POSTSCRIPT.

THE foregoing instrument carries into effect the resolution of Dr. Johnfon, to be, with respect to his negro-fervant, nobiliffimus; but the many lavish encomiums that have been bestowed on this act of bounty, make it necessary to mention some particulars, fubfequent to his death, that will serve to shew the short-fightedness of human wisdom, and the effects of ill-directed benevolence.

The amount of the bequest to this man, may be estimated at a sum little short of 15001. and that to the teftator's relations named in the will at 2351. (the fum which the house at Lichfield produced at a fale by auction) who, being five in number, divided the same, after deducting the expences of the fale, in the following proportions; that is to say, three of the relations took 581. 15s. od. each, and each of two others, the representatives of a fourth, 29l. 7s. 6d.

A few days after the doctor's decease, Francis came to me, and informed me, that a relation of his mafter's, named Humphrey Heely, who, with his wife, had lately, upon the request of the doctor to the bishop of Rochester, been placed in an alms-house at Westminster, was in great necessity, as wanting money to buy bedding and cloaths. I told him, that seeing he was so great a gainer by his master's will, as to be poffeffed of almost the whole of his fortune, it behoved him to have compassion on this his relation, and to fupply his wants. His reply was,-' • cannot afford it.

From

From the time of the doctor's decease, myself, and

my colleagues the other executors, answered all the calls of Francis for money. On the 6th day of September 1785, we had advanced him 1061. By the 13th of December following, he had received of Mr. Langton for his annuity, and of Mess. Barclay and Perkins for interest, as much as made that fum 1831. and on the 15th of the fame month, a year and two days after his master's death, he came to me, saying, that he wanted more money, for that a few halfpence was all that he had left. Upon my fettling with him in August last, it appeared that, exclufive of his annuity, he had received 3371. and, after delivering to him the bond for 1501. mentioned in the will*, I paid him a balance of 1961. 15s. 4d..

I had no fooner closed my account, than I fent for Heely, who appeared to be an old man and lame, having one leg much shorter than the other, but of an excellent understanding. The style of his difcourse was so correct and grammatical, that it called to my remembrance that of Johnson. The account he gave me of himfelf and his fortunes was to the following effect :

That he was born in the year 1714, and that his relation to Johnson was by marriage, his first wife being a Ford, and the daughter of Johnson's mother's brother. That himself had been a wholesale ironmonger, and the owner of an estate in Warwickshire, which he farmed himself, but that losses, and fome indifcretions on his part, had driven him to Scotland; and that, in his return on foot, with his wife, from

• He had before received 451. for interest thereon.

Newcastle,

Newcastle, she died on the road in his arms;-that, some years after, he was, by Sir Thomas Robinson, made keeper of the Tap at Ranelagh house, and that he married again; but that not being able to endure the capricious insolence with which he was treated, Mr. Garrick took him under his protection, and would have found a place for him in his theatre, but lived not to be able to do it, and that these, and other misfortunes and disappointments, had brought him to the condition, as he described it, of a poor, reduced old man. He added, that Dr. Johnfon had been very liberal to him; and, as one instance of his kindness, mentioned, that, about three weeks before his decease, he had applied to him for assistance; and, upon stating his reasons for troubling him, was bid, rather harshly, to be filent; - For,' faid the doctor,

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' it is enough to say that you are in want; I enquire ⚫ not into the causes of it: here is money for your ' relief *:'-but that, immediately recollecting himself,

he

* We have here an instance of that asperity of temper with which Johnson has been frequently charged, but without any allowance for natural infirmity, or any confideration of his endeavours to correct it, or his readiness to atone for the pain it might fometimes give, by a kind and gentle treatment of the person offended. The truth of the matter is, that his whole life was a conflict with his paffions and humours, and that few persons bore reprehenfion with more patience than himself. After his decease, I found among his papers an anonymous letter, that seemed to have been written by a person who had long had his eye on him, and remarked the offenfive particulars in his behaviour, his propensity to contradiction, his want of deference to the opinions of others, his contention for victory over those with whom he disputed, his local prejudices and averfions, and other his evil habits in conversation, which made his acquaintance shunned by many, who, as a man of

he changed his tone, and mildly said, - If I have spoken roughly to you, impute it to the distraction of my ' mind, and the petulance of a fick man.'--Describing his present condition, he said, that he and his wife were in want of every necessary, and that neither of them had a change of any one article of raiment.

To be better informed of his circumstances, I visited this person in the alms-house, and was there a witness to fuch a scene of distress as I had never till then beheld. A forry bed, with scarce any covering on it, two or three old trunks and boxes, a few broken chairs, and an old table, were all the furniture of the room. I found him smoking, and, while I was talking with him, a ragged boy, about ten years of age, came in from the garden, and upon my enquiring who he was, the old man faid-' This is a child whom a ' worthless father has left on our hands: I took him

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to keep at four fhillings a week, and for four years ' maintenance have not been able to get more than • five pounds four shillings: the poor child is an 'idiot, he cannot repeat the Lord's Prayer, and is ' unable to count five: we know not how to dispose ' of him, and, if we did, we could hardly prevail on • ourselves to part with him; for it is a harmless, • loving creature: we divide our morsel with him, • and are just able to keep him from starving.'

Upon enquiring into the means of this poor man's fubfiftence, he informed me, that the endowment of the alms-houses, in one of which he lived, yielded him an allowance of half a crown a week, and half a chaldron of coals at Christmas. That his wife bought milk and fold it again, and thereby was able to get about a shilling a day. The scantiness of his income, he faid, had obliged him and his wife to study the art of cheap living, and he felicitated himself that they were become such proficients therein, as to be able to abstain from drinking, except at their fupper meal, when, as he said, they each indulged in a pint of beer, which fufficed them for four and twenty hours. He told me all this in a tremulous tone of voice that indicated a mind that had long struggled with affliction, but without the least murmur at his hard fortune, or complaint of the doctor's neglect of him: in short, he appeared to me such an examplar of meekness and patience in adversity, as the best of men, in similar circumstances, might wish to imi

tate.

Johnson had also a first cousin, Elizabeth Herne, a lunatic, whom, upon her difcharge from Bethlem hofpital as incurable, he had placed in a mad-house at Bethnal green. A lady of the name of Prowse, had bequeathed to her an annuity of 101. and Johnfon constantly paid the bills for her keeping, which, amounting to 251. a year, made him a benefactor to her of the difference between those two fums.

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