Life of Johnson
Chapter 46 : Gulliver has thrown them into one to prevent unnecessary repet.i.tions.'(_Gent. Ma

Gulliver has thrown them into one to prevent unnecessary repet.i.tions.'

(_Gent. Mag_. Dec. 1742, p. 676.) In each House during the winter of 1742-3 there was a debate on taking the Hanoverian troops into pay. The debate in the Lords was spread over five numbers of the _Magazine_ in the following summer and autumn. It was not till the spring of 1744 that the turn of the Commons came, and then they were treated somewhat scurvily. 'This debate,' says the reporter, who was Johnson, 'we thought it necessary to contract by the omission of those arguments which were fully discussed in the House of Hurgoes, and of those speakers who produced them, lest we should disgust our readers by tedious repet.i.tions.' (_Ib_. xiv. 125.) Many of these debates have been reported somewhat briefly by Bishop (afterwards Archbishop) Seeker. To follow his account requires an accurate knowledge of the times, whereas Johnson's rhetorick for the most part is easily understood even by one very ignorant of the history of the first two Georges. Much of it might have been spoken on almost any occasion, for or against almost any minister.

It is true that we here and there find such a correspondence between the two reports as shews that Johnson, as he has himself told us, was at times furnished with some information. But, on the other hand, we can no less clearly see that he was often drawing solely on his imagination.

Frequently there is but the slightest agreement between the reports given by the two men of the same speeches. Of this a good instance is afforded by Lord Carteret's speech of Feb. 13, 1741. According to Johnson 'the Hurgo Quadrert began in this manner':--

'As the motion which I am about to make is of the highest importance and of the most extensive consequences; as it cannot but meet with all the opposition which the prejudices of some and the interest of others can raise against it; as it must have the whole force of ministerial influence to encounter without any a.s.sistance but from justice and reason, I hope to be excused by your Lords.h.i.+ps for spending some time in endeavouring to shew that it wants no other support; that it is not founded upon doubtful suspicions but upon uncontestable facts,' and so on for eight more lines. (_Gent. Mag_. xi. 339).

The Bishop's note begins as follows:--

'CARTERET. I am glad to see the House so full. The honour of the nation is at stake. And the oldest man hath not known such circ.u.mstances as we are in. When storms rise you must see what pilots you have, and take methods to make the nation easy. I shall (1) go through the foreign transactions of several years; (2) The domestic; (3) Prove that what I am about to propose is a parliamentary method.' (_Parl. Hist_. xi.

1047.)

Still more striking is the difference in the two reports of a speech by Lord Talbot on May 25, 1742. According to the _Gent. Mag_. xii. 519, 'the Hurgo Toblat spoke to this effect':--

'So high is my veneration for this great a.s.sembly that it is never without the utmost efforts of resolution that I can prevail upon myself to give my sentiments upon any question that is the subject of debate, however strong may be my conviction, or however ardent my zeal.'

The Bishop makes him say:--

'I rise up only to give time to others to consider how they will carry on the debate.' (_Parl. Hist_. xii. 646.)

On Feb. 13, 1741, the same Lord, being called to order for saying that there were Lords who were influenced by a place, exclaimed, according to the Bishop, '"By the eternal G--d, I will defend my cause everywhere."

But Lords calling to order, he recollected himself and made an excuse.'

(_Parl. Hist_. xi. 1063). In the _Gent. Mag_. xi. 4l9, 'the Hurgo Toblat resumed:--"My Lords, whether anything has escaped from me that deserves such severe animadversions your Lords.h.i.+ps must decide."'

Once at least in Johnson's reports a speech is given to the wrong member. In the debate on the Gin Bill on Feb. 22, 1743 (_Gent. Mag_.

xiii. 696), though the Bishop's notes show that he did not speak, yet a long speech is put into his mouth. It was the Earl of Sandwich who had spoken at this turn of the debate. The editor of the _Parl. Hist_. (xii.

