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 WOODFALL'S JUxNIUS. 
 
 THE 
 
 LETTERS OF JUNIUS. 
 
 FBOM 
 
 THE LATEST LONDON EDITION, 
 
 WITH FAC-SIMILES OF ATTRIBUTED AUTHORS. 
 
 STAT NOMINUS UMBRA. 
 
 TWO VOLS. IN ONE. 
 
 NEW-YORK: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY LEAVITT & ALLEN, 
 
 27 DEY STREET.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 Dedication to the English Nation - - - 5 
 
 Preface - - - - - - - -11 
 
 Letter I. Junius to the Printer of the Public Advertiser 25 
 II. Sir William Draper's answer - - - 37 
 
 III. Junius to sir William Draper - - - 42 
 
 IV. Sir William Draper to Junius - - - 48 
 V. To sir William Draper - - - - 55 
 
 VT. To Junius from sir William Draper - - 57 
 
 VII. To sir William Draper - - - - 59 
 
 VIII. To the duke of Grafton - - - - 62 
 
 IX. To the duke of Grafton - - - - 68 
 
 X. To Mr, Edward Weston - - . - 72 
 
 XI. To the duke of Grafton - . - - 74 
 
 XII. To tlie duke of Grafton - - - -79 
 
 XIII. Philo Junius to the Printer of the Pub. Adv. 89 
 
 XIV. Philo Junius to the Printer of the Pub. Adv. 91 
 XV. To the duke of Grafton - - - - " 96 
 
 XVI. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser - 103 
 
 XVII. Philo Junius to the Printer of the Pub. Adv. 109 
 
 XVIII. To sir William Blackstone - - -113 
 
 XIX. Philo Junius to the Printer of the Pub. Adv. 1J9 
 
 XX. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser - 128 
 
 XXI. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser - 138 
 
 XXII. Philo Junius to the Printer of the Pub. Adv. 140 
 
 XXIII. Junius to the duke of Bedford - - - 144 
 
 XXIV. Sir Wilham Draper to Junius - - -156 
 XXV. Junius to sir William Draper - - - 159 
 
 XXVI. Sir William Draper to Junius - - - l62 
 
 XXVII. Junius to the Printer of the Public Advertiser 168 
 
 XXVIII. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser - 173 
 
 XXIX. Philo Junius to the Printer of the Pub. Adv. 174 
 
 XXX. Junius to the Printer of the Public Advertiser 179 
 
 XXXI. Philo Junius to the Printer of the Pub. Adv. 186 
 
 XXXIT. Junius to the Printer of the Public Advertiser 190 
 
 XXXIII. To the duke of Grafton ■ - - -192 
 
 XXXIV. To the duke of Grafton - - - - 193 
 XXXV. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser - 198 
 
 2C2GS16
 
 DEDICATION 
 
 TO THE 
 
 ENGLISH NATION, 
 
 I DEDICATE to you a collection of letters, written by 
 one of yourselves, for the common benefit of us al) . They 
 would never have grown to this size without your continued 
 encouragement and applause. To me they originally owe 
 nothing but a healthy, sanguine constitution. Under your 
 care they have thriven : to you they are indebted for what- 
 ever strength or beauty they possess. When kings and 
 ministers are forgotten, when the force and direction ot 
 personal satire is no longer understood, and when measures 
 are only felt in their remotest consequences ; this book will, 
 r believe, be found to contain principles worthy to be trans- 
 mitted to posterity. When you leave the unimpaired heredi- 
 tary freehold to your children, you do but half your duty. 
 Both liberty and property are precarious, unless the pos- 
 sessors have sense and spirit enough to defend them. 
 This is not the language of vanity. If I am a vain man, 
 my gratification lies within a narrow circle. I am the sole 
 depository of my own secret, and it shall perish with me. 
 
 If an honest, and, I may truly affirm, a laborious zeal foi 
 the public service, has given me any weiglit in your esteem
 
 ri DEDICATION. 
 
 let me exhort and conjure you, never to suffer an invasion 
 of your political constitution, however minute the instance 
 may appear, to pass by, without a determined persevering 
 resistance. One precedent creates another. They soon 
 accumulate, and constitute law. What yesterday was fact, 
 to-day is doctrine. Examples are supposed to justify the 
 most dangerous measures ; and where they do not suit 
 exactly, the defect is supplied by analogy. Be assured, that 
 the laws, which protect us in our civil rights, grow out of 
 the constituticji, and they must fall or flourish with it. 
 This is not the cause of faction, or of party, or of any indi- 
 vidual, but the common interest of every man in Britain. 
 Although the king should continue to support his present 
 system of government, the period is not very distant at 
 which you will have the means of redress in your own 
 power : it may be nearer, perhaps, than any of us expect ; 
 and I would warn you to be prepared for it. The king 
 may possibly be advised to dissolve the present parliament 
 a year or two before it expires of course, and precipitate a 
 new election, in hopes of taking the nation by surprise. If 
 such a measure be in agitation, this very caution may defeat 
 or prevent it. 
 
 I cannot doubt that you will unanimously assert the 
 freedom of election, and vindicate your exclusive right 
 to choose your representatives. But other questions have 
 been started, on which your determination should be 
 equally clear and unanimous. I^t it be impressed upon 
 your minds, let it be instilled into your children, that 
 the liberty of the press is the palladium of all the civil, 
 political, and religious rights of an Englishman ; and that 
 the right of juries to return a general verdict, in all cases 
 whatsoever, is an essential part of our constitution, not to 
 be controlled or limited by the judges, nor in any shape 
 questionable by the legislature The pov r of king, lords,
 
 DEDICATION; vfl 
 
 •nd commons, is not an arbitrary power :* they are the 
 trustees, not the owners, of the estate The fee-simple is 
 in us : they cannot alienate, they cannot waste. When 
 we say that the legislatiu-e is supreme, we mean, that it 
 is the highest power known to the constitution; that it 
 is the highest, in comparison with the other subordinate 
 powers, established by the laws. In this sense, the word 
 supreme is relative, not absolute. The power of the 
 legislature is limited, not only by the general rules of na- 
 tural justice, and the welfare of the community, but by 
 the forms and principles of our particular constitution. 
 If this doctrine be not true, we must admit that king, 
 lords, and commons, have no rule to direct their resolu- 
 tions, but merely their own will and pleasure : they might 
 unite the legislative and executive power in the same 
 hands, and dissolve the constitution by an act of parlia- 
 ment. But I am persuaded you will not leave it to the 
 choice of seven hundred persons, notoriously corrupted by 
 
 * The positive denial of an arbitrary power being vested 
 in the legislature, is not, in fact, a new doctrine. When 
 the earl of Lindsay, in the year 1675, brought in a bill 
 into the house of lords, " To prevent the dangers 
 which might arise from persons disaffected to govern- 
 ment," by which an oath and penalty was to be imposed 
 upon the members of both houses ; it was affirmed, in a 
 protest, signed by twenty-three lay peers, (my lords the 
 bishops were not accustomed to protest,) " That the pri- 
 vilege of sitting and voting in parliament was an honour 
 they had by birth, and a right so inherent in them, and 
 inseparable from them, that nothing could take it away, 
 but what, by the law of the land, must withal take away 
 their lives, and corrupt their blood." These noble peers, 
 whose names are a reproach to their posterity, have, in 
 this instance, solemnly denied the power of parliament 
 to alter the constitution. Under a particular proposition, 
 they have asserted a gener'-i' truth, in which every man in 
 England is conc»;rned.
 
 via DEDICATION. 
 
 the crown, whether seven mil. ions of their equals shall be 
 free men or slaves. The certainty of forfeiting tlieir own 
 rights, when they sacrifice those of the nation, is no check 
 to a brutal, degenerate mind. Without insisting upon 
 the extravagant concession made to Harry the Eighth. 
 there are instances, in the history of other countries, of a 
 formal, deliberate surrender of the public liberty into the 
 hands of the sovereign. If England does not share the 
 same fate, it is because we have better resources than in 
 tlie virtue of either house of parliament. 
 
 I said, that the liberty of the "^ress is the palladium of 
 ;dl your rights, and that the right of the juries to return 
 a general verdict, is part of your constitution. To pre- 
 serve the whole system, you must correct your legislature. 
 With regard to any influence of the constituent over the 
 conduct of the representative, there is little dinerence 
 between a seat in parliament for seven years and a seat for 
 life. The prospect of your resentment is too remote ; and, 
 although the last session of a septennial parliament be 
 usually employed in courting the favour of the people ; 
 consider, that at this rate, your representatives have six 
 years for oftence, and but one for atonement. A death- 
 bed repentance seldom reaches to restitution. If you re- 
 Qect, that, in the changes of administration which have 
 iiuuked and disgraced the present reign, although youi 
 warmest patriots have, in their turn, been invested with the 
 lawful and unlawful authority of the crown, and though 
 other reliefs or improvements have been held forth to the 
 people, )'^et that no one man in office has ever promoted or 
 encouraged a bill for shortening the duration of parlia- 
 ments, but that (whoever was minister) the opposition to 
 this measure, ever since the septennial act passed, has been 
 constant and uniform on the part of government — you 
 cannot but conclude, without the possibility of a doubt, 
 that long parliaments are the foundation of the undue in-
 
 DEDICATIOiN. :k 
 
 fluence of the crown. This influence answers every ;)iir- 
 pose of arbitrary power to the crown, with an expense 
 and oppression to the people, which would be unnecessary 
 in an arbitrary government. The best of our ministers 
 6nd it the easiest and most compendious mode of conduct- 
 ing the king's affairs ; and all ministers have a general 
 interest in adhering to a system, which, of itself, is suffi- 
 cient to support them in office, without any assistance 
 from personal virtue, popularity, labour, abilities, or ex- 
 perience. It promises every gratification to avarice and 
 ambition, and secures impunity. These rre truths un- 
 questionable : if they make no impression, it is because 
 they are too vulgar and notorious. But the inattention 
 or indifference of the nation has continued too long. You 
 are roused at last to a sense of your danger : the remedy 
 will soon be in your power. If Junius lives, you sliall 
 often be reminded of it. If, when the opportunity pro 
 sents itself, you neglect to do your duty to yourselves and 
 to posterity, to God and to your country, I shall have one 
 consolation left, in common with the meanest and basest o 
 •iiankind : Civil "iberty may still last the life of 
 
 riTNIUS. 
 A 2
 
 JDA'iSiri 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THE encouragement given to a multitude of spurious, 
 mangled publications of the " Letters of Junius/' per- 
 suades me, that a complete edition, corrected and improved 
 by the author, will be favourabl}' received. The printer 
 will readily acquit me of any view to my own profit. I 
 undertake this troublesome task merely to serve a man who 
 has deserved well of me and of the public ; and who, on 
 ray account, has been exposed to an expensive, tyrannical 
 prosecution. For these reasons, I give to Mr. Henry Samp- 
 son Woodfall, and to him alone, my right, interest, and 
 property, m tliese letters, as fully and completely, to all 
 intents and purposes, as an author can possibly convey his 
 property in his own works to another. 
 
 This edition contains all the letters of Junius, Philo 
 Junius, and of Sir William Draper and Mr. Home to 
 Junius, with their respective dates, and according to the 
 order in which they appeared in the Public Advertiser. 
 The auxiliary part of Philo Junius was indispensably neces- 
 sai-y to defend or explain particular passages in Junius, in 
 answer to plausible objections ; but the subordinate char- 
 acter is never guilty of the indeconmi of praising his prin- 
 cipal. The fraud was innocent, and I always intended to 
 explain it. The notes will be found not only use ul but 
 necessary. References to facts not generally kn; wn, or
 
 xii PREFACE. 
 
 allusions to the current report or opinion of the day, are, 
 in a littla time, unintelligible : yet the reader will not find 
 himself overloaded with explanations : I was not born to be 
 a commentator, even upon my own works. 
 
 [t remains to say a few words upon the liberty of the 
 press. The daring spirit by which these letters are sup- 
 posed to be distinguished, sp<?ms to require that some- 
 thing serious should be said in their defence. I am no 
 lawyer by profession, nor do I pretend to be more deeply 
 read than every English gentleman should be, in the laws 
 of his country. If, therefore, the principles I maintain are 
 truly constitutional, I shall not think myself answered, 
 though I should be convicted of a mistake in terms, or of 
 misapplying the language of the law. I speak to the plain 
 understanding of the people, and appeal to their honest, 
 liberal constniction of me. 
 
 Good men, to whom alone I address myself, appear to 
 me to consult their piety as little as their judgment ond 
 experience, when they admit the great and essential advan- 
 tages accruing to society from the freedom of the press, yet 
 indulge themselves in peevish or passionate exclamations 
 against the abuses of it. Betraying an unreasonable ex- 
 pectation of benefits, pure and entire from any human 
 institution, they, in effect, arraign the goodness of Provi- 
 dence, and confess that they are dissatisfied with the com- 
 mon lot of humanity. In the present instance, they really 
 cpcate to their own minds, or greatly exaggerate the evil 
 they complain of. The laws of England provide as effer 
 tually as any human laws can do for the protection of the 
 subject, in his reputation, as well as in his person and pro- 
 perty. If the characters of private men are insulted or 
 injured, a double remedy is open to them by action and in- 
 dictment : if, through indolence, false shame, or indiffer- 
 ence, tliey will not appeal to the laws of their country, 
 they fail in their duty to society, and are unjust to them-
 
 PREFACE. xiil 
 
 selves : if, from an unwarrantable distrust of the integrity 
 of jiu-ies, they would wish to obtain justice by any mode of 
 proceeding more summary than a trial by their peers, I do 
 not scruple to affirm, that they are in effect, greater enemies 
 to themselves than to the libeller they prosecute. 
 
 With regard to strictures upon the characters of men in 
 office, and the meeisures of government, the case is a little 
 different. A considerable latitude must be allowed in the 
 discussion of public affairs, or the liberty of the press will 
 be of no benefit to society. As the indulgence of private 
 malice and personal slander should be checked and resisted 
 by every legal means, so a constant examination into the 
 characters and conduct of ministers and magistrates should 
 be equally promoted and encouraged. They who conceive 
 that our newspapers are no restraint upon bad men, or im- 
 pediment to the execution of bad measures, know nothing 
 of this country. In that state of abandoned ser\ility and 
 prostitution, to which the undue influence of the crown has 
 reduced the other branches of the legislature, our ministers 
 :iiid magistrates have, in reality, little punishment to fear, 
 and few difficulties to contend with, beyond the censure of 
 the press, and the spirit of resistance which it excites among 
 the people. While this censorial power is mamtained, (to 
 speak in the words of a most ingenious foreigner) both mi- 
 nister and magistrate are compelled, in almost every in- 
 stance to choose between his duty and his reputation. A 
 dilemma of this kind perpetually before him, will not, 
 indeed work a miracle on his heart, but it will assuredly 
 operate, in some degree, upon his conduct. At all events, 
 these are not times to admit of any relaxation in tlie little 
 discipline we have left. 
 
 But it is alleged, that the licentiousness of the press is 
 carried beyond all bounds of decency and truth ; that our 
 excellent ministers are continiia ly exposed to the public 
 hatred or derision: that in prosec itions for libels on govern-
 
 jiy PREFACE. 
 
 ment, juries are partial to the popular side ; and that, in 
 the raost flagrant cases, a verdict cannot be obtained for the 
 king. If the premises were admitted, I should deny the 
 conclusion Tt is not true that the temper of the times has 
 in general an undue influence over the conduct of juries : 
 on the contrary, many signal instances may be produced of 
 verdicts returned for the king, when the inchnations of the 
 people led strongly to an undistinguished opposition to go- 
 vernment. Witness the cases of Mr. Wilkes and Mr. Almon. 
 In the late prosecution of the printers of my addi'ess to a 
 great personage, the juries were never fairly dealt with. 
 Lord chief justice Mansfield, conscious that the paper in 
 question contained no treasonable or libellous matter, and 
 that the severest parts of it, however painful to the king or 
 oflensive to his servants, wei'e strictly true, would fain have 
 restricted the jury to the finding of special facts, which, as 
 to guilty or not guilty, were merely indiflerent. This par- 
 ticular motive, combined with his general purpose to con 
 tract the power of juries, will account for the charge he 
 delivered in Woodfall's trial. He told the jury, in so many 
 words, that they had nothing to determine, except the fact 
 of piinting and publishing, and whether or no the blanks or 
 inuen Joes were properly filled up in the information ; but 
 that, whether the defendant had committed a crime or not, 
 was no matter of consideration to twelve men, who yet, 
 upon their oaths, were tr pronounce their peer guilty or 
 not guilty. When we hear such nonsense delivered from 
 the bench, and find it supported by a laboured train of so- 
 phistry, which a plain understanding is unable to follow, and 
 which an unlearned jury, however it may shock their rea- 
 son, cannot be supposed qualified to refute, can it be won- 
 dered that they should return a verdict perplexed, absurd, 
 or imperfect ? Lord Mansfield has not yet explained to the 
 world, wtxy he accepted of a verdict which the court after- 
 wards set aside as illegal ; and which, as it took no notice of
 
 PREFACE. xf 
 
 tbe inuendues, did not even correspond with his cwn charge. 
 If he had known his duty, he should have sent the jury 
 back. I speak advisedly, and am well assured, that no 
 lawyer of character, in Westrainster-hall, will contradict 
 me. To show the falsehood of lord Mansfield's doctrine, 
 it is not necessary to enter into the merits of the paper 
 which produced the trial. If every line of it were treason, 
 his charge to the jury would still be false, absurd, illegal, 
 and unconstitutional. If I stated the merits of my letter to 
 the king, I should imitate lord Mansfield, and travel* out of 
 
 ," * The following quotation from a speech delivered by 
 ford Chatham, on the 11th of December, 1770, is taken 
 with exactness. The reader will find it curious in itself, 
 and very fit to be inserted here. " My lords, the verdict 
 given in Woodfall's trial was, ' guilty of printing and pub- 
 lishing only ;' upon which two motions were made in court ; 
 one, in arrest of judgment, by the ' Pendant's counsel, 
 grounded upon the ambiguity of the verdict ; the other, by 
 the counsel for the crown, for a rule upon the defendant, 
 to show cause why the verdict should not be entered up 
 ciccording to the legal import of the words. On both mo- 
 tions a rule was granted ; and soon after the matter was 
 argued before the court of king's bench. The noble judge, 
 when he delivered the opinion of the court upon the ver- 
 dict, went regularly through the whole of the proceedings 
 at Nisi Prius, as well the evidence that had been given, as 
 his own charge to the jury. This proceeding would have 
 been very proper, had a motion been made on either side 
 for a new trial ; because either a verdict given contrary to 
 evidence, or an improper charge by the judge at Nisi Prius, 
 is held to be a sufficient ground for gianting a new trial. 
 But when a motion is made in arrest of judgment, or for 
 establishing the verdict, by entering it up according to the 
 legal import of the words, it must be on the gi-ound ol 
 something appearing on the face of the record ; and the 
 court, in considering whether the verdict shall be estab- 
 lished or not, are so confined to the record, that they can- 
 not take notice of any thing that does not appear on the
 
 «vi PREFACE. 
 
 the record. When law nnd reason speak plainly, we do not 
 want authority to direct our understandings. Yet, for the 
 honour of the profession, I am content to oppose one lawyer 
 to another ; especially when it happens that the kings at- 
 torney-general has virtually disclaimed the doctrine by 
 which the chief justice meant to ensure success to the pro- 
 secution. The opinion of the plantifi's counsel (however 
 it may be otherwise insignificant) is weighty in the scale of 
 the defendant. My lord chief justice de Grey, who filed 
 the information ex officio, is directly with me. If he had 
 concurred in lord Mansfield's doctrine, the trial must have 
 been a very short one. The facts were either admitted by 
 Woodfall's counsel, or easily proved to the satisfaction of 
 the jury ; but Mr. de Grey, far from thinking he should 
 acquit himself of his duty, by barely proving the facts, 
 entered largely, and I confess, not without ability, into 
 ihe demerits of th" ^per, which he called a seditious libel. 
 He dwelt but lightly upon those points which (according to 
 lord Mansfield) were the only matter of consideration to the 
 jury. The criminal intent, the libellous matter, the perni- 
 cious tendency of the paper itself, were the topics on which 
 he principally insisted, and of which, for more than an hour, 
 he tortured his faculties to convince the jury. If he agreed 
 in opinion with lord Mansfield, his discourse was imperti- 
 nent, ridiculous, and unreasonable. But understanding the 
 law as I do, what he said was at least consistent, and to the 
 purpose. 
 
 face of it ; in the legal phrase, they cannot travel out of the 
 record. The noble judge did travel out of the record ; 
 and I affirm, that his discourse was irregular, extrajudicial, 
 and unprecedented. His apparent motive for doing what 
 he knew to be wrong, was that he might have an opportu- 
 nity of teUing the public extrajudicial))', that the other 
 ihree judges oncurred in the doctrine laid down in his 
 charge."
 
 PREFACE. xvu 
 
 If any honest man should still be Inclined to leave the 
 construction of libels to the court, I would entreat him to 
 consider what a dreadful complication of hardships he im- 
 poses upon his fellow subjects. In the first place, the pro- 
 secution commences by information of an officer of the 
 crown, not by the regular constitutional mode of indict 
 ment before a grand jury. As the fact is usually admitted, 
 or, in general can easily be proved, the office of the petty 
 jury is nugatory : the court then judges of the nature and 
 extent of the offence, and determines, ad arbitrium, the 
 quantum of the punishment, from a small fine to a heavy 
 one, to repeated whipping, to pillory, and unlimited impri- 
 sonment. Cutting off ears and noses might still be inflicted 
 by a resolute judge : but I will be candid enough to suppose 
 that penalties, so apparently shocking to humanity, would 
 not be hazarded in these times. In all other criminal pro- 
 secutions the jury decides upon the fact and the crime in 
 one word, and the court pronounces a certain sentence, 
 which is the sentence of the law, not of the judge. If lord 
 Mansfield's doctrine be received, the jury must either find a 
 verdict of acquittal, contrary to evidence, which, I can con- 
 ceive, might be done by very conscientious men, rather 
 than trust a fellow-creature to lord Mansfield's mercy ; 
 or they must leave to the court two offices, never but 
 in this instance united, of finding guilty, and awarding 
 punishment. 
 
 " But," says this honest lord chief justice, " if the paper 
 be not crimina., the defendant (though found guilty by his 
 peers) is in no danger, for he may move the court in arrest 
 of judgment." True, my good lord ; but who is to determine 
 upon the motion ? Is not the court still to decide, whether 
 judgment shall be entered up or not ? and is not the de- 
 fendant this way as effectually deprived of judgment by his 
 peers, as if he were tried in a court of civil law, or in the 
 chambers of the inquisition ? It is you, my lord, vho then 
 
 1
 
 xvili PREFACE. 
 
 try the crime, not the jury. As to the •probable effect of 
 the motion in arrtist of judgment, I shall only observe, that 
 no reasonable man would be so eager to possess himself of 
 the invidious power of inflicting punishment, if he were not 
 predetermined to make use of it. 
 
 Again, we are told that judge and jury have a distinct 
 office; that the jury is to find the fact, and the judge to 
 deliver the law. " De jure respondent judices, de facto 
 jurati." The dictum is true, though not in the sense given 
 to it by lord JMansfield. The jury are undoubtedly to de- 
 termine the fact ; that is, whether the defendant did. or 
 did not commit the crime charged against him. The 
 judge pronounces the sentence annexed by law to that fact 
 so found ; and if, in the course of the trial, any question 
 of law arises, both the counsel and the jury must, of necessi- 
 ty, appeal to the judge, and leave it to his decision. An 
 exception, or plea in bar, may be allowed by the court ; but, 
 when issue is joined, and the jury have received their 
 charge, it is not possible, in the nature of things, for them 
 to separate the law from the' fact, unless they think proper 
 to return a special verdict. 
 
 It has also been alleged, that, although a common jury 
 are sufficient to determine a plain matter of fact, they are 
 not qualified to comprehend the meaning, or to judge of 
 the tendency of a seditious libel. In answer to this objec- 
 tion (which, if well founded, would prove nothing as to the 
 strict right of returning a general verdict) I might safely 
 deny the truth of this assertion. Englishmen, of that rank 
 from which juries are usually taken, are not so illiterate as 
 (to serve a particular purpose) they are now represented : 
 or, admitting the fact, let a special jury be summoned in 
 all cases of difficulty and importance, and the objection is 
 removed. But the truth is, that if a paper, supposed to be 
 a libel upon government, be so obscurely worded, that 
 twelve common men cannot possibly see the seditious
 
 PREFACE. xix 
 
 meaning and tendency o( it, it is in effect no libel. It can- 
 not inflame the minds of tlie people, nor alienate their 
 ciffections from government ; for they no more undersiand 
 what it means, than if it were published in a language un- 
 known to them. 
 
 Upon the whole matter, it appears, to my understanding, 
 clear, beyond a doubt, that, if, in any future prosecution 
 for a seditious libel, the jury should bring in a verdict of 
 acquittal, not warranted by the evidence, it will be owing 
 to the false and absurd doctrines laid down by lord Mans- 
 field. Disgusted at the odious artifices made use of by the 
 judge to mislead and perplex them, guarded against his 
 sophistry, and convinced of the falsehood of his assertions, 
 they may, perhaps, determine to thwart his detestable pur 
 pose, and defeat him at any rate. To him, at least, they 
 will do substantial justice. Whereas, if the whole charge 
 laid in the information be fairly and honestly submitted to 
 the jury, there is no reason whatsoever to presume that 
 twelve men, upon their oaths, will not decide impartially 
 between the king and the defendant. The numerous in- 
 stances, in our state trials, of verdicts recovered for the 
 king, sufficiently refute the false and scandalous imputa- 
 tions thrown, by the abettors of lord JMansfield, upon 
 the integrity of juries. But, even admitting the supposi- 
 tion, that, in times of universal discontent, arising from 
 the notorious mal-administration of public affairs, a sedi- 
 tious writer should escape punishment, it makes nothing 
 against my general argument. If juries are fallible, to 
 what other tribunal shall we appeal? If juries cannot 
 safely be trusted, shall we unite the offices of judge and 
 jury, so wisely divided by the constitutioYi, and trust im- 
 plicitly to lord Mansfield ? Are the judges of the court of 
 king's bench more likely to be unbiassed and impartial 
 than twelve yeomen, burgesses, or gentlemen, taken indif- 
 ferently from the country a*, large ? Or, in short, shall
 
 XX PREFACE. 
 
 there be no decision, until we have instituted a tribunal 
 from which no possible abuse or inconvenience whatsoever 
 can arise ? If I am not grossly mistaken, these questions 
 carry a decisive answer along with them. 
 
 Having cleared the freedom of the press from a re- 
 straint equally unnecessary and illegal, I return to the 
 use which has been made of it in the present publication. 
 
 National rctlections, I confess, are not justified in theory, 
 nor upon any general principles. To know how well they 
 are deserved, and how justly they have been applied, we 
 must have the evidence of facts before us. We must be con- 
 versant with the Scots in private life, and observe their 
 principles of acting to us and to each other ; the character- 
 istic prudence, the selfish nationality, the indefatigable 
 smile, the persevering assiduity, the everlasting profession 
 of a discreet and moderate resentment. If the instance 
 were not too important for an experiment, it might not be 
 amiss to confide a little in their integrity. Without any 
 abstract reasoning upon causes and effects, we shall soon be 
 convinced, by experience, that the Scots, transplanted from 
 their own country, are always a distinct and separate body 
 from the people who receive them. In other settlements, 
 they only love themselves : in England they cordially love 
 themselves, and as cordially hate their neighbours. For 
 the remainder of their good qualities I must appeal to the 
 reader's observation, unless he will accept of my lord Bar- 
 rington's authority in a letter to the late lord Melcombe, 
 published by ]Mr. Lee : he expresses himself with a truth 
 and accuracy not very common in his lordship's lucubrations. 
 " And Cockburn, like most of his countrymen, is as abject 
 to those above him, as he is insolent to those below him." 
 I am far from meaning to impeach the articles of the union. 
 If the true spirit of those articles were religiously adhered 
 to, we should not see such a multitude of Scotch commoners 
 'n the lower house, as representatives o-f English boroughs,
 
 PREFACE. XXI 
 
 vrhile not a single Scotch borough is ever represented by an 
 Englishman : we should not see English peerages given to 
 Scotch ladies, or to the elder sons of Scotch peers, and the 
 number of sixteen doubled and trebled by a scandalous eva- 
 sion of the act of union. If it shou'd ever be thought 
 adviseable to dissolve an act, the violation or observance of 
 which is invariably directed by the advantage and interest 
 of the Scots, I shall say very sincerely, with Sir Edward 
 Coke,* " When poor England stood alone, and had not 
 the access of another kingdom, and yet had more and as 
 potent enemies as it now hath, yet the king of England 
 prevailed." 
 
 Some opinion may now be expected from me, upon a 
 point of equal delicacy to the writer, and hazard to the 
 printer. When the character of the chief magistrate is in 
 question, more must be understood than may be safely ex- 
 pressed. If it be really a part of our constitution, and not 
 a mere dictum of the law, that the king can do no wrong, 
 it is not theonly instance, in the wisest of human institu- 
 tions, where theory is at variance with practice. That the 
 sovereign of this country is not amenable to any form of 
 trial known to the laws, is unquestionable : but exemption 
 from punishment is a singular privilege annexed to the 
 royal character, and no way excludes the possibility of de- 
 serving it. How long, and to what extent, a king of Eng- 
 land may be protected by the forms, when he violates the 
 spirit of the constitution, deserves to be considered. A 
 mistake in this matter proved fatal to Charles and his son. 
 For my own part, far from thinking that the king can do 
 no wrong, far from suffering myself to be deterred or im- 
 posed upon by the language of forms, in opposition to the 
 substantial evidence of truth 5 if it were my misfortune to 
 
 Parliamentary History, vol. ii. p. 400.
 
 xxu PREFACE. 
 
 live under the inauspicious reign of a prince, whose whole 
 life was employed in one base, conterriptible struggle with 
 the free spirit of his people, or in the detestable endeavour 
 to corrupt their moral principles, I would not scruple to 
 declare to him, " Sir, you alone are the autlior of the great- 
 est wrong to your subjects and to yourself. Instead of 
 reigning in the liearts of your people, instead of commanding 
 their lives and fortunes through the medium of their affec- 
 tions ; has not the strength of the crown, whether influence 
 or prerogative, been uniformly exerted, for eleven years 
 together, to support a narrow, pitiful system of government 
 which defeats itself, and answers no one purpose of real 
 power, profit, or personal satisfaction to you? With the 
 greatest unappropriated revenue of any prince in Europe- 
 have we not seen you reduced to such vile and sordid dis, 
 tresses, as would have conducted any other man to a prison ? 
 With a great military, and the greatest naval power in the 
 known world, have not foreign nations repeatedly insulted 
 you with impunity ? Is it not notorious that the vast reve- 
 nues, extorted from the labour and industry of your sub- 
 jects, and given you to do honour to yourself and to the 
 nation, are dissipated in cori"upting their representatives ? 
 Are ydu a prince of the house of Hanover, and do you ex- 
 clude all the leading Whig families from your councils ? 
 Do you profess to govern according to law, and is it consis- 
 tent with that profession to impart your confidence and af- 
 fection to those men only who, though now, perhaps 
 detached from the desperate cause of the pretender, are 
 marked in this country by an hereditary attachment to high 
 and arbitrary principles of government ? Are you so infatu- 
 ated as to take the sense of your people from the representa- 
 tion of ministers, or from the shouts of a mob, notoriously 
 hired to surround your coach, or stationed at a theatre ? 
 And if you are, in reality, that public man, that king, that 
 magistrate, which these questions suppose you to be, is it
 
 PREFACE. xxiii 
 
 any answer to jour people, to say, that among your 
 domestics you are good-humoured, that to one lady you 
 are faithful, that to your children you are indulgent ? 
 Sir, the man who addresses you in these terms, is your best 
 friend : he would willingly hazard his life in defence of 
 your title to the crown ; and, if power be your object, will 
 still show you how possible it is for a king of England, by 
 the noblest means, to be the most absolute prince in Europe. 
 You have no enemies, sir, but those who persuade you to 
 aim at power without right, and who think it flattery to tell 
 you, that the character of king dissolves the natural relation 
 between guilt and punishment." 
 
 I cannot conceive that there is a heart so callous, or an 
 understanding so depraved, as to attend to a discourse of 
 this nature, and not to feel the force of it. But where is 
 the man, among those who have access to the closet, reso-^ 
 lute and honest enough to deliver it ? The liberty of the 
 press is our only resource : it will command an audience 
 when every honest man in the kingdom is excluded. Tliis 
 glorious privilege may be a security to the king as well as 
 a resource to his people. Had there been no star-chamber, 
 there would have been no rebellion against Charles the 
 First. The constant censure and admonition of the press 
 would have corrected his conduct, prevented a civil war, 
 and saved him from an ignominious death. I am no friend 
 to the doctrme of precedents, exclusive of right ; though 
 lawyers often tell us, that whatever has been once done 
 may lawfully be done again. I shall conclude this Preface 
 with a quotation, applicable to the subject, from a foreign 
 writer,* whose Essay on the English Constitution I beg leave 
 to recommend to the public, as a performance deep, solid, 
 and ingenious. 
 
 ^ Monsieur de Lolme.
 
 judv PREFACE. 
 
 *' In short, whoever considers what it is that cor.stitutes 
 the luoviug principle of what we call great alFairs, and the 
 invincible sensibility of man to the opinion of his fellow- 
 creatures, will not hesitate to affirm, that if it were possible 
 for the liberty of the press to exist in a despotic govern- 
 ment, and (what is not less difficult) for it to exist without 
 changing the constitution, this liberty of the press would 
 alone form a counterpoise to the power of the prince. If, 
 for example, in an empire of the East, a sanctuary could be 
 found, which, rendered respectable by the ancient rehgion 
 of the people, might insure safety to those who should bring 
 thither their observations of any kind ; and that, from 
 thence, printed papers should issue, which, under a certain 
 seal, might be equally respected, and which, in their daily 
 appearance, should examine and freely discuss the conduct 
 of the cadis, the bashaws, the vizir, the divan, and the sul- 
 tan himself; that would introduce iiumediate'y some de- 
 gree of liberty."
 
 LETTERS OF JUNIUS. 
 
 LETTER 1. 
 
 Addressed to the Printer of the Public Adverfiset . 
 
 Sm, January 21, 1769- 
 
 The submission of a free people to the executive 
 authority of government, is no more than a com- 
 • pliance with laws which they themselves havt 
 enacted. While the national honour is firmly main- 
 tained abroad, and while justice is impartially ad- 
 ministered at home, the obedience of the subject wil 
 be voluntary, cheerful, and, I might almost say, un- 
 limited. A generous nation is grateful even for the 
 preservation of its rights, and willingly extends the 
 respect due to the office of a good prince into an 
 affection for his person. Loyalty, in the heart and 
 understanding of an Englishman, is a rational at 
 tachment to the guardian of the laws. Prejudices 
 and passion have sometimes carried it to a criminal 
 length, and, whatever foreigners may imagine, we 
 know that Englishmen have erred as much in a mis- 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 26 . JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 taken zeal for particular persons and families, as 
 they ever did in defe.ice of what they thought most 
 dear and interesting to themselves. 
 
 It naturally fdls us with resentment, to see such a 
 temper insulted and ahused. In reading the history 
 of a free people, whose rights have been invaded, we 
 are interested in their cause. Our own feelings tell 
 us how long they ought to have submitted, and a1 
 what moment it would have been treachery to them- 
 selves not to have resisted. How much warmer will 
 be our resentment, if experience should bring the 
 fatal example home to ourselves ! 
 
 The situation of this country is alarming enough 
 to rouse the attention of every man who pretends to 
 a concern for the public welfare. Appearances jus- 
 tify suspicion ; and when the safety of a nation is at 
 stake, suspicion is a just ground of inquiry. Lot us 
 enter into it with candour and decency. Respect is . 
 due to the station of ministers ; and, if a resolution 
 must at last be taken, there is none so likely to be 
 supported with firmness, as that w hich has been adopt- 
 ed with moderation. *f»; 
 
 The ruin or prosperity of a state depends so much 
 upon the administration of its government, that, to 
 be acquainted with the merit of a ministry, we need 
 only observe the condition of the people. If we see 
 them obedient to the laws, prosperous in their indus- 
 try, united at home, and respected abroad, we may 
 reasonably presume that their affairs are conducted 
 by men of experience, abilities, and virtue. If, on 
 the contrary, we see an universal spirit of distrust and 
 dissatisfaction, a rapid decay of trade, dissensions in
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS.. 27 
 
 all parts of the empire, and a total loss of respect in 
 the eyes of foreign powers, we may pronounce, with- 
 out hesitation, that the government of that country is 
 weak, distracted, and corrupt. The multitude, in all 
 countries, are patient to a certain point. Ill usage 
 may rouse their indignation, and hurry them into 
 excesses ; but the original fault is in government 
 Perhaps there ne' v was an instance of a change in 
 the circumstances .nd temper of a whole nation so 
 sudden and extrao e "nary as that which the miscon- 
 duct of ministers /•^^s, within these few years, pro- 
 duced in Great Brit i i;. When our gracious sove- 
 reign ascended the throne, we were a flourishing and 
 a contented people. If the personal virtues of a lung 
 could have insured the happiness of his subjects, the 
 scene could not have altered so entirely as it has done. 
 The idea of uniting all parties, of trying all charac- 
 ters, and distributing the offices of state by rotation, 
 was gracious and benevolent to an extreme, though 
 it has not yet produced the many salutary effects 
 which were intended by it. To say nothing of the 
 wisdom of such a plan, it undoubtedly arose from an 
 unbounded goodness of heart, in which folly had no 
 share. It was not a capricious partiality to new 
 faces J it was not a natural turn for low intrigue ; nor 
 was it the treacherous amusement of double and triple 
 negotiations. No, sir, it arose from a continued 
 anxiety, in the purest of all possible hearts, for the 
 general welfare. Unfortunately for us, the event has 
 not been answerable to the design. After a rapid 
 succession of changes, we are reduced to that state 
 which hardly any change can mend. Yet there is no
 
 28 JUNIUS'S l^ETTERS. 
 
 extiemity of distress, which, of itself, oijght lo reduce 
 a great nation to despair. It is not the disorder, but 
 the physician : it is not a casual concurrence of ca- 
 lamitous circumstances ; it is the pernicious hand ol 
 government whicL alone can make a whole peoph 
 desperate. 
 
 Without much political sagacity, or any extraor 
 dinary depth of observation, we need only mark how 
 the principal departments of the state are bestowed, 
 and look no farther for the true cause of every mis- 
 chief that befalls us. 
 
 The * finances of a nation, sinking under its debts 
 and expenses, are committed to a young nobleman, 
 already ruined by play. Introduced to act under the 
 auspices of lord Chatham, and left at the head of 
 affairs by that nobleman's retreat, he became minister 
 by accident : but deserting the principles and profes- 
 sions which gave him a moment's popularity, we see 
 him from every honourable engagement to the public, 
 an apostatt by design. As for business, the world 
 yet knows nothing of his talents or resolution ; unless 
 a wayward, wavering inconsistency be a mark of 
 
 • The duke of Grafton took the office of secretary of 
 state, with an engagement to support the marquis of Rock- 
 ingham's administration. He resigned, however, in a little 
 time, under pretence that h^ could not act Without lord 
 Chatham, nor bear to see Mr. Wilkes abandoned ; but that 
 under lord Chatliam he would act in any office. This was 
 the signal of lord Rockingham's dismission. When lord 
 Chatham came in, the duke got possession of the treasury 
 Reader, mark the consequence !
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 29 
 
 genius, and caprice a demonstration of spirit. It 
 may be said, perhaps, that it is his grace's province, 
 as surely it is liis passion, rather to distribute than to 
 save the public money; and that while lord North is 
 chancellor of the exchequer, the first lord of the trea- 
 sury may be as thoughtless and extravagant as he 
 pleases. I hope, however, he will not rely too much 
 on the fertility of lord North's genius for finance: his 
 lordship is yet to give us the first proof of his abili- 
 ties. It may be candid to suppose that Ire has hitherto 
 voluntarily concealed his talents ; intending, perhaps, 
 to astonish the world, when we least expect it, with a 
 knowledge of trade, a choice of expedients, and a 
 depth of resources, equal to the necessities, and far 
 beyond the hopes of his country. He must now exert 
 the whole power of his capacity, if he would wish us 
 to forget, that, since he has been in office, no plan has 
 been formed, no system adhered to, nor any one im- 
 portant measure adopted for the relief of public credit. 
 If his plan for the service of the current year be not 
 irrevocably fixed on, let me warn him to think seri- 
 ously of consequences, before he ventures to increase 
 the public debt. Outraged and oppressed as we are, 
 this nation will not bear, after a six years' peace, to 
 see new millions borrowed, without an eventual dimi- 
 nution of debt, or reduction of interest. The attempt 
 might rouse a spirit of resentment which might reach 
 beyond the sacrifice of a minister. As to the debt 
 upon the civil list, the people of England expect that 
 it will not be paid without a strict inquiry how it was 
 incurred. If it must be paid by parliament, let me 
 advise the chancellor of the exchequer to think of
 
 30 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 some better expedient tlian a lottery. - To support an 
 expensive war, or in circumstances of absolute neces- 
 sity, a lottery may, perhaps, be allowable; but, be- 
 sides that it is at all times the very worst way of 
 raising money upon the people, I think it ill becomes 
 the royal dignity to have the debts of a king provided 
 for, like the repairs of a country bi'idge, or a decayed 
 hospital. The management of the king's affairs, in 
 the house of commons, cannot be more disgraced 
 than it has been. A leading minister* repeatedly 
 called down for absolute ignorance, ridiculous mo- 
 tions ridiculously withdrawn, deliberate plans discon- 
 certed, and a week's preparation of graceful oratory 
 lost in a moment, give us some, though not adequate 
 ideas, of lord North's parliamentary abilities and in- 
 fluence. Yet, before he had the misfortune of being 
 chancellor of the exchequer, he was neither an object 
 of derision to his enemies, nor of melancholy pity to 
 his friends. 
 
 A series of inconsistent measures has alienated the 
 colonies from their duty as subjects, and from their 
 natural affection to their common country. When 
 Mr. Grenville was placed at the head of the treasury, 
 he felt the impossibility of Great Britain's supporting 
 such an establishment, as her former successes had 
 made indispensable, and at the same time of giving 
 any sensible relief to foreign trade, and to the weight 
 of the public debt. He thought it equitable, that 
 those parts of the empire which had benefited most by 
 
 * This happened frequently to poor lord North.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 31 
 
 the expenses of the war, should contribute something 
 to the expenses of the peace, and he had no doubt of 
 the constitutional right vested in parliament to raise 
 the contribution. But, unfortunately for his country, 
 Mr. Grenville was at any rate to be distressed, because 
 he was minister j and Mr. Pitt* and lord Camden 
 were to be the patrons of America, because they were 
 in opposition. Their declaration gave spirit and ar- 
 gument to the colonies; and while, perhaps, they 
 meant no more than the ruin of a minister, they, 
 in effect, divided one half of the empire from the 
 other. 
 
 Under one administration the stamp-act is made ; 
 under the second it is repealed ; under the third, in 
 spite of all experience, a new mode of taxing the colo- 
 nies is invented, and a question revived which ought 
 to have been buried in oblivion. In these circum- 
 stances a new office is established for the business of 
 the plantations, and the earl of Hillsborough called 
 forth, at a most critical season, to govern America. 
 The choice, at least, announced to us a man of su- 
 perior capacity and knowledge. Whether he be so 
 or not, let his despatches, as far as they have appear- 
 ed, let his measures, as far as they have operated, 
 determine for him. In the former we have seen strong 
 assertions without proof, declamation without argu- 
 ment, and violent censures without dignity or mode- 
 ration ; but neither correctness in the composition, 
 nor judgment in the design. As for liis measures, lei 
 
 • Yet Junius has been called the partisan of lord Chatham '
 
 32 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 it be remembered, that he was called upon to conciliate 
 and unite ; and that, when he entered into office, the 
 most refractory of the colonies were still disposed to 
 proceed by the constitutional methods of petition and 
 remonstrance. Since that period they have been 
 driven into excesses little short of rebellion. Peti- 
 tions have been hindered from reaching the throne; 
 and the continuance of one of tlie principal assem- 
 blies rested upon an arbitrary condition,* which, con- 
 sidering the temper they were in, it was impossible 
 they should comply with; and wliich would have 
 availed nothing as to the general question, if it had 
 been complied with. So violent, and, I believe, I 
 may call it, so unconstitutional, an exertion of the 
 prerogative, to say nothing of the weak, injudicious 
 terms in which it was convej^ed, gives us as humble 
 an opinion of his lordship's capacity, as it does of his 
 temper and moderation. V/hile we are at peace with 
 other nations, our military force may, perhaps, be 
 spared to support the earl of Hillsborough's measures 
 in America. Whenever that force shall be necessa 
 rily withdrawn or diminished, the dismission of such 
 a minister will neither console us for his imprudence, 
 nor remove the settled resentment of a people, who, 
 complaining of an act of the legislature, are outraged 
 by an unwarrantable stretch of prerogative ; and, 
 supporting their claims by argument, are insulted 
 v.ith dadamation. 
 
 * That they sliould retract one of their resolutions, and 
 eiaso the enlrv of it.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 33 
 
 Drawing lots would be a prudent and reasonable 
 method of appointing the officers of state, compared 
 to a late disposition of the secretary's office. Lord 
 Rochford was acquainted with the affairs and temper 
 of the southern courts ; lord Weymouth was equally 
 qualified for either department :* by what unaccount- 
 able caprice has it happened, that the latter, who pre- 
 tends to no experience whatsoever, is removed to the 
 'snost important of the two departments 5 and the for- 
 tier, by preference, placed in an office where his ex- 
 perience can be of no use to him ? Lord Weymouth 
 had distinguished himself, in his first employment, 
 by a spirited, if not judicious conduct. He had 
 animated the civil magistrate beyond the tone of civil 
 authority, and had directed the operations of the army 
 to more than military execution. Recovered from 
 the errors of his youth, from the distraction of play, 
 and the bewitching smiles of Burgundy, behold him 
 exerting the whole strength of his clear, unclouded 
 faculties in the service of the crown. It was not the 
 heat of midnight excesses, nor ignorance of the laws, 
 nor the furious spirit of the house of Bedford ; no, 
 sir, when this respectable minister interposed his 
 authority between the magistrate and the people, and 
 signed the mandate, on which, for aught he knew, the 
 lives of thousands depended, he did it from the de- 
 liberate motion of his heart, supported by the best of 
 his judgment. 
 
 • It was pretended tfiat the carl of Rochford, while am- 
 bassador in France, had quarrelled with the duke of Choi- 
 seul ; and that, therefore, he was appointed to the northern 
 department, out of coinplimor.t to the I'ron.ch ininlstor. 
 
 ' r, 2 s
 
 S4 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 It has lately been a fashion to pay a compliment 
 to the bravery and generosity of the commander-in- 
 chief,* at the expense of his understanding. They 
 who love him least make no question of his courage, 
 while his friends dwell chielly on the facility of his 
 disposition. Admitting him to be as brave as a total 
 absence of all feeling and reflection can make him, let 
 us see what sort of merit he derives from the remain- 
 der of his character. If it oe generosity to accumu- 
 late, in his own person and family, a number of lucra- 
 tive employments; to provide, at the public expense, 
 for every creature that bears the name of Manners ; 
 and, neglecting the merit and services of the rest of 
 the army, to heap promotions upon his favourites and 
 dependents; the present commander-in-chief is the 
 most generous man alive. Nature has been sparing of 
 her gifts to this noble lord ; but where birth and for- 
 tune are united, we expect the noble pride and inde- 
 pendence of a man of spii-it, not the servile humili- 
 ating complaisance of a courtier.. As to the good- 
 ness of his heart, if a proof of it be taken from the 
 facility of never refusing, what conclusion shall we 
 draw from the indecency of never performing ? And 
 if the discipline of the army be in any degree pre- 
 served, what thanks are due to a man, whose cares, 
 notoriously confined to filling up vacancies, have 
 degraded the oflice of commander-in-chief, into a 
 broker of commissions ? 
 
 With respect to the navy, I shall only say, that 
 this country is so highly indebted to sir Edward 
 
 • The late lord Granby
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 35 
 
 Hawke, that no expense should be spared to secure 
 to him an honourable and affluent retreat. 
 
 The pure and impartial administration of justice 
 IS, perhaps, the firmest bond to secure a cheerful 
 submission of the people, and to engage their affec- 
 tions to government. It is not sufficient that ques- 
 tions of private right or wrong are justly decided, 
 nor that judges are superior to the vileness of pecu- 
 niary corruption. Jefferies himself, when the court 
 had no interest, was an upright judge. A court of 
 justice may be subject to another sort of bias, more 
 important and pernicious, as it reaches beyond the 
 interest of individuals, and affects the whole com- 
 munity. A judge, under the influence of govern- 
 ment, may be honest enough in the decision of pri- 
 vate causes, yet a traitor to the public. When a 
 victim is marked out by the ministry, this judge 
 will offer himself to perform the sacrifice : he will 
 not scruple to prostitute his dignity, and betray the 
 sanctity of his office, whenever an arbitrary point 
 is to be carried for government, or the resentment 
 of a court to be gratified. 
 
 These principles and proceedings, odious and 
 contemptible as they are, in effect are no less inju- 
 dicious. A wise and generous people are roused by 
 every appearance of oppressive, unconstitutional 
 measures, whether those measures are supported 
 only by the power of government, or masked under 
 the forms of a court of justice. Prudence and self- 
 preservation will oblige the most moderate disposi- 
 tions to make common cause even with a man 
 whose conduct they censure, if they see him per- 
 secuted in a way which tlie real spirit of the laws
 
 36 JLNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 will not justify. The facts on whiclr these remarks 
 are founded are too notorious to require an ap- 
 plication. 
 
 This, sir, is the detail. In one view, behold a na- 
 tion overwhelmed with debt ; her revenues wasted, 
 her trade declining ; the affections of her colo- 
 nies alienated ; the duty of the magistrate trans- 
 ferred to the soldiery ; a gallant army, which never 
 fought unwillingly but against their fellow-subjects, 
 mouldering away for want of the direction of a 
 man of common abilities and spirit ; and in the 
 last instance, the administration of justice become 
 odious and suspected to the whole body of the peo- 
 ple. This deplorable scene admits of but one ad- 
 dition ; that we are governed by counsels from 
 which a reasonable man can expect no remedy but 
 poison ; no relief but death. 
 
 If, by the immediate interposition of Providence, 
 it were possible for us to escape a crisis so full of 
 terror and despair, posterity will not believe the 
 history of the present times. They will either con- 
 clude that our distresses were imaginar}'^, or that 
 we had the good fortune to be governed by men of 
 acknowledged integrity and wisdom : they will not 
 oelieve it possible, that their ancestors could have 
 iurvived or recovered from so desperate a condi- 
 ion, while a duke of Grafton was prime minister, 
 SI lord North chancellor of the exchequer ; a Wey- 
 jQouth and a Hillsborough secretaries of state ; a 
 'Tranby commander-in-chief; and a Mansfield chief 
 criminal judge of the kingdom. 
 
 JUNIUS.
 
 JTJNIUS'S LETTERS. 37 
 
 II. 
 
 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser. 
 
 SIR, January 26, 1769- 
 
 The kingdom swarms with such numbers of felo- 
 nious robbers of private character and virtue, that 
 no honest or good man is safe ; especially as these 
 cowardly, base assassins, stab in the dark, with- 
 out having the courage to sign their real names 
 to their malevolent and wicked productions. A 
 writer, who signs himself Junius, in the Public 
 Advertiser of the 2] st instant, opens the deplorable 
 situation of his country in a very affecting manner. 
 With a pompous parade of his candour and de- 
 cency, he tells us that we see dissensions in all parts 
 of the empu-e, an universal spirit of distrust and 
 dissatisfaction, and a total loss of respect towards 
 us in the eyes of foreign powers. But this writer, 
 with all his boasted candour, has not told us the 
 real cause of the evils he so pathetically enume- 
 rates, i shall take the liberty to explain the cause 
 for him. Junius, and such writers as himself, 
 occasion all the mischief complained of, by falsely 
 and maliciously traducing the best characters in the 
 kingdom : for when our deluded people at home, 
 and foreigners abroad, read the poisonous and 
 inflammatory libels that are daily published with 
 impunity, to vilify those who arc any way distin- 
 guished b}' their good qualities and eminent vir- 
 tues • whe the}! find no notice taken of, or reply
 
 38 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 given to these slanderous tongues tind pens, their 
 conclusion is, that botli tlie ministers and the 
 nation have been fairly described, and they act ac- 
 cordingly. I think it, dierefore, the duty of every 
 g,ood citizen to stand fortii, and endeavour to un- 
 deceive the public, when the vilest arts are made 
 use of to defame and blacken the brightest char- 
 acters among us. An eminent author affirms it to 
 be almost as criminal to hear a worUiy man tra- 
 duced, without attempting his justification, as to 
 be the author of the calumny against him. For my 
 own part, I think it a sort of misprision of treason 
 against society. No man, therefore, who knows 
 lord Granby, can possibly hear so good and great a 
 character most vilely abused, without a warm and 
 just indignatipn against this Junius, this high- 
 priest of envy, malice, and all uncharitableness, 
 who has endeavoured to sacrifice our beloved com- 
 mander-in-chief at the altars of his horrid deities. 
 Nor is the injury done to his lordship alone, but 
 to the whole nation, which may too soon feel the 
 contempt, and consequently the attacks, of our late 
 enemies, if they can be induced to believe that the 
 person on whom the safety of these kingdoms so 
 much depends, is unequal to his high station, and 
 destitute of those qualities which form a good ge- 
 neral. One would have thought that his lordship's 
 services in the cause of his country, from the battle 
 of Culloden to his most glorious conclusion of the 
 late war, might have entitled him to common re- 
 spect and decency at least ; but this uncandid, inde- 
 cent writer, has gone so far as to turn one of the 
 most amiable men of the age into a siupid, unfeel-
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 39 
 
 ing, and senseless being possessed, indeed, of a 
 personal courage, but void of those essential qua- 
 lities which distinguish the commander from the 
 common soldier. 
 
 A very long, uninterrupted, impartial, (I will add, 
 a most disinterested) friendship, with lord Granby, 
 gives me the right to affirm, that all Junius's asser- 
 tions are false and scandalous. Lord Granby's 
 courage, though of the brightest and most ardent 
 kind, is amongst the lowest of his numerous good 
 qualities : he was formed to excel in war, by nature's 
 liberality to his mind as well as person. Educated 
 and instructed by his most noble father, and a most 
 spirited as well as excellent scholar, the present 
 bishop of Bangor, he was trained to the nicest sense 
 of honour, and to the truest and noblest sort of pride, 
 that of never doing or suffering a mean action. A 
 sincere love and attachment to his king and country 
 and to their glory, first impelled hmi to the field, 
 where he never gained ought but honour. He im- 
 paired, through his bounty, his own fortune ; for 
 his bounty, which this writer would in vain depreciate, 
 is founded upon the noblest of the human affections ; 
 It flows from a heart melting to goodness ; from 
 the most refined humanity. Can a man, who is 
 described as unfeeling and void of reflection, be 
 constantly emploj^ed in seeking proper objects, on 
 whom to exercise those glorious virtues of com- 
 passion and generosity ? The distressed officer, the 
 soldier, the widow, the orpiian, and a long list 
 besides, know tiiat vanity has no share in his frequent 
 donations ; he gives, because he feels their distresses. 
 Nor has he ever been "-apacious with one hand, to be
 
 40 JUNIUS S LETTERS, 
 
 bountiful with the other. Yet this uHcandid Juiims 
 would insinuate, that the dignity of the commander- 
 in-chief is depraved into the base oflice of a con> 
 mission-broker ; that is, lord Granby bargains for 
 the sale of commissions ; for it must have this mean- 
 ing, if it has any at all. But where is the man 
 living who can justly charge his lordship with such 
 mean practices ? Why does not Junius produce him ■* 
 Junius knows that he has no other means of wound- 
 ing this hero, than from some missile weapon, shot 
 from an obscure corner. He seeks, as all such 
 defamatory writers do, 
 
 spargere voces 
 
 In -s-ulgum ambiguas, 
 
 to raise suspicion in the minds of the people. But 
 I hope that my countrymen will be no longer im- 
 posed upon by artful and designing men, or by 
 wretches, who, bankrupts in business, in fame, and 
 in fortune, mean nothing more than to involve this 
 country in the same common ruin with themselves. 
 Hence it is, that they are constantly aiming their 
 dark, and too often fatal, weapons against those who 
 stand forth as the bulwark of our national safety. 
 Lord Granby was too conspicuous a mark not to be 
 their object. He is next attacked for being unfaithfu. 
 to his promises and engagements ? Where are 
 Junius's proofs ? Although I could give some in- 
 stances where a breach of promise would be a virtue, 
 especially in the case of those who would pervert the 
 open unsuspecting moments of convivial mirth into 
 sly insidious applications for preferment or party-
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 41 
 
 systems ; and would endeavour to surprise a good 
 man, who cannot bear to see any one leave him 
 dissatisfied, into unguarded promises. Lord Granby's 
 attention to his own family and relations is called 
 selfish. Had he not attended to them, when fair and 
 just opportunities presented themselves, I should have 
 thought him unfeeling, and \ou\ of reflection indeed. 
 How are any man's friends or relations to be pro- 
 vided for, but from the influence and protection of 
 the patron ? It is unfair to suppose that lord 
 Granby's fi-iends have not as much merit as the 
 friends of any other great man. If he is generoua 
 at the public expense, as Junius invidiously calls it, 
 the public is at no more expense for his lordship's 
 friends, than it would be if any other set of men 
 possessed those offices. The charge is ridiculous. 
 
 The last charge against lord Granby is of a most 
 serious and alarming nature indeed. Junius asserts, 
 that the army is mouldering away, for want of the 
 direction of a man of common abilities and spirit. 
 The present condition of the army gives the directest 
 lie to Ins assertions. It was never upon a more res- 
 pectable footing with regard to discipline and all the 
 essentials that can form good soldiers. Lord Ligo- 
 nier delivered a firm and noble palladium of our 
 safeties into lord Granby's hands, who has kept it in 
 the same good order in which he received it. The 
 strictest care has been taken to fill up the vacant 
 commissions with such gentlemen as have the glory 
 of their ancestors to support, as well as their own ; 
 and are doubly bound to the cause of their king and 
 country, from motives of private property, as well 
 as public spirt. Tiic adju'ant-general, who lias the
 
 42 TUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 immediate care of the troops after lard Granby, is 
 an officer that ^Vould do great honour to any service 
 in Europe, for his correct arrangements, good sense 
 and discernment upon all occasions, and for a 
 punctuality and precision which give the most entire 
 satisfaction to all who are obliged to consult him. 
 The reviewing generals, who inspect the army twice 
 a-year, have been selected with the greatest care, 
 and have answered the important trust reposed in 
 them in the most laudable manner. Their reports 
 of the condition of the army are much more to be 
 credited than tliose of Junius, whohi I do advise to 
 atone for his shameful aspersions, by asking pardon 
 of lord Granby and the whole kingdom, whom he 
 has oflended by his abominable scandals. In short, 
 to turn Junius's own battery against him, I must 
 assert in his own words, " that he has given strong 
 assertions without proof, declamation without argu- 
 ment, and violent censures without dignity or mo- 
 deration." 
 
 WILLIAM DRAPER. 
 
 in. 
 
 To Sir JVilUam Drape" ^ KnigJit of the Bath. 
 
 SIR, February 7, 1769. 
 
 Your defence of lord Granby does honour to the 
 goodness of your heart. You feel, as you ought 
 to do, for the reputation of your friend, and you 
 express yourself in the warmest language of your
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 43 
 
 passions,. n any other cause, I doubt not you 
 would have cautiouslj' weighed the consequences of 
 committing your name to the licentious discourses 
 and malignant opinions of the world : but here, I 
 presume, you thought it would be a breach of 
 friendship, to lose one moment in consulting your 
 understanding ; as if an appeal to the public were 
 no more than a military coup de main, where a 
 brave man has no rules to follow but the dictates 
 of his courage. Touched with your generosity, I 
 freely forgive the excesses into which it has led 
 you ; and, far from resenting those terms of re- 
 proach, which, considering that you are an advo- 
 cate for decorum, you have heaped upon me rather 
 too liberally, I place them to the account of an 
 honest unreflecting indignation, in which your 
 cooler judgment and natural politeness had no con- 
 cern. I approve of the spirit with which you have 
 given your name to the public ; and, if it were a 
 proof of any thing but spirit, I should have thought 
 myself bound to follow your example. I should 
 have hoped that even mij name might carry some 
 authority with it, if I had not seen how very little 
 weight or consideration a printed paper receives, 
 even from the respectable signature of sir William 
 
 Draper. 
 
 You begin with a general assertion, that writers, 
 such as I am, are the real cause of all the public 
 evils we complain of And do you really think, 
 sir William, that the licentious pen of a political 
 writer is able to produce such important effects ? 
 Pi. little calm reflection might have shown you, that 
 national calamities do not arise from the description,
 
 44 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 bill from the real character and condnct of ministers 
 To have supported your assertion, you should have 
 proved, that the present ministry are unquestionably 
 the best and brightest characters of the kingdom ; 
 and that, if the affections of the colonies have been 
 alienated, if Corsica has been shamefully abandoned, 
 if commerce languishes, if public credit is threatened 
 with a new debt, and your own Manilla ransom most 
 dishonourably given up, it has all been owing to 
 the malice of political writers, who will not suffer 
 the best and brightest characters (meaning still 
 the present ministry) to take a single right step for 
 the honour or interest of the nation. But it seems 
 you were a little tender of coming to particulars. 
 Your conscience insinuated to you that it would 
 be prudent to leave the characters of Grafton, North, 
 Hillsborough, Weymouth, and Mansfield, to shift for 
 themselves ; and truly, sir William, the part you 
 have undertaken is at least as much as you are 
 equal to. 
 
 Without disputing lord Granby's courage, we are 
 yet to learn in what articles of military knowledge 
 nature has been so very liberal to his mind. If 
 you have served with him, you ought to have 
 pointed out some instances of able disposition and 
 well-concerted enterprise, which might fairly be 
 attributed to his capacity as a general. It is you 
 sir William, who make your friend appear awkward 
 and ridiculous, by giving him a laced suit of tawdry 
 qualifications, which nature never intended him to 
 wear. 
 
 You say, he has acquired nothing but honour in 
 the field .'* Is the ordnance ^'othino: ? Are the Blues
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 45 
 
 nothing ? Is the command of the army, with all 
 the patronage annexed to it, nothing ? Where he 
 got all these nothings I know not ; but you, a.t least, 
 ought to have told us when he deserved them. 
 
 As to his bount}'^, compassion, &;c. it wou.W have 
 been but little to the purpose, though you had 
 proved all that you have asserted. I meddle with 
 nothing but his character as commander-in-chief; 
 and, though I acquit him of the baseness of selling 
 commissions, I still assert, that his military cares 
 have never extended beyond the disposal of vacan- 
 cies; and I am justified by the complaints of the 
 whole army, when I say, that, ni this distribution, 
 he consults nothing but parliamentary interest, or 
 the gratification of his immediate dependents. As 
 to his servile submission to the reigning ministry, 
 let me ask, whether he did not desert the cause 
 of the whole arm}', when he. suffered sir Jeffery 
 Amherst to be sacrificed, and what share he had in 
 recalling that officer to the service .'' Did he not 
 betray the just interest of the army in permitting 
 lord Percy to have a regiment ? And does he not, 
 at this moment, give up all character and dignity 
 as a gentleman, in receding from his own repeated 
 declarations in favour of Mr. Wilkes ? 
 
 In the two next articles, I think, we are agreed. 
 You candidly admit, that he often makes such pro- 
 mises as it is a virtue in him to violate, and that no 
 man is more assiduous to provide for his relations at 
 the public expense. I did not urge the Jast as an 
 absolute vice in his disposition, hut to prove that a 
 careless, disinterested spirit is no part of his character: 
 and as to the other, I desire it may be remembered,
 
 46 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 that I never dcsccnclcd to the indecency of inquiring 
 into his convivial hours. It is you, sir William Dra- 
 per, who have taken pains to represent your friend 
 in the character of a drunken landlord, who deals 
 out his promises as liberally as his liquor, and will 
 suffer no man to leave his table either sorrowful or 
 sober. None but an intimate friend, who 'must fre- 
 quently have seen him in these unhappy, disgraceful 
 moments, could have described him so wtII. 
 
 The last charge, of the neglect of the army, is 
 indeed the most material of all. 1 am sorry to tell 
 you, sir William, that in this article your first fact 
 is false : and as there is nothing more painful to me 
 than to give a direct contradiction to a gentleman of 
 your appearance, I could wish, that, in your future 
 publications, you would pay a greater attention to 
 the truth of your premises, before you suffer your 
 genius to hurry you to a conclusion. Lord Ligonier 
 did not deliver the army (which you, in classical 
 language, are pleased to call :i palladium) into lord 
 Granby's hands. It was taken from him, much 
 against his inclination, some two or three years before 
 lord Granby was commander-in-chief. As to the 
 state of the army, I should be glad to know where 
 you have received your intelligence. AVas it in the 
 rooms at Bath, or at your retreat at Clifton ? The 
 reports of reviewing generals comprehend only a few 
 regiments in England, which, as they are immediately 
 under the royal inspection, are perhaps in some tole- 
 rable order. But do you know any thing of the 
 troops in the West Indies, the Mediterranean, and 
 North America; to say nothing of a whole army 
 absolutely ruined in Ireland ,'' Inquire a little into
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 47 
 
 facts, sir William, before you publish your next 
 panegyric upon lord Granl)y ; and, believe me, you 
 will find there is a fault at head-quarters, which even 
 the acknowledged care and abilities of the adjutant- 
 general cannot correct. 
 
 Permit mc now, sir William, to address myself 
 personally to you, by way of thanks for the honour 
 of your correspondence. You are by no means un- 
 deserving of notice ; and it may be of consequence, 
 even to lord Granby, to have it determined, whether 
 or no the man, who has praised him so lavishly, be 
 himself deserving of praise. When you returned to 
 Europe, you zealously undertook the cause of that 
 gallant army, by v. hose bravery at Manilla your own 
 fortune had been established. You complained, you 
 threatened, you even appealed to the public in print. 
 Bv what accident did it happen, that, in the midst of 
 all this bustle, and all these clamours for justice to 
 your injured troops, the name of the Manilla ransom 
 was suddenly buried in a profound, and, sinL-e that 
 time, an uninterrupted silence? Did the ministry 
 suggest any motives to you strong enough to tempt a 
 man of honour to desert and betray the cause of his 
 fellow soldiers ? Was it that blushing ribbon which 
 is now the perpetual ornament of your person ? Or was 
 It that regiment which you afterwards (a thing unpre- 
 cedented among soldiers) sold to colonel Gisborne f 
 Or was it that government, the full pay of which you 
 are contented to hold, with the half-pay of an Irish 
 colonel ? And do you now, after a retreat not 
 very like that of Scipio, presume to intrude yourself, 
 unthought of, uncalled for, upon the patience of tiie 
 public ? Arc your flatteries of the coinmandcr-in-
 
 43 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 clilo'f, directed to another regiment, whi:li you may 
 again dispose of on the same honourable terms ? 
 We know your prudence, sir William ; aad I should 
 he sorry to stop your preferment. 
 
 JUNIUS. 
 
 IV. 
 
 To Junius. 
 
 SIR, February 17, 1769. 
 
 I received Junius's favour last night : he is deter- 
 mined to keep his advantage by the help of his 
 mask : it is an excellent protection : it has saved 
 manv a man from an untimely end. But whenever 
 he will be honest enough to lay it aside, avow him- 
 self, and produce the face which has so long lurked 
 behind it, the world will be able to judge of his 
 motives for writing such infamous invectives. His 
 real name will discover his freedom and indepen- 
 dency, or his servility to a faction. Disappointed 
 ambition, resentment for defeated hopes, and desire 
 of revenge, assume but too often the appearance of 
 public spirit : but, be his designs wicked or chari- 
 table, Junius should learn, that it is possible to 
 condemn measures without a barbarous and crim- 
 inal outrage against mer. Junius delights to 
 mangle carcases w ith a hatchet ; his language 
 and instrument have a great connexion with Clare- 
 market, and, to do him justice, he handles his weapon 
 most admirably. One would imagine he had been 
 taught to throw it bv \he savp.ircs of America. It is.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 49 
 
 therefore, high time for nre to step in once more to 
 shield my friend from this merciless weapon, although 
 I may be wounded in the attempt. But I must first 
 ask Junius by what forced analogy and construction, 
 the moments of convivial mirth are made to signify- 
 indecency, a violation of engagements, a drunken 
 landlord, and a desire that every one in company 
 should be drunk likewise ? He must have culled 
 all the flowers of St. Giles's and Billingsgate to 
 have produced such a piece of oratory. Here the 
 hatchet descends with tenfold vengeance : but, alas ! 
 it hurts no one but its master ! For Junius must 
 not think to put words into my mouth, that seem 
 too foul even for his own. 
 
 My friend's political engagements I know not ; so 
 cannot pretend to explain them, or assert their con- 
 sistency. I know not whether Junius be considerable 
 enough to belong to any party. If he should be so, 
 can he affirm that he has always adhered to one set 
 of men and measures ? Is he sure that he has never 
 sided with those whom he was first hired to abuse .'' 
 Has he never abused those he was hired to praise .'' 
 To say the truth, most men's politics sit much too 
 loosely about them. But as my friend's military 
 character was the chief object that engaged me in 
 this controversy, to that I shall return. 
 
 Junius asks, what instances my friend has given 
 of his military skill and capacity as a general ? 
 When and where he gained his honour ."* When 
 he deserved his emoluments ? The united voice 
 of the army which served under him, the glorious 
 testimony of prince Ferdinand, and of vanquished 
 enemies, all Germany will tell him. Junius re- 
 C 2
 
 50 jaNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 peats the complaints of the army against parlia- 
 mentary influence. I love the army too well not 
 to wish that such influence were less. Let Junius 
 point out tlie time when it has not prevailed. It 
 was of the least force in the time of that great 
 man, the late duke of Cumberland, who, as a 
 prince of the blood, was able, as well as willing, 
 to stem a torrent which would have overborne any 
 private sul)ject. In time of war, this influence is 
 small. In peace, when discontent and faction have 
 the surest means to operate, especially in this coun- 
 try, and when, from a scarcity of public spirit, the 
 wheels of government are rarely moved but by the 
 power and force of obligations, its weight is always 
 too great. Yet, if this influence, at present, has 
 done no greater harm than the placing earl Percy at 
 the head of a regiment, I do not think that either 
 the rights or best interests of the army are sacri- 
 ficed and betrayed, or the nation undone. Let me 
 ask Junius, if he knows any one nobleman in the 
 army who has had a regiment by seniority .'* I feel 
 Tiyself happy in seeing young noblemen of illus- 
 trious name and great property come amongst us 
 They are an additional security to the kingdom 
 from foreign or domestic slavery. Junius needs not 
 be told, that, should the time ever come when this 
 nation is to be defended only by those who have 
 nothing more to lose than their arms and their pay, 
 its danger will be great indeed. A happy mixture 
 of men of quality with soldiers of fortune is always 
 to be wished for. But the main point is still to be 
 contended for ; I mean the discipline and condition 
 of the army ; and I must still maintain, though con-
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 51 
 
 tradicted by Junius, that it was never upon a more 
 respectable footing, as to all the essentials that can 
 form good soldiers, than it is at present. Junius is 
 forced to allow, that our army at honie may be in 
 some tolerable order ; yet, how kindly does he in- 
 vite our late enemies to the invasion of Ireland, by 
 assuring them that the army in that kingdom is 
 totally ruined ! (The colonels of that army arc 
 much obliged to him.) I have too great an opinion 
 of the military talents of the lord-lieutenant, and of 
 all their diligence and capacity, to believe it. If, 
 from some strange unaccountable fatality, the people 
 of that kingdom camiot be induced to consult their 
 own security, by such an effectual augmentation as 
 may enable the troops there to act with power and 
 energy, is the commander-in-chief here to blame .'' 
 Or, is he to blame, because the troops in the Medi- 
 terranean, in the West Indies, in America, labour 
 under great difficulties from the scarcity of men, 
 which is but too visible all over these kingdoms ? 
 Many of our forces are in climates unfavourable to 
 British constitutions ; their loss is in proportion. 
 Britain must recruit all these regiments from her 
 own emaciated bosom ; or, more precariously, by 
 catholics from Ireland. We are likewise subject to 
 the fatal drains to the East Indies, to Senegal, and 
 the alarming emigrations of our people to other 
 countries. Such depopulation can only be repaired 
 by a long peace, or by some sensible bill of natural- 
 ization. 
 
 I must now take the liberty' of addressing Junius 
 ou my own account. He is pleased to tell me that 
 he addresses himself to rne personally : I shall be
 
 52 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 glad to see him. It is his impersondhty that I com- 
 plain of, and his invisible attacks : for his dagger in 
 the air is only to be regarded, because one cannot 
 see the hand which holds it j but, had it not wounded 
 otiier people more deeply than myself, I should not 
 have obtruded myself at all on the patience of the 
 public. 
 
 Mark how plain a tale shall put him down, and 
 transfuse the blush of my ribbon into his own cheeks. 
 Junius tells me, that at my return, I zealously under- 
 took the cause of the gallant army, by whose bra- 
 very at Manilla my own fortunes were established j 
 that I complained, that I even appealed to the public. 
 I did so ; I glory in having done so, as I had an 
 undoubted right to vindicate my own character, 
 attacked by a Spanish memorial, and to assert the 
 rights of my brave companions. I glory, likewise, 
 that I have never taken up my pen but to vindicate 
 the injured. Junius asks, by what accident did it 
 happen, that, in the midst of all this bustle, and all 
 the clamours for justice to the injured troops, the 
 Manilla ransom was suddenly buried in a profound, 
 and, since that time, an uninterrupted silence ? 1 
 will explain the cause to the public. The several 
 ministers who have been employed since that time 
 have been very desirous to do justice, from two 
 most laudable motives: a strong inclination to assist 
 injured bravery, and to acquire a well-deserved 
 popularity to themselves. Their efforts have been 
 in vain. Some were ingenuous enough to own, 
 that they could notihink of involving this distressed 
 nation in another war for our private concerns. In 
 short, our lights, for tlie present, are sacrificed to
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. id 
 
 national convenience ; and I must confess, that al- 
 though I may lose tive-and-twenty thousand pounds 
 by their acquiescence to this breach of faith in the 
 Spaniards, I think they are in the right to temporize, 
 considering the critical situation of this country, 
 convulsed in every part, by poison infused by 
 anonj^mous, wicked, and incendiary writers. Lord 
 Shelburne will do me the justice to own, that in 
 September last, I waited upon him with a joint me-' 
 morial from the admiral, sir S. CoDiish, and myself, 
 in behalf of our injured companions. His lordship 
 was as frank upon the occasion as other secretaries 
 had been before him. He did not deceive us, by 
 giving any immediate hopes of relief. 
 
 Junius would basely insinuate, that my silence 
 may have been purchased by my goverment, by 
 my blushing ribbon, by my regiment, by the sale of 
 that regiment, and by half-pay as an Irish colonel. 
 
 His majesty was pleased to give me my govern- 
 ment for my service at Madras. I had my first 
 regiment in 1757. Upon my return from jManilla, 
 his majesty, by lord Egremont, informed me, that 
 I should have the first vacant red ribbon, as a 
 reward for many services in an enterprise which I 
 had planned as well as executed. The duke ot 
 Bedford and Mr. Grenville confirmed these assu- 
 rances, many montlis before the Spaniards had pro- 
 tested the ransom bills. To accomodate lord Clive. 
 then going upon a most important service to Bengal, 
 I waved my claim to the vacancy which then hap- 
 pened. As there was no other vacancy until the 
 duke of Grafton and lord Rockingham were joint 
 ministers, I was then honoured witl he order ; :ind
 
 54 JUNIUS'S LETTERS 
 
 it is surelj' no small honour to me, that, in sucn a 
 succession of ministers, they were all pleased to 
 think that I had deserved it ; in my favour they 
 were all united. Upon the reduction of the 79th 
 regiment, which had served so gloriously in the 
 East Indies, his majesty, unsolicited by me, gave me 
 the IGtIi of foot as an equivalent. My motives for 
 retiring, afterwards, are foreign to the purpose: let 
 it suffice, that his majesty was pleased to approve of 
 them : the}' are such as no man can think indecent, 
 who knows the shocks that repeated vicissitudes of 
 lieat and cold, of dangerous and sickly climates, 
 will give to the best constitutions, in a pretty long 
 course of service. I resigned my regiment to colonel 
 Gisborne, a very good officer, for his half-pay, and 
 200?. Irish annuity : so that, according to Junius, I 
 have been bribed to say nothing more of the Manilla 
 ransom, and to sacrifice those brave men, by the 
 strange avarice of accepting 380?. per annum, and 
 giving up 800?. ! If this be bribery, it is not the 
 bribery of these times. As to my flattery, those who 
 know me will judge of it. By the asperity of Junius's 
 style, I cannot, indeed, call him a flatterer, unless he 
 be as a cynic or a mastiff: if he wags his tail, he wil 
 still growl, and long to bite. The public will now 
 judge of t)ie credit that ought to be given to Junius's 
 writings, from the falsities that he has insinuated with 
 respect to myself. 
 
 WILUAIM DRAPER.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 65 
 
 V. 
 
 To Sir William Dj'oper, Knight of the Bath. 
 
 SIR, February 21, 1769- 
 
 I should justly be suspected of acting upon motives 
 of more than common enmity to lord Granby, if I 
 continued to give you fresh materials or occasion 
 for writing in his defence. Individuals who hate, 
 and the public who despise, have read your letters, 
 sir William, with infinitely more satisfaction than 
 mine. Unfortunately for him, his reputation, like 
 that unhappy country to which you refer me for his 
 last military achievements, has suflered more by his 
 friends than his enemies. In mercy to him, let us 
 drop the subject. For my own part, I willingly 
 leave it to the public to determine, whether your 
 vindication of your friend has been as able and ju- 
 dicious as it was certainly well intended : and you, 
 I think, may be satisfied with the warm acknow- 
 ledgments he already owes you, for making him the 
 principal figure iu a. piece, in which, but for your 
 amicable assistance, he might have passed without 
 particular notice or distinction. 
 
