sort. His cast of political thought is shared by thousands to this day.
He represents that vast army of electors whom neither canvasser nor
caucus has ever yet cajoled or bullied into a polling-booth. Newspapers
may scold, platforms may shake; whatever circulars can do may be done,
all that placards can tell may be told; but the fact remains that one-
third of every constituency in the realm shares Dr. Johnson's 'narcotic
indifference,' and stays away.

It is, of course, impossible to reconcile all Johnson's recorded
utterances with any one view of anything. When crossed in conversation
or goaded by folly he was capable of anything. But his dominant tone
about politics was something of this sort. Provided a man lived in a
State which guaranteed him private liberty and secured him public order,
he was very much of a knave or altogether a fool if he troubled himself
further. To go to bed when you wish, to get up when you like, to eat and
drink and read what you choose, to say across your port or your tea
whatever occurs to you at the moment, and to earn your living as best you
may--this is what Dr. Johnson meant by private liberty. Fleet Street
open day and night--this is what he meant by public order. Give a
sensible man these, and take all the rest the world goes round. Tyranny
was a bugbear. Either the tyranny was bearable, or it was not. If it
was bearable, it did not matter; and as soon as it became unbearable the
mob cut off the tyrant's head, and wise men went home to their dinner. To
views of this sort he gave emphatic utterance on the well-known occasion
when he gave Sir Adam Ferguson a bit of his mind. Sir Adam had
innocently enough observed that the Crown had too much power. Thereupon
Johnson:

'Sir, I perceive you are a vile Whig. Why all this childish jealousy
of the power of the Crown? The Crown has not power enough. When I
say that all governments are alike, I consider that in no government
power can be abused long; mankind will not bear it. If a sovereign
oppresses his people, they will rise and cut off his head. There is a
remedy in human nature against tyranny that will keep us safe under
every form of government.'

This is not, and never was, the language of Toryism. It is a much more
intellectual 'ism.' It is indifferentism. So, too, in his able
pamphlet, _The False Alarm_, which had reference to Wilkes and the
Middlesex election, though he no doubt attemp