,UC-NRLF Wuul^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Ki MiMi inuM. l!ll'!||P^IF"!'!l|i' 111 -li ii ii.ih.t- iiiiiiiiiiiiii ^/6. ^yp/^yj^' rj//Yf//ej/.^ f/rnvrji/y f^ ^,a/t/(j/na -t Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 2008 witii funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/authorshipoflettOObritrich 'ATTiTED IS 1784 BY S I ^- Bart: E'NORAVED BY G.P.STOlUt. fra^ards liiVijutfs oflanxilvmh-.) AUTHORSHIP OF THE LETTERS OF JUNIUS ELUCIDATED : INCLUDING A iSiograpftical iWemoir LIEUTENANT-COLONEL ISAAC BARRE, M.P. BY JOHN BRITTON, F.S.A., AUTHOR OF THE " CATHEDRAL, AND THE ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES," " A DICTIONARY OF THE ARCHITECTURE AND ARCHEOLOGY OF THE MIDDLE AGES," &C. I by F. W. Fairholt, from a Sketch by J. LONDON: PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, AND SOLD BY J. R. SMITH, OLD COMPTON STREET. M.DCCC.XL.Vin. 3 3.B7 C. WHITING, BEAUFORT HOl'SK, STRAND. HENRY MORSE STEPHEHfl aX-- TO THE BRITISH PRESS. Invested with vast and varied powers, you have at- tained an influence, a dominion, surpassing that of any or all the autocrats of the world. Beyond and superior to le- gislative laws and equity decisions, you often influence and even control the makers of the one, and the authors of the other. Hence it is your bounden duty to be watchful and circumspect ; to be honest and just ; and, in admonishing the weak and the wicked, to inculcate the m6st stringent maxims of goodness and of wisdom. If the fertilizing waters of instruction flow from pure sources, and are skilfully distributed over the vast field of human intellect, the ever-teeming crops of knowledge must be abundant and substantially beneficial. To what, or to whom, can the present glorious and unparalleled state of Great Britain be ascribed but to your watchful guardianship — to your intrepidity — to your un- flinching courage and liberty of speech ? Be resolute in justifying, maintaining, and wisely employing these charac- teristics, and you may ultimately, it is hoped speedily, a 2 509710 iv DEDICATION. counteract and subdue not only all the direct, but also the insidious enemies of that civil liberty which is the birth- right and boast of the " true born Englishman." Junius inscribed his Letters to " the English Nation." I venture to address this humble Essay to the Mirror which reflects and fixes the moral and mental images of that nation ; as the photogenic process imprints and pre- serves the archetypes of all objects which range within the focus of its lens. As a veteran Author, ardently devoted to Literature for more than half a century, I cordially and sincerely reiterate the axiom of Junius, that " the liberty of the Press is the Palladium of all the civil, political, and religious rights of an EngHshman !" J. Britton. March 1, 1848. PREFACE. " OU, WHAT A TANGLED WEB AVE WEAVE, WHEN FIRST WE PRACTISE TO DECEIVE." Sir Walter Scott. " I AM RESOLVED TO SEARCH FOR THEE : THE SEARCH ITSELF REWARDS THE PAIN." Cowley. " EVIDENCE ON A SUBJECT LIKE THIS, LONG PASSED AND PCRPOSELY CLOUDED OVER FOB CONCEALMENT, MUST BE MADE UP OF MINUTE CIRCUMSTANCES, CLOSELY AND ACCURATELY EXAMINED, IF ANY LIGHT IS TO BE OBTAINED, WHEN CLAIMS ABE TO BE ADVANCED OR DISPROVED." — Gentleman's Magazine, Feb. 1842. Amount of Time and Labour devoted to this Essay — First Clue to the Authorship of Junius's Letters — Alluded to by the present Writer on former Occasions — The Inquiry pursued assiduously for the last twelve Months— The Author, Lieutenant-Colonel Barre ; his Associates, Lord Shelbubne, and John Dunning — William Greatrakes, the presumed Amanuensis — His Story a Komance — Character of the Letters — Mystery AND Danger attending their Publication— Manners and Habits of Min- isters — Freedom of the present Age — The Letters described and criti- cised BY the Author, by Mitford, by Coleridge, and others — Acknow- ledgments TO Correspondents. When I resolved to publish a new and distinct Essay, to eluci- date the authorship of Junius's Letters, little did I anticipate the extent of labour and time which would be requisite to accomplish the task I had undertaken. Since I was first apprised of the source Vt PREFACE. whence they were believed by my informant to derive their origin, more than half a century has elapsed ; and though I have since read many treatises, and heard various opinions respecting their authorship, I cannot find, in any of the parties hitherto named, the qualifications and traits of character peculiar to Junius : those characteristics are, however, combined in a pre-eminent degree in three eminent politicians who, for many successive years, spent their summer months at Bowood, in Wiltshire. At different times and in different publications, I have incidentally alluded to the place and parties; but I have forborne to name the author or to spe- cify particulars, until I had an opportunity of investigating the case in all its bearings and relations. For the last twelve months I have sought by extensive reading, inquiry, and correspondence, to obtain authentic, satisfactory evidence; and the result is, that the materials which I have accumulated, whilst they serve to elucidat^e the political and private character and talents of the anonymous Author of the Letters, — Lieutenant-Colonel Barri^ — also point out and im- plicate his intimate associates Lord Shelburne and Mr. Dunning. Tliere are likewise some extraordinary revelations respecting William Greatrakes, whose career in life, and the circumstances attend- ing his death, with the disposal of his property, abound in mystery, and are pregnant with suspicion. The story of this gentleman is a romance of real life, and, like that of the concealed Author, is enveloped in a cloak of ambiguity and darkness ; yet it is confidently believed that he was the Amanuensis to Colonel Barr^, and also his confidential agent and messenger. To identify these persons and explain their connection with the public correspondence referred to — to bring out facts of dates and deeds from the dark and intricate recesses in which they were studiously and cunningly concealed — to reconcile and ac- count for contradictions and inconsistencies, have occasioned more CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF THE LETTERS OF JUNIUS. VU anxiety, toil, and scrupulous analysis, than can possibly be imagined by any person who has never attempted a similar task. The issue and effects, however, are now submitted to that pubhc tri- bunal, which invariably awards a proper and just decision, and which I feel assured will ultimately pronounce an impartial verdict, whether favourable or adverse to the author's hopes and opinions. So strong was the sensation created by these alternately calum- niated and extolled epistles, that they may be regarded as an in- tegral part of the history of our country ; and, candidly and honestly viewed, they will be found to constitute an important feature, not only in the political, but in the literary, the moral, and the philosophical annals of the nation. It is my conviction that had they never appeared — had not their publication been met by state prosecutions — had not their elements and principles produced an extensive influence on the public mind — the existing generation would have been deprived of many political privileges and advan- tages which they now actually possess. The abolition of the Test and Corporation Acts, Catholic Emancipation, and Reform of Parlia- ment, might, I am persuaded, have been unknown in the present peaceful age, if the "Letters of Junius" had not led the way to that free and unfettered expression of public opinion which has produced such important results. It will not be difficult to prove that the " Letters of Junius " have tended, in a most essential manner, to produce the present state of free and fearless discussion which characterises the press of this country. The tone and sentiment which pervade those eloquent epistles have been revived in many modern periodicals. When I commenced my present arduous and delicate task, I expected to bring my observations and deductions within the com- pass of a few pages, so as to form part of the Auto-biography vili PREFACE. I am now engaged in ; but the extent and variety of the materials which I have collected, I found would require more space for their full development, than could, with propriety, be devoted to them in that work. In the vast and varied field of literature there is not a scene or event more completely involved in obscurity — more replete with interest in its origin, progress, and results — than the authorship of Junius's Letters. The " Wandering Jew," the " Iron Mask," " The Great Unknown" of the North, were all men and objects enveloped in mysterious darkness — all provoked and created intense interest and inquiry — ^but neither of these, nor any other person, or band of public persons, ever gave occasion for such ardent specu- lation, or provoked such a host of royal, noble, and plebeian enemies and critics as the writer of the anonymous epistles now referred to. Spies, traps, and stratagems of every kind were employed for some years to detect the author — bribes, threats, provocations of all sorts, were exercised to bring him into open daylight. He was pro- nounced to be "a liar and a coward ;"* " a lurking assassin ;"t "a lying, infamous, cowardly scoundrel,"^ and was, indeed, anathema- tised in every form of vituperative language which rage and revenge could suggest. Instead of provoking angry and hostile passions in the person thus assailed, the language not only excited in him a cool and self-relying complacency, but produced replications so strin- gently severe and galling to the writers, that the assailants shrunk from further literary combat. Knowing, as he well did, the temper and character of some of his foes, it is but reasonable to conclude that Junius became more and more cautious to conceal his person. • Woodfall's edition of " Junius's Letters," vol. ii., 368. t Ibid., ii., 278. % Ibid., iii., 412. TENDENCY OF THE LETTERS — HABITS OF MINISTERS. IX though at the same time he charged his pen with increased acri- mony and satire. It should be borne in mind that the general tenour and gist of his Letters is in reprobation of public men and public measures, in the cause of poHtical honour and national good ; and it must also be remembered that the ministry, with its satellites and enslaved dependents, were corrupt and arbitrary, mercenary and crafty — that they were so devoid of shame as even to endeavour to justify their vices and delinquencies by pleading bygone customs and the practices of their predecessors and contemporaries. The sale of public places and offices was of frequent and unblushing occurrence — moral and political prostitution was practised in open daylight, and personal and mental freedom of action and thought were frequently assailed by aristocratic and ministerial power. Drunkenness and swearing were fashionable, and deemed venial. At such a time, and under such circumstances, the honest Satirist is to be hailed and applauded as a public benefactor and a friend to his species — a monitor and instructor — the sincere friend of virtue — the foe to vice. We may now comment on the political writings and opinions of Junius, of Burke, of Wilkes, of Paine ; as well as on the Parliamen- tary harangues of Chatham, North, Pitt, Fox, Sheridan, and other once-famed orators and statesmen, without fear of offending the good feelings of honest and independent readers. I remember when men were hooted at and pelted in the public streets, for wearing a light coloured hat, and for attending certain meetings presumed to be either republican or anti-jacobin; but, thanks to the influence of the press and the lecturer, the diffusers of knowledge, and the improvers of human intellect, those days are passed, and may justly be ranked with the "dark ages." Many writings have appeared in the " Times," and the " Morn- X PREFACE. ing Chronicle," by Peter Pindar, Hone, Southey, Byron, Godwin, Thelwall, and others, as disloyal, treasonable, satirical, and personal, as any of the "Letters of Junius ;" but the wisdom of Ministers and Government prosecutors did not deem them proper subjects for state trials, and consequent notoriety : hence libel has been neu- tralised by neglect and public indifference. That the " Letters of Junius" evince much knowledge of the world — extensive reading — acute intellect — splenetic temper — ardent feehngs — strong political bias — warm passions both in friendships and enmities, with consummate art and consequent artifice — is the belief of all persons who have read . the whole series, or studied them in detail. The unity and harmony of style and language which pervade these writings show them to be the compositions of one mind : although it is most likely that many of the political and technical facts they record were imparted to the writer by other persons. As corroborative of these remarks, and calculated to characterise the writer, whose literary and political talents it is the object of this Essay to elucidate, I may be permitted to select a few passages from critics who have evidently qualified themselves to pronounce sound and discriminating opinions on the subject. The first is from the pen of the jffew. John Mitford, whose numerous biographical and critical Essays on Gray, and other poets, as well as prose writers, are evidences of his familiar acquaintance with ancient and modern literature. In the " Gentleman's Magazine" for February, 1842, he says:— " In that long and crowded gallery, on the walls of which are suspended the portraits of those authors whose names are emblazoned in characters of fadeless lustre, and enrolled for ever in their country's history, there is one frame to be seen, from which tiie dark and mystic veil that originally covered it has never REV. J. MITFOHD ON JUNIUS. XI been removed : the name of Junius is indeed written under it, but no one has yet seen the authentic features of the original ; and time, that for the most part discloses all secret things, has long failed in dissipating the obscurity which surrounds this." Again, in the same valuable periodical, for February, 1847, Mr. Mitford writes — " To Junius must undoubtedly be given the praise bestowed on those who have successfully practised the rhetorical art, and who are versed in all the skilful artifices of composition. He abounds in happy turns of expression, sentences pointed with skill, ingenious disposition of arguments, and an animation of style and language that keeps attention awake, and enlivens the driest subject. Marks of great labour are visible in the formation of his style. The words are selected with peculiar care, and the sentences moulded and polished into a form appropriate to the subject, and arranged not only with attention to the har- mony, but with relation to the impression to be produced. " His malignity, however, has seldom been surpassed : it is such as no con- cession can soften, no flattery beguile. He often plays long with his victim, keeps him in suspense, and then, when wearied with his cruel sport, despatches him with a blow. Sometimes accusation after accusation is repeated, that their aggregated weight may overpower ; and sometimes, after an ostentatious dis- play of clemency, a sudden change of manner and language is assumed, the sentence pauses for a moment — and the last few words are fatal. Junius abounds in penetrating observations on human nature, and he was also a saga- cious observer of men as affected by the usages, and acted on by the compli- cated relations of society ; and when he rises in his wrath, and arms himself for his work of defiance, he pours down his severity of censure with a certainty and strength that few would have the courage to withstand. But unmitigated violence is not always successful, and excessive vituperation begets a doubt of its justice. It does not seem as a contest between equal and equal. We cannot believe that the unknown knight who has entered the lists is of gentle birth. There is throughout a sort of swaggering air, like that which the impudence of the bully assumes to intimidate his sui)erlor; and he who only attacks his enemy from the security of an ambush, confesses at least either some weakness in his cause or some distrust of liis powers. No one can deny that the accusa- Xii PREFACE. tions of Junius are exaggerated beyond all proportion with truth and fact, whether he delights to creep on in bitter sarcasm and envious malignity, or to burst forth in the open defiance of exasperated revenge. Party feeling is allowed to be strong, and great licences are given to its language ; but Junius adds to that a savageness of attack, that delights in mangling what it cannot destroy, and discusses political conduct with all the bitterness of personal resentment. Junius in the heat of controversial attack, in the security of dis- guise, and with ' the immunities of invisibility,' advanced many false charges and rash accusations; but his ability is never more decidedly shown than by the skilfulness with which he covers his retreat, and alarms his adversary with a menace of a future attack, at the very time he is obliged to retire from the contest. He endeavours to intimidate his enemy by the boast of a formidable reserve of fresh forces; and when the open insolence of anger has done all it could do, the final destruction is accomplished by sarcasm, derision, and contempt." On another occasion, in March, 1841, the same masterly critic writes — " It must be recollected that Junius was a most skilful master of the weapons he delighted to use : he was a gladiator of the first order, and that his long series of attacks were made with consummate dexterity and boldness. In his own line he has never been equalled." The ensuing judicious narrative and remarks, by a critic who it is evident has deeply studied the subject, are from a Biographical Arti- cle in " The Georgian Era," (8vo.) which appeared in the year 1832. They are so truly apphcable to our present purpose, and so usefully explanatory of the Junius Letters, and of the times when they were published, that I willingly avail myself of a lengthened extract. " Junius, it is scarcely necessary to observe, was the writer of a series of the most powerful, caustic, fearless, and eloquent political philippics that ever ap- peared in this or any other coimtry. He was a perfect master of the art of composition ; nothing could exceed the beauty of his style but the terrible HISTORY OF THE LETTERS OF JUNIUS. xni virulence of his abuse. His learning, his experience, and his information as to passing events were equally great. The influence which he acquired over the public mind was unexampled. Glorying in the loftiness of his intellect, his amazing powers of language, and the impenetrable cloud with which he had artfully, but perhaps meanly, enveloped himself, no station, however exalted, was secure from his attacks. He assumed all the stem dignity of justice, and the remorseless severity of fate. Nobility afforded no protection # against his shafts, to which even royalty itself was vulnerable. He drew tears from the eyes of a monarch remarkable for firmness, and consigned a prime minister to scorn and infamy, enduring as the language in which he wrote. " The Letters of Junius were first printed in the ' Public Advertiser.' His early communications to Woodfall, the proprietor, according to that gentle- man's statement, were signed ' Mnemon,' ' Atticus,' ' Lucius,' ' Brutus,' ' Poplicola,' ' Domitian,' ' Vindex,' &c. Stimulated by the applause with which his com- paratively hasty productions were received, he at length commenced a series of papers, written with the utmost possible care, to which he uniformly at- tached the signature of JuniiLs. The first of these was published on the 2 1st of January, 1769 ; and it is said to have produced as great a sensation as any political production that ever issued from the press.