Life of Johnson Volume VI Part 9

'Tell me your mind: if you will cancel it I will write something to fill up the vacuum. Please to direct to the borough.'

Mr. Strahan's 'new engagement' was in the House of Commons at Westminster, to which he had been elected for the first time as member for Malmesbury.

The new Parliament had met on Nov. 29, the day before the date of Johnson's letter (_Parl. Hist_, xviii. 23).

The leaf that Johnson cancelled contained pages 47, 48 in the first edition of his _Journey to the Western Islands_. It corresponds with pages 19-30 in vol. ix. of Johnson's _Works_ (ed. 1825), beginning with the words 'could not enter,' and ending 'imperfect const.i.tution.'

The excision is marked by a ridge of paper, which was left that the revised leaf might be attached to it. Johnson describes how the lead which covered the Cathedrals of Elgin and Aberdeen had been stripped off by the order of the Scottish Council, and shipped to be sold in Holland. He continues:--'Let us not however make too much haste to despise our neighbours. Our own cathedrals are mouldering by unregarded dilapidation. It seems to be part of the despicable philosophy of the time to despise monuments of sacred magnificence, and we are in danger of doing that deliberately, which the Scots did not do but in the unsettled state of an imperfect const.i.tution.'

In the copy of the first edition in the Bodleian Library, which had belonged to Gough the antiquary, there is written in his hand, as a foot-note to 'neighbours': 'There is now, as I have heard, a body of men not less decent or virtuous than the Scottish Council, longing to melt the lead of an English Cathedral. What they shall melt, it were just that they should swallow.' It can scarcely be doubted that this is the suppressed pa.s.sage. The English Cathedral to which Johnson refers was, I believe, Lichfield. 'The roof,' says Harwood (History of Lichfield, p. 75), 'was formerly covered with lead, but now with slate.'

Addenbroke, who had been Dean since 1745, was, we may a.s.sume, very old at the time when Johnson wrote. I had at first thought it not unlikely that it was Dr. Thomas Newton, Dean of St. Paul's and Bishop of Bristol, who was censured. He was a Lichfield man, and was known to Johnson (see _ante_, iv. 285, n. 3). He was, however, only seventy years old. I am informed moreover by the Rev. W. Sparrow Simpson, the learned editor of _Doc.u.ments ill.u.s.trating the History of St. Paul's_, that it is very improbable that at this time the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's entertained such a thought.

My friend Mr. C. E. Doble has kindly furnished me with the following curious parallel to Johnson's suppressed wish about the molten lead.

'The chappell of our Lady [at Wells], late repayred by Stillington, a place of great reverence and antiquitie, was likewise defaced, and such was their thirst after lead (I would they had drunke it scalding) that they tooke the dead bodies of bishops out of their leaden coffins, and cast abroad the carkases skarce throughly putrified.'--Harington's _Nuga Antiquae_, ii. 147 (ed. 1804).

In the postscript Johnson says 'Please to direct to the borough.' He was staying in Mr. Thrale's town-house in the Borough of Southwark.

(See _ante_, i, 493.)

IX.

_A letter about apprenticing a lad to Mr. Strahan, and about a presentation to the Blue Coat School, dated December 22_, 1774. [In the possession of Messrs. Robson and Kerslake, 25, Coventry Street Haymarket.]

'Sir,

'When we meet we talk, and I know not whether I always recollect what I thought I had to say.

'You will please to remember that I once asked you to receive an apprentice, who is a scholar, and has always lived in a clergyman's house, but who is mishapen, though I think not so as to hinder him at the case. It will be expected that I should answer his Friend who has. .h.i.therto maintained him, whether I can help him to a place.

He can give no money, but will be kept in cloaths.

'I have another request which it is perhaps not immediately in your power to gratify. I have a presentation to beg for the blue coat hospital. The boy is a non-freeman, and has both his parents living.

We have a presentation for a freeman which we can give in exchange.

If in your extensive acquaintance you can procure such an exchange, it will be an act of great kindness. Do not let the matter slip out of your mind, for though I try others I know not any body of so much power to do it.

'I am, Sir, Your most humble Servant,

'SAM. JOHNSON.'

'Dec. 22, 1774.'

The apprentice was young William Davenport, the orphan son of a clergyman.

His friend was the Rev. W. Langley, the master of Ashbourne School.

