* I'M IE LETTEB VOIJ. 3 TAT THE LETTERS OF JUNIUS. FROM THE LATEST LONDON EDITION,. IN TWO VOLUMES. Stat nominus umbra. VOL. I. JYEfV-YORK : PUBLISHED BY HENRY DURELL. • 1621. CONTENTS. Page Dedication to the English Nation - -5 Preface - - - - - - - -11 Letter I. Junius to the Printer of the Public Advertiser 25 II. Sir William Draper's answer - - - 37 III. Junius to sir William Draper - - - 4? IV. Sir William Draper to Junius - - - 48 V. To sir William Draper - 55 VI. To Junius from sir William Draper - - 57 VII. To sir William Draper - - - - 59 VIII. To the duke of Grafton ... 62 IX. To the duke of Grafton - - - - 68 X. To Mr. Edward Weston - - . - 72 XI. To the duke of Grafton - . - - 74 XII. To the duke of Grafton - - - - 79 XIII. Philo Junius to the Printer of the Pub. Adv. 89 XIV. Philo Junius to the Printer of the Pub. Adv. 93 XV. To the duke of Grafton - - - - 9t XVI. To the Printer of the Public. Advertiser - 10" XVII. Philo Junius to the Printer of the Pub. Adv. 109 XVIII. To sir William Blackstone - - - IIS XIX. Philo Junius to the Printer of the Pub. Adv. 119 XX. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser - 128 XXI. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser - 138 XXII. Philo Junius to the Printer of the Pub. Adv. 140 XXIII. Junius to the duke of Bedford - - - 144 XXIV. Sir William Draper to Junius - - -156 XXV. Junius to sir William Draper - - - 159 XXVI. Sir William Draper to Junius - - - 162 XXVII. Junius to the Printer of the Public Advertiser 168 XXVIII. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser - 175 XXIX. Philo Junius to the Printer of the Pub. Adv. 174 XXX. Junius to the Printer of the Public Advertiser 179 XXXI. Philo Junius to the Printer of the Pub. Adv. 186 XXXII. Junius to the Printer of the Public Advertiser 190 XXXIII. To the duke of Grafton - - - -19? XXXIV. To the duke of Grafton - - - - 19? XXXV. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser - 198 DEDICATION TO THE ENGLISH NATION. I DEDICATE to you a collection of letters, written by one of yourselves, for the common benefit of us alL They would never have grown to this size without your continued encouragement and applause. To me they originally Owe nothing but a healthy, sanguine constitution. Under your care they have thriven : to you they are indebted for what^ ever strength or beauty they possess. When kings and ministers are forgotten, when the force and direction 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 worthy to be trans- mitted to posterity. When you leave the unimpaired heredi- tary freehold to your children, you do but half your duty. Both liberty and property are precarious, unless the pos- sessors have sense and spirit enough to defend them. This is not the language of vanity. If I am a vain man; my gratification lies within a narrow circle. I am the sole depository of my own secret, and it shall perish with me. If an honest, and, I may truly affirm, a laborious zeal for the public service, has given me any weight in your esteem, vi DEDICATION, let me exhort and conjure you, never to suffer an invasion of your political constitution, however minute the instance may appear, to pass by, without a determined persevering resistance. One precedent creates another. They soon accumulate, and constitute law. What yesterday was fact, to-day is doctrine. Examples are supposed to justify the most dangerous measures ; and where they do not suit exactly, the defect is supplied by analogy. Be assured, that the laws, which protect us in our civil rights, grow out of the constitution, and they must fall or flourish with it. This is not the cause of faction, or of party, or of any indi- vidual, but the common interest of every man in Britain. Although the king should continue to support his present system of government, the period is not very distant at which you will have the means of redress in your own power : it may be nearer, perhaps, than any of us expect ; and I would warn you to be prepared for it. The king may possibly be advised to dissolve the present parliament a year or two before it expires of course, and precipitate a new election, in hopes of taking the nation by surprise. If such a measure be in agitation, this very caution may defeat or prevent it. I cannot doubt that you will unanimously assert the freedom of election, and vindicate your exclusive right to choose your representatives. But other questions have been started, on which your determination should be equally clear and unanimous. Let it be impressed upon your minds, let it be instilled into your children, that the liberty of the press is the palladium of all the civil, political, and religious rights of an Englishman ; and that the right of juries to return a general verdict, in all cases whatsoever, is an essential part of our constitution, not to be controlled or limited by the judges, nor in any shape questionable by the legislature. The power of king, lords, DEDICATION. vU arid commons, is not an arbitrary power :* they are the trustees, not the owners, of the estate. The fee-simple is in us : they cannot alienate, they cannot waste. When we say that the legislature is supreme, we mean, that it is the highest power known to the constitution; that it is the highest, in comparison with the other subordinate powers, established by the laws. In this sense, the word supreme is relative, not absolute. The power of the legislature is limited, not only by the general rules of na- tural justice, and the welfare of the community, but by the forms and principles of our particular constitution. If this doctrine be not true, we must admit that king, lords, and commons, have no rule to direct their resolu- tions, but merely their own will and pleasure : they might unite the legislative and executive power in the same hands, and dissolve the constitution by an act of parlia- ment. But I am persuaded you will not leave it to the choice of seven hundred persons, notoriously corrupted by * The positive denial of an arbitrary power being vested in the legislature, is not, in fact, a new doctrine. When the earl of Lindsay, in the year 1675, brought in a bill into the house of lords, " To prevent the dangers which might arise from persons disaffected to govern- ment," by which an oath and penalty was to be imposed upon the members of both houses ; it was affirmed, in a protest, signed by twenty-three lay peers, (my lords the bishops were not accustomed to protest,) " That the pri- vilege of sitting and voting in parliament was an honour they had by birth, and a right so inherent in them, and inseparable from them, that nothing could take it away, but what, by the law of the land, must withal take away their lives, and corrupt their blood." These noble peers, whose names are a reproach to their posterity, have, in this instance, solemnly denied the power of parliament to alter the constitution. Under a particular proposition, they have asserted a general truth, in which every man in England is concerned. viii DEDICATION. 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 fate, it i« because we have better resources than in the virtue of either house of parliament. I said, that the liberty of the press is the palladium of all your rights, and that the right of the juries to return a general verdict, is part of your constitution. To pre- serve the whole system, you must correct your legislature* With regard to any influence of the constituent over the conduct of the representative, there is little difference between a seat in parliament for seven years and a seat for life. The prospect of your resentment is too remote ; and, although the last session of a septennial parliament be usually employed in courting the favour of the people ; consider, that at this rate, your representatives have six years for offence, and but one for atonement. A death- bed repentance seldom reaches to restitution. If you re- flect, that, in the changes of administration which have marked and disgraced the present reign, although yout warmest patriots have, in their turn, been invested with the lawful and unlawful authority of the crown, and though other reliefs or improvements have been held forth to the people, yet that no one man in office has ever promoted or encouraged a bill for shortening the duration of parlia- ments, but that (whoever was minister) the opposition to this measure, ever since the septennial act passed, has been constant and uniform on the part of government — you cannot but conclude, without the possibility of a doubt, that long parliaments are the foundation of the undue ia» DEDICATION. ix fluence of the crown. This influence answers every pur- pose of arbitrary power to the crown, with an expense and oppression to the people, which would be unnecessary in an arbitrary government. The best of our ministers find it the easiest and most compendious mode of conduct- ing the king's affairs ; and all ministers have a general interest in adhering to a system, which, of itself, is suffi- cient to support them in office, without any assistance from personal virtue, popularity, labour, abilities, or ex- perience. It promises every gratifi cation to avarice and ambition, and secures impunity. These are truths un- questionable : if they make no impression, it is because they are too vulgar and notorious. But the inattention or indifference of the nation has continued too long. You ape roused at last to a sense of your danger : the remedy will soon be in your power. If Junius lives, you shall often be reminded of it. If, when the opportunity pre- sents itself, you neglect to do your duty to yourselves and to posterity, to God and to your country, I shall have one consolation left, in common with the meanest and basest of mankind : Civil liberty may still last the life of JUNIUS. a 2 PREFACE. THE encouragement given to a multitude of spurious, mangled publications of the " Letters of Junius," per- suades me, that a complete edition, corrected and improved by the author, will be favourably received. The printer will readily acquit me of any view to my own profit. I undertake this troublesome task merely to serve a man who has deserved well of me and of the public ; and who, on my account, has been exposed to an expensive, tyrannical prosecution. For these reasons, I give to Mr. Henry Samp- son Woodfall, and to him alone, my right, interest, and property, in these letters, as fully and completely, to all intents and purposes, as an author can possibly convey his property in his own works to another. , This edition contains all the letters of Junius, Philo Junius, and of Sir William Draper and Mr. Home to Junius, with their respective dates, and according to the order in which they appeared in the Public Advertiser. The auxiliary part of Philo Junius was indispensably neces- sary to defend or explain particular passages in Junius, in answer to plausible objections ; but the subordinate char- acter is never guilty of the indecorum of praising his prin- cipal. The fraud was innocent, and I always intended to explain it. The notes will be found not only useful but necessary. References to facts not generally known, or xii PREFACE. 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 sup- posed to be distinguished, seems to require that some- thing serious should be said in their defence. I am no lawyer by profession, nor do I pretend to be more deeply read than every English gentleman should be, in the laws of his country. If, therefore, the principles I maintain are truly constitutional, I shall not think myself answered, though I should be convicted of a mistake in terms, or of misapplying the language of the law. I speak to the plain understanding of the people, and appeal to their honest, liberal construction of me. Good men, to whom alone I address myself, appear to me to consult their piety as little as their judgment and experience, when they admit the great and essential advan- tages accruing to society from the freedom of the press, yet indulge themselves in peevish or passionate exclamations against the abuses of it. Betraying an unreasonable ex- pectation of benefits, pure and entire from any human institution, they, in effect, arraign the goodness of Provi- dence, and confess that they are dissatisfied with the com- mon lot of humanity. In the present instance, they really create to their own minds, or greatly exaggerate the evil they complain of. The laws of England provide as effec- tually as any human laws can do for the protection of the subject, in his reputation, as well as in his person and pro- perty. If the characters of private men are insulted or injured, a double remedy is open to them by action and in- dictment : if, through indolence, false shame, or indiffer- ence, they will not appeal to the laws of their country, they fail in their duty to society, and are unjust to them- PREFACE. xiii selves : 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 affirm, that they are in effect, greater enemies to themselves than to the libeller they prosecute. With regard to strictures upon the characters of men in office, and the measures of government, the case is a little different. A considerable latitude must be allowed in the discussion of public affairs, or the liberty of the press will be of no beneiitto society. As the indulgence of private malice and personal slander should be checked and resisted by every legal means, so a constant examination into the characters and conduct of ministers and magistrates should be equally promoted and encouraged. They who conceive that our newspapers are no restraint upon bad men, or im- pediment to the execution of bad measures, know nothing of this country. In that state of abandoned 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 the censure of the press, and the spirit of resistance which it excites amon g the people. While this censorial power is maintained, (to speak in the words of a most ingenious foreigner) both im- nisler and magistrate are compelled, in almost every v in- stance to choose between his duty and his reputation. A dilemma of this kind perpetually before him, will net} 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 discipline we have left. But it is alleged, that the licentiousness of the press is carried beyond all bounds of decency and truth ; that our excellent ministers are continually exposed to the public hatred or derision: that in prosecutions for libels on govern* xlv PREFACE. ment, juries are partial to the popular side ; and that, hi 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 temper of the times has in general an undue influence over the conduct of juries : on the contrary, many signal instances may be produced of verdicts returned for the king, when the inclinations of the people led strongly to an undistinguished opposition to go- vernment. Witness the cases of Mr. Wilkes and Mr. Almon. In the late prosecution of the printers of my address 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, 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 par- ticular motive, combined with his general purpose to con- tract the power of juries, will account for the charge he delivered in Woodfall's trial. He told the jury, in so many words, that they had nothing to determine, except the fact of printing and publishing, and whether or no the blanks or inuendoes were properly filled up in the information ; but that, whether the defendant had committed a crime or not, was no matter of consideration to twelve men, who yet, upon their oaths, were 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 so- phistry, which a plain understanding is unable to follow, and which an unlearned jury, however it may shock their rea- son, cannot be supposed qualified to refute, can it be won- dered that they should return a verdict perplexed, absurd, or imperfect ? Lord Mansfield has not yet explained to the world, why he accepted of a verdict which the court after- wards set aside as illegal ; and which, as it took no notice of PREFACE. xv the inuendoes, did not even correspond with his own charge. If he had known his duty, he should have sent the jury back. I speak advisedly, and am well assured, that no lawyer of character, in Westminster-hall, will contradict me. To show the falsehood of lord Mansfield's doctrine, it is not necessary to enter into the merits of the paper which produced the trial. If every line of it were treason, his charge to the jury would still be false, absurd, illegal, and unconstitutional. If I stated the merits of my letter to the king, I should imitate lord Mansfield, and travel* out of * The following quotation from a speech delivered by 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 pub- lishing 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 the 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 mo- tions a rule was granted ; and soon after the matter was argued before the court of king's bench. The noble judge, when he delivered the opinion of the court upon the ver- dict, went regularly through the whole of the proceedings at Nisi Prius, as well the evidence that had been given, as his own charge to the jury. This proceeding would have been very proper, had a motion been made on either side for a new trial ; because either a verdict given contrary to evidence, or an improper charge by the judge at Nisi Prius, is held to be a sufficient ground for granting a new trial. But when a motion is made in arrest of judgment, or for establishing the verdict, by entering it up according to the legal import of the words, it must be on the 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 can- not take notice of any thing that does not appear on the xvi PREFACE. the record. 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 kings at- torney-general has virtually disclaimed the doctrine by which the chief justice meant to ensure success to the pro- secution. The opinion of the plantiff 's counsel (however it may be otherwise insignificant) is weighty in the scale of the defendant. My" lord chief justice de Grey, who filed the information ex officio, is directly with me. If he had concurred in lord Mansfield's doctrine, the trial must have been a very short one. The facts were either admitted by Woodfall's counsel, or easily proved to the satisfaction of the jury ; but Mr. de Grey, far from thinking he should acquit himself of his duty, by barely proving the facts, entered largely, and I confess, Hot 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) were the only matter of consideration to the jury. The criminal intent, the libellous matter, the perni- cious tendency of the paper itself, were the topics on which he principally insisted, and of which, for more than an hour, he tortured his faculties to convince the jury. If he agreed- in opinion with lord Mansfield, his discourse was imperti- nent, ridiculous, and unreasonable. But understanding the law as I do, what he said was at least consistent, and to the purpose. face of it ; in the legal phrase, they cannot travel out of the record. The noble judge did travel out of the record ; and I affirm, that his discourse was irregular, extrajudicial, and unprecedented. His apparent motive for doing what he knew to be wrong, was that he might have an opportu- nity of telling the public extrajudicially, that "the other three judges concurred in the doctrine laid down in his charge." PREFACE. xvii If any honest man should still be inclined to leave the construction of libels to the court, I would entreat him to consider what a dreadful complication of hardships he im- poses upon his fellow subjects. In the first place, the pro- secution commences by information of an officer of the crown, not by the regular constitutional mode of indict- ment before a grand jury. As the fact is usually admitted, or, in general can easily be proved, the office of the petty jury is nugatory : the court then judges of the nature and extent of the offence, and determines, ad arbitrium, the quantum of the punishment, from a small fine to a heavy one, to repeated whipping, to pillory, and unlimited impri- sonment. Cutting off ears and noses might still be inflicted by a resolute judge : but I will be candid enough to suppose that penalties, so apparently shocking to humanity, would not be hazarded in these times. In all other criminal pro* seoutions the jury decides upon the fact and the crime in one word, and the court pronounces a certain sentence, which is the sentence of the law, not of the judge. If lord Mansfield's doctrine be received, the jury must either find a verdict of acquittal, contrary to evidence, which, I can con- ceive, might be done by very conscientious men, rather- than trust a fellow-creature to lord Mansfield's mercy j or they must leave to the court two offices, never but in this instance united, of finding guilty, and awarding punishment. " But," says this honest lord chief justice, " if the paper be not 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 judgment shall be entered up or not ? and is not the de- fendant this way as effectually deprived of judgment by his peers, as if he \v< iv tried in a court of civil law, or in the chambers of the inquisition? It is you, mv lord, who then 1 kvili PREFACE. 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 possess himself of the invidious power of inflicting punishment, if he were not predetermined to make use of it. Again, we are told that judge and jury have a distinct office ; that the jury is to find the fact, and the judge to deliver the law. " De jure respondent judices, de facto jurati." The dictum is true, though not in the sense given to it by lord Mansfield. The jury are undoubtedly to de- termine the fact ; that is, whether the defendant did or did not commit the crime charged against him. The judge pronounces the sentence annexed by law to that fact so found ; and if, in the course of the trial, any question of law arises, both the counsel and the jury must, of necessi- ty, appeal to the judge, and leave it to his decision. An exception, or plea in bar, may be allowed by the court ; but, when issue is joined, and the jury have received their charge, it is not possible, in the nature of things, for them fo separate the law from the fact, unless they think proper to return a special verdict. It has also been alleged, that, although a common jury are sufficient to determine a plain matter of fact, they are not qualified to comprehend the meaning, or to judge of the tendency of a seditious libel. In answer to this objec- tion (which, if well founded, would prove nothing as to the strict right of returning a general verdict) I might safely deny the truth of this assertion. Englishmen, of that rank from which juries are usually taken, are not so illiterate as (to serve a particular purpose) they are now represented : or, admitting the fact, let a special jury be summoned in all cases of difficulty and importance, and the objection is removed. But the truth is, that if a paper, supposed to be a libel upon government, be so obscurely worded, that twelve common men cannot possibly see the seditious PREFACED Kte meaning and tendency of it, it is in effect no libel. It can- not inflame the minds of the people, nor alienate their affections from government ; for they no more understand what it means, than if it were published in a language un- known to them. Upon the whole matter, it appears, to my understanding, clear, beyond a doubt, that, if, in any future prosecution for a seditious libel, the jury should bring in a verdict of acquittal, not warranted by the evidence, it will be owing to the false and absurd doctrines laid down by lord Mans- field. Disgusted at the odious artifices made use of by the judge to mislead and perplex them, guarded against his sophistry, and convinced of the falsehood of his assertions, they may, perhaps, determine to thwart his detestable pur- pose, and defeat him at any rate. To him, at least, they will do substantial justice. Whereas, if the whole charge laid in the information be fairly and honestly submitted to the jury, there is no reason whatsoever to presume that twelve men, upon their oaths, will not decide impartially between the king and the defendant. The numerous in- stances, in our state trials, of verdicts recovered for the king, sufficiently refute the false and scandalous imputa- tions thrown, by the abettors of lord Mansfield, upon the integrity of juries. But, even admitting the supposi- tion, that, in times of universal discontent, arising from the notorious mal-administration of public afiairs, a sedi- tious writer should escape punishment, it makes nothing against my general argument. If juries are fallible, to what other tribunal shall we appeal ? If juries cannot safely be trusted, shall we unite the offices of judge and jury, so wisely divided by the constitution, and trust im- plicitly to lord Mansfield ? Are the judges of the court of king's bench more likely to be unbiassed and impartial than twelve yeomen, burgesses, or gentlemen, taken indif- ferently from the country at large ? Or, in short, airdi xx PREFACE. there be no decision, until we have instituted a tribunal from which no possible abuse or inconvenience whatsoever can arise ? If I am not grossly mistaken, these questions carry a decisive answer along with them. Having cleared the freedom of the press from a re- straint equally unnecessary and illegal, I return to the use which has been made of it in the present publication. > National 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 evidence of facts before us. We must be con- versant with the Scots in private life, and observe their principles of acting to us and to each other ; the character- istic prudence, the selfish nationality, the indefatigable smile, the persevering assiduity, the everlasting profession ©f a discreet and moderate resentment. If the instance were not too important for an experiment, it might not be amiss to confide a little in their integrity. Without any abstract reasoning upon causes and effects, we shall soon be eonvinced, by experience, that the Scots, transplanted from their own country, are always a distinct and separate body from the people who receive them. In other settlements, they only love themselves : in England they cordially love themselves, and as cordially hate their neighbours. For the remainder of their good qualities I must appeal to the reader's observation, unless he will accept of my lord Bar- rington's authority in a letter to the late lord Melcombe^ published by Mr. Lee : he expresses himself with a truth and accuracy not very common in his lordship's lucubrations. " And Cockbum, like most of his countrymen, is as abject to those above him, as he is insolent to those below him." I am far from meaning to impeach the articles of the union. If the true spirit of those articles were religiously adhered to, we should not see such a multitude of Scotch commoners n the lower house, as representatives of English boroughs* PREFACE. xxi while not a single Scotch borough is ever represented by a« Englishman : we should not see English peerages given to Scotch ladies, or to the elder sons of Scotch peers, and the number of sixteen doubled and trebled by a scandalous eva- sion of the act of union. If it should ever be thought adviseable to dissolve an act, the violation or observance of which is invariably directed by the advantage and interest of the Scots, I shall say very sincerely, with Sir Edward Coke,* " When poor England stood alone, and had not the access of another kingdom, and yet had more and as potent enemies as h now hath, yet the king of England prevailed." Some opinion may now be expected from me, upon a point of equal delicacy to the writer, and hazard to the printer. When the character of the chief magistrate is in question, more must be understood than may be safely ex- pressed. If it be really a part of our constitution, and not a mere dictum of the law, that the king can do no wrong, ft is not the only instance, in the wisest of human institu- tions, where theory is at variance with practice. That the sovereign of this country is not amenable to any form of trial known to the laws, is unquestionable : but exemption from punishment is a singular privilege annexed to the royal character, and no way excludes the possibility of de- serving it. How long, and to what extent, a king of Eng- land may be protected by the forms, when he violates the spirit of the constitution, deserves to be considered. A mistake in this matter proved fatal to Charles and his son. For my own part, far from thinking that the king can do no wrong, far from suffering myself to be deterred or im- posed upon by the language of forms, in opposition to the substantial evidence of truth ; if it were my misfortune to * Parliamentary History, vol. ii. p. 400. xxii PREFACE. live under the inauspicious reign of a prince, whose whole life was employed in one base, contemptible struggle with the free spirit of his people, or in the detestable endeavour to corrupt their moral principles, I would not scruple t« declare to him, " Sir, you alone are the author of the great- est 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 affec- tions ; has not the strength of the crown, whether influence or prerogative, been uniformly exerted, for eleven years Jogether, to support a narrow, pitiful system of government which defeats itself, and answers no one purpose of real power, profit, or personal satisfaction to you? With the greatest unappropriated revenue of any prince in Europe- have we not seen you reduced to such vile and sordid dis, tresses, as would have conducted any other man to a prison ? With a great military, and the greatest naval power in the known world, have not foreign nations repeatedly insulted you with impunity ? Is it not notorious that the vast reve- nues, extorted from the labour and industry of your sub- jects, and given you to do honour to yourself and to the nation, are dissipated in 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 f Do you profess to govern according to law, and is it consis- tent with that profession to impart your confidence and af- fection to those men only who, though now, perhaps detached from the desperate cause of the pretender, are marked in this country by an hereditary attachment to high and arbitrary principles of government ? Are you so infatu- ated as to take the sense of your people from the representa- tion of ministers, or from the shouts of a mob, notoriously hired to surround your coach, or stationed at a theatre ? And if you are, in reality, that public man, that king, that magistrate, which these questions suppose you to be, is it PREFACE. xxi/i any answer to your people, to say, that among your domestics you are good-humoured, that to one lady yon are faithful, that to your children you are indulgent r Sir, the man who addresses you in these terms, is your best friend : he would willingly hazard his life in defence of your title to the crown ; and, if power be your object, will still show you how possible it is for a king of England, by the noblest means, to be the most absolute prince in Europe, You have no enemies, sir, but those who persuade you to aim at power without right, and who think it flattery to telt you, that the character of king dissolves the natural relatiou between guilt and punishment." I cannot conceive that there is a heart so callous, or au understanding so depraved, as to attend to a discourse of this nature, and not to feel the force of it. But where is the man, among those who have access to the closet, reso- lute and honest enough to deliver it ? The liberty of the press is our only resource : it will command an audience when every honest man in the kingdom is excluded. 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 the press would have corrected his conduct, prevented a civil war, and saved him from an ignominious 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 recommend to the public, as a performance deep, solid, and ingenious. * Monsieur de Lolme. xxiv PREFACE. t{ 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 empire of the East, a sanctuary could be found, which, rendered respectable by the ancient religion of the people, might insure safety to those who should bring thither their observations of any kind ; and that, from thence, printed papers should issue, which, under a certain seal, might be equally respected, and which, in their daily appearance, should examine and freely discuss the conduct of the cadis, the bashaws, the vizir, the divan, and the sul- tan himself; that would introduce immediately some de- gree of liberty." LETTERS OF JUNIUS. LETTER 1. Addressed to the Printer of the Public Advertiser. SIR, January 21, 1769. A HE submission of a free people to the executive authority of government, is no more than a com pliance with laws which they themselves have enacted. While the national honour is firmly main- tained abroad, and while justice is impartially ad- ministered at home, the obedience of the subject will be voluntary, cheerful, and, I might almost say, un- limited. A generous nation is grateful even for the preservation of its rights, and willingly extends the respect due to the office of a good prince into an affection for his person. Loyalty, in the heart and understanding of an Englishman, is a rational at- tachment to the guardian of the laws. Prejudices and passion have sometimes carried it to a criminal length, and, whatever foreigners may imagine, we know that Englishmen have erred as much in a mis- VOL. i. B 26 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. takeu 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 how long they ought to have submitted, and at what moment it would have been treachery to them- selves not to have resisted. How much warmer will be our resentment, if experience should bring the fatal example home to ourselves ! The situation of this country is alarming enough to rouse the attention of every man who pretends to a concern for the public welfare. Appearances jus- tify suspicion ; and when the safety of a nation is at stake, suspicion is a just ground of inquiry. 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 adopt- ed with moderation. The ruin or prosperity of a state depends so much upon the administration of its government, that, to ]oe acquainted with the merit of a ministry, we need only observe the condition of the people. If we see them obedient to the laws, prosperous in their indus- try, united at home, and respected abroad, we may reasonably presume that their affairs are conducted by men of experience, abilities, and virtue. If, on the contrary, we see an universal spirit of distrust and dissatisfaction, a rapid decay of trade, dissensions in JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 27 all parts of the empire, and a total loss of respect in the eyes of foreign powers, we may pronounce, with- out hesitation, that the government of that country is weak, distracted, and corrupt. The multitude, in all countries, are patient to a certain point. Ill usage may rouse their indignation, and hurry them into excesses ; but the original fault is in government. Perhaps there never was an instance of a change in the circumstances and temper of a whole nation so sudden and extraordinary as that which the miscon- duct of ministers has, within these few years, pro- duced in Great Britain. When our gracious sove- reign 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 charac- ters, and distributing the offices of state by rotation, was gracious and benevolent to an extreme, though it has not yet produced the many salutary effects which were intended by it. To say nothing of the wisdom of such apian, it undoubtedly 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 treacherous amusement of double and triple negotiations. No, sir, it arose from a continued anxiety, in the purest of all possible hearts, for the general welfare. Unfortunately for us, the event has not been answerable to the design. After a rapid succession of changes, we are reduced to that state which hardly any change can mend. Yet there is no 26 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 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 concurrence of ca- lamitous circumstances; it is the pernicious hand of government which alone can make a whole pcoplo desperate. Without much political sagacity, or any extraor dinary depth of observation, we need only mark hov* the principal departments of the state are bestowed, and look no farther for the true cause of every mis- chief that befalls us. The * finances of a nation, sinking under its debts and expenses, are committed to a young nobleman, already ruined by play. Introduced to act under the auspices of lord Chatham, and left at the head of affairs by that nobleman's retreat, he became minister by accident : but deserting the principles and profes- sions which gave him a moment's popularity, we see him from every honourable engagement to the public, an apostate by design. As for business, the world yet knows nothing of his talents or resolution j unless, a wayward, wavering inconsistency be a mark of * The duke of Grafton took the office of secretary of state, with an engagement to support the marquis of Rock- ingham's administration. He resigned, however, in a little time, under pretence that 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 Rockingham's dismission. When lord Chatham came in, the duke got possession of the treasury. Reader, mark the consequence ! JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 29 genius, and caprice a demonstration of spirit. It may be said, perhaps, that it is his grace's province, as surely it is 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 trea- sury may be as thoughtless and extravagant as he pleases. I hope, however, he will not rely too much on the fertility of lord North's genius for finance : his lordship is yet to give us the first proof of his abili- ties. It may be candid to suppose that he has hitherto voluntarily concealed his talents ; intending, perhaps, to astonish the world, when we least expect it, with a knowledge of trade, a choice of expedients, and a depth of resources, equal to the necessities, and far beyond the hopes of his country. He must now exert the whole power of his capacity, if he would wish us to forget, that, since he has been in office, no plan has been formed, no system adhered to, nor any one im- portant measure adopted for the relief of public credit. If his plan for the service of the current year be not irrevocably fixed on, let me warn him to think seri- ously of consequences, before he ventures to increase the public debt. Outraged and oppressed as we are, this nation will not bear, after a six years' peace, to see new millions borrowed, without an eventual dimi- nution of debt, or reduction of interest. The attempt might rouse a spirit of resentment which might reach beyond the sacrifice of a minister. As to the debt upon the civil list, the people of England expect that it will not be paid without a strict inquiry how it was incurred. If it must be paid by parliament, let me advise the chancellor of the exchequer to think of 30 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. some better expedient than a lottery. To support an expensive war, or in circumstances of absolute neces- sity, a lottery may, perhaps, be allowable; but, be- sides that it is at all times the very worst way of raising money upon the people, I think it ill becomes the royal dignity to have the debts of a king provided for, like the repairs of a country bridge, or a decayed hospital. The management of the king's affairs, in r!ic house of commons, cannot be more disgraced than it has been. A leading minister* repeatedly called down for absolute ignorance, ridiculous mo- tions ridiculously withdrawn, deliberate plans discon- certed, and a week's preparation of graceful oratory lost in a moment, give us some, though not adequate ideas, of lord North's parliamentary abilities and in- fluence. Yet, before he had the misfortune of being chancellor of the exchequer, he was neither an object of derision to his enemies, nor of melancholy pity to his friends. A series of inconsistent measures has alienated the colonies from their duty as subjects, and from their natural affection to their common country. When Mr. Grenville was placed at the head of the treasury, he felt the impossibility of Great Britain's supporting such an establishment, as her former successes had made indispensable, and at the same time of giving any sensible relief to foreign trade, and to the weight of the public debt. He thought it equitable, that those parts of the empire which had benefited most by * This happened frequently to poor lord North. JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 31 Ihe expenses of the war, should contribute something to the expenses of the peace, and he had no doubt of the constitutional right vested in parliament to raise the contribution. But, unfortunately for his country, Mr. Grenville was at any rate to be distressed, because he was minister ; and Mr. Pitt* and lord Camderi were to be the patrons of America, because they were in opposition. Their declaration gave spirit and ar- gument to the colonies; and while, perhaps, they meant no more than the ruin of a minister, they, in effect, divided one half of the empire from the other. Under one administration the stamp-act is made ) under the second it is repealed ; under the third, in spite of all experience, a new mode of taxing the colo- nies is invented, and a question revived which ought to have been buried in oblivion. In these circum- stances a new office is established for the business of the plantations, and the earl of Hillsborough called forth, at a most critical season, to govern America. The choice, at least, announced to us a man of su- perior capacity and knowledge. Whether he be so or not, let his despatches, as far as they have appear- ed, let his measures, as far as they have operated, determine for him. In the former we have seen strong assertions without proof, declamation without argu- ment, and violent censures without dignity or mode- ration ; but neidier correctness in the composition, uor judgment in the design. As for his measures, let * Yet Junius has been called the partisan of lord Chatham \ 32 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. it be remembered, that he was called upon to conciliate and unite ; and that, when he entered into office, the most refractory of the colonies were still disposed to proceed by the constitutional methods of petition and remonstrance. Since that period they have been driven into excesses little short of rebellion. Peti- tions have been hindered from reaching the throne; and the continuance of one of the principal assem- blies rested upon an arbitrary condition,* which, con- sidering the temper they were in, it was impossible ihey should comply with; and which would have availed nothing as to the general question, if it had been complied with. So violent, and, I believe, I may call it, so unconstitutional, an exertion of the prerogative, to say nothing of the weak, injudicious terms in which it was conveyed, gives us as bumble 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. Whenever that force shall be necessa rily withdrawn or diminished, the dismission of such a minister will neither console us for his imprudence, nor remove the settled resentment of a people, who, complaining of an act of the legislature, are outraged by an unwarrantable stretch of prerogative ; and. supporting their claims by argument, are insulted with declamation. * That they should retract one of their resolutions, and erase the entry of it. JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 33 Drawing lots would be a prudent and reasonable method of appointing the officers of state, compared to a late disposition of the secretary's office. Lord Rochford was acquainted with the affairs and temper of the southern courts; lord Weymouth was equally qualified for either department :* by what unaccount- able caprice has it happened, that the latter, who pre- tends to no experience whatsoever, is removed to the most important of the two departments ; and the for- mer, by preference, placed in an office where his ex- perience can be of no use to him ? Lord Weymouth had distinguished himself, in his first employment, by a spirited, if not judicious conduct. He had animated the civil magistrate beyond the tone of civil authority, and had directed the operations of the army to more than military execution. Recovered from the errors of his youth, from the distraction of play, and the bewitching smiles of Burgundy, behold him exerting the whole strength of his clear, unclouded faculties in the service of the crown. It was not the heat of midnight excesses, nor ignorance of the laws, nor the furious spirit of the house of Bedford ; no, sir, tvhen this respectable minister interposed his authority between the magistrate and the people, and signed the mandate, on which, for aught he knew, the fives of thousands depended, he did it from the de- liberate motion of his heart, supported by the best of his judgment. * It was pretended that the earl of Rochford, while am- bassador in France, had quarrelled with the duke of Choi- seul ; and that, therefore, he was appointed to the northern department, out of compliment to the French minister. 1)2 3 34 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. It has lately been a fashion to pay a compliment to the bravery and generosity of the commander-in- chief,* at the expense of his understanding. They who love him least make no question of his courage, while his friends dwell chiefly on the facility of his disposition. Admitting him to be as brave as a total absence of all feeling and reflection can make him, let us see what sort of merit he derives from the remain- der of his character. If it be generosity to accumu- late, in his own person and family, a number of lucra- tive employments; to provide, at the public expense, for every creature that bears the name of Manners ; and, neglecting the merit and services of the rest of the army, to heap promotions upon his favourites and dependents ; the present commander-in-chief is the most generou- man alive. Nature has been sparing of her gifts to this noble lord ; but where birth and for- tune are united, we expect the noble pride and inde- pendence of a man of 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 of never refusing, what conclusion shall we draw from the indecency of never performing f And if the discipline of the army be in any degree pre- served, what thanks are due to a man, whose cares, notoriously confined to filling up vacancies, have degraded the 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 * The late lord Granby, JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 35 Hawke, that no expense should be spared to secure to him an honourable and affluent retreat. The pure and impartial administration of justice is, perhaps, the firmest bond to secure a cheerful submission of the people, and to engage their affec- tions to government. It is not sufficient that ques- tions of private right or wrong are justly decided, nor that judges are superior to the vileness of pecu- niary corruption. Jefleries himself, when the court had no interest, was an upright judge. A court of justice may be subject to another sort of bias, more important and pernicious, as it reaches beyond the interest of individuals, and affects the whole com- munity. A judge, under the influence of govern- ment, may be honest enough in the decision of pri- vate causes, yet a traitor to the public. When a victim is mai-ked out by the ministry, this judge will offer himself to perform the sacrifice : he will not scruple to prostitute his dignity, and betray the sanctity of his office, whenever an arbitrary point is to be carried for government, or the resentment of a court to be gratified. These principles and proceedings, odious and contemptible as they are, in effect are no less inju- dicious. A wise and generous people are roused by every appearance of oppressive, unconstitutional measures, whether those measures are supported only by the power of government, or masked under the forms of a court of justice. Prudence and self- preservation will oblige the most moderate disposi- tions to make common cause even with a man whose conduct they censure, if they see him per- secuted in a way which the real spirit of the laws 36 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. will not justify. The facts on which these remarks are founded are too notorious to require an ap- plication. This, sir, is the detail. In one view, behold a na- tion overwhelmed with debt ; her revenues wasted, her trade declining ; the affections of her colo- nies alienated ; the duty of the magistrate trans- ferred to the soldiery ; a gallant army, which never fought unwillingly but against their fellow-subjects, mouldering away for want of the direction of a man of common abilities and spirit ; and in the last instance, the administration of justice become odious and suspected to the whole body of the peo- ple. This deplorable scene admits of but one ad- dition ; that we are governed by counsels from which a reasonable man can expect no remedy but poison ; no relief but death. If, by the immediate interposition of Providence, it were possible for us to escape a crisis so full of terror and despair, posterity will not believe the history of the present times. They will either con- clude that our distresses were imaginary, or that we had the good fortune to be governed by men of acknowledged integrity and wisdom : they will not believe it possible, that their ancestors could have survived or recovered from so desperate a condi- tion, while a duke of Grafton was prime minister, a lord North chancellor of the exchequer ; a Wey- mouth and a Hillsborough secretaries of state ; a Granby commander-in-chief; and a Mansfield chief criminal judge of the kingdom. JUNIUS. JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 37 II. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser. SIR, January 26, 1769- The kingdom swarms with snch numbers of felo- nious robbers of private character and virtue, that no honest or good man is safe ; especially as these cowardly, base assassins, stab in the dark, with- out having the courage to sign their real names to their malevolent and wicked productions. A writer, who signs himself Junius, in the Public Advertiser of the 21st instant, opens the deplorable situation of his country in a very affecting manner. With a pompous parade of his candour and de- cency, he tells us that we see dissensions in all parts of the 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 pathetically enume- rates. I shall take the liberty to explain the cause for him. Junius, and such writers as himself, occasion all the mischief complained of, by falsely and maliciously traducing the best characters in the kingdom : for when our deluded people at home, and foreigners abroad, read the poisonous and inflammatory libels that are daily published with impunity, to vilify those who are any way distin- guished by their good qualities and eminent vir- tues; when they find no notice taken of, or replv 38 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. given to these slanderous tongues and pens, their conclusion is, that both the ministers and the nation have been fairly described, and they act ac- cordingly. I think it, therefore, the duty of every good citizen to stand forth, and endeavour to un- deceive the public, when the vilest arts are made use of to defame and blacken the brightest char- acters among us. An eminent author affirms it to be almost as criminal to hear a worthy man tra- duced, without attempting his justification, as to be the author of the calumny against him. For my own part, I think it a sort of misprision of treason against society. No man, therefore, who knows lord Granby, can possibly hear so good and great a character most vilely abused, without a warm and just indignation against this Junius, this high- priest of envy, malice, and all uncharitableness, who has endeavoured to sacrifice our beloved com- mander-in-chief at the altars of his horrid deities. Nor is the injury done to his lordship alone, but to the whole nation, which may too soon feel the contempt, and consequently the attacks, of our late enemies, if they can be induced to believe that the person on whom the safety of these kingdoms so much depends, is unequal to his high station, and destitute of those qualities which form a good ge- neral. One would have thought that his lordship's services in the cause of his country, from the battle ©f Culloden to his most glorious conclusion of the late war, might have entitled him to common re- spect and decency at least ; but this uncandid, inde- cent writer, has gone so far as to turn one of the most amiable men of the age into a stupid, unfeel- JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 30 ing, and senseless being ; possessed, indeed, of a personal courage, but void of those essential qua- lities which distinguish the commander from the common soldier. A very long, uninterrupted, impartial, (I will add, a most disinterested) friendship, with lord Granby, gives me the right to affirm, that all Junius's asser- tions are false and scandalous. Lord Granby's- courage, though of the brightest and most ardent kind, is amongst the lowest of his numerous good qualities : he was formed to excel in war, by nature's liberality to his mind as well as person. Educated and instructed by his most noble father, and a most spirited as well as excellent scholar, the present bishop of Bangor, he was trained to the nicest sense of honour, and to the truest and noblest sort of pride, that of never doing or suffering a mean action. A sincere love and attachment to his king and country, and to their glory, first impelled him to the field, where he never gained ought but honour. He im- paired, through his bounty, his own fortune ; for his bounty, which this writer would in vain depreciate, is founded upon the noblest of the human affections - y it flows from a heart melting to goodness ; from the most refined humanity. Can a man, who is described as unfeeling and void of reflection, be constantly employed in seeking proper objects, on whom to exercise those glorious virtues of com- passion and generosity ? The distressed officer, the soldier, the widow, the orphan, and a long list besides, know that vanity has no share in his frequent donations ; he gives, because he feels their distresses. N.or has he ever been rapacious with one hand, to be 40 JUNIUS'S LETTERS, bountiful with the other. Yet this uncandid Junius would insinuate, that the dignity of the commander- in-chief is depraved into the base office of a com- mission-broker ; that is, lord Granby bargains for the sale of commissions ; for it must have this mean- ing, if it has any at all. But where is the man living who can justly charge his lordship with such mean practices ? Why does not Junius produce him ; Junius knows that he has no other means of wound- ing this hero, than from some missile weapon, shot from an obscure corner. He seeks, as all such defamatory writers do, spargere voces In 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 involve this country in the same common ruin with themselves. Hence it is, that they are constantly aiming their dark, and too often fatal, weapons against those who stand forth as the bulwark of our national safety. Lord Granby was too conspicuous a mark not to be their object. He is next attacked for being unfaithful to his promises and engagements ? Where are Junius's proofs ? Although I could give some in- stances where a breach of promise would be a virtue, especially in the case of those who would pervert the open unsuspecting moments of convivial mirth into sly insidious applications for preferment or party- JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 41 systems ; and would endeavour to surprise a good man, who cannot bear to see any one leave him dissatisfied, into unguarded promises. Lord Granby's attention to his own family and relations is called selfish. Had he not attended to them, when fab 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 pro- vided for, but from the influence and protection of the patron ? It is unfair to suppose that lord Granby's friends have not as much merit as the friends of any other great man. If lie is generous at the public, expense, as Junius invidiously calls it, the public is at no more expense for his lordship's friends, than it would be if any other set of men possessed those offices. The charge is ridiculous. The last charge against lord Granby is of a most serious and alarming nature indeed. Junius asserts,, that the army is mouldering away, for want of the direction of a man of common abilities and spirit. The present condition of the army gives the directest lie to his assertions. It was never upon a more res- pectable footing with regard to discipline and all the essentials that can form good soldiers. Lord Ligo- nier delivered a firm and noble palladium of our safeties into lord Granby's hands, wiio has kept it in the same good order in which he received it. The strictest care has been taken to fill up the vacant commissions with such gentlemen as have the glory of their ancestors to support, as well as their own ; and are doubly bound to the cause of their king and country, from motives of private property, as well as public spirit. The adjutant-general, who has the 42 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. immediate care of the troops after lord Granby, k an officer that would do great honour to any service in Europe, for his correct arrangements, good sens.e 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 cafe, and have answered the important trust reposed in them in the most laudable manner. Their reports of the condition of the army are much more to be credited thau those of Junius, whom I do advise to atone for his shameful aspersions, hy asking pardon of lord Granby 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 without argu- ment, and violent censures without dignity or mo- leration." WILLIAM DRAPER. III. To Sir William Draper, 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 fo do, for the reputation of your friend, and you express yourself in the warmest language of your JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 45 passions. In any other cause, I doubt not you would have cautiously weighed the consequences of committing your name to the licentious discourses and malignant opinions of the world : but here, I presume, you thought it would be a breach of friendship, to lose one moment in consulting your understanding ; as if an appeal to the public were no more than a military coup de main, where a brave man has no rules to follow but the dictates of his courage. Touched with your generosity, I freely forgive the excesses into which it has led you ; and, far from resenting those terms of re- proach, which, considering that you are an advo- cate for decorum, you have heaped upon me rather too liberally, I place them to the account of an honest unreflecting indignation, in which your cooler judgment and natural politeness had no con- cern. I approve of the spirit with which you have given your name to the public ; and, if it were a proof of any thing but spirit, I should have thought myself bound to follow your example. I should have hoped that even my name might carry some authority with it, if I had not seen how very little weight or consideration a printed paper receives, even from the respectable 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 description, 44 , JUNIUS'S LETTERS. hut 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 characters of the kingdom ; and that, if the affections of the colonies have been alienated, if Corsica has been shamefully abandoned, if commerce languishes, if public credit is threatened with a new debt, and your own Manilla ransom most dishonourably given up, it has all been owing to the malice of political writers, who will not suffer the best and brightest characters (meaning still the present ministry) to take a single right step for the honour or interest of the nation. But it seems; you were a little tender of coming to particulars. Your conscience insinuated to you that it would be prudent to leave the characters of Grafton, North, Hillsborough, Weymouth, and Mansfield, to shift for themselves ; and truly, sir William, the part you have undertaken is at least as much as you are equal to. Without disputing lord Granby's courage, we are yet to learn in what articles of military knowledge nature has been so very liberal to his mind. If you have served with him, you ought to have pointed out some instances of able disposition and well-concerted enterprise, which might fairly be attributed to his capacity as a general. It is you sir William, who make your friend appear awkward and ridiculous, by giving him a laced suit of tawdry qualifications, which nature never intended him to wear. You say, he has acquired nothing but honour in the field ? Is the ordnance nothing ? Are the Blues JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 45 nothing ? Is the command of the army, with all the patronage annexed to it, nothing f Where he got all these nothings I know not ; but you, at least, ought to have told us when he deserved them. As to his bount}', compassion, &c. 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 selling- commissions, I still assert, that his military cares have never extended beyond the disposal of vacan- cies ; and I am justified by the complaints of the whole army, when I say, that, in this distribution, he consults nothing but parliamentary interest, or the gratification of his immediate dependents. As to his servile submission to the reigning ministry, let me ask, whether he did not desert the cause of the whole army, when he suffered sir Jeffery Amherst to be sacrificed, and what share he had in recalling that officer to the service f Did he not betray the just interest of the army in permitting lord Percy to have a regiment ? And does he not, at this moment, give up all character and dignity as a gentleman, in receding from his own repeated declarations in favour of Mr. Wilkes ? In the two next articles, I think, we are agreed. You candidly admit, that he often makes such pro- mises as it is a virtue in him to violate, and that no man is more assiduous to provide for his relations at the public expense. I did not urge the last as an absolute vice in his disposition, but to prove that a careless, disinterested spirit is no part of his character: and as to the other, I desire it may be remembered, 46 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. that I never descended to the indecency of inquiring into his convivial hours. It is you, sir William Dra- per, who have taken pains to represent your friend in the character of a drunken landlord, who deals out his promises as liberally as his liquor, and will suffer no man to leave his table either sorrowful or sober. None but an intimate friend, who must fre- quently have seen him in these unhappy, disgraceful moments, could have described him so 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 Ligoniev did not deliver the army (which you, in classical language, are pleased to call a palladium) into lord Granby's hands. It was taken from him, much against his inclination, some two or three years before lord Granby was commander-in-chief. 