[323] See ante, ii. 153, and iii. 1, note 2.

[324] Smollett, in Humphry Clinker (Letter of Sept. 6), writing of the Highlanders and their chiefs, says:—­’The original attachment is founded on something prior to the feudal system, about which the writers of this age have made such a pother, as if it was a new discovery, like the Copernican system ...  For my part I expect to see the use of trunk-hose and buttered ale ascribed to the influence of the feudal system.’  See ante, ii. 177.

[325] Mme. Riccoboni wrote to Garrick on May 3, 1769:—­’Vous conviendrez que les nobles sont peu menages par vos auteurs; le sot, le fat, ou le malhonnete homme mele dans l’intrigue est presque toujours un lord.’ Garrick Corres, ii. 561.  Dr. Moore (View of Society in France, i. 29) writing in 1779 says:—­’I am convinced there is no country in Europe where royal favour, high birth, and the military profession could be allowed such privileges as they have in France, and where there would be so few instances of their producing rough and brutal behaviour to inferiors.’  Mrs. Piozzi, writing in 1784, though she did not publish her book till 1789, said:—­’The French are really a contented race of mortals;—­precluded almost from possibility of adventure, the low Parisian leads gentle, humble life, nor envies that greatness he never can obtain.’ Journey through France, i. 13.

[326] He is the worthy son of a worthy father, the late Lord Strichen, one of our judges, to whose kind notice I was much obliged.  Lord Strichen was a man not only honest, but highly generous; for after his succession to the family estate, he paid a large sum of debts contracted by his predecessor, which he was not under any obligation to pay.  Let me here, for the credit of Ayrshire, my own county, record a noble instance of liberal honesty in William Hutchison, drover, in Lanehead, Kyle, who formerly obtained a full discharge from his creditors upon a composition of his debts; but upon being restored to good circumstances, invited his creditors last winter to a dinner, without telling the reason, and paid them their full sums, principal and interest.  They presented him with a piece of plate, with an inscription to commemorate this extraordinary instance of true worth; which should make some people in Scotland blush, while, though mean themselves, they strut about under the protection of great alliance, conscious of the wretchedness of numbers who have lost by them, to whom they never think of making reparation, but indulge themselves and their families in most unsuitable expence.  BOSWELL.

[327] See ante, ii. 194; iii. 353; and iv.  June 30, 1784.

[328] Malone says that ’Lord Auchinleck told his son one day that it would cost him more trouble to hide his ignorance in the Scotch and English law than to show his knowledge.  This Mr. Boswell owned he had found to be true.’ European Magazine, 1798, p. 376.