* " There can be no doubt that Jimius was a man of fine talents and finished education, who had carefully studied the language, the law, the constitution, and history of his native country. It seems equally clear that he was a man of independent fortune ; that he had access to the court ; and was intimately acquainted, from its first conception, with almost every public measure, every ministerial intrigue, and every domestic incident. That he was in easy cir- cumstances appears from the fact, that he would never receive any remu- neration for his writings from Woodfall, notwithstanding the immense sale to which, in consequence of their popularity, the 'Public Advertiser' attained. When the first genuine edition of his letters was ready for publication. * During the year 1769 Junius wrote no less than fifty -four letters, including some signed Jimiiis, others with different signatures, and some private notes to Woodfall. There is often only a day's interval between these letters. He appears to have been absent from London some days in August, and three weeks in October and November. PREFACE. Woodfall urged him to accept half its profits, or to point out some public charity to which the money might be presented. Junius replied, * 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 all your views in life be directed to a solid, however moderate, inde- pendence ; without it no man can be happy, nor even honest ! ' " An additional proof of his aflftuence occurs in the following passage of one of his private letters : — ' 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 you shall never suflfer.' " That Junius was a person of rank, may be reasonably inferred from many of his own expressions, as for instance : — ' It is true I have refused offers, which a more prudent or a more interested man would have accepted. Whether it be simplicity or virtue in me, I can only aflBrm that I am in earnest, because I am convinced, as far as my imderstanding is capable of judging, that the present Ministry are driving this country to destruction ; and you, I think. Sir, may be satisfied that my rank and fortune place me above a common bribe.' That he had access to Court, and was connected with Government, appears from his immediate knowledge of the designs, and his intimate acquaintance with the acts of those in power. ' You may assure the public,' said he, in a private letter to Woodfall, dated January 17, 1771, ' that a squadron of four ships of the line is ordered to be got ready with all possible expedition for the East Indies. It is to be commanded by Commodore Spry; without regarding the language of ignorant or interested people, depend upon the assurance I give you, that every man in the Administration looks upon war as inevitable.' When the Duke of Grafton's friends were extolling his patriotism in refusing to sell a situation to Mr. Vaughan, Junius instantly denounced his grace as the shame- less vendor of another patent office : a transaction which was thought by the parties concerned to have been impenetrably secret. " In his letter to the Duke of Bedford, he narrated facts which could be known only to persons intimately acquainted with the Russell family, and when Woodfall was threatened with a prosecution for publishing that letter, he re- ceived a private communication from Junius to the following eflfect : — ' It is clearly my opinion that you have nothing to fear from the Duke of Bedford. I reserve something expressly to awe him. I am sure I can threaten him pri- THE SECRECY OF JUNIUS. XV vately with such a storm as would make him tremble even in his grave !' In another note to Woodfall, he wrote thus of a man named Swinney :— ' He is a wretched but dangerous fool ; he had the impudence to go to Lord G. Sack- ville, whom he had never spoken to, and to ask him whether or no he was the author of Junius - take care of him.' How Junius, unless he had been Lord Sackville himself, should have been acquainted with this circumstance, as it appears he was immediately after it occurred, baffles all conjecture. " Whenever he alluded to the personal hazard he incurred by the disclosure and castigation of political delinquency, he evidently wrote with a full sense of his own importance. ' It is by no means necessary,' he observed, in his last letter to Sir W. Draper, ' that I should be exposed to the resentment of the worst and most powerful men in this country, though I may be indifferent about yours. Though you would fight, there are others who would assassinate. The following passage occurs in one of his confidential notes to Woodfall : — ' I must be more cautious than ever : I am sure I should not survive a discovery three days , or, if I did, they would attaint me by bill.' •' In his correspondence with Woodfall, every precaution that ingenuity could devise, or apprehension could suggest, was employed to baffle the attempts of those who attempted to trace him out. His own parcels were sent direct to the printing-office ; but he obtained the replies of Woodfall by stratagem : — They were addressed to him in such fictitious names, and left at such coffee-houses as he, from time to time, appointed. In one of his notes to Woodfall, he said : ' change to the Somerset Coffee-house, and let no mortal know the alteration. I am persuaded you are too honest a man to contribute in any way to my destruction : act honourably by me, and at the proper time you shall know me.' " When there was a parcel waiting for him, the fact was announced in the ' Public Advertiser,' among the notices to correspondents, by some preconcerted signal, as, N.E.C. — A Letter — C. in the usual place : or a line from a Latin Poet. It does not appear in what manner he prociired his letters from the coffee-houses to which they were sent. As he twice declared that he was the sole depository of his own secret, and that it should die with him, it might be supposed that he imiformly went for them himself; but in one of his private notes he says to Woodfall, ' The gentleman who conducts the conveyancing part of our correspondence tells me there was much difficulty last night.' " It is most likely that he employed some trustworthy messenger, who, how- PREFACE. ever, niiglit not have been fully aware of the nature of his agency. A tall gentleman, dressed in a light coat, with bag and sword, once tlirew a letter, from Junius, into the oflSce door of the ' Public Advertiser,' in Ivy-lane. He was immediately followed by Mr. Jackson, of Mr. VVoodfall's office, into St. Paul's Churchyard, where he got into a hackney-coach and drove off.— Was this Junius himself, or the gentleman who conducted 'the conveyancing part' of his correspondence with Woodfall ? " In general, he appears to have been satisfied that the obstacles which he threw in the way of those who sought to discover him were insurmountable. 'Be assured,' said he, in one of his confidential notes to Woodfall, 'that it is not in the nature of things that they (the Cavendish family), or you, or any body else, should ever know me, unless I make myself known : all arts, or inquiries, or rewards, would be equally ineffectual.' And again, in his letters to Wilkes, he observed, ' At present there is something oracular in the delivery of my opinions. I speak from a recess \vhich no human curiosity can penetrate— and darkness, we are told, is one source of the subhme. The mystery of Junius increases his importance.' " But occasionally he seems to have been under considerable apprehensions of being detected. ' Upon no account,' said he, in one of his private notes to Woodfall, ' nor for any reason whatever, are you to write to me until I give you notice ! ' During a period of three weeks, he never addressed Woodfall without warning him to beware of Garrick. " Woodfall, however, imprudently told Garrick, in confidence, that Jimius would probably soon cease to write. Garrick immediately hurried with the intelligence to Ramus, one of the royal pages ; and Ramus, without a moment's delay, conveyed it to the king, who was then residing at Richmond. Within twelve hours Woodfall received a note from Junius, with the following post- script: — ' Beware of David Garrick. He was sent to pump you, and went directly to Richmond, to tell the king I should write no more.'— Shortly afterwards (November 10th, 1771), he i)enned the following extraordinary epistle to Gar- rick ; which, however, was never forwarded: ' I am very exactly informed of your impertinent inquiries, and of the information you so busily sent to Rich- mond, and with what triumph and exultation it was received. I knew every particular of it the next day; Now, mark me, vagabond — Keep to your pan- tomimes; or, be assured, you shall hear of it. Meddle no more, thou busy LETTER OF JUNIUS TO GARRICK. XVli informer. It is in my power to make you curse the hour in which you dared to interfere with Junius.'* " It appears from the following expressions in his correspondence with Wood- fall, that Junius was unsparing of toil, to achieve excellence as a writer. Of his first Letter to Lord Mansfield he says, ' The enclosed, though begun within these few days, has been greatly laboured.' Of his concluding and most famous Letter, he observes, ' At last I have concluded my great work, and I assure you with no small labour.' On another occasion, after expressing much anxiety that the dedication and preface to the genuine edition of his letters might be correct, he thus continues, 'Look to it — if you take it upon yourself, I will not forgive you suffering it to be spoiled. I weigh every word ; and every alter- ation, in my eyes at least, is a blemish.' " His last public letter was printed on the 21st of January, 1772. Twelve months afterwards (January 19, 1773), he sent the following note to Wood- fall, who never heard from his extraordinary correspondent again : *I have seen,' says he, ' 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 run 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.'" The acute and truly philosophical Coleridge thus speaks of the Junius correspondence : — I The great art of Junius is never to say too much, and to avoid with equal anxiety a common-place manner, and matter that is not common-place. If ever • I have the authority of the present Mr. Woodfall for stating that his grand- father, Henry Sampson Woodfall, did forward to Garrick a copy of this letter from Junius ; the words " impertinent inquiries" being altered to " practices" by desire of the author. The manuscript, in the hand-writing of Woodfall, was found amongst Garrick's papers, and realised a high price at the sale of his effects. b ,V7mi PREFACE. he deviates into any originality of thought, he takes care that it shall be such as excites surprise for its acuteness, rather than admiration for its profundity. He takes care ? Say rather, that nature took care for him. " It is impossible to detract from the merit of these Letters : they are suited to their purpose, and perfect in their kind. They impel to action, not thought. Had they been profoimd or subtle in thought, or majestic and sweeping in composition, they would have been adapted for the closet of a Sidney; or for a House of Lords, such as it was in the time of Lord Bacon; but they are plain and sensible whenever the author is in the right ; and whether right or wrong, always shrewd and epigrammatic ; and fitted for the coffee-house, the Exchange, the lobby of the House of Commons, and to be read aloud at a public meeting. When connected, dropping the forms of connection ;~desidtory, without abruptness or appearance of disconnection; — epigrammatic and anti- thetical to excess; — sententious and personal ; —regardless of right or wrong; — yet well skilled to act the part of an honest warm-hearted man ; and, even when he is in the right, saying the truth but never proving it, — much less at- tempting to bottom it; — this is the character of Junius: and on this character, and in the mould of these writings, must every man cast himself, who would wish in factious times to be the important and long-remembered agent of a faction. I beheve that I could do aU that Junius has done, and surpass him by doing many things which he has not done: for example — by an occasional induction of startling facts, in the manner of Tom Paine, and lively illustra- tions and witty applications of good stories and appropriate anecdotes, in the manner of Home Tooke. I believe I could do it, if it were in my nature to aim at this sort of excellence, or to be enamoured of the fame and immediate in- fluence which would be its consequence and reward. But it is not in my na- ture. I not only love truth, but I have a passion for the legitimate investi- gation of truth. The love of truth, conjoined with a keen delight in a strict yet impassioned argumentation, is my master-passion, and to it are subordi- nated even the love of liberty and all my public feelings ; and to it whatever I laboiu" under of vanity, ambition, and all my inward impulses." These remarks on the literary merits and peculiarities of the " Letters" serve not only to characterise them as the emanations of high intellect, but also to indicate that of the profound critic. OPINIONS OF COLERIDGE. XIX " With few exceptions, the seventh ' Letter' of the series is a blameless com- position. Junius may be safely studied as a model for Letters, when he truly writes letters. Those to the Duke of Grafton and others, are small pamphlets in the form of letters." " Perhaps the fair way of considering these Letters would be as a kind of satirical poems ; the short and for ever balanced sentences constitute a true metre; and the connection is that of satiric poetry, a witty logic, an association of thoughts by amusing semblances of cause and effect, the sophistry of which the reader has an interest in not stopping to detect, for it flatters his love of mischief, and makes the sport." Letter Xn. — " One of Junius's arts, and which gives me a high notion of his genius, as a poet and satirist, is this : he takes for granted the existence of a character that never did and never can exist, and then employs his wit, and surprises and amuses his readers, with analysing its incompatibilities." Letter XXIII. — [To the Duke of Bedford.}— " Sneer and irony continued with such gross violation of good sense, as to be perfectly nonsense. The man who can address another on his most detestable vices in a strain of cold, con- tinual irony, is himself a wretch." Letter XXXV. — " This address to the King is almost faultless in composition, and has been evidently tormented with the file. But it has fewer beauties than any other long letter of Junius ; and it is utterly undramatic. There is nothing in the style, the transitions, or the sentiments, which represents the passions of a man emboldening himself to address his sovereign personally. Like a Pres- byterian's prayer, you may substitute almost everywhere the third for the second person without injury. The newspaper, his closet, and his own person, were alone present to the author's intention and imagination. This makes the composition vapid. It possesses an Isiocratic correctness when it should have had the force and drama of an oration of Demosthenes. From this, however, the paragraph beginning with the words « As to the Scotch,' and also the last two paragraphs, must be honourably excepted. They are, perhaps, the finest passages in the whole collection."* The following comments, on the nature, merits, and demerits of the Letters now referred to, are evidently by an accomplished and Coleridge's Literary Remains," vol. i., p. 248—255. b 2 XX PREFACE. able critic. They are from " Tlie History of Party," by George Wingrove Cooke, Esq., Barrister, 8vo., vol. iii., p. 189, &c. " The powers of this writer, as they are displayed in these Letters, stand un- rivalled in any age or language. Bolingbroke could declaim in majestic and harmonious language; allure his readers by a display of disinterested and pa- triotic sentiment, and animate them against his enemies by the eloquence of his accusation; the elegant Addison could please, could ridicule, could convince; Swift was an inimitable lampooner, unhesitating in his assertions, and strong in abuse; but Jonics surpassed all these. He addressed himself to the powerful passions of our nature, captivated attention by rancorous abuse, sarcastic in- vective, and ferocious personalities ; yet disguised these so well by the purity of his language and the grace of his style, that while we relish the pungency we do not taste the grossness. He offers us an excitement to our passions, but the goblet appears so pure that we pour from it a libation to virtue ; he fences with a rapier of the highest temper and polish ; while we admire his amazing dexterity we do not perceive that the blade is poisoned— that the same weapon, urged by an infant's hand, would inflict a deadly wound. " The aim of Junius was not calm conviction, it was tumultuous excitement; conviction might pen pamphlets, but would scarcely withdraw one vote from the well-pensioned majority of the minister; excitement would carry terror into the cabinet and the closet, and constrain by fear men who were deaf to virtue. Thus, the weakest invention which his readers believed — and all things are credible to an enraged people —was readily caught up by Junius, and embalmed in the amber of his diction. He caught the topics and scandal of the day, and wrought upon them until those who had seen and received them in their native coarseness, were surprised and delighted to find truths, in which they thought they had an interest, presented in such an elegant and engaging garb. " It was thus that Junius excited attention. At this distance of time the keenness of his satire attracts thousands of readers who know nothing of the secret history of the period, and little of the characters he assails. If his style can charm such persons, how must it have excited his contemporaries, who saw in every sentence a wound inflicted upon an enemy, and knew that the man they hated was writhing under the infliction. The mystery of the authorship lent an additional shade of interest to the Letters. Junius was exempt from the failings of humanity, he had no conduct on which his satire could be re- LITERARY OPINIONS ON JUNIUS. xxi torted, no personal friendship which he dared not violate, no consistency to preserve beyond his Letters ; cased in impenetrable armour, he mingled with the crowd, and pointed his unerring shafts in security : the throne was not too high, the cottage not too low, for his visitations. " Such were the causes of Junius's popularity ; but he was not destitute of other excellences. He could reason clearly and strongly, and his Letters con- tain many beautiful specimens of logical argument. He was possessed of pro- found political knowledge, and he was immediately and accurately informed of the secret transactions of the day. Junius enjoyed every opportunity of be- coming a perfect political writer, and he used them." From the latest publication which has been devoted to the writings of Junius, and which contains much discriminating criticism, and an able " Review of the Controversy," by John Jaques, Esq., I subjoin the following extracts. " Although the moralist cannot but condemn, and the Christian must view with abhorrence, the vindictive spirit which pervades the Letters of Junius, no person can withhold from their author the applause due to a great writer, of whose genius any country might be justly proud. In the powers of combina- tion and generalisation requisite to strike out broad and philosophical views of politics, Junius may have been excelled by Burke: but in the ability to con- centrate all the energies of a commanding intellect on any subject he chose to discuss, and to depict in a vivid and graphic manner every varying shade of human character— in the talent for presenting the results of a matured experi- ence derived from an extensive intercourse with every grade of society; in just, striking, and profound axioms on human nature, and the affairs of the world — few authors, besides Shakspeare, can be placed in competition with him. Whilst • in the extraordinary union of keen and withering sarcasm, with a style con- densed and clear to an eminent degree, and polished to intense briUiancy by the most delicate and refined taste, we believe him to stand unrivalled."