the Johnsonian school." Goldsmith," he said to Mr Boswell, not long after," is one of the first men we now have as an author; and he is a very worthy man too.".

In 1762, he appears to have done but little. He wrote, however, a Dedication to the King, for the Reverend John Kennedy, 'rector of Bradley, in Derbyshire, oft" A complete System of Astronomical Chronology, unfolding the Scriptures," in a strain of very courtly elegance; and probably furnished the concluding paragraph of the work, which bears the characteristic marks of his style. *

In this year, the fifty-third of his age, For tune, who had hitherto left him to struggle with the inconveniences of a precarious subsistence, arising entirely from his own labours, gave him that independence which his talents

* The first edition of this work was printed in 1752, under the title of "A new method of stating and explaining the Scripture chronology, upon Mosaic Astronomical principles," &c. Johnson became acquainted with Mr Kennedy, a worthy, but eccentric man, in his visits to Mr Meynell, at Bradley, and Dr Taylor, at Ashbourne.

and virtues, long before, ought to have obtained for him. In the month of July, he was graced with a pension of Three hundred pounds a-year, by the King, as a recompence for the honour which the excellence of his writings, and the benefit which their moral tendency had been of to these kingdoms. He obtained it by the recommendation of the Earl of Bute, then prime minister, upon the suggestion of Mr Wedderburn, at the instance of Mr Sheridan and Mr Murphy.

When the offer was notified to him, his ●wn definition of a pensioner, in his Dictionary, occurred to him, and he hesitated as to the propriety of his accepting it. But, upon Sir Joshua Reynolds and Mr Murphy telling him, "That he, at least, did not come within the definition," he gave up his scruples, and waited on the Earl of Bute, to thank him. At this interview, his Lordship set his mind perfectly at ease, by repeatedly saying, expressly, "The King's bounty is not given for any thing you are to do, but for what you have done;" a declaration which ought ever

to be remembered to his honour. He expressed his sense of this mark of the royal favour, and of his Lordship's liberality, in a letter to him, dated July 20, 1762, of which, the following paragraph deserves particular notice.

"Bounty always receives part of its value from the manner in which it is bestowed. Your Lordship's kindness includes every çircumstance that can gratify delicacy, or enforce obligation. You have conferred your favours on a man who has neither alliance nor interest, who has not merited them by services, nor courted them by officiousness; you have spared him the shame of solicitation, and the anxiety of suspense. *

For this well-earned independence he paid the usual tax. Envy and resentment soon made him the mark to shoot their arrows at. Same appeared to think themselves more entitled to royal favour, and others recollected his political opinions, and sentiments of the reign

*Boswell's Life, &c. vol. i, p. 335..

ing family. By some he was censured as an apostate, and by others ridiculed for becoming a pensioner. Mr Wilkes, in "The North Briton," supplied himself with arguments against the Minister, for rewarding a Tory and a Jacobite; and Churchill, in " The Ghost," satirised his political versatility with the most poignant severity.

"How, to all principles untrue,

Not fix'd to old friends, nor to new;
He damns the pension which he takes,
And loves the Stuart he forsakes."

By this acceptance of his Majesty's bounty, he had undoubtedly subjected himself to the appellation of a pensioner, to which he had annexed an ignominious definition in his Dictionary. He had received a favour from two Scotchmen, against whose country he had joined in the rabble cry of indiscriminating invective. It was thus that even-handed Justice commended the poisoned chalice to his own lips, and compelled him to an awkward,

though not unpleasant penance, for indulging in a splenetic prejudice, equally unworthy of his understanding and his heart.*

The affair itself was equally honourable to
The offer was

the giver and the receiver.

clogged with no stipulations for party services, and accepted under no implied idea of being recompensed by political writings. It was perfectly understood by all parties, that the pension was merely honorary. It is true that Johnson did afterwards write political pamphlets in favour of administration; but it was at a period long subsequent to the grant of his pension, and in support of a minister to whom he owed no personal obligation. It was for the establishment of opinions, which, however

* Johnson's invectives against Scotland, in common conversation, were more in pleasantry and sport than real and malignant; for no man was more visited by natives of that country, nor were there any for whom he had a greater esteem. It was to Dr Grainger, a Scottish physician, that the writer of this note owed his first acquaintance with Johnson, in 1756.

BISHOP PERCY.