The Gentleman's Magazine, begun and carried on by Mr. Edward Cave,
under the name of SYLVANUS URBAN, had attracted the notice and esteem of
Johnson, in an eminent degree, before he came to London as an adventurer
in literature. He told me, that when he first saw St. John's Gate, the
place where that deservedly popular miscellany was originally printed,
he 'beheld it with reverence.'

It appears that he was now enlisted by Mr. Cave as a regular coadjutor
in his magazine, by which he probably obtained a tolerable livelihood.
At what time, or by what means, he had acquired a competent knowledge
both of French and Italian, I do not know; but he was so well skilled in
them, as to be sufficiently qualified for a translator. That part of his
labour which consisted in emendation and improvement of the productions
of other contributors, like that employed in levelling ground, can be
perceived only by those who had an opportunity of comparing the original
with the altered copy. What we certainly know to have been done by him
in this way, was the Debates in both houses of Parliament, under the
name of 'The Senate of Lilliput,' sometimes with feigned denominations
of the several speakers, sometimes with denominations formed of the
letters of their real names, in the manner of what is called anagram, so
that they might easily be decyphered. Parliament then kept the press in
a kind of mysterious awe, which made it necessary to have recourse to
such devices. In our time it has acquired an unrestrained freedom, so
that the people in all parts of the kingdom have a fair, open, and
exact report of the actual proceedings of their representatives and
legislators, which in our constitution is highly to be valued; though,
unquestionably, there has of late been too much reason to complain of
the petulance with which obscure scribblers have presumed to treat men
of the most respectable character and situation.