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At this early period he was flattered by being held forth as a patron of Literature; for Mr Francis Gentleman published at the elegant prefs of the Foulis's the tragedy of Oroonoko, altered from Southerne, and infcribed it to him in a poetical epiftle, concluding thus in the perfon of his Mufe:

But where with honest pleasure she can find, Sense, taste, religion, and good-nature join'd, There gladly will fhe raise her feeble voice,

Nor fear to tell that BoswELL is her choice.

He had acquired, from reading and converfation, an almost enthufiaftic notion of the felicity of London, which he visited, for the first time, carly in the year 1760, and his ardent expectations were not difappointed. He had already given fome fpecimens of a talent for writing in feveral occafional effays, both in profe and verfe, without a name, and he foon obtained the acquaintance of many of the wits of the metropolis, having the late Mr Derrick as his introductor into "many-colour'd life." or, as he has pleasantly expreffed it, his governor. But his views of the world were chiefly opened by the late Alexander Earl of Eglintoune, one of the most amiable and accomplished noblemen of his time, who being of the fame country, and from his earlieft years acquainted with the family of Auchinleck, infifted that young Bofwell should have an apartment of his houfe, and introduced him into the circles of the great, the gay, and the ingenious. He in particular carried him to Newmarket, the hiftory of which Mr Bofwell related in a poem written upon the spot, entitled,

The Cub at Newmarket, a Tale;" which he published next year in quar. to, with a dedication to Edward Duke of York, to whom the author had been allowed to read it in manufcript, and had been honoured with his Royal Highness's approbation.

Captivated with the variety and animation of the metropolis, Mr Bofwell was now earnest to have a commiffion as an Officer of the Guards; but his father prevailed with him to return to Scotland, and take fome time to confider of it. Wishing that his fon fhould apply to the law, which his family had done for two generaAuchinleck took the trouble himself tions with great advantage, Lord to give him a regular courfe of inftruction in that fcience; a circumftance of fingular benefit, and of which Mr Bofwell has ever expreffed a ftrong and grateful fenfe. Mr Bofwell at this time, but fill without putting his name, only the initials, contributed feveral pieces to "A Collection of Poems by Gentlemen of Scotland," publifhed by Mr Alexander Donaldson. Several of these were particularly dif tinguished in "The Critical Review." In one of them he pleasantly draws his own character. It appears that he was very intimate with the Reverend Edward Colquet, one of the minifters of the Church of England Chapel at Edinburgh, a man who had lived much in the world, and, with other qualities, was eminent for gay fociality. Mr Bofwell thus fpeaks of him:

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And he owns that Ned Colquet the priest

May to fomething of humour pretend; And he fwears that he is not in jeft, When he calls this fame Colquet his friend,

We cannot but observe, that there altered. As for inftance: are traits in it which time has not yet

Bofwell does women adore,

And never once means to deceive;
He's in love with at least half a score,
If they're ferious he smiles in his fleeve.

And that egotifm and felf-applaufe which he is still displaying, yet it

would feem with a confcious fmile:

-Bofwell

Bofwell is modeft enough,
Himself not quite Phoebus he thinks.
And

He has all the bright fancy of youth,
With the judgment of forty and five.
In short, to declare the plain truth,
There is no better fellow alive.

Having an uncommon defire for the company of men distinguished for talents and literature, he was fortunate enough to get himfelf received into that of thefe who were confiderably his fuperiors in age; fuch as Lord Elibank, Lord Kaimes, Sir David Dalrymple, Dr Robertfon, Dr Blair, Mr David Hume, Dr Carlyle, Mr Andrew Stuart, and others; and was admitted a member of the Select Society of Edinburgh. He then paffed his trials as a Civilian before a Committee of the Faculty of Advocates. Perfifting, however, in his fondness for the Guards, or rather, in truth, for the metropolis, he again repaired to Lundon, in the end of the year 1762, re commended to the late Duke of Queensberry, the patron of Gay, who, he believed, was to obtain for him what he wifhed; but, perhaps from a fecret understanding with Lord Auchinleck, it was delayed from time to time, till, in fummer 1763, a compromife was made, that if he would relinquifh his favourite project, and refume the ftudy of the civil law, for one winter, at Utrecht, he fhould afterwards have the indulgence of travelling upon the Continent; provided that on his return he should become an advocate at the Scotch Bar. This year he, for the first time, appeared as an author with his name, in a little volume of "Letters between the Honourable Andrew Erfkine and James Bofweil," Efq. a publication in which he and his friend, a brother of the Earl of Kelly, indulged themselves in a vein of fingular and fometimes extravagant humour. During his refidence in London at this time, Mr Bofwell cultivated the D VOL. XIV. No. 79.

