1740, and terminate with the 23d February, 1742-3. The
animated attempts that were made to remove sir Robert Walpole from
administration, seemed, in Cave's opinion, to call for an abler reporter
than Guthrie. Johnson was selected for the task; and his execution of it
may well justify the admiration which we have so often avowed for those
wonderful powers of mind, which, apparently, bade defiance to all
impediments of external fortune.

He was only thirty-two years of age, little acquainted with the world;
had never, perhaps, been in either house, and certainly had never
conversed with the men whose style and sentiments he took upon himself
to imitate. But so well and skilfully did he assume, not merely the
sedate and stately dignity of the lords, and the undaunted freedom of
the commons, but also the tone of the respective parties, that the
public imagined they recognised the individual manner of the different
speakers. Voltaire, and other foreigners of distinction, compared
British with Greek and Roman eloquence; and ludicrous instances are
detailed by Johnson's biographers, of praises awarded to Pulteney or to
Pitt, in the presence of the unsuspected author of the orations which
had excited such regard [Footnote: See Boswell, and sir John Hawkins.]!
For Johnson confessed, that he composed many of the speeches entirely
from his own imagination, and all of them from very scanty materials.

This confession he undoubtedly made from his love of truth, and not for
the gratification of vanity. When he heard that Smollett was preparing
his History of England, he warned him against relying on the debates as
authentic; and, on his death-bed, he professed that the recollection of
having been engaged in an imposture was painful to him. That this was a
refined scrupulosity the most rigid moralist must allow; but,
nevertheless, it is matter for congratulation, that the liberality of
parliament no longer subjects its reporters to the subterfuges which we
have thus briefly attempted to describe. And a comparison of this age
and its privileges with the restrictions of former times, may not be
without its use, if, by reminding us that we were not always free, it
teaches us political contentment, suggests to us the policy of
moderation, and enables us to love liberty, and yet be wise.

OXFORD, NOVEMBER, 1825.

_The List of fictitious Terms used by Cave to disguise the real Names
that occur in his Debates._

Abingdon, Ld. ... Ad