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THE 
 
 AUTHOR OF JUNIUS 
 
 tile quern requiris. Mart. 
 
 IP rice Five Shillings.^ 
 
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THE 
 
 AUTHOR OF JUNIUS 
 
 IN THE PERSON OF 
 
 THE CELEBRATED 
 
 EARL OF CHESTERFIELD. 
 
 It seldom happens that ahsohite certainty can be obtained in hnman affairs, 
 therefore reason and public utility require, that mankind in foraiing their opinions 
 of the truth of facts should be regulated by the sujierior number of probabilities on 
 one side and on the other. Lord Mansfield. 
 
 PRINTED BY T. BENSLEY^ 
 
 Crane Court, Fleet Street, 
 
 FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN, 
 
 Paternoster-row. 
 
 1821. 
 

 
 [Bnterelr at S>tationer6' f^aU.] 
 
 • • • •• 
 
 * * c c t • 
 
 ••'.••!«•••••• • • • • 
 
 • • ••••.• •• ••••. • 
 
PREFACE 
 
 fT HEN Junius declared himself " the sole 
 depository of his own secret, and that it should 
 perish with him," he might have believed the 
 danger which attended him during the career 
 of his political warfare would cease when he 
 disappeared. The solicitude he so frequently 
 betrayed for his safety, seems to have been 
 confined chiefly to the arts of others, uncon- 
 scious of the means he afforded from his own 
 writings to accelerate his destruction. It will 
 appear singular that these means have escaped 
 the penetration of succeeding generations, and 
 the facts recorded by that mysterious author 
 have failed to excite suspicion towards the 
 only individual calculated to support the cha- 
 racter of Junius. 
 
 It will require but little evidence to convince 
 such as have a knowledge of Lord Chester- 
 
 865985 
 
( iv ) 
 
 field's character, that he was the author of 
 these Letters, since a slight comparison will 
 prove the fact. Still the question has been too 
 often investigated to hope that none will 
 be found to raise objections, unless some more 
 positive proof than exact similitude of charac- 
 ter can be offered. The following pages are, 
 therefore, presented as containing the most 
 remarkable events by which the writer may 
 with greater certainty be ascertained. They 
 are little more than a collection of notes, and 
 claim indulgence for any imperfection in their 
 classification. 
 
 The Memoir of Lord Chesterfield is selected 
 from a life of that celebrated statesman pub- 
 lished shortly after his decease, and contains 
 perhaps all that may be found necessary to 
 assist in giving a satisfactory solution to this 
 interesting question. 
 
XHE 
 
 LETTERS OF JUNIUS, 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 The variety of claims to the Letters of Junius 
 render a minute inquiry into the circumstances 
 connected with the elucidation of the question 
 unnecessary. They have been for the most 
 part too frequently detailed to require recapi- 
 tulation. Such facts therefore as admit of 
 argument, and neither tend directly to increase 
 suspicion nor strengthen conviction, may be 
 dispensed w^ith, or left to the reader to apply as 
 he thinks fit. The following pages, it is pre- 
 sumed, contain sufficient proofs to satisfy the 
 doubts of the most sceptical, and will effect- 
 ually remove those difficulties which have 
 hitherto prevailed against the pretensions of 
 every other candidate. 
 
 Before the facts be examined, it seems ex- 
 pedient to present the reader with the means 
 whereby he may be enabled to judge how far 
 the character of Junius corresponds with him 
 who is now challenged as having been that 
 
writer. If, in pursiiiiig this part of the subject, 
 there s^aH^Etppe^rr no inctosistency, but on the 
 contrary an exact resemblance, insomuch, that 
 in pourtraying the one, we have the picture of 
 both, it will incline the reader more readily to 
 admit the testimony which follows : and, as on 
 this point the strictest impartiality ought to be 
 observed, such authors as could have no pos- 
 sible interest in giving a false colour to the fea- 
 tures of Junius ought rather to be preferred, 
 and where it may be found necessary to extend 
 the investigation, to have recourse to Junius 
 himself. 
 
 The writer of the Preliminary Essay to 
 Woodfall's edition, 1812, has examined the 
 various and eccentric qualifications of Junius 
 with a fair, candid, and impartial scrutiny ; at 
 the same time supporting his opinions with the 
 best arguments ; those which arose from the 
 testimony of the author's writings. The fol- 
 lowing extracts more particularly deserve at- 
 tention, as indeed they contain ihe principal 
 attributes by which Junius may be recognised. 
 
 " That he was not only a man of highly cul- 
 tivated general talents and education, but had 
 critically and successfully studied the language, 
 the law, the constitution, and history of his 
 native country, is indubitable. Yet this is not 
 all ; the proofs are just as clear that he was 
 also a man of independent fortune, that he 
 
3 
 
 moved in the immediate circle of the court, and 
 was intimately acquainted, from its first con- 
 ception, with almost every public measure, 
 every ministerial intrigue, and every domestic 
 incident. 
 
 " That he was a man of easy, if not of afflu- 
 ent circumstances, is unquestionable, from the 
 fact that he never could be induced in any way 
 or shape to receive any acknowledgment from 
 the proprietor of the Public Advertiser, for the 
 great benefit and popularity he conferred on 
 this paper by his writings, and to which he 
 was fairly entitled. When the first genuine 
 edition of his letters was on the point of pub- 
 lication, Mr. Woodfall again urged him either 
 to accept half its profits, or to point out some 
 public charity or other institution to which an 
 equal sum might be presented. His reply to 
 this request is contained in a paragraph of one 
 of his private letters. No. 59, and confers credit 
 on both the parties. '* What you say about 
 the profits is very handsome. I like to deal 
 with such men. As for myself, be assured that 
 I am far above all pecuniary views, and no other 
 person I think has any claim to share with you. 
 Make the most of it therefore ; and let your 
 views in life be directed to a solid, however mo- 
 derate independence ; without it no man can be 
 happy, nor even honest." In this last sentence 
 he reasoned from the sphere of life in which he 
 
 B 2 
 
was accustomed to move; and, confining it to 
 this sphere, the transactions of every day shew 
 us that he reasoned correctly. It is an ad- 
 ditional proof, as well of his affluence, as of his 
 generosity, that not long after the commence- 
 ment of his correspondence with the printer of 
 the Public Advertiser, he wrote to him as fol- 
 lows : *' For the matter of assistance, be assured 
 that if a question should arise upon any writings 
 of mine, you shall not want it — in point of money 
 be assured you shall never suffer."^ In perfect 
 and honourable consonance with which, when 
 the printer was at length involved in a prosecu- 
 tion, in consequence of Junius's letter to the 
 King, he wrote to him as follows : " If your 
 affair should come to a trial, and you should be 
 found guilty, you will then let me know what 
 expense falls particularly on yourself, for I un- 
 derstand you are engaged with other proprie- 
 tors. Some way or other you shall be reim- 
 bursed."'^ 
 
 " As you have told us (says Sir W. Draper 
 in his last letter to Junius) of your importance, 
 and that you are a person of rank '3ind fortune, 
 and above a common bribe, you may in all pro- 
 bability be not unknown to his lordship (Earl 
 of Shelburne) who can satisfy you of the truth 
 of what I say."'^ Sir William alludes, in this 
 
 * Private Letter, No. 6, dated Aug. 6, 1769. 
 t Private Letter, No. 19. *= Vol. II. p. 3. 
 
passage, to a short public note of Junius to the 
 printer of the Public Advertiser, addressed in 
 consequence of some verses which had just 
 appeared in that paper, entitled, *'The Tears of 
 Sedition on the Death of Junius,'"^ in which he 
 observes, *' It is true 1 have refused offers which 
 a more prudent or a more interested man would 
 have accepted : whether it be simplicity or vir- 
 tue in me, I can only affirm that lam in earnest^ 
 because I am convinced, as far as my under- 
 standing is capable pf judging, that the present 
 ministry is driving this country to destruction ; 
 and you, I think. Sir, may be satisfied that my 
 rank and fortune place me above a common 
 bribe." ^ Sir William sneers at the appeal, and 
 treats it as the mere unfounded boast of a man 
 of arrogance and invisibility, but the reader 
 now sees sufficiently that it had a solid foun- 
 dation to rest upon. 
 
 "^ That Junius moved in the immediate circle 
 of the court, and was intimately and confiden- 
 tially connected, either directly or indirectly, 
 with all the public offices of Government, is, if 
 possible, still clearer than that he was a man 
 of independent property ; for the feature that 
 peculiarly characterized him at the time of his 
 
 ^ The Earl of Chesterfield was at this time afflicted with a 
 " painful and troublesome inflammation in his eyes." See his 
 letter to Mrs. Stanhope, dated March 16, 1769. Vol. IV. 
 
 ^ See Miscellaneous Letters, No. LIV. Vol. III. p. 197, 
 
6 
 
 writing, and that cannot even now be contem- 
 plated without surprise, was the facility with 
 which he became acquainted with every minis- 
 terial manoeuvre, whether public or private, from 
 almost the very instant of its conception. At 
 the first moment the partisans of the prime 
 minister were extolling his official integrity 
 and virtue, in not only resisting the terms of- 
 fered by Mr. Vaughan for the purchase of the 
 reversion of a patent place in Jamaica, but in 
 commencing a prosecution against him for 
 thus attempting to corrupt him, Junius, in his 
 letter Nov. 29, 1769, Vol. II. p. 52, exposed 
 this affectation of coyness, as he calls it, by 
 proving that the minister was not only privy to, 
 but a party concerned in, the sale of another 
 patent place, though the former had often been 
 disposed of before, in a manner somewhat, if 
 not altogether, similar. The particulars of this 
 transaction are given in his letter to the Duke 
 of Grafton, Dec. 12, 1769, Vol. II. p. 54, and 
 in his private note to Mr. Woodfall, of the 
 same date, No. 15. The rapidity with which 
 the affair of General Gansell reached him has 
 been already noticed.*^ In his letter to the 
 Duke of Bedford he narrates facts which could 
 scarcely be known but to persons immediately 
 acquainted with the family; and, when the 
 printer was threatened with a prosecution, in 
 
 ^ See PreMminary Essay, page 28. 
 
7 
 
 consequence of this letter, he says to him, in a 
 private note, "It is clearly my opinion that you 
 have nothing to fear from the Duke of Bed- 
 ford : I reserve some things expressly to awe 
 him, in case he should think of bringing you 
 before the House of Lords. I am sure I can 
 threaten him privately with such a storm as 
 would make him tremble even in his grave. ^ 
 He was equally acquainted with the domestic 
 concerns of Lord Hartford's family .*" Of a 
 Mr. Swinney, a correspondent of the printer's, 
 he observes in another confidential letter, 
 ** That Swinney is a wretched but a dan- 
 gerous fool : he had the impudence to go to 
 Lord Sackville, whom he had never spoken to, 
 and to ask him whether or no he was Junius — 
 take care of him."' This anecdote is not a 
 little curious : the fact was true, and occurred 
 but a day or two before the letter was written; 
 but how Junius, unless he had been Lord 
 Sackville himself, should have been so soon 
 acquainted with it, baffles all conjecture. In 
 reality several persons to whom this traiLS- 
 
 ^ Private Letter, No. 10. ^ Private Letter, No. 42. 
 
 ' Private Letter, No. 5. It does not appear even to require 
 an intimacy with Lord Sackville or his family to explain how 
 Junius became so early acquainted with this circumstance. 
 Admitting Lord SackviUe not to have been the author, there 
 is no reason for believing he remained silent on the subject, 
 or revealed as a secret that which could in no wise affect 
 him by its publicity. It is probable so singular an occurrence 
 
8 
 
 action has been related, connecting it with 
 other circumstances of a similar tendency, 
 have ventured, but too precipitately, to at- 
 tribute the letters of Junius to his Lordship. 
 
 "His secret intelligence respecting public 
 transactions is as extraordinary. The accu- 
 racy w^ith which he first dragged to general 
 notice the dismission of Sir JefFery Amherst 
 from his governorship of Virginia, has been 
 already glanced at.^ " You may assure the 
 public," says he, in a private letter, Jan. 17, 
 1771, ** that a squadron of four ships of the 
 line is ordered to be got ready with all pos- 
 sible expedition for the East Indies. It is to 
 be commanded by Commodore Spry. With- 
 out regarding the language of ignorant or 
 interested people, depend upon the assurance 
 I give you, that every man in administration 
 looks upon war as inevitable. ^ 
 
 " But it would be endless to detail every in- 
 stance of early and accurate information upon 
 political subjects with which his public and 
 private letters abound. In many cases he was 
 able to indicate even to the printer of the Public 
 
 was soon communicated to the circle of his Lordship's ac- 
 quaintance, and consequently, though Junius had no connex- 
 ion with the family, yet his rank afforded him every opportu- 
 nity to gain such intelligence. 
 
 J See Preliminary Essay, p. 19 — 22. 
 I' Private Letter, No 28. 
 
9 
 
 Advertiser himself, the real names of those 
 who corresponded with him, under fictitious 
 signatures. ** Your Veridicus," says he, in 
 one letter, ** is Mr. Whit worth. I assure you I 
 have not confided in him.^ Your Lycurgus," he 
 observes in another letter,"" '^ is a Mr. Kent, a 
 young man of good parts upon town." — Pre- 
 liminary Essay, p. 32 — 39. 
 
 '* It is not impossible to form a plausible 
 guess at the age of Junius, from a passage in 
 one of his private letters ; an inquiry, which, 
 though otherwise of little or no consequence, 
 is rendered in some measure important, as a 
 test to determine the validity of the claims 
 that have been laid to his writings by dif- 
 ferent candidates or their friends." The pas- 
 sage referred to occurs in his letter to Wood- 
 fall, dated Nov. 27, 1771 : '' After long ex^ 
 perience of the world,'' says he, '* I affirm 
 before God, I never knew a rogue who was 
 not unhappy."" Now when this declaration is 
 coupled with the two facts that he made it 
 under the repeated promise and intention of 
 
 * Private Letter, No. 6. " Id. No. 5. 
 
 " There are two characteristics in this short sentence appli- 
 cable to the Earl of Chesterfield. First, the boast of long 
 experience, of which innumerable instances of a similar de- 
 claration may be found in his Letters to his Son. Secondly, 
 the conclusion drawn from it — " I never knew a rogue who 
 was not unhappy." "As to the moral virtues," says his 
 Lordship, *' I say nothing to you 3 they speuk best for them- 
 
10 
 
 speedily disclosing himself to his correspon- 
 dent, and that the correspondent thus schooled 
 
 selves ; nor can I suspect that they will want any recom- 
 mendation with you : I will therefore only assure you, that 
 without them you will be most unhappy." — Letters to his 
 Son, 120, Vol. II. 
 
 There is a still more remarkable passage illustrative of the 
 age of Junus, which occurs in his letter to Mr. Wilkes, 21st 
 Oct. 1771^ in answer to his offer of tickets for the Lord 
 Mayor's day. "^ Many thanks," says he, '^ for your obliging 
 offer, but alas ! my age and figure would do but little credit 
 to my partner. I acknowledge the relation between Cato and 
 Portia, but in truth I see no connexion between Junius and 
 a minuet." By this reflection upon his person, we may na- 
 turally suppose he was afflicted with some infirmity, which 
 rendered the connexion of Junius and a minuet truly ri- 
 diculous. 
 
 "About the latter end of the year 1772, Mr. Stanhope's 
 widow visited Lord Chesterfield, and brought with her his 
 two grandsons. His Lordship upon this occasion laid aside 
 his crutch, with which he used to support himself, being then 
 very lame, and attempted to advance, and embrace the chil- 
 dren 3 but he was no longer able to support himself, and 
 would have fallen if a servant had not instantly succoured him. 
 This afflicted him much 5 but presently recovering himself, he 
 said smiling, " This is a fresh proof of my declension — I am 
 not able to crawl upon my three legs — the last part of the 
 Sphynx's riddle approaches, and I shall soon end, as 1 began, 
 upon aU fours." His Lordship's prediction was soon verified, 
 for he lost the use of his limbs soon after j but he re- 
 tained his senses to the last hour of his life. He died 24th 
 March 1773." 
 
 Junius ceased from his labours May 12, 1772. His last 
 letter is advertised, by his desire, "Memoirs of Lord Bar- 
 rington," with directions to keep the Author's name a secret 
 
11 
 
 by a moral axiom, gleaned from his own ^'long 
 experience of the world," was at this very time 
 
 It contains a review of his Lordship's political life, and nar- 
 rates facts scarcely possible to have been known by one who 
 had not been what Junius declares himself, *' an old acquaint- 
 ance." From the date of this letter till the 19th January, 1773, 
 Junius remained silent -, when, upon seeing the signals agaia 
 thrown out, he writes to his printer : — 
 
 *' 1 have seen the signals thrown out for your old friend and 
 correspondent : be assured, that I have had good reason for not 
 complying with them. In the present state of things, if I 
 were to write again, I must be as silly as any of the horned 
 cattle that nm mad through the city, or as any of your wise 
 aldermen. I meant the cause and the public : both are given 
 up. I feel for the honour of this country when I see that there 
 are not ten men in it who will unite and stand together upon 
 any one question. But it is all alike, vile and contemptible. 
 You have never flinched that I know of, and I shall always 
 rejoice to hear of your prosperity. If you have any thing to 
 communicate of moment to yourself, you may use the last 
 address, and give a hint." — Private Letter, No. 63. 
 
 " The signals here referred to, were thrown out on the very 
 morning of the day on which this letter was written, and con- 
 sisted of the following Latin quotation inserted in the Public 
 Advertiser for January 19, 1773, among the other answers to 
 correspondents : — ^' Iterumque, iterumque monebo.'* The 
 printer within a few weeks afterwards availed himself of the 
 liberty of making a communication to Junius by the last ad^ 
 dress, and in the Public Advertiser of March 8, gave the follow- 
 ing hint, '' The letter from an old friend and correspondent, 
 dated January 19, came safe to hand, and his directions are 
 strictly followed. Quod si quis existimat aut, &c." The quo- 
 tation is peculiarly happy, for it is not only a copy of what 
 Junius had cited himself, in his last private letter but one, and 
 
12 
 
 Something more than thirty years of age, it 
 seems absurd to suppose that Junius could be 
 much less than fifty, or that he affected an age 
 he had not actually attained. 
 
 " There is another point in the history of his 
 life, during his appearance as a public writer, 
 which for the same reason must not be suffered 
 to pass by without observation, although other- 
 wise it might be scarcely entitled to notice ; 
 and that is, that during a great part of his time, 
 from January 1769, to January 1772, he uni- 
 formly resided in London or its immediate 
 
 was hence sure to attract his attention, but is a smart repli- 
 cation to the passage in the letter it immediately refers to — 
 " you have never flinched, that I know of." * * * * "Among 
 the answers to correspondents, March 20, we find another 
 signal of the very same kind, in the following terms : — *' Aut 
 voluntate esse mutatdy And in the same place, March 29, a 
 third ensign, under the following form : — " Aut debilitatd 
 virtutey Both of which, it will be observed, upon a com- 
 parison, are verbal continuations of Junius's own quotation, 
 and hence identify with double force the person to whom 
 they relate. In the Public Advertiser of April 7, we find the 
 following signal of a similar description, and it is the last we 
 have been able to discover : — "Die quibus in terns*' 
 
 " It is probable that these all related to matters of a personal 
 concern, upon which, by the above private letter, the printer 
 had still leave to address his correspondent ; — at least there is 
 no reason for believing that Junius ever broke through the 
 silence upon which he so inflexibly determined on January 19, 
 or consented to re-appear before the public in any character 
 whatever." — -See Note to Preliminary Essay, p. 53 — 55. 
 