 In justice to your friends, Jet your future labours 
 be confined to the care of your own reputation. 
 Your declaration, that you are happy in seeing 
 young noblemen come among us, is liable to two ob- 
 jections. With respect to lord Percy, it means 
 nothing ; for he was already in the army. He was
 
 IK< JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 aide-de-camp to the king, and had the rank of 
 colonel. A regiment, tlierefore, conld not n/aUe him 
 a more military man, though it made him richer ; 
 and probabl}' at the expense of some brave, deserv- 
 ing, friendless oflicer. The other concerns your- 
 self. After selling the companions of your victory 
 in one instance, and after selling your profession in 
 the other, by what authority do you presume to call 
 yourself a soldier ? The plain evidence of facts is 
 superior to all declarations. Before you were ap- 
 pointed to the 16th regiment, your complaints v.ere 
 a distress to government : from that moment you 
 were silent. The condition is inevitable. You 
 insinuate to us, that your ill state of health obliged 
 you to quit the service. The retirement necessary 
 to repair a broken constitution would have been as 
 good a reason for not accepting, as for resigning, 
 the command of a regiment. There is certainly an 
 error of the press, or an affected obscurity in that 
 paragraph, where you speak of your bargain with 
 coloiiel Gisborne. Instead of attempting to answer 
 what I do not really understand, permit me to explain 
 to the public what I really know. In exchange for 
 your regiment, you accepted of a colonel's half-pay, 
 (at least 220Z. a year) and an annuity of 200Z. for 
 your own and lady Draper's life jointly. And is 
 this the losing bargain, which you would represent 
 to us, as if you had given up an income of 800^. a 
 year for 3S0Z. ? Was it decent, was it honourable, 
 in a man who pretends to love the army, and calls 
 himself a soldier, to make a traffic of the royal fa- 
 vour, and turn the highest honour of an active pro- 
 fession into a sordid provision for himself and his
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 57 
 
 family ? It were unworthy o'f me to press you far- 
 ther. The contempt with which the whole army 
 heard of the manner of your retreat, assures me, 
 that, as your conduct was not justified by precedent, 
 it will never be thought an example for imitation. 
 
 The last and most important question remains. 
 When you receive your half-pa}^ do you or do you 
 not, take a solemn oath, or sign a declaration, upon 
 your honour, to the following effect ? Thai you do 
 not actually hold any place of profit, civil or viili- 
 tary, under his majesty. Tiie charge which the 
 question plainly conveys against you, is of so shock- 
 ing a complexion, that I sincerely wish you may be 
 able to answer it well ; not merely for the colour 
 of your reputation,, but for your own inward peace of 
 mind. t=£*^ ^ d 
 
 JUNIUS. 
 
 m. 
 
 ■Htk » |ei4i&J4#-- 
 
 To Junius. 
 
 SIR, February 27, 17C9. 
 
 I have a very short answer for Junius's important 
 question. I do not either take an oath, or declare 
 upon my honour, that I hold no place of profit, civil 
 or military, when I receive the half-pay as an Irish 
 colonel : my most gracious sovereign gives it me as 
 a pension : he was pleased to think I deserved it. 
 The annuity of 2001. Irish, and the equivalent for 
 the half-pay, togetlicr produce no more than 3S0l 
 c 2
 
 £8 JUNIUS'3 LETTERS. 
 
 per annum, clear of fees and perqirisitcs of ofllce. 
 I receive 167/. from my government of Yarmouth. 
 Total 547Z. per annum. My conscience is much at 
 ease in these pai'ticulars ; my friends need not blush 
 for me. 
 
 Junius makes much and frequent use of interro- 
 gations : they are arms that may be easily turned 
 against himself. I could, by malicious interroga- 
 tion, disturb the peace of the most virtuous man in 
 the kingdom. I could take the decalogue, and say 
 to one man. Did you never steal ? To the next. 
 Did you never commit murder ? And to Junius 
 himself, who is putting my life and conduct to the 
 rack. Did you never " bear false witness against 
 thy neighbour .f*" Junius must easily see, that, un- 
 less he affirms to the contrary, in his real name, some 
 people, who may be as ignorant of kirn as I am, will 
 be apt to suspect him of having deviated a little from 
 the truth : therefore let Junius ask no more questions. 
 You bite against a file : Cease viper !
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 69 
 
 VII. 
 
 To Sir William Draper^ Knight of the Bath. 
 
 SIR March 3, 1769. 
 
 An academical education has given you an un- 
 limited command over the most beautiful figures of 
 speech. Masks, hatchets, racks, and vipers, dance 
 through your letters in all the mazes of metaphorical 
 confusion. These are the gloomy companions of a 
 disturbed imagination ; the melancholy madness of 
 poetry, without the inspiration. I will not contend 
 with you in point of composition : you are a scholar, 
 sir William; and, if I am truly informed, you write 
 Latin with almost as much purity as English. Suf- 
 fer me then (for I am a plain unlettered man) to 
 continue that style of interrogation which suits my 
 capacity, and to which, considering the readiness of 
 your answers, you ought to have no objection. 
 Even Mr. Bingley* promises to answer, if put to the 
 torture. 
 
 Do you then really think, that, if I were to ask a 
 most virtuous man, whether he ever committed theft 
 or murder, it would disturb his peace of mind ^ 
 Such a question might, perhaps, discompose the 
 
 * This man, being committed by the court of king's 
 bench for contempt, voluntarily made oath that he would 
 never answer interj-ogatories unless he should be put to the 
 torture.
 
 QO JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 gravity of his muscles, but I believe' it would little 
 affect the trnnquillity of his conscience. Examine 
 yeur own breast, sir William, and you will discover 
 that reproaches and inquiries have no power to 
 afflict either the man of unblemished integrity or the 
 abandoned profligate. It is the middle compound 
 character which alone is vulnerable ; the man who, 
 without firmness enough to avoid a dishonourable 
 action, has feeling enough to be ashamed of it 
 
 I thank you for the hint of the decalogue^ and 
 shall take an opportunity o^ applying it to some of 
 your most virtuous friends in both houses of par- 
 liament. 
 
 You seem to have dropped the affair of your regi- 
 ment; so let it rest. When you are appointed to 
 another, I dare say you will not sell it either for a 
 gross sum, or for an annuity upon lives. 
 
 I am truly glad (for really, sir William, I am not 
 your enemy, nor did I begin this contest with you) 
 that you have been able to clear yourself of a crime, 
 though at the expense of the highest indiscretion. 
 You say that your half-pay was given you by way 
 of pension. I will not dwell upon the singularity of 
 uniting in your own person two sorts of provision, 
 which, in their own nature, and in all military and 
 parliamentary views, arc incompatible; but I call 
 upon 3'ou to justify that declaration, wherein you 
 charge your sovereign with having done an act in 
 your favour notoriously against law. The half-pay, 
 both in Ireland and England, is appropriated by 
 parliament; and if it be given to persons who, like 
 you, are legally incapable of holding it, it is a breach 
 ef law. It would have b^cn more decent in you to
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. €1 
 
 have called this dishonourable transaction by its true 
 name j ^job, to accommodate two persons, by par- 
 ticular interest and management at the castle. — 
 What sense must government have had of your ser- 
 vices, when the rewards they have given you are 
 only a disgrace to you ! 
 
 And now, sir William, I shall take my leave of 
 you for ever. Motives i ery different from any ap- 
 prehension of your resentment make it impossible 
 you should ever know me. In truth, you have 
 some reason to hold yourself indebted to me. From 
 the lessons I have given you, you may collect a pro- 
 fitable instruction for your future life. They will 
 either teach you so to regidate your future conduct, 
 as to be able to set the most malicious inquiries at 
 defiance ; or, if that be a lost hope, they will teach 
 vou prudence enough not to attract the public atten- 
 tion to a character, which will only pass without 
 censure, when it passes without observation.* 
 
 JUNIUS. 
 
 • It has been said, I believe truly, that it was signified 
 to sir William Draper, as the request of lord Granby, that 
 he should desist from writing in his lordship's defence. Skr 
 William Draper certainly drew Junius forward to say more 
 of lord Granby's character than he originally intended. He 
 was reduced to the dilemma, of either being totally silenced, 
 or of supporting his first letter. Wliether sir William had 
 a right to reduce him to this dilemma, or to call upon hira 
 for his name, after a voluntary attack on his side, are 
 questions submitted to the candour of the public. The 
 death of lord Granby was lamented by Junius, He un- 
 doubtedly owed some compensations to the public, and
 
 62 
 
 JTTNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 
 
 VIII. 
 
 
 
 
 To his Grace the Duke 
 
 of Grafton. 
 
 
 MY 
 
 LORD, 
 
 March 18, 
 
 1769. 
 
 Befc 
 
 )re you were placed at 
 
 the head of 
 
 affairs, 
 
 it had heen a maxim of the English goverMment, 
 not unwillingly admitted by the people, that every 
 ungracious or severe exertion of the prerogative 
 should be placed to the account of the minister ; 
 but, tliat whenever an act of grace or benevolence 
 was to be performed, the whole merit of it should 
 be attributed to the sovereign himself* It was a 
 wise doctrine, my lord, and equally advantageous 
 
 seemed determmed to acquit himself of them. In private 
 life, he was unquestionably that good man, who, for the 
 interest of his country, ought to have been a great one. 
 Bonum virum facile dixeris ! magnum libenter. I speak 
 of him now without partiality ; I never spoke of him with 
 resentment. His mistakes, in public conduct, did not arise 
 either from want of sentiment, or want of judgment ; but, 
 in general, from the difficulty of saying no to the bad peo- 
 {)le who surrounded him. 
 
 As for the rest, the friends of lord Grauby should re- 
 member, that he himself thought proper to condemn, 
 retract, and disavow, by a most solemn declaradon, in the 
 house of commons, that very system of political conduct 
 which Junius has held forth to the disapprobation of the 
 public. 
 
 * Les rois ne se sont reser\cs que les graces. lis renvoient 
 les condamnations vers leurs officicrs. — Montesquieu.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 63 
 
 to the king and his subjects ; for while it preserved 
 that suspicious attention with which the people 
 ought always to examine the conduct of ministers, 
 it tended, at the same time, rather to increase than 
 diminish their attachment to the person of their 
 sovereign. If there be not a fatality attending every 
 measure you are concerned in, by what treachery, 
 or by what excess of folly has it happened, that 
 those ungracious acts which have distinguished your 
 administration, and which, I doubt not, were en- 
 tirely your own, should carry with them a strong 
 appearance of personal interest, and even of per- 
 sonal enmity, in a quarter where no such interest 
 or enmity can be supposed to exist, without the 
 highest injustice, and the highest dishonour ? On 
 the other hand, by what judicious management have 
 you contrived it, that the only act of mercy to 
 which you ever advised your sovereign, far from 
 adding to the lustre of a character truly gracious 
 and benevolent, should be received with universal 
 disapprobation and disgust ? I shall consider it as 
 a ministerial measure, because it is an odious one, 
 and as your measure, my lord duke, because you are 
 the minister. 
 
 As long as the trial of this chairman was depend- 
 ing, it was natural enough that government should 
 give him every possible encouragement and support. 
 The honourable service for which he was hired, and 
 the spirit with which he performed it, made common 
 cause between your grace and him. The minister, 
 who by secret corruption, invades the freedom of 
 elections, and the rufTian, who, by open violence 
 destroys that freedom, are embarked in the same
 
 64 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 bottom ; they have tlic same interests^ afiid mutually 
 feel for each other. To do justice to your grace's 
 humanity, you felt fir M'Quirk as you ought to do; 
 and if you had been contented to assist him indi- 
 recdy, without a notorious denial of justice, or 
 openly insulting the sense of the nation, you might 
 have satisfied every duty of political friendship, with- 
 out committing the honour of your sovereign, or 
 hazarding the reputation of his government. But 
 when this unhappy man had been solemnly tried, 
 convicted, and condemned ; when it appeared that 
 he had been frequently employed in the same ser- 
 vices, and that no excuse for him could be drawn 
 either from the innocence of his former life, or the 
 simplicity of his character ; was it not hazarding too 
 much, to interpose the strength of the prerogative 
 between this felon and the justice of his country .^* 
 
 * JFJiiteJiall, March 11, 1769- His majesty has been 
 graciously pleased to extend his royal mercy to Edward 
 M'Quirk, found guilty of the murder of George Clarke, as 
 appears by his royal warrant, to the tenour following : 
 GEORGE R. 
 
 Whereas a doubt has arisen in our roy.-i.! breast concern- 
 ing the evidence of the death of George Clarke, from the 
 representations of William Broomfield, esq. surgeon, and 
 Solomon Starling, apothecary ; both of whom, as has been 
 represented to us, attended the deceased before his death, 
 and expressed their opinions that he did not die of the blow 
 he received at Brentford : and whereas it appears to us 
 diat neither of the said persons were produced as witnesses 
 jpon the trial, though the said Solomon Starling had been 
 examined before the coroner; and tht only person called
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 65 
 
 You ought to have known t'^at an example of this 
 sort was never so necessary as at present ; i ' - 
 tainly you must have known, that the lot could not 
 have fallen upon a more guilty object. What sys- 
 
 to prove that the death of the said George Clarke was occa 
 sioned by the said blow, was John Foot, surgeon, who never 
 saw the deceased till after his death : we thought fit thero 
 upon to refer the said representations, togethet with the re 
 port of the recorder of our city of London, of the evidencr 
 given by Richard and William Beale and the said Johr 
 Foot, on the trial of Edward Quirk, otherwise called Ed 
 ward Kirk, otherwise called Edward M' Quirk, for the muf 
 der of the said Clarke, to the master, wardens, and the rest 
 of the court of examiners of the surgeons' company, com- 
 manding them likewise to take such farther examination of 
 the said persons, so representing, and of said John Foot, as 
 tiiej might think necessary, together with the premises 
 above-mentioned, to form and report to us their opinion, 
 " Whether it did or did not appear to them that the said 
 George Clarke died in consequence of the blow he received 
 in the riot at Brentford on the 8th of December last." 
 And the said court of examiners of the surgeons' company 
 having thereupon reported to us their opinion, — " That it 
 did not appear to them that he did ;" we have thought proper 
 to extend our royal mercy to him the said Edward Quirk, 
 otherwise Edward Kirk, otherwise called Edward M'Quirk, 
 and to grant him our free pardon for the murder of the said 
 George Clarke, of which he has been found guilty. Our will 
 and pleasure, therefore, is. That the said Edward Quirk, 
 otherwise called Edward Kirk, otherwise called Edwanl 
 M'Quirk, be inserted, for the said murder, in our first and 
 next general pardon that shall r,, n ' out for the poor convicts 
 of Newgate, without any condition whatsoever; and that, in
 
 66 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 tern of government is this ? You are perpetually 
 complaining of the riotous disposition of the lower 
 class of people ; yet when the laws have given you 
 the means of making an example, in every sense 
 unexceptionable, and by far the most likely to awe 
 the multitude, you pardon the oflcncc, and are not 
 ashamed to give the sanction of government to the 
 riots you complain of, and even to future murders. 
 You are partial, perhaps, to the military mode of ex- 
 ecution ; and had rather see a score of these wretches 
 butchered by the guards, than one of them suffer 
 death by regular course of law. How does it hap- 
 pen, my lord, that, in your hands, even the mercy 
 of the prerogative is cruelty and oppression to the 
 subject ? 
 
 The measure, it seems, was so extraordinary, that 
 you thought it necessary to give some reasons for it 
 to the public. Let them be fairly examined. 
 
 I. You say, that Messrs. Broomfield and Starling 
 were not examined at M^ Quirk's trial. I will tell 
 
 the mean time, you take bail for his appearance, in order to 
 plead our said pardon. And for so doing this shall be your 
 warrant. 
 
 Given at our court at St. James's, the tenth day of 
 
 March, 17G9, in the ninth year of our reign. 
 By his majesty's command. ROCHFORD. 
 
 To our trusty and well-beloved 
 James Eyre, esq. recorder of 
 our city of London, the sheriffs 
 of our said city and county of 
 I\liddlesex, and all others whom 
 it may concern.
 
 JUNIUb^ LETTERS. 67 
 
 your grace why they were not. They must have 
 been examined upon oath ; and it was foreseen, that 
 their evidence would either not benefit, or might be 
 prejudicial, to the prisoner. Otherwise, is *t con- 
 ceivable that his counsel should neglect to call in such 
 material evidence ? 
 
 2. You say, that Mi\ Foot did not see the deceased 
 until after his death. A surgeon, my lord, must 
 know very little of his profession, if, upon examin- 
 ing a wound or a contusion, he cannot determine 
 whether it was mortal or not. Wiiile the party is 
 alive, a surgeon will be cautious of pronouncing ; 
 whereas, by the death of the patient, he is enabled 
 to consider both cause and effect in one view, and 
 to speak with a certainty confirmed by experience. 
 
 3. Yet we* are to thank your grace for the estab- 
 lishment of a new tribunal. Your inquisito post 
 mortem^ is unknown to the laws of England, and 
 does honour to your invention. The only material 
 objection to it is, that if Mr. Foot's evidence was 
 msufficient, because he did not examine the wound 
 till after the death of the party, much less can a 
 negative opinion, given by gentlemen who never saw 
 the body of Mr. Clarke either before or after his 
 decease, authorise you to supersede the verdict of a 
 jury, and the sentence of the law. » 
 
 Now, my lord, let me ask you. Has it never oc- 
 curred to your grace, while you were withdrawing 
 this desperate wretch from that justice which the laws 
 had awarded, and which the whole people of Eng- 
 land demanded against him, that there is another 
 man, who is the favourite of his country, whose 
 pardon would have been accepted with gratitude,
 
 68 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 whose pardon would have healed all our divisions ? 
 Have you quite forgotten that this man was once 
 your grace's friend ? Or, is it to murderers only that 
 you will extend the mercy of the crown ? 
 
 These are questions you will not answer, nor is it 
 necessary. The character of your private life, and 
 tlie uniform tenor of your public conduct, is an 
 answer to them all. 
 
 JUNIUS. 
 
 IX 
 
 To his Grace the Duke of Grafton. 
 
 MY LORD, April 10, 17G9. 
 
 I have so good an opinion of your grace's dis- 
 cernment, that when the author of the vindication of 
 your conduct assures us that he writes from his own 
 mere motion, without the least authority from your 
 grace, I should be ready enough to believe him, but 
 for one fatal mark, which seems to be fixed upon 
 every measure in which either your personal or 
 political character is concerned. Your first attempt 
 to support sir William Proctor ended in the election 
 of Mr. Wilkes ; the second insured success to Mr. 
 Glynn. The extraordinary step you took to make 
 sir James Lowther lord paramount of Cumberland 
 has ruined his interest in that county for ever : the 
 house list of directors was cursed with the concur- 
 rence of government ; and even the miserable
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 69 
 
 Dingley* could not escape the misfortune of your 
 grace's protection. With this uniform experience 
 before us, we are aixthorised to suspect, that when a 
 pretended vindication of your principles and con- 
 duct, in reality, contains the bitterest reflections 
 upon both, it could not have been written without 
 your immediate direction and assistance. The 
 author, indeed, calls God to witness for him, with 
 all the sincerity, and in the very terms of an Irish 
 evidence, to the best of his knoioledge and belief. 
 My lord, you should not encourage these appeals to 
 Heaven. The pious prince, from whom you are 
 supposed to descend, made such frequent use of them 
 in his public declarations, that, at last, the people 
 also found it necessary to appeal to Heaven in their 
 turn. Your administration has driven us into cir- 
 cumstances of equal distress : beware, at least, how 
 you remind us of the remedy. 
 
 You have already much to answer for. You have 
 provoked this unhappy gentleman to play the fool 
 once more in public life, in spite of his years and 
 infirmities : and to show us, that, as you yourself 
 are a singular instance of youth without spirit, the 
 man who defends you is a no less remarkable ex- 
 ample of age without the benefit of experience. To 
 follow such a writer minutely, would, like his own 
 
 • This unfortunate person had been persuaded by the 
 duke of Grafton to set up for Middlesex, his grace being 
 deter.ntiined to seat him in the house of comnions, if he had 
 but a single vote. It happened, unluckily, that he could 
 uot prevail upon any one freeholder to put hi in in nomi- 
 yation.
 
 70 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 periods, be labour without end. Tbe subject too 
 has been already discussed, and is sulliciently un- 
 derstood. I cannot help observing, however, that 
 when the pardon of M'Quirk was the principal 
 charge against you, it would iiave been but a decent 
 compliment to your grace's understanding, to have 
 defended you upon your own principles. Wliat 
 credit does a man deserve, who tells us plainly, that 
 the facts set forth in the king's proclamation were 
 not the true motives on which the pardon was 
 granted .'' and that he wishes that those chirurgical 
 reports, which first gave occasion to certain doubts 
 in the royal breast, had not been laid before his 
 majesty f You see, my lord, that even your friends 
 cannot defend your actions, without changing your^ 
 principles ; nor justify a deliberate measure of go- 
 vernment without contradicting the main assertion 
 on which it was founded. 
 
 The conviction of M'Quirk had reduced you to 
 a dilemma in which it was hardly possible for you 
 to reconcile your po.itical interest with your duty. 
 You were obliged either to abandon an active, use- 
 ful partizan, or to protect a felon from public jus- 
 tice. With your usual spirit you preferred your 
 interest to every other consideration ; and, with 
 your usual judgment, you founded your determina- 
 tion upon the only motives which should not have 
 been given to the public. 
 
 I have frequently censured Mr. Wilkes's conduct, 
 yet your advocate reproaches me with having de- 
 voted myself to the service of sedition. Your grace 
 can best inform us for which of Mr. Wilkes's good 
 qualities you first honoured him with your friend-
 
 JUNIUS'^ LETTERS. 71 
 
 ship, or how long it was before you discovered 
 those bad ones in him, at which, it seems, your 
 delicacy was offended. Remember, my lord, that 
 you continued your connexion with Mr. Wilkes, 
 long after he had been convicted of those crimes 
 which you have since taken pains to represent in 
 the blackest colours of blasphemy and treason. 
 How unlucky is it, tliat the first instance you have 
 given us of a scrupulous regard to decorum, is 
 united with a breach of a moral obligation ! For 
 my own part, my lord, I am proud to affirm, that 
 if I had been weak enough to form such a friend- 
 ship, I \yould never have been base enough to betray 
 it. But let Mr, Wilkes's character be what it may, 
 this, at least is certain ; that circumstanced as 
 he is, with regard to the public, even his vices 
 plead for him. The people of England have too 
 much discernment to suffer your grace to take ad- 
 vantage of the failings of a private character, to 
 establish a precedent by which the public liberty is 
 affected, and which you may hereafter, with equal 
 ease and satisfaction, employ to the ruin of the 
 oest men in the kingdom. Content yourself, my 
 /ord, with the many advantages which the unsullied 
 purity of your own character has given you over 
 your unhappy deserted friend. Avail yourself of 
 all the unforgiving piety of the court you live in, 
 and bless God that ' you are not as other men are ; 
 extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this pub- 
 lican.' In a heart void of feeling, the laws of honour 
 and good faith may be violated with niipuuity, and 
 there you may safely indulge your genius. But the 
 laws of England shall not be violated, even by voui
 
 72 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 holy zeal to oppress a sinner ; and, though you have 
 succeeded in making him a tool, you shall not make 
 him the victim of your ambition. 
 
 JUNIUS 
 
 X. 
 
 To Mr. Edward Weston. 
 
 SIR, April 21, 1769. 
 
 I said you were an old man without the benefit of 
 experience. It seems you are also a volunteer, with 
 the stipend of twenty commissions ; and at a period 
 when all prospects are at an end, you arc still look- 
 mg forward to rewards which you cannot enjoy. 
 No man is better acquainted with the bounty of 
 government than you are ; 
 
 Ton impudence. 
 
 Temeraire vieillard, aura sa recompence. 
 
 But I will not descend to an altercation either with 
 the impotence of your age, or the peevishness of your 
 diseases. Your pamphlet, ingenious as it is, has been 
 so litth read, that the public cannot know how far 
 you have a right to give me the lie, without the fol- 
 lowing citation of your own words : 
 
 Page Gth. ' 1. That he is persuaded that the mo- 
 tives which he (Mr. Weston) has alleged, must ap- 
 pear fully sufficient with or without the opinions of 
 the surgeons.
 
 JUNIUS S LETTERS ^ 173 
 
 ' 2. That those very motives must have been the 
 foundation on which the earl of Rochford thought 
 proper, lie. 
 
 ' 3. That he cannot hut regret, that the earl of 
 Rochford seems to have thought proper to lay the 
 chirurgical reports before the king, in preference to 
 all the other sufficient motives,' Ste. 
 
 Let the p'ublic determine whether this be defending 
 government on their principles or your own. 
 
 The style and language you have adopted arc, I 
 confess, not ill-suited to the elegance of your o\> n 
 manners, or to the dignity of the cause you have 
 undertaken. Every common dauber writes rascal 
 and villain under his pictures, because the pictures 
 tiiemselves have neither character nor resembluiu o. 
 But the works of a master require no index ; his 
 features and colouring are taken from natuie ; tlie 
 mipression they make is immediate and uniforsn ,• 
 nor is it possible to mistake his characters, whemci 
 they represent the treachery oi a minister, or me 
 p bused simplicity of a king. 
 
 JUKlLij 
 
 vol. I.
 
 74 lUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 XI. 
 
 To his Grace the Duke of Grafton. 
 
 MY LORD, April 24, 1709- 
 
 The system you seemed to have adopted when 
 vjrd Chatham unexpectedly left you at the head of 
 cffaa-s, gave us no promise of that uncommon exer- 
 tion of vigour which has since illustrated your char- 
 acter, and distinguished your administration. Far 
 from discovering a spiri. bold enough to invade the 
 first rights of the people and the first principles o 
 the constitution, you were scrupulous of exercising 
 even those powers with which the executive branch 
 of the legislature is legally invested. We have not 
 yet forgotten how long Mr. Wilkes was suffered to 
 appear at large, nor how long he was at liberty to 
 canvass for the city and county, with all the terrors 
 of an outlawry hanging over him. Our gracious 
 sovereign has not yet forgotten the extraordinary 
 care you took of his dignity, and of the safety of 
 his person, when, at a crisis which courtiers af- 
 fected to call alarming, you left the metropolis ex- 
 posed, for two nights together, to every species of 
 riot and disorder. The security of the royal resi- 
 dence from insult was then sufficiently provided for 
 in Mr. Conway's firmness, and lord Weymouth's 
 discretion ; while the prime minister of Great Bri- 
 'ain, in a rural retirement, and in tlie arms of faded 
 beauty, had lost all memory of his sovereign, hi*
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 75 
 
 country and himself. In these instances you might 
 have acted with vigour, for you would have had the 
 sanction of the laws to support you : the friends 
 of government might have defended you without 
 shame ; and moderate men, who wish well to the 
 peace and good order of society, might have had a 
 pretence for applauding your conduct. But these, 
 it seems, were not occasions worthy of your grace's 
 interposition. You reserved the proofs of your in- 
 trepid spirit for trials of greater hazard and im- 
 portance ', and now, as if tlie most disgraceful re- 
 laxation of the executive authority had given you a 
 claim of credit to indulge in excesses still more 
 dangerous, you seem determined to compensate 
 amply for your former negligence, and to balance 
 the non-execution of the laws with a breach of the 
 constitution. From one extreme you suddenly start 
 to the other, without leaving, between the weakness 
 and the fury of the passions, one moment's interva 
 for the firmness of the understanding. 
 
 These observations, general as they are, might 
 easily be extended into a faithful history of your 
 grace's administration, and perhaps may be the em- 
 ployment of a future hour. But the business of the 
 present moment will not suffer me to look back to a 
 series of events, which cease to be interesting or im- 
 portant, because they are succeeded by a measure so 
 singularly daring, tiiat it excites all our attention, and 
 engrosses all our resentment. 
 
 Your patronage of Mr. Luttrell has been crowned 
 with success. With this precedent before you, with 
 the principles on whicii it was established, and with 
 a future house of commons, perhaps less virtuous
 
 76 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 than the present, every county in England^ under the 
 auspices of tiie treasury, may be represented as com- 
 pletely as the county of Middlesex. Posterity will 
 be indebted to your grace for not contenting yourself 
 with a temporary expedient, but entailing upon them 
 the immediate blessings of your administration. 
 Boroughs were already too much at the mercy of 
 government. Counties could neither be purchased 
 nor intimidated. But their solemn determined elec- 
 tion may be rejected ; and the man they detest may 
 be appointed by another choice to represent them in 
 parliament. Yet it is admitted, that the sheriffs 
 obeyed the laws, and performed their duty.* The 
 return they made must have been legal and valid, or 
 undoubtedly they would have been censured for 
 making it. With every good-natured allowance 
 for your grace's youth and inexperience, there are 
 some things which you cannot but know. You 
 cannot but know, that the right of the freeholders 
 to adhere to their choice (even supposing it im- 
 properly exerted) was as clear and indisputable 
 as that of the house of commons to exclude one of 
 their own members. Nor is it possible for you not 
 to see the wide distance there is between the nega- 
 tive power of rejecting one man, and the positive 
 power of appointing another. The right of ex- 
 pulsion, in the most favourable sense, is no more 
 than the custom of parliament. The right of elec- 
 tion is the very essence of the constitution. To vio- 
 late that right, and much more to transfer it to any 
 
 * Sir Fletcher Norton, when it was proposed to punish 
 ihe sheriffs, declared in the house of commons, that they, in 
 returnmg Mr. Wilkes, had dene no more than their duly.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 'm 
 
 oilier set of men, is a step leading immedlutely to the 
 dissolution of all government. So far forth as it 
 operates, it constitutes a house of commons which 
 does not represent the people. A house of commons 
 so formed would involve a contradiction, and the 
 grossest confusion of ideas : but there are some 
 ministers, my lord, whose views can only be answer- 
 ed by reconciling absurdities, and making the same 
 proposition, which is false and absurd in argument, 
 true in fact. 
 
 This measure, my lord, is, however, attended with 
 one consequence favourable to the people, which 
 I am persuaded you did not foresee.* While the 
 contest lay between the ministry and Mr. Wilkes, 
 his situation and private character gave you advan- 
 tages over him, which common candour, if not the 
 memory of your former friendship, should have 
 forbidden you to make use of To religious men 
 you had an opportunity of exaggerating the irregu- 
 larities of his past life ; to moderate men you held 
 forth the pernicious consequences of faction. Men 
 who, with this character, looked no farther than 
 to the object before them, were not dissatisfied at 
 seeing Mr. Wilkes excluded from parliament. You 
 have now taken care to shift the question ; or rather, 
 you have created a new one, in which JMr. Wilkes is 
 no more concerned than any other English gentle- 
 man. You have united this country against you on 
 one grand constitutional point, on the decision of 
 which our existence, as a free people, absolutely de- 
 pends. You have asserted, not in words, but in fact, 
 
 • The reader is desired to mark this pro^)hecy.
 
 78 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 that the representation in parliamentdotinot depend 
 upon the choice of the freeholders. If such a case 
 can possibly happen once, it may happen frequently ; 
 it may happen always : and if three hundred votes, 
 by any mode of reasoning whatever, can prevail 
 against twelve hundred, the same reasoning would 
 equally have given Mr. Luttrell his seat with ten 
 votes, or even with one. The consequences of this 
 attack upon the constitution are too plain and 
 palpable, not to alarm the dullest apprehension. I 
 trust you will find that the people of England are 
 neither deficient in spirit or understandings though 
 you have treated them as if they had neither sense to 
 feel nor spirit to resent. We have reason to thank 
 God and our ancestors, that there never yet was a 
 minister in this country who could stand the issue of 
 such a conflict; and, with every prejudice in favour 
 of your intentions, I see no such abilities in your 
 gijace, as should enable you to succeed in an enter- 
 prise, in which the ablest and basest of your prede- 
 cessors have found their destruction. You may con- 
 tinue to deceive your gracious master with false 
 representations of the temper and condition of his 
 subjects: you may command a venal vote, because 
 it is the common established appendage of your 
 office : but never hope that the freejiolders will make 
 a tame surrender of their rights ; or, that an English 
 army will join with you in overturning the liberties 
 of their country. They know, that their first duty, 
 as citizens, is paramount to all subsequent engage- 
 ments : nor will they prefer the discipline, or even 
 the honours of their profession, to those sacred origi- 
 nal rights which belonged to them before they were
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 79 
 
 soldiers, and which they claim and possess as the 
 birth-right of Englishmen. 
 
 Return, my lord, before it be too late, to that easy 
 insipid system which you first set out with. Take 
 back your mistress.* The name of friend may be 
 fatal to her, for it leads to treachery and persecution. 
 Indulge the people. Attend Newmarket. Mr. Lut- 
 trell may again vacate his seat ; and Mr. Wilkes, 
 if not persecuted, will soon be forgotten. To be 
 weak and inactive is safer than to be daring and 
 criminal ; and wide is the distance between a riot 
 of the populace and a convulsion of the whole king- 
 dom. You may live to make the experiment, but no 
 honest man can wish you should survive it. 
 
 JUNIUS. 
 
 XII. 
 
 To his Grace the Duke of Grafton. 
 
 MY LORD, May 30, 17C9. 
 
 If the measures in which you have been most suc- 
 cessful had been supported by any tolerable appear- 
 ance of argument, I should have thought my time 
 not ill employed in continuing to examine your 
 
 • The duke, about this time, had separated himself from 
 Anne Parsons ; but proposed to continue iKiited with her 
 on some platonic terms of friendship, which she rejected 
 with contempt. His baseness to this woman is beyond de- 
 scription or bf'lief.
 
 80 JUNIUSS LETTERS. 
 
 conduct as a minister, and stating it fairly to the 
 public. But when I sec questions of the liigliest 
 national importance carried as they have Ijecn, and 
 the first principles of tlic constitution openly vio- 
 lated, without argument or decency, I confess I give 
 up the cause in despair. The meanest of your pre- 
 decessors had abilities snfiicient to give a colour to 
 their measures. If they invaded the rights of the 
 people, they did not dare to offer a direct insult to 
 their understanding ; and, in former times, the most 
 venal parliaments made it a condition, in their bar- 
 gain with the minister, that he should furnish them 
 with some plausible pretences for selling their coun- 
 try and themselves. You have had the merit of in- 
 troducing a more compendious system of government 
 and logic. You neither address yourself to the pas- 
 sions nor the understanding, but simply to me touch. 
 You apply yourself immediately to the feelings of 
 your friends ; who, contrary to the forms of parlia- 
 ment, never enter heartily into a debate until they 
 have divided. 
 
 Relinquishing, therefore, all idle views of amend- 
 ment to your grace, or of benefit to the public, let 
 me be permitted to consider your character and con- 
 duct, merely as a subject of c.irious speculation. 
 There is something in both which distinguishes you, 
 not only from all other ministers, but all other men. 
 It is not that you do wrong by design, but that you 
 should never do right by mistake. It is not that 
 your indolence and your activity have been equally 
 misapplied, but that the first uniform principle, or, if 
 I may call it, the genius of your life, should have 
 carried you through e'^'ory possible change and con-
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. ^f 
 
 tradictlon of conduct, without the momentary impu- 
 tation or colour of a virtue ; and that the wildest 
 spirit of inconsistency should never once have betrayed 
 you into a wise or honourable action. This, I own, 
 gives an air of singularity to your fortune, as well as 
 to your disposition. Let us look back, together, to 
 a scene, in which a mind like yours will find nothing 
 to repent of Let us try, my lord, how well you 
 have supported the various i-elations in which you 
 stood to your sovereign, your country, your friends, 
 and yourself. Give us, if it be possible, some excuse 
 to posterity and to ourselves, for submitting to your 
 administration. If not the abilities of a great minis- 
 ter, if not the integrity of a patriot, or the fidelity of 
 a friend, show us, at least, the firmness of a man. 
 For the sake of your mistress, the lover shall be 
 spared. I will not lead her into public, as you have 
 done ; nor will I insult the memory of departed 
 beauty. Her sex, which alone made her amiable in 
 your eyes, makes her respectable in mine. 
 
 The character of the reputed ancestors of some 
 men has made it possible for their descendants to be 
 vicious in the extreme, without being degenerate. 
 Those of your grace, for instance, left no distressing 
 examples of virtue even to their legitimate posterity : 
 and you may look back with pleasure to an illustri- 
 ous pedigree, in which heraldry has not left a single 
 good quality upon record to insult or upbraid you. 
 You have better proofs of your descent, my lord, than 
 the register of a marriage, or any troublesome in- 
 heritance of reputation. There are some hereditary 
 strokes of character, by which a family may be as 
 clearly distinguislied, as bv the blackest features of 
 \) 2 ' C
 
 82 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 tlie human face. Charles the First lived and died a 
 hypocrite. Charles the Second was a hypocrite of 
 another sort, and should have died upon the same 
 scaffold. At the distance of a century, we see theii 
 different characters happily revived and blended in 
 your grace. Sullen and severe without religion, 
 profligate without gayety, you live like Charles the 
 Second, without being an amiable companion ; and, 
 for aught I know, may die as his father did, without 
 the reputation of a martyr. 
 
 You had already taken your degrees with credit, 
 in those schools in which the English nobility are 
 formed to virtue, when you were introduced to 
 lord Chatham's protection.* From Newmarket, 
 White's, and the opposition, he gave you to the 
 world with an air of popularity, which young men 
 usually set out with, and seldom preserve: grave 
 and plausible enough to be thought fit for business ; 
 too young for treachery ; and, in short, a patriot of 
 no unpromising expectations. Lord Chatham was 
 the earliest object of your political wonder and at- 
 tachment; yet you deserted him, upon the first 
 hopes that offered of an equal share of power with 
 lord Rockingham. When the late duke of Cumber- 
 land's first negotiation failed, and when the fa- 
 vourite was pushed to the last extremity, you saved 
 him, by joining with an administration, in which 
 , lord Chatham had refused to engage. Still, how 
 
 ♦ To understand these passages, the reader is referred 
 to a noted pamphlet, called ' The History of the Mi- 
 nority.'
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 83 
 
 e%'er, he was yom- friend: and you are yet t ax- 
 plain to the world, why you consented to act ^with- 
 out him : or why, after uniting with lord Rocking- 
 ham, you deserted and betrayed him. You com- 
 plained that no measures were taken to satisfy your 
 patron ; and that your friend, Mr, Wilkes, who had 
 suffered so much for the part}', had been abandoned 
 to his fate. They have since contributed, not a 
 little, to your present plenitude of power ; yet, I 
 think, lord Chatham has less reason than ever to be 
 satisfied : and, as for Mr. Wilkes, it is, perhaps, 
 the greatest misfortune of his life, that you should 
 have so many compensations to make in the closet 
 for your former friendship with him. Your gracious 
 master understands your character, and makes you 
 a persecutor, because you have been a friend. 
 
 Lord Chatham formed his last administration 
 upon principles which you certainly concurred in, or 
 you could never have been placed at the head of 
 the treasury. By deserting those principles, or by 
 acting in direct contradiction to them, in which he 
 found you were secretly supported in the closet, 
 you soon forced him to leave you to yourself, and 
 to withdraw his name from an administration which 
 had been formed on the credit of it. You had then 
 a prospect of friendships better suited to your ge- 
 nius, and more likely to fix your disposition. Mar- 
 .nage is the point on which every rake is stationary 
 at last : and truly, my lord, you may well be weary 
 of the circuit you have taken ; for you have now 
 fairly travelled through every sign in the political 
 zodiac, from the scorpion, in which you stung lord
 
 84 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 Chathan. to the hopes of a virgin* iii the house oi 
 BJoomsbury. One would think that you had hacf 
 sufficient experience of the frailty of nuptial en- 
 gagements, or, at least, that such a friendship as 
 the duke of Bedford's might have been secured to 
 you by tiie auspicious marriage of your late duchesst 
 with his nephew. But ties of this tender nature 
 cannot be drawn too close ; and it may possibly 
 be a part of the duke of Bedford's ambition, after 
 making her an honest woman, to work a miracle 
 of the same sort upon your grace. This worthy 
 nobleman has long dealt in virtue: there has been 
 a large consumption of it in his own family ; and, 
 in the way of traffic, I dare say, he has bought and 
 sold more than half the representative integrity of the 
 nation. 
 
 In a political view, this union is not imprudent. 
 The favour of princes is a perishable commodity. ^ 
 Tou have now a strength sufficient to command the v 
 closet, and if it be necessary to betray one friend- 
 ship more, you may set even lord Bute at defiance. 
 Mr. Stewart M'Kenzie may possibly remember what A 
 use the duke of Bedford usually makes of his power j 
 and our gracious sovereign, I doubt not, rejoices at 
 this first appearance of union among his servants. 
 His late majesty, under the happy influence of a 
 family connexion between his ministers, was re- 
 
 • His grace had lately mariied miss Wrottesly, niece of ff- 
 the good Gertrude, duchess of Bedford. 
 
 t Miss Liddel, \fter her divorce from the duke, iriDrried 
 lord Uoper Ossory.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. %S 
 
 lieved from the cares of the government. A more 
 active prince may, perhaps, observe with suspicion 
 by what degrees an artful servant grows upon his 
 master, from the first unlimited professions of duty 
 and attachment, to the painful representation of 
 the necessity of the royal service, and soon, in regu- 
 lar progression, to the humble insolence of dictating 
 in all the obsequious forms of peremptory submi;- 
 sion. The interval is carefully employed in forming 
 connexions, creating interests, collecting a party, 
 and laying the foundation of double marriages; un- 
 til the deluded prince, who thought he had found a 
 creature prostituted to his service, and insignificant 
 enough to be always dependent upon his pleasure, 
 finds him, at last, too strong to be commanded, and 
 too formidable to be removed. 
 
 Your grace's public conduct, as a minister, is but 
 the counterpart of your private history ; the same 
 inconsistency, the same contradictions. In America 
 we trace you, from the first opposition to tiie stamp 
 act, on principles of convenience, to Mr. Pitt's sur- 
 render of the right ; then forward to lord Rocking- 
 ham's surrender of the fact; then back again to 
 lord Rockingham's declaration of the right ; then 
 forward to taxation with Mr. Townshend ; and, 
 in the last instance, from the gentle Conway's un- 
 determined discretion, to blood and compulsion 
 with the duke of Bedford : yet, if we may believe 
 the simplicity of lord North's eloquence, at the 
 opening of the next session, you are once more to 
 be the patron of America. Is this the wisdom of 
 a rreat minister, or is it the ominous vibration of 
 a pendulum ? Had 3'ou no opinion of your own, my
 
 86 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 lord ? Or was it the gratification of betraying every 
 party with which you have been united, and of de- 
 serting every political principle in which you had 
 concurred ? 
 
 Your enemies may turn their e)'es without regret 
 from this adn^irable system of provincial government. 
 They will find gratification enough in the survey of 
 your domestic and foreign policy. 
 
 If, instead of disowning lord Shelburne, the 
 British court had interposed with dignity and firm- 
 ness, you know, my lord, that Corsica would never 
 have been invaded. The French saw the weakness 
 of a distracted ministry, and were justified in treating 
 you with contempt. They would probably have 
 yielded, in the first instance, rather* than hazard a 
 rupture with this country ; but, being once engaged, 
 they cannot retreat without dishonour. Common 
 sense foresees consequences which have escaped 
 your grace's penetration. Either we sufljer the 
 French to make an acquisition, the importance of 
 which you have probably no conception of; or we 
 oppose them by an underhand management, which 
 only disgraces us in the eyes of Europe, without 
 answering any purpose of policy or prudence. From 
 secret, indirect assistance, a transition to some 
 more open, decisive measures, becomes unavoidable ; 
 till, at last, we find ourselves principal in tlic war, 
 and are obliged to hazard every thing for an ob- 
 ject, wiiich might have originally been obtained 
 without expense or danger. I am not versed in the 
 politics of the north ; but this, I believe, is certain ; 
 that half the money you have distril)nted to carry 
 the expulsion of Mr, Wilkes, or even your secreta-
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 87 
 
 ry's share in the last subscription, would have kept 
 the Turks at your devotion. Was it economy, my 
 lord i or did the coy resistance you have constantly 
 met with in the British senate make you despair of 
 corrupting the divan ? Your friends, indeed, have 
 tiie first claim upon your bounty : but if 500/. a year 
 can be spared in pension to Sir John Moore, it 
 would not have disgraced you to have allowed some- 
 thing to the secret service of the public. 
 
 You will say, perhaps, that the situation of affairs 
 at home demanded and engrossed the whole of your 
 attention. Here, I confess, you have been active. 
 An amiable, accomplished prince, ascends the throne 
 under the happiest of all auspices, the acclamations 
 and united affections of his subjects. The first 
 measures of his reign, and even the odium of a fa- 
 vourite, were not able to shake their attachment. 
 Your services, my lord, have been more successful. 
 Since you were permitted to take the lead, we have 
 seen the natural effects of a system of government 
 at once both odious and contemptible. We have 
 seen the laws sometimes scandalously relaxed, some- 
 times violently stretched beyond their tone. We 
 have seen the person of the sovereign insulted ; and, 
 in profound peace, and with an undisputed title, 
 the fidelity of his subjects brought by his own ser- 
 vants into public question.* Without abilities, reso- 
 
 • The wise duke, about this time, exerted all the influ- 
 ence of government to procure addresses to satisfy the king 
 of the fidelity of his subjects. They came in very thick 
 from Scotland ; but, after tli^ appearance of this letter, we 
 heard no more of them.
 
 88 JUNIUS'S LETTERS 
 
 lution, or interest, you have done m^re than lord 
 Bute could accomplish, with all Scotland at his 
 heels. 
 
 Your grace, little anxious, perhaps, either for 
 present or future reputation, will not desire to be 
 handed down in these colours to posterity. You 
 have reason to flatter yourself, that the memory of 
 your administration will survive, even the forms of 
 a constitution, which our ancestors vainly hoped 
 would be immortal ; and, as for your personal char- 
 acter, I will not, for the honour of human nature, 
 suppose that 3'ou can wish to have it remembered. 
 The condition of the present times is desperate in- 
 deed J but there is a debt due to those who come 
 after us ; and it is the historian's office to punish, 
 though he cannot correct. I do not give you to 
 posterity as a pattern to imitate, but as an example 
 to deter j and as your conduct comprehends every 
 thin^ that a wise or honest minister should avoid, I 
 mean to make you a negative instruction to your 
 Buccessors for ever 
 
 JUNIUS.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS 
 
 XIII. 
 
 Addressed to the Printer of the Public Advertiser. 
 
 SIR, June 12, 1769- 
 
 The duke of Grafton's ft-iends, not finding it con- 
 venient to enter into a contest with Junius, are 
 now reduced to the last melancholy resource of de- 
 feated argument, the flat general charge of scur- 
 rility and falsehood. As for his style, I shall leave 
 it to the critics. The truth of his facts is of more 
 importance to the public. They are of such a na- 
 ture, that I think a bare contradiction will have no 
 weight with any man who judges for himself. Let 
 us take them in the order in which they appear in 
 his last letter. 
 
 1. Have not the first rights of the people, and the 
 first principles of the constitution, been openly in- 
 vaded, and the very name of an election made 
 ridiculous, by the arbitrary appointment of Mr. 
 Luttrell ? 
 
 2. Did not the duke of Grafton frequently lead 
 his mistress into public, and even place her at ihe 
 head of his table, as if he had pulled down an an- 
 cient temple of Venus, and could bury all decency 
 and shame under the ruins .'' Is this the man who 
 dares to talk of Mr. Wilkes's morals ? 
 
 3. Is not the character of his presumptive ances- 
 tors as strongly marked in him, as ii* he had de- 
 scended from them in a direct legitimate line ? The
 
 90 JUNIUS'S I.ETTERS 
 
 idea of his death is only prophetic ; and what is 
 prophecy but a narrative preceding the fact ? 
 
 4. Was not lord Chatham the first who raised him 
 to the rank and post of a minister, and the first 
 whom he abandoned ? 
 
 5. Did he not join with lord Rockingham, and 
 betray him ? 
 
 6. Was he not the bosom friend of JMr. Wilkes, 
 whom he now pursues to destruction ? 
 
 7. Did he not take his degrees with credit at 
 Newmarket, White's, and the opposition ? 
 
 8. After deserting lord Ciiathani's principles, and 
 sacrificing his friendship, is he not now closely 
 united with a set of men, who, though they have 
 occasionally joined with all parties, have, in every 
 different situation, and at all times, been equally and 
 constantly detested by this country ? 
 
 9. Has not sir John Moore a pension of five 
 hundred pounds a year ? This may probably be an 
 acquittance of favours upon the turf: but is it pos- 
 sible for a minister to offer a grosser outrage to a 
 nation, which has so very lately cleared away the 
 beggary of the civil list, at the expense of more than 
 half a million ? 
 
 10. Is tliere any one mode of thinking or acting 
 with respect to America, which the duke of Grafton 
 has not successively adopted and abandoned ? 
 
 11. Is there not a singular mark of shame set 
 upon this man, who has so little delicacy and feel- 
 ing, as to submit to the opproljrium of marrying a 
 near relation of one who had debauched his wife f 
 In the name of decency, how are these amiable 
 cousins to meet at their ancle's table ? It will be a
 
 JUNILS'S LETTERS. 91 
 
 scene in CEdipus, without the distress. Is it wealth, 
 or wit, or beauty .'' Or is the amorous youth in 
 love .'' 
 
 The rest is notorious. That Corsica has been sa- 
 crificed to the French ; that, in some instances, the 
 laws have been scandalously relaxed, and, in others, 
 daringly violated ; and that the king's subjects have 
 been called upon to assure him of their fidelity, in 
 spite of the measures of his servants. 
 
 A writer, who builds his arguments upon facts 
 such as these, is not easily to be confuted. He is not 
 to be answered by general assertions or general re- 
 proaches. He may want eloquence to amuse and 
 persuade ; but, speaking truth, he must always 
 
 convince. 
 
 PHILO JUNIUS. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 Addressed to the Printer of the Public Advertiser 
 
 SIR June 22, 17G9. 
 
 The name of Old JVoll is destined to be the ruin 
 of the house of Stuart. There is an ominous fatality 
 in it, which even the spurious descendants of the 
 family cannot escape. Oliver Cromwell had the 
 merit of conducting Charles the First to the block. 
 Your correspondent, Old JVoll, appears to have the 
 same design upon the duke of Grafton. His argu- 
 ments consist better with the title he has assumed, 
 than with the principles he professes : for though
 
 92 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 he preteiKls to be an advocate for the duke, he 
 takes care to give us the best reason why his jjatron 
 should reguhxrly follow the fate of his presumptive 
 ancestor. Tlu'ough the whole course of the duke 
 of Grafton's life, I see a strange endeavour to unite 
 contradictions which cannot be reconciled. He 
 marries, to be divorced ; he keeps a mistress, to 
 remind him of conjugal endearments ; and he chooses 
 such friends as it is a virtue in him to desert. 
 If it were possible for the genius of that accomplish- 
 ed president, who pronounced sentence upon Charles 
 the First, to be revived in some modern sycophant,* 
 his grace, I doubt not, would by sympathy discover 
 him among the dregs of mankind, and take him for 
 a guide in those paths which naturally conduct a 
 minister to the scaffold. 
 
 The assertion that two-thirds of the nation ap- 
 prove of tiie acceptance of Mr. Luttrell (for even 
 Old JSToll is too modest to call it an election) can 
 neither be maintained nor confuted by argument. 
 It is a point of fact, on which every English gentle- 
 man will determine for himself As to lawyers, 
 their profession is supported by the indiscriminate 
 defence of right and wrong j and I confess I have 
 not that opinion of their knowledge or integrity, to 
 think it necessary that they should decide for me 
 upon a plain constitutional question. With respect 
 to the appointment of Mr. Luttrell, the chancellor 
 has never yet given any authentic opinion. Sir 
 
 • It is hardly necessarj ti rf;Tiind the reader ot the name 
 of Braclshaw.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 93 
 
 Fletcher Norton is, indeed, an honest, a very honest 
 man ; and the attorney-general is ex officio the guar- 
 dian of liberty ; to take care, I presume, that it shall 
 never break out into a criminal excess. Doctor 
 Blackstone is solicitor to the queen. The doctor 
 recollected that he had a place to preserve, though 
 he forgot that he had a reputation to lose. We liave 
 now the good fortune to understand the doctor's 
 principles as well as writings. For the defence of 
 truth, of law, and reason, the doctor's book may be 
 safely consulted ; but whoever wishes to cheat a 
 neighbour of his estate, or to rob a country of its rights, 
 need make no scruple of consulting the doctor himself. 
 The example of the English nobility maj', for 
 aught I know, sufficiently justify the duke of Graf- 
 Ion, when he indulges his genius in all the fashion- 
 able excesses of the age ; yet, considering his rank 
 and station, I think it would do him more honour 
 to be able to deny the fact, than to defend it by 
 such authority. But if vice itself could be excused, 
 there is yet a certain display of it, a certain outrage 
 to decency, and violation of public decorum, which, 
 for the benefit of society, should never be forgiven. 
 It is not that he kept a mistress at home, but that 
 he constantly attended her abroad. It is not the 
 private indulgence, but the public insult, of which 
 I complain. The name of miss Parsons would hardly 
 have been known, if the first lord of the treasury 
 had not led her in triumph through the opera-house, 
 even in the presence of the queen. When we see a 
 man act in this manner, \\c may admit the shame- 
 less depravity of his heart; but what arc we to think 
 of his understanding ?
 
 94 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 His grace, it seems, is now to be a regular, do- 
 mestic man ; and, as an omen of the future delicacj' 
 and correctness c>f liis conduct, he marries a first 
 cousin of the man who had fixed that mark and 
 title of infamy upon him, which, at the same mo- 
 ment, makes a husband unhappy and ridiculous. 
 The ties of consanguinity may possibly preserve 
 him from the same fate a second time ; and as to 
 the distress of meeting, I take for granted, the ven- 
 erable uncle of these common cousins has settled 
 the etiquette in such a manner, that, if a mistake 
 should happen, it may reach no farther than from 
 madame ma femme to madame ma cousine. 
 
 The duke of Grafton has always some excellent 
 reason for deserting his friends : the age and inca- 
 pacity of lord Chatham, the debility of lord Rock- 
 ingham, or the infamy of Mr. Wilkes. There was 
 a time, indeed, when he did not appear to be quite 
 as well acquainted, or so violently offended, with 
 the infirmities of his friends : but now I confess 
 they are not ill exchanged for the youthful, vigorous 
 virtue of the duke of Bedford ; the firmness oi 
 general Conway ; the blunt, or, if I may call it, the 
 awkward integrity of Mr. Rigby ; and the spotless 
 morality of lord Sandwich. 
 
 If a late pension to a broken gambler* be an act 
 worthy of commendation, the duke of Grafton's 
 connexions will furnish him with many opportunities 
 of doing praiseworth}' actions ; and as he himself 
 bears no part of the expense, the generosity of distri- 
 buting the public money for the support of virtuous 
 
 * Sh John Moore.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 95 
 
 families in distress, will be an unquestionable proo. 
 of his grace's humanity. 
 
 As to public affairs, Old JVoll is a little tender o. 
 descending to particulars. He does not deny that 
 Corsica has been sacrificed to France ; and he con- 
 fesses that, with regard to America, his patron's 
 measures have been subject to some variation : but 
 then he promises wonders of stability and firmness 
 for the future. These are mysteries, of which we 
 must not pretend to judge by experience ; and 
 truly, I fear we shall perish in the desert, before we 
 arrive at the land of promise. In die regular course 
 of things, the period of the duke of Grafton's minis- 
 terial manhood should now be approaching. The 
 imbecility of his infant state was committed to lord 
 Chatham. Charles Townshend took some care of 
 his education at that ambiguous age, which lies be- 
 tween the follies of pohtical childhood and the vices 
 of puberty. The empire of the passions soon suc- 
 ceeded. His earliest principles and connexions were 
 of course forgotten or despised. The company he 
 has lately kept has been of no service to his morals ; 
 and, in the conduct of public affairs, we see the 
 character of his time of life strongly distinguished. 
 An obstinate, ungovernable self-sufficiency plainly 
 points out to us that state of imperfect maturity at 
 which the graceful levity of youth is lost, and the 
 solidity of experience not yet acquired. It is pos- 
 sible the young man may, in time, grow wiser, and 
 reform ; but if I understand his disposition, it is not 
 of such corrigible stuff that we should hope for any 
 amendment in him, before he has accomplished the
 
 96 JLNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 des uclion of liis country. Like otlicr rakes, he 
 may. perhaps, live to see liis error, but not until he 
 has ruined his estate. 
 
 PHILO JUNIUS. 
 
 XV. 
 
 To his Grace the Duke of Grafton. 
 
 MY LORD, July 8, 17G9- 
 
 If nature had given you an understanding quali- 
 fied to keep pace with the wishes and principles ol 
 your heart, she would have made you, perhaps, the 
 most formidable minister that ever was employed, 
 under a limited monarch, to accomplish the ruin 
 of a free people. When neither the feelings of 
 shame, the reproaches of conscience, nor the dread 
 of 'punishment, form any bar to the designs of a 
 minister, the people would have too much reason 
 to lament their condition, if they did not find some 
 resource in the weakness of his understanding. We 
 owe it to the bounty of Providence, that the com- 
 pletest depravity of the heart is sometimes strangely 
 united with a confusion of the mind, which coun- 
 teracts the most favourite principles, and makes the 
 same man treacherous without art, and a hypocrite 
 without deceiving. The measures, for instance, in 
 which your grace's activity has been chiefly exerted, 
 as they WTi-e adopted without skill, should have 
 been conr'uctcd with more than common dexterity 
 But truly, my lord, the execution has been as gross
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 97 
 
 as the design. By one decisive step you have de- 
 feated all the arts of writing. You have fairly con- 
 founded the intrigues of opposition, and silenced 
 the clamours of faction. A dark, ambiguous system 
 might require and furnish the materials of inge- 
 nious illustration ; and, in doubtful measures, the 
 virulent exaggeration of party must be employed to 
 rouse and engage the passions of the people. You 
 have now brought the merits of your administration 
 to an issue, on which every Englishman, of the nar- 
 rowest capacity, may determine for himself: it is 
 not £fti alarm to the passions, but a calm appeal to 
 the judgment of the people, upon their own most 
 essential interests. A more experienced minister 
 would not have hazarded a direct invasion of the 
 first principles of the constitution, before he had 
 made some progress in subduing the spirit of the 
 people. With such a cause as yours, my lord, it is 
 not sufficient that you have the court at your devo- 
 tion, unless you can find means to corrupt or intimi- 
 date the jury. The collective body of the people 
 form that jury, and from their decision there is but 
 one appeal. 
 
 Whether you have talents to support you, at a 
 crisis of such difficulty and danger, should long 
 since have been considered. Judging truly of your 
 disposition, you have, perhaps, mistaken the extent 
 of your capacity. Good faith and folly have so long 
 been received as synonymous terms, that the reverse 
 of the proposition has grown into credit, and every 
 villain fancies himself a man of abilities. It is the 
 apprehension of your friends, my lord, thaUyou 
 have drawn some hasty conclusion of this sort, and 
 
 VOL. I. 1'' 7^
 
 98 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 that a partial reliance upon your moral character has 
 betrayed you beyond the depth of your understand- 
 ing. You have now carried things too far to retreat. 
 You have plainly declared to the people what they 
 are to expect from the continuance of your adminis- 
 tration. It is time for your grace to consider what 
 you also may expect in return from their spirit and 
 their resentment. 
 
 Since the accession of our most gracious sovereign 
 to the throne, we have seen a system of government 
 which may well be called a reign of experiments. 
 Parties of all denominations have been employeal and 
 dismissed. The advice of the ablest men in this 
 country has been repeatedly called for, and rejected j 
 and wiien the royal displeasure has been signified to 
 a ministei", the marks of it have usually been propor- 
 tioned to his abilities and integrity. The spirit of 
 the favourite had some apparent influence upon 
 every administration ; and every set*of ministers 
 preserved an appearance of duration as long as they 
 submitted to that influence. But there were certain 
 services to be performed for the favourite's security, 
 or to gratify his resentments, which your predeces- 
 sors in office had the wisdom or the virtue not to 
 undertake. The moment this refractory spirit was 
 discovered, their disgrace was determined. Lord 
 Chatham, Mr. Grenville, and lord Rockingham, 
 have successively had the honour to be dismissed for 
 preferring their duty as servants of the public to 
 those compliances which were expected from their 
 station. A submissive administration was at last 
 grad^ially collected from the deserters of all parties, 
 interests, and connexions ; and nothing remained
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. QU 
 
 but to find a leader for these gallant, well-disciplined 
 troops. Stand forth, my lord ; for thou art the man. 
 Lord Bute found no resource of dependence or secu- 
 rity in the proud, imposing superiority of lord Chat- 
 ham's abilities ; the shrewd, inflexible judgment of 
 Mr. Grenville ; nor in the mild but determined in- 
 tegrity of lord Rockingham. His views and situation 
 required a creature void of all these properties j and 
 lie was forced to go through every division, resolu- 
 tion, composition, and refinement of political chemis- 
 try, before he happily arrived at the caput mortuum 
 of vitriol in your grace. Flat and insipid in your 
 retired state ; but, brought into action, you become 
 vitriol again. Such are the extremes of alternate 
 indolence or fury, which have governed your whole 
 administration. Your circumstances, with regard 
 to the people, soon becoming desperate, like other 
 honest servants, you determined to involve the 
 best of masters in the same difficulties with yourself 
 We owe it to your grace's well-directed labours, 
 that your sovereign has been persuaded to doubt 
 of the afiections of his subjects, and the people to 
 suspect the virtues of their sovereign, at a time when 
 both were unquestionable. You have degraded the 
 roj'al dignity into a base and dishonourable compe- 
 tition with Mr. Wilkes : nor had you abilities to 
 carry even the last contemptible triumph over a 
 private man, without the grossest violation of the 
 fundamental laws of the constitution and rights of 
 the people. But these are riglits, my lord, which 
 you can no more annijjilate, than you can the soil 
 to which they arc ainiexed. The question no longei 
 turns upon points of national lionour and security
 
 100 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 abroad, or on the degrees of expedience and propr 
 ety of measures at home. It was not inconsis' int 
 that you should abandon the cause of liberty, in 
 another country, which you had persecuted in your 
 own : and, in the common arts of domestic corrup- 
 tion, we miss no part of sir Robert Walpole's system, 
 except his abilities. In this humble, imitative line, 
 you might long have proceeded safe and contempt- 
 ible. You might probably never have risen to the 
 dignity of being hated, and even have been despised 
 with moderation. But it seems you meant to be dis- 
 tinguished ; and, to a mind like yours, there was no 
 other road to fame but by the destruction of a noble 
 fabric, which you thought had been too long the 
 admiration of mankind. The use you have made 
 of the military force introduced an alarming change 
 in the mode of executing the laws. The arbitrary 
 appointment of Mr. Luttrell invades the foundation 
 of the laws themselves, as it manifestly transfers 
 the right of legislation from those whom the people 
 have chosen, to those whom they have rejected. 
 With a succession of such appointments, we may 
 soon see a house of commons collected, in the choice 
 of which the other towns and counties of England 
 will have as little share as the devoted county of 
 Middlesex. 
 
 Yet I trust your grace will find that the people of 
 this country are neither to be intimidated by violent 
 measures, nor deceived by refinements. When they 
 see Mr. Luttrell seated in the house of commons, 
 by mere dint of power, and in direct opposition to 
 the choice of a whole county, they will not listen to 
 those subtilties by which every arbitrary exertion
 
 JUNIUS'S LEriERS 101 
 
 of authority is explained into the law and privilege 
 of parliament. It requires no persuasion of argu- 
 ment, but simply the evidence of the senses, to con- 
 vince them, that, to transfer the right of election 
 from the collective to the representative body of 
 the people, contradicts all those ideas of a house of 
 commons which they have received from their fore- 
 fathers, and which they had already, though vainly, 
 perhaps, delivered to their children. The principles 
 on which this violent measure has been defended 
 have added scorn to injury, and forced us to feel 
 that we are not only oppressed, but insulted. 
 
 With what force, my lord, with what protection, 
 are you prepared to meet the united detestation of 
 the people of England .'' The city of London has 
 given a generous example to the kingdom, in what 
 manner a king of this country ought to be ad- 
 dressed : and I fancy, my lord, it is not yet in 
 vour courage to stand between your sovereign and 
 the addresses of his subjects. The injuries you 
 have done this country are such as demand not 
 only redress, but vengeance. In vain shall you 
 look for protection to that venal vote whicii you 
 have already paid for : another must be purchased ; 
 and, to save a minister, the house of commons 
 must declare themselves not only independent of 
 their constituents, but the determined enemies of 
 the constitution Consider my lord, whether this 
 be an extremity to which their fears will permit 
 them to advance : or, if their protection sliould 
 fail you, how far you are authorised to rely upon 
 the bincerity of those smiles, which a pious court 
 lavishes without rchirtance upon a libertine by pro-
 
 102 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 fession. It is not, indeed, the least of the tliousand 
 contradictions which attend you, that a man, marked 
 to the world by the grossest violation of all cere- 
 mony and decorum, should be the first servant of a 
 court, in which prayers are morality, and kneeling is 
 religion. 
 
 Trust not too far to appearances, by which your 
 predecessors have been deceived, though they have 
 not been injured. Even the best of princes may at 
 last discover, that this is a contention in which 
 every thing may be lost, but nothing can be gained : 
 and, as you became minister by accident, were 
 adopted without choice, trusted without confidence, 
 and continued without favour, be assured, thai 
 whenever an occasion presses, you will be discarded 
 without even the forms of regret. You will then 
 have reason to be thankful, if you are permitted to 
 retire to that seat of learning, which, in contem- 
 plation of the system of your life, the comparative 
 purity of your manners with those of their high 
 steward, and a thousand other recommending cir- 
 cumstances, has chosen you to encourage the grow- 
 ing virtue of their youth, and to preside over their 
 education. Whenever the spirit of distributing 
 prebends and bishoprics shall have departed from 
 you, you will find that learned seminary perfectly 
 recovered from the delirium of an installation, and, 
 what in truth it ought to be, once more a peaceful 
 scene of slumber and thoughtless meditation. The 
 venerable tutors of the university will no longer 
 distress your modesty, by proposing you for a pat- 
 tern to their pupils. The learned dulness of dec- 
 lamation will be silent ; and even the venal muse,
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 03 
 
 thou<rh happiest in fiction, will forget your Virtues. 
 Yet, for the benefit of the succeeding age, I could 
 wish that your retreat might be deferred until your 
 morals shall happily be ripened to that maturity of 
 corruption, at which the worst examples cease to be 
 coiitagiou3. 
 
 JUNIUS. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser. , 
 
 SIR, July 19, 1769. 
 
 4. great deal of useless argument might have 
 been saved, in the political contest which has arisen 
 from the expulsion of Mr. Wilkes, and the subse- 
 quent appointment of Mr. Luttrell, if the question 
 had been once stated with precision, to the satis- 
 faction of each party, and clearly understood by 
 them both. But in this, as in almost every other 
 dispute, It usually happens that much time is lost 
 in referring to a multitude of cases and precedents, 
 which prove nodiing to the purpose ; or in maui- 
 taining propositions, which are either not disputed, 
 or, whether they be admitted or denied, are entirely 
 indiflerent as to the matter in debate ; until at last, 
 the mind, perplexed and confounded with tiie end- 
 less subtilties of controversy, loses sight of the main 
 question, and never arrives at truth. Both parties 
 in the dispute arc apt enough to practise these dis-
 
 104 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 honest artifices. The man who is conscious of the 
 weakness of his cause is interested in concealing it : 
 and, on the other side, it is not uncommon to see a 
 go^d cause mangled by advocates, who do not know 
 the real strength of it. 
 
 I should be glad to know, for instance, to what 
 purpose, in the present case, so many precedents 
 have been produced, to prove that the house of 
 commons have a right to expel one of their own 
 members ; that it belongs to them to judge of the 
 validity of electisns J or that the law of parliament 
 is part of the law of the land .''* After all these 
 propositions are admitted, Mr. Luttrell's right to 
 his seat will continue to be just as disputable as it 
 was before. Not one of ihcm is at present in agita- 
 tion. Let it be admitted that the house of com- 
 mons were authorised to expel Mr. Wilkes, that they 
 are the proper court to judge of elections, and that 
 the law of parliament is binding upon the people ; 
 still it remains to be inquired, whether the house, 
 by their resolution in favour of Mr. Luttrell, have, 
 or have not, truly declared that law. To facilitate 
 this inquiry, I would have the question cleared of 
 all foreign or indifferent matter. The following 
 state of it M-ill probably be thought a fair one by 
 ooui parties ; and then I imagine there is no gen- 
 tleman in this country who will not be capable of 
 forming a judicious and true opinion \xpon *t. I 
 
 • The reader will observe, that these admissions are made, 
 not as of truths unquestionable, but for the sake of argu- 
 mentj and it order to bring th-^ "cal tjucstion to issup.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 105 
 
 take the question to be strictly this : " Whether or 
 uo it be the known, established law of parliament, 
 that the expulsion of a member of the house of 
 commons, of itself creates in him such an incapacity 
 to be re -elected, that, at a subsequent election, any 
 votes given to him are null and void ; and that any 
 other candidate, who, except the person expelled, 
 has the greatest number of votes, ought to be the 
 sitting member." 
 
 To prove that the affirmative is the law of par- 
 liament, I apprehend it is not sufficient for the pre- 
 sent house of commons to declare it to be so. We 
 may shut our eyes, indeed, to the dangerous conse- 
 (juences of suffering one branch of the legislature 
 to declare new laws without argument or example ; 
 and it may, perhaps, be prudent enough to submit 
 to authority ; but a mere assertion will never con- 
 vince, much less will it be thought reasonable tc 
 prove the right by the fact itself. The ministry 
 have not yet pretended to such a tyranny over our 
 minds. To support the affirmative fairly, it will 
 either be necessary to produce some statute, in 
 which that positive provision shall have been made, 
 that specific disability clearly created, and the con- 
 sequences of it declared ; or, if there be no such 
 statute, the custom of parliament must then be re- 
 ferred to ; and some case or cases,* strictly in point, 
 must be produced, with the decision of the court 
 
 • Precedents, in opposition to principles, have Uttle 
 weight with Junius ; but he thought it necessary to meet 
 the ministry upon their own ground. 
 E 2
 
 106 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 upon tliem ; for 1 readily admit, that the custom of 
 parliament, once clearly proved, is equally binding 
 with the common and statute law. 
 
 The consideration of what may be reasonable or 
 unreasonable, makes no part of this question. We 
 are inquiring what the law is, not what it ought to 
 be. Reason may be applied to show the impro- 
 priety or expediency of a law ; bu we must hav^e 
 cither statute or precedent to prove the existence 
 of it. At the same time, I do not mean to admit 
 that the late resolution of the house of commons is 
 defensible on general principles of reason, any more 
 than in law. This is not the hinge on which the 
 debate turns. 
 
 Supposing, therefore, that I have laid down an 
 accurate state of the question, I will venture to 
 affn-m, 1st, That there is no statute existing, by 
 which that specific disability which we speak of is 
 created. If there be, let it be produced. The ar- 
 gument will then be at an end. 
 
 2dly, That there is no precedent, in all the pro- 
 ceedings of the house of commons, which comes 
 entirely home to the present case, viz. " Where an 
 expelled member has been returned again, and 
 another candidate, with an infer/or number of votes, 
 has been declared 'die sitting member." If there bo 
 such a precedvur, let it be given to us plainly ; antl 
 I am sure it will have more weight than all the 
 cunning arguments which have been drawn from in 
 ferences and probabilities. 
 
 The ministry, in that laborious pamphlet, which, 
 I presume, contains the whole strength of the party, 
 have declared, " That Mr. Walpole's was the first
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 107 
 
 aud only instance in which the electors of any 
 county or borough had returned a person expelled 
 to serve in the same parliament." It is not possible 
 to conceive a case more exactly in point. Mr. Wal- 
 pole was expelled ; and, having a majority of votes 
 at the next election, was returned again. The 
 friends of Mr. Taylor, a candidate set up by the 
 ministry, petitioned the house that he might be 
 the sitting member. Thus far the circumstances 
 tally exactly, except that our house of commons 
 saved Mr. Luttrell the trouble of petitioning. The 
 point of law, however, was the same. It came 
 regularly before the house, and it was their busi- 
 ness to determine upon it. They did determine it ; 
 for they declared Mr. Taylor not duly elected. If 
 it be said, that they meant this resolution as matter 
 of favour and indulgence to the borough, which liad 
 ictorted Mr. Walpole upon them, in order that the 
 burgesses, knowing what the law was, might correct 
 their error, I answer, 
 
 I. Tiiat it is a strange way of arguing, to oppose 
 a supposition, which no man can prove, to a fact 
 wliich proves itself. 
 
 IL That if this were the intention of the house 
 of commons, it must have defeated itself. The 
 burgesses of Lynn could never have known their 
 error, much less could they have corrected it by 
 ii.iy instruction they received from the proceedings 
 of the house of commons. They might, perhaps, 
 have foreseen, that if they returned Mr. Walpole 
 again, he would again be rejected ; but they never 
 could infer, from a resolution by which the can- 
 idate with the fewest votes was declared 'kit duly
 
 103 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 elected, that, at a future election, - and in similar 
 circumstances, the house of commons would re- 
 verse their resolution, and receive the same can- 
 didate as duly elected, whom they had before re- 
 jected. 
 
 This, indeed, would have been a most extraordi- 
 nary' way of declaring the law of parliament, and 
 what, I presume, no man, whose undcrslanding is 
 not at cross purposes with itself, could possibly un- 
 derstand. 
 
 If, in a case of this importance, I thought myself 
 at liberty to argue from suppositions ratiier than 
 from facts, I think the probability, in this instance, 
 is directly the reverse of wiiat the ministry afBrm ; 
 and that it is much more likely that the house of 
 commons, at that time, would rather have strained 
 a point in favour of Mr. Taylor, than that they 
 would have violated the law of parliament, and 
 robbed Mr. Taylor of a right legally vested in him, 
 to gratify a refractory borough, which, in defiance 
 of them, had returned a person branded with the 
 strongest mark of the displeasure of the house. 
 
 But really, sir, this way of talking (for I cannot 
 call it argument) is a mockery of the common un- 
 derstanding of the nation, too gross to be endured. 
 Our dearest interests are at stake. An attempt has 
 been made, not merely to rob a single county of its 
 rights, but, by inevitable consequence, to alter the 
 constitution of the house of commons. This fatal 
 attempt has succeeded, and stands as a precedent 
 recorded for ever. If the ministry are unable to 
 defend tlieir cause by fair argument, founded on 
 facts, It't llicm spare us, at least, the morlification
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. Ip9 
 
 of being amused and deluded, like children. I be- 
 lieve there is yet a spirit of resistance in this country, 
 which will not submit to be oppressed; but I am 
 sure there is a fuiTd of good sense in this country, 
 which cannot be deceived. 
 
 JUNIUS. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser. 
 
 SIR, August 1, 17C9. 
 
 It will not be necessary for Junius to take the 
 trouble of answering your correspondent G, A. oi 
 the quotation from a speech without doors, pub- 
 lished in your paper of the 28th of last month. 
 The speech appeared before Junius's letter ; and, 
 as the author seems to consider the great proposi- 
 tion on which all his argument depends, viz. that 
 JSIr. Wilkes was under that knoian legal incapacity 
 of which Junius speaks, as a point granted, his 
 speech is in no shape an answer to Junius, for this 
 is the very question in debate. 
 
 As to G. A. I observe, first, that if he did not ad- 
 mit Junius's state of the question, he should have 
 shown the fallacy of it, or given us a more exact 
 one ; secondly, that, considering the many hours 
 and days wlucli the ministry and tlieir advocates
 
 110 JUNIUS'S* LETTERS. 
 
 have wasted in public debate, in compiling large 
 quartos, and collecting innumerable precedents, ex- 
 pressly to prove that the late proceedings of the 
 house of commons are warranted *by the law, cus- 
 tom, and practice of parliament, it is rather an ex- 
 traordinary supposition to be made by one of their 
 own party, even for the sake of argument, that no 
 such statute^ no such custom, of parliament, no such 
 case in point, can he produced. G. A. may, however, 
 make the supposition with safety. It contains 
 nothing but literally the fact ; except that there is 
 a case exactly in point, with a decision of the 
 house diametrically opposite to that which the 
 present house of commons came to in favour of Mr. 
 Luttrell. 
 
 The ministry now begin to be ashamed of the 
 weakness of their cause ; and, as it usually happens 
 with falsehood, are driven to the necessity of shift- 
 ing their ground, and changing their whole defence. 
 At first we were told, that nothing could be clearer 
 than that the proceedings of the house of commons 
 w£re justified by the known law and uniform cus- 
 tom of parliament. But now, it seems, if there 
 be no law, the house of commons have a right to 
 make one ; and if there be no precedent, they have 
 a right to create the first : for this, I presume, is 
 the amount of the questions proposed to Junius. 
 If your correspondent had been at all versed in the 
 law of parliament, or generally in the laws of this 
 country, he would have seen that this defence is as 
 weak and false as the former. 
 
 The privileges of either house of parliament, it 
 is true, arc indefinite that is, they have not been
 
 JUNIUS S LETTERS. Ill 
 
 described or laid down in any one code or Declara- 
 tion whatsoever ; but, whenever a question of privi- 
 lege has arisen, ii has invariably been disputed or 
 maintained upon the footing of precedents alone.* 
 In the course of the proceedings upon the Ayles- 
 bury election, the house of lords resolved, " That 
 neither house of parliament had any power, by any 
 vote or declaration, to create to themselves any new 
 privilege, that was not warranted by the known 
 laws and customs of parliament." And to this 
 rule, the house of commons, though otherwise they 
 had acted in a very arbitrary manner, gave their as- 
 sent ; for they affirmed that they had guided them- 
 selves by it in asserting their privileges. Now, sir, 
 if this be true, wit'i respect to matters of privilege, 
 in which the house of commons, individually, and 
 as a body, are principally concerned, how much 
 more strongly will 't hold against any pretendea 
 power in that house to create or declare a new law, 
 by which not only the rights of the house over their 
 own member, and those of the member himself, 
 are included, but also those of a third and separate 
 party ; I mean the freeholders of the kingdom ! To 
 do justice to the ministry, they have not yet pre- 
 tended that any one, or any two, of the three 
 estates, have power to make a new law, without 
 the concurrence of the third. They know, that a 
 man who maintains such a doctrine, is liable, by 
 
 • This is still meeting the ministry upon their own 
 ground ; for, in truth, no precedents will support either 
 natural inju-ticc, or v'u)l;ition of positive rights.
 
 112 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 statute, to the heaviest penalties. They do not ac- 
 knowledge that the house of commons have assumed 
 a neiv privilege, or declared a 7iew law. On the con- 
 trary, they affirm that their proceedings have been 
 strictly conformable to, and founded upon, the ancient 
 law and custom of parliament. Thus, therefore, the 
 question returns to the point at which Junius had 
 fixed it, viz. Whether or no this he the law of par- 
 liament ? If it be not, the house of commons nad 
 no legal authority to establish the precedent ; and 
 the precedent itself is a mere fact, without any proof 
 of right whatsover. 
 
