignorance, and however meaner agents are employed, grant me the blessed influences of thy Holy Spirit, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen? " Whai actualhj followed upon this most interesting piece of devotion ly Johnson^ toe are not informed ; hut /, whom it has pleased God to afflict in a similar manner to that which occasioned it, have certain expedience of lenignant communicatio7i hj dreams^ Now, the whole of these singular passages, which illustrates the character of the two men, is put by Mr. Boswell in italics ; a most unusual circumstance in any note of his. He clearly wished to em- phasise his own grief to the public. Mr. Croker indeed allows that Miss Seward does not scruple to say that Mr, Boswell confessed to her his idea, " that Johnson was a Eoman Catholic in his heart." But he adds, " her credit is by this time so low, that it is hardly necessary to observe how im- probable it is that Boswell could hdve made any such confession." " She lied," in the other words, "and knew she lied." Poor Miss Seward! After FALLACIES, " MARES>-NESTS,>' AND DELUSIONS. 105 supplying some arguments, he says: "And, finally, "when it was proposed that monuments of eminent men should be erected in St. Paul's, and when some one suggested to begin with Pope, Johnson observed, ' Why, sir, as Pope was a Eoman Catholic, I wouldn't have his to be the first.' " Another extraordinary misapprehension, as Johnson was objecting on the ground of the inappropriateness of commencing such a series in a Protestant Cathedral with a Eoman Catholic. § That he disliked Bmft, Lord Gower^ Miss Hill- Boothhy^ and others. Mr. Croker's favourite mode of accounting for difficulties, is to assume that Johnson was possessed by some morbid hatred of persons who had once offended him. Were this supposition founded in all cases, Johnson would stand before us an embodi- ment of the most unworthy^ prejudice and meanest animosities. He had, it seems, this unaccountable hatred of Swift, Lord Lyttelton, &c. First, as to Swift. About the year 1739, Johnson being anxious to obtain the mastership of a Free School, Lord Gower wrote to a friend of Swift's to see if the Dean could obtain for him an honorary degree from Dublin University. This attempt failed. Pope, in a weU-known letter, mentions io6 CROKER'S BOSWELL. how he also tried " to forward his interests ; Mr. P., from the merit of this work ('London'), which was all the knowledge he had of him, endeavoured to serve him without his own application ; and wrote to my Lord Gore, but he did not succeed." Of these simple facts, Mr. Croker contrives to make the following entanglement : — " At this time only Lord Gower. It seems not easy to reconcile Lord Gower' s and Pope's letters, and Mr. Boswell's account of this transaction. Lord Gower' s letter says that it is wi-itten at the request of some Staffordshire neighbours. Nothing more natural. He does not even allude to Pope ; and certainly it would have been most extraordinary that Pope, the dearest fiiend of Swift, should solicit Lord Gower to ask a favour of the Dean. The more natural supposi- tion would be, that Lord Gower's letter was addressed to Pope himself; but Pope says that he wrote un- solicited to Lord Gower in Johnson's favour for a school in Shropshire ; but did not succeed. In short, I cannot reconcite these discrepancies, but by the imsatisfactory conjecture that Pope had applied in the first instance to Lord Gower ; that Lord Gower was willing to assist Johnson, but was met by the difiiculty about the degree of A.M. ; and that then it was arranged that his Lordship should write to Pope such a letter as he could transmit to' Swift." FALLACIES, " MARES'-NESTS," AND DELUSIONS. 107 Any one that reads his letters dispassionately, will see that what Pope did was merely to recommend Johnson to Lord Grower's patronage. The earnestness and length of Lord Gower's letter, show that he was eager to oblige the poet, and is surely the result of the latter's recommendation. The idea that it was written to Pope himself is ludicrous ; as if a patron were to reply to a friend, recommending a protege,, by warmly appealing to Mm to do something. Though the whole is not clearly, that is fully, stated, there are no " discrepancies." But now comes the mysterious element. Swift's connection with the transaction, it will be seen, is of the faintest, remotest kind. Indeed, it scarcely exists. We know not whether Swift ever heard of the matter, or if the application was made to him. IS'or do we know whether he applied to the university and was refused ; or whether he declined so to apply. All is dark. Yet Mr. Croker more than hints that the Lean thereby incurred Johnson's implacable animosity : — " The matter is in itself of no importance, except as it might explain Johnson's strong dislike both of Lord GoAver and Dean SAvift ; which may have arisen from some misapprehension of their share in this disappointmen t. ' ' But — " I once took the liberty to ask him if Swift had personally offended him," says BosAvell, " and he had not." "There, probably," adds Mr. Croker, io8 CROKER'S BOSWELL. ' " vas no opportunity for what could be in strictness called personal offence, as they had never met ; but that the affair of the Dublin degree may have created this prejudice." Here we have Johnson's own evidence, and what cduld be more decisive ? But see the point taken " personally." Boswell had asked, and Johnson — casuist, that he was — ^had ridden off on that quibble. But for Lord GoAver, who had written the warm pressing letter in favour of the obscure bookseller's hack — the malignant Johnson never forgave him ! It is true, indeed, that some years later, when busy with his dictionary, Johnson used his name as an un- flatteriug definition. But Boswell explains that this was owing to the nobleman having deserted the Jacobite colours ; and the allusion, in fact, did not appear. Even on this point, Mr. Croker makes a dis- tortion. He comments on the definition iu Johnson's dictionary: "When I came," said Johnson to Bos- well, "to the word Renegado, after telling that it meant ' one who deserts*to the enemy, a revolter,' I added, ' Sometimes tve say a Gowee.' Thus it went to the press ; but the printer had more wit than I, and struck it out." On this, we have this extraordinary speciilation : — " I suppose when Johnson attempted the pun, he wrote the name (as pronounced) Go'er. He has Goer in his dictionary in its obvious meaning, and also ' in FALLACIES, " MARES'-NESTS," AND DELUSIONS. 109 an ill sense,' as ' a go-between.' Lord Gower, after a long opposition to the Whig ministry (which was looked tipon as equivalent to Jacobitism), accepted, in 1742, the office of Privy Seal." It is difficult to restrain one's laughter. Why, we venture to say, that such a quip as this would not be attempted in the most miserable penny " funny " paper existing. Imagine any one saying to the present noble possessor of the title, in reference to his taste for fires, that ^^ he was a goer'''' on Fire Engines — and then — Johnson's great Dictionary ! Another instance of Mr. Croker's being guided in his view by a whim, or farti pris^ or prejudice, is his view of Johnson's feeling towards Miss Hill- Boothby. Boswell represents that Johnson showed a jealousy of Lord Lyttelton in his life of that noble- man, and quotes Mrs. Thrale as suggesting that " he was offended by Molly Aston's preference of his lordship to him." Here Boswell, in his blind dislike to the lady, misquotes her, for, as Malone says, " There is here a slight mistake in the text. It was not Molly Aston, but Hill-Boothby for whose affec- tions Johnson and Lord Lyttelton were rival can- didates." Mrs. Thrale, in her "marginal" notes on Bos- well's book, which she must have read with sin- gular feelings, writes temperately enough : "I never said 60, (In her book). I believe Lord Lyttelton no CROKER'S BOS WELL. and Molly AetoE were not acquainted. No, no; it was Miss Boothby he preferred to be jealous of, and I said so in the ' Anecdotes.' " Here, surely, the matter might have been left. But Croker seems to have a morbid literary dislike to this lady, Miss Boothby — such as he had to so many others ; — and he accordingly proceeds to erect one of his strange grotesque fabrics, which it will be amusing now to consider : — " The mistake of the gay and handsome Molly Aston, the object of Johnson's youthful admiration, for Miss Boothby, whom he never saw till she was an ailing and ascetic old maid, is surely not a slight one. (See ante, p. 20, n. 2.) Mrs. Piozzi states that John- son confessed that he had depreciated Lyttelton from a jealous recollection of the preference that Miss Boothby showed him. But this would indeed have been an odium in longum jacens^ as Miss Boothby had been dead twenty-five years. She might, perhaps, have ofiended the proud spirit of Johnson, by paying more attention to so dffetinguished a visitor as Sir George Lyttelton; but that he, a married and emi- nently moral man, could, at the time of Johnson's acquaintance with her, have had any design on poor Miss Boothby's heart, is quite impossible." It will be seen that Malone merely corrects a clerical error of BoswelFs in transcription, who, in copying, had put one name for another. This he FALLACIES, " MARES'-NESTS," AND DELUSIONS, iii ^ i . describes as a slight mistake in one so accurate as Boswell was. It is enough to poiut to the extra- ordinary turn Mr. Croker gives to the matter. Neither Malone nor Boswell was concerned at the moment with the value of the claims of the two ladies. And turning to the reference given for proof of this statement, the " ante, p. 20, n. 2," we read, "Miss Boothby was born in 1708, and died in 1756. For the last three years of her Kfe this lady maintained a pious and somewhat mystical correspon- dence with Dr. Johnson. Miss Seward choosed to imagine that there was an early attachment between Miss Boothby and Johnson ; but all that lady's stories are worse than apocryphal. The first letter, dated July, 1753, proves that the acquaintance was then recent." It may be stated plainly, that there is nothing in the letter of July, 1753, to prove the acquaintance recent. The proposal for the correspondence was recent. But there is a passage in it which runs, " One of the most emiaent of them, you have seen and yreatly admired, and loved. It is but a faint ray of that brightness and virtue which shone in her, and which is a reflection only to be seen in me, her un- worthy substitute in the care of her dearest remains." This was an allusion to Mrs. Ktzherbert, now de- ceased, and her six children ; and Miss Hill-Boothby was staying with Mr. Fitzherbert, taking care of 112 CROKER'S BOSWELL. th.em. There are other allusions of the same kind in other letters. She also mentions as their mutual friend, Dr. Laurence and his family. Now we turn to an early page in Boswell, who received from Mrs. Laurence an account of Johnson's position in society at Ashbourne : " She remembers Dr. Johnson on a visit to Dr. Taylor, at Ashboum, some time between the end of the year '37 and the middle of the year '40 ; she rather thinks it to have been after he and his wife were removed to London. During his stay at Ashboum, he made frequent visits to Mr. Meynell, at Bradley, where his company was much desired by the ladies of the family, who were, perhaps, in point of elegance and accomplishments, inferior to few of those with whom he was afterwards acquainted. Mr. MeyneWs eldest daughter was afterwards married to Mr. Mtsherhert. Of her, Dr. Johnson said in Dr. Laurence's study, she had the best understanding he ever met with in any human being. At Mr. Mey- nell' s he also commenced that friendship with Mrs. Hill-Boothby, sister to the present Sir Brook Boothby, which continued till her death. The young woman whom he used to call Molly Aston, was sister to Sir Thomas Aston." Could anything be more distinct ? The words in italics show how Boswell fell into the mistake, as his eye had travelled down a line too low. Further, Miss Seward, a Lichfield lady, says that he had an FALLACIES, " MARES'-NESTS',' AND DELUSIONS. 113 early attachment to Miss Bootliby. Johnson himself begins one of his letters to her, " Dearest Dear," and another, ^^ My stveet Angel" and tells her "that he has none but her on whom his heart reposes." So far from this being a "mystic" correspondence, that is, ia a sort of Hannah More strain, it is of an entertaining kind, serious and earnest in parts, as became a person who was nearly dying ; but dealing with many topics, it leaves an impression as of an interesting and rather charming person ; and the only "ailing and ascetic old maidishness" in the matter, is in the acrimonious comment of our critic himself. Nor must his last- touch be passed over, vis.., the vindica- tion of Lord Lyttelton as " a married and emiaently moral man, with designs, &c." § That Mr. Bewlcy ivas an idiot. " The following curious anecdote," says the amiable and appreciative Boswell, " I insert in Dr. Burney's own words : — " ' Dr. Burney related to Dr. Johnson the par- tiality which his writings had excited in a friend of Dr. Burney's, the late Mr. Bewley, well known in NorfoUc by the name of the Philosopher of Mas- sing ham; who, from the "Eamblers" and plan of his Dictionary, and long before the author's fame was established by the Dictionary itself, or any 114 CROKER'S BOSWELL. otJier work, tad conceived sucli a reverence for Mm, that he earnestly begged Dr. Burney to give him the cover of the first letter he had received from him, as a relic of so estimable a writer. This was in 1755. In 1760, when Dr. Bumey visited Dr. Johnson at the Temple, in London, where he had then chambers, he happened to arrive there before he was up ; and being shown into the room where he was to breakfast, finding himself alone, he examined the contents of the apartment, to try whether he could, undiscovered, steal anything to send to his friend Bewley, as another relic of the admirable Dr. Johnson. But finding nothing better to his purpose, he cut some bristles off his hearth- broom, and enclosed them in a letter to his country enthusiast, who received them with due reverence. The Doctor was so sensible of the honour done to him by a man of genius and science, to whom he was an utter stranger, that he said to Dr. Burney, " Sir, there is no man possessed of the smallest portion of modesty, but must be flattered with the admiration of such a man. I'll give him a set of my 'Lives,' if he will do me the honour to accept of them." In this, he kept his word ; and Dr. Bumey had not only the pleasure of gratifying his friend with a present more worthy of his acceptance than the segment from the hearth-broom, but soon after introducing him to Dr. Johnson himself in Bolt FALLACIES, " MARES'-NESTS," AND DELUSIONS. iiS Court, witji whom he had the satisfaction of con- versing a considerable time, not a fortnight before his death; which happened in St. Martin's Street, during his visit to Dr. Burney, in the house [No. 36] where the great Sir Isaac Newton had lived and died before.' " Not only a " curious," but an interesting anecdote, their share in this little adventure being highly creditable to all concerned. It did not, however, thus strike the sour mind of our commentator, who, with a sort of hostility to anything gracious and natural, brought it to the touuehstone of bitter criticism. " If this anecdote were seriously true, Mr. Bewley might have been better called an idiot than an enthu- siast That he should have really received the bristles with reverence — that Burney should not have men- tioned the fact to Johnson for twenty-five years., and that Johnson should have considered it as an honour., would be very strange. Nor does the story acquire much confirmation from Madame D'Arblay's addition, that it happened in Bolt Court, where Johnson did not live till seventeen years after the assigned date. I conclude the affair must have been a mere pleasantry." These objections amount merely to a disinclina- tion to accept the story. The man was not "an idiot," but a good, simple country doctor, and I 2 ii6 CROKERS BOS WELL. Johnson was likely enougli to pity, and appre- ciate such, devotion. That he received the bristles with " due reverence " — not so emphatic a term as reverence — ^was as much a return for the thoughtful good nature of his friend, as to show his appreciation of the gift. But, as Miss Burney explains in her work, he really " hailed it with good-humoured ac- , clamation, and preserved it through life," thus show- ing the meaning to be put on " due reverence." That Burney " should not have mentioned the fact to Johnson for twenty-five years would be very strange," thinks Mr. Croker. But the reason is, that he had not seen Johnson since, until the year 1775 or 1776 (an interval of sixteen years), during which time so trifling an incident would have been forgotten. The "Lives" were published in 1781, and must have been presented to Bewley about 1782 ; and, as he died in 1783, at most twenty-two, not twenty-five, years could have elapsed. But this is a trivial objec- tion. As to Madame D'Arblay stating that the scene was in Bolt Court, in the " Memoirs " of her father (I., 126), she distinctly states the incident took place at the chambers in the Temple, where Johnson " then resided " — most distinct and precise. These fl,re certainly trifling points ; but it shows how value- less such trenchant criticism is. § That Johnson was not in Fashionable Society. I give a list — a very incomplete one — of the FALLACIES, " MARES'-NESTS," AND DELUSIONS. 117 "persons of quality" with, -wliom Johnson was acquainted : — Duke of Devonshire, Duo de Chaulnes, The Bristol Family, Lords Percy, Elliot, Lyttelton, Shel- biume, Nugent, Pembroke, Palmerston, Scarsdale, Macartney, Errol, Graham, Eglinton, Boltngbroke, Charlemont, Lucan, Thurlow, Loughborough, Trim- leston, Southwell, Bathurst ; Sir Thomas Aston, Sir Brooke Boothby, Sir John Slade, Sir Alexander Dick, Sir Thomas Eobinson, Sir Adam Eergusson, Sir Alexander Gordon, Sir A. Macdonald, and many more. Among his lady friends were : — Lady D. Middleton, Lady Lucan, Duchess of Hamilton, Lady Eglinton, Hon. Miss Monkton (after- wards Lady Cork), Lady D. Beauclerk, Hon. Mrs. Darner, Hon. Mrs. Boscawen, Mrs. Crewe, Mrs. Vesey, Mrs. Cholmondely, Mrs. Montague, all per- sonages of the first fashion, who gave routs and parties, when the company was known to form in rows round Dr. Johnson's chair to hear him talk, and when he was, of course, introduced to every one of importance. Bishops, like those of London and St. Asaph, lawyers, judges-— all ranks swelled his very large acquaintance. Surely never was man more repandu, or in what is called better society. Hence, one is inclined to believe that the worthy Bos- well — besides being drawn by his genuine hero- ii8 CROKER'S BOSWELL, ■worship — ^found Ms special taste gratified by being the follower of so rechercM a personage. § That Johnson quarrelled tvith Langton because he was left out of Ms Will. Croker, in some points, was like Hawkins. His violent partizansMp, not only where his prejudices were concerned, but where he had conceived a favourite theory, seems to have blinded him even to facts that, as it were, stared him in the face. A good instance of this is the little scene in which Langton figured, on the eve of Johnson's departure for Scotland. The Bookseller Dilly had asked some dissenting clergy to meet Johnson, and Langton, having started a religious difficulty as to the Trinity, received a publib rebulce from the Sage, at which he was so offended that he left town without calling on him. The scene took place, as we are told, on May 7th. That the estrangement was a serious one is evident from th.9 way in which Johnson re- ferred to it during the Tour and succeeding months (5f the year. Yet, strange to say, we find Johnson, him, and Boswell walking together from the dinner- party to the Club, and discussing Goldsmith and other subjects together. And, more curious still, on the Sunday following the Sage actually dined with the offended Langton ! Mr. Croker's behaviour FALLACIES, "MARES'-NESTS," AND DELUSIONS. 119 in presence of this diificulty is truly characteristic. It seems Johnson having a few days later made merry on the subject of Langton's getting Mr, Chambers to prepare his will (when he roared down Fleet Street, in the amusing and graphic style described by Boswell), Mr. Croker here finds one of his dark mysteries ; " It is certain that the friendship of ' twenty years' standing ' between Johnson and ^Langton, suffered, about this time, a serious interruption. Johnson chose to attribute it to the reproof he had lately given Langton at Mr. Dilly's table ; but, as they aU dined together next day at Langton's own house, in apparent good humour, it is more probable that it arose from this affair of the will. " Mr. '^Chambers may have been offended at the mode in which Johnson treated their common friend. It is absurd to think that he could have felt any displeasure on his own part. Even by BosweU's account, nothiag could be less ^playful ' than Johnson's tone, and the mention of a legacy, here and in a subsequent letter, makes me suspect that there was some personal disappointment at the lottom of this strange obstreperous antl sour merrimentP Anything more ludicrously far-fetched, or, indeed, utterly astray, cannot be conceived. Johnson, iadeed, two months later, deploring Langton's " huff," asks, '•'■ Where is now my legacy ? "'—an exclamation that I20 CROKER'S BOSWELL. does not imply knowledge, but tlie resigning of all hope. Neither was it Kkely that the offended Langton, or the lawyer that drew the wiU, would confide to Johnson that his name had been omitted. But the question of the diniag with "the testator" after the fracas is certainly perplexing, and, after trying aU manner of solutions, the reader finds it vain to reconcile the contradiction. Strange to say, it is Mr. Croker himself, who, from a letter to Mrs. Thrale, supplies the solution. There, Johnson mentions the diixaer as having taken place on May 19th, not on the 7th, as Boswell puts it ; and that Johnson is right, Croker contrives to show by an allusion to the death of the Queen of Denmark, which took place on the 10th. This makes aU. clear; for thus Johnson dined with Langton, and had his joke at the will, lefore their quarrel. BosweU, as in other instances, had shifted or confused his notes. But, with all so clear, Croker tells us "he cannot reconcile the dates." It may be mentioned that here Boswell showed his usual want of tact. For : " We talked of . one of our friends," says he, when they were at Aberdeen, "taking Ul for a length of time a hasty expression of John- son's on his introducing in a mixed company a religious subject so unseasonably as to provoke a rebuke." It will be seen in what an awkward FALLACIES, " MARES' -NESTS ;' AND DELUSIONS. 121 way this is put — the "friend's" behaYiour being sot in an unfavourable light. Langton would seem to have protested, denying that he had introduced it; and Boswell had thus to reshape the sentence : "on his attempting to prosecute what had a reference to religion beyond the bounds within which the Doctor thought," &c. § That Johnson shotved more Self Interest than Filial Affection on the occasion of his Mother's Death, Boswell mentions that, on old Michael Johnson's death, his son's affection for his mother "was so warm and liberal, that he took upon himself a debt of hers, which, though small," &c. He wrote to the creditor asking for time, adding that " he looked upon this and the future interest on the mortgage as his own debt ; " and further, " Do not mention it to my dear mother." This thoughtful filial act is quite intelligible. But let us hear Croker : — "Dr. Johnson was no doubt an affectionate son, and even to indifferent persons the most charitable of men; but the praises which Boswell lavishes on this particular affair are uncalled for, as the debt was hardly sb much Johnson's mother's as his own. It has already appeared that he had something of his father's property to expect after his mother's 122 CROKER'S BOS WELL. death; this was the house in Lichfield, which was, it seems, mortgaged to Mr. Levett: by the non- payment of the interest Levett would have been entitled to get possession of the property; and ia that case Johnson would have lost his reversion, so that he very justly says that 'he looks upon this and the future interest on the mortgage as his own dehV ( ! ) Anything more unfair or far-fetched cannot be con- ceived. He is even more astray ^in his facts. The idea of "foreclosing" for twelve guineas, or that any- thing would be lost by such foreclosure, is ludicrous. iN'ot one reader out of hundreds would suppose that Johnson was thinking of saving his valuable rever- sion. But let us go on. " In 1759, in the month of January," says Boswell, "his mother died, at the great age of ninety, an event which deeply affected him ; not that ' his mind had acquired no firnmess by the contemplation of mortality;' but that his reverential affection for her was not abated by years, as indeed he retained all his tender feelings even to the latest period of his life." This is in allusion to a statement of Hawkins'. But, says Croker, "Mr. Boswell contradicts Hawkins, for the mere pleasure, as it would seem, of doing so. The reader must observe that Mr. Boswell's work is full of anecdotes of Johnson's want of firm- ness in contemplating mortality." ■FALLACIES, " MARES'-NESTS;' AND DELUSIONS. 123 Again, the misappreliension of the point here is surprising. Boswell is not denj^ing that Johnson habitually " had acquired no firmness," &e., but affirms that the special cause on this occasion of his being affected was his love for his parent. Not content mth this, he is then prompted to make a discovery : — " Though Johnson may have been in theory an affec- tionate son, there is reason to fear that he had never visited Lichfield, and, consequently, not seen his mother, since 1737. Mr. Boswell alleges as an ex- cuse that he was engaged in literary labours, which confined hiTn to London. Such an excuse for an absence of twenty years is idle ; besides, it is stated that Johnson visited Ashbourne about 1740, Tun- bridge WeUs in 1748, Oxford in 1754." Boswell states that Johnson regretted that he had not seen his mother for several years before her death, as he was engaged ia the strtiggle to keep body and soul together. Mr. Croker's "reason to fear" — i.e.^ to hope, for the sake of his theory — ^has no existence, and his twenty years is assumption and, indeed, ia-s credible; for he cannot see that these very visits to Oxford, Tunbridge, &c., on pleasure, prove, ia the case of a conscientious man like Johnson, that where duty required he was likely to obey. The most ill-conditioned abandoned scoundrel would not be twenty years without seeing his mother. 124 CROKER'S BOSWELL. § That the Rev. Mr. Strahan published Johnsonh Prayers in a Mode that was contrary to his wishes. Jolmson, it is well known, shortly before _ his death, proposed making a collection of family prayers for publication. This scheme he spoke of to Dr. Adams, adding (the Doctor says), "that he would in earnest set about it. But I find upon inquiry that no papers of this sort ^were left behind him, except a few short ejacidatory forms suitable to his present situation." Commentiag on this, Mr, BosweU says, " Dr. Adams had not then received accurate information on this subject : for it has since appeared that various prayers had been composed by him at different periods, which, intermingled with pious resolutions and some short notes of his life, were entitled by him, ' Prayers and Meditations,' and have, in pursuance of his earnest requisition, in the hopes of doing good, been pub- lished, with a judicious well-written preface, by the Kev. Mr. Strahan, to whom he delivered them. This admirable collection, t* which I have frequently referred," &c. To this Mr. Strahan Mr. Croker seems to have taken a rooted dislike. And first he takes exception to BosweU's account. " There are some errors," he says, "in the foregoing statement relative to the ^Prayers and Meditations,'' which., — considering the effect of that publication on Dr. Johnson's character, FALLACIES, " MARES'-NESTS," AND DELUSIONS. 125 and BoHiMidPs zealous claims to accurac/j in all such mailers — are rather slran(jeP — Tliiis we arc bcgiimiiig to scent a mystery. — " Indeed, it seems as if Boswell had road c^itlicr too hastUy, or not at all, the preface to Dr. Strahan's book. In the first place (a), the collection was not made, as Mr. Boswell seems to suppose, by Dr. Johnson himself ; nor (b) did he give it the designation of ' Prayers and Meditations ; ' nor (i?) do the original papers bear any appearance 01 being intended for the press — quite the contrary I Dr. Strahan's preface is not so clear on this point as it ought to have been ; but even from it we learn that whatever Johnson's intentions may have been, as to revising and collecting for publication his own prayers, or (as the extract just quoted rather proves) composing a system of prayer ; he in fact did nothing of the kkid ; but at most placed {inter moriendum) a confused mass of papers in Dr. Strahan's hands ; and from the iaspection of the papers themselves, it is quite evident that Dr. Strahan thought proper to weave into one work materials that were never in- tended to come together, and were not and never could have been intended for publication. This con- sideration is important." Now, as to (a), Boswell does not say that the col- lection was made by Johnson. Nor does he make the statements {h) and (c) imputed; in fact, it is only some strange distortion of miad that could prevent 126 CROKER'S BOS WELL. any one seeing that Bosvell had read Strahan's state- ment. But, as is usual with, our critic, his theory- has blinded him, and made him confound two distinct things. Johnson had originally intended making a selection of oilier persons' prayers, adding a few of his own. He grew agitated as he talked of it to Adams and Boswell, but said he knew not what time God would allow liim in this world. Tliis was a different plan altogether from the publication of his own private prayers. In that affecting scene, of Johnson's agitation (" Let me alone, I am overpowered ; " "and then he put his hands before his face," &c.), Mr. Croker only sees a misstatement. "Yet," he says, as if convicting Johnson, "he had at this time composed all the prayers which Mr. Strahan afterwards published," he goes on, "as he stated " — now Strahan is telling an imtruth — " by Dr. Johnson's express desire ; I am satisfied unwar- rantably." Thus, it will be seen Johnson, Boswell, — all the parties concerned excepting Croker — have stated what is not. It is AVonderful he did not use his favourite phrase in the Review, " a more monstrous falsehood was never penned." But, in truth, Mr. Croker is hopelessly wrong in every part of this transaction; his assertion that Strahan inserted the facts about Johnson's life with- out authority, is disposed of by Strahan's own modest preface, in which he states that Johnson in- FALLACIES, " MARES'-NESTS," AND DELUSIONS. 127 tended adding an account of liis own life ; and also, by the fact that [the prayers ahse out of the bio- graphical incidents, are part of each transaction, and could not be divorced. § That Johnson was only Eighteen Months at Oxford. An interesting question, which has been rather warmly contested of late, is the length of time Johnson remaiaed at Oxford. " Compelled," says Boswell, " by irresistible necessity, he left the college in autumn of 1731 without a degree, having been a member of it little more than three years.'''' Mr. Croker, however, had been ia communication with Dr. Hall. "Bos- well assumes," he says, "that the years 1729, 1730, and 1731, were all spent, with only the usual inter- ruption of vacations, at Oxford ; but an examination of the college books proves that Johnson, who entered on the 31st October, 1728, remained there to the 12th December, 1729, when he personally left the college, and never returned, though his name remained on the books till 8th October, 1731." Dr. Hill, who is very learned in Johnsonian history, and has brought much critical sagacity to bear on the matter, gives his whole support to Croker's view, and pronounces Boswell to be wrong.