sorely afflicted boy. The objections to locating him among the girls at Bethesda are obvious, but it was not in M. Bost's heart to refuse the appeal. Indeed, hardly had he the opportunity to do so, for close upon the letter followed the subject of the application. The youth, suffering from spinal disease, idiotic, crippled, paralyzed, and yet tormented with constant convulsive movements, was brought to Laforce and deposited, in the chair in which he had been carried thither, at M. Bost's door. It was impossible to reject one so afflicted, and Siloë was founded. This was in 1858. At our visit we saw this original inmate, still grievously tormented with involuntary movements-now bending backwards, now twisting round upon his seat. His left hand was a shapeless mass, but with the other he had learnt to write with wonderful perfection. In the garden, where two idiots were carrying him in his chair, we exchanged a few words with an intelligent-looking lad, who, though his hands, with the exception of the finger and thumb on one of them, were mere knobs from some terrible disease affecting the joints, and his legs were shrivelled to the size only of a thick stick, did not appear unhappy. While we stood outside the house, another sufferer, with legs also shrunk and doubled up in front of him, disappeared in-doors from before our eyes with wonderful velocity. It was evidently a feat performed for our astonishment. He was seated on a board, upon which he moved himself rapidly along by his hands, holding in each a little block of wood to save them from injury, and probably was the same cripple we had remarked on arriving. He had a tall, finely-formed body, and a bright, handsome face, and was quite an athlete in his way. For amusement he would spring, board and all, over objects in his road; he was very fond of gymnastics, we were told, and tried to keep up with the other boys in their exercises. We had seen two of the Siloë boys watering the garden of Bethesda. One of these was the hero of a touching anecdote. His mother was dying in a hospital, and he longed to obtain for her some little luxuries in food. So he worked extra time in the factory where he was employed; but weariness overmastered him, and, falling asleep at his post, his right hand became entangled with the machinery which cut off all the fingers, leaving only the thumb. To adapt his mutilated hand to his present occupation he turned it upwards, thus converting his wrist into a hook, upon which he slung the watering pot. M. Bost desires to make Siloë self-supporting by agriculture, and with this view he wishes to add considerably to the land land now possessed by the institution, which would enable him also greatly to increase the number of inmates. That he is fully competent to secure for his enterprize a commercial success, equal to the moral results already obtained, is strongly impressed on the mind of the visitor, who marks the practical wisdom exemplified in every detail of his noble undertaking; and indeed amusing testimony was presented to us in confirmation of this impression when he invited us, on quitting Siloë, to inspect some pigsties under course of erection hard by. They were being built on the most approved plan, and, in conversing with the workmen, M. Bost displayed not only a thorough knowledge of the subject, but seemed for the time to regard the building of pigsties as the one important object in life. The achievements of M. Bost have been acknowledged by the French Academy in awarding to him the Monthyon prize, founded in 1780 by a nobleman of that name, as a reward of merit. In La Patrie for August 21th, 1850, is given the address of M. de Remusat, Director of the Academy, on the occasion of distributing the Monthyon prizes for that year. Of the labours of the more remarkable among the twenty-two recipients, seventeen of whom were women, the speaker gave a sketch, describing with some detail the asylums founded by M. Bost. 'Such, gentlemen,' he concluded, are the beneficent institutions contained within the humble commune of Laforce. Witnesses of the highest credibility have related the profound impression produce 1 by what they have there beheld, and all are agreed in attributing this work-the concentrated result of widely-collected charityto the efforts of one man, who still animates that which he has created. He doubtless needs no recompense; and the love of men can only claim the name of charity when sanctified by the love of God. But, as a proof of its highest esteem, as an encouragement and a mark of approval which all can appreciate, the Academy decrees to M. John Bost the prize of 3,000 francs.' During our hospitable entertainment at the Parsonage, which closed the visit, we had further opportunity for conversation with our excellent hosts; then, casting aside his philanthropic anxieties, John Bost gave play to the genial humour which, uniting itself happily to his benevolence, forms one of his most delightful characteristics. Many were the mirth-provoking anecdotes he related; one or two only will our limits permit us to repeat. An English gentleman addressing a religious meeting in France, desired to point out the means for gaining spiritual strength. Mes amis,' he said, 'il faut chercher l'eau de vie; lorsque nous nous couchons, buvons de l'eau de vie; en nous levant, imbibons-nous de l'eau de vie; toujours l'eau de vie; soyons REMPLIS de l'eau de vie !' Any national sensitiveness we may have experienced during the recital of this anecdote was amply avenged by the next, in which not Anglo-French, but the narrator's own faulty English, was the source of fun. In the course of M. Bost's tour through Great Britain to invite subscriptions, the first occasion for his speaking in public occurred at Edinburgh, before his