A
 
 ^^-• 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 \y' 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 COMMODORE BYRON MCCANDLESS
 
 f^ 

 
 THE 
 
 OF 
 
 ^wiri-w^ 
 
 IKT TWO VOIiUIVIES. 
 
 Stat nominis umbra. 
 
 VOL. 1. 
 
 BAIiTUYCOHI!: 
 
 W. B. CRAM. 
 
 JAMES RICE, JR. LOUISVILLE, KY. 
 
 Wm. Wooddy, Printer. 
 
 1834.
 
 DA 
 
 V,!
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Enarlish Nation 
 
 Dedication to the 
 Preface - - _ - - . 
 
 Letter I. Junius to the Printer cf the Pub. Adv. - 
 II. Sir William Draper's ansv/er 
 
 III. Junius to sir William Draper 
 
 IV. Sir William Draper to Junius 
 V. To sir William Draper 
 
 VI. To Junius from sir William Draper 
 VII. To sir William Draper - 
 VIII. To the duke of Grafton - 
 IX. To the duke of Grafton - 
 X. To Mr. Edward Weston 
 XI. To the duke of Grafton - 
 XII. To the duke of Grafton - 
 
 XIII. Philo Junius to the Pr. of the Pu.Ad. 
 
 XIV. Philo Junius to the Pr. of the Pu. Ad. 
 XV. To the duke of Grafton - - - 
 
 XVI. To the Pr. of the Pub. Ad. 
 XVII. Philo Junius to thePr. of the Pu.Ad. 
 XVIII. To sir William Blackstone - - 
 
 XIX. Philo Junius to the Pr. of the Pu.Ad. 
 
 XX. To the Pr. of the Pub. Advertiser 
 
 XXI. To the Pr. of the Pub. Advertiser 
 XXTI. Philo Junius to the Pr. of thePu.Ad. 
 
 XXI II. Junius to the duke of Bedford 
 XXIV. Sir William Draper to Junius 
 XXV. Junius to sir William Draper 
 XXVI. Sir William Draper to Junius 
 XXVII. Junius to the Pr. of the Pu. Ad 
 XXVIII. To the Pr. of the Pub. Adv. 
 XXIX. Philo Junius to the Pr. ofthe Pu.Ad. 
 XXX. Junius to the Pr. of the Pu. Ad. 
 XXXI. Philo Junius to the Pr of the Pu. Ad. 
 XXXIT. Junius to the Pr. of the Pu. Adv. 
 XXXni. To the duke of Grafton 
 XXXIV. To the duke of Grafton 
 %XXV= To lh« Fr. of th* Pu. Ad. -. • 
 
 5 
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 li:-8 
 

 
 DEDICATION 
 
 TO THE 
 
 ENGLISH NATION. 
 
 I DEDICATE to you a collection of letters, 
 written by one of yourselves, for the common be- 
 nefit of us all. They would never have grown 
 to this size without your continued encouragement 
 and applause. To me they originally owe noth- 
 ing but a healthy, sanguine constitution. Under 
 your care they have thriven: to you they are in- 
 debted for whatsoever strength or beauty they pos- 
 sess. When kings and ministers are forgotten, 
 when the force and direction of personal satire 
 is no longer understood; and when measures are 
 only felt in their remotest consequences; this book 
 will, I believe, be found to contain principles wor- 
 thy to be transmitted to posterity. When you 
 leave the unimpaired hereditary freehold to your 
 children, you do but half your duty. Both liberty 
 and property are precarious, unless the possessors 
 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 labori- 
 ous zeal for the public service, has given me any 
 weight in your esteem, let me exhort and conjure 
 
 VOL. I. 1*
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 you, never to suffer an invasion of your 
 political constitution, however minute the in- 
 stance may appear, to pass by, without a 
 determined persevering resistance. One pre- 
 cedent creates another. They soon accumulate, 
 and constitute law. What yesterday was fact, to- 
 dayis doctrine. Examplesaresupposedtojustify the 
 most dangerous measures; and where they do not suit 
 exactly, the defect is supplied by analogy. Be assur- 
 ed, thatthe laws, which protect us in our civil rights, 
 grow out of the constitution, and they must fall or 
 flourish with it. This is not the cause of faction, or of 
 party,orof any in dividual, but the common interest 
 of every man in Britain. Although the king should 
 continue to support his present system of Govern- 
 ment, 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 precip- 
 itate 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 deter- 
 mination should be equally clear and unanimous. 
 Let it be impressed upon your minds, let it be in- 
 stilled into your children, that the liberty of the 
 press in 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
 
 DEDICATION. 7 
 
 cases whatsoever, is an essential part of our con- 
 sittution, not to be controlled or limited by the 
 judges, nor in any shape questionable by the leg- 
 islature. The power of king, lords, and commons, 
 is not an arbitrary power:* they are the trustees, 
 not the owners, of the estate. The fee-simple is 
 m us: they cannot alienate, they cannot waste. 
 When we say that the legislature is supreme, 
 we mean, that it is the highest power known to 
 the constitution; that it is the highest, in compari- 
 son with the other subordinate powers, established 
 by the laws. In this sense, the word supreme is 
 relative, not absolute. The power of the legisa- 
 ture is limited, not only by the general rules of 
 natural 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 
 
 * The positive denial of an arbitrary power being 
 vested in the legislature, is not, in fact, a nev/ doctrine. 
 When the earl of Lindsay, in the year 1675, brought 
 in a bill into the house of lords, "To prevent the dan- 
 gers which might arise from persons disaffected to gov- 
 ernment," by which an oath and penalty was to be 
 imposed upon the members of both houses; it was af- 
 firmed, in a protest, signed by twenty-three lay peers, 
 (my lords the bishops were not accustomed to protest,) 
 "That the privilege of sitting- and voting in parliament 
 was an honour they had by birth, and a right so in- 
 herent 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 ])eers, 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 general truth, in which every man in Eng- 
 land is concerned.
 
 8 DEDICATION. 
 
 admit that king, lords, and commons, have no rule 
 to direct their resolutions, but merely their own 
 will and pleasure: they might unite the legislature 
 and executive power in the same hands, and dis- 
 solve the constitution by an act of parliament. 
 But I am persuaded you will not leave it to the 
 choice of seven hundred persons, notoriously 
 corrupted by the crown, whether seven millions 
 of their equals shall be free men or slaves. 
 The certainty of forfeiting their 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 fa>te, it is because we have better resources 
 than in the virtue of either house of parliament. 
 
 I said, that the liberty of the press is the pal- 
 ladium of all your rights, and that the right of the 
 juries to return a general verdict, is part of your 
 constitution. To preserve 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 difference be- 
 tween 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 offence, and but one for atonement. A death- 
 bed repentance seldom reaches to restitution. If
 
 DEDICATION. 9 
 
 you reflect, that in the changes of administration 
 which have marked and disgraced the present 
 reign, although your warmest patriots have, in 
 their turn, been invested with the lawful and un- 
 lawful authority of the crown, and though other 
 reliefs or improvements have been held forth to 
 the people, yet that no one man in office has ever 
 promoted or encouraged a bill for shortening the 
 duration of parliaments, 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 possibihty of a doubt, 
 that long parliaments are the foundation of the un- 
 due influence of the crown. This influence an- 
 swers every purpose of arbitrary power to the 
 crown, with an expense and oppression to the 
 people, which would be unnecessary in an arbit- 
 rary government. The best of our ministers find 
 it the easiest and most compendious mode of con- 
 ducting the king's affairs; and all ministers have 
 a general interest in adhering to a system, which, 
 of itself, is sufficient to support them in office, 
 without anj)- assistance from personal virtue, pop- 
 ularity, labour, abilities, or experience. It prom- 
 ises every gratification to avarice and ambition, 
 and secures impunity. These are truths unques- 
 tionable; if they make no impression, it is because 
 they are too vulgar and notorious. But the inat- 
 tention 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 shall often be remind- 
 ed of it. If, when the opportunity presents itself,
 
 10 DEDICATION. 
 
 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 of mankind: Civil liberty may 
 still last the life of JUNIUS.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THE encouragement given to a multitude of 
 spurious, mangled publications of the "Letters of 
 Junius," persuades me, that a complete edition, 
 corrected and improved by the author, will be 
 favourably received. The printer will readily 
 acquit me of any view to my own profit. I un- 
 dertake this troublesome task merely to serve a 
 maa who has deserved well of me and of the pub- 
 lic: and who, on my account, has been exposed to 
 an expensive, tyrannical prosecution. For these 
 reasons, I give to Mr. Henry Sampson Woodfall, 
 and to him alone, my right, interest, and property, 
 in these letters, as fully and completely, to all in- 
 tents and purposes, as an author can possibly con- 
 vey 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 necessary to de- 
 fend or explain particular passages in Junius, in 
 answer to plausible objections; but the subordinate 
 character is never guilty of the indecorum of 
 praising his principal. The fraud was innocent, 
 and I always intended to explain it. The notes 
 will be found not only useful but necessary. Ref-
 
 12 ^ PREFACE. 
 
 erences to facts not generally known or allusions 
 to the current report or opinion of the day, are, in 
 a little 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. 
 
 It remains to say a few words upon the liberty 
 of the press. The daring spirit by which these 
 letters are supposed to be distinguished, seems to 
 require that something 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 misapplying the language 
 of the law. I speak to the plain understanding of 
 the people, and appeal to their honest, liberal con- 
 struction of me. 
 
 Good men, to whom alone I address myself, ap- 
 pear to me to consult their piety as little as their 
 judgment and experience, when they admit the 
 great and essential advantages accruing to society 
 from the freedom of the press, yet indulge them- 
 selves in peevish or passionate exclamations 
 against the abuses of it. Betraying an unreason- 
 able expectation of benefits, pure and entire from 
 any human institution, they, in effect, arraign the 
 goodness of Providence, and confess that they are 
 dissatisfied with the common lot of humanity. In 
 the present instance, they really create to their 
 own minds, or greatly exaggerate the evil they 
 complain of. The laws of England provide as
 
 PREFCAE. 13 
 
 etfectually as any human laws can do for the pro- 
 tection of the subject, in his reputation, as well as 
 in his person and property. If the characters of 
 private men are insulted or injured, a double rem- 
 edy is opened to them by action and indictment: 
 if, through indolence, false shame, or indifference, 
 they will not appeal to the laws of their country, 
 they fail in their duty to society, and are unjust to 
 themselves: if, from an unwarrantable distrust of 
 the integrity of juries, they would wish to obtain 
 justice by any mode of proceeding more summary 
 than a trial by their peers, I do not scruple to af- 
 firm, 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 measures of government, 
 the case is a little different. A considerable lati- 
 tude 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 
 mmisters and magistrates should be equally pro- 
 moted and encouraged. They who conceive that 
 our newspapers are no restraint upon bad men, or 
 impediment to the execution of bad measures, 
 know nothing of this country. In that state of 
 abandoned servility and prostitution, to which the 
 undue influence of the crown has reduced the 
 other branches of the legislature, our ministers 
 and magistrates have, in reality, little punishment 
 to fear, and few difficulties to contend with beyond 
 VOL. I. 2
 
 14 PREFACE. 
 
 the censure of the press, and the spirit of resisi-s 
 ance which it excites among the people. While 
 this censorial power is maintained, (to speak in 
 the words of a most ingenious foreigner) both min^ 
 ister and magistrate are compelled in almost 
 every instance 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 the little dis- 
 cipline 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 continually 
 exposed to the public hatred or derision; that in 
 prosecutions for libels on government, juries are 
 partial to the popular side: and that, in the most 
 flagrant cases, a verdict cannot be obtained for 
 the king. If the premises were admitted, I should 
 deny the conclusion. It is not true that the tem- 
 per 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 re- 
 turned for the king, when the inclinations of the 
 people led strongly to an undistinguished opposi- 
 tion to government. Witness the cases of Mr. 
 Wilkes and Mr. Almon. In the late prosecution 
 ofthe printers of my addess 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 offensive to his servants,.
 
 PREFACE. 15 
 
 were strictly true, would fain have restricted the 
 jury to the finding of special facts, which, as to 
 guilty or not guilty were merely indifferent. This 
 particular motive, combined with his general pur- 
 pose to contract 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 printing 
 and publishing, and whether or no the blanks or 
 inuendoes were properly filled up in the informa- 
 tion; but that, whether the defendant had commit- 
 ted a crime or not, was no matter of consideration 
 to twelve men, who yet, upon their oaths, were 
 to 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 sophistry, which a plain understanding is una- 
 ble to follow, and which an unlearned jury, how- 
 ever it may shock their reason, cannot be sup- 
 posed qualified to refute, can it be wondered that 
 they should return a verdict perplexed, absurd, 
 or imperfect? Lord Mansfield has not yet ex- 
 plained to the world, why he accepted of a ver- 
 dict which the court afterwards set aside as illegal; 
 and which, as it took no notice of the inuendoes, 
 did not even correspond with his own charge. If 
 he had known his own duty, he should have sent 
 the jury back. I speak advisedly, and am well 
 assured, that no lawyer of character, in West- 
 minster-hall, will contradict me. To show the 
 falsehood of lord Mansfield's doctrine, it is not ne- 
 cessary to enter into the merits of the paper which 
 produced the trial. If every line of it were trea- 
 son, his charge to the jury would still be false.
 
 16 PREFACE. 
 
 absurd, illegal, and unconstitutional. If I stated 
 the merits of my letter to the king, I should im- 
 itate lord Mansfield, and travel* out of the record. 
 
 *The following quotation from a speech delivered by 
 lord 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 
 publishing only;' upon which two motions were made 
 in court; one, in arrest of judgment, by the defendant's 
 counsel, grounded upon the ambiguity of the verdict; the 
 other, by tlrC counsel for the crown, for a rule upon the 
 defendant, to show cause why the verdict should not be 
 entered up according to the legal import of the words. 
 On both motions 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 verdict, went regularly through the 
 whole of the proceedings at Nisi Prius, as well the ev- 
 idence that had been given, as his own charge to the 
 jury. This proceeding would have been very proper, 
 had a motion been mode on either side for a new trial; 
 because either a verdict given contrary to evidence, or 
 improper charge by the judge, at Nisi Prius, is held to 
 be a sufficient ground for granting a new trial. But 
 when a motion is made in arrest of judgment, or for es- 
 tablishing the verdict, by entering it up according to the 
 legal import of the words, it must be on the ground of 
 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 
 cannot take any notice of any thing thatdoes not appear 
 on the 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 mo- 
 tive for doing what he knew to be wrong, was that he 
 might have an opportunity of telling the public extraju- 
 dicially, that the other three judges concurred in the 
 doctrine laid down in bis charge."
 
 PREFACE. 17 
 
 When law and 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 king's attorney-general has vir- 
 tually disclaimed the doctrine by which the chief 
 justice meant to ensure success to the prosecution. 
 The opinion of the plaintiff'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 di- 
 rectly with me. If* he had concurred in lord Mans- 
 field's doctrine, the trial must have been a very 
 ^hortone. The facts were either admitted by Wood- 
 fall'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 the demerits of the paper, 
 which he called a seditious libel. He dwelt but 
 lightly upon those points which (according to lord 
 Mansfield) v/ere the only matter of consideration 
 to the jury. The criminal intent, the libellous 
 matter, the pernicious 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 
 impertinent, ridiculous, and unreasonable. But 
 understanding the law as I do, what he said was 
 at least consistent, and to the purpose. 
 
 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 
 
 VOL. 1. 2*
 
 18 PREFACE. 
 
 complication of hardships he imposes upon his fel- 
 low subjects. In the first place, the prosecution 
 commences by information of an ojfficer of the 
 crown, not by the regular constitutional mode of 
 indictment 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 imprisonment. Cutting off ears and 
 noses might still be inflicted by a resolute judge: 
 but I will be candid enough to suppose that penal- 
 ties, so apparently shocking to humanity, would 
 not be hazarded in these times. In all other cri- 
 minal prosecutions the jury decides upon the fact 
 and the crime in one word, and the court pro- 
 nounces 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 conceive, might be done by very conscien- 
 tious 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 punish- 
 ment. 
 
 "But," says this honest lord chief justice, "if the 
 paper be not criminal, 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
 
 PREFACE. 19 
 
 judgment shall be entered up or not? and is not 
 the defendant 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 inqui- 
 sition? It is you, my lord, who then try the crime, 
 not the jury. As to the probable effect of the 
 motion in arrest of judgment, I shall only observe, 
 that no reasonable man would be so eager to pes- 
 sess 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 ofRce; that the jury is to find the fact, 
 ■and the judge to dehver the law. "De jure res- 
 pondent judices, de facto jurati." The dictum is 
 true, though not in the sense given to it by lord 
 Mansfield. The jury are undoubtedly to deter- 
 mine 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 coun- 
 sel and the jury must, of necessity, appeal to the 
 judge, and leave it to his decision. An excep- 
 tion, or plea in bar, may be allowed by the court; 
 but, when issue is joined, and the jury have re- 
 ceived their charge, it is not possible, in the na- 
 ture of things, for them to separate the law from 
 the fact, unless they think proper to return a spe- 
 cial verdict. 
 
 It has also been alleged, that, although a com- 
 mon jury are sufficient to determine a plain mat- 
 ter of fact, they are not qualified to comprehend 
 the meaning, or to judge of the tendency of a se-
 
 20 PREFACE. 
 
 ditious libel. In answer to this objection, (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. Enghsh- 
 men, of that rank from which juries are usually 
 taken, are not so illiterate as (to serve a particu- 
 lar purpose) they are now represented: or, admit- 
 ting the fact, let a special jury be summoned in all 
 cases of difficulty and importance, and the objec- 
 tion 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 can- 
 not possibly see the seditious meaning and tenden- 
 cy of it, it is in effect no libel. It cannot inflame 
 the minds of the people, nor alienate their affec- 
 tions from government; for they no more under- 
 stand what it means, than if it were publlslied in a 
 language unknown to them. 
 
 Upon the whole matter, it appears, to my un- 
 derstanding, clear, beyond a doubt, that, if, in any 
 future prosecution for a seditious libel, the jury 
 should bring in a verdict of acquittal, not warrant- 
 ed by the evidence, it will be owing to the false 
 and absurd doctrines laid down by lord Mansfield. 
 Disgusted at the odious artifices made use of by 
 the judge to mislead and perplex them, guarded 
 against his sophistry, and convinced of the false- 
 hood of his assertions, that may, perhaps, deter- 
 mine to thwart his detestable purpose, 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 sub- 
 mitted to the jury, there is no reason whatsoever 
 to presume that twelve men, upon their oaths, will
 
 PREFACE. 21 
 
 not decide impartially between the king and the 
 defendant. The numerous instances, in our state 
 trials, of verdicts recovered for the king, suffici- 
 ently refute the false and scandalous imputations 
 thrown, by the abettors of lord Mansfield, upon 
 the integrity of juries. But, even admitting the 
 supposition, that, in times of universal discontent, 
 arising from the notorious mal-administration of 
 public affairs, a seditious 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 constitution, and 
 trust implicitly to lord Mansfield? Are the judges 
 of the court of king's bench more likely to be un- 
 biassed and impartial than twelve yeomen, bur- 
 gesses, or gentlemen, taken indifferently from the 
 country at large? Or, in short, shall there be no 
 decision, until we have instituted a tribunal from 
 which no possible abuse or inconvenience whatso- 
 ever 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 
 restraint equally unnecessary and illegal, I return 
 to the use which has been made of it in the pre- 
 sent publication. 
 
 National reflections, 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 evi- 
 dence of facts before us. We must be convers- 
 ant with the Scots in private life, and observe
 
 22 PREFACE. 
 
 iheir principles of acting to us and to each othei'j 
 the characteristic prudence, the selfish nationality, 
 the indefatigable smile, the persevering assiduity, 
 the everlasting profession of a discreet and mode- 
 rate resentment. If the mstance 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 peo- 
 pie who receive them. In other settlements, they 
 only love themselves: in England they cordially 
 love themselves, and as cordially hate their neigh- 
 bors. For the remainder of their good qualities 
 I must appeal to the reader's observation, unless 
 he will accept of my lord Harrington's authority 
 in a letter to the late lord Malcombe, published 
 by Mr. Lee: he expresses himself with a truth 
 and accuracy not very common in his lordship's 
 lucubrations. "And Cockburn, Uke 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 in the lower house, as repre- 
 sentatives of English boroughs, while not a single 
 Scotch borough is ever represented by an En- 
 glishman; 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 evasion of the act of 
 union. If it should ever be thought advisable to
 
 PREFACE. 23 
 
 clissolve 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 expressed* If it 
 be really a part of our constitution, and not a 
 mere dictum of the law, that the king can do no 
 wrong, it is not the only instance, in the wisest of 
 human institutions, where theory is at variance 
 with practice. That the sovereign of this coun- 
 try 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 possi- 
 bility of deserving it. How long, and to what ex- 
 tent, a king of England may be protected by the 
 forms, when he violates the spirit of the constitu- 
 tion, 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 imposed upon by the language of 
 forms, in opposition to the substantial evidence of 
 truth; if it were my misfortune to live under the 
 inauspicious reign of a prince, whose whole life 
 was employed in one base, contemptible struggle 
 * Parliamentary History, vol. ii. p. 4J0.
 
 24 PREFACE. 
 
 with the free spirit of his people, or in the detest- 
 able endeavor to corrupt their moral principles, I 
 would not scruple to declare to him, "Sir, you 
 alone are the author of the greatest wrong to your 
 subjects and to yourself. Instead of reigning in 
 the hearts of your people, instead of commanding 
 their lives and fortunes through the medium of 
 their affections; 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 de- 
 feats itself, and answers no one purpose of real 
 power, profit, or personal satisfaction to you? 
 With the greatest unappropriated revenue ot any 
 prince in Europe, have we not seen you reduced 
 to such vile and sordid distresses, 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 repeat- 
 edly insulted you with impunity? Is it not notori- 
 ous that the vast revenues, extorted from the labor 
 and industry of your subjects, and given you to do 
 honor to yourself and to the nation, are dissipated 
 in corrupting their representatives? Are you 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 consistent with that profession to im^ 
 part your confidence and affection 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 infatuated as to take the sense of your
 
 PREFACE. 25 
 
 people from the representation 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 sup- 
 pose you to be, is it any answer to your 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 de- 
 fence 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 flat- 
 tery to tell you, that the character of king dis- 
 solves the natural relation between guilt and pun- 
 ishment." 
 
 I cannot conceive that there is a heart so cal- 
 lous, or an understanding so depraved, as to at- 
 tend 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, resolute 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. This 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 
 
 VOL. I. 3
 
 26 PREFACE. 
 
 the press would have corrected his conduct, pre* 
 vented a civil war, and saved him from an igno- 
 minious death. I am no friend to the doctrine 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 recom- 
 mend to the public, as a performance deep, solid, 
 and ingenious. 
 
 "In short, whoever considers what it is that 
 constitutes the moving principle of what we call 
 great affairs, 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 em- 
 pire of the East, a sanctuary could be found, 
 which, rendered respectable by the ancient reh- 
 gion of the people, might ensure 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 equal- 
 ly 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 sultan himself; that would introduce immedi- 
 ately some degree of liberty." 
 
 * Monsieur de Lolme.
 
 LETTERS OF JUNIUS. 
 
 • LETTER 1. 
 
 Addressed to tJie Printer of the Public Advertiser* 
 
 SIR, January 21, 1769. 
 
 THE subrhission of a free people to the ex- 
 ecutive authority of government, is no more than 
 a compliance with laws which they themselves 
 have enacted. While the national honor is firmly 
 maintained abroad, and while justice is impartial- 
 ly administered at home, the obedience of the sub- 
 ject will be voluntary, cheerful, and, I might al- 
 most say, unlimited. A generous nation is grate- 
 ful 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 attachment to the 
 guardian of the laws. Prejudices and passion 
 have sometimes carried it to a criminal length, 
 and, whatever foreigners may imagine, we know
 
 28 JUNIUS. 
 
 that Englishmen have erred as much in a mista- 
 ken zeal for particular persons and families, as 
 they ever did in defence of what they thought 
 most dear and interesting to themselves. 
 
 It naturally fills us with resentment, to see such 
 a temper insulted and abused. In reading the 
 history of a free people, whose rights have been 
 invaded, we are interested in their cause. Our 
 own feelings tell us hoiv long they ought to have 
 submitted, and at what m-oment it would have 
 been treachery to themselves not to have resisted. 
 How much warmer will be our resentment, if ex- 
 perience 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 
 justify suspicion; and vvhen the safety of a nation 
 is at stake, suspicion is a just ground of inquiry. 
 Let 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 
 which has been adopted with moderation. 
 
 The ruin or prosperity of a state depends so 
 much upon the administration of its goverment, 
 that, to be acquainted with the merit of a minis- 
 try, we need only observe the condition of the 
 people. If we see them obedient to the laws, 
 prosperous in their industry, united at home, and 
 respected abroad, we may reasonably presume 
 that their affairs are conducted by men of expe- 
 rience, abilities, and virtue, ff, on the contrary, 
 we see an universal spirit ot distrust and dissatis-
 
 JUNIUS. 29 
 
 faction, a rapid decay of trade, dissensions in all 
 parts of the empire, and a total loss of respect in 
 the eyes of foreign powers, we may pronounce, 
 without hesitation, that the government of that 
 country is weak, distracted, and corrupt. The 
 multitude, in all countries, are patient to a cer- 
 tain point. Ill usage may rouse their indignation, 
 and hurry them into excesses; but the original 
 fault is in government. Perhaps there never was 
 an instance of a change in the circumstances and 
 temper of a whole nation so sudden and extraor- 
 dinary as that which the misconduct of ministers 
 has, within these few years, produced in Great 
 Britain. When our gracious sovereign ascended 
 the throne, we were a flourishing and a contented 
 people. If the personal virtues of a king 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 characters, 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 un- 
 doubtebly arose from an unbounded goodness of 
 heart, in which folly had no share. It was not a 
 capricious partiality to new faces; it was not a 
 natural turn for low intrigue; nor was it the teach- 
 erous amusement of double and triple negotiations. 
 No, sir, it arose from a continued anxiety, in the 
 purest of all possible hearts, for the general wel- 
 fare. Unfortunately for us, the event has not 
 been answerable to the design. After a rapid 
 succession of changes, we are reduced to the t state 
 
 VOL. I. 3*
 
 30 JUNIUS. 
 
 which hardly any change can mend. Yet there 
 is no extremity of distress, which, of itself, ought 
 to reduce a great nation to despair. It is not the 
 disorder, but the physician: it is not a casual con- 
 currence of calamitous circumstances; it is the 
 pernicious hand of government which alone can 
 make a whole people desperate. 
 
 Without much political sagacity, or'any extra- 
 ordinary depth of observation, we need only mark 
 how the principal departments of the state are be- 
 stowed, and look no farther for the true cause of 
 every mischief 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 re- 
 treat, he became minister by accident: but de- 
 serting the principles and professions which gave 
 him a moment's popularity, we see him from every 
 honorable engagement to the public, an apostate 
 by design. As for business, the world yet knows 
 nothing of his talents or resolution; unless a way- 
 ward, wavering inconsistency be a mark of genius, 
 and caprice a demonstration of spirit. It may be 
 
 * The duke of Grafton took the ofl&ce of secretary 
 of state, with an engagement to support the marquis of 
 Rockingham's administration. He resigned, however, 
 in a Httle time, under pretence that he could not act 
 without lord Chatham, nor bear to see Mr. Wilkes 
 abandoned; but that under lord Chatham, he would act 
 in any office. This was the signal of lord Rocking- 
 ham's dismission. When lord Chatham came in, the 
 duke got possession of the treasury. Reader, mark the 
 consequence!
 