13 
 
 vicinity, and that he never quitted his stated 
 habitation for a longer period than a few 
 weeks. This too we may collect from his pri- 
 vate correspondence, compared with his public 
 labours. No man but he who, with a thorough 
 knowledge of our Author s style, undertakes 
 to examine all the numbers of the Public Ad- 
 vertiser for the three years in question, can 
 have any idea of the immense fatigue and 
 trouble he submitted to, by the composition of 
 other letters, under other signatures, in order 
 to support the pre-eminent pretensions and 
 character of Junius, attacked as it was by a 
 multiplicity of writers in favour of adminis- 
 tration, to whom, as Junius, he did not chuse 
 to make any reply whatever. Surely Junius 
 himself, when he first undertook the office of 
 public political censor, could by no means 
 foresee the labour with which he was about to 
 encumber himself. And instead of wondering 
 that he should have disappeared at the dis- 
 tance of about five years, we ought much ra- 
 ther to be surprised that he should have per- 
 severed through half this period, with a spirit 
 at once so indefatigable and invincible. Ju- 
 nius had no time for remote excursions, nor 
 often for relaxation, even in the vicinity of the 
 metropolis itself. 
 " Yet from his private letters we could almost 
 
u 
 
 collect a journal of his absences, if not an iti- 
 nerary of his little tours : for he does not ap- 
 pear to have left London at any time without 
 some notice to the printer, either of his in- 
 tention, or of the fact itself upon his return 
 home : independently of which, the frequency 
 and regularity of his correspondence seldom 
 allowed of distant travel. " 1 have been° out 
 
 " The Earl of Chesterfield l^ft London for Bath October 7, 
 1769, and his last letter from thence in that year is dated 
 November 5. These dates, compared with the private letters, 
 will be found to correspond with the absence of Junius. 
 Nothing can be more exact : the last letter which Junius wrote 
 to his printer, before he left town, is dated two days before 
 ,His Lordship's departure. *' I have been," says Junius, in 
 his miscellaneous letter. No. 4, '' some time in the country, 
 which has prevented your hearing sooner from me." Here 
 is a distinction which attaches the strongest suspicion to the 
 Earl of Chesterfield. In reference to His Lordship's letters, 
 it will be seen he was at Blackheath at this time, and left 
 town when Junius ceased writing. The following table will 
 distinctly prove the connection. 
 
 Dates of Junius's Letters. Dates of the Earl of Chesterfield's Letters. 
 London, April 28, 1767. London, April 6, 1767. 
 
 — - May 28, — May 5, 
 
 — June 24, — June 1, 
 
 — Aug. 25, Blackheath, July 2, 
 
 Blackheath, July 9, 
 London, Oct. 30. 
 There is another circumstance connected with these dates 
 that deserves attention. It will be seen here, (as throughout 
 the whole of Junius's correspondence) that they are distinct 
 
15 
 
 of town,''' says he, in his letter of Nov. 8, 1769, 
 "/or three weeks, and though I got your last, 
 could not conveniently answer it/'^ On ano- 
 ther occasion, '* I have been some days in the 
 country, and could not conveniently send for 
 your letter until this night/' *» And again, ** I 
 must see proof sheets of the Dedication and 
 Preface, and these, if at all, I must see before 
 the end of next vi^eek."' In like manner, *' I 
 want rest most severely, and am going to find 
 it in the country for a few days."' — Pre- 
 liminary Essay, p. 46 — 48. 
 
 ** To judge of the moral and political charac- 
 ter of Junius from his writings, as well private 
 as public, he appears to have been a man of a 
 bold and ardent spirit, tenaciously honourable 
 in his personal connexions, but vehement and 
 inveterate in his enmities, and quick and irri- 
 
 from each other. The Letters of the Earl of Chesterfield to 
 his Son, seldom, if ever, were written so as to interfere with 
 the labours of Junius. 
 
 As these facts are material to the elucidation of the question, 
 another instance may be traced for the satisfaction of the 
 reader, though the above facts are so positive, that further 
 inquiry upon this point seems unnecessary. The Earl of 
 Chesterfield left London the first week in November, 1767: 
 during this month, and the greater part of December, no let- 
 ter appeared from Junius. 
 
 P Private Letter, No. U. *» Id. No. 7. 
 
 ' Id. No. 45. ' Id. No. 43. 
 
16 
 
 table in conceiving them. In his state prin- 
 ciples he was strictly constitutional, excepting 
 perhaps upon the single point of denying the 
 impeccability of the crown; in those of religion 
 he at least ostensibly professed an attachment 
 to the established Church. 
 
 " Of his personal and private honour, how- 
 ever, we can only judge from his connexion 
 with Mr. Woodfall ; yet this connexion is, per- 
 haps, sufficient: throughout the whole of it he 
 appears in a light truly ingenuous and liberal." 
 — Preliminary Essay, p. 65, QQ, 
 
 *' Firmly rooted in the best Whig principles 
 of the day, he had an invincible hatred of Lord 
 Bute, as the grand prop and foundation-stone 
 of Toryism, in its worst and most arbitrary 
 tendencies ; as introduced into Charlton-house 
 against the consent of his present Majesty's 
 royal Grandfather, through the overweening 
 favouritism of the Princess Dowager of Wales; 
 as having obtained an entire ascendency over 
 this princess, and through this princess over the 
 King, whose non-age had been entirely in- 
 trusted to him ; and through the King over the 
 Cabinet, and the Parliament itself. The intro- 
 duction of Lord Bute unto the post of chief pre- 
 ceptor to his Majesty was, in our author's opi- 
 nion, an inexpiable evil. ** That," says he, " was 
 the salient point from which all the mischiefs 
 
17 
 
 and disgraces of the present reign took life 
 and motion." Vol. II. p. 65. Thus despising 
 the tutor, he could have no great reverence 
 for the pupil ; and hence the personal dislike 
 he too frequently betrays, and occasionally in 
 language altogether intemperate and unjusti- 
 fiable for the sovereign. Hence too his uncon- 
 querable prejudice against Scotchmen of every 
 rank."* — Preliminary Essay, p. 73. 
 
 ** His reasons for believing that the Constitu- 
 tion allows him to regard the reigning prince 
 as occasionally culpable in his own person, are 
 given at large in his preface. To few people, 
 perhaps, in the present day will they carry con- 
 viction. But bating this single opinion, his view 
 of the principles and powers of the Constitu- 
 tion appears to be equally correct and perspi- 
 cuous. Upon the question of general warrants ; 
 
 * The Earl of Chesterfield admits national reflectbns tto be 
 unjust, yet it is apparent, from this passage in one of his 
 Letters to his Son, that he had no very favourable opinion of 
 the Scots. 
 
 "Your late secretary has been with me three or four times: 
 he wants something or another, and it seems all one to him 
 what, whether civil or military : in plain English, he wants 
 bread. He has knocked at the doors of some of the ministers, 
 but to no purpose : I wish with aU my heart I could help him. 
 I told him fairly that I could not, but advised him to find 
 
 some channel to Lord B j which, though a Scotchman, 
 
 he told me he could not." Letter 344, Vol. IV. 
 
 C 
 
18 
 
 of the right of juries to return general verdicts, 
 or, in other words, to determine upon the law 
 as well as upon the fact; of the unlimited power 
 of Lords Chief Justices to admit to bail ; of the 
 illegality of suspending Acts of Parliament by 
 proclamation ; we owe him much : he was a 
 warm and rigid supporter of the co-extent as 
 well as co-existence of the three estates of the 
 government: and it was from this principle 
 alone that he argued against the system of 
 indefinite privilege as appertaining to either 
 house individually, and as allowing it a power 
 of arbitrary punishment for what may occa- 
 sionally be regarded as a contempt of such 
 house, or a breach of such privilege." — Pre- 
 liminary Essay, p. 76. 
 
 >* Junius has been repeatedly accused of 
 having been a party-man, but perhaps no poli- 
 tical satirist was ever less so. To Mr. Wilkes 
 and Mr. Home he was equally indifferent, ex- 
 cept in regard to their public principles and 
 public characters. In his estimation the cause 
 alone was every thing, and they were only of 
 value as the temporary and accidental support- 
 ers of it. " Let us employ these men," says he, 
 " in whatever departments their various abilities 
 are best suited to, and as much to the advan- 
 tage of the common cause as their different 
 inclinations will permit. If individuals have 
 
19 
 
 no virtues, their vices may be of use to us. I 
 care not with what principle the new-born 
 patriot is animated, if the measures he supports 
 are beneficial to the community. The nation 
 is interested in his conduct : his motives are 
 his own. The properties of a patriot are pe- 
 rishable in the individual, but there is a quick 
 succession of subjects, and the breed is worth 
 preserving." — Preliminary Essay, p. 79. 
 
 *' In his religious opinions Junius has been 
 accused of deism and atheism, but on what ac- 
 count it seems impossible to ascertain. He has 
 by others been conceived to have been a dis- 
 senter, yet with as little reason. To judge from 
 the few passages in his own writings that have 
 any bearing upon the question, and which occur 
 chiefly in his letter under the signature of Philo- 
 Junius, of August 26, 1771, he appears to have 
 been a Christian upon the most sincere convic- 
 tion: one of whose chief objects was to defend 
 the religion established by law, and who was 
 resolved to renounce and give up to public con- 
 tempt and indignation every man who should 
 be capable of uttering a disrespectful word 
 against it. To the religion of the court, it 
 must be confessed, that he was no friend, and, 
 to speak the truth, it constituted at the period 
 in question an anomaly not a little difficult of 
 solution. To behold a sanctuary self-sur- 
 rounded by a moat of pollution; a « prince 
 
 c 2 
 
20 
 
 strictly and exemplarily pious, selecting for bis 
 confidential advisers men of the most aban- 
 doned debaucbery and profligacy of life ; de- 
 manded, in order to penetrate tbe mystery, a 
 knowledge never completely required till tbe 
 present day, vs^bicb bas sufficiently demon- 
 strated bow impossible it is for a king of Eng- 
 land to exercise at all times a real option in 
 tbe appointment of bis ministers. Tbe seve- 
 rity witb wbicb our Autbor uniformly satirizes 
 every violation of public decorum, at least en- 
 titles bim to public gratitude, and does credit to 
 tbe purity of bis beart. And if bis morality 
 may be judged of by various occasional obser- 
 vations and advices scattered throughout bis 
 private intercourse witb Mr. Woodfall, some 
 instances of wbicb have already been selected, 
 it is impossible to do otherwise than approve 
 both bis principles and bis conduct. 
 
 "Whether tbe writer of these letters bad any 
 other and less worthy object in view than that 
 be uniformly avowed, namely, a desire to sub- 
 serve tbe best political interests of bis country, 
 it is impossible to ascertain with precision: 
 it is unquestionably no common occurrence in 
 history, to behold a man thus steadily and al- 
 most incessently, for five years, volunteering 
 bis services in tbe cause of the people, amidst 
 abuse and slander, from every party, exposed 
 to universal resentment, unknown, and not da- 
 
21 
 
 ring to be known, without having any personal 
 object to acquire, any sinister motive of indi- 
 vidual aggrandizement or reward. Yet no- 
 thing, either in his public or private letters, 
 affords us the remotest hint that he was thus 
 actuated. Throughout the whole, from first to 
 last, in the midst of all his warmth and 
 rancour, his argument and declamation, his 
 appeal to the public and his notes to his 
 confidential friend, he seems to have been 
 influenced by the stimulus of sound and ge- 
 nuine patriotism alone. With this he com- 
 menced his career, and with this he retired 
 from the field of action, retaining at least a 
 twelvemonth afterwards^ the latest period in 
 which we are able to catch a glimpse of him, 
 the same political sentiments he had professed 
 on his first appearance before the world, and 
 still ready to renew his efforts the veiy mo- 
 ment he could perceive they had a chance of 
 being attended with benefit. Under these 
 circumstances therefore, however difficult it 
 may be to acquit him altogether of personal 
 considerations, it is still more difficult, and 
 must be altogether unjust, ungenerous, and 
 illogical, to suspect his integrity. 
 
 ** It has often been said, from the general 
 knowledge he has evinced of English juris- 
 prudence, that he must have studied the law 
 
22 
 
 professionally ; and in one of his private letters 
 already quoted, he gives his personal opinion 
 upon the mode in which the information of the 
 King against Woodfall was drawn up, in a 
 manner that may serve to countenance such an 
 opinion ; yet on other occasions he speaks ob- 
 viously not from his own knowledge, but from 
 a consultation with legal practitioners. *'The 
 information," says he, ** will only be for a 
 misdemeanour, and I am advised that no jury, 
 and especially in these times, will find it."" In 
 like manner, although he affirms in his elaborate 
 letter to Lord Mansfield, **I well know the 
 practice of the court, and by what legal rules 
 it ought toT)e directed,"'' yet he is for ever con- 
 temning the intricacies and littlenesses of spe- 
 cial pleading; and in his preface declares, 
 unequivocally, *' ^I am no lawyer by profession, 
 nor do I pretend to be more deeply read than 
 every English gentleman should be in the laws 
 of his country. If therefore the principles I 
 maintain are truly constitutional, I shall not 
 think myself answered, though I should be 
 convicted of a mistake in terms, or of misapply- 
 ing the language of the law." "" 
 
 " Private Letters, No. 18. "^ Vol. II. p. 409. 
 
 ^ " Though I use the terms of art, do not injure me so 
 much as to suspect I am a lawyer : I had as lief be a Scotch- 
 man." Private Letters to Mr. Wilkes, No. 70, p. 312. 
 
 » See Preface, p. 10, II. 
 
23 
 
 ** That he was of some rank and conse- 
 quence, seems generally to have been admitted 
 by his opponents, and must indeed necessarily 
 follow, as has been already casually hinted 
 at, from the facility with which he acquired 
 political information, and a knowledge of minis- 
 terial intrigues. In one place he expressly 
 affirms, that " his rank and fortune place hiin 
 above a common bribe;"* in another, " I 
 should have hoped that even mi/ name might 
 carry some authority with it, if I had not seen 
 how very little weight or consideration a prin- 
 ted paper receives, even from the respectable 
 signature of Sir W. Draper."'' On two occa- 
 sions he intimates an intention of composing a 
 regular history of the Duke of Grafton's ad- 
 ministration. *' These observations," says he, 
 ** general as they are, might easily be extended 
 into a faithful history of your Grace's adminis- 
 tration, and may perhaps be the employment 
 of a future hour."" And in a note subjoined to 
 a subsequent letter, " The history of this ridi- 
 culqus administration shall not be lost to the 
 public." "^ And on one occasion, and one occa- 
 sion only, he appears to hint at some prospect, 
 
 * Miscellaneous Letters, No. 54, Vol. III. p. 202. 
 " See Letters, Vol. L p. 71. 
 
 *= See Letter 11, Vol. L p. 132. 
 
 * Vol. IL p. 76. 
 
24 
 
 though a slender one, of taking a part in the 
 government of the country. It occurs in a 
 private letter to Woodfall. '' I doubt much 
 whether I shall ever have the pleasure of 
 knowing you, but if things take the turn I ex- 
 pect, you shall know me by my works.'' ^ 
 
 * The Author of Junius Identified, certainly fixed upon the 
 best expedient to ascertain the rank and importance of Junius. 
 *' There is one means/' says he, " tending to the discovery of 
 the rank and station of Junius, which I was led to adopt, after 
 my suspicions of the Author had been first excited by the re- 
 markable evidence already detailed j I allude to the simple rule 
 of seeing with whose names he is most familiar : the common 
 maxim, nocitur ct sociisy is perhaps as true in this respect as it 
 is in morals. Men with whom we daily mix, and who are al- 
 most constantly before our eyes, are very soon examined too 
 minutely to be much reverenced : familiar and jocose appel- 
 lations begin to be applied to them, and we are insensible, 
 though nothing is plainer to others, how naturally, wherever 
 we mention such persona, we prove our acquaintance with 
 them by taking these liberties." 
 
 But is the Author correct in attributing this familiarity exclu- 
 sively to Lord Harrington, Messrs. Ellis, Rigby, Whitely, Brad- 
 shaw and Chamier ? Are not Lord Chatham, the Duke of 
 Grafton, and every distinguished character, spoken of with as 
 much freedom as these comparatively insignificant individuals ? 
 There is certainly this difference ; to the former, he evinces an 
 independent suj)eriority, while his language to the latter is de- 
 cidedly that of an equal and an associate. Nor is the freedom 
 confined to Ministers. The King is appealed to, and spoken 
 of, in the unassumed language of a courtier. Here the Author 
 could not counterfeit, but proves himself to have been inti- 
 mately acquainted, not only with the necess£uy forms and 
 
25 
 
 ** Of those who have critically analyzed the 
 style of his compositions, some have pretended 
 to prove that he must necessarily have been of 
 Irish descent/ or Irish education, from the pe- 
 culiarity of his idioms ; vrhile, to shew how 
 little dependence is to be placed upon any such 
 observations, others have equally pretended to 
 prove, from a similar investigation, that he 
 could not have been a native either of Scotland 
 or Ireland, nor have studied in any university 
 of either of those countries. The fact is, that 
 there are few phraseologies in his letters pecu- 
 liar to himself; such as occur in the composi- 
 tions of all original writers of great force and 
 genius, but which are neither indicative of any 
 particular race, nor referable to any provincial 
 dialect." — Preliminary Essay, p. 83 — 89. 
 
 " To pursue this critique further, would be to 
 
 ceremonies, but even the minutiae of a court, and also con- 
 versant in all its public offices and employments. 
 
 *■ After the Earl of Chesterfield had been appointed Lord 
 Lieutenant of Ireland, as a proof of his attachment to the 
 people, he used to style them his cmntrymen. This is the 
 kind of feeling wrhich seems to pervade Junius,' whenever he 
 speaks of that nation. It is not the affection of a legitimate 
 offspring, but the esteem which the recollection of kindness 
 will produce. "Is such a man," says Junius, in miscellaneous 
 letter No. IV. " likely to please the brave Irish, whose hasty 
 tempers, or whose blunders, may sometimes lead them into 
 a quarrel j but whose swords always carry them through it } '* 
 
26 
 
 disparage the judgement of the reader. Upon 
 the whole, these letters, whether considered 
 as classical and correct compositions, or as ad- 
 dresses of popular and impressive eloquence, 
 are well entitled to the distinction they have 
 acquired ; and quoted as they have been with 
 admiration, in the Senate, by such nice judges 
 and accomplished scholars as Mr. Burke and 
 Lord Eldon, eulogized by Dr. Johnson, and 
 admitted by the Author of the Pursuits of 
 Literature to the same rank, among English 
 classics, as Livy and Tacitus among Roman, 
 there can be no doubt that they will live com- 
 mensurately with the language in which they 
 are composed. 
 
 '* These few desultory and imperfect hints 
 are the whole that the writer of this essay has 
 been able to collect concerning the Author of 
 the Letters of Junius. Yet desultory and im- 
 perfect as they are, he still hopes that they 
 may not be utterly destitute, both of interest 
 and utility. Although they do not undertake 
 positively to ascertain who the Author was, 
 they offer a fair test to point out negatively who 
 he was not, and to enable us to reject the pre- 
 tensions of a host of persons whose friends 
 have claimed for them so distinguished an 
 honour. 
 
 *' From the observations contained in this 
 
27 
 
 Essay, it should seem to follow unquestiona- 
 bly, that the Author of the Letters of Junius 
 was an Englishman of highly cultivated edu- 
 cation, deeply versed in the language, the laws, 
 the Constitution, and history of his native coun- 
 try ; that he was a man of easy, if not of affluent 
 circumstances, of unsullied honour and gene- 
 rosity ; who had it equally in his heart and in 
 his power to contribute to the necessities of 
 other persons, and especially of those who were 
 exposed to troubles of any kind on his own 
 account ; that he was in habits of confidential 
 intercourse, if not with different members of the 
 Cabinet, with politicians who were most inti- 
 mately familiar with the court, and intrusted 
 with all its secrets ; that he had attained an 
 age which would allow him, without vanity, to 
 boast of an ample knowledge and experience 
 of the world ; that during the years 1767, 1768, 
 1769, 1770, 1771, and part of 1772, he resided 
 almost constantly in London or its vicinity, 
 devoting a very large portion of his time to 
 political concerns, and publishing his political 
 lucubrations under different signatures in the 
 Public Advertiser ; that in his natural temper 
 he was quick, irritable, and impetuous, subject 
 to political prejudices and strong personal 
 animosities, but possessed of a high indepen- 
 dent spirit, honestly attached to the prin- 
 
28 
 
 ciples of the Con&titution, and fearless and 
 indefatigable in maintaining them; that he 
 was strict in his moral conduct and his at- 
 tention to public decorum, an avowed member 
 of the established Church, and though ac- 
 quainted with the English judicature, not a 
 lawyer by profession. 
 
