(James), known to the learned world as the author of a life of Dr. Johnson and of several other valuable works, was born, we believe, at Auchinleck in Ayrshire, in 1740. The family from which he sprung was ancient and honourable. At the time of his birth his father was a well employed lawyer at the Scotch bar; but was afterwards raised to the dignity of Judge, and filled that important station with acknowledged learning, probity, and honour. His title was Lord Auchinleck, taken from his family inheritance; and he died in 1782; on which occasion Dr. Johnson wrote an elegant and instructive letter to the subject of this brief memorial. memorial; of which we shall transcribe a passage that alludes to some slight domestic differences, which did not happen in vain, since they gave rise to such salutary advice:

"Your father's death had every circumstance that could enable you to bear it. It was at a mature age, and it was expected; and as his general life had been pious, his thoughts had, doubtless, for many years past, been turned upon eternity. That you did not find him sensible must doubtless grieve you; his disposition towards you was undoubtedly that of a kind, though not of a fond, father. Kindness, at least actual, is in our own power, but fondness is not; and if, by negligence or imprudence, you had extinguished his fondness, he could not at will rekindle it. Nothing then remained between you but mutual forgiveness of each other's faults, and mutual desire of each other's happiness."

The occasion of this family dissention is unknown to us. It might originate in the difference of their political principles, Mr Boswell being a zealous Tory, and his father, as he represents him, a rancorous Whig; or it may have arisen from the celebrated Douglas cause, which set many friends at variance in Scotland, and in which Lord Auchinleck and his son took opposite sides. The Judge gave his vote on the bench for the Duke of Hamilton; and the advocate (for Mr Boswell was then at the bar) was to keen a partisan of Douglas, that when the cause was finally decided by the House of Peers, he got possession of a Chaise-gong, and, at the head of a number of young men and boys, patrolled the streets of Edinburgh, and made a loud and exulting noise at the windows of his father's house, where there was no symptom displayed of the general joy.

In 1762 Mr Boswell made his first journey to London; where, under the auspices of Doddley the bookbinder, he published, "The Cub at Newmarket, a Tale." By the title of Cub he meant to characterize himself, as the reader will perceive in the following lines, which we shall give as a specimen of the poem:

Lord Eglintonne, who loves, you know, A little dash of whim, or so, By chance a curious Cub had got, On Scotia's mountains newly caught.

During his stay in London, Mr Boswell was introduced to Dr Johnson, with whom it is well known he continued to live in intimacy from that time till Johnson's death in 1784; and this intimacy procured him the friendship of Burke, Goldsmith, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and many other men of eminence, who composed what was called The Literary Club. In the latter end of 1765 he became acquainted with General Paoli when on his travels; and after his return he published, in 1768 or 1769, his account of Corsica, with the "Journal of a Tour to that Island."

Of this work, which gained him some distinction in the world, his great friend Johnson writes thus: "Your history is like all other histories, but your journal is in a very high degree curious and delightful. There is between the history and the journal that difference which there will always be found between notions borrowed from without and notions generated within. Your history was copied from books; your journal rose out of your own experience and observation. You express images which operated strongly upon yourself, and you have impressed them with great force upon your readers. I know not whether I could name any narrative by which curiosity is better excited or better gratified."

In 1770 Mr Boswell, who was then in good practice at the Scotch bar, married an amiable woman, by whom he had two sons and three daughters, who survived him. In 1773 he was chosen a member of the Literary Club; and in the autumn of the same year he visited the Hebrides in company with his illustrious friend Johnson; after whose death he published a very entertaining account of their tour, the places they saw, the characters with whom they conversed, and their own remarks on the different conversations. To many persons, both in England and Scotland, this book gave great offence, as it brought before the public the unguarded talk of private social circles; but it surely furnished much entertainment, as it exhibited a more faithful picture of Hebridean manners than the British public had ever before seen.

