Perth.
_Cibber's Lives of the Poets_ (Vol. v., pp. 25., 116.).--P. T. says that
"he has not Croker's _last_ edition of Boswell's _Life of Johnson_," to
which MR. CROSSLEY had referred him as to Shiells' share in Cibber's
_Lives_. He has printed "last" in Italics; but I see reason to suspect
that he has not seen _any_ of Mr. Croker's editions, nor even Boswell's
own; for the MS. note which he quotes from a fly-leaf of his (P. T.'s)
copy of the _Lives of the Poets_, is nothing but a verbal repetition of
what Boswell had stated on Dr. Johnson's authority in his text, but of
which he had added a refutation in a note; which note, with some
corroborative circumstances, was repeated in _both_ Mr. Croker's
editions.
There can be no doubt that Shiells misled Johnson, and that Johnson
misled Stevens, into the statement which P. T. has copied at some _third
or fourth hand_, after it had been twice or thrice refuted.
It is a little hard that your valuable space should be taken up by
gentlemen who will not even take the trouble of referring to the
authorities where you tell them that they will find an answer, and then
begin questioning again, as if you had not already settled the matter.