 '^ What other characteristics he may hare 
 possessed, we know not, but these are suf- 
 ficient, and the claimant who cannot produce 
 them conjointly, is in vain brought forwards 
 as the Author of the Letters of Junius." — 
 Preliminary Essay, p. 96 — 99. 
 
29 
 
 CHAP. II 
 
 Mtxnoiv 
 
 OF THE 
 
 EARL OF CHESTERFIELD 
 
 Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Ches- 
 terfield, was born on the 22d Sept. 1695. 
 His father, Philip the Third Earl of Chester- 
 field, was descended by his mother from the 
 family of Caernarvon ; hence the name of 
 Dormer : and his own mother. Lady Elizabeth 
 Savil, was daughter and coheir to George 
 Marquis of Halifax. 
 
 Several other circumstances conspired to 
 offer this young nobleman as fair a prospect as 
 any person of his rank and fortune could de- 
 sire; and he did not fail to improve them. 
 His family had distinguished itself in the cause 
 of Charles the First ; it had been instrumental 
 in bringing about the Restoration, and his 
 Grandfather had enjoyed several posts of ho- 
 
30 
 
 nour under King Charles the Second ; but he 
 had happily renounced all connexion with the 
 Court a considerable time before the Revo- 
 lution : the road to political eminence was 
 therefore open. The broad licentiousness of 
 the Cavaliers, and the sanctified rudeness of 
 the Puritans, had now both received some po- 
 lish ; manners began to be understood ; a good 
 taste in letters was beginning to dawn ; learn- 
 ing was the fashion, and the chief nobility 
 encouraged it, equally by example and pa- 
 tronage. It was not yet dishonourable for a 
 nobleman to be a scholar. Young Stanhope 
 was soon an expert one ; and, if we may be- 
 lieve himself, somewhat of a pedant. This 
 was the fault of his age. The ancients were 
 then looked upon as the invariable standards 
 of fine writing and just thinking. Their very 
 errors were idolized. But his Lordship's mind 
 was too liberal to be long fettered by such a 
 prejudice. Thedesireof pleasing, mingled with 
 a certain share of vanity, to which he professes 
 himself a friend, soon procured him a consi- 
 derable eminence in the polite world. 
 
 Accomplished as a gentleman and a scho- 
 lar, his Lordship's next ambition was, to figure 
 as a statesman and an orator; and he suc- 
 ceeded in both. The same attention to pleas- 
 ing, which distinguished him in the polite 
 
31 
 
 world, made him eminent in the political. A 
 desire of shining made him shine. He was 
 elected a member for the borough of St. Ger- 
 main, in the first parliament of George the 
 First, and he tells us himself, that he spoke in 
 parliament the first month he was in it, and a 
 month before he was of age. The speech, he 
 observes, was but indifferent, as to the matter, 
 but passed tolerably, in favour of the spirit 
 with which he uttered it, and the words in 
 which it was dressed. 
 
 There his Lordship's forte lay : language 
 and address were always at his command ; and 
 experience proves that he was not wrong in 
 laying so much stress on them. His sen- 
 timents never changed upon this subject. 
 
 He was elected a member for Lestwithiel, 
 in the parliament summoned in the year 1721 ; 
 which borough he continued to represent till 
 he succeeded to the Peerage in Jan. 1726. 
 
 Before this time, he was Captain of the 
 Yeomen of the Guard, and one of the Lords of 
 the Bedchamber to King George the Second, 
 then Prince of Wales ; and when that Prince 
 ascended the throne, in 1727, he was not only 
 continued in his employments, but admitted 
 into the Privy Council. 
 
 Soon after the accession of George the 
 Second (some changes having taken ])lace in 
 
32 
 
 the ministry), the Earl of Chesterfield was aj)- 
 pointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Ple- 
 nipotentiary to the States General; and, on 
 23d April, 1728, he set out for the Hague, 
 where he distinguished himself by the ability 
 and integrity of his conduct ; by the elegance 
 and politeness of his address ; by the gaiety 
 and sprightliness of his conversation ; and by 
 living in a state of magnificence, that did 
 honour to his country. 
 
 His Lordship continued at the Hague till 
 the beginning of the year 1730; when returning 
 to England, he was chosen a Knight of the 
 Garter, at a Chapter of that most noble order 
 held at St. James's, on the 18th May, in the 
 same year; and, on the 18th June following, 
 he was installed at Windsor, along with the 
 Duke of Cumberland and the Earl of Burling- 
 ton ; the Sovereign and his Royal Highness 
 the Prince of Wales honouring the solemnity 
 with their presence.^ He was appointed Lord 
 
 * The Election of Lord Gower to the Order of Knighthood 
 would have escaped the notice, or at least not have attracted 
 the attention of ordinary political writers. The impropriety 
 pointed out by Junius, in the performance of the ceremony, 
 where four knights only were present in the room of six, 
 evinces the Author's regard for decorum, and gives every 
 reason for believing him to be much better acquainted with 
 the solemnity than is apparently implied in his Letters. See 
 Miscellaneous Letter No. 89, and note. Vol. III. p. 339. 
 
33 
 
 High Steward of his Majesty's Household the 
 day after; and, in a short time, he returned on 
 his embassy to the Hague. 
 
 The public measures were now conducted 
 so iniquitously at home, and so little encou- 
 ragement was given to act with spirit abroad, 
 that his Lordship was ashamed of being em- 
 ployed by such a ministry : he therefore re- 
 turned to England in the year 1732; and seeing 
 no appearance of things growing better, he 
 resigned his place of Lord Steward of the 
 Household in April 1733, and renounced all 
 connexions with the Court. 
 
 The Earl of Cheterfield's political cha- 
 racter, and in a great measure his capacity, 
 only now began to be known. He had hi- 
 therto supported the measures of the Court, 
 without perhaps sufficiently considering how 
 far they were equitable; but henceforth he 
 acted the part of an upright, intelligent, and in- 
 dependent citizen of a free kingdom. Swayed 
 only by the dictates of his head, and the im- 
 pulse of his heart, he was always ready to 
 espouse good measures, and oppose bad ones, 
 or what to him appeared such, unseduced by 
 party, and unawed by power. 
 
 In support of this character, it will be 
 proper to take a view of his Lordship's po- 
 litical conduct, which happily forms his most 
 
34 
 
 eloquent panegyric. Immediately after his 
 resignation, he displayed himself, as an orator 
 and a patriot, in a spirited speech against 
 misapplying the produce of the sinking fund ; 
 and as he saw the influence of the Crown in- 
 creasing, he formally associated himself with 
 the opposition, making every possible attempt 
 to stem the tide of corruption, and preserve 
 the liberties of the subject. 
 
 In February 1734, the Duke of Marlbo- 
 rough presented a bill to the House of Lords 
 ** for the better securing the Constitution, by 
 preventing the officers of the army from being 
 deprived of their commissions, otherwise than 
 by the judgement of a court martial, or by ad- 
 dress of either House of Parliament." This 
 bill was occasioned by several officers of cha- 
 racter having been deprived of their com- 
 missions, without any better reason being as- 
 signed for so doing, than the will of the Prince, 
 or of his minion. After it had been read once, 
 and a motion had been made for a second 
 reading, no lord stood up to speak either for 
 or against it ; but some called for the question, 
 and when the question was just going to be 
 put, the Earl of Chesterfield rose, and in an 
 animated speech spoke in favour of the Bill. 
 But all his Lordship's eloquence was in vain; 
 the question was carried in the negative. 
 
35 
 
 The Earl of Chesterfield's next remarkable 
 speech was on his Majesty's message to the 
 House of Lords, March 28th, 1734, for *' A 
 power to augment his forces, if necessary, du- 
 ring the want of a parliament." 
 
 In the year 1737, when an indirect attempt 
 was made upon the liberty of the press, by 
 *' A bill to limit the number of play-houses, 
 and to subject all dramatic writers to the ju- 
 risdiction of the Lord Chamberlain, by obliging 
 them to take out a license for every production 
 before it can appear on the stage," Lord Ches- 
 terfield distinguished himself by an excellent 
 speech, that will for ever endear his name to 
 all the friends of genius, and all the lovers of 
 liberty. The bill, however, passed by the in- 
 fluence of the ministry : but his Lordship's 
 speech, which can never be sufficiently ad- 
 mired, on account of the liberal spirit that it 
 breathes, and which may be considered as a 
 model of senatorial eloquence, awakened a 
 jealousy for the liberty of the press, which 
 has hitherto prevented any second attempt 
 upon it.** 
 
 ^ " Let it be impressed upon your minds, let it be instilled 
 into your children, that the liberty of the press is the palla- 
 dium of all the civil, political, and religious rights of an 
 Englishman." — Junius, Dedication, p. 4. 
 
 D2 
 
36 
 
 In the year 1738, his Lordship distinguished 
 himself by a spirited harangue against " a 
 standing army;" and in the same year he at- 
 tacked Sir Robert Walpole's inglorious '' Con- 
 vention with Spain," with all the weight of 
 argument, and all the poignancy of satire. 
 
 In the year 1739, the Earl of Chesterfield 
 vented his keenest indignation against the Da- 
 nish subsidy; and in the year 1740 he boldly 
 supported the Duke of Argyle's motion, **That 
 a general address of thanks should be pre- 
 sented to his Majesty, instead of a recapitu- 
 lation of every paragraph of the King's speech, 
 with expressions of blind approbation, imply- 
 ing a general concurrence with all the measures 
 of the Minister. 
 
 In the year 1741, a time when patriotism 
 was very rare, his Lordship, always steady to 
 his principles, distinguished himself by a spi- 
 rited and sensible speech in favour of the bill 
 *' To prevent pensioners from sitting in par- 
 liament." 
 
 Immediately ' after the resignation of Sir 
 Robert Walpole, created Earl of Orford, in 
 
 " " I am an old reader of political controversy. I remem- 
 ber the great Walpolean battles, and am not a little diverted 
 with the combats of the party at this time." — Junius, Mis- 
 cellaneous Letters, No. LVII. 
 
37 
 
 the year 1742, a committee of the House of 
 Commons was appointed to inspect into his 
 conduct during the last ten years of his being 
 First Commissioner of the Treasury. Ac- 
 cordingly persons, papers, and records were 
 sent for : but Nicholas Paxton, Esq. Solicitor 
 to the Treasury, refusing to answer the ques- 
 tions asked him, the committee found it im- 
 possible to lay a clear state of the affair before 
 the House, and reported the same. Upon 
 this report the House brought in a bill for 
 indemnifying such persons as should, upon 
 examination, make discoveries touching the 
 disposition of public money, or other matters 
 relating to the conduct of Robert Earl of Or- 
 ford. The bill passed and was sent up to the 
 House of Lords, where a warm debate ensued 
 It was vigorously opposed by Lord Carteret,' 
 lately at the head of the opposition in the 
 House of Lords, who had now complied with 
 the measures of the Court, as had likewise Mr. 
 Pulteney, the Cicero of the House of Com- 
 mons. The Earl of Chesterfield was still the 
 same, and spoke in favour of the bill with all 
 the ardour of patriotsm.*^ 
 
 In the year 1743, the ministry being 
 
 •* " In the common arts of domestic corruption we miss no 
 part of Sir Robert Walpole's system, except his abilities." — 
 Ju7iius, Letter XV. Vol. I. p. 168. 
 
38 
 
 pressed for money to fulfil their foreign en- 
 gagements, a bill was framed for " Repealing 
 an Act passed in the year 1736, by which very 
 heavy duties (amounting to a prohibition) were 
 laid upon gin, and other home-made spirits, 
 and for imposing others at an easier rate." 
 
 The bill passed the House of Commons 
 without much opposition; but, in the House 
 of Lords, it produced one of the most ob- 
 stinate disputes ever known. 
 
 Lord Carteret, Lord Bathurst, and the Earl 
 of Batli, all recent patriots, were among the 
 advocates for the bill : it was opposed by 
 Lord Hervey, now metamorphosed into a 
 sturdy patriot, by the loss of the privy seal, 
 and by several prelates. The Earl of Chester- 
 field attacked it with the united powers of 
 reason, wit, and ridicule. When the question 
 was put for committing this bill, and the Earl 
 of Chesterfield saw the Bishops join in his 
 division — " I am in doubt," said he, " whether 
 I have not got on the other side of the 
 question ; for 1 have not had the honour to 
 divide with so many lawn sleeves for several 
 years." 
 
 In the same year, the Earl of Chesterfield 
 distinguished himself by a bold and spirited 
 speech against the contract, by which the 
 Hanoverian troops had been taken into British 
 
3^ 
 
 pay, without the advice or consent of par- 
 liament. 
 
 The dependents of the court pleaded the 
 cause of Hanover, and insisted upon the ne- 
 cessity of a land war against France, with all 
 the vehemence of declamation. Their sug- 
 gestions were answered, and their conduct 
 was severely stigmatised by the Earl of 
 Chesterfield. 
 
 By the report of the secret committee, 1744, 
 it appears, that the then minister had com- 
 menced prosecutions against the mayors of 
 boroughs, who had opposed his influence in 
 the electing of members of parliament.* These 
 prosecutions were founded on ambiguities in 
 charters, or trivial informalities in the choice 
 of magistrates. An appeal on such a process 
 was brought into the House of Lords ; and 
 this evil falling under consideration, a bill was 
 prepared for '* securing the independency of 
 corporations." 
 
 As this bill tended to lessen the influence of 
 the ministry, they exerted all their rhetoric 
 against it. The Earl of Chesterfield, always 
 the advocate of the people and the friend of 
 
 "^ See Junius's Letter to Mr. Wilkes, Vol. I. p. 286, where 
 the same sentiments are expressed, as on this occasion dis- 
 tinguished the Earl of Chesterfield. 
 
40 
 
 freedom, spoke in favour of it with his usual 
 eloquence. 
 
 In the year 1744, the Commons of England, 
 in order to evince their loyalty, brought in a 
 bill denouncing the penalties of high treason 
 against those who should maintain corres- 
 pondence with the sons of the Pretender. 
 When the bill was sent up to the House of 
 Peers, Lord Hardwicke, the then chancellor, 
 moved, that a clause should be inserted, ex- 
 tending the crime of treason to the " posterity 
 of the offenders, during the lives of the Pre- 
 tender's sons." 
 
 This motion, which was supported by the 
 whole strength of the ministry, produced a 
 warm debate, in which the Duke of Bedford, 
 the Earl of Chesterfield, the Lords Talbot and 
 Hervey, spoke against it in the most pathetic 
 manner, as an illiberal expedient, contrary to 
 the dictates of humanity, the law of nature, 
 the rules of common justice, and the precepts 
 of religion ; an expedient that would involve 
 the innocent with the guilty, and tend to the 
 augmentation of ministerial power, for which 
 purpose it was undoubtedly calculated. 
 
 The Earl of Chesterfield's attention to the 
 interests of his country did not divert him from 
 the duties of private life, nor even from its 
 pleasures. In the year 1733, he married the 
 
41 
 
 Lady Melosinah de Schulenburg, Countess of 
 Walsingham, and natural daughter of King 
 George the First. By this lady, however, he 
 had no children ; but he had, about a year 
 before his marriage, by Madame du Bouchet, 
 a French lady, a natural son, whom he loved 
 and cherished with all the fondness of a 
 father, and whose education was for many 
 years the chief engagement of his life. 
 
 The uniformity of the Earl of Chesterfield's 
 conduct, in opposing the measures of the 
 Court, under different administrations, in which 
 he might certainly have had a share, had now 
 put his motives beyond dispute. The King, as 
 well as the people, was convinced that his 
 opposition proceeded from principle; from a 
 belief that such measures were wrong : his 
 Majesty was therefore pleased to appoint him 
 Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, on the 3d day of 
 January, 1745; and the same month he was 
 appointed ambassador extraordinary to the 
 States-General, and set out immediately for 
 the Hague. 
 
 On his Majesty's going abroad, in the year 
 1745, the Earl of Chesterfield was declared 
 one of the Lords Justices for the adminis- 
 tration of the government in his absence ; but 
 his Lordship's presence being wanted in Ire- 
 land, he set out for his viceroy ship, and landed 
 
42 
 
 at Dublin in the latter end of the month of 
 August, where he was received with the 
 loudest acclamations of joy, and congratulated 
 by the lord mayor, aldermen, and corporation, 
 in their formalities, the recorder in their name 
 expressing a sense of his abilities, merit, and 
 integrity. His Lordship opened the session 
 of parliament on the 8th of October following, 
 with an eloquent and beautiful speech, ad- 
 mirably adapted to the circumstances of the 
 times. Immediately after closing the session, 
 the Earl of Chesterfield set out for London, 
 where he arrived on the thirteenth of April; 
 soon after which he sent his son abroad, and 
 went to Bath himself, for the benefit of his 
 health. 
 
 The Earl of Chesterfield was appointed one 
 of his Majesty's principal Secretaries of State, 
 in the year 1745, but finding his health de- 
 clining, he resigned his office (which he had 
 exercised with equal ability and integrity) on 
 th^ 6th day of February, in the year 1748. 
 
 " For some years his Lordship passed a very 
 recluse life, seldom appearing in public, and 
 associating only with a few particular friends, 
 M. D'Arolles being almost his constant com- 
 panion. He wrote several pieces to which he 
 did not affix his name; but we have reason to 
 believe he has left some valuable manuscripts 
 
43 
 
 that will do justice to his literary character, Mr. 
 Johnson addressed the plan of his Dictionary 
 to him, by which we may perceive in what high 
 estimation this great luminary of letters held 
 his Lordship's knowledge, and judgment."^ 
 
 The Earl of Chesterfield was a slight-made 
 man, of the middle size, rather genteel than 
 handsome, either in face or person ; but there 
 was a certain suavity in his countenance, which, 
 accompanied with a polite address and pleasing 
 elocution, obtained him a wonderful degree of 
 admiration of both sexes, and made his suit 
 irresistible with either. He was naturally pos- 
 sessed of fine sensibility, but by a habit of 
 mastering his passions, and disguising his feel- 
 ings, he at length arrived at the appearance of 
 perfect stoicism ; nothing surprised, alarmed, 
 or discomposed him. His capacity was strong, 
 and his learning extensive; his wit brilliant, 
 and his humour easy ; and what has lessened 
 his reputation with a certain class of readers, 
 is his highest praise. His compositions disdain 
 that stilted dignity which is so often mistaken 
 for genius ; like his manners, they were more 
 elegant than lofty ; his talents have nothing 
 of gothic violence, and his learning is brought 
 down to the level of polished life. As a public 
 speaker he was able, eloquent, and correct; 
 
 ^ Town and Country Magazine, for April, 1773. 
 
44 
 
 intimately acquainted with the interests of his 
 country and of Europe : as a patriot, he was 
 warm, bold, and incorruptible : as a states- 
 man and a negotiator, he was deep, cunning, 
 pliant, and to a certain degree deceitful: as 
 a private nobleman, he was apparently open, 
 and engagingly free and communicative to his 
 equals ; attentively polite ever to his inferiors; 
 and in the presence of his superiors, princes 
 and potentates, profoundly respectful, though 
 perfectly unembarrassed. He was generous, 
 and even profuse, in the former part of his life ; 
 in the latter he was too parsimonious ; but the 
 laudableness of the motive, a desire to save a 
 fortune for his natural son, to whom he could 
 not transmit his estate, will certainly be deemed 
 a sufficient apology. Vanity appears to have 
 been his only foible, and gaming his only vice : 
 the first might be attended with some good 
 consequences, the latter with none ; it hurt 
 both his health and his fortune, and during the 
 best part of his life made him the dupe of 
 sharpers, who considered him as their prey, 
 and whom any man, less infatuated, might 
 have seen had nothing to lose. But of this 
 folly, as well as the futility of pompous great- 
 ness, he was fully sensible many years before 
 his death ; and following nature by the light 
 of experience, social yet temperate, grave yet 
 
45 
 
 gay, he might be truly said to live the life of 
 reason. 
 
 If any thing can be added to his character, 
 it is his Lordship's pious resignation to the will 
 of his Creator. Amidst all his bodily infirmi- 
 ties, and notwithstanding the loss of his only 
 son, who died in November 1768,^ and with 
 whom all his hopes perished, he still in a great 
 measure preserved his native cheerfulness ; and 
 as he expressed it himself, " he was willing 
 even to crawl as an insect on that earth which 
 he had once in some degree ruled." But 
 Heaven was kinder, for, except his hearing, 
 he retained to the last the perfect use of his 
 faculties, as the reward of his virtues. 
 
