whom he allowed to be a good man, with derifion, and to hold him up as an object for Scorn to point her flow and moving finger at? The figure is strong, and some may think the outline overcharged; but in such cases we are not to be guided merely by our own feelings; we are to have an eye to the conception and feelings of the character more immediately affected. What to one man is but matter of amusement, may be to another death. Bofwell, in his Chronicle from the year 1762 to the year 1784 inclufive, no less than thirteen times introduces Mr. Sheridan, and every time før the fole purpose, it would seem, of abusing him; for almost in every instance, either directly, or by obvious implication, he is the Butt of reprehenfion, and his character epifodically brought in as the vehicle of fome illiberal reflection.

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to

The active part he took in promoting Johnson to a pension is not abfolutely denied; but in the manner of relating Bofwell does all that in him lies to obfcure the merit of it, and folicitoufly compliments all his friends with having a hand in it, even fome who never pretended a claim, ravifh the Honour from Sheridan. It refts on the conceffion of Lord Loughborough, though, according to the report, grudgingly obtained, and certainly void of that ingenuous openness and manly liberality which might be expected from a person of his Lordship's exalted station and character. And, to borrow a favourite phrase of Bofwell's, It is but just to add,' that the part Johnson acted on the occafion was affectedly fcrupulous; fhilly, fhally; he would and he would not; more in the style of a wayward, fqueamish, young

It has been afferted on refpectable authority, that Mr. Murphy never affumed to himself the distinction of being the prime mover, as alledged, in the bufinefs of the pension to Johnfon

young spinster on the point of preferment, than a dignified fage. Mr. Bofwell tells us "the Earl of Bute, then Prime Minifter, had the honour to announce this inftance of his Sovereign's bounty.' Two or three pages farther on, "Sheridan communicated to Johnson that a pension was granted to him," and from the great penfioner's remarkable and pointed reply, it is as clear as the clearest propofition in Euclid, this was the first time the welcome tidings reached his ears. † A venial flip of Mr. Bofwell's; perhaps intentional, to fupport a difputed title, on the principle of a well known proverb, great wits have fhort memories. An apology the more requifite as this feems not the only flip of the kind. In the fame page (as we have seen him) confeffing his chagrin, at an affair which happened two and twenty years after, and relapfing into a smile, when the evil fpirit had departed from him, he represents his very kind friend as the life and foul of fociety; for, as he fays, " Sheridan's well-informed, animated and bustling mind never suffered converfation to ftagnate." Some few pages afterwards he adopts a quite contrary fentiment, and with a visible kind of glee represents him as little better than a driveller"Why Sherry is dull; naturally dull. . . . fuch an excess "of ftupidity is not in nature." But this was the response of his Oracle, and, we may fuppofe, like the oracles of old, verbal quirks and fubterfuges never wanting to evade the charge of contradiction. The disabilities of Sheridan, 'who no revenue had but his good spirits to feed and clothe him,' are heavily laid, and roundly afferted. If just, it could not be for the agreeable amusement of his company or conversation that Johnson fo conftantly frequented his table. And if unfounded, what becomes of his vaunted attachment to truth? In the common accidents of life there are no great temptations to its violation,

violation, and, when a character is obtained, it ferves excellently as a stalking horse; if it answered his purpose, well; but in the prefent inftance among others it may be seen, that when calumny and detraction was the theme he could let loose the rein, and without ceremony tread down the fences.* On his rupture with Sheridan, to bring him into company where he was not might be an expedient to collect parties for his lonely evenings, and, no doubt, fet the table in a roar. His Biographer, a conftant attendant, we may also perceive, had the knack of playing into his hand; and it must be allowed, was a ftrenuous croupier. In brief, for to trace him through all his doublings and eccentricities would be an Herculean task, not an incident recorded to Sheridan's

* Dr. Johnson was fond of arguing for victory, and would efpouse either fide of the question, right or wrong, to foil his adverfary; a practice hardly to be justified on moral principles, and often repugnant to the interests of truth; a contrary conduct might have been leis entertaining and not fo favourable to the splendor of talents;

But of the two, lefs dangerous is the offence

To tire our patience than mislead our fenfe.

POPE.

