"_2d Soldier._ Right, Jack, we'll _argue in platoons_."

Notwithstanding the great success of his first attempts in the drama, we
find politics this year renewing its claims upon his attention, and
tempting him to enter into the lists with no less an antagonist than Dr.
Johnson. That eminent man had just published his pamphlet on the
American question, entitled "Taxation no Tyranny;"--a work whose pompous
sarcasms on the Congress of Philadelphia, when compared with what has
happened since, dwindle into puerilities, and show what straws upon the
great tide of events are even the mightiest intellects of this world.
Some notes and fragments, found among the papers of Mr. Sheridan, prove
that he had it in contemplation to answer this pamphlet; and, however
inferior he might have been in style to his practised adversary, he
would at least have had the advantage of a good cause, and of those
durable materials of truth and justice, which outlive the mere
workmanship, however splendid, of talent. Such arguments as the
following, which Johnson did not scruple to use, are, by the haughtiness
of their tone and thought, only fit for the lips of autocrats:--

"When they apply to our compassion, by telling us that they are to be
carried from their own country to be tried for certain offences, we are
not so ready to pity them, as to advise them not to offend. While they
are innocent, they are safe.

"If they are condemned unheard, it is because there is no need of a
trial. The crime is manifest and notorious," &c. &c.

It appears from the fragments of the projected answer, that Johnson's
pension was one of the points upon which Mr. Sheridan intended to assail