Life of Johnson Volume III Part 61

[604] The motto to it was happily chosen:--

'Quamvis ille niger, quamvis tu candidus esses.'

I cannot avoid mentioning a circ.u.mstance no less strange than true, that a brother Advocate in considerable practice, but of whom it certainly cannot be said, _Ingenuas didicit fideliter artes_, asked Mr. Maclaurin, with a face of flippant a.s.surance, 'Are these words your own?' BOSWELL.

Sir Walter Scott shows where the humour of this motto chiefly lay. 'The counsel opposite,' he writes, 'was the celebrated Wight, an excellent lawyer, but of very homely appearance, with heavy features, a blind eye which projected from its socket, a swag belly, and a limp. To him Maclaurin applied the lines of Virgil:--

'Quamvis ille niger, quamvis tu candidus esses, O formose puer, nimium ne crede colori.'

['Though he was black, and thou art heavenly fair, Trust not too much to that enchanting face.'

DRYDEN. Virgil, _Eclogues_, ii. 16.] Mr. Maclaurin wrote an essay against the Homeric tale of 'Troy divine,' I believe, for the sole purpose of introducing a happy motto,--

'Non anni domuere decem non mille carinae.'

[aeneid, ii. 198.] Croker's _Boswell_, p. 279.

[605] There is, no doubt, some malice in this second mention of Dundas's Scottish accent (see _ante_, ii. 160). Boswell complained to Temple in 1789 that Dundas had not behaved well to himself or his brother David.

'The fact is, he writes, 'on David's being obliged to quit Spain on account of the war, Dundas promised to my father that he would give him an office. Some time after my father's death, Dundas renewed the a.s.surance to me in strong terms, and told me he had said to Lord Caermarthen, "It is a deathbed promise, and I must fulfil it." Yet David has now been kept waiting above eight years, when he might have established himself again in trade.... This is cruel usage.' Boswell adds:--'I strongly suspect Dundas has given Pitt a prejudice against me.

The excellent Langton says it is disgraceful; it is utter folly in Pitt not to reward and attach to his Administration a man of my popular and pleasant talents, whose merit he has acknowledged in a letter under his own hand.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 286.

[606] Knight was kidnapped when a child and sold to a Mr. Wedderburne of Ballandean, who employed him as his personal servant. In 1769 his master brought him to Britain, and from that time allowed him sixpence a week for pocket money. By the a.s.sistance of his fellow-servants he learnt to read. In 1772 he read in a newspaper the report of the decision in the Somerset Case. 'From that time,' said Mr. Ferguson, 'he had had it in his head to leave his master's service.' In 1773 he married a fellow-servant, and finding sixpence a week insufficient for married life, applied for ordinary wages. This request being refused, he signified his intention of seeking service elsewhere. On his master's pet.i.tion to the Justices of Peace of Perthshire, he was brought before them on a warrant; they decided that he must continue with him as formerly. For some time he continued accordingly; but a child being born to him, he pet.i.tioned the Sheriff, who decided in his favour. He thereupon left the house of his master, who removed the cause into the Court of Session.' Ferguson maintained that there are 'many examples of greater servitude in this country [Scotland] than that claimed by the defender, i.e. [Mr.

Wedderburne, the plaintiff]. There still exists a species of perpetual servitude, which is supported by late statutes and by daily practice, viz. That which takes place with regard to the coaliers and sailers, where, from the single circ.u.mstance of entering to work after p.u.b.erty, they are bound to perpetual service, and sold along with the works.'

Ferguson's _Additional Information_, July 4, 1775, pp. 3; 29; and Maclaurin's _Additional Information_, April 20, 1776, p. 2. See _ante_, p. 202.

[607] See _ante_, p. 106.

[608] Florence Wilson accompanied, as tutor, Cardinal Wolsey's nephew to Paris, and published at Lyons in 1543 his _De Tranquillitate Animi Dialogus_. Rose's _Biog. Dict_. xii. 508.

[609] When Johnson visited Boswell in Edinburgh, Mrs. Boswell 'insisted that, to show all respect to the Sage, she would give up her own bed-chamber to him, and take a worse.' Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 14.

See _post_, April 18, 1778.

[610] See _ante_, Dec. 23, 1775.

[611] Fielding, in his _Voyage to Lisbon_ (p. 2), writes of him as 'my friend Mr. Welch, whom I never think or speak of but with love and esteem.' See _post_, under March 30, 1783.

[612] Johnson defines _police_ as _the regulation and government of a city or country, so far as regards the inhabitants_.

[613] At this time Under-secretary of State. See _ante_, i. 478, note 1.

[614] Fielding, after telling how, unlike his predecessor, he had not plundered the public or the poor, continues:--'I had thus reduced an income of about 500 a-year of the dirtiest money upon earth to little more than 300; a considerable proportion of which remained with my clerk.' He added that he 'received from the Government a yearly pension out of the public service money.' _Voyage to Lisbon_, Introduction.

[615] The friendship between Mr. Welch and him was unbroken. Mr. Welch died not many months before him, and bequeathed him five guineas for a ring, which Johnson received with tenderness, as a kind memorial. His regard was constant for his friend Mr. Welch's daughters; of whom, Jane is married to Mr. Nollekens the statuary, whose merit is too well known to require any praise from me. BOSWELL.

[616] See _ante_, ii. 50. It seems from Boswell's words, as the editor of the _Letters of Boswell_ (p. 91) points out, that in this case he was 'only a friend and amateur, and not a duly appointed advocate.'

He certainly was not retained in an earlier stage of the cause, for on July 22, 1767, he wrote:--'Though I am not a counsel in that cause, yet I am much interested in it.' _Ib_. p. 93.

