LETTERS OF JAMES BOSWELL, ADDRESSED TO THE REV. W. J. TEMPLE. NOW FIRST PUBLISHED FROM THE ORIGINAL MSS. WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES. LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET, Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty. 1857. [The right of Translating this Work is reserved.] PREFACE. THE Letters of James Boswell, contained in the present Volume, came into the hands of the Publisher under the following circumstances. A few years ago a clergyman having occasion to buy some small articles at the shop of Madame Noel, at Boulogne, observed that the paper in which they were wrapped was the fragment of an English letter. Upon inspection, a date and some names were discovered; and further investigation proved that the piece of paper in question was part of a correspondence, carried on nearly a century before, between the Biographer of Dr. Samuel Johnson and his early friend, the Rev. William Johnson Temple. On making inquiry, it was ascertained that this piece of paper had been taken from a large parcel recently purchased from a hawker, who was in the habit of passing through Boulogne once or twice a year, for the purpose of supplying the different shops with paper. Beyond this no further information could be obtained. The whole contents of the parcel were immediately secured. The majority of the Letters bear M527931 |