acquaintance of literary men, and particularly obtained that of Dr SAMUEL JOHNSON, from which fo much inftruction and entertainment has been derived.

He fulfilled his additional winter's study of civil law at Utrecht, in which that of Holland was intermixed, under the very able German profeffor Trotz, and made excurfions to other parts of the Seven Provinces, particularly the Hague, where he had this great advantage of being treated with all the kindness of relationship by M. Van Sommelfdyck, one of the nobles of Holland, from whofe family he had the honour of being defcended; a daughter of that illuftrious house having married Alexander Earl of Kincardine, whofe daughter, Lady Eli. Zabeth Bruce, was Mr Bofwell's grandmother by the father's fide.

He then accompanied the late Earl Marifchal of Scotland into Germany ;' and, being well recommended, paffed fome time at many of the Courts; proceeded through Switzerland to Geneva; vifited Rouffeau and Voltaire ; croffed the Alps into Italy, and not only faw the parts of that delightful country which are commonly furveyed in the courfe of what is called the Grand Tour, but others worthy of a claffical traveller's curiosity. During a part of the time which he paffed in Italy he had the happiness of being along with Lord Mountftuart, to whole merits he has done juftice in a Latin Dedication of his Thefes Juridica. Nor was it a circumftance of fmall moment in the pleafant and focial fcale that he met at Turin, Rome, and Naples, the celebrated John Wilkes, Efq; with whom he had always maintained an acquaintance upon the moft liberal terms, and with whom he enjoyed many claffical fcenes with peculiar relifh.

But Mr Bofwell's travels were principally marked by his vifiting the iland of Corfica, the internal part of which no native of Britain had ever

feen.

feen. Undifmayed by the reports of danger which were circulated, he penetrated into its wildest districts, and was amply rewarded by the knowledge which he acquired, and by obtaining the acquaintance of its illuftrious Chief General Paoli.

On this account he was celebrated by Mifs Aitken, now Mrs Barbauld, in her poem called Corfica, by the late Edward Burnaby Green, Efq; in Corfica, an Ode;" and by Capel Lofft, Efq;, in his " Praifes of Poetry."

When Mr Bofwell was at Paris, in January 1766, where he intended to pafs the winter, he received accounts of the death of his mother, which obliged him to haften home to his father. In his way, however, through London, he had an interview with Mr Pitt, afterwards Earl of Chatham, with whom he correfponded concerning the affairs of Corfica. Some of the particulars of this interview, all of which he committed to writing, he has been heard to mention in a very interefting manner. Soon after his return to Scotland, he was admitted an Advocate in the Court of Seffion, and practifed there for fome years with good fuccefs.

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In 1767, the great Douglas being an object of univerfal tion and intereft, Mr Bofwell generoufly volunteered in favour of Mr Douglas, against whofe filiation the Court of Seffion had decided by the cafting vote of the Lord Prefident Dundas. With a labour of which few are capable, he compreffed the fub. ftance of the immenfe voluntes of proofs and arguments into an actavo pamphlet, which he published with the title of The Effence of the Douglas Caufe;" and as it was thus mnade intelligible without a tedious fludy, we may ascribe to this pamphlet a great share of the popularity on Mr Douglas's fide, which was of infinite confequence when a divifion of the Houfe of Lords upon an appeal was

apprehended; not to mention that its effect was faid to be confiderable in a certain important quarter. He alfo took care to keep the newspapers and other publications inceffantly warm with various writings, both in profe and verfe, all tending to touch the heart and roufe the parental and fympathetic feelings. His aid upon this occafion was acknowledged in fome very well written letters by the" worthy Queenfberry." It is well known that the hard decree was reversed, and that he, whom Mr Bofwell thus fupported, now enjoys the large property of his family, and has also been raifed to the Peerage.

