[Page 309: The earthquake of Lisbon. Ætat 47.]
His reviews are of the following books: 'Birch's History of the Royal Society;'[Dagger] 'Murphy's Gray's Inn Journal;'[Dagger] 'Warton's Essay on the Writings and Genius of Pope, Vol. I.'[Dagger] 'Hampton's Translation of Polybius;'[Dagger] 'Blackwell's Memoirs of the Court of Augustus;'[Dagger] 'Russel's Natural History of Aleppo[906];'[Dagger] 'Sir Isaac Newton's Arguments in Proof of a Deity;'[Dagger] 'Borlase's History of the Isles of Scilly;'[Dagger] 'Home's Experiments on Bleaching;'[Dagger] 'Browne's Christian Morals;'[Dagger] 'Hales on Distilling Sea-Water, Ventilators in Ships, and curing an ill Taste in Milk;'[Dagger] 'Lucas's Essay on Waters;'[Dagger] 'Keith's Catalogue of the Scottish Bishops;'[Dagger] 'Browne's History of Jamaica;'[Dagger] 'Philosophical Transactions, Vol. XLIX.'[Dagger] 'Mrs. Lennox's Translation of Sully's Memoirs;'[*] 'Miscellanies by Elizabeth Harrison;'[Dagger] 'Evans's Map and Account of the Middle Colonies in America[907];'[Dagger] 'Letter on the Case of Admiral Byng;'[*] 'Appeal to the People concerning Admiral Byng;'[*] 'Hanway's Eight Days Journey, and Essay on Tea;'[*] 'The Cadet, a Military Treatise;'[Dagger] 'Some further Particulars in Relation to the Case of Admiral Byng, by a Gentleman of Oxford;'[*] 'The Conduct of the Ministry relating to the present War impartially examined;'[Dagger] 'A Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil.'[*] All these, from internal evidence, were written by Johnson; some of them I know he avowed, and have marked them with an asterisk accordingly[908].
[Page 310: Johnson's ardour for liberty. A.D. 1750.]
Mr. Thomas Davies indeed, ascribed to him the Review of Mr. Burke's
'Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful;' and
Sir John Hawkins, with equal discernment, has inserted it in his
collection of Johnson's works: whereas it has no resemblance to
Johnson's composition, and is well known to have been written by Mr.
Murphy, who has acknowledged it to me and many others.
It is worthy of remark, in justice to Johnson's political character, which has been misrepresented as abjectly submissive to power, that his 'Observations on the present State of Affairs' glow with as animated a spirit of constitutional liberty as can be found any where. Thus he begins:
'The time is now come, in which every Englishman expects to be informed of the national affairs; and in which he has a right to have that expectation gratified. For, whatever may be urged by Ministers, or those whom vanity or interest make the followers of ministers, concerning the necessity of confidence in our governours, and the presumption of prying with profane eyes into the recesses of policy, it is evident that this reverence can be claimed only by counsels yet unexecuted, and projects suspended in deliberation. But when a design has ended in miscarriage or success, when every eye and every ear is witness to general discontent, or general satisfaction, it is then a proper time to disentangle confusion and illustrate obscurity; to shew by what causes every event was produced, and in what effects it is likely to terminate; to lay down with distinct particularity what rumour always huddles in general exclamation, or perplexes by indigested[909] narratives; to shew whence happiness or calamity is derived, and whence it may be expected; and honestly to lay before the people what inquiry can gather of the past, and conjecture can estimate of the future[910]'.
[Page 311: Dr. Lucas. Ætat 47.]
Here we have it assumed as an incontrovertible principle, that in this country the people are the superintendants of the conduct and measures of those by whom government is administered; of the beneficial effect of which the present reign afforded an illustrious example, when addresses from all parts of the kingdom controuled an audacious attempt to introduce a new power subversive of the crown.[911]
A still stronger proof of his patriotick spirit appears in his review of an 'Essay on Waters, by Dr. Lucas;' of whom, after describing him as a man well known to the world for his daring defiance of power, when he thought it exerted on the side of wrong, he thus speaks:
'The Irish ministers drove him from his native country by a proclamation, in which they charged him with crimes of which they never intended to be called to the proof, and oppressed by methods equally irresistible by guilt and innocence.