in Warwick-lane."]

[Footnote 48: This year was made remarkable by the dissolution of a
marriage solemnized in the face of the church. Salmon's Review.

The following protest is registered in the books of the house of lords:

Dissentient: Because we conceive that this is the first bill of that
nature that hath passed, where there was not a divorce first obtained in
the spiritual court; which we look upon as an ill precedent, and may be
of dangerous consequence in the future. HALIFAX. ROCHESTER.]

[Footnote 49: See Mr. Boswell's doubts on this head; and the point,
fully discussed by Malone, and Bindley in the notes to Boswell. Edit.
1816. i. 150, 151. ED.]

[Footnote 50: On this circumstance, Boswell founds one of his strongest
arguments against Savage's being the son of lady Macclesfield. "If there
was such a legacy left," says Boswell, "his not being able to obtain
payment of it, must be imputed to his consciousness that he was not the
real person. The just inference should be, that, by the death of lady
Macclesfield's child before its godmother, the legacy became lapsed;
and, therefore, that Johnson's Savage was an impostor. If he had a title
to the legacy, he could not have found any difficulty in recovering it;
for had the executors resisted his claim, the whole costs, as well as
the legacy, must have been paid by them, if he had been the child to
whom it was given." With respect for the legal memory of Boswell, we
would venture to urge, that the forma pauperis is not the most available
mode of addressing an English court; and, therefore, Johnson is not
clearly proved wrong by the above argument brought against him. ED.]

[Footnote 51: He died August 18th, 1712 R.]

[Footnote 52: Savage's preface to his Miscellany.]

[Footnote 53: Savage's preface to his Miscellany.]

[Footnote 54: See the Plain Dealer.]

[Footnote 55: The title of this poem was the Convocation, or a Battle of
Pamphlets, 1717. J. B.]

[Footnote 56: Jacob's Lives of the Dramatick Poets. Dr. J.]

[Footnote 57: This play was printed first in 8vo.; and afterwards in
12mo. the fifth edition. Dr. J.]

[Footnote 58: Plain Dealer, Dr. J.]

[Footnote 59: As it is a loss to mankind when any good action is
forgotten, I shall insert another instance of Mr. Wilks's generosity,
very little known. Mr. Smith, a gentleman educated at Dublin, being
hindered by an impediment in his pronunciation from engaging in orders,
for which his friends designed h