Part 13

In 1786 Boswell executed his Will, and it seems probable that “the apprehension of danger to his life”[81] to which in that document he refers was due to the menace of the Highland chief. If this conjecture is well founded, it is interesting to remark that Boswell especially provides that his own tenantry should in the matter of rent be treated with leniency.

In the preface to his third edition, issued in 1786, Boswell vigorously denounces his critics on both sides the Tweed. His Scottish compeers, he alleges, have displayed “a petty national spirit unworthy of his countrymen.” The English critics are styled “shallow and envious cavillers.” In opposition to their assertions that he has _lessened_ Dr. Johnson’s character, he maintains that he was assured by persons of taste that he had _greatly heightened_ it. He appeals to the judgment of posterity.

Elated by his popularity as a tourist, he determined to reassert his political pretensions. An opportunity for displaying patriotic ardour seasonably occurred. A Bill was introduced into the House of Commons by Mr. Islay Campbell, the Lord Advocate, and Mr. Dundas, Dean of Faculty, for reconstructing the Court of Session. By this Bill it was proposed to reduce the judges from fifteen to ten, and with the funds secured by the reduction to augment the salaries of those who remained. In opposition to this measure Boswell issued a pamphlet, sensationally entitled “A Letter to the People of Scotland on the alarming attempt to infringe the Articles of Union, and introduce a most pernicious innovation, by diminishing the number of the Lords of Session.” This composition, extending to 107 octavo pages, was published by Dilly, and sold for half a crown. There were few sales, but copies of the pamphlet were presented to the author’s friends.[82]

In his characteristic manner Boswell sets forth that the number of judges was fixed unalterably by the Act of Union, “an Act which, entering into the constitution of Parliament itself, Parliament dare not alter.” The number of fifteen was declared by George Buchanan to be small enough to avoid the character of a tyrannical junto.—“Is a court of ten,” he proceeds, “the same with a court of fifteen? Is a two-legged animal the same with a four-legged animal? I know nobody who will gravely defend that proposition, except one grotesque philosopher, whom ludicrous fable represents as going about avowing his hunger, and wagging his tail, fain to become cannibal and eat his deceased brethren.”[83] Lords of Session, he argues, do the work of English juries in civil cases, and exercise the functions of English Grand Juries. Mr. Dundas he denounces as “Harry the Ninth,” and Mr. Islay Campbell is censured, though less abusively. Boswell next introduces himself, and proceeds to expatiate on his personal merits. He had in his previous letter “kindled the fire of loyalty and saved the constitution.” He is “a true patriot,” and begs that he may not be misunderstood by associating with Mr. Wilkes, “he being so pleasant,” and an “old classical companion.” He declares himself a scholar and a gentleman—“a scholar,” as he is familiar with Latin authors; and a gentleman, “since his friends were persons of title and influence.” His wife, whom “he loved as dearly as when she gave him her hand,” is “a relation of Lord Eglinton, a true Montgomery.” The M.P. for Plymouth, Captain Macbride, is “the cousin of his wife, and the friend of his heart.” His intimate friend, Colonel Stuart, has “sterling good sense, information, discernment, honour, honesty, and spirit.” Lord Lowther is apostrophised thus:—

“Let not the Scottish spirit be bowed. Let Lowther come forth and support us. We are his neighbours. _Paries proximus ardet._ We all know what HE can do. He upon whom the thousands of Whitehaven depend for _three_ of the elements. _He_ whose soul is all great; whose resentment is terrible, but whose liberality is boundless. I know that he is dignified by having hosts of enemies; but I have fixed his character in my mind upon no slight inquiry. I have traversed Cumberland and Westmoreland; I have sojourned at Carlisle and at Kendal; I know of the Lonsdale Club at Lancaster. Lowther! be kindly interested. Come over to Macedonia, and help us. With such personal qualities and such friends Boswell holds himself admirably qualified for a seat in the Legislature. He will present himself at next election as a candidate for Ayrshire. I have reason to hope,” he proceeds, “that many of the real freeholders of Ayrshire will support me at the election for next Parliament, against which I have declared myself a candidate. I shall certainly stand upon the substantial interest of the gentlemen of landed property; and if upon a fair trial I should not succeed in that object of ambition, which I have most ardently at heart, I have resources enough to prevent me from being discontented and fretful.”

