The Life of Samuel Johnson - James Boswell [849]
b The General seemed unwilling to enter upon it at this time; but upon a subsequent occasion he communicated to me a number of particulars, which I have committed to writing; but I was not sufficiently diligent in obtaining more from him, not apprehending that his friends were so soon to lose him; for, notwithstanding his great age, he was very healthy and vigorous, and was at last carried off by a violent fever, which is often fatal at any period of life.
a From this too just observation there are some eminent exceptions.
a 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.
a Pr. and Med. p. 138.
a [This is a proverbial sentence. ‘Hell,’ says Herbert, ‘is full of good meanings and wishings.’ Jacula Prudentum, p. 11, edit. 1651.]
b
‘Amoret’s as sweet and good,
As the most delicious food;
Which but tasted does impart
Life and gladness to the heart.
Sacharissa’s beauty’s wine,
Which to madness does incline;
Such a liquor as no brain
That is mortal can sustain.’481
a See ante, p. 448.
b A very eminent physician,487 whose discernment is as acute and penetrating in judging of the human character as it is in his own profession, remarked once at a club where I was, that a lively young man, fond of pleasure, and without money, would hardly resist a solicitation from his mistress to go upon the highway, immediately after being present at the representation of The Beggar’s Opera. I have been told of an ingenious observation by Mr. Gibbon, that ‘The Beggar’s Opera may, perhaps, have sometimes increased the number of highwaymen; but that it has had a beneficial effect in refining that class of men, making them less ferocious, more polite, in short, more like gentlemen.’ Upon this Mr. Courtenay said, that ‘Gay was the Orpheus of highwaymen.’
a See ante, p. 432.
b See ante, p. 418.
a In justice to Dr. Memis, though I was against him as an Advocate, I must mention, that he objected to the variation very earnestly, before the translation was printed off.
a My very honourable friend General Sir George Howard, who served in the Duke of Cumberland’s army, has assured me that the cruelties were not imputable to his Royal Highness.
a A learned Greek.
b Wife of the Rev. Mr. Kenneth Macaulay, authour of The History of St. Kilda.
a A law-suit carried on by Sir Allan Maclean, Chief of his Clan, to recover certain parts of his family estates from the Duke of Argyle.
b A very learned minister in the Isle of Sky, whom both Dr. Johnson and I have mentioned with regard.
a My Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, which that lady read in the original manuscript.
a Another parcel of Lord Hailes’s Annals of Scotland.
b Where Sir Joshua Reynolds lived.
a Miss Thrale.
a This alludes to my old feudal principle of preferring male to female succession.
b There can be no doubt that many years previous to 1775 he corresponded with this lady, who was his step-daughter, but none of his earlier letters to her have been preserved.
a Son of Mrs. Johnson, by her first husband.
a The rest of this paragraph appears to be a minute of what was told by Captain Irwin.