"July 2. I paid Mr. Simpson ten guineas, which he had formerly lent me in my necessity, and for which Tetty expressed her gratitude."

"July 8. I lent Mr. Simpson ten guineas more."

Here he had a pleasing opportunity of doing the same kindness to an old friend, which he had formerly received from him. Indeed his liberality as to money was very remarkable. The next article in his diary is, "July 16th, I received seventyfive pounds. Lent Mr. Davies twenty-five."

Trinity College, Dublin, at this time surprised Johnson with a spontaneous compliment of the highest academical honours, by creating him Doctor of Laws. The diploma, which is in my possession, is as follows:

“OMNIBUS ad quos præsentes literæ pervenerint, salutem. Nos Præpositus et Socii Seniores Collegii Sacrosanctæ et Individuæ Trinitatis Regina Elizabethæ juxta Dublin, testamur, Samueli Johnson, Armigero, ob egregiam scriptorum elegantiam et utilitatem, gratiam concessam fuisse pro gradu Doctoratûs in utroque Jure, octavo die Julii, Anno Domini millesimo septingentesimo sexagesimo-quinto. In cujus rei testimonium singulorum manus et sigillum quo in hisce utimur apposuimus; vicesimo tertio die Julii, Anno Domini millesimo septingentesimo sexagesimo-quinto.

GUL. CLEMENT.
THO. WILSON.

FRAN. ANDREWS.
Præps.

R. MURRAY.

THO. LELAND.2

ROBtus. Law.
MICH. KEARNEY.

This unsolicited mark of distinction, conferred on so great a literary character, did much honour to the judgment and liberal spirit of that learned body. Johnson acknowledged

1 A quarter's pension.-Croker.

2 Dr. Thomas Leland, the translator of Demosthenes, and author of the History of Ireland, was born at Dublin, in 1722, and died in 1785.— Wright.

3 The same who has contributed some notes to this work, and the elder brother of my earliest literary friend Dr. John Kearney, sometime Provost of Dublin College, and afterwards Bishop of Ossory. Both the brothers were amiable men and accomplished scholars.-Croker.

the favour in a letter to Dr. Leland, one of their number; but I have not been able to obtain a copy of it.'

He appears this year to have been seized with a temporary fit of ambition, for he had thoughts both of studying law, and of engaging in politics. His "Prayer before the Study of Law" is truly admirable :

"Sept. 26, 1765. Almighty God, the giver of wisdom, without whose help resolutions are vain, without whose blessing study is ineffectual; enable me, if it be thy will, to attain such knowledge as may qualify me to direct the doubtful, and instruct the ignorant; to prevent wrongs and terminate contentions; and grant that I may use that knowledge which I shall attain, to thy glory and my own salvation, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen."

His prayer in the view of becoming a politician is entitled, Engaging in politics with H-n," no doubt, his friend, the Right Hon. William Gerard Hamilton,* for whom, during a

1 Since the publication of the edition in 1804 a copy of this letter has been obligingly communicated to me by John Leland, Esq., son of the learned historian, to whom it is addressed :

66

"TO THE REV. DR. LELAND.

"Johnson's Court, Fleet Street, London, “Oct. 17, 1765.

SIR,-Among the names subscribed to the degree which I have had the honour of receiving from the University of Dublin, I find none of which I have any personal knowledge but those of Dr. Andrews and yourself.

"Men can be estimated by those who know them not, only as they are represented by those who know them; and therefore I flatter myself that I owe much of the pleasure which this distinction gives me, to your concurrence with Dr. Andrews in recommending me to the learned society. "Having desired the Provost to return my general thanks to the University, I beg that you, Sir, will accept my particular and immediate acknowledgments. I am, Sir, your most obedient and most humble ser"SAM. JOHNSON."

vant,

I have not been able to recover the letter which Johnson wrote to Dr. Andrews on this occasion.-Malone.

2

3

Ibid., p. 61.

Prayers and Meditations, p. 60. William Gerard Hamilton, the only son of William Hamilton, a Scottish advocate who migrated from Edinburgh to London, to practise

D D

long acquaintance, he had a great esteem, and to whose conversation he once paid this high compliment: "I am very unwilling to be left alone, Sir, and therefore I go with my company down the first pair of stairs, in some hopes that they may, perhaps, return again; I go with you, Sir, as far as the street-door." In what particular department he intended to engage' does not appear, nor can Mr. Hamilton explain. His prayer is in general terms:

under the appellate jurisdiction created at the Union, 1707, was born in Lincoln's Inn, January, 1728. He was educated at Winchester and Oriel College; and, on leaving Oxford, became a member of Lincoln's Inn; but on the death of his father, January 15, 1754, from whom he inherited an ample fortune, he abandoned the bar, to devote himself exclusively to political life. In the general election, May, 1754, he entered Parliament as member for Petersfield, Hampshire. After remaining a silent member for a year, he made his first speech, 13th November, 1755, in the debate on an address to the Crown regarding the treaties between His Britannic Majesty, the Emperor of Russia and the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel: "Young Mr. Hamilton," says Horace Walpole, "spoke for the first time, and was at once perfection." This was the speech which acquired for him the name of "single speech Hamilton "—an epithet not altogether correct, for he spoke again on the same subject, February, 1756, when, as Walpole says, he shone again, but with diminished lustre. In March, 1761, he accompanied Lord Halifax, when that nobleman was made Lord Lieutenant, to Ireland, as his principal secretary. In the Irish House of Commons, in the course of the session which began in November, 1761, and ended in the middle of the following year, he spoke five times, and with distinguished success. Though he did not immediately resign his office when, 1763, the Earl of Northumberland succeeded Lord Halifax as Lord Lieutenant, yet, from some disgust he had conceived, he soon took this step, and returned to England. He sat in every parliament till his death, which took place in his house, Upper Brook Street, July 16, 1796, in his sixty-eighth year.—Editor.

