g
about that subject. He was with Johnson at Oxford in 1768 and they
were already talking of going to the Hebrides {82} together. The next
year, 1769, saw the conquest of Corsica by the French to whom the
Genoese had ceded their claims. The result was that Paoli came to
London, where he lived till 1789, and Boswell was constantly with him.
In this year he did at least one very foolish thing, and at least one
very wise one. He made himself ridiculous by going to the Shakespeare
Jubilee at Stratford and appearing in Corsican costume with "_Viva la
Liberta_" embroidered on his cap. He also took the most sensible step
of his whole life in marrying his cousin, Margaret Montgomerie, on
November 25. She never liked Johnson, and her husband had the candour
to report an excellent sally of hers at his and his sage's expense: "I
have seen many a bear led by a man; but I never before saw a man led by
a bear." But though, as Boswell says, she could not be expected to
like his "irregular hours and uncouth habits," she never failed in
courtesy to him: and he on his part was unwearied in sending friendly
messages to his "dear enemy" as he called her, and was well aware of
her importance to her husband. The event unhappily proved his
prescience; for after her death in 1789, Boswell's downward course was
visibly accelerated.

After Boswell's marriage there was no {83} communication between him
and Johnson for a year and a half, and they did not meet again till
March 1772, when Boswell came to London, and stayed some time. The
next year he came again, and, by Johnson's active support, was elected
a member of "The Club," a small society of friends founded by Reynolds
and Johnson in 1764. At first it met weekly for supper, but after a
few years the members began the custom of dining together on fixed
dates which has continued to the present day. Among the members when
Boswell was elected were Johnson and Reynolds, Burke, Goldsmith and
Garrick. Gibbon and Charles Fox came in the next year, and Adam Smith
in 1775. In 1780 the number of members was enlarged to forty which is
still the limit. "The Club" has always maintained its distinction, and
a recent article in the _Edinburgh Review_ records that fifteen Prime
Ministers have been members of it, as well as men like Scott, Tennyson,
Hallam, Macaulay and Grote. The first advantage over and above pride
and pleasure derived by Boswell from his election was the acquaintance
of Bur