so much his care, that when he met a tall woman, he immediately commanded one of his Titanian retinue to marry her, that they might propagate procerity." For this Anglo-Latin word procerity, Johnson had, however, the authority of Addi

son.

His reviews are of the following books :-"Birch's History of the Royal Society;"+"Murphy's Gray's-Inn Journal;" + "Warton's Essay on the Writings and Genius of Pope, vol. i. ;"+"Hampton's Translation of Polybius;" + "Blackwell's Memoirs of the Court of Augustus; "+ "Russell's Natural History of Aleppo;" + "Sir Isaac Newton's Arguments in Proof of a Deity;"+ "Borlase's History of the Isles of Scilly;"+"Holme's Experiments on Bleaching; "+" Brown's Christian Morals;"+"Hales on distilling Sea-Water, Ventilators in Ships, and curing an ill Taste in Milk;"+"Lucas's Essay on Waters;"+"Keith's Catalogue of the Scottish Bishops;"+"Browne's History of Jamaica;" + "Philosophical Transactions, vol. xlix. ;" + "Mrs. Lenox's Translation of Sully's Memoirs ; "* Miscellanies, by Elizabeth Harrison; "+"Evans's Map and Account of the Middle Colonies in America;"+"Letter on the Case of Admiral Byng ; " * "Appeal to the People concerning Admiral Byng ;"*"Hanway's Eight Days' Journey, and Essay on Tea ;"* “The Cadet, a Military Treatise;"+"Some further Particulars in relation to the Case of Admiral Byng, by a Gentleman of Oxford: "* "The Conduct of the Ministry relating to the present War impartially examined;"† "A Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil."* All these, from internal evidence, were written by Johnson: some of them I know he avowed, and have marked them with an asterisk accordingly. Mr. Thomas Davies, indeed, ascribed to him the Review of Mr. Burke's "Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful;" and Sir John Hawkins, with equal discernment, has inserted it in his collection of Johnson's works: whereas it has no resemblance to Johnson's composition, and is well known to have been written by Mr. Murphy, who has acknowledged it to me and many others.

It is worthy of remark, in justice to Johnson's political character, which has been misrepresented as abjectly submissive to power,1 that his "Observations on the present State of Affairs," glow with as animated a spirit of constitutional liberty as can be found anywhere. Thus he begins:

"The time is now come, in which every Englishman expects to be informed of the national affairs; and in which he has a right to have that expectation gratified. For, whatever may be urged by ministers, or those whom vanity or interest make the followers of ministers, concerning the necessity of confidence in our governors, and the presumption of prying with profane eyes into the recesses of policy, it is evident that this reverence can be claimed only by counsels yet unexecuted, and projects suspended in deliberation. But when a design has ended in miscarriage or success, when every eye and every ear is witness to general discontent, or general satisfaction, it is then a proper time to disentangle confusion and illustrate obscurity; to shew by what causes every event was produced, and in what effects it is likely to terminate; to lay down with distinct particularity what rumour always huddles in general exclamation, or perplexes by indigested narratives; to shew whence happiness or calamity is derived, and whence it may be expected; and honestly to lay before the people what inquiry can gather of the past, and conjecture can estimate of the future."

Here we have it assumed as an incontrovertible principle, that in this country the people are the superintendents of the conduct and measures of those by whom government is administered; of the beneficial effect of which the present reign afforded an illustrious example, when addresses from all parts

1 Dr. Johnson's political bias is nowhere, that I know, represented as having been, at this date," abjectly submissive to power." On the contrary, he was supposed, and with some justice, to be adverse to the reigning house and its successive ministers. The charge (which Mr. Boswell thus ingeniously evades) was, that after the grant of his pension he became too " submissive to power;" but the truth is, that in spite of his party bias, Johnson was always a friend to discipline in the political, as in the social world; and although he joined in the clamour against Walpole, and hated George the Second, his general disposition was always to support the monarchical part of the constitution.-Croker.

of the kingdom controlled an audacious attempt to introduce a new power subversive of the crown.'

A still stronger proof of his patriotic spirit appears in his review of an "Essay on Waters, by Dr. Lucas," of whom, after describing him as a man well known to the world for his daring defiance of power, when he thought it exerted on the side of wrong, he thus speaks:

"The Irish ministers drove him from his native country by a proclamation, in which they charge him with crimes of which they never intended to be called to the proof, and oppressed him by methods equally irresistible by guilt and innocence. Let the man thus driven into exile, for having been the friend of his country, be received in every other place as a confessor of liberty; and let the tools of power be taught in time, that they may rob, but cannot impoverish."

