Some credit is due to Bute for his patronage of literature. He pensioned Robertson, and John Home, the author of the play, "Douglas," which is now remembered only by the passage beginning "My name is Norval," and Mallet,[169] Murphy,[170] Macpherson,[171] Tobias Smollett and Dr. Johnson, to the last of whom it was stated specifically that the award was made, "not for anything you are to do, but for what you have done."[172] But if in some cases a pension was bestowed for merit, and for merit alone, these were the exception, for bribery was as much employed by Bute as it had been by Walpole, and once again the Paymaster's office was the _rendezvous_ for those Members of Parliament whose votes were for sale.[173] [169] David Mallet (1705?-1765), the author of some poems and tragedies, was for some time assistant-secretary to Frederick, Prince of Wales. [170] Arthur Murphy (1727-1805), the biographer of Garrick, and the editor of the works of Fielding and Johnson. [171] James Macpherson (1736-1796), the alleged translator of Ossianic poems. [172] "I have taken care to have it in my power to refute these malicious stories, from the most authentic information. Lord Bute told me that Mr. Wedderburn, afterwards Lord Loughborough, was the person who first mentioned this subject to him. Lord Loughborough told me that the pension was granted to Johnson solely as the reward of his literary merit, without any stipulation whatever, or even tacit understanding, that he should write for the Administration. His Lordship added that he was confident the political tracts which Johnson afterwards did write, as they were entirely consonant with his own opinions, would have been written by him though no pension had been granted to him."--Boswell: _Life of Samuel Johnson_. [173] The records contain the following entries: October, 1760, to October, 1761, to John, Earl of Bute, for his Majesty's Privy Purse, £48,000; for Secret Service during the same period, £95,000. October, 1761, to October, 1762, to John, Earl of Bute, for his Majesty's Privy Purse, £48,000; for Secret Service during the same period, £72,000. This, however, is but a tithe of what was spent when Bute was in power, and the additional expenditure was distributed under different headings in the accounts of the various departments of state.