Grampian Club > Boswelliana

MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. Ill
endurance. He denounced the interview, and the record of it ;
and Boswell, satisfied that he had been imprudent for once, took
back his MS.
Writing to LIr. Temple on the 28th April he remarks that he
" must eat commons in the Inner Temple this week and next,
to make out another term, that he may still be approximating to
the English Bar." He then proceeds : —
" I don't know but you have spoken too highly of Gibbon's
book ; the Dean of Derry,* who is of our club, as well as
Gibbon, talks of answering it. I think it is right that as fast
as infidel wasps or venomous insects, whether creeping or flying,
are hatched, they should be crushed. Murphy says he has read
thirty pages of Smith's ' Wealth,' but says he shall read no
more. Smith too is now of our club. It has lost its select
merit. He has gone to Scotland at the request of David Hume,
who is said to be dying. General Paoli had a pretty remark
when I told him of this : " Ah ! je suis fache qu'il soit detrompe
si tot."
In a subsequent letter Boswell describes Gibbon as " an ugly,
affected, disgusting fellow," adding, " he poisons our Literary
Club to me." Gibbon was elected a member of the club in
March, 1774. With an agreeable presence and elegant
manners his conversational powers were of a high order. His
religious sentiments being obnoxious to Dr. Johnson led to
* The Eev. Thomas Bernard, D.D., Dean of Deny, was elected a
member of the Literary Club in December, 1755. Son of William
Barnard, D.D., successively Bishop of Eaphoe and Derry, he was
educated at Westminster School. Obtaining orders, he was appointed
Dean of Derry in 1 769. He was consecrated Bishop of Killaloe in 1 780,
and translated to the see of Limerick in 1 794. He died at Wimbledon,
Surrey, on the 7th June, 1806. He was a cherished friend of Dr.
Goldsmith, and an associate of Johnson, Burke, and Sir Joshua
Reynolds.