 Your correspondent concludes with a question of 
 tlie simplest nature : Must a thing be wrong because 
 it has never been done before ? No. But, admitting 
 it were proper to be done, that alone does not 
 convey an authorit}' to do it. As to the present case, 
 I hope I shall never see the time, when not only a 
 single person, but a whole county, and, in effect, 
 the entire collective body of the people, may again 
 be robbed of their birth-right by a vote of the house 
 of commons. But if, for reasons which I am unable 
 to comprehend, it be necessary to trust that house 
 with a power so exorbitant and so unconstitutional, 
 at least let it be give i them by an act of the legis- 
 lature. 
 
 PHILO JUNIUS.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 113 
 
 xvin. 
 
 To Sir mUiam Blackstone, Solicitor General to 
 her Majesty. 
 
 SIR, July 29, 1769. 
 
 I shall make you no apology for considering a 
 certain pamphlet, in which your late conduct is de- 
 fended, as written by yourself. The personal in- 
 terest, the personal resentments, and, above all, 
 that wounded spirit, unaccustomed to reproach, 
 and, I hope, not frequently conscious of deserving 
 it, are signals which betray the author to us as 
 plainly as if your name were in the tiile-page. You 
 appeal to the public in defence of 3'our reputation. 
 We hold it, sir, that an injury offered to an indi- 
 vidual is interesting to society. On this principle, 
 the people of England made common cause with 
 Mr. Wilkes. On this principle, if you are injured, 
 they will join in your resentment. I shall not follow 
 you through the insipid form of a third person, but 
 address myself to you directly. 
 
 You seem to think the channel of a pamphlet 
 more respectable, and better suited to the dignity 
 of your cause, than that of a newspaper. Be it so. 
 Yet, if newspapers are scurrilous, you must confess 
 they are impartial. They give us, without any ap- 
 parent preference, the wit and argument of the 
 ministry, as well as the abusive duhicss of the oppo-
 
 114 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 sition. The scales are equally poised. It is not 
 the printer's fault if the greater weight inclines the 
 balance. 
 
 Your pamphlet, then, is divided into an attack 
 upon Mr. Grenville's character, and u defence of 
 your own. It would have been more consistent, 
 perhaps, witli your professed intention, to have 
 confined yourself to the last. But anger has some 
 claim to indulgence, and railing is usually a relief to 
 the mind. I hope you have found benefit from the 
 experiment. It is not my design to enter into a for- 
 mal vindication of Mr. Grenville upon his own prin- 
 ciples. I have neither the honour of being personally 
 known to him, nor do I pretend to be completely 
 master of all the facts. I need not run the risk of 
 doing an injustice to his opinions, or to his conduct, 
 when your pamphlet alone carries, upon the face of 
 it, a full vindication of both. 
 
 Your first reflection is, that Mr. Grenville* was, 
 of all men, the person who should not have com- 
 plained of inconsistence with regard to Mr. Wilkes. 
 This, sir, is either an unmeaning sneer, a peevish 
 expression of resentment ; or, if it means any thing, 
 you plainly beg the question ; for, whether his par- 
 liamentary conduct, with regard to Mr. Wilkes, 
 has or has not been inconsistent, remains yet to 
 be proved. But it seems he received upon the spot 
 a sufficient chastisement for exercising so unfairly 
 
 • Mr. Grenville had quoted a passage from tlie doctor's 
 excellent Commentaries, which directly contradicted the 
 doctrine maintained by ihe doctor in '.he house of commons.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 115 
 
 his talents of misrepresentation. You are a lawyer, 
 sir, and know better than I do upon what particu- 
 lar occasions a talent for misrepresentation may be 
 fairly exerted ; but to punish a man a second time, 
 when he has been once sufBciently chastised, is rather 
 too severe. It is not in the laws of England ; it is 
 not in your own Commentaries ; nor is it yet, I be- 
 lieve, in the new law 3'ou have revealed to the house 
 of commons. I hope this doctrine has no exist- 
 ence but in your own heart. After all, sir, if you 
 had consulted that sober discretion which 3'ou seem 
 to oppose with triumph to the honest jollity of 
 a tavern, it might have occurred to you, that, 
 although you could have succeeded in fixing a 
 charge of inconsistence upon Mr. Grenvilie, it 
 would not have tended in any shape to exculpate 
 yourself 
 
 Your next insinuation, that sir William Meredith 
 had hastily adopted the false glosses of his new 
 ally, is of the same sort with the first. It conveys 
 a sneer, as little worthy of the gi-avity of your 
 character, as it is useless to your defence. It is of 
 little moment to the public to inquire by whom 
 the charge was conceived, or by whom it was 
 adopted. The only question we ask is, whether or 
 not it be true? The remainder of your reflections 
 upon Mr. Grenville's conduct destro}^ themselves. 
 He could not possibly come prepared to traduce 
 your integrity to the house; he could not foresee 
 that you would even speak upon the question j 
 much less could he foresee that you would main- 
 tam a direct contradiction of that doctrine which 
 you had solr'Tinly, disinterestedly, and, upon the
 
 il6 JUMUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 soberest reflection, delivered to the public. He 
 came armed, indeed, with what he thought a re- 
 spectable authority, to support what he was con- 
 vinced was the cause of truth ; and, I doubt not, 
 he intended to give you, in the course of the debate, 
 an honourable and public testimony of his esteem. 
 Thinking highly of ins abilities, I cannot, however, 
 allow him the gift of divination. As to what you 
 are pleased to call a plan, coolly formed, to impose 
 upon the house of commons, and his producing it, 
 without provocation, at midnight, I consider it as 
 the language of pique aiifi invective, therefore un- 
 worthy of regard. But, sir, I am sensible I have 
 followed your example too long, and wandered from 
 the point. 
 
 The quotation from your Commentaries is matter 
 of record : it can neither be altered by your friends, 
 nor misrepresented by your enemies : and I am 
 willing to take your own word for what you have 
 said in the house of commons. If there be a real 
 difference between what you have written and what 
 you have spoken, you confess that your book ought 
 to be the standard. Now, sir, if words mean any 
 thing, I apprehend, that when a long enumeration 
 of disqualifications (whether by statute or the cus- 
 tom of parliament) concludes with these geiwral 
 comprehensive words, " but subject to these re- 
 strictions and disqualifications, every subject of 
 the realm is eligible of common right,"— a reader, ' 
 of plain understanding, must of course rest satisfied 
 that no species of disqualification whatsoever had 
 been omitted. The known character of the author, 
 and the appa'-^nt accuracy with which the whole
 
 JUNUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 117 
 
 work is compiled, would confirm him in his opiaioDc: 
 nor could he possibly form any other judgment, 
 without looking upon your Comuientaries in the 
 same light in which you consider those penal 
 laws, which, though not repealed, are fallen into 
 disuse, and are now, in effect, a snare to the 
 unwary.* 
 
 You tell us, indeed, that it was not part of your 
 plan to specify any temporary incapacity ; and 
 that you could not, without a spirit of prophecy, 
 have specified the disability of a private individual 
 subsequent to the period at which you wrote. What 
 your plan was I know not ; but what it should 
 have been, in order to complete the work you have 
 given us, is by no means difficult to determine. 
 The incapacity, which you call temporary, niay 
 continue seven years ; and though you might not 
 have foreseen the particular case of Mr. Wilkes, 
 you might, and should, have foreseen the possi- 
 bility of such a case, and told us how far the house 
 of commons were authorised to proceed in it by the 
 law and custom of parliament. The freeholders of 
 Middlesex would then have known what they had 
 to trust to, and would never have returned Mr. 
 Wilkes, when colonel Luttrell was a candidate 
 against him. The} would have chosen some in- 
 different person, rather than submit to be repre- 
 
 • If, in stating the law upon any point, a judge deli- 
 berately afiirms that he has included every case, and il 
 should ajjjjcar that he has |)t!:pcs?ly omitted a material 
 case, he docs, in circit. l;iy a snaiv Ut tiie unwiu-y.
 
 118 
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 seated by the object of their contempt and detes- 
 tation. 
 
 Your attempt to distinguish between disabilities 
 which aflect whole classes of n>en, and those which 
 affect individuals only, is really unworthy of your 
 understanding. Your Commentaries had taught 
 me, that, although the instance in which a penal 
 law is exerted, be particular, the laws themselves 
 are general : they are made for the benefit and in- 
 struction of the public, though the penalty falls 
 only upon an individual. You cannot but know, 
 sir, that what was Mr. Wilkes's case yesterday may 
 be yours or mine to-morrow, and that, consequently 
 the common right of every subject of the realm 
 IS invaded by it. Professing, therefore, to treat of 
 the constitution of the house of commons, and of 
 the laws and customs relative to that constitution, 
 you certainly were guilty of a most unpardonable 
 omission, in taking no notice of a right and privi- 
 lege of the house more extraordinary and more 
 arbitrary than all the others they possess put to- 
 gether. If the expulsion of a member, not under 
 any legal disability, of itself creates in him an in- 
 capacity to be elected, 1 see a ready way marked 
 out, by which the majority may, at any time, remove 
 the honestest and ablest men who happen to be in 
 opposition to them. To say that they will not 
 make this extravagant use of their power would 
 be a language unfit for a man so learned in the laws 
 as you are. By your doctrine, sir, they have the 
 power : and laws, you know, are intended to guard 
 agamst what men may do, not to trust to what they 
 will do.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 119 
 
 Upon the whole, sir, the charge against you is 
 of a plain, simple nature ; it appears even upon the 
 face of your own pamphlet. On the contrary, your 
 justification of yourself is full of subtilty and re- 
 finement, and in some places not very intelligible. 
 If I were personally your enemy, I should dwell 
 with a malignant pleasure upon those great and 
 useful qualifications which you certainly possess, 
 and by which you once acquired, though they could 
 not preserve to you, the respect and esteem of your 
 country ; I should enumerate the honours you have 
 lost, and the virtues you have disgraced ; but, having 
 no private resentments to gratify, I tiiink it sufficient 
 to have given my opinion of your public conduct, 
 leaving the punishment it deserves to your closet and 
 to yourself. 
 
 JUNIUS. 
 
 XEX. 
 
 Addressed to the Printer of the Public Advertiser 
 
 SIR, August 14, 1769 
 
 A correspondent of the St. James's Evening Post 
 first wilfully misunderstands Junius, then censures 
 him for a bad reasoncr. Junius docs not say that 
 it was incunibtMit upon doctor Blackstone to foresee 
 and state the crimes for which Mr. Wilkes was ex- 
 pelled. If, by a spirit of prophecy, he had even done 
 so, it would have been nothing to the purpose. The
 
 120 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 question is, not for what particular offences a per- 
 son may be expelled, but, generally, whether by the 
 law of parliament expulsion alone creates a disquali- 
 fication. If the affirmative be the law of j)arliamcnt, 
 doctor Blackstone might and should have told us so. 
 The question is not confined to this or that parti- 
 cular person, but forms one great general branch 
 of disqualification, too important in itself, and too 
 extensive in its consequences, to be omitted in an 
 accurate work expressly treating of the law of par- 
 liament. 
 
 The truth of the matter is evidently this : doctor 
 Blackstone, while he was speaking in the house of 
 commons, never once thought of his Commentaries, 
 until the contradiction was unexpectedly urged, and 
 stared him in the face. Instead of defending him- 
 self upon the spot, he sunk under the charge in an 
 agony of confusion and despair. It was well known 
 that there was a pause of some minutes in the 
 house, from a general expectation that the doctor 
 would say something in his own defence j but it 
 seems his faculties .were too much overpowered to 
 think of those subtilties and refinements which 
 have since occurred to him. It was then Mr. Gren- 
 ville received that severe chastisement which the 
 doctor mentions with so much triumph : / ivish the 
 honourable gentleman, instead of shaking his head, 
 would shake a good argument out of it. If to the 
 elegance, novelty, and bitterness of this ingenious 
 sarcasm, we add the natural melody of the amiable 
 sir Fletcher Norton's pipe, we shall not be surprised 
 that INlr. Grenville was unabk to make him any 
 reply.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 121 
 
 As to the doctor, I would recommend it to him 
 to be quiet. If not, he may, perhaps, hear again 
 from Junius himself. 
 
 PHILO JUNIUS. 
 
 Postscript to a pamphlet entitlec? An Ansiocr to 
 the Qiicstion stated ; supposed to be written by 
 Dr. Blackstone, solicitor to the queen, in answer 
 to Junius's letter. 
 
 Since these papers were sent to the press, a writer, 
 in the public papers, who subscribes himself Junius, 
 has made a feint of bringing this question to a short 
 issue. Though the foregoing observations contain, 
 in my opinion at least, a full refutation of all tha 
 this writer has offered, I shall, however, bestow a 
 very few words upon him. It will cost me very little 
 trouble to unravel and expose the sophistry of his 
 argument. 
 
 " I take the question," says he, " to be strictly 
 this : Whether or no it be the known established 
 law of parliament, that tlic expulsion of a member 
 of the house of commons, of itself, creates in him 
 such an incapacity to be re-elected, that, at a subse- 
 quent election, any votes given to liim arc null and 
 void ; and that any other candidate, who, except the 
 person expelled, has the greatest number of votes, 
 ought to be the sitting member." 
 
 Waving, for the present, any objection I may 
 have to this state of the question, I shall venture 
 to meet our champion upon his own ground ; and 
 attempt to support the afilrnintive of it, in one ol 
 
 VOL. T. F
 
 122 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 the two ways by which he says it can be alone fairly 
 supported. " If there be no statute," says he, " in 
 wliich the specific disability is clearly created, &ic. 
 (and we acknowledge there is none) the custom of 
 parliament must then be referred to ; and some 
 case, or cases, strictly in point, must be produced, 
 with the decision of the court upon them." Now 
 I assert that diis has been done. Mr. Walpole's 
 case is strictly in point, to prove that expulsion 
 creates absolute incapacity of being re-elected. This 
 was the clear decision of the house upon it ; and 
 was a full declaraUon that incapacity was the ne- 
 cessary consequence of expulsion. The law was 
 as clearly and firnny fixed by this resolution, and is 
 as binding in every subsequent case of expulsion 
 as If it had been declared by an express statute that 
 a " member, expelled by a resolution of the house 
 of commons, shall be deemed incapable of being 
 re-elected." Whatever doubt, then, there might 
 have been .of the law, before Mr. Walpole's case, with 
 respect to the full operation of a vote of expulsion, 
 there can be none now. The decision of the house, 
 upon this case, is strictly in point, to prove that ex- 
 pulsion creates abs^^lute incapacity in law of being 
 re-elected. 
 
 But incapacity in law, in this instance, must 
 have the same operation and eflcct with incapacity 
 in law in every other instance. Now, incapacity of 
 being re-elected implies, in its very terms, tiiat any 
 votes given to the incapable person, at a subsequent 
 slection, are null and void. Tliis is its necessary 
 operation, or it has no operation a all: it :s vox 
 et prceterea nihil. We can no more be called upon
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 123 
 
 to prove this proposition, than vvc can to prove that 
 a dead man is not alive, or that twice two are four. 
 Wh^n the terms are understood, the proposition is 
 self-evident. 
 
 Lastly, it is, in all cases of election, the known 
 and established law of the land, groiUKJcd upon the 
 clearest principles of reason and common sense, 
 that if the votes given to one candidate arc null 
 and void, they cannot be opposed to the votes given 
 to another candidate; they cannot aflcct the votes 
 of such candidate at all. As they have, on the one 
 hand, no positive quality to add or establish, so 
 have they, on the other hand, no negative one to 
 subtract or destroy. They are, in a word, a mere 
 nonentit3^ Such was the determination of the 
 house of commons in the Maklcn and Bedford elec- 
 tions ; cases strictly in point to the present question, 
 as far as they are meant to be in point ; and to say 
 that they are not in point in all cirgumstances, in 
 those particularly which are independent of the pro- 
 position which they are quoted to prove, is to say no 
 more than that Maiden is not Middlesex, nor serjeant 
 Comyns Mr. Wilkes. 
 
 Let us see then how our proof stands. Expulsion 
 creates incapacity, incapacity annihilates any votes 
 given to the incapable person ; the voles given to 
 tlic qualified candidate stand, upon their own bot- 
 tom, firm and untouched, and can alone have effect. 
 This, one would think, would be suflicieut. But 
 we are stopped short, and told that none of our 
 precedents come home to the present case, and are 
 challenged to produce " a precedent in all the pro- 
 ceedings of the iiouse of commons that does come
 
 124 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 home to it, viz. where an expelled member has been 
 returned again, and another candidate, with an in- 
 ferior number of votes, has been declared the sitting 
 member.'''' 
 
 Instead of a prccedenl, I will beg leave to put a 
 case, which, I fancy, will Le quite as decisive to 
 the present point. Suppose another Sacheverell 
 (and every party must have its Sacheverell) should, 
 at some future election, take it into his head to 
 offer himself a candidate for the county of Middle- 
 sex. He is opposed by a candidate whose coat is of 
 a different colour, but, however, of a very good 
 colour. The divine has an indisputable majority ; 
 nay, the poor layman is absolutely distanced. The 
 sheriff, after having had his conscience well in- 
 formed by the reverend casuist, returns him, as he 
 supposes, duly elected. The whole house is in an 
 uproar at the apprehension of so strange an appear- 
 ance amongst them. A motion, however, is at 
 length made, that the person was incapable of 
 being elected j that his election, therefore, is null 
 and void ; and that his competitor ought to have 
 been returned. No, says a great orator, first show 
 me your law for this proceeding. Either produce 
 me a statute, in which the specific disability of a 
 clergyman is created ; or produce me a precedent, 
 where a clergyman has been returned, and another 
 candidate, with an inferior number of votes, has been 
 declared the sitting member. No such statute, no 
 such precedent, to be found. What answer then is 
 to be given to tliis demand ? The very same answer 
 which I will give to that of Junius. That there is 
 .lore tiian one precedent in the proceedings of the
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 125 
 
 house, " where an incapable person has been re- 
 turned, and another candidate, with an inferior 
 number of voles, has been declared the sitting mem- 
 ber ; and that this is the known and established law, 
 in all cases of incapacity, from whatever cause it may 
 arise." 
 
 I shall now, therefore, beg leave to make a slight 
 amendment to Junius's state of the question, the 
 affirmative of which will then stand thus : 
 
 " It is the known and established law of par- 
 liament, that the expulsion of any member of the 
 house of commons creates in him an incapacity of 
 being re-elected ; that any votes given to him at a 
 subsequent election are, in consequence of such in- 
 capacity, null and void ; and that any other can- 
 didate, who, except the person rendered incapable, 
 has the greatest number of votes, ought to be the 
 sitting member." 
 
 But our business is not yet quite finished. Mr. 
 Walpole's case must have a re-hearing. " It is not 
 possible," says this writer, " to conceive a case 
 more exactly in point. Mr. Walpole was expelled, 
 and, having a majority of votes at the next election, 
 was returned again. The friends of Mr. Taylor, a 
 candidate set up by the ministry, petitioned the 
 house that he might be the sitting member. Thus 
 far the circumstances tally exact I3', except that our 
 house of commons saved Mr. Luttrell the trouble of 
 petitioning. The point of law, however, was the 
 same. It came regularly before the house, and it 
 was their business to determine upon it. They did 
 determine it ; for they declared Mr. Taylor not duly 
 elected.^'
 
 126 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 Instead of examining the justness -of this represen- 
 tation, I shall beg leave to oppose against it ni}' own 
 view of this case, in as plain a manner and as few 
 words as I am able. 
 
 It was the known and established law of parlia- 
 ment, when the charge against Mr. Walpole came 
 before the house of commons, that they had power 
 to expel, to disable, and to render incapable for 
 offences. In virtue of this power they expelled 
 him. 
 
 Had they, in the very vote of expulsion, ad- 
 judged him, m terms, to be incapable of being re- 
 electeil, there must have been at once an end with 
 him. But though the right of the house, both to ex- 
 pel and adjudge him incapable, was clear and indubi- 
 table, it does not appear to me that the full opera- 
 tion and effect of a vote of expulsion singly was so. 
 The law in this case had never been expressly 
 declared ; there had been no event to call up such 
 a declaration. I trouble not myself with the gram- 
 matical meaning of the word expulsion ; I regard 
 only its legal meaning. This was not, as I think, 
 precisely fixed. The house thought proper to fix 
 it, and explicitly to declare the full consequences 
 of their former vote, before the}' suffered these con- 
 sequences to take effect : and in this proceeding 
 they acted upon the most liberal and solid prin- 
 ciples of equity, justice, and law. What then did 
 the burgesses of Lynn collect from the second vote ? 
 Their subsequent conduct will tell us : it will with 
 certainty tell us that they considered it as decisive 
 against Mr. Walpole. It will also, with equal cer- 
 tainty, tell us, tiiat, upon supposition that the law
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 127 
 
 of election stood then "as it docs now, nnd that they 
 knew it to stand thus, they inferred, " that, at a 
 future election, and in case of a similar return, the 
 house would receive the same candidate, as duly 
 elected, whom they had before rejected." They 
 could infer nothing but this. 
 
 It is needless to repeat the circumstance of dis- 
 similarity in the present case : it will be sufficient 
 to observe, that, as the law of parlia'=aent, upon 
 which the house of commons grounded every step 
 of their proceedings, was clear beyond the reach o' 
 doubt, so neither could the freeholders of Middlesex 
 be at a loss to foresee what must be the inevitable 
 consequence of their proceedings in opposition to it ; 
 for, upon every return of Mr. Wilkes, the house made 
 inquiry whether any votes were given to any other 
 candidate. 
 
 But I could venture, for the experiment's sake, 
 even to give this writer the utmost he asksj to allow 
 the most perfect similarity throughout, in these two 
 cases ; to allow that the law of expulsion was quitf 
 as clear to the burgesses of Lynn as to the free- 
 holders of Middlesex. It will, I am confident, 
 avail his cause but little. It will only prove, that 
 the law of election, at that time, was different from 
 the present law. It will prove, that, in all ca^es of 
 an incapable candidate returned, the law then was, 
 that the whole election should be void. Bi;!. now 
 we know that this is not law. The cases of IMalden 
 and Bedford were, d.% has been seen, determined upon 
 other and more just principles; and tlicse (h^ter- 
 minations are, I imagine admitted on all ?i(lcs to he 
 law.
 
 128 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 I would willingly draw a veil ovemhe remaining 
 part of this paper. It is astonishing, il is painful, 
 to see men of parts and ability giving in to the 
 most unworthy artifices, and descending so much 
 below their true line of character. But, if they are 
 not the dupes of their sophistry, (which is hardly to 
 be conceived) let them consider that they are some- 
 thing much worse. 
 
 The dearest interests of this country are its laws 
 and its constitution. Against every attack upon 
 these, there will, I hope, be always found amongst 
 us the firmest spirit of resistance, superior to the 
 united efforts of faction and ambition : for ambition, 
 though it does not always take the lead of faction, 
 will be sure, in the end, to make the most fatal ad- 
 vantage of it, and draw it to its own purposes. But, 
 I trust, our day of trial is yet far off; and there is a 
 fund of good sense in this country ichich cannot long 
 he deceived by the arts either of false reasoning or 
 false patriotism. 
 
 XX. 
 
 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser, 
 
 SIR, August 8, 1769. 
 
 The gentleman who has published an answer to 
 sir William INIeredith's pamphlet., having honoured 
 me with a postcript of six quarto pages, which he 
 moderatel}' calls bestowing a very few words upon
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 129 
 
 me, I cannot, in common politeness, refuse him a 
 reply. The form and magnitude of a quarto im- 
 poses upon the mind; and men, who are unequal 
 to the labour of discussing- an intricate argument, 
 or wish to avoid it, are willing enough to suppose 
 that much has been proved, because much has been 
 said. Mine, I confess, are humble labours. I do 
 not presume to instruct the learned, but simply to 
 inform the body of the people ; and I prefer that 
 channel of conveyance which is likely to spread 
 farthest among them. The advocates of the minis- 
 try seem to me to write for fame, and to flatter 
 themselves, that the size of their works will make 
 them immortal. They pile up reluctant quarto 
 upon solid folio, as if their labours, because 
 they are gigantic, could contend with truth and 
 heaven. 
 
 The writer of the volume in question meets me 
 upon my own ground. He acknowledges there is 
 no statute by which the specific disability we speak 
 of is created : but he affirms, that the custom of 
 parliament has been referred to, and that a case 
 strictly in point has been produced, with the de- 
 cision of the court upon it. I thank him for coming 
 so fairly to the point. He asserts, that the case of 
 Mr. Walpole is strictly in point, to prove that ex- 
 pulsion creates an absolute incapacity of being re- 
 elected ; and for this purpose he refers generally 
 to the first vote of the house upon that occasion, 
 without venturing to recite the vote itself. The 
 unfair, disengcinious artifice of adopting that part 
 of a precedent which seems to suit his purpose, and 
 omitting the remainder, deserves some pity, but 
 V 2 9
 
 130 JIJNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 cannot excite my resentment. He takes advantage 
 eagerly of the first resolution, by which Mr. Wal- 
 pole's incapacity is declared ; but as to the two fol- 
 lowing, by which the candidate with the fewest 
 votes was declared " not duly elected," and the elec- 
 tion itself vacated, I dare say hi would be well 
 satisfied if they were for ever blotted out of the 
 journals of the iiouse of commons. In fair argu- 
 ment, no part of a precedent should be admitted, 
 unless the whole of it be given to us together. The 
 author has divided his precedent ; for he knew, 
 that, taken together, it produced a consequence 
 directly the reverse of that which he endeavours to 
 draw from a vote of expulsion. But what will this 
 honest person say, if I take him at his word, and 
 demonstrate to him, that the house of commons 
 never meant to found Mr. Walpole's incapacity upon 
 his expulsion only ? What subterfuge will then 
 remain .'' 
 
 Let it be remembered, that we are speaking of 
 the intention of men who lived more than half a 
 century ago ; and that such intention can only be 
 collected from their words and actions, as they are 
 delivered to us upon record. To prove their de- 
 signs by a supposition of what they would have 
 done, opposed to what they actually did, is mere 
 trifling and impertinence. The vote by which Mr. 
 Walpole's incapacity was declared is thus expressed : 
 " That Robert Walpole, esq. having been, this ses- 
 sion of parliament, committed a prisoner to the 
 '. ower, and expelled this house for a breach of trust 
 in the execution of his office, and notorious cor- 
 ruption, when secretary at war, was and is inca-
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 131 
 
 pable of being elected a member lo sei , e in this 
 present parliament."* Now, sir, to my understand- 
 ing, no proposition of this kind can be more evi- 
 dent, than that the house of commons, by this very 
 vote, themselves understood, and meant to declare, 
 that Mr. Walpole's incapacity arose from the crimes 
 he had committed, not from the punishment the 
 house annexed to them. The high breach of trust, 
 the notorious corruption, are stated in the strongest 
 terms. They do not tell us that he was incapable 
 because he was expelled, but because he had been 
 guilty of such offences as justly rendered him un- 
 worthy of a seat in parliament. If they had in- 
 tended to fix the disability upon his expulsion alone, 
 the mention of his crimes in the same vote would 
 have been highly improper, h could only perplex 
 tlie minds of the electors, who, if they collected 
 any thing from so confused a declaration of the law 
 of parliament, must have concluded, that their repre- 
 sentative had been declared incapable because he 
 was highly guilty, not because he had been punished. 
 
 • It is well worth remarking, that the compiler of a cer- 
 tain quarto, called The Case of the last Election for the 
 County of Middlesex considf^ , /, has the impudence to 
 recite this very vote in the following terms (vide page 11) : 
 ** Resolved, that Robert Walpole, esq. having been this 
 session of parHament expelled the house, was, and is, in- 
 capable of being elected a member to serve in the preseii 
 peu-liament." There cannot be a stronger positive proof of 
 the treachery of the conij)iler, nor a stronger presumptive 
 proof tliat he was rouvincod that the vole, if dul}' recited, 
 would overturn his m'.oIc arguniont.
 
 132 
 
 JUNIUS'S liETTERS. 
 
 But, even admitting them to have understood it 
 in the other sense, they must then, from the very 
 terms of the vote, have united the idea of liis being 
 sent to the Tower with that of his expulsion ; and 
 considered his incapacity as the joint effect of 
 both.* 
 
 • Addressed to the Printer of the Public Advertiser. 
 
 SIR, May 22, 1771. 
 
 Very early in the debate upon the decision of the Mid- 
 dlesex election, it was observed by Junius, that the 
 house of commons had not only exceeded their boasted 
 precedent of the expulsion and subsequent incapacitation 
 of Mr. Walpole, but that they had not even adhered to it 
 strictly as far as it went. After convicting Mr. Dyson of 
 giving a false quotation from the journals, and having ex- 
 plained the purpose which that contemptible fraud was in- 
 tended to answer, he proceeds to state the vote itself by 
 which Mr. Walpole's supposed incapacity was declared, viz. 
 " Resolved, that Robert Walpole, esq. having been this ses- 
 sion of parliament committed a prisoner to the Tower, 
 and expelled this house for a high breach of trust in the 
 execution of his office, and notorious corruption when se- 
 cretary at war, was and is incapable of being elected a 
 member to serve in this present parliament ;" and then ob- 
 serves, that, from the terms of the vote, we have no right 
 to annex the incapacitation to the expulsion only ; for 
 that, as the proposition stands, it must arise equally from 
 expulsion and the commitment to the Tower. I be- 
 1 >e, sir, no man, who knows any thmg of dialectics, or 
 who understands English, will dispute the truth and fair- 
 ness of this construction. But Junius has a great authori- 
 ty to support him, wh'ch, to speak with the duke of
 
 JUl^lUS'S LETTERS. 133 
 
 I do not mean to give an opinion upon the jus- 
 tice of the proceedings of the house of commons 
 with regard to Mr. Walpole j but certainly, if I ad- 
 
 Grrafton, I accidentally met with this morning in the course 
 of my reading. It contains an admonition, which cannot 
 be repeated too often. Lord Sommers, in his excellent 
 tract upon the Rights of the People, after reciting the 
 votes of the convention of the 28th of January, l6S9, viz. 
 " That king James the Second, having endeavoured to 
 subvert the constitution of this kingdom, by breaking the 
 original contract between king and people, and, by the ad- 
 vice of Jesuits, and other wicked persons, liaving violated 
 the fundamental laws, and having withdrawn himself out 
 of this kingdom, hath abdicated the government," &c. — 
 makes this observation upon it : " The word abdicated re- 
 lates to all the clauses foregoing, as well as to his deserting 
 the kingdom, or else they would have been wholly in vain." 
 And that there might be no pretence for confining the ab- 
 dication merely to the withdrawing, lord Sommers farther 
 observes, That king James, by refusing to govern us 
 according to that law by which he held the crown, did 
 implicitly renounce his title to it. 
 
 If Junius^s construction of the vote against Mr. Walpole 
 be now admhted (and, indeed, I cannot comprehend how it 
 can honestly be disputed) the advocates of the house of 
 commons must either give up their precedent entirely, or 
 be reduced to the necessity of maintaining one of the grossest 
 absurdities imaginable, viz. " That a commitment to the 
 Tower is a constituent part of, and contril)utes half at least 
 to the incapacitation of the person who suffers h." 
 
 I need not make you any excuse for endeavouring to 
 keep alive the attention of the public to the decision of the 
 Middlesex election. The more I consider it, the more I 
 am convinced, that, as ;i fact, it is indeed higidy injurious
 
 131 JUNIUS'S LLTTERS. 
 
 miited their censure to be well founded, I could no 
 way avoid agreeing with them in the consequence 
 tliey drew from it. I could never have a doubt, in 
 law or reason, that a man convicted of a high breach 
 of trust, and of a notorious corruption, in the execu- 
 tion of a public office, was, and ought to be, incapa- 
 ble of sitting in the same parliament. Far from 
 attempting to invalidate that vote, I should have 
 
 to the rights of the people ; but that, as a precedent, it is 
 one of the most dangerous that ever was established against 
 those who are to come after us. Yet, I am so far a mode- 
 rate man, that I verily believe the majority of the house of 
 commons, when they passed this dangerous vote, neither 
 understood the question, or knew the consequence of what 
 they were doing. Their motives were rather despicable 
 than criminal, in the extreme. One effect they certainly 
 did not foresee. They are now reduced to such a situation, 
 that if a member of the present house of commons were to 
 conduct himself ever so improperly, and, in reality, deserve 
 to be sent back to his constituents with a mark of disgrace, 
 they would not dare to expel him ; because they know that 
 the people, in order to try again the great question of right, 
 or to thwart an odious house of commons, would probably 
 overlook his immediate unworthiness, and return the same 
 person to parliament. But, in time, the precedent will gain 
 strength ; a future house of commons will have no such 
 ««pprehensions ; consequently, will not scruple to follow a 
 precedent which they did not f«tablish. The miser himsell 
 seldom lives to enjoy the fruit of his extortion, but his heir 
 succeeds to him of course, and takes possession without cen- 
 sure. No man expects him to make restitution ; and, no 
 matter for his title, he lives euietly upon the estate. 
 
 PHILO JUNIUS.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 135 
 
 wished that the incapacity declared hy it could legally 
 have been continued for ever. 
 
 Now, sir, observe how forcibly the argument 
 returns. The house of commons, upon the face of 
 their proceedings, had the strongest motives to de- 
 clare Mr. Walpole incapable of being re-elected. 
 They thought such a man unworthy to sit among 
 them. To that point they proceeded, and no far- 
 ther ; for they respected the rights of the people, 
 while they asserted their own. They did not infer, 
 from Mr. Walpole's incapacity, that his opponent 
 was duly elected ; on the contrary, they declared 
 Mr. Taylor " not duly elected," and the election it- 
 self void. 
 
 Such, however, is the precedent which my honest 
 friend assures us is strictly in point, to prove, that 
 expulsion of itself creates an incapacity of being 
 elected. If it had been so, the present house of 
 commons should at least have followed strictly the 
 example before them, and should have stated to 
 us, in the same vote, the crimes for which they 
 expelled Mr. Wilkes : whereas they resolve simply, 
 that, " having been expelled, he was and is inca- 
 pable." In this proceeding, I am authorised to affirm, 
 they have neither statute, nor custom, nor reason, 
 nor one single precedent to support them. On the 
 other side, there is, indeed, a precedent so strongly 
 in point, that all the enchanted casdes of ministe- 
 rial magic fall before it. In the year 1G98 (a period 
 which the rankest Tory dares not except against) 
 Mr. Wollaston was expelled, re-elected, and admit- 
 ted to take his scat in the same parliament. The 
 ministry liave precluded tiiemselves from all ob-
 
 138 ,»UN1US'S LETTERS. 
 
 jections drawn ironi llie cause of liis expulsion ; for 
 they ciflinn absolutely, that expulsion, of itself, 
 creates the disability. Now, sir, let sophistry evade, 
 let falsehood assert, and iuipudencc deny j here 
 stands the precedent : a land-uuuk to direct us 
 through a troubled sea of controversy, conspicuous 
 and unreinoved. 
 
 I have dwelt the longer upon the discussion of 
 this point, because, in my opinion, it comprehends 
 the whole question. The rest is unworthy of notice. 
 We are inquiring whether incapacity be, or be not# 
 created by expulsion. In the cases of Bedford and 
 Maiden, the incapacity of the persons returned was 
 matter of public notoriety, for it was created by act 
 of parliament. But really, sir, my honest friend's 
 supyositions are as unfavourable to him as his facts. 
 He well knows that the clergy, besides that they are 
 represented in connnon with their fellow subjects, 
 have also a separate parliament of their own j that 
 their incapacity to sit in the house of commons has 
 been cbnfirmed by repeated decisions of that house j 
 and that the law of parliament, declared by those 
 decisions, has been, for above two centuries, noto- 
 rious and undisputed. The author is certainly at 
 liberty to fancy cases, and make whatever compari- 
 sons he thinks proper : his suppositions still continue 
 as distant from fact as his wild discourses are from 
 solid argument. 
 
 The conclusion of his book is candid to an extreme. 
 He offers to grant me all I desire. He thinks he 
 may safely admit, that the case of Mr. Walpole 
 makes directly against him ; for it seems he has one 
 grand solution in pelf .■ for all difficulties. " If (says
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 137 
 
 he) I were to allow all this, it will only prove that 
 the law of election was different in queen Anne's time 
 from what it is at present." 
 
 This, indeed, is more than I expected. The 
 principle, I know, has been maintained in fact 4 
 but I never expected to see it so formally declared. 
 What can he mean ? Does he assume this language 
 to satisfy the doubts of the people, or does he mean 
 to rouse their indignation ? Are the ministry daring 
 enough to affirm, that the house of commons have 
 a right to make and unmake the law of parliament, 
 at their pleasure .'' Does the law of parliament, 
 which we are often told is the law of the land, does 
 the common right of every subject of the realm, 
 depend upon an arbitrary, capricious vote of one 
 branch of the legislature ? The voice of truth and 
 reason must be silent. 
 
 The ministry tell us plainly, that this is no longer 
 a question of right, but of power and force alone. 
 What was law yesterday is not law to-day : and now, 
 it seems, we have no better rule to live by, than the 
 temporary discretion and fluctuating integrity of the 
 house of commons. 
 
 Professions of patriotism are become stale and 
 ridiculous. For my own part, I claim no merit 
 from endeavouring to do a service to my fellow- 
 subjects. I have done it to the best of my under- 
 standing ; and, without looking for the approbation 
 of other men, my conscience is satisfied. What 
 ' -nins to be done, concerns the collective body of 
 the people. They are now to determine for them- 
 selves, whether they will firmly and constitutionally 
 assert their riglits, or make an humble, slavish
 
 138 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 surrender of them at the feet of the ministry. To 
 a generous mind there cannot be a doubt. We owe 
 it to our ancestors, to preserve entire those rights 
 which they have delivered to our care. We owe it 
 to our posterity, not to suffer their dearest in- 
 heritance to be destroyed. But, if it were possible 
 for us to be insensible of these sacred claims, there 
 is yet an obligation binding upon ourselves, from 
 which nothing can acquit us ; a personal interest, 
 which we cannot surrender. To alienate even our 
 own rights, would be a crime as much more enor- 
 mous than suicide, as a life of civil security and 
 freedom is superior to a bare existence : and if life 
 be the bounty of Heaven, we scornfully reject the 
 noblest part of the gift, if we consent to surrender 
 that certain rule of living, without which the con- 
 dition of human nature is not only miserable but con- 
 temptible. 
 
 JUNIUS. 
 
 XXI. 
 
 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser. 
 
 SIR, August 22, 1769. 
 
 I must beg of you to print a (ew lines in expla- 
 jation of some passages in my last letter, which, 1 
 see, liave been misunderstood. 
 
 1. When I said that the house of commons never 
 me-ant to found jlr, ^Valpolc's incapacity on his ex
 
 JUNIUS'S .ETTERS. 139 
 
 pulsion only, I meant no more than to deny the 
 general proposition, that expulsion alone creates 
 the incapacity. If there be any thing ambiguous 
 in the expression, I beg leave to explain it, by say- 
 ing, that, in my opinion, expulsion neither creates 
 nor in any part contributes to create the incapacity 
 in question. 
 
 2. I carefully avoided entering into the merits of 
 Mr. Walpole's case. I did not inquire whether the 
 house of commons acted justly, or whether they 
 truly declared the law of parliament. My remarks 
 went only to their apparent meaning and intention, 
 as it stands declared in their own resolution. 
 
 3. I never meant to affirm, that a commitment to 
 the Tower created a disqualification. — On the con- 
 trary, I considered that idea as an absurdit}^, into 
 which the ministry must inevitably fall if they reason- 
 ed righ* upon their own principles. 
 
 The case of Mr. Wollaston speaks for itself. The 
 ministry assert, that expulsion alone creates an ab- 
 solute, complete incapacity to be re-elected to sit in 
 the same parliament. This proposition they have 
 uniformly maintained, without any condition or 
 modification whatsoever. Mr. Wollaston was ex- 
 pelled, re-elected, and admitted to take his seat in 
 the same parliament. I leave it to the public to 
 determine, whether this be plain matter of fact, or 
 mere nonsense or declamation. 
 
 JUNIUS.
 
 140 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 xxn. 
 
 To the Prinier of the Public Advertiser. 
 
 September 4, 1769' 
 Argument against Fact ; or, a new System of 
 Political Logic, by which the ministry have demon- 
 strated, to the satisfaction of their friends, that expul- 
 sion alone creates a complete incapacity to be re- 
 elected, alias, That a subject of this realm may be 
 robbed of his common right by a vote of the house 
 •>f commons. 
 
 FIRST FACT. 
 
 Mr. Wollaston, in 1698, was expelled, re-elected, 
 and admitted to take his seat. 
 
 ARGUMENT. 
 
 As this cannot conveniently be reconciled with 
 our general proposition, it may be necessary to shift 
 our ground, and look back to the cause of Mr. Wol- 
 laston's expulsion. From thence it will appear 
 clearly, that, " altkiough he was expelled, he had 
 not rendered himself a culprit, too ignominious to 
 sit in parliament ; and that, having resigned his 
 employment, he was no longer incapacitated by 
 law." Vide Serious Considerations, page 23. Or 
 thus : " The house, somewhat inaccurately, used the 
 word expelled ; they should have called it a motion.''^
 
 JUNIUS'3 LETTERS. 141 
 
 yide J\Iungo^s Case considered, page 11. Or, in 
 short, if these arguments should be thought insuf- 
 ficient, we may fairly deny the fact. For example : 
 " 1 affirm that he was not re-elected. The same Mr. 
 Wollaston, who was expelled, was not again elected. 
 The same individual, if you please, walked into the 
 house, and took his seat there ; but the same person, 
 m law, was not admitted a member of that parliament 
 from which he had been discarded." Vide Letter to 
 Junius, page 12. 
 
 SECOND FACT. 
 
 J\Ir. Walpole, having been committed to the 
 Tower, and expelled, for a high breach of trust, a/nd 
 notorious corruption in a public office, was declarea 
 incapable, ^c. 
 
 ARGUMENT. 
 
 From the terms of this vote, nothing can be 
 more evident, than that the house of commons 
 meant to fix the incapacity upon the punishment, 
 and not upon the crime ; but, lest, it should appear 
 in a different light to weak, uninformed persons, 
 it may be advisable to gut the resolution, and give 
 it to the public, with all possible solemnity, in the 
 following terms, viz. " Resolved, that Robert Wal- 
 pole, esq. having been that session of parliament 
 expelled the house, was and is incapable of being 
 elected a member to serve in tiiat present parlia- 
 ment." Vide Mungo, on the Use of Quotations, 
 page 1 1 .
 
 i42 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 N. B. The author of the answer to^Sir WilHam 
 Meredith seems to have made use of Mimgo's quo- 
 tation : for, in page 18, he assures us, " Tliat the 
 declaratory vote of the 17th of February, 17G9, was, 
 indeed, a literal copy of the resolution of the house 
 in Mr. Walpole's case " 
 
 THIRD FACT. 
 
 His opponent, Mr. Taylor, having the smallest 
 numher of votes at the next election, was declared not 
 duly elected. 
 
 ARGUMENT. 
 
 This fact we consider as directly in point, to 
 prove, that Mr. Luttrell ought to be the sitting 
 member, for the following reasons : " The burgesses 
 of Lynn could draw no other inference from this 
 resolution but this ; that, at a future election, and 
 in case of a similar return, the house would receive 
 the same candidate as duly elected whom they had 
 before rejected." Vide Postscript to Junius, page 37. 
 Or thus : " This, their resolution, leaves no room 
 to doubt what part they would have taken, if, upon 
 a subsequent re-election of Mr. Walpole, there had 
 been any other candidate in competition with him: 
 for by their vote, they could have no other inten- 
 tion than to admit such other candidate." T^ide 
 Mungo''s Case considered, page 39. Or, take it in 
 this light : the burgesses of Lymi having, in defiance 
 of the house, retorted upon them a person whom they 
 had branded witli the most ignominious marks of 
 their displeasure, were thereby so well entitled to
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 143 
 
 favour and indulgence, that the house could do no 
 less than rob Mr. Taylor of a right legally vested 
 in him, in order that the burgesses might be apprised 
 of the law of parliament ; which law the house took 
 a very direct way of explaining to them, by resolving 
 that the candidate with the fewest votes was not 
 duly elected : " And was not this much more equi- 
 table, more in the spirit of that equal and substantial 
 justice which is the end of all law, than if they had 
 violently adhered to the strict maxims of law .f"' 
 T^ide Serious Considerations, pages 33 and 34. 
 " And if the present house of commons had chosen 
 to follow the spii'it of this resolution, they would 
 have received and established the candidate with 
 the fewest votes." T^ide Answer to sir W. M. 
 page 18. 
 
 Permit me now, sir, to show you, that the worthy 
 Dr. Blackstone sometimes contradicts the ministry, 
 as well as himself Tlie speech without doors 
 asserts, page 9th, " That the legal effect of an in- 
 capacit}'^, founded on a judicial deterniination of a 
 complete court, is precisely the same as that of an 
 incapacity created by an act of parliament." Now 
 for the doctor. " The law, and the opinion of the 
 judge, are not always convertible terms, or one and 
 the same thing ; since it sometimes may happen, t'nat 
 the judge may mistake the law." Commentaries, 
 vol. i. p. 71. 
 
 The answer to sir W. M. asserts, page 23, *' That 
 the returning officer is not a judicial, but a purely 
 ministerial officer. His return is no jiulicial act." 
 At 'em again, doctor. " The sheriff, in his judicial 
 capacity, is to hear and determine causes of forty
 
 Ml JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 shillings value, and niulcr, in his county court. He 
 has also a judicial power in divers other civil cases. 
 lie is likewise to decide the elections of knights of 
 the shire (sn])ject to the control of the house of com- 
 mons,) to judge of tiie qualification of voters, and to 
 •cturn such as he shall determine to be duly elected." 
 Vide Commentaries, vol. i. p. 332. 
 
 What conclusion shall we draw from such facts, 
 and such arguments, such contradictions ? I cannot 
 express my opinion of the present ministry more ex- 
 actly than in the words of sir Richard Steele, " That 
 we are governed by a set of drivellers, whose folly 
 takes away all dignity from distress, and makes even 
 talamitv ridiculous." 
 
 PHILO JUNIUS. 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 To his Grace the Duke of Bedford. 
 
 MY LORD, September 19, 1769. 
 
 You are so little accustomed to receive any marks 
 of respect or esteem from the public, that if, in the 
 following lines, a compliment or expression of ap- 
 plause should escape me, I fear you would consider 
 it as a mockery of your established character, and, 
 perhaps, an insult to your understanding. You have 
 nice feelings, my lord, if we may judge from your 
 resentments. Cautious, therefore, of giving offence, 
 where yoTi iiave so little deserved it, I shall leave
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. tU 
 
 tlje illustration of your virtues to other hands Your 
 friends have a privilege to play upon the easiness of 
 your temper, or, possibly, they are better acquainted 
 with your good qualities than I am. You have done 
 good by stealth. The rest is upon record. You 
 have still left ample room for speculation, when 
 panegyric is exhausted. 
 
 You are, indeed, a very considerable man. The 
 highest rank, a splendid fortune, and a name, glo- 
 rious, till it was yours, were sufficient to have sup- 
 ported you with meaner abilities than I think you 
 possess. From the first, you derive a constitutional 
 claim to respect ; from the second, a natural exten- 
 sive authority ; the last created a partial expectation 
 of hereditary virtues. The use you have made of 
 these uncommon advantages might have been more 
 honourable to yourself, but could not be more in- 
 structive to mankind. We may trace it in the 
 veneration of your country, the choice of your 
 friends, and in the accomplishment of every sanguine 
 • hope which the public might have conceived from 
 the illustrious name of Russell. 
 
 The eminence of your station gave you a com- 
 manding prospect of your duty. The road which 
 led to honour was open to your view. You could 
 not lose it by mistake, and you had no temptation 
 to depart from it by design. Compare the natural 
 ' dignity and importance of the highest peer of Eng- 
 land : the noble independence which he might have 
 maintained in j)arliament; and tha real interest and 
 respect which he might have acquired, not only in 
 parliament, but through the whole kingdom ; com- 
 
 voL. r. G 10
 
 146 JUNItJS'S LETTERS. 
 
 pare these glorious distinctions, with nhe ambition 
 of holding a share in government, the emoluments 
 of a place, the sale of a borough, or the purchase ol 
 a corporation ; and though you may not regret the 
 virtues which create respect, you may see with 
 anguish how much real importance and authority 
 you have lost. Consider the character of an inde 
 pendent, virtuous duke of Bedford ; imagine what 
 he might be in this country ; then reflect one mo- 
 ment upon what you are. If it be possible for me 
 to withdraw my attention from the fact, I will tell 
 you in theory what such a man might be. 
 
 Conscious of his own weight and importance, his 
 conduct in parliament would be directed by notlilng 
 but the constitutional duty of a peer. He would 
 consider himself as a guardian of the laws. Willing 
 to support the just measures of government, but 
 determined to observe the conduct of the minister 
 with suspicion, he would oppose the violence of 
 faction with as much firmness as the encroachments 
 of prerogative. He would be as little capable of 
 bargaining with the minister for places for himself 
 or his dependents, as of descending to mix himself 
 in the intrigues of opposition. Whenever an im- 
 portant question called for his opinion in parlia- 
 ment, he would be heard by the most profligate 
 minister with deference and respect. His authority 
 would either sanctify or disgrace the measures of 
 government. The people would look up to him 
 as to their protector ; and a virtuous prince would 
 have one honest man in his dominions, in whose 
 integrity and judgment he might safely confide.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 147 
 
 If it should be the will of Providence to afflict* 
 him with a domestic misfortune, he would submit 
 to the stroke with feeling, but not without dignity. 
 He would consider the people as his children, 
 and receive a generous, heartfelt consolation, in 
 the sympathizing tears and blessings of his 
 country. 
 
 Tour grace may probably discover something 
 more intelligible in the negative part of this illus- 
 trious character. The man I have described would 
 never prostitute his dignity in parliament, by an 
 indecent violence, either in opposing or defending 
 a minister. He would not at one moment rancor- 
 ously persecute, at another basely cringe to, the 
 favourite of his sovereign. After outraging the 
 royal dignity with peremptory conditions, little 
 short of menace and hostility, he would never de- 
 scend to the humility of soliciting an interview^ 
 with the favourite, and of offering to recover, at 
 any price, the honour of his friendship. Though 
 deceived, perhaps, in his youth, he would not, 
 through the course of a long life, have invariably 
 chosen his friends frorr among the most profligate 
 of mankind. His own nonour would have forbid- 
 den him from mixing his private pleasures or con- 
 versation with jockeys, gamesters, blasphemers, 
 
 • The duke had lately lost his only son by a fall from his 
 horse. 
 
 t At this interview, which passed at the house of the late 
 lord Eglintouu, lord Bute told the duke, that he was deter- 
 mined never to have any connexion w'^th a man who liad so 
 basely betrayed him.
 
 148 
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 gladiators, or buffoons. He would then have never 
 felt, much less would he have submitted to, the dis- 
 honest necessity of engaging in the interests and 
 intrigues of his dependents ; of supplying their 
 vices, or relieving their beggary, at the expense o' 
 his country. He would not have betrayed such 
 ignorance, or such contempt, of the constitution, 
 as openly to avow, in a court of justice, the pur- 
 chase* and sale of a borough. lie would not have 
 thought it consistent with his rank in the state, or 
 even with his personal importance, to be the little 
 tyrant of a little corporation.! He would never 
 have been insulted with virtues which he had la- 
 boured to extinguish; nor suffered the disgrace of 
 a mortifying defeat, which has made him ridiculous 
 and contemptible even to the few by whom he was 
 not detested. I reverence the afflictions of a good 
 man ; his sorrows are sacred. But how can we take 
 part in the distresses of a man whom we can nei- 
 ther loye or esteem : or feel for a calamity of which 
 lie himself is insensible.'' Where was the father's 
 heart, when he could look for, or find, an imme- 
 
 • In an answer in chancery, in a suit against him to 
 recover a large sum, paid him by a person whom he had 
 undertaken to return to parliament for one of his grace's 
 boroughs, he was compelled to repay the money. 
 
 Of Bedford, where the tyrant was held in such con- 
 tempt and detestation, that, in order to deliver fliemselves 
 t'rom liim, they admitted a great number of strangers to 
 the (reedom. To make his defeat truly ridiculous, he 
 tried bis whole strength against Mr. Ilorne, and was beaten 
 upon his own ground.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 149 
 
 diate consolation for the loss of an only son, in 
 consultations and bargains for a place at court, 
 and even in the misery of ballotting at the India 
 House ? 
 
 Admitting, then, that you have mistaken or de- 
 serted those honourable principles which ought to 
 have directed your conduct ; admitting that you 
 have as little claim to private affection as to public 
 esteem, let us see with what abilities, with what de- 
 gree of judgment, you have carried your own sys- 
 tem into execution. A great man, in the success, 
 and even in the magnitude, of his crimes, finds a 
 rescue from contempt. Your grace is every way 
 unfortunate. Yet I will not look back to those 
 ridiculous scenes, by which, in your earlier days, 
 you thought it an honour to be distinguished ;* 
 the recorded stripes, the public infamy, your own 
 sufferings, or Mr. Rigby's fortitude. These events 
 undoubtedly left an impression, though not upon 
 your mind. To such a mind, it may, perhaps, be a 
 pleasure to reflect, that there is hardly a corner of 
 
 • Mr. Heston Humphrey, a country attorney, horse- 
 whipped the duke, with equal justice, severity, and perse- 
 verance, on the course at Lichfield. Rigby and lord Tren- 
 tham were also cudgelled in a most exemplary manner. This 
 gave rise to the following story : " When the late king 
 heard that sir Edward Ilawke had given tlic French a druh- 
 bing, his majesty, who had never received that kind of chas- 
 tisement, was pleased to ask lord Chesterfield the meaning 
 of the word.—" Sir," says lord Chesterfield, '' the meaning 
 of the word — But here conies the duke of Bedford, who b 
 better able to explain it to your majesty dian I am."
 
 150 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 any of his majesty's kingdoms, except France, in 
 which, at one time or other, your valuable life has 
 cot been in danger. Amiable man ! we see and ac- 
 knowledge the protection of Providence, by wlfich 
 you have so often escaped the personal detestation 
 of your fellow-subjects, and are still reserved for the 
 public justice of your country. 
 
 Your history begins to be important at that 
 auspicious period, at which you were deputed to 
 represent the earl of Bute at the court of Versailles. 
 It was an honourable office, and executed with the 
 same spirit with which it was accepted. Your 
 patrons wanted an ambassador who would submit 
 to make concessions, without daring to insist upon 
 any honourable condition for his sovereign. Their 
 business required a man who had as little feeling for 
 his own dignity, as for the welfare of his country ; 
 and they found him in the first rank of the nobility. 
 Belleisle, Goree, Guadaloupe, St. Lucia, Martin- 
 ique, the Fishery, and the Havana, are glorious 
 monuments of your grace's talents for negotiation. 
 My lord, we are too well acquainted with your pe- 
 cuniary character, to think it possible that so many 
 public sacrifices should have been made without 
 some private compensations. Your conduct carries 
 with it an internal evidence, beyond all the legal 
 proofs of a court of justice. Even the callous pride 
 of lord Egremont was alarmed.* He saw and felt 
 
 • This man, notwithstanding his pride and Tory prin 
 ciples, had some English stuff in him. Upon an official 
 letter he wrote to the duke of Bedford, tl o duke desiro(] to
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 151 
 
 liia own dishonour in corresponding with you : and 
 there certainly was a moment at which he meant to 
 have resisted, had not a fatal lethargy prevailed over 
 his faculties, and carried all sense and memory away 
 with it. 
 
 I will not pretend to specify the secret terms on 
 which you were invited to support* an administra- 
 tion which lord Bute pretended to leave in full 
 possession of their ministerial authority, and per- 
 fectly masters of themselves. He was not of a 
 temper to relinquish power, though he retired from 
 employment. Stipulations were certainly made be- 
 tween your grace and him, and certainly violated. 
 After two years' submission, you thought you had 
 collected strength enough to control his influence, 
 and that it was your turn to be a tyrant, because you 
 had been a slave. When you found yourself mis- 
 taken in your opinion of your gracious master's 
 firmness, disappointment got the better of all your 
 humble discretion, and carried you to an excess of 
 outrage to his person, as distant from true spirit, as 
 from all decency and respect.t After robbing him 
 
 be recalled, and it was with the utmost difficulty that lord 
 Bute could appease him. 
 
 * Mr. Grenville, lord Halifax, and lord Egremont. 
 
 t The ministry having endeavoured to exclude the dow- 
 ager out of the Regency Bill, the earl of Bute determined 
 to dismiss them. Upon this, the duke of Bedford demanded 
 
 an audience of the , reproached him in plain 
 
 terms with his duplicity, baseness, falsehood, treachery, and 
 hypocrisy; repeatedly gave him the lie, and left him in 
 convulsions
 
 152 JUNIUS'S LETTERS 
 
 of the rigl'ts of a king, you would not permit him 
 to preserve the honour of a gentleman. It was 
 then lord Weymoutli was nominated to Ireland, 
 and despatched (we well remember widi what inde- 
 cent hurry) to plunder the treasury of the first fruits 
 of an employment, which you well knew he was 
 never to execute.* 
 
 Tiiis sudden declaration of war against the fa- 
 vourite, might have given you a momentary merit 
 with the public, if it had either been adopted upon 
 principle, or maintained with resolution. With- 
 out looking back to all your former servility, we 
 need only observe your subsequent conduct, to see 
 upon what motives you acted. Apparently united 
 with Mr. Grenville, you waited until lord Rocking- 
 liaui's feeble administration should dissolve in its 
 own weakness. The moment their dismission was 
 suspected, the moment you perceived that another 
 system was adopted in the closet, you thought it nc 
 disgrace to return to your former dependence, and 
 solicit once moi-e the friendship of lord Bute. You 
 begged an interview, at which he had spirit enough 
 to treat you with contempt. 
 
 It would now be of little use to point out by what 
 a train of weak, injudicious measures, it became 
 necessary, or was thought so, to call you back to a 
 sharr in the administration.t The friends, whom 
 
 * He received three thousand pounds for plate and 
 equipage money. 
 
 t Wlien earl Gower was appointeJ president of the 
 council, the king, witli his usual sincerity, assured him
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 163 
 
 yoa did not in the last instance desert, were not oi 
 a character to add strength or credit to government : 
 and, at that time, your alliance with the duke ot 
 Grafton, was, I presume, hardly foreseen. VVe must 
 look for other stipulations to account for that sud- 
 den resolution of the closet, by which three of your 
 dependents* (whose characters, I think, cannot be 
 less respected than they are) were advanced to 
 offices, through which you might again control the 
 minister, and probably engross the whole directio.i 
 of affairs. 
 
 The possession of absolute power is now once 
 more within your reach. The measures you have 
 taken to obtain and confirm it, are too gross to 
 escape the eyes of a discerning, judicious prince 
 His palace is besieged ; the lines of circumvallation 
 are drawing round him; and, unless he finds a re- 
 source in his own activity, or in the attachment :.l 
 the real friends of his family, the best of princes 
 must submit to the confinement of a state prisoner, 
 until your grace's death, or some less fortui ate 
 event, shall raise the siege. For the present, you 
 may safely resume that style of insult and merace, 
 which even a private gentleman cannot submit to 
 hear without being contemptible. Mr. M'Kenzie's 
 history is not yet forgotten ; and you may find pre- 
 cedents enough of the mode in which an imperioua 
 
 that he had not had one happy moment since the duke of 
 Bedford left him. 
 
 • Lords Gower, Weymouth, and Sandwich. 
 G 2
 
 154 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 subject may signify his pleasure to his sovereign. 
 Where will this gracious monarch look for assist- 
 ance, when the wretched Grafton could forget his 
 obligations to his master, and desert him for a iiol- 
 low alliance with such a man as the duke ol 
 Bedford ! 
 
 Let us consider you, then, as arrived at the sum- 
 mit of worldly greatness ; let us suppose that all 
 your plans of avarice and ambition are accom- 
 plished, and your most sanguine wishes gratified, in 
 the fear as well as the hatred of the people j can age 
 itself forget that you are now in the last act of life ^ 
 Can gray hairs make folly venerable ? And is there 
 no period to be reserved for meditation and re- 
 tirement ? For shame, my lord ! let it not be re- 
 corded of you, that the latest moments of your life 
 were dedicated to the same unworthy pursuits, the 
 same busy agitations, in which your youth and 
 manhood were exhausted. Consider that, although 
 you cannot disgrace your former life, you are vio- 
 lating the character of age, and exposing the im- 
 potent imbecility, after you have lost the vigour, of 
 the passions. 
 
 Your friends will ask, perhaps. Whither shall this 
 unhappy old man retire .'' Can he remain in the 
 metropolis, where his life has been so often threat- 
 ened, and his palace so often attacked ? If he returns 
 to Woburn, scorn and mockery await him. He 
 must create a solitude round his estate, if he would 
 avoid the face of reproach and derision. At Ply- 
 mouth, his destructior woiald be more than probable ; 
 at Exeter, inevitable No honest Englishman will
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 155 
 
 ever forget his attachment, nor any honest Scotch- 
 man forgive his treachery, to lord Bate. At every 
 town he enters, he must change his liveries and 
 name. Whichever vva}' he flies, the hue and cry of 
 the country pursues him. 
 
 In another kingdom, indeed, the blessings of his 
 administration have been more sensibly felt ; his 
 virtues better understood ; or, at worst, they will 
 not, for him alone, forget their hospitality. As 
 well might T^erres have returned to Sicily. You 
 have twice escapee, my lord ; beware of a third 
 experiment. The indignation of a whole people, 
 plundered, insulted, and oppressed, as they have 
 been, will not always be disappointed. 
 
 It is in vain, therefore, to shift the scene. You 
 can no more fly from your enemies, than from 
 yourself Persecuted abroad, you look into your 
 own heart for consolation, and find nothing but 
 reproaches and despair. But, my lord, you may 
 quit the field of business, though not the field of 
 danger; and though you cannot be safe, you may 
 cease to be ridiculous. I fear you have listened too 
 long to the advice of those pernicious friends, with 
 whose interests you have sordidly united your own, 
 and for whom you have sacrificed every thing that 
 ought to be dear to a man of honour. They are 
 still base enough to encourage the follies of your 
 age, as they once did the vices of your youth. As 
 little acquainted with the rules of decomm as with 
 the laws of morality, they will not sufler you to 
 profit by experience, nor even to consult the propri- 
 ety of a bad character. Even now they tell you
 
 156 JUmUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 that life is no more than a dramatic scene, in which 
 the hero should preserve his consistency to the last j 
 and that as you lived without virtue, you should die 
 without repentance. 
 
 JUNIUS 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 To Junit^.. 
 
 SIR, September 14. 1769. 
 
 Having, accidentally, seen a republication of your 
 letters, wherein you have been pleased to assert, 
 tliat I had sold the companions of my success, I am 
 again obliged to declare the said assertion to be a 
 most infamous and malicious falsehood ; and I again 
 call upon you to stand forth, avow yourself, and 
 prove the charge. If you can make it out to the 
 satisfaction of any one man in the kingdom, I will 
 be content to be thought the worst man in it ; if 
 you do not, what must the nation think of you .'* 
 Party has nothing to do in this affair : you have 
 made a personal attack upon my honour, defamed 
 me by a most vile calumny, which might possibly 
 have sunk into oblivion, had not such uncommon 
 pains been taken to renew and perpetuate this 
 scandal, chiefly because it has been told in good 
 language ; for I give you full credit for your elegant 
 diction, well-turned periods, and Attic wit : but
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS 157 
 
 wit IS oftentimes false, though it may appear bril- 
 liant; which is exactly the case of your whole per- 
 formance. But, sir, I am obliged, in the most 
 serious manner, to accuse you of being guilty ol 
 falsities. You have said the thing that is not 
 To support your story, you have recourse to the 
 following irresistible argument : " You sold the 
 companions of your victory, because, when the 
 16th regiment was given to you, you was silent. 
 The conclusion is inevitable." I believe that such 
 deep and acute reasoning could only come from 
 such an extraordinary writer as Junius. But, un- 
 fortunately for you, the premises, as well as the 
 conclusion, are absolutely false. Many applications 
 have been made to the ministry, on the subject of 
 the Manilla ransom, since the time of my being 
 colonel of that regiment. As I have for some years 
 quitted London, I was obliged to have recourse to 
 the honourable colonel Monson, and sir Samuel 
 Cornish, to negotiate for me. In the last autumn, 
 I personally delivered a memorial to the earl o 
 Shelburne, at his seat in Wiltshire. As you have 
 told us of your importance, that you are a person 
 of rank and fortune, and above a common bribe, 
 you may, in all probability, be not unknown to his 
 lordship, who can satisfy you of the truth of what 
 I say. But I shall now take the liberty, sir, to 
 seize your battery, and turn it against yourself. If 
 your puerile and tinsel logic could carry the least 
 weight or conviction with it, how must you stand 
 affected by the inevitable conclusion, as you are 
 pleased to term it? According to Junius, silence is 
 guilt. In many of the public papers, you have
 
 i.'iS JUXIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 been called, in the most direct and offensive terms, a 
 liar and a coward. When did you reply to these foul 
 accusations .'' You have been quite silent, quite 
 chop-fallen : therefore, because you was silent, the 
 nation has a right to pronounce you to be both a liar 
 and a coward, from your own argument. But, sir, 
 I will give you fair play ; I will afford you an oppor- 
 tunity to wipe off the first appellation, b}' desiring 
 the proofs of your charge against me. Produce 
 them ! To wipe off the last, produce yourself. Peo- 
 ple cannot bear any longer your lion's skin, and the 
 despicable imposture of the old Roman name which 
 you have affected. For the future, assume the name 
 of some modern* bravo and dark assassin: let your 
 appellation have some affinity to your practice. But 
 if I must perish, Junius, let me perish in the face of 
 day: be for once a generous and open enemy. I 
 allow that Gothic appeals to cold iron, are no better 
 proofs of a man's honesty and veracity, than hot iron 
 and burning plough-shares are of female chastity ; 
 jut a soldier's honour is as delicate as a woman's : 
 it must not be suspected. You have dared to throw 
 more than a suspicion upon mine : you cannot but 
 know the consequences, which even the meekness of 
 Christianity would pardon me for, after the injury 
 you have done me. 
 
 WILLIAM DRAPER. 
 
 * Was Brutus an ancient bravo and dark assassin ? Or 
 does sir W. D. think it crimina. to stab a tyrant to the 
 heart ?
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 159 
 
 XXV. 
 
 Haeret later! lethalis arundo. 
 
 To Sir William Draper, Knight of the Bath. 
 
 SIR, September 25^ 1769- 
 
 After so long an interval, I did not expect to see 
 the debate revived between us. My answer to your 
 last letter shall be short; for I write to you with 
 reluctance, and I hope we shall now conclude our 
 correspondence for ever. 
 
 Had you been originally, and without provoca- 
 tion, attacked by an anonymous writer, you would 
 have some right to demand his name. But in this 
 cause you are a volunteer. You engaged in it with 
 the unpremeditated gallantry of a soldier. You 
 were content to set your name in opposition to a 
 man who would probably continue in concealment. 
 You understood the terms upon which we were to 
 correspond, and gave at least a tacit assent to tliem. 
 After voluntarily attacking me, under the character 
 of Junius, what possible right have you to know me 
 under any other? Will you forgive me if I insinuate 
 to you, that you foresaw some honour in the appa- 
 rent spirit of coming forward in person, and that you 
 were not quite iiidifierent to the display of your lite- 
 rary qualifications ?
 
 leo JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 Yon cannot but know, that the republication of my 
 letters was no more than a catch-penny contrivance 
 of a printer, in wliich it was impossible I should be 
 concerned, and for which I am no way answerable. 
 At the same time, I wish you to understand, that if T 
 do not take the trouble of reprinting these papers, it 
 is not from any fear of gi^ing oficnce to sir William 
 Drnpor. 
 
 Your remarks upon a signature adopted merely for 
 distinction, are unworthy of notice : but when you 
 toll me I have submitted to be called a liar and a 
 coward, I must ask you, in my turn, whether you 
 seriously think it any wa}' incumbent on me to take 
 notice of the silly invectives of every simpleton who 
 v.ritos in a newspaper; and what opinion you woidd 
 have conceived of my discretion, if I had suffered my- 
 self to be the dupe of so shallow an artifice ? 
 
 Your appeal to the sword, though consistent 
 enough with your late profession, will neither prove 
 3'our innocence, nor clear you from suspicion. 
 Your complaints with regard to the Manilla ransom, 
 were, for a considerable time, a distress to govern- 
 ment. You were appointed (greatly out of your 
 turn) to the command of a regiment ; and during 
 that administration we heard no more of sir William 
 Draper. The facts of which I speak may, indeed, 
 be variously accounted for ; but tlu-y are too notori- 
 ous to be denied ; and I think yovi might have learn- 
 ed, at the university, that a false conclusion is an 
 error in argument, not a breach of veracity. Your 
 solicitations, I doubt not, were renewed under another 
 administration. Admitting the fact, I fear an indif- 
 ferent person would only infer from it, that experi-
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 161 
 
 ence had made you acquainted with the benefits of 
 complaining. Remember, sir, that you have your- 
 self confessed, that, considering the critical situation 
 of this country, the ministry are in the right to tempo- 
 rise with Spain. This confession reduces you to an 
 unfortunate dilemma. By renewing your solicita- 
 tions, you must either mean to force your country 
 into a war at a most unseasonable juncture, or, 
 having no view or expectation of that kind, that 
 you look for nothing but a private compensation to 
 yourself. 
 
 As to me, it is by no means necessary that I should 
 be exposed to the resentment of the worst and the 
 most powerful men in this country, though I may be 
 indifferent about yours. Though you would fight, 
 there are others who would assassinate. 
 
 But, after all, sir, where is the injury ? You as- 
 sure me, that my logic is puerile and tinsel j that it 
 carries not the least weight or conviction ; that my 
 premises are false, and my conclusions absurd. If 
 this be a just description of me, how is it possible 
 for such a writer to disturb your peace of mind, or 
 to injure a character so well established as yours ? 
 Take care, sir William, how you indulge this un- 
 ruly temper, lest the world should suspect that con- 
 science has some share in your resentments. You 
 have more to fear from the treachery of your own 
 passions, than from any malevolence of mine. 
 
 I believe, sir, you will never know me. A con- 
 siderable time must certainly elapse before we are 
 personally acquainted. You need not, however, 
 regret the delay, or suffer an apprehension, that 
 
 any length of lime can restore you to the Christian 
 
 11
 
 162 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 meekness of jour temper, and disappoint your pre- 
 sent indignation. If I understand your character, 
 there is in your own breast a repository, in which 
 your resentments may be safely laid up for future 
 occasions, and preserved without the hazard of 
 diminution. The odia in longum jacens, qua re- 
 conderet, auctaque promeret, I thought had only be- 
 longed to the worst character of antiquity. The text 
 is in Tacitus: you know best where to look for the 
 commentary. 
 
 JUNIUS. 
 
 XXVI 
 
 A Word at parting to Junius 
 
 • SIR, October 7, 1769. 
 
 As you have not favoured me with either of the 
 explanations demanded of you, I can have nothing 
 more to say to you upon my own account. Your 
 
 • Measures .and not men, is the common cant of affected 
 moderation : a base counterfeit language, fabricated by 
 knaves, and made current among fools. Such gentle cen- 
 sure is not fitted to the present degenerate state of society. 
 What does it avail to expose the absurd contrivance, or 
 pernicious tendency, of measures, if the man who advises 
 or executes, shall be suffered, not only to escape with im- 
 punity, but even to preserve his power, and insult us with 
 the favour of his sovereign ? I would recoramenc tc the
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 103 
 
 mercy to me, or tenderness for yourself, has fafeen 
 very great. The public will judge of you.-- motives. 
 If your excess of modesty forbids you to produce 
 either the proofs or yourself, I will excuse it. 
 Take courage, I have not the temper of Tiberius, 
 any more than the rank or power. You, indeed, 
 are a tyrant of another sort; and upon your politi- 
 cal bed of torture, can excruciate any subject, from 
 a first minister down to such a grub or butterfly 
 as myself; like another detested tyrant of antiquity, 
 can make the wretched sufierer fit the bed, if the bod 
 will not fit the sufierer, by disjointing or tearing the 
 trembling limbs, until they are stretched to its ex- 
 tremity. But courage, constancy, and patience 
 under torments, have sometimes caused the mo^t 
 hardened monsters to relent, and forgive the object 
 of their cruelty. You, sir, are determined to try all 
 that human nature can endure, until she expires ; 
 else, was it possible that you could be the author of 
 that most inhuman letter to the duke of Bedford, I 
 have read with astonishment and horroj ? Where, 
 
 reader the whole of Mr. Pope's letter to Doctor Arbuthnot, 
 dated July 26th, 1734, from which the following is an ex- 
 tract : " To reform, and not to chastise, I am afraid, is im- 
 possible ; and that the best precepts, as well as the best laws, 
 would prove of small use, if there were no examples to en- 
 force them. To attack vices in the abstract, without 
 touching persons, may be safe fighting, indeed, but it is 
 fighting with shadows. My greatest comfort and encou- 
 ragement to proceed has been to see, tliat those who hare 
 no shame, and no fear of any thing elsc^ .lave appeared 
 louclied by my satires."
 
 (G4 JUJNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 sir, where were the feelings of your own heart, when 
 you could upbraid a most affectionate father with the 
 loss of his oidy and most amiable son ? Read over 
 again those cruel lines of yours, and let them wring 
 your very soul ! Cannot political questions be dis- 
 cussed, without descending to the most odious per- 
 sonalities f Must you go wantonly out of your way 
 to torment declining age, because the duke of Bed- 
 ford may have quarrelled with those whose cause and 
 politics you espouse? For shame! for shame! 
 As you have spoken daggers to him, you may justly 
 dread the use of them against your own breast, did a 
 want of courage, or of noble sentiments, stimulate 
 him to such mean revenge. He is above it ; he is 
 brave. Do you fancy that your own base arts have 
 infected our whole island.'' But your own reflec- 
 tions, your own conscience, must, and will, if you 
 have any spark of humanity remaining, give him 
 most ample vengeance. Not all the power of words 
 with which you are so graced, will ever wash out, or 
 even palliate, this foul blot in your character. I 
 have not time, at present, to dissect your letter so 
 minutely as I could wish ; but I w ill be bold enough 
 to say, that it is (as to reason and argument) the 
 most extraordinary piece ofjlorid impotence that was 
 ever imposed upon the eyes and ears of the too 
 credulous and deluded mob. It accuses the duke of 
 Bedford of high treason. Upon what foundation .'* 
 You tell us, " the duke's pecuniary character makes 
 it more than probable, that he could not have made 
 such sacrifices at the peace, without some private 
 compensations: that his conduc carried with it an
 
 JtNIUS'S LETTERS. 165 
 
 interior evidence, beyond all the legal proofs of a 
 court of justice." 
 
 My academical education, sir, bids me tell you, that 
 it is necessary to establish the truth of your first 
 proposition, before you presume to draw inferences 
 from it. First prove the avarice, before you make 
 the rash, hasty, and most wicked conclusion. This 
 father, Junius, whom you call avaricious, allowed 
 that son eight thousand pounds a year. Upon his 
 most unfortunate death, which 3'our usual good-na- 
 ture took care to remind him of, he greatly increased 
 the jointure of the afflicted lady his widow. Is this 
 avarice ? Is this doing good by stealth ? It is 
 upon record. 
 
 If exact order, method, and true economy, as a 
 master of a family ; if splendour, and just magnifi- 
 cence, without wild waste and thoughtless extrava- 
 gance, may constitute the character of an avaricious 
 man, the duke is guilty. But, for a moment, let us 
 admit that an ambassador may love money too much ; 
 what proof do you give that he has taken any to 
 betray his country ? Is it hearsay, or the evidence 
 of letters, or ocular ; or the evidence of those con- 
 cerned in this black afiair ? Produce your authori- 
 ties to the public. It is a most impudent kind of 
 sorcery, to attempt to blind us with the smoke, witli- 
 out convincing us that the fire has existed. You 
 first brand him with a vice that he is free from, to 
 render him odious and suspected. Suspicion is the 
 foul weapon with which you make all your chief 
 attacks ; with that you stab. But shall one of the 
 first subjects of the realm be ruined in his fame, shaK 
 even his life be in constant danger, from a charge
 
 lt)6 JUNILS'S LETTERS. 
 
 built upon sucb sandy foundations? Must Iiis house 
 
 be besieged by lawless rufilaiis, bis journe^^s impeded, 
 and even the asylum of an altar be insecure from 
 assertions so base and false ? Potent as he is, the 
 duke is amenable to justice ; if guilty, punishable 
 The parliament is the lii^!i and solemn tribunal for 
 matters of such great i!;oi!ient ; to that be they sub- 
 mitted. But I hope, also, tliat some notice will be 
 taken of, and some punishment inflicted upon, false 
 accusers; especially upon such, Junius, who are wil- 
 fully false. In any truth I will agree even with 
 Junius J will agree with him that it is highly unbe- 
 coming the dignit} of peers to tamper with boroughs. 
 Aristocracy is as fatal as democracy. Our consti- 
 tution admits of neither. It loves a king, lords, and 
 commons, really chosen hy tiie unbought suffrages 
 of a free people. But if corruption only shifts hands, 
 if the wealthy commoner gives the bribe instead of 
 the potent peer, is the state better served by this ex- 
 change ? Is the real emancipation of the borough 
 effected, because new parchment boixls may possibly 
 supersede the old ? To say the truth, wherever such 
 practices prevail, they are equally criminal to, and 
 destructive of, oui freedom. 
 
 The rest of your declamation is scarce worth con- 
 sidering, except for the elegance of the language. 
 Like Hamlet, in the play, you produce two pictures : 
 you tell us, that one is not like the duke of Bed- 
 ford ; then you bring a most hideous caricature, 
 and tell us of the resemblance ; but multum ahludit 
 imago. 
 
 All your long tedious accounts of the ministerial 
 quarrels, and the intrigues of the cabinet, are re-
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 167 
 
 ducible to a few short lines ; and to convince you, 
 sir, that I do not mean to flatter any minister, 
 either past or present, these are my thoughts : they 
 seem to have acted like lovers, or children ; have* 
 pouted, quarrelled, cried, kissed, and been friends 
 again, as the objects of desire, the ministerial rattles, 
 have been put into their hands. But such proceed- 
 ings are very unworthy of the gravity and dignity of 
 a great nation. We do not want men of abilities, but 
 we have wanted steadiness : we want unanimity; 
 your letters, Junius, will not contribute thereto. 
 You may one day expire by a flame of your own 
 kindling. But it is my humble opinion, that lenity 
 and moderation, pardon and oblivion, will disappoint 
 the efforts of all the seditious in the land, and extin- 
 guish their wide-spreading fires. I have lived with 
 this sentiment ; with this I shall die. 
 
 WILLIAJNI DRAPER. 
 
