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much folly and lewdness, yet in you I expect gravity and wisdom. It hath pleased your son, late of Bristol, to deliver a challenge to a man of mine, on the behalf of a gentleman, he said, as good as myself. Who he was he named. not, neither do I know. But if he be as good as myself, it must either be for virtue, for birth, for ability, or for calling and dignity: for virtue, I think he meant not; for it is a matter that exceeds his judgment; if for birth, he must be the heir male of an earl, the heir in blood of ten earls, (for in testimony thereof I bear their several coats) besides he must be of the blood royal; for by my grandmother Devereux, I am lineally and legitimately descended out of the body of Edward IV. If for ability, he must have a thousand pound a year in possession, a thousand pound a year more in expectation, and must have some thousands in substance besides ; if for calling and dignity, he must be a knight, a lord of several seignories in several Kingdoms, a lieutenant of his county, and a counsellor of a province.

Now to lay all circumstances aside, be it known to your son, or to any man else, that if there be any one, who beareth the name of a gentleman, and whose words are of reputation in his country, that doth say, say,

that I have done unjustly, spoken an untruth, stained my credit and reputation, in this matter, or any matter else, wherein son is exasperated, I say he lieth in his throat, and my sword shall maintain my word upon him in any place or province, wheresoever he dare, and where I stand not sworn to observe the peace. But if they be such as be within my governance, and over whom I have authority, I will for their reformation chastise them with justice, and for their malapert misdemeanour, bind them to their good behaviour. Of this sort I account your son, and his like, against whom I will shortly issue my warrant, if this my warning doth not reform them. And so I thought fit to advertise you hereof, and leave you to God. 1785, Jan.

W. HERBERT.

or dare

your

XXXVIII. Dr. Johnson to the Rev. Mr. Wilson, and a Dedication

to his late Majesty. MR. URGAN, As every thing which has fallen from the pen of that great luminary of learning, Dr. Johnson, is sought with avidity, and will be perused with satisfaction, I here present you with a letter which he wrote to the author of the Archæological Dictionary.

T. W.

To the Rev. Mr. Wilson, Clitheroe, Lancashire,

Bolt-court, Fleet-street, London, Dec. 31, 1782. REVEREND SIR, That I have so long omitted to return you thanks for the honour conferred upon me by your Dedication, I entreat you with great earnestness, not to consider as more faulty than it is. A very importunate and oppressive disorder has for some time debarred me from the pleasures, and obe structed me in the duties of life. The esteem and kindness of wise and good men is one of the last pleasures which I can be content to lose; and gratitude to those from whom this pleasure is received, is a duty of which I hope never to

I be reproached with their final neglect.

I therefore now return you thanks for the notice which I have received from you, and which I consider has given to my name not only more bulk, but more weight; not only as extending its superficies, but as increasing its value.

Your book was evidently wanted, and will, I hope, find its way into the schools; to which, however, I do not mean to confine it: for no man has so much skill in ancient rites and practices as not to want it.

As I suppose myself to owe part of your kindness to my excellent friend Dr. Patten, he has likewise a just claim to my acknowledgments, which I hope you, Sir, will transmit,

There will soon appear a new edition of my Poetical Biography. If accept of a copy to keep me in your mind, be pleased to let me know how it may be conveyed to you.

The present is small, but it is given with good will, by Reverend Sir, your most obliged and most humble servant,

SAM. JOHNSON.

you will

MR. URBAN, You have invited the friends of your agreeable Miscellany to contribute the correspondence they may possess of the matchless Johnson. The following nervous address to his late Majesty, prefixed to Mr. Adams's “ Treatise on the Globes," is ascribed to him on the authority of his late friend and neighbour, Mr. Edmund Allen. It needs, howa ever, no other testimonial than its internal merit.

M. G.

TO THE KING.

« SIR,

“ It is the privilege of real greatness not to be afraid of diminution by condescending to the notice of little things; and I therefore can boldly solicit the patronage of your Ma. jesty to the humble labours by which I have endeavoured to improve the instruments of science, and make the globes on which the earth and sky are delineated less defective in their construction, and less difficult in their use.