The project of settling in London and forming a connection with the English Bar, which Boswell had long cherished, was now to be carried out. After keeping his terms, according to the usual practice, he was called to the English Bar, at Hilary term, 1786. His professional _debût_ prognosticated failure. Some of the junior barristers, to whom he was known as _Johnson’s Bozzy_, prepared an imaginary case full of absurdity, which was submitted for his opinion. Unsuspecting a trap, he prepared an elaborate note of judgment. The laughter was prodigious, and the merriment penetrated into private circles. A ridiculous appearance in court, made soon afterwards, put a final check on his career as a practising barrister.[84] About three years after joining the English Bar he represented his condition to Mr. Temple in these terms:—

“_London, January 10th, 1789._

“I am sadly discouraged by having no practice nor probable prospect of it; and to confess fairly to you, my friend, I am afraid that were I to be tried, I should be found so deficient in the forms, the quirks, and the quiddities, which early habit acquires, that I should expose myself. Yet the delusion of Westminster Hall, of brilliant reputation and splendid fortune as a barrister, still weighs upon my imagination. I must be seen in the courts, and must hope for some happy openings in causes of importance. The Chancellor, as you observe, has not done as I expected; but why did I expect it? I am going to put him to the test. Could I be satisfied with being Baron of Auchinleck, with a good income for a gentleman in Scotland, I might, no doubt, be independent. But what can be done to deaden the ambition which has ever raged in my veins like a fever? In the country I should sink into wretched gloom, or at best into listless dulness and sordid abstraction. Perhaps a time may come when I may by lapse of time be grown fit for it. As yet I, really from a philosophical spirit, allow myself to be driven along the tide of life with a good deal of caution not to be much hurt; and still flattering myself that an unexpected lucky chance may at last place me so that the prediction of a fortunate cap appearing on my head at my birth will be fulfilled.”

Not long after writing this letter Boswell obtained his only professional appointment; he was, through the influence of Lord Lowther, appointed Recorder of Carlisle. The emoluments of the office were small, and as an attendance of several weeks was required annually, the acquisition was inconsiderable. But the wits did not permit the new Recorder to enter on his post without ridicule. The following _jeu d’esprit_ obtained circulation:—

“Boswell once flamed with patriot zeal, His bow was ever bent; How he no public wrongs can feel Till Lowther nods assent.

To seize the throne which faction tries, And would the Prince command, The Tory Boswell coolly cries, My King’s in Westmoreland.”

At the close of the first edition of Boswell’s Tour to the Hebrides, appeared the following advertisement:—

“Preparing for the Press, in one volume quarto, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. By James Boswell, Esq.

“Mr. Boswell has been collecting materials for this work for more than twenty years, during which he was honoured with the intimate friendship of Dr. Johnson; to whose memory he is ambitious to erect a literary monument, worthy of so great an authour, and so excellent a man. Dr. Johnson was well informed of his design, and obligingly communicated to him several curious particulars. With these will be interwoven the most authentick accounts that can be obtained from those who knew him best; many sketches of his conversation on a multiplicity of subjects, with various persons, some of them the most eminent of the age; a great number of letters from him at different periods, and several original pieces dictated by him to Mr. Boswell, distinguished by that peculiar energy which marked every emanation of his mind.”

This advertisement, more befitting the announcement of a play than the memoir of a moralist, did not escape the witty criticism of the sarcastic Pindar. In a postscript to his “Poetical Epistle” he has thus written:—

“As Mr. Boswell’s ‘Journal’ hath afforded such universal pleasure, by the relation of minute incidents and the great moralist’s opinion of men and things during his northern tour, it will be adding greatly to the anecdotical treasury, as well as making Mr. B. happy, to communicate part of a dialogue that took place between Dr. Johnson and the author of this congratulatory epistle, a few months before the Doctor paid the great debt of nature. The Doctor was very cheerful that day, had on a black coat and waistcoat, a black plush pair of breeches, and black worsted stockings, a handsome grey wig, a shirt, a muslin neckcloth, a black pair of buttons in his shirt-sleeves, a pair of shoes ornamented with the very identical little buckles that accompanied the philosopher to the Hebrides; his nails were very neatly pared, and his beard fresh shaved with a razor fabricated by the ingenious Mr. Savigny.

