About the Utrecht scheme he writes to Mr. Temple on the 15th July, “I have had a long letter from my father, full of affection and good counsel. Honest man, he is now very happy: it is amazing to think how much he has had at heart my pursuing the road of civil life; he is anxious for fear I should fall off from my prudent system, and return to my dissipated, unsettled way of thinking; and in order to make him easy, he insists on having my solemn promise that I will persist in the scheme on which he is so earnestly bent: he knows my fidelity, and he concludes that my promise will fix me. Indeed he is much in the right; the only question is, how much I am to promise. I think I may promise this much,—that I shall from this time study propriety of conduct, and to be a man of knowledge and prudence, as far as I can; that I shall make as much improvement as possible while I am abroad, and when I return shall put on the gown as a member of the Faculty of Advocates, and be upon the footing of a gentleman of business, with a view to my getting into Parliament.”
For the use of Mr. Temple’s chambers Boswell paid his proportion of rent, but his occupancy was burdened with the condition that his friend’s brother, a youth of seventeen, might as occasion suited share the accommodation. This young gentleman, Mr. Robert Temple, held a commission in the line, but was not very ardent in his military duties. Boswell’s early intercourse with him was abundantly characteristic. To his brother he reported of him on the 15th July, that “his genius and application consisted in washing his face and brushing his hat, which he will execute in a few hours;” adding, “I find it somewhat inconvenient to have anybody in chambers with me.... I have allowed him to be too free with me; and I own it hurts me when I find my folly bringing me into the situation of being upon an equality with if not below the young man.” On the 23rd of July he in these doggerel verses celebrated the youth on his returning from a visit to Salisbury:—
“Bob Temple has at Sarum been,
And all the pretty girls has seen;
But he came back in the machine
Because he was the barber!
“From Mother Bowles he got good wine;
He licked his lips and called it fine;
But now the dog at Cliff’s must dine,
And is not that the barber?”
In a few days afterwards, Master Robert having begun to borrow one guinea after another, is described as “selfish,” of a “heedless disposition,” and having “no great powers either of understanding or imagination.” Boswell sums up; “I am glad he goes down to Cambridge.”
In his letter to Sir David Dalrymple of the 23rd July, Boswell enters into some details respecting the Utrecht scheme, and expresses a determination thoroughly to acquaint himself with the law of nations. He has resolved to transcribe the whole of Erskine’s Institutes,[29] that the details might be impressed in his memory.
The progress of the Utrecht arrangement is reported in the following letter to Mr. Temple, dated 20th July:—