[1053] Johnson, in The Rambler, No. 110, published on Easter Eve, 1751, thus justifies fasting:—'Austerity is the proper antidote to indulgence; the diseases of mind as well as body are cured by contraries, and to contraries we should readily have recourse if we dreaded guilt as we dread pain.'
[1054] From this too just observation there are some eminent exceptions, BOSWELL. 'Dr. Johnson said:—"Few bishops are now made for their learning. To be a bishop, a man must be learned in a learned age, factious in a factious age, but always of eminence."' Boswell's Hebrides, Aug. 21, 1773.
[1055] Lord Shelburne wrote of him:—'He panted for the Treasury, having a notion that the King and he understood it from what they had read about revenue and funds while they were at Kew.' Fitzmaurice's Shelburne, i. 141.
[1056] Chief Justice Pratt (afterwards Lord Camden) became popular by his conduct as a judge in Wilkes's case. In 1764 he received the freedom of the guild of merchants in Dublin in a gold box, and from Exeter the freedom of the city. The city of London gave him its freedom in a gold box, and had his portrait painted by Reynolds. Gent. Mag. 1764, pp. 44, 96, 144. See ante, p. 314.
[1057] The King, on March 3, 1761, recommended this measure to Parliament. Parl. Hist. xv. 1007. 'This,' writes Horace Walpole, 'was one of Lord Bute's strokes of pedantry. The tenure of the judges had formerly been a popular topic; and had been secured, as far as was necessary. He thought this trifling addition would be popular now, when nobody thought or cared about it.' Memoirs of the Reign of George III, i. 41.
[1058] The money arising from the property of the prizes taken before the declaration of war, which were given to his Majesty by the peace of Paris, and amounted to upwards of £700,000, and from the lands in the ceded islands, which were estimated at £200,000 more. Surely there was a noble munificence in this gift from a Monarch to his people. And let it be remembered, that during the Earl of Bute's administration, the King was graciously pleased to give up the hereditary revenues of the Crown, and to accept, instead of them, of the limited sum of £800,000 a year; upon which Blackstone observes, that 'The hereditary revenues, being put under the same management as the other branches of the publick patrimony, will produce more, and be better collected than heretofore; and the publick is a gainer of upwards of £100,000 per annum by this disinterested bounty of his Majesty.' Book I. Chap. viii. p. 330. BOSWELL. Lord Bolingbroke (Works, iii. 286), about the year 1734, pointed out that 'if the funds appropriated produce the double of that immense revenue of £800,000 a year, which hath been so liberally given the King for life, the whole is his without account; but if they fail in any degree to produce it, the entire national fund is engaged to make up the difference.' Blackstone (edit, of 1778, i. 331) says:—'£800,000 being found insufficient, was increased in 1777 to, £900,000.' He adds, 'the public is still a gainer of near £100,000.'
[1059] See post, iii. 163.
[1060] Lord Eldon says that Dundas, 'in broken phrases,' asked the King to confer a baronetcy on 'an eminent Scotch apothecary who had got from Scotland the degree of M. D. The King said:—"What, what, is that all? It shall be done. I was afraid you meant to ask me to make the Scotch apothecary a physician—that's more difficult."' He added:—'They may make as many Scotch apothecaries Baronets as they please, but I shall die by the College.' Twiss's Eldon, ii. 354. A Dr. Duncan, says Mr. Croker, was appointed physician to the King in 1760. Croker's Boswell, p. 448. A doctor of the same name, and no doubt the same man, was made a baronet in Aug. 1764. Jesse's Selwyn, i. 287.
[1061] Wedderburne, afterwards Lord Chancellor Loughborough, and Earl of Rosslyn. One of his 'errands' had been to bring Johnson bills in payment of his first quarter's pension. Ante, i. 376.
[1062] Home, the author of Douglas. Boswell says that 'Home showed the Lord Chief Baron Orde a pair of pumps he had on, and desired his lordship to observe how well they were made, telling him at the same time that they had been made for Lord Bute, but were rather too little for him, so his lordship had made John a present of them. "I think," said the Lord Chief Baron, "you have taken the measure of Lord Bute's foot."' Boswelliana, p. 252. Dr. A. Carlyle (Auto. p. 335), writes:—'With Robertson and Home in London I passed the time very agreeably; for though Home was now [1758] entirely at the command of Lord Bute, whose nod made him break every engagement—for it was not given above an hour or two before dinner—yet, as he was sometimes at liberty when the noble lord was to dine abroad, like a horse loosened from his stake, he was more sportful than usual.'