“_P. P._: ‘Pray, Doctor, what is your opinion of Mr. Boswell’s literary powers?’

“_Johnson_: ‘Sir, my opinion is, that whenever Bozzy expires, he will create no vacuum in the region of literature—he seems strongly affected by the _cacoëches scribendi_; wishes to be thought a _rara avis_, and in truth so he is—your knowledge in ornithology, sir, will easily discover to what species of bird I allude.’ Here the Doctor shook his head and laughed.

“_P. P._: ‘What think you, sir, of his account of Corsica?—of his character of Paoli?’

“_Johnson_: ‘Sir, he hath made a mountain of a wart. But Paoli hath virtues. The account is a farrago of disgusting egotism and pompous inanity.’

“_P. P._: ‘I have heard it whispered, Doctor, that should you die before him, Mr. B. means to write your life.’

“_Johnson_: ‘Sir, he cannot mean me so irreparable an injury,—which of us shall die first, is only known to the Great Disposer of events; but were I sure that James Boswell would write _my_ life, I do not know whether I would not anticipate the measure by taking _his_.’ (Here he made three or four strides across the room, and returned to his chair with violent emotion.)

“_P. P._: ‘I am afraid that he means to do you the favour.’

“_Johnson_: ‘He dares not—he would make a scarecrow of me. I give him liberty to fire his blunderbuss in _his own_ face, but not murder _me_, sir. I heed not his [Greek: autos epha]. Boswell write my life! why, the fellow possesses not abilities for writing the life of an ephemeron.’”

Naturally indolent and procrastinating, Boswell was, like persons of his temperament, aroused to enterprise by harsh and ungenerous criticism. Johnson’s “Life” was commenced at once, and for some time prosecuted vigorously. Abandoned for many months, it was taken up in 1787, and worked upon at intervals in the year following.

The progress of the undertaking is in February 1788, thus reported to Mr. Temple:—

“Mason’s Life of Gray is excellent, because it is interspersed with letters which show us the man.... I am absolutely certain that my mode of biography, which gives not only a history of Johnson’s visible progress through the world, and of his publications, but a view of his mind in his letters and conversations, is the most perfect that can be conceived, and will be more of a life than any work that has ever yet appeared. I have been wretchedly dissipated, so that I have not written a line for a fortnight; but to-day I resume my pen, and shall labour vigorously.”

To Mr. Temple a further report is presented in January, 1789:—

“I am now very near my rough draft of Johnson’s Life. On Saturday I finished the Introduction and Dedication to Sir Joshua, both of which had appeared very difficult to be accomplished. I am confident they are well done. Whenever I have completed the rough draft, by which I mean the work without nice correction, Malone and I are to prepare one-half perfectly, and then it goes to press, whence I hope to have it early in February, so as to be out by the end of May.”

After joining the English Bar, and establishing his headquarters in London, Boswell rented inexpensive chambers near the law courts; but in the winter of 1788-9 he removed to a house in Queen Anne Street West, Cavendish Square. He was joined by his two sons, and his daughter Veronica,—the sons attending an academy in Soho. His attendants were “a butler and Scotch housekeeper,” whom he kept “on account of their fidelity and moderate wages.”[85]

Mrs. Boswell made a trial of London, but soon returned to Auchinleck. She disapproved her husband’s preference for the English Bar, and feared that the fogs of London would prove injurious to her health. She had been an asthmatic patient, and at the commencement of 1789 the complaint returned in an aggravated form. Writing to Mr. Temple on the 5th March, Boswell expresses himself deeply concerned about his “valuable and affectionate wife,” but he feels that joining her in the country would destroy the completion of the Life of Johnson, and remove him from “the great whirl of the metropolis,” from which he hoped “in time to have a capital prize.” He had visited Ayrshire at the close of 1788, and there prosecuted an active canvass among his supposed friends, the parliamentary freeholders. The visit and its prospective results are thus detailed to Mr. Temple:—

