, entitled _Doubts on the
Abolition of the Slave Trade_. To Mr. Ranby's _Doubts_ I will apply Lord
Chancellor Hardwicke's expression in praise of a Scotch Law Book, called
_Dirletons Doubts_; HIS _Doubts_, (said his Lordship,) are better than
most people's _Certainties_[581].
When I said now to Johnson, that I was afraid I kept him too late up.
'No, Sir, (said he,) I don't care though I sit all night with you[582].'
This was an animated speech from a man in his sixty-ninth year.
Had I been as attentive not to displease him as I ought to have been, I
know not but this vigil might have been fulfilled; but I unluckily
entered upon the controversy concerning the right of Great-Britain to
tax America, and attempted to argue in favour of our fellow-subjects on
the other side of the Atlantick[583]. I insisted that America might be
very well governed, and made to yield sufficient revenue by the means of
_influence_[584], as exemplified in Ireland, while the people might be
pleased with the imagination of their participating of the British
constitution, by having a body of representatives, without whose consent
money could not be exacted from them.
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