you know, and Dr. Barnard, the provost of Eton'. Langton As soon as Dr. Johnson was come in, and had taken the chair, the company began to collect round him till they became not less than four, if not five deep; those behind standing, and listening over the heads of those that were sitting near him. The conversation for some time was chiefly between Dr. Johnson and the provost of Eton, while the others contributed occasionally their remarks. Without attempting to detail the particulars of the conversation, which, perhaps, if I did, I should spin my account out to a tedious length, I thought, my dear sir, this general account of the respect with which our valued friend was attended to might be acceptable."

[The formal style of the following letter, com- ED. pared with that of his former correspondence with Mr. Thomas Warton, plainly proves that a coolness or misunderstanding had taken place between them. The reader will not have forgotten the ridicule with which Johnson had lately treated Warton's poems3.

“DR. JOHNSON TO MR. THOMAS WARTON.

“Bolt-court, Fleet-street, 9th May, 1780. SIR,-I have your pardon to ask for an involuntary fault. In a parcel sent from Mr. Boswell I found the enclosed letter, which, without looking on the direction, I broke open; but, finding I did not understand it, soon saw it belonged to you. I am sorry for this appearance of a fault, but believe me it is only the appearance. I did not read enough of the letter to know its purport. I am, sir, your most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON."

MS.

In Dr. Wooll's Memoirs of Dr. Warton we find ED. the following statement: "The disagreement which

1

[See, ante, p. 301, Johnson's own account of this evening. The gentle and good-natured Langton does not hint at his having driven away“ the very agreeable and ingenious Mr. Wraxal."--- ED.]

2 [From the MS. which has been communicated to the Editor.-ED.] 3 Ante, p. 3.-ED.]

Life of

p. 98.

Wooll's took place after a long and warm friendship between Warton, Johnson and [Joseph] Warton is much to be lamented it occurred at the house of Sir Joshua Reynolds, as I am told by one of the company, who only overheard the following conclusion of the dispute: JOHNSON. Sir, I am not used to be contradicted.' WARTON. Better for yourself and friends, sir, if you were our admiration could not be increased, but our love might.' The party interfered, and the conversation was stopped. A coolness, however, from that time took place, and was increased by many trifling circumstances, which, before this dispute, would, perhaps, have not been attended to." The style, however, of the following letter to Dr. Warton, written so late in Dr. Johnson's life, leads us to hope that the difference recorded by Dr. Wooll was transient.

ED.

MS.

"DR. JOHNSON TO DR. WARTON.

"23d May, 1780. "DEAR SIR,-It is unnecessary to tell you how much I was obliged by your useful memorials. The shares of Fenton and Broome in the Odyssey I had before from Mr. Spence. Dr. Warburton did not know them. I wish to be told, as the question is of great importance in the poetical world, whence you had your intelligence: if from Spence, it shows at least his consistency; if from any other, it confers corroboration. If any thing useful to me should occur, I depend upon your friendship.

"Be pleased to make my compliments to the ladies of your house, and to the gentleman that honoured me with the Greek Epigrams, when I had, what I hope sometime to have again, the pleasure of spending a little time with you at Winchester. Į am, dear sir, your most obliged and most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON."]

Letters, vol. ii. p. 127.

["TO MRS. THRALE.

"23d May, 1780.

"But [Mrs. Montagu] and you have had, with all your adulation, nothing finer said of you than was said last Saturday

-'s', Letters,

night of Burke and me. We were at the Bishop of
(a bishop little better than your bishop), and towards twelve we
fell into talk, to which the ladies listened, just as they do to
you; and said, as I heard, there is no rising unless somebody
will cry Fire!

"I was last night at Miss Monkton's; and there were Lady Craven and Lady Cranburne, and many ladies and few Next Saturday I am to be at Mr. Pepys's, and in the intermediate time am to provide for myself as I can.”

men.

"25th May.

"Congreve, whom I despatched at the Borough while I was attending the election, is one of the best of the little Lives; but then I had your conversation."]

"DR. JOHNSON TO THE REV. DR. FARMER.

"25th May, 1780.

"SIR,-I know your disposition to second any literary attempt, and therefore venture upon the liberty of entreating you to procure from college or university registers all the dates or other informations which they can supply relating to Ambrose Philips, Broome, and Gray, who were all of Cambridge, and of whose lives I am to give such accounts as I can gather. Be pleased to forgive this trouble from, sir, your most humble "SAM. JOHNSON."

servant,

While Johnson was thus engaged in preparing a delightful literary entertainment for the world, the tranquillity of the metropolis of Great Britain was unexpectedly disturbed by the most horrid series of outrage that ever disgraced a civilized country. A relaxation of some of the severe penal provisions against our fellow-subjects of the Catholick communion had been granted by the legislature, with an opposition so inconsiderable, that the genuine mildness of christianity, united with liberal policy, seemed to have become general in this island. But a dark and malignant spirit of persecution soon showed itself, in an

[The Bishop of St. Asaph's, of whose too constant appearance in general society Dr. Johnson disapproved.-Ed.]

vol. ii.

p. 127.

p. 137.