In the preface to a late collection of Mr. Hamilton's Pieces, it has been observed that our author was, by the generality of Johnson's words, "led to suppose that he was seized with a temporary fit of ambition, and that hence he was induced to apply his thoughts to law and politics. But Mr. Boswell was certainly mistaken in this respect: and these words merely allude to Johnson's having at that time entered into some engagement with Mr. Hamilton occasionally to furnish him with his sentiments on the great political topics which should be considered in Parliament.” In consequence of this engagement, Johnson, in November, 1766, wrote a very valuable tract, entitled "Considerations on Corn," which is printed as an

Enlighten my understanding with knowledge of right, and govern my will by thy laws, that no deceit may mislead me, nor temptation corrupt me; that I may always endeavour to do good, and hinder evil." There is nothing upon the subject in his diary.

This year was distinguished by his being introduced into the family of Mr. Thrale, one of the most eminent brewers in England, and member of Parliament for the borough of Southwark. Foreigners are not a little amazed when they hear of brewers, distillers, and men in similar departments of trade, held forth as persons of considerable consequence. In this great commercial country it is natural that a situation which produces much wealth should be considered as very respectable; and, no doubt, honest industry is entitled to esteem. But, perhaps, the too rapid advance of men of low extraction tends to lessen the value of that distinction by birth and gentility, which has ever been found beneficial to the grand scheme of subordination. Johnson used to give this account of the rise of Mr. Thrale's father: "He worked at six shillings a week for twenty years in the great brewery, which afterwards was his own. The proprietor of it had an only daughter, who was married to a nobleman. It was not fit that a peer should continue the business. On the old man's death, therefore, the

appendix to the works of Mr. Hamilton [edited by Malone], published by T. Payne in 1808.-Malone.

' Ibid., p. 67.

2 The predecessor of old Thrale was Edmund Halsey, Esq.; the nobleman who married his daughter was Lord Cobham, great uncle of the first Marquis of Buckingham. But I believe Dr. Johnson was mistaken in assigning so very low an origin to Mr. Thrale. The clerk of St. Albans, a very aged man, told me, that he (the elder Thrale) married a sister of Mr. Halsey. It is at least certain that the family of Thrale was of some consideration in that town: in the abbey church is a handsome monument to the memory of Mr. John Thrale, late of London, merchant, who died in 1704, aged 54, Margaret his wife, and three of their children who died young, between the years 1676 and 1690. The arms upon this monument are, paly of eight, gules and or, impaling, ermine, on a chief indented vert, three wolves' (or gryphons') heads, or, couped at the neck :-Crest on a ducal coronet, a tree, vert.-Blakeway.

brewery was to be sold. To find a purchaser for so large a property was a difficult matter; and, after some time, it was suggested, that it would be advisable to treat with Thrale, a sensible, active, honest man, who had been employed in the house, and to transfer the whole to him for thirty thousand pounds, security being taken upon the property. This was accordingly settled. In eleven years Thrale paid the purchase money. He acquired a large fortune, and lived to be a member of parliament for Southwark. But what was most remarkable was the liberality with which he used his riches. He gave his son and daughters the best education. The esteem which his good conduct procured him from the nobleman who had married his master's daughter, made him be treated with much attention; and his son, both at school and at the university of Oxford, associated with young men of the first rank. His allowance from his father, after he left college, was splendid; not less than a thousand a year. This, in a man who had risen as old Thrale did, was a very extraordinary instance of generosity. He used to say, "If this young dog does not find so much after I am gone as he expects, let him remember that he has a great deal in my own time."

The son, though in affluent circumstances, had good sense enough to carry on his father's trade, which was of such extent, that I remember he once told me, he would not quit it for an annuity of ten thousand a year: "Not," said he, “that I get ten thousand a year by it, but it is an estate to a family." Having left daughters only, the property was sold for the immense sum of one hundred and thirty-five thousand pounds: a magnificent proof of what may be done by fair trade in a long period of time.

There may be some who think that a new system of gentility might be established, upon principles totally different 1 In 1733 he served the office of high sheriff for Surrey; and died April 9, 1758.-Chalmers.

2 Mrs. Burney informs me that she heard Dr. Johnson say, "An English merchant is a new species of gentleman." He, perhaps, had in his mind the following ingenious passage in The Conscious Lovers, act iv., scene 2, where Mr. Sealand thus addresses Sir John Bevil :-" Give me leave to