old coach and a pair of older horfes; and, that he might avoid the fufpicion of pride in fetting up an equipage, he displayed to the world the fource of his affluence, by a representation of St. John's gate, instead of his arms, on the door-pannel. This he told me himself was the reafon of diftinguishing his carriage from others, by what fome might think a whimsical device, and also for caufing it to be engraven on all his plate,

Johnson had his reward, over and above the pecuniary recompence vouchfafed him by Cave, in the general applause of his labours, which the increased demand for the Magazine implied; but this, as his performances fell short of his powers, gratified him but little; on the contrary, he disapproved the deceit he was compelled to practice; his notions of morality were fo strict, that he would fcarcely allow the violation of truth in the most trivial instances, and faw, in falfhood of all kinds, a turpitude that he could never he thoroughly reconciled to: and though the fraud was perhaps not greater than the fictitious relations in Sir Thomas More's Utopia, lord Bacon's Nova Atlantis, and bishop Hall's Mundus alter et idem, Johnson was not eafy till he had disclosed the deception.

In the mean time it was curious to obferve how the deceit operated. It has above been remarked, that Johnson had the art to give different colours to the feveral speeches, fo that fome appear to be declamatory and energetic, refembling the orations of Demofthenes; others like those of Cicero, calm, perfuafive; others, more particularly those attributed to fuch country-gentlemen, merchants, and feamen as had feats in parliament, bear the characteristic of plainnefs, bluntnefs, and an affected honesty, as opposed to the plaufibility of fuch as were understood or suspected to be courtiers: the artifice had its effect; Voltaire was betrayed by it into a declaration, that the eloquence

of

of ancient Greece and Rome was revived in the British fenate, and a fpeech of the late earl of Chatham when Mr. Pitt, in oppofition to one of Mr. Horatio Walpole, received the highest applaufe, and was by all that read it taken for genuine; and we are further told

I

The fpeech here alluded to, taking it to have been spoken as it is printed, was uttered in a debate on a bill for the encouragement and encrease of feamen, containing a claufe for a register of feamen, and was intended to take away the neceffity of impreffing for the fea-fervice, which bill, as being a minifterial measure, was vehemently oppofed. It is a reply, void of argument and loaded with abufe, to a fober reproof of a grave and experienced fenator. To judge of its merits, and as a specimen of the speaker's method of debating at that early period of his life, it is neceflary to compare it with that to which it pretends to be an answer, and for that purpose both are here inferted, and first that of Mr. Walpole.

SIR,

I was unwilling to interrupt the courfe of this debate while it 'was carried on with calmnefs and decency, by men who do not fuf'fer the ardour of oppofition to cloud their reason, or transport them to fuch expreffions as the dignity of this affembly does not admit. I have hitherto deferred to answer the gentleman who declaimed against the bill with fuch fluency of rhetoric, and fuch vehemence ' of gefture, who charged the advocates for the expedients now pro'pofed, with having no regard to any intereft but their own, and 'with making laws only to confume paper, and threatened them ' with the defection of their adherents, and the lofs of their influence, upon this new difcovery of their folly and their ignorance.

Nor, Sir, do I now answer him for any other purpose than to re'mind him how little the clamours of rage, and petulancy of in'vectives contribute to the purposes for which this affembly is called ⚫ together; how little the difcovery of truth is promoted, and the fecurity of the nation established by pompous diction and thea'trical emotions.

Formidable founds and furious declamations, confident affer 'tions, and lofty periods, may affect the young and unexperienced, ' and perhaps the gentleman may have contracted his habits of oratory by converfing more with those of his own age than with such as have had more opportunities of acquiring knowledge, and more 'fuccessful methods of communicating their fentiments.

If the heat of his temper, Sir, would fuffer him to attend 'to those whofe age and long acquaintance with bufinefs give

them

told of a perfon in a high office under the government, who being at breakfast at a gentleman's chambers in Gray's inn, Johnfon being alfo there, declared, that by the style alone of the fpeeches in the debates, he could

them an indifputable right to deference and fuperiority, he would learn, in time, to reason rather than declaim, and to prefer justness * of argument, and an accurate knowledge of facts, to founding epithets and fplendid fuperlatives, which may difturb the imagination ⚫ for a moment, but leave no lafting impreffion on the mind.

He will learn, Sir, that to accufe and prove are very different, and that reproaches, unfupported by evidence, affect only the cha'racter of him that utters them. Excurfions of fancy and flights of oratory are indeed pardonable in young men, but in no other, and it would furely contribute more, even to the purpofe for which fome ' gentlemen appear to fpeak, that of depreciating the conduct of the administration, to prove the inconveniences and injuftice of this bill, than barely to affert them, with whatever magnificence of language or appearance of zeal, honefty or compaffion.'

