is at least the production of no ordinary genius." Nor, indeed, was it.

There are a good many things about Dorando' which I do not profess to understand. The Lord President, apparently, made no attempt to suppress the book itself. The first and second editions bear the imprint of Wilkie, London publisher, though the second, at least, must have been printed in Edinburgh. The third edition bears an Edinburgh imprint, and adds to Wilkie's the name of an Edinburgh publisher, Drummond. Yet Drummond was never disturbed. It

was only the newspapers which printed extracts of the book that got into trouble. It may be that what angered the Lord President was not the extracts of the book so much as Boswell's impudent running comments thereon. At any rate, after reading the reviews, including the impassioned speech for Douglas which Boswell had put into his mouth, and the pleasantries of Noel Burridge on his Court, he quite lost his temper and resolved on summary action. The publishers of all the newspapers were ordained "to be incarcerated in the tolbooth of Edinburgh, there to remain ay and until they shall find caution in the hands of the clerk to sist themselves personally at the bar of the court on Tuesday the 14th of July next, each of them under the penalty of five hundred merks Scots." But, as "they all found caution

accordingly," I suppose none of them actually went to jail.

The action seems to have been a complete surprise. The publishers were righteously indignant. They resolved to make a spirited defence, and at once chose counsel. Thereupon James Boswell performed the most impudent act of a life remarkable for impudent actions. He appeared at the bar as counsel for the Advertiser,' and handed in a memorial defending that paper for publishing the letters relating to the shorthand men, which was the 'Advertiser's ' chief offence. I add a fragment of this memorial, with the additions which the Lord President must have made mentally as he read it :—

"As to the letter from Berwick [written by James Boswell, Esq.], the matter stands thus: It was a thing commonly reported in town that a set of shorthand writers were come from London, in order to take notes in the Douglas cause. An article of intelligence of that kind [written by James Boswell, Esq.] had some time before appeared in the London Chronicle,' and, in former papers published in this place, their arrival had been mentioned, and an humorous description of their genealogy and characters [written by James Boswell, Esq.] had been given. The memorialist will indeed acknowledge that he never did inquire into the truth of this report; he considered it as a harmless

piece of intelligence, very proper for a news-paper [!!]; and, as the description of these stenographers seemed to have pleased many of his readers, he did not imagine that his inserting the letter could have given the smallest offence, &c., &c. [This memorial drawn by James Boswell, Esq., Advocate]."

The proceedings against the printers came to nothing. After having been twice postponed, the case was finally heard, and the culprits dismissed with an official rebuke. Boswell himself wrote up the decision for the Advertiser' in terms of demure sarcasm : "After a full and mature consideration of this very important and interesting question, [their Lordships] were pleased to dismiss them from the bar with a genteel reprimand, pronounced with great dignity by the Lord President himself." Nor did he drop the matter there. On 3rd September there appeared an article signed "Tribunus " covering the whole front page of the London Chronicle,' which he had sent from Edinburgh while the matter of the publishers was still pending. In it he begs some "learned and judicious correspondent" to to tell him whether the Lord President was within his rights. Lord President, he says, was pleased to say that the speech of the Chief Justice of the Court of Seville was a speech put into his mouth. It happens that 'Dorando' is from beginning

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The

to end a most mild and genteel performance, and the speeches there given are such as no man in the kingdom need be ashamed of [!!]." But, he continues (making use of the happy device employed by Grattan in his reply to Corry, whereby one can be as abusive as he pleases, and parliamentary at the same time"), suppose the author had represented the Chief Justice as a blockhead, or had called him a rogue and a rascal? Could this be punishable as an offence against the Lord President of the Court of Session ? "I believe not.

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For by the same rule every Author of a Tale or Allegory into which fools are introduced might be liable to punishment, provided any man in power should cry, that was levelled at me." And when no answer was forthcoming to "Tribunus's " query, Boswell wrote one himself over the signature of "Jacob Giles," a supposed English barrister, equally full of malicious pleasantries at the expense of the Lord President.

I do not wish to leave the impression that Boswell's newspaper contributions were all professional-that is, concerned only with subjects like the Douglas Cause or Corsica, on which he happened to be professionally engaged at the moment. I have chosen to present those two topics, not merely because the greater part of the paragraphs and essays during this period were written on one or the other of them, but because by so doing I could

give greater coherence to what I had to offer. However, there are besides these any number of inventions which have not the remotest connection with Boswell's own interests or concerns, but are apparently inventions written for the pure joy of lying. I can quote only one of these as a sample. Who, on reading the following tragic tale with its carefully enforced moral, would imagine that it was a gratuitous invention from the pen of James Boswell, Esq.

the body of his wife. He was instantly put under confinement, and has continued raving mad ever since. The Lieutenant-Colonel of his regiment has written a most polite and humane letter to the father of the young lady, condoling with him on his affliction, and acquainting him that the poor Captain was subject to violent fits of lunacy, one of which has been the sad occasion of the mournful accident. This may serve as a warning to young ladies in country towns not to

in L-e, March 31.

"A very melancholy affair happened here lately. An officer on the recruiting service, a young man of most engaging manners, and who was said to be the eldest son of a gentleman of considerable family and fortune in the West of England, made his addresses to a young lady of this town, who consented to marry him. The morning after their marriage the Captain seemed on a sudden to be in great emotion. He looked at his young wife with eyes flashing with indignation, calling out, 'What, my dear, you have got black hair, have you? I'll soon cure that,' and immediately drawing his sword, he stabbed her three times in a most barbarous manner, so that she expired in a few minutes. The family, alarmed by the noise, came into the room, and found the unhappy gentleman tearing his hair, and crying bitterly over

sion for a stranger, however agreeable, but to wait till they are fully informed of his character and situation."

However, the contribution I treasure the most, the contribution inimitable, I have saved for the end of the chapter. On 2nd May 1767, Boswell inserted the following query in the 'London Chronicle ':

"SIR,-Many of your Readers must have observed in books certain brown spots, which are nothing else than rust, which gets into the paper and corrodes it very fast, and, if not prevented, it spreads all around, and will by degrees eat through the whole leaves of the thickest volume. I have found the same thing in old parchments. The only remedy I could yet think of has been to cut out the infected part; but as this disfigures books and papers, and obliges me to fill up the vacancy with a fresh piece on

which it is necessary to write what words or letters the rust has destroyed, it would be extremely useful if any method could be fallen upon to prevent the rusting. Perhaps there is such a method which I am ignorant of; if so, I would be very much obliged if any of your correspondents would communicate it. It is easy enough, with proper care, to preserve books and parchments from dampness, from moths, and from worms. It is hard if there be a destructive quality against which there is no remedy. I hope to receive some instructions as to this.I am, Sir,

"ANTIQUARIUS."

vitriols [sic] three-fourths, and of clear spring water one-fourth; drop a little of it on the rust spot, and when dry hold it about half a minute pretty near the fire, which will effectually eradicate the spot, and prevent any from ever growing on the sample place.

"P."

In these days of the universal study of chemistry, I should be considered impertinent if I took it upon myself to inform the reader what would happen to a piece of paper on which sulphuric acid, only slightly diluted, were placed with the application of heat. The joke lies in the concluding sentence of the recipe, which is only too literally true. I have no doubt that other people were caught by that letter, but if they were they kept quiet. The delicious part of the whole affair is the note which Boswell has carefully written in at the bottom of the page; a note that reveals his inexhaustible naïveté, but, more than that, the unfailing good humour of a man who thought that a joke, even when on himself, was too precious to lose. The note reads, This was a piece of waggery on one of Coutts Co.'s apprentices. I was simple enough to try it."

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