148 LEAVES THEY HAVE TOUCHED. 



Falkland Islands, one of each to be bound together in half-binding. 

 Let it be done as soon as it can." 



In a conversation between Boswell and Johnson, given in chapter 

 V. of the " Life," these pamphlets are spoken of together in immediate 

 association. "We talked," Boswell says, "of his two political 

 pamphlets, the ' False Alarm,' and ' Thoughts concerning Falkland's 

 Islands.' " Johnson : " Well, Sir, which of them did you think the 

 best "2" Boswell : "I liked the second best." Johnson: "Why, 

 Sir, I liked the first best ; and Beattie liked the first best. Sir, there 

 is a subtlety of disquisition in the first that is worth all the fire of 

 the second." Boswell : "Pray, Sir, is it true that Lord North paid 

 you a visit, and that you got two hundred a year in addition to your 

 pension V' Johnson : " No, Sir. Except what I had from the book- 

 seller, I did not get a farthing by them. And between you and me, 

 I believe Lord North is no friend to me." Boswell : " How so, 

 Sir." Johnson : " Why, Sir, you cannot account for the fancies' of 

 men." 



Mrs. Piozzi, in her Reminiscences of Johnson, remarks of the 

 " False Alarm :" " This, his first and favourite pamphlet, was written 

 at our house between eight o'clock on Wednesday night and twelve 

 o'clock on Thursday night. We read it to Mr. Thrale, when he 

 came home very late from the House of Commons." 



The "False Alarm" was connected with the repeated expulsion of 

 Wilkes from the House, it seeming to be implied by that action of 

 the majority, that one expulsion was equivalent to total exclusion. 

 The rejoinder which appeared to the " False Alarm" was supposed to 

 be from the pen of .Wilkes himself. "The Thoughts concerning 

 Falkland's Island" had reference to a threatened war with Spain, 

 arising out of the occupation by England of the island or islands 

 named, off the south coast of Patagonia. (2.) Accompanying my 

 relic of Johnson is a transcription of a letter of Johnson's in the 

 handwriting of Malone, the editor of several successive issues of 

 Boswell's Life of Johnson. (3.) My Johnsonian memorial circle is, 

 rounded oflf by a copy of Hamilton, Balfour and Neill's beautiful 

 edition (Edinburg, 1758) of Terence, which has the autograph of 

 Wilkes inscribed on its title-page. 



(4.) A note in the handwriting of Sir Walter Scott, while yet 

 " Walter Scott, Esq., Advocate." It is a frank permission sent to a 

 musical composer to set some of his poetry to music, and to dedicate 



