young man of twenty-five, almost completely unknown in the world of letters, though he had scribbled and published extensively; in February 1768, a little more than two years later, he brought out his 'Account of Corsica,' which sold over ten thousand copies in Great Britain within little more than a year, ran through three more pirated editions in Ireland, and was immediately translated into German, Dutch, Italian, and twice into French.

Corsica was the subject which, above all others, dominated Boswell's thought and action during 1767 and 1768. But there was another great enthusiasm which absorbed much of his time and energy - the Douglas cause. It is not my purpose here to go into the ramifications of that great and notorious lawsuit, in which the noble family of Hamilton did its best to deprive an orphan of his birthright. I shall not disturb the acrid dust of a century and a half which has settled thickly upon its ponderous tomes of proofs and memorials. It is enough for our purpose to know that Boswell was passionately convinced of the justice of the claims of the defendant, young Archibald Douglas; that he early attached himself to the Douglas interest, and set himself as strenuously to the task of filling the newspapers with propaganda for Douglas as for the brave Corsicans and the 'Account of Corsica.'

The nature of Boswell's pro-
VOL. CCXVIII.-NO. MCCCXVIII.

fessional connection with the Cause is somewhat uncertain, and much too complicated to be discussed here. But whatever his interest in the Cause as a lawyer, it is certain that the labours of his pen were constantly at the service of Archibald Douglas. Every one knows of the impudent but enormously effective 'Dorando,' a popular version of Archibald Douglas's story under the transparent allegory of "a Spanish tale," which he brought out just before the decision of the Court of Session, with the obvious intention of influencing the judges. Every one knows, moreover, of the laboriously composed Essence of the Douglas Cause' which followed it. I have also become convinced that he edited, or helped to edit, the 'Letters of Lady Jane Douglas,' the book which, in the long-run, did more to win the decision for Archibald Douglas than all the other books published in the Cause together, with the arguments of the lawyers thrown in. I wish here only to note a few of the more startling of his newspaper contributions on the subject.

6

The first is startling indeed. On 11th June 1767 he published in the London Chronicle' long essay with the title, 'Partus Suppositio.' (It was charged by the pursuers that Archibald Douglas was a supposititious child, procured by Lady Jane Douglas and her husband to inherit the great Douglas estate.) The intent of this

G 2

of the Cause have heard a great deal about those shorthand writers. They know their names, their genealogies, their adventures, even their personal appearance. Scores of people in Edinburgh could no doubt have been found willing to swear that they had seen them in the flesh. Yet they were as mythical as Signor Romanzo or Sam Jones. Boswell invented them, and the invention proved to be one of infinite possibilities. Having seen them off from London, he next followed them to Edinburgh. With the issue for 16th June the Edinburgh Advertiser' began to print interesting little accounts of these shorthand men from an obliging correspondent in Berwick, who was, of course, James Boswell, Esq. First we learn their names: they were "Messrs Cust, Garnet, Tracy, Selwyn, and Burridge, all allowed to write the shorthand better than any in England." The correspondent from Berwick next gave a long and vivid description of these worthies :

"Mr Cust is said to be a distant relation of the S[peak]er of the H[ouse] of C[ommons].1 Mr Garnet is own sister's grand-nephew to Father Garnet, the Jesuit, who was executed for the gun-powder plot. Mr Tracy is a gentleman of good family in Gloucestershire. He

has had an university education, and has made the tour of Europe. By extravagant living with the late D[uke] of H[amilton], and many of the first nobility, he dissipated a very fine fortune; but, having remarkable talents for writing shorthand, it is believed that he is now richer than ever. He said very pleasantly t'other night that as he had spent his estate with D[uke] H[amilton], he hoped his Grace's heir would enable him to get back a little; and, indeed, as I am informed, the report of your judges will not sell for less than a thousand guineas. Mr Selwyn has a great look of the ingenious gentleman whose good sayings have made so much noise.2 But we cannot venture to affirm that it is he. Mr Burridge is the most extraordinary personage among them ; he wears a brown coat and a cut wig, and looks as grave as a parish clerk; yet, over his bottle, he has the most droll and ludicrous sallies ; and, when he turns that cut wig of his, you would laugh for a whole evening. His life has been one continued scene of strange adventures. He is a Cornishman by birth, and lived a good while among the miners. He has been a proselyte to all sects of religion. He was long an attendant at the Popish chapels in London. He next went over to Pennsylvania, and

joined the Quakers, and, on his return to England, he commenced Methodist. He has large books of lectures and exhortations, with variety of curious dialogues, all picked up from the different sectaries. In the year 1745 he was employed as a spy by the government, and by letting himself down a chimney at Derby, and keeping himself concealed, he, with the help of a dark lanthorn, wrote down many secrets of the rebel chiefs. It will be in vain to think of excluding the shorthand men from your court. They will appear like men of the highest rank and quality. Nay, they have often been known to dress themselves in women's cloaths, and as they have much depending upon the great Douglas cause, you may be sure they will greatly exert themselves."

This characterisation of Noel Burridge, like that of Sam Jones, shows that Boswell was a studious reader of Smollett. One of Smollett's best devices is to let his characters display their peculiarities in letters. We have seen that Boswell made Sam Jones write a letter, and he proceeds in quite the same way with Noel Burridge. Just at this time, immediately prior to rendering their solemn decisions, the Judges of the Court of Session (one of whom was Boswell's own father) called in for re-examination a certain Isobel Walker, a former maid of Lady Jane Douglas, and the only person then living alleged to have been cognisant

of the crime of partus suppositio. Her ability to speak and understand French and Dutch at the time in question was a matter of some importance, and the counsel for the Duke of Hamilton wished to test her in court on this point, though she admitted that, in the seventeen years which had elapsed since she had spoken either the one language or the other, she had pretty completely forgotten them. On 28th June the readers of the Edinburgh Advertiser' found another bulletin from the obliging correspondent at Berwick, with a letter which he had just received from Noel Burridge himself :—

EDINBURGH, June 24, 1767.

"DEAR SIR, - We arrived safe here, and went to the court on Tuesday; but instead of the Cause, we had only the examination of a witness, at whom they were going to ask a parcel of French and Dutch questions in cookery, which would have played the devil with us, as our shorthand will do for nothing but English. However, luckily for us, she kept to her mother-tongue, and now it is put off till Tuesday the 7th of July. This is really hard, &c.