 JUNIUS. 31 
 
 said, perhaps, that it is his grace's province, as 
 surely it is his 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 treasury may be as thoughtless and ex- 
 travagant as he pleases. T 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 abilities. It may be 
 candid to suppose that he has hitherto voluntarily 
 concealed his talents; intending, perhaps, to as- 
 tonish 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 hope 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 ad- 
 hered to, nor any one important 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 warm him to think seriously 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 even- 
 tual diminution of debt, or reduction of interest. 
 The attempt might rouse a spirit of resentment 
 which might reach beyond the sacrifice of a min- 
 ister. As to the debt upon the civil list, the peo- 
 ple 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 some bet.
 
 32 JUNIUS. 
 
 ter expedient than a lottery. To support an ex- 
 pensive war, or in circumstances of absolute ne- 
 cessity, a lottery may, perhaps, be allowable; but 
 besides 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 
 bridge, or a decayed hospital. The management 
 of the king's affairs, in the house of commons, can- 
 not be more disgraced than it has been. A lead- 
 ing minister* repeatedly called down for absolute 
 ignorance, ridiculous motions ridiculously with- 
 drawn, deliberate plans disconcerted, 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 influence. 
 Yet, before he had the misfortune of being chan- 
 cellor 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 for- 
 eign trade, and to the weight of the public debt. 
 He thought it equitable, that those parts of the 
 empire which had benefited most by the expenses 
 of the war, should contribute something to the 
 
 •This happened frequently to poor lord North.
 
 JUNIUS. 83 
 
 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; and Mr. Pitt* 
 and lord Camden were to be the patrons of Amer- 
 ica, because they were in opposition. Their 
 declamation gave spirit and argument to the colo- 
 nies; and while, perhaps, they meant no more 
 than the ruin of a minister, they, in effect, divi- 
 ded 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 colonies is invented, and a question 
 revived which ought to have been buried in obli- 
 vion. In these circumstances a new office is es- 
 tablished 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 superior capa- 
 city and knowledge. Whether he be so or not, 
 let his despatches, as far as they have appeared, 
 let his measures, as far as they have operated, 
 determine for him. In the former we have seen 
 strong assertions without proof, declamation with- 
 out argument, and violent censures without digni- 
 ty or moderation; but neither correctness in the 
 composition, nor judgment in the design. As for his 
 measures, let it be remembered, that he was call- 
 ed upon to conciliate and unite; and that, when 
 
 * Vet Junius has been called the partisan of lord 
 Chatham,
 
 34 JUNIUS. 
 
 he entered into office, the most refractory of the 
 colonies were still disposed to proceed by the con- 
 stitutional methods ot petition and remonstrance. 
 Since that period they have been driven into excesses 
 little short of rebellion. Petitions have been hin- 
 dered from reaching the throne; and the continu- 
 ance of one of the principal assembles rested up- 
 on an arbitrary condition,* which, considering the 
 temper they were in, it was impossible they should 
 comply with; and which would have availed 
 nothing as to the general question, if it had been 
 complied with. So violent, and, I beheve, I may 
 call it, so unconstitutional, an exertion of the pre- 
 rogative, to say nothing of the weak, injudicious 
 terms in which it was conveyed, gives us as hum- 
 ble an opinion of his lordship's capacity, as it 
 does of his temper and moderation. While we 
 are at peace with other nations, our military 
 force may, perhaps, be spared to support the earl 
 of Hillsborough's measures in America. When- 
 ever that force shall be neccessarily withdraw or 
 diminished, the dismission of such a minister will 
 neither console us for his imprudence, nor re- 
 move the settled resentment of a people, who, 
 complaining of an act of the legislature, are out- 
 raged by an unwarrantable stretch of prerogative; 
 and, supporting their claims by argument, are in- 
 sulted with declamation. 
 
 Drawing lots would be a prudent and reasona- 
 ble method of appointing the officers of state, com- 
 pared to a late disposition ofthe secretary's office. 
 
 * That Ihey should retract one of their resolutions, 
 and erase the entry of it.
 
 JUNIUS. 35 
 
 Lord Rochford was acquainted with the affairs 
 and temper of the southern courts; lord Wey- 
 mouth was equally qualified for either depart- 
 ment:* by what unaccountable caprice has it 
 happened, that the latter, who pretends to no ex- 
 perience whatsoever, is removed to the most impor- 
 tant of the two departments; and the former, by 
 preference, placed in an office where his experi- 
 ence 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. Re- 
 covered 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 ex- 
 cesses, nor ignorance of the laws, nor the furious 
 spirit of the house of Bedford; no, sir, when this 
 respectable mniister interposed his authority be^ 
 tween the magistrate and the people, and signed 
 ~~ the mandate, on which for aught he knew, the 
 ' lives of thousand depended, he did it from the 
 I deliberate motion of his heart, supported by the 
 best of his judgment. 
 
 It has lately been a fashion to pay a compli- 
 ment to the bravery and generosity of the com- 
 
 * It was pretended that the earl of Rochford, while 
 ambassador in France, had quarrelled with the duke 
 ofChoiseul; and that, therefore, he was appointed to 
 the northern department, out of compliment to the 
 French minister.
 
 36 JUNIUS. 
 
 mander-in-chief^* at the expense of his under- 
 standing. They who love him least make no 
 question of his courage, while his friends dwell 
 chiefly on the facility of his disposition. Admit- 
 ting 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 remainder 
 of his character. If it be generosity to accumu- 
 late, in his own person and family, a number of 
 lucrative employments; to provide, at the public 
 expense, for every creature that bears the name 
 of Manners; and, neglecting the merit and ser- 
 vices of the rest of the army, to heap promotions 
 upon his favorites and dependents; the present 
 commander-in-chief is the most generous man 
 ahve. Nature has been sparing of her gifts to 
 this noble lord; but where birth- and fortune are 
 united, we expect the noble pride and indepen- 
 dence of a man of spirit, 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 ol never refusing, what conclusion shall 
 we draw from the indecency of never performing? 
 And if the discipline of the army be in any degree 
 preserved, what thanks are due to a man, whose 
 cares, notoriously confined to filling up vacancies, 
 have degraded the office 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 
 Hawke, that no expense should be spared to se- 
 cure to him an honourable and affluent retreat. 
 
 '^The late lord Granby.
 
 JUNIUS. 37 
 
 The pure and impartial administration of justice 
 is, perhaps, the firmest bond to secure a cheerful 
 submission of the people, and to engage their af- 
 fections to government. It is not sufficient that 
 questions of private right or wrong are justly de- 
 cided, nor that judges are superior to the vileness 
 of pecuniary 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 af- 
 fects the whole community. A judge, under the 
 influence of government, may be honest enough 
 in the decision of private 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, when- 
 ever an arbitrary point is to be carried for govern- 
 ment, or the resentment of a court to be gratified. 
 TJiese principles and proceedings, odious and 
 contemptible as they are, in effect are no less in- 
 judicious. A wise and generous people are rous- 
 ed by every appearance of oppressive, unconstitu- 
 tional measures, whether those measures are sup- 
 ported only by the power of government, or 
 masked under the forms of a court of justice. 
 Prudence and self-presevation will oblige the 
 most moderate dispositions to make common 
 cause, even with a man v.'hose conduct they cen- 
 sure, if they see him persecuted in a way which 
 the real spirit of the laws will not justify. The 
 
 VOL I. 4
 
 38 JUNIUS. 
 
 facts on which these remarks are founded are too 
 notorious to require an application. 
 
 This, sir, is the detail. In one view behold a 
 nation overwhelmed with debt; her revenues 
 wasted, her trade declining, the affections of her 
 colonies alienated; the duty of the magistrate 
 transferred to the soldiery; a gallant army, which 
 never fought unwillingly but against their fpllow- 
 subjects, mouldering away for want of the direc- 
 tion of a man of common abilities and spirit; and 
 in the last instance, the administration of justice 
 become odious and suspected to the whole body 
 of the people. This deplorable scene admits of 
 but one addition; that we are governed by coun- 
 sels from which a reasonable man can expect no 
 remedy but poison; no relief but death. 
 
 If, by the immediate interposition of Provi- 
 dence, 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 conclude that our distresses were ima- 
 ginary, or that we had the good fortune to be gov- 
 erned by men of acknowledged integrity and wis- 
 dom: they will not believe it possible, that their an- 
 cestors could have survived or recovered from so 
 desperate a condition, while a duke of Grafton 
 was prime minister, a lord North chancellor of the 
 exchequer; a Weymouth and a Hillsborough sec- 
 retaries of state; a Granby commander-in-chief; 
 and a Mansfield chief criminal judge of the king- 
 dom. JUNIUS.
 
 JUNIUS. 39 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 To the Printer of tlie PuUic Advertiser. 
 SIR, January 26, 1769. 
 
 THE kingdom swarms with such numbers 
 of felonious robbers of private character and vir- 
 tue, that no honest or good man is safe; especially 
 as these cowardly, base assassins, stab in the dark, 
 without having the courage to sign their real 
 names to their malevolent and wicked produc- 
 tions. A writer, who signs himself Junius, in the 
 Public Advertiser of the 21st instant, opens the 
 deplorable situation of his country in a very affec- 
 ting manner. With a pompous parade of his can- 
 dour and decency, ho tells us that we see dissen- 
 sions in all parts of the empire, 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 pa- 
 thetically enumerates. I' shall take the liberty 
 to explain the cause for him. Junius, and such 
 writers as himself, occasion all the mischief com- 
 plained 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 are any way distinguished by their good quali- 
 ties and eminent virtues; when they find no notice
 
 40 JUNIUS. 
 
 taken of, or reply given to these slanderous 
 tongues or pens, their conclusion is, that both the 
 ministers and the nation have been fairly de- 
 scribed, and they act accordingly. 1 think it, 
 therefore, the duty of every good citizen to stand 
 forth, and endeavour to undeceive the public, 
 when the vilest arts ai'e made use of to defame 
 and blacken the brightest characters among us. 
 An eminent author affirms i{. to be almost as 
 criminal to hear a worthy man traduced, 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 so- 
 ciety. No man, therefore, who knows lord 
 Granby, can possibly hear so good and great a 
 character most vilely abused, without a warm and 
 just indignation against this Junius, this high- 
 priest of envy, malice, and all uncharitableness, 
 who has endeavoured to sacrifice our beloved 
 commander-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 general. One would have thought 
 that his lordship's services in the cause of his coun- 
 try, from the battle of Culloden to his most glorious 
 conclusion of the late war, might have entitled 
 him to common respect and decency at least; but 
 this uncandid, indecent writer, has gone so far 
 as to turn one of the most amiable men of the a^e
 
 JUNIUS. 41 
 
 into a stupid, unfeeling, and senseless being; 
 possessed, indeed, of a personal courage, but void 
 of those essential qualities 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 Ju- 
 nius' assertions are false and scandalous. Lord 
 Granby's courage, though of the brightest and 
 most ardent kind, is among 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 excel- 
 lent 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 him to the field, where 
 he never gained aught but honour. He impaired, 
 through his bounty, his own fortune; for his 
 bounty, which this writer would in vain depre- 
 ciate, is founded upon the noblest of the human 
 affections; it flows from a heart melting to good- 
 ness; from the most refined humanity. Can a 
 man, who is described as unfeeling and void of 
 reflection, be constantly employed in seeking 
 proper objects, on whom to exercise those glo- 
 rious virtues of compassion and generosity? The 
 distressed officer, the soldier, the widow, the or- 
 phan, and a long list besides, know that van- 
 ity has no share in his frequent donations; he 
 gives, because he feels their distresses. Nor has 
 VOL \ 4*
 
 42 JUNIUS. . 
 
 he ever been rapacious with one hand, to be 
 bountiful with the other. Yet this uncandid Ju- 
 nius would insinuate, that the dignity of the com- 
 mander-in-chief is depraved into the base office of 
 a commission-broker; that is, lord Granby bargains 
 for the sale of commissions; for it must have this 
 meaning, if it has any at all. But where is the 
 man living who can justly charge his lordship with 
 such mean practices? AVhy does not Junius pro- 
 duce him? Junius knows that he has no other 
 means of wounding this hero, than from some 
 missile weapon, shot from an obscure corner. He 
 seeks, as all such defamatory writers do, 
 
 spargere voces 
 
 In vulgum 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 in- 
 volve 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 con- 
 spicuous a mark not to be their object. He is 
 next attacked for being unfaithful to his promises 
 and engagements? Where are Junius's proofs ? 
 Although I could give some instances 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. 43 
 
 systems; and would endeavour to surprise a good 
 man, who cannot bear to see any one leave him 
 dissatisfied into unguarded promises. Lord Gran- 
 by'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 void of 
 reflection indeed. How are any man's friends or 
 relations to be provided for, but from the influence 
 and protection of the patron ? It is unfair to sup- 
 pose that lord Granby's friends have not as much 
 merit as the friends of any other great man. If 
 he is generous at the public expense, as Junius 
 invidiously calls it, the public is at no^more ex- 
 pense 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 as- 
 serts, 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 his assertions. It was never 
 upon a more respectable footing with regard to 
 discipline and all the essentials that can form good 
 soldiers. Lord Ligonier delivered a firm and no- 
 ble 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 ances- 
 tors to [support,*^ as well as their own; and are 
 doubly bound to the cause of their king and coun. 
 try, from motives of private property, as well as
 
 44 JUNIUS. 
 
 public spirit. The adjutant-general, who has the 
 immediate care of the troops after lord Granby, 
 is an officer that would 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 laud- 
 able manner. Their reports of the condition of 
 the army are much more to be credited than those 
 of Junius, whom I do advise to atone for his 
 shameful aspersions, by asking pardon of lord 
 Graby and the whole kingdom, whom he has 
 offended 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 with- 
 out argument, and violent censures without dig- 
 nity or moderation." 
 
 WILLIAM DRAPER. 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 To Sir William Draj^er, Knight 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
 
 JUNIUS. 45 
 
 you express yourself in the warmest language of 
 your jD^assions. In any other cause, I doubt not you 
 \\'ould have cautiously weighed the consequen- 
 ces ot committing your name to the licentious 
 discourses and malignant opinions of the world : 
 ])ut here, I presume, you thought it would be a 
 breach of friendship, to lose one moment in con- 
 siilting 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 gen- 
 erosity, I freely forgive the excesses into which 
 it has led you; and, far from resenting those terms 
 of reproach, which considering that you are an 
 advocate for decorum, you have heaped upon me 
 rather too liberally, I place them to the account 
 of an honest unreflecting indignation, in which 
 your cooler judgment and natural politeness had 
 no concern. I'approve of the spirit with which 
 you have given your name to the public; and, if 
 it were a proof of any thing but spirit, I should 
 have thought myself bound to follow your ex- 
 ample. I should have hoped that even my name 
 might carry some authority with it, if I had not 
 i seen how very little weight or consideration a 
 J printed paper receives, even from the respectable 
 I* 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 ? 
 A little calm reflection might have shown you, 
 that national calamities do not arise from the de-
 
 46 JUNIUS. 
 
 sci'iption, but from the real character and conduct 
 of ministers. To have supported your assertion, 
 you should have proved, that the present ministry 
 are unquestionably the best and brightest char- 
 acters of the kingdom; and that, if the affections 
 of the colonies have been alienated, if Corsica 
 has been shamefully abandoned, if commerce lan- 
 guishes, if public credit is threatened with a new 
 debt, and your own Manilla ransom most dis- 
 honourably given up, it has all been owing to 
 the malice of political writers who will not suf- 
 fer 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 par- 
 ticulars. 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, wo 
 are yet to learn in what articles of military knowl- 
 edge 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 awk- 
 ward and ridiculous, by giving him a laced suit 
 of tawdry qualifications, vyhich nature never in- 
 tended him to wear. 
 
 You say, he has acquired nothing but honour'in 
 the field? Is the ordnance nothing? ■ Are the
 
 JUNIUS. 47 
 
 Blues 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, at least, ought to have told us where he de- 
 served them. 
 
 As to his bounty, compassion, (fee. it would 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 sell- 
 ing commissions, I still assert, that his military 
 cares have never extended beyond the disposal of 
 vacancies; and I am justified by the complaints 
 of the whole army, when I say, that, in this dis- 
 tribution, he consults nothing but parliamentary 
 interest, or the gratification of his immediate de- 
 pendents. As to his servile submission to the 
 reigning ministry, let me ask, whether he did not 
 desert the cause of the whole army, when he suf- 
 fered 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 regi- 
 ment? And does he not, at this moment, give up 
 all character and dignity as a gentleman, in re- 
 ceding from his own repeated declarations in fa- 
 vour of Mr. Wilkes? 
 
 In the two next articles, I think, we are agreed. 
 You candidly admit, that he often makes such 
 promises 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 last as an absolute vice in his disposition, but 
 to prove that a careless, disinterested spirit is no
 
 48 JUNIUS. 
 
 part of his character : and as to the other, I de- 
 sire it may be remembered, that I never descended 
 to the indecency of inquiring into his convivial 
 hours. It is you, sir William Draper, who have 
 taken pains to represent your friend in the char- 
 acter 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 frequently 
 have seen him in these unhappy, disgraceful mo- 
 ments, could have described him so well. 
 
 The last charge, of the neglect of the army, 
 is indeed the most material of all. I am sorry 
 to tell you, sir William, that in this article your 
 first fact is false : and as there" is nothing more 
 painful to me than to give a direct 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 Ligqnier did not deliver the 
 army (which you, in classical language, are pleas- 
 ed to call a paUadiu?n) into lord Granby's hands. 
 It was taken from him, much against his inclina- 
 sion, 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. Was it in the rooms 
 at Bath, or at your retreat at Clifton? The re- 
 ports of reviewing generals comprehend only a 
 few regiments in England, which, as they are im- 
 mediately under the royal inspection, are per- 
 haps in some tolerable order. But do you know 
 any thing of the tiioops in the West Indies, the
 
 JUNIUS. 49 
 
 Mediterranean, and North America; to say noth-' 
 ing of a whole army absolutely ruined in Ireland? 
 Inquire a little into facts, sir William, before you 
 publish your next panegyric upon lord Granby ; 
 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 me now, sir William, to address myself 
 personally to you, by way of thanks for the honor 
 of your correspondence. You are by no means 
 Undeserving of notice; and it may be of conse- 
 quence, even to lord Granby, to have it determin- 
 ed, 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 whose bravery 
 at Manilla your own fortune had been established. 
 You complained, you threatened, you even ap- 
 pealed to the public ni print. By 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 ran- 
 som was suddenly buried in a profound, and, 
 since 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 regi- 
 ment which you afterwards (a thing unprecedent- 
 ed among soldiers) sold to colonel Gisborne? Or 
 was it that government, the full pay of which you 
 are contented to hold, with the Jialf pay of an 
 
 VOL. I. 5
 
 50 JUNIUS. 
 
 Irish colonel? And do you now, after a retreat 
 not very like that of Scipio, presume to intrude 
 yourself, unthought of. uncalled lor, upon the pa- 
 tience of the public? Are your flatteries of the 
 commander-in-chief, directed to another regi- 
 ment, which you may again dispose of on the 
 same honourable terms? We know your pru- 
 dence, sir William; and I should be sorry to 
 stop your preferment. JUNIUS. 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 To Junius, 
 SIR, February 17, 1760. 
 
 I RECEIVED Junius's favour last night, 
 he is determined to keep his advantage by the 
 help of his mask: it is an excellent protection: it 
 has saved many a man from an untimely end. 
 But whenever he will be honest enough to lay it 
 aside, avow himself, and produce the face which 
 ii'as so long lurked behind it, the world will be 
 able to judge of his motives of writing such in- 
 famous invectives. His real name will discover 
 his freedom and independency, 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 charitable, Junius should 
 learn, that it is possible to condemn measures 
 without a barbarous and criminal outrage against 
 jmen. Junius delights to mangle carcases with a 
 hatchet; his language and instrument have a
 
 JUNIUS. 51 
 
 great connexion with Claremarket, and, to do him 
 justice, he handles his weapon most admirably. 
 One would imagine he had been taught to throw 
 it by the savages of America. It is, therefore, 
 high time for me 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 construc- 
 tion, the moments of convivial mirth are made to 
 singnify indecency, a violation of engagements, a 
 drunken landlord, and a desire that every one in 
 company should be drunk likevvise? He must 
 have culled all the flowers of St. Giles's and Bil- 
 lingsgate to have produced such a piece of oratory. 
 Here the hatchet descends with tenfold venge- 
 ance: 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 
 consistency. I know not whether Junius be con- 
 siderable enough to belong to any party. If he 
 should be so, can he affirm that he has always ad- 
 hered 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 pohtics sit much too loosely about 
 them. But as my friend's military character was 
 the chief object that engaged me in this contro- 
 versy, 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
 
 52 JUNIUS. 
 
 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- 
 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 the 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 ^yould have overborne 
 any private subject. In time of war, this influ- 
 ence is small. In peace, when discontent and 
 faction have the surest means to operate, espe- 
 cially in this country, and when, from a scarcity 
 of public spirit, the wheels of government are 
 rarely moved but by the power and force of ob- 
 ligations, its weight is always too great. Yet, if 
 this influence, at present, has iflone 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, sacrificed 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 myself liappy in seeing young noblemen of 
 illustrious name and great property come amongst 
 us. They are an additional security to the king- 
 dom 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 in^
 
 JUNIUS. 53 
 
 deed. A happy mixture of men of quality witli 
 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 contradicted by Junius, 
 that it was never upon a more respectable foot- 
 ing, as to all the essentials that can form good 
 soldiers, than it is at present. Junius is forced to 
 allow, that our army at home may be in some 
 tolerable order; yet, how kindly does he invite 
 our late enemies to the invasion of Ireland, by as- 
 suring them that the army in that kingdom is to- 
 tally ruined ! (The colonels of that army are 
 much obliged to him.) 1 have too great an opin- 
 ion 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 cannot 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 Mediterranean, in the West 
 Indies, in America, labour under great difficul- 
 ties from the scarcity of men, which is but too 
 visible all over these kingdoms? Many of our 
 forces are in climates unfavourable to British con- 
 stitutions; 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 emigration of our people to 
 other countries. Such depopulation can only be 
 VOL. I. 5*
 
 54 JUNIUS. 
 
 repaired by a long peace, or by some sensible bill 
 of naturalization. 
 
 I must now take the liberty of addressing Ju- 
 nius on my own account. He is pleased to tell 
 me that he addresses himself to me personally : I 
 shall be glad to see him. It is his impersonality 
 that I complain of, and his invisible attacks: for 
 his dagger in the air is only to be regarded, be- 
 cause one cannot see the hand which holds it; but, 
 had it not wounded other 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 undertook the cause of the gallant army, 
 by whose bravery at Manilla my own fortunes 
 were established; that I complained, that I even 
 appealed to the public. I did so; I glory in hav- 
 ing dene so, as I had an undoubted right to vin- 
 dicate 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 ran- 
 som was suddenly buried in a profound, and, since 
 that time, an uninterrupted silence? I will ex- 
 plain the cause to the public. The several minis- 
 ters 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
 
 JUNIUS. 55 
 
 popularity to tliemselves. Their efforts have 
 been in vain. Some were ingenuous enough to 
 own, that they could not think of involving this 
 distressed nation in another war for our private 
 concerns. In short, our rights, for the present, 
 are sacrificed to national convenience ; and I 
 must confess, that although I may lose five-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 anonymous, wick- 
 ed, and incendiary writers. Lord Shelburne will 
 do me the justice to own, that in September last, 
 I waited upon him with a joint memorial from the 
 admiral, sir S. Cornish, 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 giv- 
 ing any immediate hopes of relief. 
 
 Junius would basely insinuate, that my silence 
 may have been purchased by my government, 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 Manil- 
 la, 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 of 
 
 .Bedford and Mr. Grenville confirmed these as. 
 
 ' surances, many months before the Spaniards had 
 protested the ransom bills. To accommodate lord
 
 56 JUNIUS. 
 
 Clive, then going upon a most important service 
 to Bengal, I waved my claim to the vacancy which 
 then happened. As there was no other vacancy 
 until the duke of Grafton and lord Rockmgham 
 were joint ministers; I was then honoured with 
 the order; and it is surely no small honour to me, 
 that, in such a succession of ministei-s, 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 glori- 
 ously in the East Indies, his majesty, unsolicited 
 by me, gave me the 16th 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 : they are such as no 
 man can think indecent, who knows the shocks 
 that repeated vicissitudes of heat and cold, of 
 dangerous and sickly climates, will give to the 
 best constitutions, in a pretty long course of ser- 
 vice. 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 380Z. 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^Juniis's style, I cannot, indeed, call him a 
 flatterer, unless he be as a cynic or a mastiff*: if 
 he wags his tail, he will still growl, .and long to 
 bite. The public will now judge of the credit 
 that ought to be given to Junius's writings, from 
 the falsities that fie has insinuated with respect to 
 myself. WILLIAM DRAPER.
 
 JUNIUS. 57 
 
 LETTER V. 
 To Sir William Brajper, Knight of the Bath. 
 
 SIR, February 21, 1769. 
 
 I SETOULD justly be suspected of acting 
 upon motives of more than common enmity to lord 
 Granby, if I continued to give you fresh materi- 
 als or occasion for writing in his defence. Indi- 
 viduals who hate, and the public who despise, 
 have read your letters, sir William, with infinite- 
 ly more satisfaction than mine. Unfortunately 
 for him, his reputation, like that unhappy coun- 
 try to which you refer me for his last military 
 achievements, has suffered 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 vindi- 
 cation of your friend has been as able and judi- 
 cious as it was certainly well intended : and you, 
 I think, may be satisfied with the warm acknow- 
 ledgements he already owes you, for making him 
 the principal figure in a piece, in which, but for 
 your amicable assistance, he might have passed 
 without particular notice or distinction. 
 
 In justice to your friends, let your future la- 
 bours be confined to the care of your own reputa- 
 tion. Your declaration, that you are happy in 
 seeing young noblemen come among us, is liable 
 to two objections. With respect to lord Percy, it 
 means nothing; for he was already in the army.
 
 58 JUNIUS. 
 
 He was aid-de-camp to the king, and had the 
 rank of colonel. A regiment, therefore, could 
 not make him a more military man, though it 
 made him richer; and probably at the expense of 
 some brave, deserving, friendless officer. The 
 other concerns yourself. After selling the com- 
 panions of your victory in one instance, and after 
 selling your profession in the other, by what aCi- 
 thority do you presume to call yourself a soldier? 
 The plain evidence of facts is superior to all de- 
 clarations. Before you were appointed to the 16th 
 regiment, your complaints were a distress to gov- 
 ernment: from that moment you were silent. The 
 conclusion 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 com- 
 mand of a regiment. There is certainly an error 
 of the press, or an affected obscurity in that para- 
 graph, where you speak of your bargain with 
 colonel Gisborne. Instead of attempting to an- 
 swer 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 220/. a year) and an 
 annuity of 200/. 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 380/.? Was it de- 
 cent, was it honourable, in a man who pretends 
 to love the army, and calls himself a soldier, to 
 make a traffic of the royal favour, and turn the 
 highest honour of an active profession into a sordid
 
 JUNIUS. 59 
 
 provision for himself and his family? It were 
 unworthy of me to press you farther. The con- 
 tempt with which the whole army heard of the 
 manner of your retreat, assures me, tliat, 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-pay, do you or do you 
 not, take a solemn oath, or sign a declaration 
 upon honour, to the following effect? That 
 you do not actually hold any jplace of profit, civil 
 or military, under his majesty. The charge which 
 the question plainly conveys against you, is of so 
 shocking 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 in- 
 ward peace of mind. JUNIUS. 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 To Junius, 
 SIR, February 27, 1769. 
 