 ^ Mr. Stanhope died November 16. The Miscellaneous 
 Letters of Junius, which had constantly appeared from the 
 28th of April, 1767, immediately ceased, and the January 
 following the first Junius was published. It will be seen in the 
 following Chapter, how nearly this domestic affliction of the 
 Earl of Chesterfield was connected with the objects of 
 Junius's resentment, who are henceforth censured without 
 reserve or moderation. 
 
46 
 
 CHAP. Ill 
 
 The earliest production attributed to the pen 
 of Junius, appeared in the Public Advertiser, 
 April 28, 1767. It contains a severe censure 
 on the conduct of Lord Chatham, and recom- 
 mends the Tarpeian rock or gibbet as a just 
 reward for the crimes of such a traitor. The 
 asperity of his rancour was, however, of short 
 duration ; for after his second letter, under the 
 signature of Poplicola, he gradually became 
 milder in his invectives, and ultimately aban- 
 doned his Lordship for an enemy who excited 
 his keenest indignation, and on whom hence- 
 forth he determined to " rest all his resent- 
 ments." 
 
 To trace the prejudices of this extraordinary 
 character, and to mark their vicissitudes, ap- 
 pear the means best calculated to remove the 
 veil which has so long concealed him from the 
 public. 
 
 Towards the close of the year 1766, the Earl 
 of Chesterfield applied to Lord Chatham to 
 secure a seat in parliament for his son, who 
 promised he would do so, and desired his 
 
47 
 
 Lordship would rest satisfied upon the subject. 
 The affair ended in his disappointment, and is 
 sufficiently explained for the purpose of this 
 inquiry in his Letters to his Son. 
 
 '' You ask me questions," says he, *' con- 
 cerning Lord C , which neither I, nor 
 
 I believe any body but himself can answer : 
 however, 1 will tell you all that I do know, 
 and all that I guess concerning him. This 
 time twelvemonth he was here (Bath) and in 
 good health and spirits, except now and then 
 some little twinges of the gout. We saw one 
 another four or five times at our respective 
 houses, but for these last eight months he has 
 been absolutely invisible to his most intimate 
 friends, les sous ministres he would receive no 
 letters, nor so much as open any packet about 
 business."— Letter 381, Vol. IV. 
 
 This letter is dated December 19, 1767. 
 Nearly eight months had elapsed since Junius 
 had first written imder the signature of Popli- 
 cola. Thus the seclusion of Lord Chatham, 
 and the appearance of Junius, precisely cor- 
 respond. Now the Earl of Chesterfield writes 
 on the 3d March, 1767, that Lord Chatham 
 came to town the preceding day ; and on the 
 6th April, about three weeks before the first 
 letter of Junius, he acquaints his son his Lord^ 
 ship had been for the last two months too ill. 
 
48 
 
 or, '* as some say," he adds, " being unwilling 
 to do or hear any business." It may be con- 
 cluded, therefore, that when Lord Chatham 
 came to town in March, the Earl of Chester- 
 field endeavoured to obtain an interview, and 
 remind his Lordship of his promise, whose in- 
 visibility occasioned the severe address which 
 appeared on the 28th of April. This conjec- 
 ture will receive considerable strength as we 
 proceed. 
 
 During the summer of 1767, though Junius 
 occasionally wrote the printer of the Public 
 Advertiser, censuring the conduct of other 
 ministers, he avoids mentioning Lord Chat- 
 ham ; and it may also be observed, when 
 speaking of the Duke of Grafton, he betrays 
 no appearance of the resentment which shortly 
 after discovered itself. This is perfectly con- 
 sistent with the situation of the Earl of Ches- 
 terfield. 
 
 '* His physician," (continues his Lordship,) 
 *' as I am told, had very ignorantly checked a 
 coming fit of the gout, and scattered it about 
 his body ; and it fell particularly upon his 
 nerves, so that he continues exceedingly va- 
 pourish, and would neither see nor speak to 
 any body while he was here. I sent him my 
 compliments, and asked leave to wait upon 
 him, but he sent me word, that he was too ill 
 
49 
 
 to see any body whatsoever. 1 met him fre- 
 quently taking the air in his post-chaise, and 
 he looked very well."— Letter 381, Vol. IV. 
 
 It was at this period that Junius renewed 
 his attack upon Lord Chatham. The reader 
 will see, that the first three letters are directed 
 exclusively against his Lordship ; but from the 
 24th June 1767, till the 19th December follow- 
 ing, Junius mentions Lord Chatham only once, 
 and then in conjunction with other ministers.^ 
 It was the day on which the above from Lord 
 Chesterfield was written, that he again ex- 
 pressly and exclusively wrote against the Earl 
 of Chatham. " I will not suppose," says he, 
 " that the bulk of the British people is sunk 
 into so criminal a state of stupidity : that there 
 does exist a particular set of men, base and 
 treacherous enough to have inlisted under the 
 banners of a lunatic, to whom they sacri- 
 ficed their honour, their conscience, and their 
 country, in order to carry a point of party, and 
 to gratify a personal rancour, is a truth too 
 
 ^ " You may give us a commander in chief, and a secretary 
 at war, seeming to pull at two ends of a rope, while a slip- 
 knot in the middle may really strangle three-fourths of the 
 army j or a lunatic brandishing a crutch, or bawling through 
 a grate, or writing with desperate charcoal a letter to North 
 America ; or a Scotch secretary teaching the Irish people the 
 true pronunciation of the English language." — Miscellaneous 
 Letter, No. 5, Vol. II. 
 
 E 
 
50 
 
 melancholy and too certain for Great Britain. 
 These were the wretched ministers who served 
 at the altar, whilst the high priest himself, with 
 more than frantic fury, offered up his bleeding 
 country a victim to America." — Miscellaneous 
 Letter, No. 10, Vol. II. 
 
 The following letter was published on the 
 22d December, 1767 :— 
 
 Mr. Woodfall,— Your correspondent of yesterday, Mr. 
 Macaroni, in his account of the new ministerial arrange- 
 ments, has thrust in a laboured bombast panegyric on the 
 Earl of Chatham, in which he tells us that this country 
 owes more to him than it can ever repay. Now, Mr.Wood- 
 fall, I entirely agree with Mr. Macaroni, that this country 
 does owe more to Lord Chatham than it can ever repay, 
 for to him we owe the greatest part of our national debt, 
 and that I am sure we never can repay.' I mean no 
 offence to Mr. Macaroni, nor any of your gentlemen 
 authors, who are so kind to give us citizens an early 
 peep behind the political cnrtaiUji but I cannot bear to 
 see so much incense offered to an idol, who so little de- 
 serves it. I am yours, &c. 
 
 Downright. 
 
 ' See Lord Chesterfield's opinion on this subject. — Letter 
 313, Vol. IV. 
 
 J This phrase is peculiar to the Earl of Chesterfield. *' The 
 curtain of the political theatre was partly drawn, up yesterday'' 
 —Letter 276. 
 
 " The curtain was at last drawn up the day before 
 y ester day. "^ — Letter 365 . 
 
51 
 
 From the appearance of this letter to the 
 16th February, 1768, Junius remained silent. 
 To account for this secession we need only 
 refer to the conclusion of Lord Chesterfield's 
 letter, dated 19th December, 1767: he informs 
 his son, that Lord Chatham had just set out 
 from Bath for London. " But what to do," 
 says he, '* whether to resume or finally to 
 resign the administration, God knows; con- 
 jectures are various. In one of our conver- 
 sations here this time twelvemonth, I desired 
 him to secure you a seat in the new parliament. 
 He assured me he would, and I am con- 
 vinced very sincerely; he said even that he 
 would make it his own affair, and desired I 
 would give myself no more trouble about it. 
 Since that I have heard no more of it, which 
 made me look out for some venal borough. 
 And I spoke to a borough-jobber, and of- 
 fered five and twenty-hundred pounds for a 
 secure seat in parliament, but he laughed at 
 my offer, and said that there was no such 
 thing as a borough to be had now, for that the 
 rijch East and West Indians had secured them 
 all, at the rate of three thousand pounds at 
 least, but many at four thousand, and two or 
 three, that he knew, at five thousand. This, 
 I confess, has. vexed me a good deal ; and 
 
 E 2 
 
52 
 
 made me the more impatient to know, whether 
 
 Lord C had done any thing in it, which 
 
 I shall know when I go to town, as I propose 
 to do in about a fortnight, and as soon as I 
 know it you shall. To tell you truly what I 
 think — 1 doubt from all these nervous dis- 
 orders, that Lord C is Jior^s de combat as 
 
 a minister! but do not even hint this to any 
 body."— Letter 381, Vol. IV. 
 
 These facts are so distinctly connected with 
 Junius, that further illustration seems un- 
 necessary. They prove both the cause of his 
 discontent and the motives of his forbearance. 
 The dates of Junius's Letters precisely corres- 
 pond with the several incidents relative to the 
 transaction existing between the Earl of Ches- 
 terfield and Lord Chatham ; and to the present 
 period he may be traced by his Letters through 
 every stage of the affair, which at that time so 
 deeply affected his Lordship. 
 
 The next letter from Junius appeared on the 
 16th February, 1768. The Earl of Chester- 
 field, it is presumed, had, in the mean time, 
 applied to Lord Chatham as he purposed 
 doing, as soon as he came to town in January. 
 Hence the reason why no letter from Jujiius 
 is found during this crisis of the negociation 
 between their Lordships ; for had Junius con- 
 
53 
 
 tinued to write against Lord Chatham while 
 the Earl of Chesterfield was soliciting, and be- 
 lieving himself to be on the eve of receiving a 
 favour from him, there would certainly be a 
 palpable inconsistency. The reasons why he 
 should have so violently stigmatised Lord 
 Chatham on former occasions have been given, 
 and instead of being incompatible with the 
 situation of the Earl of Chesterfield, they are not 
 only probable but incontrovertibly conclusive. 
 
 Having thus minutely examined the first 
 and most singular prejudice of Junius, it 
 remains now to explain the cause of its vicis- 
 situde. As the source of Junius's resentments 
 evidently flowed from his private feelings, 
 however warmly he might have been attached 
 to the interests of his country, so must we 
 look for every change in his sentiments to 
 some personal incitement. The reader is still 
 referred to Lord Chesterfield : — 
 
 '' You will not," says he, '' be in this parlia- 
 ment, at least not at the beginning of it. I 
 
 relied too much upon Lord C 's promise, 
 
 above a year ago, at Bath. He desired that I 
 would leave it to him, that he would make it 
 his own aflfair, and give it in charge to the 
 
 Duke of G , whose province it was to 
 
 make the parliamentary arrangement; this I 
 
64 
 
 depended upon, and I think with reason. 
 
 But since that, Lord C has neither seen 
 
 nor spoken to any body, and has been in the 
 
 oddest way in the world. I sent to the D 
 
 of G to know if L C had 
 
 either spoken or sent to him about it, but he 
 assured me he had done neither ; that all was 
 full, or rather running over, at present; but 
 that if he could crowd you in upon a vacancy 
 he would do it with great pleasure. I am ex- 
 tremely sorry for this accident, for I am of a 
 very different opinion from you about being in 
 parliament, as no man can b^ of consequence 
 in this country who is not in it; and though one 
 may not speak like a Lord Mansfield or a 
 Lord Chatham, one may make a very good 
 figure in a second rank." — Letter 183, Vol. IV. 
 Thus ended his Lordship's hopes ; raised by 
 the flattering promises of Lord Chatham, atid 
 blighted by him, who henceforth became the 
 object of Junius's lasting and implacable 
 resentment. 
 
 The letter containing this intelligence is 
 dated March 12, 1768. The first appearance 
 of Junius's hatred to the Duke of Grafton 
 occurs in his letter of the 4th March, in the 
 same year, and may be considered as a preface 
 to his subsequent correspondence ; or, as the 
 
55 
 
 gathering of the storm, which soon after burst 
 forth with resistless fury.'' What rentiers this 
 more striking, is the lenity with which Junius 
 had hitherto spoken of his Grace. As in his 
 Miscellaneous Letter, entitled *' Grand council 
 upon the affairs of Ireland, after eleven ad- 
 journments," where a chair is left empty for the 
 high treasurer, detained by a hurry of business 
 at Newmarket." Thus avoiding the opportunity 
 of reflecting on the character of the Duke of 
 Grafton, and sparing him the ridicule he must 
 otherwise have endured. Nearly six months 
 elapses, and his name is not mentioned or 
 even alluded to, by Junius ; but henceforth 
 there is scarcely a letter that does not contain 
 some bitter invective against the Duke of 
 Grafton, and his " cream-coloured Mercury." 
 
 Mr. Bradshaw's name is first introduced in 
 Junius's Letter to the Duke of Grafton, dated 
 April 23, 1768. This letter is remarkable, not 
 only as being the first personal address of 
 
 '' " In the mean time it is a matter of very serious con- 
 sideration to observe the growth of arbitrary and despotic 
 principles in this country. There is such a pernicious vigour 
 in their vegetation, and such a rank luxuriance in the soil, 
 that v«rhen they seem to be cut up even by the roots, they 
 will suddenly shoot up in some other place, and under 
 some other, and perhaps more dangerous^^ appearance. 
 Suppress them, under the shape of general Warrants, or 
 seizure of papers, they will start up in the form of dispensing 
 
56 
 
 Junius, but for having no apparent connexion 
 with political controversy: it indicates the 
 source of private feeling and personal resent- 
 ment ; the real cause of which seems un- 
 folded in the following remarkable epistle, 
 addressed to 
 
 July 1, 1768. 
 " Master Harry, in Black Boy Alley, 
 
 At tUf simul ohligasti 
 
 Perjidum votis caput enigrescis 
 Atrior multo 
 
 " The moment I heard you had given a positive promise 
 to Lord Rockingham in my favour, I did you the justice 
 to be satisfied that all my hopes and pretensions to succeed 
 
 Mrs. were at an end. But a second promise, 
 
 which I understand you have lately given to another, 
 revives my spirits, and makes me flatter myself that you 
 mean me no harm. I have one chance less against me 
 than I had, for your last resolution is certainly the one you 
 will not abide by, so that at present there is nothing in my 
 way but your engagement to Lord Rockingham, the bad 
 
 powers, forfeitures of charters, violations of public faith, 
 establishment of private monopolies, and raising up anti- 
 quated titles for the crown. There is a consideration still more 
 melancholy, that many persons apostatizing from their prin- 
 ciples, betraying their associates, and combining with their 
 adversaries, make no other use of the credit they have derived 
 from their former activity in the cause of freedom, than that 
 they may approach it without suspicion, and wound it beyond 
 all possibility of cure." — Miscellaneous Letter j No. XIVo 
 Vol.111, p. ^0,21. 
 
57 
 
 effects of which I shall endeavour to remove by this letter. 
 I feel as strongly as you how much it would violate the 
 consistency of your character to keep your word from any 
 motive of probity or good faith ; but if I can suggest to 
 you the means of performing your first promise to Lord 
 Rockingham, and yet continuing as great a rascal as you 
 would wish to be, all objections on the score of integrity 
 will be removed, and you will owe me no small obligation 
 into the bargain. You are a mere boy, Harry, notwith- 
 standing the down upon your chin, and would do well to 
 cidtivate the friendship of women of experience. With all 
 due submission to Miss Nancy's personal knowledge of 
 the world, I believe she has not yet taught you the secret 
 of keeping your word without hurting your principles. 
 This is a science worthy of a superior genius ; and with- 
 out a compliment, Harry, you have talents to improve it 
 into a system of treachery, which, though it may shorten 
 your natural life, will make your reputation immortal. 
 In the first place, I presume, you will have no difficulty 
 
 in breaking your word with Mrs. C y ; the whole distress 
 
 lies in keeping it with your friend the Marquis. My advice 
 is, therefore, that you should order Mr. Bradshaw to write 
 to his Lordship, and assure him, in the civilest terms, that 
 * circumstances which you had not foreseen — that it was 
 with infinite concern — that his Lordship's recommendation 
 had such weight with you — that in any other instance — that 
 you flattered yourself his Lordship would be candid enough 
 to distinguish between the minister and the man — but that 
 in short you were so unfortunately situated, &c. &c. &c.' 
 Mr. Bradshaw's manner will make the message palatable ; 
 and it would not be amiss if he wer« to carry it himself. ' 
 
 ' From this, as well as the epithets given by Junius to 
 Mr. Bradshaw, we may presume he was the person sent by 
 the Duke of Grafton to Lord Chesterfield, with the unwelcome 
 
58 
 
 Having disengaged yourself from Lord Rockingham, yoa 
 
 must at the same instant write me a letter of congratulation, 
 
 and desire me to take possession immediately. By these 
 
 expedients you will preserve all the duplicity and wayward 
 
 humour of your character — you will have the merit and 
 
 satisfaction of failing to two people — you will confer a 
 
 favour without obliging any body, and your enemies give 
 
 you credit for a conduct equally honourable to your morals 
 
 and your understanding. 
 
 " Farewell, Harry, and believe me to be, with the most 
 
 perfect contempt, yours, 
 
 " Pomona." 
 
 ** P. S* If the place is to be given in trust for Miss 
 Parsons, I beg leave to withdraw my pretensions, for I am 
 determined not to suffer a woman to be quartered upon 
 me, in any shape." 
 
 Whoever attentively reads this letter, and 
 compares it with the situation of the Earl of 
 Chesterfield, will find its tendency and mean- 
 ing at once explained. It is no longer a 
 fiction, but a simple narrative of facts, so pal- 
 pably revealed, that the parties must have been 
 blind not to have discovered the Author. The 
 purport, the language, the insinuation, against 
 Mr. Bradshaw, and the characteristic style 
 
 tidings of the disappointment of his Lordship's expectations 
 of preferment for his son, through the interest of his Grace. 
 Compare the above with Lord Chesterfield's letter — " I sent 
 to the Duke of G , &c. &c;' 
 
59 
 
 with which it concludes, leave no pretence to 
 suppose it written by another: they all con- 
 spire to attach it exclusively to the Earl of 
 Chesterfield. 
 
 After such decisive evidence it would seem 
 superfluous to search for further testimony, to 
 explain the cause of Junius's resentment against 
 the Duke of Grafton. 
 
60 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 The correspondence between Junius and Sir 
 William Draper was accidental, arising from 
 the imprudent defence of the latter on behalf 
 of the Marquis of Granby. It may be easily 
 perceived, from the reluctance with which 
 Junius continued to answer Sir William's let- 
 ters, that he had no particular enmity to Lord 
 Granby ; but that he thought it necessary for 
 " the plan of his letter," to include his Lordship's 
 name with other ministers.^ *' I should justly," 
 says he, " be suspected of acting upon motives 
 of more than common enmity to Lord Granby, 
 
 * " Nothing could have been more improvident or imj)olitic, 
 than this attack of Sir William Draper : if volunteered in fa- 
 vour of the ministry, it is impossible for a defence to have been 
 worse planned 5 for, by confining the vindication to the indi- 
 vidual that was least accused, it tacitly admitted that the charges 
 advanced against all the rest were well founded : while, if 
 volunteered in favour of Lord Granby alone, it might easily 
 have been anticipated by the writer, that his visionary oppo- 
 nent would be hereby challenged to bring forward peccadilloes, 
 which would otherwise never have been heard of; and that he 
 would not fail at the same time to scrutinise the character of 
 Sir William himself, and to ascribe this act of precipitate 
 zeal, to an interested desire of additional promotions in the 
 army." — Preliminary Essarj, Vol. I. p. 26. 
 