A practice that trenches on the laws of fincerity is hardly compatible with an inviolable regard to truth; arguing for arguing's fake is children's play, fquabbling for the love of noise: arguing for victory has a more dangerous afpect; 'tis like going to war for the fake of killing; a curious way of proving a humane and peaceable difpofition. A mode of jesting so like earnest, may lead to very serious mistakes, and tho' the jeft be difcovered, the impreffion indelibly remains. Dr. Johnfon, it must be allowed, was a great light, a fhining light, but like other fhining lights, if implicitly followed, may prove an ignis fatuus, and, fouce! you go into a ditch. + Croupier [croopeer] of which I know not the etymology. A word current in Ireland (on that account perhaps, omitted by Johnson) a name of office among the bon vivants at the festivals of Bacchus, given to the perfon feated at the opposite end of the table to affift the toaft-master. His duty is to circulate the bottle, and fee that the gentlemen of his 'fquad do justice to the toaft.-Bailey has a word very near akin. ... Crouper (at a gaming-houfe] accented on the firft fyllable, One who watches the cards and gathers money for the bank or stake-tray. It is faid to have been the occupation of a diftinguished Commoner, and not beneath the acceptance of a Right Honourable. But in fcandalous chronicle it no where appears our Biographer flourished in that department.

Sheridan's advantage, but is guarded with fome cautionary restriction and coupled with claufes of abatement; fome invidious glance at his perfon, his talents, his mode of life, or profeffion; the adoption of which 'tis well known Sheridan himself often lamented as matter of neceffity not wantonly of choice; and, far from meaning a reproach, it is but justice to add, that to the fame unrelenting Task-Mistress, Neceffity, the world is indebted for the labours of Johnson, which drew forth thofe volumes of his life, in which irreconcileable enmity appears the leading feature of his conduct towards his old friend, Sheridan, throughout.

If there be an exception, it is a paragraph in the 3d volume, inferted as part of a defultory conversation said to have taken place in the year 1779, in which Sheridan's character, as a man of merit, is favourably exhibited; nevertheless, even there, a smatch of the old leven is perceivable. The subject is introduced without any apparent connection, and a compliment to him feemingly intended; but the effence of it is done away, being connected with circumftances of dubious complexion, and founded on a Fact for which there is no authority. Bofwell or Johnfon, Latet anguis in herba. Let the impartial reader determine; the documents, though not numerous, are fufficient. From an attention to which alfo, it must evidently follow that Mr. Bofwell's claims to fcrupulous authenticity, at least in this inftance, are not unexceptionably founded. The originals might have been examined, without running half over London; and perfonal information was always at hand.

Bofwell, fpeaking of Johnson, fays" He obferved his "old friend, Mr. Sheridan, had been honoured with extra"ordinary attention in his own country, by having had an ex"ception made in his favour in an Irish Act of Parliament "concerning Infolvent Debtors. Thus to be fingled out,"

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faid he, " by a Legislature, as an object of public confidera“ tion and kindness, is a proof of no common merit."* [p. 171.]

Not to indulge a captious difpofition, at the first blush this paragraph betrays fomething of a contradiction ; for even on the high authority alledged Johnson's unqualified admiffion of his old friend's uncommon merit is fcarcely reconcileable to that excess of stupidity denounced, as noticed a page or two before, in his oracular capacity. However, taken naked as it ftands, the eulogium is fpeciously advanced, and on flight grounds we fhould not deny him the credit of it; involved with other circumstances, as previously observed, it has fomething in it of an equivocal nature, and comparing

This affair is erroneously taken up in the fame light by Davies in his Life of Garrick. Bofwell often speaks of Davies as a learned and ingenious Writer for whom Dr. Johnson had a particular kindness, by whose advice and encouragement he undertook that pleafing monument to the memory of our English Rofcius. But though it is not wholly free from partiality, natural enough in a Biographer, to his Hero, he has not raised a magnificent coloffus to him on the broken ftatues of his cotemporaries; when the subject leads him to mention Mr. Sheridan, his great mafter's competitor and rival, he speaks with ingenuous freedom, and not for the invidious purpose of dragging him into ludicrous notice. The following is the paragraph particularly alluded to, which will bring the Reader more intimately acquainted with Mr. Sheridan's true character, and in fome measure counteract the poison of Boswell.

"This gentleman [Mr. Sheridan] had been long esteemed a man of eminence in his profeffion, and notwithstanding Mr. Garrick's great reputation for acting, fome criticks did not fcruple to compare, nay, prefer Sheridan's performance of certain capital characters, such as Macbeth, Hamlet, &c. to the other's utmost efforts in those parts."

"But indeed the Manager's own jealousy justified the public good opinion of Mr. Sheridan's ability; though certainly there was a wide difference between their feveral pretenfions; neither in perfon or voice had nature been very kind to the latter. But his judgment, his learnifig,

and