Charles Johnstone, novelist, descended from branch of the Johnstones of Annandale, Dumfriesshire, born at Carrigogunnel in the county of Limerick about 1719, was educated in the university of Dublin, where, however, he does not appear to have taken a degree. He was called to the bar, but extreme deafness prevented his practice except as a chamber lawyer, and not succeeding in that branch of the profession, he had recourse to literature for his support. His chief work, entitled “Chrysal, or the Adventures of a Guinea,” and frequently reprinted, appeared in 4 vols., London, 1760–5. The first and second volumes had been written during a visit to the Earl of Mount-Edgcumbe in Devonshire. The book pretended to reveal political secrets, and to expose the profligacy of well-known public characters. It soon attracted attention as “the best scandalous chronicle of the day.” In May 1782 Johnstone sailed for India, and very narrowly escaped death by shipwreck on the voyage. He found employment in writing for the Bengal newspaper press, under the signature of “Oneiropolos.” He became in time joint proprietor of a journal, and is said to have acquired considerable property. He died at Calcutta about 1800. Johnstone was also the author of 1. “The Reverie, or a Flight to the Paradise of Fools,” 2 vols. London, 1762. 2. “The History of Arbases, Prince of Betlis,” 2 vols. 1774. 3. “The Pilgrim, or a Picture of Life,” 2 vols. 1775. 4. “History of John Juniper, Esq., alias Juniper Jack,” 3 vols. 1781.

General

  His talents were of a lively and companionable sort, and as he was much abroad in the world, he had already, in his youth, kept such general society with men of all descriptions, as enabled him to trace their vices and follies with a pencil so powerful…. His language is firm and energetic—his power of personifying character striking and forcible, and the persons of his narrative move, breathe, and speak, in all the freshness of life. His sentiments are, in general, those of the bold, high-minded, and indignant censor of a loose and corrupted age…. Feeling and writing under the popular impression of the moment, Johnstone has never failed to feel and write like a true Briton, with a sincere admiration of his country’s laws, an ardent desire for her prosperity, and a sympathy with her interests, which more than atone for every error and prejudice.

  As Dr. Johnson—to whom the manuscript was shewn by the bookseller—advised the publication of the “Adventures of a Guinea,” and as it experienced considerable success, the novel may be presumed to have possessed superior merit. It exhibits a variety of incidents, related in the style of Le Sage and Smollett, but the satirical portraits are overcharged, and the author, like Juvenal, was too fond of lashing and exaggerating the vices of his age.

  A depraved mind only could find any pleasure in reading “Chrysal,” and whoever is obliged to read it from cover to cover for the purpose of describing it to others, must find himself, at the end of his task, in sore vexation of spirit. Human depravity is never an agreeable subject for a work of entertainment, and while Swift’s genius holds the reader fascinated with the horror of his Yahoos, the ability of a Manley or a Johnstone is not sufficient to aid the reader in wading through their vicious expositions of corruption. It must be said that Johnstone had some excuse. If he were to satirize society at all, it was better that he should do it thoroughly; that he should expose official greed and dishonesty, the orgies of Medenham Abbey, the infamous extortions of trading justices, in all their native ugliness. It must be said that the time in which he lived presented many features to the painter of manners which could not look otherwise than repulsive on his canvas. But his zeal to expose the vices of his age led him into doing great injustice to some persons, and into grossly libelling others. He imputed crimes to individuals of which he could have had no knowledge; and he shamefully misrepresented the Methodists and the Jews. If Johnstone had wished to see how offensive a book he might write, and how disgusting and indecent a book the public of his day would read and applaud, he might well have brought “Chrysal” into the world. If he had intended, by exposing crime, to check it, he had better have burned his manuscript. He has added one other corruption to those he exposed, and one other evidence of the lack of taste and decency which characterized his time.

  This savage and gloomy book, which, perhaps, took its form from a reminiscence of Addison’s “Adventures of a Shilling,” in the Tatler, was a very clever following of Smollett in his most satiric mood.