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 reports of reviewing generals comprehend only a few regiments in England, which, as they are immediately under the royal inspection, are perhaps in some tole- rable order. But do you know any thing of the troops in the West Indies, the Mediterranean, and North America; to say nothing of a whole army absolutely ruined in Ireland ? Inquire a little into JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 47 facts, sir William, before you publish your next panegyric upon lord 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 honour of your correspondence- You are by no means un- deserving of notice ; and it may be of consequence^ even to lord Granby, to have it determined, whether or no the man, who has praised him so lavishly, be himself deserving of praise. When you returned to Europe, you zealously undertook the cause of that gallant army, by whose bravery at Manilla your own fortune had been established. You complained, you threatened, you even appealed to the public in 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 ransom 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 regiment which you afterwards (a thing unpre- cedented among soldiers) sold to colonel Gisborne- f Or was it that government, the full pay of which you are contented to hold, with the half-pay of an Irish colonel ? And do you now, after a retreat not very like that of Scipio, presume to intrude yourself, unthought of, uncalled for, upon the patience of the public ? Are your flatteries of the commander-in- 4B JUNIUS'S LETTERS. chief, directed to another regiment, which you may again dispose of on the same honourable terms ? We know your prudence, sir William ; and I should be sorry to stop your preferment. JUNIUS. IV. To Junius. SIR, February 17, 1769.' I received Junius's favour last night : he is deter- mined to keep his advantage by the help of his mask : it is an excellent protection : it has saved many a man from an untimely end. But whenever he will be honest enough to lay it aside, avow him- self, and produce the face which has so long lurked behind it, the world will be able to judge of his motives for writing such infamous invectives. His real name will discover his freedom and indepen- dency, or his servility to a faction. Disappointed ambition, resentment for defeated hopes, and desire of revenge, assume but too often the appearance of public spirit : but, be his designs wicked or chari- table, Junius should learn, that it is possible to condemn measures without a barbarous and crim- inal outrage against men. Junius delights to mangle carcases with a hatchet ; his language and instrument have a great connexion with Clare- market, and, to do him justice, he handles his weapon most admirably. One would imagine he had been taught to throw it by the savages of America. It is, JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 49 therefore, high time for me to step in once more to shield my friend from this merciless weapon, although E may be wounded in the attempt. But I must first ask Junius by what forced analogy and construction, the moments of convivial mirth are made to signify indecency, a violation of engagements, a drunken landlord, and a desire that every one in company should be drunk likewise ? He must have culled all the flowers of St. Giles's and Billingsgate to have produced such a piece of oratory. Here the hatchet descends with tenfold vengeance : but, alas ! it hurts no one but its master ! For Junius must not think to put words into my mouth, that seem too foul even for his own. My friend's political engagements I know not ; so cannot pretend to explain them, or assert their con- sistency. I know not whether Junius be considerable enough to belong to any party. If he should be so, can he affirm that he has always adhered to one set of men and measures ? Is he sure that he has never sided with those whom he was first hired to abuse ? Has he never abused those he was hired to praise ? To say the truth, most men's politics sit much too loosely about them. But as my friend's military character was the chief object that engaged me in this controversy, to that I shall return. Junius asks, what instances my friend has given of his military skill and capacity as a general ? When and where he gained his honour ? When he deserved his emoluments ? The united voice of the army which served under him, the glorious testimony of prince Ferdinand, and of vanquished enemies, all Germany will tell him. Junius re- VOL. T. C 2 50 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. peats the complaints of the army against parlia- mentary influence. I love the army too well not to wish that such influence were less. Let Junius point out 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 would have overborne any private subject. In time of war, this influence is small. In peace, when discontent and faction have the surest means to operate, especially in this coun- try, and when, from a scarcity of public spirit, the wheels of government are rarely moved but by the power and force of obligations, its weight is always too great. Yet, if this influence, at present, has done no greater harm than the placing earl Percy at the head of a regiment, I do not think that either the rights or best interests of the army are sacri- ficed and betrayed, or the nation undone. Let me ask Junius, if he knows any one nobleman in the army who has had a regiment by seniority ? I feel myself happy in seeing young noblemen of illus- trious name and great property come amongst us. They are an additional security to the kingdom from foreign or domestic slavery. Junius needs not be told, that, should the time ever come when this nation is to be defended only by those who have nothing more to lose than their arms and their pay, its danger will be great indeed. A happy mixture of men of quality with soldiers of fortune is always to be wished for. But the main point is still to be contended for ; I mean the discipline and condition of the army ; and I must still maintain, though con- JUMUS'S LETTERS. 51 tradicted by Junius, that it was never upon a more respectable footing, as to all the essentials that can form good soldiers, than it is at present. Junius is forced to allow, that our army at home may be in some tolerable order ; yet, how kindly does he in- vite our late enemies to the invasion of Ireland, by assuring them that the army in that kingdom is totally ruined ! (The colonels of that army are much obliged to him.) I have too great an opinion of the military talents of the lord-lieutenant, and of all their diligence and capacity, to believe it. If, from some strange unaccountable fatality, the people of that kingdom 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 Medi- terranean, in the West Indies, in America, labour under great difficulties from the scarcity of men, which is but too visible all over these kingdoms ; Many of our forces are in climates unfavourable to British constitutions ; their loss is in proportion. Britain must recruit all these regiments from her own emaciated bosom ; or, more precariously, by catholics from Ireland. We are likewise subject to the fatal drains to the East Indies, to Senegal, and the alarming emigrations of our people to othor countries. Such depopulation can only be repaired by a long peace, or by some sensible bill of natural- ization. I must now lake the liberty of addressing Junius on my own account. He is pleased to tell me that lie addresses himself to me personally : I shall pie 52 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. glad to see him. It is his impersonality that I com- plain of, and his invisible attacks : for his dagger in the air is only to be regarded, because one cannot see the hand which holds it ; 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 under- took the cause of the gallant army, by whose bra- very at Manilla my own fortunes were established } that I complained, that I even appealed to the public. I did so ; I glory in having done so, as I had an undoubted right to vindicate my own character, attacked by a Spanish memorial, and to assert the rights of my brave companions. I glory, likewise, that I have never taken up my pen but to vindicate the injured. Junius asks, by what accident did it happen, that, in the midst of all this bustle, and all the clamours for justice to the injured troops, the Manilla ransom was suddenly buried in a profound, and, since that time, an uninterrupted silence ? I will explain the cause to the public. The several ministers who have been employed since that time have been very desirous to do justice, from two most laudable motives: a strong inclination to assist injured bravery, and to acquire a well-deserved popularity to themselves. Their efforts have been in vain. Some were ingenuous enough to own, that they could not think of involving this distressed nation in another war for our private concerns. In short, our rights, for the present, are sacrificed to JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 53 national convenience ; and I must confess, that al- though 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, wicked, and incendiary writers. Lord Shelburne will do me the justice to own, that in September last, I waited upon him with a joint me- morial from the admiral, sir S. 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 giving any immediate hopes of relief. , Junius would basely insinuate, that my silence may have been purchased by my goverment, by my blushing rihbon, 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 Manilla, his majest}', 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 assu- rances, many months before the Spaniards had pro- tested the ransom bills. To accomodate lord Clive, then going upon a most important service to Bengal, I waved my claim to the vacancy which then hap- pened. As there was no other vacancy until the duke of Grafton and lord Rockingham were joint ministers, I was then honoured with the order ; and £4 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. it is surely no small honour to me, that, in sucn a succession of ministers, they were all pleased to think that I had deserved it ; in my favour they were all united. Upon the reduction of the 79th regiment, v \vhich had served so gloriously in the East Indies, his majest}', 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 service. I resigned my regiment to colonel Gisborne, a very good officer, for his half-pay, and 200?. Irish annuity : so that, according to Junius, I have been bribed to say nothing more of the Manilla ransom, and to sacrifice those brave men, by the strange avarice of accepting 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 Junius's style, I cannot, indeed, call him a flatterer, unless he be as a cynic or a mastiff: if he wags his tail, he 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 he has insinuated with respect to myself. WILLIAM DRAPER. JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 55 V. To Sir William Draper, Knight of the Bath. SIR, February 21, 1769. I should justty be suspected of acting upon motives of more than common enmity to lord Granby, if I continued to give you fresh materials or occasion for writing in his defence. Individuals who hate, and the public who despise, have read your letters, sir William, with infinitely more satisfaction than mine. Unfortunately for him, his reputation, like that unhappy country to which you refer me for his last military achievements, has 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 3'our vindication of your friend has been as able and ju- dicious as it was certainly well intended : and you, I think, may be satisfied with the warm acknow- ledgments he already owes you, for making him the principal figure 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 labours be confined to the care of your own reputation. Your declaration, that you are happy in seeing young noblemen come among us, is liable to two ob- jections. With respect to lord Percy, it means nothing ; for he was already in the army. He wa£ 56 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. aide-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 j and probably at the expense of some brave, deserv- ing, friendless officer. The other concerns your- self. After selling the companions of your victory in one instance, and after selling your profession in the other, by what authority do you presume to call yourself a soldier ? The plain evidence of facts is Superior to all declarations. Before you were ap- pointed to the 16th regiment, your complaints were a distress to government : 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 command of a regiment. There is certainly an error of the press, or an affected obscurity in that paragraph, where you speak of your bargain with colonel Gisborne. Instead of attempting to answey 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 2201. a year) and an annuity of 2001. for your own and lady Draper's life jointly. And ie this the losing bargain, which you would represent to us, as if you had given up an income of 800Z. a year for 380Z. ? Was it decent, was it honourable, in a man who pretends to love the army, and calls himself a soldier, to make a traffic of the royal fa- vour, and turn the highest honour of an active pro- fession into a sordid provision for himself and his JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 51 family ? It were unworthy of me to press you far- ther. The contempt with which the whole army heard of the manner of your retreat, assures me, that, as your conduct was not justified by precedent, it will never be thought an example for imitation. The last and most important question remains, When you receive your half-pay, do you or do you not, take a solemn oath, or sign a declaration, upon your honour, to the following effect ? That you do- not actually hold any plaee of profit, civil or mili- tary, under his majesty. The charge which the question plainly conveys against you, is of so shock- ing a complexion, that I sincerely wish you may be able to answer it well ; not merely for the colour of your reputation, but for your own inward peace of mind. JUNIUS. 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 er 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 200/. Irish, and the equivalent for the half-pay, together produce no more than 380/. c 2 58 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. per annum, clear of fees and perquisites of office. I receive 167Z. from my government of Yarmouth. Total 54:71. per annum. My conscience is much at ease in these particulars : my friends need not blush for me. Junius makes much and frequent use of interro- gations : they are arms that may be easily turned against himself. I could, by malicious interroga- tion, disturb the peace of the most virtuous man in the kingdom. I could take the decalogue, and say to one man, Did you never steal ? To the next, Did you never commit murder? And to Junius himself, who is putting my life and conduct to the rack, Did you never " bear false witness against thy neighbour ?" Junius must easily see, that, un- less he affirms to the contrary, in his real name r some people, who may be as ignorant 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. JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 59 VII. To Sir William Draper, Knight of the Bath. SIR March 3, 1769- An academical education has given you an un- limited command over the most beautiful figures of speech. Masks, hatchets, racks, and vipers, dance through your letters in all the mazes of metaphorical confusion. These are the gloomy companions of a disturbed imagination ; the melancholy madness of poetry, without the inspiration. I will not contend with you in point of composition : you are a scholar, sir William ; and, if I am truly informed, you write Latin with almost as much purity as English. Suf- fer me then (for I am a plain unlettered man) to continue that style of interrogation which suits my capacity, and to which, considering the readiness of your answers, you ought to have no objection. Even Mr. Bingley* promises to answer, if put to the torture. Do you then really think, that, if I were to ask a most virtuous man, whether he ever committed theft or murder, it would disturb his peace of mind ? Such a question might, perhaps, discompose the * This man, being committed by the court of king's bench for contempt, voluntarily made oath that he would never answer interrogatories unless he should be put to the torture. 80 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. gravity of his muscles, but I believe it would little affect the tranquillity of his conscience. Examine your own breast, sir William, and you will discover that reproaches and inquiries have no power to afflict either the man of unblemished integrity or the abandoned profligate. It is the middle compound character which alone is vulnerable ; the man who, without firmness enough to avoid a dishonourable action, has feeling enough to be ashamed of it. I thank you for the hint of the decalogue, and shall take an opportunity of applying it to some of your most virtuous friends in both houses of par- liament. You seem to have dropped the affair of your regi- ment; so let it rest. When you are appointed to another, I dare say you will not sell it either for a gross sum, or for an annuity upon lives. I am truly glad (for really, sir William, I am not yoar enemy, nor did I begin this contest with you) that you have been able to clear yourself of a crime, though at the expense of the highest indiscretion. You say that your half-pay was given you by way of pension. I will not dwell upon the singularity of uniting in your own person two sorts of provision, which, in their own nature, and in all military and parliamentary views, are incompatible; but I call upon you to justify that declaration, wherein you charge your sovereign with having done an act in your favour notoriously against law. The half-pay, both in Ireland and England, is appropriated by parliament; and if it be given to persons who, like you, are legally incapable of holding it, it is a breach of law. It would have been more decent in you to JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 61 have called this dishonourable transaction by its true name ; a job, to accommodate two persons, by par- ticular interest and management at the castle.—- What sense must government have had of your ser- vices, when the rewards they have given you are only a disgrace to you ! And now, sir William, I shall take my leave of you for ever. Motives very different from any ap- prehension of your resentment make it impossible you should ever know me. In truth, you have some reason to hold yourself indebted to me. From the lessons I have given you, you may collect a pro- fitable instruction for your future life. They will either teach you so to regulate your future conduct, as to be able to set the most malicious inquiries at defiance ; or, if that be a lost hope, they will teach you prudence enough not to attract the public atten- tion to a character, which will only pass without censure, when it passes without observation.* JUNIUS. * It has been said, I believe truly, that it was signified 10 sir William Draper, as the request of lord Granby, 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 dilemma, of either being totally silenced, or of supporting his first letter. Whether sir William had a right to reduce him to this dilemma, or to call upon hira for his name, after a voluntary attack on his side, are questions submitted to the candour of the public. The death 6f lord Granby was lamented by Junius. He un- doubtedly owed some comppnsations to the public, and 62 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 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 government, not unwillingly admitted by the people, that every ungracious or severe exertion of the prerogative should be placed to the account of the minister ; but, 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 seemed determined to acquit himself of them. In private life, he was unquestionably that good man, who, for the interest of his country, ought to have been a great one. lionum virum facile dixeris ! magnum libenter. I speak of him now without partiality ; I never spoke of him with resentment. His mistakes, in public conduct, did not arise either from want of sentiment, or want of judgment j but, iii general, from the difficulty of saying no to the bad peo- ple 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 disapprobation of the public. * Les rois ne se sont reserves que les graces. lis renvoient ies condamnations vers leurs omciers. — Montesquieu. JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 63 to the king and his subjects ; for while it preserved that suspicious attention with which the people ought always to examine the conduct of ministers, it tended, at the same time, rather to increase than diminish their attachment to the person of their sovereign. If there be not a fatality attending every measure you are concerned in, by what treachery, or by what excess of folly has it happened, that those ungracious acts which have distinguished your administration, and which, I doubt not, were en- tirely your own, should carry with them a strong appearance of personal interest, and even of per- sonal enmity, in a quarter where no such interest or enmity can be supposed to exist, without the highest injustice, and the highest dishonour . ? On the other hand, by what judicious management have you contrived it, that the only act of mercy to which you ever advised your sovereign, far from adding to the lustre of a character truly gracious and benevolent, should be received with universal disapprobation and disgust ? I shall consider it as a ministerial measure, because it is an odious one, and as your measure, my lord duke, because you are the minister. As long as the trial of this chairman was depend- ing, it was natural enough that government should give him every possible encouragement and support. The honourable service for which he was hired, and the spirit with which he performed it, made common cause between your grace and him. The minister, who by secret corruption, invades the freedom of elections, and the ruffian, who, by open violence destroys that freedom, are embarked in the same 64 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. bottom ; they have the same interests, and mutually feel for each other. To do justice to your grace'* humanity, you felt for M' Quirk as you ought to do ; and if you 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 political friendship, with- out committing the honour of your sovereign, or hazarding the reputation of his government. But when this unhappy man had been solemnly tried, convicted, and condemned ; when it appeared that he had been frequently employed in the same ser- vices, and that no excuse for him could be drawn either from the innocence of his former life, or the simplicity of his character ; was it not hazarding too much, to interpose the strength of the prerogative between this felon and the justice of his country ?* * Whitehall, March 11, 1769. His majesty has been graciously pleased to extend his royal mercy to Edward M'Quirk, found guilty of the murder of George Clarke, as appears by his royal warrant, to the tenour following : GEORGE R. Whereas a doubt has arisen in our royal breast concern- fug the evidence of the death of George Clarke, from the representations of William Broomfield, esq. surgeon, and Solomon Starling, apothecary ; both of whom, as has been represented to us, attended the deceased before his death, and expressed their opinions that he did not die of the blow he received at Brentford : and whereas it appears to us that neither of the said persons were produced as witnesses. upon the trial, though the said Solomon Starling had been examined before the coroner ; and the only person called JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 65 You ought to have known that an example of this sort was never so necessary as at present ; and cer- tainly you must have known, that the lot could not have fallen upon a more guilty object. What sys- to prove that the death of the said George Clarke was occa- sioned by the said blow, was John Foot, surgeon, who never saw the deceased till after his death : we thought fit there- apon to refer the said representations, together with the re- port 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 Ed- ward Kirk, otherwise called Edward M< Quirk, for the mur- der of the said Clarke, to the master, wardens, and the rest of the court of examiners of the surgeons' company, com- manding them likewise to take such farther examination of the said persons, so representing, and of said John Foot, as 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 the surgeons' company Iraving thereupon reported to us their opinion, — " That it did not appear to them that he did ;" we have thought proper to extend our royal mercy to him the said Edward Quirk, otherwise Edward Kirk, otherwise called Edward M'Quirk, and to grant him our free pardon for the murder of the said George Clarke, of which he has been found guilty. Our will and pleasure, therefore, is, That the said Edward Quirk, otherwise called Edward Kirk, otherwise called 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 5 66 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. tem of government is this ? You are perpetually complaining of the riotous disposition of the lowef class of people ; yet when the laws have given you the means of making an example, in every sense unexceptionable, and by far the most likely to awe the multitude, you pardon the offence, and are not ashamed to give the sanction of government to the riots you complain of, and even to future murders. Fou are partial, perhaps, to the military mode of ex- ecution ; and had rather see a score of these wretches butchered by the guards, than one of them suffer death by regular course of law. How does it hap- pen, my lord, that, in your hands, even the mercy of the prerogative is cruelty and oppression to the subject ? The measure, it seems, was so extraordinary, that you thought it necessary to give some reasons for it to the public. Let them be fairly examined. 1. You say, that Messrs. Broomjield and Starling were not examined at M ( Quirk's trial. I will tdl 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 reign. By his majesty's command. ROCHFORD. To our trusty and well-beloved James Eyre, esq. recorder of our city of London, the sheriffs of our said city and county of Middlesex, and all others whom it may concern. JUNIUS'^ LETTERS. 87 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 con- ceivable that his counsel should neglect to call in such material evidence ? 2. You say, that Mr. Foot did not see the deceased until after his death. A surgeon, my lord, must know very little of his profession, if, upon examin- ing a wound or a contusion, he cannot determine whether it was mortal or not. While the party is alive, a surgeon will be cautious of pronouncing ; whereas, by the death cf the patient, he is enabled to consider both cause and effect in one view, and to speak with a certainty confirmed by experience. 3. Yet we are to thank your grace for the estab- lishment of a new tribunal. Your inquisito post mortem, is unknown to the laws of England, and does honour to your invention. The only material abjection to it is, that if Mr. Foot's evidence was insufficient, because he did not examine the wound till after the death of the party, much less can a negative opinion, given by gentlemen who never saw the body of Mr. Clarke either before or after his decease, authorise you to supersede the verdict of a jnry, and the sentence of the law. Now, my lord, let me ask you, Has it never oc- curred to your grace, while you were withdrawing this desperate wretch from that justice which the laws had awarded, and which the whole people of Eng- land demanded against him, that there is another man, who is the favourite of his country, whose pardon would have been accepted with gratitude, 69 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. whose pardon would have healed all our divisions' ? Have you quite forgotten that this man was once your grace's friend ? Or, is it to murderers only that you will extend the mercy of the crown ? These are questions you will not answer, nor is it necessary. The character of your private life, and the uniform tenor of your public Conduct, is an answer to them all. JUNIUS. IX. To his Grace the Duke of Grafton. MY LORD, April 10, 1769. I have so good an opinion of your grace's dis- cernment, that when the author of the vindication of your conduct assures us that he writes from his own mere motion, without the least authority from your grace, I should be ready enough to believe him, but for one fatal mark, which seems to be fixed upon every measure in which either your personal or political character is concerned. Your first attempt to support sir William Proctor ended in the election of Mr. Wilkes ; the second insured success to Mr. Glynn. The extraordinary step you took to make sir James Lowther lord paramount of Cumberland has ruined his interest in that county for ever : the house list of directors was cursed with the concur- rence of government ; and even the miserable JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 69 Dingley* could not escape the misfortune of your grace's protection. With this uniform experience before us, we are authorised to suspect, that when a pretended vindication of your principles and con- duct, in reality, contains the bitterest reflections upon both, it could not have been written without your immediate direction and assistance. The author, indeed, calls God to witness for him, with all the sincerity, and in the very terms of an Irish evidence, to the best of his 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 cir- cumstances of equal distress : beware, at least, how you remind us of the remedy. You have already much to answer for. You have provoked this unhappy gentleman to play the fool once more in public life, in spite of his years and infirmities : and to show us, that, as you yourself are a singular instance of youth without spirit, the man who defends you is a no less remarkable ex- ample of age without the benefit of experience. To follow such a writer minutely, would, like his owh * 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 him in nomi- nation. 70 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. periods, be labour without end. The subject too has been already discussed, and is sufficiently un- derstood. I cannot help observing, 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 that he wishes that those chirurgical reports, which first gave occasion to certain doubts in the royal breast, had not been laid before his majesty ? You see, my lord, that even your friends cannot defend your actions, without changing your principles ; nor justify a deliberate measure of go- vernment without contradicting the main assertion on which it was founded. The conviction of M'Quirk had reduced you to a dilemma in which it was hardly possible for you to reconcile your political interest with your duty. You were obliged either to abandon an active, use- ful partizan, or to protect a felon from public jus- tice. With your usual spirit you preferred your interest to every other consideration ; .and, with your usual judgment, you founded your determina- tion upon the only motives which should not have been given to the public. I have frequently censured Mr. Wilkes's conduct, yet your advocate reproaches me with having de- voted myself to the service of sedition. Your grace can best inform us for which of Mr. Wilkes's good qualities you first honoured him with your friend* JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 71 ship, or how long it was before 3*011 discovered those bad ones in him, at which, it seems, your delicacy was offended. Remember, my lord, that you continued your connexion with Mr. Wilkes, long after he had been convicted of those crimes which you have since taken pains to represent in the blackest colours of blasphemy and treason. How unlucky is it, 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 friend- ship, 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 regard to the public, even his vices plead for him. The people of England have too much discernment to suffer your grace to take ad- vantage of the failings of a private character, to establish a precedent by which the public liberty is affected, and which you may hereafter, with equal ease and satisfaction, employ to the ruin of the 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 your unhappy deserted friend. Avail yourself of all the unforgiving piety of the court you live in, and bless God that ' you are not as other men are ; extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this pub- lican.' In a heart void of feeling, the laws of honour and good faith may be violated with impunity, and there you may safely indulge your genius. But the laws of England shall not be violated, even by your 72 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. holy zeal to oppress a sinner j and, though you have succeeded in making him a tool, you shall not make him the victim of your ambition. JUNIUS. X. To Mr. Edward Weston. SIR, April 21, 1769. I said you were an old man without the benefit of experience. It seems you are also a volunteer, with the stipend of twenty commissions ; and at a period when all prospects are at an end, you are still look- ing forward to rewards which you cannot enjoy. No man is better acquainted with the bounty of government than you are ; Ton impudence, Temeraire vieillard, aura sa recompence. But I will not descend to an altercation either with the impotence of your age, or the peevishness of your diseases. Your pamphlet, ingenious as it is, has beea so little read, that the public cannot know how far you have a right to give me the lie, without the fol- lowing citation of your own words : Page 6th. ' 1. That he is persuaded that the mo- tives which he (Mr. Weston) has alleged, must ap- pear fully sufficient with or without the opinions of the surgeons. JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 75 ' 2. That those very motives must have been the foundation on which the earl of Rochford thought proper, &tc. ' 3. That he cannot but 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 defending government on their principles or your own. The style and language you have adopted are, T 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 rasca? and villain under his pictures, because the picture 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 immediate and uniform , nor is it possible to mistake his characters, whether they represent the treachery of a minister, or the abused simplicity of a king. JUNTCS VOL. 1- 74 JUNIUS'S LETTERS, XI. To his Grace the Duke of Grafton. MY LORD, April 24, 1769. The system you seemed to have adopted when ord Chatham unexpectedly left you at the head of affairs, gave us no promise of that uncommon exer- tion of vigour which has since illustrated your char- acter, and distinguished your administration. Far from discovering a spirit bold enough to invade the first rights of the people and the first principles o the constitution, you were scrupulous of exercising even those powers with which the executive branch of the legislature is legally invested. We have not yet forgotten how long Mr. Wilkes was suffered to appear at large, nor how long he was at liberty to canvass for the city and county, with all the terrors of an outlawry hanging over him. Our gracious sovereign has not yet forgotten the extraordinary care you took of his dignity, and of the safety of his person, when, at a crisis which courtiers af- fected to call alarming, you left the metropolis ex- posed, for two nights together, to every species of riot and disorder. The security of the royal resi- dence from insult was then sufficiently provided for in Mr. Conway's firmness, and lord Weymouth's discretion ; while the prime minister of Great Bri- tain, in a rural retirement, and in the arms of faded beauty, had lost all memory of his sovereign, his JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 75 country and himself. In these instances you might have acted with vigour, for you would have had the sanction of the laws to support you : the friends of government might have defended you without shame ; and moderate men, who wish well to the peace and good order of society, might have had a pretence for applauding your conduct. But these, it seems, were not occasions worthy of your grace's interposition. You reserved the proofs of }'our in- trepid spirit for trials of greater hazard and im- portance ; and now, as if the most disgraceful re- laxation of the executive authority had given you a claim of credit to indulge in excesses still more dangerous, you seem determined to compensate amply for your former negligence, and to balance* the non-execution of the laws with a breach of the constitution. From one extreme you suddenly start to the other, without leaving, between the weakness and the fury of the passions, one moment's interva for the firmness of the understanding. These observations, general as they are, might easily be extended into a faithful history of you)- grace's administration, and perhaps may be the em- ployment of a future hour. But the business of the present moment will not suffer me to look back to a series of events, which cease to be interesting or im- portant, because they are succeeded by a measure so singularly daring, that it excites all our attention, and engrosses all our resentment. Your patronage of Mr. Luttrell has been crowned with success. With this precedent before you, with the principles on which it was established, and with a future house of commons, perhaps less virtuous 76 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. than the present, every county in England, under the auspices of die treasury, may be represented as com- pletely as the county of Middlesex. Posterity will be indebted to your grace for not contenting yourself with a temporary expedient, but entailing upon them the immediate blessings of your administration. Boroughs were already too much at the mercy of government. Counties could neither be purchased nor intimidated. But their solemn determined elec- tion may be rejected ; and the man they detest may be appointed by another choice to represent them in parliament. Yet it is admitted, that the sheriffs obeyed the laws, and performed their duty.* The return they made must have been legal and valid, or undoubtedly they would have been censured for making it. With every good-natured allowance^ for vour grace's youth and inexperience, there are some things which you cannot but know. You cannot but know, that the right of the freeholders to adhere to their choice (even supposing it im- properly exerted) was as clear and indisputable as that of the house of commons to exclude one of their own members. Nor is it possible for you not to see the wide distance there is between the nega- tive power of rejecting one man, and the positive power of appointing another. The right of ex- pulsion, in the most favourable sense, is no more than the custom of parliament. The right of elec- tion is the very essence of the constitution. To vio- late that right, and much more to transfer it to any * Sir Fletcher Norton, when it was proposed to punish the sheriffs, declared in the house of commons, that they, in returning Mr. Wilkes, had done no more than their duty, JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 7? 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 does not represent the people. A house of commons so formed would involve a contradiction, and the ' grossest confusion of ideas : but there are some ministers, my lord, whose views can only be answer- ed by reconciling absurdities, and making the same proposition, which is false and absurd in argument, true in fact. This measure, my lord, is, however, attended with one consequence favourable to the people, which I am persuaded you did not foresee.* While the contest lay between the ministry and Mr. Wilkes, his situation and private character gave you advan- tages over him, which common candour, if not the memory of your former friendship, should have forbidden you to make use of. To religious men 3011 had an opportunity of exaggerating the irregu- larities of his past life ; to moderate men you held ibrth the pernicious consequences of faction. Men who, with this character, looked no farther than to the object before them, were not dissatisfied at seeing Mr. Wilkes excluded from parliament. You have now taken care to shift the question ; or rather, you have created a new one, in which Mr. Wilkes is no more concerned than any other English gentle- man. You have united this country against you on one grand constitutional point, on the decision of which our existence, as a free people, absolutely de- pends. You have asserted, not in words, but in fact. The reader is desired to mark this prophecy. 78 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. that the representation in parliament does not depend upon the choice of the freeholders. If such a case can possibly happen once, it may happen frequently ; it may happen always : and if three hundred votes, by any mode of reasoning whatever, can prevail against twelve hundred, the same reasoning would equally have given Mr. Luttrell his seat with ten votes, or even with one. The consequences of this attack upon the constitution are too plain and palpable, not to alarm the dullest apprehension. I trust you will find that the people of England are neither deficient in spirit or understanding ; though you have treated them as if they had neither sense to feel nor spirit to resent. We have reason to thank Gdd and our ancestors, that there never yet was a minister in this country who could stand the issue of such a conflict; and, with every prejudice in favour of your intentions, I see no such abilities in your grace, as should enable you to succeed in an enter- prise, in which the ablest and basest of your prede- cessors have found their destruction. You may con- tinue to deceive your gracious master with false representations of the temper and condition of his subjects : you may command a venal vote, because it is the common established appendage of your office : but never hope that the freeholders will make a tame surrender of their rights ; or, that an English army will join with you in overturning the liberties of their country. They know, that their first duty, as citizens, is paramount to all subsequent engage- ments : nor will they prefer the discipline, or even the honours of their profession, to those sacred origi- nal rights which belonged to them before they were JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 79 soldiers, and which they claim and possess as the birth-right of Englishmen. Return, my lord, before it be too late, to that easy insipid system which you first set out with. Take back your mistress.* The name of friend may be fatal to her, for it leads to treachery and persecution. Indulge the people. Attend Newmarket. Mr. Lut- trell may again vacate his seat ; and Mr. Wilkes, if not persecuted, will soon be forgotten. To be weak and inactive is safer than to be daring and criminal ; and wide is the distance between a riot ■of the populace and a convulsion of the whole king- dom. You may live to make the experiment, but no honest man can wish you should survive it. JUNIUS. XII. To his Grace the Diike of Grafton. MY LORD, May 30, 1769. If the measures in which you have been most suc- cessful had been supported by any tolerable appear- ance of argument, I should have thought my time not ill employed in continuing to examine your * The duke, about this time, had separated himself from Anne Parsons ; but proposed to continue united with her on some platonic terms of friendship, which she rejected with contempt. His baseness to this woman is beyond de- scription or belief. §0 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 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 vio= lated, without argument or decency, I confess I give up the cause in despair. The meanest of your pre- decessors had abilities sufficient to give a colour to their measures. If they invaded the rights of the people, they did not dare to offer a direct insult to their understanding ; and, in former times, the most venal parliaments made it a condition, in their bar- gain with the minister, that he should furnish them with some plausible pretences for selling their coun- try and themselves. You have had the merit of in- troducing a more compendious system of government and logic. You neither address yourself to the pas- sions nor the understanding, but simply to the touch. You apply yourself immediately to the feelings of your friends ; who, contrary to the forms of parlia- ment, never enter heartily into a debate until they have divided. Relinquishing, therefore, all idle views of amend- ment to your grace, or of benefit to the public, let me be permitted to consider your character and con- duct, merely as a subject of curious speculation. There is something in both which distinguishes you, not only from all other ministers, but all other men. It is not that you do wrong by design, but that you should never do right by mistake. It is not that your indolence and your activity have been equally misapplied, but that the first uniform principle, or, if I may call it, the genius of your life, should have carried you through every possible change and con- JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 81 traduction of conduct, without the momentary impu- tation or colour of a virtue ; and that the wildest spirit of inconsistency should never once have betrayed you into a wise or honourable action. This, I own, gives an air of singularity to your fortune, as well as to your disposition. Let us look back, together, to a scene, in which a mind like yours will find nothing to repent of. Let us try, my lord, how well you have supported the various relations in which you >tood 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 yciu- administration. If not the abilities of a great minis- ter, if not the integrity of a patriot, or the fidelity of a friend, show us, at least, the firmness of a man. For the sake of your mistress, the lover shall be spared. I will not lead her into public, as you have done ; nor will I insult the memory of departed beauty. Her sex, which alone made her amiable in your eyes, makes her respectable in mine. The character of the reputed ancestors of some men has made it possible for their descendants to be vicious in the extreme, without being degenerate. Those of your grace, for instance, left no distressing examples of virtue even to their legitimate posterity : and you may look back with pleasure to an illustri- ous pedigree, in which heraldry has not left a single good quality upon record to insult or upbraid you. You have better proofs of your descent, my lord, than the register of a marriage, or any troublesome in- heritance of reputation. There are some hereditary strokes of character, by which a family may be as cl«arlv distinguished, as by the blackest features of D 2 6 m JUNIUS'S LETTERS. the human face. Charles the First lived and died a hypocrite. Charles the Second was a hypocrite of another sort, and should have died upon the same scaffold. At the distance of a century, we see their different characters happily revived and blended iu your grace. Sullen and severe without religion, profligate without gayety, you live like Charles the Second, without being an amiable companion ; and, for aught I know, may die as his father did, without the reputation of a martyr. You had already taken your degrees with credit, in those schools in which the English nobility are formed to virtue, when you were introduced to lord Chatham's protection.* From Newmarket, White's, and the opposition, he gave you to the world with an air of popularity, which young men usually set out with, and seldom preserve : grave and plausible enough to be thought fit for business ; too young for treachery ; and, in short, a patriot of no unpromising expectations. Lord Chatham was the earliest object of your political wonder and at- tachment; yet you deserted him, upon the first hopes that offered of an equal share of power with lord Rockingham. When the late duke of Cumber- land's first negotiation failed, and when the fa- vourite was pushed to the last extremity, you saved him, by joining with an administration, in which lord Chatham had refused to engage. Still, how- * To understand these passages, the reader is referred to a noted pamphlet, called ' The History of the Mi- nority.' JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 83 ever, lie was your friend : and you are yet to ex- plain to the world, why you consented to act with- out him : or why, after uniting with lord Rocking- ham, you deserted and betrayed him. You com- plained that no measures were taken to satisfy your patron j 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 plenitude of power ; yet, I think, lord Chatham has less reason than ever to be satisfied : and, as for Mr. Wilkes, it is, perhaps, the greatest misfortune of his life, that you should have so many compensations to make in the closer, for your former friendship with him. Your gracious master understands your character, and makes you a persecutor, because you have been a friend. Lord Chatham formed his last administration upon principles which you certainly concurred in, or you could never have been placed at the head of the treasury. By deserting those principles, or by acting in direct contradiction to them, in which he found you were secretly supported in the closet, you soon forced him to leave you to yourself, and to withdraw his name from an administration which had been formed on the credit of it. You had then a prospect of friendships better suited to your ge- nius, and more likely to fix your disposition. Mar- riage 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 xodiac, from the scorpion, in which you stung lord 84 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. Chatham, to the hopes of a virgin* in the house of Bloomsbury. One would think that you had had sufficient experience of the frailty of nuptial en- gagements, or, at least, that such a friendship as the duke of Bedford's might have been secured to you by the auspicious marriage of your late duchesst with his nephew. But ties of this tender nature cannot be drawn too close ; and it may possibly be a part of the duke of Bedford's ambition, after making her an honest woman, to work a miracle of the same sort upon your grace. This worthy nobleman has long dealt in virtue: there has been a large consumption of it in his own family ; and, in the way of traffic, I dare say, he has bought and sold more than half the representative integrity of the nation. In a political view, this union is not imprudent, The favour of princes is a perishable commodity. You have now a strength sufficient to command the closet, and if it be necessary to betray one friend- ship more, you may set even lord Bute at defiance. Mr. Stewart M'Kenzie may possibly remember what use the duke of Bedford usually makes of his power y and our gracious sovereign, I doubt not, rejoices at this first appearance of union among his servants. His late majesty, under the happy influence of a family connexion between his ministers, was re- * His grace had lately married miss Wrottesly, niece of the good Gertrude, duchess of Bedford. t Miss Liddel, after her divorce from the duke, married lord Upper Ossory. * JUNIUS'S LETTERS. S5 iieved from the cares of the government. A more active prince may, perhaps, observe with suspicion by what degrees an artful servant grows upon his master, from the first unlimited professions of duty and attachment, to the painful representation of the necessity of the royal service, and soon, in regu- lar progression, to the humble insolence of dictating in all the obsequious forms of peremptory submis- sion. The interval is carefully employed in forming connexions, creating interests, collecting a party, and laying the foundation of double marriages; un- til the deluded prince, who thought he had found a creature prostituted to his service, and insignificant enough to be always dependent upon his pleasure, finds him, at last, too strong to be commanded, and too formidable to be removed. Your grace's public eonduct, 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 sur- render of the right ; then forward to lord Rocking- ham's surrender of the fact ; then back again to lord Rockingham's declaration of the right ; then forward to taxation with Mr. Townshend ; and, in the last instance, from the gentle Conway's un- determined discretion, to blood and compulsion with the duke of Bedford : yet, if we may believe the simplicity of lord North's eloquence, at the opening of the next session, you are once more to be the patron of America. Is this the wisdom of a fjreat minister, or is it the ominous vibration of :i pendulum ? Had you no opinion of your own, my $6 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. lord ? Or was it the gratification of betraying every party with which you have been united, and of de- serting every political principle in which you had concurred ? Your enemies may turn their eyes without regret from this admirable system of provincial government. They will find gratification enough in the survey of your domestic and foreign policy. If, instead of disowning lord Shelburne, the British court had interposed with dignity and firm- ness, you know, my lord, that Corsica would never have been invaded. The French saw the weakness of a distracted ministry, and were justified in treating you with contempt. They would probably have yielded, in the first instance, rather than hazard a rupture with this county ; but, being 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 acquisition, the importance of which you have probably no conception of j or we oppose them by an underhand management, which only disgraces us in the eyes of Europe, without answering any purpose of policy or prudence. From secret, indirect assistance, a transition to some more open, decisive measures, becomes unavoidable ; till, at last, we find ourselves principal in the war, and are obliged to hazard every thing for an ob- ject, which might have originally been obtained without expense or danger. I am not versed in the politics of the north j but this, I believe, is certain j; that half the money you have distributed to carry the expulsion of Mr. Wilkes, or even your secreta- «^n e ] cafr JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 8? ry's share in the last subscription, would have kept the Turks at your devotion. Was it economy, my lord ? or did the coy resistance you have constantly met with in the British senate make you despair of corrupting the divan ? Your friends, indeed, have £he first claim upon your bounty : but if 5001. a year can^ be spared in pension to Sir John Moore, it would not have disgraced you to have allowed some- thing to the secret service of the public. You will say, perhaps, that the situation of affairs at home demanded and engrossed the whole of your attention. Here, I confess, you have been active. An amiable, accomplished prince, ascends the throne under the happiest of all auspices, the acclamations and united affections of his subjects. The first measures of his reign, and even the odium of a fa- vourite, were not able to shake their attachment. Your services, my lord, have been more successful. Since you were permitted to take the lead, we have seen the natural effects of a system of government at once both odious and contemptible. We have seen the laws sometimes scandalously relaxed, some- times violently stretched beyond their tone. We have seen the person of the sovereign insulted ; and, in profound peace, and with an undisputed title, the fidelity of his subjects brought by his own ser- vants into public question.* Without abilities, reso- * The wise duke, about this time, exerted all the influ- ence of government to procure addresses to satisfy the kine of the fidelity of lus subjects. They came in very thick from Scotland ; but, after the appearance of this letter, we heard no more of them. 88 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. lution, or interest, 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 personal char- acter, I will not, for the honour of human nature, suppose that you can wish to have it remembered. The condition of the present times is desperate in- deed ; but there is a debt due to those who come after us ; and it is the historian's office to punish, though he cannot correct. I do not give you to posterity as a pattern to imitate, but as an example to deter j and as your conduct comprehends every thing that a wise or honest minister should avoid, I mean to make you a negative instruction to your successors for ever. JUNIUS. JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 8$ XIII. Addressed to the Printer of the Public Advertiser* SIR, June 12, 1769. The duke of Grafton's friends, not finding it con- venient to enter into a contest with Junius, are now reduced to the last melancholy resource of de- feated argument, the flat general charge of scur- rility and falsehood. As for his style, I shall leave it to the critics. The truth of his facts is of more importance to the public. They are of such a na- ture, that I think a bare contradiction will have no weight with any man who judges for himself. Let us take them in the order in which they appear in his last letter. 1. Have not the first rights of the people, and the first principles of the constitution, been openly in- vaded, and the very name of an election made ridiculous, by the arbitrary appointment of Mr. Luttrell ? 2. Did not the duke of Grafton frequently lead his mistress into public, and even place her at the head of his table, as if he had pulled down an an- cient temple of Venus, and could bury all decencx and shame under the ruins ? Is this the man who dares to talk of Mr. Wilkes's morals ? 3. Is not the character of his presumptive ances- tors as strongly marked in him, as if he had de-- scended from them in a direct legitimate line ? The §0 JUNIUS'S LETTERS 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 closely united with a set of men, who, though they have occasionally joined with all parties, have, in every different situation, and at all times, been equally and constantly detested by this country ? 9. Has not sir John Moore a pension of five hundred pounds a year ? This may probably be an, acquittance of favours upon the turf: but is it pos- sible for a minister to offer a grosser outrage to a nation, which has so very lately cleared away the beggary of the civil list, at the expense of more than half a million ? 10. Is there any one mode of thinking or acting with respect to America, which the duke of Grafton has not successively adopted and abandoned ? 11. Is there not a singular mark of shame set upon this man, who has so little delicacy and feel- ing, as to submit to the opprobrium of marrying 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 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. $i Scene in CEdipus, without the distress. Is it wealth, «r wit, or beauty ? Or is the amorous youth in love ? The rest is notorious. That Corsica has been sa- crificed to the French ; that, in some instances, the laws have been scandalously relaxed, and, in others, daringly violated ; and that the king's subjects have been called upon to assure him of their fidelity, in spite of the measures of his servants. A writer, who builds his arguments upon facts such as these, is not easily to be confuted. He is not to be answered by general assertions or general re- proaches. He may want eloquence to amuse and persuade ; but, speaking truth, he must always convince. PHILO JUNIUS. XIV. Addressed to the Printer of the Public Advertiser. SIR, June 22, 1769.' The name of Old Noll is destined to be the ruin of the house of Stuart. There is an ominous fatality in it, which even the spurious descendants of the family cannot escape. Oliver Cromwell had the merit of conducting Charles the First to the block. Your correspondent, Old Noll, appears to have the same design upon the duke of Grafton. His argu- ments consist better with the title he has assumed, than with the principles he professes : for though 02 JUNIUS'S LETTERS/ he pretends to be an advocate for the duke, he takes care to give us the best reason why his patron should regularly follow the fate of his presumptive ancestor. Through the whole course of the duke of Grafton's life, I see a strange endeavour to unite contradictions which cannot be reconciled. He marries, to be divorced ; he keeps a mistress, to remind him of conjugal endearments ; and he chooses such friends as it is a virtue in him to desert. If it were possible for the genius of that accomplish- ed president, who pronounced sentence upon Charles the First, to be revived in some modern sycophant,* his grace, I doubt not, would by sympathy discover him among the dregs of mankind, and take him for a guide in those paths which naturally conduct a. minister to the scaffold. The assertion that two-thirds of the nation ap- prove of 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 gentle- man will determine for himself. As to lawyers, their profession is supported by the indiscriminate defence of right and wrong j and I confess I have not that opinion of their knowledge or integrity, to think it necessary that they should decide for me upon a plain constitutional question. With respect to the appointment of Mr. Luttrell, the chancellor has never yet given any authentic opinion. Sir * It is hardly necessary to remind the reader of the name oi Bradshaw, JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 93 Fletcher Norton is, indeed, an honest, a very honest man ; and the attorney-general is ex officio the guar- dian of liberty ; to take care, I presume, that it shalj 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 fortune to understand the doctor's principles as well as writings. For the defence of truth, of law, and reason, the doctor's book may be safely consulted ; but whoever wishes to cheat a neighbour of his estate, or to rob a country of its rights, need make no scruple of consulting the doctor himself. The example of the English nobility may, for aught I know, sufficiently justify the duke of Graf- ton, when he indulges his genius in all the fashion- able excesses of the age ; yet, considering his rank and station, I think it would do him more honour to be able to deny the fact, than to defend it by such authorit\*. But if vice itself could be excused. there is yet a certain display of it, a certain outrage to decency, and violation of public decorum, which, for the benefit of society, should never be forgiven. It is not that he kept a mistress at home, but that he constantly attended her abroad. It is not the private indulgence, but the public insult, of which I complain. The name of miss Parsons would hardly have been known, if the first lord of the treasury had not led her in triumph through the opera-house, even in the presence of the queen. When we see a man act in this manner, we may admit the shame- less depravity of his heart ; but what are we to think of his understanding ? 