61 
 
 if I continued to give you fresh materials, or oc- 
 casion for writing in his defence. Individuals 
 who hate, and the public who despise him, have 
 read your letters. Sir William, with infinitely 
 more satisfaction than mine : unfortunately for 
 him, his reputation, like that unhappy country to 
 which you refer me for his last military achieve- 
 ments, has suffered more by his friends than his 
 enemies : in mercy to him let us drop the sub- 
 ject. For my own part, I willingly leave it to 
 the public to determine whether your vindi- 
 cation of your friend has been as able and 
 judicious, as it was certainly well intended ; 
 and you, I think, may be satisfied with the 
 warm acknowledgments he already owes you 
 for making him the principal figure in a piece, 
 in which, but for your amicable assistance, he 
 might have passed without particular notice or 
 distinction." In the same manner he excuses 
 himself for his former severity towards Mr. 
 Wilkes : " think no more of what is past ; 
 you did not then stand so well in my opinion, 
 and it was necessary to the plan of that letter, 
 to rate you lower than you deserved. The 
 wound is curable, and the scar shall be no dis- 
 grace to you.^ — Private Letters, No. 70, Vol. I. 
 p. 314. And when Scaevola wished to " de- 
 tach" him from Lord Camden, he writes to his 
 
 ** Though Junius thought proper to alter his sentiments 
 ostensibly towards Mr. Wilkes, for the purpose of facilitating 
 
62 
 
 printer, '' Scaevola I see is determined to make 
 me an enemy to Lord Camden. If it be not 
 wilful malice, I beg you will signify to him, 
 that when I originally mentioned Lord Cam- 
 den's declaration about the corn-bill, it was 
 without any view of discussing that doctrine, 
 and only as an instance of a singular opinion 
 maintained by a man of great learning and in- 
 tegrity ; such an instance was necessary to the 
 plan of my letter'' — Privctte Letter ^ No. 45, 
 Vol. I. p. 239. 
 
 His letter, under the signature of *' Your real 
 Friend," dated May 6, 1769, proves the indis- 
 cretion of Sir William Draper's impertinent, 
 though well intended, interference ; and that 
 Junius was not, in reality, an enemy to the 
 Marquis of Granby. 
 
 That the same sentiments were entertained 
 towards Lord Granby by the Earl of Chester- 
 field, appears from his Lordship's remarks on 
 the Marquis of Granby 's promotion. '* It was 
 cruel to put such a boy as Lord G over 
 
 his own designs, yet in principle he remained unchanged. 
 '' Let us employ these meUj" says he, " in whatever depart- 
 ments their various abilities are best suited to, and as much 
 to the advantage of the common cause as their different incli- 
 nations will permit J if individuals have no virtues, their vices 
 maybe of use to us." "I care not with what principle the new- 
 born patriot is animated, if the measures he supports are 
 beneficial to the community. The nation is interested in his 
 conduct J his motives are his own." — Vol. II. p. 346 — 356. 
 
63 
 
 the head of old Ligonier ; and if I had been 
 the former, I would have refused that commis- 
 sion during the life of that honest and brave old 
 general." Letter 367, Vol. IV. When SirWilliam 
 Draper asserts Lord Ligonier to have "delivered 
 a firm and noble palladium of our safeties into 
 Lord Granby's hands," Junius makes answer, 
 " The last charge of the neglect of the army, is 
 indeed the most material of all. I am sorry to 
 tell you, Sir William, that in this article your 
 first fact is false ; and as there is nothing more 
 painful to me, than to give a direct contradic- 
 tion to a gentleman of your appearance, I 
 could wish that, in your future publications, 
 you would pay a greater attention to the truth 
 of your premises, before you suffer your genius 
 to hurry you to a conclusion. Lord Ligonier 
 did not deliver the army (which you, in classical 
 language, are pleased to call a palladium) into 
 Lord Granby's hands ; it was taken from him, 
 much against his inclination, some two or three 
 years before Lord Granby was commander in 
 chief." ^—Letter 3, Vol. I. p. 75, 76. 
 
 Whether the Earl of Chesterfield was per- 
 sonally acquainted with Sir William Draper is 
 uncertain ; but it is scarcely possible his cha- 
 
 *^ " Ligonier was much pressed to give up his regiment of 
 guards^ but would by no means do it^ and declared^ that the 
 King might break him if he pleased, but that he would certainly 
 not break himself. "~C^e5/er/?eW^ Letiers to his Sorij 367^ vol. iv. 
 
64 
 
 racter should be unknown to his Lordship, 
 whose constant visits to Bath render it more 
 than provable they often met. Junius seems 
 to allude to this, when he asks him where he 
 received his intelligence as to the state of the 
 army, "Was it in the rooms at Bath?" says 
 he, " or at your retreat at Clifton?" 
 
 When Sir William Draper accuses Junius of 
 having outraged the feelings of a father's heart, 
 in his letter to the Duke of Bedford, by calling 
 to remembrance the loss of an only son, he 
 appears touched in the tenderest part, and 
 makes the following passionate reply : '' Am 
 I, indeed, so injudicious ? Does Sir William 
 Draper think I would have hazarded my credit 
 with a generous nation, by so gross a violation 
 of the laws of humanity ? Does he think I am 
 so little acquainted with the first and noblest 
 characteristic of an Englishman ? or how will 
 he reconcile such folly with an understanding 
 so full of artifice as mine? Had he been a 
 father, he would have been but little offended 
 with the severity of the reproach, for his mind 
 would have been filled with the justice of it ; 
 he would have seen that I did not insult the 
 feelings of a father — but the father who felt 
 nothing : he would have trusted to the evidence 
 of his own paternal heart, and boldly denied 
 the possibility of the fact instead of defending 
 it. Against whom then will his honest indig- 
 
65 
 
 nation be directed, when I assure him, that 
 this whole town beheld the Duke of Bedford's 
 conduct upon the death of his son with horror 
 and astonishment. Sir William Draper does 
 himself but little honour in opposing* the general 
 sense of his country. The people are seldom 
 wrong in their opinions — in their sentiments 
 they are never mistaken. There may be a 
 vanity perhaps in a singular way of thinking ; 
 but when a man professes a want of those feel- 
 ings, which do honour to the multitude, he 
 hazards something infinitely more important 
 than the character of his understanding. After 
 all, as Sir William may possibly be in earnest in 
 his anxiety for the Duke of Bedford, I should 
 be glad to relieve him from it. He may rest 
 assured, this worthy nobleman laughs with 
 equal indifference at my reproaches, and Sir 
 William's distress, about him. But here let it 
 stop. Even the Duke of Bedford, insensible 
 as he is, will consult the tranquillity of his life, 
 in not provoking the moderation of my temper. 
 If from the profoundest contempt I should 
 ever rise into anger, he should soon find that 
 all I have already said of him was lenity and 
 compassion." — Letter 27, Vol. II. p. 17. 
 
 The passage alluded to by Sir William, is an 
 additional proof that Junius was or had been 
 a parent. '* I reverence the afflictions of a good 
 
 F 
 
m 
 
 man; his sorrows are sacred ; but how can we 
 take part in the distresses of a man, whom we 
 can neither love nor esteem, or feel for a cala- 
 mity of which he himself is insensible ? Where 
 was the father's heart, when he could look for 
 or find an immediate consolation for the loss 
 of an only son, in consultations and bargains 
 for* a place at court, and even in the misery of 
 balloting at the India House V— Letter 23, 
 Vol. I. p. 238. 
 
 Whatever were the motives which induced 
 Junius to attack the Duke of Bedford with 
 such severity, it is clear they were not of that 
 personal nature which every where betrays it- 
 self in his addresses to the Duke of Grafton : 
 for when the printer was alarmed for his safety, 
 for publishing this letter to his Grace, Junius 
 writes in a private note, ** As to you, it is 
 clearly my opinion that you have nothing to 
 fear from the Duke of Bedford : I reserve some 
 things expressly to awe him, in case he should 
 think of bringing you before the House of Lords. 
 I am sure I can threaten him privately with 
 such a storm, as would make him tremble 
 even in his grave." This intimates a minute 
 acquaintance with the domestic and private 
 affairs of the Duke of Bedford, and affords 
 another convincing proof of the rank and dis- 
 tinction of Junius. 
 
67 
 
 CHAP. V, 
 
 As the style of these Letters has so eminently 
 distinguished the Author, and may still by 
 many be esteemed peculiar to himself, it may be 
 expected that some particular passages should 
 be pointed out in the works of Lord Ches- 
 terfield, in order that the reader may the more 
 readily form his opinion, by comparing them 
 with the Letters of Junius. This would be 
 more necessary, if the facts already detailed 
 were less positive ; and even then it would be 
 difficult to decide which to adopt, unless such 
 were chosen as contain the opinions and 
 sentiments of his Lordship. Such comparison 
 is certainly most expedient ; for while it affords 
 an opportunity to trace the resemblance in the 
 composition, it removes any doubt we may 
 have of its affinity, when we find the senti- 
 ments not only the same, but often expressed 
 in the very words and phrases familiar to both. 
 The following examples, it is presumed, will 
 be found too obvious to require further com- 
 ment or illustration. 
 
 JuniMs,— The bravest and freest nations 
 
 F 2 
 
68 
 
 have sometimes submitted to a temporary sur- 
 render of their liberties, in order to establish 
 them for ever. At a crisis of public calamity or 
 danger, the prudence of the state placed a confi- 
 dence in the virtue of some distinguished citizen, 
 and gave him povrer sufficient to preserve or to 
 oppress his country. Such was the Roman 
 dictator; and while his office was confined to 
 a short period, and only applied as a remedy 
 to the disasters of an unsuccessful war, it was 
 usually attended with the most important ad- 
 vantages, and left no dangerous precedent be- 
 hind. The dictator finding employment for 
 all his activity in repulsing a foreign invasion, 
 had but little time to contrive the ruin of his 
 own country, and his ambition was nobly 
 satisfied by the honour of a triumph, and the 
 applause of his fellow-citizens. But as soon 
 as this wise institution was corrupted, when 
 that unlimited trust of power which should 
 have been reserved for conjunctures of more 
 than ordinary difficulty and hazard, was with- 
 out necessity committed to one man's uncer- 
 tain moderation, what consequence could be 
 expected, but that the people should pay the 
 dearest price for their simplicity; nor ever 
 resume those rights which they could vainly 
 imagine were more secure in the hands of a 
 single man, than where the laws and constitu- 
 
tion had placed them. — Miscellaneous Letters y 
 No. 1, Vol. II. p. 451, 452. 
 
 Chesterfield, — ^The dictatorial power was a 
 part of the Roman constitution even froni the 
 beginning of their republic. But while they 
 preserved their virtue — while they preserved 
 their liberty, this power was never granted 
 but upon the most important, the most urgent 
 occasions, and was never granted for a longer 
 term than six months. When the virtue and 
 public spirit of that once brave people began 
 to decay, this power indeed was often granted 
 upon trifling occasions. It then began to be 
 granted for a long term, and was soon after 
 granted for life. With this last grant, they 
 gave away the liberties of their country for 
 ever. The Dictator might die, but the power 
 was handed down immediately to another — 
 the tyranny became perpetual. The power 
 now asked for is, in some measure, a dicta- 
 torial power; it has but of late years crept 
 into our Constitution ; it was never yet granted 
 but on the most urgent occasions ; but if once 
 we begin to grant it for a time indefinite, and 
 on such suppositions as may-bes, I can easily 
 foresee what it will he, * It will at last, nay it 
 
 * ''The words in small capitals in the following extract 
 are in italics in the original, a circumstance which adds to 
 their Remarkable similarity." — Junius Identified, p. 248. 
 
 " To say that they will not make this extravagant use of 
 
70 
 
 will soon be either granted or taken for life, 
 and then adieu for ever to the liberties of 
 Great Britain. — Speech on the King's message 
 to the House of Lords, 1734, for a power to 
 augment his forces if necessary during the want 
 of a parliament. 
 
 Junius. — The corruption of the legislative 
 body on this side — a military force on the 
 other, and then farewell to England. — Letter 
 40, Vol. II. p. 157. 
 
 Chesterfield. — ^To keep up a numerous army 
 for the sake of guarding against dangers that 
 can only be said to be possible, is to expose 
 ourselves to those that are probable. Nay, I 
 may go further. I may say that the keeping 
 up of a numerous army in time of peace is 
 no proper safeguard against those possible 
 dangers it is kept up to prevent, and exposes 
 us to dangers that are certain. Slavery and 
 arbitrary power are the certain consequences 
 of keeping up a standing army, if it be kept up 
 for any number of years. It is th<3 machine by 
 which the chains of slavery are rivetted upon a 
 free people, and wants only a skilful and proper 
 hand to set it a going. This it will certainly at 
 
 their power would be a language very unfit for a man so 
 learned in the laws as you are. By your doctrine. Sir, they 
 have the power j and laws you know are intended to guard 
 against what men may do, not to trust to what they will do." 
 — Junius, Vol. I, p. 119. 
 
71 
 
 last, perhaps too soon, meet with, if you do not 
 break it in pieces before the artist takes hold 
 of it. It is the only machine by which the 
 chains of slavery can be rivetted upon us. 
 They may secretly be prepared by another, by 
 corruption; which, like the dark and dirty 
 channel through which it runs, may hiddenly 
 and imperceptibly forge our chains ; but by 
 corruption, they can be forged only, it is 
 by a numerous standing army, that they must 
 be rivetted. Without such an army we should 
 break them asunder, as soon as we perceive 
 them, and should chop off the polluted hands 
 of those that had prepared them. — Speech 
 against a standing army, 1738. 
 
 Junius, — I cannot admit, that because Mr. 
 Pitt was respected and honoured a few years 
 ago, the Earl of Chatham therefore deserves 
 to be so now, or that a description which 
 might have suited him at one part of his life, 
 must of necessity be the only one applicable 
 to him at another. It is barely possible that a 
 very honest commoner may become a very 
 corrupt and worthless peer; and I am inclined 
 to suspect that Mr. CD. will find but few 
 people credulous enough to believe that either 
 Mr. Pitt or Mr. Pultney, ^ when they accepted 
 
 ^ Mr. Pulteney accepted of his title in the year 1742, and 
 deserted the Earl of Chesterfield's party for the honour of a 
 
72 
 
 of a title, did not by that action betray their 
 friends, their country, and, in every honourable 
 sense, themselves. — 31iscellaneous Letters, 
 No. 2, Vol. II. p. 461. 
 
 Chesterfield. — The curtain was at last drawn 
 up the day before yesterday, and discovered 
 the new actors, together with some of the old 
 ones. I do not name them to you, because 
 to-morrow's Gazette will do it full as well as I 
 could. Mr. Pitt, who had carte-blanche given 
 him, named every one of them ; but what would 
 you think he named himself for? Lord Privy 
 Seal, and (what will astonish you, as it does every 
 mortal here) Earl of Chatham. The joke here 
 is, that he has had a fall up stairs, and has 
 done himsQlf so much hurt, that he will never 
 be able to stand upon his legs again Every 
 body is puzzled how to account for this step, 
 though it would not be the first time that great 
 abilities have been duped by low cunning. 
 But, be it what it will, he is now certainly only 
 Earl of Chatham, and no longer Mr. Pitt in any 
 respect whatever. Such an event, I believe, 
 was never read nor heard of. To withdraw 
 in the fulness of his power, and in the utmost 
 
 distinction, which Junius twenty-five years after declares 
 derogatory to the principles he then professed. What in- 
 ference can be drawn from this, but that Junius himself was 
 an active partizan at the time of Mr. Pulteney's dereliction t 
 
73 
 
 gratification of his ambition, from the House 
 of Commons (which procured him his power, 
 and which could alone insure it to him,) and 
 to go into that hospital of incurables,'' the 
 House of Lords, is a measure so unaccount- 
 able, that nothing but proof positive could 
 have made me believe it ***** * 
 There is one very bad sign for Lord Chatham, 
 in his new dignity, which is, that all his 
 
 * " The holy Author of our religion was seen in the com- 
 pany of sinners, but it was his gracious purpose to convert 
 them from their sins. Another man, who in the ceremonies 
 of our faith, might give lessons to the great enemy of it, upon 
 different principles, keeps much the same company. He ad- 
 vertises for patients, collects all the diseases of the heart, and 
 turns a royal palace into an hospital for incurables, A man 
 of honour has no ticket of admission at St. James's. They 
 receive him like a virgin at the Magdalen. — ' Go thou and do 
 likewise." " — Junius' s Letter to Lord Mansfield, Vol. II. 
 p. 439. 
 
 " The reason why Lord Chesterfield could not succeed at 
 Court was this : — After he returned from the Hague, he 
 chanced to engage in play, at Court, one night, anri won 
 .€1500 J not choosing to carry such a sum home at so late 
 an hour, he went to the apartment of the Countess of Suffolk, 
 the royal mistress, and left the money with her. The Queen's 
 apartments had a window which looked into the staircase 
 leading to those of the Countess, and she was informed of 
 the transaction. She ruled all, and positively objected to 
 Chesterfield ever being named." — fValpoUana, Vol. I. p. 85. 
 
74 
 
 enemies, without exception, rejoice at it ; 
 and all his friends are stupified and dumb- 
 founded.— Ze^^^r 365, Vol. IV. 
 
 Junius, — The uncertain state of politics in 
 this country sets all the speculations of the 
 press at defiance. To talk of modern minis- 
 ters, or to examine their conduct, would be to 
 reason without data ; for whether it be owing 
 to the real simple innocence of doing nothing, 
 or to a happy mysteriousness in concealing 
 their activity, we know as little of the services 
 they have performed since it became their lot 
 to appear in the Gazette, as we did of their 
 persons or characters before; they seem to 
 have come together by a sort of fortuitous 
 concourse, and have hitherto done nothing 
 else but jumble and jostle one another, without 
 being able to settle into any one regular or con- 
 sistent figure, I am not, however, such an 
 atheist in politics as to suppose that there is 
 not somewhere an original creating cause, 
 which drew these atoms forth into existence; 
 but it seems, the utmost skill and cunning of 
 that secret governing hand could go no further. 
 To create and foment confusion, to sacrifice 
 the honour of a King, or to destroy the hap- 
 piness of a nation, requires no talent, but a 
 natural itch fou^doing mischief. We have seen 
 
75 
 
 it performed for years successively, with a 
 wantonness of triumph, by a man who had 
 neither abilities nor personal interest, nor even 
 common personal courage. * It has been pos- 
 sible for a notorious coward, skulking under 
 a petticoat, to make a great nation the prey of 
 his avarice and ambition. But, I trust, the 
 time is not very distant when we shall see him 
 dragged forth from his retirement, and forced 
 to answer severely for all the mischiefs he hath 
 brought upon us. 
 
 It is worth while to consider, though perhaps 
 not safe to point out, by what arts it hath been 
 possible for him to maintain himself so long 
 in power, and to screen himself from national 
 justice. Some of them have been obvious 
 enough, the rest may without difficulty be 
 guessed at. But whatever they are, it is not 
 above a twelvemonth ago since they might 
 have all been defeated, and the venomous 
 spider itself caught and trampled on in its own 
 webs. It was then his good fortune to corrupt 
 one man, from whom we least of all expected 
 so base an apostacy.^ Who indeed could have 
 suspected that it should ever consist with the 
 spirit or understanding of that person to ac- 
 t^ept of a share of power, under a pernicious 
 
 ^ The Earl of Bute. ' The Earl of Chatham. 
 
76 
 
 court minion, whom he himself had affected to 
 detest or despise as much as he knew he was 
 detested and despised by the whole nation, 
 I will not censure him for the avarice of a 
 pension, nor the melancholy ambition of a 
 title. These were objects which he perhaps 
 looked up to, though the rest of the world 
 thought them far beneath his acceptance. But 
 to become the stalking-horse of a stallion — to 
 shake hands with a Scotchman at the hazard 
 of catching all his infamy — to fight under his 
 auspices against the Constitution, and to re- 
 ceive the word from him, prerogative and a 
 thistle (by the once respected name of Pitt), it 
 is even below contempt. But it seems that 
 this unhappy country had long enough been 
 distracted by their division, and in the last 
 instance was to be oppressed by their union. 
 May that union, honourable as it is, subsist 
 for ever — may they continue to smell at one 
 thistle, and not be separated even in death. — 
 Miscellaneous Letter, No. 3, Vol. II. p. 465 
 —467. 
 
 Chesterfield, — I can give you no account of 
 our political world, which is in a situation that 
 I never saw it in my whole life. Lord Chatham 
 has been so ill these last two months, that he 
 has not been able, some say not willing, to 
 
77 
 
 do or hear of any business ; and for his sous 
 ministres, they either cannot, or dare not, do 
 any without his directions, so that every thing 
 is now at a stand. This situation, I think, 
 cannot last much longer ; and if Lord Chatham 
 should either quit his post or the world, neither 
 of which is very improbable, I conjecture that 
 what is called the Rockingham connexion 
 stands the fairest for the ministry. But this 
 is merely my conjecture, for I have neither 
 data nor postulata enough to reason upon.^ — 
 Letter tM A, Vol. IV. 
 
