will be much disappointed, and no one in it more than Your very much obliged, humble Servant, ANSON. Bath, 22nd October, 1749. If you can tell the time of your departure, let me know it. Dr. Wilson relates that on Lord Anson's being requested to permit that this testimony might be exhibited to the world, of his Lordship's esteeme for Mr. Robins, he replied in the politest manner "that every thing in his power was due to the memory of one who had deserved so well of the Public," At the period the preceding letter was written, Mr. Robins was on the point of quitting England for India, the East India Company having appointed him their Engineer-General, with settlement of £500 per annum for life, on condition that he continued in their service five years, but in September, 1750, he was attacked by a fever, from which he recovered; about eight months after which, he fell into a languishing condition and expired at Fort St. Davids, the 29th of July, 1751, with his pen in his hand. CLASSICS ad usum Delphini. The Delphin, or Dauphin editions of the Classics, 4to. forming a collection of between 60 and 70 volumes, were planned by the Duke of Montausier; encouraged by Mons. Colbert, and carried on by Huet, Bishop of Avranches; it is the latter who chose the commentators that were employed, and who himself complains of not being able to find a sufficient number of persons equal to such a task. The Pharsalia of Lucan is not in the series, and the omission is said to have been occasioned by the fear of the ill effects, the principles contained in that work might have on the mind of the Dauphin. Johnson, (Mr. Samuel) An humble and hearty address to all the English Protestants in this present army, 1686. 3 Johnson was tried at the King's Bench, and found guilty of "writing and publishing this scandalous and seditious libel against Government"; and sentenced to pay 500 marks to the king, to stand three times in the pillory, and to be whipped by the common hangman from Newgate to Tyburn. Exclusive of this sentence, which was strictly enforced, he was degraded from the order of Priesthood by Crew, Bishop of Durham, Sprat, Bishop of Rochester, and White, Bishop of Peterborough; commissioners for the diocese of London, (the Bishop being then under a suspension for refusing to obey the king's orders to suspend Dr. Sharp for preaching against popery) but his degradation was not complete, owing to the omission of not stripping him of his cassock, which omission afterwards saved him his benefice. The judgment of the Court of King's Bench, was subsequently in 1689, declared illegal and cruel, and a bill ordered to be brought in by a committee of the House of Commons to reverse the said judgment; and two addresses were presented on bebalf of Johnson to the king, who gave him £300 a year out of the post office, for his own and his son's life, besides £1000 in money, and likewise bestowed a place of about £100 a year on his son. Mrs. Macaulay's Loose Thoughts. Mrs. Macaulay having published, what she called loose thoughts, Mr. Garrick was asked if he did not think it a strange title for a lady to choose? "By no means", replied he, "the sooner a woman gets rid of such thoughts the better". Errata. Beneath the word Finis, at the end of some very stupid book, a wit added the following pointed couplet: Finis! an error, or a lie, my friend! Errata. Scarron composed some verses, to which he prefixed the following dedication: A. Guillemette, chienne de ma saur; but having a quarrel with lis sister, he inserted this among the errata, and added, for chienne de ma sœur, read ma chienne de sœur. Gibbon's Roman Empire. The original publication of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire was in quarto, and as the volumes appeared singly, Gibbon used to take them to his Grace the Duke of Cumberland. Conveying the third to him one day, elated with pride at the delightful office, and imagining as he went, what handsome things the duke would say to him, what a mortification it must have been to the historian, when the duke, in his usual rough manner exclaimed, "What? ah! another d―d big square book, eh! Dr. Johnson. After one of the Doctor's Publications, |