94 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. His grace, it seems, is now to be a regular, do- mestic man ; and, as an omen of the future delicacy 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 mo- ment, makes a husband unhappy and ridiculous. The ties of consanguinity may possibly preserve him from the same fate a second time j and as to the distress of meeting, I take for granted, the ven- erable uncle of these common cousins has settled the etiquette in such a manner, that, if a mistake .should happen, it may reach no farther than from madame ma femme to madame ma cousine. The duke of Grafton has always some excellent reason for deserting his friends : the age and inca- pacity of lord Chatham, the debility of lord Rock- ingham, or the infamy of Mr. Wilkes. There was a time, indeed, when he did not appear to be quite as well acquainted, or so violently offended, with the infirmities of his friends : but now I confess they are not ill exchanged for the youthful, vigorous virtue of the duke of Bedford ; the firmness of general Conway ; the blunt, or, if I may call it, the awkward integrity of Mr. Rigby ; and the spotless morality of lord Sandwich. If a late pension to a broken gambler* be an act worthy of commendation, the duke of Grafton's connexions will furnish him with man}' opportunities of doing praiseworthy actions ; and as he himself bears no part of the expense, the generosity of distri- buting the public money for the support of virtuous * Sir John Moore. JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 95 families in distress, will be an unquestionable proo. of his grace's humanity. As to public affairs, Old Noll is a little tender o. descending to particulars. He does not deny that Corsica has been sacrificed to France ; and he con- fesses that, with regard to America, his patron's measures have been subject to some variation : but then he promises wonders of stability and firmness for the future. These are mysteries, of which we must not pretend to judge by experience ; and, truly, I fear we shall perish in the desert, before we arrive at the land of promise. In the regular course of things, the period of the duke of Grafton's minis- terial manhood should now be approaching. The imbecility of his infant state was committed to lord Chatham. Charles Townshend took some care of his education at that ambiguous age, which lies be- tween the follies of political childhood and the vices of puberty. The empire of the passions soon suc- ceeded. His earliest principles and connexions were of course forgotten or despised. The company he lias lately kept has been of no service to his morals ; and, in the conduct of public affairs, we see the character of his time of life strongly distinguished. An obstinate, ungovernable self-sufficiency plainly points out to us that state of imperfect maturity at which the graceful levity of youth is lost, and the solidity of experience not yet acquired. It is pos- sible the young man may, in time, grow wiser, and reform ; but if I understand his disposition, it is not of such corrigible stuff that we should hope for any amendment in him, before he has accomplished the 96 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 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. XV. To his Grace the Duke of Grafton. MY LORD, July 8, 1769 If nature had given you an understanding quali- fied to keep pace with the wishes and principles of your heart, she would have made you, perhaps, the most formidable minister that ever was employed, under a limited monarch, to accomplish the ruin of a free people. When neither the feelings of shame, the reproaches of conscience, nor the dread of punishment, form any bar to the designs of a minister, the people would have too much reason to lament their condition, if they did not find some resource in the weakness of his understanding. We owe it to the bounty of Providence, that the com- pletest depravity of the heart is sometimes strangely united with a confusion of the mind, which coun- teracts the most favourite principles, and makes the same man treacherous without art, and a hypocrite without deceiving. The measures, for instance, in which your grace's activity has been chiefly exerted, as they were adopted without skill, should have been conducted with more than common dexterity. But truly, my lord, the execution has been as gross JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 97 as the design. By one decisive step you have de- feated all the arts of writing. You have fairly con- founded the intrigues of opposition, and silenced the clamours of faction. A dark, ambiguous system might require and furnish the materials of inge- nious illustration ; and, in doubtful measures, the virulent exaggeration of party must be employed to rouse and engage the passions of the people. You have now brought the merits of your administration to an issue, on which every Englishman, of the nar- rowest capacity, may determine for himself: it is not an alarm to the passions, but a calm appeal to the judgment of the people, upon their own most essential interests. A more experienced minister would not have hazarded a direct invasion of the first principles of the constitution, before he had made some progress in subduing the spirit of the people. With such a cause as yours, my lord, it is not sufficient that you have the court at your devo- tion, unless you can find means to corrupt or intimi- date the jury. The collective body of the people form that jury, and from their decision there is but one appeal. Whether you have talents to support you, at a crisis of such difficulty and danger, should long since have been considered. Judging truly of your disposition, you have, perhaps, mistaken the extent of your capacity. Good faith and folly have so long been received as synonymous terms, that the reverse of the proposition has grown into credit, and every villain fancies himself a man of abilities. It is the apprehension of your friends, my lord, that you have drawn some hasty conclusion of this sort, and vol. x. E 7 98 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. that a partial reliance upon your moral character has betrayed you beyond the depth of your understand- ing. You have now carried things too far to retreat. You have plainly declared to the people what they are to expect from the continuance of your adminis- tration. It is time for your grace to consider what you also may expect in return from their spirit and their resentment. Since the accession of our most gracious sovereign to the throne, we have seen a system of government which may well be called a reign of experiments. Parties of all denominations have been employed and dismissed. The advice of the ablest men in this country has been repeatedly called for, and rejected ; and when the royal displeasure has been signified to a minister, the marks of it have usually been propor- tioned to his abilities and integrity. The spirit of the favourite had some apparent influence upon every administration ; and every set of ministers preserved an appearance of duration as long as they submitted to that influence. But there were certain services to be performed for the favourite's security, or to gratify his resentments, which your predeces- sors in office had the wisdom or the virtue not to undertake. The moment this refractory spirit was discovered, their disgrace was determined. Lord Chatham, Mr. Grenville, and lord Rockingham, have successively had the honour to be dismissed for preferring their duty as servants of the public to those compliances which were expected from their station. A submissive administration was at last gradually collected from the deserters of all parties^ interests, and connexions ; and nothing remained JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 99 but to find a leader for these gallant, well-disciplined troops. Stand forth, my lord ; for thou art the man. Lord Bute found no resource of dependence or secu- rity in the proud, imposing superiority of lord Chat- ham's abilities ; the shrewd, inflexible judgment of Mr. Grenville ; nor in the mild but determined in- tegrity of lord Rockingham. His views and situation required a creature void of all these properties ; and he was forced to go through every division, resolu- tion, composition, and refinement of political chemis- try, before he happily arrived at the caput mortuum of vitriol in your grace. Flat and insipid in your retired state ; but, brought into action, you become vitriol again. Such are the extremes of alternate indolence or fury, which have governed your whole administration. Your circumstances, with regard to the people, soon becoming desperate, like other honest servants, you determined to involve the best of masters in the same difficulties with yourself. We owe it to your grace's well-directed labours, that your sovereign has been persuaded to doubt of the affections 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 dishonourable compe- tition with Mr. Wilkes : nor had you abilities to carry even the last contemptible triumph over a private man, without the grossest violation of the fundamental laws of the constitution and rights of the people. But these are 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 100 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. abroad, or on the degrees of expedience and propri- ety of measures 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 common arts of domestic corrup- tion, we miss no part of sir Robert Walpole's system. except his abilities. In this humble, imitative line, you might long have proceeded safe and contempt- ible. You might probably never have risen to the dignity of being hated, and even have been despised with moderation. But it seems vou meant to be dis- tinguished ; and, to a mind like yours, there was no other road to fame but by the destruction of a noble fabric, which you thought had been too long the admiration of mankind. The use you have made of the military force introduced an alarming change in the mode of executing the laws. The arbitrary appointment of Mr. Luttrell invades the foundation of the laws themselves, as it manifestly transfers the right of legislation from those whom the people have chosen, to those whom they have rejected. With a succession of such appointments, we may soon see a house of commons collected, in the choice of which the other towns and counties of England will have as little share as the devoted county of Middlesex. Yet I trust your grace will find that the people of this country are neither to be intimidated by violent measures, nor deceived by refinements. When they see Mr. Luttrell seated in the house of commons, by mere dint of power, and in direct opposition to the choice of a whole county, they will not listen to those subtilties by which every arbitrary exertion JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 101 of authority is explained into the law and privilege of parliament. It requires no persuasion of argu- ment, but simply the evidence of the senses, to con- vince them, that, to transfer the right of election from the collective to the representative body of the people, contradicts all those ideas of a house of commons which they have received from their fore- fathers, and which they had already, though vainly, perhaps, delivered to their children. The principles on which this violent measure has been defended have added scorn to injury, and forced us to feel that we are not only oppressed, but insulted. With what force, my lord, with what protection, are you prepared to meet the united detestation of the people of England ? The city of London has given a generous example to the kingdom, in what manner a king of this country ought to be ad- dressed : and I fancy, my lord, it is not yet in 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 independent of their constituents, but the determined enemies of the constitution. Consider, my lord, whether this be an extremity to which their fears will permit them to advance : or, if their protection 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 pro- 102 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. fession. 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 cere- mony and decorum, should be the first servant of a court, in which prayers are morality, and kneeling is religion. Trust not too far to appearances, by which your predecessors have been deceived, though they have not been injured. Even the best of princes may at last discover, that this is a contention in which every thing may be lost, but nothing can be gained : and, as you became minister by accident, were adopted without choice, trusted without confidence, and continued without favour, be assured, that whenever an occasion presses, you will be discarded without even the forms of regret. You will then have reason to be thankful, if you are permitted to retire to that seat of learning, which, in contem- plation of the system of your life, the comparative purity of your manners with those of their high steward, and a thousand other recommending cir- cumstances, has chosen you to encourage the grow- ing virtue of their youth, and to preside over their education. Whenever the spirit of distributing prebends and bishoprics shall have departed from you, you will find that learned seminary perfectly recovered from the delirium of an installation, and, what in truth it ought to be, once more a peaceful scene of slumber and thoughtless meditation. The venerable tutors of the university will no longer distress your modesty, by proposing you for ja pat- tern to their pupils. The learned dulness of dec- lamation will be silent j and even the venal muse, JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 103 though happiest in fiction, will forget your virtues. Yet, for the benefit of the succeeding age, I could wish that your retreat might be deferred until your morals shall happily be ripened to that maturity of- corruption, at which the worst examples cease to be contagious. JUNIUS. XVI. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser. SIR, July 19, 1769. A great deal of useless argument might have been saved, in the political contest which has arisen (torn the expulsion of Mr. Wilkes, and the subse- quent appointment of Mr. Luttrell, if the question had been once stated with precision, to the satis- faction of each party, and clearly understood by them both. But in this, as in almost every other dispute, it usually happens that much time is lost in referring to a multitude of cases and precedents, which prove nothing to the purpose ; or in main- taining 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 end- less subtilties of controversy, loses sight of the main question, and never arrives at truth. Both parties in the dispute are apt enough to practise these (lis- 104 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. honest artifices. The man who is conscious of the weakness of his cause is interested in concealing it : and, on the other side, it is not uncommon to see a good cause mangled by advocates, who do not know the real strength of it. I should be glad to know, for instance, to what purpose, in the present case, so many precedents have been produced, to prove that the house of commons have a right to expel one of their own members ; that it belongs to them to judge of the validity of elections ; or that the law of parliament is part of the law of the land ?* After all these propositions are admitted, Mr. Luttrell's right to his seat will continue to be just as disputable as it was before. Not one of them is at present in agita- tion. Let it be admitted that the house of com- mons were authorised to expel Mr. Wilkes, that they are the proper court to judge of elections, and that the law of parliament is binding upon the people ; still it remains to be inquired, whether the house, by their resolution in favour of Mr. Luttrell, have, or have not, truly declared that law. To facilitate this inquiry, I would have the question cleared of all foreign or indifferent matter. The following state of it will probably be thought a fair one by both parties ; and then I imagine there is no gen- tleman in this country who will not be capable of forming a judicious and true opinion upon it. I * The reader will observe, that these admissions are made, not as of truths unquestionable, but for the sake of argu- ment, and in order to bring the real question to issue. JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 105 take the question to be strictly this : " Whether cl- no it be the known, established law of parliament, that the expulsion of a member of the house of commons, of itself creates in him such an incapacity to be re-elected, that, at a subsequent election, any votes given to him are null and void ; and that any other candidate, who, except the person expelled, iias the greatest number of votes, ought to be the sitting member." To prove that the affirmative is the law of par- liament, I apprehend it is not sufficient for the pre- sent house of commons to declare it to be so. We may shut our eyes, indeed, to the dangerous conse- quences of suffering one branch of the legislature to declare new laws without argument or example ; and it may, perhaps, be prudent enough to submit to authority ; but a mere assertion will never con- vince, much less will it be thought reasonable to prove the right by the fact itself. The ministry hare not yet pretended to such a tyranny over our minds. To support the affirmative fairly, it will either be necessary to produce some statute, in which that positive provision shall have been made, that specific disability clearly created, and the con- sequences of it declared ; or, if there be no such statute, the custom of parliament must then be re- ferred to ; and some case or cases,* strictly in point, must be produced, with the decision of the court * Precedents, in opposition to principles, have little - ight with Junius ; but he thought it necessary to meet the ministry upon their own ground. E 2 we 106 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. upon them ; for I readily admit, that the custom of parliament, once clearly proved, is equally binding with the common and statute law. The consideration of what may be reasonable or unreasonable, makes no part of this question. We are inquiring what the law is, not what it ought to be. Reason may be applied to show the impro- priety or expediency of a law ; but we must have either statute or precedent to prove the existence of it. At the same time, I do not mean to admit that the late resolution of the house of commons is defensible on general principles of reason, any more than in law. This is not the hinge on which the debate turns. Supposing, therefore, that I have laid down an accurate state of the question, I will venture to 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 ar- gument will then be at an end. 2dly, That there is no precedent, in all the pro- ceedings of the house of commons, which comes entirely home to the present case, viz. " Where an expelled member has been returned again, and another candidate, with an 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 in ferences and probabilities. The ministry, in that laborious pamphlet, which, I presume, contains the whole strength of the party, have declared, " That Mr. Walpole's was the first JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 107 and only instance in which the electors of any county or borough had returned a person expelled to serve in the same parliament." It is not possible to conceive a case more exactly in point. Mr. Wal- pole was expelled ; and, having a majority of votes at the next election, was returned again. The friends of Mr. Taylor, a candidate set up by the ministry, petitioned the house that he might be the sitting member. Thus far the circumstances tally exactly, except that our house of commons saved Mr. Luttrell the trouble of petitioning. The poiut of law, however, was the same. It came regularly before the house, and it was their busi- ness to determine upon it. They did determine it ; for they declared Mr. Taylor not duly elected. If it be said, that they meant this resolution as matter of favour and indulgence to the borough, which had retorted Mr. Walpole upon them, iu order that the burgesses, knowing what the law was, might correct their error, I answer, I. That it is a strange way of arguing, to oppose 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 proceedings of the house of commons. They might, perhaps, have foreseen, that if they returned Mr. Walpole again, he would again be rejected ; but they never could infer, from a resolution by which the can- «iidate with the fewest votes was declared not duly 108 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. elected, that, at a future election, and in similar circumstances, the house of commons would re- verse their resolution, and receive the same can- didate as duly elected, whom they had before re- jected. This, indeed, would have been a most extraordi- nary way of declaring the law of parliament, and what, I presume, no man, whose understanding is not at cross purposes with itself, could possibly un- derstand. If, in a case of this importance, I thought myself at liberty to argue from suppositions rather than from facts, I think the probability, in this instance, is directly the reverse of what the ministry 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 legally vested in him, to gratify a refractory borough, which, in defiance of them, had returned a person branded with the strongest mark of the displeasure of the house. But really, sir, this way of talking (for I cannot call it argument) is a mockery of the common un- derstanding of the nation, too gross to be endured. Our dearest interests are at stake. An attempt has been made, not merely to rob a single county of its rights, but, by inevitable consequence, to alter the constitution of the house of commons. This fatal attempt has succeeded, and stands as a precedent recorded for ever. If the ministry are unable to defend their cause by fair argument, founded on facts, let them spare us, at least, the mortification JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 109 of being amused and deluded, like children. I be- lieve there is yet a spirit of resistance in this country, which will not submit to be oppressed; but I am sure there is a fund of good sense in this country, which cannot be deceived. JUNIUS. XVII. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser. SIR, August 1, 1769. It will not be necessary for Junius to take the trouble of answering your correspondent G. A. or the quotation from a speech without doors, pub- lished in your paper of the 28th of last month. The speech appeared before Junius's letter ; and, as the author seems to consider the great proposi- tion on which all his argument depends, viz. that Mr. Wilkes was under that known legal incapacity tf which Junius speaks, as a point granted, his speech is in no shape an answer to Junius, for this is the very question in debate. As to G. A. I observe, first, that if he did not ad- mit Junius's state of the question, he should have shown the fallacy of it, or given us a more exact one; secondly, that, considering the many hours and days which the ministry and their advocates HO JUNIUS'S LETTERS. have wasted in public debate, in compiling large quartos, and collecting innumerable precedents, ex- pressly to prove that the late proceedings of the house of commons are warranted by the law, cus- tom, and practice of parliament, it is rather an ex- traordinary supposition to be made by one of their own party, even for the sake of argument, that no such statute, no such custom of parliament, no such case in point, can be produced. G. A. may, however, make the supposition with safety. It contains nothing but literally the fact ; except that there is a case exactly in point, with a decision of the house diametrically opposite to that which the present house of commons came to in favour of Mr. Luttrell. The ministry now begin to be ashamed of the weakness of their cause ; and, as it usually happens with falsehood, are driven to the necessity of shift- ing their ground, and changing their whole defence; At first we were told, that nothing could be clearer than that the proceedings of the house of commons were justified by the known law and uniform cus* torn of parliament. But now, it seems, if there be no law, the house of commons have a right ta make one ; and if there be no precedent, they have a right to create the first : for this, I presume, is the amount of the questions proposed to Junius. If your correspondent had been at all versed in the law of parliament, or generally in the laws of this country, he would have seen that this defence is as weak and false as the former. The privileges of either house of parliament, it is true, are indefinite : that is, they have not been JUNIUS'S LETTERS. ill described or laid down in any one code or Declara- tion whatsoever ; but, whenever a question of privi- lege has arisen, it has invariably been disputed or maintained upon the footing of precedents alone.* In the course of the proceedings upon the Ayles- bury election, the house of lords resolved, " That neither house of parliament had any power, by any vote or declaration, to create to themselves any new privilege, that was not warranted by the known laws and customs of parliament." And to this rule, the house of commons, though otherwise they had acted in a very arbitrary manner, gave their as- sent ; for they affirmed that they had guided them- selves by it in asserting thekr 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 strongly 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, are included, but also those of a third and separate party ; I mean the freeholders of the kingdom ! To do justice to the ministry, they have not yet pre- tended that any one, or any two, of the three estates, have power to make a new law, without the concurrence of the third. They know, that a man who maintains such a doctrine, is liable, by * This Is still meeting the ministry upon their own ground ; for, in truth, no precedents will support either natural injustice, or violation of positive rights. .112 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. statute, to the heaviest penalties. They do not ac- knowledge that the house of commons have assumed a new privilege, or declared a new law. On the con- trary, they affirm that their proceedings have been strictly conformable to, and founded upon, the ancient law and custom of parliament. Thus, therefore, the question returns to the point at which Junius had fixed it, viz. Whether or no this be the law of par- liament 9 If it be not, the house of commons had no legal authority to establish the precedent ; and the precedent itself is a mere fact, without any proof of right whatsover. Your correspondent concludes with a question of the simplest nature : Must a thing be wrong because it has never been done before 9 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 exorbitant and so unconstitutional, at least let it be given them by an act of the legis- lature. PHILO JUNIUS. JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 113 XVIII. To Sir William Blackstone, Solicitor General to her Majesty. SIR, July 29, 1769. I shall make you no apology for considering a certain pamphlet, in which your late conduct is de- fended, as written by yourself. The personal in- terest, the personal resentments, and, above all, that wounded spirit, unaccustomed to reproach, and, I hope, not frequently conscious of deserving it, are signals which betray the author to us as plainly as if your name were in the title-page. You appeal to the public in defence of your reputation. We hold it, sir, that an injury offered, to an indi- vidual is interesting to society. On this principle, the people of England made common cause with Mr. Wilkes. On this principle, if you are injured, they will join in your resentment. I shall not follow you through the insipid form of a third person, but address myself to you directly. You seem to think the channel of a pamphlet more respectable, and better suited to the dignity of your cause, than that of a newspaper. Be it so. Yet, if newspapers are scurrilous, you must confess they are impartial. They give us, without any ap- parent preference, the wit and argument of the ministry, as well as the abusive dulncss of the oppo- 114 JUNIuS'S LETTERS. sition. The scales are equally poised. It is not the printer's fault it' the greater weight inclines 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 consistent, 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 for- mal vindication of Mr. Grenville upon his own prin- ciples. I have neither the honour of being personally known to him, nor do I pretend to be completely master of all the facts. I need not run the risk of doing an injustice to his opinions, or to his conduct, when your pamphlet alone carries, upon the face of it, a full vindication of both. Your first reflection is, that Mr. Grenville* was, of all men, the person who should not have com- plained of inconsistence with regard to Mr. Wilkes. This, sir, is either an unmeaning sneer, a peevish expression of resentment ; or, if it means any thing, you plainly beg the question ; for, whether his par- liamentary conduct, with regard to Mr. Wilkes, has or has not been inconsistent, remains yet to be proved. But it seems he received upon the spot a sufficient chastisement for exercising so unfairly * Mr. Grenville had quoted a passage from the doctor's excellent Commentaries, which directly contradicted the e expulsion and the commitment to the Tower. I be- lieve, sir, no man, who knows any thing of dialectics, or who understands English, will dispute the truth and fair- ness of this construction. But Junius has a great authori- ty to support him, which, to speak with the duke of JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 153 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 ad- Grafton, I accidentally met with this morning iu 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 between king and people, and, by the ad- vice of Jesuits, and other wicked persons, having violated the fundamental laws, and having withdrawn himself out Of this kingdom, hath abdicated the government," fee- makes this observation upon it : " The word abdicated re- lates to all the clauses foregoing, as well as to his deserting ihe kingdom, or else they would have been wholly in vain." And that there might be no pretence for confining the ab- dication merely to the withdrawing, lord Sommers farther observes, That king James, by refusing to govern u$ according to that law by which he held the crown, did implicitly renounce his title to it. If Junius'* construction of the vote against Mr. Walpole be now admitted (and, indeed, I cannot comprehend how it can honestly be disputed) the advocates of the house of commons must either give op their precedent entirely, or be reduced to the necessity of maintaining one of the grossest absurdities imaginable, viz. " That a commitment to the Tower is a constituent part of, and 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 134 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. mitted their censure to be well founded, I could no way avoid agreeing with them in the consequence they drew from it. I could never have a doubt, in law or reason, that a man convicted of a high breach of trust, and of a notorious corruption, in the execu- tion of a public office, was, and ought to be, incapa- ble of sitting in the same parliament. Far from attempting to invalidate that vote, I should have to the rights of the people ; but that, as a precedent, it is one of the most dangerous that ever was established against those who are to come after us. Yet, I am so far a mode- rate man, that I verily believe the majority of the house of commons, when they passed this dangerous vote, neither Understood the question, or knew the consequence of what they were doing. Therr motives were rather despicable than criminal, in the extreme. One effect they certainly did Hot foresee. They are now reduced to such a situation, that if a member of the present house of commons were to conduct himself ever so improperly, and, in reality, deserve to be sent back to his constituents with a mark of disgrace, they would not dare to expel him ; because they know that the people, in order to try again the great question of right, or to thwart an odious house of commons, would probably overlook his immediate unworthiness, and return the same person to parliament. But, in time, the precedent will gain strength; a -future house of commons will have no such apprehensions ; consequently, will not scruple to follow a precedent which they did not establish. The miser himself seldom lives to enjoy the fruit of his extortion, but his heir succeeds to him of course, and takes possession without cen- sure. No man expects him to make restitution ; and, no matter for his title, he lives quietly upon the estate. PHILO JUNIUS. JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 135 wished- that the incapacity declared 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 de- clare Mr. Walpole incapable of being re-elected. They thought such a man unworthy to sit among them. To that point they proceeded, and no far- ther ; for they respected the rights of the people, while they asserted their own. They did not infer, from Mr. Walpole's incapacity, that his opponent was duly elected ; on the contrary, they declared Mr. Taylor " not duly elected," and the election it- self void. : Such, however, is the precedent which my houest friend assures us is strictly in point, to prove, that expulsion of itself creates an incapacity of being elected. If it had been so, the present house of commons should at least have followed strictly the example before them, and should have stated to us, in the same vote, the crimes for which they expelled Mr. WUkes : whereas they resolve simply, that, " having been -expelled, he was and is inca- pable." In this proceeding, I am authorised to affirm,' they have neither statute, nor custom, nor reason^ nor one single precedent to support them. On the other side, there is, indeed, a precedent so strongly in point, that all the enchanted castles of ministe- rial magic fall before it. In the year 1698 (a period which the rankest Tory dares not except against) Mr. Wollaston was expelled, re-elected, and admit- ted to take his seat in the same parliament. The ministry have precluded themselves from all ob- 136 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. jections drawn from the cause of his expulsion j for they affirm absolutely, that expulsion, of itself, creates the disability. Now, sir, let sophistry evade, let falsehood assert, and impudence deny ; here Stands the precedent : a land-mark to direct lis 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 comprehends the whole question. The rest is unworthy of notice. We are inquiring whether incapacity be, or be not| created by expulsion. In the cases of Bedford and Maiden, the incapacity of the persons returned was matter of public notoriety, for it was created by act of parliament. But really, sir, my honest friend's suppositions are as unfavourable to him as his facts. He well knows that the clergy, besides that they are represented in common with their fellow subjects, have also a 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 centuries, noto- rious and undisputed. The author is certainly at liberty to fancy cases, and make whatever compari- sons he thinks proper : his suppositions still continue as distant from fact as bis wild discourses are from Solid argume»t. The conclusion of his book is candid to an extreme. He offers to grant me all I desire. He thinks he may safely admit, that the case of Mr. Walpole makes directly against him ; for it seems he has one grand solution in petto for all difficulties. " If (says JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 137 he) I were to allow all this, it will only prove that the law of election was different in queen Anne's time from what it is at present." This, indeed, is more than I expected. The principle, I know, has been maintained in fact ; but I never expected to see it so formally declared^ What can he mean ? Does he assume this language to satisfy the doubts of the people, or does he mean to rouse their indignation . ? Are the ministry daring enough to affirm, that the house of commons have a right to make and unmake the law of parliament, -at their pleasure ? Does the law of parliament, which we are often told is the law of the land, does the common right of every subject of the realm, depend upon an arbitrary, capricious vote of one branch of the legislature t The voice of truth and reason must be silent. The ministry tell us plainly, that this is no longer a question of right, but of power and force alone. What was law yesterday is not law to-day : and now, it seems, we have no better rule to live by, than the temporary discretion and fluctuating integrity of the house of commons. Professions of patriotism are become stale and ridiculous. For my own part, I claim no merit from endeavouring to do a service to my fellow- subjects. I have done it to the best of my under- standing; and, without looking for the approbation of other men, my conscience is satisfied. What cnruns to be done, concerns the collective body of ♦he people. They are now to determine for them- selves, whether they will firmly and constitutionally assert their rights, or make an humble, slavish !38 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. surrender of them at the feet of the ministry. IV a generous mind there cannot be a doubt. We owe it to our ancestors, to preserve entire those rights which they have delivered to our care. We owe it to Our posterity, not to suffer their dearest in- heritance to be destroyed. But, if it were possible for us to be insensible of these sacred claims, there is yet aa obligation binding upon ourselves, from which nothing can acquit us ; a personal interest, which we cannot surrender. To alienate even our own rights, would be a crime as much more enor- mous than suicide, as a life of civil security and freedom is superior to a bare existence : and if life be the bounty of Heaven, we scornfully reject the noblest part of the gift, if we consent to surrender that certain rule of living, without which the con- dition of human nature is not only miserable but con- temptible. JUNIUS. XXI. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser. SIR, August 22, 1769. I must beg of you to print a few lines in expla- nation 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. Walpolc's incapacity on his ex- JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 130 pulsion only, I meant no more than to deny the general proposition, that expulsion alone creates the incapacity. If there be any thing ambiguous in the expression, I beg leave to explain it, by say- ing, that, in my opinion, expulsion neither create* nor in any part contributes to create the incapacity in question. 2. I carefully avoided entering into the merits of Mr. Walpole's case. I did not inquire whether the house of commons acted justly, or whether- they truly declared the law of parliament. My remarks went only to their apparent meaning and intention, as it stands declared in their own resolution. 3. I never meant to affirm, that a commitment to the Tower created a disqualification. — On the con- trary, I considered that idea as an absurdity, into which the ministry must inevitably fall if they reason- ed right upon their own principles. The case of Mr. Wollaston speaks for itself. The ministry assert, that expulsion alone creates an ab- solute, complete incapacity to be re-elected to sit in the same parliament. This proposition they have uniformly maintained, without any condition or modification whatsoever. Mr. Wollaston was ex- pelled, re-elected, and admitted to take his seat in the same parliament. I leave it to the public to determine, whether this be plain matter of fact, or mere nonsense or declamation. JUNIUS. 140 JtfNIUS'S LETTERS. XXII. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser. September 4, 1769- Argument against Fact; or, a new System of Political Logic, by which the ministry have demon- strated, to the satisfaction of their friends, that expul- sion alone creates a complete incapacity to be re- elected, alias.. That a subject of this realm may be robbed of his common right by a vote of the house of commons. FIRST FACT. Mr. Wollaston, in 1698, was expelled, re-elected, and admitted to take his seat. ARGUMENT. As this cannot conveniently be reconciled with our general proposition, it may be necessary to shift our ground, and look back to the cause of Mr. Wol- faston's expulsion. From thence it will appear clearly, that, " although he was expelled, he had not rendered himself a culprit, loo ignominious to sit in parliament ; and that, having resigned his employment, he was no longer incapacitated by law." Vide Serious Considerations, page 23. Or thus : " The house, somewhat inaccurately, used the word expelled ; they should have called it a motion" JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 141 Vide Mungo's Case considered, page 11. Or, in short, if these arguments should be thought insuf- ficient, we may fairly deny the fact. For example : " I affirm that he was not re-elected. The same Mr. Wollaston, who was expelled, was not again elected. The same individual, if you please, walked into the house, and took his seat there ; but the same person. txx 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 ZDoiver, and expelled, for a high breach of trust, and notorious corruption in a public office, was declared incapable, fyc. ARGUMENT. From the terms of this vote, nothing can be more evident, than that the house of commoris meant to fix the incapacity upon the punishment, and not upon the crime ; but, lest it should appear in a different light to weak, uninformed person*, it may be advisable to gut the resolution, and give it to the public, with all possible solemnity, in the following terras, viz. " Resolved, that Robert Wal- pole, esq. having been that session of parliament, expelled the house, was and is incapable of being elected a member to serve in that present parlia- ment." Vide Mungo, on the Use of Quotations, page 11. 142 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. N. B. The author of the answer to Sir William Meredith seems to have made use of Mungo's quo- tation : for, in page 18, he assures us, " That the declaratory vote of the 17th of February, 1769, was, indeed, a literal copy of the resolution of the house in Mr. Walpole's case." THIRD FACT. His opponent, Mr. Taylor, having the smallest 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 member, for the following reasons : " The burgesses of Lynn could draw no other inference from this resolution but this; that, at a future election, and in case of a similar return, the house would receive the same candidate as duly elected whom they had before rejected." Vide Postscript to Junius, page 37. Or thus : " This, their resolution, leaves no room to doubt what part they would have taken, if, upon a subsequent re-election of Mr. Walpole, there had been any other candidate in competition with him : for bj' their vote, they could have no other inten- tion than to admit such other candidate." Vide Mungo's Case considered, page 39. Or, take it in this light: the burgesses of Lynn having, in defiance of the house, retorted upon them a person whom they had branded with the most ignominious marks of their displeasure, were thereby so well entitled to JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 143 favour and indulgence, that the house could do no Jess than rob Mr. Taylor of a right legally vested in him, in order that the burgesses might be apprised ef the law of parliament ; which law the house took a very direct way of explaining to them, by resolving that the candidate with the fewest votes was not duly elected : " And was not this much more equi- table, more in the spirit of that equal and substantial justice which is the end of all law, than if they had violently adhered to the strict maxims of law ?" Vide Serious Considerations, pages 33 and 34. " And if the present house of commons had chosen to follow the spirit of this resolution, they would have received and established the candidate with the fewest votes." Vide Answer to sir W. M, page 18. Permit me now, sir, to show you, that the worthy Dr. Blackstone sometimes contradicts the ministry, as well as himself. The speech without doors asserts, page 9th, " That the legal effect of an in- capacity, founded on a judicial determination of a complete court, is precisely the same as that of an incapacity created by an act of parliament." Now for the doctor. " The law, and the opinion of the judge, are not always convertible terms, or one and the same thing ; since it sometimes may happen, that the judge may mistake the law." Commentaries, vol. i. p. 71. The answer to sir W. M. asserts, page 23, " That the returning officer is not a judicial, but a purely ministerial officer. His return is no judicial act." At 'em again, doctor. " The sheriff, in his judicial capacity, is to hear and determine causes of forty 144 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 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 com- mons,) to judge of the qualification of voters, and to return such as he shall determine to he duly elected." Vide Commentaries, vol. i. p. 332. What conclusion shall we draw from such facts, and such arguments, such contradictions f I cannot express my opinion of the present ministry more ex- actly than in the words of sir Richard Steele, " That we are governed by a set of drivellers, whose folly takes away all dignity from distress, and makes even mlauaitv ridiculous." PHILO JUNIUS. XXIII. To his Grace the Duke of Bedford. MY LORD, September 19, 1769. You are so little accustomed to receive any marks of respect or esteem from the public, that if, in the following lines, a compliment or expression of ap- plause should escape me, I fear you would consider it as a mockery of your established character, and, perhaps, an insult to your understanding. You have nice feelings, my lord, if we may judge from your resentments. Cautious,' therefore, of giving offence, where you have so little deserved it, I shall leave OUNIUS'S LETTERS. X45 the illustration of your virtues to other hands. Your friends have a privilege to play upon the easiness of your temper, or, possibly, they are better acquainted with your good qualities than I am. You have done good by stealth. The rest is upon record. You have still left ample room for speculation, when panegyric is exhausted. You are, indeed, a very considerable man. The highest rank, a splendid fortune, and a name, glo- rious, till it was yours, were sufficient to have sup- ported you with meaner abilities than I think you possess. From the first, you derive a constitutional claim to respect ; from the second, a natural exten- sive authority ; the last created a partial expectation of hereditary virtues. The use you have made of these uncommon advantages might have been more honourable to yourself, but could not be more in- structive to mankind. We may trace it in the veneration of your country, the choice of your friends, and in the accomplishment of every sanguine hope which the public might have conceived from the illustrious name of Russell. The eminence of your station gave you a com- manding prospect of your duty. The road which led to honour was open to your view. You could not lose it by mistake, and you had no temptation to depart from it by design. Compare the natural dignity and importance of the highest peer of Eng- land : the noble independence which he might have maintain' ' in ■;-. filament ; and the real interest and respect which he might have acquired, not only in parliament, but through the whole kingdom ; com- vol. i. 10 14G JUNIUS'S LETTERS. pare these glorious distinctions, with the ambition of holding a share in government, the emolument? of a place, the sale of a borough, or the purchase ot a corporation ; and though you may not regret the yirtues which create respect, you may see with anguish how much real importance and authority you have lost. Consider the character of an inde pendent, virtuous duke of Bedford ; imagine what he might be in this country ; then reflect one mo- ment upon what you are. If it be possible for me to withdraw my attention from the fact, I will tell you in theory what such a man might be. Conscious of his own weight and importance, his conduct in parliament would be directed by nothing but the constitutional duty of a peer. He would consider himself as a guardian of the laws. Willing to support the just measures of government, but determined to observe the conduct of the minister with suspicion, he would oppose the violence of faction with as much firmness as the encroachments of prerogative. He would be as little capable of bargaining with the minister for places for himself or his dependents, as of descending to mix himself in the intrigues of opposition. Whenever air im- portant question called for his opinion in parlia- ment, he would be heard by the most profligate minister with deference and respect. His authority would either sanctify or disgrace the measures of government. The people would look up to him as to their protector ; and a virtuous prince would have one honest man in his dominions, in whose integrity and judgment he might safely confide. JUNIUS'S LETTERS. H? 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 defending a minister. He would not at one moment rancor- ously persecute, at another basely cringe to, the favourite of his sovereign. After outraging the royal dignity with peremptory conditions, little short of menace and hostility, he would never de- scend to the humility of soliciting an interview^ with the favourite, and of offering to recover, at any price, the honour of his friendship. Though deceived, perhaps, in his youth, he would not, through the course of a long life, have invariably chosen his friends from among the most profligate of mankind. His own honour would have forbid- den him from mixing his private pleasures or con- versation with jockeys, gamesters, blasphemers, * The duke had lately lost his only son by a fall from his horse. t At this interview, which passed at the house of the late lord Eglintoun, lord Bute told the duke, that he was deter- mined never to have any connexion with a man who had so basely betrayed him. 146 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. gladiators, or buffoons. He would then have never felt, much less would he have submitted to, the dis- honest necessity of engaging in the interests and intrigues of his dependents ; of supplying their vices, or relieving their beggary, at the expense o* his country. He would not have betrayed such ignorance, or such contempt, of the constitution, as openly to avow, in a court of justice, the pur- chase* and sale of a borough. He would not have thought it consistent with his rank in the state, or even with his personal importance, to be the little tyrant of a little corporation.! He would never have been insulted with virtues which he had la- boured to extinguish ; nor suffered the disgrace of a mortifying defeat, which has made him ridiculous and contemptible even to the few by whom he was not detested. I reverence the afflictions of a good man ; his sorrows are sacred. But how can we take part in the distresses of a man whom we can nei- ther love or esteem : 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 imme- * In an answer in chancery, in a suit against him to recover a large sura, paid him by a person whom he had undertaken to return to parliament for one of his grace's boroughs, he was compelled to repay the money. f Of Bedford, where the tyrant was held in such con- tempt and detestation, that, in order to deliver themselves from him, they admitted a great number of strangers to (he freedom. To make his defeat truly ridiculous, he tried his whole strength against Mr. Home, and was beaten upon his own ground. JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 149 tiiate consolation for the loss of an only son, in consultations and bargains for a place at court, and even in the misery of ballotting at the India- House ? Admitting, then, that you have mistaken or de- serted those honourable principles which ought to have directed your conduct ; admitting that you have as little claim to private affection as to public esteem, let us see with what abilities, with what de- gree of judgment, you have carried your own sys- tem into execution. A great man, in the success, and even in the magnitude, of his crimes, finds a rescue from contempt. Your grace is every way unfortunate. Yet I will not look back to those ridiculous scenes, by which, in your earlier days, you thought it an honour to be distinguished ;* the recorded stripes, the public infamy, your own sufferings, or Mr. Rigby's fortitude. These events undoubtedly left an impression, though not upon your mind. To such a mind, it may, perhaps, be a pleasure to reflect, that there is hardly a corne • of * Mr. Heston Humphrey, a country attorney, horse- whipped the duke, with equal justice, severity, and perse- verance, on the course at Lichfield. Rigby and lord Tren- tham were also cudgelled in a most exemplary manner. This gave rise to the following story : " When the late king heard that sir Edward Hawke had given the French a drub- bing, his majesty, who had never received that kind of chas- tisement, was pleased to ask lord Chesterfield the meaning of the word. — " Sir," says lord Chesterfield, " the meaning of the word — But here comes the duke of Bedford, who is i able to explain it to your majesty than I am," 150 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. any of his majesty's kingdoms, except France, ht which, at one time or other, your valuable life has not been in danger. Amiable man ! we see and ac- knowledge the protection of Providence, by which you have so often escaped the personal detestation of your fellow-subjects, and are still reserved for the public justice of your country. Your history begins to be important at that auspicious period, at which you were deputed to represent the earl of Bute at the court of Versailles. It was an honourable office, and executed with the same spirit with which it was accepted. Your patrons wanted an ambassador who would submit to make concessions, without daring to insist upon any honourable condition for his sovereign. Their business required a man who had as little feeling for his own dignity, as for the welfare of his country ; and they found him in the first rank of the nobility. Belleisle, Goree, Gundaloupe, St. Lucia, Martin- ique, the Fishery, and the Havana, are glorious monuments of your grace's talents for negotiation. My lord, we are too well acquainted with your pe- cuniary character, to think it possible that so many public sacrifices should have been made without some private compensations. Your conduct carries with it an internal evidence, beyond all the legal proofs of a court of justice. Even the callous pride of lord Egremont was alarmed.* He saw and felt * This man, notwithstanding his pride and Tory prin- ciples, had some English stuff in him. Upon an official letter he wrote to the duke of Bedford, the duke desired to JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 151 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 prevailed over his faculties, and carried all sense and memory away with it. I will not pretend to specify the secret terms on which you were invited to support* an administra- tion which lord Bute pretended to leave in full possession of their ministerial authority, and per- fectly masters of themselves. He was not of a temper to relinquish power, though he retired from employment. Stipulations were certainly made be- tween your grace and him, and certainly violated. After two years' submission, you thought you had collected strength enough to control his influence, and that it was your turn to be a tyrant, because you had been a slave. When you found yourself mis- taken in your opinion of your gracious master's firmness, disappointment got the better of all your humble discretion, and carried you to an excess of outrage to his person, as distant from true spirit, as from all decency and respect.t After robbing him be recalled, and it was with the utmost difficulty that lord Bute could appease him. , * Mr. Grenville, lord Halifax, and lord Egremont. t The ministry having endeavoured to exclude the dow- ager out of the Regency Bill, the earl of Bute determined to dismiss them. Upon this, the duke of Bedford demanded an audience of the , reproached him in plain terms with his duplicity, baseness, falsehood, treachery, and hypocrisy ; repeatedly gave him the lie, and left him in convulsions, 152 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. of the rights of a king, you would not permit hint to preserve the honour of a gentleman. It was then lord Weymouth was nominated to Ireland, and despatched (we well remember with what inde- cent 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 iv i th the public, if it had either been adopted upon principle, or maintained with resolution. With- out looking back to all your former servility, we need only observe your subsequent conduct, to see upon what motives you acted. Apparently united with Mr. Grenville, you waited until lord Rocking- ham's feeble administration should dissolve in its own weakness. The moment their dismission was suspected, the moment you perceived that another system was adopted in the closet, you thought it no disgrace to return to your former dependence, and solicit once more the friendship of lord Bute. You begged an interview, at which he had spirit enough to treat you with contempt. It would now be of little use to point out by what a train of weak, injudicious measures, it became necessary, or was thought so, to call you back to a share in the administration.t The friends, whom * He received three thousand pounds for plate and equipage money. f When earl Gower was appointed president of the council, the king, with his usual sincerity, assured him, JUNIIjS'S LETTERS. 155 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 alliance with the duke of Grafton, was, I presume, hardly foreseen. We must look for other stipulations to account for that sud- den resolution of the closet, by which three of your dependents* (whose characters, I think, cannot be less respected than they are) were advanced to offices, through which you might again control the minister, and probably engross the whole 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 circumvallation are drawing round him; and, unless he finds a re- source 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 gentleman cannot submit to hear without being contemptible. Mr. M'Kenzie's history is not yet forgotten j and you may find pre- cedents enough of the mode in which an imperious that he had not had one happy moment since the duke of Bedford left him. * Lords Gower, Weymouth, and Sandwich. G 2 154 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. subject may signify his pleasure to his sovereign, Where will this gracious monarch look for assist- ance, when the wretched Grafton could forget his obligations to his master, and desert him for a hol- low alliance with such a man as the duke of Bedford ! Let us consider you, then, as arrived at the sum- mit of worldly greatness ; let us suppose that all your plans of avarice and ambition are accom- plished, and your most sanguine wishes gratified, in the fear as well as the hatred of the people ; can age itself forget that you are new in the last act of life ? Can gray hairs make folly venerable ? And is there no period to be reserved for meditation and re- tirement ? For shame, my- lord ! let it not be re- corded of you, that the latest moments of your life were dedicated to the same unworthy pursuits, the same busy agitations, in which your youth and manhood were exhausted. Consider that, although you cannot disgrace your former life, you are vio- lating the character of age, and exposing the im- potent imbecility, after you have lost the vigour, of the passions. Your friends will ask, perhaps, Whither shall this unhappy old man retire? Can lie remain in the metropolis, where his life has been so often threat- ened, and his palace so often attacked ? If he returns to Woburn, scorn and mockery await him. He must create a solitude round his estate, if he would avoid the face of reproach and derision. At Ply- mouth, his destruction would be more than probable j at Exeter, inevitable. No honest Englishman will JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 155 t\cr forget his attachment, nor any honest Scotch- man forgive his treachery, to lord Bute. At every town he enters, he must change his liveries and name. Whichever 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 Sicilj'. 