— (p. 385.) " It would be difficult to select from any of Junius's writings more favourable specimens of his style than the letters he wrote to Sir William Draper. They display, in an eminent degree, all the acuteness and tact for which their author was so celebrated, and contain passages of the most refined and polished irony, with less of that savage and ferocious sarcasm in which he afterwards indulged. xxii PREFACE. when the voice of an admiring nation had awarded to him the palm due to the first political writer of the age." — (p. 73.) Remarks and opinions by Lord Brougham, and by Edmund Burke will be found in page 4 of the present volume. The Letters of Junius ought not to be referred to or read merely as political tirades, as personal satires and strictures on public men, or as the splenetic effusions of a vivid and vigorous mind against in- dividuals whom the writer regarded as his personal enemies ; but as containing much historical and constitutional information — as abounding in moral and philosophical maxims and doctrines, as exhibiting acute views of worldly policy — and particularly as worthy the study of the barrister, the politician, the author, and indeed every lover of, and student in literature. Their qualities and characteristics are well and fully discriminated in the writings of the authors already quoted. Consistency of cha- racter, and undeviating honesty of principle, did not belong to Junius; nor are these often to be met with in persons of sanguine and ardent temperament. Such virtues were unfashionable at the time Junius wrote : indeed, we should seek in vain for them in any of the politicians and placemen of that age. We can scarcely name one who was not a slave to party, to the tyranny of custom, or to the sottish, debauched, and swearing habits of the times. Walpole has exhibited and described these moral misdemeanours in vivid terms ; whilst Junius paints them in glaring colours. Inconsistency of character, especially in politics, was regarded as a common-place vice, and many statesmen were like the common weather-cock, shifting and veering about with almost every party current. An anonymous author, who alternately censured and praised, calumni- ated and panegyrised the same person at different times and under different aspects, may be said to have " gone with the stream" POLITICAL INCONSISTENCY OF JUNIUS. xxili — to have " followed the fashion" — to have acted in harmony with his compatriots and fellows. Making, however, every allowance for the vile practices of the times, we cannot either reconcile or pardon the capricious inconsistency of Junius in alternately holding up the same persons to public scorn and admiration from any, or from every rise and fall of the political thermometer. Even the amiable and estimable Patriot, the Earl of Chatham, was fulsomely praised and as severely censured both by Junius anonymously, and by Colonel Barre personally. The unprincipled John Wilkes was both assailed by the abuse, and flattered by the praises of Junius, who after having treated him with the most avenging sarcasm and con- tumely, made him a sort of confidential agent in city business, and personal negotiations. The declaration of the anonymous writer in the Preface to his " Letters" that he was " the sole depositary of his secret" is equally inconsistent and untrue, as are also many other statements and assertions in the same epistles. All clearly exem- plifying the poetical maxim of Sir Walter Scott, when he exclaims, " Oh, what a tangled web we weave, When first we practise to deceive." The ensuing pages will be found to contain much new and ori- ginal information respecting the biography and personal character of Colonel Barr^, who has been referred to by some writers who have indulged in speculations on the authorship of the Letters of Junius ; but whose literary talents and position in the political world have never before been investigated and expounded. In conclusion, it is a duty I owe to several noblemen and gentle- men, some of whom are personally strangers to me, to acknowledge and thank them for obHging and interesting letters which they have favoured me with in answer to my inquiries. Amongst these I may enumerate Field Marshal Lord Viscount Beresford ; the Primate of xxiv PREFACE. all Ireland ; the Duke of Buckingham ; the Marquess of Lansdowne ; the late Sir Thomas Baring, Bart.; Adjutant General Sir John Macdonald ; Sir David Brewster ; Sir Henry ElHs ; Sir Thomas Dean; Sir William Betham; Sir Frederick Madden; Sir Francis Palgrave ; His Excellency George Bancroft ; J. B. Bevington, Esq. ; John Baring, Esq. ; Captain Beresford, Royal Artillery ; John Bowring, Esq., LL.D., M.P. ; G. W. Cooke, Esq.; Bolton Corney, Esq. ; Thomas Crofton Croker, Esq. ; R. A. Davenport, Esq. Atkins Davis, Esq. ; John D' Alton, Esq. ; Charles R. Dod, Esq. Edward Dubois, Esq.; the Rev. G. R. Gleig; R. L. Hastings, Esq. the Rev. S. Hayman; J. M. Henderson, Esq.; John Jaques, Esq. R. S. Mackenzie, Esq., LL.D.; W. Owen Madden, Esq.; Thomas P. Matthew, Esq.; the Rev. J. Mitford; John Morgan, Esq.; D. J. Murphy, Esq. ; George Petrie, Esq. ; Thomas Prior, Esq. ; the Rev. Dr. Rees; N. W. Simons, Esq.; WiUiam Tooke, Esq.; Dr. Walsh; Rev. John Ward; John Windele, Esq.; and H. D. Woodfall, Esq. All the above-named persons have promptly and obligingly an- swered letters of inquiry, and some of them have also made researches and incurred expense in official places, to authenticate facts or satisfy doubts. I have written considerably more than one hundred letters, and examined above one hundred various literary works, in the hopes of attaining that species of evidence which could neither be controverted, nor doubted; but failing to find unequivocal proofs, am induced to submit the following results to the pubHc, presuming they may lead to new and conclusive discoveries by reference to sources now, for the first time pointed out, and to persons and places hitherto not suspected. In the language of sportsmen, a new scent is found, and traced through various labyrinths — the wily fox is unkennelled, and his haunts and habits made known to the enter- prising hunter. J. B. JUNIUS ELUCIDATED. PRELIMINARY ADDRESS. Letters of Junius, the Mystery attenuikg their Authorship — Politicai. State of the Times — First Letter by Junius, its Power and Effect — Sik "William Draper's Reply— More than Thirty Persons named as the Author, in various Pamphlets and Essays — Allusion to the Marquess of Lansdowne — That Nobleman intimately associated with Dunning, and Barre, in Parliament and Politics— The three painted in One Picture by Sir Joshua Reynolds— These Parties peculiarly qualified to produce the Letters of Junius — Style op the Marquess of Lansdowne — His Decla- ration TO Sir Richard Phillips — Dr. Good's Opinion op Dunning's Talents — Colonel Barre, his Career and Characteristics — First Publication of the Letters of Junius in the "Public Advertiser" — Woodfall's Edition IN 1812 — Abstract of Dr. Good's "Preliminary Essay" — Works published ON the subject since 1812. Among the mysteries and " Curiosities of Literature" is the author- ship of Junius's Letters. These celebrated poHtical Essays and Satires acquired on their appearance and have maintained extreme and unprecedented popularity; not only from their causticity and un- flinching truthfulness of tone and statement, but from the impene- trable mask which concealed the features of the author. The pre- sumed immunities and privileges of Parliament, — the tyranny of King-craft and Minister-craft, — the vassalage of party vfriters, and the dread of state prosecutions, had previously kept the public press in a state of abject bondage; when a few anonymous letters appeared X'VVl PRELIMINARY ADDRESS. in the "Public Advertiser" between the years 1767 and 1772, and raised a storm on the poHtical ocean, which endangered many ves- sels that had tiU then sailed smoothly on its placid surface. Several of these writings had excited public attention before the first which bore the signature of Junius * This was a deeply- matured, sententious, searching political production, calculated to excite curiosity, and provoke controversy. Fortunately for Junius and his cause it called a champion on the stage (Sir William Draper) who exhibited so much petulance and uncontrolled anger, that it occasioned a public reply from Junius, and seriously injured his own friends and the party he espoused, whilst he gave decided ad- vantages to an antagonist who skilfully inflicted on him the most mortifying and maddening punishment. Junius admitted that Sir WiUiam impelled him " to say more of Lord Granby's character than he originally intended ;" and it is more than probable that if the angry Baronet had not replied to the first Letter of Junius, the latter would never have obtained his subsequent notoriety ; the monarch might have escaped the delicate satire which was in- flicted on him in the thirty-fifth Letter of the series, and his unprin- cipled and unworthy ministers might have remained in power to exercise their wanton and reckless tyranny for many more years. Justly might they exclaim, " Save us from officious friends, and we will bear with open enemies." Notwithstanding the celebrity these Letters acquired, and the stre- nuous efibrts that have been made at various times since their publica- tion, and by every artifice that cunning could devise, to discover the anonymous author or authors, no conclusive or satisfactory result has ever yet been attained. Prosecutions and imprisonments for libel. Essays, Pamphlets, and Discussions, have all failed to detect the true " Junius ;" who, up to this time, has preserved his incognito, and has upheld and maintained his mystic mask. • Dated 21st January, 1769. THE LATE MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNE. ,V,VVU More than thirty different persons have been named as the author, and the respective advocate of each has devoted more or less of hypothesis and argument in pamphlet, magazine, review, or incidental essay, to show that he has identified the writer. It is generally agreed that not one of the persons hitherto named had all the qualifications which are displayed in the "Letters" referred to. Even Sir Philip Francis, whose case and claims are stronger than those of any other person, wanted some of the most essential attri- butes. But I forbear to comment on him and others in this place. My course and duty will be to endeavour to substantiate my own theory, which I purpose to do by giving a short narrative of the origin, progress, and final issue of my own researches on the subject. In the 14th volume of the " Beauties of England and Wales," in the account of Wiltshire, and, speaking of the late Marquess of Lansdowne and his seat, Bo wood, I expressed myself as follows: — " Among the number of persons to whom the Letters of Junius have been attributed is the Marquess of Lansdowne : but on this point all our sagacious pamphleteers and political quidnuncs have failed to produce proofs or probabiHties. The author of these justly-admired Essays remains undiscovered, according to his own motto, Stat nominis umbra. His name, connections, private character, and pubHc pursuits, are unknown to the world : but the writer of this article can affirm, and is enabled to prove, that the secret was not deposited in one breast^ nor is it buried with the author.* On this delicate, intricate, and highly interesting subject, he must, how- ever, forbear to dilate in these pages, but may probably be induced to advance some arguments and develope facts at a future time, and in another place."" The lapse of time since the above paragraph was penned, has not altered the opinions which I then entertained, and which are now * " I am the sole depositary of my own secret, and it shall perish with me."— Junius, Dedication of his Letters to the Emjlish Nation. xxviii PRELIMINARY ADDRESS. more fully avowed and explained. Extensive reading and much inquiry on the subject, mature deliberation, and comparison of the evidence for and against this theory, have only served to persuade me that the real author is at length named and identified. The intimacy which subsisted between the late Marquess of Lansdowne (then Earl of Shelburne), John Dunning, and Lieute- nant-Colonel Barre, at the time the Letters were in course of pub- licatioUj was so extremely close, and so remarkable in its exclusive- ness, as to strengthen materially the position which I now assume ; and I find that the same view of the subject was taken in a letter to the Morning jHiera/c? newspaper, of the 15th of January, 1813. To show the extent of their friendship, and the remarkable con- nection of the three parties with each other, it may be necessary to mention a few particulars. They were nearly of the same age ; there being only ten years difference between the oldest and the youngest of the three. Dunning and Colonel Barre were both in- troduced into the House of Commons by Lord Shelburne, as nomi- nees for his own boroughs of Calne, and Wycombe; and on all occa- sions they espoused the same politics as his Lordship. Colonel Barr^ and Lord Shelburne were both natives of Ireland, and officers in the army. When the latter was appointed Secretary of State, in 1766, Colonel Barre became Vice-Treasurer of Ireland, and Dunning was Solicitor-General in the same administration, 1768. When his Lordship was again in office, in 1782, as Foreign Secretary, Colonel Barre joined him as Treasurer of the Navy. A few months afterwards Lord Shelburne became Prime-Minister and Barre Paymaster of the Forces : simultaneously with this valuable official appointment he was compensated for the loss of his commission, of which he had been deprived by a former Tory government, by a pension of £3200 a year. Dunning was at the same time created Baron Ashburton, with a seat in the cabinet. His second son and heir was named Richard Barre. The Colonel and Dunning were almost constant visitors at Bowood and at Lansdowne House, London. Finally, to commemorate this extraordinary friendship DUNNING, LORD A8HBURT0N — REYNOLDS'S PORTRAITS, xxix between three persons of high talents, political partisans, the late Sir Francis Baring (who was a brother of the widow of Lord Ashburton) commissioned Sir Joshua Reynolds, in 1784-5, to paint a splendid picture of the three. Dunning had then been dead little more than twelve months, and his son and successor in the title was an infant. Sir Francis Baring, though somewhat their junior, was on intimate terms with the parties now under consideration, having himself re- presented in Parliament two of Lord Shelburne's boroughs. The picture was painted at his house on Putney Heath. Reynolds no doubt had the advantage of sittings from Lord Shelburne and Colo- nel Barre, both of whom survived their friend; and he had before painted a separate portrait of Dunning. The late Sir Thomas Baring recently informed me that he recollected Reynolds's visits to Putney Heath, whilst engaged upon the picture. A large mezzotint print was engraved by James Ward, A.R.A., from the original painting, for Sir Francis Baring, but has never been published. From all these circumstances it is highly probable that this emi- nent triumvirate were likely to embark together in any political or other confidential undertaking. In combination, at least, if not individually, they possessed all the qualifications which those Letters so peculiarly manifest. Rank and fortune ; mature age ; actual service in a particular military expedition ; highly cultivated talents and education ; a critical knowledge of the language, laws, consti- tution, and history of England ; an immediate connection with the court ; an early acquaintance with every ministerial motion or intrigue ; a famiHar knowledge of the affairs of the different public offices ; and particularly an intimate acquaintance with all military matters, jointly show that they were quaHfied to produce the Letters of Junius. It may be remembered that Junius displayed in his correspondence with Sir William Draper a knowledge of private communications which had passed between that worthy Baronet and the Earl of Shelburne, respecting the affairs of Corsica and the Manilla ransom. This circumstance, in addition to the general politics of the Earl, IXX PRELIMINARY ADDRESS. his court connections, and other concurrent testimony, has led many persons to attribute the Letters to his Lordship. The following passage from one of his Letters to Sir Samuel Romilly, will show that his style of composition was at once correct, animated, and vigorous : — " I thank God the King has nobody about him cunning and wicked enough to advise him to meet the desire of reform, and compose a Parliament of qualified men. I mean in the solid, legal sense ; for I verily believe a more corrupt, ignorant, and tyrannical assembly would not be to be found upon the face of the earth, especially with a little scattering of a certain profession, which I will not presume to name, but which the King has found too useful to consent to any Reform which went to exclude them." — Oct. 8, 1792. — Life of Romilly, p. ii., vol. 14. Only a week before his death (1804), the Marquess of Lansdowne was personally appealed to on the subject of Junius by Sir Richard Phillips, who communicated to the Editor of the " Monthly Maga- zine" a very interesting account of their conversation. On stating to his Lordship " that many persons had ascribed those Letters to him, and that the world at large conceived that, at least, he was not un- acquainted with the author;" the Marquess smiled and said, " No, no, I am not equal to Junius, I could not be the author; but the grounds of secrecy are now so far removed by death* and changes of circumstances, that it is unnecessary the author of Junius should much longer be unknown. The world are curious about him, and I could make a very interesting publication on the subject. I knew Junius, and / knew all about the writing and production of those letters. But look," said he, " at my condition; I don't think I can live a week — my legs, my strength, tell me so; but the doctors, who always flatter sick men, assure me I am in no immediate danger. They order me into the country, and I am going there. If I live over the summer, which, however, I don't expect, I promise you a * Both Dunning and Colonel Barre were at that time dead. LORD LANSDOWNE S KNOWLEDGE OF JUNIUS. A\V.Vl very interesting pamphlet about Junius. I will put my name to it ; I will set that question at rest for ever." Being further pressed by the same person, his lordship said, '^ I'll tell you this for your guide gene- rally ; Junius has never yet been publicly named. None of the parties ever guessed at as Junius was the true Junius. Nobody has ever suspected him. I knew him; and knew all about it, and I pledge myself if these legs will permit me, to give you a pamphlet on the subject, as soon as I feel myself equal to the labour."* There is no inconsistency between the theory I now advocate and these statements of the Marquess of Lansdowne : for I believe, that at the time of this interview, Colonel Barre had not been pub- licly named as author of the Letters of Junius. With respect to Dunning, Dr. Mason Good observes: " Of all the reputed authors of these celebrated addresses, .Dunning, Lord Ashburton, oiFers the largest aggregate of claim in his favour. His age and rank in life, his talents and learning, his brilliant wit and sarcastic habit, his common residence in London during the period in question, his political principles, attachments, and antipathies, con- spire in marking him as the man." Yet, as will be shown hereafter, the learned Doctor does not adopt the theory so strongly fortified. The chief objection raised by Dr. Mason Good is the fact of his having been Solicitor-General from January, 1768, till January, 1770 ; thus continuing in office long after Lord Shelburne and Colonel Barre were in opposition. But it is notorious that Dunning differed on numerous points with his colleagues, most especially on their prosecution of Wilkes ; in which, although Solicitor-General at the time, he took no part. We are therefore justified in sup- posing that he retained his post merely from the ambition of the lawyer, apart from the zeal of the poHtician ; and that no man was * Monthly Magazine, July, 1813. — The present Marquess of Lansdowne, in a letter to the same periodical, says, " It is not impossible my father may have been acquainted with the fact, but perhaps he was under some obligation to secrecy, as he never made any communication to me on the subject." XJXll PRELIMINARY ADDRESS. more likely to adopt the ready means afforded by a secret cor- respondence, to castigate the follies of those with whom he im- wilHngly associated. We may also assume, from his close intimacy with Lord Shelburne, that he could hardly have been ignorant of a secret which his Lordship avowed his knowledge of. We must now direct attention to Lieut.-Colonel Isaac Barr^, who was bom at Dublin in 1726, was a student in the University of that city, and afterwards placed in one of the London Inns of Court to study the law. He subsequently entered the army, and experienced much hard service in America. Becoming a poU- tical associate of Lord Shelburne, he was placed in Parliament by the latter, and with extraordinary boldness commenced his legis- lative career by a fierce attack upon Mr. Pitt. Through the influence of General Wolfe he obtained promotion in the Army, whilst from his political patron he obtained some lucrative offices under Government ; but was deprived of nearly the whole by the King and the Duke of Bedford, in consequence of his vote in favour of Wilkes. He was on terms of friendship with those whom the pen of Junius spared, and opposed to those whom it castigated. He took an active share in the debates in Parliament, whilst the " Letters of Junius" were in course of publication ; espousing the same views as those enforced by the anonymous satirist. He continued to be an intrepid and eloquent debater throughout the American war, being in fact the chief and most formidable an- tagonist of Lord North, under whose ministry that contest was so long maintained. He ultimately retired from poHtical life under the infliction of total bUndness, — the consequence of a wound at the battle of Quebec, and died in Stanhope Street, London, in the year 1802. The pecuHar character of Colonel Barre's eloquence and personal temperament, especially indicate him as quahfied to produce the Letters of Junius, and his situation and political connections strongly corroborate the inference. This will be made apparent in the ensuing narrative, in which I am enabled to develope and explain many events in his life, and many facts and incidents tending to NEWSPAPERS IN THE LAST CENTURY. xxxiii show his natural disposition to mystify his own actions, and to castigate those who opposed, or in any way injured him. Amidst the influx of literary publications of the present era, addressed and adapted as they are to all degrees and classes of the reading public, there is scarcely time for a man, however desirous of information, to peruse attentively those standard and substantial works, which may be ranked as the classical literature of the country. We rarely find a person thoroughly acquainted with the works of Milton, Pope, or Dry den — of Hume, Robertson, or Gibbon — of Fielding, SmoUet, or Sterne ; yet each and all of these authors were for a long period not only universally read, but justly admired and praised. So were the writings of Burke, Paine, and the anonymous Junius. In order to bring the last mentioned satirist once more before the public, and impart to the reader some general notion of his mental powers and pecuHar literary characteristics, as well as of the excitement and commentary which his Letters produced, it will be expedient to give a concise account of them, and of their effects. The Letters signed Junius, and others by the same author with different names subscribed to them, made their first appearance in a daily newspaper called " The Public Advertiser," of which Henry Sampson "Woodfall was the printer, and is presumed to have been the editor, and chief, if not sole proprietor. A Newspaper at that time was very unlike those of the present day. Its sale also was comparatively very limited. It was precluded from printing reports of the speeches in the Houses of Parliament ; it had but few advertisements ; and its "leaders," with other original matter, were often trite and common- place : but after the middle of the last century such men as Dr. Johnson, Edmund Burke, and WiUiam Woodfall, wrote for the daily journals, not only original articles, but speeches, either spoken or said to have been spoken in Parliament. Their reports or para- phrastic versions of such speeches excited much public attention, and likewise the reprobation of certain members whose language or opinions were not favourably related. Indeed some of the printers .IW.viv PRELIMINARY ADDRESS. were prosecuted. In 177 1, the printers of those periodicals, who had long intended doing so, finally resolved to report the debates of both Houses. Colonel Onslow made a motion against them as guilty of a violation of the privileges of Parliament, and certain printers were summoned to appear before the House. Wheble and Miller, however, refused to obey the summons; and the minister thought proper to issue a proclamation, ofiering a reward of fifty pounds for the apprehension of the offenders. They were apprehended and taken before the Lord Mayor, Alderman Wilkes and Alderman Oliver, who repudiated the minister's authority. Such proceed- ings could not fail to agitate politicians, both in and out of Par- liament, and we accordingly find that long and severe personal debates occurred in the House of Commons, in which Colonel Barre took a leading part ; at the same time, the newspapers and magazines abounded with essays and strictures against the ministers.