[617] Dr. Percy, the Bishop of Dromore, humorously observed, that Levett used to breakfast on the crust of a roll, which Johnson, after tearing out the crumb for himself, threw to his humble friend. BOSWELL. Perhaps the word _threw_ is here too strong. Dr. Johnson never treated Levett with contempt. MALONE. Hawkins (_Life_, p. 398) says that 'Dr. Johnson frequently observed that Levett was indebted to him for nothing more than house-room, his share in a penny loaf at breakfast, and now and then a dinner on a Sunday.' Johnson's roll, says Dr. Harwood, was every morning placed in a small blue and white china saucer which had belonged to his wife, and which he familiarly called 'Tetty.' See the inscription on the saucer in the Lichfield Museum.

[618] See this subject discussed in a subsequent page, under May 3, 1779. BOSWELL.

[619] On Feb. 17, Lord North 'made his Conciliatory Propositions.'

_Parl. Hist_. xix. 762.

[620] See _ante_, ii 111.

[621] See _ante_, ii. 312.

[622] Alluding to a line in his _Vanity of Human Wishes_, describing Cardinal Wolsey in his state of elevation:--

'Through him the rays of regal bounty shine.' BOSWELL.

[623] See _ante_, p. 205.

[624] 'In my mind's eye, Horatio.' _Hamlet_, act i. sc. 2.

[625] Mr. Langton. See _ante_, p. 48.

[626] See _ante_, May 12, 1775.

[627] Daughter of Dr. Swinfen, Johnson's G.o.dfather, and widow of Mr.

Desmoulins, a writing-master. BOSWELL.

[628] Johnson wrote to Mrs. Montagu on March 5:--'Now, dear Madam, we must talk of business. Poor Davies, the bankrupt bookseller, is soliciting his friends to collect a small sum for the repurchase of part of his household stuff. Several of them gave him five guineas. It would be an honour to him to owe part of his relief to Mrs. Montagu.'

Croker's _Boswell_, p. 570. J. D'Israeli says (_Calamities of Authors_, i. 265):--'We owe to Davies beautiful editions of some of our elder poets, which are now eagerly sought after; yet, though all his publications were of the best kinds, and are now of increasing value, the taste of Tom Davies twice ended in bankruptcy.' See _post_, April 7, 1778.

[629] See _ante_, i. 391. Davies wrote to Garrick in 1763:--'I remember that during the run of _Cymbeline_ I had the misfortune to disconcert you in one scene of that play, for which I did immediately beg your pardon, and did attribute it to my accidentally seeing Mr. Churchill in the pit, with great truth; and that was the only time I can recollect of my being confused or unmindful of my business when that gentleman was before me. I had even then a more moderate opinion of my abilities than your candour would allow me, and have always acknowledged that gentleman's picture of me was fair.' He adds that he left the stage on account of Garrick's unkindness, 'who,' he says, 'at rehearsals took all imaginable pains to make me unhappy.' _Garrick Corres_. i. 165.

[630] He was afterwards Solicitor-General under Lord Rockingham and Attorney-General under the Duke of Portland. 'I love Mr. Lee exceedingly,' wrote Boswell, 'though I believe there are not any two specifick propositions of any sort in which we exactly agree. But the general ma.s.s of sense and sociality, literature and religion, in each of us, produces two given quant.i.ties, which unite and effervesce wonderfully well. I know few men I would go farther to serve than Jack Lee.' _Letter to the People of Scotland_, p. 75. Lord Eldon said that Lee, in the debates upon the India Bill, speaking of the charter of the East India Company, 'expressed his surprise that there could be such political strife about what he called "a piece of parchment, with a bit of wax dangling to it." This most improvident expression uttered by a Crown lawyer formed the subject of comment and reproach in all the subsequent debates, in all publications of the times, and in everybody's conversation.' Twiss's _Eldon_, iii. 97. In the debate on Fox's India Bill on Dec. 3, 1783, Lee 'asked what was the consideration of a charter, a skin of parchment with a waxed seal at the corner, compared to the happiness of thirty millions of subjects, and the preservation of a mighty empire.' _Parl. Hist_. xxiv. 49. See Twiss's _Eldon_, i. 106-9, and 131, for anecdotes of Lee; and _ante_, ii. 48, note 1.

[631] 'For now we see _through_ a gla.s.s darkly; but then face to face.'

I _Corinthians_, xiii. 12.

[632] Goldsmith notices this in the _Haunch of Venison_:--

My friend bade me welcome, but struck me quite dumb With tidings that Johnson and Burke would not come; For I knew it (he cried), both eternally fail, The one with his speeches, and _t'other with Thrale_.'

CROKER. See _ante_, i. 493.

[633] See _post_, April 1, 1781. 'Johnson said:--"He who praises everybody praises n.o.body."' Johnson's _Works_ (1787), xi. 216.

[634] See ante, p. 55.

[635] Johnson wrote in July 1775:--'Everybody says the prospect of harvest is uncommonly delightful; but this has been so long the summer talk, and has been so often contradicted by autumn, that I do not suffer it to lay much hold on my mind. Our gay prospects have now for many years together ended in melancholy retrospects.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 259. On Aug. 27, 1777, he wrote:--'Amidst all these little things there is one great thing. The harvest is abundant, and the weather _a la merveille_. No season ever was finer.' _Ib_. p. 360. In this month of March, 1778, wheat was selling at 5s. 3d. the bushel in London; at 6s.

10d. in Somerset; and at 5s. 1d. in Northumberland, Suffolk, and Suss.e.x.

_Gent. Mag_. xlviii. 98. The average price for 1778 was 5s. 3d. _Ann.

Reg_. xxi. 282.

[636] See _post_, iii. 243, Oct. 10, 1779, and April 1, 1781.