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 tan no more fly from your enemies, than from yourself. Persecuted abroad, you look into youv own heart fw consolation, and find nothing but reproaches and despair. But, my lord, you may quit the field of business, though not the field of danger ; and though you cannot be safe, you may cease to be ridiculous. I fear you have listened too long to the advice of those pernicious friends, with whose interests you have sordidly united your own. and for whom you have sacrificed every thing that ought to be dear to a man of honour. They are still base enough to encourage the follies of your age, as they once did the vices of your youth. As little acquainted with the rules of decorum as with the laws of morality, they will not suffer you to profit by experience, nor even to consult the propri- ety of a bad character. Even now they tell you 156 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. that life 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. XXIV. w To Junius. SIR, September 14, 1769. Having, accidentally, seen a republication of your letters, wherein you have been pleased to assert, that I had sold the companions of my success, I am again obliged to declare the said assertion to be a most infamous and malicious falsehood ; and I again call upon you to stand forth, avow yourself, and prove the charge. If you can make it out to the satisfaction of any one man in the kingdom, I will be content to be thought the worst man in it ; if you do not, what must the nation think of you f Party has nothing to do in this affair : you have made a personal attack upon my honour, defamed me by a most vile calumny, which might possibly have sunk into oblivion, had not such uncommon pains been taken to renew and perpetuate this scandal, chiefly because it has been told in good language ; for I give you full credit for your elegant diction, well-turned periods, and Attic wit : but JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 157 wit is oftentimes false, though it may appear bril- liant; which is exactly the case of your whole per- formance. But, sir, I am obliged, in the most serious manner, to accuse you of being guilty of falsities. You have said the thing that is not. To support your story, you have recourse to the following irresistible argument : " You sold the companions of your victory, because, when the 16th regiment was given to you, you was silent, The conclusion is inevitable." I believe that such deep and acute reasoning could only come from tuch an extraordinary writer as Junius. But, un- fortunately for you, the premises, as well as the conclusion, are absolutely false. Many applications have been made to the ministry, on the subject of the Manilla ransom, since the time of my being colonel of that regiment. As I have for some years quitted London, I was obliged to have recourse to the honourable colonel Monson, and sir Samuel Cornish, to negotiate for me. In the last autumn, I personally delivered a memorial to the earl o Shelburne, at his seat in Wiltshire. As you have told us of your importance, that you are a persoa of rank and fortune, and above a common bribe, you may, in all probability, be not unknown to his lordship, who can satisfy you of the truth of what I say. But I shall now take the liberty, sir, to seize your battery, and turn it against yourself. If your puerile and tinsel logic could carry the least weight or conviction with it, how must you stand 'affected by the inevitable conclusion, as you ax*e pleased to term it ? According to Junius, silence is guilt. In many of the public papers, you have iSB JUNIUS'S LETTERS. been called, in the most direct and offensive terms, a liar and a coward. When did you reply to these foul accusations ? You have been quite silent, quite chop-fallen: therefore, because you was silent, the nation has a right to pronounce you to be both a liar and a coward, from your own argument. But, sir, I will give you fair play ; I will afford you an oppor- tunity to wipe off the first appellation, by desiring the proofs of your charge against me. Produce them ! To wipe off the last, produce yourself. Peo- ple cannot bear any longer your lion's skin, and the despicable imposture of the old Roman name which you have affected. For the future, assume the name of some modern* bravo and dark assassin : let your appellation have some affinity to your practice. But if I must perish, Junius, let me perish in the face of day : be for once a generous and open enemy. I allow that Gothic appeals to cold iron, are no better proofs of a man's honesty and veracity, than hot iron and burning plough-shares are of female chastity ; but a soldier's honour is as delicate as a woman's : it must not be suspected. You have dared to throw more than a suspicion upon mine : you cannot but know the consequences, which even the meekness of Christianity would pardon me for, after the injury you have done me. WILLIAM DRAPER. * Was Brutus an ancient bravo and dark assassin ? Or does sir W. D. think it criminal to stab a tyrant to the }»eart ? JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 159 XXV. Heeret lateri lethalis arundo. To Sir William Draper, Knight of the Bath. SIR September 25, 1769- After so long an interval, I did not expect to see the debate revived between us. My answer to your last letter shall be short; for I write to you with reluctance, and I hope we shall now conclude our correspondence for ever. Had you been originally, and without provoca- tion, attacked by an anonymous writer, you would have some right to demand his name. But in this cause you are a volunteer. You engaged in it with the unpremeditated gallantry of a soldier. You were content to set your name in opposition to a man who would probably continue in concealment. You understood the terms upon which we were to correspond, and gave at least a tacit assent to them. After voluntarily attacking me, under the character of Junius, what possible right have you to know me under any other ? Will you forgive me if I insinuate to you, that you foresaw some honour in the appa- rent spirit of coming forward in person, and that you were not quite indifferent to the display of your lite- rary qualifications ? 260 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 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 impossible I should be concerned, and for which I am no way answerable. At the same time, I wish you to understand, that if I do not take the trouble of reprinting 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, whether 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 discretion, if I had suffered my- self to be the dupe of so shallow an artifice ? Your appeal to the sword, though consistent enough with your late profession, will neither prove your innocence, nor clear you from suspicion. Your complaints with regard to the Manilla ransom, were, for a considerable time, a distress to govern- ment. You were appointed (greatly out of your turn) to the command of a regiment ; and during that administration we heard no more of sir William Draper. The facts of which I speak may, indeed, be variously accounted for ; but they are too notori- ous to be denied ; and I think you might have learn- ed, at the university, that a false conclusion is an error in argument, not a breach of veracity. Your solicitations, I doubt not, were renewed under another administration. Admitting the fact, I fear an indif- ferent person would only infer from it, that experi- JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 161 ence had made you acquainted with the benefits of complaining. Remember, sir, that you have your- self confessed, that, considering the critical situation of this country, the ministry are in the right to tempo- rise with Spain. This confession reduces you to an unfortunate dilemma. By renewing your solicita- tions, you must either mean to force your country into a war at a most unseasonable juncture, or, having no view or expectation of that kind, that you look for nothing but a private compensation to yourself. As to me, it is by no means necessary that I should be exposed to the resentment of the worst and the most powerful men in this country, though I may be indifferent about yours. Though you would fight, there are others who would assassinate. But, after all, sir, where is the injury ? You as- sure me, that my logic is puerile and tinsel ; that it carries not the least weight or conviction ; that my premises are false, and my conclusions absurd. If this be a just description of me, how is it possible for such a writer to disturb your peace of mind, or to injure a character so well established as yours ? Take care, sir William, how you indulge this un- ruly temper, lest the world should suspect that con- science has some share in your resentments. You have more to fear from the treachery of your own passions, than from any malevolence of mine. I believe, sir, you will never know me. A con- siderable time must certainly elapse before we are personally acquainted. You need not, however, regret the delay, or suffer an apprehension, that any length of time can restore you to the Christian U 162 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. meekness of your temper, and disappoint your pre j sent indignation. If I understand your character, there is in your own breast a repository, in which your resentments may be safely laid up for future occasions, and preserved without the hazard of diminution. The odia in longum jacens, qua re- conderet, auctaque promeret, I thought had only be- longed to the worst character of antiquity. The text is in Tacitus : vou know best where to look for the commentary. JUNIUS. XXVI. A Word at parting to Junius. * SIR, October 7, 1709. As you have not favoured me with either of the explanations demanded of you, I can have nothing more to say to you upon my own account. Your * Measures and not men, is the common cant of affected moderation : a base counterfeit language, fabricated by knaves, and made current among fools. Such gentle cen- sure is not fitted to the present degenerate state of society. What does it avail to expose the absurd contrivance, or pernicious tendency, of measures, if the man who advises or executes, shall be suffered, not only to escape with im- punity, but even to preserve his power, and insult us with the favour of his sovereign ? I would recommend to the JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 165 mercy to me, or tenderness for yourself, has been very great. The public will judge of your motives. If your excess of modesty forbids you to produce either the proofs or yourself, I will excuse it. Take courage, I have not the temper of Tiberius, any more than the rank or power. You, indeed, are a tyrant of another sort; and upon your politi- cal bed of torture, can excruciate any subject, from a first minister down to such a grub or butterfly as myself; like another detested tyrant of antiquity, can make the wretched sufferer fit the bed, if the bed will not fit the sufferer, by disjointing or tearing the trembling limbs, until they are stretched to its ex- tremity. But courage, constancy, and patience under torments, have sometimes caused the most hardened monsters to relent, and forgive the object of their cruelty. You, sir, are determined to try all that human nature can endure, until she expires ; else, was it possible that you could be the author of that most inhuman letter to the duke of Bedford, I have read with astonishment and horror ? Where. reader the whole of Mr. Pope's letter to Doctor Arbuthnot, dated July 2Gth, 1734, from winch the following is an ex- tract : " To reform, and not to chastise, I am afraid, is im- possible ; and that the best precepts, as well as the best laws, would prove of small use, if there were no examples to en- force them. To attack vices in the abstract, without touching persons, may be safe fighting, indeed, but it in- fighting with shadows. My greatest comfort and encou- ragement to proceed has been to see, that those who have no shame, and no frar of any thing else, have appeared touched by my satires." t64 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. sir, where were the feelings of your own heart, when you could upbraid a most affectionate father with the loss of his only 7 and most amiable son ? Read over again those cruel lines of yours, and let them wring your very soul ! Cannot political questions be dis- cussed, without descending to the most odious per- sonalities f Must you go wantonly out of your way to torment declining age, because the duke of Bed- ford may have quarrelled with those whose cause and politics you espouse f For shame ! for shame ! As you have spoken daggers to him, you may justly dread the use of them against your own breast, did a want of courage, or of noble sentiments, stimulate him to such mean revenge. He is above it ; he is brave. Do you fancy that your own base arts have infected our whole island ? But your own reflec- tions, your own conscience, must, and will, if you have any spark of humanity remaining, give him most ample vengeance. Not all the power of words with which you are so graced, will ever wash out, or even palliate, this foul blot in your character. I have not time, at present, to dissect your letter so minutely as I could wish ; but I will be bold enough to say, that it is (as to reason and argument) the most extraordinary piece of florid impotence that was ever imposed upon the eyes and ears of the too credulous and deluded mob. It accuses the duke of Bedford of high treason. Upon what foundation ? You tell us, " the duke's pecuniary character makes it more than probable, that he could not have made such sacrifices at the peace, without some private compensations: that his conduct carried with it an JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 165 Interior evidence, beyond all the legal proofs of a court of justice." My academical education, sir, bids me tell you, that it is necessary to establish the truth of your first proposition, before you presume to draw inferences from it. First prove the avarice, before you make the rash, hasty, and most wicked conclusion. This father, Junius, whom you call avaricious, allowed that son eight thousand pounds a year. Upon his most unfortunate death, which your usual good-na- ture took care to remind him of, he greatly increased the jointure of the afflicted lady his widow. Is this avarice ? Is this doing good by stealth ? It is upon record. If exact order, method, and true economy, as a master of a family ; if splendour, and just magnifi- cence, without wild waste and thoughtless extrava- gance, may constitute the character of an avaricious man, the duke is guilty. But, for a moment, let us admit that an ambassador may love money too much : what proof do you give that he has taken any to betray his country ? Is it hearsay, or the evidence of letters, or ocular ; or the evidence of those con- cerned in this black affair ? Produce your authori- ties to the public. It is a most impudent kind of sorcery, to attempt to blind us with the smoke, with- out convincing us that the fire has existed. You first brand him with a vice that he is free from, to render him odious and suspeeted. 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 166 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 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 sub- mitted. But I hope, also, that some notice will be taken of, and some punishment inflicted upon, false accusers ; especially upon such, Junius, who are wil- fully false. In any truth I will agree even with Junius ; will agree with him that it is highly unbe- coming the dignity of peers to tamper with boroughs. Aristocracy is as fatal as democracy. Our consti- tution admits of neither. It loves a king, lords, and commons, really chosen by the unbought suffrages of a free people. But if corruption only shifts hands, if the wealthy commoner gives the bribe instead of the potent peer, is the state better served by this ex- change ? Is the real emancipation of the borough effected, because new parchment 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 con- sidering, except for the elegance of the language. Like Hamlet, in the play, you produce two pictures : you tell us, that one is not like the duke of Bed- ford; then you bring a most hideous caricature, and tell us of the resemblance ; but multum abludit imago. All your long tedious accounts of the ministerial quarrels, and the intrigues of the cabinet, are re-* JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 167 ducible to a few short lines ; and to convince you. sir, that I do not mean to flatter any minister, either past or present, these are my thoughts : they seem to have acted like lovers, or children ; have* pouted, quarrelled, cried, kissed, and been friends again, as the objects of desire, the ministerial rattle?, have been put into their hands. But such proceed- ings are very unworthy of the gravity and dignity of a great nation. We do not want men of abilities, but we have wanted steadiness : we want unanimity; your letters, Junius, will not contribute thereto. You may one day expire by a flame of your own kindling. But it is my humble opinion, that lenity and moderation, pardon and oblivion, will disappoint the efforts of all the seditious in the land, and extin- guish their wide-spreading fires. I have lived with .this sentiment ; with this I shall die. WILLIAM DRAPER. * Sir William gives us a pleasant account of men, who, »n his opinion at least, are the best qualified to govern an empire. 168 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. XXVII. To the Printer of the Public Advertise): SIR, October 13, 1769- If sir William Draper's bed be a bed of tortures, he has made it for himself. I shall never interrupt his repose. Having changed the subject, there are parts of his last letter not undeserving of a reply. Leaving his private character and conduct out of the question, I shall consider him merely in the capacity of an author, whose labours certainly do no discredit to a newspaper. We say, in common discourse, that a man may be his own enemy ; and the frequency of the fact makes the expression intelligible. But that a man should be the bitterest enemy of his friends, implies a contradiction of a peculiar nature. There is some- thing in it, which cannot be conceived, without a confusion of ideas, nor expressed, without a solecism in language. Sir William Draper is still that fatal friend lord Granby found him. Yet, I am ready to do justice to his generosity ; 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 con- JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 169 found 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 outward tyran- ny can reach the mind. If conscience plays the tyrant, it would be greatly for the benefit 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 /ather's heart. Am I, indeed, so injudicious? Does sir William Draper think 1 would have hazarded my credit with a generous nation, by so gross a viola- tion of the laws of humanity ? Does he think I am so little acquainted with the first and noblest charac- teristic of Englishmen ? Or, how will he reconcile such folly with an understanding so full of artifice as mine ? Had he been a father, he would have been but little offended with the severity of the reproach, for his mind would have been filled with the justice of it. He would have seen, that I did not insult the feelings of a father, but the father who felt nothing. He would have trusted to the evidence of his own paternal heart, and boldly denied the possibility of the fact, instead of defending it. Against whom, then, will his honest indignation be directed, when I assure him, that this whole town beheld the duke of Bedford's conduct, upon the death of his son, with horror and astonishment? Sir William Draper does himself but little honour in opposing the general sense of his country. The people are seldom wrong in their opinions ; in their sentiments they are never mistaken. There may be a vanity, perhaps, in a sin- gular way of thinking : but, when a man professes a want of those feelings which do honour to the multi- VOL. T. 170 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. tude, he hazards something infinitely more important than the character of his understanding. After all. as sir William may possibly be in earnest in his anxi- ety for the duke of Bedford, I should be glad to re- lieve him from it. He may rest assured, this worthy nobleman laughs, with equal indifference, at my re proaches, and sir William's distress about him. But here let it stop. Even the duke of Bedford, insensi- ble as he is, will consult the tranquillity of his life, in not provoking the moderation of my temper. If from the profoundest contempt, I should ever rise into anger, he should soon find, that all I have already said of him was lenity and compassion. 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 discuss ; and, indeed, it would have been a laborious undertaking. To draw up a defence of such a series of enormities, would have required a life, at least, as long as that which has been uniformly 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 family, at least, he is regular and magnificent. He pays his debts, abhors a beggar, and makes a handsome pro- vision for his son. His charity has improved upon the proverb, and ended where it began. Admitting the whole force of this single instance of his domestic generosity, (wonderful, indeed, considering the nar- rowness of his fortune, and the little merit of his only son) the public may still, perhaps, be dissatisfied, and demand some other less equivocal proofs of his munificence. Sir William Draper should have en- JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 171 tered boldly into the detail of indigence relieved, of arts encouraged, of science patronised, men of learn- ing protected, and works of genius rewarded. In short, had there been a single instance, besides Mr. Rigby,* of blushing merit, brought forward by the duke for the service of the public, it should not have been omitted. I wish it were possible to establish my inference with the same certainty on which I believe the prin- ciple is founded. My conclusion, however, was not drawn from the principle alone. I am not so unjust as to reason from one crime to another: though I think that, of all the vices, avarice is most apt to taint and corrupt the heart, I combined the known temper of the man, with the extravagant concessions made by the ambassador ; and though I doubt not sufficient care was taken to leave no document of any treasonable negotiation, I still maintain that the con- duett of this minister carries with it an internal and convincing evidence against him. Sir William Dra- per seems not to know the value or force of such a proof. He will not permit us to judge of the mo- tives of men, by the manifest tendency of their ac- tions, nor by the notorious character of their minds. * This gentleman is supposed to have the same idea of blushing, that a man, blind from his birth, has of scarlet or sky-bhie. t If sir W. D. will take the trouble of looking into Torey's Memoirs, he will see with what little ceremony a bribe may be offered to a duke, and with what little ceremony it was only not accepted. 172 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. He calls for papers and witnesses with triumphant security, as if nothing could be true but what coul<$ be proved in a court of justice. Yet a religious man might have remembered upon what foundation some truths, most interesting to mankind, have been re- ceived and established. If it were not for the inter- nal evidence which the purest of religions carries with it, what would have become of his once well- quoted decalogue, and of the meekness of his Chris- tianity ? The generous warmth of his resentment makes him confound the order of events. He forgets, that the insults and distresses which the duke of Bedford has suffered, and which sir William has lamented, with many delicate touches of 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 may carry with it something prophetic. His grace, undoubtedly, has received several ominous 1 hints ; and, I think, in certain circumstances, a wise man would do well to prepare himself for the event. But I have a charge of a heavier nature against sir William Draper. He tells us, that the duke of Bedford is amenable to justice ; that parliament is a high and solemn tribunal ; and that, if guilty, he may be punished by due course of law ; and all this he says with as much gravity as if he believed one word of the matter. I hope, indeed, the day of impeachments will arrive before this nobleman escapes out of life ; but, to refer us to that mode of proceeding now, with such a ministry, and such JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 173 at house of commons as the present, what is it, but an indecent mockery of the common sense of the nation ? I think lie might have contented him- self with defending the greatest enemy, without in- sulting the distresses of his country. His concluding declaration of his opinion, with respect to the present condition of affairs, is too loose and undetermined to he of any service to the public How strange is it that this gentleman should dedicate so much time and argument to the defence of worthless or indifferent characters, while he gives but seven solitary lines to the only subject which can deserve his attention, or do credit to his abilities ! JUNIUS. XXVIII. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser. recovered themselves, and the sale of the royal favour was openly avowed and defended. We acknowledge the piety of St. James's, but what is be- come of its morality ? VOL. X. 1 13 i9-i JUNIUS'S LETTERS. at the integrity of a privy-counsellor, of a first com- missioner of the treasury, and of a leading minister, who is supposed to enjoy the first share in his majes- ty's confidence.* In every one of these capacities I employed the most moderate terms to charge you with treachery to your sovereign, and breach of trust in your office. I accused you of having sold a patent place in the collection of the customs at Exeter to one Mr. 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 hundred pounds a year. No sale by the candle was ever conducted with greater formality. I affirm, that the price at which the place was knocked down (and which, I have good reason to think, was not less than three thousand five hundred pounds) was, with your connivance and con- sent, paid to colonel Burgoyne, to reward him, I presume, for the decency of his deportment at Pres- ton; or to reimburse him, perhaps, for the fine of one thousand pounds, which, for that very deportment, the court of king's bench thought proper to set upon him. It is not often that the chief justice and the prime minister are so strangely at variance in their opinions of men and things. I thank God, there is not in human nature a de- gree of impudence daring enough to deny the charge I have fixed upon you. Your courteous secretary,t your confidential architect,* are silent as the grave, * And by the same means preserves it to this hour. t Tommy Bradshaw. t Mr. Taylor. He and George Ross (the Scotch agent and worthy confidant of lord Mansfield) managed the business. JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 195 Even Mr. Rigby's countenance fails him. He vio- lates 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 repu- tation. He is not only nice, but perfectly sore, in every thing that touches his honour. If any man. for example, were to accuse him of taking his stand at a gaming-table, and watching, with the soberest attention, for a fair opportunity of engaging a drunken young nobleman at piquet, he would, undoubtedly, consider it as an infamous aspersion upon his charac- ter, and resent it like a man of honour. Acquitting him, therefore, of drawing a regular and splendid subsistence from any unworthy practices, either in his own house, or elsewhere, let me ask your grace, for what military merits you have been pleased to re- ward him with military government ? He had a regiment of dragoons, which, one would imagine, was at least an equivalent for any services he ever per- formed. Besides, he is but a young officer, consider- ing his preferment; and, except in his activity at Preston, not very conspicuous in his profession. But it seems the sale of a civil employment was not suffi- cient ; and military governments, which were intended for the support of worn-out veterans, must be thrown into the scale, to defray the extensive bribery of a contested election. Are these the steps you take to secure to your sovereign the attachment of his army ? With what countenance dare you appear in the royal presence, branded, as you are, with the infamy of a notorious breach of trust ? With what countenance can you take your seat at the treasury-board, or in the council, when you feel that every circulating whisper is at your expense alone, and stabs you to the 196 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. ^ieart ? Have you a single friend in parliament so Shameless, so thoroughly abandoned, as to undertake your defence ? You know, my lord, that there is not a man in either house, whose character, however fla gitious, would not be ruined b} T mixing his reputation with yours ; and does not your heart inform 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 ? We are told, by the highest judicial authority, that Mr. Vaughan's* offer to purchase the reversion of a * A little before the publication of this and the preceding letter, the duke of Grafton had commenced a prosecution against Mr. Samuel Yaughan, for endeavouring to corrupt his integrity, by an offer of five thousand pounds for a pa- tent place in Jamaica. A rule to show cause why an infor- mation should not be exhibited against Yaughan for certain misdemeanors, being granted by the court of king's bench, the matter was solemnly argued on the 27th of November, 1769, and by the unanimous opinion of the four 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 attention : " A prac- tice of the kind complained of here, is certainly dishonour- able and scandalous. If a man, standing under the relation, of an officer under the king, or of a person in whom the king puts confidence, or of a minister, takes money for the use of that confidence the king puts in him, he basely be- trays the king ; he basely betrays his trust. If the king sold the office, it would be acting contrary to the trust the constitution had reposed in him. The constitution does not intend the crown should sell those offices to raise a re- venue out of them. Is it possible to hesitate, whether this JUNIUS'S LETTERS. m patent place in Jamaica (which he was otherwise suf- ficiently entitled to) amounts to a high misdemeanor. Be it so : and if he deserves it, let him be punished. But the learned judge might have had a fairer oppor- tunity of displaying the powers of his eloquence. Having delivered himself, with so much energy, upon the criminal nature and dangerous consequences of any attempt to corrupt a man in your grace's station, what would he have said to the minister himself, to that very privy counsellor, to that first commissioner of the treasury, who does not wait for, but impatiently solicits, the touch of corruption ; who employs the meanest of his creatures in these honourable services; and, forgetting the genius and fidelity of his secretary, descends to apply to his house-builder for assistance ? This affair, my lord, will do infinite credit to gov- ernment, if, to clear your character, you should think proper to bring it into the house of lords, or into the court of king's bench. But. my lord, you dare not do either. JUNIUS. would not be criminal in the duke of Grafton ; contrary to his duty as a privy counsellor, contrary to his duty as a min- ister, contrary to his duty as a subject ? His advice should he free, according to his judgment. It is the duty of his office ; he hath sworn to it." Notwithstanding all this, the duke of Grafton certainly sold a patent place to Mr. Hine, R»r 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 Mans- field have been puzzled ! His embarrassment would have afforded the most ridiculous scene that was ever exhibited. To save the judge from this perplexity, and the duke from impeachment, the prosecution against Yaughan was imme- diately dropped. (98 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. XXXV. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser. SIR, December 19, 1769- When the complaints of a brave and powerful people are observed to increase in proportion to the wrongs they have suffered ; when, instead of sinking into submission, they are roused to resistance, the time will soon arrive, at which every inferior con- sideration must yield to the security of the sovereign, and to the general safety of the state. There is a moment of difficulty and danger, at which flattery and falsehood can no longer deceive, and simplicity itself can no longer be misled. Let us suppose it arrived: let us suppose a gracious, well-intentioned prince made sensible, at last, of the great duty he owes to his peo- ple, and of his own disgraceful situation : that he looks round him for assistance, and asks for no advice, but how to gratify the wishes and secure the happiness of his subjects. In these circumstances, it may be mat- ter of curious speculation to consider, if an honest man were permitted to approach a king, in what terms he would address himself to his sovereign. Let it be imagined, no matter how improbable, that the first prejudice against his character is removed ; that the ceremonious difficulties of an audience are surmount- ed; that he feels himself animated by the purest and most honourable affections to his king and country : and that the great person whom he addresses, has spirit enough to bid him speak freely, and under- standing enough to listen to him with attention. Un- acquainted with the vain impertinence of forms, he JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 199 would deliver his sentiments with dignity and firm- ness, but not without respect. Sir,— It is the misfortune of your life, and origi- nally the cause of every reproach and distress which has attended your government, that you should never have been acquainted with the language of truth, un- til you heard it in the complaints of your people, h is not, however, too late to correct the error of your education. We are still inclined to make an indul- gent allowance for the pernicious lessons you received in your youth, and to form the most sanguine hopes from the natural benevolence of your disposition.* * The plan of the tutelage and future dominion over the heir apparent, laid many years ago, at Carlton-House, be- tween the princess dowager and her favourite, the earl ol Bute, was as gross and palpable as that which was concerted between Anne of Austria and cardinal Mazarine, to govern Louis the Fourteenth, and, in effect, to prolong his minori- ty until the end of their lives. That prince had strong; natural p-irts, and used frequently to blush for his own ig- norance and want of education, which had been wilfully neglected by his mother and her minion. A little experi- ence, however, soon showed him how shamefully he had been treated, and for what infamous purposes he had been kept in ignorance. Our great Edward, too, at an early period, had sense enough to understand the nature of the connex- ion between his abandoned mother and the detested Mor- timer. But, since that time, human nature, we may ob- serve, is greatly altered for the better. Dowagers may be chaste, and minions may be 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 contradiction to the late king's inclination. That was the salient point from which all tin 1 mischiefs and disgraces 200 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. We are far from thinking you capable of a direct, de- liberate purpose to invade those original rights of your subjects, on which all their civil and political liberties depend. Had it been possible for us to en- tertain a suspicion so dishonourable to your charac- ter, we should long since have adopted a style of re- monstrance very distant from the humility of com- plaint. The doctrine inculcated by our laws, That the king can do no wrong, is admitted without reluc- tance. We separate the amiable, good-natured prince from the folly and treachery of his servants, and the private virtues of the man from the vices of his government. Were it not for this just distinction, I know not whether your majesty's condition, or that of the English nation, would deserve most to be la- mented. I would prepare your mind for a favoura- ble reception of truth, by removing every painful, offensive idea of personal reproach. Your subjects, sir, wish for nothing, but that, as they are reasonable and affectionate enough to separate your person from your government, so you, in your turn, should distin- guish between the conduct which becomes the perma- nent dignity of a king, and that which serves only to promote the temporary interest and miserable ambi- tion of a minister. You ascended the throne with a declared, and, I doubt not, a sincere resolution of giving universal satisfaction to your subjects. You found them pleased with the novelty of a young prince, whose countenance promised even more than his words; and loyal to you. of the present reign took life and motion. From that mo- ment, lord Bute never suffered the prince of Wales to be an instant out of his si'jlit. We need not look farther. JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 20! not only from principle, but passion. It was not a cold profession of allegiance to the first magistrate, but a partial, animated attachment to a favourite prince, the native of their country. They did not wait to examine your conduct, nor to be determined by experience, but gave yon a generous credit for the future blessings of your reign, and paid you in advance the dearest tribute of their affections. Such, sir, was once the disposition of a people, who now surround your throne with reproaches and complaints. Do justice to yourself. Banish from your mind those unworthy opinions, with which some interested per- sons have laboured to possess you. Distrust the men who tell you that the English are naturally light and inconstant; that they complain without a cause. Withdraw your confidence equally from all parties ; from ministers, favourites, and relations ; and let there be one moment in your life, in which you have con- sulted your own understanding. When you affectedly renounced the name of En- glishman, believe me, sir, you were persuaded to pay a very ill-judged compliment to one part of your sub- jects, at the expense of another. While the natives of Scotland are not in actual rebellion, they are un- doubtedly entitled to protection : nor do I mean to condemn the policy of giving some encouragement to the novelty of their affections for tlie house of Hano- ver. I am ready to hope for every thing from their new-born zeal, and from the future steadiness of their allegiance; but, hitherto, they have no claim to your favour. To honour them with a determined predi- lection and confidence, in exclusion of your English subjects, who placed your family, and, in spite of treachery and rebellion, have supported it upon the 1 2 202 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. throne, is a mistake too gross even for the unsuspect- ing generosity of youth. In this error we see a capi- tal violation of the most obvious rules of policy and prudence. We trace it, however, to an original bias in your education, and are ready to allow for your inexperience. To the same early influence we attribute it, that you have descended to take a share, not only in the narrow views and interests of particular persons, but in the fatal malignity of their passions. At your ac- cession to the throne, the whole system of government was altered, not from wisdom or deliberation, but because it had been adopted by your predecessor. A little personal motive of pique and resentment was sufficient to remove the ablest servants of the crown f but it is not in this country, sir, that such men can be dishonoured by the frowns of a king. They were dismissed, but could not be disgraced. Without en- tering into a minuter discussion of the merits of the peace, we may observe, in the imprudent hurry with which the first overtures from France were accepted, in the conduct of the negotiation, and terms of the treaty, the strongest marks of that precipitate spirit of concession, with which a certain part of your sub- jects have been at all times ready to purchase a peace with the natural enemies of this country. . On your part we are satisfied that every thing was honourable and sincere ; and, if England was sold to France, we * 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 Scotchman, recom- mended by lord Bute. This was the reason publicly assigned by his lordship. JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 203 doubt not that jour majesty was equally betrayed. The conditions of the peace were matter of grief and surprise to your subjects, but not the immediate cause of their present discontent. Hitherto, sir, you had been sacrificed to tiie preju- dices and passions of others. With what firmness will you bear the mention of your own ? A man not very honourably distinguished in the world, commences a formal attack upon your favour- ite, considering nothing but how he might best expose his person and principles to detestation, and the na- tional character of his countrymen to contempt. The natives of that country, sir, are as much distinguished by a peculiar character, as by your majesty's favour. Like another chosen people, they have been conduct- ed into the land of plenty, where they find themselves effectually marked, and divided from mankind. There is hardly a period at which the most irregular charac- ter may not be redeemed. The mistakes of one sex fiud a retreat in patriotism, those of the other in de- votion. Mr. Wilkes brought with him into politics the same liberal sentiments by which his private con- duct had been directed j and seemed to think, that, a9 there are few excesses in which an English gentle- man may not be permitted to indulge, the same lati- tude was allowed him in the choice of his political principles, and in the spirit of maintaining them. I mean to state, not entirely to defend, his conduct. In the earnestness of his zeal, he suffered some unwar- rantable insinuations to escape him. He said more than moderate men could justify ; but not enough to entitle him to the honour of your majesty's personal resentment. The rays of royal indignation, collected upon him, served only to illuminate, and could not 204 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. consume. Animated by the favour of the people on the one side, and heated by persecution on the other, his vw?ws and 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 persuading others, we convince ourselves. The passions are engaged, and create a maternal affection in the mind, which forces us to love the cause for which we suffer. Is this a contention worthy of a king ? Are you not sensible how much the meanness of the cause gives an air of ridicule to the serious difficulties into which you have been betrayed ? The destruction of one man has been now, for many years, the sole object of your government; and, if there can be any tiling still more disgraceful, we have seen for such an object the ut- most influence of the executive power, and every ministerial artifice, exerted without success. Nor can you ever succeed, unless he should be imprudent enough to forfeit the protection of those laws to which you owe your crown ; or unless your minister should persuade you to make it a question of fjprce alone, and try the whole strength of government in opposition to the people. The lessons he has received from expe- rience will probably guard him from such excess of folly; and, in your majesty's virtues, we find an un- questionable assurance, that no illegal violence will be attempted. Far from suspecting you of so horrible a design, we would attribute the continued violation of the laws, and even this last enormous attack upon the vi- tal principles of the constitution, to an ill-advised, un- worthy, personal resentment. From one false step JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 205 you have been betrayed into another ; and, as the cause was unworthy of you, your ministers were deter- mined that the prudence of the execution should cor- respond with the wisdom and dignity of the design. They have reduced you to the necessity of choosing out of a variety of difficulties; to a situation so unhap- py, that you can neither do wrong without ruin, or right without affliction. These worthy servants have undoubtedly given you many singular proofs of their abilities. Not contented with making Mr. Wilkes a man of importance, they have judiciously transferred the question from the rights and interests of one man, to the most important rights and interests of the peo- ple ; and forced your subjects, from wishing well to the cause of an individual, to unite with him in their own. Let them proceed as they have begun, and your majesty need not doubt that the catastrophe will do no dishonour to the conduct of the piece. The circumstances to which you are reduced will not admit of a compromise with the English nation. Undecisive, qualifying measures will disgrace your government still more than opes violence; and, with- out satisfying the people, will excite their contempt. They have too much understanding and spirit to ac- cept of an Indirect satisfaction for a direct injury. Nothing less than a repeal, as formal as the resolution itself, can heal the wound which has been given to the constitution, nor will any thing less be accepted. I ran readily believe, that there is.an influence sufficient to recall that pernicious vote. The house of commons undoubtedly consider their duty to the crown as para- mount to all other obligations. To us they are only indebted for an accidental existence, and have justly 206 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 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 pleasures of their political life ; who has taken the tenderest care of their infancy, and relieves their necessities without offending their delicacy. But, if it were possible for their integrity to be degra- ded to a condition so vile and abject, that, compared with it, the present estimation they stand in is a state of honour and respect; consider, sir, in what manner you will afterwards proceed. Can you conceive that the people of this country will long submit to be gov- erned by so flexible a house of commons ? It is not in the nature of human society that any form of gov- ernment, in such circumstances, can long be preserv- ed. In ours, the general contempt of the people is as fatal as their detestation. Such, I am persuaded, would be the necessary effect of any base concession made by the present house of commons; and, as a qualifying measure would not be accepted, it remains 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 dis- solving the parliament. Taking it for granted, as I do very sincerely, that you have personally no design against the constitu- tion, nor any view inconsistent with the good o'l your subjects, I think you cannot hesitate long upon, the choice which it equally concerns your interests and your honour to adopt. On one side, you hazard the affection of all your English subjects ; you relin- quish every hope of repose to yourself, and you endan- JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 207 ger the establishment of your family for ever. All this you venture for no object whatsoever; or for such an object as it would be an affront to yon to name. Men of sense will examine your conduct with suspicion ) while those, who are incapable of comprehending to what degree they are injured, afflict you with cla- mours equally insolent and unmeaning. Supposing it possible that no fatal struggle should ensue, you determine, at once, to be unhappy, without the hope of a compensation, either from interest or ambition. If an English king be hated or despised, he must be mihappy : and this, perhaps, is the only political truth which he ought to be convinced of, without experi- ment. But, if the English people should no longer- confine their resentment to a submissive representation of their wrongs ; if, following the glorious example of their ancestors, they should no longer appeal to the creature of the constitution, but to that high Being who gave them the rights of humanity, whose gifts it were sacrilege to surrender, let me ask you, sir, upon what part of your subjects would you rely for assistance? The people of Ireland have been uniformly plun- dered and oppressed. In return, they give you every day fresh marks of their resentment. They despise the miserable governor* you have sent them, because he is the creature of lord Bute : uor is it from any natural confusion in their ideas, that they are so ready to confound the original of a king with the disgrace- ful representation of him. * Viscount Townshend, sent over on the plan of being re- sident governor. The history of his ridiculous administra- tion shall not be lost to the public. 208 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. The distance of the colonies would make it impos- sible for them to take an active concern in your affairs, if they were as well affected to your government as they once pretended to be to your person. They were ready enough to distinguish between you and your ministers. They complained of an act of the legisla- ture, but traced the origin of it no higher than to the servants of the crown : they pleased themselves with the hope that their sovereign, if not favourable to their cause, at least was impartial. The decisive personal part you took against them has effectually banished that first distinction from their minds.* They consider you as united with your servants against America ; and know how to distinguish the sovereign and a ve- nal parliament on one side, from the real sentiments of the English people on the other. Looking forward to independence, they might possibly receive you for their king : but, if ever you retire to America, be as- sured they will give you such a covenant to digest as the presbytery of Scotland would have been ashamed to offer to Charles the Second. They left their na- tive land in search of freedom, and found it in a desert. Divided as they are into a thousand forms * In the king's speech of November 8th, 1768, it was de- clared, " That the spirit of faction had broken out afresh in some of the colonies, and, in one of them, proceeded to acts «f violence and resistance to the execution of the laws : that Boston was in a state of disobedience to all laws and government, and had proceeded to measures subversive of the constitution, and attended with circumstances that mani- fested a disposition to throw off their dependence on Great Britain." JUNlUS'S LETTERS. 209 0/ policy and religion, there is one point in which they all agree : they equally detest the pageantry of a king, and the supercilious hypocrisy of a bishop. It is not, then, from the alienated affections of Ireland or America that you can reasonably look for assistance ; still less from the people of England, -who are actually contending for their rights, and in this great question are parties against you. You are not, however, destitute of every appearance of support ; you have all the Jacobites, Non-jurors, -Roman Catholics, and Tories of this country, and all Scot- land, without exception. Considering from what family you are descended, the choice of your friends has been singularly directed ; and truly, sir, if you had not lost the Whig interest of England, I should admire your dexterity in turning the hearts of your enemies., Is it possible for you to place any confidence in men* who, before they are faithful to you, must renounce every opinion, and betray every principle, both in church and state, which they inherit from their ances- tors, and are confirmed in by their education ? whose numbers are so inconsiderable, that they have long since been obliged to give up the principles and lan- guage which distinguish them as a party, and to fight under the banners of their enemies ? Their zeal be- gins with hypocrisy, and must conclude in treachery. At first they deceive — at last they betray. As to the Scotch, I must suppose your heart and understanding so biassed, from your earliest infancy, in their favour, that nothing less than your own mis- fortunes can undeceive you. You will not accept of the uniform experience of your ancestors ; and, when once a man is determined to believe, the very absur- 14 210 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. dity of the doctrine confirms him in his faith. A big^ otted understanding can draw a proof of attachment Co the house of Hanover, from a notorious zeal for the house of Stuart, and find an earnest of future loyalty hi former rebellions. Appearances are, however, in their favour : so strongly, indeed, that one would think they had forgotten that you are their lawful king, and had mistaken you for a pretender to the crown. Let it be admitted, then, that the Scotch are as sincere in their present professions, as if you were, in reality, not an Englishman, but a Briton of the "North. You would not be the first prince, of their native country, against whom they have rebelled, nor the first whom they have basely betrayed. Have you forgotten, sir, or has your favourite concealed from you, that part of our history, when the unhappy Charles (and he, too, had private virtues) fled from the open, avowed indignation of his English subjects, and surrended himself at discretion to the good faith of his own countrymen ? Without looking for sup- port in their affections as subjects, he applied only to their honour, as gentlemen, for protection. They received him, as they would your majesty, with bows-, and smiles, and falsehood; and kept him, until they had settled their bargain with the English parliament ; then basely sold their native king to the vengeance ©f his enemies. This, sir, was not the act of a few traitors, but the deliberate treachery of a Scotch par- liament, representing the nation. A wise prince might draw from it two lessons of equal utility to himself. On one side, he might learn to dread the undisguised vesentment of a generous people, who dare openly assert their rights, and who, in a just cause, are ready JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 211 to meet their sovereign in the field. On the other side, he would be taught to apprehend something far more formidable; a fawning treachery, against which no prudence can guard, no courage can defend. The insidious smile upon the cheek would warn him of the canker in the heart. From the uses to which one part of the army has been too frequently applied, you have some reason to expect that there are no services they would refuse. Here, too, we trace the partiality of your understand- ing. You take the sense of the army from the con- duct of the guards, with the same justice with which you collect the sense of the people from the represen- tations of the ministry. Your marching regiments, sir, will not make the guards their example, either as soldiers or subjects. They feel, and resent, as they ought to do, that invariable, undistinguishing favour with which the guards are treated ;* while those gal- lant troops, by whom every hazardous, every labori- ous service is performed, are left to perish in garri- sons abroad, or pine in quarters at home, neglected and forgotten. If they had no sense of the great * The number of commissioned officers in the guards are- te the marching regiments as one to eleven : the number of regiments given to the guards, compared with those given to the line, is about three to one, at a moderate computation ; consequently, the partiality in favour of the guards is as thirty-three to one. So much for the officers. The private- men have four-pence a-day to subsist on, and five hundred lashes if they desert. Under this punishment they fre- quently expire. With these encouragements, it is supposed, they may be depended upon, whenever a certain person thinks it necessary to butcher his fellow-subjects. 212 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. original duty they owe their country, their resentment: would operate like patriotism, and leave your cause to be defended by those on whom you have lavished the rewards and honours of their profession. The praetorian bands, enervated and debauched as they were, had still strength enough to awe the Roman populace; but when the distant legions took the alarm, they marched to Rome, and gave away the empire. On this side, then, which ever way you turn j'our 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; yon may shelter yourself under the forms of a parliament, and set your people at defiance ; but be assured, sir, that such a resolution would be as imprudent as it would be odious. If it did not immediately shake your establishment, it would rob you of your peace of mind for ever. On the other, how different is the prospect ! How easy, how safe and honourable, is the path before you! The English nation declare they are grossly injured by their representatives, and solicit your majesty to exert your lawful prerogative, and give them an op- portunity of recalling a trust, which they find has been scandalously abused. You are not to be told, that fhe power of the house of commons is not original, but delegated to them for the welfare of the people, from whom they received it. A question of right arises between the constituent and the representative body. By what authority shall it be decided? Will your majesty interfere in a question, in which you have, properly, no immediate concern ? It would be a step equally odious and unnecessary. Shall the lords be JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 213 called upon to determine the rights and privileges 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 part then remains, but to leave it to the people to determine for themselves? They alone are injured; and, since there is no superior power to which the cause can be referred, they alone ought to determine. I do not mean to perplex you with a tedious argu- ment upon a subject, already so discussed, that inspira- tion could hardly throw a new light upon it. There are, however, two points of view in which it particu- larly imports your majesty to consider the late pro- ceedings of the house of commons. By depriving a subject of his birth-right, they have attributed to their own vote an authority equal to an act of the whole legislature ; and though, perhaps, not with the same motives, have strictly followed the example of the long parliament, which first declared the regal office use- jess, and soon after, with as little ceremony, dissolved the house of lords. The same pretended power which robs an English subject of his birth-right, may rob an English king of his crown. In another view, the resolution of the house of commons, apparently not so dangerous to your majesty, is still more alarming to your people. Not contented with divesting one man of his right, they have arbitrarily conveyed that right to another. They have set aside a return as illegal, without daring to censure those officers who were particularly apprised of Mr. Wilkes's incapacity, not only by the declaration of the house, but expressly by the writ directed to them, and who, nevertheless, 214 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. returned him as duly elected. They have rejected the majority of votes, the only criterion by which our laws judge of the sense of the people ; they have transfer- red the right of election from the collective to the representative body ; and by these acts, taken sepa- rately or together, they have essentially altered the original constitution of the house of commons. Ver- sed, as your majesty undoubtedly is, in the 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 constitutional line by which all their proceedings should be directed, who will answer for their future moderation ? Or what assurance will they give you, that, when they have trampled upon their equals, they will submit to a superior ? Your majesty may learn hereafter how nearly the slave and tyrant are allied. Some of your council, more candid than the rest, admit the abandoned profligacy of the present house of commons, but oppose their dissolution, upon an opin- ion, I confess, not very unwarrantable, that their successors would be equally at the disposal of the treasury. I cannot persuade myself that the nation will have profited so little by experience. But, if that opinion were well founded, you might then gratify our wishes at an easy rate, and appease the present clamour against your government, without offering any material injury to the favourite cause of corruption. You have still an honourable part to act. The af- fections of your subjects may still be recovered. But, before you subdue their hearts, you must gain a noble JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 215 victory over J'our own. Discard those little, personal resentments, which have too long directed your pub- lic conduct. Pardon this man the remainder of his" punishment ; and, if resentment still prevails, make it, what it should have been long since, an act, not at* mercy, but of contempt. He will soon fall back into his natural station ; a silent senator, and hardly sup- porting the weekly eloquence of a newspaper. The gentle breath of peace would leave him on the surface., neglected and unremoved. It is only the tempest that lifts him from his place. Without consulting your minister, call together your whole council. Let it appear to the public that you can determine and act for yourself. Come for- ward to your people. Lay aside the wretched for- malities of a king, and speak to your subjects with the spirit of a man, and in the language of a gentle- man. Tell them you have been fatally deceived. The acknowledgment will be no disgrace, but rather an honour, to your understanding. Tell them you are determined to remove every cause of complaint 'against your government ; that you will give youv confidence to no man who does not possess the confi- dence of your subjects ; and leave it to themselves to determine, by their conduct at a future election, whether or no it be, in reality, the general sense of the nation, that their rights have been arbitrarily in- vaded by the present house of commons, and the con stitution betrayed. They will then do justice to their representatives and to themselves. These sentiments, sir, and the style they are con- veyed in, may be offensive, perhaps, because they are new to you. Accustomed to the language of courtiers, 216 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. you measure their affections by the vehemence of their expressions ; and when they only praise you indifferently, you admire their sincerity. But this is not a time to trifle with your fortune. They deceive you, sir, who tell you that you have many friends, whose affections are founded upon a principle of per- sonal attachment. The first foundation of friendship is not the power of conferring benefits, but the equal- ity with which they are received, and may be return- ed. The fortune which made you a king, forbade you to have a friend. It is a law of nature, which cannot be violated with impunity. The mistaken prince, who looks for friendship, will find a favourite, and in that favourite the ruin of his affairs. The people of England are loyal to the house of Hanover ; not from a vain preference of one family to another, but from a conviction, that the establishment of that family was necessary to the support of their civil and religious liberties. This, sir, is a principle of allegiance equally solid and rational ; fit for Eng- lishmen to adopt, and well worthy of your majesty's encouragement. We cannot long be deluded by nominal distinctions. The name of Stuart, of itself, is only contemptible ; armed with the sovereign au- thority, their principles are formidable. The prince who imitates their conduct, should be warned by their example ; and, while he plumes himself upon the secu- rity of his title to the crown, should remember, that, as it was acquired by one revolution, it may be lost by another. JUNIUS. THE END OP VOLUME I. ■T'TF. : ■ I ! 'IaM.. '! THE LETTERS OF JUNIUS. FROM THE LATEST LONDON EDITION IN TWO VOLUMES. Stat nominus umbra. V VOL. II. NEW-YORK: PUBLISHED BY HENRY DURELL7 1821 CONTENTS. Letter. Page. XXXVI. To the duke of Grafton - .... 5 XXXVII. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser - id XXXVIII. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser - 22 XXXIX. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser - 30 XL. To Lord North - - - - 43 XLI. To Lord Mansfield - - - -46 XLII. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser - 60 XLIII. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser - 70 XLIV. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser - 73 XLV. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser - 80 XLVI. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser - 87 XLVII. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser - 89 XLVIII. To the duke of Grafton ... 93 XLIX. To the duke of Grafton - - -98 L. The Rev. Mr. Home to Junius - - 103 LI. To the Rev. Mr. Home - - -106 LII. The Rev. Mr. Home to Junius - -108 LIH. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser - 124 LIV. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser - 135 LV. The Rev. Mr. Home to Junius - - 137 LVI. To the duke of Grafton - - - 139 LVII. Addressed to the Livery of London - 146 LVIII. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser - 148 LIX. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser - 159 LX. ToZeno - 162 LXI. To an Advocate in the Cause of the People 168 LXII. 170 LXIII. 172 LXIV. To Lord Mansfield - - - - 176 LXV. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser - 177 LXVI. To the duke of Grafton - - ibid. LXVJF. To Lord Mansfield - - - - 182 LXVIH. Tu Lord Camden - - - - 209 LETTERS OF JUNIUS. LETTER XXXVI. To his Grace the Duke of Grafton. \IY LORD, February 14, 1770. If I were personally your enemy, I might pity and forgive you. You have every claim to compassion that can arise from misery and distress. The condi- tion you are reduced to would disarm a private ene- my of his resentment, and leave no consolation to the most vindictive spirit, but that such an object as you are would disgrace the dignity of revenge. But, in the relation you have borne to this country, you have no title to indulgence ; and if I had followed the dictates of my own opinion, I never should have allowed you the respite of a moment. In your pub- lic character, you have injured every subject of the empire ; and though an individual is not authorised to forgive the injuries done to society, he is called upon to assert his separate share in the public resent- ment. I submitted, however, to the judgment of 6 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. men, more moderate, perhaps more candid, than mj ? self. For my own part, I do not pretend to un- derstand those prudent forms of decorum, those gentle rules of discretion, which some men endeavour to unite with the conduct of the greatest and most hazardous affairs. Engaged in the defence of an honourable cause, I would take a decisive part. I should scorn to provide for a future retreat, or to keep terms with a man who preserves no measures with the public. Neither the abject submission of deserting his post in the hour of danger, nor even the sacred* shield of cowardice should protect him. I would pursue him through life, and try the last ex- ertion of my abilities to preserve the perishable imfa- uiy of his name, and make it immortal. What then, my lord ? Is this the event of all the sacrifices you have made to lord Bute's patronage, and to your own unfortunate ambition ? Was it for this you abandoned your earliest friendships, tho warmest connexions of your youth, and all those Ironourable engagements by which you once soli- cited, and might have acquired, the esteem of your country ? Have you secured no recompense for such a waste of honour ? Unhappy man ! what party will receive the common deserter of all parties ? Without a client to flatter, without a friend to con- sole you, and with only one companion from the honest house of Bloomsbury, you must now retire into a dreadful solitude. At the most active period of life you must quit the busy scene, and conceal * Sacro tremuere timore. Every coward pretends to be planet-struck. JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 7 yourself from the world, if you would hope to save the wretched remains of a ruined reputation. The vices operate like age, bring on disease before its lime, and in the prime of youth leave the character broken and exhausted. Yet your conduct has been mysterious, as well as contemptible. Where is now that firmness, or ob- stinacy, so long boasted of by your friends, and ac- knowledged by your enemies ? We were taught to expect that you would not leave the ruin of this country to be completed by other hands, but were determined either to gain a decisive victory over the constitution, or to perish bravely, at least, behind the last dike of the prerogative. You knew the danger, and might have been provided for it. You took sufficient time to prepare for a meeting with your parliament, to confirm the mercenary fidelity of your dependents, and to suggest to your •sovereign a language suited to his dignity at least, if not to his benevolence and Avisdom. Yet, while the whole kingdom was agitated with anxious ex- pectation upon one great point, you meanly evaded the question, and, instead of the explicit firmness and decision of a king, gave us nothing but the misery of a ruined* grazier, and the whining piety of a methodist. We had reason to expect, that no- tice would have been taken of the petitions which the king had received from the English nation j and although I can conceive some personal motives for not yielding to them, I can find none, in common * There was something wonderfully pathetic in the men- tion of the horned cattle. 3 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. prudence or decency, for treating them with con- tempt. Be assured, my lord, the English people will not tamely submit to this unworthy treatment. They had a right to be heard ; and their petitions, if not granted, deserved to be considered. What- ever be the real views and doctrines of a court, the sovereign should be taught to preserve some forms of attention to his subjects ; and, if he will not re- dress their grievances, not to make them a topic of jest and mockery among lords and ladies of the bed- chamber. Injuries may be atoned for and forgiven : but insults admit of no compensation. They de- grade the mind in its own esteem, and force it to recover its level by revenge. This neglect of the petitions was, however, a part of your original plan of government ; nor will any consequences it has produced account for your deserting your sove- reign, in the midst of that distress, in which you and your* new friends have involved him. One would think, my lord, you might have taken this spirited resolution before you had dissolved the last of those early connexions, which once, even in your own opinion, did honour to 3'our youth ; before you had obliged lord Granby to quit a service he was at- tached to ; before you had discarded one chancellor, and killed another. To what an abject condition have you laboured to reduce the best of princes, when the unhappy man, who yields at last to such personal instance and solicitation, as never can be fairly employed against a subject, feels himself de- graded by his compliance, and is unable to survive * The Bedford party. JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 9 die disgraceful honours which his gracious sovereign had compelled him to accept ! He was a man of spirit, for he had a quick sense of shame, and death has redeemed his character. I know your grace too well to appeal to your feelings upon this event ; but there is another heart, not yet, I hope, quite oallous to the touch of humanity, to which it ought to be a dreadful lesson for ever.* Now, my lord, let us consider the situation to which you have conducted, and in which you have thought it advisable to abandon, your royal mas- ter. Whenever the people have complained, and nothing better could be said in defence of the mea- sures of the government, it has been the fashion to answer us, though not very fairly, with an appeal to the private virtues of your sovereign ; " Has he not, to relieve the people, surrendered a consider- able part of his revenue ? Has he not made the judges independent, by fixing them in their places for life ?" My lord, we acknowledge the gracious principle which gave birth to these concessions, and have nothing to regret, but that it has never been adhered to. At the end of seven years, we are loaded with a debt of above five hundred thou- sand pounds upon the civil list; and now we see the chancellor of Great Britain tyrannically forced out of his office, not for want of abilities, not for want of integrity, or of attention to his duty, but for delivering his honest opinion in parliament. * The most secret particular of this detestable transac- tion shall in due time be given to the public. The oeople shall know what kind of man they have to deal with. A 2 (0 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. upon the greatest constitutional question that has arisen since the revolution. We care not to whose private virtues you appeal. The theory of such a government is falsehood and mockery ; the practice is oppression. You have laboured then (though, C confess, to no purpose) to rob your master of the only plausible answer that ever was given in de- fence of his government — of the opinion which the people had conceived of his personal honour and integrity. The duke of Bedford was more mode- rate than your grace ; he only forced his master to violate a solemn promise made to an individual;* but you, my lord, have successively extended your advice to every political, every moral engagement, that could bind either the magistrate or the man. The condition of a king is often miserable ; but it required your grace's abilities to make it contempt- ible. You will say, perhaps, that the faithful ser- vants, in whose hands you have left him, are able to retrieve his honour, and to support his govern- ment. You have publicly declared, even since your resignation, that you approved of their measures, and admired their conduct, particularly that of the earl of Sandwich. What a pity it is, that, with all this appearance, yoft should think it necessary to separate yourself from such amiable companions ! You forget, my lord, that, while you are lavish in *he praise of men whom you desert, you are pub- licly opposing your conduct to your opinions, and : depriving yourself of the only plausible pretence you had for leaving your sovereign overwhelmed * Mr. Stuart M'Kenzie. JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 11 with distress. I call it plausible ; for, in truth, there is no reason whatsoever, less than the frowns of your master, that could justify a man of spirit for abandoning his post at a moment so critical and important. It is in vain to evade the question : if you will not speak out, the public have a right to judge from appearances. We are authorised to conclude, that you either dine red from your col- leagues, whose measures you still affect to defend, or that you thought the administration of the king's affairs no longer tenable. You are at liberty to choose between the hypocrite and the coward. Your best friends are in doubt which way they shall incline. Your country unites the characters, and gives you credit for them both. For my own part, I see nothing inconsistent in your conduct. You be- gan with betraying the people j you conclude with betraying the king. In your treatment of particular persons, you have preserved the uniformity of your character. Even Mr. Bradshaw declares, that no man was ever so ill used as himself. As to the provision* you have * A pension of 1500/. per annum, insured upon the four one half per cents, (he was too cunning to trust to Irish security ) for the lives of himself and his sons. This gentle- man, who, a very few years ago, was clerk to a contractor for forage, and afterwards exalted to a petty post in the war office, thought it necessary (as soon as he was appointed secretary to the treasury) to take that great house in Lin- coln's-Imi-fielcls, in which the earl of Northington had re- sided, while he was lord high chancellor of Great Britain. As to the pension, lord North very solemnly assured the 12 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. made for his family, he was entitled to it by the house he lives in. The successor df one chancel- lor might well pretend to be the rival, ^jF, another. It is the breach of private friendship which touches Mr. Bradshaw ; and, to say the truth, when a man of his rank, and abilities had taken so active a part in your affairs, he ought not to have been let down at last with a miserable pension of fifteen hundred pounds a-year. Colonel Luttrell, Mr. Onslow, and governor Burgoyne, were equally engaged with you, and have rather more reason to complain than Mr. Bradshaw. These are men, my lord, whose friend- ship you should have adhered to on the same prin- ciple on which you deserted lord Rockingham, lord Chatham, lord Camden, and the duke of Portland. We can easily account for your violating your en- gagements with men of honour ; but why should you betray your natural connexions ? Why sepa- rate yourself from lord Sandwich, lord Gower, and Mr. Rigby ; or leave the three worthy gentlemen above-mentioned to shift for themselves ? With all the fashionable indulgence of the times, this coun- try does not abound in characters like theirs ; and you may find it a very difficult matter to recruit the black catalogue of your friends. house of commons, that no pension was ever so well deserved as Mr. Bradshaw's. N. B. Lord Camden and sir Jeffrey Amherst are not near so well provided for : and sk Edward Hawke, who saved the state, retires with two thousand pounds a year- on the Irish establishment, from which he, in fact, receives less than Mr. Bradshaw's pen- sion. JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 13 The recollection of the royal patent you sold to Mr. Hine, obliges me to say a word in defence of a man, whom you have taken the most dishonourable means to injure. I do not refer to the sham pro- secution which you affected to carry on against him. On that ground, I doubt not, he is prepared to meet you with tenfold recrimination, and set you at defiance. The injury you had done him affects his moral character. You knew that the offer to purchase the reversion of a place, which has here- tofore been sold under a decree of the court of chancery, however imprudent in his situation, would no way tend to cover him with that sort of guilt which you wished to fix upon him in the eyes of the world. You laboured then, by every species of false suggestion, and even by publishing coun- terfeit letters, to have it understood, that he had proposed terms of accommodation to you, and had offered to abandon his principles, his party, and his friends. You consulted your own breast for a char- acter of consummate treachery, and gave it to "the public for that of Mr. Vaughan. I think myself obliged to do this justice to an injured man, be- cause I was deceived by the appearances thrown out by your grace, and have frequently spoken of his conduct with indignation. If he really be, what I think him, honest, though mistaken, he will be happy in recovering his reputation, though at the expense of his understanding. Here I see the mat- ter is likely to rest. Your grace is afraid to carry on the prosecution. Mr. Hine keeps quiet posses- lion of the purchase ; and governor Burgoyne, re- lieved from the apprehension of refunding the U JUNIUS'S LETTERS. money, sits down, for the remainder of his life, in- famous and contented. I believe, my lord, I may now take my leave of you for ever. You are no longer that resolute min- ister, who had spirit to support the most violent mea- sures ; who compensated for the want of good and great qualities, by a brave determination (which some people admired and relied on) to maintain himself without them. The reputation of obstinacy and per- severance might have supplied the place of all the absent virtues. You have now added the last nega- tive to your character, and meanly confessed that you are destitute of the common spirit of a man. Re- tire, then, my lord, and hide your blushes from the world ; for, with such a load of shame, even black may change its colour. A mind such as yours, in the solitary hours of domestic enjoyment, may still find topics of consolation. You may find it in the memory of violated friendship; in the afflictions of an accom- plished prince, whom you have disgraced and desert- ed ;• and in the agitations of a great country, driven, by your counsels, to the brink of destruction. The palm of ministerial firmness is now transferred to lord North. He tells us so himself, and with the plenitude of the ore rotundo ;* and I am ready enough, to believe, that, while he can keep his place, he will not easily be persuaded to resign it. Your grace * This eloquent person has got as far as the discipline of Demosthenes. He constantly speaks with pebbles in his mouth, to improve his articulation. JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 15 was the firm minister of yesterday ; lord North is the firm minister of to-day : to-morrow, perhaps, his majesty, in his wisdom, may give us a rival for you both. You are too well acquainted with the temper of your late allies, to think it possible that lord North should be permitted to govern this country. If we may believe common fame, they have shown him their superiority already. His majesty is, indeed, too gracious to insult his subjects, by choosing his first minister from among the domestics of the duke of Bedford ; that would have been too gross an out- rage to the three kingdoms. Their purpose, how- ever, is equally answered, by pushing forward this unhappy figure, and forcing it to bear the odium of measures, which they in reality direct. Without im- mediately appearing to govern, they possess the pow- er, and distribute the emoluments of government, as they think proper. They still adhere to the spirit of that calculation which made Mr. Luttrell representa- tive of Middlesex. Far from regretting your retreat, they assure us, very gravely, that it increases the reat strength of the ministry. According to this way of reasoning, they will probably grow stronger and more flourishing every hour they exist : for I think there is hardly a day passes in which some one or other of his majesty's servants does not leave them to improve by the loss of his assistance. But, alas ! their coun- tenances speak a different language. When the mem- bers drop off, the main body cannot be insensible of its approaching dissolution. Even the violence of their proceedings is a signal of despair. Like broken tenants, who have had warning to quit the premises, 16 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. they curse their landlord, destroy the fixtures, throw every thing into confusion, and care not what mis- chief they do to the estate. JUNIUS. XXXVII. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser SIR, March 19, 1770. I believe there is no man, however indifferent about the interests of this countrj', who will not readily confess, that the situation to which we are now reduced, whether it has arisen from the violence of faction, or from an arbitrary system of govern- ment, justifies the most melancholy apprehensions, and calls for the exertion of whatever wisdom or vigour is left among us. The king's answer to the re- monstrance of the city of London, and the measures since adopted by the ministry, amount to a plain de- claration, that the principle on which Mr. Luttrell was seated in the house of commons, is to be sup- ported in all its consequences, and carried to its ut- most extent. The same spirit which violated the freedom of election, now invades the declaration and bill of rights, and threatens to punish the subject for exercising a privilege hitherto undisputed, of petition- ing the crown. The grievances of the people are aggravated by insults ; their complaints not merely disregarded, but checked by authority j and every JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 17 dne of those acts against which they remonstrated, confirmed by the king's decisive approbation. At such a moment, no honest man will remain silent or inactive. However distinguished by rank or proper- ty, in the rights of freedom we are all equal. As we are Englishmen, the least considerable man among us has an interest equal to the proudest nobleman in the laws and constitution of his country, and is equally called upon to make a generous contribution in support of them ; whether it be the heart to con- ceive, the understanding to direct, or the hand to execute. It is a common cause in which we are all interested, in which we should all be engaged. The man who deserts it at this alarming crisis, is an ene- my to his country, and, what I think of infinitely less importance, a traitor to his sovereign. The subject, who is truly loyal to the chief magistrate, will neither advise or submit to arbitrary measures. The city of London hath given an example, which, I doubt not, will be followed by the whole kingdom. The noble spirit of the metropolis is the life-blood of the state, collected at the heart : from that point it circulates, with health and vigour, through every artery of the constitution. The time is come when the body of the English people must assert their own cause : con- scious of their strength, and animated by a sense of their duty, they will not surrender their birth-right to ministers, parliaments, or kings. The city of London have expressed their sentiments with freedom and firmness ; they have spoken truth boldly ; and, in whatsoever light their remonstrance may be repre- sented by courtiers, I defy the most subtile lawyer in this country to point out a single instance in which 18 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. they have exceeded the truth. Even that assertion which we are told is most offensive to parliament, in the theory of the English constitution, is strictly true. If any part of the representative body be not chosen by the people, that part vitiates and corrupts the whole. If there be a defect in the representation of the people, that power, which alone is equal to the making of the laws in this country, is not complete, and the acts of parliament, under that circumstance, are not the acts of a pure and entire legislature. I speak of the theory of our constitution ; and what- ever difficulties or inconveniences may attend the practice, I am ready to maintain that, as far as the fact deviates from the principle, so far the practice is vicious and corrupt. I have not heard a question raised upon any other part of the remonstrance. That the principle on which the Middlesex election was determined, is more pernicious in its effects than either the levying of ship-money by Charles the First, or the suspending power assumed by his son, will hardly be disputed by any man who understands or wishes well to the English constitution. It is not an act of open violence done by the king, or any direct or palpable breach of the laws attempted by his minister, that can ever endanger the liberties of this country. Against such a king or minister the people would immediately take the alarm, and all the parties unite to oppose him. The laws may be gross- ly violated in particular instances, without any direct attack upon the whole system. Facts of that kind stand alone ; they are attributed to necessity, not de- fended by principles. We can never be really in danger, until the forms of parliament are made use JUNIUS'S LETTERS. t9 of to destroy the substance of our civil and political liberties ; until parliament itself betrays its trust, by contributing to establish new principles of govern- ment, and employing the very weapons committed to it by the collective body to stab the constitution. As for the terms of the remonstrance, I presume it will not be affirmed, by any person less polished than a gentleman usher, that this is a season for compli- ments. Our gracious king, indeed, is abundantly civil to himself. Instead of an answer to a petition, his majesty very graciously pronounces his own pan- egyric ; and I confess that, as far as his personal be- haviour, or the royal purity of his intentions, is con- cerned, the truth of those declarations, which the minister has drawn up for his master, cannot decent- ly be disputed. In every other respect, I affirm, that they are absolutely unsupported either in argument or fact : I must add, too, that supposing the speech were otherwise unexceptionable, it is not a direct answer to the petition of the city. His majesty is pleased to say, that he is always ready to receive the request of his subjects ; yet the sheriffs were twice sent back with an excuse ; and it was certainly de- bated in council, whether or no the magistrates of the city of London should be admitted to an au- dience. Whether the remonstrance be or be not in- jurious to parliament, is the very question between the parliament and the people, and such a question as cannot be decided by the assertion of a third party, however respectable. That the petitioning for ;. dissolution of parliament is irreconcilable with the principles of the constitution, is a new doctrine. His majesty, perhaps, has not been informed, that 20 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. the house of commons themselves, have, by a for- mal resolution, admitted it to be the right of the sub- ject. His majesty proceeds to assure us, that he has made the laws the rule of his conduct. Was it in ordering or permitting his ministers to apprehend Mr. Wilkes by a general warrant ? Was it in suffering his ministers to revive the obsolete maxim of nullttm tempus, to rob the duke of Portland of his property, and thereby give a decisive turn to a county election ? Was it in erecting a chamber consultation of sur- geons, with authority to examine into and supersede the legal verdict of a jury ? Or did his majesty consult the laws of this country, when he permitted his secretary of state to declare, that, whenever the civil magistrate is trifled with, a military force must be sent for, without the delay of a moment, and ef- fectually employed ? Or was it in the barbarous ex- actness with which this illegal, inhuman doctrine was carried into execution ? If his majesty had recol- lected these facts, I think, he would never have said, at least with any reference to the measures of his government, that he had made the laws the rule of his conduct. To talk of preserving the affections, or relying on the support of his subjects, while he continues to act upon these principles, is, indeed, paying a compliment to their loyalty, which, I hope, they have too much spirit and understanding to deserve. His majesty, we are told, is not only punctual in the performance of his own duty, but careful not to assume any of those powers which the constitution }ias placed in other hands. Admitting this last as- sertion to be strictly true, it is no way to the purpose JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 21 i The city of London have not desired the king to as^ stime a power placed in other hands. If they had, J should hope to see the person who dared to present such a petition immediately impeached. They so- licit their sovereign to exert that constitutional au- thority which the laws have vested in him for the benefit of his subjects. They call upon him to make use of his lawful prerogative in a case which our laws evidently supposed might happen, since they have provided for it by trusting the sovereign with a discretionary power to dissolve the parliament. This request will, I am confident, be supported by remon- strances from all parts of the kingdom. His majes- ty will find, at last, that this is the sense of his peo- ple ; and that it is not his interest to support either ministry or parliament at the hazard of a breach with the collective body of his subjects. That he is king of a free people, is, indeed, his greatest glory. That he may long continue the king of a free people is the second wish that animates my heart. The first is, that the people may be free.* * When his majesty had done reading his speech, the lord mayor, &c. had the honour of kissing his majesty's hand : after which, as they were withdrawing, his majesty instantly turned round to his courtiers, and burst out a laughing. Nero jiddled, while Rome was burning. JOHN HORNE. 22 JUNIUS'S LETTERS XXXVIII. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser. SIR, April 3, 1770. In my last letter I offered you my opinion of the truth and propriety of his majesty's answer to the city of London, considering it merely as the speech of a minister, drawn up in his own defence, and delivered, as usual, by the chief magistrate. I would separate^ as much as possible, the king's personal character and behaviour from the acts of the present govern- ment. I wish it to be understood that his majesty had, in effect, no more concern in the substance of what he said, than sir James Hodges had in the re- monstrance ; and that as sir James, in virtue of his office, was obliged to speak the sentiments of the people, his majesty might think himself bound, by the same official obligation, to give a graceful ut- terance to the sentiments of his minister. The cold formality of a well-repeated lesson is widely distant from the animated expression of the heart. This distinction, however, is only true with respect to the measure itself. The consequences of it reach beyond the minister, and materially affect his majes- ty'js honour. In their own nature they are formida- ble enough to alarm a man of prudence, and dis- graceful enough to afflict a man of spirit. A subject, whose sincere attachment to his majesty's person and family is founded upon rational principles, will not, JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 23 in the present conjuncture, be scrupulous of alarm- ing, or even of afflicting, his sovereign. I know there is another sort of loyalty % of which his majesty has had plenty of experience. When the loyalty of Tories, Jacobites, and Scotchmen, has once takqti possession of an unhappy prince, it seldom leaves him without accomplishing his destruction. When the poison of their doctrines has tainted the natural benevolence of his disposition, when their insidious counsels have corrupted the stamina of his govern- ment, what antid«te can restore him to his political health and honour but the firm sincerity of his Eng- lish subjects ? It has not been usual, in this country, at least since the days of Charles the First, to see the sove- reign personally at variance, or engaged in a direct altercation with his subjects. Acts of grace and in- dulgence are wisely appropriated to him, and should constantly be performed by himself. He never should appear but in an amiable light to his subjects. Even in France, as long as any ideas of a limited monar- chy were thought worth preserving, it was a maxim that no man should leave the royal presence discon- tented. They have lost or renounced the moderate principles of their government ; and now, when then- parliaments venture to remonstrate, the tyrant come* forward, and answers absolutely for himself. The spirit of their present constitution requires that the king should be feared ; and the principle, I believe, is tolerably supported by the fact. But, in our po- litical 6ystem, the theory is at variance with the prac- tice, for the king should be beloved. Measures of greater severity may, indeed, in some circumstances. 24 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. be necessary : but the minister who advises should take the execution and odium of them entirely upon himself. He not only betrays his master, but vio- lates the spirit of the English constitution, when he exposes the chief magistrate to the personal hatred or contempt of his subjects. When we speak of the firmness of government, we mean an uniform sys- tem of measures, deliberately adopted, and resolute- ly maintained by the servants of the crown ; not a peevish asperity in the language and behaviour of the sovereign. The government of a weak, irresolute monarch, may be wise, moderate, and firm : that of an obstinate, capricious prince, on the contrary, may be feeble, undetermined, and relaxed. The reputa- tion of public measures depends upon the minister, who is responsible ; not upon the king, whose pri- vate opinions are not supposed to have any weight against the advice of his council, and whose personal authority should, therefore, never be interposed in public affairs. This, I believe, is true constitutional doctrine. But for a moment let us suppose it false. Let it be taken for granted, that an occasion may arise in which a king of England shall be compelled to take upon himself the ungrateful office of rejecting the petitions and censuring the conduct of ! is sub- jects ; and let the city remonstrance be supposed to have created so extraordinary an occasion. On this principle, which I presume no friend of administra- tion will dispute, let the wisdom and spirit rS the ministry be examined. They advise the king to hazard his dignity, by a positive declaration of bis own sentiments ; they suggest to him a language full of severity and reproach. What follows ? When JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 26 his majesty had taken so decisive a part in support of his ministry and parliament, he had a right to ex- pect from them a reciprocal demonstration of firmness in their own cause, and of their zeal for his honour, He had reason to expect (and such, I doubt not, were the blustering promises of lord North) that the per- sons whom he had been advised to charge with hav- ing failed in their respect to him, with having injured parliament, and violated the principles of the con- stitution, should not have been permitted to escape without some severe marks of the displeasure and vengeance of parliament. As the matter stands, the minister, after placing his sovereign in the most un- favourable light to his subjects, and after attempting to fix the ridicule and odium of his own precipitate measures upon the royal character, leaves him a soli- tary figure upon the scene, to recall, if he can, or to compensate, by future compliances, for one unhappy demonstration of ill-supported firmness and ineffec- tual resentment. As a man of spirit, his majesty cannot but be sensible, that the lofty terms in which he was persuaded to reprimand the city, when united with the silly conclusion of the business, resembled the pomp of a mock tragedy, where the most pa- thetic sentiments, and even the sufferings of the hero, are calculated for derision. Such have been the boasted firmness and consis- tency of a minister,* whose appearance in the house * This graceful minister is oddly constructed. His tongue is a little too big for his mouth, and his eyes a great deal too big for their sockets. Every part of his person sets natural proportion at defiance. At this presenf VOL. II. B 26 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. of commons was thought essential to the king's ser^ vice ; whose presence was to influence every division } who had a voice to persuade, an eye to penetrate, a gesture to command. The reputation of these great qualities has been fatal to his friends. The little dig- nity of Mr. Ellis has been committed. The mine was sunk ; combustibles were provided ; and Wel- bore Ellis, the Guy Faux of the fable, waited only for the signal of command. All of a sudden the country gentlemen discover how grossly they have been deceived : the minister's heart fails him ; the grand plot is defeated in a moment ; and poor Mr- Ellis and his motion taken into custody. From the event of Friday last, one would imagine that some fatality hung over this gentleman. Whether he makes or suppresses a motion, he is equally sure of disgrace. But the complexion of the times will suffer no man to be vice-treasurer of Ireland with impunity.* writing his head is supposed to be much too heavy for his shoulders. * About this time the courtiers talked of nothing but a bill of pains and penalties against the lord mayor and sheriffs, or impeachment at the least. Little Mannikin Ellis told the king, that if the business were left to his management, he would engage to do wonders. It was thought very odd that a business of so much importance should be entrusted to the most contemptible little piece of machinery in the whole kingdom. His honest zeal, however, was disappointed. The minister took fright ; and, at the very instant that little Ellis was going to open, sent him an order to sit down. All their mag- nanimous threats ended in a ridiculous vote of censure ; and a still more ridiculous address to the king. JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 27 1 do not mean to express the smallest anxiety for the minister's reputation. He acts separately for himself, and the most shameful inconsistency may perhaps be no disgrace to him. But when the sove- reign, who represents the majesty of the state, ap- pears in person, his dignity should be supported : the occasion should be important ; the plan well considered ; the execution steady and consistent. My zeal for his majesty's real honour, compels me to assert, that it has been too much the system of the present reign, to introduce him personally either to act for or defend his servants. They persuade him to do what is properly their business, and de- sert him in the midst of it. Yet this is an incon- venience to which he must for ever be exposed, while he adheres to a ministry divided among them- selves, or unequal in credit and ability to the great task they have undertaken. Instead of reserving the interposition of the royal personage as the last resource of government, their weakness obliges them to apply it to every ordinary occasion, and to render it cheap and common in the opinion of the people. Instead of supporting their master, they look to him for support ; and for the emoluments of remaining one day more in office, care not how much his sacred character is prostituted and dis- honoured. If I thought it possible for this paper to reach the closet, I would venture to appeal at once to his majesty's judgment. I would ask him, but in the most respectful terms, " As you are a young man, sir, who ought to have a life of happiness in pros- pect ; as you are a husband, as you are a father. 2B JUNIUS'S LETTERS. (your filial duties, I own, have been religiously per- formed) is it bona fide for your interest or your honour, to sacrifice your domestic tranquillity, and to live in a perpetual disagreement with your people^ merely to preserve such a chain of beings as North. Barrington, Weymouth, Gower, Ellis, Onslow. Rigby, Jerry Dyson, and Sandwich ? Their very names are a satire upon all government ! and I defy the gravest of your chaplains to read the catalogue without laughing." For my own part, sir, I have always considered addresses from parliament, as a fashionable, un- meaning formality. Usurpers, idiots, and tyrants, have been successively complimented with almost the same professions of duty and affection. But let us suppose them to mean exactly what they pro- fess. The consequences deserve to be considered. Either the sovereign is a man of high spirit and dangerous ambition, ready to take advantage of the treachery of the parliament, ready to accept of the surrender they make him of the public liberty ; or he is a mild, undesigning prince, who, provided they indulge him with a little state and pageantry would of himself intend no mischief. On the first supposition, it must soon be decided by the sword, whether the constitution should be lost or preserved. On the second, a prince, no way qualified for the execution of a great and hazardous enterprise, and without any determined object in view, may never- theless be driven into such desperate measures, as may lead directly to his ruin j or disgrace himself by a shameful fluctuation between the extremes of violence at one moment, and timidity at another, JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 29 The minister, perhaps, may have reason to be satis- tied with the success of the present hour, and with the profits of his employment. He is the tenant of die day, and has no interest in the inheritance. The sovereign himself is bound by other obligations, and ought to look forward to a superior, a perma- nent interest. His paternal tenderness should re- mind him how many hostages he has given to so- ciety. The ties of nature come powerfully in aid of oaths and protestations. The father, who con- siders his own precarious state of health, and the possible hazard of a long minority, will wish to see the family estate free and unincumbered.* What is the dignity of the crown, though it were really maintained ; what is the honour of parliament, sup- posing it could exist without any foundation of in- tegrity and justice; or what is the vain reputation of firmness, even if the scheme of the government were uniform and consistent, compared with the heart-felt affections of the people, with the happiness and security of the royal family, or even with the grateful acclamations of the populace? Whatever style of contempt may be adopted by ministers or parliaments, no man sincerely despises the voice of the English nation. The house of commons are only interpreters, whose duty it is to convey the sense of the people faithfully to the crown. If the interpretation be false or imperfect, the constituent powers are called upon to deliver their own serrti- * Every true friend to the house of Brunswick sees with Hflliction how rapidly some of the principal branches of the amily have dropped off 30 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. meats. Their speech is rude, hut intelligible ; their gestures fierce, but full of explanation. Perplexed by sophistries, their honest eloquence rises into action. Their first appeal was to the integrity of their representatives ; their second, to the king's justice. The last argument of the people, whenever they have recourse to it, will carry more perhaps, than persuasion to parliament, or supplication to the throne. JUNIUS. XXXIX. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser. SIR, May 28, 1770. While parliament was sitting, it would neither have been safe, or, perhaps, quite regular, to offer any opinion to the public upon the justice or wis- dom of their proceedings. To pronounce fairly upon their conduct, it was necessary to wait until we could consider, in one view, the beginning, pro- gress, and conclusion of their deliberations. Tlie cause of the public was undertaken and supported by men, whose abilities and united authority, to say nothing of the advantageous ground they stood on, might well be thought sufficient to determine a po- pular question in favour of the people. Neither was the house of commons so absolutely engaged in defence of the ministry, or even of their own reso- JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 3i Jtitions, but that they might have paid some decent regard to the known disposition of their constitu- ents ; and without any dishonour to their firmness, ■might have retracted an opinion too hastily adopted, when they saw the alarm it had created, and how strongly it was opposed by the general sense of the nation. The ministry, too, would have con- sulted their own immediate interest in making some ooncession satisfactory to the moderate part of the people. Without touching the fact, they might have consented to guard against, or give up, the dangerous principle on which it was established. In this state of things, I think it was highly im- probable, at the beginning of the session, that the complaints of the people upon a matter, which in their apprehension at least, immediately affected the life of the constitution, would be treated with as much contempt by their own representatives, and by the house of lords, as they had been by the other branch of the legislature. Despairing of their in- legrity, we had a right to expect something from their prudence, and something from their fears. The duke of Grafton certainly did not foresee to what an extent the corruption of a parliament might be carried. He thought, perhaps, that there was still some portion of shame or virtue left in the majority of the house of commons, or that there was a line in public prostitution beyond which they would scruple to proceed. Had the young man been a little more practised in the world, or had he ventured to measure the characters of other men by his own, he would not have been so easily discouraged. 32 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. The prorogation of parliament naturally calls upon us to review their proceedings, and to con- sider the condition in which they have left the king- dom. I do not question but they have done what is usually called the king's business, much to his majesty's satisfaction : we have only to lament, that, in oonseqnence of a system introduced or revived in the present reign, this kind of merit should be very consistent with the neglect of every duty they owe to the nation. The interval between the open- ing of the last, and close of the former session, was longer than usual. Whatever were the views of the minister in deferring the meeting of parliament, sufficient time was certainly given to every member of the house of commons, to look back upon the steps he had taken, and the consequences they had produced. The zeal of party, the violence of per- sonal animosities, and the heat of contention, had leisure to subside. From that period, whatever re- solution they took was deliberate and prepense. In the preceding session, the dependents of the ministry had affected to believe, that .the final deter- mination of the question would have satisfied the nation, or at least put a stop to their complaints ; as if the certainty of an evil could diminish the sense of it, or the nature of injustice could be altered by decision. But they found the people of England were in a temper very distant from submission ; and although it was contended that the house of commons could not themselves reverse a resolution which had the force and effect of a judicial sentence, there were other constitutional expedients which would have ^iven a security against any similar attempts for the JUNIUS S LETTERS. 33 fUture. The general proposition, in which the whole country had an interest, might have been reduced to a particular fact, in which Mr. Wilkes and Mr. Lut- trell would alone have been concerned. The house of lords might interpose ; the king might dissolve the parliament ; or if every other resource failed, there still lay a grand constitutional writ of error, in be- half of the people, from the decision of one court to the wisdom of the whole legislature. Every one of these remedies has been successively attempted. The people performed their part with dignity, spirit, and perseverance. For many months his majesty heard nothing from his people but the language of complaint and resentment: unhappily for this country, it was th& daily triumph of his courtiers, that he heard it with an indifference approaching contempt. The house of commons, having assumed a power unknown to the constitution, were determined not merely to support it in the single instance in ques- tion, but to maintain the doctrine in its utmost ex-~ tent, and to establish the fact as a precedent in law, to be applied in whatever manner his majesty's ser- vants should hereafter think fit. Their proceedings upon this occasion are a strong proof that a decision, in the first instance illegal and unjust, can only be supported by a continuation of falehood and injustice. To support their former resolutions, they were obliged to violate some of the best known and established rules of the house. In one instance, they went so far as to declare, in open defiance of truth and com- mon sense, that it was not the rule of the house to divide a complicated question at the request of a B 2 3 34 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. member.* But, after trampling upon the laws of the land, it was not wonderful that they should treat the private regulations of their own assembly with equal disregard. The speaker, being young in office, be gan with pretended ignorance, and ended with de ciding for the ministry. We are not surprised at the decision ; but he hesitated and blushed at his own baseness, and every man was astonished.! The interest of the public was vigorously support- ed in the house of lords. The right to defend the constitution against an encroachment of the other estates, and the necessity of exerting it at this period, was urged to them with every argument that could be supposed to influence the heart or the understanding. * The extravagant resolution appears in the vote of the house ; but, in the minutes of the committees, the in- stances of resolutions contrary to law and truth, or of re- fusals to acknowledge law and truth when proposed to them, are innumerable. f When tire king first made it a measure of his govern- ment to destroy Mr. Wilkes, and when, for this purpose, it was necessary to run down privilege, Sir Fletcher Norton, with his usual prostituted effrontery, assured the house of commons, that he should regard one of their votes no more than a resolution of so many drunken porters. This is the very lawyer whom Ben Jonson describes in the follow- ing lines : " Gives forked counsel ; takes provoking gold On either hand, and puts it up. So wise, so grave, of so perplex'd a tongue, And loud withal, that would not wag, nor scarce Lie still, without a fee." JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 35 own. JUNIUS S LETTERS. 3? his information frivolous : but they were awed by his firmness and integrity, and sunk under it.* The terms in which the sale of a patent to Mr. Hine were communicated to the public, naturally called for a parliamentary inquiry. The integrity of the house of commons was directly impeached : but they had not courage to move in their own vindication, because the inquiry would have been fatal to colonel Burgoyuc and the duke of Grafton. When sir George Saville branded them with the name of traitors to their con- stituents, when the lord mayor, the sheriffs, and Mr. Trecothick expressly avowed and maintained every part of the city remonstrance, why did they tamely submit to be intuited ? Why did they not immedi- ately expel those refractory members ? Conscious of the motives on which they had acted, the}' prudently preferred infamy to danger, and were better prepared fo meet the contempt, than to rouse the indignation of the whole people. Had they expelled those five members, the consequeitces of the new doctrine of incapacitation would have come immediately home to every roan. The truth of it would then have been feirly tried, without any reference to Mr. Wilkes's private character, or the dignity of the house, or the obstinacy of one particular county. These topics, I know, have had their weight with men, who, affecting a character of moderation, in reality consult nothing * The examination of this firm, honest man, is printed lor Ahnon. The reader will find it * most curious and most interesting tract. Doctor Musgrave, with no other support but truth and his own firmness, resisted and overcame the whole house of commons. 38 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. But their ovvu immediate ease ; who are weak enough to acquiesce under a flagrant violation of the laws when it does not directly touch themselves ; and care not what injustice is practised upon a man whose moral character they piously think themselves obliged to condemn. In any other circumstances, the house of commons must have forfeited all credit and dignity, if, after such gross provocation, they had permitted Those five gentlemen to sit any longer among them. We should then have seen and felt the operation of a precedent, which is represented to be perfectly barren and harmless. But there is a set of men in this coun- try, whose understandings measure the violation of Jaw by the magnitude of the instance, not by the im- portant consequences which flow directly from the principle ; and the minister, I presume, did not think it safe to quicken their apprehensions too soon. Had Mr. Hampden reasoned and acted like the moderate men of these days, instead of hazarding his whole fortune in a lawsuit with the crown, he would have quietly paid the twenty shillings demanded of bhn f the Stuart family would probably have continued upon the throne ; and at this moment the imposition* o,f ship-money would have been an acknowledged prerogative of the jcrown. What then has been the business of the session, af- ter voting the supplies, and confirming the determin- ation of the Middlesex election ? The extraordinary prorogation of the Irish parliament, and the just discontents of that kingdom, have been passed by without notice. Neither the general situation of our colonies, nor that particular distress which forced the inhabitants of Boston to take up arms in their de-: JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 39 fence, have been thought worthy of a moment's con- sideration. In the repeal of those acts which were most offensive to America, the parliament have done every thing but remove the offence. They have re- linquished the revenue, but judiciously taken care to preserve the contention. It is not pretended that the continuation of the tea-duty is to produce any direct benefit whatsoever to the mother country. What is it then, but an odious, unprofitable exertion of a speculative right, and fixing a badge of slavery upon the Americans, without service to their masters ? But it has pleased God to give us a ministry and a par- liament, who are neither to be persuaded by argu- ment, nor instructed by experience. Lord North, I presume, will not claim an extra- ordinary merit from any thing he has done this year. in the improvement or application of the revenue. A great operation, directed to an important object, though it should fail of success, marks the genius, and elevates the character of a minister. A poor, contracted understanding deals in little schemes, which dishonour him if they fail, and do him no credit when they succeed. Lord North lrnd fortu- nately the means in his possession of reducing all the four per cents, at once. The failure of his first en- terprise in finance is not half so disgraceful to his re- putation as a minister, as the enterprise itself is in- jurious to the public. Instead of striking one deci- sive blow, which would have cleared the market at once, upon terms proportioned to the price of the four per cents, six weeks ago, he has tampered with a pitiful portion of a commodity which ought never to have been touched but in gross. He has given 40 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. notice to the holders of that stock, of a design formed by government to prevail upon them to surrender it hy degrees, consequently has warned them to hold up and enhance the price : so that the plan of redu- cing the four per cents, must either be dropped en- tirely, or continued with an increasing disadvantage to the public. The minister's sagacity has served to raise the value of the thing he means to purchase, and to sink that of the three per cents, which it is his pur- pose to sell. In effect; he has contrived to make it the interest of the proprietor of the four per cents, to sell out, and buy three per cents, in the market, ra- ther than subscribe his stock upon any terms that can possibly be offered by government. The state of the nation leads us naturally to con- sider the situation of the king. The prorogation 00/. a year, until a government of greater value shall become vacant , Colonel Cunninghame is made governor of Kinsale; and Luttrell, at last, for whom the whole machinery is put in motion, becomes adjutant-general, and, in effect, takes Jhe command of .the army in Ireland. 46 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. to the people of England. What ! lieutenant-colo- nel Luttrell adjutant-general of an army of sixteen thousand men ! One would think his majesty's cam- paigns at Blackheath and Wimbledon might have taught him better. I cannot help wishing general Harvey joy of a colleague who does so much honour to the employment. But, my lord, this measure is too daring to pass unnoticed, too dangerous to be received with indifference or submission. You shall not have time to new model the Irish army. They will not submit to be garbled by colonel Luttrell. As a mischief to the English constitution, (for he is not worth the name of enemy) they already detest him. As a boy, impudently thrust over their headsj they will receive him with indignation and contempt. As for you, my lord, who, perhaps, are no more than jhe blind, unhappy instrument of lord Bute and her royal highness the princess of Wales, be assured, that you shall be called upon to answer for the advice which has been given, and either discover your ac- complices, or fall a sacrifice to their security. JUNIUS. XLI. To the Right Honourable Lord Mansfield. MY LORD, November 14, 1770. The appearance of this letter will attract the cu- riosity of the public, and command even your lord- ship's attention. I am considerably in your debt, and JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 47 shall endeavour, once for all, to balance the account Accept of this address, my lord, as a prologue to more important scenes, in which you will probably be called upon to act or suffer. v You will not question my veracity, when I assure you, that it has not been owing to any particular re- spect for your person that I have abstained from you so long. Besides the distress and danger with which the press is threatened, when your lordship is party, and the party is to be judge, I confess I have been deterred by the difficulty of the task. Our language lias no term of reproach, the mind has no idea of de- testation, which has not already been happily applied to you, and exhausted. Ample justice has been done. by abler pens than mine, to the separate merits of your life and character. Let it be my humble office to collect the scattered sweets till their united virtue tortures the sense. Permit me to begin with paying a just tribute to Scotch sincerity, wherever I find it. I own I am not apt to confide in the professions of gentlemen of that country ; and, when they smile, I feel an involunta- ry emotion to guard myself against mischief. With this general opinion of an ancient nation, I always (hought it much to your lordship's honour, that, in your earlier days, you were but little infected with the prudence of your country. You had some origi- nal attachments, which you took every proper oppor- tupity to acknowledge. The liberal spirit of youtli prevailed over your native discretion. Your zeal in the cause of an unhappy prince was expressed with the sincerity of wine, and some of the solemnities of 48 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. religion.* This, I conceive, is the most amiable point of view in which your character has appeared. Like an honest man, you took that part in politics, which might have been expected from your birth, education, country, and connexions. There was something generous in your attachment to the ban- ished house of Stuart. We lament the mistakes of a good man, and do not begin to detest him until he affects to renounce his principles. Why did you not adhere to that loyalty you once professed ? Why did you not follow the example of your worthy brother?! With him you might have shared in the honour of the pretender's confidence ; with him you might have preserved the integrity of your character ; and Eng- land, I think, might have spared 3'ou without regret. Your friends will say, perhaps, that, although you deserted the fortune of your liege lord, you have ad- hered firmly to the principles which drove his father i'rom the throne ; that, without openly supporting the person, you have done essential service to the cause ; and consoled yourself for the loss of a favourite fami- ly, by reviving and establishing the maxims of their government. This is the way in which a Scotch man's understanding corrects the errors of his heart. My lord, I acknowledge the truth of the defence, and can trace it through all your conduct. I see through your whole life one uniform plan to enlarge the pow- * This man was always a rank Jacobite. Lord Ravens- worth produced the most satisfactory evidence of his having -frequently drank the pretender's health on his knees. t Confidential secretary to the late pretender. This cir- stance confirmed the friendship between the brothers. JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 49 ev of the crown, at the expense of the liberty of the subject. To this object your thoughts, words, and actions, have been constantly directed. In contempt or ignorance of the common law of England, you have made it your study to introduce into the court where you preside, maxims of jurisprudence un- known to Englishmen. The Roman code, the law of nations, and the opinion of foreign civilians, are your perpetual theme ; but whoever heard you men- tion Magna Charta, or the Bill of Rights, with ap- probation or respect ? By such treacherous arts the noble simplicity and free spirit of our Saxon law- were first corrupted. The Norman conquest was not complete, until Norman lawyers had introduced their laws, and reduced slavery to a system. This one leading principle directs your interpretation of the laws, and accounts for your treatment of juries. It is not in political questions only (for there the courtier might be forgiven,) but let the cause be what it may. your understanding is equally on the rack, either to contract the power of the jury, or to mislead their judgment. For the truth of this assertion, I appeal to the doctrine you delivered in lord Grosvenor's cause. An action for criminal conversation being brought by a.peer against a prince of the blood, you were daring enough to tell the jury, that, in fixing the damages, they were to pay no regard to the quality or fortune of the parties : that it was a trial between A and B ; that they were to consider the offence in a moral light only, and give no greater damages to a peer of the realm, than to the meanest mechanic. I shall not attempt to refute a doctrine, which if it was meant for law, carries falsehood and absurdity upon the face of vol. II. C 4 SO JUNIUS'S LETTERS. it ; but, if it was meant for a declaration of your po- litical creed, is clear and consistent. Under an arbi- trary government, all ranks and distinctions are con- founded : tbe honour of a nobleman is no more con- sidered than the reputation of a peasant; for, with different liveries, they are equally slaves. Even in matters of private property, we see the same bias and inclination to depart from the decisions of your predecessors, which you certainly ought to receive as evidence of the common law. Instead ot those certain positive rules by which the judgment of a court of law should invariably be determined, you have fondly introduced your own unsettled notions of equity and substantial justice. Decisions given upon such principles do not alarm the public so much as the} r ought, because the consequence and tendency of each particular instance is not observed or re- garded. In the mean time, the practice gains ground t the court of king's bench becomes a court of equity ; and the judge, instead of consulting strictly the law of the land, refers only to the wisdom of the court, and to the purity of his own conscience. The name of Mr. Justice Yates will naturally revive in your mind some of those emotions of fear and detestation with which you always beheld him. That great lawyer, that honest man, saw your whole conduct in the light that I do. After years of ineffectual resistance to the pernicious principles introduced by your lordship, and uniformly supported by your humble friends upon the bench, be determined to quit a court, whose proceed- ings and decisions he could neither assent to witl^ honour, nor oppose with success. JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 51 The injustice done to an individual* is sometimes of service to the public. Facts are apt to alarm us more than the most dangerous principles. The suf- ferings and firmness of a printer have roused the public attention. You knew and felt that your con- duct would not bear a parliamentary inquiry ; and you hoped to escape it by the meanest, the basest, sacrifice of dignity and consistency that ever was made by a great magistrate. Where was your firm- ness, where was that vindictive spirit, of which we have seen so many examples, when a man so incon- siderable as Bingley could force you to confess, in the face of this country, that, for two years together, you had illegally deprived an English subject of his liberty, and that he had triumphed over you at last . ? Yet, I own, my lord, that yours is not an uncom- mon character. Women, and men like women, are timid, vindictive, and irresolute. Their passions counteract each other, and make the same creature at one moment hateful, at another contemptible. 