 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 200Z. Irish, 
 and the equivalent for the half-pay, together pro- 
 duce no more than 380/. per annum, clear of fees 
 and perquisites of office. I receive 167/. from my
 
 60 JUNIUS. 
 
 government of Yarmouth. Total 547Z, per an. . 
 num. My conscience is much at ease in these 
 particulars: niy friends need not blush for me. 
 
 Junius makes much and frequent use of in- 
 terrogations: they are arms that may be easily 
 turned against himself. I could, by malicious in- 
 terrogation, disturb the peace of the most virtu- 
 ous man in the kingdom. I could take the deca- 
 logue, 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 con- 
 duct to the rack, Did you never "bear false wit- 
 ness against thy neighbour?" Junius must easi* 
 ly see, that, unless he affirms to the contrary, in 
 his real name, some people, who may be as igno- 
 rant of him 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! W. D 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 To Sir William Draper, Knight of the Bath, 
 
 SIR, March 3, 1769 
 
 AN academical education has given you 
 an unlimited 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 mel- 
 ancholy madness of poetry, without the inspira- 
 tion. I will not contend with you in point oi
 
 JUNIUS. 61 
 
 composition: you are a scholar, sir William, and 
 if I am truly informed, you write Latin with al- 
 most as much purity as England. Suffer me then 
 (for I am a plain unlettered man) to continue 
 that style of interrogation which suits my capaci- 
 ty, 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 h# ever committed 
 theft or murder, it would disturb his peace of 
 mina? Such a question might, perhaps, discom- 
 pose the gravity of his muscles, but I believe it 
 would little aifect the tranquillity of fhis con- 
 science. Examine your own breast, sir William, 
 and you will discover that reproaches and inqui- 
 ries have no power to afflict either the man of 
 unblemished integrity or the abandoned profli- 
 gate. It is the middle compound character which 
 alone is vulnerable; the man who, without firm- 
 ness enough to avoid a dishonorable action, has 
 feeling enough to be ashamed of it. 
 
 I thank you for the hint of the decalogue, and 
 shall take an opportunity of applying it to some 
 of your most virtuous friends in both houses of 
 parliament 
 
 You seem to have dropped the affair of your 
 regiment; so let it rest. When you are appoint- 
 
 *This man, being committed by the court of king's 
 bench for contempt, voluntarily made oath that he 
 would never answer interrogatories unless he should be 
 put to the torture. ^ 
 
 VOL. I. 6
 
 62 JUNIUS. 
 
 ed to ^mother, I dare say you' will not sell it eithei* 
 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 in- 
 discretion. 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 oi provision, which, in their own nature, 
 and in all military and parliamentary views, are 
 incompatible; but T call upon you to justify- 
 that declaration wherein you charge your sove- 
 reign with having done an act in your favour no- 
 toriously against law. The half-pay, both in Ire- 
 land 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 of 
 law. It would have been more decent in you to 
 have called this dishonourable transaction by its 
 true name; a job, to accommodate two persons, 
 b;^ particular interest and management at the 
 castle. — What sense must government have had 
 of your services, 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 very different from any 
 apprehension of your resentment make it impos- 
 sible 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 col- 
 lect a profitable instruction for your future life. 
 They will either teach you so to regulate your 
 future conduct, as to be able to set the most ma-
 
 JUNIUS. 63 
 
 Jicious inquiries at defiance; or, if that be a lost 
 hope, they will teach you prudence enough not 
 to attract the public attention to a character, 
 which will only pass without censure, when it 
 passes without observation.* 
 
 JUNIUS. 
 
 *It has been, said 1 believe truly, that it was signi- 
 fied to sir William Draper, as the request of lord Gran- 
 by, that he" should desist from writing in his lordship's 
 defence. Sir William Draper certainly drew Junius 
 forward to say more of lord Granby's character than 
 he originally intended. He was reduced to the dilem- 
 ma, of either being totally silenced, or of supporting 
 his first letter. Whether sir William had a right to re- 
 duce him to this dilemma, or to call upon him for his 
 name, after a voluntary attack on his side, are ques- 
 tions submitted to the candour of the public. The 
 death of lord Granby was lamented by Junius. He 
 undoubtedly owed some compensation to the public, 
 and seemed determined to aquit himself of them. In pri- 
 vate life, he was unquestionably that good man, who, for 
 the interest of his country, ought to have been a great 
 one, Bonum virwn facile dixeris! magnum libenter. 
 I speak of him now without partiality, I never spoke 
 of him with resentment. His mistake, in public con- 
 duct, did not arise either from want of sentiment, or 
 want of judgment; but, in general, from the difficulty 
 of saying no to the bad people who surrounded him. 
 
 As for the rest; the friends of lord Granby should re- 
 member, that he himself thought proper to condemn, 
 retract, and disavow, by a most solemn declaration, in 
 the house of commons,, that very system of political 
 conduct which Junius has held forth to the disappro- 
 bation of the public.
 
 64 JUNIUS. 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 To his Grace the Duke of Grafton, 
 MY LORD, March 18, 1769. 
 
 BEFORE you were placed at the head of 
 affairs, it had been a maxim of the English gov- 
 ernment, not unwiUingly admitted by the people, 
 that every ungracious or severe exertion of the 
 prerogative should be placed to the account of 
 the minister; but that 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 to the king and his sub- 
 jects; for while it preserved that suspicious at- 
 tention 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 interests, and even of per- 
 sonal enmity, in a quarter where no such interest 
 
 * Les rois ne se sont reserves que les graces. lis 
 renvoient les condamnations vers leurs officiers. — Mon- 
 tesqxntu.
 
 JUNIUS. 65 
 
 or enmity can be supposed to exist, without the 
 liighest 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 j^ou are the minister. 
 
 As long as the trial of this chairman was de- 
 pending, 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 per- 
 formed it, made common cause between j^our 
 grace and him. The minister, who by secret 
 corruption, invades the freedom of elections, and 
 the ruffian, Avho, by open violence destroys that 
 freedom, are embarked in the same bottom; they 
 have the same interests, and mutually feel for 
 each other. To do justice to your grace's hu- 
 manity, you felt for M 'Quirk as you ought to do; 
 and it j^ou had been contented to assist him indi- 
 rectly, without a notorious denial of justice, or 
 openly insulting the sense of the nation, you might 
 have satisfied every duty of pohtical friendship, 
 without 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 ap- 
 peared that he had been frequently employed in 
 tlie same services, and tliat no excuse for him 
 
 VOL. r, 0*
 
 66 JUNIUS. 
 
 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?* You ought to have 
 
 * Whitehall, March 11, 1769. His majesty has 
 been graciously pleased to extend his royal mercy to 
 Edward M'Q,uirk, found guilty of the murder of George 
 Clarke, as appears by his royal v/arrant, to the tenour 
 following: 
 
 GEORGE R. 
 Whereas a doubt has arisen in our royal breast con- 
 cerning 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 Brent- 
 ford: and whereas it appears to us that neither of the 
 said persons were produced as witnesses upon the tri- 
 al, though the said Solomon Starling had been examin- 
 ed before the coroner; and the only person called to 
 prove that the death of the said George Clarke was 
 occasioned by the said blow, was Jolin Foot, surgeon, 
 who never saw the deceased till after his death: we 
 thought fit thereupon to refer the said representations, 
 together with the report of the recorder of our city of 
 London, of the evidence given by Richard and William 
 Beale and the said John Foot, on the trial of Edward 
 Quirk, otherwise called Edward Kirk, otherwise called 
 Edward M'Quirk, for the murder of the said Clarke to 
 the master, wardens, and the rest of the court of exam- 
 iners of the surgeons' company, commanding them like- 
 wire to take such farther examination of the said persons 
 so representing, and of said John Foot, as they 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
 
 JUNIUS. 67 
 
 known that an example of this sort was never so 
 necessary as at present ; and certainly you must 
 have known, that the lot could not have fallen 
 upon a more guilty object. What system of gov- 
 ernment is this? You are perpetually complaining 
 of the riotous disposition of the lower class of peo- 
 ple; yet when the laws have given you the means 
 of making an example, in every sense unexcep- 
 tionable, and by far the most likely to awe the mul- 
 titude, you pardon the offence, 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 exe- 
 
 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, othervrise 
 Edward Kirk, otherwise called Edward M'Q,uirk, and 
 to grant him our free pardon for the murder of the 
 said George Clark, of which he has been found guilty. 
 Our will and pleasure, therefore, is, That the said Ed- 
 ward Quirk, otherwise called Edward Kirk, otherwise 
 called Edward M'Quirk, be inserted, for the said 
 murder, in our first and next general pardon that shall 
 come out for the poor convicts of Newgate, without 
 any condition whatsoever; and that, in 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, 1769, in the ninth year of our r^ign. 
 By his majesty's command. ROCHFORD. 
 
 To our trusty and well-beloved 
 James Eyre, esq. recorder of 
 our city of London, the sher- 
 iffs of our said city and coun- 
 ty of Middlesex, and all oth- - 
 era whom it may concern.
 
 68 JUNIUS 
 
 cution; and had rather see a score of tliese 
 wretches butchered by the giiards, than one of 
 them suffer death by regular course of law. How 
 does it happen, my lord, that, m your hands, even 
 the mercy of the prerogative is cruilty and op- 
 pression to the subject. 
 
 The measure, it seems, was so extrordinary, 
 that you thought it necessary to give some reasons 
 for it to the public. Let them be fairly examin- 
 ed. 
 
 1. You say, that Messrs. Broomfielcl and Starling 
 were not examined at lirQiiirk^s trial. I will tell 
 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 it conceivable that his counsel should neglect 
 to call in such material evidence? 
 
 2. You say, that Mr. Foot did not see the de- 
 ceased until after his death. A surgeon, my lord, 
 must know very little of his profession, if, upon 
 examining a wound or a contusion, he cannot de- 
 termine whether it was mortal or not. While the 
 party is alive, a surgeon will be cautious of pro- 
 nouncing; 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 confirm- 
 ed by experience. 
 
 3. Yet we are to thank your grace for the es- 
 tablishment 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 evi- 
 flenco was insufiicient, because he did not exam-
 
 JUNIUS. 69 
 
 ine the wound till after the death of the party, 
 much less can a negative opinion, given by gen- 
 tlemen 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 sen- 
 tence of the law. 
 
 Now, my lord, let me ask you, Has it never 
 occurred to your grace, while you were with- 
 drawing this desperate wretch from that justice 
 which the laws had awarded, and which the whole 
 people of England demanded against him, that 
 there is another man, who is the favorite of his 
 country, whose pardon would have been accepted 
 with gratitude, 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 the uniform tenor of your public conduct, is 
 an answer to them all. • JUNIUS. 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 To Ids Grace the Duke of Grafton, 
 
 MY LORD, April 10, 1769. 
 
 I HAVE so good an opinion of your grace's 
 discernment, that when the author of the vindi- 
 cation of your conduct assures us that he writes 
 from his own mere motion, without the least au- 
 thority from your grace, I should be ready enough
 
 70 JUNIUS. 
 
 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 extraordina- 
 ry step you took to make sir James Lowther lord 
 paramount of Cumberland has ruined his interest 
 in that country for ever: the house list of direc- 
 tors was cursed with the concurrence of govern- 
 ment; and even the miserable Dingley* could not 
 escape the misfortune of your grace's protection. 
 With this uniform experience before us, we are 
 authorised to suspect, that when a pretended vin- 
 dication of your principles and conduct, in reali- 
 ty, contains the bitterest reflections upon both, it 
 could not' have been written without your imme- 
 diate direction and assistance. The author, in- 
 deed, calls God to witness for him, with all the 
 sincerity, and in the very terms of an Irish evi- 
 dence, to the best of his knowledge and belief. My 
 lord, you should not encourage these appeals to 
 Heaven. The pious prince, from whom you are 
 supposed to descend, made such frequent use of 
 them in his public declarations, that, at last, the 
 people also found it necessary to appeal to Heaven 
 in their turn. Your administration has driven us 
 into circumstances of equal distress: beware, at 
 least, how you remind us of the remedy. 
 
 * This unfortunate person had been persuaded by 
 the duke of Grafton to set up for Middlesex, his grace 
 being determined to seat him in the house of commons, 
 if he had but a single vote. It happened, unluckily, 
 that he could not prevail upon any one freeholder to put 
 bim in nomination.
 
 Junius. 71 
 
 You have already much to answer for. You 
 have provoked t-liis unhappy gentleman to play 
 the fool once more in pubhc hie, 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 re- 
 markable example of age without the benefit of 
 experience. To follow such a writer minutely, 
 would, like his own periods, be labour without 
 end. The subject too has been already discussed, 
 and is sufficiently understood. I cannot help ob- 
 serving, however, that when the pardon of 
 M 'Quirk was the principal charge against you, 
 it would have been but a decent compliment to 
 your grace's understanding, to have defended you 
 upon your own principles. What 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 timt he v/ishes that those chirurgical reports, 
 which first gave occasion to certain doubts in the 
 royal breast, had not been laid before his majes- 
 ty? You see, my lord, that even your friends can- 
 not defend your actions, without changing your 
 principles; nor justify a deliberate measure of go- 
 vernment without contradicting the main asser- 
 tion 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 political interest with your 
 duty. You were obhged either to abandon an 
 active, useful partisan, or to protect a felon from 
 public justice. With your usual spirit you pre- 
 ferred your interest to every other consideration;
 
 72 JUNIUS. 
 
 and, with your usual judgment, you founded your 
 determination upon the only motives which should 
 not have been given to the public. 
 
 I have frequently censured Mr. Wilkes's con- 
 duct, yet your advocate reproaches me with hav- 
 ing devoted 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 friendship, or how long it was before 
 you discovered those bad ones in him, at which, 
 it seems, your delicacy was offended. Remem- 
 ber, my lord, that you continued your connexion 
 with Mr. Wilkes, long after he had been convict- 
 ed of those crimes which you have since taken 
 pains to represent in the blackest colours of blas- 
 phemy and treason. How unlucky is it, that 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 friendship, I would 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 re- 
 gard to the public, even his vices plead for him. 
 The people of England have too much discern- 
 ment to suffer your grace to take advantage 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 best 
 men in the kingdom. Content yourself, my lord, 
 with the many advantages which the unsullied 
 purity of your own character has given you over
 
 JUNIUS. 73 
 
 your unhappy deserted friends. 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 
 publican.' In a heart void of feeling, the laws of 
 honour and good faith may be violated with impu- 
 nity, and there you may safely indulge your gen- 
 ius. But the laws of England shall not be viola- 
 ted, even by your 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.. 
 
 LETTER 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 volun- 
 teer, with the stipend of twenty commissions; 
 and at a period when all prospects are at an end, 
 you are still looking forward to rewards which 
 you cannot enjoy. No man is better acquainted 
 with the bounty of government than j^ou 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 peevish- 
 ness of your diseases. Your pamphlet, ingenious 
 as it is, has been so little read, that the public 
 cannot know how far you have a right to give 
 me the lie, without the following citation of your 
 own words: 
 
 VOL. I. 7
 
 74 JUNIUS. 
 
 Page eth. *1. That he is persuaded that the 
 motives which he (Mr. Weston) has alleged, 
 must appear fully sufficient with or without the 
 opinions of the surgeons. 
 
 *2. That those very motives must have been the 
 foundation on which the earl of Rochford thought 
 proper, &c. 
 
 <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,' &c. 
 
 Let the public determine whether this be de- 
 fending government on their principles or your 
 own. 
 
 The style and language you have adopted are^ 
 I confess, not ill-suited to the elegance of your 
 own manners, or to the dignity of the cause you 
 have undertaken. Every common dauber writes 
 rascal and villain under his pictures, because the 
 pictures themselves have neither character nor 
 resemblance. But the works of a master require 
 no index; his features and colouring are taken 
 from nature; the impression they make is imme- 
 diate and uniform; nor is it possible to mistake 
 his characters, whether they represent the treach- 
 ery of a minister, or the abused simpHcity of a 
 — ^ JUNIUS.
 
 JUNIUS. . 75 
 
 LETTER XL 
 
 To his Grace the Duke of Grafton, 
 
 MY LORD, April 24, 1769. 
 
 THE system you seem to have adopted 
 when lord Chatham unexpectedly left you at the 
 head of affairs, gave us no promise of that uncom- 
 mon exertion of vigour which has since illustrat- 
 ed your character, and distinguished your admi- 
 nistration. Far from discovering a spirit bold 
 enough to invade the first rights of the people, and 
 the first principles of the constitution, you were 
 scrupulous of exel'cising 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 out- 
 lawry 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 affected to call 
 alarming, you lefl the metropolis exposed, for two 
 nights together, to every species of riot and dis- 
 order. The security of the royal residence from 
 insult was then sufficiently provided for in Mr. 
 Conway's firmness, and lord Weymouth's discre- 
 tion; while the prime minister of Great Britain, 
 in a rural retirement, and in the arms of faded 
 beauty, had lost all memory of his sovereign, his
 
 76 JUNIUS. 
 
 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 intrepid spirit for trials of greater 
 hazard and importance; and now, as if the most dis- 
 graceful relaxation 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 suddently start to the other, without leaving, 
 between the weakness and the fury of the pas- 
 sions, one moment's interval 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 
 employment 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 inter- 
 esting or important, because they are succeeded 
 by a measure so singularly daring, that it excites 
 all our attention, and engrosses all our resent- 
 ment. 
 
 Your patronage of Mr. Luttrell has been 
 crowned with success. With this precedent be- 
 fore you, with the principles on which it was es-
 
 JUlSJlUS. 77 
 
 tablislied, and with a future house, of commons, 
 perhaps less virtuous than the present, every 
 count}'' in England, under the auspices of the 
 treasury, may be represented as completely as 
 the county of Middlesex. Posterity will be 
 indebted to your grace for not contenting your- 
 self with a temporary expedient, but entailing 
 upon them the immediate blessings of your ad- 
 ministration. Boroughs were already too much 
 at the mercy of government. Counties could 
 neither be purchased nor intimidated. But their 
 solemn determined election may be rejected ; and 
 tlie man they detest may be appointed by anoth- 
 er 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 undoubt- 
 edly 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 ad- 
 here to their choice (even supposing it improper- 
 ly 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 tlie wide distance there is between the nega- 
 tive power of rejecting one man, and the positive 
 power of appointuig another. The right of ex» 
 pulsion, in the most favourable sense, is no more 
 
 * Sir Fletcher Norton, when it was proposed to pun- 
 ish the sheriffs, declared in the house of eommons, 
 that they, in returning Mr, Wilkes, had done no more 
 than their duty. 
 
 VOL. I. 7*
 
 78 JUNIUS 
 
 than the custom of parliament. The right of 
 election is the very essence of the constitution. 
 To violate that right, and much more to trans- 
 fer it to any other set of men, is a step leading 
 immediately to the dissolution of all government. 
 So far forth as it operates, it constitutes a house 
 of commons which docs 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 answered by reconciling absur- 
 dities, 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 advantages over him, which common can- 
 dour, if not the memory of your former friendship, 
 should have forbidden you to make use of. To 
 religious men you had an opportunity of exagger- 
 ating the irregularities ot his past life; to moder- 
 rate men you held forth the pernicious consequen- 
 ces of faction. Men who, with this character, 
 looked no farther than to the object before them, 
 were not dissatisfied at seeing Mr. Wilkes exclu- 
 ded from parliament. You have now taken care 
 to shift the question; or rather, you have created 
 a new one, in which Mr. Wilkes is no more con- 
 cerned than any other English gentleman. You 
 have united this country against you on one grand 
 
 *The reader is desired to mark this prophecy.
 
 JUNIUS. 79 
 
 constitutional point, on the decision of whicli our 
 existence, as a free people, absolutely depends. 
 You have a.«sertcd, not in words, but in fact, that 
 the representation in parhament does not depend 
 upon the choice of the freeholders. If such a case 
 can possibly happen once, it may happen fre- 
 quently; it may happen always: and if three hun- 
 dred 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 dul- 
 lest apprehension: I trust you will find that the" 
 people of England are neither deficient in spirit 
 or understanding; though you have treated them 
 as if they had neither sense to feel or spirit to re- 
 sent. We have reason to thank God and our an- 
 cestors, that there never yet was a minister in this 
 country who could stand the issue of such a con- 
 flict; and, with every prejudice in favour of your 
 intentions, I see no such abilities in your grace, 
 as should enable you to succeed in an enterprise, 
 in which the ablest and basest of your predeces- 
 sors 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 freeholders will 
 make a tame surrender of their rights; or, that 
 an English army will join with you in overturn- 
 ing the liberties of their country. They know, 
 that their first duty, as citizens, is paramount to
 
 80 JUNIUS. 
 
 all subsequent engagements: nor will tliey prefer 
 the discipline, or even tlie honours of their pro- 
 fession, to those sacred original rights which be- 
 longed to them before they were 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 New- 
 Market. Mr. Luttrell 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 dis- 
 tance between a riot of the populace and a con- 
 vulsion of the whole kingdom. You may live to 
 make the experiment, but no honest man can wish 
 you should survive it. JUNIUS. 
 
 LETTER XII. 
 
 To his Grace the Duke of Grafton. 
 
 MY LORD, May 30, 1769. 
 
 IF the measures in which you have been" 
 most successful had been supported by any tolera- 
 ble appearance of argument, I should have thought 
 
 *The duke, about this time, had separated himself 
 from Anne Parsons; but proposed to continue united 
 with her on some platonic terms of friendship, v/hich 
 she rejected with contempt. His baseness to this wo- 
 man is beyond description or behef
 
 JUNIUS. 81 
 
 my time not ill employed in continuing to examine 
 your conduct as a minister, and stating it fairly 
 to the public. But when I see questions of the 
 highest national importance carried, as they have 
 been, and the first principles of the constitution 
 openly violated, without argument or decency, I 
 confess I give up the cause in despair. The 
 meanest of your predecessors had abilities suffi- 
 cient 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 bargain with the minister, 
 that he should furnish them with some plausible 
 pretences for selling their country and themselves. 
 You have had the merit of introducing a more 
 compendious system of government and logic. 
 You neither address j^ourselfto the passions nor 
 the understanding, but simply to the touch. You 
 apply yourself immediately to the feelings of your 
 friends; who, contrary to the forms of parhament, 
 never enter heartily into a debate until they have 
 divided. 
 
 Relinquishing, therefore, all idle views of 
 amendment to your grace, or of benefit to the pub- 
 lic, let me be permitted to consider your character 
 and conduct, merely as a subject of curious specu- 
 lation. There is something in both which distin- 
 guishes 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
 
 82 JUNIUS. 
 
 genius of your life, should have carried you 
 through every possible change and contradiction 
 of conduct, without the momentary imputation 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 
 relations 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 minister, 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 degene- 
 rate. Those of your grace, for instance, left no 
 distressing examples of virtue even to their legiti- 
 mate posterity: and you may look back with plea- 
 sure to an illustrious pedigree, in which heraldry 
 has not left a single good quality upon record to 
 insult or upbraid you. You have better proofs of 
 your descent, my lord, than the register of a mar- 
 riage, or any troublesome inheritance of reputa-
 
 JUNIUS. 83 
 
 tion. There are some hereditary strokes of char- 
 acter, by which a family may be as clearly distin- 
 guished, as by the blackest features of the human 
 face. Charles the First lived and died a hypa- 
 crite. Charles the Second was a hypocrite of 
 another sort, and should have died upon the same 
 scaffold. At the distance of a century, we see 
 their different characters happily revived and 
 blended in your grace. Sullen and severe with- 
 out religion, profligate without gayety, you live 
 like Charles the Second, without being an amia- 
 ble 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 cred- 
 it, 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 attachment; yet you deserted him, upon the 
 first hopes that offered of an equal share of power 
 with lord Rockingham. When the late duke of 
 Cumberland's first negotiation failed, and when 
 the favourite was pushed to the last extremity, 
 you saved him, by joining with an administration, 
 
 *To understand these passages, the reader is referred 
 to a noted pamphlet, called, 'The History of the Mi- 
 nority."'
 
 84 JUNIUS. 
 
 in which lord Chatham had refused to engage. 
 Still, however, he was your friend: and you are 
 yet to explain to the world, why you consented to 
 act without him: or why, after uniting with lord 
 Rockingham, you deserted and betrayed him. 
 You complained that no measures were taken to 
 satisfy your patron; and that your friend, Mr, 
 Wilkes, who had suffered so much for the party, 
 had been abandoned to his fate. They have since 
 contributed, not a little, to your present plentitude 
 ot 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 compen- 
 sations to make in the closet for your former 
 friendship with him. Your gracious master un- 
 derstands your character, and makes you a perse- 
 cutor 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 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 genius, and more likely to fix your disposi- 
 tion. Marriage 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
 
 JUNIUS, 85 
 
 you stung lord Chatham, to the hopes of a virgin* 
 in the house of Bloomsbury. One would think 
 that you had had sufficient experience of the frail- 
 ty of nuptial engagements, or, at least, that such 
 a friendship as the duke of Bedford's might have 
 been secured to you by the auspicious marriage 
 of your late duchess f 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 Bed- 
 ford's ambition, after making her an honest wo- 
 man, to work a miracle of the same sort upon 
 your grace. This worthy nobleman has long 
 dealt in virtue : there has been a large consump- 
 tion 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. 
 You have now a strength sufficient to command 
 the closet, and if it bo necessary to betray one 
 friendship more, you may set even lord Bute at 
 defiance. Mr. Stewart M'Kenzie may possibly 
 remember what use the duke of Bedford usually 
 makes of his power; and our gracious sovereign, 
 I doubt not, rejoices at this first appea,rance of 
 union among his servants. His late majesty, 
 under the happy influence of a family connexion 
 between his ministers, was relieved from the 
 cares of the government. A more active prince 
 
 * His grace had lately married Miss Wrottesly, niece 
 of the good Gertrude, duchess of Bedford. 
 
 tMiss Liddel, after her divorce from the duke, mar- 
 ried lord Upper Ossory. 
 VOL. I. 8*
 
 86 JUNIUS. 
 
 may, perhaps, observe with suspicion by what de= 
 grees an artful servant grows upon his master, 
 from the first unhmited professions of duty and 
 attachment, to the pamful representation of the 
 necessity of the royal service, and soon, in regu- 
 lar progression, to the humble insolence of dicta- 
 ting in all the obsequious forms of peremptory sub- 
 mission. The interval is carefully employed in 
 forming connexions, creating interests, collecting 
 a party, and laying the foundation of double 
 marriages ; until 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 re- 
 moved. 
 
 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 the stamp act, on principles of convenience, to 
 Mr. Pitt's surrender of the right; then forward 
 to lord Rockingham'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 undetermined discretion, to blood 
 and compulsion with the duke of Bedford: yet, if 
 we may believe the simplicity of lord North's elo. 
 quence, at the opening of the next session, you 
 are once more to be the patron of America. Is 
 this the wisdom of a great minister, or is it the 
 ominous vibration of a pendulum? Had you no 
 opinion of your own, my lord? Or was it the
 
 JUNIUS. 85 
 
 you stung lord Chatham, to the hopes of a virgin* 
 in the house of Bloomsbury. One would think 
 that you had had sufficient experience of the frail- 
 ty of nuptial engagements, or, at least, that such 
 a friendship as the duke of Bedford's might have 
 been secured to you by the auspicious marriage 
 of your late duchess f 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 Bed- 
 ford's ambition, after making her an honest wo- 
 man, to work a miracle of the same sort upon 
 your grace. This worthy nobleman has long 
 dealt in virtue : there has been a large consump- 
 tion ot 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. 
 You have now a strength sufficient to command 
 the closet, and if it bo necessary to betray one 
 friendship more, you may set even lord Bute at 
 defiance. Mr. Stewart M'Kenzie may possibly 
 remember what use the duke of Bedford usually 
 makes of his power; 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 relieved from the 
 cares of the government. A more active prince 
 
 * His grace had lately married Miss VVroltesly, niece 
 of the good Gertrude, duchess of Bedford. 
 
 tMiss Liddel, after her divorce from the duke, mar- 
 ried lord Upper Ossory. 
 
