Life of Johnson Volume V Part 45

[305] 'In 1745 my friend, Tom c.u.mming the Quaker, said he would not fight, but he would drive an ammunition cart.' _Ante_, April 28, 1783.

Smollett (_History of England_, iv. 293) describes how, in 1758, the conquest of Senegal was due to this 'sensible Quaker,' 'this honest Quaker,' as he calls him, who not only conceived the project, but 'was concerned as a princ.i.p.al director and promoter of the expedition. If it was the first military scheme of any Quaker, let it be remembered it was also the first successful expedition of this war, and one of the first that ever was carried on according to the pacifick system of the Quakers, without the loss of a drop of blood on either side.' If there was no bloodshed, it was by good luck, for 'a regular engagement was warmly maintained on both sides.' It was a Quaker, then, who led the van in the long line of conquests which have made Chatham's name so famous.

Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. p. 185) says:--'Dr. Johnson told me that c.u.mmyns (sic) the famous Quaker, whose friends.h.i.+p he valued very highly, fell a sacrifice to the insults of the newspapers; having declared to him on his death-bed, that the pain of an anonymous letter, written in some of the common prints of the day, fastened on his heart, and threw him into the slow fever of which he died.' Mr. Seward records (_Anec_. ii.

395):--'Mr. c.u.mmins, the celebrated American Quaker, said of Mr. Pitt (Lord Chatham):--"The first time I come to Mr. Pitt upon any business I find him extremely ignorant; the second time I come to him, I find him completely informed upon it."'

[306] See _ante_, i. 232.

[307] See _ante_, i. 46.

[308] 'From the windows the eye wanders over the sea that separates Scotland from Norway, and when the winds beat with violence, must enjoy all the terrifick grandeur of the tempestuous ocean. I would not for any amus.e.m.e.nt wish for a storm; but as storms, whether wished or not, will sometimes happen, I may say, without violation of humanity, that I should willingly look out upon them from Slanes Castle.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 15.

[309] See _ante_, p. 68.

[310] Horace. _Odes_, i. 2.

[311] See _ante_, ii. 428.

[312] Perhaps the poverty of their host led to this talk. Sir Walter Scott wrote in 1814:--'Imprudence, or ill-fortune as fatal as the sands of Belhelvie [s.h.i.+fting sands that had swallowed up a whole parish], has swallowed up the estate of Errol, excepting this dreary mansion-house and a farm or two adjoining.' Lockhart's _Scott_, ed. 1839, iv. 187.

[313] See _ante_, ii. 421, note 1.

[314] Since the accession of George I. only one parliament had had so few as five sessions, and it was dissolved before its time by his death.

One had six sessions, six seven sessions, (including the one that was now sitting,) and one eight. There was therefore so little dread of a sudden dissolution that for five years of each parliament the members durst contradict the populace.

[315] To Miss Burney Johnson once said:--'Sir Joshua Reynolds possesses the largest share of inoffensiveness of any man that I know.' _Memoirs of Dr. Burney_, i. 343. 'Once at Mr. Thrale's, when Reynolds left the room, Johnson observed:--"There goes a man not to be spoiled by prosperity."' Northcote's _Reynolds_, i. 82. Burke wrote of him:--'He had a strong turn for humour, and well saw the weak sides of things. He enjoyed every circ.u.mstance of his good fortune, and had no affectation on that subject. And I do not know a fault or weakness of his that he did not convert into something that bordered on a virtue, instead of pus.h.i.+ng it to the confines of a vice.' Taylor's _Reynolds_, ii. 638.

[316] He visited Devons.h.i.+re in 1762. _Ante_, i. 377.