1 fancy, my lord, some time will elapse before you venture to commit another Englishman for refusing to answer interrogatories.! * The oppression of an obscure individual gave birth to the famous Habeas Corpus Act of 31 Car. II. which is frequently considered as another Magna Charta of this kingdom. Btackstone, Hi. 135. t Bingley was committed for contempt, in not submitting to be examined. He lay in prison two years, until the crown thought the matter might occasion some serious com- plaint, and therefore he was let out, in the same contume- lious state he had been put in, with all his sins about him, 52 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. The doctrine you have constantly delivered, in cases of libel, is another powerful evidence of a set- tled plan to contract the legal power of juries, and to draw questions, inseparable from fact, within the arbitrium of the court. Here, my lord, you have fortune on your side. When you invade the pro vince of the jury, in matter of libel, you, in effect, attack the liberty of the press, and, with a single stroke, wound two of your greatest enemies. In some instances you have succeeded, because jurymen are too often ignorant of their own rights, and too apt to be awed by the authority of a chief justice. In other criminal prosecutions, the malice of the design is confessedly as much the subject of consideration to a jury as the certainty of the fact. If a different doctrine prevails in the case of libels, why should it not extend to all criminal cases ? Why not to capi- tal offences ? I see no reason (and I dare say you will agree with me, that there is no good one) why the life of the subject should be better protected against you, than his liberty or property. Why should you enjoy the full power of pillory, fine, and imprisonment, and not be indulged with hanging or transportation ? With your lordship's fertile genius and merciful disposition, I can conceive such an ex- ercise of the power you have, as could hardly be ag- gravated by that which you have not. But, my lord, since you have laboured (and not unanointed and unanealed. There was much coquetry be- tween the court and the attorney general, about who should undergo the ridicule of letting him escape. — Vide another Letter to Almon, p. 189. JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 53 unsuccessfully) to destroy the substance of the trial) why should you suffer the form of the verdict to re- main ? Why force twelve honest men, in palpable violation of their oaths, to pronounce their fellow- subject a guilty man, when, almost at the same mo- ment, you forbid their inquiring into the only cir- cumstance which, in the eye of law and reason, con- stitutes guilt — the malignity or innocence of his in- tentions ? But I understand your lordship. If you could succeed in making the trial by jury useless and ridiculous, you might then, with greater safety, in- troduce a bill into parliament for enlarging the ju- risdiction of the court, and extending your favourite trial by interrogatories to every question in which the life or liberty of an Englishman is concerned.* Your charge to the jury, in the prosecution against Almon and Woodfall, contradicts the highest legal authorities, as well as the plainest dictates of reason. In Miller's cause, and still more expressly in that of Baldwin, you have proceeded a step farther, and * The philosophical poet doth notably describe the dam- nable and damned proceedings of the judge of hell. ' Gnossius haec Rhadamanthus habet durissima regna, Castigatque, auditque dolos, subigitque fateri.' First he punisheth, and then he heareth, and lastly com- pelled! to confess, and makes and mars laws at his pleasure ; like as the centurion, in the holy history, did to St. Taul j for the text saith, ' Centurio apprehendi Paulum jussit, et se catenis alligari, et tunc interrogabat quis fuisset, et quid fecisset.' But good judges and justices abhor these courses. Coke, 2 Inst. 53. 54 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. grossby contradicted yourself. You may know, per- haps, though I do not mean to insult you by an ap- peal to your experience, that the language of truth is uniform and consistent. To depart from it safely, requires memory and discretion. In the last two trials, your charge to the jury began, as usual, with assuring them, that they had nothing to do with the law; that they were to find the bare fact, and not concern themselves about the legal inferences drawn from it, or the degree of the defendant's guilt. Thus far you were consistent with your former practice. But how will you account for the conclusion ? You told the jury, that " if, after all, they would take upon themselves to determine the law, they might do it, but they must be very sure that they determined according to law ; for it touched their consciences, and they acted at their peril." If I understand your first proposition, you mean to affirm, that the jury were not competent judges of the law in the criminal case of a libel; that it did not fall within their juris- diction ; and that with respect to them, the malice or innocence of the defendant's intentions would be a question coram non jtidice. But the second proposi- tion clears awajr your own difficulties, and restores the jury to all their judicial capacities.* You make the competence of the court to depend upon the legality * Directly the reverse of the doctrine he constantly maintained in the house of lords, and elsewhere, upon the decision of the Middlesex election. He invariably asserted, that the decision must be legal because the court was com- petent ; and never could be prevailed on to enter farther into the question. JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 55 m the decision. In the first instance, you deny the power absolutely : in the second, you admit the power, provided it be legally exercised. Now, my lord, without pretendiug to reconcile the distinctions of Westminster-hall with the simple information of com- mon sense, or the integrity of fair argument, I shall be understood by your lordship, when I assert, that, if a jury, or any other court of judicature, (for jurors are judges) have no right to enter into a cause or question of law, it signifies nothing whether their decisions be or be not according to law. Their de- cision is, in itself, a mere nullity ; the parties are not bound to submit to it; and, if the jury run any risk of punishment, it is not for pronouncing a corrupt or illegal verdict, but for the illegality of meddling with a point on which they have no legal authority to decide.* I caunot quit this subject without reminding your lordship of the name of Mr. Benson. Without offer- ing any legal objection, you ordered a special jury- man to be set aside, in a cause where the king was prosecutor. The novelty of the fact required expla- nation. Will you, condescend to tell the world by ■what law or custom you were authorised to make a * These iniquitous prosecutions cost the best of princes mx thousand pounds, and ended in the total defeat and disgrace" of the prosecutors. In the course of one of them, judge Aston had the unparalleled impudence to tell Mr. Nil uris, a gentleman of unquestionable honour and integri- ty, and who was then giving his evidence on oath, that he thould pay very little regard to any affidavit he should make. 56 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. peremptory challenge of a juryman ? The parties, indeed, have this power ; and, perhaps, your lord- ship, having accustomed yourself to unite the charac- ters of judge and party, may claim it in virtue of the new capacity you have assumed, and profit by your own wrong. The time within which you might have been punished for this daring attempt to pack a jury, is, I fear, elapsed; but no length of time shall erase the record of it. The mischiefs you have done this country are not confined to your interpretation of the laws. You are a minister, my lord ; and, as such, have long been consulted. Let us candidly examine what use you have made of your ministerial influence. I will not descend to little matters, but come at once to those important points on which your resolution was waited for, on which the expectation of your opinion kept a great part of the nation in suspense. A constitu- tional question arises upon a declaration of the law of parliament, by which the freedom of election, and the birthright of the subject, were supposed to have been invaded. The king's servants are accused of violating the constitution. The nation is in a fer- ment. The ablest men of all parties engage in the question, and exert their utmost abilities in the dis- cussion of it. What part has the honest lord Mans- field acted ? As an eminent judge of the law, his opinion would have been respected. As a peer, he had a right to demand an audience of his sovereign, and inform him, that his ministers were pursuing un- constitutional measures. Upon other occasions, my lord, you have no difficulty in finding your way into the closet. The pretended neutrality of belonging JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 51 to no party will not save your reputation. In a ques- tion merely political, an honest man may stand neuter. But the laws and constitution are the gene- ral property of the subject : not to defend, is to re- linquish : and who is there so senseless as to renounce bis share in a common benefit, unless he hopes to profit by a new division of the spoil ? As a lord of parliament, you were repeatedly called upon to con- demn or defend the new law declared by the hoUse of commons. You affected to have scruples, and every expedient was attempted to remove them. The ques- tion was proposed and urged to you in a thousand different shapes. Your prudence still supplied you with evasion ; your resolution was invincible. For my own part, I am not anxious to penetrate this solemn secret. I care not to whose wisdom it is en- trusted, nor how soon you carry it with you to the grave.* You have betrayed your opinion by the very care you have taken to conceal it. It is not from lord Mansfield that we expect any reserve in declaring his real sentiments in favour of government, or in opposition to the people ; nor is it difficult to account for the motions of a timid, dishonest heart, which neither has virtue enough to acknowledge truth, or courage to contradict it. Yet you continue to support an administration which you know is Uni- versally odious, and which, on some occasions, you yourself speak of with contempt. You would fain * He said, in the house of lords, that he believed he should carry his opinion with him to the grave. It was afterwards reported, that he had entrusted it in special con adence to the ingenuous duke of Cumberland. C 2 58 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. be thought to take no share in government, while, in reality, you are the main spring of the machine. Here, too, we trace the little, prudential policy of a Scotchman. Instead of acting that open, generous part which becomes your rank and station, you mean- ly sculk into the closet, and give your sovereign such advice as you have not spirit to avow or defend. You secretly engross the power, while you decline the title of a minister ; and though you dare not be chancellor, you know how to secure the emoluments of the office. Are the seals to be for ever in commis- sion, that you may enjoy five thousand pounds a year . ? I beg pardon, my lord ; your fears have in- terposed at last, and forced you to resign. The odium of continuing speaker of the house of lords, upon such terms, was too formidable to be resisted. What a multitude of bad passion? are forced to sub- mit to a constitutional infirmity ! But though you have relinquished the salary, you still assume the rights of a minister. Your conduct, it seems, must be defended in parliament. For what other purpose is your wretched friend, that miserable serjeant, posted to the house of commons ? Is it in the abilities of a Mr. Leigh to defend the great lord Mansfield ? Or is he only the punch of the puppet-show, to speak as he is prompted by the chief juggler behind the curtain ?* In public affairs, my lord, cunning, let it be ever so well wrought, will not conduct a man honourably through life. Like bad money, it may be current for * This paragraph gagged poor Leigh. I am really con- cerned for the man, and wish it were possible to open his mouth. He is a very pretty orator. JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 59 & time, but it will soon be cried down. Jt cannot consist with a liberal spirit, though it be sometimes united with extraordinary qualifications. When I acknowledge your abilities, you may believe I am sincere. I feel for human nature, when I see a man, so gifted as you are, descend to such vile practices. Yet do not suffer your vanity to console you too soon. Believe me, my good lord, you are not admired in the same degree in which you are detested. It is only the partiality of your friends that balances the defects of your heart with the superiority of your un- derstanding. No learned man, even among your own tribe, thinks you qualified to preside in a court of common law : yet it is confessed, that, under Jus- tinian, you might have made an incomparable prater. It is remarkable enough, but I hope not ominous, that the laws you understand best, and the judges you affect to admire most, flourished in the decline of a great empire, and are supposed to have contributed to its faYi. Here, my lord, it may be proper for us to pause together. It is not for my own sake that I wish you to consider the delicacy of yoitr situation. Beware how you indulge the first emotions of yonr resent- ment. This paper is delivered to the world, and can- not be recalled. The prosecution of an innocent print- er cannot alter facts, nor refute arguments. Do not furnish me with farther materials against yourself. An honest man, like the true religion, appeals to the understanding, or modestly confides in the internal evidence of his conscience. The impostor employs force instead of argument, imposes silence where he cannot convince, and propagates his character by the sword. JUNIUS. 60 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. XLII. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser. SIR, January 30, 1771. If we recollect in what manner the king's friends have been constantly employed, we shall have no rea- son to be surprised at any condition of disgrace to which the once respected name of Englishmen may be degraded. His majesty has no cares, but such as concern the laws and constitution of this country. In his royal breast there is no room left for resent- ment, no place for hostile sentiments against the natural enemies of his crown. The system of govern- ment is uniform : violence and oppression at home can only be supported by treachery and submission abroad. When the civil rights of the people are daringly invaded on one side, what have we to ex- pect, but that their political rights should be deserted and betrayed, in the same proportion, on the other i The plan of domestic policy which has been invaria- bly pursued from the moment of his present majesty's accession, engrosses all the attention of his servants. They know that the security of their places depends upon their maintaining, at any hazard, the secret sys- tem of the closet. A foreign war might embarrass, an unfavourable event might ruin, the minister, and defeat the deep-laid scheme of policy to which he and his associates owe their employments. Rather than suffer the execution of that scheme to be delayed of JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 6£ interrupted, the king has been advised to make a* public surrender, a solemn sacrifice, in the face of all Europe, not only of the interests of his subjects, but of his own personal reputation, and of the dignity of that crown which his predecessors have worn with honour. These are strong terms, sir, but they are supported by fact and argument. The king of Great Britain has been for some years id possession of an island, to which, as the ministry themselves have repeatedly asserted, the Spaniard* had no claim of right. The importance of the place is not in question : if it were, a better judgment might be formed of it, from the opinion of lord Anson aud lord Egmont, and from the anxiety of the Spaniards, than from any fallacious insinuations thrown out by men, whose interest it is to undervalue that property which they are determined to relinquish. The pre- tensions of Spain were a subject of negotiation be- tween the two courts. They had been discussed, but not admitted. The king of Spain, in these circum- stances, bids adieu to amicable negotiation, and ap- peals directly to the sword. The expedition against Port Egmont does not appear to have been a sudden, ill-concerted enterprise : it seems to have been conr ducted not only with the usual military precautions, but in all the forms and ceremonies of war. A frigate was first employed, to examine the strength of the place. A message was then sent, demanding imme- diate possession, in the Catholic king's name, and ordering our people to depart. At last, a military force appears, and compels the garrison to surrender. A formal capitulation ensues ; and his majesty's ship, which might at least have been permitted to bring 62 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. home his troops immediately, is detained in port twenty days, and her rudder forcibly taken away. This train of facts carries no appearance of the rash- ness or violence of a Spanish governor : on the con- trary, the whole plan seems to have been formed and executed, in consequence of deliberate orders, and a regular instruction, from the Spanish court. Mr. Buccarelli is not a pirate, nor has he been treated as such by those who emplo} r ed him. I feel for the honour of a gentleman, when I affirm, that our king owes him a signal reparation. Where will the hu- miliation of this country end f A king of Great Bri- tain, not contented with placing himself upon a level with a Spanish governor, descends so low as to do a notorious injustice to that governor. As a salvo for his own reputation, he has been advised to traduce the character of a brave officer, and to treat him as a common robber, when he knew, with certainty, that Mr. Buccarelli had acted in obedience to his orders, and had done no more than his dut}\ Thus it hap- pens, in private life, with a man who has no spirit nor sense of honour. One of his equals orders a ser- vant to strike him : instead of returning the blow to the master, his courage is contented with throwing aft aspersion, equally false and public, upon the charac- ter of the servant. This short recapitulation was necessary to intro- duce the consideration of his majesty's speech of the 13th of November, 1770, and the subsequent measures of government. The excessive caution with which the speech was drawn up, had impressed upon me an early conviction, that no serious resentment was thought of, and that the conclusion of the business. JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 63 whenever it happened, must, in some degree^ be dis- honourable to England. There appears, through the whole speech, a guard and reserve in the choice of expression, which shows how careful the ministry were not to embarrass their future projects by any firm or spirited declaration from the throne. When all hopes of peace are lost, his majesty tells his par- liament, that he is preparing, not for barbarous war. but (with all his mother's softness) for a different situ- ation. An open hostility, authorised by the Catholic king, is called an act of a governor. This act, to avoid the mention of a regular siege and surrender, passes under the piratical description of seizing by force ; and the thing taken is described, not as a part of the king's territory , x or proper dominion, but mere- ly as a possession ; a word expressly chosen in con- tradistinction to, and exclusion of, the ideas of right, and to prepare us for a future surrender both of the right and of the possession. Yet this speech, sir, cautious and equivocal as it is, cannot, by any sophistry, be accommodated to the measures which have since been adopted. It seemed to promise, that, whatever might be given up by secret stipulation, some care would be taken to save appearances to the public. The event shows us, that to depart, in the minutest article, from the nicety and strictness of punctilio, is as dangerous to national honour as to female virtue. The woman who admits of one fami- liarity seldom knows where to stop, or what to refuse } and, when the counsels of a great country give way in a single instance, when they once are inclined to submission, every step accelerates the rapidity of the descent. The ministry themselves, when they framed 64 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. the speech, did not foresee that they should ever ac- cede to such an accommodation as they have since advised their master to accept of. The king says, " The honour of my crown, and the rights of my people, are deeply affected." The Spaniard, in his reply, says, " I will give you back possession, but I adhere to my claim of prior right, reserving the assertion of it for a more favourable opportunity." The speech says, " I made an immediate demand of satisfaction ; and, if that fails, I am prepared to do myself justice." This immediate demand must have been sent to Madrid on the 12th of September, or in a few days after. It was certainly refused, or evaded, and the king has not done himself justice. When the first magistrate speaks to the nation, some care should be taken of his apparent veracity. The speech proceeds to say, " I shall not discon- tinue my preparations until I have received proper reparation for the injury." If this assurance may be relied on, what an enormous expense is entailed sine die upon this unhappy country ! Restitution of a possession, and reparation of an injury, are as diffe- rent in substance as they are in language. The very act of restitution may contain, as in this instance it palpably doe6, a shameful aggravation of the injury. A. man of spirit does not measure the degree of an injury by the mere positive damage he has sustained; he considers the principle on which it is fonnded ; he resents the superiority asserted over him j and re- jects, with indignation, the claim of right which his adversary endeavours to establish, and would force him to acknowledge. JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 65 The motives on which the Catholic king makes restitution, are, if possible, more insolent and dis- graceful to our sovereign, than even the declaratory condition annexed to it. After taking four months to consider whether the expedition was undertaken by his own orders or not, he condescends to disavow the enterprise, and to restore the island ; not from any regard to justice, not from any regard he bears to his Britannic majesty, but merely " from the persuasion in which he is of the pacific sentiments of the king of Great Britain." At this rate, if our king had discovered the spirit of a man ; if he had made a peremptory demand of satis- faction, the king of Spain would have given him a peremptory refusal. But why this unseasonable, this ridiculous mention of the king of Great Britain's pa- cific intentions ? Have they ever been in question ? Was he the aggressor? Does he attack foreign powers without provocation ? Does lie even resist, when he is insulted ? No, sir : if any ideas of strife or hostility have entered his royal mind, they have a very different direction. The enemies of England have nothing to fear from them. After all, sir, to what kind of disavowal has the king of Spain at last consented ? Supposing it made in proper time, it should have been accompanied with instant restitution; and if Mr. Buccarelli acted with- out orders, he deserved death. Now, sir, instead of immediate restitution, we have a four months' nego- tiation ; and the officer, whose act is disavowed, re- turns to court, and is loaded with honours. If the actual situation of Europe be considered, the treachery of the king's servants, particularly of lord 66 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. North, who takes the whole upon himself, will appeal' in the strongest colours of aggravation. Our allies were masters of the Mediterranean. The king of France's present aversion from war, and the distrac- tion of his affairs, are notorious. He is now in a state of war with his people. In vain did the Catho- lic king solicit him to take part in the qtiarrel against us. His finances were in the last disorder ; and it was probable that his troops might find sufficient employment at home. In these circumstances, we might have dictated the law to Spain. There are 110 terms to which she might not have been compelled to submit. At the worst, a war with Spain alone car- ries the fairest promise of advantage. One good effect, at least, would have been immediately produ- ced by it. The desertion of France would have irri- tated her ally, and, in all probability, have dissolved the family compact. The scene is now fatally changed. The advantage is thrown away. The most favoura- ble opportunity is lost. Hereafter we shall know the value of it. When the French king is reconciled to his subjects — when Spain has completed her prepa- rations — when the collected strength of the house of Bourbon attacks us at once, the king himself will be able to determine upon the wisdom or impudence of his present conduct. As far as the probability ot argument extends, we may safely pronounce, that a conjuncture, which threatens the very being of this country, has been wilfully prepared and forwarded by our own ministry. How far the people may be ani- mated to resistance, under the present administration, I know not ; but this I know, with certainty, that, under the present administration, or if any thing like JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 67 it should continue, it is of very little moment whether we are a conquered nation or not.* Having travelled thus far in the high road of mat- ter of fact, I may now be permitted to wander a little into the field of imagination. Let us banish from our minds the persuasion that these events have really happened in the reign of the best of princes ; let us consider them as nothing more than the materials of a fable, in which we may conceive the sovereign of some other country to be concerned. I mean to vio- late all the laws of probability, when I suppose that this imaginary king, after having voluntarily dis- graced himself in the eyes of his subjects, might re- turn to a sense of his dishonour ; that he might per- ceive the snare laid for him by his ministers, and feel * The king's acceptance of the Spanish ambassador's de- claration is drawn up in barbarous French, and signed by the earl of Rochford. This diplomatic lord has spent his life in the study and practice of etiquettes, and is supposed to be a profound master of die ceremonies. I will not in- sult him by any reference to grammar or common sense : if he were even acquainted with the common forms of his of- fice, I should think him as well qualified for it as any man in his majesty's service. The reader is requested to observe lord Rochford's method of authenticating a public instru- ment. — « En foi de quoi, moi soussignc", un des principal \ secretaires d'etat S. INI. B. ai signe la presente de ma signa- ture ordinaire, ct icelle fait apposer le cachet de nos armes." In three lines there are no less than seven false concords. But the man does not even know the style of his office. If he had known it, he would have said, " Nous, soussignt secretaire d'etat de S. M. B. avons signe - ," &c. 68 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. a spark of shame kindling in his breast. The part he must then be obliged to act would overwhelm him with confusion. To his parliament he must say, " 1 called you together to receive your advice, and have never asked your opinion." — To the merchant, " J have distressed your commerce; I have dragged your seamen out of your ships ; I have loaded you with a grievous weight of insurances." — To the land- holder, " I told you war was too probable, when I was determined to submit to any terms of accommodation : I extorted new taxes from you before it was possible they could be wanted, and am now unable to account for the application of them." — To the public creditor, " I have delivered up your fortune a prey to foreign- ers, and to the vilest of your fellow subjects." Per- haps, this repenting prince might conclude with one general acknowledgment to them all : " I have in volved every rank of my subjects in anxiety and dis- tress ; and have nothing to offer you, in return, but the certainty of national dishonour, an armed truce, and peace without security." If these accounts were settled, there would still remain an apology to be made to his navy and to his army. To the first he would say, " You were onCe the terror of the world. But go back to your har- bours. A man, dishonoured as I am, has no use for your service." It is not probable that he would ap- pear again before his soldiers, even in the pacific ceremony of a review.* But, wherever he appeared, the humiliating confession would be extorted from * A mistake : he appears before them every day 5 with a marly of a blow upon his face. Proh jaudor ! JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 69 him, — " I have received a blow, and had not spirit to resent it. I demanded satisfaction, and have ac- cepted a declaration, in which the right to strike me again is asserted and confirmed." His countenance, at least, would speak this language, and even his guards would blush for him. But to return to our argument. The ministry, it seems, are labouring to draw a line of distinction be- tween the honour of the crown and the rights of the people. This new idea has yet only been started in discourse ; for, in effect, both objects have been equally sacrificed. I neither understand the distinction, nor what use the ministry propose to make of it. The king's honour is that of his people. Their real hon- our and real interest are the same. I am not con- tending for a vain punctilio. A clear, unblemished character comprehends not only the integrity that will not offer, but the spirit that will not submit to an injury; and, whether it belongs to an individual or to a community, it is the foundation of peace, of in- dependence, and of safety. Private credit is wealth ; public honour is security. The feather that adorns the royal bird supports his flight. Strip him of his plumage, and you fix him to the earth. JUNIUS. 70 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. XLIII. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser, SIR, February 6, 1771. I hope your correspondent, Junius, is better em- ployed than in answering or reading the criticisms of a newspaper. This is a task, from which, if he were inclined to submit to it, his friends ought to relieve him. Upon this principle, I shall undertake to an- swer Anti-Junius, more, I believe, to his conviction, than to his satisfaction". Not daring to attack the main body of Junius's last letter, be triumphs in hav- ing, as he thinks, surprised an out-post, and cut off a detached argument, a mere straggling proposition. But even in this petty warfare he shall find himself defeated. Junius does not speak of the Spanish nation as the natural enemies of England ; he applies that descrip- tion, with the strides} truth and justice, to the Span- ish court. From the moment when a prince of the house of Bourbon ascended that throne, their whole system of government was inverted, and became hos- tile to this country. Unity of possession introduced «a unity of politics ; and Louis the Fourteenth had reason, when he said to his grandson, " The Pyrenees are removed." The history of the present century is one continued confirmation of the prophecy. The assertion, " That violence and oppression at home can only be supported by treachery and sub- JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 71 mission abroad," is applied to a free people, whose rights are invaded, not to the government of a coun- try, where despotic or absolute power is confessedly vested in the prince ; and, with this application, the assertion is true. An absolute monarch, having no points to carry at home, will naturally maintain the honour of his crown in all his transactions with foreign powers. But, if we could suppose the sove- reign of a free nation possessed with a design to make himself absolute, he would be inconsistent with him- .self, if he suffered his projects to be interrupted or embarrassed by a foreign war, unless that war tended, as in some cases it might, to promote his principal design. Of the three exceptions to this general rule of conduct, (quoted by Anti-Junius,) that of Oliver Cromwell is the only one in point. Harry the Eighth, by the submission of his parliament, was as absolute a prince as Louis the Fourteenth. Queen Elizabeth's government was not oppressive to the people, and as to her foreign wars, it ought to be considered, that they were unavoidable. The national honour was not in question : she was compelled to fight in defence of her own person, and of her title to the crown. In the common cause of selfish policy, Oliver Cromwell should have cultivated the friendship of foreign pow- ers, or, at least, have avoided disputes with them, the better to establish his tyranny at home. Had he been only a bad man, he would have sacrificed the honour of the nation to the success of his domestic policy. But, with all his crimes, he had the spirit of an Englishman. The conduct of such a man must always be an exception to vulgar rules. He had abilities sufficient to reconcile contradictions, and to 72 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. make a great nation, at the same moment, unhappy and formidable. If it were not for the respect I bear the minister, I could name a man, who, without one grain of understanding, can do half as much as Oliver Cromwell. Whether or no there be a secret system in the closet, and what may be the object of it, are questions which can only be determined by appearances, and on which every man must decide for himself. The whole plan of Junius's letter proves, that he himself makes no distinction between the real honour of the crown and the real interest of the people. In the climax to which your correspondent objects, Ju- nius adopts the language of the court, and, by that conformity, gives strength to his argument. He says that " the king has not only sacrificed the interest of his people, but (what was likely to touch him more nearly) his personal reputation, and the dignity of his crown." The queries put by Anti-Junius can only be an- swered by the ministry. Abandoned as they are, I fancy they will not confess, that they have, for so many years, maintained possession of another man's property. After admitting the assertion of the minis- try, viz. " That the Spaniards had no rightful claim," and after justifying them for saying so, it is his business, not mine, to give us some good reason for their " suffering the pretensions of Spain to be a subject of negotiation." He admits the facts ; let him reconcile them if he can. The last paragraph brings us back to the original question, Whether the Spanish declaration contains such a satisfaction as the king of Great Britain ought JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 73 to have accepted ? This was the field upon which he ought to have encountered Junius openly and fairly. But here he leaves the argument, as no longer de- fensible. I shall, therefore, conclude with one gen- eral admonition to my fellow subjects ; that, when they hear these matters debated, they should not suf- fer themselves to be misled by general declamations upon the conveniences of peace, or the miseries of war. Between peace and war abstracted!}', there is not, there cannot, be a question, in the mind of a rational being. The real questions are, " Have we any security that the peace we have so dearly pur- chased will last a twelvemonth ?" and if not, " Have we, or have we not, sacrificed the fairest opportunity of making war with advantage ?" PHILO JUNIUS. XLIV. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser. SIR, April 22, 1771. To write for profit, without taxing the press ; to write for fame, and to be unknown ; to support the intrigues of faction, and to be disowned as a danger- ous auxiliary by every party in the kingdom, are contradictions which the minister must reconcile be- fore I forfeit my credit with the public. I may quit tie service, but it would be absurd to suspect me of desertion. The reputation of these papers is an hon- ourable pledge for my attachment to the people. To VOL. II. D 74 JTOIUS'S LETTERS. sacrifice a respected character, ard to renounce the esteem of society, requires more than Mr. Wedder- burne's resolution ; and though in him it was rather a profession than a desertion of his principles, (1 speak tenderly of this gentleman ; for, when treache- ry is in question, I think we should make allowances for a Scotchman) yet we have seen him in the house of commons overwhelmed with confusion, and almost bereft of his faculties. But, in truth, sir, I have left no room for an accommodation with the piety of St. James's. My offences are not to be redeemed by re- cantation or repentance. On one side, our warmest patriots would disclaim me as a burthen to their hon- est ambition. On the other, the vilest prostitution, if Junius could descend to it, would lose its natural merit and influence in the cabinet, and treachery be no longer a recommendation to the royal favour. The persons, who, till within these few years, have been most distinguished by their zeal for high-church and prerogative, are now, it seems, the great asser- tors of the privileges of the house of commons. This sudden alteration of their sentiments or language, carries with it a suspicious appearance. When I hear the undefined privileges of the popular branch of the legislature exalted by tories and Jacobites, at the expense of those strict rights which are known to the subject and limited by the laws, I cannot but sus- pect that some mischievous scheme is in agitation, to destroy both law and privilege, by opposing them to each other. They who have uniformly denied the power of the whole legislature to alter the descent of the crown, and whose ancestors, in rebellion against his majesty's family, have defended that doctrine at JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 75 the hazard of their lives, now tell us, that privilege of parliament is the only rule of right, and the chief security of the puhlic freedom. I fear, sir, that, while forms remain, there has been some material change in the substance of our constitution. The opinions of these men were too absurd to be so easi- ly renounced. Liberal minds are open to convic- tion ; liberal doctrines are capable of improvement. There are proselytes from atheism, but none from superstition. If their present professions were sincere, I think they could not but be highly offended at see- ing a question concerning parliamentaiy privilege unnecessarily started at a season so unfavourable to the house of commons, and by so very mean and in- significant a person as the minor Onslow. They knew that the present house of commons, having commenced hostilities with the people, and degraded the authority of the laws by their own example, were likely enough to be resisted per fas et nefas. If they were really friends to privilege, they would have thought the question of right too dangerous to be hazarded at this season, and, without the formality of a convention, would have left it undecided. I have been silent hitherto, though not from that shameful indifference about the interests of society, which too many of us possess, and call moderation. I confess, sir, that I felt the prejudices of my educa- tion in favour of a house of commons still hanging about me. I thought that a question between law and privilege could never be brought to a formal de- cision without inconvenience to the public service, or a manifest diminution of legal liberty; that it ought, therefore, to be carefully avoided : and when I saw 76 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. that the violence of the house of commons had car- ried them too far to retreat, I determined not to de- liver a hasty opinion upon a matter of so much delicacy and importance. The state of things is much altered in this country since it was necessary to protect our representatives against the direct power of the crown. We have nothing to apprehend from prerogative, but every thing from undue influence. Formerly, it was the interest of the people that the privileges of parliament should be left unlimited and undefined. At present, it is not only their interest, but I hold it to be essential ly necessary to the preservation of the constitution, that the privileges of parliament should be strictly ascertained, and confined within the narrowest bounds the nature of the institution will admit of. Upon the same principle on which I would have resisted pre- rogative in the last century, I now resist privilege. It is indifferent to me, whether the crown, by its own immediate act, imposes new, and dispenses with old laws, or whether the same arbitrary power produce* the same effects through the medium of the house of commons. We trusted our representatives with privi- leges for their own defence and ours. We cannot hinder their desertion, but we can prevent their car- rying over their arms to the service of the enemy. It will be said, that I begin with endeavouring to re- duce the argument concerning privilege to a mere question of convenience ; that, I deny, at one mo- ment, what I would allow at another ; and that, to resist the power of a prostituted house of commons, may establish a precedent injurious to all future par- liaments. To this I answer, generally, that human JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 77 ^dairs are in no instance governed b} r strict positive right. If change of circumstances were to have no weight in directing our conduct and opinions, the mutual intercourse of mankind would be nothing more than a contention between positive and equita- ble right. Society would be a state of war, and law itself would be injustice. On this general ground, it is highly reasonable, that the degree of our submis- sion to privileges which never have been defined by any positive law, should be considered as a question of convenience, and proportioned to the confidence we repose in the integrity of our representatives. As to the injury we may do to any future and more re- spectable house of commons, I own I am not now sanguine enough to expect a more plentiful harvest of parliamentary virtue in one year than in another. Our political climate is severely altered ; and, with- out dwelling upon the depravity of modern times, I think no reasonable man will expect that, as human nature is constituted, the enormous influence of the crown should cease to prevail over the virtue of indi- viduals. The mischief lies too deep to be cured by any remedy less than some great convulsion, which may either carry back the constitution to its original principles, or utterly destroy it. I do not doubt that, in the first session after the next election, some popti lar measures may be adopted. The present house of commons have injured themselves by a too early and public profession of their principles ; and if a strain of prostitution, which had no example, were within the reach of emulation, it might be imprudent to hazard the experiment too soon. But, after, all, sir, h i-i very immaterial whether a house of commons 78 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. shall preserve their virtue for a week, a month, or a year. The influence which makes a septennial par- liament dependent on the" pleasure of the crown, has a permanent operation, and cannot fail of success. My premises, I know, will be denied in argument ; but every man's conscience tells him they are true. It remains, then, to be considered, whether it be for the interest of the people, that privilege of parlia- ment* (which in respect to the purposes for which it has hitherto been acquiesced under, is merely nomi- nal) should be contracted within some certain limits j or, whether the subject shall be left at the mercy of a power, arbitrary upon the face of it, and notoriously under the direction of the crown. I do not mean to decline the question of right ; on the contrary, sir, I join issue with the advocates for privilege, and affirm, that, " excepting the cases wherein the house of commons are a court of judica- ture (to which, from the nature of their office, a co- ercive power must belong) and excepting such con- tempts as immediately interrupt their proceedings, they have no legal authority to imprison any man for * The necessity of securing the house of commons against the king's power, so that no interruption might be given either to the attendance of the members in parliament, or to vhe freedom of debate, was the foundation of parliamentary privilege ; and we may observe, in all the addresses of new appointed speakers to the sovereign, the utmost privilege they demand, is liberty of speech, and freedom from arrests. The very word privilege means no more than immunity, or a safeguard to the party who possesses it, and can never be construed into an active power of invading the rights of others., JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 79 any supposed violation of privilege whatsoever." It is not pretended that privilege, as now claimed, has ever been defined or confirmed by statute ; neither can it be said, with any colour of truth, to be a part of the common law of England, which had grown into prescription long before we knew any thing of the existence of a house of commons. As for the law of parliament, it is only another name for the privilege in question ; and since the power of cre- ating new privileges has been formally renounced by both houses, since there is no code in which we can study the law of parliament, we have but one way left to make ourselves acquainted with it ; that is, to compare the nature of the institution of a house of commons with the facts upon record. To establish a claim of privilege in either house, and to distinguish original right from usurpation, it must appear, that it is indispensably necessary for the performance of the duty they are employed in, and also that it has been uniformly allowed. From the first part of this description, it follows, clearly, that, whatever privi- lege does of right belong to the present house of com- mons, did equally belong to the first assembly of their predecessors, was so completely vested in them, and might have been exercised in the same extent. Frour the second we must infer, that privileges, which for several centuries were not only never allowed, but never even claimed by the house of commons, must be founded upon usurpation. The constitutional du- ties of a house of commons are not very complicated nor mysterious. They are to propose or assent to wholesome laws, for the benefit of the nation. They are to grant the necessary aids to the king ; petition 80 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. for the redress of grievances ; and prosecute treason or high crimes against the state. If unlimited privi- lege be necessary to the performance of these duties, we have reason to conclude, that, for many centuries after the institution of the house of commons, they were never performed. I am not boitnd to prove a negative ; but I appeal to the English history, when 1 affirm, that, with the exceptions already stated, which yet I might safely relinquish, there is no precedent, from the }'ear 1265, to the death of queen Elizabeth, of the house of commons having imprisoned any man (not a member of their house) for contempt or breach of privilege. In the most flagrant cases, and when their acknowledged privileges were most gross- ly violated, the poor commmis, as they then styled themselves, never took the power of punishment into their own hands. They either sought redress, by petition to the king, or, what is more remarkable, applied for justice to the house of lords ; and, when satisfaction was denied them or delayed, their only remedy was to refuse proceeding upon the king's busi- ness. So little conception had our ancestors of the monstrous doctrines now maintained concerning privi- lege, that, in the reign of Elizabeth, even liberty of speech, the vital principle of a deliberative assembly, was restrained by the queen's authority to a simple ay or no ; and this restriction, though imposed upon three successive parliaments,* was never once disputed by the house of commons. I know there are many precedents of arbitrary commitments for contempt ; but, besides that they are * In the years 1593, 1597, and 1 601. OUNIUS'S LETTERS. 81 of too modern a date to warrant a presumption that such a power was originally vested in the house of commons, fact alone does not constitute right. If it does, general warrants were lawful. An ordinance of the two houses has a force equal to law : and the criminal jurisdiction assumed by the commons in 1421, in the case of Edward Lloyd, is a good pre- cedent to warrant the like proceedings against any man who shall unadvisedly mention the folly of a king, or the ambition of a princess. The truth is, sir, that the greatest and most exceptionable part of the privileges now contended for, were introduced and asserted by a house of commons, which abolished both monarchy and peerage, and whose proceedings, al- though they ended in one glorious act of substantial justice, could no way be reconciled to the forms of the constitution. Their successors profited by their example, and confirmed their power by a moderate or popular use of it. Thus it grew, by degrees, from a notorious innovation at one period, to be tacitly admitted as the privilege of parliament at another. If, however, it could be proved, from considera- tions of necessity or convenience, that an unlimited power of commitment ought to be entrusted to the nouse of commons, and that, in fact, they have ex- ercised it without opposition, still, in contemplation of law, the presumption is strongly against them. It is a leading maxim of the laws of England (and without it all laws are nugatory) that there is no right without a remedy, nor any legal power without a legal course to carry it into effect. Let the power, now in question, be tried by this rule. The speaker issues his warrant of attachment. The party at- D _> 6 ' 82 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. tached either resists force with force, or appeals to a magistrate, who declares the warrant illegal, and dis- charges the prisoner. Does the law provide no legal means for enforcing a legal warrant? Is there no re- gular proceeding pointed out in our law books, to assert and vindicate the authority of so high a court as the house of commons ? The question is answered directly by the fact ; their unlawful commands are resisted, and they have no remedy. The imprison- ment of their own members is revenge indeed ; but it is no assertion of the privilege they contend for.* Their whole proceeding stops ; and there they stand, ashamed to retreat, and unable to advance. Sir, these ignorant men should be informed, that the ex- ecution of the laws of England is not left in this un- certain, defenceless condition. If the process of the courts of Westminster-hall be resisted, they have a direct course to enforce submission. The court ot king's bench commands the sheriff to raise the posse comitatus ; the courts of chancery and exchequer is- sue a writ of rebellion ; which must also be support- ed, if necessary, by the power of the country. To whom will our honest representatives direct their writ of rebellion ? The guards, I doubt not, are willing enough to be employed ; but they know nothing of * Upoa their own principles, they should have commit- ted Mr. Wilkes, who had been guilty of a greater offence than even the lord mayor or alderman Oliver. But, after repeatedly ordering him to attend, they at last adjourned beyond the day appointed for his attendance, and, by this mean, pitiful evasion, gave up the point. JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 83 the doctrine of writs, and may think it necessary to wait for a letter from lord Barrington. It may now be objected to me, that my arguments prove too much : for that certainly there may be in- stances of contempt and insult to the house of com- mons, which do not fall within my own exceptions, yet, in regard to the dignity of the house, ought not to pass unpunished. Be it so. The courts of crimi- nal jurisdiction are open to prosecutions, which the attorney-general may commence by information or indictment. A libel tending to asperse or vilify the house of commons, or any of their members, may be as severely punished in the court of king's bench, as a libel upon the king. M. de Grey thought so,, when he drew up the information of my letter to his majesty, or. he had no meaning in charging it to be a scandalous libel upon the house of commons. In my opinion, they would consult their real dignity much better, by appealing to the laws, when they are offended, than by violating the first principle of natu- ral justice, which forbids us to be judges, when we ape parties to the cause.* * " If it be demanded, in case a subject should be com- mitted by either house for a matter manifestly out of their jurisdiction, What remedy can he have ? I answer, that it cannot well be imagined that the law, which favours no- thing more than the liberty of the subject, should give us a temcdy against commitments by the king himself, appearing to be illegal, and yet give us no manner of redress against a commitment by our fellow subjects, equally appearing to be unwarranted. But, as this is a case which I am persuad- 34 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. I do not mean to pursue them through the remain- der of their proceedings. In their first resolutions, it is possible they might have been deceived by ill- considered precedents. For the rest, there is no co- lour of palliation or excuse. They have advised the king to resume a power of dispensing with the laws by royal proclamation ;* and kings, we see, are ready enough to follow such advice. By mere violence, and without the shadow of right, they have expunged the record of a judicial proceeding.'^ Nothing re- mained but to attribute to their own vote a power of stopping the whole distribution of criminal and civil justice. • The public virtues of the chief magistrate have long since ceased to be in question. But, it is said, that he has private good qualities ; and I myself have been ready to acknowledge them. They are now ed, will never happen, it seems needless over-nicely to ex- amine it."' Hawkins, ii. 110. N. B. He was a good lawyer, but no prophet. * That their practice might be every way conformable to their principles, the house proceeded to advise the crown to publish a proclamation, universally acknowledged to be il- legal. Mr. Moreton publicly protested against it before it was issued ; and lord Mansfield, though not scrupulous to an extreme, speaks of it with horror. It is remarkable enough, that the very men who advised the proclamation, and who hear it arraigned every day, both within doors and without, are not daring enough to utter one word in its de- fence ; nor have they ventured to take the least notice of Mr. Wilkes, for the discharging the persons apprehended under it. r Lord Chatham very properly called this the act of a. mob, not of a senate. JUNIUS'S LETTERS. So brought to the test. If he loves his people, he will dissolve the parliament, which they can never confide in or respect. If he has any regard for his own hon- our, he will disdain to be any longer connected with such abandoned prostitution. But, if it were con- ceivable, that a king of this country had lost all sense of personal honour, and all concern for the welfare of his subjects, I confess, sir, I should be contented to renonnce the forms of the constitution once more, if there were no other way to obtain substantial jus- tice for the people.t JUNIUS. f When Mr. Wilkes was to be punished, they made no scruple about the privileges of parliament ; and although it . was as well known as any matter of public record and un- interrupted custom could be, " That the members of either house are privileged, except in case of treason, felony, ov breach of peace," they declared, without hesitation, " That privilege of parliament did not extend to the case of a sedi- tious libel :" and undoubtedly they would have done the same if Mr. Wilkes had been prosecuted for any other mis- demeanor whatsoever. The ministry, are, of a sudden, grown wonderfully careful of privileges, which their prede*- n-ssors were as ready to invade. The kno\«n laws of the land, the rights of the subject, the sanctity of charters, and the reverence due to our magistrates, must all give way, without question or resistance, to a privilege of which no man knows either the origin or the extent. The house of commons judge of their own privileges without appeal : they may take offence at the most innocent action, and im- prison the person who offends them during their arbitrary will and pleasure. The party has - no remedy ; he cannot appeal from their jurisdiction ; and if he questions the pri- 86 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. XLV. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser. SIR, May 1, 1771- They who object to detached parts of Junius's last letter, either do not mean him fairly, or have not con- sidered the general scope and course of his argument. There are degrees in all the private v4ces ; why not in public prostitution ? The influence of the crown naturally makes a septennial parliament dependent. Daes it follow, that every house of commons will plunge at once into the lowest depths of prostitution ? Junius supposes, that the present house of commons, in going such enormous lengths, have been impru- dent to themselves, as well as wicked to the public ; vhat their example is not within the reach of emula- tion ; and that, in the first session after the next elec- tion, some popular measures may probably be adopt- ed. He does not expect that a dissolution of parlia- ment will destroy corruption, but that, at least, it will be a check and terror to their successors, who vilege which he is stipposed to have violated, it becomes an aggravation of his offence. Surely this doctrine is not to be found in Magna Charta. If it be admitted without limita- tion, I affirm, that there is neither law nor liberty in this kingdom. We are the slaves of the house of commons j and, through them, we are the slaves of the king and his umusteu. Anonymous, JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 87 will have seen, that, in flagrant cases, their constitu- ents can and will interpose with effect. After all, sir, will you not endeavour to remove or alleviate the most dangerous symptoms, because you cannot eradicate the disease ? Will you not punish treason or parri- cide, because the sight of a gibbet does not prevent high-way robberies ? When the main argument of Junius is admitted to be unanswerable, I think it would become the minor critic, who hunts for blem- ishes, to be little more distrustful of his own sagacity. The other objection is hardly worth an answer. When Junius observes,, that kings are ready enough to follow such advice, he does not mean to insinuate, that, if the advice of parliament were good, the king would be so ready to follow it. PHILO JUNIUS. XLVI. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser. SIR, May 25, 1771. I confess my partiality to Junius, and feel a con- siderable pleasure in being able to communicate any thing to the public in support of his opinions. The doctrine laid down in his last letter, concerning the power of the house of commons to commit for con- tempt, is not so new as it appeared to many people % who dazzled with the name of privilege, had never suffered themselves to examine the question fairly. In the course of ray reading this morning, I met with S8 JUNIUSS LETTERS. the following passage in the journals of the house of commons, (Vol. i. p. 603.) Upon occasion of a ju- risdiction unlawfully assumed by the house in the year 1621, Mr. attorney-general Noye gave his opinion as follows : " No doubt but in some cases, this house may give judgment, in matters of returns, and con- cerning members of our house, or falling out in our view in parliament ; but, for foreign matters, know- eth not how we can judge it ; knoweth not that we have been used to give judgment in any case, but those before mentioned." Sir Edward Coke, upon the same subject, says, (page 604,) " No question but this is a house of re- cord, and that it hath power of judicature in some cases ; have power to judge of returns and members of our house. One, no member, offending out of the parliament, when he came hither, and justified it y was censured for it." Now, sir, if you will compare the opinion of those great sages of the law with Junius's doctrine, you will find they tally exactly. He allows the power of the house to commit their own members, which, how- ever, they may grossly abuse ; he allows their power in cases where they are acting as a court of judica- ture, viz. elections, returns, &ic. and he allows it in such contempts as immediately interrupt their pro- ceedings ; or, as Mr. Noye expresses it, falling out in their view in parliament. They who would carry the privileges of parlia- ment farther than Junius, either do not mean well to the public, or know not what they are doing. The government of England is a government of law. We betray ourselves, we contradict the spirit of our JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 89 laws, and we shake the whole system of English ju- risprudence, whenever we entrust a discretionary power over the life, liberty, or fortune of the subject, to any man, or set of men, whatsoever, upon a pre- sumption that it will not be abused. PHILO JUNIUS. XLVI1. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser. SIR, May 28, 177 1. Any man who takes the trouble of perusing the journals of the house of commons, will soon be con- vinced, that very little, if any regard at all, ought to be paid to the resolutions of one branch of the legis- lature, declaratory of the law of the land, or even ol what they call the law of parliament. It will appear that these resolutions have no one of the properties by which, in this country particularly, law is distinguish- ed from mere will and pleasure; but that, on the contrary, they bear every mark of a power arbitrarily assumed and capriciously applied : that they are usually made in times of contest, and to serve some unworthy purpose of passion or party; that the law is seldom declared until after the fact by which it is supposed to be violated ; that legislation and juris- diction are united in the same persons, and exercised at the same moment; and that a court from which there is no appeal, assumes an original jurisdiction in a criminal case. In short, sir, to collect a thousand 90 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. absurdities into one mass, " we have a law whicft eannet be known, because it is ex post facto : the party is both legislator and judge, and the juris diction is without appeal." Well might the judges say, " The law of parliament is above us." You will not wonder, sir, that with these qualifi- cations, the declaratory resolutions of the house oi commons should appear to be in perpetual contra- diction, not only to common sense, and to the laws we are acquainted with, (and which alone we can obey,) but even to one another. I was led to trouble you with these observations by a passage, which, to speak in lutestring, J met with this morning in the course of my reading, and upon which I mean to put a question to the advocates for privilege. On the 8th of March, 1704, (Fide Journals, Vol. xiv. p. 568,) the house thought proper to come to the following resolutions : 1. " That no commoner of England; committed by the house of commons for breach of privilege or contempt of that house, ought to be, by any writ of Habeas Corpus, made to appear in any other place, or before any other judicature, during that session of parliament wherein such person was so committed." 