In 1768 Mr Bofwell published "An Account of Corfica, with the Journal of a Tour to that Ifland, and Memoirs of Pascal Paoli," in one vol. 8vo. This work is univerfally known, it having not only paffed through feveral editions in English, but been tranflated into Dutch, German, Italian, and. twice into French. Even the ftern Johnson, we find, thus praises it in a letter to the Author: "Your Journal is in a very high degree curious and delightful. You exprefs images which operated ftrongly upon yourself, and you have imprefied them with great ́ force upon your readers. I know not whether I could name any ṇarrative by which curiofity is better excited or better gratified."

In the following winter Mr Bofwell, ever ready to take the part of the injured, was (though perfonally unknown to him) folicited by the late David Rofs, Efq; to favour him with a Prologue for the opening a Theatre Royal at Edinburgh, for which Mr. Rofs had obtained his Majesty's patent, but found a violent and oppreffive party formed in oppofition to him. Mr Bofwell complied, and produced what one of Mr Rofs's great patrons, the Earl of Mansfield, well characterifed as a very good copy of verfes, very conciliating."

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The effect of it, aided by friends ¡ properly

properly planted in different parts of the Theatre, was inftantaneous and effectual; the tide was turned, the loudeft plaudits were given, and Mr Rofs was allowed ever after to enjoy his patent with all its advantages.

In the year 1769, Mr Bofwell made a vifit to Ireland, where he spent fix or feven weeks, chiefly at Dublin, and enjoyed the fociety of Lord Charlemon, Dr Leland, Mr Flood, Dr Macbride, and other eminent perfons of that kingdom, not forgetting the celebrated George Faulkener, the focial though laughable friend of Dean Swift and Lord Chesterfield. Fortunately for him, Viscount (now Marquis) Towafhend was then Lord Lieute. sant, and the congeniality of their difpofitions united them in the most pleafant manner.

Mr Boswell had a very near relation (daughter of his granduncle General Cochrane, whofe brother afterwards fucceeded to the Earldom of Dundonald) who was married to Robert Sibthorpe, Efq; a gentleman of great confequence in the county of Down. This ferved as an introduction to much good fociety. But he was ftill more obliged in that refpect to the Lady who accompanied him in this expedition, Mifs Peggy Montgo merie, daughter of David Montgomerie, Efq; of Lanishaw, a branch of the noble House of Eglintoun, and reprefentative, as heir of line, of the ancient Peerage of Lyle. She was his coufin-german, and they had, from their earliest years, lived in the moft intimate and unreferved friendship. His love of the fair fex has been already mentioned, and she was the conftant, yet prudent and delicate, confidante of all his egarements du cœur et de l'efprit.

Her

very numerous and refpectable relations in Ireland fhewed him every mark of attention, fo that he quitted that country with fincere regret. This jaunt was the occafion of Mr Bofwell's refolving at laft to engage himfelf ip that connection to which he

had always declared himfelf averfe.In fhort, he determined to become a married man. For having experienced for a confiderable time, without intermiffion, how agreeable a cor panion his coufin was, and how much her excellent judgment and more fedate manners contributed to his happiness, he propofed to her that they should be companions for life, requesting that fhe would do him the favour to accept of him with all his faults, with which fhe was perfectly acquainted; and tho' he had uniformly protefted, that a large fortune was an indifpenfible requifite if he should ever marry, he was willing to wave that, in confideration of her peculiar merit. She, with a franknefs of character for which the fhe was remarkable, accepted of his offer; and this he has ever been heard to fay was the most fortunate circumftance in his life.

