were to send out circular letters. "Several of us" writes Boswell "subscribed five guineas each; Sir Joshua and Metcalfe ten guineas each; Courtenay and young Burke two guineas each. Will you not be one of us, were it but for one guinea" is his plaintive appeal to Temple. The delay in its erection had become a scandal. Subscriptions had not poured in on a flood tide and the members of the committee were split into two factions over the selection of the ecclesiastical edifice in which it should be placed.
Further particulars are set out in an article, based on the papers of sir Joseph Banks, now at Sydney, by Prof. Edward E. Morris in Longman's Magazine for May 1900, and in the balance sheet of Metcalfe which was kindly communicated to me by the late Mr. R. J. Mure of Lincoln's Inn. A meeting of Johnson's friends was held at Thomas's hotel, then in Dover Street, on 5 January 1790 and it was resolved to continue with the scheme for erecting a monument in Westminster Abbey to his memory. Six hundred pounds were necessary but only a third had been subscribed. The surviving executors, with Banks, Windham, Burke, Malone, Metcalfe and Boswell were appointed a committee to collect the funds.
The committee met twice in March 1791 and a fierce warfare took place between the rival merits of the Abbey and St. Paul's. Burke and Sir Joshua were for St. Paul's and Windham, although originally against it, wrote that on reconsideration he did not see why that building should not be selected. Metcalfe was in favour of the Abbey and Banks vehemently argued for its selection. Malone was asked by letter for his opinion. Next month the committee met again. Reynolds, who for years had been in favour of ornamenting St. Paul's with statues to the illustrious dead, undertook, if sufficient money was not subscribed to defray
