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1775. which is to be fix shillings, as I would fsubscribe for all the Erse that can be Etat. 66. printed, be it old or new, that the language may be preserved. This man says, that fome of his manufcripts are ancient; and, to be sure, one of them which was shewn to me does appear to have the duskyness of antiquity.

" The inquiry is not yet quite hopeless, and I should think that the exact truth may be discovered, if proper means be used. I am, &c.

"DEAR SIR,

"JAMES BOSWELL."

TO JAMES BOSWELL, Esq.

" I AM forry that I could get no books for my friends in Scotland. Mr. Strahan has at last promised to fend two dozen to you. If they come, put the names of my friends into them, you may cut them out, and paste them with a little starch in the book.

" You then are going wild about Ossian. Why do you think any part can be proved? The dusky manufcript of Egg is probably not fifty years old; if it be an hundred, it proves nothing. The tale of Clanranald has no proof. Has Clanranald told it? Can he prove it? There are, I believe,. no Erse manufcripts. None of the old families had a single letter in Erse that we heard of. You say it is likely that they could write. The learned, if any learned there were, could; but knowing by that learning some written language, in that language they wrote, as letters had never been applied to their own. If there are manufcripts, let them be shewn, with some proof that they. are not forged for the occasion. You say many can remember parts of Offian. I believe all those parts are versions of the English, at least there is no proof of their antiquity.

" Macpherson is faid to have made some translations himself; and having taught a boy to write it, ordered him to say that he had learned it of his grandmother. The boy, when he grew up, told the story. This Mrs. Williams heard at Mr. Strahan's table. Do not be credulous; you know how little a Highlander can be trusted. Macpherson is, fo far as I know, very quiet. Is not that proof enough? Every thing is against him. No visible manufcript; no infcription in the language: no correspondence among friends: no tranfaction of business, of which a single scrap remains in the ancient families. Macpherson's pretence is, that the character was Saxon. If he had not talked

• From a lift in his hand-writing.

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unskilfully of manuscripts, he might have fought with oral tradition much longer. As to Mr. Grant's information, I suppose he knows much less of the Ætat. 66. matter than ourselves.

" In the mean time, the bookseller says that the sale' is sufficiently quick. They printed four thousand. Correct your copy wherever it is wrong, and bring it up. Your friends will all be glad to fee you. I think of going myfelf into the country about May.

" I am forry that I have not managed to send the books fooner. I have left four for you, and do not restrict you absolutely to follow my directions in the distribution. You must use your own difcretion.

"Make my compliments to Mrs. Bofwell; I suppose she is now just beginning to forgive me. I am, dear Sir,

"Feb. 25, 1775

"Your humble servant,

SAM. JOHNSON."

On Tuesday, March 21, I arrived in London; and on repairing to Dr. Johnson's before dinner, found him in his study, fitting with Mr. Peter Garrick, the elder brother of David, strongly resembling him in his countenance and voice, but of more sedate and placid manners. Johnfon informed me, that "though Mr. Beauclerk was in great pain, it was hoped he was not in danger, and that he now wished to consult Dr. Heberden to try the effect of a new understanding." Both at this interview, and in the evening at Mr. Thrale's, where he and Mr. Peter Garrick and I met again, he was vehement on the fubject of the Offian controverfy; observing, "We do not know that there are any ancient Erse manuscripts; and we have no other reason to disbelieve that there are men with three heads, but that we do not know that there are any such men." He also was outrageous, upon his supposition that my countrymen " loved Scotland better than truth," saying, "All of them,-nay not all,-but droves of them, would come up, and attest any thing for the honour of Scotland.** He also perfevered in his wild allegation, that he questioned if there was a tree between Edinburgh and the English border older than himself. I assured him he was mistaken, and suggested that the proper punishment would be that he should receive a stripe at every tree above a hundred years old, that was found within that space. He laughed, and faid, "I believe I might fubmit to it for a bawbie!"

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The doubts which, in my correspondence with him, I had ventured to state Ætat. 66. as to the juftice and wisdom of the conduct of Great-Britain towards the American colonies, while I at the same time requested that he would enable me to inform myself upon that momentous subject, he had altogether difregarded; and had recently published a pamphlet, entitled, "Taxation no Tyranny; an Answer to the Resolutions and Address of the American Congrefs.*"

He had long before indulged most unfavourable sentiments of our fellow fubjects in America. For, as early as 1769, I was told by Dr. John Campbell, that he had faid of them, "Sir, they are a race of convicts, and ought to be thankful for any thing we allow them short of hanging."

Of this performance I avoided to talk with him; for I had now formed a clear and fettled opinion, that the people of America were well warranted to resist a claim that their fellow-fubjects in the mother-country should have the entire command of their fortunes, by taxing them without their own confent; and the extreme violence which it breathed, appeared to me so unsuitable to the mildness of a Chriftian philosopher, and so directly oppofite to the principles of peace which he had fo beautifully recommended in his pamphlet refpecting Falkland's Islands, that I was forry to see him appear in so unfavourable a light. Besides, I could not perceive in it that ability of argument, or that felicity of expression, for which he was, upon other occafions, so emiPositive affertion, farcastical severity, and extravagant ridicule, which

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he himself reprobated as a test of truth, were united in this rhapsody.

