Grampian Club > Boswelliana

MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 171
of land, which my old family enthusiasm urged me to make-
You, I doubt not, have full confidence in my honesty. May
1 then ask you if you could venture to join with me in a bond
for that sum, as then I would take my chance, and as Sir
Joshua says, Game with my book ? Upon my honour, your
telling me that you cannot comply with what I propose will
not in the least surprise me, or make any manner of difference
as to my opinion of your friendship. I mean to ask Sir Joshua
if he will join ; for, indeed, I should be vexed to sell my
magnum opus for a great deal less than its intrinsic value. I
meant to publish on Shrove Tuesday, but if I can get out
within the month of March I shall be satisfied."
Sir Joshua Eeynolds and Mr. Malone both declined pecuniary
responsibility, but Boswell was nevertheless relieved from his
embarrassments. He obtained in Scotland a loan of £600 on
the credit of his rents, and Dilly and Baldwin made an advance
on the credit of his book. Writing to Mr. Malone on the 8th
March, he excuses that gentleman's unwillingness to incur
monetary risk, and elated in having overcome the pressure of
his creditors, he resolves to keep the property of his book,
"believing that he should not repent it." There is a new
grievance : —
"You would observe," he writes, " some stupid lines on Mr.
Burke in the ' Oracle ' by Mr. Bosioell. I instantly wrote to
Mr. Burke, expressing my indignation at such impertinence,
and had next morning a most obliging answer. Sir William
Scott told me I could have no legal redress. So I went civilly
to Bell, and he promised to mention handsomely that James
Boswell, Esq., was not the author of the lines. The note, how-
ever, on the subject, was a second impertinence. But I can do
nothing. I wish Fox, in his bill upon libels, would make a
heavy penalty the consequence of forging any person's name
to any composition, which in reality such a trick amounts to."
Four days after conveying to Mr. Malone the tidings of his