* This subject gave occasion and ample matter for the famed John Wilkes to comment on with sarcastic severity in his popular paper called " The North Briton ;" and also to Colonel Barre in the House of Commons, as well as to Junius and many other anonymous writers in " The Public Advertiser," " The Middlesex Journal," " The London Evening Post," " The St. James's Chro- nicle," " Baldwin's London Journal," " The London Magazine," *' The Gentleman's Magazine," &c. Under such circumstances, and in such times, the Letters of Junius made their appearance, to "make mad the guilty, and appal the free." Before the series was completed, they had acquired so much pubHcity, that certain printers transferred some of them to their newspapers and magazines, whilst others reprinted the whole, in a hasty and slovenly manner, in separate volumes. Annoyed and injured by this conduct, Mr. Woodfall solicited the sanction of the author, to print a revised and accredited edition, which was readily * See a full explanation of the proceedinas relating to these events in Woodfall's edition of "Junius," IS 12, vol. iii., p. 344. woodfall's editions of JUNIUS; 1772 & 1812. wwxv granted; and the work was speedily produced in two small vo- lumes. The author wrote several confidential notes to his printer, not only urging expedition, but manifesting much anxiety in pre- scribing accuracy of the text. He also requested that three sets of the work should be bound for him, in a particular manner, one of which was to be in vellum, gilt, &c. This was accordingly done, and the choice copy has often been eagerly sought for, as a clue to the author. The whole history of these transactions is detailed in an edition of Junius, pubhshed in three octavo volumes in the year 1812; where also will be found the Author's private Notes to Woodfall, as well as others to and from Wilkes. Previously to 1812 many imperfect editions of these Letters had successively appeared, and my friend, the late Mr. George Wood- fall, a most worthy man in private life, son of Mr. H. S. Wood- fall, the publisher of the " Public Advertiser," deemed it therefore advisable to print a new, corrected, and greatly enlarged edition of the writings of the anonymous satirist, which is above referred to. He engaged Dr. John Mason Good, to edit the same, to write explanatory notes, and annex to the whole a " Preliminary Essay." In different conversations with both those gentlemen, I have heard them repeatedly state, that they could never satisfy themselves in assigning the authorship to either or to any of the persons who had then been named, and whose identity and quali- fications had been advocated by different writers. In the preHminary essay, Dr. Mason Good touches upon nearly aU the points connected with the authorship of these celebrated com- positions. He commences by a veracious and graphical description of the calamitous state of the British empire, at the time when the political "great unknown" first addressed the public; and he justly remarks, that never had the history of this country exhibited a period of equal extent that more peremptorily demanded the severe decision and overpowering pen of such a writer as Junius. The Constitution was shaken to its basis; successive ministries were always unsuccessful, and often profligate and corrupt, and parliaments were c 2 XlXVl PRELIMINARY ADDRESS. weak and obsequious; Great Britain was exposed to universal con- tempt abroad, and general discord at home ; and the American colonies were on the very verge of open rebellion. On the 28th of April, 1767, Junius, under the signature of *' PopHcola," commenced, in the " Public Advertiser," his internecine warfare upon the individuals whom he deemed the foes of liberty and his country. Lord Chatham was the first person on whom he poured out the vials of his wrath ; and he followed up the blow by two letters ; one of them under the same signature as the preceding epistle, and the other under that of " Anti-Sejanus, Junior." In the last of these a stinging attack is also made upon Lord Bute. Vigorously as the masked champion had begun the contest, he continued it with still increasing vigour, and with untiring per- severance. As connected with our inquiry, it is worthy of notice that Lord Townshend was the next who felt the keenness of his satire ; and that, in the letters addressed to that nobleman, there are sarcastic allusions to two points, which, some years before, had been touched upon in a similar tone, by the anonymous author of " A Letter to a Brigadier General." Under various appellations, among which are those of Mnemon, Domitian, Vindex, Atticus, Lucius, Brutus, and others, the public defender continued his labours from the 28th of April, 1767, till the 21st of January, 1769, when he finally adopted, for his more elaborate compositions, the signature of Junius, which he had previously used in a single instance ; that of Philo-Junius he assumed for subjects of minor importance. His last political letter was printed in the '* Public Advertiser," May 12th, 1772. His reasons for then retiring from the field he has himself given, in his private communi- cations to Mr. Woodfall. As early as 1769, the apparent hopeless- ness of his labours seems to have excited in him a momentary dis- gust. " I am weary," says he, "of attacking a set of brutes, whose writings are really too dull to furnish me with even the materials of contention, and whose measures are too gross and direct to be the subject of argument, or to require illustration." He, nevertheless, DR. MASON GOOD ON JUNIUS. XXJVlt for two years and a half longer, persisted in his exertions, and with greater energy and talent than ever ; but at length, finding success was rendered impossible by the miserable jealousies and squabbles of the popular party, he relinquished his pen in despair. Twelve months after he had ceased to be a public writer, he thus, in his last piivate letter to Mr. Woodfall, states the cause of his silence : — '' I have seen the signals thrown out for your old friend and corres- pondent. Be assured 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 run mad through the city, or as any of your wise aldermen. / 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." After a series of able remarks on the feelings, principles, temper, and peculiar style of Junius, Dr. Good proceeds to describe the cir- cumstances which must be combined in an individual, in order to identify him with Junius. " From the observations contained in this essay," says he, " it should seem to follow, unquestionably, that the author of the Letters of Junius was an Englishman, of highly cultivated educa- tion, deeply versed in the language, the laws, the constitution and history of his native country ; that he was a man of easy, if not affluent circumstances, of unsullied honour and generosity, who had it equally in his heart and in his power to contribute to the neces- sities of other persons, and especially of those who were exposed to troubles of any kind on his account ; that he was in habits of con- fidential intercourse, if not with different members of the cabinet, with politicians who were most intimately familiar with the court, and entrusted 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 XXXViii PEELIMINARY ADDRESS. 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 f that, in his natural temper, he was quick, irritable, and impetuous ; subject to political prejudices and strong personal animosities ; but possessed of a high independent spirit ; honestly attached to the principles of the con- stitution, and fearless and indefatigable in maintaining them : that he was strict in his moral conduct, and in his attention to public decorum ; an avowed member of the established church, and, though acquainted with English judicature, not a lawyer by pro- fession. What other characteristics he may have possessed, we know not ; but these are sufficient ; and the claimant who cannot produce them conjointly is in vain brought forward as the author of the Letters of Junius. ' Lastly, Dr. Good passes in review all the persons who, at the time when he wrote, had been suspected of having written these celebrated Letters. They are Charles Lloyd and John Roberts, originally Treasury clerks ; Samuel Dyer, a learned man, and a friend of Burke and Johnson; William Gerard Hamilton, famiHarly known as Single-speech Hamilton; Mr. Burke; Dr. Butler, late Bishop of Hereford; the Rev. PhiHp Rosenhagen; Major-General Lee, who went over to the Americans, and took an active part in their contest with the mother country; John Wilkes; Hugh Macaulay Boyd; John Dunning, Lord Ashburton; Henry Flood; and Lord George Sackville. Few words will sufBce to disqualify the first three of these can- didates. After having suffered under a lingering illness, Lloyd was on his death-bed when the last private letter of Junius was written. Nor, though he was a prolific pamphleteer, is there any thing in his writings which displays the manner or the intellect of Junius. As to Roberts and Dyer, they had for many months been in their graves, while Jimius was still wielding the pen. Hamilton, though with abiliries above mediocrity, and though he had vanity enough to declare that he could excel Junius, was a luke-warm politician. VARIOUS CLAIMANTS TO THE AUTHORSHIP. XXXIX with neither sufl&cient nerve to plunge into such a perilous contest, nor mental powers and tenacity to sustain it. Burke, who always disowned them (and who, as we know from good authority, repeated his disclaimer almost at the close of his life), has long ceased to be regarded as the author of these compositions. It is, indeed, as- tonishing, that he should have been suspected ; the striking differ- ence between the two writers, in style, in political attachments, and in many poHtical opinions, ought to have prevented such a suspicion. With respect to Dr. Butler, and the Reverend Philip Rosenhagen, they may be dismissed with Httle ceremony, as there is not a tittle of evidence in their favour. They " come hke shadows; so depart!" The claim of General Lee (who is said to have acknowledged the authorship) is utterly demoHshed in one brief sentence. "It is a notorious fact," says Dr. Good, " that during the whole, or nearly the whole of the period in which the Letters successively appeared, this officer was on the continent of Europe, travelling from place to place, and occupying the whole of his time in very different pursuits." The laurels of Junius cannot, therefore, adorn the brow of General Lee. The title of Wilkes is briefly but decisively nullified. " That he is not the author of them (says Dr. Good") must be clear to every one who will merely give a glance at either the public or the private letters. Wilkes could not have abused himself in the manner he is occasionally abused in the former; nor would he have said in the latter (since there was no necessity for his so saying) * I have been out of tovm for three weeks,' at a time when he was closely confined in the King's Bench." The pertinacity and assurance with which the claim of Hugh Macaulay Boyd has been urged have induced Dr. Good to enter at some length into the subject ; and he demon- strates clearly that the claim is unfounded — that Boyd possessed neither the affluence nor the mature years of Junius, nor that writer's easy access to the circle of high life and to the secrets of State, nor even his political principles, Junius being a decided mixed monarchist, and Boyd a wild, random repubHcan. That Boyd was an imitator of Junius is beyond dispute ; but he bears only such a resemblance xl PRELIMINARY ADDRESS. to his original as the spurious metal and stamp of the coiner bear to the legitimate currency of the Mint. The essayist despatches Dunning in few words ; but admits that he has " the largest aggregate of claim in his favour ;" his age, rank, talents, learning, brilliant wit, sarcastic habit, and political principles, attachments, and antipathies, all conspiring to mark him for the man. Dr. Good, however, is of opinion that all these indications are neutralised by various circumstances, the chief of which is that Dunning was Solicitor- General when the Letters first appeared, and for more than twelve months afterwards. That Flood could not be Junius is abundantly proved by a reference to dates. Dr. Good closes his inquiry with a notice of " the pretensions which have been oiFered on the part of Lord George Sackville," to the validity of which pretensions he has evidently a leaning. He owns, nevertheless, that " it is peculiarly hostile to the opinion in favour of Lord George Sackville, that Junius should have accused him of want of courage." This question has, howevef , been subsequently argued at great length by Mr. Coventry and by other writers. One thing is certain, namely, that if the anonymous " Letter to a Brigadier General" was, as it indisputably seems to be, from the pen of Junius, Lord George Sackville could not possibly have had any part in the subsequent celebrated political Letters. Since the date of Dr. Mason Good's Essay (1812), numerous attempts have been made to discover the Author of the Letters, with the aid of the " Private Correspondence," the " Miscellaneous Letters," and other information comprised in Woodfall's edition. These attempts have given rise to several trifling and improbable theories, which have been very imperfectly supported ; but amongst the publications which have appeared in the same interval, a few are of considerable importance in the history of this question, from the degree of talent, industrious research, and ingenuity, which their authors have displayed. It may be useful to the general reader to mention briefly the most important of these works. Beginning with the year 1813, John BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS ON JUNIUS. xli Roche must be referred to as the writer of " An Inquiry concerning the Author of the Letters ; in which it is proved by internal as well as by direct and satisfactory evidence, that they were written by the Right Honorable Edmund Burke"— {8yo.) It is needless to say that the "proof" adduced in this volume is utterly valueless ; and not- withstanding the very general opinion which formerly prevailed that Burke was connected with the Letters, Mr. Roche's book seems to have excited little notice. The year 1813 witnessed three other publications on Junius : indeed the appearance of Woodfall's edi- tion gave fresh interest to the inquiry, and the magazines of the same and the succeeding year teemed with correspondence on the subject. My friend, the late Rev J. B. Blakeimy, published "An Attempt to ascertain the Author of Junius's Letters," (8vo. pamphlet), wherein he ascribes them to John Home Tooke : an idea so utterly impro- bable, upon the face of the Letters themselves, that I am at a loss to conceive how my learned and estimable friend could have adopted it. Notwithstanding the veto of Dr. Mason Good, Thomas Girdlestone, M.D.f also produced " Facts tending to prove that General Lee was the author of Junius" (8vo., pp. 138); and another work, which attracted considerable notice and discussion, was put forward by Mrs. Olivia Wilmot Seri'es, in the following confident terms : " Life of the Author of Junius's Letters, — the Rev. J. Wilmot, D.D., Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford." (8vo.) In 1815, the Letters were at- tributed to Richard Glover (generally known, from the title of a poem which he wrote, as " Leonidas" Glover), in a pamphlet with the following title: — " An Inquiry concerning the Author of the Letters of Junius; with reference to Memoirs by a celebrated Literary and Political Character." This improbable idea was followed by another assigning the authorship of the Letters to the Duke of Portland. The advocate of the latter notion, whose name is unknown, advanced his theory in the form of " Letters to a Nobleman, proving a late Prime Minister to have been Junius, and developing the secret mo- tives which induced him to write under that and other signatures." xlii PRELIMINARY ADDRESS. (1816, 8vo.)* Dr. Busby is supposed to have been the author of " Arguments and Facts" (published in the same year), tending to show that John Lewis de Lolme, the author of a famous Essay on the Constitution of England, was the writer of the anonymous epistles. In 1816, one of the most popular works on the subject of Junius first made its appearance. This volume bore the names of Messrs. Taylor and Hessey, as publishers, and was considered to be the pro- duction of the former, — Mr. John Taylor. It was entitled " The Identity of Junius with a distinguished living character established ;" and it first put before the public, in a very able and ingenious man- ner, the claims of Sir Philip Francis to the authorship of Junius. A " Supplement" to the volume appeared in the succeeding year (1817); and a second edition of the whole was published in 1818. The author of "Junius Identified" displayed great power of rea- soning and acuteness of argument in this work, and the singular coincidences which he adduced, in matters of date and fact, be- tween Junius and Sir Philip Francis, induced many critics and general readers to consider the question as settled. But a more scrutinising spirit has since arisen, and the statements and argu- ments of this writer are found to be inconclusive, whilst the frequent denial of Sir Philip Francis has continued to gain cre- dence. It may be desirable to add, that Mr. Taylor's opinion is supported by Edward Dubois, Esq., formerly the confidential friend and private secretary of Sir Philip, who, in common with Lady Francis, still entertains the conviction that his deceased patron was identical with Junius. Considerable weight was given to Mr. Taylor's volume by an ad- * The motive assigned in this case was to obtain the restitution of the forest of Ingle wood and the manor of Carlisle, of which the Duke of Portland had been deprived by the ministry under the famous " Nullum Tempus" Bill, which Junius opposed. The author says: — "The Duke regains this property ; and Junius writes no more." THEOKIES OF BROUGHAM, CHALMERS, COVENTRY, ETC. xUU mirable notice of it in the " Edinburgh Review," for November, 1817, said to have been written by Lord Brougham ; wherein, after analysing the various theories before advanced, the profound and discriminating writer warmly espoused the claims of Sir Philip Francis. In 1817, the "Supplemental Apology for the Believers in the Shakspeare Manuscripts," by George Chalmers, F.S.A., was pub- lished : and that work, itself an able piece of criticism and argument from minute and obscure premises, advocated the pretensions of Huffh Macaulay Boyd to the authorship of Junius. This portion of the " Apology" was reprinted as a pamphlet, and entitled, " The Author of Junius ascertained, from a concatenation of circumstances amounting to moral demonstration. " A good edition of Junius appeared at Edinburgh, in 1822, edited by a person who assumed the cognomen of " Atticus Secundus," and who in a well written preface adopts the theory that Francis was the author of the Letters. The first writer to dispute Sir PhiHp's claims with any seriousness, was Mr. George Coventry, who in 1825 produced a " Critical In- quiry regarding the real Author of the Letters of Junius" (8vo.,pp. 404), which advocates at considerable length, and with great abihty, the opinion that Lord George SackviUe was Junius. Of nearly equal merit to Mr. Taylor's volume, this by Mr. Coventry appears to me equally inconclusive.