 VOL, I, 8*
 
 86 JUNIUS. 
 
 may, perhaps, observe with suspicion by what da^ 
 grees an artful servant grows upon his master^ 
 from the first unHmited professions of duty and 
 attachment, to the pamful representation of the 
 necessity of the royal service, and soon, in regu- 
 lar progression, to the humble insolence of dicta- 
 ting in all the obsequious forms of peremptory sub- 
 mission. The interval is carefully employed in 
 forming connexions, creating interests, collecting 
 a party, and laying the foundation of double 
 marriages ; until 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 re- 
 moved. 
 
 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 the stamp act, on principles of convenience, to 
 Mr. Pitt's surrender of the right; then forward 
 to lord Rockingham'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 undetermined discretion, to blood 
 and compulsion with the duke of Bedford : yet, if 
 we may believe the simplicity of lord North's elo. 
 quence, at the opening of the next session, you 
 are once more to be the patron of America. Is 
 this the wisdom of a great minister, or is it the 
 ominous vibration of a pendulum? Had you no 
 opinion of your own, my lord? Or was it the
 
 JUNIUS. 87 
 
 gratification of betra5ang every party with which 
 you have been united, and of deserting every po- 
 htical principle in which you had concui-red? 
 
 Your enemies may turn their eyes without re- 
 gret from this admirable system of provincial gov- 
 ernment. 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 
 firmness, you know, my lord, that Corsica would 
 never have been invaded. The French saw the 
 weakness of a distracted ministry, and were justi- 
 fied in treating you with contempt. They would 
 probably have yielded, in the first instance, rather 
 than hazard a rupture with this country; but, 
 heii}g once engaged, they cannot retreat without 
 dishonour. Common sense foresees consequences 
 which have escaped your grace's penetration. 
 Either we suffer the French to make an acquisi- 
 tion, the importance of which you have probably 
 no conception of; or we oppose them by an under- 
 hand management, which only disgraces us in the 
 eyes of Europe, without answering any purpose 
 of policy or prudence. From secret, indirect as- 
 sistance, a transition to some more open, decisive 
 measures, becomes unavoidable; till, at last, we 
 find ourselves principal in the war, and are obli- 
 •ged to hazard every thing for an object, which 
 might have originally been obtained without ex- 
 pense or danger. I am not versed in the politics 
 of the north; but this, I believe, is certain; that 
 half the money you have distributed to carry the 
 expulsion of Mr. Wilkes, or even your secretary's 
 share in the last subscription, would have kept'
 
 88 JUNIUS. 
 
 the Turks at your devotion. Was it economy my 
 lord? or did the coy resistance you have constant- 
 ly met with in the British senate make jou des- 
 pair of corrupting the divan? Your friends, in- 
 deed, have the first claim upon your bounty: but 
 if 500Z. a year can be spared in a pension to Sir 
 John Moore, it would not have disgraced you to 
 have allowed something to the secret service of 
 the public. 
 
 You will say, perhaps, that the situation of af- 
 fairs 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 favourite, 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 eftects of 
 a system of government at once both odious and 
 contemptible. We have seen the laws sometimes 
 scandalously relaxed, sometimes violently stretch- 
 ed 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 servants into public 
 question.* Without abilities, resolution, or in- 
 
 *The wise duke, about this time, exerted all the in- 
 •fluence of government to procure addresses to satisfy 
 the king of the fidelity of his subjects. They came in 
 very thick from Scotland ; but, after the appearance of 
 this letter, we heard no more of them.
 
 JUNIUS. 89 
 
 terest, you have done more 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 per- 
 sonal character, I will not, for the honour of hu- 
 man nature, suppose that you can wish to have it 
 remembered. The condition of the present times 
 is desperate indeed; 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; and as your conduct 
 comprehends every thing that a wise or honest 
 minister should avoid, I mean to make you a nega- 
 tive instruction to your successors for ever. 
 
 JUNIUS. 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 Addressed to the Printer of the PuUic Advertiser. 
 
 sm, June 12, 1769. 
 
 THE duke of Grafton's friends, not finding 
 it convenient to enter into a contest with Junius, 
 are now reduced to the last melancholy resource 
 of defeated argument, the flat general charge of 
 scurrility and falsehood. As for his style, 1 shall 
 leave it to the critics. The truth of his facts is 
 of more importance to the public. They are of 
 VOL. I. S''
 
 90 JUNIUS. 
 
 such a nature, 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 open- 
 ly invaded, and the very name of an election made 
 ridiculous, by the arbitrary appointment of Mr. 
 Luttrell? 
 
 2. Did not the duke of Graflon frequently lead 
 his mistress into public, and even place her at the 
 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 an- 
 cestors as strongly marked in him, as if he had 
 descended from them in a direct legitimate line? 
 The 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 Mr. 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 Chatham's principles, 
 and sacrificing his friendship, is he not now close- 
 ly united with a set of men, who, though they 
 have occasionally joined with all parties, have,
 
 JUNIUS. 91 
 
 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 
 possible 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 there any one mode of thinking or acting 
 with respect to America, which the duke of Graf- 
 ton has not successively adopted and abandoned? 
 
 11. Is there not a singular mark of shame set 
 upon this man, who has so little dehcacy and feel- 
 ing, as to submit to the opprobrium of marrjnng a 
 near relation of one who had debauched his wife? 
 In the name of decency, how are these amiable 
 cousins to meet at their uncle's table? It will be 
 a scene in (Edipus, 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 
 sacrificed to the French; that, in some instances, 
 the laws have been scandalously relaxed, and, in 
 others, daringly violated ; and that the king's sub- 
 jects 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 gene- 
 ral reproaches. He may want eloquence to amuse 
 and persuade; but, speaking truth, he must always 
 convince. 
 
 PHILO JUNIUS.
 
 92 UNIUS. 
 
 LETTER XIV. 
 
 Addressed to the Printer of the PuhTic Advertiser. 
 
 SIR, June 22, 1769. 
 
 THE name of Old Noll is destined to be 
 the ruin of the house of Stuart. There is an omi- 
 nous fataUty in it, which even the spurious de- 
 scendants of the family cannot escape. Ohver 
 Cromwell had the merit of conducting Charles 
 the First to the block. Your correspondent, Old 
 Noll, appears to have the same design upon the 
 duke of Grafton. His arguments consist better 
 with the little he has assumed, than with the prin- 
 ciples he professes: for though he pretends to be 
 an advocate for the duke, he takes care to give us 
 the best reason why this patron should regularly 
 follow the fiite of his presumptive ancestor. 
 Through the whole course of the duke of Graf- 
 ton's life, I see a strange endeavour to UEite con- 
 tradictions which cannot be reconciled. He mar- 
 ries, 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 accomplished 
 president, who pronounced sentence upon Charles 
 the First, to be revived in some modern syco- 
 phant,* his grace, I doubt not, would by sympa- 
 
 * It is hardly necessary to remind the reader of the 
 name of Bradshaiv.
 
 JUNIUS. 03 
 
 tJiy discover him among the dregs of mankmd, 
 and take him for a gliide in those paths which na- 
 turally conduct a minister to the scaffold. 
 
 The assertion that two-thirds of the nation ap- 
 prove of the acceptance of Mr. Luttrell (for even 
 Old Noll 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 gen- 
 tleman will determine for himself. As to law- 
 yers, their profession is supported by the indiscri- 
 minate defence of right and wrong; and I confess 
 I have not that opinion of their knowledge or in- 
 tegrity, to think it necessary that they should de- 
 cide 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 Fletcher Norton is, indeed, an hoi 
 nest, a very honest man;' and the attorney-general 
 is ex officio the guardian 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 have now the good for- 
 tune 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 con- 
 sulted; 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 may, for 
 aught I know, sufficiently justify the duke of 
 Grafton, when he indulges his genius in all the 
 fashionable excesses of the age ; yet, considering
 
 94 JUNIUS. 
 
 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 cer- 
 tain 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 mis- 
 tress 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, we may admit the shameless de- 
 pravity of his heart; but what are we to think of 
 iiis understanding? 
 
 His grace, it seems, is now to be a regular, do-, 
 mestic man; and, as an omen of the future deli- 
 cacy and correctness of his conduct, he marries a 
 first cousin of the man who had fixed that mark 
 and title of Infamy upon him, which, at the same 
 moment, makes a husband unhappy and ridicu- 
 lous. The ties of consanguinity may possibly pre- 
 serve him from the same fate a second time; and 
 as to the distress of meeting, I take for granted, 
 the venerable 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 maclame ma fhnme to madaiiie v.ia cou- 
 sine. 
 
 The duke of Graflon has always some excellent 
 reason for deserting his friends: the age and in- 
 capacity of lord Chatham, the debility of lord
 
 JUNIUS. 95 
 
 Rockingham, 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 of- 
 fended, 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 of general Conway, the blunt, or, if 
 I may call it, the awkward integrity of Mr. Rig- 
 by; and the spotless morahty of lord Sandwich. 
 
 If a late pension to a broken gambler* be an 
 act worthy of commendation, the duke of Graf- 
 ton's connexions will furnish him with many op- 
 portunities of doing praiseworthy actions; and as 
 he himself bears no part of the expense, the gene* 
 rosity of distributing the public money for the 
 support of virtuous families in distress, will be an 
 unquestionable proof of his grace's humanity. 
 
 As to public affairs, Old Noll is a little tender 
 of descending to particulars. He does not deny 
 that Corsica has been sacrificed to France; and 
 he confesses that, with regard to America, his pa- 
 tron's measures have been subject to some varia- 
 tion: but then he promises wonders of stability 
 and firmness for the future. These are mysteries, 
 of which we must not pretend to judge by experi- 
 ence; and, truly, I fear we shall perish in the de- 
 sert, before we arrive at the land of promise. In 
 the regular course of things, the period of the duke 
 of Grafton's ministerial manhood should now be 
 approaching. The imbecility of his infant state 
 was committed to lord Chatham. Charles Towns- 
 hend took some care of his education at tliat am- 
 
 *Sir JoliD Moore
 
 m JUNIUS. 
 
 biguous age, which hes between the follies of po- 
 litical childhood and the vices of puberty. The 
 empire of the passions soon succeeded. His ear- 
 liest principles and connexions were of course for- 
 gotten 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 charac- 
 ter 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 m 
 possible the young man may, in time, grow wiser, 
 and reform; but if I understand his dispositioi,!, 
 it is not of such corrigible stuff that we should 
 hope for any amendment in him, before he has ac- 
 complished the destruction of his countr)^ LikL*. 
 other rakes, he may, perhaps, live to see his error,^ 
 but not until he has ruined his estate. 
 
 PHILO JUNIUS. 
 
 LETTER XV. 
 
 To his Grace the Duke of Grafton, 
 
 MY LORD, July 8, 1769, 
 
 IF nature had given you an understanding 
 qualified to keep pace with the wishes and prin- 
 ciples of your heart, she would have made you, 
 perhaps, the most formidable minister that ever 
 was employed, under a limited monarch, to ac- 
 complish the ruin of a free people. When nei-
 
 JUNIUS. 95 
 
 Rockingham, 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 of- 
 fended, 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 of general Conway, the blunt, or, if 
 I may call it, the awkward integrity of Mr. llig- 
 by; and the spotless morality of lord Sandwich. 
 If a late pension to a broken gambler* be an 
 act worthy of commendation, the duke of Graf- 
 ton's connexions will furnish him with many op- 
 portunities of doing praiseworthy actions; and as 
 he himself bears no part of the expense, the gene- 
 rosity of distributing the public money for the 
 support of virtuous families in distress, will be an 
 unquestionable proof of his grace's humanity. 
 
 As to public affairs. Old Noll is a little tender 
 of descending to particulars. He does not deny 
 that Corsica has been sacrificed to France; and 
 he confesses that, with regard to America, his pa- 
 tron's measures have been subject to some varia- 
 tion: but then he promises wonders of stability 
 and firmness for the future. These are mysteries, 
 of which we must not pretend to judge by experi- 
 ence; and, truly, I fear we shall perish in the de- 
 sert, before we arrive at the land, of promise. In 
 V the regular course of things, the period of the duke 
 t of Grafton's ministerial manhood should now be 
 approaching. The imbecility of his infant state 
 was committed to lord Chatham. Charles Towns- 
 hend took some care of his education at that am- 
 
 *^Sir John Mcore
 
 96 JUNIUS. 
 
 biguous age, which lies between the follies oi po- 
 litical childhood and the vices of puberty. The 
 empire of the passions soon succeeded. His ear- 
 liest principles and connexions were of course for- 
 gotten 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 charac- 
 ter of his time of life strongly distinguished. An 
 obstinate, ungovernable self-sufficiency plainly 
 points out to us that state of imperfect maturity 
 at which tlie graceful levity of youth is lost, and 
 the solidity of e-xperience not yet acquired. It is 
 possible 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 ac- 
 complished the destruction of his country. Like 
 other rakes, he may, perhaps, live to see his error, 
 but not until he has ruined his estate. 
 
 PHILO JUNIUS. 
 
 LETTER XV. 
 
 To his Grace the Duke of Grafton, 
 
 MY LORD, July 8, 1769. 
 
 IF nature had given you an understanding 
 qualified to keep pace with the wishes and prin- 
 ciples of your heart, she would have made you, 
 perhaps, the most formidable minister that ever 
 was employed, under a limited monarch, to ac- 
 complish the ruin of a free people. ,When nci-
 
 JUNIUS. 97 
 
 tlier the feelings of shame, the reproaches of con- 
 science, 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 completest depravity of 
 the heart is sometimes strangely united with a 
 confusion of the mind, which counteracts 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 were adopted without skill, should have been 
 conducted with more than common dexterity. 
 But truly, my lord, the execution has been as 
 gross as the design. By one decisive step you 
 have defeated all the arts of writing. You have 
 fairly confounded the intrigues of opposition, and 
 silenced the clamours of faction. A dark, am- 
 biguous system might require and furnish the ma- 
 terials of ingenious 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 narrowest capacity, may de- 
 termine for himself: it is not an alarm to the pas- 
 sions, but a calm appeal to the judgment of the 
 people, upon their own most essential interests. 
 A more experienced minister would not have ha- 
 zarded a direct invasion of the first principles of 
 the constitution, before he had made some pro- 
 gress in subduing the spirit of the people. With 
 
 VOL. I. 9
 
 98 JUNIUS. 
 
 such a cause as yours, my lord, it is not sufficient 
 that you have the court at your devotion, unless 
 you can find means to corrupt or intimidate the 
 jury. The collective body of the people form 
 that jury, and from their decision their 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, that you have drawn some hasty conclu- 
 sion of this sort, and that a partial reliance upon 
 your moral character has betrayed you beyond the 
 depth of your understanding. You have now car- 
 ried things too far to retreat. You have plainly 
 declared to the people what they are to expect 
 from the continuance of your administration. 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 sove- 
 reign to the throne, we have seen a system of 
 government which may well be called a reign of 
 experiment. Parties of all denominations have 
 been employed and dismissed. The advice of the 
 ablest men in this country has been repeatedly 
 called for, and rejected; and when the royal dis- 
 pleasure has lieen signified to a minister, the 
 marks of it have usually been proportioned to hi*
 
 JUNIUS. 99 
 
 abilities and integrity. The spirit of the favour- 
 ite had some apparent influence upon every ad- 
 ministration; and every set of ministers preserved 
 an appearance of duration as long as they submit- 
 ted to that influence. But there were certain 
 services to be performed for the favour's secu- 
 rity, or to gratify his resentments, which your 
 predecessors in office had the wisdom or the virtue 
 not to undertake. The moment this refractory 
 spirit was discovered, their disgrace was deter- 
 mined. 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 ad- 
 ministration was at last gradually collected from 
 the deserters of all parties, interests, and connex- 
 ions; and nothing remained 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 security in 
 the proud, imposing superiority of lord Chatham's 
 abilities; the shrewd, inflexible judgment of Mr. 
 Grenville; nor in the mild but determined inte- 
 grity of lord Rockingham. His views and situa- 
 tion required a creature void of all these proper- 
 ties; and he was forced to go through every divi- 
 sion, resolution, composition, and refinement of 
 political chemistry, before he happily arrived at 
 the cajput rnortuiun 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
 
 100 JUNIUS. 
 
 circumstances, with regard to tlie people, soon 
 becoming desperate, like other honest servants, 
 you determined to involve the best of masters in 
 the same difficuUies with yourself. We owe it to 
 your grace's well-directed labours, that your sove- 
 reign has been persuaded to doubt of the affec- 
 tions of his subjects, and the people to suspect the 
 virtues of their sovereign, at a time when both 
 were unquestionable. You have degraded the 
 royal dignity into a base and dishonorable com- 
 petition 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 rights, my 
 lord, which you can no more annihilate, than you 
 can the soil to which they are annexed. The 
 question no longer turns upon points of national 
 honour and security abroad, or on the degrees of 
 expedience and propriety of measuring at home. 
 It was not inconsistent that you should abandon 
 the cause of liberty in another country, which 
 you had persecuted in your own : and, in the com- 
 mon arts of domestic corruption, we miss no part 
 of sir Robert Walpole's system, except his abili- 
 ties. In this humble, imitative line, you might 
 long have proceeded safe and contemptible. 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
 
 JUNIUS. iOl 
 
 have made of the miHtary force, introduced an 
 alarming change in the mode of executing the 
 laws. The arbitrary appointment of Mr. Lut- 
 trell invades the foundation of the laws them- 
 selves, as it manifestly transfers the right of legis- 
 lation from those whom the people have chosen, 
 to those whom they have rejected. With a suc- 
 cession 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 di- 
 rect opposition to the choice of a whole county, 
 they will not listen to those subtleties by which 
 every arbitrary exertion of authority is explained 
 into the law and privilege of parliament. It re- 
 quires no persuasion of argument, but simply the 
 evidence of the senses, to convince them, that, to 
 transfer the right of election from the collective 
 to the representative body of the people, contra- 
 dicts all those ideas of a house of commons which 
 they have received from their forefathers, 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 protec- 
 tion, are you prepared to meet the united de- 
 testation of the people of England? The city of 
 VOL. I. 9*
 
 102 JUNIUS. ' 
 
 London has given a generous example to the 
 kingdom, in what manner a king of this country 
 ought to be addressed : and I fancy, my lord, it is 
 not yet in your 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 
 which you have already paid for: another must be 
 purchased, and, to save a minister, the house of 
 commons must declare themselves not only inde- 
 pendent 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 protec- 
 tion should fail you, how far you are authorised 
 to rely upon the sincerity of those smiles, which 
 a pious court lavishes without reluctance upon a 
 libertine by profession. It is not, indeed, the 
 least of the thousand contradictions which attend 
 you, that a man, marked to the world by the 
 grossest violation of all ceremony 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 conten- 
 tion in which every thing may be lost, but no- 
 thing can be gained: and, as you became minister 
 by accident, were adopted without choice, trust- 
 ed without confidence, and continued without 
 favour, be assured, that whenever an occasion 
 presses, you will be discarded without even the
 
 JUNIUS. 103 
 
 forms of regret. You will then have reason to be 
 thankful, if you are permitted to retire to that 
 seat of learning, which, in contemplation of the 
 system of your life, the comparative purity of 
 your manners with those of their high steward, 
 and a thousand other recommending circumstan- 
 ces, has chosen you to encourage the growing 
 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 mor3 a peace- 
 ful scene of slumber and thoughtless meditation. 
 The venerable tutors of the univeraty will no 
 longer distress your modesty, by proDOsirg you 
 for a pattern to their pupils. The Imrned dull- 
 ness of declamation will be silent; -nd even the 
 venal muse, though happiest in ficti^"> w:ll forget 
 your virtues. Yet, for the benefi^f*the succeed- 
 ing age, I could wish that your -treat might be 
 deferred until your morals shaP^^'^PPi^y be ripen- 
 ed to that maturity of corri'*^^".' ^^ which the 
 worst examples cease to be -^^^tagious. 
 
 ^ JUNIUS. 
 
 LuTTER XVI. 
 
 To the Printer cihe Pu^ic Advertiser, 
 
 SIR, . . , July 19, 1769. 
 
 A GREAT '^^'^^ "se/ess argument might 
 have been savec^ ^^^^ political contest which 
 
 /
 
 104 JUNIUS. 
 
 has arisen from the expulsion of Mr. Wilkes, and 
 the subsequent appointment of Mr. Luttrell, if 
 the question had been once stated with precision, 
 to the satisfaction of each party, and clearly un- 
 derstood 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 nothing to the pur- 
 pose; or in maintaining propositions, which are 
 either not disputed, or, whether they be admitted 
 or denied, are entirely indifferent as to the matter 
 in debate; until at last, the mind, perplexed and 
 confounded with the endless subtilties of contro- 
 versy, losra sight of the main question, and never 
 arrives at truth. Both parties in the dispute are 
 apt enougii to practice these dishonest artifices. 
 The mwi ^^ho is conscious of the weakness of his 
 cause is inti; rested in concealing it : and, on the 
 other side, it i> not uncommon to see a good cause 
 mangled by a^ocates, who do not know the real 
 strength of it. 
 
 I should be glJ^ to know, for instance, to what 
 purpose, in the prt^^^^ q^qq^ so many precedents 
 have been producect^Q p^.^^^ ^j^^^ "Jl^^ j^^^^g^ ^f 
 
 commons have a I'lg^^Ho expel one of their own 
 
 members; that it belon^ .^ ^^^^ ^^ j^^^^ ^^ ^1^^ 
 
 validity of elections; or tb. ^j^^ ^^^ of parliament 
 
 is part ot the law of the;a,.|^* ^f^^^. ^^ ^^^^^ 
 
 propositions ere admitted, Mr. Luttrell's right to 
 
 his seat will cuitinue to 9 just us disputable as 
 
 it was before, i^ot one ( them is at present in 
 
 *The reader will objnrve,hat ^j^^^^ admissions are 
 
 made, not as of ^^^^^J^^' "^^^^^ but for the sake of 
 
 argument, and m order to Drh.^^ ^^^^ question to issue.
 
 JUNIUS. 105 
 
 agitation. Let it bo admitted that the house of 
 commons were authorised to expel Mr. Wilkes, 
 that they are the proper court to judge of elec-' 
 tions, 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 declar- 
 ed that law. To facilitate this inquiry, I would 
 have the question cleared of all foreign or indif- 
 ferent matter. The following state of it will pro- 
 bably be thought a fair one by both parties; and 
 then I imagine . there is no gentleman in this 
 country who will not be capable of forming a ju- 
 dicious and true opinion upon it. I take the ques- 
 tion to be strictly this: "Whether or no it be 
 the known, established law of parliament, that 
 the expulsion of a member of the house of com- 
 mons, of itself creates in him such an incapacity 
 to be re-elected, that, at a subsequeut election, 
 any votes given to him are null and void; and that 
 any other candidate, who, except the person ex- 
 pelled, 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 
 present house of commons to declare it to be so. 
 We may shut our eyes, indeed, to the dangerous 
 consequences of suffering one branch of the legis- 
 lature 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 convince, much less will it be thought rea- 
 sonable to prove the right by the fact itself. The 
 ministry have not yet pretended to such a tyranny
 
 106 JUNIUS. 
 
 over our minds. To support the affirmative fair- 
 ly, it will either be necessary to produce some sta- 
 tute, in which that positive provision shall have 
 been made, that specific disability clearly created, 
 and the consequences of it declared; or, if there 
 be no such statute, the custom of parhament must 
 then be referred to ; and some case or cases,* 
 strictly in point, must be produced, with the de- 
 cision of the court upon them; for I readily admit, 
 that the custom of parliament, once clearly prov- 
 ed, is equally binding with the common and sta- 
 tute 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 
 impropriety or expediency of a law; but we must 
 have either statute or precedent to prove the exist- 
 ence of it. At the same time, I do not mean to 
 admit that the late resolution of the house of com- 
 mons is defensible on general principles of rea- 
 son, 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 
 affirm, 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 
 argument will then bo at an end. 
 
 2dly, That there is no precedent, in all the pro- 
 ceedings of the house of commons, whicli comes 
 
 *Precedents. in opposition to principles, have little 
 weight with J-unius; but he thought it necessary to meet 
 the ministry upon their own ground.
 
 JUNIUS. 107 
 
 entirely home to the present case, viz. "Where 
 an expelled member has been returned again, and 
 another candidate, with an inferior number of 
 votes, has been declared the sitting member." If 
 there be such a precedent, let it be given to us 
 plainly; and I am sure it will have more weight 
 than all the cunning arguments which have been 
 drawn from inferences 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 and only instance in which the electors 
 ot 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. Walpole was expelled; and, having 
 a majority of votes at the next election, was re- 
 turned again. The friends of Mr. Taylor, a can- 
 didate 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 business to determine upon it. 
 They did determine upon it; for they declared Mr. 
 Taylor not duly elected. If it be said, that they 
 meant this resolution as matter of favour and indul- 
 gence to the borough, which had retorted Mr. 
 Walpole upon them, in order that the burgesses, 
 knowing what the law was, might correct their 
 error, I answer, 
 
 1. That it is a strange way of arguing, to op-
 
 108 JUNIUS. 
 
 pose a supposition, which no man can prove, to a 
 fact which proves itself. 
 
 II. 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 
 any instruction they received from the proceed- 
 ings 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 candidate with the fewest votes was declared 
 not duly elected, that, at a future election, and in 
 similar circumstances, the house of commons 
 would reverse their resolution, and receive the 
 same candidate as duly elected, whom they had 
 before rejected. 
 
 This, indeed, would have been a most extra- 
 ordinary way of declaring the law of parliament , 
 and what, I presume, no man, whose understand, 
 ing is not at cross purposes with itself, would pos- 
 sibly understand. 
 
 If, in a case of this importance, I thought my- 
 self at liberty to argue from suppositions rather 
 than from facts, I think the probability, in this 
 instance, is directly the reverse of what the mi. 
 nistry affirm; 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 le- 
 gally vested in him, to gratify a refractory bo- 
 rough, which, in defiance of them, had returned
 
 JUNIUS. 109 
 
 a person branded with the strongest mark of the 
 displeasure of the house. 
 
 But really, sir, this way of talking (for I can- 
 not call it argument) is a mockery of the common 
 Understanding of the nation, too gross to be en- 
 dured. Our dearest interests are at stake. An 
 attempt has been made, not merely to rob a sin* 
 gle county of its rights, but, by inevitable conse- 
 quence, 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 their cause by fair 
 argument, founded on facts, let them spare us, at 
 least, the mortification of being amused and delud- 
 ed, like children. I beUeve there is yet a spirit 
 of resistance in this country, which will not sub- 
 mit to be oppressed; but I am sure there is a 
 fund of good sense in this country, which cannot 
 be deceived. JUNIUS. 
 
 LETTER XVil. 
 
 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser, 
 
 SIR, August 1, 1769. 
 
 IT will not be necessary for Junius to take 
 the trouble of answering 5-our correspondent G. 
 A. or the quotation from a speech without doors, 
 published 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 argun\ent depends, viz. that 
 
 VOL. I. 10
 
 no JUNIUS. 
 
 Mr, WiTkes loas under thai known legal incapacu 
 ty 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 
 admit 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 which the ministry and their advocates 
 have wasted in public debate, in compiling large 
 quartos, and collecting innumerable precedents, 
 expressly to prove that the late proceedings of 
 the house of commons are warranted by the law, 
 custom and practice of parliament, it is rather an 
 extraordinary 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 deci- 
 sion 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 hap- 
 pens with falsehood, are driven to the necessity 
 of shifting 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 were justified by the known 
 law and uniform custom of parhament. But 
 now, it seems, if there be no law, the house of 
 commons have a right to make one; and if there
 
 JUNIUS. - 111 
 
 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 correspon- 
 dent had been at all versed in the law of parlia* 
 ment, or generally in the laws of this country, he 
 would have seen that this defence is as weak and 
 false as tho former. 
 