 ♦ Sir William gives us a pleasant account of men, who, 
 in his opinion at least, are the best qualified to govern an 
 empire.
 
 168 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 xxvu. 
 
 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser. 
 
 SIR, October 13, 1769- 
 
 If sir William Draper's bed be a bed of tortures, he 
 has made it for himself. I shall never interrupt his 
 repose. Having changed the subject, there are 
 parts of his last letter not undeserving of a reply. 
 Leaving his private character and conduct out of the 
 question, I shall consider him merely in the capacity 
 of an author, whose labours certainly do no discredit 
 to a newspaper. 
 
 We say, in common discourse, that a man may 
 be his own enemy ; and the frequency of the fact 
 makes the expression intelligible. But that a man 
 should be the bitterest enemy of his friends, impli^^s 
 a contradiction of a peculiar nature. There is some- 
 thing in it, which cannot be conceived, without a 
 confusion of ideas, nor expressed, without a solecism 
 in language. Sir William Draper is still that fatal 
 friend lord Granby found him. Yet, I am ready to 
 do justice to his generosity j if, indeed, it be not 
 something more than generous, to be the voluntary 
 advocate of men, who think themselves injured by 
 his assistance, and to consider nothing in the cause 
 he adopts, but the difficulty of defending it. I 
 thought, however, lie had been better read in the 
 history of the human heart, than to compare or con
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 169 
 
 found the toitures of the body with those of the mind. 
 He ought to have known, though, perhaps, it might 
 not be his interest to confess, that no outward tyran- 
 ny can reach the mind. If conscience plays the 
 ♦.yrant, it would be greatly for the benefit of the 
 'orld that she were more arbitrary, and far less 
 \ acable, than some men find her. 
 
 But it seems I have outraged the feelings of a 
 father's heart. Am I, indeed, so injudicious.^ Does 
 sir William Draper think I would have hazarded my 
 credit with a generous nation, by so gross a viola- 
 tion of the laws of humanity ? Docs he think I am 
 so little acquainted with the first and noblest charac- 
 teristic of Englishmen ? Or, how will he reconcile 
 such folly with an understanding so full of artifice as 
 mine .'' Had he been a father, he would have been 
 but little offended with the severity of the reproach, 
 for his mind would have been filled with the justice 
 of it. He would have seen, that I did not insult the 
 feelings of a father, but the father who felt nothing. 
 He would have trusted to the evidence of his own 
 paternal heart, and boldly denied the possibility of 
 the fact, instead of defending it. Against whom, 
 then, will his honest indignation be directed, when I 
 assure him, that this whole town beheld the duke of 
 Bedford's conduct, upon the death of his son, with 
 horror and astonishment.'' Sir William Draper does 
 himself but little honour in opposing the general 
 sense of his country. The people arc seldom wrong 
 in their opinions ; in their sentiments they are never 
 mistaken. There may be a vanity, perhaps, in a sin- 
 gular way of thinking : but, when a man professes a 
 want of those feelings which d.o honour to the multi- 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 170 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 tude, he hazards something infinitely more important 
 than the character of his understanding. Afte;: all, 
 as sir William may possibly be in earnest in his anxi- 
 ety for the duke of Bedford, I should be glad to re- 
 lieve him from it. He may rest assured, this worthy 
 nobleman laughs, with equal indiflerence, at my re 
 proaches, and sir William's distress about him. But 
 here let it stop. Even the duke of Bedford, insensi- 
 ble as he is, will consult the tranquillity of his life, in 
 not provoking the moderation of my temper. I£ 
 from the profoundest contempt, I should ever rise 
 into anger, he should soon find, that all I have already 
 said of him was lenity and compassion. 
 
 Out of a long catalogue, sir William Drap'er has 
 confined himself to the refutation of two charges only. 
 The rest he had not time to discuss , and, indeed, it 
 would have been a laborious undertaking. To draw 
 up a defence of such a series of enormities, would 
 have required a life, at least, as long as that which 
 has been uniformly emplo3'ed in the practice of them. 
 The public opinion of the duke of Bedford's extreme 
 economy is, it seems, entirely without foundation. 
 Though not very prodigal abroad, in his own family, 
 at least, he is regular and magnificent. He paj's his. 
 debts, abhors a beggar, and makes a handsome pro- 
 vision for his son. His charity has improved upon 
 the proverb, and ended where it began. Admitting 
 the whole force of this single instance of his domestic 
 generosity, (wonderful, indeed, considering the nar- 
 rowness of his fortune, and the little merit of his only 
 son) the public may still, perhaps, be dissatisfied, 
 and demand some other less equivocal proofs of his 
 mmiificence. Sir William Draper should have en-
 
 JUNIUSS LETTERS. 171 
 
 tered boldly into the detail of indigence relieved, of 
 arts encouraged, of science patronised, men of learn- 
 ing protected, and works of genius rewarded. In 
 short, had there been a single instance, besides Mr 
 Rigby,* of blushing merit, brought forward by the 
 duke for the service of the public, it should not have 
 been omitted. 
 
 I wish it were possible to establish my inference 
 with the same certainty on which I believe the prin- 
 ciple is founded. My conclusion, however, was not 
 drawn from the principle alone. I am not so unjust 
 as to reason from one crime to another: though I 
 think that, of all the vices, avarice is most apt to 
 taint and corrupt the heart. I combined the known 
 temper of the man, with the extravagant concessions 
 made by the ambassador ; and though 1 doubt not 
 sufficient care was taken to leave no document of any 
 treasonable negotiation, I still maintain ihat the con- 
 duett of this minister carries with it an internal and 
 convincing evidence against him. Sir William Dra- 
 per seems not to know the value or force of such a 
 proof. He will not permit us to judge of the mo- 
 tives of men, by the manifest tendency of their ac- 
 tions, nor by the notorious character of their minds. 
 
 * This gentleman is supposed to have the same idea of 
 blushing, that a man, bUnd from his birth, has of scarlet or 
 sky-blue. 
 
 t If sir W. D. will take the trouble of looking into Torey's 
 Memoirs, he will st'e wit!" what little ceremony a bribe njay 
 be offered to a duke, and • illi what little ceremony it w;ia 
 only not accepted.
 
 172 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 He calls for papers and witnesses with triumphant 
 securit}^^, as if nothing could be true but what could 
 be proved in a court of justice. Yet a religious man 
 might have remembered upon what foundation some 
 truths, most interesting to mankind, have been re- 
 ceived and established. If it were not for the inter- 
 nal evidence wiiich the purest of religions carries 
 with it, what would have become of his once well- 
 quoted decalogue, and of the meekness of his Chris- 
 tianity ? 
 
 The generous warmth of his resentment makes 
 hiin confound the order of events. He forgets, 
 that the insults and distresses which the duke of 
 Bedford has suffered, and which sir William has 
 lamented, with many delicate touches of (he true 
 pathetic, were only recorded in my letter to his 
 grace, not occasioned by it. It was a simple, can- 
 did narrative of facts ; though, for augiit I know, 
 it may carry with it something prophetic. His 
 grace, undoubtedly, has received several ominous 
 hints ; and, I think, in certain circumstances, a 
 wise man would do well to prepare himself for the 
 event. 
 
 But I have a charge of a heavier nature against 
 sir William Draper. He tells us, that the duke of 
 Bedford is amenable to justice ; that parliament is 
 a high and solemn tribunal ; and that, if guilty, 
 he may be punished by due course of law ; and all 
 this he says with as much gravity as if he believed 
 one word of the matter, , I hope, indeed, the day 
 of impeachments \\\\\ arrive before this nobleman 
 escapes out of life ; but, to refer us to that mode 
 of proceeding now, with such a ministry, and such
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 173 
 
 a house of commons as the present, what is it, 
 but an indecent mockery of the common sense of 
 the nation ? I think he might have contented him- 
 self with defending the greatest enemy, without in- 
 sulting the distresses of his country. 
 
 His concluding declaration of his opinion, with 
 respect to the present condition of affairs, is too 
 loose and undetermined to be of any service to the 
 public. How strange is it that this gentleman 
 should dedicate so much time and argument to the 
 defence of worthless or indifferent characters, while 
 he gives but seven solitary lines to the only subject 
 which can deserve his attention, or do credit to his 
 abilities ! 
 
 JUNIUS. 
 
 xxvni. 
 
 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser, 
 
 SIR, October 20, 1769. 
 
 I very sincerely applaud the spirit with which a 
 lady has paid tlie debt of gratitude to her benefactor. 
 Though I think she has mistaken the point, she 
 shows a virtue which makes her respectable. The 
 question turned upon the personal generosity or ava- 
 rice of a man, whose private fortune is immense. 
 The proofs of his munificence must be drawn from 
 the uses to which he has applied that fortune. I was 
 not speaking of a lord lieutenant oflrcland, but of a
 
 174 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 rich English duke, whose wealth gave him the means 
 of doing as much good in this country, as he derived 
 from his power in another. I am far from wishing 
 to lessen the merit of this single benevolent action ; 
 perhaps it' is the more conspicuous, from standing 
 alone. All I mean to say is, that it proves nothing 
 in the present argument. 
 
 JUNIUS. 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 Addressed to the Printer of the Public Advertiser. 
 
 SIR, October 19, 1769- 
 
 I am well assured that Junius will never descend 
 to a dispute with such a writer as Modestus (whose 
 letter appeared in the Gazetteer of Monday), espe- 
 cially as the dispute must be chiefly about words. 
 Notwithstanding the partiality of the public, it does 
 not appear that Junius values himself upon any su- 
 perior skill in composition : and I hope his time 
 will always be more usefully employed than in the 
 trifling refinements of verbal criticism. Modestus, 
 however, shall have no reason to triumph in the 
 silence and moderation of Junius. If he knew as 
 much of the propriety of language, as, I believe, he 
 does of the facts in question, he would have been 
 as cautious of attacking Junius upon his composi- 
 tion, as he seems to be of entering into the subject of 
 it : yet, after all, the last is the only article of any 
 importance to the public. 
 
 I do not wonder at the unremitted rancour with
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 175 
 
 which the duke of Bedford and his adherents inva- 
 riably speak of a nation, which we well know has 
 been too much injured to be easily forgiven. But 
 why must Junius be an Irishman ? The absurdity 
 of his writings betrays him. Waving all considera- 
 tion of the insult offered by Modestus to the de- 
 clared judgment of the people (thej^ may well bear 
 this amongst the rest) let us follow the several instan- 
 ces, and try whether the charge be fairly supported. 
 
 1. Then, the leaving a man to enjoy such a re- 
 pose as he can find upon a bed of torture, is severe 
 indeed ; perhaps too much so, when applied to such 
 a trifler as sir William Draper ; but there is nothing 
 absurd either in the idea or expression. Modestus can- 
 not distinguish between a sarcasm and a contradiction. 
 
 2. I affirm, with Junius, that it is the frequency 
 of the fact which alone can make us comprehend 
 how a man can be his. own enemy. We should 
 never arrive at the complex idea conveyed by those 
 words, if we had only seen one or two instances of 
 a man acting to his own prejudice. Offer the pro- 
 position to a child or a man unused to compound 
 his ideas, and you will soon see how little either 
 of them understand you. It is not a simple idea 
 arising from a single fact, but a very complex idea 
 arising from many facts, well observed, and accu- 
 rately compared. 
 
 3. JModestus could not, without great affectation, 
 mistake the meaning of Junius, when he speaks of 
 a man, who is the bitterest enemy of his friends. 
 He could not but know, that Junius spoke not of a 
 false or hollow friendship, but of a real intcnlioa to 
 serve, and that intention producing the worst effects
 
 176 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 of enmity. Whether the description be strictly appli 
 cable to Sir William Draper, is another question. 
 Junius does not say, that it is more criminal for a 
 man to be the enemy of his friends than his own; 
 though he might have affirmed it with truth. In a 
 moral light, a man may certainly take greater liber- 
 ties with himself, than with another. To sacrifice 
 ourselves merely, is a weakness we may indulge in, 
 if we tliink proper, for we do it at our own hazard 
 and expense ; but, under the pretence of friendship, 
 to sport with the reputation, or sacrifice the honour, 
 of another, is something worse than weakness; and 
 if, in favour of the foolish Intention, we do not call 
 it a crime, we must allow, at least, that it arises from 
 an overweening, busy, meddling impudence. Junius 
 says only, and he says truly, that it is more extra- 
 ordinary ; that it involves a greater contradiction 
 than the other; and, is it not a maxim received in 
 life, that, in general, we can determine more wisely 
 for others than for ourselves ? The reason of it is 
 so clear in argument, that It hardly wants the con- 
 firmation of experience. Sir William Draper, I 
 confess, is an exception to the general rule, though 
 not much to his credit. 
 
 4. If this gentleman will go back to his ethics, 
 he may, perhaps, discover the truth of what Junlua 
 says, That no outward tyranny can reach the mind. 
 The tortures of the body may be Introduced, by 
 way of ornament or Illustration, to represent those 
 of the mind ; but, strictly, there Is no similitude be- 
 tween them : they are tot>ally diflerent, both in their 
 cause and operation. The wretch who suffers upon 
 the rack is merely passive : but, when the mind Is
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. iin 
 
 tortured, it is not at the command of any outward 
 power; it is the sense of guilt which constitutes the 
 punishment, and creates that torture, with which the 
 guilty mind acts upon itself. =; ^uriuui 
 
 5. He misquotes what Junius says of conscience, and 
 makes the sentence ridiculous, by making it his own. 
 
 So much for composition. Now for fact. Junius, 
 it seems, has mistaken the duke of Bedford. His 
 grace had all the proper feelings of a father, though 
 he took care to suppress the appearance of them. 
 Yet it was an occasion, one would think, on which 
 he need not have been ashamed of his grief; on 
 which less fortitude would have done him more 
 honour. I can conceive, indeed, a benevolent mo- 
 tive for his endeavouring to assume an air of tran- 
 quillity in his own family ; and I wish I could dis- 
 cover any thing, in the rest of his character, to 
 justify my assigning that motive to his behaviour. 
 But is there no medium ? Was it necessary to ap- 
 pear abroad, to ballot at the India-House, and make 
 a public display, though it were only of an apparent 
 rasensibility ? I know we are treading on tender 
 ground ; and Junius, I am convinced, does not wish 
 to urge this question farther. Let the friends of the 
 duke of Bedford observe that humble silence which 
 becomes their situation. They should recollect, that 
 there are still some facts in store at which human 
 nature would shudder. I shall be understood by 
 those whom it concerns, wlien I say, that these facts 
 go farther than to the duke.* 
 
 • Within a fortnight after lord Tavistock's death, the 
 venerable Gertrude had a rout at Bedford house. Tli« 
 II 2 12
 
 178 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 It is not inconsistent to suppose, that a man may 
 be quite indifferent about one part of a cbarge, yet 
 severely stung witb another j a id thougl:. he feels no 
 •emorse, that he may wish to be revenged. The 
 Jiarge of insensibility carries a reproach, indeed, but 
 no danger with it. Junius had said, There are others 
 who would assassinate. Modestus, knowing his man, 
 will not suffer the insinuation to be divided, but 
 fixes all upon the duke of Bedford. 
 
 Without determining upon what evidence Junius 
 would choose to be condemned, I will venture to 
 maintain, in opposition to Modestus, or to Mr, 
 Iligby, (who is certainly not Modestus) or any of the 
 Bloomsbury gang, that the evidence against the duke 
 of Bedford is as strong as any presumptive evidence 
 can be. It depends upon a combination of facts and 
 reasoning, which require no confirmation from the 
 anecdote of the duke of Marlborough. Tiiis anec- 
 
 good duke (who had only sixty thousand pounds a year) 
 ordered an inventory to be taken of his son's wearing ap- 
 parel, down to his slippers, sold them all, and put the 
 money in his pocket. The amiable marchioness, shocked 
 at such brutal, unfeehng avarice, gave the value of the 
 clothes to the marquis's servant, out of her own purse. 
 That incomparable woman did not long survive her hus- 
 band. When she died, the duchess of Bedford treated her 
 as tlie duke had treated his only son : she ordered every 
 gown and trinket to be sold, and pocketed the money. 
 These are the monsters whom sir William Draper comes 
 fuiward to defend. May God protect me from doing any 
 thing that may require such defence or to deserve sucii 
 friendship.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 179 
 
 dote was referred to, merely to show how ready a 
 great man may be to receive a great bribe ; and if 
 Modestus could read the original, he would see, that 
 the expression only not accepted, was, probably, the 
 only one in our language that exactly fitted the case. 
 The bribe offered to the duke of Marlborough was 
 not refused. 
 
 I cannot conclude without taking notice of this 
 honest gentleman's learning, and wishing he had 
 given us a little more of it. When he accidentally 
 found himself so near speaking truth, it was rather 
 unfair of him to leave out the non potuisse refelli. 
 As it stands, the pudet hcec opprohria may be divided 
 equally between Mr. Rigby and the duke of Bedford. 
 Mr. Rigby, I take for granted, will assert his natural 
 right to the modesty of the quotation, and leave all 
 the opprobrium to his grace. 
 
 PHILO JUNIUS. 
 
 XXX. 
 
 To the Printer 9f the Public Advertiser. 
 
 SIR, October 17, 1769- 
 
 It is not wonderful taat the great cause in which 
 this country is engaged, should have roused and en- 
 grossed the whole attention of the people. I rather 
 admire the generous spirit with which they feel and 
 assert their 'nterest in this important question, than 
 blame them for their indifference about any other. 
 When the constitution is openly invaded, when the
 
 180 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 first original right of the people, from which all lawg 
 derive their authority, is directly attacked, inferior 
 grievances naturally lose their force, and are suf- 
 fered to pass by without punishment or observation. 
 The present ministry are as singularly marked by 
 their fortune, as their crimes. Instead of atoning for 
 their former conduct, by any wise or popular mea- 
 sure, they have found, in the enormity of one fact, a 
 cover and defence for a series of measures, which 
 must have been fatal to any other administration. 1 
 fear we are too remiss in observing the whole of their 
 proceedings. Struck with the principal figure, we 
 do not sufficiently mark in what manner the canvass 
 is filled up. Yet surely it is not a less crime, nor 
 less fatal in its consequences, to encourage a flagrant 
 breach of the law, by a military force, than to make 
 use of the forms of parliament to destroy the consti- 
 tution. — The ministry seem determined to give us a 
 choice of difficulties, and, if possible, to perplex us 
 with the multitude of their offences. The expedient 
 is worthy of the duke of Grafton. But though he 
 has preserved a gradation and variety in his mea- 
 sures, we should remember that the principle is uni- 
 form. Dictated by the same spirit, they deserve the 
 same attention. The following fact, though of the 
 most alarming nature, has not yet been clearly stated 
 to the public ; nor have the consequences of it been 
 sufficiently understood. — Had I taken it up at an 
 earlier period, I should have been accused of an un- 
 candid, malignant precipitation, as if I watched for 
 an unfair advantage against the ministry, and would 
 not aMow them a reasonable time to do their duty. 
 Thej now stand without excuse. Instead of em-
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 181 
 
 ploying the leisure they have had, in a strict exami- 
 nation of the offence, and punishing the offenders, 
 they seem to have considered that indulgence as a 
 security to them ; that, with a little time and man- 
 agement, the whole affair might be buried in silence, 
 and utterly forgotten. 
 
 A major general* of the army is arrested by the 
 sheriff's officers for a considerable debt. He per- 
 suades them to conduct him to the Tilt-yard, in St. 
 James's Park, under some pretence of business, 
 which it imported him to settle before he was con- 
 fined. He applies to a scrjeant, not immediately on 
 duty, to assist, with some of his companions, in fa- 
 vouring his escape. He attempts it. A bustle en- 
 sues. The bailiffs claim their prisoner. 
 
 An officer of the guards,t not then on duty, takes 
 part in the affair, applies to the lieutenant^ com- 
 manding the Tilt-yard guard, and urges him to turn 
 out his guard to relieve a general officer. The lieu- 
 tenant declines interfering in person, but stands at 
 a distance, and suffers the business to be done. The 
 officer takes upon himself to order out the guard. In 
 a moment they are in arms, quit their guard, march, 
 rescue the general, and drive away the sheriff's offi- 
 cers, who, in vain, represent their right to the prison- 
 er, and the nature of the arrest. The soldiers first 
 conduct the general into the guard-room, then escort 
 him to a place of safety, with bayonets fixed, and in 
 all the forms of military triumph. I will not enlarge 
 upon the various circumstances which attended this 
 
 * Major-general Gansel. 
 t Lieutenant Dodd. f Lieutenant Garth.
 
 182 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 atrocious proceeding. The personal injury received 
 by the officers of the law, in the execution of their 
 duty, may, perhaps, be atoned for by some private 
 compensation. I consider nothing but the wound 
 which has been given t j the law itself, to which no 
 remedy has been applied, no satisfaction made. 
 Neither is it my design to dwell upon the misconduct 
 of the parties concerned, any farther than is necessary 
 to show the behaviour of the ministry in its true 
 light. I would make every compassionate allow- 
 ance for the infatuation of the prisoner, the false and 
 criminal discretion of one officer, and the madness of 
 another. I would leave the ignorant soldiers entirely 
 out of the question. They are certainly the least 
 guilty ; though they are the only persons who have 
 yet suffered, even in the appearance of punishment.* 
 The fact itself, however atrocious, is not the prin- 
 cipal point to be considered. It might have happen- 
 ed under a more regular government, and with guards 
 better disciplined than ours. The main question is. 
 In what manner have the ministry acted on this ex- 
 traordinary occasion ? A general officer calls upon 
 the king's own guard, then actually on duty, to res- 
 cue him from the laws of his country : yet, at thi« 
 moment, he is in a situation no worse than if he had 
 not committed an offence equally enormous in a civil 
 and military view. A lieutenant upon duty design- 
 edly quits his guard, and suffers it to be drawn out 
 by another officer, for a purpose, which he well knew 
 (as we may collect from an appearance of caution, 
 which on y makes his behaviour the more criminal) 
 
 • A few of them were confined-
 
 JUNIUSS LETTERS. 183 
 
 to be in the highest degree illegal. Has this gentle- 
 man been called to a court martial to answer for his 
 conduct ? No. Has it been censured .'' No. Has 
 it been in any shape inquired into ? No. Another 
 lieutenant, not upon duty, nor even in his regimentals, 
 is daring enough to order out the king's guard, over 
 which he had properly no command, and engages 
 them in a violation of the laws of his country, per- 
 haps the most singular and extravagant that ever 
 was attempted What punishment I as he suffered ? 
 Literally none. Supposing he should be prosecuted 
 at common law for the rescue ; will that circumstance, 
 from which the ministry can derive no merit, excuse 
 or justify their suffering so flagrant a breach of mili- 
 tary discipline to pass by unpunished and unnoticed ? 
 Are they aware of the outrage offered to their sove- 
 reign, when his own proper guard is ordered out to 
 stop, by main force, the execution of his laws.f* What 
 are we to conclude from so scandalous a neglect of 
 their duty, but that they have other views, which can 
 only be answered by securing the attachment of the 
 guards.'' The minister would hardly be so cautious 
 of offending them, if he did not mean, in due time, to 
 call for their assistance. 
 
 With respect to the parties themselves, let it be 
 observed, that these gentlemen are neither young 
 oflicers, nor very young men. Had they belonged 
 to the unfledged race of ensigns, who infest our 
 streets, and dishonour our public places, it might, 
 perhaps, be sufficient to send them back to that dis- 
 cipline from whicli their parents, judging lightly from 
 the maturity of their vices, had removed them too 
 soon. In this case, I am sorry to see, not so much
 
 184 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 ilie folly of youths, as the spirit of the corps, and, the 
 connivance of government. I do not questioiv that 
 there are many brave and worthy officers in the re- 
 giments of guards. But considering them as a corps^ 
 I fear, it will be found, that they are neither good 
 soldiers nor good subjects. Far be it from me to 
 insinuate the most distant reflection upon the army. 
 On the contrary, I honour and esteem the profession j 
 and, if these gentlemen were better soldiers, I am 
 sure they would be belter subjects. It is not that 
 there is any internal vice or defect in the profession 
 itself, as regulated in this country, but that it is the 
 spirit of this particular corps to despise their profes- 
 sion : and that, while they vainly assume the lead ot 
 the army, they make it matter of impertinent com- 
 parison, and triumph over the bravest troops in the 
 world (I mean our marching regiments) that they, 
 indeed, stand upon higher ground, and are privileged 
 to neglect the laborious forms of military discipline 
 and duty. Without dwelling longer upon a most 
 invidious subject, I shall leave it to military men, who 
 have seen a service more active than the parade, to 
 determine whether or no I speak truth. 
 
 How far this dangerous spirit has been encouraged 
 by government, and to what pernicious purposes it 
 may be applied hereafter, well deserves our most 
 serious consideration. I know, indeed, that, when 
 this affair happened, an affectation of alarm ran 
 through the ministry.. Something must be done to 
 save appearances. The case was too flagrant to be 
 passed by absolutely without notice. But how have 
 they acted .'' Instead of ordering the officers con- 
 cerned (and who, stricdy speaking, are ala'ie guilty^
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 185 
 
 to be put nder arrest, and brought to trial, they 
 would have it understood, that they did their duty 
 completely, in confining a Serjeant and four private 
 soldiers, until they should be demanded by the civil 
 power : so that while the officers, who ordered or 
 permitted the thing to be done, escaped without cen- 
 sure, the poor men, who obeyed these orders, who, in 
 a military view, are no way responsible for what they 
 did, and who, for that reason, have been discharged 
 by the civil magistrates, are the only objects whom 
 the ministry have thought proper to expose to pun- 
 ishment. They did not venture to bring even these 
 men to a court martial, because they knew their evi- 
 dence would be fatal to some persons whom they were 
 determined to protect ; otherwise, I doubt not, the 
 lives of these unhappy, friendless soldiers, would long 
 since have been sacrificed without scruple, to the se- 
 curity of their guilty officers. 
 
 I have been accused of endeavouring to inflame 
 the passions of the people. Let me now appeal to 
 their understanding. If there be any tool of adminis- 
 tration, daring enough to deny these facts, or shame- 
 less enough to defend the conduct of the ministry, let 
 him come forward. I care not under what tide he 
 appears. He shall find me ready to maintain the 
 truth of my narrative, and the justice of my observa- 
 tions upon it, at the hazard of my utmost credit with 
 the public. 
 
 Under the most arbitrary governments, the common 
 administration of justice is suffered to take its course. 
 The subject, though robbed of his share in the legis- 
 lature, is still protected by the laws. The political 
 freedom of the English constitution was once the
 
 186 JUNIUS'S LETTERS 
 
 pride and honour of an Englishman. The civil 
 equality of the laws preserved the property, and de- 
 fended the safety of the subject. Are these glorious 
 privileges the birthright of the people, or are we only 
 tenants at the will of the ministry ? But that I know 
 there is a spirit of resistance in the hearts of my coun- 
 trymen ; that they value life, not by its conveniences, 
 but by the independence and dignity of their condi- 
 tion ; I should, at this moment, appeal only to their 
 discretion. I should persuade them to banish from 
 their minds all memory of what \ie were; I should 
 tell them this is not a time to remember that we were 
 Englishmen ; and give it, as my last advice, to make 
 some early agreement with the minister, that, since 
 it has pleased him to rob us of those political rights, 
 which once distinguished the inhabitants of a country 
 where honour was happiness, he would leave us at 
 least the humble, obedient security of citizens, and 
 graciously condescend to protect us in our submission. 
 
 JUNIUS. 
 
 XXXI. 
 
 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser. 
 SIR, November 14, 1769. 
 
 The variety of remarks which have been made 
 upon the last letter of Junius, and my own opinion 
 of the writer, who, whatever may be his faults, is cer- 
 tainly not a weak man, have induced me to examine, 
 wit!) some attention, the subject of that letter. 1 
 could not persuade myself, that, while he had plenty 
 of irsportant materials, he would have taken up a 
 light or trifling occas'on to attack the ministry
 
 JL'XIUS'S LETTERS. 87 
 
 much less could I conceive, that it was his intention 
 to ruin the officers concerned in the rescue of general 
 Gansel, or to injure the general himself. These are 
 little objects, and can no waj/ contribute to the great 
 purposes he seems to have in view, by addressing 
 himself to the public. Without considering the orna- 
 mented style he has adopted, I determined to look 
 farther into the matter, before I decided upon the 
 merits of his letter. The first step I took was to in- 
 quire into the truth of the facts; for, if these were 
 either false or misrepresented, the most artful exer- 
 tion of his understanding, in reasoning upon them, 
 would only be a disgrace to him. Now, sir, I have 
 found every circumstance stated by Junius to be lite- 
 rally true.— General Gansel persuaded the bailifis to 
 conduct him to the parade, and certainly solicited a 
 corporal, and other soldiers, to assist him in making 
 his escape. Captain Dodd did certainly apply to 
 captain Garth for the assistance of his guard. Cap- 
 tain Garth declined appearing himself, but stood 
 aloof, while the other took upon him to order out the 
 king's guard, and by main force rescued the general. 
 It is also strictly true, that the general was escorted 
 by a file of musqucteers to a place of security. These 
 are facts, Mr. Woodfall, which I promise you no gen- 
 tleman in the guards will deny. If all or any of them 
 are false, why are they not contradicted by tlie parties 
 themselves.'' However secure against military cen- 
 sure, they have yet a character to lose ; and, surely, 
 if they are innocent, it is not beneath them to pay 
 some attention to the opinion of the public. 
 
 The force of Junius's observations upon these facts 
 cannot be bettor marked, than by staling and refuting 
 the objections wliich have been made to them. One
 
 188 .lUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 writer sa} ^, "Admitting the officers have ofTended, 
 they are punishable at common law ; and will you 
 have a British subject punished twice for the same 
 offence?" I nnswcr, that they have committed two 
 offences, both very enormous, and violated two laws. 
 The rescue is one offence, the flagrant breach of dis- 
 cipline anotlicr; and hitherto it docs not appear that 
 they have been punished, or even censured for either. 
 Another gentleman lays much stress upon the calami- 
 ty of the case J and, instead of disproving facts, ap- 
 peals at once to the compassion of the public. This 
 idea, as well as the insinuation, that, depriving the 
 parties of their commissions tvould be an injury to 
 their creditors, can only refer to general Gansel. 
 The other officers are in no distress; therefore, have no 
 claim to compassion : nor does it appear that their 
 creditors, if they have any. are more likely to be 
 satisfied by their continuing in the guards. But this 
 sort of plea will not hold in any shape. Compassion to 
 an offender, who has grossly violated the laws, is, in ef- 
 fect, a cruelty to the peaceable subject who has observ- 
 ed them : and, even admitting the force of any alleviat- 
 ing circumstances, it is nevertheless true, that, in this 
 instance, the royal compassion has interposed too soon. 
 The legal and proper mercy of a king of England may 
 remit the punishment, but ought not to stop the trial. 
 Besides these particular objections, there has been 
 a cry raised against Junius, for his malice and injus- 
 tice in attacking the ministry upon an event which 
 they could neither hinder nor foresee. This, I must 
 affirm, is a false representation of his argument. He 
 lays no stress upon the event itself, as a ground of 
 accusation against the ministry, but dwells entirely 
 upon their S4^ibsequent conduct. He does not say that
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 189 
 
 tliey are answerable for the offence, but for the scan- 
 dalous neglect of their duty, in suffering an offence so 
 flagrant to pass by without notice or inquiry. Sup- 
 posing them ever so regardless of what they owe to 
 the public, and as indifferent about the opinion, as 
 they are about the interests of their country, what an- 
 swer, as officers of the crown, will they give to Junius, 
 when he asks them, " Are they aware of the outrage 
 offered to tlieir sovereign, when his own proper guard 
 is orderted out to stop, by main force, the execution 
 of his laws f^^ And when we see a ministry giving 
 such a strange, unaccountable protection to the officers 
 of the guards, is it unfair to suspect that they have 
 some secret and unwarrantable motives for their con- 
 duct.'' If they feel themselves injured by such a sus- 
 picion, why do they not immediately clear themselves 
 from it by doing their duty .^ For the honour of the 
 guards, I cannot help expressing another suspicion, 
 that if the commanding officer had not received a 
 secret injunction to the contrary, he would, in the 
 ordinary course of his business, have applied for a 
 court martial to try the two subalterns ; the one for 
 quitting his guard, the other for taking upon him the 
 command of the guard, and employing it in the man- 
 ner he did. I do not mean to enter into, or defend, 
 the severity with wliich Junius treats the guards. On 
 the contrary, I will suppose, for a moment, that they 
 deserve a very different character. If this be true, in 
 what light will tliey consider the conduct of the two 
 subalterns, but as a general reproach and disgrace to 
 the whole corps ^ And will they not wish to see them 
 censured, in a military way, if it were only for the 
 credit and discipline of the regiment ? 
 
 Upon the whole, sir, the ministry seem to me to
 
 190 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 have taken a very improper advantage of the good- 
 nature of the public, whose humanity, they found, 
 considered nothing in this affair but the distress of 
 general Gansel. They would persuade us, that it 
 was only a common rescue by a few disorderly 
 soldiers, and not the formal, deliberate act of the 
 king's guard, headed by an 'officer ; and the public 
 has fallen into the deception. I think, therefore, we 
 are obliged to Junius for the care he has taken to 
 inquire into the facts, and for the just commentary 
 with whicli he has given them to the world. For 
 my own part, I am as unwilling as any man to load 
 the unfortunate ; but really, sir, the precedent with 
 respect to the guards, is of a most important nature, 
 and alarming enough (considering the consequences 
 with which it ma}' be attended) to deserve a parlia- 
 mentary inquiry. When the guards are daring 
 enough, not only to violate their own discipline, but 
 publicly, and, with the most atrocious violence, to 
 stop the execution of the laws, and when such extra- 
 ordinary offences pass witii impunity, believe me, sir, 
 the precedent strikes deep. 
 
 PHILO JUNIUS. 
 
 XXXII. 
 
 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser. 
 
 SIR, November 15, 1769. 
 
 I admit the claim of a gentleman, who publishes in 
 the Gazetteer under the name of Modestus. He has 
 some right to expect an answer from me; though, 
 I think, not so much from the merit or importance
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 191 
 
 of his objections, as from my own voluntary engage- 
 ment. I had a reason for not taking notice of him 
 sooner, which, as he is a candid person, I believe, he 
 will think sufficient. In my first letter, I took for 
 granted, from the time which had elapsed, that there 
 was no intention to censure, or even to try, the per- 
 sons concerned in the rescue of general Gansel : but 
 Modestus having since either affirmed, or strongly in- 
 sinuated, that the offenders might still be brought to 
 a legal trial, any attempt to prejudge the cause, or to 
 prejudice the minds of a jury, or a court-martial, 
 would be highly improper. 
 
 A man more hostile to the ministry than I am, would 
 not so often remind them of their duty. If the duke 
 of Grafton will not perform the duty of his station, 
 why is he minister ? I will not descend to a scurrilous 
 altercation with any man; but this is a subject too 
 important to be passed over with silent indifference. 
 If the gentlemen, whose conduct is in question, are 
 not brought to a trial, the duke of Grafton shall hear 
 from me again. 
 
 The motives on which I am supposed to have taken 
 up this cause, are of little importance, compared with 
 the facts themselves, and the observations I have made 
 upon them. Without a vain profession of integrity, 
 whi<-h in these times might justly be suspected, I shall 
 %how myself, in effect, a friend to the interests of my 
 (ountrymen; and leave it to them to determine, 
 whether I am moved by a personal malevolence to 
 three private gentlemen, or merely b}' a hope of 
 perplexing the ministry; or whether I am animated 
 by a just and honourable purpose of obtainmg a satis- 
 faction to the laws of this country, equal, if possible, 
 to the violation they have suffered. JUNIUS
 
 192 JUNIUSS LLTTERS. 
 
 XXXIII. 
 
 To his Grace the Duke of Grafton. 
 
 MY LORD, November 29, 1769. 
 
 Though my opinion of your grace's integrity was 
 hut little affected by the coyness with which you re- 
 ceived Mr. Vaughan's proposals, I confess I give you 
 some credit for your discretion. You had a fair op- 
 portunity of displaying a certain delicacy, of which 
 you had not been suspected, and you were in the right 
 to make use of it. By laying in a moderate stock ol 
 reputation, you undoubtedly meant to provide for the 
 future necessities of your character, that, with an 
 honourable resistance upon record, you might safely 
 indulge 3'our genius, and yield to a favourite inclina- 
 tion with security. But 3'ou have discovered your 
 purposes too soon; and, instead of the modest reserve 
 of virtue, have shown us the termagant chastity of a 
 prude, who gratifies her passions with distinction, and 
 prosecutes one lover for a rape, while she solicits the 
 lewd embraces of another. 
 
 Your cheek turns pale : for a guilt}'^ conscience tells 
 you, you are undone. Come forward, thou virtuous 
 minister, and tell the world by what interest Mr. Hine 
 has been recommended to so extraordinary a mark of 
 his majesty's favour; what was the price of the patent 
 he has bought, and to what honourable purpose the 
 purchase-money has been applied. Nothing less than 
 many thousands could pay colonel Burgoyne's ex- 
 penses at Preston. Do you dare to prosecute such a 
 creature as Vaugiian, while you are basely setting up 
 the royal patronage to auction.'' Do you dare to 
 complain of an attack upon your own honour, while
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 193 
 
 you are selling the favours of the crown, to raise a 
 fund for corrupting the morals of the people ? And 
 do you think it is possible such enormities should es- 
 cape without impeachment ? It is, indeed, highly your 
 interest to maintain the present house of commons. 
 Having sold the nation to you in gross, they will un- 
 doubtedly protect you in the detail ; for, while they pat- 
 ronise your crimes, they feel for their own. JUNIUS. 
 
 XXXIV. 
 
 To his Grace, the Duke of Grafton. 
 
 MY LORD, December 12, 1769. 
 
 I find, with some surprise, that you are not sup- 
 ported as you deserve. Your most determined advo- 
 cates have scruples about them, which you are unac- 
 quainted with ; and though there be nothing too 
 hazardous for your grace to engage in, there are some 
 things too infamous for the vilest prostitute of a news- 
 paper to defend.* In what other manner shall we 
 account for the profound, submissive silence which 
 you and your friends have observed upon a charge 
 which called immediately for the clearest refutation, 
 and would have justified the severest measures of re- 
 sentment.'' I did not attempt to blast your charac- 
 ter by an indirect, ambiguous insinuation ; but can- 
 didly stated to you a plain fact, which struck directly 
 
 * From the publication of the preceding to this date, not 
 one word was said in defence of the duke of Grafton. 
 But vice and impudence soon recovered themselves, and the 
 sale of the royal favour was openly avowed and defended. 
 We acknowledge the piety of St. James's, but what is be- 
 come of its morality ? 
 
 VOL. I. I 13
 
 194 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 at the inleG:nty of a privy-counsollor, of a first com- 
 missioner of the treasury, and of a leading minister, 
 who is supposed to enjoy the first share in his majes- 
 ty's confidence.* In everj' one of these capacities I 
 employed the most moderate terms to charge you 
 with treachery to your sovereign, and breach of trust 
 in your office. I accused you of having sold a patent 
 place in the collection of the customs at Exeter to 
 one INIr. Hinc, who, unable or unwilling to deposit 
 the whole purchase-money himself, raised part of it 
 by contribution, and has now a certain doctor Brooke 
 quartered upon tlie salary for one hundred pounds a 
 year. No sale by the candle was ever conducted with 
 greater formality. I affirm, that the price at which 
 the place was knocked down (and which, I have good 
 reason to think, was not less than three thousand five 
 hundred pounds) was, with your connivance and con- 
 sent, paid to colonel Burgoyne, to reward him, I 
 presume, for the decency of his deportment at Pres- 
 ton ; or to reimburse him, perhaps, for the fine of one 
 thousand pounds, which, for that very deportment, 
 the court of king's bench thought proper to set upon 
 him. It is not often that the chief justice and the 
 prime minister are so strangely at variance in their 
 opinions of men and things. 
 
 I thank God, there is not in human nature a de- 
 gree of impudence daring enough to deny the charge 
 I have fixed upon you. Your courteous secretary,! 
 your confidential architect,^ are silent as the grave. 
 
 * And by the same means preserves it to this hour, 
 t Tommy Bradshaw. 
 
 f Mr. Taylor. lie and George Ross (the Scotch agent and 
 worthy confidant of lord Mansfield) managed the business.
 
 .TFNIUS'S LETTERS. 195 
 
 Even Mr. tligby's countenance fails him. He vio- 
 lates his second nature, and bhishes whenever he 
 speaks of you. Perhaps the noble colonel himself 
 will relieve you. No man is more tender of his repu- 
 tation. He is not only nice, but perfectly sore, in 
 every thing that touches his honour. If any man, 
 for example, were to accuse him of taking his stand 
 at a gaming-table, and watching, with the soberest 
 attention, for a fair opportunity of engaging a drunken 
 young nobleman at piquet, he would, undoubtedly, 
 consider it as an infamous aspersion upon his charac- 
 ter, and resent it like a man of honour. Acquitting 
 him, therefore, of drawing a regular and splendid 
 subsistence from any unworthy practices, either in 
 his own house, or elsewhere, let me ask your grace, 
 for what military merits you have been pleased to re- 
 ward him with military government ? He had a 
 regiment of dragoons, which, one would imagine, was 
 at least an equivalent for any services he ever per- 
 formed. Besides, he is but a young officer, consider- 
 ing his preferment ; and, except in his activity at 
 Preston, not very conspicuous in his profession. But 
 it seems the sale of a civil employment was not suffi- 
 cient ; and military governments, which were intended 
 for the support of worn-out veterans, must be thrown 
 into the scale, to defray the extensive bribery of a 
 contested election. Are these the steps you take to 
 secure to your sovereign the attachment of his army ? 
 With what countenance dare you appear in the royal 
 presence, branded, as you are, with the infamy of a 
 notorious breach of trust.? With what countenance 
 can you take your seat at the treasury-board, or in 
 the council, when you feel that every circulating 
 whisper is at your expense alone, and slabs you to the
 
 196 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 heart ? Have you a single friend in parliament so 
 shameless, so llioroirghlj abandoned, as to undertake 
 your defence ? You know, my lord, that there is not 
 a man in either house, wiiose character, however ila 
 gilious, would not be ruined by mixing his reputation 
 with yours ; and does not your heart inform you tliat 
 you are degraded below the condition of a man, when 
 you are obliged to bear these insults with submission, 
 and even to thank me for my moderation ? 
 
 We are told, by the highest judicial authority, that 
 Mr. Vaughan's* offer to purchase the reversion of a 
 
 • A little before the publication of this and the preceding 
 letter, the duke of Grafton had commenced a prosecution 
 .iirainst Mr. Samuel Vaughan, for endeavouring to corrupt 
 Ills integrity, by an ofler of five tliousand pounds for a pa- 
 tent place in Jamaica. A rule to show rv.use wliy an infor- 
 mation should not be exhibited against ^'<uIghaM for certain 
 misdemeanors, being granted by the court of king's bench, 
 the matter was solemnly argued on the 27th of November, 
 1769, and by the unanimous opinion of the four jurlges. the 
 ■ rule was made absolute. The pleadings and speeches were 
 accurately taken in short-hand, and published. The whole 
 of lord Mansfield's speech, and particularly the following 
 extracts from it, deserve the reader's attention : " A prac- 
 tice of the kind complained of here, is certainly dishonour- 
 able and scandalous. If a man, standing under the relation 
 of an officer under the king, or of a person in whom the 
 king puts confidence, or of a minister, takes money for the 
 use of that confidence the king puts in him, he basely be- 
 trays the king ; he basely betrays his trust. If the king 
 sold the office, it would be acting contrary to the trust the 
 constitution had reposed in him. The constitution does 
 not intend the crown should sell those offices to raise a re- 
 venue out of them. I3 it possible to hesitate, whether this
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 107 
 
 patent place in Jamaica (which he was otherwise siif- 
 ficienth' entitled to) amounts to a high misdemeanor. 
 Be it so : and if he deserves it, let him be punished. 
 But the learned judge might have had a fairer oppor- 
 tunity of displaying the powers of his eloqneure. 
 Having delivered himself, with so much energy, upon 
 the criminal nature and dangerous consequences of 
 any attempt to corrupt a man in your grace's station, 
 what would he have said to the minister himself, to 
 that very privy counsellor, to that first commissioner 
 of the treasury, who does not wait for, but impatiently 
 solicits, the touch of corruption ; who employs the 
 meanest of his creatures in these honourable services; 
 and, forgetting the genius and fidelity of his secretary, 
 descends to apply to his house-builder for assistance? 
 This affair, my lord, will do infinite credit to gov- 
 ernment, if, to clear your character, you should think 
 proper to bring it into the house of lords, or into tlie 
 court of king's bench. But, my lord, you dnre not 
 do either. JUNIUS. 
 
 would not be criminal in the duke of Grafton ; c* ntrary to 
 his duty as a privy counsellor, contrary to his dutv as a min- 
 ister, contrary to his duty as a subject ? His adv tc sboulti 
 be free, accordinc; to his judgment. It is the du'v of his 
 office ; he hath sworn to it." Notwithstanding; all this, the 
 duke of Grafton certainly sold a patent place to M\. fline, 
 for three thousand five hundred pounds. If the h'-use of 
 commons had done their duty, and impeached the d"ke fo)- 
 this breach of trust, how wofully must poor honest ^nlns- 
 field have been puzzled ' His embarrassment would i»ave 
 afforded the most ridiculous scene lhat was ever exhibi»*?d. 
 To save the judge from this perplexity, and the duke from 
 impeachment, the prosecution against Vaughan was imn*"- 
 diately dropped.
 
 198 nJNlUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 XXXV. 
 
 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser. 
 
 SIR, December 19, 1769- 
 
 When the complaints of a brave and powerful 
 people are observed to increase in proportion to the 
 wrongs they have suffered ; when, instead of sinking 
 into submission, they are roused to resistance, the 
 time will soon arrive, at which every inferior con- 
 sideration must yield to the security of the sovereign, 
 and to the general safety of the state. There is a 
 moment of difficulty and danger, at which flattery and 
 falsehood can no longer deceive, and simplicity itself 
 can no longer be misled. Let us suppose it arrived: 
 let us suppose a gracious, well-intentioned prince made 
 sensible, at last, of the great duty he owes to his peo- 
 ple, and of his own disgraceful situation : that he looks 
 round him for assistance, and asks for no advice, but 
 how to gratify the wishes and secure the happiness of 
 his subjects. In these circumstances, it may be mat- 
 ter of curious speculation to consider, if an honest 
 man were permitted to approach a king, in what terms 
 he would address himself to his sovereign. Let it be 
 imagined, no matter how improbable, that the first 
 prejudice against his character is removed ; that the 
 ceremonious difficulties of an audience are surmount- 
 ed: that he feels himself animated by the purest and 
 most honourable affections to his king and country ; 
 and that the great person whom he addresses, has 
 spirit enough to bid him speak freely, and under- 
 standing enough to listen to him with attention. Un- 
 acquainted with the vain impertinence of forms, he
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 199 
 
 would deliver his sentiments with dignity and firm- 
 ness, but not without respect. 
 
 Sir, — It is the misfortune of your life, and origi- 
 nally the cause of every reproach and distress which 
 has attended your govenmient. that you should never 
 have been acquainted with the language of truth, un- 
 til 3'ou heard it in the complaints of your people. It 
 is not, however, too late to correct the error of your 
 education. We are still inclined to make an indul- 
 gent allowance for the pernicious lessons you received 
 in your youth, and to form the most sanguine hopes 
 from the natural benevolence of your disposition.* 
 
 * Tlie plan of the tutelage and future dominion over the 
 heir apparent, laid many years ago, at Curlton-House, be- 
 tween tJ;e princess dowager and her favourite, the earl of 
 Bute, W33 as gross and palpable as that which was concerted 
 between Anne of Austria and cardinal Mazarine, to govern 
 Louis the Fourteenth, and, in eflect, to prolong his minori- 
 ty until the end of their lives. That prince had strong 
 natural p ats, and used frequently to blush for his own ig- 
 norance aad want of education, wliich had been wilfully 
 neglected by his motlier and her minion. A little experi- 
 ence, however, soon showed him how shamefully he had been 
 treated, and for wiiat infamous purposes he had been kept 
 in ignorance. Our great Edward, too, at an early period, 
 had sense enough to understand the nature of the connex- 
 ion between his abandoned mother and the detested Mor- 
 timer. But, since that time, human nature, we may ob- 
 serve, is greatly altered for the better. Dowagers may be 
 chaste, and minions may be hones*t. When it was proposed 
 to settle the present king's houscliolil, as prince of Wales, 
 it is well known that the earl of Bute was forced into it, in 
 direct contradiction to the late king's inclination. That was 
 the salient point from wlwch all the mischiefs and disgraces
 
 200 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 We are far from thiiiUiiig; you capable of a direct, de- 
 liberate purjDosc to invade those original rights of 
 your subjects, on which all their civil and political 
 liberties depend. Had it been possible for us to en- 
 tertain a suspicion so dishonourable to your charac- 
 ter, we should long since have adopted a style of re- 
 monstrance very distant from the hun)ility of com- 
 plaint. The doctrine inculcated by our laws, That 
 the king can do no ivrong, is admitted witiiout reluc- 
 tance. We separate the amiable, good-natured prince 
 from the folly and treachery of his servants, and the 
 private virtues of the man from the vices of his 
 government. Were it not for this just distinction, I 
 know not whether your majesty's condition, or that 
 of the English nation, would deserve most to be la- 
 mented. I would prepare your mind for a favoura- 
 ble reception of truth, by removing every painful, 
 offensive idea of personal reproach. Your subjects, 
 sir, wish for nothing, but that, as they are reasonable 
 and affectionate enough to separate your person from 
 your government, so you, in your turn, should distin- 
 guish between the conduct which becomes the perma- 
 nent dignity of a king, and that which serves only to 
 promote the temporary interest and miserable ambi- 
 tion of a minister. 
 
 You ascended the throne with a declared, and, I 
 doubt not, a sincere resolution of giving universal 
 satisfaction to your subjects. You found them pleased 
 with the novelty of a young prince, whose countenance 
 promised even more than his words; and loyal to you, 
 
 of the present reign took life and motion. From that mo- 
 ment, lord Bute never suffered tlie prince of Wales to be an 
 instant out of his sidu. We need not look farther.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 201 
 
 not only from principle, but passion. It wns not a 
 cold profession of allegiance to the first magistrate, 
 but a partial, animated attachment to a favourite 
 prince, the native of their country. They did not 
 wait to examine your conduct, nor to be determined 
 by experience, but gave yon a generous credit for 
 the future blessings of your reign, and paid you in 
 advance the dearest tribute of their affections. Such, 
 sir, was once the disposition of a people, who now 
 surround your throne with reproaches and complaints. 
 Do justice to yourself Banish from your mind those 
 unworthy opinions, with which some interested per- 
 sons have laboured to possess you. Distrust the men 
 who tell you that the English are naturally light and 
 inconstant; that they complain without a cause. 
 Withdraw your confidence equally from all parties ; 
 from ministers, favourites, and relations ; and let there 
 be one moment in your life, in which you have con- 
 sulted your own understanding. 
 
 When you affectedly renounced the name of En- 
 glishman, believe me, sir, you were persuaded to pay 
 a very ill-judged compliment to one part of your sub- 
 jects, at the expense of another. While the natives 
 of Scotland are not in actual rebellion, they are un- 
 doubtedly entitled to protection : nor do I mean to 
 condemn the policy of giving some encouragement to 
 the novelty of their affections for the house of Hano- 
 ver. I am ready to hope for every thing from their 
 new-born zeal, and from the future steadiness of their 
 allegiance; but, hitherto, they have no claim to your 
 favour. To honour them with a determined predi- 
 lection and confidence, in exclusion of your English 
 subjects, who placed your family, and, in spite of 
 treachery and rebellion, have suppo -ted it upon the 
 I 2
 
 202 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 throne, is a mistake too gross even foT the unsuspect- 
 ing- generosity of youth. In this error we see a capi- 
 tal violation of the most obvious rules of policy and 
 prudence. We trace it, however, to an original bias 
 in your education, anc are ready to allow for your 
 inexperience. 
 
 To the same early influence we attribute it, that 
 you have descended to take a share, not only in the 
 narrow views and interests of particular persons, but 
 in the fatal malignity of their passions. At your ac- 
 cession to the throne, the whole system of government 
 was altered, not from wisdom or deliberation, but 
 because it had been adopted by your predecessor. A 
 little personal motive of pique and resentment was 
 sufficient to remove the ablest servants of the crown;* 
 but it is not in this country, sir, that such men can 
 be dishonoured by the frowns of a king. They were 
 dismissed, but could not be disgraced. Without en- 
 tering into a minuter discussion of the merits of the 
 peace, we may observe, in the imprudent hurry with 
 which the first overtures from France were accepted, 
 in the conduct of the negotiation, and terms of the 
 treaty, the strongest marks of that precipitate spirit 
 of concession, with which a certain part of your sub- 
 jects have been at all times ready to purchase a peace 
 with the natural enemies of this country. On your 
 part we are satisfied that every thing was honourable 
 u;s;! sincere; and, if England was sold to France, we 
 
 * ( )iie of the first acts of the present reign was to dismiss 
 Mr. Legge, because he had, some years before, refused to 
 jficiJ his interest in Hampshire to a Scotchman, reconi- 
 nic';)dcd by lord Bu/:3. Tliis was the reason uublicly assigneu 
 by his lordship.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 203 
 
 doubt not that your majesty was equall}^ betrayed. 
 The conditions of the peace were matter of grief and 
 surprise to your subjects, but not the immediate cause 
 of their present discontent. 
 
 Hitherto, sir, you had been sacrificed to the preju- 
 dices and passions o( others. With what firmness 
 will you bear the mention of your own ? 
 
 A man not very honourably distinguished in the 
 world, commences a formal attack upon 3'our favour- 
 ite, considering nothing but how he might best expose 
 his person and principles to detestation, and the na- 
 tional character of his countrymen to contempt. The 
 natives of that country, sir, are as much distinguished 
 by a peculiar character, as by your majesty's favour. 
 Like another chosen people, the}' have been conduct- 
 ed into the land of plenty, where they find themselves 
 effectually marked, and divided from mankind. There 
 is hardly a period at which the most irregular charac- 
 ter may not be redeemed. The mistakes of one sex 
 find a retreat in patriotism, those of the other in de- 
 votion. Mr. Wilkes brought with him into politics 
 the same liberal sentiments by which his private con- 
 duct had been directed ; and seemed to think, that, 
 as there are few excesses in which an English gentle 
 man may not be permitted to indulge, the same lati- 
 tude was allowed him in the choice of his political 
 principles, and in the spirit of maintaining them. I 
 mean to state, not entirely to defend, his conduct. In 
 the earnestness of his zeal, he suffered some unwar- 
 rantable insinuations to escape him. He said more 
 than moderate men could justify; but not enough to 
 entitle him to the honour of your majesty's personal 
 resentment. The rays of royal indignation, collected 
 upon him, served only to ilhimLnatc, and could not
 
 204 JUNIUS'S LETTERS 
 
 consume. Animated by the favour of the people on 
 the one side, and healed by persc.ciUion on the other, 
 his views and sentiments changed with his situation. 
 Hardly serious at first, ho is now an enthusiast. Tlie 
 coldest bodies warm with opposition, the liardt^st 
 sparkle in collision. There is a holy mistaken zeal 
 in politics as well as religion. By persuading others, 
 we convince ourselves. The passions are engaged, 
 and create a maternal affection in the mind, which 
 forces us to love the cause for which we suffer. Is this 
 a contention worth}' of a king ? Are you not sensible 
 how much the meanness of the cause gives an air of 
 ridicule to the serious difficulties into which you have 
 neen betrayed.'' The destruction of one man li:!s 
 been now, for many years, the sole object of youi 
 government; and, if there can be any thing still more 
 disgraceful, we have seen for such an object the ut- 
 most influence of the executive power, and every 
 ministerial artifice, exerted without success. Nor cats 
 you ever succeed, unless he should be imprudent 
 enough to forfeit the protection of those laws to v.hich 
 you owe your crown ; or unless your minister should 
 persuade you to make it a question of force alone, and 
 try the whole strength of government in opposition to 
 the people. The lessons he has received from expe- 
 rience will probably guard him from such excess of 
 folly ; and, in your majesty's virtues, we find an un- 
 questionable assurance, that no illegal violence will 
 be attempted. 
 
 Far from suspecting 3^ou of so lorrible a design, 
 we would attribute the continued violation of the 
 laws, and even this last enormous attack upon the vi- 
 tal principles of the constitution, to an ill-advised, un- 
 worthy, personal resentment From one false step
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 205 
 
 you have been betrayed into another ; and, as the 
 cause was unworthy of you, your mhilsters were deter- 
 mined that the prudence of the execution should cor- 
 respond with the wisdom and dignity of the design. 
 They have reduced you to the necessity of choosing 
 out of a variety of difficuhies; to a situation so unhap- 
 py, that you can neither do wrong without ruin, or 
 right without affliction. These worthy servants have 
 undoubtedly given you many singular proofs of their 
 abilities. Not contented with making Mr. Wilkes a 
 man of importance, they have judiciously transferred 
 the question from the rights and interests of one man, 
 to the most important rights and interests of the peo- 
 ple ; and forced your subjects, from wishing well to 
 the cause of an individual, to unite with him in their 
 own. Let them proceed as they have begun, and 
 your majesty need not doubt that the catastrophe will 
 do no dishonour to the conduct ol" the piece. 
 
 The circumstances to whicii you are reduced will 
 not admit of a compromise with the English nation. 
 Undecisive, qualifying measures will disgrace your 
 government still more than open violence; and, with- 
 out satisfying the people, will excite their contempt. 
 They have too much understanding and spirit to ac- 
 cept of an indirect satisfaction for a direct injury. 
 Nothing less than a repeal, as formal as the resolution 
 itself, can heal the wound which has been given to the 
 constitution, nor will any thing less be accepted. I 
 can readily believe, tliat there is an influence sufficient 
 to recall that pernicious vote. The house of commons 
 undoubtedly consider tlicir duty to the crown as para- 
 mount to all other obligations. To us they are oidy 
 indebted for an acridcntal existence, and have justly 
 
 L-
 
 206 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 transferred tlieir gratitude Aoin their parents to their 
 benefactors; from those who gave them birth, to the 
 minister, from «hose benevolence they derive the 
 comforts and pleasures of their political life ; who has 
 taken the tenderest care of their infancy, and relieves 
 their necessities without offending their delicacy. 
 But, if it were possible for their integrity to be degra- 
 ded to a condition so vile and abject, that, compared 
 with it, the present estimation they stand in is a state 
 of honour and respect ; consider, sir, in what manner 
 you will afterwards proceed. Can you conceive that 
 the people of this country will long submit to be gov- 
 erned by so flexible a house of commons .'' It is not 
 in the nature of human society that any form of gov- 
 ernment, in such circumstances, can long be preserv- 
 ed. In ours, the general contempt of the people is as 
 fatal as their detestation. Such, I am persuaded, 
 would be the necessary effect of any base concession 
 made by the present house of commons; and, as a 
 qualifying measure would not be accepted, it remains 
 tor you to decide, whether you will, at any hazard, 
 support a set of men who have reduced you to this 
 unhappy dilemma, or whether you will gratify the 
 united wishes of the whole people of England, by dis- 
 solving the parliament. 
 
 Taking it for granted, as I do very sincerely, that 
 you have personally no design against the constitu- 
 tion, nor any view inconsistent with the good of 
 your subjects, I think you cannot hesitate long upon 
 the choice which it equally concerns your interests 
 and your honour to adopt. On one side, you hazard 
 the affection of all your English subjects ; you relin- 
 quish every hope of repose to yosrsclf, and you endan-
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS 207 
 
 ger the eslablishrneut of your family for ever. All this 
 you venture for no object whatsoever; or for such an 
 object as it would be an affront to you to nahie. Men 
 of sense will examine your conduct with suspicion ; 
 while those, who are incapable of comprehending to 
 what degree they are injured, afflict you with cla- 
 mours equally insolent and unmeaning. Supposing 
 it possible that no fatal struggle should ensue, you 
 determine, at once, to be unhapp}, without the hope 
 of a compensation, either from interest or amfeition. 
 If an English king be hated or despised, he 7nust be 
 unhappy : and this, perhaps, is the only political truth 
 which he ought to be convinced of, without experi- 
 ment. But, if the English people should no longer 
 confine their resentment to a submissive representation 
 of their wrongs ; if, following the glorious example of 
 their ancestors, they should no longer appeal to the 
 creature of the constitution, but to that high Being 
 who gave them the rights of humanity, whose gifts it 
 were sacrilege to surrender, let me ask you, sir, upon 
 what part of your subjects would you rely for assistance.'* 
 The people of Ireland have been uniformly plun- 
 dered and oppressed. In return, they give you every 
 day fresh marks of their resentment. They despise 
 the miserable governor* you have sent them, because 
 he is the creature of lord Bute : nor is it from any 
 natural confusion in their ideas, that they are so ready 
 to confound the original of a king with the disgrace- 
 ful representation of him. 
 
 ♦ Viscount Townshend, sent over on the plan of being re- 
 sident governor. The history of his ridiculous administra- 
 tioJi sliall not be lost to tiie public.
 
 208 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 The distance of the colonies would make it impos- 
 sible for them to take an active concern in your affairs, 
 if they were as well affected to your government as 
 they once pretended to be to j^our person. They were 
 ready enough to distinguish between you and your 
 ministers. They complained of an act of the legisla- 
 ture, but traced the origin of it no higher than to the 
 servants of the crown : they pleased themselves with 
 the hope that their sovereign, if not favourable to their 
 cause, at least was impartial. The decisive personal 
 part you took against them has effectually banished 
 that first distinction from their minds.* They consider 
 you as united with your servants against America ; 
 and know how to distinguish the sovereign and a ve- 
 nal parliament on one side, from the real sentiments 
 of the English people on the other. Looking forward 
 to independence, they might possibly receive you for 
 their king: but, if ever you retire to America, be as- 
 sured they will give you such a covenant to digest as 
 the presbytery of Scotland would have been ashamed 
 to offer to Charles the Second. They left their na- 
 tive land in search of freedom, and found it in a 
 desert. Divided as they are into a thousand forms 
 
 * In the king's speech of November 8th, 17G8, it was (\r- 
 clared, " That the spirit of faction had broken out afresli in 
 some of the colonies, and, in one of them, proceeded to arts 
 of violence and resistance to the execution of the laws ; 
 that Boston was in a state of disobedience to al! laws and 
 government, and had proceeded to measures subversive of 
 the constitution, and attended with circumstances that mani- 
 fested a disposition to throw off their dependence on Great 
 Britain."
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 209 
 
 of policy and religion, there .3 one point in which they 
 all agree : they equally detest the pageantry of a king, 
 and the supercilious hypocrisy of a bishop. 
 
 It is not, then, from the alienated affections o! 
 Ireland or America that you can reasonably look for 
 assistance; still less from the people of England, who 
 are actually contending for their rights, and in this 
 great question are parties against you. You are not, 
 however, destitute of every appearance of support ; 
 you have all the Jacobites, Non-jurors, Roman 
 Catholics, and Tories of this country, and all Scot- 
 land, without exception. Considering from what 
 family you are descended, the choice of your friends 
 has been singularly directed; and truly, sir, if you had 
 not lost the Whig interest of England, I should admire 
 your dexterity in turning the hearts of your enemies. 
 Is it possible for you to place any confidence in men, 
 who, before they are faithful to you, must renounce 
 every opinion, and betray every principle, both in 
 church and state, which they inherit from their ances- 
 tors, and are confirmed in by their education ? whose 
 numbers are so inconsiderable, that they have long 
 since been obliged to give up the principles and lan- 
 guage which distinguish them as a parly, and to fight 
 under the banners of their enemies.^ Their zeal be- 
 gins with hypocrisy, and must conclude in treachery. 
 At first they deceive — at last they betray. 
 
 As to the Scotch, I must suppose your heart and 
 unrlcrstanding so biassed, from your earliest infancy, 
 in their favour, that nothing less than your own mis- 
 fortunes can undeceive you. You will not accept of 
 the uniform experience of your ancestors ; and, when 
 
 once a man is determined to believe, the very absur- 
 
 14
 
 210 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 dity of the doctrine confirms him in his faith. A big- 
 otted understanding can draw a proof of attachment 
 to the house of Hanover, from a notorious zeal for the 
 house of Stuart, and find an earnest of future loyalty 
 in former rebellions. Appearances are, however, in 
 their favour : so strongly, indeed, that one would 
 tiiink they had forgotten that you are their lawful 
 king, and had mistaken you for a pretender to the 
 crown. Let it be admitted, then, that the Scotch are 
 as sincere in their present professions, as if you were, 
 in reality, not an Englishman, but a Briton of the 
 North. You would not be the first prince, of their 
 native country, against whom they have rebelled, nor 
 the first whom they have basely betrayed. Have you 
 forgotten, sir, or has your favourite concealed from 
 you, that part of our history, when the unhappy 
 Charles (and he, too, had private virtues) fled from 
 the open, avowed indignation of his English subjects, 
 and surrended himself at discretion to the good faith 
 of his own countrymen ? Without looking for sup- 
 port in their affections as subjects, he applied only to 
 their honour, as gentlemen, for protection. They 
 received him, as they would your majesty, with bows, 
 and smiles, and falsehood; and kept him, until they 
 had settled their bargain with the English parliament; 
 then basely sold their native king to the vengeance 
 of his enemies. This, sir, was not the act of a few 
 traitors, but the deliberate treachery of a Scotch par- 
 liament, representing the nation. A wise prince might 
 draw from it two lessons of equal utility to himself. 
 On one side, he might learn to dread the undisguised 
 resentment of a generous people, who dare openly 
 assert their rights, and who, in a just cause, are ready
 
 JLNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 211 
 
 to meet their sovereign in the field. On the other 
 side, he would be taught to apprehend something far 
 more formidable; a fawning treachery, against which 
 no prudence can guard, no courage can defend. The 
 insidious smile upon the cheek would warn him of the 
 canker in the heart. 
 
 From the uses to which one part of the army has 
 been too frequently applied, you have some reason to 
 expect that there are no services they would refuse. 
 Here, too, we trace the partiality of your understand- 
 ing. You take the sense of the army from the con- 
 duct of the guards, with the same justice with which 
 you collect the sense of the people from the represen- 
 tations of the ministry. Your marching regiments, 
 sir, will not make the guards their example, either 
 as soldiers or subjects. They feel, and resent, as they 
 ought to do, that invariable, undistinguishing favour 
 with which the guards are treated ;* while those gal- 
 lant troops, by whom every hazardous, every labori- 
 ous service is performed, are left to perish in garri- 
 sons abroad, or pine in quarters at home, neglected 
 and forgotten. If they had no sense of the great 
 
 • The number of commissioned officers in the guards are 
 to the marching regiments as one to eleven ; the number of 
 regiments given to the guards, compared with those given to 
 the line, is about three to one, at a moderate computation ; 
 consequently, the partiality in favour of the guards is as 
 thirty-three to one. So much for the officers. The private 
 men have four-pence a-day to subsist on, and five hundred 
 lashes if they desert. Under this punishment they fre- 
 quently expire. With these encouragements, it is supposed, 
 they may be depended upon, whenever a certain person 
 thinks it necessary to butcher liis fellow-subjects.
 
 212 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 original duty they owe their country, their resentment 
 would operate like patriotism, and leave your cause 
 to be defended by those on whom you have lavished 
 the rewards and honours of their profession. The 
 praetorian bands, enervated and debauched as they 
 were, had still strength enough to awe the Roman 
 populace; but when the distant legions took the alarm, 
 they marched to Rome, and gave away the empire. 
 
 On this side, then, which ever way you turn your 
 eyes, you see nothing but perplexity and distress. You 
 may determine to support the very ministry who have 
 reduced your affairs to this deplorable situation; you 
 may shelter yourself under the forms of a parliament, 
 and set your people at defiance ; but be assured, sir, 
 that such a resolution would be as imprudent as it 
 would be odious. If it did not immediately shake 
 your establishment, it would rob you of your peace of 
 mind for ever. 
 
 On the other, how different is the prospect ! How 
 easy, how safe and honourable, is the path before you! 
 The English nation declare they are grossly injured 
 by their representatives, and solicit your majesty to 
 exert your lawful prerogative, and give them an op- 
 poi tunity of recalling a trust, which they find has been 
 scandalously abused. Yon are not to be told, that 
 the power of the house of commons is not original, 
 but delegated to them for the welfare of the people, 
 from whom they received it. A question of right 
 arises between the constituent and the representative 
 body. By what authority shall it be decided? Will 
 your majesty interfere in a question, in which you have, 
 properly, no immediate concern ? It would be a step 
 equally odious and unnecessary. Shall the lords be
 
 JUNIUS-S LETTERS. 213 
 
 called upon to determim the rights and privileges ol' 
 the commons ? They cannot do it, without a flagrant 
 breach of the constitution. Or, will you refer it to the 
 judges ? They have often told your ancestors, that 
 the law of parliament is above them. What part then 
 remains, but to leave it to the people to determine for 
 themselves.'' They alone are injured; and, since 
 there is no superior power to which the cause can be 
 referred, they alone ought to determine. 
 
 I do not mean to perplex you with a tedious argu- 
 ment upon a subject, already so discussed, that inspira- 
 tion could hardly throw a new light upon it. There 
 are, however, two points of view in which it particu- 
 larly imports your majesty to consider the late pro- 
 ceedings of the house of commons. By depriving a 
 subject of his birth-right, they have attributed to their 
 own vote an authority equal to an act of the whole 
 legislature ; and though, perhaps, not with the same 
 motives, have strictly followed the example of the long 
 parliament, which first declared the regal office use- 
 less, and soon after, with as little ceremony, dissolved 
 the house of lords. The same pretended power which 
 robs an English subject of his birth-right, may rob an 
 English king of his crown. In another view, the 
 resolution of the house of commons, apparently not 
 so dangerous to your majesty, is still more alarming 
 to your people. Not contented with divesting one 
 man of his right, they have arbitrarily conveyed that 
 right to another. They have set aside a return as 
 illegal, without daring to censure those officers who 
 were particularly apprised of Mr. Wilkes's incapacity, 
 not only by the declaration of the house, but expressly 
 by the writ directed to them, and who, nevertheless.
 
 214 .UNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 returned hhn as duly elected. They have rejected the 
 majority of votes, the only criterion by which our Ia\\ s 
 judge of the sense of the people ; iliey have transfer- 
 red the right of election from the collective to ilie 
 representative body ; and b}' these acts, taken sepa- 
 rately or together, they have essentially altered the 
 original constitution of the house of commons. Ver- 
 sed, as your majesty undoubtedly is, in the Englisii 
 history, it cannot easily escape you, how much it is 
 your interest, as well as your duty, to prevent one ol 
 the three estates from encroaching upon the province 
 of the other two, or assuming the authority of them 
 all. When once they have departed from the great 
 constitutional line by which all their proceedings 
 should be directed, who will answer for their future 
 moderation .'' Or what assurance will they give you, 
 that, when they have trampled upon their equals, they 
 will submit to a superior .'' Your majesty may learn 
 hereafter how nearly the slave and tyrant are allied. 
 
 Some of your council, more candid than the rest, 
 admit the abandoned profligacy of the present house of 
 commons, but oppose their dissolution, upon an opin- 
 ion, I confess, not very unwarrantable, that their 
 successors would be equally at the disposal of the 
 treasury. I cannot persuade myself that the nation 
 will have profited so little by experience. But, if that 
 opinion were well founded, you might then gratify 
 our wishes at an easy rate, and appease the present 
 clamour against your government, without offering 
 any material injury to the favourite cause of corruption. 
 
 You have still an honourable part to act. The af- 
 fections of your subjects may still be recovered. But, 
 before you subdue their hearts, you must gain a noble
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 215 
 
 rictory over jour own. Discard those little, personal 
 resentments, whicii have too long directed your pub- 
 lic conduct. Pardon this man the remainder of his 
 punishment j and, if resentment still prevails, make 
 it, what it should have been long since, an act, not of 
 mercy, but of contempt. He will soon fail back into 
 his natural station ; a silent senator, and hardly sup- 
 porting the weekly eloquence of a newspaper. The 
 gentle breath of peace would leave him on the surface, 
 neglected and unremoved. It is only the tempest 
 that lifts him from his place. 
 
 Without consulting your minister, call together 
 your whole council. Let it appear to the public that 
 you can determine and act for yourself. Come for- 
 ward to your people. Lay aside the wretched for- 
 malities of a king, and speak to your subjects with 
 the spirit of a man, and in the language of a gentle- 
 man. Tell them you have been fatally deceived. 
 The acknowledgment will be no disgrace, but rather 
 an honour, to ^our understanding. Tell them you 
 are determined to remove every cause of complaint 
 against your government ; that you will give your 
 confidence to no man who does not possess the confi- 
 dence of your subjects ; and leave it to themselves to 
 determine, by their conduct at a future election, 
 whether or no it be, in reality, the general sense ol 
 the nation, that their rights have been arbitrarily in- 
 vaded by the present house of commons, and the con- 
 stitution betrayed. They will then dojustice to their 
 representatives and to themselves. 
 
 These sentiments, sir, and the style they are con- 
 veyed in, may be oflcnsive, perl*ips, because they are 
 new to you. Accustomed to the anguage of courtiers,
 
 216 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 you measure their affections by the vehemence of 
 their expressions ; and when they only praise you 
 indifferently, you admire their sincerity. But this is 
 not a time to trifle with your fortune. They deceive 
 you, sir, who tell you that you have many friends, 
 whose affections are founded upon a principle of per- 
 sonal attachment. The first foundation of friendship 
 is not the power of conferring benefits, but the equal- 
 ity with which they are received, and may be return- 
 ed. The fortune which made you a king, forbade 
 you to have a friend. It is a law of nature, which 
 cannot be violated with impunity. The mistaken 
 prince, who looks for friendship, will find a favourite, 
 and in that favourite the ruin of his affairs. 
 
 The people of England are loyal to the house oi 
 Hanover ; not from a vain preference of one family to 
 another, but from a conviction, that the establishment 
 of that family was necessary to the support of their 
 civil and religious liberties. This, sir, is a principle 
 of allegiance equally solid and rational ; fit for Eng- 
 lishmen to adopt, and well worthy of your majesty's 
 encouragement. We cannot long be deluded by 
 nominal distinctions. The name of Stuart, of itself, 
 is only contemptible ; armed with the sovereign au- 
 thority, their principles are formidable. The prince 
 ho imitates their conduct, should be warned by their 
 example ; and, while he plumes himself upon the secu- 
 rity of his title to the crown, should remember, that, 
 as it was acquired by one revolution, it may be lost 
 by another. 
 
 JUNIUS 
 
 THJE END OF VOLUME 1
 
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 J
 
 WOODFALL'S JUNIUS. 
 
 THE 
 
 LETTEKS OF JUNIUS, 
 
 FROM 
 
 THE LATEST LONDON EDITION, 
 
 WITH FAC-SIMILES OF ATTRIBUTED AUTHORS 
 
 STAT NOMINXJS TOfBRA- 
 
 TWO VOLS IN ONE. 
 
 N E W-Y O R K : 
 
 PUBLISHED BY LEAVITT & ALLEN. 
 
 27 DEY STREET. 
 
 185 •.
 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 
 Lettei'. 
 
 
 Page. 
 
 XXXVl. 
 
 To the duke of Grafton 
 
 5 
 
 XXXVII. 
 
 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser 
 
 - 16 
 
 X XXVIII. 
 
 To the Printer of tlie Public Advertiser 
 
 - 22 
 
 XXXIX. 
 
 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser 
 
 - 30 
 
 XL. 
 
 To Lord North - - - - 
 
 - 43 
 
 XLI. 
 
 To Lord Mansfield - . . 
 
 - 46 
 
 XLII. 
 
 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser 
 
 - 60 
 
 XLni. 
 
 To the Printer uf the Public Advertiser 
 
 -70 
 
 XLIV. 
 
 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser 
 
 - 73 
 
 XLV. 
 
 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser 
 
 - . 86 
 
 XLVI. 
 
 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser 
 
 - 87 
 
 XL VII. 
 
 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser 
 
 - 89 
 
 XLVIIL 
 
 To the duke of Grafton 
 
 - 93 
 
 XLIX. 
 
 To the duke of Grafton 
 
 - 98 
 
 L. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Home to Junius 
 
 - 103 
 
 LI. 
 
 To the Rev. Mr. Home 
 
 - 106 
 
 LIL 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Home to Junius 
 
 - 109 
 
 LIII. 
 
 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser 
 
 - 124 
 
 LIV. 
 
 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser 
 
 - 135 
 
 LV. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Home to Junius 
 
 - 137 
 
 LVI. 
 
 To the duke of Grafton 
 
 - 139 
 
 LVII. 
 
 Addressed to the Livery of London 
 
 - 146 
 
 LVIII. 
 
 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser 
 
 - 148 
 
 LIX. 
 
 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser 
 
 - 159 
 
 LX. 
 
 ToZeno 
 
 - 162 
 
 LXL 
 
 To an Advocate in the Cause of the People 1 68 | 
 
 Lxn. 
 
 . . . - 
 
 170 
 
 Lxm. 
 
 - . . _ . 
 
 172 
 
 LXIV. 
 
 To Lord Mansfield 
 
 176 
 
 LXV. 
 
 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser 
 
 177 
 
 LXVL 
 
 To the duke of Grafton 
 
 ihid. 
 
 LXVII. 
 
 To Lord Mansfield - - - 
 
 . 182 
 
 LXVIII. 
 
 To Lord Camden ... 
 
 209
 
 LETTERS OF JUNIUS. 
 
 LETTER XXXVI. 
 
 To his Grace the Duke of Grafton. 
 
 MY LORD, February 14, 1770. 
 
 It' I were personally your enemy, I might pity and 
 fori^ive you. You have every claim to compassion 
 that can arise from misery and distress. The condi- 
 tion you are reduced to would disarm a private ene- 
 my of his resentment, and leave no consolation to 
 the most vindictive spirit, but that such an object as 
 you are would disgrace the dignity of revenge. But, 
 in the relation you have borne to this country, you 
 have no title to indulgence ; and if I had followed 
 the dictates of my own opinion, I never should have 
 allowed you the respite of a moment. In your pub- 
 lic character, you have injured every subject of the 
 empire ; and though an individual is not authorised 
 to forgive the injuries done to society, he is called 
 upon to assert his separate share in the public resent- 
 ment. I submitted, however, to the judgment of
 
 6 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 mpii, moro moderate, perhnps more fcandid, than 
 riysf^If. For my own part, I do not pretend to un- 
 derstand those prudent forms of decorum, those gentle 
 rules of discretion, which some men- endeavour to 
 tmite with the conduct of the greatest and most 
 hazardous affairs. Engaged in the defence of an 
 honourable cause, I would take a decisive part. 1 
 should scorn to provide for a future retreat, or to 
 keep terms with a man who preserves no measures 
 with the public. Neither the abject submission of 
 deserting his post in tiie hour of danger, nor even 
 the sacred* shield of cowardice should protect him. 
 I would pursue him through life, and try the last ex- 
 ertion of my abilities to preserve the perishable imfa- 
 my of his name, and make it immortal. 
 
