Life of Johnson
Chapter 389 : [533] A term in Scotland for a special messenger, such as was formerly sent with dispa

[533] A term in Scotland for a special messenger, such as was formerly sent with dispatches by the lords of the council.

[534] Yet he said of him:--'There is nothing _conclusive_ in his talk.'

_Ante_ iii. 57.

[535] 'I believe every man has found in physicians great liberality and dignity of sentiment, very prompt effusion of beneficence, and willingness to exert a lucrative art where there is no hope of lucre.'

Johnson's _Works_, vii. 402. See _ante_, iv. 263.

[536] Johnson says (_ib_. ix. 156) that when the military road was made through Glencroe, 'stones were placed to mark the distances, which the inhabitants have taken away, resolved, they said, "to have no new miles."'

[537]

'The lawland lads think they are fine, But O they're vain and idly gawdy; How much unlike that graceful mien And manly look of my highland laddie.'

From '_The Highland Laddie_, written long since by Allan Ramsay, and now sung at Ranelagh and all the other gardens; often fondly encored, and sometimes ridiculously hissed.' _Gent. Mag_. 1750, p. 325.

[538] 'She is of a pleasing person and elegant behaviour. She told me that she thought herself honoured by my visit; and I am sure that whatever regard she bestowed on me was liberally repaid.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 153. In his _Journey_ (_Works_, ix. 63) Johnson speaks of Flora Macdonald, as 'a name that will be mentioned in history, and if courage and fidelity be virtues, mentioned with honour.'

[539] This word, which meant much the same as, _fop_ or _dandy_, is found in Bk. x. ch. 2 of Fielding's _Amelia_ (published in 1751):--'A large a.s.sembly of young fellows, whom they call bucks.' Less than forty years ago, in the neighbourhood of London, it was, I remember, still commonly applied by the village lads to the boys of a boarding-school.

[540] This word was at this time often used in a loose sense, though Johnson could not have so used it. Thus Horace Walpole, writing on May 16, 1759 (_Letters_, iii. 227), tells a story of the little Prince Frederick. 'T'other day as he was with the Prince of Wales, Kitty Fisher pa.s.sed by, and the child named her; the Prince, to try him, asked who that was? "Why, a Miss." "A Miss," said the Prince of Wales, "why are not all girls Misses?" "Oh! but a particular sort of Miss--a Miss that sells oranges."' Mr. Cunningham in a note on this says:--'Orange-girls at theatres were invariably courtesans.'

[541] _Governor_ was the term commonly given to a tutor, especially a travelling tutor. Thus Peregrine Pickle was sent first to Winchester and afterwards abroad 'under the immediate care and inspection of a governor.' _Peregrine Pickle_, ch. xv.

[542] He and his wife returned before the end of the War of Independence. On the way back she showed great spirit when their s.h.i.+p was attacked by a French man of war. Chambers's _Rebellion in Scotland_, ii. 329.

[543] I do not call him _the Prince of Wales_, or _the Prince_, because I am quite satisfied that the right which the _House of Stuart_ had to the throne is extinguished. I do not call him, the _Pretender_, because it appears to me as an insult to one who is still alive, and, I suppose, thinks very differently. It may be a parliamentary expression; but it is not a gentlemanly expression. I _know_, and I exult in having it in my power to tell, that THE ONLY PERSON in the world who is int.i.tled to be offended at this delicacy, thinks and feels as I do; and has liberality of mind and generosity of sentiment enough to approve of my tenderness for what even _has been_ Blood Royal. That he is a _prince_ by _courtesy_, cannot be denied; because his mother was the daughter of Sobiesky, king of Poland. I shall, therefore, _on that account alone_, distinguish him by the name of _Prince Charles Edward_. BOSWELL. To have called him the _Pretender_ in the presence of Flora Macdonald would have been hazardous. In her old age, 'such is said to have been the virulence of the Jacobite spirit in her composition, that she would have struck any one with her fist who presumed, in her hearing, to call Charles _the Pretender_.' Chambers's _Rebellion in Scotland_, ii. 330.

[544] This, perhaps, was said in allusion to some lines ascribed to _Pope_, on his lying, at John Duke of Argyle's, at Adderbury, in the same bed in which Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, had slept:

'With no poetick ardour fir'd, I press [press'd] the bed where Wilmot lay; That here he liv'd [lov'd], or here expir'd, Begets no numbers, grave or gay.'

