Sir Henry Bulwer (in his “France”) says that Louis the Fourteenth was entitled to be called a man of genius, if only from the delicate beauty of his compliments.  Mrs. Thrale awards the palm of excellence in the same path to Johnson.  “Your compliments, Sir, are made seldom, but when they are made, they have an elegance unequalled; but then, when you are angry, who dares make speeches so bitter and so cruel?” “I am sure,” she adds, after a semblance of defence on his part, “I have had my share of scolding from you.” Johnson.  “It is true, you have, but you have borne it like an angel, and you have been the better for it.”  As the discussion proceeds, he accuses her of often provoking him to say severe things by unreasonable commendation; a common mode of acquiring a character for amiability at the expense of one’s intimates, who are made to appear uncharitable by being thus constantly placed on the depreciating side.

Some years prior to this period (1778) Mrs. Thrale’s mind and character had undergone a succession of the most trying ordeals, and was tempered and improved, without being hardened, by them.  In allusion to what she suffered in child-bearing, she said later in life that she had nine times undergone the sentence of a convict,—­confinement with hard labour.  Child after child died at the age when the bereavement is most affecting to a mother.  Her husband’s health kept her in a constant state of apprehension for his life, and his affairs became embarrassed to the very verge of bankruptcy.  So long as they remained prosperous, he insisted on her not meddling with them in any way, and even required her to keep to her drawing-room and leave the conduct of their domestic establishment to the butler and housekeeper.  But when (from circumstances detailed in the “Autobiography”) his fortune was seriously endangered, he wisely and gladly availed himself of her prudence and energy, and was saved by so doing.  I have now before me a collection of autograph letters from her to Mr. Perkins, then manager and afterwards one of the proprietors of the brewery, from which it appears that she paid the most minute attention to the business, besides undertaking the superintendence of her own hereditary estate in Wales.  On September 28, 1773, she writes to Mr. Perkins, who was on a commercial journey:—­

“Mr. Thrale is still upon his little tour; I opened a letter from you at the counting-house this morning, and am sorry to find you have so much trouble with Grant and his affairs.  How glad I shall be to hear that matter is settled at all to your satisfaction.  His letter and remittance came while I was there to-day....  Careless, of the ’Blue Posts,’ has turned refractory, and applied to Hoare’s people, who have sent him in their beer.  I called on him to-day, however, and by dint of an unwearied solicitation, (for I kept him at the coach side a full half-hour) I got his order for six butts more as the final trial.”