forgery, the most dangerous crime in a commercial country but the unfortunate divine had the mortification to find that he was mistaken. His noble pupil appeared against him, and he was capitally convicted. Johnson told me that Dr. Dodd was very little acquainted with him, having been but once in his company, many years previous to this period (which was precisely the state of my own acquaintance with Dodd); but in his distress he bethought himself of Johnson's persuasive power of writing, if haply it might avail to obtain for him the royal mercy. He did not apply to him directly, but, extraordinary as it may seem, through the late Countess of Harrington', who wrote a letter to Johnson, asking him to employ his pen in favour of Dodd. Mr. Allen, the printer, who was Johnson's landlord and next neighbour in Bolt-court, and for whom he had much kindness, was one of Dodd's friends, of whom, to the credit of humanity be it recorded, that he had many who did not desert him, even after his infringement of the law had reduced him to the state of a man under sentence of death. Mr. Allen told me that he carried Lady Harrington's letter to Johnson, that Johnson read it, walking up and down his chamber, and seemed much agitated, after which he said, “I will do what I can ;" and certainly he did make extraordinary exertions. He this evening, as he had obligingly promised in one of his letters, put into my hands the whole series of his writings upon this melancholy occasion, and I 1 Caroline, eldest daughter of Charles Fitzroy, Duke of Grafton, and wife of William, the second Earl of Harrington.-MALONE. [It may be concluded that Allen not only carried the letter, but obtained it; for to those who know the character of Lady Harrington, her good-nature will not seem extraordinary; but that she should have had any kind of acquaintance with Dr. Johnson seems highly improbable.—ED.] shall present my readers with the abstract which I made from the collection; in doing which I studied to avoid copying what had appeared in print, and now make part of the edition of " Johnson's Works" published by the booksellers of London, but taking care to mark Johnson's variations in some of the pieces there exhibited. 66 Dr. Johnson wrote, in the first place, Dr. Dodd's Speech to the Recorder of London," at the Old Bailey, when sentence of death was about to be pronounced upon him. He wrote also "The Convict's Address to his unhappy Brethren," a sermon delivered by Dr. Dodd in the chapel of Newgate. According to Johnson's manuscript, it began thus after the text, What shall I do to be saved1? "These were the words with which the keeper, to whose custody Paul and Silas were committed by their prosecutors, addressed his prisoners, when he saw them freed from their bonds by the perceptible agency of divine favour, and was, therefore, irresistibly convinced that they were not offenders against the laws, but martyrs to the truth." Dr. Johnson was so good as to mark for me with his own hand, on a copy of this sermon which is now in my possession, such passages as were added by Dr. Dodd. They are not many: whoever will take the trouble to look at the printed copy, and attend to what I mention, will be satisfied of this. There is a short introduction by Dr. Dodd, and he also inserted this sentence: "You see with what confusion and dishonour I now stand before you; no more in the pulpit of instruction, but on this humble seat with yourselves." The notes are entirely Dodd's own, and Johnson's writing ends at the words, "the [What must I do to be saved?—Acts, c. 17, v. 30.—ED.] thief whom he pardoned on the cross." What fol [Dr. Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale with some degree of complacency, in Miss Porter's judgment (to whom he had not imparted his transactions with Letters, Dodd)" Lucy said, 'When I read Dr. Dodd's sermon to the prisoners, I said, Dr. Johnson could not make a better.'"] 9 Aug. 1777. The other pieces mentioned by Johnson in the above-mentioned collection are two letters, one to the Lord Chancellor Bathurst (not Lord North, as is erroneously supposed), and one to Lord Mansfield. A Petition from Dr. Dodd to the King. A Petition from Mrs. Dodd to the Queen. Observations of some length inserted in the newspapers, on occasion of Earl Percy's having presented to his majesty a petition for mercy to Dodd, signed by twenty thousand people, but all in vain. He told me that he had also written a petition for the city of London; "but (said he, with a significant smile) they mended it 1." The last of these articles which Johnson wrote is 'Having unexpectedly, by the favour of Mr. Stone, of London Field, Hackney, seen the original in Johnson's handwriting of " The Petition of the City of London to his Majesty, in favour of Dr. Dodd," I now present it to my readers, with such passages as were omitted enclosed in crotchets, and the additions or variations marked in italicks. "That William Dodd, Doctor of Laws, now lying under sentence