and therefore they are not property.  ’Yet, (said he,) we hang a man for stealing a horse, and horses are not taxed.’  Mr. Pitt has since put an end to that argument[147].

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18.

On this day we set out from Edinburgh.  We should gladly have had Mr. Scott to go with us; but he was obliged to return to England.—­I have given a sketch of Dr. Johnson:  my readers may wish to know a little of his fellow traveller[148].  Think then, of a gentleman of ancient blood, the pride of which was his predominant passion.  He was then in his thirty-third year, and had been about four years happily married.  His inclination was to be a soldier[149]; but his father, a respectable[150] Judge, had pressed him into the profession of the law.  He had travelled a good deal, and seen many varieties of human life.  He had thought more than any body supposed, and had a pretty good stock of general learning and knowledge[151].  He had all Dr. Johnson’s principles, with some degree of relaxation.  He had rather too little, than too much prudence; and, his imagination being lively, he often said things of which the effect was very different from the intention[152].  He resembled sometimes

     ‘The best good man, with the worst natur’d muse[153].’

He cannot deny himself the vanity of finishing with the encomium of Dr. Johnson, whose friendly partiality to the companion of his Tour represents him as one ’whose acuteness would help my enquiry, and whose gaiety of conversation, and civility of manners, are sufficient to counteract the inconveniences of travel, in countries less hospitable than we have passed[154].’  Dr. Johnson thought it unnecessary to put himself to the additional expence of bringing with him Francis Barber, his faithful black servant; so we were attended only by my man, Joseph Ritter, a Bohemian; a fine stately fellow above six feet high, who had been over a great part of Europe, and spoke many languages.  He was the best servant I ever saw.  Let not my readers disdain his introduction!  For Dr. Johnson gave him this character:  ’Sir, he is a civil man, and a wise man[155].’

From an erroneous apprehension of violence, Dr. Johnson had provided a pair of pistols, some gunpowder, and a quantity of bullets:  but upon being assured we should run no risk of meeting any robbers, he left his arms and ammunition in an open drawer, of which he gave my wife the charge.  He also left in that drawer one volume of a pretty full and curious Diary of his Life, of which I have a few fragments; but the book has been destroyed.  I wish female curiosity had been strong enough to have had it all transcribed; which might easily have been done; and I should think the theft, being pro bono publico, might have been forgiven.  But I may be wrong.  My wife told me she never once looked into it[156].—­She did not seem quite easy when we left her:  but away we went!