That this pamphlet was written at the defire of those who were then in power, I have no doubt; and, indeed, he owned to me, that it had been revised and curtailed by fome of them. He told me, that they had struck out one paffage, which was to this effect : "That the Colonifts could with no folidity argue from their not having been taxed while in their infancy, that they should not now be taxed. We do not put a calf into the plow; we wait till he is an ox." He said, "They struck it out either critically, as too ludicrous, or politically, as too exafsperating. I care not which. It was their business. If an architect says, I will build five stories, and the man who employs him says, I will have only three, the employer is to decide." "Yes, Sir, (faid I,) in ordinary cafes. But should it be fo when the architect gives his skill and labour gratis?"

Unfavourable as I am constrained to say my opinion of this pamphlet was, yet, fince it was congenial with the fentiments of numbers at that time, and as every thing relating to the writings of Dr. Johnfon is of importance in literary

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literary history, I shall therefore infert some passages which were struck out, it does not appear why, either by himself or those who revised it. They appear Etat. 66. printed in a few proof leaves of it in my poffeffion, marked with corrections in his own hand-writing. I shall diftinguish them by Italicks.

In the paragraph where he says, the Americans were incited to resistance by European intelligence from "men whom they thought their friends, but who were friends only to themselves," there followed," and made, by their felfishness, the enemies of their country."

And the next paragraph ran thus: "On the original contrivers of mischief, rather than on those whom they have deluded, let an infulted nation pour out its vengeance."

The paragraph which came next was in these words: "Unhappy is that country, in which men can hope for advancement by favouring its enemies. The tranquillity of stable government is not always eafily preserved against the machinations of fingle innovators; but what can be the hope of quiet, when factions bestile to the legislature can be openly formed and openly avowed?”

After the paragraph which now concludes the pamphlet, there followed this, in which he certainly means the great Earl of Chatham, and glances at a certain popular Lord Chancellor :

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If, by the fortune of war, they drive us utterly away, what they will do next can only be conjectured. If a new monarchy is erected, they will want a KING. He who first takes into his hand the fceptre of America, should have a name of good omen. WILLIAM has been known both as conqueror and deliverer; and perhaps England, however contemned, might yet fupply them with ANOTHER WILLIAM. Whigs, indeed, are not willing to be governed; and it is possible that KING WILLIAM may be strongly inclined to guide their measures: but Whigs have been cheated like other mortals, and suffered their leader to become their tyrant, under the name of their PROTECTOR. What more they will receive from England, no man can tell. In their rudiments of empire they may want a CHANCELLOR."

Then came this paragraph:

“ Their numbers are, at present, not quite fufficient for the greatness which, in fome form of government or other, is to rival the ancient monarchies; but, by Dr. Franklin's rule of progression, they will, in à century and a quarter, be more than equal to the inhabitants of Europe. When the Whigs of America are thus multiplied, let the Princes of the earth tremble in their palaces. If they should continue to double and to double, their own hemisphere will not contain them. But let not our boldest oppugners of authority look forward with delight to this futurity of Whiggifm."

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How it ended I know not, as it is cut off abruptly at the foot of the last of

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Ætat. 66. these proof pages.

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His pamphlets in support of the measures of administration were published on his own account, and he afterwards collected them into a volume, with the title of "Political Tracts, by the Authour of the Rambler," with this motto,

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These pamphlets drew upon him numerous attacks. Against the common weapons of literary warfare he was hardened; but there were two instances of animadverfion which I communicated to him, and from what I could judge, both from his filence and his looks, appeared to me to impress him much.

One was, a "A Letter to Dr. Samuel Johnson, occafioned by his late political Publications." It appeared previous to his "Taxation no Tyranny," and was written by Dr. Joseph Towers. In that performance, Dr. Johnfon was treated with the respect due to so eminent a man, while his conduct as a political writer was boldly and pointedly arraigned, as inconsistent with the character of one, who, if he did employ his pen upon politicks, " it might reafonably be expected should diftinguish himself, not by party violence and rancour, but by moderation and by wisdom."

It concluded thus : " I would, however, wish you to remember, should you again address the publick under the character of a political writer, that luxuriance of imagination or energy of language will ill compenfate for the want of candour, of justice, and of truth. And I shall only add, that should I hereafter be disposed to read, as I heretofore have done, the most excellent of all your performances, 'THE RAMBLER,' the pleasure which I have been accuftomed to find in it will be much diminished by the reflection that the writer of fo moral, so elegant, and fo valuable a work, was capable of prostituting his talents in such productions as 'The False Alarm,' the 'Thoughts on the Transactions respecting Falkland's Islands,' and 'The Patriot."

I am willing to do justice to the merit of Dr. Towers, of whom I will fay, that although I abhor his Whiggish democratical notions and propenfities, (for I will not call them principles,) I esteem him as an ingenious, knowing, and very convivial man.

The other instance was a paragraph of a letter to me, from my old and moft intimate friend the Reverend Mr. Temple, who wrote the character of Gray,

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