Dr. Johnson and the Public Ledger: A Small Addition
to the Canon
by
Gwin J. Kolb
In an article published a number of years ago,[1] Professor E. L. McAdam, Jr. demonstrated Dr. Johnson's authorship
of the three "Weekly Correspondent" essays in the Public Ledger for
December 2, 9, and 16, 1760, and suggested at the same time that Johnson "corrected and
revised, if he did not write, the preliminary address to the public" (p. 204) which was
printed in the first number (January 12, 1760) of the paper. Although to my knowledge no one
has previously noted the fact, a much shorter notice regarding the Ledger appeared in the Universal Chronicle, and Westminster
Journal
[2] for January 5-12, 1760 (No. 93);
and I believe, largely but not solely on the basis of similarities in thought and style, that
Johnson was also the author of this piece. Since files of the Universal
Chronicle are very rare,[3]
and since knowledge of the context is necessary to a full understanding of the part I
attribute to Johnson, I include herewith the complete text of the advertisement in which the
three, one-sentence paragraphs appear.
This Day is published
And delivered
Gratis,
Number I, of a New Paper, entitled,
The PUBLIC LEDGER,
or
Daily Register of Commerce and Intelligence;
Containing a judicious and accurate Arrangement of the most Early and Authentic News,
besides many other Articles that are very essential, and even of great Importance to all
those who are engaged in Trade and Commerce, or otherwise interested in Public Affairs,
either Political or Literary.
Printed for W. Bristow, Publisher, next the great Toy-Shop, in St. Paul's Church Yard, London.
To the PUBLIC.
Though what is already said may be sufficient to explain so much of our Scheme as is at
present necessary to be known, yet Custom has
established a kind of Law,
that he who sollicits the public Favour should lay before the Public his Pretensions, that
they may know on what Terms they are to receive him into their Service; and the Pretensions
and Promises made on these Occasions have often been so complex or extensive, as not to be
fulfilled even with the utmost Skill and Assiduity.
This perhaps may be suspected of the Paper here proposed; for the Public has a Right to
suspect, and to be satisfied; but the Projectors have also a Right to propose, and to be
heard: Where the Benefit is reciprocal, and a Man serves others with an equal Advantage to
himself, the Obligation is equal; but if he conveys more Benefit than he receives, he has
Merit to plead in his Favour, and is not only entitled to Attention, but to
Encouragement.
This Attention the Proprietors of the above Paper claim, and some Encouragement they hope
for; as their Scheme, they apprehend, is not only new, but of a Nature more generally useful
to Mankind than any Publication which has hitherto been offered: For a particular Explanation
of it, however, they refer the Reader to the first Paper, which will be delivered Gratis at the Place above-mentioned.
External evidence supporting the attribution consists, briefly, of (1) the fact that a short
time before January, 1760 Johnson had written a similar, one-paragraph notice "To the Public"
in the advertisement (October 3, 1759) for John Newbery's World
Displayed as well as the introduction (December 1, 1759) to that work;[4] and (2) the assumption that, as most
writers have declared and as an examination of the advertisements suggests,[5] Newbery, the publisher of the Public Ledger, was also one of the proprietors of the Universal Chronicle, in which both the Idler and other pieces by
Johnson were printed.[6] No. 92 of
the Idler, for instance, appeared in the same number of the Chronicle as that in which the notice I attribute to Johnson was
published.
Turning to the notice itself, I believe I detect in each of the sentences
the genuine Johnsonian hallmark. Specifically, it is difficult to believe that Johnson did not
write "for the Public has a Right to suspect, and to be satisfied; but the Projectors have
also a Right to propose, and to be heard"; "if he conveys more Benefit than he receives, he
has Merit to plead in his Favour, and is not only entitled to Attention, but to
Encouragement"; and "as their Scheme, they apprehend, is not only new, but of a Nature more
generally useful to Mankind than any Publication which has hitherto been offered."
Moreover, the striking resemblances between parts of the notice (especially the first half
of the first sentence) and passages in several other pieces by Johnson, both earlier and later
than 1760, afford fairly solid evidence, I think, for giving the notice a small place in the
Johnsonian canon. For example, in the Introduction to the Harleian
Miscellany (1744), Johnson began, "Though the Scheme . . . is so obvious, that the Title alone is sufficient to
explain it . . . ." In the Proposals for the Publisher (1744), he
wrote, "Such is the Design which the Publick is now solicited to favour." In the Rambler, No.
1 (1750), he remarked, "If a man could glide imperceptibly into the favour
of the public and only proclaim his pretensions . . . when he is
sure of not being rejected"; and in the Rambler, No. 40 (1750) he used
the phrase "skill and assiduity." In the Preface to the Catalogue of the Society of Artists (1762), he declared, "The public may justly require to be inform'd of the nature and extent of every
design, for which the favour of the public is
openly solicited." And in the address "To the Public" concerning the
Literary Magazine (1756), he wrote, in the closest parallel I have
found, "There are some Practices which custom and prejudice have so
unhappily influenced, that to observe or neglect them is equally censurable. The promises made by the Undertakers of any new Design, every Man thinks
himself at liberty to deride, and yet every Man expects, and expects
with reason, that he who solicits the Public Attention should give some
account of his pretensions."[7]
Finally, in spite of the caveat about deducing the authorship of a
given piece from another work whose attribution is itself uncertain, it can still be pointed
out that (1) the explicit reference at the end of the notice to the "particular Explanation"
which Mr. McAdam attributes (rightly, I think), in whole or part, to Johnson, provides at
least slight evidence for Johnson's authorship of the notice; that (2) the concluding words of
the "preliminary address"—"a clear Title to the Favour and Esteem
of the Public, which is what we are most sollicitous to deserve"[8]—are somewhat similar to the opening of the first sentence in the notice;
and that (3) the text of the
"preliminary address" itself appeared in the
three numbers of the
Chronicle for January 26-February 2, February 2-9,
and February 9-16, 1760.
[9] On the
other hand, of course, acceptance of the attribution of the notice lends additional weight to
Mr. McAdam's suggestion regarding the authorship of the "preliminary address."
Notes