ghest mind should have the sovereign power." In this strain of servile
flattery, Milton gives us the right divine of tyrants. But it seems, in
the same piece, he exhorts Cromwell "not to desert those great
principles of liberty which he had professed to espouse; for, it would
be a grievous enormity, if, after having successfully opposed tyranny,
he should himself act the part of a tyrant, and betray the cause that he
had defended." This desertion of every honest principle the advocate for
liberty lived to see. Cromwell acted the tyrant; and, with vile
hypocrisy, told the people, that he had consulted the Lord, and the Lord
would have it so. Milton took an under part in the tragedy. Did that
become the defender of the people of England? Brutus saw his country
enslaved; he struck the blow for freedom, and he died with honour in the
cause. Had he lived to be a secretary under Tiberius, what would now be
said of his memory?

But still, it seems, the prostitution with which Milton is charged,
since it cannot be defended, is to be retorted on the character of
Johnson. For this purpose, a book has been published, called Remarks on
Dr. Johnson's Life of Milton; to which are added, Milton's Tractate of
Education, and Areopagitica. In this laboured tract we are told, "There
is one performance, ascribed to the pen of the Doctor, where the
prostitution is of so singular a nature, that it would be difficult to
select an adequate motive for it, out of the mountainous heap of
conjectural causes of human passions, or human caprice. It is the speech
of the late unhappy Dr. William Dodd, when he was about to hear the
sentence of the law pronounced upon him, in consequence of an indictment
for forgery. The voice of the public has given the honour of
manufacturing this speech to Dr. Johnson; and the style, and
configuration of the speech itself, confirm the imputation. But it is
hardly possible to divine what could be his motive for accepting the
office. A man, to express the precise state of mind of another, about to
be destined to an ignominious death, for a capital crime, should, one
would imagine, have some consciousness, that he himself had incurred
some guilt of the same kind." In all the schools of sophistry, is there
to be found so vile an argument? In the purlieus of Grub street, is
there such another mouthful of dirt? In the whole quiver of malice, is
there so envenomed a shaft?

After this, it is to be hoped, that a certain cla