* * See " Dr. Johnson, his Friends, &c,," recently published. 128 CROKER'S BO SWELL. Now, in the first place, Boswell spoke, as indeed he always spoke, after having gone to the best sources of information. He mentions in several places having put his friend "to the question" on the subject of his early years, and of the latter having promised to confide to him all he knew. He examined, as it might be called, Johnson's college friends, Dr. Adams and Dr. Taylor, and, it may be presumed, Edwards. Hawkins, one of Johnson's oldest friends and his chosen executor, fixes the three years' residence in the most positive terms. Indeed, it must have struck every reader that all that is recorded of Johnson's position at Oxford must have taken a longer period than fourteen months to mature. His intimates seem to have accepted the statement, while it was reserved for Mr. Croker to offer this new theory, founding it not " on the authority of the College books," which seems to, convey the idea of formal entries of his departure, &c., but on the certain argument con- nected with blanks and inscription of the name, all of a rather speculative ch^acter. Now what does this curiously fitful system of entry amount to — ^this insertion and removal of a name ? According to Dr. Hill it is all formal. Johnson had left the University, and his name was merely retained "on the books" on the chance of his returning. Surely, if this were so, the buttery steward or accountant would dismiss aU thought of "Sam FALLACIES, " MARES-NESTS;' AND DELUSIONS. 129 Johnson " from Ms mind, and not burden himself with more writing and erasure. Does not the insertion of the name — a charge of 5d here, an " Os. OJ." there, an omission of the name for six months, a steady re- currence in the next few months — does not all this system of entry signify the presence of the student at the College; though there must be something odd and exceptional in his mode of obtaiaing support ? Now, to see what the record of the " Battels " tells us^ — a copy of which is given in my recent edition of "Boswell." I wiU just first state in detail what I believe were Johnson's proceedings at the close of 1729. After the thirteen or fourteen months which it is admitted he remained, he returned home, just after Christmas Day. We find him back at Oxford again on January 2iid, and on January 30th, when his debt to the Buttery is but bd. His name is entered every week regularly from this time forth. The name is not at the head of a column to jtself, where it has been left unerased, but written down afresh as each week came round, and in March has the charges of 4s. 7c?. and M. set opposite to it. So it continues for nearly the whole year until November 27th, when it is removed for two months, but on January 29th, 1731, it is set down, to disappear once more until March 12th arrives, when it is once more regularly entered every week until October 1st, 1731, when it finally disappears ; thus, it should be noted, making up 130 CROKER'S BOS WELL. almost exactly the three years' period fixed by Hawkins. Surely, as was before remarked, these repeated charges for the " eating score " irresistibly convey the conclusion that Johnson was attending, in some capricious and irregular fashion — now paying his score, now owing for it, or now having it paid for him, with occasional absences from the College. In truth, the entries for the month of January, 1730, alone, dispose of arguments drawn from the commons or "Battels." These run: s. d. January 2nd 5 January 9th January 23rd January 30th 5 « Now if "Battels " are to be the evidence of residence, how is it explained that Johnson was in residence, and subsisting for a week on five penny-worth of bat- tels, and during the two following weeks was not charged for anything ? * * The following interesting letter from Professor Chandler, of Pem- broke College, furnishes us Tvfth more light on this curious question. " I have looked," he writes, " through the large and greasy volumes (of the 'Battels') again, with your BosweU's ' Johnson' open before me. There are some misprints in that note : — For Feb. 14th, 8s., read 7s. lOd. ; between Oct. 17th and Oct. 31st of 1729, insert Oct. 24th, 8s.; for [1730, N. S.] Jan. 30th, 5d., read [1730, N. S.] Jan. 2nd, 5d.; Jan. 9th, Os. Od. ; Jan. 16, Os. Od.; Jan. 23rd, Os. Od. ; Jan. 30th, 5d. It may also be noted that on Sept. 18th, 1730, there is an entry against Johnson's name, but the total is not carried out into the margin ; in other words, nothing appears to be charged to him. " Now as to your question. All the names of (as I suppose) all the FALLACIES, "MARES'-NESTS," AND DELUSIONS. 131 Dr. Hill has discovered a document of almost pathetic interest, a minute claiming £7 caution money of Johnson as a set-off to a similar amount owing by him for Commons. It is not probable that this sum would have exactly, and to the shilling, balanced Johnson's debt, and we may fairly assume that much more was owing. I would assume that the money entries show members of the college are written down afresh every week. They are written down the left-hand page of an opening on red lines, which run right across the left and right-hand page. After most of the names are small charges in shillings, pence, and farthings, written in a hand of the sixteenth century, at the latest — a curious bit of survival — and then on the extreme right of the right-hand page sums are entered in the usual three columns of account. A week's names occupy two openings of the book. " Again, there seems to be nothing special or peculiar about Johnson's name. Many other names are, so far as I can see, treated very much in the same manner. They are entered with no charges against them ; they are sometimes omitted, and afterwards restored. The scribe was not, I suppose, always accurate. " If you were to look at these fusty tomes for yourself, I think you would see that very little is to be made out of them, except this, that the intention always was to put down the names of all the members of the college every week, and that occasionally errors were committed. Nobody now knows for certain what the sums entered against the names mean. It is not easy to believe that half-a-dozen men should have battels of exactly the same sum ; and yet it often happens that three, four, or more names, have precisely the same small sums charged against them in the same week. It sometimes happens that a number of names have entries against them, and yet nothing is carried into the account column on the right-hand page. Oddly enough, my eye never once fell on Whitfield's name. I cannot say that it is not there — but I certainly never saw it. " A minute study might perhaps throw some light on the question of Johnson's residence ; but I have not time to indulge in that at present. I saw the name 'Fludger' {sic) several times during the last year examined. Whether this was ' Phil Fludyer' or not, I cannot say." K 2 132 CROKER'S BOSWELL. cash, paid by Johnson, or at the least, an account for which Johnson held himself liable, and that where it was merely entered without figures, credit was being given to him. And here comes in Mr. Elwin's specu- lation, which Dr. Hill does not accept, and which, however, seems to point in the direction of the true solution of the matter — viz., that Johnson's commons were not defrayed by himself, but were put to the account of some other person — ^paid for by his College itself or by some friend. "The friend to whom he had trusted," says Boswell, " deceived him. His debts at College were increasing." And, indeed, ia these entries there is piteous evidence of the straits to which he was reduced, his weekly orders descend- ing from 12s. and 8s. to 5s. 7c?., 4s. 7(?., and finally to the stray 66?., perhaps for a pot of beer. And here may be referred-to another odd suggestion of Mr. Croker's, quite inconsistent with his argument. " Talking of wine, Johnson said, * I did not leave off wine because I could not bear it ; I have drunk three bottles of port -^thout being the worse for it. University College has witnessed this.' " On which Mr. Croker — "Probably on some occasion during his first residence at Oxford, as an under-graduate. It could hardly have happened during his visit in 1754 ; and certainly not in any of the subsequent ones." But certainly yes. What, the poor starved student, FALLACIES, " MARES' -NESTS," AND DELUSIONS. 133 with Ms entries of " 5c?.," and of five or six sMlliags for the whole week ! Johnson was many times at Oxford during his wine-drinking days. It is to be noticed that when Boswell records authoritatively the circumstances of distress he does not take them from Hawkins. Indeed, it is extra- ordinary how this statement of those who knew and had warrant for their statements as to Johnson's eleemosynary position at the University are sup- ported, Hawkins telling us that Mr. Corbet was to pay for his support, while Boswell heard from Dr. Taylor that a " gentleman of Shropshire undertook to support him as his companion, though he, in fact, never received any assistance whatever from that gentleman." Here are two distinct pieces of evidence, yet Mr. Croker finds objection to the story in the fact that this Shropshire gentleman had entered twenty months before Johnson came, surely no substantial weakening of the tale, as Boswell says nothing of entering the College with the gentleman ; and the undertaking could have been given whether the gentleman had preceded or attended Johnson to CoUege. Another series of objections is founded on the accounts of those who were Johnson's contem- poraries at Pembroke College — Dr. Adams, Dr. Taylor, and one Edwards. Boswell met all three, and was on a visit to the two first at Oxford and 134 CROKER'S BOS WELL. Ashbourne. "WTieii he was extracting information from Dr. Adams — "pumping" him more suo — would we not expect the Doctor to have said something of this sort, " The fact is, my dear sir, there is but little to tell you, Johnson stayed with us so short a time — in fact, went away when his fii'st year was out." This would certainly be an obvious remark, but, instead, we have the fidlest details and the assurance that Johnson remained three years ! Nothing is clearer than that Boswell applied his favourite process of " putting to the question " to both Johnson's old University friends, and thus extracted all that they had to tell. " We then went to Pembroke College," he says, " and waited on his old friend Dr. Adams, the master of it, whom I found to be a most polite, pleasing, communicative man. Before his advancement to the headship of his college, I had intended to go and visit him at Shrewsbury in order to get from him what particulars he could recollect of Johnson's academical life. He now obligingly gave me part of that authentic information, which, with what I afterwards owed to his kindness, will be found incorporated in its proper place in this work." And again: "By asking a great variety of par- ticulars, I have obtained additional information. I followed the same mode with the Eev. Dr. Taylor, FALLACIES, " MARES-NESTS^' AND DELUSIONS. 135 in whose presence I wrote down a good deal of what lie could teU, and he, at my request, signed his name to give it authenticity." Does not the conviction come on us irresistibly that, with these two witnesses thus searchingly examined, the time of Johnson's stay must have been extracted? Indeed, who can read the accounts of Johnson's several visits to Oxford, his meetings with old friends, his recognition of old familiar spots, the affectionate sense of remembrance, his reception by friends, and imagine that this was all based on but fourteen months' visit ? " You cannot imagine," writes Hannah More, " with what delight he showed me every part of his own college . . . He would let no one show me but himself : ' This was my room, this Shenstone's. Here we walked, there we played at cricket.' " Again, in March, 1772, BosweU pressed his friend to tell hiTin " aU the little circumstances of his life, what schools he attended, when Tie came to Oxford^ ^c; and Johnson did not disapprove his curiosity, and proposed to tell him by degrees. In short, what forces itself on us, is that this stay at Oxford must have been considered by BosweU in the most formal manner, and with abimdant opportunities for getting at the truth. These were: 1st, Johnson himseK; 2nd, Johnson's friends and "fellow collegians, Taylor, Adams, and Edwards ; " 3rd, Oxford Univer- sity itself, where Boswell was on a visit. 136 CROKER'S BOS WELL. Now, that Johnson gratified his curiosity is cer- tain (as there are details in Boswell's account not found elsewhere), and if Boswell pressed him to tell when " he came to Oxford^'' we may be sure the same curious inquirer would have been as eager to learn when he left it. Dr. Adams assured Boswell that in 1731 Mr. Jorden (who had been Johnson's tutor) quitted the College, and his pupUs were transferred to Adams, so that, had Johnson returned, Dr. Adams would have been his tutor. "Dr. Adams," adds Boswell, " said to me at Oxford, in 1776, ' I was his nomiaal tutor, but he was above my mark.' " Now, such a statement as this is in- telligible, and would only have been made with knowledge. Yet Mr. Croker, with his extraordinary power of misapprehension, says that there is an obvious discrepancy between Boswell's and Dr. Adams' statements, and Dr. Adams never was, in any sense, Johnson's tutor. Dr. Adams had explained to Boswell the meaning of the phrase " nominal " tutor as " tutor to be," or, mo$e technically, "tutor on the books." But there is another view of the matter. Dr. Hm asserts that Boswell's account of John- son's career is taken from Hawkins, but a little consideration will show that they are independent accounts, and that Boswell was more inclined to reject — or, at least, correct — any statement of Hawkins that he could thus deal with. It is thus that he FALLACIES, " MARES'-NESTS;' AND DELUSIONS. 137 corrects him as to Adams being Johnson's tutor. " Jorden," says Hawkins, " went off to a living upon giving a bond to resign it in favour of a miaor, and Johnson became a pupil of Dr, Adams's." It may be added in this place that Croker tells us that he was assured by Dr. Hall that the Oxford pupils had no special tutor, but that the tutor of one was the tutor of aU. Dr. Adams was no more his tutor than Jorden was, or vice versa. Now, if this be correct, we receive a little light here ia reconciluig what seems so incon- sistent — ^viz., the declarations of Dr. Adams, " I was his nominal tutor," &c., with that of Boswell, that he never was under Dr. Adams. Boswell's declaration would simply mean, what Dr. Hall says, that Johnson was never specially under Adams, but when Jorden left, Adams would have been, sole tutor. Thus, too, Adams' statement, " I was his nominal tutor," becomes intelligible. " Then," goes on Dr. Hill, " both Mr. Croker and Mr. Fitzgerald should have tried to find out when it was that Adams took Jorden' s place. Jorden' s fellowship was filled up, as I have ascertained, on December 23, 1730." He was appointed to a living much earlier — in March, 1729 — but, if he did not vacate his fellowship till December, 1730, we may fairly assume that he contiaued to perform the duties. This would have been during the Christmas vacation, so that Adams did not become sole tutor till 1731, CROA-£JPS BOS WELL. in -vrliich yetir Johnson left. So that, with the autumn vacation, there would only remain a few months for Johnson to receive Dr. Adiuns' instruction. Biit, in truth, Johnson was not a regular pupil of any professor. He says of Jorden, '' I did not attend him much," so that, on the whole, a consistent explanation wiU be the following : There were the two tutors for the whole coUege, one of whom went away after about two years of Johnson's coiu-se was completed. Dr. Adams, the tutor that remained, had been hitherto his nominal tutor, as he told BosweU, and did not consider that the few months of Johnson's stay, diu'iug which he was sole tutor, hardly entitled him to give himself the credit of being Johnson's instructor. This, it Avill be foimd, will fit with BosweU's, Hawkins', and Dr. Hall's account, though perhaps not with Dr. HiU's theory. All readers will recall the graphically described meeting of Johnson and Edwards in Butcher Eow in the year 1778. " I was accosted," says Johnson, in the ' ' Prayers and MeditatioBB, ' ' " by Edwiu'ds, an old f eUow- collegian, who had not seen me since 1729." " This deHbeftite assertion of Johnson's," wrote Mr. Croker — that he had not seen Edwards since 1729 — " is con- fii-mation of the opinion that Johnson did not retiu'n after Christmas, 1729." It must be confessed that this rather " sh-ong fact " comes in aid of this theory, but it is not so sti'oug as it appears. For 1st., BosweU, FALLACIES, " MARES'-NESTS," AND DELUSIONS. 