 What then, my lord ? Is this the event of all the 
 sacrifices you have made to lord Bute's patronage, 
 and to your own unfortunate ambition ? Was it for 
 this you abandoned your earliest friendships, the 
 warmest connexions of your youth, and all those 
 honourable engagements by which you once soli- 
 cited, and might have acquired, the esteem of your 
 country .'' Have you secured no recompense for such 
 a waste of honour .'' Unhappy man ! what party 
 will receive the common deserter of all parties ? 
 Without a client to flatter, without a friend to con- 
 sole you, and with only one companion from the 
 honest house of Bloomsbury, you must now retire 
 into a dreadful solitude. At the most active period 
 of life you must quit the busy scene, and conceal 
 
 • Sacro tremiiere timore. Every coward pretends 
 
 to be planet-struck.
 
 JUNIUS S LETTERS. 7 
 
 yourself from the world, if you would hope to save 
 the wretched remains of a ruined reputation. The 
 vices operate like age, bring on disease before its 
 lime, and in the prime of youth leave the character 
 broken and exhausted. 
 
 Yet your conduct has been mysterious, as well as 
 contemptible. Where is now that firmness, or ob- 
 stinacy, so long boasted of by 3'our friends, and ac- 
 knowledged by your enemies ? We were taught to 
 expect that you would not leave the ruin of this 
 country to be completed by other hands, but were 
 determined either to gain a decisive victory over 
 the constitution, or to perish bravely, at least, 
 behind the last dike of the prerogative. You kne\»' 
 the danger, and might have been provided for it 
 Fou took sufficient time to prepare for a meeting 
 with your parliament, to confirm the mercenarv 
 fidelity of your dependents, and to suggest to your 
 sovereign a language suited to his dignity at least, 
 if not to his benevolence and wisdom. Yet, while 
 the whole kingdom was agitated with anxious ex- 
 pectation upon one great point, you meanly evaded 
 the question, and, instead of the explicit firmness 
 and decision of a king, gave us nothing but the 
 misery of a ruined* grazier, and the whining piety 
 of a methodist. We had reason to expect, that no- 
 tice would have been taken of the petitions which 
 the king had received from the English nation ; 
 and although I can conceive some personal motives 
 for not yielding to them, I can find none, m common 
 
 * There was something wonclerfnlly patliotic in the men- 
 lion of the horned cattle.
 
 B JUNIUS'S LETTERS 
 
 prudence or decency, for treating litem with con- 
 tempt. Be assured, my lord, the English people 
 will not tamely submit to this unworthy treatment. 
 They had a right to be heard ; and their petitions, 
 if not granted, deserved tc be considered. What- 
 ever be the real views and doctrines of a court, the 
 sovereign should be taught to preserve some forms 
 of attention to his subjects ; and, if he will not re- 
 dress their grievances, not to make them a topic of 
 jest and mockery among lords and ladies of the bed- 
 chamber. Injuries may be atoned for and forgiven ; 
 but insults admit of no compensation. They de- 
 grade the mind in its own esteem, and force it to 
 recover its level by revenge. This neglect of the 
 petitions was, however, a part of your original plan 
 of government ; nor will any consequences it has 
 produced account for your deserting your sove- 
 reign, in the midst of that distress, in which you and 
 your* new friends have involved him. One would 
 think, my lord, you might have taken this spirited 
 resolution before you had dissolved the last of those 
 early connexions, which once, even in your own 
 opinion, did honour to your youth ; before 3'ou had 
 obliged lord Granby to quit a service he was at- 
 tached to ; before you had discarded one chancellor, 
 and killed another. To what an abject condition 
 have you laboured to reduce the best of princes, 
 when the unhappy man, who yields at last to such 
 personal instance and solicitation, as never can be 
 fairly employed against a subject, feels himself de- 
 graded by his compliance, and is unable to survive 
 
 * The Bedford party.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 9 
 
 the disgraceful honours which his gracious sovereign 
 had compelled him to accept ! He was a man of 
 spirit, for he had a quick sense of shame, and death 
 has redeemed his character. I know your grace too 
 well to appeal to your feelings upon this event ; hut 
 there is another heart, not yet, I hope, quite 
 callous to the touch of humanity, to which it ought 
 to be a dreadful lesson for ever.* 
 
 Now, my lord, let us consider the situation to 
 A^hich you have conducted, and in which you have 
 thought it advisable to abandon, your royal mas- 
 ter. Whenever the people have complained, and 
 nothing better could be said in defence of the mea- 
 sures of the government, it has been the fashion to 
 answer us, though not very fairly, with an appeal 
 to the private virtues of your sovereign ; " Has he 
 not, to relieve the people, surrendered a consider- 
 able part of his revenue ? Has he not made the 
 judges independent, by fixing them in their places 
 for life ?" My lord, we acknowledge the gracious 
 principle which gave birth to these concessions, 
 and have nothing to regret, but that it has never 
 been adhered to. At the end of seven years, we 
 are loaded witii a debt of above five hundred thou- 
 sand pounds upon the civil list; and now we see 
 the chancellor of Great Britain tyrannically forced 
 out of his oftico, not for want of abilities, not for 
 want of integrity, or of altentiou to his duty, but 
 for delivering his honest opinion in parliameal, 
 
 * The most secitl particular of this detestable transac- 
 tion shall in due time be given to the public. The people 
 ihall know what kind of man they have to deal with. 
 A 2
 
 10 JUNTUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 upon the greatest constitutional question that has 
 arisen since the revolution. We care not to whose 
 private virtues you appeal. The theory of such a 
 government is falsehood and mockery ; the practice 
 is oppression. You have laboured then (though, 
 I confess, to no purpose) to rob your master of the 
 only plausible answer that ever was given in de- 
 fence of his government — of the opinion which the 
 people had conceived of his personal honour and 
 integrity. Tlie duke of Bedford was more mode- 
 rate than your grace ; he only forced his master to 
 ^!olate a solemn promise made to an individual;* 
 but you, my lord, have successively extended your 
 iidvico to every political, every moral engagement, 
 that could bind either the magistrate or the man. 
 The condition of a king is often miserable ; but it 
 required your grace's abilities to make it contempt- 
 ible. You will say, perhaps, that the faithful ser- 
 vants, in whose hands you have left him, are able 
 to retrieve his honour, and to support his govern- 
 ment. You have publicly declared, even since your 
 resignation, that you approved of their measures, 
 and admired their conduct, particularly that of the 
 earl of Sandwich. What a pity it is, that, with all 
 this appearance, you should think it necessary to 
 separate yourself from such amiable companions ! 
 You forget, my lord, that, while you are lavish in 
 the praise of men whom you desert, you are pub- 
 licly opposing your conduct to your opinions, and 
 depriving yourself of the only plausible pretence 
 you had for leaving your sovereign overwhelmed 
 
 * Mr. Stuart M'Kenzie.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 11 
 
 with distress. I call it plausible ; for, in truth, 
 there is no reason whatsoever, less than the frowns 
 of your master, that could justify a man of spirit 
 for abandoning his post at a moment so critical and 
 important. It is in vain to evade the question : if 
 you will not speak out, the public have a right to 
 judge from appearances. We are authorised to 
 conclude, that you either differed from your col- 
 leagues, whose measures you still affect to defend, 
 or that you thought the administration of the king's 
 affairs no longer tenable. You are at liberty to 
 choose between the hypocrite and the coward. 
 Your best friends are in doubt which way they shall 
 incline. Your country unites the characters, and 
 gives you credit for them both. For my own part, 
 I see nothing inconsistent in your conduct. You be- 
 gan with betraying the people ; you conclude with 
 betraying the king. 
 
 In your treatment of particular persons, you have 
 preserved the uniformity of your character. Even 
 Mr. Bradshaw declares, t!iat no man was ever so ill 
 used as himself. As to the provision* you have 
 
 * A pension of 15001. per annum, insured upon the foiii 
 one half per cents, (he was too cunning to trust to Irish 
 security) for the lives of b^nsclf and his sons. This gentle- 
 man, who, a very few years ago, was clerk to a contractor foi 
 forage, and afterwards exalted to a petty post in the w;ir 
 office, thought it necessary (as soon as he was appointed 
 secretary to the treasury) to take that great house in Lin- 
 coln's-Iiin-fields, in which the earl of Northington had re- 
 sided, while he was lord high chancellor of Great Britain. 
 As to the pension, lord North very solemnly assured the
 
 12 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 made for his family, he was entitled to it by the 
 house he lives in. The successor of one chancel- 
 lor might well pretend to be the rival of another. 
 It is the breach of piivate friendship which touches 
 Mr. Bradshaw ; and, to say the truth, when a mj.n 
 of his rank and abilities had taken so active a part 
 in your affairs, he ought not to have been let down 
 at last with a miserable pension of fifteen hundred 
 pounds a-year. Colonel Luttrell, INIr. Onslow, and 
 governor Burgoyne, were equally engaged with you, 
 and have rather more reason to complain than Mr. 
 Bradshaw. These are men, my lord, whose friend- 
 ship you should have adhered to on the same prin- 
 ciple on which you deserted lord Rockingham, lort' 
 Chatham, lord Camden, and the duke of Portland. 
 We can easily account for your violating your en- 
 gagements with men of honour ; but why should 
 yon betray your natural connexions ? Why sepa- 
 rate yourself from lord Sandwich, lord Gower, and 
 Mr. Rigby ; or leave the three worthy gentlemen 
 above-mentioned to shift for themselves ? With a\i 
 the fashionable indulgence of the times, this coun- 
 try does not abound in characters like theirs ; and 
 you may find it a very difiicult matter to recruit the 
 black catalogue of your friends. 
 
 house of commons, that no pension was ever so well 
 deserved as Mr. Braashaw's. N. B. Lord Camden and sir 
 Jeffrey Amherst are not near so well provided for : and 
 sir Edward Hawke, who saved the state, retires with two 
 tliousand pounds a year on the Irish establishment, from 
 which he, in fact, receives less than Mr. Bradshaw's pen- 
 sion.
 
 JUNIUSS LETTERS. 13 
 
 The recollection of the royal patent 3'ou sold to 
 Mr. Hine, obliges me i\) say a word in defence of a 
 man, whom you have taken the most dishonourable 
 means to injure. I do not refer to the sham pro- 
 secution which you affected to carry on against 
 him. On that ground, I doubt not, he is prepared 
 to meet you with tenfold recriuiiiiation, and set you 
 at defiance. The injury you had done him affects 
 his moral character. You knew that the offer to 
 purchase the reversion of a place, which has here- 
 tofore been sold under a decree of the court of 
 chancery, however imprudent in his situation, 
 would no way tend to cover him with that sort of 
 guilt which you wished to fix upon him in the eyes 
 of the world. You laboured then, by every species 
 of false suggestion, and even by publishing coun- 
 terfeit letters, to have it understood, that he had 
 proposed terms of accommodation to you, and had 
 offered to abandon his principles, his party, and his 
 "riends. You consulted your own breast for a clinr- 
 cter of consujnmate treachery, and gave it to the 
 public for that of Mr. Vaughan. I think myself 
 obliged to do this justice to an injured man, be- 
 cause I was deceived by the appearances thrown 
 out by your grace, and have frequently spoken of 
 his conduct with indignation. If he really be, what 
 I think him, honest, though mistaken, he will be 
 happy in recovering his reputation, though at the 
 expense of his understanding. Here I see the mat- 
 ter is likeJy to rest. Your grace is afraid to carry 
 on the prosecution. Mr. Hine keeps quiet posses- 
 sion of the purchase ; and governor Burgoyne, re- 
 lieved from the apprehension of refunding the
 
 14 JUlN'lUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 money, sits down, fv)!* tiie rcaiaiuJcr of liii life, i.'i- 
 J'amous and contented. 
 
 I believe, my lord, 1 may now take my leave of 
 you for ever. You are uo longer that resoiuie min- 
 ister, who had spirit to support llie most violent inea- 
 sures ; w'ho compensated for the want of good and 
 great qualities, by a brave determination (which Si>me 
 people admired and relied on) to maintain himself 
 w ithout them. The reputation of obstinacy and j)er- 
 severance might have supplied the place of all the 
 absent virtues. You have now added the last nega- 
 tive to your character, and meanly confessed that you 
 are destitute of the common spirit of a man. Re- 
 tire, then, my lord, and hide your blushes from the 
 world ; for, with such a load of shame, even black 
 may change its colour. A mind such as yours, in the 
 solitary hours of domestic enjoyment, may still liud 
 topics of consolation. You may find it in the memory 
 of violated friendship ; in the afflictions of an accom- 
 plished prince, whom you have disgraced and desert- 
 ed ; and in the agitations of a great country, driven, 
 by your counsels, to the brink of destruction. 
 
 The palm of ministerial firmness is now transferred 
 to lord North. He tells us so h. . elf, and with the 
 plenitude of the ore rotundo ;* and I am ready enough 
 to believe, that, while he can keep his place, he will 
 not easily be persuaded to resign it. Your grace 
 
 * This eloquent person has got as far as the discipline o/ 
 Demosthenes. He constantly speaks with pebbles in his 
 mouth, to improve liis articulation.
 
 JU.^IUS'S LETTERS. 15 
 
 was the inn minister of yesterday ; lord North is liic 
 firm minister of to-day : to-morrow, perhaps, hit 
 majest}', in his wisdom, may give us a rival for you 
 both. You are too well acquainted with the temper 
 of your late allies, to think it possible that lord North 
 should be permitted to govern this country. If we 
 may believe common fame, they have shown him 
 their superiority already. Ilis majp^ty is, indeed, 
 too gracious to insult his subjects, by choosing his 
 first minister from among the domestics of the duke 
 of Bedford ; that would have been too gross an out- 
 rage to the three kingdoms. Their purpose, how- 
 ever, is equally answered, by pushing forward this 
 unhappy figure, and forcing it to bear the odium of 
 measures, which they in reality direct. Without im- 
 mediately appearing to govern, they possess the pow- 
 er, and distribute the emoluments of government, as 
 they think proper. They still adhere lo tlie spirit ol 
 that calculation which made Mr. Luttrell representa- 
 tive of Middlesex. Far from regretting your retreat, 
 they assure us, very gravely, tliat it increases the real 
 strength of the ministry. According to this way oi 
 reasoning, they will probably grow stronger and more 
 flotirishing every hour they exist : for I think there is 
 hardly a day passes in which some one or other of 
 his majesty's servants does not leave them to improve 
 by the loss of his assistance. But, alas ! their coun- 
 tenances speak a different language. When the mem- 
 bers drop off, the main body catniot be insensible of 
 its approaching dissolution. Even the violence of 
 their proceedings is a signal of despair. Like broken 
 tenants, who have had warning to quit the premises,
 
 IG " JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 tliej' curse their landlord, destroy the fixtures, throw 
 every thing into confusion, and care not what niis- 
 chiel' they do to the estate 
 
 JUNIUS. 
 
 XXXVII. 
 
 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser 
 
 Sm, March 19, 1770. 
 
 I believe there is no man, however indifferent 
 about the interests of this country, who will not 
 readily confess, that the situation to which we are 
 now reduced, whether it has arisen from the violence 
 of faction, or from an arbitrary system of govern- 
 ment, justifies the most melancholy apprehensions, 
 and calls for the exertion of whatever wisdom or 
 vigour is left among us. The king's answer to the re- 
 monstrance of the city of London, and the measures 
 since adopted by the ministry, amount to a plain de- 
 claration, that the principle on which Mr. Luttrell 
 was seated in the house of commons, is to be sup- 
 ported in all its consequences, and carried to its ut- 
 most extent. The same spirit which violated the 
 freedom of election, now invades tlie declaration and 
 bill of rights, and threatens to punish the subject for 
 exercising a privilege hitherto undisputed, of petition- 
 ing the crown. The grievances of the people are 
 aggravated by insults ; their complaints not merely 
 disregarded, hut checl'.;d by authority ; and every
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 17 
 
 one of those acts again?', vihich they remonstrated, 
 confirmed by the king's decisive approbation. At 
 such a moment, no honest man will remain silent or 
 inactive. However distinguished by rank or proper- 
 ty, in the rights of freedom we are all equal. As we 
 are Englishmen, the least considerable man among 
 us has an interest equal to the proudest nobleman in 
 the laws and constitution of his country, and is 
 equally called upon to make a generous contribution 
 in support of them ; whether it be the heart to con- 
 ceive, the understanding to direct, or the hand to 
 execute. It is a common cause in which we are all 
 interested, in which we should all be engaged. The 
 man who deserts it at this alarming crisis, is an ene- 
 my to his Country, and, what I think of infinitely less 
 importance, a traitor to his sovereign. The subject, 
 who is truly loyal to the chief magistrate, will neither 
 advise or submit to arbitrary measures. The city of 
 London hath given an example, which, I doubt not, 
 will be followed by the whole kingdom. The noble 
 spirit of the metropolis is the life-blood of the state, 
 collected at the heart : from that point it circulates, 
 with health and vigour, through every artery of the 
 constitution. The time is come when the body of the 
 English people must assert their own cause : con- 
 scious of their strength, and animated by a sense of 
 their duty, they will not surrender their birth-right 
 to ministers, parliaments, or kings. The city of 
 London have expressed their sentiments with freedom 
 and firmness ; they have spoken truth boldly ; and, 
 in whatsoever light their remonstrance may be repre- 
 sented by courtiers, I defy the most subtile lawyer in 
 this couatry to point out a single instance in whicK
 
 18 JUNILS'S LETTERS. 
 
 they have exceeded the i/uth. Even that assertion 
 which we are told is most offensive to parliament, in 
 the theory o'^the English ciinstitution, is strictly true. 
 If any part of the representative body be not chosen 
 by the people, that part vitiates and corrupts the 
 whole. If there be a defect in the representation ol 
 the people, that power, which alone is equal to the 
 making of the laws in this country, is not complete, 
 and the acts of parliament, under that circumstance, 
 are not the acts of a pure and entire legislature. I 
 speak of the theory of our constitution ; and what- 
 ever difficulties or inconveniences may attend the 
 practice, I am ready to maintain that, as far as the 
 fact deviates from the principle, so far the practice is 
 vicious and corrupt. I lia\'e not heard a question 
 raised upon any other part of the remonstrance. 
 That the principle on which the Middlesex election 
 was determined, is more pernicious in its effects than 
 either the levying of ship-money by Charles the 
 First, or the suspending power assumed by his son, 
 will hardly be disputed by any man who understands 
 or wishes well to the English constitution. It is not 
 an act of open violence done by the king, or any 
 direct or palpable breach of the laws attempted by 
 his minister, that can ever endanger the liberties of 
 this country. Against such a king or minister the 
 people would immediately take the alarm, and all the 
 parties unite to oppose him. The laws may be gross- 
 ly violated in particular instances, without any direct 
 attack upon the whole system. Facts of that kind 
 stand alone ; they are attributed to necessity, not de- 
 fended by principles. We can never be really in 
 danger, until the forms of parliament are made use
 
 JUNIUS'S ..ETTERS. 19 
 
 j{ >o dch foy the substance of our civil and political 
 liberties ; until parliament itself betrays its trust, by 
 contributing to establish new principles of govern- 
 ment, and employing the very weapons committed to 
 it by the collective body to stab the constitution. 
 
 As for the terms of the remonstrance, I presume it 
 will not be affirmed, by any person less polished tiian 
 a gentleman usher, that this is a season for compli- 
 ments. Our gracious king, indeed, is abundantly 
 civil to himself. Instead of an answer to a petition, 
 his majesty very graciously pronounces his own pan- 
 egyric ; and I confess that, as far as his personal be- 
 haviour, or the royal purity of his intentions, is con- 
 cerned, the truth of those declarations, which the 
 minister has drawn up for his master, cannot decent- 
 ly be disputed. In every other respect, I affirm, that 
 they are absolutely unsupported either in argument 
 or fact : I must add, too, that supposing the speech 
 were otherwise unexceptionable, it is not a direct 
 answer to the petition of die city. His majesty is 
 pleased to say, that he is always ready to receive the 
 request of his subjects j yet the sheriffs were twice 
 sent back with an excuse ; and it was certainly de- 
 bated in council, whether or no the magistrates of 
 the city of London should be admitted to an au- 
 dience. Whether the remonstrance be or be not in- 
 jurious to parliament, is the very question between 
 the parliament and the people, and such a question 
 as cannot be decided by the assertion of a tliird party, 
 however respectable. That the petitioning for 
 dissolution of parliament is irreconcilable with the 
 principles of tho constitution, is a new doctrine. 
 His majesty, perhaps, has not jeen informed, that
 
 20 
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 die house of commons themselves, iiave, by a for- 
 mal resolution, admitted it to be the right of the sub- 
 ject. His majesty proceeds to assure us, that he lias 
 made the laws the rule of his conduct. Was it in 
 ordering or permitting his ministers to apprehend Mr. 
 Wilkes by a general warrant ^ Was it in sufiering 
 his ministers to revive the obsolete maxim of nullum 
 temjpus, to rob the duke of Portland of his property, 
 and thereby give a decisive turn to a county election .'' 
 Was it in erecting a chamber consultation of sur- 
 geons, with authority to examine into and supersede 
 the legal verdict of a jury ? Or did his majesty 
 consult the laws of this country, when he permitted 
 his secretary of state to declare, that, whenever the 
 civil magistrate is trifled with, a military force must 
 be sent for, without the delay of a moment, and ef- 
 fectually employed ? Or was it in the barbarous ex- 
 actness with which this illegal, inhuman doctrine was 
 carried into execution ? If his majesty had recol- 
 lected these facts, I think, he would never have said, 
 at least with any reference to the measures of his 
 government, that he had made the laws the rule of 
 his conduct. To talk of preserving the affections, 
 or relying on the support of his subjects, while he 
 continues to act upon these principles, is, indeed, 
 paying a compliment to their loyalty, which, I hope, 
 they have too much spirit and understanding to 
 deserve. 
 
 His majesty, we are told, is not only punctual in 
 tlje performance of his own duty, but careful not to 
 assume any of those powers which the constitution 
 has placed in other hands. Admitting this last as- 
 sertion to be strictly true, it is no wa} to the purpose
 
 JU.nUS'F LETTERS. 21 
 
 The city of London have not desired the king to as- 
 sume a power placed in other hands. If they had, 1 
 should hope to see the person who dared to present 
 such a petition immediately impeached. They so- 
 licit their sovereign to exert that constitutional au- 
 thority which the laws have vested in him for the 
 benefit of his subjects. They call upon him to make 
 use of his lawful prerogative in a case which our 
 laws evidently supposed might happeno since they 
 have provided for it by trusting the sovereign with a 
 discretionary power to dissolve the parliament. This 
 request will, I am confident, be supported by remon- 
 strances from all parts of the kingdom. His majes- 
 ty will find, at last, that this is the sense of his peo- 
 ple ; and that it is not his interest to support either 
 ministry or parliament at the hazard of a breach 
 with the collective body of his subjects. That he is 
 king of a free people, is, indeed, his greatest glory. 
 That he may long continue the king of a free people 
 is the second wish that animates my heart The first 
 is, that the people may he free.* 
 
 * When his majesty had done reading his speech, the 
 lord mayor, &c. had the honour of kissing his majesty's 
 hand : after which, as they were withdrawing, his majesty 
 instantly turned round to his courtiers, and burst out a 
 laughing. 
 
 Nero fiddled, while Rome was burning. 
 
 JOHN HORNE.
 
 JUNIUS -S LETTERS 
 
 XXXVIII. 
 
 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser. 
 
 SIR, April 3, 1770. 
 
 In my last letter I offered you my opinion of the 
 truth and propriety of his majesty's answer to the city 
 of London, considering it merely as the speech of a 
 minister, drawn up in his own defence, and delivered, 
 as usual, by the chief magistrate. I would separate, 
 as much as possible, the king's personal character 
 and behaviour from the acts of the present govern- 
 ment. I wish it to be understood that his majesty 
 had, in effect, -no more concern in the substance of 
 what he said, than sir James Hodges had in the re- 
 monstrance ; and that as sir James, in virtue of his 
 officQ, was obliged to speak the sentiments of die 
 people, his majesty might think himself bound, by 
 the same official obligation, to give a graceful ut- 
 terance to the sentiments of his minister. The cold 
 formality of a well-repeated lesson is widely distant 
 fr.^m the animated expression of 'he heart. 
 
 This distinction, however, is only true with respect 
 to the measure itself. The consequences of it reach 
 beyond the minister, and materially affect his majes- 
 ty's honour. In their own nature they are formida- 
 ble enough to alarm a man of prudence, and dis- 
 graceful enough to afflict a man of spirit. A subject, 
 whose sincere attachment to his majesty's person and 
 family is founded upon rational princip' es, will not,
 
 JLNIUS'S LETTERS. 23 
 
 m the present conjuncture, be scrupulous of alarrai- 
 ing, or even of afflicting, liis sovereign. I know 
 there is another sort of loyalty,, of which his majesty 
 has had plenty of experience. When the loyalty of 
 Tories, Jacobites, and Scotchmen, has once taken 
 possession of an unhappy prince, it seldom leaves 
 him without accomplishing his destruction. When 
 the poison of their doctrines has tainted the natural 
 benevolence of his disposition, when their insidious 
 counsels have corrupted the stamina of his govern- 
 ment, what antidote can restore him to his political 
 health and honour but the firm sincerity of his Eng- 
 lish subjects ? 
 
 It has not been usual, in this country, at least 
 since the days of Charles the First, to see the sove- 
 reign personally at variance, or engaged in a direct 
 altercation with his subjects. Acts of grace and in- 
 dul"-ence are wisely appropriated to him, and should 
 constantly be performed by himself. He never should 
 appear but in an amiable light to his subjects. Even 
 m France, as long as any ideas of a limited monar- 
 chy were tkought worth preserving, it was a maxim 
 that no man should leave the royal presence discon- 
 tented. They have lost or renounced the moderate 
 principles of their government; and now, when their 
 parliaments venture to remonstrate, the tyrant coiiics 
 forward, and answers absolutely for himself. The 
 spirit of their present constitution requires that th.e 
 king should be feared ; and the principle, 1 believe, 
 is tolerably supported by the fact. But, in our po- 
 litical system, the theory is at variance with the prac- 
 tice, for the king should be beloved. Measures of 
 greater severity may, indeed, in some circumstances,
 
 24 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 be necessary: but the minister who advises should 
 take the execution and odium of them entirely upon 
 himself. He not only betrays his master, but vio- 
 lates the spirit of the English constitution, when he 
 exposes the chief magistrate to the personal hatred 
 or contempt of his subjects. When we speak of the 
 firmness of government, we mean an uniform sys- 
 tem of measures, deliberately adopted, and resolute- 
 ly maintained by the servants of the crown ; not a 
 peevish asperity in the language and behaviour of the 
 sovereign. The government of a weak, irresolute 
 monarch, may be wise, moderate, and firm : that of 
 an obstinate, capricious prince, on the contrary, may 
 be feeble, undetermined, and relaxed. The reputa- 
 tion of public measures depends upon the minister, 
 who is responsible ; not upon the king, whose pri- 
 vate opinions are not supposed to have any weight 
 against the adWce of his council, and whose personal 
 authority should, therefore, never be interposed in 
 public affairs. This, I believe, is true constitutional 
 doctrine. But for a moment let us suppose it false. 
 Let it be taken for granted, that an occasion may 
 arise in which a king of England shall be compelled 
 to take upon himself the ungrateful office of rejecting 
 the petitions and censuring the conduct of his sub- 
 jects ; and let the city remonstrance be supposed to 
 have created so extraordinary an occasion. On this 
 principle, which I presume no friend of administra- 
 tion will dispute, let the wisdom and spirit of the 
 ministry be examined. They advise the king to 
 hazard his dignity, by a positive declaration of his 
 own sentiments ; they suggest to 1 im a language full 
 of severity and reproach. What follows ? When
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 25 
 
 his majesty had taken so decisive a part in support 
 of his ministry and parliament, he had a right to ex- 
 pect from them a reciprocal demonstration of firmness 
 in their own cause, and of their zeal for his honour. 
 He had reason to expect (and such, I doubt not, were 
 the blustering promises of lord North) that the per- 
 sons whom he had been advised to charge with hav- 
 ing failed in their respect to him, with having injured 
 parliament, and violated the principles of the con- 
 stitution, should not have been permitted to escape 
 without some severe marks of the displeasure and 
 vengeance of parliament. As the matter stands, the 
 minister, after placing his sovereign in the most un- 
 favourable light to his subjects, and after attempting 
 to fix the ridicule and odium of his own precipitate 
 measures upon the royal character, leaves him a soli- 
 tary figure upon the scene, to recall, if he can, or to 
 compensate, by future compliances, for one unhappy 
 demonstration of ill-supported firmness and ineffec- 
 tual resentment. As a man of spirit, his majesty 
 cannot but be sensible, that the lofty terms in which 
 he was persuaded to reprimand the city, when united 
 with the silly conclusion of the business, resembled 
 the pom.p of a mock tragedy, where the most pa- 
 thetic sentiments, and even the sufferings of the hero, 
 are calculated for derision. 
 
 Such have been the boasted firmness and consis- 
 tency of a minister,* whose appearance in the house 
 
 • This graceful minister is oddly constructed. His 
 tongue is a httle too big for his mouth, and his eyes a 
 great deal too big for their sockets. Every part of his 
 person sets natural proportion at defiance. At this presen 
 
 VOL. II. B
 
 26 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 of commons was thought essential to the kmg's 8er« 
 vice ; whose presence was to influence every division , 
 who had a voice to persuade, an eye to penetrate, a 
 gesture to command. The reputation of these great 
 qualities has been fatal to his friends. The little dig- 
 nity of Mr. E lis has been committed. The mine 
 was sunk ; combustibles were provided ; and Wel- 
 bore Ellis, the Guy Faux of the fable, waited only 
 for the signal of command. All of a sudden the 
 country gentlemen discover how grossly they have 
 been deceived : the minister's heart fails him ; the 
 grand plot is defeated in a moment ; and poor Mr. 
 Ellis and his motion taken into custody. From the 
 event of Friday last, one would imagine that some 
 fatality hung over this gentleman. Whether he makes 
 or suppresses a motion, he is equally sure of disgrace. 
 But the complexion of the times will suffer no man 
 to be vice-treasurer of Ireland with impunity.* 
 
 writing his head is supposed to be much too heavy for his 
 shoulders. 
 
 * About this time the courtiers talked of nothing but 
 a bill of pains and penalties against the lord mayor and 
 sheriffs, or impeachment at the least. Little Mannikin 
 Ellis told the king, that if the business were left to his 
 management, he would engage to do wonders. It was 
 thought very odd that a business of so much importance 
 should be entrusted to the most contemptible little piece 
 of machinery in the whole kingdom. His honest zeal, 
 however, was disappointed. The minister took fright ; 
 and, at the very instant that httle Ellis was going to 
 open, sent him an order to sit down. All their mag- 
 nanimous threats ended in a ridiculous vote of ceasure, 
 and a stil. more ridiculous address to the king.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 27 
 
 1 do not in«an to express the smallest anxiety lor 
 the minister's reputation. He acts separately for 
 himself, and the most shameful inconsistency may 
 perhaps be no disgrace to him. But wlien the sove- 
 reign, who represents the majesty of the state, ap- 
 pears in person, his dignity should be supported : 
 the occasion should be important ; the plan well 
 considered ; the execution steady and consistent. 
 My zeal for his majesty's real honour, compels me 
 to assert, that it has been too much the system of 
 the present reign, to introduce him personally either 
 to act for or defend his servants. They persuade 
 him to do what is properly their business, and de- 
 sert him in the midst of it. Yet this is an incon- 
 venience to which he must for ever be exposed, 
 while he adheres to a ministry divided agiong them- 
 selves, or unequal in credit and ability to the great 
 task they have undertaken. Instead of reserving 
 the interposition of the royal personage as the last 
 resource of government, their weakness obliges them 
 to apply it to every ordinary occasion, and to 
 render it clieap and common in the opinion of the 
 people. Instead of supporting their master, they 
 look to him for support ; and for the emoluments 
 of remaining one day more in oflice, care not how 
 much his sacred character is prostituted and dis- 
 honoured. 
 
 If I thought it possible for this paper to reach the 
 closet, I would venture to appeal at once to his 
 majesty's judgment. I would ask him, but in the 
 most respectful terms, " As you are a young man, 
 sir, who ought to have a life of happiness in pros- 
 pect ; as you are a husband, as you are a father-
 
 28 
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 (your filial duties, I own, have been retijjiouslj per- 
 fuiined) is it bona fide for your interest or your 
 honour, to sacrifice your domestic tranquillity, and 
 to live in a perpetual disagreement with your people, 
 merely to preserve such a chain of beings as North, 
 Barrington, Weymouth, Cower, Ellis, Onslow, 
 Rigby, Jerry Dyson, and Sandwich ? Their very 
 names are a satire upon all government ! and I defy 
 the grdvest of your chaplains to read the catalogue 
 without laughing." 
 
 For my own part, sir, I have always considered 
 addresses from parliament, as a fashionable, un- 
 meaning formality. Usurpers, idiots, and tyrants, 
 have been successively complimented with almost 
 the same professions of duty and afi'ection. But 
 let us suppose them to mean exactly what they pro- 
 fess. The consequences deserve to be considered. 
 Either the sovereign is a man of high spirit and 
 dangerous ambition, ready to take advantage of the 
 treachery of the parliament, ready to accept of the 
 surrender they make him of the public liberty ; or 
 he is a mild, undesigning prince, who, provided 
 they indulge him with a little state and pageantr}' 
 would of himself intend no mischief. On the first 
 supposition, it must soon be decided by the sword, 
 whether the constitution should be lost or preserved. 
 On the second, a prince, no way qualified for the 
 execution of a great and hazardous enterprise, and 
 without any determined object in view, may never- 
 theless be driven into such desperate measures, as 
 may lead directly to his ruin ; or disgrace himself 
 by a shameful fluctuation between the extremes of 
 violeuce at one moment, and timidity at another.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 29 
 
 The minister, perhaps, may have reason to be satis- 
 fied with the success of the present hour, and vv'th 
 the profits of his employment. He is the tenant of 
 the day, and has no interest in the inheritance. 
 The sovereign himself is bound by other obligations, 
 and ought to look forward to a superior, a perma- 
 nent interest. His paternal tenderness should re- 
 innid him how many hostages he has given to so- 
 ciety. The ties of nature come powerfully in aid 
 of oaths and protestations. The father, who con- 
 siders his own precarious state of health, and the 
 possible hazard of a long minority, will wish to see 
 the family estate free and unincumbered.* What 
 is the dignity of the crown, though it were really 
 maintained; what is the honour of parliament, sup- 
 posing it could exist without any foundation of in- 
 tegrity and justice; or what is the vain reputation 
 of firmness, even if the scheme of the government 
 were uniform and consistent, compared with the 
 heart-felt affections of the people, with the happiness 
 and security of the royal family, or even with the 
 grateful acclamations of the populace.'' Whatever 
 style of contempt may be adopted by ministers or 
 parliaments, no man sincerely despises the voice of 
 the English nation. The house of commons are 
 only interpreters, whose duty it is to convey tlie 
 sense of the people faithfully to the crown. If tlie 
 interpretation be false or imperfect, the constituent 
 powers are called upon to deliver their own senti- 
 
 • Every true friend to the house of Brunswick sees with 
 affliction how rapidly some of the principal branches of the 
 '"amily have dropped off
 
 30 
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 ineiits. Their speech is rude, but intelligible ; their 
 gestures fierce, but full of explanation. Perplexed 
 oy sopiilstries, tiieir honest eloquence rises into 
 action. Their first appeal was to the integrity of 
 their representatives ; their second, to the king's 
 justice. The last argument of the people, whenever 
 they have recourse to it, will carry more perhaps, 
 than persuasion to parliament, or supplication to the 
 throne. 
 
 JUNFJS. 
 
 XXXIX. 
 
 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser. 
 
 SIR, May 28, 1770. 
 
 While parliament was sitting, it would neither 
 have been safe, or, perhaps, quite regular, to ofier 
 any opinion to the public upon the justice or wis- 
 dom of their proceedings. To pronounce fairly 
 upon their conduct, it was necessary to wait until 
 we could consider, in one view, the beginning, pro- 
 gress, and conclusion of their deliberations. The 
 cause of the public was undertaken and supported 
 by men, whose abilities and united authority, to say 
 nothing of the advantageous ground they stood on, 
 might well be thought sufficient to determine a po- 
 pular question in favour of the people. Neither was 
 the house of commons so absolutely engaged in 
 defence of the ministry, or even of their own reso-
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 31 
 
 lutlons, but that they might have paid some decent 
 regard to the known disposition of their constitu- 
 ents J and without any dishonour to their firmness, 
 might have retracted an opinion too hastily adopted, 
 when they saw the alarm it had created, md how 
 strongly it was opposed by the general sense of 
 the nation. The ministry, too, would have con- 
 sulted their own immediate interest in making some 
 concession satisfactory to the moderate part of the 
 people. Without touching the fact, they might 
 have consented to guard against, or give up, the 
 dangerous principle on which it was established. 
 In this state of things, I think it was highly im- 
 probable, at the beginning of the session, that the 
 complaints of the people upon a matter, which in 
 their apprehension at least, immediately affected the 
 life of the constitution, would be treated with as 
 much contempt by their own representatives, and by 
 the house of lords, as they had been by the other 
 branch of the legislature. Despairing of their in- 
 tegrity, we had a right ^o expect something from 
 their prudence, and something from their fears. 
 The duke of Grafton certainly did not foresee to 
 what an extent the corruption of a parliament 
 might be carried. He thought, perhaps, that there 
 was still some portion of shame or virtue left in the 
 majority of the house of commons, or that there 
 was a line in public prostitution beyond which they 
 would scruple to proceed. Had the young man been 
 a little more practised in the world, or had he 
 ventured to measure the characters of other men 
 by his own, he would not have been so easily 
 discouraged.
 
 32 JUNIUS 'S LETTERS. 
 
 The prorogation of parliament naturally calls 
 upon us to review their proceedings, and to con- 
 sider the condition in which they have left the king- 
 dom. I do not question but they have done what 
 is usually called the king's business, much to his 
 majesty's satisfaction : we have only to lament, that, 
 in oonsequence of a system introduced or revived 
 in the present reign, this kind of merit should bt 
 very consistent with the neglect of every duty they 
 owe to the nation. The interval between the open- 
 ing of the last, and close of the former 'session, was 
 longer than usual. Whatever were the views of the 
 minister in deferring the meeting of parliament, 
 sufficient time was certainly given to every membei 
 of the house of commons, to look back upon the 
 steps he had taken, and the consequences they had 
 produced. The zeal of party, the violence of per- 
 sonal animosities, and the heat of contention, had 
 leisure to subside. From that period, whatever re- 
 solution they took was deliberate and prepense. 
 In the preceding session, the dependents of the 
 ministry had affected to believe, that the final deter- 
 mination of the question would have satisfied the 
 nation, or at least put a stop to their complaints j 
 as if the certainty of an evil could diminish the sense 
 of it, or the nature of injustice could be altered by 
 decision. But they found the people of England 
 were in a temper very distant from submission ; and 
 although it was contended that the house of commons 
 could not themselves reverse a resolution which had 
 the force and effect of a judicial sentence, there were 
 other constitutional expedients which would have 
 given a security against any similar attempts for the
 
 JLNIUSS LETTERS. 33 
 
 future The general proposition, in which the whole 
 country had an interest, might have been reduced to 
 a particular fact, in which Mr. Wilkes and Mr. Lut- 
 trell would alone have been concerned. The house 
 of lords might interpose ; the king might dissolve the 
 parliament ; or if every other n source failed, there 
 still lay a grand . onstitutional writ of error, in be- 
 half of the people, from the decision of one court to 
 the wisdom of the whole legislature. Every one of 
 these remedies has been successively attempted. The 
 people performed their part with dignity, spirit, and 
 perseverance. For many months his majesty heard 
 nothing from his people but the language of complaint 
 and resentment: uniiappily for this country, it was the 
 daily triumph of his courtiers, that he heard it with 
 an indifference approaching contempt. 
 
 The house of commons, having assumed a power 
 unknown to the constitution, were determined not 
 merely to support it in the single instance in ques- 
 tion, but to maintain the doctrine in its utmost ex- 
 tent, and to establish the fact as a precedent in law, 
 to be applied in whatever manner his majesty's ser- 
 vants should hereafter think fit. Their proceedings 
 upon this occasion are a strong proof that a decision, 
 in the first instance illegal and unjust, can only be 
 supported by a continuation of falehood and injustice. 
 To support their former resolutions, they were obliged 
 to violate some of the best known and established 
 rules of the house. In one instance, they went so 
 far as to declare, in open defiance of truth and com- 
 mon sense, that it was not the rule of the house to 
 divide a complicated question at the request of a 
 B 2 3
 
 54 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 member. * But, after trampling upon the laws of the 
 land, it was not wonderful that they should treat the 
 private regulations of their own assembly with equal 
 disregard. The speaker, being young in oflice, be 
 gan with pretended ignorance, and ended with de 
 cidlng for the ministry. We are not surprised at the 
 decision ; but he hesitated and blushed at his own 
 baseness, and every man was astonished. t 
 
 The interest of the public was vigorously support- 
 ed in the house of lords. The right to defend the 
 constitution against an encroachment of the other 
 estates, and the necessity of exerting it at this period, 
 was urged to them with every argument that could be 
 supposed to influence tht heart or the understanding. 
 
 * The extravagant resolution appears in the vote of the 
 house ; but, in the minutes of the committees, the in- 
 stances of resolutions contrary to law and truth, or of re- 
 fusals to acknowledge law and truth when proposed to them, 
 are innumerable. 
 
 t VVlieiMhe king first made it a measure of his govern- 
 ment to destroy Mr. Wilkes, and when, for this puipose, it 
 was necessary to run down privilege, Sir Fletclier Norton, 
 with his usual prostituted effrontery, assured the house o( 
 commons, that he should regard one of their votes no more 
 than a resolution of so many drunken porters. This is 
 the very lawyer whom Ben Jonson describes in the follow- 
 ing lines : 
 
 " Gives forked counsel ; takes provoking gold 
 On either hand, and puts it up. 
 So wise, so grave, of so perplex'd a tongue, 
 And loud witlial, that would not wag, nor scarce 
 Lie still, without; a /ee."
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 35 
 
 But it soon appeared that they had aH-eady taken 
 their part, and were determined to support the house 
 of commons, not only at the expense of truth and 
 decency, but even by a surrender of their own most 
 important rights. Instead of performing that duty 
 wliich the constitution expected from them, in return 
 for the dignity and independence of their station, in 
 return for the hereditary share it has given them in 
 the legislature, the majority of them made common 
 cause with the other house in oppressing the people, 
 and established another doctrine as false in itself, and, 
 if possible, more pernicious to the constitution, than 
 that on which the Middlesex election was determined. 
 By resolving, " that they had no right to impeach a 
 judgment of the house of commons, in any case 
 whatsoever, where that house has a competent juris- 
 diction," they, in effect, gave up that constitutional 
 check and reciprocal control of one branch of the 
 legislature over the other, which is, perhaps, the 
 greatest and most important object provided for by 
 the division of the whole legislative power into three 
 estates : and now let the judicial decisions of the 
 house of commons be ever so extravagant, let their 
 declarations of the law be ever so flagrantly false, 
 arbitrary, and oppressive to the subject, the house oi 
 lords have imposed a slavish silence upon themselves; 
 they cannot interpose ; they cannot protect the sub- 
 ject ; they cannot defend the laws of their country. 
 A concession so extraordinary in itself, so contradic- 
 tory to the principles of their own institution, cannot 
 but alarm the most unsuspecting mind. We may 
 well conclude that the lords would hardly have yielded 
 50 much to the other house without the certainty of a
 
 36 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 compensation, which can only be made to tlien; .t 
 the expense of the people.* The arbitrary power 
 they have assumed, of imposing fines, and commit- 
 ling during pleasure, will now be exercised in its full 
 extent. The house of commons are too much In 
 their debt to question or interrupt their proceedings. 
 The crown too, we may be well assured, will lose 
 nothing in this new distribution of power. After de- 
 claring, that, to petition for a dissolution of parlia- 
 ment is irreconcilable with the principles of the con- 
 stitution, his majesty has reason to expect that some 
 extraordinary compliment will be returned to the 
 royal prerogative. The three branches cf the legis- 
 lature seem to treat their separate rights and interests 
 as the Roman triumvirs did their friends 5 they reci- 
 procally sacrifice them to the animosities of each 
 other ; and establish a detestable union among them- 
 selves, upon the ruin of the laws and liberty of the 
 commonwealth. Through the whole proceedings o 
 the house of commons, in this session, there is an 
 apparent, a palpable consciousness of guilt, which 
 has prevented their daring to assert their own dignity, 
 where it has been immediately and grossly attacked. 
 In the course of Dr. Musgrave's examination, he 
 said every thing that can be conceived mortifying to 
 individuals, or offensive to the house. They voted 
 
 * The man, who resists and overcomes this iniquitous 
 power, assumed by the lords, must be supported by the 
 whole people. We have the laws on our side, and want 
 nothing but an mtrepid leader. When such a man stands 
 forth, let the nation look to it. It is not his cause, but our 
 own.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 37 
 
 Ms information frivolous : but they were awed by his 
 firmness and integrity, and sunk under it.* The 
 terms in which the sale of a patent to Mr. Hine were 
 communicated to the public, naturally called for a 
 parliamentary inquiry. The integrity of the house 
 of commons was directly impeached : but they had 
 not courage to move in their own vindication, because 
 the inquiry would have been fatal to colonel Burgoyne 
 and the duke of Grafton. When sir George Saville 
 branded them with- the name of traitors to their con- 
 stituents, when the lord mayor, the sheriffs, and Mr. 
 Trecothick expressly avowed and maintained everjf 
 part of the city remonstrance, why did they tamely 
 submit to be insulted ? Why did they not immedi- 
 ately expel those refractory members ? Conscious of 
 the motives on which they had acted, thej' prudently 
 preferred infamy to danger, and were better prepared 
 to meet the contempt, than to rouse the indignation 
 of the whole people. Had they expelled those five 
 members, the consequences of the new doctrine of 
 incapacitation would have come immediately home to 
 every man. The truth of it would then have been 
 fairly tried, without any reference to Mr. Wilkes's 
 private character, or the dignity of the house, or the 
 obstinacy of one particular county. These topics, I 
 know, have had their weight with men, who, affecting 
 ft character of moderation, in reality consult nothing 
 
 * The examination of this firm, honest man, is printed 
 for Almon. The reader will find it a most curious am! most 
 interesting tract. Doctor Musgrave, with no other support 
 but truth and his own firmness, resisted and overcame the 
 whole house of commons 
 
 i...
 
 38 
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 but tlicir own immediate ease ; who aVe weak enough 
 to acquiesce under a flagrant violation of the laws 
 when it does not directly touch themselves ; and care 
 not what injustice is practised upon a man whose 
 moral character they piously think themselves obliged 
 to condemn. In any other circumstances, the house 
 of commons must have forfeited all credit and dignity, 
 if, after such gross provocation, they had permitted 
 those five gentlemen to sit any longer among them. 
 We should then have seen and felt the operation of a 
 precedent, which is represented to be perfectly barren 
 and harmless. But there is a set of men in this coun- 
 try, whose understandings measure the violation of 
 law by the magnitude of the instance, not by the im- 
 portant consequences which flow directly from the 
 principle ; and the minister, I presume, did not think 
 it safe to quicken their apprehensions too soon. Had 
 Mr. Hampden reasoned and acted like the moderate 
 men of these days, instead of hazarding his whole 
 fortune in a lawsuit with the crown, he would have 
 quietly paid the twenty shillings demanded of h<im ; 
 the Stuart family would probably have continued 
 upon the throne ; and at this moment the imposition 
 of ship-money would have been an acknowledged 
 prerogative of the crown. 
 
 What then has been the business of the session, af- 
 ter voting the supplies, and confirming the determin- 
 ation of the Middlesex election ? The extraordinary 
 prorogation of the Irish parliament, and the just 
 discontents of that kingdom, have been passed by 
 without notice. Neither the general situation of our 
 colonies, nor that particular distress which forced the 
 inhabitants of Boston to take up arms in their de-
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 39 
 
 fence, have been thought worthy of a moment's con- 
 sideration. In the repeal of those acts which were 
 most offensive to America, the parliament have done 
 every thing but remove the offence. They have re- 
 linquished the revenue, but judiciously taken care to 
 preserve the contention. It is not pretended that the 
 continuation of the tea-duty is to produce any direct 
 benefit whatsoever to the mother country. What is 
 it then, but an odious, unprofitable exertion of a 
 speculative right, and fixing a badge of slavery upon 
 the Americans, without service to their masters ? Bu; 
 it has pleased God to give us a ministry and a par- 
 liament, who are neither to be persuaded by argu- 
 ment, nor instructed by experience. 
 
 Lord North, I presume, will not claim an extra- 
 ordinarj' merit from any thing he has done this year, 
 in the improvement or application of the revenue. 
 A great operation, directed to an important object, 
 though it should fail of success, marks the geniusj 
 and elevates the character of a minister. A poor 
 contracted understanding deals in little schemes, 
 which dishonour him if they fail, and do him no 
 credit when they succeed. Lord North had fortu- 
 nately the means in his possession of reducing all the 
 four per cents, at once. The failure of his first en- 
 terprise in finance is not half so disgraceful to his re- 
 Dutation as a minister, as the enterprise itself is in- 
 jurious to the public. Instead of striking one deci- 
 sive blow, which would have cleared the market at 
 once, upon terms proportioned to the price of the 
 four per cents, six weeks ago, he has tampered with 
 a pitiful portion of a commodity which ought never 
 to have been touched but in gross He lias given
 
 40 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 notice to the holders of that stock, of a design formed 
 by government to prevail upon them to surrender it 
 b^ degrees, consequently has warned them to hold 
 up and enhance the price : so that the plan of redu- 
 cing the four per cents, must either be dropped en- 
 tirely, or continued vvith an increasing disadvantage 
 to the public. The minister's sagacity has served to 
 raise the value of the thing he means to purchase, and 
 to sink that of the three per cents, which it is his pur- 
 pose to sell. In effect, he has contrived to make it 
 the interest of the proprietor of the four per cents, to 
 sell out, and buy tin'ee per cents, in the market, ra- 
 ther than subscribe his stock upon any terms that can 
 possibly be offered by government. 
 
 The state of the nation leads us naturally to con- 
 sider the situation of the king. The prorogation of 
 parliament has the effect of a temporary dissolution. 
 The odium of measures adopted by the collective bo- 
 dy sits lightly upon the separate members who com- 
 posed it. They retire into summer quarters, and rest 
 from the disgraceful labours of the campaign. But 
 as for the sovereign, it is not so xvith him : he has a 
 permanent existence in this country ; he cannot with- 
 draw himself from the complaints, the discontents, 
 the reproaches of his subjects. They pursue him to 
 his retirement, and invade his domestic happiness, 
 when no address can be obtained from an obsequious 
 parliament to encourage or console him. In other 
 times, the interest of the king and the people of 
 England was, as it ought to be, entirely the same. A 
 new system has not only been adopted in fact, but 
 professed upon principle. Ministers are no longer the 
 public servants of the state, but the private domestics
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 41 
 
 of the sovereign. One* particolar class of men are 
 permitted to call themselves the king's friends, as if 
 the body of the people were the king's enemies ; or, 
 as if his majesty looked for a resource or consolation 
 in the attachment of a few favourites, against the 
 general contempt and detestation of his subjects. 
 Edward and Richard the Second made the same dis- 
 tinction between the collective body of the people, 
 and a contemptible party, who surrounded the throne. 
 The event of their mistaken conduct might have been 
 a warning to their successors. Yet the errors of those 
 princes were not without excuse. They had as many 
 false friends as our present gracious sovereign, and 
 infinitely greater temptations to seduce them. They 
 were neither sober, religious, nor demure. Intoxi- 
 cated with pleasure, they wasted their inheritance in 
 pursuit of it. Their lives were like a rapid torrent, 
 brilliant in prospect, though useless or dangerous in 
 its course. In the dull unanimated existence of other 
 princes, we see nothing but a sickly stagnant water, 
 which taints the atmosphere, without fertilising the 
 soil. The morality of a king is not to be measured 
 by vulgar rules. His situation is singular : there are 
 faults which do him honour, and virtues that disgrace 
 him. A faultless, insipid equality in his character, is 
 neither capable of virtue or vice in the extreme ; but 
 it secures his submission to those persons whom he 
 
 • " An ignorant, mercenary, and servile crew ; unani- 
 mous in evil, diligent in mischief, variable in principles, con- 
 stant to flattery, talkers for liberty, but slaves to power: 
 styling themselves the court party, and the prince's only 
 friends." Davenant
 
 42 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 has been accustomed to respect, and makes him a 
 dangerous instrument of their ambition. Secluded 
 from the world, attached from his infancy to one set 
 of persons and one set of ideas, he can neither open 
 his heart to new connexions, nor his mind to better 
 information. A character of this sort is the soil fit- 
 test to produce that obstinate bigotry in politics and 
 religion, which begins with a meritorious sacrifice of 
 the understanding, and finally conducts the monarch 
 and the martyr to the block. At any other period, I 
 doubt not, the scandalous disorders which have been 
 introduced into the government of all the dependen- 
 cies in the empire, would have roused the attention of 
 the public. The odious abuse and prostitution of the 
 prerogative at home ; the unconstitutional employ- 
 ment of the military ; the arbitrary fines and com- 
 mitments by the house of lords and court of king's 
 bench 5 the mercy of a chaste and pious prince ex- 
 tended cheerfully to a wilful murderer, because that 
 murderer is the brother of a common prostitute ;* 
 would, I think, at any other time, have excited uni- 
 versal indignation. But the daring attack upon the 
 constitution, in the Middlesex election, makes us cal- 
 lous and indifferent to inferior grievances. No man 
 regards an eruption upon the surface, when the noble 
 parts are invaded, and he feels a mortification ap- 
 proaching to his heart. The free election of our re- 
 presentatives in parliament comprehends, because it 
 is, the source and security of every right and privi- 
 lege of the English nation. The ministry have re- 
 alised the ;ompendious ideas of Caligula. They 
 
 * Miss Kennedy.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 43 
 
 know that the liberty, the laws, and pioperty of an 
 Englishman, have, in truth, but one neck, and that 
 to violate the freedom of election, strikes deeply at 
 them all 
 
 JUNIUS. 
 
 XL. 
 
 To Lord North. 
 
 MY LORD, August 22, 1770. 
 
 Mr. Luttrell's services were the chief support and 
 ornament of the duke of Grafton's administration. 
 The honour of rewarding them was reserved for your 
 lordship. The duke, it seems, had contracted an 
 obligation he was ashamed to acknowledge, and una- 
 ble to acquit. You, my lord, had no scruples. You 
 accepted the succession with all its encumbrances, and 
 have paid Mr. Luttrell his legacy, at the hazard of 
 ruining the estate. 
 
 When this accomplished youth declared himself the 
 champion of government, the world was busy, in- 
 quiring what honours or emoluments could be a suf- 
 ficient recompense to a young man of his rank and 
 fortune, for submitting to mark nis entrance into life 
 with the universal contempt and detestation of his 
 country. His noble father had not been so precipi- 
 tate. To vacate his seat in parliament ; to intrude 
 upon a county in which he had no interest or con- 
 nexion ; to possess himself of another man's right, 
 and to maintain it in defiance of public shame, as
 
 44 JUNIUS'S r.ETTERS. 
 
 well as justice, bespoke a degree of zeal or of depravi- 
 ty, which all the favour of a pious prince could hard- 
 ly requite^ I protest, my lord, there is in this young 
 man's conduct a strain of prostitution, which, for its 
 singularity, I cannot but admire. He has discovered 
 a new line in the human character ; he has degraded 
 even the name of Luttrell, and gratified his father's 
 most sanguine expectations. 
 
 The duke of Grafton, with every possible disposi- 
 tion to patronize this kind of merit, was contented 
 with pronouncing colonel Luttrell's panegyric. The 
 gallant spirit, the disinterested zeal of the young ad- 
 venturer, were echoed through the house of lords. 
 His grace repeatedly pledged himself to the house, 
 as an evidence of the purity of his friend Mr. Lut- 
 trell's intentions, that he had engaged without any 
 prospect of personal benefit, and that the idea of 
 compensation would mortally offend him.* The no- 
 ble duke could hardly be in earnest ; but he had late- 
 ly quilted his employment, and began to think it ne- 
 cessary to take some care of his reputation. At that 
 very moment the Irish negotiation was probably be- 
 gun. Come forward, thou worthy representative of 
 lord Bute, and tell this insulted country, who advised 
 the king to appoint Mr. Luttrell adjutant-general to 
 the army in Ireland. By what management was 
 colonel Cunninghame prevailed on to resign his em- 
 ployment, and the obsequious Gisborne to accept of 
 a pension for the government of Kinsale .''f Was it 
 
 * He now says that his great object is the rank of colo- 
 nel, and that he will have it. 
 
 t Thb infamous transaction ought t:' be explained to the
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 45 
 
 an original stipulation with the princess of Wales ; or 
 does he owe his preferment to your lordship's par- 
 tiality, or to the duke of Bedford's friendship ? My 
 lord, though it may not be possible to trace this mea- 
 sure to its source, we can follow the stream, and 
 warn the country of its approaching destruction. 
 The English nation must be roused, and put upon 
 its guard. Mr. Luttrell has already shown us how 
 far he may be trusted, whenever an open attack is to 
 be made upon the liberties of this country. I do not 
 doubt that there is a deliberate plan formed. Your 
 lordship best knows by whom. The corruption of 
 the legislative body on this side, a military force on 
 the other, and then, fareivell to England! It is im- 
 possible that any minister shall dare to advise the 
 king to place such a man as Luttrell in the confiden- 
 tial post of adjutant-general, if there were not sosne 
 secret purpose in view, which only such a man as 
 Luttrell is fit to promote. The insult offered to the 
 iriny in general is as gross as the outrage intrn.Ie;! 
 
 public. Colonel Gisborne was quarter-master-goiioral lu 
 Ireland. Lord Townshend persuaded him to resign to a 
 Scotch officer, one Frazer, and gives him the governiiicnt 
 of Kinsale. Colonel Cunninghame was arijutant-gcnoral in 
 Ireland. I^ord Townshend offers him a pension, to indiirp 
 him to resign to Luttrell. Cunninghame treats the ofler 
 with contempt. What's to be done ? Poor Gisborne must 
 move once more. He accepts of a pension of 500/. a year, 
 until a government of greater value shall become vacant. 
 Colonel Cunninghame is made governor of Kinsale; and 
 Luttrell, at last, for whom the whole machinery is put in 
 motion, becomes adjutant-general, and, in eff<!Ct, takes 
 the command of the army in Ireland.
 
 46 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 to the people of England. What ! lieutenant-colo- 
 nel Luttrell adjutant-general of an army of sixteen 
 thousand men ! One would think his majesty's cam- 
 paigns at Blackheath and Wimbledon might have 
 taught him better- 1 cannot help wishing general 
 Harvey joy of a colleague who does so much honour 
 to the employment. But, my lord, this measure is 
 too daring to pass unnoticed, too dangerous to be 
 received with indiiference or submission. You shall 
 not have time to new model the Irish army. They 
 will not submit to be garbled by colonel Luttrell. As 
 a mischief to the English constitution, (for he is not 
 worth the name of enemy) they already detest him. 
 As a boy, impudently thrust over their heads, they 
 will receive him with indignation and contempt. As 
 for you, my lord, who, perhaps, are no more than 
 the blind, unhappy instrument of lord Bute and her 
 royal highness the princess of Wales, be assured, that 
 you shall be called upon to answer for the advice 
 which has been given, and either discover your ac- 
 complices, or fall a sacrifice to their security. 
 
 ...> JUNIUS. 
 
 xu. 
 
 To the Right Honourable Lord Mansfield. 
 
 MY LORD, November 14, 1770. 
 
 The appearance of this letter will attract the cu- 
 riosity of the public, and command even your lord- 
 ship's attention. I am considerably in your debt, and
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 47 
 
 shall endeavour, once for all, to balance the account. 
 Accept of this address, my lord, as a prologue to 
 more important scenes, in which you will probably 
 be called upon to act or sufler. 
 
 You will not question my veracity, when I assure 
 you, that it has not been owing to any particular re- 
 spect for your person that I have abstained from you 
 so long. Besides the distress and danger with which 
 the press is threatened, when your lordship is party, 
 and the party is to be judge, 1 confess I have been 
 deterred by die difficulty of the task. Our language 
 has no term of reproach, the mind has no idea of de- 
 testation, which has not already been happily applied 
 to you, and exhausted. Ample justice has been done, 
 by abler pens than mine, to the separate merits of 
 your life and character. Let it be my humble office 
 to collect the scattered sweets till their united virtue 
 tortures the sense. 
 
 Permit me to begin with paying a just tribute to 
 Scotch sincerity, wherever I find it. I own I am not 
 apt to confide in the professions of gentlemen of that 
 country ; and, when they smile, I feel an involunta- 
 ry emotion to guard myself against mischief With 
 this general opinion of an ancient nation, I always 
 thought it much to your lordship's honour, that, in 
 your earlier days, you were but little infected with 
 the prudence of your country. You had some origi- 
 nal attachments, which you took every proper oppor- 
 tunity to acknowledge. The liberal spirit of youth 
 prevailed over your native discretion. Your zeal in 
 the cause of an unhappy prince was expressed with 
 the sincerity of wine, and some of the solemnities of
 
 48 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 religion.* This, I conceive, is the most amiable 
 point of view in which your character has appeared. 
 Like an honest man, you took that part in politics, 
 which might have been expected from your birth, 
 education, country, and connexions. There was 
 something generous in your attachment to the ban- 
 ished house of Stuart. We lament the mistakes of a 
 good n)an, and do not begin to detest him until he 
 affects to renounce his principles. Why did you not 
 adhere to ihat loyalty you once professed ? Why did 
 you not follow the example of your worthy brother ,''1^ 
 With him you might have shared in the honour of the 
 pretender's confidence ; with him you might have 
 preserved the integrity of } our character ; and Eng- 
 land, 1 think, might have spared you witliout regret, 
 lour friends will say, perhaps, tliat, although you 
 deserted the fortune of your liege lord, you have ad- 
 iiered firmly to the principles which drove his father 
 from the throne ; that, without openly supporting the 
 person, 3'ou have done essential service to the cause ; 
 and consoled yourself for tiie loss of a favourite fami- 
 ly, by reviving and establishing the maxims of their 
 government. This is the way in which a Scotch- 
 man's understanding corrects the errors of his heart. 
 My lord, I acknowledge the truth of the defence, and 
 can trace it through all your conduct. I see through 
 your whole life one uniform plan to enlarge the pow- 
 
 * This man was always a rank Jacobite. Lord Ravens- 
 worth produced the most satisfactory evidence of his having 
 frequently drank the pretender's health on his knees. 
 
 t Confidential secretary to the late pretender This cir- 
 sia:icp '■ '^Mfii-med the friendship between the brothers.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 49 
 
 er of the crown, at the expense of the liberty of the 
 subject. To this object jour thoughts, words, and 
 actions, have been constantly directed. In contempt 
 or ignorance of the common law of England, you 
 have made it your study to introduce into the court 
 where you preside, maxims of jurisprudence un- 
 known to Englishmen. The Roman code, the law 
 of nations, and the opinion of foreign civilians, are 
 your perpetual theme ; but whoever heard you men- 
 tion Magna Charta, or the Bill of Rights, with ap- 
 probation or respect .'* By such treacherous arts the 
 noble simplicit}' and free spirit of our Saxon laws 
 were first corrupted. The Norman conquest was not 
 complete, until Norman lawyers had introduced their 
 laws, and reduced slavery to a system. This one 
 leading principle directs your interpretation of the 
 laws, and accounts for your treatment of juries. It is 
 not in political questions only (for there the courtier 
 might be forgiven,) but let the cause be what it may, 
 your understanding is equally on the rack, either to 
 contract the power of the jury, or to mislead their 
 judgment. For the truth of this assertion, I appeal to 
 the doctrine you delivered in lord Grosvenor's cause. 
 An action for criminal conversation being brought by 
 a peer against a prince of the blood, you were daring 
 enough to tell the jury, that, in fixing the damages, 
 they were to pay no regard to the quality or fortune 
 of the parties : that it was a trial between A and B , 
 that they were to consider the offence in a moral light 
 only, and give no greater damages to a peer of the 
 realm, than to the meanest mechanic. I shall not 
 attempt to refute a doctrine, which if it was meant for 
 raw, carries falsehood and absurd'ty upon the face ol 
 
 VOL. II. C 4
 
 50 JUNItS'S LETTERS. 
 
 it ; but, if it was meant for a declaration of your po 
 Htical creed, is clear and consistent. Under an arbi- 
 trary goverinnent, all ranks and distinctions are con- 
 founded : the honour of a nobleman is no more con- 
 sidered than the reputation of a peasant; for, with 
 different liveries, they are equally slaves. 
 
 Even in matters of private property, we see the 
 same bias and inclination to depart from the decisions 
 of your predecessors, which you certainly ongiit to 
 receive as evidence of the common law. Instead ol 
 those certain positive rules by vvhicii the judgment ol 
 a court of law should invariably be determined, you 
 have fondly introduced your own unsettled notions 
 of equity and substantial justice. Decisions given 
 upon such principles do not alarm the public so much 
 as they ought, because the consequence and tendency 
 of each particular instance is not observed or re- 
 garded. In the mean time, the practice gains ground ; 
 the court of king's bench becomes a court of equity ; 
 and the judge, instead of consulting strictly the law of 
 the land, refers only to the wisdom of the court, and 
 to the purity of his own conscience. The name of 
 Mr. Justice Yates will naturally revive in your mind 
 some of those emotions of fear and detestation with 
 which you always beheld him. That great lawyer, 
 that honest man, saw your whole conduct in the light 
 that I do. After years of ineffectual resistance to the 
 pernicious principles introduced by your lordship, and 
 uniformly supported by your humble friends upon the 
 bench, he determined to quit a court, whose proceed- 
 ings and decisions he could neither assent to with 
 honour, nor oppose with success.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 51 
 
 The injustice done to an individual* is sometimes 
 of service to the public. Facts are apt to alarm us 
 more than the most dangerous principles. The suf- 
 ferings and firmness of a printer have roused the 
 public attention. You knew and felt that your con- 
 duct would not bear a parliamentary inquiry j and 
 you hoped to escape it by the meanest, the basest 
 sacrifice of dignity and consistency that ever was 
 made by a great magistrate. Where was your firm- 
 ness, where was that vindictive spirit, of which we 
 have seen so many examples, when a man so incon- 
 siderable as Bingley could force you to confess, in 
 the face of this country, that, for two years together, 
 you had Illegally deprived an English subject of his 
 /ibert}', and that he had triumphed over you at last ? 
 Yet, I own, my lord, thai yours is not an uncom- 
 mon character. Women, and men like women, are 
 timid, vindictive, and irresolute. Their passions 
 counteract each other, and make the same creature 
 at one moment hateful, at another contemptible. I 
 fancy, my lord, some tiuie will elapse before you 
 venture to commit another Englishman for refusing 
 to answer interrogatories. t 
 
 * The oppression of an obscure individual gave birtli to 
 the famous Habeas Corpus Act of 31 Car. II. which is 
 frequfMitly considered as another Magna Charta of this 
 kingdom. lUackstone, iii. 135. 
 
 t Dingley was committed for contempt, in not subiiiiiting 
 to be examined. He lay in prison two years, until tiie 
 crown thought the matter might occasion some serious com- 
 plaint, and therefore he was let out, in the same contume- 
 lious state he had beep put in, with all his s'^ s about him,
 
 52 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 The tloctrine you have constantly delivered, in 
 cases of libel, is another powerful evidence of a set- 
 tled plan to contract the legal power of juries, and 
 to draw questions, inseparable from fact, within the 
 arhitrium of the court. Here, my lord, you have 
 fortune on your side. When you invade the pro 
 vince of the jury, in matter of libel, you, in effect 
 attack the liberty of the press, and, with a single 
 stroke, wound two of your greatest enemies. In some 
 instances you have succeeded, because jurymen are 
 too often ignorant of their own rights, and too apt 
 to be awed by the authority of a chief justice. In 
 other criminal prosecutions, the malice of the design 
 is confessedly as much the subject of consideration to 
 a jury as the certainty of the fact. If a different 
 doctrine prevails in the case of libels, why should it 
 not extend to all criminal cases ^ Why not to capi- 
 tal offences ^ I see no reason (and I dare say you 
 will agree with me, that there is no good one) wjiy 
 the life of the subject should be better protected 
 against you, than his liberty or property. Why 
 should you enjoy the full power of pillory, fine, and 
 imprisonment, and not be indulged with hanging or 
 transportation .'' With your lordship's fertile genius 
 and merciful disposition, I can conceive such an ex- 
 ercise of the power you have, as could hardly be ag- 
 gravated by that which you have not. 
 
 But, my lord, since you have laboured (and not 
 
 unanointed and unanealed. There was much coquetry be- 
 tween the ccurt and the attorney general, about who should 
 undergo the ridicule of letting him escape. — Vide another 
 Letter to Alnion, p. 189.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 53 
 
 unsuccessfully) to destroy the substance of the trial, 
 why should you suffer the form of the verdict to re- 
 main ? Why force twelve honest men, in palpable 
 violation of their oaths, to pronounce their fellow- 
 subject a guilty man, when, almost at the same mo- 
 ment, you forbid their inquiring into the only cir- 
 cum.stance which, in the eye of law and reason, con- 
 stitutes guilt — the malignity or innocence of his in- 
 tentions ? But I understand your lordship. If you 
 could succeed in making the trial by jury useless and 
 ridiculous, you might then, with greater safety, in- 
 troduce a bill into parliament for enlarging the ju- 
 risdiction of the court, and extending your favourite 
 trial by interrogatories to every question in which the 
 life or liberty of an Englishman is concerned.* 
 
 "Your charge to the jury, in the prosecution against 
 Almon and Woodfall, contradicts the highest legal 
 authorities, as well as the plainest dictates of reason. 
 In Miller's cause, and still more expressly in tiiat of 
 Baldwin, you have proceeded a step farther, and 
 
 * The philosophical poet doth notably describe the dam- 
 nable and damned proceedings of the judge of hell. 
 
 ' GnossJus hsec Rhadamanthus habet durissima regna, 
 Castigatque, auditque doles, subigitque fateri.' 
 
 First he punisheth, and then he heareth, and lastly com- 
 pelleth to confess, and makes and mars laws at his pleasure; 
 like as the centurion, in the holy history, did to St. Paul j 
 for the text saith, ' Centurio apprchendi Paulum jussit, el 
 se catenis alligari, ct tunc intcrroirahal (jiiis fuissot, et quid 
 fecisset.' But good judges and Justices abhor these courses. 
 Coke, 2 Imt. 53.
 
 54 JUMUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 grossly contradicted yourself. You itiay know, per- 
 haps, tiiough I do not mean to insult you by an ap- 
 peal to your experience, that the language of truth is 
 uniform and consistent. To depart from it safelj', 
 requires memory and discretion. In the last two 
 trials, your charge to the jury begaU; as usual, with 
 assuring them, that they had nothing to do with the 
 law ; that they were to find the bare fact, and not 
 concern themselves about the legal inferences drawn 
 from it, or the degree of the defendant's guilt. Thus 
 far you were consistent with your former practice. 
 But how will you account for the conclusion ':' You 
 told the jury, that " if, after all, they would take 
 upon themselves to determine the law, they might do 
 it, but tiiey must be very sure that they determined 
 according to law ; for it touched their consciences, 
 and they acted at their peril." If I understand your 
 first proposition, you mean to affirm, that the jury 
 were not competent judges of the law in the criminal 
 case of a libel; that it did not fall within Mc?V juris- 
 diction ; and that with respect to them, the malice or 
 innocence of the defendant's intentions would be a 
 question coram non jiidice. But the second proposi- 
 tion clears away your own difficulties, and restores the 
 jury to all their judicial capacities.* You make the 
 competence of the court to depend upon the legality 
 
 * Directly the reverse of the doctrine he constantly 
 maintained in the house of lords, and elsewhere, upon the 
 decision of the Middlesex election. He invariably asserted, 
 that the decision must be legal because the court was com- 
 petent ; and never could be prevailed on to enter farther 
 into tne question.
 
 JUNIUS'S lETTERS. 55 
 
 of the decision. In the first instance, you deny the 
 power absolutely: in the second, you admit the power, 
 provided it be legally exercised. Now, my lord, 
 without pretending to reconcile the distinctions of 
 Westminster-hall with the simple information of com- 
 mon sense, or the integrity of fair argument, I shall 
 be understood by your lordship, when I assert, that, 
 if a jury, or any other court of judicature, (for jurors 
 are judges) have no right to enter into a cause or 
 question of law, it signifies nothing whether their 
 decisions be or be not according to law , Their de- 
 cision is, in itself, a mere nullity ; the parties are not 
 bound to submit to it; and, if the jury run any risk 
 of punishment, it is not for pronouncing a corrupt or 
 illegal verdict, but for the illegality of meddling with 
 a point on which they have no legal authority to 
 decide.* 
 
 I cannot quit this subject without reminding your 
 lordship of the name of Mr. Benson. Without offer- 
 ing any legal objection, you ordered a special jury- 
 man to be set aside, in a cause where the king was 
 prosecutor. The novelty of the fact required expla- 
 nation. Will you condescend to tell the world by 
 what law or custom you were authorised to make a 
 
 * These iniquitous prosecutions cost the best of princes 
 SIX thousand pounds, and ended in the total defeat and 
 disgrace of the prosecutors. In the course of one of them, 
 judge Aston had the unparalleled impudence to tell Mr. 
 Morri«, a gentleman of unquestionable hoiour and integri- 
 ty, and who was then giving his evidence on oath, that he 
 should pay very little regard to am affidavit he should 
 make.
 
 56 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 peremptory challenge of a juryman ?~ The parties, 
 indeed, have this power ; and, perhaps, your lord- 
 slap, having accustomed yourself to unite the ciiarac- 
 ters of judge and party, may claim it in virtue of the 
 new capacity you have assumed, and profit by your 
 own wrong. Tlie time witliin which you might iiave 
 been punished for this daring attempt to pack a jury, 
 is, I fear, elapsed ; but no lengtii of time shall erase 
 the record of it. 
 
 The mischiefs you have done tiiis country are not 
 confined to your interpretation of the laws. You are 
 a minister, my lord ; and, as such, have long been 
 consulted. Let us candidly examine what use you 
 have made of your ministerial influence. I will not 
 descend to little matters, but come at once to those 
 important points on which your resolution was waited 
 for, on which the expectation of your opinion kept 
 a great part of the nation in suspense. A constitu- 
 tional question arises upon a declaration of tlie law 
 of parliament, by which the freedom of election, and 
 he birthright of the subject, were supposed to have 
 oeen invaded. The king's servants are accused of 
 violating the constitution. The nation is in a fer- 
 ment. The ablest men of all parties engage in tlu 
 question, and exert their utmost abilities in the dis- 
 cussion of it. What part has the honest lord ^Mans- 
 field acted ."* As an eminent judge of the law, his 
 opinion would have been respected. As a peer, he 
 had a right to demand an audience of his sovereign, 
 and inform him, that his ministers were pursuing un- 
 constitutional measures. Upon other occasions, my 
 lord, 3'ou have no difficulty in finding your way into 
 the closet. The pretended neutrality of belonging
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 57 
 
 to uo party will not save your reputation. In a ques- 
 tion merely political, an honest man may stand 
 neuter. But the laws and constitution are the gene- 
 ral property of the subject: not to defend, is to re- 
 linquish : and who is there so senseless as to renounce 
 his share in a common benefit, unless he hopes to 
 profit by a new division of the spoil ? As a lord of 
 parliament, you were repeatedly called upon to con- 
 demn or defend the new law declared by the house of 
 commons. You affected to have scruples, and every 
 expedient was attempted to remove them. The ques- 
 tion was proposed and urged to you in a thousand 
 different shapes. Your prudence still supplied you 
 with evasion; your resolution was invincible. For 
 my own part, I am not anxious to penetrate this 
 solemn secret. I care not to whose wisdom it is en- 
 trusted, nor how soon you carry it with you to the 
 grave.* You have betrayed your opinion b}' the 
 very care you have taken to conceal it. It is luu 
 from lord Mansfield that we expect any reserve in 
 declaring his real sentiments in favour of government, 
 or in opposition (o the people ; nor is it difficult to 
 account for the motions of a timid, dishonest heart, 
 which neither has virtue enough to acknowledge 
 truth, or courage to contradict it. Yet you contiiuic 
 to support an administration which you know is uni- 
 versally odious, and which, on some occasions, you 
 yourself speak of with contempt. You would fain 
 
 ♦ lie said, in the house of lords, that he believed he 
 should can-y his opinion with him to the grave. It was 
 afterwards reported, that he had entrusted it in special con 
 fidence to the ingenuous duke of Cumberland. 
 C 2
 
 58 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 be tliought to take no share in government, while, in 
 realit}', you are the main spring of the machine 
 Here, too, we trace the little, prudential policy of a 
 Scotchman. Instead of acting that open, generous 
 part which becomes your rank and station, you mean- 
 ly sculk into the closet, and give your sovereign such 
 advice as you have not spirit to avow or defend. 
 You secretly engross the power, while you decline 
 the title of a minister, and though you dare not be 
 chancellor, you know how to secure the emoluments 
 of the office. Are the seals to be for ever in commis- 
 sion, that you may enjoy five thousand pounds a 
 year.'* I beg pardon, ray lord; your fears have in- 
 terposed at last, and forced you to resign. The 
 odium of continuing speaker of the house of lords, 
 upon such terms, was too formidable to be resisted. 
 What a multitude of bad passions are forced to sub- 
 mit to a constitutional infirmity ! But though you 
 have relinquished the salary, you still assume the 
 rights of a minister. Your conduct, it seems, must 
 be defended in parliament. For what other purpose 
 is your wretched friend, that miserable Serjeant, posted 
 to the house of commons ? Is it in the abilities of a 
 Mr. Leigh to defend the great lord Mansfield ? Or is 
 he only the punch of the puppet-show, to speak as he is 
 prompted by the chief juggler behind the curlain ?* 
 In public affairs, my lord, cunning, let it be ever so 
 well wrought, will not conduct a man honourably 
 through life. Like bad money, it may be current for 
 
 * This paragraph gagged poor Leigh. 1 am really con- 
 cerned for the man, and wish it were possible to open his 
 mouth. H^ is a very pretty orator.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 59 
 
 a time, but it will soon be cried down. It caniiot 
 consist with a liberal spirit, though it be sometimes 
 united with extraordinary quali^cations. When I 
 acknowledge your abilities, you may believe I am 
 sincere. I feel for human nature, when I see a man, 
 so gifted as you are, descend to such vile practices. 
 Yet do not suffer your vanity to console you too soon. 
 Believe me, my good lord, you are not admired in 
 the same degree in which you are aetested. It is 
 only the partiality of your friends that balances the 
 defects of your heart with the superiority of your un- 
 derstanding. No learned man, even among your 
 own tribe, thinks you qualified to preside in a court 
 of common law : yet it is confessed, that, under Jus- 
 tinian, you might have made an incomparable prmtor. 
 It is remarkable enough, but I hope not ominous, that 
 the laws you understand best, and the judges you affect 
 to admire most, flourished in the decline of a great 
 empire, and are supposed to have contributed to its fall. 
 Here, my lord, it may be proper for us to pause 
 together. It is not for my own sake that I wish you 
 to* consider the delicacy of your situation. Beware 
 how you indulge the first emotions of your resent- 
 ment. This paper is delivered to the world, and can- 
 not be recalled. The prosecution of an '-nnocent print 
 er c.innot alter facts, nor refute arguments. Do not 
 furnish me with firtlier materials against yourself. 
 An honest man, like the true rcliginn, appeals to the 
 iinderstanding. or mndestly confide s in the internal 
 evidence of his conscience. The impostor employs 
 force instead of argument, imposes silence where he 
 cannot convince, and propagates his cliaracter by the 
 sword. JUNIUS.
 