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Their marriage, it was agreed, should not take place till late in the year, that he might first have an opportunity of revifiting his friends in London, to arrange various particulars. In this interval occurred the Jubilee in honour of Shakespeare, at Stratford upon Avon. Thither Mr Bofwell repaired, with all the enthufiafm of a poetical mind, and at the malquerade appeared in the character of an armed Corfican Chief; in which character there is in the London M、gazine of that year a whole length print of him, from a drawing by Wale. This exhibition is recorded in the Preface to the French Tranlation of Shakespeare.

On the 25th November 1769 he was married to Mifs Montgomerie, a woman who contributed greatly to his' happiness. With admirable fenfe, affection, and generofity of heart, fhe poffeffed no common thare of wit and pleafantry. One of her bons mots is mentioned in Mr. Bofwell's Life of Dr Johnson. Thinking that the rough Philofopher had too much influence over her husband, the faid, with some D 2

warmth

warmth, "I have seen many a bear led by a man, but I never before faw a man led by a bear." Once, when Mr Bofwell was mounted upon a horfe which he had brought pretty low by riding the county (as it is called) for an election, and was boafting that he was a horfe of blood, "I hope fo," faid fhe," for I am fure he has no flesh." Mr Bofwell has a collection of her good fayings under the title of Uxoriana.

He continued at the Scotch bar, with occafional, and indeed generally. annual vifits to London, for many years, as his father was averfe to his fettling in the metropolis. But there his heart was fixed, and we thall fee that he in time yielded to his inclination.

In 1781, when Mr Burke was in power, that celebrated Gentleman Thewed his fenfe of Mr Bofwell's merit in the warmest manner, obferving, "We must do fomething for you for our own fakes," and recommended him to General Conway for a vacant place, by a letter in which his character was drawn in glowing colours. The place was not obtained; but Mr Bofwell declared that he valued the letter moré.

.i.

In 1782, by the death of my Lord, his father, he fucceded to the eftate of Auchinleck.

In 1783, when the extraordinary Coalition of heterogeneous parties took place, and Mr Fox's Eaft-India Bill had been thrown out, and the country was in a ferment as to the monarchical part of our Conftitution, Mr Bofwell was very active and very fuccefful in obtaining Addreffes to his Majefty, and publifhed "A Letter to the People of Scotland on the prefent State of the Nation," which had much effect, and of which Mr Pitt, then and ftill Prime Minister, thus expreffed himself, in a Letter to Mr Bofwell: "I have obferved with great pleasure your zealous and able exertions in the

caufe of the public in the work which you were fo good as to tranfmit to

me."

In 1785, an attempt having been made to diminish the number of the fifteen Lords of Seffion in Scotland, Mr Bofwell confidering this as a violation of the Articles of the Union, and befides a very pernicious measure, wrote on this occafion another "Letter to the People of Scotland;" which was fo perfuafive and forcible, that many of the counties of North Britain affembled, and entered intofuch refolutions against the fcheme, that it was given up.

In 1785 Mr. Bofwell publifhed a "Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnfon, LL. D.;" a work fo well known, and fo fucceffful, that it is unneceffary to fay any thing of it.

He had at an early period entered himfelf as a ftudent of the Inner Temple, and from time to time kept his terms; and having no longer the fear of dif pleafing his father, he determined to try his fortune in Westminster-hall, and was called to the bar in Hilary Term 1786. The following winter he removed his family to London.

His ambition in refolving to try his fortune in the great world of London, was thus fanctioned by a letter to him from Dr Samuel Johnfon, which exhibits at once a cautious and encouraging view of it."

I remember, and intreat you to remember, that virtus eft vitium fugere; the firft approach to riches is fecurity from poverty. The condition upon which you have my confent to fettle in London is, that your expence never exceeds your annual income. Fixing this bafis of fecurity you cannot be hurt, and you may be very much advanced. The loss of your Scottish business, which is all you can lofe, is not to be reckoned as any equivalent to the hopes and poffibili ties that open here upon you.

If you

fucceed,

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