Life of Johnson, Volume 1

James Boswell · Biography composed and written during Boswell’s lifetime (Life of Johnson covering Johnson’s life, as documented in the volumes).

passage 212 of 440 · Letter in the General Advertiser to excite the attention of the Publick to the Performance of Comus, which was next day to be acted at > Part of a Review of Grainger's 'Sugar Cane, a Poem,' in the London (189/295)

in brief

Continuing the 1763 journey, Boswell describes Colchester and a Dutchman’s complaint about torture, while Johnson argues that torture in Holland functions only where evidence is strong—giving accused people a better chance than in England.

[Page 467: Torture in Holland. Ætat 54.]

Having stopped a night at Colchester[1370], Johnson talked of that town with veneration, for having stood a siege for Charles the First. The Dutchman alone now remained with us. He spoke English tolerably well; and thinking to recommend himself to us by expatiating on the superiority of the criminal jurisprudence of this country over that of Holland, he inveighed against the barbarity of putting an accused person to the torture, in order to force a confession[1371]. But Johnson was as ready for this, as for the Inquisition. 'Why, Sir, you do not, I find, understand the law of your own country. The torture in Holland is considered as a favour to an accused person; for no man is put to the torture there, unless there is as much evidence against him as would amount to conviction in England. An accused person among you, therefore, has one chance more to escape punishment, than those who are tried among us.'

[Page 468: Johnson's relish for good eating. A.D. 1763.]

[Page 469: A critick of cookery. Ætat 54.]

[Page 470: Studied behaviour. A.D. 1763.]

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topics: crime and punishment · justice as a virtue

Life of Johnson, Volume 1 · James Boswell · 1780–1791