March 1744, totaling around half a million words, are usually attributed to Johnson. Earlier and later debates are said to have been composed by others, perhaps with assistance or revision by Johnson, but there is no way of determining this. It used to be thought that they were entirely fictional compositions, but recent study shows, by comparing them with other extant reports, that their substance corresponds fairly well to what the speakers are supposed actually to have said, though the prose has undoubtedly been polished, as printed reports of parliamentary or congressional speeches still are. The quasi-official Parliamentary History, the predecessor of the official record, "Hansard," reprints them, and they are still sometimes quoted by historians unaware of Johnson's share in them as examples of the rhetorical ability of their supposed speakers. Johnson is once supposed to have said, "I took care not to let the Whig dogs have the best of it," but most of those who ranted against Walpole were also Whigs. In fact, a careful reading of the debates will show that the honors for effectiveness are fairly equally divided between Walpole's supporters and his enemies, and on one occasion, the great debate in the House of Commons on 13 February 1741, on a motion calling for the removal of Walpole from office, Walpole is given a masterly final speech in reply. Other topics than the conduct of the Walpole administration are the subjects of extended debate: the state of the armed forces, foreign affairs, trade, the control of the sale of spirits, "urban renewal" (a bill for paving the streets of ...
