England under the house of Hanover : its history and condition during the reigns of the three Georges . rve against the popular cause withpolitical pamphlets, and by other means. Dr. Johnsoncontinued long silent, and his pension seemed only tohave rendered him mute. Churchill, who hated John-son, and ranked him among the vile pensioners of VOL. I. c c 386 DR. JOHNSON AND WILKES. [1770. state, makes the distinction between those who werepaid to write, and those who only abstained for theirpay:— Some, dead to shame, and of those shackles proudWhich Honour scorns, for slavery roar aloud ;Others,
England under the house of Hanover : its history and condition during the reigns of the three Georges . rve against the popular cause withpolitical pamphlets, and by other means. Dr. Johnsoncontinued long silent, and his pension seemed only tohave rendered him mute. Churchill, who hated John-son, and ranked him among the vile pensioners of VOL. I. c c 386 DR. JOHNSON AND WILKES. [1770. state, makes the distinction between those who werepaid to write, and those who only abstained for theirpay:— Some, dead to shame, and of those shackles proudWhich Honour scorns, for slavery roar aloud ;Others, half-palsied only, mutes what makes Smollett write, makes Johnson dumb. Johnson had, in fact, given an unfortunate definitionof the word pensioner in his dictionary, compiled whenhe received nothing from government, which laid himopen to the sneers of the popular party; but it wasnot till 1770 that the doctor ventured openly to enterthe field of politics by an attack on Wilkes in a pam-phlet entitled The False Alarm. It is probably tothat period that we must ascribe a caricature repre-. A PATRIOT WORRIED. senting the patriot Wilkes, worried by two dogsone of which (that to the left) bears the features ofthe lexicographer, and the other, those of some otherwriter of the court-party, of the identity of whom weare less certain. Dr. Johnson, the general decrier of 1782.] THE LITERARY OWL. 387
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