Some time after my father's death, Dundas renewed the assurance to me in strong terms, and told me he had said to Lord Caermarthen, "It is a deathbed promise, and I must fulfil it." Yet David has now been kept waiting above eight years, when he might have established himself again in trade.... This is cruel usage.' Boswell adds:--'I strongly suspect Dundas has given Pitt a prejudice against me. The excellent Langton says it is disgraceful; it is utter folly in Pitt not to reward and attach to his Administration a man of my popular and pleasant talents, whose merit he has acknowledged in a letter under his own hand.' Letters of Boswell, p. 286.
[606] Knight was kidnapped when a child and sold to a Mr. Wedderburne of Ballandean, who employed him as his personal servant. In 1769 his master brought him to Britain, and from that time allowed him sixpence a week for pocket money. By the assistance of his fellow-servants he learnt to read. In 1772 he read in a newspaper the report of the decision in the Somerset Case. 'From that time,' said Mr. Ferguson, 'he had had it in his head to leave his master's service.' In 1773 he married a fellow-servant, and finding sixpence a week insufficient for married life, applied for ordinary wages. This request being refused, he signified his intention of seeking service elsewhere. On his master's petition to the Justices of Peace of Perthshire, he was brought before them on a warrant; they decided that he must continue with him as formerly. For some time he continued accordingly; but a child being born to him, he petitioned the Sheriff, who decided in his favour. He thereupon left the house of his master, who removed the cause into the Court of Session.' Ferguson maintained that there are 'many examples of greater servitude in this country [Scotland] than that claimed by the defender, i.e. [Mr. Wedderburne, the plaintiff]. There still exists a species of perpetual servitude, which is supported by late statutes and by daily practice, viz. That which takes place with regard to the coaliers and sailers, where, from the single circumstance of entering to work after puberty, they are bound to perpetual service, and sold along with the works.' Ferguson's Additional Information, July 4, 1775, pp. 3; 29; and Maclaurin's Additional Information, April 20, 1776, p. 2. See ante, p. 202.
[607] See ante, p. 106.
[608] Florence Wilson accompanied, as tutor, Cardinal Wolsey's nephew to Paris, and published at Lyons in 1543 his De Tranquillitate Animi Dialogus. Rose's Biog. Dict. xii. 508.
[609] When Johnson visited Boswell in Edinburgh, Mrs. Boswell 'insisted that, to show all respect to the Sage, she would give up her own bed-chamber to him, and take a worse.' Boswell's Hebrides, Aug. 14. See post, April 18, 1778.
[610] See ante, Dec. 23, 1775.
[611] Fielding, in his Voyage to Lisbon (p. 2), writes of him as 'my friend Mr. Welch, whom I never think or speak of but with love and esteem.' See post, under March 30, 1783.
[612] Johnson defines police as the regulation and government of a city or country, so far as regards the inhabitants.
[613] At this time Under-secretary of State. See ante, i. 478, note 1.
[614] Fielding, after telling how, unlike his predecessor, he had not plundered the public or the poor, continues:--'I had thus reduced an income of about L500 a-year of the dirtiest money upon earth to little more than L300; a considerable proportion of which remained with my clerk.' He added that he 'received from the Government a yearly pension out of the public service money.' Voyage to Lisbon, Introduction.
[615] The friendship between Mr. Welch and him was unbroken. Mr. Welch died not many months before him, and bequeathed him five guineas for a ring, which Johnson received with tenderness, as a kind memorial. His regard was constant for his friend Mr. Welch's daughters; of whom, Jane is married to Mr. Nollekens the statuary, whose merit is too well known to require any praise from me. BOSWELL.
[616] See ante, ii. 50. It seems from Boswell's words, as the editor of the Letters of Boswell (p. 91) points out, that in this case he was 'only a friend and amateur, and not a duly appointed advocate.' He certainly was not retained in an earlier stage of the cause, for on July 22, 1767, he wrote:--'Though I am not a counsel in that cause, yet I am much interested in it.' Ib. p. 93.
[617] Dr. Percy, the Bishop of Dromore, humorously observed, that Levett used to breakfast on the crust of a roll, which Johnson, after tearing out the crumb for himself, threw to his humble friend. BOSWELL. Perhaps the word threw is here too strong. Dr. Johnson never treated Levett with contempt. MALONE. Hawkins (Life, p. 398) says that 'Dr. Johnson frequently observed that Levett was indebted to him for nothing more than house-room, his share in a penny loaf at breakfast, and now and then a dinner on a Sunday.' Johnson's roll, says Dr. Harwood, was every morning placed in a small blue and white china saucer which had belonged to his wife, and which he familiarly called 'Tetty.' See the inscription on the saucer in the Lichfield Museum.