Strahan received him as an apprentice (_ante_, ii. 334, n. i). See also Nichols' _Literary Anecdotes_, vol. iii. p. 287.

The 'case' is the frame containing boxes for holding type.

X.

_A letter about suppressions in 'Taxation no Tyranny! dated March 1, 1775_.[In the possession of Mr. Frank T. Sabin, 10 & 12, Garrick Street Covent Garden.]

'SIR,

'I am sorry to see that all the alterations proposed are evidences of timidity. You may be sure that I do [? not] wish to publish, what those for whom I write do not like to have published. But print me half a dozen copies in the original state, and lay them up for me. It concludes well enough as it is.

'When you print it, if you print it, please to frank one to me here, and frank another to Mrs. Aston at Stow Hill, Lichfield.

'The changes are not for the better, except where facts were mistaken.

The last paragraph was indeed rather contemptuous, there was once more of it which I put out myself.

'I am Sir, Your humble Servant, 'SAM. JOHNSON.'

'March 1, 1775.'

This letter refers to _Taxation no Tyranny_, which was published before March 31, 1775, the date of Boswell's arrival in London (_ante_, ii.

311). Boswell says that he had in his possession 'a few proof leaves of it marked with corrections in Johnson's own hand-writing' (ib. p.

313). Johnson, he says,' owned to me that it had been revised and curtailed by some of those who were then in power.' When Johnson writes 'when you print it, if you print it,' he uses, doubtless, _print_ in the sense of _striking off copies_. The pamphlet was, we may a.s.sume, in type before it was revised by 'those in power.' The corrections had been made in the proof-sheets. Johnson asks to have six copies laid by for him in the state in which he had wished to publish it. It seems that the last paragraph had been struck out by the reviser, for Johnson says 'it was rather contemptuous.' He does not think it needful to supply anything in its place, for he says 'it concludes well enough as it is.'

Mr. Strahan had the right, as a member of Parliament, to frank all letters and packets. That is to say, by merely writing his signature on the cover he could pa.s.s them through the post free of charge. Johnson, when he wrote to Scotland, used to employ him to frank his letters, 'that he might have the consequence of appearing a parliament-man among his countrymen' (_ante_, iii. 364). It was to Oxford that a copy of the pamphlet was to be franked to Johnson. That he was there at the time is shown by a letter from him in Mrs. Piozzi's _Collection_ (vol. i. p.

212), dated 'University College, Oxford, March 3, 1775.' Writing to her, evidently from Bolt Court, on February 3, he had said: 'My pamphlet has not gone on at all' (ib. i. 211). Mrs. Aston (or rather Miss Aston) is mentioned _ante_, ii. 466.

XI

_A letter about 'copy' and a book by Professor Watson, dated Oct. 14, 1776'_.[In the possession of Mr. H. Fawcett, of 14, King Street, Covent Garden.]

'SIR,

'I wrote to you about ten days ago, and sent you some copy. You have not written again, that is a sorry trick.

'I am told that you are printing a Book for Mr. Professor Watson of Saint Andrews, if upon any occasion, I can give any help, or be of any use, as formerly in Dr. Robertson's publication, I hope you will make no scruple to call upon me, for I shall be glad of an opportunity to show that my reception at Saint Andrews has not been forgotten.

'I am Sir, Your humble Servant, 'SAM. JOHNSON.'

'Oct. 14, 1776.'

The' copy' or MS. that Johnson sent is, I conjecture, _Proposals for the Rev. Mr. Shaw's a.n.a.lysis of the Scotch Celtick Language_ (_ante_, iii. 107). This is the only acknowledged piece of writing of his during 1776. The book printing for Professor Watson was _History of the Reign of Philip II_, which was published by Strahan and Cadell in 1777. This letter is of unusual interest, as showing that Johnson had been of some service as regards one of Robertson's books. It is possible that he read some of the proof-sheets, and helped to get rid of the Scotticisms.

'Strahan,' according to Beattie, 'had corrected (as he told me himself) the phraseology of both Mr. Hume and Dr. Robertson' (_ante_, v. 92, n. 3). He is not unlikely, in Robertson's case, to have sought and obtained Johnson's help.

XII.

_The following letter is published in Mr. Alfred Morrison's 'Collection of Autographs', vol. ii. p. 343._

'To Dr. TAYLOR. Dated London, April 20, 1778.'