139 who was present at the meeting, tells us that it was Edwards who " brought to Johnson's recollection their having been" — not their having parted — "at Oxford nine and forty years ago." And 2nd, this view is con- firmed by its being the very year in which Edwards came to the College. This, he did in the month of June, 1729, so that his intimacy with Johnson, if the latter departed at Christmas, could have only lasted six months. And now, what impression is left by Johnson's own mode of always speaking of his College? There is a pride, a knowledge of persons and things that could only come of long and intimate acquaintance. " We were a nest of singing birds," he said. Before his death he had thoughts of leaving to it his house at Lichfield, and he took a pleasure in boasting of the many eminent men it had educated. It was the happiest time of his life, Dr. Adams said. He once said, " The history of my Oxford exploits all lies between Taylor and Adams." And all this was founded on a residence of fourteen months ! From which, too, must be deducted some months of the two vacations. Then comes the difficulty about "Whitfield. Johnson told Boswell that they had been at college together, that " he knew him before he began to be better than other people." Now Whitfield did not enter college until the end of 1732, a year after Johnson had left, 140 CROKER'S BOSWELL. according to Boswell, or three according to the " short term " writers. No explanation has been attempted of this contradiction, but, if worth anything, it makes something for the theory that brings the periods of Johnson's and Whitfield's stay closer together. The only solution that can be offered is that BosweU's phrase — Johnson's phrase is "was at the same college with him " — might be a loose way of saying that both had been of the same college, and that Boswell had assumed that this meant "fellow coUegian," a phrase he uses later: or that Johnson "knowing him before he became good" referred to some period before Whitfield came to the University : or to some later time, when Johnson was visiting Oxford, when Whitfield had become "good." This, however, is but a desperate and strained explanation. What is clear is that Johnson declared that he knew Whitfield, to all appearance, at Oxford. The mistake must be in some of the other details. It may be remarked here that Mr. Croker, with other writers, is fond of dismiajiing a story altogether because there is an inconsistency in some details, a good speci- men of which is the one relating to the visit of Dr. Sacheverel, when, we are told, the child Sam Johnson, then three years old, was held up on his father's shoulders at the Cathedral, and was observed, says a Lichfield lady, " by my grandfather Hammond gaping and listening. He was asked how he could think of FALLACIES, " MAKES'-NESTS," AND DELUSIONS. 141 bringing such, an infant to the Church and in the midst of so great a crowd, &c. ? " Now let us hear Mr. Croker : " The gossiping anecdotes of the Lichfield ladies are aU apocryphal." Sacheverel, it seems, was then interdicted from preaching, so he could not have been at the Cathedral. But he "indeed made a triumphal progress through the Midland counties and visited Lichfield in 1710, when he was received in State by the Corporation and addressed, &c., but then Johnson was only one year or two old. AU apocryphal ! Surely the point of the story is the eagerness of the infant — his being lifted on his father's shoulder to see the celebrated divine, the crowd, and danger from the crowd. The preaching, cathedral, &c., are all non-essential. There are the minor points which support the same contention; such as the statement, "The first time," as "Warton, who attended Johnson diligently at Oxford, teUsus, " of his being at Oxford^ after quitting the University^ was in 1754." Now, we know, even if Johnson quitted in 1729, that he is found visiting the place in January, 1730, in March, and in September. The argument from Taylor's stay, and from "Whitfield's residence, tells in a most perplexing way against both sides of the argument. So I need not enter on them here. But enough has been said to place the whole question fairly before the reader. 142 CROKER'S BOSWELL. § Miscellaneous Errors and Mysteries. The^ Watch Mystery. — This bore the inscription, " vv^ yap e/)^erat," the first words of our Saviour's solemn admonition ; which Johnson ceased wearing because, as he explained ia answer to Boswell's question, it might be censured as ostentatious ; ^.e., an ostentation of piety. But Mr. Croker scents mystery : — " I know not why BosweU calls them the first words ; on the contrary, they are expletive of the former part of the admonition. Hawkins says that this watch was the first he ever possessed ; but he adds, that the Greek inscription was made unintelli- gible by the mistake of inscribing vfii for w^. This Mr". Steevens denied ; and he certainly bequeathed to his niece a watch bearing, as I am informed, the correct inscription; but from the evidence of Haw- kins, one of Johnson's executors, and from the known propensity of Steevens* to what is leniently called mystification^ I conclude his was not the original dial. However that may be, the dial was laid aside by Johnson, as being, BosweU says, * too ostentatious,' and Hawkins, ' too pedantic' But Johnson may have had a better reason, even if w^ were not mis- spelled. Giving the inscription, no doubt from memory, he had altered the divine phrase, which is FALLACIES, " MAREST-NESTS," AND DELUSIONS. 143 simply ep)(erai vv$, and Johnson, -when he perceived the variance, probably removed the dial." See all the assumptions !> Steevens declares that the inscription was always engraved correctly (Mr. Boswell supports the view), but he is assumed to be teUing an untruth ; and suspected of passing off another dial as Johnson's. But Boswell tells- us positively, that " Mr. Steevens is now possessed of the dial-plate inscribed as above." So Croker's in- siauation would seem to be that Steevens passed off a false dial as Johnson's. The assumption as to John- son — ^ia the face of his own reason — is equally gratuitous. The Apple-Dumplings Puzzle. — "We must not forget th.e clergyman, whom the mention of orchards sug- geeted to Johnson : " He advised me, if possible, to have an orchard. He knew, he said, a clergyman of small income, who brought up a family very repu- tably, which he chiefly fed with apple dumplings." And many a poor curate might rejoice to thus nurture his family. But what says Croker : " This seems strange. I suppose," he adds, " Bos- well, at the interval of so many years, did not perfectly recollect Johnson's statement." He evi- dently thinks the dumpUngs were their sole support. Johnson said "chiefly," meaning that the dumplings helped out the scanty fare. But one is ashamed to pause, and discuss such things. 144 CROKER'S BOSWELL. The Gordon Riots. — In Johnson's account sent to Mrs. Thrale, occurs a comic allusion "to 70,000 Scots, wlio are coming to London to eat us, or hang us, or drown us." " Mr. BosweU seems not to have relished this allusion to a Scottish invasion, and, in- stead of laughing, as Johnson appears to have done, at this absurd rumour, chose to omit the passage altogether." Thus Croker. Now, Johnson's graphic story is selected by Boswell from a number of letters ; and even the passages selected are only the most effective bits of particular paragraphs. The Scotch allusion has a number of sentences coming before and after it, and aU are omitted together. The Pistol. — In April, 1779, a dispute arose be- tween Johnson and Beauolerk, on Hackman's killing Miss Eay. " Johnson argued, that his being fiir- nished with two pistols was a proof that he meant to shoot two persons. Mr. Beauclerk said, ' No Mr. , who loved buttered muffins, but durst not eat them because they* disagreed with his stomach, resolved to shoot himself; and then he eat three buttered muffins for breakfast, before shooting him- self, knowing that he should not be troubled with indigestion ; he had two charged pistols ; one was found lying charged upon the table by him, after he had shot himself with the other.' — 'Well,' said John- son, with an air of triumph, ' you see here one pistol FALLACIES, " MARES'-NESTS," AND DELUSIONS. 145 was sufficient.' Beauclerk replied smartly, ' Because it happened to kill him.' " On this, Mr. Croker declares that, " It was thought that Mr. Damer (whose suicide is recorded in the ' Gentleman's Magazine ' for 1776, p. 383), was here meant; but I have since ascertained that it was Johnson's old friend, Mr. Fitzherbert, who terminated his own life." " It was thought ; " by whom ? "I have since ascertained; " how, and from whom ? Croker, where he has authorities, always furnishes them, and no delicacy to the family can be the reason for suppres- sion, as he giyes the name which was before obscure. In the absence of proof, it may be said that from the context, Mr. Fitzherbert cannot be intended. Fitzherbert was an intimate friend of Johnson's, and Beauclerk, it will be seen, communicates the details of his end, as if unknown and a novelty to Johnson. But, some years before, Boswell, discussing suicide with Johnson, tells us, " We talked of the melancholy end of a gentleman, who had destroyed himself." " It was owing," says Johnson, " to imaginary diffi- culties in his affairs, &c,," alluding, Mr. Croker says, to this very catastrophe. This showed that Johnson knew all about him. Angry words between Johnson and Beauclerk arose out of this heated discussion, which is as intelligible, as anything of the kind in ordinary life ; but which Mr, Croker strangely traces 146 CROKER'S BOS WELL. up, not to Beauclerk's just retorts, -wliicli nettled, but to a deeper cause : " This correction is so far important, thait perhaps Mr. Beauclerk's levity in mentioning an event which tvas prohaUy very painful to Johnson, may have disposed him to the subsequent, and, in such case, excusable asperity." Nothing more far-fetched could be imagined; Johnson talked of all subjects — the most painful without reticence. The Whig's Fire-place, — ^Warton, describing John- son's visit to Oxford, says : " Once, in our way home, we viewed the ruins of the abbeys of Oseney and Eewley, near Oxford. After at least haU-an-hour's silence, Johnson said, ' I viewed them with indigna- tion ! ' We had then a long conversation on Gothic buildings ; and in talking of the form of old halls, he said, '■ In these halls, the fire-place was anciently always in the middle of the room, till the Whigs removed it on one side.' " This sally referred to old haUs generally, suggested by the ruined abbeys.* The "vile Whigs," authors of all evil changes, according to Johnson, were ac- countable for this one also. The distempered brain of Croker, which saw everything directly or indi- rectly in connection with politics, engenders the following extraordinary speculation : — " What can this mean ? What had the Whigs to do with removing the smoky hearths from the centre FALLACIES, " MARES'-NESTS," AND DELUSIONS, 147 of the. great halls to a more commodious chimney at the side ? And there are hundreds of very ancient haUs with their chimneys in the sides. Johnson was either joking, or he alluded to some particular circum- stances which Warton omitted to notice. I have siace found that my conjecture was right, and that Johnson alluded to an alteration of the hair of Univer- sity College, which made some noise at the time ; and, I suppose, was effected by some college authorities, who happened to be Whigs P The gravity and self-complacency in discoveriag that '' some particular circumstance " had occurred, is delicious. But it is worth noting, how, as is his habit, he tries by a curious exaggeration to sup- port his rickety story. " I found that Johnson alluded." No. He only found that such an alteration had taken place ; and to this he infers that Johnson alluded. Neither does he say that this alteration had anything to do with the fire-place; and, finally, he has to suppose that the authorities were Whigs. Why Lord Errol not entitled to respect. — Speaking of Lord Errol, BosweU says, " I come of good birth, and I could, with the most perfect honesty, expatiate on Lord Errol' s good qualities ; but he stands in no need of my praise. His agreeable manners, and soft- ness of address, prevented that constraiat which the idea of his being Lord High Constable of Scotland Plight otherwise have occasioned," 13 148 CROKER'S DOSWELL. This " constraint," Mr. Croker says, need not have been felt, on the strange ground that this nobleman was not at the time entitled to bear his honours. The great family of the Hays must have been amused as they read this : " Mr. Boswell need not have been in such awe on tills aceoimt; for Lord Errol's title to that dignity was, at this period, not quite established. He not only was not descended from the Earls of Errol, in the male liae, but the right of his mother and grand- mother rested on the nomination of Gilbert, the tenth Earl of Errol. Lord Lauderdale, at the elec- tion of the Scottish peers in 1796, protested against Lord Errol's claim to the peerage, questioning not only the right of conferring a peerage by nomination^ but denying that any such nomination had been in fact made ; but the House of Lords decided that the earldom had become descendable to females, and also that Earl Gilbert had acquired and exercised the right of nomination. It was still more doubtful how the office of Hereditary High Constable could be transferred, either by nomination or through females ; but all the late Earls of Errol have enjoyed it without question, and the present Earl executed it by deputy at the coronation of George IV., and in person during his Majesty's visit to Scotland in 1822." Such is this extraordiaary note. It will be seen that the technical question of right, such as it was, ■ FALLACIES, " MARES'-NESTS;' AND DELUSIONS. 149 was not raised for more than twenty years after tlie interview ! So that Boswell could have no possibility of haviag his "awe" constrained. Bnt then, it tiu:ns out, he was rightfully in. possession of his rank. So that Boswell's " constraint" was justified. Suppression of Lachj Di. Middleton's name. — John- son, in his letters to Mrs. Thrale, describing his Scotch tour, recounts, that when in church at Aber- deen, he had been " espied by Lady Di. Middleton," who told Mr. Boyd, and hence was owing the invi- tation to Lord Errol's. Mr. Boyd, who was Lord Errol's brother, it seems knew Boswell's father, and also remiaded Dr. Johnson of having met him in London. Boswell is careful to explain this to the reader, to show that their position as guests was on sufficient foundation. Full as all this is, Mr. Croker seems to hint at something secretly kept back ; and asks in reference to the lady's share, " Why did Boswell not mention her ? " Johnson^ Scruples.- — When Johnson was in Paris, " The introductor," his says, " came to us — civil to me -^Presenting — I had scruples — Not necessary — We went and saw the king and queen at dinner — "We saw the other ladies at dinner." In this simple passage, our commentator scents a mystery. It lay in the word " scruples.