Gent. Mag. vol. lxix. p. 1171. been more important than Mr. Boswell supposed. Indeed Mr. Boswell's account of the little negotiation in which Dr. Johnson employed him with Stuart's sister is very confused. In December, 1779, he states that he had, as desired by Johnson, "discovered the sister of Stuart, and given her a guinea for an old pocket-book of her brother's which Dr. Johnson had retained; that the woman wondered at his scrupulous honesty, and received the guinea as if sent by Providence:" ante, vol. iv. p. 295. But this must have been a total mistake on the part of Boswell; for it appears that the sister had the pocket-book or letter-case, and that it was for obtaining it that Johnson offered the guinea. This matter was probably explained in some letters not now extant; for in April, 1780 (vol. iv. p. 302), Johnson expresses "satisfaction at the success of Boswell's transaction with Mrs. Stuart," by which it may be inferred that Boswell had obtained the letter-case from her; but the negotiation was not terminated; for four years after, in 1784 (vol. v. p. 154), Johnson writes to Boswell, “I desire you to see Mrs. Stewart once again, and say that in the letter-case was a letter relating to me, for which I will give her, if she is willing to give it to me, another guinea: the letter is of consequence only to me:"—and again, 18th March, 1784, "If you come hither through Edinburgh, send for Mrs. Stewart, and give another guinea for the letter in the old case, to which I shall not be satisfied with my claim till she gives it me." (Vol. v. p. 159.) The reader now sees that the retention by Johnson of Stewart's old pocket-book, and the scrupulous honesty of paying a guinea for it, was a misapprehension; and that Johnson really wanted to obtain the pocket-book, which he did get, for the sake of a letter it contained which he seems not to have gotten; but what letter could this be of consequence to Dr. Johnson, when on the verge of the grave, yet so long neglected by him; for Stewart had been dead many years? Mr. Boswell's original error and his subsequent silence on the subject is very strange. The editor is satisfied either that Mr. Boswell did not obtain the letter, or that it related to some circumstance of Johnson's life which he did not choose to divulge; and what could it have been that he would not have told?-ED.] "This Steward was Francis Stuart. He was the son of a shopkeeper in Edinburgh, and was brought up to the law. For several years he was employed as a writer in some of the principal offices of Edinburgh; and being a man of good natural parts, and given to literature, he frequently assisted in digesting and arranging MSS. for the press; and, among other employments of this sort, he used to boast of assisting or copying some of the juvenile productions of the afterwards celebrated Lord Kaimes when he was very young and a correspondent with the Edinburgh Magazine. When he came to London, he stuck more closely to the press; and in this walk of copying or arranging for the press, he got recommended to Dr. Johnson, who then lived in Gough-square. Frank was a great admirer of the vəl. lxix. doctor, and upon all occasions consulted him; and the doctor had Gent. also a very respectable opinion of his amanuensis Frank Stuart, as he Mag. always familiarly called him. But it was not only in collecting p. 1171. authorities that Frank was employed: he was the man who did every thing in the writing way for him, and managed all his affairs between the doctor, his bookseller, and his creditors, who were then often very troublesome, and every species of business the doctor had to do out of doors; and for this he was much better qualified than the doctor himself, as he had been more accustomed to common business, and more conversant in the ways of men. "That he was a porter-drinking man, as Captain Grose says, may be admitted; for he usually spent his evenings at the Bible, in Shirelane, a house of call for bookbinders and printers, where Frank was in good esteem among some creditable neighbours that frequented the back-room; for, except his fuddling, he was a very worthy character. But his drinking and conviviality, he used to say, he left behind him at Edinburgh, where he had connected himself with some jovial wits and great card-players, which made his journey to London very prudent and necessary, as nothing but such a measure could break off the connexion, or bring them to good hours and moderation. In one of those night rambles, Stuart and his companions met with the mob-procession when they were conducting Captain Porteous to be hanged; and Stuart and his companions were next day examined about it before the town-council, when (as Stuart used to say) we were found to be too drunk to have had any hand in the business.' But he gave a most accurate and particular account of that memorable transaction in the Edinburgh Magazine of that time, which he was rather fond of relating. "In another walk, besides collecting authorities, he was remarkably useful to Dr. Johnson; that was, in the explanation of low cant phrases, which the doctor used to get Frank to give his explanation of first; and all words relating to gambling and card-playing, such as All Fours, Catch-honours, Cribbage, &c. were, among the typos, said to be Frank Stuart's, corrected by the doctor, for which he received a second payment. At the time this happened, the Dictionary was going on printing very briskly in three departments, letter D, G, and L, being at work upon at the same time; and as the doctor was, in the printing-house phrase, out of town-that is, had received more money than he had produced MS. for-the proprietors restricted him. in his payments, and would answer no more demands from him than at the rate of a guinea for every sheet of MS. copy he delivered; which was paid him by Mr. Strahan on delivery; and the doctor readily agreed to this. The copy was written upon 4to. post, and in two columns each page. The doctor wrote, in his own hand, the words and their explanation, and generally two or three words in Gent. vol. lxix. each column, leaving a space between each for the authorities, which Mag. were pasted on as they were collected by the different clerks or amap. 1172. nuenses employed: and in this mode the MS. was so regular, that the sheets of MS. which made a sheet of print could be very exactly ascertained. Every guinea parcel came after this agreement regularly tied up, and was put upon a shelf in the corrector's room till wanted. The MS. being then in great forwardness, the doctor supplied copy faster than the printers called for