SAM. JOHNSON."
The paper alluded to, besides specifying some parts written by other persons, assigns the following divisions of the history to Mr Swinton himself. "The history of the Carthaginians, Numidians, Mauritanians, Gætulians, Garamantes, Melano-Gætulians, Nigritæ, Cyrenaica, Marmarica, the Regio Syrtica, Turks, Tartars, and Moguls, Indians, and Chinese, a dissertation on the peopling of America, and one on the independency of the Arabs.
In the year 1740, Mr Swinton was involved in a law suit, in consequence of a letter he had published.
* The Chambers, or Evening Advertiser, June 17th 1740. It appears from a paper of the time*, that a letter from the Rev. Mr Swinton, highly reflecting on Mr George Baker, having fallen into the hands of the latter, the court of King's Bench made the rule absolute for an information against Mr Swinton. These two gentlemen were also engaged for some time in a con-
trovertly at Oxford; which took its rise from a matter relative to Dr Phillettiwaite, some time warden of Wadham, which then attracted much attention. Mr Swinton had the manners, and some of the peculiarities, often seen in very recluse scholars, which gave rise to many whimsical stories. Among the rest, there is one mentioned by Mr Boswell, in the Life of Johnson, as having happened in the year 1754. Johnson was then on a visit in the university of Oxford. "About this time (he says) there had been an execution of two or three criminals at Oxford, on a Monday. Soon afterwards, one day at dinner, I was saying that Mr Swinton, the chaplain of the gaol, and also a frequent preacher before the university, a learned man, but often thoughtless and abient, preached the condemnation sermon on repentance, before the convicts, on the preceding day, Sunday; and that, in the close, he told his audience, that he should give them the remainder of what he had to say on the subject the next Lord's day. Upon which, one of our company, a doctor of divinity, and a plain matter-of-fact man, by way of offering an apology for Mr Swinton, gravely remarked, that he had probably preached the same sermon before the university. Yes, Sir (says Johnson); but the university were not to be hanged the next morning!"