2. " That the serjeant at arms, attending this house, do make no return of, or yield any obedience to, the said writs of Habeas Corpus ; and for such his refusal, that he have the protection of the house of commons."* * If there be, in reality, any such law in England as the law of parliament, which (under the exception stated in my letter on privilege) I confess, after long deliberation, I JUNIUS'S LETTERS. Of Welbore Ellis, what say you ? Is this the law df parliament, or is it not ? I am a plain man, sir, and cannot follow you through the phlegmatic forms of. an oration. Speak out, Gildrig, say yes or no. If you say yes, I shall then inquire by what authority Mr. de Grey, the honest lord Mansfield, and the barons of the exchequer, dared to grant a writ of Habeas Corpus for bringing the bodies of the lord mayor and Mr. Oliver before them ; and why the lieutenant of the Tower made any return to a writ, which the house of commons had, in a similar in- stance, declared to be unlawful. If you say no, take care you do not at once give up the cause in support of which you have so long and so laboriously tor- tured your understanding. Take care you do not confess that there is no test by which we can distin- guish, no evidence by which we can determine, what is, and what is not, the law of parliament. The resolutions I have quoted, stand upon your journals, uncontroverted and unrepealed : they contain a de- claration of the law of parliament, by a court com- petent to the question, and whose decision, as you and lord Mansfield say, must be law, because there very much doubt, it certainly is not constituted by, nor can it be collected from, the resolutions of either house, whether enacting or declaratory. I desire the leader will compare the above resolutions of the year 1704, with the following ot the 3d of April, 1628.—" Resolved, That the writs of Habeas ('orjjus cannot be denied, but ought to be granted to every man that is committed or detained in prison, or otherwise restrained by the command of the king, the privy council, «r any other, lie praying the same." $Z JUNIUS'S LETTERS. i And yet the duke was an old offender. vol. ii. E 7 98 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. by. Yet he must have bread, my lord ; or, rather, he must have wine. If you deny him the cup, there wil! be no keeping him within the pale of the ministry. JUNIUS. XLIX. To his Grace the Duke of Grafton. MY LORD, July 9, 177* * The influence of your grace's fortune still seemi- to preside over the treasury. The genius of Mr. Bnadshaw inspires Mr. Robinson.* How remarka- ble it is (and I speak of it not as a matter of reproach, but as something peculiar to }*our character) that you have never yet formed a friendship, which has not been fatal to the object of it ; nor adopted a cause, to which, one way or other, you have not done mis- chief! Your attachment is infamy while it lasts; and, which ever way it turns, leaves ruin and dis- grace behind it. The deluded girl, who yields to such a profligate, even while he is constant, forfeits her reputation as well as her innocence, and finds herself abandoned at last to misery and shame. Thus it happened with the best of princes. Poor Dingley, too ! I protest I hardly know which of them we ought * By an intercepted letter from the secretary of the trea- sury, it appeared, that the friends of government were to he very active in supporting the ministerial nomination of sheriffs. JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 99 most to lament ; the unhappy man who sinks under the sense of his dishonour, or him who survives it. Char- acters so finished are placed beyond the reach of pan- egyric. Death has fixed his seal upon Dingley ; and you, my lord, have set your mark upon the other. The only letter I ever addressed to the king was so unkindly received, that I believe I shall never pre- sume to trouble his majesty in that way again. But my zeal for his service is superior to neglect ; and, like Mr. Wilkes's patriotism, thrives by persecution. Yet his majesty is much addicted to useful reading ; and, if I am not ill informed, has honoured the Pub- lic Advertiser with particular attention. I have en- deavoured, therefore, and not without success, (as, perhaps, you may remember,) to furnish it with such interesting and edifying intelligence, as probably would not reach him through any other channel. The services you have done the nation, your integri- ty in office, and signal fidelity to your approved good master, have been faithfully recorded. Nor have his own virtues been entirely neglected. These letters, my lord, are read in other countries, and in other languages ; and I think I may affirm, without vanity, that the gracious character of the best of princes is by this time, not only perfectly known to his sub- jects, but tolerably well understood by the rest of Europe. In this respect alone I have the advantage of Mr. Whitehead. His plan, I think, is too narrow. He seems to manufacture his verses for the sole use of the hero who is supposed to be the subject of them, and, that his meaning may not be exported in foreign bottoms, sets all translation at defiance. Your grace's re-appointment to a seat in the cabi- 100 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. net was announced to the public by the ominous re- turn of lord Bute to this country. When that nox- ious planet approaches England, he never fails to bring plague and pestilence along with him. The •king already feels the malignant effect of your influ- ence over his councils. Your former administration made Mr. Wilkes an alderman of London and repre- sentative of Middlesex. Your next appearance in office is marked with his election to the shrievalty. In whatever measure you are concerned, you are not only disappointed of success, but always contrive to make the government of the best of princes contempt- ible in his own eyes, and ridiculous to the whole world. Making all due allowance for the effect of the minister's declared interposition, Mr. Robinson's ac- tivity, and Mr. Home's new zeal in support of ad- ministration, we still want the genius of the duke of Grafton to account for committing the whole interest of government in the city to the conduct of Mr. Har- ley. I will not bear hard upon your faithful friend and emissary, Mr. Touchet ; for I know the difficul- ties of his situation, and that a few lottery tickets are of use to his economy. There is a proverb concern- ing persons in the predicament of this gentleman, which, however, cannot be strictly applied to him, They commence dupes, and finish knaves. Now, Mr. Touchet's character is uniform. I am convinced that his sentiments never depended upon his circumstan- ces ; and that, in the most prosperous state of his fortune, he was always the very man he is at present. But was there no other person of rank and conse- quence in the city, whom government could confide in, but a notorious Jacobite ? Did you imagine that JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 101 the whole body of the dissenters, that the whole whig interest of London, would attend at the levee, and submit to the directions of a notorious Jacobite ; Was there no whig magistrate in the city, to whom the servants of George the Third could entrust the management of a business so very interesting to their master as the election of sheriffs ? Is there no room at St. James's but for Scotchmen and Jacobites ? My lord, I do not mean to question the sincerity of Mr. Harley's attachment to his majesty's government. Since the commencement of the present reign. I have seen still greater contradictions reconciled. The principles of these worthy Jacobites arc not so ab- surd as they have been represented. Their ideas of divine right are not so much annexed to the person or family, as to the political character of the sove- reign. Had there ever been an honest man among the Stuarts, his majesty's present friends would have been whigs upon principle. But the conversion of the best of princes has removed their scruples. They have forgiven him the sins of his Hanoverian ancestors. and acknowledged the hand of Providence in the de- scent of the crown upon the head of a true Stuart. In you, my lord, they also behold, with a kind of predilection which borders upon loyalty, the natural representative of that illustrious family. The mode of your descent from Charles the Second is only a bar to your pretentions to the crown, and no way in- terrupts the regularity of your succession to all the vjrtues of the Stuarts. The unfortunate success of the reverend Mr. Home's endeavours in support of the ministerial nomination 102 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. of sheriffs, will, I fear, obstruct his preferment. Permit me to recommend him to your grace's pro- tection. You will find him copiously gifted with those qualities of the heart which usually direct you in the choice of your friendships. He too was Mr. Wilkes's friend, and as incapable as you are of the liberal resentment of a gentleman. No, my lord ; it was the solitary, vindictive malice of a monk, brooding over the infirmities of his friend, until he thought they quickened into public life, and feasting with a rancorous rapture upon the sordid catalogue of his distresses. Now let him go back to his clois- ter. The church is a proper retreat for him. In his principles he is already a bishop. The mention of this man has moved me from my natural moderation. Let me return to your grace. You are the pillow upon which I am determined to rest all my resentments. What idea can the best of sovereigns form to himself of his own government ? In what repute can he conceive that he stands with the people, when he sees, beyond the possibility of a doubt, that, whatever be the office, the suspicion of his favour is fatal to the candidate ; and that, when the party he wishes well to has the fairest prospect of success, if his royal inclination should unfortunately be discovered, it drops like an acid, and turns the election ? This event, among others, may, perhaps, con- tribute to open his majesty's eyes to his real honour and interest. In spite of all your grace's ingenuity, he may, at last, perceive the inconvenience of se- lecting, with such a curious felicity, every villain in JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 103 the nation to fill the various departments of his gov- ernment. Yet I should be sorry to confine him in the choice either of his footmen or his friends. JUNIUS. L. From the Rev. Mr. Home to Junius. SIR, July 13, 1771- Farce, Comedy, and Tragedy. — Wilkes, Foote, and Junius — united at the same time against one poor parson, are fearful odds. The two former are only labouring in their vocation, and may equally plead, in excuse, that their aim is a livelihood. I admit the plea for the second : his is an honest calling, and my clothes were lawful game ; but I cannot so readily approve Mr. Wilkes, or commend him for making patriotism a trade, and a frudulent trade. But what shall I say to Junius ? the grave, the solemn, the didactic ! Ridicule, indeed, has been ridiculously called the test of truth : but surely, to confess that you lose your natural moderation when mention is made of the man, does not promise much truth or justice when you speak of him yourself. You charge me with " a new zeal in support of administration," and with " endeavours in support of the ministerial nomination of sheriffs." The re- putation which your talents have deservedly gained to the signature of Junius, draws from me a reply, 104 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. which I disdained to give to the anonymous lies of Mr. Wilkes. You make frequent use of the word gentleman ; I only call myself a man, and desire no other distinction. If you are either, you are bound to make good your charges, or to confess that you have done me a hasty injustice upon no authority. I put the matter fairly to issue. 1 say that, so far from any " new zeal in support of administration," I am possessed with the utmost abhorrence of their measures ; and that I have ever shown myself, and am still ready, in any rational manner, to lay down all I have — my life, in opposition to those measures. 1 say, that I have not, and never have had, any communication or connexion of any kind, directly or indirectly, with any courtier or ministerial man, or ajiy of their adherents ; that I never have received, or solicited, or expected, or desired, or do now hope tor, any reward of any sort, from any party or set of men in administration or opposition. I say, that I never used any " endeavours in support of the min- isterial nomination of sheriffs ;" that I did not solicit any one liveryman for his vote for any one of the candidates, nor employ any other person to solicit ; and that I did not write one single line or word in fa- vour of Mess. Plumbe and Kirkman, whom I under- stand to have been supported by the ministry. You are bound to refute what I here advance, or to lose your credit for veracity. You must produce facts ; surmise and general abuse, in however elegant lan- guage, ought not to pass for proofs. You have every advantage, and I have every disadvantage : you are unknown j I give my name. All parties, both in and out of administration, have their reasons (which I JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 10a shall relate hereafter) for uniting in their wishes against me : and the popular prejudice is as strongly in your favour as it is violent against the parson. Singular as my present situation is, it is neither painful, nor was it unforeseen. He is not fit for pub- lic business, who does not, even at his entrance, pre- pare his mind for such an event. Health, fortune, tranquillity, and private connexions, I have sacrificed upon the altar of the public ; and the only return I received, because I will not concur to dupe and mis- lead a senseless multitude, is barely, that they have not yet torn me in pieces. That this has been the only return is my pride and a source of more real satisfaction than honours or prosperity. I can prac- tise, before I am old, the lessons I learned in my youth ; nor shall I forget the words of my ancient monitor : " 'Tis the last key-stone That makes the arch ; the rest that there were put } Are nothing till that comes to bind and shut ; Then stands it a triumphal mark ' Then men Observe the strength, the height, the why and when It was erected ; and still, walking under, Meet some new matter to look up and wonder !" I am, sir, vour humble servant, JOHN HORNE, E 2 106 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. J* To the Reverend Mr. Home. SIR, July 24, 1771- I cannot descend to an altercation with you in the newspapers: but since I have attacked your charac- ter, and you complain of injustice, I think you have some right to an explanation. You defy me to prove, that you ever solicited a vote, or wrote a word in support of the ministerial aldermen. Sir, I did never suspect you of such gross folly. It would have been impossible for Mr. Home to have solicited votes, and very difficult to have written in the newspapers in de- fence of that cause, without being detected, and brought to shame. Neither do I pretend to any in- telligence concerning you, or to know more of your conduct than you yourself have thought proper to communicate to the public. It is from your own let- ters, I conclude, that you have sold yourself to the ministry : or, if that charge be too severe, and sup- posing it possible to be deceived by appearances so very strongly against you, what are your friends to say in your defence ? Must they not confess, that, to gratify your personal hatred of Mr. Wilkes, you sa- crificed, as far as depended on your interest and abilities, the cause of the country ? I can make al- lowances for the violence of the passions ; and if ever X should be convinced that you had no motive but to destroy Wilkes, I shall then be ready to do justice to JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 107 your character, and to declare to the world, that I despise you somewhat less than I do at present. But, as a public man, I must for ever condemn you. You cannot but know, (nay, you dare not pretend to be ignorant) that the highest gratifications of which the most detestable * * in this nation is capable, would have been the defeat of Wilkes. I know that man much better than any of you. Nature intended him only for a good-humoured fool. A systematical education, with long practice, has made him a con- summate hypocrite. Yet this man, to say nothing of his worthy ministers, you have most assiduously la- boured to gratify. To exclude Wilkes, it was not necessary you should solicit votes for his opponents. We incline the balance as effectually by lessening the weight in one scale, as increasing it in the other. The mode of your attack upon Wilkes (though I am far from thinking meanly of your abilities) con- vinces me that you either want judgment extremely, or that you are blinded by your resentment. You ought to have foreseen that the charges you urged against Wilkes could never do him any mischief. After all, when we expected discoveries highly inter- esting to the community, what a pitiful detail did it end in ! — some old clothes, — a Welsh pony — a. French footman — and a hamper of claret. Indeed, Mr. Home, the public should and will forgive him his claret and his footman, and even the ambition of making his brother chamberlain of London, as long as he stands forth against a ministry and parliament who are doing every thing they can to enslave the country, and as long as he is a thorn in the king's side. You will not suspect me of setting up Wilkes 108 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. for a perfect character. The question to the public is, where shall we find a man who, with purer prin- ciples, will go the lengths, and run the hazards, that he has done . ? The season calls for such a man, and he ought to be supported. What would have been the triumph of that odious hypocrite and his minions, if Wilkes had been defeated ! It was not your fault, reverend sir, that he did not enjoy it completely. But now, I promise you, you have so little power to do mischief, that I much question whether the minis- try will adhere to the promises they have made you. ft will be jm vain to say that I am a partizan of Mr. Wilkes, or personally your enemy. You will con- vince no man, for you do not believe it yourself. Yet I confess I am a little offended at the low rate at which you seem to value my understanding. I beg, Mr. Home, you will hereafter believe, that I measure the integrity of men by their conduct, not by their professions. Such tales may entertain Mr. Oliver, or 3 r our grandmother ; but, trust me, they are thrown away upon Junius. You say you are a man. Was it generous, was it manly, repeatedly to introduce into a newspaper, the name of a young lady with whom you must hereto- fore have lived on terms of politeness and good hu- mour ? But I have done with you. In my opinion, your credit is irrevocably ruined. Mr. Townshend, I think, is nearly in the same predicament. Poor Oliver has been shamefully duped by you. You have made him sacrifice all the honour he got by his im- prisonment. As for Mr. Sawbridge, whose charac- ter I really respect, I am astonished he does not see through your duplicity. Never was so base a design JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 109 so poorly conducted. This letter,* you see, is not intended for the public ; but, if you think it will do you any service, you are at liberty to publish it. JUNIUS. LII. From the Rev. Mr. Home io Junius. SIR, July 31, 1271. You have disappointed me. When I told j'ou that surmise and general abuse, in however elegant lan- guage, ought not to pass for proofs, I evidentty hint- ed at the reply which I expected : but you have drop- ped your usual elegance, and seem willing to try what will be the effect of surmise and general abuse in very coarse language. Your answer to my last letter (which, I hope, was cool, and temperate, and modest) has convinced me, that my idea of a man is much su- perior to yours of a gentleman. Of your former letters, I have always said, JMateriem superabat opus : I do not think so of the present : the principles are more detestable than the expressions are mean and illiberal. I am contented that all those who adopt the one should for ever load me with the other. I appeal to the common sense of the public, to which I have ever directed myself: I believe they have * This letter was transmitted privately by the printer to Mr. Home, at Junius's request. Mr. Home returned it to the printer, with directions to publish it. 110 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. it ; though I am sometimes half inclined to saspecT that Mr. Wilkes has formed a truer judgment of man- kind than I have. However, of this I am sure, that there is nothing else upon which to place a steady reliance. Trick, and low cunning, and addressing their prejudices and passions, may be the fittest means to carry a particular point ; but if they have not com- mon sense, there is no prospect of gaining for them any real permanent good. The same passions which have been artfully used by an honest man for their advantage, may be more artfully employed by a dis- honest man for their destruction. I desire them to apply their common sense to this letter of Junius, not for my sake, but their own ; it concerns them most nearly ; for the principles it contains lead to disgrace and ruin, and are inconsistent with every notion of civil society. The charges which Junius has brought against me, are made ridiculous by his own inconsistency and ,self-contradiction. He charges me positively with i: a new zeal in support of administration;" and with " endeavours in support of the ministerial nomina- tion of sheriffs." And he assigns two inconsistent motives for my conduct : either that I have " sold myself to the ministry ;" or am instigated " by the solitary vindictive malice of a monk :" either that I am influenced by a sordid desire of gain, or am hur- ried on by " personal hatred, and blinded by resent- ment." In his letter to the duke of Grafton, he sup- poses me actuated by both : in his letter to me, he at first doubts which of the two, whether interest or re- venge, is my motive. However, at last he determines for the former, and again positively asserts, " that JUNIUS'S LETTERS. Ill the ministry have made me promises :" yet he pro- duces no instance of corruption, nor pretends to have any intelligence of a ministerial connexion. He men- tions no cause of personal hatred to Mr. Wilkes, nor any reason for my resentment or revenge ; nor has Mr. Wilkes himself ever hinted any, though repeat- edly pressed. When Junius is called upon to justify his accusation, he answers, " He cannot descend to an altercation with me in the newspapers." Junius, who exists only in the newspapers, who acknowledges he has " attacked my character" there, and thinks " I have some right to an explanation ;" yet this Junius " cannot descend to an altercation in the newspapers !" And because he cannot descend to an altercation with me in the newspapers, he sends a letter of abuse, by the printer, which he finishes with telling me, " I am at liberty to publish it." This, to be sure, is a most excellent method to avoid an altercation in the newspapers! The proofs of his positive charges are as extraor- dinary. " He does not pretend to any intelligence concerning me, or to know more of m} r conduct than I myself have thought proper to communicate to the public." He does not suspect me of such gross folly as to have solicited votes, or to have written anony- mously in the newspapers; because it is impossible to do either without being detected, and brought to shame. Junius says this ! who yet imagines that he has himself written two years under that signature (and more under others) without being detected ! his warmest admirers will not hereafter add, without be- ing brought to shame. But, though he never did suspect me of such gross folly, as to run the hazard 112 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. of being detected, and brought to shame, by anony- mous writing, he insists that I have been guilty of a much grosser folly, of incurring the certainty of shame and detection, by writings signed with my name ! But this is a small flight for the towering Junius : " He is far from thinking meanly of my abilities," though " he is convinced that I want judgment ex^ tremely f and can " really respect Mr. Sawbridge's character," though he declares him* to be so poor a creature, as not to " see through the basest design, conducted in the poorest manner. And this most base design is conducted in the poorest manner by a man, whom he does not suspect of gross folly, and of whose abilities he is far from thinking meanly ! Should we ask Junius to reconcile these contra- dictions, and explain this nonsense, the answer is * I beg leave to introduce Mr. Home to the character of the Donhle Dealer. I thought they had been better ac- quainted. " Another very wrong objection has been made by some, who have not taken leisure to distinguish the characters. The hero of the play (meaning Melefont) is a gull, and made a fool, and cheated. Is every man a gull and a fool that is deceived ? At that rate, I am afraid, the two classes of men will be reduced to one, and the knaves themselves be at a loss to justify their title. But if an open, honest-hearted man, who has an entire confidence in one whom he takes to be his friend, and who (to confirm him in his opinion) in all appearance, and upon several trials, has been so, if this man be deceived by the treachery of the other, must he of necessity commence fool immediately, only because the other has proved a villain ?" Yes, says parson Home. No, says Congreve : and he, I think, is al- lowed to have known something of human nature. JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 113 ready : " He cannot descend to an altercation in the newspapers." He feels no reluctance to attack the character of any man : the throne is not too high, nor the cottage too low : his mighty malice can grasp both extremes. He hints not his accusations as opin- ion, conjecture, or inference, but delivers them as positive assertions. Do the accused complain of in- justice? He acknowledges they have some sort of right to an explanation ; but if they ask for proofs and facts, he begs to be excused ; and though he is no where else to be encountered, " he cannot descend to an altercation in the newspapers." And this, perhaps, Junius may think " the liberal resentment of a gentleman ;" this sculking assassina- tion he may call courage. In all things, as in this, I hope we differ. " I thought that fortitude had been a mean 'Twixt fear and rashness; not a lust obscene, Or appetite of offending ; but a skill And nice discernment between good and ill. Her ends are honesty and public good : And without lliese she is not understood." Of two things, however, he has condescended to give proof. He very properly produces a young lady to prove that I am not a man; and a good old woman. my grandmother, to prove Mr. Oliver a fool. Poor old soul ! she read her Bible far otherwise than Ju- nius ! She often found there, that the sins of the fathers had been visited on the children ; and there- fore was cautious that herself, and her immediate descendants, should leave no reproach on her poster- ity : and they left none. How little could she fore 8 114 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. see this reverse of Junius, who visits my political siif? upon my grandmother ! I do not charge this to the score of malice in him; it proceeded entirely from his propensity to blunder ; that whilst he was reproach- ing me for introducing, in the most harmless manner, the name of one female, he might himself, at the same instant, introduce two. I am represented, alternately, as it suits Junius's purpose, under the opposite characters of a gloomy monk, and a man of politeness and good-humour. I am called " a solitary monk," in order to confirm the notion given of me in Mr. Wilkes's anonymous para- graphs, that I never laugh. And the terms of polite- ness and good-humour, on which I am said to have lived heretofore with the young lady, are intended to confirm other paragraphs of Mr. Wilkes, in which he is supposed to have offended me by refusing his daugh- ter. Ridiculous ! Yet I cannot deny but that Junius has proved me unmanly and ungenerous, as clearly as he has shown me corrupt and vindictive : and I will tell him more ; I have paid the present ministry as many visits and compliments as ever I paid to the young lady ; and shall all my life treat them with the same politeness and good-humour. But Junius " begs me to believe, that he measures the integrity of men by their conduct, not by their professions." Sure this Junius must imagine his readers as void of understanding as he is of modesty ! Where shall we find the standard of his integrity ? By what are we to measure the conduct, of this lurk- ing assassin ? And he says this to me, whose conduct, wherever I could personally appear, has been as direct, and open, and public, as my words. I have JUNIUS'S LETTERS. LIB not, like him, concealed myself in my chamber, to shoot my arrows out of the window ; nor contented myself to view the battle from afar ; but publicly mixed in the engagement, and shared the danger. To whom have I, like him, refused my name, upon complaint of injury I What printer have I desired to conceal me . ? In the infinite variety of business in which I have been concerned, where it is not so easy to be faultless, which of my actions can he arraign ? To what danger has any man been exposed, which I have not faced . ? Information, action, imprisonment, or death? What labour have I refused? What expense have I declined ? What pleasure have I not renounced ? But Junius, to whom no conduct be- longs, " measures the integrity of men by their con- duct, not by their professions :" himself, all the while, being nothing but professions, and those too anony- mous. The political ignorance, or wilful falsehood, of this declaimer, is extreme. His own former letters justify both my conduct and those whom his last let- ter abuses : for the public measures which Junius has been all along defending, were ours whom he attacks ; and the uniform opposer of those measures has been Mr. Wilkes, whose bad actions and intentions he en- deavours to screen. Let Junius now, if he pleases, change his abuse, and quitting his loose hold of interest and revenge, accuse me of vanity, and call this defence boasting. I own I have pride to see statues decreed, and the highest honours conferred, for measures and actions which all men have approved ; whilst those who coun- selled and caused them are execrated and insulted. The darkness in which Junius thinks himself shroud- 116 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. ed, has not concealed him ; nor the artifice of only attacking under thai signature those he would pull down, whilst he recommends by other xoays those he would have promoted, disguised from me whose par- tizan he is. When lord Chatham can forgive the awkward situation in which, for the sake of the pub- lic, he was designedly placed by the thanks to him from the city ; and when Wilkes's name ceases to be necessary to lord Rockingham, to keep up a clamour against the persons of the ministry, without obliging the different factions, now in opposition, to bind them- selves beforehand to some certain points, and to stip- ulate some precise advantages to the public ; then, and not till then, may those whom he now abuses ex- pect the approbation of Junius. The approbation of the public, for our faithful attention to their interest, by endeavours for those stipulations, which have made us as obnoxious to the factions in opposition as to those in administration, is not, perhaps, to be expect- ed till some years hence ; when the public will look back, and see how shamefully they have been de- luded, and by what arts they were made to lose the golden opportunity of preventing what they will surely experience, — a change of ministers, without a material change of measures, and without any secu- rity for a tottering constitution. But what cares Ju- nius for the security of the constitution ? He has now unfolded to us his diabolical principles. As a public man he must ever condemn any measure which may tend accidentally to gratify the sovereign ; and Mr. Wilkes is to be supported and assisted in all his at- tempts (no matter how ridiculous and mischievous his projects) as long as he continues to be a thorn in iht JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 117 fang's side ! The cause of the country, it seems, in the opinion of Junius, is merely to vex the king; and any rascal is to be supported in any roguery, provided he can only thereby plant a thorn in the king's side. This is the very extremity of faction, and the last de- gree of political wickedness. Because lord Chatham has been ill treated by the king, and treacherously betrayed by the duke of Grafton, the latter is to be " the pillow on which Junius will rest his resentment;" and the public are to oppose the measures of govern- ment from mere motives of personal enmity to the sovereign ! These are the avowed principles of the man who, in the same letter, says, " If ever he should be convinced that I had no motive but to destroy Wilkes, he shall then be ready to do justice to my character, and to declare to the world, that he despi- ses me somewhat less than he does at present!" Had I ever acted from personal affection or enmity to Mr. Wilkes, I should justly be despised : but what does he deserve, whose avowed motive is personal enmity to the sovereign ? The contempt which I should otherwise feel for the absurdity and glaring inconsis- tency of Junius, is here swallowed up in my abhor- rence of his principles. The right divine and sacred- ness of kings is to me a senseless jargon. It was thought a daring expression of Oliver Cromwell, in the time of Charles the First, that, if he found him- self placed opposite to the king in battle, he would discharge his piece into his bosom as soon, as into any other man's. I go farther : had I lived in those days, I would not have waited for chance to give me an opportunity of doing my duty; I would have sought him through the ranks, and, without the least per- 118 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. sonal enmity, have discharged my piece into his bosom rather than into any other man's. The king, whose actions justify rebellion to his government, deserves death from the hand of every subject. And should such a time arrive, I shall be as free to act as to say ; but, till then, my attachment to the person and family of the sovereign shall ever be found more zealous and sincere than that of his flatterers. I would offend the sovereign with as much reluctance as the parent : but if the happiness and security of the whole family made it necessary, so far, and no farther, I would offend him without remorse. But let us consider a little whither these principles of Junius would lead us. Should Mr. Wilkes once more commission Mr. Thomas Walpole to procure for him a pension of one thousand pounds, upon the Irish establishment, for thirty years, he must be sup- ported in the demand by the public, because it would mortify the king ! Should he wish to see lord Rockingham and his friends once more in administration, unclogged by any stipulations for the people, that he might again enjoy a pension of one thousand and forty pounds a year, viz. from the first lord of the treasury, 500/. from the lords of the treasury, 60/. each : from the lords of trade, 40Z. each, he. the public must give up their attention to points of national benefit, and assist Mr. Wilkes in his attempt, because it would mortify the king ! Should he demand the government of Canada, or of Jamaica, or the embassy to Constantinople, and, in case of refusal, threaten to write them down, as he had before served another administration, in a JUNIUS'S LETTERS. US year and a half, he must be supported in his preten- sions, and upheld in his insolence, because it would mortify the king ! Junius may choose to suppose that these things cannot happen ! But, that they have happened, not- withstanding Mr. Wilkes's denial, I do aver. I main- tain that Mr. Wilkes did commission Mr. Thomas Walpole to solicit for him a pension of one thousand pounds, on the Irish establishment, for thirty years ; with which, and a pardon, he declared he would be satisfied: and that, notwithstanding his letter to Mr. Onslow, he did accept a clandestine, precarious, and eleemosynary pension from the Rockingham admin- istration, which they paid in proportion to, and out of their salaries ; and so entirely was it ministerial, that, as any of them went out of the ministry, their names were scratched out of the list, and they contributed no longer. I say, he did solicit the governments, and the embassy, and threatened their refusal nearly in these words : " It cost me a year and a half to write down the last administration ; should I employ as much time upon you, very few of you would be in at the death." When these threats did not prevail, he came over to England to embarrass them by his presence : and when he found that lord Rockingham was something firmer and more manly than he ex- pected, and refused to be bullied into what he could not perform, Mr. Wilkes declared that he could not leave England without money; and the duke of Port- land and lord Rockingham purchased his absence with one hundred pounds a-piece, with which he re- turned to Paris. And for the truth of what I here advance, I appeal to the duke of Portland, to lord 120 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. Rockingham, to John lord Cavendish, to Mr. Wal- pole, &c I appeal to the hand-writing of Mr. Wilkes, which is still extant. Should Mr. Wilkes afterwards (failing in this wholesale trade) choose to dole out his popularity by the pound, and expose the city offices to sale to liis brother, his attorney, he. Junius will tell us, it is only an ambition that he has to make them chamberlain, town clerk, &ic. and he must not be opposed in thus robbing the ancient citizens of their birthright, because any defeat of Mr. Wilkes would gratify the king ! Should he, after consuming the whole of his own fortune and that of his wife, and incurring a debt of twenty thousand pounds, merely by his own private extravagance, without a single service or exertion all this time for the public, whilst his estate remained ; should he, at length, being undone, commence patriot ; have the good fortune to be illegally persecuted, and, in consideration of that illegality, be espoused by a few gentlemen of the purest public principles: should his debts, though none of them were contracted, for the public, and all his other encumbrances, be dis- charged; should he be offered 600?. or 1000Z. a year to make him independent for the future ; and should he, after all, instead of gratitude for these services, insolently forbid his benefactors to bestow their own money upon any other object but himself, and revile them for setting any bounds to their supplies; Junius (who, any more than lord Chatham, never contributed one farthing to these enormous expenses) will tell them, that if they think of converting the supplies of Mh Wilkes's private extravagance to the support of JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 121 public measures, they are as great fools as my grand- mother ; and that Mr. Wilkes ought to hold the strings of their purses, as long as he continues to be a thorn in the king's side ! Upon these principles I never have acted, and 1 never will act. In my opinion, it is less dishonoura- ble to be the creature of a court, than the tool of a faction. I will not be either. I understand the two great leaders of opposition to be lord Rockingham and lord Chatham ; under one of whose banners all the opposing members of both houses, who desire to get places, enlist. I can place no confidence in either of them, or in any others, unless they will now engage, whilst they are out, to grant certain essential advan- tages for the security of the public when they shall be in administration. These points they refuse to stipulate, because they are fearful lest they should prevent any future overtures from the court. To force them to these stipulations has been the uniform endeavour of Mr. Sawbridge, Mr. Townshend, Mr. Oliver, &c. and therefore they are abused by Junius. 1 know no reason, but my zeal and industry in the same cause, that should entitle me to the honour of being ranked hy his abuse with persons of their for- tune and station. It is a duty I owe to the memory of the late Mr. Beckford, to say, that he had no other aim than this, when he provided that sumptuous en- tertainment at the Mansion House, for the members of both houses in opposition. At that time, he drew up the heads of an engagement, which he gave to me. with a request that I would couch it in terms so cau- tious and precise, as to leave no room for futiuv quibble and evasion ; but to oblige them either to VOL. II. F 122 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. fulfil the intent of the obligation, or to sign their own infamy, and leave it on record ; and this engagement he was determined to propose to them at the Mansion House, that either by their refusal they might forfeit the confidence of the public, or, by the engagement, lay a foundation for confidence. When they were informed of the intention, lord Rockingham and his friends flatly refused any en- gagement ; and Mr. Beckford as flatly swore, they should then " eat none of his broth j" and he was determined to put off the entertainment ; but Mi Beckford was prevailed upon by * * * to indulge them in the ridiculous parade of a popular proces sion through the city, and to give them the foolish pleasure of an imaginary consequence, for the rea* benefit only of the cooks and purveyors. It was the same motive which dictated the thanks ok the city to lord Chatham ; which were expressed to be given for his declaration in favour of short parliaments f in order thereby to fix lord Chatham, at least, to that one constitutional remedy, without which all others; can afford no security. The embarrassment, no doubt, was cruel. He had his choice, either to offend the Rockingham party, who declared formally against short parliaments, and with the assistance of whose numbers in both houses he must expect again to be minister, or to give up the confidence of the public, from whom, finally, all real consequence must pro- ceed. Lord Chatham chose the latter; and I will venture to say, that, by his answer to those thanks, he has given up the people without gaining the friendship or cordial assistance of the Rockingham faction, whose little politics are confined to the mak- JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 123 ing of matches, and extending their family connex- ions ; and who think they gain more by procuring' one additional vote to their party in the house of commons, than by adding their languid property, and feeble character, to the abilities of a Chatham, or the confidence of a public. Whatever may be the event of the present wretched state of politics in this country, the principles of Ju- nius will suit no form of government. They are not to be tolerated under any constitution. Personal en- mity is a motive fit only for the devil. Whoever, or whatever is sovereign, demands the respect and sup- port of the people. The union is formed for their happiness, which cannot be had without mutual res- pect ; and he counsels maliciously who would per- suade either to a wanton breach of it. When it is banished by either party, and when every method has been tried in vain to restore it, there is no reme- dy but a divorce ; but even then he must have a hard and a wicked heart indeed, who punishes the greatest criminal merely for the sake of the punish- ment j and who does not let fall a tear for every drop of blood that is shed in a public struggle, however just the quarrel. JOHN HORNE. 124 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. LIII. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser. SIR, August 15, 1771. I ought to make an apology to the duke of Graf- ton, for suffering any part of my attention to be di- verted from his grace to Mr. Home. I am not justi- fied by the similarity of their dispositions. Private vices, however detestable, have not dignity sufficient to attract the censure of the press, unless they are united with the power of doing some signal mischief to the community. Mr. Home's situation does not correspond with his intentions. In my opinion, (which I know will be attributed to my usual vanity and pre- sumption) his letter to me does not deserve an answer. But I understand that the public are not satisfied with my silence; that an answer is expected from me; and that if I persist in refusing to plead, it will be taken for conviction. I should be inconsistent with the principles I profess, if I declined an appeal to the good sense of the people, or did not willingly submit my- self to the judgment of my peers. If any coarse expressions have escaped me, I am ready to agree that they are unfit for Junius to make use of; but I see no reason to admit that they have been improperly applied. Mr. Home, it seems, is unable to comprehend how an extreme want of conduct and discretion can con #ist with the abilities I have allowed him ; nor can he JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 125 r.cnceive that a very honest man, with a very good understanding, may be deceived by a knave. His knowledge of human nature must lie limited indeed. Had he never mixed with the world, one would have thought that even his books might have taught him better— Did he hear lord Mansfield when he defended his doctrine concerning libels r Or when he stated the law in prosecutions for criminal conversation ? Or when he delivered his reasons for calling the house of lords together to receive a copy of his charge to the jury in Woodfall's trial ? Had he been present upon any of these occasions, he would have seen how possible it is for a man of the first talents to confound himself in absurdities, which would disgrace the lips of an idiot. Perhaps the example might have taught him not to value his own understanding so highly. Lord Lyttleton's integrity and judgment are unquestiona- ble; yet he is known to admire that cunning Scotch- man, and verily believes him an honest man. ) speak to facts, with which all of us are conversant, I speak to men, and to their experience ; and will not descend to answer the little sneering sophistries of a •collegian. Distinguished talents are not necessarily connected with discretion. If there be any thing re- markable in the character of Mr. Home, it is, that extreme want of judgment should be united with his very moderate capacity.-— Yet I have not forgotten the acknowledgment T made him ; he owes it to m\ bounty : and though his letter has lowered him in my opinion, I scorn to retract the charitable donation. I said it would be very difficult for Mr. Home to write directly in defence of a ministerial measure, and not to be detected, and even that difficulty I confined 126 JUNIUS'S LETTERS, to his particular situation. He changes the terms of the proposition, and supposes me to assert, that it would be impossible for any man to write for the newspapers, and not be discovered. He repeatedly affirms, or intimates at least, that he knows the author of these letters. With what colour of truth, then, can he pretend, " That I am no where to be encountered but in a newspaper ?" I shall leave him to his suspicions. It is not necessary that I should confide in the honour and discretion of a man, who already seems to hate me with as much rancour as if [ had formerly been his friend. But he asserts, that he has traced me through a variety of signatures. To make the discovery of any importance to his pur- pose, he should have proved, either that the fictitious character of Junius has not been consistently sup- ported, or that the author has maintained different principles under different signatures. I cannot recall to my memory the numberless trifles I have written : but I rely upon the consciousness of my own integri- ty, and defy him to fix any colourable charge of in- consistency upon me. I am not bound to assign the secret motives of his apparent hatred of Mr. Wilkes : nor does it follow that I may not judge fairly of his conduct, though it were true that I had no conduct of my own. Mr. Home enlarges with rapture upon the importance of his services ; the dreadful battles which he might have been engaged in, and the dangers he has escaped. In support of the formidable description he quotes verses without mercy. The gentleman deals in fiction, and naturally appeals to the evidence of the poets. Taking him at his word, he cannot but admit the superiority JUNIUSS LETTERS. 127 of Mr. Wilkes in this line of service. On one side, we see nothing but imaginary distress ; on the other, we see real prosecutions ; real penalties ; real impri- sonment ; life repeatedly hazarded ; and, at one mo- ment, almost the certainty of death. Thanks are undoubtedly due to every man who does his duty in the engagement, but it is the wounded soldier who deserves the reward. I did not mean to deny, that Mr. Home had been an active partisan. It would defeat my own purpose not to allow him a degree of merit which aggravates his guilt. The very charge " of contributing his ut- most efforts to support a ministerial measure," implies an acknowledgment of his former services. If he had not once been distinguished by his apparent zeal in defence of the common cause, he could not now be distinguished by deserting it. As for mj-self, it is no longer a question, " Whether I shall mix with the throng, and take a single share in the danger." Whenever Junius appears, he must encounter a host of enemies. But is there no honourable way to serve the public, without engaging in personal quarrels with insignificant individuals, or submitting to the drud- gery of canvassing votes for an election ? Is there no merit in dedicating my life to the information of my fellow-subjects ? What public question have I declined ? What villain have I spared ? Is there no labour in the composition of these letters ? Mr. Home, I fear is partial to me, and measures the fa- cility of my writings by the fluency of his own. He talks to us in high terms of the gallant feats he would have performed if he had lived in the last cen- tury The unhappy Charles could hardly have es- i28 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. caped him. Bat living princes have a claim to his attachment and respect. Upon these terms, there h no danger in being a patriot. If he means any thing more than a pompous rhapsody, let us try how well his argument holds together. I presume he is not yet so much a courtier as to affirm that the constitution has not been grossly and daringly violated under the present reign. He will not say, that the laws have not been shamefully broken or perverted ; that the rights of the subject have not been invaded ; or, that redress has not been repeatedly solicited and refused. Grievances, like these, were the foundation of the re- bellion in the last century ; and, if I understand Mr. Home, they would, at that period, have justified him, to his own mind, in deliberately attacking the life of his sovereign. I shall not ask him, to what political constitution this doctrine can be reconciled : but, at least, it is incumbent upon him to show, that the present king has better excuses than Charles the First, for the errors of his government. He ought to demonstrate to us, that the constitution was better understood a hundred years ago, than it is at present; that the legal rights of the subject, and the limits of the prerogative, were more accurately defined, and more clearly comprehended. If propositions like these cannot be fairly maintained, I do not see how he can reconcile it to his conscience, not to act im- mediately with the same freedom with which he speaks. I reverence the character of Charles the First as lit- tle as Mr. Home ; but I will not insult his misfor- tunes by a comparison that would degrade him. It is worth observing, by what gentle degrees the furious, persecuting zeal of Mr. Home has softened JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 129 into moderation. Men and measures were yesterday his object. What pains did he once take to bring that great state criminal J\'P Quirk to execution ! To-dav he confines himself to measures only ; no penal ex- ample is to be left to the successors of the duke of Grafton. To-morrow, I presume, both men and measures will be forgiven. The flaming patriot, who so lately scorched us in the meridian, sinks temper- ately to the west, and is hardly felt as he descends. I comprehend (he policy of endeavouring to com- municate to Mr. Oliver and Mr. Sawbridge a share in the reproaches with which he supposes me to have loaded him. My memory fails me, if I have men- tioned their names with disrespect ; unless it be re- proachful to acknowledge a sincere respect for the character of Mr. Sawbridge, and not to have ques- tioned the innocence of Mr. Oliver's intentions. It seems I am a partizan of the great leader of the opposition. If the charge had been a reproach, it should have been better supported. I did not intend to make a public declaration of the respect I bear lord Chatham ; I well knew what unworthy conclusions would be drawn from it. But I am called upon to deliver my opinion ; and surely it is not in the little censure of Mr. Home to deter me from doing signal justice to a man, who, I confess, has grown upon my fsteem. As for the common sordid views of avarice, or any purpose of vulgar ambition, I question whether the applause of Junius would be of service to lord Chatham. My vote will hardly recommend him to an increase of his pension, or to a seat in the cabinet. But, if his ambition be upon a level with his under- standing, if he judges of what is truly honourable F 2 9 130 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. for himself, with the same superior genius which ani- mates and directs him to eloquence in debate, to wis- dom in decision, even the pen of Junius shall con- tribute to reward him. Recorded honours shall gath- er round his monument, and thicken over him. It is a solid fabric, and will support the laurels that adorn it. I am not conversant in the language of panegyric. These praises are extorted from me ; but they will wear well, for they have been dearly earned. My detestation of the duke of Grafton is not found- ed upon his treachery to any individual ; though I am willing enough to suppose, that, in public affairs, it would be impossible to desert or betray lord Chat- ham, without doing an essential injury to this coun- try. My abhorrence of the duke arises from an inti- mate knowledge of his character, and from a thorough conviction that his baseness has been the cause of greater mischief to England, than even the unfortu- nate ambition of lord Bute. The shortening the duration of parliaments is a subject on which Mr. Home cannot enlarge too warm- ly, nor will I question his sincerity. If I did not profess the same sentiments, I should be shamefully inconsistent with myself. It is unnecessary to bind lord Chatham by the written formality of an engage- ment. He has publicly declared himself a convert to triennial parliaments ; and though I have long been convinced, that this is the only possible resource we have left to preserve the substantial freedom of the constitution, I do not think we have a right to deter- mine against the integrity of lord Rockingham or his friends. Other measures may undoubtedly be sup- JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 131 ported in argument, as better adapted to the disorder, or more likely to be obtained. Mr. Home is well assured that I never was the champion of Mr. Wilkes. But though I am not obliged to answer for the firmness of his future adhe- rence to the principles he professes, I have no reason to prestune that he will hereafter disgrace them. As for all those imaginary cases which Mr. Home so petulantly urges against me, I have one plain honest answer to make him. Whenever Mr. Wilkes shall be convicted of soliciting a pension, an embassy, or a government, he must depart from that situation, and renounce that character, which he assumes at pre- sent, and which, in my opinion, entitles him to the support of the public. By the same act, and at the .rd Bute's son-in-law before the last JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 14$ general election. Ntillum tempus occurrit regi was then your boasted motto, and the cry of all your hungry partizans. Now it seems a grant of Charles the Second to one of his bastards is to be held sa- cred and inviolable ! It must not be questioned by the king's servants, nor submitted to any interpreta- tion but your own. My lord, this was not the lan- guage you held, when it suited you to insult the memory of the glorious deliverer of England from that detested family, to which you are still more nearly allied in principle than in blood. In the name of decency and common sense, what are your grace's merits, either with king or ministry, that should en- title you to assume this domineering authority over both ? Is it the fortunate consanguinity you claim with the house of Stuart ? Is it the secret corres- pondence you have so many } r ears carried on with lord Bute, by the assiduous assistance of your cream- coloured parasite % Could not your gallantry find sufficient employment for him in those gentle offices by which he first acquired the tender friendship of lord Barrington ? Or is it only that wonderful sym- pathy of manners which subsists between your grace and one of your superiors, and does so much honour to you both ? Is the union of Jiliftl and Black George no longer a romance ? From whatever ori- gin your influence in this country arises, it is a phe- nomenon in the history of human virtue and under- standing. Good men can hardly believe the fact ; wise men are unable to account for it ; religious m^ find exercise for their faith, and make it the last ef- fort of their piety not to repine against Providence. JUNIUS. vol. ii. G 10 146 JUNIUS'S LETTERS LVII. Addressed to the Livery of London GENTLEMEN, September 30, 1771. If you alone were concerned in the event of the present election of a chief magistrate of the metropo- lis, it would be the highest presumption in a stranger to attempt to influence your choice, or even to offer you his opinion. But the situation of public affairs has annexed an extraordinary importance to your resolutions. You cannot, in the choice of your ma- gistrate, determine for j'ourselves only. You are go- ing to determine upon a point, in which every mem- ber of the community is interested. I will not scruple to say, that the very being of that law, of that right, of that constitution, for which we have been so long contending, is now at stake. They who would en- snare your judgment tell you, it is a common ordi- nary case, and to be decided by ordinary precedent and practice. They artfully conclude, from mode- rate peaceable times, to times which are Hot mode- rate, and which ought not to be peaceable. While they solicit your favour, they insist upon a rule of l'Otation, which excludes all idea of election. Let me be honoured with a few minutes of your attention. The question, to those who mean fairly to the liberty of the people (which we all profess to have in view,) lies within a very narrow compass. Do you mean to desert that just and honourable sys- JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 147 tern of measures which you have hitherto pursued, in hopes of obtaining from parliament, or from the crown, a full redress of past grievances, and a security for the future ? Do you think the cause desperate, and will you declare that you think so to the whole peo- ple of England? If this be your meaning and opinion, you will act consistently with it in choosing Mr. Nash. I profess to be unacquainted with his private character; but he has acted as a magistrate, as a public man. As such I speak of him. I see his name in a protest against one of your remonstrances to the crown. He has done every thing in his power to destroy the freedom of popular elections in the city, by publishing the poll upon a former occasion •> and I know, in general, that he has distinguished himself, by slighting and thwarting all those public- measures which you have engaged in with the great- est warmth, and hitherto thought most worthy of your approbation. From his past conduct, what conclu- sion will you draw but that he will act the same part as lord mayor, which he has invariably acted as alder- man and sheriff f He cannot alter his conduct with- out confessing that he never acted upon principle of any kind. I should be sorry to injure the character of a man, who, perhaps, may be honest in his inten- tion, by supposing it possible that he can ever concur with you in any political measure or opinion. If, on the other hand, you mean to persevere in those resolutions for the public good, which, though not always successful, are always ho-iourable, your choice will naturally incline to those men who (what- ever they be in other respects) are most likely to co- operate with you in the great purpose which you are 148 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. determined not to relinquish. The question is not o; what metal your instruments are made, but ivhether they are adapted to the work you have in hand. The honours of the city, in these times, are improperly, because exclusively, called a reward. You mean not merely to pay, but to employ. Are Mr. Crosby and Mr. Sawbridge likely to execute the extraordinary, as well as the ordinary, duties of lord mayor? Wit! they grant you common-halls when it shall be neces- sary ? Will they go up with remonstrances to the king ? Have they firmness enough to meet the fury of a venal house of commons ? Have they fortitude enough not to shrink at imprisonment ? Have they spirit enough to hazard their lives and fortunes in a contest, if it should be necessary, with a prostituted legislature f If these questions can fairly be answer- ed in the affirmative, your choice is made. Forgive this passionate language. I am unable to correct it. The subject comes home to us all. It is the language of my heart. JUNIUS. LVIII. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser. SIR * October 5, 1771. No man laments more sincerely than I do, th* unhappy differences which have arisen among the friends of the people, and divided them from each other. The cause, undoubtedly, suffers as well \>y JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 149 the diminution of that strength which union carries along with it, as by the separate loss of personal re- putation, which every man sustains when his charac- ter and conduct are frequently held forth in odious or contemptible colours. These differences are only advantageous to the common enemy of the country. The hearty friends of the cause are provoked and disgusted. The lukewarm advocate avails himself of any pretence, to relapse into that indolent indiffe- rence about every thing that ought to interest an Englishman, so unjustly dignified with the title of moderation. The false, insidious partizan, who cre- ates or foments the disorder, sees the fruit of his dis- honest industry ripen beyond his hopes, and rejoices in the promise of a banquet, only delicious to such an appetite as his own. It is time for those who really mean the Cause and the People, who have no view to private advantage, and who have virtue enough to prefer the general good of the community to the gra- tification of personal animosities; it is time for such men to interpose. Let us try whether these fatal dissensions may not yet be reconciled ; or, if that be impracticable, let us guard at leasf against the worst effects of division, and endeavour to persuade these furious partizans, if they will not consent to draw to- gether, to be separately useful to that cause which they all pretend to be attached to. Honour and honesty must not be renounced, although a thousand modes of right and wrong were to occupy the degrees of morality between Zeno and Epicurus. The fun- damental principles of Christianity may still be pre- served, though every zealous sectary adheres to his own exclusive doctrine, and pious ecclesiastics make 150 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. it part of their religion to persecute one another". The civil constitution, too, that legal liberty, that general creed which every Englishman professes, may still be supported, though Wilkes and Home, and Townshend and Sawbridge, should obstinately refuse to communicate ; and even if the fathers of the church, if Savile, Richmond, Camden, Rockingham, and Chatham, should disagree in the ceremonies of their political worship, and even in the interpretation of twenty texts in Magna Charta. I speak to the people, as one of the people. Let us employ these men in whatever departments their various abilities are best suited to, and as much to the advantage of the common cause, as their different inclinations will permit. They cannot serve us without essentially serving themselves. If Mr. Nash be elected, he will hardly venture, after so recent a mark of the personal esteem of his fellow-citizens, to declare himself immediately a cour- tier. The spirit and activity of the sheriffs will, I hope, be sufficient to counteract any sinister intentions of the lord mayor. In collision with their virtue, perhaps, he may take fire. It is not necessary to exact from Mr. Wilkes the virtues of a Stoic. They were inconsistent with them- selves, who, almost at the same moment, represented him as the basest of mankind, yet seemed to expect from him such instances of fortitude and self-denial, as would do honour to an apostle. It is not, how- ever, flattery to say, that he is obstinate, intrepid, and fertile in expedients. That he has no possible re- source but in the public favour, is, in my judgment, a considerable recommendation of him. I wish that JUNIUS'S LETTERS. n every man who pretended to popularity were in the same predicament. I wish that a retreat to St. James's were not so easy and open as patriots have found it. To Mr. Wilkes there is no access. How- ever he may be misled by passion or imprudence, I think he cannot be guilty of a deliberate treachery to the public. The favour of his country constitutes the shield which defends him against a thousand daggers. Desertion would disarm him. I can more readily admire the liberal spirit and integrity, than the sound judgment, of any man who prefers a republican form of government, in this o£* any other empire of equal extent, to a monarchy so qualified and limited as ours. I am convinced, that neither is it in theory the wisest system of govern- ment, nor practicable in this country. Yet, though I hope the English constitution will for ever preserve jts original monarchical form, I would have the man- ners of the people purely and strictly republican. I do not mean the licentious spirit of anarchy and riot. I mean a general attachment to the commonweal, distinct from any partial attachment to persons or families ; an implicit submission to the laws only ; aud an affection to the magistrate, proportioned to the integrity and wisdom with which he distributes justice to his people, and administers their affairs. The present habit of our political body appears to me the very reverse of what it ought to be. The form of the constitution leans rather more than enough to the popular branch ; while, in effect, the manners of the people (of those at least who are likely to take a lead in the country) incline too generally to a de- pendence upon the crown. The real friends of arbi- 152 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. trary power combine the facts, and are not inconsis- tent with their principles, when they strenuously support the unwarrantable privileges assumed by the house of commons. In these circumstances, it were much to be desired, that we had many such men as Mr. Sawbridge to represent us in parliament. I speak from common report and opinion only, when! impute to him a speculative predilection in favour of a republic. In the personal conduct and manners of the man I cannot be mistaken. He has shown him- self possessed of that republican firmness which the times require ; and by which an English gentleman may be as usefully and as honourably distinguished, as any citizen of ancient Rome, of Athens, or Lace- demon. Mr. Townshend complains that the public gratitude has not been answerable to his deserts. It is not difficult to trace the artifices which have suggested to him a language so unworthy of his understanding. A. great man commands the affections of the people : a prudent man does not complain when he has lost, them. Yet they are far from being lost to Mr. Town- shend. He has treated our opinion a little too cava- lierly. A young man is apt to rely too confidently upon himself, to be as attentive to his mistress as a polite and passionate lover ought to be. Perhaps he found her at first too easy a conquest. Yet I fancy she will be ready to receive him whenever he thinks proper to renew his addresses. With all his youth, his spirit, and his appearance, it would be indecent in the lady to solicit his return. I have too much respect for the abilities of Mr. Home, to flatter myself that these gentlemen will eves- JUNIUS^ LETTERS. 153 be cordially re-united. It is not, however, unreason- able to expect, that each of them should act his sepa- rate part with honour and integrity to the public. As for differences of opinion upon speculative questions, if we wait until they are reconciled, the action of hu- uum affairs must be suspended for ever. But neither are we to look for perfection in any one man, nor for agreement among many. When lord Chatham af- firms, that the authority of the British legislature is not supreme over the colonies in the same sense in which it is supreme over Great Britain ; when lord v'amden supposes a necessity (which the king is to judge of,) and, founded upon that necessity, attributes io the crown a legal power (not given by the act it- iclf,) to suspend the operation of an act of the legis- lature; I listen to them both with diffidence and res- pect, but without the smallest degree of conviction or assent. Yet I doubt not they delivered their real sentiments, nor ought they to be hastily condemned. I too have a claim to thq candid interpretation of my c oun try , when I acknowledge an involuntary, com- pulsive assent to one very uupopular opinion. I lament the unhappy necessity, whenever it arises, of providing for the safety of the state by a temporary Invasion of the personal liberty of the subject Would to God it were practicable to reconcile these impor- tant objects, in every possible situation of public affairs! I regard the legal liberty of the meanest man in Britain as much as my own, and would defend it with the same zeal. I know we must stand or fall together. But I never can doubt, that the community has a right to command, as well as to purchase, the vice of its members. I see that right founded ori- G 2 154 JUNIUS'S LETTERS, ginally upon a necessity which supersedes all argu- ment : I see it established by usage immemorial, and admitted by more than a tacit assent of the legislature. I conclude there is no remedy, in the nature of things, for the grievance complained of; for, if there were, it must long since have been redressed. Though numberless opportunities have presented themselves^ highly favourable to public liberty, no successful at- tempt has ever been made for the relief of the subject in this article. Yet it has been felt and complained of ever since England had a navy. The conditions which constitute this right must be taken together ; separately, they have little weight. It is not fair to argue, from any abuse in the execution, to the ilh>- gality of the power ; much less is a conclusion to be drawn from the navy to the land service. A seaman can never be employed but against the enemies of his country. The only case in which the king can have a right to arm his subjects in general, is that of a foreign force being actually landed upon our coast. Whenever that case happens, no true Englishman will inquire whether the king's right to compel him to de- fend his country be the custom of England, or a grant of the legislature. With regard to the press for sea- men, it does not follow that the symptoms may not be softened, although the distemper cannot be cured. Let bounties be increased as far as the public purse can support them. Still they have a limit ; and when every reasonable expense is incurred, it will be found, in fact, that the spur of the press is wanted to give operation to the bounty. Upon the whole, I never had a doubt about the strict vight of pressing, until I heard that lord Mansfield JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 155 had applauded lord Chatham for delivering some- thing like this doctrine in the house of lords. That consideration staggered me not a little. But, upon reflection, his conduct accounts naturally for itself. He knew the doctrine was unpopular, and was eager to fix it upon the man who is the first object of his fear and detestation.- The cunning Scotchman never speaks truth without a fraudulent design. In council, he generally affects to take a moderate part. Besides his natural timidity, it makes part of his poli- tical plan, never to be known to recommend violent measures. When the guards are called forth to mur- der their fellow subjects, it is not by the ostensible advice of lord Mansfield. That odious office, his prudence tells him, is better left to such men as Gow- er and Weymouth, as Barrington and Grafton. Lord Hillsborough wisely confines his firmness to the dis- tant Americans. The designs of Mansfield are more subtle, more effectual, and secure. Who attacks the liberty of the press ? Lord Mansfield. Who invades the constitutional power of juries ? Lord Mansfield. What judge ever challenged a juryman but lord Mansfield . ? Who was that judge, who, to save the king's brother, affirmed that a man of the first rank and quality, who obtains a verdict in a suit for crimi- nal conversation, is entitled to no greater damages than the meanest mechanic $ Lord Mansfield. Who is it makes commissioners of the great seal ? Lord Mansfield. Who is it that forms a decree for those commissioners, deciding against lord Chatham, and afterwards (finding himself opposed by the judges) declares, in parliament, that he never had a doubt that the law was in direct opposition to that decree ? 156 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. Lord Mansfield. Who is he that has made it the itudy and practice of his life to undermine and alter the whole system of jurisprudence in the court of king's bench? Lord Mansfield. There never ex- isted a man but himself who answered exactly to so complicated a description. Compared to ttrese enor- mities, his original attachment to the Pretender (to whom his dearest brother was confidential secretary) is a virtue of the first magnitude. But the hour of impeachment will come, and neither he nor Grafton shall escape me. Now let them make common cause against England and the house of Hanover* A Stuart and a Murray should sympathise with each other. When I refer to signal instances of unpopular opin- ions, delivered and maintained by men, who may well he supposed to have no view but the public good, I do not mean to renew the discussion of such opinions'. ! should be sorry to revive the dormant questions of Stamp Act, Corn Bill, or Press Warrant. I mean only to illustrate one useful proposition, which it is the intention of this paper to inculcate, " That we should not generally reject the friendship or services of any man, because he differs from us in a particu- lar opinion." This will not appear a superfluous caution, if we observe the ordinary conduct of man- kind. In public affairs, there is the least chance of a perfect concurrence of sentiment or inclination : yet every man is able to contribute something to the common stock, and no man's contribution should be rejected. If individuals have no virtues, their vices may be of use to us. I care not with what principle the new-born patriot is animated, if the measures he JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 15? supports are beneficial to the community. The na- tion is interested in his conduct. His motives are his own. The properties of a patriot are perishable in the individual ; but there is a quick succession of subjects, and the breed is worth preserving. The spirit of the Americans may be an useful example to lis. Our dogs and horses are only English upon English ground ; but patriotism, it seems, may be improved by transplanting. I will not reject a biii which tends to confine parliamentary privilege with- in reasonable bounds, though it should be stolen from the house of Cavendish, and introduced by Mr. On- slow. The features of the infant are a proof of the descent, and vindicate the noble birth from the base- ness of the adoption. I willingly accept of a sarcasm from colonel Barrc, or a simile from Mr. Burke. Even tlie silent vote of Mr. Calcraft is worth reckon- ing in a division. What though he riots in the plun- der of the army, and has only determined to be a patriot when he could not be a peer ? Let us profit by the assistance of such men while they are with us. and place them, if it be possible, in the post of dan- ger, to prevent desertion. The wary Wedderburne, the pompous Suffolk, never threw away the scabbard, nor ever went upon a forlorn hope. They always treated the king's servants as men with whom, some time or other, they might probably be in friendship. When a man, who stands forth for the public, has gone that length from which there is no practicable retreat, when he has given that kind of personal of- fence, whieh a pious monarch never pardons, I then begin to think him in earnest, and that he will never have occasion to solicit the forgneness of his country. 158 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. But instances of a determination so entire and unre- served are rarely met with. Let us take mankind as they are ; let us distribute the virtues and abilities ot individuals according to the offices they affect; and, when they quit the service, let us endeavour to sup- ply their places with better men than we have lost. In this country there are always candidates enough for popular favour. The temple of fame is the short- est passage to riches and preferment. Above all things, let me guard my countrymen against the meanness and folly of accepting of a tri- fling or moderate compensation for extraordinary and essential injuries. Our enemy treats us as the cun- ning trader does the unskilful Indian ; they magnify their generosity, when they give us baubles of little proportionate value for ivory and gold. The same house of commons, who robbed the constituent body of their right of free election; who presume to make a law, under pretence of declaring it ; who paid our good king's debts, without once inquiring how they were incurred ; who gave thanks for repeated mur- ders committed at home, and for national infamy in- curred abroad ; who screened lord Mansfield ; who imprisoned the magistrates of the metropolis for as- serting the subject's right to the protection of the laws; who erased a judicial record, and ordered all proceedings in a criminal suit to be suspended : this very house of commons have graciously consented that their own members may be compelled to pay their debts, and that contested elections shall, for the future, he determined with some decent regard to the merits of the case. The event of the suit is of no conse- quence to the crown. While parliaments are septen- JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 159 uialj the purchase of the sitting member, or of the petitioner, makes but the difference of a day. Con- cessions such as these are of little moment to the sum of things ; unless it be to prove that the worst of men are sensible of the injuries they have done us, and perhaps to demonstrate to us the imminent dan- ger of our situation. In the shipwreck of the state, trifles float, and are preserved ; while every thing solid and valuable sinks to the bottom, and is lost tbr ever. JUNIUS. LIX. To the Pinter of the Public Advertiser. SIR, October 15, 1771. I am convinced that Junius is incapable of wilfully misrepresenting any man's opinion, and that his incli- nation leads him to treat lord Camden with particu- lar candour and respect. The doctrine attributed to him by Junius, as far as it goes, corresponds with that stated by your correspondent Scsevola, who seems to make a distinction without a difference, ^ord Camden, it is agreed, did certainly maintain, that, in the recess of parliament, the king (by whiclv we all mean the king in council, or the executive power) might suspend the operation of an act of the legislature; and he founded his doctrine upon a sup- posed necessity, of which the king, in the first instance. must be judge. The lords and commons cannot be 160 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. judges of it in the first instance, for they do not exist. Thus far Junius. But, says Scaevola, lord Camden made parliament, and not the king, judges of the necessity. That par- liament may review the acts of ministers, is unques- tionable ; but there is a wide difference between say- ing, that the crown has a legal power, and that the ministers may act at their peril. When we say that an act is illegal, we mean that it is forbidden by a joint resolution of the three estates. How a subse- quent resolution of two of those branches can make it legal, ah initio, will require explanation. If it could, the consequence would be truly dreadful, es- pecially in these times. There is no act of arbitral'}' power which the king might not attribute to necessity, and for which he would not be secure of obtaining the approbation of his prostituted lords and commons. If lord Camden admits, that the subsequent sanction of parliament was necessary to make the proclama- tion legal, why did he so obstinately oppose the bill, which was soon after brought in, for indemnifying alK 1 hose persons who had acted under it? If that bill had not been passed, I am ready to maintain, in direct contradiction to lord Camden's doctrine, (taken as Scaevola states it) that a litigious exporter of corn, who had suffered in his property, in consequence of the proclamation, might have laid his action against the custom-house officers, and would infallibly have recovered damages. No jury could refuse them : and if I, who am by no means litigious, had been so injured, I would assuredly have instituted a suit in Westminster-hall, on purpose to try the question of right. I would have done it upon a principle of de- JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 161 fiance of the pretended power of cither or both houses to make declarations inconsistent with law; and I have no doubt that, with an act of parliament on my side, I should have been too strong for them all. This is the way in which an Englishman should speak and act, and not suffer dangerous precedents to be estab- lished, because the circumstances are favourable or palliating. With regard to lord Camden, the truth is, that he inadvertently overshot himself, as appears plainly by that unguarded mention of a tyranny of forty days, which I myself heard. Instead of asserting, that the proclamation was legal, he should have said, " My lords, I know the proclamation was illegal ; but I advised it, because it was indispensably necessary to save the kingdom from famine ; and I submit myself to the justice and mercy of my country." Such language as this would have been manly, rational, and consistent ; not unfit for a lawyer, and every way worthy of a great man. PHILO JUNIUS. P. S. If Sca-vola should think proper to write ;igain upon this subject, I beg of ham to give me a direct answer ; that is, a plain atiirmative or negalh . to the following questions : — In the interval betweeu the publishing such a proclamation (or order of couu- cil) as that in question, and its receiving the sanction «»f the two houses, of what nature is it : Is it leg* illegal'? Or, is it neither one nor the olherr I mean to be candid, and will point out to him the conse- quence of his answer either way. If it be legal, it wants no farther sanction : if it be illegal, the subject 11 162 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. is not bound to obey it, consequently it is an useless, nugatory act, even as to its declared purpose. Be- fore the meeting of parliament, the whole mischief which it means to prevent will have been completed. LX. To Zeno. SIR, October 17, 1771. The sophistry of your letter in defence of lord Mansfield is adapted to the character you defend. But lord Mansfield is a man of form, and seldom in his behaviour transgresses the rules of decerum. I shall imitate his lordship's good manners, and ijeaVe you in full possession of his principles. I will not call you liar, Jesuit, or villain ; but, with all the politeness imaginable, perhaps I may prove yt>u so. Like other fair pleaders in lord Mansfield's school of justice, you answer Junius by misquoting his words, and mistaking his propositions. If I am candid enough to admit, that this is the very logic. ta light at St. Omer's, you will readily allow, that this is the constant practice in the court of king's bench. Junius does not say that he never had a doubt about tire strict right of pressing, till he knew lord Mans- field was of the same opinion. His words are, " until lie heard that lord Mansfield had applauded lord Chatham for maintaining that doctrine in the house of lords." It was not the accidental concurrence oi JUNIUS S LETTERS. 163 lord Mansfield's opinion, but the suspicious applause given by a cunning - Scotchman to the man he detest?. that raised and justified a doubt in the mind of Junius. The question is not, whether lord Mansfield be a man of learning and abilities (which Junius has never dis- puted), but whether or no he abuses and misapplies- his talents. Junius did not say that lord Mansfield had advised the calling out of the guards. On the contrary, his plain meaning is, that he left that odious office to men less cunning than himself. Whether lord Mans- field's doctrine concerning libels be or be not an at- tack upon the liberty of the press, is a question which the public in general are very well able to determine. 1 shall not enter into it at present. Nor do I think, it necessary to say much to a man, who had the dar- ing confidence to say to a jury, " Gentlemen, you are to bring in a verdict guilty or not guilt!/ : biuv whether the defendant be guilty or innocent, is not matter for your consideration." Clothe it in what language you will, this is the sum total of lord Mans- field's doctrine. If not, let Zeno show us the difference. But it seems, " the liberty of the press may he abused, and the abuse of a valuable privilege is the certain means to lose- it." The first I admit; but let the abuse be' submitted to a jury, a sufficient, and,,- indeed, the only legal and constitutional check upon the license of the press. The second I flatly dcn\ . Tn direct contradiction to lord Mansfield, I affirm, that " the abuse of a valuable privilege it not the certain means to lose it ;" if it were, the English na- tion would have few privileges left ; for, where is the privilege that has not, at one time or other, been 164 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. abused bv individuals: But it is false in reason and equity, that particular abuses should produce a gene- ral forfeiture. Shall the community be deprived ot the protection of the laws, because there are robbers and murderers r Shall the community be punished, because individuals have offended ? Lord Mansfield says so, consistently enough with his principles ; but I wonder to find him so explicit. Yet, for one con- cession, however extorted, I confess myself obliged to him. The liberty of the press is, after all, a valuable privilege. I agree with him most heartily, and will defend it against him. You ask me, What juryman was challenged by lord Mansfield % I tell you ; his name, is Benson. When his name was called, lord Mansfield ordered the clerk to pass him by. As for his reasons, you may ask himself, for he assigned none : but I can tell you what all men thought of it. This Benson had been refractory upon a former jury, and would not accept of the law as delivered by Lord Mansfield ; but had the impudence to pretend to think for himself. But you. it seems, honest Zeno, know nothing of the matter. You never read Junius's letter to your pat- ron : you never heard of the intended instructions* from the city to impeach lord Mansfield : you never heard by what dexterity of Mr. Paterson that measure was prevented. How wonderfully ill some people are informed ! Junius did never affirm, that the crime of seducing the wife of a mechanic or a peer, is not the same. taken in a moral or religious view. What he affirm- ed, in contradiction to the levelling principle so lately adopted by lord Mansfield, was, " that the damages JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 163 should be proportioned to the rank and fortune of the parties:" and for this plain reason (admitted by everv other judge that ever sat in Westminster-hall) because what is a compensation or penalty to one man, iv none to another. The sophistical distinction you at- tempt to draw between the person injured and the person injuring, is Mansfield all over. If you can once establish the proposition, that the injured party is not entitled to receive large damages, it follows, pretty plainly, tint the party injuring should not be compelled to p:> y them ; consequently the king's brother is effectually screened by lord Mansfield's doctrine. Your reference to Nathan and David comes naturally in aid of your patrons professed system of jurisprudence. He is fond of introducing into the court of king's bench any law that contradicts or ex- cludes the common law of England ; whether it be canon, civil, jus gentium, or Levitical. But, sir, the Bible is the code of our religious faith, not of oar municipal jurisprudence : and though it was the pleasure of God to inflict a particular punishment upon David's crime (taken as a breach of his divine commands) and to send his prophet" to denounce it. an English jury have nothing to do either with David or the prophet. They consider the crime only as it is a breach of order, an injury to an individual, aud an offence to society; and they judge of it by certain positive rules of law, or by the practice of their an- cestors. Upon the whole, the man " after God':- own heart" is much indebted to you for comparing him to the duke of Cumberland. That his royal highness may be the man after lord Mansfield's own heart, seems much more probable ; and you, I think. 166 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. Mr. Zeno, might succeed tolerably well in the char- acter of Nathan. The evil deit}', the prophet, and the royal sinner, would be very proper company for one another. You say, lord Mansfield did not make the com- missioners of the great seal, and that he only ad- vised the king to appoint. I believe Junius meant no more ; and the distinction is hardly worth dis- puting. You say he did not deliver an opinion upon lord Chatham's appeal. I affirm that he did, directly in favour of the appeal. This is a point of fact to be determined by evidence only. But you assign no reason for his supposed silence, nor for his desiring a conference with the judges the day before. Was not all Westminster-hall convinced that he did it with a view to puzzle them with some perplexing question, and in hopes of bringing some of them over to him ? You say the commissioners were very capable of fram- ing a decree for themselves. By the fact, it only ap- pears, that they were capable of framing an illegal one; which, I apprehend, is not much to the credit either of their learning or integrity. We are both agreed, that lord Mansfield has in- cessantly laboured to introduce new modes of pro- ceeding in the court where he presides ; but 3'ou attribute it to an honest zeal in behalf of innocence, Oppressed by quibble and chicane. I say, that he has introduced new law toOj and removed the landmarks established by former decisions. I say, that his view is, to change a court of common law into a court of equity, and to bring every thing within the arbitrium of a prodtorian court. The public must determine JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 167 between us. But bow for his merits. First then, the establishment of the judges in their places for life, (which you tell us was advised by lord Mansfield) was a concession merely to catch the people. It bore the appearance of a royal bounty, but had nothing real in it. The judges were already for life, except- ing in the case of a demise. Your boasted bill only provides, that it shall not be in the power of the king's successor to remove them. At the best, therefore, it is only a legacy, not a gift, on the part of his present majesty, since, for himself, he gives up nothing. That he did oppose lord Camden and lord Northington npon the proclamation against the exportation of earn, is most true, and with great ability. With his talents, and taking the right side of so clear a question, it was impossible to speak ill. His motives are not so easily penetrated. They who are acquainted with the state of politics at that period, will judge of them somewhat differently from Zeno. Of the popular bills, which you say he supported in the house of lords, the most material is unquestionably that of Mr. Grenville for decidiug contested elections. But I. should be glad to know upon what possible pretence any member of the upper house could oppose such a bill, after it had passed the house of commons ? I do not pretend to know what share he had in promoting the other two bills ; but I am ready to give him al? {lie credit you desire. Still you will find, that a whole life of deliberate iniquity is ill atoned for, by doing now and then a laudable action, upon a mixed or doubtful principle. If it.be unworthy of him, thus rmsrate fully treated, to labour any longer for the public, in God's name, lpt him retire. His brother's 168 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. patron (whose health he once was anxious for) is dead: but the son of that unfortunate prince survives, and. I dare say, will be ready to receive him. PHILO JUNIUS. LXI. To an Advocate in the Cause of the People. SIR, October 18, 1771. You do not treat Junius fairly. You would not have condemned him so hastily, if you had ever read judge Foster's argument upon the legality of pressing seamen. A man who has not read that argument, is not qualified to speak accurately upon the subject. In answer to strong facts and fair reasoning, you produce nothing but a vague comparison between two thing- which have little or no resemblance to each other. General warrants, it is true, had been often issued ; but they had never been regularly questioned or re- sisted, until the case of Mr. Wilkes. He brought them to trial ; and the moment they were tried, they were declared illegal. This is not the case of press 1 warrants. They have been complained of, question- ed, and resisted in a thousand instances ; but still the legislature have never interposed, nor has there ever been a formal decision against them in any of the superior courts. On the contrary, they have been frequently recognised and admitted by parliament ; and there are judicial opinions given in their favour by judges of the first character. Under the various JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 169 circumstances stated by Junius, he has a right to conclude for himself, that there is no remedy. It you have a good one to propose, you may depend upon the assistance and applause of Junius. The magistrate who guards the liberty of the individual deserves to be commended. But let him remember, that it is also his duty to provide for, or at least not to hazard, the safety of the community. If, in the case of a foreign war, and the expectation of an in- vasion, you would rather keep your fleet in harbour, than man it by pressing seamen who refuse the boun- ty, I have done. You talk of disbanding the army with wonderful case and indifference. If a wiser man held such language, I should be apt to suspect his sincerity. As for keeping up a much greater number of Sea men in time of peace, it is not to be done : you will oppress the merchant, you will distress trade, and destroy the nursery of your seamen. He must be a miserable statesman who voluntarily, by the same act, increases the public expense, and lessens the means . of supporting it. PHILO JUNIUS. VOL. IT. H 170 JUNIUS S LETTERS. LXII. October 22, 1771- A friend of Junius desires it may be observed (in answer to a barrister at law.) 1. That the fact of lord Mansfield's having ordered a juryman to be passed by (which poor Zeno nevev heard of) is now formally admitted. When Mr. Ben- son's name was called, lord Mansfield was observed to flush in the face (a signal of guilt not uncommon with him), and cried out, " Pass him by." This I take to be something more than a peremptory chal- lenge : it is an unlawful command, without any rea- son assigned. That the counsel did not resist, is truer but this might happen either from inadvertence, or a criminal complaisance to lord Mansfield. You bar- risters are too apt to be civil to my lord chief justice. at the expense of your clients. 2. Junius did never say, that lord Mansfield had destroyed the liberty of the press. " That his lord ship has laboured, to destroy, that his doctrine is an attack upon the liberty of the press, that it is an inva- sion of the right of juries," are the propositions maintained by Junius. His opponents never answei him in point; for they never meet him fairly upon his own ground. 3. Lord Mansfield's policy, in endeavouring to screen his unconstitutional doctrines behind an act of the legislature, is easily understood. Let evfrj JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 171 Englishman stand upon his guard : the right of juries to return a general verdict, in all cases what- soever, is a part of our constitution. It stands in no need of a bill, either enacting or declaratory, to confirm it. 4. With regard to the Grosvenor cause, it is pleasant to observe, that the doctrine attributed by Junius to lord Mansfield is admitted by Zeno, and directly defended. The banister has not the as- surance to deny it flatly ; but he evades the charge, and softens the doctrine, by such poor contemptible quibbles as cannot impose upon the meanest under- standing. 5. The quantity of business in the court of king'} bench proves nothing but the litigious spirit of the people, arising from the great increase of wealth and commerce. These, however, are now upon the de- cline, and will soon leave nothing but lau-suits be- hind them. When Junius affirms, that lord Mans- field has laboured to alter the system of jurisprudence in the court where his lordship presides, he speaks to those who are able to look a little farther than the vulgar. Besides, that the multitude are easily de- ceived by the imposing names of equity and substan- tial justice, it does not follow that a judge, who in- troduces into his court new modes of proceeding, and new principles of law, intends, in every instance, to decide unjustly. Why should he, where he has no interest ? We say, that lord Mansfield is a bad man. and a worse judge ; but we do not say that he is a mere devil. Our adversaries would fain reduce us to the difficulty of proving too much. This artifice, however, shall not avail liim. The truth of the mat- 172 JUNIUS'S LETTERS, ter is plainly this : when lord Mansfield has succeeded in his scheme of changing a court of common law to a court of equity, he will have it in his power to do injustice whenever he thinks proper. This, though a wicked purpose, is neither absurd nor unattainable. G. The last paragraph, relative to lord Chatham's cause, cannot be answered. It partly refers to facts of too secret a nature to be ascertained, and partly is unintelligible. " Upon one point the cause is decid- ed against lord Chatham : upon another point it is decided for him." Both the law and the language are well suited to a barrister ! If I have any guess at this honest gentleman's meaning, it is, " That whereas the commissioners of the great seal saw the question in a point of view unfavourable to lord Chatham, and decreed aceordingly ; lord Mansfield, out of sheer love and kindness to lord Chatham, took the pains to place it in a point of view more favour- able to the appellant." Credat Judceus Apella. So curious an assertion would stagger the faith of Mr. Sylva. LXIII. November 2, 1771. We are desired to make the following declaration, -in? behalf of Junius, upon three material points;. on which his opinion has been mistaken or misre- presented. 1. Junius considers the right of taxing the coin- JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 173 nies, by an act of the British legislature, as a specu- lative right merely, never to be exerted nor ever to be renounced. To his judgment it appears plain, " Thais the general reasonings which were employed against that power, went directly to our whole legislative right; and that one part of it could not be yielded to such arguments, without a virtual surrender of all the rest.'" 2. That, with regard to press-warrants, his argu- ment should be taken in his own words, and answer- ed strictly ; that comparisons may sometimes illus- trate, but prove nothing ; and that, in this case, an appeal to the passions is unfair and unnecessary. Junius feels and acknowledges the evil in the most express terms, and will show himself ready to concur in any rational plan that may provide for the liberty of the individual, without hazarding the safety of the community. At the same time he expects that the evil, such as it is, be not exaggerated or misrepre- sented. In general, it is not unjust, that, when the rich man contributes his wealth, the poor man should serve the state in person : otherwise, the latter con- tributes nothing to the defence of that law ami con- stitution from which he demands safety and protec- tion. But the question does not lie between the rich and the poor. The laws of England make no such distinctions. Neither is it true, that the poor man is torn from the care and support of a wife and family, helpless without him. The single question is, Whether the seaman* in times of public danger, shall serve the * I confine myself strictly to seamen, It stay others are pressed, it is a uross abuse, which the magistrate can and should correct. 1J4 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. merchant, or the state, in that profession to which he was bred, and by the exercise of which alone he can honestly support himself and his family ? General arguments against the doctrine of necessity, and the dangerous use that may be made of it, are of no weight in this particular case. Necessity includes the idea of inevitable. Whenever it is so, it creates a law to which all positive laws, and all positive rights must give way. In this sense, the levy of ship-money by the king's warrant was not necessary, because the business might have been as well or better done by parliament. If the doctrine maintained by Junius be confined within this limitation, it will go but a very little way in support of arbitrary power. That the king is to judge of the occasion, is no objection, un- less we are told how it can possibly be otherwise. There are other instances, not less important in the exercise, nor less dangerous in the abuse, in which the constitution relies entirely upon the king's judg- ment. The executive power proclaims war and peace, binds the nation by treaties, orders general embargoes, and imposes quarantines ; not to men- lion a multitude of prerogative writs, which, though liable to the greatest abuses, were never disputed. 3. It has been urged, as a reproach to Junius, that he has not delivered an opinion upon the game laws, and particularly the late dog act. But Junius thinks lie has much greater reason to complain, that he is never assisted by those who are able to assist him : and that almost the whole labour of the press is thrown upon a single hand, from which a discussion of every public question is unreasonably expected. He is not paid for his labour, and certainly has a right t.o JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 175 *Aoose his employment. As to the game laws, he never scrupled to declare his opinion, that they are a species of the forest laws : that they are oppressive to the subject ; and thai the spirit of them is incom- patible with legal liberty ; that the penalties imposed by these laws bear no proportion to the nature of the offence : that the mode of trial, and the degree and kind of evidence necessary to convict, not only de- prive the subject of all the benefits of a trial by jury, but are in themselves too summary, and to the last degree arbitrary and oppressive : that, in particular, the late acts to prevent dog stealing, or killing game between sun and sun, are distinguished by their ab- surdity, extravagance, and pernicious tendency. If these terms are weak or ambiguous, in what language can Junius express himself ? It is no excuse for lord Mansfield to say, that he happened to be absent when these bills passed the house of lords. It was his duty to be present. Such bills could never have passed the house of commons without his knowledge. But we very well know by what rule lie regulates his at- tendance. When that order was made in the house of lords, in the case of lord Pomfret, at which every Englishman shudders, my honest lord Mansfield found himself, by mere accident, in the court of king's bench ; otherwise he would have done wonders in defence of law and property ! The pitiful evasion is adapted to the character. But Junius will never justify himself by the example of this bad man. The distinction between doing wrong, and avoiding to do right, belongs to lord Mansfield. Junius dis- ■elaims it. m JUNIUS'S LETTERS. LXIV. To Lord Chief Justice Mansfield. November 2, 1771. At the intercession of three of your countrymen, you have bailed a man, who, I presume, is also a Scotchman, and whom the lord mayor of London had refused to bail. I do not mean to enter into an exam- ination of the partial, sinister motives of your conduct r but, confining myself strictly to the fact, I affirm, that you have done that, which, by law, you were not warranted to do. The thief was taken in the theft ; the stolen goods were found upon him, and he made no defence. In these circumstances (the truth of which you dare not deny, because it is of public no- toriety) it could not stand indifferent, whether he wits guilty or not, much less could there be an} 7 presump- tion of his innocence; and, in these circumstances, I affirm, in contradiction to you, lord chief justice Mansfield, that, by the laws of England, he was not bailable. If ever Mr. Eyre should be brought to trial, we shall hear what you have to say for yourself; and I pledge myself, before God and my country, in proper time and place, to make good my charge against you. JUNIUS. JUNIUS 3 LETTERS. 177 LXV. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser. November 9, 1771. Junius engages to make good his charge against lord chief justice Mansfield, some time before the meeting of parliament, in order that the house of commons may, if they think proper, make it one article in the impeachment of the said lord chief justice. LXVI. To his Grace the Diike of Grafton. November 27, -1771. What is the reason, my lord, that, when almost every man in the kingdom, without distinction of principles or party, exults in the ridiculous defeat of sir James Lowther, when good and bad men unite in '.me common opinion of that baronet, and triumph in his distress, as if the event (without any reference to vice or virtue,) were interesting to human nature, your grace alone should appear so miserably depres- sed and afflicted i In such universal joy, I know not where you will look lor a compliment of condolence, II 2 12 178 JUNIUS S LETTERS. unless you appeal to the tender, sympathetic sorrow of Mr. Bradshaw. That cream-coloured gentleman's tears, affecting as they are, carry consolation along with them. He never weeps, but. like an April -hower, with a lambent ray of sunshine upon his countenance. From the feelings of honest men upon this joyful occasion, I do not mean to draw any con- clusion to your grace. They naturally rejoice when they see a signal instance of tyranny resisted with success, of treachery exposed to the derision of the world, an infamous informer defeated, and an impu- dent robber dragged to the public gibbet. But in the other class of mankind, I own I expected to meet the duke of Grafton. Men who had no regard for justice, nor any sens.; of honour, seem as heartily pleased with sir James Lowthers well-deserved pun- ishment, as if it did not constitute an example against themselves. The unhappy baronet has no friends, even among those who resemble him. Tou, my lord, are not reduced to so deplorable a state of derelic- tion : every villain in the kingdom is your friend ; and. in compliment to such amity, I think you should suf- fer your dismal countenance to clear up. Besides, my lord, I am a little anxious for the consistency of your character. You violate yeur own rules of decorum, when you do not insult the man you have betrayed. The divine justice of retribution seems now to have begun its progress. Deliberate treachery entails punishment upon the traitor. There is no possibility ef escaping it, even in the highest rank to which the consent of society can exalt the meanest and worst of men. The forced, unnatural union of Luttrell and JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 170 Middlesex was an omen of another unnatural union, by which indefeasible infamy is attached to the house of Brunswick. If one of those acts was virtuous and honourable, the best of princes. I thank God, is hap- pily rewarded for it by the other. Your grace, it has been said, had some share in recommending colonel Luttrell to the king : or was it only the gen- tle Bradshaw who made himself answerable for the good behaviour of his friend r An intimate connexion has long subsisted between him and the worthy lord Irnham. It arose from a fortunate similarity of prin- ciples, cemented by the constant mediation of their common friend Miss Davis.* * There is a certain family in this country, on which nature seems to have entailed an hereditary baseness of disposition. As far as their history has been known, the son has regularly improved upon the vices of his father, and has taken care to transmit them pure and undiminished into the bosom of his successor. In the senate, their abili- ties have confined then to those humble, sordid services, in which the scavengers of the ministry are usually employed. Bat in the memoirs of private treachery, they stand first and unrivalled. The following story will serve to illustrate the character of this respectable family, and to convince the world, that the present possessor has as clear a title to the infamy of his ancestors, as he has to their estate. It deserves to be recorded for the curiosity of the fact, and should be en to the public, as a warning to every honest member of society. The present lord Irnham, who is now in the decline of iife, lately cultivated the acquaintance of a younger brother of a family, with which he had lived in some degree of inti- macy and* friendship. The young man had long been the 180 JUNIUS'S LETTERS, Yet I confess I should be sorry that the opprobri- ous infamy of this match should reach beyond the family. We have now a better reason than ever to pray for the long life of the best of princes, and the welfare of his royal issue. I will not mix any thing- ominous with my prayers: but let parliament look to- it. A Luttrell shall never succeed to the crown of England. If the hereditary virtues of the family deserve a kingdom, Scotland will be a proper retreat for them. The next is a most remarkable instance of the goodness of Providence. The just law of retaliation has at last overtaken the little contemptible tyrant of the north. To this son-in-law of your dearest friend, die earl of Bute, you meant to transfer the duke of Portland's property ; and you hastened the grant dupe of a most unhappy attachment to a common prosti- tute. His friends and relations foresaw the consequences of this connexion, and did every thiag that depended uptfn them to save him from ruin. But- he had a friend in lord Irnham, whose advice rendered all their endeavours ineffec- tual. This hoary lecher, not contented with the enjoy- ra/ nt of his friend's mistress, was base enough to take ad* vantage of the passions and folly of the young man, and persuaded him to marry her. He descended even to per- form the office of father to the prostitute. He gave her to. his friend, who was on the point of leaving the kingdom, and the next night lay with her himself. Whether the depravity of the human heart can produce any thing more base and detestable than this fact, must be left undetermined, until the son shall arrive at his father's age and experience. JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 181 with an expedition unknown to the treasury, that he might have it time enough to give a decisive turn to the election for the county. The immediate conse- quence of this flagitious robbery was, that he lost the election which you meant to insure him, aud with such signal circumstances of scorn, reproach, and insult, (to say nothing of the general exultation of al parties,) as (excepting the king's brother-in-law. colonel Luitrell, and old Simon, his father-in-law) hardly ever fell upon a gentleman in this country In the event, he loses the very property of which he thought he had gotten possession, and after an ex- pense which would have paid the value of the land in question twenty times over. The forms of villany, you see, are necessary to its success. Hereafter you will act with greater circumspection, and not drive b'o directly to your object. To snatch a grace beyond- the reach of common treachery, is an exception, not a- rule. And now, my good loro\ does not your conscious heart inform you, that the justice of retribution be- gins to operate, and that it may soon approach your person ? Do you think that Junius has renounced the Middlesex election ? or that the king's timber shall he refused to the royal navy with impunity ? or. that you shall hear no more of the sale of that patent 10 Mr. Hine, which you endeavour to screen by sud- denly dropping your prosecution of Samuel Vaughan, when the rule against him was made absolute ? 1 believe, indeed, there never was such an instance in all the history of negative impudence. But it shall not save you. The very sunshine you live in is a 132 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. prelude to } r our dissolution. When you are ripe, you shall be plucked, JUNIUS. P. S. I beg you will convey to your gracious mas- ter my humble congratulations upon the glorious suc- cess of peerages and pensions so lavishly distributed as the rewards of Irish virtue. LXVII. To Lord Chief Justice Mansfield. January 21, 1772. I have undertaken to prove, that when, at the intercession of three of your countrymen, you bailed John Eyre, you did that " which by law you were not warranted to do ;" and that a felon, under the circumstances " of being taken in the fact, with the stolen goods upon him, and making no defence, is not bailable" by the laws of England. Your learned advocates have interpreted this charge into a denial. that the court of king's bench, or the judges of that court, during the vacation, have any greater authori- ty to bail for criminal offences than a justice of peace. With the instance before me, I am supposed to ques- tion your power of doing wrong, and to deny the existence of a power, at the same moment that I ar- raign the illegal exercise of it. But the opinions of such men, whether wilful in their rr>alignity, or sincere JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 183 in their ignorance, are unworthy of my notice. You. lord Mansfield, did not understand me so ; and J promise you, your cause requires an abler defence. I am now to make good my charge against you. However dull my argument, the subject of it is inter- esting. I shall be honoured with the attention of the public, and have a right to demand the attention of the legislature. Supported, as I am, by the whole body of the criminal law of England, I have no doubt of establishing my charge. If, on your part, you shall have no plain substantial defence, but should endea- vour to shelter yourself under the quirk and evasion of a practising lawyer, or under the mere insulting assertion of power without right, the reputation you pretend to is gone for ever ; you stand degraded from the respect and authority of your office, and are no longer dejurc, lord chief justice of England. This letter, my lord, is addressed not so much to you, as to the public. Learned as you are, and quick in apprehension, few arguments are necessary to satis- fy you, thakyou have done that, which, by law, you were not warranted to do. Your conscience already tells you, that you have sinned against knowledge : and that, whatever defence you make, contradicts your own internal conviction. But other men an willing enough to take the law upon trust. They rely upon your authority, because they are too indo- lent to search for information : or, conceiving that there is some mystery in the laws of their country, which lawyers are only qualified to explain, they dis- trust their judgment, and voluntarily renounce the right of thinking for themselves. With all the evi- dence of history before them, from Trcsilian to Jeffc- [84 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. ries, from Jcfferies to Mansfield, they will not believe it possible that a learned judge can act in direct con- tradiction to those laws, which he is supposed to make the study of his life, and which he has sworn to ad- minister faithfully. Superstition is certainly not the characteristic of this age ; yet some men are bigotted in politics who are infidels in religion. I do not des- pair of making them ashamed of their credulity. The charge I brought against you is expressed in terms guarded and well considered. They do not deny the strict power of the judges of the court of king's bench to bail in cases not bailable by a justice of peace, nor replevisable by the common writ, or ex officio, by the sheriff. I well know the practice of the court, and by what legal rules it ought to be di- rected. But, far from meaning to soften or diminislt ihe force of those terms I have made use of, I now go beyond them, and affirm, 1. That the superior power of bailing for felony, claimed by the court of king's bench, is founded upon the opinion of lawyers, and the practice of the co«rt ; th.at the assent of the legislature to this power is mere- ly negative, and that it is not supported by any posi- tive provision in any statute whatsoever. If it be, produce the statute. 2. Admitting that the judges of the court of king's bench are vested with a discretionary power to exam- iue and judge of circumstances and allegations which a justice of peace is not permitted to consider, I af- firm that the judges, in the use and application of that discretionary power, are as strictly bound by the spirit, intent, and meaning, as the justice of peace is By the words of the legislature. Favourable circum- JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 185 stances, alleged before the judge, may justify a doubt, whether the prisoner be guilty or not ; and where the guilt is doubtful, a presumption of inno- cence should in general be admitted. But, when any such probable circumstances are alleged, they alter the state and condition of the prisoner. He is no longer that all-but-convicted felon, whom the law in- tends, and who by law is not bailable at all. If no circumstances whatsoever are alleged in his favour ; if no allegation whatsoever be made to lessen the force of that evidence which the law annexes ten a positive charge of felony, and particularly to the fact of being taken with the manner ; I then say, that the lord chief justice of England has no more right to bail him than a justice of peace. The discretion of an English judge is not of mere will and pleasure ; it is not arbitrary ; it is not capricious; but, as that grca£ lawyer (whose authority I wish you respected half as much as I do) truly says,* " Discretion, taken as it ought to be, is, discernere per legem quid sit ju&tum.- If it be not directed by the right line of the law, it is a crooked cord, and appeareth to be unlawful." II discretion were arbitrary in the judge, he might in- troduce whatever novelties he thought proper. But, says lord Coke, " Novelties, without warrant of pre- cedents, arc not to be allowed : some certain rules are to be followed: Quicqiiidjudicis auctoritati subjicitur novitati non subjicitur." And this sound doctriHC is. applied to the star-chamber, a court confessedly arbi- trary. If you will abide by the authority of this * Inst. 41. 66. ;:o junius's letters. &reat man, you shall have all the advantage of hi:* opinion, wherever it appears to favour you. Ex- cepting the plain, express meaning of the legislature, to which all private opinions must give way, I desire no better judge between as than lord Coke. 3. I affirm that, according to the obvious, indis- putable meaning of the legislature, repeatedly ex- 1 pressed, a person positively charged with feloniously stealing, and taken in flagrante delicto, with the stolen goods upon him, is not bailable. The law considers him as differing in nothing from a convict, but in the form of conviction ; and (whatever a cor- rupt judge may do) will accept of no security, but the confinement of his body within four walls. I know it has been alleged, in your favour, that you have often bailed for murders, rapes, and other mani- fest crimes. Without questioning the fact, I shall not admit that you are to be justified by your own ex- ample. If that were a protection to you, where is the crime, that, as a judge, you might not now se- curely commit ? But neither shall I suffer myself to be drawn aside from my present argument, nor you to profit by your own wrong. To prove the meaning and intent of the legislature, will require a minute and tedious deduction. To investigate a question of law, demands some labour and attention, though very little genius or sagacity. As a practical profession, the study of the law requires but a moderate portion of abilities. The learning of a pleader is usually upon a level with his integrity. The indiscriminate defence of right and wrong contracts the under- standing, while it corrupts the heart. Subtilty is soon mistaken for wisdom, and impunity for virtue, JUNIUS'S LETTERS. ig? If there be any instances upon record (as some there; are undoubtedly, of genius and morality united in a lawyer) they are distinguished by their singularity, and operate as exceptions. I must solicit the patience of my readers. This is no light matter ; nor is it any more susceptible of or- nament, than the conduct of lord Mansfield is capa- ble of aggravation. As the law of bail, in charges of felony, has been exactly ascertained by acts of the legislature, it is at present of little consequence to inquire how it stood at common law before the statute of Westminster. A.nd yet it is worth the reader's attention to observe, how nearly, in the ideas of our ancestors, the cir- cumstance of being taken with the maner approach- ed to the conviction* of the felon. It " fixed the authoritative stamp of verisimilitude upon the accu- sation : and, by the common law, with the things stolen upon him in manu, he might, so detected. flagrante delicto, be brought into court, arraigned, and tried, without indictment ; as, by the Danish law. lie might be taken and hanged on the spot, without accusation or trial." It will soon appear that our statute in law, in this behalf, though less summary in point of proceeding, is directed by the same spir- it. In one instance, the very form is adhered to. In offences relating to the forest, if a man was taken with vert, or venison,! it was declared to be equiva- lent to indictment. To enable the reader to judge * Blackstone, iv. 303. i t Ed. III. cap. 8 ; and 7 Bic. II. cap. 4. 188 JUNIUS'S LETTERS. tor himself, I shall state, in due order, the several statutes relative to bail in criminal cases, or as much of them as may be material to the point in question, emitting superfluous words. If I misrepresent, or do not quote with fidelity, it will not be difficult to detect me. * The statute of Westminster the first, in 1275, sets forth, that " Forasmuch as sheriffs and others, who have taken and kept in prison persons detected of felony and incontinent, have let out by replevin Such as were not replevisable, because they would g^in of the one party, and grieve the other ; and forasmuch as, before this time, it was not determined which persons were replevisable, and which not ; it is provided, and by the king commanded, that such prisoners, he. as be taken with the maner, &c. -or for manifest offences, shall be in no wise re- plevisable by the common writ, nor without writ." Lord Coke,f in his exposition of the last part of fhis quotation, accurately distinguishes between re- plevy, by the common writ, or ex officio, and bail by the king's bench. The words of the statute * Videtur que le statute de raainprize u'est que le rehersai del comen ley." — Bro. Mainp. 61. t " There are three points to be considered in the con- struction of all remedial statutes ; the old law, the mischief, and the remedy ; that is, how the common law stood at the making of the act ; what the mischief was for which the common law did not provide ; and what remedy the parlia- ment hath provided to cure this mischief. It is the business of the judges so to construe the act, as to suppress the mis- chief, and advance the remedy." — Blackstone. i. 87. JUNIUS'S LETTERS. 189 certainly do not extend to the judges of that court. But, besides that, the reader will soon find reason to think that the legislature, in their intention, made no difference between bailable and replevisable. Lord Coke himself, if he be understood to mean nothing but an exposition of the statute of Westminster, and n