* It, however, met with cordial assent from numerous readers. In America, two writers at once adopted the theory of Mr. Coventry ; one in a volume entitled " Junius Un- masked, or Lord George SackviUe proved to be Junius" (published, in 1828, at Boston, in the United States) ; another, in No. 66 of the " North American Review." • The author has since left England for America. One of my correspond- ents informs me, that he altered his opinion on the subject of Junius, and pub- lished a pamphlet m support of the claims of Sir Philip Francis ; but all my inquiries have failed to meet with any such essay. xliv PRELIMINARY ADDRESS. The prevalent opinion, founded on the work by Mr. John Taylor, being thus disturbed, the whole question was re-opened ; and the literary public were further gratified in 1828 by the appearance of another elaborate volume on the subject, from the pen of Mr. £. H. Barker, of Thetford, in Norfolk (12mo , pp. 576), wherein the sub- ject is elaborately discussed ; the claims of Lord George Sackville and Sir Philip Francis refuted; and those of Charles Lloyd, private secretary to the Honourable George Grenville, zealously and inge- niously, though not very successfully, advocated. The interest taken in the question in America was further mani- fested in 1831, by " An Essay on Junius and his Letters, embrac- ing a Sketch of the Life and Character of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham ; by Benjamin Waterhouse, D.D.," published at Boston. A valuable addition to the history of the controversy respecting the authorship of Junius was made in 1841 by N. W. Simons, Esq., of the British Museum, who in that year republished an anonymous "Letter to an Honourable Brigadier General [Lord Townshend], late Commander in Chief of his Majesty's Forces in Canada" (1 760). In a Preface, remarkable for simplicity and a complete knowledge of the question at issue, he ascribes this Letter to Junius, and at the same time refutes the supposition that Sir Philip Francis was directly or indirectly concerned in the writing. Mr. Simons's publication is one of considerable interest in connection with the present essay, and will be more fully adverted to in a subsequent page. Without dwelling upon the numerous, — the almost innumerable, — articles in Magazines and Reviews, upon this mysterious subject, it will be sufficient to conclude the present list by adverting to the latest comprehensive work relating to it, which bears the following title: — " The History of Junius and his works, and a review of the Controversy respecting the identity of Junius. By John Jagues;" (8vo., 1841, pp. 406); in which, after a complete resume o^ the ques- tion, the author arrives at the conclusion that Lord George Sackville composed the Letters, and that Sir Philip Francis was his amanuensis ; thus combining the theory of Mr. Taylor with that of Mr. Coventry. FORMER NOTICES OF BARR^. xiv In submitting to the public the arguments in support of Colonel Barrels claim as the author of the " Letters of Junius," I should observe that his name has been already publicly mentioned in con- nection with the subject. Indeed, the opinion now advocated, — namely, that the Letters were to a certain extent the joint produc- tions of Barre, Lord Shelburne, and Dunning, Lord Ashburton, — was expressly stated in the " Morning Herald" newspaper, so long ago as January, 1813, but, in the article referred to, the Earl of Shelburne is mentioned as the author, and Barre and Dunning merely as his assistants : — " It is said that the author of the celebrated Letters of Junius has been posi- tively ascertained, and that they were written by the Marquess of Lansdowne, father of the present nobleman who bears that title. The secret it appears was not discovered by its connection with any political affairs ; but by some verses in the possession of a lady, who had a copy of them before they were transmitted to the printer for publication, and the handwriting of the Marquess is ascertained without the possibihty of a doubt. It is well known that the Marquess was long suspected of being the author; and it is by no means improbable that he wrote the Letters in conjunction with his intimate friends DMwnjngr and Colonel Barri, the one supplying the legal knowledge, and the other many of the bitter sar- casms which were spread through them, and which are quite in the manner of the Colonel, who also probably furnished the military information." Moreover, Mr. Jaques, in his " History of Junius and his "Works," refers to the following " theory of an ingenious reviewer, as a speci- men of the strange speculations which have been broached on the subject :" — " If it be asked whether we have no guess who Junius was, we answer, he was the hand, moved, instructed, and guided by three heads. One of these was a nobleman, then extremely desirous of office, and strongly intriguing to obtain it; the second, a counsel of high celebrity, in progress towards nobility; the third was a military man by profession, of notorious senatorial eloquence, and impetuosity. Either of these singly could readily deny that he was Junius ; and each of them, we believe, has been known to do so. Their combination, if sus- pected, was incapable of proof ; and, in fact, as the trio merely furnished themes, but did not compose the Letters, they would have found little diflSculty .vlvi PRELIMINARY ADDRESS. in declining the honour, had it been charged on them conjointly. The soul of Junius is, as we conjecture, commemorated in the picture exhibited in Sir Joshua Keynolds's Gallery, representmg Lord Shelburne of Junius's day, Mr. Dunning (Lord Ashburton), and Colonel Barre of parliamentary fame, in con- The " ingenious reviewer," — whom Mr. Jaques does not more parti- cularly mention, — proceeds to assume that Dr. Wilmot was the pen- man who wrote the " themes" furnished by these parties. Colonel Barre is mentioned as the probable author of the Letters in a communication to the " Gentleman's Magazine" for November, 1813, signed " Midgarth:" — but his claims have never until now been publicly investigated and explained. In the course of my inquiries on the subject, I learnt from Sir David Brewster that one of his correspondents, a Captain Henderson, Ordnance Storekeeper at Chester, like myself, was of opinion that Barre wrote the Letters. Having spent a day with Captain Hender- son many years ago, I immediately wrote to Chester apprising him of the course my investigations had taken, and seeking the advantage of such hints or information as he could furnish. In reply, I was informed that the Captain died in the month of March, 1847, " whilst preparing his remarks on Junius for the press :" but his son, Mr. J. M. Henderson, promptly and kindly forwarded to me the whole of his father's manuscripts, on the subject of Junius. It appears that Henderson's attention was first directed to Barre, as the probable author of Junius, by Lieutenant General Beckwith, one of his brother officers in the Quebec expedition. His papers show that he had de- voted much time and attention to the inquiry; and if I had seen them in an earlier stage of my own researches, I should have been spared much labour in ascertaining facts and circumstances which he had previously noticed in his collections. The captain does not assume the existence of any confederacy between Barre and Lord Shelburne, or any other person, but simply contends that the former was the author, unassisted, excepting by an amanuensis : — admitting, however, as the supposition necessarily requires, that he was furnished FORTHCOMING PUBLICATIONS. xlvil vnth. much information by his noble friend. The papers of Captain Henderson, though voluminous, were left by him in such a state as to be unfit for publication. Unaccustomed to literary composition, his style and phraseology are frequently obscure, and his quotations in- accurate ; some of the principal authorities were only known to him by extracts in reviews and other periodicals, and he was ignorant of some important elements in the case as now laid before the reader. Through the courtesy of his son, I have been able to avail myself of all that is really useful in the Captain's lucubrations ; and it must be acknowledged that the particulars of Colonel Barre's personal and poHtical history which I have been enabled to collect are highly inte- resting additions to the scanty biography of one of the most cele- brated men of the last century. The question of the identity of Junius is still far from exhausted, and other publications besides the present are now in course of pre- paration to elucidate the mystery. Amongst these is a volume by Mr, Coulton, the editor of the " Britannia" newspaper, which is announced for speedy publication by Messrs. Longman and Co. Mr. Murray has lately advertised a work on Junius ; and it is said that Lady Francis will produce some fresh arguments to strengthen the case of her husband, the late Sir Philip Francis. In America, there is one, if not two works in preparation on the same subject. A gentleman in Sussex has long been occupied in an Essay, intended to show that the " polite" Earl of Chesterfield was the writer of " the Letters." Mr. Woodfall has made arrangements with Mr. Henry Bohn for the publication of a new edition of the Letters; which, if ably edited, cannot fail to be a valuable boon to all persons interested in this obscure Hterary question. The former edition, by Dr. Mason Good, which is capable of much improvement in the management of the Letters, has become scarce ; and it cannot be doubted that a new edition at a moderate price will have an extensive and remunerating sale. Such a publication would be doubly interesting if illustrated by fac-similes of Junius's corrections on the proof sheets of the first authorised edition; copies of the unpublished papers by Junius in xlviii PRELIMINARY ADDRESS. Woodfall's possession; and also of the mysterious letters in the Buck- ingham library. Whether the result of the works now announced be confirmatory or otherwise of the opinions I have endeavoured to maintain, I shall feel the satisfaction of having directed attention to some remarkable coincidences between the writings of Junius and the personal career and mental powers of Colonel Barre, which it will be most difficult to explain, if Barre was not the veritable author of the " Letters of Junius." THE AUTHOESHIP OF €f)t E^tterjJ of Suttiuja; ELUCIDATED. "the shadow came! a tall, thin, gbay-hair'd figure, " that look'd as it had been a shade on earth ; " QUICK IN ITS motions, WITH AN AIR OF VIGOUR ; " BUT NOUGHT TO MARK ITS BREEDING, OR ITS BIRTH : " NOW IT WAX'd little, THEN AGAIN GREW BIGGER, " WITH NOW AN AIR OF GLOOM OR SAVAGE MIRTH ; "BUT AS YOU GAz'd UPON ITS FEATURES, THEY " CHANGED EVERY MINUTE, — TO WHAT NONE CAN SAY." KINO, LORDS, AND COMMONS, ARE BUT THE SPORT OF HIS FURY." BUR/CE. CHAPTEE I. Literature, as a Profession — The Author's devotion to it for half a cen- tury — Numerous topics attracting his attention during that period — Amongst them the " Letters of Junius" — Seasons for the celebrity of THOSE Letters — The unparalleled mystery attending them— Many EFFORTS MADE TO ASCERTAIN THE AUTHOR — ThE READER's CANDOUR PROPI- TIATED— PaRTY Politics — The Author's early notes on Junius— Dr. PoPHAM, of Chilton — Tombstone of William Greatrakes, at Hungerford — Eecent inquiries— Conclusion that Colonel Barr^ was the Author op the Letters, William Greatrakes, the Amanuensis, and that Lord Shelburne and John Dunning furnished political and legal infor- mation — Course adopted by the Author in this inquiry. Assiduous and zealous devotion to any profession for half a century ought to entitle its professor to a diploma of rank, or some other honorary distinction ; — and the talented Author ought cer- B 2 JUNIUS ELUCIDATED. tainly to calculate on, at least, an equal reward and distinction, with the successful professor of Medicine, of Law, or of Religion. But, alas ! the Literary Character is not yet properly and duly appreciated in Great Britain, nor are there any distinguishing titles, or lucrative places, destined for its ultimate reward. Let us hope that amongst the many social changes and improvements now in prospect, and in progress, the claims of Literature will meet with due regard from national gratitude and justice. The many painful and distressing appeals which are continually made to the Literary Fund Society — the petty and paltry sum that is annually bestowed by the govern- ment, from the privy purse, (£1,200) — the Asylum which certain literary gentlemen have but recently found, in the Charter House, ahke show that literature and the literati have never been justly and generously treated in England. I have written and read much during the last fifty years on the varied and fluctuating events and novelties of each succeeding year, as well as on the annals of the " olden times;" and having also associated with many of the literati, politicians, and other classes of society, I have had opportunities of becoming familiar with most of the popular topics which have successively engaged public attention. Anecdotes of persons, places and things ; — rumours and reahties of wars, insurrections, and treasons; — facts of stirring interest and historic importance ; — panics and pauperism ; — revolutionized France and conquered China ; — have alternately come under review, whilst hopes and fears have been successively excited, realized, or dispelled. Amongst the innumerable subjects of public attention and inquiry which have interested Englishmen during the period referred to, the " Letters of Junius" stand pre-eminent. These celebrated com- positions have acquired a more extended popularity, and maintained a greater influence in the republic of letters, than almost any other poHtical or literary production. They were the result and issue of cir- cumstances. The government and the parliament — the state of parties and of literature — the individual temper and character of the actors, and the general condition of Society at that time, jointly and STATE OF MR. PITT'S MINISTRY. 3 severally conspired to produce and encourage such a series of re- markable political essays. "This was a time," says a recent able -writer, "when all constitutional remedy was suspended, and the House of Commons had become an instrument of tyranny to tax to the utmost the power of the press, — an engine whose power rises from its necessity, and increases with its pressure; which can at such a crisis as this, alone supply the want of a representative body, and by imbuing multitudes with the same definite purpose, enable them to use the power they had been accustomed to delegate."* The frequent changes of ministry and the virulence of opposition excited and kept alive personal and party feelings to an extent which can now hardly be imagined. So dependent were men in power upon extraneous and secret support, that during the first three years after the accession of George the Third, the government of Mr. Pitt expended more than £30,000 in rewarding the authors of numerous pamphlets which that ministry had caused to be printed and circulated in vindication of their public measures.f In proportion to the necessity for a public censor were the vast abilities of the mysterious satirist who then arose ; and in the same proportion did his writings fix the attention of the public upon the vices and follies of the misguided men whom they so powerfully assailed. As individuals have dwelt by turns upon the vindictive maHce of some of his attacks, or the polished irony of his general language and the keenness of his satire, so have the letters of Junius been alternately stigmatised or admired. An illustrious statesman of the present day, remarkable alike for his genius, learning, and aberrations, endeavours to depreciate even the literary talents which Junius is generally admitted to have possessed. •Cooke's "History of Party," vol. ii., p. 118 : — a luminous and discrimi- nating publication. t "Anecdotes of the Right Honourable William Pitt, Earl of Chatham." 4to., vol. i., p. 177. " The names of Smollett, Mallett, Francis, Home, Murphy, Mauduit, and many others, were the instruments employed upon this occasion," B 2 4 JUNIUS ELUCIDATED. " He appears," says the noble lord, " to have been a person in whose bosom every fierce and malignant passion raged, without the control of a sound judgment, and without any kindly feeling to attemper his nature. Writing at a time when good or even correct composition was little studied, and in the newspapers hardly ever met with, his polished style, though very far from being a correct one, and further still from good pure English, being made the vehicle of abuse, sarcasm, and pointed invective, naturally excited a degree of attention, which was further maintained by the boldness of his ^proceedings. No man can read a page of any letter without perceiving that the writer has but one way of handling every subject, and that he constructs his sentences with the sole design of saying the most bitter things he can in the most striking way ; without ever regarding in the least degree their being applicable or inap- plicable to the object of the attack. The consequence is, that the greater part of his invective will just suit one bad man, or wicked minister, as well as an- other. It is highly probable that, whoever he might be, he had often attacked those with whom he lived on intimate terms, or to whom he was under obliga- tions. This affords an additional reason for his dying unrevealed."* Again, adverting to the epoch of their publication, perhaps the comments on and appreciation by Burke of Junius, furnish the best evidence of the opinions then entertained respecting these famed epistles. In his place, in the House of Commons, that eloquent and axjcomphshed orator thus alludes to the person and to the subject: — " How comes this Junius to have broke through the cobwebs of the law, and to range uncontrolled, unpunished through the land ? The myrmidons of the court have been long, and are still pursuing him in vain. They will not spend their time upon me, or upon you, when the mighty boar of the forest, that has broke through all their toils, is before them. But what will all their efforts avail ? No sooner has he wounded one than he lays another dead at his feet. For my part, when I saw his attack upon the Bang, I own my blood ran cold, I thought he had ventured too far, and that there was an end of his triumphs. Not that he had not asserted many truths. Yes, sir, there are in that composition many bold truths by which a wise prince might profit. It was the rancour and venom by which I was struck. In these respects the North Briton is as much inferior to him as in strength, wit, and judgment. But while I expected from this daring flight his final ruin and fall, behold him • Lord Brougham, in a memoir of Lord Mansfield, " Sketches of Statesmen of the reign of George III." CAUSES OF JUNIUS S POPULAKITY, 5 rising still higher, and coming down souse upon both Houses of Parliament. Yes, he did make you his quarry, and you still bleed from the wounds of his talons. You crouched and still crouch beneath his rage; nor has he dreaded the terrors of your brow, sir;* he has attacked even you— he has— and I believe you have no reason to triumph in the encounter. In short, after carrying away our royal eagle in his pounces, and dashing him against a rock, he has laid you prostrate. King, lords, and commons are but the sport of his fury. Were he a member of this house, what might not be expected from his know- ledge, his firmness, and integrity ? He would be easily known by his contempt of all danger, by his penetration, by his vigour. Nothing would escape his vigi- lance and activity. Bad ministers could conceal nothing from his sagacity ; nor could promises or threats induce him to conceal any thing from the public." Many causes are to be assigned for the immediate effect and popularity of the Letters of Junius. Amongst which may be enumerated their intrinsic merit, as literary compositions ; the caustic severity of their personal satire ; the exalted station and political power of the parties assailed ; the vituperative replies of some of the individuals attacked ; the legal prosecutions which were instituted against their printers and publishers ; the profound and unexampled secrecy that involved their authorship during the five years in which they were successively produced, and for three quarters of a century since ; and, finally, the numerous pamphlets and essay st which have been published, from time to time, in the vain endeavour to affix the authorship on particular individuals, and which have greatly contributed to keep these extraordinary Letters prominently before the public. • Sir Fletcher Norton, then Speaker of the House of Commons, (1770), was remarkable for large, black eye-brows. f A catalogue raisonne of these would be a curiosity of literature, and would astonish the reader who has not devoted much attention to the subject. It was my intention to have given one on the present occasion, but the task would require more time than I can devote to it, and would aug- ment the size of the present Essay, to its disadvantage. At least thirty volumes and pamphlets have been written and published, and I learn that three others are now preparing for the press — one of which is in America. The papers and letters in magazines, reviews, newspapers, and other perio- dicals are almost innumerable. 