 The privileges of either house of parliament, it 
 is true, are indefinite: that is, they have not been 
 described or laid down in any code or decla- 
 ration whatsoever; but, whenever a question of 
 privilege has arisen, it has invariably been dis- 
 puted or maintained upon the footing of precedents 
 alone.* In the course of the proceedings upon 
 the Aylesbury election, the house of lords resolv- 
 ed, "That neither house of parliament had any 
 power, by any vote or declaration, to create to 
 themselves any new privilege, that was not war- 
 ranted by the known laws and customs of parlia- 
 ment." And to this rule, the house of commons, 
 though otherwise they had acted in a very arbi- 
 trary manner, gave their assent; for they affirmed 
 that they had guided themselves by it in asserting 
 their privileges. Now, sir, if this be true, with 
 respect to matters of privilege, in which the 
 house of commons, individually, and as a body, 
 are principally concerned, how much more strong- 
 ly will it hold against any pretended 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, 
 
 * This is still meeting the ministry upon their own 
 ground; for, in truth, no precedents will support either 
 natural injustice, or violation of positive rights.
 
 112 JUNIUS. 
 
 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 
 pretended that any one, or any two, of the three 
 estates, have power to make a new law, v/ithout 
 the concurrence of the third. They know, that 
 a man who maintains such a doctrine, is liable, by 
 statute, to the heaviest penalties. They do not ac- 
 knowledge that the house of commons have as- 
 sumed a new privilege, or declared a new law. 
 On the contrary, they affirm that their proceed- 
 ings have been strictly conformable to, and found- 
 ed upon, the ancient law and custom of parlia- 
 ment. Thus, therefore, the question returns to 
 the point at which Junius had rfixed it, viz. 
 Whether or no this he the law of parliament? If it 
 be not, the house of commons had no legal autho- 
 rity to establish the precedent; and the precedent 
 itself is a mere fact, without any proof of right 
 whatsoever. 
 
 Your correspondent concludes with a question 
 of the simplest nature: Must a thing he wrong be- 
 cause it has never been done before? No. But, 
 admitting it were proper to be done, that alone 
 does not convey an authority 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 exor- 
 bitant and so unconstitutional, at least let it be given 
 them by an act of the legislature. 
 
 PHILO JUNIUS.
 
 JUNIUS. 113 
 
 LETTER XVIII. 
 
 To Sir William Blackstone, Solicitor General of 
 her Majesty, 
 
 SIR, July 29, 1769. 
 
 I SHALL make you no apology for con- 
 sidering a certain pamphlet, in which your late 
 conduct is defended, as written by yourself. The 
 personal interest, 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 au- 
 thor to us as plainly as if your name were in the 
 title-page. You appeal to the public in defence 
 of your reputation. We hold it, sir, that an inju- 
 ry offered to an individual is interesting to socie- 
 ty. 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 con- 
 fess they are impartial. They give us, without 
 any apparent preference, the wit and argument 
 of the ministry, as well as the abusive dullness of 
 
 VOL. I. 10*
 
 114 JUNIUS. 
 
 the opposition. The scales are equally poised. It 
 is not the printer's fault if the greater weight in- 
 clines the balance. 
 
 Your pamphlet, then, is divided into an attack 
 upon Mr. Grenville's character, and a defence 
 of your own. It would have been more consis- 
 tent, perhaps, with 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 formal vindication of Mr. Grenville upon 
 his own principles. 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 opini- 
 ons, 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 
 complained 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 parliamentary conduct, with regard 
 to Mr. Wilkes, has or has not been inconsistent, 
 remains yet to be proved. But it seems he re- 
 ceived upon the spot a sufficient chastisement for 
 exercising so unfairly his talents of misrepresenta- 
 
 *Mr. Grenville had quoted a passage from the doc- 
 tor's excellent Commentaries, which directly contra- 
 dicted the doctrine maintained by the doctor in the 
 liouse of commons.
 
 JUNIUS. 115 
 
 tioii. You are a lawyer, sir, and know better 
 than I do upon what particular occasions a talent 
 for misrepresentation may be fairly exerted; but 
 to punish a man a second time, when he has been 
 once sufficiently 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 believe, in the 
 new law you have revealed to the house of com- 
 mons. I hope this doctrine has no existence but 
 in your own heart. After all, sir, if you had con- 
 sulted that sober discretion which you seem to 
 oppose with triumph to the honest jollity of a 
 tavern, it might have occurred to you, that, al- 
 though you could have succeeded in fixing a 
 charge of inconsistence upon Mr. Grenville, it 
 would not have tended in any shape to exculpate 
 yourself. 
 
 Your next insinuation, that sir William Mere- 
 dith had hastily adopted the false glosses of his new 
 ally, is ot the same sort with the first. It con- 
 veys a sneer, as little worthy of the gravity 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 de- 
 stroy 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; much less could he foresee 
 that you would maintain a direct contradiction of 
 that doctrine which you had solemnly, disinter- 
 estedly, and, upon the soberest reflection, deliver-
 
 116 JUNIUS. 
 
 ed to the public. He came armed, indeed, with 
 what he thought a respectable authority, to sup- 
 port what ho was convinced was tho cause of 
 truth ; and, I doubt not, he intended to give you, 
 in the course of the debate, an honorable and 
 public testimony of his esteem. Thinking highly 
 of his 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 lan- 
 guage of pique and invective, therefore unworthy 
 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 mat- 
 ter of record : it can neither be altered by your 
 friends, nor misrepresented b}' 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 sta- 
 tute or the custom of parliament) concludes 
 with these general comprehensive words, " but 
 subject to these restriciions and disqualifica- 
 tions, every subject of the realm is eligible of 
 common right," — a reader, of plain understand- 
 ing, must of course rest satisfied that no species 
 of disqualification whatsoever had been omitted. 
 The known character of tlie author, and the ap- 
 parent accuracy with which the. whole work is
 
 JUNIUS. 117 
 
 compiled, would confirm him in his opinion: nor 
 could he possibly form any other judgment, with- 
 out looking upon your Commentaries in the same 
 light in which you consider those penal laws, 
 which, though not repealed, are fallen into disuse, 
 and are now, in affect, 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 sub- 
 sequent 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 deter- 
 mine. The incapacity, which you call temporary, 
 may 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 w^ould then have known 
 what they had to trust to, and would never have 
 returned Mr. Wilkes, when colonel Luttrell was a 
 candidate against him. They would have chosen 
 some indifferent person, rather than submit to be 
 represented by the object of their contempt and 
 detestation. 
 
 Your attempt to distinguish between disabili- 
 
 *If, in stating the law upon any point, a judge de- 
 liberately affirms that he has included every case, and 
 it should appear that he has purposely omitted a ma- 
 terial case, he does, in efTect, lay a snare for the un- 
 wary.
 
 118 JUNIUS. 
 
 ties which affect wliole classes of men, 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 instruction of the public, though the 
 penalty falls only upon an individual. You can- 
 not 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 no- 
 tice of a right and privilege of the house more 
 extraordinary and more arbitrary than all the 
 others they possess put together. If the expul- 
 sion of a member, not under any legal disability, 
 of itself creates in him an incapacity to be elect- 
 ed, I 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 ex- 
 travagant 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 against 
 what men may do, not to trust to what they 
 will do. 
 
 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 contrar^s
 
 JUNIUS. 119 
 
 your justiilcation of yourself is full ofsubtilty and 
 refinement, and in some places not very intelligi- 
 ble. If I were personally your enemy, I should 
 dwell with a malignant pleasure upon those great 
 and useful qualifications which you certainly pos- 
 sess, 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 think it sufficient to have given my 
 opinion of your public conduct, leaving the pun- 
 ishment it deserves to your closet and to yourself. 
 
 JUNIUS. 
 
 LETTER XIX. 
 
 Addressed to the Printer of the Public Advertiser* 
 
 SIR, August 14, 1769. 
 
 A correspondent of the St. James's Even- 
 ing Post first wilfully misunderstands Junius, then 
 censures him for a bad reasoner. Junius does 
 not say that it was incumbent upon doctor Black- 
 stone to foresee and state the crimes for which 
 Mr. Wilkes was expelled. If, by a spirit of pro- 
 phecy, he had even done so, it would have been 
 nothing to the purpose. The question is, not for 
 what particular offences a person may be expell- 
 ed, but, generally, whether by the law of parlia-
 
 120 JUNIUS. 
 
 ment expulsion alone creates a disqualification. 
 If the affirmative be the law of parliament, doC» 
 tor Blackstone might and should have told us so. 
 The question is not confined to this or that par- 
 ticular 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 
 parliament. 
 
 The truth of the matter is evidently this: doc- 
 tor Blackstone, while he was speaking in the 
 house of commons, never once thought of his Com- 
 mentaries, until the contradiction was unexpect- 
 edly urged, and stared him in the face. Instead 
 of defending himself 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; but it seems his faculties were too much 
 overpowered to think of those subtleties and re- 
 finements which have since occurred to him. It 
 was then Mr. Grenville received that severe chas- 
 tisement which the doctor mentions with so much 
 triumph : I tcish the honourable gentleman, instead 
 of shaking his heady would shake a good argu- 
 ment out of it. If to the elegance, novelty, and 
 bitterness of this ingenious sarcasm, we add the 
 natural melody of the amiable sir Fletcher Nor- 
 ton's pipe, we shall not be surprised that Mr. 
 Grenville was unable to make him any reply. 
 
 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.
 
 JUNIUS. 121 
 
 Postscript to a pamphlet entitled An Answer to 
 the Question stated; supposed to be written by 
 Dr. Blackstone, solicitor to the queen, in an- 
 swer to Junius's letter. 
 
 Since these papers were sent to the press, a 
 writer, in the public papers, who subscribes him- 
 self 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 that 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 
 taw of parliament, that the expulsion of a mem- 
 ber 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 num- 
 ber 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 affirmative of it, in one of 
 the two ways by which he says it can be alone 
 fairly supported. " If there be no statute," says 
 he, "in which the specific disability is clearly 
 created, &c. (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 
 VOL. I. 11
 
 122 JUNIUS. 
 
 them." Now I assert that this 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 declaration that in- 
 capacity was the necessary consequence of expul- 
 sion. The law was as clearly and firmly fixed by 
 this resolution, and is as binding in every subse- 
 quent case of expulsion, as if it had been declar- 
 ed by an express statute that a "member, expel, 
 led by a resolution of the house of commons, shall 
 be deemed incapable of being re-elected." What- 
 ever doubt, then, there might have been of tho 
 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 
 expulsion creates absolute incapacity in law of 
 being re-elected. 
 
 But incapacity in law, in this instance, must 
 have the same operation and effect with incapaci- 
 ty in law in every other instance. Now, inca- 
 pacity of being re-elected implies, in its very 
 terms, that any votes given to the incapable per- 
 son, at a subsequent election, are null and void. 
 This is its necessary operation, or it has no opera- 
 tion at all : it is vox et prceterea nihil. We can 
 no more be called upon to prove this proposition, 
 than we can to prove that a dead man is not alive, 
 or that twice two are four. When 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, grounded upon 
 the clearest principles of reason and commoD
 
 JUNIUS. 123 
 
 sense, that if the votes given to one candidate are 
 null and void, they cannot be opposed to the votes 
 given to another candidate; they cannot affect the 
 votes of such candidate at all. As they have, on 
 the one hand, no positive quality to add or esta- 
 blish, so have they, on the other hand, no nega- 
 tive one to subtract or destroy. They are, in a 
 word, a mere nonentity. Such was the determina- 
 tion of the house of commons in the Maiden and 
 Bedford election; 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 circumstances, in those particularly which are 
 independent of the proposition which they are 
 quoted to prove, is to say no more than that Mai- 
 den is not Middlesex, nor serjeant Comyns Mr. 
 Wilkes. 
 
 Let us see then how our proof stands. Expul- 
 sion creates incapacity, incapacity annihilates any 
 votes given to the incapable person; the votes 
 given to the qualified candidate stand, upon their 
 own bottom, firm and untouched, and can alone 
 have effect. This, one would think, would be 
 sufficient. But we are stopped short, and told 
 that none of our precedents come home to the pre- 
 sent case, and are challenged to produce "a pre- 
 cedent in all the proceedings of the house of com- 
 mons that does come home to it, viz. where an ex- 
 pelled member has been returned again, and ano- 
 ther candidate, with an inferior number oj votes, 
 has been declared the sitting member." 
 
 Instead of a precedent, 1 will beg leave to put 
 a case, which, I fancy, will be quite as decisive 
 to the present point. Suppose another Sacheve-
 
 124 JUNIUS. 
 
 rel (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 
 Middlesex. He is opposed by a candidate vi^hose 
 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 dis- 
 tanced. The sheriff, after having had his con- 
 science well informed 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 appearance amongst them. A 
 motion, however, is at length made, that the per- 
 son was incapable of being elected; that his elec- 
 tion, therefore, is null and void; and that his com- 
 petitor ought to have been returned. No, says a 
 great orator, first show me your law for this pro- 
 ceeding. Either produce me a statute, in which 
 the specific disability of a clergyman is created; 
 or produce me a precedent, where a clergyman 
 lias been returned, and another candidate, with an 
 inferior number of votes, has been declared the sit-^ 
 ting member. No such statute, no such prece- 
 dent, to be found. What answer then is to be 
 given to this demand? The very same answer 
 which I will give to that of Junius. That there 
 is more than one precedent in the proceedings of 
 the house, " where an incapable person has been 
 returned, and another candidate, with an inferior 
 number of votes, has been declared the sitting 
 member; and that this is the known and establish- 
 ed law, in all cases of incapacity, from whatevei,^ 
 cause it may arise." 
 
 I shall now, therefore, beg leave to make a
 
 JUNIUS. 125 
 
 sKght amendment to Junlus's state of the qnes- 
 tion, the affirmative of which will then stand thns: 
 
 "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 
 incapacity, null and void; and that any other can- 
 didate, who, except the person rendered incapa- 
 ble, 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 the 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 min- 
 istry, petitioned the house that he might be the sit- 
 ting 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 ihe same. It came regularly 
 before the house, and it was their business to de- 
 termine upon it. They did determine it; for they 
 declared Mr. Taylor ?io^ duly elected.^^ 
 
 Instead of examining the justness of this repre- 
 sentation, I shall beg leave to oppose against it 
 my 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 
 
 VOL. I. 11*
 
 126 JUNIUS. 
 
 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, in terms, to be incapable of being 
 re-elected, there must have been at once an end 
 with him. But though the right of the house, 
 both to expel and adjudge him incapable, was 
 clear and indubitable, it does not appear to me 
 that the full operation and effect of a vote of ex- 
 pulsion was singly 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 grammatical 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 
 they suffered these consequences to take effect : 
 and in this proceeding they acted upon the most 
 liberal and solid principles of equity, justice, and 
 law. What then did the burgesses of Lynn col- 
 lect from the second vote? Their subsequent con- 
 duct will tell us: it will with certainty tell us that 
 they considered it as decisive against Mr. Wal- 
 pole. It will also, with equal certainty, tell us, 
 that, upon a supposition that the law of election 
 stood then as it does now, and 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-
 
 . JUNIUS. 127 
 
 similarity in the present case: it will be sufficient 
 to observe, that, as the law of parliament, upon 
 which the house of commons grounded every step 
 of their proceedings, was clear beyond the reach 
 of doubt, so neither could the freeholders of Mid- 
 dlesex be at a loss to foresee what must be the in- 
 evitable consequence of their proceedings in oppo- 
 sition 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 asks; to al- 
 low the most perfect similarity throughout, in 
 these two cases; to allow that the law of expulsion 
 was quite as clear to the burgesses of Lynn as to 
 the freeholders of Middlesex. It will, I am con- 
 fident, 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 cases of an incapable candidate re- 
 turned, the law than was, that the whole election 
 should be void. But now we know that this is 
 not law. The cases of Maiden and Bedford were, 
 as has been seen, determined upon other and more 
 just principles; and these .determinations are, I 
 imagine, admitted on all sides to be law. 
 
 I would willingly draw a veil over the remain- 
 ing part of this paper. It is astonishing, it 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 eomething much worse.
 
 128 JUNIUS. 
 
 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, supe- 
 rior 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 advantage of it, and draw it to its 
 own purposes. But, I trust, our day of trial is 
 yet far oif ; and there is a fund of good sense in 
 this country wliich cannot long be deceived by the 
 arts either of false reasoning or false patriotism. 
 
 LETTER XX. 
 
 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser, 
 
 SIR, August 8, 1769, 
 
 THE gentleman who has published an an- 
 swer to Sir William Meredith's pamphlet, having 
 honoured me with a postscript of six quarto pages, 
 which he modestly calls bestowing a very few 
 words upon me, I cannot, in common politeness, 
 refuse him a reply. The form and magnitude of 
 a quarto imposes 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 learn- 
 ed, but simply to inform the body of the people- 
 and I prefer that channel of conveyance which is
 
 JUNIUS. 129 
 
 likely to spread fartliest among them. The ad- 
 vocates of the ministry 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 cus. 
 torn of parliament has been referred to, and that 
 a case strictly in point has been produced, with 
 the decision 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 expulsion creates an absolute in- 
 capacity 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, disingenuous artifice 
 of adopting that part of a precedent which seems 
 to suit his purpose, and omitting the remainder, 
 deserves some pity, but cannot excite my resent- 
 ment. He takes advantage eagerly of the first 
 resolution, by which Mr. Walpole's incapacity is 
 declared; but as to the two following, by which 
 the candidate with the fewest votes was declared 
 "not duly elected," and the election itself vacat- 
 ed, I dare say he would be well satisfied if they 
 were for ever blotted out of the journals of the 
 house of commons. In fair argument, no part of 
 a precedent shoud be admitted, unless the whole 
 of it be given to us together. The author has
 
 130 JUNIUS. 
 
 divided his precedent; for he knew, that, taken to- 
 gether, it produced a consequence directly the re- 
 verse of that which he endeavours to draw from 
 a vote of expulsion. But what will this honest per- 
 son 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 expul- 
 sion 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 
 designs 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 session of parliament, committed a 
 prisoner to the Tower, and expelled this house 
 for a breach of trust in the execution of his office 
 and notorious corruption, when secretary at war, 
 was, and is incapable'of being elected a member 
 to serve in this present parliament."* Now, sir, 
 
 * It is well worth remarking, that the compiler of a 
 certain quarto, called The Case of the last Election 
 for the County of Middlesex considered, has the im- 
 pudence to recite this very vote in the following terms 
 (vide page 11): "Resolved, that Robert Walpole, esq. 
 having been this session of parliament expelled: the 
 house, was, and is, incapable of being elected a mem- 
 ber to serve in the present parliament." There can 
 not be a stronger positive proof of the treachery of the 
 compiler, nor a stronger presumptive proof that he was 
 convinced that the vote, if duty recited, would over- 
 turn his whole argument
 
 JUNIUS. 131 
 
 lo my understanding, no proposition of this kind 
 can be more evident, tlian that tlie house of com- 
 mons, by this very vote, themselves understood, 
 and meant to declare, that Mr. Walpole's incapa- 
 city 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 ex- 
 pelled, but because he had been guilty of such 
 offences as justly rendered him unworthy of a seat 
 in parliament. If they had intended to fix the 
 disability upon his expulsion alone, the mention 
 oi his crimes in the same vote would have been 
 highly improper. It could only perplex the minds 
 of the electors, who, if they collected any thing 
 irom so confused a declaration of the law of par- 
 liament, must have concluded, that their represen- 
 ■latve had been declared incapable because he 
 Was highly guilty, not because he had been pun- 
 ished. But, even admitting them to have un- 
 derstood it in the other sense, they must then, 
 from the very terms of the vote, have united the 
 idea of his being sent to the Tower with that of 
 his sxpulsion; 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 
 *^Jie Middlesex election, it was observed by Junius,
 
 132 JUNIUS. 
 
 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; but certainly, if I 
 
 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 tar as it went. After con- 
 victing Mr. Dyson of giving a false quotation from the 
 journals, and having explained the purpose which that 
 contemptible fraud was intended to answer, he pro^' 
 ceeds to state the vote itself by which Mr. Walpole^ 
 supposed incapacity was declared, viz. "Resolved, that 
 Robert Walpole, esq. having been this session of par^ 
 liament committed a prisoner to the Tower, and expellei 
 this house for a high breach of trust in the executicfS'' 
 of his office, and notorious corruption when secretary 
 at war, was, and is incapable ;of being elected a men-' 
 ber to serve in this present parliament," and then cb-' 
 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 ans©^^ 
 equally from the expulsion and the commitment to :he 
 Tuwer. I believe, sir, no man, who knows any thing 
 of dialectics, or who understands English, will dispute 
 the truth and fairness of this construction. But Jutiiis 
 has a great authority to support him, which, to speak 
 with the duke of Grafton, 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, 1689, viz. "That king James the 
 Second, having endeavoured to subvert the constitution 
 of this kingdom, by breaking the original contract be- 
 tweert king and people, and, by the advice of Jesuits, 
 and other wicked persons, having violated the funda- 
 mental laws, and having withdrawn himself out of this 
 kingdom, hath abdicated the government," &c. — 
 makes this observation upon it : "The word abdicated 
 relates to all the clauses foregoing, as well as to his
 
 JUNIUS. 133 
 
 admitted their censure to be well founded, I could 
 no way avoid agreeing with them in the conse- 
 quence they drew from it. I could never have a 
 
 deserting the kingdom, or else they would have been 
 wholly in vain." And that there might be no pretence 
 for confining the abdication merely to the withdraw 
 ing, lord Sommers farther observes, That king James^ 
 hy refusing to govern us according to that law by lohich 
 he held the crown, did impliedly renounce his title to it. 
 
 If Junius''s construction of the vote against Mr. 
 Walpole be now admitted (and, indeed, I cannot com* 
 prehend how it can honestly be disputed) the advocates 
 of the house of commons must either give up their pre- 
 cedent entirely, or be reduced to the necessity of main- 
 taining one of the grossest absurdities imaginable, viz. 
 "That a commitment to the Tower is a constituent part 
 of, and contributes half at least to the incapacitation of 
 the person who suffers it." 
 
 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 a fact, it is indeed, 
 highly injurious 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 moderate man, that I 
 verily believe the majority of the house of commons, 
 when they passed this dangerous vote, neither under- 
 stood the question, or knew the consequence of what 
 they were doing. Their motives were rather despica- 
 ble 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 constitu- 
 ents with a mark of disgrace, they would not dare to 
 expel him; because they know that the people, in or- 
 der to try again the great question of right, or to 
 thwart an odious house of commons, would probably 
 VOL. I, 12
 
 134 JUNIUS. 
 
 doubt, in law or reason, that a man convicted oi' 
 a high breach of trust, and of a notorious corrup- 
 tion, in the execution of a pubUc office, was, and 
 ought to be, incapable of sitting in the same par- 
 liament. Far from attempting to invalidate that 
 vote, I should have wished that the incapacity de- 
 clared by 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 
 declare Mr. Walpole incapable of being re-elect- 
 ed. They thought such a man unworthy to sit 
 among them. To that pomt they proceeded, and 
 no fartlier; 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 itself void. 
 
 Such, however, is the precedent wliich my ho- 
 nest friend assures us is strictly in point, to prove, 
 that expulsion ol itself creates an incapacity of 
 
 overlook his immediate unworthiness, and return the 
 same person to parliamont. But, in time, the prece- 
 dent will gain strength; a future hou^c of commons v,ill 
 have no such apprehensions; consequenlly, will not scru- 
 ple to follow a precedent which they did not estahlish. 
 The miser himself seldom lives to enjoy the fruit of his 
 extortion, but his heir succeeds to him of course, and 
 takes possession without censure. No man expects him 
 to make restitution; and, no matter for his title, he lives 
 quietly upon the estate. 
 
 riilLO JUNIUS.
 
 JUNIUS. 135 
 
 being elected. If it had been so, tlic present 
 liouse 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 incapable." 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, in- 
 deed, a precedent so strongly in point, that all 
 the enchanted castles of jyiinisterial magic fall be- 
 fore it. In the year 1698 (a period which the rank- 
 est Tory dares not except against) Mr. Wollas- 
 ton was expelled, re-elected, and admitted to take 
 his seat in the same parliament. The ministry 
 have precluded themselves from all objections 
 drawn from the cause of his expulsion; for they 
 affirm absolutely, that expulsion, of itself, creates 
 the disability. Now, sir, let sophistry evade. Jet 
 falsehood assert, and impudence deny; here stands 
 the precedent: a land-mark to direct us through 
 a troubled sea of controversy, conspicuous and 
 unremoved. 
 
 I have dwelt the longer upon the discussion of 
 this point, because, in my opinion, it compre- 
 hends 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 noto- 
 riety, for it was created by act of parliament. 
 But really, sir, my honest friend's suppositions 
 are as unfavourable to him as his facts. He well 
 knows that the clergy, besides that they are ^'^-
 
 136 JUNIUS. 
 
 presented in common with their fellow subjects, 
 have also separate parliament of their own; that 
 their incapacity to sit in the house of commons 
 has been confirmed by repeated decisions of that 
 house; and that the law of parliament, declared 
 by those decisions, has been, for above two cen- 
 turies, notorious and undisputed. The author is 
 certainly at liberty to fancy cases, and make 
 whatever comparisons he thinks proper: his sup- 
 positions still continue as distant from fact as his 
 wild discourses are from solid argument. 
 
 The conclusion of his book is candid to an ex- 
 treme. He offers to grant me all I desire. He thinks 
 he may safely admit, that the case of Mr. Wal- 
 pole makes directly against him; for it seems he 
 has one grand solution in petto for all difficulties. 
 "If (says 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; 
 but I never expected to see it so formally declar- 
 ed. 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 un- 
 make 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
 
 JUNIUS. 137 
 
 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 fluc- 
 tuating 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 foUow- 
 subjects. I have done it to the best of my under- 
 standing; and, without looking for the approba^ 
 tion of other men, my conscience is satisfied. 
 What remains to be done, concerns the collec- 
 tive body of the people. They are now to deter- 
 mine for themselves, whether they will firmly and 
 constitutionally assert their rights, or make an 
 humble, slavish surrender of them at the feet of 
 the minitsry. To a generous mind there cannot 
 be a doubt. We owe it to our ancestors, to pre- 
 serve entire those rights which they have delivered 
 to our care. We owe it to our posterity, not to 
 suffer their dearest inheritance 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 enormous 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 no- 
 blest part of the gift, if we consent to sur^nder 
 that certain rule of living, without which the 
 condition of human nature is not only miserable 
 but contemptible. JUNIUS. 
 
 VOL. I. 12*
 
 138 JUNIUS. 
 
 LETTER XXI. 
 
 To the Printer of the Puhlic Advertiser. 
 
 SIR, August 22, 1769. 
 
 I MUST beg of you to print a ?e\v lines 
 in explanation of some passages in my last letter, 
 which, I see, have been misunderstood. 
 
 1. When I said that the house of commons 
 never meant to found Mr. Walpole's incapacity 
 on his expulsion only, I meant no more than to 
 deny the general proposition, that expulsion alone 
 creates the incapacity. If there be any thing am- 
 biguous in the expression, I beg leave to explain 
 it, by saying, that, in my opinion, expulsion nei- 
 ther 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 re- 
 solution. 
 
 3. I never meant to affirm, that a commitment 
 to the Tower created a disquahfication. — On the 
 contrary, I considered that idea as an absurdity.
 
 JUNIUS. 139 
 
 into which the ministry must inevitably fall if 
 they reasoned right upon their own principles. 
 