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To this fober and temperate speech uttered by a grave fenator, who had had ferved his country in various capacities, and whofe moral character was irreproachable, the following was the anfwer of Mr. William Pitt:

SIR,

• The atrocious crime of being a young man, which the honour⚫able gentleman has with fuch spirit and decency charged upon me, I fhall neither attempt to palliate nor deny, but content myfelf with wifhing, that I may be one of those whofe follies may ceafe with ⚫ their youth, and not of that number who are ignorant in spite of experience.

• Whether youth can be imputed to any man as a reproach, I will • not, Sir, affume the province of determining; but furely age may become justly contemptible, if the opportunities which it brings • have paffed away without improvement, and vice appears to pre•vail when the paffions have fubfided. The wretch that, after having feen the confequence of a thoufand errors, continues ftill to blunder, ⚫ and whofe age has only added obftinacy to stupidity, is furely the object of either abhorrence or contempt, and deferves not that his grey head should secure him from insults.

.

Much more, Sir, is he to be abhorred, who, as he has advanced

in age, has receded from virtue, and becomes more wicked with lefs ' temptation,

could feverally affign them to the perfons by whom they were delivered. Johnfon upon hearing this, could I 2

not

temptation, who proftitutes himself for money which be cannot enjoy, and spends the remains of his life in the ruin of his country.

But youth, Sir, is not my only crime; I have been accused of acting a theatrical part. A theatrical part may either imply fome ⚫ peculiarities of gefture, or a diffimulation of my real fentiments, and ⚫ an adoption of the opinions and language of another man.

In the first fenfe, Sir, the charge is too trifling to be confuted, and deferves only to be mentioned that it may be defpifed. I am at liberty, like every other man, to ufe my own language; and though I may perhaps have fome ambition to please this gentleman, • I shall not lay myfelf under any restraint, nor very folicitously copy his diction or his mien, however matured by age, or modelled by ⚫ experience.

If any man fhall, by charging me with theatrical behaviour, imply, 'that I utter any fentiments but my own, I fhall treat him as a calumniator and a villain, nor fhall any protection fhelter him from the ⚫ treatment which he deferves. I fhall, on fuch an occafion, without fcruple, trample upon all thofe forms with which wealth and dignity intrench themfelves, nor fhall any thing but age reftrain my refent'ment. Age, which always brings one privilege, that of being infolent and fupercilious without punishment,

But with regard, Sir, to thofe whom I have offended, I am of 'opinion, that if I had acted a borrowed part, I fhould have avoided their cenfure; the heat that offended them is the ardour of con'viction, and that zeal for the service of my country, which neither • hope nor fear shall influence me to suppress. I will not fit uncon⚫cerned while my liberty is invaded, nor look in filence upon public robbery. I will exert my endeavours, at whatever hazard, to repel the aggreffor and drag the thief to juftice, whoever may protect them in their villainy, and whoever may partake of their plunder. And if the honourable gentleman-At thefe words Mr. Winnington rose up, and calling Mr. Pitt to order, made a fhort speech, to which Mr. Pitt made this answer:

If this be to preserve order, there is no danger of indecency from 'the most licentious tongue, for what calumny can be more atrocious, ' or what reproach more severe, than that of fpeaking with regard to any thing but truth? Order may fometimes be broken by paffion or ⚫ inadvertency, but will hardly be re-established by monitors like this, 'who cannot govern his own paffion, whilst he is restraining the impetuofity of others.

Happy,

not refrain from undeceiving him, by confeffing that himself was the author of them all.

It must be owned, that with refpect to the general principles avowed in the fpeeches, and the fentiments therein contained, they agree with the characters of the perfons to whom they are afcribed. Thus, to inftance in those of the upper house, the speeches of the duke of Newcaftle, the lords Carteret and Ilay, are calm, temperate aud perfuafive; thofe of the duke of Argyle and lord Talbot, furious and declamatory, and lord Chesterfield's and lord Hervey's florid but flimfy. In the other house the speeches may be thus characterifed; the minister's mild and conciliatory, Mr. Pulteney's nervous, methodical and weighty, Mr. Shippen's blunt and dogmatical, Sir John Barnard's clear, especially on commercial fubjects, Lyttleton's ftiff and imitative of the Roman oratory, and Pitt's void of argument but rhapsodically and diffusively eloquent. In other particulars the debates of Johnson are liable to the fame objections, but in a greater degree, as those of Guthrie; the language of them is too good, and the style fuch as none of the perfons to whom the speeches are affigned were able to discourse in.

The

Happy, Sir, would it be for mankind, if every one knew his own province; we should not then fee the fame man at once a criminal ' and a judge, nor would this gentleman affume the right of dictating • to others, what he has not learned himself.

That I may return in fome degree the favour which he intends me, I will advise him never hereafter to exert himself on the subject of order, but, whenever he finds himself inclined to speak on such ⚫ occafions, to remember how he has now fucceeded, and condemn in 'filence, what his cenfures will never reform *.'

* Gent. Mag. 1741, page 568 et feq.

+ Mr. Pitt professed himself to be no reafoner. In the meetings of his party to fettle the method of conducting a debate, in opposition to the minister, he declined the enforcing particular charges of mal-administration, and always chose what he called the peroration.