1398), without even notifying the change, coolly transfers the speech from the 'decent' Seeker[1466], who was afterwards Primate, to the grossly licentious Earl. A transference such as this is, however, but of little moment. For the most part the speeches would be scarcely less lifelike, if all on one side were a.s.signed to some nameless Whig, and all on the other side to some nameless Tory. It is nevertheless true that here and there are to be found pa.s.sages which no doubt really fell from the speaker in whose mouth they are put. They mention some fact or contain some allusion which could not otherwise have been known by Johnson. Even if we had not Cave's word for it, we might have inferred that now and then a member was himself his own reporter. Thus in the _Gent. Mag_. for February 1744 (p. 68) we find a speech by Sir John St.

Aubyn that had appeared eight months earlier in the very same words in the _London Magazine_. That Johnson copied a rival publication is most unlikely--impossible, I might say. St. Aubyn, I conjecture, sent a copy of his speech to both editors. In the _Gent. Mag_. for April 1743 (p.

184), a speech by Lord Percival on Dec. 10, 1742, is reported apparently at full length. The debate itself was not published till the spring of 1744, when the reader is referred for this speech to the back number in which it had already been inserted. (_Ib_. xiv. 123).

The _London Magazine_ generally gave the earlier report; it was, however, twitted by its rival with its inaccuracy. In one debate, it was said, 'it had introduced instead of twenty speakers but six, and those in a very confused manner. It had attributed to Caecilius words remembered by the whole audience to be spoken by M. Agrippa.' (_Gent.

Mag_. xii. 512). The report of the debate of Feb. 13, 1741, in the _London Magazine_ fills more than twenty-two columns of the _Parl.

Hist_. (xi. 1130) with a speech by Lord Bathurst. That he did speak is shewn by Secker (_ib_. p. 1062). No mention of him is made, however, in the report in the _Gent. Mag_. (xi. 339). But, on the other hand, it reports eleven speakers, while the _London Magazine_ gives but five.

Secker shows that there were nineteen. Though the _London Magazine_ was generally earlier in publis.h.i.+ng the debates, it does not therefore follow that Johnson had seen their reports when he wrote his. His may have been kept back by Cave's timidity for some months even after they had been set up in type. In the staleness of the debate there was some safeguard against a parliamentary prosecution.

Mr. Croker maintains (Croker's _Boswell_, p. 44) that Johnson wrote the _Debates_ from the time (June 1738) that they a.s.sumed the _Lilliputian_ t.i.tle till 1744. In this he is certainly wrong. Even if we had not Johnson's own statement, from the style of the earlier _Debates_ we could have seen that they were not written by him. No doubt we come across numerous traces of his work; but this we should have expected.

Boswell tells us that Guthrie's reports were sent to Johnson for revision (_ante_, p. 118). Nay, even a whole speech now and then may be from his hand. It is very likely that he wrote, for instance, the _Debate_ on b.u.t.tons and b.u.t.ton-holes (_Gent. Mag_. viii. 627), and the _Debate_ on the registration of seamen (_ib_. xi.). But it is absurd to attribute to him pa.s.sages such as the following, which in certain numbers are plentiful enough long after June 1738. 'There never was any measure pursued more consistent with, and more consequential of, the sense of this House' (_ib_. ix. 340). 'It gave us a handle of making such reprisals upon the Iberians as this Crown found the sweets of'

(_ib_. x. 281). 'That was the only expression that the least shadow of fault was found with' (ib. xi. 292).

'Johnson told me himself,' says Boswell (_ante_, p. 150), 'that he was the sole composer of the _Debates_ for those three years only (1741-2-3). He was not, however, precisely exact in his statement, which he mentioned from hasty recollection; for it is sufficiently evident that his composition of them began November 19, 1740, and ended February 23 [22], 1742-3.' Some difficulty is caused in following Boswell's statement by the length of time that often elapsed between the debate itself and its publication. The speeches that were spoken between Nov.

19, or, more strictly speaking, Nov. 25, 1740, and Feb. 22, 1743, were in their publication spread through the _Magazine_ from July 1741 to March, 1744. On Feb. 13, 1741, Lord Carteret in the House of 'Lords, and Mr. Sandys, 'the Motion-maker[1467],' in the House of Commons, moved an address to the King for the removal of Sir Robert Walpole. Johnson's report of the debate in the Lords was published in the _Magazine_ for the next July and August. The year went round. Walpole's ministry was overthrown, and Walpole himself was banished to the House of Lords. A second year went by. At length, in three of the spring numbers of 1743, the debate on Sandys's motion was reported. It had been published in the _London Magazine_ eleven months earlier.