[317] Horace Walpole, describing the coronation of George III, writes:-- 'One there was ... the n.o.blest figure I ever saw, the high-constable of Scotland, Lord Errol; as one saw him in a s.p.a.ce capable of containing him, one admired him. At the wedding, dressed in tissue, he looked like one of the Giants in Guildhall, new gilt. It added to the energy of his person, that one considered him acting so considerable a part in that very Hall, where so few years ago one saw his father, Lord Kilmarnock, condemned to the block.' _Letters_, iii. 438. Sir William Forbes says:--'He often put me in mind of an ancient Hero, and I remember Dr.

Johnson was positive that he resembled Homer's character of Sarpedon.'

_Life of Beattie_, ed. 1824, Appendix D. Mrs. Piozzi says:--'The Earl dressed in his robes at the coronation and Mrs. Siddons in the character of Murphy's Euphrasia were the n.o.blest specimens of the human race I ever saw.' _Synonymy_, i.43. He sprang from a race of rebels. 'He united in his person,' says Forbes, 'the four earldoms of Errol, Kilmarnock, Linlithgow, and Callander.' The last two were attainted in 1715, and Kilmarnock in 1745. _Life of Beattie_, Appendix D.

[318] Lord Chesterfield, in his letters to his son [iii. 130], complains of one who argued in an indiscriminate manner with men of all ranks, Probably the n.o.ble lord had felt with some uneasiness what it was to encounter stronger abilities than his own. If a peer will engage at foils with his inferior in station, he must expect that his inferior in station will avail himself of every advantage; otherwise it is not a fair trial of strength and skill. The same will hold in a contest of reason, or of wit.--A certain king entered the lists of genius with Voltaire. The consequence was, that, though the king had great and brilliant talents, Voltaire had such a superiority that his majesty could not bear it; and the poet was dismissed, or escaped, from that court.--In the reign of James I. of England, Crichton, Lord Sanquhar, a peer of Scotland, from a vain ambition to excel a fencing-master in his own art, played at rapier and dagger with him. The fencing-master, whose fame and bread were at stake, put out one of his lords.h.i.+p's eyes.

Exasperated at this, Lord Sanquhar hired ruffians, and had the fencing-master a.s.sa.s.sinated; for which his lords.h.i.+p was capitally tried, condemned, and hanged. Not being a peer of England, he was tried by the name of Robert Crichton, Esq.; but he was admitted to be a baron of three hundred years' standing.--See the _State Trials_; and the _History of England_ by Hume, who applauds the impartial justice executed upon a man of high rank. BOSWELL. The 'stronger abilities' that Chesterfield encountered were Johnson's. Boswell thought wrongly that it was of Johnson that his Lords.h.i.+p complained in his letters to his son. _Ante_, i. 267, note 2. 'A certain King' was Frederick the Great. _Ante_, i.

434. The fencing-master was murdered in his own house in London, five years after Sanquhar (or Sanquire) had lost his eye. Bacon, who was Solicitor-General, said:--'Certainly the circ.u.mstance of time is heavy unto you; it is now five years since this unfortunate man, Turner, be it upon accident or despight, gave the provocation which was the seed of your malice.' _State Trials_, ii. 743, and Hume's _History_, ed.

1802, vi. 61.

[319] _Hamlet_, act i. sc. 2.

[320] Perhaps Lord Errol was the Scotch Lord mentioned _ante_, iii. 170, and the n.o.bleman mentioned _ib_. p. 329.

[321] 'Pitied by gentle minds Kilmarnock died.' _Ante_. i. 180.

[322] Sir Walter Scott describes the talk that he had in 1814 near Slains Castle with an old fisherman. 'The old man says Slains is now inhabited by a Mr. Bowles, who comes so far from the southward that naebody kens whare he comes frae. "Was he frae the Indies?" "Na; he did not think he came that road. He was far frae the Southland. Naebody ever heard the name of the place; but he had brought more guid out o'

Peterhead than a' the Lords he had seen in Slains, and he had seen three."' Lockhart's _Scott_, ed. 1839, iv. 188. The first of the three was Johnson's host.

[323] See _ante_, ii. 153, and iii. 1, note 2.

