I said,"It is then,gentlemen,truely lucky for me;for if I had displeased the Duke,and he had wished it,there is not a Campbell among you but would have been ready to bring John Wilkes's head to him in a charger.It would have been only "Off with his head!So much for Aylesbury."I was then member for Aylesbury.'
Mr.Arthur Lee mentioned some Scotch who had taken possession of a barren part of America,and wondered why they should choose it.
JOHNSON.'Why,Sir,all barrenness is comparative.The SCOTCHwould not know it to be barren.'BOSWELL.'Come,come,he is flattering the English.You have now been in Scotland,Sir,and say if you did not see meat and drink enough there.'JOHNSON.
'Why yes,Sir;meat and drink enough to give the enhabitants sufficient strength to run away from home.'All these quick and lively sallies were said sportively,quite in jest,and with a smile,which showed that he meant only wit.Upon this topick he and Mr.Wilkes could perfectly assimilate;here was a bond of union between them,and I was conscious that as both of them had visited Caledonia,both were fully satisfied of the strange narrow ignorance of those who imagine that it is a land of famine.But they amused themselves with persevering in the old jokes.When Iclaimed a superiority for Scotland over England in one respect,that no man can be arrested there for a debt merely because another swears it against him;but there must first be the judgement of a court of law ascertaining its justice;and that a seizure of the person,before judgement is obtained,can take place only,if his creditor should swear that he is about to fly from the country,or,as it is technically expressed,is in meditatione fugoe:WILKES.
'That,I should think,may be safely sworn of all the Scotch nation.'JOHNSON.(to Mr.Wilkes,)'You must know,Sir,I lately took my friend Boswell and shewed him genuine civilised life in an English provincial town.I turned him loose at Lichfield,my native city,that he might see for once real civility:for you know he lives among savages in Scotland,and among rakes in London.'
WILKES.'Except when he is with grave,sober,decent people like you and me.'JOHNSON.(smiling,)'And we ashamed of him.'
They were quite frank and easy.Johnson told the story of his asking Mrs.Macaulay to allow her footman to sit down with them,to prove the ridiculousness of the argument for the equality of mankind;and he said to me afterwards,with a nod of satisfaction,'You saw Mr.Wilkes acquiesced.'Wilkes talked with all imaginable freedom of the ludicrous title given to the Attorney-General,Diabolus Regis;adding,'I have reason to know something about that officer;for I was prosecuted for a libel.'Johnson,who many people would have supposed must have been furiously angry at hearing this talked of so lightly,said not a word.He was now,INDEED,'a good-humoured fellow.'
After dinner we had an accession of Mrs.Knowles,the Quaker lady,well known for her various talents,and of Mr.Alderman Lee.
Amidst some patriotick groans,somebody (I think the Alderman)said,'Poor old England is lost.'JOHNSON.'Sir,it is not so much to be lamented that Old England is lost,as that the Scotch have found it.'WILKES.'Had Lord Bute governed Scotland only,Ishould not have taken the trouble to write his eulogy,and dedicate Mortimer to him.'
Mr.Wilkes held a candle to shew a fine print of a beautiful female figure which hung in the room,and pointed out the elegant contour of the bosom with the finger of an arch connoisseur.He afterwards,in a conversation with me,waggishly insisted,that all the time Johnson shewed visible signs of a fervent admiration of the corresponding charms of the fair Quaker.
This record,though by no means so perfect as I could wish,will serve to give a notion of a very curious interview,which was not only pleasing at the time,but had the agreeable and benignant effect of reconciling any animosity,and sweetening any acidity,which in the various bustle of political contest,had been produced in the minds of two men,who though widely different,had so many things in common--classical learning,modern literature,wit,and humour,and ready repartee--that it would have been much to be regretted if they had been for ever at a distance from each other.
Mr.Burke gave me much credit for this successful NEGOCIATION;and pleasantly said,that 'there was nothing to equal it in the whole history of the Corps Diplomatique.'
I attended Dr.Johnson home,and had the satisfaction to hear him tell Mrs.Williams how much he had been pleased with Mr.Wilkes's company,and what an agreeable day he had passed.
I talked a good deal to him of the celebrated Margaret Caroline Rudd,whom I had visited,induced by the fame of her talents,address,and irresistible power of fascination.To a lady who disapproved of my visiting her,he said on a former occasion,'Nay,Madam,Boswell is in the right;I should have visited her myself,were it not that they have now a trick of putting every thing into the news-papers.'This evening he exclaimed,'I envy him his acquaintance with Mrs.Rudd.'
On the evening of the next day I took leave of him,being to set out for Scotland.I thanked him with great warmth for all his kindness.'Sir,(said he,)you are very welcome.Nobody repays it with more.
The following letters concerning an Epitaph which he wrote for the monument of Dr.Goldsmith,in Westminster-Abbey,afford at once a proof of his unaffected modesty,his carelessness as to his own writings,and of the great respect which he entertained for the taste and judgement of the excellent and eminent person to whom they are addressed:
TO SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS.
DEAR SIR,--I have been kept away from you,I know not well how,and of these vexatious hindrances I know not when there will be an end.