6 JUNIUS ELUCIDATED. In the wide range of literature there is not to be found a case to parallel that now referred to. There never was a publication that has occasioned more inquiry, discussion, speculation, and research: — ^yet, strange to say, the veil, or mask assumed by the author has not hitherto been removed, — the mysterious source of the stream that poured forth such "troubled waters" has never been traced to its spring head ; the private character, the object, motives, and animus of the writer have never been satisfactorily explained and elucidated. In attempting to remove this mystic mask, to show the human face, and thereby reHeve the pubHc mind from further suspense and doubt, it is candidly admitted that no testamentary record, — no death-bed confession, — no long-concealed positive declaration can be adduced, as a single and conclusive proof of the authorship. Nor is it Hkely that such peremptory evidence will ever be found, or was ever left on record : for the perils of discovery naturally occasioned the most consummate wariness and precaution in the responsible actor. That he was a Protean performer is admitted by friends and by foes : — that he had the cunning of the fox, the eye of the lynx, and the craft and courage of the tiger, is equally evident. Hence we must not expect to find a direct and absolute proof in any one fact, but rather hope to trace the mystery to its source by cir- cuitous and intricate ways. This has been my process on the present occasion, and the result is now submitted to that numerous class of readers who feel an interest in the elucidation of any literary mystery, generally, and of this in particular. Accustomed for many years to a different branch of literature, I must acknowledge that I commenced, and have prosecuted the pre- sent task with diffidence and hesitation ; but the fair and candid critic will make every reasonable allowance for defects of style, of logic, and of argument; and judge rather by the spirit and intention of the writer than by his language, or the polish of his periods. Had I the eloquence of a Junius, a Gibbon, a Burke, or a Johnson, I should be able to render more ample justice to the THE author's early NOTES ON JUNIUS. 7 materials I have accumulated, and to the cause which I have ven- tured to advocate. Aware that the subject is essentially connected with party politics, and that the Letters were originally, and have long been, regarded as libellous, treasonable, seditious, democratic, and republican, I must seek to propitiate the reader's impartiahty and candour, by the assurance that for many years past I have endeavoured to disci- pUne my own mind, and to cure it of all party bias. I have seen enough of men and their actions, to know that there are good and bad in each and every sect and party ; and that moderation and tolerance are the best evidences of true patriotism and political worth, or excellence. Party feelings and prejudices I disclaim, as I have long been convinced of their folly and injustice. Sceptical myself, I cannot expect a reader to surrender his judg- ment and conviction but upon the most cogent and conclusive grounds ; and if the evidence on which my own opinion is based be trust- worthy it cannot fail to produce a corresponding result in the mind of the reader. Influenced solely by a love of truth and his- torical integrity, I have carefully and sedulously devoted much time, inquiry, and research to unravel a knot, the clue to which was pre- sented many years ago to my young and inquisitive mind. Had I duly felt the importance of the subject when the first hints and facts were related to me ; had I followed up the scent which was then strong and vivid, many curious and striking circumstances might have been discovered, and much labour, which has now been ren- dered necessary, might have been spared me : but after the printing of the "Beauties of England and Wales" had commenced (in the year 1800), my best mental energies were continually engaged in the prosecution of that work and in others which sprung out of it. Occasionally, however, the fame and mystery of the Letters of Junius attracted my study and attention ; and I progressively accu- mulated hints, facts, and data, which about two years ago, on commencing an Auto-biography of my own literary life^ I found amongst a mass of other papers. It was then my purpose to give 8 JUNIUS ELUCIDATED. a brief epitome of them merely, in that personal Memoir ; but I have been led, almost insensibly, to further research, and also to an extensive correspondence ; and having thereby obtained a variety of new and remarkable information confirmatory of previous con- jectures, and conclusive, as I believe, of the true authorship, I have been induced to offer them to the public in the present form and manner, independently of, and detached from, the intended Auto- biography. At the end of the last century, I visited the town of Hungerford, and several places in its vicinity, to collect materials for a topogra- phical work, to be called " The Beauties of Wiltshire" I then formed an intimacy with the Rev. Dr. Popham, of Chilton, with whom I continued on familiar and corresponding terms till his death, at a very advanced age, in 1815. He was a man of learning, and of a literary turn. In his early professional career, he held the vicarage of Lacock, for more than twenty years. This being in the imme- diate vicinity of Boivood, he became an occasional guest at that splendid house and hospitable home; and there met many distin- guished politicians, men of Science, Literature, and Art, during the years 1769, 70, 71, and 72. Amongst them. Counsellor Dun- ning and Colonel Barre were the most regular and constant visitors and associates of its noble owner, Lord Shelburne. These three spent the parliamentary recess together at Bowood for many suc- cessive years. The Colonel and the Counsellor were proteges of the Nobleman, having represented in Parliament the boroughs of Calne, and of High Wycombe, both of which were in the gift or patronage of Lord Shelburne. Public men and public mea- sures were necessarily the subjects of frequent conversation at these symposiums, amongst which the Letters of Junius had no small share of comment and criticism. The extraordinary finesse displayed in mixed parties by the three persons above named, and the difference of their language, when comparatively in conclave, excited the particular attention of my friend ; and he became confirmed in opinion that they were either the authors of the JEREMY BENTHAM'S CORRESPONDENCE. 9 Letters referred to, or were familiar with the writer. " The Public Advertiser" was regularly sought for, and referred to daily, with avidity ; and on one particular occasion it was spoken of with unusual curiosity and confidence. At the dinner-table on a certain day, when the clergyman and the three politicians only were present, Junius was not only noticed, but a certain attack on his writings, which had just excited much attention, was freely discussed. On this occa- sion one of the party remarked, that it would be shown up and con- futed by Junius in the next day's Advertiser. When the paper came the next day, instead of the Junius, there was a note by " the Printer," stating that the letter would appear in the ensuing number. *' Thenceforward," said Dr. Popham, " I was convinced that one of my three friends was Junius." This opinion he afterwards repeated to me. Many years' intimacy with Mr. Bayliffe, and Mr. Ralph Gaby, of Chippenham, two respectable solicitors of that borough, and who had frequent intercourse with the Bowood parties above named, strengthened this impression ; for each of those gentlemen believed that the Letters of Junius were written by one of those eminent politicians. The widow of Mr. Bayliffe, a well-informed lady, in the eightieth year of her age, writes me word, that her Husband died with this conviction. That Dunning and Barre continued in familiar intercourse with Bowood and its noble owner for many years after the discontinuance of Junius, we find by the correspondence of Jeremy Bentham, who mentions them repeatedly in connection with other eminent persons whom he met, and was charmed with, at that truly clas- sical seat. Amongst them we find young Mr. Beckford, the Earl of Pembroke, the Rev. Dr. Priestley,* the Reverend Dr. Price, and * The history of this amiable, scientific, and literary gentleman is intimately associated with Bowood, and the character of Lord Shelburne: as he was attached to that nobleman for seven years, at 250Z. per year, with house, &c., had charge of his library and MSS., had a laboratory expressly furnished for him at Bowood, and travelled with his lordship through Flanders, Holland, Germany, &c., in 1774. "In fact," he says, " I was with him as a friend, and consequently was introduced to his Lordship's eminent associates both at home and abroad. I 10 JUNIUS ELUCIDATED. the Rev. Joseph Townsend, and many other persons eminent for taste, learning, and influence. Bentham's animated comments on the splendid hospitalities of the house, the fascination of the host and hostess, and the varied talents and characters of the guests, render his Letters from Bowood as amusing and interesting as those of Pliny, or of Horace "Walpole. The following passages are at once strongly characteristic of the writer and the individuals referred to : "There seems no want of money here: grounds laying out, and planta- tions making, upon a large scale; — a gate goLog to be made, with a pyramid on each side of it, for an approach to the house at six miles distance ; the py- ramids to be at least 100 feet high. I call it Egypt. In the way, you have deep valleys, with meadows and a water-mill at the bottom of them ; and, on the sides, craggy rocks, with water gushing out of them, just for all the world as if Moses had been there." " The master of the house, to judge from every thing I have seen yet, is one of the pleasantest men to live with that ever God saw," says the Doctor, " a great variety of characters, amongst whom was the Eev. Dr. Frampton, a man of great conversational talents and sparkling wit ; whose company was much courted." — Like too many others of the brUhant Sons of Grenius, he neglected the common obligations of man to man, and was impri- soned for debt, which occasioned illness and death in the prime of hfe. Al- though it appears that Dr. Priestley was generally well satisfied in his connexion with Lord Shelburne, before the end of seven years he required change, with novelty of pursuit and association. " I was not at all satisfied with that mode of life. Listead of looking back upon it with regret, one of the greatest sub- jects of my present thankfulness, is the change of that situation for the one in which I am now placed." On parting. Lord Shelburne settled an annuity of 150L on the Keverend Doctor, and regularly paid the same. The subsequent career of the philosopher and divine was involved in vicissitude and many sor- rows. A barbarous and demi-savage mob of infatuated religious persons burnt his house, books, and scientific property, at Birmingham ; and he sought safety by retiring, first to London, and afterwards to America, where ^ soon afterwards he died, February 6, 1804. — " Memoirs of Dr. Joseph PriesUey," by himself, 2 vols. 8vo, 1806. It is to be regretted that these memoirs are so brief: for the author must have had much intercourse with Dunning, Barre, &c., during his connection with Lord Shelburne, but he mentions them only once, in saying that his lord- ship was very desirous of re-engaging him to supply their place, when they left Bowood, about the year 1779. BOWOOD IN 1797. 11 put breath into: his whole study seems to be to make every body about him happy; servants not excepted; and in their countenances one may read the eflfects of his endeavours. Strangers are lodged in a part of the house quite separate from that which is inhabited by the family. Adjoining to my bed- chamber I have a dressing-room, and should have a servant's room if I had one to put into it." " On our visit to Wilton the only company besides ourselves were an officer who was quartered at SaUsbury, and young J?ecA- /ortf of FonthUl, who, on the 28th of this month (August, 1781), comes of age, and gives a grand fete to all the world. Lord Pembroke is one of the best bred, most inteUigent, pleasant fellows I ever met with in my life; they say he is mad, but if his madness never shows itself in any other shape than it did then, I wish to God I coidd be mad too. He talked with infinite vivacity, saying many good things, and no foolish ones." "We have just now a monstrous heap of people. Arrived before dinner. Lord Dartry and Colonel Barri" " Barre abounds in stories that are well told and very entertaining. He really seems to have a great command of language; he states clearly and forcibly; and upon all points his words are fluent and weU chosen." " With Dunning I could have no communication; there was no time for it, except a joke or two, which the devil tempted me to crack upon him immediately upon his coming m. With Barr6, although we have few ideas in common, I .am upon terms of some familiarity, owing to the good-nature and companionable- ness of the man." My own acquaintance with Bowood commenced in the year 1797, when, as abeady mentioned, I began to collect materiab for " The Beauties of Wiltshire ;" and for which work the Marquess of Eans- downe was the first nobleman who gave me encouragement. On intimating my object to his lordship, he presented me with Andrews and Drury's Survey of the county, in eighteen large sheets — also Robertson's Topographical Survey of the Road from London to Bath, and other books and papers, calculated to serve me in my daring project. I was also promised aid from the valuable library in Lansdowne House, London, and found a kind and obliging friend in Mr. "Williams, the respectable hbrarian. His Lordship also gave me introductions to three or four gentlemen in the vicinity — viz., Mr. Methuen, of Corsham, — Mr. Heneage, of Compton, — Sir Andrew Baynton, of Spye Park, and James Montagu, Esq., of Lackham, by all of whom I was impressed with a strong opinion of the great political knowledge of the Marquess, and of the extra- 12 JUNIUS ELUCIDATED. ordinary talents of those who congregated around him at his country seat. It was about the same time that my attention was directed to a tombstone in Hungerford Church Yard, to the memory of Wil- liam Greatrakes, which I well remember seeing, and which bore the following inscription : — HERE ARE DEPOSITED THE REMAINS OF WILLIAM GREATRAKES, ESQ., A NATIVE OF IRELAND ; WHO, ON HIS WAY FROM BRISTOL TO LONDON, DIED IN THIS TOWN, IN THE 52ND YEAR OF HIS AGE, ON THE 2nd day OF AUGUST, 1781. Stat Nominis Umbra. The motto of Junius, thus remarkably affixed to the epitaph of a comparatively obscure individual, was certainly calculated to excite curiosity ; but there were other circumstances attending the death of Greatrakes at the Bear Inn, Hungerford, which tended greatly to encourage the opinion that he was intimately concerned in the Letters of Junius. These circumstances have been occasionally noticed by writers on Junius, but never with the attention they deserve. "Without anticipating the facts and arguments which will be here- aften adduced respecting William Greatrakes, it will be sufficient, in this place, to observe that he was personally connected with both Colonel Barre and Lord Shelburne, and that the persevering in- quiries which I have lately made respecting him, have convinced me that he was the amanuensis employed by Junius to copy his Letters for the Public Advertiser.* Although it will be rendered evident hereafter that the genuine Letters were the production of one author, — that they were all pre- pared for the press by one master-mind, we shall find that there was a tripartite union in their component and combined parts. It cannot fail to be noticed by every attentive reader that they ♦ Some very remarkable facts relating to papers belonging to Greatrakes, have recently been communicated to me by two Gentlemen of Cork; and will be produced in a subsequent page of this essay. author's conclusion. 13 contain a variety of technical and professional knowledge, which is rarely, if ever, to be found united in one person ; and certainly not in any one of the authors to whom these Letters have been hitherto ascribed. Independently of caustic satire, of severe irony, of vindictive personalities, we find the whole correspondence pervaded by three leading subjects — each powerfully treated-^viz., poHtical history, military tactics, and legal learning. In attempting to compare the dates, circumstances, opinions, and events, connecting Junius with the personal histories of Lord Shel- burne, Barre, and Dunning, the author has had to encounter many unexpected, conflicting, and perplexing difficulties. No satisfactory memoir of either of the persons here named has hitherto been pub- lished, and (in the case of Barre especially) the materials for such narratives are scattered, not only through gazettes, parliamentary and other public records, but in private as well as official docu- ments, contemporary pamphlets, &c., many of which are now ex- tremely difficult of access. With much labour and perseverance these data have been care- fully examined and digested, and the result, though it may not produce conviction in the mind of every reader, unquestionably estabHshes a very strong case in favour of Colonel BarrSy as the author of Junius. It appears highly probable also that Lord Shel- burne suppHed Barre with the secret political information which those letters display ; and that Dunning, the friend and coadjutor of both, was at all events acquainted with the secret, and was consulted upon the legal topics which Junius discussed. Thus it will be seen that the first proposition I wish to establish is that Barre was the author or composer of the Letters. If I suc- ceed in that, I conceive that the connection of Lord Shelburne and of Dunning with the mystery, follows almost as a matter of course, from their relative position with respect to one another. To Colonel Barre, therefore, it will first be necessary to direct the reader's attention ; and probably the best way to show his connection with the Letters of Junius will be to mention briefly, and in chronological order, the principal events of his life. 14 JUNIUS ELUCIDATED. CHAPTER n. Brief Memoirs op Lieutenant-Colonel BABRfe, exempliftino his Military AND LiTERART TaLENTS, AND SHOWING THAT HE WAS EMINENTLY QUALIFIED TO WRITE THE Letters of Junius— His education, successive promotions in THE Army — Under and favoured by General Wolfe — The latter killed AT Quebec, where Barre was wounded in the face — His Letter to Wil- liam Pitt — Slighted by General Townshend— Favoured and promoted BY Sir Jeffrey Amherst — Bearer op Despatches to London — Anonymous Pamphlet on the cowardice of General Townshend ascribed to BabrL The name of Colonel Barre has been so little noticed in connexion with Junius, that it may be desirable in the first place, to secure the attention of the reader by testimonies of his mental powers, and consequent qualification to write the memorable letters in ques- tion. He is best known as an able and sarcastic debater in Parlia- ment, where he first appeared in 1761 ; but few persons are aware of the extent of his accomplishments even as an orator. Two short extracts from his speeches may therefore be usefully quoted as evidence of his qualifications. In 1765 the American Stamp Act was introduced into Parliament by Mr. Grenville; and Mr. Charles Townshend concluded an able speech in its support by exclaiming, " And now will these Americans, children planted by our care, nourished by our indulgence imtil they are grown to a degree of strength and opulence ; and protected by our arms ; will they grudge to contribute their mite to relieve us from the heavy weight of that burthen which we lie under?" Colonel Barre, in reply to this, took up the words of Townshend in a most spirited and inimitable manner. " They planted by your care I ^fo, your oppressions planted them in America. They fled from your tyranny to a then uncultivated and MEM0IR8 OF LIEUT.-COLONEL BARR^. 