'SIR,
'I am sorry to see that all the alterations proposed are evidences of timidity. You may be sure that I do [? not] wish to publish, what those for whom I write do not like to have published. But print me half a dozen copies in the original state, and lay them up for me. It concludes well enough as it is.
'When you print it, if you print it, please to frank one to me here, and frank another to Mrs. Aston at Stow Hill, Lichfield.
'The changes are not for the better, except where facts were mistaken. The last paragraph was indeed rather contemptuous, there was once more of it which I put out myself.
'I am Sir, Your humble Servant,
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
'March 1, 1775.'
This letter refers to Taxation no Tyranny, which was published before March 31, 1775, the date of Boswell's arrival in London (ante, ii. 311). Boswell says that he had in his possession 'a few proof leaves of it marked with corrections in Johnson's own hand-writing' (ib. p. 313). Johnson, he says,' owned to me that it had been revised and curtailed by some of those who were then in power.' When Johnson writes 'when you print it, if you print it,' he uses, doubtless, print in the sense of striking off copies. The pamphlet was, we may assume, in type before it was revised by 'those in power.' The corrections had been made in the proof-sheets. Johnson asks to have six copies laid by for him in the state in which he had wished to publish it. It seems that the last paragraph had been struck out by the reviser, for Johnson says 'it was rather contemptuous.' He does not think it needful to supply anything in its place, for he says 'it concludes well enough as it is.'
Mr. Strahan had the right, as a member of Parliament, to frank all letters and packets. That is to say, by merely writing his signature on the cover he could pass them through the post free of charge. Johnson, when he wrote to Scotland, used to employ him to frank his letters, 'that he might have the consequence of appearing a parliament-man among his countrymen' (ante, iii. 364). It was to Oxford that a copy of the pamphlet was to be franked to Johnson. That he was there at the time is shown by a letter from him in Mrs. Piozzi's Collection (vol. i. p. 212), dated 'University College, Oxford, March 3, 1775.' Writing to her, evidently from Bolt Court, on February 3, he had said: 'My pamphlet has not gone on at all' (ib. i. 211). Mrs. Aston (or rather Miss Aston) is mentioned ante, ii. 466.