Letters,

vol. ii. p. 143.

unworthy petition for the repeal of the wise and humane statute. That petition was brought forward by a mob, with the evident purpose of intimidation, and was justly rejected. But the attempt was accompanied and followed by such daring violence as is unexampled in history. Of this extraordinary tumult, Dr. Johnson has given the following concise, lively, and just account in his "Letters to Mrs. Thrale 1:"

"9th June, 1780.

"On Friday, the good protestants met in Saint George's Fields, at the summons of Lord George Gordon; and marching to Westminster, insulted the lords and commons, who all bore it with great tameness. At night the outrages began by the demolition of the mass-house by Lincoln's Inn.

"An exact journal of a week's defiance of government I cannot give you. On Monday Mr. Strahan, who had been insulted, spoke to Lord Mansfield, who had I think been insulted too, of the licentiousness of the populace; and his lordship treated it as a very slight irregularity. On Tuesday night they pulled down Fielding's house, and burnt his goods in the street. They had gutted on Monday Sir George Savile's house, but the building was saved. On Tuesday evening, leaving Fielding's ruins, they went to Newgate to demand their companions, who had been seized demolishing the chapel. The keeper could not release them but by the mayor's permission, which he went to ask: at his return he found all the prisoners released, and Newgate in a blaze. They then went to Bloomsbury, and fastened upon Lord Mansfield's house, which they pulled down; and as for his goods, they totally burnt them. They have since gone to Caen-wood, but a guard was there before them. They plundered some papists, I think, and burnt a mass-house, in Moorfields, the same night.

"On Wednesday I walked with Dr. Scot to look at Newgate, and found it in ruins, with the fire yet glowing. As I

Vol. ii. p. 143, et seq. I have selected passages from several letters, without mentioning dates.-BoswELL. [The Editor has restored the dates and remarkable omission.--ED.]

June 2.-BoSWELL.

This is not quite correct. Sir John Fielding was, I think, then dead. It was Justice Hyde's house, in St. Martin's-street, Leicester-fields, that was gutted, and his goods burnt in the street.-BLAKEWAY. [Sir John Fielding did not die till the following September, and his house was certainly attacked and plundered.ED.]

[Lord Stowell.-ED.]

P. 144.

went by, the protestants were plundering the sessions-house at Letters, the Old Bailey. There were not, I believe, a hundred; but vol. ii. they did their work at leisure, in full security, without sentinels, without trepidation, as men lawfully employed in full day. Such is the cowardice of a commercial place. On Wednesday they broke open the Fleet, and the King's Bench, and the Marshalsea, and Wood-street Compter, and Clerkenwell Bridewell, and released all the prisoners.

"At night they set fire to the Fleet, and to the King's Bench, and I know not how many other places; and one might see the glare of conflagration fill the sky from many parts. The sight was dreadful. Some people were threatened: Mr. Strahan advised me to take care of myself. Such a time of terrour you have been happy in not seeing.

"The king said in council, That the magistrates had not done their duty, but that he would do his own ;' and a proclamation was published, directing us to keep our servants within doors, as the peace was now to be preserved by force. The soldiers were sent out to different parts, and the town is now at quiet."

"What has happened at your house you will know; the harm is only a few butts of beer; and, I think, you may be sure that the danger is over. There is a body of soldiers at St. Margaret's Hill.”

10th June, 1780.

"The soldiers are stationed so as to be every where within call. There is no longer any body of rioters, and the individuals are hunted to their holes, and led to prison. Lord George was last night sent to the Tower. Mr. John Wilkes was this day in my neighbourhood, to seize the publisher of a seditious paper.

"Several chapels have been destroyed, and several inoffensive papists have been plundered; but the high sport was to burn the gaols. This was a good rabble trick. The debtors and the criminals were all set at liberty; but of the criminals, as has always happened, many are already retaken; and two pirates have surrendered themselves, and it is expected that they will be pardoned.

"Government now acts again with its proper force; and we are all under the protection of the king and the law. I thought that it would be agreeable to you and my master to have my testimony to the public security; and that you would sleep more quietly when I told you that you are safe."

p. 152.