000 was set upon his head, and that by
betraying him they should enjoy wealth and affluence.' Smollett's _Hist.
of England_, iii. 184.
[557] 'Que les hommes prives, qui se plaignent de leurs petites
infortunes, jettent les yeux sur ce prince et sur ses ancetres.' _Siecle
de Louis XV_, ch. 25.
[558] 'I never heard him express any noble or benevolent sentiments, or
discover any sorrow or compassion for the misfortunes of so many worthy
men who had suffered in his cause. But the most odious part of his
character is his love of money, a vice which I do not remember to have
been imputed by our historians to any of his ancestors, and is the
certain index of a base and little mind. I have known this gentleman,
with 2000 Louis d'ors in his strong box, pretend he was in great
distress, and borrow money from a lady in Paris, who was not in affluent
circumstances.' Dr. W. King's _Anec._ p. 201. 'Lord Marischal,' writes
Hume, 'had a very bad opinion of this unfortunate prince; and thought
there was no vice so mean or atrocious of which he was not capable; of
which he gave me several instances.' J. H. Burton's _Hume_, ii. 464.
[559] _Siecle de Louis XIV_, ch. 15. The accentuation of this passage,
which was very incorrect as quoted by Boswell, I have corrected.
[560] By banishment he meant, I conjecture, transportation as a
convict-slave to the American plantations.
[561] Wesley in his _Journal_--the reference I have mislaid--seemed from
this consideration almost to regret a reprieve that came to a
penitent convict.
[562] Hume describes how in 1753 (? 1750) the Pretender, on his secret
visit to London, 'came to the house of a lady (who I imagined to be Lady
Primrose) without giving her any preparatory information; and entered
the room where she had a pretty large company with her, and was herself
playing at cards. He was announced by the servant under another name.
She thought the cards would have dropped from her hands on seeing him.
But she had presence enough of mind to call him by the name he assumed.'
J.H. Burton's _Hume_, ii. 462. Mr. Croker (Croker's _Boswell_, p. 331)
prints an autograph letter from Flora Macdonald which shows that Lady
Primrose in 1751 had lodged L627 in a friend's hands for her behoof, and
that she had in view to add more.
[563] It seems that the Pretender was only once in London, and that it
was in 1750. _Ante_, i. 279, note 5. I suspect that 1759 is Boswell's
mistake or his printer's. From
|