rds communicated to me, and I
composed the speeches in the form which they now have in the
parliamentary debates." To this discovery, Dr. Francis made answer:
"Then, sir, you have exceeded Demosthenes himself; for to say, that you
have exceeded Francis's Demosthenes, would be saying nothing." The rest
of the company bestowed lavish encomiums on Johnson: one, in particular,
praised his impartiality; observing, that he dealt out reason and
eloquence, with an equal hand to both parties. "That is not quite true,"
said Johnson; "I saved appearances tolerably well; but I took care that
the WHIG DOGS should not have the best of it." The sale of the magazine
was greatly increased by the parliamentary debates, which were continued
by Johnson till the month of March, 1742-3. From that time the magazine
was conducted by Dr. Hawkesworth.

In 1743-4, Osborne, the bookseller, who kept a shop in Gray's inn,
purchased the earl of Oxford's library, at the price of thirteen
thousand pounds. He projected a catalogue in five octavo volumes, at
five shillings each. Johnson was employed in that painful drudgery. He
was, likewise, to collect all such small tracts as were, in any degree,
worth preserving, in order to reprint and publish the whole in a
collection, called The Harleian Miscellany. The catalogue was completed;
and the miscellany, in 1749, was published in eight quarto volumes. In
this business Johnson was a day-labourer for immediate subsistence, not
unlike Gustavus Vasa, working in the mines of Dalecarlia. What Wilcox, a
bookseller of eminence in the Strand, said to Johnson, on his first
arrival in town, was now almost confirmed. He lent our author five
guineas, and then asked him, "How do you mean to earn your livelihood in
this town?" "By my literary labours," was the answer. Wilcox, staring at
him, shook his head: "By your literary labours! You had better buy a
porter's knot." Johnson used to tell this anecdote to Mr. Nichols: but
he said, "Wilcox was one of my best friends, and he meant well." In
fact, Johnson, while employed in Gray's inn, may be said to have carried
a porter's knot. He paused occasionally to peruse the book that came to
his hand. Osborne thought that such curiosity tended to nothing but
delay, and objected to it with all the pride and insolence of a man who
knew that he paid daily wages. In the dispute that of course ensued,
Osborne, with that roughness which was natural to him, enforced his
argument by giv