“_London, 10th January, 1789._

“As to my canvass in my own county, I started in opposition to a junction between Lord Eglintoun and Sir Adam Fergusson, who were violent opponents, and whose coalition is as odious there as the Great One is to the nation. A few friends and real independent gentlemen early declared for me; three other noble lords, the Earls of Cassilis, Glencairn, and Dumfries, have lately joined and set up a nephew of the Earl of Cassilis: a Mr. John Whitefoord, who as yet stands as I do, will, I understand, make a bargain with this alliance. Supposing he does, the two great parties will be so poised that I shall have it in my power to cast the balance. If they are so piqued that either will rather give the seat to me than be beaten by the other, I may have it. Thus I stand, and I shall be firm. Should Lord Lonsdale give me a seat he would do well, but I have no claim upon him for it. In the matter of the regency he adds that he had ‘almost written one of his very warm popular pamphlets in favour of the Prince;’ but as Lord Lonsdale was ill, and he had no opportunity of learning his sentiments, he had ‘prudently refrained.’ He accuses Pitt of ‘behaving very ill,’ in neglecting him, and denounces Dundas ‘as a sad fellow in his private capacity.’”

Boswell returned to Ayrshire in April. Mrs. Boswell had written that she was “wasting away,” and her physician was not hopeful of her improvement. Her husband thus describes her condition to Mr. Temple:[86]—

“I found,” he writes, “my dear wife as ill, or rather worse than I apprehended. The consuming hectic fever had preyed upon her incessantly during the winter and spring, and she was miserably emaciated and weak. The physician and surgeon-apothecary, whom she allows occasionally, though rarely, to visit her, told me fairly, as to a man able to support with firmness what they announced, that they had no hopes of her recovery, though she might linger they could not say how long.... No man ever had a higher esteem or a warmer love for a wife than I have for her. You will recollect, my Temple, how our marriage was the result of an attachment truly romantic; yet how painful is it to me to recollect a thousand instances of inconsistent conduct! I can justify,” he adds, “my removing to the great sphere of England upon a principle of laudable ambition, but the frequent scenes of what I must call dissolute conduct are inexcusable; and often and often, when she was very ill in London, have I been indulging in festivity with Sir Joshua Reynolds, Courtenay, Malone, &c., and have come home late and disturbed her repose.”

In these expressions of affection Boswell was sincere, but he would have better indicated regret for past inattention to his suffering helpmate if his conduct during her last illness had been more suited to her condition. During the five weeks he remained at Auchinleck, he was, according to his own acknowledgment, “repeatedly from home,” and both “on these occasions, and when neighbours visited him, drank too much wine.” Returning from a neighbour’s house in a state of inebriety, he experienced an accident, the particulars of which he thus related to Mr. Temple:—

“On Saturday last, dining at a gentleman’s house where I was visiting for the first time, and was eager to obtain political influence; I drank so freely that, riding home in the dark without a servant, I fell from my horse and bruised my shoulder severely. Next morning I had it examined by a surgeon, who found no fracture or dislocation, but blooded me largely to prevent inflammation.”

The presence in Auchinleck House of one whose habits were so irregular, and who had narrowly escaped death in a fit of drunkenness, was not likely to soothe the dying gentlewoman. Some days after the occurrence of his accident, Boswell was invited by a friend of Lord Lonsdale to accompany his lordship in an early journey to London. Though still a sufferer and in bed on account of his fall, he resolved to obey the summons, and Mrs. Boswell “animated him to set out.” With his arm in a sling he posted to Carlisle. Reaching Lowther Castle, he found Lord Lonsdale “in no hurry to proceed on the London journey.” Meanwhile his shoulder became more uneasy, the pain extending to the breast and over the entire arm, so that he was unable to put on his clothes without help.[87]

