I for many years solicited Johnson to favour me with a copy of it, that so excellent a composition might not be lost to posterity. He delayed from time to time to give it me; till at last, in 1781, when we were on a visit at Mr. Dilly's, at Southill in Bedfordshire, he was pleased to dictate it to me from memory. He afterwards found among his papers a copy of it, which he had dictated to Mr. Baretti, with its title and corrections in his own handwriting. This he gave to Mr. Langton; adding that if it were to come into print, he wished it to be from that copy. By Mr. Langton's kindness, I am enabled to enrich my work with a perfect transcript of what the world has so eagerly desired to see. It appears that, though he had at last succeeded in obtaining a copy from Johnson, he was willing to take the further trouble of getting Mr. Langton's copy, which was more likely to be absolutely accurate. Still more remarkable is the manner in which he discovered the facts about Johnson's pension: _Lord Bute told me_[3] that Mr. Wedderburne, now Lord Loughborough, was the person who first mentioned this subject to him. _Lord Loughborough told me_ that the pension was granted solely as a reward of his literary merit.... _Mr. Thomas Sheridan and Mr. Murphy_, who then lived a good deal both with him and Mr. Wedderburne, _told me_, that they previously talked with Johnson on this matter.... _Sir Joshua Reynolds told me_ that Johnson called on him. The mere number of names consulted is sufficiently imposing. Boswell in fact was collecting evidence for a case. He must examine all the witnesses: also he must examine them in such a way that the truth might be discovered. Mr. Murphy and the late Mr. Sheridan severally contended for the distinction of having been the first who mentioned to Mr. Wedderburne that Johnson ought to have a pension. _When I spoke of this to Lord Loughborough_, wishing to know if he recollected the prime mover in the business, _he said_: 'All his friends assisted,' and when I told him that Mr. Sheridan strenuously asserted his claim to it, his Lordship said: 'He rang the bell.' And it is but just to add, that _Mr. Sheridan told me_ that when he communicated to Dr. Johnson that a pension was to be granted him he replied in a fervour of gratitude.... _When I repeated this to Dr. Johnson he did not contradict it._ The profusion of information about this particular point may seem to us unnecessary--it is of course controversial, and the controversy has lost much of its interest. But it shows in any case not only the great number of questions Boswell was willing to ask in order to find out exactly what had taken place and the scale upon which his investigations were conducted, but also the minute and detailed care with which he preserved the truth.