 Before the next session this chaos must 
 
 necessarily take some form, either by a new 
 
 jumble of its own atoms, or by mixing them with 
 
 the more efficient ones of the opposition. — 
 
 Letter 335, Vol. IV. 
 
 I do not wonder that you do wonder at 
 Lord C 's conduct. If he was not out- 
 witted into his peerage by Lord B , his 
 
 accepting it is utterly inexplicable. — Letter 
 367, Vol. IV. 
 
 The comparison as yet has been chiefly 
 confined to the Miscellaneous Letters of 
 Junius. The reader is now presented with 
 some passages taken from his letters, under 
 his favourite signature, where the proofs are 
 
78 
 
 perhaps still stronger, and tlie authenticity of 
 them less questionable. 
 
 Junius, — It is for him to consider whether 
 the idea of a defeat be not always attended 
 with some loss of reputation. — Private Letter^ 
 No. Qb, Vol. I. p. 270. 
 
 Chesterfield. — There is always a degree of 
 ridicule that attends a disappointment. — 
 Letter 313, Vol. IV. 
 
 Junius, — I cannot help expressing to you 
 my thanks and approbation of your letter of 
 this day. I think it proper, manly, and to 
 the purpose. In these altercations nothing can 
 be more useful than to preserve dignity and 
 sang froid^—fortiter in re suaviter in modo, in- 
 creases both the force and the severity." — 
 Private Letter, No. 75, Vol. I. p. 319. 
 
 Whoever has read the letters of Lord Ches- 
 terfield must have seen how highly he esteemed 
 the use of this maxim.— It was his law and his 
 prophets. 
 
 Junius. — The power of King, Lords, and 
 Commons, is not an arbitrary power. They 
 are the trustees, not the owners, of the estate. 
 The fee simple is in us ; they cannot alienate — 
 they cannot waste. When we say, that the 
 Legislature is supreme, we mean that it is the 
 
79 
 
 highest power known to the Constitution — that 
 it is the highest in comparison with the other 
 subordinate powers established by the laws. 
 In this sense, the word supreme is relative, not 
 absolute. The power of the Legislature is 
 limited, not only by the general rules of 
 natural justice, and the welfare of the com- 
 munity, but by the forms and principles of 
 our particular Constitution. If this doctrine 
 be not true, we must admit that Kingy Lords^ 
 and Commons have no rule to direct their reso- 
 lutions, but merely their own will and pleasure. 
 — Dedication, p. 5, 6. 
 
 Chesterfield, — In all societies, the govern- 
 ment must in the last resort be absolute and 
 arbitrary ; in all governments, even the most 
 slavish, there is a certain set of established 
 laws for trying and punishing crimes of an 
 ordinary nature, by which little villains are 
 obliged to submit to the fate appointed by 
 the law ; and in all governments, even the 
 most free, there must be an extraordinary and 
 arbitrary power for trying crimes of an extra- 
 ordinary nature, to the end, that great and 
 extraordinary villains may not be allowed to 
 plunder the public with impunity. But the 
 difference is, that in slavish governments this 
 last resort, this extraordinary and absolute 
 power, and the judging in what cases it is to 
 
80 
 
 be made use of, is lodged in one or a few 
 tyrants ; whereas in free governments, it is 
 lodged in the whole body of the people. In 
 our government, which is of a mixed kind, it 
 is lodged in King, Lords, and Commons, and 
 can never, or very rarely, be made a wrong 
 use of, as long as the other House delivers the 
 sentiments of the people, and not the senti- 
 ments of the minister. — Speech in favour of the 
 Sill for indemnifying such persons as should, 
 upon examination, make discoveries touching the 
 disposition of public money, and other matters 
 relating to the conduct of Robert Earl of Orford. 
 Junius, — Some opinion may now be expect- 
 ed from me, upon a point of equal delicacy to 
 the writer, and hazard to the printer. When 
 the character of the chief Magistrate is in ques- 
 tion, more must be understood than may safely 
 be expressed. If it be really a part of our 
 Constitution, and not a mere dictum of the law, 
 that the King can do no wrong, it is not the 
 only instance in the wisest of human institu- 
 tions, where theory is at variance with practice. 
 That the sovereign of this country is not 
 amenable to any form of trial known to the 
 laws, is unquestionable : but exemption from 
 punishment is a singular privilege annexed to 
 the royal character, and no way excludes the 
 possibility of deserving it. How long, and to 
 
81 
 
 what extent, a king of England may be pro- 
 tected by the forms, when he violates the 
 spirit of the Constitution, deserves to be con- 
 sidered. — Preface, p. 41, Vol. 1. 
 
 Cliesterjield. — It has been said, that this Bill 
 is a direct attack upon the prerogative, and 
 that it is designed for destroying, or at least 
 diminishing, the power of the crown ; but if 
 what is proposed in this Bill be duly consider- 
 ed, it will appear to be neither an attack upon 
 the prerogative, nor so much as a diminution 
 of the power of the crown. There is no power 
 to be taken from the crown, but that power 
 which the crown* ought never to make use of. 
 It is certain that the crown ought never to take 
 an officer's commission from him, but for some 
 very sufficient reason, and upon a full proof of 
 the facts alleged against him ; and, therefore, 
 all that is proposed by this Bill, is only a method 
 by which the crown may get such informa- 
 tion as to the facts alleged, as may be de- 
 pended on, by which the crown may be secured 
 against impositions, and the officers against 
 private misrepresentations and false accusa- 
 tions. It is meant to prevent the King's being 
 led into the doing a piece of the highest in- 
 justice to a faithful soldier, and to prevent a 
 good and brave officer from being whispered 
 out of his commission, and reduced to a starv- 
 
 G 
 
82 
 
 ing condition, for no crime, perhaps for a piece 
 of behaviour for which he ought to be highly 
 rewarded. Can this be called an invasion of 
 the rights of the crown? Is it not plainly 
 grounded upon that fundamental maxim ^ of 
 our Constitution, which says, " that a king of 
 England shall have it in his power to do as 
 much good as he pleases, but shall not have 
 it in his power to do wrong?" — Speech in favour 
 of the Duke of Marlborough' s JBill, presented 
 to the House of Lords, February, 1736, '* For 
 the better securing, ^r." 
 
 Junius. — This, Sir, is the detail. In one 
 view, behold a nation overwhelmed with 
 debt ; her revenues wasted ; her trade declin- 
 ing ; the affections of her colonies alienated ; 
 the duty of the magistrate transferred to the 
 soldiery ; a gallant army, which never fought 
 unwilling but against their fellow subjects, 
 mouldering away for want of the direction of 
 a man of common abilities and spirit ; and in 
 the last instance, the administration of justice 
 become odious and suspected to the whole 
 body of the people. This deplorable scene 
 admits but of one addition, that we are go- 
 
 ^ '' The compion law hath so admeasured the king's pre- 
 fogatives, that they should not take away nor prejudice the 
 inheritance of any."-r-Co/re'5 Instit, quoted by Junius, MisceU 
 Idneoiis Letter 19, Vol. Ill, p. 34. ' 
 
83 
 
 verned by counsels from which a reasonable 
 man can expect no remedy but poison, no 
 relief but death. — Letter 1, Vol. I. p. 61. 
 
 Chesterfield.— I turn my eyes away as much 
 as I can from this miserable prospect ; but as 
 a citizen and member of society, it recurs to 
 my imagination, notwithstanding all my en- 
 deavours to banish it from my thoughts. 1 
 can do myself or my country no good, but 
 I feel the wretched situation of both ; the state 
 of the latter^ makes me better bear that of the 
 former, and when I am called away from my 
 station here, I shall think it rather (as Cicero 
 says of Crassus) mors donata quam vita erepta. 
 ^Letter 289, Vol. IV. 
 
 When things are in such a miserable situa- 
 tion as they are at present, I desire neither to 
 be concerned, nor consulted, still less quoted. 
 —Letter 290, Vol. IV. 
 
 Junius, — All reste, I see no use in fighting 
 this question in the newspaper, nor have I 
 tvoie.— 'Private Letter 79, Vol. I. p. 330. 
 
 Chesterfield. — Au reste, I do not see that 
 his affairs are much mended by this victory. — 
 Letter 290, Vol. IV. 
 
 Junius. — ^The people are seldom wrong iii 
 their opinions — in their sentiments they are 
 never mistaken. There may be a vanity per- 
 haps in a singular way of thinking ; but when 
 G 2 
 
84 
 
 a man professes a want of those feelings which 
 do honour to the multitude, he hazards some- 
 thing infinitely more important than the cha- 
 racter of his understanding. — Letter 21^ Vol. II. 
 p. 17. 
 
 Chesterfield. — ^The people are very seldom in 
 the wrong, or at least do not often persist long 
 in a wrong opinion ; and as popularity and 
 the esteem of one's country is certainly a 
 very desirable thing, a man should examine 
 thoroughly, and be very fully convinced, be- 
 fore he takes upon him to dissent from a great 
 majority of his countrymen. Whilst I sit in 
 this assembly, therefore, I shall always advise 
 my sovereign to give great heed to any opinion 
 that prevails generally among the people; I 
 shall never advise him to pursue any measure 
 that is contrary to the sentiments of the ma- 
 jority of his subjects. — Speech in 1742, infanour 
 of the Bill for indemnifying, SfC, SfC, 
 
 Junius, — ^The woman who admits of one 
 familiarity, seldom knows where to stop, or 
 what to refuse ; and when the counsels of a 
 great country give way in a single instance, 
 when once they are inclined to submission, 
 every step accelerates the rapidity of the 
 descent.— ie^^er 42, Vol. II. p. 187. 
 
 Chesterfield. — What we are now about is the 
 first step; and like a virgin deflowered, it is 
 
85 
 
 always more easy to get a free people to make 
 the second step to slavery, than it is to get them 
 to make the first. — Speech against the contract 
 by which the Hanoverian troops had been taken 
 into British pay, without the advice or consent of 
 Parliament, 1743. 
 
 Junius, — For a short time his submission to 
 Lord Chatham was unlimited ; he could not 
 answer a private letter without Lord Chat- 
 ham's permission. I presume he was then 
 learning his trade, for he soon set up for himself 
 — Miscellaneous Letter 4Q, Vol. IIL p. 167. 
 
 Chesterfield. — You must, therefore, now think, 
 of hardening yourself by degrees, by using 
 yourself insensibly to the sound of your own 
 voice, and to the act, trifling as it seems, of 
 rising up and sitting down again. Nothing 
 will contribute so much to this as committee 
 work ; of elections at night, and of private bills 
 in the morning. There asking short questions, 
 moving for witnesses to be called in, and all 
 that kind of small ware, will soon fit you to 
 set up for yourself — Letter 279, Vol. IV. 
 
 Your apprenticeship is near out, and you are 
 soon to set up for yourself — Letter 193, Vol. IIL 
 
 Junius.— Thi^ may be a very good answer at 
 cross purposes, but is, I confess, a very whim- 
 sical one in the present case. — Miscellaneous 
 Letter A, Vol. 11. p. 479. 
 
 Junius and many others say (and I fancy 
 
86 
 
 they speak the sense of the nation) that the 
 Duke of Grafton imposes upon his sovereign, 
 betrays his connections, persecutes the man 
 who was his friend, idly irritates the colonies, 
 wickedly alienates their affections from their 
 mother country, invades the liberties of the 
 people, abuses the prerogative of the crown, 
 and has actually subverted the Constitution ; 
 and when Junius civilly asks the reason of 
 all this — Sir, says he, you are a rascal. 
 
 Now, Mr. Woodfall, I shall make but one 
 reflection, and that I shall borrow from Sir 
 John Brute, " This may be a very good answer 
 for aught I know at cross purposes, but it is a 
 damned whimsical one to a people in our 
 circumstances." — Miscellaneous Letter 58, 
 Vol. III. p. 212. 
 
 Chesterfield — A man of honour may abuse 
 and starve his own wife, daughter, and sisters ; 
 and he may seduce those of other men, par- 
 ticularly his friends, with inviolate honour, be- 
 cause, as Sir John Brute very justly observes, 
 '* he wears a sword'' — The World, No. 49. 
 
 Junius. — National reflections, I confess, are 
 not to be justified in theory, nor upon any 
 general principles. — Preface, Vol. I. p. 39. 
 
 Chesterfield. — All general reflections upon 
 nations and societies, are the trite, thread-bare 
 jokes of those, who set up for wit, without 
 
87 
 
 having any, and so have recourse to common- 
 place.— i^/^^r 78, Vol. I. 
 
 Reflections upon nations or professions 
 in general (which are at least as often false as 
 true) are the poor refuge of people who have 
 neither wit nor invention of their own, but 
 endeavour to shine in company by second- 
 hand finery, —Letter 118, Vol. I. 
 
 Junius, — I am well assured that Junius will 
 never descend to a dispute with such a writer 
 as Modestus, especially as the dispute must 
 be chiefly about words,— Letter 29, Vol. II. 
 p. 28. 
 
 Chesterjield, — I hope too that your attention 
 is not only employed upon words, but upon the 
 sense and meaning of those words, that is, 
 that when you read, or get ^ny thing by heart, 
 you observe the thoughts and reflections of the 
 author, as well as his words. — Letter 24, 
 Vol. I. 
 
 Juniiis. — Injuries may be atoned for and 
 forgiven, but insults admit of no compensa- 
 tion ; they degrade the mind in its own 
 esteem, and force it to recover its level by 
 revenge.— Z^«^r 36, Vol. IL p. 94. 
 
 Chesterjield, — ^There is nothing that people 
 bear more impatiently, or forgive Jess, than 
 contempt. And an injury is much sooner for- 
 gotten than an insult.— Ze^^er 81, Vol. I. 
 
88 
 
 Wrongs are often forgiven, but contempt 
 never is — our pride remembers it for ever. It 
 implies a discovery of weaknesses, which we 
 are much more careful to conceal than crimes. 
 —Letter 123, Vol. II. 
 
 Junius. — Events and characters of a similar 
 nature recur so often, within the compass of a 
 few centuries, that history is in effect little 
 more than a repetition. The scenes and names 
 of the performers are changed, but the fable is 
 the same. — Miscellaneous Letter 99, Vol. III. 
 p. 408. 
 
 Chesterfield. — Human nature is the same all 
 over the world, but its operations are so varied 
 by education and habit, that one must see it 
 in all its dresses, in order to be intimately 
 acquainted with it. — Letter 95, Vol. I. 
 
 Whatever poets may write, or fools be- 
 lieve, of rural innocence and truth, and of the 
 perfidy of courts, this is most undoubtedly 
 true — that shepherds and ministers are both 
 men, their nature and passions the same, the 
 modes of them only different. — Letter 118, 
 Vol. I. 
 
 The nature of things is always and every 
 where the same, but the modes of them vary 
 more or less in every country. — Letter 100, 
 Vol. I. 
 
 Junius. — You are a mere boy, Harry, not- 
 
89 
 
 withstanding the down upon your chin, and 
 would do well to cultivate the friendship of 
 women of experience. — Miscellaneous Letter 
 25, Vol. III. p. 61. 
 
 Chesterfield. — Go to the Duchess of Cour- 
 land's, as often as she and your leisure will 
 permit. The company of women of fashion 
 will improve your manners, though not your 
 understanding ; and that complaisance and 
 politeness which are so useful in men's com- 
 pany can only be acquired in women's. — 
 Letter 103, Vol. 1. 
 
 Junius, — When open and direct attacks upon 
 the Constitution have failed, a bad minister 
 will naturally have recourse to some more art- 
 ful measures, by which the prerogative of the 
 Crown may be extended, and the purposes of 
 arbitrary power answered, as effectually arid 
 more securely to themselves. When attempts 
 of this insidious nature are made, it is the duty 
 of every subject, be his situation what it may, 
 to point out the danger to his countrymen, and 
 warn them to guard against it. — Miscellaneous 
 Letter 12, Vol. III. p. 2. 
 
 Chesterfield. — If any future Prince of our 
 present Royal Family should overturn our 
 Constitution, and set up to govern without any 
 Parliament, or by means of a packed, corrupt 
 Parliament, and a mercenary standing army, 
 
90 
 
 it would be the duty of every man in the 
 kingdom to take arms against the Ministers 
 that advised, and the venal tools that sup- 
 ported, such measures. — Speech against the 
 Bill denouncing the petialties of High Treason 
 against those who should vnaintain Correspon- 
 dence with the Sons of the Pretender, 
 
 Junius. — At such a moment, no honest man 
 will remain silent or inactive : however distin- 
 guished by rank or property, in the rights of 
 freedom, we are all equal. As we are English- 
 men, the least considerable man among us has 
 an interest, equal to the proudest nobleman, in 
 the Laws and Constitution of his country, and 
 is equally called upon to make a generous 
 contribution in support of them ; whether it be 
 the heart to conceive, the understanding to direct^ 
 or the hand to execute. — Letter 37, Vol. II. 
 p. 113. 
 
 Such has been the boasted firmness and 
 consistency of a Minister, whose appearance 
 in the House of Commons was thought es- 
 sential to the King's service — whose presence 
 was to influence every division — who had a 
 voice to persuade, an eye to penetrate, a gesture 
 to command, — Letter 38, Vol. II. p. 128. 
 
 Chesterfield, — Lord Clarendon, in his History, 
 says of Mr. John Hampden, that, '* he had a 
 head to contrive, a tongue to persuade, and a 
 
91 
 
 hand to execute any mischief y — Letter 175, 
 Vol. II. 
 
 Junius,— W\^ Majesty will find, at last, that 
 this is the sense of his people, and that it is 
 not his interest to support either Minister or 
 Parliament, at the hazard of a breach with the 
 collective body of his subjects. — Letter 37, 
 Vol. II. p. 122. 
 
 Chesterfield, — Whilst I sit in this Assembly 
 I shall always advise my Sovereign to give 
 great heed to any opinion that prevails, gene- 
 rally, among the people. 1 shall never advise 
 him to pursue any measure that is contrary to 
 the sentiments of the majority of his subjects. 
 — Speech in favour of the Bill for . indemnify- 
 ing, ^c. ^c, 
 
 Junius, — If we may judge by what passes 
 every day in a great assembly, you already 
 possess all the constituent parts of a Minister, 
 except the honour of distributing, or the 
 emolument of receiving, the public money : 
 these, in the contemplation of the present 
 ministry, are the most essential ornaments of 
 office — they are the decus et tutamen of a 
 respectable administration, and the last that a 
 prudent administration will relinquish. — 3Iis' 
 cellaneous Letter 53, Vol. III. p. 193. 
 
 Chesterfield. — When the old clipped money 
 was called in for a new coinage, in King Wil- 
 
92 
 
 Ham's time, to prevent the like for the future, 
 they stamped on the edges of the crown-pieces 
 these words: — et decus et tutamen. That is 
 exactly the case of good breeding. — Maxims, 
 Vol. IV. 
 
 Junius. — 1 presume, Sir, you are satisfied, 
 that I mean you well, — Private Letter Q5, 
 Vol. I. p. 263. 
 
 / meant the cause and the public. — Id, 63, 
 Vol. I. p. 255. 
 
 It is time for those who really mean the 
 cause and the people, &c. — Letter 59, Vol. II. 
 p. 345. 
 
 Chesterfield. — Mr. Pelham died last Monday. 
 1 regret him as an old acquaintance, a pretty 
 near relation, and a private man, with whom I 
 have lived many years in a social and friendly 
 way. He meaned well to the public, and was 
 incorrupt in a post, where corruption is com- 
 monly contagious. — Letter lib. Vol. IV. 
 
 Junius, — ^The policy of concealment is no 
 better than the wisdom of a prodigal, who 
 wastes his estate, without reflection, and has 
 not courage enough to examine his accounts. — 
 Miscellaneous Letter 45, Vol. III. p. 156. 
 
 Chesterfield, — You must keep your little 
 accounts constantly every morning, if you 
 would not have them run into confusion, 
 and swell to a bulk that would frighten you 
 
93 
 
 from ever looking into them at all Letter 198, 
 
 Vol. III. 
 
 A man who, by long negligence, owes a 
 great deal, despairs of ever being able to pay, 
 and therefore never looks into his accounts at 
 all.— ie/^er 197, Vol. III. 
 