mastery of the English tongue-now complete-had been quite perfected. On his way thither, observing the baldness of the hill-tops along the route, he asked a fellow-traveller how summits of that kind were designated. We call them barren,' was the answer. This he took to be the equivalent of chauf, and stored it in memory for use. The meeting assembled, the celebrated Dr. Chalmers presiding. M. Bost was called upon to speak. Himself a young man surrounded by his elders-persons of note, it was natural to begin with expressions of diffidence, and accordingly he commenced-'When I see before me so many barren heads'A roar of irrepressible laughter burst from the whole audience. In vain he turned for explanation to the chairman, who, holding his 'barren head' with both his hands, and rolling to and fro in the agony of his enjoyment, was bereft of speech. The next day the newspapers reported that M. Bost had spoken home truths which no one else had ventured to utter. In listening to our host's 'experiences' of life, both grave and gay, our remaining hours at Laforce glided only too swiftly along, and the midsummer twilight was already deepening before we could summon resolution to depart. A drive back to St. Foy, in glorious moonlight, closed this memorable day. ART. IV. DR. JOHNSON AS A TEMPERANCE MORALIST. 1. The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. 9 Vols. Oxford. 1825. 2. The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. By James Boswell, Esq. With Additions and Notes by Right Hon. J. W. Croker, M.P. Revised and Enlarged by J. Wright, Esq. London: H. G. Bohn. 1859. 3. Johnsoniana: A Sequel to Croker's Edition of Boswell's Johnson. 2 Vols. London: H. G. Bohn. 1859. 4. The Edinburgh Review. No. CVII. (Sept., 1831.) Art. I. Croker's Edition of Boswell's Johnson. 5. Biographies. By Lord Macaulay. Edinburgh: A. and C. Black. A Contributed to the Encyclopædia Britannica. 1860. MONG the moral writers of Britain in the eighteenth century none can be compared for a moment with Dr. Samuel Johnson. His title to be regarded as a profound classical scholar may be impugned; his literary criticisms are confessedly often faulty and vitiated by his political prejudices; as a lexicographer, he was rather a founder than a master-builder; his dictatorship in the world of letters bas has long since passed away; but as a moral painter and teacher, his reputation retains its original freshness, and successive generations of readers pay cheerfully the only tribute which genius, enshrined in its literary relics, can receive. He revered truth, hated hypocrisy, walked humbly before his God, and fearlessly spoke out his mind. Within his burly frame, and under a carriage frequently morose, he held a heart warm, generous, and tender. The lid of his treasury frequently closed and opened with a snap, but the treasure was beyond dispute. The moral side of things was uppermost in his thoughts, and a deep moral colouring, if not an express moral purpose, pervaded his intercourse with mankind. Moral attributes and habits were those that first caught the eye and moved the finger of the great literary artist. Inferior in delicate fancy and blooming grace to Addison, surpassed by Pope in pointed antithesis and diamond-like dazzle, and yielding to Goldsmith-his own familiar Goldy-in humour and exquisite simplicity, he excelled them all, and the rest of their brother wits, in the range and variety of his topics, in the profusion of his ideas, in the keenness of his penetration, in the largeness of his grasp, and in the nervous eloquence of his style. As poet, novelist, biographer, and essayist, his constant aim was to pourtray the excellence of virtue, to trace and expose the deceitfulness of vice, and to induce meu to seek for happiness in conformity with the highest examples of moral goodness, and in obedience to the dictates of revealed religion. Inquiry might, therefore, naturally arise whether Dr. Johnson had made reference to the subject of temperance as now understood; what were the views he entertained of intoxicating liquors, their common use, and the customs of society respecting them; and how far bis personal practice was in correspondence with his professed convictions. Should it be discovered that he had reflected but little, if at all, upon these questions, and that he had silently acquiesced in the opinions and usages of his times, no value would attach to either his sentiments or conduct; but if the opposite of this is trueas true it is; if it is known that for years he pondered this subject of drinking, and delivered himself upon it freely and frequently-and, further, that in a marked degree his manner of life was regulated by his convictions-a lively interest must be at once awakened in the hearts of all who admire his abilities and revere his virtues. To ascertain, then, by an examination of his writings, and of authentic biographical memorials, how far the sentiments and practice of this eminent moral teacher were in agreement with the temperance principles and institutions of the present day, will be the object of our inquiry-one that it is impo-sible for any man of intelligence to pursue without some measure of instruction and delight. Dr. Johnson was born Sept. 7, 1709, old style (18th Sept. new style), in the city of Lichfield, the citizens of which had little reason, a century and a half ago, to be proud of its sobriety, if, as stated by her most distinguished son, he remembered when all the decent people in it got drunk every night (on ale), and were not the worse thought of. At other times, Johnson spoke with enthusiasm of his birthplace, and claimed for the inhabitants politer manners than those of any other town in the kingdom. Failing in the attempt to raise a private academy at Edall, near