of death in your majesty's gaol of Newgate for the crime of forgery, has for a great part of his life set a useful and laudable example of diligence in his calling [and, as we have reason to believe, has exercised his ministry with great fidelity and efficacy], which, in many instances, has produced the most happy effect. "That he has been the first institutor [or] and a very earnest and active promoter of several modes of useful charity, and [that], therefore [he], may be considered as having been on many occasions a benefactor to the publick. "[That when they consider his past life, they are willing to suppose his late crime to have been, not the consequence of habitual depravity, but the suggestion of some sudden and violent temptation.] “[That] your petitioners, therefore, considering his case as, in some of its circumstances, unprecedented and peculiar, and encouraged by your majesty's known clemency, [they] most humbly recommend the said William Dodd to [his] your majesty's most gracious consideration, in hopes that he will be found not altogether [unfit] unworthy to stand an example of royal mercy."-BosWELL. [It does seem that these few alterations were amendments.-ED.] "Dr. Dodd's last solemn Declaration," which he left with the sheriff at the place of execution. Here also my friend marked the variations on a copy of that piece now in my possession. Dodd inserted, “I never knew or attended to the calls of frugality, or the needful minuteness of painful economy;" and in the next sentence he introduced the words which I distinguished by italicks: "My life for some few unhappy years past has been dreadfully erroneous." Johnson's expression was hypocritical; but his remark on the margin is, "With this he said he could not charge himself." Having thus authentically settled what part of the "Occasional Papers," concerning Dr. Dodd's miserable situation, came from the pen of Johnson, I shall proceed to present my readers with my record of the unpublished writings relating to that extraordinary and interesting matter. I found a letter to Dr. Johnson from Dr. Dodd, May 23, 1777, in which "The Convict's Address" seems clearly to be meant: "DR. DODD TO DR. JOHNSON. your "I am so penetrated, my ever dear sir, with a sense of extreme benevolence towards me, that I cannot find words equal to the sentiments of my heart. * 1 "You are too conversant in the world to need the slightest hint from me of what infinite utility the speech on the awful day has been to me. I experience, every hour, some good effect from it. I am sure that effects still more salutary and important must follow from your kind and intended favour. I will labour—God being my helper-to do justice to it from the pulpit. I am sure, had I your sentiments constantly to deliver from thence, in all their mighty force and power, not a soul could be left unconvinced and unpersuaded. 66 * * * * * May God Almighty bless and reward, with his choicest 1 His speech at the Old Bailey when found guilty.-BOSWELL. comforts, your philanthropick actions, and enable me at all times to express what I feel of the high and uncommon obligations which I owe to the first man in our times." On Sunday, June 22, he writes, begging Dr. Johnson's assistance in framing a supplicatory letter to his majesty: "If his majesty could be moved of his royal clemency to spare me and my family the horrours and ignominy of a publick death, which the publick itself is solicitous to wave, and to grant me in some silent distant corner of the globe to pass the remainder of my days in penitence and prayer, I would bless his clemency and be humbled.” This letter was brought to Dr. Johnson when in church. He stooped down and read it, and wrote, when he went home, the following letter for Dr. Dodd to the king: "SIR,-May it not offend your majesty, that the most miserable of men applies himself to your clemency, as his last hope and his last refuge; that your mercy is most earnestly and humbly implored by a clergyman, whom your laws and judges' have condemned to the horrour and ignominy of a publick execution. "I confess the crime, and own the enormity of its consequences, and the danger of its example. Nor have I the confidence to petition for impunity; but humbly hope, that publick security may be established, without the spectacle of a clergyman dragged through the streets, to a death of infamy, amidst the derision of the profligate and profane; and that justice may be satisfied with irrevocable exile, perpetual disgrace, and hopeless penury. "My life, sir, has not been useless to mankind. I have benefited many. But my offences against God are numberless, and I have had little time for repentance. Preserve me, sir, by your prerogative of mercy, from the necessity of appearing unprepared at that tribunal, before which kings and subjects must stand at last together. Permit me to hide my guilt in [He afterwards expressed a hope that this deviation from the duties of the place would be forgiven him.-Ed.] |