Some of his reviews in this Magazine are very short accounts of the pieces noticed, and I mention them only that Dr. Johnson's opinion of the works may be known; but many of them are examples of elaborate criticism, in the most masterly style. In his review of the "Memoirs of the Court of Augustus," he has the resolution to think and speak from his own mind, regardless of the cant transmitted from age to age, in praise of the ancient Romans. Thus: "I know not why any one but a schoolboy in his declamation should whine over the Commonwealth of Rome, which grew great only by the misery of the rest of mankind. The Romans, like others, as soon as they grew rich, grew corrupt; and in their corruption sold the lives and freedoms of themselves, and of one another." Again: "A people, who while they were poor robbed mankind; and as soon as they became rich robbed one another."-In his

1 Mr. Boswell means Mr. Fox's celebrated India Bill, as an adversary of which he distinguished himself as much as a man in a private station could do.-Croker.

2 Dr. Lucas was an apothecary in Dublin (afterwards M.D.), who brought himself into public notice and a high degree of popularity by his writings and speeches against the government. He was elected representative of Dublin in 1761; and a marble statue to his honour is erected in the Royal Exchange of that city. He died in Nov. 1771.-Croker.

review of the "Miscellanies" in prose and verse, published by Elizabeth Harrison, but written by many hands, he gives an eminent proof at once of his orthodoxy and candour.

6

"The authors of the essays in prose seem generally to have imitated, or tried to imitate, the copiousness and luxuriance of Mrs. Rowe. This, however, is not all their praise; they have laboured to add to her brightness of imagery, her purity of sentiment. The poets have had Dr. Watts before their eyes; a writer, who, if he stood not in the first class of genius, compensated that defect by a ready application of his powers to the promotion of piety. The attempt to employ the ornaments of romance in the decoration of religion, was, I think, first made by Mr. Boyle's Martyrdom of Theodora ;' but Boyle's philosophical studies did not allow him time for the cultivation of style: and the completion of the great design was reserved for Mrs. Rowe. Dr. Watts was one of the first who taught the Dissenters to write and speak like other men, by shewing them that elegance might consist with piety. They would have both done honour to a better society, for they had that charity which might well make their failings be forgotten, and with which the whole Christian world wish for communion. They were pure from all the heresies of an age, to which every opinion is become a favourite that the universal church has hitherto detested! This praise the general interest of mankind requires to be given to writers who please and do not corrupt, who instruct and do not weary. But to them all human eulogies are vain, whom I believe applauded by angels, and numbered with the just."

His defence of Tea against Mr. Jonas Hanway's violent attack upon that elegant and popular beverage, shows how very well a man of genius can write upon the slightest subject, when he writes, as the Italians say, con amore: I suppose no person ever enjoyed with more relish the infusion of that fragrant leaf than Johnson. The quantities which he drank of it at all hours were so great, that his nerves must have been uncommonly strong, not to have been extremely relaxed by such an intemperate use of it.' He assured me, that he never felt

'In this review, Johnson candidly describes himself as "a hardened and shameless tea-drinker, who has for many years diluted his meals with only the infusion of this fascinating plant; whose kettle has scarcely time to

the least inconvenience from it; which is a proof that the fault of his constitution was rather a too great tension of fibres, than the contrary. Mr. Hanway wrote an angry answer to Johnson's review of his "Essay on Tea," and Johnson, after a full and deliberate pause, made a reply to it; the only instance, I believe, in the whole course of his life, when he condescended to oppose anything that was written against him. I suppose, when he thought of any of his little antagonists, he was ever justly aware of the high sentiment of Ajax in Ovid:

"Iste tulit pretium jam nunc certaminis hujus,

Qui, cùm victus erit, mecum certasse feretur.”

But, indeed, the good Mr. Hanway laid himself so open to ridicule, that Johnson's animadversions upon his attack were chiefly to make sport.

The generosity with which he pleads the cause of Admiral Byng is highly to the honour of his heart and spirit. Though Voltaire affects to be witty upon the fate of that unfortunate officer, observing that he was shot "pour encourager les autres,"1

cool; who with tea amuses the evening, with tea solaces the midnights, and with tea welcomes the morning." This last phrase his friend, Tom Tyers, happily parodied, “te veniente die-te decedente." The Rev. Mr. Parker, of Henley, is in possession of a tea-pot which belonged to Dr. Johnson, and which contains above two quarts.-Croker.

1 See Candide, chap. xxiii. Voltaire's Œuvres, tom. 44, p. 311: "... mais dans ce pays-ci (l'Angleterre) il est bon de tuer de temps en temps un amiral pour encourager les autres."

But Voltaire did more than indulge in mere witticisms. He acted with a generosity which he often displayed. In a letter to the Duc de Richelieu, under the date Dec. 20, 1756, Voltaire tells him that an Englishman had recently called to lament the fate of Byng; that he had communicated to this English friend of the Admiral the opinion, which the Duke had expressed to himself, that Byng was not in fault but had done all he could; that the Englishman at once remarked that, if De Richelieu's favourable opinion of the conduct of General Blakeney had made that General a peer, the Marshal's declaration concerning Byng might save his reputation and life. Voltaire asked and obtained permission to make it known. Correspond. Générale, Lettre 214, Euv. tom. 55, p. 385. This letter was sent to the Secretary of State, to be used for Byng's justification. But all was in vain; though Voltaire failed not to tell the Duke