 -The case of Mr. Wollaston speaks for itself. 
 The ministry assert, that expulsion alone creates 
 an absolute, 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. Wol- 
 laston was expelled, 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. 
 
 LETTER XXII. 
 
 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser, 
 
 September 4, 1769. 
 ARGUMENT against Fact; or, a new Sys- 
 tem of Political Logic, by which the ministry have 
 demonstrated, to the satisfaction of their friends, 
 that expulsion alone creates a complete incapacity 
 to be re-elected, aliasj That a subject of this 
 realm may be robbed of his common right by a 
 vote of the house of commons.
 
 140 JUNIUS. 
 
 FIRST FACT. 
 
 Mr, WoUaston, in 1698, was exj^eUed^^e-electedy 
 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. Wollaston's expulsion. Fjom thence it will 
 appear clearly, that, "although he was expelled, 
 he had not rendered himself a culprit, too igno- 
 minious to sit in parliament; and that, having re- 
 signed his employment, he was no longer incapa- 
 citated by law." VUie Serious Considerations, 
 page 23. Or thus: "The house, somewhat in- 
 accurately, used the word expelled; they should 
 have called it a motion,^^ Vide Mungo^s Case 
 considered, page 11. Or, in short, if these argu- 
 ments should be thought insufficient, we may 
 fairly deny the fact. For example: "I affirm that 
 he was not re-elected. The same Mr. WoUaston, 
 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 per- 
 son, in law, was not admitted a member of that 
 parliament from which he had been discarded." 
 Vide Letter to Junius, page 12. 
 
 SECOND FACT. 
 
 Mr. Walpole, having been committed to the 
 Tower, and expelled, for a high breadi of trust,
 
 JUNIUS. 141 
 
 and notorious corruption in a public office^ was 
 declared incapable, 4*c. 
 
 ARGUMENT. 
 
 From the terms of this vote, nothing can l)e 
 more evident, than that the house of commons 
 meant to fix the incapacity upon the punishment, 
 and not upon the crime; but, less it should ap- 
 pear in a different light to weak, uninformed per- 
 sons, it may be advisable to get the resolution, 
 and give it to the public, with all possible so- 
 lemnity, in the following terms, viz. "Resolved, 
 that Robert Walpole, esq. having been that ses- 
 sion of parliament expelled the house, was and is 
 incapable ol being elected a member to serve in 
 that present parliament." Vide Mungo, on the 
 Use of Quotations, page 11. 
 
 N. B. The author of the answer to Sir William 
 Meredith seems to have made use of Mungo's 
 quotation: for, in page 18, he assures us, "That 
 the declaratory vote of the 17th of Fejbruary, 1769, 
 was, indeed, a literal copy of the resolution of 
 the house in Mr. AValpole's case." 
 
 THIRD FACT. 
 
 His opponent Mr, Taylor, having the smallest 
 number 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
 
 142 JUNIUS. 
 
 member, for the following reasons: "The bur- 
 gesses 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 Post- 
 script 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 intention 
 than to admit such other candidate." Vide Mun- 
 go^s Case considered, page 39. Or, take it in 
 this light: the burgesses of Lynn having, in de- 
 fiance of the house, retorted upon them a person 
 whom they had branded with the most ignomini- 
 ous marks of their displeasure, were thereby so 
 well entitled to 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 bur- 
 gesses might be apprised of the law of parliament; 
 which law the house took a very direct way of ex- 
 plaining to them, by resolving that the candidate 
 with the fewest votes was not duly elected: "And 
 was not this much more equitable, more in the 
 spirit of that equal and substantial justice which is 
 theendof alllaw, than if they had violently adher- 
 ed to the strict maxims of law?" Vide Serious 
 Considerations, page 33 and 34. "And if the 
 present house of commons had chosen to follow 
 the spirit of this resolution, they would have re- 
 ceived and established the candidate with the 
 fewest votes." Vide Ansioer to sir W. M. paaie 18.
 
 JUNIUS. 143 
 
 Permit me now, sir, to show you, that the wor- 
 thy Dr. Blackstone sometimes contradicts the 
 ministry, as well as himself. The speech without 
 doors asserts, page 9th, "That the legal effect of 
 an incapacity, founded on a judicial determina- 
 tion of a competent court, is precisely the same as 
 that of an incapacity created by an act of parha- 
 ment." Now for the doctor. "The law, and 
 the opinion of the judge, are not always converti- 
 ble terms, or one and the same thing; since it 
 sometimes m-ay happen, that the judge may mis- 
 take the law." Conwientaries, 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 oflicer. Flis return is no ju- 
 dicial act." At 'em again, doctor. "The sheriff, 
 in his judicial capacity, is to hear and determine 
 causes of forty shillings value, and under, in his 
 county court. He has also a judicial power in 
 divers other civil cases. He is likewise to decide 
 the elections of knights of the shire (subject to 
 the control of the house of commons,) to judge of 
 the qualification of voters, and to return 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 can- 
 not express my opinion of the present ministry 
 more exactly than in the words of sir Richard 
 Steele, "That we are governed by a set of dri« 
 vellers, whose folly takes away all dignity from 
 distress, and makes even calamity ridiculous." 
 
 PHILO JUNIUS.
 
 144 JUNIUS, 
 
 LETTER XXIIL 
 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 applause should escape me, I fear 
 you would consider it as a mockery of your esta- 
 blished character, and, perhaps, an insult to your 
 understanding. You have nice feelings, my lord, 
 if v^^e may judge from your resentments. Cau- 
 tious, therefore, of giving offence, where you 
 have so little deserved it, I shall leave the illus- 
 tration of your virtues to other hands. Your 
 friends have privilege to play upon the easiness 
 of your temper, or, possibly, they are better ac- 
 quainted with your good qualities than I am. You 
 have done good by stealth. The rest is upon re- 
 cord. You have still left ample room for specula- 
 tion,when panegyric is exhausted. 
 
 You are, indeed, a very considerable man. 
 The highest rank, a splendid fortune, and a name, 
 glorious, till it was yours, were sufficient to have 
 supported you with meaner abilities than I think 
 you possess. From the first, you derive a con- 
 stitutional claim to respect; from the second, a
 
 JUNIUS. 145 
 
 niitural extensive authority; the last created a 
 partial expectation of hereditary virtues. The 
 use you have, made of these uncommon advanta- 
 ges miglit have been more honourable to yourself, 
 but could not be more instructive to mankind. 
 We may trace it in the veneration of your coun- 
 try, the choice of your friends, and in the accom- 
 plishment ofevery 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 loss 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 parliament; and the real interest and 
 respect which he might have acquired, not only in 
 parliament, but through the whole kingdom; com- 
 pare these glorious distinctions, with the ambition of 
 holding a share in government, the emoluments of a 
 place, the sale of a borough, or the purchase^ of a 
 corporation; and though you may not regret the 
 virtues which create respect, you may see with an- 
 guish how much real importance and authority you 
 have lost. Consider the character of an independ- 
 ent, virtuous duke of Bedford ; imagine what he 
 might be in this country; then reflect one moment 
 upon what you are. If it be possible for me to 
 withdraw my attention from the fact, I vvill tell you 
 in theory what such a man might be. 
 
 Conscious of his own weight and importanc8j 
 
 VOL. I, 13
 
 146 JUNIUS. 
 
 his conduct in parliament would be directed by 
 nothing but the constitutional duty of a peer. 
 He would consider himself as a guardian of the 
 laws. WiUing to support the just measures of 
 government, but determined to observe the con- 
 duct of the minister with suspicion, he would 
 oppose the violence of faction with as much firm- 
 ness 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 important question 
 called for his opinion in parliament, he would be 
 heard by the most profligate minister with defer- 
 ence and respect. His authority would either 
 sanction or disgrace the measures of government. 
 The people would look up to him as to their pro- 
 tector; and a virtuous prince would have one 
 honest man in his dominions, in whose integrity 
 and judgment he might safely confide. 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. 
 
 Your 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 
 
 * The duke had lately lost his only son by a fall from 
 his horto.
 
 JUNIUS. 147 
 
 defending a minister. He would not at one mo- 
 ment rancorously persecute, at another basely 
 cringe to, the favourite of his sovereign. After 
 outraging the royal dignity with peremptory con- 
 ditions, little short of menace and hostility, he 
 would never descend to the humility of soliciting 
 an interview* with the favourite, and of offering 
 to recover, at any price, the honour of his friend- 
 ship. Though deceived, perhaps, in his youth, 
 he would not, through the course of a long life, 
 have invariably chosen his friends from among 
 the most profligate of mankind. His own honour 
 would have forbidden him from mixing his private 
 pleasures or conversation with jockeys, gamesters, 
 blasphemers, gladiators, or buffoons. He would 
 then have never felt, much less would he have 
 submitted to, the dishonest necessity of engaging 
 in the interests and intrigues of his dependents ; 
 of supplying their vices, or relieving their begga- 
 ry, at the expense of 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 purchasef and sale of a borough. 
 He would not have thought it consistent with his 
 rank in the state, or even with his personal 
 
 * At this interview, which passed at the house of the 
 late lord Eglintoune, lord Bute told the duke, that he 
 was determined neyerto have any connexion with a man 
 who had so basely betrayed him. 
 
 f 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 mo- 
 ney.
 
 148 JUNIUS. 
 
 importance, to be the little tyrant of a little corpo- 
 ration.* He would never have been insulted with 
 virtues which he had laboured 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 rever- 
 ence the afflictions of a good man; his sorrows 
 are sacred. But how can we take part in the dis- 
 tresses of a man whom we can neither love or es- 
 teem; or feel for a calamity of which he himself 
 is insensible? Where was the father's heart, when 
 he could look for, or find, an immediate consola- 
 tion 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 pub- 
 lic esteem, let us see with what abilities, with 
 what degree of judgment, you have carried your 
 own system 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 ear- 
 
 • Of Bedford, where the tyrant was held in such con- 
 tempt and detestation, that, in order to deliver them- 
 selves frona him, they admitted a great number of stran- 
 gers to the freedom. To make his defeat truly ridicu- 
 lous, he tried his whole strength against Mr. Home, and 
 was beaten upon his own ground.
 
 JUNIUS. 149 
 
 lier days, you thought it an honour to be distin- 
 guished;* tlic recorded stripes, the pubHc 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 any of his majesty's king- 
 doms, except France, in which, at one time or 
 other, your valuable life has not been in danger. 
 Amiable man ! we see and acknowledge the pro- 
 tection of Providence, by which you have so often 
 escaped the personal detestation of your fellow- 
 subjects, and are still reserved for the public jus- 
 tice of your country. 
 
 Your history begins to be important at that 
 auspicious period, at which you were deputecJto 
 represent the earl of Bute at the court of Ver- 
 sailles. It was an honourable office, and exefcuted 
 with the same spirit with which it was accepted. 
 Your patrons wanted an ambassador who would 
 submit to make concessions, without daring to in- 
 sist upon any honourable condition for his sove- 
 
 * Mr. Heston Humphrey, a country attorney, horse- 
 whipped the duke, with equal justice, security, and 
 perseverance, on the course at Litchfield. Rigby and 
 lord Trentham were also cudgelled in a most exem- 
 plary manner. This gave rise to the following story: 
 '< When the late king heard that sir Edward Hawke 
 had given the French a drubbing, his majesty, who 
 had never received that kind of chastisement, was 
 pleased to ask lord Chesterfield the meaning of the 
 word.—" Sir," says lord Chesterfield, "the meaning of 
 the word. — But here comes the duke of Bedford, who 
 is better able to explain it to your majesty than I am." 
 VOL. I. 13*
 
 150 JUNIUS. 
 
 reign. Their business required a man who had 
 as little feeling for his own dignity, as for the wel- 
 fare of his country; and they found him in the 
 first rank of the nobility. Belleisle, Goree, Guada- 
 loupe, St. Lucia, Martinique, The Fishery, and 
 the Havana, are glorious monuments of your - 
 grace's talents for negotiatian. My lord, we are 
 too well acquainted with your pecuniary 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 his 
 own dishonour in corresponding with you : and 
 there certainly was a moment at which he meant 
 to have resisted, had not a fatal lethargy prevail- 
 ed 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 f an admi- 
 nistration which lord Bute pretended to leave in 
 full possession of their ministerial authority, and 
 perfectly masters of themselves. He was not of 
 a temper to relinquish power, though he retired 
 from employment. Stipulations were certainly 
 made between your grace and him, and certainly 
 
 ♦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, the duke desired 
 to be recalled, and it was with the utmost difficulty that 
 lord Bute could appease him. 
 
 fMr. Grenville, lord Halifax, and lord Egremont.
 
 JUNIUS. 151 
 
 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 mistaken 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.* 
 After robbing him of the rights of a king, you . 
 would not permit him to preserve the honour of 
 a gentleman. It was then lord Weymouth was 
 nominated to Ireland, and despatched (we well 
 remember with what indecent hurry) to plunder 
 the treasury of the first fruits of an employment, 
 which you well knew he was never to execute. •]" 
 
 This 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. 
 Without looking back to all your former servility, 
 we need only observe your subsequent conduct, 
 to see upon what motives you acted. Apparent- 
 ly united with Mr. Grenville, you waited until 
 lord Rockingham's feeble administration should 
 
 * The ministry having endeavoured to exclude the 
 dowager out of the Regency Bill, the earl of Bute de- 
 termined to d;Smiss them. Upon this, the duke of Bed- 
 ford demanded an audience of the , 
 
 reproached him in plain terms with his duplicity, base- 
 ness, falsehood, treachery, and hypocrisy; repeatedly 
 gave him the lie, and left him in convulsions. 
 
 t He received three thousand pounds for plate and 
 equipage money.
 
 152 JUNIUS. 
 
 dissolve in its own weakness. The moment their 
 dismission was suspected, the moment you per- 
 ceived that another system was adopted in the 
 closet, you thought it no disgrace to return to 
 your former dependence, and solicit once more 
 the friendship of lord Bute. You begged an in- 
 terview, 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 be- 
 came necessary, or was thought so, to call you 
 back to a share in the administration.* The 
 friends, whom you did not in the last instance 
 desert, were not of a character to add strength or 
 credit to government : and, at that time, your al- 
 liance with the duke of Grafton, was, I presume, 
 hardly foreseen. We must look for other stipula- 
 tions to account for that sudden resolution of the 
 closet, by which three of your dependentsf (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 direction 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 cir- 
 
 * When earl Gower was appointed President of the 
 council, the king, v/ith his usual sincerity, assured him, 
 that he had not had one happy moment since the duke of 
 Bedford left hirn. 
 
 t Lords Gower, Weymouth, and Sandwich-
 
 JUNIUS. 153 
 
 cumvallation are drawing round him; and, unless 
 he finds a resource in his own activity, or in the 
 attachment of 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 fortunate event, shall raise the siege. For 
 the present, you may safely resume that style of 
 insult and menace, which even a private gentle- 
 man cannot submit to hear without being con- 
 temptible. Mr. M'Kenzie's history is not yet for- 
 gotten; and you may find precedents enough of 
 the mode in which an imperious subject may sig- 
 nify his pleasure to his sovereign. Where will 
 this gracious monarch look for assistance, when 
 the wretched Grafton could forget his obligations 
 to his master, and desert him for a hollow alii- 
 ance with such a man as the duke of Bedford ! 
 
 Let us consider you, then, as arrived at the 
 summit of Worldly greatness; let us suppose that 
 all your plans of avarice and ambition are ac 
 complished, and your most sanguine wishes grati- 
 fied, in the fear as well as the hatred of the peo- 
 ple; can age itself forget that you are now in the 
 last act of life ? Can gray hairs make folly vene- 
 rable? And is there no period to be reserved for 
 meditation and retirement? For shame, my lord! 
 let it not be recorded of you, that the latest mo- 
 ments of your life were dedicated to the same un- 
 worthy pursuits, the same busy agitations, in 
 which your yonth and manhood were exhausted. 
 Consider that, although you cannot disgrace your 
 former life, you are violating the character of age, 
 and exposing the impotent imbecility, after you 
 have lost the vigour of the passions.
 
 154 JUNIUS. 
 
 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 
 threatened, 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 deri- 
 sion. At Plymouth, his destruction would be 
 more than probable; at Exeter, inevitable. No 
 honest Englishman will ever forget his attach- 
 ment, nor any honest Scotchman forgive his trea- 
 chery, to lord Bute. At every town he enters, 
 he must change his liveries and name. Which- 
 ever way 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 Verves have returned to Sicily. 
 You have twice escaped, 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
 
 JUNIUS. 155 
 
 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 decorum as with the laws of morality, 
 they will not suffer you to profit by experience, 
 nor even to consult the propriety of a bad charac- 
 ter. Even now they tell you that Hfe is no more 
 than a dramatic scene, in which the hero should 
 preserve his consistency to the last; and that as 
 you lived without virtue, you should die without 
 repentance. JUNIUS. 
 
 LETTER XXIV. 
 
 To Junius. 
 
 SIR, September 14, 1769. 
 
 HAVING accidentally seen a republica- 
 tion of your letters, wherein you have been pleas- 
 ed to assert, that I had sold the companions of 
 my success, I am again obliged to declare the 
 said assertion to be a most infamous and malicious 
 falsehood; 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
 
 156 JUNIUS. 
 
 must the nation think of you? Party has nothing 
 to do in this affair : you have made a personal at- 
 tack 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 wit is often- 
 times false, though it may appear brilliant; which 
 is exactly the case of your whole performance. 
 But, sir, I am obliged, in the most serious man- 
 ner, to accuse you of bein^ guilty of falsities. 
 You have said the thing that is not. To support 
 your story, you have recourse to the following irre- 
 sistible argument: " You sold the companions of 
 your victory, because, when the 16th regiment was 
 given to you, you were silent. The conclusion is 
 inevitable." I believe that such deep and acute 
 reasoning could only come from such an extraor- 
 dinary writer as Junius. But, unfortunately 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 Lon- 
 don, I -was obliged to have recourse to the honour- 
 able colonel Monson, and sir Samuel Cornish, to 
 negotiate for me. In the last autumn, I personal- 
 ly delivered a memorial to the earl of 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,
 
 JUNIUS. 157 
 
 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 arid 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 been called, in the most direct and offensive 
 terms, a liar and a coward. When did you re- 
 ply 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 opportunity to wipe off 
 the first appellation, by desiring the proofs of 
 your charge against me. Produce them ! To 
 wipe off the last, produce yourself. People can- 
 not bear any longer your lion's skin, and the des- 
 picable 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; but a soldier's ho- 
 nour is as delicate as a woman's : it must not be 
 
 * Was Brutus an ancient bravo and dark assassin? Or 
 does sir W. D. think it criminal to stab a tyrant to the heart? 
 VOL. I. 14
 
 158 JUNIUS. 
 
 suspected. You have dared to throw more than 
 a suspicion upon mine: you cannot but know the 
 consequences, which even the meekness ot Chris- 
 tianity would pardon me for, after the injury you 
 have done me. 
 
 WILLIAM DRAPER. 
 
 LETTER XXV. 
 
 Haeret lateri lethalis arundo. 
 
 To Sir William Draper, Knight of the Bath. 
 
 SIR, September 25, 1769. 
 
 AFTER so long an interval, I did not ex- 
 pect 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 sol- 
 dier. You were content to set your -name in op- 
 position to a man who would probably continue 
 in concealment. You understood the terms upon 
 which we were to correspond, and gave at least
 
 JUNIUS. 159 
 
 a tacit assent to them. After voluntarily attack- 
 ing me, under the character of Junius, what pos- 
 sible 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 apparent spirit 
 of coming forward in person, and that you were 
 not quite indifferent to the display of your literary 
 qualifications? 
 
 You cannot but know, that the republication 
 of my letters was no more than a catch-penny 
 contrivance of a printer, in which it was impos- 
 sible I should be concerned, and for which I am 
 no way answerable. At the same time, I wish 
 3^ou to understand, that if I do not take the trou- 
 ble of reprintiiig these papers, it is not from any 
 fear of giving offence to sir William Draper. 
 
 Your remarks upon a signature adopted merely 
 for distinction, are unworthy of notice: but when 
 you tell me I have submitted to be called a liar 
 and a coward, I must ask you, in my turn, whe- 
 ther you seriously think it any way incumbent on 
 me to take notice of the silly invectives of every 
 simpleton who writes in a newspaper; and what 
 opinion you would have conceived of my discre- 
 tion, if I had suffered myself to be the dupe of 
 so shallow an artifice? 
 
 Your appeal to the sword, though consistent 
 enough with your late profession, will neither 
 prove your innocence, nor clear you from suspi- 
 cion. Your complaints with regard to the Ma- 
 nilla ransom, were, for a considerable time, a 
 distress to government. You were appointed 
 (greatly out of your turn) to the command of a 
 regiment; and during that administration we
 
 160 JUNIUS. 
 
 heard no more of sir William Draper. The facts 
 of which I speak may, indeed, be variously ac- 
 counted for; but they are too notorious to be de- 
 nied; and I think you might have learned, at the 
 university, that a false conclusion is an error in 
 argument, not a breach of veracity. Your solici- 
 tations, 1 doubt not, were renewed under another 
 administration. Admitting the fact, I fear an in- 
 different person would only infer from it, that ex- 
 perience had made you acquainted with the bene- 
 fits of complaining. Remember, sir, that you 
 have yourself confessed, that, considering the cri- 
 tical situation of tills country, the ministry are in 
 the right to temporise with Spain. This confes- 
 sion reduces you to an unfortunate dilemma. By 
 renewing your solicitations, you must either mean 
 to force your country into a war at a r^ost unsea- 
 sonable juncture, or, having no view or expecta- 
 tion of that kind, that you look for nothing but a 
 private compensation for 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 assassi- 
 nate. 
 
 But, after all, sir, where is the injury? You 
 assure 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,
 
 JUNIUS. 161 
 
 how you indulge this unruly tempei', lest the 
 world should suspect that coiiscience has some 
 share in your resentments. You have more to 
 fear from the treachery of your own passions, 
 than from any rnalevolence 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, how- 
 ever," regret the^delay, or suffer an'^apprehension, 
 that any length of time can restore you to the Chris- 
 tian meekness of your temper, and disappoint your 
 presentjndignation. If I understand your cha- 
 racter, 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 ja- 
 cens, qu(B rcconderet, auctaque jJromeret, 1 thought 
 had only belonged to the worst character of an- 
 tiquity. The text is in Tacitus : you know best 
 where to look for the commentary, 
 
 JUNIUS. 
 
 VOL. I. 14*
 
 162 JUNIUS. 
 
 LETTER 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 mercy to me, or tenderness for yourself, has 
 been very great. The public will judge of your 
 
 * Measures and not men, is the common cant of 
 affected moderation: a base counterfeit language, fa- 
 bricated by knaves, and made current among fools. 
 Such gentle censure is not fitted to the present degene- 
 rate 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 impunity, but even to 
 preserve his power, and insult us with the favour of 
 his sovereign? 1 would recommend to the reader the 
 whole of Mr. Pope's letter to Doctor Arbuthnot, dated 
 July 26, 1734, from which the following is an extract: 
 *' 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 enforce them. To attack vices in the ab- 
 stract, without touching persons, may be safe fighticg, 
 indeed, but it is fighting with shadows. My greatest 
 comfort and encouragement to proceed has been to 
 see, that those who have no shame, and no fear of any 
 thing else, have appeared touched by my satires."
 
 JUNIUS. 163 
 
 motives. If your excess of modesty forbids you to 
 produce either the proofs or yourself, I will ex- 
 cuse 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 political 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 suf- 
 ferer fit the bed, if the bed will not fit the sufferer, 
 by disjointing or tearing the trembling limbs, un- 
 til they are stretched to its extremity. But cou- 
 rage, constancy, and patience under torments, 
 have sometimes caused the most hardened mon- 
 sters 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 horror? Where, 
 sir, where were the feelings of your own heart, 
 when you could upbraid a most aff'ectionate fa- 
 ther with the loss of his only and most amiable 
 son? Read over again those cruel lines of yours, 
 and let them wring your very soul ? Cannot poli- 
 tical questions be discussed, without descending to 
 the most odious personalities? Must you go wan- 
 tonly out of your way to torment declining age, 
 because the duke of Bedford may have quarrelled 
 with those whose cause and politics you espouse ? 
 For shame ! for shame ! As you have spoken dag- 
 gers 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
 
 164 JUNIUS. 
 
 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 reflections, your 
 own conscience, must, and will, if you have any 
 spark of humanity remaining, give him most am- 
 ple vengeance. Not all tiie 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 will be bold 
 enough to say, that it is (as to reason and argu- 
 ment) the most extraordinary piece of jlorid im- 
 potence 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 conduct carried with it an 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 in- 
 ferences from it. First prove the avarice, before 
 you make the rash, hasty, and most wicked con- 
 clusion. This father, Junius, whom you call 
 avaricious, allowed that son eight thousand 
 pounds a year. Upon his most unfortunate death, 
 which your usual good-nature took care to re- 
 mind 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
 
 JUNIUS. 165 
 
 a master of a family; if splendour, and just mag- 
 nificence, without wild waste and thoughtless ex- 
 travagance, 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 concerned in this black 
 affair? Produce your authorities to the pub- 
 lic. It is a most impudent kind of sorcery to at- 
 tempt to blind us with the smoke, without con- 
 vincing us that the fire has existed. You first 
 brand him with a vice that he is free from, to 
 render him odious and su^ected. 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, shall even his life be in constant danger, 
 from a charge built upon such sandy foundations? 
 Must his house be besieged by lawless ruffians, 
 his journeys 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 
 high and solemn tribunal for matters of such great 
 moment; to that be they submitted. But I hope, 
 also, that some notice will be taken of, and some 
 punishment inflicted upon, false accusers; espe- 
 cially upon such, Junius, who are wilfully false. 
 In any truth I will agree even with Junius; will 
 agree with him that it is highly unbecoming the 
 dignity of peers to tamper with boroughs. Aris- 
 tocracy is as fatal as democracy. Our constitu-
 
 166 JUNIUS. 
 
 tion admits of neither. It loves a king, lords, and 
 commons, really chosen by the unbought suffrages 
 of a free people. But if corruption only shifts 
 hands, if the worthy commoner gives the bribe 
 instead of the potent peer, is the state better 
 served by this exchange? Is the real emancipa- 
 tion of the borough effected, because new parch- 
 ment bonds may possibly supersede the old? To 
 say the truth, wherever such practices prevail, 
 they are equally criminal to, and destructive of, 
 our freedom. 
 
 The rest of your declamation is scarce worth 
 considering, except for the elegance of the lan- 
 guage. Like Hambet, in the play, you produce 
 two pictures: you tell us, that one is not like the 
 duke of Bedford; then you bring a most hideous 
 caricature, and tell us of the resemblance; but 
 multum ahladit imago. 
 
 All your long tedious accounts of the ministe- 
 rial quarrels, and the intrigues of the cabinet 
 are reducible to a ^ew short lines; and to convince 
 you, sir, that I do not mean to flatter any minis- 
 ter, 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 minis- 
 terial ^ rattles have^ been put into their hands. 
 But such proceedings are very unworthy of the 
 gravity and dignity of a great nation. We do 
 not want men of abilities, but we have wanted 
 
 * Sir William gives us a pleasant account of men, 
 who, in his opinion at least, are the best (qualified iqt 
 govern an empire.
 
 JUxNIUS. 16T 
 
 steadiness: we want unanimity; your letters, Ju- 
 nius, 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 modera- 
 tion, pardon and oblivion, will disappoint the 
 effbrts 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. 
 
 WILLIAM DRAPER. 
 
 LETTER XXVII. 
 
