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1776.

Etat. 67.

"We are now come to the practical question, what is to be done? You will tell me, with reason, that I have faid nothing, till I declare how much, according to my opinion, of the ultimate price ought to be distributed through the whole fucceffion of fale.

"The deduction, I am afraid, will appear very great: but let it be confidered before it is refufed. We must allow, for profit, between thirty and thirty-five per cent. between fix and seven fhillings in the pound; that is, for every book which costs the last buyer twenty fhillings, we must charge Mr. Cadell with something less than fourteen. We muft fet the copies at fourteen fhillings each, and fuperadd what is called the quarterly-book, or for every hundred books fo charged we must deliver an hundred and four.

"The profits will then stand thus:

"Mr. Cadell, who runs no hazard, and gives no credit, will be paid for warehouse room and attendance by a fhilling profit on each book, and his chance of the quarterly-book.

"Mr. Dilly, who buys the book for fifteen fhillings, and who will expect the quarterly-book if he takes five-and twenty, will fell it to his country cuftomer at fixteen and fix-pence, by which, at the hazard of lofs, and the certainty of long credit, he gains the regular profit of ten per cent. which is expected in the wholefale trade.

"The country bookfeller, buying at fixteen and fix-pence, and commonly trusting a confiderable time, gains but three and fix-pence, and, if he trusts a year, not much more than two and fix-pence; otherwise than as he may, perhaps, take as long credit as he gives.

"With lefs profit than this, and more you fee he cannot have, the country bookfeller cannot live; for his receipts are small, and his debts fometimes bad.

"Thus, dear Sir, I have been incited by Dr. *******'s letter to give you a detail of the circulation of books, which, perhaps, every man has not had opportunity of knowing; and which those who know it, do not, perhaps, always diftinctly confider.

* March 12, 1776.

"I am, &c.

SAM. JOHNSON "."

I am happy in giving this full and clear statement to the publick, to vindicate, by the authority of the greatest authour of his age, that refpectable body of men, the Bookfellers of London, from vulgar reflections, as if their profits were exorbitant, when, in truth, Dr. Johnson has here allowed them more thar they usually demand.

1776.

Having arrived in London late on Friday, the 15th of March, I hastened next morning to wait on Dr. Johnson, at his house; but found he was Etat. 67. removed from Johnson's-court, No. 7, to Bolt-court, No. 8, ftill keeping to his favourite Fleet-street. My reflection at the time upon this change as marked in my Journal, is, as follows, "I felt a foolish regret that he had left a court which bore his name; but it was not foolish to be affected with some tenderness of regard for a place in which I had seen him a great deal, from whence I had often iffued a better and a happier man than when I went in, and which had often appeared to my imagination while I trod its pavement, in the folemn darkness of the night, to be facred to wisdom and piety.” Being informed that he was at Mr. Thrale's, in the Borough, I hastened thither, and found Mrs. Thrale and him at breakfast. I was kindly welcomed. In a moment he was in a full glow of conversation, and I felt myself elevated as if brought into another state of being. Mrs. Thrale and I looked to each other while he talked, and our looks expreffed our congenial admiration and affection for him. I fhall ever recollect this fcene with great pleasure. I exclaimed to her, "I am now, intellectually, Hermippus redivivus, I am quite restored by him, by transfufion of mind.” "There are many

(fhe him."

replied,) who admire and respect Mr. Johnson, but you and I love

He seemed very happy in the near prospect of going to Italy with Mr. and Mrs. Thrale. "But (faid he,) before leaving England I am to take a jaunt to Oxford, Birmingham, my native city Lichfield, and my old friend, Dr. Taylor's, at Afhbourne, in Derbyshire. I fhall go in a few days, and you, Bofwell, fhall go with me." with me.” I was ready to accompany him; being willing even to leave London to have the pleasure of his converfation.

I mentioned with much regret the extravagance of the reprefentative of a great family in Scotland, by which there was danger of its being ruined; and as Johnson respected it for its antiquity, he joined with me in thinking it would be happy if this perfon fhould die. Mrs. Thrale feemed fhocked at this, as feudal barbarity; and faid, "I do not understand this preference of the estate to its owner; of the land to the man who walks upon that land." JOHNSON. "Nay, Madam, it is not a preference of the land to its owner; it is the preference of a family to an individual. Here is an establishment in a country, which is of importance for ages not only to the chief but to his people; an establishment which extends upwards and downwards; that this should be destroyed by one idle fellow is a fad thing."

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1776.

Ætat. 67.

He faid "Entails are good, because it is good to preferve in a country, ferieses of men, to whom the people are accustomed to look up as to their leaders. But I am for leaving a quantity of land in commerce, to excite industry and keep money in the country; for if no land were to be bought in a country, there would be no encouragement to acquire wealth, because a family could not be founded there; or if it were acquired, it must be carried away to another country where land may be bought. And although the land in every country will remain the fame, and be as fertile where there is no money, as where there is, yet all that portion of the happiness of civil life, which is produced by money circulating in a country, would be loft." BoSWELL. "Then, Sir, would it be for the advantage of a country that all its lands were fold at once?" JOHNSON. "So far, Sir, as money produces good it would be an advantage; for, then that country would have as much money circulating in it as it is worth. But to be fure this would be counterbalanced by disadvantages attending a total change of proprietors."

I expreffed my opinion that the power of entailing should be limited thus: "That there should be one third, or perhaps one half of the land of a country kept free for commerce; that the proportion allowed to be entailed, should be parcelled out fo as that no family could entail above a certain quantity. Let a family according to the abilities of its reprefentatives, be richer or poorer in different generations, or always rich if its representatives be always wife: but let its abfolute permanency be moderate. In this way we fhould be certain of there being always a number of established roots; and as in the course of nature, there is in every age an extinction of fome families, there would be continual openings for men ambitious of perpetuity, to plant a stock in the entail ground. JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, mankind will be better able to regulate the fyftem of entails, when the evil of too much land being locked up by them is felt, than we can do at prefent when it is not felt."

