[613] At this time Under-secretary of State. See ante, i. 478, note 1.
[614] Fielding, after telling how, unlike his predecessor, he had not plundered the public or the poor, continues:—'I had thus reduced an income of about £500 a-year of the dirtiest money upon earth to little more than £300; a considerable proportion of which remained with my clerk.' He added that he 'received from the Government a yearly pension out of the public service money.' Voyage to Lisbon, Introduction.
[615] The friendship between Mr. Welch and him was unbroken. Mr. Welch died not many months before him, and bequeathed him five guineas for a ring, which Johnson received with tenderness, as a kind memorial. His regard was constant for his friend Mr. Welch's daughters; of whom, Jane is married to Mr. Nollekens the statuary, whose merit is too well known to require any praise from me. BOSWELL.
[616] See ante, ii. 50. It seems from Boswell's words, as the editor of the Letters of Boswell (p. 91) points out, that in this case he was 'only a friend and amateur, and not a duly appointed advocate.' He certainly was not retained in an earlier stage of the cause, for on July 22, 1767, he wrote:—'Though I am not a counsel in that cause, yet I am much interested in it.' Ib. p. 93.
[617] Dr. Percy, the Bishop of Dromore, humorously observed, that Levett used to breakfast on the crust of a roll, which Johnson, after tearing out the crumb for himself, threw to his humble friend. BOSWELL. Perhaps the word threw is here too strong. Dr. Johnson never treated Levett with contempt. MALONE. Hawkins (Life, p. 398) says that 'Dr. Johnson frequently observed that Levett was indebted to him for nothing more than house-room, his share in a penny loaf at breakfast, and now and then a dinner on a Sunday.' Johnson's roll, says Dr. Harwood, was every morning placed in a small blue and white china saucer which had belonged to his wife, and which he familiarly called 'Tetty.' See the inscription on the saucer in the Lichfield Museum.
[618] See this subject discussed in a subsequent page, under May 3, 1779. BOSWELL.
[619] On Feb. 17, Lord North 'made his Conciliatory Propositions.' Parl. Hist. xix. 762.
[620] See ante, ii 111.
[621] See ante, ii. 312.
[622] Alluding to a line in his Vanity of Human Wishes, describing Cardinal Wolsey in his state of elevation:—