BOSWELL.

[545] See _ante_, iv. 60, 187.

[546] See _ante_, iv. 113 and 315.

[547] 'This was written while Mr. Wilkes was Sheriff of London, and when it was to be feared he would rattle his chain a year longer as Lord Mayor.' Note to Campbell's _British Poets_, p. 662. By 'here' the poet means at _Tyburn_.

[548] With virtue weigh'd, what worthless trash is gold! BOSWELL.

[549] Since the first edition of this book, an ingenious friend has observed to me, that Dr. Johnson had probably been thinking on the reward which was offered by government for the apprehension of the grandson of King James II, and that he meant by these words to express his admiration of the Highlanders, whose fidelity and attachment had resisted the golden temptation that had been held out to them. BOSWELL.

[550] On the subject of Lady Margaret Macdonald, it is impossible to omit an anecdote which does much honour to Frederick, Prince of Wales.

By some chance Lady Margaret had been presented to the princess, who, when she learnt what share she had taken in the Chevalier's escape, hastened to excuse herself to the prince, and exlain to him that she was not aware that Lady Margaret was the person who had harboured the fugitive. The prince's answer was n.o.ble: 'And would _you_ not have done the same, madam, had he come to you, as to her, in distress and danger?

I hope--I am sure you would!' WALTER SCOTT.

[551] This old Scottish _member of parliament_, I am informed, is still living (1785). BOSWELL.

[552] I cannot find that this account was ever published. Mr. Lumisden is mentioned _ante_, ii. 401, note 2.

[553] This word is not in Johnson's _Dictionary_.

[554] Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. p. 153) describes him in 1745 as 'a good-looking man of about five feet ten inches; his hair was dark red, and his eyes black. His features were regular, his visage long, much sunburnt and freckled, and his countenance thoughtful and melancholy.'

When the Pretender was in London in 1750, 'he came one evening,' writes Dr. W. King (_Anec_. p. 199) 'to my lodgings, and drank tea with me; my servant, after he was gone, said to me, that he thought my new visitor very like Prince Charles. "Why," said I, "have you ever seen Prince Charles?" "No, Sir," said the fellow, "but this gentleman, whoever he may be, exactly resembles the busts which are sold in Red Lionstreet, and are said to be the busts of Prince Charles." The truth is, these busts were taken in plaster of Paris from his face. He has an handsome face and good eyes.'

[555] Sir Walter Scott, writing of his childhood, mentions 'the stories told in my hearing of the cruelties after the battle of Culloden. One or two of our own distant relations had fallen, and I remember of (sic) detesting the name of c.u.mberland with more than infant hatred.'

Lockhart's _Scott_, i. 24. 'I was,' writes Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_, p.

190), 'in the coffee-house with Smollett when the news of the battle of Culloden arrived, and when London all over was in a perfect uproar of joy.' On coming out into the street, 'Smollett,' he continues, 'cautioned me against speaking a word, lest the mob should discover my country, and become insolent, "for John Bull," says he; "is as haughty and valiant to-night as he was abject and cowardly on the Black Wednesday when the Highlanders were at Derby." I saw not Smollett again for some time after, when he shewed me his ma.n.u.script of his _Tears of Scotland_. Smollett, though a Tory, was not a Jacobite, but he had the feelings of a Scotch gentleman on the reported cruelties that were said to be exercised after the battle of Culloden.' See _ante_, ii. 374, for the madman 'beating his straw, supposing it was the Duke of c.u.mberland, whom he was punis.h.i.+ng for his cruelties in Scotland in 1746.'

[556] 'He was obliged to trust his life to the fidelity of above fifty individuals, and many of these were in the lowest paths of fortune. They knew that a price of 30,000 was set upon his head, and that by betraying him they should enjoy wealth and affluence.' Smollett's _Hist.

of England_, iii. 184.

[557] 'Que les hommes prives, qui se plaignent de leurs pet.i.tes infortunes, jettent les yeux sur ce prince et sur ses ancetres.' _Siecle de Louis XV_, ch. 25.