 60 JIJNIUS'S LETTERS 
 
 XLIL 
 
 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser 
 
 SIR, January 30, 1771 
 
 If we recollect in what manner the king^s friends 
 have been constantly employed, we shall have no rea- 
 son to be surprised at any condition of disgrace to 
 whicli the once respected name of Englishmen may 
 be degraded. His majesty has no cares, but such as 
 concern the laws and constitution of this country. 
 In his royal breast there is no room left for resent- 
 ment, no place for hostile sentiments against the 
 natural enemies of his crown. The system of govern- 
 ment is uniform : violence and oppression at home 
 can only be supported by treachery and submission 
 abroad. When the civil rights of the people are 
 daringly invaded on one side, what have we to ex- 
 pect, but that their political rights should be deserted 
 and betrayed, in the same proportion, on the other ? 
 The plan of domestic policy which has been invaria- 
 bly pursued from the moment of his present majesty's 
 accession, engrosses all the attention of his servants. 
 They know that the security of their places depends 
 upon their maintaining, at any hazard, the secret sys- 
 tem of the closet. A foreign war might embarrass 
 an unfavourable event might ruin, the minister, and 
 defeat the deep-laid scheme of policy to which he and 
 his associates owe their employments. Rather than 
 sufi*er the execution of hat scheme to be delayed or
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 61 
 
 interrupted, the king lias been advised to make a 
 public surrender, a solemn sacrifice, in the face of all 
 Europe, not only of the interests of his subjects, but 
 of his own personal reputation, and of the dignity of 
 that crown which his predecessors have worn with 
 honour. These are strong terms, sir, but they arc 
 supported by fact and argument. 
 
 The king of Great Britain has been for some years 
 in possession of an island, to which, as the ministry 
 themselves have repeatedly asserted, the Spaniards 
 had no claim of right. The importance of the place 
 is not in question : if it were, a better judgment might 
 be formed of it, from the opinion of lord Anson and 
 lord Egmont, and from the anxiety of the Spaniards, 
 than from any fallacious insinuations thrown out by 
 men, whose interest it is to undervalue that property 
 which they are determined to relinquish. The pre- 
 tensions of Spain were a subject of negotiation be- 
 tween the two courts. They had been discussed, but 
 not admitted. The king of Spain, in these circum- 
 stances, bids adieu to amitable negotiation, and ap- 
 peals directly to the sword. The expedition against 
 Port Egmont does not appear to have been a sudden, 
 ill-concerted enterprise : it see;n:^ to have been con- 
 ducted not only w«th the usii.i! military precautions, 
 but in all the forms and ceremonies of war. A frigate 
 was first employed, to examine the strength of the 
 place. A message was then sent, demanding imme- 
 diate possession, in tlie Catholic king's name, and 
 ordering our people to depart. At last, a military 
 force appears, and compels the garrison to surrender. 
 A formal capitulation ensues ; and iiis majesty's ship, 
 which might at least have been permitted to bring
 
 62 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 home his troops immediately, is detained in port 
 twenty days, and her rudder forcibly taken away. 
 This train of facts carries no appearance of the rash- 
 ness or violence of a Spanish governor : on the con- 
 trary, the whole plan seems to have been formed and 
 executed, in consequence of deliberate orders, and a 
 regular instruction, from the Spanish court. Mr. 
 Buccarelli is not a pirate, nor has he been treated as 
 such by those who employed him. I feel for the 
 iionour of a gentleman, when I affirm, that our king 
 owes him a signal reparation. Where will the hu- 
 miliation of this country end ? A king of Great Bri- 
 tain, not contented with placing himself upon a level 
 with a Spanish governor, descends so low as to do a 
 notorious injustice to that governor. As a salvo for 
 his own reputation, he has been advised to traduce the 
 character of a brave officer, and to treat him as a 
 common robber, when he knew, with certainty, that 
 Mr. Buccarelli had acted in obedience to his orders, 
 and had done no more than his duty. Thus it hap- 
 pens, in private life, wiilh a man who has no spirit 
 nor sense of honour. One of his equals orders a ser- 
 vant to strike him : instead of returning the blow to 
 the master, his courage is contented with throwing an 
 aspersion, equally false and public, upon the charac- 
 ter of the servant. 
 
 This short recapitulation was necessary to intro- 
 duce the consideration of his majesty's speech of the 
 13th of November, 1770, and the subsequent measures 
 of government. The excessive caution with which 
 the speech was drawn up, had inipressed upon me an 
 early conviction, that no serious resentment was 
 thought of, and that the conclusioi of the business^
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 63 
 
 whenever it l.appeued must, in some degree, be dis- 
 honourable to England. There appears, through 
 the whole speech, a guard and i-cservc in the choice 
 of expression, winch shows how careful the ministry 
 were not to embarrass their future projects by any 
 firm or spirited declaration from the throne. When 
 all hopes of peace are lost, his majesty tells his par- 
 liament, that he is preparing, not for barbarous war, 
 but (with all his mother's softness) /or a different situ- 
 alion. An open hostility, authorised by the Catholic 
 kijig, is called an act of a governor. This act, to 
 avoid the mention of a regular siege and surrender, 
 passes under the piratical description of seizing hy 
 force ; and the thing taken is described, not as a part 
 of the king's territory, or proper dominion, but mere- 
 ly as a possession ; a word expressly chosen in con- 
 tradistinction to, and exclusion of, the ideas of right, 
 and to prepare us for a future surrender both of the 
 right and of the possession. Yet this speech, sir, 
 cautious and equivocal as it is, cannot, by any 
 sophistry, be accommodated to the measures which 
 have since been adopted. It seemed to promise, that, 
 whatever might be given up by secret stipulation, 
 some care would be taken to save appearances to the 
 public. The event siiows us, that to depart, in the 
 minutest article, from the nicety and strictness ot 
 punctilio, is as dangerous to national honour as to 
 female virtue. The woman who admits of one fami- 
 liarity seldom knows where to stop, or what to refuse ; 
 and, when the counsels of a great country give Way 
 in a single instance, when they once are inclined to 
 submission, every step accelerates the rapidity of the 
 descent. The ministry themselves, when they framed
 
 01 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 tlic speed), did not foresee that tliey should ever Ac- 
 cede to such an accommodation as they have since 
 advised their master to accept of. 
 
 The king says, " Tiie honour of my crown, and 
 tiie rights of my people, are deeply affected." The 
 Spaniard, in his reply, says, " I will give you back 
 possession, but I adhere to my claim of prior right, 
 reserving the assertion of it for a more favourable 
 opportunity." 
 
 The spaech says, " 1 made an immediate demand 
 of satisfaction; and, if that fails, I am prepared to do 
 myself justice." This immediate demand must have 
 been sent to Madrid on the 12th of September, or in 
 a few days after. It was certainly refused, or evaded, 
 and the king has not done himself justice. When the 
 first magistrate speaks to the nation, some care should 
 he taken of his apparent veracity. 
 
 The speech proceeds to say, " I shall not discon- 
 tinue my preparations until I have received proper 
 reparation for the injury." If this assurance may be 
 relied on, what an enormous expense is entailed sine 
 die upon this unhappy country ! Restitution of a 
 possession, and reparation of an injury, are as diffe- 
 rent in substance as they are in language. The very 
 act of restitution may contain, as in this instance it 
 palpably does, a shameful aggravation of the injury. 
 A man of spirit does not measure the degree of an 
 injury by the mere positive damage he has sustained; 
 he considers the principle on which it is founded ; he 
 resents the superiority asserted over him ; and re- 
 jects, with indignation, the claim of right which his 
 adversary endeavours to establish, and would force 
 him to acknowledge.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 65 
 
 The motives on whicli the Cathohc king innltes 
 restitution, are, if possible, more insolent aii'l flis- 
 gracefiil to our sovereign, than even the declaratory 
 condition annexed to it. After taking four months 
 to consider whether the expedition was undertaken by 
 his own orders or not, he condescends to disavow the 
 enterprise, and to restore the island ; not from any 
 regard to justice, not from any regard he bears to his 
 Britannic majesty, but merely " from the persuasion 
 in which he is of the pacific sentiments of the king of 
 Great Britain." 
 
 At this rate, if our king had discovered the spirit of 
 a man ; if he had made a peremptory demand of satis- 
 faction, the king of Spain would have given him a 
 peremptory refusal. But why this unseasonable, this 
 ridiculous mention of the king of Great Britain's pa- 
 cific intentions ? Have they ever been in question .'* 
 Was he the aggressor ? Does he attack foreign 
 powers without provocation ? Does he even resist, 
 wlien he is insulted? No. sir : if any ideas of strife 
 or hostility have entered his royal mind, they have a 
 very different direction. The enemies of England 
 have nothing to fear from them. 
 
 After all, sir, to what kind of disavowal has the 
 king of Spain at last consented.'' Supposing it made 
 m proper time, it should have been accompanied with 
 instant restitution; and iflVIr. Buccarelli acted with- 
 out orders, he deserved death. Now, sir, instead of 
 immediate restitution, we have a four months' neL!:o- 
 tiation ; and tlie officer, whose act is disavowed, re- 
 turns to court, and is loaded with honours. 
 
 If the actual situation of Europe be considered, tiie 
 treachery of tlie lying's servants, particularly of lord
 
 66 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 North, who takes the whole upon himself, will appear 
 in the strongest colours of aggravation. Our allies 
 were masters of the Mediterranean. The king ol 
 France's present aversion from war, and the distrac- 
 tion of his affairs, are notorious. He is now in a 
 state of war with his people. In vain did the Catho- 
 lic king solicit him to take part in the quarrel against 
 us. His finances were in the last disorder ; and it 
 was probable that his troops might find suflicient 
 employment at home. In these circumstances, we 
 might have dictated the law to Spain. There are no 
 terms to "which she might not have been compelled to 
 submit. At the worst, a war with Spain alone car- 
 ries the fairest promise of advantage. One good 
 effect, at least, would have been immediate)}' produ- 
 ced by it. The desertion of France would have irri- 
 tated her ally, and, in all probability, have dissolved 
 the family compact. The scene is now fatally changed. 
 The advantage is thrown away. The most favoura- 
 ble opportunity is lost. Hereafter we shall know the 
 vali:'. of it. When the French king is reconciled to 
 his subjects — when Spain has completed her prepa- 
 rations—when the collected strength of the bouse of 
 Bourbon attacks us at once, the king himself will be 
 able to determine upon the wisdom or impudence of 
 his present conduct. As far as the probability of 
 argument extends, we may safely pronounce, that a 
 conjuncture, which threatens the very being of this 
 country, has been wilfully prepared and forwarded b} 
 our own ministry. How far the people may be ani 
 mated to resistance, undeir the present administration, 
 I know not ; but this I know, with certainty, that, 
 under the present administration, or if any thing like
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERb. 67 
 
 it should continue, it is of very little iftoment whether 
 we are a conquered nation or not.* 
 
 Having travelled thus far in the high road of mat- 
 ter of fact, I may now be permitted to wander a little 
 into the field of imagination. Let us banish from our 
 minds the persuasion that these events have really 
 happened in the reign of the best of princes ; let us 
 consider them as nothing more than the materials ol 
 a fable, in which we may conceive the sovereign ol 
 some other country to be concerned. I mean to vio- 
 late all the laws of probability, when I suppose that 
 this imaginary Uing, after having voluntarily dis- 
 graced himself in the eyes of his subjects, might re- 
 turn to a sense of his dishonour; that he might per- 
 ceive the snare laid for him by his ministers, and feel 
 
 * The king's acceptance of the Spanish ambassador's de- 
 claration is drawn up in barbarous French, and signed by 
 the earl of Rochford. This diplomatic lord has spent his 
 life in the study and practice of etiquettes, and is supposed 
 to be a profound master of the ceremonies. I will not in- 
 sult him by any reference to grammar or common sense : if 
 he were even acquainted with the common forms of his of- 
 fice, I should think him as well qualified for it as any man 
 in his majesty's service. The reader is requested to observe 
 lord Rochford's method of authenticating a public instru- 
 ment. — " En foi de quoi, moi soussignd, un des principaux 
 secretaires d'etat S. M. B. ai sign<5 la presente de ma signa- 
 ture ordinaire, et celle fait apposer le cachet de nos armes." 
 In three lines there are no less than seven false concords. 
 Bat the man does not even know the style of his office. If 
 he had known it, he would have said. " Nous, soussigne 
 secretaire d'etat de S. M. B. avons signty" &c.
 
 68 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 a spark of shame kindling in his breast. The part 
 he must then be obliged to act would overwhelm him 
 with confusion. To his parliament he must say, " 1 
 called you together to receive your advice, and have 
 never asked your opinion." — To the merchant, " I 
 have distressed your commerce; I have dragged 
 your seamen out of your ships; I have loaded you 
 with a grievous weight of insurances." — To the land- 
 holder, " I told you war was too probable, when I was 
 determined to submit to any terms of accommodation; 
 I extorted new taxes from you before it was possible 
 they could be wanted, and am now unable to account 
 for the application of them." — To the public cr-editor, 
 " I have delivered up your fortune a prey to foreign- 
 ers, and to the vilest of your fellow subjects." Per- 
 haps, this repenting prince might conclude with one 
 general acknowledgment to them all : " I have in 
 volved every rank of my subjects in anxiety and dis- 
 tress ; and have nothing to offer you, in return, but 
 the certainty of national dishonour, an armed truce, 
 and peace without security." 
 
 If these accounts were settled, there would still 
 remain an apology to be made to his navy and to his 
 army. To the first he would say, " You were once 
 the terror of the world. But go back to your har- 
 bours. A man, dishonoured as I am, has no use for 
 your service." It is not probable that he would ap- 
 pear again before his soldiers, even in the pacific 
 ceremony of a review.* But, wherever he appeared, 
 the humiliating confession would be extorted from 
 
 * A mistake : he appears before tliem every day, with a 
 mark of a blow upon his face. Proh pudor /
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 69 
 
 him, — " I have received a blow, and had not spirit 
 to resent it. I demanded satisfaction, and have ac- 
 cepted a declaration, in which the right to strike me 
 again is asserted and confirmed." His countenance, 
 at least, would speak this language, and even his 
 guards would blush for him. 
 
 But to return to our argument. The ministry, it 
 seems, are labouring to draw a line of distinction be- 
 tween the honour of the crown and the rights of the 
 people. This new idea has yet only been started in 
 discourse ; for, in effect, both objects have been equally 
 sacrificed. I neither understand the distinction, nor 
 what use the ministry propose to make of it. The 
 king's honour is that of his people. Their real hon- 
 our and real interest are the same. I am not con- 
 tending for a vain punctilio. A clear, unblemished 
 character comprehends not only the integrity that 
 tvill not offer, but the spirit that will not submit to an 
 nijury; and, whether it belongs to an individual or 
 to a community, it is the foundation of peace, of in- 
 dependence, and of safety. Private credit is wealth ; 
 public honour is security. The feather that adorns 
 the royal bird supports his flight. Strip him of his 
 plumage, and y®u fix him to the earth. 
 
 JUNIUS.
 
 70 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 XLIII. 
 
 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser. 
 
 SIR, February 6, 1771- 
 
 I hope your correspondent, Junius, is better em- 
 ployed than in answering or reading the criticisms ol 
 a newspaper. This is a task, from which, if he were 
 inclined to submit to it, his friends ought to reUeve 
 him. Upon this principle, I shall undertake to an- 
 swer Anti-Junius, more, I believe, to his conviction, 
 than to his satisfaction. Not daring to attack the 
 main body of Junius's last letter, he triumphs in hav- 
 ing, as he thinks, surprised an out-post, and cut off a 
 detached argument, a mere straggling proposition. 
 But even in this petty warfare he shall find himself 
 defeated. 
 
 Junius does not speak of the Spanish nation as the 
 natural enemies of England; he applies that descrip- 
 tion, with the strictest truth and justice, to the Span- 
 ish court. From the moment when a prince of the 
 house of Bourbon ascended that throne, their whole 
 system of government was inverted, and became hos- 
 tile to this country. Unity of possession introduced 
 a unity of politics ; and Louis the Fourteenth had 
 reason, when he said to his grandson, " The Pyrenees 
 are removed." The history of the present century 
 is one continued confirmation of the prophecy. 
 
 The assertion, " That violence and oppression at 
 home can only be supported by treachery and sub-
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 71 
 
 mission abroad," is applied to a free people, whose 
 rights are in^ aded, not to the government of a coun- 
 try, where despotic or absolute power is confessedly 
 vested in the prince ; and, with this application, the 
 assertion is true. An absolute monarch, having no 
 points to carry at home, will naturally maintain the 
 honour of his crown in all his transactions with 
 foreign powers. But, if we could suppose the sove- 
 reign of a free nation possessed with a design to make 
 himself absolute, he would be inconsistent with him- 
 self, if he suffered his projects to be interrupted or 
 embarrassed by a foreign war, unless that war tended, 
 as in some cases it might, to promote his principal 
 design. Of the three exceptions to this general rule 
 of conduct, (quoted by Anti-Junius,) that of Oliver 
 Cromwell is the only one in point. Harry the Eighth, 
 by the submission of his parliament, was as absolute 
 a prince as Louis the Fourteenth. Queen Elizabeth's 
 government was not oppressive to the people, and as 
 to her foreign wars, it ought to be considered, that 
 they were unavoidable. The national honour was 
 not in question : she was compelled to fight in defence 
 of her own person, and of her title to the crown. In 
 the common cause of selfish policy, Oliver Cromwell 
 should have cultivated the friendship of foreign po-.v- 
 ers, or, at least, have avoided disputes with them, the 
 better to establish his tyranny at home. Had he 
 been only a bad man, he would have sacrificed the 
 honour of the nation to the success of his domestic 
 policy. But, with all his crimes, he had the spirit of 
 an Englishman. The coirduct of such a man must 
 always be an exception to vulgar rules. He had 
 abilities sufficient to reconcile contradictions, and to
 
 72 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 make a great nation, at the same moment, unhappy 
 and formidable. If it were not for the respect I bear 
 the minister, I could name a man, who, without one 
 grain of understanding, can do half as much as 
 Oliver Cromwell. 
 
 Whether or no there be a secret system in the 
 closet, and what may be the object of it, are questions 
 which can only be determined by appearances, and 
 on which every man must decide for himself. 
 
 The whole plan of Junius's letter proves, that he 
 himself makes no distinction between the real honoui 
 of the crown and the real interest of the people. In 
 the climax to which your correspondent objects, Ju- 
 nius adopts the language of the court, and, by that 
 conformity, gives strength to his argument. He says 
 that " the king has not only sacrificed the interest 
 of his people, but (what was likely to touch him more 
 nearly) his personal reputation, and the dignity of his 
 crown." 
 
 The queries put by Anti-Junius can only be an- 
 swered by the ministry. Abandoned as they are, I 
 fancy they will not confess, that they have, for so 
 many years, maintained possession of another man's 
 property. After admitting the assertion of the minis- 
 tiy, viz. " That the Spaniards had no rightful 
 claim," and after justifying them for saying so, it is 
 his I)'.isliiess, not mine, to give us some good reason 
 for tiieir " suffering the pretensions of Spain to be a 
 subject of negotiation." He admits the facts ; let 
 him reconcile them if he can. 
 
 The last paragraph brings us back to the original 
 question. Whether the Spanish declaration contains 
 snch a satisfaction as the king of Great Britain ought
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 73 
 
 to have accepted ? This was the field upon which he 
 ought to have encountered Junius openly and fairly. 
 But here he leaves the argument, as no longer de- 
 fensible. I shall, therefore, conclude with one gen- 
 eral admonition to my fellow subjects ; that, when 
 they hear these matters debated, they should not suf- 
 fer themselves to be misled by general declamations 
 upon the conveniences of peace, or the miseries of 
 war. Between peace and war abstractedly, there is 
 not, there cannot, be a question, in the mind of a 
 rational being. The real questions are, " Have we 
 any security that the peace we have so dearly pur- 
 chased will last a twelvemonth .?" and if not, " Have 
 we, or have we not, sacrificed the fairest opportunity 
 of making war with advantage .'"' 
 
 PHILO JUNIUS. 
 
 XLIV. 
 
 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser. 
 
 SIR, April 22, 1771. 
 
 To write for profit, without taxing the press ; to 
 write for fame, and to be unknown ; to support the 
 intrigues of faction, and to be disowned as a danger- 
 ous auxiliary by every party in the kingdom, are 
 contradictions which the minister must reconcile be- 
 fore I forfeit my credit with the public. 1 may quit 
 the service, but it would be absurd to suspect me of 
 desertion. The reputation of these papers is an hon- 
 ourable pledge for my attachment to the people. To 
 
 VOL. n. t)
 
 74 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 sacrifice a respected character, ard to renounce the 
 esteem of society, requires more than Mr. Wedder- 
 burne's resolution ; and though in him it was rather 
 a profession than a desertion of his principles, (1 
 speak tenderly of this gentleman ; for, when treache- 
 ry is in question, I think we should make allowances 
 for a Scotchman) yet we have seen him in the house 
 «i>f commons overwhelmed with confusion, and almost 
 bereft of his faculties. But, in truth, sir, I have left 
 no room for an accommodation with the piety of St. 
 James's. My offences are not to be redeemed by re- 
 cantation or repentance. On one side, our warmest 
 patriots would disclaim me as a burthen to their hon- 
 est ambition. On the other, the vilest prostitution, 
 if Junius could descend to it, would lose its nalurnl 
 merit and influence in the cabinet, and treachery he 
 no longer a recommendation to the royal favour. 
 
 The persons, who, till within these few years, have 
 been most distinguished by their zeal for high-clnirrh 
 and prerogative, are now, it seems, the great as«cr- 
 tors of the privileges of the house of commons. This 
 sudden alteration of their sentiments or languarvr, 
 carries with it a suspicious appearance. When I 
 hear the undefined privileges of the popular branch 
 of the legislature exalted by tories and Jacobites, at 
 the expense of those strict rights which are known to 
 the subject and limited by the laws, I cannot but sus- 
 pect that some mischievous scheme is in agitation, to 
 destroy both law and privilege, by opposing them to 
 each other. They who have uniformly denied the 
 power of the whole legislature to alter the descent of 
 the crown, and whose ancestors, in rebellion against 
 his majesty's family, have defended that doctrine at
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTER- 
 
 ;-iV!! 
 
 the hazard of their lives, now tell us, th;U p 
 of parliament is the only rule of right, aurl the cliirf 
 security of the public freedom. I fear, sir, thnt, 
 while forms remain, there has been some materia] 
 change in the substance of our constitution. The 
 opinions of these men were too absurd to be so easi 
 ly renounced. Liberal minds are open to convic- 
 tion; liberal doctrines are capable of improvement. 
 There are proselytes from atheism, but none from 
 superstition. If their present professions wei-e sincere, 
 I think they could not but be highly offended at see- 
 ing a question concerning parliamentary privilege 
 unnecessarily started at a season so unfavourable to 
 the house of commons, and by so very mean and in- 
 significant a person as the minor Onslow. They 
 knew that the present house of commons, having 
 commenced hostilities with the people, and degraded 
 the authority of the laws by their own example, were 
 likely enough to be resisted per fas et nefas. If they 
 were really friends to privilege, they would have 
 thought the question of right too dangerous to be 
 hazarded at this season, and, without the formality 
 of a convention, would have left it undecided. 
 
 I have been silent hitherto, though not from that 
 shameful indifference about the interests of society, 
 which too many of us possess, and call moderation. 
 I confess, sir, that I felt the prejudices of my educa- 
 tion in favour of a house of commons still hanging 
 about me. I thought iliat a question between law 
 and privilege could never be brought to a formal de- 
 cision without inconvenience to the public service, or 
 a manifest diminution of legal liberty; that it ought, 
 therefore, to be carefully avoided : and when I saw
 
 76 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 that the vio ence of the house of commons had car 
 rietl them too far to retreat, I determined not to de- 
 liver a hasty opinion upon a matter of so much 
 delicacy and importance. 
 
 The state of things is much altered in this country 
 since it was necessary to protect our representatives 
 against the direct power of the crown. We have 
 nothing to apprehend from prerogative, but every 
 thing from undue influence. Formerly, it was the 
 interest of the people that the privileges of parliament 
 should be left unlimited and undefined. At present, it 
 is not only their interest, but I hold it to be essential- 
 ly necessary to the preservation of the constitution, 
 that the privileges of parliament should be strictly 
 ascertained, and confined within the narrowest bonnls 
 the nature of the institution will admit of. Upon tlu- 
 same principle on which I would have resisted pre- 
 rogative in the last century, I now resist privilege. It 
 is indifferent to me, whether the crown, by its ow i 
 immediate act, imposes new, and dispenses with o! ! 
 laws, or whether the same arbitrary power produces 
 the same effects through the medium of the house of 
 commons. We trusted our representatives with privi- 
 leges for their own defence and ours. We cannot 
 hinder their desertion, but we can prevent their car- 
 rying over their arms to the service of the enemy. 
 It will be said, that I begin with endeavouring to re- 
 duce the argument concerning privilege to a mere 
 question of convenience ; that, I deny, at one mo- 
 ment, what I would allow at another ; and that, to 
 resist the power of a prostituted house of commons, 
 may establish a precedent injurious to all future par- 
 liaments. To this 1 answer, generally, that human
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 11 
 
 affairs are in no instance governed by strict positive 
 right. If change of circumstances were to have no 
 weight in directing our conduct and opinions, the 
 mutual intercourse of mankind would be nothing 
 n^ore than a contention between positive and equita- 
 ble right. Society would be a state of war, and law 
 itself would be injustice. On this general ground, it 
 is highly reasonable, that the degree of our submis- 
 sion to privileges which never have been defined by 
 any positive law, should be considered as a question 
 of convenience, and proportioned to the confidence 
 we repose in the integrity of our representatives. As 
 to the injury we may do to any future and more re- 
 spectable house of commons, I own I am iiot now 
 sanguine enough to expect a more plentiful harvest 
 of parliamentary virtue in one year than in another. 
 Our political climate is severely altered ; and, witli- 
 out dwelling upon the depravity of modern times, I 
 think no reasonable man will expect that, as human 
 nature is constituted, the enormous influence of the 
 crown should cease to prevail over the virtue of indi- 
 viduals. The mischief lies too deep to be cured l)y 
 any remedy less than some great convulsion, u hirli 
 may either carry back the constitution to its origina! 
 principles, or utterly destroy it. I do not doubt tliat, 
 in the first session after the next election, some popu- 
 lar measures may be adopted. The present hous<' of 
 commons have injured themselves by a too early and 
 public profession of their principles ; and if a strain 
 of prostitution, which had no example, were within 
 the reach of emulation, it might be imprudent to 
 hazard the experiment too soon. But, after, all, sir, 
 ■f is very immaterial whether a house of commons
 
 78 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 3hall preserve their virtue for a week, a month, cr a 
 year. The influence which makes a septennial par- 
 lianient dependent on the pleasure of the crown, has 
 a permanent operation, and cannot fail of success. 
 My premises, I know, will be denied in argument ; 
 but every man's conscience tells him they are true. 
 It remains, then, to be considered, whether it be for 
 the interest of the people, that privilege of parlia- 
 moni* (which in respect to the purposes for which it 
 lias hitherto been acquiesced under, is merely nomi- 
 nai) should be contracted within some certain limits ; 
 or, whether the subject shall be left at the mercy of a 
 power, arbitrary upon the face of it, and notoriously 
 liiiJL-r the direction of the crown. 
 
 I do not mean to decline the question of right ; on 
 ilic contrary, sir, I join issue with the advocates for 
 privilege, and affirm, that, " excepting the cases 
 wherein the house of commons are a court of judica- 
 ture (to which, from the nature of their office, a co- 
 ercive power must belong) and excepting such con- 
 tempts as immediately interrupt their proceedings, 
 they have no legal authority to imprison any man for 
 
 * THl- necessity of securing the house of commons against 
 the king's power, so that no interruption might be given 
 either to the attendance of the members in parliament, or to 
 the freedom of debate, was the foundation of parliamentary 
 privilege ; and we may observe, in all the addresses of new 
 appointed speakers to the sovereign, the utmost privilege 
 they demand, is liberty of speech, and freedom from arrests. 
 The very word privilege means no more than immunity, or 
 a safeguard to the party who possesses it, and can nev i- be 
 construed into an active power of invading the rights of others
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 79 
 
 any supposed violation of ">rivilege whatsoever." Ii 
 is not pretended that privilege, as now claimed, has 
 ever been defined or :onfirmed by statute j neither 
 can it be said, with any colour of truth, to be a part 
 of the common law of England, which had grown 
 into prescription long before we knew any thing of 
 the existence of a house of commons. As for the 
 law of parliament, it is only another name for the 
 privilege in question j and since the power of cre- 
 ating new privileges has been formally renounced by 
 both houses, since there is no code in which we can 
 study the law of parliament, we have but one way 
 left to make ourselves acquainted with it ; that is, to 
 compare the nature of the institution of a house of 
 commons with the facts upon record. To establisii a 
 claim of privilege in either house, and to distinguish 
 original right from usurpation, it must appear, that 
 it is indispensably necessary for the performance of 
 the duty they are employed in, and also that it has 
 been uniformly allowed. From the first part of this 
 description, it follows, clearly, that, whatever privi- 
 lege does of right belong to the present house of com- 
 mons, did equally belong to the first assembly of their 
 predecessors, was so completely vested in them, and 
 might have been exercised in the same extent. From 
 the second we must infer, that privileges, which for 
 several centuries were not only never allowed, but 
 never even claimed by he house of commons, must 
 be founded upon usurpation. The constitutional du- 
 ties of a house of commons are not very complicated 
 nor mysterious. They are to propose or assent to 
 wholesome laws, for the benefit of the nation. They 
 are to grant the necessary aids to the king j petition
 
 80 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 for the redress of grievances ; and prosecute treason 
 i)r high crimes against the state. If unlimited privi- 
 lege be necessary to the performance of these duties, 
 we have reason to conclude, that, for many centuries 
 after the institution of the house of commons, they 
 were never performed. I am not bound to prove a 
 negative ; but I appeal to the English history, when 1 
 affirm, thnt, with the exceptions already stated, which 
 yet I might safely relinquish, there is no precedent, 
 from the year 1265, to the death of queen Elizabeth 
 of the house of commons having imprisoned any 
 man (not a member of their house) for contempt or 
 breach of privilege. In the most flagrant cases, and 
 when their acknowledged privileges were most gross- 
 ly violated, the poor commons, as they then styled 
 themselves, never took the power of punishment into 
 their own hands. They either sought redress, by 
 petition to the king, or, what is more remarkable, 
 applied for justice to the house of lords ; and, when 
 satisfaction was denied them or delayed, their only 
 remedy was to refuse proceeding upon the king's busi- 
 ness. So little conception had our ancestors of the 
 monstrous doctrines now maintained concerning privi- 
 lege, that, in the reign of Elizabeth, even liberty of 
 speech, the vital principle of a deliberative assembly, 
 was restrained by the queen's authority to a simple 
 ay or no ; and this restriction, though imposed upon 
 three successive parliaments,* was never once disputed 
 by the house of commons. 
 
 I know there are many precedents of arbitrary 
 commitments for contempt ; but, besides that they are 
 
 • In the years 1593, 1597, and l601.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 81 
 
 of too modern a date to warrant a presumption that 
 such a power was originally vested in the house of 
 commons, fact alone does not constitute right. If it 
 does, general warrants were lawful. An ordinance 
 of the two houses has a force equal to law : and the 
 criminal jurisdiction assumed by the commons in 
 1421, in the case of Edward Lloyd, is a good pre- 
 cedent to warrant the like proceedings against any 
 man who shall unadvisedly mention the folly of a 
 king, or the ambition of a princess. The truth is, 
 sir, that the greatest and most exceptionable part of 
 the privileges now contended for, were introduced and 
 asserted by a house of commons, which abolished both 
 monarchy and peerage, and whose proceedings, al- 
 though they ended in one glorious act of substantial 
 justice, could no way be reconciled to the forms of 
 the constitution. Their successors profited bj^ their 
 example, and confirmed their power by a moderate 
 or popular use of it. Thus it grew, by degrees, from 
 a notorious innovation at one period, to be tacitly 
 admitted as the privilege of parliament at anodier. 
 
 If, however, it could be proved, from considera- 
 tions of necessity or convenience, that an unlimited 
 power of commitment ought to be entrusted to the 
 nouse of commons, and that, in fact, they have ex- 
 ercised it without opposition, still, in contemplation 
 of law, the presumption is strongly against them. It 
 is a leading maxim of the laws of England (and 
 without it all laws are nugatory) that there is no right 
 without a remedy, nor any legal power without a 
 legal course to carry it into effect. Let the power 
 now in question, be tried by this rule. The speaker 
 
 issues his warrant of attachment. The party at- 
 D 2 6
 
 82 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 lachcd either resists force uitli force, or appeals to a 
 magistrate, who declares the warrant illegal, and dis- 
 charges the prisoner. Docs the law provide no legal 
 iMcans for enforcing a legal warrant.'' Is there no re- 
 gular proceeding pointed out in our law books, to 
 assert and vindicate the authority of so high a court as 
 ilu' house of commons .'' The question is answered 
 (lirccily by the fact; their unlawful commands are 
 resisted, and they have.no remedy. The imprison- 
 itiinU of their own members is revenge indeed ; but it 
 i-i no assertion of the privilege they contend for.* 
 Their whole proceeding stops ; and there they stand, 
 asliamed to rfetreat, and unable to advance. Sir. 
 these ignorant men should be informed, that the ex- 
 ecution of the laws of England is net left in this un- 
 certain, defenceless condition. If the process of the 
 courts of Westminster-hall be resisted, they have a 
 tliiect course to enforce submission. The court ol 
 king's bench commands the sheriff to raise the posss 
 coh'iitatus ; the courts of chancery and exchequer is- 
 sue a writ of rehellion ; which must also be support- 
 ed, if necessary, by the power of the country. To 
 whom will our honest representatives direct their ^^ rit 
 of rebellion .>* The guards, I doubt not, are willing- 
 enough to be employed ; but they know nothing ol 
 
 * Upon their own principles, they should have coinruit- 
 ted Mr. Wilkes, who had been guilty of a greater offence 
 than even the lord mayor or alderman Oliver. But, after 
 repeatedly ordering him to attend, they at last adjourned 
 beyond the day appointed for his attendance, and, by this 
 mean, pitiful evasion, gave up th^ point.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 83 
 
 the doctrine of writs, and may think it necessaiy to 
 wait for a letter from lord Bai'rington. 
 
 It may now be objected to me, that my arguments 
 prove too much : for that cerc^hily there may be in- 
 stances of contempt and insult to the house of com- 
 mons, which do not fall within my own exceptions, 
 yet, in regard to the dignity of the house, ought not 
 to pass unpunished. Be it so. The courts of crimi- 
 nal jurisdiction are open to prosecutions, which the 
 attorney-general may commence by information or 
 indictment. A libel tending to asperse or vilify the 
 iiouse of commons, or any of their members, may 
 be as severely punished in the court of king's bench, 
 as a libel upon the king. M. de Grey thought so, 
 \\ hen he drew up the information of my letter to his 
 majesty, or he had no meaning in charging it to be 
 a scandalous libel upon the house of commons. In 
 my opinion, they would consult their real dignity 
 much better, by appealing to the laws, when they are 
 offended, than by violating the first principle of natu- 
 ral justice, which forbids us to be judges, when we 
 are parties to the cause.* 
 
 • " If it be demanded, in case a subject should be com- 
 mitted by either house for a matter manifestly out of their 
 jurisdiction, What remedy can he have ? I answer, that it 
 cannot well be imagined that the law, which favours no- 
 thing more than the liberty of the subject, should give us a 
 remedy against commitments by the king himself, appearing 
 to be illegal, and yet give us no manner of redress against 
 a commitment by our fellow subjects, equally appearing to 
 0'^ niurairanted. But, as diis is a case which I am persuad-
 
 84 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 I do not mean to pursue them through the remain- 
 der of their proceedings. In their first resolutions, 
 it is possible they might have been deceived by ill- 
 considered precedents. For the rest, there is no co- 
 lour of palliation or excuse They have advised the 
 king to resume a power of dispensing with the laws 
 by royal proclamation ;* and kings, we see, are ready 
 enough to follow such advice. By mere violence, 
 and without the shadow of right, they have expunged 
 the record of a judicial proceeding.! Nothing re- 
 mained but to attribute to their own vote a power of 
 stopping the whole distribution of criminal and civil 
 justice. 
 
 The public virtues of the chief magistrate have 
 long since ceased to be in question. But, it is said, 
 that he has private good qualities; and I myself have 
 been ready to acknowledge them. They are now 
 
 ed, will never happen, it seems needless over-nicely to ex- 
 amine it." Hawkins, ii. 110. 
 
 N. B. He was a good lawyer, but no prophet. 
 
 * That their piactice might be every way conformable to 
 tlieir principles, the house proceeded to advise the crown to 
 publish a proclamation, universally acknowledged to be il- 
 legal. Mr. Moreton publicly protested against it before it 
 was issued ; and lord Mansfield, though not scrupulous to 
 an extreme, speaks of it with horror. It is remarkable 
 enough, that the very men who advised the proclamation, 
 and who hear it arraigned every day, both within doors and 
 without, are not daring enough to utter one word in its de- 
 fence ; nor have they ventured to take the least notice of Mr 
 Wilkes, for the discharging the persons apprehended under it 
 
 t Lord Chatham very properly called this the act of a 
 mob, not of a senate.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 8S 
 
 brought to the test. If he loves his people, he will 
 dissolve the parliament, which they ran never confide 
 in or respect. If he has any regard for his own hon- 
 our, he will disdain to be any longer connected with 
 such abandoned prostitution. But, if it were con- 
 ceivable, that a king of this country had lost all sense 
 of personal honour, and all concern for the welfare 
 of his subjects, I confess, sir, I should be contented 
 to renounce the forms of the constitution once more, 
 if there were no other way to obtain substantial jus- 
 tice for the people.t 
 
 JUNIUS. 
 
 t When Mr. Wilkes was to be punished, they made no 
 scruple about the privileges of parliament ; and although it 
 WHS as well known as any matter of public record and un- 
 interrupted custom could be, " That the members of eithei 
 house are privileged, except in case of treason, felony, or 
 breach of peace," they declared, without hesitation, " That 
 privilege of parliament did not extend to the case of a sedi- 
 tious libel :" and undoubtedly they would have done the 
 same if Mr. Wilkes had been prosecuted for any other mis- 
 demeanor whatsoever. The ministry, are, of a sudden, 
 grown wonderfully careful of privileges, which their prede- 
 cessors were as ready to invade. The known laws of the 
 land, the rights of the subject, the sanctity of charters, and 
 the reverence due to our magistrates, must all give way, 
 without question or resistance, to a privilege of which no 
 man knows either the origin or the extent. The house of 
 commons judge of their own privileges without appeal : 
 they may take offence at the most innocent action, and im- 
 prison the person who offends them during their arbitrary 
 will and pleasure. The party has no remedy ; he cannot 
 appeal from their jurisdiction ; and if 1»3 questions the pri-
 
 86 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 XLV. 
 
 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser. 
 
 SIR, May 1, 1771- 
 
 They who object to detached parts of Junius's last 
 letter, either do not mean him fairly, or have not con- 
 sidered the general scope and course of his argument. 
 There are degrees in all the private vices ; why not 
 ill public prostitution ? The influence of the crown 
 naturally makes a septennial parliament dependent. 
 Does it follow, that every house of commons will 
 plunge at once into the lowest depths of prostitution ? 
 Junius supposes, that the present house of commons, 
 ill going such enormous lengths, have been impru- 
 dent to themselves, as well as wicked to the public ; 
 that their example is not within the reach of emula- 
 tion ; and that, in the first session after the next elec- 
 tion, some popular measures may probably be adopt- 
 ed. He does not expect that a dissolution of parlia- 
 ment will destroy corruption, but that, at least, it 
 will be a check and terror to their successors, who 
 
 vilege which he is supposed to have violated, it becomes ai 
 aggravation of his offence. Surely this doctrine is not to be 
 found in Magna Charta. If it be admitted without limita- 
 tion, I affirm, that there is neither law nor liberty in this 
 kingdom. We are the slaves of the house of commons ; 
 and, through them, we are the slaves of the king and his 
 mmisters. Anonymous.
 
 JITNIUS'S LETTERS. 87 
 
 will have sce.i, that, in flagrant cases, their constitu- 
 ents can and will interpose with effect. After all, sir, 
 will 3'ou not endeavour to remove or alleviate the most 
 dangerous symptoms, because you cannot eradicate 
 the disease ? Will you not punish treason or parri- 
 cide, because the sight of a gibbet does not prevent 
 high-way robberies.? When the main argument of 
 Junius Is admitted to be unanswerable, I think it 
 would become the minor critic, who hunts for blem- 
 ishes, to be little more distrustful of his own sagacity. 
 The other objection is hardly worth an answer. 
 When Junius observes, that kings are ready ennugli 
 to follow such advice, he does not mean to insinuate, 
 that, if the advice of parliament were good, the 
 king would be so ready to follow it. 
 
 PHILO JUNIUS. 
 
 XLVI. 
 
 To the Printer of the Fublic Advertiser. 
 
 SIR, May 25, i77l. 
 
 I confess my partiality to Junius, and feel a con- 
 siderable pleasure in being able to communicate any 
 thing to the public in support of his opinions. The 
 doctrine laid down in his last letter, concerning the 
 power of the house of commons to commit for con- 
 tempt, is not so new as it appeared to many people ; 
 who dazzled with the name of prmZe^e, had never 
 suffered themselves to examine the question fairly. 
 In the course of my reading this morning, I met with
 
 88 JUMIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 the following passage in the journals of the house of 
 commons, (Vol. i. p. 603.) Upon occasion of a ju- 
 risdiclion unlawfully assumed by the house in the year 
 1621, Mr. attorney-general Noye gave his opinion 
 as follows : " No doubt but in some cases, this house 
 may give judgment, in matters of returns, and con- 
 cerning members of our house, or falling out in our 
 view in parliament ; but, for foreign matters, know- 
 clh not how we can judge it; knoweth not that we 
 have been used to give judgment in any case, but 
 those before mentioned." 
 
 Sir Edward Coke, upon the same subject, sayp, 
 (page 604,) " No question but this is a house of re- 
 cord, and that it hath power of judicature in some 
 cases ; have power to judge of returns and members 
 of our house. One, no member, offending out of 
 the parliament, ivhen he came hither, and justified it, 
 was censured for it." 
 
 Now, sir, if you will compare the opinion of these 
 great sages of the law with Junius's doctrine, you 
 will find they tally exactly. He allows the power of 
 the house to commit their own members, which, how- 
 ever, they may grossly abuse ; he allows their power 
 in cases where they are acting as a court of judica- 
 ture, viz. elections, returns, &;c. and he allows it in 
 such contempts as immediately interrupt their pro- 
 ceedings ; or, as Mr. Noye expresses it, falling ovt 
 \n their view in parliament. 
 
 They who would carry the privileges of parlia- 
 ment farther than Junius, either do not mean well to 
 the public, or know not what they are doing. The 
 government of England is a government of law. 
 We betray ourselves, we contradict the spirit of our
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 89 
 
 laws, and we shake the whole system of English ju- 
 risprudence, whenever we entrust a discretionary 
 power over the life, liberty, or fortune of the subject 
 to any man, or set of men, whatsoever, upon a pre- 
 sumption that it will not be abused. 
 
 1»HIL0 JUNIUS. 
 
 XLVIL 
 
 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser. 
 
 SIR, May 28, 1771. 
 
 Any man who lakes the trouble of perusing the 
 journals of the house of commons, will soon be con- 
 vinced, that very little, if any regard at all, ought to 
 be paid to the resolutions of one branch of the legis- 
 lature, declaratory of the law of the land, or even of 
 what they call the law of paiiiament. It will appear 
 that these resolutions have no one of the properties by 
 which, in this country particularly, law is distinguish- 
 ed from mere will and pleasure; but that, on the 
 contrary, they bear every mark of a power arbitrarily 
 assumed and capriciously applied : that they are 
 usually made in times of contest, and to serve some 
 unworthy purpose of passion or party; that the law 
 is seldom declared until after the fact by which it is 
 supposed to be violated ; that legislation and juris- 
 diction are united in the same persons, and exercised 
 at the same moment; and that a court from which 
 there is no appeal, assumes an original jurisdiction 
 n a criminal case. In short, sir, to collect a thousand
 
 90 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 absurdities into one mass, " we have a law which 
 cannot be known, because it is ex post facto : the 
 party is both legislator and judge, and tiie juris- 
 diction is without appeal." Well might the judges 
 say, " The law of parliament is above us." 
 
 You will not wonder, sir, that with these qualifi- 
 cations, the declaratory resolutions of the house of 
 commons should appear to be in perpetual contra- 
 diction, not only to common sense, and to the laws 
 we are acquainted with, (and which alone we can 
 obey,) but even to one another. I was led to trouble 
 you with these observations by a passage, which, to 
 speak in lutestring, / met with this morning in the 
 course of my reading, and upon which I mean to put 
 a question to the advocates for privilege. On the 
 8th of March, 1704, (Fi(?e Journals, Vol. xiv. p. 560,) 
 the house thought proper to come to the following 
 resolutions : 1. " That no commoner of England 
 committed by the house of commons for breach of 
 privilege or contempt of that house, ought to be, by 
 any writ of Habeas Corpus, made to appear in any 
 other place, or before any other judicature, during 
 that session of parliament wherein such person was so 
 committed." 
 
 2. " That the serjeant at arms, attending this 
 house, do make no return of, or yield any obedience 
 to, the said writs of Habeas Corpus ; and for such 
 his refusal, that he 'lave the protection of the house cf 
 commons."* 
 
 • If there be, m reality, any such law in England as the 
 law of parliament, which (under the exception stated in 
 my letter on privilege) I confess, after long deliberation, 1
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 91 
 
 Welbore Ellis, what say you ? Is this the law of 
 parliament, or is it not? I am a plain man, sir, and 
 cannot follow you through the phlegmatic forms of 
 an oration. Speak out, Gildrig, say yes or no. If 
 you say yes, I shall then inquire by what authority 
 Mr. de Grey, the honest lord Mansfield, and the 
 barons of the exchequer, dared to grant a writ of 
 Habeas Corpus for bringing the bodies of the lord 
 mayor and Mr. Oliver before them ; and why the 
 lieutenant of the Tower made any return to a writ, 
 which the house of commons had, in a similar in- 
 stance, declared to be unlawful. If you say no, take 
 care you do not at once give up the cause in support 
 of which you have so long and so laboriously tor- 
 tured your understanding. Take care you do not 
 confess that there is no test by which we can distin 
 guish, no evidence by which we can determine, what 
 is, and what is not, the law of parliament. The 
 resolutions I have quoted, stand upon your journals, 
 uncontroverted and unrepealed : they contain a de- 
 claration of the law of parliament, by a court com- 
 petent to the question, and whose decision, as you 
 and lord Mansfield say, must be law, because there 
 
 very much doubt, it certainly is not constituted by, nor can 
 it be collected from, the resolutions of either house, whether 
 enacting or declaratory. I desire the reader will compare 
 the above resolutions of the year 1704, with the following of 
 the 3d of April, 1628. — " Resolved, That the wnts o( Habea. 
 Corpus cannot be denied, but ought to be granted to evertj 
 man that is committed or detained in prison, or otherwise 
 restrained by the command of the king, the privy councfl, 
 or any otlier, he pra} ing the same."
 
 92 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 is no appeal from it : and ijiey were made not hasti- 
 ly, but after long deliberation upon a constitutional 
 question. What farther sanction or solemnity will 
 you annex to any resolution of the present house of 
 commons, beyond what appears upon the face of those 
 two resolutions, tbe legality of which you now deny."* 
 If you say that parliaments are not infallible, and 
 that queen Anne, in consequence of the violent pro- 
 ceedings of that house of commons, was obliged to 
 prorogue and dissolve them, I shall agree with you 
 very heartily, and think that the precedent ought to 
 be followed immediately. But you, Mr. Ellis, who 
 hold this language, are inconsistent wilh your own 
 principles. You have hitherto maintained, that the 
 house of commons are the sole judges of their own 
 privileges, and that their declaration does ipso facto 
 constitute the law of parliament ; yet now you con- 
 fess that parliaments are fallible, and that their re- 
 solutions may be illegal ; consequently that their re- 
 solutions do not constitute the law of parliament. 
 When the king was advised to dissolve the present 
 parliament, you advised him to tell his subjects, that 
 " he was careful not to assume any of those powers 
 which the constitution had placed in other hands," 
 &.C. ITet queen Anne, it seems, was justified in ex- 
 erting her prerogative to stop a house of commons 
 whose proceedings, compared with those of the as 
 ecmbly of which you' are a most worthy member 
 were the perfection of justice and reason. 
 
 In what a labyrinth of nonsense does a man involve 
 himself who labours to maintain falsehood by argu- 
 ment ! How much better would it become the dig- 
 nity of the house of commons to speak plainly to the
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 93 
 
 peop e, and tell us, at once, " that their will must be 
 obeyed ; not because it is lawful and reasonable, but 
 because it is their will !" Their constituents would 
 have a better opinion of their candour, and, 1 promise 
 you, not a worse opinion of their integrity, 
 
 PHILO JUNIUS. 
 
 XLvm. 
 
 To his Crrace the Duke of Grafton. 
 
 MY LORD, June 22, 1771- 
 
 The profound respect I bear to the gracious prince 
 who governs this country, with no less honour to 
 iiimself than satisfaction to his subjects, and who re- 
 stores you to your rank under his standard, will save 
 you from a multitude of reproaches. The attention 
 I should have paid to your failings, is involuntarily 
 attracted to the hand that rewards them ; and though 
 I am not so partial to the royal judgment as to affirm, 
 that the favour of a king can remove mountains of 
 infamy, it serves to lessen, at least, (for undoubtedly 
 it divides,) the burden. While I remember how mucli 
 is due to his sacred character, I cannot, with any de- 
 cent appearance of propriety, call you the meanest 
 and basest fellow in the kingdom. I protest, my lord, 
 I do not think you so. You will have a dangerous 
 rival in that kind of fame to which you have hitherto 
 so happily directed your ambition, so long as there is 
 one man living who thinks you worthy of his confi- 
 dence, and fit to be trusted with any share in his
 
 94 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 government. I confess you have great intrinsic 
 merit ; but take care you do not value it too highly. 
 Consider how much of it would have been lost to the 
 world, if the king had not graciously affixed his stamp, 
 and given it currency among his subjects. If it be 
 true that a virtuous man, struggling with adversity, 
 be a scene worthy of the gods, the glorious contention 
 between you and the best of princes deserves a circle 
 equally attentive and respectable : I think I already 
 see other gods rising from the earth to behold it. 
 
 But this language is too mild for the occasion. 
 The king is determined that our abilities shall not be 
 lost to society. The perpetration and description of 
 new crimes will find employment for us both. My 
 lord, if the persons who have been loudest in their 
 professions of patriotism, had done their duty to the 
 public with the same zeal and perseverance that I 
 did, I will not assert that govennment would have re- 
 covered its dignity, but at least our gracious sove- 
 reign must have spared his subjects this last insult ;* 
 which, if there be any feeling left among us, they will 
 resent more than even the real injuries they received 
 from every measure of your grace's administration. 
 In vain would he have looked round him for another 
 character so consummate as yours. Lord Mansfield 
 shrinks from his principles: his ideas of government, 
 perhaps, go farther than your own ; but his heart 
 disgraces the theory of bis understanding. Charles 
 Fox is yet in blossom ; and as for Mr. Wedderburne, 
 there is something about him which even treachery 
 cannot trust. For the present, therefore, the best of 
 
 * The duke was lately appointed vd privy seal.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 95 
 
 princes must have contented himself with lord Sand- 
 wich. You would long since have received your final 
 dismission and reward, and I, my lord, who do nut 
 esteem you the more for the high office you possess, 
 would willingly have followed you to your retiremtiit. 
 There is surely something singularly benevolent in 
 the character of our sovereign. From the momeul 
 he ascended the throne, there is no crime of wirKii 
 human nature is capable (and I call upon the record- 
 er to witness it) that has not appeared venial in his 
 sight. With any other prince, the shameful deserlioii 
 of him in the midst of that distress which you uIoiil- 
 had created, in the very crisis of danger, when hv 
 fancied lie saw the throne surrounded by men of vir- 
 tue and abilities, would have outweighed the memory 
 of your former services. But his majesty is full ol 
 justice, and understands the doctrine of compensa- 
 tions. He remembers, with gratitude, how soon yuu 
 had accommodated your morals to the necessity of 
 his service ; how cheerfully you had abandoned tli-' 
 ' engagements of private friendship, and renounced the 
 most solemn professions to the public. The sacrifice 
 of lord Chatham was not lost upon him. Even the 
 cowardice and perfidy of deserting him may have 
 done you no disservice in his esteem. The instance 
 v.'as painful, but the principle might please. 
 
 You did not neglect the magistrate while you flat- 
 tered the man. The expulsion of Mr. Wilkes, prede- 
 termined in the cabinet ; the power of depriving the 
 subject of his birthrigiit, attributed to a resolution of 
 one branch of the legislature ; the constitution impu- 
 dently invaded by the house of commons ; the right 
 of defending it treacherously renounced by the house
 
 96 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 of lords J ihese are the strokes, my lord, whidi. in the 
 present reign, recommend to office and constitute a 
 minister. They would have determined your sove- 
 reign's judgment, if they had made no impression 
 upon his heart. We need not look for any other 
 species of merit to account for his taking the earliest 
 opportunity to recall you to his councils. But you 
 have other merit in abundance. Mr. Hine, the duke 
 of Portland, and Mr. Yorke : — Breach of trust, rob- 
 bery, and murder. You would think it a compliment 
 to your gallantry, if I added rape to' the catalogue; 
 but the style of your amours secures you from resis- 
 tance. I know how well these several charges have 
 been defended. In the first instance, the breach of 
 trust is supposed to have been its own reward. ]\Tr. 
 Bradshaw affirms, upon his honour, (and so may the 
 gift of smiling never depart from him !) that you re- 
 served no part of Mr. Hine's purchase-money for 
 your own use, but that every shilling of it was scru- 
 pulously paid to governor Burgoyne. INIake haste, • 
 my lord; another patent, applied in time, may keep 
 the Oaks* in the family. If not, Birnham-Wood, I 
 fear, must come to the Macaroni. 
 
 The duke of Portland was in life your earliest 
 friend. In defence of his property, he had nothing 
 to plead but equity against sir James Lowther, and 
 prescription against the crown. You felt for your 
 friend : but the law must take its course. Posterity 
 will scarce believe that lord Bute's son-in-law had 
 
 • A superb villa of colonel Burgoyne, about this time ad- 
 vertised for sale.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 97 
 
 oarely interest euougli at the treasury to get his grant 
 completed before the general election.* 
 
 Enough has been said of that detestable transac- 
 tion which ended in the death of Mr. Yorke : I can- 
 not speak of it without horror and compassion. To 
 excuse yourself, you publicly impeach 3'our accom- 
 plice J and to his mind, perhaps, the accusation ma}' 
 be flattery. But in murder you are both princij)als. 
 It was once a question of emulation ; and, if the 
 event had not disappointed the inniiediate schemes of 
 tiie closet, it might still have been a hopeful subject 
 of jest and merriment between 3'ou. 
 
 Tills letter, my lord, is only a preface to my fu- 
 ture correspondence. The remainder of tlte summer 
 s'.iall be dedicated to your amusement. I mean now 
 and then to relieve the severity of your morning stu 
 dies, and to prepare you for the business of the day. 
 Witiiout pretending to more than Mr. Bradshaw's 
 sincerity, you may rely upon my attachment as long 
 as you are in office. 
 
 Will your grace forgive me, if I venture to express 
 some anxiety for a man whom I know you do not 
 love ,'' My lor«i Weymouth has cowardice to plead, 
 and a desertion of a later date than your own. You 
 know the privy-seal was intended for him ; and if 
 you consider the dignity of the post he deserted, you 
 will hardly think it decent to quarter him on Mr. Rig- 
 
 • It will appear, by a subsequent letter, that the duke's 
 precipitation proved fatal to tlie grant. It looks like the 
 hurry and confusion of a young highwayman, who takes a 
 few shillings, but leaves the purse and watch behind him. 
 And yet the duke was an old offender. 
 
 VOL. II. E 7
 
 98 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 by. Yet 1)0 liuisl have bread, >ny lord ; or, rather, he 
 must have wine. If you deny liim the cup, there wil' 
 be no keeping him within the pale of the ministry. 
 
 JUNIUS. 
 
 XLIX. 
 
 To his Grace the Duke of Grafton. 
 
 MY LORD, July 9, 1771. 
 
 The influence of 3 our grace's fortune still seen)s 
 to preside over the treasury. The genius of Mr. 
 Bradshaw inspires Mr. Robinson.* How remarka- 
 bk' it is (and I speak of it not as a matter of reproach, 
 but as something peculiar to your character) that you 
 have never yet formed a friendship, which has not 
 been fatal to the object of it ; nor adopted a cause, 
 to which, one way or other, you have not done mis- 
 chief! Your attachment la infamy while it lasts j 
 and, which ever way it turns, leaves ruin and dis- 
 grace behind it. The deluded girl, who yields to 
 such a profligate, even while he is constant, forfeits 
 her reputation as well as her innocence, and finds 
 herself abandoned at last to misery and shame. Thus 
 it happened with the best of princes. Poor Dingley, 
 too ! I protest I hardly know which of them we ought 
 
 * By an intercepted letter from the secretary of the trea- 
 sury, it appeared, that the friends of government were to 
 be very active in supporting the ministerial nomination of 
 sheriffs.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 99 
 
 most to lament; the unhajopy man who sinks under the 
 sense of his dishonour, oi him wlio survives it. Char- 
 acters so finished are placed beyond the reach of pan- 
 egyric. Death has fixed his seal upon Dingley ; and 
 you, my lord, have set your mark upon the other. 
 
 The only letter I ever addressed to the king was so 
 unkindly received, that I believe I shall never pre- 
 sume to trouble his majesty in that way again. But 
 my zeal for his service is superior to neglect ; and, 
 like Mr. Wilkes's patriotism, thrives by persecution. 
 Yet his majesty is much addicted to useful reading; 
 and, if I am not ill informed, has honoured the Pub- 
 lic Advertiser witli particular attention. I have en- 
 deavoured, therefore, and not without success, (as, 
 perhaps, you may remember,) to furnish it with such 
 interesting and edifying intelligence, as probably 
 would not reach him through any other channel. 
 The services you have done the nation, your integri- 
 ty in office, and signal fidelity to your approved good 
 master, have been faithfully recorded. Nor have his 
 own virtues been entirely neglected. These letters, 
 my lord, are read in other countries, and in other 
 languages; and I think I may affirm, without vanity, 
 that the gracious character of the best of princes is 
 by this time, not only perfectly known to his sub- 
 jects, but tolerably well understood by the rest of 
 Europe. In this respect alone I have the advantage 
 of Mr. Whitehead. His plan, I think, is too narrow. 
 He seems to manufacture his verses for the sole use 
 of the hero who is supposed to be the subject of them, 
 and, that his meaning may not be exported in foreign 
 bottoms, sets all translation at defiance. 
 
 Your grace's re-appointment to a seat in the cabi
 
 100 JUNIUS'S BETTERS. 
 
 net was announced to the public by the ominous re- 
 turn of lord Bute to this country. When that nox- 
 ious planet approaches England, he never fails to 
 bring plague and pestilence along with him. The 
 king already feels the malignant effect of your indu- 
 ence over his councils. Your former administration 
 made Mr. Wilkes an alderman of London and repre- 
 sentative of Middlesex. Your next appearance in 
 office is marked with his election to the shrievalty. 
 In whatever measure you are concerned, you are not 
 only disappointed of success, but always contrive to 
 make the government of the best of princes contempt- 
 ible in his own eyes, and ridiculous to the whole 
 world. Making all due allowance for the effect of the 
 minister's declared interposition, Mr. Robinson's ac- 
 tivity, and Mr. Home's new zeal in support of ad- 
 ministration, we still want the genius of the duke ol 
 Grafton to account for committing the whole interest 
 of government in the city to the conduct of Mr. liar- 
 ley. I will not bear hard upon your faithful friend 
 and emissary, Mr. Touchet j for I know the difficul- 
 ties of his situation, and that a few lottery tickets are 
 of use to his economy. There is a proverb concern- 
 ing persons in the predicament of this gentleman, 
 which, however, cannot be strictly applied to hiiu, 
 They commence dupes, and finish knaves. Now, Mr. 
 Touchet's character is uniform. I am convinced that 
 his sentiments never depended upon his circumstan- 
 ces ; and that, in the most prosperous state of his 
 fortune, he was always the very man he is at present. 
 But was there no other person of rank and conse- 
 quence in the city, whom government could confide 
 in, but a notorious Jacobite ? Did you imagine that
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 101 
 
 tlic whole body of the dissenters, that the whole whig 
 interest of London, would attend at the levee, and 
 submit to the directions of a notorious Jacobite ? 
 Was there no whig magistrate in the city, to whom 
 the servants of George the Third could entrust the 
 management of a business so very interesting to their 
 master as the election of sheriffs ? Is there no room 
 at St. James's but for Scotchmen and Jacobites .'' 
 ?\Iy lord, I do not mean to question the sincerity of 
 Mr. Harley's attachment to his majesty's government. 
 Since the commencement of the present reign. I have 
 seen still greater contradictions reconciled. • The 
 principles of these worthy Jacobites are not so ab- 
 surd as they have been represented. Their ideas of 
 divine right are not so much annexed to the person 
 or family, as to the political character of the sove- 
 reign. Had there ever been an honest man among 
 the Stuarts, his majesty's present friends would have 
 been whigs upon principle. But the conversion of 
 the best of princes has removed their scruples. They 
 have forgiven him the sins of his Hanoverian ancestors, 
 and acknowledged the hand of Providence in the de- 
 scent of the crown upon the head of a true Stuart. 
 In you, my lord, they also behold, with a kind of 
 predilection which borders upon loyalty, the natural 
 representative of that illustrious Aimily. The mode 
 of your descent from Charles the Second is only a 
 bar to your pretentions to the crown, and no way in- 
 terrupts the regularity of your succession to all the 
 virtues of the Stuarts. 
 
 The unfortunate success of the reverend Mr. Home s 
 endeavours in support of the ministerial nomination
 
 t02 JUNIUS^S LETTERS. 
 
 of sheriffs, will, I fear, obstruct his preferment. 
 Permit me to recommend him to your grace's pro- 
 tection. You will find him copiously gifted wit'i 
 those qualities of the heart which usually direct you 
 in the choice of your friendships. He too was ]\Ir. 
 Wilkes's friend, and as incapable as 3'ou are of the 
 iiTaeral resentment of a gentleman. No, my lord ; 
 it was the solitary, vindictive malice of a monk, 
 brooding over the infirmities of his friend, until ho 
 thought they quickened into public life, and feasting 
 with a rancorous rapture upon the sordid catalogue 
 of his distresses. Now let him go back to his clois- 
 ter. The church is a proper retreat for him. In his 
 principles he is already a bishop. 
 
 The mention of this man has moved me from my 
 natural moderation. Let me return to 3our grace. 
 You are the pillow upon which I am determined to 
 rest all my resentments. What idea can the best of 
 sovereigns form to himself of his own government ? 
 In what repute can he conceive that he stands with 
 the people, when he sees, bej^ond the possibility of a 
 doubt, that, whatever be the office, the suspicion of 
 his favour is fatal to the candidate ; and that, when 
 the party he wishes well to has the fairest prospect of 
 success, if his royal inclination should unfortunately 
 be discovered, it drops like an acid, and turns the 
 election ? 
 
 This event, among others, may, perhaps, con- 
 tribute to open his majesty's eyes to his real honour 
 and interest. In spite of all your grace's ingenuity, 
 he may, at last, perceive the inconvenience of se- 
 lecting, with such a curous felicity every villain in
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 103 
 
 the nation to fill the various departments of his gov- 
 ernment. Yet I should be sorry to confine him in 
 the choice either of his footmen or his friends. 
 
 JUNIUS. 
 
 L. 
 
 From the Rev. Mr. Home to Junius. 
 
 SIR, July 13, 1771. 
 
 Farce, Comedy, and Tragedy. — Wilkes, Footc, 
 and Junius — united at the same time against one poor 
 parson, are fearful odds. The two former are only 
 labouring in their vocation, and may equally plead, 
 in excuse, that their aim is a livelihood. I admit the 
 plea for the second: his is an honest calling, and my 
 clothes were lawful game ; but I cannot so readily 
 approve Mr. Wilkes, or commend him for making 
 patriotism a trade, and a frudnlcnt trade. But what 
 shall I say to Junius ? the grave, the solemn, the 
 didactic ! Ridicule, indeed, has been ridiculously 
 called the test of truth : but surely, to confess that 
 you lose your natural moderation when mention is 
 made of the man, does not promise much truth or 
 justice when you speak oC him yourself. 
 
 You charge me with " a new zeal in support of 
 administration," and with " endeavours in support 
 of the ministerial nomination of sheriffs." The re- 
 putation which your talents have deservedly gained 
 to the signature of Junius draws from me a reply
 
 104 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 which I disdahied to give to the an"Dnymous lies of 
 Mr. Wilkes. You make frequent use of the word 
 gentleman ; I only call myself a man, and desire no 
 other distinction. If you are cillierj you are bound 
 to make good your charges, or to confess lliat you 
 have done ine a hasty injustice upon no authority. 
 
 I put the matter fairly to issue. 1 say that, so far 
 from any " new zeal in support of adniinistratloi;," 
 I am possessed with the utmost abhorrence of their 
 njeasures ; and that I have ever shown myself, and 
 am still ready, in any rational manner, to lay down 
 all I have — my life, in opposition to those measures. 
 1 say, that I have not, and never have had, any 
 communication or connexion of any kind, directly or 
 indirectly, with any courtier or ministerial man, or 
 any of their adherents ; that I never have received, 
 or solicited, or expected, or desired, or do now hope 
 fui-, any reward of any sort, from any part^' or set 
 of men in administration or opposition. I say, thai 
 I never used any " endeavours in support of the min- 
 i.terial nomination of sheriffs ;" that I did not solicit 
 uiiv one liveryman for his vote for any one of tlie 
 cuudidates, nor employ an}' other person to solicit ; 
 and that I did not write one single line or word in f.i- 
 voLir of Mess. Plumbe and Kirkman, whom I under- 
 staiid to have been supported b}' the ministry. 
 
 You are bound to refute what I here advance, or to 
 lose your credit for veracity. You must produce facts; 
 surmise and general abuse, in however elegant lan- 
 guage, ought not to pass for proofs. You have every 
 advantage, and I have every disadvantage : you are 
 unknown ; I give my name. All parties, both in and 
 out of administration, have their reasons (which I
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 105 
 
 shall relate hereafter) for uniting In their wishes against 
 me : and the popular prejudice is as strongly in your 
 favour as it is violent against the parson. 
 
 Singular as my present situation is, it is neither 
 painful, nor was it unforeseen. He is not fit for pub- 
 lic business, who does not, even at his entrance, pre- 
 pare his, mind for such an event. Health, foriune, 
 tranquillity, and private connexions, I have sacrificed 
 upon the altar of the public ; and the only return I 
 received, because I will not concur to dupe and mis- 
 lead a senseless multitude, is barely, that they have 
 not yet torn me in pieces. That this has been the 
 only return is my pride and a source of more real 
 satisfaction than honours or prosperity. I can prac- 
 tise, before I am old, the lessons I learned in my 
 youth ; nor shall I forget the words of my ancient 
 monitor : 
 
 " 'Tis the last key-stone 
 That makes the arch ; the rest that there were put, 
 Are nothing till that comes to bind and shut ; 
 Then stands it a triumphal mark ' Then men 
 Observe the strength, the height, the why and when 
 It was erected j and still, walking under. 
 Meet some new matter to look up and wonder !" 
 
 I am, sir, your humble servant, 
 
 JOHN HORNE, 
 
 E S
 
 106 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 LI. 
 
 To the RevtrA'id Mr. Home. 
 
 SIR, July 24, 1771. 
 
 I cannot descend to an altercation with you in the 
 newspapers: but since I have attacked your charac- 
 ter, and you complain of injustice, I think you have 
 some right to an explanation. You defy me to prove, 
 that you ever solicited a vote, or wrote a word in 
 support of the ministerial aldermen. Sir, I did never 
 suspect you of such gross folly. It would have been 
 impossible for Mr. Home to have solicited votes, and 
 very difficult to have written in the newspapers in de- 
 fence of that cause, without being detected, and 
 brought to shame. Neither do I pretend to any in- 
 telligence concerning you, or to know more of your 
 conduct than you yourself have thought proper to 
 communicate to the public. It is from your own let- 
 ters, I conclude, that 30U have sold yourself to the 
 ministry : or, if that charge be too severe, and sup- 
 posing it possible to be deceived by appearances so 
 very strongly against you, what are your friends to 
 say in your defence ? Must they not confess, that, to 
 gratify your personal hatred of Mr. Wilkes, you sa- 
 crificed, as far as depended on your interest and 
 abilities, the cause of the country f I can make al- 
 lowances for the violence of the passions ; and if ever 
 I should be convinced that vou had no motive but to 
 destroy Wilkes, I shall then be ready to do justice to
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 107 
 
 your character, and to declare to the world, that I 
 despise you somewhat less than I do at present. But, 
 as a public man, I must for ever condemn you. You 
 cannot but know, (nay, you dare not pretend to be 
 ignorant) that the highest gratifications of which the 
 most detestable * * in this nation is capable, would 
 have been the defeat of Wilkes. I know that man 
 much better than any of you. Nature intended him 
 only for a good-humoured fool. A systematical 
 education, with long practice, has made him a con- 
 summate hypocrite. Yet this man, to say nothing of 
 his worthy ministers, you have most assiduously la- 
 boured to gratify. To exclude Wilkes, it was not 
 necessary you should solicit votes for his opponents. 
 We incline the balance as eflectually by lessening the 
 weight in one scale, as increasing it in the other. 
 
 The mode of your attack upon Wilkes (though I 
 am far from thinking meanly of your abilities) con- 
 vinces me that you either want judgment extremely, 
 or that you are blinded by your resentment. You 
 ought to have foreseen that the charges you urged 
 against Wilkes could never do him any mischief. 
 After all, when we expected discoveries highly inter- 
 esting to the community, what a pitiful detail did it 
 end in ! — some old clothes, — a Welsh pony— a 
 Freiu'h footman — and a hamper of claret. Indeed, 
 Mr. Home, the public should and will forgive him 
 his claret and his footman, and even the ambition of 
 making his brother chamberlain of London, as long 
 as he stands forth agamst a ministry and parliament 
 who are doing every thing they can to enslave the 
 country, and as long as he is a thorn in the king's 
 side. You will not '•uspe-t me of setting up Wilkes
 
 108 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 for a perfect character. The question i. the public 
 is, where shall we find a man who, wiln purer prin- 
 ciples, will go the lengths, and run the hazards, that 
 he has done ? The season calls for such a man, and 
 he ought to be supported. What would have been 
 the triumph of that odious hypocrite and his minions, 
 if Wilkes had been defeated ! It was not your fault, 
 reverend sir, that he did not enjoy it completely. 
 But now, I promise you, you have so little power to 
 do mischief, that I much question whether the minis- 
 try will adhere to the promises they have made you. 
 It will be in vain to say that I am a parlizan of Mr. 
 Wilkes, or personally your enemy. You will con- 
 vince no man, for you do not believe it j'oursdf. 
 Yet I confess I am a little offended at tiie low rate al 
 which you seem to value my understanding. I beg, 
 Mr. Home, you will hereafter believe, that I measure 
 the integrity of men by their conduct, not by their 
 professions. Such tales may entertain Mr. Oliver, or 
 your grandmother ; but, trust me, they are thrown 
 away upon Junius. 
 
 You say you are a man. Was it generous, was it 
 manly, repeatedly to introduce into a newspaper, the 
 name of a young lady with whom you must hereto- 
 fore have lived on terms of politeness and good hu- 
 mour ? But I have done with you. In my opinion, 
 your credit is irrevocably ruined. Mr. Townshend, 
 I think, is nearly in the same predicament. Poor 
 Oliver has been shamefully duped by you. You have 
 made him sacrifice all the honour he got by his im- 
 j)risonment. As for Mr. Sawbridge, whose charac- 
 ter I really respect, I am astonished he does not see 
 through your duplicity Never was so base a design
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 109 
 
 so poorlj conducted. This letter,* you see, is not 
 'ntended for the public ; but, if you think it will do 
 you any service, you are at liberty to publish it. 
 
 JUNIUS 
 
 LU. 
 
 From the Rev. Mr. Home to Junius. 
 
 Sm, July 31, 1771. 
 
 You have disappointed me. When I told you that 
 surmise and general abuse, in however elegant lan- 
 guage, ought not to pass for proofs, I evidently hint- 
 ed at the reply which I expected : but you have drop- 
 ped your usual elegance, and seem willing to try what 
 will be the effect of surmise and general abuse in very 
 coarse language. Your answer to my last letter 
 (which, I hope, was cool, and temperate, and modest) 
 has convinced me, that my idea of a man is much su- 
 perior to yours of a gentleman. Of your fornin 
 letters, I have always said, Materiem superahat opus : 
 I do not think so of the present: the principles are 
 more detestable than the expressions are mean and 
 illiberal. I am contented that all those who adopt 
 the one should for ever load me with the other. 
 
 I appeal to the common sense of the public, to 
 which I have ever directed myself: I believe they have 
 
 • This letter was transmitted privately by the printer tc 
 Mr. Home, at Junius's request. Mr. Home returned it to 
 the printer, with directions to publish it.
 
 110 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 it J though I am soinetinies half inclined to saspcct 
 that Mr. Wilkes has formed a truer judgment of man- 
 kind than I have. However, of this I am sure, that 
 there is nodiing else upon which to place a steady 
 reliance. Trick, and low cunning, and addressing 
 their prejudices and passions, may be the fittest means 
 to carry a particular point; but if they have not com- 
 mon sense, there is no prospect of gaining for them 
 any real permanent good. The same passions which 
 have been artfully used by an honest man for their 
 advantage, may be more artfully employed by a dis- 
 honest man for their destruction. I desii-e them to 
 apply their common sense to this letter of Junius, 
 not for my sake, but their own ; it concerns them 
 most nearly ; for the principles it contains lead to 
 disgrace and ruin, and are inconsistent with every 
 notion of civil society. 
 
 The charges which Junius has brought against me, 
 are made ridiculous by his own inconsistency and 
 self-contradiction. He charges me positively with 
 " a rtew zeal in support of administration;" and with 
 " endeavours in support of the ministerial nomina- 
 tion of sheriffs." And he assigns two inconsistent 
 motives for my conduct : either that I have " sold 
 myself to the ministry ;" or am instigated " by the 
 solitary vindictive malice of a monk :" either that I 
 am influenced by a sordid desire of gain, or am hur- 
 ried on by " personal hatred, and blinded by resent- 
 ment." In his letter to the duke of Grafton, he sup- 
 poses me actuated by both : in his letter to me, he at 
 first doubts which of the two, whether interest or re- 
 venge, is my motive. However, at last he determines 
 for the former and again positively asserts, " tha/
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. Ill 
 
 the ministry have made me promises :" yet he pro- 
 duces no instance of corruption, nor pretends to have 
 any iutelHgence of a ministerial connexion. He men- 
 tions no cause of personal hatred to Mr. Wilkes, nor 
 any reason for my resentment or revenge : nor has 
 Mr. Wilkes himself ever hinted any, though repeat- 
 edly pressed. When Junius is called upon to justify 
 ills accusation, he answers, " He cannot descend to 
 an altercation with me in the newspapers." Junius, 
 who exists only in tl e newspapers, who acknowledges 
 he has " attacked my character" thei-e, and thinks 
 " I have some right to an explanation ;" yet this 
 Junius " cannot descend to an altercation in t!;o 
 iic-.vspapers !" And because he cannot descend to 
 ■Mi altercation with me in the newspapers, he sends a 
 loiter of abuse, by the printer, which he finishes wiih 
 tilling me, " I am at liberty to publish if.^^ Tiiis, 
 to be sure, is a most excellent method to avoid an 
 altercation in the newspapers! 
 
 The proofs of his positive charges are as extraor- 
 dinary. " He does not pretend to any intelligence 
 concerning me, or to know more of my conduct than 
 I myself have thought proper to communicate to the 
 public." He does not suspect me of such gross folly 
 a9 to have solicited votes, or to have written anony- 
 mously in the newspapers; because it is impossible to 
 do either without being detected, and brought to 
 shame. Junius says this ! who yet imagines that he 
 has himself written two years under that signature 
 (and more under others) without being detected ! his 
 warmest admirers will not hereafter add, without be- 
 ing brought to shame. But, tiiough he never did 
 suspect me of such gross folly, as to run the hazard
 
 112 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 of being detected, and brought to shame, by anonj 
 inous writing, he insists that I have been guilty of a 
 much grosser folly, of incu) ring the certainty of shame 
 and detection, by writings signed with my name ! 
 But this is a small flight for the towering Junius : 
 " He is far from thinking meanly of my abilities," 
 though " he is convinced that I want judgment ex- 
 tremel}';" and can " really respect Mr. Sawbridge's 
 character," though he declares him* to be so poor u 
 creature, as not to " see through the basest design, 
 conducted in the poorest manner. And this most 
 base design is conducted in the poorest manner by a 
 man, whom he does not suspect of gross iblly, and of 
 whose abilities he is far from thinking meanly ! 
 