 Junius, — But without looking back to an 
 obscure antiquity, from which no certain in- 
 formation can be collected, you will find that 
 the Laws of England have much greater 
 regard to possession (of a certain length) than 
 to any other title whatsoever ; and that in 
 every kind of property which savours of the 
 reality, this doctrine is most wisely the basis 
 of our English jurisprudence. — Private Letters, 
 No. 70, Vol. I. p. 312. 
 
 Chesterfield A vulgar man's conversation 
 
 always savours strongly of the lowness of his 
 education and company. — Letter 163, Vol. II. 
 
 This you must confess does not savour of 
 either the severity or parsimony of old age — 
 Id, 201, Vol. III. 
 
 Junius I never will send you any thing that 
 
 I think dangerous ; but the risque^ is yours ; 
 and you must determine for yourself — Private 
 Letter 33, Vol. I. p. 223. 
 
 •* This peculiarity is the Author's. 
 
94 
 
 Chesterjield. — To go and tell any friend, 
 wife or mistress any secret, with which they 
 have nothing to do, is discovering to them 
 such an unretentive weakness, as must con- 
 vince them that you will tell it to twenty 
 others ; and, consequently, that they may 
 reveal it without the risque of being dis- 
 covered. — Letter 130, Vol. II. 
 
 Junius. — As to me it is hy no means necessary y 
 that I should be exposed to the resentment of 
 the worst, and the most powerful, men in this 
 country.— Letter 25, Vol. II. p. 7. 
 
 Chesterjield. — As to our meeting, I will tell 
 you my plan, and you may form your own 
 accordingly. — Letter 274, Vol. IV. 
 
 lam hy no means right yet. — Id. 340, Vol. IV. 
 
 Junius. — I have seen the signals thrown out 
 for your old friend and correspondent. Be 
 assured that I have had good treason for not 
 complying with them. — Private Letter 63, 
 Vol. I. p. 255. 
 
 I affirm, that the price at which the place 
 was knocked down, and which I have good 
 reason to think was not less than three thousand 
 five hundred pounds, &c. — Letter ^4, Vol. II. 
 p. 56. 
 
 Chesterjield. — ^The door seems to be not only 
 shut, but bolted, against his Royal Highness's 
 return; and / have good reason to be convinced 
 
95 
 
 that that breach is irreparable. — Letter 289, 
 Vol. IV. 
 
 Your Majesty's petitioner is well aware 
 that your Civil List must necessarily be in a 
 low and languid state after the various, fre- 
 quent, and profuse, evacuations, which it has 
 of late years undergone ; but at the same time 
 he presumes to hope, that this argument, 
 which seems not to have been made use of 
 against any other person whatsoever, shall 
 not, in this single case, be urged against him, 
 and the less so as he has good reasons to helievCy 
 that the deficiencies of the pension fund are, 
 hy no means, the last that will be made good 
 by Parliament. — Petition, Vol. IV. 
 
 Junius, — You did not neglect the Magistrate, 
 while you Jlattered the man, — Letter 49, Vol.11. 
 p. 246. 
 
 Chesterfield. — A skilful negotiator will ^a^^^r 
 and engage the man, while he counterworks the 
 minister. — Maxims, Vol. IV. 
 
 Junius, — I regard the legal liberty of the 
 meanest man in Britain as much as my own, 
 and would defend it with the same zeal. — 
 Letter ^9, Vol. II. p. 351. 
 
 Chesterfield, — Every man has a natural right 
 to his liberty, and whoever endeavours to 
 ravish it from him, deserves death more than 
 
96 
 
 the robber who attacks us for our money on 
 the highway. — Letter 15, Vol. I. 
 
 Junius, — I dedicate you a collection of letters, 
 written by one of yourselves, for the common 
 benefit of us all. — Dedication, Vol. I. p. 1. 
 
 Chesterfield. — To his menial servants, whom 
 he considers as his unfortunate friends, equal 
 by birth, and only inferior by fortune, two 
 years wages, &c. — Universal Magazine for 
 April 1773. — Memoirs of the Earl of Ches- 
 terfield, 
 
 Junius. — I can more readily admire the 
 liberal spirit and integrity than the sound 
 judgment of any man who prefers a republican 
 form of governrnent, in this or any other empire 
 of equal extent, to a monarchy so qualified and 
 limited as ours. 1 am convinced, that neither 
 is it in theory the wisest system of government, 
 nor practicable in this country. — Letter 59, 
 Vol. II. p. 347. 
 
 Chesterfield. — A commonwealth is unques- 
 tionably, upon paper, the most rational and 
 equitable form of government, but it is as un- 
 questionably impracticable in all countries 
 where riches have introduced luxury, and a 
 great inequality of conditions. — Note to his 
 Lordships account of the Republic of the Seven 
 United Provinces . — Vol. IV. 
 
97 
 
 Junius,— The power of King, Lords, and 
 Commons, is not an arbitrary power. They 
 are the trustees, not the owners, of the estate. 
 The fee simple is in us. They cannot alienate 
 — they cannot waste. — Dedication, Vol. I. p. 5. 
 
 Chesterfield, — We are, my Lords, the guar- 
 dians of the rights of the people; we shall 
 be, therefore, inexcusable should we betray 
 them Speech against the Convention, ^c, 
 
 Junius, — Let us employ these men in what- 
 ever departments their various abilities are 
 best suited to, and as much to the advantage 
 of the common cause as their different incli- 
 nations will permit. — Vol. II. p. 346. 
 
 Chesterfield. — The service which these troops 
 have already done to the common cause has 
 been urged, with great pomp of exaggeration, 
 of which, what effect it may have had upon 
 others, I am not able to say ; for my part, I 
 am convinced that the great happiness of this 
 kingdom is the security of the established 
 succession ; and am, therefore, always of 
 opinion, that no measures can serve the 
 common cause — the cause of liberty or of re- 
 ligion — ^by which the Royal Family loses the 
 affections of the people. — Speech in favour of 
 the motion to dismiss the Hanoverian troops, SfC, 
 
 The frequent allusion to events and charac- 
 
 H 
 
98 
 
 ters, which distinguished the reigns of Charles 
 the First and his successors, and the senti- 
 ments Junius expresses towards that monarch, 
 and the usurper Cromwell, proves him to have 
 studied that part of history with attention. It 
 was about this period the ancestors of Lord 
 Chesterfield obtained their titles and distinc- 
 tions ; and it will be seen also, that his Lordship 
 held the same opinions as Junius with regard 
 to Charles the First, Oliver Cromwell, Charles 
 the Second, and the Revolution. 
 
 Junius, — With this uniform experience be- 
 fore us, we are authorised to suspect, that when 
 a pretended vindication of your principles and 
 conduct, in reality contains the bitterest re- 
 flections upon both, it could not have been 
 written without your immediate direction and 
 assistance. The Author, indeed, calls God to 
 witness for him, with all the sincerity, and in 
 the very terms of an Irish evidence, to the best 
 of his knowledge and belief. My Lord, you 
 should not encourage these appeals to Heaven. 
 The pious prince from whom you are supposed 
 to descend, made such frequent use of them in 
 his public declarations, that at last the people 
 also found it necessary to appeal to Heaven iii 
 their turn. Your administration has driven us 
 into circumstances of equal distress ; beware 
 
at least how you remind us of the remedy. — 
 Letter 9, Vol. I. p. 117, 118. 
 
 The character of the reputed ancestors 
 of some men, has made it possible for their 
 descendants to be vicious in the extreme, with- 
 out being degenerate. Those of your Grace, 
 for instance, left no distressing examples of 
 virtue, even to their legitimate posterity ; and 
 you may look back with pleasure to an illus- 
 trious pedigree, in which heraldry has not left 
 a single good quality upon record to insult or 
 upbraid you. You have better proofs of your 
 descent, my Lord, than the register of a mar- 
 riage, or any troublesome inheritance of repu- 
 tation. There are some hereditary strokes of 
 character, by which a family may be as clearly 
 distinguished, as by the blackest features of 
 the human face. Charles the First lived and 
 died a hypocrite. Charles the second was a 
 hypocrite of another sort, and should have died 
 upon the same scaffold. At the distance of 
 a century, we see their different characters 
 happily revived and blended in your Grace. 
 Sullen and severe without religion ; profligate 
 without gaiety; you live like Charles the 
 Second, without being an amiable companion, 
 and, for aught I know, may die as his father 
 did, without the reputation of a martyr. — 
 Letter 12, Vol.1, p. 141. 
 
 H ^z 
 
100 
 
 The name of Old Noll, is destined to be 
 the ruin of the House of Stuart. There is an 
 ominous fatality in it, which even the spurious 
 descendants of the family cannot escape. 
 Oliver Cromwell had the merit of conducting 
 Charles the First to the block ; your corres- 
 pondent. Old INoll, appears to have the same 
 design upon the Duke of Grafton. — Letter 14, 
 Yol. I. p. 156. 
 
 Had there been no star-chamber, there 
 would have been no rebellion against Charles 
 the First. The constant censure and admo- 
 nition of the press, would have corrected his 
 conduct, prevented a civil war, and saved him 
 from an ignominious death. — Preface, p. 44. 
 
 Surely, Sir, the noble duke, who is the 
 present sufferer, must feel great satisfaction in 
 finding the sins of his ancestors visited upon 
 him. A Stuart has at length risen up to avenge 
 upon the memory of King William, and the 
 descendants of all those embarked with him in 
 the once glorious cause, the injuries and suf- 
 ferings of that once (but now no longer) hate- 
 ful name. 1 am, &c. 
 
 Not yet an enemy to the revolution, 
 
 Anti-Stuart. 
 Miscel Letter 16, Vol. IH. p. 26. 
 
 Had there ever been an honest man among 
 the Stuarts, his Majesty's present* friends would 
 
101 :;;. 
 
 have been whigs upon principle. — Letter 50, 
 Vol. 11. p. 255. 
 
 Chesterfield, — King Charles the First suc- 
 ceeded his father king James the First, and 
 though he was nothing very extraordinary, 
 was still much better than his father, having 
 both more sense and more courage. He 
 married a princess of France, daughter to 
 Henry the Great, who being a zealous Papist, 
 and a busy meddling woman, had an influence 
 over him, which contributed much to his mis- 
 fortunes. He had learned from his father to 
 fancy that he had a right to be absolute, and 
 had the courage that his father wanted to try 
 for it. This made him quarrel with Parlia- 
 ments, and attempt to raise money without 
 them, which no king has a right to do ; but 
 there was then spirit and virtue enough in the 
 nation to oppose it. He would likewise, by 
 the advice of a hot-headed parson (Archbishop 
 Laud) establish the Common Prayer through 
 the whole kingdom by force, to which the 
 Presbyterians would not submit. These, and 
 many other violences, raised a civil war in the 
 nation, in which he was beaten and taken 
 prisoner. A high court of justice was erected 
 on purpose for his trial, where he was tried 
 and condemned for high treason against the 
 Constitution, and was beheaded publicly about 
 
i02 
 
 one hundred years ago, at Whitehall, on the 
 30th January. This action is much blamed, 
 but, however, if it had not happened, we had 
 had no liberties left. 
 
 After Charles's death the Parliament go- 
 verned for a time, but the army soon took the 
 power out of their hands ; and then Oliver 
 Cromwell, a private gentleman of Huntingdon- 
 shire, and a colonel in that army, usurped the 
 government, and called himself the protector. 
 He was a very brave and a very able man, 
 and carried the honour of England to the 
 highest pitch of glory, making himself both 
 feared and respected by all the powers iii 
 Europe. He got us the island of Jamaica from 
 the Spaniards ; and Dunkirk, which Charles 
 the Second shamefully sold afterwards to the 
 French. He died in about ten years after he 
 had usurped the government, which he left to 
 his son Richard, who being a blockhead could 
 not keep it ; so that King Charles the Second 
 was restored by the means of general Monk, 
 who was then at the head of the army. 
 
 King Charles the Second, who, during the 
 life of Cromwell, had been wandering about 
 from one country to another, instead of pro- 
 fiting by his adversities, had only collected the 
 vices of all the countries he had been in. He 
 had no religion, or, if any, was a Papist ; and 
 
103 
 
 his brother, the Duke of York, was a declared 
 one. He gave all he had to whores and fa- 
 vourites, and was so necessitous that he be- 
 came a pensioner to France. He lived un- 
 easily with his people and his parliament, and 
 was at last poisoned. As he died without 
 children, he was succeeded by his brother, 
 the Duke of York, then 
 
 King James the Second, whp was of a sour, 
 cruel, and tyrannical disposition, and a zealous 
 Papist. He resolved at once to be above the 
 laws, make himself absolute, and establish 
 popery; upon which the nation very wisely 
 and justly turned him out, before he had reign- 
 ed quite four years, and called the Prince of 
 Orange from Holland, who had married King 
 James's eldest daughter Mary. 
 
 The Prince and Princess of Orange were 
 then declared by Parliament King and Queen 
 of England, by the title of King William 
 the Third and Queen Mary, and this is called 
 the Revolution. 
 
 Queen Mary was an excellent princess, but 
 she died seven years before King William 
 without children. King William was a brave 
 and warlike king; he would have been glad 
 of more power than he ought to have, but his 
 Parliamentskept him within due bounds against 
 his will. To this revolution we again owe our 
 
104 
 
 liberties. King William dying without chil- 
 dren, was succeeded by Queen Anne, the 
 second daughter of King James the Second. — 
 Letter 70, Vol. I. 
 
 The revolution in 1688, instead of changing, 
 preserved our form of government, which King 
 James the Second intended to subvert, and 
 establish absolute power in the crown. — 
 Letter 121, Vol. II. 
 
 Characteristics of the Earl of Chesterfield, 
 occurring in the Private Correspondence of 
 Junius, 
 
 The initial corresponds, and is frequently 
 used in his public letters,' before he assumed 
 the signature of Junius : it never occurs in the 
 Miscellaneous collection after the curiosity 
 of the public to discover the author had been 
 excited : he could not relinquish it in his com- 
 munication with his printer, without exposing 
 himself to more imminent danger ; for if any 
 suspicion existed, the omission would have im- 
 mediately confirmed it. He seems, however, 
 
 * These Letters are of a very different description from any 
 written by Junius under his diversity of signatures. They 
 are such as the Author might have felt no repugnance in 
 acknowledging, and it might have been his intention to hare 
 done so at the time they were written. 
 
105 
 
 tenacious lest any other should suspect it be- 
 longed to him : ** I return you," says he, " the 
 letters you sent me yesterday ; a man who can 
 neither write common English, nor spell, is 
 hardly worth attending to. It is probably a 
 trap for me. I should be glad, however, to 
 know what the fool means. If he writes 
 again, open his letter, and if it contains any 
 thing worth my knowing, send it ; otherwise 
 not. Instead of (7. in the usual place , say only 
 a letter, when you have occasion to write to 
 me again — I shall understand you." — Private 
 Letter 12, Vol. I. p. 202. 
 
 The extreme caution Junius evinces on all 
 occasions, to avoid the danger of being sur- 
 prized or detected, proves him to have been a 
 character who might easily have been known 
 *' by his works." As an instance of this, when he 
 wrote to Mr. Garrick, he charges Woodfall to 
 get the letter copied, as he would by no means 
 have his hand-writing too commonly known. 
 And to Mr. Wilkes, on the subject of laying 
 his letter before the supporters of the Bill of 
 Rights, he is as particular : " It should be copied 
 
 over in a better hand; by all means let 
 
 it be copied, this manuscript is for private use 
 only." This renders the similitude of the hand- 
 writing important, as that of Junius is peculiar; 
 and he appears not to have employed an 
 
106 
 
 amanuensis, or assumed a disguise, at least 
 not sufficient to conceal his natural method 
 of writing. There is a degree of neatness 
 and propriety attached to every letter, that 
 proves the author had even a scrupulous regard 
 to the minutest points of composition. Speak- 
 ing of his own works, he appears to have an 
 high, though correct opinion of his superior 
 abilities, and attentive to the purity of his style 
 and its classical correctness, ** I have no 
 view," says he, to Mr. Woodfall, '* but to serve 
 you, and consequently have only to desire that 
 the Dedication and Preface may be correct. 
 Look to it. If you take it upon yourself, I 
 will not forgive your suffering it to be spoiled. 
 I weigh every word, and every alteration, in 
 my eyes at least, is a blemish." — Private 
 Letter 46, p. 240. 
 
 The impatience he betrays at the occasional 
 errors of the printer, shews how far he carried 
 his desire to arrive at perfection. '* For ma- 
 terial affection," says he, Private Letter 16, 
 Vol. I. p. 205, ''for God's sake, read maternal." 
 See also Private Letter 22, 24, 26, &c. where 
 the same solicitude prevails. 
 
 The above expression is most familiar to the 
 Earl of Chesterfield, in his earnest exhorta- 
 tions to his Son. 
 
 '* Therefore, /or God's sake, let this trade be 
 
107 
 
 the principle object of your thoughts ; never 
 lose sight of it." 
 
 ** For God's sake^ be diligent, alert, active, and 
 indefatigable in your business." — Letters 272, 
 273, Vol. IV. 
 
 Another peculiarity of Junius, is the frequent 
 use of the verb, to presume — his severest in- 
 vectives receive a pplish from it, and to it he 
 owes, perhaps, in a great measure, the singular 
 reputation he has acquired, for the politeness 
 w^hich pervades both his public and private 
 addresses. Strip the sentence of this orna- 
 ment, and it will often degenerate into a rude 
 expression, " unlike the man — unbecoming the 
 pen of the accomplished Junius." 
 
 The following distinctions have been assign- 
 ed to Sir Philip Francis, but they are doubtless 
 more applicable to the Earl of Chesterfield. 
 
 ''Pray tell me whether George Onslow means 
 to keep his word with you about prosecuting : 
 yes or no will be sufficient. Your Lycurgus is 
 a Mr. Kent, a young man of good parts upon 
 town — And so I wish you a good night, — 
 Private Letter 5, p. 174. 
 
 Innumerable instances of both these expres- 
 sions, may be met with in the letters of Lord 
 Chesterfield. 
 
108 
 
 CHx4iP. VI. 
 
 After so full and satisfactory a develope- 
 ment of the mystery which has so long been 
 attached to the writer of these letters, it may 
 seem useless to search for further proof in 
 support of, or to corroborate that testimony 
 which can admit of no doubt as to its validity, 
 and which, in every particular relative to the 
 discovery of the author, is so conclusive. Yet 
 there are some facts unrevealed equally de- 
 cisive and convincing. They are not perhaps 
 so striking as those already detailed; but to 
 the discerning eye of the judicious reader they 
 may have more weight than circumstances 
 which in their nature appear less questionable. 
 It might therefore be imprudent entirely to 
 suppress them, though the evidence should 
 derive no very essential benefit from the im- 
 pression they are calculated to produce. For 
 when demonstration is no longer requisite to 
 convince the understanding of truths, that are 
 either self-evident or proved beyond a pos- 
 sibility of doubt, any additional argument 
 
109 
 
 is rendered useless, and too often ridiculous. 
 With such impression therefore, and the full 
 assurance that the preceding Chapters have 
 removed every exception in the minds of the 
 candid and impartial, it will not be judged 
 necessary to descend to every minute inci- 
 dent, or trivial resemblance, by v^^hich the 
 author may be known, however forcibly in 
 some instances such references might be found 
 to operate. 
 
 It must appear evident to every one, the least 
 acquainted with the character of Junius, that 
 when suspicion once rests on the true object 
 of inquiry, it must necessarily be followed by 
 conviction. This would not perhaps be the 
 case if the author resembled the ordinary class 
 of political writers, or if the singular attributes 
 of Junius might be applied with equal justness 
 and precision to another. They are too ex- 
 centric to admit of such comparison, and too 
 distinct to be mistaken or misapplied. 
 
 The politeness of Junius, even in the most 
 vindictive display of his resentments, has ever 
 been esteemed as one of the most striking 
 features by which he may be distinguished. 
 How seldom is abuse confined within the 
 limits of good breeding, or rancour restrained 
 by a decent regard for decorum. In the 
 author before us,, these apparent contradictions 
 
110 
 
 seem reconciled, and *' detraction conveyed in 
 the most persuasive language from the pen of 
 an accomplished writer." * 
 
 * The epithets given to Junius, by this author, are so 
 applicable to the Earl of Chesterfield, that they may not be 
 improperly quoted in confirmation of the above qualification 
 now oflFered as a test to ascertain the writer of the letters in 
 question. 
 
