ard is to be found the
following letter, addressed to the supervisor of excise at
Lichfield:--"July 27, 1725--The commissioners received
yours of the 22nd instant; and since the justices would
not give judgment against Mr. Michael Johnson, the
_tanner_, notwithstanding the facts were fairly against
him, the board direct that the next time he offends, you
do not lay an information against him, but send an
affidavit of the fact, that he may be prosecuted in the
Exchequer." It does not appear whether he offended again,
but here is sufficient cause of his son's animosity
against commissioners of excise, and of the allusion in
the Dictionary to the _special_ jurisdiction under which
that revenue is administered. The reluctance of the
justices to convict will not appear unnatural, when it is
recollected that Mr. Johnson was, _this very year_, chief
magistrate of the city.--_Note to Boswell, by Croker_,
vol. i.

Johnson's mother was a woman of distinguished understanding and piety;
and to her must be ascribed those early impressions of religion upon
the mind of her son, from which the world afterwards derived so much
benefit. Johnson was the elder of two sons, the younger of whom died
in his infancy.

Of Johnson's childhood at Lichfield it would not be difficult to
assemble many interesting particulars: from his listening to Dr.
Sacheverel, when he was but three years old; his being first taught to
read English by Dame Oliver, a widow who kept a school for young
children in Lichfield, and who gave him a present of gingerbread, and
said he was the best scholar she ever had; to his arrival in London
with the unfinished tragedy of _Irene_ in his pocket, and the prospect
of a slender engagement with Cave of the _Gentleman's Magazine_. One
thing is certain, that however unpromising were Johnson's early days
at Lichfield, he ever retained a warm affection for his native city,
and which, by a sudden apostrophe, under the word _Lich_, he
introduces with reverence into his immortal work, the ENGLISH
DICTIONARY: _Salve magna parens. (Boswell.)_ His last visit was in his
75th year when he writes to Boswell:--"I came to Lichfield, and found
every body glad enough to see me."

The annexed view is of the date 1785, being from the first volume of
the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for that year. The building to