[324] Smollett, in _Humphry Clinker_ (Letter of Sept. 6), writing of the Highlanders and their chiefs, says:--'The original attachment is founded on something prior to the _feudal system_, about which the writers of this age have made such a pother, as if it was a new discovery, like the _Copernican system_ ... For my part I expect to see the use of trunk-hose and b.u.t.tered ale ascribed to the influence of the _feudal system_.' See _ante_, ii. 177.

[325] Mme. Riccoboni wrote to Garrick on May 3, 1769:--'Vous conviendrez que les n.o.bles sont peu menages par vos auteurs; le sot, le fat, ou le malhonnete homme mele dans l'intrigue est presque toujours un lord.'

_Garrick Corres_, ii. 561. Dr. Moore (_View of Society in France_, i.

29) writing in 1779 says:--'I am convinced there is no country in Europe where royal favour, high birth, and the military profession could be allowed such privileges as they have in France, and where there would be so few instances of their producing rough and brutal behaviour to inferiors.' Mrs. Piozzi, writing in 1784, though she did not publish her book till 1789, said:--'The French are really a contented race of mortals;--precluded almost from possibility of adventure, the low Parisian leads gentle, humble life, nor envies that greatness he never can obtain.' _Journey through France_, i. 13.

[326] He is the worthy son of a worthy father, the late Lord Strichen, one of our judges, to whose kind notice I was much obliged. Lord Strichen was a man not only honest, but highly generous; for after his succession to the family estate, he paid a large sum of debts contracted by his predecessor, which he was not under any obligation to pay. Let me here, for the credit of Ayrs.h.i.+re, my own county, record a n.o.ble instance of liberal honesty in William Hutchison, drover, in Lanehead, Kyle, who formerly obtained a full discharge from his creditors upon a composition of his debts; but upon being restored to good circ.u.mstances, invited his creditors last winter to a dinner, without telling the reason, and paid them their full sums, princ.i.p.al and interest. They presented him with a piece of plate, with an inscription to commemorate this extraordinary instance of true worth; which should make some people in Scotland blush, while, though mean themselves, they strut about under the protection of great alliance, conscious of the wretchedness of numbers who have lost by them, to whom they never think of making reparation, but indulge themselves and their families in most unsuitable expence. BOSWELL.

[327] See _ante_, ii. 194; iii. 353; and iv. June 30, 1784.

[328] Malone says that 'Lord Auchinleck told his son one day that it would cost him more trouble to hide his ignorance in the Scotch and English law than to show his knowledge. This Mr. Boswell owned he had found to be true.' _European Magazine_, 1798, p. 376.

[329] See _ante_, iv. 8, note 3, and iv. 20.

[330] Colman had translated _Terence. Ante_, iv. 18.

[331] Dr. Nugent was Burke's father-in-law. _Ante_, i. 477.

[332] Lord Charlemont left behind him a _History of Italian Poetry_.

Hardy's _Charlemont_, i. 306, ii. 437.

[333] See _ante_, i. 250, and ii. 378, note 1.

[334] Since the first edition, it has been suggested by one of the club, who knew Mr. Vesey better than Dr. Johnson and I, that we did not a.s.sign him a proper place; for he was quite unskilled in Irish antiquities and Celtick learning, but might with propriety have been made professor of architecture, which he understood well, and has left a very good specimen of his knowledge and taste in that art, by an elegant house built on a plan of his own formation, at Lucan, a few miles from Dublin.

BOSWELL. See _ante_, iv. 28.

[335] Sir William Jones, who died at the age of forty-seven, had 'studied eight languages critically, eight less perfectly, but all intelligible with a dictionary, and twelve least perfectly, but all attainable.' Teignmouth's _Life of Sir W. Jones_, ed. 1815, p. 465. See _ante_, iv. 69.

[336] See _ante_, i. 478.

[337] See _ante_, p. 16.

