ug,
sir." "A what?" said Mr. Winkle, starting. "A humbug, sir, I will speak
plainer if you wish it--an impostor, sir." With these words Mr. Pickwick
turned slowly on his heel and rejoined his friends. Was not this exactly
the Sage's treatment of his "Bozzy" on many occasions?

There is yet another odd coincidence. Everyone knows how Bob Sawyer's
party was disturbed by Mrs. Raddle's angry expostulations, and the guests
had to disperse. Well, Mr. Boswell, who had much of the Sawyer tone--gave
a party at his rooms in Downing Street, and his landlord behaved so
outrageously, that he gave him notice, and the next day quitted his
rooms. "I feel I shall have to give my landlady notice," said Mr. Sawyer
with a ghastly smile. Mr. Boswell had actually to take some of the
invited guests to the Mitre and entertain them there.

There is a pleasant passage connected with Dr. Johnson's visit to
Plymouth, with his old friend Sir Joshua. He was much pleased with this
jaunt and declared he had derived from it a great accession of new ideas
. . . "The magnificence of the Navy the ship building and all its
circumstances afforded him a grand subject of contemplation." He
contemplated it in fact, as Mr. Pickwick contemplated Chatham and the
Medway. The commissioner of the dockyard paid him the compliment, etc.
The characteristic part, however, was that the Doctor entered
enthusiastically into the local politics. "There was a new town rising
up round the dockyard, as a rival to the old one, and knowing from the
sagacity and just observation of human nature, that it is certain if a
man hates at all, he will hate his next neighbour, he concluded that this
new and rising town could but excite the envy and jealousy of the old. He
therefore set himself resolutely on the side of the old town, the
_established_ town in which he was. Considering it a kind of duty to
_stand_ by it. He accordingly entered warmly into its interests, and
upon every occasion talked of _the Dockers_ as "upstarts and aliens." As
they wanted to be supplied with water from the old town, not having a
drop themselves, Johnson affecting to entertain the passions of the
place, was violent in opposition; and half laughing at himself for his
pretended zeal, and where he had no concern, exclaimed: "No! I am
against the _Dockers_; I am a Plymouth man. Rogues! let them die of
thirst; they shall not have a drop. I _hate_ a Docker!"

Now all this is very like what t