We talked of the accusation against a gentleman for supposed delinquencies in India[655].  JOHNSON.  ’What foundation there is for accusation I know not, but they will not get at him.  Where bad actions are committed at so great a distance, a delinquent can obscure the evidence till the scent becomes cold; there is a cloud between, which cannot be penetrated:  therefore all distant power is bad.  I am clear that the best plan for the government of India is a despotick governour; for if he be a good man, it is evidently the best government; and supposing him to be a bad man, it is better to have one plunderer than many.  A governour whose power is checked, lets others plunder, that he himself may be allowed to plunder; but if despotick, he sees that the more he lets others plunder, the less there will be for himself, so he restrains them; and though he himself plunders, the country is a gainer, compared with being plundered by numbers.’

I mentioned the very liberal payment which had been received for reviewing; and, as evidence of this, that it had been proved in a trial, that Dr. Shebbeare[656] had received six guineas a sheet for that kind of literary labour.  JOHNSON, ’Sir, he might get six guineas for a particular sheet, but not communibus sheetibus[657].’  BOSWELL.  ’Pray, Sir, by a sheet of review is it meant that it shall be all of the writer’s own composition? or are extracts, made from the book reviewed, deducted.’  JOHNSON.  ‘No, Sir:  it is a sheet, no matter of what.’  BOSWELL.  ‘I think that it is not reasonable.’  JOHNSON.  ’Yes, Sir, it is.  A man will more easily write a sheet all his own, than read an octavo volume to get extracts[658].’  To one of Johnson’s wonderful fertility of mind I believe writing was really easier than reading and extracting; but with ordinary men the case is very different.  A great deal, indeed, will depend upon the care and judgement with which the extracts are made.  I can suppose the operation to be tedious and difficult:  but in many instances we must observe crude morsels cut out of books as if at random; and when a large extract is made from one place, it surely may be done with very little trouble.  One however, I must acknowledge, might be led, from the practice of reviewers, to suppose that they take a pleasure in original writing; for we often find, that instead of giving an accurate account of what has been done by the authour whose work they are reviewing, which is surely the proper business of a literary journal, they produce some plausible and ingenious conceits of their own, upon the topicks which have been discussed[659].

Upon being told that old Mr. Sheridan, indignant at the neglect of his oratorical plans, had threatened to go to America; JOHNSON.  ’I hope he will go to America.’  BOSWELL.  ‘The Americans don’t want oratory.’  JOHNSON.  ‘But we can want Sheridan[660].’