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APPENDIX DD (PAGE 451)

Account of a Journey into Wales in Two Letters to Mr. Bower, Works, p. 711. The Letters were written in 1756.

Archibald Bower was a Jesuit priest who professed himself a Protestant, and in 1748-66 published a History of the Popes in 7 vols. He was attacked by the Jesuits as 'notoriously a liar' and by some Protestants as a Jesuit in disguise. See Gent. Mag. 1757, pp. 65, 117, and ib. 1785, p. 177, where it is said that 'he defended himself with great skill and ability, which cannot be too much admired, whether guilty or not; and this perhaps will ever remain doubtful.... Lord Lyttelton was his friend to the last. He died in 1766, aged 78.'

Walpole wrote of him in 1750:-'He is much admired here; but I am not good Christian enough to rejoice over him, because turned Protestant; nor honour his confessorship, when he ran away with the materials that were trusted to him to write for the Papacy, and makes use of them to write against it.' Letters, ii. 209. See also ib. p. 508.

Gibbon wrote of him in 1764:-'He is a rogue unmasked, who enjoyed for twenty years the favour of the public, because he had quitted a sect to which he still secretly adhered.' Misc. Works, v. 464.

'Lyttelton,' wrote Hume, 'says that Robertson and [Adam] Smith and Bower are the glories of English literature.' Burton's Hume, ii. 58.

Bower is joined with Lauder as an impostor and quack in Goldsmith's Retaliation. He was one of the writers of The Universal History. John. Letters, ii. 433

ADDITIONAL APPENDICES

[MS. OF POPE'S ILIAD (pages 119–26).

The original manuscript from which the transcripts were made is preserved in the British Museum (Add. MSS. 4807). So numerous are the corrections that only a facsimile could accurately show 'by what gradations Pope's version advanced to correctness.' Johnson, unfortunately, was not very well served by his transcriber, nor is this perhaps a matter for wonder if, as Cunningham says, it was Mrs. Thrale who made the transcript from the first copy.

A comparison between the version of the passages as they were printed in the Lives of the Poets, and the same passages as they appear in the actual manuscript in the British Museum, discloses some differences. In the more important instances of divergence, the text of the present edition has been altered in accordance with the manuscript.]

[THOMSON AND THE SURVEYORSHIP-GENERAL OF THE LEEWARD ISLANDS (page 293).

All the biographers of Thomson have asserted that the poet was appointed Surveyor-General of the Leeward Islands; that the appoint

ment was due to the kind offices of Lyttelton; and that Thomson appointed as his deputy William Paterson, his friend and successor in the post. It is somewhat perplexing to meet with other evidence in conflict with this unanimity.

Before, however, dealing with this conflicting evidence, it is to be observed that there is some difference in the accounts with regard to the date of the appointment and the duration of Thomson's tenure of the office. The author of the life in the Biographia Britannica (Suppl. 1766, p. 169) writes: 'In 1746 Lord Lyttelton procured for him the place of Surveyor-General of the Leeward Islands, and he enjoyed it to his death.' Murdoch, Thomson's friend and biographer, writing four years earlier (Works, 1762, Pref., p. 11) states that Thomson, when he lost his place of Secretary of Briefs in 1737, was 'reduced to a state of precarious dependance, in which he passed the remainder of his life; excepting only the two last years of it, during which he enjoyed the place of Surveyor-General of the Leeward Islands, procured for him by the generous friendship of my Lord Lyttelton.' Johnson also, apparently, adopts 1746 as the correct date, as he mentions the appointment after speaking of Tancred and Sigismunda, which was published in 1745. Later biographers, on the other hand, such as M. Morel (James Thomson, sa vie et ses œuvres, p. 150) and Mr. Seccombe (Dict. Nat. Biog.), seem inclined to assign 1744 as the date of appointment. Perhaps the more generally received view is most definitely given in the following statement by Mr. Logie Robertson (The Seasons, Clar. Press, p. 16):-'In the following year (1744), Lyttelton being then a Lord of the Treasury, Thomson was appointed to the sinecure office of Surveyor-General of the Leeward Islands. After paying a deputy to discharge the active duties of the post, he found himself benefited to the extent of about £300 a year.'