Cave, if he was tardy, nevertheless was careful that his columns should not want variety. Thus in the number for July 1743, we have the middle part of the debate in the Lords on Feb. 1, 1743, the end of the debate in the Commons on March 9, 1742, and the beginning of another in the Commons on the following March 23. From the number for July 1741 to the number for March 1744 Johnson, as I have already said, was the sole composer of the _Debates_. The irregularity with which they were given at first sight seems strange; but in it a certain method can be discovered. The proceedings of a House of Commons that had come to an end might, as I have shown, be freely published. There had been a dissolution after the session which closed in April 1741. The publication of the _Debates_ of the old parliament could at once begin, and could go on freely from month to month all the year round. But they would not last for ever. In 1742, in the autumn recess, the time when experience had shewn that the resolution of the House could be broken with the least danger, the _Debates_ of the new parliament were published. They were continued even in the short session before Christmas. But the spring of 1743 saw a cautious return to the reports of the old parliament. The session closed on April 21, and in the May number the comparatively fresh _Debates_ began again. In one case the report was not six months after date. In the beginning of 1744 this publication went on even in the session, but it was confined to the proceedings of the previous winter.

The following table shews the order in which Johnson's Debates were published:--

_Gentleman's _Debate or part Magazine_. of debate of_

July, 1741 {Parliament was dissolved } Feb. 13, 1741 { on April 25, 1741. } Aug. " Feb. 13, "

Sept. " {Jan. 27, "

{Mar. 2, "

Oct. " Mar. 2, "

Nov. " Mar. 2, "

Dec. " { The new Parliament met} Dec. 9, 1740 { on Dec. 1. }

_Gentleman's Debate or part Magazine. of debate of_

Supplement to 1741 Dec. 2, "

Dec. 12,"

Jan. 1742 Feb. 3, 1741 Feb. 27, "

Feb. " Jan. 26, "

April 13, "

Mar. " Feb. 24, "

April 13, "

April " Jan. 27, "

Feb. 24, "

May " Nov. 25, 1740 June " Nov. 25, "

April 8, 1741 July " The session ended on July April 8, "

15. Dec. 1, "

Dec. 4, "

Aug. " Dec. 4, "

Sept. " Dec. 4, "

Dec. 8, "

Oct. " Dec. 8, "

May 25, 1742 Nov. " The Session opened on May 25, "

Nov. 16.

Dec. " May 25, "

June 1, "

Supplement to 1742 Dec. 10, 1740 June 1, 1742 Jan. 1743 Dec. 10, 1740 Feb. " Feb. 13, 1741 Mar. " Feb. 13, "

April " The Session ended on April 21 Feb. 13, "

May " Mar. 9, 1742 Nov. 16, "

June " Mar. 9, "

Feb. 1, 1743 July " Mar. 9, 1742 Mar. 23, "

Feb. 1, 1743 Aug. " Feb. 1, "

Sept. " Feb. 1, "

Oct. " Feb. 1, "

Nov. " Feb. 22, "

Dec. " The Session opened on Dec. 1 Feb. 22, "

Supplement to 1743 Feb. 22, "

Jan. 1744 Feb. 22, "

Feb. " Dec. 10, 1742 Feb. 22, 1743 Mar. " Dec. 10, 1742

During the rest of 1744 the debates were given in the old form, and in a style that is a close imitation of Johnson's. Most likely they were composed by Hawkesworth (_ante_, p. 252). In 1745 they were fewer in number, and in 1746 the reports of the Senate of Lilliputia with its Hurgoes and Clinabs pa.s.sed away for ever. They had begun, to quote the words of the Preface to the _Magazine_ for 1747, at a time when 'a determined spirit of opposition in the national a.s.semblies communicated itself to almost every individual, multiplied and invigorated periodical papers, and rendered politics the chief, if not the only object, of curiosity.' They are a monument to the greatness of Walpole, and to the genius of Johnson. Had that statesman not been overthrown, the people would have called for these reports even though Johnson had refused to write them. Had Johnson still remained the reporter, even though Walpole no longer swayed the Senate of the Lilliputians, the speeches of that tumultuous body would still have been read. For though they are not debates, yet they have a vast vigour and a great fund of wisdom of their own.