[776] Six years later, when he was Praeses of the Quarter-Sessions, he carried up to London an address to be presented to the Prince of Wales.  ‘This,’ he wrote, ’will add something to my conspicuousness.  Will that word do?’ Letters of Boswell, p. 295.

[777] This part of this letter was written, as Johnson goes on to say, a considerable time before the conclusion.  The Coalition Ministry, which was suddenly dismissed by the King on Dec. 19, was therefore still in power.  Among Boswell’s ‘friends’ was Burke.  See ante, p. 223.

[778] On Nov. 22 he wrote to Dr. Taylor:-’I feel the weight of solitude very pressing; after a night of broken and uncomfortable slumber I rise to a solitary breakfast, and sit down in the evening with no companion.  Sometimes, however, I try to read more and more.’ Notes and Queries, 6th S. v. 482.  On Dec. 27 he wrote to Mrs. Thrale:—­’You have more than once wondered at my complaint of solitude, when you hear that I am crowded with visits. Inopem me copia fecit.  Visitors are no proper companions in the chamber of sickness.  They come when I could sleep or read, they stay till I am weary....  The amusements and consolations of langour and depression are conferred by familiar and domestick companions, which can be visited or called at will....  Such society I had with Levett and Williams; such I had where I am never likely to have it more.’ Piozzi Letters, ii. 341.

[779] The confusion arising from the sudden dismissal of a Ministry which commanded a large majority in the House of Commons had been increased by the resignation, on Dec. 22, of Earl Temple, three days after his appointment as Secretary of State. Parl.  Hist. xxiv. 238.

[780] ‘News I know none,’ wrote Horace Walpole on Dec. 30, 1783 (Letters, viii. 447), ’but that they are crying Peerages about the streets in barrows, and can get none off.’  Thirty-three peerages were made in the next three years. (Whitaker’s Almanac, 1886, p. 463.) Macaulay tells how this December ’a troop of Lords of the Bedchamber, of Bishops who wished to be translated, and of Scotch peers who wished to be reelected made haste to change sides.’  Macaulay’s Writings and Speeches, ed. 1871, p. 407.

[781] See ante, ii. 182.  He died Oct. 28, 1788.

[782]’Prince Henry was the first encourager of remote navigation.  What mankind has lost and gained by the genius and designs of this prince it would be long to compare, and very difficult to estimate.  Much knowledge has been acquired, and much cruelty been committed; the belief of religion has been very little propagated, and its laws have been outrageously and enormously violated.  The Europeans have scarcely visited any coast but to gratify avarice, and extend corruption; to arrogate dominion without right, and practise cruelty without incentive.  Happy had it then been for the oppressed, if the designs of Henry had slept in his bosom, and surely more happy for the oppressors.’  Johnson’s Works, v. 219.  See ante, ii. 478.