^' It was not conscious guilt this time. " It is an etiquette gene- rally insisted on to present at foreign courts those 15° CROKER'S BOSWELL. only Avho had been presented to their own sovereign at home. Johnson had never been publicly presented to George III., though he had had that honour in private, and may, therefore, have entertained scruples ■whether he was entitled to be presented to the King of France ; but those scruples were in this case not necessary, the rule applying only to formal presenta- tions at court, and not to admission to see the king dine." The idea of such a fantastic notion troubling Johnson ! He did not use the word in its technical sense. He meant that he had " doubts " about the matter. Such presentation too was by the English Minister. Ludicrous Display of Military Spirit. — " My friend. Colonel James Stuart," says the impulsive BosweU, grateful for certain hospitality, " second son of the Earl of Bute, who had distinguished himself as a good officer of the Bedfordshire militia, had taken a public- spirited resolution to serve his country in its diffi- culties, by raising a regular regiment, and taking the command of it himself. This, in the heir of the immense property of Wortley, was highly honour- able." " "We cannot but smile^'' is Mr. Croker's cynical comment, "at Boswell's hyperbolical applause of his friend's heroism." This raising a regiment for service abroad was a matter of expense and trouble. That it was attended FALLACIES, " MARES'-NESTS," AND DELUSIONS. 151 with, risk and sacrifice for tlie heir of a noble honse, Mr. Boswell tells us in another place : " His regiment was afterAvards ordered to Jamaica, >7here he accom- panied it, and almost lost his life by the climate. This impartial order I should think a sufiicient refuta- tion of the idle rumour that ' there was still some- thing behind the throne greater than the throne itself.' " The spirited officer was, therefore, entitled to "applause." No one, save the editor, will "smile" at Boswell's reasonable praise. Mr. Croker, however, is not yet done with Colonel Stuart. " As if," he says, assuming that Lord Bute had no power; "Lord Bute's influence could have prevented his son's regiment going to Jamaica." There was nothing more likely ; his own experience at the Admiralty might have furnished him with many instances. Curious Scientific Theory. — Boswell. " Why, sir, do people play this trick which I observe now, when I look at your grate, putting the shovel against it to make the fire burn?" Johnson. "They play the trick, but it does not make the fixe burn. Tliere is a better (setting the poker perpendicularly up at right angles with the grate). In days of superstition they thought, as it made a cross with the bars, it would drive away the witch." One would think that this housewife question was 152 CROKER'S BOSWELL. too trivial a matter for speculation. But Mr. Croker discusses it gravely : *' It certainly does make tlie fire burn," he quotes; "by repelling tbe air, it throws a blast on the fire, and so performs the part in some degree of a blower or bellows — Kearney. Dr. Kearney's observation applies only to the shovel, and even so, very imperfectly ; but by those who have faith in the' ex- periment, the looker is supposed to be equally effi- cacious. After all, it is possible that there may ha some magnetic or electrical influence zvhich, in the pro- gress of science, may he explained ; and what has been thought a vulgar trick, may be proved to be a philo- sophical expedient." "What would Dr. TyndaU say ? The magnetic influence of a poker laid against the bar ! Discovery as to Parnell. — One of the quaintest notions in the " Life," is Boswell's submitting a legally drawn case for Dr. Johnson's opiaion : " May 3, 1779. Parnell, in his ' Hermit,' has the following passage : — • ' To clear this doubt, to know the world by sight, To find if hooks and swains report it right (For yet by swains alone the world he knew. Whose feet came wand'ring o'er the nightly dew).' "Is there not a contradiction in its being flrsi supposed that the Hermit knew hoih what books and swains reported of the world; yet afterwards said, that he knew it by swains alone ? " FALLACIES, " MARES'-NESTS," AND DELUSIONS. 153 " I think it," says Johnson, "an inaccuracy. He mentions two instructors in the first line, and says he had only one in the next." Malone thought there was no ambiguity, and that the point turned on "omZ" information, which he could have obtained only from swains. !N"ow to hear Croker : " It is odd enough that these critics did not think it worth theii- while to consult the original for the exact words on which they were exercising their ingenuity. Parnell's words are not, ' if hooJcs and swains,^ but, ' if books oe sivains,^ which mic/ht mean, not that books and swains agreed, but that they dif- fered, and that the Hermit's doubt was excited by the difference between his instructors. There is, no doubt, a clumsy ambiguity in the expression, but the meaning obviously is that, of men, he knew sivains onlyP Now Boswell had consulted the original, and in his letter of Feb. 28, 1778, had quoted the correct text ! But the disjunctive makes no difference ; the Hermit finding both books and swains differing, is yet de- clared to have known the world by swains alone. There was Boswell's difficulty. Irreverence in a Scotch Judge. — One of the Scotch judges told Boswell to give himself no trouble about the literary style of the pleadings he drew up for them. "It was casting pearls before swine," he said. So simple a statement might pass surely as 154 CROKERS BOSWELL. clear and decorous. But, no ; to Mr. Croker it was profane, and required explanation. " This application of the scriptural phrase was not very becoming, but the meaning was correct ; the facts and the laio only ought to be considered by the judge — the verbal decorations of style should be of no weight. It is probable that the judge who used it was bantering Boswell on some pleading in which there was, perhaps, more ornament than substance (!) " Specimen of Indecent Behaviour. — ^Under date of Sept. 1779, Boswell has a note beginning : — " It appears that Johnson, now iu his sixty-eighth year, was seriously inclined to realise the project of our going up the Baltic, for he thus writes to Mrs. Thrale : " The extract and Boswell's comment are all introduced into Croker's text. It will be seen at once how inartistic this is, when it is stated that Boswell is here giving his correspondence in regular series with Johnson — and this is thrust in between Boswell's letter and Johnson's reply. " "We may, perhaps, form some scheme or other," writes Johnson of his fiiend ; "but, in the phrase of Hockley-in-the-Hole, it is a pity he has not a better Bottom.''^ It is amusing to find that Mr. Boswell, quoting this rather uncomplimentary phrase, actually puts the words in Italics^ so as to give better emphasis! Croker's delicacy, however, was offended by " a better bottom," so he made it more abstract and figurative by turning it into "pity FALLACIES, " MARES'-NESTS;' AND DELUSIONS. 155 he has not letter Bottom.'^ This may seem oyer- refining, but there is a distinction. Indeed, the word seems to have been Croker's lete noir^ for we find birn protesting against it on another occasion — ^that of the amusing scene when Johnson made the com- pany titter by complimenting a lady on having " a bottom of good sense." 3iliss Hannah More slily hid her face. Johnson sternly amended it with, " I say the woman was fundamentally sensible." '■As if he had said," adds Boswell, with one of those touches which shows he knew character well, " ' Hear this, and laugh if you dare.' We all sat composed as at a funeral." Yet the Croker com- ment on this capital pictui'c is, "Manners are certainly more refined than they were. Such a scene as this could hardly now occur in respect- able company." The company could not be said to have shown lack of refinement, and, indeed, the risible muscles cannot be guaranteed to obey, even in the most elegant society. The real dearth of refinement was in the mind that could take objection to such a matter. Even in the index the word is quoted as "bottom," in inverted commas, as though ilr. Croker would have nothing to say to it. But this opens up a distinct department of our editor's dealings. As he goes along he finds it neces- sary, not merely to reprehend anything that appears 156 CROKER'S BOS WELL. to him to be coarse or broad, but to suppress and alter— and alter in tbe most capricious way, Tbe drollest part is the mournful way in which he moralises. " I could wish that Boswell had not reported this loose talk." I will now add a number of miscellaneous speci- mens, not so important in character, of mistakes and misapprehensions and platitudes. " I mentioned my expectations," says Mr. Boswell, "from the interest of an eminent person then ia power ; adding, ' But I have no claim but the claim, &c.' "—1783. "Probably Lord Mountstuart," says Mr. Croker. The "eminent person" was Mr. Burke, just ap- pointed to the Pay Office, and from whom Boswell had obtained a sort of promise. "Davies," wrote Johnson, "has got great success as an author, generated by the corruption of a Book- seller." A happy satirical phrase, quite intelligible. But, Mr. Croker explains, " Tliis means that Davies, from his adversity as a bookseller, had burst iuto new and gaudier life as an author." It certainly does not. The corruption intended is moral, and Johnson would have applied the plirase had Davies not been bank- rupt. This is shown by the original form of the phrase quoted from Dry den and others : " The corruption of a poet is the generation of a critic, &o." FAI^LACIES, " MARES'-NESTS," AND DELUSIONS. 157 In a letter of Jolmson's to Mrs. Thrale forced into the text, we find this passage : — " Can you write such a letter as this ? so miscel- laneous, with such noble disdain of regularity, like Shakspeare's works? such graceful negligence of transition, like the ancient enthusiasts ? The pure voice of iNTature and of friendship. Now of whom shall I proceed to speak ? Of whom but Mrs. Mon- tagu ? Having mentioned Shakspeare and Nature, does not the name of Montagu force itself upon me ? Such were the transitions of the ancients, which now seem abrupt, because the intermediate idea is lost to modern understandings." Mr. Croker is much '' gravelled" at this praise of a lady whom he disliked. It sets him speculating : " Compare this with two former phrases, in which Shakspeare and Mrs. Montagu are mentioned, and wonder at the inconsistencies to which the greatest genius and the highest spirit may be reduced ! Per- haps Johnson's original disposition to depreciate Mrs. Montagu may have arisen from his having heard that she thought Easselas an opiate. His later praise was no doubt produced by her charity to Mrs. Williams. This, though it may explain, does not excuse the inconsistencies." It certainly does not either explain or excuse. For the passage is purely ironical. This could be seen even without the passage con* 158 CROKER'S BOSWELL. sidering her " an intermediate idea " between Nature and Shakspeare. Mr. Akerman was th.e Governor of Newgate, who is described by Boswell as a remarkable man, and who won from Johnson, for his resolute behaviour during a fire at Newgate, one of the highest panegyrics he gave to anyone. He was eertaialy as well known, and as repandu as, say, the two officers who now direct the London Police and Fire Brigade respectively. Yet Boswell using so ordinary an expression as "my esteemed friend Mr. Akerman," throws Mr. Croker into one of his favourite quandaries. "Why Mr. Boswell should call the keeper of New- gate his ' esteemed friend'' has puzzled many readers ; but besides his natural desire to make the acquaiat- ance of everybody who was eminent or remarkable, or even notorious, his strange propensity for witness- ing executions probably brought him into more immediate intercourse with the keeper of Newgate." " He observed that his old friend, Mr. Sheridan, had been honoured with extraordinary attention in his own country, by having had an exception made in his favour in an -Irish act of parliament concerning insolvent debtors." On which Mr. Croker says, — "Johnson had been misinformed. Mr. Whyte tells us in his ' Miscellanea NoA^a,' of the personal civility with which some members of ^ eommittee of the FALLACIES, " MARES'-NESTS," AND DELUSIONS. 159 Irish House of Commons on a bill for the relief of insolvent debtors treated Mr. Sheridan and Mr. Whyte, who appeared on his behalf, but there is no exception ia the act. Sheridan's name is one of some hundreds, and has no distinction whatso- ever. The favour he sought was, to be included in the act without being in actual custody, as he was resident in France ; this he obtained, but not specially, for one hundred and twenty other persons in similar circumstances are also included. See ' Schedule to Irish Statutes,' 5 G. 3, c. 23.' " This is all wrong and misapprehended. Croker refutes what was not asserted. Johnson does not mean that in the statute will be found such an excep- tion. The scene is given in "Whyte's account, where, many compliments were paid to Sheridan, on the special application made for him. Others may have been " excepted," but not in the same handsome way. This was "the extraordinary attention" Johnson was thinking of, an exception connected with the Act. "They had met," that is, Boswell and Johnson, " only thirteen days ; so that the friendship was of rapid growth." See how Mr. Croker works. He had "totted up " these days, just as he had "totted up" all the days of Boswell's and Johnson's intimacy. No doubt the thirteen days was correct — but the acquaintance and the days was spread over nearly three months, i6o CROKER'S BOS WELL. wMcli, in common parlance, would be considered the measure of his intimacy, Johnson, writing in July 1762, to thank Lord Bute for his pension, begins his letter : — "My Loed, — ^When the bills were yesterday delivered to me by Mr. Wedderburne, I was informed by him of the future favours which his Majesty has, by your Lordship's recommendation, been induced to intend for me." On which, thus sapiently, Croker : — " It does not appear what Mils these were ; evi- dently something distinct from the pension, yet pro- bably of the same nature, as the words ^future favours ' seem to imply that there had been some present favour." It does not appear, to certainty, what the bUls are, but they are not what it is supposed they were — cash or bills on the treasury. In the following November Johnson's pension became first due, and he had to wiite to the Minister to know how he was to receive it. This was the future and only favour. The Bills were probably Acts ,of Parliament, which he was revising or writing on for Wedderburne ; but nothing to do with money, or distinguishable from his future favours. Johnson, inveighing against George II., mentioned that, "when an officer of high rank had been acquitted by a court martial, the K.ing, with his own FALLACIES, "MARES'-NESTS," AND DELUSIONS. i6i hand, struck his name off the list." Surely the mean- iug of this description of an arbitrary act is quite plain. George III., in the same style, when displeased .with Fox, called for the Council Book, and with his own hand struck his name out of the list. Yet, because " no instance can be traced in the War or Admiralty Offices, of any officer of high rank beiug struck out of the list about that period, after acquittal by a court martial," our communicator grows myste- rious. " It may he surmised that Johnson's statement, jor Sir Joshua's report of it, was not quite accurate in details, and that Johnson might have alluded to the case of his friend General Oglethorpe, who, after acquittal ly a court martial, was (to use a yulgar but expressive phrase) put upon the shelf ^ But the officer, whoever he was, was dismissed from the army, and not put upon the sheK ! General Oglethorpe, meeting Boswell, told him that Johnson saw company on Saturday eveniags, and that he would meet him there. Boswell reported this to his friend, who, sick and harassed, fell on him. " Did you tell him not to come? Am I to be hunted in this manner ? " Boswell satisfied him that he could not divine that the visit would be inconvenient. This was plaia and natural. But Croker authoritatively declares that " Johnson suspected that Boswell, with his usual officiousness, had invited Oglethorpe to this nnse^son^ble visit Wkm Johnspn Qhides his over ■ 1 63 CRO KEF'S BOS WELL. zealous friend for such intermeddling, Boswell, -vritli easy complacency, can discover no cause for the reprimand but Johnson's sickness or ill-humour." All utterly gratuitous and opposed to the narrative. Speaking in favour of public executions, Johnson said, " the public were gratified by a procession ; the criminal was supported by it." Mr. Croker asks : — "What could Johnson mean by saying that the criminal was supported hy the lingering torture of this cruel exhibition ? " "Wliat incredible dulness not to see that Boswell means that the excitement and publicity kept up the spirit of the prisoner. Again. " Such was the heat and irritability of his blood, that not only did he pare his nails to the quick, but scraped the joints of his fingers with a pen-knife." " I know not," says Croker, "why heat and irritability should make a man pare his nails too close." Anyone would understand this. In a letter of Johnson's published, is an allusion to " a brother of , a Spanish merchant. . . Yery agreeable man, and speaks no Scotch." This was Boswell's brother, and his comment is, " she has omitted the name, she best knows whyP Mr. Croker's sapient solution runs : — "From delicacy, perhaps, fearing that Mr. Bos- well might not Uke to see his name coupled with the description of Scotland, as « sorry place,^^ FALLACIES, " MARES' -NESTS," AND DELUSIONS. 