es. In the very heat
of the controversy, Johnson was never accused of intentional
deception. Dr. Douglas, in the year 1750, published a letter to the
earl of Bath, entitled, Milton vindicated from the charge of
plagiarism brought against him by Mr. Lauder. In this masterly
letter, after exposing the gross impositions and forgeries of
Lauder, he thus adverts to the author of the preface and postscript.
"It is to be hoped, nay, it is _expected_, that the elegant and
nervous writer, whose judicious sentiments, and inimitable style,
point out the author of Lauder's preface and postscript, will no
longer allow one to plume himself with his feathers, who appears so
little to have deserved his assistance; an assistance which, I am
persuaded, would never have been communicated, had there been the
least suspicion of those facts, which I have been the instrument of
conveying to the world in these sheets." p. 77. 8vo. 1751.

In Boswell's Life, i. 209, ed. 1816, Mr. Boswell thus writes, in a
note: "His lordship (Dr. Douglas, then bishop of Salisbury) has been
pleased now to authorise me to say, in the strongest manner, that
there is no ground whatever for any unfavourable reflection against
Dr. Johnson, who expressed the strongest indignation against
Lauder."--Ed.

[2] Essay upon the civil wars of France, and also upon the epick poetry
of the European nations, from Homer down to Milton, 8vo. 1727,
p. 103.

[3] Preface to a review of the text of the twelve books of Milton's
Paradise Lost, in which the chief of Dr. Bentley's emendations are
considered, 8vo. 1733.

[4] New memoirs of Mr. John Milton, by Francis Peck. 4to. 1740. p. 52.

A LETTER
TO THE REVEREND MR. DOUGLAS,
OCCASIONED BY HIS
VINDICATION OF MILTON.

To which are subjoined several curious original letters from the authors
of the Universal History, Mr. Ainsworth, Mr. Mac-Laurin, &c.

BY WILLIAM LAUDER, A.M.

_Quem paenitet peccasse pene est innocens._ SENECA.
_Corpora magnanimo satis est prostrasse Leoni:
Pugna suum finem, quum jacet hostis, habet._ OVID.
--_Praetuli clementiam
Juris rigori_.-- GROTII Adamus Exul.

FIRST PRINTED THE YEAR 1751.

PREFATORY OBSERVATIONS.

Dr. Johnson no sooner discovered the iniquitous conduct and designs of
Lauder, than he compelled him to confess and recant, in the following
letter to the reve