As however the commission appointing Lyttelton a Lord of the Treasury bears date Dec. 26, 1744, it is probable that we should read here 1744-5, according to the old reckoning. Mr. Logie Robertson furthermore states (p. 17):-'In 1746 the poet made way for his old friend and deputy, Paterson, in the office of Surveyor-General.'

Through the kindness of Mr. Hubert Hall, of the Public Record Office, the warrant appointing Paterson has been brought before my notice. This warrant, which clearly establishes the fact that Paterson was appointed in 1746, is as follows:

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'William Paterson to be Surveyor Gen1 of Antigua, Barbadoes, and the Leeward Isles, and the Island of Bermuda, in the room of Charles Dunbar dismissed, at the like salary and other allowances as were enjoyed by Mr. Dunbar.' Warrant dated 29 May, 1746. H. P. M. R. A. Customs and Excise Letter Book, vol. xxiii. p. 86.

Paterson,

It will be observed that there is no mention of Thomson. who has hitherto been regarded as Thomson's deputy, is appointed in 1746 in direct succession to Charles Dunbar, who had been dismissed for frauds in connexion with the 4 per cent. duties in the summer of 1743, but whose fate, apparently, was not finally settled as late as 1745, as he continued petitioning the Crown until that date. Cal. of Treasury Books and Papers, 1742-5, pp. 269, 271, 289, 697. In Chamberlayne's Public State of Great Britain, 1743, 1745, 1748,

we find confirmation. In the volume for 1743 (part ii. bk. iii. p. 79), under 'Officers of the Customs in Barbadoes and the Leeward Islands,' is this entry-Barbadoes, Bridge-Town, Charles Dunbar, SurveyorGeneral, for himself £400; for a clerk £50.' In 1745 (p. 80) the office is entered as vacant. In 1748 (p. 98) the following entry appears:'Bridge-Town, William Paterson, Esq., Surveyor-General, for himself £400; for a clerk £50.'

Again in regard to the general view that the post was a sinecure and discharged, in Thomson's case at any rate, through a deputy, the terms of the warrant hardly seem to allow of this. Moreover it is certain that Edward Perrie, Dunbar's predecessor, Dunbar himself and Paterson were all present in person to perform the duties of the office. Cal. of Treasury Books and Papers, 1731-4, p. 552, and a long letter of Thomson's written 'to Mr. Paterson of the Leeward Islands,' in 1748-almost certainly in April-wherein there are references_to Paterson's official duties and to his residence in the Barbadoes. The Seasons, 1791, Life by R. Heron, Pref., p. 40.

The only suggestion I can make is that Lyttelton some time after his appointment in December, 1744, may have offered the post to Thomson. Thomson possibly did not care to go out to Barbadoes, and perhaps after some delay, occasioned by the fact that Dunbar's fate still hung in the balance, secured the transference of the post to his old friend William Paterson, the author of Arminius, who, from his experience as a clerk in a counting-house, was more competent than Thomson to perform the duties. Some private arrangement, I suggest, was made that Paterson should pay to Thomson a portion of the salary of £400.]

