It was said of this man that “he had submitted to labour at the press, like a horse in a mill, till he became as blind and as wretched.” To show the extent of the conscience of this class of writers, and to what lengths mere party-writers can proceed, when duly encouraged, Oldmixon, who was a Whig historian, if a violent party-writer ought ever to be dignified by so venerable a title, unmercifully rigid to all other historians, was himself guilty of the crimes with which he so loudly accused others. He charged three eminent persons with interpolating Lord Clarendon’s History; this charge was afterwards disproved by the passages being produced in his Lordship’s own handwriting, which had been fortunately preserved; and yet this accuser of interpolation, when employed by Bishop Kennett to publish his collection of our historians, made no scruple of falsifying numerous passages in Daniel’s Chronicle, which makes the first edition of that collection of no value.
Smollett died in a small abode in the neighbourhood of Leghorn, where he had resided some time in the hope of recovering his shattered health; and where he wrote his “Humphrey Clinker.” His friends had tried in vain to procure for him the appointment of consul to any one of the ports of the Mediterranean. He is buried in the English cemetery at Leghorn.—Ed.
It stands opposite Dalquhurn House, where he was born, near the village of Renton, Dumbartonshire. Had Smollett lived a few more years, he would have been entitled to an estate of about 1000l. a year. There is also a cenotaph to his memory on the banks of Leven-water, which he has consecrated in one of his best poems.—Ed.
The following facts will show the value of literary property; immense profits and cheap purchases! The manuscript of “Robinson Crusoe” ran through the whole trade, and no one would print it; the bookseller who did purchase it, who, it is said, was not remarkable for his discernment, but for a speculative turn, got a thousand guineas by it. How many have the booksellers since accumulated? Burn’s “Justice” was disposed of by its author for a trifle, as well as Buchan’s “Domestic Medicine;” these works yield annual incomes. Goldsmith’s “Vicar of Wakefield” was sold in the hour of distress, with little distinction from any other work in that class of composition; and “Evelina” produced five guineas from the niggardly trader. Dr. Johnson fixed the price of his “Biography of the Poets” at two hundred guineas; and Mr. Malone observes, the booksellers in the course of twenty-five years have probably got five thousand. I could add a great number of facts of this nature which relate to living writers; the profits of their own works for two or three years would rescue them from the horrors and humiliation of pauperism. It is, perhaps, useful to record, that, while the compositions of genius are but slightly remunerated, though sometimes as productive as “the household stuff” of literature, the latter is rewarded with princely magnificence. At the sale of the Robinsons, the copyright of “Vyse’s Spelling-book” was sold at the enormous price of 2200l., with an annuity of fifty guineas to the author!
The circumstance, with the poet’s dignified petition, and the King’s honourable decree, are preserved in “Curiosities of Literature,” vol. i. p. 406.