the sportsman in a rainy month, of the annuitant between the days of quarterly payment, of the politician when the mails are detained by contrary winds."

To this idle and nugatory question, it will be sufficient to say, that every thing that is, furnishes materials of thinking to a rational being.

Johnson possessed the rare power of treating the most common things in the most uncommon manner. This is frequently observable in his Rambler, where he indulges himself in speculations on subjects which have been successively the objects of the Tatler, the Guardian, and the Spectator; yet in his hands they wear an appearance altogether new. He was certainly in no need of borrowing reflections; for the energy of his mind and the magnitude of his ideas were generally adequate to any task which he might impose upon himself.

In Numbers 22 and 38, he offers some observations on the cruelty and impolicy of imprisoning for debt. He shews by many cogent arguments, that it militates,. in a high degree, against the interest of

the

the country, and that it is a disgracento the legislature. The great benevolence and piety of Johnson's mind, though not great beyond imitation, as this female biographer asserts, will always reflect upon his memory a more enviable honour than all the fame which his works have procured him. In his writings, expressly calculated to redress any grievance, there is a manly sensibility which irresistibly seizes the affections, and a virtuousbindignation which impresses us with awe. He never seems so vigorously to exert himself as on such occasions, and then the thunder of his voice is heard with reverence and admiration.

The reasonings of our author on this subject are powerful and conclusive. The laws of England are severe, and frequently 'most cruel; and though they have been much vaunted by Englishmen, foreigners who shall attentively consider them, must, and I believe have, generally condemned them as sanguinary. What equity is that which subjects the life and liberty of one man to the malignity and caprice of another? If this cannot in the pre

sent

sent constitution of our country be dispensed with, (which is doubtful) why is it not limited to peculiar circumstances, and vested in the hands of an individual only as he shall be deemed legally authorised to use it? Indiscriminate power will always be attended with much danger and abuse. The most callous villain, instigated by brutal malice or wanton caprice, may incarcerate in the damps and gloom of a dungeon the unsuspecting youth whom he has lured into his power. This is a circumstance never enquired into; if a debt be proved, it is never asked how it was contracted ; whether by the solicitations of the creditor, or by his menaces to arrest for some debt already existing. Yet both these arts are frequently practised by the fraudulent trader solely with the sordid view of gain. Overcome by the insidious allurements, or by the barbarous threats, of this designing wretch, the trembling delinquent is often subdued by temptation which is unlawfully exerted, or hurried by fear, which the brutality of his persecutor excites. It is very certain that

this is frequently the case; and it ought therefore to form some part of consideration in a legal process.

The miseries of a jail are also a stain on the country, which ought to be wiped off. It is notorious how many die yearly from the nauseous filth, the foul and stagnated air, the infection of epidemic diseases, or the barbarism of the superintendants of these dreadful abodes. the masterly pen of Johnson will better depict the horrors of these receptacles, and to say that they are eternal monuments of disgrace to the country is saying little.

But

The miseries of jails is not half their evil; they are filled with every corruption which poverty and wickedness can generate between them; with all the shameless and profligate enormities that can be produced by the impudence of ignominy, the rage of want, and the malignity of despair. In a prison, the awe of the public eye is lost, and the power of the law is spent there are few fears, there are no blushes. The lewd inflame the lewd, the audacious

harden

harden the audacious. Every one fortifies himself as he can, against his own sensibility; endeavours to practise on others the arts which are practised on himself, and gains the kindness of his associates, by a similitude of manners.

"Thus, some sink amidst their misery, and others survive, only to propagate villainy. It may be hoped that our lawgivers will at length take away from us this power of starving and depraving one another; but if there be any reason why this inveterate evil should not be removed in our age, which true policy has enlightened beyond any former time, let those whose writings form the opinions and the practices of their contemporaries, endeavour to transfer the reproach of such imprisonment from the debtor to the creditor, till universal infamy shall pursue the wretch, whose wantonness of power, or revenge of disappointment, condemns another to torture and to ruin; till he shall be hunted through the world as an enemy to man, and find in riches no shelter from contempt."

Such are the arguments of Johnson,

and