early parliamentary reporting that appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine and in its rival, the London Magazine, must be dis missed as having little or no historic value, however great its biographical value may be. That Samuel Johnson's reports “ should have so long passed current shews how unacquainted
people were at that timewith real debating.” 17 But it was not only that the reports were often figments of the reporters' imagin ation that make them untrustworthy, - many specific charges against them must discredit them . Samuel Johnson himself knew
nothing of debating, he wrote the reputed speeches equally well with or without notes, the reports were published months after the debates, they were published irregularly , several discussions
of the same subject might be thrown into one report,18 speeches were attributed to the wrong member , a debate in the House of Lords was reported at length , but condensed in the House of Commons " lest we should disgust our readers by tedious repeti tions,” 19 a debate in the time of Cromwell was eighty-four years later published in the Gentleman's Magazine,20 after it had been
“ abridged, modified and digested ” by Dr. Johnson , - an exam ination of the Gentleman's Magazine and of its rival the London
Magazine, especially from November, 1740, to November, 1743, when Dr. Johnson was writing the debates,21 is an experience fraught with mixed sensations.22 With the fervid eulogy of Dr. Johnson 's biographer all must agree :
“ The debates penned by Johnson were not only more method ical and better connected than those of Guthrie, but in all the
ornaments of stile superior; they were written at those seasons when he was able to raise his imagination to such a pitch of fervour as bordered upon enthusiasm , which , that he might the 17 Boswell's Johnson , edited by G . B . Hill, I, 586 . 18 Gentleman ' s Magazine, 1742, 12 : 676 . 19 Ib ., 1744 , 14 : 125 .
20 1741, 11: 93 – 100 , 148 - 154 .
1 An admirable comparison is given by M . Macdonagh , The Reporters' Gallery, chaps. XIV -XVIII. > G . B . Hill gives interesting parallel versions of the debates as reported
by Dr. Johnson and by other reporters for different periodicals. They are
scarcely more dissimilar than are the variations in some of the speeches made by Macaulay as reported in Hansard and as given in his collected works. - Boswell' s Johnson , I, Appendix A , pp.
