DR. JOHNSON AND DR. DODD.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1336, 13 January 1912, Page 9

DR. JOHNSON AND DR. DODD.

"Dodd, William, 1729-1777, forger," is a frank entry in tlio "Dictionary of I\*atioual Biography." Like Becky Sharp, writes 11. C. Diron in the "National lieview," lie would have found it comparatively easy to' bo good on J25000 a year, lint in an evil moment the fashionable living of SI. George's, Hanover Square, said to liavo been worth =21500 a year, became vacant. The wife of the Lord Chancellor received an anonymous letter offering her ,£3OOO and an annuity of J.'!jOQ a '-car for the preferment. The letter was i l :ed to Dodd, and he was struck oft' ; list of royal chaplains. He had been p iching to the fashionable world in a t ' tl which lie had built with his wife's » ?y, part of it the winnings in a lotto, . But this was the beginning of the eri. Even now, all might have been well bu, I for his debts. The chapel was sold; in \lao language of a contemporary, Dodd eveiti "descended so low as to become tho editor of a newsoaper"; and the fatal step soon followed. Dodd was convicted of forgery. Only one question was left; could the unfortunate man's life be saved?

It was no less a person than Caroline, daughter of tho Duke of Grafton and wife of tho Earl of Harrington, who enlisted Dr. Johnson on the prisoner's behalf. To Ik sure, the doctor's philosophy was against his taking any interest in the case. Tie has explained that, in reference to feeling the" distresses of others, "there was much noise made about it. but it was much exaggerated," and that "no one ate a slice of plum pudding the less because a friend was hanged." But tho doctor as ( a philosopher, comments Mr. Biron. always reminds one of his friend Mr. Edwards, who "set out to be a'philosopher, but cheerfulness kept breaking in." Johnson, at all events, read the Countess's letter, was very much agitated by it. and said. "1 will do what I can."

This lie (lid. He wrote the speech which Dodtl delivered before sentence of death was passed, the sermon which ho delivered in Newgate Chapel to his fel-low-convicts, and "Dr. Dodd's Last Solemn Declaration," which was left with the sheriff at the placo of execution. In this last composition, Dodd ventured to make one alteration. .Tohnson had written, "My life for some few unhappy years past has been dreadfully hypocritical." The last word Dodd changed to "erroneous." He was also candid enough to protest to his pious friends when they attempted to console him by telling him that ho was leaving "a wretched world." "No, no," he declared, "it has been a very agreeable world to me." "Upon which Johnson quaintly comments: —"I respect Dodd for thus speaking the truth, for to be snro lio had for several years enjoyed a life of great voluptuousness."

All efforts, however, were in vain, and Dodd. paid the penalty for his indiscre t.ion on the scaffold. It was after Dodd's death that Johnson appeared in an attitude that is not without its lesson for a later day. In Mr. Biron's words: When all was oyer there was a reaction in Dodd's favour) and in certain and feminino quarters a tendency to place the poor man on a pedestal ho little deserved, but Dr. Johnson, who had worked so loyally to save him, showed his usual sound sense. "A friend of mine," he Eaye, "oamo to mo and told mo that a lady wished to have Dr. Dodd's picture in a bracelet, and n=ked mo for a motto. I said t could' think of no better than currat lex. I was very willing to havo him pardoned, thai is. to have tho sentence changed to transportation, but when he was once hanged I did not wish he should be mado a saint."