I mentioned Dr. Adam Smith's book on " The Wealth of Nations," which was just published, and that Sir John Pringle had obferved to me, that Dr. Smith, who had never been in trade, could not be expected to write well

• The privilege of perpetuating in a family an estate and arms indefeafibly from generation to generation, is enjoyed by none of his Majesty's fubjects except in Scotland, where the legal fiction of a fine and recovery is unknown. It is a privilege fo proud, that I fhould think it would be proper to have the exercise of it dependent on the royal prerogative. It feems abfurd to permit the power of perpetuating their reprefentation, to men, who having had no eminent merit, have truly no name. The King, as the impartial father of his people, would never refufe to grant the privilege to those who deserved it.

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1776.

on that fubject any more than a lawyer upon phyfick. JOHNSON. "He is mistaken, Sir; a man who has never been engaged in trade himfelf may tat. 67. undoubtedly write well upon trade, and there is nothing which requires more to be illustrated by philofophy than trade does. As to mere wealth, that is to fay, money, it is clear that one nation or one individual cannot increase its ftore but by making another poorer: but trade procures what is more valuable, the reciprocation of the peculiar advantages of different countries. A merchant feldom thinks but of his own particular trade. To write a good book upon it, a man must have extenfive views. It is not neceffary to have practised, to write well upon a fubject." I mentioned law as a fubject on which no man could write well without practice. JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, in England, where fo much money is to be got by the practice of the law, most of our writers upon it have been in practice; though Blackstone had not been much in practice when he published his 'Commentaries.' But upon the Continent, the great writers on law have not all been in practice: Grotius, indeed, was; but Puffendorf was not, Burlamaqui was not."

When we had talked of the great confequence which a man acquired by being employed in his profeffion, I fuggefted a doubt of the juftice of the general opinion, that it is improper in a lawyer to folicit employment; for why, I urged, should it not be equally allowable to folicit that as the means of confequence, as it is to folicit votes to be elected a member of parliament? Mr. Strahan had told me, that a countryman of his and mine, who had risen to eminence in the law, had, when first making his way, folicited him to get him employed in city caufes. JOHNSON. "Sir, it is wrong to stir up law-fuits; but when once it is certain that a law-fuit is to go on, there is nothing wrong in a lawyer's endeavouring that he fhall have the benefit, rather than another." BOSWELL. "You would not folicit employment, Sir, if you were a lawyer." JOHNSON. "No, Sir; but not becaufe I fhould think it wrong, but because I should disdain it." This was a good distinction, which will be felt by men of juft pride. He proceeded: "However, I would not have a lawyer to be wanting to himfelf in ufing fair means. I would have him to inject a little hint now and then, to prevent his being overlooked."

Lord Mounftuart's bill for a Scotch militia, in fupporting which his Lordship had made an able fpeech in the House of Commons, was now a pretty general topick of converfation.-JOHNSON. "As Scotland contributes fo little land-tax towards the general fupport of the nation, it ought not to have a militia paid out of the general fund, unless it fhould be thought for the general intereft, that Scotland fhould be protected from an invafion, which no man VOL. II.

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can

1776.

Etat. 67.

can think will happen; for what enemy would invade Scotland, where there is. nothing to be got? No, Sir; now that the Scotch have not the pay of English foldiers spent among them, as fo many troops are fent abroad, they are trying to get money another way by having a militia paid. If they are afraid, and seriously defire to have an armed force to defend them, they fhould pay for it. Your fcheme is to retain a part of your little land-tax, by making us pay and clothe your militia." BoSWELL. "You should not talk of we and you, Sir; there is now an Union." JOHNSON. "There must be a diftinction of intereft, while the proportions of land-tax are fo unequal. If Yorkshire should fay,' Instead of paying our land-tax, we will keep a greater number of militia,' it would be unreasonable." In this argument my friend was certainly in the wrong. The land-tax is as unequally proportioned between different parts of England, as between England and Scotland; nay, it is confiderably unequal in Scotland itself. But the land-tax is but a final part of the numerous branches of publick revenue, all of which Scotland pays precifely as England does. A French invafion made in Scotland would foon penetrate into England..

He thus difcourfed upon fuppofed obligations in fettling eftates:-"Where a man gets the unlimited property of an estate, there is no obligation upon him in justice to leave it to one perfon rather than to another. There is a motive of preference from kindness, and this kindness is generally entertained for the nearest relation. If I owe a particular man a fum of money, I am obliged to let that man have the next money I get, and cannot in justice let another have it but if I owe money to no man, I may difpofe of what I get as I please. There is not a debitum juftitiæ to a man's next heir; there is only a debitum caritatis. It is plain, then, that I have morally a choice, according to my liking. If I have a brother in want, he has a claim from affection. to my affiftance: but if I have alfo a brother in want, whom I like better, he has a preferable claim. The right of an heir at law is only this, that he is to have the fucceffion to an eftate, in cafe no other perfon is appointed to it by the owner. His right is merely preferable to that of the King."

We got into a boat to cross over to Black-friars; and as we moved along the Thames, I talked to him of a little volume, which, altogether unknown. to him, was advertised to be published in a few days, under the title of Johnfoniana, or Bon Mots of Dr. Johnfon." JOHNSON. "Sir, it is a mighty impudent thing." BOSWELL. « Pray, Sir, could you have no redress if were to profecute a publifher for bringing out, under your name, what you. never faid, and afcribing to you dull ftupid nonfenfe, or making you swear profanely, as many ignorant relaters of your bon mots do?" JOHNSON. "No,.

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