 Siiould we ask Junius to reconcile these contra- 
 dictions, and explain this nonsense, the answer is 
 
 * I beg leave to introduce Mr. Home to the character ol 
 the Double Dealer. I thought they had been better ac- 
 quainted. " Another very wrong objection has been made 
 by so!me, who have not taken leisure to distinguish the 
 characters. The hero of the play (meaning Melefont) is a 
 gull, and made a fool, and cheated. Is every man a gull 
 '.nd a fool that is deceived ? At that rate, I am afraid, the 
 two classes of men will be reduced to one, and the knaves 
 themselves be at a loss to justify their title. But if an open, 
 honest-hearted man, who has an entire confidence in one 
 whom he takes to be his friend, and who (to confirm him in 
 his opinion) in all appearance, and upon several trials, has 
 been so, if this man be deceived by the treachery of the 
 other, must he of necessity commence fool immediately, 
 only because the other has proved a villain ?" Yes, says 
 parson Home. No, says Congreve : and he, I think, is al- 
 lowed to have known something of human nature.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 113 
 
 ready: " He cannot descend to an altercation in the 
 newspapers." He leels no reluctance to attack the 
 character of any man : the throne is not too high, 
 nor the cottage too low : his mighty malice can grasp 
 both extremes. He hints not his accusations as opin- 
 ion, conjecture, or inference, but delivers them as 
 positive assertions. Do the accused complain of in- 
 justice.'' He acknowledges they have some sort of 
 right to an explanation ; but if they ask for proofs 
 and facts, he begs to be excused ; and though he is 
 no where else to be encountered, " he cannot descend 
 to an altercation in the newspapers." 
 
 And this, perhaps, Junius may think " the liberal 
 resentment of a gentleman ;" this sculking assassina- 
 tion he may call courage. In all things, as in this, I 
 hope we differ. 
 
 " I thought that fortitude had been a mean 
 'Twixt fear and rashness ; not a lust obscene, 
 Or appetite of offending ; but a skill 
 And nice discernment between good and ill. 
 Her ends are honesty and pubUc good : 
 And without ih .^i; she is not understood." 
 
 Of two things, however, he has condescended to 
 give proof. He very properly produces a young lady 
 to prove that I am not a man; and a good old woman, 
 my grandmother, to prove Mr. Ohver a fool. Poor 
 old soul ! she read her Bible far otherwise than Ju- 
 nius ! She often found there, that the sins of the 
 fathers had been visited on the children ; and there- 
 fore was cautious that herself, and her immediate 
 descendants, should leave no reproach on her poster- 
 ity : and they left none. How Ittle could she fore-
 
 114 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 see tills reverse of Junius, who visits my political sins 
 upon n\y granchnother ! 1 do not cliarge this to the 
 score of malice in iiini; it proceeded entirely from his 
 propensity to blunder; that whilst he was reproach- 
 ing me for introilucing, in the most harmless manner, 
 lliL" name of one female, he might himself, at the same 
 iii.-;;iiit, introduce two. 
 
 1 am represented, alternately, as it suits Junius's 
 purpose, under the opposite characters of a gloomy 
 monk, and a man o^ politeness and good-humour. I 
 am called " a solitary monk," in order to confirm the 
 notion given of me in Mr. Wilkes's anonymous para- 
 graphs, lliat I never laugh. And the terms of polite- 
 ness and good-humour, on which 1 am said to have 
 lived heretofore with the young lady, are intended to 
 confirm other paragraphs of Mr. Wilkes, in which he 
 IS su|jpused to have ofiTended me by refusing his daugh- 
 ier. Ridicidous ! Yet I cannot deny but that Junius 
 has proved me uimianly and ungenerous, as ckaily 
 us he has shown me corrupt and vindictive : and I 
 will tell him more ; I have paid the present ministry 
 as many visits and compliments as ever I paid to the 
 young lady ; and shall all my life treat them with the 
 same politeness and good-humour. 
 
 But Junius " begs me to believe, that he measures 
 the integrity of men by their conduct, not by their 
 professions." Sure this Junius must imagine his 
 i-eaders as void of understanding as he is of modesty ! 
 Where shall we find the standard of his integrity? 
 By what are we to measure the conduct of this lurk- 
 ing assassin ? And he says this to me, whose conduct, 
 wherever T could personally appear, has Ijeen as 
 direct^ and open, and public, as my words. I have
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 116 
 
 liot, like hlin, concealed myself in my chauibc., to 
 shoot my arrows out of the window ; nor contented 
 myself to view the battle from afarj but publicly 
 mixed in the engagement, and shared the danger. 
 To whom have I, like him, refused my name, upon 
 complaint of injury? What printer have I desired 
 to conceal me ? In the infinite variety of business in 
 which I have been concerned, where it is not so easy 
 10 be faultless, which of my actions can he arraign ^ 
 To what danger has any man been exposed, which I 
 have not faced ? Information, action, imprisonment, 
 or death ? What labour have I refused f Wjiat 
 expense have I declined 'i What pleasure have I not 
 renounced .'' But Junius, to whom no conduct be- 
 longs, " measures the integrity of men by their con- 
 duct, not b.y their professions :" himself, all the while 
 being nothing but professions, and those too anony- 
 mous. The political ignorance, or wilful falsehood, 
 # of this declaimer, is extreme. His own former letters 
 justify both my conduct and those whom his last let- 
 ter abuses : for the public measures which Junius has 
 been all along defending, were ours whom he attacks ; 
 and the uniform opposer of those measures has been 
 Mr. Wilkes, whose bad actions and intentions he en- 
 deavours to screen. 
 
 Let Junius now, if he pleases, change his abuse, 
 and quitting his loose hold of interest and revenge, 
 accuse me of vanity, and call this defence boasting. 
 1 own I have pride to see statues decreed, and the 
 highest honours conferred, for measures and actions 
 which all men have approved ; whilst those who coun- 
 selled and caused them are execrated and insulted. 
 The darkness in whicl: Junius thi ks himself shroud-
 
 116 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 ed, has not concealed him ; nor the artifice of only 
 
 attaching under that signature those he would pull 
 down, whilst he recommends by other loays those he 
 would have promoted, disguised from me whose par- 
 tisan he is. When lord Chatham can forgive the 
 awkward situation in whicii, for the sake of the pub- 
 ic, he was designedly placed by the thanks to him 
 from the city ; and when Wilkes's name ceases to be 
 necessary to lord Rockingham, to keep up a clamour 
 against the persons of the ministry, without obliging 
 the different factions, now in opposition, to bind them- 
 selves beforehand to some certain points, and to stip- 
 ulate some precise advantages to the public ; then, 
 and not till then, may those whom he now abuses ex- 
 pect the approbation of Junius. The approbation of 
 the public, for our faithful attention to their interest, 
 by endeavours for those stipulations, which have made 
 us as obnoxious to the factions in opposition as to 
 those in administration, is not, perhaps, to be ex[):'(t- 
 ed till some years hence ; when the public will look 
 back, and see how shamefully they have been de- 
 luded, and by what arts they were made to lose the 
 golden opportunity of preventing what they wili 
 surely experience, — a change of ministers, without a 
 material change of measures, and without any secu- 
 rity for a tottering constitution. But what cares Ju- 
 nius for the security of the constitution .'' He has now 
 unfolded to us his diabolical principles. As a public 
 man he must ever condemn any measure which may 
 tend accidentally to gratify the sovereign ; and Mr. 
 Wilkes is to be supported and assisted in all his at- 
 tempts (no matter how ridiculous and mischievous his 
 projects) as long as he continues to he a thorn in the
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 117 
 
 k-ing''s side! The cause of the country, it seems, in the 
 opinion of Junius, is merely to vex the king; and any 
 rascal is to be supported in any roguery, provided he 
 can only thereby plant a thorn iji the king^s side. 
 This is the very extremity of faction, and the last de- 
 gree of political wickedness. Because lord Chatham 
 has been ill treated by the king, and treacherously 
 betrayed by the duke of Grafton, the latter is to be 
 " the pillow on which Junius will rest his resentment;" 
 and the public are to oppose the measures of govern- 
 ment from mere motives of personal enmity to the 
 sovereign ! These are the avowed principles of the 
 man who, in the same letter, says, " If ever he should 
 be convinced that I had no motive but to destroy 
 Wilkes, he shall then be ready to do justice to my 
 character, and to declare to the world, that he despi- 
 ses me somewhat less than he does at present!" Had 
 I ever acted from personal affection or enmity to ]\Ir. 
 Wilkes, I should justly be despised : but what does 
 he deserve, whose avowed motive is personal enmity 
 to the sovereign ? The contempt which I should 
 otherwise feel for the absurdity and glaring inconsis- 
 tency of Junius, is here swallowed up in my abhor- 
 rence of his principles. The right divine and sacred- 
 ness of kings is to me a senseless jargon. It was 
 thought a daring expression of Oliver Cromwell, in 
 the time of Charles the First, that, if he found him- 
 self placed opposite to the king in battle, lie would 
 discharge his piece into his bosom as soon as into 
 any other man's. I go farther : had 1 lived in those 
 days, I would not have waited for chance to give me 
 an opportunity of doing my duty; I would have sought 
 him through tiie ranks, and, without the least per-
 
 118 JUiVlUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 sonal onitniy, linvc (lischarged my piece into his 
 bosom rather than into any other man's. The king, 
 whose actions justify rebeUion to hi; government, 
 deserves death from the hand of every subject. And 
 should such a time arrive. I shall be as free to act as 
 to say ; but, till then, my attachment to the person 
 and family of the sovereign shall ever be found more 
 7.ealous and sincere than that of his flatterers. 1 
 would oflend the sovereign with as much reluctance 
 as the parent : but if the happiness and security ol 
 the whole family made it necessary, so far, and no 
 farther, I would oflend hitn without remorse. 
 
 But let us consider a little whither these principles 
 of Junius would lead us. Should Mr. Wilkes once 
 more commission Mr. Thomas Walpole to procure 
 for him a pension of one thousand pounds, upon the 
 Irish establishment, for thirty years, he must be sup- 
 ported in tiie demand by the public, because it would 
 mortify the king ! 
 
 Siiould he wish to see lord Rockingham and his 
 friends once more in administration, unclogged by 
 any stipulations for the people, that he might again 
 enjoy a pension of one thousand and forty pounds a 
 year, viz. from the first lord of the treasury, 5001. 
 from the lords of the treasury, 60Z. each : from the 
 lords of trade, 40Z. each, &;c. the public must give up 
 their attention to points of national benefit, and assist 
 Mr. Wilkes in his attempt, because it would mortify 
 the king ! 
 
 Should he demand the government of Canada, or 
 of Jamaica, or the embassy to Constantinople, and, 
 in case of refusal, threaten to write them down, as 
 he hac' before served another administration, in a
 
 JUNILS'S LETTERS. 119 
 
 year and a half, he must be supported in his preten- 
 sions, and upheld in his insolence, because it would 
 mortify the king ! 
 
 Junius may choose to suppose that these things 
 cannot happen ! But, that they have happened, not- 
 withstanding Mr. Wilkes's denial, I do aver. I main- 
 tain that Mr. Wilkes did commission Mr. Thomas 
 Walpole to solicit for him a pension of one thousand 
 pounds, on the Irish establishment, for thirty years ; 
 with which, and a pardon, he declared he would be 
 satisfied: and that, notwithstanding his letter to Mr. 
 Onslow, he did accept a clandestine, precarious, and 
 eleemosynary pension from the Rockingham admin- 
 istration, which they paid in proportion to, and out of 
 heir salaries ; and so entirely was it ministerial, that, 
 as any of them went out of the ministry, their names 
 were scratched out of the list, and they contributed 
 no longer. I say, he did solicit the governments, 
 and the embassy, and threatened their refusal nearly 
 in these words : " It cost me a year and a half to 
 write down the last administration ; should I employ 
 as much time upon you, very few of you would be in 
 at the death." When these threats did not prevail, 
 he came over to England to embarrass them by his 
 presence : and when he found that lord Rockingham 
 was something firmer and more manly than he ex- 
 pected, and refused to be bullied into what he couhl 
 not perform, Mr. Wilkes declared tiiat he could not 
 leave England without money and tlu^ duke of Port- 
 land and lord Rockingham purciiasetl iiis absence 
 with one hundred pounds a-piece, with which he re- 
 turned to Paris. And for the truth of what I here 
 advance, I appeal to the duke of Portland, to lord
 
 120 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 Rockingham, to John lord Cavendish^, to Mr. Wal- 
 pole, &,c. I appeal to the hand-writing of Mr. "Wilkes, 
 which is still extant. 
 
 Should Mr. Wilkes afterwards (failing in thia 
 wholesale trade) choose to dole out his popularity 
 by the pound, and expose the city offices to sale to 
 his brother, his attorney, he. Junius will tell us, 
 it is only an ambition that he has to make them 
 chamberlain, town clerk, &ic. and he must not be 
 opposed in dius robbing the ancient citizens of their 
 birthright, because any defeat of Mr. Wilkes would 
 gratify the king ! 
 
 Should he, after consuming the whole of his own 
 fortune and that of his wife, and incurring a debt of 
 twenty thousand pounds, merely by his own private 
 extravagance, without a single service or exertion al 
 this time for the public, whilst his estate remained ; 
 should he, at length, being undone, commence patricn ; 
 have the good fortune to be illegally persecuted, and, 
 in consideration of that illegality, be espoused by a 
 few gentlemen of the purest public principles: should 
 his debts, though none of them were contracted for 
 the public, and all his other encumbrances, be dis- 
 charged; should he be offered GOOZ. or 1000?. a year 
 to make him independent for the future ; and should 
 he, after all, instead of gratitude for these services, 
 msolently forbid his benefactors to bestow their own 
 money upon any other object but himself, and revile 
 them for setting any bounds to their supplies; Junius 
 (who, any more than lord Chatham, never contributed 
 one farthing to these enormous expenses) will tell 
 them, that if hey think of converting the supplies of 
 Mr. Wilkes's private extravagance to the support of
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 121 
 
 public measures, they are as great fools as my grand- 
 mother ; and that Mr. Wilkes ought to hold the strings 
 of tiieir purses, as long as he continues to be a thorn 
 in the king's side ! 
 
 Upon these principles I never have acted, and 1 
 never will act. In my opinion, it is less dishonoura- 
 ble to be the creature of a court, than the tool of a 
 faction. I will not be either. I understand the two 
 great leaders of opposition to be lord Rockingham 
 and lord Chatham ; under one of whose banners all 
 the opposing members of both houses, who desire to 
 get places, enlist. I can place no confidence in either 
 of them, or in any others, unless they will now engage, 
 whilst they ..le out, to grant certain essential advan- 
 tages for the security of the public when they shall 
 be in administration. These points they refuse to 
 stipulate, because they are fearful lest they should 
 prevent any future overtures from the court. To 
 force them to these stipulations has been the uniform 
 endeavour of Mr. Sawbridge, Mr. Townshend, Mr. 
 Oliver, &ic. and therefore they are abused by Junius. 
 I know no reason, but my zeal and industry in the 
 same cause, that should entitle me tc the honour of 
 being ranked hy his abuse with persons of their for- 
 tune and station. It is a duty I owe to the memory 
 of the late ]\Ir. Bcckford, to say, that lie had no other 
 aim than this, when he provided that sumptuous en- 
 tertainment at the Mansion House, for the members 
 of both houses in opposition. At that time, he drew 
 up the heads of an engagement, which lie gave to me, 
 with a request that I would couch it in terms so cau- 
 tious and precise, as to leave no room for future 
 quibble and evasion ; but to oblige them either to
 
 122 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 fulfil the intent of the obligation, or to sign their own 
 infamy, and leave it on record ; and this engagement 
 he was determined to proj3ose to them at the Mansion 
 House, that cither by their refusal they might forfeit 
 the confidence of the public, or, by the engagement, 
 lay a foundation for confidence. 
 
 When they were informed of the intention, lord 
 Rockingham and his friends flatly refused any en- 
 gagement ; and Mr. Beckford as llally swore, ihvy 
 sliould then " eat none of his broth ;" and he wa:; 
 determined to put off the entertainment ; but Mi 
 Reckford was prevailed upon by * * * to indulg 
 them in the ridiculous parade of a popular proccs 
 sion through the city, and to give them the fooliJ; 
 pleasure of an imaginary consequence, for the re:./ 
 benefit only of the cooks and purveyors. 
 
 It was the same motive which dictated the thanks oi 
 liie cit}^ to lord Chatham ; which were expressed to be 
 given for his declaration in favour o( short parliamenis, 
 in order thereby to fix lord Chatham, at least, to that 
 one constitutional remedy, without which all otheii 
 can afibrd no security. The embarrassment, no doubt^ 
 was cruel. He had his *.hoice, either to ofl!end the 
 Rockingham party, who declared formally against 
 short parliaments, and with the assistance of whose 
 numbers in both houses he must expect again to bo 
 minister, or to give up the confidence of the public, 
 from whom, finally, all real consequence must pro- 
 ceed. Lord Chatham chose the latter; and I will 
 venture to say, that, by his answer to those thanks, 
 he has given up the people without gaining the 
 friendship or cordial assistance of the Rockingham 
 factioD, whose little politics are confined tc the raak-
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 123 
 
 ing of matches, and extending their family connex- 
 ions ; and who think they gain more by procuring 
 one additional vote to tiieir party in the house ol 
 commons, than by adding their languid property, and 
 feeble character, to the abilities of a Chatham, or tlie 
 confidence of a public. 
 
 Whatever may be the event of the present wretched 
 state of politics in this country, the principles of Ju- 
 nius will suit no form of government. They are not 
 to be tolerated under any constitution. Personal en- 
 mity is a motive fit only for the devil. Whoever, or 
 whatever is sovereign, demands the respect and sup- 
 port of the people. The union is formed for their 
 happiness, which cannot be had without mutual res- 
 pect; and he counsels maliciously who would per- 
 suade either to a wanton breach of it. When it is 
 banished by either party, and when every method 
 has been tried in vain to restore it, there is no reme- 
 dy but a divorce ; but even then he must have a 
 hard and a wicked heart indeed, who punishes the 
 greatest criminal merely for the sake of the punish- 
 ment ; and who does not lei fell a tear for every drop 
 of blood that is shed in a public struggle, however 
 just the quarrel. 
 
 JOHN HORNE.
 
 121 JUNIUS'S LETTERS 
 
 LIII. 
 
 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser , 
 
 SIR, August 15, 1771. 
 
 I ought to make an apology to the duke of Graf- 
 ton, for suffering any part of my attention to be di- 
 verted from his grace to Mr. Home. I am not justi- 
 fied by the similarity of their dispositions. Private 
 vices, however detestable, have not dignity sufficient 
 to attract the censure of the press, unless they are 
 united with the power of doing some signal mischief 
 to the community. Mr. Home's situation does not 
 correspond with his intentions. In my opinion, (which 
 I know will be attributed to my usual vanity and pre- 
 sumption) his letter to me does not deserve an answer. 
 But I understand that the public are not satisfied with 
 my silence; that an answer is expected from me; and 
 that if I persist in refusing to plead, it will be taken 
 for conviction. I should be inconsistent with the 
 principles I profess, if I declined an appeal to the good 
 sense of the people, or did not willingly submit my- 
 self to the judgment of my peers. 
 
 If any coarse expressions have escaped me, I am 
 ready to agree that they are unfit for Junius to make 
 use of; but I see no reason to admit that they have 
 been improperly applied. 
 
 Mr. Home, it seems, is unable to comprehend how 
 an extreme want of conduct and discretion can con 
 sist with the abilities I have allowed him ; nor can he
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 125 
 
 conceive thai a very honest man, with a very good 
 luiderstanding, may be deceived by a knave. His 
 iinowledge of human nature must be limited indeed. 
 Had he never mixed with the world, one would have 
 thought that even his books might have taught him 
 better— Did he hear lord Mansfield when he defended 
 his doctrine concerning libels ? Or when he stated the 
 law in prosecutions for criminal conversation ? Or 
 wlien he delivered his reasons for calling tiie house of 
 lords together to receive acopy of his charge to the jury 
 in Woodfall's trial ? Had he been present upon any 
 of these occasions, he would have seen how possible it 
 is for a man of the first talents to confound himself 
 in absurdities, which woukl disgrace the lips of an 
 idiot. Perhaps the example might have taught him 
 not to value his own understanding so highly. Lord 
 Lyttleton's integrity'and judgment are unquestiona- 
 l)le; yet lie is known to admire that cunning Scotch- 
 man, and verily believes him an honest man. I 
 speak to facts, with which all of us are convcrsaiit. 
 I speak to men, and to their experience ; and will not 
 descend to answer the little sneering sophistries of a 
 collegian. Distinguished talents are not necessarily 
 connected with discretion. If there be any thing re- 
 markable in the character of Mr. Home, it is, that 
 extreme want of judgment should be united with his 
 very moderate capacity. — Yet I have not forgotten 
 the acknowledgment I made him ; he owes it to mv 
 bounty : and tliough his letter has lowered him in mv 
 opinion, I scorn to retract the charitable donation. 
 
 I said it would be very difficult for Mr. Home to 
 write directly in defence of a ministerial measure, and 
 not to be detected, and even that difficulty I confined
 
 126 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 to bis particular situation. He changes lie terms of 
 the proposition, and supposes me to assert, that it 
 would be impossible for any man to write for the 
 newspapers, and not be discovered. 
 
 He repeatcdl}' affirms, or intimates at least, that ho 
 knows the author of these letters. With what colour 
 of truth, then, can he pretend, " That I am no where 
 to be encountered but in a newspaper .?" I shall leave 
 him to his suspicions. It is not necessary that I should 
 confide in the honour and discretion of a man, who 
 already seems to hate me with as much rancour as if 
 I had formerly been his friend. But he asserts, that 
 he lias traced me through a variety of signatures. 
 To make the discovery of any importance to his pur- 
 pose, he should have proved, either that the fictitious 
 character of Junius has not been consistently sup- 
 ported, or that the author has maintained difTereiit 
 principles under different signatures. I cannot recall 
 to my memory the numberless trifles I have written ; 
 but I rely upon the consciousness of my own integri- 
 t}', and defy him to fix any colourable charge of in- 
 consistency upon me. 
 
 I am not bound to assign the secret motives of his 
 apparent hatred of Mr. Wilkes : nor does it follow 
 that I may not judge fairly of his conduct, though 
 it were true that I had no conduct of my own. Mr. 
 Home enlarges with rapture upon the importance of 
 his services ; the dreadful battles which he might have 
 been engaged in, and the dangers he has escaped. In 
 support of the formidable description he quotes verses 
 without mercy. The gentleman deals in fiction, and 
 naturally appeals to the evidence of the poets. Taking 
 him at his word, he cannot but admit the superiority
 
 ji;nius's letters. 127 
 
 of Mr. Wilkes in this line of service. On one side, 
 we see nothing but imaginary distress ; on the other, 
 we see real prosecutions ; real penalties 5 real impri- 
 sonment ; life repeatedly hazarded ; and, at one mo- 
 ment, almost the certainty of death. Thanks nre 
 undoubtedly due to every man who does his duly in 
 the engagement, but it is the wounded soldier who 
 deserves the reward. 
 
 I did not mean to deny, that Mr. Home hnd been 
 an active partizan. It would defeat my own purpose 
 not to allow him a degree of merit which aggravates 
 his guilt. The very charge " of contributing his ut- 
 most efforts to support a ministerial measure," implies 
 an acknowledgment of his former services. If he had 
 not once been distinguished by his apparent zeal in 
 defence of the common cause, he could not now be 
 distinguished by deserting it. As for myself, it is no 
 longer a question, " Whether I shall mix with the 
 throng, and take a single share in the danger." 
 Whenever Junius appears, he must encounter a host 
 of enemies. But is there no honourable way to serve 
 the public, without engaging in personal quarrels with 
 insignificant individuals, or submitting to the drud- 
 gery of canvassing votes for an election ? Is ther( 
 no merit in dedicating my life to the information of 
 my fellow-subjects .'' What public question have I 
 declined .'' What villain have I spared ? Is there no 
 labour in the composition of these letters ? Mr. 
 Uorne, 1 fear is partial to me, and measur»> the fa- 
 cility of my writings by the fluenc}' of his own. 
 
 He talks to us in high terms of the gallant feats he 
 would have performed if he had lived in the last cen- 
 tury The unhappy Charles could hardly have es-
 
 128 JUNILS'S LETTERS. 
 
 caped liim. But living princes have'a claim to his 
 attachinent and respect. Upon tlicse terms, there is 
 no danger in heing a patriot. If he means any thing 
 more than a pompous rlinpsod}', let us try how well 
 his argument holds together. I presume he is not yet 
 so much a courtier as to aflirm that the constitution 
 has not been grossly and daringly violated under the 
 present reign. He will not say, that the laws have 
 not been shamefully broken or perverted ; that the 
 rights of the subject have not been invaded ; or, that 
 redress has not been repeatedly solicited and refused. 
 Grievances, like these, were the foundation of the re- 
 bellion in the last century ; and, if I understand Mr. 
 Home, they would, at that period, have justified 
 him, to his own mind_, in deliberately attacking the 
 life of his sovereign. I shall not ask him, to what 
 political constitution this doctrine can be reconciled : 
 but, at least, it is incumbent upon him to show, that 
 the present king has better excuses than Charles the 
 First, for the errors of his government. He ought 
 to demonstrate to us, that the constitution was better 
 understood a hundred years ago, than it is at present; 
 that the legal rights of the subject, and the limits of 
 the prerogative, were more accurately defined, and 
 more clearly comprehended. If propositions like 
 these cannot be fairly maintained, I do not see how 
 he can reconcile it to his conscience, not to act im- 
 mediately with the same freedom with which he speaks. 
 I reverence the character of Charles the First as lit- 
 ile as Mr. Home ; but I will not insult his misfor- 
 tunes by a comparison that would degrade him. 
 
 It is worth observing, by what gentle degrees the 
 furious, persecuting zeal of Mr. Home has softened
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 129 
 
 nilo moderation. Men and measures were yesterday 
 Ills object. What pains did he once take to bring that 
 great state criminal M' Quirk to execution ! To-day 
 he confines himself to measures only ; no penal ex- 
 ample is to be left to the successors of the duke of 
 Grafton. To-morrow, I presume, both men and 
 measures will be forgiven. The flaming patriot, who 
 so lately scorched us in the meridian, sinks temper- 
 ately to the west, and is hardly felt as he descends. 
 
 I comprehend the policy of endeavouring to com- 
 municate to Mr. Oliver and Mr. Sawbridge a share 
 in the reproaches with which he supposes me to iiave 
 loaded him. My memory fails me, if I have men- 
 tioned their names with disrespect; unless it be re- 
 proachful to acknowledge a sincere respect for the 
 rlraracter of Mr. Sawbridge, and not to have ques- 
 tioned the innocence of Mr. Oliver's intentions. 
 
 I I seems I am a partizan of the great leader of the 
 (ijjljosition. If the charge had been a reproach, it 
 s'i'juld have been better supported. I did not intend 
 to make a public declaration of the respect I bear lord 
 Chatham ; I well knew what unworthy conclusions 
 would be drawn from it. But I am called upon to 
 deliver ray opinion ; and surely it is not in the little 
 censure of Mr. Home to deter me from doing signal 
 justice to a man, who, I confess, has grown upon my 
 esteem. As for the common sordid views of avarice, 
 or any purpose of vulgar ambition, I question whether 
 the applause of Junius would be of service to lord 
 Chatham. My vote will hardly recommend him to 
 an increase of his pension, or to a seal in the cabinet. 
 But, if his ambition be upon a level with his under- 
 standing, if he judges of what is truly honourable 
 
 F 2 9
 
 130 JUx\[US'S LETTERS 
 
 for himself, with the same superior genius which ani- 
 mates and directs him to eloquence in debate, to wis- 
 dom in decision, even the pen of Junius shall con- 
 tribute to reward him Recorded honours shall g-atli- 
 or round his monument, and thicken over him. It is 
 a solid fabric, and will support the laurels that adorn 
 it. I am not conversant in the language of panegyric. 
 These praises are extorted from me ; but they will 
 wear well, for they have been dearly earned. 
 
 My detestation of the duke of Grafton is not found- 
 ed upon his treachery to any individual ; though I 
 am willing enough to suppose, that, in public affairs, 
 it would be impossible to desert or betray lord Chat- 
 ham, without doing an essential injury to this coun- 
 try. My abhorrence of the duke arises from an inti- 
 mate knowledge of his character, and from a thorough 
 conviction that his baseness has been the cause of 
 greater mischief to England, than even the unfortu- 
 nate ambition of lord Bute. 
 
 The shortening the duration of parliaments is a 
 subject on which Mr. Home cannot enlarge too warm- 
 ly, nor will I question his sincerity. If I did not 
 profess the same sentiments, I should be shamefully 
 inconsistent with myself. It is unnecessary to bind 
 lord Chatham by the written formality of an engage- 
 ment. He has publicly declared himself a convert 
 to triennial parliaments ; and though I have long 
 been convinced, that this is the only possible resource 
 vve have left to preserve the substantial freedom of the 
 constitution, I do not think we have a right to deter- 
 mine against the integrity of lord Rockingham or his 
 frreuds. Other raeasurss may undoubtedly be sup-
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 131 
 
 ported in argument, as better adapted to the disorder, 
 or more likely to be obtained. 
 
 Mr. Home is well assured that I never was tie 
 champion of Mr. Wilkes. But though I am not 
 obliged to answer for the firmness of his future adhe- 
 rence to the principles he professes, I have no reason 
 to presume that he will hereafter disgrace them. As 
 for all those imaginary cases which Mr. Home so 
 petulantly urges against me 1 have one plain honest 
 answer to make him. Whenever Mr. Wilkes shall 
 be convicted of sd iciting a pension, an embassy, or 
 a government, he must depart from that situation, 
 and renounce that character, which he assumes at pre- 
 sent, and whiv:h, in my opinion, entitles him to the 
 support of the public. By the same act, and at the 
 same moment, he will forfeit his power of mortifying 
 the king : and though he can never be a favourite at 
 Si. James's, his baseness may administer a solid satis- 
 faction to the royal mind. The man I speak of has 
 not a heart to feel for the frailties of his fellow-crea- 
 iiires. It is their virtues that afflict, it is their vices 
 that console him. 
 
 I give every possible advantage to Mr. Home, 
 V, hen I take the facts he refers to for granted. That 
 I hey are the produce of his invention, seems highly 
 jtrobable; that they are exaggerated, I have no doubt. 
 At the worst, what do they amount to.? but that Mr. 
 Wilkes, who never was thought of as a perfect pattern 
 of morality, has not been at all times proof against 
 the extremity of distress. How shameful is it in a 
 man who has lived in friendship with him, to reproach 
 him with failings too naturally connected with des- 
 pair.? Is no allowance to be made for banishmen
 
 132 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 and ruin ? Does a two years' imprisonment make 
 no atonement for his crimes ? Tlie resentment of a 
 priest is implacable : no sufferings can soften, no 
 penitence can appease him. Yet he himself, I think, 
 upon his own system, has a multitude of political of- 
 fences to atone for. 1 will not insist upon the nause- 
 ous detail with which he so long disgusted the pub- 
 lic ; he seems to be ashamed of it. But what excuse 
 will he make to the friends of the constitution, foi 
 labouring to promote this consummately had man to 
 a station of the highest national trust and import- 
 ance.^ Upon what honourable motives did he recom- 
 mend him to the livery of London for their represen- 
 live ; to the ward of Farringdon for their alder- 
 man ; to the county of Middlesex for their knight ^ 
 Will he affirm, that, at that time, he was ignorant o. 
 Mr. Wilkes's solicitations to the ministry.'' That he 
 should say so, is, indeed, very necessary for his own 
 justification ; but where will he find credulity to be- 
 lieve him ^ 
 
 In what school this gentleman learned his ethics, I 
 know not. His logic seems to have been studied un- 
 der Mr. Dyson. That miserable pamphleteer, divid- 
 ing the only precedent in point, and taking as much 
 of it as suited his purpose, had reduced his argument 
 upon the Middlesex election to something like the 
 shape of a syllogism. Mr. Home has conducted 
 himself with the same ingenuity and candour. I had 
 afiirmed, that Mr. Wilkes would preserve the public 
 fa /our, " as long as he stood forth against a minis- 
 try and parliament, who were doing every thing they 
 could to enslave the country and as long as he was 
 a thorn in the king's side." Yet, from the exulting
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 133 
 
 triumph of Mr. Home's reply, one would think that 
 I had rested my expectation that Mr. Wilkes \^oultl 
 be supported by the public, upon the single condition 
 of his mortifying the king. This may be logic at 
 Cambridge, or at tiie treasury ; but, among men of 
 sense and honour, it is folly or villanj' in the ex- 
 treme. 
 
 I see the pitiful advantage he has taken of a single 
 unguarded expression, in a letter not intended for the 
 public. Yet it is only the expression that is unguard- 
 ed. I adhere to the true meaning of that member of 
 the sentence, taken separately as he takes it ; and 
 no.v, upon the coolest deliberation, re-assert, that, 
 fir the purposes I referred to, it may be highly meri- 
 t;)i!()us to the public, to wound the personal feelings 
 (if the sovereign. It is not a general proposition, nor 
 i; It generally applied to the chief magistrate of this, 
 or any other constitution. Mr. Home knows, as well 
 as I do, that the best of princes is not displeased with 
 the abuse which he sees thrown upon his ostensible 
 ministers. It makes them, I presume, more properly *• 
 the objects of his royal compassion. Neither does 
 it escape his sagacity, that the lower they are de- 
 graded in the public esteem, the more submissively 
 they must depend upon his favour for protection. 
 This I affirm, upon the most solemn conviction, and 
 the most certain knowledge, is a leading maxim in 
 the policy of the closet. It is unnecessary to pursue 
 the argument any farther. 
 
 Mr. Home is now a very loyal subject. He laments 
 the wretched state of politics in this country ; and 
 sees, in a new liglit, the weakness and folly of the 
 opposition. " Whoever, or whatever, is sovereign
 
 134 JUNIUS"S LETTERS. 
 
 demands the respect and support of the people:"'* It 
 wns not so " when Nero fiddled while Rome was 
 burning." Our gracious sovereign has had wonder- 
 ful success in creating new attachments to his person 
 and family. He owes it, I presume, to the regular 
 system he has pursued in the mystery of conversion. 
 He began with an experiment upon the Scotch, and 
 concludes with converting Mr. Home. What a pity 
 It is, that the Jews should be condemned by Provi- 
 dence to wait for a Messiah of their own ! 
 
 The priesthood are accused of misinterpreting the 
 Scriptures. Mr. Home has improved upon his pro- 
 fession. He alters the text, and creates a refutable 
 doctrine of his own. Such artifices cannot long de- 
 lude the understandings of the people; and, without 
 meaning an indecent comparison, I may venture to 
 foretell, that the Bible and Junius will be read, when 
 the commentaries of the Jesuits are forgotten. 
 
 JUNIUS. 
 
 * The very soliloquy of lord Suffolk before he passed the 
 Rubicou.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 135 
 
 LIV. 
 
 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser. 
 
 SIR, August 26, 1771. 
 
 The enemies of the people having now nothing 
 better to object to my friend Junius, are, at last, obli- 
 ged to quit his politics, and to rail at him for crimes 
 lie is not guilty of. His vanity and impiety are now 
 the perpetual topics of their abuse. I do not mean 
 to lessen the force of such charges, supposing they 
 were true, but to show that they are not founded. If 
 I admitted the premises, I should readily agree in all 
 the consequences drawn from them. Vanity, indeed, 
 is a venial error, for it usually carries its own punish- 
 ment with it ; but if I thought Junius capable of ut- 
 tering a disrespectful word of the religion of his coun- 
 try, I sliould be the first 10 renounce and give him 
 up to the public contempt and indignation. As a 
 man, I am satisfied that he is a Christian, upon the 
 most sincere conviction : as a writer, he would be 
 grossly inconsistent with his political principles, if he 
 dared to attack a religion, established by those laws, 
 which it seems to be the purpose of his life to defend. 
 Now for the proofs. Junius is accused of an impious 
 allusion to the holy sacrament, where he says, that, 
 " if lord Weymouth be denied the cup, there would 
 be no keeping him within the pale of the ministry." 
 Now, sir, I affirm, that this passage refers entirely to 
 a ceremonial in the Roman Catholic churcii, which
 
 136 JUNIUS'S LETTERb 
 
 denies the cup to the laity. It has no manner of re- 
 lation to the protestant creed ; and is in this country 
 as fair an object of ridicule as transuhstantiation, or 
 any other part of lord Peter's History, in the Tale of 
 a Tub. 
 
 But Junius is charged with equal vanity and im- 
 piety, in comparing his writings to the Holy Scrip- 
 tures. The formal protest he makes against any such 
 comparison avails him nothing. It becomes neces- 
 sary then to show that the charge destroys itself If 
 he be vain, he cannot be impious. 
 
 A vain man does not usually compare himself to 
 in\ object which it is 4iis design to undervalue. On 
 the other hand, if he be impious, he cannot be vain ; 
 for his impiety, if any, must consist in his endeavour- 
 ing to degrade the Holy Scriptures, by a comparison 
 vvitlj his own contemptible writings. This would be 
 folly, indeed, of the grossest nature ; but where lies 
 the vanity .? I shall now be told, " Sir, what you 
 s;iy is plausible enough ; but still you must allow, 
 that it is shamefully impudent in Junius to tell us 
 that his works will live as long as the Bible." My 
 answer is. Agreed: hut first prove that he has said so. 
 Look at his words, and you will find that tiie utmost 
 he expects is, that the Bible and Junius will survive 
 the commentaries of the Jesuits; which may prove 
 true in a fortnight. The most malignant sagacity 
 cannot show that his works are, in his opinion, to live 
 as long as the Bible. Suppose I were to foretell, that 
 Jack and Tom would survive Harry, does it tollovv 
 that Jack must live as long as Tom .? I would only 
 illustrate my meaning, and protest against the least 
 idea of profaneness.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 137 
 
 Tel this is the way in which Junius is usually 
 answered, arraigned, and convicted. These candid 
 critics never remember any thing he says in honour 
 of our holy religion: though it is true that one of 
 {lis leading arguments is made to rest " upon the in- 
 ternal evidence, which the purest of all religions 
 carries with it." I quote his words; and conclude 
 from them, that he is a true and hearty christian, in 
 substance, not in ceremony; though possibly he may 
 not agree with my reverend lords the bishops, or with 
 the head of the church, " that prayers are morality, 
 or that kneeliijg is religion." 
 
 PHILO JUNIUS. 
 
 LV. 
 
 From the Reverend Mr. Home to Junius. 
 
 August 17, 1771. 
 
 I congratulate you, sir, on the recovery of your 
 wonted style, though it has cost you a fortnight. I 
 compassionate your labour in the composition of your 
 letters, and will communicate to you the secret of my 
 fluency. Truth needs no ornament ; and in my 
 opinion, what she borrows of the pencil is deformity. 
 
 You brought a positive charge against me of cor- 
 ruption. I denied the charge, and called for your 
 proofs. You replied with abuse, and re-asserted 
 your charge. I called again for proofs. You reply 
 again with abuse only, and drop your accusation.
 
 138 JUNIUS'S TiETTERS. 
 
 In jour fortnight's letter, there is not one word upon 
 tlie subject of my corruption. 
 
 I have no more to say, but to return thanks to you 
 for your condescension, and to a grateful public, and 
 honest ministry, for all the favours they have con- 
 ferred upon me. The two latter, I am sure, will 
 never refuse me any grace I shall solicit : and since 
 you have been pleased to ac Knowledge, that you told 
 a deliberate lie in my favour, out of bounty, and as a 
 ciiaritable donation, why may I not expect that you 
 will hereafter (if you do not forget you ever men- 
 tioned my name with disrespect) make the same ac- 
 knowledgment for what you have said to my preju- 
 dice ? This second recantation will perhaps, be more 
 abhorrent from your disposition , but should you de- 
 cline it, you will only afford one more instance, how 
 much easier it is to be generous than just, and that 
 men are sometimes bountiful who are not honest. 
 
 At all events, I am as well satisfied with panegyric 
 as lord Chatham can be. Monument I shall have 
 none ; but over my grave it will be said, in your own 
 words, " Home's situation did not correspond with 
 his intentions."* 
 
 JOHN HORNE 
 
 * The epitaph would not ht. ill suited to the character 
 at the best it is but equivocal.
 
 JUmUS'S LETTERS 139 
 
 LVI. 
 
 To his Grace the Duke of Grafton. 
 
 MY LORD, September 28, 1771 
 
 The people of England are not apprised of the full 
 extent of their obligations to yon. They have yet no 
 adequate idea of the endless variety of your character. 
 They have seen you distinguished and successful in 
 (he continued violation of those mornl and political 
 duties, by which the little as well as the great socie- 
 ties of life are connected and held together. Every 
 colour, every character became you. With a rate of 
 abilities which lord Weymouth very justly looks 
 down upon with contempt, you have done as much 
 mischief to tlie community as Cromwell would have 
 done, if Cromwell had been a coward ; and as much 
 as Machiavel, if Machiavel had not known that an 
 appearance of morals and religion is useful in society. 
 To a thinking man, the influence of the crown will, 
 in no view, appear so formidable, as when he observes 
 to what enormous excesses it has safely conducted 
 your grace, without a ray of real understandi-ng. 
 without even the pretensions to common decency or 
 principle of any kind, or a single spark of personal 
 resolution. What must be the operation of that per- 
 nicious influence (for which our kings have wisely 
 exchanged the nugatory name of prerogative) that in 
 the highest stations can so abundantly supply the ab-- 
 sence of virtue, courage, and abilities, and qualify
 
 140 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 man to be a minister of u great nation, whom a pri- 
 vate gentleman would be ashamed and afraid to admit 
 Into his family ? Like the universal passi)ort of an 
 ambassador, it supercedes the prohibition of the laws, 
 banishes the staple virtues of tlio country, and intro- 
 duces vice and folly triumphantly into all the depart- 
 ments of the slate. Other princes, besides his majesty, 
 have had the means of corruption within their reach, 
 but they have used it with moderation. In former 
 times, corruption was considered as a foreign auxil- 
 iary to government, and only called in upon extra- 
 ordinary emergencies. The unfeigned piety, the 
 sanctified religion of George the Third, have taught 
 him to new model the civil forces of the state. The 
 natural resources of the crown are no longer confided 
 in. Corruption glitters in the van, collects and main- 
 tains a standing army of mercenaries, and at the 
 same moment impoverishes and enslaves the country. 
 His majesty's predecessors (excepting that worthy 
 family from which you, my lord, are unquestionably 
 descended) had some generous qualities in their com- 
 position, with vices, I confess, or frailties in abun- 
 dance. They were kings or gentlemen, not hypo- 
 crites or priests. They were at the head of the church, 
 but did not know the value of their office. They 
 said their prayers without ceremony, and had too 
 little priestcraft in their understanding, to reconcile 
 the sanctimonious forms of religion with the utter de- 
 struction of the morality of their people. IMy lord, 
 this is fact, not declamation. With all your partiality 
 to the house of Stuart, you must confess, tiiat eveii 
 Charles the Second would have blushed at that open 
 encouragemeitt, at those eager, meretricious caresses-
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 141 
 
 with which every species of private vice and public 
 prostitution is received at St. James's. The unfortu- 
 nate house of Stuart has been treated with an asperity 
 which, if comparison be a defence, seems to border 
 upon injustice. Neither Charles nor his brother were 
 qualified to support such a system of measures a«^ 
 would be neccessary to change the government and 
 subvert the constitution of England. One of them 
 was too much in earnest in his pleasures, the other in 
 his religion. But the danger to this country would 
 cease to be problematical, if the crown should ever 
 descend to a prince whose apparent simplicity might 
 throw his subjects off their guard, who might be no 
 libertine in behaviour, who should have no sense of 
 honour to restrain him, and who, with just religion 
 enough to impose upon the multitude, might have no 
 scruples of conscience to interfere with his morality. 
 With these honourable qualifications, and the decisive 
 advantage of situation, low craft and falsehood are 
 all the abilities that are wanting to destroy the wisdom 
 of nges, and to deface the noblest monument tliat 
 human policy has erected. 1 know such a man ; my 
 lord, I know you both ; and, with the blessing of God 
 (for I, too, am religious) the people of England shall 
 know you as well as I do. I am not very sure that 
 greater abilities, would not, in effect, be an impedi- 
 ment to a design which seems at first sight to recinirc 
 a superior capacity. A better understanding might 
 make him sensible of the wonderful beauty of that 
 system he was endeavouring to corrupt ; the danger 
 of the attempt might alarm him ; the meanness and 
 intrinsic worthlessness of tlic object (supposing he 
 could attain it) would fill him with shame, repentance,
 
 142 JUNIUS'S LETTERS 
 
 and disgust. But these are sensations which find 
 no entrance into a barbarous, contracted heart. In 
 some men there is a malignant passion to destroy the 
 works of genius, literature, and freedom. The Van- 
 dal and the monk find equal gratification i i it. 
 
 Reflections like these, my lord, have a general 
 relation to your grace, and inseparably attend you, 
 in whatever company or situation your character 
 occurs to us. They have no mmediate connexion 
 with the following recent fact, which I lay before 
 the public, for the honour of the best of sovereigns, 
 and for the edification of his people. A prince 
 (whose piety and self-denial, one would think, n)ight 
 secure him Irom such a multitude of worldl}' necessi- 
 ties,) with an annual revenue of near a million ster- 
 ling, unfortunately wants money. The navy of Eng- 
 land, by an equally strange occurrence of unforscen 
 circumstances, (though not quite so unfortunately for 
 his majesty,) is in equal want of timber. The world 
 knows in what a hopeful condition you delivered the 
 navy to your successor, and in what a condition we 
 found it in the moment of distress. You were deter- 
 mined it should continue in the situation in which you 
 left it. It happened, however, very luckily for the 
 privy purse, that one of the above wants promised fair 
 to supply the other. Our religious, benevolent, gene- 
 rous sovereign has no objection to selling his own tim- 
 ber to his own admiralty, to repair his own ships, nor 
 to putting the money into his own pocket. People of 
 a religious turn naturally adhere to the principles of 
 the church ; whatever they acquire falls into mort- 
 main. Upon a representation fiom the admiralty of 
 tiie extraordinary want of timber for the indispensable
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 143 
 
 repairs of the navy, the surveyor-general was direct- 
 ed to make a survey of the timber in all the royul 
 chases and forests in England. Having obeyed Ills 
 orders with accuracy and attention, he reported that 
 the finest timber he had any where met with, and the 
 properest, in ever}" respect, for the purposes of the 
 navy, was in Wiiittlebury Forest, of which your 
 grace, I think, is hereditary' ranger. In consequence 
 of this report, the usual warrant was prepared at the 
 treasury, and delivered to the surveyor, by which he, 
 or his deputy, were authorised to cut down any trees 
 in Whittlebury Forest, which should appear to be 
 proper for the purposes above-mentioned. The 
 deputy being informed that the warrant was signed, 
 and delivered to his principal in London, crosses the 
 country to Northamptonshire, and, with an officious 
 zeal for the public service, begins to do his duty in 
 the forest. Unfortunately for him, he iiad not the 
 warrant in his pocket. The oversight was enormous ; 
 and you have punished him for it accordingly. You 
 have insisted, that an active, useful officer should be 
 dismissed from his place. You have ruined an inno- 
 cent man and his family. In what language shall I 
 address so black, so cowardly a tyrant .'' Thou 
 worse than one of the Brunswicks, and all the Stuarts ! 
 To them who know lord North, it is unnecessary to 
 say, that he was mean and base enough to submit to 
 you. This, however, is but a small part of the fact. 
 After ruining the surveyor's deputy, for acting without 
 the warrant, you attacked tiie warrant itself You 
 declared that it was illegal ; and swore, in a fit of 
 foaming frantic passion, that it never should be exe- 
 cuted. You asserted, upon your honour, (liat in the
 
 144 JUNIUS'S LETTERS; 
 
 grant of the raiigership of Whittlebury Forest, mchde 
 by Charles the Second (whom with a moflesty that 
 would do iionour to Mr. Rigby, you are pleased to 
 call your ancestor) to one of his bastards, (froiii 
 whom I make no doubt of your descent,) the property 
 of the timber is vested in the ranger. I ha\e ex- 
 amined the original grant ; and now, in the face t/ 
 the public, contradict you directly upon the fad 
 The very reverse of what you have asserted upon 
 your honour is the truth. The grant, expressly, and 
 by a particular clause, reserves the property of the 
 timber for the zise of the crown. In spite of this 
 evidence, in defiance of the representations of the 
 admiralty, in perfect mockery of the notorious dis- 
 tresses of the English navy, and those equally press- 
 ing and almost equally notorious necessities of your 
 pious sovereign, here the matter rests. The lords 
 of the treasury, recall their warrant; the deputy sur- 
 veyor is ruined for doing his duty ; Mr. John Pitt 
 (whose name, I suppose, is offensive to you) sub- 
 mits to be brow-beaten and insulted; the oaks keep 
 their ground ; the king is defrauded ; and the navy 
 of England may perish for want of the best and 
 finest timber in the island. And all this is submit- 
 ted to, to appease the duke of Grafton ! to gratify 
 the man who has involved the king and his king- 
 dom in confusion and distress ; and who, like a 
 treacherous coward, deserted his sovereign in the 
 midst of it ! 
 
 There has been a strange alteration in your doc- 
 trines, since you thought it advisable to rob the duke 
 of Portland of his propert}'^, in order to strengthen 
 the interest of lord Bute's son-in-law before the last
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 'f45 
 
 general election. J\'uUuni tempus uccurrit regi was 
 then your boasted motto, and the cry ot' all yuur 
 hungry partizans. Now it seems a grant of Ciiarles 
 the Second to one of his bastards is to be held sa 
 cred and inviolable ! Lt must not be questioned by 
 the king's servants, nor submitted to any interpreta- 
 .ion but your own. My lord, this was not the lan- 
 guage you held, when it suited you to insult the 
 memory of the glorious deliverer of England from 
 that detested family, to which you are still more 
 nearly allied in principle than in blood. In the name 
 of decencj' and common sense, what are your grace's 
 merits, either with king or ministry, that should en- 
 title you to assume this domineering authority over 
 both ? Is it the fortunate consanguinity you claim 
 with the house of Stuart ? Is it the secret corres- 
 pondence you have so many years carried on with 
 lord B:ite, by the assiduous assistance of your cream- 
 coloured parasite 9 Could not your gallantry find 
 sufficient employment for him in those gentle offices 
 by which he first acquired the tender friendship of 
 lord Barrington .'' Or is it only that wonderful sym- 
 pathy of manners which subsists between your grace 
 and one of your superiors, and does so much honour 
 to you both .'* Is the union of Blifil and Black 
 George no longer a romance ? From whatever ori- 
 gin your influence in this country arises, it is a phe- 
 nomenon in the history of human virtue and under- 
 standing. Good men can hardly believe the fact ; 
 wise men are unable to account for it ; religious men 
 find exercise for their faith, and make it the last ef- 
 fort of their p'.ety not to repine against Providence. 
 
 JUNIUS. 
 
 SOL. II. G 10
 
 146 JUNIUS'S LETTERS 
 
 LVII. 
 
 Addressed to the Livery of London 
 
 GENTLEMEN, Septombcr 30, 1771. 
 
 If you alone were concerned iu the event of tlie 
 picseat election of a chief magistrate of the metropo- 
 lis, it would be the highest presumption in a stranger 
 to aUempt to inlluence your choice, or even to oiler 
 yju his opinion. But the situation of public affairs 
 has annexed an extraordinary importance to your 
 resolutions. You cannot, in the choice of your ma- 
 gistrate, determine for yourselves only. You are go- 
 ing to determine upon a point, in which every mem- 
 ber of the community is interested. I will not scruple 
 to say, that the very being of that law, of that right, 
 of that constitution, for which we have been so long 
 contending, is now at stake. They who would en- 
 snare your judgment tell yoii, it is a common ordi- 
 nary case, and to be decided by ordinary precedent 
 and practice. They artfully conclude, from mode- 
 rate peaceable times, to times which are not mode- 
 rate, and which ought not to be peaceable. While 
 they solicit your favour, they insist upon a rifle ol 
 rotation, which excludes all idea of election. 
 
 Let tne be honoured with a ksv minutes of your 
 attention. The question, to those who mean fairly 
 to the liberty of the people (which we all profess to 
 have in view,) lies within a very narrow compass. 
 Do you mean to desert that just and honourable sys-
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 147 
 
 tern of measures which you hnve hitherto pursued, in 
 hopes of obtaining from parliament, or from the crown, 
 a full redress of past grievant-es, and a security for 
 the future ? Do you think the cause desperate, and 
 will you declare that you think so to the whole peo- 
 ple of England ? If this be your meaning and 
 opinion, you will act consistently with it in choosing 
 Mr. Nash. I profess to be unacquainted with his 
 private character; but he has acted as a magistrate, 
 as a public man. As such I speak of him. I see his 
 name in a protest against one of your remonstrances 
 to the crown. He has done everything in his power 
 to destroy the freedom of popular elections in the 
 city, by publishing the poll upon a former occasion ; 
 and I know, in general, that he has distinguished 
 himself, by slighting and thwarting all those pubJic 
 measures which you have engaged in with tlie great- 
 est warmth, and hitherto thought most worthy of your 
 approbation. From his past conduct, what conclu- 
 sion will you draw but that he will act the same part 
 ;is lord mayor, which he has invariably acted as alder- 
 man and sheriff.^ He cannot alter his conduct with- 
 out confessing that he never acted upon principle ot 
 any kind. I should be sorry to injure the character 
 of a man, who, perhaps, may be honest in his inten- 
 tion, by supposing it possible that he can ever concur 
 with you in any political measure or opinion. 
 
 If, on the other hand, you mean to persevere n\ 
 those resolutions for the public good, wiiich, though 
 not always successful, are always honourable, your 
 choice will naturally incline to those men who (what- 
 ever they be in other respects) arc most likely to co- 
 operate with you in the great purpose which you are
 
 148 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 detonnlnod not to relinquislj. Tlie question is not ol 
 '.vliat metal your instruments are made, but whether 
 ihey arc adtijjted to the loorJc you have in hand. The 
 honours of the city, in these times, are improperly, 
 because exclusively, callcrl a reward. You mean not 
 merely to pay, but to employ. Are Mr. Crosby and 
 Mr. Sinvbridge likely to execute the extraordinary, 
 as well as the ordinary, duties of lord mayor .^ Will 
 they grant you common-halls when it shall be neces- 
 sary ? Will they go up with remonstrances to tht 
 king ? Have they firmness enough to meet the fur} 
 of a venal house of commons ? Have they fortitude 
 enough not to shrink at imprisonment .'* Have they 
 ?pirit enough to hazard their lives and fortunes in a 
 .ontesl, if it should be necessary, with a prostituted 
 
 egisUiture f If these questions can fairly be answer- 
 ed in the affirmative, your choice is made. Forgive 
 
 his passionate language. I am unable to correct it. 
 The subject comes home to us all. It is the language 
 of my heart. 
 
 JUNIUS. 
 
 LVIII. 
 
 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser. 
 
 SIR, October 5, 1771. 
 
 No man laments more sincerely than I do, the 
 uni.appy differences which have arisen among the 
 friends of the people, and divided then~ from each 
 other. The cause, undoubtedly, suffers as well by
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. I4« 
 
 the diminut.on of that strength which union carncs 
 along witli it, as by the separate loss of personal re- 
 putation, which every man sustains wlien his charac- 
 ter and conduct are frequently held forth in odious or 
 contemptible colours These differences are only 
 advantageous to the common enemy of the country. 
 The hearty friends of the cause are provoked ana 
 disgusted. The lukewarm advocate avails himselt 
 of any pretence, to relapse into that indolent indiffe- 
 rence about every thing that ought to interest an 
 Englislnnan, so unjustly dignified with the title of 
 moderation. The false, insidious partizan, who cre- 
 ates or foments the disorder, sees the fruit of his dis- 
 lionest industry ripen beyond his hopes, and rejoices 
 in the promise of a banquet, only delicious to such an 
 appetite as his own. It is time for those who really 
 mean the Cause and the People, who have no view 
 tn private advantage, and who have virtue enough to 
 prefer the general good of the community to the gra- 
 tification of personal animosities ; it is time for such 
 men to interpose. Let us try whether these fatal 
 dissensions m ly not yet be reconciled ; or, if that be 
 impracticabU let us guard at least against the worst 
 effects of div ^ion, and endeavour to persuade these 
 furious partizans, if they will not consent to draw cj* 
 gether, to be separately useful to that cause which 
 they all pret Mid to be attached to. Honour and 
 honesty must lot be renounced, although a thousand 
 modes of right and wrong were to occupy the degrees 
 of morality between Zeno and Ei)icurus. The fun- 
 damental principles of Christianity may still be pre- 
 served, though every zealous sectary adheres to his 
 own exclusive doctrine, and pious ecclesiastics make
 
 150 JUNIUS'S J.ETTERS 
 
 it part of their religion to persecute one another. 
 The civil constitution, too, that legal liberty, that 
 general creed which every Englishman professes, 
 may still be supported, though Wilkes and Home, 
 and Townshend and Savvbridge, should obstinately 
 refuse to communicate ; and even if the fathers of the 
 church, if Savile, Richmond, Camden, Rockingham, 
 and Chatham, should disagree in the ceremonies of 
 their political worship, and even in the interpretation 
 of twenty texts in Magna Ch-^rta. I speak to the 
 people, as one of the peoplt^ (iCf us employ these 
 men in whatever departments heir various abilities 
 are best suited to, and as much to the advantage of 
 the common cause, as their different inclinations will 
 permit. They cannot serve us without essentially 
 serving themselves. 
 
 If Mr. Nash be elected, he will hardly venture, 
 after so recent a mark of the personal esteem of his 
 fellow-citizens, to declare himself immediately a cour- 
 tier. The spirit and activity of the sheriffs will, I 
 hope, be sufficient to counteract any sinister intentions 
 of the lord mayor. In collision with their virtue, 
 perhaps, he may take fire. 
 
 It is not necessary to exact from Mr. Wilkes the 
 virtues of a Stoic. They were inconsistent with them- 
 selves, who, almost at the same moment, represented 
 him as the basest of mankind, yet seemed to expect 
 from him such instances of fortitude and self-denial, 
 as would do honour to an apostle. It is not, how- 
 ever, flattery to say, that he is obstinate, intrepid, and 
 fertile in expedients. That he has no possible re- 
 source but in the public favour, is, in my judgment, 
 a considerable recommendation of him. T wish that
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 16 
 
 every man who pretended to popularity were in the 
 same predicament. I wish that a retreat to St. 
 James's were not so easy and open as patriots have 
 found it. To Mr. Wilkes there is no access. How- 
 ever he may be misled by passion or imprudence, T 
 think he cannot be guilty of a deliberate treachery to 
 the public. The favour of his country constitutes 
 the shield which defends him against a thousand 
 daggers. Desertion would disarm him. 
 
 I can more readily admire the liberal spirit and 
 integrity, than the sound judgment, of any man who 
 prefers a republican form of government, in this or 
 any other empire of equal extent, to a monarchy so 
 qualified and lin^itcd as ours. I am convinced, that 
 neither is it in theory the wisest system of govern- 
 ment, nor practicable in this country. Yet, though 
 I hope the English constitution will for ever preserve 
 its original monarchical form, I would have the man- 
 ners of the people purely and strictly republican. 1 
 do not mean the licentious spirit of anarchy and riot. 
 I mean a general attachment to the commonweal, 
 distinct from any partial attachment to persons or 
 families ; an implicit submission to the laws only ; 
 and an affection to the magistrate, proportioned (o 
 the integrity and wisdom with which he distributes 
 justice to his people, and administers their affairs. 
 The present habit of our political body appears to 
 me the very reverse of what it ought to be. The 
 lorm of the constitution leans rather more than enough 
 to the popular branch ; while, in eflect, the manners 
 of the people (of those at least who arc likely to take 
 a lead in tlie country) in .line too generally to a dc 
 pendence upon the crown Tlie real friends of arin-
 
 152 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 trary power combine the fuels, and a're not inconsis- 
 tent with their principles, when they slrenuously 
 support the unwarrantable privileges assumed by tlie 
 house of commons. In these circumstances, it were 
 much to be desired, that we had many such men as 
 Mr. Sawbridge to represent us in parliament. I 
 speak from common report and opinion only, when I 
 impute to him a speculative predilection in favour of 
 a republic. In the personal conduct and manners of 
 the man I camiot be mistaken. He has shown him- 
 self possessed of that republican firmness which the 
 times require ; and by which an English gentleman 
 may be as usefully and as honourably distinguished, 
 as any citizen of ancient Rome, of Athens, or Lace- 
 demon. 
 
 Mr. Townshend complains that the public gratitude 
 has not been answerable to his deserts. It is not 
 difficult to trace the artifices which have suggested 
 .o him a language so unworthy of his understanding. 
 A great man commands the afiections of the people 
 a prudent man does not complain when he has lost 
 them. Yet they are far from being lost to Mr. Town- 
 shend. He has treated our opinion a little too cava- 
 lierly. A young man is apt to rely too confidently 
 upon himself, to be as attentive to his mistress as a 
 polite and passionate lover ought to be. Perhaps he 
 found her at first too easy a conquest. Yet I fancy 
 she will be ready to receive him whenever he thinks 
 proper to renew his addresses. With all his youth, 
 his spirit, and his appearance, it would be indecent in 
 the lady to solicit his return. 
 
 have too much respect for the abilities of Mr. 
 Hornc, to Hatter myself that these gentlemen will ever
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 153 
 
 be cordially re-united. It is not, however, unreason- 
 able to expect, that each of them should act his sepa- 
 rate part with honour and integrity to the public. As 
 for differences of opinion upon speculative questions, 
 if we wait until they are reconciled, the action of hu- 
 man affairs must be suspended for ever. But neither 
 are wc to look for perfection in any one man, nor for 
 agreement among many. When lord Chatham af- 
 firms, that the authority of the British legislature is 
 not supreme over the colonies in the same sense in 
 V. hich it is supreme over Great Britain; when lord 
 Camden supposes a necessity (which the king is to 
 judge of.) and, founded upon that necessity, attributes 
 to the crown a legal power (not given by the act it- 
 self,) to suspend the operation of an act of the legis- 
 lature; I listen to them both with diffidence and res- 
 pect, but without the smallest degree of conviction or 
 assent. Yet I doubt not they delivered their real 
 sentiments, nor ought they to be hastily condemned. 
 I too have a claim to the candid interpretation of my 
 country, when I acknowledge an involuntary, com- 
 pulsive assent to one very unpopular opinion. I 
 lament the unhappy necessity, whenever it arises, of 
 providing for the safety of the state by a temporary 
 invasion of the personal liberty of the subject. Would 
 to God it were practicable to reconcile these impor- 
 tant objects, in every possible situation of public 
 affairs! I regard the legal liberty of the meanest 
 man in Britain as much as my own, and would defend 
 it with the same zeal. I know we must stand or fall 
 together. But I never can doubt, that the community 
 has a riglit to command, as well as to pnrchri'se, the 
 SCI-. I'c fiflt'^ :::cnibers. I see that nt>lit founded on-
 
 154 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 ginally upon a necessity which supersedes all argu 
 ment : I see it established by usage immemorial, and 
 admitted by more than a tacit assent of the legislature. 
 I conclude there is no remedy, in the nature of things, 
 for the grievance complained of; for, if there were, 
 it must loi:g since have been redressed. Though 
 numberless opportunities have presented themselves, 
 highly favourable to public liberty, no successful at- 
 tempt has ever been made fo the relief of the subject 
 in tiiis article. Yet It has been felt and complained 
 of ever since England had a navy. The conditions 
 which constitute this right must be taken together ; 
 separatel}', they have little weight. It is not fair to 
 argue, from any abuse in the execution, to the ille- 
 gality of the power j much less is a conclusion to be 
 drawn from the navy to the land service. A seaman 
 can never be employed but against the enemies of his 
 country. The only case in which the king can have 
 a right to arm his subjects in general, is that of a 
 foreign force being actually landed upon our coast. 
 Whenever that case happens, no true Englishman will 
 inquire whether the king's right to compel him to de- 
 fend his country be the custom of England, or a grant 
 of the legislature. With regard to the press for sea- 
 men, it does not follow that the symptoms may not be 
 softened, although the distemper cannot be cured. 
 Let bounties be increased as far as the public purse 
 can support them. Still they have a limit; and when 
 every reasonable expense is incurred, it will be found, 
 in fact, that the spur of the press is wanted to give 
 operation to the bounty. 
 
 Upon the whole I never hnd a doubt about the strict 
 right of pressing until I heard that lord Mansfield
 
 JUxMUS'S LETTERS. 155 
 
 had applauded lord Chatham for delivering some- 
 thing like this doctrine in tlie house of lords. That 
 consideration staggered me not a little. But, upon 
 reflection, his conduct accounts naturally for itself. 
 He knew the doctrine was unpopular, and was 
 eager to fix it upon the man who is the first object of 
 his fear and detestation. The cunning Scotchman 
 never speaks truth without a fraudulent design. In 
 council, he general!}' affects to take a moderate part. 
 Besides his natural timidity, it makes part of his poli- 
 tical plan, never to be known to recommend violent 
 measures. When the guards are called forth to mur- 
 der their fellow subjects, it- is not by the ostensible 
 advice of lord Mansfield. That odious office, his 
 prudence tells him, is better left to such men as Gow- 
 er and Weymouth, as Barrington and Grafton. Lord 
 Hillsborough wisely confines his firmness to the dis- 
 tant Americans. The designs of Mansfield are more 
 subtle, more effectual, and secure. Who attacks the 
 liberty of the press .'' Lord Mansfield. Who invades 
 the constitutional power of juries .'* Lord Mansfield. 
 What judge ever challenged a juryman but lord 
 Mansfield .'' Who was that judge, who, to save the 
 king's brother, affirmed that a man of the first rank 
 and quality, who obtains a verdict in a suit for crimi- 
 nal conversation, is entitled to no greater damages 
 ilian the meanest mechanic .'' Lord Mansfield. Who 
 is it makes commissioners of the great seal ? Lord 
 Mansfield. Who is it that forms a decree for those 
 commissioners, deciding against lord Chatham, and 
 afterwards (finding himself opposed by the judges) 
 declares, in parliament, that he never had a doubt 
 that the law was in direct opposition to that decree.?
 
 156 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 Lord Mansfield. Who is he that has made t the 
 study and practice of his life to undermine and alter 
 the wiiolc system of jurisprudence in the court of 
 king's bench? Lord Mansfield. There never ex- 
 isted a man but himself who answered exactly to so 
 complicated a description. Compared to these enor- 
 mities, his original attachment to the Pretender (to 
 whom his dearest brother was confidential secretary) 
 is a virtue of the first magnitude. But the hour of 
 impeachment will come, and neither he nor Grafton 
 shall escape me. Now let them make common 
 cause against England and the house of Hanover. 
 A Stuart and a Murray should sympathise with each 
 other. 
 
 When I refer to signal instances of unpopular opin- 
 ions, delivered and maintained by men, who may well 
 be supposed to have no view but the public good, I 
 do not mean to renew the discussion of such opinions. 
 I should be sorry to revive the dormant questions of 
 Stamp Act, Corn Bill, or Press Warrant, I mean 
 only to illustrate one useful proposition, which it is 
 the intention of this paper to inculcate, " That we 
 should not generally reject the friendship or services 
 of any man, because he differs from us in a particu- 
 lar opinion." This will not appear a superfluous 
 caution, if we observe the ordinary conduct of man- 
 kind. In public affairs, there is the least chance of a 
 perfect concurrence of sentiment or inclination : yet 
 every man is able to contribute something to the 
 common stock, and no man's contribution should be 
 rejected. If individuals have no virtues, their vices 
 may be of use to us. I care not with what principle 
 the new-born patriot is animated if the measures he
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 157 
 
 supports are beneficial to the community. The na- 
 tion is interested in his conduct. His motives are 
 his own. The properties of a patriot are perishable 
 in the individual ; but there is a quick succession of 
 subjects, and the breed is worth preserving. The 
 spirit of the Americans may be an useful example to 
 us. Our dogs and horses are only English upon 
 English ground; but patriotism, it seems, may be 
 improved by transplanting. I will not reject a bill 
 which tends to confine parliamentary privilege with- 
 in reasonable bounds, though it should be stolen from 
 the house of Cavendish, and introduced by Mr. On- 
 slow. The features of the infant are a proof of the 
 descent, and vindicate the noble birth from the base- 
 ness of the adoption. I willingly accept of a sarcasm 
 from colonel Barr<5, or a simile from Mr. Burke. 
 Even the silent vote of Mr. Calcraft is worth reckon- 
 ing in a division. What though he riots in the plun- 
 der of the army, and has only determined to be a 
 patriot when he could not be a peer ? Let us profit 
 by the assistance of such men while they arc with us, 
 and place them, if it be possible, in the post of dan- 
 ger, to prevent desertion. The wary Wedderburne, 
 the pompous Suffolk, never threw away the scabbard, 
 nor ever went upon a forlorn hope. They always 
 treated the king's servants as men with whom, some 
 time or other, they might probably be in friendship. 
 When a man, who stands forth for the public, has 
 gone that length from which there is no practicable 
 retreat, when he has given that kind of personal of- 
 fence, which a pious monarch never pardons, I then 
 begin to think iiim in earnest, and that he will never 
 have occasion to solicit tlie forgiveness of his country.
 
 158 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 But instances of a determinatiou so entire and unre- 
 ferved are rarely met vvldi. Let us take mankind as 
 tliey are ; let us distribute the virtues and abilities ol 
 individuals according to the offices they affect j and, 
 when they quit the service, let us endeavour to sup- 
 ply their places with better men than we have lost. 
 In this country there are always candidates enough 
 lor popular favour. The temple of fame is the short- 
 est passage to riches and preferment. 
 
 Above all things, let me guard my countrymen 
 against the meanness and folly of accepting of a tri- 
 fling or moderate compensation for extraordinary and 
 essential injuries. Our enemy treats us as the cun- 
 ning trader does the unskilful Indian ; tiiey magnify 
 their generosity, when they give .us baubles of little 
 proportionate value for ivory and gold. The same 
 iiouse of conunons, who robbed the constituent body 
 of their right of free election j who presume to niake 
 a law, under pretence of declaring it ; who paid our 
 good king's debts, without once inquiring how they 
 were incurred; who gave thanks for repeated mur- 
 ders committed at home, and for national infamy in- 
 curred abroad ; who screened lord Mansfield ; who 
 imprisoned the magistrates of the metropolis for as- 
 serting the subject's right to the protection of the 
 laws; who erased a judicial record, and ordered all 
 proceedings in a criminal suit to be suspended : this 
 very house of commons have gracio^-sly consented 
 that their own members may be compelled to pay their 
 debts, and that contested elections shall, for the future, 
 be determined with some decent regard to the merits 
 of thb case. The event of the suit is of no conse- 
 quence to the crown. While parliaments are seoten-
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 1S9 
 
 uial, the purchase of the sitting member, cr of the 
 petitioner, makes but the difference of a day. Con- 
 cessions such as these are of litde moment to the 
 sum of things ; unless it be to prove that the worst 
 of men are sensible of the injuries they have done us, 
 and perliaps to demonstrate to us the imminent dan- 
 ger of our situation. In the shipwreck of the state, 
 trifles float, and are preserved ; while every thiisg 
 solid and valuable sinks to the bottom, and is los' 
 for ever. 
 
 JUNIUS. 
 
 LIX. 
 
 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser. 
 
 SIR, October 15, 1771 
 
 I am convinced that Junius is incapable of wilfully 
 misrepresenting any man's opinion, and that his incli- 
 nation leads him to treat lord Camden with particu- 
 lar candour and respect. The doctrine attributed 
 to him by Junius, as far as it goes, corresponds with 
 that stated by your correspondent Sca^vola, who 
 seems to make a distinction without a difference. 
 Lord Camden, it is agreed, did certainly maintain, 
 that, in the recess of parliament, the king (by which 
 wc all mean the Jcing in council, or the executi\:e 
 power) might suspend the operation of an act of the 
 legislature; and he founded his doctrine upon a sup 
 posed necessity, of which the king, in the first instance, 
 must be judge. The lords and commons cannot be
 
 ifiO JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 judges of it in the first instance, for they do not exist. 
 Tlius far Junius. 
 
 But, says Scaevola, lord Camden made parliament, 
 and not the king, judges of the necessity. That par- 
 liament may review the acts of ministers, is unques- 
 tionable ; but there is a wide diflerence between say- 
 ing, that the crown has a legal power, and that the 
 ministers may act at their peril. When we say that 
 an act is illegal, we mean that it is forbidden by a 
 joint resolution of the three estates. How a subse- 
 quent resolution of two of those branches can make 
 it legaJ, ah initio, will require explanation. If it 
 could, the consequence would be truly dreadful, es- 
 pecially in these times. There is no act of arbitrary 
 power which the king might not attribute to necessity, 
 and for which he would not be secure of obtaining 
 the approbation of his prostituted lords and commons. 
 If lord Camden admits, that the subsequent sanction 
 of parliament was necessary to make the proclama- 
 tion legal, why did he so obstinately oppose the bill, 
 which was soon after brought in, for indemnifying all 
 those persons who had acted under it.^* If that bill 
 had not been passed, I am ready to maintain, in 
 direct contradiction to lord Camden's doctrine, (taken 
 as Scaevola states it) that a litigious exporter of corn, 
 who had suffered in his property, in consequence ot 
 the proclamation, might have laid his action against 
 the custom-house officers, and would infallibly have 
 recovered damages. No jury could refi se them : 
 and if I, who am by no means litigious, had been so 
 injured, I would assuredly have insStuted a suit in 
 Westminster-hall, on purpose to try the question ol 
 right. I would have done it up in a principle of de-
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 161 
 
 fiance of the pretended power of either or both houses 
 to make declarations inconsistent with law ; and I 
 have no doubt that, with an act of parliament on my 
 side, I should have been too strong for them all. This 
 is the way in which an Englishman should speak and 
 act, and not suffer dangerous precedents to be estab- 
 lished, because the circumstances are favourable or 
 palliating. 
 
 With regard to lord Camden, the truth is, that he 
 inadvertently overshot himself, as appears plainly by 
 that unguarded mention of a tyranny of forty days, 
 wliicli I myself heard. Instead of asserting, that the 
 proclamation was legal, he should have said, " My 
 lords, I know the proclamation was illegal; but I 
 advised it, because it was indispensably necessary to 
 s;)ve the kingdom from flimine; and I submit myself 
 to the justice and mercy of my country." 
 
 Such language as this would have been manly, 
 rational, and consistent ; not unfit for a lawyer, and 
 every way worthy of a great man. 
 
 PIIILO JUNIUS. 
 
 P. S. If Scffivola should think proper to write 
 again upon this subject, I beg of him to give me a 
 direct answer; that is, a plain affirmative or negative, 
 to the following questions :— In the interval between 
 the publishing such a proclamation (or order of coun- 
 cil) as that in question, and its receiving the sanction 
 of the two houses, of what nature is it ? Is it legal or 
 ilhfral? Or, is it neither one nor the other.'' I mean 
 
 to 
 
 to be candid, and will point out to him the conse- 
 quence of his answer either way. if it be legal, it 
 wants no farther sanction: if it be illegal, the subject 
 
 11
 
 102 JUiMUSS LETTERS. 
 
 is not boiiiKl to obey It, coiisequcntlyit is an iisclesSj 
 nugatory act, even as to its declared purpose. Be- 
 fore the meeting of parll iinent, the whole mischief 
 wlilcii it means to prevent will jiave been con)pleted. 
 
 LX. 
 
 To Zeno. 
 
 SIR, October 17, 1771. 
 
 The sophistry of your letter in defence of lord 
 Mansfield is adapted to the character you defend. 
 But lord Mansfield is a man of form, and seldo;n in 
 his behaviour transgresses the rules of decorum, 
 1 shall imitate his lordship's good inanr.crs, and 
 leave you in full possession of his principles. 1 
 v.ill not call you liar, Jesuit, or villain; but, v. illi 
 all the politeness imaginable, periiaps I ma}- prove 
 yen so. 
 
 Like other fair pleaders in lord Mansfield's 
 school of justice, you answer Junius by misquoting 
 his words, and mistaking his propositions. If I am 
 candid enough to admit, that this is the very logic 
 taught at St. Omer's, you will readily allow, that this 
 i-; the constant practice in the court of king's beric ii. 
 Junius does not sa*/ that he never had a doubt abr 'a 
 the strict right of pressing, till he knew lord J\Ia.-. ■- 
 field was of the same opinion. His words are, " un'ii 
 he heard that lord Mansfield had applauded lord 
 Chatham for maintaining that doctrine in the house 
 of lords." It was not the accidental concurrence ol
 
 JUA'iUb'b LETTERS, 163 
 
 lord AJ jiU.-iiicKi'i opialoii, but llie suspicious applause 
 given l)y a ouiiniug Scutclunau to the man l.c detests, 
 that raised and juHlified a doubt in the mind of Junius. 
 The question is not, whetlier lord 3Iansfiold be a man 
 of learning and abilities (which Junius has never dis- 
 puted), but whether or no he abuses and misapplies 
 iiis talents. 
 
 Junius did not say that lord Mansfield had advised 
 the calling out of the guards. On the contrary, his 
 plain meaning is, that he left that odious oflire lo 
 men less cunning than himself. Whether lord Mans- 
 field's doctrine concerning libels be or be not an at- 
 tack upon the liberty of the press, is a question which 
 the public in general are very well able to determine. 
 I shall not enter into it at present. Nor do I think 
 it necessary to say much to a man, who had the dar- 
 ing confidence to say to a jury, " Gentlemen, you 
 are to bring in a verdict guilty ov not gvilty : but 
 whether the defendant be guilty or innocent, is not 
 matter for your consideration." Clothe it in what 
 language you will, this is the sum total of lord Mans- 
 field's doctrine. If not, let Zeno show us the dilFerence. 
 
 But it seems, " the liberty of the press may be 
 abused, and the abuse of a valuable privilege is the 
 certain means to lose it." The fir.sl I admit; but let 
 the abuse be submitted to a jury; a sufficient, and, 
 indeed, the only legal and constitutional check upon 
 the license of the press. The second I flatly deny. 
 In direct contradiction to lord Mansfield, I aflirm, 
 that " the abuse of a valuable privilege is not the 
 certain means to lose it;" if it were, the English na- 
 tion would have few privileges left ; for, where is the 
 privilege that has not, at one lime or other, been
 
 IG4 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 abused by individuals? But it is false in reason and 
 equity, tliut particular abuses should produce a geiK^- 
 ral foiTeiture. Shall the eomniunity be deprived of 
 the protection of the laws, because there are robbers 
 and murderers ? Shall the community be punished, 
 because individuals have olTended ? Lord INIansfield 
 says so, consistently enough with his principles ; but 
 I wonder to find him so explicit. Yet, for one con- 
 cession, however extorted, I confess myself obliged to 
 him. The liberty of the press is, after all, a valuable 
 privilege. I agree with him most heartily, and will 
 defend it against him. 
 