* * * * *

Two weeks after he had reached London a letter from the Auchinleck physician informed him that Mrs. Boswell was rapidly sinking. He at once set out for Ayrshire, accompanied by his two sons, and, as he is particular in relating, the journey was performed in “sixty-four hours and a quarter.” On his arrival he found that Mrs. Boswell had died four days before. In a letter to Mr. Temple, dated 3rd July, he wrote thus:—

“I cried bitterly and upbraided myself for leaving her, for she would not have left me. This reflection, my dear friend, will, I fear, pursue me to my grave.... I could hardly bring myself to agree that the body should be removed, for it was still a consolation to me to go and kneel by it, and talk to my dear, dear Peggy.... Her funeral was remarkably well attended. There were nineteen carriages followed the hearse, and a large body of horsemen, and the tenants of all my lands. It is not customary in Scotland for a husband to attend a wife’s funeral, but I resolved, if I possibly could, to do her the last honours myself; and I was able to go through it very decently. I privately read the funeral service over her coffin in presence of my sons, and was relieved by that ceremony a good deal. On the Sunday after Mr. Dun delivered, almost _verbatim_, a few sentences which I sent him as a character of her.”

Boswell’s religious views were still unsettled. During his wife’s illness he wrote to Mr. Temple, “What aid can my wife have from religion, except a pious resignation to the great and good God? for indeed she is too shrewd to receive the common topics; she is keen and penetrating.” What “the common topics” were, belief in which Boswell regarded with contempt, he has not informed us, and it might be hazardous to conjecture.

The dissolution of Parliament expected in the spring of 1789 did not occur, but the representation of Ayrshire became vacant in July, owing to the acceptance of a public office by the sitting member, Colonel Montgomerie. Obtaining intimation of the vacancy, Boswell, four weeks a widower, hastened from London to Ayrshire to renew his claims. There were two other candidates—Sir Adam Fergusson and Mr. John Whitefoord. The former was chosen. Boswell informed Mr. Temple that “he would make an admirable figure even if he should be unsuccessful.” He stood alone!

Since his failure at the English Bar, Boswell had been most energetic in the pursuit of patronage. He rested his hopes on Mr. Dundas and Mr. Pitt, but more especially on Mr. Burke and Lord Lonsdale. Concerning the two former he thus communicated with Mr. Temple in the spring of 1789. After censuring Mr. Dundas for neglecting to promote his brother David, he proceeds:—

“As to myself, Dundas, though he _pledged himself_ (as the modern phrase is) to assist me in advancing in promotion, and though he last year assured me, upon his honour, that my letter concerning the Scottish judges made no difference; yet, except when I in a manner compelled him to dine with me last winter, he has entirely avoided me, and I strongly suspect has given Pitt a prejudice against me. The excellent Langton says it is disgraceful; it is utter folly in Pitt not to reward and attach to his administration a man of my popular and pleasant talents, whose merit he has acknowledged in a letter under his own hand. He did not answer several letters which I wrote at intervals, requesting to wait upon him; I lately wrote to him that such behaviour to me was certainly not generous. ‘I think it is not just, and (forgive the freedom) I doubt if it be wise. If I do not hear from you in ten days, I shall conclude that you are inclined to have no further communication with me; for I assure you, sir, I am extremely unwilling to give you, or indeed myself, unnecessary trouble.’ About two months have elapsed, and _he has made no sign_. How can I still delude myself with dreams of rising in the great sphere of life.”

Mr. Burke knew Boswell’s good qualities, and had sought to befriend him. In 1782 he recommended him for employment to General Conway,[88] though without success. Boswell still hoped to obtain a post through his influence, and not infrequently reminded him that he was unprovided for. To Mr. Temple, in March, 1789, he describes Mr. Burke in these terms:—

“I cannot help thinking with you that Pitt is the ablest and most useful minister of any of those whom we know; yet I am not sure that after the _pericula_ which should give caution, others (and amongst them Burke, whom I visited yesterday, and found as ably philosophical in political disquisition as ever) might not do as well; and if he has treated me unjustly in his stewardship for the public, and behaved with ungrateful insolence to my _patron_,[89] who first introduced him into public life, may I not warrantably arraign many articles, and great ones too, in his conduct which I can attack with forcible energy? At present I keep myself quiet, and wait till we see how things will turn out.”