15 inhospitable country, where they exposed themselves- to almost all the hard- ships to which human nature is liable; and among others, to the cruelties of a savage foe, the most subtle, and I will take upon me to say, the most formidable of any people upon the face of God's earth; and yet, actuated by principles of true English liberty, they met all hardships with pleasure, compared with those they suffered in their own country from the hands of those that should have been their friends. They nourished by your indulgence ! They grew by your neglect of them. As soon as you began to care about them, that care was exercised in sending persons to rule them, who were, perhaps, the deputies of deputies to some members of this House, sent to spy out their liberties, to mis- represent their actions, and to prey upon them; men whose behaviour on many occasions has caused the blood of these Sons of Liberty to recoil within them; — men promoted to the highest seats of justice; some who to my knowledge were glad, by going to a foreign country, to escape being brought to the bar of a Court of Justice in their own. They protected by your arms 1 They have nobly taken up arms in your defence; have exerted a valour amidst their con- stant and laborious industry, for the defence of a country, whose frontiei was drenched in blood, while its interior parts yielded all its little savings to your emolument. And believe me, — remember I this day told you so, — the same spirit of freedom which actuated that people at first will accompany them still, — but prudence forbids me to explain myself further. God knows I do not at this time speak from motives of party heat; what I deliver are the genuine sentiments of my heart. However superior to me in general knowledge and experience the respectable body of this house may be, yet I claim to know more of America than most of you. The people, I believe, are as truly loyal as any subjects the king has; but a people jealous of their liberties, and who will vindicate them if ever they should be violated. But the subject is too delicate. I wiU say no more." This speech, which is reported in Gordon's History of the American Revolution (vol. i. p. 160), is described as having been very effective in the house : and the Americans who favoured the claims of the colonists afterwards assumed the title which Barre had applied to them, of " Sons of Liberty."* At a later time Barr^ strenuously opposed the proceedings which the House of Commons had adopted against the Lord Mayor (Crosby), and Aldermen Wilkes and Oliver. In 1771 the ministry endea- • For this speech, and for others of a similar nature which Barr6 made in the House in vindication and complioientary of the Americans, the Congress solicited him to sit for his portrait to Mr. Stuart, the then famed American Painter. IB JUNIUS ELUCIDATED. voured to suppress the practice of reporting the Parliamentary Debates in the newspapers of the time, which practice had increased to a great extent, and became alarming to a reckless government. Warrants were issued and executed for the apprehension of printers and pub- lishers; but the civic authorities refused to commit them, and, on the contrary, bound over the officers of the House of Commons, to answer to charges of assault and false imprisonment. On the part of the government, motions were made and carried in the House of Commons, that these patriotic magistrates were guilty of breaches of privilege, and this was followed up by the committal of the Lord Mayor and of Alderman OHver to the Tower. Throughout the debates on this occasion Barre took a leading part against the minis- try, and upon the question of Alderman Oliver's commitment he delivered a speech remarkable for its vigour, intrepidity, and energy of expression. After broadly denouncing the ministry for the course they were pursuing, he exclaimed, " What can be your intention in such an attack on all honour and virtue ? Do you mean to bring all men to a level with yourselves, and to extirpate all honesty and independence ? Perhaps you imagine that a vote will settle the whole controversy? Alas ! you are not aware that the manner in which your vote is procured, remains a secret to no man. Listen !— for if you are not totally callous — if your consciences are not seared — I will speak daggers to your very souls. Whence did this motion take its rise ? Where was the scheme concerted ? Did it originate in this house ? Is it the legitimate offspring of this assembly ? No; it is the abortion of five wretched clerks, who though a disgrace to this house, have the management, I beg pardon, the mismanagement, of all national affairs. Do not you blush at such infamy ? Do not your cheeks burn with shame at being mere machines, or like oxen in a stall, fed by the hand of your master, and forced to draw in his yoke. By heaven ! I had rather not exist, than drag such a heavy, such a galling, such a detestable chain. You have struck at the very root of all law and justice, and endeavoured at one blow to annihilate all our liberties. But it is in vain that you hope by fear and terror to extinguish every spark of the ancient fire of this island. The more sacrifices, the more martyrs you make, the more numerous the Sons of Liberty will be- come. Let others act as they will, while I have a tongue or an arm they shall be free. And that I may not be a witness of this monstrous proceeding, I will leave the House ; nor do I doubt but every independent, every honest man, COLONEL BARRe'S ORATORY. 17 every friend to England, will follow me. These walls are unholy, they are baleful, they are deadly, while a prostitute majority holds the bolt of parlia- mentary omnipotence, and hurls its vengeance only on the virtuous. To your- selves therefore I consign you. Enjoy your own Pandemonium — " ' When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway, The post of honour is a private station.' "* The impassioned and courageous speaker immediately left the house. This extract from a lengthened harangue in the same style, will mark the man, the patriot, the orator, and will suffice to show that he possessed both moral courage and sterling talents. It cannot be doubted that one who, in the heat of debate and argu- ment, delivered the speech just cited, would be able by the aid of leisure and study, and animated by a subject interesting to his feel- ings to produce a composition, which in elegance and energy of style would not be inferior to the letters of Junius. But the mere command of spontaneous eloquence, however much resembling the written style of Junius, would be but inconclusive proof in such a question as the present ; and the reader will therefore expect, and is entitled to, much stronger facts and arguments. Amongst those to be adduced in the course of the present Essay particular reference will be made to a Pamphlet published anony- mously in the year 1760, in which the motives and conduct of Lord George Townshend are attacked in language precisely similar to that in which Junius, at a later time, assailed the same officer: and in assigning the authorship of that very interesting production to Colonel Barre such reasons will be given as it is hoped cannot fail to prove that its author and Junius were one and the same person. From the profusion of mihtary phrases and similes used by Junius, it has long been admitted that a soldier must have been concerned in writing those Letters; and certainly no person who was not either on the head-quarter staff of the Quebec army, or otherwise well acquainted with its proceedings, could have referred, as Junius Gendemans Magazine, March, 1771. London Magazine, July, 1771. C 18 JUNIUS ELUCIDATED. did, to Lord Townshend's despatch from Quebec announcing the surrender of that important citadel. Barre, it will be shown, held a distinguished staff appointment in the army at that time and place. Junius strenuously espoused the cause of Sir Jeffery Amherst, whom the ministry of the day had injured; and his letters on the subject prove that their writer was in the confidence of that ill-used General. Colonel Barre was befriended by Amherst and lived on terms of the closest intimacy with him. Again, the Colonel's military career was impeded whilst Lord Barrington was Secretary at War, and it will be remembered that Junius severely satirised that gentleman. Colonel Barre's conduct in Parhament with reference to "Wilkes would naturally excite the hostility of George the Third ; and the Duke of Bedford, who was then in office, was the cause of his being suddenly deprived of military appointments worth up- wards of £4000 a year. It is almost unnecessary to refer, in this place, to the severe but cautious letter of Junius to the King, or to his more personal one censuring the Duke of Bedford. On the chief political questions discussed by Junius his opinions were in unison with those which Barre advocated at the same time in Parliament; and, without alluding at present to many circum- stantial arguments which the Letters furnish in support of the theory now advanced, it must suffice to add that there were ample reasons for the concealment of the authorship in the case referred to ; for Barr^ having become a pensioner upon the public, after the publi- cation of the Letters, could not consistently with the high poUtical principles inculcated by Junius avow himself the writer of those extraordinary productions. Each of these, and various other circumstances, in proof of the identity of Junius and Colonel Barre, and of the assistance which the latter received from Lord Shelburne and from Dunning in the preparation of the Letters, will be adverted to in the foUovnng nar- rative, which it is hoped will at all events furnish useful materials for future biographical and historical literature. COLONEL BARKfe's ANCESTORS AND NAME. 19 Of the personal and even tlie public history of Isaac Barri^, very short and imperfect notices have hitherto been made public. Yet he was a remarkable and influential man in the military, poli- tical, and literary annals of his time. Not only in his professional career, with the army in North America, but in his parliamentary and literary character, he manifested talents of a high and command- ing nature. By a letter written in 1762, and cited in the Chatham Correspondence, it appears that his father was a foreign refugee, settled by the Bishop of dlogher in a shop in Dublin, because his wife had nursed one of the Bishop's children. The father's name was Peter, and the family appellation implies a French extraction, and the baptismal appendages both of the father and the son indicate their Hugonotic origin. The revocation of the edict of Nantz pro- bably drove them from their native country.* A friendly correspondent observes in remarking on the accom- panying Portraits of Lord Shelburne, Dunning, and Barre, that " the physiognomy of the last was, Hke his character, fiery and pugnacious, with a peculiar cast of malignity." The subject of the present inquiry lived and died a bachelor, but his personal connections, though almost entirely political, included some of his relations, particularly the Phipps's. Through the cordiality of his friendship with the Montgomerys, a distinguished Irish family, and their intermarriage with the Beresfords, " Barre" became a bap- tismal appellation in the latter family, and it was also introduced in that of Roberts, of Ealing, Middlesex.f * The notorious Du Barres were a different race, being denizens of France ./rom Ireland. Tliey were descendants of the Norman Conquerors of Ireland, of tlie same name, who, I am informed, are represented in the present day by the Barrymore family, and the Barry s of Bally dough, near Cork. f There is something extraordinary, interesting, and pathetic, in the history of a member of this family. Edward Roberts, Esq., of Ealing, was deputy-clerk of the Pells, when Colonel Barre held the clerkship, and the latter was godfather to a son of the former, in March, 1 789, to whom he gave his name, Barre Charles Roberts. Very early in life this youth manifested a genius of unusual compass and character, for C 2 20 JUNIUS ELUCIDATED. By reference to the civic records of Dublin it is clear that Peter, the father of Isaac Barre, gradually rose from the humble station already mentioned to one of wealth and opulence. He was a mem- ber of the " Dublin Society of Arts and Husbandry" (an important Institution, supported by the principal residents of that city), from its formation in 1750; — in 1758 he was an alderman, which office he probably filled until his death about 1776. In 1766 we find that, besides a warehouse in Fleet Street, Dublin, he had a country-house, at Cullen's Wood. Isaac Barre was born in the latter end of the year 1726. In 1740 his father sent him to Trinity College, Dublin, as is proved by the following entry in the college Register, extracted by James Prior, Esq., who printed it in his Memoirs of Oliver Goldsmith. "1740, NovEMBRis 190 — Isaac. Baere Pens.— Fixius Petri mercator — Anncm aoens 14 — Natus Ddblinii — Educatcs sob D»o. Loyd — Tutor Dr- Felissier." Intending him for the law, his father afterwards sent him to Lon- don, where he entered his name in one of the Inns of Court. It is probable that the young Barre disliked the profession which his father had selected; for we find that on the 12th of February, 1746, he obtained a commission as Ensign in the 32nd Foot, which at that time was in Flanders. His regiment returned to England in 1747, and again went to the continent early in 1748, where it re- when a boy he read various and numerous literary works, and wrote essays and criti- cisms of surprising acuteness and discrimination. At the age of nineteen he fur- nished an article for the first number of the Quarterly Keview, which induced its learned and caustic editor, William Giflford, to write thus to his father, after the death of Barre Roberts, at the age of twenty-one: " The world has lost talent rarely seen, accompanied with acquirements which, in one so young, were altogether extra- ordinary. There was an elegance, a playfulness of satire, a chastened degree of humour in what he wrote, that made it truly delightful ; the effect of all these was heightened by his sound but unobtrusive literature." — From a volume, con- taining" Letters and Memoirs of Barre Charles Roberts," 4to., \80i, privalefy printed. COLONEL BARRe'S CAREER IN THE ARMY. 21 mained till the peace of Aix-Ia-Chapelle, in the same year. From 1749 to 1753 the 32nd was at Gibraltar, and in the three follow- ing years the scene of its operations was Scotland. On the 1st of October, 1755, Barre became Lieutenant in the same regiment. These successive movements of Barre's regiment, from 1746 to 1756, afford the only information I have found respecting his per- sonal history during those ten years; comprising, as they do, the important period from the twentieth to the thirtieth year of his age. Nor has any thing transpired to indicate his learning or literary attainments, at that era. His residence in Scotland for three years may have induced that prejudice against the Scotch character, which is palpably marked in the Letters of Junius ; Johnson was equally inimical to the Scotch, after a cursory view of them and their homes. Barre, as an Irishman, of ardent and enthusiastic temperament, who had mixed in various society, and lived an active life, must have felt a great contrast between himself and the cold and calculating conduct of Scotchmen. After the year 1756, the personal career of our officer becomes more clearly defined, and many incidents will be found to identify him with the anonymous Junius. About that time the first Mr. Pitt, afterwards Earl of Chatham, conceived the plan of expelling the French from their American and Colonial possessions. In 1757 two expeditions were employed to effect this project; one against Louisbourg, the French strong coast-hold in America ; the other against the coast of France at Rochefort, the latter being intended to prevent the GalHc troops, locked up there, from receiving reinforcements. Both these expeditions failed. Tlie fleet under Admiral Holbourne was ineffectual at Louisbourg ; and at Rochefort the proceedings were merely a series of idle demonstrations, for which the commander- in-chief. General Mordaunt, was tried by a court-martial. Barre was in the latter expedition, and it is necessary to explain his position on that occasion. The immortal Wolfe was Colonel of the 20th regiment, which formed part of Mordaunt's army. At one of the 22 JUNIUS ELUCIDATED. stations of the 32nd, during the previous ten years, Barre must have come under the favourable notice of that Colonel, for the latter was the cause of his leaving the regiment to which he had been so long attached, and accompanying him as a volunteer to Rochefort. This patronage was the first step to Barre's rise in his profession. Wolfe had been highly successful in disciplining the 20th regiment, and being vigorous and energetic in his actions, and in the councils of the indolent staff of this unfortunate expedition, he acquired the approbation and the confidence of Mr. Pitt. That distinguished minister usurped the superintendence of the various government offices; and, in the management of his own scheme of warfare, appointed all military and naval officers, in a most arbitrary and unconstitutional manner ; though his measures were perhaps justi- fied by the personal character and conduct of some of his asso- ciates. To repair the failure of Admiral Holboume, Wolfe was specially selected by the minister to serve as Brigadier, under Sir Jefiery Amherst, in a fresh attack on Louisbourg, and Lieutenant Barre was again chosen to accompany him. At HaHfax thelatter was appointed to the staff of the Louisbourg expedition, as recorded in the " General Orders," dated 12th May, 1758: — "Lieutenant Isaac Barre, of the 32nd regiment, is ap- pointed as Major of Brigade to this army." Early in July the forces attacked the place, and Wolfe's division was in imrainent peril. The men were two days in the boats, exposed to a severe fire, and imable to land in consequence of the dangerous surf. With greater loss than that of the whole army besides, they at length, on the 8th of July, succeeded in driving the enemy from their works and the place surrendered shortly afterwards. In consequence of Wolfe's declining state of health he returned with Barre to England; but, towards the end of the year 1758, renewed the offer of his services to Mr. Pitt, and, with the local rank of Major General, was appointed to the special command against Quebec in co-operation with Sir Jeffery Amherst, who had remained in America. Barre was promoted on the 30th of Decern- COLONEL BARRY'S MILITARY PROMOTIONS. 23 ber in the same year to be " Major of Brigade, with the rank of Captain in America only, under Lieutenant-Colonel Carleton, Quarter Master General there." Only a fortnight afterwards, (on the 13th of January, 1759) he was further promoted to be " Captain in the Army at large, and Major in America only," as well as to the important staff appointment of " Deputy Adjutant General to the forces serving under Brigadier General Wolfe ;" and no doubt he owed each of these promotions to the friendship and influence of that gallant General. The expedition sailed in February, 1759. The army assembled at Halifax and was organised on the 4th of May following: — "His Majesty has been pleased to appoint the Generals and officers in the army commanded by Major-General Wolfe: — The Honourable Brigadier General Monckton — The Honourable Brigadier General Townshend — The Honourable Brigadier General Murray — Colonel Carleton, Quartermaster General — Major Barre, Adjutant General:" — being a promotion from his former post of " Deputy Adjutant General." After a tedious passage the army obtained possession of the Isle of Orleans, but were completely foiled in their attempts to draw Montcahn, the French governor of Quebec, out of his defences. Wolfe was at this time severely suffering from a " complication of disorders, which fatigue and disappointment had brought upon him. Townshend and other officers had crossed him in his plans, but he had not yielded. He had himself been one of the warmest censurers of the miscarried expedition to Rochefort, and had received this high command upon his assurance that no dangers or difficulties should discourage him."* While thus depressed and dispirited General Wolfe transmitted his last despatch to Mr. Pitt, — to whom all the reports of the expe- dition were personally addressed. This is an interesting document, * Walpole's Meraoires of George the Second, vol. ii., p. 383. 24 JUNIUS ELUCIDATED. remarkable for clearness of language and propriety of expression; and it is a singular fact that its production was ascribed by the current report of the army to Major Barre, the official and confidential friend of Wolfe.