Lichfield, Johnson removed to London in the March of 1737, where he soon collected the materials for his London,' a poem published in May, 1738. Nocturnal perils then beset the unhappy pedestrians of London streets, and that these were not unconnected with the drink,' is shown by the following lines: Prepare for death if here at night you roam, Provokes a broil, and stabs you for a jest.' About this time, Johnson formed an acquaintance with Richard Savage, the reputed natural son of the ex-Countess of Macclesfield, and not unfrequently perambulated the metropolis, at all hours of the night, in the company of that dissipated child of song. Poor Savage. it is well known, had himself been convicted in 1728 of murdering a man in a quarrel, brought on by the intemperance of himself and two of his friends. Savage was pardoned, but did not shun the cause of this and many other of his troubles. His talents and forlorn condition. endeared endeared him to Johnson, but it is noteworthy that, according to Murphy, Johnson's 'abstinence from wine and strong liquors began soon after the departure of Savage' from London in 1739. The weakness and wildness of poor Savage are not disguised in his life by Johnson, but it is touching to observe how delicately the truth is stated, and how warmly the biographer deprecates the reader's selfboasting over the grave of the ruined man-of-letters. This 'Life' was published in 1741, and can leave no doubt in the candid mind that, but for the influence of intoxicating drink on a highly sensitive organization, more than half the follies of which Savage was, guilty would have been avoided, and that, unwarped by wine, the 'mocker,' he might have left both a purer and prouder name on the literary annals of his age. It is not improbable, however, that Johnson's abstinence from wine preceded Savage's departure from London, and, perhaps, even their knowledge of each other. He stated, long after, that he used to dine very well for 8d., with very good company, at the Pine Apple, in New-street (near the Strand). It used to cost the rest a shilling, for they drank wine; but I had a cut of meat for 6d, and bread for a penny, and gave the waiter a penny: so that I was quite well served, nay better than the rest, for they gave the waiter nothing.' Boswell adds, He at this time (1737), I believe, abstained entirely from fermented liquors: a practice to which he rigidly conformed for many years together, at different periods of his life.' Mr. Croker, in a note on this passage, remarks—' At this time his abstinence from wine may, perhaps, be attributed to poverty, but in his subsequent life he was restrained from that indulgence by, as it appears, moral, or, rather, medical, considerations. He probably found by experience that wine, though it dissipated for a moment, yet eventually aggravated the hereditary disease (melancholy) under which he suffered; and perhaps it may have been owing to a long course of abstinence that his mental health seems to have been better in the latter than in the earlier portion of his life.' It was early in 1738, and just previous to the appearance of his London,' that Johnson had been brought into personal contact with Mr. Edward Cave, the publisher of the 'Gentleman's Magazine.' In a memoir of this gentleman, Johnson has sketched his excel encies and defects, and, among other facts, has stated that Mr. Cave abstained for four years from animal food, and for a longer period from intoxicating liquors, to cure himself of the gout, but the fashionable ailment would not be so disposed of. ་ 6 Besides other work upon the Gentleman's Magazine,' Johnson was engaged by Cave to report, or, rather, compose, the Parliamentary debates. Reporting, in the modern sense of the term, was then unknown. Lords and Commons united to suppress every visible means of noting down their proceedings as they occurred; and such reports as were published were either of the most meagre character, or saw the light under a mask of mysterious ciphers, and long after the gloss of novelty had departed. The Gentleman's Magazine' announced them as debates in the Senate of Lilliput, and in the London Magazine' they were produced as the discussions of an ancient Roman Political Club. Johnson's engagement dated from the session commencing Nov. 19, 1740, and terminated at the end of February, 1743; and it opportunely fell out that his last efforts in this vocation were exercised upon the debates in the House of Lords on the Bill for repealing the celebrated Gin Act of 1736, and substituting in lieu of it a small licence fee and spirit duty. These debates in February, 1743, were published in the numbers of the Gentleman's Magazine' for November and December, the Supplement for 1743, and the January number for 1744. The report of the same debates which appeared in the London Magazine' differs so extensively from Johnson's report, and both vary so widely from the manuscript notes of Archbishop Secker, as to make it evident that nothing beyond a few brief jottings, taken by stealth, could have been written on the spot, and that Johnson and the reporters for rival magazines gave to the noble and right reverend speakers a diction, and not a few ideas, to which the orators were personally strangers. What concerns us here is to remark that Johnson in his report manifestly studied to assign to the opponents of the Government Bill the superiority in both length and strength of oratorical performance. The supporters of the Bill speak well, but even they are made to admit that ardent spirits are poisonous, and their common use to be deprecated and discouraged by legislation. The opponents of the measure who attack it as a legislative encouragement of drunkenness and immorality, and a sacrifice of the highest public interests to |