by Boswell is, _A small
Whole-Length of Dr. Priestley from his Printed Works_. It was published
in 1792, and is a very poor piece of writing.

Johnson had refused to meet the Abbe Raynal, the author of the _Histoire
Philosophique et Politique du Commerce des Deux Indes_, when he was
over in England in 1777. Mrs. Chapone, writing to Mrs. Carter on June 15
of that year, says:--

'I suppose you have heard a great deal of the Abbe Raynal, who is in
London. I fancy you would have served him as Dr. Johnson did, to whom
when Mrs. Vesey introduced him, he turned from him, and said he had read
his book, and would have nothing to say to him.' Mrs. Chapone's
_Posthumous Works_, i. 172.

See Walpole's _Letters_, v. 421, and vi. 444. His book was burnt by the
common hangman in Paris. Carlyle's _French Revolution_, ed. 1857, i. 45.

APPENDIX C.

(_Page 253_.)

Hawkins gives the two following notes:--

'DEAR SIR,

'As Mr. Ryland was talking with me of old friends and past times, we
warmed ourselves into a wish, that all who remained of the club should
meet and dine at the house which once was Horseman's, in Ivy-lane. I
have undertaken to solicit you, and therefore desire you to tell on what
day next week you can conveniently meet your old friends.

'I am, Sir,

'Your most humble servant,

'SAM. JOHNSON.'

'Bolt-court, Nov. 22, 1783.'

'DEAR SIR,

'In perambulating Ivy-lane, Mr. Ryland found neither our landlord
Horseman, nor his successor. The old house is shut up, and he liked not
the appearance of any near it; he therefore bespoke our dinner at the
Queen's Arms, in St. Paul's Church-yard, where, at half an hour after
three, your company will be desired to-day by those who remain of our
former society.

'Your humble servant,

'SAM. JOHNSON.'

'Dec. 3.'

Four met--Johnson, Hawkins, Ryland, and Payne (_ante_, i. 243).

'We dined,' Hawkins continues, 'and in the evening regaled with coffee.
At ten we broke up, much to the regret of Johnson, who proposed
staying; but finding us inclined to separate, he left us with a sigh
that seemed to come from his heart, lamenting that he was retiring to
solitude and cheerless meditation.' Hawkins's _Johnson_, p. 562.

Hawkins is mistaken in saying that they had a second meeting at a tavern
at the end of a month; for Johnson, on March 10, 1784, wrote:--

'I have been confined from the fourteenth of December, and know not when
I shall get out.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii.