Tour to the Northern Parts of Europe;' a very agreeable ingenious man ;1 Dr. Warren, Mr. Pepys, the Master in Chancery,2 whom I believe you know, and Dr. Barnard, the Provost of Eton. As soon as Dr. Johnson was come in, and had taken a chair, the company began to collect round him, till they became not less than four, if not five, deep; those behind standing, and listening over the heads of those that were sitting near him. The conversation for some time was chiefly between Dr. Johnson and the Provost of Eton, while the others contributed occasionally their remarks. Without attempting to detail the particulars of the conversation, which, perhaps, if I did, I should spin my account to a tedious length, I thought, my dear Sir, this general account of the respect with which our valued friend was attended to, might be acceptable." "TO THE REVEREND DR. FARMER. "SIR, May 25, 1780. "I know your disposition to second any literary attempt, and therefore venture upon the liberty of entreating you to procure from College or University registers, all the dates or other informations which they can supply relating to Ambrose Philips, Broome, and Gray, who were all at Cambridge, and of whose lives I am to give such accounts as I can gather. Be pleased to forgive this trouble from, Sir, "Your most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." 1 Mr. Nathaniel Wraxal was an eminent traveller and historical writer. In 1771 he acted as Judge Advocate and Paymaster of the Forces for the presidency of Bombay. He published several interesting Tours; but his last and most important work was his "Historical Memoirs of his own Times," brought out in 1815, in which appeared a libel on Count Woronzow, the Russian Ambassador, for which he was sentenced to six months' imprisonment. In 1813, Mr. Wraxal was created a baronet. He died at Dover, while on his way to Naples, in 1831, aged 80.-ED. 2 Afterwards Sir Wm. Waller Pepys, and the father of Lord Chancellor Cottenham. He was a great friend of Mrs. Thrale's, and Johnson, it is said, was extremely jealous of the esteem in which he was held.-ED. JOHNSON'S ACCOUNT OF THE RIOTS OF LONDON-LORD GEORGE GORDON COMMITTED TO THE TOWER-JOHN WILKES-CONDUCT OF MR. AKERMAN, GOVERNOR OF NEWGATE CORRESPONDENCE-BOSWELL'S BROTHER DAVID-DR. BEATTIE DAVIES' MEMOIRS OF GARRICK-DR. DUNBAR-ADVICE TO DIVINES-JOHNSON'S INSTRUCTIONS ON THE COMPOSITION OF SERMONS CIVILIZATION OF A PARISHDR. WHEELER BOSWELL'S PRESSING INVITATIONS TO JOHNSON-SOUTHWARK ELECTION LADY SOUTHWELL AND MAURITIUS LOWE-MR. MACBEAN-LORD THURLOW-MR. THRALE'S ELECTION DEFEAT-MRS. DESMOULINS A CANDIDATE FOR THE OFFICE OF MATRON OF THE CHARTREUX. THILE Johnson was thus engaged in preparing a delightful literary entertainment for the world, the tranquillity of the metropolis of Great Britain was unexpectedly disturbed, by the most horrid series of outrage that ever disgraced a civilized country. A relaxation of some of the severe penal provisions against our fellow-subjects of the Catholic communion had been granted by the legislature, with an opposition so inconsiderable that the genuine mildness of Christianity, united with liberal policy, seemed to have become general in this island. But a dark and malignant spirit of persecution soon showed itself, in an unworthy petition for the repeal of the wise and humane statute. That petition was brought forward by a mob, with the evident purpose of intimidation, and was justly rejected. But the attempt was accompanied and followed by such daring violence as is unexampled in history. Of this extraordinary tumult, Dr. Johnson has given the following concise, lively, and just account in his "Letters to Mrs. Thrale:"1 On Friday, 2 the good Protestants met in Saint George's-Fields, at the summons of Lord George Gordon, and marching to Westminster, insulted the Lords and Commons, who all bore it with great tameness. At night the outrages began by the demolition of the masshouse by Lincoln's-inn. "An exact journal of a week's defiance of government I cannot give you. On Monday Mr. Strahan, who had been insulted, spoke to Lord Mansfield, (who had, I think, been insulted too,) of the licentiousness of the populace; and his lordship treated it as a very slight irregularity. On Tuesday night they pulled down Fielding's house, and burnt his goods in the street. They had gutted on Monday Sir George Savile's house, but the building was saved. On Tuesday evening, leaving Fielding's ruins, they went to Newgate to demand their companions who had been seized demolishing the chapel. The keeper could not LORD MANSFIELD. 1 Vol. ii. I nave selected passages from several letters, without mentioning dates. -BOSWELL. 2 June 2.-BOSWELL. 8 The son of Cosmo George, Duke of Gordon, one of the most turbulent politicians of the time. He sat in Parliament for Luggershall, and became conspicuous by his opposition to ministers, especially on the Roman Catholic affairs. Being the principal cause of the anti-Catholic riots, he was arrested and tried for high treason; but no evidence being adduced of such a design, he was acquitted. Being then convicted of having libelled the French Ambassador, the Queen of France, and the criminal justice of his country, he fled to Holland; but he was subsequently arrested, sent home, and committed to Newgate, where he died in 1793.-ED. 4 Then Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench. As a politician, though a great lawyer, his Lordship inclined to the high maxims of Toryism; hence the hostility of the mob was strongly directed against him.-ED. 5 This is not quite correct. Sir John Fielding was, I think, then dead. It was Justice Hyde's house in St. Martin's-street, Leicester Fields, that was gutted, and his goods burnt in the street.-BoswELL. release them but by the Mayor's permission, which he went to ask; at his return he found all the prisoners released, and Newgate in a blaze. They then went to Bloomsbury, and fastened upon Lord Mansfield's house, which they pulled down; and as for his goods, they totally burnt them. They have since gone to Caen-wood, but a guard was there before them. They plundered some Papists, I think, and burnt a mass-house in Moorfields the same night. "On Wednesday I walked with Dr. Scot to look at Newgate, and found it in ruins, with the fire yet glowing. As I went by, the Protestants were plundering the Sessions House at the Old Bailey. There were not, I believe, a hundred; but they did their work at leisure, in full security, without sentinels, without trepidation, as men lawfully employed in full day. Such is the cowardice of a commercial place. On Wednesday they broke open the Fleet, and the King's Bench, and the Marshalsea, and Wood-street Compter, and Clerkenwell Bride well, and released all the prisoners. "At night they set fire to the Fleet, and to the King's Bench, and I know not how many other places; and one might see the glare of conflagration fill the sky from many parts. The sight was dreadful. Mr. Strahan advised me to take care of myself. been happy in not seeing. Some people were threatened : "The King said in council, That the magistrates had not done their duty, but that he would do his own :' and a proclamation was published directing us to keep our servants within doors, as the peace was now to be preserved by force. The soldiers were sent out to different parts, and the town is now (June 9), at quiet. "The soldiers are stationed so as to be everywhere within call: there is no longer any body of rioters, and the individuals are hunted to their holes, and led to prison; Lord George was last night sent to the Tower. Mr. John Wilkes was this day in my neighbourhood, to seize the publisher of a seditious paper. Several chapels have been destroyed, and several inoffensive Papists have been plundered, but the high sport was to burn the gaols. This was a good rabble trick. The debtors and the criminals were all set at liberty; but of the 66 |