it; and in one of the heaps of copy it happened that, upon giving it out to the compositors, some sheets of the old MS. that had been printed off were found among the new MS. paid for. It is more probable that this happened by the doctor's keeping the old copy, which was always returned him with the proof, in a disorderly manner. But another mode of accounting for this was at that time very current in the printing-house. The doctor, besides his old and constant assistant, Stuart, had several others, some of them not of the best characters; and one of this class had been lately discharged, whom the doctor had been very kind to, notwithstanding all his loose and idle tricks; and it was generally supposed that he had fallen upon this expedient of picking up the old MS. to raise a few guineas, finding the money so readily paid on the MS. as he delivered it. But every body was inclined to acquit the doctor, as he had been well known to have rather too little thoughts about money matters. complete the doctor's acquittal was, Stuart immediately on the discovery supplying the quantum of right copy (for it was ready); which set every thing to rights, and that in the course of an hour or two, as the writer of this note can truly assert, as he was employed in the business. And what served to "How such an erroneous and injurious account of an accident so fairly and justly to be accounted for, and the doctor's character cleared from all imputation of art or guilt, came to Captain Grose's ears, is hard to be accounted for: but it appears to have been picked up among the common gossip of the press-room, or other remote parts of the printing-house, where the right state of the fact could not be minutely related nor accurately known." X. LESSON IN BIOGRAPHY; OR, How to write the Life of one's FRIEND. An Extract from the LIFE OF DR. Pozz, in ten volumes folio, written Referred to in vol. v. p. 365. Among the numerous parodies and jeux d'esprit which Mr. Boswell's work produced, the following pleasantry from the pen of Mr. Alexander Chalmers, which appeared in the periodical publications of the day, is worth preserving; for it is not merely a good pleasantry, but a fair criticism of some of the lighter parts of the work.-ED.] "We dined at the chop-house. Dr. Pozz was this day very instructive. We talked of books. I mentioned the History of Tommy Trip. I said it was a great work. Pozz. Yes, sir, it is a great work; but, sir, it is a great work relatively; it was a great work to you when you was a little boy: but now, sir, you are a great man, and Tommy Trip is a little boy.' I felt somewhat hurt at this comparison, and I believe he perceived it; for, as he was squeezing a lemon, he said, 'Never be affronted at a comparison. I have been compared to many things, but I never was affronted. No, sir, if they would call me a dog, and you a canister tied to my tail, I would not be affronted.' "Cheered by this kind mention of me, though in such a situation, I asked him what he thought of a friend of ours, who was always making comparisons. Pozz. Sir, that fellow has a simile for every thing but himself. I knew him when he kept a shop: he then made money, sir, and now he makes comparisons. Sir, he would say that you and I were two figs stuck together; two figs in adhesion, sir; and then he would laugh.' Bozz. But have not some great writers determined that comparisons are now and then odious?' Pozz. 'No, sir, not odious in themselves, not odious as comparisons; the fellows who make them are odious. The whigs make comparisons.' "We supped that evening at his house. I showed him some lines I had made upon a pair of breeches. Pozz. 'Sir, the lines are good; but where could you find such a subject in your country?' Bozz. "Therefore it is a proof of invention, which is a characteristic of poetry.' Pozz. Yes, sir, but an invention which few of your countrymen can enjoy.' I reflected afterwards on the depth of this ED. remark: it affords a proof of that acuteness which he displayed in every branch of literature. I asked him if he approved of green spectacles? Pozz. As to green spectacles, sir, the question seems to be this: if I wore green spectacles, it would be because they assisted vision, or because I liked them. Now, sir, if a man tells me he does not like green spectacles, and that they hurt his eyes, I would not compel him to wear them. No, sir, I would dissuade him.' A few months after, I consulted him again on this subject, and he honoured me with a letter, in which he gives the same opinion. It will be found in its proper place, vol. vi. p. 2789. I have thought much on this subject, and must confess that in such matters a man ought to be a free moral agent. "Next day I left town, and was absent for six weeks, three days, and seven hours, as I find by a memorandum in my journal. In this time I had only one letter from him, which is as follows: "TO JAMES BOZZ, ESQ. "DEAR SIR,-My bowels have been very bad. Pray buy me some Turkey rhubarb, and bring with you a copy of your Tour. "Write to me soon, and write to me often. I am, dear sir, yours, affectionately, "SAM. Pozz.' "It would have been unpardonable to have omitted a letter like this, in which we see so much of his great and illuminated mind. On my return to town, we met again at the chop-house. We had much conversation to-day: his wit flashed like lightning; indeed, there not one hour of my present life in which I do not profit by some of his valuable communications. “We talked of wind. I said I knew many persons much distressed with that complaint. Pozz. Yes, sir, when confined, when pent up.' I said I did not know that, but I questioned if the Romans ever knew it. Pozz. Yes, sir, the Romans knew it.' Bozz. Livy does not mention it.' Pozz. No, sir, Livy wrote History. Livy was not writing the Life of a Friend.' "On medical subjects his knowledge was immense. He told me of a friend of ours who had just been attacked by a most dreadful complaint: he had entirely lost the use of his limbs, so that he could neither stand nor walk, unless supported; his speech was quite gone; his eyes were much swollen, and every vein distended, yet his face was rather pale, and his extremities cold; his pulse beat 160 in a minute. I said, with tenderness, that I would go and see him; and, said I, Sir, I will take Dr. Bolus with me.' Pozz. No, sir, don't go.' I was startled, for I knew his compassionate heart, and earnestly asked why? Pozz. Sir, you don't know his disorder.' Bozz. 'Pray what is it?' Pozz. Sir, the man is-dead drunk! This explanation threw me into a violent fit of laughter, in which he joined |