month of July, granted him a pension of 3001. per annum, as a recompence for the honour which the excellence of his writings had been to these kingdoms. He obtained it through the interference of the Earl of Bute, then First Lord Commissioner of the Treasury, upon the suggestion of Mr. Wedderburn, now Lord Chancellor of Great Britain, at the instance of Mr. Murphy and the late Mr. Sheridan, father of the present proprietor of Drury Lane theatre, and eminent for his Lectures on Oratory, as well as Dictionary of the English Language. Johnson from this circumstance was censured by some as an apostate, and ridiculed by others by becoming a pensioner. The North

Briton was furnished with arguments against the
minister for rewarding a Tory and a Jacobite; and
Churchill satirized his political versatility with the
most poignant severity in the following lines.
'How to all principles untrue,

Not fix'd to old friends, nor to new,
He damns the pension which he takes,
And loves the Stuart he forsakes.'

His acceptance of the royal bounty undoubtedly subjected him to the appellation of pensioner, to which he had annexed an ignominious definition in his dictionary. It is with great propriety remarked upon this occasion, that having reeeived a favour from two Scotchmen, against whose country he joined in the rabble cry of indiscriminate invective; it was thus that even-handed Justice commended the poison ed chalice to his own lips, and compelledhim to an awkward, though not unpleasant penance, for indulging in a splenetic prejudice equally unworthy of his head and heart.'

In 1763, Mr. Boswell, from whose account the principal circumstances in these memoirs are taken,

was introduced to our author, and continued to live in great intimacy with him from that time till his death.

Churchill in his Ghost,' availed himself of the common opinion of Johnson's credulity, and drew a caricature of him under the name of Pomposo, representing him as one of the believers of the story of the ghost in Cock Lane, which in 1762 had gained very great credit in London. Johnson made no reply, for it seems that with other wise folks he sat up with the ghost. Contrary however to the common opinion of Johnson's credulity, Mr. Boswell asserts that he was a principal agent in detecting the imposture; and undeceived the world by publishing an account of it in the Gentleman's Magazine for January 1762.

In February 1764, to enlarge the circle of his literary acquaintance, and afford opportunities for conversation, he founded a society which afterwards became distinguished the title of the Literary Club, and Sir Joshua Reynolds was the first proposer, to which Johnson acceded, and the original members wete, besides himself, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Mr. Burke, Dr. Nugent, Mr. Beauclerk, Mr. Langton, Sir John Hawkins, and Goldsmith. They met at the Turk's Head, in Gerrard Street, Scho, on every Monday throughout the year.

The succeeding year 1765, was remarkable for the commencement of his acquaintance with Mr. Thrale, one of the most eminent brewers in England, and member of parliament for Southwark. Mr. Murphy who was intimate with Mr. Thrale, having spoken very highly of Johnson's conversation, he was requested to make them acquainted. This being mentioned to Johnson, he accepted of an invitation to

dinner at Mr. Thrale's, and was so much pleased with his reception both by Mr. and Mrs. Thrale, and they were so much pleased with him, that his invitations to their house became more and more frequent, till, in course of time, he ranked as one of the family, and an apartment was appropriated to him both in their house at Southwark, and at their villa at Streatham. Nothing could be more fortunate for Johnson than this connection. He had at the house of his friend all the comforts and even luxuries of life, his melancholy was diverted, and his irregular habits lessened, by association with an agreeable and well ordered family, by whom he was treated with the utmost respect and even affection; and it is recorded to the honour of his worthy friend, that the patron of literature and talents, of which Johnson sought in vain for the traces in Chesterfield, he found realized in Thrale.

In the course of this year he was complimented by the University of Dublin with the degree of Doctor of Laws, as the diploma expresses it, ob egregium scriptorum elegantiam et utilitatem, though he does not appear to have taken the title in consequence of it. Soon after, he published his edition of 'The Plays of William Shakespeare, with the Corrections and Illustrations of various Commentators, to which are added Notes by Samuel Johnson,' octavo. Sir John Hawkins thinks it a meagre work, he complains of the paucity of the notes, and Johnson's unfitness for the office of a scholiast. It was treated with great illiberality by Dr. Kenrick in the first part of a 'Review' of it, which was never completed. But it must be acknowledged that what he did as a commentator has no small share of merit. He has enriched his edition with a concise account of each play, and of its characteristic

excellence. In the sagacity of his emendatory criticisms, and the happiness of his interpretation of obscure passages, he surpasses every other editor of this poet. Mr. Malone confesses that Johnson's vigorous and comprehensive understanding, threw more light on this author than all his predecessors had done. His preface has been pronounced by Mr. Malone to be the finest composition in our language: and it must be admitted, whether we consider the beauty and vigour of its composition, the abundance and classical selection of its allusions, the justness of the general precepts of criticism, and its accurate estimates of the excellence or defects of its author, it is equally admirable.

In February, 1767, our author was honoured by a private conversation with the king in the library at Buckingham house, which, as pointedly expressed by one of his biographers, gratified his monarchic enthusiasm. The interview was sought by the king without the knowledge of Johnson. His majesty, among other things, asked the author of so many valuable works, if he intended to publish any more. Johnson modestly answered, that he thought he had written enough. "And so should I too,' replied the king, if you had not written so well.' Johnson was highly pleased with his majesty's courteousness, and afterwards observed to a friend- Sir, his manners are those of as fine a gentleman, as we may suppose Louis XIV. or Charles II.'

In 1770, he published a political pamphlet, entitled The False Alarm, intended to justify the conduct of ministry, and the majority of the House of Commons, for having virtually assumed it as an axiom, that the expulsion of a member of parliament was equivalent to an exclusion; and their having declared Colonel Lu

trell to be duly elected for the county of Middlesex, notwithstanding Mr. Wilkes had a great majority of votes. This being considered as a gross violation of the right of election, an alarm for the constitution extended itself all over the kingdom. To prove this alarm to be false, was the purpose of Johnson's pamphlet; but his arguments failed of effect, and the House of Commons has since erased the offensive resolution from the Journals. This pamphlet has great merit in point of language, but it contains much gross misrepresentation, and much malignity, and abounds with such arbitrary principles as are totally inconsistent with a free constitution.

As Johnson now shone in the plenitude of his political glory, from the number and celebrity of his ministerial pamphlets, an attempt was made to bring him into the house of commons by Mr. Strahan the king's printer, who was himself in parliament, and wrote to the secretary of the treasury upon the subject; but the application was not successful.

In 1773 be published a new edition of his Dictionary, with additions and corrections, and in the autumn of the same year he gratified a desire which he had long entertained, of visiting the Hebrides or western isles of Scotland. He was accompanied by Mr. Boswell; whose acuteness he afterwards observed would help his enquiry, and whose gaiety of conversation and civility of manners were sufficient to counteract the inconveniences of travel in countries less hospitable than those they were to pass.

In the course of the years 1773 and 1774, he published a number of pamphlets in vindication of the conduct of ministry, to whom as a pensioner he had become wholly devoted. These he collected into a volume and published under the title of Political