[338] Mackintosh in his _Life_, ii. 171, says:--'From the refinements of abstruse speculation Johnson was withheld, partly perhaps by that repugnance to such subtleties which much experience often inspires, and partly also by a secret dread that they might disturb those prejudices in which his mind had found repose from the agitations of doubt.'

[339] See _ante_, iv. 11, note 1.

[340] Our Club, originally at the Turk's Head, Gerrard-street, then at Prince's, Sackville-street, now at Baxter's, Dover-street, which at Mr.

Garrick's funeral acquired a _name_ for the first time, and was called THE LITERARY CLUB, was inst.i.tuted in 1764, and now consists of thirty-five members. It has, since 1773, been greatly augmented; and though Dr. Johnson with justice observed, that, by losing Goldsmith, Garrick, Nugent, Chamier, Beauclerk, we had lost what would make an eminent club, yet when I mentioned, as an accession, Mr. Fox, Dr. George Fordyce, Sir Charles Bunbury, Lord Ossory, Mr. Gibbon, Dr. Adam Smith, Mr. R.B. Sheridan, the Bishops of Kilaloe and St. Asaph, Dean Marley, Mr. Steevens, Mr. Dunning, Sir Joseph Banks, Dr. Scott of the Commons, Earl Spencer, Mr. Windham of Norfolk, Lord Elliott, Mr. Malone, Dr.

Joseph Warton, the Rev. Thomas Warton, Lord Lucan, Mr. Burke junior, Lord Palmerston, Dr. Burney, Sir William Hamilton, and Dr. Warren, it will be acknowledged that we might establish a second university of high reputation. BOSWELL. Mr. (afterwards Sir) William Jones wrote in 1780 (_Life_, p. 241):--'Of our club I will only say that there is no branch of human knowledge on which some of our members are not capable of giving information.'

[341] Here, unluckily, the windows had no pullies; and Dr. Johnson, who was constantly eager for fresh air, had much struggling to get one of them kept open. Thus he had a notion impressed upon him, that this wretched defect was general in Scotland; in consequence of which he has erroneously enlarged upon it in his _Journey_. I regretted that he did not allow me to read over his book before it was printed. I should have changed very little; but I should have suggested an alteration in a few places where he has laid himself open to be attacked. I hope I should have prevailed with him to omit or soften his a.s.sertion, that 'a Scotsman must be a st.u.r.dy moralist, who does not prefer Scotland to truth,' for I really think it is not founded; and it is harshly said.

BOSWELL. Johnson, after a half-apology for 'these diminutive observations' on Scotch windows and fresh air, continues:--'The true state of every nation is the state of common life.' _Works_, ix. 18.

Boswell a second time (_ante_, ii. 311) returns to Johnson's a.s.sertion that 'a Scotchman must be a very st.u.r.dy moralist who does not love Scotland better than truth; he will always love it better than inquiry.'

_Works_, ix. 116.

[342] See _ante_, p. 40.

[343] A protest may be entered on the part of most Scotsmen against the Doctor's taste in this particular. A Finnon haddock dried over the smoke of the sea-weed, and sprinkled with salt water during the process, acquires a relish of a very peculiar and delicate flavour, inimitable on any other coast than that of Aberdeens.h.i.+re. Some of our Edinburgh philosophers tried to produce their equal in vain. I was one of a party at a dinner, where the philosophical haddocks were placed in compet.i.tion with the genuine Finnon-fish. These were served round without distinction whence they came; but only one gentleman, out of twelve present, espoused the cause of philosophy. WALTER SCOTT.

[344] It is the custom in Scotland for the judges of the Court of Session to have the t.i.tle of _lords_, from their estates; thus Mr.

Burnett is Lord _Monboddo_, as Mr. Home was Lord _Kames_. There is something a little awkward in this; for they are denominated in deeds by their _names_, with the addition of 'one of the Senators of the College of Justice;' and subscribe their Christian and surnames, as _James Burnett_, _Henry Home_, even in judicial acts. BOSWELL. See _ante_, p.

77, note 4.