 You ask me, What juryman was challenged by . 
 lord IMansfield .'' I tell you ; his name is Benson. 
 When his name was called, lord Mansfield ordered 
 the clerk to pass him by. As for his reasons, you 
 may ask himself, for he assigned none : but I can 
 tell you what all men thought of it. This Benson 
 had been refractory upon a former jury, and would 
 not accept of the law as delivered by Lord Mansfield ; 
 but had the impudence to pretend to tJiinJc for himself. 
 But you, it seems, honest Zeno, know nothing of t!ie 
 matter. ■ You never read Junius's letter to your pat- 
 ron : you never heard of the intended instructions 
 from the city to impeach lord Mansfield: you never 
 heard by what dexterity of Mr. Paterson that measure 
 was prevented. How wonderfully ill some people are 
 informed ! 
 
 Junius did never afHrm, that the crime of seducing 
 the wife of n mechanic or a peer, is not the same, 
 taken in a moral or neligious view. What he afiirm- 
 ed, in contradiction to the levelling principle so lately 
 adopted by lord Mansfield, was, " that the damages
 
 ;UNIUS'S LETTERS. 165 
 
 should be proportioned to the rank and fortune of the 
 parlies:" and for this plain reason (admitted u}' every 
 oiher judge that ever sat in Westminster-hal!) because 
 what is a compensation or penalty to one man, is 
 none to another. The sophistical distinction you at- 
 tempt to draw between the person injured and the 
 person injuring, is Mansfield all over. If you can 
 once establish the proposition, that the injured party- 
 is not entitled to receive large damages, it follows, 
 pretty plainly, that the party injuring should not be 
 compelled to pay them ; consequently the king's 
 brother is efl'ectually screened by lord Mansfield's 
 doctrine. Your reference to Nathan and David comes 
 naturally in aid of your patrons professed system of 
 jurisprudence. He is fond of introducing into the 
 court of king's bench any law that contradicts or ex- 
 cludes the common law of England; whether it l)e 
 canon, civil, jus gentium, or Levitical. But, sir, the 
 Bible is the code of our religious faith, not of our 
 municipal jurisprudence : and though it was tlie 
 pleasure of God to inflict a particular punishment 
 upon David's crime (taken as a breach of his divine 
 commands) and to send his prophet to denounce it, 
 an English jury have nothing to do either with David 
 or the prophet. They consider the crime only as it 
 is a breach of order, an injury to an individual, and 
 an offence to society; and they judge of it by certain 
 positive rules of law, or by the practice of their an- 
 cestors. Upon the whole, the man " after God's 
 own heart" is much indebted to you for comparing 
 him to the duke of Cumberland. That his royal 
 highness may be the man after lord Mansfield's own 
 heart, seems much more probable ; and y: u, I think,
 
 166 JUNIUS'3 LETTERS. 
 
 Ml*. Zeno, might succeed tolerably Well in the char- 
 acter of Nathan. The evil deity, the prophet, and 
 the Yoyn\ sinner, would he very prupor company for 
 one another. 
 
 You say, lord Mansfield did not make the com- 
 missioners of the q;rent seal, and that he only ad- 
 vised the king to appoint. I believe Junius meant 
 no more; and the distinction is harrily worth dis- 
 puting. 
 
 You say he did not deliver an opinion upon lord 
 Chatham's appeal. I affirm that he did, directly in 
 favour of I he appeal. This is a point of fact to he 
 determined by evidence only. But j'ou assign no 
 reason for his supposed silence, nor for his desiring a 
 conference with the judges the day before. Was not 
 all Westminster-hall convinced that he did it with a 
 view to pu/zle them with some perplexing question. 
 and in hopes of bringing some of them over to liini ? 
 You say the commissioners were very capable of fram- 
 ing a decree for themselves. By the fact, it onh' ap- 
 pears, that they were capable of framing an illrgal 
 one ; which, I apprehend, is not much to the credit 
 either of their learning or integrity. 
 
 We are both agreed, that lord Mansfield \)n< in- 
 cessantly laboured to introduce new modes of pro- 
 ceeding in the court where he presides; hut ynn 
 attribute it to an honest zeal in behalf of innocence, 
 oppressed by quibble and chicane. I say, that he has 
 introduced new law too, and removed the landmarks 
 established by former decisions. I say, thaf his view 
 is, to change a court of common law into a court of 
 equity, and to bring every thing within the arbitrinm 
 of a prcctorian court. The oublic must determine
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 167 
 
 between us. But now for his merits. First then, 
 the establishment of the judges in their places for life, 
 fwhich you tell us was advised by lord Mansfield) 
 was a concession merely to catch the people. It bore 
 the appearance of a royal bounty, but had nothing 
 real in it. The judges were already for life, except- 
 ing in the case of a demise. Tour boasted bill only 
 provides, that it shall not be in the power of the king's 
 successor to remove tiiem. At the best, therefore, it 
 is only a legacy, not a gift, on the part of his present 
 innjesty, since, for himself, he gives up nothing. That 
 he did oppose lord Camden and lord Northington 
 upon the proclamation against the exportation of corn, 
 is most true, and with great ability. With his talents, 
 and taking the right side of so clear a question, it 
 was impossible to speak ill. His motives are not so 
 easily penetrated. They vviio are acquainted widi 
 the state of politics at that period, will judge of them 
 somewhat differently from Zeno. Of the popular 
 bills, which 3'ou say he supported in the house of 
 lords, the most material is unquestionably that of IVIr. 
 Grenville for deciding contested elections. But I 
 should be glad to know upon what possible pretence 
 any member of the upper house could oppose such a 
 bill, after it had passed the house of commons .'' I do 
 not pretend to know what share he had in promoting 
 the other two bills; but I am ready to give him all 
 the credit you desire. Still you will find, that a 
 wHole life of deliberate iniquity is ill atoned for, by 
 doing now and then a laudable action, upon a mixed 
 or doubtful principle. If it be unworthy of him, thus 
 ungratefully treated, to labour any Uniger for the 
 public, in rrod's name, let him retire. His brother's
 
 I OS JUx^IUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 patron (whose health he once was anxious for) Is de.Td; 
 hut the son of that unfortunate prince survives, and, 
 I dare say, will be ready to receive iiim. 
 
 PHILC TUNITTS. 
 
 LXI. 
 
 To an Advocate in the Cause of the People 
 
 SIR, October 18, 1771. 
 
 You do not treat Junius fairly. You would not 
 have condemned him so hastily, if you had ever read 
 judge Foster's argument upon the legality of pressing 
 seamen. A man who has not read that argument, is 
 not qualified to speak accurately upon the subject. In 
 answer to strong facts and fair reasoning, you produce 
 nothing but a vague comparison between two things 
 which have little or no resemblance to each other. 
 General warrants, it is true, had been often issued 
 but they had never been regularly questioned or re- 
 sisted, until the case of Mr. Wilkes. He brougiil 
 them to trial ; and the moment they were tried, they 
 were declared illegal. This is not the case of press 
 warrants. They have been complained of, question- 
 ed, and resisted in a thousand instances ; but still the 
 legislature have never interposed, nor has there ever 
 been a formal decision against them in any of tTic 
 superior courts. On the contrary, they have been 
 iVcquently recognised and admitted by parliament ; 
 and there are judicial opinions given in their favour 
 oy judges of the first character. Under the various
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 16j9 
 
 circumstances stated by Junius, he has a right to 
 conclude for Iiiniself, that there is no remedy. If 
 you have a good one to propose, you may depend 
 upon the assistance and applause of Junius. The 
 magistrate who guards the liberty of the individual 
 deserves to be commended. But let him remember, 
 that it is also his duty to provide for, or at least not 
 to hazard, the safety of the community. If, in the 
 case of a foreign war, and the expectation ot an in- 
 vasion, you would rather keep your fleet in harbour, 
 than man it by pressing seamen who refuse the boun- 
 ty, I have done 
 
 You talk of disbanding the army with wonderful 
 ease and indiiference. If a wiser man held such 
 language, I should be apt to suspect his sincerity. 
 
 A.S for keeping up a much greater number of sea 
 men in time of peace, it is not to be done : you will 
 cypress the merchant, you will distress trade, and 
 destroy the nursery of your seamen. He must be a 
 miserable statesman who voluntarily, by the same act 
 mcreases the public expense, and lessens the means 
 of supporting it. 
 
 PHILO JUNIUS. 
 
 VOL. U. 
 
 B
 
 170 JUNIUS'^ I.ErTp:RS. 
 
 LXII. 
 
 October 22, 1771 
 A friend of Junius desires it may be observed (in 
 cHiswer to a barriste)' at law.) 
 
 1. Tliat the fact of lord ^lansfield's having ordered 
 a juryman to be passed by (wliicb poor Zeno nevei 
 hearil of) is now formally aduiiLted. When jMr. Ben- 
 son':; name was called, lord Mansfield was observed 
 to (lush in the face (a signal of guilt not uncommon 
 with him), and cried out, " Pasa him by." This I 
 take to be something more than a peremptory chal- 
 lenge : it is an unlawful command, without any rea- 
 son assigned. That the counsel did not resist, is true; 
 but this might happen either from inadvertence, or a 
 criminal complaisance to lord Mansfield. You bar- 
 risters are too apt to be civil to my lord chief justice, 
 at the expense of your clients. 
 
 2. Junius did never sa}', that lord ^Mansfield had 
 destroyed the liberty of the press. " That his lord- 
 ship has laboured to destroy, that his doctrine is an 
 attack upon the liberty of the press, that it is an inva- 
 sion of the right of juries," are the propositions 
 maintained by Junius. His opponents never answer 
 him in point; for they never meet him fairly' upon 
 his own ground. 
 
 3. Lord Mansfield's pollc}', in endeavourmg to 
 screen his unconstitutional doctrines behind an act 
 of tlie legislature, is easily understood. Let every
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. J 71 
 
 Ti^ijglishman stand upon his guard : the right of 
 juries to return a general verdict, in all cases what- 
 soever, is a part of our constitution. It stands in 
 no need of a bill, either enacting or declaratory, to 
 confirm it. 
 
 4. With regard to the Grosvenor cause, it is 
 pleasant to observe, that the doctrine attributed by 
 Junius to lord Mansfield is admitted by Zeno, and 
 directly defended. The barrister has not the as- 
 surance to deny it flatly ; but he evades the charge, 
 and softens the doctrine, by sucii poor contemptible 
 quibbles as cannot impose upon the meanest under- 
 standing. 
 
 5. The quantity of business in the court of king's 
 bench proves nothing but the litigious spirit of the 
 people, arising from tiie great increase of wealth and 
 commerce. Tliese, however, are now upon the de- 
 cline, and will soon leave nothing but lawsuits be- 
 hind them. When Junius affirms, that lord Mans- 
 field has laboured to alter the system of jurisprudence 
 in the court where his lordship presides, he speaks to 
 those wlio are able to look a little farther than the 
 vulgar. Besides, that the multitude are easily de- 
 ceived by the imposing names of equity and substan- 
 tial justice, it does not follow that :i judge, who in- 
 troduces into his court new modes of proceeding, and 
 new princi[)k'S of law, intends, in every instance, to 
 deciile unjustly, Wliy sliouKI he, wiiere he has no 
 interest ? We say, that lord ^Mansfield is a Lad man, 
 and a worse judge ; but we do not say that he is a 
 mere devil. Our adversaries would fain red ice us to 
 the difficulty of proving too much. This artifice, 
 however, shall not avail bin. The truth of the mat-
 
 172 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 ter is plainly this: when lord INlansfiefd has succeeded 
 in his scheme of changing- a court of common law to 
 a court of equit}', he will have it in his power to do 
 injustice whenever he thinks proper. This, though a 
 wicked purpose, is neither absurd nor unattainable. 
 
 6. The last paragraph, relative to lord Chatham's 
 cause, cannot be answered. It partly refers to facts 
 of too secret a nature to be ascertained, and partly is 
 unintelligible. " Upon one point the cause is decid- 
 ed against lord Chatham : upon another point it is 
 decided for him." Both the law and the language 
 are well suited to a barrister ! If I have any guess 
 at this honest gentleman's meaning, it is, " That 
 whereas the commissioners of the great seal saw the 
 question in a point of view unfavourable to lord 
 Chatham, and decreed accordingly ; lord Mansfield, 
 out of sheer love and kindness to lord Chatham, took 
 the pains to place it in a point of view more favour- 
 able to the appellant.'''' Credat Judceus Apella. So 
 curious an assertion would stagger the faith of Mr. 
 Sylva. 
 
 LXIII. 
 
 November 2, 1771. 
 
 vVe are desired to make the following declaration, 
 /n behalf of Junius, upon tiiree material points, 
 on which his opinion has been mistaken or misre- 
 presented. 
 
 1 . Junius considers the right of taxing the colo-
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. i; j 
 
 nies, by an act of the British legislature, as a specu- 
 lative right merely, never to be exerted nor ever to be 
 renounced. To his judgment it appears plain, " That 
 the general re?isonings which were emplo^'ed against 
 that power, went directly to our whole legislative right; 
 and that one part of it could not be yielded to such 
 arguments, without a virtual surrender of all the rest." 
 2. That, with regard to press-warrants, his argu- 
 ment should be taken in his own words, and answer- 
 ed strictl}' ; that comparisons may sometimes illus- 
 trate, but prove nothing; and that, in this cose, an 
 appeal to the passions is unfair and unnecessary. 
 Junius feels and acknowledges the evil in the most 
 express terms, and will show himself ready to concur 
 in any rational plan that may provide for the liberty 
 of the individual, without hazarding the safety of the 
 community. At the same time he expects that the 
 evil, such as it is, be not exaggerated or misrepre- 
 sented. In general, it is not unjust, that, when the 
 rich man contributes his wealth, the poor man shotild 
 serve the state in person ; otherwise, the latter con- 
 tributes nothing to the defence of that law and con- 
 stitution from which he demands safety and protec- 
 tion. But the question does not lie between the rich 
 and the poor. The laws of England make no such 
 distinctions. Neither is it true, that the poor man is 
 torn from the care and support of a wife and family, 
 helpless without him. The single question is, Whether 
 the seaman* in times of public fianger, shall serve th<^ 
 
 • I con.lne myself strictly to seamen. If any others are 
 pressed, it is a gross al'ise, which the Magistrate can and 
 should correct.
 
 174 JUNiUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 mercliant. or the state, in that profession to which lif 
 was bred, and by the exercise of which alone he can 
 honestly support himself and his family ? General 
 arguments against the doctrine of necessity', and the 
 dangerous use that may be made of it, are of no weight 
 ni this particular case. Necessit}' inchulcs the idea 
 of inevitable. Whenever it is so, it creates a law to 
 \vhich all positive laws, and all positive rights must 
 give way. In this sense, the levy of ship-money by 
 the king's warrant was not necessary, I)ecause the 
 business might have been as well or better done by 
 parliament. If the doctrine maintained by Junius la- 
 confined within this limitation, it will go but a vcvy 
 little way in support of arbitrary power. That thi- 
 king is to judge of the occasion, is no objection, un- 
 less we are told how it can possibly be otherwise. 
 There are other instances, not less important in the 
 exercise, nor less dangerous in the abuse, in \\hicli 
 the constitution relies entirely upon the king's judg 
 ment. The executive power proclaims war ana 
 peace, binds the nation by treaties, orders general 
 embargoes, and imposes quarantines ; not to men 
 tion a multitude of prerogative writs, which, thougb 
 liable to the greatest abuses, were never disputed. 
 
 3. It has been urged, as a reproach to Junius, thai 
 he has not delivered an opinion upon the game laws, 
 and particularly the late dog act. But Junius thinks 
 he has much greater reason to complain, that he is 
 never assisted by those B'ho are able to assist him : 
 and that almost the whole labour of the press is thrown 
 upon a single hand, from which a discussion of every 
 public question is unreasonabl}' expected. He is not 
 pa'd I'or his labour, and certainly has a right to
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 175 
 
 rhoose lii" employment. As to the game laws, he 
 never scrupled to declare his opinion, that they are 
 a species oftlie forest laws : that they are oppressive 
 to the subject ; and that the spirit of them is incom- 
 patible with legal liberty ; that the penalties imposed 
 by these laws bear no proportion to the nature of the 
 offence : that the mode of trial, and the degree and 
 kind of evidence necessary to convict, not only de- 
 prive the subject of all the benefits of a trial by jury, 
 !);!t nre in themselves too summary, and to the last 
 degree arbitrary and oppressive : that, in particular, 
 the late acts to prevent dog stealing, or killing gome 
 between sun and sun, are distinguished by their ab- 
 surdity, extravagance, and pernicious tendency. If 
 lliese terras are weak or ambiguous, in what language 
 V \u Junius express himself.^ It is no excuse for lord 
 Mansfield to say, that he happened to be absent when 
 these bills passed the house of lords. It was his duty 
 to be present. Such bill^ could never have passed 
 the house of commons without his knowledge. But 
 we very well know by what rule he regulates his at- 
 tendance. When tha'. order was made in the house 
 of lords, in the case of lord Pomfret, at which every 
 Englishman shudders, my honest lord Mansfield 
 found himself, by mere accident, in the court of king's 
 bench 5 otherwise he would have done wonders iif 
 defence of law and property ! Tlie pitiful evasion 
 is adapted to the character. But Junius will never 
 justify himself l)y the example of this bad man. 
 The di=;tinrtion between doing wrong, and avoiding 
 to do rio-bf. Volon^rs to lord Mansfield. Junius dis- 
 claims it
 
 176 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 LXIV. 
 
 To Lord Chief Justice Mansfield. 
 
 November 2, 1771- 
 At the intercession of three of your countrymen, 
 you have bailed a man, who, I presume, is also a 
 Scotchman, and whom the lord mayor of London had 
 refused to bail. I do not mean to enter into an exam- 
 ination of ihe partial, sinister motives of your conduct; 
 but, confining myself strictly to the fact, I affirm, that 
 you have done that, which, b^- law, you were not 
 warranted to do. The thief was taken in the theft ; 
 the stolen goods were found upon him, and he made 
 no defence. In these c'rcumstances (the truth of 
 which you dare not deny, because it is of public no- 
 toriety) it could not stand indifferent, whether he was 
 guilty or not, much less could there be any presump- 
 tion of his innocence ; and, in these circumstances, I 
 affirm in contradiction to you, lord chief justice 
 Mansfield, that, by the laws of England, he was not 
 bailable. If ever Mr. Eyre should be brciight to trial, 
 rte shall hear what you have to say for yourself; 
 and I pledge myself, before God and my countrj', 
 in proper time and place, to make good my charge 
 against you. 
 
 JUNIUS,
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 177 
 
 LXV. 
 
 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser. 
 
 November 9, 1771- 
 Junius engages to make good his charge against 
 lord chief justice Mansfield, some time before the 
 meeting of parliament, ill order that the house of 
 commons may, if they think proper, make it one 
 article in the impeachment of the said lord chief 
 justice. 
 
 LXVI. 
 
 To his Grace the Duke of Grafton. 
 
 November 27, 1771- 
 What is the reason, my lord, that, when almost 
 every man in the kingdom, without distinction of 
 principles or party, exults in the ridiculous defeat of 
 sir James Lowther, when good and bad men unite in 
 one common opinion of that baronet, and triumph in 
 his distress, as if the event (without any reference to 
 vice or virtue,) were interesting to human nature, 
 your grace alone should appear so miserably depres- 
 sed and afllicted ? In such universal joy, I know not 
 where you will look for a compliment of condolence, 
 H 2 12
 
 178 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 unless you appeal to the tender, sympathetic sorrows 
 of Mr Bradshaw. That cream-coloured gentleman's 
 tears, affecting as they are, carry consolation along 
 with them. He never weeps, but, like an April 
 shower, with a lambent ray of sunshine upon his 
 countenance. From the feelings of honest men upon 
 this joyful occasion, I do not mean to draw any con- 
 clusion to your grace. They naturally rejoice when 
 they see a signal instance of tyranny resisted with 
 success, of treachery exposed to the derision of the 
 world, an infamous informer defeated, and an impu- 
 dent robber dragged to the public gibbet. But in 
 the other class of mankind, I own I expected to meet 
 the duke of Grafton. Men who had no regard for 
 justice, nor any sense of honour, seem as heartily 
 pleased with sir James Lowther's well-deserved pun- 
 ishment, as if it did not constitute an example against 
 themselves. The unhappy baronet has no friends, 
 even among those who resemble him. You, my lord, 
 are not reduced to so deplorable a state of derelic- 
 tion ; every villain in the kingdom is your friend ; and, 
 in compliment to such amity, I think you should suf- 
 fer your dismal countenance to clear up. Besides, 
 my lord, I am a little anxious for the consistency 
 wf your character. You violate your own rules of 
 decorum, when you do not insult the man you have 
 betrayed. 
 
 The divine justice of retribution seems now to have 
 begun its progress. Deliberate treachery entails 
 punishment upon the traitor. There is no possibility 
 of escaping it, even m the highest rank to which the 
 consent of society can exalt the meanest and worst of 
 men. The forced, unnatural union of Luttrell and
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 179 
 
 Middlesex was an omen of another unnatural union, 
 by vvhich indefeasible infamy is attached to the house 
 of Brunswick. If one of those acts was virtuous and 
 honourable, the best of princes, I thank God, is hap- 
 pily rewarded for it by the other. Your grace, it 
 has been said, had some share in recommending 
 colonel Luttrell to the king ; or was it only the gen- 
 tle Biadshaw who made himself answerable for the 
 good buhaviour of his friend ? An intimate connexion 
 has long subsisted between him and the worthy lord 
 Irnham. It arose from a fortunate similarity of prin- 
 ciples, cemented by the constant mediation of their 
 common friend Miss Davis.* 
 
 * There is a certain family in this country, on which 
 nature seems to have entailed an hereditary baseness of 
 disposition. As far as their history lias been known, the 
 son has regiilarly improved upon the vices of his father, 
 and has taken care to transmit them pure and undiminished 
 into the bosom of his successor. In the senate, their abili- 
 ties have confined them to those humble, sordid services, in 
 which the scavengers of the ministry are usually employed. 
 But in the memoirs of private treachery, they stand first and 
 unrivalled. The following story will serve to illustrate the 
 character of this respectable family, ard to convince the 
 world, that the present possessor has as clea; a title to the 
 mfamy of his ancestors, as he has to their estate. It deserves 
 to be recorded for the curiosity of the fact, and should be 
 given to the public, as a warning to every honest member 
 of society. 
 
 Tlie present lord Irnham, who is now in the decline of 
 hfe, lately cultivated the acquaintance of a younger brother 
 of a family, with which he had lived in some degree of inti- 
 macy and friondship. The young man hnd long been the
 
 J80 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 Yet I confess I should be sorry that the opprobri* 
 ous infamy of this matcli should reach beyond the 
 family. VVe have now a better reason than ever to 
 pray for the long life of the best of princes, and the 
 welfare of his royal issue. I will not mix any thing 
 ominous with my prayers • but let parliament look 
 to it. A Luttrell ' all never succeed to the crown 
 of England. If the hereditary virtues of the family 
 deserve a kingdom, Scotland will be a proper retreat 
 for them. 
 
 The next is a most remarkable instance of the 
 goodness of Providence. The just law of retaliation 
 has at last overtaken the little contempiible tyrant of 
 the north. To tiiis son-in-law of your dearest friend, 
 the carl of Bute, you meant to transfer the duke ol 
 Portland's property j and you hastened the grant 
 
 dupe of a most unhappy attachment to a common prosti- 
 tute. > His friends and relations foresaw the consequences 
 of this connexion, and did every thing that depended upon 
 them to save him from ruin. But he had a friend in lord 
 [rnham, whose advice rendered all their endeavours ineflec- 
 tual. This hoary lecher, not contented with the enjoy- 
 ment of his friend's mistress, was base enough to take ad- 
 vanttxge of the passions and folly of the j'oung man, and 
 persuaded him to marry her. He descended even to per- 
 form the office of father to the prostitute. He gave her to 
 his friend, who was on the point of leaving the kingdom, 
 and the next night lay with her himself. 
 
 Whether the depravity of the human heart can produce 
 any thing more base and detestable than this fact, must be 
 left undetermined, until the son shall arrive at his father's 
 age and experience.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 131 
 
 with an expedition unknown to the treasury, that he 
 might have it time enough to give a decisive turn to 
 the election for the county. The immediate conse- 
 quence of this flagitious robbery was, that he lost the 
 election which you meant to insure him, and with 
 such signal circumstances of scorn, reproach, and 
 insult, (to say nothing of the general exultation of al 
 parties,) as (excepting the king's brother-in-law, 
 colonel Luitrell, and old Simon, his father-in-law) 
 hardly ever fell upon a gendeman in this country 
 In the event, he loses the very property of which he 
 thought he had gotten possession, and after an ex- 
 pense which wou.d have paid the value of the land in 
 question twenty times over. The forms of villany, 
 you see, are necessary to its success. Hereafter you 
 will act with greater circumspection, and not drive 
 so direcdy to your object. To snatch a grace beyond 
 the reach of commoa treachery, is an exception, not 
 a rule. =? ^i-:^- vd si:Ad'f: "' iiiiit h^ 
 
 And now, my good lord, does not your conscious 
 heart inform you, that the justice of retribution be- 
 gins to operate, and that it may soon approach your 
 person ? Do you think that Junius has renounced 
 the ]\Iiddlesex election.^ or that the king's timber 
 shall be refused to tne royal navy with impunity .'' or 
 diat you shall hear no more of the sale of that patent 
 (o Mr. Hine, which you endeavour to screen by sud- 
 denly dropping your pmsecution of Samuel Vaughan, 
 when the rule against him was made absolute .'' 1 
 believe, indeed, there never was such an instance in 
 all the history of negative impudence. But it shall 
 not save you. The very sunshine you live in is a
 
 prelude to your dissolution. When you are ripe, you 
 shall be plucked. 
 
 JUNIUS. 
 
 P. S. I beg you will convey to your gracious mas- 
 ter my humble congratulations upon the glorious suc- 
 cess of peerages and pensions so lavishly distributed 
 as the rewards of Irish virtue. 
 
 LXVII. 
 
 To Lord Chief Justice Mansfield. 
 
 January 21, 1772. 
 I have undertaken to prove, that when, at the 
 intercession of three of your countrymen, you bailed 
 John Eyre, you did that " which by law you were 
 not warranted to do ;" and that a felon, under the 
 L-ircumstances " of being taken in the fact, with the 
 stolen goods upon him, and making no defence, is not 
 bailable" by the laws of England. Your learned 
 advocates have interpreted this charge into a denial, 
 that the court of king's bench, or the judges of that 
 court, during the vacation, have any greater authori- 
 ty to bail for criminal offences than a justice of peace. 
 With the instance before me, I am supposed to ques- 
 tion your power of doing wrong, and to deny the 
 existence of a power, at the same moment that I ar- 
 raign the illegal exercise of it. But the opuiions of 
 such men. whether wilful In tb*»ir malignity, or sincere
 
 JLNIUS'S LETTERS. 183 
 
 in their ignorance, are unworthy of my notice You, 
 lord Mansfield, did not understand me so ; and I 
 promise you, your cause requires an abler defence. 
 1 am now to make good my charge against you. 
 However dull my argument, the subject of it is inter- 
 esting. I shall be honoured with the attention of the 
 public, and have a right to demand the attention of 
 the legislature. Supported, as I am, b}' the whole 
 body of the criminal law of England, I have no doubt 
 of establishing my charge. If, on your part, you shall 
 have no plain substantial defence, but should endea- 
 vour to shelter yourself under the quirk and evasion 
 of a practising lawyer, or under the mere insulting 
 assertion of power without right, the reputation 3'ou 
 pretend to is gone for ever; you stand degraded from 
 the respect and authority of your office, and are no 
 longer dejure, lord chief justice of England. 
 
 This letter, my lord, is addressed not so mucii to 
 you, as to the public. Learned as you are, and quick 
 in apprehension, Ccw arguments are necessary to satis- 
 fy 3'ou, that you have done that, which, by law, you 
 were not warranted to do. Your conscience already 
 tells you, that you have sinned against knowledge j 
 and that, whatever defence you make, contradicts 
 your own internal conviction. But other men are 
 willing enough to take the law upon trust. They 
 rely upon your authorit}', because they are too indo- 
 lent to search for information : or, conceiving that 
 there is some mystery in the laws of their country, 
 which lawyers are only qualified to explain, they dis- 
 (rnst their judgment, aud voluntarily renounce the 
 ri^lit of thinking for themselves. With all the evi- 
 d.":!^',' of history before them, from Tresilian to Jejfe-
 
 184 JLNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 rieSf from Jefferies to Mansfield, they will not believe 
 it possible that a learned judge can act in direct con- 
 tiadiction to those laws, which he is supposed to make 
 the study of his life, and which he has sworn to ad- 
 minister Aulhfully. Superstition is certainly not the 
 characteristic of this age ; yet some men are bigolted 
 in politics who are infidels in religion. I do not des- 
 pair of making them ashamed of their credulity. 
 
 The charge I brought against you is expressed in 
 lerms guarded and well considered. They do not 
 deny the strict power of the judges of the couii of 
 king's bench to bail in cases not bailable by a justice 
 of peace, nor replevisablc by the common writ, or 
 ex officio, by the sheriff. I well know the practice of 
 the court, and by what legal rules it ought to be di- 
 rected. But, far from meaning to soften or diminish 
 the force of those terms I have made use of, I now go 
 beyond tiien), and affirm, 
 
 1. That the superior power of bailing for felony, 
 claimed by the court of king's bench, is founded upon 
 the opinion of lawyers, and the practice of the court; 
 that the assent of the legislature to this power is mere- 
 ly negative, and that it is not supported by any posi- 
 tive provision in any statute whatsoever. If it be, 
 produce the statute. 
 
 2. Admitting that the judges of the court of king's 
 bench are vested with a discretionary power to exam- 
 ine and judge of circumstances and allegations which 
 a justice of peace is not permitted to consider, I af- 
 firm that the judges, in the use and application of that 
 discretionary power, are as strictly bound by the 
 spirit, intent, and meaning, as the justice of peace is 
 bv the words of the legislature. Favourable circura-
 
 JUNIUb'S LETTERS. 165 
 
 stances, alleged before the judge, may justify a 
 doubt, whether the prisoner be guilty or not; and 
 where the guilt is doubtful, a presumption of inno- 
 cence should in general be admitted. But, when any 
 such probable circumstances are alleged, they alter 
 the state and condition of the prisoner. He is no 
 longer that all-hut-convicted felon, whom the law in- 
 tends, and who by law is not hailahle at nil. If no 
 circumstances whatsoever are alleged in his favour ; 
 if no allegation whatsoever be made to lessen the 
 force of that evidence which the law annexes to a 
 positive charge of felony, and particularly to the fact 
 of being taken with the manner; I then say, that the 
 lord chief justice of England has no more right to bail 
 him than a justice of peace. The discretion of an 
 English judge is not of mere will and pleasure ; i-t is 
 not arbitrar}' ; it is not capricious; but, as that great 
 lawyer (whose authority I wish you respected half as 
 much as I doj truly says,* " Discretion, taken as it 
 ought to be, is, discernere per legem quid sit justum. 
 If it be not directed by the right line of the law, it is 
 a crooked cord, and appeareth to be unlawful." If 
 discretion were arbitrary in the judge, he might in- 
 troduce whatever novelties he thought proper. But, 
 sa^'S lord Coke, " Novelties, without warrant of pre- 
 cedents, are not to be allowed : some certain rules are 
 fo be followed : Quicquid judicis auetoritati suhjicitvr 
 novitati non subjicitur." And this sound doctrine is 
 applied to the star-chamber, a court confessedly arbi- 
 trary* If you will abide by the authority of this 
 
 • Inst. 41. GG.
 
 !t'3 ;l':cil3's t.ettkp.s. 
 
 r.-.-'.!. ;i;.i, you shall have all the advantage of his 
 Dpinion, wherever it appears to favour you. Ex- 
 cepting the plain, express meaning of the legislature, 
 to which all private opinions must give way, I desire 
 no better judge between as than lord Coke. 
 
 3. I aflirm that, according to the obvious, indis- 
 putable meaning of the legislature, repeatedly ex- 
 pressed, a person positively charged with feloniously 
 stealing, and taken in Jlagrante delicto, with the 
 stolen goods upon him, is not bailable. The law 
 considers him as differing in nothing from a convict, 
 but in the form of conviction ; and (whatever a cor- 
 rupt judge may do) will accept of no security, but 
 the confinement of his body within four walls. I 
 know it has been alleged, in your fiivour, that you 
 have often bailed for murders, rapes, and other mani- 
 fest crimes. Without questioning the fact, T shall 
 not admit that you are to be justified by your own ex- 
 ample. If that were a protection to you, where is 
 the crime, that, as a jvidge, you might not now se- 
 curely commit .'* But neither shall I suffer myself to 
 be drawn aside from my present argument, nor you 
 to profit by your own wrong. To prove the meaning 
 and intent of the legislature, will require a minute 
 and tedious deduction. To investigate a question ot 
 law, dtmands some labour ind attention, though very 
 little genius or sagacity. As a practical profession, 
 the study of the law requires but a moderate portion 
 of abilities. The learning of a pleader is usually 
 npon a level with his integrity. The indiscriminate 
 defence of right and wrong contracts the under- 
 standing, while it corrupts the heart. Subtilty is 
 soon mistaken for wisdom, and impunity foi virtue.
 
 JUNIUS'S 1ETTKR3. 137 
 
 If there be any instances upon record (as soiiie there 
 are undoubtedly, of genius and morality united in a 
 lawyer) they are distinguished by their singularity, 
 and operate as exceptions. 
 
 I must solicit the patience of my readers. This is 
 lu) light matter ; nor is it any more susceptible of or- 
 nament, than the conduct of lord Mansfield is capa- 
 lile of aggravation. 
 
 As the law of bail, in charges of felony, has been 
 f xactly ascertained by acts of the legislature, it is at 
 i>i-esent of little consequence to inquire how it stood 
 ;;'. common law before the statute of Westminster. 
 And yet it is worth the reader's attention to observe, 
 !!.).v nearly, in the ideas of our ancestors, the cir- 
 cumstance of being taken with the maner approach- 
 c ! to the conviction* of the felon. It " fixed the 
 ;i.:thoritative stamp of verisimilitude upon the accu- 
 ^. iiion : and, by the common law, with the things 
 s;(j]en upon him in manu, he might, so detected, 
 / igrante delicto, be brought into court, arraigned, 
 ■v.-A tried, without indictment; as, by the Danish law, 
 I.-.- might be taken and hanged on the spot, without 
 :i<cusation or trial." It will soon appear that our 
 s;;ame in law, in this behalf, though less summary 
 i:i point of proceeding, is directed by the same spir- 
 it. In one instance, the very form is adhered to. 
 In offences relating to the forest, if a man was taken 
 with vert, or venison,t it was declared to be equiva- 
 ent to indictment. To enable the reader to judge 
 
 • Blackstonc, iv. 303. 
 
 f \ VA. III. cap. 8 ; and 7 Ric IT ^ap. 4.
 
 188 JUNIUS S LETTERS. 
 
 for himself, I sliall state, in due order, the jc\ora\ 
 statutes relative to bail in criminal casv;s, or as much 
 of them as may be material to the point in question, 
 omitting superfluous words. If I misrepresent, or 
 do not quote with fidelity, it will not be difficult to 
 detect me. 
 
 * The statute of Westminster the first, in 1275, 
 sets fordi, that " Forasmuch as sheriffs and others, 
 who have taken and kept in prison persons detected 
 of felony and incontinent, have let out by replevin 
 such as were not replevisable, because they would 
 gain of the one party, and grieve the other ; and 
 forasmuch as, before this time, it was not determined 
 which persons were replevisable, and which not ; It 
 is provided, and by the king commanded, that such 
 prisoners, &tc. as be taken with the maner, &i,c. 
 or for manifest offences, shall be in no wise re- 
 plevisable by the common writ, nor without writ." 
 Lord Coke,! in his exposition of the last part of 
 this quotation, accurately distinguishes between re- 
 plevy, by the common writ, or ex ojjicio, and bail 
 by the king's bench. The words of the statute 
 
 * Videtur que le statute de mainprize n'est que le rchersai 
 del comen ley." — Bro. Mainp. Gl. 
 
 t "There are thi?e points to be considered in the con- 
 struction of all remedial statutes ; the old law, the mischief, 
 and the remedy ; that is, how the common law stood at the 
 making of the act ; what the mischief was for which the 
 common law did not provide ; and what remedy the parlia- 
 ment hath provided to cure this mischief. It is the business 
 of the judges so to construe the act, as to suppress the mis 
 cluef, and advance the ren> iy." — Blackstonc. i. 87-
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 180 
 
 certainly do not extend to the judges of that court. 
 Hut, besides tliat, the reader will soon find reason to 
 think that the legislature, in tiieir intention, made no 
 difference between bailable and replevisable. I^ord 
 Coke himself, if he be untlerstood to mean nothing but 
 an exposition of the statute of Westminster, and not 
 to state the law generally, does not adhere to his 
 own distinction. In expounding the other offences, 
 which, by this statute, and declared not replevisable, 
 he constantly uses the words not bailable. " Tiiat 
 o'ltlaws, for instance, are not bailable at all : thai 
 persons who have abjured the realm, are attainted 
 upon their own confession, and therefore not baila!)le 
 at all by law : that provers are not bailable : that no- 
 torious felons are not bailable." The reason why 
 the superior courts were not named in the statute of 
 Westminster, was plainly this : " because anciently 
 most of the business touching bailment of prisoners 
 for felony or misdemeanors, was performed I)y the 
 sheriffs, or special bailiffs of liberties, either by writ, 
 or virtute officii ;"* consequently the superior courts 
 had little or no opportunit}' to commit those abuses 
 which the statute imputes to the sheriffs. With sul)- 
 mission to Dr. Blackstone, I think he has fallen into 
 a contradiction, which, in terms at least, appears ir- 
 reconcileable. After enumerating several offences not 
 bailable, he asserts, without any condition or limita- 
 tion whatsoev?r,t " All these are clearly not admissi- 
 ble to bail." Yet, in a few lines after, he says, " It 
 is agreed that the court of king's bench may bail for 
 any crime whatsoever, according to the circum- 
 
 • 2 Hale, P. C. I '28, 13G. > Blackstone, iv. 29r).
 
 193 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 stances of the case." To his first proposition he 
 should have added, " by sheriffs or justices j" other- 
 wise the two propositions contradict eacii other : with 
 this difference, however, thai tha first is absolute, the 
 second limited by a consideration of circumstances. 
 1 say this, without the least intended disrespect to the 
 learned author. His work is of public utility, and 
 should not hastily be condemned. 
 
 Tlie statute of 17 Richard II. cap. 10, 1393, sets 
 forth, that, " Forasmuch as thieves notoriously de- 
 famed, and others taken with the nianer, by their 
 long abiding in prison, were delivered by charters 
 and favourable inquests procured, to the great hin- 
 derance of the people, two men of law shall be as- 
 signed, in every commission of the peace, to proceed 
 to the deliverance of such felons," &£c. It seems, by 
 this act, that there was a constant struggle between 
 the legislature and the officers of justice. Not dar- 
 ing to admit felons taken with the maner to bail ur 
 muinprize, they evaded the law, by keeping the party 
 in prison a long time, and then delivering him witl 
 out due trial. 
 
 The statute of 1 Richard III. in 1483, sets forth 
 that, " Forasmuch as divers persons have been daily 
 arrested and imprisoned for suspicion of felony, some- 
 time of malice, and sometime of a light suspicion, 
 and so kept in prison without bail or mainprize ; be 
 it ordained, that every justice of peace shall have 
 authority, by his discretion, to let such prisoners and 
 persons so arrested to bail or mainprize." By this 
 act, it appears that there had been abuses in matter 
 of ira ir'sonment, and that the legislature meant to
 
 JUxXIUS'S LETTERS. 191 
 
 provide for the immediate enlargement of persons 
 arrested on light suspicion of felony. 
 
 The statute of 3 Henry VII. in 1486, declares, 
 that, under colour of the preceding act of Richard 
 the Third, " Persons, such as were not mainperna- 
 ble, were oftentimes let to bail or mainprize by jus- 
 tices of the peace, whereby many murderers and fel- 
 ons escaped ; the king, Sic. hath ordained, that the 
 justices of the peace, or two of them at least (where- 
 of one to be of the quorum) have authority to let any 
 such prisoners or persons, mainpernable by the law, to 
 bail or mainprizc." 
 
 The statute of 1 and 2 of Philip and Mary, in 
 1554, sets forth, that, " Notwithstanding the preced- 
 ing statute of Henry the Seventh, one justice of peace 
 hath oftentimes, by sinister labour and means, set at 
 large ihe greatest and notablest offenders, such as be 
 not replevisable by the laws of this realm ; and yet, 
 the rather to hide their aflections in that behalf, have 
 assigned the cause of their apprehension to be but 
 only for suspicion of felony, whereby the said offend- 
 ers have escaped unpunished, and do daily, to the 
 high displeasure of Almighty God, the great peril of 
 the king and queen's true subjects, and encourage- 
 ment of all thieves and evil-doers ; for reformation 
 whereof be it enacted that no justice of peace shall 
 let to bail or mainprire any such persons, which for 
 any offence by them committed, be declared not to 
 be replevised or bailed, or be f()rl)iddcn to be replevis- 
 ed or bailed, by the statute of Westminster the first , 
 and fuitherniore, that any persons arrested for man- 
 slaughter or felony, being bailable by the law, shall 
 not be let to bail or niair prixe by any justices of
 
 192 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 peace, but in the form therein after prescribed," Tn 
 the two preceding statutes, tlie words bailable, re- 
 plevisable, and mainpernable, are used synonymous- 
 ly,* or promiscuousl}', to express the same single in- 
 tention of the legislature, viz. not to accept of any 
 security but the body of the offender: and when the 
 latter statute prescribes the form in which persons ar- 
 rested on suspicion of felony (being bailable by the 
 law) may be let to bail, it evidently supposes that 
 there are some cases not baibble by the law. It may 
 be thought, perhaps, that I attribute to the legisla- 
 ture an appearance of inaccuracy in the use of terms 
 merely to serve my present purpose. But, in truth, 
 it would make more forcibly for my argument, to 
 presume, that the legislature were constantly aware 
 of the strict legal distinction between bail and reple- 
 vy, and that they always meant to adhere to it.")" For 
 if it be true that replevy is by the sheriffs, and bail 
 by the higher courts at Westminster (which I think 
 no lawyer will deny,) it follows, that when the legis- 
 lature expressly says that any particular offenc-e is by 
 law not bailable, the superior courts are comprehend- 
 ed in the prolubition, and bound by it. Otherwise, 
 unless there was a positive exception of the superior 
 courts (which I affirm there never was in any statute 
 elative to bail) the legislature would grossly contra- 
 ilict themselves, and the manifest Intention of the law 
 
 • 2 Hale, P. C. ii. 124. 
 
 t Vide 2d Inst. 150, 18G, " The word -eplevisable never 
 signifies bailable. Bailable is in a court of record, by the 
 king's justices; but replevisable is by the sheriff." — Selden, 
 State Trials, vii. 149.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS 103 
 
 be evaded. It is an established rule, tliat, when the 
 law is special, and reason of it general, it is to be 
 general!}' understood ; and ihoLigh, by custom, a 
 latitude be allowed to the court of king's bench, (to 
 consider circumstances inductive of a doubt, whether 
 the prisoner be guilty or innocent) if this latitude be 
 taken as an arbitrary power to bail, when no circum- 
 stances whatsoever are alleged in fiivour of the prison- 
 er, it is a power without right, and a daring viola- 
 tion of the whole English law of bail. 
 
 The act of the 31st of Charles the Second (com- 
 monly called the Habeas Corjius art) particularly de- 
 clares, that it is not meant to extend to treason or 
 felony, plainly and specially expressed in the warrant 
 of commitment. The prisoner is tiierefore left to 
 seek his Habeas Corpus at common law . and so far 
 was the legislature from supposing tliat persons (com- 
 mitted for treason or felony, plainly and specially 
 expressed in the warrant of commitment) could be 
 let to bail by a single judge, or by the whole court, 
 that this very act provides a remedy for such persons, 
 in case they are not indicted in the course of the term 
 or sessions subsequent to their commitment. The 
 law neither su.Ters l!:em to be enlarged before trial, 
 <ior to be imprisoned after the time in which they 
 ought regularly to be tried. In this ca-e tiie law 
 says, " It shall and may be lawful to and for tlie 
 judges of the court of king's bc-nch, and justices of 
 oyer and terminer, or general gaol delivery, and they 
 are hereby required, upon motion made to tiiem in 
 open court, the last day of the term, session, or gaol 
 delivery, eidier by the prisoner, or any one in his 
 behalf, to set at liberty the prisoner upon bail, unleil 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 13
 
 194 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 i* appear to the judges and justices, uj)i)u oath made, 
 that the witnesses for the king could not be produced 
 the same term, sessions, cr gaol dcHvery." Uj)on 
 the whole of this article I observe, 1. That the pro- 
 vision made in the first part of it would be, in a great 
 r/icasurc, useless and nugatory, if any single judge 
 inight have bailed tiie prisoner ex arhitrio during the 
 vataiion, or if the court might have bailed him im- 
 mediately after the commencement of tlie term or ses- 
 sions. 2. Wb.eu the law says. It shall and may be 
 lawful to bail for felony untlcr particular circum- 
 stances, we must presume, that, before the passing 
 of that act, it was not lawful to bail under those cir- 
 cuiustances. The terms used by the legislature are 
 enacting, not declaratory. 3. Notwithstanding the 
 party may iKive been imprisoned during the greatest 
 part of the vacation, and during the whole session, 
 the court are expressly forbidden to bail him, from 
 that session to the next, if oath be made that the 
 witnesses for the king could not be produced that same 
 term or sessions. 
 
 Having falthfuUj^ stated the several acts of parlia- 
 ment relative to bail in criminal cases, it may be use- 
 ful to the reader to take a short historical review o/ 
 the law of bail, through its various gradations aii-,1 
 improvements. 
 
 By the ancient common law, before and since lii ■ 
 conquest, all felonies were bailable, till murder wa, 
 excepted by statute; so that persons might be ad- 
 mitted to bail, before conviction, almost in every case. 
 The statute of Westminster says, that before thai 
 time, it had not been determined which offences were 
 replevisable, and which were not, whether by the
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 195 
 
 common writ de homine replegiando, or ex officio hy 
 the sheriiT. It is very remarkable, that the abuses 
 arising from this unlimited [)o\ver of replevy, dread- 
 ful as they \^ere, and destructive to the peace of soci- 
 ety, were not corrected or taken notice of by the 
 legislature, until the commons of the kiup^dom had 
 obtained a share in it by their representatives ; but 
 the house of commons had scarce begun to exist, 
 when these formidable abuses were corrected by the 
 statute of Westminster. It is highly probable, that 
 the mischief had been severely felt by the people, 
 although no remed}' had been provided for it by the 
 Norman kings or barons. " The* iniquity of the 
 times was so great, as it even forced the subjects to 
 forego that, which was in account a great liberty, to 
 stop the cause of a growing mischief." The pream- 
 ble to the statutes made by the first parliament of 
 Edward the First, assigns the reason of calling it,!" 
 " because the people had been otherwise entreated 
 than they ought to be, the peace less kept, the laws 
 less used, and offenders less punished than they ought 
 to be, by reason whereof ihe people feared less to 
 offend ;" and the first attempt to reform these various 
 abuses was by contracting the power of replevying 
 felons. 
 
 For above two centuries following, it does not ap- 
 pear that any alteration was n)ade in the law of bai-1, 
 except that being taken with vert or venison was de- 
 clared to be equivalent to indictment. Tiie Icgida- 
 
 • Seidell, by N. Bacon, 182. 
 t ruiTiunicntary History, i. 82.
 
 100 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 tnrc adiicreil firmly to the spirit of the statute of 
 Westminster. The statute of the 27th of Edward 
 tlie First directs the justices of assize to inquire and 
 punish officers bailing suoli as were not bailable. As 
 for the judf^cs of the superior courts, it is jirobable, 
 that in those days they tliought themselves bound by 
 the ol)vious intent and meaning of tiie legislature 
 They considered not so much to what particular per 
 sons the prohibition was addressed, as \\\\n\. the thing 
 was which the legislature meant to prohibit ; well 
 knowing that in law, quando allquid j^rohibctv?-, 
 prohihetur et omne per qvod dcvcnitur ad iUud. 
 *' When any thing is forbidden, all the means by 
 which the same thing may be compassed or done are 
 equally forbidden." 
 
 By the statute of Richard thvi Third, tiie power of 
 bailing was a littk enlarged ; every justice of peace 
 was authorised to bail for felony ; but they were ex- 
 pressly confined to persons arrested on light suspi- 
 cion ; and even this power, so limited, was found to 
 produce such inconveniences, that in three years 
 after the legislature found it necessary to repeal it. 
 Instead of trusting any longer to a single justice of 
 peace, the act of 3 Henry VII. repeals the preceding 
 act, and directs, " That no prisoner (of those who 
 are mainpernable by the law) shall be let to bail or 
 mainprize by less than two justices, whereof one to be 
 of the quorum." 
 
 And so indispensably necessary was this provisioi 
 thought for the administration of justice, and for the 
 Fecurily and peace of society, that at this time an oath 
 was proposed by the king, to be taken by the knights 
 ^.v.(\ enquires of liis household, by the members of the
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 197 
 
 house of commons, and by the peers spiritual and 
 temporal, and accepted and sworn to quasi una voce 
 by them all, which, among other engagements, binds 
 them not to let any man to bail or mainprize, " know- 
 hig and deeming him to be a felon, upon your honour 
 and worship. So help you God and all saints."* 
 
 In about half a century, however, even these pro- 
 visions were found insufficient. The act of Henry the 
 Seventh was evaded and the legislature once more 
 obliged to interpose. The act of 1 and 2 of Philip 
 and Blary fakes away entirely from the justices all 
 power of bailing for offences declared not bailable by 
 the statute of Westminster 
 
 T\yj illegal imprisonment of several persons, who 
 had refused to contribute to a loan exacted by Charles 
 the First, and the delay of the habeas corpus, and 
 subsequent refusal to bail them, constituted one of 
 the first and most important grievances of that reign. 
 Yet when the house of commons, which met in the 
 year 162S, resolved upon measures of the most firm 
 and strenuous resistance to the power of imprison- 
 ment, assumed by the king or privy council, and to 
 the refusal to bail the party on the return of the ha- 
 beas corpus ; they did expressly, in all their resolu- 
 tions, make an exceptioii of commitments, where the 
 cause of the restraint was expressed, and did by law 
 justify the commitment. Tlie reason of the distinc- 
 tion is, that w hcreas, when the cause of conunitment 
 is expressed, the crime is then known, and the offen- 
 der must be brought to the ordinary trial : if, on the 
 
 Parliamentary History, ii. 5iy.
 
 1-3 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 coatiary, no ciitise of commitment be expressed, and 
 [;:•• j)risoncr ])c thereupon remanded, it may operate 
 to perpetual imprisonment. This contest with Charles 
 the First produced the act of the 16th of that king: 
 h}' which the court of king's bench are directed, 
 widiiii t!>reo days after the return to the habeas cor- 
 pis, to examine and determine the legality of any 
 commitment by the king or privy council, and to do 
 wbat in justice shall appertain, in delivering, bailing, 
 or remanding the prisoner. Now, it seems, it is un- 
 necessary for the judge to do what appertains to jus- 
 tice. The same scandalous traffic, in which we have 
 seen the privilege of parliament exerted or relaxed, 
 to gratify the present humour, or to serve the imme- 
 diate purpose of the crown, is introduced into the ad- 
 ministration of justice. The magistrate, it seems, has 
 now no rule to follow, but the dictates of personal 
 enmity, national partiality, or perhaps the most pros 
 tituted corruption. 
 
 To complete this historical inquiry, it only remains 
 to be observed, that the habeas corpus act of 31 of 
 Charles the Second, so justly considered as another 
 Magna Charta of the kingdom, " extends* only to 
 the case of cwTimitments for such criminal charge as 
 can produce no inconvenience to public justice by a 
 temporary enlargement of the prisoner." So careful 
 were the legislature, at the very moment when they 
 were providing for the liberty of the subject, not to 
 furnish any colour or pretence for violating or evad- 
 ing the established law of bail in higher criminal of- 
 
 • Blackstone, iv. 137.
 
 JULIUS'S LETTERS. 199 
 
 fences. But the exception, stated in the bod}' of the 
 net, puts tlie matter out of all doubt. After direct- 
 ing the judges how they are to proceed to the dis- 
 charge of the prisoner upon recognizance and surety, 
 having regard to the quality of the prisoner and na- 
 ture of the offence, it is expressly added, " unless it 
 shall appear to the said lord chancellor, Sec. that (he 
 party so committed is detained for such matters or 
 offences, for the which, by tlie law, the prisoner is not 
 bailable." 
 
 When the laws, plain of themselves, are thus illus- 
 tntcd b}' facts, and their uniform meaning establish- 
 ed by history, we do not want the authority of opin- 
 ions, however respectable, to inform our judgment, or 
 to confirm our belief. But I am determined that you 
 shall have no escape. Authority of every sort shall 
 be produced against you, from Jacob to lord Coke, 
 from the dictionary to the classic. In vain shall you 
 appeal from those upright judges whom you disdain 
 to imitate, to those whom you have made your exam- 
 ple. With one voice they all condemn you. 
 
 " To be taken with the maner, is where a thief, 
 having stolen any thing, is taken with the same about 
 him, as it were in his hands, which is cnWec] Jlagrante 
 delicto. Such a criminal is not bailable by law." — 
 Jacob, under the Wv rd Mancr. 
 
 " Those who are taken with the maner are excluded 
 by the statute of Westminster, from the benefit of a 
 replevin." — Hawkins, P. C ii. 93. 
 
 " Of such heinous offences, no one, who is notori- 
 ously guilty, seems to be bailable by the intent of tliis 
 statute."— I>i«o, i'. 99. 
 
 " The common practice and allowed general rule
 
 200 JQNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 is, lliat b.u. is only then proper, where it stands in- 
 (lllTercnt whether the party were guihy or inuocent."' 
 —-Ditto, ditto. 
 
 " There is no doubt but that the bailing of a per- 
 so;i, who is not bailable by law, is punishable eillicr 
 at common law, as a negligent escape, or as an of- 
 fenee against the several statutes relative to bail." 
 --Ditto, 89. 
 
 •' It cannot be doul)tcd, but that neither the judges 
 of this, nor of any other superior coiu't ofjustice, are 
 slriclly within the purview of that i^latiUe ; j-et they 
 will always, in their discretion, pay a due regard to 
 ll, and not admit a person to bail who is expressly 
 declared by it irreplevisable, without *some particular 
 circumstance in his favour ; and, therefore, it seems 
 difilcult to find an instance where persons, attainted 
 (if felony, or notoriously guilty of treason, or man- 
 slaughter, See. by their own confession, or otherwise, 
 have been admitted to the benefit of bail, without 
 soiue special motive to the court to grant it."--- 
 Ditto, 114. 
 
 " If it appears that any man hath injury or wrong 
 by his imprisonment, we have power to deliver and 
 di.-cliarge him; if otherwise, he is to be remanded by 
 us to prison again." — Lord Ch. J. Ili/de, State Trials, 
 \ii. 115. 
 
 " The statute of Westminster was especially for 
 direction to the sheriffs and others ; but to say 
 courts of justice are excluded from this statute, I 
 conceive it cannot be." — Attorney General Heath, 
 Ditto, 132. 
 
 " The court, upon view of (he return, judgeth of 
 the sufficiency or insufficiency of it. If they think
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 201 
 
 the prisoner in law to be bailable, he is committed 
 to the marshal, and bailed ; if not, he is remanded." 
 Through the whole debate, the objection on the 
 part of the prisoners was, that no cause of commit- 
 ment was expressed in the warrant ; but it was uni- 
 formly admitted, by their counsel, that if the cause of 
 commitment had been expressed for treason or felony, 
 the court would then have done right in remanding 
 them. 
 
 The attorney-general having urged, before a com- 
 mittee of both houses, that, in Beckwilh's case, and 
 others, tjje lords of the council sent a letter to the 
 court of king's bench to bail ; it was replied, by the 
 managers of the house of commons, that this was 
 of no moment : " for that either the prisoner was 
 bailable by the law, or not bailable. If bailable by 
 the law, then he was to be bailed without any such 
 letter ; if not bailable by the law, then plainly the 
 judges could not have bailed him upon the letter, 
 without breach of th.cir oath, which is, that they are 
 to do justice according to the law," &:c. — State 
 Trials, vii. 175. 
 
 " So that in bailing upon such offences of the 
 highest nature, a kind of discretion, rather than a 
 constant law, hath been exercised, when it stands 
 wholly indifferent, in the eye of the court, whether 
 the prisoner be guilty or not." — Seldcn, St. Tr. vii. 
 230. 1. 
 
 " I deny that a man is always bailable when im- 
 prisonment is imposed upon him for custody." — 
 Attorney General Heath, ditto, 23S. 
 
 P,7 these quotations from the State Trirds, (hough 
 otherwise not of authority, it aj)pears plainly, that 
 1 2
 
 202 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 in regard t3 bailable or not bailable, all parties 
 agreed in admitting one proposition as incontro- 
 vertible. 
 
 " In relation to capital oflences, there are especial- 
 ly these acts of parliament that are the common land- 
 marks* touching offences bailable or not bailable. "--- 
 Hale, ii. P. C. 127. The enumeration includes the 
 several acts cited in this paper. 
 
 " Persons taken with the manouvre are not baila- 
 ble, because it is furtum manifcstum." — Hale, ii. 
 P. C. 133. 
 
 " The writ of Habeas Corpus is of a high nature ; 
 for if persons be wrongfully committed, they are to 
 be discharged upon this writ returned ; or, if baila- 
 ble, they are to bailed : if not bailable, they are to 
 be committed," — Hale ii. P. C. 143. This doctrine 
 of lord chief justice Hale refers immediately to the 
 superior courts from whence the writ issues. " After 
 the return is filed, the court is either to dbcharge, or 
 bail, or commit him, as the nature of the case re- 
 quil-es."— HaZe, ii. P. C. 146. 
 
 " If bail be granted otherwise than the law allow- 
 eth, the party that alloweth the same shall be fined, 
 imprisoned, render damages, or forfeit his place, as 
 the case shall require." — Selden, by JV. Bacon, 182. 
 
 " This induces an absolute necessity of expressing, 
 upon every commitment, the reason for which it is 
 made ; that the court, upon a Habeas Corpus, may 
 examine into its validity, and, according to the cir- 
 
 • It has been the study of lord Manstieia to remove land- 
 marks.
 
 1 
 
 JLNIUS'S LETTERS. 203 
 
 cumslances of the case, may discliarge, admit to bail, 
 or remand the prisoner. — Blackstone, iii. 133. 
 
 " INIarriot was .-ommitted for forging indorsements 
 upon bank-bills, and upon a Habeas Corjjus was 
 bailed, because t\ie crime was only a great misde- 
 me-anor ; for though the forging the bills be felony, 
 yet forging the indorsement is not." — Salkcld, i. 104. 
 
 " Appell de Ma[hem, he. ideo ne fuit lesse a bailte, 
 nient p-lus que in appell de robbery ou murder; quod 
 nota, et que in robbery et murder le partie n'st bail- 
 lable. — Bro. Mainprizc, 67. 
 
 " The intendment of the law in bails is, ^uod stat 
 indiffer enter, whether he be guilty or no ; but when 
 he is convicted by verdict or confession, then he must 
 be deemed in law to be guilty of the felony, and 
 therefore not bailable at all." — Coke, ii. Inst. 188. 
 iv. 178. 
 
 " Bail is quando stat indijfer enter, and not when 
 the offence is open and manifest." — 2 Inst. 189. 
 
 " In this qase non stat indifferenter, whether he be 
 guilty oi* no, being taken with the maner, that is, 
 with the thing stolen, as it were, in his hand." 
 Ditto, ditto. 
 
 " If it appcareth that this imprisonment be just 
 and lawful, he shall be remanded to the former gaol- 
 er ; but if it shall appear to the court that he was 
 imprisoned against the law of the land, they ought, 
 by force of this statute, to deliver him : if it be 
 doubtful, and under consic eration, he may be bail- 
 ed."™2 Inst. 55. 
 
 It is unnecessary to load the reader with any far- 
 ther quotations. If those authorities are not deemed 
 <;ufficieit to establish the doctrine maintained in fliis
 
 204 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 paper, it will be in vain to appeal to the evidence of 
 law books, or the opinions of judjjfcs. The}' are not 
 the authorities by which lord Mansfield will abide. 
 He assumes an arbitrary power of doing right : and 
 if he does wrong, it lies only between God and his 
 conscience. 
 
 Now, my lord, although I have great faith in the 
 preceding argument, I will not say that every minute 
 part of it is absolutely invulnerable. I am loo well 
 acquainted with the practice of a certain court, di- 
 rected by your example, as it is governed by your 
 authority, to think there ever yet was an argument, 
 however conformable to law and reason, in which a 
 cunning, quibbling attorney might not discover a flaw. 
 But, taking the whole of it together, I aflirm, that it 
 constitutes a mass of demonstration, than which 
 nothing more complete or satisfactory can be oflTered 
 to the human mind. How an evasive, indirect reply 
 will stand with your reputation, or how far it will an- 
 swer in point of defence, at the bar of the house of 
 ^ords, is worth your consideration. If, after all that 
 has been said, it should still be maintained, that the 
 court of king's bench, in bailing felons, are exempted 
 from all legal rules whatsoever, and that the judge 
 has no direction to pursue, but his private aflections, 
 or mere unquestionable will and pleasure, it will Hal- 
 low plainly, that the distinction between bailable and 
 not bailable, uniformly expressed by the legislature, 
 current through all our law books, and admitted by 
 all our great lawyers, without exception, is, in one 
 sense, a nugatory, in another, a pernicious, distinc- 
 tion. It is nugatory, as it supposes a difl*crence in 
 i]-.p bailable quality of offences, when, in effect, the
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 205 
 
 distinction refers only to (lie rank of the magistrate 
 It is pernicious, as it implies a rule of law, wliirh 
 yet the judge is not bound to pny the least regard 
 to ; and inipresses an idea upon the minds of Che 
 people, that the judge is wiser and greater than the 
 law. 
 
 It remains only to apply the law, thus stated, tc the 
 fact in question. By an authentic copy of the 7ni!ri- 
 mus, it appears that John Eyre was commitied for 
 felon}', plainly and specially expressed in the warrant 
 of < (iinmitment. He was charged before alderman 
 Halifax, by the oath of Thomas Fielding, William 
 Holder, William Payne, and William Nash, for felo- 
 niously stealing eleven quires of writing paper, value 
 six shillings, the property of Thomas Beach, &:c. 
 By the examinations upon oath of the four persons 
 mentioned in the mittimus, it was oroved, that large 
 quantities of paper had been missed ; and that eleven 
 quires (previously marked, from a suspicion thai 
 Eyre was the ihief) were found upon him. Manv 
 other quires of paper, marked in the sanie manner, 
 were found at his lodgings ; and after he had been 
 some time in Wood-street Compter, a key was found 
 in his room there, which appeared to be a key lo the 
 closet at Guildhall, from whence the paper was stolen. 
 When asked what he had to say in his defence, his 
 only answer was, " I hope you will bail me." Mr. 
 Holder, the clerk, replied, " That is impossible. 
 There never was an instance o( it, when the stolen 
 goods were found upon the thief" The lord mayor 
 was then applied to, and refused to bail him. Of all 
 these circumstances, it was your duty to have inform- 
 ed yourself minutely. The fact was leinarkalile :
 
 20G j\:::ijZ'^ letters. 
 
 ami til chief ningistiiilc of the city of London was 
 known to ha\c refused to bail the oflendcr. To jus- 
 tify your compliance with the solicitations of your 
 three countrymen, it should be proved that such alle- 
 gations were offered to you in behalf of their asso- 
 ciate, as honestly and bona fide reduced it to a mat- 
 ter of doubt and indifference whether the prisoner was 
 innocent or guilty. Was any thing offered by the 
 Scotch triumvirate that tended to invalidate the posi- 
 tive charge made against him by four credible wit- 
 nesses upon oath? Was it even insinuated to you, 
 either by himself or his bail, that no felony was com- 
 mitted ; or, that he was not the felon ; that the stolen 
 goods were not found upon him ; or that he was only 
 the receiver, not knowing them to be stolen ? Or, in 
 short, did they attempt to produce afly evidence of 
 his insanity ? To all these questions I answer for 
 you, without the least fear of contradiction, positively. 
 No. From the moment he was arrested he never 
 entertained any hope of acquittal ; therefore, thought 
 of nothing but obtaining bail, that he might have 
 time to settle his affairs, convey his fortune into an- 
 other country, and spend the remainder of his life in 
 comfort and afilueuce abroad. In this prudential 
 scheme of future happiness, the lord chief justice of 
 England most readily and heartily concurred. At 
 sight of so much virtue in distress, your natural be- 
 nevolence took the alarm. Such a man as Mr. Eyre, 
 struggling with adversity, must always be an inter- 
 estirg scene to lord Mansfield. Or, was it that libe- 
 ral anxiety, by which your whole life has been distin 
 guis' '^'i. to enlarge the liberty of the rubject.? M^ 
 lord, we did not want this new instance of the liberal-
 
 JUiSlUS'S LETTERS. 2W 
 
 ity of youi jjrinciples. We already knew what kind 
 of subjects thoy were for whose liberty you were 
 anxious. At all events, the public are much indebted 
 to you for fixing a price, at which felony may be 
 committed with impunity. 
 
 You bound a felon, notoriously worth 30,000/. in 
 tiie sum of 300Z. With your natural turn to equity, 
 and knowing, as you are, in the doctrine of prece- 
 dents, you undoubtedly meant to settle the propor- 
 tion between the fortune of the felon and the fine 
 by which he may compound for his felony. The 
 Vatio now upon record, and transmitted to posterity 
 under the auspices of lord Mansfield, is exactly one 
 to an hundred. IMy lord, without intending it, you 
 have laid a cruel restraint upon the genius of your 
 countrymen. In the warmest indulgence of their 
 passions they have an eye to the expense ! and if 
 their other virtues fail us, we have a resource in 
 iheir economy. 
 
 By taking so trifling a security from John Eyre, 
 you invited, and manifestly exhorted him to escape. 
 Although in bailable cases it be usual to take four 
 securities, you left hini in the custody of three Scotch- 
 men, whom he might have easily satisfied for con- 
 niving at liii i«etreat. Tliat he did not make use of 
 llio opportunity you industriously gave him, neither 
 justifies your conduct, nor can it be any way account- 
 ed for, but by his excessive and monstrous avarice. 
 Any other m?.:i. but this bosom friend of three Scotch- 
 men, would gladly have sacrificed a few hundred 
 pounds, rather than submit to tiie infamy of pleading 
 guilty in open court. It is possiI)le indeed that he 
 might have flattered himself, and not unreasonably,
 
 208 JUNIUS'S letti:r3. 
 
 with (lie hopes of a pardon. Tiiat he would liave 
 been pardoned, seems more than proljablo, if I had 
 not directed the public attention to the leading step 
 you took in favour of him. In the present gentle 
 reign, we well know what use has been made of the 
 lenity of the court, and of the mercy of the crown. 
 The lard chief justice of England accepts of the hun- 
 dredth part of the property of a felon, taken in the 
 fact, as a recognizance for his appearance. Your 
 brother Sniythe browbeats a jury, and forces them to 
 alter their verdict, by which tbey had found a Scotch 
 sergeant guilty of murder; and though the Kennedies 
 were convicted of a most deliberate and atrocious 
 murder, they still had a claim to the royal mercy. 
 They were saved by the chastity of their connex- 
 ions. They had a sister : yet it was not her beauty, 
 but the pliancy of her virtue, that recommended her to 
 the king. 
 
 The holy author of our religion was seen in the 
 company of sinners ; but it was his gracious purpase 
 to convert them from their sins. Another mnn, who, 
 in the ceremonies of our faith, might give lessons to 
 the great enemy of it, upon different principles, keeps 
 much the same company. He advertises for patients, 
 collects all the diseases of the heart, and turns a royal 
 palace into an hospital for incurables. A man of 
 honour has no ticket of admission at St. James's., 
 They receive him like a virgin at the Magdalen's; 
 " Go thou, and do likewise " 
 
 INIy charge against you is now made good. I shall, 
 however, be ready to answer or to submit to fair ob- 
 jections. If, whenever this matter shall be agitated 
 you suffer the doors of the house of lords to be shut,
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 209 
 
 I now protest, that I shall consider you as having 
 made no reply. 1 rom that moment, in the opinion 
 of the world, you will stand self convicted. Whether 
 your reply he quihbling and evasive, or liberal and 
 in point, will be matter for the judgment of your 
 peers ; but if, when every possible idea of disrespect 
 to that noble house (in whose honour and justice the 
 nation implicitly confides) is here most solemnly dis- 
 claimed, you should endeavour to represent this 
 charge as a contempt of their authority, and move 
 their lordships to censure the publisher of this paper, 
 I then affirm, that you support injustice by violence, 
 that you are guilty of a heinous aggravation of your 
 offence, and that you contribute your utmost in- 
 fluence to promote, on the part of the highest court 
 of judicature, a positive denial of justice to the 
 
 n-ation. 
 
 JUNIUS. 
 
 Lxvm. 
 
 To the Right Ilonourabh Lord Camden. 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 I turn with pleasure from that barren waste in 
 which no salutary plant takes root, no verdure quick- 
 ens, to a character fertile, as I willingly believe, in 
 every great and good qualification. I call upon you, 
 in the name of the English nation, to stand forth ir 
 defence of the laws of your country, and to exert, in 
 the cause of truth and justice, ihobc great abilities 
 
 14
 
 210 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 with which jou were entrusted for the benefit of man- 
 kind. To ascertain the facts set forth in the preced- 
 ing paper, it may be necessary to call the perso4is 
 mentioned in the mittimus to tlie bar of the house ol 
 lOrds. If a motion for that purpose should be reject- 
 ed, \vc sliall know what to tliink of lord Mansfield's 
 innocence. The legal argument is submitted to youi 
 lordship's judgment. After the noble stand you made 
 against lord Mansfield upon the question of libel, we 
 did expect that you would iK)t have suficred fliat mat- 
 ter to have remained undetermined. But it was said 
 that lord chief justice Wiliuot had been prevailed 
 upon to vouch for an opinion of the late judge Yates, 
 which was supposed to make against you ; and we 
 admit of the excuse. When such detestable arts are 
 employed to prejudge a question of right, it might 
 have been imprudent at that time to have brought it 
 to a decision. In the present instance, you will have 
 no such opposition to contend with. If there be a 
 judge, or a lawyer, of any note in Westminster-hall, 
 who shall be daring enough to afiirm that, according 
 to the true intendment of the laws of England, a 
 felon, taken with the maner in flagrante delict , is 
 bailable, or that the discretion of an English judge 
 is merely arbitrary, and not governed by rules of law, 
 I should be glad to be acquainted with him. Who- 
 ever he be, I will take care that he shall not give 
 you much trouble. Your lordship's character as- 
 sures me that you will assume that principal part, 
 which belongs to you, in supporting che laws of Eiig- 
 land against a wicked judge, who makes it the occu- 
 pation of his life to misinterpret and pervert them. If 
 you decline this honourable ofiice, I fear it will be
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 211 
 
 said, that, for some months past, you have kept too 
 much company with the duke of Grafton. When the 
 contest turns upon the interpretation of the laws, you 
 cannot, without a formal surrender of all your repu- 
 tation, yield the post of honour even to lord C liat- 
 ham. Considering the situation and abilities of lord 
 Mansfield, I do not scruple to aflirm, with tlie most 
 solemn appeal to God for my sincerity, tliat, in my 
 judgment, he is the very worst and most dangerous 
 man in the kingdom. Thus far I have done my duty 
 in endeavouring to bring him to punishment. But 
 mine is an inferior ministerial office in the temple of 
 justice : I have bound the victim, and dragged him to 
 
 the altar. 
 
 JUNIUS. 
 
 The reverend Mr. John Home having, with his 
 usual veracity, and honest industry, circulated a re- 
 port that Junius, iit \ letter to the supporters of the 
 bill of rights, had warmly declared himself in favour 
 of long parliaments and rotten boroughs, it is thought 
 necessary to submit to the public the following ex- 
 tract from his letter to John Wilkes, esq. dated the 
 7lh of September, 1771, and laid before the society 
 on the 24th of the same month. 
 
 " With regard to the several articles, taken sepa- 
 rately, 1 own I am concerned to see that the great 
 condition which ought to be the sine gun non of par- 
 liamentary qualification, which ought to be llic basis 
 ;'as it assuredly will l)e the only support) of every
 
 212 
 
 JUNIUS'3 LETTERS. 
 
 barrier raised in defence of the constitution, (I mean 
 a declaration upon oath to shorten the duration of 
 parliaments) is reduced to the fourth rank in the es- 
 teem of the society; and even in that place, far from 
 being insisted on with firmness and vehemence, seems 
 to have been particularly slighted in the expression, 
 " You shall endeavour to restore ainiual parliaments." 
 Are these the terms which men who are in earnest 
 make use of, when the salus reipuhlicce is at stake .'* 
 I expected other language from Mr. Wilkes. Be- 
 sides my objection in point of form, I disapprove 
 highly of the meaning of the fourth article as it stands. 
 Whenever the question shall be seriously agitated, I 
 will endeavour (antl if I live, will assuredly attempt 
 it) to convince the English nation by arguments, to 
 my understanding unanswerable, that they ought to 
 insist upon a triennial, and banish the idea of an an- 
 nual parliament. * * * I am convinced, that if 
 shortening the duration of parliaments (which, in 
 effect,, is keeping the representative under the rod of 
 the constituent) be not made the basis of our new 
 parliamentary jurisprudence, other checks or im- 
 provements signiiy nothing. On the contrary', if 
 this be made the foundation, other measures may come 
 in aid, and, as auxiliaries, be of considerable advan- 
 tage. Lord Chatham's project, for instance, of in- 
 creasing the number of knights of shires, appears to 
 me admirable. * * * As to cutting away the rotten 
 boroughs, I am as much offended as any man at see- 
 ing so many of them under the direct influence of the 
 crown, or at the disposal of private persons. Yet, I 
 own, I have both doubts and apprehensions in regard 
 to the remedy you propose. I shall be charged.
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 213 
 
 ft.uaps, w'lta an unusual want of political intrepidity, 
 ^vilu■u I honestly confess to you, that I am startled at 
 the idea of so extensive an amputation. In the first 
 place, I question the power, de jure, of the legisla- 
 ture to disfranchise a number of boroughs upon the 
 general ground of improving the constitution. There 
 cannot be a doctrine more fatal to the liberty and 
 property we are contending for, than that which con- 
 founds the idea of a supreme and an arbitrary legis- 
 lature. I need not point out to you the fatal purpo- 
 ses to which it has been, and may be, applied. If we 
 are sincere in the political creed we profess, there are 
 many things which we ought to affirm, cannot be 
 done by kings, lords, and commons. Among these, 
 I reckon the disfranchising of boroughs, with a gene- 
 ral view of improvement. I consider it as an equiva- 
 lent to robbing the parties concerned of their free- 
 hold, of their birthright. I say, that although this 
 birthright may be forfeited, or the exercise of it 
 suspended in particular cases, it cannot be taken 
 away by a general law, for any real or intended 
 purpose of improving the constitution. — Supposing 
 the attempt made, I am persuaded 3'ou cannot mean 
 that cither king or lords should take an active part 
 in it. A bill which only touches the representation 
 of the people, must originate, in the house of com- 
 mons. In the formation and mode of passing it, the 
 exclusive rif^ht of the commons must be asserted as 
 scrupulously as in the case of a money bill. Now, 
 sir, I should be glad to know b}"- what kind of rea- 
 soning it can be proved, that there is a power vested 
 in tlio representative to destroy his innnediate con- 
 stituent. From wlicnce could he possibly derive hi
 
 il4 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 
 
 A courtier, I know, will be ready to rriaintain the af 
 finnative. The doctrine suits him exactly, because 
 It gives an unlimited operation to the influence of the 
 crown. But we, Mr. Wilkes, ought to hold a difTer- 
 ent language. It is no answer to me to sny, that the 
 bill, when it passes the house of commons, is the act 
 of the majority, and not the representatives of the 
 particular borouglis concerned. If the majority can 
 disfranchise ten boroughs, why not twenty, why not 
 the whole kingdom ? Why should not they make 
 their own seats in parliament for life .'' When the 
 septennial act passed, the legislature did what, appa- 
 rently and palpably, they had no power to do : but 
 they did more than people in general were aware of; 
 they, in effect, disfranchised the whole kingdom for 
 four years. 
 
 " For argument's sake, I will now suppose that the 
 expediency of the measure, and the power of parlia- 
 ment, are unquestionable. Still you will find an in- 
 surmountable difficulty in the execution. When all 
 your instruments of amputation are prepared, when 
 the unhappy patient lies bound at your feet, without 
 the possibility of resistance, by what infallible rule 
 \f\\\ you direct the operation ? When you propose 
 to cut away the rotten parts, can you tell us what 
 parts are perfectly sound ? Are there any certain 
 limits in fact or theory, to inform you at what point 
 you must stop, at what point the mortification ends ? 
 To a man so capable of observation and reflection 
 as \'ou are, it is unnecessary to say all that might be 
 said upon the subject. Besides that I approve highly 
 of lord Chatham's idea of infusing a portion of new 
 health into the constitution, to enable it to bear its
 
 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 215 
 
 mdrmitlei (a brilliant expression, and full oi intrinsic 
 ivisdom) other reasons occur in persuading me to 
 adopt it. I have no objection," &c. 
 
 The man who fairly and completely answers this 
 argument, shall have my thanks and my applause 
 My heart is already with him. I am ready to be 
 converted. I admire his morality, and would gladl}' 
 subscribe to the articles of his faith. Grateful as I 
 am, to the good Being whose bounty has imparted 
 to me this reasoning intellect, whatever it is, I hold 
 myself proportionably indebted to him from whose 
 enlightened understanding another ray of knowledge 
 communicates to miise. But neidier should 1 think 
 the most exalted faculties of the human mind a gift 
 worthy of the Divinity, nor any assistance in the 
 improvement of them a subject of gratitude to my 
 fellow creature, if I were not satisfied, that, really 
 to mform the understanding, corrects and enlarges the 
 aeart. 
 
 JUNIUS. 
 
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