 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 sub- 
 ject, there are parts of his last letter not unde- 
 serving 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 enemv of his friends,
 
 168 ' JUNIUS. 
 
 implies a contradiction of a peculiar nature* 
 There is something in it, which cannot be con- 
 ceived, without a confusion of ideas, nor express- 
 ed, without a solecism in language. Sir William 
 Draper is still that fatal friend lord Granby found 
 him. Yet, 1 am ready to do justice to his gene- 
 rosity; 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, he had been better read in the history 
 of the human heart, than to compare or confound' 
 the tortures 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 out- 
 ward tyranny can reach the mind. If conscience' 
 plays the tyrant, it would be greatly for the be- 
 nefits of the world that she were more arbitrary, 
 and far less placable, than some men find her. 
 
 But it seems I have outraged the feelings of a 
 father's fieart. Am I, indeed, so injudiciousT 
 Does sir William Draper think I would have ha- 
 zarded my credit with a generous nation, by so 
 gross a violation of the laws of humanity? Does 
 he think I am so little acquainted with the first 
 and noblest characteristic of Englishmen? Or, 
 how will he reconcile such folly with an under- 
 standing 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 feel- 
 ings of a father, but the father who felt nothing.
 
 JUNIUS. 169 
 
 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 di- 
 rected, 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 
 Wilham Draper does himself but little honour in 
 opposing the general sense of his country. The 
 people are seldom wrong in their opinions; in 
 their sentiments they are never mistaken. There 
 may be a vanity, perhaps, in a singular way of 
 thinking: but when a man professes a want of 
 those feelings which do honour to the multitude, 
 he hazards something infinitely more important 
 than the character of his understanding. After 
 all, as sir William may possibl-y be in earnest in 
 his anxiety for the duke of Bedford, I should be 
 glad to relieve him from it. He may rest assured, 
 this worthy nobleman laughs, with equal indif- 
 ference, at my reproaches, and sir Wilham's dis- 
 tress about him. But here let it stop. Even the 
 duke of Bedford, insensible as he is, will consult 
 the tranquillity of his life, in not provoking the 
 moderation of my teriiper. If from the profound- 
 est contempt, I should ever rise into angei-, he 
 should soon find, that all I have already said of 
 him was lenity and compassion. 
 
 Out of a long catalogue, sir William Draper 
 has confined himself to the refutation of two 
 charges only. The rest he had not time to dis- 
 cuss; and indeed, it would have been a labori- 
 ous undertaking. To draw up a defence of such 
 a series of enormities, would have required a 
 
 VOL. I. 15
 
 170 JUNIUS. 
 
 life, at least, as long as that which has been uni- 
 formly employed 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 fa- 
 mily, at least, he is regular and magnificent. He 
 pays his debts, abhors a beggar, and makes a hand- 
 some provision for his son. His charity has im- 
 proved upon the proverb, and ended where it be- 
 gan. Admitting the whole force of this single 
 instance of his domestic generosity, (wonderful, 
 indeed, considering the narrowness 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 manifi- 
 cence. Sir William Draper should have entered 
 boldly into the detail of indigence relieved, of 
 arts encouraged, of science patronised, men of 
 learning protected, and works of genius reward- 
 ed. In short, had there been a single instance, 
 besides Mr. Rigby,* of blushing merit, brought 
 forward by the duke for the service of the pub- 
 lic, it should not have been omitted. 
 
 I wish it were possible to establish my inference 
 with the same certainty on which I believe the 
 principle is founded. My conclusion, however, 
 was not drawn from the principle alone. I am 
 not so unjust as to reason from one crime to ano- 
 ther: though I think that, of all the vices, avarice 
 is most apt to taint and corrupt the heart. I com- 
 
 * This gentleman is supposed to have the same idea 
 of blushing, that a man, bUnd from his birth, has of 
 scarlet or sky blue.
 
 JUNIUS. 171 
 
 bined the known temper of the man, with the ex- 
 travagant concessions made by the ambassador; 
 and though I doubt not sufficient care was taken 
 to leave no document of any treasonable negotia- 
 tion, I still maintain that the conductf of this 
 minister carries with it an internal and convinc- 
 ing evidence against him. Sir William Draper 
 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 
 actions, nor by the notorious character of their 
 minds. He calls for papers and witness with 
 triumphant security, 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 interest- 
 ing to mankind, have been received and establish- 
 ed. If it were not for the internal evidence which 
 the purest of religions carries with it, what would 
 have become of his once well-quoted decalogue, 
 and of the meekness of his Christianity? 
 
 The generous warmth of his resentment makes 
 him confound the order of events. Fie forgets, 
 that the insults and distresses which the duke ot 
 Bedford has suffered, and which sir William has 
 lamented, with many delicate touches of the 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 aught I know, 
 it m.ay carry with it something prophetic. His 
 
 t If sir W. D. will take the trouble of looking into 
 Torey's Memoirs, he will see v/ith what little ceremony 
 a bribe may be offered to a duke, and with what little 
 ceremony it was only not accepted.
 
 172 JUNIUS. 
 
 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. Ho tells us, that the duke 
 of Bedford is amenable to justice; that parlia- 
 ment 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 be- 
 lieved every word of the matter. I hope, indeed, 
 the day of impeaphments will arrive before this 
 nobleman escapes out of life; but, to refer us to 
 that mode of proceeding now, with such a minis- 
 try, and such a house of commons as the present, 
 what is it, but an indecent mockery of the com- 
 mon sense of the nation? I think he might have 
 contented himself with defending the greatest 
 enemy, without insulting 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 gentle- 
 man should dedicate so much time and argument 
 to the defence of worthless or indifferent charac- 
 ters, while he gives but seven sohtary lines to the 
 only subject which can deserve his attention, or 
 do credit to his abilities! 
 
 JUNIUS.
 
 JUNIUS. 173 
 
 LETTER XXVIII. 
 
 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser. 
 
 SIR, October 19, 1769. 
 
 I VERY sincerely applaud the spirit with 
 which a lady has paid the 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 per- 
 sonal generosity or avarice of a man, whose pri- 
 vate fortune is immense. The proofs of his mu- 
 nificence must be drawn from the uses to which he 
 has applied that fortune. I was not speaking of 
 a lord lieutenant of Ireland, but of a rich Eng- 
 lish 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 wish- 
 ing 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. 
 
 VOL. I. 15*
 
 174 JUNIUS. 
 
 LETTER 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 Mo- 
 destus (whose letter appeared in the Gazetteer 
 of Monday), especially as the dispute must be 
 chiefly about words. Notwithstanding the par- 
 tiality of the public, it does not appear that Ju- 
 nius values himself upon any superior skill in 
 composition: and I hope his time will always be 
 more usefully employed than in the trifling refine- 
 ments of verbal criticism. Modestus, however, 
 siiall 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 sub- 
 ject of it : yet, after all, the last is the only arti- 
 cle of any importance to the public. 
 
 I do not wonder at the unremitted rancour with 
 which the duke of Bedford and his adherents in- 
 variably speak of a nation, which we well know 
 has been too much injured to be easily forgiven.
 
 JUNIUS. 175 
 
 But why must Junius be an Irishman? The ah- 
 surdity of Ms writings betrays him. Waving all 
 consideration of the insult offered by Modestus to 
 the declared judgment of the people (they may 
 well bear this amongst the rest) let us follow the 
 several instances, and try whether the charge be 
 fairly supported. 
 
 1. Then, the leaving, a man to enjoy such a 
 repose as he can find upon a bed of torture, is se- 
 vere 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 cannot distinguish between a sarcasm 
 and a contradiction. 
 
 2. I affirm, with Junius, that it is the frequen- 
 cy of the fact which alone can make us compre- 
 hend 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 proposition 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 ob- 
 served, and accurately compared. 
 
 3. Modestus could not, without great affecta- 
 tion, 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 intention to serve, and that intention pro- 
 ducing the worst effects of enmity. Whether the 
 description be strictly apalicable to sir William
 
 176 JUNIUS. 
 
 Draper, is another question. Junius does not Bay, 
 that it is more criminal for a man to be the ene- 
 my of his friends than his own; though he might 
 have affirmed it with truth. In a moral light, a 
 man may certainly take greater liberties with 
 himself, than with another. To sacrifice our- 
 selves merely, is a weakness we may indulge in, 
 if we think proper, for we do it at our own ha- 
 zard and expense; but, under the pretence of 
 friendship, to sport with the reputation, or sacri- 
 fice 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 overween- 
 ing, busy, meddling impudence. Junius says 
 only, and he says truly, that it is more extraordi- 
 nary; 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 
 confirmation of experience. Sir William Dra- 
 per, 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 Ju- 
 nius says. That no ouhoard tyranny can reach the 
 mind. The tortures of the body may be intro- 
 duced, by way of ornament or illustration, to re- 
 present those of the mind; but, strictly, there is 
 no similitude between them: they are totally dif- 
 ferent, both in their cause and operation. The 
 wretch who suffers upon the rack is merely pas- 
 sive: but, when the mind is tortured, it is not at
 
 JUNIUS. 177 
 
 ^he command of any outward power; it is the 
 .sense of guilt which constitutes the punishment, 
 ;ind creates that torture, with which the guilty 
 mind acts upon itself. 
 
 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. Ju- 
 nius, 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 be- 
 nevolent motive for his endeavouring to assume 
 an air of tranquillity in his own family; and I 
 wish I could discover 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 appear abroad, to ballot at the India- 
 House, and make a public display, though it were 
 only of an apparent insensibility? 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 whiqh becomes their 
 situation. They should recollect, that there are 
 still more facts in store at which human nature 
 would shudder. I shall be understood by those 
 whom it concerns, when 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. The
 
 178 JUNIUS. 
 
 It is not inconsistent to suppose, that a man 
 may be quite indifferent about one part ol a 
 charge, yet severely stung with another; and 
 though he feels no remorse, that he may wish to 
 be revenged. The charge of insensibility carries 
 a reproach, indeed, but no danger with it. Ju- 
 nius had said. There are others loho would assas- 
 sinate. Modestus, knowing his man, will not 
 suffer the insinuation to be divided, but fixes it all 
 upon the duke of Bedford. 
 
 Without determining upon what evidence Ju- 
 nius would choose to be condemned, I will venture 
 to maintain, in opposition to Modestus, or to Mr. 
 Rigby, (who is certainly not Modestus) or any of 
 the Bloomsbury gang, that the evidence against 
 the duke of Bedford is as strong as any presump- 
 tive evidence can be. It depends upon a combi- 
 nation of facts and reasoning, which require no 
 confirmation from the anecdote of the duke of 
 Marlborough. This anecdote was referred to, 
 
 good duke (who had only sixty thousand pounds a 
 year) ordered an inventory to be taken of his son's 
 wearing apparel, down to his slippers, sold them all, 
 and put the money in his pocket. The amiable mar- 
 chioness, shocked at such brutal, unfeeling 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 husband. When she died, the duch- 
 ess of Bedford treated her as the duke had treated his 
 only son: she ordered every grown and trinket to be 
 sold, and pocketed the money. These are the mon- 
 sters whom sir William Draper comes forward to de- 
 fend. May God protect me from doing any thing that 
 may require such defence, or to deserve such friend- 
 ship.
 
 JUNIUS. 179 
 
 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 
 onhj 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 
 horicst gentleman's learning, and wishing he had 
 given us a little more of it. When he accidental- 
 ly found himself so near speaking truth, it was 
 rather unfair of him to leave out the non potuisse 
 refelli. As it stands, the pudet hcBC opprobria may 
 be divided equally between Mr. Rigby and the 
 duke of Bedford. ]\Ir. 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. 
 
 LETTER XXX. 
 
 To the Printer of the PuhUc Advertiser, 
 
 SIR, October 17, 1769. 
 
 IT is not wonderful that the great cause 
 in which this country is engaged, should have 
 roused and engrossed the whole attention of the 
 people. I rather admire the generous spirit with 
 which they feel and assert their interest in this 
 important question, than blame them for their in- 
 difference about any other. When the constitu- 
 tion is openly invaded, when the first original 
 right of the people, from which all laws derive
 
 180 JUNIUS. 
 
 their authority, is directly attacked, inferior 
 grievances naturally lose their force, and are suf- 
 fered to pass by witho .t punishment or observa- 
 tion. 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 measure, they have found, in the enor- 
 mity of one fact, a cover and defence for a series 
 of measures, which must have been fatal to any 
 other administration. I fear we are too remiss 
 in observing the whole of their proceedings. 
 Struck with the principal figure, we do not suffi- 
 ciently mark in what manner the canvass is filled 
 up. Yet surely it is not a less crime, nor less fa- 
 tal 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 constitution. — 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 va- 
 riety in his measures, we should remember that 
 the principle is uniform. Dictated by the same 
 spirit, the_y deserve the same attention. The 
 following fact though of the most alarming na- 
 ture, 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 pe- 
 riod, I should have been accused of an uncandid, 
 malignant precipitation, as if I watched for an 
 unfair advantage against the ministry, and would 
 not allow them a reasonable time to do their du- 
 ty. They now stand without excuse. Instead
 
 JUNIUS. 181 
 
 of employing the leisure they have had, in a strict 
 examination of the offence, and punishing the of. 
 fenders, they seem to have considered that indul- 
 gence as a 'Security to them; that, with a little 
 time and management, 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 busi- 
 ness, which it imported him to settle before he was 
 confined. He applies to a Serjeant, not immedi- 
 ately on duty, to assist, with some of his compani- 
 ons, in favouring his escape. He attempts it. A 
 bustle ensues. The bailiffs claim their prisoner. 
 
 An officer of the guards,| not then on duty, 
 takes part in the affair, applies to the lieutenant^ 
 commanding the Tilt-yard guard, and urges him 
 to turn out his guard to relieve a general officer. 
 The lieutenant 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 officers, who, in vain, re- 
 present their right to the prisoner, and the nature 
 of the arrest. The soldiers first conduct the ge- 
 neral 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 
 
 "^ Major-general Gansel. 
 t Lieutenant Dodd. 
 I Lieutenant Garth. 
 VOL. I. 16
 
 182 JUNIUS. 
 
 upon ihr. various rirciirn.stuncos vvhi(^h ultcndod 
 tlii.s alrociouH |)r()Cf;(Miiii«^. Tin; jxirsoriHl injury 
 r(!(*()ivr'(l by l.Iio olliccirH of tlio law, in tin; oxcumi- 
 lion oftlKHr tinfy, may, porliajhs, Ixj al.<)n(!(l for by 
 tiiuui) |)rival,(; »'.((ni|i(;uHjit.i()n. 1 consider nolliin*^ 
 but tliu wound wbicii baa been f,nvoii to tiio law 
 itself, to wbicb no remedy lias been a|)i)iied, no 
 HatiHlaction made. Neitlier is it my desi^ni to 
 dwc^ll upon tbo misconduct of tbe i>arties con(M3rn- 
 ed, any fartber tlwui is nec(!ssary to sbow tbe be- 
 liavii>ur of tbo ministry in its true; li^dit. i would 
 make ev(!ry com|»Jissionji.t(; nllowanci! lor tbo iidii- 
 luation of tbe prisoner, tbe false and (M'iminal dis. 
 cretion of on(5 oHic<!r, and tbe madn(;ss of anotlujr. 
 1 would leave tbe i^nionmt soldicn'S (uitirely out 
 of tbe (pieslion. Tli'iy are certainly tbe least 
 guilty; tbou/^b tbey are tbe only persons wbo bavo 
 yet sulleriid, even in tbe appearanee of piuiisb- 
 • n<'nt.* Tbe fnct itself, bovvev(!r atrocious, is not 
 tb(! prin<-ipal |iart to be considered. It nii«;bt 
 bave liap|ten(;d und(!r a more; regular •^•ov(;rnm(!nt, 
 and wilb ^aiards belter disciplinitd tban ours. 
 'J'be main (|ueslion is, In wbat manni^r bave tbo 
 ministry ael('d on tbis (ixiraordinary occasion? A 
 general ollicer calls upon tbe kin^r's own ^niard, 
 tben actually on duty, to rescue liim from tbe 
 laws of bis country: yet, at tbis moment, be is in 
 u situation no worse tban if be bad not committed 
 an ollence e<iually enormous in a civil and military 
 view. A lieutenant upon duty design<!(lly (piits 
 liis ^niard, and sullers it to be drawn out by ano- 
 ther ollicer, for a purpose, wbicb hu well know 
 
 * A i'uw uf thttin Wiuu cunfinod.
 
 JUNfUS. inn 
 
 (mm wo may colNjot from jiti np|)('MrHnc«M)f crui- 
 lioii, which only mnlu^s his htiluivioiii' tho nioio 
 ♦•riiniiiMl) 1(» \h) in tho hiu^hoNl, (h»<»;r<M> illogul. 
 litis this jL!:«'nlh»iuaii h('(Mi rjilled lo <i court nirir- 
 tinl to Jinsvvor lor his coiKhicI/ N»». lins il Iummj 
 censured? No. lias il, l»(>cn in any shnjio in- 
 (jiiircd into? IVo. Another licnlcn.Mnl, not. upon 
 duty, nor ev(>n in Ins n*,'!;in»entMls, is dnrin;!; <«non;^di 
 to order ont the kin«^^'s i^niiird, ever which he had 
 jir«);)(Mly no command, and eni^a'^es th(>ni in a. vio- 
 lation of the laws ol" his country, perhaps the most 
 ain^ndar and extravagant that (»ver was altempt- 
 od. What punishnwMit has ho snller<>d? Lite- 
 rally non(>. SupposinjL!^ ho should he pr<»s<M'nled 
 al <'omnion law ll>r the rescue; will that circiim- 
 Htanc(», from whicdi the ministry <'an deriv<» no 
 merit, oxcusii (u* justily their snllerin^ so lla^rant 
 u hr(>a('h of miliUiry discipline to pass hy nn|)n- 
 iiislK'd and unnoliciid ? Kro they awur(^ of tho 
 (tutra^o ollenid to lium' Hov«5r<«i^n, when his own 
 proper /ujuanl is orden^l out t<> stop, hy nuu'ii 
 force, the ex((cution of his laws? What are W(» 
 to conclude from so N^'andalous a. n(;jL*'lect of their 
 duty, hut that they have other vi(!vvs, which can 
 only he answered hy secin*in^ tho uttat^hmont of 
 the ^niards? The minister would hardly ho so 
 cautious of olfeniliu',*' them, if h<» <lid not mean, in 
 <Iue time, to call Hu' their assistan<'o. 
 
 With resp(>ct t<t tli(i parties tlKimselves, let it 
 Im» nhserveil, that thes(» ^•entlemen are neither 
 yoinif.'; ollicers, n«u' very youn;^ men. I hid they 
 belonged to th(» un(ledj[»;(!d ra('<i of ensi<',ns, who 
 infest our streols, and dishonour our piddic phu'cs, 
 it migid, perlwips, he MUllici(!nt to yend thom ba,ck
 
 184 JUNIUS, 
 
 to that discipline from which their parents, judg- 
 ing lightly from the maturity of their vices, had re- 
 moved them too soon. In this case, I am sorry to see, 
 not so much the folly of youths, as the spirit of the 
 corps, and the connivance of government. I do 
 not question that there are many brave and wor- 
 thy officers in the regiments of guards. But con- 
 sidering them as a corps, I fear, it will be found, 
 that they are neither good soldiers nor good sub- 
 jects. Far be it from me to insinuate the most 
 distant reflection upon the army. On the contra- 
 ry, I honour and esteem the profession; and, if 
 these gentlemen were better soldiers, I am sure 
 they would be better subjects. It is not that 
 there is any internal vice or defect in the profes- 
 sion itself, as regulated in this country, but that 
 it is the spirit of this particular corps to despise 
 their profession: and that, while they vainly as- 
 sume the lead of the army, they make it matter 
 of impertinent comparison, and triumph over the 
 bravest troops in the world (I mean our marching 
 regiments) that tliey, indeed, stand upon higher 
 ground, and are privileged to neglect the labori- 
 ous forms of military discipline and duty. With- 
 out 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 encou- 
 raged by government, and to what pernicious 
 purposes it may be applied hereafter, well de- 
 serves our most serious consideration. I know, 
 indeed, that, when this affair happened, an af- 
 fectation of alarm ran through the ministry.
 
 JUNIUS. 185 
 
 Something must be done to save appearances. 
 The case was too flagrant to be passed by abso- 
 lutely without notice. But how have they acted? 
 Instead of ordering the officers concerned (and 
 who, strictly speaking, are alone guilty) to be put 
 under arrest, and brought to trial, they would 
 have it understood, that they did their duty com- 
 pletely, in confining a Serjeant and four private 
 soldiers, until they should be demanded by the 
 civil power: so that while the officers, who or- 
 dered or permitted the thing to be done, escaped 
 without censure, the poor men, who obeyed these 
 orders, who, in a military view, are no way re- 
 sponsible for what they did, and who for that rea- 
 son, have been discharged by the civil magis- 
 trates, are the only objects whom the ministry 
 have thought proper to expose to punishment. 
 They did not venture to bring even these men to 
 a court martial, because they knew their evidence 
 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 security 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 
 administration, daring enough to deny these facts, 
 or shameless enough to defend the conduct of the 
 ministry, let him come forward, t care not under 
 what title he appears. He shall find me ready to 
 maintain the truth of my narrative, and the jus- 
 tice of my observations upon it, at the hazard of 
 my utmost credit with the public. 
 
 VOL. I. 16*
 
 186 JUNIUS. 
 
 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 legislature, is still protected by 
 the laws. The political freedom of the English 
 constitution was once the pride and honour of an 
 Englishman. The civil equahty of the laws pre- 
 served the property, and defended 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 
 countrymen; that they value life, not by its con- 
 veniences, but by the independence and dignity of 
 their condition; I should, at this moment, appeal 
 only to their discretion. I should persuade them 
 to banish from their minds all memory of what 
 we 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. 
 
 LETTER XXXI. 
 
 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser, 
 sm, November 14, 1769. 
 
 THE variety of remarks which have been 
 made upon the last letter of Junius, and my own
 
 JUNIUS. 187 
 
 opinion of the writer, who, whatever may be his 
 faults, is certainly not a weak man, have induced 
 me to examine, with some attention, the subject 
 of that letter. I could not persuade myself, that, 
 while he had plenty of important materials, he 
 would have taken up a light or trifling occasion 
 to attack the ministry; much less could I conceive, 
 that it was his intention to ruin the officers con- 
 cerned in the rescue of general Gansel, or to in- 
 jure the general himself. These are little ob- 
 jects, and can no way contribute to the great 
 purposes he seems to have in view, by addressing 
 himself to the pubhc. Without considering the 
 ornamented 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 inquire into the truth of the facts; for, 
 if these were either false or misrepresented, the 
 most artful exertion of his understanding, in rea- 
 soning upon them, would only be a disgrace to 
 him. Now, sir, I have found every circumstance 
 stated by Junius to be literally true. — General 
 Gansel persuaded the bailiffs 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. Captain 
 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 ge- 
 neral. It is also strictly true, that the general 
 was escorted by a file of musqueteers to a place 
 of security. These are facts, Mr. Woodfall, 
 which I promise you no gentleman in the guards
 
 188 JUNIUS. 
 
 will deny. If all or any of them are false, why are 
 they not contradicted by the parties themselves? 
 However secure against military censure, 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 better marked, than by stating 
 and refuting the objections which have been made 
 to them. One writer says, " Admitting the of. 
 ficers have offended, they are punishable at com- 
 mon law; and will you have a British subject 
 punished twice for the same offence?" I answer, 
 that they have committed two offences, both very 
 enormous, and violated two laws. The rescue is 
 one offence, the flagrant breach of discipline 
 another; and hitherto it does not appear that they 
 have been punished, or even censured for either. 
 Another gentleman lays much stress upon the ca- 
 lamity of the case; and, instead of disproving 
 facts, appeals at once to the compassion of the 
 pubHc. This idea, as well as the insinuation, 
 that, depriving the parties of their commissions 
 would he an injury to their creditors, can only 
 refer to general Gansel. The other officers are 
 in no distress; therefore, have no claim to com-- 
 passion: 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 effect, a cruelty to the peaceable subject 
 who has observed them: and, even adiTiitting the 
 force of any alleviating circumstances, it is never-
 
 JUNIUS. 189 
 
 theless true, that, in this instance, the royal com- 
 passion 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 mahce 
 and injustice 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 mi- 
 nistry, but dwells entirely upon their subsequent 
 conduct. He does not say that they are answer, 
 able for the offence, but for the scandalous neg- 
 lect of their duty, in suffering an offence so fla- 
 grant 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 opi- 
 nion, as they are about the interests of their 
 country, what answer, as officers of the crown, 
 will they give to Junius, when he asks them, 
 "Are they aware of the outrage offered to their 
 sovereign, when his own proper guard is ordered 
 out to stop, by main force, the execution of his 
 laws?" 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 conduct? if they feel themselves injured 
 by such a suspicion, why do they not immediate- 
 ly clear themselves from it by doing their duty? 
 For the honour of the guards, I cannot help ex- 
 pressing another suspicion, that if the command- 
 ing officer had not received a secret injunction to
 
 190 JUNIUS. 
 
 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 com- 
 mand of the guard, and employing it in the man- 
 ner he did. I do not mean to enter into, or de- 
 fend, the severity with which Junius treats the 
 guards. On the contrary, I will suppose, for a 
 moment, that they deserve a very different cha- 
 racter. If this be true, in what light will they 
 consider the conduct of the two subalterns, but as 
 the general reproach and disgrace to the whole 
 corps? And will they not wish to see them cen- 
 sured, 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 have taken a very improper advantage of the 
 good-nature of the public, whose humanity, they 
 found, considering 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 which he has given them 
 to the world. For my own part, I am as unwil- 
 ling as any man to load the unfortunate; but 
 really, sir, the precedent with respect to the 
 guards, is of a most important nature, and alarm- 
 ing enough (considering the consequences with 
 which it may be attended) to deserve a parlia- 
 mentary inquiry. When the guards are daring
 
 JUNIUS. 191 
 
 enough, not only to violate their own discipline, 
 but publicly, and, with the most atrocious vio- 
 lence, to stop the execution of the laws, and when 
 such extraordinary offences pass with impunity, 
 believe me, sir, the precedent strikes deep. 
 
 PHILO JUNIUS. 
 
 LETTER 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 an 
 swer from me; though, I think, not so much from 
 the merit or importance of his objections, as from 
 my own voluntary engagement. I had a reason 
 for not taking notice of him sooner, which, as he 
 is a candid person, I believe, he will think suffi- 
 cient. 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 persons 
 concerned in the rescue of general Gansel: but 
 Modestus having since either affirmed, or strong- 
 ly insinuated, 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 oflen 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 de- 
 scend to a scurrilous altercation with any man;
 
 192 JUNIUS. 
 
 but this is a subject too important to be passed 
 over with silent indifTerence. 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 ob- 
 servations I have made upon them. Without a 
 vain profession of integrity, which in these times 
 might justly be suspected, I shall show myself, in 
 effect, a friend to the interests of my countrymen; 
 and leave it to them to determine, whether I am 
 moved by a personal malevolence to three private 
 gentlemen, or merely by a hope of perplexing the 
 ministry; or whether I am animated by a just 
 and honourable purpose of obtaining a satisfac- 
 tion to the laws of this country, equal, if possible, 
 to the violation they have suffered. JUNIUS. 
 
 LETTER XXXIIl. 
 
 To his Grace the Duke of Grafton. 
 
 MY LORD, November 29, 1769. 
 
