Boswells Correspondence with the Honourable Andrew Erskine, and His Journal of a Tour to Corsica

Boswell's Correspondence with
the Honourable
by James
Boswell,

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Andrew Erskine, and His Journal of a Tour to Corsica, by James
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Title: Boswell's Correspondence with the Honourable Andrew Erskine,
and His Journal of a Tour to Corsica
Author: James Boswell
Editor: George Birkbeck Hill
Release Date: January 4, 2007 [eBook #20263]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BOSWELL'S

CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE HONOURABLE ANDREW
ERSKINE, AND HIS JOURNAL OF A TOUR TO CORSICA***
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Transcriber's note:
Inconsistencies and idiosyncrasies of spelling, punctuation,
hyphenation, capitalization, and use of diacriticals are preserved as they
appear in the original text.

BOSWELL'S
CORRESPONDENCE
WITH THE HONOURABLE
ANDREW ERSKINE
AND HIS
JOURNAL OF A TOUR TO CORSICA
(Reprinted from the Original Editions)
Edited
With a Preface, Introduction, and Notes
by
GEORGE BIRKBECK HILL, D.C.L.
Author of "Dr. Johnson: His Friends and His Critics."

London: Thos. De La Rue & Co. 1879
Printed by Thomas De La Rue and Co., Bunhill Row, London.

CONTENTS.
PREFACE i
LETTERS BETWEEN THE HONOURABLE ANDREW ERSKINE
AND JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. 3
INTRODUCTION TO THE JOURNAL OF A TOUR TO CORSICA
101
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION 125
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION 135
THE JOURNAL OF A TOUR TO CORSICA 137
APPENDIX 239

BOSWELL AND ERSKINE'S LETTERS.

PREFACE.
Boswell did not bring out his "Life of Johnson" till he was past his
fiftieth year. His "Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides" had appeared more
than five years earlier. While it is on these two books that his fame
rests, yet to the men of his generation he was chiefly known for his
work on Corsica and for his friendship with Paoli. His admiration for
Johnson he had certainly proclaimed far and wide. He had long been
off, in the words of his father, "wi' the land-louping scoundrel of a

Corsican, and had pinned himself to a dominie--an auld dominie who
keeped a schule and cau'd it an acaadamy." Nevertheless it was to
Corsica and its heroic chief that he owed the position that he
undoubtedly held among men of letters. He was Corsica Boswell and
Paoli Boswell long before he became famous as Johnson Boswell.
It has been shown elsewhere[1] what a spirited thing it was in this
young Scotchman to make his way into an island, the interior of which
no traveller from this country had ever before visited. The
Mediterranean still swarmed with Turkish corsairs, while Corsica itself
was in a very unsettled condition. It had been computed that, till Paoli
took the rule and held it with a firm hand, the state had lost no less than
800 subjects every year by assassination. Boswell, as he tells us in his
Journal, had been warned by an officer of rank in the British Navy, who
had visited several of the ports, of the risk he ran to his life in going
among these "barbarians." Moreover a state of hostility existed between
the Corsicans and the Republic of Genoa--which, the year before
Boswell's visit, had obtained the assistance of France. The interior of
the island was still held by Paoli, but many of the seaport towns were
garrisoned by the French and the Genoese. At the time of Boswell's
visit war was not being actively carried on, for the French commander
had been instructed merely to secure these points, and not to undertake
offensive operations against the natives. From the Journal that Boswell
gives, we see that when once he had landed he ran no risks; but it is not
every young man who, when out on his travels, leaves the safe and
beaten round to go into a country that is almost unknown, and to prove
to others that there also safety is to be found. With good reason did
Johnson write to him--"Come home and expect such welcome as is due
to him whom a wise and noble curiosity has led where perhaps no
native of this country ever was before." With scarcely less reason did
Paoli say, "A man come from Corsica will be like a man come from the
Antipodes."
[Footnote 1: "Dr. Johnson: His Friends and His Critics." By George
Birkbeck Hill, D.C.L. Smith, Elder & Co.]
How strongly his journey and his narrative touched the hearts of people

at home may still be read in Mrs. Barbauld's fine lines on Corsica:--
"Such