negative fide. If a man were now to deny that there is falt upon the table, you could not reduce him to an abfurdity. Come, let us try this a little further. I deny that Canada is taken, and I can fupport my denial by pretty good arguments. The French are a much more numerous people than we; and it is not likely that they would allow us to take it. But the miniftry have affured us, in all the formality of the Gazette, that it is taken.' -Very true. But the ministry have put us to an enormous expence by the war in America, and it is their interest to perfuade us that we have got fomething for our money. But the fact is confirmed by thousands of men who were at the taking of it.'-Ay, but these men have ftill more interest in deceiving us. They don't want you should think the French have beat them, but that they have beat the French. Now fuppofe you should go over and find that it is really taken, that would only fatisfy yourself; for when you come home we will not believe you. We will fay you have been bribed. Yet, Sir, notwithstanding all these plaufible objections, we have no doubt that Canada is really ours. Such is the weight of common teftimony. How much stronger are the evidences of the Christian religion?"

"Idleness is a difeafe which must be combated; bu I would not advife a rigid adherence to a particular plan of ftudy. I myself have never perfifted in any Pan for two days together. A man ought to read ju as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a ta will do him little good. A young

man

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tat. 54°

1763. man fhould read five hours in a day, and fo may Etat. 54. acquire a great deal of knowledge."

To a man of vigorous intellect and arduous curiosity like his own, reading without a regular plan may be beneficial; though even fuch a man muft fubmit to it, if he would attain a full understanding of any of the sciences.

To fuch a degree of unreftrained frankness had he now accustomed me, that in the course of this evening I talked of the numerous reflections which had been thrown out against him on account of his having accepted a penfion from his prefent Majefty. "Why, Sir, (faid he, with a hearty laugh,) it is a mighty foolish noise that they make. I have accepted of a penfion as a reward which has been thought due to my literary merit; and now that I have this penfion, I am the fame man in every refpect that I have ever been; I retain the fame principles. It is true, that I cannot now curfe (fmiling) the house of Hanover; nor would it be decent for me to drink King James's health in the wine that King George gives me money to pay for. But, Sir, I think that the pleasure of curfing the house of Hanover, and drinking King James's health, are amply overbalanced by three hundred pounds a year."

There was here, most certainly, an affectation of more Jacobitifm than he really had, and indeed an intention of admitting, for the moment in a much greater extent than it really exited, the

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2 When I mentioned the fame idle clamoy to him feveral years afterwards, he said, with a smile, "I w my penfion were twice as large, that they might make twice/much noife."

charge

charge of difaffection imputed to him by the world,

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merely for the purpose of shewing how dexterously Etat. 54 he could repel an attack, even though he were placed in the most disadvantageous pofition; for I have heard him declare, that if holding up his right hand would have fecured victory at Culloden to Prince Charles's army, he was not sure he would have held it up; fo little confidence had he in the right claimed by the house of Stuart, and so fearful was he of the confequences of another revolution on the throne of Great-Britain; and Mr. Topham Beauclerk affured me, he had heard him fay this before he had his penfion. At another time he faid to Mr. Langton, "Nothing has ever offered that has made it worth my while to confider the queftion fully." He, however, alfo faid to the fame gentleman, talking of King James the Second, "It was become impoffible for him to reign any longer in this country." He no doubt had an early attachment to the House of Stuart; but his zeal had cooled as his reafon ftrengthened. Indeed I heard him once fay, that "after the death of a violent Whig, with whom he used to contend with great eagerness, he felt his Toryifm much abated'." I fuppofe he meant Mr. Walmsley.

Yet there is no doubt that at earlier periods he was wont often to exercife both his pleafantry and ingenuity in talking Jacobitifm. My much refpected friend, Dr. Douglas, now Bishop of Salif bury, has favoured me with the following admirable inlance from his Lordship's own recollection.

* Journal ca Tour to the Hebrides, 3d. edit. p. 402.

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One day when dining at old Mr. Langton's, where Mifs Roberts, his niece, was one of the company, Johnson, with his ufual complacent attention to the fair fex, took her by the hand and faid, "My dear, I hope you are a Jacobite." Old Mr. Langton, who, though a high and steady Tory, was attached to the prefent Royal Family, feemed offended, and afked Johnson, with great warmth, what he could mean by putting fuch a queftion to his niece? Why, Sir, (faid Johnson) I meant no offence to your niece, I meant her a great compliment. A Jacobite, Sir, believes in the divine right of Kings. He that believes in the divine right of Kings believes in a Divinity. A Jacobite believes in the divine right of Bishops. He that believes in the divine right of Bishops believes in the divine authority of the Chriftian religion. Therefore, Sir, a Jacobite is neither an Atheist nor a Deift. That cannot be faid of a Whig; for Whiggifm is a negation of all principle.

He advised me, when abroad, to be as much as I could with the Profeffors in the Universities, and with the Clergy; for from their converfation I might expect the beft accounts of every thing in whatever country I fhould be, with the additional advantage of keeping my learning alive.

He ufed to tell, with great humour, from my relation to bim, the following little ftory of my early years, which w literally true: " Bofwell, in the year 1745, was a fine boy, yore a white cockade, and prayed for King James, till onef his uncles (General Cochran) gave him a fhilling on condion that he should pray for King George, which he according did. So you fee (fays Bofwell) that Whigs of all ages fe made the Jame way."

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It will be observed, that when giving me advice as to my travels, Dr. Johnson did not dwell upon cities, and palaces, and pictures, and fhews, and Arcadian fcenes. He was of Lord Effex's opinion, who advises his kinfman Roger Earl of Rutland," rather to go an hundred miles to fpeak with one wife man, than five miles to fee a fairtown',

I defcribed to him an impudent fellow from Scotland, who affected to be a favage, and railed at all established fyftems. JOHNSON. "There is nothing furprizing in this, Sir. He wants to make himself confpicuous. He would tumble in a hogftye, as long as you looked at him and called to him to come out. But let him alone, never mind him, and he'll foon give it over."

I added, that the fame perfon maintained that there was no diftinction between virtue and vice. JOHNSON." Why, Sir, if the fellow does not think as he speaks, he is lying; and I fee not what honour he can propose to himself from having the character of a lyar. But if he does really think that there is no diftinction between virtue and vice, why, Sir, when he leaves our houses, let us count our fpoons."

Sir David Dalrymple, now one of the Judges of Scotland by the title of Lord Hailes, had contributed much to increase my high opinion of Johnfon, on account of his writings, long before I attained to a perfonal acquaintance with him; I, in return, had informed Johnson of Sir David's emi

5 Letter to Rutland on Travel, 1596.

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