To the first of these petitions, but not without difficulty, Mrs. Dodd first got the hands of the jury that found the bill against her husband, and after that, as it is fuppofed, of the jury that tried him. It was then circulated about, and all the while the cry for mercy was kept up in the news-papers, and the merits and fufferings of the unfortunate divine were fo artfully represented by paragraphs therein inferted, that, in a short space of time, no fewer than twenty-three thoufand names were subscribed thereto. Moreover, letters and addresses, written alfo by Johnson, imploring their interpofition, were fent to the minister and other perfons.

great

While the two petitions were in fufpence, the following obfervations, penned by Dr. Johnson, appeared in the public papers:

Yesterday was prefented to the fecretary of state, by earl Percy, a petition in favour of Dr. Dodd, figned by twenty-three thousand hands. On this occafion it is natural to confider,

That, in all countries, penal laws have been re laxed, as particular reafons have emerged.

That a life eminently beneficent, a fingle action eminently good, or even the power of being ufeft to the public, have been fufficient to protect the life of a delinquent.

.

That no arbiter of life and death has ever been cenfured for granting the life of a criminal to honest and powerful folicitation.

• That the man for whom a nation petitions, must be prefumed to have merit uncommon, in kind or in degree; for, however the mode of collecting L18 • fubfcriptions,

fubfcriptions, or the right of judgment exercised by the subscribers, may be open to difpute, it is, · at least, plain, that fomething is done for this man that was never done for any other; and government, which muft proceed upon general views, may rationally conclude, that this man is fomething better than other offenders have been, or has done fomething more than others have done.

That though the people cannot judge of the ad• miniftration of justice fo well as their governors, yet their voice has always been regarded.

That this is a cafe in which the petitioners determine againft their own intereft; thofe for whofe protection the law was made, intreat its relaxation, and our governors cannot be charged with the confequences which the people bring upon them• felves.

That as this is a cafe without example, it will probably be without confequences, and many ages will elapfe before fuch a crime is again committed by fuch a man.

That though life be fpared, juftice may be fa tisfied with ruin, imprifonment, exile, infamy, and

penury.

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That if the people now commit an error, their error is on the part of mercy: and that perhaps history cannot fhew a time, in which the life of a criminal, guilty of nothing above fraud, was refufed to the cry of nations, to the joint fupplication of three and twenty thoufand petitioners.'

While Dodd was waiting the event of the petitions, his wife and friends were not idle. Dr. Johnfon told

me

me, that they had offered Akerman, the keeper of Newgate, a thousand pounds to let him escape; and that failing, that a number of them, with banknotes in their pockets, to the amount of five hundred pounds, had watched for a whole evening, about the door of the prifon, for an opportunity of corrupting the turnkey, but could not fucceed in the attempt.

When all hopes of a favourable answer to either of the petitions were at an end, Johnfon drew up for publication a fmall collection of what are called • Occafional papers by the late William Dodd, L. L. D.' and five hundred copies thereof were printed for the benefit of his wife; but fhe, conscious that they were not of her husband's writing, would not consent to their being published; and the whole number, except two or three copies, was fuppreffed. The last office he performed for this wretched man, was the compofing a fermon, which he delivered in the chapel of Newgate, on Friday 6th June, 1777, and which was foon after published with the title of The Convict's Addrefs.'

Johnson had never feen the face of Dodd in his life. His wife had found her way to him during his confinement, and had interested him fo ftrongly in his behalf, that he lamented his fate, as he would have done that of an intimate friend under the like circumstances. He was deeply concerned at the failure of the petitions; and asked me at the time, if the request contained in them was not fuch an one as ought to have been granted to the prayer of twenty-three thousand subjects? to which I answered, that the subscription of popular petitions was a thing of courte

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course, and that, therefore, the difference between twenty and twenty thousand names was inconfiderable. He further cenfured the clergy very feverely, for not interpofing in his behalf, and faid, that their inactivity arofe from a paltry fear of being reproached with partiality towards one of their own order.

Here I cannot forbear remarking, an inconfiftency in the opinion of Johnson refpecting the cafe of Dodd. He aflifted in the folicitations for his pardon, yet, in his private judgment, he thought him unworthy of it, having been known to fay, that had he been the advifer of the king, he fhould have told him that, in par doning Dodd, his juftice, in remitting the Perreaus to their fentence, would have been called in queftion.

About this time, Dr. Johnfon changed his dwelling in Johnfon's court, for a fomewhat larger in Bolt court, Fleet street, where he commenced an intimacy with the landlord of it, a very worthy and fenfible man, fome time fince deceafed, Mr. Edmund Allen the printer. Behind it was a garden, which he took delight in watering; a room on the ground-floor was affigned to Mrs. Williams, and the whole of the two pair of stairs floor was made a repofitory for his books; one of the rooms thereon being his ftudy. Here, in the intervals of his refidence at Streatham, he received the vifits of his friends, and, to the most Intimate of them, fometimes gave, not inelegant dinners.

Being at eafe in his circumftances, and free from that folicitude which had embittered the former part of his life, he funk into indolence, till his faculties feemed to be impaired: deafnefs grew upon him; long intervals of mental abfence interrupted his con

verfation,

verfation, and it was difficult to engage his attention to any fubject. His friends, from these symptoms, concluded, that his lamp was emitting its laft rays, but the lapfe of a short period gave them ample proofs to the contrary.

In the year 1774, the long-agitated queftion of literary property received a final decifion, on an appeal to the fupreme judicature of this kingdom, whereby it was, in effect, declared, that fuch property was merely ideal, and exifted only in imagination *. The immediate confequence of this determination

:

In the arguments in this cafe, on a special verdict, in the court of King's-bench, it was admitted, that precedents, directly to the point, were wanting it was, therefore, determined by lord Manffield and two other judges, Yates alone diffenting, upon the fimple principles of natural justice and moral fitnefs, that the right contended for did exift; and that thefe are part of the law of England is afferted, and has ever been understood. Vide Dodderidge's Englifh Lawyer,' page 154 to 161, and Doctor and Student' paffim. Nevertheless, in the argument of an appeal to the lords from a decree of the court of Chancery in 1774, it was contended, that, in new cafes, the judges had no right to decide by the rules of moral fitnefs and equitable right, but were to be ruled by precedents alone. An objection the more remarkable, as coming from men who are known to defpife the ftudy of antiquity, to have ridiculed the perufal of records, and to have treated with the utmost scorn, what they are pleased to term, black-letter learning. If this be law, and every judicial determination needs a precedent, we are left at a lofs to account for thofe early and original determinations for which no precedent could be found, but which are now become fundamental principles of law: fuch, for inftance, as that a bare right of action is not affignable; that, of things fixed to the freehold, felony cannot be committed; that a release to one trefpaffer is a release to all; and numberless others. Lord Hardwicke has been known to direct a fearch for precedents, and, when none could be found, to fay- I will make one.'