Johnson, he says,' owned to me that it had been revised and
curtailed by some of those who were then in power.' When Johnson writes
'when you print it, if you print it,' he uses, doubtless, _print_ in
the sense of _striking off copies_. The pamphlet was, we may assume, in
type before it was revised by 'those in power.' The corrections had been
made in the proof-sheets. Johnson asks to have six copies laid by for
him in the state in which he had wished to publish it. It seems that the
last paragraph had been struck out by the reviser, for Johnson says 'it
was rather contemptuous.' He does not think it needful to supply anything
in its place, for he says 'it concludes well enough as it is.'
Mr. Strahan had the right, as a member of Parliament, to frank all
letters and packets. That is to say, by merely writing his signature on
the cover he could pass them through the post free of charge. Johnson,
when he wrote to Scotland, used to employ him to frank his letters,
'that he might have the consequence of appearing a parliament-man among
his countrymen' (_ante_, iii. 364). It was to Oxford that a copy of the
pamphlet was to be franked to Johnson. That he was there at the time is
shown by a letter from him in Mrs. Piozzi's _Collection_ (vol. i. p.
212), dated 'University College, Oxford, March 3, 1775.' Writing to her,
evidently from Bolt Court, on February 3, he had said: 'My pamphlet has
not gone on at all' (ib.
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