[572] Boswell's friend was very likely his brother David, who had long resided in Valencia. In that case, Johnson came round to Boswell's opinion, for he wrote, 'he will find Scotland but a sorry place after twelve years' residence in a happier climate;' post, April 29, 1780.
[573] See ante, i.443, note 2.
[574] Wilson against Smith and Armour. BOSWELL.
[575] Lord Kames, in his Historical Law Tracts. BOSWELL.
[576] 'Covin. A deceitful agreement between two or more to the hurt of another.' Johnson's Dictionary.
[577] Lord Kames (Sketches of the History of Man, iv. 168) says:—'The undisciplined manners of our forefathers in Scotland made a law necessary, that whoever intermeddled irregularly with the goods of a deceased person should be subjected to pay all his debts, however extensive. A due submission to legal authority has in effect abrogated that severe law, and it is now [1774] scarce ever heard of.' Scott introduces Lord Kames in Redgauntlet, at the end of chap. I of the Narrative:—'"What's the matter with the auld bitch next?" said an acute metaphysical judge, though somewhat coarse in his manners, aside to his brethren.' In Boswell's poem The Court of Session Garland, where the Scotch judges each give judgment, we read:—
'Alemore the judgment as illegal blames,
"Tis equity, you bitch," replies my Lord Kames.'
Chambers's Traditions of Edinburgh, ii. 161. Mr. Chambers adds (p. 171) that when Kames retired from the Bench, 'after addressing his brethren in a solemn speech, in going out at the door of the court room, he turned about, and casting them a last look, cried, in his usual familiar tone, "Fare ye a' weel, ye bitches."'
[578] At this time there were no civil juries in Scotland. 'But this was made up for, to a certain extent, by the Supreme Court, consisting of no fewer than fifteen judges; who formed a sort of judicial jury, and were dealt with as such. The great mass of the business was carried on by writing.' Cockbarn's Jeffery, i. 87. See post, Jan. 19, 1775, note.
[579] In like manner, he had discovered the Life of Cheynel to be Johnson's. Boswell's Hebrides, Aug. 17, 1774.