[671] See ante, ii. 73.
[672] 'Jan. 5, 1772. Poor Mr. Fitzherbert hanged himself on Wednesday. He went to see the convicts executed that morning; and from thence in his boots to his son, having sent his groom out of the way. At three his son said, Sir, you are to dine at Mr. Buller's; it is time for you to go home and dress. He went to his own stable and hanged himself with a bridle. They say his circumstances were in great disorder.' Horace Walpole's Letters, v. 362. See ante, i. 82, and post, Sept. 15, 1777.
[673] Boswell, in his Hebrides (Aug. 18, 1773) says that, 'Budgel was accused of forging a will [Dr. Tindal's] and sunk himself in the Thames, before the trial of its authenticity came on.' Pope, speaking of himself, says that he—
'Let Budgel charge low Grub-street on his quill,
And write whate'er he pleas'd, except his will.'
Prologue to the Satires, 1, 378.
Budgel drowned himself on May 4, 1737, more than two years after the publication of this Prologue. Gent. Mag. vii. 315. Perhaps the verse is an interpolation in a later edition. See post, April 26, 1776.
[674] See post, March 15, 1776.
[675] On the Douglas Cause. See ante, ii. 50, and post, March 26, 1776.
[676] I regretted that Dr. Johnson never took the trouble to study a question which interested nations. He would not even read a pamphlet which I wrote upon it, entitled The Essence of the Douglas Cause; which, I have reason to flatter myself, had considerable effect in favour of Mr. Douglas; of whose legitimate filiation I was then, and am still, firmly convinced. Let me add, that no fact can be more respectably ascertained than by the judgement of the most august tribunal in the world; a judgement, in which Lord Mansfield and Lord Camden united in 1769, and from which only five of a numerous body entered a protest. BOSWELL. Boswell, in his Hebrides, records on Oct. 26, 1773:—'Dr. Johnson roused my zeal so much that I took the liberty to tell him that he knew nothing of the [Douglas] Cause.' Lord Shelburne says: 'I conceived such a prejudice upon the sight of the present Lord Douglas's face and figure, that I could not allow myself to vote in this cause. If ever I saw a Frenchman, he is one.' Fitzmaurice's Shelburne, i. 10. Hume 'was struck,' he writes, 'with a very sensible indignation at the decision. The Cause, though not in the least intricate, is so complicated that it never will be reviewed by the public, who are besides perfectly pleased with the sentence; being swayed by compassion and a few popular topics. To one who understands the Cause as I do, nothing could appear more scandalous than the pleadings of the two law lords.' J. H. Burton's Hume, ii. 423. In Campbell's Chancellors, v. 494, an account is given of a duel between Stuart and Thurlow that arose out of this suit.
[677] The Fountains. Works, ix. 176.