 THOUGFI my opinion of your grace's in- 
 tegrity was but little affected by the coyness with 
 which you received Mr. Vaughan's proposals, I 
 confess I give you some credit for your discretion. 
 You had a fair opportunity of displaying a cer- 
 tain delicacy, of which you had not been suspect- 
 ed, and you were in the right to make use of it. 
 By laying in a moderate stock of reputation, you
 
 JUNIUS. 193 
 
 Undoubtedly meant to provide for the future ne- 
 cessities of your character, that, with an honour- 
 able resistance upon record, you might safely in- 
 dulge your genius, and yield to a favourite incli- 
 nation with security. But you have discovered 
 your purposes too soon; ancl, instead of the mo- 
 dest reserve of virtue, have shown us the terma- 
 gant chastity of a prude, who gratifies her pas- 
 sions with distinction, and prosecutes one lover 
 for a rape, while she solicits the lewd embraces 
 of another. 
 
 Your cheek turns pale: for a guilty conscience 
 tells you, you are undone. Come forward, thou 
 virtuous minister, and tell the world by what in- 
 terest Mr. Hine has been recommended to so ex- 
 traordinary 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 
 30uld pay colonel Burgoyne's expenses at Preston. 
 Do you dare to prosecute such a creature as 
 Vaughan, while you are basely setting up the 
 royal patronage to auction? Do you dare to com- 
 plain of an attack upon your own honour, while 
 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 escape 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 undoubtedly protect you 
 in the detail ; for, while they patronise your 
 crimes, they feel for their own. JUNIUS. 
 
 VOL. I. 17
 
 194 JUNIUS. 
 
 LETTER XXXIV. 
 
 To his Grace the Duke of Grafton, 
 MY LORD, December 12, 1769, 
 
 I FIND, with some surprise, that you are 
 not supported as you deserve. Your most deter- 
 mined advocates have scruples about them, which 
 you are unacquainted 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 newspaper to defend.* In 
 what other manner shall we account for the pro- 
 found, 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 cha- 
 racter by an indirect, ambiguous insinuation; but 
 candidly stated to you a plain fact, which struck 
 directly at the integrity of a privy counsellor, of 
 a first commissioner of the treasury, and of a 
 leading minister, who is supposed to enjoy the 
 first share in his majesty's confidence. f In every 
 one of these capacities I employed the most mode- 
 rate 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 Mr. 
 
 *Fronti the publication of the preceding to his 
 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 open- 
 ly avowed and defended. We acknowledge the piety 
 of St. James's, but what is become of its morality? 
 
 f And by the same means preserves it to this hour.
 
 JUNIUS. 195 
 
 Hine, 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 the salary for one hun- 
 dred 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 consent, paid to co- 
 lonel Burgoyne, to reward him, I presume, for the 
 decency of his deportment at Preston; or to re- 
 imburse him, perhaps, for the fine of one tliousand 
 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 
 degree of impudence daring enough to deny the 
 charge I have fixed upon you. Your courteous 
 secretary,* your confidential architect,f are silent 
 as the grave. Even Mr. Rigby's countenance 
 fails him. He violates his second nature, and 
 blushes whenever he speaks of you. Perhaps the 
 noble colonel himself will relieve you. No man 
 is more tender of his reputation. 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 gam- 
 ing-table, and watching, with the soberest atten- 
 
 * Tommy Bradshaw. 
 
 fMr. Taylor. He and Georg;e Ross (the Scotch agent and 
 worthy confidant of lord Mansfield) managed the business.
 
 198 JUNIUS. 
 
 tion, for a fair opportunity of engaging a drunken 
 young nobleman at piquet, he would, undoubted- 
 ly, consider it as an infamous aspersion upon his 
 character, 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 reward him with mili- 
 tary government? He had a regiment of dra- 
 goons, which, one would imagine, was at least an 
 equivalent for any services he ever performed. 
 Besides, he is but a young officer, considering 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 sufficient ; 
 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 stabs you to the heart? Have you a 
 single friend in parliament so shameless, so 
 thoroughly abandoned, as to undertake your de- 
 fence? You know, my lord, that there is not a man 
 in either house, whose character, however flagi- 
 tious, would not be ruined by mixing his reputa- 
 tion with yours; and does not your heart inforn^
 
 JUNIUS. 197 
 
 you that 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 1 
 
 We are told, by the highest judicial authority, 
 that Mr. Vaughan's* offer to purchase the rever- 
 
 • A little before the publication of this and the pre- 
 ceding letter, the duke of Grafton had commenced a 
 prosecution against i\lr. Samuel Vaughan, for endea- 
 vouring to corrupt his integrity, by an offer of five 
 thousand pounds for a ];atent place in Jamaica. A 
 rule to show cause why an information should not be 
 exhibited against Vaughan for certain misdemeanors, 
 beng 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 judges, 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 atten- 
 tion: "A practice of the kind complained of here, is cer- 
 tainly dishonourable and scandalous. If a man, stand- 
 ing under the relation of an officer under the king, or of 
 a person in whom the king puts confidence, or of a min- 
 ister, takes money for the use of that confidence the king 
 puts in him, he basely betrays 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- 
 Tbe constitution does not intend the crown should sell 
 those offices to raise a revenue out of them. Is it 
 possible to hesitate, whether this v/ould not be cri- 
 minal in the duke of Grafton ; contrary to his duty as 
 a privy counsellor, contrary to his duty as a minister, 
 contrary to his duty as a subject." His advice should be 
 free, according to his judgment. It is the duty of his of- 
 fice; he hath sworn to it.'* Notwithstanding all this, the 
 duke of Grafton certainly sold a patent pl^ce to Mr. Hine, 
 for three thousand five hundred pounds. If the house of 
 commons had done their duty, and impeached the 
 duke for this breach of trust, how wofully must poor 
 honest Mansfield have been puzzled! His embarrass- 
 ment would haAe afforded the most ridiculous scene 
 VOL. I. 17*
 
 198 JUNIUS. 
 
 sion of a patent place in Jamaica (which he was 
 otherwise sufficiently entitled to) amounts to a 
 high misdemeanor. Be itso: and if he deserves it, 
 let him be punished. But the learned judge 
 might have had a fairer opportunity of displaying 
 the powers of his eloquence. Having delivered 
 himself, with so much energy, upon the criminal 
 nature and dangerous consequences of any at- 
 tempt 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 com- 
 missioner 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 
 government, if, to clear your character, you 
 should think proper to bring it into the house of 
 lords, or into the court of king's bench. But, my 
 lord, you dare not do either. JUNIUS. 
 
 LETTER 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 pro- 
 portion to the wrongs they have suffered, when, 
 instead of sinking into submission, they are rous- 
 ed to resistance, the time will soon arrive, at 
 
 that was ever exhibited. To save the judge from this 
 perplexity, and the duke from impgachment, the prose- 
 cution against Vaughan was immediately dropped.
 
 JUNIUS. 199 
 
 which every inferior consideration must yield to 
 the security of the sovereign, and to the general 
 safety of the state. There is a moment of diffi- 
 culty 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 people, 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 matter of curious spe- 
 culation to consider, if an honest man were per- 
 mitted 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 surmounted; 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 understanding enough to listen 
 to him with attention. Unacquainted with the 
 vain impertinence of forms, he would deliver his 
 sentiments with dignity and firmness, 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 government, that you 
 should never have been acquainted with the lan- 
 guage of truth, until you heard it in the com- 
 plaints of your people. It is not, however, too
 
 200 JUNIUS. 
 
 late to correct the error of your education. We 
 are still inclined to make an indulgent allowance 
 for the pernicious lessons you received in your 
 youth, and to form the most sanguine hopes from 
 the natural benevolence of your disposition.* We 
 are far from thinking you capable of a direct, de- 
 liberate purpose to hivade those original rights of 
 your subjects, on which all their civil and politi- 
 cal liberties depend. Had it been possible for 
 us to entertain a suspicion so dishonourable to 
 your character, we should long since have adopt- 
 
 *The plan of the tutelage and future dominion over 
 the heir apparent, laid many years ago, at Carlton- 
 House, between the princess dowager and her favour- 
 ite, the earl of Bute, was as gross and palpable as that 
 which was concerted between Anne of Austria and car- 
 dinal Mazarine, to govern Louis the Fourteenth, and, in 
 effect, to prolong his minority until the end of their lives. 
 That prince had strong natural parts, and used frequent- 
 ly to blush for his own ignorance and want of education, 
 which had been wilfully neglected by his mother and 
 her minion. A little experience, however, soon showed, 
 him how shamefully he had been treated, and for what 
 infamous purposes he had betn kept in ignorance. Our 
 great Edward, too, at an early period, had sense enough 
 to understand the nature of the connexion between his 
 abandoned mother and the detested Mortimer. But, 
 since that time, human nature, we may observe, is great- 
 ly altered for the better. Dowagers may be chaste, and 
 minions may be honest. When it was proposed to settle 
 the present king's household, as prince of Wales, it is 
 well known that the earl of Bute was forced into it, in 
 direct conti-udiction to the late king's inclination. That 
 was the salient point from which all the mischiefs and 
 disgraces of the present reign took life and motion. 
 From that moment, lord Bute never suffered the prince 
 of Wales to be an instant out of his sight. We need not 
 look farther.
 
 JUNIUS. 201 
 
 €d a style of remonstrance very distant from the 
 humility of complaint. The doctrine inculcated 
 by our laws, That the king can do no wrong, is 
 admitted without reluctance. 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 lament- 
 ed. I would prepare your mind for a favourable 
 reception of truth, by removing every painful, of- 
 fensive idea of personal reproach. Your subjects, 
 sir, v/ish for nothing, but that as they are rea- 
 sonable and affectionate enough to separate your 
 person from your government, so you, in your 
 turn, should distinguish between the conduct 
 which becomes the permanent dignity of a king, 
 and that which serves only to promote the tempo- 
 rary interest and miserable ambition of a minister. 
 You ascended the throne with a declared, and, 
 I doubt not, a sincere resolution of giving univer- 
 sal 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, not only from principle, but 
 passion. It was not a cold profession of allegi- 
 ance to the first magistrate, but a partial, animat- 
 ed attachment to a favourite prince, the native 
 of their country. They did not wait to examine 
 your conduct, nor to be determined by experi- 
 ence, but, gave you a generous credit for the fu- 
 ture blessings of your reign, and paid you in ad- 
 vance the dearest tribute of their affections. Such,
 
 202 JUNIUS. 
 
 sir,. was once the disposition of a people, who now 
 surround your throne with reproaches and com- 
 plaints. Do justice to yourself. Banish from 
 your mind those unworthy opinions, with which 
 some interested persons have laboured to possess 
 you. Distrust the men who tell you that the Eng- 
 lish are naturally light and inconstant; that they 
 complain without a cause. Withdraw your con- 
 fidence equally from all parties; from ministers, 
 favourites, and relations; and let there be one 
 moment in your life, in which you have consulted 
 your own understanding. 
 
 When you affectedly renounced the name of 
 Englishman, believe me, sir, you were persuaded 
 to pay a very ill-judged compliment to one part 
 of your subjects, at the expense of another. While 
 the natives of Scotland are not in actual rebellion, 
 they are undoubtedly entitled to protection: nor 
 do 1 mean to condemn the policy of giving some 
 encouragement to the novelty of their affections 
 for the house of Hanover. 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 predilection and 
 confidence, in exclusion of your English subjects, 
 who placed your family, and, in spite of trea- 
 chery and rebellion, have supported it upon the 
 throne, is a mistake too gross even for the unsus- 
 pecting generosity of youth. In this error we 
 see a capital violation of the most obvious rules 
 of policy and prudence. We trace it, however, 
 to an original bias in your education, and are 
 ready to allow for your inexperience*
 
 JUNIUS. 203 
 
 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 pas- 
 sions. At your accession to the throne, the whole 
 system of government was altered, not from wis- 
 dom 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 
 entering 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 subjects 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 and 
 sincere; and, if England was sold to France, we 
 doubt not that your majesty was equally betrayed. 
 The conditions of the peace were matter of grief 
 and surprise to your subjects, but not the imme- 
 diate cause of their present discontent. 
 
 Hitherto, sir, you have been sacrificed to the pre- 
 
 * One of the first acts of the present reign was to 
 dismiss Mr. Legge, because he had, some years before, 
 refused to yield his interest in Hampshire to a Scotch- 
 man, recommended by lord Bute. This was the rea- 
 fion publicly assigned by his lordship.
 
 204 JUNIUS. 
 
 judices and passions of others. With what firm- 
 ness will you bear the mention of your own? 
 
 A man not very honourably distinguished in the 
 world, commences a formal attack upon your fa- 
 vourite, considering nothing but how he might 
 best expose his person and principles to detesta- 
 tion, and the national character of his country- 
 men to contempt. The natives of that country, 
 sir, are as much distinguished by a peculiar cha- 
 racter, as by your majesty's favour. Like ano- 
 ther chosen people, they have been conducted into 
 the land of plenty, where they find themselves 
 effectually marked, and divided from mankind. 
 There is hardly a period at which the most irre- 
 gular character may not be redeemed. The mis'f 
 takes of one sex find a retreat in patriotism, those- 
 of the other in devotion. Mr. Wilkes brought 
 with him into politics the same liberal sentiments'' 
 by which his private conduct had been directed^ 
 and seemed to think, that, as there are few ex- 
 cesses in which an English gentleman may not be 
 permitted to indulge, the same latitude was al- 
 lowed him in the choice of his political princi- 
 ples, and in the spirit of maintaining them. I 
 mean to state, not entirely to defend, his conducl. 
 In the earnestness of his zeal, he suffered some 
 unwarrantable 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 
 illuminate, and could not consume. Animated 
 by the favour of the people on the one side, and 
 heated by persecution on the other, his views and
 
 JUNIUS. 205 
 
 sentiments changed with his situation. Hardly- 
 serious at first, he is now an enthusiast. The 
 coldest bodies warm with opposition, the hardest 
 sparkle in collision. There is a holy mistaken 
 zeal in politics as well as religion. By persuad- 
 ing 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 worthy of a 
 king? Are you not sensible how much the mean- 
 ness of the cause gives an air of ridicule to the 
 serious difficulties into which you have been be- 
 trayed? The destruction of one man has been 
 now, for many years, the sole object of your go- 
 vernment; and, if there can be any thing still 
 more disgracefid, we have seen for such an object 
 the utmost influence of the executive power, and 
 every ministerial artifice, exerted without success. 
 Nor can you ever succeed, unless he should be 
 imprudent enough to forfeit the protection of 
 those laws to which you owe your crown; or un- 
 less your minister should persuade you to make it 
 a question of force alone, and try the whole 
 strength of government in opposition to the peo- 
 ple. The lessons he has received from experi- 
 ence will probably guard him from such excess 
 of folly; and, in your majesty's virtues, we find 
 an unquestionable assurance, that no illegal vio- 
 lence will be attempted. 
 
 Far from suspecting you of so horrible a design, 
 we would attribute the continued violation of the 
 laws, and even this last enormous attack upon 
 the vital principles of the constitution, to an ill- 
 advised, unworthy, personal resentment. From 
 
 VOL. I. 18
 
 206 JUNIUS. 
 
 one false step you have been betrayed into ano- 
 ther; and, as the cause was unworthy of you, 
 your ministers were determined that the prudence 
 of the execution should correspond with the wis- 
 dom and dignity of the design. They have re- 
 duced you to the necessity of choosing out of a 
 variety of difficulties; to a situation so unhappy, 
 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 judicious- 
 ly transferred the question from the rights and in- 
 terests of one man, to the most important rights and 
 interests of the people; and forced your subjects, 
 from wishing well to the cause of an individual, 
 to unite with him in their own. Let them pro- 
 ceed as they have begun, and your majesty need 
 not doubt that the catastrophe will do no disho- 
 nour to the conduct of the piece. 
 
 The circumstances to which you are reduced 
 will not admit of a compromise with the English 
 nation. Undecisive, qualifying measures will dis- 
 grace your government still more than open vio- 
 lence; and, without satisfying the people, will ex- 
 cite their contempt. They have too much under- 
 standing and spirit to accept of an indirect satis, 
 faction for a direct injury. Nothing less than a 
 repeal, as formal as the resolution itself, can heal 
 the wound which had been given to the contitu- 
 tion, nor will any thing less be accepted. I can 
 readily believe,, that there is an influence sufficient 
 to recall that pernicious vote. The house of com- 
 mons undoubtedly consider their duty to the
 
 JUNIUS. 207 
 
 crown as paramount to all other obligations. To 
 us they are only indebted for an accidental exist- 
 ence, and have justly transferred their gratitude 
 from their parents to their benefactors; from those 
 who gave them birth, to the minister, from whose 
 benevolence they derive the comforts and plea- 
 sures of their political life; who has taken the ten- 
 derest care of their infancy, and relieves their 
 necessities without offending their delicacy. But, 
 if it were possible for their integrity to be degrad- 
 ed to a condition so vile and abject, that, compar- 
 ed 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 governed by so flexible a house 
 of commons? It is not in the nature of human 
 society that any form of government, in such cir- 
 cumstances, can long be preserved. 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 qualify- 
 ing measure would not be accepted, it remains for 
 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 dissolving the parliament. 
 
 Taking it for granted, as I do very sincerely, 
 that you have personally no design against the 
 constitution, nor any view inconsistent with the 
 good of your subjects, I think you cannot hesitate 
 long upon the choice which it equally concerns
 
 208 JUNIUS. 
 
 your interests and your honour to adopt. On one 
 side, you hazard the affection of all your English 
 subjects; you relmquish every hope of repose to 
 yourself, and you endanger the establishment of 
 your family for ever. ,A11 this you venture for no 
 object whatsoever; or for such an object as it 
 would be an affront to you to name. Men of sense 
 will examine your conduct with suspicion; while 
 those, who are incapable of comprehending to 
 what degree they were injured, afflict you with 
 clamours equally insolent and unmeaning. Sup- 
 posing it possible that no fatal struggle should en- 
 sue, you determine, at once, to be unhappy, with- 
 out the hope of a compensation, either from inter- 
 est or ambition. If an English king be hated or 
 despised, he must be unhappy: and this, perhaps, 
 is the only political truth which he ought to be 
 convinced of, without experiment. But, if the 
 English people should no longer confine their re- 
 sentment 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 
 
 * Viscount Townshend, sent over on the plan of being 
 resident governor. The history of his ridiculous ad- 
 ministration shall not be lost to the public.
 
 JUNIUS. 209 
 
 them, because he is the creature of lord Bute: 
 nor is if from any natural confusion in their ideas, 
 that they are so ready to confound the original of 
 a king wtih the digraceful representation of him. 
 The distance of the colonies would make it im- 
 possible 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 your 
 person. They were j'eady enough to distinguish 
 between you and your ministers. They com- 
 plained of an act of the legislature, 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 per- 
 sonal 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 not how to distinguish 
 the sovereign and venal 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 assured 
 they will give you such a covenant to digest, as the 
 presbytery of Scotland would have been ashamed 
 
 * In the king's speech of November 8th, 1768, it was 
 declared "That the spirit of faction had broken out 
 afresh in some of the colonies, and, in one of them, 
 proceeded to acts pf violence and resistance to the exe- 
 cution of the laws; that Boston was in a state of dis- 
 obedience to all laws and government, and had pro- 
 ceeded to measures subversive of the constitution, and 
 attended with circumstances that manifested a disposi- 
 tion to throw off their dependance on Great Britain.' 
 
 VOL. I. 18*
 
 210 JUNIUS. 
 
 to offer to Charles the Second. They left their 
 native land in search of freedom, and found it in 
 a desert. Divided as they are into a thousand 
 forms of policy and religion, there is one point in 
 which they all agree: they equally detest the 
 pageantry of a king, and the supercilious hypo- 
 crisy of a bishop. 
 
 It is not then from the alienated affections of 
 Ireland or America that you can reasonably look 
 for assistance; still less from the people of Eng- 
 land, who are actually contending for their rights, 
 and in this great question are parties against you. 
 You are not, however, destitute of every appear- 
 ance of support; you have all the Jacobites, Non- 
 jurors, Roman Catholics, and Tories of this 
 country, and all Scotland, without exception. 
 Considering from what family you are descended 
 the choice of your friends has been singularly di- 
 rected; 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 princi- 
 ple, both in church and state, which they inherit 
 from their ancestors, and are confirmed in by 
 their education? whose numbers are so inconsi- 
 derable, that they have long since been obliged 
 to give up the principles- and language which 
 distinguish them as a party, and to fight under 
 the banners of their enemies? Their zeal begins 
 with hypocrisy, and must conclude in treachery. 
 At first they deceive — at last they betray. 
 
 As to the Scotch, I must suppose your heart
 
 JUNIUS. 211 
 
 and understanding so biassed, from your earliest infancy, 
 in their favor, that nothing le-.s than your own misfor- 
 tunes 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 absurdity of 
 the doctrine confirms him in his faith. A bigoted un- 
 derstanding can draw a proof of attachment tothe house 
 of Hanover, from a notorious zeal for the house of Stu- 
 art, and find an earnest of future loyality in former re- 
 bellions. Appearances are, however, in their favor: so 
 strongly, indeed, that one would think they had forgot- 
 ten 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 profes- 
 sions, 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 favorite 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 
 surrendered himself at discretion to the good faith ofhis 
 own countrymen? Without looking for support in 
 their affections as subjects, he applied only to their hon- 
 or, as gentlemen, for protection. They received him, 
 as they would your majesty, v/ith bows, and smiles, and 
 falsehood; and kept him, until they had settled their 
 bargain with the English parliament; ihen basely sold 
 theirnative king to the vengeance of his enemies. This, 
 sir, was not the act of a few traitors, but the deliberate 
 treachery of a Scotch parliament, representing the na- 
 tion. 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 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 do prudence can guard, no courage can
 
 212 JUNIUS. 
 
 defend. The insidious smile upon the check would 
 warn him of the canker in the heart. 
 
 From the uses to which one part of the arm> 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 understanding. You 
 take the sense of the army from the conduct of the 
 guards, with the same justice with which you collect the 
 sense of the people from the representations of the min- 
 istry. 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 invaria- 
 ble, undistinguishlng favor with which the guards are 
 treated;* while those gallant troops, by whom every 
 hazardous, every laborious service is performed, are left 
 to perish in garrisons abroad, or pine in quarters at 
 homfe, neglected and forgotten. If they had no great 
 sense of the original duty they owe their country, their 
 resentment would operate like patriotism and leave your 
 cause to be defended by those to whom you have lavish- 
 ed the rewards and honors of their profession. The 
 Praetorian bands, enervated, and debauched as they 
 were, had still strength enough to awe the Roman popul- 
 lace; but when the distant legicns took the alarm, they 
 inarched to Rome, and gave away the empire. 
 
 On this side then, whichever 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 pay shelter 
 
 * The number of comniissioned officers in the guards 
 are to the marching regiments as one to eleven: the num- 
 ber of regiments given to the guards, compared with those 
 given to the line, is about three to one, at a moderate com- 
 putation; consequently, the partiality in favour of the 
 guards is as thirty-three to one. So much for the officers. 
 The private men have fourpence a-day to subsist on, and 
 five hundred lashes if they desert. Under this punishment 
 they frequently expire. With these encouragements, it is 
 supposed, they may be depended upon, whenever a certain 
 person thinks it necessary to butcher his fellow-subjects.
 
 JUNIUS. 213 
 
 yourself under the forms of a parliament, and set the 
 people at defiance; but be assered, sir, that such a reso- 
 lution v/ould 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 forever. 
 
 On the other, how different is the propect! How 
 easy, how safe and honorable 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 opportunity 
 of recalling a trust, which they find has been scandalous- 
 ly abused. You 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 re- 
 ceived it. A question of rightarises between the consti- 
 tuent and 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 called upon to determine the rights and pri- 
 vileges of 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 party 
 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 re- 
 ferred, Ihey alone ought to determine. 
 
 I do not mean to perplex you with a tedious argument 
 upon a subject already so discussed that inspiration could 
 hardly throw a new light upon it. There are, however, 
 two points of view in which it particularly imports your 
 majesty to consider the late proceedings of the house of 
 commons. By depriving a subject of his birthright 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 exam- 
 ple of the long parliament, which firstdeclared the regal 
 office useless, and soon after, wiih as little ceremony, dis- 
 solved the house of lords. The same pretended power
 
 214 JUNIUS. 
 
 which robs an English subject of his birthright, may rob 
 an English king of his crown. In another view, the res- 
 olution of the house of comnions, apparently not su dan- 
 gerous 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 anoth- 
 er. They have set aside a return as illegal, without dar- 
 ing to censure those officers who were particularly appri- 
 zed of Mr. Wilkes's incapacity, not only by the declara- 
 tion of the house, but expressly by the writ directed to 
 them, and who nevertheless returned him as duly elect- 
 ed. They have rejected the majority of votes, the only 
 criterion by which our laws judge of the sense of the 
 people; they have transferred the right of election from 
 the collective to the representative body; and by these 
 acts, taken separately or together, they have essentially 
 altered the original constitution of the house of com- 
 mons. Versed as your majesty undoubtedly is in the 
 English history, it cannot easily escape you, how much 
 it is your interest, as well as your duty, to prevent one 
 of 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 constitu- 
 tional line by which all their proceedings should be di- 
 rected, 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 superi- 
 or? Your majesty may learn hereafter, how nearly the 
 slave and tyrant are allied. 
 
 Some of your council, more candid than the rest, ad- 
 mit the abandoned profligacy of the present House of 
 Commons, but oppose their dissolution, upon an opinion, 
 I confess, not very unwarrantuble, that their successors 
 would be equally at the disposal of the treasury. 1 can- 
 not 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 clamor against your 
 government, without offering any material injury to the 
 favourite cause of corruption.
 
 JUNIUS. 215 
 
 You have still an honourable part to act. The afiec- 
 tions of your subjects may still be recovered. But 
 before you subdue their hearts, you must gain a noble 
 victory over your own. Discard those little personal re- 
 sentments, v.'hith have too long direcied your public 
 conduct. Pardon th;s man the remainder of his punish- 
 ment; 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 fall back into his natural sta- 
 tion; a silent senator, and hardly supporting the weekly 
 eloquence of a new-paper. The genile breath of peace 
 would leave him on the surface, neglected and unremov- 
 ed. 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 forward to your 
 people. Lay aside the wretched formalities of a king, 
 and speak to your subjects with the spirit of a man, and 
 in the language of a gentleman. Tell them you have 
 been fatally deceived The ackiiowledgment will be no 
 disgrace, but rather an honour to your understanding. 
 Tell them ) ou 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 con- 
 fidence of your subjects; and leave it to themselves to 
 determine, by their conduct at a future election, wheth- 
 er or no it be, in reality, the general sense of the nation, 
 that their rights have been arbitrarily invaded by the 
 ;:)resent House of Commons, and the constitution betray- 
 ed. They will then do justice to their representatives 
 md to themselves. 
 
 These sentiments, sir, and the style they are convey- 
 ed in, may be offensive, perhaps, because they are new 
 to you. Accustomed to the language of courtiers, you 
 measure their affection by the vehemence of their expres- 
 sions; 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 found- 
 ed upon a principle of personal attachment. The first
 
 216 JUNIUS. 
 
 foundation of friendship is not the power of conferring 
 benefits, but the equality with which they are received, 
 and may be returned. The fortune v/hich 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 h;s affairs. 
 
 The people of England are loyal to the House of 
 Hanover; not from a vain preference of one family to 
 another, but from a conviciion, that the establishment 
 of that family was necessary lo the support of their civil 
 and religious liberties. This, sir, is a principle of alle- 
 giance equally solid and rational, fit for Englishmen to 
 adopt, and well worthy of your majesty's encourage- 
 ment. We cannot long be deluded by nominal dis- 
 tinctions. The name of Stuart, of itself, is only con- 
 temptible; armed with the sovereign authority, their 
 principles are formidable. The prince who imitates 
 their conduct, should be warned by their example ; and, 
 while he plumes himself upon the security of his title 
 to the crown, should remember, that, as it was acquir- 
 ed by one revolution, it may be lost by another. 
 
 JUNIUS. 
 
 END OF VOLUME I.
 
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