163 But what Boswell means is the compliment to Ms relative; and the answer to him is that Mrs, Piozzi suppressed nearly every name in the volumes. An- other instance of the curious malignity with which Boswell pursued her ! When Johnson gave Boswell all his writings in the case of Dr. Dodd, Bos- well tells us that he "avoided copying what had appeared in print, and now make part of the edition published by the Booksellers of London," of which he made an abstract for his readers. This was surely a most reasonable mode, as he avoided giving what could be read elsewhere. "We rub our eyes as we read Croker : — " This reserve arose from Boswell's jealousy of copyright, but it seems strange how they, delivered and published as they were as Dr. Dodd's, could have become subject to copyright as Dr. Johnson's." Speaking of the reception of Johnson's^ Tour, it is said, that men praised such portions as were in their own way, Jones commending the part which treats of language, Burke that which describes the inhabitants of mountainous countries. Their "own way " surely referred to some theory of Burke's as to inhabitants of mountainous countries being fond of liberty. Croker, however, speculates that "Johnson evidently thought, either that Ireland is generally mountainous, or that Mr. Burke came from a part that was ; but he was mistaken." " Mr. Eomney," says Boswellj " who has nov deservedly established a high. i64 CROKER'S BOSWELL. reputation," " What is a picture by Eomney now wortli?" asks Croker! Mrs. Thrale describes an Irishman, " a flashy friend at Bath, who was devoted to Johnson — ^who would shed his blood for him. Upon my honour, as Dr. Campbell's phrase is, I am but a twitter to him." Says Croker : — "It is of no importance; but I cannot reconcile Mrs. Thrale's talking, in May, 1776, of Dr. Campbell as wholly unknown to Johnson, with Boswell's state- ment that they had dined together at her own and Mr. DUly's table the preceding year." The crop of mistakes here is amazing. In the text Johnson and Boswell are talking of Campbell. Mr, Croker says, "Mrs. Thrale, in her lively style gives a sketch of this gentleman," and quotes the account of the "flashy friend." This, however — mistake the flrst — refers to another person — ^Mr. Mus- grave. He assumed that " On my honour, as Dr. Campbell says," was a poetic description of the same person — mistake the second. The third is, Mr. Croker's wonder at this Dr. Campbell being wholly unknown to Johnson. On Friday, April 23, Johnson writes that he is goiag to Oxford — ^where he would arrive the next morniag by the coach. On the following Tuesday, BosweU finds him at Bolt Court. There is no diffi- culty in assuming that the interval, three days, was spent at Oxford. But not so Croker. There is FALLACIES, " MARES'-NESTS," AND DELUSIONS. 165 mystery : *' Boswell makes no mention of tMs excur- sion, -wMch, I suppose, did not take place, as Boswell saw him in London on the 27th, and Johnson attended Boswell's election at the Club on the 30th." Johnson, speakiag of Beattie and his handsome wife, said, "he sunk upon us that he was mar- ried." On which Beattie wrote to our author, that he had never done so, and adding, it was "a circumstance of which I never was, or never can be, ashamed." Boswell inserted the reclame from respect and regard to "his extreme sensibility." " There was a cause for this ' extreme sensi- bility,' " says our detective, " which Boswell pro- bably did not know or had forgotten. Dr. Beattie was conscious that there was something that might give a colour to such an imputation. It became known, shortly after the date of this letter, that the mind of poor Mrs. Beattie had become deranged, and she passed the last years of her life in confinement." Anyone who reads the letter will see, even from the phrase quoted, that such a thought was not in Beattie's mind. And if such were, it would surely operate for silence. Again, Dr. Johnson saying very naturally that he " looked with reverence " at St. John's Gateway, where his first lucubrations had been printed, Mr. Croker will not have it, and breaks out : " Johnson never could have said seriously that he looked at St. 1 66 CROKER'S BOS WELL. John's Gate as the printing-office of Cave, with. reverence. The ' Gentleman's Magazine ' had been, at this time, but six years before the public, and its contents were, even when Johnson himself had con- tributed to improve it, not much entitled to reverence : Johnson's reverence would have been more justly excited by the recollections connected with the ancient Gate itself." Mr. Murphy and the late Mr. Sheridan, says BosweU, severally contended for the distinction of having been the first who mentioned to Mr. "Wedderburne that Johnson ought to have a pension. He adds that he asked Lord Loughborough himself who was the prime mover, and his reply was that " all his friends assisted ; " thus admitting that he himseK was not. Yet says Mr, Croker: "This is not correct. Mr. Murphy did not * contest this distinction ' with Mr, Sheridan. He claimed, we see, not the first sugges- tion to Lord Loughborough, but the first notioe from his lordship to Johnson. His words are : ' Lord Loughborough, who, ptrhaps, was originally a mover in the business, had authority to mention it. He desired the author of these Memoirs to undertake the task,' " This, it will be seen, refers only to the second stage, and is no contradiction of what Boswell says, which I'ef ers to an earlier stage of the matter, Boswell makes a slip, saying that Kasay was oppo- FALLACIES, " MARES'-NESTS," AND DELUSIONS. 167 site tte western coast of Skye, instead of the eastern. There can be no doubt that this is what he meant. But Mr. Croker says : " Boswell means that the eastern coast of Skye is westward of Easay." He speaks of Sir Thomas Lawrence as Sir Joshua Eeynolds' " admirer and rival." The fact being that Sir Joshua was old and blind when Lawrence, a young man of one or two and twenty, came to town. "Patriotism haviag become one of our topics, Johnson suddenly uttered, ia a strong determined tone, an apophthegm, at which many will start : — ' Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.' But, let it be considered, that he did not mean a real and generous love of our country, but that pretended patriotism which so many, in all ages and countries, have made a cloak for self-interest." Here Mr. Croker discovered a matter which added a piquant flavour to this saying : " This remarkable sortie^ which has very much amused the world, will hereafter be still more amusing, when it is known that it appears, by the books of the Club, that at the moment it was uttered, Mr. Fox was in the chair J^ We can imagine the roar as all faces turned to the good-humoured chairman. But, unfortunately, fifteen years later, Mr. Croker withdraws the state- ment : " So it appeared on Mr. Hatchett's statement, but a more accurate consideration of the mode in which the records of the club were kept now leads 1 68 CROKER'S BOS WELL. me to tMnk that Mr. Fox, though appointed presi- dent for the evening, was not present, and that his place was filled by Gibbon, I am sorry to be obliged to throw doubt on so pleasant an anecdote." " Quiuneporte soitfermee,'''' &c. The incident is either true, or false, or doubtful ; if so highly doubtful, it has no value. But could it be doubtful when we have Mr. Croker's discovering not only that Fox was notm the chair, but that it was occupied by Gibbon. Our annotator so clings to what he has once broached, that this " leads me to believe," is but a reluctant form of entire withdrawal. Johnson, speaking of the way judges should occupy themselves out of court, declared that: "it is very pro- per a judge should employ what time he has to himself to his own advantage, in the most profitable manner. .... Every judge who has land trades to a certain extent in corn or in cattle, and in the land itself ; un- doubtedly his steward acts for him, and so do clerks for a great merchant." On which Croker b^s: "Yet see ante^ p. 229, how he censured a judge because he wore a round hat in the country, and farmed his own demesne." On "seeing ante, p. 229," we find that Johnson " said he did not approve of a judge's calling himself Farmer Burnett, and going about in a little round hat. He laughed heartily at his lordship's saying he was an enthusiastic farmer. " For," said he, FALLACIES, " MARES'-NESTS," AND DELUSIONS. i6g " wliat can he do in farming by Ms enthusiasm ? " An utter misapprehension. In the one case, Johnson was vindicating the right of the judge to employ his spare time in farming if he fancied it ; in the other, he reprehended the indignity of sinking the judge in the farmer. " A friend of mine," said Johnson, " came to me, and told me that a lady wished to have Dr. Dodd's picture in a bracelet, and asked me for a motto. I said, I could think of no better than Currat LexP On which Croker : "I have been told that the lady was Dr. Dodd's relict ; but if this were so. Dr. Johnson could not have been aware of it ; for however he might disapprove of the wearing it, he would hardly have afficted her with such a speech." The lady was not afflicted with the speech at aU ; it was a joking suggestion of Johnson's to her friend. It is evident that the point of Johnson's rebuke was directed against a strange lady's wishing to carry Dodd's likeness. There could be no objec- tion to the wife carrying her husband's picture. Mr. Croker sees this serious objection, and at once engenders a new theory to support the first, which itself had no support. It was concealed from John- son that it was Mrs. Dodd ! Speaking of Lord Charles Hay, who was tried by court-martial, Johnson said : "I wrote something for 17° CROKER'S BOSWELL. Lord Charles, and I thouglit lie had notliing to fear from a court-martial." " I have looked over," says Croker, " the original minutes of this court-martial, and can find nothing that can be supposed to have been -written by John- son. He meant, perhaps, some defence in the press." Not " perhaps," but to a certainty. Who, but Mr. Croker, could so interpret, "I wrote something for " an officer. Dr. Taylor once sent to ask Johnson to dine, adding that "he had got a hare;" Johnson re- plied, " Tell him I'll dine, hare or rabbit." Says Mr. Croker, "We smUe in these luxurious days at a Prebendary's considering a hare as such a tempting delicacy." No one would be inclined to smile, and there was nothing about "tempting" or " delicacy ;" no more than if Taylor had said, " come and take share of a round of beef to-day." "There was also," says Boswell in the " Hebrides : " " what I cannot help disliking at breakfast, chtese ; it is the custom over all the Highlands to have it ; and it often smells very strong, and poisons to a certain degree the elegance of an Indian repast." On which this strange note : " Mr. Boswell forgets that there were breakfasts before the Indian luxuries of tea and sugar had been introduced : these were the intruders." Neither Boswell nor any one else assumed FALLACIES, " MARES'-NESTS," AND DELUSIONS. 171 "that there were no breakfasts" before tea and sugar came in. He only objected to the strong- smelling cheese. "The Eeverend Dr. Parr," says Boswell, "iu a late tract, appears to suppose that Dr. Johnson not only endured^ hut almost solicited, an interview with Dr. Priestley. In justice to Dr. Johnson, -I declare my firm belief that he never did. My illustrious friend was particularly resolute ia not giviag counte- nance to men whose writings were considered as pernicious to society." Dr. Parr viadicated his state- ment, not literally, it seems to me ; but sufficiently to negatiye the implied boast of Boswell that Johnson would not at all tolerate a person of heterodox views. But Mr. Croker takes the casuistical view : — "Parr endeavoured to support his assertion by evidence, which, however, really contradicted him. For instead of Johnson's having solicited an interview (which was the point in dispute). Dr. Parr is obliged to admit that the meeting was at Mr. Paradise's dinner-table, that Dr. Johnson did not solicit the inter^ view, but was aware that Dr. Priestley was invited, and that he behaved to him with civility ; and then Dr. Parr concludes, in a way that does little credit either to his accuracy or his candour, ' Should Mr. Boswell be pleased to maintain that Dr. Johnson rather consented to the interview, than almost solicited it, I shall not object to the change of expression ' 172 CROKER'S BOSWELL. the mode of expression being a disingenuous surrender of the whole question, leaving Dr. Parr without a shadow of excuse for his misrepresentation." Dr. Johnson was informed that this person was to be at the dinner. By his not absenting himself when he might, he could be said to have " almost solicited " (Dr. Parr's expression) the meeting. In a discussion on opening a friend's eyes to the frailty of his wife, Boswell asked : — " 'Would you tell Mr. ?' (naming a gentle- man who assuredly was not in the least danger of such a miserable disgrace, though married to a fine woman). Johnson. ' No, sir ; because it would do no good ; he is so sluggish, he'd never go to parliament and get through a divorce.' " On which Mr. Croker, much shocked, remarks : — " I fear it will he hut too evident at whose expense Mr. Boswell chose to make so offensive an hypothesis.'''' The allusion was to Mr. Langton. Only the most morbid affectation could see anything offensive here. Two friends are discussing an abstract question, when one, to give the matter more point, supposes the case of a friend, — the hypothesis being not so much his being in the particular position, but how he would behave in consequence. This happens in every conversation, without being set down as an offensive hypothesis. These glosses on the easy remarks of Boswell and his friends are themselves offensive. FALLACIES, " MARES'-NESTS," AND DELUSIONS. 173 Of Lord Lyttelton's inscription on the tomb of Sir James Macdonald, Johnson said it " should have been in Latin, as every thing intended to be universal and permanent should be." The meaning of "universal" being, as indeed he would have said of Latin in the Catholic ritual, that it was addressed to universal readers of all nations and generations. But Croker — " What a strange perversion of language ! — uni- versal ! Why, if it had been in Latin, so far from being universally understood, it would have been an utter blank to one (the better) half of the creation, and, even of the men who might visit it, ninety-nine will understand it in English for one who could in Latin. .... A mortal may surely be well satisfied if his fame lasts as long as the language in which he spoke or wrote." Johnson's poiat, as usual, quite misapprehended. An illustration of the curious spirit in which our commentator goes to his work is shown by his remark on Boswell's statement that " he now refreshed himself by an excursion to Oxford." He finds that this was in July, 1769, and adds, "This extract was there- fore misplaced by Mr. BosweU." But Boswell was not giving his details in strict monthly chronology. " I would ascribe to this year," Boswell says in the paragraph before, and " now " is intended ia the same sense — i.e., " about this time." Mr. Croker assumes that it means "next." 174 CROKER'S BOS WELL. Speaking of Jolmson's morbid melancholy, Boswell said that we judge of the happiness and misery of our life according to the state of our body, and quoting also the remark of a Turkish lady, " Mafoi, monsieur, noire lonheur depend de la fagon que notre sang circule." Mr. Croker gives up the meaning of this plain passage in despair ! " I never yet saw a regular man," writes Johnson, " except Mr. , whose exactness I know only by his own report." On this Mr. Croker's note runs : — " The name in the original manuscript is, as Dr. Hall informed me, Campbell. The Scotch non-juring Bishop Campbell was probably the person meant. See an account of this gentleman, post, Oct. 26, 1773." But this entry is in Johnson's religious diary, and the words seem to point to one alive. This non-juring Bishop Johnson described as dying in London in 1744, nearly eighty years old. He surely means the Dr. Campbell, who carried on a vast number of literary tasks together, and whom he gave up for fear the Scotch should say he learned all from Cawmell. On a barrister saying, in reference to success at the Bar, that " It was by no means true that a man of good parts and application is sure of having business, though he, indeed, allowed that if such a man could hut appear in a few causes, his merit would he Jcnown, and he would get forward ; but that the great risk was, that a man might pass half a lifetime in the courts, FALLACIES, '-MARES'-NESTS," AND DELUSIONS. 175 and never have an opportunity of showing his abilities," "Now," says Boswell, commentiag on this, " at the distance of fifteen years since this conversation passed, the observation which I have had an opportunity of making in "Westminster Hall has convuiced me that, however true the opinion of Dr. Johnson's legal friend may have been some time ago, the same certainty of success cannot now be promised to the same display of merit. The reasons, however, of the rapid rise of some, and the disappoiatment of others equally respectable, are such as it might seem iavidious to mention, and would require a longer detail than would be proper for this work." On which Mr. Croker sets him right : " Mr, BosweU's personal feelings here have clouded his perception, for Johnson's friend was so far from hold- iag out a certainty of success, that he scarcely admitted a probability." An utter perversion of BosweU's words. The legal friend did speak of " certainty of success." " A man," he said, "would ^ get forward'' if he had a few causes." And that Boswell, nicely accurate, had this proviso in his view is shown by his using the words " same display of merit " — i.e., having a few causes. "I mentioned," says BosweU, "that an eminent friend " (Mr. Burke) " of ours, talking of Ijhe common remark, that affection descends, said, that ' this was wisely contrived for the preservation of mankind ; for 176 CROKER'S BOSWELL. wMcli it was not so necessary that there should be affection from children to parents, as from parents to children." Now this seems a pMlosopUe view, and fair ground for so unequal a dispensation for the general pre- servation of mankind. No question of morals entered into the discussion. Mr. Croker supplements the view of this proposal with a theory of his own utterly hors de propos. " "Wisely and mercifully," he says, " wisely, to ensure the preservation and education of children ; and mercifully, to render less afflictive the loss of parents, which, in the course of nature, children must suffer." It wiU be seen that for Mr. Burke's view a good argument is given. Mr. Croker's " merciful " addition is a bit of mere sentiment which, if well founded, would destroy Mr. Burke's argument, as, if it be the feelings of children that are to be considered, parents might claim to be put on the same footing. Talking of expense, Johnson observed with what munificence a great mefthant will spend his money, both from having it at command, and from his en- larged views by calculation of the good effect upon the whole. "Whereas," said he, "you wiU hardly ever find a country gentleman who is not a good deal dis- concerted at an unexpected occasion for his being obliged to lay out ten pounds.'' On which Croker : — . FALLACIES, " MARES'-NESTS;' AND DELUSIONS. 177 "What Johnsoii says is true in fact, but tte main reason is, that the property of a great merchant is more at command, from its convertibility : he draws a check or gives a bill ; but country gentlemen have no means of meeting an unexpected emergency, but a mortgage, or perhaps a fall of timber — both slow and cumbrous expedients." The delicacy of Johnson's observation is all spoiled by this sort of rough analysis. If Johnson be speak- ing of pure munificence or Liberality, he supposes both to be well of£ '^ for the squire can draw his cheque or bill as well as the merchant. But the point is the tone of character in both — the merchant being always ready with his money, the squire hesitating. The idea of mortgage and felling timber in connection with "ten pounds" isfutUe. Donaldson, the Scotch bookseller, who printed and sold in London, as the law entitled him to do, cheap copies of works long out of copyright, and which the English ' ' trade ' ' kept in their hands, is not um-easonably praised by Boswell for his " spirited exertions," while he more particularly referred to his bringing the matter before the House of Lords. Mr. Croker, how- ever, as usual perverting, says : — " It savours of that nationality which Mr. Boswell was so anxious to disclaim, to taUi thus eulogistically of ' the very spirited exertions ' of a piratical book- seller." 178 CROKER'S BOSWELL. It -will be seen there was no piracy save in the opinion of the monopolists: for the law was with him. "Johnson said once to me, * Sir, I honour Derrick for his presence of mind. One night, when Floyd, another poor author, was wandering about the streets in the night, he found Derrick fast asleep upon a bulk : upon being suddenly waked. Derrick started up, * My dear Floyd, I am sorry to see you in this destitute state : will you go home with me to my lodgings ? ' " " No great presence of mind ; for Floyd would have naturally accepted such a proposal, and then Derrick would have been doubly exposed." — Ceoker, Here, again, is the lack of appreciation of a joke. Mr. Croker does not see that Johnson is speaking of the presence of mind that could supply so apt an answer. He trusted to chance for the rest. Then there was the sudden surprise from the readiness of the turn given, which would have the effect of taking back the disturber. Dr. Johnson on one •occasion, mentioned an Italian of some note in London who said to him, " "We have in our service a prayer called the Pater Noster, which is a very fine composition. I wonder who is the author of it." A singular instance of ignorance in a man of some literature and general inquiry. "Mr. Macpherson," says Mr. Croker, "thought that this was Baretti — but of the two I should have FALLACIES, " MARES'-NESTS;' AND DELUSIONS. 179 rather suspected Martinelli ; but it is hardly credible of any one." Croker is wrong. Malone may have related the story to Johnson. Baretti tried to explain it away, as Malone told Sir Joshua, who replied, " This turn which B. now gives the matter was an afterthought, for he once said to me myself, ' There are various opiaions about the writer of that prayer ; some give it to St. Augustiae, some to St. Chrysostom, &c. "What is your opinion ? ' " Mr. Croker speculates a good deal about "who was iatended " ia such allusions as " our eminent friend," " a certain player," " a well-known statesman," and the like. Some of his guesses are good, but others are far-fetched, and can be proved to be wrong. The player whose conversation fed you with a renovation of hope to ead in a constant succession of disappoint- ment, was not Sheridan, as he thinks, but Macklui, as mentioned by Mr. John Taylor. " I remember a lady of quality in this town, Lady , who was a wonderful mimic, and used to make me laugh immoderately. I have heard she is now gone mad." Mrs. Piozzi supplies the name — Lady Emily Harvey. § Mystery as to the Age of Miss Burney and of other Ladies. Mr. Croker' s morbid taste for hunting out the secret of ladies' ages was not a very worthy or N 2 i8o CROKER'S BOS WELL. manly one; and, though it scarcely merited the vituperation of Macaulay, was but further evidence of this unhappy temper. The little fictions by which ladies strive to hide the advances of time are re- garded with good-natured iudulgence ; and where- ever a grim critic makes some discovery of a date inconsistent with feminiue assertion, he either passes it by with a smile, or, if it affect the matter in hand, simply records it by way of' useful correction. But over such discoveries Mr. Croker seems to gloat as over the detection of some conspiracy to defraud. He calls aloud to all the world, and bids it note how he had found out the creature in an attempt to pass off a false age upon the town. Where he suspected such imposition, he would take immense paius to discover the truth, hunting up dates, search- ing registers, &c. As usual, this eagerness to unveil imaginary fraud led him into pitfalls or "mare's-nests," so often the fate of those whose eyes are blinded by prejudices. One of these is the grand question of Miss Bumey's age. This lady, the " pet " of Dr. Johnson, and the friend of so many "Johnsonians," would have been a valuable auxiliary for the Editor of Boswell's work. She had declined, however, to assist Mr. Boswell himself, and had also given Mr. Croker a similar refusal. Hence, according to Lord Macaulay, arose the fury of our critic, though this one would be inclined to doubt; FALLACIES, " MARES'-NESTS;' AND DELUSIONS. i8i for Mr. Croker's delight in a damaging discovery- was snch tliat lie •would not scruple, and, indeed, could not help, sacrificing a friend in such a case. One of the favourite and most pleasing literary traditions is connected with the production of " Eve- lina." The interesting feature was the private and unobtrusive mode of its composition and entrance into the world ; and the fact of a work containing such strongly-marked characters being written by a girl, or, at least, a young person. In his distempered view, the whole was as great a myth as the sinking of the "Vengeur." Miss Bumey had made herseH out to be a young girl instead of a woman when the work was written, and the work itself, whether written by girl or woman, was but a poor thing after all. Her father, too, and, indeed, aU who knew anything of the matter, seem to have entered heartily into this strange con- federacy, viz., to represent her some eight or ten years younger than she reaUy was, and therefore a prodigy. Xow to hear 3Ir. Croker : — " We must now revert to the suspicion which we have before expressed, that a little literary vanity has occasioned the remarkable suppression of dates in the earlier portion of these Memoirs ; and this leads U5 to the extraordinary and interesting account of Madame d'Arblay's first appearance in the Kterary world. At the age of seventeen, as we have always 1 82 CROA'ER'S BOS]VEL/..\ seen and heard it stated, Miss Fanny Burnoy — without the knowledge of her father — without any suspicion on the part of her family and friends that she had any literary turn or capacity whatso- ever — published anonymously her colchi'aidd novel of 'Evelina, or a Young Lady'n Enti'unco into the World.' '' ' Her first work, " Evelina," ' suys lier father, Dr. Bumey, 'was written by stealth, in a closet up two pair of stairs, that was u[)propriiit(;(l to the younger children a.t a plajj-room. No one was let into the secret but my third daughter, afterwards Mrs. Phillips; though even to licr it was luivcr roiul till printed, from want of private opportunity. * * * The book had been six months published before I even heard its name; which I Icamt at last Avithout her knowledge. But great, indeed, was then my surprise, to find that it was then in general rea deal upon Dr. Johnson, of which. Sir, I leave you and your readers to discern the motives. "Miss Seward may be assured that she is as much mistaken as to me as she is as to Dr. Johnson. I am not her foe, though I committed to the flames those sheets of ^Johnsonian Narratives'' with which I was favoured by her, among the almost innumerable communications which I obtained concerning the illustrious subject of my great biographical work. I, however, extracted from those sheets all that I could possibly consider to be authentic. I^ay, so desirous was I to give Miss Seward every advantage, that, after refuting the impossible legend of Johnson's verses on a Duck when he was but three years old, to which, for a woman! s reason^ she still pertinaciously adheres, I preserved the ingenious reflections which she, supposing it to be true, had made on that idle tale. I am not her /oe, though I cannot alloAV that the censure of Bacon by Pope, that Prince of Poets, who could ' Expatiate free o'er all this scene of man,' 294 BOSWELL. is any reason wliy it is not presumptuous in Miss Nancy Seward to judge and condemn Dr. Johnsok, * the brightest ornament of the eighteenth century,' as ]\Ir. Malone has truly and elegantly described him. I am not her foe; though instead of joining in the republican cry as she does, that Johnson has been unjust to Milton, I declare my admiration of his very liberal and just praise of that great Pofet, who "vras the most odious character, both in public and private, of any man of genius that ever lived ; in public, the defender of the murderers of his sovereign, the blessed mai-tyr ; in private, the sulky tyrant over his own wretched, uneducated, and helpless daughters. " Why should I be my fair antagonist's foe ? Sh& never did me any harm, nor do I apprehend that she ever can. She protests against entering further into a paper war with me. If there be such war it is all on one side, for it is not in my thoughts. That kind of conflict is not what I wish to have with ladies ; and I really must complain that my old friend (if she wiU forgive the expressicjp) should represent me so unlike myself. " It is very hard that Miss Seward's misconceiving a witty retort for a false assertion, should subject her to so woeful a deception as to imagine Doctor Johnson in any degree deficient in a sacred regard for truth. It is not in my power to make the distinction plainer than I have made it in my former letter. BOSWELL'S "DISLIKES." 