the author, and the only surviving branch of his family. _Nota bene_,
there will be a new prologue on the occasion, written by the author of
Irene, and spoken by Mr. Garrick." The man, who had thus exerted himself
to serve the granddaughter, cannot be supposed to have entertained
personal malice to the grandfather. It is true, that the malevolence of
Lauder, as well as the impostures of Archibald Bower, were fully
detected by the labours, in the cause of truth, of the reverend Dr.
Douglas, the late lord bishop of Salisbury,

--"Diram qui contudit Hydram
Notaque fatali portenta labore subegit."

But the pamphlet, entitled, Milton vindicated from the Charge
of Plagiarism brought against him by Mr. Lauder, and Lauder himself
convicted of several forgeries, and gross impositions on the public, by
John Douglas, M.A. rector of Eaton Constantine, Salop, was not published
till the year 1751. In that work, p. 77, Dr. Douglas says, "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 postcript, will no longer allow a man 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." We have here a
contemporary testimony to the integrity of Dr. Johnson, throughout the
whole of that vile transaction. What was the consequence of the
requisition made by Dr. Douglas? Johnson, whose ruling passion may be
said to be the love of truth, convinced Lauder, that it would be more
for his interest to make a full confession of his guilt, than to stand
forth the convicted champion of a lie; and, for this purpose, he drew
up, in the strongest terms, a recantation, in a letter to the reverend
Mr. Douglas, which Lauder signed, and published in the year 1751. That
piece will remain a lasting memorial of the abhorrence, with which
Johnson beheld a violation of truth. Mr. Nichols, whose attachment to
his illustrious friend was unwearied, showed him, in 1780, a book,
called Remarks on Johnson's Life of Milton; in which the affair of
Lauder was renewed with virulence; and a poetical scale in the Literary
Magazine, 1758, (when Johnson had ceased to write in that collection,)
was urged as an additional proof of deliberate ma