In 1784, when Mr Fox's famous India bill was before Parliament, Mr Boswell published a "Letter to the People of Scotland on the Present State of the Nation," in which he contends, that no charter would be safe if that bill should pass into a law; and more than intimates, that the principle of it was equally inimical to the liberties of the subject and to the prerogative of the king. Dr Johnson seems to have thought of that bill as he did; for having read the letter, he writes to the author his approbation of it in the following words: "I am very much of your opinion; and, like you, feel great indignation at the indecency with which the king is every day treated. Your paper contains very considerable knowledge of the history and of the constitution, very properly produced and applied."

In 1785 Mr Boswell quitted the Scotch bar, and went to reside in London, where he continued till the day of his death. Having entered himself in one of the inns of court, and studied the English law, he became a barrister in England; but we have reason to believe that his practice there was not so successful as it had been in his own country. He enjoyed, however, more completely than he could do in Edinburgh, the conversation of the great, the wise, the witty, and the good; and such conversation he always valued above wealth. He frequently visited his native country, and especially Auchinleck, the seat of his ancestors; and soon after his return from one of those visits he was seized with a disorder which proved fatal, on Tuesday the 19th of May 1795.

Such were the principal events in the life of Mr Boswell. Of his character, it would be difficult to say much more than he has said himself in his "Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides;" and which may, with some propriety, be copied here:

"I have given a sketch of Dr Johnson. My readers may wish to know a little of his fellow-traveller. Think, then, of a gentleman of ancient blood; the pride of which was his predominant passion. He was then in his 33rd year, and had been about four years happily married. His inclination was to be a soldier; but his father, a respectable Judge, had pressed him into the profession of the law. He had travelled a good deal, and seen many varieties of human life. He had thought more than any body supposed, and had a pretty good stock..." stock of general learning and knowledge. He had all Dr Johnston's principles, with some degree of relaxation. He had rather too little than too much prudence; and his imagination being lively, he often said things of which the effect was very different from the intention. He resembled sometimes

"The best good man, with the worst-natur'd muse."

"He cannot deny himself the vanity of finishing with the encomium of Dr Johnson, whose friendly partiality to the companion of this tour represents him as one whose acuteness would help my inquiry, and whose gaiety of conversation, and civility of manners, are sufficient to counteract the inconveniences of travel, in countries less hospitable than we have passed."

Few of Mr Boswell's friends, we believe, could add much to this candid confession. His enemies, if he had any, might dwell upon his failings; but his failings were few, and injurious to no person. In his character good nature was predominant. He appeared to entertain sentiments of benevolence to all mankind, and to be incapable of intentionally injuring a human being. His conversation-talents were always pleasing, and often fascinating. But can we wonder at this in him who, with a capacity to learn, had been the companion of Johnson for more than ten years? His attachment to the Doctor for so long a period was a meritorious perseverance in the desire of knowledge. To it the world is indebted for the most finished picture of an eminent man that ever was executed. We know there are objections to the mode of giving the life of Johnson. It has been thought that ignorance has been wantonly exposed, and the privacy of social life endangered. We shall not enter deeply into this question. All that we can certainly affirm is, that the work has been read with avidity and pleasure; and that he who does not wish to read it again may be suspected to be deficient in taste and in temper.

Mr Boswell has been accused of vanity; but when this accusation is brought against him, it should not be forgotten that he enjoyed advantages which rendered that conspicuous in him from which no man can claim an exemption. We know not the man who would not have been vain to possess so much of Dr Johnson's conversation, and proud to give it to the world, in hopes that he who venerated Johnson would not be unthankful to his biographer. From the Doctor, however, he appeared to his friends to have imbibed a portion of melancholy, of which indeed he complained himself during the last two or three years of his life; and he flew for relief where perhaps it is best to be found, to the society of the learned and the gay. Here, as he confesses, he had rather too little than too much prudence;" and, with more attachment to the activity of rural life, he might, probably, have lengthened his days. But as his "belief in revelation was unfaltered," and his religious impressions deep, and recurring frequently, let us hope that he has now attained that state from which imperfection and calamity are alike excluded.