[558] 'I never heard him express any n.o.ble or benevolent sentiments, or discover any sorrow or compa.s.sion for the misfortunes of so many worthy men who had suffered in his cause. But the most odious part of his character is his love of money, a vice which I do not remember to have been imputed by our historians to any of his ancestors, and is the certain index of a base and little mind. I have known this gentleman, with 2000 Louis d'ors in his strong box, pretend he was in great distress, and borrow money from a lady in Paris, who was not in affluent circ.u.mstances.' Dr. W. King's _Anec._ p. 201. 'Lord Marischal,' writes Hume, 'had a very bad opinion of this unfortunate prince; and thought there was no vice so mean or atrocious of which he was not capable; of which he gave me several instances.' J. H. Burton's _Hume_, ii. 464.

[559] _Siecle de Louis XIV_, ch. 15. The accentuation of this pa.s.sage, which was very incorrect as quoted by Boswell, I have corrected.

[560] By banishment he meant, I conjecture, transportation as a convict-slave to the American plantations.

[561] Wesley in his _Journal_--the reference I have mislaid--seemed from this consideration almost to regret a reprieve that came to a penitent convict.

[562] Hume describes how in 1753 (? 1750) the Pretender, on his secret visit to London, 'came to the house of a lady (who I imagined to be Lady Primrose) without giving her any preparatory information; and entered the room where she had a pretty large company with her, and was herself playing at cards. He was announced by the servant under another name.

She thought the cards would have dropped from her hands on seeing him.

But she had presence enough of mind to call him by the name he a.s.sumed.'

J.H. Burton's _Hume_, ii. 462. Mr. Croker (Croker's _Boswell_, p. 331) prints an autograph letter from Flora Macdonald which shows that Lady Primrose in 1751 had lodged 627 in a friend's hands for her behoof, and that she had in view to add more.

[563] It seems that the Pretender was only once in London, and that it was in 1750. _Ante_, i. 279, note 5. I suspect that 1759 is Boswell's mistake or his printer's. From what Johnson goes on to say it is clear that George II. was in Germany at the time of the Prince's secret visit.

He was there the greater part of 1750, but not in 1753 or 1759. In 1750, moreover, 'the great army of the King of Prussia overawed Hanover.'

Smollett's _England_, iii. 297. This explains what Johnson says about the King of Prussia stopping the army in Germany.

[564] See _ante_, iv. 165, 170.

[565] COMMENTARIES on the laws of England, book 1. chap. 3. BOSWELL.

[566] B. VI. chap. 3. Since I have quoted Mr. Archdeacon Paley upon one subject, I cannot but transcribe, from his excellent work, a distinguished pa.s.sage in support of the Christian Revelation.--After shewing, in decent but strong terms, the unfairness of the _indirect_ attempts of modern infidels to unsettle and perplex religious principles, and particularly the irony, banter, and sneer, of one whom he politely calls 'an eloquent historian,' the archdeacon thus expresses himself:--

'Seriousness is not constraint of thought; nor levity, freedom. Every mind which wishes the advancement of truth and knowledge, in the most important of all human researches, must abhor this licentiousness, as violating no less the laws of reasoning than the rights of decency.

There is but one description of men to whose principles it ought to be tolerable. I mean that cla.s.s of reasoners who can see _little_ in christianity even supposing it to be true. To such adversaries we address this reflection.--Had _Jesus Christ_ delivered no other declaration than the following, "The hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth,--they that have done well [good] unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of d.a.m.nation," [_St. John_ v. 25]

he had p.r.o.nounced a message of inestimable importance, and well worthy of that splendid apparatus of prophecy and miracles with which his mission was introduced and attested:--a message in which the wisest of mankind would rejoice to find an answer to their doubts, and rest to their inquiries. It is idle to say that a future state had been discovered already.--It had been discovered as the Copernican System was;--it was one guess amongst many. He alone discovers who _proves_, and no man can prove this point but the teacher who testifies by miracles that his doctrine comes from G.o.d.'--Book V. chap. 9.

If infidelity be disingenuously dispersed in every shape that is likely to allure, surprise, or beguile the imagination,--in a fable, a tale, a novel, a poem,--in books of travels, of philosophy, of natural history,--as Mr. Paley has well observed,--I hope it is fair in me thus to meet such poison with an unexpected antidote, which I cannot doubt will be found powerful. BOSWELL. The 'eloquent historian' was Gibbon.

See Paley's _Principles_, ed. 1786, p. 395.

[567] In _The Life of Johnson (ante_, iii. 113), Boswell quotes these words, without shewing that they are his own; but italicises not fervour, but loyalty.

[568] 'Whose service is perfect freedom.' _Book of Common Prayer._