[909] 'Sir Robert Walpole detested war. This made Dr. Johnson say of him, "He was the best minister this country ever had, as, if we would have let him (he speaks of his own violent faction), he would have kept the country in perpetual peace."' Seward's Biographiana, p. 554. See ante, i. 131.
[910] See ante, iii. Appendix C.
[911] I think it incumbent on me to make some observation on this strong satirical sally on my classical companion, Mr. Wilkes. Reporting it lately from memory, in his presence, I expressed it thus:—'They knew he would rob their shops, if he durst; they knew he would debauch their daughters, if he could;' which, according to the French phrase, may be said renchérir on Dr. Johnson; but on looking into my Journal, I found it as above, and would by no means make any addition. Mr. Wilkes received both readings with a good humour that I cannot enough admire. Indeed both he and I (as, with respect to myself, the reader has more than once had occasion to observe in the course of this Journal,) are too fond of a bon mot, not to relish it, though we should be ourselves the object of it.
Let me add, in justice to the gentleman here mentioned, that at a subsequent period, he was elected chief magistrate of London [in 1774], and discharged the duties of that high office with great honour to himself, and advantage to the city. Some years before Dr. Johnson died, I was fortunate enough to bring him and Mr. Wilkes together; the consequence of which was, that they were ever afterwards on easy and not unfriendly terms. The particulars I shall have great pleasure in relating at large in my Life of Dr. Johnson. BOSWELL. In the copy of Boswell's Letter to the People of Scotland in the British Museum is entered in Boswell's own hand—
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'Comes jucundus in via pro vehiculo est. |
To John Wilkes, Esq.: as pleasant a companion as ever lived. From the Author.
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—will my Wilkes retreat, And see, once seen before, that ancient seat, etc.' |
See ante, iii. 64, 183; iv. 101, 224, note 2.
[912] See ante, iv. 199.
[913] Our afternoon journey was through a country of such gloomy desolation that Mr. Boswell thought no part of the Highlands equally terrifick.' Johnson's Works, ix. 150.