permitted to copy the following entry, which bears a date but six days later than that of Johnson's letter. 'Tuesday, Oct. 30, 1764. At a meeting of the Delegates of the Press. 'Ordered, 'That the following articles be made the foundation of the new lease to be granted of the moiety of the Printing House; that a copy of them be delivered to Mr. Baskett and Mr. Eyre, and that they be desired to give in their respective proposals at a meeting to be held on Tuesday the sixth of November.' (P. 41.) The chief part of the lease consisted of the privilege to print Bibles and Prayer Books. I conjecture that Strahan had hoped to get a share in the lease. VIII. A letter about a cancel in Johnson's Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, dated Nov. 30, 1774'. 'SIR, 'I waited on you this morning having forgotten your new engagement; for this you must not reproach me, for if I had looked upon your present station with malignity I could not have forgotten it. I came to consult you upon a little matter that gives me some uneasiness. In one of the pages there is a severe censure of the clergy of an English Cathedral which I am afraid is just, but I have since recollected that from me it may be thought improper, for the Dean did me a kindness about forty years ago. He is now very old, and I am not young. Reproach can do him no good, and in myself I know not whether it is zeal or wantonCan a leaf be cancelled without too much trouble? tell me what I shall do. I have no settled choice, but I would not wish to allow the charge. To cancel it seems the surer side. Determine for me. ness. 'I am, Sir, Your most humble servant, 'Nov. 30, 1774. 'SAM. JOHNSON.' 'Tell me your mind: if you will cancel it I will write something to fill up the vacuum. Please to direct to the borough.' 1 In the possession of Messrs. Pearson & Co., 46, Pall Mall. Mr. Strahan's 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 19-20 in vol. ix. of Johnson's Works (ed. 1825), beginning with the words 'could not enter,' and ending 'imperfect constitution.' 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 constitution.' 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 passage. 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 assume, 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. 329, n. 3). He was, however, only seventy years old. I am informed moreover by the Rev. W. Sparrow Simpson, the learned editor of Documents illustrating 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 VI. 3 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 Antiquæ, 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. 570.) IX. A letter about apprenticing a lad to Mr. Strahan, and about a presentation to the Blue Coat School, dated December 22, 1774'. '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 hitherto 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, 'Dec. 22, 1774.' 'In the possession of Messrs. Robson and Kerslake, 25, Coventry Street, Haymarket. The 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. 370, n. 3). See also Nichols' Literary Anecdotes, vol. iii. p. 387. The 'case' is the frame containing boxes for holding type. X. A letter about suppressions in Taxation no Tyranny, dated March 1, 1775'. '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. March 1, 1775-' 'I am Sir, Your humble Servant, This letter refers to Taxation no Tyranny, which was published before March 21, 1775, the date of Boswell's arrival in London (ante, ii. 355). Boswell says that he had in his possession 'a few proof leaves of it marked with corrections in Johnson's own handwriting' (ib. p. 338). 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 assume, in type before it was revised by 'those in power.' The corrections had been made in the proofsheets. Johnson asks to have six copies laid by for him in the 1 In the possession of Mr. Frank T. Sabin, 10 & 12, Garrick Street, Covent Garden. state 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 pass 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. 415). 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. 534. XI. A letter about 'copy' and a book by Professor Watson, dated Oct. 14, 'SIR, 1776'. '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 Analysis of the Scotch Celtick Language (ante, iii. 122). This is the only acknowledged piece of writing of In the possession of Mr. H. Fawcett, of 14, King Street, Covent Garden. |