INDEX

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ADDISON, Joseph, Account of English
Poets, ii. 83 n. 9, 127; aldermen on stage,
236 n. 6; alexandrines and triplets, 145;
Atticus,' 124 n. 2, iii. 178; authors' dis-
creet suppressions, 136 n. 1; bashfulness,
ii. 118; 'best company in the world,' 119
n. 4; bill of mortality, argument for a Provi-
dence, 149 n. 3; birth, &c., 79; bishopric,
had eye towards, 112; biters, 69 n. 3; Blois,
85; Boileau, presents Latin poems to, 82;
'borrows out of modesty,' iii. 166; Bouhours,
i. 326 n. 4; Button's, frequented, ii. 122;
Campaign, the, account of publication,
ii. 88; 'Gazette in rhyme,' 128; line in it imi-
tated by Pope, 129; Marlborough, 130; simile
of the Angel, 130; 'cant,' iii. 436 n. 8;
Cato, altered in MS., ii. 121; attempt to
rob him of it, i. 72; Britons arise,' ii. 100;
date of writing, 86, 98; dedication, without,
102; Dennis's criticism, 102, 104, 133-44;
encomiastic verses, 103; first performance, 99
n. 4, 101, 157; Hughes's part in it, 162;
Johnson's estimate, 132; Kemble plays in it,
133 n. 4; long run, 101; love scenes, 103;
MS. of first four acts seen by Pope and
Cibber, 98; Oxford, played at, 103 n. 6, 305
n. 5; packed audience, 100; 'post of honour
is a private station,' 101 n. 4; preparatory
criticism in its favour, 99; Prince of Wales,
played before, 101 n. 4; Prologue, written
by Pope, 100, iii. 106; quotations, eight
habitual, ii. 133 n. 1; Sewell defends it, 103;

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six last lines, 121; smooth, lines too, 145;
success due to party rivalry, 133; s. preju-
dicial to drama, 133; theatrical exhibition,
Pope advised against, 133; translations,
103, 104 n. 1; unity of time and place,
136; Whigs and Tories applaud, 100,
133; Young's verses prefixed to it, iii. 365;
character and habits, ii. 118-26; Char-
terhouse, 80; Chevy-Chase, 147, 148 n. 1;
Christian religion, defence of, 112; Christ-
mas and dissenters, 48; 'classic ground,'
86 n. 4; cloistered up in cells of Oxford,'
119 n. 1; coffee-house, dull at, 157; Com-
missioner of Appeals, 88; Commissioner of
Trade, III n. 2; companions, 122; com-
pany, reserved in, 119, 123, 157; composi-
tion, method of, 121; Congreve, 226 n. 2;
conversation, charm of, 119; c. only real
between two persons, 118 n. 9, 123 n. 3;
correcting, scrupulous in, 121, 157; correct-
ness, i. 235, ii. 145; courtship of Countess of
Warwick, 110; Cowley's Davideis, quotes,
i. 49 n. 3; C.'s wit, 41; Cowper's lines on
him, ii. 125 n. 4; Craggs, dedication to,
118; critic, considered as, 127, 144; criti-
cism of his poetry, 127-44; death, 118, 156;
death bed, 116-8; dedication, servile ab-
surdity of a, 89; 'describer of life and
manners,' 148; Despairing Shepherd' in
Rowe's Colin's Complaint, 76 n. 7; -Dia-
logues on Medals, account of publication, 86;
Dryden's Essay of Dramatic Poesy, its
model, i. 340; Latin poets, ii. 121;
dic-
tionary, designs, 108 n. 8, 113; Dorset's
wit, i. 306 n. 7; dramatic rhyme, 338 n. 1 ;
drinking with Dryden, 389 n. 5: see ADDI-
SON, wine; Drummer, The, ii. 106; Dryden's
Absalom and Achitophel, i. 373; D.'s Aureng
zebe, 360 n. 7; D.'s Don Sebastian, 363 n. 1 ;
D.'s Oedipus, 362 n. 5; D.'s Spanish Friar,
356 n. 9; D., depreciated, ii. 120; D.'s
sentiments, i. 363 n. 1; D.'s technical
terms, 178 n. 4; D., verses to, ii. 83,
127; D.'s versification, debased, 145; D.'s
Virgil, praises, iii. 129 n. 6; his share in
it, i. 449, ii. 83; Durfey and Charles II, 221
n. 4; encouraged a man in his absurdity,
124; Englishman, The, iii. 366; Epilogue to
Distrest Mother, attributed to him, 315;
Epilogue to Granville's British Enchanters,
ii. 294 n. 2; Essay, 'wildness' of an, i. 235

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