"when I was in the Isle of Skye, I heard of the people running to take the stones off the road, lest Lady Margaret's horse should stumble."

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

On Friday, April 16, I had been present at the trial of the unfortunate Mr. Hackman, who, in a fit of frantic jealous love, had shot Miss Ray, the favourite of a nobleman.' Johnson, in whose company I dined to-day with some other friends, was much interested by my account of what passed, and particularly with his prayer for the mercy of Heaven. He said, in a solemn fervid tone, "I hope he shall find mercy."

This day a violent altercation arose between Johnson and

'His lordship was twenty-four. Lord Graham soon after allied himself with Mr. Pitt, and was a steady Tory to his death.-Croker.

2 John, sixth Earl of Sandwich, at this time first Lord of the Admiralty. -Croker.

3 At a meeting of the Club, Friday, April 16, 1779, when Dr. Johnson was president and the following members were present: Lord Althorp, Sir Charles Bunbury, Topham Beauclerk, James Boswell, Joseph Banks, Sir Joshua Reynolds, George Steevens. The young nobleman and the eminent traveller mentioned in this anecdote, were, therefore, Lord Althorp and Joseph Banks, with neither of whom Johnson had before dined at the Club. They had been elected members of it in December of the preceding year. Hence, as we see, Johnson justified his severity: neither of these young members were to be allowed to infer that such liberties as Beauclerk had, as he thought, taken with him, were ever to be permitted

Beauclerk, which having made much noise at the time, I think it proper, in order to prevent any future misrepresentation, to give a minute account of it.

it at once.

In talking of Hackman, Johnson argued, as Judge Blackstone had done, that his being furnished with two pistols was a proof that he meant to shoot two persons. Mr. Beauclerk said, "No; for that every wise man who intended to shoot himself took two pistols, that he might be sure of doing Lord's cook shot himself with one pistol, and lived ten days in great agony. 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 himself, 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 Johnson, with an air of triumph, "you see here one pistol was sufficient." Beauclerk replied smartly, "Because it happened to kill him." And either then or a very little afterwards, being piqued at Johnson's triumphant remark, added, "This is what you don't know, and I do." There was then a cessation of the dispute; and some minutes intervened, during which, dinner and the glass went on cheerfully; when Johnson suddenly and abruptly exclaimed, "Mr. Beauclerk, how came you to talk so petulantly to me, as 'This is what you don't know, but what I know?' One thing I know which you don't seem to know, that you are very uncivil." BEAUCLERK. "Because you began by being uncivil (which you always are)." The words in parentheses were, I believe, not heard by Dr. Johnson. Here again there was a cessation of arms. Johnson told me, that the reason why he waited at first some time without

to them. The gentleman who, with Johnson, continued to sit with Beauclerk, after the other members had left, was no doubt Boswell himself. I am indebted to the obliging courtesy of 'Mr. Reeve, the secretary of the Club, for the above list of the members present at this noted meeting.-Editor.

taking any notice of what Mr. Beauclerk said, was because he was thinking whether he should resent it. But when he considered that there were present a young lord and an eminent traveller, two men of the world, with whom he had never dined before, he was apprehensive that they might think they had a right to take such liberties with him as Beauclerk did, and therefore resolved he would not let it pass; adding, "that he would not appear a coward." A little while after this, the conversation turned on the violence of Hackman's temper. Johnson then said, "It was his business to command his temper, as my friend, Mr. Beauclerk, should have done some time ago." BEAUCLERK. "I should learn of you, Sir." JOHNSON. "Sir, you have given me opportunities enough of learning, when I have been in your company. No man loves to be treated with contempt." BEAUCLERK (with a polite inclination towards Johnson). "Sir, you have known me twenty years, and however I may have treated others, you may be sure I could never treat you with contempt." JOHNSON. "Sir, you have said more than was necessary." Thus it ended; and Beauclerk's coach not having come for him till very late, Dr. Johnson and another gentleman sat with him a long time after the rest of the company were gone; and he and I dined at Beauclerk's on the Saturday se'nnight following.

After this tempest had subsided, I recollect the following particulars of his conversation:

"I am always for getting a boy forward in his learning; for that is a sure good. I would let him at first read any English book which happens to engage his attention; because you have done a great deal, when you have brought him to have entertainment from a book. He'll get better books afterwards."

"Mallet, I believe, never wrote a single line of his projected life of the Duke of Marlborough. He groped for materials, and thought of it, till he had exhausted his mind. Thus it sometimes happens that men entangle themselves in their own schemes."