Geography is in a peculiar manner the science of Princes. When a private student revolves the terraqueous globe, he beholds a succession of countries in which he has no more interest than in the imaginary regions of Jupiter and Saturn. But your Majesty must contemplate the scientific picture with other sentiments, and consider, as oceans and conti. nents are rolling before you, how large a part of mankind is now waiting on your determinations, and may receive benefits, or suffer evils, as your influence is extended or withdrawn.

The provinces which your Majesty's arms have added to your dominions, make no inconsiderable part of the orb allotted to human beings. Your power is acknowledged by nations whose names we know not yet how to write, and whose boundaries we cannot yet describe. But your Majesty's lenity and beneficence give us reason to expect the time when science shall be advanced by the diffusion of happiness; when the deserts of America shall become pervious and safe, when those who are now restrained by fear shall be attracted by reverence, and multitudes who now range the woods for prey, and live at the mercy of winds and seasons, shall, by the paternal care of your Majesty, enjoy the plenty of cultivated lands, the pleasures of society, the security of law, and the light of 'Revelation.

I am, Sir, your Majesty's most humble, most obedient, and most dutiful subject and servant, 1785, March.

GEORGE ADAMS."

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MR. URBAN, IN Dr. Burney's late Sketch of the Life of Handel, (enlarged from the Memoirs published by Mr. Maynwaring, in 1760, which you abridged in the vol. for that year,) this ingenious biographer has omitted to mention, that when he first came to England in 1710, he wrote his name Hendel. This appears from the Spectator, No. V. and also by a letter in Mr. Hughes's Correspondence, vol. 1. from Mr. Roner, a teacher of music, of which, as it relates to an early period of Handel's life, and is unnoticed by Dr. Burney, I have sent you a translation.

« SIR,

Mr. Roner to Mr. Hughes.

Tuesday, July 31, 1711. Having received this morning a letter from Mr. Hen, del*, I thought it my duty to send you, as soon as possible an extract of it, which relates to you, in answer to the compliment which you conveyed by me. I shall write to him

I next Friday, so you need only send me, if you please, what you intend for him; and I can assure you, Sir, that if the honour of your acquaintance is particularly pleasing to him, I am no less pleased with being the means of promoting your correspondence; and of giving you a proof of the extreme regard with which I have the honour to be,

SIR, &c."

Extract from Mr. Hendel's Letter.

“ PRESENT my best compliments to Mr. Hughes. I will take the liberty of writing to him the first opportunity. If in the mean time, he will honour me with his commands, and add to them one of his charming English poems, he will lay me under the greatest obligations. Since I left you, I have made some progress in that language, &c.

* This great master (who was born at Hall, in Upper Saxony, Feb. 24, 1684,) arrived at London in the winter preceding the date of this letter. There cannot be a more eminent proof of Mr. Hughes's acknowledged skill in the two sister arts, than his being so soon noticed and distinguished by this modern Orpheus, who, probably in consequence of this introduction, composed Mr. Hughes's “ Cantata of Venus and Adonis.”

XL. From Partridge the Almanac-Maker.

MR. URBAN, The invitation given in your last Magazine, to furnish aný particulars relating to Dr. Partridge, the famous almanacmaker, occasions my sending you the following copy of a letter written by him ; the original now lies before me in his own hand-writing, and is as follows: « OLD FRIEND,

London, April 2, 1708. “ I DON'T doubt but you are imposed on in Ireland also by a pack of rogues about my being dead; the principal author of it is one in Newgate, lately in the pillory for a libel against the State. There is no such man as Isaac Bickerstaff; it is a sham name, but his true name is Pettie; he is always either in a cellar, a garret, or a gaile, and therefore you may by that judge what kind of reputation this fellow hath to be credited in the world. In a word, he is a poor scandalous necessitous creature, and would do as much by his own father, if living, to get a crown; but enough of such a rascall.

I thank God, I am very well in health ; and at the time he had doomed me to death, I was not in the least out of order. The truth is, it was a high fight at a venture, hit or miss; he knows nothing of astrology, but hath a good stock of impudence and lying. Pray, Sir, excuse this trouble, for no man can better tell you I am well than myself; and this is to undeceive your credulous friends that may yet beJieve the death of Your real humble servant,

JOHN PARTRIDGE." “ This to Isaac Manley, Esq. Post-Master of Ireland, at his house in Dublin, Ireland.”

The above original letter is now in the possession of the immediate descendant of Mr. Manley, and this copy is forwarded to you by him,

1785, March,

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