payment thus offered without the direct suggestion of any
obligation, though it was probably calculated that he
would in case of need, be the more ready, as actually
happened, to use his pen in defence of authority. He had
not compromised his independence and might fairly laugh
at angry comments. "I wish," he said afterwards, "that
my pension were twice as large, that they might make
twice as much noise." "I cannot now curse the House of
Hanover," was his phrase on another occasion: "but I
think that the pleasure of cursing the House of Hanover
and drinking King James's health, all amply overbalanced
by three hundred pounds a year." In truth, his Jacobitism
was by this time, whatever it had once been, nothing
more than a humorous crotchet, giving opportunity for
the expression of Tory prejudice.

"I hope you will now purge and live cleanly like a
gentleman," was Beauclerk's comment upon hearing of his
friend's accession of fortune, and as Johnson is now
emerging from Grub Street, it is desirable to consider what
manner of man was to be presented to the wider circles
that were opening to receive him.

-52-