* It therefore becomes important, in connexion with the present inquiry, as showing Barre's literary abihty many years before the publication of the Letters of Junius. The follow- ing passage may be quoted as a specimen of the style of this in- teresting communication. " I -wish I could upon this occasion have the honour of transmitting to you a more favourable account of the progress of His Majesty's arms, but the ob- stacles -we have met with in the operations of the campaign are much greater than we had reason to expect, or could foresee ; not so much from the numbers of the enemy (though superior to us) as from the natural strength of the coim- try; which the Marquis de Montcalm seems wisely to depend upon." . . . ..." All these circumstances I considered, but the desire to act in con- formity to the King's intentions, induced me to make this trial; persuaded that a victorious army finds no difficulties." " The Admiral's Despatch and mine would have gone eight or ten days sooner, if I had not been prevented from writing by a fever. I found myself so ill, and am still so weak, that I begged the General Officers to consult together for the public utility." "To the uncommon strength of the country, the enemy have added, for the defence of the river, a great number of floating bat- teries and boats. By the vigilance of these, and the Indians round our different posts, it has been impossible to execute any thing by surprise. We have had almost daily skirmishes with these savages, in which they are generally de- feated, but not without loss on our side. By the list of disabled officers, many of whom are of rank, you may perceive. Sir, that the army is much weakened. By the nature of the river, the most formidable part of this armament is de- prived of the power of acting : yet we have almost the whole force of Canada to oppose. In this situation there is such a choice of difficulties that I own myself at a loss how to determine. The affairs of Great Britain I know require the * This statement is made on the authority of the late Captain Henderson whose papers are referred to in a previous page. The Captain derived his in- formation from Lieutenant General Beckwith, a brother officer of Barre in the Quebec expedition, who resided many years with Henderson at Chester, where he died. The tradition was confirmed to the latter by another officer, who, upon being asked for information respecting Colonel Barr6, immediately ex- claimed, " What, he who wrote Wolfe's famous despatch about the 'choice of difficulties' ?" CAPTURE OF QUEBEC. 25 most vigorous measures, but then the courage of a handful of brave men should be exerted only where there is some hope of a favourable event. However you may be assured, Sir, that the small part of the campaign which remains shall be employed (as far as I am able) for the honour of His Majesty and the interest of the nation, in which I am sure of being well seconded by the Admi- rals and by the Generals; happy if our efforts here can contribute to the success of His Majesty's arms in any other parts of America." This report was dated the 2nd of September, and the General wrote to the Earl of Holdernesse in the same tone of melancholy on the 9th, (^Chatham Correspondence, vol. i., p. 425): but the desponding language of these communications little accorded with the result of the expedition; for on the 13th of the same month the djdng moments of Wolfe, upon the fatal Plains of Abraham, were soothed by the know- ledge that the capture of Quebec had been accompUshed by the bravery of the British forces. Major Barre was severely wounded in the face in the same action, so as to destroy one eye, and ultimately induce total blindness. In West's celebrated picture of the "Death of Wolfe," Barr(^ is represented as prominent among the group of officers around the dying General, and in placing him in that posi- tion the artist was no doubt influenced by*a desire to commemorate the friendship subsisting between Barre and his illustrious com- mander,* Montcalm, the French commander, shared the fate of Wolfe. Brigadier Monckton, the second in command of the British army was disabled in the battle,t and consequently the duty of transmitting • Those who were present in the action have recorded that the mortal ■wound was in the head. "West availed himself so far of the artist's licence as to exhibit only another in the breast; no doubt in order to preserve the por- traiture; and in like manner the woimd of Barre is not shown in the picture. t Horace Walpole states that the French had 15,000 soldiers at Quebec, whilst our own army consisted only of 7,000 men. " The battle," he says, " was a very singular affair, the Generals on both sides slain, and on both sides the second in command wounded: — in short very near what battles sliould be, in which only the principals ought to suffer." — (^Letters to Sir Horace Mann, vol. iii., p. 388.) 26 JUNIUS ELUCIDATED. intelligence of the victory to England as well as of regulating the proceedings of the army devolved for a short period on Brigadier General Townshend. He selected Colonel Hale to bear the des- patches to England, an honour which (together with the consequent promotion) would have been conferred on Major Barre, had his friend and patron Wolfe survived the action. The Colonel of the 28th Regiment was also killed in this engage- ment ; and as a compliment both to the gallantry of that regiment, which had eminently distinguished itself, and to Brigadier General Townshend, the latter was promoted to its vacant colonelcy. Barre had been a captain " unattached" to any regiment, but he was now appointed to a company in the 28th, under Townshend. This officer returned to England in the beginning of the ensuing winter. On the 26th of October, 1759, Monckton, who had resumed the command a few days after the battle, embarked at Quebec for New York, with a view to promote recovery from his wound.* Barre and Colonel Carleton, (the latter also being wounded), had previously gone to that city ; and Murray was left in command at Quebec, to sustain and to frustrate a counter-siege from the enemy. Whilst at New York Barre addressed a letter to Mr. Pitt which is so remarkable in itself, and so well describes his professional career down to that time, that it is thought desirable to insert it in this place. "New York, April 28th, 1760. " Sir — K I presume to address myself to the first minister of my country, it is under the sanction of a name which is stUl grateful to his ear. General Wolfe fell in the arms of victory on the plain of Abraham. I received near his person a very dangerous wound; and, by the neglect I have since met with, I am apprehensive that my pretensions are to be buried with my only * His case is still noted in the annals of surgery as remarkable. He was shot through the lungs and the ball was cut out from under the shoulder- blade. COLONEL BARRY'S LETTER TO MR. PITT. 27 protector and. friend. The packets bring no directions concerning me; so that I remain as Adjutant General with Greneral Amherst, by his desire, though with a very bad prospect of ever being taken notice of. " From power I have not interest enough to ask favour ; but, unless the discernment of my late general be much called in question, I may claim some title to justice. If my demands appear reasonable an application to Mr. Pitt cannot be charged with great impropriety. "For want of friends I had lingered a subaltern officer eleven years, when Mr. Wolfe's opinion of me rescued me from that obscurity. I attended him as Major of Brigade to the siege of Louisbourg, in which campaign my zeal for the service confirmed him my friend, and gained the approbation of General Amherst. When the expedition to Canada was determined upon General Wolfe got his Majesty's permission to name me his Adjutant-General. Upon this occasion I only obtained the rank of Major in America and Captain in the army ; my being still a subaltern was the reason assigned for such moderate honours. Thus my misfortune was imputed to me as a fault, and though thought worthy of that high employment, the rank of Lieutenant- Colonel (so necessary to add weight to it) was refused, although generally given in like cases, and in some instances to younger officers. " My conduct in that station was so highly approved of by the general that when the success of the campaign seemed doubtful he regretted his want of power to serve me; and only wished with impatience for an opportunity to make me the messenger of agreeable news. This last honour the battle of Quebec deprived me of. After the defeat of his Majesty's enemies the trophies I can boast only indicate how much I suffered ; my zealous and sole advocate killed, my left eye rendered useless, and the ball stiU in my head. " The presumption in appeahng to you I hope wiU be pardoned, when I affirm that I am almost utterly unknown to the Secretary at War.* Besides, Sir, I confess it woiild be the most flattering circumstance of my life to owe my preferment to that minister who honoured my late general with so im- portant a command, and which I had the pleasure of seeing executed with satisfaction to my King and country. " I have the honour to be, with the most profound respect, Sir, your most devoted humble servant, "Isaac Bakre."! * Lord Barrington ; who was afterwards violently assailed by Junius, f Chatham Conespondence, vol. ii., p. 4L 28 JUNIUS ELUCIDATED. This unusual mode of application for military promotion was probably adopted by the writer, in the hope that the Minister, in his conferences with Wolfe before the sailing of the expedition, had become acquainted not only with the name of Barre but also with the General's opinion of his merits ; and that he might thereby have been disposed to listen favourably to his appeal. His hopes were, however, fruitless, the reply being merely, with true official reserve, that " senior officers would be injured by his promotion." If there be not any remarkable literary ability evinced in this letter to Mr. Pitt it is at least a clear and emphatic statement of military claims ; and is evidently the production of an earnest and vigorous mind. At the date of this appeal Wolfe's army was merged in that of Amherst. Unaided either by Monckton, or Murray, Barre was left to the kindness of General (Sir JefFery) Amherst, under whose personal observation he had previously been at Louis- bourg, and his new patron soon had an opportunity of rendering him an important service. On the 8th of September, 1760, the surrender of Montreal com- pleted the subjection of Canada, and Amherst appointed Barre to convey the despatches announcing that event to the English Mi- nister. Accompanied by Captain Deane, on the part of the Navy, he arrived in London on the 5th of October in that year. In the life of our ambitious but mortified and hitherto neglected young officer, this is a memorable period, in reference to an anony- mous but important publication which may be reasonably attributed to the writer of the Letter to Mr. Pitt. Between the months of June and October in the same year, 1760, an anonymous pamphlet was printed and pubHshed in London, severely impeaching and satirising the conduct of General Townshend as commander of the Quebec expedition after the death of Wolfe. This publication was entitled " A Letter to an Honourable Briga- dier General, Commander-in-Chief of His Majesty's Forces in Ca- nada." It excited much attention at the time of its appearance and even led to a hostile meetineasM7er) 3 3 Charles Graham, Esq., F.S.A 110 W. Grane,Esq 5 J. E. Gray, Esq., F.R.S 2 2 J. Gray, Esq 1 l Thomas A. Green, Esq., F.S.A 2 2 Thomas John Green, Esq 110 Benjamin W. Greenfield, Esq 2 2 G. B. Greenough, Esq., f.r.s 2 2 JohnG. Home Greenwood, Esq.... 110 John Griffin, Esq l i LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. £s.d. W. P. Griffith, Esq., Archt., j?.8.a. 1 1 T. Grissell, Esq., p.s A... 5 Sir Benjamin Hall, Bart., m.p 2 2 Philip Hardwick, Esq., R.A., f.r.8. 5 James Harmer, Esq 5 5 W. J. Harrison, Esq 1 1 The Rev. Richard Hart 1 1 James Hartley, Esq 110 W.Harvey, Esq 2 2 Henry Hatcher, Esq 110 William H. Hatcher, Esq , c.E 1 1 W. Herbert, Esq., Architect 5 The Very Rev. the Dean of Here- ford, D.D., F.S.A., F.R.S., &C 3 3 J. W. Higgins, Esq 1 1 Chas. Hill, Esq., SheritF of London 5 Miss Hill 1 Sir Hugh Richard Hoare, Bart.... 5 5 Henry Merrik Hoare, Esq 5 5 Henry Charles Hoare, Esq 3 3 Robert S. Holford, Esq 5 A.J. Beresford Hope, Esq., M.p... . 5 5 Henry Thomas Hope, Esq 5 5 James Hopgood, Esq 110 W. Hosking, Esq., Professor of Architecture at King's College, London 3 3 John Howell, Esq 5 5 Thomas Howse, Esq 2 2 John Hulbert, Esq 2 Joseph Hume, Esq., M.p 3 3 L. C. Humfrey, Esq., q.c 5 5 The Rev. Jos. Hunter, f.s.a 2 2 Robert Hunter, Esq., f.r.s., f.s.a. 1 1 The Rev. J.Ingram, d.d 5 David Irving, Esq., L,L.i> 110 A. W. Jackson, f.g.s., c.e., and J. Jackson, Yeoman 5 5 The Rev. J. E. Jackson 1 1 Mr. Jaques 110 William Jerdan, Esq 2 2 Thomas JoUey, Esq 110 Mr. T.E.Jones 1 1 W. S.Jones, Esq 2 Edmund Johnson, Esq 2 Messrs. Keene. — Bath Journal .... 1 1 E. B. Kemble, Esq 5 5 H. E. Kendall, jun., Esq., Archi- tect, f.s.a 110 Miss Kerr 3 The Rev. Dr. Knapp 2 2 Charles Knight, Esq 3 3 Messrs. Charles Knight & Co 3 3 F.Lake, Esq., Artist 1 1 Wm. Laxton, Esq. — Civil Engineer and Architects' Journal 2 2 John Lee, Esq., LL,.D., f.s.a 110 H.Lee,Esq 1 1 Geo. O. Leicester, Esq , Architect 110 J. H. Le Keux, Esq 1 1 Mr. J. LiUy 1 1 £s.d. Thomas Longman, Esq 2 2 Charles E. Long, Esq 1 1 Mr. Lordan 110 Mrs. Loudon 2 2 M. A. Lower, Esq., M.A 110 Sir E. L. Bulwer Lytton, Bart. ... 3 3 The Ven. Archdeacon Macdonald 2 2 Charles Mackay, Esq., ll.d 2 2 R. Shelton Mackenzie, Esq., LL.D... 110 Sir F. Madden, K.H., F.R.S 110 G. Mair, Esq., Architect 1 1 W. Maltby, Esq 1 1 The Rev. E. Mangin 1 1 J. Marriot, Esq. — Taunton Courier 110 Jas. Martin, 'Esq.— Felix Farley's Journal 110 R. Maugham, Esq 3 3 Alfred Meredith, Esq 2 2 Dr. Merriman 110 Mis. Meyler.— Bath Herald 1 1 The Rev. George Millers 5 The Rev. J. Mitford 2 2 F. G. Moon, Esq., Alderman 5 5 Thomas Moore, Esq 2 George Moore, Esq., Arch., f.s.a. 110 E. R. Moran, Esq 1 George Morant, Esq 3 3 Richard Morris, Esq 110 Samuel Mullen, Esq 5 5 Richard MuUings, Esq 110 Mr. Murdock 1 1 Charles Muskett, Esq 2 2 Edwm Nash, Esq 1 1 Joseph Neeld, Esq., M.p 5 5 J. Newman, Esq., Architect, f.s.a. 110 J. B.Nichols, Esq., f.s.a 2 2 J. G. Nichols, Esq., F.S.A 110 James Nisbett, Esq 110 James Noyes, Esq 110 Mrs. Opie 110 W. Osmond, Esq 1 1 Aneurin Owen, Esq 10 The Rev. John Parker 3 3 E. T. Parris, Esq 1 1 J. Parrott, Esq 2 2 John Parry, Esq 110 Messrs. J. L. & C. Parsons 1 1 T. Page, Esq., c.E 1 1 Mr. John Peace 110 The Rev. J. Pearse 1 1 G. Petrie, Esq., K.H.A., v.p.R.i.A... 3 3 T. J. Pettigrew, Esq., f.r.s., f.8.a. 2 2 S. L. Phillips, Esq 1 1 Sir Thomas Phillips, Bart., f.sa. 2 2 H. W. Pickersgill, Esq., R.A 110 Lewis Pocock, Esq., f.s.a 2 2 William Pocock, Esq., Architect 110 James Ponsford, Esq 2 2 The Rev. Beale Post 1 1 o George Pownall, Esq 2 2 E. Poynder, Esq 2 2 LIST OF SUBSCRIBEKS. Vll £s.d. Edward Pretty, Esq., F.s.A 110 Thomas Proctor, Esq 5 Samuel Prout, Esq., F.s.A 2 2 A. Provis, Esq 2 2 John Provis, Esq 3 John Pye, Esq 1 1 A. Rainy, Esq 3 3 The Rev. Dr. Rees, f.s.a 1 The Rev. W. T. Rees, m.a., f.r.s. 1 1 Mr. W. Reid 1 John Adey Repton, Esq., Archi- tect, F.s.A 110 Thomas Reseigh, Esq 110 C.J. Richardson, Esq., Arch., F.s.A. 110 David Roberts, Esq., r.a 3 3 W. T. Roberts, Esq 1 1 Hy. Crabb Robinson, Esq., f.s.a. 2 2 C. P. Roney, Esq 3 Sir W.C.Ross, R.A 2 2 M. Rowe, Esq 2 2 The Rev. E. Rowlandson 1 1 W. W. Salmon, Esq 3 3 Joseph Sams, Esq 110 W. D. Saull, Esq., F.s.A 1 T. F. Savory, Esq., F.s.A 5 5 P. N. Scott, Esq 1 I G. Poulett Scrope, Esq., m.p 5 Thomas H. Sealy, Esq 1 1 Henry Shaw, Esq., F.s.A 5 5 F. Shoberl, Esq 1 1 George Simpson, Esq. — Devizes Gazette 1 1 Thomas Skelding, Esq 1 1 B. H. Smart, Esq 1 1 Lieut.-Colonel Charles Hamilton Smith, K.H., R.M., F.R.S., F.L.S... 2 2 The Rev. J. J. Smith 2 2 Charles Roach Smith, Esq., f.s.a. 110 John Smith, Esq 2 2 Mr. J. R.Smith 1 1 Horatio Smith, Esq 1 1 Captain Smyth, F.R.S., f.a.s 110 E. Snell, Esq., Architect 1 1 T. H. S. Sotheron, Esq., M.p 1 1 Messrs. Spalding and llodge 2 2 ~' " - ^ ^ ^ 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 1 2 2 3 3 2 2 1 1 The Rev. W. T. Spurdens William Selwyn Sqmbb, Esq W. Standidge, Esq , George John Stevenson, Esq , Henry Thos. Stevenson, Esq., f.s.a Seth W. Stevenson, Esq., f.s.a. ... Lieutenant Stratford, f.r.s W. Strong, Esq Sir J. E. Swinburne, Bart., f.r.s Richard Taylor, Esq., f.s.a The Rev. E. Tagart, f.s.a , Arthur Taylor, Esq., f.s.a James Taylor, Esq Geo. L. Taylor, Esq., Arch., f.s.a. Sir Edward Thomason, Knt James Thomson, Esq., Architect John Thompson, Esq., Artist John Thompson, Esq John Tinibs, Esq W. Tite, Esq., Architect, f.r.s.... W. Tooke, Esq., f.r.s,, &c W. C. Towers, Esq The Rev. J. M. Traherne Rev. T. S. TurnbuU, m.a., f.r.s... Dawson Turner, Esq., F.R.S., f.s.a. The Rev. W. H. Turner H. B. Tymbs, Esq T. Uwins, Esq., r.a W. Vines, Esq., f.s.a George Vivian, Esq Lieutenant Waghorn, r.n C. E. WagstafF, Esq James Walker, Esq., c.e Miss Ellen L. Walker W. Wansey, Esq., f.s.a The Rev. J. Ward The Rev. Richard Warner S. Ware, Esq., Architect, f.s.a.... T. S. Watson, Esq The Rev. J. Webb, f.s.a F.Webb, Esq The Rev. Charles Wellbeloved ... The Very Rev. the Dean of West- minster, D.D., f.r.s.. F.G.S Robert Bell Wheler, Esq Francis Whishaw, Esq G. T. White, Esq., Architect Richard Samuel White, Esq Charles F. Whiting, Esq Joseph Wickenden, Esq Geo. Wightwick. Esq., Architect E. P. Williams, Esq G. A. Williams, Esq Joseph L. Williams, Esq Samuel Williams, Esq E. J. Willson, Esq., Archt., f.s.a. Thomas Windus, Esq., f.s.a B.G.Windus,Esq John Wodderspoon , Esq John Wood, Esq., Surveyor John Wood, Esq., Artist George AVood, Esq. — Bath and Cheltenham Gazette Edward Wyndham, Esq Thomas Wyse, Esq., m i> Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard The Rev. James Yates Mrs. Yates John A. Yatman, Esq SUBSCRIPTIONS CONTINUE TO BE RECEIVED BY Tlie Treasurer, N. GOULD, E»q., 4, T.ivistock Square. ne Honorar, Secretaries, \ %%\\^Z^^r^ui mV ^'7"?> ni'^"'*«^' '^'"•"P'"" ' " X"- CUNMNGHAM, Esq., Audit Office, Somerset Place; And .Messrs. DIXON & Co. Banker?, 25, Chancery I-ane. £ s.d. 1 1 2 2 3 3 1 1 1 1 3 3 1 1 5 5 5 2 2 3 3 5 5 5 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 5 5 1 1 2 2 1 1 2 2 1 1 2 2 3 3 1 1 2 2 2 2 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 3 3 2 2 3 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 I 1 1 3 3 1 1 2 2 2 2 1 1 " THE BRIXTON TESTIMONIAL, 8vo. 1846." [^From the Gentleman's Magazine, June, 1846, by tfie Rev. John Mitford.] " This little pamphlet affords an account of a dinner given to Mr. Britten at the Castle Hotel, at Richmond, 7th July, 1845, on the 74th anniversary of his birth-day, together with the toasts and speeches on the occasion, and a list of the subscribers to the testimonial. Nathaniel Gould, Esq., was in the chair, and eighty-two gentlemen were present. As circumstances de- prived us of the pleasure of joining that meeting we may be permitted to express in this place our sentiments respecting it. "To be born to honours is a happy accident; to achieve them is a noble distinction. Mr. Britton's honourable career is all his own; he has gained his station in life by diligent exertion, by the possession of useful and ele- gant acquirements, by eminence in his own particular line of study, by general intelligence in other branches of science and art, by a love of litera- ture, and by a general and liberal assistance to those employed in pursuits congenial to his own. To his labours the architecture — and particularly the ecclesiastical and domestic architecture — of the country is deeply in- debted for the restoration of what was decayed, and the improvement of what was defective ; and in his beautiful sketches and masterly engravings, extending through many volumes, he has given us a treasure-house of an- tiquarian art, and made the pencil and the graver not only preserve and perpetuate much that has long been mouldering into shapeless ruin, but has also supplied many a new model of improved beauty, suggested by his own genius, and carried into execution by his own zeal and perseverance. There are, however, still higher qualities belonging to our nature than those of mere intellectual excellence, and greater endowments than those of scientific acquirement. Mr. Britton is justly endeared to his friends by the virtues of his heart, as well as valued by them for the cultivation of his mind. Whoever is acquainted with him must be pleasingly impressed with the simplicity of his manners, the kindness of his address, and the open, candid, and generous expression of his feelings. The humble writer of these lines has every reason to be proud of the honour conferred by his friendship, as he willingly confesses the advantages he has derived from his knowledge and attainments. Mr. Britton has enjoyed the enviable privilege of friendly and familiar intercourse with some of the most eminent persons of his age; and we can say, that many who, Hke ourselves, originally came to him for advice and instruction, soon felt anxious to cultivate a more familiar ac- quaintance, and to make private friendship be the happy result of profes- sional reputation. The names which appear in the List of Subscribers before us afford an ample testimonial of all that we have said. They ex- tend through all classes, from the Prince to the professional artist; and by their extension they stamp a more authentic value on their approbation. Such a band of friends any man may be justly proud of : and we trust that in Mr, Britton's mind and feelings the present public evidence of attachment will shed a bright and genial lustre over the shadows of ad- vancing age, as they are slowly and gently closing on a long, an honourable, and a happy life." Benhall. J. M. 509710 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA UBRARY