 " To enter the lists against such an able antagonist, upon 
 equal terms, would be the height of presumption ; but truth, 
 plainly and simply told, I doubt not, will shew itself superior 
 to falsehood, though dressed in the most beautiful language 
 of the elegant Junius." 
 
 "^ Junius is possessed of superior abilities 3 he has a flow of 
 fine language at his command, his composition is masterly, 
 his style elegant, and the arrangement of his words is 
 beautiful and harmonious. What excellent purposes might 
 these talents serve were they employed for the service of his 
 country ! — What a pity they should be prostituted to depre- 
 ciate Government, and made subservient to such unphilosophic 
 passions, unworthy of the man, unworthy of the pen of the 
 accomplished Junius !" — See letter signed Titus, Vol. I. p. 79. 
 
 The peculiar beauty of his language has been noticed by 
 other contemporaneous and hostile writers. 
 
 '' I will do your correspondent, Junius, the justice to say, 
 that I think him a very fine writer, a great master of com- 
 position, and indeed upon the whole I have not seen a 
 prettier fellow — upon paper. His former letters have con- 
 sisted of general declamation, or pointed personal abuse. In 
 both of these he has proved himself an adept. There is a 
 great deal of oratory in his declamations, though he is 
 perhaps too Jiowery and metaphorical, and seems as fond of 
 
Ill 
 
 ^" " I presume, Sir," says he, in his first ad* 
 dress to Mr. Wilkes, who certainly had ex- 
 perienced no particular marks of favour to 
 
 point and antithesis as any woman is of point lace and French 
 silk." — Miscellaneous Letter 58, Vol. III. p. 213. 
 
 " Having accidently seen a republication of your Letters, 
 wherein you have been pleased to assert, that I had sold the 
 companions of my success, I am again obliged to declare the said 
 assertion to be a most infamous and malicious falsehood j and 
 I again call upon you to stand forth, avow yourself, and prove 
 the charge. If you can make it out, to the satisfaction of any 
 one man in the kingdom, I will be contented to be thought 
 the worst man in it : if you do not, what must the nation 
 think of you. Party has nothing to do in this affair ; you have 
 made a personal attack upon my honour, defamed me by a 
 most vile calumny, which might possibly have sunk into 
 oblivion, had not such uncommon pains been taken to renew 
 and perpetuate the scandal, chiefly because it has been told in 
 good language j for I give you full credit for your elegant 
 diction, well-turned periods, and attic wit." — Sir William Dra- 
 per to Junius, Letter 24, Vol. II. p. I. 
 
 " Not all the power of words, with which you are so 
 graced, will ever wash out, or even palliate, this foul blot in 
 your character." — Id. p. H. 
 
 '' The rest of your declamation is scarce worth considering, 
 excepting for the elegance of the language." — Id. p. 14. 
 
 '' To paint a father, destitute of a father's love, and even 
 professing a want of those feelings, which do honour to the 
 multitude, is an instance of barbarity, of which a savage 
 would have been ashamed, and which no prettinesses of style, 
 no power of language, no literary merit can ever excuse or 
 expiate." — M. Tullms in Vindication of the Duke of Bedford. 
 Note to Junius, Letter 27, Vol. II. p. 23. 
 
112 
 
 incline him to grant his esteem and confidence 
 to the man by whom, he confessed, the deepest 
 of his wounds had been inflicted, though the 
 friendly hand was now destined to pour the 
 balm of consolation into them, *' I presume. 
 Sir, you are satisfied, that I mean you well, 
 and that it is not necessary to assure you, that 
 while you adhere to the resolution of depend- 
 ing only upon the public favour (which if you 
 have half the understanding 1 attribute to you, 
 you never can depart from,) you may rely 
 upon my utmost assistance. Whatever ima- 
 ginary views may be ascribed to the author, 
 it must always make part of Junius's plan to 
 support Mr. Wilkes, while he makes common 
 cause with the people. I would engage your 
 favourable attention to what I am going to say 
 to you, and I entreat you not to be too hasty 
 in concluding, from the apparent tendency of 
 this letter, to any possible interests or con- 
 nexions of my own. It is a very common 
 mistake in judgment, and a very dangerous 
 one in conduct, first to look for nothing in the 
 argument proposed to us, but the motive of 
 the man who uses it, and then to measure the 
 truth of his argument by the motive we have 
 assigned to him. With regard to me. Sir, any 
 refinement in this way would assuredly mislead 
 you ; and though I do not disclaim the idea of 
 
113 
 
 some personal views to future honour and 
 advantage, (you would not believe me if I did) ; 
 yet I can truly affirm, that neither are they 
 little in themselves, nor can they, by any 
 possible conjecture, be collected from my 
 
 writings. 
 
 ******** *** 
 
 I offer you the sincere opinion of a man, who 
 perhaps has more leisure to make reflections 
 than you have, and who, though he stands 
 clear of all business and intrigue, mixes suf- 
 ficiently for the purposes of intelligence in the 
 conversation of the world." ^ — Private Letter 
 No. 67, Vol. I. p. 263—265. 
 
 '' Notwithstanding this declaration, it will appear, from a 
 subsequent letter to Mr. Wilkes, that Junius had cause to 
 lament the absence of social and domestic happiness. On the 
 former speaking of the pleasure he derived from the society 
 of an amiable daughter, he remarks — " The domestic society 
 you speak of is much to be envied. I fancy I should like it 
 still better than you do. I, too, am no enemy to good-fellow- 
 ship, and have often cursed that canting parson for wishing to 
 deny you your claret. It is for him, and men like him, to beware 
 of intoxication. Though I do not place the little pleasures 
 of life in competition with the glorious business of instructing 
 and directing the people, yet I see no reason why a wise man 
 may not unite the public virtues of Cato with the indulgence 
 of Epicurus. 
 
 *' Continue careful of your health 3 your head is too useful 
 to be spared, and your hand may be wanted. Think no more 
 of what is past 5 you did not then stand so well in my opinion, 
 
 I 
 
114 
 
 This pleasing and flattering address, in 
 which the author may be said to have adhered 
 strictly to the rule laid down by him, to whom 
 
 and it was necessary to the plan of that letter to rate you 
 lower than you deserved 5 the wound is curable, and the scar 
 shall be no disgrace to you." — Private Letter 70, Vol. I. 
 p. 313, 314. 
 
 Though Junius thus plausibly excused his former conduct 
 to Mr. Wilkes, yet it is clear, from his letter dated October 5, 
 1771, that it proceeded more from policy than from any 
 change in his sentiments. " Let us employ these men," 
 says he. Vol. II. p. 346 — 356, 357, '*" in whatever departments 
 their various abilities are best suited to, and as much to the 
 advantage of the common cause as their different inclinations 
 will permit •» * * ^ ■» * * * * * 
 Every man is able to contribute something to the common 
 stock, and no man's contribution should be rejected. If in- 
 dividuals have no virtues, their vices may be of use to us. I 
 care not with what principle the new-born patriot is ani- 
 mated, if the measures he supports are beneficial to the com- 
 munity. The nation is interested in his conduct 3 his motives 
 are his own ; the properties of a patriot are perishable in the 
 individual ) but there is a quick succession of subjects, and the 
 breed is worth preserving." 
 
 The following paragraph of a letter written by Lord Ches- 
 terfield in the year 1763, distinctly proves him to have had 
 the same opinion of Mr. Wilkes, and the disinterestedness 
 and sincerity of his patriotism, as Junius, in the early part of 
 his career evinced. He appears to have valued the one, as 
 much as he respected the other. '' It is a great mercy," says 
 he, " that Mr. Wilkes, the intrepid defender of our rights and 
 liberties, is out of danger, and may live to fight and write 
 again in support of them. And it is no less a mercy that God 
 
115 
 
 it is now attributed, had the desired effect, so 
 far as engaging the attention, and even the 
 confidence of Mr. Wilkes. 
 
 ** Whenever you would persuade or prevail," 
 says his Lordship, *' address yourself to the 
 passions ; it is by them that mankind is to be 
 taken. Caesar bade his soldiers, at the battle 
 of Pharsalia, aim at the faces of Pompey's 
 men ; they did so, and prevailed. I bid you 
 strike at the passions, and if you do, you too 
 will prevail. If you can once engage people's 
 pride, love, pity, ambition, or whatever is their 
 prevailing passion on your side, you need not 
 fear what their reason can do against you." — 
 Letter 75, Vol. I. 
 
 How forcibly were these precepts exempli- 
 fied in the character of Mr. Wilkes, who forgot 
 the injuries he had received from Junius, and 
 condescended to offer the incense of adula- 
 tion, with professions of obedience to this un- 
 known god (as he styles him) of politics."^ 
 
 hath raised up the Earl of S to vindicate and promote 
 
 true religion and morality. These two blessings will justly 
 make an epocha in the annals of this country." — See Letter 
 to his Son, 340 3 also Letters 343, 384. 
 
 ** Junius 's answer to these flattering professions is so truly 
 characteristic of the Earl of Chesterfield, that the reader will 
 pardon its insertion. " I am much flattered, as you politely 
 intended I should be, with the worship you are pleased to pay 
 
 I 2 
 
116 
 
 Notwithstanding the hasty temper of Junius, 
 and the abuse and provocation bestowed upon 
 him by his adversaries, he endeavours to keep 
 a strict guard over his resentments, lest he 
 might be induced to utter any expression un- 
 becoming the character of a gentleman. After 
 enumerating the scurrilous epithets given him 
 by Lord Hillsborough, or his advocates, he 
 adds, *' To all which I shall only say, his Lord- 
 ship's arguments are upon a level with his 
 politcfiess"^ When Mr. Home accused him of 
 a deviation from this point, he offers the fol- 
 lowing excuse : *' If any coarse expressions 
 have escaped me, I am ready to agree that 
 they are unfit for Junius to make use of; but 
 I see no reason to admit that they have been 
 improperly applied."^ 
 
 *' Touched with your generosity," says he, 
 in his first letter to Sir William Draper, ** I 
 freely forgive you the excesses into which it 
 has led you; and far from resenting those 
 
 to the unknown god of politics. I find I am treated as other 
 gods usually are by their votaries,, with sacrifice and ceremony 
 in abundance, and very little obedience. The profession of 
 your faith is unexceptionable, but 1 am a modest deity, and 
 should be full as well satisfied with good works and morality." 
 — Private Letter 70, Vol. I. p. 304. 
 
 * Miscellaneous Letter 43, Vol. III. p. 151. 
 
 [ LeUer 54, Vol. II. p. 304. 
 
117 
 
 terms of reproach, which considering that you 
 are an advocate for decorum, you have heaped 
 upon me rather too liberally, I place them to 
 the account of an honest unreflecting indig- 
 nation, in which your cooler judgment and 
 natural politeness had no concern. I approve 
 of the spirit with which you have given your 
 name to the public, and if it were a proof of 
 any thing but spirit, I should have thought 
 myself bound to follow your example. I should 
 have hoped that even my name might carry 
 some authority with it, if I had not seen how 
 very little weight or consideration a printed 
 paper receives, even from the respectable sig- 
 nature of Sir William Draper. * * * * * 
 ******* The last charge of the 
 neglect of the army, is indeed the most mate- 
 rial of all. 1 am sorry to tell you. Sir William, 
 that in this article your first fact is false ; and 
 as there is nothing more painful to me, than to 
 give a direct contradiction to a gentleman of 
 your appearance, I could wish that in your 
 future publications you would pay a greater 
 attention to the truth of your premises, before 
 you suffer your genius to hurry you to a con- 
 clusion."— ie^^er 3, Vol. I. p. 70 — 75. 
 
 There is another point of perhaps equal 
 importance connected with the character of 
 Junius, and which, without much pains, may 
 be ascertained from his writings. " The mas- 
 
118 
 
 culine maturity of the style," says Lord Orford, 
 " indicates an experienced writer ; the tone is 
 that of a man conversant in public affairs." 
 In addition to his boast of long experience and 
 knowledge of the world, there is, 1st, scarcely 
 any one he addresses that he does not finally 
 take leave of them ybr ever,^ 2d, He speaks 
 in terms that plainly indicates a consciousness 
 of the precarious and hazardous state of his 
 existence,' which fact affords a strong presump- 
 tion that he was past the meridian of life : 
 and, 3dly, he repeatedly complains of the 
 
 ** And now^ Sir William, I shall take my leave of you /or 
 €V>er. — Letter 7, Vol. I. p. 104. , 
 
 As you will probably never hear from me again, I will 
 not omit this opportunity of observing to you, that I am not 
 properly supported in the newspapers. — Private Letter to 
 Mr. Wilkes 66, Vol. I. p. 295. 
 
 I shall now take my leave of your Lordship, probably /or ever. 
 — Miscellaneous Letter to Lord Suffolk 97, Vol. III. p. 405. 
 
 After so long an interval, I did not expect to see the de- 
 bate revived between us. My answer to your last letter shall 
 be short, for I write to you with reluctance, and I hope we 
 shall now conclude our correspondence /or ever. — Letter 25, 
 Vol. II. p. 5. 
 
 I believe, my Lord, I may now take my leave of you for 
 ever. — Letter to the Duke of Grafton 36, Vol. II. p. 101. 
 
 ' Whenever the question shall be seriously agitated, I will 
 endeavour, and if I live will assuredly attempt it, to convince 
 the English nation, by arguments to my understanding un- 
 answerable, that they ought to insist upon and banish the idea 
 of annual parliament. — Private Letter, No. 66, Vol. I. p. 284. 
 
119 
 
 ** slavery'" the composition of his letters subject 
 him to/ 
 
 Now, when we consider the superior abilities 
 of Junius, and the time employed in the accom- 
 plishment of the task he submitted to, it can- 
 not reasonably be imagined, that the con- 
 troversy he was engaged in was alone the 
 cause of his complaining of the slavery he 
 endured. There cannot be a more probable 
 conjecture than, that either his age or bodily 
 infirmities made him feel the weight of those 
 labours which otherwise, to a mind like his, 
 must have proved light and supportable. 
 
 That Junius was a per^on of some rank has 
 been proved, as positively as the concurrence 
 of his own assertion with facts recorded in 
 his writings will admit of. What that station 
 was may be guessed from the answer he 
 returned to Mr. Wilkes, who wished to impart 
 to him his plan of an attack upon the House of 
 Lords. — ** Your offer to communicate your 
 plan against the Lords was voluntary. Do 
 
 " I want rest most severely 3 and am going to find it in 
 the country for a few days. — Private Letter , No. 43^ Vol. I. 
 p. 236, 
 
 What public question have I declined — what villain have 
 I spared ? Is there no labour in the composition of these 
 letters.— Xefier 54, Vol. I. p. 308. 
 
 The enclosed, though begun within these few days, has 
 been greatly laboured. — Private Letter 24, Vol. I. p. 214. 
 
120 
 
 now as you think proper. I have no resent- 
 ment but against the common enemy, and will 
 assist you in any way that you will suffer your- 
 self to be assisted. When you have satisfied 
 your understanding, that there may be reasons 
 why Junius should attack the King, the Mi- 
 nister, the Court of King's Bench, and the 
 House of Commons, in the way that I have 
 done, and yet should desert or betray the man 
 who attacks the House of Lords, I would still 
 appeal to your heart. Or if you have any 
 scruples about that kind of evidence, ask that 
 amiable daughter whom you so implicitly con- 
 fide in. Is it possible that Junius should betray 
 me ? Do not conceive that I solicit new em- 
 ployment; 1 am overcome with the slavery oi 
 vfYiim^:'— Private Letter 81, Vol. I. p. 334. 
 
 The encouragement Junius had given Mr. 
 Wilkes to communicate his plan renders his 
 dereliction from the assistance he had partly 
 promised him, a convincing proof how nearly 
 it related to himself, and that his eagerness to 
 be made acquainted with it sprung from the 
 apprehension of the danger which might 
 threaten him from its execution. " Nothing 
 can do you greater honour," says he, ^* nor be 
 of greater benefit to the community, than your 
 intended attack upon the unconstitutional 
 powers assumed by the House of Lords. You 
 
121 
 
 have my warmest applause ; and if I can assist, 
 command my assistance. The arbitrary power 
 of fine and imprisonment assumed by these 
 men would be a disgrace to any form of legal 
 government, not purely aristocratical. Directly 
 it invades the laws, indirectly it saps the Con- 
 stitution. Naturally phlegmatic, these ques- 
 tions warm me. I envy you the laurels you 
 will acquire. Banish the thought, that Junius 
 can make a dishonourable or an imprudent 
 use of the confidence you repose in him. When 
 you have leisure, communicate your plan to 
 me, that I may have time to examine it, and to 
 consider what part I can act with the greatest 
 advantage to the cause. The constitutional 
 argument is obvious ; I wish you to point out 
 to me where you think the force of the formal 
 legal argument lies. In pursuing such inquiries 
 I lie under a singular disadvantage. Not ven- 
 turing to consult those who are qualified to 
 inform me, I am forced to collect every thing 
 from books or common conversation. The 
 pains I took with that paper upon Privilege, 
 were greater than I can express to you; yet, 
 after I had blinded myself with poring over 
 journals, debates, and parliamentary history, 
 I was at last obliged to hazard a bold as- 
 sertion, which I am now convinced is true (as 
 I really then thought it), because it has not 
 
122 
 
 been disproved or disputed. There is this 
 material difference upon the face of the two 
 questions. We can clearly shew a time when 
 the lower house had not an unlimited power 
 of commitment for breach of privilege ; 
 whereas I fear we shall not have the same 
 advantage over the House of Lords, It is not 
 that precedents have any weight with me, in 
 opposition to principles, but I know they 
 weigh with the multitude."^ 
 
 The title given by the Earl of Chesterfield to 
 the House of Lords is the same as that which 
 Junius applies to the Court of St. James's,"' and 
 proves his opinion, with regard to its several 
 members, to have been as irreverent and dis- 
 respectful as the sentiments expressed by 
 Junius in the course of his correspondence. 
 
 *' Nothing can be more true than what you 
 say about great men. They are indeed a 
 worthless, pitiful race ! Chatham has gallantly 
 thrown away the scabbard, and never flinched. 
 From that moment I began to like him." 
 
 The singular partiality Junius evinces to- 
 wards Lord Holland should not be suffered to 
 pass unnoticed, when an opportunity presents , 
 itself to explain why he designedly spared him 
 that share of censure which he has been 
 
 * Private Letter No. 70, Vol. I. p. 308. 
 "^ Hospital of Incurables. 
 
123 
 
 thought not altogether undeserving of. The 
 following paragraph from Lord Chesterfield's 
 Letters to his Son will account for this pre- 
 judice, as well as the source of Junius's feel- 
 ings on the death of Mr. Yorke : — 
 
 " I am this moment informed, and I believe 
 truly, that Mr. Fox i^ to succeed Mr. Pelham, 
 as First Commissioner of the Treasury and 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer, and your friend, 
 Mr. Yorke, of the Hague, to succeed Mr. Fox, 
 as Secretary at War. I am not sorry for this 
 promotion of Mr. Fox, as I have always been 
 upon civil terms with him, and found him ready 
 to do me any little services. He is frank and 
 gentlemanlike in his manner, and, to a certain 
 degree, I really believe will be your friend 
 upon my account, if you can afterwards make 
 him yours upon your own, tanl mieux, — Letter 
 275, Vol. IV. 
 
 The appearance of Junius's first letter, under 
 that signature, followed shortly after the death 
 of Mr. Stanhope; it contains the following 
 remarkable passage, which plainly indicates 
 how nearly the Author's feelings were con- 
 nected with the subject upon which he wrote. 
 '* Where is the law," says he, ** to enforce 
 the engagements of private faith, or to punish 
 the breach of them? Where shall he apply 
 for redress, with whom all ties of honour, 
 
124 
 
 professions of friendship, and obligations of 
 party, have been violated or betrayed? A 
 man so injured has no redress or consolation 
 but what he finds in the resentment and 
 generous sympathy of mankind." — Miscel- 
 laneous Letter 52, Vol. 111. p. 190. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 T. BENSLEY, Printer, Crane Court, Fleet Street, London. 
 
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