nprecedented. In the _Autobiography of_ Jupiter Carlyle is fortunately
preserved the account of the scene, witnessed by the doctor himself, who
had been successful in gaining admission to the court, where from nine
in the morning till ten at night he remained, hemmed in by the crowd and
overcome with the oppressive heat. Mansfield spoke over one hour, and,
on his appearing to faint, the Chancellor rushed out for a bottle and
glasses, the current of fresh air being felt by the crowd as a relief.
Finally the verdict of the Scottish courts was reversed without a
division, and a verdict found in favour of Douglas. Hume was not
satisfied of the legitimacy of the pursuer, neither was Lord Shelburne,
and bribery on both sides had been extensively employed, over L100,000
having been calculated to have been spent in this protracted litigation.

It was on the evening of Thursday, shortly after eight, that the tidings
reached Edinburgh by express. The city was at once illuminated, and next
morning Dundas on his way to the Parliament House was threatened by a
mob such as the town had not seen since the Porteous Riot. Two troops of
dragoons were drafted at once on the same day into the capital. As
usually told, the story, which is vouched for by Ramsay of Ochtertyre,
is that the mob of the night before had been headed by the excited
Boswell, and that the windows of his father's house were smashed. Had
such been the case, it must have been by an oversight on the part of the
mob, or some petulant freak of the son, for on this occasion both
Boswell and his father had for once been unanimous in their belief in
the legitimacy of Douglas. But there is no need for doubting Ramsay's
assertion that Lord Auchinleck had, with tears in his eyes, to implore
President Dundas to commit his son to the Tolbooth! Not only had Bozzy
taken the field in the November of 1767 with his _Essence of the Douglas
Cause_, 'which I regretted that Dr Johnson never took the trouble to
study,' even though 'the question interested nations,' and the pamphlet
had produced, as its writer flattered himself, considerable effect in
deciding the case, but he had ventured on a breach of professional
etiquette in publishing _Dorando, a Spanish Tale_. This brochure was
ordered by the Court of Session to be suppressed as contempt of court,
after it had run through three editions. No copy of this forlorn hope of
the book hunter has ever been found, though doubtless it lurks in so