Note 13: — Chapter VI

Beyond any special reasons which there may be for the failure of Boswell in his legal career, there is a more general cause for all his disappointment. We must remember that Boswell throughout his life was, like many men in the eighteenth century less gifted than himself, a thorough-going place-hunter. He hoped even in his early life for some advantages through his great patrons, Lord Somerville,13 Sir David Dalrymple,14 Lord Eglintoun,13 Lord Mount Stuart,15 Sir Andrew Mitchell16; he had obtained by their means a number of introductions. The ardour with which he pursued the acquaintance of the great must have been prompted in some degree by an interested expectation, and we may suppose that from the friendship of Chatham, which he was so eager to cultivate, he had flattered himself with a hope of political advancement, a hope of fulfilling the dreams that he had dreamt, with Temple, in University days, of their future greatness. They were but vague hopes in those early years, since he could hardly have expected an immediate recognition of his particular services. But Boswell when he grew older attached himself more definitely to particular patrons. There are a number of names—Lord Pembroke, Lord Lisburne, Lord Lonsdale, Burke, Dundas.17 To these in turn he seems to have pinned his faith and almost to have expected some promotion to have fallen upon PATRONS him. And from all his great acquaintances he was to get but one poor post, the Recordership of Carlisle.