29; "The lady quotes as gemiine a sarcasm of Doctor Johnson on Lord Chesterfield, in these words: 'He is a -vrit among Lords, and a Lord among -wits,' Trhich, it seems, she has heard repeated by numhers. Here is a proof of the justice of the late Mr. Fitzherbert's observation that it is not eyeryone that can carry a bon mot. This representation of Johnson's saying is flat and unmeaning, indeed. "WMt he did say is recorded at p. 238, vol. i. of my book, vrhich [Miss Seward handsomely, and I believe siucerely styles, ' interesting memoirs.' ' This man I thought had been a Lord among ■vrits ; but I find he is only a wit among Lords.' It would, therefore, be better if Miss Seward would not boast of aU the communications concerning Johnson, as ' conveying strong internal evidence of their verity from chai-acteiistic turn of ex- pression ; ' nor would it be any disadvantage to her if she should sometimes distrust the accuracy of her memory (I seriously protest, I mean no more.) "The detection of so considerable a mistake should make !Miss Seward not so sure of having read, either in Dr. Johnson's works or in the records of his Biographers, an assertion concerning Dr. Watts, which she calls 'a base stigma and slander, and unchristian-like ; " * and pours forth in her customary * Miss Sewaid had accused Johnson of stating that " Watts was one of the few poets who could look forward with rational hope to the mercy of their Glod." It was thi? sentiment that she stigmatised so vehemently. 296 BO SWELL. manner a profusion of words and abuse. It is not in the life of that excellent man ; and if Miss Seward has read it anywhere, she has read what was not true. That poets and poetesses also have too often been not of the most exemplary lives, is universally known ; but Dr. Johnson never uttered such a sen- tence as Miss Seward imputes to him. She, indeed, seems doomed to perpetual terror, for she mentions a sentence quoted by her anonymous correspondent from Warburton, which she, with all imaginable ease, calls impious ; when, in truth, that admirable sentence is not quoted from "Warburton, and was not written by Warburton, but by a most distinguished author now alive.* " Let me ask, also, if it be fair in Miss Seward to quote the passage which I have quoted from Bishop Newton unfavourable to Dr. Johnson, leave out the apology which I have made for that prelate, namely, ' the disgust and peevishness of old age ' : as also the general and permanent opinion which Bishop Newton entertained of Dr. Johnson, of whom he says in the same passage : ' tlifit he respected him, not only for his genius and learning, but valued him much more for the more amiable part of his character, his humanity and charity, his morality and religion.' Miss Seward dreams that I have insinuated ' envy and selfish prejudice against her,' in my defensive * Bishop Hard. BOSWELL'S "DISLIKES." 297 letter ; for this, after reading it over again and again, I cannot perceive the smallest foundation. She may make herself quite easy on that head, for I don't even suspect that my fair antagonist (' herself all the nine,')* envies any human being. Neither am I at all con- scions of ' heroical attempts to injure a defenceless iemale, (meaning herself), with which she charges me.f " ' How canst thou, lovely Nancy, thus cruelly — ? ' Is it an injury to mention in civil terms that she has been misinformed as to a fact ? Is it an injury to re- prehend with generous warmth, her nialevolent attacks on 'my Guide, Philosopher, and Friend.' "Would that she were q/ienceless ! J:iaI and impullii^i lines '.z:l !Mj5S Hi'iki' an. plajiiig on the Sr jiet. " 1 fiss^e folio : antogiaph atteste^i by J. TurtoTi. "To Cfain," irith t!ie full ^■ ^-it,-^--> : , rLziiiil Slip intended for the Dietionaiy. The first ten pages of the "Life -if Bo^e." eiLtirely a"jgpraph- -An extremely cntions Doenment relating to the Clnb " : nith memoranda of motiozLs made, votes taken," k^:. Oi Mr. Poi-re. ttIio had put tip t J be I'allotO'i ft. Dr. -Johitv::! Trrites : ■• Mr. Poore is a very proper man. and a maTi of sreat knowle^ise." ZS'orsrithstati'iiiLS' tii? Liirii reo-oti- mendation. Mr. P>jre was not elected. (May. 17S0.) " To Mrs. TLrile." Stie. Sept. 6, 177-i. descrip- tive of his triveis in. Soot!and — scareity of trees — ^I>rui'iic-il remains. Banff, T l r"^. Torres, -over the heath where Macbeth met the Ttitch^ bnt had no adTentcr«? Mre beggars than I have ever seen in Ett^liU'L * Xairn, Tort Ge-.-rge. ItiTeitiess, Tort-Ati^nistus, Glenmorrison, " here we had esgs, and mtLtt r. and a chicken, and a sansage, and ram- In the afternoon tea was made by a Tery decent girl in a printed linen, Slie etn'sge'i me s :■ mnch, that I made her a present of • C'xker" s Aiithmetiek." "" A laise nnmber oi Dr. Tavlor s letters — Johnson's old friend — urere also in Mr. Poc-ock's collection. These irere written almost ut the crave'- edir:-. and irere of 302 BOSWELL. a very earnest, almost pathetic land. "We may ■wonder -why these were kept back from Boswell. They appear better than the very few supplied. But Dr. Taylor seems to have been sought by the various biographers. For thus writes Mrs. Piozzi : — " Do you know who Dr. Taylor gives his anecdotes to ? Dr. Johnson bid me once ask Mm for memoirs, if I was the survivor ; and so I would, but I am afraid of a refusal, as I guess Sir Jolin Hawkins is already in possession of all that Dr. Taylor has to bestow. There lives, however, at Birmingham, a surgeon, Mr. Edward Hector, whom, likewise, Mr. Johnson referred me to : he once saw Mr. Thrale and me, and, perhaps, would be more kind, and more likely to relate such things as I wish to hear, — could you go between us and coax him." Even the few scraps quoted from these Taylor letters in the catalogue are of interest : — {June Qth, 1780.) " Be sure whatever else you do to keep your mind easy & do not let little things disturb you, bustle abou^ your hay and your cattle and keep yourself busy with such things as give you little solicitude." {Dec. 1th, 1782.) "I am now willing to resume the offices of life." [Sept. 2ith, 1783.) "My case is what you think it, of the worst kind," " Nothing to be done but by the Jrnife." {Oct. 20ih, 1783.) "Your prohibition to write till the operation is performed, is likely, if I OLLA PODRIDA. 303 observed it, to interrupt our correspondence for a long time." {Nov. 19th, 1783.) Letter of advice for the .preservation of Ms health.. "No worldly thing but your health is now worth your thought. If anything troublesome comes, drive it away without a parley."* (Jan. 3rd, 1784.) "I scarce get any sleep, what I haA-e is in a chair. My lower parts begin to swell. May we aU be received to mercy." (Oct. 20th, 1784.) €omplainiug of his faihng health. "But I go on hoping & hoping, no pity and trying and trying." { Oct. 2ord, 1784.) " Coming down from a very restless night, I find your letter, which made me a little angry; you tell me that recovery is in my power, this indeed I should be glad to hear, if I could once believe it, but you mean to charge me with neglecting or opposing my own health, tell me, therefore, what I do that hurts me, and what I neglect that would help me. TeU it as soon as you can." This was Dr. Johnson's last letter to Dr. Taylor, and is thus endorsed in the handwriting of Dr. Taylor : — " This is the last letter; my answer, which were the words of advice, he gave to Mr. Thrale the day he died, he resented extremely from me. Some person has torn off the bottom." A small Pocket Book, originally belonging to and used by Dr. Johnson, and containing memoranda of a medical natui-e in his * Some of these entries aie taken from Mr. Harvey's and other Johnsonian catalogues. 304 BOS WELL. liandwriting. At his death it came into possession of Francis Barber, his black servant, and subsequently into that of Mr. Pocoek. Autograph Letter, signed. Addressed to the Eer. Dr. Taylor. (Dated June 2Srd.) Speaks of his illness and various matters. " Boswell has a great mind to draw me to Lichfield, and as I love to travel with him, I have a mind to be drawn," and other observations of interest. (Feb. 9th, 1775.) Eef er- ring to some matter ia dispute: "I do not conceive myself able to judge the question between you and that wild woman — I consider her as the slave of her own appetite, as a being that acts only but by the grossest motives," entreats him if the cause is tried to push it on as fast as he can that he may rid his mind of the anxiety — is alarmed at what he says of his state of perturbation — advises him not to trust himself alone, &c. ; concludes, "Take great care of your health both of body and mind, and do not let melancholy thoughts lay hold on you." (Ma?/ Brd, 1777.) " Mr. Lucas has just been with me, he has compelled me to read his Jpagedy, which is but a poor performance, and yet may perhaps put money into his pocket, it contains nothing immoral or indecent & therefore we may very reasonably wish it success." (Dec. 20th, 1783.) " I am very severely crushed by my old spasm, which suffering mo to get no sleep in the night necessarily condemns the day to sluggish- ness and idleness. I am indeed exceedingly dis- OLLA PODRIDA. 305 tressed." {June 2Zrd, 1773.) Friendly letter of condolence. " Do not lie down and suffer without struggle or resistance. I fancy tliat neither of us uses exercise enough." (Jan. 2nd, 1742.) Speaking of Mrs. Johnson's illness. {Oct 2w^, 1765.) "My Shakespere is now out of my hands." " I think it time that we should see one another & .spend a little of our short life together." As we now draw to the close of this little work, WQ will turn again to our faithful chronicler, whose moods are ever iateresting. It may be said that in aU his letters is revealed a lonhomie and good-nature which is attractive, and reveals the secret of the favour with which he' was welcomed. Here are two of his letters never before published : — " BiCKHAM, NEAR PLYMOUTH. " 21s« Sept., 1792. " My Lord, — On my way to Cornwall, to visit our worthy friend Temple, I intended, according to your Lordship's obliging invitation, to have payed my respects to your Lordship and Lady Lisbume at Mamhead ; but I found myself hurried, and deferred it till my return. My two eldest daughters are with me, and, if not inconvenient, will do ourselves the honour to dine at Mamhead on Monday next. I request that your Lordship will take the trouble to let me know by a note, which I shall inquire for at the 3o6 BOSIVELL. post-house at Chudleigh. My daughters join me in respectful compliments. " And I ever am, my Lord, your Lordship's most obedient, humble, servant, "james boswell," "Great Portland Street, " nth, June, 1791. "My deae Loed, — Sir Eichard Symons having asked me to a very pleasant dinner party to-morro-w, I shall not have the honour of making my bows in "Windsor Castle till Sunday morning. My son shall obey your Lordship's summons, and learn from his father to respect John Carlisle, as Sir Joseph Bankes calls your Lordship — of whom I ever am, with all sincerity, your much obliged and faithful servant." Finally, I shall give as a honne bouche an extract from a judgment on copyright delivered by Boswell's father, the eccentric Lord Auchinleck : — " This question is new and interesting. TUl very lately, it never received a judgment in any court of Europe. It has received but one, and that in Eng- land, the laws of which country are, ia many particu- lars, special to itself ; and when it was there determined, the court was divided. "We have had the question ably handled in mutual iaf ormation, both of them well drawn ; in particular, that on the side of the defenders is a performance which does honour to the author. "We have likewise 01. LA PODRIDA. 3o7 had laboured and long pleadings, and are now to give our opinions. " In tlie entry, I cannot help observing that it has been well said by a wise man. Nil tarn absurdum quod no dicendo fit prolalile. By mucli labouring any subject, the attention is apt to be drawn away from the real merits, and run into extraneous matter, as I think that has been the case here, and that the diversity of opinions has been owing to it. In the opinion I am to give, I shall endeavour to confine myself to the proper merits of the case, without launching out into many of the learned arguments both sides have insisted on. " I'H own that the cause, when stripped of extra- neous matter, does not appear to me to be difficult. The question is, whether he who writes a book and publishes it, has by common law, independent of any statute or privilege granted him by the State, a per- petual property in that performance, in the same way as he had before publishing ? "It is agreed by all that, while the book is not published, whether the work be in the author's head or his cabinet, it is absolutely his, and no man can deprive him of it. But the question is, if this right continues after publication ? "There has been much said on the necessary conse- quence from its being once owned to be a man's property, that it should continue to be so. But, 3o8 BOSWELL. with submission^ the reasoning appears to me not just. My thoughts are mine so long as I retain them in my miad; but if I utter them, nescit'vox missa reverti, every hearer has a right to them as much as I. A man need not speak in company unless he chooses it; but if he speaks, and does not enjoin secrecy, every man may propagate the saying with impunity. If a man throws out a thing in company, whether instructive or entertaining, can he maintain that he has a right of property ia this Ion mot to him and his for ever ? And here I beg to say, unless it can be shown there is a right of property in what a person utters verbally, there can be none in what he pub- lishes to aU mankind by printing it. Indeed, when a man publishes his thoughts, he gives them away stUl more than the man who utters them in conver- sation. The latter gives them only to his hearers ; but the former to the whole habitable earth. " For illustrating this : suppose several people well acquainted with this country should go up to the castle of Edinburgh, and one of them, who liked speaking, should immediately describe all the objects he saw from it, would he acquire a right ever after to that description, and would he, by printing it, create a right not in him before ? " THE END. BEADBTIKV, AONEW, & CO., PBINTERS, WHITEFKIABS. II, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, W.C. {Late 193, Piccadilly, W.) November, 1881. CATALOGUE OF BOOKS PUBLISHED BY CHAPMAN & HALL, LIMITED, INCLUDING DRAWING EXAMPLES, DIAGRAMS, MODELS, INSTRUMENTS, ETC. 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THE LYMPHATICS OR ABSORBENTS. 6. THE ORGANS OF DIGESTION. 7. THE BRAIN AND NERVES.— THE ORGANS OF THE VOICE. 8. THE ORGANS OF THE SENSES. 9. THE ORGANS OF THE SENSES. 10. THE MICROSCOPIC STRUCTURE OF THE TEXTURES AND ORGANS. II. THE MICROSCOPIC STRUCTURE OF THE TEXTURES AND ORGANS. HUMAN BODY, LIFE SIZE. By John Marshall, F.R.S., F.R.C.S. Each Sheet, I2S. 6d. ; on canvas and rollers, varnished, ^z is. Explanatory Key, is. I. THE SKELETON, Front View. z. THE MUSCLES, Front View. 3. THE SKELETON, Back View. 4. THE MUSCLES, Back View. 5. THE SKELETON, Side View. 6. THE MUSCLES, Side View. 7. THE FEMALE SKELETON, Front View. ZOOLOGICAL : TEN SHEETS. Illustrating the Classification of Animals. By Robert Patterson. £,a ; on canvas and rollers, varnished, ;^3_ los. The same, reduced in size on Royal paper, in 9 Sheets, uncoloured, 12s. 32 CHAPMAN &• HALL, LIMlTEt). THE FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW Kdited by JOHN MORLKY. 'pHE FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW is published on the ist of every month (the issue on the 15th being suspended), and a Volume is completed every Six Months. The following are among the Contributors : — SIR RUTHERFORD ALCOCK. MATHEW ARNOLD. PROFESSOR BAIN. PROFESSOR BEESLY. DR. BRIDGES. HON. GEORGE C. BRODRICK SIR GEORGE CAMPBELL, M.P. J. CHAMBERLAIN, M.P. PROFESSOR SIDNEY COLVIN. MONTAGUE COOKSON, Q.C L. H. COURTNEY, M.P. G. H. DARWIN. F. W. FARRAR. PROFESSOR F.A.WCETT, M.P. EDWARD A. FREEMAN. MRS. GARRET-ANDERSON. M. E. GRANT DUFF. M.P. THOMAS HARE. F. HARRISON. LORD HOUGHTON. PROFESSOR HUXLEY. PROFESSOR JEVONS. ^MILE DE LAVELEYE. T. E. CLIFFE LESLIE. RIGHT HON. R. LOWE, M.P. SIR JOHN LUBBOCK, M.P. LORD LYTTON. SIR H. S. MAINE. DR. MAUDSLEY. PROFESSOR MAX MULLER. PROFESSOR HENRY MORLEY. G. OSBORNE MORGAN, Q.C, M.P. WILLIAM MORRIS. F. W. NEWMAN. W. G. PALGRAVE. WALTER H. PATER. RT. HON. LYON PLAYFAIR, M.P. DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI. HERBERT SPENCER. HON. E. L. STANLEY. SIR J. 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